Chaotic Space

*Chapter 1*: Young minds are mallaeble minds

I do not own Robotech or Ranma

Isn't insomnia wonderful? I thought I'd finish going over the prologue by Saturday but hey not being able to sleep forced me to do something. I realize the prologue is choppy, which is intentional and I don't think it's my best work but honestly I wanted to really get to grips with the Robotech universe. That starts in chapter 1 and goes on from there. If anyone thinks of specific scenes from the Nerima years I might put them in at some later date.

One of the things I have noticed in most of the crossovers is that Ranma either has feelings towards or has been in a relationship with Akane. This will not be the case in my story which to anyone who has read any of my other works should come as no surprise. I will also be making nods toward John Ringo's work in the Troy series, as well as others and I hope my readers can spot them all.

Pairing is Ranma/Kasumi/Lisa/Miriya. I will not be changing this though who I pair Max up with instead is up in the air (I'm thinking Shampoo lol)

I also changed global to gloval like in the original and his first name to Henri because it gives him a more European feel.

* Look for the * for new content!

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Chaotic Space

Prologue: Young minds are malleable minds

Ranma looked up at his grandmother, or the woman he thought of as his grandmother anyway, as she watched the TV her face creased by a bright smile. "What are you watching grandma?"

The old woman looked down at the young boy, a boy who had shown up a few weeks ago and swiftly befriended her with his inquisitive nature and general kindness. The fact that he came from his fool of a father's loins never ceased to amaze her. Genma was a louse, a lying, cheating, lazy fat man with very few redeeming qualities. But the young boy had made a distinctly different impression on her even before she had to save him from himself after the crazy technique called the neko-ken. He helped out around the neighborhood, and had responded well to her husband's stories and moral tales. Indeed, within the few days she had met him she had seen a marked increase in both his intelligence and his moral character, which before this had been completely comprised of his father who as previously stated, was scum. "I'm watching the news Ranma. There appear to be some kind of spacecraft or something crashing into an island in the Philippines."

Ranma immediately turned and stared at the TV. Grandmother was a bit of an astrologer, and had tried hard to get across to Ranma her love of space, in all its glories. The boy had not really been that interested in the stars or anything like that before, but grandfather had also told him that that space was the final frontier, a place where exploration and adventure could always be found. Of course up till this point that had only been for astronauts, but Ranma was young, and didn't know that he really had little to no chance of getting into space. The young dream while they can.

"Really?" he said excitedly, "wow!" And the two continued to watch the news as the ship, the alien ship that would twelve years later be renamed the Macross was discovered and reported by the news agencies the world over.

The time spent there did more than settle Ranma down after his first brush with the demonic neko-ken. After all obaachan was not the only one around that he talked to. Her husband a retired police officer, who had joined up after a stint in the army, saw the potential in Ranma and was quick to capitalize on it. He told the enthralled boy story after story of his time on the force, capturing criminals, rounding up drunks and clashes with gangs and even a few shootouts, interspersed with stories about serving in the UN peace-keeping forces and the JSDF.

He once told the young boy "It's one thing to be a martial artist and another thing to be a policemen or a soldier. Martial artist have the skill to defend people and many say that is part of their code, but most only give that lip service. Policemen and soldiers, their job is to defend other people, citizens who can't or won't defend themselves." And so it went on, one filling Ranma's head with made up stories of outer space and the real happening in the Pacific, and the other filling his head with stories of defending others, of combat and fighting for a cause not just because you enjoy it (though that too was a major consideration, after all you are generally good at something you enjoy).

And so when Genma finally escaped from jail five weeks later his son was greatly changed from what he had been. His dreams had changed from being the best marital artist to either becoming a police officer or going to space. But he still wanted to be the best of course.

This would show in several ways as the years went on. He was friendlier with other people, and listened earnestly to the martial arts masters his father brought him to about far more than just The Art. He also went out of his way to befriend the police in any city they stayed in, often helping them out with other martial artists and keeping a lid on his father's own duplicitous acts.

He made it clear as often as he could that his actions and his sense of honor was different from his father, causing a rift to grow between father and son which caused more and more problems between the two as the train trip went on. This was exacerbated by Genma not changing his plans at all, and by Jusenkyou, where despite his distrust of his father Ranma was still smacked into the pool of drowned girl. But later thanks to his ability to speak and understand Chinese instead of both of them being blamed for eating the Amazon tournaments victory feast, it was only the father who was blamed. Jusenkyou proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back and he began to secretly plot against his father, plans which began when they arrived in Nerima.

Kasumi sighed sadly. Their new guests were not of the type that she would normally welcome into her home, but alas it was not her place to comment. Her father spoke as the head of the household, and he had purposely welcomed them both in as guests. The young boy seemed pleasant enough, but the other man was obviously not very bright or helpful. And it didn't help matters that young Ranma had not gotten to the best start with her younger sisters. Still, he had helped set the table for dinner, and had not gone out of his way to respond to Akane's anger or irritation with him. Still, the obvious dislike between the two made her wonder if she did the right thing when pushing the marriage onto her youngest sibling, but she had been startled by his curse and his belligerent, even combative attitude toward his father had thrown Kasumi off her stride.

Her thoughts were interrupted as the object of them coughed behind her. She turned startled and saw Ranma standing in the kitchen doorway. His bright blue eyes caught her soft brown ones.

Since he had entered the house Ranma had known that the oldest sibling was the center of the household. His ability to read auras was nowhere near the best, but he had learned some tricks, and being able to tell the person a house, dojo or temple revolved around was one of them. That coupled with Kasumi's gentle aura and kind demeanor was why he was here now. Genma seems to be taking this marriage contract more seriously than any of the others that have hunted us down and that means we may be settling down for a time and that means that someone in this house needs to know what to expect from him and the trouble he can bring. If anyone in this house can handle that, Kasumi's the one. Maybe the middle girl later, but she doesn't give off the same trusting vibes as this girl. "Can I help you clean up Ms. Tendo?"

Kasumi smiled realizing that this was a chance to get to know Ranma without either of their parents interfering. The two cleaned up the kitchen, putting away the dishes and generally repairing the eating area from Akane's attempted assault on Ranma and the ensuing argument with his old man. At the end of it, the two sat down to share a cup of tea. As Kasumi was searching for the right questions to ask, Ranma took out a small note book and slid it across to her.

Kasumi looked at him quizzically but before she could ask what it was Ranma brought a finger up to his lips indicating the top of the staircase with a twitch of his head. Kasumi nodded, having heard Ranma's rant about his father's misdeeds and began to flip slowly through the notebook with an increasing fervor as she read.

Ranma had begun the note book at age 10 to catalog his father's misdeeds and misdemeanors, and it contained literally everything his old man had done for the past six years. Stealing food from restaurants and street vendors, scrolls from temples and martial arts masters who had let them into their homes and notes about broken agreements between Genma. It was all there, it even had copies of police records and places to call for more information. She slowly placed the little notebook in her apron pocket looking at Ranma quizzically asking in a low voice, "If all this is true, then what are you going to do? What are you asking me for?"

He smiled gently at her and said, "I will be eighteen in two years." The unspoken words were 'and at that point I will be a legal adult and he will have no power over me'. Slowly, so slowly Kasumi nodded.

Ranma never did confide in Nabiki, the mercenary middle sister having proved unworthy of that trust within a week of his arrival. Only Kasumi knew his secret, that he had a plan and wasn't just an angry jock lashing out without a clue. The two became close playing their parents like fools but kept that closeness a secret from everyone.

Yet changes began to occur inside Kasumi and with her interaction with her family. Watching as Nabiki became more and more coldhearted almost like a Yakuza in training, and seeing how, even with her help, her younger sibling started to enjoy her anger, enjoy attacking Ranma who would never hit her back, only dodge and even then would be berated for it by their parents, she distanced herself emotionally from her family. Outside she was still the kind, caring, and rather ditzy individual that they had come to know since their mother's death, but inside she watched, learned and began to wonder about her own future.

*Ranma dodged from side to side as Kuno kept on slicing at him. "Look Kuno, I keep tellin' ya, if ya want ta date Akane, do it! I don't care either way, she ain't exactly my type, hell I don't even know what my type is yet! And the redhead isn't under my spell or nothin' she just don't want anythin' ta do with ya!" Kuno ignored his declaration as he had been doing for days, trying to slay the foul sorcerer and free his two ensorcelled loves. Behind Ranma he he sense Akane getting ready to add in her two cents to the conversation in the form of her mallet to his head.

At precisely the right moment he ducked, letting the mallet swing miss him and knock Kuno's bokken out of his hand. A swift kick to the noggin, and Kuno was out of it. Ranma glared at Akane who was trying to pull her mallet out of his grip. He casually ripped it out of her hands and tossed it away to the right, where it would come down later to bean a hapless duck who was in the area looking for his love.

Ranma sighed as Akane, now sans mallet began to verbally berate him. Just another day in Nerima, where crazy was normal.

Ranma stood over the twitching and pummeled body of the strange kid with the huge umbrella and the bandannas. "Next time you endanger other people when you attack me I won't be so nice. We're martial artists, our job is to protect people, not endanger them." Ryoga groaned something that might have been an agreement.

The night after Akane and Ryoga beat the Golden Pair Ranma snuck out of his room and made his way up to the roof as silently as he could, anxious not to wake his father up from his drunken stupor. Once there, he closed his eyes reaching out with his still amateurish ki sense, he had felt something earlier and he wanted to see if he was right. Barely, just barely, he could feel someone two houses over, someone familiar. Turning in that direction he jumped from one roof to the other in that direction and was unsurprised to see Shampoo and Cologne waiting for him.

What did surprise him was that they were not alone. Several other girls of Shampoo's age were also there, standing in a semi-circle with Cologne at the center. All of them were good looking and the young girls looked at Ranma hungrily. He shuddered a little but bowed to the elder formally before speaking. "All right Elder what's the deal here? I know Shampoo isn't here for me, you and the council said I was exempt from the kiss of marriage or kiss of death until I found my mother."

Cologne cackled. "How true young one you did get out of those laws quite adroitly. Further, I don't think you'd be happy in our society. You're already nearly as good as we are comfortable with a male being, and I know you have no intention of stopping your training."

Ranma nodded affirmatively, he doubted he'd ever stop training it was so much a part of him now, and the better he was the better he could defend others, which he saw as the most sacred duty of a martial artist. "However, you are also one of the few outsiders that have ever impressed the Council with your strength and honor. We need an influx of new blood into the tribe, and it was felt that if we simply stayed around you, we would find many strong males and perhaps some females who we could induct into the tribe."

Ranma was about to answer back quickly that the whole idea was stupid, but then he paused. Kuno and Ryoga came to mind rather strongly, as well as the skating lecher. But when he thought about their personalities... "All right Cologne you got a point, in fact I've already met several men that might catch your interest. However, I have ta ask that ya don't immediately give them the kiss of marriage. Some kind of waiting period or something, so that you, Shampoo and the others can determine if their personalities are a match for them and your people would be a really good idea."

Cologne nodded thoughtfully. It wasn't the way it had been done for hundreds of years, but it was a good idea nonetheless. In his talk with the Council after his father had been knocked out for eating the champion's prize, Ranma had impressed them all with his intelligence as well as his cunning. After all hiding the fact one had a brain from the only parent you knew for years was an amazing feat. His knowledge in several areas was sorely lacking, but there was nothing wrong with the brain behind those blue eyes and if he said that a waiting period was necessary she was willing to go along with it. "All right Ranma so perhaps you can tell us about these targets you think we should be looking for?" She cackled, this looked to be both exciting and fun, something that was in very short supply when you were as old as she was.

Ranma grinned. "Well," he said. "First, there's…"

*Ranma walked into the Tendo household followed by Ukyo in a frothing fury. He didn't even stop to say hello to Kasumi, something he made a point of doing whenever he came home after school. The two younger sisters were already there, but before they could even start on Ranma for leaving school so early Ranma had already crossed the distance to the panda in the corner and began to thrash it severely.

The panda, who had been trying to play his 'I'm just a cute little panda' card tried to defend himself, but his son batted his attempts aside and laid into him until a gentle hand rested on his shoulder. Looking back he saw Kasumi, as well as Ukyo looking at him with concern and he took a deep breath to control himself.

"That's right sugar" Ukyo said, deeply concerned with the amount of anger her childhood friend had inside him, "after all, we need him able to speak right?"

"Right" Ranma growled "you want to tell us what we want to know now old man?"

The panda flipped up a sign but Kasumi simply poured a cup of boiling water over him. The man screamed and once again wondered what it was with Tendo's oldest daughter but made him her think that it was only scalding hot water that could change them back into a man. The middle daughter caught her older siblings face for a moment, though and saw the grim satisfaction she took in that act. After of millisecond however it was gone and she wondered if she had seen it all. After a moment's reflection, though she decided that maybe she should start distancing researching a bit into their houseguests past. If there was something in the man's past that made gentle Kasumi look like that even for instant then Nabiki wanted to know about it.

"how many old man?" Ranma spat dangerously, "How many families of you made deals with?! First the Tendo's, then that girl with the takeout martial arts and now U-chan! How many more! I thought I knew what you were up to while we were on the road, guess your old tricks weren't as plain as I thought they were!"

"Don't you understand boy" the older man growled, trying to save face "I did for us, without the food we got from those deals we would've never survived on the road!"

"Of course," his son drawled sarcastically, "and getting a job and actually paying for it legally never occurred to you, of course not. What am I saying, that would've taken actual work!"

"Don't take that tone with me boy!" the older man shouted. "Getting a job would've taken away from our training time!"

Ranma was of course unmoved by this declaration. "how many families?" He ground out.

Soun rose then, trying to keep the peace in his house, after all repairs were still ongoing from the last fight these two had. "I'm sure there's an explanation for this Ranma if you just calm down and let your father…"

Nabiki interrupted him just then, "actually I think we need to know this to. After all, what if most of them aren't as selective in their attack as Ukyo here was. You're living under our roof Genma, shouldn't we know if you're past dealings will put us at risk?"

"Now Nabiki," her father replied, "Genma is my guest here."

"Oh, of course. I'm sorry that of course makes him unable to, you know have manners at the table, or pay the rent and of course it allows him to endanger us, your daughters!" she snapped back and he wilted under her glare.

"I may have made deals with one or two other families boy but that's all water under the bridge, I never meant to honor any of them."

"Honor," Ranma scoffed "you don't know the meaning of the word! You fucked up our family honor badly old man. Now, how many girls damn it?!"

To the side Akane watched this, wondering if this meant even more girls would be coming round after the pervert. If so, maybe she could find a few of them and they could gang up on father and son and put them down permanently. That way her life could go back to normal (and, a little thought inside her brain said, you wouldn't be constantly remained how little of the art you actually know, Ms. 'best in Nerima', but she ignored it with the ease of long practice).

"I don't know the exact number" Genma answered loftily, "but why does it matter if the only one that has any validity is the one with Tendo, and if you're so worried about other girls showing up you should do the honorable thing and get married to Akane right away!"

"See previous answer, you don't know the meaning of the word honor!" Ranma stood back, closing his eye and calming down a moment to actually think. He hadn't wanted to do anything drastic just yet, he didn't want Genma to know about his plans for the future, but this situation could get so bad he had to do something. "The only way to separate my honor from yours and the agreements you made is to do something drastic.

Genma gulped and was about to reply when Kasumi asked. "Drastic, like what Ranma-san?"

"Like this" Ranma answered calmly, looking around at all of them and Shampoo, who had turned up for their daily training with a few of her Amazon sisters behind her "I vow never to marry anyone from any family you have had dealings with old man! Period, never ever! I'm moving out tonight, I'll camp out in the park before I spend one more minute with you, or make it seem as if I favor one agreement over any of the others! They're all invalid to me," he said with tone of finality.

Genma sat there stunned for a moment as Ranma walked past him up to his room, grabbed his backpack and left via the window. Before the panda man could regain his senses his son was gone. As everyone began to react to what just happened in their various ways, Kasumi, smiled a small secretive smile as she saw her friend start to take control of his life.

*Ranma glared over the body of the strange long haired boy who had attacked him while he was out with Kasumi, Ukyo and Shampoo shopping (i.e. being their personal bagboy) for dinner at the cackling Cologne. "I don't how but I know you're somehow behind this old ghoul." Ranma had lost some of his awe at the older woman, and his normal insouciance had returned in force.

Cologne debated attempting to whack the boy on the head, but decided she'd been called far worse. Besides, the boy provided such amazing entertainment. "I don't know what you're talking about sonny, I had nothing to do with Shampoo's childhood stalker showing up in Nerima." The mangled form on the ground tried to protest this label, but his jaw wasn't cooperating.

Ranma kept on glaring. "I will get you back for this you know. I don't when I don't know how, but I will get you back for this."

'I shiver in anticipation," Cologne replied dryly before hopping away on her staff. If the boy was as good at pranks as he is at picking up techniques, then I'd be worried. And thus the Age vs. Youth Practical Joke War began, a war that while bloodless, would cause untold mental and financial anguish for all in Nerima.

Ranma walked into Kasumi's room on silent feet and found Kasumi sitting at her desk weeping silently. He, now currently she, moved toward her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. Despite Ranma's many hidden talents dealing with emotional situations was not in his/her repertoire. The best s/he could do was to offer a friendly shoulder to cry on. Kasumi's head whipped around but seeing Ranma let herself sag back against her still crying softly.

After a few moments Ranma broke the silence, awkward yet sincere. "I'm sorry Kasumi. I hoped yer time with Dr. Tofu woulda gone better. I never thought he'd lose it so badly just running errands with ya."

Kasumi sniffled a little but looked up at him with a wan smile. "That's alright Ranma-kun it's not like this is the first time this happened. I've tried to get him over his antics for years but nothing I do seems to calm him down. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be."

Now Ranma felt even worse. "Oh don't say that. I'm sure he'll get over it eventually. Or maybe it's some kinda curse, ya know, and we can try ta find the cure, anything's possible. Ya just gotta think positive." He grinned, trying to get Kasumi to smile at him but all he got for his efforts was another watery smile.

"You're right Ranma I need to keep trying, but I won't wait forever." She paused looking into the boy turned girl's eyes intently before continuing firmly. "He has until March 13 of next year and if he has not improved before then I will start looking elsewhere." She smiled thinly as Ranma got the reference and the shorter girls eyes widened. March 13 had just passed two weeks ago, taking with it his 17th birthday. Next year Ranma would be 18 and he would be legally an adult, able to put his own plans into motion. Ranma thought about what Kasumi was really saying here and looked into Kasumi's gentle brown eyes, slightly puffy and red from crying. Seeing the sincerity and hope there he slowly nodded, and his assent brought a wide smile and a sparkle to Kasumi's heretofore sad face.

* Ryoga had finally caught up with Ranma at his campsite, a remarkable feat as Ranma kept moving around to keep Genma from attacking him in his sleep and drugging or otherwise making him go back to live with the Tendos. Ranma had started doing this after he learned that Genma had seen Shampoo use her formula 411 on Pink and Link to make them forget their grudge against her. He knew his old man was almost as quick to pick up martial arts techniques as he was. The fact that technique was a mix of herbs, unguents, and pressure points hadn't occurred to him just yet.

So when Ryoga attacked him, he took the pigtailed marital artist by surprise at his dinner. Ryoga was able to get in a few free shots, and if Ranma hadn't studied the Steel Soul School's techniques of body hardening while on the 'training trip' he would have been out of the fight then and there, Ryoga was a walking powerhouse.

"Ranma for harming the precious goddess Akane, you will pay!" Ryoga shouted.

For a few minutes Ranma was too busy defending himself to work that out. "Wait what did I do to Akane? And FYI, I ain't interested in her or engaged to her or nothin' like that Ryoga, so you want her, go for it dude." What the hell is it about that girl that attracts the nut jobs? On the other hand, at least I know it ain't just me that does it.

Ryoga however didn't care for his reply, the news he had heard as P-chan about how Akane and Ranma were supposed to marry had all his attention. The fight continued until Ranma and Ryoga splashed into a nearby stream.

Ranma looked down in shock at her opponent aas he turned into a little black pig. "Damn, and I thought I had it bad changing' inta a girl, at least I'm still human." The redhead got out of the water, and picked up a cup from his campsite. Filling it with water he tried the ki heating technique Cologne had used in their last spar, but he couldn't get the water to heat. He shrugged, some techniques took longer than others, and he set the cup next to the fire as Ryoga dragged his piggy body out of the water towards him. As soon as the water was warm enough, Ranma dumped half over himself, before offering it to his opponent.

Ryoga growled a little but accepted the hot water and transformed back to normal. "That's right Ranma, my other form isn't like yours, it's a major liability. Promise me, on your word as a martial artist you'll never tell anyone!" Ryoga was almost frantic, a gleam of panic and something else in his eyes.

Ranma shrugged. "Sure dude, I promise never ta tell anyone else about yer curse." Later, when he learned what Ryoga used his curse for, Ranma would curse himself for being too honorable.

Nodoka glanced from side to side wondering and hoping that the message Ranko had slipped to her secretly truly was from her son. She had hoped so desperately that she would finally be able to meet her son when she learned he and her so called husband were living in Nerima only to be disappointed.

Meeting the Tendo's after so long had been nice, though the younger two girls were not pleasant individuals in her mind, Kasumi on the other hand was one of the nicest young ladies she had met in a long time. And Ranko had also been nice though she was such a tomboy it was hilarious, her and her trained panda. Still with no Ranma the trip had been a waste, which was why she was out here at night, waiting on the bridge where she had first met the redheaded bundle of energy.

A male voice from behind her caused her to turn. Behind her stood a young man, not too tall but extremely fit, with black hair done up in a pigtail with bright sapphire eyes. "Nodoka-san?"

Nodoka stood there for a moment, seeing so much of herself in his hair, in his cheekbones, in the shape of his eyes... "Ranma?"

Ranma nodded and suddenly was engulfed in a hug that would have broken a weaker mans bones as Nodoka sobbed into his shirt. He hesitantly put his arms around this strange woman who claimed to be his mother, wondering why the smell of her gave him such a nostalgic feeling as he waited anxiously for her to gain control of herself.

After a moment she pulled back to smile up at him, though her face showed her confusion. "My son, where have you been? If you were in the area why didn't you meet me earlier?"

Ranma gulped and pulled back slightly. "Well, I have a lot to tell you, I just hope that after I'm done you still want to call me your son." Nodoka stiffened slightly, but motioned him to continue.

Even summarized the tale of Ranma's life and Genma's misdeeds took an hour, by the end of which Nodoka was trembling with anger and sadness. Ranma finished with showing his mother his curse, which nearly caused the woman to faint.

Head lowered in sadness at this apparent dismissal Ranma turned to leave though Nodoka, quick as a snake grabbed on, pulling the young boy turned girl into a fierce hug. "I don't care what you change into Ranma, you are still my son, and I am so happy to have you back in my life, don't you dare try to leave me again!"

Ranma's eyes glistened with tears. "Arigato, mama." He returned her hug in earnest this time and the two stood there for a moment.

Nodoka at last pulled back, an angry glint in her eyes. "Genma on the other hand is going to rue the day he ever met me. He has much to answer for, and I intend to collect!"

Ranma grinned. "Wait'll I tell you what I've got planned mom, you'll get a kick out of it."

It took a few moments for Ranma to explain his plans, and the reasons for them, the fact that no prison could hold Genma and his obsession with controlling his son. Nodoka nodded at that then smiled when he mentioned wanting to go into the space program. "You know, I might just be able to help you there. I have a friend who is working on a certain project…"

*Ranma landed on top of the wall around the Tendo compound and stared at the damage done to the dojo and house within. He jumped lightly down, and began to look around for and of the Tendo's . He found Nabiki in the ruins of the dining area buried under the remains of the wall and the sofa she had been sitting on. Only her fast thinking had saved her life. When she was pulled out of the wreckage she groaned and looked up at him. "Ranma?"

"Yeah, Nabs, its me" Whatever their relationship, and it was quite acrimonious, one thought the other a yakuza thug in training, the other thought he was a jock with an over inflated opinion of himself and a outmoded sense of honor, Ranma wasn't about to leave her like this. "Hang on, I'll get ya to Dr. Tofu, he'll fix ya right up."

Nabiki nodded, but answered back seriously. "Ranma, those bird-men, they took them. They took, Akane, Kasumi, your mom, and both fathers. I don't know why, but they took them."

Ranma nodded. "I figured as much when ya were the only one I found, they probably would've taken ya to if they could find ya and weren't in a hurry." Nabiki nodded, not for the first time grateful she was fast on her feet. "Don't worry, I'll get 'em all back. Promise." He spke the last word grimly, blue eye hard with conviction.

Ranma, Nodoka and Kasumi arrived on the island and smiled happily at one another. Ranma reached down and picked up their luggage, as well as his mother's. The trio walked into the port and took a bus out to Macross city, which was slowly becoming humanities first real spaceport, and where all three hoped to move on with their lives. Nodoka in particular was upbeat about the opportunity to, in her words, 'meet up with an old friend'. As they stood up from their seats on the bus she said "Unfortunately as a soldier, even as an officer he probably won't have enough room for all three of us. I'm afraid for at least a few months you two are going to have to look after yourselves."

"No problem mom," Ranma said. "I've saved up enough money for us to get a hotel room for a few weeks, and finding a job will be pretty darn easy." He gently poked Kasumi in the side as they exited the bus at a major intersection where a large restaurant, with a sign saying White Dragon over the door dominated one of the corners. On the side of the door was pasted a 'Help Wanted' sign.

Kasumi looked at it and smiled. "Oh my, yes that would be perfect, wouldn't it? Something we can both do together to get our feet under us." Nodoka smiled and without further ado the three walked into the restaurant."

A young woman stood by the door putting up a new menu on the window. She turned, blue hair swirling to greet them as they entered. "Customers, hi, welcome to the White Dragon, table for three?" She looked up Ranma up and down approvingly for a moment, My God, this boy is hot.

Kasumi stood forward. "Actually Ranma and I are here to apply for the job you're offering."

"Oh sure, just let me go get my uncle." She hurried into the back area and came back with a middle-aged man, short with what had probably been a decent build but which had since faded into a middle aged paunch.

He looked at Kasumi approvingly, a girl as good looking as she was would be great at waitressing whatever her actual skill set. His gaze switched to Ranma with a bit of trepidation. Not many men wanted to apply for a waitress job after all, and fewer still could cook. "Minmei says you want to apply for the job. We have two jobs available right now one as a cook and one as a waitress. I'm afraid with the clientele being largely made up of SDF troopers from the base that we find having two or four waitresses to one or two waiters makes us bring in more business. It's a little sexist but it's true."

Kasumi and Ranma shared a look. Kasumi was an excellent cook and probably could learn to be a very good waitress. Ranma however already had waitress experience. "Well" Ranma said going over to a table where a pitcher of water sat "as long as you have a 'look but don't touch' policy I guess it's okay." He poured the water over his head and grinned as both of the Chinese nationals looked at him in shock.

The red-head was about to go into her normal spiel about the curse when another female voice interrupted her from the kitchen, "Oh my". Ranma turned and saw a middle-aged woman standing there a tall, thin body that might have been in decent shape at one point that had like her husband faded slightly with age. She walked over looked Ranma up and down then asked "Jusenkyou curse?"

It was Ranma turn to gape in shock. The woman went on speaking in Chinese. "You wouldn't happen to have run into a tribe of Amazons would you?"

Ranma answered in the same language. "Yes I have, in fact I'm a close friend with one of the Elders and her family and I'm considered an ally of the tribe." The woman's eyes widened and she turned quickly to her husband.

"They're hired." Her husband made to protest but she shook her head. "Anyone who is an ally of the Amazon's is a friend of mine."

At that her husband shut up and looked at Ranma shrewdly before nodding "all right you'll have to tell the story how you got that curse at some point though, I bet it'll be interesting.

Kasumi smiled "actually I have a pamphlet you can read about that if you want. Ranma was so tired of giving the same story over and over that he had my younger sister write it out. And you needn't worry about us having experience. If I say it myself I am a most accomplished cook and Ranma has been trained as a waitress by one of those Amazons he mentioned."

The man nodded approvingly. "Good enough for me. But if you're an ally of the Amazons does that mean you're a martial artist as well?" When Ranma nodded affirmatively he asked "In that case could you teach Minmei some self-defense? Nothing too advanced just enough for her to be able to look after herself?" Minmei made to speak but the man held up a hand. "I know you don't think you need it Minmei and honestly I don't think it's a big deal either just yet. But the bigger the city gets the more dangerous it will be around here and you're a young, pretty woman, you should be able to look after yourself."

Ranma nodded. "Sure, if she's willing to learn. I can teach her some, though if she has any problems in that area she should come to me first, I'll gladly deal with it." The boy turned girl grinned cracking her knuckles.

"Excellent" the older woman said. "Minmei, could you show these two around for a bit? Be here at five this evening for your first shift. And if you have it dress in a Chinese dress Ranma." Ranma groaned and Kasumi and his mother giggled. A perfect excuse to go shopping.

And just like that their new lives in Macross city started.

Later that same afternoon Captain Gloval, the man chosen to command the SDF-1 (once it was fully repaired and able to lift off anyway) looked up from his desk on the base built around the monstrous ship where he was putting the finishing touches on some paperwork before logging out for the night. "Yes?" he asked.

His steward popped his head in. "Captain there's a woman at the gates asking for you. She says her name is Nodoka and that you would like to see her."

Global stared at him for a moment blindsided by memory. Then he nodded almost convulsively motioning the man to let Nodoka enter the base and told him to send a guard to escort her. Minutes later he was still in shock as Nodoka walked in. The years have been very kind to her, his bemused mind reflected. Her beautiful red hair was tied up in a severe bun and not let loose to flow down her back as it had when they were younger and her dress style was old fashioned but her body was still gorgeous from what he could see and she held her head high, a small smile on her face.

Gloval remembered the last time they had seen each other. They had met in Italy many years ago. She was there studying for a bachelors in biology at a college there, and he was stationed nearby going to OTS. They had met when they were both out on a night on the town and hit it off immediately for some reason, the vivacious and outgoing Nodoka and the somber yet insightful Gloval. They had kept meeting whenever their free time allowed and were soon a couple. They remained so for three years until Nodoka went home to celebrate her graduation with her family.

When her traditional parents found out she was in a relationship with a gaijin however they immediately set her up on several omiais (traditional marriage interviews). Unfortunately one of the 'gentlemen' that they set her up with was not as honorable as his samurai name indicated. Genma had long known that he would have no luck with women on his own merits, and when this chance came up through old family connections he took it and ran with it. 'Ecstasy' was easy to come by after all

When Gloval had heard about what occurred it took all of his considerable self control not to fly to Japan and gut this Genma like a fish. Alas once was enough to get Nodoka pregnant and the one thing she and her far more traditional parents agreed on was that children were precious. So within a matter of weeks she found herself married to a man she quickly came to loathe, though she was careful to never show that openly. Luckily she was able to keep her ongoing contact with Gloval from both Genma and her parents until they passed away. Now she was here in the flesh and for a moment Gloval could not believe his eyes. "Aren't you going to offer me a seat Henri?"

Kasumi and Ranma had really fallen on their feet here in Macross city when they found the White Dragon restaurant. Kasumi was likable, personable, and an excellent cook. Ranma was strong, willing to work and had been trained to be an excellent waiter/waitress in a very hard school. Say what you would about her training methods, the skills learned from training with Cologne at the Cat Café spoke for themselves.

Minmei loved the fact that there was another young girl worker with her and she and Kasumi hit it off immediately. Kasumi in turn looked at her and saw the younger sister she had always wanted Akane to be, without the anger, the ego and the privileged attitude.

Minmei first Ranma saw as excellent boyfriend material until she realized that his combative nature and ego would grate on her over time. He just generally liked to fight. With Kasumi and Nodoka's gentle encouragement, he had realized there was more to life than martial arts, but fighting and using his considerable martial arts skills in the defense of others was at the heart of his being. He had hoped to sign up for the RDF, which would allow him to go to space, which was his greatest dream, and to keep defending others, but even with Gloval's recommendation, he couldn't just walk in. Unfortunately his school records worked against him, as did his own anti-authoritarian attitude. Still he was hopeful, and until then staying in what was going to be the world's first spaceport would keep him close to the action. How close he would get would become apparent a few months after they arrived.

end prologue

*Chapter 2*: Aliens do not have the right of way

I do not own Ranma or Robotech

Here We Go!

h

h

Chapter 1 Invading aliens do not have the right of way

Commander Lisa Hayes, UNSF looked around at the bridge of what was going to be the flagship for the UN space fleet and sighed happily. I am so glad that the captain decided to go to the launching ceremony, after all one of us had to be on the bridge for the launch. Though I wonder why, I thought he'd want to be on the bridge during the first launch of the Senator Edelmen.The name of the space fortress made her twitch for a moment before she shrugged it off. The name was chosen by the US military, which had donated the bulk of the material and man power needed to first research the alien ship and then get it up and running again but that didn't mean that naming the monstrous battleship for some faceless U.S. senator made any sense to her.

Maybe his willingness has something to do with the rumors that he's been stepping out with a woman for the past few months. Lisa shook her head slightly, sending her shoulder length honey brown hair to bounce slightly. That's enough of that Lisa, let the gossip to the gossip trio, right now you've got work to do.

It had taken the UN ten years to research, repair and renovate the alien starship, but at last it was ready to launch. Today marked the second day of the launch ceremony, a, in her opinion, overblown political circus designed to garner political and civilian support for the UNSF, which had been in danger of getting downsized for the past few years as a space borne threat failed to materialize. But Lisa was a career soldier, and unlike her admiral father she hated politics, so being on the bridge was probably the best place for her to be; that is, far away from smarmy politicians who for some reason felt that any woman in a uniform (which she filled out extremely well, though she didn't see it) would willingly spread her legs for them if they just found the right price.

Lisa again shook her head, looking over at her friend and fellow officer Claudia Grant. "Well how are doing on your end?"

Claudia smirked. "The MP's are done clearing the area and moving the civilians to the designated watching areas, and the power up is continuing apace. Dr. Lang hasn't reported anything wrong yet, and the reflux engine is purring along nicely. Don't worry, we've been planning this for weeks Lisa, nothing's going to go wrong."

Just as she said that the long range sensor specialist spoke up. "Ma'am?" Lt. Laird, Vanessa to her friends turned in her seat. "I've got a gravitic anomaly on my scope just on the other side of the moon."

ON her heels Claudia's hand went up to her head, receiving an incoming signal from the long range communications section. "Space-com reports luminescent phenomena from the same region. They think it looks like what a space fold should, and matches what was recorded when the space fortress appeared ten years ago, though of much larger magnitude."

Lisa quirked an eyebrow at her friend, who shrugged apologetically. "Show me the readings." Lisa said, suddenly all business. Lisa spent a mere minute looking at the readings then nodded decisively. "Get the Veritech CAP in the air just in case and radio alpha base to do the same, and then sound general quarters. We may have incoming and if they're hostile I want us ready to assist the defense fleet. Start to…" The lights suddenly cut off for a second before going to emergency yellow as the ship shunted all available power to something else. "Claudia what the hell is going on?!"

"The entire system's going haywire!" Claudia was flipping switches and rotating dials to no avail, while behind her Lt Kim young did the same at her station. "All power shifting from everything to the main firing system. Main gun coming online, and I can't shut it down! It looks like some kind of dormant program came up, I can't get in. Main gun firing in five…"

"What about targeting?" Lisa asked anxiously. Here she was on the bridge of the most powerful ship humanity had and she was powerless to stop what was about to happen. And the day had been going so well…

"Sensors have detected thirty ships moving around the moon, the targeting computer seems to be locked on two of them." Sammy Porter, the head of the gunnery department reported.

Claudia spoke crisply from where she had been issuing orders to the various departments. "Dr. Lang reports he's unable to cut the power manually."

Sammy shook her head. "Too late anyway, main gun is firing sir."

Reflux energy appeared in a crackling torrent forming between the two booms of the main gun, building for a few seconds in which more power than an entire continent used coalesced, and then in another second shot forward in a ravening spear of power. The entire ship rocked from the discharge, and Lisa was forced to grab her station to keep from being knocked to the floor as warning lights flickered on every console throughout the huge ship.

The beam, white and red hot zoomed upwards through the atmosphere then out into space, impacting and blowing straight through one of its targets then slamming into another, obliterating it in turn before dissipating.

"Systems have been returned to our control." Claudia murmured.

Lt. Kim young scowled from her console, where she directed the interior maintenance and repair of the Edelman. "That shot did a lot of interior damage. We've got reports of structural damage coming in from all quarters, and most of our guns and the propulsion unit are offline."

Vanessa gulped. "Long Range radar just picked up a swarm of small objects entering earth orbit."

Lisa clenched her teeth for a moment then nodded resolutely. "Sound general quarters and the air raid alarm then get the Emergency broadcast system up and running. And someone get the captain here on the double!"

Ranma and everyone else in the White Dragon looked up as alarms began to blare across the city. "Attention, attention all residents of Macross city are to make their way to assigned shelters immediately. Repeat, all civilians are to make their way to assigned shelters, this is not a drill, repeat this is not a drill."

Ranma looked over at Kasumi and shrugged. "I didn't do it, I swear."

Kasumi giggled nervously, wondering what was going on. Fei, Shao and Minmei followed her. "We should get going though. Kasumi, you and Ranma follow us, we've been through emergency drills before so we know where our shelter is."

The group exited the restaurant and made their way along the streets with a throng of other people moving around them in the same direction. Unfortunately within fifteen minutes of exiting the restaurant they started to hear screams and shouts from behind them.

Ranma glanced back the way they came and saw some kind of huge two legged robot stalking down the road towards the group of fleeing civilians. After getting over his shock at the sight he growled deep in his throat, pushing Kasumi and Minmei to move faster before turning and facing the whatever-it-was. "Keep going, I'll see if I can hold that thing off!"

Minmei made to turn around, but Kasumi grabbed her arm and pulled her along. She knew that when Ranma spoke seriously like that it was time to listen.

Ranma jumped onto the side of a building pushed off and rocketed back the way they had come. The thing tried to lift a leg to stomp on him, but he grabbed one of its claws and flipped under it coming up and hanging in mid air right in front of what he would guess was the cockpit. "Moko Takabashi!" A cerulean sphere of energy lanced out from his cupped hands and smashed into the machine blowing a small hole through its torso. After a second it slowed, then tumbled onto its side, crushing half a building under its weight as it fell.

Ranma blinked momentarily, looking down at his hands then back to the downed walker. "Wow, they really ain't as sturdy as they look." With a grin he jumped to the rooftops, deciding to take the fight to the invaders.

One block later he came upon two more rampaging battlepods that were crashing through buildings and firing randomly into others while a few civilians ducked and ran for it. Ranma snarled moving in, slamming another Moko Takabashi attack into one before it could react. The other turned quickly, raising a foot and smacking him out of the air and into the ground with enough force to drive the wind out of him.

Crap, that actually fucking hurt! If not for the Bakusai Tenketsu training I'd be done. Wincing a little he stood up only for the alien invader to try and step on him again. This time though Ranma was ready and caught the things foot in his hands above his body. Grimacing as the thing continued trying to step on him he slowly twisted out of the way, and before the battlepod could try again he brought both hands slamming into the joint right above its foot "Iron Hand school final attack, Steel Crusher!"

The force of his blow shattered the joint and the battlepod overbalanced slamming into the concrete. The lasers that it had not heretofore wanted to use on him tried to turn far enough to get him within their sights but Ranma dodged forward getting to close for them to depress enough to hit him. Another Moko Takabashi followed this time aimed from between the pods legs. This part of the pod must have been weaker than the frontal armor Ranma had hit with his first two attacks because instead of creating a small hole the blast blew through the pod from top to bottom.

Ranma whistled in surprise as he stood back, looking at the damage he had caused for a moment before cocking his head and listening to the sounds of battle. It sounded like it was getting closer, and he grinned. The battle pods were large, but not so large they could move through buildings as easily as they could along the roads and he had the advantage of being smaller, faster and tougher. "Alright you alien bastards let's party!"

Captain Gloval cursed as he rubbed his head, having banged his head on the top of the bulkhead. At six feet nine inches he was about a foot too tall for most of the airlocks in the SDF-1 and for some reason could never remember to duck when he was in a hurry, and he most certainly was in a hurry right now, "Situation Report commander Hayes!"

Commander Hayes, the SDF-1's tactical officer spoke without taking her eyes off the tactical board. "At 0930 this morning long range space radar picked up several unidentified objects in near moon orbit, but we began losing satellite input at around the same time, so the numbers we've got are guesses at best. At 1000 the SDF-1 charged and fired its main cannon without any operator input the target being two of the unidentified objects. Dr. Lang and Lt Young think that it was a hardwired response in the computer core. It was at that time that we first tried to contact you captain."

The very blasé way she said this only underscored her irritation with him for not having his com on, and behind her Gloval flushed heavily. She had in fact sent an MP to the ceremony to find and hurry him along. Imagine her surprise when the MP reported that he wasn't even at the party any longer.

Nodoka, who had accompanied him despite his best efforts to convince her to seek shelter, merely shrugged unapologetically. It had been a very long time for her after all, and they both had a lot of time to make up for.

Hayes continued "Radar reported several hundred incoming objects in high orbit at the same time. Twenty minutes after that we received the first report from Space Command that their Hercules missile forts had engaged the enemy. About five minutes after they engaged all contact with the ten Hercules class forts in orbit between us and the moon was cut off."

"About fifteen to twenty minutes later our Valkyrie patrols reported incoming fighters of two designs, one a sort of triangular fighter plane and the other a two-legged robot or combat suit. The U.N. Space Navy scrambled fighters from the Daedalus to assist but our initial losses are heavy across the board. Some flights are reporting at only quarter strength, or even less. Skull 1 has taken command out there, and those losses have petered out, but the dogfight is still continuing. There are also reports of the battlepods attacking the city, but the Destroids haven't mobilized yet."

The flatness of her tone communicated a further message and Gloval manfully suppressed a groan. Colonel Mannstein had never made any big secret that he didn't like taking orders from someone junior in rank to him and female to boot. There was no doubt he would drag his feet as much as possible in obeying her orders, especially if he had heard about the losses the Valkyrie squads had already sustained.

"Well, Captain what are you waiting for, let's get this ship moving." Senator Smith, head of the UNSF Oversight committee had made his way from the ceremony on the runway and arrived on the bridge right after Gloval and Nodoka. "Surely after the vast amount of resources we've put into this ship it can meet this assault. I've come here to see what it can do and while that blast it fired off was interesting I think we need to see more return from our investment."

Lt Young spoke up. "Senator, the drives haven't been tested under full power, and we have structural damage all through the hull from firing the main cannon on the ground. I really can't recommend starting the engines until my teams have completed their survey and repaired the most important damage.

Senator Smith was an overweight choleric man (picture Uncle Vernon from the first HP movie) and was a firm chauvinist as well and his face reddened noticeably from being addressed by some tart in a suit. "When I want your opinion young lady I will ask for it" he snapped. Kim wilted noticeably under his glare, and the other girls shrank back as well. "Get this ship into the air captain that is an order from the Senate Oversight chair." The politician smiled, looking the perfect image of a fat cat.

Gloval winced inwardly as Kim and Claudia both winced and the other girls gulped. The Senator was in fact in his direct chain of command, but this command could be the death of them. Yet it was a lawful order. Gloval inhaled, opened his mouth and…

Are you an idiot?" The dry caustic voice cut across the bridge's tension like a knife. "You've just been told that the drive remains untested, and you are going to order them into battle? Miss…." Nodoka looked at Claudia who smiled more than willing to do her bit to take some wind out of the blowhard's sails, "Lt. Cm. Claudia Grant miss."

"Claudia, what is percentage of the SDF-1's, what was it, the anti-gravity generators not working?"

"Roughly 35-65 percent ma'am. Probably at the high end, we're still getting reports of new structural problems from firing the main gun, nothing horrible individually but taken together it adds up."

"I see. And what would happen if they failed?"

"We would almost certainly crash, causing a lot of structural damage to the ship, and even more damage to the ground. Depending on how fast we came down the damage to the port and the surrounding city could range from bad to disastrous. The damages would be in the millions at a minimum."

The fat senator had paled first in anger as Nodoka spoke up than in growing fear and when he spoke you could almost hear the wheels going in reverse as he distanced himself from what was happening. "Um, y-yes well then, perhaps my suggestion wasn't well thought out. I, I will leave you to your business captain, obviously you know best."

As soon as the hatch closed after the fat man everyone breathed a sigh of relief and heartfelt "thank yous" came from several of the bridge crew. Nodoka nodded graciously, moving over to leaning against a bulkhead, somehow radiating a sense of calm that everyone could feel. The three younger girls seemed to respond to this and went about their work with renewed efficiency.

Crisis averted, Gloval shot his lady (and god did that feel good to think) a look of admiration and thanks before turning to the crisis at hand. "All right now that that's settled let's get some order here. Lt. Porter, order all gun crews to stations. Commander Hayes, launch two spy eyes one to the port to keep communications open to the fleet and one straight up to give us a better view of the battle. After that get in touch with Commander Fokker and start rotating some of the Valkyrie squads back to re-arm, meanwhile they are to take to the air and stay there. Commander Grant, get Colonel Mannstein on the phone, while I'm talking to him get the ships still in dock from the Pacific Fleet out into the ocean. I want them far enough away to be out of immediate danger but close enough to provide support."

A second later colonel Mannstein's Gallic face appeared on his display. "Colonel I want to separate your forces into three parts. The Spartans are to move out now and head to the city, try to force the invaders there out. The Defenders are to load with flak and go to continuous fire and work on creating as large a bubble of fire as they can."

"Flak, Captain? I don't think flak will do much against these aliens."

"It's not supposed to, but it will disrupt their communications and video link. By the time you start firing we'll have two spy eyes up and be able to punch signals through it, but I want to confuse the enemies command and control as much as possible."

"It will also make aimed fire impossible for our targeting systems captain."

"Have you ever heard the artillery term 'rolling thunder' colonel?" Gloval smiled thinly, as Mannstein looked blank for a moment before starting to smile grimly. "See to it colonel."

Fifteen minutes later the destroid battalion moved out of its hangers and to their positions, the anti air defenders immediately darkening the midday sky with clouds of shrapnel in a swiftly growing circle around the SDF-1. The Defenders had over 3 kilometers of range using their main guns and soon the entire battle was covered within their envelope.

The battlepods almost to a pod descended to the ground and began to make their way forward, putting up their own anti-air fire against the Valkyrie squadrons, who pulled back and up, keeping in contact but out of range. The green triangular fighter pods, while slightly more heavily armed than the battlepods were even less armored and many exploded in midair from direct hits from the flak cannons. Their organization destroyed, they were easy pickings for the more durable Veritech fighters who could ignore even a direct hit from flak cannons.

The Fortress and Tomahawk Destroids began to fire as well, a wave of un-aimed artillery and missile fire starting at the maximum range and moving back in toward the SDF-1 boxing the attackers inside their envelope. The battlepods on the ground started to take casualties, not many as they could dodge the incoming fire, but still more than they had taken prior to this, and their advance slowed to a crawl.

While this was going on Lisa was on the horn with Commander Fokker who had a few observations to pass on. "Neither type is very durable, but they came from practically every direction at nearly brigade strength, so we lost a lot of men. At least three dozen got right past us moving toward the city. Can I start rotating my troops in now, Vermillion and Green squads are running on fumes, Red is down to only three combatants and Orange and Blue are only a little better off. Skull has lost two men down and the squadrons from the Daedalus are nearly all gone, they just weren't as well trained to their Valkyries as my men were."

"Roger that commander, you're clear to rotate your flights in to the SDF-1, we're closer, but we want a CAP to stand off and direct the artillery fire. Start with the worst off and move up from there."

"Roger that. Skull-1 out." Fokker sounded a little bitter, and he had reason to. A lot of the fighters they had lost had been men he had trained after all so Lisa understood his anger and did not call him on it. She had watched the battle since its beginning after all, and had seen far too many friendlys disappearing. "Kim, is the runway clear?"

"We've got everything clear but Valkyrie 01, the one that was out there for the parade tonight hasn't moved yet."

"Who's assigned to it?" Sammy asked.

"Who cares?" Lisa tapped issuance commands into the computer, "V01 this is Fortress 1 respond!"

"Huh?" The pilot's voice sounded sleep of all things and Lisa's face darkened. How the fuck could anyone sleep through a battle like this?

"Why are you still on the ground when we've been at full alert for an hour and a half?! What's your rank and id number?" Her anger was showing through her tone of voice and behind her Nodoka closed in reaching out a gentle hand to touch her shoulder and Lisa sighed as she also saw Claudia giving her a look of reproach. They were right and she knew it. As therapeutic as yelling at someone was, she couldn't afford to lose it right now not while the battle was still going on. "Never mind, just get in the air right now, we have incoming fighters on empty and they won't be able to land with you in the way."

"Er, roger, taking off." On the view screen the lone Veritech was shown lighting its engines and lifting off a little shakily but swiftly and Lisa put it out of her mind when she saw incoming Valkyrie squads.

As Lisa directed the maintenance crews in rearming and repairing the Veritechs, the battle continued, with more and more of the downed battlepods being taken out by the rolling fire of the Destroids.

As the main battle seemed to be petering out, the radar and video specialist Vanessa directed the spy eye that had been moving toward the port back to the city. A minute later she blinked, staring at her screen. The screen didn't change.

Vanessa first sniffed the air suspiciously, wondering if something odd had been pumped into the bridge. A surreptitious glance around showed no one else showing any ill effects thought and she looked back at the spy eyes streaming video. When the screen still didn't change took of her glasses and cleaned them on the front of her uniform. Putting them back on the screen still hadn't changed and she shook her head. "Uh, captain, there's something here you should see."

Once he had escorted the last of the civilians in the area to the shelters Ranma ranged across the entire metropolis and turned the entire city into a battle ground. With his use of the umi-sen-ken and his ability to roof-hop at amazing speeds he appeared, attacked and disappeared only to reappear somewhere else. While any one battlepod could easily have killed him if they could have hit him with their cannons, Ranma never stayed in one place long enough. They also seemed to have only the most basic idea of how to fight someone so much smaller than them and they frankly sucked at it.

The chaos and destruction the battlepods were creating in their march through the city also worked in his favor. None of the groups of invaders could figure out what was taking them out, and they didn't seem smart enough to start working together.

As the sounds of the main battle began to ebb in the distance, Ranma jumped from the top of one building to land on top of a battlepod slamming his fist down on its top. "Steel Crusher!" The metal blew inward under his fist and he jumped away, aiming his hands at another walker behind the one he had already destroyed. "Moko Takabashi!" A cerulean sphere lanced out, impacting and slamming through the front of the alien walker making a small hole right into its central core. The walker's legs kicked spasmodically as it fell backwards, slamming onto the pocked and marred roadway behind it dead.

Ranma landed on his feet between his two victims and had to immediately dodge behind the leg of one of them as a cannon blast impacted right in front of where he had been standing. "Oh come on, how many more of you bastards are there!?" Peering over the leg he saw two more battlepods, followed by a third that was of a different design. This one was a little larger, and had two arms complete with hands and two larger cannons than the normal type set into its central body.

Concentrating he faded into the Umi-sen-ken and jumped away as the cannons of all three pods ranged on where he had been hiding and then spreading out along the pavement in three directions. But instead of falling back like they had been expecting Ranma charged forward, getting in close again.

Two Moko-Takabashi's took out both of the normal walkers, but a similar shot only scarred the surface of the new model which responded swiftly against the marital artist who had dropped out of the Umi-sen-ken to use his ki attacks. A massive fist swung almost blindingly fast clipping Ranma in midair smashing him back into and through a burning building for his attempt.

Ranma groaned as he pushed himself off the pavement. "Damn thing packs a better punch than the other one did!" He jumped to his feet barely avoiding another cannon blast, shooting back with a "Kijin Raishin Dan!"

The battlepod didn't realize the danger of the vauum blades and lost a cannon an arm and a rocket pack as the vacuum blades sliced through them like a hot knife through butter. The walker responded with another cannon blast, nearly hitting Ranma as he ducked underneath a burning girder. He came up juking and diving as the now heavily damaged pod continued to spray fire wildly around in an attempt to smoke him out.

Ranma came up underneath the battlepod, and slamming both hands out into the legs on either side of him. "Steel crusher times two!" The metal imploded on impact and Ranma rolled forward, barely evading the body of the walker as it crashed to the ground. Not taking any chances he turned immediately and shot out two more vacuum blades, bisecting the body.

Fight over for now Ranma fell to his knees, gasping in great lungfuls of air. He felt his ribs and stomach for a moment. At least two broken ribs, and several others are bruised. Not a lot for someone with my healing ability, but I still need time and energy to heal. That and Ranma could feel his ki reserve was already badly depleted by this fight. He wasn't nearly strong enough to down battlepods without resorting to his ki attacks, they were just too damn big and he had been using them more than he had in any other fight, even the fights against Saffron and Herb. "I am so going to clear Minmei and her family out of all their food when this is all over, and then sleep for a week."

He twitched as a shadow fell over him. Not having felt any danger Ranma looked up quizzically and saw some kind of plane overhead. As it wasn't actively shooting at him he ignored it. Taking a deep breath he stood up grinning as he heard the sounds of more cannons in the distance. With a farewell wave at the watching plane he jumped up to a nearby rooftop, disappearing between one jump and the next into the Umi-sen-ken. The battle wasn't over and he still had some work to do.

Gloval had ordered Vanessa to switch the feed from the spy eye to the main screen and the bridge crew had watched torn between disbelief and awe as Ranma had taken on and destroyed several battlepods with his bare hands. Gloval was the first to recover his voice and he spoke in a near whisper. "Wh-what is he?"

Nodoka had also watched, torn between fear for her son and pride in his skill and courage. She coughed quietly, bringing everyone's attention back to her. "That is my son Ranma, and I believe I did mention Henri, that he is a most exceptional martial artist." They all looked at her wide-eyed.

Their shock was interrupted by Dr. Lang, who doubled as the primary authority on fold drive technology and reflux energy and was also the SDF 1's chief engineer. "Sir we've finished all the structural repairs from firing the main cannon on the ground. We are clear to lift at any time. I estimate an above 85% chance that our antigravity and propulsion engines will work up to spec."

Gloval grasped this announcement as a lifeline to pull himself back to the realm of normal. "Excellent, Commander Hayes, get us airborne posthaste. Move us out to sea via over flight of the city, we'll provide cover fire for the Spartan's as they move in. All other destroids are to return to their hangers. Recall all Valkryie's except for skull squadron, they'll act as our SAR team." All around his subordinates jumped to obey, glad to get back to the real world.

Having followed the sound of combat Ranma jumped from an adjoining rooftop into what had been a parking center around a sports complex. The large building's side had been caved in by a crashing Valkyrie, the kind he had seen flying overhead several times since moving to Macross Island. The Veritech had transformed to what he had heard a few soldiers call the guardian mode and with a start he saw that Minmei was being held in one of its fists. Moving in from the side were three more battlepods, one the tougher type and the other two the normal version.

Ranma darted forward and wasted no time with his lesser attacks, calling out "Moko ho Rieku!" Instead of a cerulean sphere a wide beam of pure golden ki lanced out hitting the be-armed battlepod in the back ripping into the back and causing an explosion that ripped the pod apart when it hit the walker's power core. Ranma turned to the left and "Moko Takabashi!" the pod on the left fell with a small hole drilled through its side.

Before Ranma could turn and deal with the last pod shots rang out riddling it from the front. He turned rapidly but relaxed as he saw another Valkyrie with black and gold stripes on its side landing in the clear area of the parking lot. As it landed it transformed into its robot mode, and Ranma saw the skull and crossbones of skull squadron, the RDF's elite squad emblazoned on its chest. A voice rang out from the machines speaker: "You've gotta tell me what the heck you hit those walkers with man. Rick you okay in there?"

Ranma realizing he was addressing the pilot of the downed Veritech with that last part turned and ran forward, jumping onto the guardians arms and plucking Minmei out of the things grip. "Minmei what the hell are ya doin' here! I told ya to get ta the shelter, why the hell are ya still out here!"

Minmei looked close to tears from her ordeal, but answered gamely. "Kasumi and I reached the shelter with the others but when we got there an old couple was coming out to look for their dog. We couldn't let them go, so Kasumi stayed with them while I went out to look for the dog. Rick, that's the pilot, he found me and saved me from those things but we couldn't get away."

She stopped, her lip quivering and Ranma sighed gathering her into a hug before she could break down entirely. "I didn't mean ta snap at ya Minmei-chan, I'm just worried for ya. As long as yer alright then it's all good, just remember that you're way more important than any bloody dog could be alright?"

Minmei sighed, recovering her composure a little as she enjoyed the hug. Ranma may not be boyfriend material but by god he was hunky, and the hug felt sooo good and was just what she needed right now.

In his cockpit Rick Hunter narrowed his eyes in a sudden spurt of jealousy, but squashed it easily. After all he had just met the girl and this guy, 'Ranma?' had just destroyed some of these weird alien things with his bare hands. Rick's musing was interrupted as Roy, a man he had always thought of as family called him again. "Rick, are you alright little buddy?"

Rick shook his head inside his flight helmet. "Uh, yeah Roy, just a little shaken up I guess. I can still fly if I can figure out how to change back into the plane mode."

"Good, then we better get you and these two back to the fortress. I imagine that the higher ups will want to speak to him and as for you two, the battle may be mostly over but the fortress is still the safest place for both you and the girl." Roy reached forward with his Veritech and pulled Rick's guardian form out of the rubble of the sports complex a little then moved back. "Press the large red button and push the small lever on the left side to the first position. That'll change you back to fighter mode."

Roy's Veritech changed as well, and once back in fighter mode, he popped his cockpit. "Hey you two, let's go. There are still invaders in the city and we've got Spartans moving in to clean up. We can get you both back to your families after this is all over."

Ranma looked at Minmei and she nodded, reluctantly moving out form his embrace to climb into Rick's now open cockpit. Ranma looked after her a moment, making certain she got in alright then turned and swiftly made his way to the skull emblazoned fighter. Once inside and buckled in Ranma sighed, leaning back and shaking his head wearily. "Thanks for the assist dude, I'm just about running on empty right now. Using all those ki attacks takes it outta even me. Names Ranma, what's yours?"

Roy grinned, never one for military decorum he was just fine with the personal way Ranma was talking to him. "No problem Ranma, my name's Roy Fokker, but you have to tell me how you were doing that."

Ranma nodded, closing his eyes and feeling around with his ki sense, a little confused. It felt as if he was standing near or maybe within a huge aura, as big as Saffron's but with a weird feel to it, no emotions at all, just pure ki. "Uh, yeah, those were my ki attacks, they were the only way I could take out those walker things. But I don't know about teaching ya, it took me nearly thirteen years to build up enough ki control to do those attacks." He winced when the safety strap banged his ribs as Roy took off. "You have any idea where those things came from? They weren't after anything specific that I saw but they did seem to be searching for somethin', they were all over the city in groups and chased anythin' moving."

Roy shrugged. "Thirteen years huh, well maybe we can find some way to shorten that if you can explain it to me later. As for the aliens all I know is that they appeared in moon orbit and there was some kind of computerized booby trap that took control of the main gun and fired at their mother-ships in orbit. After that their fighters invaded right away. There's been no communication before or since."

Ranma nodded, but his attention was firmly on the view outside the cockpit. "Damn this is even cooler than I thought it would be. I can't wait to sign up."

Roy looked back over his shoulder for a moment and saw Ranma's grinning face staring out the side and he smirked before turning back to his flying. Looks like somebody just got bit by the flying bug. "If you want to join up kid why haven't you, you're certainly in good enough shape?"

Ranma shrugged, not looking away from the vista laid out before him, exhilarating in a speed and flight beyond any martial arts school, beyond even the phoenix tribe's abilities. "My grades are against me. I did alright when I was able to go, but that was so few times I barely passed high school. Even on an athletic scholarship no college'd touch me, and I was told the same thing when I applied ta the RDF, since they can pick and choose from the world's militaries."

"That was true in peacetime kid, not now that there might be a war coming. I'll put in a good word for you and we'll see what happens okay. I'm CAG for the SDF 1 so my word will carry a lot of weight with any recruitment board."

Ranma turned flashing an even wider grin. "Thanks man. I'll look into that after I see if my families okay."

By this time the fortress was in sight and Commander Hayes voice came through on Roy's radio. "Commander Fokker we have you on visual, you and your 'friend' are cleared for landing on runway 7. And later we're going to have a long talk about proper procedure and why it's a bad idea to allow civilians into military grade fighter planes."

Roy sighed. Lisa was an okay girl, but she really did seem to have the rule book stuck up her ass sometimes. Worse she often forgot that he in fact outranked her as CAG. "Roger that. Reporting three civilians in tow, one Lynn Minmei I recognize from the local Chinese restaurant, one Rick Hunter whose flying skills I'll vouch for, and one Ranma… What's your last name kid?" He called over his shoulder.

Ranma looked away from the view outside for a moment. "It's Sao-no wait I'm using my mother's clan name now, its Sugita, Ranma Sugita. Still ain't used to that."

Roy's face blanked but he dutifully went on with his report. "Ranma Sugita, who I think the higher ups and certainly the science division will want to talk to."

Commander Gloval's voice cut in unexpectedly at that point. "That is confirmed Commander, mess hall two is clear for now so you and your passengers can grab some food there if you want. Myself and others will meet you there. Fortress out."

"Er, Roger that captain. Skull-1 over and out." He turned off his radio and spoke again to Ranma. "Hey, kid you said Sugita, any relation to the WW2 ace Souichi Sugita?"

Ranma nodded now watching as Roy brought them in to land. "Yeah, he was my great-grandfather; my mom's been telling me stories about him lately, really cool stuff. Why, is he famous or something?"

"Or something," Roy muttered. Now he just knew he had to get this kid into the Veritech forces. If he had even half the skill his great grandfather had...

In space several huge bulbous dark green spaceships sailed through the debris that had once been the Hercules missile defense fleet, moving to geosynchronous orbit above Macross island, their pace slow but unstoppable.

Ranma, Rick and Minmei were escorted by Roy and a few maintenance personnel to a mess hall near the main hanger deck of the SDF-1. Ranma almost made a beeline for the food dispensers but stopped as he caught sight of Minmei's face. She was starting to shudder and hyperventilate, going into shock now that the action was over and her adrenaline was leaving her.

Ranma looked at Rick's wide-eyed and panicking face and sighed. Knowing that he was much better able to handle emotions and mushy stuff in his female form he went over to a sink and splashed himself with cold water. As soon as he had Rick fainted in shock and Minmei bolted, slamming into the now equally short redhead with enough force to stagger even her, sobbing uncontrollably. Ranma sat down, pulling Minmei into her lap as she stroked the younger girl's hair, murmuring wordless reassurance and rocking back and forth.

It was to this scene that Nodoka, Gloval, Roy, Dr. Lang and a non-descript man with lieutenant's insignia walked in on. The soldiers and Dr. Lang all blinked in shock, but Nodoka walked forward swiftly opening her arms and gathering Minmei and her son turned daughter into her arms. Looking over the blue haired girls head she looked into Ranma's face, smiling softly. "I am very proud of what you have done today my son. Now leave Minmei to me, I think these gentlemen have some questions to ask you."

Ranma smiled and got up, nodding at the others. Roy was the first to speak. "But, um, I brought a black haired young man in here, who the heck are you?"

Ranma moved over to the sink again and turned on the hot water. "It's a curse I picked up in China in the Bayankala mountain range. Cold water turns me into a girl, hot water back into my birth form of a boy. No my mind doesn't change, no there is no cure, yes it is a major irritant, no I am not a pervert and have never taken advantage of this form in any way." The last part was growled out and the redhead dumped a cupful of hot water over her head, gaining black hair and nearly a foot of height as the others watched in shock. "Any questions?"

Dr. Lang's eye glittered with the urge to examine this strange phenomenon in greater detail but for now he refrained. "Fascinating, but not what I am here to ask about. Captain Gloval and the other bridge crew passed on the report of some remarkably odd powers you manifested, and Commander Fokker. I was wondering if you could explain to us how you accomplished those feats."

Ranma grinned lopsidedly. "A lot of blood sweat and tears really. The attacks I used're called ki attacks, and only come from really intense training. Anyone can learn how ta do them so long as they can put in the time ta learn. If ya want ta talk about how ki really works and what it means that's gonna take a lot longer ta explain."

Gloval nodded. "A discussion between you and Dr. Lang might be very interesting at a later date then. Right now however I'm interested in how you were able to take on those walkers and if you were able to tell us anything about them, the main fight didn't give use any information other than they prefer overwhelming numbers and, judging solely by the little amount of punishment they are able to take, the fighter equivalents seem to be entirely comprised of relatively expendable units." Behind him the unknown man took out a voice recorder and a mechanical notepad, sitting down at one of the tables.

Ranma gave a brief description of the start of the battle form his perspective as well as the number of civilian stragglers he had seen and protected who hadn't responded to or responded too slowly to the order to head to the bomb shelters. He told about the two weak points he had noticed about the walkers, the one on the bottom between the legs, and the backpack which, while more armored would explode if hit hard enough. He went into detail about his fights and the techniques he used, promising Dr. Lang to show him them at a later date. "What really got me though is the fact that even before you guys sent up that hale stuff, whatdaya call it, flak, the groups didn't work together but it got way worse after. They almost appeared lost, just destroying stuff for the sake of destroying stuff, like they just couldn't think on their own or didn't really know what they were here for. The only ones that seemed to think about more than just plowing ahead were the ones that had arms on their pods and tougher armor. Those things were tough bastards let me tell ya."

Roy nodded as the still nondescript man kept taking notes. "We ran into several of them in the air, and they were even tougher there. Maybe they're aces or flight leaders, although there didn't seem to be nearly as many as there should have been for the number of other walkers we saw."

The unnamed man spoke up for the first time, glancing at Ranma. "Did you see the pilots of these machines, or were they automated?"

Ranma shrugged uncomfortably. "Yeah I did. The one pod I sliced in half I looked inta. The pilot wasn't in the best shape but he was a giant, about three stories tall maybe, he kinda crouched in the battlepod with his legs stuck half way down the legs of the machine. I couldn't tell anything about his skin tone or anything 'cause he was wearing some kinda full body suit, purple with green flex points and a spacesuit helmet. That was all I saw before I moved on."

Gloval and the man exchanged glances then Gloval nodded. "Well, I think that's about it for now ensign. Thank you for the report and I think Dr Lang will be talking to you in greater length later. Right now however I think I speak for the civilians you saved when I say thank you."

Ranma looked at him with his head cocked to one side. "Ensign?"

"That is the entry grade for Veritech fighters. I think after your performance and with both my own and Commander Fokker's recommendations we can waive the application educational requirements." He smiled sardonically. "I think we can also waive the physicals and go straight to fighter simulation and computer and tactical training at the earliest opportunity."

"I," Ranma paused a moment, gathering himself visibly before going on. "Thank you captain, I, my dream has always been to go into space and defend people with my art, this is my dream come true. You won't regret this, I swear it. I'll be the best Veritech pilot you've ever seen! Count on it!"

Fokker smirked. "Hey kid, don't count your chickens and all that. I'm the best pilot there is, and don't forget it."

Ranma grinned. After Gloval and Fokker left with the other man Ranma walked over to Nodoka. As he had been talking Rick had woken up and convinced Minmei despite Nodoka's objections. If it hadn't been for the fact she could see the attraction between the two she would never have let her go regardless, but when Rick learned his plane was on the Macross he had insisted on taking Minmei home.

When she informed Ranma, who had not noticed their leaving of this he was a little worried but decided to stay with his mother for now. With Ranma munching on a few ration bars the two went in search of an infirmary to get someone to look at his ribs.

When Gloval returned to the bridge it was to find the fortress already over the port, forming up with the super carrier Daedalus and the nuclear missile sub Prometheus. Lt. Cm. Hayes had already ordered them into position as well as the lesser escorts, and the whole fleet had begun to move in formation. "Excellent work Commander Hayes. ETA for the space launch point?"

"ETA six hours until reach the launch point and are far enough away from any island or object that can be injured by the tsunami we'll cause on launching. All Destroids have re-boarded. We were able to pick up fifteen of the downed Valkyrie pilots and they're already in the infirmary."

"Excellent. Commander Grant, any further orders from Space Command?"

The black skinned communications specialist shook her head sadly. "They've radioed orders for us to lift and get out of the gravity well as soon as possible. We have no more radar satellites in orbit so the earth is pretty much blind above the stratosphere. They also think that the aliens target is the Macross, not the rest of the planet and that getting us away seems the best idea. They're ordering us to take up orbit around the moon and await further orders, probably to form up with the second generation missile ships under construction when they're done in a few weeks."

Gloval's lips pursed in irritation, but it didn't come as much of a shock. The U.N was not prepared for an assault of this magnitude and buying a few weeks time could have far reaching consequences. "Very well, continue on this course, and prepare to cut loose the fleet in five hours. We don't want anyone else close by when we light off our main propulsion engines." The two women both answered in the affirmative and turned back to their stations.

Not fifteen minutes later however the peace of a well run bridge was interrupted by Lt. Vanessa Laird shouting. "Captain, incoming fire from orbit right above us!"

Gloval didn't even have time to curse as incoming fire lanced down, huge beams of light, almost the size though not of the same color or density as the reflex cannon, but they were more than powerful enough to obliterate two of the frigates as he watched out of the viewport. "All hands to battle stations signal the Prometheus to dive, Daedalus and the escorts to stand off. Is the reflex cannon online!?

Sammy Porter, the Lt in charge of coordinating repair and refit shook her head. "We prioritized repairing the structural damage from its initial firing as well as making certain the anti-gravity engines worked. It's not ready to fire yet, not without causing us as much damage as the enemy."

Gloval cursed as Lisa cut in. "Frigates Epee and Lunge destroyed all hands, cruisers Rapier and Escalade have taken heavy damage and are off the tac net . All frigates out of the area."

"Prometheus reports it's submerged far enough to be safe, Daedalus reports some damage, but has yet to sustain a direct hit and is battened down. Its captain is refusing to move out of formation however, and at a super carriers best speed it's probably pointless anyway." Claudia reported.

Gloval cursed as yet another way of fire slammed down, by some miracle missing both the Macross and the super carrier escorting it, but it was only a matter of time until their luck changed. He needed more options, but with no ability to hit back and not having enough speed to run away, he was left with one very risky option. "Begin calculations for a space-fold operation."

Claudia and Lisa both looked over at him aghast. Claudia was the first to respond and she did so even as another barrage slammed into the ocean all around them. "Captain, the space-fold system is still untested. We don't even know if it'll work, or what the consequences for the environment around us."

Gloval's teeth flashed in what no sane person would ever call a smile. "Nothing like a test under fire, and it is the only way to get us away from this bombardment intact."

"Sir." Claudia's voice dropped into a formal cadence and she activated a small recording device, the ubiquitous black box that every ship or plane carried. "I understand and will comply with the order to execute a fold, but I officially object to this order and want it so entered into the log."

Lisa stared at her friend in disbelief. "Claudia, right, or wrong, he's the captain, it's his call."

"Just as it is my right and duty to voice my disagreement Cm. Hayes." Claudia still spoke formally emphasizing that, equal in rank or no, she still had way more experience than Lisa, who got the message loud and clear and subsided.

Global nodded. "Your disagreement has been noted and recorded. Cm. Hayes, begin calculations for a space-fold jump to the other side of the moon."

Claudia turned back to her screen, punching the button for internal speakers. "All hands, prepare for fold-space jump, repeat prepare for fold space jump." With another button she switched to an all ships frequency. "All ships Macross is about to engage its space fold drive system, the effects to the surrounding environs are unknown suggest you leave the area as fast as possible."

"Calculations complete. Course laid in and space-fold engines powering up."

"Jump as soon as you are able."

"Jumping now!" And with that the space fortress and everything within ten kilometers of the fortress simply disappeared from the face of the earth.

end chapter 1

*Chapter 3*: into the big dark

I don't own Ranma or Robotech

Chapter 2 Into the Big Dark

The entire ship rocked as outside the poorly understood phenomena labeled fold-space flashed in a multihued display like the entire universe had taken an acid trip. Gloval, the only one on the bridge who had known people involved in the free love movement, had to stop himself from saying 'the colors man, the colors!' The ship was rocking fit to fall apart, and he could see his bridge crew were far too worried, even scared in the case of the younger trio to appreciate his humor, even if they would have understood it. He kept his captains mask on, radiating calm concern, not letting even a hint of panic into his voice. "Time until fold exit?"

Lisa Hayes tried to match her captain's controlled tone as she replied, and came remarkably close for someone so young. "Ten seconds, Captain, the fold tunnel is destabilizing too quickly to be part of the end fold process however, so I think our calculations must have been wrong somehow."

"I see. Should we brace for impact?"

Lisa shook her head, the damage was already done coming out of the fold tunnel wouldn't be dangerous for the ship. "Fold sphere expanding and becoming more unstable, controls no longer responding."

Claudia looked up anxiously. "Engineering reports the fold generators and reflex core are overheating badly! They're requesting help from the emergency team."

"Zero. Out-fold successful."

Lisa reported and nodded to Claudia who immediately turned back to her console, slapping the interior communications button. "All available emergency teams report to reflex core and the nearest fold space engine for repair work!"

Sammy frowned looking at her controls as whole sections blinked out. "Captain, I've lost feed from fold-space generators 2-5." She hit her own comm. button and frowned when no one replied. "No one in any of those sections is replying."

Gloval frowned. "Do what you can Lt. While Ensign Porter and Commander Grant are working on that Commander Hayes, Lt. Laird, let's see if we can figure out how far off course we are and how close the enemy is."

Vanessa nodded, and both she and Lisa turned back to work, but almost immediately Vanessa spoke up. Captain, I'm getting a large gravitonic reading to our left and down 29 degrees."

Lisa cut in at the same time. "Captain I'm getting unidentified object readings from dead astern and to our left side, large metalic objects…" she trailed off as her tactical display updated and she paled. "Captain it's the Daedalus and the Prometheus! We somehow took them with us!" Without waiting to be told she slammed her own intercom connecting her to the Veritech and Destroid barracks and waiting rooms. "All Veritech fighters mobilize on SAR. Repeat all Veritechs mobilize!"

"My god, the Prometheus was under water so their crew might be alright but the Daedalus…." Gloval said under his breath, yet his self recrimination served no purpose for now and he pushed it aside.

Kim looked up from her calculations, "Um, captain, we're nowhere near the moon. By my astrogation charts, we're near Pluto, about halfway between it and the Oort cloud."

Vanessa spoke up next, her voice nearly shrill with alarm. "Captain! The unknown gravitonic reading, it's Macross Island! We brought what looks like the entire island with us, including the city and the civilian shelters!"

Everybody paused in what they were doing for a moment, the magnitude of the disaster stopping them cold. Gloval took a deep breath and let it out slowly then began to bark out orders. "Alright priorities, Lisa get Roy on the line he's to be out there with as many Veritech fighters as can liftoff. You and he are on SAR, the priorities are the civilian shelters get them to the nearest airlock, where Lt Laird will be rigging up something for them to connect to. Commander Grant, once you've determined our position, you're in charge of organizing the inflow. I want the civilians placed as far inside and as safe as they can be, probably in that huge main hold we've never truly used to its full capacity. Lt. Young hold us steady here or if you can close on the Daedalus. Colonel Mannstein" he looked at the screen set into the roof of the main viewport which showed the man's face still dressed in his operator's uniform from the battle before. "I want every destroid we have out on the hull that can get out there. Hooks, tethers and lines. I want you to drag the Prometheus and Daedalus in as close as you can, that way we can get any survivors off as fast as possible." The colonel nodded and cut the connection, and Gloval turned to Sammy. "Lt. Porter, get in touch with Dr. Lang. Your repair crews and anyone else you want to recruit will be exempt from the other work crews." He looked around and everybody was still staring at him. "Move it ladies!" At that everyone turned to their duties.

Ranma and her mother were too deep in the superstructure of the space fortress to know what was going on and had just reached the infirmary when the ship finished it's space-fold. Ranma was still munching on rations bars taken from the commissary, having consumed fifteen of them already when Claudia's orders for the repair crews rang out over the intercom. Ranma groaned, but he felt his core and knew he had regained about a third of the energy lost from the fighting. Unlike the Saijins in the DragonBall manga he'd read while staying with the Tendos he couldn't use food to completely replace the ki he had lost, but the ration bars were enough to give him back some of it. He was still going to feel it for a while but he could function and even fight if he had to.

He looked over at his mom who nodded sadly. "Go, I think we both need to do whatever we can to help here." She moved over to help a nurse who was struggling with a maintenance worker that had been badly electrocuted, holding the man down so the nurse could administer the knock out gas.

Without a word Ranma ran out of the infirmary. He grabbed the first soldier he came on halting the man's progress by grabbing his arm. "Where's this fold space engine thing?"

The man answered automatically so preoccupied with his own destination he didn't even realize he was talking to a civilian. "Down the corridor on the left take the ladder, keep taking the ladders going down and to the left fifteen decks then follow the signs." Ranma thanked the man and ran off leaving the man to stare after him wondering what the hell that was about.

Ranma followed his directions, and began to feel the temperature around him going up ten floors up from his destination. By the time he got off the last ladder it was like a sauna but he kept moving. The floor he found himself on was huge; large enough to let Veritechs through, but Ranma ignored the size of the hall and kept moving as fast as he could. Five minutes after leaving the hospital, he arrived at a huge, heavily reinforced latch about three stories tall. The lock was open and about a hundred men were moving in and out of it on the ground floor and up on walkways along the sides of the chamber.

Inside Ranma spotted Dr. Lang arguing with several men and he trotted over, looking up in awe at what he guessed was the fold space engine. It looked like a huge cylinder with two large spheres with huge wires leading up to a third sphere suspended off the ground by single see through ball, with other equally large wires leading into the surrounding walls on all sides. It was what was in the central sphere that held his attention though. The interior of the sphere was filled with pure golden ki, glowing so brightly in his eyes it was almost like looking at a miniature sun. The power of it was coming off in waves, almost suffocating him, though no one else seemed to notice anything but the heat, so hot no one could come close even with protective gear. A few were still trying but most had evacuated the room and the ones that were left were falling like flies from the heat.

This was Dr. Lang's crowning achievement. Oh not building the engine, that was beyond humanities current technology. But reverse engineering, that Dr. Lang had done, figuring out the principles involved and how to reverse engineer the theory behind both the reflux energy and the fold-space engine. Now he was seeing his life's work dying in front of him, melting down faster than they could stop it.

They had already lost four of the five fold space engines, and now the primary engine and the reflex generator were going to go to unless they could stop it. "Goddamn it no, I will not jettison the generator! If we do that the engine will blow and we won't have any power! Keep cutting the connections between it and the space fold drive! It's still building up harmonics, maybe we'll get lucky and once it's disconnected it'll phase itself out like the others!"

"Hey doc, ya need any help? What's goin' on?"

Dr. Lang turned at the voice and he and the engineering officers stared at Ranma. "Ranma what are you… never mind, no there's nothing even someone with your unique abilities can do here, not unless you can somehow cool down the engine tremendously and quickly."

Ranma blinked. He hadn't realized the heat was the problem, he just thought that was because of the huge ki reservoir in the engine. "I can do that." He turned walking forward and summoning the soul of ice. Two engineers who tried to stop him reeled back in shock as the air around him cooled noticeably even through their suits. He walked slowly forward, and gasped as the heat intensified. "Alright you want to play it like that? Soul of Ice second form!" Another step forward and his skin started to blister and steam from the difference between his temperature and the temperature around him.

Around him the engine crew stared as he walked forward without any kind of protective gear into the heat haze around the engine in shock, wondering if they were really seeing this.

He was still a yard away from the main cylinder/sphere when the heat began to break through even the Soul of Ice's second form. Ranma paused gathering himself, and then pushed his emotions down even further, pushing everything away except the cold. "Soul of Ice perfect form, Ice Age." At his every word the humanity seemed to leech out of him, and the last was said with no emotion at all, as if a glacier had spoken.

Ranma leaned forward, the soul of ice not even allowing him to notice as the skin under his hands blistered on contact with the engine, and suddenly the heat of the engine began to fade. The soul of ice battled with the heat generated from the fold space engine's misalignment, one of many critical mistakes that would be found out later. Right now Ranma pitted his swiftly shrinking core of ki against the heat of the engine, forcing it back slowly, so slowly. If he had been at full strength this would have been a lot easier, not easy by any means but easier. He was not and it was it was taking all his self-control to not panic even through the soul of ice as he felt his reserves drain away as the minutes went on. The battle went on for fifteen minutes then thirty and at last the heat receded far enough for the overwhelmed cooling devices to finally come on line and aid the beleaguered martial artist. Ten minutes later the heat shielded engineers were able to rush forward and started to pull him away. Dr. Lang came forward, grinning like a madman inside his own suit. "You did it Ranma, I don't know how but you did it! We really do have to sit down and have a talk sometime though that was truly phenomenal!"

One of the engineers, a large hulking man of Asian descent with a close cropped goatee and bald head looked up as he heard the name of their savior for the first time. "Ranma?" he mused speaking to himself inside his heat suit.

Ranma turned away, looking at Dr. Lang for a moment before crashing to the deck falling into a stupor, utterly drained, more drained than he had ever been before. All around him engineers began to run toward him, as his eyes closed at last. Dr. Lang ran to the nearest comm. and shouted into it, not even bothering to choose a channel. "Corpsman to the engine room, corpsman to the engine room, need immediate medical assistance!"

The next thirty hours was the most hectic and frenzied time in Lisa Hayes' young life. It was her job to direct the Veritech flights in their SAR mission, keep track of where they had searched and had yet to search, direct the few shuttles the SDF-1 had in their rescue efforts, oversee Sammy, Kim, and Vanessa as they did their own jobs, and make certain that Colonel Mannstein was doing his job as well as he could. Her job as executive officer was always demanding and intense, after all the old saying that executive officers forged the sword while the captain wielded it was still true, but this was the first time she had ever truly felt overwhelmed. Yet she had risen to the occasion in spectacular fashion. Not only was the SAR carried out efficiently, but there were zero accidents on her watch, something that set the operation far beyond anything the Space Navy had done before. The only blemish on the time was the strange case of a civilian plane being found near the SDF without a pilot. Lisa however had other things to worry about and soon forgot all about it.

Now the first aspect of the job was nearing completion and Colonel Mannstein looked out at her from the bridge of his Monster –class command Destroid. "Commander, we have finished towing in and tying down the Daedalus, ready to move on to the Prometheus." This hadn't been nearly as easy as it sounded, things just worked differently in space, and the Destroid operators had not been trained for it as well as the Valkyrie pilots.

"Wait one colonel." She looked at her screen, making certain Daedalus was in the position that she wanted it to be. This was her idea, and the captain had told her to run with it. The SDF-1 had two huge articulated docking clamps on its sides, right in front of the main engines that doubled as huge airlocks. She had thought that rather than breaking the ships to get inside them and get the trapped crewmen out, they could weld them into these docking clamps. That way not only would they be able to get their crews out easier, the ships would be mostly intact and their interior infrastructure available for use. In the case of the Prometheus this would give them the sub's ICBM's and missile launchers completely intact. While the Hercules-class missile platforms had not fared well against the enemies capital ships, they would still be useful in close range and as directional mines. The Daedalus was even better. Having been a super-carrier it had nearly as much fighter/robot repair capabilities as the space fortress, and had space for five squadrons of Valkyries adding a fourth again to their complete of space fighters. And the factory that was part of the SDF-1 could churn out as many Veritechs and Destroids as they had raw material to build. Industry wise, they would be in a far better position than they had been, even after repairing the damage caused by the space-fold disaster.

She ran a few calculations, and then nodded. "Alright Colonel, I want the third and fourth Spartan squads to remain and help the welding teams. If they power their lasers down they can double as welding tools, and those two squads are reporting to have the most fuel remaining of the Spartan teams. Your other squads can move to the other side of the ship and start roping in the Prometheus. Claudia, get on the horn and tell Captain Conner that he's next and to prepare for… well just make certain they have everything battened down that can be battened down." Claudia nodded. They had been ecstatic to learn that Captain Conner and his entire crew had survived the fold-space disaster. Unfortunately they had yet to raise anyone on the Daedalus, though they had determined that someone was still alive on the super-carrier. Roy Fokker had gotten close enough to use Morse code on the hull, and had reported a response in a few sectors.

Lisa was about to turn off the connection to colonel Mannstein when he interrupted her. "A moment commander, I have something I wish to say to you." He paused visibly stealing himself as Lisa looked on, face hardening. The two had several run-ins before the battle, and the way he had refused to follow her orders at the beginning of the battle back on earth had soured her further towards him. Thus she was pleasantly surprised when Mannstein actually spoke. "I must apologize for my attitude toward you. I realize that it has come across as sexist, or perhaps ageist, and there may have been a part of that in my attitude toward you. But the main reason that I did not respect your position was because of your father." He held up a hand as she made to speak her eyes flashing. "Let me finish. I served with your father, and I did not like him then, nor has that dislike gone away since he received flag rank, if anything it has gotten worse. I will not share my reasons for that dislike now, they are not truly relevant to my apology, but I feared that you had received your position not just through nepotism but to be your father's personal spy on the SDF-1."

"My father and I haven't gotten along since I transferred to the Space Force." Lisa growled through clenched teeth angry at the insinuation.

"I had heard rumors to that effect, but thought they were a smokescreen and still felt you were unqualified for your position. The past three days have proven me wrong." Colonel Mannstein's hard face seemed to crack a bit as he smiled slightly. "You have performed in an exemplary manner commander, and I am proud to be working with you."

He saluted and Lisa smiled back, happy that she had won this formidable man over. "Thank you for the compliment colonel, and I accept your apology. Now get back to work." She smirked and colonel Mannstein actually chuckled a little before signing off. Behind Lisa, Gloval smiled under his cap as he turned off his own monitor. From little things teams are formed.

The work continued for another three days and during that time Lisa, Gloval and Mannstein kept working, forcing everyone else to take shifts off as they continued to organize and direct the work being done. In that time every civilian shelter was found and the civilians brought abroad the ship. Large amounts of the cityscape was also brought in, placed wholesale by the Spartans and Veritechs in the cavernous main bay, the bay that had been so huge that the military had never used the entire space, thinking in the future it could hold support and assault ships not yet designed. Work was continuing inside, now with civilian workers helping out while the military reprioritized the bulk of the Veritechs, who had been towing the shelters and pieces of the city to reclamation of any resources, metal, plastics anything up to and including pieces of the three ships destroyed in the alien bombardment. Unfortunately those ships didn't have the bulk or armor of the Daedalus, and what crew had survived the bombardment had not survived the space-fold.

It was with a start that Gloval looked at the tactical display and realized that they had finished. The Prometheus had been welded into the left sides docking clamp of the SDF-1 and every large piece of debris had been roped in and brought aboard. He looked up and saw Lisa looking back at him with a triumphant expression on her exhausted face. Captain Gloval heard the hatch open behind him and he reached down to the master speaker. "All hands, all hands this is captain Gloval speaking. Operation over, I repeat recovery operations are finished. All Veritech fighters return to base, all Destroids return to hangers. Well done to everyone. I am declaring ropeyard, repeat ropeyard. And never has it been more deserved." Ropeyard meant that every sailor who wasn't at that moment doing a job critical to the running of the ship would have 24 hours off to rest and recover. He changed the channel to the command line and spoke into it. "I would like to meet in three hours with the command staff and civilian representatives, but that is three hours away. Until then, everyone has earned some time off." He stood up and saluted Claudia who had just come on shift. "Commander Grant you have the com." He walked off the bridge, shooing Lisa in front of him.

Work continued around Macross of course. After all the civilians weren't effected by ropeyard, and DR. Lang and his assistants ignored the order as did the medical teams. But the majority of sailors and soldiers heard the order and obeyed thankfully.

One young man however had just woken up, and found he had work to do.

Ranma woke up feeling refreshed, but starving. With a groan he sat up and looked around, finding himself in a hospital bed sans clothing. He was dressed in a hospital gown, and that was it. To one side, her red hair standing out against the stark white of the wall was his mother and he smiled happily seeing her. An even better sight was walking through the door as he raised his body and went to swing his legs around to stand. Kasumi walked in with a tray piled high with ration bars. She smiled widely at seeing Ranma awake. "Ohayo gosaimasu Ranma. How are you feeling?"

Ranma grinned at her pulling her squealing into a hug, something that even two months ago he would never have dared to do. While the two were not a couple they were very close and such displays of affection were becoming more frequent the longer they were away from Nerima and the influences therein. "I'm great, a little stiff and a lot hungry, but I slept long enough to replace most of my energy. How long was I out?"

"You were out for a little under six days my son." Nodoka said, looking up from her chair and smiling at the way the two interacted. While Ranma had vowed to never marry someone from a family his sperm donor made a deal with, there was still obvious affection between the two and maybe even love. Maybe someday soon I will have some grandchildren she thought giddily after all I won't care if they're legitimate or not!

Ranma looked over and pulled her into a hug in turn, gripping her tightly around the waist. Having someone there when he woke up after collapsing or injuring himself was something he loved. No one had been there for him growing up and seeing Kasumi and his mother there like this showed him they truly cared about him more than anything else could. "Ohayo, momma." He whispered into her hair and Nodoka had to blink back tears at the address, one she had only heard once before from Ranma since Genma had taken him away from her. That time had been when Ranma had first revealed his curse and she had accepted him despite it. She didn't know what she did right just now but neither did she care. This feeling of love was the only important thing.

He pulled back grinning widely at his two favorite ladies and they laughed at his happy face. "So that all wasn't a dream, we were really attacked by aliens and I've really been offered a commission in the SDF?"

Nodoka smiled at his sheer exuberance. "No, that wasn't a dream Ranma. You have definitely turned Dr. Lang and the science teams belief's on their heads. I believe he'll want to speak to you as soon as he's free. Unfortunately he and the rest of the crew are very busy right now."

Ranma blinked then shrugged, motioning her to elaborate as he moved back against the head of the bed, grabbing a few of the ration bars from Kasumi's tray. Kasumi sat at the foot of the bed and the two filled him in on the disaster, the fold space engines disappearing and the city and the other ships being brought with them, and the work everyone was doing, as well as explaining how his own heroics saved the last fold-space generator and the main reflux core.

Ranma sat and listened eating hungrily. He would need several meals worth of food and even more rest to get back into peak condition. The amount of ki he had used, and the healing his body did automatically while he was asleep had drained him beyond anything he had ever done before. "Huh, so they're rebuilding Macross inside the SDF-1. That makes this all even cooler. How're the Lynn's taking it though? I imagine that it's causing them a lot of problems." Kasumi and Nodoka exchanged glances but didn't answer right away. "What's wrong? They didn't follow Minmei out into the city did they?"

Nodoka sighed and answered as Kasumi began to clean up the wrappers from the ration bars. "Shao and Fei are fine they were in one of the first shelters recovered. But Minmei hasn't been seen since she and that young boy, Rick Hunter left. His plane was recovered, but he and Minmei weren't inside it. Small volunteer search teams have been scouring the outer areas of the SDF-1 for them, but there's been no sign of them. With the ship being so huge with so many places that aren't in use and so many ways inside, they could be practically anywhere. And the sailors and soldiers haven't had the manpower to devote more than a few off duty personnel to searching for them. The civilian police force has sent out their own teams at the Lynn's request since they got organized but so far no luck."

Ranma's eyes narrowed grimly and he swung his legs off the table standing up in a single motion. "Where're my clothes?" Nodoka reached into a bag next to her and pulled out a set of his clothing, smirking as Kasumi stood up abruptly her face crimson as Ranma turned away accidentally flashing her his front before the hospital rag fell into place and then his rear as he turned. Kasumi licked her lips but tore her eyes away as Ranma realized what he was doing and jumped away, putting his back against the wall. "Gomen Kasumi, um, could ya both leave for a second while I change?"

Nodoka took the still furiously blushing Kasumi by the arm and gently guided her out of the room. Of course she couldn't resist poking fun at her the moment they were in the hallway. "So Kasumi-chan, did you find my son manly enough for you?" Kasumi put her hands on her still blushing cheeks and glared at the older woman but didn't answer.

A moment later Ranma exited the room dressed in a tight muscle shirt with a dragon coiling up its side and his regular black kung-fu pants. "Well, I'm off to find Minmei."

"And how are going to find Minmei my son?" Kasumi nodded, wondering the same thing.

Ranma shrugged. "Don't know." Both women face-faulted, then looked up at him in consternation from where their faces had imbedded themselves into the floor. "But I made a promise to Shao that I'd look after his niece, and I'm gonna find her and bring her home. That's all there is to it." Kasumi and Nodoka both nodded, and walked with him out of the hospital area. There was a bit of trouble with Ranma releasing himself from the hospital but as there was nothing wrong with him anymore they couldn't stop him. He had been admitted with third degree burns on his hands and forearms as well as two broken ribs and extreme exhaustion, but with his ki healing ability and the days spent sleeping he didn't even have any scars from the burns left. He still was nowhere near one hundred percent, and his ki would take weeks of solid food and sleep to build up to his normal level, but his body was fully healed.

Ranma left the hospital and went in search of Dr. Lang, thinking he would have some idea of where to start looking. After getting several different directions he found his way to Dr. Lang's office. The doctor was just leaving as Ranma came up behind him in the corridor. He was wearing a long gray lab coat over pants and a tweed shirt and his grey white hair was sticking out every which way as if he had been electrocuted. "Hey doc, love the whole mad scientist look you've got going on. Got a quick question fer ya."

The doctor jumped startled out of his thoughts by the voice behind him, but he smiled as he recognized the tone. Coarse and completely lacking in any military discipline Ranma might be, but he was certainly friendly enough and Dr. Lang was looking forward to researching his strange abilities more thoroughly at a later date. "And here I was going for a more erudite version of Einstein. Would you mind explaining exactly how it is you're walking around without third degree burns on your hands, or is it something else related to this ki thing you mentioned?"

"Yep, ki healing, listen doc I didn't actually come and find ya ta talk about that, I want ta sit down with you sometime and talk about this kind of stuff, but I got a job ta do first. One of my friends is missing, the girl that was in the mess hall when we first met. Her name's Minmei and I was wonderin' if ya could tell me where ta start lookin, or where not ta look if ya know what I mean?" Dr. Lang nodded thoughtfully then informed Ranma that anywhere there were people moving around had already been searched thoroughly, but the outer shell, including the forward areas near the bottom of the hull, was unused, and mostly unexplored. He also gave him an automatically updating map/GPS device which would let him know when he was accidentally retracing his route as well as where he hadn't been. Ranma thanked him and took off in the direction he pointed.

About three hours jogging took him past the last area of the ship that had been fully converted for human use into areas that were as the doctor had described disused and empty. He paused for a moment before reaching out with his senses, trying to get a feel for the place.

Captain Gloval looked around the table in the flag officers meeting room as he and the others were waiting for Dr. Lang to arrive. To one side Colonel Mannstein and Captain Connor of the Prometheus sat, talking quietly while down the table from them Lisa and Roy were also talking quietly with the chief medical officer of the SDF-1, captain Angleti. With Claudia manning the bridge they were the totality of his flag officers. Captain Roche of the Daedalus had not survived, nor had any of his officers save a very junior Lt. from the super-carriers engineering section.

To his other side sat the four civilian representatives. To his immediate right sat Nodoka, who had been elected as one representative. This had surprised him, but she had volunteered to take the place of Lynn Fei, a well known and respected restaurant owner whose daughter was apparently still missing. Next to her sat mayor Luan and beside him the chief of police and the manager of the cities only hospital finished that side of the table.

Dr. Lang came in then, sitting at the far end from him. "I'm sorry I'm late I was tied up by a little matter on the way here."

Gloval nodded cordially and cleared his throat, gaining everyone attention. "Welcome ladies and gentlemen. I have called this meeting for two reasons. One, to make certain that we all know where we stand, as well as this battleship's long term goals, and two to give us all an opportunity to get to know one another and iron out any problems that any of us see popping up in the near future. I realize this is nowhere near an ideal situation, but we're all stuck out here together and must make the most of it." The military personnel all nodded, as did the civilians rather unhappily but willingly. "So without further ado I will turn this meeting over to my executive officer Lt. Cm. Hayes who will give a brief overview of the recent operations and where we are now."

Lisa nodded and took over the thread from where she sat. After giving a brief overview of what had happened, she went on to specifics. "We were able to recover every civilian shelter listed in Atara Island's records but our luck stopped there I'm afraid. Of the 35,000 sailors abroad the Daedalus we were only able to recover 349, all from the ships engineering section. The hatches leading to that section were the only ones that were airtight. I'm afraid the rest of the crew perished during the fold-space jump." She paused there, letting everyone have a moment of silence for the dead as Henri Gloval wondered if he would ever forgive himself for the catastrophe that caused the loss of so many fine men and women.

Lisa went on. "As you all know we successfully welded the Prometheus and the Daedalus to the SDF-1's docking clamps, which double as large airlocks. Dr. Lang has some ideas I'm told about making that a permanent fixture but he will talk about that later. The main problem however is that without all five of the space-fold engines we have no way of getting back to earth quickly, and I for one would not be willing to trust a space-fold jump with the one remaining engine until we know what went wrong the first time." There was heartfelt agreement for that from all corners of the room and she went on. "As it stands, we have two ways to get back to Earth. The first is a straight shot, which would take us a little under three years at the best speed the Macross can offer. The other way is to slingshot around Jupiter, using the gravity of the planet to speed us up, and would take about a year off the trips time."

Nodoka raised her hand quietly for attention. "What about the aliens who attacked us on Earth, commander? Where are they now, do we know?"

Lisa shook her head. "At present long range radar doesn't detect anything near us. It's estimated we through them off our trial by jumping out here, but we can't expect that to last forever. Judging from what little data we have the aliens can't jump that far in-system, they were moving rather slowly between Earth and the moon after they first showed up, so maybe they have energy or tech restraints or something along those lines. I wouldn't like to make plans prior to getting more data." Nodoka nodded and Lisa went on.

"Thanks in large part to the amount of material we collected off the Rapier and Escalade, our industrial capacity is at an all time high. With the repair facilities of the Daedalus working and the fortresses own factories we'll be able to replace nearly any material losses among our forces given enough time. Unfortunately we are short on comestibles. Our hydroponic section can make up some of the difference, but we never intended to feed this many people on what we have in our stores. We have nearly eighty-thousand people on board after all; more than three times what was the envisioned crew size. Plans are already in place and work will begin shortly on enlarging our hydroponics section as workers become available. A rationing system is already in place, and we have a few ideas of how to convert that to payment stubs for the soldiers and civil workers in the future."

Mayor Luan spoke up then. "I think it'd be a good idea to turn that entire project over to us captain. We have a lot of manpower just sitting around right now. If we make it mandatory for everyone to help out, we can finish rebuilding Macross city within the hold of the fortress and then go on to create more hydroponic stations. The sooner we can do that the faster things can go back to some semblance of normalcy and the better morale will get. I'm certain your soldiers would also like to have a port of call on hand shall we say?"

Everyone laughed but Roy took the opportunity to speak up. "I like that idea a lot Mr. Mayor but I think we can also give the civilians the chance to do something else at the same time. Our losses among Valkyrie pilots were horrendous and we need to replace them. Our first line of defense in outer space will be the Valkryies, and we can't send back to Earth for more. No matter how many guns we have we need bodies to pull the triggers."

Mannstein nodded calmly. "It's true, in space destroids are of limited utility. We can waive most of the physical requirements under wartime conditions, and open up the training to all comers, as well as opening it up to sailors and soldiers who want to be retrained."

Everyone nodded but captain Conner interjected. "I can't say I like the idea of giving multi-million dollar machines over to unblooded civilians, and I like having to rely on them for our first line of defense even less. My crew and I are looking at ways to make our ICBMs be more effective in space, but I would also like to see the SDF-1 have more weapons than it has. Other than a few secondary weapons systems and the main gun, the fortress needs more of a punch."

While the civilians didn't think much of his initial comments, no one could argue with what he said at the end. "I can't argue with the idea of adding more weapons to the SDF-1. It was in theory supposed to be the carrier/support/command system in a battle group, but as we are alone out here we will need more of an offensive punch." Gloval said.

"And more defense surely." Mayor Luan stated. "We need some way to make certain that the ship isn't destroyed as we are fighting the enemy. I saw the estimates of how much damage the artillery of the enemy did to the pacific fleet during its bombardment, and I don't think even the SDF-1 could survive a pounding like that, no matter how inaccurate they are."

Dr Lang spoke up then, a thoughtful expression on his face. "I may have some ideas about both of those, but let me see if they are actually workable before I present them." Gloval and everyone else nodded, willing to give the renowned doctor time before pressing him for details.

The meeting continued for four more hours hammering out details large and small as the group got to grips with the strange situation they found themselves in. One such detail was that the civil police would take precedence over the military. Not only did the police commissioner have more men, but this freed up the majority of the MP's for other duties, giving a small but welcome surge of warm bodies who could be assigned elsewhere. In the same way the hospital and its workers would take over the worst injured and long term care cases, allowing the military medical teams to concentrate on short term patients and emergencies.

Another detail was how much and what interior renovations/improvements the civilians would take on and be able to handle above and beyond helping to finish the city and enlarge the hydroponics gardens. Mayor Luan wanted to keep his constituents as busy as he could in an attempt to get them to concentrate on what they could control rather than worry about their circumstances. Other things, such as christening the SDF-1 theMacross, after the city that it was now carrying and details about the academy were also hammered out.

The academy had initially been designed to only be a finishing school for soldiers and the space forces, but with the current crisis this was thrown out the window. The academy would be enlarged to fit at least a thousand recruits and five hundred re-training military personnel at a time. This meant the buildings and barracks would have to be enlarged, and this was added to the growing list of construction work needed. Over his strenuous objections Colonel Mannstein was nominated to be the commandant of the academy for now, while Captain Connor took over his duties and learned more about Destroids and Veritechs before replacing Mannstein as commandant giving them depth at the position.

All in all Gloval felt the meeting was a rousing success. Everyone got to know one another and many problems were worked out before they could become issues. The feeling as the meeting broke up cheered him up as well; it was reserved but optimistic and resolute, just what the current problem required.

He looked up and cocked his head as Nodoka waited by the door until everyone left before moving over to stand by his chair. "You have the remainder of the day off correct?" She asked in tone of voice that sent shivers of excitement down his spine.

"Um, well yes I suppose I do. I ordered ropeyard for everyone after all, and I need rest and sleep to recover from the stress of the past six days as much as the next man."

"I'm certain you do, but you also deserve a bit of a reward for how well you dealt with the crisis." She reached down and dragged him to his feet gently by use of his uniform's tie and began to drag him away, a predatory smile on her face and a sway to her hips. "I can't guarantee that you'll get much sleep, but doctors have been saying for decades that sex is a good way of dealing with stress."

Gloval carefully did not jump into the air and shout "Hurray!", instead allowing her to pull him along passively to his quarters.

Rick sighed happily as he stepped out of the water. While he and Minmei and trouble initially once they had found this place things started to look up for them. When Rick had gone to take Minmei home he had used his own biplane and had thought he could simply drop her off in the city. He didn't want to think about the fact that he had hoped to also get to know her a little better, or perhaps get some place to stay nearby. But that hadn't happened.

Instead of exiting the SDF-1 into atmosphere, the plane had only been in atmosphere for a few moments before everything went completely crazy. Rick had no idea what had happened, but after the crazy went away so too did the atmosphere on the plane. Thankfully Rick always kept two oxygen masks in his plane and these masks kept them alive long enough for him to get his plane back to the SDF-1 and crash into a hole caused by a plate of armor tearing off near the bottom of the fortress, from which they were able to get into areas of the ship that had atmosphere. Since then they had been trying to find a way to the used sections of the fortress in hopes of coming into contact with other people. They had searched for three days by his estimate, but had had no luck.

Instead, what they had found was a strange pool in one of the huge corridors, the ones that were the equivalent of three human stories. It looked as if a water main or something had broken letting the water run down to here eventually creating a large pool from an indent in the metal plating of the floor.. Around the pool had sprouted first apparently moss and mildew, and then surprisingly actual grass. The two had made a camp out of Rick's emergency gear and had settled down. With Minmei's ankle twisted during the crash Rick often went out alone to continue the search for other people but Minmei didn't want to be left alone and he would be forced to come back after only an hour or two.

If he was honest with himself Rick was actually having fun. Minmei was good company, she was pretty, had a lovely singing voice, she was cute, a good listener, cute, a good enough cook to make even his meager emergency rations into something tasty, she was pretty, a good conversationalist and interesting to talk to, and did he mention she was pretty? The two had even shared a few kisses, one when Rick pulled her out of the hole in the fortress into a hallway that had atmosphere and an emergency shutter closed behind them, and again when he found the paradise they were currently camping at. All in all, there were worse places to be and people to be with, and he stopped looking for other people seriously after the second time Minmei screamed and called him back.

Minmei on the other hand, seems to be getting more and more depressed, forcing him to spend more and more time trying to cheer her up then looking around for supplies or anything else that could help them. Even now she was moaning. "Oh Rick, what'll we do? We haven't found any sign of any other people, what if it's just us here in the fortress, what if something horrible happened to everyone else? We could be all alone here for the rest of our lives!"

Minmei wrung her hands in growing panic and made to stand up but Rick pushed her back down to a sitting position. She had badly aggravated her ankle several times, and it was nowhere near well enough to take her weight. "Don't panic Minmei, there's no way that could happen. The fortress is just too big that's all, eventually someone will either find us or well I mean" he stammered "would it be so bad just the two of us here? Just, just us for the rest of our lives?"

"Oh Rick," she looked at him sadly. The idea had a certain appeal, but could she really be happy with just Rick around for the rest of their lives? After all there were her friends and family to consider, and what about her dream of being an idol star, how could she do that if she was stuck here alone here with Rick?

Before she was forced to answer or the silence between them could become too awkward a voice spoke out of the darkness in the space above the pool. "You know, that's cute'n all but what say we get you two out of here, okay? You can roleplay 'me Tarzan you Jane' later."

Ranma jumped down from near the break in the ceiling where the water was coming from about three stories up to land next to the pool, his smirk visible in the camp light. Minmei and Rick both stiffened at the voice of first, but when Ranma landed he was met with the solid thump of Minmei throwing herself hurt ankle and all into his arms. "Ranma! Thank you thank you thank you thank you for finding us! I knew you would do it!"

Surprised Ranma went over backwards with Minmei landing in the pool of water and triggering his change.

Rick, watching this from the sidelines was of two or perhaps even three minds at the sight. On the one hand Ranma's finding them meant he could lead them back to civilization. On the other hand, he was extremely jealous at how close this Ranma character and Minmei were. This was the third time that they had hugged in his presence, and Minmei seem to look to him for assurance and protection much more than Rick. To add to his insecurity stories of Ranma and some Kasumi girl had made up a large amount of Minmei's conversation with him.

And third was the normal guy reaction to seeing two smiling and very pretty girls hugging and almost fondling one another while knee-deep in water that was soaking through their clothing, making it stick to their skin. Rick reached up pinching his nose as he felt the blood start to flow and shook his head trying desperately to get the image out of his head of him joining the two in the pool. Ranma would probably not take kindly to the suggestion. He turned away asking as he picked up the light, "how did you find us Ranma?"

Ranma got out of the water shaking his shirt in trying to squeeze it dry a little causing her breasts to stick out even further and for Rick's nose to bleed noticeably.

Minmei looked at him, saw where he was staring and huffed, turning away angrily. She was still young, she had time to grow. It wasn't her fault that Ranma looked like a supermodel! The fact that Ranma was a guy really helped overcome her jealousy towards him.

"I found you by following the channels of energy in the fortress. You probably wouldn't understand but this whole place is like some kind of living, breathing body. I can't explain it better than that. Check back with me though after I talk with Dr. Lang, maybe he may have some ideas."

Ranma was telling the truth here. Much like when he was in Roy's Valkyrie in certain areas of the ship Ranma felt ki, as if he was close to a living person or animal. The whole ship sort of reminded him of a giant crab. A crab was never without its shell and indeed the shell was the part that most people saw, but the shell wasn't alive. It was simply what the crab was living in. Ranma had followed his sense until he was into what he would call the shell of the crab and then began a systematic search along the few remaining lines of ki for his friend through use of Dr. Lang's GPS. But it still took six hours of searching at his top speed after he left what he would call the main living areas of the ship to find them.

Now he stood looking up for to where the water fell from three stories up down into the pool where Rick and Minmei had made their camp. He looked back down at the GPS and realized that if the GPS was accurate, they were somewhere below the main reflux generator. The water might even be coming from some kind of cooling system, which would make sense. He'd have to tell Dr. Lang about that when he got back, as well as have a really, really long talk with him. This whole ship was making Ranma rethink everything he had ever been taught about life energy. If it could be created artificially, then what was it really?

Realizing his wet shirt was a lost cause Ranma turned picking up Minmei in his arms and then turned back to Rick. "Grab anything you want to keep and let's go kid. I want to get Minmei back to her folks as soon as possible. And we should get that ankle looked at too." Minmei giggled as she was carried along feeling even more like a princess in a fairy tale. Rick, though, was a little more irritated but still went along with it. He grabbed the few keepsakes he had taken from his plane and followed after the two shining the light down onto their feet while Ranma led the way.

After a few minutes walking in silence Ranma asked "so you're a pilot right? Does that mean you're going to join the SDF now?"

Rick cocked his head quizzically "what do you mean?" He listened aghast as Ranma told them about what had happened, about the losses the Valkyrie fighters had sustained, and how because of that the military had thrown the door open so anyone who wanted could sign up for Valkyrie training.

"I'm going to join up. I've already been offered a job. You should join up too Rick you're a pilot so you'd get in easy."

Rick looked at him angrily. "I'm not a soldier! I fly I don't kill!"

Ranma looked back at him thoughtfully over her shoulder for a moment before answering. "Is that all ya think soldiers do? I gotta tell you you're wrong. Soldiers and policemen are there to defend other people. Yes, they have to kill sometimes to do it. On the other hand, what if they didn't do that? What if they weren't there to protect people, then anyone who thought that they could get away with somethin' just 'cause they were stronger or had more weapons or anything like that could run roughshod over them. Without the SDF forces and without people like you and me signing up eventually there won't be anyone to defend people like Kasumi, my mom, Minmei or her family anymore. That's one reason I'm so eager to join up. It's a martial artist's duties to protect those weaker than themselves. If I have to kill to do that, I can, I ain't happy about it but I can do it."

"Besides," she went on, grinning happily and nearly smothering Minmei between her breasts with the hug she accidently gave the girl "I get to go into space! Do you have any idea how cool that is?!" Minmei giggled as she tried to wriggle out of Ranma's tighter grip pushing her head around her breasts and making them bounce in such a way that Rick again had to look away with a nosebleed.

Still, his mind was on what Ranma had been saying. He couldn't argue with anything he had said but it was fighting the indoctrination of a lifetime. His father had always taught him that a pilot shouldn't have to be a killer. That flying was something almost like a religious experience, and that doing it to fight other people, to kill other people, cheapened it. On the other hand he couldn't argue with the fact that he was a damn good pilot, and he wouldn't be able to use his skills if they really were in space. And the idea of defending Minmei and her family struck a chord in him as well. "I'll think about it." He said thoughtfully. "I don't want to make a snap decision here."

Minmei poked her head over the redheads shoulder looking back at him. "Well, until you decide you can stay with me and my family. I know you don't have a place to stay in the city, and we can always use the extra help in the restaurant. Just ask Ranma," she giggled. "She makes the cutest waitress, at least when she lets Kasumi and me dress her up. And Kasumi's cooking is fantastic! Since she joined my aunt and uncle in the kitchen our restaurant has never been more popular!"

Ranma looked down at her and sneakily moved his hands to the side as if he was dropping her. She only had a second to squeak before his hands were underneath her again and he laughed "it ain't nice to tease the person who's carrying you. After all, look what could happen." Minmei pouted spectacularly but subsided. Ranma led the way back to the living area of the ship as the three began to exchange stories about what had happened since they had seen each other in the mess hall. Rick impressed Ranma with his quick thinking, but he also angered Ranma a lot with how quickly he took off without making certain that it was safe. Still, Ranma found he liked the hotshot pilot.

It took them four hours to get back going in a straight line thanks to the GPS, and by the end of it Rick was ready to collapse from the pace Ranma had set and maintained. It took another hour for Minmei and Rick to be processed in and Minmei given a medical exam for her ankle.

After that, however, it was only 40 minutes later that Ranma was able to return Minmei to her aunt and uncle. Rick was introduced to them as well, and Minmei was fulsome in her praise of Rick for protecting her, getting her back to the fortress and looking after her after she was injured. Shao was a little skeptical as Minmei wouldn't have been injured in the first place if she had stayed with Ranma and Nodoka in the mess hall but Fei was very thankful for the care Rick had shown her niece. The night ended on a high note, and everyone went to bed happy about being back together, with Rick given the room formerly reserved for their youngest cousin who had been sent back to his parents a week before the attack on the island.

Everyone slept soundly that night worn out by the day's events. The only exception was Rick, who went to bed dreaming of him and Minmei in Tarzan and Jane costumes and certain bedroom games they could've played while they were out in the wilderness alone. These dreams were mixed in with dreams of flying, and wondering what he should do from now on.

end chapter

*Chapter 4*: First impressions of all sorts

I do not own Ranma or Robotech

And here we have the first meeting between Rick and Lisa, and Ranma and Lisa as well as Ranma learning first hand what information lag is. Also anyone who thinks that Ranma is just going to calmly conform to the military norm, you're wrong. At least in my story.

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Chapter 3 First impressions of all sorts

The next morning Rick was rudely woken up around seven in the morning. Someone was moving around downstairs bumping and thumping, far too lively for this time of the morning in his opinion. Grumbling, he left his room to go downstairs and yell at whoever it was that woke him up, only to find out that most of the house and already risen. Fei and Shao were both awake and talking quietly over at the kitchen counter, looking at several ration coupons and wondering what they were going to do from now on without their restaurant.

Minmei and Kasumi were also talking over a pot of tea in another corner, with quite a bit of blushing and giggling going on while in the main dining hall Ranma was going through several katas as a warm up for the day (there was no connection between these two activities, no not at all -_-;). He was leaping and jumping about flowing from one move to another in a way only a true master of The Art could do but making as much noise on the wooden floor as a dance crew.

Rick grumbled but seeing everyone else awake did not try to go back to bed, instead moving to sit next to Minmei. She made room for him on the bench asking "so have you come to any decision about whether or not you want to join up? If not, like I said we can always use you around here." Kasumi welcomed him with a nod but stayed silent sipping her tea. The two had been introduced last night but had not really spent a lot of time talking. She knew however that the choice to join up was not a simple decision for any normal civilian (Ranma could in no way be called normal). The idea of fighting and killing other sentient beings wasn't one that came easily to most people, and civilians didn't have the mental training to deal with it.

Rick shrugged. "I thought about it, but I haven't really come to a decision. I want to see what I can find on the civilian side first. But if I can't find anything, what would you have me doing around here? After all, I don't have much experience waiting tables or anything, and I can't cook." Left unsaid was that he thought both jobs were women's work, and Kasumi's eyebrow twitched slightly as she caught that message. Ranma was after all an excellent cook, and she didn't think that took away from his masculinity, far from it in fact. Luckily the sub context of Rick's tone flew right over Minmei's head.

"You'd gain serving experience quickly enough. I'm afraid though if you want to replace Ranma on that job we'll have to do something about your face and clothes and some makeup too. That and a good push-up bra can make any man into a woman." Minmei teased.

Kasumi joined in on the teasing with a smile, looking at him mock-critically. "Brown or white, I think, to go with his color tone. We could make him into quite a good-looking young lady couldn't we Minmei? Especially with that hair of yours."

Rick first looked only a little alarmed at the teasing, after all he was a pilot, and the practical jokes and hazing pilots got up to when around each other was brutal. But that last comment got his back up and he stood up abruptly to put some distance between himself and the two girls. "Leave my hair out of this!"

Minmei giggled grabbing one of his arms before he could move away. "Oh come on Rick I think you'd make a great looking girl." Kasumi nodded as well, pulling out a dress from nowhere and holding it out to Rick, who backed away quickly.

Ranma came to his rescue, coming in just then and draining a cup of tea before announcing "well I have to get going. I was told to report by eight o'clock over at the acamdemy for my registration period. And don't tease Rick girls, a few days with only Ms. Blabbermouth for company must have him on edge already" he teased, dodging Minmei's swat at the back of his head. "If you see my mom, tell her I've gone and that I may or may not be coming back tonight. I don't know if they'll want me to live in the barracks area, or if trainees can live wherever. See ya later." And with that Ranma left, nearly bouncing in his exuberance in taking a step towards achieving his dream, that of flying in space.

Shao and Fei walked over to the youngsters as Ranma left. "Well Minmei, your aunt and I are off to the ration depot to pick up our next week's rations and then we're going to search around for jobs. What are you three going to do?"

Minmei looked at them quizzically. "Why would you look for jobs, you already have your restaurant?"

Fei shook her head. "What with how uncertain everything is we just don't think we can reopen the restaurant. After all, how would we get enough food, how would we get enough business, would we even be able to get enough business to keep the restaurant running?"

Minmei shot to her feet excitedly. "But don't you see that's exactly why you should open up again. With everything that's going on we could give everyone, both the population of the city and the soldiers a big morale boost. And there's no way we wouldn't do enough business, after all who wouldn't like a good, well cooked meal in place of pre-prepared rations or cooking for themselves?"

A new voice entered the conversation from the kitchen's back door. "I think it's an excellent idea." Nodoka walked in, looking a little tired but with the universal 'I got laid and it was goooood' expression on her face. Kasumi took one look and blushed, thankful beyond words that Ranma wasn't there. His fragile psyche would never have withstood the shock of learning his mother was having sexual relations with someone. Fei looked at the woman who had become one of her closest friends and grinned as well, fighting the urge to drag the red-headed woman off somewhere to hear all the juicy details. Rick and Minmei were oblivious.

Nodoka went on, ignoring the varied reactions to her presence. "In fact mayor Luan wants as many shop owners to open up as is possible. The shopping district will be open by noon today and the mayor hopes that other restaurants and shops will follow suit. And as for getting enough food, we can all pool our ration cards and get out enough for all of us for a month and use that to start with. By the time that is gone I think you can be assured of showing a profit and can acquire more either from stores or from the hydroponics section."

Kasumi nodded, and Rick said "I don't know if it'll help much but you can have my ration card too to add to the pile."

Fei looked at her husband who after a moment's thought nodded. "Well if you all are willing to pitch in like that how can we say no? Alright, while my wife and I go and pick up the food, the rest of you can clean up this place and get it ready for tonight. I think the White Dragon opening for dinner at around six should bring in the customers if anything will."

Minmei cheered, hugged her aunt and uncle exuberantly and then grabbed Rick by the arm dragging him down into the basement where the restaurants tables and chairs were kept when the restaurant was closed. As they were bringing the furniture up and cleaning it off, Kasumi and Nodoka set about preparing the kitchen, counting the spices and other supplies and making a large sign to hang outside. All the preparations took about four hours and everything was ready by the time the Lynns returned. They found Rick, Minmei and Kasumi putting the final touches on the tables, laying out placemats and chinaware. Shao smiled "Well, I must say this place looks ready for business. We still haven't worked out what kind of menu we can offer yet, but leave that to us oldsters. You kids have earned a few hours off. Get out of here and have fun, but be back by five okay?"

Rick and Minmei nodded. "I wonder what there is to do for fun around here?" Rick mused.

Kasumi and Minmei both smiled. "Shopping!" Minmei yelled. "Remember Auntie N said the shopping district would be open by noon, well its past noon now so let's go see what we can find!" Kasumi nodded and Rick shrugged. It wasn't like he had anything better to do.

Behind them Shao watched the young boy leave, stuck between his niece and Kasumi. "Like a lamb to the slaughter," he said sorrowfully. "Poor guy doesn't know what he's in for."

"What was that dear?" Fei's voice held a warning note and Shao quickly responded with a bland 'nothing dear' and joined Fei and Nodoka in looking over the list of supplies they had picked up.

Two hours after leaving the restaurant, Rick had come to dearly regret his decision. Shopping with women, he found, was a much more tiring experience than it was shopping by himself. Not only did they take forever, but Minmei asked his opinion on everything. Even Kasumi had joined in, and it wasn't like they had actually bought anything yet. One set of indoor slippers each, one dress for Kasumi, a few pairs of cheap earrings for Minmei (to wear during working hours) and a few knickknacks and that was it. Not a lot for three hours though it felt even longer, and of course he had to be the one to actually carry the bags.

As he trudged behind them he thought it couldn't get any worse, but he was disappointed almost immediately. "Oh look!" Minmei started, pointed across the street at another store, a store which, to Rick's growing horror looked to sell only lingerie. "Let's go, I could use some new underwear."

Kasumi wavered. "I don't know, I think we've spent enough today don't you?"

Minmei pouted. "Oh come on Kasumi, you know you want to." She leaned in whispering conspiratorially. "Besides you may find something that'll help Ranma get over his shyness and finally make a move." That sold Kasumi and she nodded in agreement.

"Right well you two go on I'll just hang out around here and wait for you to come out." Rick made to back away but Minmei stopped him.

"Oh don't be silly Rick they'll have a waiting area inside somewhere for you to sit. No one is going to make fun of you or anything." Minmei overrode Rick's objections dragging him along once again into the store. Once inside Rick didn't know where to put his eyes. Everywhere he looked there were bras and brassieres and scantily clad models on the walls. Finally he just resolutely sat down in a chair in the waiting area and closed his eyes. It was an indication of how tired he was that within moments he had nodded off.

At the same time that Minmei and Kasumi were starting their shopping excursion, five other young ladies were beginning their own sortie into the shopping district. Unlike Minmei and Kasumi they didn't have their very own pack mule along, but they did have charge cards.

Kim, Vanessa and Sammy were routinely seen together off duty, being girls of about the same age and disposition they had become the best of friends. Claudia and Lisa on the other hand only rarely joined them. Lisa was more reserved and antisocial normally but occasionally came out of her command shell to have fun with the younger girls, and more often have drinks with Claudia. Claudia on the other hand was almost never seen with the younger girls, preferring to spend her free time with her fiancé Roy. However that plan for the day had been scuppered when Dr. Lang had preemptively called Roy and two of his squadron in for consultation.

So their day of ropeyard found all five were together, going through the re-opened shopping district with various amounts of glee and shock. "I can't believe they were able to rebuild everything like this." Claudia muttered, and the others nodded in agreement even as Kim and Sammy, the most fashion conscious squealed and ran over to a store window advertising the latest fashions.

What Claudia and to a lesser extent the other military leaders failed to realize was that Macross, despite its importance to the fortress and the budding space industry was not a real city. It didn't have the population of most cities and it didn't have their vices. Macross was more like a town in the American colonization. Everyone worked, there was no landed class or dole in the city, no one was afraid of hard work in Macross, and there were a disproportionate amount of construction workers and builders. Nearly all the shops were privately owned, and that gave a lot of motivation and ability to the reconstruction efforts.

"It just goes to show what people can do when they really put their minds to it" she said, pointing up. This section of the fortress was the tallest and the ceiling for what had been the huge fortress-spanning hanger was forty stories up in places though much lower in others. Those low points were even now being cut away, allowing the city to have an incredibly high ceiling above every bit of it. Mayor Luan had hinted at something to do with the ceiling during yesterday's meeting, but Lisa hadn't remembered until just now, when she saw in the distance some workmen up there painting the ceiling to match the sky of earth.

The five young women stood watching the workers in the distance for a moment before turning back to more important matters. Vanessa looked around before sighing. "Even if there's shopping, it's no fun without any boys around to flirt with. Every boy or man I see is here as part of a couple." Kim nodded agreement even as Sammy sighed.

Lisa rolled her eyes at the perpetually boy-crazy Lt's ongoing gripe. Every time they were together the same complaint would be raised about how hard it was to find a good boyfriend. It was either they 'had no time to go out to look for a guy, or 'no boy wants to date a soldier'. If it wasn't so funny she would have gotten sick of it months ago. That and the fact it kept them from bugging her about her own nonexistent love life.

Claudia attempted to fend off the incoming pity party by musing "I wonder if there's a store that sells those, what're they called, kimonos like Nodoka was wearing." At the mention of Nodoka both the discussion and the atmosphere between the bridge crew changed, they stood a little straighter, walked a little prouder.

It was a well known fact that people needed role models to look up to, and it was also known that roles models of the same gender were very important, especially for girls. It was also a fact that such role models were incredibly rare among any military, including the UN Space fleet. On paper women made up ten percent of the space forces manpower, in reality that number was closer to five, and no woman had cracked flag rank. There were a few female captains but other than Claudia and Lisa the three lieutenants had never served with any of them.

Without a mature role model to show them how to act in a male dominated profession the three had, with every condescending look, become less and less enamored with the military life.

It had become a depressing topic of conversation among the three and they had all come to an agreement to finish out their present three year stints and then hit the civilian side (unspoken was the fact they didn't want to turn into someone like Lisa, who they viewed, despite liking her as a person, as a bit of a cold fish and a widow in the making, and that Claudia was the exception which proved the rule).

Nodoka had had a profound effect on the three young lieutenants. A woman who reveled in her femininity without being overt about it, who radiated calm control, who acted in a forthright manner and who was as sharp as the blade she practiced with every morning and who did not let a bad past relationship stop her from being happy in her new one. Who encouraged them in off duty discussions with her to be both women and soldiers and to never be anything but proud in what they had achieved.

That didn't mean they couldn't have some fun at her expense of course. Kim giggled. "I saw her actually dragging the captain back to his quarters after yesterday's flag meeting. From the look on her face I doubt he could move today even if he wanted to!"

"She's definitely more direct than you would think from someone as old fashioned as she appeared to be at first" Claudia mused as the other girls, even Lisa, broke out into giggles. "I wonder who wears the pants in that relationship behind closed doors…." This caused further giggling.

Lisa was the first to regain control and she addressed the point Claudia had initially brought up. "I doubt you'll find a place that sells kimono's around here. They're a predominately Japanese thing, and really expensive to boot. I read where a good kimono started at two thousand dollars U.S."

The others looked at her in shock, not at the price but that Lisa knew something about an article of fashion and she blushed under the combined stares. "I, I just thought they looked really nice on her that's all. I would never waste that much money on something so frivolous, besides it's not like one would look good on me anyway."

If a man had been standing there he would immediately have given Lisa all the reassurances that such a comment normally merited. But as there were only women present, and all were friends besides, they gave that blatant lie the scorn it deserved. Lisa may never dress to show it, but she had a figure that all three of the younger girls would cheerfully murder for, and she took pride in her body exercising every day for at least three hours to keep in shape.

Sammy looked around and spotted a lingerie store a few blocks down from where they were talking. "Look let's go into that store over there. I know I need some more bras, all of mine were on the base when we took off." Even Lisa nodded at this as Sammy went on, grinning slyly at Claudia. "And maybe you can find something for Commander Fokker to enjoy?"

Claudia merely nodded, wearing a cat that got the cream expression at the thinly veiled envy in the younger girl's voice. "Lead the way ladies." They all giggled and moved towards the lingerie store.

Rick had fallen asleep in the waiting area, and only awoke when he slid to the side sending the bag containing the purchases from the day to the floor with a rustling crash. The noise woke him up and he blearily looked around before reaching down to pick up the packages that had fallen out. Some of them had rolled under the table though, and he sighed and went under after them.

As his eye were on the floor he hadn't noticed that someone else had leaned up against the table until he popped his head out underneath her legs, one hand on the box of earrings that had rolled so far, the other propping him up. He inadvertently looked up, and saw long exquisitely toned legs in stockings on either side of his head and plain white panties above him. Above him a female voice spoke in a tone of impending doom. "Like what you see?"

There the woman's patience ended and she stepped back reaching down with a hand to grab Rick by the hair. "Get out here you little pervert!" Lisa had opted to wait for the others in the waiting area, but had never thought some pervert would try to look up her skirt.

Rick had never been in this position before, and was still slightly befuddled from his nap but he didn't like the angry look in the woman's eyes and so did the most logical but at the same time very wrong thing: he ran for it. Dropping the packages he had already picked up he dodged the woman's grab and scuttled out the far side of the table, shot to his feet before she could close the distance and ran out the waiting area and toward the exit with the woman's shout following after him. "Get back here you pervert!"

While Minmei was still trying things on, looking for something that would accent her budding womanly charms, Kasumi had already found and purchased her order. She went to stand by the entrance, looking out over the still mostly empty shopping district. While there were people moving about, it was but a small fraction of the hustle and bustle the street had seen while on earth. She watched as five young ladies in SDF uniforms walked in, smiling pleasantly to them. She shared an amused moment with one of them as they realized they had the exact same hair color of honey brown, an odd shade of light brown hair with pale golden highlights that Kasumi had not seen before on anyone else. The five walked on into the store, giggling and laughing together obviously enjoying their time off.

When the shouting started she had sudden flashbacks to Nerima, though she reacted quickly when Rick attempted to run by her out the door. She instinctively collared him, holding him by the shirt in a grip Rick was astonished to find he couldn't break free of. "What's going on Rick?"

"Let me go Kasumi, some crazy soldier lady thinks I looked up her skirt, she's going to kill me!"

"'Crazy soldier Lady' I'll crazy soldier lady you, you pervert." Lisa huffed, moving up behind them. "Thanks for grabbing him. Now as for you, stay still and take what's coming to you!" She raised a hand to strike and Rick again tried to get out of Kasumi's grip, but the ex-Tendo interrupted the proceedings.

"Might I ask what happened? I have some experience in matters that seem to be bad at first glance, but are in fact innocent." She smiled as Claudia and the others, who had come out of the store to see what their friend was yelling about, joined them. Kim was holding the bag of stuff Rick had been trying to get back together, while the others were looking amused.

"Hmpf, that pervert was in the waiting area hiding underneath the table when I came in. When I stepped up to the table he stuck his head out between my legs!" Lisa snarled.

"I wasn't hiding, I was trying to pick up some stuff I dropped from our bag that rolled underneath the table! It's not my fault you stood so close I had to look at your skanky panties!"

Kasumi put a gentle hand on Rick's mouth, effectively shutting him up before he could dig himself even deeper. Kim took the opportunity to interrupt the proceedings. "I think he's telling the truth Lisa, this stuff was all over the floor in there, and a few pieces were even underneath the table."

Kasumi nodded. "I expected as much. So you see the cause of this incident was actually innocent. I can't let you hit him for that." Rick breathed a sigh of relief and Lisa scowled reluctant agreement. Kasumi went on, her gaze turning back to Rick. "However, the comments and running away was utterly unnecessary Rick, and for that I believe three smacks upside the head will be appropriate." Rick gaped at her and she smiled. "Let this be a lesson to you Rick. It is better to close your mouth and be thought a fool than insert your foot and remove all doubt."

Lisa grinned and before Rick could complain about the verdict her hand snaked out smacking with force into the back of his head. "OW, you!" Before he could continue Lisa smacked him again and then again as the other girls giggled.

Kasumi nodded. "Now, that is done with, shake hands please."

Rick scowled and just walked off in a huff. As he exited the store he looked back and, determined to get in the last word shouted "You're still a crazy soldier bitch you know!" and ran off.

Lisa and the others chased out after him but by the time they got out of the store he was gone. Kasumi shook her head as the soldiers tried to chase after Rick. Minmei came out of the store proper blinking as she noticed Rick wasn't waiting for them. "What just happened?"

Ranma began his first day as a trainee in the SDF like any other inductee, going through a physical and medical exam by the end of which he was bored out of his mind. Someone had obviously not gotten the memo about his abilities as he was given the same physical test that everyone else was being given. Needless to say he passed every test with his eyes closed.

The medical examiners on the other hand had gotten the memo and put him through a battery of tests that had been ordered by Dr. Lang. These ranged from simple ones such as taking his pulse before and after sprinting for 20 minutes to taking heart rate readings of him having a normal conversation and then having him in a VR simulator fighting enemy soldiers in hand-to-hand, something that Dr. Lang had come up with specifically to test him.

The head of the fortresses science division also wanted to know if there was a connection between how well a person could fight with their own bodies and how well they could perform with the soldier mode of the Veritech. Dr. Lang wasn't available just yet to talk to him, trying to head off problems with the main cannon whose energy runs appeared to be completely messed up while the city was being rebuilt.

After getting a uniform he found himself out on a parade ground with about fifty other inductees. In other places around the parade ground he could see other such groups, all of around the same size.

A grizzled sergeant stood in front of them scowling at them in irritation. "Attention!" They all moved to what they thought was the attention position, but it obviously wasn't very good judging from the man's face. "I said attention, you don't lounge around like a bunch of rich pukes in front of a whore house! At attention, chest in shoulders out arms straight along your sides with your hands resting straight along your hips, feet straight and in line!" They all tried again and he growled "That's a little better but you'll have plenty of time to get it right." He started pacing in front of them, scowling irritably.

"You all have Capt. Gloval's open-door policy to thank for being here. In my day you did not get into the SDF without at least five years in any other military. As it is, it's my job to mold you into lean, mean fighting machines. Now has anyone here had prior combat experience?" Ranma groaned at this, again seeing that knowledge of his skills hadn't been passed down as they should, and raised his hand "Oh we have a volunteer, what's your name soldier?"

Ranma had been having a very irritating morning and after having to deal with the doctors and their poking and prodding, as well as changing forms several hundred times for their tests and his temper was about ready to blow. But he kept a lid on it for now and answered respectfully like he had seen in a few war movies "Sir, Ranma Sugita Grand Master of Anything Goes martial arts Sir."

The old soldier sneered "while that sounds dandy private that doesn't tell me what real combat experience you have."

"About sixteen years of on and off single and mass combat on a daily basis Sir" Ranma replied still keeping his temper, but losing it quickly at the other man's obvious contempt.

"Well then private, why don't you come out here and show me what you can do?"

Ranma gleefully strode forward and as soon as the sergeant motioned him to attack in a blinding move dodged inside the other man reach grabbed his arm and threw him into the air. Ranma followed up by jumping up after him, landing three blows to the man's stomach and head before he could hit the ground. As the other recruits looked on in shock, awe, and a little fear Ranma simply smirked. "Is that about what you had in mind?"

Two MPs watching the training of the new recruits made to start moving towards him but were interrupted as a jeep pulled up next to the training ground and Col. Mannstein stepped out and hurried over. "Ranma?" he asked quickly. Ranma saluted and answered in the affirmative. The colonel looked down at the sergeant who was laying there groaning around at least one broken rib and possibly more. "It seems I was not in time. There was a bit of a communication snafu, somewhere along the lines knowledge of your special abilities failed to get down to the academy. I assure you that you won't have to remain with the rest of the troops for further physical training. The other training however you are supposed to part of, but right now Dr. Lang has found an opening in his time and wants to talk to you. You can do that while the other trainees continue their training." He motioned to the car and Ranma saluted again before getting in. Mannstein nodded at the driver and the man drove off.

Mannstein turned to the recruits letting them see his full dress uniform, the front of which was covered in medals and decorations. "I am Colonel Mannstein, Commandant of this academy." He did not bark or raise his voice like the sergeant, who was being helped away by the two MP's behind him, but he still had their full attention despite Ranma's show of violence.

"What you have just seen is an example of communication lag time. Ensign Sugita's abilities are barely known by those of us in command, but we acknowledge them. He was not supposed to join you for the physical training. In fact he is supposed to get a double dose of the mental as I understand his scholastic scores are not the best having apparently lived on the road with a man who will become target practice should he ever cross my path." He let a tension relieving laugh run through the group before going on, slowly taking off his dress uniform's coat and placing it on the ground.

"Now judging from Ensign Sugita's exuberance I imagine that the drill sergeant had gotten to the part where he beats down any of you who had prior fighting experience. I suggest we mark that as completed unless of course any of you want to try me on for size." He looked around at them with one frost white eyebrow raised and none of the recruits dared utter a word. Old he may be, but Mannstein stood a little over seven feet tall and he was nearly squat with muscle. "In that case I propose we start the physical training with a brisk jog around the academy." The trainees nodded, that sounded like a nice way to get them limber and ready for the rest of the day.

In the distance the memories of millions of green recruits screamed out in torment.

Ranma spent the next four hours having a fascinating discussion with Dr. Lang about ki, the reflux engine and the possible connection between the two. Ranma didn't understand the science of it, but the general gist was the reflux core worked by transmuting the substance in its core into tremendous amounts of energy. Ki was the same process in a human being. What differed was the control and outcome. The reflux core and even the smaller batteries that ran the Veritechs were powerful beyond belief, but that power could only be channeled into doing certain things, much like any other electrical or chemical energy.

Ki on the other hand was only limited by the control and reservoir of the user. Ki wasn't like magic, able to be used without any consequence, able to change the base form of something like alchemy was supposed to be able to do, but it could be made to do practically anything else the user could imagine and empower. Ranma couldn't for example fly or even float in the air, he couldn't figure out a way to do it, not even after fighting Saffron, but he could empower his legs to jump farther and higher than any normal person could even imagine.

His ki wasn't limitless as he had to take in fuel and let his body convert that fuel to ki, a process that no ki user could get around. Some of course, like Happosai, could figure out ways to take energy from other people or even their environment. Ranma could do the latter, but not easily or efficiently. He had to be in a place with a lot of living things for it to work at all, and he had never gotten it to work very well. He could renew his own energy via food and rest far faster than normal people though, and that skill got better with use though if he was injured he could either use the energy to speed up the healing process or renew his reservoir not both.

Still it was the other stories of what ki could be used for that grabbed Dr. Lang's attention. He had already decided to ignore Ranma's curse, as fascinating as it was there was nothing he could learn from it that could be used in their present circumstances. But there were several things that intrigued him.

For one Ranma being able to feel, and to a lesser extent connect with a small experimental reflux battery was more than interesting it was astounding. It meant in a pinch Ranma could call on his Valkyrie's (once he got one anyway) energy to replenish his own, and perhaps even vice versa, though Ranma was quick to point out that at his best, which he wasn't back to just yet, his reservoir would be but a small fraction of the batteries.

The other two items that interested Dr. Lang were the ideas of empowering objects with ki to make them stronger, and the hidden weapon space pockets. On the one hand if he could somehow figure out how to empower the exterior armor of the space fortress with similar protection then the armor would be able to take a far greater pounding before failing.

And with the hidden weapon space, if he could somehow get that idea to work using the energy of the Veritech fighters, they would have practically unlimited ammunition for a small amount of initial drain on their batteries.

"But you say that it would take years for other people to learn this?" Dr. Lang asked as Ranma finished up a late lunch and he looked over his notes. "That's a pity, but would it be easier to teach this, what did you call it, emotional ki? I imagine in combat that kind would be a lot easier to use for beginners."

Ranma shook his head. "Emotional ki is a good shortcut or starting point but it's dangerous to use for any amount of time. The more ki attacks ya do with a certain emotional energy the more that emotion comes to dominate what ya can feel and how ya think. I know a few people back in Nerima that used emotional ki attacks fer a long time and in every case that emotion dominated their lives. Ryoga was always depressed and was like a walking bomb, and Akane let anger get control of every other part of her. My own attacks for a while made me dangerously overconfident. I wouldn't teach it if I could and I can't. If the person has a basis in martial arts and in meditatin' maybe, but even then we'd have ta be really lucky to find someone at the level where they could learn ta use ki consciously."

"I see." Dr. Lang sighed, taking a bite absentmindedly out of his MRE. "Still, you've given me a lot of things to think about Ranma, and for that I thank you. Now I think you need to get back to the academy for control and movement training. My assistant will drive you back."

Rasnma looked at the clock, which read nearly 3:00 and he nodded. "See ya later doc. Call if ya need ta talk ta me again." With that he left, leaving the scientist to pour over his notes in peace, half-eaten lunch forgotten.

When he arrived at the academy he was told he still had a little over a half hour before he had to report to the simulator rooms. He decided to kill the time by walking along the raised lake that was part of the academies grounds. It amazed him as he was looking around that this was all inside a huge spaceship. After all the only thing missing was a sky to complete the image of being back on earth.

He paused his walk around the lake, wondering if they could get some birds or even some fish in here, then the image would be perfect a little piece of earthbound heaven right here in space, well if you didn't look up anyway. Kinda gives a whole new meaning ta the whole yin yang thing. He chuckled to himself, as that was something that could be said for his own body too, only to have his peace broken by an irate female voice sounding out behind him. "So you think it's funny to be skipping out on your training soldier! What's your name and id number?!"

Startled Ranma turned and lost his footing on the small pebbles that surrounded the lake, landing at the foot of a lady in a dress. The female voice groaned above him. "Not again, what is it with all the perverts finding me today?"

He looked up and barely noticed her toned legs, creamy skin and her angry face before his Nerima-self-preservation-protocols™ kicked in. He jumped away assumed the crouch of the striking tiger and "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to look I'm sorry!"

Lisa looked on a bit bemused as Claudia broke out into giggles and then she laughed a little. "It's alright trainee, I suppose I shouldn't have startled you like that."

Ranma stood up scratching at his pig tail. Lisa was caught off guard by the sea blue eyes that looked back at her. "Nah, it was my fault for falling, you can hit me if ya want. Though I ain't skipping out of training, I'm exempt from the physical training classes, and had some time before simulator training's supposed ta start so went for a walk."

"I won't hit you my hand's still smarting from smacking the last idiot I had to deal with. But why are you…. wait, I recognize you, you're that idiot from the city who was fighting with that ki stuff right? Nodoka told us a bit about you. Hey listen, do you think you can teach me how to do use that stuff? I'm in good shape and I do have a black belt in judo."

Ranma grinned and started walking with the two ladies. "So you know my mom huh? I'd resent the idiot remark but as you've had a bad day I won't comment. And about learning ki, I've been asked that question a lot lately, and no I can't. First off it took me years ta be able ta do what I can do, years of doing little else to get as good as I could get before I even learned the first thing about ki. And I'm sorry ta say that a black belt in judo really ain't saying much to serious marital artists. I could'a probably had my black belt in judo when I was eight. Sorry if that offends ya."

"Don't underestimate me." Lisa said coolly. "I may just surprise you. And I would say that military training can make up some of the difference."

Ranma paused, her words bringing back bad memories of Akane and he stared at her for a moment. His intense blue eyes caused Lisa to actually blush as she fought the urge to look away. "I ain't underestimating you. Yer commander Hayes right, my mom told me about you, the commander who organized the Search and Rescue and is second-in-command of the space fortress?" She nodded. "Well that means in your area of expertise, you're damn good."

The respect in his voice was easy to see and she very carefully did not let her cheeks darken again. "But ki and martial arts are my area of expertise and I am as good in it as ya are in yer own. It takes dedication that a soldier with other demands on his or her time can't do, alright? I mean when I was learning I only went ta school when my old man was caught by the truant officers and I was made ta go, or if he was after something else and made me go fer that reason. Physical skills're only a part of it. Ya need to have mental training and emotional control and heap loads of endurance and other stuff to use ki." He looked away sighing. "I'm sorry, but with the hours ya have ta put in to be as good as you are at yer job, there's no way you could have the time to practice. The best I can do is give ya the name of some meditation books you can read and maybe give ya some exercises ta use ta get in better shape."

Lisa looked at him realizing he was serious. She also liked how he somehow knew how much time she had to spend at her job to be as good as she was and was praising her for it as a person rather than as a woman in the military. It was like he only saw her and her achievements not her gender. For most women this would have been annoying, for Lisa who had been judged as a woman and her father's daughter all her life it was very refreshing. "Alright, I'll take your word for it Ranma. If you could have the list of books sometime your next day off I'd appreciate it. Emotional control and the ability to stay calm would be a damn good thing with some of the idiots I have to work with."

"I always find it easier to hit 'em myself" Ranma commiserated. "But yeah that much I can do fer ya. I gotta run now though. See ya around commander, commander." He nodded at both women in farewell and took off towards the hallway that housed the virtual simulators for the academy.

Lisa watched him go until she noticed Claudia give her a look. "What?"

Claudia grinned. "Nothing, just wondering if you liked seeing him walk away as much as you liked him staring at you with those deep blue eyes of his, you could bounce a quarter off that ass!"

"I don't know what you're insinuating" Lisa huffed. "I just liked the fact that he seemed to appreciate how hard I have to work at my job, that's all."

"Oh sure that's all" Claudia teased. "And I'm not insinuating anything, though if I were, I would say it's about time. You have to get over Karl someday Lisa, and I think Ranma and you would be a good match. His mother did say he wasn't seeing anyone right now."

"His mother practically shouted that, and that she thinks he could handle more than one woman at a time," Lisa growled. "As if being from an old samurai line made polygamy acceptable! And I am not interested in Ranma, nor" her voice softened and her face fell into well etched lines of grief, "am I over Karl. Maybe I will be some day, but not yet." Karl Ryber was her boyfriend before, during and for a year after she went to the military academy, an older man who had been one of her father's aides when she was a young girl. His moving away to Mars base Sara and subsequent death from a terrorist attack had hit the young girl hard.

"I never said you were interested in Ranma," Claudia said softly, putting an arm around her friend's shoulders as they walked away. "And I know that you're not over Ryber, but you need to stop living in the past Lisa. I'm not saying to get all boy-crazy like the gossip trio, but everyone needs someone you know." She saw however that her friend was starting to get her back up and adroitly changed the subject to whether Captain Connor would be a good fit as destroid commander. Lisa gratefully went along with the change and the two continued on their way.

Ranma entered the hall just in time to join the hundred or so recruits after they had showered, though most of them still looked tired and irritable. Ranma on the other hand grinned, this was what he had been looking forward to since Roy had picked him up out of Macross city. Ranma was not going to be disappointed.

The flight attendant was a young man bearing the rank tabs of a Lt. and a black armband denoting his affiliation with Skull Squadron, the elite Valkyrie squadron of the fortress. The only thing that took away from his appearance was heavy cast around one of his legs. "Good afternoon boys and girls." Ranma looked around and was surprised to see more than a few young women in the crowd, obviously they had come from another training group he hadn't been a part of. "My name is Lt. Eric Prescott and I will be your flight instructor until my bloody leg heals. After that I will happily go back to my real job which is flying for real rather than babysitting a bunch of wannabes."

His clipped English accent came through clearly as he kept speaking easily ignoring the looks of outrage he was getting from the assembled trainees. "Now, this is the part where I tell you that once you get into these simulators you are to remember to treat everything as real. The controls and the feelings you get in there are as close to real as we can make them. However, that is so much bloody shite." He looked around as the faces of his audience looked confused. "No matter how real these simulators feel, they are just that, simulators. You're enemies can't really kill you, they never are too good or too fast or too armored for you to take on, and your friends don't really die beside you. In here you always have a do over."

He looked around at their still watching faces, some pale while others looked more determined. "There is a phrase which civilians know as 'train hard fight easy'. That's the bastardized version. The real phrase, known since the time of the Spartans is 'train hard fight harder'. As such you will treat these simulators like they were real not because they are supposed to feel that way but because they are a necessary step to prepare you for the real thing, when you really can be killed. So I'm going to train you as hard as possible, I am going to do my damndest to break you because when I do I can put you back together into new soldiers who can possibly survive the bloody chaotic hell that is a dogfight in space."

He paused to let that sink in then went on, motioning to his assistants all of whom like Prescott had injuries and were on light duty. "Now, when I call your name you will step forward and move into the simulators. When you are all installed I will give you a brief overview of the controls and then you will start to fly your Valkyrie. The first lesson is simple. Fly and survive. If you do that we might be able to make space pilots out of you, if not, then the Destroids are always looking for more men. Now, let's begin."

He consulted a clipboard and shouted "Ackerly, Athenball, Alexander, Baldwin, Browning," the list went on for another twenty five names until all the simulators in the first room were filled, then he moved to the next room, and the next. It wasn't until the fourth room that Ranma heard his name, and it took him a moment to remember that it was actually his, still not used to not being a Saotome. "Sugita, Sugita, get up here!"

Ranma blinked then strode forward and saluted before being directed into a simulator. The simulator was a small ovoid set into the floor with a flap in the side to allow entrance and wires coming out of the back of it into the floor. Inside Ranma found a fighters cockpit, organized like he remembered from Roy's Valkyrie. He sat down, and the flap closed automatically. Ranma grinned again wiggling his fingers and reaching forward to grasp the flight stick with one hand and rested the other by the buttons on the armrest.

Not five minutes later, he heard Lt. Prescott's voice through a speaker set into the ceiling of the simulator. "All right we are going to walk everyone through the controls first, and then you are going to simulate a very simple mission in space. This is to test your ability to think in terms of 360%, something that not a lot of people can do. If you have any problem with this mission then I am afraid fighter pilot will not be in your résumé."

Ranma listened to the instructions, connecting it in his mind with what he had seen Roy do in his plane. After Prescott finished his instruction Ranma watched as the light in the simulator went off and the sides went black, everything began to simulate the feeling of being in a fighter in the air, Ranma even felt the gravity suddenly stop underneath him and he smiled. "Here we go."

The view outside the simulator cockpit changed from merely black to black with white spots, and one of the small screens below the viewport started to show information as well. Ranma counted a little under a hundred blue dots set into V shapes, with one spot near the middle of one side of the V was blank, and Ranma realized that must be where his plane was in formation. Blue lights along the side of that screen indicated something, he didn't know what.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, on your canopy you should start to see a line in front of you in space. You mission right now is to get from point A to point B through an asteroid belt. You objective: survive. You will light your engines in three, two, one go!"

Ranma flicked a switch on his right side lighting off his engine and with a whoop moved his flight stick forward.

Ranma was utterly and completely exhausted by the time he got back to the White Dragon. The trainee barracks hadn't been completed yet and the area they were supposed to be was still being used as storage for now. They would be done in a few weeks, but there were so many other construction priorities right now they were not even on the list of top ten.

After training in the flight simulators for three hours straight, a truly exhilarating experience that despite how different it was he loved, he was given a book detailing the Valkyrie's specs and maintenance requirement the trainees were again broken up into groups of twenty and handed over to other instructors. Ranma didn't even catch his instructor's name, still high from his experience in the simulator and being the first one to complete the run through the asteroid belt. These instructors began to drill them in the terminology and verbiage of the fighter corps and the military as a whole. Despite knowing how important this was to learn Ranma soon began nodding off, and he had to concentrate hard on paying attention. They weren't even allowed notes as in combat they wouldn't have notes to look at or even time to look at them. After which the trainees were all given another booklet and were expected to memorize the first chapter by the end of the day.

Ranma was surprised to find the restaurant hopping, every table full with several groups of soldiers waiting patiently to be seated. Minmei greeted him at the door as soon as he came in. "Ranma am I ever glad to see you, I need some help here desperately, it's only me, my dad and Rick out here! Get changed and get your dress on quick!" Ranma looked around and saw Shao waiting on one table while Rick, looking very stiff, walked around taking drink orders and pouring water.

Ranma sighed but nodded. One night working on top of training wasn't going to kill him. As he walked quickly through the dining area he heard his voice hailed from one of the booths. "Hey Ranma, over here!"

Ranma looked over and saw Roy and Claudia sitting at a table alone. He walked over waving a hand in greeting. "Yo Roy, how's it going? Been here long?"

"Nah haven't even ordered. I just wanted to formally introduce you to someone. Ranma this is Lt. Cm. Claudia Grant, my lovely fiancé."

Claudia waved and Ranma blinked. "We've met, but a fiancé huh, well if yer happy with eachother I guess it's all good, never knew happy and fiancé could go together though."

Claudia blinked and Roy frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

"Ask my mom the next time you see her if ya want the whole story, it'd take way too long to explain and I don't like doin' it anyway. I'll see ya round I need to go change and get ta work apparently." The couple nodded and let him go, though they were still wearing confused expressions as he walked away.

Ranma went through the kitchen and saw his mother, Kasumi and Fei working. Nodoka spotted him first and greeted him, never looking away from the shrimp she was preparing. "Hello dear, how was your first day at the academy?"

"Busy" Ranma grunted. "I was able ta talk ta Dr. Lang, he's a really interesting guy, and the simulator was fun but the terminology is gonna kick my butt I just know it."

'Well, keep at it, the only way to get better at something is to work at it. You'll be happy to know however that we've been approved to move into rooms inside the main spaceship area." Their apartment complex had been at the edge of the city and had not survived the fold in enough pieces to be worth salvaging. The Lynn's had opened up their home to them, though with Kasumi already up with their niece in her room Nodoka had slept on the floor of the main dining area the few nights she spent there. Ranma had slept there last night and he just shrugged. As far as he was concerned having any kind of roof over him was still a luxury (he'd refused to stay at the Tendo's after the Ukyo had shown up, which while honorable hadn't lessened the problems coming his way and his mother house had been destroyed within days of his moving in with her), and it wasn't like that was an issue in the space fortress. "We'll move in there later tonight after the restaurant has closed."

Kasumi interjected from her place by the stove, where she was pan searing some vegetables. "I'll be moving in with you as well. The rooms are going to be bigger, and I have found that I don't like to live in the center city area. The nights are a little too noisy for me." That, she thought, and Minmei is a sweet girl but she is also far too much a teenage girl, if I have to hear about one more 'hot' model or TV star I will scream! Living in the same room with her this past month has not been fun.

Ranma nodded happily, answering before he could stop and think. "That's great. No offense mom but I've missed waking up to Kasumi's breakfasts, those and her smiles make any day a lot easier to face." He turned and went upstairs to change, leaving behind two smirking women and one blushing but extremely happy girl.

Soon Ranma came back down changed into a girl and wearing a china dress, the uniform of the restaurant. He went out to the main dining hall and was immediately greeted by hoots and whistles from the more coarse soldiers, but they stopped when Roy yelled out "enough of that you bastards, this is a nice upscale restaurant, not a damn strip club. Mind your damn manners or I'll have you up in front of the captain!"

The soldiers subsided, but still leered until Ranma picked up small bar of solid iron kept here just for this purpose. She effortlessly bent it into a pretzel, which she threw underhand at the nearest soldier who grunted under the impact, allowing them to realize it was really iron and she really had just done that. "My names Ranma Sugita for those of ya who don't know, and my strength don't decrease that much from one form to another." With this phrase all the soldiers present connected the odd rumors about a Ranma Sugita going around to the redhead in front of them and promptly lost their leering faces. After all, none of them wanted to find out what someone who could take on battlepods with his bare hands could do to a person.

After that the night went by quickly. The restaurant was a rousing success, and became even more so when the word went out to the civilians as well as the military. In fact several young girls came by and asked about jobs and were promptly told to show up the next day, something Ranma was very grateful for. Working and training together was a killer. Ranma was barely able to walk as he followed his mother out of the hanger/city and into the spaceship proper, up two levels and into their new rooms.

He didn't notice how close their suite was to the ships officer's country, nor the fact that it was filled with boxes and very unsettled save for the family sword hung on one wall. All he was able to do was move as his mother directed and collapse into bed, not even bothering to change back into a guy. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

end chapter. If anyone can tell me what book series i got the name Prescott from I'll give them a shout out

*Chapter 5*: A horse in space

I do not own Ranma or Robotech

Ranma is introduced to space combat and space combat is introduced to his fists.

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Chapter 4 a horse in space

Captain Gloval looked around at what had been dubbed the Macross Council at the second meeting of that body with an air of complacency. While no one here had imagined working so close together or under such trying circumstances, everything was moving as smoothly as could be expected, and it was in large part to the individuals in front of him that it had. As the last person, CAG Fokker this time took his seat he stood, gaining everyone's attention. "Ladies and gentlemen, while I know the past week since our first meeting has been hectic and trying, I feel that everyone here has done a remarkable job and for that I thank you all. Now, without further ado I would like to hand this over to Mayor Luan to bring us up to speed on the construction projects."

Mayor Luan rose out of his chair his round face beaming. "I am happy to say that construction of the city center has been completed entirely, and practically everything is up and running. The two high schools are having problems finding enough teachers because several of them signed up for the military in the mean time, and the two may be combined into one, but I am leaving that decision up to the principals and education committee. The college is up and running, though of course the campus isn't what it once was, but it has already had over a hundred students signing up. Most of the shops and restaurants are open and doing a brisk business, though construction in the outer area of the city arte still ongoing and many of the entertainment centers are not yet fully online. And I am most pleased to announce the farms are up and running as well. The idea of using terraces and double tiers saved us a lot of space as well as time. Practically the entire city is ringed now with farms and hydroponic areas. Of course it will be months before the farms yield a harvest, but Nodoka-san" he nodded at her on his left "tells me that the yield will be able to make up nearly all the food used in that time. The military academy and putting the parks back in working order is next on the agenda, and after that Dr. Lang has informed me that he will have jobs for us, especially welders, pipe layers and metal workers, so I'll turn the meeting over to him now."

Dr. Lang rose in turn and moved to the front of the room where there was a large screen. He pushed a button and a side schematic of Macrossappeared. "As you all know my science team and I are researching several ways to better defend the ship against attack, and we have narrowed our fields of study to three, two passive, one aggressive." He pressed a button and the schematic enlarged showing a section of the outer hull as everyone leaned forward interestedly. After all, while it had been nearly two weeks since the space fold disaster, they all knew the aliens were out there somewhere, and that eventually they would find the Macross again. The piece of hull turned around showing the interior portion. Whereas before it would have been a simple slab of metal nearly two yards thick this slab was connected to several large wires, themselves housed in pipes. Some kind of energy traveled along these wires into the metal. "This is an idea that alas is not very viable for a ship wide defense. Thanks to certain new avenues of exploration being opened about the use of reflux energy, I have devised a method in which that energy can be used to toughen and strengthen the outer hull on the atomic astronomically. My teams estimate that it would allow the metal to absorb about twenty times more damage before failing."

The hospital manager raised his hand immediately. "Why is it not a viable ship-wide defense?"

"Power and installation" Dr. Lang said bluntly. "The reflux generator has more than enough energy to power this system, we simply can't run lines from the engine into every single piece of armor, we don't have the wiring and the generator is not set up to allow it in the first place. Furthermore we used five destroid batteries and were only able to power a mile square section of hull for two hours before they ran dry, and we don't have that many batteries to spare. As there's no way to tell how long we would need to power the hull for, I cannot recommend this for a ship wide defense. Certain areas of the ship can have this new power defense in place and I would recommend it for the bridge and the area nearest the generator once tests are completed. I'm afraid the area above the city is too large for us to protect in this manner, and with as deep as the city is into the ship's superstructure it really doesn't need it." The civilian's nodded reluctant agreement and Dr Lang went on with his presentation, pushing another button and the ship schematic appeared, this time with three small half circles moving around the outer hull.

"This is another defense concept that one of my aids has thought of but is not quite ready to go yet. I'd estimate another few months of research and experimentation before its ready. When it is however the system will be based around an energy barrier, much like the shields so often talked about in science fiction. These barriers will be composed of energy and not let anything through. Unfortunately they will be a static defense exactly like the armor strengthening method and again the problem comes down to power. If we had a way to get more power to them we could possibly figure out a way to cover the entire ship, but at present it is simply not going to happen."

"The last one is the aggressive defense." Again the screen changed, and this time it showed the schematic of the top of one of the engine thrusters. As they watched the surface seemed to change, sporting several new small gun ports, twenty to a side. "These anti-aircraft guns are being designed to counteract the heavy use the aliens seem to make of their fighter class, the battlepods and triangle fighters. Each gun port will house the same beam armament as a Defender-class destroid. The problems with this are based on design and structural issues rather than power. For one, studies have shown that having too many of these gun ports would weaken the ship structurally, weakening both the exterior armor and the interior's ability to survive blowback damage. The design is held up as we are wondering how to mount these gun balls in the first place." He concluded his presentation by turning off the screen and sighing. "So there you have it, a lot of progress but nothing definite just yet." He sat down, looking at captain Gloval. "I have actually turned over all my chief engineer's duties to Lt. Hibiki. He may have a directional problem but he has by far the most experience and his performance is well above any of the other engineer team heads."

Captain Gloval nodded as Nodoka twitched at the name, then resolutely put it aside. "Commandant Mannstein, I believe you had a report you wanted to share about the academy?"

Mannstein nodded. "Lt. Prescott has been performing amazingly with the trainees, though I have noticed that our re-training program has not been going nearly as well as the training of the civilian recruits. It just seems as if the civilians are more flexible, they don't have any prior training to unlearn. The sailors and few marines that volunteered are performing far better than the fifty destroid operators that wanted to change over. Right now out of a class of a hundred civilians and eighty soldiers I estimate possibly as many as a hundred-and-twenty-five total will be acceptable to join the Valkyrie squadrons in three months. One of whom" he grimaced, "I could probably give graduation papers right now. Your son madam" he nodded at Nodoka "has the most insane learning curve for anything physical I have ever seen. He has already mastered the fighter and guardian controls and I doubt he will need more than a day to master the soldier mode controls, especially with the mind interlink helmet helping him."

Lisa spoke up hesitantly. "But you won't will you?" Everyone's eyes turned to her, most held questioning glances but Nodoka's was almost accusing and she hastened to explain himself. "I'm not saying he isn't good enough, if Commandant Mannstein says he is then he is but I'm worried about accusations of favoritism. Despite what he accomplished in the battle on Earth, most people don't know about it, and we've already given Ensign Sugita preferred treatment."

Nodoka's glare lessened and Mannstein nodded his head acknowledging her point but then chuckled. "With anyone else I would wholeheartedly agree with you Commander Hayes, but not Ranma. He doesn't go out of his way to show it, but he is simply in another category altogether when it comes to anything physical. Not only is he up and at the academy before anyone else, he exercises by himself far longer and harder than the other trainees and doesn't show it nearly as much. And while again he doesn't go out of his way to show it, he is simply better than anyone else at the simulators, and works longer at it. Lt. Prescott has reported he's had to kick him out at night and after every free time the trainees have. It's getting to the point where we are starting to have morale issues with the other trainees. Couple that with a few incidents with his curse form and Ranma causes problems."

Lisa mouthed 'curse form' to herself, not having heard of that before but Nodoka nodded thoughtfully. "He's complained a time or two about the trainees being as perverted as the boys back at his high school back in Japan. Nothing he can't handle of course but it's definitely fraying his nerves. If it doesn't stop soon he may do something permanent about it." She noticed Lisa's look of confusion but didn't say anything. Even if she was told about the curse from several sources there was no way she would believe it until she saw it, something that might not happen for a while as Ranma's water-magnet status seemed to have abated since leaving earth.

"That would be slightly disastrous to anyone who was on the receiving end" Gloval said blandly, and everyone around the table nodded, even the civilians. Mayor Luan and the police commissioner had been told of Ranma's abilities and the hospital director had been among those civilians saved by him in the fighting back on earth.

Roy steered the discussion back to the matter at hand. "Would he cause problems if he's suddenly graduated before the rest of his class? Because I can't tell a lie, the fighter group needs the help big time. We've got 28 pilots at the moment. That'll get better when the walking wounded are fit for duty but even then we'll be barely at barely ten percent our total allotted strength. Even one pilot can make a difference."

"No," Mannstein said bluntly "he may have been a discipline problem if he was commissioned right away, but Lt Prescott seems to have had a profound effect on him. He is never going to be a blind respecter of authority but he respects those who have shown him they earned it."

"Then I say boot him up this weekend, if he's good enough in a real Veritech. Like I said we need the help, we have barely two and a half squads available, right now we just need bodies." Captain Connor looked as if he wanted to object, but stayed silent.

Everyone looked at Captain Gloval, who would have to sign off on such a breach of protocol. After a moment he asked Mannstein "How would the other trainees take it?"

Mannstein shrugged. "Relief, as I said there's already a lot of grumbling and muttering and what's worse a lot of them are no longer trying their best, certain they can't match his skill. It's the same reason why back on earth Special Forces are never trained with regular infantry trainees. They just can't keep up and they know it and resent it."

"Then I agree. You'll have a private ceremony to inaugurate it, but make it clear this is as much about the other trainees as it is his own ability. I want him to know that just because he's good does not mean he will always be getting preferential treatment, is that understood?"

Mannstein nodded and the meeting continued. After two more hours of discussion centered around ongoing integration issues and infrastructure problems Gloval brought the meeting to a close. "I think we've worked through as many problems as we can for now, and I think we should call it a night. As a final announcement however I feel that we have accomplished as much as we can for now. Everything else needs more time to be solved, but I feel that we are as prepared to begin our journey back to earth as possible. With that said, Macross will break orbit around Pluto and begin to advance into the star system at best speed. As of this moment we will be going for a straight shot, but that plan will change according to when we see the enemy and his actions." This statement was met with nods of approval from the military side of the table but the civilians were much more reluctant about it as they knew it would heighten the threat of enemy attack, but they nodded anyway.

As everyone walked out into the corridor Nodoka smiled seeing her son waiting for her. "Hey mom, ready to go?" He had made plans with Nodoka and Kasumi to treat them to dinner with his first check as a trainee, and he had come to walk escort her. He looked at the others as they exited and stiffened to attention as the military officers. "Sirs!"

Gloval smiled slightly behind his mustache, already seeing a difference in the independent, somewhat angry young man he had first met. Now he seemed, happier, more centered, and even a little more mature. "At ease ensign." He paused wondering what to say at this point, after all, did Ranma know that Nodoka and he were in a relationship, should he hint about what was going to happen later this week? Gloval opted to address neither point, merely returning the salute and walking away.

The others followed suit save for Lisa, who Ranma hailed by name. "Hey Commander Hayes, um, sorry about not saluting ya last time and all, um here's the book list I promised ta get ya."

Lisa smiled. "When an officer's out of uniform it isn't necessary to salute him or her ensign Sugita. And thank you for the book list I'm certain it will come in handy. Now don't let me keep you." Ranma nodded, handed over the list and took his mother's arm. With a final salute he led the way back to the city. Lisa stood looking down at the list of books for a moment before nodding to herself and moving away. She had watch in fifteen minutes, after which she had a date with the library.

Kasumi, dressed in a black dress with spaghetti straps that subtly accented her curves waited at a table set for three in an Italian restaurant that Nodoka had found during her time in the city before the fold accident. She was anxious to see if it made as good a use of the rations as White Dragon. Normally the three would have eaten there but none of them wanted to be roped into working, which often occurred when they ate at the Lynn's restaurant. Ranma in particular could only spend a few minutes there before being guilt-tripped into changing forms and waitressing.

Alas the Italian restaurant had its own issues and one of them appeared once more at her table. "See babe if I was your boyfriend I would never make you wait for me. Come on, why don't you come with me when I get off work in a few minutes? I could show you a really good time you know."

Kasumi sighed, looking up at the admittedly handsome waiter for the second time. His rather arrogant smarmy attitude was beginning to grate on her nerves but she kept a firm grip on her temper as she replied. "I assure you that the people I am waiting for have not stood me up, nor is it their fault that I was early. And your idea of a good time would almost certainly not be mine. With that said could you please leave me alone?"

The waiter's smile faded at the direct smack down, and he was about to reply when a voice behind him interrupted his thoughts. "Hey Kas-chan, sorry to keep ya waiting, mom wanted to walk rather than get a cab or roof-hop so it took a lot longer ta get here. Ya look great though, not that ya don't always look good, but well…"

As the waiter turned around and sneered at the awkward attempt at flattery Kasumi's face lit up with a genuine smile, her face blushing slightly at the heartfelt compliment. "Thank you Ran-chan, and you look very nice too." It was true, Ranma was dressed in a silk shirt like normal, but this one was skin tight, with a Chinese dragon going up one side, and loose silk pants. The shirt laid on him like a second skin, showing off his rippling muscles, gaining him many an appreciative glance from the other women in the restaurant though Kasumi giggled internally at how blind he was to it.

Nodoka nodded, moving around the now furious and somewhat embarrassed waiter to kiss Kasumi on the cheek and slide into the booth across from her. "How are you Kasumi-chan, I haven't seen you for a few days now. You're always gone by the time I wake up."

Kasumi smiled across at her as Ranma sat down next to her, and the waiter who had been bothering her left in a huff, more than a little intimidated by the younger man but not wanting to show it. "I've been very busy taking tests to test out of and into classes at the college auntie. It's a pity their computer records didn't survive the fold, but I've finished signing up for courses now."

Ranma looked at her as another waiter, this time a woman who nearly drooled at the hunk in front of her but refrained from flirting seeing the two women he was with, brought out their menus. "So have you decided what you wanted to go for? I know ya were a little torn about it."

Kasumi nodded, looking at him closely, wondering how he was going to react to her news. After all, while most of the chauvinist crap Genma had hammered into him had faded, he still sometimes backslid and she wanted to see his honest reaction to her news. "Yes, I've decided to go for a structural design degree."

Ranma's eyes widened in surprise, "Really, but what about all the times back in Nerima when you read those medical texts and stuff? You'd make a great doctor ya know, you've got the whole caring thing down pat. I mean you can go for anythin' ya want and I'll support ya, but it just seems weird to me."

Kasumi looked a little embarrassed, though she was very happy at his unequivocal support. After all without the meal tickets Ranma was earning as a trainee she couldn't afford the classes. "I did at one point want to be a nurse Ranma-kun but it was… well I realize that despite turning into one you have never understood the female mind, but one of the things girls do to become closer to a man they like is to try and share his interests. When we moved to Macross I found my desire to care for other people greatly decreased, and my desire to make a career out of it gone. I'm good at math and spatial problems, I like designing things and I think this will lead to a fulfilling career."

Ranma shrugged. "Well as long as yer certain it's what ya wanna do, then it's all good to me. I know you'll do great at whatever ya set your mind to."

Kasumi blushed and kissed Ranma on the cheek, causing him to blush in turn. "Thank you Ranma-kun." Nodoka grinned wildly at the two blushing no-longer-teens fighting the urge to break out her victory fans. Kasumi looked over at her and coughed before changing the subject to what Ranma had been doing at the academy. The night continued and while there was nothing overtly romantic about it to the people involved it was still a fun night for all.

Roy looked over at Ranma standing at attention in the hanger bay before his newly assigned Valkyrie. "Hey kid ready to go?"

Ranma dropped into the at ease position and grinned at him. "Yeah I guess I am, though I never thought I'd get into one of these so quick."

"Yeah well, just don't let it go to your head okay? Like Mannstein told you it was just as much for the other trainees as it was because you were ready. Now get in that thing and lets see what you got."

Ranma grinned and jumped up onto the star fighter's wing and from there into the cockpit. The canopy closed behind him and Roy walked over and got into his own Skull-1. Once he was strapped in and his helmet on his head he ran through the pre flight check up and then started the engine, feeling the ki field of the battery surround him like a huge blanket. As the helmet linked his thoughts to the plane he reached out with his senses and merged his ki with that of the plane.

Over the radio he could hear Roy begin talking to the bridge. "This is skull-1, requesting flight clearance for scheduled training flight, designate trainee Orange 12."

Lisa's voice answered, her tone professional and precise. Her worries about this move aside she would do her job to the best of her ability as always. "Roger skull-1, you and orange-12 are cleared for takeoff out of hatch 3. Be aware that Vermilion is acting CAP and is currently in sectors 1-14." Recommend you head to sector 22 for your training flight."

"Roger that, over and out. Come on kid, let's go." The two fighters taxed around one after the other until they faced the appropriate hatch. Hatch three was one of four that was set into the top of the Macross about halfway down its body, before it raised into the central ship dominated by the tower and bridge.

Ranma followed Roy's plane into space and around in a loop. He took in the vista outside his canopy and gasped.

Roy heard this over his radio and smiled. "Yeah, it takes everyone like that the first time. Take a few seconds kid, soak it in, we've got time."

Ranma nodded absentmindedly, his eyes devouring the view. All around him on nearly every side was blackness interspersed with the white of stars with nothing between him and them but distance. He felt the gravity Macross created fall away beneath and it was all he could do not to start crying. "This, this is…. Y'know, this was my dream for so long! I hid it y'know, from everyone, even Kasumi and my mom at first, I didn't think they'd understand. But this, this right here is my dream! Ta leave gravity behind, ta fly unimpeded out into the black, to go to the stars! And here I am, living it! Wow."

Roy's eyebrows rose in surprise. Strangely poetic he thought then got down to business. "Alright kid what we're going to do is play a little follow the leader. We don't have any handy targets out here, but we can still see how well you fly. Stay on my tail just like a wingman would and let's go."

"Roger." Ranma answered and the two took off. Roy at first was taking it easy, this was after all Ranma's first time flying and he didn't want to freak him out. After a half hour of this though Ranma hadn't even said anything, just following him like a leach. Alright, lets up the ante a little. Roy grinned and began more elaborate maneuvers. Again after a half hour he found he was still being shadowed by Ranma. Alright let's take this to the max.

Before he could however a call came in over his radio, Lisa still sounding professional but even more clipped. "Skull-1, be advised ships radar has detected a large unidentified mass at long range. Vermillion is being moved to investigate. Recommend you cut your training flight short. We may need you and Skull squadron out there soon. I've already ordered your squadron to scramble, they'll meet you out there

"Roger bridge. You heard the lady kid, afraid it's back to the barn for you."

Ranma was about to protest, but he paused, training given by Lt. Prescott cutting his protest off. "Roger."

As they were closing on the fortress however Ranma paused, something tickling his senses. "Command, this is orange 12, where away was that radar reading?"

Lisa answered, "It was directly in front of us about 50 klicks out, at the very edge of our range. Why the question orange 12?"

"I don't know, but I just, I just felt something. My danger sense is going through the roof. I can't describe it any better. It's like, like something's about to" He cursed as suddenly something just appeared out of nowhere on his radar and of course on the radar of the fortress and Roy's fighter. "Like something's about to jump us!"

A large green mountain of a ship, about half the size of Macross, appeared directly abaft and above the space fortress and began to deluge a veritable landslide of battlepods. Roy began to yell into his mike frantically even as he directed his fighter in for an attack run on the incoming battlepods. "Vampire Vampire, large number of incoming battlepods directly above the fortress! Recommend moving all Veritech launches to bay 6 and the hatches there, they'll be sitting ducks as they launch if they come out of the top deck hangers!"

Lisa sighed in irritation. With her being the most senior officer on the bridge, she was forced to stay at her station alert for anything that could happen, but when something wasn't happening it was utterly boring. She spent a few minutes watching what she could see of Commander Fokker and ensign Sugita until they were out of visual range and then she went back to looking at the radar screen and the blackness of space.

Even Claudia wasn't on the bridge, off working with a few teams of civilians to redesign the internal emergency sound system, so she didn't have anyone to talk to, unless she wanted to break rank and talk to the gossip trio but that probably wasn't a good idea. Behind Lisa the three younger girls were clustered around Vanessa's console looking at something on the screen that she couldn't see, but judging from the giggling she'd probably have to put a stop to whatever they were doing, and right now there was no need to.

The three girls in question were actually looking at a picture, an example of what was becoming called the 'Hunkma market' by the girls and women on the ship. While there were countless young men onboard, there was just something about Ranma, something that the girls of Nerima, the amazons and all his fiancés couldn't name but knew was there, something that set him apart. None of the three bridge girls could name it either all they knew was that, like several girls at the academy had discovered, seeing pictures of him in tight exercise wear or even better shirtless was fast becoming a nightly ritual.

Like Nabiki back in Nerima, pictures of Ranma in both forms sold very well to members of the opposite sex (and sometimes not), but unlike with Nabiki, no one person had cornered the market. The boys who tried to take pictures of Ranma in his female form all stopped after he retaliated and put several of them in the hospital, but the few pictures taken in that time sold for huge amounts. After all, the short redhead could give any model or actress a run for her money in the looks department. Pictures of his boy body however were a growing market and all three of the gossip trio was wondering how to get in on it and incidentally get close to Ranma.

"Maybe we should try to get some videos rather than more pictures. I bet some action scenes would sell really well." Vanessa said softly, trying to keep her voice down even as she smiled, the idea of having a video of Ranma exercising giving her a little thrill inside. Her glasses fogged up at the mere thought of it.

"Great idea, I've got a video camera we can use, what about advertising though? I don't think Hunkma will mind pictures but videos are a little more invasive, especially when we're planning ahead like this rather than taking pictures of opportunity" said Kim. That, she thought, and how we will be… using them, it might make him uncomfortable, judging from what his mom has mentioned anyway. Most men would like to be the jilling fantasy of hundreds of women, but Ranma apparently doesn't think like that.

"Advertizing are you kidding? Once word gets around word of mouth will be more than enough. How are we going to do this though, I mean, we need to plan." Sammy muttered, playing with her long auburn hair.

The conversation was interrupted at this point by a smacking sound and a muffled curse coming from their right. The trio of plotters and Lisa turned around in surprise to see captain Gloval in the entranceway, rubbing his head as he bent down slightly to come through the hatch. Lisa saluted intoning ritually "Captain on the bridge."

Gloval walked in, muttering curses under his breath but to the surprise of all four younger women did not look irritable. Rather he looked tense, alert, eyes fixed on the overhead screen which showed the radar zone of the space fortress. Sammy and Kim quietly returned to their duties as Vanessa turned back to her screen, all three wondering why the captain was on the bridge when he wasn't scheduled to be and there was nothing going on.

Lisa made her way over to Gloval as he sat down in the captain's chair, his eyes flickering between the visual shown on his personal screen, the radar on the overhead and the viewport. This close Lisa could see he was even more on edge than had been apparent before, and she asked softly "Sir is there something wrong?"

Gloval smirked, but there was no humor in it. "Old soldier's instincts you could say. I just feel something is going to happen. Order the ready squadrons up, both destroids and Veritechs." At her look his smirk widened a little, but the lack of humor was still prevalent. "If I'm wrong, we can simply say it was an exercise, but for now indulge me commander."

Despite the wording it was obviously an order and Lisa nodded and turned back to her console to issue the orders. One eyebrow rose in surprise as rather than his second she got Mannstein himself, still in charge of the destroids as well as running the academy while Captain Connor, the former captain of the Prometheus, worked up on destroid operation. She turned back to the captain eyebrow still raised "Commodore Mannstein reports he has the ready companies of Defender, Phalanx and Spartans ready to go." Behind them the younger girls all blinked, then turned back to their own consoles as Gloval nodded as if he had expected that response. Mannstein had instincts as well of course. Lisa looked past the captain for a moment, looking at Kim, the gunner, who nodded and turned back to her console, relaying commands for the secondary weapons systems to start powering up and for the tertiary weapons operators to go to alert mode as well.

About ten minutes later Vanessa looked up from her console abruptly. "I have something on radar starboard and down 30 degrees it's at the outer edge of our radar zone, but coming closer I…." Even as the data was transmitted to the overhead, she shook her head. "It just disappeared."

Gloval nodded. "Battle stations." Lisa nodded and relayed the order before recalling the training flight.

As the two Valkyrie's came back towards the ship the universe was suddenly torn asunder in a very localized sense of the word, as 'above' the ship where there had been only space was no filled with a massive ship, about half the size of the space fortress.

It was painted green from end to end, was only marginally aerodynamic and there was nothing the humans looking out the viewport (that was how close the other ship had come, it was literally in sight of the command spire, only about a kilometer above the main section of the ship) could identify as gun emplacements, but fire began to rain down from strange spike-like objects on the outer shell of the ship, equivalent to the tertiary weapons on the space fortress and doing little to no damage to the larger ships armor. Worse though was the number of battlepods the ship immediately began to disgorge.

"Fire as you bear with secondary weapons, rotate the ship if necessary." Even as he said this, the secondary cannons of the space fortress traversed and began to riddle the enemy ship with fire, but the damage had been done. The battle would now be decided by the Veritechs and the ready companies of destroids.

Ranma and Roy streaked into the mass of almost two hundred battlepods doing their best to disrupt their attack. Roy used a combination of blaster fire and missiles to good effect, killing four pods in quick succession before changing to guardian mode and skewing around another, blowing it in half and taking out another on its far side a moment later. He glanced to the side to see how Ranma was coping with this trial by fire and whistled, impressed.

Ranma came in right behind Roy then veered off as Roy changed to Guardian mode. Picking his own targets he shot two pods out of the sky dodging down toward the hull only to change into robot mode and swiftly turning gunning down all five of the pods that had tried to follow him. Pushing off with his legs he changed to fighter mode and ignited his afterburners immediately, dodging incoming fire and flying between two more pods, both of which he nailed with a quick missile. He hit another that attempted to get the drop on Roy and then was back into soldier mode, blasting away with his rifle at a few more.

Roy shook himself, the kid was even better than he thought he would be but Roy still had to do his part. "Orange 12 come to heading 122 from current position, let's see if we can lead these buggers off a little."

Ranma killed another battlepod even as he transformed into guardian mode. "Roger that, heading 122, mind telling me where we're leading them to?"

Roy and Ranma rocketed over the edge of the fortress leading about fifty of the battlepods who immediately came under fire from below as Skull squadron joined the fray, having launched from bay 3 set below the fortress. Roy and Ranma whooped then pulled around to rejoin the main fight.

Skull squadron fell upon the battlepods that had landed on the surface of the fortress gleefully, ramming missiles home before closing with lasers. Even with this reinforcement however the defenders were facing odds of twelve to one. Despite their far better teamwork, armor and weapons that was a tall order.

Ranma was soon running out of ammo, and on a whim transformed to soldier mode reached out and grabbed the leg of a battlepod that had gotten above him. Flipping the pod around he was able to tear the leg off then used his head lasers to kill the pod. Dropping his blaster and letting it float away he grabbed the pods other leg and ripped it off as well. That done, Ranma shot forward, dodging more incoming fire and hammering pods to slag with his makeshift weapon. At each blow he felt his Valkyrie shudder, but he still destroyed the pod he struck.

Commander Hayes' voice crackled over his radio "Orange 12, six battlepods working at a weak spot in our armor behind the left nacelle to your left and down. Get in there and break up their attack." She went on to give orders to some of the other pilots, bringing their attention to comrades that were in danger or directing them to other hot points.

"Roger." Ranma descended to the surface of the fortress, taking the fight to those pods that were blasting holes in the fortress armor, trying to get inside. In close battlepods were woefully overmatched by a Veritech, and he made short work of them. He raced from position to position, dodging incoming fire often by the skin of his teeth as again and again his makeshift weapons rose and fell.

The battle continued, and despite the defenders best efforts began to turn against them. None of the other pilots had Ranma's gift for improvisation and when their weapons ran dry they were forced to return to rearm, leaving them vulnerable. Two fighters went down, and then another, before relief arrived in the form of Vermillion, returning from its patrols at the outer edge of the fortresses radar bubble.

While Vermillion may have not been as good individually as the elite skull members they were still decent and they had full load outs. Missiles once more began to flash out and the tide of battle turned again but it was still a long bloody hour before the last pod was destroyed.

By the end of it Ranma was gasping, having expended his ki and the battery of his Valkyrie to strengthen his weapons. His soldier mode Veritech mirrored his thoughts falling to one knee on the fortresses plating as Lisa's voice rang out with the all clear. "All fighters, all fighters battle over repeat battle over. Radar is clear. Good job everyone. All fighters return to the barn best entrance."

Ranma dropped his makeshift weapons, the fifth set he had made since running out of ammo. He whirled, his/his Veritechs arms coming up into a fighting position as he felt something tap its/his shoulder. The image of Roy's Skull 1 standing there in soldier mode itself, blaster gone and two of its' secondary lasers missing from his head stopped him as much as Roy's voice coming in over the radio. "Not the first flight I organized Ranma but it'll have to do. So what did you think of fighting in space?"

Ranma paused for a moment letting his body come out of battle mode and grinned. "Not bad, but what the hell are ya going ta do for an encore?"

end chapter

*Chapter 6*: Blitzkriegs and Sing-alongs

Me no own

Like in the origirnal Robotech universe music will have a major role in my story, though it sure as hell won't be the all powerful weapon it was. I mean besides love (i'm looking at you JKR!) can anyone name a lamer super weapon than music? However it will still have an effect both on and off the battlefield. On the battlefield it will be a surprise weapon at times, and off the battlefield, well morale is to the physical as ten is to the one.

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Chapter 5 Blitzkriegs and Sing-along's

Lord Admiral Breetai, leader of the Zentraedi fleets searching for the renegade Robotech master Zor's ship, shook his head angrily as his aide, the deformed Exedore, finished his report. "A bold move by captain Lortree but I would have had him shot for endangering the Space Fortress had he lived." Space folding was not an exact science and trying to fold that close to their target could have destroyed both ships. Indeed, Breetai was surprised the Micronians had survived their absolutely insane decision to jump inside a gravity well. That they had was something he was truly grateful for, though there seemed to have been additions added to the space fortress since the last time he saw it, and it had taken his forces far too long to find the ship and even longer to fold out to be in a position to attack it.

"Maneuver the fleet into a siege position around the fortress. Once all ships are in place we will send in flights of battlepods to test their defenses, and see if they will jump away again, if they do not we will close and capture them. See if you can analyze the purpose of the two additions to the sides of the fortress. We must take the ship intact, that is our orders, am I clear Exedore?"

Exedore was very short for a Zentraedi and his short almost twisted body looked particularly out of place next to the towering and ramrod straight Breetai, who wore his history of warfare proudly in the form of a metal mask covering half his face. Breetai was one of the tallest Zentraedi in existence, indeed the only one taller was Supreme Commander Dolza, and he was easily the most experienced admiral the Zentraedi had. His professional irritation at his inflexible orders was clear but he would follow them to the letter. He knew all too well of the need to regain the proto-culture generator.

"Yes admiral."

Breetai nodded, looking back at the video montage Exedore had created from the video cameras of the attacking battlepods of Lortree's forces and snorted. "Say what you will about their decision making, these Micronians fight well. We cannot underestimate them." Exedore nodded again and went to pass Breetai's orders to the ship captains.

Roy slowly drank from his lukewarm coffee mug going over the list of repairs his flight needed after the battle on a data-pad in front of him. He was so tired he couldn't even get up the energy to get a drink, let alone get back to his room. Fighting other humans was one thing, he thought, fighting these aliens is a whole other ball game. Humans would break off the attack, try to surrender or just run away, once they knew they were losing. The aliens didn't do anything like that and they were forced to kill every one of them. That and the numbers they keep hitting us with are just crazy. Nearly two full brigades of mechanized infantry had been thrown away in the last two assaults and if these were just probing attacks, what that told him about the numbers they were facing was sobering.

He looked up momentarily as Ranma dropped down into a squat in front of him. "You okay commander?"

Roy scowled at the younger man's cheerful tone and bright eyes. The kid just had monstrous amounts of endurance and other than saying he had drained his ki again seemed fine after the dust up with just a few rations bars something that he couldn't say himself. "Yeah kid just peachy. I'm just gonna crash here for a bit, and don't worry, you passed your last test with flying colors. I don't know yet where we'll slot you in though. We'll page you when we decide what flight to put you in. Until then enjoy your last few hours of freedom."

Ranma nodded. "Alright Commander, see ya later." With a jaunty wave Ranma walked out of the mess on a search for food, leaving behind a man who suddenly realized he was far too close to middle age for comfort, a horrible thought for someone barely 27.

It took only a day to slot Ranma into the half strength Blue squadron. On his first day there he was greeted by the temporary leader of the flight, a Lt. junior grade who along with Ranma and two others made up the total of blue squadron. "That doesn't mean" the Lt. hastened to point out "That we're not expected to pull a full squadrons weight around here. We still get sent up on CAP, and we are still expected to take part in any dust ball that occurs. Now, I know that you've had combat experience" that was putting it mildly, Ranma's exploits in the last fight were the talk of the fighter wing. His kills had only been exceeded by Roy Fokker, a two time ace before the aliens showed up. "But I will say this only once so you better listen up. Flying by yourself like you did in this last battle is one thing, flying as part of a flight is another thing entirely. No grandstanding, and watch eachother's back. If I see you even once go haring off in one direction and leaving your wingman alone, I will ground your ass. Am I clear?"

"Clear sir!" Ranma answered, standing to attention.

"Good. Now, we work an eight hour off eight hour on shift, that'll get better once the walking wounded return in larger numbers and we can graduate some pilots from the academy, but for right now, that's the breaks. Problems?"

"None sir!"

"Good. We've got CAP duty in thirty minutes, taking over from two flights from Vermillion. Get your flight suit, and meet us in hanger 2."

"Yes Sir!"

Two hours later Ranma had discovered one of the downsides of being in the military: boredom. He sighed as he turned his plane to match his wingmen on their patrol around the star fortress. The idea of these patrols was to have fighters out and patrolling at the far range of the fortress's radar, adding their own radar to it and giving the ship an even earlier warning of approaching trouble. However with the way the enemy battleship had simply folded in right near the Macross it had been decided not to push out the patrols that far. He sighed and looked around his cockpit for something to take his mind off his boredom. Finding a little USB port he smiled, and reached into one of his pockets.

Soon the song of Firefly rang out and he began to swoop one way and the other, though still following the flight plan, as he tried to sing along. Ranma had heard about it, and had watched one of the episodes during his time in Nerima (then Akane had smashed him into the DVD player when he agreed with Nabiki about how cute Summer was). The song had quickly become his favorite. "Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand, I don't care I'm still free, you can't take the sky from me."

He was interrupted by a voice coming in over his helmet radio and he paused the song automatically. "Ensign Sugita what the hell're you doing! Shut that caterwauling off!" Commander Hayes sounded irritable and he winced but answered gamely.

"Ah c'mon Commander, it's boring as hell out here and I don't do boring well. Besides, it's not against regs to listen to music when you fly. Not even in combat situations. Please, I'd turn off the radio but that's against regs."

On the bridge Lisa sighed. I guess he hasn't really learned that hurry up and wait is a part of military life. But he's right about it not being against the rules. It just seems it should be, given how tense the situation is; one ship against the unknown. Still I know a lot of the older pilots do it so… "Alright, you can play your music if you promise not to sing along! You voice could peel paint."

Ranma's voice came back sounded rather irritated. "Yeah, and I bet your voice is any better? I won't sing along, but in return I want to hear you sing."

Lisa's back went ramrod straight at the mere thought, the idea Ranma was just teasing her never occurred to her and she growled. "You're in no position to make demands ensign!" She would've continued but for being interrupted from behind her.

"Oh, let's do it Lisa! I'm bored too!" Vanessa said at her station.

"Oooh me too" Kim chimed in, and Sammy added her voice.

She looked around for support but the only other person on the bridge was Claudia who grinned impishly at her. "I think it's a great idea to break the monotony. I'll even start Lisa, you and the others join in on the chorus if you know it." Sammy gave her a thumbs up and the words of 'Firefly' appeared on their screens. Most of them knew it already however, the show had been extremely popular while it aired.

Lisa sighed knowing when she was beaten. "Alright, fine. I'll join in on the chorus but that's it."

The younger girls cheered and Ranma restarted the song. Claudia's voice rang out with a soft contralto. "Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand. I don't care I'm still free, you can't take the sky from me." Lisa reluctantly joined in on the chorus and as the song went on the others switched off the main lines.

Sammy was next "Take me out to the black tell them I ain't comin' back. Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me." Surprisingly Lisa's reluctance had faded as she got into the lyrics and the meaning behind them. The meaning of the words touched all the girls there and Lisa didn't even object as Ranma and the other Valkyries began to sway to the tune.

"I feel the black reaching out, I hear its song without a doubt, I still hear and I still see that you can't take the sky from me. There's no place I'd rather be since I've found serenity. You can't take the sky from me."

As the last note rang out a cough got the attention of everyone on the bridge and the turned to see that captain Gloval had entered as they were singing. "As much as I enjoy music I think that's enough for now." Everyone said 'yes sir' rather sheepishly and he continued as he sat down in his chair. "Ensign Sugita please stop corrupting my bridge crew. There are times for such things and this is not one of them. Lt. Lafferty, prepare to receive orders."

"Er yes sir." Ranma sounded sheepish but unrepentant as he replied at the same time as the Lt., he had been bored damn it!

"Good. Your orders are to spread out in a cross formation in front of us at the distance of a hundred klicks and at vectors of fifty degrees between you. Your orders are to keep moving out until you are barely on our radar and use your own radar to see in front of us, much like a standard CAP. You are not however allowed to engage any enemy units you see, merely report their location."

He held up a hand to stall Lisa's protest, after all there was a reason they hadn't been pushing their CAP out, including the fact they didn't have that many pilots to spare. "All my instincts are telling me that they are out there, and we need to know where and in what strength. We still have little idea on what we're dealing with here in terms of numbers and disposition. I am afraid that means putting your troops in harm's way." Lisa shut her mouth, thinking about it and then reluctantly nodded.

They could hear the nervousness in the lieutenant's voice as he responded. "Er, yes sir. Moving ahead of the fortress, aye, taking up position fifty degrees apart aye."

Gloval settled back in his chair. "Bring the ship's crew to ready stations. Order all Veritech pilots to their ready rooms. And now" he mused. "We will see what we will see." Claudia nodded and relayed the orders as Lisa enlarged he radar screen and put it on the main screen, then they stood back and waited.

Lt. Lafferty relayed the orders, even though all of the other pilots had heard the orders. Some of them made no bones about how they felt about it over the squad channel. "Man this sucks, the captain's sticking us out here like bait for a fish. Oh yeah if anything happens to us out here they'll know the aliens are out here! This is bullshit!"

Ranma cut in before the Lieutenant could. "Shut it. The captain's right, we need to know where the aliens are. I got the same feeling the captain has. It ain't as bad as yesterday, but it's still there. Besides if ya have time to complain about doing yer jobs then you have more time ta look around." The others grumbled but agreed.

The four pilots spread out, staying within maximum visual range and pushed outward. It took them two more hours to get out to the maximum radar range of the space fortress the refrain of the song coming back into Ranma's mind as he flew along.

Fifteen minutes after leaving the space fortress's radar bubble he was brought out of his reverie by his jet's radar going off, signaling unknown objects at long range. Ranma halted his flight, laying doggo for a moment watching as the mass came toward him, soon resolving itself into several large blips on his radar. Still too far away for the radar to give him any definition he took a chance and revved his engines, moving forward once more. Soon other blips showed up, a veritable wall in space going up down and to both sides. Ranma gulped. If all those ships are the same class as the one we tangled with earlier…

That question was resolved as several of the large blips suddenly regurgitated smaller ones heading towards them. "Shit, shit, shit, Macross are you getting our tele-what's it?" He turned his Valkyrie around, heading to the side where he knew one of his squad mates was.

Claudia, who handled long range communications, the only system that could pick the fighter's radio up at the distance they were at, answered him. "That's affirmative, and its 'telemetry' blue 4. Blue squadron fall back to the barn, we've got what we wanted to see."

Ranma nodded, having joined up with one of his flight-mates, they both fell back joining up with the Lt. and his wingman. Ranma glanced at his radar and saw that they were thankfully leaving the battlepods behind. The triangle fighters though were catching up. "Lt, we're not going to get back unless we discourage these bastards somehow."

The Lt. was now much more calm, the worst having happened and the wait over. "Roger that, everyone turn and engage with missiles only, repeat missiles only, keep the range open! Make certain you have solid lock one target each before skew turn. Clear?"

Everyone answered in the affirmative and when the Lt. shouted "Now!" three of the fighters turned around at speed, their arcs large to bleed off speed, but Ranma transformed first into guardian, braked hard, flipped so that he was upside down and shot off his missiles. Seeing he had time before the others finished their turns he started taking potshots at long range with his rifle, killing three more green triangle shaped starfighters before the missiles of the others hit. As they came about and passed him Ranma changed back into fighter mode and rocketed off, still pulling up the rear. The triangle fighters had almost all been wiped out, and those that survived were at the back of the swarm and no longer had the legs to catch the fleeing Veritechs.

Pushing their engines to the max the four fighters arrived back at Macross. "Welcome home Blue flight. Hanger three is open. CAP missions are canceled for now. Get some rest, you'll probably need it."

"Roger commander. We'll bunk down in one of the ready rooms."

Ranma nodded, that sounded like a good idea, though he doubted that they were going to be allowed to sleep for very long.

On the bridge the tension had ratcheted higher upon receiving the fighters radar information, and now everyone looked at Captain Gloval who sat calm and silent in the middle of the bridge. "Call Captain Connor, Commander Drake and Commander Fokker." Drake had been second in command of the Prometheus, and had taken the lead on the project to find ways to somehow use the sub's store of ICBM's. "Have them meet us in the conference room in two hours. Commander Hayes you as well. Extrapolate enemy positions with the supposition that we are surrounded with similar enemy units on all sides. But for now, Claudia get me Dr. Lang."

The orders went out and Gloval took a moment to collect himself before looking at his com-screen. Dr, I have a few questions for you and your engine teams."

"A blitzkrieg?" questioned Captain Connor. "What do you mean sir?"

"Commander Hayes." Ordered Gloval, and she nodded, keying the large radar board at the front of the room on, showing the information blue squad had been able to get.

The number of large red blips caught everyone's attention as she went on. "Our fighter screen was able to pick up this information before being forced to retreat. We estimate that what they saw was fifteen carrier classes or their equivalent judging from the number of ships that disgorged fighters in an attempt to catch our own. We would estimate the other forty ships they saw were of varied classes, their equivalent of battleships and their equivalent. While none of these ships can take on the Macross alone, together they could massacre us if they can get in range. However, captain Gloval wanted me to extrapolate their numbers if this amount of ships was continuous in a sphere around us."

The screen changed now showing a huge globe of ominous red dots surrounding the besieged Macross. "We estimate it would take upwards of three hundred thousand ships to completely encircle us at that distance. Against such a force we would have no chance at all."

Conner looked at the screen then at Hayes incredulously. "You can't be serious, there's no way they have that many ships! If they did why are they taking so long to attack us? If they all attacked us like the ship from two days ago they could overwhelm us within seconds!"

"We don't know why they aren't attacking us en masse though Dr. Lang has told us how extremely dangerous it would be to attempt that accurate a fold space jump. They would probably lose dozens if not hundreds of ships on intrapolation if they tried that." Gloval said. "And I don't think their long range lasers can match our own. The main objective however, and our long term goals must be to not allow them to fully encircle us. If they do that and simply launch waves of battlepods they will overwhelm us in short order. Therefore, operation Blitzkrieg, we will take them at a run."

Gloval stood up and took the controls form Commander Hayes. "Dr. Lang tells us that the main problem with the reflux cannon was firing it in atmosphere, it wasn't able to vent enough heat outside the hull. In space there is no such problem. We will send a remote controlled spy eye forward and begin long range bombardment of the enemy ships with our gun. At the same time Dr. Lang and his team will attempt to goose the engine output to fifty times its maximum. We will rush forward through the hole thus created." He smacked the globe of enemy ships with a pointer, and the view changed, showing the Macross going forward into a whole its fire had created. "When in range our secondary weapons will fire. Our fighter screen will launch at the same time, and our Defender class destroids will take to the surface of the fortress to provide anti fighter fire. Our goal will be to break out of the encirclement and move at a heading to take us toward Neptune. We will be using the planet to slingshot further in system, building our speed heading in-system. Our target destination will be determined when we get there. Questions, comments?"

Roy raised a hand, "More a point of discussion. You're putting a lot of pressure on our Veritechs and other anti-fighter defenses. It would only take their fighters doing enough damage to the engines to slow us down for us to lose badly against even the ships within that part of the encirclement."

"That is why you're fighters had better protect our engines. Let me make it more clear commander. Your Valkyries are to do everything in their power to protect the engines. The rest of the fortress is to be left to the destroids and tertiary weapon systems."

Roy gulped, but nodded. Against that avalanche of firepower there really was no way but to risk all to win all. It was the kind of gamble a fighter pilot could get behind.

Commander Drake broke in. "I think we can help in blasting a hole through the enemy. My teams have devised proximity fuses and attached them to a little over half our nukes and ICBMs. They'll explode when the fuse program computes that an enemy is near enough to kill with the explosion rather than on contact. We have others rigged to be left behind us as mines but I don't think using them here would be useful."

Gloval nodded sharply. "Excellent, we will use the normal ICBM's first to wipe out their initial fighter screen. That will allow our fighters to be hoarded until we are passing through their formations. We'll give your fighters as much time before going in as possible, but it will be up to you and your men, as it will be on you where the hammer falls the hardest."

Roy nodded grimly. "Permission to bring in the walking wounded? If I do that I can nearly double our strength."

"Granted. Operation Blitzkrieg will commence in two hours. After that main cannon bombardment will begin as soon as possible. After that it is all up to luck on when the main battle will begin." Everyone nodded and the conference broke up without a word. Everyone knew this was going to be the hardest trial they had ever faced. Those who survived would look back on it though and remember it as only one of many.

Roy looked around the assembled pilots as the last of the walking wounded walked in. None of these pilots would be as good as an uninjured man, but this looked to be a monstrous fight, and they needed all the help they could get. As they shuffled in he noticed that Ranma was in the back of the room with his head against the wall and looked to be asleep. "Alright settle down people, I know you've all got questions and hopefully I'll give you some answers. Suffice it to say" he was interrupted by Ranma snorting in his sleep and turning over "What I'm going to tell you" again Ranma snorted and now all eyes in the room were on sleeping martial artist and Roy sighed. "Someone wake that idiot up please."

One of the pilots reached over to shake Ranma's shoulder only to watch as Ranma rolled onto his side against the wall, still sleeping. Another pilot on Ranma's other side made to punch his other shoulder only to find his fist grabbed before being tossed into the air and against another wall. Now all the pilots backed away from the mysterious power of sleep-fu, though some were chuckling at their friend's face-plant.

Lt. Prescott, who was there as part of the call-up of the walking wounded sighed. "You're never gonna wake up the bloody git that way, this is the only way to wake him up." And with that Eric took his water bottle and splashed Ranma in the face with it. He still kept his distance though; the instructor who had done this to Ranma the first time (and incidentally introduced his curse to the entire academy) was smashed by an errant flailing hand so hard into one of the classroom walls his body left a dent.

Ranma-chan woke up sputtering "What'd ya do that for!" Then she nearly screeched in pain. "Ah too tight!" She grabbed her flight jacket and ripped it open, as well as the airtight shock absorbing shirt underneath. This had two results: one, it allowed her to breathe again now that her chest was no longer constricted to the point of asphyxiation, and two it showed everyone there that Ranma-chan was of course not wearing a bra, that her chest was at least in the D range and that her small nipples were almost as bright a red color as her hair.

The pilots all looked at this and gulped, then gulped for an entirely different reason as the view was cut off by Ranma-chan pulling her shirt around her while the other fist of the enraged red-head began to blaze with a corona of blue-gold fire. "You lot have precisely a second before we get to see if pilots can fly without their eyeballs! One!"

Every fighter looked away hurriedly save for one leering ensign who screamed as Ranma-chan punched him so hard he flew into and through a wall on the other side of the meeting room. Roy coughed, a large sweat drop forming on the back of his head as he tried to regain everyone's attention to mutters of 'freaking perverts', 'damn curse' and other less mentionable comments from the back of the room while Ranma-chan found the hot water dispenser and poured a glass over herself.

"Okay, we'll just ignore Ensign Saurez for the moment. I realize you're all probably wondering why you're all here including the wounded, and I gotta tell you this is a doozy." He went on to describe the upcoming operation, and moreover why it was so important to break out of the cordon before the sphere tightened around them. The tension, which had evaporated with the attempts to wake Ranma up came back in spades. He finished by saying "As such our primary, hell our only objective is to ensure that the engines take no damage during this assault. Any other consideration is not only secondary but is to be utterly ignored. Any questions, comments?"

The room was silent for a moment then Ranma, once more male said in a thoughtful tone "Make them mad, make them stupid."

"What do you mean ensign?"

"It's one of the main tenants of my martial arts school," Ranma explained. "In a fight if ya make an opponent mad he stops thinking, starts to become predictable. If you can do that the battle becomes a lot easier. It's even better when it's a crowd of enemies 'cause the first thing to go away is group coordination, they start to get in each other's way in their eagerness ta smash you."

"You're talking smack talk right? Ground pounders and infantrymen use it all the time to rile up themselves and the other side." One of the lieutenants said. "But how would we get that to work against aliens?"

Wait, wait," said the commander of Vermilion, a man named Pike, "You said that's a tenant of your martial arts school? You mean you actually took lessons in smack talk? And this is a serious martial arts school?"

Ranma grinned. "hell yeah, my old man may be a runner up for the bastard-parent of the millennium award, and even then only if you count fictional characters, but he was a past master at pissin' people off. He got so good at it he could say a single line and piss his opponent off enough ta let him either win or more often get away. I learned all his tricks." Though I wish I had learned when not to use it against my opponents too. It might've made my time in Nerima better.

"So how would you get that to work against aliens?" Asked Roy, intrigued despite his better judgment. After all despite the fact that it was never officially sanctioned, smack talk was as time honored a tradition between pilots as it was in the land forces. "I know that Claudia, I mean Commander Grant" he corrected himself ignoring the grins on more than a few faces, all the pilots knew of his ongoing relationship with the communications specialist. "Has tried to use electronic warfare against them in both battles up to now and it hasn't worked. Even jamming doesn't get though."

"Jamming might not get through 'cause it's a recognized tactic. I mean, everyone does it right?" answered Ranma. "What if we use something else that ain't so recognizably military? Like the audio of those stupid old American cartoons, or infomercials or something."

"How about music?" said one ensign with a scar over his right eye. "We all listen to the stuff anyway, why not flood their channels with as much music as they can handle and see what happens? It certainly couldn't hurt could it? We could turn the volume way down in our Veritechs and way up on the radio."

"All different music or just one band? Because if I have to listen to your heavy metal crap I'll go spare" Eric said dryly.

"Switching from different styles may have the best effect," Ranma answered, the authority on pissing people off. "Keep 'em guessing as to the meaning. Songs with cultural messages would be the best, heavy metal too, though I don't know much about that style. And the only non-Japanese artist I listen to is Heather Alexander."

Several of the pilots agreed with him one even going so far as to say "Heather rocks man, she's the goddess of war." Others argued back that their own favorite bands were better, and soon the whole room was one giant argument on the merits of different musical styles.

Roy let it go on for a while grinning. Happy argumentative pilots were a lot better than worried morose ones and far more combat effective too. After about fifteen minutes when the educational debate showed no sign of stopping anytime soon he brought a hand to his mouth and whistled for attention. "All right, I see this might be a good idea, so I'll leave you lot to vote on the variety we use while I go tell the higher ups about our addition to their plan. If you all haven't voted on a theme by the time we have to launch we'll go with a mishmash. I'll see you all in hanger deck one ready to kick alien ass and sound good doing it!" He was met with a cheer and he left the compartment grinning.

Captain Gloval waited as the spy eye flew out to take position ahead of them. He wondered idly how long the plane would last before the aliens figured out what they were doing but it really didn't matter. He turned to Lt. Young, who handled the weapons systems of the space fortress. "Once we have confirmed enemy sighting I want the reflux cannon to go to full speed firing. Take as many of their capital ships out as you can. Secondary will fire as they bear." Kim nodded nervously, this was going to be the biggest battle she had ever been a part of. Nodoka, who had come onto the bridge as if she had a right to be there reached out a hand and gave the young girl's shoulder a reassuring squeeze, which seemed to drain some of her tension away.

Vanessa switched the view on her console to the main screen as enemy ships began to appear on the spy eye radar. The bridge crew all looked at captain Gloval who slowly nodded. "Operation Blitzkrieg begins now. Boost engines, lock on enemy ships with the main cannon."

Sammy nodded, and relayed the command. "Engines boosted aye."

Kim nodded a second later. "I have a lock on an enemy ship sir."

"Fire." Kim hit the button and the main canon, which really made up the forward two portions of the ship, crackled to life and fired out a gigantic beam of star fire. The beam shot out down range and a second later on of the blips on the screen disappeared. "Acquire new target and fire, keep it up guns, hammer them!" For the next fifteen minutes the main gun kept firing, shards of actinic fire lancing out to destroy targets that couldn't be seen with the naked eye.

Vanessa cursed as her radar lock on the alien ships went down. "Spy eye destroyed. Last telemetry reading show incoming fighters."

Gloval nodded. Lisa looked back at him. "Should we scramble the Valkryies?"

The captain shook his head. "No. Order Commander Drake to launch the ICBM's he's rigged as mines out in front of us. Slow the ship to normal speed for a few minutes then back to boosted output at the first detonation."

As Lisa passed on the order Vanessa spoke up again. "Sir long range radar reports the enemy sphere is closing in behind us and to both sides. Estimate seven hours until they close with our current position enough to launch battlepods."

Gloval nodded calmly, though inwardly he was cursing. The enemy now knew what they were trying to do and were attempting to close their trap on them anyway. It showed the enemy was intelligent enough to respond but also had a certain inflexibility of thought. What they should have down was to shrink the cordon towards the front of the ship to bring more power to bear at the point of the fortress' attack. Instead they were still trying to envelope Macross from all sides. A quick response, but it would only work if the battleship slowed down. If they could keep going, they could escape and put the enemies into a stern chase, whichMacross would win.

Aboard his flagship Breetai listened to reports of the ongoing battle cursing the fact that he had chosen to place his starship directly on the straight line to earth, and thus out of the action. Getting second hand reports was just not the same. Still, this does tell me something. If they had still had space-fold ability, even to micro-jump, they would have done so to evade our cordon. That they are not means they cannot, the jump from within the gravity well of their home planet may have destroyed the fold-space engine entirely. Order all ships to advance at best possible speed, we need to close the distance and keep the Micronians from escaping."

Back on the bridge, the tension had ratcheted higher as the swarm of incoming fighters came into range of the Macross's own radar. Lisa looked down at her console then said "Enemy entering the ICBM mine field in five, four, three, two, one now!"

Through the glass of the main viewport explosions could be seen in the distance, visible at first then dwindling rapidly as the mines went off. In their wake they left only a few dozen battlepods from what had been an attack hundreds strong. Gloval nodded in satisfaction and Lisa ordered the engine to boost power again. The Macross drove forward, and soon they were able to see the alien motherships on radar again. Gloval looked over at Kim who began to fire the main gun as fast as she could re-target. Another fifteen enemy ships died under her fire as the Macross sailed closer.

Another ten minutes went by as the thump, hum, thump of the main cannon was the only sound that was heard. Then "Incoming fire!" yelled Lisa, and beams of varicolored light lit up space for a moment on all sides, only one of them impacting the Prometheus on the side of the sub with little damage. "Damage to the Prometheus, minimal internal damage, outer hull pared away in sections 1-16. Repair robots already on the way."

Gloval nodded. "Secondary's acquire targets and fire." Now the battle was a little more hectic, with the secondary weapons of the space fortress, the equivalent of their enemy's main guns, fired rapidly as possible, trading blows with the enemy motherships who had disgorged another wave of fighters but kept them close, waiting for the Macross to come to them.

As they came closer and closer the radar began to paint a more detailed image of the enemy fleet and Gloval studied it carefully. As the radar identified which ships were the battleships and which the carriers he pondered for a few seconds. Looking at the still inaccurate fire he nodded, punched some buttons and the tactical computer changed, showing the alien ships in two different colors now, one dark purple and the other red. "Prioritize fire on the battleships we've identified so far."

Lisa looked up from her own console where she was trying to estimate the optimum moment for her to order the destroids onto the hull and the Veritechs to launch. "Sir, shouldn't we concentrate on knocking out the carriers? We don't know how many battlepods they carry after all, and with the inaccuracy of their laser systems that makes the pods the more viable threat."

Gloval nodded. "It would if they were going to continue missing us but I think their reach far exceeds their ability to aim, and once we get into their firing envelope for real we will be overmatched. I refuse to believe that an alien species that can traverse the stars has main guns on their ships that are that inaccurate at close range."

Lisa nodded, looked down at her board and saw that the enemy battlepods had begun to advance. "All destroids take your positions along the hulls. All Veritech fighters wait for further orders." Captain Connor acknowledged, sounding a little nervous as his Monster class-command destroid, which he had inherited from Mannstein, moved out to take position directly beneath the front of the command spire and she moved on smoothly. "Commander Drake launch three proximity activated ICBMS on my mark." A lucky shot went through scoring along the side of the command spire, taking out long range communications gear and one of the tertiary laser turrets. Lisa didn't even flinch as the bridge set, rather stupidly in her opinion, near the top of the command spire shook with the impact. As soon as the advancing wave of fighters, the second in this fight and mostly composed of the remaining triangle fighters and a smattering of battlepods, entered her engagement envelope she yelled "Mark!"

From the submarine fused into the right docking clamp of the space fortress three intercontinental ballistic missiles shot out. Not five minutes later, they exploded sweeping the enemies second fighter screen with a deluge of nuclear fire. Unfortunately explosions do not propagate well in space and the enemy had learned, spreading their fighters out. A little over a third of the fighters in the second wave survived to close with the fortress. Thedestroids opened up as they entered range, the battleship's tertiary weapons opening up in turn.

Five minutes after that, Vanessa motioned to the main viewport. "Enemy vessels now in visual range."

On the heel of her words the enemy fire became much more accurate, scoring a direct hit on the Daedalus and two on the main gun nacelles. The damage, while not critical was still worrisome. "Rotate the ship 180 degrees along its axis, continue fire." He marked out the largest ship remaining and nodded at Kim. "Hit this ship with the next shot from the reflux cannon, and the fellows on either side with the secondary guns." Kim nodded and not a second later those enemies ceased to exist, but the return fire had smashed two of the secondary guns and four more tertiary batteries. "Go to continuous rotation but vary the speed to keep their targeting computers guessing," Gloval said calmly. And everyone around him soaked in that calm like it was a lifeline and responded accordingly.

Lisa saw that they were now almost within the enemy fleet and the remaining battlepods of this portion of the enemy fleet were even now forming up to hit the battleship from behind. It was time to commit the Valkryies and she did so promptly. "All Veritech fighters clear for launch out of all hanger bays! Engage the incoming fighter swarm behind us!" Roy acknowledged the order sounding positively gleeful, and the Veritechs zoomed out one after another form every hanger on the fortress to take up position in front of it. Gloval nodded approval even as the ship rocked from another grazing blow to its underbelly. This battle was far from over, but it had entered the end game.

With the walking wounded included, blue flight had become blue squadron once more and Lt. Prescott found himself acting commander Prescott. They formed up right below Vermilion, forming a wall of 48 fighters streaking toward the enemy whose numbers Roy didn't bother counting. He knew it was pointless. As the distance between the two forces closed he spoke into the radio. "This is Skull-1, carrier croup is starting sonic warfare now! All flights begin broadcasting!"

The great music debate back in the briefing room had come to a reluctant compromise. The fighter pilots decided to let the aliens decide which musical style was the best. After all if it made the aliens angry or unable to concentrate, then it must be good. This rather simple cognitive connection tells you all you need to know about fighter pilots.

The order of styles had been decided via popular vote. First would be hard rock, the kind of music, as one pilot put it, you could fight too. The next would be pop, then new age, techno and finally classic rock. No rap. While there had been several proponents of this style Ranma had bluntly told them he would hurt them if they forced him to listen to it. Ranma might not know much about music but he knew what he didn't like. With the example of their friend still lying in an adjoining room, they acquiesced graciously.

So as the fighter groups came into missile range of one another the Veritechs began to broadcast the heavy metal song 'just another way to die' by disturbed on every channel they could, drowning their opponents communication channels and blanketing many of their own.

Those fighters had been given very explicit instructions from Lord Admiral Breetai himself. They were to ignore the enemy fighters and concentrate fire on the engines of the space fortress. Those engines had to be taken out, or at least damaged enough to slow the enemy vessel down enough to allow the rest of the fleet to concentrate on their position. They should have come on as a mailed fist.

That fist shattered as the noise attack struck home. The Zentraedi were ill prepared to deal with caterwauling like that. It was obviously information of some kind, words could be heard in it, rising and falling in cadence but the cacophony in the background was something they had never heard before. Worse they blanketed every channel, and the anti-ECM measures were not working to filter it out.

The entire fighter group shuddered, paused and then collapsed into confusion as groups centered around the few be-armed versions of the battlepod in the group continued to move forward while the majority of them milled around in space.

Roy whistled. "Holy shit. That worked way better than I expected. Command you seeing this?"

Lisa's voice answered. "Affirmative skull-1, we see it. Maybe the aliens have better hearing than us and they can't deal with the volume or something. In any case there are still some coming on."

Roger that. "Okay, Vermilion, Skull, Green and Blue, take up assigned sectors. Keep in contact and remember our primary objective here is to keep them away from the engines, not get kills. Keep 'em disorganized and rock their worlds!" That said he fired his first two missiles and they streaked ahead, impacting on one of the tentatively tagged command pods. Hitting at the same time they obliterated the pod and he closed in transforming into guardian mode his blaster rifle blazing.

Ranma had three things going for him when it came to being a good fighter pilot. One was the obvious one, as a master level martial artist he had insane reflexes, much like the furry little demons of hell that he hated and feared above anything else. These reflexes were made even better in a Veritech than normal due to his ability to merge his body's ki with that of the Veritech. Two, he had a danger sense even more honed than most professional soldiers. This allowed him to anticipate and feel when he was being targeted and to respond accordingly. And three thanks to his school being primarily aerial based he was able to think in three dimensional terms. There was another reason however that was not from being a martial artist or from training it was part of who he was.

He thrived on chaos. His whole life had been chaotic, and he had created as much as he had been the center of it in Nerima. Any battle was chaotic in the extreme, and none more so than space battles, where danger could come at you from all sides. Ranma made to emphasize it. He moved in and out of the battlefield, killing any command pods he saw, moving through the formations of the pods so that their own fire hit their enemies, and using a few as living shields, sowing chaos and confusion. He also watched out for his wingmen, killing any battlepod that tried to get into their kill lane.

He noticed several of the pods had been able to come together despite the sonic attack and had fallen down and out of the growing dogfight before arching up in an effort to attack Macross from below. "Blue-1 this is blue 8, going after some pods that look smarter than the average alien."

He sent the route he was going to take and then dived out of the main battle, aiming back at the ones going around it even as Prescott answered. "Roger that Sugita, blue seven link up with blue six and five you don't have the angle your wingmen has. Ranma get back here as quick as you can."

Roger." With that order Ranma changed his angle to go through the space between the giant engine thrusters of the fortress instead of around, cutting the distance down by half and opening fire before the enemy pods even knew he was there. Six died under his missiles and he took out the last two at the run.

Roy's voice crackled over the radio urgently. "Ranma, several incoming missiles aimed at the command deck. None of the anti missile turrets can turn enough to the aft to hit them."

Ranma cursed and changed into guardian mode, breaking his forward momentum with a blast of his thrusters before shooting back the way he had come. He saw the missiles almost immediately and he wondered at the nature of luck as they had completely missed the engines but were on a direct course for the bridge from behind. Ranma lined up and aimed his shots carefully. He was able to take out all but one and he cursed, gunning his engines hard and diving down before transforming into soldier mode placing his Veritech between it and the command spire. Reaching deep he pushed his ki out until it covered the surface of the Veritech, adding a level to shield it from damage. The missile hit and rather than exploding Ranma's Veritech was pushed back violently crashing with enough force to leave a dent in the side of the spire right in the back of the bridge. "Ooow! You lot all right in there?"

"I would say we should be asking you that question ensign" Lisa said drolly, though her voice sounded a little shaky. The armor at that particular point was not very thick and if those missiles had all struck it they may have opened the bridge to space, and none of the bridge crew had spacesuits.

"Yeah I'm okay. Enough to get back in the fight anyway. After all" he joked "If we all don't get through this fight how am I going to talk ya'll into another sing-along?"

"Get back in the fight or I'll kill you myself" Lisa growled, though behind her he could hear some relieved giggles and even a chuckle from the captain.

"Hai hai." Ranma transformed back into plane mode and rocketed back into the main fight, which was much easier as the dogfight had almost come close enough to include the aft part of the engines.

Ranma had a sudden idea and he grinned before transforming into soldier mode and using his momentum to close with a battlepod that was firing at one of green squadron. He was so fast the pod didn't even know he was there before he kicked it in the back of the pod. The momentum thus imparted knocked the battlepod forward and Ranma grabbed it by the legs, crushing the thrusters on its feet. "A one and a two" he intoned, twirling in place before letting go, the pod rocketing out and slamming into two other pods, which hit three other pods which hit six more pods including one command pod. The lot of them banged and rattled together, some even flipping entierely over in space due to the momentum. All of them righted themselves and turned to look around for him.

Ranma laughed and decided to see if body insults carried over to these giant bastards. He turned his soldier mode robot around and bent over, then smacked his robot's ass with one hand. Turning around he saw over fifty battlepods coming after him and he laughed again rocketing towards them, almost absentmindedly killing two that tried to gun down a Veritech with blue markings. Behind him the other Valkryies of Blue squadron regrouped and began to fire into the melee around him.

Roy looked on with shock. "Did, did ensign Sugita just moon the aliens?"

His wingmen took out a battlepod that would have nailed Roy for his inattention. "Yeah, well it seems to have worked. That kid's keeping a fourth of the remaining battlepods occupied over there. They've all got a mad on for him, completely ignoring everyone else. I guess you really can make a science, or as he puts it a martial art out of pissing people off."

Roy came back to himself and transformed into guardian mode, jumping up and dodging incoming cannon fire while returning fire to the side. "Yeah, well that makes it easier for the rest of us."

Not that the rest of the fight was going as well as Ranma's little portion. Several Valkyries went down, and the destroids were being pressed hard by the more mobile, jump and flight capable battlepods attacking the front portion of the ship. Still the Macross was nearly through the enemy's lines and Gloval nodded slightly as ships at the back of the enemy fleet began to fire at them, scoring several glancing hits despite the fortress' rotation. "Keep firing ahead, keep plowing the road."

"Captain!" Dr. Lang's worried face appeared on his com screen. "The converter in the reflux cannon is in danger of overheating. If you don't stop firing the cannon for at least a few minutes, it's going to meld down!"

A single blast from forward rocked the ship as it impacted on the base of the command spire, right above where the rebuilt city that gave the ship its name and Gloval growled. "Dr. I'm afraid at this point I don't care. If it melts down that's a problem for the future, if we slow down, if we stop firing the reflux cannon, we will be overwhelmed now. Do what you can, but that is all. We will not stop firing for anything." As if to emphasize his point a sliver of fire shot out and immolated a battleship that was so close that the ship and the resulting explosion was visible to the naked eye through the viewscreen. "Contact commander Drake, I think it's time for the final act. Launch all the remaining ICBM's the ones that are proximity detonated and direct."

A moment later the silos of Prometheus opened, and spewed out over twenty missiles in every direction. Several of them were blown apart before impact, but others blew up close enough to immolate their targets, and others got through and slammed home against shields, bringing them down and opening them up for the secondary cannons on the Macross. Six more battleships died under their fire while a further three disappeared under fire from the reflex cannon. With that the Macross had blown a hole through the fleet, and was even now moving out the other side.

The Macross charged forward out of the encirclement and away. Gloval nodded. "Recall all fighters, repair crews to start work immediately. Route all power to the engines get us out of here as fast as you can."

Lisa nearly slumped at her console while behind her Sammy went to work directing her crews with the help of Kim and Vanessa watched her sensors closely to make certain the confused fleet behind them couldn't catch up. "Roger sir." She hit her com button and tried to sound less exhausted then she was. "All destroids, battle over, return to your hangers. Commander Fokker, pull your flights back in the following order: green…."

Fokker slammed his last missile into a battlepod and then looked at his sensors, letting lose an explosive breath. The only remaining battlepods were those around the monstrous melee that Ranma had created. You had to hand it to the kid, he had angered those battlepods so badly that some of them, even the ones with arms had completely forgotten everything but the need to destroy him. Roy wasn't certain how he'd done it, but he had. "Er, roger that carrier-2, um be aware there is still a fight going on out here. I'll pull Green and Vermillion back but we need to destroy the fighters still mixing it up with Blue." That said he and his squadron broke form their positions and raced to help out Blue.

Ranma's Veritech looked as if someone had taken a hammer and beaten on practically every surface. His wings were gone, and his Valkyrie's head had been almost blown off, one of his feet was missing but he was still fighting, and he brought down his robot hands onto the top of a battlepod, crushing it and using the momentum to push himself back dodging more cannon fire. As he did the two battlepods that had attempted to kill him blew up under the fire of five Valkryies in guardian mode. He looked at his radar and saw no more battlepods nearby and he looked around. "Oh, it's over?"

Lt. Prescott's voice was dry as dust as he answered. "Yes it's over we're going back to the barn now. That is if you can stop yourself from insulting us to the point we want to leave you out here."

"No I'm good. Um, but seriously, I don't think I can even transform back to guardian mode, let alone jet mode."

Roy answered him. "Don't worry kid we'll give ya a tow. Blue 2, skull 5 you two have the most battery power left, you're on tow duty. Everyone else surround them, we'll all go home together. Though I got to say kid you do have a gift for pissing people off don't ya?"

"Heh. Yeah but I think we all made our axe's flash this time."

Prescott smiled and sang out in a broken baritone "'How many of them can we make die'?"

To Roy's surprise a few of the others broke in and began to sing along. The singing may have been sub-par but the emotion was not and the survivors of the two squadrons of Valkyries flew back to Macross singing the March of Cambreadth the entire way.

end chapter.

*Chapter 7*: friends are people who piss you off

Did Minmei sing her way to being a main character? Did Ranma get engaged to the mallet happy one? In that case I don't own either.

Some female bonding in this chapter, sorry if it comes off as flat or hurried, it's not something I know a lot about.

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Chapter 6 friends are people who first piss you off then apologize

Breetai cursed loudly as he once again watched the recordings of the battle. These Micronians were wily and capable enemies, even if they didn't know enough about the space fortress to use it as well as it could be used. Still, without the fold space jumps, it was only a matter of time before he could pin them in place and overwhelm them. He had already ordered his fleet to disperse, covering a wide range of the solar system. Some had folded to various planets, others stayed in the stern chase that Zor's fortress had forced with their breakout. Still others would fold to places along their route to keep pace with them. Breetai himself would fold to near the massive planet in the mid-range of the star system and his personal ships would wait there for these Micronians to come to him.

No, the breakout had irritated him and would add months to the time it would take him to capture the fortress, and even worse would drain his ships of more energy with each fold, but those were not what bothered him. What did was the odd action of the Reguld brigades that engaged the Micronian fighters. He pushed a button and watched again from the viewpoint of a carrier as the Reguld class battlepods streaked in, a unified force of over three hundred that should have been able to ignore the pitiful number of opposing fighters but then…. Suddenly the cohesion vanished, something happened, and all was chaos, a chaos that the Micronians used ruthlessly. Never taking his eyes off the recording he asked "Have you come to any conclusions about the cause of this Exedore?"

The short Zentraedi shook his head. "Unfortunately not my lord, the attack seems to be from some sort of signal over the radio, like interference only our dampeners do not see it as such. Why it would have such an effect is more than I can say. I will need to receive more information before I can make any conclusions."

Breetai grunted but then his head jerked up right as an incoming transmission overrode the holo-projector. Without any warning the image of supreme commander Dolza appeared in front of them, scowling angrily down with them. A giant even among the Zentraedi, his bald head gleamed in the over light of his command center far away in the heart of the monstrous fortress that was the heart and soul of the Zentraedi. He stood glaring down at them for a moment before speaking. "I am displeased Breetai."

Breetai stood, bowing formally before straightening. "How have I displeased you my lord?"

"You know why that ship is important you know why we must capture it intact and yet in the records of the last battle that I have seen you have allowed your men to attack it directly, causing damage to our prize. Let me make it clear once again, Zor's fortress must be taken intact, not as intact as possible, but intact! This is your final warning Breetai." And with that the image disappeared, leaving Breetai staring futilely at empty space.

He paused a moment to collect himself then turned to Exedore. "Sporadic raiding, search for weaknesses, but don't attack all out. Lull these Micronians into a false sense of complacency. We will set an ambush for them in the rings of the gas giant and then we will overwhelm them with waves of Regulds. Make certain the battleship captains understand what I will do to them if they disobey me. No more mistakes." Exedore looked at the face of his lord and blanched, remembering that Breetai had once ripped an Invid trooper in half with his bare hands and that he had been calm and collected then. Now he most certainly was not and the diminutive Zentraedi nodded, bowing himself out of the command center quickly. "Yes my lord, I will make certain they understand their orders." Behind him Breetai continued to stare into the holo-projector, which was once more showing the video of the battle.

Dolza didn't know it but he was correct in the fact that the space fortress had taken a pounding, a fact that captain Gloval, who had, two days after the fight just sat through a lengthy briefing on the damages, knew all too well. Of the tertiary weapons systems only twelve of the fifty the fortress mounted were still working. Of the secondary weapons, the ship killer grazers that were the equal of their enemy's main guns, five of the nine had been obliterated. All of the crews of those guns had also been lost. The battleship had taken several punishing hits that opened several areas of the ships superstructure to space including one strike near the front of the reflux cannon that opened the entire front portion of one of its nacelles.

What was worse, Dr. Lang's warnings had been on the mark. The converter, the most important part of the cannon had melted in place. It now looked more like runoff from a lava flow rather than a piece of incredibly advanced technology. He sighed and looked at Dr. Lang at the front of the room and Lt. Porter, who had been working round the clock to analyze the damage and organize repair teams. "I understand there is no way to repair the converter so can we simply replace it?"

Dr. Lang and Sammy both shook their heads, but it was the doctor who answered. "Captain, we don't have a spare, in fact this was our spare the original was destroyed when the ship fired on the ground before the battle on Earth. And we can't build a new one, not only don't we have the parts for it, the thing is simply too large, our factories can't handle something that large and complex. I'm looking into ways to get around that, but don't hold your breath."

Sammy spoke up, surprisingly brave as this was her area of expertise, well her and Lisa's but Lisa was on the bridge and this was her show. "Moreover our logistics situation isn't going to allow us to rebuild something that large. I've made a preliminary inventory of our repair needs and its going to eat into the store of raw material badly. I estimate we will only have about five percent of the material we collected from the fold space incident and our onboard stores! Even then we can't replace the two largest particle cannon turrets, we don't have spare muzzles in that size, and we have to prioritize space rated metal to other projects. We can replace thirty tertiary laser systems for the same amount of metal that it would take to repair one of them let alone two. We can repair all the other damage given time, but afterwards our stores are going to be depleted badly."

Gloval sighed as he put a hand over his eyes. At least, he thought sourly, the men lost were easy to replace, harsh though it may be to acknowledge that point. As grievous as it was to lose so many people, the gun crews were easy enough to replace, much more so than fighter pilots. He had simply ordered the crew of the Prometheus to change over to gun crews. With a few days of training they would be ready to go and once more useful, now that the submarines' ICBM stores had been used up. They had more bullets than bodies for now, a stark reversal from their situation before the breakout. Still, it would hopefully be months before they faced a similar battle. "Very well Lt. you and your crews have done exemplary work. I think that will be all today, enjoy your time off. Oh, if commander Hayes is still on the bridge inform her she is ordered to go off watch. I realize she won't like it, but you all have been working nearly round the clock for the past two hours. We can let someone else handle it for now. Commander Grant can take over her duties as vac boss and Lt. Young and Lt. Laird can take over for you."

One of the many hats that as executive officer she was supposed to wear Lisa was in charge of overseeing all space operations. That meant she had to be on the bridge directing not only combat but any exterior repairs, or any movements at all that occurred outside the ship. Ever since they had left the enemy fleet behind them she had been directing the exterior repairs, keeping workmen from overworking, making certain there were no accidents. It was a lot for any one person to do, but she had done so, and not only were repairs proceeding apace but there had only been one accident on her watch. Still, she wasn't the only one who could act as vac boss and it was obvious to anyone that saw her that she was slowly driving herself to an emotional breakdown.

Sammy nodded happily. "Yes sir, I'll tell her before I go off shift."

As the young Lieutenant left Gloval turned to Dr. Lang, "find us some way to defend against attacks Dr. We cannot take a pounding like we took in the last action again and remain battle worthy. That and figuring out how to get the reflux cannon back online are your only priorities, turn all your other duties over to your assistants and get us some answers." The Dr. nodded and left, leaving Gloval to stare at the Macross' schematics on the screen in silence.

Commander Fokker looked up as a knock rang of the hatch leading to his office. He hated his office, he was a damn pilot, not a paper pusher, so what if he was CAG (of an air group that didn't in point of fact exist at the moment, they were supposed to have 20 full 12-fighter squadrons, they hadn't had that many before the aliens attacked, and they had barely 4 under strength squadrons now) that didn't mean he couldn't do his job just as well from a fighter cockpit than behind a desk. Still, it made meeting with people easier. "Come in."

Lt. Prescott entered and saluted before standing at attention, free arm still using the crutch he had to use to get around with his broken leg. "You wanted to see me sir?"

Roy took a moment to look at the man in front of him before replying. Eric Prescott was an odd bird in the SDF forces in that he came from the land forces before transferring directly into the starfighter branch and actually succeeded in doing it. Most people who tried that washed out entirely or were found to be better at being a destroid operator than a pilot. Eric however excelled. Though why anyone was surprised by this was beyond Roy.

Eric was a member of a military family that went back to before the colonization era, the youngest of three brothers who were all in the military. Scott, the oldest, was an admiral in the British navy and one of their most decorated officers. He had led their forces against Somali pirates and been in charge of several mixed service operations against anti-unification forces and religious terrorists. Rumor, and in this case it was almost definitely fact, had it that the U.N. had tried to recruit him several times to the space forces but he had refused the transfer every time. Of course now that there was a viable threat to face he would probably change his mind. The middle brother Marcus was a CAG based out of India. Though they hadn't been upgraded to Valkyries yet he was reputed to be a shit hot pilot and damn good leader. The youngest brother was most definitely cut from the same cloth, and had done an amazing job at every duty given him, which rather neatly coincided with why Roy had asked to see him.

Roy reached into his desk and pulled out a small box which he threw at Eric, who dropped his salute just in time to catch it. "I'm pulling you from the academy now and making that" he nodded at the box "official. You did a damn good job as acting commander, and I'm making the rank permanent."

Eric opened the box and found the rank tabs of a commander (j.g.) in there, the rank of a squadron leader. Eric nodded having expected this, though not the fact he was being pulled from the academy before the first class graduated. "Who are you going to tab as my replacement? And can I make up my own roster?"

"I'm going to tag Lt. Grison as your replacement, his legs are crippled he'll never fly again but he'll do a good job with the recruits. And yeah you can make up your own roster, but Lt. Lafferty is still your X.O. And I gotta tell ya, most of the other walking wounded're being returned to half-duty, so you'll be back down to half strength until the academy graduates its first class in two weeks. At that point I promise you can have first pick of the new blood."

"Joy. Can I keep ensign Sugita? If I'm rebuilding from scratch I want killers in my squadron, and he may need some more seasoning, but he is the deadliest bastard I have ever seen."

Roy nodded. The kid had come close to matching his own kill ratio in the last two fights, and his skills with the soldier mode were literally unreal. "You think you can keep him under control?"

"I know it."

"Alright, he's yours. Once his Valkyrie is repaired and fit for duty anyway."

Rick Hunter looked around the shopping district with a distracted air. He had the day off of training, the first time in two weeks and it would be the last day off until graduation two weeks from now. The flight simulation was easy for him, the verbal cues and designations too. But while he was in decent shape he wasn't in soldier shape and the physical aspect as well as learning to use weapons was kicking his ass.

So he was enjoying this day off, but unfortunately Minmei was working all day, and his two semi-friends Ranma and Kasumi were nowhere to be found. He looked at a night club and muttered "Now why the hell can't places like this be open 24-7. It's not like we can choose when we get off or when we have to wake up y'know."

"I agree" a female voice said behind him "and you look like you're at loose ends like me trainee." Rick turned and saw a young, very pretty girl with orange hair standing behind him dressed in a navy uniform with lt. tabs that he recognized from the lingerie debacle a few weeks ago. "If you try to salute me I'll smack you just like Lisa did. Rick, right?"

'Er yeah," Rick said, suddenly tongue-tied. "Er, Samantha, or Sammy right?"

Sammy giggled, sizing Rick up for a moment. He was slender, well built and had a handsome face. He'll do, and he's a soldier too, that's always a bonus. "That's me. So tell me, do you have any idea about what there is to do around here for fun?"

"Um, well, there's this place at night, I've been in there once and it was okay. Not great but okay. I just wish the songs were better or at least not so, so…."

"Last century?" Sammy laughed. "Yeah I've been in there too. I just wish that Dr. Lang hadn't convinced the mayor to stop rebuilding and move most of the work crews over to help with the hydroponics gardens. I know food is important but there should be more to do around here. I mean none of the dance clubs are any good, the movie theater doesn't have a lot of movies and that's it for entertainment except for shopping and spending money, and I don't have all that much money to spend."

"Well there's the mini golf place? I think they just opened yesterday. Though I'd have to ask for directions. I know they're somewhere between the farms and the city but that's about it."

"Hmm, sounds like fun. So, winner buys the food afterward?" She grinned coquettishly at him and he blushed, realizing this could count as a date and for a moment he wondered about his 'relationship' with Minmei, but then she did keep on saying how great a 'friend' he was and he had been wondering this past week if she even remembered the two kisses they shared alone in the bowels of the fortress. And besides, this might be fun. "Okay sure, but don't expect me to take it easy on you."

Sammy grinned. "I'm going to make you eat those words trainee!"

The two walked off joking and laughing. Behind them a pair of eyes belonging to a young woman who had been there shopping for new table clothes looked after them, her eyes narrowed in irritation.

Lisa lay with her head back on the grass and gave a long sigh. She was lying along the edge of one of the upper hydroponic decks, one that was destined to be a rice field. Rice needed a lot of water to grow, and this deck's tiered slope allowed the water to run off from the rice fields into the lower fields on the deck below. It had been an idea of Nodoka's who had taken over the entire project being a biology major with a minor in agricultural sustainability. Around the edge of the field was a strip of bright green grass that looped along the very edge of the 200X200 feet deck. It was a great place to find solitude and after the past few days that was precisely what she needed to recover. She closed her eyes, feeling the artificial breeze on her face and ruffling her hair. She considered doing some of the meditation exercises from the two books she had been able to locate and download from Ranma's list, but decided against it. This tranquility was enough for her right now.

She stayed like that for a while, not moving, not thinking about much, just feeling the artificial breeze on her face, giving her a sense of serenity that she often found looking out into space, at least, you know, when the ship wasn't under attack or when she was overseeing repairs.

Lisa opened her eyes as a rustling next to her drew her out of her reverie. She turned to see the young woman who she met in the lingerie store after the shopping district reopened sitting in the grass next to her. The girl had a gentle smile on her face as she Lisa. "I see I am not the only one who enjoys it up here. Miss Hayes, wasn't it?"

"Yes, er, Kasumi right? Yes I quite enjoy it up here. The view is amazing and it's, well it's about as removed from my duties as I can get."

"Hmm, I as well. It also reminds me about the one thing from home I actually miss. I used to live in a house with a magnificent garden. It had a small pond and several trees and was most soothing. Alas it was the only thing in that household that was since my mother died. Let's just say that the friends I've made for myself here are better than the family nature gave me back there."

"I can relate believe me. My own father" She broke off, but Kasumi encouraged her with a 'hmm' of inquiry as she lay down next to Lisa on the grass, realizing with the empathy that made Kasumi who she was that this was something the other girl needed to say. Lisa went on haltingly, not certain why she was telling the other woman this but wanting to get it off her chest. "My father was always more of a commanding officer than a father. My mother couldn't handle it, and he always wanted to control me, and that forced me to try my damndest to get away from him but everyone else saw me as just an extension of him, like all my achievements were accomplished because he paved the way for me. I hated that, and hated more that he always put his own goals and duty over our family. I guess some people would call that noble, but I call it uncaring, being shunted aside yet never being able to be my own person."

"I know all about being shunted aside. My father and the rest of my family…." The talk continued, two young women, one had been thrust into the background, and the other who was always seen as being in the shadow of her father talking about the similarities and differences of their pasts. Much crying was involved, but it was therapeutic in nature. Two women who had lead lonely lives and who had only recently left the shadows, one by leaving her family behind entirely, and the other by proving beyond all doubt that she was where she was because of her own abilities and not that of her admiral father.

"Hey doc, what's up?"

"Gah!" Dr. Lang nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden voice behind him and he whirled around to stare at Ranma incredulously. "Goddamn it don't do that!"

Ranma grinned unrepentantly. "You're way too tense anyway doc. So what's got you all high strung?"

Dr. Lang counted to ten glaring at the odd young man before him when a sudden thought occurred to him. "Actually maybe you can help me." He went on to describe the problems, hoping that the young man's concept of ki and its connection to reflux energy may help him in figuring out a defense that may actually work and help him solve the problem with the main cannon.

Ranma listened silently, idly balancing on one foot as the doctor talked. When he finished it wasn't Ranma's knowledge of ki that gave him an answer, but his down to earth nature. "Well I don't know if this'll help ya, but I think yer trying to make this too damn complicated. If ya can't protect the whole ship with these barrier things, why not make them mobile? Any defense is better than none you can't wait until you have the perfect solution you know." Dr Lang gaped at him, why the hell hadn't he thought of that! "As fer the problem with the cannon, that one I can't help ya with. But if the problem is resources, why don't we just rope an asteroid or something? That's what they do in a lot of the old animes."

"Asteroid mining isn't nearly as easy as it looks in TV shows Ranma. There are a lot of considerations to take into account, such as the mixture of the asteroid, how we could rope it in, and how much time it would take and how badly it would slow the ship down."

"So blow it into smaller pieces that the Valkyries can collect. And who cares what the makeup of them is? If we blow enough of them up we'll get enough metals and other stuff eventually." Again Lang gaped at him. The solution was so simplistically brutal that it would never have occurred to him.

He sat there gaping at Ranma for a long moment before he started to laugh. Ranma looked on a little worried, afraid the doctor had snapped under the strain but Lang soon got control of himself. "Tha-thank you Ranma, you reminded me of the first principle of both the military and science. Keep it simple stupid! God I have been racking my mind for the perfect solution to our problems when just having a solution will do for now! Thank you, now what can I do for you?"

"Ahh not much, just wondering where I could get some steel bars and maybe some small compressed air canisters."

"Why are you, never mind I don't think I want to know. As long as you're looking for low grade pipes then there are a few bars that were taken from a gymnasium a while back and we have some compressed air tubes in inventory for the few old NASA style space suits we have on board. We never use the things, but they were the best we had when this ship was first discovered."

"Thanks doc. I'll see you later."

Lang looked after the rambunctious young man chuckling for a moment before turning back to his work with a renewed sense of purpose.

Ranma was about to exit the engineering section when a voice shouted behind him "Ranma prepare to die!"

Ranma whirled around searching frantically. Shit, he can't get that lost can he? No way in hell can Ryoga have found his way aboard a freakin' spaceship while it's in space?!"

His search ended upon hearing a booming laugh and he looked down a passage way and saw a large bald man standing there grinning. "Sorry, sorry but that is what my son always yells before attacking you right? You are the Ranma of Nerima fame, yes? I refuse to think there are two Ranmas who are as good at martial arts as you are."

Ranma relaxed and sensing no anger or threat from the man took the time to check him out. The first thing that sprang to mind was the man was huge and built like a main battle tank. He practically filled the entire corridor and his arms, shown off by a muscle-T were as big around as most men's thighs and hard with corded muscle. He was bald as an egg, but wore a yellow bandana around his head. The only other thing that stood out was his engineering-section orange pants and the chain around one of his ankles leading off down the corridor behind him. Ranma took all this in then what the man actually said registered. "Wait you said you're son?! Ryoga's your son?!"

The man nodded. "Duero Hibiki at your service. I saw you when you came into the generator room during the crisis from the fucked up fold. I wanted to introduce myself and see if you were as bad as the few letters I get from my son make you out to be, he and I haven't spoken in person for several years now, our family curse makes it almost impossible to find one another once we become separated. After all, if you were the root of all evil like he seems to think, I don't think you would have tried so hard to save the generator, or have joined up to defend the ship as a fighter pilot."

Ranma scratched his head wondering how to reply. "Look, I ain't going to lie to ya, a lot of the problems between your son and I are problems I made with my attitude, but most of them are really small scale, he just tends to make mountains out of molehills. I mean, following me to China because he was late for a duel over bread, c'mon, and the whole thing was made worse by…. It'd take me days to explain." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a battered but still legible notebook that said 'NWC Round Up' on the cover. "Just read this, it'll give you the low down on everyone in Nerima. It's pretty unbiased despite the author, so it'll help. If ya have specific questions I'll answer them, but I don't have the time it'd take to explain it all to ya."

The huge man took the book and carefully stowed it in his pocket. "I'll leave you for now then. But if I have any questions I might have to call you down to the engineering section. I can't wander much farther than this from the engines or I'll get lost." He rattled the chain on his leg for emphasis and Ranma nodded.

"Sure, just page me if ya have any questions. Or ya can e-mail 'em ta me. I've got my own address on the fortress' computer system since I'm a pilot and all." The man nodded cordially then turned away and Ranma did the same. He soon found the parts he needed for his little project and then went in search of a place to use them, but by the time he found one, it was nearly dinner time, so he left the pipes and canisters there and went to go get a shower before picking up Kasumi for a dinner with his mom, something that the three did whenever their busy schedules allowed.

On the upper hydroponic deck the two brunettes had gotten past the teary-eyed stage and were now happily exchanging funny stories from their youth. "And then Akane tries to feed her food to my father who promptly tries to play dead. She didn't believe him of course, and force fed him some of what she called curry. When she did that he began to change so many colors it was amazing!"

Lisa laughed aloud. "That reminds me of the first time my friend Claudia tried to cook something other than a salad. I don't know how she did it, but the chicken parmesan came out looking great, but it tasted like charred cardboard! The next day was the first time I ever made use of the 'woman's problems' excuse to get out of PT. Of course I can't cook so maybe I shouldn't talk."

"Oh cooking is easy if you can follow the instructions when you first start, that was always Akane's problem she never wanted to admit she had to. I'll be happy to teach you if you like. And maybe you can teach me how to use computers better. I'm afraid that in my chosen profession I will need that skill."

"Sure, we can meet whenever I'm off duty and you have time free from working and classes. I'm impressed that you can do both by the way."

Their conversation was interrupted by a male voice coming, oddly enough, from the opposite direction from the elevator that was the only way to get up to the farm. "I knew I'd find ya here Kasumi, you ready to meet mom for dinner at the White Dragon?"

Lisa looked over and saw ensign Sugita standing there still in his uniform but with the collar open and the undershirt not tucked in. Kasumi looked over and smiled. "Ara, is it that time already Ranma-kun? I'm sorry I lost track of time talking to my new friend. Have you two met each other?"

Ranma grinned. "Yeah, commander Hayes and I have met a few times on duty and off. And don't worry about the time, mom called to say she was going to run a little late anyway, though I don't know what she's doing today, she wasn't at the hydroponics office when I stopped by there."

"Hello ensign. And I think Nodoka-san is with Captain Gloval. I know he's off duty and that seems to be the way he likes to get rid of stress." She finished dryly.

Ranma cocked his head quizzically. "huh, what do ya mean?"

Lisa didn't understand why Kasumi was trying to send her some kind of frantic hand signal and answered readily. "Her relationship with captain Gloval is sort of an open secret you know."

Ranma looked at her with eyes so wide it kind of scared her then they rolled back into his head and he fainted dead away, falling backward and rolling down the slight incline of the grassy slope.

Lisa gaped and turned to look at Kasumi. "He didn't know!?"

Kasumi sighed. "Ranma-kun is rather slow to pick up on these things. And I honestly wasn't certain he would be able to handle hearing his mother was in a relationship with someone." She grimaced "I know how traumatizing it was for me to learn that my parents were being… physical with one another when I was a child."

Lisa walked down the hill after the body of the rapidly tumbling ensign. "Yes but that's when we're children, you have to be able to handle it better now. I mean he's what nearly nineteen now, surely he can handle it."

"Ranma's mental state has never been the most stable, shall we say." Kasumi answered drolly "he has so many mental issues and trauma caused by his idiot of a father that a five-man team of psychologists would be set for life."

"Oookay, not going to ask."

"Probably for the best, it would take far too long to describe most of the problems he has, and it really isn't my place to do so."

By this point Ranma's body had reached the end of the slope and went over the edge and into the rice field below, hitting with a splash. The now redhead came up spluttering "What do you mean they're in a relationship, since when!?"

Kasumi answered calmly as Lisa fell back on her rear in shock, mouth gaping at the change. "Since before the fold disaster. It's not like she tried to hide it from you Ranma-kun, it's just she never went out of her way to talk to you about it."

"B-but, I mean, isn't that"

Kasumi interrupted his attempts to speak "And it really isn't any of your business you know, she's a grown woman who can handle herself."

"I know that, jeeze, it's just that she's my mom y'know, thinking of her doing stuff like that at all is just weird and ain't it only been a few months since they met, ain't this a little too fast ta be doin' ecchi stuff?" the redhead moaned, her eyes still a little wild but she was getting control of herself and she took a glance at the wide eyes and shocked expression on Lisa's face quizzically.

"Where in the world did you think you came from Ran….." She paused and both young people shook their heads violently to get the idea of Genma doing that with anyone before she went on determinedly "Anyway, I'm certain that Nodoka has gone precisely as fast as she wants to."

Lisa regained her voice at last and, very calmly she thought, under the circumstances, interrupted the argument. "Um, excuse me, but what the hell just happened?! He was a he and now she's a she and there's no way, I mean he was at least a foot taller and, and where did all that mass go?" She finished rather querulously as Ranma pushed herself out of the rice field and began to wring out her uniform displaying two prominent additions that had most definitely not been there on his male body. "Oh. Never mind."

"That's what get's yer attention? Not the whole changing into a girl in the first place?" Ranma-chan asked.

"Oh well, I mean, the sex change thing can be faked, hair coloring that washes out with water and you can always make your voice higher or lower, and wearing baggy pants can hide your hips and" Lisa mumbled her eyes slightly glassy.

Kasumi looked at her new friend worriedly. "I think you broke her Ranma."

"I don't know why this comes as a shock ta her though, I mean its part of my medical files an' stuff. And it ain't like I've been goin' out of my way to hide it."

"Yes but reading about it and seeing it are two different things." Kasumi replied.

"Yeah well, seeing as how she doesn't seem to be coming out of it anytime soon…" Ranma-chan shrugged reached behind her and took a handful of water to splash the almost comatose Lisa's face.

Lisa sputtered and glared at the redhead (and ye gods she was short) "What the hell did you do that for?!"

Ranma-chan shrugged "Hey it worked to get me out of my shock. You looked like you were out of it for a bit."

"You have your world view shattered and see you well your mind is working" Lisa grumbled shaking wiping the water off of her face. "And for your information ensign if I was in uniform I would be much angrier than I am right now. Now will one of you explain to me how the hell what I just saw is possible?!"

Ranma-chan shrugged. "It's a curse I picked up 'cause my old man is an utter waste of skin. It happened when we were traveling in the Byanakala mountain range of China."

"I've heard that name before. Those are the ones where there was that huge disaster six or seven months ago right, the one that blew up an entire mountain? The news said it was some underground gas vein exploding or something?"

"Or something" Ranma-chan said, eyes glinting coldly for a moment before continuing his explanation. "Anyway, there were these cursed springs and my old man and I were both idiotic enough ta fall in. Well I say fall in, but I still blame him for not noticing he changed into a bloody panda before attackin' me. Sheesh. Anyway I turn into a girl with cold water, but hot water can usually change me back. Nothin' else changes, I don't suddenly think like a girl, though I wish I could understand 'em a little better, it's just a body thing. How the heck don't you know this though? I mean I spent most of my first morning as a trainee being changed back and forth and poked and prodded by navy doctors."

"I don't have access to everyone's medical files ensign, that's private information, just those aspects that would hamper their performance in space, and your curse apparently didn't fall under that category. Your heart rate and some other oddities of your medical screening were flagged but that was it."

"Huh. Wait, what's the problem with my heart rate?"

And what do you mean oddities?" Kasumi asked, worried about her friend/love interest.

"Nothing major Kasumi." Lisa was quick to reassure her. "It just came through because, well, we know that having had concussions in the past can hamper the link pilots make with their helmet for soldier mode, and there were so many signs of concussions in his brain it was a real worry. Obviously though it wasn't, as he has used his soldier mode in every fight he's been in. And your heart rate wasn't a problem just an oddity. Your heart rate goes down in combat ensign, did you know that? It means despite the adrenaline in your system you're actually calmer in combat than you are just having this conversation for example."

Kasumi mouthed the words 'multiple concussions' to herself but Ranma just nodded. "Oh, that makes sense."

"Can I ask you why that is by the way? And are there any other curses I should know about, any other magic or anything like that you have that could burst my world view?" Lisa asked, looking at the petite but busty redhead. If the gossip trio sees her they'll die from envy. She herself didn't, having long gotten out of the habit of being jealous of other women's looks. Besides she actually liked the fact that Ranma knew how it felt to be a woman, at least a little. It explained why he didn't look at her with condescension or that amused 'oh you think you're as good as a man would be at your job' look that most other men had sometimes.

"The heart rates easy. In battle I don't have ta worry about when I'm gonna be attacked I already know where the threat is and can calm down and deal with it rather than worry" Ranma-chan said shrugging her shoulders. It was simple enough to her, but Kasumi flinched guiltily, knowing her family had played a major role in making him think that was normal. Lisa just looked at him in horror, wondering what kind of life could make someone think like that. "And nah, no more magic though as we're friends if ya ever get back to earth ya should watch out for a small black pig, a panda, a minotaur and a perverted old gnome. The animals are other cursed people and they may take ya hostage ta get at me, same with Kasumi and my mom."

"You-you consider me a friend ensign?" Lisa asked surprised and honestly touched. She could count on two hands the number of people who treated her like an equal, let alone who she considered friends.

"Well yeah. After all" the redhead smirked, "Yer a great straight man fer my jokes." Ranma concentrated for a moment filling his hand with heated ki before reaching down and grabbing up a handful of water, splashing her face and turning back to his normal body.

"hmmph. But you're going to have to explain about these cursed people in better detail some time. And maybe I'll explain to you why I don't actually have much of a sense of humor when I'm on duty."

"Would you like to join us for dinner Lisa-san? We can continue sharing stories while we eat, and Nodoka can tell you some from her own perspective."

Ranma looked at Kasumi but shrugged. It was fine with him if they had another friend join them, then he smirked as Lisa seemed to think for a moment and then answered in the affirmative. "Well in that case I can give ya the real Nerima experience."

Kasumi began to chuckle and Lisa looked at the two of them warily. "What do you mean the real Nerima experience?"

Ranma grinned and turned to let Kasumi climb onto his back. Once she was settled he swiftly picked up Lisa in his arms. "Why, roof-hopping of course." Lisa, who had frozen in shock, began to react trying to break free but Ranma had already begun moving, running to the edge of the rice tear and then falling off the edge. Lisa's struggles ceased at this point and she began to scream as the trio fell through the air. "Relax would ya, I've got ya, I won't let anything happen to ya, I promise." Lisa looked up at his fearless face and then around her wide eyed and still screaming as the wind whipped around them.

A second later Ranma touched down on the next hydroponic tier, this one dedicated to greens and legumes. Lisa's eyes widened even further if that was possible as they landed safely. She didn't even feel a jolt as they landed and she looked over Ranma's shoulder at Kasumi's bright laughing face. As Ranma jumped forward again leaving the second tier behind Lisa shouted over the rush of air "I thought you were the calm staid sort, like me!"

"I am!" Kasumi yelled back. "But even I like to do things sometime that are just a little crazy! And I don't think you are as calm and logical as you want everyone to think! You wouldn't be in the SDF if you were!"

Lisa growled at her but as they didn't seem to be in any actual danger she calmed down visibly and began to enjoy the ride. She looked around as Ranma arrived on the roof of a building in the city proper. Not five minutes later they jumped down from a nearby rooftop down onto the street in front of the White Dragon restaurant startling a few pedestrians. Ranma put her down and Lisa stumbled a bit before getting her feet under her.

Once she could stand she slapped Ranma upside the head. "That's for scaring the life out of me! If you ever do that to me without asking ever again I swear you'll be pulling solo duty in the bilges for the rest of your life!" She paused, thinking for a second then continued "Even if I have to find a way to build some bilges first!"

Ranma nodded still smirking a little and Kasumi took her arm giggling. "Come on, let's see if Nodoka is here or if we can get a booth."

Nodoka was indeed there already and had no objections to Lisa joining them though the grin that appeared on her face momentarily kind of scared Lisa.

They sat down and almost immediately Ranma had to duck as a splash of water flew at him. "Hey Minmei, how's it going? Sorry I haven't been by lately, but my hours have been brutal since they let me graduate from the academy early. And sorry, but I want ta remain a guy for now."

Minmei pouted. "Aww, but you look sooo cute as a girl. But they let you graduate early, how did that happen?"

Ranma explained as the other three ordered. Lisa was actually looking forward to the food as she hadn't had the time to eat out since before the breakout. Once he finished his explanation Ranma ordered then asked "So where's Rick tonight? I thought it was a day off for the trainees."

"Oh him, I saw him earlier with some girl in a uniform walking around the shopping district." Minmei was smiling and seemed happy but something in her tone made Ranma want to run away and he wondered why that was. He swiftly changed the subject and asked Minmei how the business was going, and if she had gone back to school. She had and she and Kasumi talked for a few minutes about class before Minmei had to get back to work while Lisa and Ranma struck up a conversation about how the repairs were going. Ranma had a vested interest in it as the Veritechs were often assigned to help the Spartan class destroids work on the exterior repairs when they weren't on patrol.

The dinner went well, with stories being shared all around and Lisa surprisingly had the most fun she had in a long time. When the young ladies went to powder their noses Ranma took the opportunity to ask his mother something. "Um, mom, uh, you and captain Gloval…"

Nodoka carefully put her cup of tea down on the table in front of her looking at her son calmly. "So you heard about my relationship with Henri? I'm sorry that someone else had to tell you about it, I have been trying to figure out a way to tell you, but never really could find the words."

Ranma ignored the idea that the captain even had a first name, let alone one that his mother used so easily for the moment. "it ain't that, you're yer own person so ya don't have ta explain yourself ta me, though Kasumi had ta point that out ta me at first. I just want ta know if yer happy that's all. After my old man treated ya like well, I don't know a word ta describe how he treated ya, like something that he could use then leave behind? Well anyway I just want ya ta know that as long as yer happy that's all that matters."

Nodoka smiled and reached over to gently ruffle Ranma's hair. "I did go out with him before I was forced to marry your father you know. I consider those intervening years a mere pause on our relationship, nothing more. You are the best and only good thing to come out of that mockery of a marriage, and I am happy that you have moved on as well as you have and that Henri has helped me do so as well. So yes Ranma I am truly happy."

Ranma smiled happily and Nodoka took her hand away just in time to avoid it getting wet. "Come on Ranma, I need some help here!" Minmei shouted, giggling even as she raced off to wait on another table. Ranma groaned but looking around she saw that the restaurant was packed. "What happened to the new girls they were going to hire?"

Nodoka smiled. "Most of them work the lunch and breakfast shifts, none of them have developed the experience to deal with the dinner rush hour except for two that the Lynn's put to work in the kitchen to replace myself and Kasumi." Nodoka had been sorry to leave her part time job as a cook but her new job as hydroponic director kept her so busy she really had no time to spare. There just weren't enough people onboard Macross that had the skill set necessary. There were hundreds of farmers from the civilian population, but none of them had worked with genetically altered plants whose growth had been accelerated for use in space before. Neither had she if it came down to it, but she knew enough to get by. Kasumi still worked for the Lynn's, but only a few days a week, she was taking the full course load she could from the cities college.

Ranma groaned again but got up to go back and change. She passed Lisa and Kasumi who commiserated with her about her inability to dodge Minmei. She was however able to get out of singing later that night when Minmei ended the night by holding an impromptu karaoke contest. Lisa and Kasumi were not so lucky, and both were roped into getting up and singing, something that mortified Lisa and embarrassed Kasumi. They did however both receive standing ovations.

One of the watchers was Mayor Luan, and he looked at this impromptu concert with a gleam in his eye.

The next day Captain Gloval stood looking out watching the repair work going on with a worried expression. The fight against the aliens was bothering him for some reason, some reason he couldn't name. The battle, as bloody and damaging as it was could have gone much worse for the space fortress. Why it hadn't was disconcerting, and he couldn't for the life of him think about why it was, just that something about it was tickling his instincts.

He looked over to where Claudia and Sammy were directing the repairs and smiled. Still, the repairs were going well, and Dr. Lang's latest report on his research was promising. Now if we can only get a month to get the first class of the academy graduated, and maybe find a new source of raw material for the factories, and maybe. He cut of the chain of thought. As long as we're wishing for impossibilities why don't I wish to be back on earth and no aliens nowhere in the solar system? No what he needed to think about was where to go from Saturn, a straight shot back to Earth or …

His thoughts were interrupted by the hatch leading into the bridge opening and ensign Sugita stepping through, though he wasn't wearing his uniform at present. He looked around and spotted the captain and started to stroll over toward him. Gloval quirked an eyebrow. "Yes ensign what can I do for you, you do know you're out of uniform don't you?"

Ranma flashed his lopsided smile and Vanessa, Kim and Sammy all nearly swooned. "Yeah well I ain't here as an ensign, but as a son." A feeling of apprehension went through Gloval at those words but before he could say anything Ranma suddenly closed the remaining yards between them. Everyone on the bridge blinked in shock, none of them had even seen him move!

Gloval was nearly seven feet tall, and while he wasn't heavily muscled he was still a solid weight. The fact that he found himself in midair, with Ranma holding him in the air above his head by his belt with one hand shouldn't have come as a shock given what he had seen this young man do before. But somehow all that had seemed distant and unreal. This was up close and in your face!

Ranma looked up at his airborne captive, deep blue eyes as cold as a glacier. "My mom is one o' the most important people in my life, and she's already been hurt once in love and I just learned she's going out with you. Now she says she's happy so I won't do anything to ya. But if you hurt her, I'll really hurt ya. Understand?"

Gloval grabbed at his cap, forcing it back onto his head and nodded. "Y-yes, I understand. And I would never hurt Nodoka. In fact once we get back to earth I intend to ask her to marry me."

Ranma plunked the captain down onto his feet again and grinned. "Good, though if ya think I'm ever gonna call you dad or pops or anything like that, think again. Just do right by her and we'll have no problems kay?" Ranma stepped back gave a final wave and walked off the bridge whistling cheerfully.

The silence he left behind lasted for several minutes, with everyone not really certain if what had just happened had been real. Finally Vanessa broke the silence by saying "I thought it was only fathers who threaten the boyfriends of their daughters, not the sons of single moms threatening their boyfriends."

Gloval straightened his uniform, trying to regain his dignity from where it had shattered on the floor. "Well it would appear with Ranma most rules like that go out the window. Now I believe you all have work to get back to?"

With that the girls all turned back to their consoles, the gossip trio wondering if they should share this tidbit with anyone else. Claudia leaned close to the captain for a moment whispering "Look at it this way sir, at least now you have his okay. If he didn't like you he may've just hurt you instead of threatening you."

"I suppose I do at that. Now don't you have work you should be doing Commander?" Claudia nodded and went back to work. Gloval sat for a moment in silence then let out a chuckle. Claudia did have a point after all, Ranma had sort of given his blessing to their relationship hadn't he? Taken in that light, perhaps his dignity had been a small price to pay after all.

end chapter

*Chapter 8*: Asteroids isn't just a game anymore

I don't own the horse or the fortress. Motoko Aoyama a character that will be introduced in this chapter, is based loosely off of the Love Hina character of the same name, which I also don't own (wouldn't want to really I think it sucked what is it with abusive women in anime?), and no she will not be paired with Ranma, for reasons which will become apparent as her character becomes more prevalent moving forward.

Just so everyone knows the Daedalus maneuver won't be happening for a while.

I was irritated by the fact that the Veritech forces would be seen as having losses, but those losses were only rarely mentioned in the anime because of its rather shallow concentration on the main characters. This will not be the case in my story. Losses will be felt, and their overall effect on morale seen. More logistics and maintenance will be important, though Ranma will not have an impact on either for a while.

g

h

Chapter 7 Asteroids isn't just the name of a game anymore

Ranma bit back a frustrated groan as the battlepods in front of him pulled back. Again. He hit his mike with a barely restrained snarl. "Never mind scrambling the other squad's boss. They're already pulling back."

Commander Prescott sighed tiredly from his place patrolling on the other side of the space fortress but nodded. "Call it in ensign. This is getting bloody ridiculous."

"Roger." Ranma changed the channel on his radio and spoke into it again. "Blue 5 to command, cancel fighter scramble. Repeat cancel fighter scramble."

Claudia's voice answered him, sounding just as irritated as he was. "Reasons blue five?"

Ranma smiled. While he was friends with Lisa off duty, on duty she was a little too tightly wound for him, and he enjoyed talking to Roy's fiancé instead, as she had really good taste in music and knew some funny jokes about pilots she would often share. "The battlepods already fell back. Me and blue six just barely got into missile range before they pulled back. They're playing us Claudia, trying to figure out something about us, though what it is I don't know."

"I know, but what can you do. Their mother ships are just sitting out of our range and we'd have to chase them down to get them in cannon range to take them out and that would take us away from our route to slingshot around Saturn. All we can do is just keep on trucking." Claudia replied

"Roger." Ranma said resignedly. It had been almost a month since the breakout and these little probing sorties was all that had happened in that time. Now Saturn was so close he could see it out of his canopy, and the probing attacks were beginning to grate on his nerves. He was so freaking bored it wasn't even funny. Of course they were bothering other people for an entirely different reason.

Gloval frowned, but he was forced to concede that ensign Sugita had a point. These attacks, which had been going on for nearly two weeks were nothing more than irritants. They didn't do anything except make certain the fortress knew the aliens were out there. Could that be the whole reason? He wondered, some kind of psychological attack? Still it seems out of character somehow. From everything we have seen thus far the aliens they think in terms of brute force, overwhelming numbers no subtlety or mind games. No, they are trying to do something else, but what?

The fact that the aliens could shadow them like this at all had been most disturbing by itself. When the first group of ships showed up at just beyond radar range it had come as a shock. When Dr. Lang proposed the idea that they had fold technology and knew how to use it the mystery had been solved but not the problem. Now Gloval had to worry constantly about whether or not they were being encircled again, and what they could do about it if so. Alas there was nothing they could do about it with the main gun down and the repairs on the rest of the damage still underway.

The problem was that only the military personnel could work in space, none of the civilians had the knowledge or experience necessary. Gloval had made a push to start a class on working in space, taking over fifty workers who were desperately needed actually working and setting them to build a school from the ground up and it had been received well. But the civilians had many ongoing projects of their own, not least of which were the hydroponics gardens, the painting (and wasn't that an ambitious and yet magnificent undertaking) the artificial sun, and many smaller projects which took away from the number of construction workers, welders and machinists that could take classes to work in space.

At the rate it was going it would be a little over six months before they saw any good return on that investment. Still the academy graduates its first class in a few more days, that will give us more fighter-power anyway. He nodded to Claudia and stood up. "I'm going to go work on some paperwork, I'll be in my office if you need me." Claudia nodded and turned back to overseeing the repair work.

In his cockpit Ranma sighed. Might as well use this time for something. He had been meaning to investigate what he could do with his ki in the Valkyrie anyway. "Hey boss is it okay if I stay on guard out here for a bit? I wanna do some meditating, see if I can figure out any more of this ki- reflux energy connection that the doc was talking about."

Eric, who had just decided to rotate the two flights guarding with the two flights working on the outer hull paused, but shrugged. "Alright blue five, I'll rotate blue six in and send out four. He's the least handy in soldier mode. Just remember you're in space, not a dojo somewhere alright?"

"Roger that boss." Ranma closed the connection, and set his autopilot to keep him where he was relative to the space fortress, then transformed into soldier mode. For some reason the connection between his ki and that of the Valkyrie was strongest in that mode. That done he pulled his legs up and sat in the traditional position and began to meditate. Once he achieved gnosis he reached out his senses into the Veritech around him.

About an hour of experimentation allowed him to do with forethought what he had accomplished in the heat of battle during the breakout: pushing the energy of the Veritech's battery out into its armor and strengthening it.

After making certain he would remember how to do this after coming out of gnosis he began to think of other ways of pushing the energy of the battery this way of that to boost performance. He swiftly found a way to create a nitro effect on his thrusters, but adding them to a weapon system took longer and he was only able to do it on the head mounted mini lasers, not the main rifle.

After another hour of this Ranma decided to see if he could push more power to the radar system and sort of ride it, as if it was his own ki sense. This proved to be a mistake. While the system was called radar, it had little in common with the earthbound variety. Instead space radar works off of gravitonic sensors, energy sensors, and light refraction. It was the energy sensors and how they interacted with the gravitonic array that gave Ranma problems.

Lisa came onto bridge and walked over to Claudia at her station, clapping the other woman's upraised hand. "I relieve you commander, have fun on your date with Roy. Was there anything unusual to report?"

Claudia shook her head. "One probing fly-by, that's about it. No accidents and the work is proceeding as well as can be expected. Oh and ensign Sugita volunteered to stay on patrol for his entire shift today. He told Commander Prescott he wanted to do some meditating or something about his connection with the Valkyrie."

"Oh good, now maybe he and I can have words about proper military decorum."

"Are you still going on about that?" Claudia smirked at her friend obvious irritation.

"He threatened the captain! He completely ignored their relative ranks and military decorum! That kind of thing is death on good discipline, I'm astonished that it hasn't gotten out yet." Lisa voice had raised and she almost sounded like she was ranting but damn it she had been so angry when she heard what Ranma had done (and a little guilty, after all she had been the one to tell him that his mother was going out with the captain). She looked down at the board in front of her, then frowned, her anger leaving her as she noticed something. "How long ago did he start meditating? My readouts say his Veritech has simply remained on station the entire time, but its energy levels are near the critical point."

Claudia looked over and shook her head. "I didn't notice that, um…." She thought for a minute "Well, about six hours or so."

"Geez" She pulled up blue five's readings and paled visibly. "Claudia override the radio and get me a visual of his cockpit, his life signs are reading close to flat lining!" Claudia paled and complied. She and Lisa looked through to see Ranma sitting cross-legged on his chair with what looked like frost hanging off him in places. His wasn't moving at all so first they thought it was too late, but as they watched his chest slowly moved up and down as he exhaled before going back to stillness. Lisa spoke loudly into the pickup "Sugita, ensign Sugita, respond! Ranma Sugita, respond!"

As the two women watched Ranma's eyes slowly fluttered open and they both gasped for as they opened light, cold white light flashed from his eyes for a moment, then faded into a blue so deep it hurt to look at it. For a moment neither woman was certain that the person they were seeing was even human, let alone the affable and energetic young man they had come to know.

That feeling faded only a little as Ranma shuddered, closing his eyes and gasping in great lungfuls of air. "Th-thanks Lisa, gods that was too close, that was… holy ancestors I'm not doing that again."

"Are you alright ensign? Do you require assistance or for medical attention to be standing by?"

"N-no, I'm, alright it was just, it was too much, I was trying to see too much. I'll be alright. Is my shift over?" Ranma asked, looking at his chronometer, not shocked at all that the six hours had gone by. It had felt like millennia to him.

"What the hell were you doing anyway, your Valkyrie's battery is reading at near danger levels."

"I was experimenting, seeing if I could push the reflux energy of the battery and use it like I could my own ki. It worked but then I decided to ramp up the power of my radar and sort of ride it, send my own ki along for the trip like I do with my ki sense. It worked too, but those sensors see a hell of a lot more than I thought they did, and I…." He trailed off, changing his Veritech into fighter mode and pulling it around to head back to the fortress and the waiting warmth, something he desperately needed right now.

Claudia and Lisa looked at one another before Lisa asked in a whisper, not sure she wanted to know the answer yet driven by curiosity. "What did you see Ranma?"

"Everything. I saw everything, just for a moment but, there was so much, so much I couldn't understand, the currents, the connections; the universe is so big and cold, so full of energy and life, but cold. I don't have words to describe it, it was terrifying yet as close to a religious experience that I've ever felt, too close for comfort really."

"are you certain you don't require medical attention?"

"Nah, just a long hot bath, some food and some exercise, I just gotta push on y'know. I, really, my mind ain't set up ta ponder the mysteries of the universe y'know? I just gotta concentrate on the here and now for a bit."

Lisa nodded as Claudia left the bridge intent on escorting Ranma from the hanger to his mother despite his continued report of well being. Lisa kept her tone deliberately light as she continued to talk to Ranma as he headed for the hangers. "Well, I hear that drinking is always good to help you forget things, you might want to give it a try."

Ranma laughed, warmth flooding through him again as he did so. "Oh that's just what this ship needs a drunken martial artist. Any buildings set up for demolition or anything that needs destroying really badly? Hell no, I saw my old man drink way to often ta want ta try it myself."

The two continued to banter away as Ranma flew home, the transcendental moment not forgotten, never forgotten, but put to the back of his mind. He wasn't ready to face it, not yet and maybe never. The here and now was much sweeter and more meaningful than his brush with the infinite.

As Commandant Mannstein finished his speech and began to call up the cadets one by one Ranma leaned over and whispered into Commander Prescott's ear "So why am I here exactly?"

"You're here because of that unusual ki sense of yours. I want you to pick out the ones that have some potential at martial arts. You've proven there is a definite connection between hand to hand skill and the ability to use the soldier system on the Veritech. I bleeding well know who the best pilots amongst these kids are, I helped train them after all but soldier mode is harder to predict and I want your opinion."

"Huh. Alright as long as yer not looking to have me train 'em in ki techniques."

"No I'm not looking for that. Just point them out as they come up."

"Well I know Rick will be, I've been trainin' with him off and on along with Minmei every time we're all free. He's about the level of a blue belt now."

"Alright, but we need more than just him. Commander Fokker told me that he's going to gut the entire flight as well Vermillion and Green to create a veteran officer structure for the others. You and Lt. Lafferty are the only ones staying with me."

Eric was of two minds about that plan actually. While they would now have enough pilots to fill 13 of the 20 squadrons the Macross was supposed to carry in terms of pilots, they didn't have that many machines at this point. Even with the wounded returning to duty, as most had done by this point, they would still be at 103 machines, enough for eight full squadrons and seven spares. But there was no telling how many of the cadets would really be able to stand up to the rigors of combat in space. Eric would rather have kept the squadron numbers low for now and rotate the greenies in on a one to one basis (one trainee for every one veteran) over a long period of time rather than spread them out this way. It seemed too much like throwing them in the deep end.

"Hey you two, what are you doing here?" Roy sidled up to them out of the crowd and took up a place next to them. "And I heard that Eric, and it wasn't my call. The captain thinks that having more flights to spread the workload will make up for the general lack of experience. And hopefully we'll have a few months to work out the new meat before the nex-"

He stopped as Ranma clamped a hand over his mouth. "Sorry Roy but if you've lived my life you'd know never to tempt fate like that."

As Ranma took his hand away Eric answered Roy's initial question. "We're here to pick out my new squadron. You said and I quote 'you'll have the pick of the new blood'. I brought Ranma with me to help make the decision." He ostentatiously pulled out a data-pad and looked at it. "So far we've added only Rick Hunter but I trust we'll be adding more quickly."

Roy looked at him in shock. "You utter bastard, you know I've been saving Rick a spot in Skull!"

Eric grinned at his CAG. "Then you should have told me that before giving me carte blanche shouldn't you?"

Ranma ignored the argument of his superior officers, concentrating on watching the cadets as they were called up by Mannstein one by one. As a young man with close cropped red hair walked up Ranma nudged Eric, "That one" and a moment later as a young woman with the same color hair followed "and that one."

Eric looked a little uncomfortable for a moment but jotted the names of the two down. Roy grinned suddenly "Fine, you can keep poaching the best and brightest, so long as you get an even number of men and women. Remember this ain't just a man's job anymore. And thanks to Ranma you get to be my poster squad for integration."

Eric looked at him coldly but Ranma shrugged. It didn't matter to him, he knew women could be as good soldiers as any man, sometimes better. Lisa was one such example, and Shampoo was too in her own way. Just as he thought that a woman with a light tan and long black hair flowing down her back and a powerful, almost challenging strut and with what looked like an actual ki aura walked up and took her diploma. "That one too, definitely that one. She's gotta be some kind of marital artist already."

The ceremony went on and Ranma kept picking out men and women as Eric took down their names. By the end of the ceremony, they had five women and four men. Tomorrow, after the cadets had a single night to tie one on, these young people would be given a very rude awakening to the life they'd decided to join.

Rick and his fellow academy graduates (some of whom including Rick were sporting massive hangovers) gathered in the Valkyrie pilot's main rest area. Located between the largest hanger deck and the offices of the CAG and his officers, this room was more than large enough to hold every young, hung-over over eager or worried newly minted ensign.

Rick holding the side of one head groggily, had to wait a few minutes for the press of bodies to lesson before he could get close enough to see his name and post. When he did however he snapped his fingers in irritation, causing both his own headache and those of a few nearby graduates to worsen. "Damn it, I was hoping for Skull squadron. With my flying grade I thought I'd be a shoe in. Still, I guess working with Ranma and Commander Prescott won't be so bad. Well, unless Ranma is in charge of training us." Rick shuddered at the very idea.

Outside the room there were signs on the walls telling the new pilots where they had to go to get to their assigned unit. It took Rick fifteen minutes of walking to reach the area designated for Blue squad, but about halfway there he realized he was being followed by several other cadets who fell into step with him. "Are you three for Blue squadron too?"

The group, two women and one man nodded and the rest of the walk was spent wondering what it was going to be like to really fly in space, how different it would be from the simulators and what they thought about Commander Prescott. The elephant in the room, the idea that soon they would have to kill real beings in real life was not discussed. Everyone there knew it, all of them worried about it but none wanted to bring it up.

They arrived to the Blue squadron's meeting room (squad six's on the ship's map) to find their old teacher and Ranma already there waiting there for them with several other graduates. Rick's group was in fact the last and once they were all assembled Prescott began a short welcoming speech. "Ah, welcome to the hallowed halls of Blue squadron. We have been hallowed for precisely ten hours, since you lot were chosen and your assignments went through giving us a full squadron of pilots since, well, ever, before that blue was simply a random designation for the survivors of other flights that died back on Earth. As such unlike in Vermillion or Skull there are no traditions or hazing initiations you lot will be put through."

Ranma quietly put away a rubber duck and a croquet bat he had pulled from somewhere, and Prescott continued, ignoring the fact that several of the cadets had relaxed from looks of horror and two of the girls were holding back giggles.

"I am going to now assign you to your wingmen and then I am going to talk about our duties and the flight rotation we will be following." He then read off their names placing four of the girls in pairs and assigning the last one to work with her brother who had also been assigned to the squadron. Rick was paired with Ranma assigned number nine and ten respectively, and smiled. Ranma nodded back but his attention was split between Eric and the girl who he had pointed out yesterday, whose name was Motoko Aoyama. She stood next to her new partner, and even from here he could tell she was a martial artist. She carried herself like a swordswoman, much like his own mother, poised and confident in an at ease kendo stance and he could see calluses on her fingers and palms synonymous with wielding a blade. She looked pretty capable but he resolved to see what she could do in a Veritech before offering up any suggestions.

Once everyone was paired up Eric continued. "Alright our duties as of this moment are twofold. Due to the enemies continued presence on the outer edges of the Macross' radar, captain Gloval has tasked CAG Fokker to keep a continuous 24 hour CAP. It isn't a large one, only two flights from rotating squadrons situated in front of, to the sides, up, down and in the wake of the battleship. There will be two squadrons assigned to exterior duties at all times, and half of each will be on patrol duty, the rest will be on repair detail at the same time, and every two hours the squads on patrol will be relieved. I will tell you this is mostly dead boring, but it is vital as we need to enlarge our ships radar bubble to give us greater warning of incoming attacks. We've had to pull eight hour on, eight hour off workdays before this but thanks to you lot finally graduating we have the main power to fall back on six hour on, ten hour off days. There will be another squadron performing the same duties overlapping our time out there, but they may or may not have the exact same schedule, I don't know yet. This is a twenty-four hour schedule so expect to put in some abnormal hours. The repair work has been ongoing 24-7 and the aliens are always out there."

There was some muttering among the recruits at the odd hours bit, but that was all. "Alright. Now then, let's get you all fitted for your helmets and assigned a Valkyrie. After that we get to go pound some vacuum." This caused the recruits to cheer, buoyed by the idea that all their hard training was at last going to pay off. How little they knew the boredom that awaited them. Ranma could only shake his head sadly at their naiveté.

"All is in readiness admiral Breetai. The carrier captains assigned to this part of the operation have passed on the orders to their Regulds and we are ready to begin."

"Excellent Exedore. Begin Operation Grind."

It had been two days since the academy graduates had joined the Valkyrie squadrons and they had all already found out how deadly boring being out on patrol could be when nothing was going on. Even the battlepod fly-bys that occurred a few times each day did nothing really to alleviate their waning enthusiasm. The newly constituted Bronze squadron was the one supplying the patrols on the port side of the ship the moment that boredom ended abruptly.

Roy Fokker had tried to match up veterans to the recruits as much as possible, but he didn't have enough veterans left to go around since Gloval had ordered him to put as many squadrons together as he could. Unfortunately this time there were recruits on patrol without a veteran to watch over them. Their Captain was with the rest of the squad on the repair work and the flight Lt. was patrolling on the other side of the ship.

Bronze nine looked at his radar and saw incoming red dots from in front of them. "Bronze nine to Bronze 2, I've got incoming battlepods. Their trajectory is the same as the last few times."

"Roger that bronze nine, I'll bump it up to higher, it's probably another fly-by. Let them get in range of your missiles and light a few up, but remember not to pursue when they break off." The lt. responded, which showed that even veterans could fall into habits of thought.

The battlepods came into visual range and bronze ten noticed something odd. "that's strange. These pods are a little different than the ones we've seen before."

Their commander cut into the communication voice sharp "Different how?"

"Well, they all have these, well they look kind of like missile packs on their back…"

"Get out of there now!" Their commander barked but too late. Rockets intended to be artillery weapons streaked forward crossing the distance in seconds and two young men would never get any older.

As the two Veritechs burned the battlepods, over two hundred strong moved forward with the boosters on max attempting to close the distance before the fortress could launch fighters. The rest of bronze squadron came together over the fortress preparing to attack the invaders as they came on.

Gloval shook his head sadly as Lisa reported the death of the two bronze pilots. He had been expecting something like this for some time, but the timing had still come as surprise, and those young men had paid for it. Still they were prepared for this. "Claudia, scramble the two ready squadrons, then call up the rest of the squadrons. Lisa, get Captain Connor to pull the Spartans back inside and ready the Defenders to sortie." Both women nodded and moved to their tasks as he turned to Kim and Vanessa. "Keep a close eye on the long range radar screen. As soon as any enemy mother ships come in range I want them nailed with our secondary weapons."

Blue and Gold were the two ready squadrons that day, and they launched from the top hanger in enough time to join up with Bronze before the wave of battlepods struck. Prescott as the most senior commander made a little speech. "Alright everyone, this is what you have been trained for, remember to stick with your wingmen, back each other up and always remember: a well disciplined unit can always outfight an undisciplined mob."

The battlepods drew within range of their missiles and began to launch missile swarms at the defenders. "Evasive action, wait until they come close before replying!"

Rick ducked and weaved around the incoming rockets, noticing that while they were aimed, they didn't seem to be heat seeking and were easy to dodge once you got a little distance from them. He locked on the incoming battlepods with his own missiles and waited for the order to fire. When it came he almost convulsively squeezed the trigger and it was with something approaching shock that he watched his targets explode. I, I've just killed a sentient being.

Ranma flying on his wing didn't let him remain shocked for long. "Get it together blue nine, they're closing in on us!"

Rick shook off his stupor and pulled in beside Ranma as he boasted forward with the rest of the squadron. "R-Roger!"

Ranma picked off a battlepod with his last missile then transforming into guardian mode turning swiftly to blow up another one that had tried to get by him. Rick's training took over and he killed three in quick succession as they tried to back off enough to use their missiles.

Rick and Ranma continued in the same vein, Rick using precision attacks and out flying his enemies while Ranma got in close using all three forms to the best advantage. They accounted for a little over twenty pods between them, but the rest of the squadron did not fare as well. Though none of them had been lost yet, Prescott could tell that the chaos of the melee was beginning to erode the green pilots training. "Flights 2,4 and 6 fall back to engage with missiles. Flights 1,3 and 5 hold position and put down covering fire."

This maneuver was executed as well as could be expected, but it saved the rookies from being overwhelmed by their first dogfight. Gold squadron was not so lucky, and lost three Valkryies before they were able to open up the range again. Bronze, shocked and enraged by the death of their two squad mates didn't even bother trying, instead staying in close and engaging at will.

The Veritechs that fell back used first their missiles than their rifles to good effect, retreating slowly back toward the fortress to keep the range open.

The fight continued as more squadrons launched to join the fray, eventually overwhelming the battlepods. None of them however tried to escape, instead staying and fighting to the last.

When the battle was over, Lisa's voice could be heard over the radio. "Battle over, battle over, all Veritechs are cleared to land in hangers 1 through 4. Designated SAR teams begin your sweeps."

Rick gasped, pulling his hands away from the controls of his Veritech. He was amazed they weren't shaking he was so exhausted. "Is, it always like that, so frenetic and chaotic and everything?"

Ranma nodded "Yep." That's why it's so fun but so deadly too. "Look Rick don't worry about freezing up there at first, ya did damn well for yer first battle. You'll get used to the pace eventually don't worry. Just remember ta keep your cool and use all three forms the best ya can, try not to favor one form like ya did today because it opens ya up ta certain enemy tactics okay?"

Rick nodded. "Thanks Ranma, I just have to get used to it like you said. And I'll try not to pick up any bad habits. Which barn are we heading to?" Ranma answered him and the pair flew off, rejoining the rest of their squadron. None of blue flight had been shot down, indeed, several of them, including Motoko Aoyama, blue three, and the Hanrahan twins, flight six, distinguished themselves. Eric had noticed this and made a note to get Ranma to make up a training exercise for the flight, there was obviously something to this martial arts thing.

The final tally of this short sharp dogfight was 15 Valkyrie shot down, 4 pilots recovered for a little over 200 battlepods. In any other war this kind of kill ratio would be one no enemy would be willing to pay. In this war however, the humans would soon learn that such numbers didn't matter at all to the Zentraedi.

The next day Ranma and Rick were out on patrol. They had been out here for two hours already, there had been no sign of another attack and Rick was getting bored. "God-damn it, why can't we at least listen to some music like before?"

Lisa's voice sounded exasperated as she answered. "I already told you ensign that when on patrol in a proven hostile environment it would be counterproductive to let you pilots play your music. Most of you play it so loud you can't here the radio over it."

"Gah, well there's nothing happening and if you weren't such a tight cu-"

Ranma cut in at this point having already heard enough arguments between these two and not wanting his friend to dig himself in any deeper. Rick and Lisa's first impressions of eachother had been bad enough it stayed with them and only got worse when the by the books commander met the caustic and juvenile pilot. Whenever they talked over the radio you could cut the anger with a knife. "Cut it out Rick. Commander Hayes is right." And don' that feel odd, coming down on the side of the authority figure. "We need all our senses keen and ready to go at a moment's notice. I'm getting that feelin' again, like somethin' is gonna happen, and I want us both ready to go when it does."

Almost on the heel of his words their sensors picked up an incoming wave of fighters. "Speak of the devil and they will appear. Command, I've got an incoming flight of bogies. Do ya want us to investigate or pull back?"

"Do you think you can get an accurate head count for us ensign?" Lisa asked once again thankful that Ranma, despite his lack of respect for authority and wild nature, knew when to be serious.

"Getting an accurate head count aye." Ranma grinned and gunned his thrusters to maximum. "Let's go get the lady her info Rick!"

"Roger."

The two flew out to meet the incoming battlepods but instead of simply shadowing them forward Ranma took them on an angle almost around them. As they neared visual range the battlepods opened up, but the two Veritechs were able to dodge it all and continued on their roundabout route even as other battlepods made to close. "Command my readout puts it at least a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty, they're so mixed it's hard ta tell. Not as many as yesterday that's for sure, and I think we gotta wonder why that is."

Lisa's voice was thoughtful as she replied. "Roger that blue ten. Do they seem interested in closing and destroying you or are they ignoring you in favor of moving onto the fortress?"

Rick answered as Ranma was busy shooting down a few of the battlepods that had veered off their attack vector to follow them. "Um this is blue nine, most of them are ignoring us right now, they fired some missiles our way but they're heading straight for the fortress."

"Roger. Be advised I pushed out our other patrols and we have another wave incoming direct astern. Meet up with the rest of your flight and attack battle group B. Battle group A will be taken under fire from our secondary weapons until they get too far into our engagement envelope. Firing will start in five, four…"

Rick and Ranma boosted out onto a new vector from the enemy battlepods and then back toward the fortress while behind them space seemed to explode as large energy beams wider than a Veritech was tall passed through the battlepod formation, annihilating any pod it so much as touched. Not terribly accurate, the beams were more for making the enemy division scatter than cause real damage. This job they did very well.

Avoiding the straight route back to the fortress took the two pilots over an hour out of their way and the battle had already begun by the time they returned but at least they were out of the way of the main guns.

Ranma told Rick "You hit 'em high I'll hit 'em low" and the two came in at different angles, entering the dogfight just in time to save a few of their squad mates from being attacked from below before joining up again.

"Nice of you to make it back" Prescott commed, "take position and provide covering fire, you're the only ones who have missiles left. Blue 4, blue 5, fall back to the fortress and rearm. Blue 3 and 6 team up for now."

With the elite skull squadron in the mix from the beginning the fight didn't last nearly as long as the last one, but it was still a very battered group that at last was able to return to base. The first formation of enemies that Ranma and Rick had seen had dispersed and retreated by the time the dogfight ended.

The total this time was much better, only two pilots dead and two other Valkyries shot down for a little over a hundred battlepods. But small injuries would still prove fatal over time.

"These Micronians are most wily opponents despite their short stature. Using the secondary weapons to break up the frontal attack was brilliant. Reinforce the waves coming from their back and move all the frontal forces to the side. They may be able to depress their secondary's far enough to hit them anyway, but we will see."

"Yes my lord."

"Do you have any idea why they suddenly have more space fighters at their disposal?"

"None my lord, save perhaps that they had to re-train land soldiers to fight in space."

"Hmm yes that could be so. A different environment certainly calls for different training, and their star fighters did take heavy punishment in our assault back on their planet. Still it's no matter it only means they will wear down a little slower than we first thought. The attacks will continue. And then we strike for real they will be too weary and sent to stand against us."

Ranma frowned from where he was about to hook up with the rest of the carrier air group. Something was happening with this attack. Not only was it larger, but it was moving slower, allowing him and Rick, who had again been on patrol, pull back and rejoin the CAP before they reached the space fortress. They had also already spread too far to make the secondary weapons of the Fortress practically useless. He was still at the front of the far edge of the flying arrow shaped attack so was the first to see it when it happened. "Fuck. Command, you seeing this?"

Even as he said that he ducked and dodged as the artillery units of the enemy completely unloaded their entire complement of missiles at the Valkyries while the rest of the battlepods were falling back.

"Roger that blue ten. We see it." Lisa's voice sounded both confused and worried.

"Am I the only one who thinks this might not be a good thing?"

"No, no you're not blue ten."

Lisa sighed wearily as she sat down in a booth at the White Dragon. Nodoka looked on with concern at both her and Rick who was slumped in a chair across from her. The attacks had been going on randomly every day, with several fake assaults (which the fighters still had to scramble for, as there was no way to tell a real attack from a fake one) thrown in every few hours for over a week now, and each one was just different to cause problems. Lisa and captain Gloval had tried everything they could think of to lessen the impact of the constant combat ops on the pilots but the weight of it had still fallen on the Valkyrie squadrons and all of the pilots, were feeling the strain. Well, all except one.

"Here's your orders guys, and yours too mom." Ranma sat down across from Lisa, Roy and Claudia, who had decided to accompany her to meet Kasumi, who was sitting on Lisa's other side.

Rick scowled at him "How the hell can you be so cheerful and bloody energetic. I'm your damn wingman I know you've been fighting and flying as hard as I have but you look like you're ready to go again right after."

"Hey after the life I've lived being attacked every day like this is pretty normal Rick." Ranma shrugged her pigtail bouncing. "You get used ta it after a while."

Nodoka and Kasumi both flinched at that, knowing that they were partly at fault for the way that Ranma had been constantly abused, first by his father then by the other Tendo's and the other people in Nerima.

What Ranma didn't say was that after his accident with the pumping up the radar system his ki reserve had nearly quadrupled and his ability to regain it quickly had risen astronomically. He still needed food and sleep, but not nearly as much as before. This wasn't something he was going to share with anyone though. His brush with the infinite void was still something that he wasn't really comfortable with thinking about let alone sharing with someone else.

Lisa, who was exhausted herself as she had made it a point to be on the bridge for every actual battle, sipped at her tea pensively. "It's like a siege now. Sieges are so damned brutal because they're so simple, one side must hold and the other side must attack in some way. They're trying to wear us down, what I don't get is why? If they threw the entire force of battlepods we've seen these past few weeks at us in one combined assault they would overwhelm us easily. "

"Ya forget the other part of sieges; the enemy usually wants something specific. It could be the castle itself, a person or just a strategic victory, either way the siege is only part of it." Ranma replied passing her and Kasumi some spring dumplings.

Roy nodded agreement. "I've been wondering the same thing for a while and I know that the captain has been too. We just have no way of knowing what they want. I'd put my money on them wanting the ship itself though. I think they're afraid of damaging it somehow in a larger battle." Lisa and the other military officers nodded.

"I just wish there was something more that we civilians could do" Nodoka said sadly. "I can see the toll this is taking on you all and it's hard to watch and not want to help." Minmei nodded agreement where she sat next to Rick. As it was the lunch hour she wasn't on duty and had decided to join them to catch up with Ranma and Rick who she had only seen a few times since the attacks had begun.

"I just want ta figure out a way to take the fight to them for a change." Ranma muttered. Most of the other soldiers sitting nearby muttered heartfelt agreement to that idea.

But Roy shook his head looking around the restaurant which was dominated by off duty personnel, most of them pilots and all of them showing the strain. "What we need to figure out is how to take the pressure off the pilots, I've had seventeen cases of combat fugue and exhaustion cross my desk this past week, and that's going to climb exponentially as long as these attacks continue."

Lisa shrugged. "Dr. Lang asked for a meeting with the council tomorrow. Hopefully he's come up with some means of defense that won't rely on pilots."

Gloval was practically growling in a mixture of irritation and sleep deprivation, the only thing stopping him from doing so was Nodoka's gentle yet unshakable grip on his arm. These past two weeks had been hard on everyone in the navy and he had been no exception. He hated losing people damn it, and these constant skirmish's were bleeding his Veritech force like a slow leak in a tire.

More, he had just finished listening to Mayor Luan speaking about all the different construction projects the civilians had finished. It just reminded him again that the repairs from the breakout were still not finished. Yes they were constantly interrupted by attacks, but still the amount of repair people he had was so much smaller than the SDF should have shipped with. Indeed Lt Porter's crew's lack of progress on the repairs showeed that the civilians in fact had a far larger industrial base than he did, even with the factories and repair bays both of which had been closed down due to lack of material, another source of worry.

"So the ceiling should be painted entirely by the end of next week, and the inner sun finished and installed the week after that. The hydroponics gardens are also growing well, and our first crop should come in soon." Mayor Luan was practically beaming in pleasure; his people had performed in an exemplary manner under very trying circumstances. The military problems after all were not his problem.

"Thank you Mr. mayor." Gloval nearly snarled the words, but caught himself just in time and he went on more calmly. "Dr. Lang, you asked for this meeting, I trust you have something to share with us?"

Dr, Lang nodded and stood up, moving to the front of the room. He pushed some buttons and an odd elongated box appeared. The box looked to be made of metal and as the image rotate they could see that it had arm sized spokes poking out of it from the center up and from the corners out. The image rotated again, and the bottom of the box was shown, with what looked to be different types of metal strips covering it. "Ladies and gentlemen I give you part one of my defense scheme the mobile barrier system. If you remember one of my aids had developed the concept of energy barriers. The problem then was the size of the area protected as we couldn't figure out a way to extend the barrier over the whole battleship and power since we simply couldn't sustain the barrier for any length of time. We have solved the first issue by figuring out how to make the entire system mobile." A new picture appeared on the view screen, this time an image of the entire star fortress appeared. The video began, and the watchers saw three large half circles appear, each of them small in comparison to the fortress but still of respectable size, each able to cover a secondary battery in size. As they watched the bubbles began to move around the surface of the ship in seemingly random patterns. From the side of the screen incoming fire appeared and the bubbles moved to block it.

The fire ended and the bubbles continued to move around, with the fortress underneath them having taken no damage. "Each barrier box uses electromagnetic repulsion to maintain contact with and move around on the hull. The power for the box comes from three destroid type batteries, one to move it around and the other two to provide power for the barrier itself. We estimate that a barrier can withstand up to three hours of pounding from alien capital ship grade weapons before failing. Unfortunately once they fade, that's it. Replacing the battery is a work intensive operation, and should not be tried under combat conditions. Moreover, the box itself without the barrier will be highly susceptible to enemy fire, so it's recommended they be brought inside the ship before their power fades. We have manufactured three barrier boxes at this point, and hope to up that number to at least fifteen in the future. That of course is prevalent on getting the materials needed for the construction."

"A point of discussion doctor," Mannstein, who had been transferred back to destroid command once the academies first class graduated, replaced by a relieved Conner who had not taken to command of the destroids well, spoke up before anyone else could. "You say these barriers need three of our batteries to operate, you realize that batteries are one of the things we cannot create onboard the ship? And that with every one you take from us you weaken our strategic strength?"

Mayor Luan spoke up then "Actually Dr. Lang met with me to discuss that problem and his people have already given my construction crews the blueprints for a battery factory. It'll be small, but will run 24-7 if we can get enough materials to actually build the batteries."

Mannstein nodded thoughtfully, though he was still frowning. His destroids were proving more and more useless in space with every battle. The only ones that performed well in space were the Defender anti-air class who with their long range radar and weapons could engage enemies outside the enemies own weapons envelope. The Spartans were good for construction work, in fact they were better than actual construction robots and far better at it than the Valkyries were, but that was not what they had been designed for. The Phalanx and Monster classes however were of limited utility. The Phalanx had a heretofore undiscovered problem with their targeting computers. They simply couldn't lock on fast enough to actually hit the incredibly mobile battlepods of the enemy in mid-space. The few Tomahawks they had aboard, the latest and most advanced destroid class designed before the aliens arrived, performed very well with their secondary missile systems, speedy lock on times and long range radar (the same suite that the Defenders carried) but their main armaments, the particle projections cannons that made up their arms, was next to useless against battlepods who could simply dodge them at range. Close range it was a different story but for now... He sighed, this was a decision that Conner should have made, but for some reason he hadn't and now it was up to Mannstein to bite the bullet. "If you need materials, and I know we do, I would recommend decommissioning the Monster and Phalanx class destroids entirely. They have proven themselves less than capable in space warfare, and I feel their best use will be as parts. More that will free up several companies worth of operators."

The other military officers looked at him in surprise but Emil nodded quickly. "Yes the systems from the Phalanx class especially would be a major boost. In fact" he pushed another button and an image of a pintle mounted tertiary weapons system popped up "In fact if we mount the missile launch systems of a Phalanx on these new tertiary pods, we can get a serious boost in anti-air throw weight. The problem isn't in the missiles or the delivery system but with the Phalanx tracking and movement system. It'll take us a few days to work out how to change the system around but we can do it. In terms of manufactory needs though, even with those two classes added we still are facing a major shortage of material." He looked over at the captain. "That is why when we get to Saturn I have recommended we stay in the asteroid belt for at least two days to gather supplies."

"And how are we supposed to do this?" Gloval asked.

"Blow enough asteroids into smaller pieces and bring them into the fortress" Emil answered bluntly. "We harvest enough asteroids and their composition won't matter. We're looking for quantity not quality."

Lisa and Fokker looked at him in shock, the idea of simply destroying hundreds of asteroids and harvesting them piecemeal had never occurred to either of them but if they could do it would solve their material shortage problem, which in turn would solve their logistics problem, most of them anyway. They would still be short on power couplings, and high end electronics equipment as well as plastics but still it would definitely help. And those shortages would be helped by the destroids being decommissioned.

Mannstein however startled everyone by laughing aloud, something none of the people there had ever heard from the taciturn man. Between bouts of laughter he spat out words in his native German, and whatever he said was enough to start him off anew. Gloval, the only one there who spoke that language had to fight to keep from laughing himself, and he pointedly did not look at Emil. When he was able to speak again he nodded sharply. "Ja, ja, that is good idea. The Spartans have small grappling hooks and we can use our targeting software to fire them, so do the Tomahawks. We can blow them up and pull them in that way and the Valkyries can catch any large chunk they can. The refineries can separate out the pieces once we have them in the hull. But" he pointed a finger at Lang "it isn't an idea that you Mr. perfect scientist would normally come up with."

Dr. Lang actually looked embarrassed. "I didn't actually. I had a talk with someone who pointed out that any solution at this point was a good one, I was too busy looking for a perfect solution to see it. The conversation sort of helped knock me out of my ivory tower mentality."

Gloval turned the conversation back to serious matters by asking "How long will it take to get these mobile barrier boxes into operation? And have you made any headway on getting the main gun back into operation?"

Lang shrugged, looking a little uncomfortable. "We already have three of them built as I said, designing them was the part that was taking so damn long. We need to install the control boards for them on the bridge for now, though when we start to build more of them they'll need to have their own department. I'd recommend the bridge crew as initial operators. They're used to working in tandem as well as writing reports so they can create an operator's manual for future users. The control will be through a ball mount, so that needs to be added to their boards, but the control program is already written and tested. As for the main gun, I've found a way to get it back in working order, but you're not going to like it." He said this last part while looking at the civilian side of the table and was proven right by the shouts of anger and irritation that answered the conclusions of his next presentation.

He let them shout for a bit then slammed his hand against the wall next to him, silencing them for just long enough for him to start shouting back "There is no other way! I have spent most of the past two months trying to figure out a way to get the main cannon working, and this is the only solution I have found. The two parts of the cannon have their own converters, but they need to be directly connected to the main reflux generator, that was what the part that we initially thought was the converter actually did. The only way I have found to do that is to use the modular transformation that will enable the converters to move close enough to link up with these points" the picture next to him changed showing an interior view of the giant generator room. The video started and two sides of the generator room opened up, allowing large elongating rods to appear and connect smoothly to partitions on the generator itself. The picture then changed back showing the transformation of the ship. Where before it was a normal ship shape, it slowly transformed into what could only be described as a giant robot with twin blasters on its shoulders. The shoulders were made of the two main secondary gun-ports, and the arms were the two ships Daedalus and Prometheus. The head was the command spire, and obviously the shoulder mounted blasters were the prongs of the main cannon.

"But-but this is unacceptable!" sputtered mayor Luan and the other civilian council members, even Nodoka, nodded agreement. "It'll destroy dozens of the buildings we've rebuilt and disrupt the life of the city! We've just barely begun to get life back to normal and this plan will set back everything we've gained!"

Gloval raised a hand and after a moment the civilians subsided. "How badly do you estimate the destruction to be, and can we mitigate it? Is there anything about this process that you can lessen to mitigate the damage?"

"Nothing" Lang said grimly, "the modular transformation is part of the original ship construction so it won't take anything we've added into account. I estimate at least 15% of the city will be destroyed in the movement and will have to be rebuilt elsewhere if at all. We can mitigate that by starting to remove those building now, but that's all. On the other hand the connection that was destroyed couldn't handle as much power as the gun nacelles can take. With the direct connecting the beam will be even stronger, and can be made continuous instead of pulse. That way rather than targeting a single ship with a pulse of power we can take out several ships at once with a beam. The merits of this of course are hard to miss."

At this the military members of the council all adopted thoughtful looks, even Gloval. The benefits of killing that many enemy ships at one swoop could not be overstated. They would be able to do in a matter of minutes the amount of damage that took hours to do during the breakout. Oh aimed fire wouldn't do much more damage, but un-aimed? Gloval leaned back, closing his eyes briefly. The others thankfully allowed him to think in silence for a moment. "Dr. Lang, get with the head of the civilian construction crews. I want those areas of the city that will be destroyed by this transformation of yours moved or removed and cleared as fast as possible. Mayor Luan I'm sorry but this is a military vessel in a war and we need that gun online. Commander Hayes, how long will it take to repair just the armor of the spaceship if we don't replace the tertiary weapons systems but simply cover the holes with armor?"

Lisa frowned thoughtfully as she looked down at her data pad, punching numbers into it for a moment. "If we get a few days without attacks breaking up the work, then we can have it done in a few days, five at the outside. It was the weapons systems that were taking so long to do; the largest sections of the hull damaged in the breakout have already been replaced. I would however point out that if we just cover the holes where the tertiary system were, we will have a much harder time putting them back in service later. And we won't be able to use them to house the new anti-air gun turrets."

"That is a problem for the future. Right now, I want the entire hull repaired before we enter the asteroid ring around Saturn. As such I am hereby stating that repairs are to continue regardless of attacks on the ship. The Valkyrie squadrons and the Defenders will just have to keep all the combat away from the ship from now on. And on that note ladies and gentlemen I bid this meeting adjourned." The council members got up and began to disperse slowly, some reluctant, but others determined to get started on the their work for this new planned upheaval immediately.

Nodoka laid a hand on Gloval's shoulder briefly. "it was the right decision in the long term, even if it will disrupt things. And make much more work for me personally." She finished dryly. Being head of the hydroponics farms was work intensive, and this would undoubtedly create even more work due to the necessity of moving some of the gardens.

"I know. But it's going to put even more pressure on the pilots. I'm not certain they would agree with me."

Nodoka shrugged. "Perhaps not, but that doesn't change the fact it was the right decision. Come, you can spare a few hours to not be a captain, let us go have something to eat, and then perhaps a movie or something. Take your mind off of work for now." Gloval nodded. It sounded like a very good idea, because something was telling him that things were going to get even harder soon.

"My lord, their defensive response has changed, it has become more aggressive. I wonder why that is?"

"It matters not Exedore. Let the attacks continue. Have the captain move the ship to the planet. At the speed they are going it will only take a few more days before we can bring this campaign to a close."

Two weeks later the situation had improved but the onus was still uncomfortably on the Valkyries. Not only was the ship about to finally enter the rings of Saturn but Mannstein's decision to decommission a full company of Spartans in addition to the Phalanx companies had freed up some of their pilots for a quick crash course in flying and over the week they had integrated and gotten experience in the Veritech squadrons. More the factories had worked 24/7 and been able to put a Valkyrie under every pilot, letting them still have eleven full squadrons even with the inevitable losses up to this point. The factory was still hurting for parts and supplies, and the maintenance teams of the space fortress were badly overworked and falling further behind, but hopefully getting the supplies would help the first problem at least. And once the civilians had finished up with their own construction, their teams/companies would be free to help pick up the slack.

The air on the bridge was tense as the ship pushed into the rings of Saturn. The ship slowed to a crawl, as going in at speeds the asteroids would rip the ship apart. After a hour of slowing down Lisa nodded and the prow of the ship began to push into the asteroid field slowly. Small asteroids bounced and pinged off the armor of the ship and larger pieces were shoved aside.

It took another hour for the entire ship to be immersed and the asteroids around them to be a useful size and then Gloval nodded. "Begin the operation."

Claudia nodded and began to pass orders to the Spartan and Tomahawk companies waiting for the order. They began to move out onto the hull with a few of the Veritech squadrons as well. The Tomahawks began the party first opening fire with their PPC's, destroying several small asteroids, whose parts were immediately either grabbed by guardian mod Veritechs or Spartans with their harpoons. The operation continued as the spaceship made its slow way into the asteroid ring.

Vanessa, looking at her board spoke up suddenly. "Captain, a point. The asteroid ring may be hiding us from our enemy's long range sensors, but our own radar is being severely compromised by the asteroids around us."

"Duly noted Lt. We'll need to push out our patrols then."

Lisa nodded, and passed the orders on to the CAP, who happened to silver at the moment. Outside the view screen the work continued, and Gloval allowed himself to smile a little. At the rate they were going this would let the ship build up their material supplies very well. Now if they could get a few hours without enemy attack.

"What are they up to now?"

"Perhaps they fear their ship may be battered by the asteroids, or perhaps those are more cross-trained forces that need the targeting experience. It matters not to us Exedore. Tell all the Reguld pod leaders to push forward. We may not know where they are outside of general terms, but we can still be prepared for when we do contact them, and this trap will at last spring."

Two hours later Ranma was on patrol again, but this time it was actually fun, and he restrained a whoop of glee as he barreled along in plane mode, dodging first one way then the other to dodge the larger asteroids, ignoring the dust and smaller asteroids. At this speed if he hit he would be a smear on them but he didn't care. This was way better than patrolling in normal space! "Hey Rick, having fun?"

Rick nodded. This was the kind of flying he really enjoyed, tough and at high speeds but without anyone shooting at him! "Yeah this is great, just what I needed to get the blood pressure pumping."

"Yeah just remember we're out here to see if anyone else is if ya know what I mean. We can have fun, but make damn sure you're keeping one eye on your radar."

"Yeah, yeah, geez you sound almost as bad as that tight ass Hayes."

"I'll take that as a compliment twerp, it's cause of her plannin' that there even is a Macross city at all. Let's stop up here at that incoming large asteroid okay. I want ta see if I can power up my radar a bit to get past some of this junk to get a better view."

Lisa, who had been listening (and about to snap at Rick for his insult, but Ranma beat her to it and his compliment made her smile in appreciation for a moment) spoke up now, startling a squawk from Rick. "Ensign Sugita I think that's a good idea but I have to remind you about the last time you tried to power up your radar with your own ki."

"Yeah, but I think it's worth the risk. If ya don't hear from me in a minute, pull me out like ya did before okay?" Lisa and Rick both agreed, one worried, the look Ranma had after that experiment had scared her a little, and one cheerful, having only heard a very simple version of that tale.

Ranma and Rick reached the asteroid Ranma had designated, a huge mountain or rock twenty times the size of their Valkyries in every direction. He switched to soldier mode and landed on the surface of the asteroid, paused a moment, then reached out and began to manipulate the energy of his Veritechs battery, pushing more of it than would normally go into the sensors. It was much easier than it had been, but he had to fight against the temptation to push more of his own ki in as he accidentally had before.

After a moment he frowned, then came out of the trance with a start. "Rick, transform to guardian mode and follow me!" Rick obeyed and the two swiftly crested the edge of the asteroid. On the other side Rick immediately saw four battlepods. Before the aliens recovered from the surprise of the Valkyrie's sudden appearance Rick and Ranma opened fire smashing all four.

"What happened Ranma?" Lisa's voice sounded worried, shown by her use of his name rather than regular call sign.

"The technique pushed through the damn interference alright, and we ain't alone out here! Enemy's incoming, a lot of them, the radar couldn't give me an accurate count. We're moving back toward you but we should get back easy, this asteroid field cuts down on their ability to find us too."

"Roger that, mobilizing Veritech fighters. What trajectory are they coming from?"

Ranma grimly gunned even more power to his engines, and Rick followed, dashing pellmell through the asteroid field. "All of them. Commander, I pushed out my radar as far as I could after I found the first group of them and I was able to see around the entire ship. We're completely surrounded!"

Lisa looked over at Gloval who frowned. "Keep the asteroid gathering operation going, but pull the Valkyries off it. Push them out in a defensive bubble and get the Defenders out onto the hull in every direction. Keep the Valkyries as far out as you can for as long as you can. Sound battle stations."

"Yes sir." Swiftly Lisa got to work. She let relaying the orders to Mannstein to Claudia as she organized the defense envelope of the ship. With Fokker's help she assigned a section of the surrounding asteroid belt to each different Veritech squadron. Following the captain's order she pushed them out of the Defender's envelope, leaving close defense to Gold squadron, the squadron with the fewest remaining Valkyries and the destroids alone.

Every other squadron was given an area shaped in a 3-dimensional cone to patrol and protect. Blue was given the area nearest where Ranma and Rick had been patrolling letting them meet up easier. Every squadron but Skull got an area assigned to them, giving the ship a defensive cordon in every direction. Skull squadron would act as a fast reaction force, going to the support of any squadron that was in danger of being overwhelmed. Roy had wanted to object to this and keep the squadrons in closer to let them have a larger reaction force, but when Lisa told him about the captain's decision to keep the material extraction going he stopped objecting.

The Defenders and Tomahawks moved into position all along the hull as the Spartans continued to clear the area of asteroids, smashing and gathering asteroids as fast as they could. Lisa watched on the tactical screen as the fighters moved out. Something was telling her this was going to be a bad one, and not just because it was happening in such a densely cluttered environment.

Rick and Ranma rejoined Blue squadron and were informed of the new plan whereupon Rick muttered something about asteroids being more important than people to those in command but Prescott rebuked him sharply. "We need those metals and other materials ensign, and it isn't command's fault that the enemy's chosen to attack us." His voice softened, "You and ensign Sugita did well to find them before they could spring their ambush. If the aliens had been able to hit us by surprise they probably would have overwhelmed us. Try to remember that those in command have to think long term rather than short term, and try to concentrate only on what you can control Rick. Sometimes that's all you can do."

Rick ground his teeth, but stayed silent, knowing that he was in the wrong this time. He still had a lot of trouble respecting military authority figures, and his dislike of Lisa Hayes also played a part of it. "Roger that sir."

Once the squadron reached the center of their defensive assigned position Prescott ordered the squad to hold position for a moment. "Alright, here's the plan. This asteroid field is like no other environment than I have ever seen, so we're going to have to mix land and air tactics. Here's what we're going to do. I want blue 4, 5, 7 and 8 to stop here, 6 you'll be paired with 3 for now. You four are the best shots, take up position on some of these asteroids and snipe from long range. Keep your eyes out and concentrate on any of the command pods you see, but listen hard on your radio. Everyone else, feel free to call those four for aid if you need it, move randomly in our assigned sector, but make certain as few as possible get past us. Everyone conserve your missiles as long as you can, they'll be of limited utility with so much debris and cover out here."

"Sir what about using music again? It would help disrupt their attack even more than the asteroids themselves." Lt Lafferty asked.

"Intel decided that it was likely the aliens simply had better hearing and were disturbed by the noise level, not the actual music, and probably took prompt action to mitigate the damage should we attempt something like that again. I realize that this environment almost calls for musical accompaniment, but try to refrain." Eric replied drolly.

Lt. Lafferty answered in the affirmative, as over the radio Green 6 sent an all user alert of incoming bandits. Prescott looked at his own flickering radar and snarled as he saw a few red dots at a distance. A battlepod that had not shown up on the radar popped up around an asteroid but was met by two blasts from blue 5 and 7. Others popped up all around and began to fire at the wildly dodging Veritechs. The battle had been joined.

Each side of this conflict had several advantages going for them. The Veritechs had better armor, not enough of a difference to survive the battlepods typical two-punch cannon blast to the main fuselage, but anywhere else was survivable. They were also slightly more heavily armed, with both better missiles and longer ranged blaster rifles. Their teamwork was better, as they actually trained for it, whereas the Zentraedi did not. They were faster too, and their organization far better.

However the Zentraedi had more advantages than their normal overwhelming numerical superiority. For one thing, the asteroid belt negated much of the teamwork, organization and range advantage of the defenders. For another they were coming from every direction rather than from one or two as in the past, forcing the defenders to split up the squadrons rather than giving them a single group to target. More, the Zentraedi had Breetai.

Breetai was one of the oldest living Zentraedi but he wasn't head of his clan or his fleet by his age alone, he was also the most experienced war leader in the entire extended Zentraedi Fleet. He kept firm control of his forces by using more command Regulds than normal, and kept a tight rein on the assault by keeping in constant combat with his team leaders. He also had them create an ever changing map with every move, giving him a better view of the battle than his enemies with notations on where the defense was most effective and where it was weakest. He also was intelligent enough to know that the ones who committed his reserves last usually won, and was using a bare third of his total forces stationed in the asteroid belt at the beginning of the battle, and was waiting to commit the rest of his forces. Some would continue to be poured into the dogfight to offset losses, but the bulk would be held back until the most opportune moment to commit them.

Of course the humans had Ranma.

"Bakutsai Tenkestu revised, shotgun swarm!" Ranma pushed his ki out in his Veritech into its fists and with a single touch a small asteroid shattered blowing the entire mass into small shards that shot directly away from him and blasted six battlepods into flinders. Ranma whirled around catching one battlepod coming up from below him with a punch to the side of the pod, caving in its side and sending it whirling away while he blasted upward with his blaster, taking out another pod above him.

Rick gaped at the carnage Ranma had created but flew forward blasting away with his lasers at one pod then flying between two more asteroids and changing into guardian mode to fire to the sides taking out two more pods that had been hidden there. The two of them fell back slowly firing at any enemy they saw.

Rick was changing forms as needed, but Ranma had taken to the asteroid field like he was born there, never changing form from the soldier mode and using the cover as if it were second nature. He also made it a point to help out the others of his squad, something that Rick could only do when he heard them call for aid, he just didn't have enough spatial awareness to notice otherwise.

A command pod flew in close, dodging fire from blue 2 and returning fire, nailing the Veritech with a solid blast in the side of its fuselage while two rocket equipped pods ducked under an asteroid behind him and fired their rockets at blue six and three.

Ranma noticed this and swiftly turned around, blasting another smaller asteroid with his stone crushing attack and aiming the resulting debris into the rocket swarm. The debris hit causing the rockets to all explode harmlessly before their targets who turned and gunned down all three battlepods. "Thanks for the save Blue 10, but how the hell are you doing that?" asked blue three. Motoko's voice sounded somewhere between querulous and envious."

Ranma grinned, dodging more incoming fire and returning some of his own as he used his rockets to bounce around the asteroid field like a monkey on steroids. "Martial arts technique I learned from an old rival of mine. I've been trying to get a few of 'em to work in my Valkyrie for a while."

Motoko groaned in envy even as she gunned down one pod and battered another back with a kick to its body. "You know how to use ki, you have to teach me!" Ranma made a noncommittal noise and the two went back to concentrating on their respective parts of the battle.

Eric looked at his readout and saw that his wingman was reading as injured but still good to go. "Blue 2 switch with blue 3, blue 3, with me."

His radio beeped and he answered it almost absently, gunning down a rocket pod as fire from his sniper team took out another command pod below his position. "Blue 1 one here, go command."

"This is command two, report status of your squadron, we can't get individual readings back here." Lisa's voice sounded worried, but Eric answered easily.

"All fighters still good to go, though our ammo will start to be a concern soon. And blue 10 is doing something some kind of martial arts move he says that is draining his power more than I would like but the move is so damn effective that I'm not going to complain. Fatigue may be an issue for most of us soon, and I don't like how well organized these bastards are this time, there seems to be a hell of a lot more command pods than normal. How is the rest of the battle going?"

"Poorly." Lisa said simply and cut the com. Looking at the tactical board, she knew that was an understatement. The fatigue caused by the random assaults of the last two and a half weeks was really starting to show, and the battlefield conditions weren't helping matters. Nearly every squad was reporting that they had lost members except Blue so far. She had refrained from committing Skull yet, but they had intercepted several teams led by command pods that had broken through the cordon. The Defenders hadn't had to engage en masse yet and the asteroid gathering was proceeding apace, but it was only a matter of time.

She looked over worriedly at captain Gloval who also frowned looking at the disjointed readings their radar could give them. "They're reacting and moving with a purpose we haven't seen before. I wonder why that is? It's obvious that the debilitating attacks were meant to weaken us for this assault, but the difference in overall control is odd." He turned to Sammy. "Ms. Porter, how much material have we gathered?"

Sammy checked her readouts, which were linked to the silos in the factory area. "We've filled up silos 1-5 sir. Silo 6 is halfway through, so about 25% of our max capacity."

Gloval nodded thoughtfully. "Ms. Laird, how far from the inner end of the asteroid belt are we?"

Vanessa looked at her screen then calculated something on the side before replying "about forty kilometers sir."

"And how far from the inner edge to the atmosphere of the planet?"

Vanessa looked down again while the other girls looked at him, wondering why he was asking that. "Um, about 300 kilometers? I can't tell more accurately than that sir."

"Ms Young, start the engines at 10% power. The operation will continue, but we'll start moving inward towards the planet."

"Yes sir." Everyone on the bridge was wondering what the captain was planning but they went on about their duties with brisk efficiency.

Two hours later the battle was still raging but the fatigue was starting to take a toll on the defenders. Valkyrie pilots who had been unable to sleep for a full night, unable to rest for more than a few hours for more than two weeks began to falter, to miss things and to fall.

Blue 11 was the first of the squadron to fall, shot to pieces by a command pod which died under the sniper fire from the rear. Several other battlepods moved forward to engage the snipers from close range, but opened themselves up to fire from behind. Blue 4 died next, blown up by battlepod from behind which died under her original wingman's vengeful fire, but the snipers position was slowly being compromised.

Eric saw this and cursed. "Blue squad start to fall back slowly, snipers give covering fire until the rest of us are right in front of you, then 7,8 you two join us 5, fall back after while we give cover fire and then pair up with 12. Missiles free!"

Thanks to conserving their missiles everyone had at least a few and was able to use them to good effect now in close before breaking contact by the numbers. Because of this they were able to fall back without losing anyone. The squadron fell back, taking a new tighter position and got a few minutes of calm before the aliens caught up with them and the battle continued.

Ranma noticed his battery was getting low and he started using his own energy more freely to power his stone breaker attack. To his surprise this was even easier than it had been, and he continued to use it every time he could take out a whole group at once, saving Rick from being overwhelmed once and saving the two remaining Veritechs that were assigned to sniper duty a little later.

He was unable to save Lt Lafferty (blue 5) however who died under the fire of four different battlepods. Eric took vengeance for his Lt. by slaughtering all four with a missile barrage that used up his last missiles before assigning blue 12 to close protection of the sniper flight. The battle was slowly turning against them, but he ignored that fought on.

Ranma too knew they were slowly losing and only fought harder, killing any pod he saw with almost scary precision. The other fighters including Rick grimly fought both their growing fatigue and the enemy.

Lisa looked at her tactical board and knew they were losing. I hope to hell the material we're gathering is worth the price, she thought savagely. Every Veritech squad was getting chewed up, and it almost hurt to think of the courage the pilots were showing. Bronze squadron was down to six effectives and Silver and Orange were almost as badly battered. Vermillion though was worse, at only four effectives left, and Green had lost its captain, though had fallen back in good order. She kept making the rounds, checking in with each squadron in turn until she came to purple. "Purple one, check in, how are you doing?" She waited a moment then switched to another channel "Purple five, respond. Purple five, respond!" She waited another moment then changed the frequency again "Purple squad anyone who reads this respond!" When she didn't hear anyone she shook her head wearily. "Skull 1, Purple is off the air. Move to their position and investigate. If you see anyone there order them back to the ship then take their position."

"Roger" Roy answered grimly. They both knew that at this distance even with the interference caused by the asteroids if no one was responding to an all hail call, then it was almost certain no one was there to respond at all.

Lisa looked at captain Gloval and he nodded. She turned back to the board and began to organize a fighting withdrawal, bringing the squadrons back and allowing them to link up their areas to give each other cover. Gloval frowned knowing that the timing in the next few minutes would show who would win this battle.

Old soldiers sometimes developed instincts and an hour after the Micronian defenders had fallen back Breetai knew it was time to commit his reserve and where to push. "Order the first half of the reserve in to the front of the space fortress. This battle ends today."

Gloval had instincts as well and knew that it was time to cut this off as Green squadron, holding position directly forward of the Macross next to what had been Purple's sector reported a strong push of battlepods hitting them despite their flank being covered by Skull. "Commander Hayes order Green squadron to fall to the side. As soon as they are out of the forward engagement envelope you are to open fire all weapons forward. Clear us a path through the asteroids. Start to withdraw the Veritechs into the Defender's firing envelope. Once inside the envelope the commanders are to rotate their fighters back to rearm if they can, but I want the resource gathering to continue as much as possible until we clear the asteroid field."

Lisa nodded and relayed the orders, and Gloval turned to Kim. "Lt. Young as soon as the route is cleared you have discretion on how fast we move. Aim our trajectory to enter the atmosphere of Saturn."

Everyone turned to stare at him, but his face gave away nothing and they turned back to continue their job. Nodoka moved from where she was standing by the Lt's offering her quiet support to stand by the captain's chair, absently taking his pipe out of his hand. He was getting better but that foul habit still sometimes rearing its head. "Just what are you planning Henri?"

Gloval scowled momentarily at the loss of his pipe but answered anyway. "Saturn's atmosphere is among the densest in the system, if we go far enough down into it, they'll lose track of us and will be unable to send battlepods after us. The atmosphere will crush them, but our hull will stand up to it."

Breetai refrained from cursing as the first half of his reserves died under the sudden fire from the fortress. Seeing the ships heading and realizing his opponent's intent he gripped his stations rails in anger. The metal squealed audibly under his grip, causing Exedore and the bridge crew to gulp and shift away from him in fear. "Reroute the remaining reserve to the port side and aft of the fortress, keep up the attack! They must not be allowed to escape again!"

Ranma growled low in his throat as blue 8 died under a rocket swarm. He took his anger out on a nearby asteroid and it imploded in every direction but back at him, killing six more pods. He had long since run out of ammo, and his head lasers had been blown off early in the fight. It hadn't slowed him down though, and he continued to destroy his enemies with a ferocity that some of his squad members found almost as daunting as the never ending numbers coming at them.

Ranma could tell when they finally entered the Defender envelope though when a auto-cannon round nailed a command pod near Rick who switched targets without missing a beat, blowing up a rocket pod with the last round in his blaster. 'That's it I'm dry. Damn good timing though."

"Join the club ensign," Prescott said dryly, killing another pod with his head lasers. All around them the fire of the Defenders began to slam home against the aliens and he sighed in something resembling relief. "Blue squad fall back by the numbers, ensign Sugita stay behind the others, you're with me on rear guard."

The Spartans had done an exemplary job clearing the asteroid field around the ship of all the largest pieces and the abrupt change from crowded space into something almost resembling normal space threw off most of the battlepods attacks, leaving them wide open to the Defender's fire. Missiles and auto-cannons reaped glorious harvest from them. More than a hundred battlepods exploded in those first few minutes, and sixty more died before the survivors got over their surprise.

This allowed the most battered squadrons to retreat further under their envelope while Skull and the few squadrons with more than half strength remaining fought a fierce rearguard action all around the ship. The battle continued for another hour, with fewer Valkyries dying but the battlepods grinding forward, killing a few more pilots and coming closer to the ship. Suddenly however the ship broke through the asteroid rings inner edge, and the Spartans fell back into the ship, bringing two more squadrons of Valkyries with them. The fight continued, but the Defender's fire was even more accurate and the tertiary weapons of the ship began to fire as well.

Ranma cursed as he saw a Bronze squad Valkyrie die in front of him and slammed his fist forward, crushing another pod. The fighter's blaster had survived it death however and he grabbed it out of space. Miraculously it still had a few charges and he used them to clear the back of another Bronze Veritech, which had clearly taken some damage already. "Bronze pilot, fall back now, you're not moving well enough to keep this up!"

"This is Bronze 1, concur with you Blue 10, but you're out of ammo. Pull back with me."

"No chance Bronze 1 there're still battlepods to kill!" Ranma snarled, not even realizing he had just ignored a superiors orders as another Veritech with Silver tabs died on his other side and he boosted his thrusters, slamming forward hard and gut checking the battlepod that killed it so hard it's body shot off it legs into another pod behind it, causing both pods to explode.

Bronze 1 realized the other pilot wasn't listening and he fell back alone, the sole survivor of his entire squadron.

The battle continued, but the Veritechs who had been rotated in as they entered the Defender's envelope came back, allowing Ranma and the others who had stayed out to rotate in and rearm in turn.

For another three hours the destroids and Valkyries held the line, and the new barrier system made its own debut, protecting the fortress and the destroids on it's surface several times. The fortress, which was now moving forward as fast as it could, began to contact the outer atmosphere of the planet. As this happened, Lisa's voice cracked out in a hail all call. "All Defenders begin to fall back into the fortress. Keep up cover fire as long as possible. All Veritechs fall back in good order, but quickly. All Valkyries must be in the fortress within fifteen minutes or be left behind. Repeat…"

Blue, Skull and Gold held the line as their fellows fell back, and the battlepods pushed forward even harder, realizing what the fortress was trying to do, but it was too late. Thirty minutes later, the engines of the fortress entered the atmosphere and the battlepods were forced to retreat.

Breetai slammed his fist down on his command console, destroying it utterly. They had been so close! He had felt it, the enemy was wilting under their assault and they had still failed. Nearly a thousand Regulds had died in this battle and it had failed. Exedore wisely stayed silent as his admiral slowly regained control of himself. "Recall the Reguld groups. Situate the fleet in a sphere around the planet. They must not be allowed to break contact with us once they emerge. Make certain our captains understand Exedore. This battle was lost but we must win the next clash."

Onboard the battleship the sound of a fierce wind hammered against the armor of the ship and Gloval let out a breath. It had been close, too close, but they had succeeded. The cost among the Veritechs had been far too high, but they had survived, and in doing so won. For now.

End chapter. If someone could look at my story and the time in it I would be very grateful. I try to be, not accurate but consistent and I know I failed miserably. Hope everyone liked the action.

*Chapter 9*: Transformations are hard

Neither Ranma nor Robotech are mine. Not much action in this chapter, more character building and some romance. I saw a review that mentioned some of my numbers were off in earlier chapters and I'll be going back and revising those this weekend, as I am writing more scenes to put in the prologue and flesh out the years in Nerima from two to four, thus changing the age of consent from 18 to 20 (putting Ranma at 20-21 to Lisa and Kasumi's 24 and 25) as well as paint Ranma's relationship with everyone there in a more complete light.

This chapter is dedicated to rdde who gave me the most thoughtful and helpful review for this story I've seen yet, and again I'll be changing the previous chapters to match the info he gave me. I hope he's happy with the amount of drama in this chapter as he was right, I wanted the losses from the asteroid to be as disastrous as I could make them and still leave enough of a force to use as a training cadre. This serves several purposes which will be made apparent in this and future chapters. Ranma won't feel the emotional impact as much as could be expected from him, but this will be explained later.

I will occasionally reference songs, if anyone is interested they are easy to find. The one from near the end of this chapter is called Body and Mind and is from Najica Blitz Tactics, the ending song extended.

Quick questions, should I italicize the types of destroids? And can anyone remember Gloval being really busy at any point during a battle? He acts more like a battleship captain than a carrier captain, so that's how I'm portraying him.

Search for the word Flashback to get to the new scene

Chapter 8 Transformations are more work than you think

Roy looked around the pilot's briefing room, saddened and appalled beyond belief at the number of empty spaces that had just a day ago been filled with pilots. He was also exhausted; this fight had been the toughest and by far the longest he had ever been in. No human air force could have sustained the numbers they had faced, nor kept in the fight for as long. It had been like being slowly ground up by a meat grinder, he was amazed that any of them had survived really. Not only the enemy but the g-forces would, prior to the induction of the Kevlar duranium flight suits, have spelled death for fighter pilots. With the suits the g-forces were lessened, but not totally dampened and as the fight went on the worse the effect n the pilots, forcing them to fight simple pain as well as mental and physical exhaustion.

Now he looked around mentally counting the number of pilots that had lived through it. Purple and Orange were gone completely, Orange having been caught flatfooted by the second surge of enemies that hit the defense on the port side of the ship right before they exited the asteroid belt. Only Skull had enough pilots left to really be called a squadron and all the other squads were somewhere in between Skull and Bronze, which had lost everyone but their captain. The entire Veritech force of the star fortress was a wreck.

Everyone was looking shell-shocked, exhausted mentally, emotionally and physically. Even Ranma looked exhausted, though it appeared more of an emotional thing than a physical. He was pacing the room like a caged animal, growling occasionally under his breath, his blue eyes burning with rage.

Roy was trying to think of something to say, some way to buck everyone up a little, but the words wouldn't come. Never before had he been part of a force that had been so badly decimated, and he couldn't deal with it, he was too tired, too weary himself to find the words that could dent the feeling of defeat in the air. He shared a quick glance with the surviving commanders, wondering if they had an idea of what to say but only saw the same exhausted, defeated look reflected back at him.

It was at that point captain Gloval walked into the room. Roy looked at him and was about to call the pilots to attention but Gloval waved him to silence. He stood at the front of the room and waited until all eyes were on him before speaking. "I have been a soldier my entire life, and it is still hard for me to realize that at times the objective is more important than the lives of those under your command. It was true when the UN was fighting the separatist terrorists, and it's true now. I know you all heard the rumors about how low our supplies were getting, how badly we needed more raw material, and it is only by your sacrifice that we were able to fill our bunkers. I know that does not make the loss of so many comrades easier to bear, but they did not die needlessly."

"I will never throw your lives away like that. The resources we were able to gather will go to building more Veritechs, more defenses. Our escape into the atmosphere of Saturn, an escape bought by your blood, sweat and tears will give us the gift of time. Time we will use to recuperate, to plan, to build. Until the next academy class graduates the pilots of the Carrier Air Group are stood down. Use this time to remember that there are good things in life, and that your sacrifices have allowed those things to continue to be good for everyone on board Macross." He waited a moment to see how they took his little speech. Most of them seemed to have taken it to heart a little, while others just seemed happy with the time off. After looking around a bit longer, he nodded. "Dismissed."

Roy waited until everyone had left then shook his head. "I know we needed the material boss, but Jesus. We are down to something like 45 pilots when we include the wounded, and I bet some of them will be handing us their walking papers after this. Even if we add in the pilots that weren't out there because they didn't have Valkyries, we're going to be barely at a fourth of the strength we were two weeks ago." He shook his head. "Fighting these alien bastards is just damn hard. They really don't care about their own lives, and they just keep coming! We need to figure out some way to even the odds."

Gloval nodded sadly. I know. Hopefully the defensive systems that Dr. Lang is working on will help."

"I hope so, or else we may face more attacks of this size again, and I don't think we'll survive the next time."

Lisa tried to keep calm, tried to maintain her professional demeanor while on duty but it was hard when so many men and women under her command had died today. Oh, the Valkyries were nominally under Fokker's command, and the destroids under Mannstein, but she was the one who thought up the defense strategy, who called the shots on when to fall back, who held the bubble and the entire battlefield in her mind, sending the troops where she wanted them to go, who ordered those men and women out there knowing that many of them would not be coming home.

A gentle hand touched her shoulder and she looked around into Nodoka's face. Instead of the recrimination she feared, she saw understanding and compassion. "It's hard for soldiers to go out there day after day knowing they may die, but it's often harder to send others out to do it. Come Lisa, you need rest."

Lisa hesitated, susceptible to the voice of compassion but she still had her duty. "I-I need to stay until commander Drake relieves me, I…"

"Go on Lisa," Claudia said quietly. "You know I can hold the fort here. It's not like the aliens can get at us now."

Lisa was about to object then she sagged wearily. "Alright." She followed Nodoka off the bridge, nearly falling as her tired feet caught on the lip of the hatch, but she was caught by two strong hands which pulled her to her feet as if she weighed no more than a feather.

She looked up and was caught by the exhausted but still vivid blue eyes of Ranma. "You alright there commander?" She tore her eyes away with an effort of will and nodded mutely. Ranma turned to his mom. "I wanted ta check in with ya mom, make sure ya knew I was alright. That fight was the hardest I've ever been in."

"I'm sorry" Lisa said mournfully, wanting to get the words out to express her sorrow for the pilot's losses.

"Huh, what are ya sorry for? It ain't like ya asked the aliens to attack or something." Ranma answered quizzically, head cocked to one side.

"But it was my plan," Lisa answered sadly. "I knew the fighter squadron's losses would be high, and I still pushed you all far out beyond the Defender's area of fire."

"And if ya hadn't" Ranma said reasonably, steering Lisa down the corridor with a hand on her upper arm to where they could catch a elevator to take them down to the levels that housed living quarters and the connection to the city area "I'd have never thought ta use my ki control to power up the radar enough ta find the aliens. We'd have been caught by surprise and wiped out pretty darn quick after that."

"But it was my plan that had the Valkyries stay so far out making the squadrons unable to cover eachother." Lisa responded stubbornly. She knew it was her fault all those men and women had died, so why couldn't he just let her feel guilty about it?

"Which gave us more room to maneuver, which let us hold off the enemy fer longer than we would have otherwise. It also let the gatherin' continue, which was sort of the whole point for the battle in the first place according ta the captain."

"But-"

"But nothing, look, it's true our losses are horrible but that would have happened regardless o' the plan. Commander Hayes, you're a damn good tactical officer, but ya can't blame yourself when the enemy proves ta be yer match like they did this time. Without their better coordination and numbers we could have smashed the attack for a lot less in terms of losses. It ain't your fault we lost so many." He stopped as the elevator opened before them and the three walked through before continuing. "It's, it's gonna take a long time fer me ta come to terms with losing so many of my squad-mates too when I know I could of done more."

Lisa looked at him sharply. "Bullshit ensign, no, Ranma, you're only one pilot among many and despite your somewhat amazing abilities, you can still only be in one place at a time."

Ranma shook his head stubbornly. "I could only get the one ki attack ta work through the Veritech. If I could have gotten some of the others ta work I coulda been a lot more effective."

"Or" Nodoka countered as she knew something of the experiments Ranma had run in that direction, as well as having more than a passing knowledge about ki in general. "You could have ended up killing yourself for little return. I think that both of you performed your duty as well as you could." They both stared back at her rather rebelliously, and if the discussion hadn't been about something so serious, she would almost have been tempted to laugh as they seemed to mirror one another. Instead she sighed, and pulled them both into a hug.

Lisa resisted at first, but then collapsed against her, while Ranma didn't react at all at first, before gently returned the hug, holding her as if he thought she was made of glass. "It is a problem of the young that you always think that you can do more than you actually can, especially when you know that you are good at your vocation. But you are only human my dears, and can only do as much as humanly possible. Do not berate yourselves for being merely mortal."

Lisa woman-fully stifled her tears. She had never really known her mother, who had left before she was out of diapers but this was what she imagined her mother would be like, and after the emotional and mental rollercoaster of the fight it was a little too much. Nice as hell, but damn embarrassing. Ranma thankfully was in much the same straights and so missed her little moment.

The two young people managed to recover their self-control by the time the elevator brought them down to the city area, but pointedly did not look at one another. Neither of them were really at home with expressing emotions like that, and having shared such a moment however accidentally was something neither were prepared for.

As Lisa was preparing to bid farewell to the two Sugitas she was surprised to be enveloped in another sudden hug. The hug was released almost immediately as the hugger, who she could now see was Kasumi, moved on to hug Ranma with enough force to make the young man wince. The longer haired girl was babbling as she rounded on Lisa again, hugging her hard. "Iwassoworriedweheardaboutthebattleasitwasgoingona reyoubothallright?"

Lisa was surprised and touched by Kasumi's concern for her. She knew how close Kasumi and Ranma were, though the nature of their relationship was something she didn't speculate on. But Kasumi had become one of her own closest friends, second only to Claudia and it was nice to know that someone had been so concerned for her. She instinctively hugged her friend back and the two stood there for a moment before Kasumi pulled away, leaving one arm around Lisa's waist and grabbing Ranma's hand with the other. "Please, come, I made dinner and we can talk."

Lisa was about to make her automatic refusal, not wanting to intrude on what was a family gathering but Kasumi's use of the deadly puppy-dog eye attack killed the words before they could form. She meekly nodded, and Kasumi led her and Ranma away. Nodoka however was able to wave her off. "I'll go see the Lynns. Young Rick was in the fight and Minmei is probably worried about him, and I'll be able to use them to feed the rumor mill some actual information before it can get going too badly. How was he doing anyway Ranma?"

Ranma shrugged, allowing Kasumi to retain control of his arm as he replied quickly before she could drag him away. "He was going ta camp out in Roy's room for the night, he was nearly asleep on his feet by the time I landed."

Nodoka nodded and waved the three young people goodbye, watching fondly as Kasumi, calm, oftentimes meek Kasumi dragged the two soldiers away.

The three friends passed their time after eating Kasumi's magnificent meal going around the city to see the sights, almost as if Kasumi understood their need to get away from anything that could remind them of the battle.

Ranma watched as Lisa and Kasumi ate huge portions of ice cream from a vendor that had opened shop in the city centers park. He smiled suddenly leaning back and looking at the girls and then around the park at the dozen or so civilians that were enjoying the parks paths, even some children enjoying the small swing set despite it being a little late for that. The news of the Veritech losses hadn't trickled down yet, and for now the scene was peaceful.

"This is why I fight y'know." When Lisa and Kasumi looked at Ranma his smile widened. "I don't just fight cause I like it, though I do, I do it fer people like Kasumi and everyone else here. So they can keep living as they want ta." He shook his head. "The captain made a point to talk about us achieving the objective, of holding out long enough to get the asteroids gathered so they could give us more stuff ta fight with but he really should have pointed that out too."

Lisa nodded. "You're right Ranma it does make it easier to see why we put ourselves in danger so often."

Ranma nodded and Kasumi smiled gently, reaching over and touching his cheek. "But don't forget that those of us who you protect would much rather you come back to us alive and whole." Lisa almost blushed at the amount of emotion shown in that exchange, and Ranma did blush but he also raised a hand to take Kasumi's hand in his own. The three spent another hour together, then Lisa was able to bow out and head back to her own quarters, more at peace with herself than she had been before, and wringing a promise from Kasumi to have a cooking lesson the next day at noon.

As soon as her friend had left, Kasumi dragged Ranma back to their rooms in the ship around the city, where most of the military personnel and their friends/significant others/families lived. When the door shut behind them Kasumi pinned Ranma to the door and kissed him hungrily.

It was the first time she had initiated this kind of contact, at least to this extent, little kisses on cheeks and foreheads were the norm, but this was something else entirely. Ranma's eyes widened in shock and at first he tried to get away, but when Kasumi tightened her grip on him almost desperately he closed his eyes and began to return the kiss. When Kasumi slid her tongue out to touch his lips Ranma opened his mouth willingly and met it with his own. His arms moved around her, one hand resting on the small of her back, the other moving down and first rubbing her rear gently then when she began to grind against him he started to fondle her rear more roughly earning as moan in approval.

Ranma started to move the two out of the entranceway and into the main sitting area, bumping off walls and nearly falling several times as Kasumi refused to break their lip lock and Ranma was reluctant to do so. The make out session had awakened something Ranma had forcibly buried when he hit puberty, and it was coming back with a vengeance with the writhing, lithe and utterly desirable form of Kasumi in his arms moaning encouragement.

Using his firm grip on her rear, Ranma lifted Kasumi into the air with one hand the other reaching out to slow their fall onto the sofa. Kasumi moaned in disappointment as he was forced remove the hand that had been on her rear. As they sat down, with her in Ranma's lap she reluctantly broke off their kiss and Ranma leaned back, staring into Kasumi's luminescent brown eyes. Before he could speak she reached up with a gentle hand, covering his mouth. "I love you." She stated simply, and he flushed under her gaze.

"I've loved you for a while now, possibly even before we left Nerima, certainly by the time the aliens attacked. And I know you won't marry me." She said this simply. Knowing what Ranma's objections would be, she had long prepared this speech but the hard fighting, and the fear it made her feel, had prompted her to speed things up. "I was there when you made your oath never to marry anyone from a family who your father had made a pact with, and I know that includes me. And I don't care." (see new portions of the prologue when I add them, a flashback would not do the scene where he made this oath justice)

She chuckled lightly at his gob smacked expression, after all every girl who showed him any interest had simply jumped from being a stranger or acquaintance to fiancé without any stop for any actual courting, so of course Ranma thought that was all any girl would want. Genma made such a mess with his multiple betrothal contracts that Ranma literally had to make that vow to protect himself. "I just want you, as much of you as I can have. I don't want to own you, control you or anything like that, but I refuse to live my life without you by my side. I know you will have to marry someone else to carry along the family name and as long as I get along with the person I won't object to merely being a mistress." Ranma made to speak but she pinched his lips closed. "Let me finish. I know that seems to be far too old fashioned, but I know I could be happy like that. The question, the only question you need to answer right now is 'how do you feel about me'?"

Ranma stared into her eyes for a few minutes before answering but when he did his voice was as firm as she had ever heard it, and she nearly shouted out loud in joy. "I love you; I have for a long time too, way before we left Nerima, you were the only good thing in my life before my mom showed up, and ya just…" He paused before speaking slowly, "You were my rock, the one thing I could count on, the one person who not only said she cared but showed it. At first I thought it was a big sister sort of feeling but the longer I was around ya the more it changed. But I made my oath, and I never go back on my word. I just never thought ya would care for a freak like me in return, or if ya did ya'd want ta marry me, and that was the one thing I couldn't do."

"Baka", Kasumi said affectionately bringing Ranma down to kiss him again by grabbing his pigtail, and this time there was no hesitation in Ranma's kiss, and she bucked up as her libido, which had subsided came back with a vengeance with the feel of his tongue in her mouth spurring her on. She broke off, kissing down the side of his smooth neck between words, shivering as Ranma's hands began to play with her sides and thighs. "Marriage or no, I want to live my life with you, why bother putting labels on it?"

Ranma's voice was husky with barely repressed lust as he answered "No reason I can see." He began to nip at her neck in turn.

They again began to make out, hands roving and mouths never leaving one another until Kasumi had to once more come up for air. "Make love to me Ranma" she moaned. "I could lose you in any battle I want to have that memory at least."

At those words Ranma fought off his lust induced haze enough to actually think about what she had said. After a moment he shook his head slowly. "No, not like this." At her hurt look he hastened to explain. "I want ta, believe me I want ta make love ta you until we both collapse, but not like this, not when a bit of what started this was yer fear of losing me. We'll wait a bit, until I can make it perfect for us and when we both go in with wanting just that, not wanting ta do it 'cause we want the memory in case I die. Besides" he finished, with that smirk that made nearly every girl who saw it go weak at the knees "I'm the best, I ain't gonna die like that."

Kasumi was about to insist when his words registered through her own hormones and she realized he was right. If she hadn't heard how bad the battle was, how many Valkyrie pilots had died in it then she would never have been this forward. Not that she was complaining about how things turned out of course. "All right Ranma but soon? I've wanted this for so long, I'm afraid my self-control will snap if I have to wait much longer."

Ranma's smirk faded into something softer and much more tender causing Kasumi to nearly melt where she sat. "I promise. Just as soon as I can figure out a way to make it perfect for you, us, it'll happen. Till then," and now his smirk was back "It don't mean we can't make out if we want ta."

"Oh well why didn't you say so?" Kasumi answered with a smile of her own and Ranma leaned in to capture her lips with his own again.

The two continued to make out until Ranma pulled back not to take a breath but to yawn, the fatigue of the day catching up to even him. The two reluctantly decided to end it there for the night and after one final, searing kiss and mutual 'I love you's' they went to bed each in their own room. Ranma was so tired he was barely able to take off his clothing before he collapsed on top of the bed, not even bothering to pull the covers over him. He was asleep in moments, but he was smiling when he did. Kasumi in her room across the hall also fell asleep quickly, though her smile was particularly naughty looking in comparison to her normal peaceful expression.

The next morning Gloval called a council session, though he allowed commander's Hayes and Fokker to sit out this time. Claudia took Hayes' place, and he himself would speak for the flight crews. He began the meeting by describing yesterday's action in clipped analytical terms, making certain the civilians knew the severity of their losses but not dwelling on them. After he was done he stated: "I called this meeting for three reasons. One, I want to hear any and all suggestions on ways to cut down losses sustained among our Valkyrie forces. Two, we need to either shorten the academy training regimen, or open them up to more people and thus get more bodies into Valkyries. And three, to ask Dr. Lang and Ms Porter to go over the resources so dearly bought, and what their plans are for them. I am also informing you that the ship will remain in the atmosphere of Saturn until the city is prepared for the modular transformation Dr. Lang informed us of the during the last meeting and our starfighter corps has recovered enough hto be an effective fighting force again."

He held up a hand to forestall Mayor Luan's protests. The other civilian representatives appeared resigned, or perhaps subdued by the losses sustained among the Veritech and destroid forces. After a moment as no one spoke up in support Luan subsided.

Dr. Lang motioned to Sammy, who nodded and began her report. "Sir, we have been able to analyze the amount of asteroid detritus we collected and for the most part it will fill our requirements. We picked up enough heavy metals to completely restock our factories, and our smelters are already at work on it. There doesn't seem to be much super dense metals like uranium or vanadium, but what we do find is being placed aside. Those metals are some of the main ingredients for the batteries that are then filled with reflux energy from the engine. We also seem to have picked up a lot more silicates than we thought, and once we figure out how to change it, will enable us to make microchips and circuit boards, though it will be much slower than the other processes. That is why the decommissioning of the Phalanx companies has continued. We estimate it will take fifteen hours per destroid to reduce it down to the useable parts, but afterward we will have a lot of missile weapon systems to add to our tertiary defense. Um," she faltered and looked at Dr. Lang "Dr. Lang has some ideas about how to use the silicates in other ways, so I'll hand over the report to him."

Dr Lang nodded. "My theories on defense are based off the fact that we now have the ability to create batteries, and we will soon have the parts necessary to build more mobile barriers. With enough of them and enough batteries to power my old concept of a reinforced hull we can make the Macross invulnerable to small arms fire, and incredibly resistant to main battery fire. For offense, rather than add weapons to the fortress itself, as that would take to much metal that could be used to make Veritechs, I have devised two rough and ready unmanned weapon systems that can be shot out into space. The first will be based off the missile arms of the Phalanx destroids. We simply slap on a maneuvering thruster, a communication device and a targeting computer and voila! Simple but effective. My next idea is even more old-fashioned." He grinned at them, like an aging professor who wanted to see if his students were listening. "Now, does anyone know what else besides microchips silicon and sand is used to create?"

Nodoka answered first but her face was still puzzled. "Mirrors I believe, but I fail to see how they could be used as a weapon?"

"Not in atmosphere miss, but in open space, oh yes. You see the mirrors can be used to reflect sunlight. Sunlight is one of the most powerful energies in the universe, every second the sun puts out a million times more energy than the earth consumes in a year, and if we can make artificial sapphire, we can reflect the sun and turn it into laser beams."

Everyone around the table seemed struck by the idea of that kind of a weapon system and Emil shrugged. "Unfortunately, both of these weapons systems would be highly susceptible to AOE and aimed return fire. We would probably have to either pull them in before the enemy battlepods come into their own weapons range, or be forced to replace them after every battle."

"I'm also working on making the barrier system smaller and more portable. As it is, it would weigh down a Valkyrie or destroid so much that they would be unable to move. My other ideas have to do with ways to use reflux energy, and hopefully now that we're safe for a time I'll be able to devote more time to them."

Gloval nodded and looked hopefully at the others. Surprisingly Nodoka was the first to speak. "The first harvest will be coming in soon, and after that my department won't need so much manpower., we've been able to devise robots to tend to most of the crops other than the rice fields. That will free up a large portion of the civilian population for other jobs, well, as long as we can have them back for each harvest, which isn't exactly a set time, but still. I also had a thought about the academy. If we could perhaps offer incentives for their families more young people would be willing to join up."

Captain Conner scowled at that. "We don't want men or women with us that we had to bribe to get there in the first place!"

Gloval disagreed. "We need more manpower in the Veritech forces. Incentives like that is a good idea, as is waiving the physical requirements, which was my thought. Now, what about preparing the city for the modular transformation?" The meeting continued from there.

Even while he was participating Conner watched everything with irritated and worried eyes. He had been worried from the start how much autonomy the captain of the Macross would have from the SDF high command. The more independent from logistical needs and supply the ship became the more that pronounced that autonomy. And now Gloval was summarily dismissing years of tradition and military law in waiving the academy entry requirements. Oh the losses they sustained were bad, but surely not bad enough to let in the riffraff, and as for the idea of letting the civilians know how badly things were and making them part of the decision making process?! As if the civilians could be expected to understand military matters or understand that losses were sometimes unavoidable.

Gloval was known as a radical in military circles but he had also been known as a good diplomat and motivator which were the reasons he had been chosen by the UN Security Council despite the low key disapproval from those in higher command. He was supposed to be only second in command on ship, with an admiral on board to actually make any decisions, but the admiral hadn't been chosen before the aliens attacked, and Gloval had used that as an excuse (an obvious one in Conner's opinion) to get away from Earth before that could be rectified. Now he saw Gloval unilaterally taking more and more authority and it worried him.

He had hoped that taking over command of the destroids from Mannstein would give him enough authority to offset and even challenge Gloval but instead he had failed miserably. Not only had he been unable to understand the maneuvers necessary he had not shown any aptitude in operating a destroid. When he was transferred to the academy he thought it again would give him a power base, his own crew having been completely assimilated into the battleships. But he had found his control of the academy curtailed sharply, so much so he was acting more as an organizer and paper pusher than policy maker. Now he watched through slightly narrowed eyes as Gloval and the others made decisions that should rightly have been made by the admirals back on earth and he frowned in growing concern.

It would have come as a complete shock to him to know that as he was watching everyone else Claudia Grant was watching him.

Having been ordered to take the day off, Lisa Hayes woke up at the luxuriant hour of ten o'clock the next day. Not that she had complained about it, her eyes were still sore from the hours of staring at her screen and her brain from the hours or worry and organizing everything.

She spoiled herself by taking a long bubble bath before she dressed in one of the few civilian outfits she had, which consisted of a long skirt that came to just below the knees and a red blouse. She grabbed an apron she had bought when her cooking lessons had started and then headed over to Kasumi's. Well that was the way she thought of it, anyway. Everyone else thought of it as the Sugita's, but she was closer to Kasumi than she was to Ranma.

As she wasn't in a hurry she decided to walk rather than take one of the robotic jeeps that moved along the hallways of the ship, thus getting a little more exercise. She hadn't been able to exercise as much as she had wanted to for nearly a month now. By the time she arrived it was around twelve, just in time for her cooking lesson with Kasumi.

Kasumi answered the door promptly as she knocked, smiling brightly as she saw her friend. A little too brightly actually, and Lisa looked at her friend oddly as her fellow brunette bowed her inside. "Hello Lisa, how are you this afternoon? I thought we would start with soups and then move on to egg rolls and rice dishes before hitting on pastas next time."

Lisa nodded, one eyebrow cocked, a small smirk appearing on her lips as she thought of possible reasons her friend could be so happy. "I'm fine, somewhat recovered from the fatigue of the battle anyway, but you seem a bit… manic if you don't mind me saying so. Something happen between you and Ranma?"

Kasumi giggled happily as she led the way into the kitchen. "Oh my you could say that." She went on to describe what had occurred and their discussion last night as well as what it meant for them going forward.

Lisa frowned as she put the finishing touches on a simple chicken soup (which she would be taking with her when she left for her dinner) while Kasumi watched. "On the one hand I can understand why you're happy Kasumi, but I just don't understand why you would say you'd be happy as a mistress. That's so bizarre to me, maybe that's just the American in me but I don't think that I could stand being second in someone's affections." Though having any affection at all would be nice she thought wistfully before crushing the thought with her memories of Karl and her desire to remain true to his memory.

Kasumi shook her head as she sipped at the broth, then winced and put the ladle down, motioning toward her still bruised lips and indicating that Lisa should take over taste-testing. "It isn't that I would be second in his affections at all so much that I would be happy to share them. I knew his honor, his word was important to him long before I started to have feelings for him, so I knew that whatever the outcome a formal marriage wouldn't be in the cards. I love him Lisa, and I know that he loves me, so why do I need anything else? And I know how big his heart is, I know he won't try to replace me or that I would ever be crowded out. Besides, love need not only be between one man and a woman, it can grow to include other people."

Lisa shook her head. "It still sounds really wrong to me Kasumi, but congratulations anyway."

"Thank You Lisa, now could you get Ranma up for me? His room is the first one on the left."

Lisa nodded absently her mind still on the conversation they had been having as she walked past the sitting area and into the hallway behind. When she reached the first door on the left she noticed it was open and curious to see what Ranma's room would look like she poked her head inside, thus proving that cats and women are alike in at least one way. She looked inside and gasped aloud, her eyes widening in shock and embarrassment as the rest of her face slowly changed color to resemble a tomato.

Ranma was indeed still sleeping, but what Kasumi had apparently not known was that Ranma liked to sleep in the nude. At present he was sleeping sprawled out on his back, his sharply defined abs rising and falling as he lay there. If he had been fully clothed his pose would have been funny, as it was, it was one of the sexiest things Lisa had ever seen. Her eyes involuntarily tracked downwards, and if possible widened further as they passed his abs and centered on the area below. My god I didn't think real dicks came that large! For some reason she felt a little warm down below as her eyes went back up to Ranma's face then down again, tracing every line of musculature and resting only for a moment on his horse bits.

She didn't know how long she stood there, but eventually she regained control of herself and moved back out of the room, shutting the door silently. She waited until she could keep her voice level and then called in a loud voice "Ranma, lunch is almost ready, Kasumi wants"

She was interrupted by the sound of mad scrambling in the room she had just exited, and suddenly Ranma was there. "Did someone say food?" He asked, wildly, unbound hair sticking out in all directions as he looked at her. His stomach chose that moment to gurgle loudly, and he flushed.

The sight of the young man so embarrassed and so eager for food drove the erotic sight of him from earlier out of her mind and Lisa laughed, shaking her head. "Come on, oh hungry one" she teased, "I promise it won't run away."

Ranma grinned sheepishly and the two joined Kasumi at the table. Ranma sat down and as they began to eat "So how much of this did you make Lisa?"

Lisa smiled. Something she had been worried about before becoming friends with Ranma was how he would handle being friends with a superior officer, but he had turned out to be very good about it, only referring to her rank or call sign on the radio and being very respectful, playful at times, but respectful when on duty.

She was suddenly filled with a desire to tease her friends, and she did so with a smile. "Well I only made the miso soup but I did a lot of taste testing. Kasumi was complaining of her lips hurting, I wonder why?"

Ranma choked on what he was eating, and Kasumi blushed red. "Liiiissaaa" she whined.

Lisa laughed for a moment then said "Seriously though, I'm happy for you both, whatever the long term issues, I think you two make a great couple." She sternly sat on the image of Ranma from a few moments ago, shoving it into the dark of her mind where she could ignore it safely (or so she thought, that night it would come back to haunt her).

The meal continued and Ranma made a point to compliment both of the cooks equally. Kasumi dominated the discussion, telling them how her studies were going and thanking Lisa profusely for her lessons on computers. As the meal ended Ranma asked Lisa a question. "Hey Lisa, who can I talk ta about what we've all learned about the aliens? Especially stuff about the music attack and their language?"

Lisa blinked, having to actually think about the answer before replying. "Lt. Commander Gritel heads our intelligence division, well he is the intelligence division really. We didn't launch with anywhere near a full crew, and his department hadn't been filled out at all yet. I don't think I've seen much from him actually, other than telling us how long and how much a battlepod would take to build at our current industrial level. And something about their communications and that their hearing was probably way better than ours, hence the problem that the music attack caused during the breakout. It isn't like we've really been able to discover much about them."

"Hmm, yeah I wanted ta say something about that actually, I don't think that's the only reason that attack worked. I didn't want ta bring it up at the time, not with Rick mouthing off, I like the kid, but he really needs ta learn ta shut up." Lisa nodded fervent agreement. Rick's mouthing off really irritated her.

Kasumi however smirked. "I heard from Claudia-san that he only mouths off at you though. Unresolved sexual attraction perhaps?"

Lisa blanched, appalled at the thought but Ranma shook his head, saving her sanity. "Nah, he's dating one of the bridge trio, can't remember who. And I think Minmei might like him too. I don't think he's dumb enough to go looking for more trouble." Lisa let loose a deep breath of relief at that.

He deliberately changed the subject back to its original topic, carefully not noticing the gleam in Kasumi's eyes. "But I think that attack didn't work 'cause the aliens couldn't handle the distraction, not just the volume."

"Distraction, combat is full of distractions, why would adding music have so profound an impact?" Lisa asked.

"Don't think it was just music, I think they can't handle anythin' not directly part of the combat. Didn't ya see what I was doing in that battle?"

"Other than your save of the bridge from that missile swarm, no" Lisa said dryly. "Thanks again for that by the way."

Kasumi on the other hand saw the glitter in Ranma's eyes and she groaned. "Ranma, you didn't!"

"Heh yep I did, I found out a way to piss off aliens. It's one of the tenants of my martial arts school" he explained to Lisa about his father and the 'make them mad make them stupid' technique. "And I was able ta find out the aliens react even worse ta distractions and stuff than humans do."

"How in the world did you piss of aliens we can't even communicate with?" Lisa asked, curious despite herself.

"Had my robot bend over and moon them" he said simply and both women surprised themselves by bursting into laughter. "But there's only so much I could do with stuff like that. These aliens don't react well ta that stuff, and when they're attackin' me, they ignored everyone else, making 'em easy ta kill, but I want ta expand my repertoire."

"Well if you think it will help Lt. Cm. Griftel's office is on the fifteenth floor in the forward section, the office should have signs out with directions once you get into that area."

"Cool, I think I'll head there now, since we're stood down and all. I'll see you two around." Ranma popped the last piece of tempura into his mouth and with a jaunty wave and a kiss on Kasumi's cheek he left, leaving behind two giggling girls who decided to make a day of it. After cleaning they headed out themselves up to the cities park and shopping district.

It was nearly two in the afternoon when Roy finally made his way to his office. He and Claudia had spent the night together, and he had just woken up about forty minutes earlier. As he expected he found mountains of paperwork and operational decisions waiting for him but luckily, for him anyway, he had the help (I.E. had roped them in) of the surviving squad commanders. He knew they had all been stood down, but it was best to get some things done as quickly as possible. "So where the hell do we start with this shit?"

Eric looked at him askance and Albert Pike, Robert Malon, Ivan Gregorovich and Zack Fontero, the commanders of Vermillion, Bronze, Gold and Green respectively looked at him with cold eyes through their hangover induced migraines. Pike took it upon himself to express their displeasure to his old friend. "You called us here, pulled us from our nice warm beds or whatever" he carefully did not look at Ivan who had apparently been rousted from someone else's bed, not the one in his own quarters, "and you don't have any idea of where to start?"

Roy ignored their looks with the panache of long acquaintance and sighed. "We might as well start from the beginning I suppose. Do any of you want to recommend someone to fill the empty commander slots?"

Robert scowled angrily. "How many of the squadrons are we going to keep? We don't have enough pilots to fill them all to even half strength." He was the only survivor of his entire squadron, and he was understandably bitter about it. Still Roy made a mental note to make certain Malon made an appointment with one of the shrinks aboard the ship. Hell, he'd better make certain that all the troops knew to head to one of them if they or their commanding officers felt they should.

"Remember that in two more months we'll have the next class form the academy joining us. And we might be hiding here longer than that, remember we're here until the city is prepared for the main cannon transformation."

Zack joined in "that's all well and good, but if we don't find some way to keep our pilots alive we'll always be riding the wrong end of the survival curve." Including him, Green squadron had been reduced to only four effectives.

"Dr. Lang's working on that, he wants to find a way to put a barrier system on a Valkyrie. He can do it already, but the Valkyrie wouldn't be able to move or fly very fast so it needs a lot of work. As for captains, I'd recommend we simply brevet the surviving lt.s, but who are we going to replace them with?" said Ivan, who had a background in engineering.

The commanders all muttered among themselves, discussing the surviving lieutenants, wondering which to bump up to command the remaining squadrons and who they would replace them with. It was decided Lt. Granger from Skull squad would take over White, and Lt Dorain, the surviving lt. from Tan would take over there. He'd done a good job in the retreat into the fortress after his captain went down. The third choice for Silver had too little experience for any of them to be happy about it, but Lt. Foss had the seniority of the remaining Lt.s and thus got the nod. For now that would give them the command structure for nine squads from the eleven they had gone into the battle in the asteroid belt with, and they would fill them up with veterans from the fight. Having lost all their men Orange and Purple would be retired as color designations. Pilots were superstitious and on one would want to fly under a designation that had been wiped out. Every commander but Eric also put forth their choices for new Lt.s for their own squadrons. Roy scowled but acquiesced when Robert tapped Lt Orden, Skull's third officer to be his second.

Decisions for further squads would be made after the academy graduated its second class and they saw who showed leadership abilities from the new Lt.s but Roy waved that conversation of saying the new commanders would pick from the remaining pilots after Vermillion and Skull were filled with veterans from the survivors and the pilots who hadn't been able to participate. "I want those squadrons to be made into elite teams, the type that can be at the forefront of the fighting every time. I'll eventually want three other squads to become like that as well, but for now that'll leave us with a workable training cadre that can be used to bring the newbies up to speed and give us a hardened strike force at the same time. We'll make the other squads training squads and fill them up with newbies and rotate pilots into them but we will keep to nine quads for now." He turned to look at Eric. "You never said who you wanted to make your new Lieutenant."

Eric smirked, "see, here's the thing, I think I want to make Ranma my new second. He showed good leadership skills and situational awareness out there, helping and watching everyone's back. He'd be accepted by all my surviving pilots but I know he's not ready for the organizational aspect or the red tape that comes with it."

Roy nodded. "You're right, he's way too green to be promoted, and you're right about what he needs experience in. So call him in tomorrow and explain the joys of paperwork to him. Make him your batman for a bit until we get everything organized and see how he responds. In return I'll let you keep both him and Rick Hunter until the third academy class graduates even though I could move them both to the elite squadrons right now. They both more than earned it."

Eric nodded but Robert shook his head. "Ensign Sugita needs a lot more seasoning in what it means to be in the military before he's ready to be bumped a rank. He basically ignored a chance to fall back and rearm to stay in the fight. He's effective I'll grant you but he needs to be more of a team player and learn to obey orders much more quickly."

"He was scary even without ammunition and I disagree, I think he's a great team player."

"Alright, that's enough. But for the record I agree with Eric on this one, military protocol be damned, out here it's about survivors, killers and teamwork, those are the only things that matter."

The meeting continued after that as the six of them hammered together their new roster while elsewhere in the ship the topic of that acrimonious discussion was trying to find out enough to do what he did best: piss his enemies off.

It took Ranma more than an hour to traverse the ship to where the intelligence department located. Once there he was not impressed. Paper was strewn everywhere, but most of it from what he could see looked as if it was made of schematics about the battlepods and the triangle fighter planes that he hadn't, come to think of it, seen for a while. Nothing he could use. "Hey, anyone in here?"

A rustling to his left drew his attention to a desk set against the left wall and a pile was pushed aside to show the face of the unremarkable man he had seen on his first day on the battleship. "Er, hello, Sugita right? Can I help you ensign?"

From up close he seemed to be Italian, though Ranma could barely tell. His English had a bit of an accent, and he sounded somewhat dismissive even though he didn't know why Ranma was there, which got the younger man's back up.

"Yeah actually. Have you looked at the records of the dogfight during the breakout, I mean besides the effect of the music attack?" Ranma asked, pushing some paper off a chair and sitting down. When the man shook his head he asked he described what he had done and the major effect it had on his enemies. "I mean, they reacted way worse than any of my old rivals did, even the one that would react badly to me saying 'hi', at least he'd still fight with a brain and be aware of his surroundings, these aliens didn't and weren't. My squad mates," he paused. Of those teammates that had been in Blue for that fight before the Valkyries were reorganized around the academy grades, Prescott was the only one he knew for certain was still alive, and the odds of the others still being alive weren't good. "They all said that the ones I pissed off by mooning 'em ignored them even when my squad mates opened fire."

Griftel blinked. "Honestly that's news to me. I never saw anything like that in the logs. But why do you think that's important, I mean that's something that should only work once, maybe twice before they learn to ignore it. Humans learn to ignore distractions fairly easily, so it would only take a few survivors to tell everyone else and boom there goes that advantage."

"But you're assuming that aliens will be able ta react like humans. What if they can't, or don't? And even if they learn ta ignore one kind of insult what about others? Their bodies are basically ours done large, what if we make scat jokes, what if we insult their hair color, skin color, height? Insutlin' is an art form that evolves as yer enemies react and ya change yer insults ta match. There's only so much I can do with posing in my Veritech though and I was wonderin' if ya had managed to crack their language or make a translator?"

"No I haven't. They haven't made any attempt to communicate with us after all, and the transmissions we've been able to grab aren't enough to give us a starting point. Really Ensign I think that you're barking up the wrong tree here. I'm certain the aliens are far too bright for that kind of thing to work on them more than once." Griftel sounded a little condescending and repressive, and Ranma bristled.

"Alright well, I'm just gonna have ta figure this out myself. Maybe if ya can do yer job from now on you'll come up with yer own idea rather than just shooting mine down." He left behind him a gaping and very angry lt. Cm. Ranma however was frustrated and didn't care at all. He decided to go burn off some energy before he did something he'd get in trouble for later. Before he even left the area however his violent thoughts were broken off when his data-pad beeped at him.

Kasumi and Lisa hooked up with Claudia after the council meeting ended to go shopping and make a girls day out. They had wanted to meet up with the gossip trio as well, but they had all disappeared somewhere as soon as they got off their early morning shift. With the ship safe and in hiding, and with nothing in the way of navigational hazards to look out for, the crew rotation had been changed to an in dock footing, giving most of the crew ten hours off for every four hours on, and this gave the bridge crew more time for their own pursuits. The only exceptions to the rule were the workers in the factories and the smelting areas, but those were also manned almost entirely by civilian workers by this point, freeing up sailors for more important tasks.

The three had just finished buying new cell phones and were now just walking around taking random pictures with them and had decided to go to the lake park area. Mannstein had completely renovated the entire area and opened it to the public using the trainees, making the work an alternative to normal PT, and the area looked great, though it was more closed in than the city's park, and military personnel still used it to exercise.

Claudia was explaining how she and Roy met to an interested Kasumi as Lisa looked around wonderingly, awed all over again that all this was still inside a battleship in space. The artificial sun was still not operational but the lighting was the only way you could tell this area wasn't on some base on Earth. She reached down and felt the now lushly growing grass under her fingers and nearly burst out laughing at the strange dichotomy of her soul. She had always thought space and space exploration was the most fascinating thing that she could ever be a part of, and she loved the view through the screen on the bridge, but she also loved the feeling of nature around her.

Lisa looked up quizzically as she noticed the gossip trio moving through the few trees the area had, looking as if they were trying (and failing) to sneak around. She nudged Claudia. "I wonder what those three are up to." Kasumi looked too, and as the three young ladies moved forward after the younger trio, they began to hear music through the trees in front of the skulking trio.

Sneaking up behind them Lisa said in a whisper "What are you doing?"

Sammy and Vanessa apparently didn't hear her, and instead took out a video recorder and a camera respectively. Kim however did answer. "We're here to get some more pics and maybe a video of 'Hunkma'. The other pics we took sold out last weekend."

Kasumi groaned but Claudia asked "Who's 'Hunkma', and why the hell are you selling pictures of him?"

"Ranma, duh. The guys at the academy had the idea initially when he was there of taking pictures of his female form, and the girls followed it up with pictures of his male form. They sell like hot cakes, even better now that the economy's shifted back to cash rather than meal tickets…" Kim's voice trailed off as she at last turned around to see who she was talking too, and her face paled.

"Oh really?" Lisa said rather coldly. "That sounds like extortion to me, and maybe selling voyeuristic pornography."

Vanessa and Sammy turned at this point and their faces also paled.

Kasumi however spoke up. "I doubt Ranma cares, so long as you don't sneak around into the showers or his room. He's used to the attention, though I'm certain he won't like it if he knows that someone is taking pictures of his female form." She frowned, and as anyone from Nerima could tell you, a frowning Kasumi was a very frightening thing.

"We don't take pictures of his female form, sometimes it's in the video we make of him exercising, but that's it. And we always make certain the pictures are tasteful, nothing, you know, below the belt." Vanessa trialed off.

"I still think it's wrong, but I won't report you so long as you keep everything clean." Lisa looked at Sammy. "I'm surprised at you Sammy, aren't you going out with ensign Hunter? What would he think of you looking at another man like that?"

Now that she knew they weren't going to get into any trouble Sammy's natural insouciance came back to her and she stuck her tongue out playfully. "Just because I already have a boyfriend doesn't mean I can't window shop a little. Besides I know Rick checks out other girls, Minmei in particular and it's not like either of us have made any promises to one another or anything."

Claudia looked at them and shook her head. "I know he's a little handsome but really what the hell is the attraction of Ranma?"

Kim and Vanessa giggled, and their eyes closed dreamily. Sammy just waved Claudia forward to look through the bushes into the clearing beyond. Claudia did so and gulped involuntarily. "Oh my."

At that moment Ranma was going through one his katas while to the side Rick was finishing up a rep of sit ups. This kata was more about balance, grace and precision than anything else and it had been one of the first he ever learned, and it was one of the ones he most enjoyed. It wasn't about power, it was about control, the heart and soul of the art in his mind and he moved through it, mind blank save the movements, like a dancer lost in the moment. He knew other people were watching but he didn't care. Right now all that mattered was his kata. The fact he was doing it shirtless however mattered quite a bit to his watchers.

After a few minutes he finished and turned to look at Rick. "Alright, today were going to work on the speed of yer punches, so I'm gonna show you a kata and yer going to work on it for an hour. After that we'll switch ta leg exercises and then run fer a bit. Before we do though what was it you wanted to ask me?"

Rick stood up and moved to where Ranma indicated. "Its, well it's kind of complicated. I'd ask Roy for advice because he's older but you're the only other male friend I've made here. It's the word friend though that is causing me problems."

Ranma began to move through the kata he wanted Rick to do, going slowly so Rick could watch all the movements as they flowed together. "I'll want ya ta do this at speed but watch it in slow-mo for now. And I'll bite, how can the word 'friend' be causing you problems?"

Rick grunted as he began to move into the kata. "Because Minmei keeps using it! Oh you're such a great friend Rick, I'm so glad to have a friend like you Rick, I don't understand it!"

"Aren't you going out with one of the bridge trio?"

"Well yeah Sammy and I are a couple I guess, but that's more because we both are in it for fun, there really isn't, you know an emotional connection. With Minmei I thought there was one, but now I'm wondering if that was all in my head."

Ranma didn't answer for a moment, reaching over and correcting Rick's stance. "Okay that's a little weird ta me, I ain't the guy you need to ask about 'only in it for the fun' relationships. If ya ask me though, it's always better to be friends too. I think ya need ta do two things: one, figure out why you're in a relationship with Sammy if it's just a short time thing and you think you have feelings for Minmei, that's not fair to either of them. Two, confront Minmei, ask her what she wants, does she want ta keep ya as a friend or would she like ta try and see if there's something more." Ranma was basically paraphrasing some advice he had overheard from a radio talk show, but it sounded good to him.

Rick paused in his kata as he thought about that. "You know, that sounds like a good idea, couldn't hurt anyway."

"Glad I could help. Now get back to work, you've got an hour and a half of that to go." Ranma smirked as he heard Rick's groan, ah, that right there was why he agreed to teach him. Rick went back to work and Ranma moved over to the side, keeping an eye on him even as he once more began his own exercises. This time the kata was a more vigorous one, and he jumped twirled, kicked and generally made a mockery of physics or the next fifteen minutes while the watchers looked on amazed.

Life continued in the fortress, as the city was redistributed and prepared for the transformation necessary for firing the main cannon was prepared and the factories went through the massive amount of raw material that had been collected.

The transformation reconstruction was a nontrivial exercise of the first degree. First several dozen buildings had to be moved to make way for the change, then several surrounding farming teirs had to be emptied, taken apart and moved, then the road grid changed to match the new reality, and finally a series of shelters needed to be made to house the civilian population during the modular transformation.

This work would end up taking nearly two months with all the civilian construction teams working 24/7. The naval teams were busy on breaking down the resources they had gathered and in the factories. It also sparked the first sign of unrest among the civilians in demonstrations against the military and of course in random acts of violence. This was exacerbated as the losses sustained in the asteroid belt sunk home.

While Gloval was correct in that telling the truth was a good way to drive home how serious the situation was, it also made morale among the civilians very haphazard, and the losses pushed that morale down badly. The navy had worse morale for now, but it had built in resources to deal with it, though the loss of ten more pilots, who simply resigned handing in their wings, was keenly felt.

Fortunately for the rule of good order the MP's and police were well up to the task of keeping the peace, and mayor Luan, who was very respected for his work in the re-creation of the city was still behind the military and its decision to remodel the city despite his own protests. In a city wide radio cast he appealed for calm and understanding in this trying time, and bluntly pointed out that any way they could help the military would keep the civilians safe in turn. After that and the arrests of several looters calm was restore and work continued.

While this was going on Ranma learned the joys of paperwork. He did not enjoy the experience but he looked at it as a necessary step toward being a leader. In Ranma's mind the equation went something like this: he could defend people + he was in charge of other people = could train them as much as he could = they lived longer and were better able to defend other people. So he put up with it, though not without complaining to and pranking Commander Prescott as often as he could without hurting his ability to do the work. Kasumi also helped him get rid of some tension. Her massages were amazing, and with those and Lisa giving him pointers on typing and using forms he got by and sometime even had days off for more interesting pursuits.

About a month after the ship had disappeared into the gas giant, Lisa and Kasumi had made plans to go with Nodoka to see the harvest coming in on the first hydroponics areas that had been planted. Lisa hadn't seen her friend in two days, having been busy tracking down a black market ring that had attempted to start making and distributing drugs and Nodoka had been busy for the past week in final arrangements for the harvest and the redistribution of the farming areas. Both women however were quick to notice the goofy grin and odd gait that Kasumi seemed to have developed in those days.

As they walked from their meeting place to a waiting jeep, there to take them to the furthest tiers, Nodoka lost her fight with her curiosity. "Alright Kasumi, what's wrong with you? You look like you're on cloud nine, and those giggles you occasionally let out are a little worrisome." Lisa nodded emphatic agreement, wondering what was wrong with her friend.

"HEHEHEH," Kasumi giggled for a bit. "Ranma…heheheh."

Nodoka began to grin, and she carefully steered Kasumi into one of the seats in the back of the jeep. "What about my son has put that shit eating grin on your face dear?" Kasumi came back from wherever her mind had been dwelling to look at the older woman in shock. "Oh don't give me that Kasumi, give girl, or else I'll be forced to guess."

Kasumi blushed under their stares but began to relate her story.

Flashback:

Kasumi had no idea what Ranma had planned, all she had been told was that she should keep her Thursday night free, and that they would be going out somewhere classy. Somewhere classy in Ranma's opinion could mean a lot of things, but in this case he had been very specific they would be going out to a theatre, as in re, rather than -er. When Ranma had picked her up from her last class at the college he had been strangely determined, focused, almost like he was during combat she supposed, but different. The focus was on her and on the upcoming date and she found that the experience was very nice.

After a shower she put on a cocktail dress with a skirt down to her ankles and a opening on the side, tied together around her waist by a green sash, that came up across her shoulders into an the neck and two straps. It was not something she would normally wear, far too gaudy and unnecessarily dressy for her tastes, but for a night out with her boyfriend it would do nicely.

She walked out of her room and found Ranma waiting for her in a tuxedo! She had never seen him wear anything but his uniform or Chinese silk pants before. Now here he was in a full black tuxedo and a red and gold vest underneath with a stud with a small swirling dragon engraved on it. Even his hair was different, rather than being up in his normal pick tail it was laid down along long the back of his neck actually looked combed!

In his hands he held a small maiden lily, a flower native to Japan, though where he found it onboard ship she had no idea. Reaching out with a gentle hand he carefully put into her hair. "You're beautiful. Kasumi" he said and then smirked. "You're going to make all the other girls there die with envy, and all the other guys want ta kill me ya know."

"I don't think it will be because of how I look that they'll die when the see you Ranma" she giggled, "you clean up very nicely. And as for the other boys i'm certain you can defend yourself form their impotent glares" She said the word impotent with wicked force and Ranma's smirk widened. "Now, where where are we going?"

Not answering he gently took her arm and escorted her out of their apartment and from there into the city. Rather than take the Ranma express™ they took a jeep the few minutes it took them to get into town. And from there they went to what had once been a movie theater, but had been converted into a theatre. Kasumi was surprised, and also amused by the fact that rather than having a normal crew this stage are used only college students.

Of course it was because it had to. The fine arts section of the city was abysmal. As had been mentioned before, Macross, despite its importance to the budding SDF, had been much more of a colonial town then a real city. That included a not having a section devoted to the fine arts, and most of them were interested more in music than art or acting. The college was still coming to grips with that, yet it did have an even thirty or so students interested in theatre and acting in general.

Once they entered Ranma again surprised Kasumi by leading her up to one of the box seats rather than a normal seat. It had taken three day's worth of his paycheck, but it was worth it in his opinion. The less people sitting nearby the less chance of anything going wrong, he'd had more than enough experience to know that he was a waking trouble magnet without looking for it. They talked for a few minutes and then the show began; a rendition of Wicked that really did not do the story justice.

The acting was fine for the most part, but the lead actress, who was some kind of well known star back on Earth, simply did not seem to have the ability to pull off a teenage girl very well. it was obvious she had been given the part because of her experience, but she would've been much better to have played one of the adults in the play rather than one of the two main characters who, after all, were young girls. Kasumi briefly wondered if it was her own hubris that made her want to act the part of a younger girl, or simply because it was the biggest role. In any event, the actress that played Glinda did a good job on everything but the singing. Ranma noticed this too and commented that he'd much rather hear Kasumi or Minmei singing than this girl. Kasumi shushed him with a smile on her face and they continued to watch the play.

After the play let out Ranma again surprised Kasumi. First he led her on a walk across the Park which was very romantic. Then they went home and to her surprise, he brought out an already prepared meal with all her favorite foods. How he had hidden this preparation from her was a mystery to her, but she really appreciated the effort it showed. The two sat down to eat talking about their jobs and were each of them wanted to go from here.

Kasumi hesitantly said that she was still looking into classes about exterior and interior design. Ranma noticed she was hesitant to talk about it and asked "Why so unsure Kas-chan? It isn't like I'm gonna tell you what to do or anything."

She sighed "It's just this an entirely new idea Ranma, and I know you said you think I'd be good at it but were you just saying it?"

"Kasumi" he replied seriously "I'll support you whatever you want, okay I'm not going to try to change you. I'm not gonna try to control you. This is your life and as long as we're together you can live however you wish. You want to be an interior designer? Go for it I'll support you. That's what love is about right?"

Kasumi leaned across the table and kissed Ranma very gently on the lip's murmuring "thank you."

The talk continued not really straying back onto serious subjects until the food was done. During their washing up Ranma's confidence seemed to wane and he from time to time glanced at her then away, blushing hotly.

When she caught him on it for the fifth time she asked "what's wrong?"

"Well I-I was just wondering, I mean if this was, you know, perfect for you?" He said losing his voice halfway through his sentence with nervousness.

It took Kasumi a moment to realize what he was really asking, but after she realized it she smiled wickedly, grasped him by his hair, which he had pulled back up into a pigtail, and pulled him into a searing kiss. After that she grasped one of his hands and now dragged the almost totally, shell-shocked young man behind her towards her room.

Flashback ends

She smiled at the memory, but the memory of what happened after they entered her room threatened to make her break out into giggles again.

Nodoka's grin widened and once again she had to fight herself to keep her victory fans where they were. Lisa also smiled, but she also blushed heavily, the image of Ranma naked on his bed coming back to her from the dark recesses of her mind. No wonder she's walking funny, I'm surprised she can walk at all. Once more she pushed that to the back of her mind, though it didn't stay there for long as Nodoka asked "and how was my son's performance Kasumi?"

Kasumi giggled, and it was obvious her mind really wasn't on the conversation. "Oh my god it was sooo good! More and better than I ever figured it could be! We started out all fumbling you know, neither of us having any experience then we began to learn, and he began to learn where my most tender spots were and…! Oh my, we went at it most of the night and again when we woke up! I still can't walk straight!" She looked at Nodoka with a pout "But I thought it was the guy who is supposed to fall asleep afterward and be exhausted the next day. He looked bright and chipper!"

Nodoka couldn't hold it any longer, her victory fans appeared and she began to dance in her seat as Lisa groaned. Her own lack of a partner was becoming more and more of an issue, and this conversation looked to make that even more painful than normal.

Three weeks after the harvest came in (and thus three weeks after Kasumi's revelation) the city had been modified enough to allow the transformation into the new configuration necessary to fire the gun. The very next day Gloval met with his officers and outlined what he was hoping to do. "This situation calls for speed and brutality, and is only really possible if the main cannon works as you have been saying it will doctor."

"The main gun will work, and it'll work the way I have been saying it will. As I said the ship was designed to transform like this from the beginning, possibly not for the same reasons, but the main cannon will fire a beam that will widen exponentially as it leaves the nacelles and will fire as long as we power it. We won't be able to move very quickly in the new configuration, it seems to be made more for the power it adds to the main gun than anything else. Sort of like a siege or planetary assault mode. But it will work."

"How far above the surface would we need to get before being able to fire?"

Dr Lang took a moment to think before replying. "Given the damage we did to ourselves before when firing the cannon on Earth I would want us to be completely out of the atmosphere captain. The gun creates a tremendous amount of heat and while the atmosphere of Saturn may be better for that than space it also puts more pressure on the ships structure than Earth's gravity, and I don't know how that would influence the transformation."

"Very well. We will randomly choose a direction to leave Saturn's atmosphere and transform into the new form as fast as possible. Then we will fire the main cannon on as wide a radius as possible for as long as possible, hopefully destroying many of their motherships and clearing a path directly through the asteroid field if we come out an angle where we will intersect it. We will then transform back and move swiftly through the gap thus created."

Roy spoke up from where he was leaning against the bulkhead. "Captain, a point. The ship will be vulnerable while it is transforming. It'll be up to my Air Group and we haven't been able to do anything but simulator drills with the new graduates." The second class had graduated a bare week prior. "If it takes too long to clear the asteroid field with the cannon we may face the same type of fight as before."

"Commander Hayes?" Gloval indicated.

Hayes took her place at the front of the room and touch the screens controls. On the screen a brief view of the asteroid ring and Saturn appeared. "Going by this plan we will be in place between the planet's upper atmosphere and the asteroid ring. That should allow us to have enough space between us and the ring so that they cannot get in close without us picking them up on radar. However we will plan as if there will be resistance from enemy battlepods. First we'll launch two elite squadrons from the forward most hangers, your discretion as to which, their job will be to close with the asteroid ring and be our eyes and ears before the main cannon fires. Once we transform however they will need to retreat out of the line of fire swiftly.

"Next out of the ship will be the Defender class Destroids. We will then launch twenty of the new missile satellites and the rest of the Valkyrie squadrons. All combat will happen within the Defender's anti-air envelope. This and the ship not being in the asteroid belt should cut down on losses." Her voice remained clipped and professional throughout, not showing how worried she was about facing combat again, or her own worries about the pilots.

Roy merely nodded. "Are we going to move straight back to Earth captain?"

"That will be determined later, but our long term goal is always to get back home."

Roy nodded again and the meeting broke up. Moments later speakers everywhere in the ship began to go off. "All Veritech pilots report to designated squadron ready rooms, all Destroid operators report to base. All navy personnel prepare for battle in two hours. All civilians be aware modular transformation in three hours. All civilians check in at safe zones." This repeated several times, making certain that everyone on board heard it.

All around the city military personnel stopped what they had been doing and ran off while the civilians took a bit longer to respond, not used to this command and what it entailed. Nodoka, the police commissioner and Mayor Luan however had been thinking about this all along during the remodeling of the city. They immediately took charge, using policemen, construction workers and the military police to direct everyone to safe zones in the city, which were marked out in neon glowing paint on the ground, ceiling and walls at times and from there into shelters. Their plan worked so well that every civilian was gathered up and in a safe place within the allotted time frame. This warning also interrupted a conversation between one civilian and one recalcitrant pilot.

Rick had decided to follow Ranma's advice about Minmei and had asked her to spend some time with him that day. Almost immediately he noticed that he was more attentive and happy with her than with Sammy. It often felt that with Sammy he always had to be doing something interesting to make her happy but with Minmei just being with her made him happy and while she wanted his attention, he didn't need to be doing anything to keep hers.

When it came to talking about his feelings for her however he couldn't force the words out. Instead he asked "You've been humming something most of the time we've been walking, but I can't recognize the tune?"

Minmei blushed. "Oh it's just a song I wrote, nothing serious. You know that I've always wanted to be a singer, part of that is writing my own songs. I call it 'my boyfriends a pilot'."

Ricks blood froze. "O-oh, that's nice, so you're boyfriends a pilot huh, do I know him? Has Ranma given him the big brother speech, he said once that he'd do that if you ever got a boyfriend." He tied to make a joke of it, but any astute listener would have seen how shaken up he was.

For better or worse Minmei wasn't so astute. "Oh don't be silly Rick, I don't have a boyfriend, but two of my best friends are pilots, you and Ranma."

Ricks courage broke again at hearing that hated word. Just friends huh, always saying we're friends, what about the kisses we shared, do you really mean that, you think I'm just a friend?

Thankfully for Rick it was at this point that the emergency alert blared over the speakers. It was with a sigh of relief that Rick said "Look I gotta go, will you be alright by yourself?"

Minmei nodded looking very worried. "I'll find Auntie N" this was her nickname for Nodoka "and stay with her until this is over. Oh Rick, please be careful out there. I don't want to lose you or Ranma okay?" Rick nodded and feeling daring went to kiss her but his courage failed him and he only kissed her on the cheek before running away. Minmei looked after him a moment then turned and ran off, intent on finding either Nodoka or Kasumi.

Skull squadron launched from the forward most hanger bays as soon as they cleared the outer atmosphere and by the time the rest of the ship was out of the atmosphere they had stationed themselves between it and the asteroid belt in a defensive position. Almost as soon as they did, two battlepods made a brief appearance before being destroyed by two well placed blaster rounds.

Breetai was making use of a sleep cycle when he was rudely roused by his flagship captain. "My lord, you wanted to be told immediately when the space fortress came out of the gas giant's atmosphere, it has appeared near the southern pole of the planet. Two battlepods reported being engaged there before going silent."

Breetai threw himself upright, grabbing a stim stick and rushing past the captain barking orders. "Move all the battlepods already in space to that position and engage the space fortress. Move the fleet closer to the asteroid belt."

As soon as the ship was free of the atmosphere, Defenders began to move out and take up position all along the hull of the battleship. At the same time the rest of the Valkyrie squadrons launched and the missile satellites were jettisoned. These pods were incredibly simple devices built around the missile launchers that had been the arms on the Phalanx destroids. Only twenty of the pods had been completed by this point, since the primary goals of the factories was repairing and building more Veritechs as well as constructing more of the mobile barriers. Now they had ten mobile barriers built and hooked up, ready to go and every pilot, all 149 of them, once more had a Valkyrie.

Ranma had been given an entirely new Valkyrie, a VF 1S variant that had four lasers instead of one and a magnetic clip for the blaster on the side of the right arm. As soon as he saw it Ranma somehow knew this machine would be his for the rest of his life. He had felt a connection to his other planes (both of which had been practically demolished under him) but something about this one called to him before he even got into its cockpit. He had ideas about customizing it, and had begun to make a list days before the current operation.

He took up his position with the rest of blue squadron on the port side of the battleship. "Blue 6 on station." He had been moved forward a few flights from all the deaths and reassignments that had happened. Now the only ones he knew from the old squad was Motoko Aoyama, who had begun to badger him about martial arts lesson whenever they saw one another, Rick and Commander Prescott. The Hanrahan twins, the last two survivors had been moved over to Gold to fill that squads veteran requirement.

He didn't even know the new Lt., a former skull pilot, and hadn't bothered learning his or any of the other's names. He'd wait until they survived a month or so before bothering. It might have seemed callous but it was more a defense against the pain of losing more friends. If he didn't know them, it wouldn't hurt if they died.

While he was devoting most of his attention to his sensors and his assigned section he had enough presence of mind to watch in his view screen as the space fortress began to transform. "This should really have some kind of sound effect, like the old transformers sound 'chchhchhck' you know." He continued to watch in something like amused awe as the fortress finished transforming. "Uh, command, you do know you look like a giant robot now right? I mean, this is so damn cool."

He could practically hear Lisa's eyes rolling over the radio as she replied. "yes we know blue 6, now cut the chatter. You need to be concentrating on your section."

"Hai, command, be aware I will be using a variant of the music attack. I want to see if that was a onetime deal or not, and that Intel guy wasn't much help at all."

"Roger that blue 6, keep line 15 free for orders from higher and line 7 for inter-squad communication. And do try to play something tasteful alright? Command out."

"Lines 15 and 7 free aye, something tasteful aye command."

Not two minutes later the first battlepods appeared in his sector but he didn't even bother calling it in, simply killing all three pods with a short burst of his underslung lasers in jet mode. The newbies in the squadron had noticed the action and some of them looked over at him in awe before being called back to the matter at hand by Prescott.

Not two minutes later the main reflux cannon nacelles finished moving into position. A minute later they finished charging and began to fire. Ranma was simply stunned for a moment by the amount of power he felt being used. "Holy fucking god."

Aboard his flagship Breetai's eye widened in recognition but before he could order the fleet to disperse the monstrous beam of power sliced through the asteroid ring and continued out into space before slicing like a scythe through the fleet in position in front of it. Fully forty ships died under that fire in the first few minutes, and then the beam began to move from side to side and up and down, devastating that section of the fleet. BY the time the beam shut down it had claimed over a hundred ships of the line, and the way forward was clear of any ship that could have sent additional battlepods after the space fortress. "It's down to the Regulds stationed in the asteroid ring now. They must slow the space fortress down and let us reposition!" He hoped they were up to the task, but was concerned. Given the Micronian's size, as well as the time spent in the gas giants atmosphere, he was almost certain they would have retrained their forces enough to make good their losses. The question was, how often could they do that in the long run?

Once the beam cut off Lisa's voice rang out again over the radio. "All forces be advised the Macross will be going to full power to engines as soon as the transformation back to normal mode is complete."

Ranma grinned even as more battlepods came out of the remaining asteroid section only to run into the fire of the Destroyers, opening both lines 15 and 7. "Oh come on command, just call it vehicle mode, you know you want to. Be advised that we have incoming, I count at least fifty pods incoming port side, blue one advise?"

"Shut it blue 6," command answered promptly, though Ranma could here giggles and even a chuckle from behind her.

Prescott however was all business. "Blue squad, boost engines and engage. Tan squad stay on station here." As the most senior commander, Prescott was in charge of the defense on this side of the ship.

"Roger Blue one, good hunting," Tan 1 answered.

Ranma double clicked his radio in acknowledgement and he and Rick gunned forward and within a minute were hitting the battlepods alongside the rest of the squad. The battlepods who were already ducking and hopping around the Defender's fire, lost ten of their number before recovering and firing back. The dogfight became hectic immediately and Ranma killed another three pods before deciding it was time to use the music and see what happened. "Command this is blue 6, starting noise attack now."

With that the sound of Body and Mind, a Japanese jazz song rang out over nearly all the channels hammering the battlepods speaker. There was an immediate effect, but one that took Ranma by surprise. As he flew through the battle the enemy mechs began to break away from him, almost running but not quite. They seemed confused and scared, but whatever it was made them easy meat for the Veritechs. "Command, are you seeing this?"

"We're seeing it we're not certain what it means though. Good choice by the way, but why do you think its having a different effect from before?"

"The only differences between the two are this is in another language and the singer is female. Seeing as these are aliens I'd say that it's because the voice is that of a woman command. Maybe they're scared of girls or something" Ranma joked, even as he used his missiles to kill a command pod that was trying to range on the new blue 10, while behind him Rick killed two more. "Be advised the command pods seem to ignore it."

"Roger last blue 6, and I wouldn't point out anyone being afraid of women if I were you. Or do I have to mention Akane?" Commander Haye's voice was serious even though the words were joking and she moved on swiftly, maneuvering reinforcements to the aft section of the defense, where the thrust of the aliens coming out of the asteroid ring was the hardest. The ship finished its transformation and began to move through the space that had previously been occupied by a part of the asteroid ring.

Ranma moved up, changing into robot mode beside Motoko's ship which had lost a wing and her wingman. As he and Rick took up position around her blazing away she transformed slowly and eventually rejoined the battle.

Around the ship other pilots began to hammer out their own songs and the numbers of the enemy, the thing that could have brought them victory despite everything, shattered. Under the music assault ach of them was force to fight alone, the only exception being the command pods and the few pods they could rally around them.

The Defender's fire in particular became far more effective as the enemy lost unit cohesion and the ability to concentrate past what was right in front of them. The Valkyries too had a field day racking up the kills and about halfway through the asteroid ring the alien assault petered out.

Lisa began to pull in the fighters, least experienced squadrons first and then the Destroyers. She left one squadron out there as a CAP, with Skull to start with, but the battle was effectively over. She turned to captain Gloval elation showing on her face. "Sir, the battle seems to be over. We are clear to advance."

Gloval smiled back though inwardly he was certain the battle had only been so easy because they had caught the commander from the previous battle out of position to direct this one. If he had been nearer the music attack would not have worked to the extent it had and they would have paid a far higher price for this escape. Still for now he would count his blessings and let the crew have their happy moment.

trt

End chapter As normal review and tell me what you think!

*Chapter 10*: Normal life, what is this word 'normal'

I don't own the robots or the Ranma

Not much action in this chapter but it's a lead up to one of the most important episodes in the Macross Saga. So everyone knows, I've taken a more sci-fi route in describing their weapons, so a Gatling gun is now a gauss rifle, a cannon a rail gun, etc.

RDDE, yes I knew that fact about the sun, and I wanted to plant the idea of solar powered lasers now, it won't pan out for a long while if ever, and it won't be used in combat. I'm basing that part of my story on the Troy series by John Ringo. He's good at putting the science in science fiction.

The discharged pilots will be part of ongoing issues that Lisa in particular will be dealing with off and on until they get back to Earth.

I have found in many harem/multi fics, the ladies join up too quickly to give any real romance to their joining. I hope to aim for a more gradual inclusion of Lisa and eventually Miriya to the already solid relationship of Ranma and Kasumi. To that end, I have gone back and wrote up a short flashback for their first date and stuck it in the last chapter. Those who are interested in it should go back and read it.

Oh, and I won't be breaking the fourth wall anymore. The scene where Ranma makes his vow mentioned last chapter has also been written and placed in chapter one.

As for the intelligence section, they won't be added to until they return to Earth. Gloval is really acting out of his depth here, and hasn't realized he should have been receiving regular intel updates about more than the aliens tech.

Sutam1, I'll keep her in mind as I do agree with you. I think you'll be happy with what happens when the Meltraedi are introduced. Either her or Shampoo (heh)

A bit of Max bashing in this, just warning you

Chapter 9 Normal life, what is this word 'normal'

Breetai stared into his tactical display, hands clenching and unclenching as he tried to master his ire. Behind him a voice spoke from the communications hologram. "You were caught out of position Breetai."

Breetai and Exedore turned and both went to one knee as Dolza's image appeared. "My lord I have no excuse. These Micronians have consistently proven to be more capable than I have thought, and I have failed to bring them to heel."

Dolza looked at his most experienced battle commander silently for a minute then shrugged. "You have been plagued with poor luck more than anything else Breetai. I have seen the reports of the first battle you fought against them, and you were very close to winning through. I realize that capturing the ship is much harder than destroying it but we must have that ship and what it carries! You're losses however are worrisome."

Breetai shrugged. Until the Micronians used the siege cannon his losses had been relatively light. After all what were a thousand or even two thousand Reguld mechs to his forces, a bare pittance. Yet the assault by the cannon had changed that, taking out a twentieth of his forces in one strike. Still it was a paltry amount compared to the total, he had lost more than that in many a campaign. Dolza continued "I have decided to send you another fleet to add to your own, the 11th Skirmishing Fleet."

Exedore twitched at Breetai's side. "The 11th sire, but isn't that the clan fleet controlled by Kyron?"

Breetai knew that name. "The one called the backstabber?"

Dolza nodded, scowling now. "Yes, Kyron the backstabber, Kyron the foolish! He has recently earned my ire. He moved his fleet out of position to attack an Invid factory ship that was moving between their fleets undefended. The attack succeeded, but the 15th battle fleet was badly mauled because the 11th skirmish fleet was out of position, leaving them to be flanked and pinned down. I have decided that Kyron and his entire clan are a liability now. Use them, bleed them until they fall, I care not. Let them do the dying for you Breetai."

Breetai nodded. "I will my lord. I have already devised another way to gain control of Zor's battleship. We will succeed my lord."

Dolza's stared down at him coldly. "See that you do Breetai, my patience with failure is not without limit."

Breetai and Exedore both bowed again, and the image cut off.

Ranma sighed as she woke up in female form. Ugh, that time again. Ranma had noticed early on in his time with his curse that it was fully functional and the time in it added up to its menstrual cycle. On the other hand the mood swings did cross over, so he tended to remain in his female form until it was over. His periods tended to be more emotional than physical than a few others he could name, yes Ranma felt a little bloated, but she didn't have the headaches, exhaustion or monster cramps that Kasumi had.

Ranma groaned and got out of bed. It was her turn to make breakfast and she had the day off today, so she had no real excuse to skip it. As she cooked a simple breakfast she smiled happily at how the last few months had gone. The time in Saturn's atmosphere had been the best time in his life bar none, punctuated with him and Kasumi's relationship starting. He still wasn't certain about the whole marry someone else thing, but he did love her and that was more than enough. What's more Kasumi accepted him, curse, combat junky attitude and all. Though she had been telling him she wanted Ranma to work on his accent…

The time since they left Saturn had been good too. While in its atmosphere he had concentrated on building up his ki and learning the paperwork, once they left, he was back on the clock once more and he poured his time into flying. Which reminded him; that was one of the things he'd been meaning to do for the last two weeks but had kept on putting it off.

A giggle from behind him broke him out of his thoughts and he turned. Kasumi stood by the kitchen doorway giggling as she took in Ranma's appearance. Ranma was wearing an apron open at the back that said 'it takes a man to really cook' and loose lazy shorts, no shirt and no bra. Her hair was loose and stuck out everywhere, and she looked altogether adorable. "You look so cute Ranma-chan! Where in the world did you get that apron though?"

Ranma growled a little but she knew Kasumi meant well so she didn't lash out. "I got the apron from a specialty shop in the city that stencils stuff. And no offense Kasumi, but I'm not in the mood, its 'that time' y'know."

Kasumi's face immediately assumed a sympathetic expression. As bad as periods were for her physically, Ranma had more mood swings than any woman she had ever seen. Akane was worse, but that wasn't so much mood swings as her violent and aggressive tendencies coming out 24/7 with no real counterweight. "I'm sorry Ranma-chan. Is there anything I can do to make today easier for you?"

She moved forward and began to give the shorter girl a massage on her shoulders. Ranma leaned back purring into her touch for a moment before answering. "Nah, I'm off duty today, just gotta meet with Doctor Lang this morning. After that unless you want ta do something I'll just crash here. I've got some stuff I need ta do on the computer that'll keep me occupied. What're your plans for the day Kas-chan?"

Kasumi smiled brightly at the nickname, something Ranma only used when they were alone. "I'm meeting up with Lisa and Claudia, we're going to buy some food for a party that's coming up, its Roy's birthday soon and Claudia wants to throw him a party. Apparently she needs help to make his favorite ice cream and pizza. And if you want to we can make it a girl's afternoon out and go miniature golfing. Have you gone yet?"

"Pizza, is that something like okonomiyaki? Mini-golf sounds like fun, and yeah, if I'm up for it I'll text ya. I ain't been yet, I tried ta go with Rick and Roy but they refused ta play with me. Said my being a martial artist gave me an unfair advantage." She sniffled a little. "it's not like I could help it or nothin'."

Kasumi put her arms around the redhead hugging her tightly. Her emotions really do go all over the place with her period don't they? The last time this happened Ranma had gone from sickeningly sweet to violent to happy and then crashing down into gloomy depression all in the course of a single day. Even Mousse and Ryoga knew not to bother Ranma when her time hit, though Genma never had learned that particular lesson. Of course he did make a wonderful punching bag…

After a few moments of wordless cuddling Ranma was able to break off the hug, smiling brightly at her lover. She checked the soup and her pancakes, which had just turned an appetizing brown. "Could you go get mom for me? Food's ready."

Kasumi nodded and went to wake up Nodoka. Since the first harvest had come in Nodoka had been busy going over data seeing what worked what grew best and estimating the minimum amount of workers necessary to free up the man power for other projects. The military factories and repair teams were always looking to augment their numbers. And of course there was always the academy, which had grown in size and could handle a class of over four hundred now.

The still sleepy woman joined her children, smiling as she saw the acceptance of Ranma's form in Kasumi's face and body language. It was something that had concerned her, not having been around the two since they became a couple, and Nodoka knew it had been hard for her at first. Not the fact her son changed, but the fact the change was a full one. It had worried Nodoka at the time because she was afraid it would influence his thoughts. It hadn't however, whatever his form Ranma still thought the same. The conversation was pleasant for all three women and they went their own ways afterward.

Ranma reluctantly dressed for the day and left to catch a bus to the other side of the city, which was closer to Dr. Lang's new lab. She wore her uniform, thinking that it was a good compromise between the most comfortable and least appealing outfit she had. She was used to being hit on when in this form, but wasn't in the mood today to deal with it and hoped that the uniform would scare everyone away.

Unfortunately she was going to be denied that hope. Almost as soon as the bus started moving she heard a male voice in front of her, causing her to look up from her data pad. "Excuse me miss is this seat taken?"

She looked up to see a young cadet in his uniform with the tab that indicated he was in the Veritech class. He had blue hair in a mop cut on his head, and glasses of all things. Can you even pilot with glasses on? Weird. She grunted, and the boy took that to mean he could sit down.

She went back to working on her data-pad, filling out some paperwork to explain his use of music in the battle two weeks ago. She was interrupted by the blue haired boy again. "So what's your job in the SDF miss? Do you have any tips you could give me, my names Max by the way. I joined the academy to be a pilot, I can't wait to see if my skill with simulators translates like they say it does to the real thing."

Ranma looked up at him angrily. "Alright, here's a hint for you Max, don't flirt with, don't talk with every attractive woman you see. Some of us don't appreciate it." With that she to up and left the startled blue haired youth behind. Her words however didn't register as his eyes slid down to follow her rear as she walked off.

After only fifteen minutes he arrived at the huge three story building that had been converted to Dr. Lang's new workshop. The word workshop fit it far better than lab. There was more than just science experiments in here, there were machines being tested, built, engines being taken apart and robotic pieces everywhere on the first floor. There was also a rather officious young man at the desk by the door. He looked down his nose at her and asked "Can I help you?" in a nasally sort of voice.

Ranma's eyebrows started to twitch, and a vein began to appear on her forehead. "Ranma Saotome to see Dr. Lang. I know I'm early but meh."

"The Ranma Saotome I have listed here is a boy ensign, perhaps you should try your little joke elsewhere." He sneered and made to turn away.

Ranma had had enough. Reaching forward he grabbed the man by his jacket and hoisted him up out of his chair over the desk and into the air with one hand. "Look pal, you must have heard some rumors about me so don't give me that bullshit. Or you can take it like this, how many people on this ship could lift ya up like this? You either let me in ta see the doc or you go see a different kind of doc, wakarimas?"

The man nodded frantically and the elevator door opened at the far end of the room. Ranma smiled up at him sweetly and then thumped him back down into his chair. "Thank you." And with that he hopped off. That actually made me feel better. Stupid stinking period! Ranma didn't realize how much his/her thoughts about the curse had changed since arriving on the island. Where before Ranma had hated the curse now he/she only cursed what came with it.

On the third floor the elevator deposited him at Dr Lang's office, which apparently was the only thing on this floor. He looked around at the large white boards that were everywhere, filled with equations and schematics, and the floor that was filled with paper, a few batteries and some other less recognizable junk. At the far end of the room from the elevator was a single large desk with a computer screen on it and what looked like a very comfy chair next to it.

Dr. Lang looked up from a screen of calculations and saw his visitor, and after only a second recognized her as Ranma in female form. "Ah, Ranma excellent, I'm sorry to pull you in here on your day off, but I have a few experiments that I'd like you to help me with. Why the female form though, normally you change back unless you have a reason to be in it."

"Hey doc, no problem, I just hope the experiments are on something else and not me if ya know what I mean. And I'm in female form cause my time added up ta a month again. On that note ya may want ta replace your receptionist, he's a bit of an asshole and if he gives me grief when I leave he's not gonna be able ta talk or eat solid foods fer a while."

Emil blanched at the knowledge of Ranma's form and his threat toward his receptionist, a young intern from the college who apparently had pissed off one person too many. "Yes well, anyway come over here for a moment this is what I wanted to show you."

He and Ranma went down one level and entered an area that was part science lab and part shooting range. Set into the wall separating the two areas was a gigantic ammo collier, easily the size of six normal magazines for the standard Veritech rifle.

The Veritech Howard GU-11 55mm gauss rifle was a solid state shooter that fired out at extremely high speeds, much like its ancestor the Vulcan gatling gun, only the rounds went much faster but were pumped out at a slightly slower rate. A single round in the right place (I.E. any place other than the legs or frontal armor) could destroy a battlepod, and two rounds could punch through even their frontal armor. A magazine held 200 rounds, and a Valkyrie had places alongside it outer legs for two more magazines, giving them a total of 600 shots with it before they had to retreat to resupply. This was enough to last a normal pilot for about two hours against the aliens if the pilot was frugal with his shots, a span of time that any pre-space pilot would have been either aghast or awed by. Awed because a plane could stay in the fight that long and the pilot face the g-forces without blacking out, and aghast because they had to.

Ranma looked at the collier, walking around it from all sides and saw a large something on the top of it. Dr. Lang opened the thing up and inside was four spheres like those found in the engine room where he had used the Soul of Ice maneuver. Along both sides was what Ranma recognized as the prime energy containers for a Veritech battery. In the direct center was what looked like some kind of bullet injection system. "What is this thing doc?"

"Do you remember telling me about hidden weapons space? Well this is the beginning of our research into that state. I want to see if we can build that 'larger on the inside than the outside' concept into our magazines."

"Seriously? Okay that sounds damn awesome. What da ya need me for?"

"Step right this way." He gestured her into the shooting range where two other scientists were putting the finishing touch on setting up the area for analysis. In front of them was a human sized rifle, with wires and a small reflux battery set into it by the shoulder. "Before we begin are there any differences in how you use your ki from one form or another we have to make allowances for?"

Ranma shook her head, moving forward to look at the weird rifle and running a finger over it, sending a brief pulse of ki into it. A monitor on the side lit up as he did so and one of the scientists ran over and began to take some notes from it. "Nah, not in my ki anyway. I'm a little quicker ta anger, don't have so much emotional control, but the only real difference is physical. In my female form I'm a hell of a lot faster, but in my male form I'm a hell of a lot stronger. In my female body I can only bench 800 pounds rather than 2000, but can move at an almost equally faster rate."

One of the scientists scoffed at that but stopped as Ranma easily hefted the rifle, a rifle which with its present modifications and monitoring equipment three grown men could barely move, onto her shoulder easily. "Now, what the hell am I supposed ta do here?"

"I want you to feel the energy moving through the rifle and see if the energy is" he grimaced, he hated being so unscientific, but it couldn't be helped "moving in the right way to form the weapon space pocket, then see if the bullets come out of the pocket correctly and are able to be used."

"Kay." The redhead stood there for a moment, and her hand began to glow blue gold as it held the rifle by its trigger mechanism. The other scientists went mad, running around and taking notes from the computers as fast as the readouts could print. Ranma however shook his head. "Nah, it's not moving right. What ya want ta do is sort of…." She paused. "It's like, I think ya need ta think about it like gravity. Ya have too much of it at one place, concentrated on one place and space warps right? Using ki like this sort of does the same. What ya got here is more like yer trying ta power up the shots."

She turned, raising the rifle in one smooth motion and fired down range. Rather than putting a small hole through the target the target exploded like it was hit by an artillery round rather than a rifle bullet. While the target went up in flames she turned, scaring the scientists witless as she grinned, her red hair flashing around with the fire as a backdrop. "See? Ya put too much power into the round, the real power needs ta be part of the magazine."

Dr Lang ignored his fellow scientists as they backed away from the redhead, one going so far as having to clench his legs to avoid voiding himself. "Would you be able to use that 'technique' as you call it on a magazine and let us look at it?"

"Well, like I said I don't use that technique, but I think I could figure it out, a brute force approach anyway. When we get back ta earth I'll introduce ya to Mousse though. He'll probably be able ta show ya how ta do it easy. What else did ya want me ta look at?"

The next experiment took a few hours, as Dr. Lang was far close to getting this one right. He had continued to try and figure out a way to charge armor to become stronger and denser, like the Steel Body technique. He was a little off though in that the metal wouldn't hold the 'charge' for long, and it wouldn't last for very long under continuous pounding. The metal would also warp and bend under the strain of the energy, and there were far too many connections necessary to distribute the energy equally into the twenty foot piece of leg armor they were using to experiment on. The energy needed was also exorbitant.

It took Ranma and the scientists nearly two hours to solve most of the problems with it. The metal would no longer warp (not an even distribution of power), it would hold the charge slightly longer (something that had to do with the 'frequency of the energy for want of a better term) and there was only a single central connector necessary to pump the energy out into the rest of the metal. Ranma likened it to the metal having veins through which the power could flow, inside it rather than be pushed into from the outside. The power consumption problem however was still a major hurdle, and one Ranma couldn't help them with.

"I know I use a lot of my ki when I use the body hardening technique, so that's probably not something that ya can do without." It was true too. Before he arrived on the island Ranma had only been able to use the toughening technique for a few hours. Now though he could go for hours on end. He had built up his ki reservoir to a level he hadn't even known existed before. It was startling in a way that being away from the distractions of the constant sparring and rivals had allowed him to improve far faster.

To Ranma, there was no point in getting better or stronger, getting stronger was the point. He never asked himself 'am I strong enough', he only asked 'am I stronger today than I was yesterday'. Since leaving Nerima that question was always answered with a 'yes'.

Dr. Lang asked "Would you be willing to take some recordings when you're next in combat? We really need real time data on this. We may be able to add a battery to the existing Valkyrie but it will decrease the overall speed and agility some, so some other way to power it needs to be found."

"Sure doc, set whatever ya need up in the cockpit of my plane. I'll see if I can do the hidden weapons technique normally, and then try it on a magazine for ya."

"That'll be excellent. Thanks for your help Ranma." Lang walked Ranma to the door, making certain that his receptionist watched as he did so the better to save the man from considerable pain, though the look of fear that crossed the man's face was amusing. "I'll text you if we need any more help, but today has already shaved months off the armor strengthening project at least."

Ranma nodded and with one last handshake left the building, intent on meeting up with Kasumi and Lisa for some lunch. Again deciding to take a bus, this time to the shopping district she was happy to see no one else on the bus.

That good fortune continued until he got off the bus. "Ah we meet again my scarlet haired beauty." A voice said from her right and she whirled half expecting to see Kuno suddenly appear but it was only the man from the bus standing there. He smiled, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "This must be fate for us to meet twice in one day. I have to apologize for whatever I said that set you off earlier. But really a lovely woman like you shouldn't spend her day alone. Let me make it up to you by buying you some lunch."

Ranma growled, for some reason this guy was pushing all her buttons. Maybe it was because he reminded her of Kuno or maybe it was just his pretty boy attitude on top of her hormonal issues but it was really pissing her off. "Look pal, I really ain't in the mood, and I never am for guys okay?"

"Don't be like that miss, deep down I can tell you're just a little lonely. Come on, we could have a lot of fun together."

Ranma gripped the back of the bus-stops metal seat, gripping it hard enough to leave dents as the man continued talking about going to see a play and where they could eat. She was about to lose what little patience she had when she heard Kasumi's voice behind her.

Kasumi spent most of her morning with Lisa and Claudia lending a sympathetic ear to her friend's problems and receiving one in turn on her own as she taught Claudia how to make pizza (it was almost exactly like okonomiyaki) and then how to make homemade ice cream. Homemade ice cream was something she had done a time or two while still living with her family, so she knew how to churn the milk and add ingredients properly. As she watched Claudia cooking Lisa was telling her about her own problems, all of which were work related of course.

"The main thing right now, with the aliens not attacking as often is that there seems to be two criminal groups operating within the civilian population and the military. One of them is your normal every day criminal group, they seem to be operating mostly from the city and only have a few members who are also in the military. I've left them to the police mostly, just letting them use some military hardware if they need to. Not like they will, most of the civilian population is pretty law abiding. But the other group worries me."

Kasumi stopped Claudia from putting in more sugar too soon, and set a small timer in front of her. "Why is that? Are they more violent or something? If you want to scare them we can always send Ranma-chan out after them. I know she'll need something to pound on today. It won't even be the first time she's done something like that. The second time she had her period my younger sister was having an 'issue'" she raised her fingers in the universal quote sign for a moment "with the yakuza trying to set up operations in Nerima again. You'd think they'd learn… anyway Ranma went out and found them all and put each and every one of them in the hospital with humiliating and severe but not life threatening injuries."

Claudia chuckled as Lisa shook her head. The fact that Ranma's female form was completely functional was a source of much amusement to Lisa, yet came as a shock at first. On the whole though, she rather liked the fact that Ranma got the full treatment as she thought of it rather than just the good stuff. Claudia pointed a finger at her cooking instructor. "You can't just let us hang like that, what kind of injuries?"

Kasumi giggled, a little wickedly actually and Lisa and Claudia exchanged a speaking glance. Kasumi may come off to most as a bit of a wall flower but she had a nasty sense of humor at times and there was an extremely sharp mind underneath that kind face. "Well I remember him mumbling about pipes, rear ends and permanent chastity belts, though how those all tie together I don't know…"

Claudia gaped at her then joined Lisa in breaking out into laughter. Lisa however got control of herself quickly. "No, it's not that this group is violent, it's the fact they have a far better grasp of our computers and logistics system than I like. We've got parts and certain supplies coming up short in our inventories and I can't seem to find where most of its going. My teams have only been able to hunt down about half the food supplies and the weapons they tried to make disappear from the system so far. The police and MPs have only caught two of this group so far as well. What's more it's pretty obvious this group is working like a terrorist group with cells. One of the men knew only about his own operation, not even the existence of the others nor who was passing him orders, and the other was the same. That will make shutting this group down devilishly hard."

Kasumi nodded. "Well if you need any help in, what's the word, scoping out places or guarding something Ranma has this technique where he can go invisible that might help."

Lisa shrugged. Feeling she had bitched enough about her problems she changed the subject by asking Kasumi how her studies were going.

Kasumi answered they were going well save for one class. The new semester had begun and she had signed up for the next round of classes as usual but one of the classes was taught by a middle aged man who had begun to flirt with her. What was worse she was worried he may tamper with her grades somehow to take advantage of her.

Lisa nodded sympathetically and told her about some of her own run-ins at officer school. Claudia hadn't had that problem, being a friend and off again on again girlfriend of a fighter pilot helped keep the losers at bay. It was a simple, normal conversation and somehow it was just what Lisa needed to get her mind off her responsibilities for a time.

After the ice cream was put away to freeze and harden the three women went out to meet up with the gossip trio. The five ladies spent an hour shopping and then made their way back to the bus stop to meet up with Ranma. Lisa was the first to spot him/her and was about to call out to him when Kasumi giggled. "Oh no, what is with Ranma-chan's luck?"

Vanessa looked then giggled. "Oh I know him, that's Max, he's a trainee at the academy, everyone's been talking about his scores in the simulator. Wow he's really handsome huh?"

Kim agreed. "I bet we could have a lot of fun with that guy." Having a boyfriend already Sammy was ambivalent about it, but she did like the new boy's face at least.

"Yes and he's hitting on Ranma-chan. Excuse me I think I have to step in here before Ranma kills him."

That turned everyone's attention to short redhead and they now saw she was nearly vibrating in anger. Oh shit she's gonna blow! Lisa thought, a sentiment that was shared by Claudia.

The other three however were more concerned by the fact that their bodies didn't stack up to the boy turned girl's, whose proportions and figure made her look like a model even in the SDF uniform, which was horrendous for showing off anything but the legs (something all three knew all too well). The five soldiers watched as Kasumi quickly raced forward calling out to Ranma. "Ranma-chan!"

Ranma's head came up and swiveled to the side her rage evaporating as she saw the welcome vision of Kasumi walking towards her. "Hey Kasumi-chan, had a good day so far?"

"Yes Ranma-chan, but how are you doing, have your violent mood swings died down a little?" The brunette asked, deliberately emphasizing the word violent.

To the side Max mouthed the words 'violent mood swings' to himself as Kasumi continued "I bought a crate of those stress balls, I know you destroyed a dozen of them last month."

Max mouthed 'destroyed' to himself then the phrase 'last month' registered in his brain and he paled. Kasumi closed in for the kill, turning towards him for the first time. "Ara, you seem to be a sturdy sort, would you be willing to walk around with us? I'm afraid I can't guarantee your safety but the store owners would probably thank you."

Max looked from the admittedly very pretty brunette back to the redhead who, she noticed had grabbed the back of the bench with one hand and actually seemed to be twisting it out of shape somehow. He saw this and showed that he was smarter than the average Kuno by turning tail and running. "Um, I'm sorry but I just remembered a prior engagement elsewhere. Have a nice day." He turned and strode away, the words of his father going through his mind (don't run Max, they smell your fear, just walk away quickly) until he was out of sight round a corner then ran like the hounds of hell were after him.

Ranma waited until he was out of sight then leaned her head against Kasumi's shoulder as the others walked up to them. "Thanks Kasumi-chan, I was seriously near to my breaking point there."

She smiled at him warmly but Vanessa had to ruin the sweet moment. "I am so bloody jealous of you right now its not even funny. You have that perfect body and you were just hit on by the cutest guy in the academy."

Sammy nodded. "Aaaaah, what god do I have to worship to get a figure like that?"

Kim giggled reaching around Ranma's back and rubbing her chest. "Maybe we can get some through osmosis! Pass your bust size to us, to us…" She began to rub them and her two friends giggled and joined in. Claudia and Lisa looked at eachother and shook their heads at how embarrassing the three were being but Kasumi merely giggled.

Ranma on the other hand wasn't having fun and used his speed to move away from their grasping hands to hide behind Kasumi. "It ain't like I asked for this form, and hell you could say I cheated ta get it so ya can't be jealous of me. if ya want ta be jealous of a real girls figure, Kasumi's body is way better than mine. Lisa and Claudia are both pretty too." All three women blushed at the compliment and the three gossipers giggled.

The seven women began to walk towards the miniature golf center, exchanging stories of their day and grabbing food from the vendors they saw. Ranma was incensed to hear about Kasumi's problems with her new professor and even more so with the problems Lisa was having with the thieves and the logistics department. To his mind something like that was undermining their ability to do their job and defend the ship from the aliens and it pissed him off. Lisa was in turn happy that Dr. Lang was making progress in his projects, and stunned that Ranma was able to power the experiments that had previously taken several batteries to charge.

Ranma shrugged that away but for just a minute he felt the cold of space again, and he knew that his experiment with the radar all those months ago had done something to him, broke some kind of barrier in him that had allowed him to push further in the area of ki than he had been able to before.

The memory receded however as she felt Kasumi's arm around her stomach and the memory of the times they spent together filled him, driving away the cold. Ranma really wasn't the sort to ponder the infinite, like he had said to Lisa after that experiment. Life, eating, living, fighting, breathing (and now the pleasures of the flesh) were far too sweet to him for him to enjoy a glimpse of a life that was above such things. She grabbed Lisa's hand with one of her own and looped her other arm around Kasumi in turn. "let's go, I feel the urge to beat the crap out of innocent little white balls for the good of my sanity!"

The others nodded and finished their food before following him to the miniature golf center. The golf center was more involved and plain old fun than anything that could be found on earth. The tricks you could do on a ship where gravity was an optional and mostly changeable factor were unbelievable. Grav-plates would pull the ball one way or the other, other plates would make the ball go faster or slower forcing the player to vary his shot power. Long loops of plastic tubing with anti-grav helped the player shoot through wondrous designs. Other holes played more like darts with a club, forcing you to aim the ball into the air to hit a moving target. And of course there were floating obstacles, water hazards (both the normal kind and the in the air kind) and angles to be considered, both normal and with height added in.

Ranma, for all his/her physical control had no real advantage here. Her knowledge of angles was good, but she couldn't predict the gravity changes, or the power necessary for certain shots through varied grav areas. Of course her mood swings and irritation issues didn't help matters. By the end of the round she was stuck right in the middle with Kasumi leading followed closely by Sammy and Vanessa and Lisa, Kim and Claudia having much the same problems but even more so. Still they all had fun. The day ended with the four older girls having some fun with video games in Claudia's apartment.

A few days later Ranma growled in frustration once more hit the clear button on his data pad for the fifteenth time in three hours. He had been told a few months back that aces were allowed to customize their Valkyries paint scheme and their electronics, but at the time he hadn't really bothered. He hadn't really felt any kind of connection to his machine at that point, it was simply a tool. But with his new machine he definitely felt a connection. Moving his ki through this machine was already easier than through his last one, and he wondered what the heck the differences were that allowed him to do so., of it was simply all in his head.

So here he was on his afternoon off trying to figure out what kind of design he wanted to put on his Veritech.

Kasumi walked out of her room and kissed him on the four head as she went to grab some lunch. She had slept in, as classes hadn't resumed yet, but Ranma had had to get up early to lead his squadron in some callisthenic exercises. Eric had been very emphatic that everyone in the flight had to have some martial arts training, and Ranma had gleefully accepted the request that he start leading them in those exercises.

While he didn't like to have to fill out the evaluation forms afterward, he found that he did enjoy teaching. It had also served him well because he could figure out which area of martial arts was the best place to start that would carry over into piloting the Valkyrie. While he wasn't allowed to really put the squadron through their paces, after all Eric did know what he meant by that and knew that he personally could never have completed it, he was able to teach them a few katas that helped with hand eye coordination, as well as physical endurance.

With the G forces necessary to successfully pilot of the Valkyrie through a dogfight the endurance aspect was a major issue. Far too often stamina and the ability to repeatedly take the g-forces the pilots subjected themselves decided whether a pilot lived or died. It was also an area that couldn't really be emphasized enough at the Academy, given the nature of the courses and the short amount of time that each graduating class had.

While none of the pilots of Blue squadron would ever come close to matching his own endurance, after a few days they began to feel the results and became much more enthusiastic about learning from the marital artist. Mokoto, who had already been anxious to learn from Ranma was even more enthused, and kept on pestering him for one-on-one lessons. He had responded to this by giving her some pointers, but refusing to take up the time necessary from his other excursions, and his own exercise to be her teacher. She didn't have enough energy yet to really be taught ki exercises.

More his style was entirely hand to hand, while she was wedded to the blade, so she was forced to acquiesce. It didn't mean that she stopped pestering him about it however, especially when she saw him in female form for some reason.

Everyone in the flight had at this point seen him transform into a female and Ranma had been surprised by how accepting of it they had all been. Most of them simply seem to shrug and ignore it as unimportant, which in the long run it was. For one or two, magic was outside of their view of the universe and therefore they refused to acknowledge it one way or the other. Mokoto seemed to enjoy the fact that there was a man who understood what women went through, and much preferred to be shown exercises by his female form. Ranma had no real objections to this, as some of the exercises had a different impact given which form he was in.

On a personal level other than Mokoto, Rick and Eric Ranma still hadn't learned any of their names, but they were coming up to the point where he would. The past few weeks had been quite on the alien front, but they still were called out once a week or so. Another few dust balls and maybe, just maybe he think they'd survive long enough for him to want to get to know them personally.

Ranma broke out of his thoughts when Kasumi leaned over his shoulder, not incidentally pushing her chest into his shoulder and neck, causing him to blush hotly. "What are you working on Ranma?"

Ranma looked up and at her still blushing which increased as she stole a kiss before he could reply. He was always more wary about receiving affection when other people were around, and his mother was in her room working. "Um, I'm trying to figure out a decal for my Valkyrie. I want it to be a full plain paint job, but I can't seem to get the computer to let me use the design I want."

Kasumi looks down at what he had been trying to draw on the data pad and blanched. "Maybe" she said delicately, as she took the pad from him, "you should try to describe it to me and I'll design it. After all, I do have a steady hand and your talents, well, your talents lie elsewhere dear" she said gently.

Ranma puted, looking depressed for a moment but nodded. After a few sentences to describe what he wanted she went to work, and not fifteen minutes later Kasumi finished punching in the design and handed it back to Ranma. Ranma took one look grinned at her, kissed her on the lips and took off grinning like a madman. "I guess he liked it." She said amusingly a small giggle escaping as Nodoka came out of her room, eyebrow raised in inquiry.

Ranma spent the rest of that afternoon gathering paint supplies and requisitioning one of the paint machines to do the actual work. The next day, as the rest of Blue went off watch having completed a boring patrol, he stayed behind and got to work.

After several false starts, the machine was able to follow Kasumi's design, and Ranma watched gleefully as his new paint job took shape.

When it was done Ranma nodded, well satisfied. The regular squadron colors had been expanded, the blue stripes now looking like flames with little golden tips. The rest of the plane was painted matte black, with a few little stars of white here and there. On both ventral fins, the wings that stuck up and out in jet mode, was a yin-yang symbol of dark crimson and blue, with the stencil of a horse in white rearing in the center. Another matching symbol was in place that would be in the center of the soldier mode. All in all the plane looked magnificent and Ranma nodded well satisfied.

That night, after spending the rest of the afternoon with Kasumi and Lisa and introducing them to Motoko, he took Kasumi out on a date in thanks for her help. The night ended with them back at their apartment once more sharing a bed, as thankfully Nodoka was out with the captain. It was a normal peaceful time, but events outside the ship would soon make such peaceful moments more and more rare.

End chapter. Tell me what you think of Ranma's design for his machine. I think it's a nice mix between cool, Ranma's desire, and overdone.

*Chapter 11*: Mars has life, but he's an asshole

I don't own Ranma or Robotech.

FYI I will be following the Robotech version of the Zentraedi – continually cloned to make up their numbers, but each generation will be weaker than the last and monstrous amounts of indoctrination to insure their loyalty

You know what's in this chapter, so I won't say anything here.

Chapter 10 Mars has life but he's an asshole

"Lord Breetai, while we're waiting for the 11th Skirmish Fleet to arrive, what are your plans to take the fortress?"

"My plan uses the abandoned base our scouts found on the fourth planet from the sun. They found a signal array there that we can restart easily. If they detect a signal from the base there the space fortress will investigate. Once on the ground we can use gravity mines to pin it in place and simply send in enough troops to overwhelm them. That is what we will use the 11th fleet for, as the losses in such an assault will be heavy. I also do not like how many tricks these Micronians seem to have come up with, suddenly being able to use the ship's siege mode, being able to replace their losses so quickly and that sound attack, and the strange shields we have spotted concern me. Nor do I like how they seem to be making them up as they go along, how in the universe are they doing that?"

"I don't know the answer to that my lord, but it may well have something to do with the proto-culture generator onboard the ship, it can have odd effects on leaving beings. It may be worth our time to see if we can capture some Micronians and interrogate them. Surely that will give us more knowledge of their abilities and why they are becoming more formidable with time."

"Hmm." Breetai stared at his chronometer. "The 11th skirmish fleet is late, but what else can you expect from someone so disorganized as the backstabber. But yes, that may be a good long term strategy. I would prefer to get some more intelligence on them before we capture any though, laws forbid us from coming into contact with the Micronians. On that subject, have you made any headway on translating their language?"

"Yes my lord. A basic translating program has already been written and is ready for installation. I would recommend placing it on all command mechs as it might give us an idea on the strange transmissions our ships continue to pick up at times, as well as the strange audio attack the Micronians have employed twice now."

Breetai grunted assent. A moment later alarms went off all around the bridge. Breetai turned to his sensors officer who reported before being asked "Incoming fold space phenomena interspersed throughout and around the fleet, far within the standard safety zone!" Breetai's eyes widened but before he could say anything new Zentraedi warships began to pop into being throughout his clan-fleet. More alarms blared as one ship scraped along two in succession before halting its forward momentum.

Elsewhere in the fleet other near collisions occurred, even Breetai's own flagship shuddered for a moment as one far smaller ship scrapped along its side. Breetai stood up staring hard at the main screen as the new fleet finished fold-out.

One Thruvel Salan class battleship, the same ship that had scrapped his own Nupetiet Vergnitzs class flagship, which was marked as the flagship of the 11th hailed them. Breetai nodded at his communications officer and a moment later the image of the admiral of the 11th fleet appeared in the hologram machine.

Kyron was young, barely 200, with long blue hair down to his neck and a haughty arrogant cast to his features, despite his smile. "Lord Admiral Breetai, I apologize for our folding out in your fleet, my fold space operator will be flogged for this occurrence I assure you."

In the background of Kyron's transmission another transmission appeared on a screen behind him. A Zentraedi wearing captains tabs spoke through the connection "I told you we'd hit seven ships admiral, I…"

He was cut off by an unseen signal and Kyron shook his head. "Ignore the idiot my lord, I have no idea what he's talking about."

Breetai stared coldly at Kyron for several minutes, letting the silence speak for him until the other Zentraedi looked away, sweating uncomfortably. When Breetai spoke his voice was cold and commanding. "Do not play games with my Kyron, or I will end you and your clan. You are here to redeem yourselves from failing to follow orders and instead seeking personal glory, do not make Lord Dolza or I regret giving you this chance."

Kyron nodded convulsively, all his normal hauteur and arrogance deserting him under the cold stare of the older warrior. Breetai was practically a legend among the Zentraedi Fleets, and no one angered him lightly. He also seemed even more humorless than normal, and Kyron decided to tread lightly, for a little while at least. "Yes my lord, what would you have us do?"

"At the moment I want you to take your fleet to the far side of the fourth planet. We are hunting down Zor's space fortress, and are under orders to capture it intact. As such we will be laying a trap for the Micronians that have taken it over at their former base on that world. My aide Exedore will give you the details. Breetai out." The disfigured Zentraedi turned to the crippled one. "Watch him Exedore, watch him closely. He is not known as the 'backstabber' for nothing." Exedore nodded mute agreement.

The ship had been moving through space for nearly a month since leaving Saturn and little had occurred. The aliens still sent probing attacks, giving the Valkyrie pilots something to do and valuable experience, but not enough to rouse the other defenses. The fights were so short and small that Ranma didn't even try to piss them off.

In that time control runs were put in place for the mobile barriers thus far built and plans were going forward to install the steel strengthening defense designed by Dr. Lang with Ranma's help onto the secondary weapons, as well as the front to the main cannon, though that may interfere in its firing. It would take a lot of power to protect even these small sections, but the ability to withstand that much more damage to your main and secondary weapons was well worth it.

Even the old soldiers like Gloval hadn't been able to feel anything wrong. They all knew the aliens hadn't given up, but the shock of the main cannon's assault had obviously made them wary of pressing an all out attack against the battleship.

Lisa however was not happy, though only Claudia knew the reason for it. She stared glumly out the main viewport on the bridge, but she wasn't really seeing the stars and space beyond. Instead she was seeing a day from long ago, when she was a young girl of sixteen and just ready to enter the academy. But this memory wasn't a happy one, for it was the day her boyfriend, Karl Ryber left for Mars Base Sara.

Karl had been an older man, one of her father's aids who often had to look after her when the admiral was 'too busy'. He had been her first boyfriend and she considered him the love of her life. He had been everything she wanted in a boyfrend, mature, solid, kind, attentive, everything. She had been seventeen when he had taken a posting at Mars Base Sara but the two had still communicated to eachother, and their relationship hadn't ended until the day three years ago when the base's geo-dome had been opened to space by a terrorist attack, killing everyone there. The day she heard that on the news was the worst day of her life, and now every year at this time she was struck with the melancholy and sadness that remembering Karl always brought her. She became snappish, distant and even cold to everyone around her.

This year though was especially bad for those who were around her, for this was the first year where her normal sadness had not come as easily to her. This year she looked back on Karl as something from the past that she might eventually move past, not as a vow to never find someone else. It had come as a shock to her when she realized that that part of her soul, which had remained cold and shut in for so long, had begun to warm again. The faces of her friends, Claudia, Kasumi and Ranma, even the youngsters, had begun to fill that void. It almost felt like sacrilege to even think like that, a betrayal most foul of what she and Karl had shared.

She was broken out of her musings by Claudia gasping in surprise at her station. "What is it Claudia?"

"We're getting something off the long range communications relay. A distress signal of some kind. I need to localize the origin."

Lisa's eyebrows rose in surprise. "I'll call up the captain."

Four hours later the officers and Dr. Lang met in the conference room, and suddenly Lisa had no problem remembering her lost love. "Mars base Sara are you sure? The SOS signal is coming from mars base Sara?"

Claudia nodded, shooting her a sympathetic look, one of many she had given her younger friend in the past few days. She knew this time of year was always hard for her, and this year appeared especially bad, probably because both her best friends had found someone. "The signal is clearly coming from the ruins of the base there, but that's all we can tell from this distance."

Gloval shook his head. "If we were facing human forces I would say this was obviously a trap, but with the aliens I just can't see them bothering with something so elaborate. Their strategy thus far has been brutally simple, leaning heavily on bringing their numbers to bear and overwhelming us, tricking us has never come into it. Even the ambush in Saturn's rings is obvious in hindsight as simply the culmination of a campaign."

Conner agreed. "I think if they had the forces in place to attack us we would be seeing a lot more out of them than the probing attacks we've been seeing these last few weeks. The question is should we divert the ship to investigate? I'd vote against it, we've been out of communication with Earth for too long as it is."

Lisa countered this swiftly. "But sir if there are people still alive there, we have a duty to help them."

Dr Lang nodded thoughtfully. "And if I remember correctly the base would have quite a lot of material that we could use. Not raw metals but plastics, rubber, luxury items, already built electronics and frozen foods."

Gloval and Connor both stopped thinking for a moment at that thought; the idea of eating even a frozen steak was enough to send them into ecstasies. That was a problem facing the ship as a whole at this point: no meat was to be had for any price, fish, meat or fowl it had all been used before they even hit Saturn. And tofu was only good for so long before you really craved some real meat in your diet. "B-be that as it may" Connor answered weakly, "the fact remains that would take us nearly a month out of our way." The battleship was anything but slow, but the solar system was simply far too vast to traverse at any speed. Worse from the ships perspective was that they were playing catch up with the Earth as is moved around the sun.

Lisa was about to speak up again but saw that the captain was thinking and fell silent, which was probably for the best. Any more from her and both Connor and Gloval would realize she wanted to divert the ship to Mars for personal rather than professional reasons. If there was even a chance that Karl was still alive she had to take it.

Gloval was unaware of her inner thoughts, but his were going something like this: meat, hmm, meat, no wait can't divert the ship, but supplies, electronics, meaaaat. "I think that if there is a chance of survivors, or even simply supplies we need to take it, besides changing our course now may throw the aliens off our tail entirely. Set course for Mars."

Later that day the news was broke to the pilots and was met with ambivalence or acceptance. Some of the survivors of the fortress's original Carrier Air Wing (all ten of them) knew people who had been stationed on Mars when the terrorists struck. Everyone else was happy about the idea of getting some meat, no matter how frozen it might be, into their diet.

The only one who was against the plan was Ranma who put forth his reasons thus: "I think we are seriously underestimating these aliens. They've got numbers like nobody's business, they've got the science and the know-how to get them here, meanin' the solar system, from wherever they came from. I think they've got enough brains ta set a trap like this. It's like a martial artist changing his style in a fight, first hard now soft since hard hasn't worked."

Roy, who didn't know about Karl Ryber (in fact the only two on board who did besides Lisa were Claudia and Kasumi, who had promised to not share that story with anyone) had known a few people stationed on the Mars base when it went silent, so was all for trying besides, "Just because you can live off rice and tofu for the rest of your life doesn't mean the rest of us can kid. Besides, what kind of trap can they spring that we couldn't blast our way out of?"

"I don't know, but all my instincts tell me this is too good ta be true, like finding a cure for my curse underneath the school gym that one time. It sounds great, but there's no way it's true."

"You're worrying too much Ranma, you're beginning to sound like your alternate form you know." In weeks to come Roy would look back on this line and wonder if he should have court-martialed himself for stupidity. For now however he wanted to know what had become of his friends.

Ranma scowled, he was an expert when it came to analyzing his opponents and all his instincts were screaming at him that this was a setup. "Alright wiseass how 'bout a little wager?"

Roy's eyebrows rose at the 'wiseass' comment, but he answered with a grin "alright, if nothing happens, you get to pose in your alternate form for a pin up calendar that the pilots can all use."

A vein in Ranma's forehead bulged for a moment but he nodded. "And if you and Eric are right then I get to oppose some kind of penalty on you both." Roy gulped at that, but couldn't back down now without losing face so agreed. Ranma smirked evilly at him and walked off, already planning what he would do to them when, not if he won. Behind him Eric began to give his commanding officer the evil eye, and had no intention of stopping anytime soon.

The next three weeks of easy sailing appeared to prove Ranma wrong. The alien probing attacks dwindled and then ceased altogether, as if the battleship was at last leaving its pursuers behind. The fortress even sent out spy planes in all directions to see if they could spot any alien mother ships, and couldn't find any. This made the captain and the other officers certain that they had thrown of the aliens by changing course. Ranma however grew more and more paranoid with every peaceful day that passed. He continued his own training and pushed Eric to push the rest of the flight hard in their training to get them ready for anything but eventually Eric put his foot down. Kasumi figured out something was going on and went out of her way to keep Ranma's mind occupied in various ways. Moving his nearly finished training area to an unused section of the ship also took his mind off what he was becoming more convinced was a major danger. It wasn't quite finished yet, but when it was it would be great for space combat training.

Despite Ranma's worries they arrived in orbit around the red planet without spotting any enemy activity. Captain Gloval was present on the bridge as they matched their orbit with the planet and he stared down at the readouts they were getting from the base. "Hmm, no place within the base we could land, we'd need to land over here near the crags, it's the only ground that's reading as dense enough for us to land on. Once we're in the atmosphere order a detailed sensor sweep of the area by Valkyries. Pay specific attention to any sites that may be used as ambush points."

Claudia, Vanessa and Kim all jumped to obey and within minutes the base and the areas surrounding the landing site had been surveyed to a fare thee well. Gloval wasn't happy with the amount of canyons and hideaways there were, but again he felt the aliens were not tactically inventive enough to have set such an elaborate trap. Once the site was deemed safe the space fortress began its descent.

About an hour later the ship landed on the surface of Mars with a thump. Blue, Vermillion and Gold immediately launched to join the two squadrons already in the air, Tan and Silver. The Tomahawk and Spartan destroid companies rolled out of the lower hanger decks, moving into a defensive cordon around the ship, followed by the command Monster class of colonel Mannstein, slow but five times as powerful and durable as the other mechs. He had changed back to it for this operation, believing that since they were on the surface he would be able to use its guns more effectively than in space. The Defender platoons took up station on the top of the ship facing outward in all directions.

As soon as the perimeter was secure Gloval nodded. "Launch land crews, search the base for survivors and any and all supplies."

This was the moment Lisa had been waiting for and she took it. "Commander I wish to volunteer to lead this operation."

Gloval looked at her for a moment, perplexed by the declaration. He had initially decided on giving the job to Captain Connor, but looking at Lisa he somehow knew there was more going on here than he knew. Pulling his cap over his eyes so Lisa could not see them he glanced over at Claudia to his right and behind Lisa. She nodded and he said "Very well Lt. Cm. Hayes, you may lead the search. Remain in radio contact at all times and call back here every hour on the hour. Dismissed." Lisa saluted and ran off the bridge.

Ranma was reaching out with his ki sense as he flew above the forming convoy by the ship. He wasn't connecting himself to the radar, he really didn't to revisit that feeling again, but he was trying everything else to get a feel for this place. All of his Genma/Nerima-honed instincts were screaming at him that something was going to happen. I'm surprised that the captain and old man Mannstein can't feel it, though maybe they can but are ignoring it 'cause of the pay off. I guess I can relate, the idea of meat does sound good, but still... Below him the convoy began to move out as Commander Prescott's voice sounded over the radio. "Blue squadron, we've been tasked to escort the convoy to Mars Base Sara and then take up high orbit over the space fortress. Tan squadron will be staying with the search teams for the first four hours then we'll switch tasks."

Ranma confirmed his orders almost absentmindedly as he flew beside the now moving convoy. He was still reaching out with his ki sense when he felt a very familiar aura among those in the convoy. "Huh?" He moved his jet over to the front of the convoy right by a jeep that was leading the way and peered through his canopy at the people in it.

Lisa's voice crackled over the radio, a mixture of dry wit and something else he couldn't put a finger on. "You do know that curiosity killed the cat ensign Sugita?"

"Uh, y-yeah Commander Hayes, just wondering what ya were doin' is all. Ranma asked, wondering what she was doing here. It wasn't like Lisa to leave the bridge if there was even a hint there was going to be some action soon. Maybe she thinks they'll have problems in the base? "You expecting trouble?"

"Not at all ensign, everything is a-ok here. I just wanted to take command of this action myself that's all."

"Huh, well it ain't like ya need my permission or anything Commander, just wanted ta see what was up. Stay safe ok, I'd hate ta have ta explain to Kasumi if you got hurt."

"Heaven forbid ensign, Hayes out."

"Right." Ranma hit the thrusters a little more, pulling up and ahead of the column to retake his position in the escort detail. Not fifteen minutes later the convoy reached the base. Tan squadron landed, transformed to soldier mode and began to move through the base looking for anything dangerous. Blue lit off their afterburners and ascended high into the sky to patrol the area over both the fortress and Mars base Sara. So far nothing had happened, but Ranma still couldn't get rid of the feeling something bad was about to occur. To take his mind off it he called the bridge. "Command this is blue 5, quick question, can you tell me the frequencies most used by the enemy?"

Claudia answered him, sounding amused. "Transmitting data now blue 5, you seriously going to see if you can use smack talk on aliens?"

"Already know I can insult 'em command, just want ta see if they understand the language enough for me ta take it to the next level, so to speak." That said Ranma refocused his attention to the surrounding area, searching for whatever was making his danger sense tingle.

All was not well in the mech divisions of the 11th skirmish fleet, hidden deep within the caverns and protected from enemy radar by the rocks and metal all around them. All of the Reguld pilots had been inside their combat mechs for over four hours by now, having gone into hiding an hour before Zor's ship hit orbit, and they were all going a little stir crazy.

Even Kyron, or perhaps it should be especially given his temperament, in the much more spacious and comfortable Glaug command mech was feeling irritated at the time spent in such a cramped space. "How much longer until the gravity mines are at full power Grell? I'm getting tired of waiting."

Grell, his square-jawed and square faced subordinate answered promptly. "65% and climbing Lord Kyron, estimate another two hours until full power."

Kyron glowered at him through their visual screens. "Make it an hour and a half Grell or when we get back I'm going to use you as target practice. I want this done perfectly and quickly! Kyron will succeed where the mighty Breetai has failed, that will show that fool and impress lord Dolza at the same time."

Lisa organized the survey teams and the pickup and supply teams within a half hour of arriving at the base. By the time that was done, it had become obvious that there was no one left alive here. A few suits with fossilized corpses in them, a few pieces of clothing ripped and torn by the wind, open doors and the silence of the dead stood mute testimony to that fact. They had swiftly found the beacon that had called them here, a jury rigged device that someone had activated long ago but who obviously had not lived to see its signal answered

Once everything was organized Lisa went off to explore the base on her own. First she checked the armory and cafeteria domes, ostensibly to check in with the team leaders there but really to see if there was any sign, any sign at all of habitation. There wasn't but she continued to search determinedly. After a while she found herself in the main dome that housed the old fusion generator that powered the base as well as the living quarters. She walked its empty halls looking around desperately for some sign that someone might still be alive here. Then she found it, a door with the name 'Ryber, Karl' on a plaque set into the metal of the door.

Lisa slowly opened the door, part of her, hoping against all reason that he would be there. But he wasn't and she stepped in, looking around. For a moment she stood there looking at some of his belongings, all neatly put away and organized. It was only when she saw the one picture on the small desk in the door that she broke down and cried. How long she was there she didn't know, but when she recovered she wiped her eyes and stood up, looking around one last time before leaving and closing the door behind her. For some reason the cry had been therapeutic, like it had helped begin the process of letting go at last. Or perhaps it was the knowledge that she had people waiting for her back on the fortress that made her get up and go. Whatever the case, she had a job to do, and Lisa Hayes never left a job half done.

"I'm running out of patience Grell, tell me the gravity mines are fully powered or else I'm going to come back there and motivate you personally!"

Grell didn't bother to point out that he still had ten minutes to meet Kyron's deadline, he knew that would pointless. "95% lord, another ten minutes and they will be at full power. The space fortress won't be moving anywhere after that.

"Excellent Grell, you've just saved yourself from the firing squad."

As Kyron said this off to one side of his Glaug a Reguld began to shake in place. "Lord Kyron, I can't stand any more of this, I'm going now!" And without waiting for orders the pilot boosted his thrusters jumping up and beginning to leave the cover of the canyon.

"You'll do no such thing fool!" Growled Kyron, taking aim and blowing the errant Reguld out of the sky with one of the heavy impact cannons mounted in the mechs arms. As the burning Reguld crashed to the sand below Kyron turned and faced the rest of his command. "Let that be a lesson! If I have to suffer like this so do all of you, we move when I say we do and not a minute sooner, understood?!"

A chorus of frightened assents answered him and he nodded grimly.

On board the SDF-1, Vanessa looked at her readouts. "Captain, there's been some kind of disturbance up in the canyons between here and the mountains, section 12. My readings indicate it may have been laser fire."

Gloval cursed. Perhaps this was too good to be true, but damn it we needed the meat, I mean the electronic parts! "Order a fly-by of the area and get Commander Fokker and Mannstein on the line. Inform them what we are doing and why. Then radio Cm. Hayes and tell her to expedite the convoy's movements." Claudia and Vanessa nodded, turning back to their consoles to carry out his orders. As they did Kim powered up the tertiary and secondary weapons and Sammy sent out an alert to her repair teams.

Silver was the closest squadron to the disturbance and captain Foss decided to do a fly by in force, thinking that if something was there it would be better if they were there in force. Something was there, but nothing a single squadron could handle. As soon as they flew over the last canyon between the ship and the mountains he saw the canyon packed wall to wall with battlepods. "Silver one to command, battlepods incoming via the canyons, repeat at least three hundred plus battle pods coming our" that was the last thing he said as below him a new type of pod no human had seen before fired with the cannon on its back vaporizing his Veritech with a single shot. The air was suddenly alive with canon and laser blasts, forcing the rest of the Valkyrie squadron into evasive maneuvers.

Despite it not having been ten minutes Kyron was happy that the trap had been spotted as it allowed him to get in the first kill and he watched happily as the rest of his force pounced on the other Micronian fighters who had found their hiding place. "Oh well, that does it. Grell power up the gravity mines now! The rest of you, attack!" With that order a little under two regiments of Reguld mechs moved forward along the surface and inside the canyons, their mission to sweep all the defenders before them and take Zor's mighty vessel for themselves.

Gloval cursed again as the radar began to spawn red dots faster than he could count them. "Get Skull and the other reserves into the air now, all squadrons to engage and try to cut up their assault lines. Move the destroid companies to that side, Mannstein has discretion on their positioning. Can we depress the secondary weapons enough to use them as artillery?"

Kim shook his head and Gloval curse again, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his pipe. Sticking it between his teeth he continued. "Lt. Porter, get us out of here, once in the air we'll move to Mars Base Sara and pick the convoy up there somehow, maybe using the Veritechs to lift the trucks into the air, that'll give the Valkyries and destroids more room to maneuver." Sammy nodded and began to power up the main repulsor engine. Suddenly the ship lurched. She poured more power into it, and the ship lurched again but that was all.

Vanessa shouted from her position, "Captain four large gravitic anomalies detected situated around us. They're preventing us from taking off!"

Gloval cursed again and was about to light his pipe when Sammy said "Captain smoking on the bridge is prohibited!" Gloval sighed. The ship was about to face possibly its toughest fight yet and he couldn't even smoke despite Nodoka not being on the bridge this time. Life sometimes wasn't worth getting out of bed for.

Far above the ship Ranma followed Commander Prescott and his squad-mates as they dove down on the area where Silver was ambushed, torn between cursing and laughing. "Ha, I told you all, I told ya, prepare for weeks of 'I told ya's' everyone, and boss, you and the commander prepare for your punishment games!"

Prescott answered him, irritated. "Yes, yes, Blue 5 now can we possibly concentrate on killing these arses?"

"Heh, fine" Ranma became serious as they flew directly above the battlepods in the canyons. "Recommend we use missiles on the sides of the canyon above them, bury the bastards."

"Negative, conserve your ammo" Prescott said automatically, knowing that the heat seeking missiles were sometimes the difference between life and death in a dogfight.

The gravelly voice of colonel Mannstein suddenly spoke over the radio. "Overruled commander Prescott, sending telemetry now, destroy the canyons at positions marked on your map. I'm sending Green on the same mission on the other side. After that's done start attacking battlepods on the surface according to Commander Fokker's orders."

Prescott looked at the now marked map and raised an eloquent eyebrow. "Roger that, be aware this disposition leaves the most direct route to the city open."

"That is the point," Mannstein drawled.

"Heheheh" Ranma laughed "Sounds like someone wants ta get it stuck in huh old man?"

Mannstein barked a laugh. "Heh, that's colonel to you sonny boy, but you're right Apocalypse is hungry."

Ranma laughed then cut the connection. Following his squad mates into an attack run, he hammered the sides of the marked canyon with missiles. The thirty missiles hit almost as one, causing a massive landslide to bury several battlepods and cutting off that canyon. This forced many of the battlepods out into the open ground around the down fortress and they immediately began to take fire from the Defenders. As they moved closer that fire would be augmented by the fire of the Tomahawks and Spartans. All around most of the canyons leading toward the Macross were blocked off from the rubble forcing the battlepods in them to either backtrack to the main canyon leading to it or to come out onto the surface. Ranma and the rest of blue squadron began to take potshots at the forces below as they came out. They stayed up high, well out of the gravity anomaly that had forced the battlepods to remain on the ground just like the fortress, an unforeseen consequence that was going to cost them dearly.

The Monster-class destroid was built by the Russian company Uralvagonzavod, a company that had previously specialized in tank manufacture. It had tried to bid for the contract to build the first spaceships on the power of their heavy grazer, plasma based laser, design. Unfortunately they lost out to the missile proponents, but this left them with several heavy weapons designs just lying around, as well as a design for a heavy but small spaceship. Slap some legs on and voila, the Monster was born. It looked nothing so much like a hunchback, bent under the weight of its four huge main grazers, which were of a size that they wouldn't be out of place as a short range secondary weapon on the space fortress, though their range was a little too short for that. Each of its arms it held two heavier versions of the PPC's that made up the arms of the Tomahawk. A Monster could battle a water based battleship and come off on top with relative ease, but because of their cost were very rare. Of the five that had been created before the aliens attacked two had been on the space fortress. One, nicknamed Onslaught by its crew had been decommissioned, but the other, Apocalypse, was Mannstein's original command platform.

In space of course their lack of mobility and anti-air weaponry was an issue, as was its inability to turn quickly. On terra-ferma however that was not a problem, especially when the enemy came to them along a single route.

Mannstein had planned this defense on the fly but it was a good one. Apocalypse accompanied by a single company of Tomahawks and backed by a company of Defenders stood in the main canyon leading towards the space fortress, but the other destroids were really only there to protect him from getting surrounded.

Mannstein looked down at his gunner with a grim smile as the first group of battlepods appeared around a corner of the canyon. "Fire."

The canyon was suddenly filled with blazing light as the gunner fired their grazers, superheated plasma zooming down range in a ravening blaze. The first two hundred battlepods didn't even know what hit them before they died, none of them even able to see it save the front row they were packed in so tightly. The next second four PPC blasts five feet to a side followed, destroying a few dozen more. After that Apocalypse went to rapid fire and death walked the canyon, hundreds of battlepods dying every few seconds. A few shots answered, but against the heavy frontal armor of the Monster they were ineffective.

Kyron cursed as fire cut down more of his front ranks. The gravity mines cutting down their own ability to jump had severely limited their maneuverability and whatever that was ahead of them had more than enough power to hold the last open canyon against them. "All battlepods make your way to the surface, use the rubble the Micronians made, use anything but get out of the canyon and join the others!"

He turned and followed his troops, bounding as much as he could to make his way slowly up a pile of rock and to the surface.

Ranma dove down hammering a series of shots into an enemy battlepod on the surface before turning into guardian mode, skimming in front of a line of the enemy and cutting several of them down as Rick stayed above blazing away with his own guns from where he was in the air. "Ranma you idiot, now you won't be able to get back in the air!"

Ranma grinned, pushed his ki out and pumped even more power into his thrusters as he jumped up, stomping on a battlepod and using it as a springboard into the air. Ranma felt his Valkyrie shudder, but he kept pouring more power into it and after a second he powered out of whatever was holding everyone else to the ground. "Oh really?"

Rick dodged fire from several battlepods automatically even as he gaped at Ranma who smoothly transformed back into his fighter mode and went back to strafing runs. "Damn I don't know how you do it."

"It's all about ki and control Rick, that's all there is to it." Ranma frowned as he saw more and more battlepods coming out of the canyons and moving over the level ground towards the fortress. "Er, blue 1?"

"I see it Blue 5. Fall in, we're going to do a strafing run right down the canyon to the left, see if we can catch more of them that way."

"Roger." Ranma fell in and blue squadron formed up and flew down hammering the wave of battlepods in the pass. As they pulled up Ranma frowned watching as one of the remaining battlepods below them blew up from fire behind it, then fire ripped into the sky, clipping the last two Veritechs to pull away. Out stepped a new type of pod that he hadn't seen before. Larger in every way than a normal pod with a hunched appearance it had two large arms with two weapons on each and a large cannon on its back that was still smoking. "Oh now that just ain't right. Blue one, I'm gonna go check out something, be back in a few."

"Blue 5, what the hell are you, wait get back here, Blue 5, damn it get back here!"

Ranma had already changed into his soldier mode and turned off his thrusters, dropping like a stone straight toward the new type of battlepod. "Banzai!" By the time he arrived the pod had moved on slightly but he still smacked into its side, sending it skidding back down the slope. He toggled his radio onto the channel Claudia had said was the enemy's main communication channel and began the smack talk. "Ya seem ta like ta hit people who won't fire back, why don't ya try me on fer size ya giant asshole!" Not his best but hey, he was trying to insult an alien, best to start simple.

Kyron shook his head from the surprise attack, and he turned his mech to look up the boulder strewn slope at the Micronian machine that had struck him. It was the same type as their flyers in soldier mode, but the paint job was different. It had blue markings on its wings like a few others he could see thought they were different, and the rest of the robot was painted matte black save for the center which was dominated by a strange circular symbol of deep crimson and blue with some kind of beast etched in white in front of it.

He blinked in shock and then reddened with anger as the transmission came over his radio. That new program of Exedore's seems to be working at least. "Leave this one to me, the rest of you keep going!" he powered forward faster than the other Robot could compensate for, blasting with both arm mounted cannons as he came. "I am going to gut you like a dresh Micronian scum!"

"Uh command, be advised that Blue five has engaged some kind of commander on the other side in single combat. I tried to order him away but…"

Gloval cut into the communication, staring at the tactical readout in shock. "Don't worry about it Blue 1, it seems Sugita's instincts have helped us here." On the screen he watched as the attack which had been moving forward with purpose and a driving intelligence behind it suddenly bogged down. Again it appeared as if the normal aliens couldn't think past the need to get to grips with the enemy, which was paying dividends for the fortress and the defense as a whole but not for isolated units. He winced as a Spartan company that had closed with the enemy was slaughtered to a man as they used their still superior speed and agility to keep the distance open and gun them down. Yet on the other side a group of Tomahawk destroids destroyed over three times their number in two minutes before falling back in good order, drawing even more battlepods toward them rather than straight to the ship. Without a commanding presence to make them keep their distance from such hard points and to force the aliens to concentrate on the fortress the aliens were at a serious disadvantage but they still had vast numerical superiority.

Mannstein seemed to be fighting the land battle as well as he could, and Apocalypse was reaping a terrible toll while Fokker had his flights aiding the rest of the defense. The real problem however was that more seemed to be coming forward all the time, bypassing the Apocalypse held canyon and coming over the ground at the fortress. No matter how valiant the defense it was only a matter of time before the numbers began to tell. "Lt. Laird, Cm. Grant, are we any closer to finding a way out of this trap?"

Vanessa nodded. "We've managed to isolate where the gravity anomalies that are keeping us here are originating from, but without being able to depress the secondary guns we don't have any ordinance that can dig deep enough to get them."

"How many would we need to destroy before we could lift off?"

"Only one, even now it's taking all their power to keep us here. With even one less the fortress could power through it." Sammy responded from the helm.

"Show me their positions on the map." She sent the data Gloval stared at the map for a moment. "Lt. Young would this one" he pointed to one between the fortress present position and Mars base Sara. "be within the range of the explosion if we set the bases generator off?"

Kim used her console to do some calculations for a moment and then nodded. "Yes captain, it would be, but we still have people there."

"Get Commander Hayes on the line. It looks like we made the correct decision to send her. Signal the withdrawl, I want all destroids back in the fortress in an hour."

A moment later commander Hayes' worried face appeared. "Captain, how goes the battle? We're nearly ready to pull out here, just loading the last of the supplies now."

"Commander, I have a job for you." Gloval stated gravely.

Lisa expedited the convoy off its way, ordering Tan squadron to leave with them as guards. It was a good thing she had because even as they were leaving a lost column of battlepods attacked the convoy. The fight was brief but intense, but what was worse was an errant shot had the misfortune to fly through the open gate a slam into the jeep Lisa had intended to use as her getaway vehicle, slagging it.

Lisa didn't notice, having already turned away as the convoy left the base, running inside the main building to carry out her orders. It took her about five minute's hard running to traverse the interior to the generator room. Once inside she sadly looked at the skeleton in the chair, its clothing so worn that she couldn't even see the name tag, just another nameless soldier who would never have a proper burial. Another two minutes to set the generator to overheat, and she walked back the way she came. Another minute passed before the base speakers began to blare a warning. "Warning self-destruct sequence activated, warning self-destruct sequence activated, warning self-destruct sequence activated!"

Lisa ran back out of the base to the entrance, only to find her jeep somehow destroyed. She stood there for a moment, knowing now she was going to die here, ther was no other way to get out of the blast radius, she certainly couldn't run that far that fast. At least Karl and I can be together in death then. A voice in her spacesuits helmet pulled her out of her depression for a moment. "Commander Hayes, Lisa, what's your status, we're reading massive fluctuations in the base generator, you did it! What's your eta back here?"

Lisa sighed. "I don't think that's going to happen, Claudia. My ride is totaled, must have been a stray ordinance or something. Either way I can't get out of the blast zone. Still it's all right as long as the ship can get away safely."

"W-what are you talking about, don't give up like that! You still have a lot of years ahead of you before I let you talk like that! We're going to get help over to you right now! Just stay put!"

"In the time left there's no way you could get someone out to me and then back out of the blast zone, don't throw someone else's life away trying the impossible Claudia it's okay. I-I'm okay with this. At least this way I'll see Karl again." She cut the connection before Claudia could say anymore.

Lisa looked out over the base for a moment before turning and walking back inside the main building and up to Karl's room. Once there she took the photo of the two of them from off the desk, sat down and stared at it. For a time she sat there, lost in her memories. With the image in front of her the new, warm part of her soul stood no chance against the melancholy that gripped her.

Until that is, she heard a voice from outside the window.

Surprised by the speed of his enemy Ranma couldn't back away fast enough and was forced to dodge most of the oncoming energy beams but one clipped him, throwing him to the side despite his augmenting his armor with the energy from his Veritechs battery. Still they do have some kind of translation program, cool, that means I can really get into it! "Oh did I hurt your feelings ya asshole, ya shoot worse than a day old trainee!" Man I wish I knew more about these guys, insulting 'em takes a little more thought than I'm used ta, to they even have mothers or old people?

He fired back but his shot went wild as this new pod jumped up and attempted to land on him. Ranma rolled his mech, coming to his knees and spraying fire at the enemy pod, who took one shot on the nose before dodging the others.

"How dare you Micronian! I'm going to bury you here on this planet!" Firing again the alien mech closed in further only this time Ranma moved to meet it, dodging the shots and the hammer strike from one of its arms, thundering back with his free arm and then kicking off the pod's side, sending him backwards and the mech onto its side for a second before the pilot righted himself.

"Is that all ya can say, scum, come on put some effort into yer insults ya mangy, cowardly genetic defect!" Damnit give me something ta work with!

"Ge-genetic defect, h-how dare you, you shit eating piece of garbage! You will regret the day you met Kyron!" The so named Kyron pumped out more blasts from his hand cannons, but Ranma dodged them almost negligently, using his head lasers to stitch up the side of his enemy.

"I can tell yer having problems here, so I'll give ya a hint. Ya need ta find something yer opponents sensitive about, then insult it as well as ya can. Something like, you guys are so big 'cause you're overcompensating for yer little dicks and little brains. At the mere sight of our mighty fortress your ship captains shrivel and shrink in fear! The reason you need so many mechs is ta even the odds 'cause no one of ya is worth even a fiftieth of one of us!"

Kyron didn't understand everything the Micronian had said but what he did he didn't like. "Little, shrivel, shrink, you miniscule Micronian I'm going to reduce you to your constituent atoms and scatter them to the four winds!" He charged again, forgetting for a moment that he could even use his robot arms for more than blunt weapons.

Ranma grinned, his 'make-em mad make-em stupid' plan had worked very well here, and he'd learned a bit more about what could tick these guys off. "Man, ya need ta work on this don't ya, that's a threat not an insult, get it right fucktard!" Ranma kept his distance lobbing more insults Kyron's way, trying to figure out what other buttons he had for the next fifteen minutes. When he decided enough was enough he closed in.

Grabbing the left arm of the enemy mech, he twisted it down to fire into the ground then ripped it off as the mech turned body checking him away, nearly cracking his canopy and taking two of the lasers on his robot's head off with a another blast from its back mounted beam gun.

It tried to bring its back mounted beam gun to bear again but Ranma brought up his own blaster, taking it out before it could fire. In return he lost his right shoulder from a return shot by the enemy's other arm, his arm dropping to the ground still holding his blaster. He tried to fire his remaining head mounted lasers but they refused to fire, the mechanism damaged from the shot that nailed the other side of his head.

Ranma ducked forward again closing the distance before the enemy could re-aim and smashing his fist against one of the mechs robot legs. As Kyron brought his last arm down like a monstrous hammer onto his back cracking and denting his back armor he concentrated his ki into the fist of his Veritech and "moko ha Reiku!" For a moment the fist glowed gold and then a beam of golden fire blew straight through the knee of his enemy.

The pod crashed to the ground next to him, and Ranma, robotic joints groaning and battery nearly exhausted from using his ki stood over it. The pod tried to push itself off the ground but was only able to move along the ground a little. Ranma smirked triumphantly. "Heh, ain't as easy as hitting your own side from the back is it loser?" He reached down and picked up his cannon with his Valkyrie's still functioning left arm.

Just as he was about to turn and finish his enemy off he got a call from the fortress.

"Blue six, emergency! Commander Hayes on orders from captain Gloval has made the reactor go critical, it's going to blow but she's trapped inside. You're the only unit nearby with enough speed to get her out of there!"

Ranma stopped, looking around and realized their fight had taken them nearly all the way around the fortress from the main battle. In the distance he could see the base. He was about to boost away when the alien called him. "Wait, Micronian where are you going! Finish me off!"

Ranma smirked, bent his robot over and smacked his ass before rocketing into the air on a ki boosted blast from his thrusters. "Ya got a reprieve this time loser, next time ya won't be so lucky. Try ta think up some better insults before the next battle, oh, and brush up your piloting skills too, later asshole!"

"Micronian, wait! Come back here, Micronian!"

Ranma ignored him, changing into his guardian form then boosting even more power into his thrusters in a race against time. It took him only a moment to get to the base, and another two minutes to home in on Lisa's transponder. When he did Ranma was surprised to see it in the main building rather than outside waiting for pickup. Circling the building he peered into each room until he found her, sitting on a bed and crying quietly while holding a picture in her hand.

Realizing this was a private moment he hesitated for a second then the urgency of the situation made him speak. "Y'know that's touching and all, but can we get outta here? The generators gonna blow in five minutes."

Lisa whirled toward him and even through the glass of the window and her spacesuit helmet he could see the shock on her face. "Ensign Sugita what the hell are you doing here, I told Claudia not to send anyone!"

"Well she did anyway, so we might as well attempt the impossible and try ta get out of here in one piece. Besides I've kinda made a living out of doing the impossible."

Lisa was never certain later whether it was her love for Karl Ryber that made her speak, or the part of her that was still an infatuated little girl who thought that dying to be with your love was the height of romance. Regardless she snapped "No, I told Claudia I was fine with dying here. Now leave me alone and save yourself"

Ranma lost his temper a little, "Hell no! I'm not gonna let you make a selfish decision like that, no way!" He reached up with one finger and began to carefully peel away the outer wall of the room, worried that if he did it more violently Lisa would be hit by debris.

"Selfish how is it selfish to want to be with the man I love!"

"Its selfish 'cause you're not thinking of all the people who'd miss ya if ya died! How do you think Kasumi or Claudia would feel losing their best friend, or the gossip trio losing one of their friends huh, or me! I don't got so many friends that I'll let one of 'em throw her life away just 'cause she think she's in some bad romance novel!"

That said he finished removing the window, just in time to hear the voice of the base computer through the bases interior speakers. "Two minutes to self-destruct, two minutes to self-destruct!"

"Now are you gonna come quietly or am I gonna have ta just grab ya!?"

Lisa stood stunned by the declaration and the passion in his voice it really drove home that she would be missed if she died. She hadn't thought how her death would affect other people. I really was being selfish. And with that realization she stepped forward onto the Valkyrie's outstretched hand. As he brought the hand up to the cockpit Ranma put on his re-breather, then popped open the canopy. Lisa dropped inside, sitting on his lap as the canopy closed. Without a minute to spare Ranma poured all his ki and the remaining power of the battery into his thrusters and blasted off, changing into plane mode as he left the base behind.

Lisa popped her helmet off, and reached down to take Ranma's re-breather off as he worked the controls. "Th-thank you for the rescue ensign. and for the words too. I'm sorry, I guess I was behaving immaturely there."

"Nah, ya just read too many romance novels as a kid, it could be worse, I met a guy who read so many fantasy books he thought he could turn himself inta a voodoo witch doctor." She chuckled a little as they crossed the edge of the danger zone, far faster than she would have thought possible. It was then she noticed that Ranma had his eyes closed and his hands were glowing with the blue gold fire that indicated he was using ki. She realized their quick escape was costing him as he labored to breathe for a moment before going on. "Yer gonna have ta tell me about him sometime, he musta been on hell of a guy ta be worthy of ya like that. Or better yet tell Kasumi, she's way better at emotional stuff than me."

"Yes, yes he was. Maybe we four could have a sleepover I understand those are always good for getting over romantic entanglements. I think, I think I'm ready to talk about him now" Lisa said, and was startled to realize it was true. Whether it was Ranma's words, or that her attempted suicide had been the last desperate act of the part of her that still loved Karl and lived in the past with her memories of him, she really was ready to move on.

Behind them the generator at last exploded, and within seconds the mine nearest the base was destroyed. As soon as it wasn't adding its power to the field holding the space fortress Kim poured power back into the engine andMacross broke free, heading skyward. Lisa saw it and directed Ranma who still had his eyes closed with concentration to move in that direction. "Of course that implies I'm going to survive the chewing out Claudia is about to give me."

"You'll survive, you're tough like that, just don't have any more Juliet moments okay? I don't mind savin' ya, but I don't want ta make a habit of it."

She blushed a little at the compliment. "Duly noted ensign, and Ranma" she turned his head up to look at her and he opened his eyes in surprise. Blue eyes met green for a moment as she smiled and said "Thanks."

Ranma blushed, before going concentrating on moving his ki through the Veritech again. "Y-you're welcome."

Lisa giggled as ahead of them the space fortress loomed large, one hanger bay already opening.

From his place on top of his wrecked Glaug Kyron glared up at the escaping battleship with a look of utter hate on his face as Grell pulled up beside him in his Reguld. "Lord Kyron, the ship escaped when they blew up the old base, we never thought they'd do something like that! What should we do now?"

Kyron scowled. "Gather the men up, and signal the fleet in to pick us up. This operation failed, but we're not done with the Micronians not by a long shot." And when next we meet my talkative adversary, you will meet your maker! I swear it!

As Ranma's Valkyrie settled into the tarmac he sneezed drawing Lisa's attention form the glowering form of Claudia on the other side of the glass overlook. "Catching a cold Ranma?"

Ranma shook his head. "Never had a cold, it's probably someone swearing eternal vengeance on me or something."

"Happens often does it?" Lisa asked dryly.

"More often than I care ta think of." Ranma said sadly.

End chapter

So what do you guys think of my introduction to Kyron? Can anyone say comical rival, I knew you could.

*Chapter 12*: Sing along gone a'wrong

In this chapter I'll be using two songs from elsewhere, one of them is Unbreakable, a song I heard in an AMV, made by some pro-christian rock group or other. The other is the opening song of Ah my Goddess season one. Google this song if you want the rest just imagine the singer has the same voice as Belldandy in singing it in the second season episode 4.

Chapter 11 A sing along gone a' wrong

Claudia did indeed chew her out for several long embarrassing minutes, but at least she waited until the two of them were alone in a jeep heading back to the command tower. After she was finished Claudia agreed to meet with Kasumi that night for an old fashioned pajama party, despite being too old for it (at least in her opinion, a woman pushing 28 had no real reason for one after all).

Lisa was a little surprised when the three got together that night and were joined by Ranma in his female form. Kasumi however said she invited him/her and since Ranma had gone out and brought back popcorn, three bars of chocolate, which had become incredibly scarce as it was something the ship could not produce itself, and some movies to watch Lisa had no objections. Though where the man turned woman had found chocolate was beyond her, she knew there wasn't much on board at this point, not even with the supplies taken from Mars added to their stores.

The night passed quietly, with Lisa finally sharing with someone else the story of her and Karl Ryber. She shared her fears and insecurities, as well as how close she had come to really dying that day. Claudia took up the story talking about her problems with Roy when they first started going out, the way women would flock to him, the way he would flirt shamelessly without realizing it, and how it took him years to admit to feeling more than just lust toward her.

Kasumi in turn told them of Dr. Tofu, and how his strange reaction to being near her at last made her realize that a relationship with him would never work, and her budding feelings toward Ranma, who blushed throughout that part of the conversation. Ranma however opened up to all of them about his fiance problem, telling how his father perjured his original family name so badly that Ranma had abandoned it at 20 to join his mother under her family registry. How most of them had been possessive, self absorbed and violent, how it had ruined his friendships with his childhood friend Ukyo for a time, and how Shampoo had confessed to having fallen in love with him, and how much he had been tempted to marry her. But it would never have worked, as Cologne and her granddaughter were among a small minority among their people who treated men equally, and how he would never have been allowed to continue training or chase his dream.

After the sniffles and crying was over with the four of them watched movies until they fell asleep.

Elsewhere others were having discussions based off what had occurred on Mars, though their conversation was grounded in the military action rather than the emotional turmoil that visit had created.

"I'm sorry I failed Lord Breetai, I've no excuse save that the Micronians seem to be very, flexible tactically. Who would have thought they would blow the base simply to destroy one of the mines? Give me another chance my lord."

Admiral Breetai looked the hologram at the younger (and smaller though he would never point that out, among the leader-class size was a point of honor right next to valor shown in war) Zentraedi admiral coolly. He knew that Kyron had made that point deliberately, linking his own failure to Breetai's, and thus making him unable to censure him for it without seeming to be a hypocrite. Still that didn't mean he was wrong. "You are correct these Micronians seem to have an endless supply of tricks. Finding out why this is and in fact what they have done to the fortress is what our next operation will be centered on." He gestured and a map of the solar system, or those portions of the solar system that his fleets could see, appeared there.

In the center was the space fortress. "Zor's ship has changed course to once more head towards their third planet. What I want you to do, is to loosely blockade their path. Send attacks of varying strength but no more than 300 Regulds at a time at their forward, aft, above, below and port sides. We want them concentrating on you and yours. Do as much damage to their fighting forces as possible." He carefully did not notice the way Kyron's eyes began t gleam at that idea. "But keep their attention on those sides. Grind them down with constant attacks from those sectors. While you do this I will place a Boquomouxy Quel-Quallie scout pod on the starboard of them at regular intervals. With its ability to listen in on enemy transmissions we will learn all we can about this perfidious race. Remember Kyron, only battlepods for now, no ships of the line. Dolza's orders are absolute and we must capture the ship intact."

"It shall be as you command lord. I will start my attacks within fifteen hours." Kyron bowed and ended the transmission.

Once he was gone Breetai turned to his aid. "That man is even more of a fool than I thought. Imagine being distracted from the battle by a single opponent so much you forget to control the rest of the battle!"

Exedore nodded. The 11th fleet was a clan fleet, much like Breetai's own 2nd battle fleet, though far smaller. The difference however was that Kyron had discouraged, to the point of killing troopers who could use them, the use of command pods. Without those tactical control was a near impossibility, and without Kyron himself to direct the battle, the whole fight had become little more than a mindless brawl. That was the real reason the assault had failed, not the Micronian's defense or tactical ingenuity. "You are correct lord, though how the Micronian knew he could communicate and what they were saying also interests me." That the two combatants had been communicating was all they knew at this point. "Still as a blunt weapon Kyron has few equals."

"True and with him taking up all their time and effort we will find out how these Micronians do all these tricks. And then we will know how to defeat them and complete our mission."

Lisa woke up to some muffled noises from the kitchen. Claudia woke up as well, stretching and practically purring at the smell of fresh food and more importantly coffee that reached her nose. She was not one of nature's morning people and her ability to operate was in direct proportion to the amount of coffee intake.

As if summoned by a heavenly choir Kasumi walked in with mugs of coffee and tea. Claudia gratefully grabbed one as Lisa reached for a cup of tea, looking around questioningly. "Where's Ranma?"

"Taking a shower, as it's my turn to cook he gets to take a shower first and then clean up the kitchen after." Kasumi replied setting down her tray.

Claudia smirked behind her cup rim. "A shower huh, that has all sorts of opportunities, tell me is there any chance he might walk out of there with only a towel on, or better yet naked? After all if I was sharing an apartment with my boyfriend morning attacks would be one of my favorite pastimes."

Kasumi blushed heavily. In fact the two of them had taken to making love in the morning, either after or during breakfast if they had the time. Lisa on the other hand blushed a bright red but shot back in her stead. "Oh, and what would Roy say about you checking out another man?"

"I'd say it's payback for all the times I've caught him checking out other women. And I'm only looking, nothing wrong with that. That's always his argument anyway."

To Claudia's disappointment Ranma came out of the bathroom already wearing pants, though as a consolation prize seeing him shirtless was way up there. Claudia openly goggled as Lisa blushed and looked away, though she still watched out of the corner of her eyes. Ranma bent down to pick up a shirt he must have dropped on the way to the shower, and Lisa gulped. Stomach muscles shouldn't ripple like that!

Ranma sat down and the four began breakfast. Lisa, to take her mind off rippling muscles and the large surprise found directly below them asked "What are your plans for the morning Ranma, I know you're scheduled to be on patrol this evening."

"Talk to Minmei, see when her birthday parties supposed ta be. Then meet up with Rick ta shop for birthday presents. After that" Ranma blinked and looked down at his data-pad beeped the little jingle it had for an incoming message. He spend a second reading it before moving on. "Apparently after that I have a meeting with the review board in one of the conference rooms. Huh, wonder what that's about? My written report about the asshole back on Mars isn't finished yet if that's what they want. I wanted to see about the repairs on my Valkyrie."

Lisa shrugged. As she wasn't a Veritech officer she wasn't part of the review board. "Well whatever it is good luck."

"Ain't never had much luck, always have time for skill though." Ranma grinned at her and she smirked back.

After breakfast the four went their own ways, Kasumi going to classes Ranma heading to the park to see Rick and Claudia heading back up to the bridge while Lisa went to her apartment to change.

"Are you certain he's ready for the responsibility?" Gloval asked Roy Fokker and Eric Prescott. While he was required by military law to sit on the promotions board, with as many casualties as the Valkyrie flights had sustained this was actually going to be the first time he had done so. The fact was they at last had the time to really do things right rather than simply brevet people and shove them up the ranks. The board had been meeting for several days before they reached Mars, and now that they had left their red planet behind they were ready to continue. On their docket for the afternoon was one ensign Sugita and Gloval couldn't help but worry how the wild young man would take being given some responsibility, and he really wanted all the choices for the board done before they actually convened.

Then too, the idea of giving anyone with barely half a years in the military a Lt's tabs bothered him, and Ranma wasn't the only one being so swiftly promoted. That was the story everywhere in the Veritech squads, their losses had been so heavy that it was necessary. Gloval had first thought to take experienced sailors from the running of the space fortress and shift them over to Valkyrie duty to serve as officers, but Roy had convinced him that would be worse than useless. None of those sailors were trained pilots, and even if they passed a hurried qual course they would have less experience and skills than the pilots they were getting out of the academy. And only a bare fraction of retrained personnel made it to, much less lasted, in the Veritech forces. And even those few officers who made it rarely lasted long, even if they had prior experience. Fighting the aliens was simply a meat grinder beyond any dogfight anyone on Earth had ever envisioned. Indeed, some of the old saws, especially among the non-coms, likened fighting the aliens to tanks battle in WW2 rather than aerial battles.

Roy shrugged. "Let's face it at this point he's got the most kills of any of us, the kid is just deadly. If he can train up his flight to be even half as good then this will be an excellent move." What he left unsaid was that of the original survivors of the battle on earth there were only 9 survivors, and all of them were now filling captain's posts, despite few of them having the experience necessary, now that the third class of the academy had graduated giving them enough pilots to fill out the full 25 squadrons once more. As he had said when the space fortress was hiding in Saturn's atmosphere in this war, there were only three qualifications that mattered: being a killer, being a team player, and surviving.

"More" Eric added "it may settle him down. He won't ever like the paperwork required but he cares for the people around him, even if he doesn't always show it, and giving him responsibility over them may calm him down even further."

"Very well, we'll see how he responds."

Ranma sneezed as he entered the white Dragon taking a splash of water right in the face at the same time. She looked at Minmei's grinning face and smirked as she wiped her hair out of her eyes. "Hello to you too, soon-to-be birthday girl. Damn good thing I didn't wear silk today."

"That's for not coming in to see me for the last few days. I swear the more time you spend in the military the less I see of you. But that's not important right now, have you heard!?" Minmei squealed excitedly grabbing the redheads arm and dragging her back outside and down the street to another store which had a large poster on the side of it. She pointed excitedly "Look, the mayor's organizing a Miss Macross contest! Singing, swimwear, and talent contest! The prize is a recording contract with a movie thrown in if the first album sells well! I'm going to enter, it's a great chance to achieve my dream! What about you?"

Ranma gave the other girl a gentle squeeze, "Thanks Minmei, but no thanks. I like singing and all but not in front of crowds and it ain't something I want ta make a career out of. You go right ahead though, and if ya need help with anything let me know. Now, when's your birthday party again, I want ta make certain I get time off ta attend."

Minmei smiled happily, her adoptive big brothers support was something she treasured. "My party's tomorrow here at nine. Can I expect a birthday present?" She asked batting her eyes playfully.

"Maybe, but don't push yer luck okay?" Ranma grinned and tousled her hair. "I'll see ya tomorrow night alright, and I'll try ta stop by more often from now on ok?" Minmei nodded, gave the other girl one final hug and let her go.

Not ten minutes later Ranma was eating at a vendor with Rick discussing birthday presents with him. "I can't believe ya were just gonna show up without one Rick. That's dumb man, really dumb. Even if you're going out with Sammy, ya need ta have a gift for the birthday girl or don't show up. That's doubly true if ya think ya got feelings for her." Ranma was not the brightest when it came to girls but never let it be said he couldn't learn from past mistakes. The row he had with the old men when he didn't show up for Akane's birthday party with a present was tremendous, though he did get some good advice after it from Cologne and Shampoo, whose subsequent birthday present of a bonbori inlaid with images of furry demons from hell on the handle went over very well, gifts were always better after all when tailored to the individual.

"Look I don't even know what she wants, so how am I going to get her anything."

"It's not whether she likes it or not, it's the giving that counts. And as for presents, let's finish eating and head over now. I've still got an hour ta kill before I need to meet with the review board, whatever that is."

Rick nodded and scarfed down the rest of his tofu dog. The frozen meat they had gotten from Mars base Sara was going to be distributed to the various restaurants but not yet, as tests were still being run on it. As they were walking he asked "So have you decided on an appropriate punishment for Roy and Eric yet as your part of that bet you three had going?"

"Heh, yep. Pretty simple too. Trust me, you'll like it."

The shopping went pretty quickly, with Ranma finding a nice looking bathing suit that Kasumi had ordered him to get as her gift for Minmei, as well as a sarong that he felt would complement it for his own gift. Rick found a pair of earrings that held Minmei's birth stone, which he had discovered in a hint-hint wink-wink conversation with Nodoka the day before, that woman was scary... Just in case, he also bought another pair that had an orange stone that almost matched Sammy's hair color. All the bases covered the two left the shopping district, Rick to go exercise as he was still keeping up with the regimen Ranma had set him, and Ranma to go find some hot water and head to his meeting.

Ranma opened the door to the conference room and was surprised to see Captain Gloval sitting in the center of a half-circle table with Commander Fokker, Commander Prescott and two other officers he didn't know as well as Colonel Mannstein around him. Realizing something was up, he marched in, back straight head held high and saluted them as soon as he was in the center of the room. "Sirs!"

"At ease ensign. This review board is meeting to discuss the possibly of giving you a Lieutenant's rank. As such you will be questioned on certain decisions you have made to be deemed worthy of this honor. Do you have any questions before we begin?"

Ranma shook his head slightly stunned that this was happening, but jubilant at the same time. It meant he was trusted enough to lead, and that would allow him to protect the fortress better. Hey maybe I can even train my flights too! In the shopping district two recruits suddenly shivered and looked wildly wondering why they had the sudden desire to space themselves.

The questioning began, centered on his actions during Operation Blitzkrieg, and his, as he put it morale assault on the enemy, the battle in the asteroid field and finally the one on one battle with the new type of enemy pod he had seen on Mars. This last was the only holdup, but as he put his instinct into words, that the new pods was important and possibly a leader, most of the board was willing to let it slide, after all the chance to decapitate the alien assault was well worth the risk. The only two that weren't were the two officers he didn't know. After the last question the board spent several minutes deliberating before Commander Prescott stood up and moved to stand in front of Ranma. Gloval was speaking some kind of ceremony but he didn't hear it at all. He was too busy staring down at his shiny new tabs.

Gloval wasn't down however and what he said next pulled him back to reality. "Furthermore it is the decision of this body that Lt. Sugita be awarded the Medal of Valor for his rescue of Commander Hayes at the risk of his own life."

Eric pulled out a box containing an arrow head shaped medal made out of titanium and placed the ribbon around Ranma's neck. Ranma was going to protest but Eric whispered "Don't bother, I know you think that you didn't do anything special, but for the rest of us non-martial artists, that mission would have been suicide. Just go with it, hell you can use it as a paperweight after this if you want. I understand that's what Roy does with his."

Following this advice Ranma simply saluted, and after a few minutes he was released. Eric stayed there as Motoko Aoyama was up for review to be bumped to lieutenant later that day.

The next two days were relatively quiet as Ranma got used to his rank, but for the most part he watched and took part in the repair of his mech. While the engineers didn't want any help yet, it was obvious that they needed it, so Ranma watched and memorized and learned.

Mechanics and repair were always an ongoing source of concern on any battleship, and none more so than Macross. There was always something breaking down and needing repair, not even counting the factories, which had been taken over entirely by the civilian sector. Repairs on the Veritechs though, needed to be done by the overworked navy mechanics. Thankfully, while the VF-1S was more expensive to build, it was easier to repair, with more modular parts for ease of access.

Ranma smiled as the last part of his Valkyries new arm was connected and passed whatever test they were running on it, at least judging by the green light. In a few more hours, it'd be as good as new. His thoughts were interrupted as his data pad beeped at him, and he looked at it quizzically.

About fifteen minutes later he found himself in Prescott's office. "New recruits, what about the old flights, I mean we haven't taken any causalities since leaving Saturn have we?" That was true too; for once the squadron had come through a battle without having lost anyone. In the battle on Mars it had been the destroids that bore the brunt of the battle and the casualties. While losing the entirety of Silver squadron had hurt, the Veritechs had only lost three more of their number. The enemy battlepods inability to get off the ground for anything but a shot hop had really hurt their ability to take on the Valkyries who were above the area touched by the gravity anomaly.

"Not to battle we haven't, but we have to poaching. With the new recruits being inducted we're now back to the full 25 squads we can support, and every squadron but Skull and Vermillion have turned over half their number to bolster the new squads with veterans." Eric almost choked on that last word, as barely any of those pilots had been in the SDF longer than half a year. "We're keeping you, Motoko, Rick, Tina and Rachel. You keep Rick as your wingman and get to watch over two more recruits, while Motoko keeps Tina" Ranma nodded, that made sense the two worked well together, though he didn't think the bottle blond (he still hadn't memorized any of their names, even though he had begun to try) was as good as Motoko or had her drive. "and I keep Rachel as mine. Here are the dossiers on your new pilots."

Ranma read the first one. "Ben Dixon, decent physical scores, okay simulator scores. Came to us out of a construction company." Ranma shrugged and turned to the next dossier, and when he did he groaned in agony. "Not this guy!"

Eric raised an eyebrow and pulled the file to him. "Name Max Sterling, top physical condition, top simulator scores, how the hell do you have a problem with him? He's the best of the bunch, I had to get in quick to get him before the other commanders saw his scores."

"He hit on me in my girl form." Ranma said flatly. "And he didn't take a hint."

Eric laughed. "Well sorry Lt. he wasn't in your chain of command then so it wasn't against regs. And besides you are rather cute as a girl you know." He stopped speaking as Ranma began to glow blue-gold and growl. "An-anyway" he went on hurriedly. "These are the two you're assigned, make the most of it. You're to meet them at 1630 on the lower deck, and then put them through their paces on a routine patrol."

Ranma gritted his teeth but nodded. "Meet them at 1630 on the lower deck, aye, routine patrol aye. Understood sir." He turned to leave but then turned back in the doorway. "Oh and sir, you're payment for the wager you and Roy made with me before Mars just went up to join his. Look forward to it." He left whistling cheerfully at the suddenly very worried look Eric was wearing.

Ranma waited at the meeting place for five minutes longer than the assigned time but the two new trainees at last arrived. He stood straight as they neared him. "Dixon and Sterling?"

They both stood to attention in front of him and the big one, Ben took it upon himself to answer "Yes Sir, Ben and Max that's us sir!"

"Good. I ain't a stickler for saluting or that shit so you can drop the attention stuff right now." They both dropped the salutes but were still paying attention to him, which was a good sign. "Alright listen up an' listen good, my name's Ranma Sugita." He paused as they both twitched "Problems with my name ensigns?"

Ben again answered "Er no sir, it's just there's a lot of weird rumors about you, and then there's the rumors about how good a pilot you are."

"Yeah well, they're probably all true, but don't ask me to confirm any of 'em I ain't here ta put on a show or anything. You both are here to fly and to kill the enemy. That is our objective, our only real objective, and we do that through teamwork, training and skill. To that end, once I figure out what I have ta work with I'm gonna work yer asses way harder than they ever did in the academy to prepare ya for out there because let me tell ya, fighting the aliens is about as far away from easy as it's possible to get. They ain't like the old hands say it's like fighting other humans. Every alien comes on expecting to kill or die, ain't been even a single instance of aliens retreating without it being ordered from on high as part of the larger campaign, and there are dozens of them for every one of us, sometimes more, and thse fights can go on for hours, way longer than any dogfight on Earth could last."

"Now I'm gonna tell ya one more thing: no grandstanding. I know that sounds weird to ya if you've heard any rumors about me, but let me tell ya, I never put anyone but me in danger with anything I did, and I was always in complete control. If I see anyone trying to show off, or to push past what they know is their limits and in so doing endangering anyone else, I will ground your ass then you and I are gonna have a 'talk' in the training room!" To emphasize this point he allowed his battle aura to briefly appear then disappear. The two of them nearly jumped back, and their eyes widened in surprise and not a little fear.

"I know it's customary for Lt.s and their ensigns ta be friends and all, but I'm gonna wait on that until you both have some battles under yer belts, same goes with explaining what that was just now. No offense, ya might be really decent guys," he avoided looking at Max, but at least Ben had a blank slate as far as he was concerned "but I've seen too many squad mates die in this war ta want ta get close ta before you prove ya can survive. After that we can be pals. Now, get your gear and meet me in hanger 9, where I'll introduce ya to the other pilot of our foursome ensign Hunter, when I ain't around ya follow his orders. Now get going, we've got a patrol ta do."

"Command this is blue 5, requesting permission and flight path to take a few recruits out on patrol. Designate Blue 6, Blue 7, Blue 8 and myself as training flight."

Lisa's voice came back to him, professional but with an edge of humor as usual when they weren't fighting for their lives. "Roger that Blue 5, you're cleared to exit the ship, be aware we already have patrols out aft, port and starboard, advise you keep to the underside or topside of the ship. Have fun babysitting Lieutenant, and…" she paused then went on in a much warmer tone that for some reason made Ranma flush a little "congratulations on your promotion. You've earned it, and speaking for myself, you earned the Medal of Valor too."

"Um keep to the top or bottom aye, uh thanks for the rest Lisa that means a lot coming from you, Blue 5 out." Still flushing he changed his radio's channel before addressing his flight. "Alright you lot, we've been asked to keep to the top or bottom of the battleship. We're going to do a few simple exercises first, get ya both into the swing of things, check yer skills and that."

What followed was two hours of tedium as Ranma made the two trainees fly through every formation he could think of, then shoot targets he and Rick picked out and finally move around doing exercises in their soldier mode. Ranma followed them through the formations, while Rick sat in orbit over them, watching. As they were going through the target practice a second time Ranma flew up to join Rick. "What do you think Rick?"

Rick, not having met the two trainees before was blunter than he would otherwise be. "Ben's pretty poor at flying, and only decent at shooting, nothing special but I think he's got a better handle of the soldier mode than the other two modes with his rifle, maybe make him a sniper like commander Prescott did in the first asteroid battle with some of the others. Max though, he's something special. Almost as good a pure flyer as I am, and the rest is almost as good as you. Damn impressive."

Ranma agreed though inside his head he added the qualifier If only he wasn't such a fracking flirt. His musing was interrupted as Rick went on, his voice oddly cool. "By the way, do you know why Motoko got the other Lt's slot and not me? Not that I'm complaining or anything, I'm just wondering why."

Ranma kept his own voice neutral as he answered. "I'd say it's one of two reasons, one, yer disrespecting Commander Hayes when we're on the clock like ya have a few times, and before ya say anything this is about professional respect, it don't matter if you dislike someone as a person, if yer on the clock ya treat them with respect. Which is something I'll have to do with Max I suppose, damn it. "Two, Motoko's a girl, and they need some female officers in the Veritech squads to avoid complaints of favoritism."

Rick was silent for a few minutes as below them the two green pilots finished their exercises. "I-I guess I can see those are good reasons. I'll try to watch my mouth from now on."

"Good, but for now" he switched channels to include the other two "alright you two, that's enough for today, tomorrow we start on real training. Look forward ta it." For the second time that day both trainees felt a sense of unmistakable dread fill them.

The next day started early for the group now designated blue flight 2. With two of its members wanting to get off work by seven Ranma had gotten them assigned to the morning and afternoon shifts. Normally with the 25 squadrons now fully filled out, they would be on 4 hr. on 8 hr. off shifts, but Ranma asked for two shifts to properly train his group.

First Ranma worked them through what he called an easy exercise routine, which caused Ben to nearly collapse and even Max to sweat like a pig. Rick was able to keep up but barely. When he explained why endurance and physical ability was so important though, Ben stopped complaining.

When they went out for their assigned patrol, the group found themselves well ahead and using their radar to scout in front of the battleship. Ranma however had brought along a little bit of extra equipment which he dropped from one of his wings. With a small remote control he took control of the small spherical blob, which had been before Ranma got his hands on it, a sensor drone and completely covered the thing with padding to absorb hits. "Alright you two, now we're going ta work on yer situational awareness. Rick, take point, its yer job ta keep an eye out for anything incoming."

Rick grinned inside his cockpit, it felt really good when someone who was as formidable as Ranma was put his trust in you. "Count on it Ranma." He gunned his thrusters a little taking the point position about three klicks ahead of the other three.

Ranma turned his attention to Ben and Max. "Alright, like I said this is ta teach ya situational awareness." He used his controls to suddenly push the drone back at them, and they both dodged wildly. "Fire can come from any direction, and while simulators can train yer reflexes a little, nothing compares ta real life." He flew the drone back towards them and almost clipped Ben before the other pilot could respond. "Come on you two, there is no second place in this contest. Hell I'll give ya an incentive, every five times I clip ya, ya have ta buy the flight a meal." A chorus of gaps and groans met his ears and he grinned. "None of that, now DODGE!"

For the next fifty minutes the two newbies dodged and ducked wildly as Ranma commanded the probe to go after them, almost always from their blind spots of behind and below, building up the sixth sense in them that spelled life or death in pilots.

The training was still underway when Rick's voice cut in over Ranma's radio. "Blue 5, this is Blue 6, I have incoming bandits from below, directly forward and sides. Numbers unknown but at least four groups."

Ranma immediately halted the probe. "Roger blue 6. Moving up to your position, remain on station." Ranma gunned his thrusters, leading the other two up to join Rick. Once there his own sensors picked up the approaching enemy at extreme range. "Fantastic catch blue 6, calling it in now." He changed his radio channel used for communicating with higher. "Blue 5 to command, blue flight two has spotted enemies incoming. Four groups coming in from forward, by their heading they'll meet up right before hitting Macross. Advise on course of action and recommend you check in with the other scout flights on the other sides of the ship."

Claudia's voice answered as they were too far away from the ship for anything but the long range communications gear to reach them. "Wait one Blue five, scrambling fighters now, contacting other flights now."

Ranma waited a few minutes as the dots marking out enemy mechs came closer. After a moment he was relieved to hear Lisa's voice coming over the line, having obviously taken over the long range gear from Claudia. "Blue five do you think your flight is up to getting us a numbers count? We've got incoming from below aft and port as well, we need to know what we are dealing with here."

Ranma understood his orders to be to get close enough to get an accurate count and said so before changing back to the flight channel. "Alright you lot, we've got our orders, do a fly by and get the boss a head count. That means we fly close enough for our sensors ta tell 'em apart but not close enough for 'em ta target us or vice versa. Let's go!"

The flight flew forward then peeled off to get a close up of the group coming in from the port side of their trajectory, using their superior speed to keep out of their range. "What do ya think think, fifty or so?"

"About that Blue five." Rick answered. "Want to call it in?"

"Yeah. Blue five to command, we count fifty incoming battlepods in the first group, assuming the other three are the same size that makes it 200 battlepods or so coming straight on."

Lisa's voice came back immediately along with a tiny info dump that made a wide cone going forward from the fortress appear on his radar screen. "Affirmative blue five, be aware we are going to fire secondary weapons into this area, would recommend you bug out of there to the port side in the next two minutes and meet up with the recon flight from Green." Her voice tightened just slightly but Ranma could hear the pain there. "Be advised the enemy seems to be coming from that side in slightly larger force and Green flight 3 tried to do the same maneuver as you but failed, losing two of their flight. The survivors are falling back to the ship, but the enemy is hard on their heels."

Ranma sighed. "Roger command." It was selfish of him he knew, but he hoped the two lost pilots had been people he didn't know. "Okay people, new heading, we got ta get out of the area before the big guns come out ta play." He boosted his engines and the other three followed him. They left the target area not a minute too soon as behind them space lit up briefly with huge beams of varicolored power. "Hoo boy they don't play around on their timing." He laughed.

As they flew along their new trajectory their radar picked up the advancing wave of battlepods and then the two Green squad Valkyries just ahead of the swarm. Ranma thought for a moment, then passed a new course to Rick and the others. "Alright gents, here's what we're looking to do. We want ta disrupt the arc of their advance, give our Green friends some more breathing room. Missiles only, don't get it stuck in with them, that'll come later, right now our objective is just ta save our friends, not stop the attack. Can I hear a confirm there?"

Three affirmatives answered him and the four pilots rammed their engines to max, cutting across the course of the enemy attacking from the port side of the ship. As soon as they were in range Ranma ordered "Pick your targets carefully, one missile each target no overlaps. Fire!"

The first four missiles lept out then another four and another until all their missiles had been launched. After a few minutes the missiles hit the first line of alien mechs. Some of the mechs targeted were able to evade or shoot them down, but others weren't, and the attack allowed the two green pilots to pull away. Ranma angled the flight in behind them as they moved back to the space fortress. "you two alright?"

The pilot his IFF designated Green 10 answered. "Thanks for the save Blue flight 2. We're jiving back to the barn."

"Right behind you. Blue 5 to command, orders?"

Lisa's voice came back to him immediately. "Blue five fall back to base, the attack from behind used some kind of radar jamming on the flight sent out to investigate, it was so good they're nearly on top of us!"

"Roger that command, returning post haste. Okay everyone we're heading back into a dogfight, remember to watch each other's backs, and lets kick some ass!"

He was answered with three roars and blue flight two again pulled ahead of the two green Veritechs, who wanted nothing to do with the dogfight occurring near the back of the ship. Ranma was the first to spot the lights and flashes of the dogfight but within fifteen minutes they had come close enough to see individual combatants. "Command any specific spot you want us?"

"Negative Blue five, they seem to be more concerned with taking out the Veritechs and destroids than attacking the ship this time, if they come too close to the destroids though I'll route you there."

"Affirmative command, alright boys let's get it stuck in!" And with that he used his lasers to open up on a battlepod at extreme range, followed by two more from bursts with his cannon. The others followed suit, though they weren't as accurate just yet. That changed as they closed with the fight, and the others began to get confirmed kills.

Once the dogfight surrounded them, Max began to show his stuff, using all his weapons and modes to full effect, taking out seven enemy pods in two minutes of combat. Rick wasn't far behind, though as usual he preferred to remain in jet mode. Ranma however was on a whole different level. Even Max watched a little awed as he went through the enemy like a reaper, changing forms constantly killing pods with single shots of his rifle to vulnerable areas and using his overpowered lasers to great effect even closing in and using his fists and feet in soldier mode to kill his enemies, something Max and Ben had never even thought possible. In the same amount of time Max racked up ten kills Ranma had over twenty five and counting.

Ben however was not doing so well. He followed behind Max guarding his flanks and sniping at a few enemies, but about twenty minutes into the dogfight Ben decided he'd had enough of the secondary role. He charged forward yelling "Now you'll see what I can do!"

Moving away from where Max and the others could cover him he was almost immediately hit from behind, and then took two glancing blows to his front. His thrusters inoperable, he fell out of the dogfight, only his momentum keeping him going. "Agh they got me!"

Ranma cursed. "Goddamn it Ben!" At the same moment he noticed that another flight from Blue had taken to the surface of the fortress to help out the destroids, but had instead been encircled and their position around a secondary cannon was in danger of being wiped out. They couldn't take to space again with the amount of fire coming at them, and Ranma noticed his friend from Mars was leading the attack against him. Even as he watched Kyron, if that was the alien's name rather than its rank killed a Defender with a single shot from one of his mech's arms. "Damn it, Max, Rick you two grab the idiot and get him back to base, my orders. I'll go see if I can pull Motoko and her flight out of the frying pan."

Even as they acknowledged his orders Ranma changed into guardian mode, leaving the main dogfight and coming up from behind the attacking aliens on the battleships surface. He gunned down two from behind then blew up another that had tried to follow him down before coming up behind Kyron's pod. As he saw another Defender go down he decided to use the same strategy as last time and keyed his radio, standing on the side of a destroyed tertiary weapons box in soldier mode. "Well if it ain't the loser from Mars, how's it going ya giant asshole!"

Kyron turned with a snarl of rage to see the flyer type mech he had fought on Mars, and immediately lost his self-control. "YOU! KILLL HIM!" He bounded towards his enemy, completely ignoring the Micronians that he and his squad had pinned down a moment before in his desire to crush the Micronian that had bested him yet let him live, something he could never forgive.

Ranma ducked behind the protrusion he had previously been standing on. "Blue 9, you guys alright?

"We're fine now, pulling back to link up with the main company of Defenders, then we'll come back and assist. Where's the rest of your flight?"

"Watching over an idiot who is going to get the beating of a lifetime later, as for coming back to help me, don't bother. I'm gonna have some fun here."

"Heh. Roger, stay safe Blue 5, we'll see you in a bit."

Ranma looked around as the fire let up for a moment, and turned his soldier mode Veritech around, bent over and slapped his robot's rear "You couldn't hit the broad side of a battleship! Kiss my ass!"

He rocketed up and forward, taking cover behind a block of some kind whose purpose he didn't care about right now as the alien fighters all took potshots at him. Three tried to jump over his cover and come at him from on high but he almost negligently killed all three with bursts from his head cannon. Turning he fired around the protrusion, nailing one battlepod in the leg and taking Kyron's left arm off.

As they attempted to encircle him he jumped over his cover blasting away on full auto with his rifle and head lasers to both sides, taking out two more mechs before using his thrusters to slide left, barreling into an enemy battlepod, snapping one of its legs off and dodging the main body as it fell. He ducked his Veritech behind it, using it as cover for a moment before two shots from Kyron's arm cannons destroyed it.

Ranma was already moving however, racing to the side and blasting away with his rifle taking out two more pods before ducking behind another protrusion, this time a fin of some kind, probably designed to make the space fortress slightly more aerodynamic than your average brick.

Kyron didn't relies those two pods had been the last of the pods with him at the moment and he stalked forward, firing with all his remaining weapons. "Come out Micronian and face your master! You will rue the day you ever faced Kyron!"

Suddenly Ranma jumped over another protrusion to the side of where Kyron had though he had Ranma pinned. Grabbing the barrel of his enemy's back mounted gun he twisted and with an unheard screech of metal the gun came off its stand. "Careful what ya wish for fucktard!"

Kyron whirled in an attempt to throw Ranma off then ignited his thrusters slamming him back against another protrusion in an attempt to crush the Veritech between his pod and the wall. He could feel the clangor of impact and turned to make certain his enemy was finally dead but found to his shock that somehow the Valkyrie was not harmed.

"Ow." Ranma intoned then kicked out, firing his head lasers at the same time, forcing Kyron to retreat to protect his legs but still losing the two small anti-personnel lasers that were on the front of his mech. Before Kyron could open the range again, an open palm strike crashed into the front of his mech, hitting with enough force that Kyron's mech actually left the ground for a moment. Kyron tried to kick out with one leg but Ranma dodged it, grabbing his leg, and was about to rip it off when Kyron hit his thrusters again pulling out of Ranma's grip. Ranma continued to use his head lasers, but they didn't have enough power to do any real damage to the alien's mech.

Kyron continued his flight into open space, rejoining the dogfight then going through it and surprisingly taking the survivors of the attack with him. "Alas we're out of time for today. Another time Micronian!" Within fifteen minutes the dogfight had died down, the last of the aliens falling back out of the defenders range.

Rick, Max and Motoko's flight took up position above him and Rick's shock was easily heard in his voice. "What. The. Fuck! These bastards don't retreat like that, what the hell?"

Motoko answered him. "I don't know but something tells me its not good."

Ranma nodded, changing into fighter mode and joining them. "I agree. Blue 1, Command, any ideas what's going on here?"

Lisa's voice came back, showing her own worry and confusion. "No idea Blue 5. Still not your worry right now, you're errant pilot is down in hanger 4, the rest of blue squadron is cleared to land there." She went on issuing landing orders to the other ten squads that had scrambled for this fight, then rotating out two more squads to take over the recon flights in force. She also pulled back the Defender companies letting three stand down but keeping two, the two with the least casualties, on standby.

Casualties had again been heavy, with green squadron losing 5 of its pilots, which was the heaviest hit but not by much. Tan would need a new lt. and had lost two other pilots, and Vermillion, the 'elite' squadron on standby for this shift had lost two Veritechs. The other squads had lost one or two pilots each save for Blue squadron which other than Blue 8 being shot down but recovered had suffered no casualties. Prescott had keep his flight back from the battle sniping away, only moving in to help out when one of the other flights had gotten in trouble, something that she had ordered Vermillion to do as well.

The losses among the Defenders had been extreme, one company down to quarter strength, and two more down to half strength. Again the rule was proven that Defender destroids couldn't handle battlepods in close range. Casualties weren't nearly as heavy as they could have been though. By her count there had still been about 150 enemy combatants still fighting when they retreated. It sure as heck hadn't been her hastily planned defense that scared the aliens off. They would have to find some way through the radar jamming, this assault had come too close to the fortress before being seen, and that was deadly.

"Is Blue 8 alright?" Ranma asked.

"He's fine; according to the flight crews his Veritech is pretty mangled though. Was that the same command-type pod you saw on Mars blue 5?" Lisa asked, wondering if this meant that some new alien commander had taken over the battle against them and if so what it meant for the changes in tactics/strategy they had been seeing.

"Yep, same asshole, he says he's named Kyron, well I mean he says 'you will regret the day you met Kyron' but that means it's his name so yeah. Not exactly a good conversationalist." Through their canopies all the other Blue pilots, even Eric gaped at him as they brought their fighters in to land.

Gloval cut in at that point having come onto the bridge halfway through the fight. "You mean to say you've actually exchanged words with this alien Lt?"

"Heh, more like exchanging insults with him. It was in my report about Mars sir," he added reproachfully. "I filled it out and everything, took me hours last night, it even made me and Kasumi not have time ta," he paused blushing and Lisa surprised everyone on the bridge by giggling aloud for a moment before she stifled it behind her hand. They all looked at her in surprise, though Claudia was also smirking as she got the joke but Ranma went on gamely "Er, w-well anyway I said I'd targeted him cause it was a new type of pod and that he had blown up one of the other pods without any of the others complaining, and that he didn't seem ta understand any of my taunts that had ta deal with family or any of my curses except for the ones that deal with the body."

Gloval frowned. While not a lot of information, that did give them some idea of the culture they were dealing with, and the fact he hadn't seen this report was troubling. He would have to think about that later. "I'll look for your report then, but is there anything else you noticed Lt?"

"Um, only that he seemed ta hate anything that touched on size, like shrinking and anything like that. Those insults almost drove him mad." He finally skated to a stop in the hanger and looked down to see Motoko already out of her Veritech and heading towards him. Ben on the other hand was over by Rick and Max, who had already landed and popped their canopies. "Er, listen command, I gotta go, just read my report, it's got a copy of my radio transmissions." He paused then sighed. "If ya want I guess I could write up another one about the fight we just had too."

Gloval smirked at the resigned tone in Ranma's voice but shook his head. "Unless anything happened that you think we need to know about I don't think that's necessary. Well done Lt. Command out."

Ranma climbed out of his cockpit and was almost immediately accosted by Motoko. "Have you given any more thought to training me more, it's obvious you have techniques I could use?"

Ranma looked at her for a moment. Since they had met, Motoko had impressed him with her drive, she really was the only person he'd met on Macross that he could call a martial artist, and he had seen her exercise in her own style many times. The Hawaiian native was a kendo practioner who, ironically considering how Hawaii-mad his father was, made Kuno look incompetent. She had been asking him on and off for training but she didn't have the ki control Ranma had nor the endurance. She was much closer to both now than when they met, but still not quite enough. "I keep tellin' ya, I practice weaponless martial arts, ya need a sword instructor." A sudden thought hit him, and he nearly smacked himself for not having though of it weeks ago. "Why don't ya talk to my mom, she's a great swordswoman." He wasn't being facetious here, they had sparred a time or two and while Ranma won, he didn't win as easily as he had been against his old man before leaving Nerima. "She'll be able ta teach ya a lot, and if ya learn all she can teach, then you'll probably be at a level where I can take over and teach ya about ki ok?" Motoko grinned triumphantly and punched her arm into the air in jubilation.

Ranma grinned back, ruffling her hair for a moment but then his eyes hardened as he moved toward where the rest of his flight was standing. "Now ya gotta excuse me, I got something to take care of here." He paused momentarily as a crew of deck workers moved toward his plane, which was still in guardian mode and carrying a little souvenir. "Get that thing ta Dr. Lang would ya, with my compliments, and ask him if I can have it back when he's done with it." The workers nodded and he walked on. Behind him Motoko gathered her own flight together and followed quietly.

Ranma stopped and simply stared at Ben Dixon for a moment. The big man tried to laugh it off, but even he could tell he was in trouble. "Heh, sorry about that Lt., who knew that they'd circle me so quickly like that? I'll do better next time promise."

Rick groaned silently, but stood back. Max however stood at attention next to his friend. Ranma spoke, practically growling "what did I say before our scout patrol the other day and before this dustup huh? No grandstanding, don't push yourself so ya put you or your teammates in danger. Ya did both Ben. Now it was your first fight but ya still gotta pay for that so tomorrow you and me are gonna spar in the training room for a bit. I'm gonna beat yer desire to show off outta ya one way or another. Got it?"

Ben nodded glumly and Ranma turned to Max. "Max, good job out there, but ya need ta work on yer teamwork. Watching out fer your squad-mates needs ta be second nature to ya. We'll work on that though, but again damn good job fer yer first fight." Max nodded taking the critique soberly. "Rick, ya did good too, sorry I had ta ask ya ta babysit the noob." Rick grinned, shrugging philosophically.

Motoko, who had been watching this nodded. Ranma was handling being in charge very well in her opinion, using both the carrot and the stick offered in one discussion. She wondered if she should be taking notes.

Ranma grinned then. "For now we're off duty till tomorrow and Rick and I have a party ta get to soon, and I don't know about him, but I want a shower beforehand. So I'll see ya later."

He was about to turn and leave when Max called him back. "Um, is it alright if we go with you, only neither of us has any plans for the night and it might be nice to get to know one another."

Rick and Ranma shared a glance and Ranma turned the decision over to Rick with a flick of his hand. Rick thought for a minute then nodded. "Alright you can come, meet up with us at the academy in an hour. We'll see you then." The two walked off nodding at the rest of the squadron, who were also all going off own their own errands, before leaving the hanger.

"Kyron seems to have followed orders thus far, the damage his forces did to the Micronian defenders was good, as well as the fact that they never spotted the Boquomouxy Quel-Quallie scout pod we placed near their starboard side. Though I imagine Kyron wasn't pleased when he lost a third of his assaulting forces to the battleships main guns."

Exedore nodded but added a qualifier. "The scout teams have already begun to pick up complete radio transmissions. They are running into problems sifting through it however. The teams are reporting getting a lot of video and radar transmissions that don't make any sense. The Micronians seem to have no idea of emission control. It will be a few weeks before we get any real information."

"Time doesn't matter Exedore, so long as we can keep pounding on the Micronians mobile forces. We need to keep them away from their homeworld, but that is simple enough. Tell Kyron he did well, and allow him to keep attacking."

"Kyron himself will not be taking part in the next few battles my lord, His Glaug suffered too much damage again and he needs to wait three days before a replacement can be sent."

"No matter, keep using the 11th fleet's forces. Remember what Lord Dolza told us, we are to bleed them dry."

Rick and Ranma, both dressed in their uniforms, met up with the other two young men who were also in their uniforms and walked with them to the White Dragon restaurant. "Oh yeah, I've been in here before" Ben exclaimed, "they've got great food and they have a really cute waitress!"

Rick bristled at that but the four walked in and were immediately assaulted by the loud noise of a party in full gear. Music was going, there was food set out on tables and the restaurant was packed with well wishers and friends. Minmei, who had been standing near the doorway with Kasumi, saw them and yelled aloud. "Ranma, Rick!" She came over and hugged them both fiercely. "We heard about the attack are you both alright?" Kasumi simply clung to Ranma in a hug that would've bruised a weaker man's ribs.

Rick answered for both. "We're fine, the fight was tough but we made it through." He began to blush, glad that Sammy was stuck on the bridge dealing with the battle damage as he reached into one of his pockets and pulled out his gift. "H-happy birthday Minmei. I hope you like them."

Mayor Luan moved over to greet the pilots as Minmei opened the jewelry box and squealed happily over the earrings. "Oh Rick they're beautiful thank you so much!" She kissed Rick on the check which caused him to blush even harder.

"Hello Rick, Ranma, nice to see you both made it through the recent trouble." Mayor Luan said. "Who are these fine young men you've got with you?"

"Hey sir, this is Max and Ben, they're new pilots assigned to my flight. They didn't have anything ta do so Rick brought 'em along to get ta know 'em tonight." Ranma, grinning at Rick's embarrassment put one arm around Kasumi's waist holding her to his side gently handing over his own gift to Minmei with his other hand. "Happy birthday little sister, this is from both Kasumi and me."

Minmei opened the gift and gasped in pleasure at the swimsuit and sari revealed inside. "Oh guys, it's wonderful! Thank you so much, this is the bathing suit I was going to buy myself for the Ms. Macross contest. Thank you sooooo much!" She grabbed them both in a hug, showering them with kisses. Rick looked on a little jealously until Minmei turned away grabbing his arm and pulling him into the crowd.

Ranma, with Kasumi still by his side led Max and Ben to a nearby table, grabbing some food on the way. As they sat Ben asked "So who's this pretty lady Ranma, your girlfriend or what?"

Ranma kissed a blushing Kasumi gently on the forehead. "This is Kasumi, and yeah ya could say she's my girlfriend. So keep yer eyes to yourselves guys." He said this half jokingly but both the other pilots got the impression he was very serious too.

Ben changed the subject as Rick rejoined them with a plate of food, having gotten away from Minmei by promising her he would dance with her after he ate something. "So how well did you guys think you did in that battle? I think I got five before I y'know…"

He subsided under Ranma's suddenly hard glare but thankfully Max saved his wingmen from any further grief. "I didn't do so well, I only shot down twenty or so." He turned to Rick and Ranma. "How many do you think you got sirs?"

Rick shrugged. "I don't know twenty, maybe? I don't really keep count."

"Who cares?" Ranma answered bluntly. "Our objective ain't racking up kills, it's ta defend this fortress. I've never kept kill totals and you know why, it's 'cause it don't matter. The aliens don't care about the lives of their fighters so killing them in droves ain't going ta matter ta them."

"But how will we know who's the best if we don't keep score" Max asked ingenuously.

Rick looked at him askance but Ranma again answered bluntly. "We keep score by seeing who's alive at the end of the battle. This ain't a game kid, where you get extra points for getting a high score. Our objective, our mission is ta defend people like Kasumi or Minmei and everyone else here not ta rack up kills or earn bragging rights. If ya joined just ta prove ya can do it, or ta show everyone how good you are, ya need ta rethink your priorities." Ranma left the two of them there as Kasumi pulled him to his feet and from there to the dance floor.

Max and Ben sat for a moment each with their own thoughts. Ben realized that maybe he really did need to rethink how he felt about all this. Nearly being shot down in his first battle put him in an introspective frame of mind.

Max on the other hand was thinking very hard about what had been said but for an entirely different reason. All his life Max had been the best in practically anything he put his hand to. School, sports, martial arts, girls, video games, and then in the simulator at the academy, he had been the best at them all. Now here he was being told by the best pilot on the ship (he had listened to the rumors to that extent at least, and from what he saw they had understated Ranma's skill) there was no point to being the best except in letting you do your job better. This did not compute and he determined to watch Ranma and learn from him for a bit before he decided about it.

For Ranma and Kasumi the night passed beautifully, with the two of them dancing for three songs before Kasumi made him dance with Minmei for a few turns, leaving the younger girl flushed and happy, but Rick irritated. The night picked up for him though when Ranma and Kasumi left for their home and he was able to dance with Minmei himself. Despite this however and his attempts to make his feelings clear without actually saying them they parted the night as 'just friends' still.

That evening, Gloval sat in his office smoking on his pipe contemplatively as he looked over the intelligence reports. While he wasn't used to getting and sifting through intel, even he could tell that their intelligence department hadn't come up with any real conclusions yet. Oh, there was some about how long battlepods would take to make if made by humans, and some information about the cost and size of the industry needed to make them in the numbers seen thus far, but what was not there was more telling. There weren't any strategic or tactical recommendations or analyses; there was no intel on how many battlepods they had destroyed during this war, or what those losses could mean, positive or negative. There was no medical intel on the aliens, nothing about their communication systems, which he knew Lt Laird and Lt. Commander Grant had intercepted a time or two. And there was no report about Ranma's fight with 'Kyron' or its implications.

Gloval scowled, and pulled up a list of the ships sections and their personnel, and frowned as he found that Griftel, the lt. in charge of setting up a intelligence section on the ship prior to a higher ranking officer being assigned, was alone in the section. More, as Gloval kept digging he found the Italian lt. commander hadn't even put in a request for more people. Scowling Gloval pulled up his full file.

While Ian Griftel hadn't had any bad marks in his record, what was there was damning if one knew how to read officers performance reviews. After translation from mil-speak the report basically stated he was a lazy nonentity, who simply could not be bothered to put in any effort, would do just the bare minimum to slide by, and who had an inability to think long term or out of the box. Gloval idly wondered for a moment how the man had made it into the intelligence division with these kinds of reviews in his file, but decided in the long run he didn't care. He had to somehow deal with the problem now.

Really he should have caught it before this, but he was always so busy all the time, but there were so many other things taking up his time. First there were the civilians, and dealing with them and the council took up a lot of his time. Then there was the running of the ship and keeping good order. Lisa did a lot of this of course, but much of it had to be done by the captain. Third there was keeping abreast of all the little scientific/construction projects going on everywhere and what they could mean.

Nor was he alone in this. The SDF had been supposed to launch with a skeleton crew and add the rest of the crew in pieces on a 'show the flag' tour across the globe before starting a four month shakedown cruise the disparate groups together. The SDF-1 had been forced to sail with barely half of its allotted crew of 20,000. Add to that the combat losses, especially in the gunnery section, had been heavy, knocking that number down from 11,000 to a little over 9,000. Morale among the maintenance was lousy as a result, despite the amount of money they were making with all the overtime. . Frankly without the city around to give the troops something to do on their off time, the ship would probably have mutinied by now. The civilian teams of engineers and were slowly taking on more and more of the maintenance of the space-fortress, but it was still an issue, and would be for the foreseeable future.

That was neither here nor there at the moment, however. At the moment, Gloval had to light a fire under a lazy lt. commander's ass. He reached forward and pushed a button on his intercom. "Bridge, this is the captain. Send someone to get Lt Griftel and tell him he's wanted in my office. I want someone to escort him here. Make it clear that I am displeased with him." The officer of the watch, Captain Connor replied in the affirmative, and Gloval leaned back in his chair to wait.

The next day Ben was put through the ringer as Ranma basically stomped a hole in him from one end of the training area to another. Max and Rick looked on, one amused and the other in shocked awe as he did so with both arms literally tied behind his back to, as he put it, 'make a point'. After that both new pilots continued their situational awareness training, which basically came down to dodging madly as Ranma and Rick tossed small, hard balls at them yelling 'Dodge'. It was not a fun time for the newbies, but the two experienced pilots enjoyed themselves.

Rick's day became even more amusing when Ranma invited him along to see his punishment for Roy and Eric. "But first we got to go pick up Claudia."

They went up to the bridge where Lisa looked at them quizzically. "I hope you're not here to threaten the captain again lt. Sugita" she said dryly before turning her attention back to the work being done outside on the little damage the space fortress had sustained in the last fight. It's almost as if the aliens have given up on simply smashing their way in and are instead now going to wipe out our defenders first she mused. That could be a very bad sign, especially with our growing logistics issues.

Rick blinked at the accusation but Ranma merely shrugged. "Nah, not here for that, but I've decided it's time fer Roy and commander Prescott to have their penalty game. Just thought Claudia'd like ta come along and see what I do to her fiancée."

Claudia looked at him head cocked to one side. "You know he never told me what he made you put up as a stake in that, what would you have to have done?"

"I'd ah had ta pose in my girl form for a pinup calendar." Ranma answered blithely.

Claudia's eyes narrowed and she nodded affirmatively even as the other women's eyes widened in shock. "Yes Ranma I think I do want to see what you do to him."

She followed the two pilots into the elevator and through the corridors to Roy's office, where he had just been finishing a meeting with the squadron commanders. The door opened as they approached and most of the commanders exited, but several stopping grinning as they realized something was up.

Ranma entered the office and saw Eric was just about to exit. "Oh don't go Commander." He turned and grinned at Roy. "I figured out what yer punishment is gonna be guys or should I say" he pulled out a small water gun and swiftly spritzed both of the older men in the face with it "girls."

Immediately both felt their bodies begin to change and their eyes widened even as the audience gaped in shock. Roy had turned into a blonde woman whose bust was a at least a E cup though she hadn't shrunk at all, still standing at 6 feet 4 in. Eric on the other hand had shrunk, and now stood only around 5 ft. 11 in. and 'her' bust was nowhere near as noticeable being only a mid-B cup.

Roy looked down at 'her'self and her eyes widened. She pulled her shirt forward and stared at her own cleavage, shaking her head as she almost got a nose bleed. Eric was far faster to reover, and it only took her one feel of her privates for her to turn to Ranma and shriek "What the hell did you just do!"

Ranma grinned as the other commanders began to edge away from him, though Claudia simply broke out in laughter, falling to her knees and pounding the floor as she howled with laughter. "Package of instant spring of drowned girl." Ranma had gotten it from Shampoo as a gag gift for his twentieth birthday, saying that maybe his wife and he would like to switch roles at some point. "It'll only last a day and ya can change back with hot water, but I wanted ya ta feel my pain for abit. Just be glad there's no way ta turn ya inta a girl long enough ta get the full treatment." He laughed, and the watching squadron leaders, realizing it was not permanent began to laugh too.

Claudia hover had gotten control of herself and marched forward grabbing Roy's arm. "Serves you right trying to make Ranma pose in a pinup calendar, who knows what you pilots would have used it for. Come on Romilda we're going to make the most of this." With Roy protesting the entire way Claudia dragged him off to the shopping district. Eric starred hard at Ranma as he and Rick left as well, still laughing. "Of course you know, this means war."

Later that same day Lisa found herself called into captain Gloval's office. When she arrived she was surprised to see Nodoka there. "Sir, you wanted to see me?"

Gloval looked a little uncomfortable as he replied. "Yes commander, come in please." Lisa did so, head cocked inquiringly and the captain continued. "Commander Hayes, have you heard about the Ms. Macross contest that the civilians are holding next week?"

"Yes sir. I was told that it was a way to boost morale among the civilians."

And that was indeed the reason Mayor Luan had thought up the idea. The civilians had largely fallen into three very different camps. One was the camp that was happy to be here, not only happy with the city and the life there but to be in space. This camp was composed of welders, factory workers, small business owners and intellectuals who were thrilled to be here and/or thrilled with the amount of work and money they were getting.

The second camp was comprised of people who were decidedly not happy to be here. They were unhappy to be dealing with the military at all and felt that because the spaceship fired the first shot they should be doing everything in their power to make peace with the aliens. This group was a vocal group, but really only talked to itself as no one else had the necessary lobotomy to understand them.

The third group was the smallest. These people were the so-called famous actors, that had been in the city for the opening ceremony of the battleship, politicians (here for the same reason but with no real power to speak of and thus useless) and workers, family people and others who were not happy for various reasons. This group didn't particularly care about peace, they just wanted things to return to the pre-alien status quo.

The morale of the last two was pretty bad, and the first had taken several hits with the number of battles fought and men lost.

"Yes, that is the reason for the contest. I feel, and the rest of the council feel, that the military needs to have some representatives take part, to show a softer side of the military and to put a human face on the SDF for those parts of the populations that don't deal with us on a daily basis." He coughed uncomfortably and she looked at him blankly.

"Sir you can't seriously be asking me to enter this contest?"

Nodoka smiled at her. "Oh but I'd think you would do very well my dear. You are after all a beautiful young woman, and I have heard your singing voice, it's quite nice." Lisa blushed at the compliments, which were made all the better coming from a woman who was herself beautiful, but she was still going to protest when Nodoka went on. "In any case Mayor Luan has specifically requested you and at least two others. Lt. Aoyama and lt. Young have both volunteered, and I understand the other young ladies are going to help her get ready for it. You don't have to do well or even put in any effort at all, all we are asking you to do is participate." Well, she was telling a bit of a fib there, Motoko had not in fact agreed to participate until Nodoka had bribed her with swordswoman lessons. That she was taking to them like a duck to water was merely a bonus.

Lisa calmed down and thought of it for a moment then sighed and nodded. "Alright, I'll do it. Was that all sir?"

"Er, yes that will be all." As Lisa left Gloval shot Nodoka a grateful look. "Thank you my dear that would have been incredibly awkward without you here."

Nodoka smirked, moving around the desk. "I think I know how you can make it up to me." Gloval gulped, Oh boy.

Elsewhere at the same moment Lisa was being railroaded into joining the contest, another person was having the same done to her. Kasumi looked down on the bowed heads of every male classmate she had for the last two semesters, all bowing before in supplication, stopping her from leaving her last class of the day. "Kasumi-sama, please represent the college in the Ms. Macross contest!"

For a moment Kasumi simply stood there in utter confusion. "Ano, why are you asking me? Surely there are several other much prettier women who you could ask."

The one directly in front of her, apparently the spokesman answered her. "But none of them can match your grace, your beauty, your poise, your voice!"

She blushed slightly but not so much. She got compliments from Ranma after all, and they meant far more to her then the compliments from faceless almost strangers. "Why are you all interested in this contest anyway, the prize is certainly not something I want, else I would not be going for an interior design degree." She paused as she noticed that even some faculty members were among the people kneeling, and she shook her head. "No, I'm sorry but unless there is a really good reason for me to enter I won't even consider it."

One of the faculty members kneeling coughed uncomfortably before taking over the narrative. "Um there have been a few additional incentives added to the official prize. If the representative of an institution wins not only do they get the individual prize but the institution gets 10,000 M dollars." M dollars was the currency the ship used in place of the UN scrip or the food vouchers that they had been using before the hydroponics gardens had their first harvest. M dollars had been created after that, backed by a full day's work in the factory or a full day's work in the fields. 10,000 of them would give the college enough to pay for practically anything they wanted.

It even made Kasumi pause and think for a moment. "Alright, in return for a tenth of that money if I win I will enter this contest." The students cheered but the faculty had to get together to debate the point. They deliberated for ten minutes then nodded agreement. "If you win, you get a tenth of the money. But only if you win."

Kasumi nodded serene agreement before bowing and moving through the throng. She had a few people she wanted to talk to.

At the same time Kasumi and Lisa were being conscripted a dastardly nefarious plan (alright not so nefarious but certainly hilarious) was being concocted by Roy and Eric. "So we're agreed, he can't be allowed to get away with this."

Eric nodded. "Hell no, and this is definitely a case of the punishment fitting the crime. I'll go and sign him up right away. It's not like enough people know about his other form to object if we can do it." Roy grinned. Ranma was going to wish he never pranked them.

Later that night Lisa came out of her meditation at a knock on her door. She looked up quizzically, wondering who would be coming to see her so late at night. When she opened the door she was surprised to see Kasumi and Minmei. "Kasumi, it's rare for you to come see me rather than the other way around, and Minmei, how are you?" the younger girl smiled but looked as puzzled as Lisa did. "What's up?"

Kasumi smiled. "I have a proposition for you both."

A week passed, and every day there was an attack that chewed up the Veritech squadrons, though much less so than the first attack now that the radar teams knew and could compensate for the radar suppression the aliens had suddenly started using. Yet the morale of the troops would have sunk badly if they didn't have the Ms. Macross contest to look forward to. Thanks to the sterling efforts of Mayor Luan and his PR department it was all anyone could talk about.

On the day of the contest Ranma and his flight had originally been scheduled to be on patrol but because three of the four wanted to go watch the contest, Ranma had allowed them to skive off. He was well able to scout around on his own, and besides, it wasn't like everyone else hadn't begged off for the day. However further complications had arisen to this plan. "What do you mean I'm entered into the contest!?"

Minmei shrugged. "I don't know, I definitely didn't enter you all I know is you're names on the register, 'Ranma Sugita'. You're scheduled to go right before me. Maybe somebody entered you as a prank?"

Ranma growled. "Roy and Eric, it's gotta be. I am so gonna pound on them… Well whatever, just tell the organizers that I didn't enter myself, I can't go or whatever."

"We can't! Not at this late a date, they'd have to reorganize everything, I already asked."

"Well I can't go, I'm scheduled ta patrol at the time of contest!"

Ranma showed Minmei the recon rotation schedule and after a moment Minmei said "But you're scheduled to start at ten, the contest starts at six. You'll be able to participate at least in part, that way you can be there, get knocked out of the contest early and get back to take your patrol, so everyone wins. Besides I'd like for you to be there and I'm sure Kasumi would like the support."

"Yeah, everyone wins but me." Ranma groused. He looked at her puppy dog expression and sighed. "Fine, I'll do it, but the moment the clock hits ten I'm out of there." Minmei nodded happily and went with him to grab a change of clothing and a bathing suit.

When they arrived at the outdoor amphitheater that was holding the event Ranma was surprised to see Lisa there as well as Kasumi. After a brief expatiation of why they were all there (Ranma had only heard about Kasumi participating, not Lisa or Motoko) they went in to change. Grabbing a black piece of cloth out of her bag, Ranma, who had changed back at his apartment, tied it around her head, covering her eyes.

"Ranma...why are you doing that?" Minmei asked, confused, though Lisa and Kasumi had simply smiled in appreciation.

"Keeps me from being pummeled" Ranma responded easily.

Kasumi moved to stand next to the redhead on one side and Lisa and Minmei took the other with Kim Young and Motoko joining them. Kasumi briefly whispered something in the redhead's ear causing her to gulp and blush heavily but otherwise they changed without incident. Kim and Lisa started up a conversation while Motoko took a long, long look around then resolutely kept her eyes down as she changed quickly.

At precisely six the announcer, a thin, rather effete man took the stage. "Alright ladies and gentlemen, let me welcome you to the Ms. Macross competition, I'm you're host for the evening Pouf, and I will be introducing and asking the contestants questions. To my right you'll see our panel of judges. Now without further ado, let's get this show started!" This proclamation was answered by a roar of approval from the crowd.

Motoko Aoyama was the second name to be called and she walked out wearing a normal bikini, red in color, to set off her rapidly disappearing tan. She got a round of applause, but no more and no less than the other competitors, who were all pretty. Lisa was then called at about the fifteenth, and she walked out to a round of applause. She had worn a severe one piece that set off her legs and accented without revealing her bust. It was simple but elegant. She took her place in line and waited through five more people before Minmei came out.

She had worn the two-piece bathing suit that Kasumi had bought as well as the sarong that Ranma gave her. From the roar of the crowd they certainly approved despite her more childish figure in comparison to some of the other contestants, though that might have as much to do with her being so well-liked as it did the swimsuit. One contestant in particular was put by the amount of praise this unknown girl was getting. Lois Kent was a famous actress back on earth and she had become more and more incensed by how little people were paying attention to her here in this stupid space city. She hoped to revamp her fame with this little contest.

Next of the five friends to come out was Ranma who had worn a simple blue one piece with the phrase 'untouchable' on the front and a picture of a fist below it. She got some applause anyway, because despite this her figure was one of the best out there, and a lot of the crowd figured she was just spunky. Next was Kasumi, wearing a gold colored one-piece with a conservative cut, but again she got applause because it did little to hide her figure. Kim Young came next to last, and wore the most daring swimsuit of the five, a bikini that barely covered anything along with another sarong. While the crowd seemed to like it the judges did not, they were looking for poise and personality, not simple sex appeal.

So unfortunately she was among the first to be cut from the completion, along with Lt Aoyama, who simply fell a little flat to the judges. The judges thought about cutting Ranma as well, but another woman got cut instead. The two girls retreated with the seven other women that had been cut, one ecstatic that this ordeal was over with, the other sad she hadn't lasted longer, but philosophical about it. After all, she didn't really want the prize, just a bit of face-time.

The next competition was for dresses and again contestants were called out by number of points earned so far, least to greatest. Of the four remaining friends Ranma was called first, and came out dressed in his uniform, as he/she didn't actually ever willingly wear dresses if she could help it. She walked out with his/her natural grace, stopped and stood there waiting for the others. This got a thunderous applause from the crowd, more than half of which was composed of military personnel.

"That's the redhead I was telling you about Ben, isn't she hot? I thought Lt. Aoyama was beautiful but wow! Pity I haven't been able to find her since then, I'm sure we could hit it off if I met her again." Max grinned, glasses gleaming behind his glasses as he watched the stage from where he and Ben stood at the outer edge of the auditorium. Being lowly ensigns, they hadn't had enough m-dollars to purchase seats.

Ben looked at his friend quizzically. "You do know that her name's Ranma right? I mean you have heard the rumors about him, and we know that ki stuff is real so…"

"Those rumors are just that, rumors. Ki is real obviously, it can even be scientifically proven according to this paper of Dr. Lang's I skimmed but magic? Changing from one form to another by getting splashed by water? No way can something like that exist. They must be siblings, they look alike anyway, and I've heard that Japanese families sometimes give twins the same name in spoken form, but the written forms will have different meanings. Ranma probably changes meaning like that, from wild stallion to wild… orchid, flower or something like that. Who cares about that right now, isn't she hot? God I have to meet her again."

Ben stared at his friend for a moment, then shook his head slowly and turned back to the stage in time to see Commander Hayes march out.

In a stark contrast to Ranma's flowing automatic grace Lisa took full advantage of her military upbringing and marched out as if she was on the parade ground, back straight, arms moving in synch with her steps with a control that would have made the most sadistic drill sergeant weep in joy. She stopped, turned sharply and saluted the crowd, earning another thunderous round of applause. The announcer shook his head, this was turning out to be a very odd talent/beauty contest, and he wasn't sure where it was going. The next few contestants were more normal though and he settled back into his routine.

Five contestants later Kasumi was next, having lost a few points for the conservative nature of her swimsuit. She came out dressed in the same dress she wore on dates with Ranma, a sleeveless blue dress with tight shoulders that hugged her hips before flaring out loosely around her legs. Again it accented her body without putting it on display, and while the response wasn't as enthusiastic from the crowd, she got points from the judges for style.

After two more contestants Minmei came out dressed in the china dress she used at the restaurant which got another round of applause from the crowd though lost her a few points for lack of imagination from the judges.

After this round, several more contestants were cut, and the actress was in the lead by a slight margin, with Kasumi the closest of the four to her. Ranma was still in the contest because she had received points for coming out in her uniform, as was Lisa, but both were near the bottom in terms of points. Well Lisa was near, Ranma was at the bottom.

"And next is the question and answer portion of our completion, where we get to know our contestants a little better before the singing completion. While contestants can earn points in this part of the completion with well thought out or imaginative answers to the questions, no one is going to be eliminated in this round. First up is contestant Sugita, I see you're wearing a uniform, what do you do in the military and what do you hope to accomplish in this contest? Please say your name before answering the first question."

"Ranma Sugita, I'm a lieutenant in the Valkyrie squads, I fly and kill aliens, and as to this contest, I didn't enter myself." Ranma said bluntly. "I was entered as a practical joke by some people who seem to think that just because they are my commanding officers I won't kick their asses for this little stunt!" She grabbed the mike and growled out "I know you two jokers are watching, I hope you get a good damn laugh from this, 'cause yer gonna get the beating of a life time when I catch up with ya!"

The majority of the audience laughed thinking this was a joke but two individuals in it stared at one another in horror. "He wouldn't really beat us up for this would he?" Asked Roy, "I mean it was just a joke and all, and he got us first."

"Yes but that was as payment for a bet" Eric muttered glumly. "And remember those rumors about his threatening the captain when he found out he was dating Nodoka. I'm afraid we're just going to have to take our lumps, I fear that if we try and run it'll only make the beatings worse." Roy groaned rueful agreement.

"Hahahaha, she's so full of spunk and fire. I really like that." Again Ben looked at Max oddly as he heard this then shook his head sadly.

Back on stage the announcer had vein going on his forehead but gamely pressed on. "Please refrain from cursing or threatening random people on stage. Let's move on, um, is there a special someone watching for you despite that?"

"Huh, um well yeah, I'm in a relationship if that's what yer asking." Ranma answered honestly.

"Oh?" The announcer found his footing again and pressed on with the rote response "Well would you like to share his name with us, maybe wish him well?"

Ranma raised an eyebrow. "When did I say it was a guy?"

The announcer backed off from that line of questioning as the crowd laughed, booed or cheered depending on their gender and/or moral values.

"See Max, ya better give up on her, she's already in a relationship." Ben said, hoping to steer his friend away from the cliff he saw looming in the future.

"Ah but she said it was with another woman my friend which opens up all kinds of possibilities." Ben had to nod in agreement with that, he was a guy after all. "And besides, a rose cannot truly bloom when paired with another rose. It just means she hasn't found the right man yet to show her true joy." Ben began to back away from his friend at that point. Maybe if he distanced himself none of the splatter would get on him when Ranma learned about that idea.

"Um, w'well then, let's just move on to the next question. What do you think of education today?"

"meh, I think it's important if ya know what ya want ta do with yer life, but how many kids go inta school knowin' that? And the way it's taught is too damn boring anyway. I mean, who cares about these authors and these so-called classics if yer not going inta writing or theatre, or geography if ya know ya ain't gonna be moving around much? We need ta start in high school of maybe even middle school and get kids to figure out what they want ta do and what they need ta start learning to do it. Otherwise ya get people like me who barely pass classes we don't care about and barely get the jobs we want because of the bad grades from classes that don't matter towards our jobs."

The audience laughed and cheered at Ranma's off the cuff answer while the announcer tried manfully to restrain his anger at how flippant this redhead was. "Um I think that's enough questions for now, let's move on to the next contestant. Contestant Monroe, what do you think is the greatest problem facing society as a whole…."

Ranma moved back to her spot in the line, grinning at Kasumi and Lisa as he did. She stood there in line looking at her watch occasionally. About fifteen minutes later, she moved back of the line and then off the stage, ignoring the odd looks she was getting.

The stage director tried to stop her from walking off whispering angrily "Where the hell do you think you're going the show isn't over! You can't just walk off!"

"For me the show is over dude. I got patrol in ten, if I leave now I can get there in time." Ranma answered flippantly. Ranma went back into the changing room, swiftly changing out of her full uniform to her flight suit.

The stage manager nearly followed her in, but was waiting for her as she left. "You can't just leave, you're in the finals, how will that look to everyone if you just leave?!"

"Not my problem. I ain't gonna shirk my duty for this dumbass contest that I didn't even enter willingly!"

"What seems to be the problem?" Mayor Luan, one of the judges had followed them having heard the shouting as Ranma walked off.

"I got patrol, I've been scheduled for days now, and ain't no one can cover for me 'cause most of 'em are out in that audience. I already okay'd the rest of my flight skiving off, I can't do the same."

"But the singing contest is the last one, surely you can"

"How about a compromise" Luan soothed "Ranma would you be adverse to bringing along a microphone and singing while out on patrol?" To his mind this would be a major PR coup, Ranma almost certainly wouldn't win, but he and Lisa would have done a spectacular job of putting a face, and very pretty faces at that, on the armed forces, a win-win for him and the ship in general.

Ranma looked at him askance. She had been planning to change back into a guy before heading out, but whatever. "Yeah okay if you've got one good to go right now."

Within five minutes she was on her way. Another five minutes of Ranma travel™ brought him to the nearest elevator to the hanger, and another ten brought him to his plane. He scrambled up it, not bothering to say hi to the few workmen on duty at the moment and into his cockpit. Once strapped in he began to maneuver around to the entrance. "This is blue five requesting clearance to take off for recon flight."

Claudia's voice answered him full of wry humor. "Roger blue five cleared to take off. I'm afraid you're going to be all alone out there, but it's not like that's a big deal at the moment. I'm all alone up here too. Captain Gloval let everyone off to watch the contest except the barrier crews." And they have a TV in their room so it doesn't matter. It had been a calculated risk on Gloval's part who felt the benefit to morale was worth the chance they would be attacked without sufficient defense. "Blue 12 just came in a few minutes ago, so you're timing despite the contest was pretty good. How'd you get them to let you go by the way?"

"I didn't" Ranma grimaced and related the deal Mayor Luan had forced on him.

Claudia shook her head. "Only you Ranma, oh well, it's not like anything should happen, the aliens already sent an attack our way already today."

"Hmm" Ranma taxied off the runway and out of the hanger and into space.

Back at the contest Minmei had just finished her song to resounding applause, even from most of her remaining competiion. Kasumi enfolded her into a hug and Lisa, who had already had her turn smiled at her encouragingly. "That was fantastic Minmei, where did you learn that song I've never heard it before?"

Minmei blushed ducking her head into the older girl's shoulder for a moment. "I wrote it myself." Needless to say with the amount of military people in the audience 'My boyfriend is a pilot' was a major hit.

"And our next contestant is Ranma Sugita. Unfortunately due to her military duties she was unable to finish the contest here, but we have arranged to have her singing pumped here straight from her Veritech cockpit. Ms. Sugita can you hear me?"

Out in space about a kilometer off the starboard bow of the space fortress hovered a Boquomouxy Quel-Quallie scout pod, which had for the past week been taking in, recording and sifting through every radio and video transmission coming out of the fortress. Unfortunately just because they had been taking in a lot of information didn't really imply they were any close to achieving their mission's goals. It would help if they had some reference point to start with, but other than a basic language translation program the spies were on their own. Well, saying they were spies was being a little generous. Okay, a lot generous. You could say they had been picked out of the small group of pilots who were rated on the scout pod randomly and you would be much closer to the truth.

Bron, a large almost overweight Zentraedi who was the leader of this team turned and looked at his fellow 'spies' Rico and Konda. "Well, do either of you have any idea what this is? I confess I still haven't been able to make heads or tails out of any of the data we've been getting. Even after a week of spying on them we're no closer to understanding these Micronians than we were before we started this mission. Lord Admiral Breetai will not be pleased."

"Ugh that is an understatement of a lifetime. These Micronians are so… chaotic, so strange and different, I'm beginning to understand why our ancestors forbid us from interacting with them." Rico, the smallest and least senior of them said. He had served on several scout missions against the Invid before, mostly because in the scout groups his short stature didn't matter as much to his fellows.

Konda shrugged. "I agree, yet at the same time there is something strangely interesting about them. These last few videos in particular. Whatever they are doing, some kind of morale boosting thing, does seem… compelling."

"I agree, though I fail to… wait, incoming patrol. Make certain our emissions are kept low and the optical screen is up, but ready our weapons just in case." Konda and Rico nodded and turned back to the controls.

Command I'm getting something on my radar here, don't know what it is, could be a sensor ghost or something. Moving to investigate."

"Roger Blue 5, stay frosty."

Ranma moved closer stretching out his ki enhanced radar slowly, being careful to not piggy back the system with his consciousness, just funneling a bit of his ki into it to power it. Even with that aid, the optical screen and was able to block his radar until he was right on top of the thing before he could do more than sense it.

The ship in front of him was larger than even Kyron's command pod, with green painting on most of it and large lasers at the front with even large thrusters at the back. An instant later most of it began to disappear from his screen again and he cursed, before blasting away with his lasers and rifle, remaining in jet mode for now as he tried to maneuver around the thing.

One of his shots apparently hit something vital as suddenly the cloaking device failed and before him the small spaceship appeared again, moving rapidly away from him. The thing immdiatley began to fire off missiles at him and back away.

Even as he began to wildly evade the missiles coming at him Ranma was almost fatally startled when his microphone form the contest began to speak. "Ms. Suigta can you hear me?"

"GAH, yes," he used his head lasers to kill a missile that had almost got him, using the resulting explosion to move back a little and began to fire at the enemy ship again. "What do ya want?"

"It's your turn Ms. Sugita, you can start singing now."

"Oh great now ya want me ta sing. I'm a little busy here damn it. Fuck missiles too?" Ranma swung his jet one way and the other dodging more and more missiles and shooting down any he could. "Alright I'll sing this kinda does seem ta scream musical accompaniment. Ya know the song 'unbreakable', play it."

Ranma transformed into his soldier mode and began to sing, moving through the massive missile swarm like a dancer, singing with all the emotion he could pour into it. "Where are the people that accused me? The ones who beat me down and used me, they hide just out of sight, can't face me in the light, they'll return but I'll be stronger!" Using his head lasers and rifle to take out the incoming missiles as his own missiles locked onto the enemy ship, exploding along its side, taking out a laser and one of its engines slowing it down. "God, I want to dream again, take me where I've never been, I want to go there, this time I'm not scared, now I am unbreakable, it's unmistakable, no one can touch me, nothing can stop me!"

The enemy ship skewed to bring it other cannon to bear, firing even more missiles in one huge swarm.

Inside the spy ship Konda was working the weapons systems while Bron tried to transfer as much of their data to a hard disk that he could, sending out a real-time recording to command at the same time, but he noticed Rico seemed frozen at his station. "Rico what the hell are you doing!"

Rico turned to the others, his gray face pale. "We're getting a transmission from the fighter attacking us, its… it's a female!"

Fear gripped all three for a second, and then they jumped into action, trying desperately to break off the engagement, flushing all their missiles at once. Unfortunately Ranma had gotten behind them before they could react, turning his back for the moment on the missile swarm still tracking him.

"Sometimes it's hard to just keep going but faith is moving without knowing. Can I trust what I can't see? To reach my destiny, I want to take control but I know better!" Again and again she strafed the enemy ship until its engines finally died, whereupon she turned and used her rifle and head lasers to deal with the remaining missiles. "God, I want to dream again, take me where I've never been I want to go there, this time I'm not scared. Now I am unbreakable, it's unmistakable, no one can touch me, nothing can stop me!"

As the last missile exploded Ranma closed in, losing her rifle in the process to the remaining laser emplacements but getting close enough to be under their range of fire. She began to use her Valkyrie's fists to start pummeling the side of the ship in. "Forget the fear it's just a crutch that tries to hold you back and turn your dreams to dust, all you need to do is just trust! God, I want to dream again, take me where I've never been, I want to go there, this time I'm not scared! Now I am unbreakable, it's unmistakable no one can touch me, nothing can stop me!"

After a few seconds the ship's armor gave way under his fists and he pulled the armor apart to get at the interior. "God, I want to dream again, take me where I've never been, I want to go there this time I'm not scared! Now I am unbreakable, it's unmistakable, no one can touch me, nothing can stop me!"

With the last chorus the interior was before her and she saw three aliens sitting in front of a ton of strange equipment. One of them turned to run to some kind of small area set apart at the back of the ship while the other two were scrambling for their weapons. Before either could raise them however, she opened up with her head lasers, stitching all three within seconds. That done she jetted out the entrance she just ripped in the side of the ship.

But before she could call it in and ask for someone to come and help her tow in her prize the ship exploded behind her sending her Valkyrie tumbling a little. "Well fuck, sore losers. Command this is Blue 5. Reporting destruction of some kind of spy ship, I tried ta take it intact but they must have had some kind of dead-man's switch on it."

'Roger that Blue 5, are you good to go?"

"Roger that command, continuing sweep."

Back at the contest the line had died leaving the judges and audience somewhere between awe and utter ravening terror at the emotion, the rage, the fierce joy and battle-lust in Ranma's voice as she fought and destroyed her enemies. Lisa, already having had her turn at singing (the most embarrassing thing she had ever done, the captain owed her big time for this) smiled grimly. Only Ranma could both fight a brand new enemy ship class and sing a song at the same time. Though it looks as if the judges and audience didn't like it so much…

Out in the audience Ben surreptitiously checked to make certain he hadn't pissed himself. The pure emotion and raw edged pleasure in the fight that Ranma had put into that song was beyond scary.

To his side however Max sighed. "I think I'm in love, she's utterly magnificent, like a modern day Amazon."

For some reason Ben knew that phrase would come back to haunt him…

The audience stayed restless and quiet through the next three performances, none of which came off as well as those singing them could have hoped, still in shock from the raw feelings Ranma's singing had shown. That ended as Kasumi took her turn. She stepped to the front of the stage and smiled demurely. "I will be singing 'Open your mind' by Yoko Ishida in the original Japanese. I apologize but it really doesn't scan well in English." With a deep breath she began "Fukai ao no sekai koete meguriau…"As she sung, the audience settled down swiftly. It was as if a calming balm had settled into all their minds soothing their worries away. When she finished the applause was thunderous from the audience and the judges both and the competition continued.

Ten minutes after the last singer performed the ballots were in. The announcer took the paper from the last judge in line and opened it. "Alright ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for. The winner of the Ms. Macross contest is…..!"

End chapter

This chapter was dedicated to weebee who wrote RDF Life, if you haven't read it it's pretty good.

In the original anime, the unification of Earth is really just glossed over. Real unification though, without borders and a fully integrated military, would be impossible to achieve in so short a time (the time from the crash landing of Zor's fortress and the launch of the SDF-1) if it ever really could be. Hence the reason I wanted to show that the SDF-1 was going to go to different countries to pick up its crew piece by piece to fly the flag and drive home the seriousness of pushing the UNSF. It also helps to explain why the civilian recruits are so important at all levels, though of course I've been concentrating on their contributions to the Veritech forces.

*Chapter 13*: Culure Clashes both Physical and Mental

I don't own Ranma or Macross, Minmei being a main character and her music an integral part of the humans victory should be enough to tell you that, as for Ranma, choosing Akane as the main Tendo girl over Kasumi, nuff said.

I posted some new blurbs for the before Macross section of the story in chapter one just look for the *

Chapter 12 Culture clashes both physical and mental

Breetai stared at the screen in front of him where the destruction of the only scout battleship that he had been able to acquire for this operation played out inexorably. Exedore stood beside him, looking up at him warily, afraid that this would cause Breetai anger to explode.

Instead of the explosion Exedore expected Breetai merely shook his head slowly, almost ponderously. "Very well Exedore" he said, "we have tried the subtle approach, now we will get our information another way."

Exedore nearly stammered as he asked "A-another way sire?"

"Yes. Get me in touch with our admirals all except for Kyron. You will communicate my orders to him."

Within an hour, every admiral had their orders and the fleet began to reconfigure. The beam heavy ships of the line folded to where they were behind and slightly above the space fortress, while two divisions of carrier ships took up position in front and on both sides of the route the space battleship was currently taking. It would take the ships a few days to get into position but once they were the new operation would go into effect.

Not three days after the contest Roy was now getting really spooked. Every time he was off duty he felt someone was watching him, and he sometimes spotted a red or black pigtail around a corner or in a crowd, as if Ranma was stalking him, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Eric hadn't had to wait for his punishment, Ranma had found him leaving the city and knocked him out, then hung him by his underwear from his Valkyrie's vertical stabilizers like a hammock then took pictures and spread them to all the other squadron commanders. When he saw that, Roy briefly thought about bringing up the kid on charges, but didn't really think about that hard. After all he and Eric had really started this with agreeing to the bet and then trying to get him back for putting them through their punishment for losing said bet.

Roy however was getting very tired about constantly looking over his shoulder waiting for the shoe to drop. He had just left Claudia's place after spending a few blissful hours with her, and within ten minutes of walking the feeling was back. This was the final straw and he stopped in the hallway looking around and shouting "Alright kid, enough's enough, whatever you're going to do get it over with!"

Despite the feeling of being followed he later couldn't explain why he was still surprised when a voice from behind him said "Okay" and then there was darkness. Roy later woke up tied to the chair in his office, which was itself bolted to the deck, with the intercom gone, a mountain of paperwork in front of him and no way to call for help. Oh, and his head had been shaved, his hair placed in a neat and rather large baggy on top of the paperwork. The other commanders heard his scream of anguish and wondered among themselves whether it was caused by the loss of his hair, which he had always cared for, or the knowledge that he had to do all the paperwork by himself.

About a week after the Macross contest (which Kasumi had won, splitting the prizes among herself, Minmei and Lisa), Ranma walked into one of the exercise rooms reserved for officers and was surprised to see Lisa there. Taking in her regulation issue exercise shorts and sport shirt he grinned sardonically "so what are the rules of greeting a superior officer when they're only technically in uniform?"

Lisa finished the rep on the upper body exercise machine that she had been using and smiled at him, "that would depend on the officer Lt. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing okay." He answered going over to the pads and beginning a few warm-up exercises. "These attacks the last few days haven't been that bad, but they haven't exactly been good either." They had on the other hand allowed him to get a good feel for his two new flight mates, and up their training appropriately. Rick had of course done well in most aspects of his training because of his ongoing training with Ranma, only really lacking a martial artist's instincts to improvise in close combat and still showing a marked preference for the jet mode. Ben had proven to have pretty decent endurance but had little coordination, but he did have a marksman's eye, and was proving to be a damn good backup now that his situational awareness was at the survivable level. He was getting frustrated due to his lack of skill in comparison to the others, but he was still a decent pilot. Max had responded well to nearly every aspect of the training, only really lacking in anything important to his piloting ability in comparison to Ranma himself.

Lisa nodded thoughtfully as she continued her own exercises. Ever since Ranma had destroyed the scout ship that was spying on them, the Zentraedi had continued attacking them relentlessly, two or three times a day in small hundred pod waves. While no real threat to the battleship, these attacks had worn down and caused casualties among the Valkyrie and Defender forces. The problem was that every attack now had anti-radar help to get in close, making scouting around the battleship hazardous. The anti-radar equipment also greatly decreased the accuracy of Defender fire. The losses were slowly mounting but thankfully the next class of academy graduates would be graduating within a month and a half. Also, repairs to many of the tertiary anti-air weapons of the space fortress were close to being completed. With their help such attacks would no longer be any threat, and the fighter screen could be pulled back under their guns.

Lisa walked over to a leg exercise machine and began to pump her thighs together rhythmically counting under her breath.

Ranma made the mistake of looking up from his own exercises and was nearly stunned by how good Lisa looked. Her short tank top barely covered her D-size breasts and showed off a washboard stomach. Her very short spandex pants emphasized her magnificent legs, the overall ensemble making it very clear that she was in excellent shape and had a body to kill for.

He gulped looking away blushing and Lisa, who had made no sign that she had noticed his gaze, tried to hold back her giggles. It felt good to know that she could affect a man like that when she wanted to, especially one like Ranma. However, this only highlighted a problem she had been having.

Her friendship with Kasumi and Ranma had become one of the staples in her life in the past few months. More it was Ranma's face, both his male and female faces (which had come as one hell of a shock to Lisa when she realized it) that she saw when she looked into her heart. His face was still small, but there should have only been the memory of Karl there, and that was no longer the case. The problem was she didn't want it!

She didn't want to fall in love with a man who had so many social issues, who was so crude and so wild! She especially didn't want to fall in love with him since he was dating one of her best friends! Ranma was not her type, he was immature in many ways, not very worldly despite having traveled so much when he was younger, way too focused on fighting and the martial arts and, and…. He just wasn't like Karl at all!

She shook her head, trying to refocus on her memories of Karl again, but it was getting harder every day now. The feelings were still there, but they were old, distant with memory and the sadness they evoked was being burned from her mind by the newer memories of her fun with Ranma.

Lisa's musings were interrupted as the door opened and Rick walked in. He looked angry and irritable and for a moment, Lisa wondered if she should just leave to avoid a confrontation at all, but decided against it. It would look far too much like she was running away and that would never do.

Rick strode up to Ranma exclaiming angrily "have you seen this!" He held out the new flight schedule "we're back to eight hours on four hours off! What the hell is the captain thinking?!"

Ranma took the piece of paper from and looked it over. "I don't see anything here that's worth yelling about Rick," he said. "After all, we've been taking losses lately, and this just puts the maximum amount of scouts out there at any one time. Just 'cause it takes away from yer free time ain't a reason to blow up."

"It's not that" the other boy answered in a rather unconvincing manner. While he and Minmei still weren't in a relationship they were certainly heading towards that direction. The only problem was that since the contest Minmei had been incredibly busy. She had practically quit her job at the White Dragon to concentrate full-time on her new singing career.

When Kasumi had won the contest she had immediately handed over the singing contract to MinMei in front of the entire audience and accepted in turn the flight plane that was the runner-up prize. She also split the money she earned between herself and Lisa as well. That way all three were paid for their time.

"How the hell are we supposed to do our job if we're too tired to concentrate out there? It's the exact same kind of pattern that led to our being too damn tired to fight effectively in the asteroid belt!"

Lisa finished her rep and decided to cut in. "Capt. Gloval, Cmdr. Fokker and I all agreed that this was the best plan to optimize our force output Ensign. Several of the flights have just been ground down too badly to be effective without backup, and that means doubling the number of squadrons out there at any one time. Hopefully, this problem will be solved when the Academy graduates again, I understand they're going to graduate over 500 trainees this time. That'll give us a surplus of pilots for the first time."

For some reason this analytical response angered Rick further. "Surplus!" he exclaimed "surplus, is that what we are to you! Just parts that you can plug in and throw out there! Maybe if you were out there yourself 'Commander,'" he snorted derisively, "rather than safe inside the space fortress you'd see things a little differently!"

He stomped off, leaving Lisa almost rigid with shock and guilt. She sat there like that for a minute before Ranma worked up a bit of courage and walked over to her placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Hey," he said softly. "Don't listen to Rick okay? It's been your plans and your brain most of the time that've seen us through our battles so far. Rick may not see it but the rest of us do."

Lisa looked up for at him gratefully through watery eyes. "Thank you Lt. but I don't think I'm in the mood to exercise anymore. I'll see you around all right?" She patted his arm gently then walked over, grabbed her towel and duffel bag and quickly left the exercise room.

Ranma put his hand on his forehead irritably "God damn it Rick why can't you just keep your fucking mouth shut?" After a few minutes he shrugged and moved back over to where he had been exercising.

Breetai smiled, it had taken three days but at last the fleets had reconfigured to his specifications. "Are you ready to transmit the message Exedore?"

"Yes my lord, but are you certain that you don't want to retransmit the orders to Kyron yourself? He respects you whereas…" he trailed off. Exedore had been permanently crippled in a training accident right out of the crèche and had never recovered. Many Zentradei looked down on him for his disability and Kyron was one of them.

"Yes I'm certain Exedore. Kyron believes he is unpredictable, but that capricious nature makes him in fact rather easy to predict." Exedore looked at him quizzically but Breetai merely smiled.

Kyron scowled as he remembered his orders, relayed to him by that crippled defect rather than given to him directly by Breetai, a studied insult he was sure. "So the orders to the fleet are to simply fire warning shots all around the space fortress, make it clear that we have been toying with them up to now. Well we can do better than that."

Grell looked at him worriedly. "But my lord the orders are absolute. This plan comes from Breetai but the order not to damage the space fortress comes from Dolza!"

Kyron instinctively thrust down the terror the name Dolza created in all Zentraedi and even Meltraedi, the useless females, before answering. "I know that Grell but they can hardly blame us if one or our ship's has a malfunction in their targeting parameters." He grinned slyly, "Say the kind that makes it unable to aim properly. So instead of missing the space fortress by a few inches, it hits here" he pointed on a spot on the schematic of Zor's battleship "where our data says the sensor room should be. That way we would in fact be helping Breetai's plans, as they would no longer be able to see our ships at all. That would make us even more terrifying than our firepower would by itself."

Grell looked at the screen then nodded agreement; after all it was much safer for him personally that way.

Later that day Lisa was on duty with Claudia and the rest of the main bridge crew, all of whom could tell there was something really bothering her. Claudia tried to bring it up a few times but Lisa brushed her off. The hours went by slowly as nothing happened then suddenly Vanessa at her place in front of the sensor board screamed "Incoming fire from forward, above and both sides aft starboard and port! A lot of it!"

Kim swiftly radioed the barrier control room to bring up the barriers but it was too late. Literally thousands of huge beams of fire shot over, under and around the fortress completely caging it in their fire. A moment later a single shot slammed into the control spire about halfway down its length.

Vanessa cried out again this time in anguish. "That shot took out the entire radar section! We're blind!" She nearly broke down for a moment and the others couldn't blame her. That was her section and those had been her people that had just lost an entire crew, wiped out in an instant.

The attack ended as abruptly as it began, then it was Claudia's turn to scream. She yanked the headset off her head, falling to her knees and grabbing her ears, whimpering in pain. Lisa rushed to help her friend while a metallic, obviously computer generated voice, boomed out from Claudia's headset, intoning "We are the Zentraedi. Surrender the space fortress to us or die. You have five standard hours to comply." And then it repeated.

Lisa's blood ran cold at the implications that all those misses had been intentional but she kept control. Even as she helped Claudia to her feet her hand flashed to the intercom button. "Captain to the bridge!"

Within minutes Gloval had arrived and assessed the situation. "Alright obviously we can't give in to their demands, even if we wanted to it would take days, more probably weeks to evacuate the ship even if we were on Earth, out here in space it is simply impossible. So what we need to do is find a way to strike back. For that we need to get a spy plane out in front of us to figure out where the fire is coming from and then target it with our main cannon. I think with the barriers online we would stand a better than average chance at winning a beam engagement at range."

Lisa realized she could use this as a chance to prove Rick and her own doubts wrong and raised her hand slightly. "Sir I volunteer to command the spy plane."

Gloval looked at her. While the position did call for a command presence Lisa would not have been his first choice given how important she was to planning the defense of the ship. He was a battleship captain, not a carrier captain and had no real understanding of the tactics involved. Still it was obvious once more there was more going on here than he knew, and if whatever it was going to keep her from operating as her normal efficient self, then he had no choice. "Very well commander, you will take command of this mission."

Ranma and his flight had been going over their fighters with the maintenance team when the beam attack hit. The Valkyrie was a maintenance and upkeep intensive machine. On a normal carrier each Valkyrie would have a dedicated team of five maintenance personnel. The upshot in response time and clean transformations was well worth it. Unfortunately this was not a normal situation by any means and the entire squadron shared a single overworked maintenance team full time, with other teams called in to help deal with battle damage.

Each pilot was discussing a single problem with one member of that team. Ranma was trying to figure out the proper way to mount a second rifle in his jet mode, the gun in question being the one he had claimed as a prize during his second fight with Kyron. He was also asking the crew to look into any way to up the response time further, something that on his machine had already been taken to the max.

Rick was playing with his weapon settings, deciding whether to go with more missiles or bigger ones. Dr Lang had devised a new type of missile called the swarm missile with a much faster and better lock time but they were smaller and it was estimated it would take 3 hits to destroy a battlepod. Max was debating adding a color scheme like Rick and Ranma had, while Ben was adding a sniper scope to his rifle and figuring out how to carry more rounds for it without sacrificing any of the speed that was any pilot's best defense.

As the ship rocked under the one beam that hit Ranma dropped everything as he raced over to an intercom. Within ten minutes of Gloval arriving on the bridge he had their orders. "Alright flight, we're on the clock. Let's get suited up and out there in five."

Ranma and the others were out of the ship and waiting for the spy eye and immediately fell in on all sides as soon as it appeared. Behind them the barrier systems all around the ship activated in preparation for the battle to come. "Alright Blue flight 2 let's get the lead out. Ben up top and to the rear, let's see if yer sniper modification works huh? Max to the portside, Rick starboard and me in the front."

Ranma received three affirmatives and pulled ahead of the ship. As he did though his ki sense, revved to the max though not connected to his Veritech's sensors, picked up Lisa's aura in the ship. He paused for a moment then hit the radio. "Commander Hayes, what are you doing this time?"

Lisa looked and saw Ranma had called her over a private channel, not broadcasting to the other Veritechs. "We had to send someone of officer rank along Lt. Sugita, I was the natural choice for the job."

Ranma's lips twitched at the blatant prevarication (though he wouldn't know what the word meant). "Are ya sure there ain't more to it?"

Hearing the honest concern in Ranma's voice, Lisa paused before replying. "I-yes there is more to it. But I'm doing it to prove something to myself, not to anyone else."

Ranma thought for a minute then shrugged. "Alright Lisa, whatever yer reasons yer here now so I guess we just gotta do the job."

"Roger that."

The flight out from the fortress continued, with Lisa checking in every ten minutes with telemetry readings. So far there had been no sign of the ships that had fired on the battleship, and that worried Lisa. It showed that the aliens had been deliberately avoiding attacking the ship directly at long range with their own capital beam weapons and that meant that the ship was valuable to them, not that they were worried about its fire power. That was… disturbing.

It was about to get even more disturbing. One of the radar techs, one of only twelve that had not been on duty in the radar room when it was destroyed, looked over at her worriedly. "Commander, there seems to be some kind of interference right in front of us. It's like the kind we've been seeing lately with the battlepod assaults."

Lisa turned to her radio. "Ranma, there may be something up ahead, possibly a trap, almost certainly battlepods. I want your flight to head forward and see what's there, we'll hold position here."

Ranma thought for a minute then nodded decisively. All his instincts were telling him that it was a bad idea for the flight to leave the spy plane, but Lisa was right too, they couldn't keep going and whatever else you could say about the spy plane, it moved like a pig and was an easy target for practically anything else. Pity it ain't as armed as the alien one I destroyed during that damn competition. "Blue 6, take 7 and 8 and head forward. There might be a group of battlepods hiding under one of those anti-radar battlepods they got."

Rick, who had been about to object to the order of leaving the spy plane, stopped. Ranma was more than capable of protecting it long enough for them to get back to help. "Roger Blue 5, be back in a bit."

Rick, Max and Ben poured fire to their engine and shot ahead. Lisa frowned. "You should have gone with them Lt. We'll be just fine right here."

"No offense Commander, but my instincts are saying otherwise."

"Is the fold space engine ready?"

"Yes my lord."

"Excellent. Fold us in, we have some Micronians to capture."

Within the spy eye they had been able to localize a few gravitonic signatures that could be alien ships far ahead of them, but so far that was it, until the three Veritech's from blue flight reached the nearby radar anomaly. Rick and Max were the first to come close enough to get a visual and almost immediately they wished they hadn't. "Battlepods incoming, 60 plus!" Rick yelled into his com, then began to fire off his missiles wildly, trying to break up their attack. Max followed suit as Ben transformed into soldier mode and began to line up shots with his rifle.

The three of them slowly fell back, keeping the range open for now and dodging incoming fire. Rick was grateful that the enemy didn't include any of the artillery units or that new command pod that Ranma had tangled with, otherwise this would be a lot harder, but at range the Valkyries had a slight advantage over the enemy battlepods. Rick had seen enough of that guy to know he wanted no part of him.

Back at the spy plane Lisa ordered Ranma to join the fight. Ranma thought about it and just as he was about to reply when one of the sensor techs shouted. "Incoming fold space signature, practically right on top of us, Christ it's huge!"

Lisa looked out the viewport and gasped as a huge mountain of green metal suddenly appeared and blotted out the stars. Mother of god that ship must be at least twice as large as the Macross!

Almost as soon as the ship appeared it disgorged dozens of battlepods, all of them immediately firing at Ranma, who ducked dived and returned fire. As he did a huge doorway appeared in the side of the green battleship, and two beams of light leapt out, grabbing the forward part of the spy plane. The pilot groaned. 'Whatever the hell that beam is, it's pulling us in! We don 't have enough reverse thrust to stop it!"

Lisa's mind worked like quicksilver, what was important was the mission and the data on the fleets that had fired at theMacross from long range. The gravitonic signatures would tell them that, but they had to get that data back, which meant breaking the beam somehow. "Yes we do. Take the readings we've got and get back into the escape pod, it should have enough legs to get you within hailing distance of the fortress. I'll stay and jettison you. Lt. Sugita your job is to escort the survival pod out of range."

Ranma's response came back quickly as he dodged several shots from one battlepod, allowing them to hit another behind him. "Negative, eject the pod it'll clear the dogfight but not the big guns on this thing, I need ta stay and keep the ship's attention on me." He switched channels, contacting the rest of his flight. "Blue flight 2 get back here as quick as ya can, the bastards have brought a fucking mountain to the party!"

"You don't have a chance against a ship that big! Get out of here, save yourself!" Lisa began while around her the three techs and the pilot gathered the data disks and ran toward the back of the ship. The last one hit a button on the side of the cockpit and a concealed door closed with a clang. Lisa waited thirty seconds for them to strap themselves in and then hit a large red button on her console. With a jolt the entire back portion of the ship separated, shooting out back the way they had come.

"Not happening!" Ranma killed another battlepod, then another as they tried to turn to follow the escaped pod. At that point the others forgot about going after the retreating pod and turned their attention to him. Outnumbered as he was even Ranma couldn't evade forever and his Valkyrie began to take shots, though due to his using the Iron Body technique on it he hadn't taken much damage just yet. Damnit I'm still not as good at dodging in a Veritech as I am in real life. Fuck!

He glanced to the side to see the front of the spy plane being dragged into the maw of the giant alien ship, but with as badly as he was being pressed he couldn't do anything about it. At that point however the rest of his flight came from underneath the enemy ship, having taken the path of least resistance and simply boosting away form their own attackers. Luckily this ship seemed to be primarily designed as a ship to ship combatant, and the anti-air fire was lower than its size suggested.

Rick and Ben still got clipped by some kind of rail gun, but that was all, and once they were underneath the ship the fire was almost nonexistent. They came up underneath the dogfight around Ranma firing as they came.

Ranma grinned, taking advantage of the distraction to change into his jet mode and zooming after the caught spy plane. "One of you break off and protect the escape pod, the other two give me covering fire I'm getting the commander out of there!" He entered the hanger bay just as the door was about to close and changed back into soldier mode, opening fire with all his weapons in every direction he could. Even without the added power of his souvenir from Kyron he still had five guns and two missiles remaining, which allowed him to make one hell of a mess really quickly. Enemy battlepods and foot soldiers opened fire on him almost as fast as he did them, but he jumped around ducking and weaving and firing back as he could.

Watching this on an interior video link on the bridge of his flagship Breetai snarled. "No! Not again, I will not fail again!" He ran off the bridge, his long legs carrying him quickly to the elevator which would take him down to the hanger bay.

Ranma was cleaning up his enemy's pretty easily, the foot soldiers didn't have the armor to survive his assault and the few battlepods in the area couldn't maneuver as well as he could. He was about to reach down and pick up the spy plane when he was surprised by a giant of an alien barreling into the room and throwing itself at him. Ranma automatically grabbed him and used a judo throw, but the alien came back in quickly with a leg sweep nearly putting Ranma on his back. A haymaker connected to the side of his Valkyrie's head and another crashed in on the center of the soldier form right on his canopy, cracking it.

Ranma engaged his thrusters, moving away from the alien but it kept coming, and he was also forced to dodge incoming fire as more enemy infantry boiled into the hanger. Damn I'm just not maneuverable enough in this form, and he's stronger than my Valkyrie too! And now these other bastards, I need to get some space to maneuver but how?

Lisa's voice over the radio however gave him a plan of action. "Ranma, shoot the hanger doors! That'll depressurize the bay and suck him and all the other infantrymen into space!"

Ranma grinned and dropped his rifle, the act startling the alien in front of him for a moment. He swiftly brought his Valkyrie's hands together and gathered as much power as he could handle in them before shouting. "Moko ha Reiku!" A huge beam of gold light, three times as large as the beam he had produced in his fight with Kyron on Mars, erupted from his robot's hands and slammed into the hanger bay doors blowing them off their hinges. Immediately the atmosphere of the hanger bay became a tornado, pulling and sucking every alien warrior there out into space.

As Ranma and Breetai clashed inside the hanger, Max had fallen back with the escape pod, protecting it from five battlepods that had tried to close with it, blowing them apart in an angry fusillade. Behind him Rick and Ben were fully engaged in the battle keeping the other enemy mechs from following their friend even as they worried about Ranma. That worry however ended abruptly as a large beam of golden light pierced the side of the ship. "Well at least we know he's still alive!" Rick laughed. "Let's get in there after him!"

Ben agreed and the two ducked and weaved through the still firing battlepods to get into the battleships now open side. Almost immediately as they did though emergency doors clanged shut behind them, trapping them inside.

Breetai cursed as he was flung into space but retained enough presence of mind to grab a passing weapon's spine. He grabbed it, and began to make his way slowly to a nearby hatch. Oh no Micronian, we're not done, not by a long shot!

Rick and Ben landed in guardian mode and joined Ranma in routing the battlepods remaining in the hanger bay before transforming into soldier mode. "Well what now fearless leader?" Ranma asked Lisa with a grin in his voice. "Nice job with the 'blow a hole in the hanger' plan by the way. You wanna get out of there now I think we should be going."

Lisa surprised herself by laughing aloud, and if there was an edge of fear driven hysteria none of the others could tell. "We do need to get out of here. Can you blow another hole in the wall for us?"

Ranma closed his eyes, gauging his ki reserve, and then the battery of his Valkyrie. "No, I'm running nearly on empty right now. I don't think I've got enough energy to even get back to the ship. I had to armor myself outside to survive the fight before Rick and the others showed up and that takes a lot of the energy from the battery, and the size of the ki attack I just used took nearly everything else. What about you two, any missiles left?"

Rick shook his head for a moment before remembering that Ranma couldn't see him. "No boss we both used them in the initial battle, we're also almost out of ammo for our rifles, that'll leave us with only our head lasers."

Ben shrugged. "Let's just explore for a bit, they need to have hatches or portholes we can open or blast through."

Lisa exited the spy plane and Ben who was the closest picked her up gently. He didn't however open his cockpit and let her in, not wanting to be distracted if they ran into trouble. This of course was much like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Ranma lead the way deeper into the ship. Thankfully it seemed as if the security in this part of the ship had already been dealt with as they didn't meet any resistance just yet. Lisa looked around interestedly, taking in everything she saw as they entered a huge cavernous area that resembled the pictures of the interior of the space fortress she had seen before humanity had begun to use it. On one side she saw what looked like a collier, but instead of holding missiles it held battlepods, and on the other side there was a long gantry. The rather scary thing was that the room and the collier seemed to go on for as far as she could see, if it extended the entire length of the ship... She mentally calculated how many pods this ship alone could carry and blanched. She paled further when she calculated how little of the total space of the battleship this room made up, even if it did go from one end to the other.

As they were pushing forward more battlepods moved out of the rack in front of them opening fire as soon as they cleared their retaining claws, forcing the three Veritechs to duck into what little cover there was. Rick and Ranma took cover near the walls of the bay and Ben fell back, ripping a nearby pod's leg off and using it as cover.

Ranma was about to order Ben to cover him so he could close when he saw a large shadow on the gantry behind Rick. "Ben watch out!"

Rick tried to turn but the giant alien that Ranma had tangled with earlier jumped down from the gantry slamming a pipe down on top of the Valkyrie's head hard enough to crush it. He then picked up Ben's Veritech and threw it hard enough to crack the canopy against the interior wall.

Ranma snarled and turned to charge but had to contend with the fire from the enemy mechs. Rick was stuck there too and they exchanged fire, killing two of the three pods before the alien behind them could close.

He went after Rick first crashing into his side and slamming him against the hatch behind him, ironically the same that Breetai had used to get back inside before planning his ambush. The arms of Rick's Valkyrie flailed as it impacted against the hatch and accidentally hit the button that opened it. Breetai grinned at this lucky break and kicked Rick out into space.

Lisa, who had been held by Ben, shook her head dazedly from being tossed around only to scream as she was sucked toward the open hatch.

Ranma gunned down the last battlepod with his head lasers and charged. Reaching out with one hand he grabbed her before she could be sucked away, holding her in a gentle hand even as he pushed his Valkyrie to its feet and charged Breetai, who closed the hatch and turned to him. Ranma swiftly put Lisa down and rammed his thrusters' hard heading head first towards Breetai, but that used the last of his Veritech's battery. Ranma immediately began to use his own waning ki to power it but the momentary hesitation this changeover caused was enough for Breetai to grab his outstretched hand and fling him across the room.

The alien reached down and picked up Lisa before she could get away, shaking her hard enough she fainted.

Ranma gritted his teeth and poured more power into his Veritech even as he felt his ki drop below what he could sustain. His Veritech's arm stretched out reaching for the enemy, but Ranma's body couldn't sustain it. "Damn it!" he cursed as he lost his connection with his Valkyrie.

Breetai slammed his fist into the enemy mech, knocking it do the ground with a clang. When it didn't respond he reached down and gripped the cockpit, shattering the glass and reaching inside. The Micronian inside tried to fight him but Breetai simply grabbed the mech with both hands and slammed the mech down again. The Micronian jumped out but before he could do anything Breetai swiftly kicked him down the hallway. After all one or two prisoners will be enough.

He followed up however to make certain the Micronian that had given him so much trouble was dead, and was surprised to find that he was still alive, unconscious from the impact against the wall which had been strong enough to actually make a dent there, but alive. He shook his head at the strange resiliency of this particular Micronian before reaching down and gathering him up.

He moved back where he had left the other, picked that one up and then moved to the first enemy mech he had destroyed. He picked out the pilot of that mech none too gently and then made his way over to the nearest intercom. "Bridge this is Breetai, prepare rooms for three Micronian prisoners, route me there when done. Go to fold as soon as the engines charge, destination, the great mothership."

Outside Rick ensconced his Veritech in a handy indention, grabbing two strange spines imbedded in the ship's hull as the ship began to move. Suddenly it went into fold space; Rick recognized the effect from when he had attempted to get Minmei home back on Earth and he groaned. There's nothing I can do now. Might as well power down, conserve my energy. Rick did just that then closed his eyes and settled down to wait until they re-entered normal space.

Given his constitution it would come as no surprise to anyone that Ranma woke up first. He looked around and saw Ben curled up in a corner and Lisa next to where Ranma lay. Ranma sighed as he felt his ki coming back slowly, but judging from how much had already returned he had probably been asleep for about half a day. He noticed absentmindedly that Lisa was shivering where she lay still comatose and he reached over and pulled her closer to him. She stopped shivering and he looked around at their surroundings. They seemed to be in an unused utility room of some kind with hastily made bars on the doorway small enough to keep them in.

Frowning he closed his eyes reaching out with his ki sense to get a feel of the area. Two guards down the corridor, not a lot of life energy in these guys, almost missed them. Weird. Nothing else in the area but this feeling… it's almost like that fold thingy that enemy ship did to appear right over us back during my first flight. But that'd mean… shit! We're stuck here. Even if I could break us out I couldn't get us back home!

He kept his eyes closed and fell into a meditation, realizing there was nothing he could do right now but build up his ki for later use. After a moment he nearly came out of it as Lisa snuggled into his side, smiling and mumbling something about being comfy.

Lisa woke up about seven hours later. She yawned shaking her head dazedly, and then realized she was snuggling into someone. She looked up with dawning horror that quickly turned into a blush as she saw it was Ranma. Seeing he was in some kind of meditation she slowly stood up, taking in their surroundings. She walked around for a bit in their obviously makeshift cage then checked on ensign Dixon, who seemed to have a broken arm and what looked like a nasty bruise on his skull. She set about doing some rudimentary first aid, marveling that the aliens hadn't bothered to search them or else they would have found the emergency kit that was part of every SDF spacesuit. That done she went to look out the bars at their surroundings, trying to figure out a way out for the three of them.

"So you're awake huh," she turned to see Ranma out of his trance, deep blue eyes staring at her. "You ain't gonna do the whole 'oh it's my fault we're in this mess!' guilt trip or the even worse 'it's your fault we're in trouble Ranma!' thing are ya, I've had both done ta me way too often ta want ta hear them again."

Lisa chuckled darkly. "No, I'm not going to do either of those, though the first is closer to how I feel. After all if you hadn't disobeyed my orders to save me, again I might add, you and ensign Dixon wouldn't be here."

Ranma grunted. "Yeah well I wouldn't have thought of sending back the data and using the escape pod, or that trick with blowing open the hanger deck. That big ass alien, the one with the metal plate on his face had me dead to rights."

'Still, my desire to come on this trip hasn't exactly helped." She paused. "Ranma" she asked hesitantly "Can I ask you a question?"

Ranma stood up moving to lean against the wall next to her. "This ain't gonna be one of those trap questions right, like 'why do you think of me as a friend', or the classic 'does this uniform make me look fat' right?" he asked, trying to lighten the mood.

Lisa laughed a little but shook her head. "No, I never ask questions like that last one you mentioned. And as for the first" her smile warmed noticeably and she said gently "just like you said about yourself back on Mars, I have far too few friends to play those kinds of games. No, what I wanted to ask you was why do you respect me professionally so much? Most of the academy graduates think more like Rick does than you, that Roy should be the one calling the shots for the Veritech fighters."

Ranma chuckled. "Then they're idiots. I started ta respect ya when, well you know how I've talked about my dream ta go into space right?" She nodded. "Well part of what I did to prepare for that was looking at the jobs, numbers, statistics and stuff about the SDF, something I've been doing for years. Like I said when we first met I knew ya were in charge of the entire rescue operation after the fold disaster, and that was damned impressive. I mean regular SDF forces have one or two accidents per every shift of vacuum operation time. During that whole six days, days which you, were the one in charge and I know ya never left the bridge, had zero. In a hell of a lot harder conditions and dealing with rescuin' civilians and army personnel who had no zero-g trainin' you had zero accidents. That's just damn impressive. And how many have you had since then with you in charge? Four; less accidents in a hell of a lot longer time than the rest of the SDF put together."

She blushed as he poked her gently in the stomach. "And as fer wantin' Roy ta plan out the battles accordin' ta him that ain't what a CAG does, he's there to lead from the front, not plan out the whole battle, and he sure wouldn't be good at it if it was his job. He barely plans our flight schedule and don't get me started on how he does the paperwork." He grinned and then tried to talk in Roy's voice failing miserably. "'It's called delegation people, everyone has to do a little then we'll all get done everything that much sooner.'"

Lisa laughed but sobered quickly. "Thank you for that Lt. But it doesn't really help matters right now. We need to figure out some way to escape."

"And how ta get back ta the ship. I think we've been in fold space since I came to, about six or seven hours before you did, and I think I was out for at least half a day."

Lisa paled. "Did you say we've been in fold the entire time you've been awake?" Ranma nodded looking at her with his head cocked n one side. "Our fold from Earth out to Pluto only took fifteen minutes! We could be well outside our solar system by now!"

Ranma gulped as the enormity of the problem they faced hit him. "Well, fuck."

Ben woke up six hours later to find himself in a lot of pain and Ranma and Lisa laughing about something by the door. "And then Kuno starts spouting bad poetry while his sister's alligator is trying ta eat him and here I am fighting Kodachi, the takeout girl, and Akane all at once while balancing on the bleeding alligator's head! And all the time that dickhead keeps yellling about how he'll save his fair maidens and win us both back from the 'vile sorcerer Saotome'!"

Lisa laughed, holding a hand up to her mouth, emerald eyes flashing with humor and Ben decided he'd been ignored enough. He let out a loud groan, instantly attracting both of the other's attention. Ranma hurried over with Lisa not a step behind him. "You okay man, sorry, we got some pain killers ya can take but no water. They didn't search us but the emergency kit don't have any water in it."

Ben groaned again, motioning them to give him the painkillers and he gulped down three of them quickly. As he recovered the other two filled him in on the situation. When they finished he groaned again this time in irritation. "Y-you mean we're stuck here?"

"Yeah pretty much, until we figure out how ta get back ta the solar system anyway. Maybe stow away on board a ship headin' that way?" Ranma said shrugging his shoulders.

"You're forgetting our need to get out of here first Lt." Lisa said dryly formal once more now that the two weren't alone any longer.

"Heh, that ain't a problem I can get us out of here easy." At Lisa's skeptical look he shrugged. "Ya ain't seen even half of my moves in person Commander, though if ya watched the battle on earth I used a lot of them then."

Lisa's skepticism dimmed slightly as she tried to remember all she had seen Ranma do in that fight. "So we could get out of here, and possibly even hide, but getting back is the problem." Ranma nodded and Ben looked at the two as if he was wondering if they were both sane.

"So what are we going to do for now?"

Ranma shrugged. "We could play cards if ya got 'em otherwise sleep or trade stories."

Ben smiled weakly, "Or gossip. Is it true you turn into a girl, and is that the girl who was in the Ms. Macrosscontest under the name Ranma Sugita?"

"Yeah that's me. Ya'd probably have seen me change by now if the water magnet portion of the curse didn't seem ta have gone away since we left Earth."

Oh." Ben thought for a minute then asked "so since you change do you uh…"

"No," Ranma said very firmly. "I don't like guys, no my mind doesn't change at all, and no I will not show you my boobies." He turned to Lisa with an exasperated expression. "Can you believe people have actually asked me ta do that? I mean, I might not have much modesty but there are limits y'know." He didn't mention the fact the Amazons had basically had to hammer that concept into his head for him.

'Men," Lisa smirked, "what can you do?" Ranma stuck his tongue out at her and she chuckled.

Ben snorted too, then raised his good arm to his face in pain, a stab of nausea going through him. After a moment he recovered enough to continue the discussion. "Yeah well you've got a little problem then. Max has met you in that form a few times and he says he fell in love with you during the contest."

Ranma blinked. "I basically said I was a lesbian right, I mean I said I was in a relationship and that it wasn't with a guy right? And he still thinks he's got a chance with me?"

Ben nodded, grinning now at his superior officer. "Yeah he said that only meant you hadn't met the right man yet, though he used way more flowery language to say it. Sorry boss, but I gotta tell you he's pretty darn stubborn about getting what he wants. He isn't like a spoiled rich kid, but he's used to winning at anything he sets his mind to."

Ranma groaned. "Holy fuck he's like a competent Kuno!" He moved over to the side of their cell and began to bang his head against the metal wall. Lisa and Ben shared a chuckle until he began to actually leave a dent in the wall.

The trio settled down again, with Ben falling back sleep and Lisa pulling out her data-pad to see how much power it had. If she could take some pictures or something they could at least have some more Intel on their enemy if/when they got back. Regardless she began to write down some notes of the experience for late review.

Ranma sat down next to her, within a comfort inducing range and began to meditate again. "Wake me up if ya want ta talk more or something, otherwise I'm gonna meditate." He knew they would need his ki techniques to get out of here, and he needed to build up his reserves again. The armor strengthening technique really took it out of him way too much. He had been at about a fifth of his full strength before that big ass alien had charged him, and after that, well… I need ta talk ta Dr. Lang about putting an extra battery on my Valkyrie. Even if it costs me some missiles, or one of the extra ammo packs for my rifle it'll be worth it.

Lisa simply nodded, then went back to work on her data-pad, righting out a report on what had happened, and some of the things she had noted about the ship they were in. Later, after taking a nap she woke him up to talk for a bit, and their conversation for some reason touched on politics, though how that happened neither would remember. They spent two hours debating the merits of a monarchy versus a democracy, and how either would work in space, a topic Ranma had researched after a conversation with Elder Cologne and how her tribe was ruled by a council of elders and how that differed from other types of government. Despite how she liked to beat knowledge into his head with her staff, she was easily the best teacher for stuff like that he'd ever had. In the end Lisa was swayed by Ranma's argument that any democracy would need faster than light communication to be truly representative in space, while she convinced Ranma that a democracy that did have that would be better than even a tolerant monarchy. Both agreed that a military dictatorship could not survive for long, not if they didn't completely control practically everything.

After that Lisa went to sleep again, but this time she slept for a long time, and once again wound up cuddled against Ranma's side. Ranma, deep in his meditation didn't even notice, for which she was very grateful when she woke up later to give Ben some more painkillers.

By her estimate another two days passed with them stuck in their cell, days in which Ranma only came out of his meditation to talk with her and Ben when prompted a few times. It came as a shock to the other two when Ranma came out of his meditation without any prompting and looked around with hard eyes. "We've come out of fold."

Lisa looked at him quizzically. "How in the world can you tell? I mean, I can't feel anything, it's not like the ship was shaking or anything."

Ranma shrugged. "I can push out my ki sense past the hull, a little bit anyway, this ship is fucking huge! Anyway it's like, in fold there wouldn't be anything out there ta feel, just nothingness. Not like in space, space may seem empty but it ain't. In fold there is literally nothin' beyond the hull of the ship yer in, at least that's the way this ship works, I wasn't usin' my ki sense when the Macross folded."

And, he thought to himself even if I had I wouldn't have been able ta push out that far anyway. My ki sense is another thing that's been effected by my radar accident all those months ago. If I wanna be honest about myself it's been the area most changed by a wide margin. My ki reservoir being larger and recovering faster I can put down ta my continued training, but not this. "But when we're back I can sense something out there. Not a lot, but I can at least sense that something is there ya know."

Lisa nodded thoughtfully, her own thoughts paralleling Ranma's for a moment as she wondered how much that ability had been changed and enhanced by Ranma's brush with what some would call divinity. She looked at Ranma and somehow knew that he would never know himself, and would not welcome any questions about it. So instead she asked "How long do you think it'll be before we find out why they captured us rather than killed us? And why they went to such lengths to do it?"

At the quizzical look the two men were giving her, she shrugged. "It's pretty obvious that the entire attack on the Macross was a diversion, intended to make us send out a force to scout so that they could safely capture us. I imagine they didn't think of us getting the data out, but everything points to it being a plan from the beginning, especially that fold-in that this battleship did to get so close to us."

Ranma shook his head in amusement, "Okay hadn't thought of that. That's why you get paid the big bucks I guess."

"Trust me lieutenant," Lisa said dryly, "I don't get paid nearly as much as you think."

A few minutes later Lisa and the others looked up as the noise of approaching footsteps, larger than any human footstep could be, coming towards their cell form the corridor beyond. The door opened and two aliens were outside. They were large but nowhere near as huge as the alien that had pretty much captured them all single handed. Both of them were holding weapons however that were larger than any of them were tall. One of them gestured and a synthesized voice came from its helmet. "Out."

Ranma and Lisa shared a glance then moved to help Ben stand. The bruise on his head looked a little better but that was it, his arm was still broken and his mind still seemed a little fuzzy, either from a concussion or the number of pain killers he had been downing the last few days. Still he was able to walk with the others on either side of him and they followed the aliens along. At an intersection they came to an alien sized rectangular box with seats inside it set into a rail in the floor and the two aliens gestured again.

Ranma grabbed Ben around the middle and jumped up onto on one of the seats and put him down. Ben forcibly held down his stomach during this maneuver. Ranma then jumped back down and did the same for Lisa. She took a moment to revel in the accidental hug, taking strength from his presence, but Ranma gave no sign other than a slight tightening of his arms around her before he set her down.

The aliens clambered in after them, both now keeping their guns trained on Ranma, as if they realized he was the most dangerous threat (which he was). The box began moving and Lisa started her data-pad recording everything they passed.

About fifteen minutes travel they came to a slightly wider open area with a viewport on one side and Lisa immediately began to record what was out of the window. It looked as if they were in orbit around something, but she could make out literally uncountable ships outside. And is that a wall on the far side? Are we in some kind of monstrously titanic space station?

Ranma on the other hand was wondering where they were going. After a moment the box moved forward again, and they moved onto a square in the floor that suddenly began to rise carrying them upward. Another thirty minutes passed before they got to a huge door which opened in front of them. The aliens gestured again and they got out. Lisa whispered to the other two, "Remember let me do the talking. This might give us the first real Intel we've got on these guys okay?" Ben nodded and Ranma shrugged. He was fine with letting her do the talking but if things got physical or they were threatened, he'd act.

The aliens pushed them through the door and the three humans found themselves on a lighted and a raised dais in a large dark room. The three looked around for a few minutes before three more aliens made their presence known. One of them was short for an alien, thin, pallid and almost sickly looking, but the other two were anything but. One of them Ranma instantly recognized as the one who had captured them and his eyes narrowed. The other was even larger, but was fat and bald, with a commanding, almost dominating presence. Ranma closed his eyes for a moment, reaching out with his ki sense and was not surprised that the warrior with the metal plate on his face had far more ki than the other two, almost as much as a normal martial artist from Nerima, but what the other two had was… strange.

He opened his eyes as the little one began to speak, his words translated by a box on the ground in front of the three humans. "Micronians you stand in the presence of the supreme commander and Lord of all Zentraedi Dolza and lord admiral Breetai of the 2nd fleet. You have been brought to answer questions we have, if you do not answer you will die."

Lisa was about to reply when Ranma raised a hand and preempted her, pointing a finger at the one called Breetai. "there was something I wanted to do when I saw you, what was it now, oh yes I remember," he snapped his fingers and then brought both hands down and forward in one smooth motion. "Moko Takabashi!" A cerulean sphere of energy appeared and sped forward, slamming into the warrior alien's stomach, sending him crashing backward with a whoosh of exhaled air. Ranma moved to the edge of the dais and shouted "that's for destroying my Valkyrie ya bastard! I demand a rematch!" Say what you would about Ranma, he was still martial arts crazy and the idea he had been beaten by this alien was not something he was willing to let slide. But for now he threw his hands up even as Dolza and the other one moved away almost fearfully. "That's all I wanted, thanks, we can talk now."

Lisa groaned, sorely tempted to smack him upside the head even as the aliens stopped moving, looking at him in confusion. "Ranma has anyone told you you're about as diplomatic as a boot to the head?"

Ranma shrugged unrepentantly. "I ain't a diplomat so it don't matter. I just wanted ta get that out of the way that's all."

Breetai first gasped in surprise and then pain as the blue sphere hit him in the stomach, sending him crashing to the floor. By the gods that hurt, more than being hit by an Invid storm trooper's fist, but it had been a physical force rather than a beam of destructive power like the one the Micronian used to open up the hanger bay to space. How did the Micronian do that though, he has no weapons, could this be some kind of side effect to the use of Proto-culture? As the Micronians words registered however he began to laugh.

Here was a warrior after his own mold and one who refused to be awed. He could respect that at least. He waved Exedore's helping hand away and stood up, still laughing as he rubbed his sore stomach. "You have courage for one so small and alone. Still you are our prisoners and you will answer our questions." Breetai began the interrogation. "First I want to know how you just did that? What was that force you hit me with?"

"It's called a ki attack and it takes a long time to learn how to do them, nearly 10 of our years" Ranma said shrugging, "but I doubt that's why you wanted to capture us, so why don't you get on with the questions."

Dolza growled aloud, trying to regain his self possession. "You are in no position to make any demands of us Micronian! You are here on our orders, and anything we ask of you, you will answer!"

Ranma shrugged "sure, sure, whatever. Just remember that you don't hold all the cards here. I couldn't get us out of here, but I could take all three of you out. Just remember that, and ask Breetai if you don't believe me. Still, ask away, just remember to keep it civil. Okay?"

Exedore switched off the translator and turned to the other two but Breetai spoke before he could however. "My Lord, I think we need to agree to his request. When I fought that Micronian in his mechanical starfighter he nearly bested me and that was while his machine was running out of power. He seems to understand however that he cannot escape us here. Simply keep them under guard and let us be about the questioning. The sooner we question them the sooner we will be able to figure out how to take the space fortress away from them without contaminating ourselves further."

Breetai scowled. Negotiating at all was unfamiliar to him, and negotiating from a place of equality was even worse. Still, the objective came first. "Very well Exedore begin the questioning."

Exedore nodded and turned on the translator. "Let us start with something easy humans, we noted this one" he pointed to Lisa "has a different form than the other two. What does that signify?"

Ben who was still dealing with a bit of a concussion, said "don't you know what girls are?" At their blank looks he continued "Women or females?" That last word got a reaction and it was one of disgust from all three of the aliens.

"Your males and females live alongside one another? What would the point of that be?"

Ranma was about to answer with a rather flippant response when Lisa trod hard on his toe. "We find it works better that way." She said smoothly. "It helps our morale."

"Which of you is in charge?" Dolza demanded.

Lisa said. "I am, Lieut. Commander Lisa Hayes."

"A female is in charge of males!" exclaimed Dolza "how can that be!"

Breetai rejoined the discussion here. "Especially seeing as this one" he pointed at Ranma "is obviously an elite soldier!"

"I'm a strategic officer" she said slowly. "I think in longer terms, while Lt. Sugita thinks in terms of tactics and the here and now. Of course tactics is always subsumed by strategy and long-term planning." Inside she was filing every nuance of this hearing in her mind. She was getting more information in this interview than she had gotten from anything they had picked up in battle or during their reconstruction of the space fortress. The fact that the aliens didn't have any female officers or at least thought that the idea of females serving with males was anathema told them a lot about their culture.

"We are wasting time here," Dolza said, "tell us what you know of proto-culture."

Lisa turned to the other two. "Proto-culture, I've never heard of it, have either of you?"

Before they could respond Dolza shouted "You lie human tell us what you know of the proto-culture generator!"

"You know" Ranma drawled, "Has it ever occurred to any of you that we might call it something different? Maybe if you described it that might help us here?"

Dolza and the others blinked and looked at one another in consternation. Dolza then began hesitantly "the proto-culture is a generator, a thing of great power based around taking energy from a type of plant."

Lisa and the others looked at one another. "We don't know what you're talking about, the only generator I know about is the reflux generator that powers the ship. As far as I know there's not anything like what you're describing aboard."

But then how do you describe how you become human?" Exedore said triumphantly.

"What do you mean?" Ben asked. "We're just born that way."

"What do you mean born?" questioned Exedore.

Ben blushed and looked at the other two. "I am, well it's, when a man and a woman get together, they…"

Ranma blushed heavily and looked away, whistling, forcing Lisa to take up the conversation. "I-if a boy and a girl love each other enough they m-make love and sometimes, e-eventually there'll b-be a baby" she said, stuttering. God's this was so embarrassing, talking about having sex and children with aliens who obviously weren't getting anything they were talking about. And isn't that an interesting little bit of data she thought to herself. If they don't reproduce through natural birth, how do they do it? Together with their not having any females among them, that gives me a very odd glimpse into their culture.

"What is this love?" Asked Dolza. "Explain it or show this love thing to us."

"You have got to be joking."Ranma deadpanned.

"show us what this love is or else the female will die!" Dolza snarled, reaching forward with a huge hand.

Ranma froze for a millisecond and then growled low in his throat, moving forward to interpose his body between the bald alien and Lisa. "The blast I hit Breetai with was a medium shot you big bastard, you want to try for a full-size one?" He held up his hands which again began to glow with blue/gold fire.

Breetai immediately backed up getting more room to respond to any threat he made. The other two simply froze. But Dolza gamely replied. "You can only attack us once human before you in turn are attacked by all our forces. You are still within our power. Now show us what this love thing is."

Ben, his concussion really bothering him said "well I suppose we could show them a kiss. That's not too bad is it?"

Lisa growled. "Unless you want to be the woman ensign, I would suggest shutting up!" She looked up at the aliens and saw resolute and curious expressions on all three. She sighed. It really looked as if she wasn't going to get out of this one. She turned to Ranma and said "all right, Lieut. I want you kiss me."

Ranma immediately began to stutter and blush. "But, but I am going out with Kasumi I mean, wouldn't that be bad. I mean…"

Lisa grabbed his shoulders and shook them a little. "It's just to show the aliens what a kiss is" she said, ignoring her own beating heart.

"Er," he said "well if if you really think this is important, all right." He put his own arms on her shoulders but then stopped. Lisa" he said softly "you're trembling."

She stammered "shut, shut up, it-it's just nerves. That's all it is." She lied easily.

"Well," he said slowly. "If you're sure…" one of his hands went to the back of her head and her own arms went around him, one arm around his waist and the other reaching to grasp his pigtail. They leaned forward for a moment and stopped a centimeter away from one another. Blue eyes met emerald for second and then they closed and two pairs of lips closed the distance between them meeting in a very, very sweet kiss.

Almost immediately for both of them there was a spark. For Ranma, he likened this kiss to all the kisses he had shared with Kasumi. It was hot, sweet, and tasty as all get out. Where Kasumi always tasted like honey and vanilla, Lisa tasted like cinnamon and tea. A taste that he hadn't thought he would like, but on her lips, he liked it very much. His arms tightened around her involuntarily, and he thrust his tongue out, demanding entry into her mouth.

For her part Lisa was in ecstasy. This kiss was far, far better than any kiss she had ever shared with Karl, even though a part of her still thought that even thinking that was a betrayal of her memory of him. On the other side of her mind there was the attraction that she had been trying to fight for months toward Ranma, and this kiss made her lose all the ground she had gained in her battle with it. When his arms tightened around her, she tightened her own arms around him raising one leg and swinging it around him, pulling him closer. She pressed against him hard with her body, a body that the uniform she always wore hid very well, but which the spacesuit that she was now wearing hid not at all. She moaned loudly as his tongue invaded her mouth and she ground herself against him.

They were brought out of the moment by the alien's exclamations of horror and disgust. Ben's wolf whistle didn't exactly help either.

Ranma was the first recover and he put his arms around her gently this time, but moving his head away so as to look up at the aliens. Before either of them could think of what to do next, Dolza exclaimed "get them out of my sight! This is why our laws always tell us to never come in contact with Micronians. They are infectious!"

Three guards came in and ordered the prisoners away. None of the three spoke until they were back in their cell. Ben was the first to speak and with his concussion taking away his sense of self-preservation said "that was one of the hottest things I've ever seen you two! Wow! If you put on that kind of a show for aliens then..."

Ranma growled at him and he shut up. He turned to Lisa and said in a soft voice that only she could hear "that wasn't just a kiss was it?"

She looked up at him then back away towards the cell door that she had been steadfastly looking at to avoid looking into his eyes. After a moment she shook her head and Ranma groaned. "When we get back" he said "both of us are going to talk to his Kasumi okay? I ain't gonna lie to you and tell you I didn't feel anything when I kissed you, or that I haven't, you know, been attracted to you before. I may even like you a lot, but I'm going out with Kasumi you know?"

Lisa nodded miserably "I know. I've been fighting my attraction to you for a while because of that and because of my memories of Karl. It's just that kiss was probably a bad idea."

Ranma shook his head hard. "It wasn't a bad idea judging by the how the aliens reacted, nor is it ever a bad idea ta get something like that out in the open. Like I said we'll handle this one way or another. And besides last time I checked, it takes two to tango or in this case kiss!" Lisa surprised herself by giggling a little. Then she went back to her data pad which had been recording the entire conversation with the aliens, and she replayed parts of it committing them to memory.

Back at the headquarters area Dolza snarled. "This is why the humans are so dangerous, they are too alien to understand!" He calmed down after a moment, looking at Breetai. "You did well to bring them here in the first place Breetai, and their questioning will continue, but I have need of you elsewhere."

"Yes my Lord" Breetai said "I will return to the Micronian star system and devise a new plan to reclaim the space fortress."

"No Breetai, I have need of you in another task. You and your fleet are to be reassigned entirely to the front with the Invid. They've taken the loss of their factory ship that the 11th skirmish fleet destroyed very badly and are pressing an assault all along the eastern quadrant. I want you and your fleet to flank them, cut off their attacking forces and wipe them out."

"Of course my lord, but what of the space fortress?"

"I will assign that task to the females. They are a more subtle force than ours and their strange way of thinking may allow them to fight the contamination of the humans far better than we can."

"If I might make a suggestion, my Lord" Breetai said hesitantly "I would suggest that the 11th skirmish fleet stays with the females as a brute force. With the 11th there to take the pressure of the human's attention off the females, they will be able to design better plans and longer-term scenarios while still making certain the space fortress cannot make it back to their homeworld. And to be blunt, I do not want the 11th skirmish fleet with my forces."

Dolza nodded affirmatively. "Yes, I think that will be a good idea. The 11th is the force that caused the Invid attack in the first place, let them keep being bled dry. Depart as soon as you are able." Breetai bowed and he and Exedore left the chamber.

Dolza turns to the screen and commanded to of his technicians to open the screen in the human's cell. "Human elite soldier!" he shouted, "you consider yourself powerful, strong, strong enough to threaten Dolza. Now watch real power!" He nodded to another technician who changed the view that the humans were seeing a scene occurring outside Dolza's mighty gargantuan fortress.

On the view screen in the human's jail cell there was now shown a planet surrounded entirely by alien ships. At another nod from Dolza an order went out and suddenly, the entire front of that vast armada opened fire on the planet below. Within seconds the whole planet was a lifeless husk. "That is power human and next time I call you to my chamber you will answer all my questions or that will occur on your world." He was bluffing of course, with the Invid forces pressing along their front, he would not be able to reinforce the female's fleet or the 11th's enough to accomplish a swift sterilization bombardment like this, not for a few months anyway. Of course the humans didn't know that. He watched as the three prisoners kept staring in horror at the screen for a moment before cutting the com, filled with satisfaction as his message hit home.

That satisfaction faded as he felt a tug on his consciousness. Making no outward sign of his sudden unease he signaled his communications officer. "I am going to retire now, dealing with these Micronians has irritated me. Relay the orders for the Meltraedi to move to the system where Breetai found Zor's fortress. Make certain they understand their orders."

His decision to delegate passing the order to the Meltraedi would have far reaching consequences. After all, only Dolza and a few of the older admirals knew the real dangers of Micronian contamination….

However Dolza had no way of knowing the trouble not giving orders to the Meltraedi personally would later cause him and he turned and entered his personal chamber. He waited until the extra heavy door closed behind him before going to one knee. "Masters."

An instant later as if appearing out of nowhere three figures appeared, wearing long flowing robes. They were not Zentraedi nor did they appear human, though like those two races they were humanoid. They were tall, with thin almost emaciated bodies, long thin arms, and thin but long necks tapering to a head that was far larger in the back than the front, indicating a large brain pan. Their ancient seeming faces were heavily creased and looked much the same from one to the next. It was only in eye color and hair style where they differed, though it mattered not at all.

"Dolza, we have had disturbing sensor reports, one coming from the distant star system you told us you found the traitor's ship in, and once just now in your own fortress. Once is an aberration, twice is a pattern. Tell us what has been happening."

Hearing the actual anger in the Master's linked voice shook Dolza, the three of them were always so dispassionate and controlled, thinking emotions things only less-evolved creatures had. Whatever their sensors had told them must have rattled them badly. "I-I do not know what your sensors might have told you about anything occurring in the Sol system, but Breetai had captured three Micronians and brought them here for questioning on the proto-culture generator. They did not seem to understand our questions, but one of them displayed an odd kind of power, that may be what you speak of my masters."

"Describe it." Dolza did so and the three hovering forms stayed silent for a time, communicating between each other telepathically. Finally they spoke to him again. "What you describe could not have been picked up by our sensors as far away from us as Sol, but it is a starting point. It is more imperative than ever that you capture the traitor's fortress. Zor delved deeper into proto-culture and its effects on organisms than any other, something on the ship must have caused this human to have the power you describe. Whatever he says or even truly thinks no lesser race could have developed that sort of power over its own energy without such intervention. Do you understand Dolza, the ship must be taken intact for both our people's sakes." And with that the trio of beings known as the Robotech Masters disappeared from their thrall's room, leaving the so-called lord of all Zentraedi quivering in fear and relief that they had been satisfied by his answer.

Max stretched his arms up over his head, sighing tiredly as he looked around the park. Being the only one to survive from the alien's ambush had given him some notoriety but he had been unable to find the one woman who he wanted most to impress, the flame-haired flower of Amazonian beauty that was Ranma Sugita. He had even made it a point to bump into her mother and been told point blank she wasn't seeing anyone right now, presumably grieving for her brother. Still he was willing to wait a bit, he could still be a shoulder for her to cry on later. Until then however he was on the lookout for someone who he could spend some time with until Ranma came out of hiding.

He spotted one such and smiled inwardly. Kasumi Tendo, the angel of Macross(though no one called her that to her face) was sitting at a nearby bench drawing something. And while he knew that she had a relationship with Ranma before he died, that only made it all the sweeter.

Anyone who knew Max as the affable, laid back pilot would have been astounded at the amount of personal irritation that he felt toward Ranma. Max was used to being the best at anything he did, not without putting in the work for it of course, but sooner or later he was the best at whatever he set his mind to. That Ranma was consistently better, and not just better but overwhelmingly so than we was at combat, without even realizing there was a competition, was something he couldn't stand. That Ranma was even better at martial arts was worse in a way. Max had tried to swallow his pride and ask for personal training outside of that given to the entire flight but Ranma had refused, sighting the work load of being a lt. and it stung. On duty he was able to shove that to the side and remain the shy self-effacing person that everyone knew him as, but on his own it sometimes ate at him, and if he saw a way to one up the other man he would take it. Max stood up and walked over quietly until he stood next to Kasumi. "Um, Ms. Tendo right, Kasumi Tendo? We met at the White Dragon during Ms. Minmei's birthday party."

Kasumi looked up, her face blank for a moment then she smiled as she placed the face. "Yes, Max Sterling I believe? How are you?" She reached down and opened up the briefcase by her feet, placing the drawing paper she had been working on and the clipboard it was connected to into the briefcase to join the many pencils she had already put away. Her design for a true tree house was well enough along now that she would have to transfer it to computer later.

Max inwardly cursed his luck as he realized she was getting ready to leave. "Um I just came over to give my condolences and tell you that if you ever need a shoulder to cry on I'm here."

Kazsumi cocked her head quizzically. "Condolences, whatever for?"

Max blinked in surprise that certainly wasn't what he had expected her to say. "Um, my condolences on Lt. Sugita's passing. He's been missing for over a week now and I know you two were close."

Kasumi smiled then giggled a little. "I see. Well thank you Max but I don't think any condolences are necessary. You see even you refer to him as missing, not dead. I know he is alive somewhere. Ranma has made a habit of doing the impossible. He'll be back, I don't know how but he will be. Ranma always comes back." She bowed respectfully too him leaving Max to gape after her in consternation.

While Blue squadron was stood down, the rest of the SDF forces were not so lucky. The beam attacks had stopped but the battlepod assaults had stepped up even further, coming now every day at irregular intervals in numbers exceeding 300 each time. What was worse was that the alien called Kyron that Ranma had fought twice before had returned and with him leading them the attackers were much more coordinated. Losses among the Valkyrie squadrons were slowly rising even with the fights occurring inside the tertiary weapons envelope of the battleship. Losses among the Defender destroid companies hadn't climbed yet but that was because the barrier system had remained on at all times to cover them in clumps stationed around the ship. Other sections of the hull had been lightly damaged in these attacks, though not enough yet to truly harm the mighty ship.

A fun time was not being had either by the destroid or Veritech forces or on the bridge during battles where Lisa's presence was sorely missed. Claudia was able to handle the administrative and logistical duties of the executive officer position but the replacement for Lisa at tactical was not up to the challenge. Vanessa Laird, the next in line for the tactical officer's job was literally overwhelmed by the amount of data she had to juggle at her position. Many times in battle she had accidentally sent one squadron of Valkyries after another to double up on one areas defense while leaving another completely defenseless. While she erred on the side of caution when ordering damaged Veritechs to retreat, which kept the losses less than they would have been this also put more pressure on their fellows, and led to frayed feelings within the squadrons and poor coordination.

Mannstein could handle his portion of the battle well enough but he didn't have the background in thinking in terms of 360 degree battlefields to take over the Valkyrie defense of the ship.

The morale of the ship had also suffered a major blow after the ambush, both among the SDF and the regular civilians. Ranma and Lisa were both important figures for different reasons to both groups. Lisa was popular before her participation in the Ms. Macross contest and had become even more popular since, becoming with Kim Young the face of the SDF after action news reports, giving the military a much more human aspect. And Ranma was considered by both civilian and military to be their toughest fighter and practically un-killable.

The aliens had also hit on a strategy that forced the Macross to retreat from a straight run to Earth. They simply made the attacks from that trajectory continuous, sending in attack waves every hour that the ship stayed on its course to catch Earth when it came around the sun again. That had caused half the losses the navy had taken since the loss of Lisa and her group before Gloval rather desperately changed the ships course and found the attacks immediately returning to their normal level.

Thus Gloval had made the decision to make course for Jupiter. It would take them almost three weeks but if they could escape into the atmosphere and pick up more resources they could make good their losses and then some before trying for earth once more, with the help of something Dr. Lang had recently discovered. He only hoped they were somehow able to survive to get there in the first place. Dying the death of a thousand stings was far less pleasant than it sounded, and it didn't sound that pleasant.

Rick tried to sleep through the fold-space phenomena as much as possible but when the huge alien ship materialized near an even larger alien structure, and when he said larger he meant larger, as in the large ship he had been hiding on entered the monstrous fortress through a very, very tiny hole in the side of it, he woke up quickly.

On the inside the fortress was almost completely hollow, but that brought no comfort as what it was filled with were alien fleets, thousands strong by his estimation all over the place. Fearing he would be seen Rick swiftly made his way over to the nearest hatch he could find, using his head lasers to cut a way in. Even as alarms were going off about the breach in the armor, he was running away from his entrance before hiding in the nearest empty room he could find. After a little while the alarms stopped but Rick stayed put for several more minutes, waiting to see if there was any response to his breaking in. It soon became apparent that there hadn't been despite the continued noise of the alarm.

When he sneaked a quick glance outside the room he was in he was astonished to see dozens of the giant aliens going about their business without even pausing in their work as the alarm went on. It was this blasé attitude that gave Rick an idea. He waited until alarms died and then when one alien was in the corridor outside his room he jumped out and attacked the alien knocking it unconscious and dragging it back into the room.

It was but the work of a moment for him to strip the alien of all its clothing, and then dump it still unconscious on its head a few times to make sure it stayed out. "I think I've been hanging around Ranma too long," he mused to himself, "that was far too easy."

Putting the clothing on his mechanical fighter, however, proved a little more difficult. The Valkyrie was really not intended to wear clothing. However, once he was done he looked enough like an alien to pass as one of them, well outside of his robot's head. The curved up turtleneck of the alien's uniform hid his 'face' and then he put on the cap that the alien had been wearing. That done he ventured out of his room and began to explore this space ship hoping to find his friends.

After several hours of searching however he hadn't come up with any leads, though he was making several observations about the ship and the aliens in general. For one thing, they didn't seem to believe in maintenance. He soon lost count of the areas he walked through that were in poor repair, either suffering from electrical damage, damage caused by burst water pipes or simple rust. Rick also come across what was obviously a junk heap of battlepods, all of whom looked as if they could've been pretty easily repaired by a dedicated crew, but had been simply left here as unusable. What that said about the alien's infrastructure, that they could so easily ignore the work and money/resources necessary to pay for these pods construction was a very bad thing, yet the fact they wouldn't or couldn't repair them was beyond bizarre.

About an hour after finding the battle pod graveyard he got lucky. He spotted two aliens on some kind of box conveyance going away from him. But what attracted his attention wasn't the aliens or the box, but the fact that the two aliens had Ranma's Valkyrie in the conveyance with them.

It had obviously taken a beating, but it was still remarkably in one piece. The cockpit area looked as if it was completely trashed, and two of the lasers on the head were bent out of shape as was the right arm, but other than that it looks good to go.

He decided to follow this tram to its destination and see if they were storing the Valkyrie near his friends. When he passed through a docking clamp and left the ship behind him he began to get worried, until he saw that the ship was pulling out of the dock then he became terrified for a moment before getting hold of himself again.

"Well", Rick muttered philosophically to himself "they're either here or not, nothing I can do about it now." He knew that actually flying after the departing battleship would've meant almost instant and certain death.

He was in luck however. After the two aliens dumped the Valkyrie into a compartment area he noticed two more guards down the hallway. Waiting until the two aliens he had followed left. He snuck into the room with the Valkyrie in it. No aliens were in the room, but what looked likes several sensors apparatus were set up, obviously in an attempt to analyze the Valkyrie.

After hiding there for another hour he made his way over to where he had spotted the two guards. Looking like he had every right to be there he got close before they started to talk to them.

Realizing they didn't understand him and wouldn't care if they had he opened fire before they could even raise the alarm or their own guns. Two huge bodies hit the floor making a thump that could be heard in several compartments all around him. Rick swiftly reached forward and opened the door and was relieved to see his his three friends. "Hey, you guys" he said, "ready to go home? And you will never guess what I found Ranma."

Inside the cell Lisa and Ranma looked at one another. "Have you thought of a way to get us back to the spaceship?"

Lisa shrugged. "They need to be sending some reinforcements every so often, even if only battlepods. If we can figure out a way to tell where the ship is going we can hop onto a ship going in the right direction. If we can keep hidden anyway."

Ranma shrugged "keeping hidden is pretty easy, figuring out which ship to get on now, that is tough."

"Still, let's get out of here. That way we have more options." That said Lisa led the way out of the room and up into the waiting hands of the Veritech. Rick then put Ben on one shoulder and Lisa on the other, and carried Ranma in one of the uniform's pockets. He figured, correctly, that Ranma would be the first to get up and fight if they were discovered, and as such should probably be in the place closest to the ground and thus the ability to move on his own two feet. Within seconds however Rick transferred both Ranma and Lisa into Ranma's Veritech.

"Are you sure you can run this thing?" Lisa asked worriedly "it's battery seems to have been completely removed"

Ranma shrugged again. "Don't ask me to fight or fly in it, but yeah I can move it around easy. It's just the thrusters and using the Iron Body technique that takes a lot out of me. I'm pretty much recovered so I should be good for may be six or seven hours of non-combat movement. After that though, I won't be good for much of anythin'."

Lisa thought about it for a minute weighing the pros and cons of having another Valkyrie with them to help and Ranma getting so tired that he would not be worth much after six or seven hours walking around. After a few minutes deliberation she nodded and Ranma began to power up his robot.

Ranma and Rick continued on their way, both of them now dressed in the uniforms taken from the guards outside human cell. This, of course, included rifles, which made both of them feel much better about their present situation. Using old passageways and unused areas they were able to traverse the ship relatively easily, but did not have much luck finding anything that could help them or that was even interesting until they came out of the gantry and into a huge truly huge open area.

Below them were three large glass capsules, things that sort of reminded Ranma, a closet Star Wars fan, of a bacta tank. Scattered below them were workers, workers who were female Ranma and the others were quick to realize, and who were working on or around the glass capsules. Inside the glass capsules were three other female aliens stark naked. When he spotted that, Ranma looked away blushing. Lisa smiled as he did so then frowned at the other two until they looked away as well very reluctantly. After all, who can resist the allure of three huge giant women stark naked.

Lisa leaned over to whisper into Ranma's ear. "This is what they were talking about when they asked us how we became normal sized; there must be some jobs that they need human sized workers for. That's why they're shrinking those three."

Ranma shrugged, looking around. "It's obvious one of those jobs ain't maintenance. This place looks like it's falling apart. At least, you know, in comparison to the Macross."

Lisa nodded thoughtfully. In any warship regardless of the nature of the ship there was a lots of maintenance needed on an almost constant basis to keep it running at peak efficiency. Over two thirds of the battleship's assigned crew were maintenance personnel, whose job it was to both repair the ship and keep the ship running smoothly, a job she knew put a lot of strain on the barely half crew they had now.

It looked as if the aliens scrimped on that aspect, simply using things until they discarded them. This was either wasteful or showed an extreme amount of arrogance in their own infrastructure. "I wonder why Dolza didn't think that women and men served together, I mean, look around there are women all over the place here."

Ranma shook his head "but no men," he pointed out and sure enough nowhere was there a single man in the entire room. He paused as he began to feel a pulse in the walls all around them. "I think we actually got on another ship somehow. This place is just so big we didn't notice it. I think we just entered fold."

"But we don't know if this ship is going back to our solar system!" Lisa exclaimed.

Ranma merely shrugged fatalistically, "Any port in a storm is better than here. Let's see if we can find someplace to hide out until we figure out what else to do."

Lisa and the others agreed and they made their way out of the room with the capsules and into the hallway. About an hour later, they were able to find a room with several battle pods in it, though the paint job looked more like that which would be used for a target rather than the normal type. One such battle pod was at the end of the line and looked a little damaged and Ranma suggested that they get inside it, as the aliens didn't seem to use anything that was damaged like that.

As the battle pod was designed for a full-sized alien, the two Valkyries were a tight fit but were still able to fit inside. Ranma, exhausted from having to move around the Valkyrie using his own energy nearly immediately collapsed backwards into sleep. He had concentrated on meditation during their time in the cell, so this was the first time he had been able to actually get some real shut eye.

Lisa looked at him in amusement as he did so then got out of the Valkyrie and went to sit on its head, the better to talk with Ben and Rick. Ben, still suffering from a concussion and his broken arm, which was actually worse than it had been, was ready to go to sleep himself so Rick and Lisa had first watch. They spent the time filling one another in of what they had been doing since Rick had been kicked out of the airlock.

Rick was impressed that Lisa had thought of using her data pad to collect pictures and make notes, and felt that once they put that together with what he had seen it would have a much better idea of the alien's capabilities and strategic strengths. Unfortunately at the moment all their data was negative. The reality of the millions strong fleet that they had seen inside and outside Dolza's fortress was daunting in the extreme.

About six hours later Ranma woke up and took the next watch, allowing Lisa and Rick to sleep. Rick slept in his cockpit, while Lisa curled up in the hand of Ranma's Valkyrie. Ranma took up watch on top of his Valkyries head, staring out the slightly open cockpit of the battle pod.

The trip went on, and the longer it went on, the better it was for the humans. None of them could figure out how long they had been in fold space to get to Dolza's fortress in the first place, but they figured the further away they got from that fortress, the better.

Aboard the bridge of her flagship, a fast attack Queadol-Magdomilla that matched skirmish fleet ships in size but with five times the firepower (though that was because of the size of the weapons rather than numbers), and armor stood Azonia, supreme commander of all Meltraedi. She was a stern and intelligent looking woman with close cropped curly blue hair and a personally designed uniform that was the envy of many of her captains.

Before her stood one of the finest combat pilots in either the male or female force, her legend was known to all as a peerless warrior, who had never met her match in combat. Not that she allowed herself to sit on her laurels. Every day she was training, training to get better, faster, stronger, in her Queadluun Rau powered armor.

Her name was Miriya and she was not happy with her current orders. "Dropping off a few spies is hardly a true test of my talents. And as for your order to use a Reguld..."

Azonia smiled, they had served together for a long time, and she knew precisely what buttons to push to get Miriya to follow her orders. "Oh, does that mean you aren't qualified on them any longer?"

Miriya gritted her teeth. If there was one thing that could always get a response out of her it was calling her flight abilities into question. "Of course I'm still qualified on them. That's not the point. I thought the point of this entire enterprise was to destroy the space fortress. That should be more than simple enough without this beating around the vetak." A vetak was a small carnivorous plant that was dangerous to small rodents and mammals that grew in large clumps on several worlds in the Spiral arm. New trainees on training exercises would often walk around them, when anyone with experience knew they were no threat and would walk straight through them.

"No," Azonia said calmly "our objective is to capture it. And to do that we need to know more about these humans that infest it." She paused, looking at Miriya calmly, "There is another aspect to this particular job, which is why I want you to use a Reguld. When we do strike I want the capabilities and abilities of our Queadluun Rau to be complete unknowns. I don't want these humans to even get a glimpse of them before then."

"I can understand the logic in that at least" Miriya said after a moment's thought, "but why me?"

Miriya shrugged. "Who else would I trust to do anything this subtle?"

Miriya snorted. "I'm not exactly a subtle person normally."

Miriya chuckled "I know you're not, but when you are ordered to be you can be."

Miriya realized that the time for talking was over and simply nodded her head "as you command, lady."

The ship came out of fold and immediately alarms flared all over the ship calling battle pods users to their machines. Ranma and the others were up and ready as soon as the alarm first shouted. With Ranma operating the legs and thrusters via his Valkyrie and Rick taking over the controls of the weapons via his, they were able to maneuver the battle pod out among its fellows and then out into space. Somehow they fell into formation behind the others, and rocketed away from the mothership. Lisa, manning the radar station, was rather irritated. "The sensors on these things are crap. Obviously the commanders don't want their followers to know where the hell they are, rather disgusting of them frankly."

Ranma however shrugged. "Doesn't matter to us one way or the other, I just hope that we're in the right damn place or we're going to be finding ourselves in the fight against someone else."

Lisa's blood froze at that and she smacked her forehead in anger, "of course!" she exclaimed "these aliens must have other enemies out there somewhere and if we are actually about to fight them no matter the circumstances that's not going to look good."

Ranma however shrugged. "I don't know what you're concerned about, most of the friends I made back in Nerima I fought first. It's normal."

"Your definition of normal is about as far from the Webster's version as it's possible to get!" Lisa said, irritated.

Ranma shrugged and went back to concentrating on his piloting, that and not standing out the latter of which was actually much harder than the former. Ranma was used to leading the way into battle, but this sneaking and skulking about at the back was about as far away from that as it was possible to get. Though as Lisa said, his definition of normal was skewed.

About two hours after they had exited the ship Lisa smiled and shouted triumphantly. "We have incoming and they are Valkyries!" she exclaimed happily.

Ranma grinned and began to angle downwards from the original line of attack cutting the Regulds engines to half at the same time. "How long are we going to wait until we tell them who we are?"

Lisa looked at the tactical situation then shrugged. "We can do it right now, either they'll believe us or they'd still think we were enemies and shoot us down. Anyway we need to wait until the dogfight settles down a bit more."

Ranma shrugged, but Rick was a little irritated. "So what's going to stop our friends from shooting us down anyway?"

Lisa smirked at them "are you pilots or aren't you?"

Ranma and Rick looked at her irritably. "That," Ranma said "was a blatant low blow but whatever, we'll do it. I'll keep us heading downwards, Rick you keep searching above us for enemies that are coming after us but also shout out if you see any Valkyries incoming on the radar Lisa." Lisa nodded. They didn't have any problems staying at the outskirts at the dogfight for the next thirty or so minute, though the fight kept moving forward towards the space battleship. Just as they were within visual range of the space battleship more Valkyries poured out and join the dogfight. There their luck ended as two Valkyries peeled away from a squadron on an attack vector on their pod.

"Hail them already!" Ranma exclaimed, "or we're liable to get shut down by our own side!"

"Don't rush me." She muttered trying to find the right frequency. Finding it she yelled into the communicator, "incoming Valkyries incoming Valkyries be aware this battle pod has been hijacked! Be aware that the battle pod you are about to attack has space forces personnel onboard. The following personnel are onboard, Ensign Hunter, Ensign Dixon, Lieutenant Sugita, and Commander Hayes! Do not fire!"

A female voice answered her. "Did I choose to enter the Ms. Macross contest of my own free will or was I coerced and if so by what?"

Lisa looked around. "I know that's Lt. Aoyama but I have no idea what she's talking about."

Ranma grinned, leaning over the huge speaker like communicator, then said into it, "you were coerced by my mom to enter 'cause she refused to give you any sword fighting classes if ya didn't."

"Holy shit it really is you guys, we'd given up hope on all of you! Well, except for Kasumi, she kept on saying that Ranma would find some way to get back, can't say we believed her though. We'll escort you back to the battleship right now."

The four blue flight Valkyries settled in around the pod, looking very conspicuous, but only one of the other pods noticed this. That one pod however, had her own job to do but made a note to look that pod up later on her way out.

Miriya was followed for a time by one very irritating pilot who tried to get her in his sights, but she was far too swift and agile to be caught. The fighter did clip her a few times and for that she would make a point to seek him out later, but in the end he had to pull away as other battle pods came up behind him firing their cannons. He turned around negligently and killed all three of them, but by the time he turned around Miriya was long gone. "Another time, Micronian."

She spotted a small section of the underside of the battleship that wasn't covered by the defensive fire, and swiftly getting close she reached up and placed the small container containing the three spies against the side of the ship. Once the clamps were in place she moved away with a final message to those inside. "Good luck you three I get a feeling you're going to need it."

Mission accomplished she pushed power into her thrusters powering away from the battleship down and around the main dogfight, though she took the time to take some potshots at the Valkyries that were colored similarly to the one that and try to chase her down. She didn't find the one that had attempted to take her out, but she was able to take out two others. One at least was permanent, while the other had only lost a wing.

Not bad for a normal battle pod she thought and left the dogfight to her lessers. She had done her job and the next time she faced these humans she would be in power armor. Then they would learn what a true ace could do.

The arrival of the survivors of the ambush was greeted with exclamations of surprise shock and, of course happiness. Lisa was barely out of the battlepod before she was buried under the bodies of the three lieutenants, Kasumi and Claudia. Ranma who came next was almost knocked out by Kasumi's throwing herself at him so hard that his head smacked into the back of his Valkyrie nearly leaving a bruise. Kasumi, nor his mother who joined her a moment later, seemed at all bothered by the fact they were in a military zone, and really should not have been there.

Amidst the jubilation Rick was greeted warmly as well by Nodoka and Kasumi, as well as Sammy, who clung to his side, but Minmei was conspicuously absent. Both Rick and Ranma made mental notes to look her up at the earliest opportunity. Roy however, had to play the part of the devil and ordered the party to break up. "Sorry girls, but these returning heroes have to go and give their reports before anything else. They've probably got a lot of stuff they can tell us."

As Ben was carted off to the hospital the other three looked at one another and laughed. "You have no idea" said Lisa "really you have no idea."

As the most senior officer among the escapees Lisa automatically spoke for them all before the other officers. First she laid out what occurred during the battle, including several references to how brave and dependable the Valkyrie pilots had been before being overcome, as well as how the one alien that seemed to be the largest on the ship had fought them far harder than any of the others. Then she told the board how long she estimated they had been in full space for. Dr. Lang cut in at this point saying that a fold of that length would possibly take the ship doing it almost completely out of the this spiral arm.

Lisa next called on Rick, who explained how huge the exterior the fortress had been in comparison to the battleship, a ship moreover, that was already at least two times the size of the SDF-1. There was some mutterings at that, Connor and Griftel (who had not shaped up to Gloval's satisfaction in terms of his intelligence duties) in particular didn't seem to want to believe that the aliens had access to something of that size and apparent power. What would be the point of capturing the SDF after all if you already had bigger and better ships?

At that point with Rick and Ranma corroborating her she began to describe the interior of the fortress, emphasizing how run down it was, how many things seemed to be broken and not fixed, and yet how formidable and simply huge it was. None of the SDF commanders seemed to like that idea, that a ship could be so effective and so monstrously strong and yet not looked after properly. It offended their professional sensibilities.

Lisa then produced the coup de grace of their presentation, the data pad that she had used to record their interview/interrogation by the alien commanders. Everyone sat and listened to it for a moment and Ranma was both relieved and a bit amused that Lisa had removed the kissing part, leaving it to sound as if Dolza had just gotten fed up with Ranma's own attitude. Not he thought to himself that that was probably far from the truth.

After Lisa finished Capt. Gloval asked "Do any of you have anything further to add?"

Ranma raised his hand almost immediately. "I got something which is kind of strange. Frankly, these aliens, they don't have much in the way of ki. I mean, a normal one, one of their fighters doesn't have more than like a ten-year-old human kid, that's weird ta me. But what's stranger is the old Admiral, the one called Breetai had more than any of the normal soldiers, almost as much as most of the people I met back in Nerima. But the other one, Dolza had zero, it was like he was some kinda robot or something. I don't know if that's important or not. I just thought it was weird at the time."

"And I don't think we can really stress strong enough that these guys are fighting us with kid gloves. This proto-culture thing that they're all mad about, that's what they really want. I think the sooner we find out what it is, the better we're all going to be." Lisa nodded emphatically agreement next to him.

The flag officers debated for a moment before coming out of the debate and nodding at the survivors. "Well, I think that's enough of this for now. You four have done very well in both surviving and getting this information back to us, rest, recuperate and we will call you if we require any more information."

Rick looked at Lisa and Ranma as they walked out the door. "Why do I get the impression they didn't believe us?"

Ranma shrugged but Lisa nodded. "Dr. Lang seemed to agree with us and maybe Capt. Gloval did too but honestly the numbers these aliens have are just unbelievable. I can't say I blame them for not wanting to believe in them. Though the fact that Dolza destroyed a whole planet just because he wanted to make a point, that terrifies me."

Ranma growled low in his throat. He hadn't been using his ki sense at the time and he probably wouldn't have been able to feel anything at that distance anyway, but deep down inside him he knew that the universe just did not want something like that to go unanswered. And I'm just the man to do it, if I ever see that big bastard again I'm gonna ram my Valkyrie's fist through his fucking brain plate!

Rick nodded farewell to the other two and walked off, intent on finding Minmei. Lisa was about to do the same when Ranma grabbed her by the shoulder. "Nice try." He said sardonically, "but no cigar. We have a date with Kasumi" he said softly, barely whispering the words as he gently guided her along "or were ya thinking of just trying to escape and forgetting what happened?"

Lisa looked at him and sighed. "I would rather have liked to forget yes, but you're right, we need to own up to what we did. She's my friend; I won't lie to her about something like this."

It took them forty minutes to get from where the debriefing had occurred to Ranma and his mother's apartment. The moment they opened the door Kasumi hit them both with a hug to dwarf those she gave them in the hanger bay. Lisa could literally hear her ribs creaking in protest under her friend's arms.

"I know you would return!" she exclaimed, "I just knew it!" And she kissed Ranma very thoroughly on the lips. Lisa looked on torn between happiness for her friend, jealousy, and strangely enough a little bit of arousal which kind of scared her. She shouldn't be getting aroused by watching her best friend and her, okay she had to admit it, unrequited love interest kissing. That admonition didn't stop her body's reaction to the scene however.

Ranma however, did not return Kasumi's kiss as he did so enthusiastically most of the time. As they gently parted he said softly "Kasumi, we've got something to tell you and you might not like it."

Kasumi looked at him with her head cocked to one side and then led the two further into the apartment. After she sat down Lisa stood up and began to give a brief description of what had occurred during the interrogation by the aliens leading up to the kiss. Once she got to the kiss she described it, and then apologized. "I'm sorry. I know it's wrong but I-I've been attracted to Ranma for some time and this was, when we kissed it brought those feelings to the fore. I'll understand if you don't want to be friends with me any longer over this, hell I couldn't blame you at all."

Ranma however cut her pity party short. "Don't take all the blame for yerself Lisa I enjoyed the kiss just as much as you did. And I gotta say I've been fighting my own attraction to you too, at least since Mars. Let's just say that flying back to the space fortress with your rear on my lap sorta brought it to my attention."

Lisa was about to say something to him, she was never quite certain later what she was going to say, but something. Whatever she was going to say died on her throat when Kasumi began to giggle. The two looked at her and Kasumi pulled them both into a hug kissing them both on the lips causing Lisa to splutter with shock. When Kasumi pulled back she said, "I've known forever that you've been attracted to Ranma, almost since the day we met on top of the rice paddy."

Lisa looked at her askance. "I haven't been attracted to him that long."

Kasumi smiled gently. "So you say. But I have a very good grasp of human body language, and I know that even then you were a little attracted to Ranma at least on a physical level. Once you pushed past the memory of your ex-boyfriend I felt this was inevitable. And frankly," she said, smiling happily "I'm ecstatic about it."

They looked at her in shock and she sighed. "Ranma" she said gently. "I told you when we first started going out that I knew you couldn't marry me because of your oath. This way eventually if you two realize that your feelings are that deep for one another you can marry Lisa." Lisa gasped at the very idea. I mean we haven't even gone out yet or anything! Oh God Now I'm thinking of going out with him, she thought to herself.

Kasumi's giggled again. "In fact, I'm not the only one who thought that you would hook up with someone else Ranma. Your heart is just too big for one person" she grinned slyly "as is your stamina!" Ranma blushed a little and Lisa blushed a lot as she got the implications of that statement. "I love you Ranma" Kasumi said gently "and that will never change. But it would be the height of selfishness to keep you to myself when you can make other girls just as happy as you can make me. I'm not saying I want to force you into a relationship together, but I like you both. I get along with Lisa very well so to my mind this is a perfect relationship, or perhaps a perfect outcome to this relationship." She giggled again. "In fact your mother and I had a bet going. She bet on Motoko, whereas I bet on Lisa. I'm glad I was correct."

Lisa looked at her for a moment a lot of thoughts running through her head, mostly concerning whether or not she really wanted to go through with this and try to have a relationship with Ranma, as well as Kasumi, since it seemed as if it would be a package deal. After a moment's thought she decided to hell with it! She leaned forward and planted a kiss on Kasumi's lips. It was a small one, much more of a friendly peck, but it was meaningful. "Thank you Kasumi. I don't know if the relationship between Ranma and me haa any chance of working long term like you're suggesting, but I'm willing to try it if you are okay with it and he is willing." They both turned to look to Ranma who had his eyes opened wide and his hair sticking out in all places.

This was like Emergency Level Omicron to Ranma; it meant something was fundamentally wrong with the universe. Girls were supposed to get jealous when he was around other women, not be okay with it. But here was Kasumi basically saying, hell basically giving her go ahead with a relationship between him and Lisa. He looked between the two of them for a moment then said "I'm certain I can't give ya both the attention you deserve, but if you both are okay with this, so am I. We'll just see where it goes." He turned to Lisa and blushed a little shyly. "W-would you like ta go on a date tomorrow seeing as we do have the day off? We could go see a movie or whatever ya want."

Lisa smiled back happily. "I'd like that. Maybe we can stop in at the Wild Dragon to see how Minmei is doing" she said thoughtfully. "It's strange that she wasn't there to welcome you and Rick back. I know the three of you are close."

Ranma nodded "that's good idea for tomorrow, but right now all I want is some good food a nice chair to sit in and a nice long sleep on a bed that isn't metal. Lisa laughed and agreed but when she made to leave Kasumi stopped her. "Oh no you don't" she said "we're going to stay together tonight and have another sleepover. Only this time Ranma gets to stay a boy."

Ranma gulped. "I don't think that's a good idea Kasumi. I'm way too liable ta lose control a bit with you both here at the same time." He blushed heavily under their stares, elaborating under their dual raised eyebrows. "That's been kind of a fantasy of mine on those nights when Kasumi and I weren't able ta, ta take the edge off, so to speak." He blushed further as Kasumi broke out into giggles and Lisa looked torn between joining her and blushing so hard she would die of blood loss.

Ranma went to go and turn into a girl while Kasumi went to get some food ready and Lisa got out some movies. This she thought to herself was just what the doctor ordered. Not only did she now have a new boyfriend but her best friend was still her best friend and they were sharing him. What was more, Ranma wasn't the type that would want her to quit her career, or try to change her into someone she wasn't. And with Kasumi and Ranma both able to cook and clean (she was learning to do the first but the second was beyond her) it wasn't as if they would all ever lack homemaker element.

She laughed giddily at how easy this all had gone, and wondered if that made her normal or abnormal, then she realized she didn't care, as long as they were happy.

That night after they all fell asleep on the carpet in the main living area, Ranma's mother came in and saw all three curled up together. Ranma was on the bottom, the short redhead had her arms around the waists of both Lisa and Kasumi who had their arms around her in turn and each other. She smiled happily at the scene. It looks as if I've lost that bet but oh well. Regardless it can only eventually mean one thing, more grandbabies for me!

end chapter - And so the changes keep piling on, and we see a glimpse into the Zentraedi. And we also see that Ranma does not make a good prisoner.

*Chapter 14*: An Unlucky Number Indeed

I don't own the robots, or the martial artists.

I enjoyed reading some of the reviews, and I'm glad everyone enjoyed how Lisa has joined Ranma and Kasumi, though no one commented on the sections I added to chapter 1.

Chapter 13 an unlucky number indeed

Ranma was still sleeping the next morning when Kasumi and Lisa woke up, and they left her to it. "How long do you think Ranma will keep sleeping?" Kasumi asked amusedly.

"I don't know, I don't think he actually slept at all, he kept meditating rather than sleeping." Lisa shrugged, reaching over to hand Kasumi some miso sauce. "He had to use his ki a lot to move his Valkyrie around and he said that took a lot out of him."

"Oh dear," Kasumi said, her face showing a certain amount of worry. "Yes I've heard about how much it takes out of him to enhance his robot's armor. Moving it without any battery aid must have taken even more out of him. He'll be very hungry when he wakes up, I'll have to prepare some extra food for him." Kasumi smiled happily and began to bustle around even more. Truthfully she found she could no longer predict how quickly Ranma could recover from using his ki, in fact he was getting better at recovery than anyone else she had ever heard of bar Happosai the ki-letch/leach.

Lisa looked at her with a smile on her face. Say what you would about the odd relationship she had agreed to try, Kasumi was a breath of home life that she truly enjoyed. "So what's been going while we've been, out of touch, shall we say?" She asked deliberately making light of the ordeal.

Kasumi went along with her. "Well, while you were out gallivanting not a lot has been happening here, at least on the civilian side. Auntie has been neck deep in work on enlarging the hydroponics sections, and Minmei has been almost completely consumed by her new singing career, so much so that I'm a little worried about her actually." She made no mention of the morale nosedive that had occurred, she knew Lisa was uncomfortable with her fame. She went on more seriously "The military side however has been having problems, at least according to the news reports I've been following."

"The attacks have been coming more and more often, and that alien commander Ranma tangled with, Kyron I believe, has been at the forefront every time. I know Max, Roy and a few others have clashed with him, but he never stays in the fight long. Your presence has been sorely missed, the soldiers I have talked to have mentioned it quite a few times."

She smiled wickedly "I gather much of that was in the feeling of not knowing what they had until it was gone, you'll probably find yourself much more respected now that they have done without you a few times." Lisa had confided in her the festering resentment the Veritech pilots felt having a tactical officer in charge of them, but having done without her for nearly a week seemed to have killed that emotion with extreme prejudice. "If you feel up to it we should probably stop in on the bridge at some point today."

Lisa nodded, that sounded like a good idea. Really, good food and rest had killed most of her exhaustion from the ordeal, and she was never one to sit idle if she could help it. But she cocked her head quizzically, "we?"

Kasumi nodded. "I'd rather like to see where you work, Auntie has been on the bridge several times but I've never gone with her. And this viewport out into space she has talked about a time or two sounds fascinating." Lisa nodded, and the two turned back to making breakfast. As they were setting the table Nodoka came out of her room, still wearing what she thought of as pajamas. The two younger women took one look and would have described it as either a marital aid or negligee, although the thought also occurred to both to hope they looked that good when they were forty-five. "Hello dears, how are you this morning? Have you recovered from your incarceration Lisa?" She kissed them good morning on their foreheads.

"We're fine auntie" the two women chorused, smiling at her. Lisa loved the little moments when Nodoka acted motherly to her. While she was a grown woman, she had never really had a mother growing up and so these moments gave her a glimpse of what could have been. Kasumi too loved it, but she at least had some memories of her mother.

The three women sat down at the table and began to eat and talk together in low voices. Nodoka filled the other two in her hydroponics project. It was started with the idea to enlarge the hydroponics section to allow them to add animals once they got back to Earth. Of course despite the amount of room she had to play with this was causing her some issues as she had to help design farms that could handle animals, as well as figuring out how to incorporate safety precautions if the ship lost gravity or power for any reason. That, Lisa was surprised to find had actually happened twice while she was gone, and it worried her a lot as without power the ship would be a sitting duck, and they would be swiftly overwhelmed.

Nodoka changed the subject suddenly, looking at Lisa. "By the way Lisa I have a bit of a bone to pick with you, two bones in fact." Lisa looked at her in surprise and Nodoka went on "I understand that you have many duties you must see to as executive officer but I think you and Gloval have both been falling down on the job in one way, and that is the need to train those under you. A captain trains his executive officer so that he is ready to take a command him or herself, and the executive officer trains his successor and so on. Young Vanessa was grossly unprepared for taking over your position." She softened her gaze a little. "It isn't your fault dear, as much as it is Henri's but both of you need to take the time to train your officer's better." Her eyes hardened noticeably. 'I have already had words with him" both women winced at her tone, and knew that the captain had probably not enjoyed that discussion much. "and he will be taking over some of your duties to give you time to train up Vanessa."

Lisa nodded, that was part of their job as officers, but it had fallen by the wayside as more and more crises popped up that she or the captain had to deal with it had been forgotten. "Alright auntie, I'll think up a training program and have Vanessa start on it tonight. What was the other issue?"

Nodoka grinned "I haven't heard about how you and my son got together. Tell me how his manly charms won you over and spare no details!" Lisa and Kasumi shared a commiserating glance then looked back at the older woman and they knew they wouldn't escape her until she found out all she wanted to know.

After Lisa had told a bare bones version of how she and Ranma had decided to try out a relationship and how Kasumi was okay with it, Nodoka sighed happily. "Ah it does my heart good to know that my little stallion has finally come into his own, being confident without being arrogant, kind without worrying how weak it would make him look. I shudder to think how he would be if he had arrived in Nerima having had only his father as a role model."

Lisa nodded. "I agree I don't think I would have fallen for Ranma as I have if Kasumi hadn't broken him to the saddle first so to speak." She gasped and brought her hands up to her mouth looking at Kasumi fearfully, realizing how bad that sounded.

Kasumi however took it in stride, her best oblivious airhead look on her face. "Ara, does that mean you want to take Ranma for a ride soon Lisa-san?" Her expression turned from oblivious to teasingly sexy in an instant. "I can assure you it is quite the wild experience!"

Lisa blushed heavily, sporting a little nosebleed at the idea and the memories it conjured as Nodoka laughed. Seeing that Lisa was uncomfortable with this line of discussion however the former angel of Nerima adroitly changed the subject. "You asked me how my studies are going and as to that, I'm basically on my last class until the co-op, and I have hopes of getting my advisor to agree to let me work for myself as part of that."

Lisa cocked her head quizzically "how would you do that, I mean wouldn't you need to work with someone who needs a building or interior designed?"

"Normally yes, but I think I can get around that. You see I have been saving quite a bit of money from my job at the White Dragon and from Ranma's paycheck. I almost have enough to buy ten adjoining rooms in the ship area of Macross."

Lisa nodded thoughtfully. With the city being built most everyone who could had moved into it, so space on the ship side, the side which would have initially been for the crew of the battleship, was cheap in comparison to even a one room apartment in the city. Ten ship sized rooms would give Kasumi the same amount of room to work with as a two story penthouse suite. "I'm also nearly done with my plans for the interior of that space, and with Ranma's help I'll be able to build it."

"Oh, Ranma can do construction too?" Lisa asked dryly.

Kasumi nodded. "Martial arts construction, a must have for anyone living in Nerima. Even I know a little, and most of the real marital artists were just as adroit at putting buildings back up then destroying them in the first place."

Lisa blinked shrugged and then asked "So what kind of plans are you going to be making?"

"I don't know quite yet. I think I want to mix styles a bit, have some areas be traditional Japanese, others European and maybe one or two new age. I can see using that in a computer room for example, or an office. But European definitely for the main sitting area, I want to find some very nice plush chairs and maybe some bean bags, those are so comfy."

Lisa nodded she liked the idea of those chairs as well. She looked at the time and got up to put her dishes away in the washer. "Well if you want to come with me Kasumi, we need to start getting ready. I'll take first shower if that's all right, I'll clean up the living room while you take yours."

Kasumi nodded and her friend left. As soon as the door to the bathroom shut Nodoka turned to look at Kasumi. "Are you certain you're all right with this Kasumi-chan? I don't want to see anyone hurt here, even if I do approve of my son being with multiple women."

Kasumi nodded serenely. "I am more than happy with it Nodoka-san. I've known all along that more women would be attracted to Ranma and have always been fine with it. He loves me Auntie, and nothing can or will change that." She smiled. "Do you know one of the first things Ranma said to me when we arrived on the island?" Nodoka shook her head. "He said to me 'pursue your dreams, I'll support you'. He said it again after I got into the college here. Even after we got together officially, when I asked him about it he said 'be yourself, do whatever you want with your life, I will support you however you want me to. I love you.' Well, not in those words, but that's what he meant. Do you have any idea how rare it is to find someone who cares like that, with no desire to change you?" She smiled eyes a little watery.

"He loves me, Kasumi, the me that is a morning person," and horny as all get out in the morning too, I swear I will make you collapse first next time Ranma or, well, collapse trying! "and likes to be pampered, the me who is a bit of a slob, who loves to cook but doesn't like to clean up, the me who wants to design living spaces and would be alright with the idea of a family in the future but not now. Ranma's heart is too big and too generous to neglect those he loves. Regardless of how many women come to care for him and vice versa I will always have a place in his heart."

Nodoka looked at the other girl and smiled happily, gathering her into a hug. "His heart is not the only one so large, my dear." Kasumi simply smiled returning her hug.

Lisa came back soon and Kasumi went to take a shower. Once they were done, the two left to head to the bridge arm in arm and laughing about the idea to make up their hair the same way and get Lisa some brown contact lens to fool people into thinking they were twins.

Nodoka waited a few minutes before checking on her son, who was still asleep. She let him to it and pulled out her computer to work on her plans for the hydroponics area.

Claudia and the other bridge crew looked up as the hatch to the bridge opened admitting Lisa and Kasumi Tendo laughing about something, "He made deals with how many families?!"

"Oh, no one but Genma knows the full amount but 28 showed up over the course of the four years Ranma spent in Nerima. Some were easy to get rid of but quite a few were very hard, especially with Ranma refusing to take any of them more seriously than the others, even going so far as refusing to live with us after the second one showed up."

Lisa shook her head as Claudia walked toward them grinning and the three younger girls grinned and moved to join her. "The wayward commander returns, how are you Lisa?"

"Very well thanks Claudia," Lisa answered walking over to her console and touching the edge fondly. "I missed this place for some reason. So," she turned to Kasumi, "this is where I work, is it what you expected?"

Kasumi looked around then shrugged. "It's a little too metallic and aggressively functional for my tastes." She paused as she looked out the main viewport at the magnificent vista of space "On the other hand the view is incredible…" she breathed, staring out into space in awe. She moved to stand in front of it reaching out gently to touch the glass with a hand as she stood there.

Lisa let her stand there alone for a moment, beckoning Vanessa over to a distant corner. Vanessa started the discussion by gripping Lisa's upper arms. "I can't tell you how glad I am to have you back Commander, I know I've been fouling up your job since you left! I just couldn't handle all the information coming at me at once, and the pressure of combat made it even worse!"

Lisa frowned at her. "Well then we have our work cut out for us don't we Lt.?" Vanessa gulped but nodded doleful agreement. "Now, from now on every night we spend on duty you're going to work on two tactical problems per night on your console. Every time you lose more than a set amount of troops we start over. After six completions I am going to put you through the UNSF tactical officer's course. Then you are going to start helping Claudia and I on the logistics aspect of this job. Am I understood?"

Vanessa nodded glumly but what Kasumi, coming up behind her said put a smile on her face. "Perhaps it would help you if you had some munchies as incentive." Vanessa nodded quick agreement, Kasumi's cooking was practically legendary among those who had tried it, and Lisa smiled.

"Alright enough pampering the bridge crew Kasumi, I'll talk to you later but right now I need to get to work. You're welcome to stay and enjoy the view a bit more though."

Kasumi nodded and went back to staring out the window in awe. I can see why Ranma wanted to go into space so much, this is… amazing. She didn't see the speculative look Claudia was giving her or the even more probing glance she sent Lisa's way.

Ranma woke up around two in the afternoon, not fully recovered but close to it. He sat up from the carpet where he had been sleeping and pushed inward to study his ki reservoir for a moment then grinned. His ability to refill his well of ki had gotten way better in the past few months, and he could tell he was at about half strength. A day of a lot of good food and a lot of exercise would help build the rest back up. His stomach apparently agreed with him and voiced said agreement by loudly growling at that moment. He grumbled but got out of bed and went to the kitchen.

Nodoka looked up as he came in and smiled at him. "Afternoon sleepy head, how are you feeling my son?"

Ranma shrugged. "About as well as I can be feeling. Moving and armoring my Valkyrie takes a lot out of me. But," and here he grinned fondly, "at least I was able to save my Valkyrie. I've gotten really fond of that mech, and it becomes a little easier every time I push my ki through it whichever way I do it. But I do want to see Dr Lang later," he said seriously. "I need ta figure out a way ta add another battery ta my Valkyrie. I use way too much of my own energy ta do anything through it, but I need ta keep using it." Nodoka nodded calmly and told him about what had been going on for a few minutes while he ate then kissed him on the cheek promising to see him for dinner, but she had an appointment with a construction crew. Ranma nodded and kept eating for nearly an hour straight, slowly, he wanted to savor Kasumi's good cooking, but steadily.

After that he left to go see Minmei. He arrived at the white dragon and no sooner had he entered the restaurant that he had been splashed by water, turning into a girl. He looked up expecting to see Minmei but instead saw her aunt standing there looking sheepish. "Just wanted to try it once, just to see why my niece likes to do it so much. It is rather fun watching the change isn't it? My husband and I heard over the news broadcast yesterday that you had shown up again, we were all ecstatic to hear you survived!"

"Hey Mrs. Lynn, don't bother apologizing, I'm sort of used to it, and thanks fer caring, it's nice. But where's Minmei? I sort of thought she'd be one of the civilians to greet us as we landed, for Rick's sake if not for me but she wasn't there."

Fei sighed. "Well as you know she started a singing career after the Ms. Macross contest. The problem is she has been run ragged ever since, she hasn't even been home the last few days. We've tried to get her to cut back but she loves to sing so she won't listen to a word we say."

Ranma narrowed his eyes. "Has Rick been by yet?"

"Yes he stopped by last night. But then he went off with that girlfriend of his. I don't know where he is." Mrs. Lynn sniffed disapprovingly. She knew her niece had feelings for Rick but didn't know how to take the next step, and as for Rick he seemed to not know either or be afraid to take that plunge and just wanted to stay with his present girlfriend because that was safer.

"Do ya know where Minmei should be?"

"She should be in the recording studio downtown I'll give you the address. I hope you can get through to her where we couldn't Ranma. I think she's working herself far too hard for her own good. I realize this is her dream but she's still a young girl."

Ranma nodded. "Don't worry about it Ms. Lynn." That said he went into the kitchen found some hot water and changed back to a guy before heading back out. He briefly wondered if he should go find Rick first and bring him along but decided against it. He would tell Minmei they had all come back and then the ball would be in her court. Ain't gonna get more involved in their relationship then I already am, it just ain't worth the trouble.

Fifteen minutes of roof-hopping found him outside a large upscale building and he inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. Mayor Luan gets points for this much at least; it looks like the companies legit, now to see how Minmei is doing. If I find anyone has been taking advantage of her or anything there's going to be hell to pay! He walked into the building and up to the receptionists desk smiling his best lopsided smirk at the woman behind it. "Excuse me can you tell me where I could find a Lynn Minmei?"

The young woman looked up and was almost immediately awestruck, here was the 'Wild Horse' of so many videos and pictures, the man who had starred in many of her more perverted fantasies and oh my god he's just as hot in person! It took her a second to collect herself. "Ms. Minmei is on the twelfth floor in the second recording studio or across the hall in the interview room."

"Thank you." He bowed and walked off, and the girl stared after him avidly, trying to memorize every line of his back for future…use.

Another minute running up the stairs found Ranma on the twelfth floor. He looked in the room he was told and found Minmei sitting there with several other people around her some with equipment others with papers and one on a cellphone. He took a moment then to study Minmei and frowned at what he saw. There were bags under her eyes, her hair was frazzled, and her eyes were a little red, as if she had been crying. His eyes narrowed as he heard the man on the phone talk to her. "No no, let's take the interview from the top again, and this time Minmei sound as if you actually care about the questions you're being asked alright, and then we need to get you cleaned up for a live interview and a show, you know the one I had to postpone a few days ago?"

Ranma had heard enough. He barged in, opening the door with a violent crack as it slammed against the wood work. "Yo, Minmei, what's up!"

The man with the phone and the others all turned to stare at him. "Wh-who the hell are you, what are you, somebody get this idiot out of here!" Minmei on the other hand looked as if she had seen a ghost right up until Ranma negligently reached out and picked the man with the phone up holding him in the air as easily as if he were a feather.

"Names Ranma Sugita pal, and I happen ta be a friend of Minmei's so unless ya listen and listen real good we're gonna get ta see if you can fly." He paused then continued speaking, directing his words at one of the cameraman who had been trying to sneak up on him. "Oh and you with the camera don't even think it, you'll bust your camera and you'll just make me angry."

Minmei took the silence this comment caused as a signal to shake off her stupor and she jumped up off her chair and slammed into Ranma sobbing incoherently into his shirt. "Ranma, they said you went missing in action days ago, oh my god I'm so glad you're alive did anyone else survive!?"

Ranma put one comforting arm around her shoulders, letting her cry herself out even as he continued holding the other man up in the air over his head. "Hey little sister I thought I told ya, I always come back, and yeah the others all survived. Lisa's even back on duty, though Ben is in the hospital with a concussion and a broken arm. Rick's fine too, though he may still be sleeping, he's the one that busted the rest of us out y'know, really derring-do stuff."

Her arms tightened around him for a second then she pulled back, looking up past his head. "Um you can put Mr. Manager down now."

Ranma looked up at the man and shook his head. "Nah he gets ta stay up there while we have speaks. What's this I hear about ya working yourself inta exhaustion?"

Minmei giggled, feeling happy for the first time in days. She hadn't had Kasumi's long connection to Ranma and hadn't believed her or Nodoka's continued reassurance that Ranma would somehow find a way to survive and probably drag the others along for the ride. But now her two favorite people had returned and all was right with the world again. "Oh it's not that bad, I have to push now because I'm still a new talent, I have to push to get people to remember me and that mean a lot of work."

"But not so much ya should be neglecting your family or your school work" Ranma countered. "Or do ya think that just 'cause you're a singer don't mean ya need an education or a family? Your aunt, uncle, Kasumi, even my mom all said they were worried about ya."

Minmei looked down and the manager looked even more worried than he had a second ago from just you know, being held off the ground like a sack of wheat. "W-well, I just, I haven't been allowed to go out in public much for fear of being mobbed, and um, I've just been so busy…" Minmei frowned, it sounded lame even to her. And she really was tired.

""What is going on here?" Everyone turned to see a older man in a very good business suit in the doorway. "I come down to see how things are going and I see one of my managers held up in the air by a soldier, a lieutenant if I'm reading the rank tabs right? Can someone explain what is going on here?"

"Oh Mr. Deray" Minmei exclaimed and walked over to introduce the man to Ranma who was very reluctantly returning the manager to the ground. "Ranma this is Mr. Deray he owns this recording studio."

Mr. Deray frowned as he got a good look at the young girl who had become the most popular star they had on the strength of her wonderful singing voice, bubbly attitude and connection to the city at large. "Minmei, when was the last time you had a good night's sleep, you look terrible, no offense."

Ranma broke in here, and explained the worries all of her friends had for Minmei, and how he had come into hear her being berated for looking like she was tired by her manager.

When he finished Deray glared at the manager. "You're out of here." When the man made to protest Deray went on "I told you to keep her work load light and only work on the CD and public appearances, but you couldn't follow a simple directive. Fine, I'll find someone who can." He turned to the rest of the crew. "The rest of you get out too. I'm going to look into this and see if any disciplinary action should be taken here but none of you are going to work with young Minmei from now on."

He looked at Ranma. "So you're Nodoka's boy, she's talked about you a time or two at city council meetings. Do you want to be part of the process to choose a new manager? That way you'll know how hard Minmei is working and can approve it."

Ranma thought for a minute then shook his head. "I wouldn't know the first thing about it, how about we use my mom instead? She can be the watch dog on this, though if anything more like this happens, I'll be back."

He growled the last bit and Deray laughed. "Heaven forbid. Now as for you young lady" he turned to Minmei, and his face softened noticeably "Go home, spend some time with your family and friends for two days then come back and get to work again. We all need some down time after all, and singers are no exception." Minmei nodded happily, that sounded like an excellent idea.

The two youngsters bowed in the Asian style to the older man and left the building. "You want me ta walk ya home Minmei?"

Minmei shook her head. "I'll go see Rick before heading home. I really want to see him again, I was so sad when I thought you both had died! I won't clam down until I see he's alright with my own eyes, just like you."

"Okay, well I want ta go see Dr. Lang, so I'll see ya back at the White Dragon this evening, and ya better be taking it easy still, okay?" Minmei nodded, gave him one final hug and walked off towards the bus station. Ranma shrugged and jumped to a nearby roof and away.

Motoko Aoyama stretched her arms above her head and sighed, feeling a little irritated. Exercising alone wasn't nearly as satisfying as sparring against other people but there were far too few people she could spar all out with that wouldn't take the opportunity to ogle. In fact in the last two years their number thus far was three, and all of them had their own issues.

Nodoka of course didn't, and sparing with her teacher was always fun and profitable as she walked away with more tricks of the blade to add to her own repertoire. Unfortunately they couldn't spar as much as she wished they could with their differing work schedules.

Kasumi was good, a master of aikido in fact, but fighting hand to hand was not Motoko's proffered style, and fighting someone with a soft style gave her nothing she could use herself. Motoko had reluctantly concluded that working out with the other girl as fun in many ways as it was had no real point.

Ranma was even better than Nodoka, she always came away knowing a few new tricks and she knew their bouts, even with his refusal to use a weapon, built on her speed and strength. Unfortunately she had barely gotten any time to practice with Ranma before he disappeared. Now that he was back, she hoped they could pick up where they left off sparring every other day together because she had little luck finding a replacement.

There was a very small pool of martial artists on board the Macross, and of them all only Max Sterling and colonel Mannstein in addition to the three already mentioned were in Motoko's class (okay Ranma and Nodoka were both far better than she was but she could at least go all out with them even if they couldn't do the same with her) and Max had swiftly proven to be unsuitable. Not that he wasn't anything but a gentlemen but it was obvious he found her attractive and his flirting got on her nerves, though if she swung that way she might have been flattered.

As it was however she did not, in point of fact Motoko was what more indecorous people would call an utter flaming dyke. She had liked women since she hit puberty and found out what kissing was, and the idea of a man touching her filled her with disgust. She wasn't open about it, but Ranma at least had picked up on her preferences a few days before his week long absence. The fact she found Ranma's female form almost irresistible was probably why, she had a thing for busty tomboys. Max however was almost incapable of not flirting with every pretty woman he met, and Motoko was pretty, with a firm lithe body and a pretty face without any blemishes dominated by almond shaped dark eyes and framed by black hair that flowed down her back.

She looked up as a shadow passed by overhead, and she blinked as she recognized the man who was jumping from one rooftop to another. "Ranma!"

The marital artist looked down and rather than landing on the roof on the other side of the street hit the side and bounced back toward her, landing next to her on light feet. "Hey Motoko, how's it going?"

Motoko smirked, tapping the blade stuck into its holder on her duffel bag, "just got finished my exercise for the day. How are you doing, any lingering effects from your incarceration or are you cleared for duty? And if so are you going to be going out on CAP patrol with us tonight?"

Ranma smirked posing dramatically for a minute "Nah, no way something like gettin' captured can keep me down, and yeah except for Ben we're all cleared for duty, though I told Rick to stand down for the next two days, he didn't get a lot of sleep when we were out there and he ain't at 100%. Besides with Ben down for a few weeks my flight'd have an odd man out, and this'll give me a chance ta fly with Max for a bit. I'll try ta get out with the rest of the squadron tonight if I can, though my Valkyrie probably won't be ready so I'll need ta take one of the spares, which sucks."

Motoko winced sympathetically. While she didn't have the ki control or reservoir to connect to her Valkyrie with that she had more than enough knowledge on how pilots tweaked and modified their mechs in little or large ways. Her own for example had a far faster reaction time than a normal mech, and her Valkyrie could change faster into soldier mode by a slight margin than others as well as carrying an inch more armor around the fists than usual. She had no idea how many modifications Ranma had added to his mech, but suspected it was a lot. "Sorry to hear that, but your presence will be a welcome one regardless. The fights haven't been that large, but they have been constant, twice or even three times a day."

Ranma asked her then to describe what had been happening as they continued to walk to her destination, the city park, where she usually spent a few hours resting in the closest place of nature that she could find on the ship. After she was done Ranma nodded thoughtfully and agreed he'd be out there with the rest of blue if he could swing it. "But what about yer own training Motoko-imo? I can tell yer ki has grown."

Motoko smiled at both the nickname and the compliment. She had joined Minmei in being referred by Ranma as a little sister during their training together before he went missing and she was fine with that as it was the only real relationship she would be happy with a male assuming with her. "Well I haven't been able to do more than a few wind blades just yet, but the ones I can produce now are far more powerful than the last time we sparred. Would you be up to resuming our matches every three days? With Nodoka-sensei working on her new project my lessons haven't been as often as I would like."

"Sure. But for now I should probably leave, I want ta see Dr. Lang about something, then I want ta exercise myself a little bit before checking out one of the spare Veritechs." Motoko nodded farewell and Ranma jumped away, first to a tree top then up to another roof and away.

"What do you mean you want the attacks to be smaller than normal, and why aren't your forces taking part anyway?" Kyron asked insolently from the other side of the communication. He may have to put up with having to work with the Meltraedi, but he obviously couldn't be bothered to be polite to his nominal superior.

Azonia bit back a sharp retort, knowing that at least in part Kyron was merely trying to get a rise out of her. The man wasn't an idiot, but he could sometimes give a very good impression of one, and angering someone whose fleet outnumbered yours by five to one (and had quality superiority to boot) was obviously idiotic. "Because we have succeeded in getting our spies on board the SDF, and I want to give them a day to get situated. We need to give Anya, Lucretia and Sonya time to start their information gathering."

"Why do we even bother spying on this pestilential Micronian filth? We should be slaughtering them all, not finding out more about them." He grumbled, the memories of his humiliating defeats at the hands of one particular Micronian festering in his mind. He hadn't run into that one lately, but he still felt the sting of his humiliation at its hands.

Azonia decided to bring out the big guns. "Would you argue that with Dolza, Kyron? After all, the order to take Zor's flagship intact comes directly from him."

Even a Zentraedi as arrogant and egotistical as Kyron couldn't control the moment of pure atavistic fear that name evoked in them all. Dolza's own fleet was twenty times the size of any other fleet, and he personally terrified every Zentraedi and Meltraedi. It took Kyron a moment to regain his poise "V-very well, if he has ordered it we have no choice, but why aren't your forces going to join the attack?"

Azonia smiled as she heard the hatch to the bridge slide open to the side of her and knew that Miriya had come onto the bridge and would hear her reply, just as she had planned it. "Because when I do use my Queadluun-Rau I want to crush them as much as possible. Your attacks while Breetai was gone have been excellent in forcing the space battleship to change coarse Kyron, and it's obvious to me that they intend to retreat once more into the atmosphere of one of the gas giants. That will give them time to retrain more of their forces from the ground division to the aerospace division and possibly build new fighters. This time they are aiming for the larger gas giant ,that means of course that they will need to pass through the planetary ring system, where we will once more be able to ambush them as they traverse it much like Lord Admiral Breetai was able to do before. The cosmic dust will work nearly as well as the asteroids to block their radar, and the moons and large asteroids will allow us to hide our numbers easily. And we will have more area to play with as the planetary ring is larger. And such a battlefield will give my star fighters every advantage in the book. We will literally destroy their mech force, and the way will be open for assaulting the rest of the battleship directly."

Kyron leaned back, lips pursed thoughtfully. The plan was a good one, even if his own forces were relegated to second place in it, after all compared to the Queadluun Rau of the Meltraedi that was precisely what they were and he wasn't so arrogant he didn't realize that. "So starting tomorrow I'm allowed to ramp up the attacks back to the size I've been using? And perhaps one full scale attack right before the battleship enters the planetary ring?"

Azonia frowned for a moment then nodded. "As long as the fighter attacks go in first and force them to activate that strange shield system the fortress has, that is an excellent idea. Anything else?"

Kyron shook his head and without even a salute cut the connection. Azonia stared at the communication screen for a moment after he cut the connection, seething inwardly at the disrespect. After this campaign is over you had best hope to have redeemed yourself in Dolza's eyes Kyron, or I am going to take great pleasure in purging the 11th skirmish fleet from the galaxy root and branch. Your head will make a fantastic decoration in my room stuffed and mounted, or perhaps just the skull mounted on a light? Sighing she turned to Miriya. "You heard of course."

Miriya nodded. "It's a good plan, though waiting the two weeks it will take the battleship to reach the largest gas giant will be hard."

Azonia shrugged. "It is a good plan, and I trust that you can deal with two weeks of boredom before testing the mettle of these Micronians. Though I doubt that the battle will go as well as that fool thinks it will, after all I'm counting on it."

Miirya looked at her in shock. "Why would you think we could fail? You were correct after all, we'll have every advantage and we're better than any of the forces they have faced thus far."

"Because I want to let them escape into the atmosphere, the amount of time they spend there will let us find out more about them." Azonia sighed at Miriya's blank look. "Think for a moment Miriya, our short term goal is to learn about these Micronians. Why should we only concentrate on those particular Micronians that are on Zor's battleship when there is an entire planetary network that we can go and invade?"

Miriya's face blanked and Azonia sighed again. "I know that isn't your area of expertise but we can learn far more about these Micronians that way than by looking only at the ones on the battleship. Our first priority of course will be to find out how they can get their own females to work with the males on an equal footing. Have you seen the imagery relayed from the spy ship about its final battle?" That transmission had been the only bit of data to get out, and was why Dolza had agreed to let a few Meltraedi run the risk of contamination by infiltrating the space fortress. But because he hadn't given her the orders himself, Azonia was under the impression that contamination was something like a disease and would make certain that none of her troops outside the three chosen spies would have any direct contact with a Micronian. Attacking their data streams and computers however was another story.

Miriya nodded. In fact she had been impressed by the skill shown by the Micronian ace, as she obviously was, though why she had been making those weird yet strangely catchy noises was a mystery. Perhaps some kind of battle chant? She knew a few warriors used those occasionally to pump themselves up for combat, though the length and odd background noises accompanying the Micronian's was something she had never heard before. That particular pilot was going to be her first target when she at last took the field against them. "And you think you will find the answer to that by hacking their home planet's data net?"

Azonia nodded. "That is one of many questions we want to know the answer to. And since Dolza has allowed it" again both speakers needed to pause to allow each other to get over the automatic fear that name caused. "We will find out as much as we can. And to do that we will need to place most of the fleet in orbit around the planet rather than chasing after the space fortress. Besides, that will put us in a good position to attack the fortress on its final leg back to the planet."

Miriya nodded slowly, that made sense too. "Very well Admiral. I will prepare the fighter squadrons for the asteroid battle. We will use that battle at least to slaughter them, and then let them retreat into the planet's atmosphere with their tales between their legs. We can also show up the males at the same time." Azonia nodded approval and the two women shared a cold, chilly smile.

At the same time that Azonia was discussing her spies those self same spies had at last declared the outer apparently unused portions of the space fortress into the areas being used by the Micronians. Sonya, the leader by dint of marital skill and age, looked at her fellows, Anya and Lucretia. Anya, the shortest of them tugged at her blond hair. "About time, who knew how long it would take to get around a ship when you're micronized." Lucretia nodded absently, keeping her eyes open and making certain none of the Micronians were nearby. The section they were in might show evidence of recent habitation, but there wasn't anyone here currently.

Sonya looked at the odd letters on the door. "I wonder what these marks mean, too bad the Zentraedi hadn't worked up a written vocabulary as well as a verbal one." The letters spelled out 'forward maintenance center four'. The Meltraedi spies had entered the battleship from the bottom front portion of one of the main gun nacelles. It wasn't a section that given the crew being at half strength didn't see many people. The only exception had been when the maintenance crew had to try and repair the main cannons, and as such a lot of the tools had been left behind.

Sonya picked up a flat rectangle thing, and when she pressed a button on it gasped in surprise. "A computer, so small? Amazing!" She pocketed it in her specially made overalls. She and the others had created them themselves, smaller versions of their own uniforms. Lucretia had designed them, and Anya and Sonya had made them. Modifying their uniforms was a bit of a pastime among the Meltraedi, no one knew why it had started, but it allowed them to personalize their uniforms a little. "I think we need to figure out how to read their language before moving on."

Anya shook her head. "I think we need to keep moving, find someplace that would let us observe the Micronians without them knowing it."

Sonya had been looking at the computer, trying to figure out its functions. Lucrteia however had been looking at the tools left behind, and found a map of the interior of the ship. "Maybe this could help us." The trio nodded, and taking the map set off again.

"Hey doc, how's it going" Ranma said grinning as he realized that greeting had become almost his calling card when seeing Dr. Lang. This time however the doctor did not jump in surprise or shout at him, instead he simply looked at the younger man wearily. "Hello Ranma, if I didn't say it yesterday, glad to have you back. Now realizing I am rather busy at the moment what can I do for you?"

"Nothing for me personally doc, just wanted ta ask what" Ranma paused as the lights went out, and for just a moment he could feel the energy of the ship subside, almost as if the power everywhere aboard had simply fallen silent. As the lights came back on a second later he smirked, "Well, I was gonna ask what that was, and if ya needed any help, and ta ask yer opinion on what I reported about the aliens not having much ki in them."

Emil sighed tiredly. "I've been working on that problem since these short blackouts began two days ago, and I still haven't made much headway. We've run down several problems in the couplings and dozens of place in the energy buses that could have caused a short, but nothing that could have caused something ship-wide. Maintenance is still behind the ball, but not that far."

"huh, well have ya put some fuel in the engine?"

"Fuel. For the reflux engine." Lang said looking blankly at him.

"Well yeah, ain't that how it works, even batteries need ta be plugged in and recharged. Ya keep telling me that this reflux stuff is like ki, well ta regain ki people need ta eat and sleep."

"Fuel, for the reflux engine," Emil said again, staring at the wall across from him blankly. "I'm an idiot. Of course, fuel, just because we can't see the energy inside the container decreasing doesn't mean it's, it's potency remains the same! Gah, and I was so certain it was some kind of limitless energy stream, there's no such damn thing! Now, to figure out what the hell the intake needs to be…" He looked back at Ranma. "Ranma thank you for once again making me see the simple solution to what I assumed was a complex problem. Now, what was your other question?"

Ranma smirked a little. "Always happy ta knock ya off yer ivory tower doc. Seriously, I'm gonna make a plaque that says 'keep it simple stupid' and figure out some way ta make it follow you around. Right now though my question was do you have any theory on why the aliens have so little life energy? Something tells me it's really important."

Emil leaned back in his chair thinking hard. "Hmm, I can't tell you really, but I do have two theories. One, these aliens despite their size simply age far faster than we do, thus a grown soldier would only have as much life energy as a human child. And two, evolution. For whatever reason they seem to value size and physical strength, perhaps pushing their bodies to such size somehow stunted their growth in life energy. Or perhaps something in the cloning process takes away from a person's life energy. Why exactly do you think it's important?"

"I-I don't know really just something's bothering me. I need ta meditate about what I saw on that ship, something is really bothering me about it, that and Dolza having zero ki. I mean he felt like a, a robot almost, one of those mobile drink dispenser things, no energy at all, but he gave this air of… dominance maybe? The others, the little one especially were scared of him, even the tall guy Breetai was, but I just couldn't sense anything really scary there… I don't know, just wanted ta ask, see if talkin' made my mind cough up something. I'll see ya round doc, good luck solving the engine problem."

Dr. Lang nodded absently, wondering what if anything Ranma's observations meant for a moment before turning his mind onto his own problems.

Lisa looked down at her data-pad blankly before opening it and looking at the message that had caused the pad to ping as she looked over Vanessa's shoulder at the tactical problem she was working on. The girl was having a lot of trouble, but she had shown a little improvement so far today, and that was a good thing on her first day learning it. Right now though Lisa turned away from the work she was having the Lt. do to read the message.

'Can't go out tonight, going to join Blue on patrol, rain check or movie night at apartment? R'. Nice, to the point and about as short and simple as I could hope. He is in my line of command after all, way down the line but still that adds to the problems of us…getting together. As to the message itself, I was going to cancel on him anyway, and it's not like going out into the city is really my idea of a good time. Some dinner and dancing can be nice but actually being in public for very long isn't my idea of fun at all, especially since the Miss Macross context.

So, 'join you for dinner at WD, with K or no ok'? She sent the message and received an answer before turning back to look over Vanessa's shoulder again.

About an hour later she looked up as Kim, who had taken over Vanessa's sensor duties, made a sound of irritation. "What is it Kim?" Without Gloval on the bridge she was a bit looser about using first names rather than ranks. After all it was sort of an all-girls club, and in that environment the closeness was better than the respect and discipline that was the case otherwise.

"Um," Kim paused for a moment. "We either have another one of those spy planes out there, or a small attack incoming at long range from aft. The only reason I'm hesitant about saying which is there are no other signs about incoming enemies, and if this was a normal attack there would be."

Lisa frowned as she moved over to see the screen Kim was looking at. She frowned more but nodded. "Maybe a raid rather than an attack, but yes it looks like it." Within moments Lisa had recalled the aft recon patrol and scrambled the two ready flights. She also had the other back up squadrons ready to go just in case. It all happened smoothly without any of the hesitance or mangled orders the squadrons had reluctantly acclimatized to, and they all responded with alacrity at the cool calm and above all professional authority Lisa showed. Vanessa looked on throughout and wondered very briefly if she should be taking notes, and how long it would take her to get that good.

Ranma flew out of the hangar to join the rest of Blue squadron, or the remainder of Blue squadron was more accurate. While blue squadron had not taken the beating a few of the other squadrons had, it still had lost two of its pilots permanently, and was for this battle missing Rick and Ben. That cut it from three flights to two, but all the remaining fighter pilots by this time were among the most experienced still flying. And for this little sortie eight Veritech fighters of one squadron and two other squadrons should be enough.

"All right blues," Eric spoke into the com, "this is probably going to be a small spoiler attack, but in case it isn't I want everyone's eyes wide open and their attention both on the dogfight and on their sensors. They may be trying to draw out the ready squadrons so they can ambush us at the edge of the fortress's radar envelope, they've tried that a few times before, and it has worked before. I don't want it to work this time! Stay sharp and let's hit them!"

Ranma nodded approvingly at the commander's pre-battle semi-speech, and he and Max fell into line behind Motoko's flight, which was short one, but had worked as a threesome before. Within 30 min. of launching the flight was within visual range of the incoming battle pods, and they could see that surrounding the normal pods in a loose sphere were at least ten of the radar jamming type.

Eric's voice came over the radio again. "Green and gold squadrons are going to hammer the attacking pods, our job is to handle any outriders and take out those radar jamming pods before joining the rest of the dogfight. Flight one, peel off to the left and down, flight two to up and to the right. Scissor them and meet at the center of the dogfight. Break on my Mark... Mark!"

Ranma and Max obeying approved combat doctrine followed flight two on its path. The assault was successful and within 10 minutes the flight had destroyed all of the radar jamming pods and joined the dogfight.

As Ranma flew into the dogfight he knew for a fact that this jet he was using now was not responding as quickly or as promptly as his normal fighter, and he also missed the enhanced firepower of the VF 1J variant. Still, it was what they had to hand and he was going to have to deal with it. A moment later he was glad he came because he spotted his old friend Kyron. He immediately said "Max cover my back I'm going to go say hi to an old friend."

"Roger "Max said. He had tangled with the command pod before, and walked away with a respect of its firepower but not the pilot himself. He was good, and probably could've taken Max out if they were both limited to the ground, but out in space he had no chance whatsoever, and Max had made the alien run with its tail between its legs the three times they'd tangled. He could however get in a lucky hit, and with those massive cannons on its arms one hit would have destroyed any of the human machine that didn't have Ranma's ki-enhanced armor. Besides which Max didn't have the personal animosity that Kyron and Ranma seem to share.

"Hello you bastard." Ranma grinned as he said the now familiar taunts as he rocketed toward his enemy. "It's been a while since I've seen your cowardly ass!" Having gotten better since the last time they tangled Ranma emphasized this remark by firing off several hard shots from his rifle, before changing into his soldier mode and kicking the command pod in its posterior, sending it tumbling end over end for a moment.

Kyron righted himself and turned to fire blasting three hard shots through the space that had previously been occupied by Ranma's mechanical fighter, but Ranma had already moved, transforming into Guardian mode and zooming up and away from where the shots had been aimed.

He fired back at Kyron sparking three shots off Kyron's side, one of whom almost removed his left arm entirely. It was still under Kyron's control however and he proved this by firing again at where Ranma was currently.

Ranma almost negligently dodged by turning his guardian mode Valkyrie on its axis to dodge the shots then blasted back again. Kyron this time moved, diving down and coming back up. His back cannon roared sending a beam of coherent light at Ranma.

Ranma jumped over the shot and changed back into fighter mode. Blasting through the dogfight he took out two more pods before coming back at Kyron with his missiles, all six homing in on their target.

Kyron was good enough to shoot five of the six out of the air. The sixth one hit smashing into the front of Kyron's command pod but it didn't cause enough damage to take him out of the fight. Kyron returned fire with all his weapons at once before using his leg thrusters to charge Ranma.

Ranma dodged all three of the shots, and then changed into soldier mode to meet Kyron's charge. His hands lashed out catching both of Kyron's arms and ripping off the one that had already been weakened by his earlier rifle blast. He then used that arm to batter Kyron's front causing further damage to the already damaged the tour of the command pod.

"It looks like you haven't learned anything Kyron, come on, man! You're not even trying!" He teased and then laughed as Kyron shouted his routine threats again. This guy was too easy to rile up, he reminded Ranma of Ryoga back at home. "Yep, same old MO, use brute force and armor to take apart your opponent, no finesse, no skill. I don't know about having you as my rival anymore Kyron it's just getting too easy." And with that Ranma backed off a little kicking the command pod upright and grabbing it around the center and one of its legs using it as a shield his three other battle pods tried to range on him. Laser shots impacted on the command pod for a few seconds before they were all taken out by Max.

Utterly humiliated by this treatment Kyron blasted out of Ranma's grip and away opening the range swiftly through use of three central thrusters that he had heretofore not used. "Another time scum" he blustered, "I will make you pay for this humiliation!"

Ranma shook his head again. "That guy really needs to work on his lines." Max laughed and the two joined up with the rest of blue squadron as they returned to the fortress, battle over for now.

The three Meltraedi spies came out of the maintenance corridor they had been following, having had to hide several times as Micronians came by, and found themselves up high on what was supposed to be the main bay of the space fortress. What they saw instead was so strange they didn't understand it. "W-what is all this?" Anya asked. She looked up, and was astonished to see the ceiling of the hanger had been painted to resemble the sky of a planet, presumably the third planet in the system which was the home of these Micronians.

Lucretia didn't bother answering too busy looking down and seeing the Micronians walking around below them in and out of odd closed off areas.

"I don't know said Sonya, ignoring the sinking feeling that had suddenly hit her gut, "But I think we have our work cut out for us."

The next two weeks as the space fortress traveled to Saturn fell into a pattern (well, for everyone but the three spies). While the attacks were larger than the first attack that occurred a day after Ranma and the other ex-prisoners had returned, they weren't of such a size that required more than a fifth of the squadrons to respond any given time.

Not that this gave the captain or Lisa any false sense of security. They all too well remembered what had occurred the last time they try to fight their way through an asteroid field. To that end, while only five squadrons were on call at any given time, the other twenty rotated daily through various exercises on both simulators and in outer space to give more experience to the fighter pilots.

Further, the survivors of the battle in Saturn's rings were ordered by Lisa to give lectures on how that fight had gone for every squad. While the squadrons were not dealing with the sheer exhaustion that had led to some of those casualties, she did not want anyone to believe that that alone had led to the massive losses that they had sustained in that fight. Nor did she want the fact that they still had twenty-four of the twenty-five squadrons now fully manned after the third class of trainees joined them go to anyone's head.

To Rick and a few of the others this was seemed a little too much, after all the planetary ring of Jupiter was far more open than the asteroid ring around Saturn, most of the mass caught by the super-gas giants gravity had been forced into its moons, leaving dust that could block their radar but not their eyes. The majority of the pilots disagreed. And even Rick had to admit that being prepared and making sure all the other fighter pilots were also prepared could only help them in the event of an attack. He just wasn't certain if that attack was coming. Rick tended to only think in the short term, and to him the daily attacks were more than enough to worry about.

The closer the fortress came to the outer edge of Jupiter's planetary ring, the more worried old soldiers like the captain and the commandant and, strangely to some Ranma, became. While his personal life with Lisa and Kasumi was going great (better than anything else in his life ever) his instincts were telling him that something big was on the horizon.

About seven hours out from the asteroid rings outer room edge, their caution and worry were rewarded. Vanessa, for once working her normal job as radar and sensor analysts, spotted several incoming attacks on various vectors, all of whom were larger than the ones they had been seeing the past few weeks.

The attacks had been picked up at the edge of the ships envelope Lisa decided to call the captain before issuing any orders beyond scrambling the ready squadrons.

As he had expected something like this to occur Gloval was on the bridge within 2 min. of being summoned. As he analyzed the data he saw something that hadn't occurred to Lisa, the fact that these attacks were coming along very strict lane and had not separated to envelop the ship. This meant several lanes of fire were still free to fire through and Gloval immediately ordered the barrier defense systems online.

As the twenty small globes began to glow with light and move around randomly on the space fortress' outer armor incoming shots along those lines of fire proved that Gloval had made the right decision. With the barrier systems already activated all but one, which banged into the Prometheus' side armor, were deflected or absorbed.

Gloval nodded at Lt. Young, "Return fire with secondary weapons against the forces in front of us, ignore the shots coming from our rear for now, we can't slow down to turn and engage them, going forward is the only viable plan." He then turned to Claudia. "Sound battle stations, sound alarms and get the civilians into their shelters, we may need to change into siege mode at any moment."

As those two turned back to their stations he turned to Lisa. "Keep the firing lanes at the front of the ship open. As soon as we have targets we will go to continuous fire on the secondary weapons, and at some point we will be firing the reflux cannon, I don't want any of our own fighters destroyed in that assault. The rest of the fight is yours to command."

Lisa nodded grimly and began to relay orders to all squadron commanders to scramble fighters. She would rotate the main 5 squadrons out to delay and damage one incoming attack then back in to rearm as the rest of their Veritech force hit them in turn.

Hopefully she could get away with that strategy for a little while and defeat two or three of the incoming assaults in detail before the remainder close with the space fortress. Thank God Dr. Lang was able to enlarge our radar envelope she thought. It might not be as powerful within that envelope as I would like, but the range it gives is really nice. It would also allow her to rest the destroid squadrons for a few more hours before they would be needed. Though I wish there was some way I could take some of the pressure of the battle off the Veritechs, that's just not going to happen. In space, it had been proven again and again Veritechs were the best defense, none of the destroids even came close to being as effective, not even the defenders with their long range autocannons because of their inability to defend themselves in close range.

As the first five squadrons went out to meet one of the incoming assaults, she spent a brief moment sending out a prayer to any God who was listening that her friends would be all right.

With Ben still sidelined by a broken arm Blue flight three was down to three effectives, and Ranma had ordered Max and Rick to fly together and was acting as the squadron's troubleshooter. That meant he would go wherever the fighting was most difficult and keep an over-watch on the rest of the squadron. Commander Prescott had thought that this use of the odd man out was a good one and gave his ok.

Squadrons Blue, Gold, Bronze, Red, and Orange came into outer missile range of the enemy battle pods, and immediately started exchanging missile fire with the pods that were loaded for artillery.

As per usual when facing the almost rocket-like alien fire of the artillery pods the Valkyries got the better of the exchange, losing only one Veritech in bronze squadron and hammering the artillery pods under to a pod.

Per Lisa's orders those first five squadrons rotated back to the space fortress as the next five lined up their shots. This rotating fire was continued until the first assault thus targeted had been completely wiped out by missiles, with the defenders only losing four Valkyries to take out 150 pods. They were only able to do this once however, as it had taken too long and the other assaults got too close to the space fortress for the starfighters to be able to rearm and head out again.

When this occurred Lisa immediately pulled all the squadrons back into the Defender's firing envelope. She assigned each squadron a small angle of the assault to defend, keeping Skull, Vermillion and the other elite squadrons back to use as emergency reserve. She turned over command of the destroids to Vanessa and Mannstein while she took command of the Veritech's positioning and rotation. Each squadron's area overlapped a little allowing them to go to one another's aid without having to call it in, but she wanted to make certain she could rotate the elites out to relive any area that started to fall below a certain level in ammunition or started taking too many casualties.

For a time this defensive plan works to a T, keeping losses as low as possible while forcing the enemy battlepods to run the gauntlet to even come close to the space fortress. However the pressure from aft began to warp the defensive envelop, with the enemy concentrating their assaults there. Lisa was forced to push more of the Veritech squadrons to that area, and they began to be left behind by the fortress as it continued.

About three hours into the battle hoping to flush the ambush in the planetary ring if it was there, captain Gloval ordered the space fortress changed into its siege mode and the main cannon fired. Lights all over the fortress flickered on and off as the fortress powered both the secondary weapons and the transformation for a time.

Once the transformation was complete the reflex cannon fired its monstrous beam of power, lancing out into the darkness and impacting the distant planetary ring, cutting a large swath into the dust that made up a large part of it, as well as impacting one of the smaller unnamed asteroids almost incidentally destroying three enemy battleships caught between the fortress and the planetary ring. Once that was accomplished the star fortress turned slightly in place to both sides, using its cannon like a huge giant flyswatter to destroy the incoming assaults on those sides along with the carriers behind them.

The attack from directly aft however continued. The space fortress changed back into flight mode and continued forward into the space it had created calling two thirds of the squadrons back to rearm but leaving the rest out there and moving further away from the dogfight.

By this time nearly 6 hours had passed the fortress since the attack began. Another hour passed then the space fortress entered the zone it had cleared, and the Valkyries fighting behind the fortress were practically running on empty. Lisa recalled them and sent out another ten squadrons to relive them, along with Skull and the other elite squads. While tactically sound when looking at the information she had at the time, this decision was precisely the wrong one as when the Queadluun Rau appeared, it was at exactly the wrong time for the embattled battleship.

Miriya smiled. She hadn't agreed with Azonia that they shouldn't bunch up their forces; she wanted to hit the enemy battleship with all their fighters at once. However Azonia had correctly guessed that the enemy battleship would fire into the planetary ring with its siege cannon before closing. Thus, instead of losing the majority of her Queadluun Rau hidden behind the large asteroid/small moon closest to their axis of advance, they had lost only 10 fighters space fortress fired. Now her entire force boiled out from their hiding places behind the moons humans called Thebes and Amalthea.

"Flight commander to all flights: Wait until the enemy starfighters are about to enter the fortress, close the distance quickly and kill!" Within seconds she suited action to word, firing her ventral thrusters and zooming out of her hiding place in the asteroid ring into the newly created open space around the fortress firing three of her missiles at an enemy fighter and her two main lasers at a second. Both fighters exploded and she continued on, the other Queadluun Rau at her heels.

The Queadluun Rau model power armor was the pinnacle of Zen/Meltraedi technology with two fusion reactors, six ventral thrusters on a light but powerfully built and heavily armored frame. They had both the legs and armor to stand up against anything any other race could put into the field, with two thrusters as large as a Veritechs and many vernier thrusters for maximum mobility, and more armor than even a Glaug. With two medium bore impact cannons the size of a Glaug's smaller arm cannons, 126 mini-missiles stored in their kneecaps and bulky shoulder packs, and two bundles of three pulse lasers under-slung on their arms they also had more firepower than nearly any starfighter in space. While at long-range their lock on ability was not nearly as good as the human Valkyrie, they were far more maneuverable, armored and armed. Even in a standup fight, they would've been more than a match for any destroid or Valkyrie, but as it was every advantage accrued to them, and the reaped a bitter harvest from the weary Micronians.

Lisa paled as a new type of fighter closed the range faster than she could react, far faster than she had thought anything the aliens had could move. They were so fast in fact that the Defender fire, fire that had since the beginning of this war proven deadly to enemy battlepods, was completely ineffective. As three of the front runners closed the distance and proceeded to ram missiles into one of the secondary turrets, she forcefully shook off her initial panic.

She swiftly recalled most of the other squadrons to aid in the defense of the fortress, but only three of them were able to break off the engagement still going on outside the asteroid ring's area.

And even when they did these new fighters proved to be more than a match for the Valkyrie. There seemed to be far fewer of these new fighters than there were battlepods, in fact for once the human seems to have an edge in numbers, but it was availing them very little. Even as she watched two whole squadrons were cut off from their fellows and wiped out.

She forcefully blocked out the number of casualties they were taking and tried to coolly analyze the new attack and route the incoming squadrons to the defense of the fortress. She knew however that this time their enemies had outfoxed him, and the destroids and Valkyrie squadrons were going to pay the price. If they couldn't, the whole fortress could possibly fall.

Ranma and Blue squadron were among the second group to engage the new class of alien power armor, and they did so with blood in their eyes at the loss of so many of their fellows to the enemy's firepower. For all their anger however they didn't break ranks, each Blue squadron member guarding the others back. While this allowed them to better match these new mechs, they were still losing members on a one-to-one basis.

That was before an enemy mech painted purple rather than the normal green of these new mechs rocketed into their defensive envelope from the wreckage of Gold squadron, and immediately engaged all of Blue flight one by itself. A swarm of missiles impacted Blue two, while pulse laser fire almost hit Commander Prescott and a cannon round each destroyed Blue three and four.

Ranma, sensing that this pilot was different from the others, rocketed in to meet it.

Miriya smiled as the one she recognized as the destroyer of the scout ship came out to meet her from its fellows. "Now we will see how good you really are human," she said to herself and began to fire, not even waiting for her lock on systems to engage.

Shots clipped the other mech's wings, but it didn't halt its ascent toward her, and she frowned as she noticed that it had not even been damaged by that shot. Interesting. Another two shots went home, but these were answered by one shot that nearly grazed her and five that missed her because she dodged them downward and the two closed to hand-to-hand range.

Almost immediately Miriya realized this was a mistake as the other mech transformed into soldier mode and hammered three hard blows with it's legs and arms into Miriya's mech, only two of which she was able to block. The third hammer blow smacked into her fighter's head, and she frowned as she lost long-range radar and the visual out of one of her power armor's eyes. Using her main cannons she forced the other pilot to dodge to the side and backed off, engaging at long range once more.

As Ranma and the enemy ace exchanged fire Rick and the other Blue squadron members were putting up a valiant fight, but without missiles of their own were losing badly, and the other squadrons weren't performing any better.

Max shot a flight of mini missiles out of the sky, but two still impacted his mech on it's leg blowing off. With a grimace Max transformed back into fighter mode and slipped behind Rick, who took the frontal position of the two. He began to lay down covering fire even as he glanced over at where Ranma and the enemy ace were battling it out, moving faster than even he could follow.

Ranma changed into fighter mode and flew away from the enemy ace as he/she/it/whatever attempted to use a full flight of its many missiles on him. With the added range Ranma was just barely able to shoot them all down before closing in again, transferring into Guardian mode at the last second and kicking the enemy pod in its side as its came up behind him.

The enemy pod grabbed his leg however and twisted around throwing him through space to impact on a piece of a moon that had been clipped by the space fortress's fire. Ranma changed into soldier mode and used his foot thrusters to skate along the edge of the asteroid underneath and around coming back and firing before the enemy fighter could break off the engagement.

Rather than attempting to do so however, the alien mech had stayed in close and fire from all six of its arm lasers forced Ranma to duck under and dive forward to avoid them. He accidently let up on his grip controls as he dove, but in so doing he lost his rifles, both his own and the one he took from Kyron.

However this allowed him to come in close and he reached up with his arms grabbing the underside of his opponent's arms and crushing the laser bundles there before the other pilot kicked him away. The kick was so strong that Ranma could see cracks in his canopy and his armor buckling under the blow but he just grinned fiercely. Whoever this guy is he's way better than Kyron, this is the best fight I've had since, well leaving Earth frankly. Just a one-on-one smackdown he thought to himself.

Eric tried desperately to get a handle on the battle his squadron was in, but knew he was losing the bubble badly as yet another Blue squad member died. With a snarl he opened fire on the enemy mech that had killed his pilot, destroying it in turn but leaving himself open to fire from behind. He was able to transform into guardian mode and turn around and blow four of the mini-missiles targeting him out of the air but the other six impacted. He was able to take two of them on his wings and back, but the others hit his main fuselage and a moment later Eric Prescott was no more.

Even engaged with the enemy ace as he was Ranma saw on his HUD the blue dot marking blue one disappear. He froze inside even as he ordered the rest of the squadron, now only really a flight size, to join Vermillion and Bronze in falling back towards the ship.

The enemy ace however wouldn't let Ranma escape, keeping in close and firing missiles and cannon at him faster than he could react to. More and more he had to force his own energy into his mechanical fighter to keep the armor strengthening technique up, and he was losing both battery and personal ki fast. This guy is good, he thought grimly I'm going to have to pull out all the stops.

Even as he said that Lisa's voice crackled over the com "All starfighters, all starfighters retreat to the fortress repeat retreat to the fortress. We are nearly through the asteroid field and will be immediately entering Jupiter's atmosphere. All fighters must be inside the fortress before we hit atmosphere!"

Lisa knew that breaking off this battle was not going to be nearly as easy as it had been the last time they did this, and had called up all of the destroids and placed them at the aft of the battleship hoping that the amount of firepower rather than aimed fire would allow them to break off with his new battlepods who had taken such a ravening toll of the Valkyries. Lisa didn't even want to think about how many pilots had died in the last few hours but she knew that it was a grievous toll.

She watched one battle in particular on and off, the enemy ace and Ranma had been battling for more an hour now, and neither of them had been able to score a kill. She shuddered to think what that ace would've been able to do to the rest of their starfighters, and Defender destroids if Ranma hadn't occupied his attention. Their losses had been more than enough without its help, she thought grimly, looking at the number of squadrons and gun teams that had disappeared from her screen.

Ranma shouted out "Moko Takabashi!" slamming his robot's hands forward and firing a beam of golden light at his enemy, but rather than be shocked or surprised the enemy simply dodged to the side only losing one of its shoulder guards. It lost control of that arm and it flailed loosely at the mechs side but the alien blew off one of Ranma's legs at the knee in return.

The enemy fighter used its ventral thrusters to body slam Ranma backward. Ranma poured all of his energy into his strengthening technique as the two barreled through three asteroids before impacting the side of the space fortress.

Ranma slammed his arms down in a hammer blow onto the back of the enemy mech destroying two of its thrusters before kicking away with his one remaining leg. Two point-blank blasts from the enemy's cannons impacted his robots chest blowing off the side of his cockpit and Ranma gasped grabbing at his air mask on his right side even as his cockpit was opened to space.

He slipped it on and kept fighting, crashing a one-two punch combo into the enemy mech's torso destroying one of its cannons, but in return his arm was caught and the other enemy star-fighter tried to break it.

Ranma grabbed one of the enemy mech's arms behind its armored elbow and even as the enemy mech began to crack his own arm's armor ripped its arm off at the elbow. Rather than be dismayed by losing its last remaining arm the enemy fighter again fired its last remaining main cannons, catching Ranma's own left arm, overcoming his armoring technique and blowing it off in a welter of electric fire. The enemy mech then used his thrusters to open the range and fired ten mini-missiles at Ranma.

Ranma changed into star-fighter mode using his remaining thrusters to thrust away from them incoming missiles and getting more range before turning and blasting them via the small lasers set into his Valkyries head. The missiles blew up four at a time, but three of them still got through his fire to impact his Mech, blowing him backward but his armor strengthening technique was still up and running, allowing him to just barely survive the blasts.

Lisa's voice suddenly made itself known in his helmet, "Ranma pull back! We're entering the atmosphere and there's already only two hangers still outside the atmosphere! You're the last fighter in!"

Ranma looked around and noticed it was true, in fact the only enemy still within firing range was the enemy ace that he had been fighting, the other fighters had all pulled back. Indeed, now that he could concentrate on it he could feel the wind blowing through the hole in his cockpit. He opened all channels of communication hoping that the enemy pilot would hear him, though it looked as if the enemy pilot was pulling back already not wanting to fight both Ranma and the atmosphere. "I guess we'll have to finish this some other time, I hope you get better in the meantime, I know for damn sure I will." He forced his mech to bow briefly from the waist before turning and rocketing away.

Miriya pushed her helmet off her hair letting her green hair float in the cockpit of her power armor so she could wipe away the blood from one of the cuts that she had taken when her head crashed against her console with her one working arm, thankfully losing power to her suits arm didn't translate to anything on her, unlike her other arm, which was broken in at least two places if she was any judge. This battle had been the toughest she had ever had; she was out of missiles, down to one laser cannon and had lost both of her arms as well as most of her back thrusters, and her powersuit's main body had taken several hard hits, resulting in at least a few of her own ribs breaking.

However it was also obvious that if she had more missiles she would've won this fight outright with that last exchange. The enemy Mech had no weapons left but the four lasers in its head and had lost both arms and one of its legs. Still, it had been a very close thing, and she nodded as the enemy tried to communicate with her via body language, even if she couldn't understand the verbal communication it was trying. She bowed her mech's head slightly as the Micronian fighter bowed from the waist, much like a Meltraedi would after a training battle, before rocketing away to catch up with its retreating mothership.

As she clutched her ribs with her still working arm she reflected I'll take a technical victory this time, but next time you will fall before me Micronian ace, I swear it.

Ranma breathed a sigh of relief as the enemy fighter nodded at him and turned away, transforming into fighter mode himself and rocketing towards the nearest hangar bay, which opened as he closed. It opened just enough to let him inside and then closed behind him with a crash as he skidded along the floor, losing power even as he landed.

He wasn't even able to stop his star-fighter impacting the far end of the hangar, though thankfully it had expended most of its acceleration on the floor of the hanger. As he lifted himself out of his battered Valkyrie he thought, That was too damn close. I need to find out a way to make this fighter stronger, at least make it react better. This whole fight was too damn close, and I get the impression they let us escape at the end there, they sure as hell didn't take as many casualties as we did. Whatever the case, those new fighters of theirs are monsters and we need to figure out a way to combat them, or we'll never make it back to earth no matter how long we stay hidden here.

end chapter

Hope everyone liked my intro to Miriya. It always irritated me that Max was her equal after only what, six months, whereas she had been an ace for years at least. In this story she will be tougher, and both her and Azonia, another character the original shortchanged, will have their roles beefed up. Physical descriptions of the spies will be in the next chapter. I tried to make the combat in the planetary ring of Jupiter different from the asteroid ring ambush, hope i succeeded.

*Chapter 15*: Downtime comes in all shapes and sizes

I don't own the robots or Robotech.

Glad everyone liked my introduction to Miriya, and I'm glad the ideas for ways to beef up the human forces keep coming. I will say that the SDF 2 will not make an appearance until after they head to Earth, where the story will start to diverge even more than it already has. Just to be clear, I have mixed up the number of mechs the SDF1 has onboard, as the website mentions the numbers but not the organization, and as I mentioned in my story I made the Phalanx useless against the Zentraedi and the monster is too unwieldy to be used in space against a battlepod attack. It would be put on the hull for ship to ship action though.

So the forces of the original looked like, 240 mixed Valkyrie types, with the Vf-1S going to a few choice aces and 587 destroids (no unit organization shown in the anime or on the website I use) of mixed type, I wanted to be more specific in the classes and roles.

Oh there is a bit of limish/lemon in this, you have been warned.

My laptop is down and with it my Dragon Naturally speaking, so my writing speed is way down. WW and DvC will be getting the lions share of my attention until DvC is done.

Chapter 14 Downtime comes in all shapes and sizes

The losses against the never-before-seen alien mechs had been beyond anything the space forces had faced before. Of the 12 Defender companies (each made up of forty mechs) that had started the fight, only 30 Defenders had made it through the fight. The Tomahawks had fared a little better, of the three companies, they had about enough to form a single company left. The 4 Spartan companies hadn't been used at the start of the fight, but when they had been forced forward as part of the reserve they hadn't fared any better except at extreme close range, losing nearly 100 mechs.

Of the 24 Veritech squadrons they had at the start, only three had come through with enough fighters left to be considered at fighting strength, and even then only because they had come from the battle against the regular battlepods and docked straight away with the retreating space fortress. Of the remaining 21, 12 had been completely wiped out, and five more had lost nearly all of their men. Skull and Vermillion had lost over half their fighters, and were the only surviving so called elite squads, with Green and Gold wiped out, the latter almost entirely slaughtered by the alien ace Ranma had fought. While many squadrons had lost members in the running battles since Mars, this had in one stroked multiplied those loses by a factor of fifty.

Blue squadron had lost their commander and his entire flight as well as every fighter pilot but Motoko in her flight and were down to four pilots: Max, Motoko, Rick and Ranma, and only Max and Rick, who had attempted to keep their distance from the new mechs engaging only at long range, were at all capable of flight. The other two mechs had been badly battered and were not air worthy. Even once Ben came back from his broken arm they wouldn't have even half a squadron.

So once again Macross had retreated into a planet's atmosphere with its Air Group decimated, with its Ground Command thrown in for good measure. Morale sank to a new low, and this time Gloval had no speech that could lift their spirits, no fact that he could use to heal their morale. They had been schooled, then allowed to withdraw and he knew it and was in fact meeting with the senior officers to discuss that very fact and what it meant in the long term.

The surviving pilots gathered in the fighter briefing room, once again like the last time. Ranma waited with Rick on one side, Motoko leaning against his other side and Max slumped wearily behind him for Gloval to show up and give a speech. He looked at his friends and knew all of them had given their all in this fight, but it still hadn't been enough.

Come on captain, ya better get down here, or… or what, a morale problem, right, like his speech last time would do anything with this crowd, other than Roy and, he looked around, wincing as he only saw two other pilots that had been with the UNSF when the ship left earth, Vermillion's Pike and Zack Fontero from Green, two others there's not a career soldier among us, fuck, that speech about objectives and shit wouldn't do a damn thing. He reached over and stroked Motoko's hair gently, and she raised weary, beaten eyes to look at him, eyes that had seen her entire flight die around her, that knew she had been beaten and he knew everyone around them had that look.

Hell even he would have that look if his one on one match hadn't been so…. exhilarating. I need to think about that later, as well as losing Eric. That hurt, though surprisingly not as much as it should, like he was numb or something.

Ranma waited another few minutes while Roy was starting to wonder if he should make a speech, something he wasn't really willing to do or very good at. But before he could force himself to try Ranma lost his patience and stood up and moving to the front of the room.

He whistled for attention and when everyone was looking at him began. "Alright you lot, I know you think you got beat, hell I know we did get beat!" There were mutterings and rumblings at that but no one, not even Roy argued the point. "But ya know what, I may be the best damn martial artist of my generation but I've been beaten lots of times." More mutterings, this time of surprise and Ranma let them think about that for a moment before continuing. "Beaten yeah but never defeated! Ya want ta know the difference? Beaten means ya lose a fight, defeated means ya lose the war! When I was beaten I learned my opponents moves, how ta make them better, and how ta beat them! And this fight, this war is the same damn thing!"

The mutterings grew louder, and a few even cheered. Motoko and Max both perked up; being martial artists themselves they knew this was true, but they were both wondering what Ranma had learned. "Okay, ya need an example how about this one: these new fighters don't have the range of our missiles, if more of us had missiles when they attacked, we would've done way better, so from now on we keep a few missiles in reserve just in case. Two, they have the same problem we do in soldier mode, no back vision. If ya get behind 'em they can't transform ta face ya like we can, and they ain't as fast in a stern chase as we are."

He looked around at the thoughtful but still sad and exhausted faces and knew he had to say something more. "I ain't gonna spout out about how we needed ta be out there for some lame ass objective or nothin' I will say this: most of you have families or loved ones, maybe they're aboard the ship, or maybe back on Earth. Now I don't know about all of you, but I didn't decide ta join the SDF just ta fly, I did it ta protect those I care about. I risk my life so they can live theirs in peace from these Zentraedi bastards, because let me tell ya, I met their leader and he is an all or nothing sort. Once he gets this ship or whatever the hell he wants taken in one piece he's gonna go for Earth! Now I don't know about you lot, but I ain't gonna let humanity go down without a fight! Who's with me!?" The pilots gave a ragged cheer, and he continued. "Good, now get your asses out of here, do whatever the hell ya need ta do ta get yer heads on straight and ready for the next dustup 'cause when we do fight these new bastards again I want us all ready ta kick them so hard they'll think they went inta fold!"

The pilots gave a greater cheer at that and started to file out of the room. If they still didn't have much enthusiasm to face the new enemy mechs again, at least the air of defeat had disappeared. Roy shook his head amused and impressed by how well Ranma had rallied the troops, even if he had unilaterally taken over Roy's command.

Motoko walked up to Ranma as Max and Rick walked by, slapping him on the shoulder and back in thanks respectively. She waited until everyone left, even Roy who was utterly exhausted and needed a good hug and bed in that order before even thinking further, then hugged Ranma tightly. "Thank you for that Ranma, you put it all in perspective for us." She smirked "if you were in your female form right now I'd give you such a kiss!"

Ranma blushed. "Yeah well, thinking about that, I'm gonna get out of here now, and go see Kasumi. Unless ya want ta come over for a sleepover or something, I know ya don't have any family aboard and company can keep the nightmares at bay."

Motoko thought for a bit, that much was true at least, she had been on the island in the first place as an attempt to get away from her family who did not accept her sexual orientation and had been trying to set her up with men every time she turned around. It had gotten to the point where her long standing girlfriend had been unable to take the pressure and broken things off, and Motoko had left to see if she could make a new life for herself in the steadily growing Macross city.

And I do get along with Kasumi, Nodoka and Ranma far better than anyone else aboard. And Ranma's also right that company will help keep the night terrors at bay. But after a dustup like this Kasumi might be planning something 'special' to make certain Ranma knows how she appreciates his continued survival so... "Tell you what, I'll take a shower and call Kasumi, if she agrees I'll come over then okay?"

Ranma nodded and Motoko walked out nearly bumping into Lisa who had just come in. She looked around and then at Ranma who, now that no one was there to see, let himself sag a little in weariness and pain. The fight with the enemy ace had taken a lot out of him. Wordlessly Lisa walked over and put her arms around him from behind. After tensing a moment she could feel him relax and he turned, lifting her chin slightly to give her a kiss on the forehead. Lisa wouldn't allow him to get away with that though and met his lips with her own.

Like the other times they had kiss since getting together they both felt the spark of desire, though this time they were too tired for anything more than merely taking comfort from the act, reaffirming they were both okay and had one another. They broke the kiss slowly and Lisa sighed, moving back a little though still in Ranma's embrace. "I take it someone else was able to give a rallying speech? Captain Gloval was busy with the senior officers and sent me down to do it this time, then he and Mannstein were going to go over and talk to the destroid crews." She grimaced and Ranma joined her. To both of them that sounded as if he had his priorities skewed at best, at worst he was being a little cowardly in not facing the losses among the Valkyrie squadrons head on.

Ranma filled her in on what had happened and she gave him another hug to show her approval. "Are you up for grabbing some food? Kasumi says she can meet us at the White Dragon or to call her so she can start on cooking dinner." It amazed Lisa sometimes how easily she had fallen into the habit of thinking of the three of them as one unit in the last week or so, but then again the process had started months ago when she had become friends with them both, this was sort of the logical conclusion.

"Um sure, just want ta grab a shower. I sort of invited Motoko over too, she lost her whole flight to those new mechs, and she ain't got any family or anything for her ta go home to." He trailed off, knowing this could be taken badly by his 'new' girlfriend, inviting another girl into their home.

Lisa however smiled. While Motoko's preference for female companionship wasn't widely known among the male population, it was well known among the womenfolk. In fact rumor had it she had a bit of a crush on one of her flight, a Rachel Cunningham who had been a short buxom brunette, and she was probably in a lot more emotional pain than she wanted even Ranma to know. "So long as you stay in male form for the night I don't mind at all. Just remind Motoko that when off duty we may be friendly and 'normal'" she used quotations marks for a moment and Ranma chuckled "like so many civilians, but when on duty we are on duty? I really don't want to come down on her for too much familiarity all right?" Ranma nodded and the two left as he sent a message to Kasumi and Motoko.

Lisa and Ranma, both showered and changed into clean uniforms (which they both had taken to using as everyday wear, neither were people who enjoyed making a lot of decisions about clothing) met up with Kasumi, Nodoka and Motoko outside of the White Dragon. All three were dressed in more traditional garb, ranging from a priceless family kimono on Nodoka to a very good dress on Kasumi and Motoko. Nodoka and Kasumi welcomed them both with hugs to Lisa and kisses on the check from Nodoka and hugs for Lisa and a gentle kiss to the lips for Ranma from Kasumi.

The group entered the restaurant and immediately saw that they were not the only ones to come here tonight. Minmei was there, gently holding Rick's arm as he leaned against her shoulder, eating almost automatically from the plate in front of him. While they weren't a couple yet, they were definitely going in that direction, and it was only waiting for one or the other to make that final push. Rick had broken up with Sammy a week earlier, and was now simply gathering his courage.

In another corner Roy and Claudia sat, both in their uniforms like Ranma and Lisa, eating and talking quietly. Neither of them looked as emotionally devastated as the younger people around them. Having seen action before the aliens arrived they had unfortunately become inured to loss. Other tables were taken up by a few destroid and Veritech pilots and their families. This scene was occurring in practically every other restaurant in the city, and the bars would be far worse. The civilians had yet to realize how badly their guardians had been mauled, but when they did, it could be ugly and Lisa idly wondered if that was one of the reasons Gloval had wanted to meet with the other officers, to help prepare a message or plan to clam things down.

Minmei looked up as the Sugita family (with additions) came in and she left Rick with a few quiet words, hurrying over to them and pulling Ranma and then Motoko into hugs. Ranma gave her a gentle squeeze in turn but Motoko blushed heavily and stood there stiffly until Minmei released her. It had been a long time for her, and she was starting to get antsy. She turned to Ranma whispering "Rick told me how bad it was, it really put my own problems into perspective. Is there anything I can do to help?" She left the offer open, not really knowing what she could do, but wanting to help in some fashion to ease the pain of so many lost or just to help her friends deal with it.

Ranma shook his head. "Not for me nah, I just need time ta get over it, maybe throw a wake for the commander and then find something to hit. Hard."

Kasumi however had a much better grasp of human emotions and nature than Ranma and knew exactly what the popular young girl could do. "I think the best thing you can do is throw some kind of 'Thank you for your service' free concert or something like that. I think the soldiers need something to remind them all what they are defending, and to see that we civilians respect and are thankful it."

Nodoka nodded sharply, looking at her with approval. "Yes, I'll speak to Mayor Luan about setting something like that up and maybe a large discount at all the shops and restaurants as a thank you as well. You all sacrifice so much for us, it's the least we can do."

Minmei agreed wholeheartedly, adding that she would have a new song ready soon and would start setting it up from her end. Nodoka replied she would talk to Mr. Devray as well. The soldiers however were much more concerned about food and made their way over to a table. Food and a reaffirmation of life beckoned.

At the same time the humans in the space fortress were dealing with the aftermath of their loss, Azonia and Miriya were discussing what to do next. "While the main fleet sits outside of the third planet's lunar orbit, I want you to lead a small force of 2 carriers and their accompanying Queadluun-Rau forces. That will give you 250 mechs. While I will also place Kyron's fleet there, it will be your job to observe the enemy and if the opportunity presents itself commit our forces as I'll be too far away to control the engagement. Are you physically up for that, or do your injuries bother you too much?"

Miriya sat in a chair across from her admiral with both her arms wrapped in gauze, one from the elbow down and one only on the shoulder, and her left leg as well as some across her chest, binding a pair of cracked ribs. The Queadluun-Rau was power armor, not a mechanized pod, and the damage her armor had sustained had been translated in small part to her body. This meant that in addition to her ribs Miriya's left arm would have a new scar on it near the elbow, as would her right shoulder, and her leg was broken. She had also received a small cut over one of her eyes from when her visor had cracked from an impact with her forward view plate.

For all of her injuries however Miriya was remarkably upbeat. "I am more than well enough to take command of the force Lady. My injuries will be gone within a week at most, as you well know." Azonia nodded, Miriya had the most incredible healing rate she had ever seen and had survived injuries that would have killed any other Meltraedi several times in the past. "As for actually commanding it, my personal suit of power armor will need to be replaced before I can take the field again."

Azonia nodded again. "And do you have any problem working with Kyron? You won't be under his command of course, but he may try to order you around anyway."

Miriya snorted. "Kyron is all bluster and anger, no skill. If he tries anything I'll gut his fleet for him and personally break him in half. Though" she paused looking at her admiral "When you are delving into the third planets data-net could you see if they had anything on the Micronian ace I dueled, or anything about how they see personal combat. I had thought from the data we were given that the pilot was a female, but the voice that came over their com when he had to retreat to rejoin their ship as it entered the gas giant's atmosphere was that of a male. His skill was the same, if anything he was better, and it was definitely the same mech, its coloration is rather distinctive."

Azonia nodded. "I'll issue that order to the electronic warfare division. Anything else you can think of, I've already determined we'll simply grab as much information as we can and go over it all once we pick up our spies after they come back out from the planet's atmosphere."

"Anything about hand to hand combat" Miriya answered promptly "it's a form of combat only our own Queadluun-Rau can do, and their ace was far better than any of those Invid freaks that sometimes attempt it." She snarled the word Invid, and Azonia answered with her own scowl. All Zentraedi and Meltraedi hated the Invid as their only true rival race.

"I'll see to it." Azonia nodded in dismissal and Miriya rose from her chair with difficulty, though none of the pain she was feeling showed on her face. Azonia nodded in approval at the control of the other female as her ace pilot walked out of her command room. She had a shuttle to catch.

Within fifteen minutes of Miriya leaving the Shadow Dagger (rough translation, the name of her ship would translate to 'the dagger that strikes and cripples from the darkness') two carriers broke off from the loose cordon around the huge gas giant, and the rest of the fleet folded out, aiming for orbit around the moon of the third planet out form the sun.

Lisa woke up to a hand over her mouth. Her eyes opened wide as her arms came up in automatic defense, grabbing the thumb and wrist behind the hand before stilling as Motoko's face loomed into her vision with a finger raised to her lips asking for silence. Lisa nodded her head, waking up fully and asking with an arched eyebrow what the other girl was doing.

A low sensual moan coming from down the hallway of the Sugita's apartment answered her question, and Lisa blushed. A soft murmuring of caressing words, the tone reaching them but not the words themselves came next, and Lisa blushed further even as Motoko removed her hand, eyes glinting in humor at her over her own rosy blush, prominent despite the remains of her Hawaiian native tan which was slowly disappearing as the artificial sun the civilians had created didn't have the UV rays the sun had.

She motioned Lisa to follow her and after a moment's hesitation (overcome by the thought you've already seen what he has to offer, you might as well see how he uses it, and how the hell are you going to be in a relationship with two other people if you keep your prudish attitude!?) she did so, moving down the hallway to Ranma's room. They both looked inside the slightly ajar door, seeing the reason for it, a slipper kicked off a little too casually, before concentrating on the activity on the bed.

Ranma was sitting up with Kasumi in his lap, both of them naked as the day they were born. Kasumi had her back arched and her mouth open, moaning throatily as Ranma's hips hammered up to meet her down-strokes. Ranma's hands were on her buttocks kneading gently and his lips occupied with her left nipple licking and sucking. Even as they watched from the side Kasumi shuddered, gasped, and swiftly pulled his head up into a kiss to muffle her scream as she came. Motoko, who was concentrating more on Kasumi than Ranma, noticed that she could now see the girl's juices dripping down from where the two were joined at the hips.

Ranma kissed Kasumi just as deeply as she was him, letting the girl bask in the afterglow before changing their position to place the almost boneless Kasumi on her back and began to piston in and out of her again in the missionary position, her large perky breasts once more grabbing his attention.

The two girls kept watching for the next forty minutes as Kasumi slowly began to come alive and return her lover's thrusts. He kept their lips locked to keep her moans down to a manageable level, only leaving them long enough to whisper 'I love you' in her ear a few times. Lisa could feel her body beginning to react and a look above her could see twin points denoting Motoko's own arousal. This is the hottest thing I have ever seen! she thought as her eyes were drawn back like lodestones to the action. She continued to watch as Kasumi shuddered and bucked hard off the bed, obviously having another orgasm as Ranma changed the angle and speed of his thrusts. That does it I am definitely getting some of this soon. Not right away, I don't want us to go fast, but within a month at the most, that will have given us nearly two months as a couple almost, more than enough of a nod to propriety. I'm tired of being a virgin damn it! I want to take the wild horse for a ride, oh yes, Kasumi you were so right, it does look like fun!

Realizing she was beginning to enjoy this exercise in voyeurism a little too much, she motioned Motoko to follow her away. Motoko however stayed put watching as Kasumi changed position to be on top, her back to the door. Motoko nearly moaned aloud at the view. Kasumi might seem soft and the perfect little homemaker, but her body could put any model or actress to shame (though the one actress in the city wasn't exactly living up to her hype, Motoko had seen her during the Ms. Macross competition and hadn't been impressed) and her ass was perfect to go with the breasts Motoko had seen previously. Damn I need to get laid soon, this forced abstinence shit is killing me.

Lisa came back at that point and grabbed her arm dragging her back into the living room. She motioned to the bathroom, indicating with a raised eyebrow if Motoko wanted to have some privacy but Motoko blushed shaking her head and followed her back to their beds. They lay down, pretending to sleep for another ten minutes before Ranma came out of his room clad only in his boxers carrying a dozen tissues and depositing them in the trash in the kitchen. Lisa heard the water turn on then off for a moment then Ranma came back out moving though the living room. Lisa saw through semi-closed eyes Ranma was carrying a damp cloth, and she nearly smiled at his thoughtfulness. Ten minutes later Ranma came back out of his room and moved to the kitchen again. Lisa and Motoko started to stir as they heard Ranma start to make breakfast. They both looked at one another wordlessly checking to make sure they weren't blushing too badly then moved into the kitchen to join Ranma in making breakfast.

About ten minutes of friendly silence later Lisa cleared her throat. "So what are you two going to be doing today? I know I'll be asked to help with the reorganization and trying to think up a plan to get back up and somehow gather resources without another fight. I'll also probably have to sit in on some disciplinary hearings after last night too."

Ranma shrugged, tossing his data-pad over one shoulder at her as he kept patting down some rice balls. "Commander Fokker left me a message to see him at his office at around two. Before that it looks like I'll need ta argue with the maintenance crews, again."

Lisa reflexively caught the data pad out of the air and she glowered at Ranma's back for a moment before she looked at the massage on the pad. The first message was a routine alert that his Valkyrie had been deemed too damaged for repair to be cost (or time) effective and that he would be issued another one from the few remaining spares. The second message was tagged as coming from Claudia's machine but signed by Fokker telling Ranma to come to his office for a meeting at two. She smiled as she read between the lines as to what had happened last night between the two. It looks as if Kasumi and Ranma weren't the only ones to get lucky last night, this morning, whatever.

Motoko finished slicing open the fish and placed them into the grill. "I wonder if he's already trying to start the reorganization, better you than me that's all I can say Ranma. And I wouldn't want to be in your shoes either Lisa, trying to plan for another engagement in the planetary ring against those new mechs would be a nightmare."

Lisa shrugged her eyes far away as she answered. "I don't know about that, I have a few ideas on how to circumvent them, and maybe even blunt some of their abilities. It'll take a bit of work, but…"

Ranma looked at her for a moment as he put the last rice ball on a plate. "Why are we here exactly? I mean I know we were supposed to pull off the same general maneuver as the last time, gather some resources from a few of the planetary objects in orbit, but that sure as hell didn't happen. How are we going to get the resources now?"

Lisa shrugged. "Captain Gloval and colonel Mannstein have worked out something with Dr. Lang, I don't know what, but it has to deal with the reflux generator. And we can make up some of the material needs by scavenging the remaining destroids, maybe even start taking apart the remaining Spartan companies, they haven't exactly been effective, and they took a major hit in numbers in this last engagement. After that we'll have to start taking from the city, maybe knock down some of the buildings and salvage resources them, or cut into some of the spate rooms of the space fortress, use the metal from that."

Ranma nodded thoughtfully as Motoko set the table. "Is Kasumi going to be joining us?" She asked innocently, smirking inside.

Ranma blushed heavily, ducking back into the kitchen to get control of himself. "Nah she's sleeping in a little and it was my turn to cook anyway. So what are you going to do today?"

Motoko shrugged. "I don't know, I'd like to practice a bit with sensei, but she'll probably be busy. If I can't do that I may see if I can find a training dummy somewhere and work some anger issues out on that." She had been able to push past the pain of losing her entire flight and her unrequited crush but it still hurt, and she really wanted to hit something. I almost wish Max would hit on me again, I may even get away with it too, it would be justified defense after all.

Ranma looked at her for a moment, almost deciding to tell her about his own training area, but again decided against it. She was good, but not quite up to that just yet. Maybe in a few months she would be but not yet. I really need ta see the doc though, there's got to be something I can to ta make my Valkyrie better. Instead he simply gestured Motoko to sit down, and they began to eat.

About two hours later Ranma walked onto the hanger deck he had crashed landed on yesterday, and was unsurprised to see that his Valkyrie was still where he had left it, resting against the far wall from the bay doors. He walked over to it, then hopped onto a still extended wing. He shook his head in sadness as he looked at the damage his mech had taken, way more than in any other fight, even more than his battle with Breetai. "You've taken a lot of damage lately mate, but don't worry I'm gonna fix ya right up soon."

"I'm sorry to say that's impossible sir, this Valkyrie has seen its last battle, it's just taken too much damage to make it worth the effort."

Ranma turned and saw that one of the maintenance crew had walked over. He looked at the man's tabs quickly noting he was a chief and probably now head of the maintenance team for Blue squadron, the other having transferred over to Green when their chief had an accident that made him unfit for duty, so Ranma paused a moment before replying. "I understand what yer saying chief, and I'd even agree with ya if not fer two things." He held his hand out indicating the chief should come up.`

The chief, whose name was Morgan Erie, looked at the hand, shrugged and grabbed on, then was astounded to find his feet leaving the ground for a second before he was set gently down on top of crashed Valkyrie. And he did it with one hand, bloody hell maybe all those rumors about Sugita are true. "And what are those points sir?"

"I don't want ta change planes, and it ain't just sentimentality, it's also because I can make this machine work with me way better than any other. Point one, this is a VF-1S variant Valkyrie, one of the few we've got onboard, and I make a lot more use of the head lasers than most pilots, so no other variant would be as good a match with me. And point two" he paused, pushing his ki out into the guardian mode Valkyrie beneath his hand. After only a few seconds the stump of the left arm began to move and the chief gasped, nearly stepping back off the wing. "I'm a martial artist and I've been pushing my ki into this bird for so long it's finally getting easier than it was."

Morgan looked from him to the machine and back for a full minute before he shook himself. "Er, well sir, the thing is I don't even know if we've got enough parts to repair this bird, and I know my crew and I don't have enough time to do it, not without an order from higher. Nearly my entire crew doubles as, battleship maintenance personnel and factory workers." He smiled grimly. "It's doing wonders for our bank accounts but the space fortress was forced to fly with barely a half of the personnel and we haven't graduated nearly as many maintenance and factory workers as Valkyrie fighters, and frankly if a Valkyrie is this badly damaged we just don't have the time and manpower to repair it."

Ranma nodded slowly. He had known that the maintenance issue was bad, but that bad? "Alright how about just moving it ta Dr. Lang's place? And maybe fixing just the head up, that's the sensor package as well as the lasers right?"

"I can do that I suppose, but I doubt that Dr. Lang will be able to do anything with it, he's pretty busy himself you know?"

Ranma shrugged. "Let me handle that part of it, you just get it there."

Morgan shrugged. "All right, I'll see it's dropped off sometime today. But I have to tell you that if you still don't have that Valkyrie working again soon, you'll probably miss out on one of the few spares we still have." Ranma shrugged, if it happened, it happened.

The chief spent another hour trying to get Ranma to give it up, but he refused to, and after the chief finally realized that (and came to realize that Ranma would follow through with his threats to hurt him if he got rid of the Valkyrie on the sly, so to speak) Ranma left to meet up with Fokker in his office.

As he entered Ranma walked into his office and raised a hand quickly to catch a small box that had just been thrown at his head. "Er any reason why you just chucked this at my head?"

Roy shook his head, smiling as he saw a hicky on the side of Ranma's neck. Heh at least the kid is like a normal pilot in one way at least, the ladies do love us dashing daredevils. "Open it up kid." Ranma shrugged and did so, and his eyes widened as he saw the commander rank tabs and the blue squadron patch inside it. "It's yours kid. Eric wanted you or Motoko to take over for him, and you've got the experience edge and you're a better natural leader than she is." The edge was small, Roy was still trying to come to grips with the lack of career soldiers among his pilots, but it was there.

Ranma stared down at the patch and tabs for a moment, then slowly removed his Lt.'s tabs and replaced them with the commander tabs. He stood there for a minute in silence before looking up at Roy. "Who do I get to keep?"

Roy shrugged. "I'm moving Rick to Skull squadron and bumping him up to Lieutenant third class, he'll take over the third flight, that'll give him some experience in a command slot. Max is going to be bumped the same, and you can keep him and Motoko, who will be your second in command, like you were for Eric. That's the way I want it to go at least, but Max may be taken by one of the others, especially Vermillion, Pike has sneoirity on you b a wide margin, and he lost both his lieutenants."

Ranma nodded. "How long we got before the academy graduates its next class and have we enough Veritechs to put under 'em, and what's our order of battle going ta be?"

"I'm afraid we're going to have to bring back the elite squadron idea we were following before Mars. I'd like Blue to be one of them but that's not going to happen for a while. Putting Lieutenants and captains in all the squadrons that lost them or creating new ones to take over for those that were wiped out to act as a training cadre will make us unable to fill more than three squadrons with veterans, so you're going to have to make up your numbers with the next batch of recruits, which graduates in three weeks by the way. And when you do, I want at least half of the incoming recruits you pick to be women." He watched for any sign of irritation or anger, but saw none. Ranma merely smiled and nodded. "Good, then get outta here kid and take a break. You were right when you said we need everyone's heads on straight for the next battle."

Ranma shrugged. "My heads always straight for a fight boss, it's the rest of life I sometimes have problems with. See ya." Roy shook his head, once more vowing that if he ever saw Genma Saotome he'd be giving Claudia a panda skin rug for her next birthday.

In a small district of Tokyo a certain panda suddenly shivered, knowing that pain was coming his way.

For his part Ranma decided to go and meditate the normal way for a bit. Ranma made his way back to the city and then up to the rice field where he had found Lisa and Kasumi talking all those months ago.

He sat down and assumed the lotus position on the ground, and after a moment was deep in mediation, though this wasn't his normal ki enlarging type, this was his almost unused 'get in touch with your emotions' type, but this was one of the times he needed to use it. Ranma needed to think about a lot of what had happened in this last fight, and needed this help to step back from the emotions the thinking would evoke.

Eric's gone, how does that make me feel, can a really handle filling his shoes? I…. I'm sad, really sad, why ain't I crying? The man had become like a big brother figure and a male role model, something my old man sure as hell wasn't, and I still can't cry? Part of its like, it's like… he died in battle, and I guess I was always kind of prepared for that. I still want ta have a wake for him or something but that's about it. As for filling in for him, I think I'm ready. Heh, me with authority wow, that's a switch. Still I'm ready. I can't wait ta put my new people through their paces. Have to meet with Max and Motoko tomorrow after seein' the Doc.

Now to think about the enemy ace and how much I enjoyed the fight. Hmm, that's a bit tougher. I was really into it though, way more than my fights with Kyron. And I never used taunts, hell the idea didn't even occur ta me, not that they would have worked against that ace anyway. But why was I so into it though?

That took him longer to understand. Maybe because it was like a martial arts match rather than full on warfare. In a fight ya have ta deal with a lot of other people, watch yer friend's backs and above all remember yer fighting to do something else, like survive, take a position or defend something. In that fight I couldn't take the time ta think about those things, all I could concentrate was on the here and now. It was somehow purer than a normal battle.

And it ain't like I was completely neglecting the rest of the fight, I was keeping their ace tied up so he couldn't do any more damage to anyone else. He shuddered as he remembered the Zentraedi ace killing three Veritechs from tan squadron in as many seconds right before Ranma engaged him in their one on one duel. I think only Max or Roy would have the skills to take this guy on, and even then only if they could keep the range open. Max may last longer at short range than Roy, he has some martial arts skills I know, but nowhere near enough to match that ace.

Still it's pretty obvious I'm gonna need an edge or something ta keep up with him. Those new mechs are fucking deadly. I hope the doc can help me out there. With his emotions and thoughts now sorted out to his satisfaction Ranma switched mental gears and stood up, moving into the first of his kata.

At the same time Ranma was thinking about the battle Miriya was doing the same as she worked her still sore body through its paces in the gym of the carrier she had designated as her temporary flagship. Unlike in a pod, physical fitness helped greatly in using the Queadluun Rau powered armor, so the gym was quite extensive (though a human would think it extremely crude by modern standards). As she lifted the three hundred pound bar over her head she frowned slightly, remembering how the battle had gone. The Micronian's skill in hand to hand was formidable, and I must be honest, better than my own. These Micronian mechs might not have the firepower, reaction time or even the armor of our own power armor, but it's obvious individual skill can compensate for much. I was a fool to remain in close combat with him. She snorted, setting the bar down and moving over to a leg machine. I doubt he would have let me break off enough to open the range if I had tried though. That pilot is good, very good. Although I'm glad he didn't try the verbal sparring he attempted with Kyron with me.

She barked a laugh before looking around to make certain no one had seen her moment of levity before going back to the leg presses. She had chosen her exercise time carefully, she didn't want her subordinates to see her exercising until she was back to 100%. Still, it's obvious that tactic was tailored to Kyron, I wonder how the Micronian was able to figure out it would work on him but not me?

Regardless she would have to remain on her toes in their next battle, and she would have to come up with an edge of some kind, not that that bothered her, to be the best you had to keep working to remain the best after all. While it's clear I won our battle it is equally obvious it could have gone either way, and that is unacceptable. I need to prepare myself better for our n/ext engagement. Perhaps studying the tapes of his fights with Kyron will give me an edge.

"Oh, are you new here?" Lucretia looked up from where she was organizing a shelf of products toward the speaker and saw a very pretty female Micronian, with straight swept black hair stepping into the store.

She nodded in answer to the question. "Yes I am, I was a student but decided to take a semester off" she answered by rote, thankful once again that the three of them had devised the rote responses before placing themselves in the strange Micronian military structure. Taking a semester (whatever that was, some odd measure of time) off from the university, one of the two training facilities and the one the spies understood was responsible for training normal soldiers to be leaders (and hadn't that come as a shock, that the Micronian leader caste was the same as the normal soldier caste) was seen as a normal thing to do strangely, and no one had questioned it.

Well, they hadn't questioned Lucretia or Sonya about it, Anya on the other hand got quite a few odd looks. She apparently looked too young (another odd concept they translated to meaning too inexperienced) but she was able to handle the waitressing job she got from Ms Minmei very well. Sonya had gotten a job at one of the construction projects, and while she got a few weird looks no one had objected to her presence there, and her strength, which was on the upper scale for a Meltraedi had stayed with her when they were micronized.

All in all, their ability to fit into this Micronian culture was going very well, thanks in large part to their lucky find of the datapad. It had taken them several days to figure out how to use it, but when they did, they were able to find out enough information to blend in. Not enough to understand what they were actually seeing or doing, but enough to mouth the words at least. It had come as a shock to them to find that the Micronians were divided into several dozen different branches, each with different areas of responsibility, and that they used some form of exchange called 'currency' to move goods form one branch to another. Some of the branches seemed to serve little military purpose, it was almost as if most of the Micronians weren't fighters, but that was ridiculous to all three of them, what else was there after all? She personally had the good luck of meeting a Micronian who worked in the clothing division, and had procured a job in the clothing division, which allowed her to use her natural talents in that area as she sifted for information.

Motoko nodded, trying to keep her blush off her face, but god this girl was really good looking. Long blonde hair in a twin drill cut, nice legs shown off by the dress shops uniform, and amazing EE cup breasts that looked even bigger on her small frame, which looked about 5 ft four, a few inches taller than Ranma's female form. She was pushing nearly all Motoko's buttons, all she needed was a tomboy attitude to complete the assault. "I'm Motoko, how do you do?"

Again the rote responses came to Lucretia's aid. "Lucretia. Do you need anything?"

"Um, no, just looking though if you have any suggestions I'll be happy to look at them. Right now I just want to pick up some jeans and maybe a good t-shirt."

Lucretia nodded and led the way over to that section of the store, looking up and down the other woman's body carefully. "I'd go for the relaxed fit, they would show off those legs better than the easy fit." Style of uniform and sense of cut were well known to the Meltraedi, though when she got back with the news of how many styles of uniforms and undergarments these Micronians had it was going to come as a severe shock to the entire Meltraedi fleet.

Motoko blushed once again pushing down her attraction to this girl. She's only hoping to get a sale, she isn't checking you out. Don't see more into it than is really there. "R-really, well I'll try them both anyway. Thank you." Lucretia nodded, though as she walked away she could have sworn the other woman's eye remained on her for a moment, and she wondered why it felt like she was being targeted for some reason.

"Excuse me please, can I get some help over here?"

Sonya turned, still holding the large metal girder over one shoulder to see a tall woman, nearly as tall as herself dressed in a nice if conservative dress. By conservative among Micronesians she had learned it meant the dress was cut below the knee, though why it was called that she didn't know, certainly it didn't show as much leg as the other uniforms she had seen, but then the skirt concept as a uniform had far more variety than the form fitting pilots suit or slacks of the Meltraedi off duty uniform. She saw the woman had a large pad open in front of her, with several notations and notes on it and nodded approvingly. Someone organized. Far too many people who came into the 'construction' area (which was actually a Home Depot that doubled as the main control center for the civilian construction crews) had no idea what they wanted, and she had quickly come to join her co-workers opinions that there were far too many amateur (which she understood as barely trained in that division) construction people trying their own projects. That of course had come after the idea of construction at all being in the hands of front line troops, let alone the idea or 'repair' and 'maintenance'! Such simple ideas that had such a massive effect on overall combat performance. She was beginning to wonder why the Meltraedi, and the Zentraedi had never thought of them.

"I was wondering if you could give me the prices of some of these pieces I need?" Kasumi smiled up at the woman, marveling at how tall she was. She looks like one of those American basketball players, I don't often have to look up at another woman like this. Her strength came as no surprise to Kasumi, used to martial artists as she was she knew looks could be deceiving. And the tattoo on her face of some kind of reptile was very nice.

Sonya nodded and walked her around the area, pointing out the pieces she needed and watching in approval as the woman marked down the prices. She looked up irritated as another worker came by trying to take over from her and she angrily waved him off. He took one look at her angry face and swiftly turned around. Sonya looked at the woman next to her. "If you don't mind me asking why do all my co-workers" the odd word stumbled as it left her lips but she was getting more used to the Micronian nomenclature the longer she worked here "seem to be eager to serve you far more than the other costumers?" Again an odd word, but she took it to mean someone from another division, and that association worked, though all the spies were still having trouble with the idea of 'currency'.

Kasumi sighed. "It's because I won this contest a few months ago, everyone thinks that makes me special but I'm really not interested in the fame it brought me."

Sonya nodded, contests weren't unknown among the Meltraedi, especially ones that could boost morale before or after a tough campaign. "I see. So why does an entertainer" she substituted the odd word in her mind with morale officer, i.e. one who put on contests to help boost morale "need all these construction items? You do not seem to have the build necessary to use them."

Kasumi smiled. "Nor do you, though I do like your skin color by the way. It is very nice." Sonya nodded, her dark brown skin color was a source of pride to her as it set her apart from most other Meltraedi. "And you are correct I'm not going to be doing the actual work, just the planning and gathering the materials."

Sonya nodded again, that made sense to her, after all a supply officer wouldn't be in charge of actual combat would she? "You are getting quite a lot of them though."

"Oh don't worry, I've already arranged for someone to pick them up tomorrow and bring them to the construction site. Though if you are looking for some more money I can ask and see if we need the assistance." Sonya nodded thankfully, the whole concept of money was very odd to her and her fellow spies but they had quickly realized its importance, and if it got her away from the males here and their odd uncomfortable looks she was all for it. Little did she know at that point that their entire mission would be impacted by what she would learn on this side project.

"Yo, you're new here aren't you?"

Anya rolled her eyes in irritation at being asked that question yet again, but her irritation vanished as the black haired medium sized man wearing the uniform of the space combat division changed as a glassful of water splashed over his face to be replaced by a redheaded busty woman about a head shorter, now somewhere between her own diminutive size and Lucretia's medium size, though to Anya's irritation her bust was only a little smaller than Lucretia's. Bust size among Meltraedi were one of two noncombat related points of distinction, much like height was for the Zentraedi, and Anya was both short and had no bust at all to speak of. At least her face framed at it was by black hair and dominated by violet eyes was striking despite the rest of her bodies limitations.

Still none of that mattered just now. "Is-is that sort of change normal around here?"

Ranma looked over and grinned at the diminutive girl, who looked nothing so much as a Chinese dressed loli. "Nah, it's just me, though I got to say you're taking it better than most people the first time they see it."

Anya just shrugged not wanting to bring more attention to herself. "Yes, I'm new around here, I'm taking a break from college and Ms Minmei was kind enough to give me a job." She had been the only one who hadn't already had a job by the time they met the singer whose voice had so profound an effect on them when they heard it over a radio, and she had been ecstatic to be offered one after so many places had turned her away for being too 'young' looking.

Ranma shrugged and placed a to go order and turned to Minmei. She was going to meet Kasumi and Liza for a picnic dinner, and after that he wanted to hit the hay. He had an early day tomorrow and he still wanted to rest some more from the battle yesterday. "How ya doing Minmei? Did you get the okay to put on a concert?"

Minmei looked a little shifty. "Um yeah I did, it's going to happen a week from now, that'll give Mr Devray time to have some advertising time before we put it on. Um, he uh also asked me to ask for Ranma to join me."

"Huh, why the hell, it ain't like my singing was as good as yours?"

Minmei smiled as Ranma wasn't immediately rejecting the idea. "Well your singing was actually really good, so was Kasumi's obviously but her distaste for being in public like that is well known so Mr. Devray wanted me to ask for you. You apparently have a large calling especially with the military types who liked your 'angry' singing more than my more laid back type. So will you join me for the concert please, pretty please?"

Ranma looked away from the dreaded puppy-dog eye maneuver and thought for a minute. Crap, if it will help morale I guess I gotta. "Alright, but only if you make it clear ta everyone that I ain't interested in making this a regular thing okay, it is a onetime only deal and if I get asked one question or see one camera or reporter when I ain't on stage I'm leaving okay?"

Minmei inwardly groaned at how much extra work that was going to give the security teams but she nodded readily. "Sure Ranma I'll pass that on."

"Ms Minmei are you going to put on a concert? That's great!" Anya exclaimed in happiness. "I'll have to see if my friends and I can reserve tickets."

Minmei smiled at her new friend/avid fan. Running into her and her friends a week ago had done more for her professional ego than anything else. After all it was really nice to know you had fans who weren't just interested in your pretty face and figure. She had been more relieved than ever to know that she could have a career based just on her singing voice rather than face and figure like her previous manager had insinuated. "Yep, I am! We're going to do a concert to thank the troops." Anya wondered what that was about but nodded anyway.

"Just tell me when ta show up, I ain't gonna have time ta do much practicing though." She pointed out her new rank tabs. "I got promoted ta replace the commander, not like we've got enough Valkyrie pilots ta give me a full squad yet."

"Oh, um congratulations I guess, I was sorry to hear about Commander Prescott's death." Minmei said slowly, putting a hand on Ranma's arm.

"No worries. Um, I may call in a large order tomorrow night, I want ta plan a bit of a wake for him, just his friends and those of us who survived in blue squad. Just y'know ta get together and share stories and mourn." Anya looked on, wondering what that word meant, but understood it had something to do with a commanding officers passing. Odd.

Minmei nodded and handed over the boxed dinner that Ranma had ordered. "Do you want hot water too?"

Ranma shook his head. "Nah, I'll stay like this for now. See ya Minmei" She trotted out of the shop, putting the new girl and her odd response to his curse out of her mind.

Captain Gloval looked around at the council, inwardly still angry and appalled by the losses they had taken yesterday. Our moment of peace has been dearly bought he thought grimly it behooves us to use it wisely. He stood up gaining everyone's attention before speaking. "Ladies and gentlemen I realize you all have learned by this time how badly mauled our forces were in the fighting before we hit atmosphere, and that we were unable to gather resources as we initially planned. What you do not know is what we were planning to do here and how we are going to continue with many of those plans despite our losses, or where we go from here, and what those new losses have meant for our long term plans, which I will tell you now have changed."

"We are still making for Earth aren't we?" Mayor Luan asked worriedly. "My constituents are beginning to chafe at being in space. And our losses are now being felt more as well." That was an understatement. Morale among the civilians hadn't plummeted just yet as badly as it had among the SDF, but it would come when families realized husbands wouldn't be coming home, that the daughters and sons they had been so proud of would never be seen again. Losses like they had sustained would see a lot of that and though if Gloval had gone with Connor's idea of hiding actual military information from the public it wouldn't have mattered. As it was, the civilians were going to respond very badly to their losses. Glvoal had in fact taken most of the past two days working out plans to deal with the admittedly understandable stress.

"Yes but we will be changing how we get there, a topic I will cover near the end of the meeting." Gloval answered grimly. "For now I will comment on our short term goals. From the moment the attacks on us forced us to change our course away from a straight run to Earth I have wanted to spend some time in Jupiter's atmosphere because of something Dr. Lang has discovered, and that is how to refuel the central reflux generator."

He nodded to Dr Lang who took his cue and stood up as Gloval sat down. "It has always astounded us that the reflux generator didn't need to have fuel added to it, but as you all know the power coming out of it isn't infinite. Blackouts and loss of power have been coming more and more frequently, but the cause was thought to be mechanical in nature until I was able to come up with a way to gage the interior of the generator and what the power inside really was. I won't bore you with the scientific details" which, he thought none of you would understand, hell I barely understand it "but suffice to say the fuel inside is simply a sharply refined and transformed version of He3, with some other elements mixed in, elements that are found in great quantity in Jupiter's atmosphere. I have devised a way to gather those materials and refine them." He touched the screen and a large ship, looking far more like a factory than a real ship, appeared on the screen set into the wall.

"This factory ship will be able to refine the material into fuel, which we can then siphon off directly into the generator" the picture changed again, this time showing the interior of one of the hangers on the bottom of the ship, and a large tube going from the hanger through cleared corridors and then connecting to the generator via one of the clamps whose original designed use might well have been something remarkably similar to this. "The factory portion is already made, and the robots necessary to work the factory are being finished now, that's why we have so few resources right now. Within a few days we will be able to launch this factory and place it in orbit in the atmosphere. It will be kept up by these thrusters on the bottom, all of which will take energy from destroid batteries at first then when from the fuel the factory will be producing. Thankfully because of the barrier systems the one thing we have in great abundance was ship armor rated steel, and were able to create this factory ship and this battery ship from it."

The picture changed again to show a smaller ship, but it was obviously still large and far less streamlined then a normal ship. "This battery ship will do the same thing refine and build batteries for the destroid and Veritech forces. We will still be using our own battery factory but the output of this factory will dwarf that one and be completely automated as well as not needing the continued investment of gathered material that that factory needs."

"why is this necessary if we are still trying to get back to Earth?" Mayor Luan asked. "Surely the time would be better spent actually going toward Earth."

Gloval shook his head. "Not necessarily. Not only will a month here let the Earth come back to us so we no longer have to go around the sun, well." He sighed. "We have long known that the aliens greatly outnumber us, but we haven't known how badly we were outnumbered until Commander Hyaes" he nodded his head at the young woman on his right "and her group returned to us." He went on to describe what they had seen and found out about the size of the fleets the Zentraedi could call on, the millions of ships they had, the billions of fighters, ignoring all the while the glare captain Connor was giving him. That information should never be shared with the civilians, especially seeing as it might not be true in the first place. There was no way the aliens could have that many ships to call on! Just no way any race could have that much power but still think that the space fortress had something on it that they needed! No, in his mind it was obviously a bluff, and a very poor one. He purposefully ignored the facts of the enemy's numbers and what their new fighters could mean in the long term, something that Gloval had forced himself to think about last night. Needless to say the captain was not happy with his conclusions.

The civilians however didn't understand the real numbers here, all they knew was that the odds against humanity had just risen considerably. "We have known for a long time that this war would continue for some time, now we know that it will last years, possibly generations, and we need to put the infrastructure in place now for that eventuality. I don't know how long we can keep expecting the aliens to mostly come at us with kid gloves, nor do I have any idea what they need from us so badly. But I will be damned if I don't start planning for the future, and industrializing Jupiter and eventually Saturn to give us the power and materials necessary to keep our war machine going is one way to do that." He raised a hand to forestall any interruptions "And before anyone says we need to sue for peace I don't think they would be welcome to any such thing."

He paused and looked at Liza when she hummed and leaned back in her chair. "Yes commander, do you disagree with what I said?" Unspoken in his tone was why she was making that disagreement here in a public setting rather than in private.

"Sorry sir just thinking, and while I agree with you about them not being open to peace talks I just can't help but think they would be if the one called Breetai was in charge." She briefly described the interrogation the aliens had attempted, omitting the kiss but hitting their odd reactions to things such as males and females working together and Breetai's own reaction to Ranma and his ki attack.

The civilians all gaped at that and many heads shook at the sheer chutzpa the act had taken. Nodoka merely smiled in fierce pride in her son and the man he had become despite his cowardly sperm donor.

"I had the impression that Breetai at least respects us, and if you respect someone you are almost always willing to make peace with them, or at least adopt a non-aggression pact. If we knew what they were looking for we could hand it over to him and assume he would leave us alone, as long as we stayed in our own solar system at least. But Dolza" she shook her head. "Dolza isn't like that. He's all control, and the attack on Breetai made him angry not respectful. He knew he'd die if Ranma attacked but later he responded to Ranma's strength by making certain he knew that his strength was nothing to the power Dolza could call on. Once Dolza has what he wants" Or if he decides he doesn't want it enough to put up with the ongoing irritation trying to take it is giving him she thought but didn't say "he will move against the rest of humanity. I just hope Earth has been using the time we've given them well." Or we are up shit creek without a paddle was the thought both she and everyone else at the table had at that comment.

Gloval nodded. That had actually been a good point and made his own position stronger, so he wouldn't jump down Lisa's throat later for interrupting his flow. "An excellent point commander. Regardless we have the material on hand to build these two factories, but we will not just be putting them in place. We will be taking offensive action in a way that allows us to gather the material necessary to refill our stocks and keep our infrastructure going."

At a touch on a control the screen behind him changed. "Dr. Lang has informed me that he is now certain we will be able to transform into our siege mode while in atmosphere, so that we can use the 'arms' to deliver our fighters into space, and gather in debris after the fight via the front of the Daedalus." The picture changed showing the ship changing rising through the atmosphere then raising its right 'arm' over its head vie the extendable and maneuverable docking clamp on the side of the original battleship, the 'arm breaking the outer atmosphere into the area Veritechs could handle then disgorging the fighters into space. "The ship will still be vulnerable, but we feel that can be alleviate by making these maneuvers several times and disgorging spy planes to give us an idea of how the aliens have blockaded the planet." He stared around the table, emphasizing his words. "We will begin these assault and salvage operations as soon as the factory ships have been finished and disgorged, and they will continue until the ships stores are fully stocked. This is nonnegotiable."

He waited until those words sunk in, and the civilians realized arguing wasn't going to get them anywhere then he smiled. "On the plus side however, Dr. Lang has found something else out, something that I was loathe to use before these new mechanized units appeared and I realized how they would impact our push home. Dr Lang?"

Dr Lang stood up. "Ahem well, everyone knows how badly we muffed up the fold we attempted during the initial bombardment back on Earth." The civilians bar Nodoka all simply stared at him, their stares telling him 'of course we know, we're here because of that it now get on with it'. "Um, yes well anyway I have reasoned out that our errors were in both attempting to fold while being inside a gravity well, and the power we force fed into the fold drives. We overpowered them by a magnitude of at least fifty by my calculations. I have been able to figure out where we went wrong in our calculations and have conducted a few experiments and know that to move the ship we only need the one remaining fold drive" the drive we still have thanks to Ranma and that strange ki technique of his he thought "and we can use it to jump anywhere in system. Even back to near earth orbit."

All of the civilians looked at him in hope and Gloval coughed. "Which means that any time used here can be more than made up when we decide to leave for Earth, which as you know is still on the far side of the sun from us. Now, I believe Mayor Luan you had some issues you wanted to relate to us?" The meeting continued from then on with a much more upbeat outlook than it began.

Kasumi looked over at her red-haired dining companion as Ranma and Lisa finished discussing the operation that was coming up in the future and began to eat the dinner Ranma had brought from White Dragon. "So why are you female Ranma, you usually change back to male as fast as you can." Unspoken was the fact that she knew Ranma was more comfortable with showing and getting 'affection' (kissing, touching, fondling, all the fun things they had been doing) in his male form.

Ranma blushed. "Tough to explain really, what it comes down to though is I've been spending too much time in male form." At Kasumi and Lisa's questioning looks she/he elaborated. "It goes back to my old man, much like most o' my problems. I was taught growing up that guys don't show emotions, don't show affection, don't have feelings. I've been able ta move past it for certain emotions like love and affection." She smiled gently at both of her/his girlfriends, "but I ain't able ta really show as much of the bad emotions, like sadness." She shrugged, which did very interesting things to the front of her shirt. "I felt the emotion, but nowhere near as much as I should have when Eric died, and even after we got back and I could I couldn't y'know, mourn him, even when I was thinking about it. So I think I need ta stay in female form for a time."

Kasumi nodded remembering how sad Ranma had been after the battle in Saturn's asteroid field. He had not really shown emotions for the teammates lost until she had accidentally splashed him the next day when they were making breakfast. The redhead had literally broken down within minutes of changing right there in the kitchen. "Could it also be the fact that you mastered the soul of ice in your male form?"

"Yeah it could, that move messes up my emotions a hell of a lot, and it probably does have long term consequences. But anyway, when are we going to start work on this project of yours?" Kasumi had asked Ranma for help on her construction project and he had agreed unreservedly reminding her of his promise to help her any way she needed.

"Oh we can start in a few days. I have checked the prices on the materials needed and have found where I want to buy the necessary space and will finalize the sale tomorrow. I even found someone who wants to help out, I think she needs to get out of the depot for a bit, the men there are not exactly subtle in their appreciation of her shall we say, though I doubt they actually bother her. I think she may be some kind of martial artist, but I don't know what style." Lisa grimaced at the first part of that statement while Ranma raised an eyebrow in interest at the second part. "Are you free to start on the project the day after tomorrow?"

"Sure." Ranma shrugged. "Minmei talked me inta joining her for this concert in a week, but I told her not ta expect me ta practice or anything with her, so until the academy graduates in three weeks I've got a lot of free time."

"I don't suppose you have room for me?" Lisa asked quietly. "I've found I don't like sleeping alone, or even really spend much time in my own room these days. I can add my salary to the project if you want" she added hurriedly.

Ranma and Kasumi both reached out a hand and gripped her shoulder. "Yes we have room for you" Kasumi said simply "you didn't even have to ask really, we were going to invite you to live with us after we finished the home."

Lisa smiled gratefully at them then cleared her throat and adroitly changed the subject.

"Hey doc, what's up?" Ranma had decided to change up his greetings to Doctor Lang, didn't want to become predictable after all. "Got a few questions for ya."

"Ranma, so glad you could stop by," Emil said sarcastically, "after all your wrecked Valkyrie has been sitting in front of my lab for several hours now, and the neighbors are starting to complain."

"Heh, yeah well hopefully we can do something about that. Have you looked over it yet?"

"Yes I have, and while most of the circuitry in the main body is still operable, the Veritech is a very robust system, the rest of the machine is very badly damaged. I honestly don't know what you want me to do with it."

"You said the last time we talked there was no place in the Valkyrie ta put an extra battery. How about designing new arms and legs from scratch?" Ranma asked seriously.

"I," Lang paused for a moment then continued. "I could try I suppose, but would it really be worth it? I know you can do the armor strengthening technique, but we still haven't found out a way to do the same in a Veritech, we just can't make the energy runs go in enough places and we can't house the extra battery and the energy runs without slowing the Veritech down considerably. Still, we can try something I suppose. Anything else?"

Ranma clunked his flight helmet down on the desk in front of Dr. Lang. "Tell me about this interface thingy."

Lang's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Well, the interface helmet translates your thoughts and impulses to the movement of the Veritech in soldier mode. I could get more technical but what exactly are you asking?"

"is there anything in the interface that slows the process down or makes it less responsive?"

"Yes of course. The feedback blocker is one of the integral parts, it blocks the feed coming back from the Veritech, obviously, as it would include things like phantom pain if you took a hit, or strange feedback from the things the human body has no real equivalent of such as firing your thrusters."

Ranma nodded grimly. "Remove it."

Lang's eyes widened in surprise. "Ranma" he said slowly "I don't think you know what you're asking. For example the damage you took in this last battle would have killed you a dozen times over, from shock at least."

"I ain't a stranger ta pain doc." Ranma tugged at her pigtail thoughtfully as she began her sales pitch. "I ain't sayin' that ya should do it for everyone but ta me, the motions I put my solider mode look like and feel like they're moving through molasses these days, and I need ta get faster. I think I've done all I can so far at making myself faster, smarter and quicker to react, but I need ta find some way to move the Veritech ta match my own speed and this is the only way I can think of."

Lang looked at him in exasperation. "Did you hear everything I just said I…"

"Doc" Ranma said firmly hand moving away from her hair to knuckle both hands on the desk. "I ain't asking ya, I'm tellin' ya. That and adding another battery ta help with the strengthening technique. And I want both, these new mechs of the Zentraedi are just so much better than anything we've faced before."

"I," Emil paused again, looking like he had just bitten into something very sour. "All right but only if you write out a formal agreement saying this is what you're asking for. There's a reason the blocker is there after all."

Ranma nodded happily. "Great so let's get to work on my mech okay? Now, I figure that the motor control on the left hand, the arm I don't shoot with is necessary. We could remove those bits from the interior and replace them with the extra battery. Or we could put it in the legs, what else is there in the lower leg beside the thrusters?"

"Hmm" Lang put the rather disturbing idea about removing the blocker to the back of his mind and turned on a computer to look at the Valkyrie's schematics "The leg would probably be a better bet, but we would have to remove some of the fuel intake valves and tanks for the thruster. That will be a custom job, and we'd have to the same for the other side. How about we…."

Roy and Albert Pike of vermillion and Zack Fontero of Green, the only surviving squadron leaders showed up at what had been commander Prescott's office. They had both received a message asking them to attend a wake for Eric from Ranma and were not surprised to find Max, Rick and Motoko already there. A few others they didn't immediately recognize but were probably other friends, and an older woman who Roy recognized as someone Eric had 'spent time with' were there already. They entered and noticed Ranma in his female form waving them over before turning back to glare at Max. "I don't care if you don't believe me, I don't care if you don't believe in magic, this is a night to remember commander Prescott, not for flirting so if ya hit on me, I'm gonna rip off what makes you a man got it?"

Max gulped, noticing that the petite redhead's fist was already twitching and he nodded reflexively and backed off. "Some other time then, but you don't have to hide your presence like that you know just saying" the last was higher pitched and he backed away even faster as Ranma made to stalk forward. Max went over to talk to one of the others as Motoko adroitly slipped around his side and took up position behind Ranma to hide from Max. It had absolutely nothing about the view from back there being spectacular, no….

`"What was that all about?" Roy asked as he, Zack and Albert walked over to Ranma.

"Max doesn't believe I'm really Ranma, he thinks I'm his sister and is just using that as an excuse or something. Oh and before you ask since he thinks I ain't Ranma he 'knows' I ain't his commanding officer."

Motoko nodded. "Thankfully he's stopped hitting on me now that I'm a Lt second class and nominally above him in the chain of command. At least I hope it'll continue for a bit. He's not a bad guy, just too damn persistent and I don't know maybe the phrase I want to use is understated arrogance?"

Ranma shrugged. "Whatever. 'scuse me." He moved to the center of the room, in front of a table with food. Whistling he gather everyone's attention before speaking "okay, I don't know what ta say here, ya all know what a wake is and what yer supposed ta do, so I'll just start the ball rolling here. I first met Eric as my simulator instructor in the academy but I suppose that I really came to know him when he began to train me in the fine art of paper pushing and I began a prank war with him to pay him back…"

END chapter

So I hope you all like it, the industrialization for Jupiter will play a role in the future. Next chapter we see the civilians and regular troops reacting to the losses, and continue the time in Jupiter's atmosphere.

*Chapter 16*: Arrhhh Me Hearties!

I don't own Ranma or Robotech mores the pity, both could do with some upgrades

I love all the suggestions I'm getting on ways to beef up Ranma's mech and designs I could use, I've looked at most of the mech designs at and have to say none of them look quite what I want, though some of them do have pieces that I could take to design what I do want. Unfortunately most of the designs, like the Armored Valkyrie variant, (that's a Ryoga machine if I ever saw one) seem to take away from the speed and maneuverability of the original design, or are beyond the space fortress's ability to make as it is now. However, that doesn't mean other variants won't be used by other pilots, especially considering my other plans. For those of you who suggested a sword for Ranma, remember he's primarily a hand to hand fighter, he doesn't particularly like weapons, but... Motoko on the other hand, much like CJCold pointed out, does, and i hope he will like what she has now. Blue squadron will be sort of the testing bed for many of the designs being discussed/added to the Valkyrie.

I'd also like to give a shout out to Kariston Draconis, who gave a very comprehensive pm review of this and one of my other stories, as well as several interesting and thoughtful ideas of where I could take either one.

Oh and I made a mistake when talking about the battery factory they are putting into Jupiter's atmosphere in the last chapter, which I will correct in this chapter.

Now on with the show!

Chapter 15 Arrh me hearties!

Captain Gloval sat on the bridge the morning of the third day after the Macross had entered Jupiter's atmosphere watching as the Daedalus frontal section opened. The opening had originally been used to load and unload the assault landing vessel, to get the maximum number of destroids on or off and into battle at any given time. Now it was being used to jettison the first of the two self-sustaining robotically maintained ships that they were placing in inner atmosphere orbit over/in Jupiter, taking the first step in humanity having a strategic presence in space. The SDF high command should have done something like this before, I hope to god that they are using the time we're buying them to do something, anything to help us all. We need the help, badly.

The first and largest factory, the one designed to take in and generate fuel from the atmosphere, slowly inched its way out from the interior of the assault ship, actually scraping against the inside of its walls as it did. It had to actually have been built inside the amphibian assault ship, as there was no way it could have been moved through the passages that connected it to the main space fortress. But when it was out and the activation codes inputted by the skeleton crew aboard (who would then use a specially created shuttle, made with no viewports and covered by hull plate armor) it would be able to start gather the necessary ingredients for the fuel of the space fortress.

The battery factory ship would be much easier to move out from the Daedalus as it was far smaller. Yet the time spent on it had been equal to the far larger fueling station. That was because unlike the larger factory, this one wasn't entirely self sustaining. While the factory could siphon off everything it needed for the batteries power source from the atmosphere of the massive gas giant, it still needed solid material from which to create the battery packs. Therefore it needed to be able to take on loads of other resources, which had forced the designers to add that to the design, as well as create machinery and robots who could break down the material. Right now it was going to make due with a full load out of the worst mangled Destroids and Veritechs, as well as about two tons of plate armor, but eventually someone would need to stop in with another load of metals. The designers had thought of drones that could exit atmosphere and collect material from one of the planetary bodies orbiting Jupiter, but that idea had been scrapped due to the alien presence in the system.

Ideally the battery factory wouldn't actually be totally mechanical, a crew would be able to provide much better overall control of the project, but Gloval had declined to even consider that option right now. He had enough morale problems with the crew and civilians without asking for volunteers for what would be extended hardship duty.

Gloval sighed as he turned away from the view that thought reminding him that he had work of his own to do. The reality of their losses in the last action had at last sunk home to the civilians, and in part of the crew of the space fortress, and the results had not been pretty. There were several riots, which the MPs were forced to suppress. Thankfully his own forethought in preparing for this eventuality had the MPs and police ready and waiting, so despite the destruction to property and quite a few injuries there had been no deaths reported and the riots stopped almost as soon as they began. Morale among the majority of the crew however had sunk to a whole new level, and the morale among the pilots and destroids remained abysmal, and disciplinary problems were still appearing on his desk at an alarming rate. Thankfully he could hand most of those back over to Roy and Mannstein, who dealt with them as they normally did (rationally for the former, harshly by the latter).

Thankfully after that initial round of rioting the civilians had settled back down. Thankfully resentment of the military wasn't prevalent among the civilians, oh, there was a small minority that loudly declared the military at fault for everything, from not contacting the aliens to the fold space accident that landed them all here, but the majority of the civilians saw that as idiotic and appreciated the military defending them. No, the main problem among the civilians was a growing fear that even the best the military could do might not be enough. They were all trying to ignore it, but the fear of what could happen the next time these new alien mechs attacked them was in most of their minds. And Gloval had no way of combating it, though hopefully the concert that was planned in a few days time would at least cheer people up.

Ranma looked up interested as Kasumi led in a woman who topped her by two inches (and thus topped him by more, no bad Ranma no height envy, bad). The newcomer had dark skin, a creamy black that was pretty good looking despite her severe, almost stony face. Silver hair cut short, almost in a crew-cut and a tattoo of some kind of lizard on her face made her even more striking. "Hey Kasumi we ready to start?"

Kasumi giggled at how eager Ranma was. The redhead wanted very badly to hurt something, and this deconstruction/construction job was going to let her use that feeling. She had moved past the sadness with the help of the wake, as had Motoko (though the fact Motoko had crashed at Lisa's place last night as it was closer than her own quarters was very amusing, and Kasumi was wondering how Lisa had handled that) but she still had a lot of anger to take out on something. "Yes Ranma, we're going to start as soon as I do a final check on the rooms. This is Sonya, she's going to be helping us, and maybe working for me if I am able to use this to generate enough interest for a startup company." That had actually been her idea, she wanted to use this project to showcase what she could do, and then take the example public in hopes people would be interested in her interior designs, thus she could work for herself rather than anyone else.

Ranma held out his hand in greeting and after a moment's hesitation Sonya took it. "How'd you do my name's Ranma, if Kasumi didn't tell ya."

"Sonya." The woman looked at her a bit strangely then shrugged and the two of them turned to watch as Kasumi went around, checking her map to the ten rooms she had bought before coming back satisfied.

The rooms were six on this level, then four on the upper, which would let her build in a second tier of their new home. Built by his hands, designed by mine, regardless of if we're on a ship or not, it most definitely will be our home, far more than my family's home ever was. "Alright the first thing we need to do is knock the walls of this first room down in that direction, then we'll move on to the others."

Lisa sighed as she at last got off duty and made her way back to her room to change, the two factory ships out of the Daedalus and their startup crews back onboard. Christ that was nerve wracking, not difficult but so time consuming. Hopefully Motoko will have taken herself off by this time. Her mumblings of 'Lucretia this' and 'kiss me there' was amusing but also disturbing. I wonder who this Lucretia is that has her so riled up. She was relieved to find this was in fact the case and she changed into a pair of jeans and t-shirt, clothing she could get dirty in, and made her way to where Kasumi had bought some space in the ship, shaking her head at the whole idea.

It had come about as a way to make money for the ships council and to help the civilians spread out of the city, letting anyone civilian or military decide where they wanted to live as long as they could pay for it, and making rooming in the ship sections dirt cheap in comparison to the prices offered in the city. Unfortunately the idea had backfired, with nearly the entire SDF crew moving into the city to apartments which were much more comfortable and larger than most of the areas inside the ship. Despite enjoinders to move back out, no one wanted to move into the ship area. Most of the civilians in fact didn't want to be reminded of the fact they were in a ship at all.

She reached the first of the rooms and opened the door then stopped, staring at the amount of damage already done to the interior. The first wall had been completely knocked down, the second wall had been opened to the side and a doorway installed, and the three other interior walls had all been removed, leaving one or two plates still in place that needed to be removed. What had once been six single rooms had now been opened and connected into one large area. She stepped through the new doorway from the first room (which now consisted of the area of two of the originals) and looked up as she saw the ceiling also completely open. "This is amazing…" she breathed "How in the world did you do this much already in barely half a day?"

Kasumi and Ranma answered at the same time as Ranma walked over to give her a hug. "Martial arts construction."

Sonya looked up from where she was sanding down where the wall had been between the fifth and sixth rooms, making the area look as if there had been no divider there at all. She wondered what that was, putting ones arms around another, and then looked away as the three turned to her. "This is Sonya, she's going to be my first worker, well if people like my designs. Oh I'm so excited, it's going so well, and Ranma says he can even do the plumbing and electricity."

Ranma grinned holding out her hands, calloused and scarred after years of martial arts, regardless of the fact Ranma had only had this body for a few years. "These ain't just weapons you know, I've turned 'em ta a hell of a lot over the years. I can even repair a Valkyrie now; me and the doc were going over the schematics for it yesterday."

Lisa shook her head in amazement then kissed the redhead on the cheek while Sonya looked on, again wondering what that had been. She wasn't ready to kiss her on the lips as a girl, not yet, though she was moving in that direction faster than she had expected. In her mind Ranma was simply Ranma, and it was becoming harder to ignore that. "You are certainly full of surprises. Now what can I do to help?"

Two days after they had started work on their new home, Ranma glared out at a huge crowd that was filling every available seat in the huge amphitheater. "I cannot believe I agreed ta this."

Minmei giggled. "Oh it won't be that bad. Come on Ranma, we sing a few songs, take a bow and you get out of here before the concert ends so hopefully you don't get mobbed." They watched as the announcer started to work up the crowd then Minmei gasped. "Oh that's my cue, just remember to sing from the heart and ignore the crowd okay, good luck!"

Out in the crowd the three spies sat together wondering what this was going to be like. They understood the purpose of course, morale on the ship had plummeted so much even they could feel it, and they had experience with such things among the Meltraedi after a costly campaign, though it appeared as if this wasn't going to be anything like the contests and set combat performances they were used to. The riots they had seen had actually been more comprehensible to them, two units battling it out as a show for other divisions, but when they were told it was unplanned (by a young man who had looked at them very strangely when they asked him about it) they had been shocked.

Now they looked around and were shocked to see so many Micronians all in one place. They had heard Minmei's singing and it did touch them somehow, evoking emotions and feelings they were unused to, but still to command so many people, Minmei was even more important and awe inspiring than they had thought. When she began to sing, that thought went out of their minds and they just felt, the singing and the shouting and everything so far beyond their experience that they simply could not understand it, all they knew was that they liked it, they liked it a lot.

After Minmei did ten sets the announcer announced Ranma's presence and she walked out onto the stage, wearing her dress uniform. She stood at the front of the stage for a moment, letting the cheering of the audience die down to a mere susurration of sound before speaking.

"This is supposed ta be a thank you for all of our soldiers, so I chose two songs that speak ta my own emotions about our losses, as well as how I feel about continuing the fight. I hope ya'll take both messages to heart and remember those who died, why they died, and why we all keep fighting." She paused a moment then smiled. "If any of ya are fans of Heather Alexander you'll recognize both songs." Without further ado she launched into Sacred Fire.

When the song ended she paused for a moment, then before the crowd could decide to start cheering or even had really decided on its group reaction she launched into the next song, March of Cambreadth. "Axes flash, broadswords swing, shining armor, piercing ring, horses run with a polished shield fight those bastards till they yield! Midnight mare and blood red roan fight to keep this land your own, sound the horn and call the cry, how many of them can we make DIE!"

She stared out into the crowd, her eyes pools of dark determination as she continued the song, "Follow orders as you're told, make their yellow blood run cold, fight until you die or drop, a force like ours is hard to stop!" Her arms swept out encompassing the three rows filled with the Valkyrie pilots who had survived. Motoko was the first on her feet, stomping in time with the music, followed swiftly by Roy, Max and the others.

This time she turned to section dominated by destroid operators, her voice and stance challenging. "Close your mind to stress and pain, fight till you're no longer sane, let not one damn cur pass by, how many of them can we make die!"

Her eyes swept over to where a large portion of the ship's crew was seating as a group. "Guard your women and children well, send these bastards back to hell, we'll teach them the ways of war, they won't come here anymore! Use your shield and use your head, fight till everyone is dead! Raise the flag up to the sky, how many of them can we make die!"

Now here eyes swept over the entirety of the now cheering crowd. "Dawn has broke the time has come, move your feet to the marching drum, we'll win the war and pay the toll, fight as one in heart and soul! Midnight mare and blood red roan, fight to keep this land your own, sound the horn and call the cry, how many of them can we make die! How many of them can we make die! How many of them can we make die!"

As she finished the cheering shook the rafters of the sky way above them and the pounding of feet shook the metal plating beneath the amphitheater. Ranma smirked, knowing she had given morale the boost it needed and focused everyone on the fight to come as well as why they were doing this in the first place. She walked off the stage satisfied and immediately disappeared into the Umi-Sen-ken sneaking away. Let Minmei have the fame and adulation of the crowds, let her even take the credit, Ranma had what she wanted.

The next day as she walked into the work area of their apartment/house with Kasumi and Lisa, she was surprised to see Sonya standing with two other women, one of whom Ranma recognized as Anya from the White Dragon. Before Ranma or the others could ask what they were doing there they all pulled out little strange red-haired dolls that looked remarkably like Ranma's female form. "Can we have your autograph please!" the question came out in triple stereo and Ranma groaned in dismay as beside him Lisa and Kasumi both broke into laughter.

Little did Ranma know what repercussions his/her concert would bring once the spies brought a copy back to their fleet. While they didn't understand most of the terminology, indeed they spent the remainder of the night looking for examples and explanations of much of the words the songs used (what is a horse, a mare or a sword?), yet the meaning had shown through, and encapsulated the feelings of the Meltraedi whenever they battled the Invid. The fact this Micronian understood that sentiment and was able to show it so strongly shocked and awed them, and would do much the same to the rest of their fleet.

Gloval glanced over Kim's shoulder as the helmswoman/gunner slowly eased the battleship out of the densest part of the atmosphere and into the upper stratosphere where a spy plane or Veritech, Or he mused A Zentraedi battlepod, certainly those new types of mech could survive in here. Though a part of me is almost hoping that they try something. Now he had every remaining Defender and Tomahawk destroid ready in the open hanger bays behind the two spy planes, and the barrier and weapons systems were all ready to go, itching for something to kill.

Gloval worked hard to keep a smirk off his face. Since the concert morale had skyrocketed, and his troops now had that edge of tempering, an edge they hadn't had before, to help deal with and survive losses that had broken their morale before. The civilians weren't so sanguine about it, but the military was now refocused and ready.

He frowned when he thought about how little he had to do with the change in morale. He had made no speech, buried under administrative duties as he was, made no appearance, and knew that he had in part not wanted to face their losses himself, and that had been a cowardly decision on his part, one he had yet to correct. He knew he had to, but how was the question.

As he sat there thinking about that he watched as the two spy planes shot up and out of the hanger bay, backed by two barrier bubbles on the inside to keep the atmosphere out of the rest of the ship. They would have to do this at least six more times to get a picture of the entire planet, and even then, once the last one was finished the data gathered from the first one would be old. Still, it was the only thing they could do to get it and they needed that data to plan their next move.

Miriya's eyebrows rose in surprise as she and the two carrier captains saw the information of what the Micronians were doing. "Sneaky, they're trying to get an impression of how Kyron has blockaded the planet and in what strength. How many times will they need to perform this maneuver before they have enough information?"

The captain, a slightly scarred and wrinkled warrior who had lost her leg at the knee in some bygone battle, shrugged. "It depends on how aggressive they choose to be. They could use just the first one to get enough data if they were aggressive enough to think they could punch through the backstabber's blockade at that point. The real question is where we should put ourselves to take advantage when they do decide to break out."

"Hmm." Somehow Miriya knew this wasn't about breaking back out, but what it could really be about she couldn't say. Still… "Put us in orbit around the planets southern pole for now, then start us on sweeping orbital pattern beyond his fleet, we won't be a part of the cordon Kyron has set up, and that will let us cover large portions of the globe without joining forces with that madman." The captain nodded approvingly and soon the ships engines lit off. Miriya stood up, face and posture giving no hint at the amount of pain her still broken leg, the only injury that had yet to heal, caused her and went back to her room.

Once there she powered up her computer and watched again the recordings of Kyron's past fights against the Micronian ace. These recordings were spotty at best as they did not come from either of the individuals involved, and only included a distant recording of what rumor had as their first meeting on the red planet, so she still had no idea how this Micronian had realized Kyron could understand him, or how he knew his continued verbal needling was getting to the backstabber.

Kyron was known as a decent pilot, a little too prone to rely on his pod's armor and firepower to get him through, but he was a veteran warrior, whose only real shortcoming was his temper. This Micronian figured that out in a single battle and then continued to use it against him so well that Kyron ceased being a leader and became a lone berserker. So what is my weakness, and how would he target it? My ego, possibly, but how would he target that? Draw the battle out perhaps? Or my lack of long range missiles? But neither of those weaknesses can be countered, they aren't nearly as dangerous as these strange energy attacks he used in their second match or against me this last time. I was lucky to already be moving when he tried it against me, if I hadn't it might have ended the battle right then.

Honestly the third match, the one that had occurred after the Meltraedi had arrived in the system was next to useless. It was obvious the Micronian ace was one of those rare individuals that realized training was a constant thing and had gotten far better since the second time they had fought while Kyron had not. I need to find out what those odd attacks are, and if not stop them from being used or at last know the tell tales so I can predict them. She reached over and grabbed a large weight to use while she continued to watch the second battle, looking for clues and tells that would help her overcome her adversary.

Lisa sighed happily stretching her arms above her head, arching her back to get the kinks out after a hard days work on inventory and planning. That done, she looked back down at her computer screen, and Operation Undertow, a plan she had come up with that may allow them to get the resources they needed to rebuild the destroid and Veritechs lost, as well as give them valuable intel on the enemy. She scowled thinking of how little work that useless ass Griftel had done for them. Even following a reprimand, both verbal and in his official record, the man had still not done anything with the information they had been able to gather. In fact he had spent more time refuting the information gathered from battle debris and the information she and the others brought back after their escape than generating his own. I swear to god if that useless lump isn't off this ship in the first twenty minutes of landing back on Earth I'm going to pull a Ranma on him and kick his ass off myself!

She shook her head, getting the image of that asshole out of her head and hit the send button, sending the plan to the captain to look over. She stood up, and after a quick shower, she walked out of her door, intending to meet up with Kasumi and see if she wanted to go out. As she opened her door however she was surprised to see Claudia standing there, about to ring her intercom. "Claudia, hey what's up?"

Claudia smirked at her. "You're awfully cheery today aren't you? I was wondering if you wanted to go shopping with me and the girls? Apparently a new dress line as just come out."

Lisa shook her head. "You know that really isn't my kind of thing Claudia, I only shop when I really need to. Besides, I was hoping to drag Kasumi to the movies tonight, I hear they're starting a 'chick flick marathon', thought she might get a kick out of some of those cheesy American movies. You want to come with us?"

For just a moment Claudia looked at her with something like suspicion, but it vanished as soon as it appeared. "Hmm, I really do want to see the new clothing line, and I doubt I could drag the gossip girls away from it with a Veritech. How about we all meet up for dinner then?"

Lisa nodded. "Sure, you pick the restaurant, and I'll call you when I know what time we'll get out of the movies." Claudia nodded, and the two walked along the corridor together chatting. Though Lisa didn't notice, Claudia spent a portion of this time looking at her friend very carefully, as if she was trying to figure something out.

Henri Gloval looked up from working on yet more paperwork as his incoming mail beeped at him. He reached over, and smiled as he saw it was from commander Hayes, who was the last person who would bother him with anything stupid or idiotic, and the header had him intrigued. With that thought he opened the e-mail and perused its contents. After a moment he scowled, and made to close it angrily but he stopped himself. Calmly Henri, it's not the plan that is the problem, it's the necessity of having one like it at all. Lisa's right this is the only way to get the material we need. He grimaced, he had been so bogged down in long term planning, dealing with the civilians and paperwork he hadn't kept up on their logistics needs, and with a few taps on his keyboard he brought up the information, then cursed imaginatively as he looked it over. We're down to barely five percent of our stores outside of food, and even there, we're running low on sources of protein, of course we've been out of meat for a while now. We can't do anything about that need, but we can address the material concerns. With that thought he went back to read Commander Hayes plan more carefully.

Motoko showed up in the academy's park with her bokken over one shoulder, eager for her sparring session with Ranma. She wasn't quite up to using ki attacks, at least according to him, but she was getting closer and every spar with Ranma built on her skill and reserves. More she needed something to take her mind off her own problems. She had been spending more and more of her off duty time (which she and the other pilots had a lot of at this point, until the academy graduated its next class) finding excuses to see Lucretia where she worked. It was difficult to keep coming up with reasons she needed to shop in that store, but she was making progress getting to know the shorter blond girl. Unfortunately Lucretia wasn't sending any of the signals she knew, either welcoming or warning her off. She didn't seem to have any body language to speak of, but she did seem friendly enough, though closed mouthed about her own life. Motoko found her a very intriguing mystery, one she was becoming more enamored with.

She found Ranma waiting for her, but instead of already going through a routine he, and Motoko was a little irritated by the fact Ranma was back in his male body, was looking over something on his datapad, and scowling. "Hey Ranma, what's got you scowling so much?"

"Oh hey Motoko, I'm looking over some information about metallurgy and stuff. The doc wants me ta figure out the best metals for a weapon for my Valkyrie. I don't like it, weapons are all well and good for those who like them, but I'll trust my own fists over a weapon any day, but we need every edge we can get. Do you know anything about metal's in stuff?"

Motoko gave him a flat look. "I'm a swordswoman, of course I do. You have to understand metal to figure out how to tell a good sword from a bad one." Ranma looked at her blankly and she sighed. "Sometimes your ignorance about weapons and those of us who use them really irritates be you know, we're not all like that idiot Kuno who just swung his sword around without understanding what he was doing." She paused, and then her eyes widened, and her hands shot out to grip his collar, dragging him forward. "Weapons? For your Veritech, like a sword? They've designed one? How the hell can I get one?" She shook him back and forth agitatedly.

Ranma brought his own hands up to grip hers and stop her shaking him. "Sorry Motoko-imo I guess I kind of forgot that you would like something like that. I'll talk to Dr Lang and see if I can set ya up with one okay?"

Motoko nodded happily and stood backing, bending down to pick up the datapad Ranma had dropped. She brought up the information, and looked to see how small they could cut hull armor, and nodded, punching in some information. "Okay, you don't like weapons, so something simple would be best. A short sword or knife, heavy bladed, about the length of the Valkyries form would be best, a metal that can keep an edge and cut through the armor of the aliens fighters. Magclip it to your arm or something, or have a hollow section of a wing and put it there. As for the metal of the sword, something like 5160 carbon molly/carbon steel, though you'll need to be aware of how it's treated, heating especially will be tricky to get a metal that can keep the edge enough to slice through rather than batter through and not get stuck. Or maybe something like 9260 would be better, especially given the size of the blade we're talking about here. Hmm…"

Ranma shook his head taking the datapad from her and tossing it to the ground. "You've obviously been thinking about this fer a while, I'll get you in touch with the doc tomorrow, you can talk about all that with him. Right now, lets get to sparring."

Motoko nodded and without any warning whipped out her sword in an overhand i-ai strike that Ranma dodged almost negligently and the spar began.

Ranma struck back almost immediately, his foot coming up in a sweep which Motoko blocked with her pommel, but then had to duck another kick, answering with a slash of her sword before going into a complex combo, using her own legs and her sword together.

Ranma ducked and dodged around, striking back from time to time then took to the air when she tried to slice low, using the momentum of Motoko's own attacks to stay in the air, using one hand or another to block her strikes while returning some of his own.

Motoko grimaced. Ranma in the air was even more difficult to hit than when he was on the ground. But she had a surprise for him. A minute later when he pushed off her blade again she drew it back by her hip, and with a yell of "Shinmei-Ryu style, Soaring Eagle!" She brought it forward and a slightly misshapen wave of ki left her sword toward Ranma from barely a foot away.

Ranma's eyes widened in surprise, and he brought his arms together to protect his chest, taking the shot. It through him back a little, but Ranma recovered quickly and landed on his feet, shooting forward. Motoko tried to revere from her swing, but her sword was still out of position when he hammered her stomach with strong jab, followed by grabbing her sword arm and pinning it in place, bringing up his other hand to gently pretend chop at her neck. "match over." He said simply. Motoko grimaced again then gave a whoop as Ranma let her arm go to grab her around her middle with his arms, lifting her into the air and shouting happily. "Awesome job imouto, that was a great first attack! I can't believe you're able to do ki attacks already, that was fantastic!"

Motoko got over her surprise quickly and grinned in triumph looking down into Ranma's grinning face. "Well, I needed to surprise you somehow, figured that would work! Now put me down you great lump!"

Ranma did so, still grinning. "Now we can start you on learning how to use yer ki, this is great! Come on, I'll walk you through some exercises, and we'll get started. Wow, won't mom be proud of you when we tell her!"

Motoko nodded, and followed him, wondering what her family would think of her if they knew she had become so proficient in their style to use some of their attacks without having been formally instructed. They had stopped teaching her when she had openly declared her sexual preferences. Screw them, she thought angrily, I have a new family now, one who accepts me for me, preferences and all. Hmm maybe I can get Lucretia to come out with me tonight to celebrate…

Two days after she had submitted her plan to the captain, Lisa was called to present it to the combined survivors of the destroid companies and Valkyrie squadrons. They gathered in the largest anteroom in the ship and Lisa was there waiting for them. The filed in, some saluting, some merely nodding to her while Roy and Mannstein were looking on from the sidelines. Normally they would have given the presentation to their own commands, but this time, as it was Lisa's plan from start to finish Gloval had decided to see how she would do if thrown into the deep end. When the captain explained it to her he called it a part of her training for higher rank. She didn't call it anything, Lisa merely smiled saluted and walked off, a far cry from the woman who hated public speaking.

Lisa simply stood by the podium at the front of room, not acknowledging Ranma, who in turn didn't try to get her attention. Even as much as half a year ago she would have had to cough or yell to get the male-dominated and anti-tac officer pilot's attention. Now however she was greeted with respectful silence as soon as the last group trooped in. And unlike her own old style of extreme reserve and formality, she began with a question, a small smile on her lips. "Who here when you were kids played at being pirates?"

The question actually startled a laugh out of a few of her listeners. She smiled at that sound and continued, "Now imagine if pirates had a submarine and you'd be close to what we are at the moment. The Macross is a submarine, traversing under the surface of the ocean of Jupiter's atmosphere. The aliens can't tell where we are, but we can tell, roughly anyway, due to our scouting operations where they are. On the other hand, just like a pirate ship fighting a fleet, there's a hell of a lot more of them then there are of us, and our logistics aren't nearly as good either. However, we can take a page from those old time pirates, and take aboard some salvage."

Behind her the screen on the wall lit up, to show a large image of the Daedalus, being thrust out of the deeper section of the atmosphere as the rest of the ship lay in its siege mode, like a man laying down on a bed of water, the water being the thermosphere of the gas giant into the exosphere. The 'fist' of the Daedalus broke the atmosphere and began to disgorge its payload directly underneath a trio of alien battleships. "First we will have surprise on our side regardless of where we strike, which will be chosen randomly beforehand. We've seen the aliens don't seem to react well to surprise unless they have one of their leaders right there to help direct them, but even if they do have such a leader on sight we will still be able to overwhelm their CAP and close with their ships before whoever it is can start reacting. We use the Monster to destroy one of the three battleships in this force, the alien likes groups of three for some reason, and then we wipe out their air forces, and destroy the second before a small team of volunteers, attacks the last ship from one entry point while" here the Daedalus was shown punching upward again, only this time it didn't stop just below the enemy battleship it actually rose up and impacted the bottom of the hull, driving slightly into it due to momentum and being covered by the small barrier shields, "the destroid companies board the last battleship after its weapons have been destroyed and clears it out from within."

Motoko and Ranma both grinned at one another while Ben and Rick looked a little sick and Max looked thoughtful. "Once the ship has been cleared we use grappling hooks en masse," and here the view changed again, to show the exterior of the Deadulus, and several large grapnels firing out from different areas "to capture the enemy battleship and drag it down further into the thermosphere. The aliens have shown no interest to come into the thermosphere where their battleships at least could survive, so once we have disappeared into it we will be able to dissect the ship at our leisure. Thus hurting them and enriching us at the same time. Questions?"

One of the destroid operators raised a hand "what will the Tomahawk and Defenders be doing while this is going on?"

Lisa shook her head. "For this operation, the Tomahawks will be used to help clear the ship along with the Spartans, but I'm afraid the Defenders have proven not to be the best in close quarters." She let the harsh snort of laughter this caused in the crowd subside before continuing. "The initial push will be made as i said by a small group of volunteers, whose objective will be to find the engine room and/or the bridge and make certain the enemy can't blow the ship up."

A Valkyrie pilot snorted. "Who would be daft enough to volunteer for point assault on clearing a ship?"

Ranma grinned evilly, "Me, dipshit."

Motoko nodded firmly behind him. "Me too."

Max, not to be outdone, nodded as well, pushing up his glasses and smiling genially. "Sounds like one heck of a party, I wouldn't miss it for the world." Ben gulped, his memories of fighting on Breetai's battleship were not pleasant ones, but he nodded gamely anyway. At least these guys won't have a fucking unkillable giant hidden away anywhere.

Lisa nodded, having come to expect something like that from Ranma. "In that case Blue squadron will, once the enemy CAP has been suppressed be given the duty of first entry into the enemy battleship. Any other questions?" There were none and she nodded sharply. "In that case, this operation will commence in two hours, let's go get us some plunder gentlemen!" This caused the crowd to cheer, and most of them left with smiles on their faces.

Mannstein left as well after nodding approvingly to Lisa. That had been a very good presentation, which took into account the makeup of her audience and made them enthusiastic about the operation. There was none of her stiff formality in that presentation, and she had everyone understanding and following along. Ranma made a point of saluting Lisa as he left near the back of the crowd, and she mouthed 'be careful' at him, which made him smirk a little.

Ranma jumped out from the heavy truck smirking as he landed on the deck of the Daedalus' cavernous assault bay, grinning as Motoko jumped down to join him, long black hair billowing behind her. The deck was playing host to every surviving Valkyrie, formed into 15 flights of four regardless of nominal squadrons, ready to ready to be the spearhead of operation Undertow. Behind the Veritechs stood the tremendous form of Apocalypse, ponderous under the weights of its own firepower. Behind it stood the two companies of Spartans, armed with their combat batons, while behind them stood the single surviving company of Tomahawks. Oh yes, this is going to come as one hell of a surprise.

The aliens had blockaded the planet far differently this time, stationing ships in a loose cordon around the planet right outside the atmosphere, able to cover the entire planet with their own radar in clumps of three, but these flotillas were just a little too far from one another to come to their aid against a swift and heavy raid, and that very closeness made taking them by surprise easier. Gloval briefly thought that maybe the distance between the flotillas was purposeful, some kind of trap for them, but if the aliens gave them the space to set up, the siege cannon would wipe out any reinforcements that attempted to interfere in the operation.

Still they would have been vulnerable in a normal engagement if Lisa hadn't come up with Operation Undertow. Outside the exterior of the Daedalus was completely covered with every barrier bubble that had been created thus far, and there were several inside waiting to slide forward once the Valkyries had launched and the doors closed.

Ben and Max, stood by their own Veritechs, still painted with Blue squadron colors, something that Ranma wanted to change in the future. Motoko had also been given a new VF-J, having not had the connection to her old Valkyrie to want to put forth the effort to save it from the salvage heap. She was however already planning ways to personalize it to match her own and then some, as were Ben and Max. Chief Morgan also stood by, wondering what the 'space horse' had come up with to repair his Veritech. He would have sworn Dr. Lang would have vetoed trying to repair it, but here it was.

They all crowded forward joined by several other pilots who wanted to see what changes Ranma had wrought in his machine. Seeing their interest Ranma hopped onto the top of the trucks deck, and pulled off the tarp, revealing his Valkyrie laying there in soldier mode. "Alright, the doc and I have worked out a lot of little toys on this baby, and I put the entire thing together nut and bolt so here you go." He pointed to the arms, both of which had new shiny paint jobs, red upper arms and black lower arms, with the fists and cuffs painted with a fire blue pattern. "The right arm, the one I use ta shoot with can't move its pinkies or lower finger anymore. Ta offset this, Dr. Lang designed and I installed a mini-battery which does something" he didn't want to go into the connection between ki and the reflux energy, not with this lot, not until he understood it himself, all he knew was that it worked "to the rifles ammunition clip, enlarging it by twenty times without adding the weight need ta do the same thing. Ya want a scientific explanation talk ta the doc, but if it works he'll be putting it on all yer own Veritechs as soon as he can build the batteries and put in the hours ta do the work."

Every pilot shared either confused or ecstatic looks at this. Most of them, Roy and the other two veterans most definitely included in this group, didn't care how it was done so long as it worked for them as well as it did for Ranma the martial arts wunderkind. Max in particular was looking interested, though internally he was irritated that Ranma was able to get the new toys sooner due to his friendship with Dr. Lang.

Ranma went on pointing to his legs, also painted new colors, this time matte black with red kneecaps and blue highlights around the thrusters. "The fuel tanks for the thrusters have been shrunk to half their original size, again to allow me ta use the space for two new medium sized batteries, combined they'll give me enough power as an extra regular-sized one. The doc has figured out a way to make these strengthen the armor automatically, but the programming for that portion hasn't been finished yet, so I'll have ta to it myself, but hey. All in all, I got the moves and energy now ta hang with anything, and hopefully soon the changes will be made to all the other mechs." He didn't mention the added benefit of removing the barrier in the programming of the helmet, that was a secret he wanted to keep for now, even from his closest friends, they'd only worry needlessly. "I've also got a bit of surprise for close range, but yer all gonna have to wait to see that.

Max and Ben looked at Motoko, whose machine was also in robot mode, but she shook her head mischievously, indicating she wouldn't answer their questions. "My Valkyrie hasn't had nearly as much additions, just a little thing I've been wanting for a while, that's all."

Roy, standing to the side with Rick who he assigned as his wingman for this op, coughed and everyone watching turned to him. "Alright the shows over boys and girls, everyone to their planes and let's get this show on the road. Unless any of you want to tell the captain you were too busy gawking at what may become our new toys to take part in the operation…?"

No further threat was needed and everyone rushed off to their own Valkyries. It was time once more to get it stuck in only this time surprise would be on their side, not their enemies.

Lisa watched poised at her station as Kim inched the ship upward, already transformed back into the less maneuverable siege mode, it's left 'arm' already raised into position at the shoulder level (really the level of the largest secondary weapons turret), with the ship moving at a shallow angle out of the dense atmosphere just enough to send the Daedalus up into the stratosphere. She watched as the tip of the Daedalus punched out of the dense gases, then even before Kim had begun to turn she shouted: "Daedalus open bay doors, all Valkyries scramble!" She counted under her breath as her tactical screen kept changing as the fighters launched until they were all out of the ship and then her orders snapped out again. "Daedalus close bay doors! Radar give me a heading!"

Vanessa nodded sharply "Heading hasn't changed since the last recon op, two ships bearing 180 degrees aft current position, one more directly in front of us, accompanied by 200 plus battlepods." She then added in one of the most unnecessary things she had ever said on duty or off "Valkyries engaging the Zentraedi CAP."

Lisa again began to give out orders, not even looking back at captain Gloval who nodded in approval. This was her show, well her and Mannstein's really, and it was her job to make it work. She turned to her intercom, "Colonel, fire at the most distant ship as you bear please." She then turned back to Kim, "Keep us steady here Lt., all Barriers operating and in place along the Daedalus?"

Kim nodded distractedly keeping most of her attention on using the ventral thrusters set along the 'legs' of the ship which were normally used to help launch it off the ground and make it hover, as their main thrusters to keep them from sinking back into the denser portions of the atmosphere.

Sammy, in charge of the barrier operators answered verbally "all barrier bubbles in place around the Daedalus and at the front of the assault vessel."

Lisa nodded then turned her back to the Valkyrie battle for now, knowing she had a minute or two before the ship completed its turn to allow Mannstein a clear shot at the most distant target. Not, she realized a moment later, that she could really add anything to the carnage occurring out there.

The force of Valkyries that erupted out of the radar blocking stratosphere of Jupiter right into the Zentraedi combat air patrol had several things going for it that their opponents did not. For one they had surprise, which was still the deadliest weapon in any battle. Two, they came up firing right into the enemies typically loose formation, in a dense powerful force And three, these pilots they were facing were the cream of the crop, the one who had survived everything the Zentraedi had thrown at them even the Queadluun Rau and come out tempered to a fine edge, and their grim determination matched their skill and they attacked with ruthless efficiency.

Then there was Ranma. As he zoomed through the enemy formation (more like a big ugly ball, the aliens really didn't seem to go into formations for their mechs) he whooped in glee. "Yeehaw!" He zigged and zagged from side to side, his fighter mode moving to his hand like a extension of his body. As he changed to guardian mode the responsiveness sky-rocketed further and he dodged incoming laser pulses by the slimmest of margins, and returned fire almost negligently as his ki reinforced left hand crashed into another pod, crushing in its side. He transformed into a soldier mode and moved. It was like everyone else was moving in slow motion, his spatial awareness and danger sense heightened to an amazing degree by his training now coming into its own as his Valkyrie finally, finally allowed him to move and react with the speed he had trained himself to. Within the next five minutes he took down sixty battlepods, moving faster than most could even see, all they saw was a black and red blur as he flew like death incarnate through their formation.

Not that his friends were idle, covering one another's backs and watching in awe and not a little terror as their friend wreaked fearsome havoc among their enemies.

While the rest of the Valkyries engaged the Zentraedi CAP two flights from Skull ignored the growing dogfight to hammer missiles and shots into the nearest battleship's engines. While it could get a few more battlepods out, including one Kyron who luckily or unluckily had just arrived on a tour of his fleet, the engine soon exploded under their fire, destroying the entire ship.

News of the battle reached Miriya and the Meltraedi carriers swiftly and she made her way to the bridge to watch what little of the action could be seen from this range. What are the Micronians up to, this doesn't seem like an attempt to break away from the cordon, are they simply trying to hurt Kyron's forces? "Can we get some video from the battling battlepods from this far away?"

The captain nodded "Yes commander, wait one." She nodded at one of her techs and she turned back to the tactical field. "If we launch right now our powered armor would get there in two hours, but if we do a fold jump…"

She trailed off and Miriya shook her head. "No, that would be far too dangerous." The Meltraedi/Zentraedi fold space engines were not very accurate, and only a fool trusted them this close to a planet, but she knew the captain had to make the suggestion. Unless the Micronians were idiots, they would be long gone before even the Queadluun Rau could get there. Besides, my armor hasn't been personalized to me yet, and I won't…"

Her thoughts trialed off as the ship received video of the battle from the battlepods and she looked on in shock and awe as her adversary from the battle in the asteroid ring ripped through the Zentraedi battlepods like they were so many immature Invid grubs. He's faster than he was before, and his reaction time is far better too, somehow this Micronian has found a way to make his mech react like power armor. This will make our next battle more… interesting. She smiled, a feral hungry smile that even her fellow Meltraedi had to look away from as the green haired woman looked on avidly as her opponent came face to face with Kyron, who had just exited one of his carriers before its engines exploded. "Get me a radio feed from the nearest pod to this battle, let me here what they are saying to one another."

"Commander, the battleship," the carrier captain began but Miriya cut her off angrily.

"I don't care what the battleship is doing! If you care about it record our readings for now, but follow my orders and get me that radio feed!" The captain nodded hastily and leapt to obey the ace's commands.

In his Monster class destroid Mannstein grunted in satisfaction as the battleship furthest away from their current position came into view from where he was standing on the interior of the assault ramp. "Fire!" His crew obeyed almost before he could get the words out, and four heavy grazers shot out, skewering the ship in the distance and a moment later the ship exploded violently. "Objective two destroyed," he calmly reported, "falling back." As the monster turned and made its way inside, the assault hatch shut and the Daedalus once more sank into the planet's atmosphere as the barrier shields came up to cover it once again.

amn

As his friends continued to rip into the unprepared and surprised battlepods, Ranma agilely dodged fire from the side. He turned to look and saw Kyron's pod boosting through space toward him. "Now you die Micronian!" The voice blasted out of his radio and he shrugged. Well, time to see if Kyron actually learned something.

He changed to jet mode and flew to meet the enemy commander, dodging fire from Kyron's arms and back cannon before transforming into guardian mode right as he reached Kyron and a bicycle kick smashed into the enemy pods nose like front, flipping it backward as Ranma transformed into soldier mode.

Kyron righted himself and tried to open the range firing blast after blast at his strangely silent enemy, but Ranma simply dodged them all then without warning closed the distance. Two ki enhanced hands reached out gripped and pulled the right arm off of Kyron's mech, ducking under one leg in passing before coming back up and ripping off the electron cannon from his back and tossing it away.

Suddenly Ranma felt angry, this Kyron guy just reminded him way too much of some of his rivals back home. He began to use the mech arm still dangling from his Veritechs arm as a mace, pounding on Kyron's mech like it was a punching bag. "You are fucking pathetic!" He snarled. "You haven't improved at all since the first time we fought! What the fuck did ya think I was gonna do, roll over and play dead if ya got angry enough, or that you'd somehow miraculously be able to get better than me all of a sudden?! Pathetic, that's what ya are, all talk and no thought! Ya face the best, ya gotta work ta be the best, or ya ain't worth my time anymore."

Kyron tried to fight back, tried to get in a blow or a blast from his still functioning cannon, but to no avail, and his mech was literally battered into submission, all its joints crushed, all the armor battered to uselessness, the thrusters and remaining cannon both crushed and broken, and Kyron himself swiftly losing consciousness from the continued pounding back and forth.

Ranma let go of his makeshift weapon and it floated away from the momentum. He looked around, noticing that the dogfight had died down and that his flight had formed up behind him. "This is Blue one, Blue flight moving to primary objective."

Lisa's voice answered crisply. "Roger Blue one, sending telemetry data now of an intercept course toward an area of the battleship that has already lost all its weapons.

"Roger, command."

When he turned back Kyron's battered mech was slowly moving away on its one remaining thruster toward the nearest yet still extremely distant flotilla. Ranma doubted the battlepod had the legs to reach the, but wasn't about to persue anyway. "Don't come after me again Kyron, yer just not worth my time anymore." With that he turned around and joined his flight flying toward the last enemy battleship in the area.

Far off on her carrier, which had the translation software Exedore had come up with, Miriya had listened to the exchange between the Micronian ace and her smile became even more shark like. Oh yes, this is a warrior who truly knows what it means to be the best. Well, we'll see who the best is the next time we meet Micronian.

She frowned as she watched the Micronian ace join with a few of its brethren and slammed missiles into an already damaged part of the flotilla's last battleships but instead of peeling off, the jets transformed and landed on the hull before entering it from the whole they had just blown. What are they doing now?

Ranma stayed in Guardian mode until he touched down in a corridor in the interior deck of the ship. Once he did, he reached up to one of his wings and hit a small inset release button, which popped open a small section of the wing. That portion fell away and out dropped out a short sword about the same length as a Valkyrie's lower arm. It looked sort of like a cross between a short sword and a knife, a heavy leaf shaped blade with a good jagged edge and a heavy pommel.

When Motoko did the same however what popped out of a much larger section of the wing was most definitely a katana. A little longer than A Valkyrie's arm from shoulder to fingertips, it was slightly curved, the blade was slender, single edged, and the hilt was large enough to be gripped by two Veritech hands or wielded in one. A moment later they both stood in robot mode, in one hand gripping their rifles, in the other their swords.

Max looked at them in a little bit of shock and quite a bit of envy. "I have got to get me one of those," he muttered.

"Wait a bit before putting your order in," Motoko replied. "Dr. Lang is assigning two of his assistants to refitting and redesigning Valkyries. Wait until they're up and running before you start jabbering orders at them, it might make them get set up quicker."

By this time Ben had joined them and Ranma issued orders crisply, covering one end of the corridor. "All right, I'll take point Motoko your last Ben and max in the middle. He looked down at his controls for a moment flicking onto that would start to make a map of the battleship it interior as they traversed area command. "This is Blue 1, we're in and moving on. We've no idea where the bridge or engine room are though."

Mannstein's voice came back crisp and clear, this part of the operation was under his control as it was in essence a land assault. "Roger that, you have 10 minutes to make as much chaos as you can before we start our own assault. Bridge or engine room should be your targets, fore or aft, choose one and go for it, over."

"Roger, colonel," Ranma said, all business as his hand flashed up and out slamming the knife into the neck of the first of the alien's response team, sending it back in a splash of blood while his rifle came up and splattered the other two. "You heard the man team, let's get a move on."

What followed was 15 minutes of pure slaughter. The aliens, seemingly surprised at the humans boarding action, were slow to respond and once they did responded mostly with their crewmen armed only with their own rifles rather than battlepods, which were no match for Ranma and the others. Ranma move through them like a windmill, never stopping, never slowing, slicing, blasting, kicking, punching his way through every obstacle they tried to put in his path.

Ben and Max both were a little leery of shooting the aliens at first, this was the first time they ever killed someone who actually bled after all, but soon got into a rhythm. Max took the close in shots covering their sides while Ben took the distance shots. As they made their way forward Motoko guarded their back, which was not the soft option. The aliens knew precisely how to defend their ships, after all the Invid tried to board them all the time, and the best way to fight a boarding assault like that was to attack it from all sides.

But as deadly as Ranma, Motoko was just as deadly with hers saber. She was a true swordswoman, and even without the added benefit of the inhibitor removed from her helmet she moved with surgical precision and a astonishing amount of grace. She spun, slashed, sliced, used her jets to bounce up and off of walls and ceilings, slicing down and firing, always moving. Within those 15 minutes the four of them accounted for at least a hundred Zentraedi and still hadn't seen a single battlepod.

That changed when they came across to an intersection to find three battlepods and ten more guards dug in across from them. Ranma dropped his sword for a moment, reaching out to the side of the wall and ripping a piece of the plate t off using it as a makeshift shield against the hard point in the opposite end of the intersection. He let the aliens blast away at his shield for a moment before throwing it straight at them jumping forward right behind it.

As they cleared that hard point they were interrupted by Roy's voice coming through sharp and clear "Attention Blue flight brave for impact and Daedalus assault in 5,4,3,2,1!" Ranma and the others braced themselves and within a second the entire ship shuddered bucking and heaving.

Lisa looked at her radar screen as the ship moved forward slightly, until it was directly below the one remaining enemy battleship. The Daedalus, which had fallen below the atmosphere, again rose to meet it, looking nothing so much like a punch thrown by the robot-like battleships siege mode.

In another galaxy, Lisa would have thought up the Daedalus maneuver as a way to bring the destroids firepower to where they could do the most good, inside another battleships interior. The front of the Daedalus would punch into the side of an enemy ship before opening up and letting the destroids to fire directly into the inside of the ship. The 'swing of the super-carrier did still stop this time, much like a jab as it would have in that hypothetical other universe. Then, when it was embedded in the superstructure of the enemy battleship, the front of the Daedalus opened up.

Even as Kim controlled this maneuver Lisa turned to Vanessa. "Keep a close eye on your radar, I want to know the moment you see any incoming enemies as soon as possible. You have control of the grappling maneuver." Vanessa gulped but nodded. Now that the main battle was over, it would be a good exercise in how well she could control mid space maneuvers and keep the Veritech and Valkyrie squadrons working in real time.

The hatch slammed down and out poured the first Spartan company, armed with their combat mauls and their shoulders mounted weapons already firing. They swiftly mopped up what few aliens were in the area they had impacted, and then out came the two Tomahawk companies, and then Mannstein in his Monster to act as a command and fall back position. He stopped as soon as he was out of the way of the way of the destroids still pouring through, and connected Apocalypse's computer to that of Ranma and his team. He almost gaped for a moment seeing how far they had gotten towards the bow of the ship from their starting position and nodded decisively. This was a maneuver he and Lisa had all thought of for quite a while, and he immediately started rapping out orders, as the Spartans and Tomahawks broke from their normal homogenous companies to form small fire teams consisting of three Tomahawks and two Spartans.

"Teams one through seven break right and head aft. Your objective is to take the engine room. Teams eight through fifteen advance on these headings" and the HUD of their robots all lit up showing where they should go, "remain in contact with one another and form a defensive perimeter, expanding outward slowly. Company three," he said to the Spartans armed only with their specialized grapples, "start tearing this thing apart."

They all hastened to obey as behind them in the mouth of the assault transport ship a huge conveyor belt winched out along the floor. Once it touched down on the deck of the alien ship it powered up, and the Spartans began to rip and tear pieces of the ship off for transport into the bowels of the battleship. This way, even if they were forced to disengage rapidly as someone on the ship rigged the engines to explode they would still have gotten some resources from the fight.

Ranma killed another alien and looked around, his soldier modes head moving with the motion. The last few minutes their defense had been much better, and they even had brought up over a dozen battlepods in the last few matches. Yet in close they were still no match for his team, and he switched out the magazine on his rifle for the first time in this battle, the energy enlarged magazine having finally expended itself "Flight, ammo check."

Ben sounded out "I'm down to my last clip, about fifteen shots."

Max was next, "I'm about the same, twenty-five shots."

Motoko replied, "I still have to full clips, thirty shots in the one I'm using."

Ranma passed Ben one of his ammo clips and ordered Motoko to the same for Max. "Alright, we're obviously getting close to something important here, Motoko you stay here, guard our in line of retreat. Ben, Max you're with me!"

Motoko grinned evilly as she looked around. The intersection was littered with bodies and pieces of holes blasted out of the side of the walls. It was perfect place for her to cover, the aliens would actually have to enter the intersection to be able to box her in, and that would put them well within range of an assault with her katana.

Ranma and the others dashed forward, coming up against seven entrenched battlepods almost immediately. Ranma and Max both ripped off portions of the wall, to use as cover and the three Valkyries traded shots with the battlepods until the last one exploded and they rushed forward into the breach. On the other side of the destroyed battlepods they came to a huge and extremely heavy door and halted for a moment.

Ranma reached out with his senses and after a moment nodded "okay, this looks to be it. They've got heavy defenses in there along both walls, can't tell if they're in battlepods, but prepare for that anyway. Wait a minute and then follow me in. Watch out for any equipment though, remember command wants at least one computer alive and in one piece."

Both of the other Valkyries nodded their heads in reply not bothering to answer verbally. Ranma nodded in reply and concentrated his ki into his Veritech's fists. With a shout he brought them forward "Moko-ha Reiku!" and a beam of blue/gold fire slammed into and instantly burned through the door. It continued through the other side impacting a battle pod that had been a little too close, vaporizing the top half of the mech and the driver inside.

With a shout he charged forward through the hole in the door and before the aliens could respond was in among them. Only a few of these aliens seem to know what to do in close quarters, and none of them were a match for Ranma. He slashed out catching one alien behind the knee slicing the entire lower half of his leg off as his rifle came round and blasted a battlepod. He then grabbed the new battlepods remains and used it to shield himself from fire from the left side of the room as he responded to fire from the right with his rifle. As he did this Ben and Max charged through grabbing pieces of the first battlepod Ranma had downed in the room to use as cover and started to clear the room. Their fire slaughtered the left side before turning to the right and eventually return fire petered out.

Ranma stood up cautiously, looking around and nodded in satisfaction. He keyed his com and said "Command this is Blue one, we've taken the bridge intact, moving back to a defensive position."

Mannstein responded crisply. "Roger that, be advised I have teams moving up to join you. We're clearing this bitch level by level. Once team ten joins up with you, fall back to my position to rearm if you need to, otherwise just start causing some havoc until I tell you to stop he said," chortling a little at the end.

Ranma nodded, "Roger that," and he and the other two raced back to join Motoko where she had stopped. When they arrived, they found that she had just decimated another heavy assault, and was leaning against the wall panting a little inside of her Veritech. She had taken out at least forty aliens, including five battle pods.

Ranma nodded, "nice job imouto. "Ben take that corner, Max the next one, I'll take the third Motoko you stay put. Grab some of the debris for cover, we'll dig in here and hold until relief arrives." Motoko grinned at his praise but didn't bother moving, save to push some of her sweaty hair back under her helmet.

They didn't have long to wait, evidently whoever was in command of the alien defense by this point, if there even was someone, had decided that the bridge was a lost cause, and pulled out its troops from that section of this battleship to help reinforce around the engine room. It wasn't doing him any good really, in close the Spartans were more than a match for any of the aliens, and even in the battlepod they weren't really able to take on the Tomahawks direct firepower. The battlepod's main advantages in any fight were maneuverability and sheer numbers. In this fight however they had no maneuverability and number superiority was actually on the side of the humans in most of the fights they ran into considering that most of the aliens weren't in pods. The destroids still took losses, but it looked as if they had caught the aliens completely flat footed by this attempt at board.

Either that or the aliens just didn't have any overriding intelligence driving their defense at all. Ranma considered that might be the true reason, as without Kyron they had seen that his troops just didn't seem to know what to do with themselves. Ranma shuddered thinking how hard this fight would've been with someone like Breetai in charge of the aliens. The phrase 'pure hell' came to mind rather forcefully.

"Movement!" Max said suddenly, "hold fire, friendlies." Swiftly two Spartans and three Tomahawks came around the bend of the corridor moving swiftly. All but one of the Spartans fell into the makeshift cover that Ranma and his flight had been using. Ranma's Veritech pointed down the corridor towards the bridge bridges "The bridge is down that way, all the computers are still on from what we could tell."

And the one Spartan that had taken cover nodded and raced down towards it. That was the Spartan of the company commander, and he had two computer techs on board. Their job was to copy everything on the aliens computers, taking any and all information that could. One of the Tomahawks nodded at Ranma. This was a company Lieutenant and his job was to secure this position until relieved or told to retreat. "We'll take it from here commander, go on and do that voodoo you do so well!"

Ranma returned the salute, and is Veritech copied the motion. "All right troops let's go raise some hell!" Motoko and the others nodded and followed him down the corridor. They were only attacked two more times however, and within 40 minutes the call came in that the engine room had been taken.

Mannstein nodded grimly as that report came in he'd taken a few losses and any losses at this point were painful ones, but overall this battle had been remarkably simple. The aliens just couldn't seem to grasp the fact that the humans were attacking them from multiple points at once, and Ranma and his team seemed to have brought the lion's share of the defenses down on their own heads, and they never recovered, leaving his men to attack them from behind or simply spread throughout the ship.

He looked at the schematic of the ship they had compiled and smiled happily. There are still a few areas where the map was vague, but he had a map of the ship that could be used in future engagements.

Now though he directed a few of the grapple equipped Spartans forward towards the sections of the ship then had holes in it towards the exterior to patch up those places so that the ship could be brought down into the denser atmosphere of Jupiter. "Command, this is Mannstein, I estimate maybe 20 min. before we're ready to drag the ship back down. Enemy resistance has faded almost to nothing, suggest you get the Veritechs in here now."

On the command deck of the battleship, Lisa nodded and in space along the hull of the Daedalus into the assault transport specially made hatches opened up and grapples fired into the enemy battleship further latching the battleship to the assault transport. While this was going on the rest of the Valkyrie forces that had been flying CAP moved into the sections of the battleship that had been blown off into space. They would make their way from there into the assault transport or help with the deconstruction of the interior. Roy and Skull squadron were the last ones in and as they entered, all of them carried debris from the battlefield in their soldier modes. It wasn't elegant by any means, but it added quite a bit to their stores. Once the ship was taken down into the denser atmosphere of the planet, the interior would be completely taken taken apart and added to their stores. Once they were all inside the enemy battleship, the space fortress began to descend once more into Jupiter's thermosphere.

Miriya looked on in shock as the fist of the battleship, and that was the only way a power suit user like her could think of the enemy ship, as some sort of enemy that was lying down punching up into one of Kyron's battleships, dragged it down into the depths of the planet. Inside she was castigating herself. Of course, she thought in a snarl, information goes two ways. They must've done this just to get more information on us. It never occurred to any of us to think that they would want to or be able to think like that. It should have of course the Invid do the same thing to us as well, but it didn't. I wonder what they'll find out, and how they'll use that information.

Ranma and Blue flight weren't going to be part of the deconstruction of the battleship's interior for a bit as other than Ranma himself all of them were running on fumes in terms of battery life. They had to head back into the space fortress to get new batteries fitted, giving them a bit more time before joining the deconstruction efforts. Ranma looked over at Motoko as they both that exited their Valkyries, smirking. "Well that was fun" he said sardonically, "I wonder what we'll do for an encore."

end chapter

As always read and review

*Chapter 17*: Where do They Get Those Wonderful Toys?

I don't own Robotech: Rick being with Lisa and still wanting Minmei, 'nuff said. Nor do I own Ranma, alas.

An infrastructure and rebuilding chapter, as well as a few funny points, which just kept growing hence the lateness of my putting it out. The songs used in this chapter are: Samurai Heart, an ending song from the Gintama series and Anastasia by Slash, who I also don't own, as well as Awake and Alive by Skillet who own themselves.

Chapter 16 Where do They Get Those Wonderful Toys?

The operation had been an incredible success. Not only had they captured an enemy battleship, a veritable trove of information and material, but the Valkyries hadn't taken a single casualty and they were able to escape back into the gas giant's atmosphere before the two nearest Zentraedi forces could come after them. They hadn't hurried though, the complete destruction of three ships and a little fewer than 250 battlepods seemed to have taken them aback a little and since the battleship would have been free to use its siege mode, they were right not to force the issue. Then too, the closest group had merely picked up the enemy commanders mangled heavy pod before retreating back to its former position.

Two Spartans moved methodically around where the assault ship's outer hull met the enemy battleship, using special liquid adhesive guns to seal the ships together. The adhesive was incredibly expensive, and not something the ship could make as no-one on board knew how, and doing this would use nearly half of the stores of it onboard. The senior pilot looked at a little device on the side of his screen and when the red light on it changed to green he sent an all clear signal to the assault ships environmental section.

Emotion among the pilots from the squadrons not relegated to taking the battleship apart was high as they parked their planes along the Daedalus' assault bay, barely noticing that a dozen closed trucks were heading up and out into the battleship around them. The instant air began to circulate the pilots popped their canopies and jumped up, shouting and cheering, jumping about and thumping backs, celebrating the lopsided win with the destroid and deck crews and Blue squadron, who had been the first to pop their canopies. "Ooorah, ooraaahh!"

Ranma grinned and joined in the shouting and cheering but he stopped as someone in the crowd shouted "Hey Ranma sing us a song!" Some others who knew of his curse swiftly joined in.

"Oh hell no! I ain't a bloody nightingale that'll sing on demand!" Ranma made to escape but several hands grabbed him before he could get away. He could have broken away easily of course but as it was all in good fun he didn't bother.

Roy shouldered his way through the crowd to reach Ranma, a wide grin on his face as Rick followed him, his own smile only a little smaller than his commanders. "Come on Ranma, just one song and then we'll all get out of here okay? Don't make me make it an order."

Ranma growled but then brightened. There is always the direct approach ain't there? "Alright, but I sure as hell ain't singing in this form, I don't want ta start a riot. Someone get me a glass of cold water. And where's Max, if nothing else works let's see if changing right in front of him makes him believe me!"

Ben and Motoko looked at one another. "Uh, he already took off; he said he wanted to see Dr. Lang as soon as possible to get the same modifications you have."

Ranma groaned as everyone around them laughed. Most of the pilots knew about Ranma's changing form and how Max refused to believe in it, the whole thing was an ongoing joke to them all. Of course what made this even funnier to Roy and the other commanders was that Dr. Lang and his tema had just passed them with a group of UNSF engineers to examine the ship, so Max wouldn't be able to find him at his lab.

Once he was handed a glass of water the aqua-transsexual walked back to his jet and hopped up onto one of its wings. Looking at the rowdy crowd on the ground around him he shrugged and dumped the water over his head. Shaking her head to clear the water from her eyes Ranma ignored the mutterings of surprise and shock from the people who hadn't seen his transformation before, as well as the screams of anguish from one or two of them who had apparently been followers of the 'wild flower'. Mokoto had to look away from how cute Ranma looked with the water in her hair and plastering her flight uniform to her body. Tonight's the night, I'm going to convince Lucretia to go out with me, or, or something I'll figure out later, probably jill furiously god damn it.

"Alright you bastards, one song then I'm outta here! Got it!" The pilots and soldiers shouted and cheered which Ranma took to mean agreement so she went on. "The song is called Samurai Heart, and the original is Japanese so it might not scan well, but fuck it, I'm the one singing so I damn well choose the song!" She reached into her cockpit and punched a few buttons and soon background music began to blare out of its exterior speakers.

With that she began, staring out with bright eyes as her hands clenched into fists. "Got your head in the clouds, you're not even listening are you? You deliberately miss the signs I drop for you, but we're the same, we can understand each other right? That's just a delusion you probably won't even notice me here. Alone yet mixed in a crowd, I feel empty looking up to the sky, playing catch with myself in this one-sided conversation, my loneliness increases."

That part had been mellow, getting more and more emotional and loud with each line, but the next part was belted out in a hard, unyielding tone, much like the voice she had used when singing March of Cambreadth at the rally and her eyes began to blaze with blue gold fire. "Hey! Hey! Answer me, is anyone there? Even though I've looked all this time there's still no answer. Hey! Hey! I'm the only one that decides who I want to be, so no matter if I laugh cry, love, hate, I'll continue living on! Hey! Hey! Samurai Heart!"

She began to move, a fast paced kata that had her legs and fists cutting through the air, her face even fiercer, but there as a certain joy in it, the joy of battle as she sang the next stanza in the original Japanese. Only Roy, Motoko and a few others understood but the tune was so catchy the others kept cheering and rocking along. It was still a relief to them all though when Ranma changed back to English, which had of course become the lingua Franca of the UNSF. "Hey! Hey! We can't go on living on our own, you can't put your heart into something if you throw it away! Hey! Hey! You don't have a reason to give up! You're gonna hold on and keep living on this road! Hey! Hey! Answer me, is anyone there? Even though I've looked all this time there's still no answer. Hey! Hey! I'm the only one that decides who I want to be, so no matter if I laugh cry, love, hate, I'll continue living on! Hey! Hey! Samurai Heart!"

She came to the end of the song and she stopped moving, her eyes going back to normal, but her face and posture was still fierce as she stared out at the crowd of pilots who were cheering and hollering. "Hey! Hey! Samurai Heart! Hey! Hey! Samurai Heart! No matter if I laugh cry, love, hate, I'll continue living on! Hey! Hey! Samurai Heart!"

Once Ranma finished the song she jumped up into the air and disappeared mid-leap into the Umi-Sen-Ken, using it to duck out of the crowd even as her fellow pilots began to shout for an encore. Eventually though they realized that Ranma was gone, and began to disperse to continue the party elsewhere, mostly in the city of course. The police and MP's would be very busy later, but really who could blame them?

On the captured battleship Dr. Lang and Commander Drake, who had been second in command of the Prometheus and bouncing around from one job to another for months until Gloval had finally gotten fed up and ordered him to take over the intelligence division (after he jailed Griftel for gross incompetence and dereliction of duty in a time of war) were both in ecstasies, an emotion shared by every other engineer and scientist they had brought with them. "Look at that, the outer shell of the ships appears to be trying to heal itself!" Dr. Lang shouted into his intercom, looking at the section of the hull where it had been bashed through by the Daedalus.

In another truck commander Drake watched as portions of the outer hull started to somehow reform itself, merging with the special air sealant the two Spartans had used to make the connection between the ships airtight and having helped the process along. He shook his head, not quite believing what he had just seen before pressing his own com button. "That's amazing, but it looks like a mindless, automatic reaction. Look, it's stopped now it must somehow assume that the Daedalus is part of the same ship, so now it's stopped. Incredible, if we could figure out how it does that and apply the process to our own ships, the benefits to their long term combat capability would be immense." Both they and their fellows continued to move through the ship in their trucks, having completely ignored the impromptu performance occurring behind them.

Dr. Lang nodded thoughtfully as the truck rode under serried ranks of battlepods. He looked out of the trucks canopy at them musing that if the aliens had been prepared for their boarding action they would undoubtedly been able to put up a better fight. A part of his brain began to count the battlepods they passed, and the number would not please him when he thought of it later. "Yes, I wonder if there is a reason why they don't have shields though, if we were able to come up with them I don't see any reason why they wouldn't be able to."

Drake shrugged. "If Commanders Sugita and Hayes' reports are to be believed, they have so many numbers that self preservation wouldn't be a priority. That would certainly correlate with what we've seen of their fighter tactics. Or maybe they do and we just haven't seen it yet, maybe on their main command ships and that's all. The shields are pretty energy intensive after all." Drake had an engineering background, not enough to keep up with Dr. Lang or his fellows but enough to follow along, and he had helped design the barrier control room before his latest job was handed to him.

In all honesty, he was very pleased with the level of trust in him this appointment showed. He didn't have any background in Intelligence after all, but on the other hand he could hardly do a worse job at it than the incompetent he had replaced. It did worry him a little that his former commanding officer hadn't jumped at the chance to take this job. Connor seemed content to merely be in charge of the second shift bridge crew and Commandant of the Academy, though that bothered him for some reason. If Drake knew anything about his old captain, he was ambitious, and he wasn't acting like it now.

He ignored that for now and watched as the truck passed through the areas that were already begin taken apart by the Spartans, grimacing as he saw piles of alien bodies stuffed to the side of the corridor. Two of the dozen trucks in the convoy broke off, making for the pile and he shook his head. Scientists were alright, he could talk to them more or less, but doctors…

Dr. Lang hmmed in thought. "That could be true I suppose. It will be interesting to see what all we can find out about their culture and thinking from their computers. More, I am eager to see their engines. If they fold the same way the space fortress does it will be a fantastic find, even if we can only use it as a spare at this point." The space fortress had initially had five fold engines for some reason, yet Dr. Lang had done the equations and could tell that one would have been enough to move the ship the other four were there to add to the speed in fold. However humanity could not recreate the fold engine that the space fortress used, but maybe they could use the alien's fold engine.

They came upon a large intersection and found Apocalypse there, having barely been able to move along the corridor and even in this intersection it loomed, a dangerous, brooding presence. Colonel Mannstein's voice came out of the huge Monster destroid, "Commander Drake, Dr. Lang, the ship is secured, but you will find I left a few Spartans and Tomahawks in both the bridge and the engine room. The engine room can be found to the left of this intersection, the bridge to the right. Please be aware in the event we've missed any of these aliens both places will be targets for a counter attack, and I expect you to follow my orders and the orders of my officers in that situation."

Both men nodded, and the convoy broke up, both teams going on their way on very different missions of discovery.

Once Mannstein had reported that he had command of the ship and had given his orders to the various groups over there, Lisa sighed, stretching at her station before she nodded her head approvingly at Vanessa. "Good work, only one or two mistakes with your distribution of the CAP, we'll go over those next shift. Right now, I think we've all earned a bit of down time. Captain?"

Gloval nodded. "Yes, I think you have. Don't worry I can handle the com until the next shift arrives." The second shift was comprised of four young ensigns who had been washed out of the academies destroid/Veritech program and been relegated to second string bridge controllers. They weren't trusted in combat yet, and so were called in on off shifts whenever the regular bridge crew needed a break. Captain Connor led them, having enough free time as in his own words 'chief paper pusher' at the academy to take on another job.

Lisa nodded as the younger girls squealed and began to swiftly finish the little tasks they were doing, they knew the pilots would already be out on the town partying and they wanted to join in. Lisa on the other hand wasn't much of a party person, and she had other plans. After spending a few minutes making notes on the battle and the 'Daedalus maneuver', as well as a few notes on how it could be used to greater effect in the future, she shut down her screen "Well, I'm off then, I hear a Kasumi-made meal calling me." This elicited a groan from the captain, who knew the young lady in question was as good a cook as Nodoka but had more free time to devote to it than his lady friend, and a sideways glance from Claudia.

She saluted the captain then walked off the bridge but as she stepped into the elevator Claudia caught up with her. The doors had barely enough time to close before Claudia turned on her friend. "Alright what the hell is going on with you Ranma and Kasumi? I thought maybe you were trying to poach Ranma from her or maybe poach Kasumi from Ranma, but now I don't know, you've been spending so much time with both of them, what the hell is going on?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, and how is this any business of yours?" Lisa sniffed. "My private life is just that, private."

"Yeah from most people but I've been your friend for years and I want to know you're not getting into something that will hurt you down the line. I'm just worried about you Lisa."

Lisa smiled at her friend. "Thanks for caring but seriously, I'm fine with the way things are going. I'm not getting in over my head or anything like that. We… we're sort of in a triangle relationship, but we're all fine with it."

Claudia looked at her in surprise. "And you are alright with that, having to share a man, that's not something I would've thought you would be willing to put up with Ms. Feminist."

"With any other man, no it wouldn't be worth it. With any other man I wouldn't have moved past Karl, but it's Ranma, and he's worth it. He, they make me feel so special, so loved, unique and needed, all those things. I've been happier since getting together with them than I have been for years."

"And you're not worried how that will look when it gets out? What about when we get back to Earth, you know gossip moves faster than the speed of sound, what do you think your father will say?" Claudia just could not believe that any woman, let alone a strong career minded woman like Lisa, would be willing to put up with sharing a man like this. Sure she could see Lisa getting together with Ranma, they did seem to hit it off for some reason, but to share him with Kasumi?

"My father's opinion about my personal life matters not at all to me and frankly I don't care what anyone else thinks either. I'm happy, Kasumi's happy and Ranma's happy, what else matters?" She softened her voice reaching out to grip Claudia's shoulder.

"Claudia I understand you're concerned for me, and I even understand it, but think about this: how many men do you know could separate their professional relationship with a woman from their personal relationship, especially when she's senior to him? How many of them would be happy to support a woman without trying to change her? Ranma and I have been going out for over a month and we've had no issues while on the clock, and he has told me and Kasumi several times that he wants us to have our own dreams, our own professions, and that he will always care for us so long as we care for him. How many men could say that and mean it? How many men could accept me like that and mean it?" Lisa's eyes were watery as she finished speaking and the elevator doors opened on her stop. "Now if you'll excuse me, I want to go see my boyfriend and girlfriend."

Lisa walked off leaving Claudia behind still looking after her. After a moment she shook her head and decided she would just be happy for her friend and not worry about the impropriety. Besides, she had her last bottle wine and a certain cocky CAG to spend some time with herself. With that thought she turned around and re-entered the elevator whistling quietly.

Fifteen minutes later Lisa walked into what was quickly becoming her self-made family's home. It wasn't finished yet by any means, but the kitchen was fully wired and furnished, and several large futons and beanbags were already in the main sitting room, though the plating underneath was still bare as were the walls, and nothing had been done on the second floor area. The kitchen, the first room you entered from the hallway was done in natural colors, light tan wallpaper, wooden tables and wood finishes on all the furniture. The appliances were also chosen to match, in either tan or green. A few paintings in Japanese style and a wall hanging with Japanese lettering spelling out the words 'hearth and home' finished the image. The whole thing gave off a nice simple and homely feel that Lisa loved.

The sight of Kasumi at the oven was even more welcome. Her words on the other hand shocked Lisa out of her thoughts. "Okaeri nesai anata. Y-you're home early today. What would you like to do first? Would you like dinner, a bath or maybe you want me!?" Kasumi turned and grinned over her shoulder wickedly at Lisa, who stood gaping at her for a moment before laughing aloud.

"W-where in the world did that come from Kasumi? It sounded like you were quoting something." Lisa asked, still giggling as she took a seat at the table.

"Oh it's a common line in hentai stories dealing with housewives. I thought I'd try it to see how it felt. Rather silly frankly, a little too rote. Making love should be more spontaneous than that. And I certainly don't think that the woman should be the only one making the preparations like that."

"And there's the fact you're not a housewife Kasumi," Lisa said firmly. She knew how Kasumi's old family had treated her and both she and Ranma went out of their way to combat it if they saw Kasumi starting to fall back into old habits. "You are a vibrant young woman who has a promising career ahead of her and can do anything you set your mind to. And why in the world did you use that line on me and not Ranma?"

Kasumi smiled hugging the other woman briefly then moving back to finish up cooking dinner. "Oh I know that, there is a distinct difference between enjoying cooking for people and enjoying being stuck in a house and forced to work as a drudge. And I used it on you because I used another such line on Ranma when he arrived." She giggled wickedly, a look on her face that would have sent Nodoka reaching for her fans and Soun into a dead faint. "Of course with him I added a little visual aid. A word of advice my dear, the naked apron look should be listed as a lethal weapon."

Lisa gaped at her then burst out laughing again. When she calmed down she asked, "Would you like me to leave then, if you two want some alone time? I- I'm not mentally prepared to go that far just yet."

Kasumi waved Lisa's offer away. "Oh no, it's a dangerous time of the month for me, so no fun time." Contraceptives and pills were all well and good, but Kasumi knew that the women in her family were sometimes a little too fertile, and Ranma was well, he lived up to his name, for her to take chances (she routinely took two morning after pills just in case!). Yes she wanted to be a mother someday, but not for several years yet. "Besides your first time with Ranma should be a special time for you both, just as it was with Ranma and me. Don't worry, when the time comes you'll have fun."

Lisa smirked. "I don't doubt that. You two should really learn to lock the door when you're 'busy' you know."

Kasumi blushed then smiled naughtily. "Oh, but it's so much better actually riding than watching my friend." The two shared a giggle then giggled all the harder as Ranma poked his head in, hair wet from a hot shower.

"Hey Lisa, Kas-chan you need any help with dinner? What are you two laughing about anyway?" The two girls simply smirked at him and Ranma fought off an irrational moment of fear as he saw the look in both their eyes. He shook it off quickly and helped bring out some munchies to the table.

Lisa and Kasumi joined him and the three ate dinner, trading jokes about Ranma's old rivals and some old competitor of Lisa's from her days at the academy until Kasumi smiling left for a moment and came back with a bottle of wine. "How about some wine to celebrate the recent operation?"

Lisa smiled and waved her forward. She took a glass and turned back to the discussion. "But seriously Ranma, you never wanted to be anything that couldn't use your martial arts in some way? I thought every child went through the stage of wanting to be a fireman or actor or something like that."

Kasumi giggled sitting next to her and pouring a glass for herself. Ranma waved her off, he had seen his father drunk and dumb way too many times to be at all interested in alcohol. "Nah, I never got the chance ta do much dreaming, and all I ever wanted to do besides martial arts was ta go into space. That was my dream and I stuck ta it. Besides" he grinned "with all the crap I've seen, dreaming of being a prince or magician or samurai kinda lose their luster y'know."

Lisa giggled, sipping her wine and looking at Kasumi with one eyebrow raised. The other girl giggled a little more in turn before speaking, sipping at her own glass as she did. "Well, I wanted to be a policewoman when I was younger, then I wanted to be a goddess and then a magical girl... You could say I was easily influenced by anime when I was younger."

Ranma smirked. "Well I could definitely see ya as a goddess, but a magical girl? You have way too much common sense ta pull that off."

Kasumi laughed and Lisa shook her head. "I remember that show, something about defending love and boys or something? Ugh, and those costumes, you wouldn't catch me in those if my life depended on it. Now if it was defending truth and justice and wearing something like that Catwoman costume, the one from the American comics, sure." She snorted. "Especially if it came with that body type included. I was a little self conscious when I was younger."

Ranma snorted. "Not anymore though right? I mean, not ta put too fine a point on it or nothin' but ya do know yer beautiful right?"

Lisa leaned over and kissed him on the cheek amused at the way he could give such a backhanded compliment. "Thank you Ranma."

Kasumi grinned leaning over in turn and kissing the other cheek to balance it out. "So what did you want to be when you were younger Lisa?"

Lisa settled back into her chair, smirking and sticking her tongue out at the other girl, "Not telling."

The discussion between the trio continued for a few hours, as the girls talked about dreams Ranma talked about cartoons and they all talked about the odd way one could influence the other. Ranma nearly choked on his food laughing when Lisa and Kasumi both started to call him Goku, after the Dragon Ball Z manga, after all many of the things he did had something equivalent in that manga.

The discussion was interrupted momentarily when Nodoka called and told them that she would be spending the night with captain Gloval. This made Ranma wince a little, but it wasn't as if he hadn't gotten used to the thought. He turned back, watching with some amusement as his two girlfriends got more and more drunk on simple rice wine. Neither girl seemed to have any head for alcohol, and had barely finished two-thirds of the bottle but Ranma could see in their faces that it was getting to them both. Maybe what my dad said was true, practice does make perfect, even for this.

Kasumi was giggling every other second uncontrollably and, while not showing any sign of being drunk in her face or body language, Lisa's eyes couldn't seem to focus. She also took a while to answer each question and she clearly had to concentrate on enunciating each word.

Kasumi smirked across the table at her girlfriend. Giggling between words she asked "so what is the dream you thought was so embarrassing that you didn't want to share with us earlier?"

Lisa smiled in turn and said, "I wanted to be a stripper when I was around nine or ten." She sobered a little as she went on as her friends gave her surprised looks. "There was this assistant of my father at the time, he had just been made commodore, and this one guy was always watching me for him. This was before Karl of course" she said, sighing then went on, "and I always asked him, you understand I was having daddy abandonment issues at the time, right? Well I always asked him what kind of girl a soldier would like hoping I could somehow convince my dad to stay home, and he would always tell me a stripper." Her two friends looked between caught between laughing and just commiserating. Neither of them had good father figures after all, though only Ranma would actually say he loathed his father. Kasumi merely disliked her father intensely, and wanted nothing more to do with the man, but the idea of someone playing that kind of trick on a young impressionable girl was rather disturbing.

Lisa suddenly looked over at Ranma, her eyes sparkling and Ranma again had to fight an irrational moment of fear as he saw the desire there, as well as the imp of mischief present in her curved lips. "You know" she mused "that gives me a great idea." She took hold of the bottle of wine and drank three long pulls from the bottle before putting it down. Grabbing Ranma's hand Lisa dragged him over to where the three had placed futons on the ground in the main living room. She pushed him down onto the bed and then turned around looking for their music player. "I know it's around here somewhere." She said, muttering to herself as she picked her way carefully around the room. For some reason she was having trouble walking.

Kasumi despite being half drunk realized what her friend was about, and decided to join her. It looked like fun after all. She picked up the bottle of wine and took two gulps finishing it before placing it back down on the table and joining Lisa in looking around for the music player.

For his part, Ranma was just sort of wondering where all this was going. "Are you certain you want to do this Lisa? This isn't something you're going to regret when you sober up is it?"

Lisa giggled as she placed the sound system on the floor behind her and turned to Ranma. "No this is something I've been meaning to do. I think it's time that we move our relationship along a little. I know you have this policy of you know, wanting to make the act perfect, but there are a lot of things we can do before we go that far, and before you start spouting yes I am going to want to go all the way soon." She glared at him a little, made blunt by drink. "You've been the perfect gentleman so far not taking advantage and not pushing me, but I am tired of being a virgin dammit!"

Ranma breathed a little deeper than usual as he thought about this and then he said "all right. I, we can do that. It's just I ain't so good at this whole going out thing. What I did fer Kasumi was 'cause I knew what she wanted ta do, and... I don't know what's fast or slow, I, I just okay." He stopped stuttering "but I'm not doing anything like that tonight. I mean, not while you're drunk. It wouldn't be right."

Lisa giggled. "No we won't be going that far, but I'm certain we can find a happy middle ground." She smirked as she turned on the music and began to dance. The song was some kind of techno thing that Kasumi had been given by one of her friends at the college who wanted to see if she wanted to be the voice for their band. She had declined the offer but kept the tape.

Kasumi giggled and joined her and the two danced around one another, sometimes bumping (and not always on purpose) into one another or the objects strewn around the room, but generally having fun. Then Lisa started to strip slowly and sensually first her uniform top, which she took off and threw at Ranma. Then she slowly peeled off her socks, stepping between Ranma's outstretched legs as she did so.

Ranma gulped as he looked up at her long perfect legs, licking his lips in unconscious approval. Lisa reveled in that look and moved away to continue her stripping act. Kasumi meanwhile had shucked off her pants, but felt the wine catching up to her. She decided she'd had enough moving around, and moved to sit next to Ranma. But not before pulling him into a heated kiss and then sharply turning his head away to watch Lisa as Kasumi curled up against his side.

Lisa's act continued but now rather than dancing she simply sat on Ranma's lap grinding there for a time moaning throatily as her eyes closed dreamily. Ranma brought up his hands to caress her sides, but she smacked them away, smiling slightly as she moved back to her feet "No touching unless I say so." She twirled around for a few more turn as she slowly peeled off her dress, skirt and tossed to the floor. Then she peeled off her undershirt and threw that away standing there in just her underwear as Ranma looked on somewhere between shock and almost overwhelming desire.

Lisa's body was as perfect as he had always known it would be. Her long legs rose up to magnificent bubble butt incased in white silk, she had an almost six pack stomach and high, perky D-cup breasts that looked as if you could set a table on them they were so firm in her plain bra. Ranma really didn't know where to look first and tried in vain to just sort of sear the image into his brain.

Lisa turned moving as erotically as she could in her inebriated state and watched with approval as Ranma's pants, which had been loose suddenly became very tight in the front, and she could see the may pole rising. Reaching behind her with both hands she thrust her chest forward, as if teasing him as she removed her bra tossing it to the side before she jumped into his lap.

Lisa had been so far along that when Ranma grabbed the back of her head and pulled her into a forceful kiss it didn't take long for her to orgasm. A few grinding motions and the feel of his tongue against hers in her mouth and she came explosively, drenching her panties and his own pant leg as she shuddered and bucked against his still clothed body.

After a few moments she regained a little bit of her self-control and pulled back, sighing softly. Ranma looked deep into her eyes for a moment. "I love you, you know" he murmured. "You're just so fantastic. I don't have the words to.." Lisa smiled happily.

"I love you too Ranma." She snuggled into his neck with her nose murmuring softly as Ranma again to caress her back slowly, not sensually or sexily, just more to comfort than anything else. Soon however the drink and her exertions caught up with her and she fell asleep there. Ranma looked down had her sleeping face nestled into his shoulder and he smiled gently before lifting her up and placing her on the side of the bed that had not previously been occupied. He spent a few moments cleaning up the dishes, and then with a wry smile turned off the lights and joined his two lovers in their bed. Today, he thought, has been one for the record books.

Elsewhere someone else was trying to get lucky. Motoko walked into the clothing store that her current crush Lucretia worked at and she smiled in delight at seeing the short blonde there. "Hey Lucretia, how are you?"

Lucretia looked over as she heard her name, smiling in welcome. While she wouldn't call Motoko a friend, after all she was a spy and knew better than to think that way, the Micronian female was nice and an invaluable source of information about the fighter forces on the ship, no specifics but a lot of generalities and their unit structure. There was also something else about her that intrigued the blonde Meltraedi, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. "Hello Motoko, how went the operation?" She and the other spies knew that the Micronians were preparing to strike against Kyron's forces, but hadn't really cared enough to find out more. Kyron after all was not Meltraedi, and what happened to him and his fleet matter not at all to them. They hadn't had any luck finding any information about the proto-culture generator though.

"It went great, we took the aliens completely by surprise and no casualties among the Valkyries, and only a few among the destroids." Lucretia nodded, surprised that the land based forces, who could only fight when stationed on the hull of the space fortress, took more casualties than the space worthy variable shape fighters. She briefly wondered about what kind of battle would account for that, but Motoko's voice captured her attention. "Um, anyway I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me tonight?"

Lucretia looked at her for a moment then nodded. "Certainly, I will call my friends and we can all go out and enjoy some of the sights together."

Motoko shook her head quickly. While she had met Sonya and Anya, and they were both gorgeous, neither of them lit her fire anywhere as much as Lucretia. "No, I mean just the two of us." At the other woman's blank look she went on, becoming a lot less hopeful, "You, know as in a date?"

Lucretia looked at her blankly. "I'm afraid I don't follow."

Motoko stared at her, wondering if this was the other girl's way of telling her she wasn't interested, or if she was that innocent. After a moment she thought it might well be the second option, and that meant she could corrupt the other girl a bit, but she would have to go slow lest she scare the shorter girl off. "Um, well if you don't want to then sure you can call your friends. I'll meet you back here in a half hour okay, then we can all go clubbing or something." Lucretia nodded agreeably, missing the other girl's frown of disappoint as she turned to leave the shop. All three of the Meltraedi had learned to enjoy 'music' and the calisthenics exercise called dancing was most enjoyable. Briefly she wondered what this date thing was, then shrugged. If it was important for her mission she would find out later.

The next day Ranma was up and about early and set about quickly making a small breakfast for Lisa and Kasumi, who were still asleep on the futons the trio had pushed together in the sitting room,. Last night was really fun. Who knew that Lisa would have such good rhythm as a stripper? The fact she was fucking hot at it was something any male with eyes could tell. Still, he needed to get out and do stuff today. He got out two bagels (fresh made by Kasumi, who loved baking from scratch) and set out two plates with a bagel, locks and cream cheese as well as grapes for Lisa and watermelon pieces for Kasumi. Once that was done, he poured a glass of orange juice for Kasumi and put a self heating cup with tea in it for Lisa. Placing the two meals on either side of the sleeping girls, he took a moment to chuckle at their positions. Kasumi was underneath their covers curled around his shirt and cuddling into it and Lisa's side with a smile that was somehow both innocent and dirty. Lisa on the other hand was spread out face down over the bed, he had to lift her arms and one of her legs before he could move. She was also drooling onto the pillow and still naked save for a pair of white panties. The sight of her delectable backside threatened to derail his thoughts but he shook it off. Changing into his silk shirt and army pants he wrote out a note and put it on the kitchen table then left, closing the door gently behind him.

When he got there, he found a message waiting on his data-pad in his office (and damn but he was still getting used to that) where he had left it. When he finished reading the message he smirked, rubbing his hands together gleefully and sent out his own messages to his minions er subordinates. About an hour later he looked up from his desk to see Motoko and Max standing in the doorway. Motoko was glaring at him while Max merely looked half asleep. "You are fucking evil, you know that? You know we were all out last night getting completely blotto and you call us in here in the morning! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't try to slap you fucking silly!"

Motoko's evening had been hot, fun and frustrating all in one. While spending time with Lucretia and her friends at the nightclub they had found (one of only two in the city) was fun, dancing with the short blonde got her all hot and bothered but didn't seem to have any effect on the other girl. She had thought rather despondently that maybe the other girl was just irredeemably straight, but the buxom blonde had turned down every attempt to talk her up by guys as well. Her look of confusion made Motoko wonder why she was so naïve, but she was looking forward to teaching her… Still the night ended with her going home alone again, something that was beginning to wear on her, and she had jilled herself to sleep only to wake up with a major ass hangover from all the drinking she done the night before.

Max's night on the other hand had ended very well despite not being able to find Dr. Lang, he had found an impressionable civilian girl and spent the night successfully wooing her only to be woken up in her bed by the message Ranma sent them both.

"We gotta get organized before the academy graduates its next class which occurs in a week. I wanted to know if either of ya knew anybody in the graduating class that we should scout" Ranma said calmly, after all she couldn't move that fast from the doorway to where he was sitting. "We also need to figure out our handle, cause I don't want us just to be Blue squadron anymore, and we need to design a new unit tag. And we got a meeting over at the science institute in half an hour."

Max frowned, his dislike of Ranma in abeyance for now and feeling very mellow after last night. "Well I don't know anyone in the class, but I thought we would simply be following the normal organization. As for getting a new label and badge I agree with that. We're not really Blue squadron anymore, none of us were among the original squadron back on earth, and we have a new captain too. We should make a clean break from the past, a whole new beginning."

Ranma nodded. "That's what I'm shooting for. We also might not keep the three flight four pilot organization. I've been thinking of the fights where the commander had some of us stay back and offer cover fire. Even in clear space with a 360 degree field of assault we took fewer casualties than normal when we followed that ROE. So I was thinking eventually splitting up the squad by threes."

"Three per flight team you mean?" Ranma nodded and Max rubbed his nose thoughtfully. "Hmm, it could work I guess, especially with the new enlarged magazines, if they work for anyone but you, though we'd have to rotate the positions, and I'm not certain we should switch to it now as we don't have a veteran force to make it work."

"I know two people we might want to headhunt," Makoto interjected, having gotten over her snit as the other two ignored her. "Rachel Devonshire, she's an American, her father's a Destroid pilot for a Defender. Before that he was a Force Recon sniper and I've seen her on the ranges, she's got one hell of a good eye." And a magnificent rear… too bad she's straight as they come, still even gunning for Lucretia I can enjoy the eye candy. "The other one is Jeffrey Arborn. I hear he's one of the best in the simulator, though nowhere near the mark you left Max."

"I was just lucky," Max said humbly as Ranma jotted down the names. Motoko looked at him, thinking not for the first time that not having an ego was possibly the most egotistical thing someone could have. "So what kind of tag are you thinking of?"

"Something like this" Ranma pulled out a drawing and showed it to the other two. The image was a brown something with a large head and four legs stciking out like a spiders, and on the legs that looked like there was something blue, maybe blue blood coming out of it. The head had one eye with the iris pointing down and lanky hair along the back.

"….…." Max and Motoko looked at it blankly for a moment before Max looked up at Ranma "Cartoon squad?"

Motoko said "Or maybe the ugly picture squad. Honestly Ranma, you're a good martial artist but you can't draw at all. This is just wrong, I mean, gah, what's it supposed to be exactly?"

Ranma pouted and began to poke the table depressingly. The air around him actually began to darken with his depression. Max looked on amused as Motoko walked around the desk and put a companionable arm around Ranma's arm. "Come on Ranma, not everyone can be good at everything." Max smirked inwardly at that. "Now why don't you just tell us what it's supposed to be?"

Ranma sighed. "You're right I guess, it's supposed to be a horse on a starry background with blue flames coming out of its hooves."

Motoko and Max looked at one another then nodded before Max spoke. "I suppose that's good for a tag, what about our label? I'll find someone who can draw it up for us."

"Oh that's easy Wild Fire, or just Wild."

Motoko and Max thought for a moment then Motoko grinned. "Yeah that works for all of us, we're all a little wild one way or another I suppose."

"Yep, and it's not like the creature or background can't be changed either, I mean I'm gonna stick it the front of my Valkyrie and replacing the horse that's part of my yin-yang symbol and you two can change yer creatures too, just keep the blue flame somewhere on it."

"Excellent" Max enthused, already planning to use a different creature, maybe a blue phoenix? "That'll work. Lt.'s can change the background and creature, veterans can change the background, newbies can't change anything, they just get the blue flame stripes."

"Great idea, and you two can paint the rest of yer mechs too. Just put some blue in it somewhere, to connect what we are ta what we were under Eric." Ranma commanded. His two lt.'s nodded and he stood up. "See if ya can find someone who can draw and I'll see if I can get Kasumi to make up the patches. Any changes to 'em will have ta be made from the person doing em. Right now though we got a meeting down at the institute." Motoko and Max both looked at him quizzically, but he just smirked and led the way out of the room.

About twenty minutes of travel by various devices later, they arrived at the science institute to find the command teams of Skull squadron already there. Standing behind the squads first Lt. Rick waved at his friends while Roy grinned and beckoned them over. "Guess ya got the message huh? This is going to be so sweet!"

Ranma nodded and, still ignoring Max and Motoko's questioning looks, followed the other trio into the building and from there into the same lab Ranma had visited when he helped Dr. Lang figure out how to create the weapons space for the larger rifle magazines. Once again it was crowded and disorganized, though the makeup of its disorganization had changed slightly. Gone was the Valkyrie rifle magazine, in its place was a sample of the forearms of a Veritech and Spartan, as well as a huge diagram of a Valkyrie covering the entirety of one wall. A huge simulator device was against the other wall, and the furthest wall was just gone replaced with glass that looked out into the area behind the institute.

A woman, tall, middle aged but still fit, with a decent bust and sharp piercing eyes stood up from a desk to welcome them as two other men, both of whom wore the rank tabs of Lt.s and the tags of the quartermasters department looked up at them, coming forward. Max took one look at the woman then glanced at her hands then away when he saw the wedding band. The first Lt. of Skull did the same thing, but the others merely nodded as she welcomed them. "Hello you all, I'm glad to see you were prompt. We've got a lot to do so let's get right to it shall we? My name is Yui Sheppard, and I'm in charge of refitting and rearming the Veritech forces to make them more durable and deadly. These two gentlemen behind me are from the logistics department and are here to rein me in when I get too creative."

Motoko and Max looked at Ranma who grinned at them, giving them a thumbs up as the scientist went on. "It's been decided to outfit the Valkyrie of every veteran in the Elite squadrons over the next few weeks, and your two squadrons are two of those. We don't quite have enough resources just yet, but we will soon, since the ship we capture will give us a lot of metals and other usable materials. So suggestions, ideas, anything you want to see included? Realize it will be a slow process, and in fact is only really happening because of the success of the battery enlarged magazine and the fact that we've finally gotten enough of the factory automated to free up the work teams." That had been a side effect of designing and building the two factory ships Macross had let loose into Jupiter's atmosphere; as they both had to be fully automated the designers had to create new robots to do jobs that humans normally would be doing, and they had to be durable as well.

Roy and and his officers looked at one another before he spoke. "Well, is an emergency shield around the cockpit doable? Can the shields be shrunk that much without adding to much weight to the Valkyrie?"

Yui nodded thoughtfully. "We've been looking at cutting down on the power necessary for the shields for a while without any luck I'm afraid. Though we have devised a way to use Ranma's" here she nodded at the martial artist who grinned back "strengthening technique, but the wiring to let it be used without the pilots directing the energy interferes with the Valkyries original mechanics. Still we could possibly do it for just the cockpit, I'll personally look into that, it may cut down on casualties immensely."

Roy nodded, and Max spoke up. "For me, I'd like to see something like a bayonet added to the rifle, or a shorter knife than the one Commander Sugita used in the boarding action in this last battle. I'd want to see how useful it is in a space battle before recommending it as a normal part of the Valkyrie though."

Rick spoke up then. "I'd also like to see some way of adding to our range. Keeping the range open against those new types of mechs that attacked us before we hit atmosphere is a must."

"Both of those are doable, we've already got a prototype for a bayonet, and we can take a cannon arm of a Defender and change it into a rifle form, keep the Valkyrie's targeting suite and boom." One of the other scientists said excitedly. Yui nodded and the man walked over to a computer with Rick following him.

"I was wonderin' about different armor and weapon load outs. I've been thinking that having a few Valkyries per squadron designed to lay down cover fire might be a good idea," said Ranma. Roy looked at him in surprise, but nodded. Even in a 3-dimensional battlefield, having support like that would be an excellent idea. It seemed as if Ranma was stepping into his new rank well.

Yui nodded thoughtfully. "We actually have a system already designed for something like that." She walked over to a computer and after a moment a schematic appeared and the remaining pilots whistled appreciatively at the size and power of it. "Will something like this work?"

Ranma nodded but Motoko frowned. "What about going the other way, agility mobility and speed, some way to get in close first and a way to make the Valkyrie more mobile?"

One of the quartermaster lieutenants spoke up at that point. "We actually have an advanced Valkyrie design that would meet those requirements that was being developed back on Earth, though it might have been halted because it is very expensive, and some of the design is just beyond our capabilities, but…" He tapped a few keys on his own computer and soon a second schematic popped up. Motoko looked at it, nodding thoughtfully.

This discussion would continue for the rest of the day, breaking off only for meals and to see examples of what they were talking about. By the end of the day everyone was satisfied, and eager to get to work on making their thoughts reality.

Lisa woke up to a pounding headache and she groaned. This whimper was answered by someone else groaning in her ear and she looked over to see Kasumi uncurling from a fetal position, one hand still grasping a shirt that looked like one of Ranma's, the other clutching her head. Two pairs of narrowed, pain filled eyes met and Kasumi muttered, "How about we promise never to drink alcohol again, once was more than enough for me. How my father could wake up like this willingly so often is beyond me."

Lisa licked dry lips, mouth tasting as if something had crawled in and died. "Yeah, I can, I can get behind that, definitely. Once was enough of an experiment. Why do I feel cold?"

Kasumi reached out a gentle finger tweaking one of Lisa's bare nipples, and the other brunette gasped in shock then gasped again as the memory came back to her. One hand shot down to touch her private area and she sighed as she found her panties and shorts intact, drenched from her own juices she supposed. She brought the hand up to her face and sniffed, yes, it was hers. So at least nothing happened after I collapsed. Ranma, such a gentlemen. Still she smiled sexily at least I was able to get a little preview of what it will be like to be with my stallion, and he got a preview of me too. And from his reaction he definitely enjoyed it…. Oh no.

She groaned, this time from irritation rather than pain and Kasumi opened her eyes a little wider to look at her. "What is it?"

Lisa blushed. "I, you know, I finished but Ranma didn't."

Kasumi smiled gently. "Don't worry, that's happened a few times to me as well. Ranma often doesn't cum from foreplay like that. I usually make it up to him the next time." She pointed at her own breasts, still dressed in the simple shirt she was wearing the night before and winked at Lisa. Lisa blushed again, but the thought definitely had some appeal.

Kasumi sat up in bed, the blanket falling from her own semi-nude form as she reached over to the side of the bed. "I really don't think it matters to Ranma, he simply cares, see?" Kasumi reached out and took several anti-hangover pills from the bedside table and drank them slowly with the orange juice. As much as she liked tea, she loved to start her day off with a fresh squeezed glass of orange juice. And breakfast in bed, even though my morning workout partner isn't here to join me. Pity, she smirked sexily to herself I'll just have to get him later, after my dangerous time passes.

Lisa looked beside her own side of the futon and noticed a similar plate there, sighing happily at the sight of the self-heating cup with the softly steaming tea. "A thoughtful man, our Ranma," and Kasumi giggled in agreement. Unlike Claudia, Lisa was a morning person, yet she still needed some caffeine to get her body working as fast as her mind. But she detested the taste of coffee. Tea on the other hand was one of her favorite drinks.

"So are you free to help here today?" Kasumi asked "or are you on duty?"

"Hmm" Lisa hummed appreciatively as she bit into a bagel. "I have to go over with Vanessa tonight about operation Undertow and continue her education but thanks to captain Gloval and captain Connor taking over some of the day to day running of the ship I have the day free until around four. When does Sonya show up, and what's on the agenda for today?"

Once Sonya arrived, the three ladies got to work and the day passed quickly but uneventfully.

The next day Sonya was on her way to work as usual, though this time her two fellow spies had joined her to get another autograph of Ranma/Ranko. On the way to the Sugita apartments they had spotted three female Micronians skulking around a corner. Realizing this was decidedly odd behavior for Micronians Sonya stopped, motioning her fellow spies to follow her. The three Meltraedi followed the three female Micronians around a corner but were discovered when the tallest one, who wore those odd vision enhancing devices the Micronians called glasses (and why those with such defects weren't simply killed Sonya didn't understand), turned and looked at her. "What are you three up to?"

Lucretia was always more forward and arrogant than the other two and she shrugged haughtily answering back sharply. "We were wondering the same thing about you actually, we were on our way to help a friend in the next section over, what are you doing?"

Vanessa, Kim and Sammy looked at one another. "You know we could use some help, it's not like we can always be the ones following after him," Sammy said.

"True. Okay you three you can follow along, but stay quiet okay?" Anya, Sonya, and Lucretia nodded, wondering what this was all about.

The group moved down the corridor until they came to a doorway. Sammy and Kim went to one side and opened it slightly to peer inside then nodded. Vanessa and the others followed, the bespectacled girl pulling out a camcorder with a directional nozzle and zoom on the end.

Kim pushed the door open a little more, enough for them able to peer inside and for Vanessa to put the camera on the ground. She brought her eye down and looked through the camera, zooming in on what was going on inside the room that had so entranced the others.

Ranma went through a kata that aided speed and precision, movements smooth and powerful as he moved from one stance to another, one blow to another. His uniform jacket hung on a nearby barbell, leaving him in only a muscle T. He had just finished training Max, who had left only twenty minutes ago, and he wanted to get in a light exercise before going to help Kasumi and Lisa on building their home, so there was no point in going to his own special workout area. Besides it was practically on the other side of the ship from where he was now. Unfortunately Motoko was still over at the science institute working on modifying and personalizing her Valkyrie, so they couldn't continue her lessons today.

Finishing the kata he paused, breathing deeply for a moment before going over to a mu ren zhuang, a kind of martial arts dummy that would strike back if hit correctly. He began to smack its pole like arms and main body in such a way so that the opposite hand would come back at him, causing him to smack that in turn. Faster and faster he went, his arms a blur, then his feet joined in, smacking the lower poles around in turn. Fifteen minutes later the metal of the arms snapped under the repeated blows. Ranma stopped, scratching his pigtail sheepishly for a moment then went back to the middle of the sparring ring, grabbing several cold and hot water bottles and setting them next to where he stood.

He paused there, muttering a mantra to himself that he had made to help Motoko with meditation. "Ki is the power of will made manifest, let it guide you, let it flow, grow, let only pure will and thought touch you, become a weapon in your hand." Then he began to move through the ten most advanced kata in his repertoire, first slow, then building speed, faster and faster. For over an hour he worked like this, but after each round was done he would splash himself and work through them again in his alternate form. Each time he started the katas over he would also go faster until in the end his entire body was moving twice as fast as even the Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken, so fast it was almost invisible to the girls watching him.

"Watching this is making me strangely uncomfortable." Sonya said bluntly, face flushed as she looked away.

Anya nodded, but she didn't look away, and Lucretia found her body reacting in odd ways, though it reacted only when Ranma was in his female form. She didn't know why this was, but it was. She also strangely found herself thinking of Motoko for few minutes, imagining her moving like that wearing the same amount of clothing, which caused her body to react even more.

"Heh, now you see what we're doing. We find Ranma when he's exercising like this and video tape it. Then we cut it up to separate the male/female portions and sell the videos for a lot. We sell the female stuff too, if it's decent enough, no soft-core or anything." Sammy said smugly, and her fellow gossipers nodded agreement. The videos had gotten them enough money to buy several pairs of shoes and a lot of clothing and various electronic items too. That and they always kept their own copies. They all knew the 'Wild Horse' was out of their league and really despite his looks he wasn't their type at all, but there was no reason they couldn't use the tapes as visual aids for their fantasies, much like the women they sold the tapes to.

"And you would want us to take these videos for you while you are otherwise occupied?" Anya asked, tearing her eyes away to look at the gossip trio.

"Yep." Kim said, not looking away herself. In her opinion it was always better in real life.

Anya agreed to help but Sonya continued to feel uncomfortable about the feelings this sight evoked, much different from Ranma's or Ms. Minmei's singing, more, primal somehow, involving her whole body rather than just her mind or heart, so she refused. Lucretia refused as well, though she didn't really understand her own reasons for doing so, she simply felt it would be wrong. The six girls left then as they saw Ranma getting ready to leave.

That night Lisa smiled, leaning back from her computer screen, and sent a plan for the next Operation, called Suckerpunch, to the captain and she stretched, going down the new stairs in their home to join Kasumi and Ranma in bed, having just moved in with them that evening. She sighed happily as Kasumi smiled at her and let her into the bed, thankful beyond words to finally say goodbye to her empty, lonely room for that of her lovers.

The next day, the command crew of the space fortress was called in for the first time ever to an intelligence briefing on their enemy. Commander Drake had taken to his new job with a will, determined to give them as much information as he could on their enemy, which in terms of military power and technology was quite a bit, and after only three days he was prepared to deliver his first briefing on the aliens. He waited patiently as Gloval and the other officers and surprisingly three of the civilian leaders sat around the conference room table, and then with a nod from Gloval he began. "Ladies and gentlemen as you know I have been given the task of putting together an intelligence dossier on the aliens, who I have discovered call themselves the Zentraedi."

With a touch of a button, an image of one of the giant aliens appeared on the screen to the side of him, causing several surprised gasps from those who hadn't heard for whatever reason how human they looked. "I don't want to get too deeply into the medical side of things as it is not, in my opinion important at this point. But as you can see the Zentraedi look pretty much like humanity save for their coloring and sheer size. From corpses the doctors examined they tell us that they are basically much like ourselves inside as well, but appearance is all we have in common."

The screen went back to showing a schematic of the battleship, much of whose interior had already been ripped out. The engine room and the bridge and a few sections near them were all that was left after three days of constant work by every destroid operator and most of the engineers aboard the space fortress, naval and civilian. "We've been able to get a lot of information from their computers, mainly because they had a copy of their translation program that commander Hayes mentioned them using when she and her group were captured. From it we were able to translate their written language, and from then on it was simply a matter of finding the information. I would say that their computers are not nearly as easy to use as ours, robust, but not user friendly and very job specific. The navigation computer can do navigating, the radar can only do radar, there is no overlap and no redundancy in their systems, throughout the ship really."

"The battleship incidentally is of the Thruvel Salan class and doesn't have a specific designation. Given the information we have taken out of its tactical computers this is the main battleship class of the Zentraedi. It has forty-eight self guided beam cannons in groups of four along its sides top and bottom" and he pointed out where they were placed, "and 12 missile ports for anti-ship missiles. It depends on its in-ship battlepod complement for anti-fighter protection. Dr. Lang and I estimate that the beam cannons could break through our armor if it could hit the same point with more than fifteen beams at a time, which it can via these collators at the front where the beams can be concentrated before being shot out at a single target. It has a small ship complement given its size, the majority of the living quarters given over to battlepod pilots and the three hundred Regulds it can put in the field; that is what the computer called their battlepods. All in all it is a very dangerous battleship, but nowhere near as dangerous as the space fortress, even ten or fifteen to one. It is also…." He paused for a moment, searching for the right words, before going on "Clunky, not very quick to react, its weapons worked far worse than they could have, the maintenance of the entire vessel was so poor I would have put the entire maintenance division into the brig for dereliction of duty." He smirked, "I might assume they were the equivalent of my predecessor Griftel" which caused a harsh bark of laughter to go around the room, "if not for Commander Hayes's observations from her time as a prisoner, as well as the fact that in the tactical computer we found no mention of any time in dry dock."

This caused quite a stir on the naval side of the table but Nodoka, mayor Luan and the head of the civilian hospital all looked blank. Gloval took it upon himself to explain. "Ships of all kinds will have eventual breakdowns of significant systems, maintenance is an ongoing issue of any ship military or civilian and any naval ship should expect to stand at least two months out of every twelve in dock at best to be refitted, upgraded and repaired by a full dock crew as ships can only do so much with their own resources. We're actually facing a different problem, as we do have the onboard resources to keep going almost indefinitely, but we don't have the personnel." He turned back to Drake. "How old was the ship, could you tell?"

"Yes sir, given some experiments on the interior metal of the ship we determined its age as somewhere between fifteen to twenty years of age." Gloval nodded thoughtfully and Drake went on, "In terms of wet navy ships any ship that old would probably be obsolete, but the Zentraedi don't seem to think that way."

Drake sighed, and said almost whimsically, but with no humor in his eyes, "And now we come to the part of the report that I call 'we know now', large generalities based on snippets of information from the computer, solid information but not quite certain. We have found out some of the organization of the Zentraedi from the information on this ship's tactical computer. It didn't have much, though if that is because of their understanding of information control or something else, I don't know. The name of this fleet is the 11th skirmish fleet, assigned on what their computer called the 'Zor battleship retrieval mission' and it was deployed until recently on the front against another alien species called the Invid, but we weren't able to find any information about them except some things we assume to be propaganda and references to them as 'overgrown bugs'." Nodoka shuddered, remembering seeing the Alien trilogy when she was a young girl and picturing them as an intelligent space faring race. Brrr…

The skirmish fleet consists of 650 of these ships and 400 of other types, whose name we found is Quiltra Queleual, but that was the only information about them we were able to find. That," he swallowed. "And the information that skirmish fleets would match barely five percent of a full fleet's numbers, and that there are at least ten battle fleets and nineteen other skirmish fleets, though we only found that by finding their designations. There was also mention of the Dolza fleet, which I suppose would be the fleet that Commander Hayes and company saw. Again I will say this information is only from a single source and so is questionable but combined with what Commander Hayes reported it gives us an idea of the size of our enemies forces."

The room fell silent at the numbers he had calmly put forth, the sheer overwhelming amount of them mind boggling. The hospital director actually began to whimper and Mayor Luan stammered, "P-peace, we have to sue for peace, we can't possibly fight against numbers like that! Wh-whatever they need on this ship we need to find it and give it to them!"

Many on the naval side also looked close to panic and began to mutter agreement with this suggestion but before even captain Gloval could do anything Lisa slammed her fist on the table jerking everyone's attention to her. "Not with Dolza! There is no way we can make peace with Dolza, he doesn't see us as equals, or as anything but an obstacle to be destroyed, he thinks in terms of power, his own and no one else's! He killed a garden world, a world like Earth life bearing and perfect for their colonization if they are as much like us as it seems."

"And I shouldn't have to remind you but garden worlds like that are about as rare as, as chocolate is onboard the space fortress right now! They are incredibly rare and he killed one just to prove his own strength in comparison to then Lt. Sugita's skills. So I do not want anyone to think of peace any time soon, only about surviving and evening the odds."

She glared around the room, silencing all objections and Nodoka beamed at her with pride. Gloval smiled at her as well then turned to Drake. "Continue commander, I hope you have some good news for us."

Drake shrugged. "Their armor has coating which somehow merges with the metal of the shop's outer hull to make it self-repairing, but the coating itself is not very durable to pressures and winds, hence why they are so leery about entering even the exosphere, let alone the thermosphere where we are now. If it's gone it's gone, but we were able to take samples of it before we pulled it further into Jupiter's atmosphere. They could survive here, but could not survive in the deeper stratosphere, whereas we can. I would estimate it would take at least two hundred ships of this class to fight the space fortress on an even footing in normal mode. In siege mode that number would increase by a factor of ten, especially given our barrier shields."

He smiled slightly. "We are now in the realms of 'we don't knows', things we should have found hints of but didn't which bother me and my men a lot. We don't know anything about their logistics, they simply don't make any mention of refueling, and the ships fuel was at around fifty percent of maximum, or any repair stations or anything of that nature. The fleet was receiving regular shipments of Reguld and Glaug, that's the large command mech that commander Sugita regularly defeats, from the Dolza fleet, but they have no repair capability! If anything fails in a Reguld, it's discarded. We found a place onboard where dozens of damaged Regulds had been simply piled haphazardly."

"If anything fails in a ship it seems to be ignored, or if it is important enough the ship itself is scrapped and destroyed. This ship had three of its cannons offline due to lack of maintenance, nothing else. There was no mention of replacements since they arrived in Sol system for some reason, nor was there ever any mention of new troops coming into the fleet, but that just could be something done gradually or just not included in this ship's computers. There was nothing about their culture, their worlds or their society. The only thing close was the computer called them the 11th skirmish clan fleet, but that is all. There were no women in their crew, just as Commander Hayes had reported, and nothing on their computers about family types, reproduction or anything from their actual civilization, just their military."

Gloval nodded thoughtfully, wondering what to make of that strange lack. But for now it didn't matter, and he had things to think about. "An excellent initial presentation Commander, keep up the good work. Dr. Lang I'd like a report about their technology by the time the academy graduates its current class. And with that, gentlemen I think we all have things to do, so dismissed."

The command group filed out, some looking worried others thoughtful and some, including mayor Luan and the hospital director, afraid. Outside in the corridor Nodoka took a moment to give Lisa a brief hug. "Well done my dear, you put some steel in them."

Lisa smiled weakly. "For now aunty, but when they're alone, the odds will come back to haunt them. I really hope that the people back on Earth have been using this time wisely. If they haven't we are so screwed." Nodoka nodded somberly and the two went off to a family lunch.

Captain Gloval leaned back, sighing heavily. The reaction of the civilians and several of his officers to the numbers facing them was understandable, but it showed a growing problem. Before their losses against the new types of mechs, there had been four main groups of civilians. One group had been incredibly supportive, happy to be in space, have unending jobs and work with the military. Another group had been resigned, but not happy, yet still supported the military. And then there had been the two smaller groups, one unhappy about being in space and stuck aboard the space fortress but not vocal about it, while the other even smaller group composed mainly of powerless politicians, actors and peaceniks who were very vocal about their unhappiness, blaming the military for everything wrong and making constant demands to be returned to Earth and ignoring any reality that conflicted with this image.

Now there were three groups. One was still happy with being in space and supporting the military but grimmer about it, willing to put everything they had into the war but knowing it would cost them and their families, yet this had served to only stiffen their resolve to survive. Ranma and Minmei's rally had brought this group to the fore, and they had gone back to their various jobs with a will that as a vast relief to see. They had even cut down sharply on civilian jobs and work to help the military and its rebuilding.

The second group was now desperate to get back to Earth and off the ship, making constant demands and starting to become worryingly organized in creating public disorder and pushing their peace now agenda, reminding Gloval a bit of the 70's hippy movement in America. And the third was the largest, desperately unhappy but keeping their heads down and not making waves, but anxious and fearful, wanting to get off what they now saw as a target for an unstoppable foe. Gloval just hoped the civilian reps had the good sense to keep the Zentraedi numbers to themselves.

We have to get the civilians back to Earth and get a full crew onboard damn it! But we also need to keep industrializing Jupiter and find a way to cut down on their numbers. The best and easiest way to do that would be to use our siege cannon, but how to get a lot of their ships into position to where we can destroy them without taking loses ourselves. He thought for a moment, then powered up his computer and began to look at the plans he had made for the future industrialization of Jupiter and Commander Hayes' Operation Suckerpunch. After thirty minutes perusal he began to type up his own plan for the future, Operation Feint.

Ranma leaned against his desk, while Motoko sat in a chair next to him and Max and Ben leaned against the walls. Before them stood the two recruits Motoko had mentioned from the academy, the only two Ranma had allowed into their squadron. He wanted them to be an elite corps, and if he had to keep their numbers down to do that, so be it.

Rachel Devonshire was a statuesque brunette with dark quick eyes, a fit, athletic body much like a gymnasts only stretched out. Ranma glanced at Motoko and saw her looking at the other woman appreciatively but not as lustfully as he had expected. He shrugged at that and turned to look at the other recruit. Jeffrey Arborn looked around at the others with interest, but Ranma wasn't impressed. Unlike Rachel who obviously took care of her body Jeffrey was almost obese despite the physical training at the academy. And while his skills in the simulator said otherwise, Ranma just wasn't getting a soldier vibe from him, he slouched in place rather than standing at attention, and despite his interest in Ranma and the others he seemed a little too slow reaction wise to be a good pilot.

Ranma waited until Max had closed the door before beginning. "Alright you two, welcome to Wildfire, formerly Blue squadron. The designation's new, but we're not, we used to be Blue but after Commander Prescott died" he refused to use terms like 'bought it' or anything like that to limit the impact of his friends death, "we needed a new start. You might be wondering why there are only two of you, it's because the rest of the squadrons and the Destroid companies needed all the recruits they could get, and we're an elite team, and you two were the only ones among the graduates who one of us could vouch for."

Rachel shot Motoko a look and nodded thankfully which the swordswoman returned as Ranma went on. "I want people who can survive the fire, who can keep coming back from all the shit we get thrown into and say 'please sir can I have some more!'" This phrase elicited a startled laugh from Rachel and Ben and drew grins from the others, even Jeffrey, though he also gulped a little.

"To that end I am going to train ya both until you drop, I'm going to make you the fittest, toughest group to ever strap into a Valkyrie, and make damn certain you have all the skills needed to survive a furball in space. You'll be flying with Ben and Max for the most part, switching off and changing organization as the need arises or as I deem best. Questions, comments?" neither FNG had any questions and Ranma nodded sharply. "In that case, we'll start the training right now. Sprints down to the simulator rooms, last one buys dinner for the squad, you two will have a one minute head start starting… now!"

Rachel's eyes widened at the threat and she turned and ran out of the room as fast as her feet could carry her. Jeffrey stood gaping for a few seconds before he too turned and ran out of the room. Ben soon followed, leaving only max and Motoko who looked at Ranma, smirking a little. "You do know they're going to hate you by the end of the day right?"

"They can hate me and my trainin' all they want, as long as they're alive to do it." Ranma said grimly then tapped his watch meaningfully. Max and Motoko grimaced but sprinted out of the room after the others. Ranma sighed, cracking his neck explosively. This leadership stuff might mean I can do my job better, but it ain't as easy as Eric made it out to be. He sighed, then shook it off and ran off after the others. Needless to say both recruits were appalled when he zoomed past them, followed swiftly by the others. It was a start of a learning experience that would continue for the next two weeks.

Over the next two weeks there were several clashes between the two most different civilian groups, one supporting the military and willing to go cut all out to survive the war, and the other group which wanted peace at all costs. They clashed when the second group held rallies and demonstrations, or tried to disrupt the former's work places, and appealed to the neutral third group via commercials, public speaking from various individuals and other methods, but the neutral group of civilians simply hunkered down further.

However, after a few clashes this tension abruptly faded away. It wasn't anything the captain had done or any speeches by mayor Luan or anyone else. Ranma and Motoko decided one day to use the city's main park for their exercise, and watching the two jump around and attack one another with intent to kill, digging up the ground, nearly cutting down several trees and their ki attacks blasting back and forth (Motoko could now use them far more easily, but hadn't quite enough power yet to use them in her Veritech) had put all the civilians who watched it in a very thoughtful frame of mind. The observers who were part of the peace movement reported back to everyone else. And word-of-mouth and the videos made of that fight spread the knowledge that there were two super-humans among the Navy to all and sundry. None of the peace movement leaders wanted Motoko or Ranma coming to look for them, and so all disruptive public rallies and demonstrations stopped overnight.

Work continued apace, and soon enemy battleship had been gutted. This gave the space fortress enough materials to build nearly as many Valkyries and Destroids as they had before the new enemy power suits got had attacked. The space fortress stopped by both of the factories it had previously led out into the atmosphere, though the moving of the ship was very slow given the fact they were still connected to the enemy battleship. This got worse when they grabbed first on and then the other of the previous two factories and welded them together to the captured battleship.

Once Dr. Lang had removed the enemy battleship's reflux engine the logistics crews had gone to work making the enemy battleship's interior into a new factory, well actually two factories, which was only possibly due to the size of the vessel. Both factories would be fully automated much like the other two. The first would be creating Valkyries and storing them. It was decided to only program this factory to build Valkyries as all of the Destroids types were of limited utility in space. The factory portion only took up about a fourth of the ship, leaving another fourth of the ship free to be used to store the Valkyries in, which the designers estimated would allow the factory to store about a hundred Valkyries.

The second built in factory would be a material converter factory, with several dozen heavily armored tugs designed to head up atmosphere and collect material from Jupiter's surrounding planetary bodies, or debris from battle. The programming for this was dubious at best, and Gloval once again wished for some way to station troops here without it being hardship duty, as humans at the controls of those tugs would make every one of these factories much more effective.

Refitting the battleship this way hit the newly filled stores of the space fortress hard, and after rebuilding their fighter and robot forces they were back down to next to nothing in terms of long-term supplies. However, when they initially met up with the battery factory they were able to pick up a full load of batteries in return for dropping off more supplies. This allowed them to build more barrier systems, bringing the total number of mobile barriers the space fortress had up to thirty.

The pro-military, pro-war faction had thrown themselves into this rebuilding, and the tertiary weapons of the space fortress had been completely rebuilt, as well as the ICBMs of the Prometheus. Instead of firing missiles the ports on the Prometheus were now automated to roll out missile pods, which had been taken from the phalanx Destroids, these could be programmed to fire under the command of the space fortress a nearby weapon set site, a Valkyrie or automatically. However, all of these projects had hit the materials of the spaceship badly, and Gloval had finally been convinced to okay operation sucker punch.

It was not just the need for new supplies that convinced him however as they could break the cordon around the planet and get away from the planet's gravity well to enter fold space safely they could get back to Earth and get supplies there. But his own plans needed at least one more warship, and he couldn't sacrifice a strategic addition to their forces by not using the battleship they had already captured. And information they been able to get from the two spying missions the ship had done by sacrificing a heavily armored spy probe had shown that the alien's positions hadn't changed, except for bunching up in areas. It was as if there was no overall control of the fleet anymore, which further pointed to the fact that Kyron was the commander of the fleet and did not believe in having subordinates who were able to act of their own accord. So with him injured and unable to command each flotilla had simply gone on following his orders from before, save for a few which had decided to bunch up. Thus operation Suckerpunch was given the green light.

Once more Lisa looked out across a room full of pilots and Destroid operators. Silence spread as she walked to the podium and she smiled and pressed a button on the console built into it. A picture appeared on the large screen behind her. "Gentlemen and ladies. I am pleased to announce that as you could probably tell our foray into piracy was a complete success. We were able to rebuild our Valkyrie and Destroid forces," here she paused letting the cheers and shouts echo around the room before going along "and rebuild the tertiary weapons and repair the battleship. However, this took nearly all the supplies we were able to get in Operation Undertow, and captain Gloval has decided to launch one more piratical mission. Thus we come to Operation Suckerpunch."

On the screen the space fortress was shown once again ascending into the upper atmosphere, its 'fist' raised above it. "This operation will start off almost exactly as operation Undertow did, with the Daedalus breaking atmosphere and letting out the Valkyrie squadrons to hammer the enemy's combat air patrol. Vermillion, Green and Wildfire squadrons will be the point of this assault. However, once that is done we will not be using the Apocalypse to destroy one of the ships, as they might be ready for that and have some way to nullify that tactic." The screen changed again, showing a picture of the Daedalus again. "Rather, we will cover the Daedalus entirely in mobile barriers and come up again punching like this." On the screen the punch of the Daedalus came out of the upper atmosphere and across slamming into first one ship, then through it into the other. "These two ships for some reason are barely separated by 200 meters. As such, we will be able to use the Daedalus to punch through one causing it to explode and into the other before opening up to allow a boarding operation. The boarding action will, as was the case in the previous operation, be commanded by colonel Mannstein." She nodded to the giant German where he was standing at parade rest behind her before going on.

"At the same time the Valkyries will eliminate the combat air patrol and the third ship over here." She said pointing to the last ship of the enemy flotilla, which was situated off to the side, at a fair distance from the two who were so oddly crowded together. "Skull squadron will be kept back until the combat air patrol has been depleted enough to allow a successful bombing run on this battleship, and once that ship has been destroyed and the second battleship has been boarded the Valkyries will take up position around the battlefield and provide a defense. We don't anticipate any of the other flotillas coming to aid this group as we believe that the Zentraedi," there were mutters about the aliens finally having a name, something that no one was quite used to just yet, "seem to believe in following orders to the letter and ignoring anything that could affect operational parameters. Without Kyron, who was almost certainly severely injured from the beating commander Sugita gave him in the last operation they lack the will to change their standing orders. That is why we are so anxious to get this off immediately. I would have preferred to let you guys work your recruits some more, but we need to take advantage of this opening that Kyron being out of service gives us."

There were nods all around as everyone understood the need to take the initiative, something that for the most part had been on the alien's side of the scale in this war. Ranma wasn't the only one who thought wistfully about going on the attack, but against the numbers the aliens could field in even a skirmish fleet that was impossible, for now it at least.

"Questions, comments?" There were none and she nodded firmly. "In that case ladies and gentlemen this operation will occur in two hours. Get ready and let's kick some ass." There was a huge cheer and she smiled as everyone filed out talking to one another excitedly. Ranma took a moment to wink at her, which she answered with a neutral nod, that was all the two would allow themselves on duty.

As Vermillion, Green and Wildfire squadrons were going to be the tip of the spear. this time they went straight to their machines, wanting to move them into position at the front of the line. As they were getting ready to do so all of the new recruits stared longingly at the modifications on all of the veteran's Valkyries.

Most of the veterans, including Max, had opted for a FAST Pack augmented space weapon system installed. This consisted of boosters and fuel tanks situated on the top of the fighter's fuselage, allowing them greater fuel and 6 micro-missile launchers in two micro-missile launcher pods, mounted rearward under the center ventral section in starfighter mode which translated to the lower arm sections in walker/soldier mode. Normally these would hold 24 missiles, but with the weapons technique they could now house 64 each. This gave the veteran's Valkyries significantly greater firepower than a normal Valkyrie, but the system was so expensive and time consuming to build (just as much as building a whole new Valkyrie) it had been decided to only allow veterans to use it. Some veterans however had customized their Valkyries further, though Max had merely added a bayonet prototype to his rifle. He was to report back to Yui about how useful it was in this battle. If it was useful it would be added to every Valkyries load out in future engagements.

Rick for instance had removed one of the thrusters of the FAST Pack in favor of a strange new weapon. Connected onto his starfighter where that thruster would have been was a 966 PFG Contraves autocannon, the same type that the Defenders used, only this type had been modified heavily in the rear of the cannon, allowing for more ammunition and had also been painted to match the rest of the Veritech. Rick's plane had also been modified to have a larger lock on range, much like a Defenders, though the system was still that of the Valkyrie. This had cut into his onboard space in his cockpit more than a little, but he was fine with that. The cannon could of course be fired in jet mode, and when in robot mode it would stick over one shoulder like an old fashioned bazooka and be fired that way.

Rachel sighed longingly as she looked at Rick's Valkyrie as they passed Skulls position in the line for launching, moving toward their own. "I have got's to get me one of those" she muttered.

Motoko answered from her own Valkyrie saying simply "survive, that's all you need to do to get your own Valkyrie and modify it." Rachel nodded, looking at the other woman's Valkyrie in wonder, for it was one of the most heavily modified she could see. Instead of more weapons being added to it, it had been somehow slimmed down, made to look sleeker. Its arms had been heavily modified, made longer, slimmer, and more dexterous than the normal Valkyrie. For some reason it just looked more mobile, more agile, and Rachel wondered why for a moment then remembered the Hawaiian girl was a close range specialist, where movement and reaction time mattered far more than available firepower.

She glanced over at Ranma's mech. He had opted for the Micro missile system but not the thruster packs, believing that he could channel his own ki into boosting his thrusters. Instead his legs had been further modified to add two of the mini batteries used to enlarge the Veritechs rifle's ammo cartridges, which in this case enlarged the fuel tanks. He also carried the electron cannon he had once more taken from Kyron along the top of his starfighter's fuselage.

It was his unit designation however that drew the snipers eye, and she glanced from it to her own unit patch. The unit patch was much like the original design Ranma had come up with, a horse rearing on a starry background with blue fire surrounding its hooves. Ranma's design however was entirely different. The yin-yang symbol in the background hadn't changed but the horse was different. Its body was gold fire, its mane blue plasma, around its hooves was more blue fire, and the drawing of its eye almost crackled with more blue flame. She almost shuddered, it was a beautiful and terrible figure.

Motoko and Max had also changed their paint scheme and tag. Motoko kept the starry background, but her central figure was that of an onna bugeisha, a female samurai in full armor wilding a sword lined with blue flame, her eyes alight with the same power. Max had designed a blue flame phoenix, its claws grabbing a Veritechs rifle beneath it, while behind it was a picture of Earth. Some of the other veterans had protested this amount of personalized design but as Ranma didn't have a problem with it they couldn't complain overmuch.

The two new recruits of however were not happy about the modifications Ben had made to his Veritech, because it impacted what their job in the coming battle would be. Ben had opted for the full GPS-1S armored Valkyrie mod to his Veritech. This enhanced armor modification had originally been designed to provide the Valkyrie with heavier armor and weapons in a pure land battle, and boy did it deliver. In its Spartan type shoulders were mounted 2 fixed Mauler laser cannons, able to spit out 6,000 rounds a minute. In its chest, after its magazines were extended via the weapons space system (patent pending) it housed 156 grenade style micro-missiles, much like with the Fast Pack. In its arms it housed two cannons that could fire 36 high speed armor piercing rounds. It also had an advanced targeting system, enabling it to look on to fifteen enemies at once.

Unfortunately all this added weaponry came at a price, which was that the modifications were so extensive the Valkyrie couldn't transform out of soldier mode into either of its other forms. In a space battle this meant it would be swiftly left behind, but that was where the rookies came in. Their job would be to follow Max, Ranma and Motoko out into battle while tugging Ben's Veritech, and their Valkyries had already been hooked up to it via cables. Those cables would disengage once they were in position, but even then they were going to stay nearby to provide short range support and maneuvering aid (and not incidentally be covered in turn by Ben's weapons).

Ranma looked around at his under strength squadron and nodded a shark like grin on his face at the thought of what their new weapons and modifications would mean against the unprepared aliens. They were ready. He flicked his intercom to call the bridge. "Command, Wildfire 1 here, requesting permission to use sound attack to give our surprise that added edge."

Lisa voice answered him, crisp with her normal command tone, but also a little playful. "Negative Wildfire, sound attack will commence, but this time we get to choose the music." Ranma's eyebrows rose as he noticed a small expendable spy drone alongside his flight, then nodded.

About twenty minutes after they were in position the Daedalus broke out of the atmosphere and opened swiftly. All of the Valkyries shot out into space directly underneath the combat air patrol of the enemy. The music of Anastasia by Slash accompanied them, and the heavily modified and refitted Valkyries hit the aliens CAP like a hammer hitting glass. The battle pods were completely unprepared for this assault, and died in bunches under the fire of the veteran led elite squadrons.

Jeffrey and Rachel pulled Ben along, but Ben was already firing, killing ten Reguld pods in as many seconds, but it was the others who caused all the newbies to gape in awe.

Max, Motoko and Ranma were the tip of the spear, but Green and Vermillion were almost as deadly and they cut a swathe though the aliens heavy CAP, taking no casualties but slaughtering over a hundred pods in the first twenty seconds of the engagement. With Ben supplying long range support the elite squadrons lived up to their billing. Rachel and Jeffrey were barely able to fire their own weapons before the rest of the Valkyrie squadrons followed up into the breach.

Lisa looked over at Vanessa, nodding her head to indicate the younger woman was in charge of organizing the Valkyries, while she took command of the Daedalus maneuver. Lt. Laird gulped but nodded and began to bark out crisp orders to the various squadrons, sending them here and there, dodging what little fire there was from the enemy ships, as Lisa turned to Sammy. "Alright get us upright and ready the mobile barriers." Sammy nodded and the ship began to turn, coming further out of the atmosphere as it did, and 'standing up'. At the same time the Cap had been reduced, and Vanessa barked. "Skull squadron you are cleared for bombing run, get that last battleship now!" Roy acknowledged swiftly, and the elite squadron zoomed away from the mopup operations that were wiping out what few remaining Regulds there were. As they did the enemy ship launched a few more Reguld pods, but that was all it had time for before Skull was inside its weapons envelope and hammering it with short range missiles. Within seconds the ships engines, damaged in some bygone battle exploded.

Within two minutes the Daedalus came around in a wild punch, its exterior covered with mobile barriers from end to end. Before the two targets could maneuver away, the punch slammed into the first one, barely pausing before ramming completely through the first ship, causing it to explode and slightly damage the next one before it too was pierced by the prow of the Daedalus. As the explosion expanded further down its length, the assault transport ships front opened and the Spartan and Tomahawk destroid companies, newly resorted to full strength, hammered out, accompanied, led by colonel Mannstein in Apocalypse and accompanied by the music of Awake and Alive by Skillet, chosen, surprisingly enough, by the colonel. Even aboard one of their own ships the music did its deadly work to disorganize their resistance, and despite the strangely large numbers of personnel and Reguld pods in the defense the boarders pounded on.

Outside in the void Ranma nodded happily. "Command, this is Wildfire 1, we have no more enemies on our scope, moving to defensive position." Around them half the Veritech squadrons were moving around collecting debris, while the other half moved to form a defensive globe around the area where the battle had occurred. Ranma situated his squad to face where, far too distant for him to actually see, were two alien battleships who for some reason were not part of the main cordon. Somehow he just knew that the enemy ace he had tangled with was aboard one of them.

Miriya looked up from her exercise regimen as the intercom across from her beeped insistently. She stood up and punched the button and the image of the Captain appeared. "Combat leader, she said formally "the Micronians seem to be attacking again."

"Smart of them," Miriya muttered scowling irritably. The fact that the 11th skirmish fleet hadn't even tried to move into new positions or reposition itself after the debacle last time without Kyron around to order it had disgusted every Meltraedi under her command. "I'll be up in a moment I want to grab something to eat while I watch this."

"We're not going to move to intercept?"

Miriya shook her head, "no. The humans are too canny to allow us to hit them when they can simply retreat into the atmosphere of the gas giant. They learned to fear our Queadluun Rau last time they surely won't want to fight us again unless they have to." The Captain nodded, then cut the connection.

A moment later, Miriya was on the bridge munching on an energy ration as she watched the action on the main screen. All around her other women had done the same and were sharing cutting remarks about the Zentraedi's fighting ability. Miriya however, didn't bother doing this, concentrating instead on all the strange new weapons and devices the Micronians were using. For some reason the fighters she saw had new weapons on them, weapons that she had not seen in their last engagement. Why in the world they would keep such weapons back, and only use them now, on what amounts to spoiling and information gathering raid? Maybe they had simply been housed in a cache in the gas giant's atmosphere somewhere? That could be the reason why they made for this planet, they just weren't available before this. The idea that the humans had created the weapons on board the space fortress and had even designed most of them there was completely outside the realm of her understanding.

Suddenly, she sat up abruptly "zoom in on this position!" She said pointing at the corner of the screen and the Captain hurriedly complied. The Meltraedi watched as a group of Micronians polished off the last of the combat air patrol, leaving them to watch the action on one battle pod that had lost its pilot, but amazingly enough not its ability to record or transmit video. These Valkyries were painted in various colors but blue was most prominent, and Miriya recognized that color as belonging to the group that included the enemy ace. Her eyes widened as she saw some kind of object for close combat of some kind in the Valkyries hand of one of them and she recognized the paint scheme as belonging to the enemy ace.

Why did that never occurred to anyone? Why don't we have something like that? I'll need to figure out a way to arm myself for close combat, then, as well as building up my speed. She smiled like a shark, their next battle looked to be more and more interesting. She watched and was startled when after the combat air patrol had been decimated some of the enemy space fighters took up position around the area. The blue marked fighters moved to place themselves between the area of combat and where Miriya and her ships were.

Somehow they could tell where the main threat with would come from if it came at all. The enemy ace took the forward position and Miriya could almost feel the glare from it across the massive amount of space between them. Evidently the enemy ace could sense, as she could, that their next clash would be something to experience and Miriya's smile widened in appreciation. Soon Micronian soon she thought to herself. On the screen the enemy once again had secured one of the 11th's battleships, this time a Quiltra Queleual Class, and was pulling it down further into the atmosphere. Miriya shook her head looking around and laughing a little "Oh, no more?" she said smartly and the Meltraedi all around her laughed.

Still this operation didn't mean much in the long run. To get back to their home planet the enemy still had to escape the cordon around the gas giant, and when they tried Miriya and her power suits would be ready for them.

End chapter

As always read and review. For those who don't recognize what FNG stands for its Fucking New Guy, a derogatory term for green troops sent into fill casualty depleted veteran forces.

The crew now knows a bit about the severity of the Zentraedi threat, but haven't let that stop them, and Gloval has begun to make plans for the future. The society onboard has continued to change and split. On one side, the key words are solidarity, utility and sustainability, a society that can sustain the war well into the future. And on the other side the useless assholes who bitch and moan, with the quiet and fearful yet hardworking group in the middle as always. For an idea of what Motoko's mech looks like see the Macross Frontier Messiah Veritech whose arms it most resembles, though the rest of it still looks like a regular VF-J Valkyrie. The other mods are the GBP-1S Armored type and the Super Valkyrie, with a pick and choose sort of feel to each separate addition.

*Chapter 18*: Round Two, Fight!

I don't own Ranma or Robotech

Some reviewer responses:

Janissa – Welcome to the story dear…. Reviewer? Was going to say lady but on the internet its best to be cautious about such statements despite any hints to the contrary. I always enjoy your reviews as they are always well thought out and interesting. By the time Ranma was twisting the steel bar and showing his curse form he was no longer a waitress, he was a soldier, different story and needs. He does have his female form for many reasons, one of them is his inability to show sorrow and sadness and other 'bad' soft emotions as a guy. It also gives him/her insight into the female body which will be important in this chapter. He won't be as happy with it as in DvC for a while, but he will get there. You are correct though in it hasn't played a huge part in the main plot, but that will change when they get back to earth and the water-attraction part of the curse hits with a vengeance.

MWRANDOM – An interesting point about Ranma not getting any recognition, but you assume that he would care about it. He will get recognition from his fellow pilots and Dr. Lang in this chapter when his advancements have proven to work for other pilots as well as most of the command staff, but not officially. If that happened it would cause problems with the higher ups when they get back to Earth.

Keeper- moving in space is really difficult to visualize, but I described in an earlier chapter that the Earth had gone around the sun on its orbit by the time they left Mars, and the attacks by Kryon's forces kept on pushing them out of position to make a run to intercept its orbit, so Gloval decided to retreat into Jupiter when Dr. Lang told him about possibly being able to work the fold space drive.

Jetsmillion – sorry, no umi-sen-ken

I would give a little preview of what is in the chapter, but the title should be self-explanatory.

Chapter 17 Round Two Fight!

As before the Veritech squadrons blew a hole in the outer shell of the ship (several times as it tried to repair the gap thus created before they could all get inside) and the moment they did Wildfire, who was again in the lead, came under fire almost immediately.

Ten Battlepods moving swiftly down the corridor they found themselves in, and it was only because they had jumped down right in the midst of them that they had any advantage.

Ranma and Motoko went to work with their swords immediately, cutting off legs and into main bodies, while Max made adroit use of his bayonet, making a mental note to say that it was indeed useful. Ben, who had been lowered into the hole by Rachel and Jeffrey, couldn't make use of his armor types awesome weaponry, so made use of its strength instead, picking up and bodily throwing one of the pods into two other. By the time the two rookies entered, the hallway had been cleared.

Immediately Ranma got in touch with Mannstein, while Motoko ordered the others to spread out and take defensive positions at the nearest intersections. "Assault actual, this is wild 1, advise on status and objectives, over."

The German colonel responded immediately. "Wild 1, assault actual, this seems to have been a carrier type, we're running into way more resistance than in the first engagement. If you can force your way forward, we think they are using the bridge as their command post, but if you can push them out they might not have a fallback point. I'll funnel the other Veritechs into the back of the forces attacking my forward positions."

From the start of the boarding assault the Spartans and Tomahawks were running into far more trouble than they had previously, debunking the theory that the aliens never had to deal with boarding actions, because they were well prepared for them this time. It was only because they had mini-barrier shields that his losses hadn't been far worse. Unlike the Valkyries the Destroids had no need to be fast or aerodynamic or maneuverable, they were built to slug it out with their opponents not dance around with them so adding a second battery and a shield generator wasn't a problem. Mannstein made a note to thank the good doctor for coming up with it, and Ranma for coming up with the knives, which all his Spartan operators loved, having replaced their combat batons with it. A combat baton had to be swung, while a knife could be stabbed, and was far better for in close work, which had allowed him to send his Spartans around defended points through walls to take them from the rear. His Tomahawks were also proving their worth, ripping enemy strong points apart with superior firepower at range.

He was still taking losses but they were acceptable so far, but the enemies numbers his momentum to a crawl, and if he stopped pushing forward his beachhead could be surrounded and pushed back by superior numbers.

"Roger." Ranma thought for a moment as two of their squadrons, Gold and Tan, came in behind them, then he flicked his com to talk to only Motoko. "Lt, who is ready for this, Rachel or Jeffrey?"

Motoko blanched. In truth nether of them were going to be good in close quarters. Jeffrey might eventually, but Rachel was a sniper, a long range specialist. Still… "I don't think either of them are ready for hits commander," she knew very well when to be formal "but if I had to say one or the other, Jeffrey has simply faster reflexes up close."

Ranma frowned but nodded. There was no point to having subordinates if you didn't trust them, and he opened an all team hail. "Alright, Lt. Aoyama, blue four and I will make our way forward, but we need to leave a team here to secure this position, and no offense blue five, but that thing ain't built for moving fast." In his Armored Valkyrie Ben nodded, it really wasn't but he loved the firepower. He could eject his Valkyrie form it, but didn't want to if he had a choice. "Lt Sterling you're in charge here until skull, green or vermilion 1 relieves you."
Max nodded inside his cockpit, that made good tactical sense, and in here Motoko was a bigger threat than he was. "Roger, sir, stay and secure position."

As soon as Max acknowledged Ranma shot forward, using his Veritechs rockets to almost fly through the corridor in his soldier mode. Motoko followed almost as fast, but Jeffrey stared for a moment before following.

Max, Ben and Rachel directed the incoming flights to hook up with the assaulting teams of Tomahawks and Spartans as they entered, with green, the other Veteran squad standing and holding their position with them. Vermillion took the lead heading towards the engines as Mannstein directed, but Skull was broken up into flights and told to create as much havoc as they could. Roy took a page out of the Spartans' book for this, cutting into the walls and making their way around that way.

Ranma and his small team ran into over a dozen hard points in the next hour, but the speed of their assault and the direction of it took the defenders by surprise every time. it was still really hard going and by the time they broke through to the bridge even Ranma was feeling the burn a little. The last Zentraedi fell to the ground minus a chest and Ranma turned around, dropping his now shattered short sword to the deck, activating the translation program and making certain none of the screens show anything like a dead-mans switch or a countdown.

He sighed in relief when it came up negative, then called it in. "Command actual, we have taken the bridge, repeat this is wildfire 1, we have taken the bridge." He looked around and Motoko and Jeffrey who's Veritech had actually slumped down against the wall. Motoko still looked game, but she had lost one of her arms to a cannon round, and the armor of his own was cracked and cratered in several places. The last hard point and forcing their way into the bridge had taken it out of them. "We can hold here, but I don't think were good to do anything else."

Mannstein's voice answered crisply. "Roger that, hold position, Vermillion and my teams have taken the engine room. Hold the bridge and this fight should be all but over."

That was a gross oversimplification, but in the next hour Mannstein was proven correct. With no central command, each hard point simply stayed and fought to the end, and eventually he was able to break the back of the defense and eventually he reorganized his forces into small kill teams, with one Tomahawk, two Destroids and to Valkyries, hunting down the last of the defenders. Again none of the aliens even tried to surrender, though his troops probably wouldn't have taken any in any case.

Unlike after the last battle there was no jubilation or party, no one asked Ranma to sing for them, every pilot and operator were simply too tired to party.

The next day work began on once again ripping out the interior of the enemy battleship, though this time the destroid and engineering teams weren't just tearing things out, they were also putting some things in.

Commander Drake was disappointed to not glean anything new about the Zentraedi from this acquisition save the fact this type of ship, a Quiltra Queleual class, was their carrier class. The radio transmission they had recorded during the fight did give them some new information. For one thing the Zentraedi had very good emissions control because they just didn't talk to one another. There seemed to be very little organization in their fighter groups, they simply swarmed under anything with sheer numbers alone.

Inside the ship however they had good tactical control and were reacting unimaginatively but well enough to Mannstein's assault. Yet that ended when the bridge fell. No one seemed able to take command after their officers died, and spreading their officers around the ship so they couldn't all be taken out hadn't occurred to them.

These two items were strange when Drake considered the data from the battle in Saturn's rings. Not only was there a strong overarching command in that battle, but the enemy exhibited good command initiative and tactical organization, reinforcing some areas and falling back from others and always able to work in local teams. He had to wonder if it was simply this 'clan fleet' that had this problem, or if it was the other way around, and the original, far larger fleet they had faced was simply unique in how organized it was. A small part of his brain wondered if the aliens realized it either way, but the thought didn't quite register

What did was the one item from the tactical computer that was new, the marking of two battleships, whose position was well beyond what the rest of the enemy ships had assumed around Jupiter. The makrs on the system though didn't list them as blue, which was the Zentraedi way to denote friendly units, it listed them as red. The swarming Valkyries had been denoted in blue, which obviously signified enemies. He wondered what that color meant, and the odd designation MELT 01,02 as well. Possibly the females, though they only had Commander Hayes groups word that they saw females at all, no one else had found evidence of them.

Dr. Lang however was happy, as the ship gave them another reflux engine. The Zentraedi reflux engine seemed to come in one size, and Dr. Lang wondered if larger ships would have more of them much like the space fortress had originally. It looked far different, much cruder, but it was probably more durable at the same time, and he wondered why that was. Much like on the space fortress there were real space engine, a reflux engine and a generator, which they did not remove this time.

This work would continue for nearly three more weeks.

Four days after Operation Suckerpunch, Lisa got off work and went home. The she surprisingly found Ranma making dinner, apparently for just the two of them. "Where's Kasumi?"

Ranma looked over at her smiling sheepishly, his hair cleaned and surprisingly wearing his dress uniform rather than his off duty fatigues. "Kasumi went over to spend the night with Minmei, she's been feeling a little lonely as Rick has been busy getting used to paperwork and we've been busy here." This showed, as their house was nearly complete. "So I though, um, maybe we could have a bit of a date night here?"

Lisa smiled widely, and nodded. "Just let me get changed and I'll be right back."

Ranma nodded in turn and by the time Lisa was back the meal, based around pasta and a salad with a balsamic dressing was on the table. He looked up his eyes widened to see Lisa standing there in a red dress with thin straps holding it up around her shoulders, then hugging her curves all the way down. "Uh, wow, that is, um, you look gorgeous."

Lisa smiled at his praise, moving to sit down across from him. "Thank you, its not something I would ever wear outside the house, but here for just the two of us it's perfect."

Ranma grinned. "Good that means I won't have ta hurt anyone else fer hitting on ya."

Lisa laughed and the two of them began to eat, talking about their work in the past few days and what they would do once they got back to Earth. Ranma saying he wanted to just lay down and sun himself was a little surprising but Lisa could see his point. As awesome as the city was from an engineering standpoint, the artificial sun didn't actually give off any heat. Lisa though wanted some meat. Like the majority of people aboard the enforced vegetarian diet was grinding on her nerves. In fact the last riot among the civilians was caused by that rather than by the peaceniks pushing their agenda.

After they finished Lisa and Ranma moved over into the living room, to watch a movie, though neither of them really paid attention to the movie. Something was in the air, something that had been there since Lisa had come back dressed in her slinky red dress. After about ten minutes of the movie, Lisa turned to Ranma her mouth open and the two began to kiss, the kiss turning hungry quickly.

Ten minutes later Ranma trailed his fingers up Lisa's leg, pushing her dress up and coming to rest on her panties, causing her to buck against him. He pulled back looking Lisa in the face, a wordless question on his own. Lisa looked back, her green eyes brimming with passion and she nodded.

Ranma lifted her up into his arms, his lips crashing back down on hers as he made his way to the bed as Lisa began to fumble with his uniform's clasps.

Three hours later Lisa lay back on the bed, naked save for a smile on her face and feeling better and more of a woman than she ever had before. Her entire flushed, sweaty, boneless body tingled and she made a mental note to thank Kasumi for breaking Ranma in for her. This had been magnificent, far better than she had been able to imagine it could be. Heck even her toes had gotten some attention, who knew they were so sensitive?

She felt a gentle finger gently moving along her side and she turned her head to see Ranma laying on his side, pushing himself up with one elbow as he trailed his finger on her side. She frowned mentally as she saw he was still standing at attention despite finishing twice in the past three hours. She had finished seven or eight times, the last two had come one after the other so she wasn't certain, but she wasn't going to be up for more for a bit. Despite having no hymen to worry about (a training accident when she was younger) and Ranma being as gentle as anyone could ask, fitting something of that size inside her had still been a little painful, and she would need more time to recover.

Her thoughts about ways to relieve his tension in other ways were interrupted by a throaty giggle coming from the doorway. Lisa and Ranma looked up to see Kasumi standing there, her eye alight with joy for Lisa and Ranma consummating their relationship as well as appreciation at the erotic sight Lisa's spread out, flushed and sweaty form made. "Did you two have fun?"

Ranma blushed, but the fact he was still at full mast made Kasumi giggle even further. Lisa however simply smiled happily. "Yes we most certainly did. That was positively addictive, just like you said Kasumi." Ranma blushed even more, but he also smiled a little in pride as well.

"Well" seeing as Rick came over and he and Minmei went over to his apartment, might I join you?"

Her eyes hand't left Lisa's face, who understood the real question here, 'would you be comfortable making love to me as well?'. Four months ago Lisa would have said she would never make love to another woman. Nearly a month ago she would have said maybe if the woman was Ranma's female form. Now, now she looked at Kasumi and felt a tingling of desire, and of love. "I don't see why not, though you'll have to take the lead for a while, I'm exhausted."
Kasumi smiled happily and began to walk toward the bed, taking off her clothing as she went. Ranma, who had remained silent, realizing this was a decision that the two girls would have to make, reached out a hand and helped her into the bed, before Kasumi leaned in claiming his lips hungrily. After she broke it off Lisa leaned up and kissed her as well, and the night progressed as it should between lovers for all three, leaving both girls mildly exhausted and Ranma thanking his martial arts endurance, but they all had wide smiles on their face when they at last fell asleep.

Miriya laughed aloud at Kyron's suggestion. The idiot had finally healed enough to retake command, but his face still showed the bruises and welts he had taken from his severe beating at the hands of the Micronian ace.

She idly wondered what Dolza would do when he found out how badly Kyron had twisted his clan fleet. He should have been put down and replaced after taking that much damage, but none of his subordinates even thought about it. None of his officers can think for themselves, which is just plain stupid. It's not a clan fleet anymore, it's a… I don't even know a word for it, everything in his clan is focused entirely on him, not the command structure, just him!

All of which meant she had to still deal with the moron. "Are you a fool or merely incompetent Kyron? I won't split up my forces like that; my warriors are good, but not that good. I will keep them concentrated, and will only commit them when I have the chance to make a lasting impact on the enemy." We will also have to collect our spies, it's fast coming up to the date we agreed to as their extraction window.

Kyron nearly snarled at her but didn't, the wounds he had sustained getting smacked around in his Glaug were still bothering him, making even small facial movements painful beyond belief. It would be weeks more before he could pilot a Glaug. He had been infuriated to learn what had occurred while he had been injured, and promptly modified his fleet's disposition. For one he pulled his fleet back slightly, no longer nearly on top of the atmosphere his ships were further out from the planet, now out of range for another ambush like the two that had already occurred. More he had concentrated his fleet into six groups aligned equidistantly around the sphere of the massive gas giant, able to react to any attempt to escape the planet and breakout but just far enough away to avoid any surprise. Of course he was still in the range of the siege cannon, but he didn't realize that…

It infuriated him to be so constrained, to bide his time until the humans came to him, especially after two humiliating defeats. To his mind if he could only use the full power of his fleet he could crush these Micronians, but even to Kyron Dolza's orders were absolute. So if he couldn't use his battleships firepower, then he would have to use the blasted females. "I am only asking you to help because you seem to not wish to do anything. It seems a little cowardly to me, but obviously it cannot be that can it?"

Miriya again snorted in laughter. "Oh no merely thoughtful. I've already determined that by keeping my ships away from the planet but close enough to react and see any attempt at a breakout I will have better odds of being close enough to launch an assault once they break out, and will allow me to keep my numbers intact." The two battleships under her command had moved away from the planet, nearly out of its gravity well, and was able to see everything around the planet save directly on the other side of the planet from them.

"Then would you at least concede to working with my fleet and agree to move closer to one of my fleets present positions, so that we can come to one another's aid at least?"

"Kyron you couldn't be more opaque if you tried. Keep your vendetta to yourself, to me and my forces this is merely another operation, decisions will be made logically, not fueled by your hate or ego."

Kyron's teeth clenched painfully in his bruised face but he had one last card to play. "You say that now Miriya Parina but I tell you there is an ace among them that even you could not face."

Miriya smirked. "The Micronian was right you really are pathetic." Kyron's eyes widened in surprise and her smirk widened into a lioness's grin. "I've already fought the one you speak of, the one with the strange symbol on his mech, the one who has bested you every time you've faced him? I beat him, not decisively, but I won, and when next we meet, he and I shall see which of us is really deserving of the title of the best. But that fight will happen at a time and place of my choosing not yours backstabber. Go, do whatever you wish, so long as you remember Dolza's orders to preserve Zor's ship and leave my ships out of it." With that Miriya waved a hand at one of the console operators nearby and they cancelled the transmission.

All around her Miriya could feel her fellow Meltraedi's approval for her stance, not that that mattered, it was simple tactics. Come out and play Micronians, even I am getting impatient. I have trained myself to match your new speed and skills, even your new weapons can be fought and my Queadluun Rau is ready, and so am I. Indeed she had begun training her troops in tactics to combat the enemies extended range, larger missile capacity and close in weaponry along with training herself in reaction time and close combat. We will meet soon, my foe, and then we will decide who the best is by seeing who survives.

The very next day Ranma, Kasumi, Lisa and Sonya finished the creating the new Sugita residence. The apartment now in addition to the already completed kitchen had a main room done in a more modern style with the metal of the ship clear, with bean bag chairs, a tv set into one wall, and a class and metal L-shaped desk set into the far corner with a little plaque above it telling everyone that it was Lisa's area, and indeed it was already cluttered with a few printouts and a dozen data disks.

A door in the other corner led into a bathroom, done in the Japanese style, set into two rooms one with a laundry machine and toilet, the other with a bath, the room with wooden panels all around. The wood actually was the most expensive supply to buy, making the kitchen and the bathroom the most expensive to built.

A steel circular staircase led up to the second story which was devoted solely to a bedroom for the three lovers. One giant king size bed dominated it, but along one side was a closet that was more than large enough to house all their clothing and a dresser segmented into three parts, each painted a different dark color. The walls up here were painted white with different animal shapes painted in black here and there (minus felines of course).

All in all Kasumi was incredibly happy with her first project and their new home, as were Kasumi and Lisa. After paying off Sonya for the day, the three went around taking pictures of the apartment for Kasumi to post online for people to see. These joined examples of her other interior designs for stores, clubs and other building types Kasumi had created. This rather amusingly included one for a karaoke bar which Lisa took one look at before declaring it a reject from the American 70's, which made Kasumi pout at her.

That done the threesome stayed in the apartment for the rest of the day having a group date, watching movies and eventually falling into bed together for another round or four of lovemaking.

After a half day of training his flight Ranma had met up with Kasumi for a girls day out. Kasumi wanted to spend some time shopping and she wanted Ranma to be in female form for a bit, simply because hadn't been spending any time in that form since getting over his grief. Surprisingly Ranma agreed to this, and the two girls went out together. They had a lot of fun too.

Ranma shook her head as she walked away from a stand carrying a bag of popcorn. She idly wished it was ice cream, but that had been one of many casualties in their diet with no animals on-board. At this point she doubted there was a single animal food product left on the market, and she knew that the rumbles of discontent about said diet were increasing practically every day. "How do people still not realize I'm Ranma, I mean, I know there's rumors about me and I've never made a big secret of my curse, so why do guys still fall all over themselves if I flirt with 'em?"

Kasumi giggled. Watching Ranma flirt with male vendors to get extra food was always fun, though she herself could never act in such a manner. She had enough problems being hit on as it was because of that silly contest. "Most people still don't believe in magic Ranma, your condition isn't something that anyone will believe unless they see the change for themselves."

"Idiots." Ranma muttered, munching on the popcorn absentmindedly. She glanced around at the people in the park, the few kids playing on the swing set, the couples, and she frowned a little. Whether it was his father's training or the Soul of Ice, Ranma was far more in tune with the atmosphere around her when he/she was female.

And right now, she didn't like what she was sensing. "Kasumi-chan, um, how are things on the civilian side?" Ranma hadn't had any time in the city for a while save to swing quickly by to see Minmei, he was almost constantly busy with his flight (in fact he had some exercise reports he needed to go over that he was ignoring right now, as well as a readiness report to shoot up to higher) and before they finished two days back with building their home.

Kasumi sighed, looking around her. One thing that had not changed in her when she decided to pursue interior and exterior design rather than medicine was her empathy, and she knew precisely what was going on. "People are beginning to lose hope koibito. Morale in the city despite our recent victories is at an all time low. Our food supplies have been totally dependent what we can grow for some time, and the lack of variety and animal products is beginning to wear on everyone. The news about the numbers we face has also gotten around, and though most people would say they don't believe them, they are really just running scared from the truth. Only the group who supports the military and doesn't mind being in space has decent morale, and even they are becoming more and more depressed."Kasumi herself wasn't, but that was because she didn't really care about the future as long as she had her lovers with her. In many ways Kasumi was just as uncomplicated a personality as Ranma, but that didn't make her blind to the concerns of others.

Ranma nodded thoughtfully. "I know the captain's got something planned to get us out and away from the planet, we'll just have to wait for it. Don't know what we could do to effect morale, are Minmei's concerts helping?"

"Oh they are, but even they can't hide the facts about the food and the military situation. She tries her best, and she is almost adored but most of the civilian population, the whole 'local girl done great' thing as well as her actual personality, Minmei can only do so much."

Ranma nodded again and decided to change the subject, seeing an excuse out of the corner of her eye. "Oh look there's Sonya, lets go say hi." Kasumi nodded agreement and the two headed over.

Sonya saw them coming and waited for them to come close. "Kasumi, Ranma." The chief spy looked at Ranma's form with interest, wondering why he/she was in female form. While Sonya knew that females were superior to men in every way, she also knew that Ranma was male originally and preferred his male form, though the precise way he had acquired his female form was a mystery. One she suddenly realized she could solve right now. "I've been meaning to ask, but how did you acquire a female form?"

Ranma chuckled. "That's the most polite way I've ever been asked about my curse. Ya see, me and my old man…" Sonya listened, not interrupting as she and the others had learned of the odd 'family' structure the Micronians had, though the exact reason for it still eluded them.

As she listened to the description of Jusenkyou she began to get more and more alarmed. "And no one knows what gives these springs their odd power?"

"Not as far as I know, they're just cursed, that's all the locals know about them. the water comes from a spring, but what gives it its magical properties I don't know." Ranma shrugged.

Could this be the reason there is no mention of the proto-culture generator onboard? Could it have somehow fallen out of the ship at some point during its crash onto their planet? Ranma hadn't mentioned how old the springs were, so this seemed a viable idea to the Meltraedi.

She made a mental note about that as Kasumi changed the topic of conversation, asking "By the way, would you be willing to work with me full time Sonya-san? I have already had a job offer to design the interior for a new arcade, and could use the help when we start building it."

Sonya regretfully shook her head. The work wasn't arduous for her of course, and she actually enjoyed working with Kasumi. But she was a spy and since the time for her pickup would be coming soon, she answered with the response the three spies had come up with for this occasion. "I'm sorry, I don't think I will have the time soon. I was thinking of going back to college and I want to spend some time studying first."

Thankfully Kasumi didn't press, merely nodding agreeably. "Alright, but if you ever change your mind call me. I wouldn't mind if your work hours had to be forced around your school hours after all."

Sonya nodded, then made her excuses and walked off. Ranma watched her go, and odd expression on her face, which Kasumi noticed. "What's wrong Ranma-koi?"

"Nothing, its just… I've never really looked at the way she moved before."

Kasumi cocked her head quizzically. "What's strange about the way she moves?"

"Walk around and I'll tell you once I figure it out." Kasumi looked at him then smirked and began to walk around him, swaying her hips provocatively. Ranma blushed but didn't look away merely shaking her head. "Not like that Kasumi, just walk normally." Kasumi giggled but did as he asked. "Yeah, that's what I thought. There just something off about her walk, can't really say what it is though. Maybe she was a soldier once, that might explain the stiffness in her walk."

Kasumi shrugged. She liked Sonya, so whatever it was, wasn't something she was going to concern herself with. "Come on, I want to go shopping before we meet up with Lisa and Aunty for dinner." Ranma nodded, and for the moment forgot his observations about the tall tan construction worker.

Gloval kept the ship in Jupiter's deep for three more weeks, giving the various projects time to finish, as well as giving his people time to prepare the enemy battleship for the operation to escape Jupiter. He knew that was pushing it morale wise, but they needed the time.

Three more factories had been designed for the interior of the space fortress, and construction had already begun on them. One was built to make missiles of all sizes from the ICBM's of the Prometheus to the Valkyries missiles. This was the largest factory, and would take the most time to build, but when it did they would have missiles as long as they had material to feed into the fully automated factory. All three of the new factories were designed thus, now that the designers had worked out what worked and what didn't. The next was a small factory that was built to build the new classes of batteries that Dr. Lang developed for the space enlarging technique and the armor enhancing technique. The last was another mech building factory. With the two repair facilities and the first mech building factory, the ship would be able to build nine Valkyries or Destroids in a day if necessary, or twenty Fast Packs at full output, and the Fast Packs were now being offered to all the pilots.

This time also gave the newest inductees more time to acclimate to their new jobs. The formerly green pilots spent these weeks getting worked up fully into their squads.

The ship was in the strongest position it was going to be for several months so he decided the time had come to initiate a breakout and get enough space between them and the planetary gravity well to try the fold space engine

Captain Gloval looked around the pilots briefing room, which was packed with the commanders and their second in commands of the fifteen squadrons they had bodies and planes for while beside him Lisa stood stoically, waiting for Roy to finish calling the roll call. Most of those squads were full, but one, the re-designated Wildfire was still only at half strength. Gloval knew that was because they simply didn't have enough pilots to fill it out, but Commander Fokker had surprised him by telling him that Wildfire had volunteered to be the half strength squadron.

For a moment Gloval wondered why an elite squadron would want to volunteer for that and still volunteer to be the tip of the spear. But as his eyes caught Ranma'she remembered the sheer brutality of the young man's battle with the new enemy ace, and he knew. His glance slid to the young woman next to him, still a rarity even with his opening the academy to both sexes. Her own hard eyes stared almost challengingly back, and Henri knew. These two at least were looking forward to mixing it up with the new enemy mechs, which Drake had given the code name Gargoyles.

The moment Roy finished calling the roll call, Gloval strode forward. Despite his nervousness in addressing this group, he was a battleship captain after all, and he was more used to addressing his crew over a com than in person, his voice was calm and controlled as he spoke. "I know you all have heard the rumor of Dr. Lang figuring out how to use the fold drive correctly. Those rumors are true and we will be using the fold space drive to get us back to Earth, or as close as it can get us." He pushed a button and two planets appeared, Jupiter and Earth. As they watched a sphere appeared around both planets. For Earth it reached a little beyond lunar orbit, but for Jupiter it went at least two earth (in space all you can really use to measure size is a light year or comparison, and the pilots didn't have enough knowledge to use a light year) spheres past the planetary ring visible around its middle.

"This area you're seeing is the gravity wells of Earth and Jupiter, the area of space effected by the gravity of the planet. It was this gravity that screwed up the fold space jump we tried that put us out by Pluto, and no" he said dryly smirking "I don't know how that works. Nor am I inclined to ask." The pilots all laughed a little and he smiled then went on. "To use this engine we have to travel out of this sphere, which unfortunately even at full power will take us 24 hours. Thanks to the fuel we've taken on, we can keep boosting at full power the entire way." he shook his head slightly as the pilots muttered about that. When Dr. Lang had found the engines weren't even using half their designed output, and the generator had been in power saving mode the news had not been welcome. Dr. Lang's oops just did not cover it. Not that it would have helped them all that much, but it would have made leaving their pursuers behind them far easier a time or two.

The screen changed, the Earth disappearing and Jupiter enlarging, with enemy markings appearing in six large groups set equidistantly around the sphere, well out or range of another ambush. "We assume Kyron, the enemy commander is back in action, as our last spy flight showed that the Zentraedi have changed their disposition to this. We will be using the captured enemy battleship to draw two of these groups out of position." He touched another button and the screen changed, showing one friendly mark escaping the atmosphere on a looped heading, moving toward where Earth had come back around the sun. First two, then three of the closest groups peeled off. "The ship will be sending out as much output was we can manage, to make it look as if we are trying to send valuable data back to Earth. Needless to say it will also be rigged to explode rather spectacularly."

The pilots nodded at this and he went on. "However the main cannon has a massive amount of range, and we will be using that to hammer their fleet if they respond as we estimate they will. One, if they all pull out and chase it we will exit immediately behind their position and open firing continuously to reduce their numbers. If they only send a few we will retreat until we are under one of the remaining groups and then pop up and annihilate it at range. Once that is done we will escape the planet, but the time it will take us to get out of the gravity well will still allow at least some of them to close the distance to us and launch fighters."

Gloval stepped back and Lisa took his place at the podium. She pushed a button and the screen changed again, showing two particular battleships and their strange location apart from the rest of the enemy fleet. "We don't know why there is so much space between these two ships and the rest of the 11th skirmish fleet as the enemy fleet we are facing is called. However we think it might be part of the elite Gargoyle units that attacked us before we hit atmosphere." There was a muttering about that, but thankfully little fear, only grim determination. Respect yes, but no paralyzing fear now, which if you had asked most of these men to fight them before the new weapon advancements there would have been.

"To minimize their impact on us, the ship will be moving directly away from their position out of the gravity well as fast as we can. This means that every Valkyrie will have a warning on their radar screen that will tell them if they are being left behind too far to catch up."

"Understand me" she said seriously, her eyes raking everyone there, "The ship cannot stop, cannot slow down, or we will be forced to fight these," she gestured at the nearest portion of the skirmish fleet that were situated near either of the two proposed escape routes, "groups and we will sustain heavy losses doing it even if we win through." That was all she said about that. She didn't have to point out that any fighter left behind would die, either from enemy fire or their air running out, a horror of every spaceman.

Ranma leaned forward studying the display that was still showing Jupiter and all the enemy positions. Something about it was niggling at his tactical mind, something about watching Ryoga and Kuno and the hentai horde working together…. It wouldn't stay in his mind and he shrugged it off for now.

"While we believe this operation can cut down on the numbers we face and will almost certainly mean none of their battleship can catch up, that doesn't mean the Regulds won't be sent out to try. During this operation we will be using two different deterrents to cut down on the enemies numbers. The first one will be leaving mines behind us in a wide spectrum. While we haven't been able to produce nuclear payloads, we have been able to make a large amount of smaller missiles and fix them with proximity fuses." Again the Macross on the screen moved, leaving a wide cone behind it. "This will be the area so mined, and we recommend that no Valkyrie attempts to play in that area." Everyone chuckled nervously as the image showed the sheer amount of missile mines they were talking about, going for a saturation effect.

"The second will be our stored unmanned missile pods. These we will put out only if the Gargoyles join the fight. Data taken during out battle with them showed that our missiles had greater range then theirs. So saturating them at long range will cut down their numbers. Especially since we plan to pump the missiles out in waves as they come close."

"For this battle we will be adopting a close defense, with all Valkyrie squadrons operating in the Defender envelope, which will be reinforced towards the aft of the ship. The mobile barrier systems will also be concentrated in that area. Forward of the command spire the ship will be left to the tertiary weapons platforms." On the screen the aft of the ship behind the command spire was now surrounded tags denoting the different squads, and a radius denoting the range of the Defender autocannon envelope. The ship also showed all twenty mobile barriers moving around the engines and the back of the command spire.

Lisa touched a screen and suddenly the defense changed, four of the squad tags, Vermillion, Skull, Wildfire, and Green, all of the elite squads, disappearing from the cordon. They reappeared again as moving a quarter circle beyond the range of the Defenders. The screen also showed massive amounts of missile pods being placed in front of them, making the entire defense a defense in depth rather than in close.

"This will be defense omega, which will be initiated if the new mechs make an appearance. With the missiles swarms to cut down their numbers and break their formation it is hoped that these groups can keep the new mechs at long range, without forcing us to put the other still relatively green squadrons against them." that comment against any other enemy would have gotten her shouted at by some of the commanders and lieutenants of the those 'green' squadrons, after all after operation Suckerpunch they weren't technically green any more, especially after the fight to take the enemy battleship. But the Gargoyles had mauled the Valkyries so badly last time no one but possibly Ranma and Motoko wanted to fight them again at all.

"Once they are sighted a new wave of pods will be rolled out from the Prometheus we run out. As we have over 500 of them, that will give us five waves of a hundred with each launcher holding 180 missiles." There was more murmuring at that, no one had known how many missiles the Phalanx-class destroids had carried, but that number seemed too much, and without the area enlarging technique it would have been, and again Lisa thanked god that Ranma was abroad the space fortress, and this time it was purely for the effect he had on their defenses rather than personal. "These defenses will hopefully be enough to give us an advantage in any battle."

She finished her presentation and stepped back. Gloval came forward again. "This operation will begin in one hour. It's estimated you will all be needed five to ten hours after that. Be ready. Dismissed." The pilots all stood up and saluted though Ranma looked at him oddly for a moment before leaving the room.

Lady Miriya, the Micronians appear to be up to something."

Miriya hit the alarm by her bed, cursing as she realized she had only gotten a few hours sleep, but it would have to be enough. "I'm on my way. Rally all the pilots and have the Queadluun Rau prepared just in case." That said she cut the com and grabbed at her flight suit, a skintight affair that was one third spacesuit, one third shock absorber and one third interface aid to a Queadluun Rau.

She arrived on the bridge and immediately made her way to the tactical screen. She soon began to frown at what she saw. An enemy ship, judging from the readings they were getting it was the captured Quiltra Queleual the Mirconians had taken in the last action, was boosting heavily out of the gravity well. "What in the world are they up to?"

Miriya didn't realize she had said that aloud until the ship captain replied. "I don't know, but we are getting massive readings out of that ship, far more than it should have. EM and everything else is off the scale."

Miriya pulled at her green hair, a sign she was thinking hard. While she watched the two nearest forces of the cordon came together and then went after the ship, moving around the curve of the planet after it. Two more groups joined the chase when it changed course toward them.

She frowned. "Why does this scream of a trap to me?"

The captain shrugged but a minute later they saw the truth of Miriya's words. As they watched the space fortresses appeared just out of the gas giants atmosphere, its massive beam lashing out, and within minutes a third of the 11th skirmish fleet was gone, the beam cutting in at an angle where it could catch three of the four groups. "Ah," Miriya said drolly, "That was why." There was a bit of nervous laughter around the bridge, none of the Meltradei having really remembered how powerful the siege cannon was, given how it had barely been used since they arrived in system of course the same lack of foresight was why Kyron had forgotten about it when he moved his fleet into its present position. Strangely enough judging from the rate and trajectory of the space fortress's exit from the planetary well the ship wasn't trying to head straight back to the systems third planet, rather it was heading at an angle to head back out-system.

I wonder where they think they're going? Do they mean to change course once away from the cordon to catch the third planet? Or are they going somewhere else? Hmm. "Can we fold to a place in front of them do you think?"

The carrier captain looked uncomfortable for a moment. "I don't think so, we're still in the gravity well commander, we can't fold with any rate of success. And at the speed the battleship is going we will be left too far behind within half a day if we are forced into a stern chase. I can try to cut their course, but I doubt even that will allow us to catch them. I think it's up to the mech forces to slow them down enough for the rest of us to catch them."

Miriya nodded. Meltraedi and Zentraedi ships were built to last and to take a lot of punishment but not to be fast, a rule that even skirmish fleets and their ships followed, though to a lesser extent than the larger ships of the main combat fleets like Breetai's. "Very well, we'll launch at once. With our superior engines we should catch up to them a little later than Kyron's forces." With that she turned and ran off the bridge. Our time has come my Micronian adversary.

About two hours after the Macross left Jupiter's atmosphere, the battlepods from the one remaining force near them hit the mines the ship had begun to drop as soon as they could. These battlepods however only lost about fifty of their number before the ships behind them, who couldn't catch up with the space fortress, began to fire after it, forcing the barrier systems to block a few shots from the ships massive engines and clearing paths through the mine field. Within another thirty minutes the pods had caught up, and the Defender's began to fire. The light autocannon once again proved its worth and the attacking pods began to die. As they came on entering their defensive areas the Valkyrie squadrons met them with missile and rifle rounds.

Ranma kept his flight together, Max on his wing for now, with Motoko and Ben taking Jeffrey and Rachel respectively. All of them were armed as they had been for Suckerpunch, with Ben hovering in the center of their designated section. Both new members had opted for the Fast Pack, though Rachel had also gotten the Defender gun Rick had mounted on his Valkyrie. Their half squad strength made them responsible for a smaller area of space on the opposite side of the aft portion of the ship from which the battlepods were attacking, which in turn kept them from getting too caught up in the dogfight.

Ben was the only one who thought this was a bad thing. He knew he was the only veteran in the group who really hadn't made a name for himself and he wanted to do that badly. "Come on Ranma, let's get it stuck in, there's no point to us just sitting out here!"

Ranma growled, his hairs all standing on end. He knew something was going to happen soon, he just knew it. "Shut it Wild 5, that's an order!" By unanimous vote the designation of the squad was shortened in radio discussions "This is our assigned section," He casually turned his jet slightly and blew up a pod at extreme range as it came into their territory, followed closely by Max and Rachel doing the same to two more. "And we will stay here and fly patrol until otherwise ordered. Do I make myself clear?"

Ben gulped and nodded. "Er roger Wild 1."

That taken care of Ranma closed his eyes, reaching out with his own senses, but he couldn't feel anything, not without hooking up to his radar again, and he didn't want to do that. He popped up his radar screen, noticing that the dogfight on the port side of the aft area of the ship was still going on, and if anything had intensified, but he hadn't heard anything on the radio about the command pod Kyron used so he ignored it for now. The real threat had yet to materialize.

Another fifteen minutes went by, with only a few battlepods entering their engagement zone, with Liz and Max taking most of them out before the others could even target them. Ranma ignored them, concentrating on his senses until, just outside his own radar range, he felt something. "He's coming."

Just as he said this, an all hands call went out from command. "All units, be aware that we have more enemy units incoming from the two carriers on the starboard side of our escape route. Wait for visual confirmation but Vermillion, Wildfire, Skull and Green should fall back now just in case."

Ranma hit his com. "Command, Wildfire one, confirm orders, but you should know it's definitely the new mechs incoming. Suggest you expedite rolling those missile pods out."

Lisa's voice was professional as she answered, though there was a note of concern there that most would have missed. "Reasons Wild 1? Did you use your energy to power up your radar?" The unspoken message was 'you had better not, Kasumi and I warned you what would happen to you if you did and it made your emotional issues worse '.

"Negative command, it's a martial arts thing but not scientific like that, I can just… just feel the enemy ace out there. He's coming, I know it."

The line went silent for a moment and then Gloval's voice came back. "We'll go with your feeling for now commander, you've been right too often for us to ignore this now. I am ordering the switch to omega defense, rolling missile pods out will be expedited."

"Roger, command, Wild 1 out." Ranma switched his com over to the squad frequency, watching as the first pods were jettisoned in a clump, then the next came out in a string from the aft-most hanger. "Alright troops, soon yer gonna go up against the things that so badly mauled us last time, let me tell ya they ain't immortal, but they are damned tough. Stay together, if ya leave yer wingman you'll probably die too fast ta realize it. Keep 'em at long range as much as possible. But if anyone sees a mech marked with a green star on the shoulder and painted purple rather than green and gray, do not engage it, call me in then back the hell off. These guys are bad news, the ace is worse."

Max hearing that became determined to make certain he would engage the enemy ace before Ranma did. If he could, and he was certain their new weapons would make a difference, he would be declared the better pilot, and that would put everything back to the way it should be.

Not five minutes later, the space fortress sensors were able to get a visual of the oncoming Zentraedi coming at them from the starboard aft of the ship. The visual showed them all what they had secretly feared, the Gargoyles were coming.

Miriya grinned as she led her forces after the escaping space fortress. Who cared if the ship escaped, what she wanted was another battle with the Micronian ace. She frowned however as her radar picked up several hundred small things in the distance. As she and her force raced toward them she gasped as the small things, barely larger than one of her mechs outstretched arms, started to spout missiles at twice the range of her own. "All units slow advance and prepare to receive missile fire."

All around her the Queadluun Rau slowed bringing up their arms to use their triple barreled pulse lasers. The first rank with Miriya among them began to fire, small pulse of lasers flicking out and impacting the oncoming missile swarm. Some still got through but as the other ranks began to come around, above, below and to the flanks of the first rank, they added their fire to the anti-missile defense. Missiles still came through, taking out a few units, but the majority of them were shot down. The Queadluun Rau came on, destroying the pods as they came.

Lisa cursed luridly in the privacy of her mind as she analyzed what had happened. The new enemy mechs had used some of their fearsome weaponry to good effect against the missile swarm, slowing down some to do it, but nowhere near enough. Damn it, to make the missile launchers effective we'll have to engage with Valkyries at the same time. She knew this would mean far more casualties among the Veritech forces, but if they didn't then the Veritechs would be facing the mechs anyway without the missiles aid, and casualties would be far worse then, even if the battle happened in the Defenders autocannon envelope. Their autocannons needed nearly twice as many shots to kill these new mechs as the old battlepods and they never stayed still that long. "Omega defense squadrons move to engage the incoming enemy mechs on the aft starboard side in conjunction with the next missile pod cluster."

Only someone who knew Lisa very well could make out the anger in her voice, but Ranma took the news in stride. He hadn't thought the missile assault would have worked much anyway, but the way it hadn't was telling. "They ain't acting at all like the other alien mechs."

A chorus of 'huh's' responded to that and he elaborated. "The Zentraedi forces we've all been dealing with don't give a damn about their own lives in relation to their mission. They'd never've slowed down to take out the missiles they'd have just kept coming, soaking up the casualties. Instead these guys slowed down, acted as a trained force ta the threat. Some of the units in the back may not catch up with us now."

As he finished speaking the enemy mechs drew into missile range and the pods and Veritechs of the four squadrons of defense omega fired. Ranma though kept his own missiles back and simply flew forward. The missiles did more damage this time, but nowhere near enough to stop them from closing. The Veritechs fell back, trying desperately to keep the range open, but the enemy mechs poured on the speed from their ventral thrusters closing the distance before most of them could. Several mechs and Valkyries began to fight it out, more of the enemy dying for a moment then the Valkyries began to die as well. Even with their new armaments they still didn't have quite the firepower or agility of the Gargoyles. Wildfire was faring better than the others, since Bens armored variant gave him far more firepower than they had and a defensive envelope to fight under but the fighting was tough and fierce even there, and Motoko engaged the enemy in close to keep them away from the newer pilots.

Max saw two of Vermilion die under the fire of one enemy mech in a mere second and grinned recognizing the markings on it. Two more blew up as he got behind it, dodging fire from another mech. "Have a bead on their leader, going in."

Ranma cursed and followed after his wingman. "Max, damnit get back here! You're no match…"

Miriya scowled irritably as another Micronian got in the way of her searching for her enemy. This one shot at her with his under slung rifle from behind, changing to its half and half mode and firing from the hip, its new arm mounted missile launchers firing rapidly. Miriya swiftly turned on her head, shooting back towards him. The enemy mech tried to keep his distance, but Miriya used a few mini-missiles to bracket the fighter, forcing it to dodge to the side rather than straight back. This allowed her to close with him faster than he could react to and closer than he had apparently expected judging from his trying to fire at her former position.

He was able to change into his Destroid mode and attempt to engage her in hand to hand with the blade stuck onto the end of his rifle but she had trained herself further in this type of combat and she grabbed one of his thrusting arms, pulled him toward her and almost crushing his Destroid's head with an elbow blow with her other arm.

She then kicked him away, as she dodged a laser blast by leaping up and forward doing a somersault in space before blasting back at her real enemy. "At Last!"

Max gasped as his canopy nearly cracked in front of him, only remaining in one piece thanks to the armor strengthening technique then gasped again as Ranma came flashing in, saving him from further damage from the enemy ace. He was still functional, but he knew now he couldn't face that alien ace again. Its whole attitude toward Max had been 'you're in the way', not as if he posed a credible threat. I guess I won't be the best pilot after all! The thought left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Still, the dogfight was still going on around him, and he could make a difference elsewhere. Good enough to be one of the elite, but never the best. And again the thought was bitter.

Ranma flew after the enemy ace, arching in and away, transforming to and from soldier mode in the blink of an eye as he tried to keep the range close only for the enemy ace to open it up again. He dodged several small green laser blasts only to look up and realize the enemy mech had just unloaded her entire mini-missile allotment in one huge swarm. Oh shit. The only thing that saved Ranma was the fact that at the same moment four missile launchers targeted the enemy ace, distracting it and forcing the enemy mech to deal with a missile swarm herself.

Ranma changed into soldier mode, grabbing the electron cannon he had once more taken from Kyron with one hand, the magnetic clamp on his arm that had held it giving way to his frantic grab as that hand began to fire frantically with his original rifle. He blazed out, one shot per mini-missile as the swarm closed in on him, using the Fast Pack arm missiles to good effect at the same time, eyes flickering from one target to the next almost too fast for the system to keep up with.

He held his ground till the last second then rocketed upward still firing on the missiles that had climbed to follow him, then around and around until the last missile died, leaving him with only a few of his own and with the power cells on both guns dead.

After replacing the charges in his guns he swiftly reoriented himself, turned and charged to meet the enemy ace who had just finished off her own missile swarm. She got off a few blasts from her main cannons, but only one impacted his jet mode on its left wing, and he ignored it, having increased his armor enough to deal with it. Transforming at point blank range into his soldier mode he dodged under two follow on shots then grabbed the enemy mechs legs as it came up in an attempt to kick him. Before he could do more he had to dodge again two more blasts from his opponent's main cannons. Using the impetus of his backward roll Ranma changed into his guardian mode upside down, firing back hard with his electron cannon and rifle.

The enemy mech twisted to the side letting some of his shots go past and taking the other shots on his side armor. Ranma thrust forward again taking two more shots to his mech's main body as he transformed. He responded weapons blazing point blank taking out the shoulder guards and one of the lasers clusters under slung his enemies arm, who pulled away trying to get some range between them, something that Ranma knew he couldn't let happen.

Ranma spat out blood as he transformed into fighter mode, gunning his engines with one hand as the other checked his ribs. Now I know what the doc meant, that felt like I'd taken a couple of Herb's ki blasts ta the chest. But Ranma was no stranger to pain, and he ignored it now easily.

The two aces flashed together then apart, again and again, the power armor trying to keep the range open, with Ranma trying to keep in close, transforming in and out of his modes trying to take advantage of their different shapes and moves to keep his opponent guessing, not that he was having much luck, but neither was the enemy able to open the range. He had also lost his stolen rifle, and even his knife after taking that out.

He kicked out, catching the power armor in the chest with a kick and following up by bringing his hands together and "Moko Takabashi!"

The enemy mech was prepared for this however and dodged down even as he brought his hand together. Ranma barely had enough time to gape before the enemy hammered into his side with a round house kick following up with two cannon shots that almost nailed him in his back but he used his leg thruster to dodge them, retaliating with another few shots with his rifle and head mounted lasers.

Miriya smirked even as she dodged her opponent's fire. Watching the matches between the Micronian and Kyron had proved useful already, though his increased speed and reaction time were troubling, far more so in person than they had in the battles she had seen since. For every blow she landed with gun or fist he landed six, and even the armor of her specially reinforced Queadluun Rau couldn't take this punishment for much longer. She winced as the Micronian got in close again and his fist smashed into her power armor's side caving it in a little, enough to bruise her but not enough to break a rib. Another blow, this time with his edged weapon smacked into her head, but she had moved just enough to let it scrap along the side rather than penetrate. She retaliated by kicking out hard, forcing the Micronian away enough to fire her main cannons, but the Micronian fired back.

Once again the Micronian mech showed its surreal resiliency by surviving the cannon shots, only gaining more dents while she gritted her teeth in anguish as her cannons blew up under her enemies fire. She could feel her chest sear underneath the small explosions that occurred as they blew. It was not enough however to take her out of the fight, which she proved by using her remaining pulse lasers to stitch up her opponents side and the mechs head, taking out its visor and one of the lasers.

Ranma shook his head for a moment to clear his eyes from the blood that was now pouring down his forehead. Transforming into his jet mode he went after the other mech, but instead of changing into guardian or Destroid mode when he closed, he rammed the other mech in the stomach then tried to use his lasers point blank. But the other mech wrenched away at the last second then reached out and crushed one of his wings.

Ranma transformed into his soldier mode, and crashing an open palm into his opponent's unarmored shoulder, destroying the movement actuators, taking a kick in turn that bent him over. He barely dodged out of the way as the Zentraedi's other hand came up bringing the laser cluster underneath it to bear pulsing out several blades of green light. When it turned to track him Ranma grabbed it kicking out hard and nearly ripping that arm out of its socket before the enemy boosted its thruster into him, nearly cracking his canopy, the chest of his mech nearly caving in. Ranma could feel his ribs cracking, and he may have begun to bleed internally from that blow.

Gods none of my body hardening techniques are working to stop the pain and my batteries are nearly empty too. I gotta do something quick. Dropping the armoring technique, he started to channel all his ki into his soldier modes limbs. He began to move faster, fists and feet a blur. The alien mech could still keep up with him slightly, but not enough to do more than hit back a few times, doing damage but not enough to protect itself.

Ranma shouted the words "Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken!" aloud in the emptiness of his cockpit spitting out the blood in his mouth even as the speed and his enemies armor began to destroy his mechs fingers and his own broke in sympathetic reaction.

He kept up the attack for ten minutes, forcing his arms to continue to pummel his enemy, using his thrusters to stay close despite the momentum he was imparting to his target with every blow. Even at this speed the enemy mech was able to block some of the blows and return a few, causing Ranma to grit his teeth in further pain as his own mech was hammered further.

Ranma at last ran out of energy, his arms dropping uselessly to his side and his thrusters only powering him enough to crash chest to chest with his enemy. The two mechs tumbled through space together, neither of them in any shape to move.

Inside her cockpit Miriya gritted her teeth in pain, every part of her body hurt. That speed enhancing move had literally pummeled her Queadluun Rau to scrap. She could barely move her own head, let alone her power armor's. And despite that she was ecstatic, this fight had been the best she ever had and even though she lost (she couldn't move at all, and she assumed her enemy could still do so) that speed move was possibly something she could get to work for her. Oh I am so learning how to do that. And maybe I can figure out a way to do those strange energy attacks. I have no idea how, but somehow I will find a way.

She looked out through her view screen out at the other pilot's cockpit through the cracked glass of it and at the other pilot, both cockpits lit by interior emergency lights. Her eyes widened as she saw how much blood there was splattered around the interior of its cockpit and body. It must have something to do with his new speed and reaction time but I wonder what it could be.

She was further struck by the color of the Micronian's blood. Their blood is the same color as ours. She chuckled darkly, wincing as the action made her ribs ache. I should know I'm certainly bleeding enough myself at the moment.

For a moment the two ace pilots stared at one another, not able to make out any details through the two armored visors but somehow connecting in a way neither would ever be able to describe to anyone else.

Ranma stared out of his cockpit into the alien's eyes, communicating something, connecting somehow. It wasn't anything religious, nor was it any kind of emotion. Rather it was an understanding that for all their differences the two of them shared a single drive, an imperative that was at the center of their being: to be the best, to conquer all obstacles, match all challenges and rise above them stronger.

His musings were interrupted by a load voice coming in over his com. "Wild 1, Wild 1 do you read me, you are falling out of the envelope, if you don't start moving now, you'll be left behind! Wild 1, do you read me?" Lisa sounded professional but the worry and love he heard in that tone was enough to drag him back to the real world and get him moving.

He concentrated, gathering his energies and slowly, painfully pushing off his opponent nearly retching as the momentum thus imparted made them both spin out of control for a second until he lit off his thrusters. "I, I hear ya command. Gonna try to head back now. I, uh, I, might not be able ta make it back, and no way am I gonna land easy."

"Roger." Lisa's voice now sounded far more controlled, but Ranma could still hear the worry in her voice. "Get back here fast Wild 1 you're almost too far away to catch up."

"Roger." Ranma pushed off his enemy entirely looking at the other mech for a moment. Slowly his joints creaking he raised his mangled fists and held up one finger in each hand. Still holding up that finger one hand smacked his own chest, and the other smacked the other mech. "One to one. Next time will break the tie. Until then."

Ranma turned and poured all his remaining ki and battery power into his thrusters as he transformed slowly to his jet mode. With a soundless roar of superheated air he jetted off.

Miriya smiled through her bleeding lips at her opponent's silent message but then swiftly hit her radio as she saw her troops still pushing the assault. "Let them go, all flights break off the attack."

One of her flight leaders asked "Let them go leader, but we're breaking through!"

"Let them go. They still might have a multitude of those missile launchers in reserve, and in close with their other mech types in support we'll take more casualties, which isn't worth it right now. If they do our disorganization from the dog fights will cause too many casualties. Pull back now, and someone come and get me. I'm not able to move under my own power at the moment."

The flight commanders all replied, breaking off just as more missile launchers were ejected from the fortress. The few who didn't obey orders to break off died under their fire.

Miriya lay back in her body glove, wincing as even that little shift made her body explode in pain. She and her opponent would meet again, and it would settle everything.

end chapter

as always read and review. this was a beast to write in many ways, simply because I wanted the fight to be desperate, and I wanted Kyron's forces to be decimated, and figuring out how to do that and write it down was really tricky.

*Chapter 19*: Going Home is Hard to do

I don't own Ranma or the UNSF, if I did Admiral Hayes and company would have been shot for high treason and Ranma would be with either of Akane's sister's rather than her.

I have used several songs in this chapter, but I will just list the ones that I quote here: 1. Warrior, by Disturbed 2. Donten, another Gintama ending song 3. Boom by P.O.D. 4. Warriors of the World, and 5. Die by Honor, by the band Manowar.

I have started a poll on my profile for the next story after Warrior's Way is finished sometime in September. As before please vote or better yet pm me and tell me what you think of the choices. Every pm I get, so long as you actually try to convince me to write the story in question rather than simply say 'do that story' will earn that choice ten points toward the total.

Chapter 18 Going home is hard to do

Ranma was running on fumes by the time he made it back to the fortress. Needless to say he was also really hurting by then too. Motoko and her wingman Rachel flew beside him, the rest of the half-strength Wildfire squadron having already landed. Max's Veritech had taken a pummeling, and Rachel had run out of ammo, even with the extended magazines, an amazing feat for both her regular rifle and the 'sniper bazooka' as she called the re-tasked Defender cannon. Not that she was profligate or wild with her shots, she just shot that often. It took over a dozen on-target hits from the rifle to take down a Gargoyle, whereas it took two or at most three to kill a Reguld.

In terms of damage she taken a few shots to the wings. On the other hand Jeffrey Arborn had been shot down and killed. Much like Ranma and Max he had moved out from under the range of Ben's Armored Valkyrie and been overwhelmed almost instantly. Ben too had taken damage, losing one of his Valkyries legs and most of his armor along his back. Despite this Wildfire had gotten off lightly in comparison to the other elite squadrons. Roy had already been thinking about making changes the normal Veritech tactical doctrine to make more use of the GPB-1S variant and the new weapons, but this battle and how well Wildfire performed had shown him he needed to make that a priority.

"Wild flight you are cleared to land in starboard hanger three. The fighting has died down only on the portside aft, and the other squadrons are rotating through hanger 3 portside." Lisa's voice was crisp and clear, not letting her worry for Ranma show.

Ranma's voice was breathy as he spoke, and he knew he had something wrong with his lungs. "Roger command."

About ten minutes later Ranma landed in the hanger, and as soon as the bay doors closed and air began to circulate workers and emergency personnel were charging forward. The damage to his fighter seemed pretty bad, but the damage to Ranma, as he got slowly out of his cockpit, was enough to halt them all in their tracks.

Ranma really looked a sight, his hair was caked with blood from a long cut to his head, his hands were covered with blood and all his fingers looked to be broken. He was also holding his ribs with one hand and it was obvious as he climbed out, all grace gone from his movements, that he was badly injured somewhere inside.

Even as workmen moved to help him he held up a hand, waving them off and moving to a jeep at the entrance of the bay. As Motoko and the rest of his flight looked on in awe and worry he made his way walking slowly over to the jeep and then sitting down in the passenger's side. He turned to the driver, a young PFC who was looking at him in awe and said "Hospital if ya please."

The private jumped at the command and within moments the jeep was barreling away from the hanger. Chief Morgan turned away from the spectacle to glance at Ranma's Valkyrie and he shook his head at the amount of damage. Not nearly as much as the last time at first glance but he'd have to see what they found when they went over it. "Alright you lot enough lollygagging around, let's get to work and get these birds tucked down and gone over. Move it!" Once they actually began to inspect the Valkyrie however they would find the damage was mostly superficial. The armor nearly everywhere would have to be replaced, and the Fast Pack variant as well as some of the modules in the head and movement actuators in the hands. But the interior structure and electronics of the Veritech was still intact save around the soldier mode's torso. With the new repair facilities, the damage would only take a few hours to make right. The damage to Ranma was much worse.

It took the dogfight on the port side another hour to die down completely, but that was only because all the Reguld pods that came after them had to be killed to a pod. However, Lisa had rotated the defender companies and Valkyrie squadrons in and out of the fight keeping them fresh and with a full weapons load. With the new trans-space reloading magazine the regular battlepods, had been no match for the Valkyrie's working under the Defender autocannon envelope. Even the light autocannons of the Defenders had been upgraded with the new fold-space magazine, and so could pump out more fire at a far faster rate than before.

From the point of view of the mission, the battle had been a complete success. Not only had the space fortress gotten away from the only portion of the cordon around Jupiter that could catch it after operation Feint and the subsequent use of the siege cannon before they left the gravity well of the planet, they had successfully blunted the Gargoyles attack before they could come into effective range of the fortress. This had kept Defender and regular Veritech losses to a minimum.

On the other side of the scale that was only outside of the elite forces that had been sent to take them out with the aid of the missile pods. Those forces had been mauled yet again. Green was down to four effectives, and Skull had lost three pilots dead, including its first lieutenant putting Rick, who had been the squads second lt. into the second in command slot for now. Vermillion had been nearly wiped out, losing everyone but their commander and his wingman. Wildfire, having already had only six pilots and only losing one, had come out of the battle in the best shape of them all. All the survivors were battered, spent and in desperate need of some TLC.

Thus in the long term it seemed as if the Gargoyles were going to be a much larger problem than the older ones. Lisa and the captain were going over the data from the battle and it seemed as if the missile launchers were more deterrent against the new enemy fighters closing with the ship than an actual threat. Every time a missile wave went out the attacking Gargoyles would slow down and destroy the missiles before continuing their chase of the battleship. This had allowed the star fortress and its forces to move away from them, but it was an ominous sign of things to come. These new enemy mechs had excellent unit cohesion and organization as well as a sense of self-preservation, something that the Zentraedi they had previously been fighting had. "They don't act like a normal Zentraedi force," Lisa muttered.

"What was that commander?" Gloval looked up head cocked in inquiry from where he was looking at the casualty list.

"Oh nothing sir, just something someone said to me a little while before this fight began. These new fighters seem to have an entirely different order of battle and rules of engagement than the alien forces we've previously fought. There's just something strange about it sir. For another thing the two groups didn't actually help one another, the Gargoyles only attacked on our starboard side and the others, the Regulds, they seemed to almost shy away from them, like they were scared of them."

"Interesting thoughts commander, I would like to see a write up about that. Look at the data we have collected from this battle, get with commander Drake and see what you can come up with. Be certain to look at commander Sugita's duel with their ace. Also note that all of those new types of fighters retreated rather than face our reinforced missile launchers." Gloval ordered.

"Yes, sir." Lisa did not let any of her concern for her boyfriend show in her voice, but as soon as her work was done here she was going to make certain that he was all right. Not that she thought he was in danger of dying or anything, but the camera from hangar three had shown him limping as he made his way to the waiting jeep, and that alone worried her knowing how durable he was.

Even though it took them four hours to get back to their carriers Miriya was rather upbeat. Sure she didn't have a single part of her body that wasn't in pain, she knew her ribs were broken, and she probably had more than one new scar to add to her collection, but that fight had been one of the best she had ever had. And she knew that her opponent had only won by the skin of his teeth, and had given her several areas she could improve on. So what if she had to stay in traction for a few days, her healing ability would see her right again. I need to work on my speed and my reaction time even more she thought amusingly, even as emergency crews cut into her power armor to get her out. The power armor was so badly battered that the normal hatch couldn't open. Not that she had any power to run the hatch anyway. Or perhaps look to see if I can somehow add more power to my weapons. Hmm….

The captain greeted her as soon as she was pulled out of the cockpit of her power armor. The captain winced internally at the amount of injuries she could see on the other Meltraedi. Miriya was an ace pilot, in fact the best pilot in all the Meltraedi and Zentraedi forces, her name was spoken with fear by the Invid and every other race she had ever fought, and she had taken this much damage against a Micronian?! "Lady Miriya, the space fortress is now out of our power suit's effective flight range, the backstabber's forces are trying to catch up, but have little hope of doing so unless they can successfully micro jump in front of it, which is doubtful."

What she did not say was it would also be a little suicidal, the humans had shown them the power of the siege gun, and it could wipe out Kyron's entire fleet given the right angle and time to do it in. "His ships also continue to use their capital ship weapons against the fortress, in direct contravention of orders to take it intact, though the Micronians' use of that odd mobile barrier is allowing them to absorb most of the beams without taking much damage. What are your orders?"

Miriya gritted her teeth briefly before speaking. "Get us out of the gas giant's gravity well, after that keep us parallel with them, close enough to see what they're doing but far enough away they can't hit us with any of their weapons." The captain nodded and left as Miriya, disdaining all aid, turned and made for her quarters.

Kyron growled angrily as he watched the space fortress pull further and further away from his ships. "Damnit, order the 10th through 16th flotillas to micro-jump ahead of them, we need to slow them down!"

His flagship captain Grell looked at him in shock. "But sir, all our ships are still inside the gas giant's gravity well, they won't be able to micro-jump that accurately."

Kyron turned and glared at him and Grell flinched. "Do I care? Do it!" Grell nodded, and Kyron watched as fully two-thirds of his remaining fleet disappeared into fold space.

Aboard the Macross, there was a massive sigh of relief throughout the ship as they at last left the last of their pursuers behind, the enemy battleships falling out of capital beam range. Captain Gloval sighed with relief and was about to order everyone to stand down from their battle positions, when Vanessa manning her position at the radar console shouted an alarm. "Captain, we just lost at least three hundred plus of the enemy! Fold space energy detected at their previous coordinates!"

Gloval frowned in surprise but Lisa didn't. "Remember this fleet is led by that madman Kyron sir, he has shown that he doesn't have any care for the lives of his men. Recommend we remain at high alert until we…" She was interrupted as the alarm began to blare, sounding a collision warning of all things.

The Meltraedi captain gasped in shock, anger and rising fear. "That idiot Kyron, he knows our ships can't jump accurately while within a gravity well! If one of his ships hits the space fortress they'll both be destroyed and our mission will fail!" And if we fail, will we be blamed as well? Will Dolza order us destroyed along with the backstabber? The thought terrified her, but she didn't know what she could do about it, and was forced to watch as the battle around the space fortress commenced again.

The Macross was very lucky that none of the in-folding Zentraedi ships interpolated its position, but several of them had come out of fold practically on top of it. Thankfully, the secondary weapons of the space fortress were up to the job, and blew ten of the ships out of the sky before they could launch any fighters. Over forty Zentraedi ships did interpolate coming out of fold, and their explosions lit up the space around them momentarily. Fifty more however folded out in one piece around and behind the space fortress where the secondary weapons couldn't reach them and they all launched fighters and began to fire on the space fortress. Gloval frowned angrily as they began to take damage. "It appears that they no longer want to take the ship in one piece, or maybe this Kyron fellow simply no longer cares. Keep us moving out of the gravity well, but fire at any battleship you can hit along our route. Lt. Laird, keep looking for the rest of the ships that you spotted folding out."

That said he began to direct Lt. Porter in controlling the course of the ship and choosing priority targets. Unlike operation Blitzkrieg, his priorities were the Thurvel-Salan battleships among the enemy, the ones they used as their main battleship class rather than their carriers, the Quiltra Queleual. In so doing he hoped to take them out before they could do enough damage to the space fortress with their capital ship lasers to slow it down.

Lisa took command of the defense around the space fortress, barking out orders to Kim and through the com to Mannstein and to Fokker. "Colonel, I want half your destroids, Tomahawks for preference, to split into firing teams and take positions around the tertiary weapons. Keep the rest in their mounts." The destroid mounts had been one of captain Gloval's ideas, and they were simply indents in the outer hull of the space fortress, much like a foxhole for an infantryman. They had helped keep their losses down against every Reguld assault they had faced, though they had quickly turned into death traps against the more maneuverable and more heavily armed Gargoyles.

"Lt. Young, get every barrier we have out on the hull." Seeing the younger girl about to protest she elaborated quickly. "If we can't get past this battle we won't need a reserve for the next one, and if we do we'll have some time in fold space to rebuild." The space fortress was so large and so heavy that it needed multiple fold generators to give it any kind of speed in fold space, though it could enter fold with only one. Thus the trip from Jupiter to earth would take a day and a half, while the messed up trip from Earth out to near Pluto had taken only ten minutes or so.

Kim nodded and issued the orders, and over forty fresh barrier shields rolled out of their specially made apertures. "Put one each on every secondary and tertiary weapons then assign half to rove around just the engines, the rest to spread out across the rest of the ship. Priorities are to protect the main gun, and if we start losing barriers around the engines to replace them."

Kim paused. "Ma'am what about the command spire and the main section of the space fortress?"

"Secondary priorities, assign one barrier to each but the others are to ignore us." Lisa barked grimly. "We can't slow down, we can't lose the main cannon if the rest of those ships have folded out somewhere ahead of us, anything else is expendable."

Gloval nodded behind her. "Concur commander." Kim gulped but issued the orders to the barrier operators.

Lisa went on barking orders to Fokker now. "Commander, I want you to ignore the Reguld flights already in our defensive envelope, arm all your fighters as much as possible, and start destroying the groups of Regulds farther out. I'll direct you to each in turn, don't get into dogfights with them, launch full missile load at long range return reload and repeat. Remember we will be continuing forward, we don't want anyone left behind."

Fokker nodded grimly. "Be aware that Skull is the only effective Elite squad left, all the others are down to half strength or worse and I've already stood them down."

Lisa nodded back. "Understood CAG, do it!" Fokker nodded and cut the connection.

The Defenders and tertiary weapon systems began to blast away at the surrounding Regulds, destroying hundreds a minute. The killing became even worse as the Regulds landed on the massive battleship's hull, only to come under fire from the Tomahawks spread around the tertiary and secondary weapon emplacements.

The Veritechs flooded out of various hangars then formed up, taking fire from the groups of Regulds already in range of the space fortress, but they ignored them, losing a few Veritechs to their fire but forming into a massive wedge that launched out at the largest approaching concentration of battlepods. With their superior missile and lock on range they annihilated over two thousand battlepods before pulling back to the space fortress to rearm, go out and do it again. Unfortunately that was but a tithe of the forces surrounding the space fortress, and the Defenders, spread out around the hull and with only a few roaming barrier shields to go to their aid, began to take casualties. Thankfully the weapons of the space fortress and its engines hadn't taken any damage, and they had been able to destroy fifteen more ships in the time it took the Valkyries to go through their missiles loads.

Vanessa suddenly gasped. "Captain I've got a heading on about two-hundred twenty ships directly in front of us, they're really bunched up at the moment but out of range of our secondary weapons."

Gloval growled, quickly calculating the time it would take their pursuers to try and catch up to the danger so many enemy ships directly in front of them posed, and the rearming time it would take them to clear Jupiter's gravity well. Then he nodded decisively. "Initiate siege transformation! Get me an angle so we can take these bastards out!"

If sound could propagate in space Gloval would have been able to hear Kyron's howl of rage ten minutes later, as the siege cannon fired, then traversed slowly, destroying all two hundred and twenty ships before any of them could join the battle around the beleaguered Macross.

The rest of Kyron's forces, now greatly diminished tried the best to catch up, but the space fortress forged on, smashing the enemies it could and simply taking the shots from the rest. Mannstein took up position on the hull with Apocalypse and with its weapons it was able to kill the battleships the weapons of the Macross couldn't range on, decreasing the number of enemies they were facing slowly but surely. This went on for ten hours, until the ship left the gravity well of the massive gas giant behind.

This was the most dangerous moment for the ship, as the destroids and Veritechs had to be brought back into the fortress. Thankfully because of Mannstein destroying their mother ship and Fokker continuing to whittle the Reguld groups down at range, it was accomplished without further loss of life. As the last hanger door closed Gloval nodded wearily. "Initiate fold space jump!"

Sammy nodded, and the ship, having been gathering energy and preparing for the last twenty minutes, folded out, leaving the tattered remnants of the 11th skirmish fleet behind them.

No one on the bridge looked up from their screens as Kyron stared at the tactical display, where the designator for Zor's battleship had just disappeared. Kyron's face was twisted with rage, and it was clear an explosion was imminent when the communications display lit up. "You are very lucky Kyron."

Kyron turned to face Miriya, who had forced herself up to the bridge despite her wounds, the sight of which made Kyron sneer. "It seems you were the one who needed luck the most. Did the Micronian Ace smack you around, or did you walk into your hatch?" It should be obvious but Kyron still had a lot to learn about the art of insulting people.

Miriya merely laughed at his weak attempt to rile her up. "Oh please, at least I gave as good as I got, and I know how to train myself to do better next time. As for you, if your attack had succeeded Dolza would have ordered the death of you and your entire clan-fleet. Are you a fool to forget his orders? We're supposed to take Zor's fortress in one piece you idiot!"

Kyron scowled, hiding his flinch expertly. "Dolza would not have cared about how we had captured it as long as we did so in the first place! This need to fight the Micronians with only our Regulds is ridiculous!"

Miriya glared, her eyes colder than space, her face a mask of contempt. "Have a care Kyron. You are treading a fine line here. Those orders come from Dolza himself, and if you disobey them again, I will gleefully lead my Queadluun Rau to destroy your entire fleet, then I will gladly drag you before our supreme leader so he can pass judgment on you personally. Do you understand?"

Kyron scowled, but nodded and cut the connection.

Miriya leaned back tiredly. "Send a copy of that transmission as well as our readings from everything that has occurred since we took up orbit around the gas giant to Azonia. Keep an eye on him and his remaining forces, captain. We can ill afford to let that madman drag us down with him." The captain nodded grimly as Miriya went on. "If they try to fold out, rejoin the main fleet." Again the captain nodded, and Miriya wearily got to her feet walking off the bridge heading to her quarters, not once letting the pain she was in show on her face.

Ranma woke up about a day after he was injured to find Kasumi and Lisa sitting by his bed with his mother talking quietly. He blinked and forced himself up, moving his head from side to side. "How long was I out?"

The three women looked up and smiled as they saw him awake. "About a day, maybe a little less. How are you feeling my son?" Nodoka asked.

Ranma twitched a little, taking stock of his body. "All healed, got to love ki healing, though I'm really freaking hungry."

Kasumi smiled and brought out a bag, earning an enthusiastic kiss of gratitude from Ranma which she eagerly returned despite Nodoka's presence while Lisa shook her head, still not used to the things ki could do for those who could use it. "I really need to get some time off so you can teach me more about this ki stuff love."

Ranma pulled away from Kasumi to grin at the other girl. "Yeah right, you know you love your job too much to take that much time off. Heck, you use most of your free time thinking up plans. Heh, pretty soon I'll have to call ya admiral Lisa-chan instead of commander."

Lisa blushed at the praise. Most men would be leery or threatened by a woman who was ambitious and higher ranked than they were, but not Ranma, he was merely happy for her. "You're skipping quite a few steps there Ranma, but thanks for the sentiment."

Ranma pulled the food from the bag and put it on the table next to the bed. "Heh, you'll make it eventually. What's been happening while I've been out of action."

Lisa filled him in on the pitched battle he had missed, eliciting a groan from Ranma for missing the action then told him they were in fold space right now. "But because we only have one of the fold space engines, the trip back to earth will take a day and a half, so you have about six hours or so yet before we break back out into real-space. I'm afraid we'll probably need you and everyone else to be at the top of their game when we do. It's just a feeling but…"

Ranma nodded soberly. "I getcha commander. I'll be ready." Lisa nodded and Ranma and the three ladies talked for an hour before Kasumi and Lisa left with Nodoka to spend a few hours together walking around the city.

Nodoka had been so busy lately she hadn't had time to be with her family for nearly two months now. As chief of the hydroponics section she had been busy designing and helping to build new areas to house animals like cows chickens, fruit bearing trees and a fish farm. This was all in hopes of them getting new food stuff when the returned to earth. If they got as much as they had prepared places for, Macross would be completely self-sufficient set food wise. This would be her first free day, and she wanted to grill Lisa about her progress with Ranma. Not that Lisa realized that just yet, she thought that the woman who had become her mother figure just wanted to hang out with her and Kasumi.

About ten minutes after the girls left, Dr. Lang showed up. Ranma waved at him but kept eating and Dr Lang looked at him severely. "I warned you that using the Valkyries helmet without the feedback blocker that you would regret it. Have you seen this medical sheet about the injuries you sustained? You shouldn't even be sitting up, you have five broken ribs for god's sake!"

Ranma shook his head. "Doc, I'm fine, seriously. A day's worth of sleep and letting my ki heal me and I'm good to go. And I would've never held up against that Gargoyle ace without it." He got out of bed, moving easily despite the injuries he had taken so short a time ago.

Dr. Lang watched him for a minute then sighed. He should have known he couldn't convince Ranma to stop using the helmet interface without the feedback blocker. "Ranma, you have done far more for this ship and our fighting ability with your brain, your knowledge of energy use and your suggestions, than you have fighting for us. Please be more careful all right I think you still have a lot to teach us about energy and controlling it that we need to learn."

"Can't promise that doc, still remind me ta get in touch with some of my friends when we get back to Earth. I bet granny and maybe Mousse could help you a lot with that." Dr Lang nodded, shook hands with the martial artist and bid him farewell.

Ranma had barely finished dressing when Roy Fokker came in. "Hey Ranma, I want to talk to you for a sec." Ranma paused and looked at the CAG, wondering what he wanted.

Azonia and her forces had had an easy time of it, militarily speaking. The five missile based capital ships the Micronians had in orbit died along with their orbital docks easily, taking only two of her own ships with them. After that the remaining human forces, mostly starfighters with two small carriers, far smaller than the missile ships, had refused to engage them. Instead they had dived down into the planet's atmosphere, keeping the planet between them and her forces until they could hide somewhere on the surface. This of course wouldn't have mattered if she it was here to destroy the planet or attack it, as she would have spread her forces out, encompassing it entirely before ordering a saturation bombardment. Instead, she was merely here to invade the planetary data net.

While some of her captains amused themselves by smashing every single piece of infrastructure the humans had in space the rest of her captains and her special units engaged in a massive electronic warfare effort. In point of fact, they needn't have bothered, it was almost ridiculously easy to invade the data net. Their problems however, began after they accessed it.

There was so much data! So many confusing images of weird, strange things that they didn't have any word for. What was the point of so many odd exercises between different groups wearing different uniforms? Some kind of competition obviously, but then where were the weapons, what was the pointing of throwing around some strange thing, or kicking another thing? What did the odd created images mean, especially the ones with the odd long eared creature that was seemingly immortal?

Where was the organization, the military structure, why did it seem as if every human and his dog (and where did that phrase come from, it had spread throughout the fleet but no one knew where it came from), had access to the data net, and what was with all those weird pictures with odd naked humans doing odd things?! She had swiftly ordered that those images be blocked out entirely, and the four hundred computer operators that had seen the images reassigned, as many had tried to save some of it to their own personal computers.

Some of the rest of it was understandable, the different modes of dress for example. Among the Meltraedi style and type of cut of the uniform was a point of distinction and individuality, but the sheer amount of difference styles of uniform shown among these Micronians was mind-boggling. How could you tell who was higher ranked if everyone dressed so chaotically? And why did there seem to be to groups of leaders in the first place? The idea of nation she put down a simply different clans, and her analysts agreed. Still, for all their effort, they didn't have much to show for nearly two months of work.

Azonia was leaning back in her admiral's chair, reading from her screen an ancient Micronian treatise on war by someone with the excellent name of Sun Tzu. Ancient it might be, but she was finding interesting parallels between war as this Sun Tzu had practiced it and how she thought it should go, even if she had to stop every few minutes to look up the meaning of some words and phrases. How he spoke of using fire, speed and the chaos of war against your enemy was brilliant, and she wished Sonya was here to share it with.

Sonya wasn't just the head of her intelligence department, Sonya was her oldest and most trusted friend and confidant. The two of them had come from the same crèche, and were the only ones from it still alive. She hadn't realized how much she would miss her friends company until she was gone.

Her reading was interrupted by her sensor specialist voice breaking the efficient hum of the well run bridge. "Lady Admiral, we have a reading of an incoming fold space phenomenon. Size and wavelength match that of Zor's battleship."

With the speed of long combat experience Azonia went from calm peaceful contemplation to alert status and began to bark out orders. "All ship's take evasive action and spread out, no ship to be within 2000 ghorna of any other ship! Launch fighters from the 15th, 34th and 22nd, as soon as the space fortress enters effective engagement range. All ships of the line frigates and battleships retreat once you have flushed fighters. Fighters orders are not to engage the ship directly but peel away their own starfighter force."

She turned to her communication specialist. "Our spies have had enough time in there, get me our best Queadluun Rau operator on the line, she'll need to go and get them for us. Send the signal, tell them we're coming."

The woman acknowledged and then turned back to her screen. A second later, a small undetectable signal shot out from the Night Dagger and eventually impacted the Macross. It was undetectable, except for a small box that no one had noticed stuck to its outer hull. The spies were supposed to check back with their infiltration unit every three hours after a set amount of time, a time that had passed a while ago, but as Azonia hadn't heard from Miriya about getting them back, she knew they would still be there.

Azonia stood and watched as her fleet spread open like a blossoming rafentei, a plant with a colorful top that shot poisonous needles at anything that approached it, though this one had its thorns shooting inside towards the fortress. The flights would be in weapons range in a little under a local hour.

The moment the space fortress came out of fold it knew it wasn't alone and that the neighbors were unfriendly. Worse they were so close that they would barely have time to scramble their destroids and Valkyries, let alone make a plan. Luckily Lisa had already gone over the information gleaned from fighting the Gargoyles. As such, she had ordered the Fast Packs loaded once again on every Valkyrie, and as many missile pods created as possible by the ships factories. This had allowed them to make a minimum of two missile pods containing 240 missiles for every Defender, Tomahawk and Veritech the had.

Morale among the pilots and operators however was dangerously low despite being so close to getting home. Every one of them knew that the elite squadrons had been mauled. Vermillion wasn't flying today, both of the survivors had been stood down by Fokker's orders while Green had been momentarily disbanded, its pilots moved into Skull. Wildfire was flying at a little under half strength. None of the other pilots thought they would do better against the Gargoyles than the elites, and the thought worried, even scared some of them, regardless of the need to win to get back to Earth.

That was what Roy had wanted to talk to Ranma about, and the result of that conversation was that Ranma entered the hanger bay where most of the Veritechs were housed in his female form. This caused the worried mutterings of the pilots to die out and very man and woman there turned and stared at the short redhead.

Motoko took one look and immediately leaned back banging her head against her repaired Valkyries wing. Why the hell is she a man? Oh my god she is so hot! Rachel, standing with the others near her saw Motoko's look of desire as she looked at the approaching redhead and recoiled a little, moving to put Ben and Max between them.

Ranma didn't wear the standard pilot suit, she wore a specially designed one that Roy and Eric Prescott had commissioned months before the latter's death just for her, jokingly as a prototype uniform for the female Veritech pilots. It was skin tight along the legs, covered by a barely there skirt and had an pressure resisting suits over an equally skintight top. Worse was the fact that the pressure resistant jacket accented and pushed up her already pert breasts through use of its packs placed underneath them. Then there was the color, bright red to match her hair, with the Wildfire blue in the jacket and the skirt. More Ranma had even gone with the look, letting her hair out of her normal braid to cascade down to her shoulders. All in all she looked like walking wet dream, and more than one man looked at her in shock. Most of the green pilots hadn't made the connection between the rumors flying around Ranma to the reality, and Max wasn't the only one who felt a rush of desire created adrenaline.

Motoko kept banging her head back against her Veritech's wing as Ranma made his way through the crowd of pilots, which parted like the red sea before Moses. It wasn't just the fact that this was Ranma, famous singer and all around dream girl, but the way she moved. Ranma always flowed more than walked, one step moving seamlessly to another, every muscle controlled and working together seamlessly. It was the stalk of wildcat, a lion or other large cat (though Ranma wouldn't call it that) and it was even more obvious when he was in his female form. As she/he reached their position, Motoko shook her head. "You know I hate you so much right now? Why the hell weren't you born a girl? And why the hell are you dressed like that?"

Ranma smirked at her. "Sorry to burst your fantasies there Motoko-imo. And I'm dressed like this because Roy asked me to do this, something that he owes me a great deal for. Now I got a job to do so if you'll excuse me…" With that Ranma reached up with one hand and flipped herself up onto the top of his Valkyrie's fuselage.

She looked around at the faces of the pilots, and beyond their shock at seeing her here and dressed as she was, there was a lot of fear. Roy had been right about that, but above and beyond showing them something they could fight for Ranma decided to once again put some steel up their spines. Roy suggested songs to remind them of home, or some sexy songs, heh, as if I'd sing shit like that, but that ain't the way to do this anyway. She looked around scowling at them all. "Y'know, Roy asked me ta remind you all of what you're fighting for, but I can tell you all don't need that. You can see what we're fighting for, that little marble of blue in the distance, to get home, get back to Earth, to feel the sky and the wind on our faces."

Around her all the pilots faces had shifted from stunned surprise and gawking arousal to introspection, hope and more than a little fear. Ranma saw that fear and addressed it Quickly. "Ya've also seen that the enemy ships around us have launched their fighters, and instead of the old Regulds, it's more Gargoyles, a lot of them. And ya know how badly those things have mauled us every time we fight 'em. Now, I ain't gonna tell ya they're easier ta fight than ya think, but I will say they can be fought, and we got the missiles ta do it."

She swept her arms out to encompass them all. "I know one thing though about us that you don't know: we are the spear of humanity. Where we go, how well we fight, makes a difference not just for everyone on board the Macross, but everyone back home whether they know it or not. I've met the alien's leader, and let me tell ya he is an all or nothing bastard. Eventually he will move against Earth, and he won't be coming to conquer but to kill us all." There were some mutters at that point, some surprise and a lot of worry but Ranma ignored it and went on, now pacing on her Veritech's wings. "But we have a chance right here and now to figure out how best to fight these bastards, you've seen the improvements in our weapons and durability already. The more we learn now, the better for everyone on Earth and in the future. More, we need to make a stand!" She stopped pacing slamming her foot down, making a loud gong that echoed everywhere in the hanger. "Right here and now we stand and fight, not just for us, not just for the guy next to you, but for everyone aboard the space fortress and all of humanity. We need to show these Zentraedi that we will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish, we will survive and fight back!"

All around her she saw faces stiffen with resolve, some of the pilots even began to cheer. "We're going to go out there, and show these bastards that humanity can match them kick for kick, blow for blow. We are warriors and they are in for the fight of their lives!"

She reached down with a toe and licked on her radio, and a refrain began. With a deep breath she launched into song, let what ki she had regained fill her eyes with blue/ gold fire. "I am now an instrument of violence, I am a vessel of invincibility! I cannot leave this undecided, stepping down to battle another day! Remember me for all time, this determination is a vital part of me. Surrender now or be counted with the endless masses that I will defeat. Come on bring it, don't sing it better believe it! Broken down till your hope has died, beat down till victory's mine! Stand up and show me some pride! And now, are you ready?"

She moved over to stand poised on the edge of her wing then jumped to the wing of Motoko's plane, still signing. "I'm one with the warrior inside my dominance can't be denied, your entire world will turn into a battlefield tonight! As I look upon you, through the warrior's eyes now, I can see the fear that will ensure my victory this time."

She landed, still stalking around staring at the other pilots who had begun to cheer and bang their heads along with the song. "I can't be told to compromise this! They'll never doubt the body lying at my feet, a most formidable reminder. They will speak my name for eternity! I have no need of any guidance I am a weapon, powerful beyond belief! Seen through the warrior's eyes, I never need to question how to defeat you! Come on, bring it, don't sing it better believe it. Broken down till your hope has died, beat down till victory's mine! Stand up and show me some pride, and now, are you ready?"

She leaped back to her own, jet, her eyes and posture challenging everyone there to stand with her and fight. "You can't hide now I am the warrior so decide now how they'll remember you. Do not hide now act like a warrior, show your pride now solidify your place in time! I'm the one with the warrior inside, the evidence can't be denied, the entire world will stare into this battlefield tonight! As I stand before you with a warrior's heart now, I can feel the strength that will ensure my victory this time!"

After she finished singing, Roy, who had been sitting silently in his cockpit, nodded happily at the cheering and shouting going on. Morale is to physical as ten is to one, and it looked like his pilots were ready for the fight now. He sounded a whistle through his Veritech's speakers and stood up looking around at the pilots. "Alright boys and girls, time to go, get in your Valkyries and let's go out there and kick some ass!" This caused another cheer and the pilots scattered to their assigned machines.

Ranma raised her hand and a gather here motion, and his/her squad gathered round her. She ignored the questioning look in Max's eyes, nearly overshadowed by his obvious interest in her. "Alright here's the game plan, we're going to make ourselves a two tiered defense ok? Motoko and I will be team one, get in close and hammer them point blank range but we'll keep in your range Ben." Ben nodded, and Ranma gathered herself then turned to Max. "Max, you're in charge of the second tier, you Ben and Rachel. Keep your distance, hammer them at long range. Once they come into rifle range, Motoko and I will switch our assigned missile pods over to the three of you. Keep hammering them, but fall back if they get too close or you start running low on ammunition, even if you have to do it fast and leave us behind." Max nodded grimly, realizing this wasn't the time for flirting. Rachel and Ben both answered in the affirmative, despite Rachel having a dozen questions about this odd redhead who had assumed command. Max she could tell was wondering about her authority as well, but Motoko seemed to know her and so did Ben, and they both were following her lead so…

Ranma nodded. "Alright, let's go, and remember don't die okay?" Motoko snorted and the others all ran off to their planes. Motoko stood there for a moment then pulled the shorter redhead into a hug, making a point to grope her ass. As Ranma yelped and squirmed to get loose, Motoko moved back smirking at him/her. "For luck huh? Might as well go out on a high note if I do."

Ranma pouted at her then became more serious, gripping the other girl's shoulders. "Don't die okay, I don't have near enough friends I want another ta die on me. that's an order." Motoko nodded and they both moved to their own Valkyries.

The space fortress came on, not even bothering to dodge the incoming fighters, merely aiming straight for the third planet, daring her fleet to do its worst. "I wonder why they are so eager to get back, it's not as if the rest of their race has much to offer them in the way of aid." Azonia snickered as she talked to herself, "Especially now that we've smashed the planets orbital infrastructure. Only whatever forces they have on the planet itself, which is nowhere near enough to matter to their survival against my fleet if we were ordered to destroy them all."

The communications officer spoke up. "Lady Admiral, we have a communication via FTL transmission from commander Miriya, it appears to be a battle report."

"Send it to me." Azonia ordered crisply, then once it was on her screen she spent a few moments reading. It was indeed a report about the aliens, their jet fighters new, heavier weapons loads, and odd small missile pods, and how they had hindered the Queadluun Rau's pursuit of the fortress, forcing them to slow down to engage the missile waves rather than continue to pursue the space fortress. Azonia nodded proudly at the tactics Miriya showed to combat them. Let the Zentraedi simply throw numbers at a problem until they overwhelmed it, such was not the way of the Meltraedi.

Azonia frowned for a moment then thought of a way to match this new tactic, and gave the orders just in case they tried the same tactics again. If they didn't but used those missile pods in some other way then her Queadluun Rau were going to be battered but she had done what she could to limit that battering. She then turned back to main screen, watching the unfolding battle avidly.

Lisa and captain Gloval looked over the tactical screen worriedly. The fleet arrayed near Earth, which was still spreading out so as to not allow the space fortress a target for its siege cannon, was many times the size of the 11th skirmish fleet. Not quite as numerous as they assumed the original fleet they had faced under the alien called Breetai, but still nearly thirty thousand ships of various classes. If they wanted to they could have simply thrown all of their fighters at them at once and overwhelmed the space fortress, easily but it appeared as if this fleet was under the command of someone who remembered the space fortress was supposed to be taken in one piece. In such a massive cluster-fuck that such an assault would be under even the best and tightest unit cohesion and control, that would have been impossible.

However what was coming at them was almost as bad, for approaching from three different directions were three groups of starfighters, with over 400 Gargoyles in each. Any one of those groups would hammer the Veritech and destroid teams, but combined… Lisa frowned wondering about ways to cut those numbers down, but couldn't find any. They were coming in clustered up, but at angles where it would be impossible to engage them with the space fortress's secondary weapons without turning the ship, and that would be something they would easily see an respond to.

She turned to her com to address colonel Mannstein. "I'll want your destroids to take the same positions as last time we'll be assigning more barrier shields to help you though." What she didn't say but what Mannstein knew was that the number of working barrier systems they had was barely at a fifth of their strength before the last battle. Surviving nearly a capital ship assault had hammered the numbers of barrier shields they could call on badly and they hadn't been able to make up the numbers yet. "I'll also be keeping the Valkyries under the tertiary and Defender envelope. Hopefully the missile pods will offset the Gargoyles' numerical and technical superiority. Good luck colonel.

Mannstein nodded grimly. "Good luck commander, captain."

As Lisa organized the defense of the ship, Gloval turned to Claudia. "Have we heard anything from the SDF high command?" he asked worriedly. He had already noticed that the lunar orbital base had been destroyed and while they were still a little too far away from the planet to see it through the viewport, they were on the outer edge of their radar, and well within their communications range.

Claudia looked a little worried as she answered. "No sir, we should be on their radar, but we haven't received anything. The communication satellites may have been destroyed though."

As could everything else, damn I never thought the aliens would have put a cordon around Earth as well, not with how concentrated they've been on taking Macross. I wonder what they've been up to here. He looked on as this portion of the orbit of Earth came into view and he shook his head. Other than utterly destroying our orbital infrastructure anyway. Damn it, I thought I understood their goals then this happens. As more and more of Earth came into visual range his glare turned from worried to surprised happiness and then confusion as more and more of the planet showed no sign of attack or assault. What in the world were they doing here then?

"Captain, I'm still not getting anything but the most intermittent signals." Claudia said worriedly, her eyes flitting from the view of their home world to her console and back.

Vanessa looked up from her console. "I can't detect anything on this side of the hemisphere. The Agrus and Archer shipyards are just gone, as is Olympia space station. I'm detecting enough wreckage for at least three more Hercules class missile ships than the ones that had been destroyed before we folded. I'm also detecting enough wreckage to account for most of the military and civilian satellites on this side of the planet. There may be something on the other side but I can't tell."

`Gloval nodded. "Inform me as soon as we are in contact with high command. For now Lt. Porter, aim for landing in the Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and Japan." Sammy acknowledged the order, and Gloval went back to watching the incoming Gargoyles worriedly.

Azonia had chosen the power suit units led by the most experienced and skilled Queadluun Rau operators. None of them could hold a candle to Miriya, despite one of them seeing herself as a rival to the green haired ace. The 34th flight was led Karina, Chlore led the 22nd and Athena led the 15th. A flight consisted of eight hundred Queadluun Rau, though common tactical doctrine would never allow more than half a flight sent into a battle outside the most dire of circumstances. For this fight each had sent half their numbers, which would be enough to wipe out the Micronian forces and maybe win through to Zor's battleship, though that was only if they didn't take too many casualties wiping out the Micronian space fighters.

As they closed on the space fortress Athena, the most senior of the three, analyzed the makeup of the Micronian defense, a close in defense rather than a multilayered one that would force the Queadluun Rau to run the gauntlet of the space fortress's tertiary fire before hitting their space fighters. In other words the best the Micronians could put up against their attacks. She turned on her radio, giving orders to the other leaders and their flights. "Karina, break off and collect the spies as soon as were close enough for you to split off and we occupy their defense. We'll keep their attention on the starboard and topside to give you a clean run."

Karina was the best of them when it came to user her power suits hands, so she was a natural choice to pick up the small spy pod. "Affirmative."

"Keep our flights separate, my 15th will skim the top of the space fortress, the 22nd hit the starboard side, and the 34th will stay back to reinforce either if we run into any trouble. Oh, and look out for that enemy ace that we've been hearing rumors about, if he can really survive a fight with Lady Miriya, we don't want anything to do with it."

Her simple orders were answered with twin affirmatives from the others, one professional the other grumpy at the idea of not trying to one up Miriya, and they zoomed in on their target inexorably, breaking up into their different flights and aiming for their targets. About ten minutes later though the Micronian Ace did what he did best, and added a little chaos to their well laid plans.

Ranma glanced down at his radar screen, which showed three distinct groups of Gargoyles coming from straight astern, starboard astern and down from above them astern. His computer couldn't separate the marks into individual units yet, but the Macross could when he asked for a force update, and he cursed aloud in his cockpit when the numbers came back. Three groups of four-hundred Gargoyles were going to slaughter them, even with the missile pods. In anything like an even match, the Gargoyles extra armor, agility and firepower would overwhelm any destroid or Valkyrie. Thanks to the missile pods continued hammering, the elite squadrons had only had to face fifty or so at a time as the others fell behind to deal with them missile swarms. Even then the four elite squadrons had been mauled, and the other squads weren't nearly as experienced. The Gargoyles are going to have us for lunch unless…

Ranma paused in his thinking then checked his ki reservoir. It was at barely a third of his max, but hopefully it would be enough to do what he was thinking. "Command, do we have any heavy weapons that can range on one of the approaching fighter groups?"

It was colonel Mannstein who answered. He had positioned Apocalypse at the defensive position farthest back on the top of the massive engine of the space fortress, looking back at the group there. "Affirmative wild 1, I can hit them at this range but they would have time to see my grazer shots coming and scatter."

"Which is the easiest for you to hit ground lead?" Even in space that was the way Mannstein was addressed.

"The one coming down from behind and above." Mannstein answered, his voice even more gravelly than usual as he realized what the young reprobate had in mind.

Lisa's voice cut in, voice professional but still with a sliver of worry Ranma could detect easily enough. "Wild 1, what are you planning?"

"To give them something else to think about rather than attacking." Ranma said grimly.

Lisa paused for a moment, then realized what Ranma might be up to. If it was anyone else, she would have forbidden it, as their odds of surviving and lasting long enough to succeed would be slim to none, but since it was Ranma she swallowed her very personal worry and merely said, "Good luck Wild 1, and come back safe."

Ranma nodded. Wildfire force was near the 'top' of the defensive sphere around the ship so they were in a decent position for this anyway. "Lt Aoyama, you have command here, I'm going to do something to even up the odds a little."

Motoko however spoke up angrily. "No way am I going to let you do this alone onii-chan."

The rest of the squad, even Rachel joined in as well and Ranma growled. "Fine, you lot can come with me, but wait until I break their lines first, that's an order. Pin the lot of them in place, confuse the hell out of their communications and command, then get the hell out of the way when Apocalypse opens up, wakarimas?"

Everyone answered in the affirmative and Ranma flipped his communications to full, pumping a song out into the airwaves as he concentrated, feeding power into his thrusters and his armor. His whole Valkyrie lit up in blue/gold fire, a beacon in space, then he shot forward.

"What in the name of Dolza is tha…" Athena had only a moment to gape in wonder at the strange sight before the strangely glowing enemy mech slammed into Chlore's command like a rail gun slamming into a wall of ice, shattering it and pulling the whole formation in behind it.

Accompanied by the song Donten Ranma slammed into the Gargoyles formation like the wrath of god, unloading his/her missiles as she zoomed in, faster than any of them could lock on and swooping into knife range. She transformed into his soldier mode right before actually impacting one of them, and his new knife whipped out, slamming into its chest as around her ten more exploded from his missiles. She flipped up and over that one, firing at another, unloading twenty rounds into it and blowing it out of space. Then she took a moment to turn and smack her robotic ass at the rest, which seemed to work just as well on this group as it had on the ones he/she used the same insult on way back during Operation Blitzkrieg. The song changed to Boom, an American heavy metal song, and the Gargoyles either scattered in an attempt to get away from this strange audio attack or closed in, which was what Ranma wanted. As the song went "Boom, here comes the boom, ready or not, how you like me now" she destroyed three more, her knife lancing under his arm as another tried to grapple him from behind, though this one had one of its shoulders painted gold, not that it mattered.

He changed into guardian mode, and rocketed away, pushing the now dead suit into another, then used two more missiles to blow that one up. She kept moving dodging fire and killing as he went. Fighting these guys is tough, but nowhere near as tough as fighting the ace, and they can't deal with the music assault, just like the Regulds couldn't. The song changed to Warriors of the World and she continued to kill, drawing more and more Gargoyles into her dance of death.

Behind her, just as the front ranks were reforming and turning to help engage this mad Micronian, the rest of blue flight, which had worked together to pull Ben's GPB-1S, got within range. Ben, Max and Rachel stayed there while Motoko switched to soldier mode and charged forward, her battle cry of "BANZAI!" a scream of fury. She slew two Gargoyles in close, and charged a few more, hammering away with her rifle in one hand as the song sang "will die by steel!" Her sword lashed out again, chopping the arm off another Gargoyle then swung back to take its head off. She joined up with Ranma and together they became a hurricane of destruction. Motoko wasn't nearly as quick or deadly as Ranma, or as durable as she didn't quite have enough ki to use the armoring technique on her Valkyrie. What she was was one of the finest swordswomen alive, especially after her lessons with Nodoka, and she was quick, economical and controlled, using her sword to maximum effect along with her rifle and other weapons. While Ranma took the lead, she watched his back, and this was, like in the boarding actions not the soft option.

Max, Ben and Rachel were reaping a horrible toll as the majority of the Gargoyles concentrated on the whirring dervish of destruction in their midst, their longer ranged missiles and Ben's immense firepower making the difference between victory and defeat. They all took glancing hits and Rachel lost her non rifle holding arm, but they kept at it grimly.

This continued for ten to fifteen minutes, then Mannstein's voice cracked like a whip over the com systems. "Blue flight, incoming grazers in ten seconds, get the hell out of there!"

Ranma and the others saw the ravening beams of the four heavy grazers coming toward the dogfight around them and switched immediate to fighter mode, boosting down and out of the way. Ben, having anticipated this, hit the emergency release, and his normal VF-1A popped out of the GBP chassis, and he immediately joined the others in rocketing down and away from the dogfight. The sudden change between fighting and remaining in one relative position in space to suddenly running away surprised most of the Gargoyles who floundered behind them. A few managed to follow, but the rest were still in a large clump when the grazers hit that portion of space. When they passed, there were only sixty remaining Gargoyles from a force that had numbered four hundred. The remainder, disorganized and demoralized by the sudden reversal of fortune retreated swiftly as Blue flight came together, almost negligently killing the few that were still willing to fight.

Ranma checked their readiness reports and nodded grimly. While their missiles were all gone, because of the energy-enlarged magazines for their rifles they were all still reading at half or a little under in terms of rounds, with Ben still having all his rifle magazines left. Energy and fuel wise they were good to go too. Damage was a mixed bag. Motoko had lost half her wing, Max had taken a shot that took out on of his thrusters, and he was banged up from head to foot. Ben again had no damage, the armor mode having taken all of it he had, and having been left behind to die with the Gargoyles. All in all, they were still a going concern. "Blue flight reporting in, this groups done, pulling back now, where do you want us?"

While Blue flight had made its insane charge, which had only really worked because of the music attack and Ranma's odd insults, which completely scrambled the aliens ability to think, the other two groups had closed with the space fortress and its protectors. There the fight hadn't gone nearly as well. Forewarned about the music attack these two groups kept unit cohesion far better, much like the Gargoyle groups they had faced previously. The missile pods were a nasty surprise though. Every Veritech and destroid had at least two missile pods hooked into their onboard targeting systems, and the tertiary weapons had ten at a minimum each. This allowed them to throw out a massive amount of missiles, but the aliens swiftly developed a response to this.

Too close to form a solid wall and act as a full unit as they had in the fight to break out from Jupiter, each group of ten worked together to destroy any missile salvo that targeting the ten in front of them. They still took loses, far more than their leaders had thought they would but they kept coming, destroying the pods and the Valkyries and destroids who used them as they did. By the time Mannstein had taken his shot, his position had actually been under fire for several minutes. Losses were climbing as the missile pods died or ran out of ammunition, and the Gargoyles closed, some landing on the topside and sides of the fortress. Lisa had already been forced to reroute Defenders from the keel section of the ship to the top, and two of their precious barrier systems had been overcome by pointblank coordinated fire.

"Wild 1, I want you back on top of the ship soon as possible, we're taking a pounding there. Her voice showed what little relief she could let herself feel at Ranma's survival in a pitched battle, but otherwise it was her normal clipped professional tone. "Sending you a flight plan, I want you to take the bastards on top from behind if you can. Then when you rejoin the defense, relieve Silver and Bronze both of them are reporting heavy losses and low ammo."

Lisa wasn't the only one who knew they were taking a pounding. Roy knew it too, and he and the rest of Skull were taking insanely reckless chances to try and relieve the less experienced squads, but it just wasn't enough. Roy killed one Gargoyle with a well place shot at near point blank range that blew up the engines along its back, then turned and swiftly transformed into guardian mode, ducking underneath two cannon shots that would have killed him if he had stayed still. The other Gargoyle, marked by a golden shoulder guard, flew forward, killing an Orange squad member as it closed with Roy. Roy growled and zoomed in to engage rifle and lasers blazing, stitching up on of its arms before it dodge to the side returning fire.

Athena grimaced as she lost some of the movement actuators in her arm. "It would appear as if the Micronians have more than one ace to be respected." If she was honest with herself, the word that most described her emotion for the first enemy ace was closer to awe and fear than respect. Before its fellows had joined it, it had killed over fifty Queadluun Rau, including Chlore. The self-proclaimed rival of Miriya hadn't faired very well against the ace Miriya was so interested in, and Athena wondered absently what had happened to the green haired ace. It and its squad-mates had pulled her entire reserve force into a tight enough area of space that the massive weapons of the one huge enemy mech had been able to devastate it, and they had all survived! It was surprising, and Athena felt respect for these Micronians growing within her as this fight continued.

Now she closed in on this one, who bore a strange symbol resembling a skull on its chest, dodging laser fire from its head and returning in kind from her pulse lasers. They both scored a few glancing hits, but the Micronian made good use of all three of its fighters forms, dodging her main cannon fire and she frowned as return fire took out one of her feet and two ventral thrusters. Thinking quickly, she routed more energy to her main thrusters and shot down, dodging the rest of its fire. Before the skull bearing Micronian could reorient itself, two cannon blasts caught it directly on the chest. To her surprise it didn't explode, but she could see cracks and dents galore.

The tide of the battle separated her from her prey then, and she cursed, "Another time Micronian." Her computer beeped at her and she sighed in relief. "Karina, it would appear as if we have all their attention on us up here, break off and collect the spies." Karina acknowledged her orders just as a golden beam of power brought her attention to the back of her formation, the section she had ordered to stay back and act as a new reserve. She looked over and saw five battered Micronian mechs smashing into her formation from behind and she shook her head resignedly. "It would appear as if the Micronian ace is here."

Roy grunted as he held his ribs, trying to staunch the bleeding. It wasn't a gut shot, but whatever it was, he was bleeding badly. Yet he couldn't in good conscience pull himself form this fight, his men needed him here as a visible mark to rally around.

His thoughts were interrupted as suddenly a beam of gold fire slashed across a little portion of the dogfight, and five new friendly blips slide through the gap thus created to take up position with Skull. "Skull 1, Wild 1 here, how's it going old man?"

Roy actually chuckled despite his pain at Ranma's irreverent attitude. "Oh just peachy here Wild 1, glad you could join the party."

Ranma frowned at the tone of Roy's voice. "You ok there Skull 1?" Without waiting for a reply he reached out with his senses and felt Roy's life force flicking worriedly. "No, you ain't alright. Pull back Skull 1, you're no good out here injured."

Roy's grimace was plain in his voice as he replied. "No can do, with Vermillion unable to fly I'm the only one who can act as CAG." The leader of Green, who like the rest of his squad had been folded into Skull, had died earlier in this battle, leaving Roy one of only two pilots from the original group the Macross had started with when they left Earth. He was the only one out flying right now who had the seniority

Ranma shook his head, almost absentmindedly killing a Gargoyle as it headed toward Roy. "Roy, yer not gonna do any good out here if ya die, and I don't want ta face Claudia if ya do. Pull back or so help me I'll drag your ass to the nearest hanger and toss you in myself."

In his cockpit Roy twitched at the bald threat, but he knew Ranma was crazy enough to do just that. "Roger Wild 1. Command actual this is CAG Skull 1, pulling back and turning command over to Wild 1."

Before Gloval or Lisa could respond to this surprise announcement, Ranma broke in. "Advise that medical personnel be on hand in nearest hanger to present position, Skull 1 has been injured, unsure how badly but it seems pretty severe."

Roy growled but Claudia cut in, probably allowed to by both Lisa and Gloval to address this. "Roger that and thanks you blue 1, medical personnel will be waiting for skull 1 in hanger five. Expedite your movements Skull 1." The words were bland, but the tone was sharp with worry. Roy responded in a henpecked tone of voice, and Ranma turned back to the battle.

The dogfight continued for another hour and was costly for both sides, but suddenly, just as the last barrier shield died and more than half of the remaining Valkyries were reporting empty magazines, the Gargoyles began to fall back in an ordered retreat. None of the pilots, operators or officers questioned this odd retreat, and Lisa grabbed the chance to start rotating them all back in to rearm. Ranma ordered his flight back in with the second wave, but stayed out until everyone else returned. But it looked as if the aliens were worried about how much damage the hull had taken which was considerable, and they were done attacking for the day.

Lisa turned from her console, looking over at the captain. "Sir, a suggestion." Gloval cocked his head, tired and weary and saddened beyond belief at the amount of deaths they had taken in this fight, but the fierce eyes of the younger woman seemed to compel him and he nodded for her to continue. "It's obvious, now more than ever, that the aliens are fighting us with kid gloves but we still need to show that we are not scared of them, that we can fight and that they may kill us but cannot break our spirits."

Gloval sat up, emboldened a little by the commanders tone, the pride in their troops that overrode her sadness at their losses. "And you have a suggestion how to achieve this?" Lisa nodded and after explaining it Gloval nodded. The ship, having just entered earth orbit, slowed for a few minutes to deliver its message.

Ranma leaned back in his flight chair sighing with relief, more drained than he had been save after fighting the Gargoyle ace, but not anywhere near as injured. Bruises and black and blue marks were it. His flight had been battered, but he dreaded to see how the destroid companies and other Valkyrie squadrons had been mauled. As Lisa began to recall the survivors in by the numbers he looked ahead of the ship and saw Earth looming under him, and he grinned exhaustedly. "We made it…." A moment later, a song began to blare out on every communication channel from the space fortress and Ranma grinned, making a mental note to kiss the hell out of Lisa as soon as he could. The song was Die with Honor, and its lyrics encompassed the warrior ethos in his mind.

Aboard her flagship Azonia was grimly satisfied by how the fight had gone. The tactics the Micronians had come up with were simple but extremely effective. That audio attack had proven deadly, as had that one ace's mad charge, holding up a full third of her assigned assault group to be decimated by long range fire before her females could come up with a counter. Still it was obvious to her, and all those under her command that the battle would eventually have been won, if she didn't order the Queadluun Rau to pull back. Their losses were severe, but they had devastated the Micronian forces, and she still had literally millions more if she wanted. But the defense had won her respect, far more than the pitiful one the Micronians around the third planet had put up.

She turned from studying the space fortress to the tactical screen as two other ships folded in well behind her own fleet, followed by a bare few hundred more at an even greater distance. "It seems as if Miriya and Kyron have arrived." But by Dolza, what happened to the rest of the 11th skirmish fleet? If that is all the ships they have left, Kyron has lost more than 4/5 of his entire command.

As per her orders a communication line was opened immediately, and a moment later Azonia stared at the wounds visible on Miriya through the transmission. She was about to ask what had happened to her ace pilot when Miriya answered her questions before she asked them. "This time I lost." She shrugged, then went on, voice iron hard with determination. "I'll win the next battle."

Azonia looked at her pilot for a moment and then simply smirked. "I trust you won't lose again," she said dryly. "That Micronian ace made quite the nuisance of itself in the engagement we just had. I'll send you some tactical recordings for you to look at later. So, how was working with the backstabber, and how did the young idiot get so many of his ships destroyed?"

Miriya rolled her eyes and was about to answer when Azonias communication officer spoke up. "Lady Admiral, we're receiving an odd communication from the enemy ship."

Azonia cocked her head. "Another audio attack, no they are far too far away from any of our units to make use of it, we would even have time to react to the siege cannon. Put it on, I want to see what it says."

The communication officer did so, and the song Die with Honor filled the bridge. The odd background noises were incomprehensible, but the message of the words were not. The phrase 'fight with blood, fight with steel, die with honor, never yield, fearless hearts, filled with pride, into glory we shall ride!' struck all who listened to it most profoundly. No, Azonia reflected, these Micronians were nothing like the Invid, those disgusting bugs, nor any of the other races her people had encountered. Despite the chaos and the oddities she had seen they were far more like her people then she had ever thought possible, and it… it actually bothered her to know what their likely fate would be.

She sighed and turned back to look at Miriya's communication on her screen, but even the green haired death dealer looked somber. "We can talk more when you're aboard. We retrieved our spies as well, and I find myself looking forward more than ever to what they will have to tell us." Miriya nodded firmly, and they cut the connection. Azonia turned back to watch as the mighty space fortress turned and broke atmosphere, heading down toward one of the ocean below it.

Lisa turned to Captain Gloval, a huge smile on her face. "Captain I beg to report that we have touched down safely." Gloval returned her salute, but couldn't keep his own wild grin off his face. Despite the losses, despite the crushing casualties, the lack of communication in the last few hours, after a year roaming the solar system, the Macross was finally home again.

End chapter

As always read and review. Oh and I decided to kill off Chlore here. Before anyone asks, yes that means all the Meltraedi are within a single fleet in my story, the portion around earth is only about a fourth of their total numbers, why that is will be made plane in the next chapter. Hope everyone liked how I'm starting to flesh out Azonia's character.

*Chapter 20*: Warning, idiots may appear and attack at

I don't own the horse or the robot. Is there any point where I can stop saying this, its getting irritating now, honestly.

Nothing big happening in this section, well except for, you'll see. Some closure for people, and the start of many issues for others, all segueing to the next chapter which will be a big one, both in length and in impact to the story. Unfortunately I have to say it will not be out next Saturday as usual, it will be out on the Monday after at the earliest. I have a lot of it written but so much of my story has changed since I wrote those parts they need to be changed a lot, and because it is such an important chapter I want everything to be as good as I can make it.

I have changed my poll by removing the 'no just update faster' choice, I had put it in more as a joke than anything really. I assume those of you who voted for it will be able to cast new votes.

Chapter 19: Warning, idiots may appear and attack at any time

A hand through down a written report onto a table angrily, its owners' voice matching the action entirely. "God-damn it, we were nearly getting a handle on things and now this, the wayward Gloval returns with the space fortress, so not only do we have an alien fleet in orbit but the source of all this trouble right here on Earth again!"

"Getting a handle on things? Exactly how are we doing that? The public may believe the crap we've fed them, but the UN and the world governments sure as hell don't and we've been taking more and more flak from them." This voice wasn't angry, simply resigned, and morose.

"Oh really, could that be because they are supposed to be our superiors? We're stepping on every bloody document that gives us a right to exist!" This voice was clipped and British sounding, and like the first voice it too was angry, angry yet controlled, and its anger was directing at the other men around the table rather than the Macross. "What's worse we're doing so not to combat the threat this body was created to fight, but to stick our collective head into the sand!"

He was answered by an American voice with a northern twang. "Admiral you are continually pressing us on this issue, yet you know that getting up out of the atmosphere would make any of our remaining forces sitting ducks. And why should we when we can keep working on the grand cannons, which when finished can..."

"Do nothing!" The British voice interrupted rudely. "They can't be aimed remember, and I doubt the aliens will be so generous as to move into orbit directly above them, even if we finish all six of them."

Before this well-tread argument could start up anew another voice spoke up, this one speaking in clipped English with odd emphasis on words that indicated it wasn't his native language. "Enough, we must agree to disagree on this manner. What are we going to do about the SDF-1?"

That interruption allowed the others to retreat back from the argument before it could get worse. After a moment it was the morose voice that answered. "Send Gloval orders to remain where they are for now, but let them stew for a day or two then send for him and his command staff to give us their report. They'll be in our power then, and we'll get some answers." After a moment the others agreed, some reluctant but others more certain.

Other groups too noticed the arrival of the SDF-1, and began to make plans of their own…

The aftermath of the battle was always bad, though this time it was tempered by the fact the Macross was finally home. Captain Gloval, realizing what that meant for morale and thinking the aliens wouldn't attack for a while, given the damage they'd already done to the ship and being leery of causing more, had given the entire crew the day off.

He had also made a fortress wide announcement about their successful landing then opened up all of the hangers and ports along the topside of the space fortress, allowing anyone who wanted to head out and get some sun. He, Lisa and Claudia stayed on the bridge however, trying to find someone to talk to them beyond the hold position orders they had received, but eventually were forced to give up.

Ranma and Rick, having been among the last to land, and having remained nearby to go over their Valkyries, were among the first out to enjoy the sun. Around them other sailors were starting to direct the growing flood of civilians outside, while others were setting up a rope fence around the edges of the hull, marking off the area the civilians would be allowed to be.

Ranma smiled, once more a guy as he looked out of the hanger onto the first real sky anyone on the battleship had seen for a little under a year. He looked down at his off duty uniform and his rank tabs, the symbols of all he had gone through since living Nerima. "Heh, I wonder what the assholes back in Nerima would do if they could see me now."

Rick standing beside him smirked. "Going from your stories about them probably try to kill you. By the way do you think you can ask Kasumi if I could borrow her tri-plane? I promised Minmei that I'd take her home to see her parents as soon as we get clearance."

With Roy down, Rick was nominally in charge of Skull Squadron, much like Ranma was acting CAG (commander Pike had been medically discharged from the service, suffering from severe PTSD) but there were so few Valkyries and pilots remaining after the last battle, only thirty in total, there wasn't actually much work to do even if they were on duty. Well there was always writing AAR's and condolence letters, something neither of them had to do for any of the other squads, and Motoko had already written one for Jeffrey's family while Ranma was in the hospital. The computer would send it automatically once permission to do so was given.

Roy was however and much of his time in the hospital from a perforated lung and broken ribs would be spent writing these up for the next month. He and Mannstein had over a thousand such written and kept for later delivery by this point.

"Yeah let's go ask her now. We're free for at least a few hours, and it doesn't look like they'll need us here."

Before the two could go anywhere however a suspiciously large wave crashed into the side of the space fortress, throwing water up and over their position, drenching the tow of them and a few other sailors and a few civilians.

Rick cleared his eyes from the spray to see his friend had been turned into his girl form. "You know I didn't actually believe that part of your story, that you attract water like that, more fool me huh?"

Ranma scowled, flipping some of her now red hair out of her face. "Yeah yeah, I guess spending time in this body hasn't made the water attraction part lessen any." She reached into her weapon space bringing out a bottle of water and began to heat it with his/her ki. As soon as she raised it to pour over her head another massive wave crashed against the ship then stopped seeming to loom above the redhead. Ranma frowned up at it in consternation. If it had words it would be saying something like, 'go on, make my day' or something. With a sigh she put the bottle away, and the wave receded.

Rick had watched this with a blank expression while around them the people unused to magic and crazy phenomenon simply stared as he turned toward Ranma. "That… was scary." Ranma nodded morosely and the two turned to head back into the space fortress.

As the two walked back they were stopped by a veritable flood of civilians in the hanger bay who were heading out on deck, overjoyed at seeing the sky and feeling real air.

Ranma spotted Kasumi among them, and next to her Nodoka and the Lynn's including Minmei. "Hey gals. Ya want a good view o' the ocean?"

Kasumi nodded eagerly. "Oh my yes, I'd love to see the ocean again. While I like living on the ship there is something to be said for a sky that is real, moving air and the smell of the ocean."

The others all nodded and Ranma led them to the edge of the hanger but before they could head out with the crowd to the deck Ranma grabbed both Nodoka and Fei around the waists, and jumped up onto the top of the hanger.

Both gasped then smiled as they looked around. "My, this is a nice view. Would you mind getting my husband up here Ranma?"

Ranma nodded and jumped back down grabbing Shao and Rick before leaping back up. Minmei and Kasumi came last, the former giggling at the unfamiliar sensation of being in the air before Ranma set her on her feet next to Rick. "So what are you all going to do now? Oh and Kasumi, Rick wants ta borrow yer Ms. Macross prize; that little tri-plane that ya took as yer part of the contest winnings."

Kasumi nodded. "You may borrow it gladly Rick, but I would like to use it at some point myself, with Ranma flying it of course. I think I want to set up a meeting with at least Nabiki when I can, and hear about what has gone on at home since we left. I don't want to go back" she said noticing Ranma's raised eyebrows, "but I want to see if they learned anything from our leaving. I don't regret doing so, but I have to wonder about them even so. It will also serve as closure for my old life."

"I'll go with you" Nodoka said, before Ranma could reply. "I too would like to know if my ex-husband has learned anything or is still trying to search for you my son. There are also a few items that I wish to retrieve while I have the chance." This included the family sword, something she had plans for that she hoped to see come about in the near future.

"The old-man's probably sold it all off by now" Ranma grumbled "I don't like it, you'd be making targets of yerselves, and I can't leave the ship, I'm filling in fer Roy as CAG remember?"

Nodoka smiled. "He would have if he knew where they were, I moved them from the house and entrusted them to a close friend that he didn't know. I think they will be relatively safe. Besides, I have need of a few of them now. I never thought I would really." She smiled gently. "And I will be with Kasumi to guard her. I trust you know I can protect her?"

"Yeah, I'd back you against most of the old gang both friends and foes with your sword in your hand." Ranma said giving her a hug, but then staring at her seriously, "but not Ryoga. Promise me, if ya see Ryoga you and Kasumi will run! The guys a tank, he'll just take everything ya can dish out and keep on coming, promise me ya'll run!"

Nodoka paused looking at her fellow redhead. "How likely is it that the aptly named lost boy will find us at all?"

Kasumi spoke up now, a worried look on her face. Ryoga's hatred of Ranma had been high and simply gotten higher when their fathers kept on trying to push him and Akane together, and then again when Ranma revealed Ryoga's cursed form to her. "Ryoga always showed up at the worst possible time, I would recommend we run as well if we run into him. He may not bring himself to hurt me so long as he doesn't learn that Ranma and I are involved, but I know he wouldn't have a problem hurting you, probably for 'bringing that hell-spawn Ranma into this world' or something to that effect."

Nodoka's eyes narrowed angrily. "Well he had best not use such language in front of me. Tank or no tank I would assume taking a sword blade to his boy bits would halt his advance!"

Rick and Shao both gulped as the women giggled but Ranma shook her head. "He's too good to get caught by that mom, seriously promise me you'll run."

Nodoka sighed but as Kasumi nodded she followed suit. Their conversation was interrupted at that point by a call from the crowd below them. "Hey Minmei how about a song?!"

The group looked over the edge and saw a large portion of the crowd looking up at them. Others had begun to bring out food and someone was even setting up a fireworks display in the distance, though where they had gotten them of hidden them while onboard was anyone's guess.

Minmei smiled happily. "I'll sing, but I think other people have to start dancing, if we're going to really have a party out here!"

Sammy, Vanessa and Kim, who had been among the first of the ship's personnel to come out on deck squealed loudly. "We'll do it! We'll do it!"

Minmei nodded. "You all know the song 'firework?'" The three girls cheered, and Minmei nodded. "Three two one go!"

After the first song Claudia, pushing the injured Roy in a wheelchair, came out on deck and joined in. She sang a rendition of 'Waka Waka' after convincing Ranma dance to it (which made many of the pilots who knew about his curse wonder quite a bit about how at home he seemed with it). After that Ranma and Kasumi sang a duet in Japanese, the song Sakura by the all girl band Rin, while Claudia danced with the gossip trio. By this time the entire crowd had gotten into the festive atmosphere in one form of the other. Lisa too came out soon and joined in the fun, grinding against Kasumi and the redhead for several songs before the three moved further back out of sight from the main hull, content to just watch the waves and see the sky above them.

Azonia and the still injured Miriya (was it just her or was Miriya healing even faster from wounds these days?) sat in the command room of the Night Dagger watching as the three spies, once more their natural size, trooped in. Sonya led the way as was proper being a captain, with Lucretia and Anya following after. Azonia had to hold back an unbecoming smile at seeing her friend returned, and under Sonya's habitual facial control she could tell her friend was happy to be back, and… was that worry she saw there?

After they saluted Azonia studied all three of them for a moment, trying to detect any signs of contamination from their time with the Micronians. They appeared fine to her, and the medical wing had declared them free of disease so after a moment she shrugged. "Well, you three don't seem any the worse for your sojourn as spies; now tell us what you have discovered."

Sonya took the lead. "Where would you like us to start Lady?"

"Start with the most pertinent fact that you think we need to know to understand and find weaknesses in the Micronians." Azonia stated bluntly. "I have to tell you while we have collected a lot of information about the humans from their data-net it is so confusing that we haven't made heads or tails from most of it. Some things we have discovered, but our understanding of them as a race hinders us badly."

"That isn't actually surprising to us Lady Azonia, we had much the same problem until we were able to realize that in a way the Micronians are both like us and at the same time fundamentally different from us. We, all of us Meltraedi and Zentraedi are warriors, soldiers. The Micronians are not."

Azonia blinked in surprise at Lucretia, the one who had just spoken. That would certainly explain much of the points about a 'country and 'industry' that she had run into in her reading, but… "What else is there to be but a soldier?"

"That is where we had problems. To us this way of life seems incomprehensible but it seems to work for the 'humans' as they call themselves. They separate themselves into civilians and military personnel, and an individual can be trained to move from civilian to military. I think we need to look at it as those who provide' infrastructure', much like the factories Lord Dolza has, and those who do the fighting. That is the best way to describe it. The 'civilians' provide food, clothing, 'entertainment', which is something that helps morale, and civilians also help to build the machines of war while the military uses them to defend the civilians. That is in fact the stated primary objective of their military, to defend the civilians. The Humans have only recently united into one clan, thought they call it a government, and there were several wars before this process was completed."

"While the military is in charge, it listens to advice from the civilian leaders, chosen through a means we aren't certain we understand. It may be production, it may be some kind of popularity issue or not, we never could understand that point." Anya said. "The food and clothing also come in a large variety, far larger than we have, and directly impact morale among the civilian and military populations. Nor is it done simply out of obligation, the civilians take things called 'wages', which allows them to 'buy' goods and services from other civilians, even the military must pay for things and the soldiers must be paid in turn. We have brought samples of much of the clothing and food if you wish to see it, as well as some of the 'money' they use."

Azonia nodded thoughtfully her eyes flicking to Sonya for a moment then back to Anya. "Yes let us see these items you speak of. We've seen videos and pictures of it of course, but seeing something in person is always better." Indeed there was a growing underground movement to replace the standard uniform with the vast variety of choices the 'humans' seemed to have. She knew at least a dozen individuals among her captains that would jump at the chance to examine the clothing of the humans in person.

"But while Anya is doing that tell us about their military structure and how they have been coming up with so many tricks." The issue of entertainment she dismissed out of hand, as she had ordered her people to do when coming upon them in the videos. Indeed anything they could not readily understand went under this heading. Such morale buildings exercises were known among her people, tests to achieve higher rank, races and contests to achieve a goal such as more food, better clothing etc. She didn't know if that was the case among the Zentraedi and frankly she didn't care. Other than Breetai (and of course Dolza, though he wasn't seen so much as a Zentraedi but simply THE LEADER) there wasn't a single Zentraedi worth mentioning.

Sonya took up the thread, explaining in detail the military structure, as well as listing the classes of the human Destroids, all excellent information that would help the Queadluun Rau in the future. The fact that only the one space capable type came close to matching the power suits of her people filled her with pride. What her friend said next though shocked her to her core.

"What is perhaps the strangest of all is that humans can choose to become warriors! They have warrior clans, the tactical officer, a female, comes from one such, but others, even some of their best officers make the transition willingly from 'civilian' to military."

That evoked a moment of shocked silence to her listeners. Change from one branch of combat to another was something that occurred regularly, the idea of changing from being a noncombatant (a concept no Meltraedi or Zentraedi could really grasp) to a warrior? That was beyond comprehension.

Miriya leaned forward asking a few questions that had been bothering her. "But how is it that their males and females work together? How do they become micronized like that? And have you heard anything about their ace pilot?" Azonia glanced at her sharply at the last question, this hearing was to listen to information pertinent to the whole war effort, not just Miriya's ongoing feud with an enemy pilot, but she let it stand.

Lucretia answered this time, looking a little uncomfortable, while Azonia saw her friend become even more blank-faced then usual, and wondered what she had discovered that she hadn't shared with the others. "We have developed several theories about the first question based off observations. For one, the one we think is least likely, is that it's simply the way it has always been, as neither the males nor females can remember a time they did not work together. The second theory, one both Anya and I believe to be more accurate is that the males control the females through use of a special compound called chocolate that seems to take all the females willpower away from them. The other method of control goes the other way, and has to do with something called 'sex' that the females use to control the males. We… we weren't comfortable looking further into that area or research." Lucretia gave her the story she and Anya had decided to share. Neither of them was willing to share how they had reacted to watching the one called Ranma exercise, nor did they really understand it at all. And what Sonya thought about it was anyone's guess.

Azonia nodded sharply. "I can understand that easily enough, we have found literally countless images and video files dealing with that subject, and I have no wish to hear more about it."

"But this chocolate, we have come across numerous references to it as well, though none indicated the power you suggest. But if it is a secret power the males use to control the females, of course they wouldn't want them to learn of it. Have you brought any with you?"

Anya came back then, carrying a large pile of various clothing in different designs. "No Lady, chocolate was incredibly scarce on the battleship. But we did observe several instances of a male using a single piece to gain control of a female, though the time he could control her seemed to vary from female to female."

"We will have to send some troops down to collect samples of it for study," mused Azonia, a pronouncement that would in a few days cause many headaches for a certain group of individuals on Earth.

She reached forward gently prodding the small varicolored outfits, marveling at the difference in texture, color and cut. They had other things there as well, tiny things that seemed to be the solid-state books she had seen, though unlike the ones that interested her, these had bright pictures on the covers. One of them had the word 'cookbook', and she shook her head. How in the world had Micronians developed enough varieties of food paste they'd need a book to list them all? The money though, she wasn't interested in, it seemed pointless frankly, and she realized it was only worth anything in the minds of the people using it, it had no intrinsic value.

Miriya however barely glanced at the clothing, staring at the trio, willing them to answer her questions. Lucretia, who along with Sonya had learned the most about Ranma did so though reluctant. "We, um we actually met and interacted with the ace you speak of. In fact that interaction and with his Lieutenant, a rank we have no equivalent of that signifies the leader of four of the human space fighters, that gave us much of the information we have on their military structure."

Anya took up the thread now, handing across to Miriya a data disk they had prepared a few hours before. "His name is Ranma Sugita, and he has a very strange condition, he changes from male to female with the application of cold or heated water, and he is far and away the deadliest fighter both in and without his/her Valkyrie."

Azonia and Miriya's eyes widened at that. "Could that effect be caused by the proto-culture generator?"

Sonya shook her head. "I thought much the same, but he explained to me it was a condition he picked up while visiting a 'martial arts training ground' on their home planet, which they call Earth. Martial arts are what the humans call their various hand to hand combat skills. I thought perhaps the generator might have somehow fallen out of the ship during its crash landing, but upon careful questioning learned the strange testing ground had been like that for hundreds of years. On that disk you'll find more about him and his abilities, the ones we have seen, not heard about. There were literally hundreds of rumors about him. Ranma was a prominent figure in many ways about the space fortress."

Miriya nodded, taking the disk eagerly.

Azonia hmmed, still prodding the clothing carefully, and looking at the odd assortment of other items the spies had brought back. "Hmm… well you have given me much to think about, go and rest for now, I want to have a look at this clothing and the other items you have brought. We'll begin again in a local day, and I'll want to focus on weaknesses and ways to exploit them. Sonya, stay for a moment."

Azonia waited until the other two had left before turning to her friend and one of her most senior officers. And even more telling much like Azonia herself she had come through those years relatively unscathed. Indeed, Miriya had gained more scars from her recent battles with this Ranma human than Sonya had in all her years of war. "It was obvious something was bothering you Sonya, what is it?"

Sonya looked decidedly uncomfortable, her eyes flickering to Miriya, who was staring down at the disk in her hands. Azonia's did as well, and then lifted one hand, shaking it a little, telling her friend to state as much as she was comfortable with sharing with the younger green haired pilot.

Sonya nodded almost imperceptivity before speaking slowly. "Lady Admiral, for the past few days among the humans I have been looking at what they call science and their history, and I cannot believe what I have discovered, but I must, it is simply too consistent and pervasive to be a lie. What the humans call science, we have no equivalent of it but it works something like 'advancing the race through ever increasing knowledge of our surroundings and construction'. It is how the humans have been able to figure out most of the tricks they have been using. On the ship was a male by the name of Dr. Lang, and he and his team were able to do something they call 'reverse engineer' from Zor's flagship. All of the weapons they have used since are relatively new technology to them. More in their time onboard the space fortress they have come up with half a dozen new ones, including the 'FAST Pack' that allows their Valkyrie to almost equal our Queadluun Rau."

Azonia blinked in fresh shock and Miriya glanced up from the disk she had been staring at in surprise. "Go on."

"Humanity was not a space-going race as little as fifty local solar cycles ago." Sonya said bluntly. "Not only that, but they have only had computer technology for a little under a hundred years and even their least trained officers understand it far better than I do the workings of our own weapons systems. I can't even begin to understand how they do that, but it is fact."

Azonia and Miriya again exchanged glances. No Meltraedi or Zentraedi to their knowledge knew how long they had been space faring races, but it was far longer than that. Yet in all that time Azonia knew of no 'advancements' like Sonya was describing, no new weapons of war created in that time. The factories, all controlled by Dolza and his personal fleet, made every weapon of war they had, with little to no interaction between them and the Meltraedi, and they created the same weapons today as back then. "Go on."

"They also constantly do something they call 'maintenance' to the battleship and their mechs. If one of their mechs is damaged, damaged to the point where we would have to scrap the machine, they can 'repair' it. I witnessed this several times as I was in the construction section of the ship, and saw much of the maintenance and continued construction going on inside the ship. The ship is getting more formidable with time, as are the humans."

Azonia leaned back thinking hard. "Could this be a sign of their understanding of proto-culture?" She had never heard of a race having these 'civilians', these noncombatants before. The closest she had ever heard of was Invid grubs, as they had to wait until their chitin hardened enough to fight with. And the idea of 'repairing' something that was broken or damaged was something she had never heard of either. The Meltraedi could personalize their power suits, but actually repairing them?

"I don't know Lady Azonia, neither myself nor the others have even come across a reference to proto-culture in all our spying. Have you come across it when you attacked their data net?"

"No," Azonia said thoughtfully "nothing that combined those words at least, nor anything that could be the proto-culture generator." As an admiral Azonia was one of the few cleared to know what the proto-culture generator really was and what it could do, but she didn't have the knowledge necessary to make head or tail form the human's data net. "Yet they must have it somewhere on the space fortress."

"Perhaps sending another group of spies to analyze the fortress itself rather than the humans would work better," Miriya mused.

"Perhaps, but that is a decision for another time. For now Miriya, go get some rest," Azonia smiled, but there was no humor in it. "You will need it soon enough I imagine." She stood, looked back at her friend. "And Sonya, come to my quarters in a few hours, I have some questions I need to ask before tomorrow's session." Sonya nodded, relieved that her old friend had realized she still had information, but for her ears only, and walked out past Miriya, who was still moving slowly due to her injuries.

On board the hull of the Macross Ranma sneezed. His two girlfriends looked up from where they had laid out in their bathing suits. They were situated well away from the main party going on, right over one of the tertiary weapons in the main command spire, where only someone like Ranma could get to. Motoko and Nodoka (the only other people aboard who could get there) had both joined them soon, also wearing their bathing suits underneath some sweatshirts.

Kasumi smiled at her redheaded lover. "Someone must be talking about you Ranma-koi."

Ranma groaned as Lisa giggled. "Heh, I remember you mentioning that when you rescued me on Mars. What do you think, someone falling in love with you, declaring vengeance against you or just someone talking about you or the rumors around you?"

Ranma brought up a finger to her lips, smirking a little as she went along with the joke. "Hmmm, it wasn't loud enough to be a declaration of vengeance, my throat isn't itchy so no rumors, wasn't accompanied by a shiver down my spine, so not someone falling in love with me, I'd have to say just someone talking about me."

All the girls giggled but Motoko who seemed to be in a bad mood for some reason.

Nodoka watched the younger swordswoman thoughtfully as Ranma went back to applying sunscreen to his girlfriends. "What's bothering you dear, you've been wearing a frown ever since we met this morning?"

Motoko sighed. "Nothing you can help with Auntie, just…well you know about my… preferences?" Nodoka nodded, she knew it was touchy subject for the young girl, given the amount of flak her family gave her for it, but Motoko's lesbianism hadn't ever bothered her. Nodoka was many things, but she was not a hypocrite, and she would have been such if she had a problem with Motoko's interests after the experimentation she did as a teenager and in college before meeting Henri. "Well, the girl I was interested in has sort of disappeared."

Nodoka eyebrows rose in surprise. "Disappeared? How can anyone disappear?"

"She's no longer working, she hasn't signed up for classes at the college like she said she would and she and her friends are gone from their apartment." Motoko sighed morosely.

Nodoka frowned, but said "Well, I'm certain she'll turn up eventually, until then I suggest you look elsewhere until she does, don't mope around about it." Motoko nodded and the older woman turned to Lisa. "Have you all been able to make any headway getting anyone to talk to us?"

"Other than that initial order to remain in position I'm afraid not Auntie." Lisa answered. "I'm not certain why." Nodoka frowned then shrugged and put it out of her mind, sighing happily as the sun warmed her body.

Ranma laid down between her/his two girlfriends and smiling happily, just enjoying this moment of peace. He knew given his life it wouldn't last long.

Azonia spent an hour checking in with the portion of her fleet she had left behind before coming on this mission. She had left more than half her fleet behind to work with the Zentraedi in the defense of their territory against the assault of the Invid. After ten minutes the connection went through and she stared at the face of Delmera, the woman she had chosen to take command of that force. The other woman, with short cropped blond hair and an open face with smile lines, a rarity among either the Zentraedi or Meltraedi, wore the normal Meltraedi uniform and smiled in greeting. "Lady Admiral, how goes the operation against the Micronians and Zor's fortress?"

Azonia sighed at the others irreverent attitude, but she couldn't help but smile at the same time. Delmera wasn't only one of her best strategists, always able to put her flotilla where it could do the most damage, emphasizing ship to ship combat, but her, her happy attitude seemed to cheer up anyone regardless of circumstances. "Slowly and confusingly. That is why I wanted to check in with you, I needed to hear news about good, honest warfare. What is happening on the war front?"

Delmera paused, lips quirking as she gathered her thoughts. "It goes… well my lady, but oddly. We've managed to push the Invid out of many of the systems they took in their first push, but the Zentraedi haven't had an easy time of it."

Azonia waved that off, the Zentraedi always thought they could overcome any foe by simply throwing numbers at it, and so their losses were always massive, but they always won in the end anyway, and there was always more of them in any case. "What do you mean by oddly?"

"Well, as you know we are a separate force but we are supposed to answer to any of the main fleet clan admirals." Azonia nodded a little bitterly. Her fleet, even when it was all in one place had barely a hundred thousand ships in total, far less than the five hundred thousand plus that a main fleet had. Despite this their Queadluun Rau and the fact their ships always carried far more crews let them have an impact well beyond their fleet's size. "But after a few star systems were reclaimed Admiral Breetai ordered us to ignore any orders from any of the other fleet admirals."

Azonia blinked at that then made a go on gesture, which Delmera did so. "We had taken some losses before then, we were being thrown at any battle that the Zentraedi thought was tough. We did well of course, but they were using us poorly. Since then we have worked with lord Breetai and his fleet as the tip of the spear, yet our losses have been far less than before. His clan fleet has won the majority of the victories, but not taken the majority of the losses. He fights and controls his fleet like no Zentraedi I have ever seen before!"

No surprise there, Azonia thought wryly. Breetai didn't become the oldest and most dangerous fleet admiral in the entire Zentraedi fleet by being stupid. Breetai was the oldest admiral of the fleet, and had been involved in nearly every battle and campaign in living memory and far more besides. Rumor had it that he had been involved in the first battle against the Invid bugs, and that was where he had taken the injuries that disfigured his face. Azonia discounted that, but the fact was that Breetai was simply a far better and more experienced leader than even she.

Delmera kept talking. "He has taken control of the entire front at Lord Dolza's orders, but it hasn't won him any friends among the other admirals, and they have been… been doing what they could to hinder him. They've left his fleet alone a few times to be encircled and cut off, but he always turns it to his advantage somehow." Delmera's eyes shown with admiration as she went on. "I don't know how he does it but he keeps on leading his fleet in and out of some of the toughest battles I've ever seen. This push by the Invid was long planned, that is obvious, and they are fighting back hard, but with Admiral Breetai's leadership we are now pushing the Invid back all along the front."

Azonia nodded, wishing she and the rest of her fleet was there, but this mission was just as important, and it was only her insistence that she wouldn't need her full fleet (and, she admitted in the dark recesses of her mind, the fact her orders came from one of the command centers men rather than Lord Dolza himself) that allowed any of her fleet to help against the Invid at all. "Well if anything happens you think I should know about don't hesitate to contact me." Delmera nodded, and realizing she was being dismissed cut the connection.

Azonia sighed, leaning back and taking a sip from her water bulb as she brought up the copy of the Art of War she had been studying on the screen, hoping to understand more now that the spies had conveyed some more information about the odd Micronians. I wonder what Breetai would think of this work, it would certainly be an interesting conversation.

Azonia looked up from her reading as someone knocked on the hatch to her quarters. She smiled and called out "Enter." She rose and greeted her friend, hands outstretched and grabbing Sonya's forearms firmly. "Sonya, it's good to see you back."

Sonya nodded, her habitual control disappearing now that she was alone with her friend with none of the younger females around. "It's good to be back, I missed you my friend."

"And I you." Azonia sat down on her mattress, waving her friend to sit down, which she did. "You had something you wanted to share with me out of the ears of the others?"

Sonya frowned, rubbing her tattoo in a nervous gesture that Azonia knew all too well, she had seen that gesture right before the fecal matter hit the cannon round. Still the sight made her smile. The tattoo was a memento of a particularly viscous battle against the Invid nearly a hundred years ago that the Admiral of the time, her direct predecessor, had come up with to commemorate the victory for those who survived. Azonia never learned where she had come up with the idea, but she had created it and did the procedure on each of the survivors herself. It was a move that solidified the Meltraedi as a complete, tight knit fleet, and separated them even further form the Zentraedi because of the rumors that reached them about it. Sonya was the only one who had decided to have it put on her face, and she and Azonia, who had received it on her left pectoral were the only survivors still alive from those that had fought in that campaign.

"Azonia, I, I was telling the truth about how I spent my last few days, but my research went deeper than that, not just about the Micronians science and learning but their society and how it came about, their history and the wars they have fought against one another. I have a data disk for you to look at with that information on it if you want." Azonia nodded and Sonya went on. "But what I really wanted to know was the answers to a series of questions. Why are there civilians at all? The answer was that some people simply aren't mentally tough enough to handle combat, and that they need people to make things, design things, build things. All of those things are things that the factory ships that Dolza controls do for us. Not so important, but it is the fact they create things themselves that allows them to know how to repair it and upgrade it like the FAST Pack. It, it might seem disloyal but if we had control of the factories and the ability to learn from the designs of all of the machines they create, we may be able to come up with better ways of doing things."

Azonia frowned, wondering where her friend was going with this. "I wouldn't call that disloyal, though I certainly wouldn't share it with anyone else. Go on."

Sonya nodded, her voice becoming more hesitant but still certain. "I wanted to also learn why the military wasn't in charge completely. The answer is that historically speaking the military answer to the civilians. This is primarily because the military cannot do what the civilians can, control the means of production and the logistics of these humans." She left that hanging there hoping her friend got where she was going, and Azonia's frown deepened but she nodded again. Seeing this Sonya went on. "With every question I answered about the Micronians I had to question our own race, but I could not, cannot deny where the questions have led me. We the Meltraedi, we the Zentraedi are…are a…. a military without a society. So what happened to the society, to our culture? Is that why we call our fleet's clan fleets? What happened to make us this way?"

Azonia raised a hand at that point, stopping her friend before her speech could become even more of a diatribe. Is this what Micronian contamination is, not of the body but of ideas? Are these questions what Dolza was afraid of? Let it not be said however that Azonia would run away from hard questions. "Stop there Sonya. Let me look over the information you have gathered. Give me a week with this information and to see if, I come to the same conclusions. And if I do, if I do we will search for the answers together, come what may." Sonya nodded and seemed to sag, her entire body showing immense relief and Azonia changed the topic. "Stay here tonight and let us speak of other matters. Tell me about any of the individual Micronians you met, did any of them stand out?"

Sonya nodded, happy to change from the hard topic to something else. Later deep in the ships nighttime cycle, she fell asleep, lying up against Azonia's side as the two shared her bed as they had often done before. Azonia however stayed up, staring up at the ceiling. Sonya had not taken her questions to their logical conclusion, which was something Azonia was wont to do, think in the long term, and worst case scenarios. If something happened to our people to… to take away our culture, what was it, or who was it? And if a who, they must have gained something from it. And Dolza was worried about contamination… She was tempted to destroy the disk her friend had given her, but she shook off the temptation. She would learn the truth, wherever that led her.

The day after they had landed captain Gloval, captain Connor, commander Drake and colonel Mannstein were on the bridge of the space fortress looking at the information they had been able to glean once they had started to look at the internet and the military net. None of them, not even Conner was happy at what they saw.

"Where is the military buildup, not that I want to see it but where is the panic, where are the large civilian shelters to defend them from orbital bombardment? What the hell have they been doing since we left?" Drake was confused, angry, and frightened, and this made him speak more bluntly than he would normally allow himself when speaking to his superiors.

Yet the information they were looking at forced him to ask the question and none of the others chastised him speaking out. Nowhere could anyone find any sign of a military buildup. That didn't mean there wasn't one, but it obviously was well hidden, and did not involve the civilian population which would grossly limit its size, which in this war was a bad thing. Worse they didn't find any sign of new construction for civilian shelters.

"I don't know, Henri Gloval muttered, "but I don't like it." Mannstein remained silent, but his glower showed what he thought of it and Connor was bothered as well.

Claudia spoke up from the communications console. "Sir, we're receiving orders, the UNSF high command wants you to be ready for pickup to be taken to Fort Winter for a debriefing."

Gloval blinked. "Is that it, no word about what we should do about the civilians or our need for resupply?"

Claudia shook her head. "Sorry sir, nothing but the command for you to report for pickup to Fort Winter within an hour." She looked over at the radar screen and nodded. "We already have something slow incoming, probably a helicopter."

Gloval sighed. "Nevertheless, order the crew to start resupply runs to the nearest ports, we need more food and material desperately. And at least we'll get some of our questions answered." Claudia nodded and turned to give the orders.

Mannstein growled. "Who wants to bet we won't like those answers?" None of the others took up his bet.

"I don't like it."

Lisa shook her head as she looked at Ranma. Gloval had decided to leave Drake behind to take command of the Macross while he was gone, so he was going to take Lisa and Mannstein with him to this conference. Lisa was packing for the trip to the fort, , but her beau was not happy. "I don't like it any more than you do love." She smiled happily as Ranma blushed at that, but he also reached out and caressed her check for a moment and Lisa stood there, drawing strength from that wordless affirmation before continuing. "But the orders were nondiscretionary. Captain Gloval, Captain Connor, colonel Mannstein and myself are all required to report to the SDF high command at Fort Winter. We'll only be gone for two days, well barring setbacks at any rate."

Ranma still looked stubborn and Lisa sighed. "You know Claudia can handle the ship if there isn't any action going on, and I've trained Vanessa as well as I can, she just needs to build up instincts and the only way for her to do that is experience."

Ranma looked surprised and shook his head. "It ain't that part that bothers me, all my instincts are telling me something's gonna happen, either ta you, to us here on the Macross, or ta Kasumi and mom. Problem is, I can't be in more than one place at a time, and I have ta stay here ta fill in fer Roy until he's on his feet again, which, since he ain't a martial artist and ain't got any ki ta speak of, is gonna take months!"

Lisa paused then. In the past few months she had learned not to ignore Ranma's feelings about things like that. Unfortunately her hands were tied. "I'm sorry Ranma I wish I could do something, really I do, but we don't have any discretion built into these orders, we can't disobey them." In fact Gloval might well get in trouble for starting the resupply process without explicit orders to do so. "As for Kasumi and Auntie Nodoka, well, maybe you should talk to them before they leave." She glanced up at the clock in her room in their new home (and boy did she love that, having a home and sharing it with people you loved). "But if I don't leave right now, I'll be keeping the captain and everyone else waiting."

Ranma slumped then reached forward and gently pulled Lisa into a kiss. It was a gentle kiss in comparison to many they had shared since getting together, but the emotion in it was enough to take her breath away. He pulled away slowly looking into her eyes. "Stay safe okay Lisa?"

Lisa shook her head to get over the effect of the kiss then smirked at him. "I'll try, but if I get in over my head somehow, you'll come and rescue me right?"

"Damn straight!" Ranma laughed, and Lisa laughed too, gave him a final hug and walked out the door.

Even with that slight delay Lisa was there waiting as the more senior officers came out to the chopper that was supposed to take them to fort Winter. They all clambered in and Lisa found herself sharing a seat meant for three with just Mannstein, who nearly took up two seats all by himself while Connor and Gloval sat in front of them right behind the pilots. Everyone put on radio helmets to talk to one another while the helicopter got clearance to leave then the helicopter took off.

After they had been in the air for a few minutes, with only Connor and Gloval talking to one another, Mannstein waved a hand in front of Lisa face holding up two digits then four. Curious she changed her radio frequency to that channel. After a moment Mannstein's voice came in over her radio. "A word of advice commander: your father will almost certainly be on the committee high command has assembled to meet with us. I would advise you not to be drawn into any discussion with him, either during or after and if you do, do not assume on your family relationship. Let us do the talking as much as possible it will deflect attention from the old boy's club attitude toward women that is so prevalent among the admiralty."

Lisa wondered why he was telling her this and further why he disliked her father so much. As much as she didn't get along with him on a personal level, she still respected her father as a military man and Mannstein's antipathy toward him was a little strange to her. But after a moment she nodded and Mannstein nodded back then settled into his chairs closing his eyes in preparation for a nap. After a moment Lisa shrugged and did the same.

Ranma had a little more luck getting Kasumi and Nodoka to agree to be cautious and so instead of calling and telling Nabiki to meet her somewhere she e-mailed her with a message she would know came from Kasumi as well as a place to meet with her and Nodoka. Nodoka planned to stay with Kasumi until they were certain she was in no danger, then would go and retrieve the family heirlooms she wanted. As there was a supply ship heading to Japan anyway, the two of them asked it for a lift along with many other people wanting to leave the ship and not caring what they left behind. This left Kasumi's little bi-plane for Rick and Minmei who planned to leave later that same day. These two groups however were the first to report something that would rock the populations of Macross, both civilian and the military.

Nabiki Tendo was not one who showed her emotions, anyone who had met her in Nerima or even at Tokyo University would agree with that. So it would have come as a shock to them all that she was openly showing an odd mix of rage and hope, both emotions having to do with an e-mail she had received the night before. The e-mail said "come and meet the one who cleaned up after the cookie incident and gave you 'THE TALK' at the coffee shop nearest Tokyo tower tomorrow at noon for a discussion on the past, signed Heaven". Now while anyone could have cracked her older sisters former e-mail and signed it that way, Kasumi wasn't exactly a rare name after all, but as for the rest? The rest was only known to Kasumi and possibly Akane, but even that was doubtful.

Part of her thought this was just a cruel trick, while the rest of her remembered that Kasumi had been with Ranma, who regularly came back from things that anyone else would have died from. This was why she was sitting in the designated café torn between two very different emotions sipping a latte and glaring at the coffee shop door when Kasumi and Nodoka walked in.

For a moment even though she was watching and hoping it didn't register. The young woman looked so different from the big sister she thought she knew. Gone was the long conservative skirt, replaced by a pair of jeans that hugged her form in all the right ways. Gone was the conservative braided hair replaced by styled hair that flowed freely down her back. Gone was the placid, calm expression replaced by a warm smile and sparkling eyes that turned toward her. Nodoka too had changed, no longer wearing her hair in a traditional bun or even wearing a kimono, instead she was dressed in a business suit and had her hair in a braid down her front. Still it was Kasumi's change that was the most startling.

Nabiki at last reacted to what she was seeing and was out of her chair and hugging her sister before either could blink. "Nee-chan am I ever glad to see you! We were told you'd died! What the hell happened, and why the hell did you leave like you did?!"

Kasumi gently but firmly pried the arms of the younger woman off her and led her back to her table, allowing the curiosity of the people around them to die down. "Hello to you too Nabiki. And as for your question, I left because there was nothing at home for me, no room for me to grow as an individual. You and the others all pushed me into this role of being your house-slave, and I no longer wanted to live that life. Tell me honestly, with the way they were when Ranma and I left can you see Akane and Father allowing me to live my own life? Or would they continue to depend on me for everything, forcing me to take care of them forever? And you were a part of that too, you never saw me as anything more than a housemaid."

Nabiki was about to answer back sharply but the calm, almost contemptuous expression on her sister's face made her pause and actually think for a minute. After a moment she nodded reluctantly. "I can't disagree with that statement, though why the hell did you leave with Ranma? I understand leaving but why with him of all people? He was almost as bad as his deadbeat father for attracting trouble. Tell me you weren't, you aren't…"

"I wasn't with Ranma romantically at the time no, that occurred later, but who else could I have left with? Thanks to our family outside of taking care of a home I had little real world experience. Ranma and I together complemented each others abilities and skills very well. Now we have made lives for ourselves, that we are all" she smiled at Nodoka who returned the smile "happy with. I only came back to speak to you because of our family you were the least culpable in turning me into a drone, and I wanted to learn if you had moved on and if the others had changed without me there to clean up after them."

"What about Ranma's oath to never marry someone from a family his father contracted with?" Nabiki shot back weakly as she tried to get the image of Ranma and her sister out of her head. Sure she had fantasized a time or two about riding the wild stallion, usually after walking in on him in the furo, but to actually be in a relationship with him…

"Oh I know he won't marry me, I'm happy to just live with him. After all, marriage is just a label. Who cares what you call it as long as you are happy and together." Kasumi smirked, "I get all the benefits this way without the irritations such as his rivals, pissed off ex-fiancés etc."

Nabiki blushed, looking at that smirk and realizing her innocent big sister wasn't so innocent anymore. "Um yeah, well uh, moving on, you asked how we've been doing, well I gotta say it was really hard without you two around. With no Ranma to blame for everything Genma was forced to try and clean up his own messes once he realized he no longer had any claim to Ranma." she looked at Nodoka, "Your divorce letter and legal paper recognizing Ranma as part of your clan basically cut him off at the knees. With how Ranma had been bucking his control since before you arrived Genma had to face facts that he couldn't use him anymore. The few times he tried with a few more fiancés that showed up they came to me and I told them about it and it wasn't pretty. Eventually father was forced to throw him out of the house to protect the rest of us from the fallout, and no one has seen him since."

Nodoka smiled grimly. "Good riddance to bad rubbish. If I ever see the fat fool again it will be too soon."

Nabiki blinked at the vitriol in her voice but went on anyway. "Father kept on crying about his little girl leaving him and how the schools would never be joined for a few weeks. He was still going at it when I went away to college, and I haven't been back since. Most of the fiancés and their families moved into the area and just stayed, so the entire area is even more martial arts crazy then it was before, not my cup of tea at all."

"Akane…. Akane initially tried to take your place, and the house was barely standing before she finally realized she was crap at it. She was also going on about how she was still the strongest martial artist in the area, but a match with Kodachi a few months after you left shattered that little illusion as well as both her arm in several places. Since then she's moved on, and taken up acting."

"As for everyone else, the Kuno's are still there, though Kodachi has moved on at least. She became a professional gymnast and has won several awards for it, including two gold medals in this year's Olympics. Ukyo's still around, she's going to the same university I am, and she and Konatsu got together at last, though they still cross-dress a lot, I guess it just got to be a habit for them. The Amazons all left for China about a month after Ranma left."

"Cologne was really insufferable, laughing all the time over how he had pulled the wool over everyone's eyes but them and that we were all fools." She grimaced, that still rankled her, that the so-called jock had a plan to get away from his old man and all of them since the beginning and not only kept it a secret from everyone who would have objected but actually carried it out! "Shampoo was still single, though Mousse finally gave up on her and married Perfume before they left. Ryu Kumon was in the area for a time, and it looked as if he and Shampoo would get together, but that didn't happen and after beating up on Genma for a bit he left again."

"Happosai and Taro are still around and the bull is still trying to get the old man to change his name, though the other martial arts schools tend to keep the collateral damage down to a minimum. Of all the old rivals Ryoga was the one worst hit. About a month after you three left he showed up in his pig form, I guess he wanted to spy out the area, but Cologne caught him. She did something to him that turned him really docile, I don't know exactly what, but I hope it wasn't that trip to the vet she was talking about at the time. Anyway after that he was handed over to the authorities. Did you know he had been attacking people with pigtails randomly all over the country? Well he had, and the police were happy to solve the mystery of the pigtail-hater."

"A pity Cologne and the Amazons left," Nodoka mused "I would have enjoyed speaking with the elder again, and seeing Shampoo and the others. Such nice girls they all were." Nabiki inwardly rolled her eyes at how anyone could see that band of barbarians as nice. "Still, now that we're all caught up with the news, what did you mean when you said you thought Kasumi was dead?"

"Because that's what the UN told everybody, it was all over the news for a time. Something went wrong when they started up the engines on the alien battleship, some kind of booby trap set by remnants of the Anti-unification movement, and it exploded destroying the entire island." She looked at their shocked and outraged expressions and bit her lip. "Why do I get the feeling the truth is somehow worse than the lie?"

Nodoka shook her head. "Well I don't know why they would tell that particular lie, but we were attacked by an alien race intent on taking the space fortress. We tried something called a fold space jump, think of it like entering hyperspace in Star Trek, but because we did it inside a gravity well, it went badly wrong. Since then the Macrosshas been making its way back here, under attack from the aliens the whole time. Hopefully now that they know we survived they will retract that statement."

Nabiki leaned back thoughtfully. While on the surface the tale was ridiculous she had seen far stranger in her time. "That would explain the communication, radio and television blackouts that have been occurring lately, that was blamed on the anti-unification forces too. I assume the aliens have also taken out everything in orbit?"

"They hadn't before we left, but they seem to have before we returned yes." Nodoka replied. "Henri, the captain of the battleship was wondering about that and why there was an alien fleet around Earth at all if they were just after something on the space fortress."

"Hmm. Well, does this mean you are back, or are you going to go back to the Macross, you called it?"

"We're both going back" Kasumi confirmed. "We both have built lives there, careers and people we love. I'm an interior designer now, I'm starting my own company! In fact I'm working on a design for a game center and two family houses. It's going to be so much fun!"

"And I am the chief bio-engineer for the hydroponics section, in charge of all the interior food resources." Nodoka replied.

"Huh." Nabiki replied, a little dazed from the changes in the two other women. The three spent the next two hours exchanging more detailed stories about their lives, reconnecting and in some way finishing that chapter of their lives while outside, a grim shadow waited on an adjoining rooftop.

Elsewhere the discussion was nowhere near so cordial. The meeting with the SDF high command had started off badly and gotten worse. "So let me get this straight" one grizzled admiral said, nearly snarling the words "these aliens are after something on the space fortress, we don't know what, we don't know why, but they are determined to get it no matter what it costs them, and we have no way of simply giving it to them? I say we just hand over the fortress entirely if it will get these Zentraedi to leave us alone."

"I'm afraid that isn't an option. Dolza the leader of these aliens made it very clear that he was more than willing to order our extermination, and may do it out of hand once he has what he wants." Gloval responded, having anticipated that response.

"I find myself wondering how you could have been duped to think the numbers reported by Commander Hayes and the other escaped prisoners were real." Another admiral said, snorting huffily. "Its obvious that no race could have the infrastructure to build so many ships, let alone a population of that size and still need anything from the fortress."

Infrastructure, population. For some reason those words clicked in Lisa's head and she wondered why, but put it aside for now.

Gloval however was firmly focused on the here and now. "I understand your skepticism, but judging from how many ships they have lost, and further more how many combat mechs they have lost, upwards of 17,000 since we left Earth, without significantly impacting their numbers or altering their rules of engagement, we have to face facts that even if the numbers reported are inflated, the Zentraedi can still call on forces far beyond anything we can handle without significant troop buildup. I notice that you continued work on the Hercules class missile ships despite how ineffective they proved. What else have you done to counter this threat, and how can we help?"

Admiral Hayes, one of the most senior on the command staff spoke up for the first time. "Captain Gloval, it's not your place to question this committee! But in answer to your question, we have pushed forward the Grand Cannons project and have made significant inroads in that area."

"But what about building up the space fleet, and getting the worlds industries onto a wartime footing?" Mannstein asked quietly, citing the lack of said they had noticed already. His eyes moved around the committee and his mouth tightened slightly not liking what he was seeing in most of those faces. Only one face among them however seemed to be friendly, while one other seemed resigned.

The friendly face spoke up before the others could in answer to his question. "Unfortunately this committee voted to abandon the space program for now and concentrate on land based defenses, a decision I disagreed with most strenuously at the time. It makes us completely unable to take the offensive. As for getting the world onto a wartime footing that"

"Prescott damn it! May I remind you that you are a junior member of this committee, and that those decisions were reached by an open vote?"

"Oh shut up Hayes, I may be junior to you all, but my record in my parent navy speaks for itself! I said then and I'll say now, not acknowledging the magnitude of the alien threat is stupid and short sighted!"

"What do you mean not acknowledging the alien threat?" Gloval asked, stomach tightening, whatever this was it wasn't good.

"It was decided to not inform the civilian population of the alien threat, as it would cause undue stress and riots even if it was believed in the first place." Another admiral said. "They would only panic, riot and get out of control if they knew we had such a huge threat literally looming over us. We fed them a line about the anti-unification forces making a comeback via terrorists attacks to cover your disappearance and the destruction of our orbital satellites, and are simply hiding the fact we lost our space fleet from everyone easily enough. I for one see no reason to change that decision now." Prescott scowled angrily, but decided not to voice his objections to that idea as well.

Lisa made to speak but Mannstein's large hand clapped down warningly on her hand and she subsided. Gloval however merely spoke calmly, but there was ice in his eyes. "And what would that mean for the civilians we've finally managed to return to Earth?"

"Of course they'll have to stay with you." Another admiral said bluntly. "We can't have all those people walking about telling everyone they were attacked by aliens after all, it would blow the cover story wide open and lead to the panic we've been trying to avoid."

Lisa couldn't stand it any longer. "How the hells can you justify that! These people have put up with a lot, but they won't put up with that! And why the hell should they when we've finally reached home, just so you can keep on lying to the rest of the world?! And hiding things from the UN Council, that's…"

"Commander Hayes you are out of order!" her father barked at her. "We have to look at the big picture here. Is it really worth it in the long run, a city of barely sixty thousand, or the hundreds of thousands worldwide that would die in riots or panicked infighting if it was found humanity was really facing an extraterrestrial foe? What about the nations who would sue for peace and break from the UN, try to make peace with the aliens at all costs, maybe even volunteering to fight against the rest of humanity? Taking that into consideration the choice really isn't that hard."

One of the other admirals could see this wasn't going anywhere and decided to end this discussion before tempers could fray further. "I vote we adjourn for now and take up this interview tomorrow when we've all had time to look over the data already given." He looked around and seeing no one disagree he said "Motion carried, meeting adjourned."

Everyone began to get up from their seats but Lisa just stood there hands clenched in rage for a moment. Her father walked up to her. "I'm sorry about shouting at you like that Lisa but you have to remember military decorum. And as for the idea of removing the civilians from the battleship, as I explained that would cause far too many problems. It's all about control."

"Yes it is, isn't it admiral." The rank came out like an epithet and Admiral Hayes looked at his daughter in shock, seeing the scorn and contempt there. "You're control of the planet would be in danger if the civilian authorities, you know, the people you're supposed to answer to, found out you'd been lying to them and putting the fate of our entire species in jeopardy because you took the easy way out." With every word the contempt in her voice grew and her father flushed angrily.

"Lisa I" he started then stopped as she abruptly saluted and without a word walked off, moving over to talk to Admiral Prescott.

"Sir, may I talk to you for a moment?"

Alex Prescott nodded, a cold feeling settling into his stomach as he saw the young woman's serious expression. "Yes Commander, what can I do for you?"

Lisa took a deep breath then "Sir, it grieves me to inform you that your brother, Eric…."

Far away from this particular discussion another family was getting a strange but in their case wholly welcome visit.

Rick set the bi-plane down after a two hour flight from the Macross to their destination, a small Chinese restaurant on the coast of Taiwan. It stood on a bluff overlooking an ocean view, and the space between the house and the bluff was just enough for him to land on.

He looked behind her seeing Minmei asleep in the back. Smirking he leaned over the back of his flight chair and kissed her on the lips. Her eyes opened and she pouted as he retreated. "Wake up princess, we're here."

Minmei grinned leaning forward and kissing him quickly. "Thanks for this Rick, really it means a lot to have you here." Rick shrugged and Minmei grinned "Now lets go see my folks, they must have been worried sick about me." She hopped up out of the plane and walked to the back door of the restaurant.

Knocking on the door, she waited a moment, and when no answer was forthcoming knocked again, shouting as well. "Mom, dad, open up, its me Minmei!"

After a moment they heard shouting coming from inside. "I don't care who it really is, that's a fucking sick joke and I'm going to give them a piece of my mind!" After a second the door opened showing a rotund man who at first glance anyone could tell was related to Shao. He stood there looking as if he was about to shout at them but froze as his eyes locked onto Minmei. After a moment, his eyes began to tear and he croaked "Mi-Minmei?"

Minmei hugged the man tightly. "Hi dad, sorry I haven't been able to write or anything, but being in space kind of puts a crimp on keeping in touch with people here on Earth."

Her father put shaking arms around her tightly, nearly squashing the life out of her as behind him a woman poked her head out and gasped. Minmei raised her head out of her father's grip to peer over his shoulder smiling brightly. "Hi mom!" The next second the woman had somehow teleported herself placing her own arms around their daughter and her husband in a grip that, if anything, was even stronger than her husband's.

A young man with long black hair came out next, blinking in surprise at the sight of the group hug before his eyes narrowed at seeing Rick standing there in his uniform. His expression abruptly changed when Minmei squeaked out "Guys I can't breath!"

Ten minutes later, they were all seated around a table sipping tea. "I can't thank you enough for bringing our Minmei back to us, lt. Hunter was it?"

Rick smiled at Minmei's mother. "Yes ma'am, Lt. first class Rick Hunter, acting commander of Skull squadron until Commander Fokker is back on his feet. Still" his expression sobered. "I can't believe the high command made up that lie about us. We've been beaming long range transmission to earth for at least a day and a half, ever since we folded back into lunar orbit, they should've recanted and told everyone, I don't understand why they haven't."

The unidentified young man scoffed from where he was leaning against the wall. "Why should that surprise anyone, the military always lies to us civilians, why should this be any different."

Minmei smiled at him. "Nice to see you too, cuz. Rick this is Lynn Kyle, my cousin, he was here helping out at the restaurant and going to the local college while I moved in with his parents."

Kyle frowned a little at that. He had wanted to use his time here to get closer to his cousin, who he had watched grow up into a beautiful young woman but her decision to move to Macross to be with his parents and see the alien ship had blocked that plan. Now that she was back though he could quickly sweep her off her feet. "I'll agree with my aunt and uncle on this one, thank you for bringing Minmei home."

Rick nodded. "As to your question, none of the officers I worked with have ever lied to us, even when they probably should have to keep up morale. The losses we've taken fighting the Zentraedi are just" he shook his head sadly, he'd lost a lot of friends in this war "just brutal, but captain Gloval and the others never sugarcoated things for the civilians or the lower ranks. Its caused a few riots actually, but overall it helped both the civilians and the military to trust them way more than they would have if they had been lied to."

"And have you tried to make peace with these aliens, or like the rest of you soldiers have you all only shot first and thought second?" asked Kyle scornfully. "If they can travel from another solar system to ours it's obvious they have enough intelligence to want to talk things out. I bet it was our side that fired the first shot anyway."

At this point in this discussion in another universe Rick would have lost his temper, and attacked the long haired asshole and been flattened by the surprisingly adept Kyle. In this one however he was much calmer, in a secure relationship with Minmei and had learned patience from dealing with Ranma. Kyle's scornful commentary didn't bother him at all. "I don't know, I wasn't in the military at the time, but the aliens have never even tried to communicate with us outside of demanding our surrender just once. Since at the time we were in deep space and had no way to evacuate the ship, oh and the fact it turned out to be part of a plan to trap some of our troops away from the ship, I really don't think they're interested in talking."

"Hmmpf, that's probably what your superiors want you to think. In any case shouldn't you be heading back?" Kyle asked hinting broadly that Rick's continued presence was not welcome.

Rick ignored the hint taking Minmei's hand in his. "No, we don't have to go back for a few hours yet. I've got the day off and you said your next recording session isn't until tonight right?"

Minmei grinned again, taking his hand in both of hers, not seeing the spasm of anger on Kyle's face or the concern on her parents faces as she replied. "Yep, that's true, another recording of 'my boyfriends a pilot' going out live tonight on the radio, then two new songs I'll be singing on the radio for the first time. Hehee, it'll be more true to life this time huh?" She giggled as he blushed and she turned to her parents. "Oh I have so much to tell you! I'm a singer now, with a recording contract and everything!"

For the next two hours she described the Ms. Macross contest and how she had agreed to split the prize with Kasumi, her friendship with Kasumi and Ranma and Nodoka, and the many concerts she had put on the help ships morale and the fun she had and the trials she had overcome. As she talked her parents kept looking at one another, torn between happiness that their daughter had achieved her dream and worried at how happy she was living on what was still a warship.

When Minmei's chatter began to die down, her father broke in. "Well I see you've been having a lot of adventures but you're home now, so I hope you can put all that behind you. We'll call this Mr. Devray in the morning and see if we can get him to set up a, what did you call it, a recording session, nearby?"

Minmei shook her head stubbornly. "It's a live broadcast dad so that wouldn't work. Besides we should be getting back now or I'll be late."

Rick glanced at his watch and nodded. "Yep, I'll have to speed as it is to get us back on time. Well, it was nice meeting you, hopefully once the city is offloaded and we're all cleared to contact our family via phones and stuff you'll be able to get back in touch with Minmei." With that the two stood up but were blocked by Minmei's parents.

"You are not going back to that ship young lady." Her mother said sternly. "It's still a warship and that's no place for a young girl."

"Um" Rick began hesitantly "it's not like I can't see your point, but the aliens have never penetrated the battleship, let alone that far into the interior. And it's really not up to you, we only got permission to leave the ship for half a day, no more."

"How can the military act like that! It's like you're treating her like a prisoner?" Minmei's father said angrily. "Well I won't stand for it!"

"Mom, dad, it's my choice to go back, I've achieved my dream there, I make a difference in people's lives, and I'm happy there. I'm going and you can't stop me!" Minmei exclaimed.

"Don't take that tone with us young lady, you're still only 17, that makes you a minor and you will do what you're told!"

"I may be 17 now, but in a few months I'll be 18, then I'll be out of here whatever you want. Is that how we're going to do this, me cutting off all ties to get away from you? I'm living my dream right now, and want to continue to follow it!"

"How about I go along with her to keep an eye on her, would that put your minds at ease?" Kyle asked, seeing a chance to stay close to Minmei and win some points with her parents.

Both Minmei's parents calmed down at that. "Thank you Kyle, yes that would help. We can trust you to keep her out of trouble for us."

Minmei rolled her eyes as her mother's statement, as if she was some unruly pet that needed looking after. "I've already got Ranma-ni and Rick to look after me but if you want to come Kyle let's get going."

Rick nodded. "Yeah we have to get back, though I got to tell you with two passengers its going to be crowded."

He was proven correct. Much to Minmei's chagrin and Kyle's happiness Minmei was forced to sit on her cousin's lap, which was an 'iccky' moment for her. For Kyle however it gave him the chance to realize his cousin was truly all woman now, and he liked what he felt. So much so he had to force himself not to physically react, which by the time they landed, was one hell of a tall order.

In Tokyo Nodoka and Kasumi had completed their own objectives, picking up what Nodoka had wanted to grab from her friend's home and Kasumi had long since finished her discussion with Nabiki. Both were happy with how the day had gone.

This was perhaps why they were taken completely by surprise when Genma suddenly appeared out of nowhere and grabbed them both by the neck in grips of steel. Even Nodoka, deadly as she was with a blade wasn't strong enough to break his grip and could only pound on her ex-husband's hand ineffectually

"You" he snarled "It's all you're fault!" Your fault" he slammed Nodoka's head against the wall "you took my heir from me, my easy life was assured, all the boy had to do was marry Akane and the dojo would have been mine! I would've sat there and looked wise while he did all the work, as it should be!"

"Y-you lost him long before he ever saw me!" Nodoka gasped. "It isn't my fault that he hid his mind from you or his dreams! Nor is it my fault he ran from you the moment he honorably could!

Genma ignored her, turning to Kasumi. "And you!" He sneered, "The slut who left her family behind along with her honor, just like my heir!"

Kasumi gasped, and despite their situation her eyes were hard and hating as she looked back at him. "Y-you of all people have no right to talk to me about honor! Especially Ranma's!"

Genma again didn't seem to hear her, his eyes were like a crazy man's, and both women could see hundreds of old fading bruises all over him, the signs of neglect in his clothing, all pointing to how hard life had been for him since he could no longer live of Ranma or the Tendo's. He began to drag them away ignoring the screams of passersby who watched this even as some reached for cell phones to call the police. "Well you two are going to help me get my heir back so he can take responsibility for his actions. Oh the heavens cry out at the injustice of it all, why must I be cursed with such a girlish son!?"

A voice spoke out of a dark alley as a fist incased in heavy leather smacked into Genma's ample stomach. "I don't know about heaven, but I think the law will be happy to talk about injustice with you, though their position probably won't match yours."

Two figures dressed in black from head to toe and wearing heavy weapons belts stepped out of the darkness. One helped Kasumi to her feet while the other moved to stand next to Nodoka who had already whipped out her trusty katana, throwing the package she had collected to Kasumi, who caught it deftly. "It seems merely divorcing you wasn't enough Genma, perhaps burying you will be!"

Genma snarled but knew all too well he was no match for his wife once she had a blade in her hand. Smashing his fist into the ground he shouted "Bakutsai Tenketsu!" A wave of rock pieces erupted from the impact scattering everywhere. Thankfully the passerby had already ducked and run, though the side of one passing car was badly riddled with rock pieces.

The two people in black and Nodoka smacked them aside expertly, and Kasumi dove into the alley their rescuers came out of, out of the way of the blast. Unfortunately this gave Genma enough time to slip into the umi-sen-ken and flee.

Nodoka sighed sadly at the missed opportunity then turned to their rescuers. "Thank you for your help, but I have to wonder why you did so."

One of the ninja's pulled off its mask. "Well, I suppose you could say we did it for old-time's sake, but really, we're hoping that you have something interesting for us to do." Ukyo formally of the Kounji clan and current ronin grinned at Kasumi and Nodoka. "Konatsu and I have found we don't like the normal, boring life these days."

Kasumi and Nodoka looked at one another then laughed. "Well I think we can easily solve that problem for you. You may soon wind up wishing for less action in fact." The matriarch of the (if everything went according to plan) growing Sugita clan replied.

End chapter.

Looking back I feel I might have given the part with Azonia and Sonya short shrift, but it was hard to convey the points I wanted to. If anyone wants to make some suggestions about it I'll consider going back and changing things. Next chapter some new toys, various reactions and several battles that piss lots of important people off.

*Chapter 21*: Someone's About to Shout Jenga!

I don't own Robotech or Ranma

Would like to respond to some of my reviews, but I just don't have time at the moment (RL is kicking my ass) so I'd just like to say rdde, cj-cold, TJG, great reviews, and you'll see more of what is really going on, different from what the admirals believe is going on in this chapter, though the action there won't really start until the next one.

I tried to show someone thinking two things at the same time, and I'm not certain I succeeded. You'll see what I'm talking about when you get to that section, so tell me what you think.

Chapter 20 Someone's about to shout Jenga!

The air in the conference room was somber in the extreme as Claudia, who was acting commander of the Macross without any of the higher ups onboard replayed the message that Lisa had sent her as soon as she got away from the higher ups. Not wanting the in her opinion extremely stupid orders to come at the civilian population and military population of the fortress out of the blue she had called ahead and told the other officers which way the wind was blowing.

"I can't believe they'd do something like this, it's so short sighted and stupid!" commander Drake said. "This sounds far too much like usurpation of civilian authority to me on top of just being a damn stupid idea."

"You're working under the impression that the civilian authorities would want to acknowledge what is really happening, or have any idea of trying to deal with it." Claudia said in a voice filled with contempt. "It wouldn't be the first time that a civilian government 'didn't know' something was going on officially so that they could claim ignorance at a later date. And we both know lots of people who would much rather assume that this just isn't happening because they can't deal with it. After all, how many people really want to acknowledge that our race could be facing extinction? Better to simply lie to yourselves and just keep going on with your lives you know."

Oh she had no doubt that individuals and governments were doing something, but the only way she could see humanity surviving…. Actually if the aliens attacked all out she didn't see a way humanity could survive, not unless they had been building a shit ton of really deep bunkers. That or a fleet of colony ships with stealth capabilities. Claudia was a realist, and the numbers of this fleet alone scared her beyond belief, not even taking the numbers Lisa had reported into account.

"I know I'm just fillin' in for Roy," said Ranma from where he was sitting rather uncomfortably at the far end of the table, "but is this even legal?"

"The charter for the SDF is broad based and really doesn't have any sort of set limitation on the powers the executive committee can assume. At least that's what the admirals are saying. It was made on the assumption that having a set chain of command that could handle a par war and then would give that power up after it was won." Claudia sighed sadly. "No way could they make something like these orders to keep the civilians on board stick otherwise."

"So what are we going to do about it?" Ranma asked.

"There's not much we can do about it." Drake groaned aloud, wondering about the mentality it would take to want to be willfully ignorant about the sword of Damocles hovering above your head. "Orders are orders. We can protest them, maybe make enough of a nuisance of ourselves that they'll do something about it by dragging or heals and demanding it's given in paper form as well but that's about it."

Ranma leaned back slowly counting to ten as he realized that despite all their irritation at the content of Lisa's message (and oh he was proud of his lady for sending it in the first place) everyone at the table was going to go along with the orders when they came.

Carefully choosing his words, he began to speak. "Ya know, I didn't put on this uniform just so I could fight, I put it on to do two things, neither of which is goose-stepping ta stupid, shortsighted and idiotic orders from on high." Some of the people around the table looked uncomfortable at the vitriol in his words, but he ignored them. "I put this uniform on to defend the civilians not just the civilians on Macross but anyone who can't fight back. That is our sacred duty when we put these uniforms on, it says so right in the oath we swear when we graduate the Academy. So the question isn't what can we do to protest or slow down these orders it's what are we going to do to protect the people on board? After all, if we start unloading the civilian are they really going to fire on us to stop us from doing it? Wouldn't that raise all kind of questions they don't want to answer? And let me tell ya, there are a lot of people aboard this ship who want off."

That was an understatement, the vast majority of the population had simply assumed the city would be moved somewhere, and Mayor Luan and the civilian engineers had already worked out plans for it.

"We don't have to lift capacity to move the city by ourselves." Claudia protested. Drake however was nodding along, and the civilians were all nodding eagerly.

"Who said anything about moving the city? I said move the civilians. We ask all the civilians in a questionnaire if they want to leave and those that do we put them ashore. We've got cargo haulers, I know 'cause my mom and Kas-chan left on one, we can use them. Lisa once told me that as part of the reconstruction all the stuff in the city had been given a value, give them the value in money of all the properties they have to leave behind and send them ashore with markers or something and let the UN pay for 'em. That way they'll have everything going for them if they want to start up a new life elsewhere rather than stay aboard."

"We can't just unilaterally ignore orders like that, it's bad discipline and it flies in the face of all tradition!" Protested commander Drake, but his listeners could tell it was more for forms sake than anything else.

"Yeah, but those traditions say we should be serving civilians, we can't do that if we keep them aboard if they don't want to be here."

Dr. Lang had been silent up to this point not being part of the regular military, but he said thoughtfully. "I think it would actually be a good idea to ask at least some of the civilians to stay aboard if they want to. They've taken over most of the interior construction and factory work as well, which frees more of the maintenance personnel to do actual maintenance on the ship and the Valkyries and Destroids." It was actually why they had the personnel to assign to personalizing some of the Valkyries.

"But what will command do once they see that we're disobeying them? They can cut off all our resupply if they want, and we all know how badly we need more food resources and more personnel in every section aboard the ship." Claudia asked, playing devil's advocate. "More, if they see us as being in a state of mutiny they could leave us to our own devices rather than give us any aid in the form of other ships."

"That's a risk we'll have to take" Mayor Luan said firmly. "I can almost guarantee that if this news gets out, and it will one way or another, two of the three factions aboard this ship will start rioting, and I doubt they'll stop. The peaceniks just want off, they don't care how they do it, and the neutrals are just tired and scared and…." He shook his head, "We need to get them off the ship."

Claudia grimaced but nodded.

"We still have a list of all the civilian population" said the police chief thoughtfully "running up a form for everyone to fill out whether to stay or go will be easy."

Drake looked around the table and realized that there was very little support for just following orders to be found here, and almost smirked. Really, he thought to himself, it's not like I really agree with the orders either. I just never would've had the balls to just completely disobey them like that. I doubt Ranma will ever advance beyond his current rank and he's going to be a headache for whoever is in charge of him but the boy has a fire to him, and that is far more important in a war like this one than meekly following orders.

"So we're all agreed then?" asked Claudia. Every head around the table nodded emphatically. Whatever else happened, these people were not about to obey the orders of high command without a fight.

"I-I have another idea," said Vanessa a little timidly. She was really only there as the fill-in for Claudia and well knew she was least senior officer (in rank not time in the uniform) in the room. "I heard that Minmei is going to be putting on a live rendition of one of her hit songs on the radio, and that it's supposed to go out from the ship to the nearest com tower, I thinks it's still the one near Tokyo. What if we start telling our story the same way? The RDF can block most of our radio waves, but some will get through."

Claudia smirked a little evilly at the problems that would cause the higher ups. They must be stretched to the max already trying to hide what was going on, adding this to the mix... "I agree, that way we can get the story out of how hard we fought and how much we lost and tell the world about the Zentraedi and what their capabilities. That'll be an excellent shot across the bow of the UNSF High command and it'll tell the civilians families that their relatives are all right. Maybe it'll get us some help to lift them off."

Everyone spent a few minutes discussing this idea, but after a few minutes it was adopted through popular vote. "In that case," Ranma said, "Ya'll have to excuse me, but I want to go welcome Kasumi and my mom back."

Claudia nodded, waving him and the others out the door before turning to the police commissioner and Mayor Luan, who had remained in their seats expectantly. "we should get onto this right away. I want the forms ready to be handed out and an explanation ready to go over the news feeds as soon as the captain and the others get back."

When Ranma arrived on the hangar deck he was just in time to see his mother and Kasumi exit the cargo hauler followed by two people he knew very well from his time in Nerima. He was shocked to see them, but happy. While he and Ukyo had never built up their friendship to the level it had been when they were children they still had remained close acquaintances, and he had always considered the kunoichi trained boy Konatsu to be the closest to him in skill of his age group. He did however wonder what they were doing here.

After hugging Kasumi and his mom hello the two of them described first there meeting with silver and their run-in with the dark horse. At the end of which Ranma was about to lose his temper badly. "I'm going to kill him." He said his voice almost as cold as it was when he used the Soul of Ice. "I am going to hunt him down, rip out his skull and beat him to death with it."

"Um, I don't think that's physically possible" Ukyo said, a little scared by this new and far more deadly Ranma. Konatsu on the other hand simply smiled.

"I will make it work. I have the determination. Now if you'll excuse me I need to catch a ride to Tokyo. I have a panda skin to take."

Kasumi grabbed his arm before he could turn away. "No, please Ran-chan. Remember that you're needed here, and besides he's not worth it."

"He hurt you koi, and mom too, that makes him dead meat in my book."

"Yes but you should remember my ex-husband is a master at hiding. I don't want you to waste the time it would take you to find him. Besides, you know he's no match for you now, hell he might not even fight you. Would you kill him in cold blood, my son?" asked Nodoka, placing a firm hand on his chest.

Ranma paused looking torn, but Kasumi never let go of her grip on him, shaking her head firmly. "Please Ran-koi; I don't want you to have patricide on your conscience." She pulled him into a long lingering kiss, causing Nodoka to smile and both the new comers to gape in surprise. "He's not worth that, he's not worth anything, just forget him ok?"

Sighing a little Ranma nodded, putting his arms around his chest in a hug. "Alright, I won't go looking for him, but if he shows up here he's fair game okay?" Kasumi nodded and they disengaged. Ranma turned to look at the newcomers. "Well, thank you both for protecting these two, if something had happened to them I…"

"No problem Ran-chan" Ukyo chirped happily. "We were both going out of our minds with boredom once we moved out of that mess in Nerima, so when Konatsu saw Kasumi still among the living, we decided to see what happened to your silly ass. So you think there's a place for us aboard this huge ship of yours."

Ranma grinned. "Heh, well it isn't mine you know, but there're always jobs on the civilian side, did she tell you, Kasumi's got a job doing interior design? I'm sure she could use a hand at that. And there's always the Academy if you want to sign up."

They looked at one another for a moment before the Konatsu said thoughtfully. "I think I'll sign up, I was trained as a ninja after all, and I've always wanted to have a cause worth fighting for, something that would really be worthy of my skills and this sounds perfect for me."

The cute ex-fiancée on the other hand frowned. "I don't think that's my cup of tea, sugar, no offense but the idea of being in space in a little jet is just… brrr. I'll stick with Kasumi for now and see what kind of jobs there are. Maybe after a little while I'll be open to the idea of fighting in space but not right now."

Ranma shrugged and began to talk to Konatsu about some of his experiences at the Academy and how to sign up while Kasumi led the other two women away. Little did Ranma know that this would be the first of two visits from old acquaintances that he would have in the next few days.

Scott Prescott was a one of the most decorated and experience officers the RN had produced since world war two, yet he found that it didn't help him at all.

His brother was dead, the boy who would always follow his older brothers around and get into trouble right beside them, gone.

His room was a mess, his rage and grief being so great he had literally ripped apart every piece of furniture and item in it in his fury. Now that fury was gone, replaced by cold calculation as he sat against the wall, staring at nothing as his mind worked at a furious pace. His hands were clenching a paper copy of the intelligence report that a commander Drake, previously of the Prometheus had compiled of the aliens. There was something very odd about these aliens, the complete lack of personal items found in the ships taken, the lack of any kind of societal information, but none of that mattered.

His brother was dead. Scott remembered how proud their parents were when their youngest had joined the other two in the military. Proud and worried, for both of them had been officers too, and well knew what that service could demand of their family. It was harsh to think of, but thank god they had both died of old age a few years ago.

What did matter was that the Macross had found ways to overcome the alien's numerical advantage, things that they could easily recreate here on Earth if they could be open about the Macross having returned. Of course the civilian governments probably already knew about it, really he didn't know what Hayes, Le-Chen and the others were smoking (probably something illegal) to think that they were succeeding in their mad plan to sit on the fact there as an alien fleet in orbit. He knew there were riots in most of the European countries even if their militaries and governments still parroted the 'nothing is wrong it was simply a terrorist attack' line.

And America, oh glorious, magnificent, schizophrenic America was even worse. The party in power and most of the central government might be willing to go along with the whole 'ignore it till it goes away' plan, only putting resources into the Grand Cannon idiocy because they thought bigger was better. But on the state and military base level, things were very different, he was certain.

The civilian government of his own country was neither idiotic nor schizophrenic. The country that stood alone against the Luftwaffe and its bombing for so long knew what survival could cost.

His brother was dead. They would never share stories about bar crawls, or romantic liaisons. He would never hear Eric twit him about being married right out of officer school before he could really 'sow his wild oats', nor twit Eric in turn about his inability to settle down with anyone or how much he liked the older ladies.

Yet the military geniuses that controlled the UNSF would never admit they were wrong, they had gone too far, taken too much power for themselves in the name of keeping control to let it go now. It would take something truly major to knock them out of their dais-ed mindset, not something Scott could do on his own without costing a lot of lives one way or another, something he refused to be a part of. However that didn't mean that he couldn't make plans, or join others who already were.

Marcus, god what was he going to tell Marcus? Never again would the two of them wrestle or troll for birds whenever they were in the same posting, or watch old Doctor Who episodes and laugh at the aliens in them. Jesus, why couldn't it be anyone else, why couldn't it be him that died first, that was the way it should be, oldest first.

He looked under his now destroyed bed at two hidden folders. One was labeled Operation ARK, and the other was labeled Moonfall. Japan, Australia and bits of Canada and America were onboard with those plans, he knew. They weren't doable, not unless he could use certain UN resources, or possibly a certain unhappy captain and his space fortress, but they would need a few tweaks before he would be willing to command them. And Macross was near the Pacific Fleet, Scott did have contacts in that fleet, contacts he could convince to resupply and reassign troops to it. That he would to that and command both operations that had previously hidden out of sight under his bed was not a question, at this point he would do anything he could to hurt the aliens as much as possible.

In the end he knew if the numbers Commander Hayes reported from her time in captivity was accurate the human race was doomed. They would gobble up Earth without even trying but he would be damned if they didn't choke on humanity when they did. They would pay for his brother.

They would pay for his brother, the vengeance of his family would be terrible indeed, on both the old admirals who tried to keep him tethered hear, and to the alien who took Eric from them.

But before that he had something else he had to do, something he had to do now. Be damned if Marcus learn of Eric's death in a fucking condolence letter. He got up and went over to his computer. Long range communications used to be handled by bouncing the signal from tower to tower and up to satellites, but now it was handled by rotating com planes set up at intervals and replaced/refueled in the air. Of course this was one of the things that had allowed the UNSF to keep the control they had so far, but eventually even it would fail. "Computer, connect me to Major Marcus Prescott, CAG, Woody Island base."

"Are you sure you want me to present this Doctor? I mean, I'm not very good at public speaking."

Emil looked up at the towering chief engineer, who even sitting down dwarfed him. Boroga Hibiki was easily the tallest, strongest man Lang had ever met, yet in some ways he was so self-effacing it was astonishing.

Emil knew it was to compensate for his overlarge frame, but sometimes he felt that the man took it to extremes. "Yes, I'm certain. I've been so wrapped up in my own projects that I don't know the first thing about some of the systems you've thought up, we'll need you to help explain them, and the better we do that the more scientists and engineers on board the easier it will be to sell it to the construction groups we'll need to have backing us." Construction of Veritechs and warships were all major industries worldwide, but if you talked to the right people you could get new projects started in large numbers very quickly.

Boroga sighed. He had tried to contact his family but hadn't been able to reach anyone. Not that such a response was at all unusual given his family's curse (he'd had Dr. Lang actually lead him by hand to this meeting room, and would have to get him to lead him back to the generator room the same way) but more than a year of no contact was unusual even for them. He and his son Ryoga had quite a few things to talk about as well, things the younger boy wasn't going to like hearing. Still his job came first.

Just then the large screen on the wall lit up, showing first one smaller box than over twenty boxes of smaller images, each of them filled with a man's head. Some of the men wore uniforms, none less than rear admiral, others wore civilian garb. These were scientists, renowned engineers and several company managers who also had a firm ground in engineering and a few others. They represented or controlled the vast majority of the infrastructure that kept the UNSF supplied with the newest and greatest toys, and were all here because they knew Dr. Lang personally (some of them) professionally (most of them) or by reputation (only a few of the managers).

One of them, one of the vice admirals, muttered an oath as he saw Lang and the behemoth next to him. "Emil Lang! Fuck I hope this is good, if the Macross is still in one piece and not destroyed like we were all told, then what else haven't we been told?"

Emil shrugged. "What you have been told is little concern of mine, but to give you a brief synopsis of our time…" that brief synopsis lasted a little over an hour, with his audience interrupting him from time to time to question something or ask for clarification. When that was done he asked, "I presume you all have received the data packet I sent you?"

One of the civilians, an older man with white hair and an amazingly curly beard snorted. "I didn't Lang, and I hope you don't think I'm at all interested in your physics and reflux energy claptrap. Why in the world am I here?"

Emil smiled at one of his oldest friends. Pierre Dugraith was a Frenchman by birth but had moved to America with his family when he was in his teens and was to biology what Emil was to the new discipline of reflux energy and over-technology. "I have another package for you old friend. All of the biological data of the Zentraedi we were able to collect, as well as a bit of their society that might impact their biology, mostly conjecture unfortunately by our tactical officer commander Hayes and the other prisoners. Anything you can tell us would be helpful."

Pierre nodded then waited for his computer to beep before looking back at Lang. "In that case gentlemen, I'll be signing off now. I'll share anything I can find or feel is useful later." And with that the man signed off.

A vice admiral growled. "Well the rest of us got the normal packet you sent us, and I'm going to send you the bill for the bandwidth time your package cost me. With the satellites taken out by these Zentraedi communications goes through aerial com planes, and all bandwidth is controlled but the UNSF, and the prices for uploading downloading is simply huge. And then to find out that more than half of it is full of utter tripe like this 'ki' crap and how energy can be used to create a 'weapon space'!"

One the civilians, a Chinese man, shook his head. "Ki is real, though the number of people who can use it on their own is small, and I have never heard of it being used via machinery. That was incredibly interesting reading Emil, and I have already ordered my battery factories to start making templates for the smaller batteries you designed, and my weapons factories as well. Luckily we've had our ammunition factories going overtime ever since the communications satellites went down. I have no idea what the UNSF is thinking, trying to sit on the truth of what happened to them, but we've been preparing for the worst ever since."

All of the officers in the other screens stiffened then sighed in unison. None of them knew why the higher ups were acting like this either, and they wouldn't be part of this conversation if they thought it was a good idea. "You're saying those advancements are actually buildable?"

Lang nodded affirmatively. "Yes, though we would never have even thought of them if Commander Sugita hadn't shown us how amazing ki could be. But above and beyond those, we have been thinking of ways to offset our enemy's numerical advantages, and at this point I'll turn this little presentation over to Chief Engineer Hibiki."

Boroga coughed embarassedly as all eyes turned to him, but began quickly. "Um yes, well, uh ladies and gentlemen, one of the major challenges we have been facing from the beginning is the sheer numbers the aliens routinely throw at us, both in the fighters they use and in the capital ships. Well I've been working on something that could at least help us take on the capital ships without any loss of life." He pressed a button, fumbling a minute in his nervousness. A large diagram appeared on another screen visible to everyone in the first.

It looked nothing so much as a huge barrel with a large sphere attached to the butt end, with small bulbous sections set into it at intervals, a few dozen thrusters around it for thrust and maneuvering, or in this case aiming. "This is my prototype design for a kinetic bombardment weapon. It's completely unmanned, and is about two hundred feet long. The cannon uses fold space and reflux technology to accelerate a small spear, only about five feet long, at near light speed, thus imparting a massive impact force to the target. The targeting system is crude, but the Macross could store countless of these and we estimate a single hit anywhere along its length would be enough to put a Zentraedi capital ship out of action or destroy it utterly. We could even make the nails or whatever you want to call the ammunition smaller and use it to wipe out whole attack flights. That mode has already been approved for a few of the tertiary weapons platforms on the space fortress. We estimate once they're done, which I won't lie it will take a while, maybe a month or more to convert them all, but it will aid our anti-fighter defense immensely."

One of the scientists was looking at the numbers and equations for the acceleration of the spear, and muttered "And its power, what its half-life?"

"About two days on internal power, but as long as they aren't destroyed they can be picked up, rearmed and its battery replaced. The battery however will have to be an extra large on, about the size of ten normal destroid batteries, but still easy enough to build."

A rear admiral nodded, rubbing his hands together gleefully. This was nice, robust technology on the outside at least and something they could build in atmosphere. "Well that certainly sounds promising, now what kind of numbers are we talking about here, in terms of material and time I mean, and do you have any other interesting toys to share with us?"

Emil smiled. "Quite a few actually. First let's cover the personalized FAST packs we've developed, then the…"

At Fort Winter the meeting had resumed, but despite the break tempers had yet to cool. The admirals were angry, worried (though they refused to acknowledge the feeling) and certain of their position. Some of them had even taken the numbers Gloval and Lisa had given them as more reason that any kind of offensive fleet was a waste of resources, that the only way to safeguard Earth and humanity was to push the Grand Cannon projects as much as possible. They were still working under the assumption that the Zentraedi would try to invade, if for no other reason than to take Earth as intact as possible.

They were wrong of course, the Zentraedi had no use for planets, and they had only left Earth alone because it was utterly unimportant both in terms of the danger humanity posed to them and their real objective in hunting down Zor's battleship; the retrieval of the protoculture generator. But these admirals were set in their ways, unwilling to face the reality that was closing in around their entire race.

Unfortunately others were not so sanguine about burying their heads in the sand and shouting 'la-la-la' to drown it out. Riots were increasing the world over, demands were coming from practically every government for the UNSF to take action, and in many places they had been forced to clap down via martial law to keep countries from withdrawing their support and going their own way.

Worse all the admirals there knew it, and the presence of Gloval and his officers was a visible sign that their hold on things was slipping into the abyss. And Prescott's silent, angry grim visage did not help matters. More than one of his 'peers' looked at his face and then away, shivering.

Still they were all good at controlling their expressions and none of these concerns were allowed to appear on their faces as Gloval went into detail about their activity in the last two months, the infrastructure they had started to put in place in Jupiter's atmosphere, as well as the breakout and the defense they had come up with to stunt the enemy mechs they called Gargoyles. "And so given the capabilities of these new enemy mechs, the missile packs were not just a necessity but the only way to blunt their assaults."

Prescott spoke up then, his face still showing his grief and rage, but his voice was calm. "And you say these Gargoyles didn't work with the, the Regulds at all?"

Gloval nodded. "Yes, it was obvious after going over the data form that fight that they didn't have anything to do with one another, in fact the Regulds seemed to shy away from the Gargoyles.

Here Lisa spoke up, her mind once more going over what they had seen and wishing she had been able to put that report together for Gloval about that and the other differences between the two groups. "It wasn't any kind of planned maneuver, it just seemed as if the individual units that comprised the Regulds were, were scared of the Gargoyles. The Gargoyles acted in a far more organized, efficient and controlled manner. The Regulds have always simply come straight at us regardless of any losses they might take form this, but the Gargoyles showed a distinct understanding of their own mortality, slowing down and working as a unit every time a missile wave neared them."

The Korean Peninsula admiral Bae-Chui frowned thoughtfully. "Some kind of special forces unit, or perhaps they act as internal security? Perhaps they are a second alien race altogether."

Lisa shook her head firmly, ignoring the looks she was getting at how she, a mere commander was speaking so forthrightly to admirals. "No, there is little chance of them representing a different race. For one thing, their capital ships are the same as the other forces we've been facing. For another, I doubt Dolza would allow another race that had such capabilities to survive. He's a xenophobe of the first order, no way would he ally with any other race. It could be some kind of artificial difference, but we don't have enough data to speculate on something like that."

Bae-Chui nodded thoughtfully as most of the other admirals glared at this young upstart for being so forthright. Prescott spoke up again. "I also notice the dates on much of these intelligence analyses are in the past two and half, three months, yet you've been out there on your own for over a year."

Gloval couched, looking a little uncomfortable, "Uhum, herumph, yes well, the intelligence division was one of the many that were severely understaffed when we were forced to leave. We in fact only had a single individual in that division, and he never asked for more help, and never sent us anything beyond estimate of how much it would cost to build Regulds with our resources. He even blocked a few reports, citing their source as unreliable which was simply ridiculous at the time. Eventually I was forced to court-martial lieutenant Griftel for gross dereliction of duty in wartime. He has since been in the city's rather small civilian prison." And the fact I never even noticed we weren't getting anything from him until Ranma fought Kyron that second time was a major oversight on my part, he thought bitterly.

An admiral who hadn't said much up to this point, a swarthy, tanned man who might have once been handsome before long hours of inactivity and rich food took their toll, groaned aloud. "Griftel, that useless piece of offal. His father will undoubtedly make trouble, but the boy is no patch on the old man. At least Griftel senior knows what hard work is. I'll have my own intel officer talk with this," he looked down at the intel report and read the header, "commander Drake and see what he comes up with."

There was mutter of agreement and a few rueful chuckles from the other admirals. One of them this time a Indian explained for the group from Macross. "Commodore Roberto Equistitore may look like some kind of accountant, but I can assure you, he is beyond a doubt the best intel analyst the UNSF has at its disposal. He's so good we had to threaten his parent navy to get him in the first place, and we ourselves have been known to nearly come to blows over his services. If there is anything to be learned that this Drake of yours didn't notice, Roberto will find it."

"Any insight he can give us will of course be welcome. I'll tell Drake to be ready for his contact." Gloval said gravely, then brought the conversation back to the last few operations and there were many exclamations of shock at the risks the Zentraedi took with even their capital ships, knowingly trying to fold within a gravity well, and losing so many of their ships to interpolation.

The losses the destroids and Valkyries took fighting through to Earth in the last battle also brought murmurs of surprise, and the nature of Ranma's abilities were much derided. Some of the admirals however were heard to mutter that it was probably because all of the pilots were green that they lost so many. Mannstein and Lisa shared a look as that comment carried to them then shook their heads. Even against elite pilots, the Gargoyles were simply deadly.

After Gloval finished the admirals conferred for a moment, then they began to haggle about what kind of reinforcement and how much they were willing to put on the Macross. None of them however wanted to weaken their own positions/forces. Prescott was strangely silent at this point, which was a little odd, but the others put it down to his grieving for his brother. It was decided at last to send Gloval and the others back to Macross to await further orders, as they had nothing more to add to the discussion (they did, but none that most of the admirals there wanted to hear).

As the meeting broke up Admiral Hayes tried to buttonhole Lisa again. "Commander" he said formally, still seething a little by her dismissal of him yesterday, and wanting to keep a professional edge to the conversation. "I'm going to have orders cut to transfer you off the Macross. I feel that your talents can be better used elsewhere, and you can give the staff here some insight into fighting the aliens."

Lisa stared at him then to his amazement laughed in his face. "You honestly think that I am going to just up and leave Macross? Wrong answer. Maybe a few months ago that would've been the case or I would've simply meekly followed the orders you sent, but not anymore. If you try this, I'll resign my commission and call my boyfriend to come and get me and still get aboard the Macross."

"Damnit Lisa," he exclaimed, keeping his voice down to a hoarse whisper, "I'm trying to look out for you, I don't want you on that moving death trap any longer! How do you think it will look if I just let my only daughter go back out there on what is almost certainly a suicide mission!"

"Yes," Lisa replied scathingly, invading his personal space and staring her father down. "Something you're very good at looking out for your own interests, not mine and certainly not the planet as a whole. You seem to have forgotten why we put these uniforms on in the first place, but I haven't, and I will do my damndest to discharge my duty as I see fit. More, I've made a life for myself on that battleship with people I care for, a family that I have made myself and I won't abandon them just because you say I should. I will fight these aliens to the best of my ability and with all my strength, something that you seem utterly unable to do." Without another word she turned and walked away, leaving her father gaping and shaken behind her.

Gloval, Mannstein and Connor had waited for her by the door. No one noticed that as Prescott passed by he slipped a piece of paper into Gloval's pant pocket.

At around 1300 local time a chopper lifted off from Fort Winter and began the hour-long trip to the Macross carrying the four of them back. Colonel Mannstein turned to Lisa. "You handled that as well as you could, but don't think that your father is someone who will willingly give up just because his enemy has scored a point on him. You may have changed and matured, but he will still see you as his daughter, someone who he can command at will, or as a junior officer who will obey his orders."

Lisa sighed, though again she wondered what had transpired between the two men to make Mannstein hate her father so much. "I know, and despite how he made it sound I know he's worried about me and trying to protect me, but I'm not a little girl anymore, am an officer of the UNSF. I can't just ignore my duties to the Macross, or to the people on it, above and beyond my personal reasons for not wanting to leave, and I refuse to be put aside like some fragile doll." Mannstein nodded grimly while Gloval had seemingly not hear anything about the conversation, though the small smile he wore showed his own opinion on the matter.

Lisa couldn't see Connor's face from where she sat, which was just as well. He alone of the four thought she had been in the wrong. Her father was an admiral and she had just ignored a lawful order after all, regardless of the personal reasons behind it. More he was well aware of his own mortality, and he began to wonder if the job he was doing for the higher ups was worth the danger it put him in.

Azonia sighed. The ongoing debriefings with the three spies had yielded little results, nothing that could take her mind of what her old friend had told her. Though thanks to their understanding she now knew why their cyber assault on the planets data net had failed. With the Micronians having this odd civilian/military division, their assault on the planetary data-net had failed miserably because while the civilian sector was completely open, the military was not. By the time they realized this the military was on hard lock down using LAN lines and coded messages to pass data, with no data-net they could access.

In the short run, it really did look like they would just have to overwhelm the fortress with numbers, which was going to be costly and dangerous once they forced their way inside. After all, none of her troopers knew what the proto-culture generator looked like, come to that even she didn't have any real idea, which was probably why they had been ordered so strongly to take Zor's battleship intact. And the odds of it being damaged or blown up by the humans out of spite was not something she wished to contemplate. What was worse, it seemed from the spy's reports that the interior of the ship had been completely altered. The humans had altered so much of it that even the few schematics they had could give them no more than a general sense of where things would be.

Still keeping the attacks going by Kyron's fleet will wear the humans out and whittle his fleet, hah, more like a mere flotilla by this point, down further, which is good. Plus it may allow me to figure something else out. A close in visual sweep of the fortress could reveal a weakness we can use, and even if it can't, an attack on the fortress will keep the human's attention fixed there while my forces gather samples of this chocolate and perhaps some other items as well.

Yes, she thought, that was a good plan, while deep down she knew she was using it as an excuse not to start looking at the data Sonya had gathered. Part of her already knew somehow what she would find there, and the idea of what that would force her to do terrified her. Still Azonia was made of sterner stuff than most, and she decided there and then that as soon as this attack was over she would devote all her time to those hard questions.

She called down to the electronic warfare division and was surprised to see Anya in the background working at another station while her superior took the call. "Is warrior Anya already back at work? I would have thought she would want a day or two of rest."

The EW officer looked at Anya for a moment before nodding. "She isn't working on any of the normal information, I have her looking at the scraps of news from right after we started to destroy the Micronians' orbital's. I want to see if she can give any meaning to the fact we haven't seen any general response from that act yet."

Azonia nodded approvingly. "If you want requisition Lucretia as well, but I'm going to keep Sonya free for a time to answer any questions that might come up. I wanted to know if you've pinpointed the, what was the word, country I think that was it most heavily involved in the creation of this 'chocolate' substance?"

The section chief nodded. "The main country for top quality chocolate – there seems to be levels of quality in most everything the Micronians do –is the one called Switzerland, and another called Belgium. I'll send you a detailed map of both countries in a few minutes, after I highlight their cities, military bases and largest chocolate factories."

Azonia nodded approval at the other female's forward thinking and the other female saluted. Azonia returned the salute, cut the transmission and called Miriya. The green haired ace took the call in the rec room, her remarkable healing ability already having already rid her of the damage she had taken in the last battle. "Miriya, is passing through our blockade and moving towards the planet, and I think we both know what Kyron is going to do." The two women both rolled their eyes in irritation. Kyron's hatred of the Micronians had made what was already a limited tactical mind lose all its focus, and he and his fleet, a fleet so completely enthralled by him that it no longer had any organization other than his word, was little more than a blunt weapon.

"He'll attack as soon as he possibly can." Miriya scowled irritably "His losses around the gas giant were great, he lost nearly four/fifths of his fleet with little return, and that will sting his pride even more than his own personal defeats at the hands of the Micronian Ace Ranma. Do you wish to make it a joint attack? I am fit for duty if so." And I have brought my speed up enough to negate that technique of my opponents as well. Not enough to match but enough to curb its effectiveness at least. I wonder however why using it makes me so tired afterward? I must remember to thank the spies those videos of Ranma exercising they took.

The videos in question had given her several exercises she had never thought of, as well as a good grounding in the hand to hand discipline of these Micronians. Many of them she wouldn't be able to pull off in a Queadluun Rau, the power suit was powerful and maneuverable not flexible, though Miriya herself was extremely so. Yet some of the rest was, and it would allow her to face him in close range far better than in their previous battle.

It was also good to have a face to go with her enemy for the first time. Though she was still a little bemused as to why watching the videos made her feel… odd, or why when she had showered herself after, her skin and certain portions of her anatomy had felt so energized. None of that mattered though, not if she and Ranma could face one another again.

"No, not entirely. I want you to take a single squadron along with you to observe and get us some visual data about the battleship, I want to know if there is any weakness in its defense we can exploit. I am not going to pay the price in lives that simply overwhelming the humans would take, especially when doing so could cost us the prize we want to take."

Miriya nodded firm agreement. The Meltraedi never threw themselves away like that for two reasons. One, unlike the near endless number of Zentraedi, the Meltraedi were always more concerned with losses. After all rather than having six monstrously large fleets and dozens of smaller skirmish fleets, the Meltraedi only had the one fleet, large only in comparison to a scout fleet, qualitatively superior but finite.

The Queadluun Rau was also nowhere near as easy to replace as Regulds, though they were easier to replace than a Glaug. She had literally millions of them at her disposal, but she couldn't replace those her forces lost quickly. And two, the Meltraedi, unlike most Zentraedi fleets, had what humans would term esprit de corps, an understanding of themselves as individual units that made up an elite force, and no admiral or leader would sacrifice the edge that feeling gave their troops for anything.

Miriya pulled at the ends of her green hair thoughtfully. "I'll agree to lead that so long as I am free to engage the enemy ace, this Ranma if he/she shows up. And keeping my squadron out of the battle will be hard."

"I'll agree to that request, but tell your pilots that this is not a combat mission, I need visual data of the ship to plan any further attacks. Where are the weaknesses, where are their anti-air weapons, how much more have the humans done to change Zor's battleship? Any data at all is vital. And while you are doing that, I will have Athena lead an attack on several points in this 'country' called Switzerland to see if we can collect samples of this 'chocolate' substance. If we can counteract whatever is allowing the male and female Micronians to work together, we may be able to incite civil war between them, and our job would become far easier."

Miriya didn't think that was very likely, but nodded anyway. She wanted to know why the males and female were working together as well, but these Micronians were so confusing she was perfectly prepared to never understand them. "Very well Lady. I will wait until Kyron's attack is well under way before committing my forces, but once I have, I will signal you."

Azonia nodded and the other woman saluted before cutting the connection. The admiral decided to take a break from analyzing the space fortress and instead turned her attention to the history tracks that they had gotten off the data-net, hoping to gain more insight into the, into the humans before she looked at the data Sonya had given her. It had taken them days to figure out how the humans dated things, AD this and BC that, but the EW team had finally figured it out, though what 'religion' was and why it was such an important factor to these Micronians still eluded them.

Now she looked at the land campaigns of someone called Alexander the Great, and compared his style to that found in the Art of War she was still reading. All war is deception indeed, I will use deception for now, but I have to wonder who is being deceived in the long run here.

The EW section chief breathed a sigh of relief as the call from her admiral ended. She turned to Anya and the others. "The coast is clear but you're really going to have to do that work I just mentioned as a cover. And find someplace else for this little gathering next time alright?"

Anya nodded, then went back to what she was doing. "And here we have a Minmei song and over here a tape of the 'wild horse' exercising. Which do you want to look at first?"

Around her members of nearly every branch on the ship pondered that question. Ever since the three spies had returned a black market had grown up around the goods and videos the three had brought back with them, the goods changing hands via trade of on duty hours, food rations or already acquired merchandise. Minmei's songs were very popular with some of the crew, evoking feelings and emotions that the female warriors had trouble understanding, but enjoyed despite that.

The images of clothing and dress styles had an even greater impact on the Meltraedi. They all knew that clothing was important, and style and color of the uniform were all marks of social status among them, less important than rank but still there. Azonia wasn't respected just because of her positions as admiral and as a peerless tactician but also because she had an excellent sense of uniform style. Already difference in the dress of on and off duty personnel was occurring to accommodate the new designs the Meltraedi could now see were possible.

The tapes of Ranma exercising had met with mixed results. The few who could bring themselves to watch reported feeling very strange yet somehow pleasant feelings shooting through their bodies. To others these tapes were nearly as bad as the strange 'porn' images they had taken off the internet before Azonia handed down her edict. Yet they still sold for the most in trade of any of the goods involved. Little by little the contamination spread…

By the time they got back it was around 1430 and the captain called a meeting five minutes after they touched down to brief his officers on what they would have to do, as well as how they were going to tell civilians about it. He was surprised however to see a lot of upbeat faces around the table when he finished. Claudia saw the surprise on his face and said, "We heard about the orders that might be coming already and we've got a little proposition, we would like to put before you." He looked over at Lisa, who looked away, whistling innocently and shook his head, while Mannstein grunted in humor and Connor scowled. Claudia saw this and decided to start putting some of her own plans into motion. It seemed as if things there were going to come to a boil soon.

Captain Gloval listened to the proposition about moving the civilians out in silence for a moment frowning. While it flew in the face of all military laws and regulations, yet it gave them the ability to do the two things he most desperately wanted to do: tell the regular civilian population of the aliens on the one hand, and get the civilians who wanted off of the battleship off. After a moment's thought he agreed. "You do know that this will kill any chances of promotion any of us have got correct?"

Ranma spoke up from where he had been leaning against the wall, part of the discussion once again as acting CAG. "Promotions don't matter, doing your job does and this is part of our job." Nodoka looked over at her son proudly and Gloval nodded once more in agreement. With that the meeting broke up, as he wanted to take a look at the press release Claudia and mayor Luan had prepared before using it later that day. The sooner they started on this little project, the better.

Claudia went over to Lisa, pulling her friend close to whisper in her ear. "It was all his idea, you know. You should have heard him he was actually pretty inspiring, going on and on about how it was our duty to defend the population and how it was wrong to follow orders that endangered that mission."

Lisa nodded. "He can be pretty inspiring sometimes, though only once per day, any more hurts his brain." She smirked.

Claudia giggled and Lisa waved her off to go join Ranma for a night at the White Dragon.

They moved slowly, picking up Kasumi on the way and sharing stories of how the time apart had gone for them all. Kasumi was sad to hear about the further estrangement between Lisa and her father, while Lisa in turn was angry beyond belief that her gentle lover had been threatened by the foolish panda. Ranma simply reiterated his desire to go after his father, as well as assuring Lisa that if her father tired anything to get her off the space fortress, he would come and get her whatever else happened.

Once they arrived at the restaurant, they were surprised to see the place was pretty busy despite being a little too early for the dinner hour and too late for the lunch hour. Rick was sitting at a table alone and the two went over to join him. "Hey you three," he said listlessly, "What's up?"

Ranma answered. "Quite a bit, there's going to be a an announcement over the TV in a while that will probably shake up everyone, but it's a good thing in the long run. What's going on over there?"

Lisa nodded, having already seen that the center of the crowd was dominated by Minmei and a newcomer a young man with a long blue-black hair, handsome face and thin body and a serious expression.

"Oh that's Minmei's cousin Kyle, he was born in the original Macross city, and he moved away to live with Minmei's family to go to college nearby. This is the first time he's been home in years, and as soon as everyone heard he was back they all came out of the woodwork to welcome him. You know, the old wayward son coming home bit." Rick groused, poking at his food morosely.

Lisa studied Kyle for a moment thinking that if circumstances were different she might be attracted to him. He looks so much like Karl, but he can't hold a candle to Ranma in the looks department. The thought that she had just admitted her current lover was better looking than her old boyfriend flitted across her brain but she didn't give it much thought, it was true after all, and wasn't the most important way Ranma was a better man than Karl either.

"If that's all there is to it, what's got yer boxers in a bunch?" Ranma asked, and Kasumi nodded agreement, though she would never have put it so crudely.

"Two things really, one he's a peacenik" Just like Karl, Lisa thought getting a little weirded out by how much Kyle resembled her old boyfriend, "who thinks that everything is the fault of the military, that if those of us in uniforms stopped fighting there would be no wars." Or not Lisa reflected ruefully.

"And two, I don't like the way he looks at Minmei when he thinks no one is looking. It's definitely more of a guy checking out an attractive girl look than should be coming from her cousin." And that killed what little remaining curiosity Liza had toward Kyle as she became weirded out for an entirely different reason.

"That's a little wrong" Kasumi muttered, looking a little green around the gills and Lisa nodded her head rapidly in agreement.

Ranma nodded agreement but the red/orange flash of an emergency report grabbed his attention. "Look, the captain's about to make an announcement, huh that was way faster than I thought it would be." Lisa nodded again, looking around at the crowded restaurant and wondering what the reactions of the people would be.

It only took a second for everyone, used as they were to important announcements, to turn their attention away from Kyle and Minmei to the TV. After a few minutes however the crowd began to turn ugly as Gloval relayed the high commands edict about not letting the civilians off the ship, but for the most part that changed as Gloval continued, outlining their plans to take off the civilians who wanted to leave despite their orders.

Once the transmission ended most of the civilians seemed resigned yet hopeful but several of them did not. "I lived in Macross my whole life, my house and everything is here, that's all I own. It can't just be turned into money like that!" One angry man shouted.

"It's the military's fault as usual!" Kyle said loudly. "If they didn't start this war, the aliens would never have come here. If they hadn't made a mistake with this ship's special drive or whatever none of you would have been torn from your peaceful lives! And if the military high command wasn't so concerned about keeping control then you all could go back to your normal lives!" There were mutterings of agreement, though a few voices were raised in protest of this sweeping statement as well.

Another patron agreed. "You can't just start a new life over somewhere else at the drop of a hat! I want our old lives back! It's the military's fault that we and our property are here, it's their responsibility to see we get off the ship with everything we brought on in the first place!"

"Let's ask the…soldiers …here" One of the civilians had turned to point to where Rick was sitting only to trail off as he saw that Rick was not alone.

He gulped as he saw Ranma now standing up watching the crowd with a smirk on his face. "Ya want ta ask us something?"

Kyle looked around at the crowd wondering why the rowdies now looked almost terrified while the rest of the crowd, all of whom had looked worried by the escalating tension, had calmed down Some of them, the ones who had supported the military were even smirking a little. The soldier standing up didn't look all that tough though the closer Kyle looked at him the less certain about that assessment he became. He then stared as Minmei left his side and moved to hug the soldier and then the truly beautiful honey-brown haired girl sitting at the table with the rest of the soldiers.

"Ranma, hi, thanks for getting the crowd to settle down" she smiled as she felt Ranma's arms around her for a moment. While Rick's hugs always made her feel loved and wanted, Ranma's made her feel safe, safer than even her father had when she was a little girl. She could feel the strength in his arms, strength enough to literally tear apart mountains, but knew that he would never hurt her.

"No worries Minmei, they're just scared and angry, hard ta blame 'em really."

She nodded then pulled away and hugged Kasumi in turn "Kasumi thanks for letting Rick and I borrow your plane, seeing my parents again was really great."

Kasumi smiled and pulled Minmei down to sit next to her across from Rick as Ranma turned to look at the crowd. "Ya know, I heard a lot of 'ifs' in the new guy's statement, well I don't deal with 'ifs', I deal in the here and now. Here and now, the high command has made a shitty ass decision to follow a shitty ass decision that somehow made sense to their senile, rule-addled minds."

A few people in the audience chuckled at that but Ranma continued seriously. "Here and now, the captain and all o' us are going against orders ta get as many of you civilians off the ship as want ta go. Ya still got issues once yer off the boat take it ta a politician and get 'em ta control their generals, they're the ones supposed ta be in charge after all. But as long as ya stay aboard the Macross, ya behave like the decent people ya are. If anyone wants ta still fight about it, come ta me and I'll give ya all the fight you can handle."

There was some muttering but the majority of his audience nodded, some of them even took out their phones to relay that message to others. No one, not even the most angry anti-military rowdy wanted to get on Ranma's bad side. The spar he and Motoko had in the city's main park was legendary by now.

Lisa stood up then to add her points. "We're doing all we can in this messed up situation, just as we have all along, and we will continue to do so. The captain will even start to broadcast pleas for a safe harbor to put the entire city down if we can, though if the aliens attack again that will no longer be an option. One more thing, I want you all to remember what we have all been through, the hardships you faced, the violence, death and despair we all faced together. Don't be swayed by a pretty face and glib words to forget all that."

She stared hard at Kyle, showing him she knew what he had tried to do, and that rabble rousing would not be welcome aboard Macross. "As the captain said, a survey will be going out to every address and business tomorrow. If you want off the ship simply sign up and you'll be lifted out alphabetically. But for now, I'm here to enjoy a nice dinner with my friends, so shoo!" She waved her hands as if chasing away flies and several people in the crowd broke into laughter, dispersing to leave or to move back to their own tables.

Kyle, thoroughly defanged and humiliated, stormed off in a huff.

Ranma and Lisa sat back down switching places with Minmei who sat down next to her boyfriend on the other side of the booth. "No offense Minmei but I hope yer cousin gets off the ship soon. He looks like trouble ta me."

Minmei sighed. Part of her wanted to defend Kyle, while another part of her, the new, more mature part, knew he had been out of line to say those things, especially since he hadn't been on the ship that long. "I know, I'd like to spend time with him but with his attitude I don't think I want him around much either."

"This plan actually sounds like a good idea." Azonia was understandably surprised. She hadn't had much respect for Kyron but now that had risen from absolute zero to around 2. "What do you think Miriya?"

Miriya nodded thoughtfully. Kyron had come up with a plan built around a feint, something she would never have expected from that mad fool. He would push thirty ships into the third planet's atmosphere in two waves of fifteen, covered further by a cloud of their Reguld pods and with every radar jamming pod remaining in the 11th fleet to cover their radar signal. Once down near the planet fifteen of the ships would splash down into the ocean, going underneath it to attack the space fortress from below. The remaining fifteen would attack the space fortress from above, standing off and sending in their own flights of Reguld to overwhelm the defenders and leave it open to the attack from below. "My troops and I will be ready, and once the second wave of the attack goes in, that will give us enough cover for us to gather the intel you want of the outer hull."

Azonia nodded. "Excellent, and an attack like this will pull in all the other Micronian forces in the area, leaving the other information gathering expeditions to face even less resistance."

Miriya nodded but she didn't really care. Soon, soon my Micronian foe, we will meet for the third time to settle everything. Be ready my foe, be ready.

End chapter

As you can see, I'm setting the stage for a lot of things in the next chapter, as well as hinting of problems and goodies to come. Sorry if it seems short for a two week update, but RL is really kicking my ass, and I am having trouble getting time to write even with my Dragon Naturally Speaking working once more. More there just isn't another good place to cut off for another 13,000 words or so, none of which has been proofread, organized or anything.

As always read and review.

*Chapter 22*: Death of an Asshole

I do not own Ranma or Robotech.

Thanks again to TJG and Jannissa for the great reviews. I hope you all like this chapter, now, on with the show!

Chapter 21 Death of an Asshole

"I'm sorry sir, I must not have heard you correctly, could you like to run that by me again?" asked Claudia into her headset from where she was manning her long-range communications station. Her voice was a little louder than normal in the efficiently running bridge and her querulous, startled tone was very odd coming from the normally cool and collected lt. commander.

Vanessa looked up at Claudia from where she and Lisa were looking at the civilian relocation plans grateful for any distraction. The civilians had responded quickly to the survey, and the two of them were going over who was leaving, where they wanted to go and everything else, plus what it would mean to the hydroponics section the repair section, what was being left behind, etc. This was also furthering Vanessa's education in the world of paperwork and logistics. At the moment it looked as if the civilians leaving weren't actually go to have an impact on the running of the ship or its internal components, as nearly a third of them, the group that was determined to help the military as much as possible, were determined to stay. Shopkeepers, small business owners, and other groups from the city however would practically disappear. The only restaurant owners that were staying were the Lynn's there were only two of three shop owners that were staying and they were all losing most of their workers, not to mention the recreation distirct. The hospital too was going to lose most of its nurses and doctors, and even the police force was going to be decimated. It looks like Kasumi isn't going to get as many interior design jobs as she wanted, Lisa thought as she finished reading the percentage of the shopping district that going to close down, then cocked her head and looked up as her friends tone finally registered.

Gloval too looked up from his work, where he had been going over Dr. Lang's notes on how long it would take Earth to start making the new weapons systems he and his team had developed, as well as signing off on a recommendation for Ranma to get another medal for his work with the team. Without his work on the energy strengthening technique the destroid and Valkyries would have been utterly wiped out rather than badly denuded as they had been and the Gargoyles would probably have taken the ship. "What seems to be the problem lieutenant commander?"

Claudia put down her headset for a moment looking over at him, her face showing the surprise and confusion that had been evident in her voice even more clearly. "Well, sir, I have someone on the line here who wants to, to emigrate to us, a civilian who wants to board the ship."

Gloval looked at her in surprise. Why in the world would someone want to immigrate to what is ground zero for the alien attacks? In fact he had been surprised that so many of the civilians had wanted to stay. More the ship had so far not been having any trouble receiving resupply. Certainly they hadn't received any actual reinforcements just yet, but he had already gotten a guaranteed that they would once they reached Hawaii, which was their next destination. Japan had refused to take any of the civilians save their own nationals, of which there were very few and Gloval refused to break from the plan to put them ashore first as it would show favoritism. Despite its inclusion in the United Nations, and despite the fact that they supplied quite a lot of the tech base the UNSF used, Japan remained an extremely insular nation, and they wanted nothing to do with that many foreigners coming in all at once, even if only for a short time.

Hawaii on the other hand had agreed to be the relay point for all the civilians coming off the ship. This was excellent news as even today it was home to a massive American military base. It was one of five places that served the 5th fleet of the United Nations, and the forces on the base itself consisted of two full wings of Valkyries, four companies of destroids, not counting interior defenses and base personnel.

They would be receiving a lot of reinforcements there, and Gloval was looking forward to the day when the maintenance crews were brought up to full strength. He was getting sick and tired of wandering hallways with missing plates, poor visibility because of the lights overhead not working and peeled paint everywhere. It might be a little petty of him, considering that the maintenance crew they had shipped with, barely half of what they should have had, had kept all the main weapons working and the majority of their forces fighting. Yet they were slowly falling behind even in that, and eventually they would be swamped by more serious issues. Water for example. Water distribution to the city was an issue that the civilians had taken on almost immediately after it was built, simply because it kept on breaking down. More, keeping the Valkyries in particular in fighting shape was a man intensive undertaking. Each Valkyrie squadron was supposed to have its own maintenance team of twenty, but with all the work the crew needed to put into other jobs they hadn't been able to assign that large a group, and more and more of them had to be returned to the factory, taking up more time there rather than creating new parts and pushing that back etc. etc. And none of this even considered the exemplary job the construction teams of both the military and the civilians had done repairing combat damage.

Claudia shook her head, having gotten over her own surprise and considering the future. "Maybe you should talk to him sir, because considering what Lisa told us, he might have a point."

Gloval nodded and simply said "Send the signal over to my station." He pushed a button which should have made a small screen pop out of the armrest of his chair, but instead the panel popped open and the screen came out barely an inch before the arm holding it sparked, fizzled and fell back into its slot. Gloval shook his head, knowing that such things were happening all around the ship, and hoping that the reinforcements the maintenance squads would be getting would help them make some headway on the little uses that were cropping up more and more. At least until they took more combat related damage.

He reached out and pulled the screen up to where he could see it and then pushed it on, thankful that it actually works despite its aborted effort of coming out automatically from its little cubicle. "This is Captain Gloval," he said looking at the man whose image appeared on the small screen, "I understand you wish to board my ship? Might I ask why? And how in the world are you talking to me in the first place sir?" He knew that the UN high command had been trying to cut off communication from the civilian sector, not wanting news of the space fortress's survival to spread. Obviously despite their control of the planes enabling continued worldwide communication this was yet another example of locking the barn after the animals had escaped, and not lawful or bright but still, a private citizen being able to contact him like this was still surprising.

The man facing him was tall and extremely well built, almost as much as Mannstein, and of the same age going by the slight wrinkles around his eyes and his gray hair. He was an Asian man, either Chinese or Vietnamese Gloval couldn't tell. The man's Standard English when he spoke was clipped, not like a person who had been in the military clipped, simply as if he was unused to using the language. "Good morning Captain Gloval" the man replied, "my name is Lon- Cao. I assume you have heard of me?"

This line was not said with any sense of ego at all, it was a simple fact as Gloval had indeed heard of him. Lon-Cao was one of the big names in over-technology construction. He owned several dozen factories scattered across Asia, all of which produced destroid or Valkyrie parts. The man was simply a genius at bringing out the best of his workers and machinery. It also told Gloval why the man was able to speak to him, as he was a man that the UN would not cross given how much they relied on his business and certainly the local authorities that should have been enforcing the blackout knew it. It did not answer the question as to why he was calling them though. "What can I do for you, sir?"

"I want on your ship." The man said bluntly, "For myself and for my immediate family and for as many workers as you are willing to take, as well as their families." he held up a hand as Gloval opened his mouth to ask another question. "I know what you are going to ask. But news of the numbers of the alien ships above us has leaked badly from the very beginning, despite our inability to organize a resistance to the UN high commands stupidity. I do not understand why the high command of the United Nations has deemed it appropriate to ignore the danger at the door, but it behooves us who can see it to do what we must. And we know, myself and several colleagues who are also businessmen of some renown, that if the aliens attack Earth with their full might, there is little to nothing the United Nations could do at this moment in time. Perhaps if we had known of their numbers and been building up to match them since your ship was found we could or at least come as close as we could, that would be something more, but as it is and with nearly all material resources and production capabilities turned to the Grand Cannon scheme, there is little we can do. The Macross captain has survived everything the aliens have been able to throw at it, and if they continue to fight you with kid gloves as it were I have no doubt that you will be able to continue to survive. Yet I cannot say the same for Earth, and more importantly my family and those who look to me for their livelihoods. So as I say I want to board your ship."

Gloval leaned back in his chair gazing at the other man thoughtfully, and wondering how to reply. He began to think of the pros and cons of this. Pros: the man was an admitted administrative and managerial genius. He had started off with a single small factory and worked his way up to being a trillionaire. He was used to working with over-technology, would acclimatize quickly to the ship factories, and would probably be able to boost their output by an order of magnitude. It would also irritate high command. It bothers me that that last notion actually matters far more to me at this moment in time then the other pros. Gloval shook his head, smiling a little inside at the thought.

Cons: he was known to be very aggressive and Lon-Cao was a man used to be in charge or at least to have a major voice in the goings-on around him, which would mean they would be bumping heads at some point. He would almost certainly be one of the civilian voices of the council almost as soon as he arrived, and that would force him and Gloval to work together. That would be a little like having two ringleaders and only one ring. Speaking of rings, he thought looking over at Claudia, I should probably give her the okay to go along with her little plan in the next few days, possibly as early as tomorrow.

Back on topic,getting rid of the civilians would help immensely both in terms of space, and administrative and disciplinary issues and bringing in more would obviously offset that. Yet at the same time, it was a pro, because civilians would work and could handle the duties that they could handle, thus freeing up more people to work on those duties only the Navy could take on.

After a few moments more of silent deliberation Gloval slowly nodded. "We may be able to accommodate you sir, but we would have to hammer out some ground rules first…"

About fifteen minutes into the resulting discussion alarms began to blare and Claudia looked up once again from her station.

Out on the hull, there was no more partying, but many hundreds of civilians and navy workers had come out to work on their tans or just hang out in the sunlight. There was just something to be said about feeling the rays from a real sun on your skin it just felt better than the small artificial sun that had been created for the city.

Motoko had removed herself from the rest of the sunbathers by the simple expedient of jumping up from the areas that regular people could get to up onto the upper hull by one of the tertiary weapons platforms. She lay back in a barely there string bikini, staring fixedly up into the sky with a pair of cheap sunglasses over her eyes, trying to get over her worries as the sun's rays flowed over her body. She had recently learned of the next port they would be going toward, and she knew what honor and basic decency required her to do. She had already sent off a message and received a reply, and there was really no help for it.

Her contemplation was interrupted by a loud splash and an irate female voice crying. "Oh come on, I've only been out here for a few seconds!" She smirked a little recognizing the voice in the distance, but didn't move from her spot to go and look at what happened.

The answer came to her as Ranma hopped up from the lower deck clamoring over the hull and smiled at her a little as she saw Motoko, turning towards her. She carried Kasumi in her arms and the statuesque brunette was giggling a little at the redhead's misfortune. Another girl also followed behind them laughing a little though a part of her was more than a little freaked out by how quickly her friend had been splashed once she came outside. Ukyo had known for a while that all of the people suffering from Jusenkyou curses attracted water to them, but that was a very different thing from seeing a massive yet extremely thin wave suddenly come out of nowhere to splash over the ship that was actually hovering 50 feet above the waves to hit Ranma.

Motoko looked at the new girl with a bit of interest then shook her head. A little too masculine for my tastes if her choice of clothing is any indication, even if her hair is nice.

Kasumi was saying something as they came towards her, and the words came to her as they neared. "All I'm saying Ranma, is that you should probably be a little more at home with receiving affection and your female form. I know you aren't as at home in it as in your male form, but it really doesn't matter to Lisa or I. I don't like it when you try to turn away from our affection in this form."

Ranma paused and looked down at her as they came up to Motoko waving absentmindedly at her Lieutenant before replying. "Kasumi, ya know I'm at home with my emotions more in this form so it ain't that I'm really uncomfortable, it's just that the whole affection thing in this body, it just feels weird to me. I react differently in this form, it's just a little strange, that's all."

"And you're not a little curious about how it could be in that form?" Kasumi asked.

Before Ranma could reply Motoko spoke up, her eyes under her glasses locked on Ranma's breasts, which were barely covered by his muscle t-shirt. "I could make you a lot curious you know." The three newcomers looked at her and she paled a little, ripping her eyes away from the red points that had so grabbed her attention. "Did I just say that out loud?"

Ranma nodded, blushing a little at the heavy come on from the girl she saw as a little sister. Motoko had never been that blunt with showing her attraction to Ranma's female form before.

Kasumi however simply giggled. "I take it that abstinence is getting to you dear?"

Motoko ground her teeth a little angry at the reminder. "That's part of it," she said, "I still can't find Lucretia, the blonde I was hitting on. She just seems to have disappeared. And well, Rachel's been giving me looks and keeping her distance from me lately. As if I would ever try to hit on her when she's under my command," Motoko groused a little, smacking her hand on the deck below angrily. An awesome ass like that and she has to be as straight as an arrow and leery of lesbians damnit! I could use a bit of eye candy at least! She looked up at the new girl and scowled seeing that she had backed away a little. "Oh don't bother, it's not like I'm so desperate I'm just going to jump you or anything, besides you look too butch for me."

Ukyo breathed a sigh of relief then scowled as the words hit her. "Hey did you just call me unfeminine?"

"Well if the shoe fits cross dresser," Motoko replied drawling a little to make the words more condescending. A good argument was just what she needed right now to get some of her irritation out.

Ranma looked at her one eyebrow raised at the confrontational air from the girl and said "that's not the only thing bothering you though. What's up?"

Motoko sighed. "You know we're heading for Hawaii right?" Ranma nodded and Motoko went on. "Well, I called my family when we first got back, and I've basically been ordered home at the earliest opportunity. Let me just say that I'm not looking forward to it and leave it at that."

Ranma cocked his head then nodded. Motoko had told him that her family had not exactly been supportive of her sexual orientation and facing that again would probably be very irritating. "I'd offer ta come with you, but I can't leave the ship right now, with me acting CAG they won't let me."

Motoko shook her hand waving that thought away. "Your mom decided she would come with me to offer moral support, I'm just hoping that's all she does. If my father speaks to me or her as he normally does to 'mere' women, Nodoka might just decide to cut him in half." Motoko knew that the older woman would be very capable of doing so. While Motoko herself was probably a slightly better swordsman by this point, given the fact that the last spar she and Nodoka had Motoko had won by the skin of her teeth, she knew that Nodoka would be able to handle him easily. He might've been the best swordsman in her family before she left, but her skill now was light years away from what it had been, and training with Nodoka and Ranma was the reason for that.

Ranma scratched his pigtail thoughtfully. "Wonder why she's so keen to go? Well, whatever. Anyway, this gal here is a friend of mine from Nerima and before. Her names Ukyo, try not to get into a fight with right now okay?" Motoko pouted a little but nodded and Ukyo rolled her eyes, wondering how good the Hawaiian girl was. "She and another friend just arrived on the ship yesterday. They were looking for a little excitement."

Motoko laughed and shook her head. "Only you would know people who would actually come aboard a flying target like this looking for some excitement!"

Ukyo was about to reply for herself to that when both Motoko and Ranma's phones buzzed. A moment later exterior speakers began to blare out a warning. "Attention, attention all civilians and personnel are to retreat immediately into the space fortress. Alien ships approaching orbit directly above us."

Ranma shrugged and looked over at Motoko who stood up swiftly. "I think you're about to see what kind of action we get around here," she said dryly. Ranma took a moment to kiss Kasumi on the check and ask Ukyo to get her back inside before the two of them shot off as fast as they could, jumping down to the nearest hangar and entering at a breakneck run, moving around clumps of civilians and soldiers as they came in racing over to their Valkyries.

Ranma jumped up on top of hers, pulling from her sleeve a bottle of hot water and swiftly changing and getting into the cockpit before she could be splashed by any mysterious water attack. The extra flight suit she had stored in her Valkyrie was for her male form rather than female, it wouldn't fit his female form and even Ranma didn't want to feel the g-forces that hit the pilot in a dogfight without his suit on.

On the bridge of the space fortress all other work and distractions had been forgotten the moment the UN had reported that their long range radar and telescopes had shown Zentraedi spaceships moving into close orbit over the planet right overhead of the space fortress's current position. From this distance it was impossible to tell for certain but the Reguld class battlepods being reported breaking the upper atmosphere indicated this was probably a portion of Kyron's fleet, or possibly even the entirety of the remainder of it. We did hammer him pretty badly over Jupiter during their break out after all, Gloval thought to himself.

Sammy, who handled the interior repair systems and directed the barrier shields spoke up from where she had been making certain all the civilians and soldiers who had been outside got back in. "The POs report we're all in Sir, civilians are moving towards the shelters even now. Valkyries are ready to launch."

Gloval smirked a little, realizing this was a fortuitous time to become once more a battleship captain rather than a carrier one. "Hold off on that for a moment Lieutenant. He turned to Kim, "Lt. Young disengage gravity drive, let us sink below the surface of the water, then open the exterior cooling sinks for the secondary weapons and use the gravity drive to give us a stable firing platform."

Lisa realized what the captain was going to do and laughed, nodding her head at Kim, who understood a moment later. "Yes, Sir, powering up the secondary guns aye, disengaging gravity drive momentarily aye." A second later the ship shook as it hit the water and then it began to sink. After her instruments told her all the secondary weapons were in the water she went on. "Opening up exterior cooling sinks now, reactivating gravity drive now." As she spoke the massive secondary weapons on the side of the ship and on the top of the hull rotated or elevated as they needed to range on the enemy.

The Macross had two types of secondary guns. First were eight beam cannons, the power of which was equal to the main cannons on any Zentraedi ship they had yet faced. They had lost four of these in Operation Blitzkrieg, replaced three of them since and then lost four more giving them a total now of only three. But those three were all on the bottom-side or keel of the ship, so out of the action. The other secondary weapons systems was based off the rail-gun design, which fired a large slug of metal at astonishing speeds, causing even more damage than a shot from one of the beam cannons. They had lost one of these in operation Blitzkrieg and repaired it later, but they hadn't lost any of them since, and all of them were on the sides of the ship, able to be turned to face nearly any direction.

The one thing both systems had in common was they generated a truly tremendous amount of heat, which in space was very hard to get rid of. That forced a certain set amount of firing rate, which was actually well below what the systems and metal of the guns could handle. Water however, especially saltwater was incredibly good at dispersing heat. With the exterior heat cooling chambers open to let in the water, the entire Pacific Ocean would serve as a monstrous heat sink. This would allow them to fire rail guns as often as the machinery could withstand, and with the barrels and systems being cooled by the water that would be very quick indeed, though they would have to be checked later for corrosion damage, and thoroughly scrubbed to get rid of any salt.

A moment later Lisa spoke up frowning a little as she looked over Vanessa's shoulder at her radar station. "The enemies are in range sir, but radio isn't able to pick out individual targets, they must have a lot of those ECM jamming Regulds out in front of them."

Even this knowledge didn't dampen Gloval spirits. He was a battleship captain, that was what he had been trained for, and this was about to become a battleship fight, as none of the battle pods would be able to close the range before he could destroy them and their motherships. "It matters not commander, fire at will, we're bound to hit something.

"Firing," Kim answered from her station and a moment later the huge secondary guns of the space fortress fired as one, with their distinctive (at least in atmosphere) sound of 'Bzzrk' and 'FZZZ-Fwoosh'. A second later, they fired again and again and again, faster than they ever had been before, as swiftly as their systems could handle. And while they couldn't yet pick out individual targets, that didn't mean the insane rate of fir wasn't hitting anything.

Kyron scowled aboard his flagship, as the first of his seriously depleted fleet died. Despite the fact that they were spread out heavily and further covered by the ECM battle pods of all two hundred of his remaining ships, that first shot had all instantly been a killer, burning through the Regulds in front of that ship and then destroying it utterly, followed swiftly by two more. More to the point the blasts were wiping out the ECM equipped pods and soon his enemies would be able to see him, and their fire would become much more deadly. Worse, his plan would be shot to hell because they would see his assault force break off from his decoy group. Knowing this he turned to Grell and said "break us off now, we'll have to come down further away from the space fortress to avoid their fire."

His second in command nodded but asked, "And the ships on the decoy mission? When do you want them to break off?"

Kyron scowled as his Queadol-Magdomilla command ship began to turn ponderously away, followed by thirty Quiltra Queleual class ships, the best ship in the fleet for in atmosphere or water maneuvers, although he had been forced to reduce their interior Reguld forces by a third to add to the rest of the fleets forces. His flagship shuddered as the front portion detached, the assault portion, more aerodynamic entered the atmosphere leaving the orbital portion behind. The assault ship was the only one of its kind in his fleet as his original flagship had been destroyed seconds after he had exited it in the first battle over the gas giant.

"They're already dead. Tell them to remain on station and rain fire down on the space fortress, keep its attention fully on them." Kyron knew without a shadow of a doubt that this was his last chance to take the space fortress. The losses his fleet had taken in this campaign had been ruinous and none of them had been replaced by new ships coming from Dolza. He knew that if they took more without any return Dolza may order the rest of his clan-fleet either destroyed utterly or ordered to return and be absorbed by his own fleet. His entire clan-fleet would die. It would die for nothing, and they would die because Dolza had commanded them to.

But if they won through, if he, Kyron, won where Breetai and Azonia had failed, then he might be transferred to command one of the main fleet's in honor of his achievement. A last chance to grab glory, Kyron thought with a mad, manic smile. What more could I ask for?

At the same time that Kyron's fleet descended into the planet's atmosphere, spreading out and using its ECM equipped Regulds to cover the action of his flagship and thirty Quiltra Queleual as they broke off and descended to the ocean well away from their target, their engines cut off to appear damaged another, much smaller attack began.

Over 300 battle pods descended from the Meltraedi fleet swiftly, organized and purposeful, totally unlike the massive cloud of Regulds from Kyron's fleet. Their target was the area of the planet called 'Belgium', which while having only the second best chocolate in the world, would be much easier to invade.

The geography was much flatter than in the one called Switzerland, and while there were two military bases in the country that might cause them trouble, Switzerland had several dedicated land force bases, which given the terrain would cause the Queadluun Rau more issues than the air forces. Athena was leading this force, and been involved in the planning stage, so she knew once they broke the back of the 'UN' forces, (though she had only the vaguest idea of what that meant, some kind of inter-clan fleet that got better weapons? How bizarre was that?) they would have little other opposition to their assault.

They were barely 10 minutes out before a response arrived from the nearest UNSF bases over three full wings of 200 Valkyries each tried to intercept them. Unfortunately, these Valkyries were of the old type without the SAM Pack or anything else the crew of the Macross had developed like the armor strengthening method to protect the cockpit, and none of their officers had read the reports that Lisa Hayes had submitted or even worse, read a few reports Roy had put on out on the pilot's net on the sly.

Therefore they were completely unprepared for the reality of facing the Meltraedi powersuits in battle. Not only were the powersuits faster, more mobile, more durable and better armed, they were on the main piloted equally or better.

Thus, the Meltraedi broke upon them like piranha among minnows, and with just as bloody an effect, despite more forces coming from elsewhere to replace their losses. Athena merely smiled as she wiped two Valkyries out. Simply more targets to destroy.

About forty minutes into the attack on Belgium, the news had finally reached Prescott where he had secluded himself in his quarters in Fort winter. While he was saddened about the loss of life entailed, he could only laugh at the way this would shake everything up, and would finally force the high command to admit to the Zentraedi threat. And maybe given the operations he had already agreed to lead, they might just be forced to give him some help.

Onboard the space fortress Gloval nodded with approval as the twentieth enemy battleship disintegrated under their fire in the upper atmosphere. However by this time the power suits and battle pods had breached the atmosphere and were coming down towards them. "Raise the ship. To take on that number we'll need all of our available defenses on the upper Hall." Gloval ordered.

Lisa nodded and as soon as the first hangar bay breached the water she shouted "launch Valkyries! Objective is to strafe the enemy with missiles than return. Do not, repeat do not engage in close range combat, no dogfighting people, I want you all back here alive. We've reached Earth, none of us are going to die now!"

Ranma laughed a little at her message, though he knew it was very heartfelt. Of the remaining Valkyries, all of whom were now veterans having lived through the battles against the Gargoyles before they hit atmosphere, had been fitted with SAM Packs, and one out of every three towed a string of missile pods after them on his orders to give them a heavier initial offensive punch. More he had ordered at least one out of every six to use the GBP-1S armor system, giving the force an even heavier punch, and since they weren't going far or too fast so the normal problems with bringing these heavily armored but slow types to the party wasn't there. Roy had written off on this idea, thinking it a good way to see if it was a viable option in future space actions.

They set up around ten kilometers above the space fortress, half again the range of the ships tertiary weapons of the space fortress, and as soon as the battlepods entered their range began to hammer them with missile fire. The Regulds, even more disorganized by their need to spread out to cover the ships above them with their ECM, died in their scores, and soon nearly a thousand had died under their missile fire without the Valkyries taking any shots in turn.

However, after their missiles were expanded they had to retreat, and the Zentraedi battlepods followed them in. The tertiary weapons of the space fortress began to fire as alarms began to finally blare in bases near enough to provide them some aid.

The maintenance crew worked quickly and efficiently and especially since only the missiles had to be replaced within two minutes of touching down the three squadrons of Valkyries were back in the air, and joined the battle above the space fortress. After fighting the Gargoyles every one of the surviving fighter pilots was finding this battle relatively easy, but none more so than the subdividing elite forces. Rick led Skull squadron, consisting of only four survivors from the previous conflicts above Jupiter and with the Gargoyles around Earth, but battle hardened beyond anything they had ever been before. The stayed together, guarded each other's backs and tore apart the Regulds around them like a well oiled machine.

Ranma and Blue squadron too moved through the swarm of Regulds smashing aside anything that got in their way with contemptuous ease as below them the secondary weapons continued to fire.

The beam weapons, fully in the air, were firing much slower now, cooled only by the air around them, but the rail guns, still in the water as only the top deck had been raised out of the water, continued to fire at their previous insane rate. More all of them were more accurate now, as the Regulds had descended en-masse on the space fortress, leaving the fleet above, which was now beginning to fire down at them, inaccurate but powerful, clear to the ships sensors. Barrier shields began to roll out in reaction, and with only having to cover the command spire and the top of the ship the twenty they had made since they hit atmosphere was well up to the challenge.

In her powersuit Miriya was slowly going insane due to the need to wait. She well knew that the main objective of the attack had to be achieved over anything else, even her personal rivalry with the human Ranma. She paused, rolling the name on her tongue, "Ranma. We will meet again to settle everything my foe, my rival, today one of us will emerge totally victorious at last." Yet still she waited, waited until the main thrust of Kyron's attack hit, the better to let her troops get in close and search for any weaknesses, knowing the Azonia would have no choice but to ground her if she disobeyed and moved too soon.

Kyron's forces had breached the water successfully, not having gotten any more interest from the space fortress, but they had garnered some interest from the UN 5th Fleet, which was stationed nearby and had already been moving to support the space fortress despite standing orders to stay clear. This fleet was a mixed unit, comprised mostly of Americans a few British units and two packs of submarines from the Russians in communications range. The admiral in command, an American, was well aware he was disobeying high command's orders, but he didn't care, the SDF-1 was a friendly unit and it was under attack, that was what he cared about. Now as his radar analyst informed him of the number of alien ships that had hit the water (which he couldn't quite see in the distance from their present position, pity it probably was an amazing sight), he scratched his chin, then nodded. "Launch Valkyries as planned, then move us forward on an oblique course around this enemy fleet to join up with the SDF-1. But first send word to commodores Livansko, and Oromov that they are free to hunt, repeat free to hunt." Moments later the submarines that had been taking on supplies from the fleet closed hatched and dove. While the rest of the fleet launched their Varitek forces to assist the space fortress, the submarines moved forward, ready to do their deadly work.

There are two lines of thought about submarine warfare. One is that speed and depth are the most important, while the other is that silence is the most important. The American submarines, most of which were at least these days situated close to home or in the Pacific, followed the silence model. Most of them, especially the Virginia class and on were simply ghosts, and they moved through the water with deadly grace, almost entirely invisible to radar or any other type of location technology. If you didn't already know where they were supposed to be, they were incredibly hard to find, right up until you took a torpedo to the bows, then you knew precisely where they were for all the good it did you.

The school of submarines thought followed by Russia however was speed and depth. There submarines could go deeper, faster than any other submarine in the world, even the Americans (these days anyway, that had not always been the case). Everyone could see them coming, but they were usually too deep for anything on the surface else to do anything about them. The 5th had six Russian submarines, all of them SSN rather than SSBN, attached to it organized into packs of three. All of them went hunting the moment their orders arrived, and were soon in position to show these invaders that there was terror in the depths.

So Kyron's fleet had descended barely a kilometer into the water when they began to come under attack from directly below them. Torpedoes exploded against them, and while it took four such torpedoes to destroy every battleship, the submarines attacking them had enough ordinance to do so.

Kyron growled aloud in fury, having not even realized that there could be enemy ships that would attack him like that. "By the stars, these Micronians are mad! Get the ships pointed downward and use the main guns and missiles on these foolish dresh!" Ponderously his fleet obeyed him while four more of his precious Quiltra Queleual died under torpedo and missile fire. Unfortunately the Quiltra Queleual class was made to deliver the maximum number of Regulds to any battle, and thus didn't have the interior capacity for ship-to-ship weapons as other Zentraedi warships. Worse, the 17 beam cannons each ship had wasn't powerful enough to hit their target through the water. In this battle they found themselves in the odd position of having to rely on their ships to ship missiles, and they only had ten ports each devoted to said weapons. To make matters worse their radar was not meant for this environment and was barely working. The missiles themselves however were working perfectly, and his own flagship had more powerful weapons on it, which could work through the water.

Alien technology was simply tougher than human technology, and the missiles were able to take the pressure to reach their targets. Kyron still lost twenty-five ships to this attack over the next hour which the surviving commodore, Oromov, thought was an excellent exchange. Exchange 25 alien battleships for four submarines that were rapidly proving to be obsolete, he'd take that any day. Especially since all of them had skeleton crews aboard, having been stripped to the bare minimum needed to crew them because Russia had decided to go back into the shipbuilding business and they needed the crews on new builds, something Oromov had not seen the point of until now, having not put any stock in the rumors floating around and simply stolidly following orders. Yet now he saw the reason, and wondered how submarine warfare in space would work. For now though he ordered his surviving two subs to break off and return to the 5th fleet for rearming. They had run through all of their onboard missiles and torpedoes in this attack, which was the only reason the remaining five alien ships survived.

The remaining five battleships reoriented themselves and dived deeper in an effort to avoid further conflict. Given their speed even going slowly to avoid detection it only took them an hour to reach position directly below the space fortress. Kyron smiled sadistically. This was going to be even sweeter now, returning the favor the Micronians just did him by attacking from below, on top of finally succeeding where he had failed so often. Launch all battle pods! Once that is done you may turn and engage that enemy fleet that is coming to the space fortresses aid. Keep it away from the space fortress until we have captured it."

Kyron left the bridge, leaving Grell in command of this part of the operation as he raced to get in his Glaug. He smiled a little sadistically. Taking the space fortress while he is busy elsewhere will be a fantastic way of paying back the Micronian ace for all the times he humiliated me!

The battle pods launched from so close and with no one paying attention to the sonar (and with 5th fleet too far out to com directly with them just yet) directly and the com plane assigned to the SDF-1 having been shot down earlier) it came as a complete shock to everyone aboard the space fortress when suddenly clangs and bangs began to be heard from the lower decks and reports of intruders began. Even as the final Zentraedi ship in orbit died under their fire Kyron's forces had forced their way inside, and as the emergency blast doors closed blocking out the water they stormed in the first wave 650 strong with three more waves of equal strength coming in behind.

Unfortunately, nearly all of the destroids had been moved on to the upper hull to defend against the attacking battle pods. All that was left to face the invaders was a single company of Spartans, and while individually they were easily a match for any two or even three battlepods they were incredibly outnumbered. They responded quickly however and knew the interior of the space fortress, especially its guts where the attack began like the back of their hands. Using this knowledge they were able to bottle up the attackers in many sections of the lower portions of the space fortress, but the numbers were overwhelming. Lisa helped as best she could, but this was really not her kind of battle, she had trained for space and aerial warfare, not boarding actions, and Mannstein was out on the hull. She ordered him to return, but just as the word left her lips the Reguld swarm pressed in harder than ever. She grimaced then shook her head. They would have to hold the boarders back for now on their own, and she began to issue orders with brisk efficiency, not letting any of her concern show.

"At Last!" breathed Miriya as ship she was on relayed the tactical information that half of the land forces on the space fortress were making their way back inside, almost certainly to help defend against Kyron's attack. Then she leaned forward like a bird of prey hands gripping her controls like talons. "All pilots, launch now, destination is a space roughly half a korg from the space fortress. Remember our ROE, we are not to engage the enemy except in self defense but get in close and get visual recordings of the space fortresses outer hull. Also remember that if you see a enemy mech with a strange four footed animal on it, it is mine!"

All of her pilots responded in the affirmative, none of them saying what they thought: that none of them wanted anything to do with the human ace after what had happened in orbit. They weren't suicidal after all.

The Meltraedi pilots had one more advantage, they were trained in a far harsher school, where battles lasted until one force was utterly destroyed, no matter how long it took. The battle had been going on for over two hours and yet none of the aliens died though over a dozen fell back damaged and ordered to return to their motherships in orbit, while more and more Valkyries went down.

The major commanding a responding wing from a base in Germany dodged a few mini-missiles and almost screamed in frustration. Not only had he lost practically 60% of his fighters since joining this battle, but now exhaustion was taking its toll, and his losses were climbing. "Why don't these guys back off? How can they keep fighting this long? How are they able to pull off those maneuvers!?" Maybe, a little thought in his mind said, you should've listened to Commander Fokker about his experiences fighting these bastards in space rather than blowing them off as coming from a young upstart, no matter how decorated. Another mini missile impacted his wing, and suddenly one of the alien things was directly in front of his Valkyrie and lashed out, crushing the center of his plane and destroying the cockpit, killing him instantly.

Within an hour of his death resistance had been completely crushed, and half of the attacking Queadluun Rau took up position in the air, providing over-watch against further reinforcements from any of the bases in nearby countries. The other half descended, and began to move towards a specific area of the country, a city named Brugge which their intelligence had pinpointed as a major chocolate provider. This meant that some of them attacked factories, absconding with giant tubs full of the chocolaty substance, while others attack slightly smaller shops in the city itself, where the chocolate was sold in little packages. So little were these packages that they barely could be seen in one of the Queadluun Rau's hands. Despite this, the pilots devoted to this aspect of the operation went about their task with a will, determined to get as much of this substance as possible and figure out how the male humans used it to control the females. If a few dozen of them moved off and stuck their hands through buildings advertising clothing to take away some more samples, none of their fellows mentioned it.

The odd little humans in the street screamed and ran from them as the Queadluun Rau moved around not really caring if they crashed into things, but also not doing so on purpose. They tended to avoid stepping on the humans, more because they squished rather alarmingly under their powersuits feet than anything else.

The one in charge of this part of the operation as Athena commanded the over-watch was named Silonnia, second in command of the 15th battalion, and she found the strange sight of the humans running around to be strange yet interesting. There were so many outlandish differences between them, not just in hair or coloring as was normal but in size. Why were there so many short ones around? What was their function, their role?

As Silonnia was thinking this she passed one house and something spanged of one of her powersuit's arms. She turned to see what had hit her and saw a human male sticking some kind of weapon out of a window. Behind him she was surprised to see a human female cowering, holding onto another smaller version of the male with one arm and holding a bundle of something in the other, which seemed to be emitting some kind of loud noise. She used her sensors to zoom in on their faces and saw fear, which she had expected under the circumstances, yet determination and fierce protectiveness in the face of the male. Then she was surprised to see an even smaller human in the bundle of clothing held by the female, so small it must have been a genetic defect of some kind. She thought of blasting them all away for the effrontery of attacking her, but something about that idea disturbed her. The male had no chance of injuring her and even less chance of protecting the two humans behind him, yet he had stood up to her in their defense, even though one of them was female and the others so small as to be useless in battle. The sight was oddly compelling and she turned away, leaving them alone, her emotions strangely effected by the sight in ways she could not understand.

Captain McCairn was a Spartan operator of Scottish descent and had been such for his entire career, all of a year now. He had entered the academy at the same time that Ranma had, but unlike the most famous pilot aboard he had flunked the 3-d combat test, simply unable to think in terms of 360° warfare. He excelled at Spartan operations though, which was how he had attained his current rank with so little time in grade, well that and attrition, much like in Ranma's case. No he desperately wished that someone, anyone was around to take the burden of command off him, because he saw his company, the last of the Spartans aboard the Macross, dying to hold the line against the horde that had invaded the ship. It was a reinforced company of 120 to start with, but this battle had already whittled that number down to 45. Even the armor enhancing technique, which all the Spartans had been put through along with the other destroids in the past few days (since they were supposed to get reinforcements the factories had concentrated on upgrading the existing destroid forces rather than build a stockpile of Valkyries and destroids) couldn't help them against the numbers coming at them.

Still he let none of his despair color his voice as he continued to issue orders, allowing his pilot to handle movement and gunnery. "First platoon fall back to the left in two corridors." As his Spartan began to turn he continued to issue orders. "Second platoon, fall directly back, remnants of third and fourth link up and move towards the central hub deck by fire and movement." He let none of his grief show, but he knew he had just consigned the remainder of second platoon to their deaths, all too hopefully lead a large force of the aliens away from the hanger that housed the city and into a death trap. But he had done the same with himself and his squad, so it evened out in the end.

His platoon came under fire from one of the corridors they passed but returned it swiftly, destroying the four pods clustered there. But behind them dozens more, all bunched together came forward, firing as they came, making small leaps over their dead companions. Soon hundreds more were pouring in, all of them eager to come to grips with the elusive enemies that had been hitting and slowing their advance for the past hour. His platoon fell back into one of the factories, one that ironically enough had been designed to build Spartan parts. They swiftly took up position all around, finding what cover they could and hammering the doorway as battlepods began to pour in. The numbers were simply overwhelming, and soon they began to die. McCairn saw one of his troopers grab up the heavy knife of one its fallen fellows and charge forward with a blade in both hands. He held the door for a few moments letting the others clear out the pods that had gotten into the room, but then fell, his Spartan destroid literally coming apart under the weight of fire.

McCairn's own Spartan took a hit, then another and another as more and more Regulds charged into the factory. He grimaced and looked at his gunner. "Hit the charges." The pilot replied instantly, and his aim shifted from an approaching battlepod to directly above the massive entrance to the factory room. The navy had also come out to play, and sappers in this environment had helped immeasurably. Now they helped again, shattering the deck above the entrance and bringing hundreds of tons of metal down in a planned cascade, trapping dozens of battlepods and destroying dozens more. As the trapped pods tore into him and his men McCairn smiled as he died, knowing they had done the best they could. Hopefully it would prove to be enough. Little did he know that his attacks and strategies had cost the enemy nearly half their attacking force. Still, that left them with more than enough to do the job.

Ranma and blue squadron returned to rearm their missile loads but instead of returning to the aerial battle they were ordered to head into the ship to repel boarders, while behind them the Tomahawk companies turned and moved swiftly to do the same. They all turned and marched straight into the fortress and down into the lower decks to help the defense.

By this time the defenders had been pushed into falling back, but thanks to McCairn and Lisa's planning they had been funneled away from any of the critical sections of the ship. Yet this had allowed them only one avenue of attack and that took them into the massive hold where the city resided. Luckily all the civilians had been evacuated into their special bunkers, and the defenders had the entire city to play with.

Ranma immediately took command of the few Spartans that had retreated into the hanger. "Fall back and start to provide cover fire for us. Max, Rachel get high, stick yourselves on the ceiling and fire down at their positions, keep the damn jumping bastards on the ground! Ben, set up on one of the top farming terraces and do the same, hammer the hell out of them. Motoko take one side, I'll take the other get in close and slaughter the fuckers!"

Under his direction the Spartans, now numbering only nine fell back and formed a makeshift barrier at the outskirts of the city proper that the battle pods couldn't pass. More their longer-range weapons finally come into play in the massive hangar. The Zentraedi tried to force their way forward, but fire from above, especially fire from the Ben's GPB-1S frame threw them back in disarray. Then Motoko and Ranma hammered them from the sides, throwing them further into disarray. At this point a Tomahawk company arrived and raced into help. The Tomahawks extended range and far heavier weapons began to turn the tide, their far heavier weaponry able to incinerate five battle pods with a single blow of their particle projection cannons. And whenever the battle pods tried to take to the air in the hangar Ben, the two snipers and the Tomahawk's shoulder mounted missile systems came into play smashing them out of the sky. The attack ground to a halt for a moment.

At this point Kyron came forward, having killed the last of the enemy mechs that had diverted his main thrust. With him he brought the rest of his forces, now only about seven-hundred strong after battling his way up from the lower decks yet still enough to take the space fortress, he knew it, he could taste it. He was close to pushing through and achieving the glory he sought.

However, his thoughts were soon subsumed as he saw his forces being pushed back into the corridor ahead of him by the superior range of their enemies. He jumped forward, dodging a flashing PPC round and firing back in the same movement. Yet before he could order his troops to charge forward again a familiar Valkyrie burst through the line of his first groups to reach the place where the corridor fed out into the hangar and positioned itself in the entryway. His rifle was blazing in one hand and his other held a knife that he used to gut a nearby pod as Ranma yelled out aloud in his speaker. "I've always wanted to say this: You Shall Not Pass!"

Motoko joined him, slaughtering seven battle pods in as many seconds with her blade before taking up position behind him, groaning aloud. "You're making jokes now, are you serious!?"

Ranma continued to laugh, pushing forward, forcing the battle pods to retreat or face him in close combat, and with his speed most of their shots were missing. A few hit, and a few out of thousands was still a lot, but his armoring technique let him take it. He only grimaced a little as he felt his ribs go in sympathetic reaction. A moment later he took a blow to one of his solider mode's shoulders, but by this point he was in among them and hammering out with hard blows with kick and fist, his rifle now simply a bludgeon in one hand as he coulnt take the time to reload, his knife long since buried in pod behind him. Motoko followed for a time but soon enough they were separated and she had to retreat having taken too much damage and not having enough ki skill to maintain the armor strengthening technique. Ranma stood alone in the large hallway holding the line against over 500 battle pods for several minutes, the few that broke through him were demoralized and broken, easy pickings for the rest of the forces behind him.

By this time the fight in the hangar around the city had died down, with the Spartans and Max and Ben and Rachel hunting down the small groups of survivors that were trying to hold up in various places. The Tomahawks however stayed together and raced towards the entrance way, taking position behind Ranma and filling the entire hallway around him with their PPC blasts, firing as fast as they could. Though unaimed for the most part it didn't have to be to be effective against the packed ranks of battlepods who had fallen back away from Ranma, clumping up even further as more and more came into the corridor pushing forward at the same time they were trying to get away.

Kyron scowled angrily as he saw his forces retreating from a single enemy, one stinking Micronian! He started to fire at them himself, but instead of putting some spine into them this made them retreat even faster. "Don't run you cowards! If we break through here, the fortress is ours!"

One of them, a little more wiseass than wise shouted back "then you do it oh mighty one!" A blast from Kyron's arm cannon silenced him forever, and he charged forward with a few of his followers behind him, yet the rout had begun and it could not be stopped. As they broke out of the press of bodies they suddenly found themselves far too close for comfort to the single Valkyrie that had held the corridor.

Ranma was a sight, his armor was dented, one of his arms was missing, and his head was missing two of its lasers. But the rifle that came up had been reloaded, and rounds banged out slamming into the nose of Kyron's battle pod. He staggered a little under the shots, and before he could move again Ranma was on him. His hand glowed with ki and it lanced out straight into and through the battle pods center, spearing Kyron straight through. "Just fucking die already you bastard!" Kyron didn't even have the chance to respond, his opponents ki enhanced fist had already smashed through his ribs and heart, killing him instantly.

In one of the larger factories surrounding the city of Brugge, Athena touched down after leading a defense against another assault on their position while landing craft designed to carry extra ammo touched down all around an inside the city. Once she made certain that there were no humans nearby, the workers of the factory having run away, she exited her power suit and moved over to one of the large tubs in the center of the factory. While on a human it would be approximately two stories tall, on her it only came up to her chest. She reached out a finger to touch the substance and found it had cooled, and with that she picked up some of it on her finger and licked it and her mind exploded.

Over an hour later, as Silonia got in touch with her. She came out of her trance feeling better, happier and more energetic than she ever had before, though the tub strangely seemed a bit emptier than it had been before her mind shot down. "Oh yes," she muttered to herself, "this is definitely the stuff the males use to control the females." A moment later the group retreated leaving a bewildered, demoralized and freaked out populace behind them.

Miriya scowled. Her flight had been on station for nearly fifty minutes and while reinforcements from the human fleet that was even now battling it out with five of Kyron's ships, her enemy had yet to break off from the dogfight to face her, though several squadrons had tried to close and engage her forces, rather foolishly in her opinion. She idly wondered what had happened to the other twenty-five ships Kyron had broken off for his attack, but the thought was unimportant to her own concerns. Very well if he won't come out, I'll just have to go in. "Remain on task all of you, I'm going to search for my adversary." She barely heard her fellow pilots responding as she charged forward.

Lisa groaned aloud as the enemy ace attacked alone. Of course Vanessa had reported the Gargoyle's arrival, but as they weren't attacking Lisa had pushed their presence to the side of her mind, only directing the ongoing dogfight now that Mannstein had taken command of the battle inside the ship. The boarding assault seemed to be broken now, which was a good thing. The new reinforcements that had arrived barley thirty minutes ago hadn't been blooded against the aliens before this and had been having a rough time of it already, with over twenty of them having already been shot down. It really pointed out the difference in ability between the Macross created and upgraded Valkyries and the ones being used by the UN, as well as the difference in skill of the pilots. So the return of the destroids would be a help, hell she had only left a single company of Defenders outside, the rest had been ordered inside to help clear out the boarding force it was so desperate for a time.

Yet the alien ace was bad news all by itself. It was attacking alone (!) the forces still fighting in the sky outside and around the space fortress. The Pacific Fleet forces that had come to help were no match for her, and as she watched her HUD twelve icons disappeared under its fire in less than a minute. The Gargoyles were deadly, but that enemy ace was just on a whole other level. The gargoyles were ripping through any of the forces that came out to fight them, but they weren't actually attacking the space fortress, and Lisa wondered why that was. Still it isn't as if they're necessary. She thought bitterly as another five Valkyries died in as many seconds. That alien ace alone will destroy our entire defensive formation. Maybe on land without the ability to fly one of the destroids would have a better shot at destroying it, but in the air with maneuverability and durability on its side, that thing was just deadly.

She knew what she should be doing, yet for the first time ever her personal worries overrode her professional instincts. She had gotten a report of how badly battered Ranma was, but he was literally the only one aboard that could face the ace in battle. She knew if she sent Ranma out there as battered as he already was he was going to die. Yet it was the only thing she could do, and she cursed her sense of duty even as she made the call, the others on the bridge save Gloval looking at her with pity and sadness in their eyes.

"Ranma" she said softly, ignoring military titles, and Gloval's look of surprise. "I, we, we need you outside. That enemy ace is here and she's cutting through our forces like they're not even there."

Ranma groaned aloud. His Valkyrie was a mess and so was he, but he knew that all their pilots only he Roy and maybe Max could face the ace and live. Max was down, having taken a few shots in the final closing moments of the battle in the hangar, Motoko was incredibly battered so even if she could close into hand to hand she would lose, and Roy was still in the hospital. That left only Ranma to face the ace regardless of his current injuries. Besides, even if I was even more battered I'd want to be out there. There's no excuses, if you want to be the best, you have to fight to prove it, and you can't always fight as you choose. "Roger," he said softly, "I'm on my way." He turned from Kyron's corpse and moved off as quickly as his soldier mode could take him.

Miriya growled allowed as she killed yet another irritating human. These new humans weren't even as skilled as the normal ones on the space fortress, and they lacked the endurance as well. The fighter only been going on for barely an hour and already their reaction times were all down. "Pitiful." She muttered.

At that moment however a familiar Valkyrie zoomed out of the space fortress and she turned and laughed happily. "At last my foe at last…." she trailed off as her systems reported the damage that Ranma had already taken, and she frowned realizing that he must have been involved in the battle against Kyron's forces on board the space fortress. And in that kind of environment he would lose most of his skills and abilities. It was evident that had cost him. As battered as he looked, Miriya knew he was no match for her.

Yet he still came on and Miriya nodded grimly. "No excuses. You have to fight to be the best, and sometimes you don't fight as you could wish." Without another word she sped toward him, ignoring the dogfight around her.

From the start it was what she had known it would be, brutal vicious, and all out. Ranma immediately attempted to close the range, and Miriya let him, hammering away with her cannons and pulse lasers, her mini-missiles having been expended on the irritating gnats earlier. She lost one of her hands and she winced in sympathetic reaction as her own wend dead from synaptic feedback. Yet her return rounds slammed into Ranma, who lacked his normal speed and grace, blowing off chunk of his armor despite his ki strengthening it as much as he could, yet he still lost a leg from the knee joint down.

Then they were in hand to hand range and Ranma found Miriya had yet again gotten better. She was nowhere near fast enough to perform the Katchu Tenshin Amiguriken maneuver, but she was fast enough to deflect it when he used it, and she did so, still tkaign wounds yet Ranma took still more in turn.

Miriya slammed a knee up into her opponent throwing her head around to get rid of the odd moisture that had built up in her eyes for some reason. The fight was indeed brutal and her opponent was doing all he could, but in the end with the damage to his mech and to himself (she could see splatters of blood in his cockpit now) the outcome was never in doubt.

Ranma fell back as his Valkyrie at last ran out of power, yet he kicked the shattered remnants of his Veritech's canopy out of the way, raising two hands, together ignoring the broken bones in his right arm and shouting "Moko Ha Reiku!" the beam was weak, but it stabbed out slamming into and burning away one of his enemies cannons.

Miriya winced as one of her ribs gave way under that golden beam of power, yet that was the last Gasp and Ranma's Veritech splashed backwards into the water, kept afloat only because he had transformed it to its fighter mode, which allowed it to float, if barely. Ranma forced his way out of the cockpit, his hands flickering with ki, but his face clenched and determined, despite his ribs, his leg and other wounds.

Miriya soared above him, that strange water back and blurring her vision. She had won, she could end his life right now, and one of her hands rose to do just that, bringing her pulse lasers to bear. Yet she couldn't bring herself to push the trigger. "No." the word echoed around her cockpit, and she pulled her helmet off, wiping angrily at the strange water in her eyes. "Not like this, this is not the victory I wanted. Not this cheap farce, this, no." She lowered her hand and hovered there staring down at her enemy. "We will meet again, when both of us are at peak condition and that settle everything." Ranma continued to stare up at her still game, still fighting even as his body failed around him and she smiled, a smile tinged with regret and respect. "Until then my foe." And with that Miriya turned away, rocketing skyward to join the rest of her wing as they ascended the atmosphere. She never even saw Ranma finally collapse backward, overcome at by his wounds at last.

End chapter

I wanted this chapter to portray all the different parts of the battle going on, and I hope I did that well. On the other hand i had a lot trouble naming this chapter in such a way that didn't warn people about the outcome of the third battle between Miriya and Ranma. I also could have fleshed out that battle but i wanted to show how limited it really was, and how much more had gone on before it. I hope you all enjoyed how I played things, and as always read and review.

*Chapter 23*: Earth has Issues

I don't own Ranma or Robotech, god damnit!

Some Reviews I'd like to mention:

CJ-Cold: thanks for the great review as always, yeah Lisa's emotions are on a bit of a roller coaster at this point. not that she's the only one.

Liarfalseliar, zmanjz: thank you both, this kind of battle, with all its disparate parts and points of view is very always very hard to get right, and its nice to know my work is appreciated.

Janissa: I think you will get a kick out of the Meltraedi portions of this chapter, and going forward. Just remember the old saying of a pebble on top of a mountain...

TJG: thanks as always for your thoughtful and insightful review, but please telepathy on me! I think you'll like the various reactions in this chapter, I'm trying to make it realistic but not totally real if that makes any sense.

Oh, thought you all might be amused to know that story in Microsoft word can get so long the spellcheck will no longer work. I mean there are just some words you don't want to add to your dictionary, ya, ta, etc, and they add up. How amusing is that?

Some people have pointed out that my stories have spelling and wording errors. Realize that I use Dragon Naturally Speaking, and it isn't easy to notice all the mistakes when reviewing it especially with words like 'were' and 'we're' or things like that. If you notice them and want to mention them in a review, please tell me exactly where they are and I will go back and correct them.

Some other people have mentioned the Meltraedi reaction to chocolate, which will be explained a bit further in this chapter, but it will not be a huge issue, just a funny one. The Meltraedi will play a prominent role in this chapter though, so we will see what happens there

Chapter 22 Earth has Issues

As the Gargoyles retreated following their leader up to their motherships Rick dove down to pick up Ranma's comatose body from the waves. His curse had activated when he fell into the ocean and he had become a she, but hadn't woken up from the shock of it. Just by looking out of his cockpit Rick could see that Ranma's injuries were pretty severe, and he shook his head. "Why the hell do you keep doing this to yourself, Ranma?" With his free hand he reached down and grabbed a handy, hold on Ranma's Veritech, knowing that if he left it behind to sink Ranma would have his hide once he woke up.

As he flew back to the ship, the rest of Skull squadron and the remaining survivors from the battle were heading in. Surprisingly all of the thirty who had started this fight coming out of the Macross had survived, but that was not at all the case with the troops coming in from the 5th Fleet. Of the ten squadrons that had entered the fight, only two of them came out with all of their members intact, the others ranged from entirely wiped out to down to two or three pilots. A little over a third of that damage had occurred when the alien ace had joined the main battle, and another third had occurred when three squadrons tried to head off the Gargoyles as they circled the ship assuming they would be joining the main battle. They found to their horror that the Gargoyles were much more maneuverable than they were and their armor negated the Valkyries extended range. Not a single one of those three squads made it back. This outcome, along with the losses sustained in the battles over Belgium would send a shockwave of consternation and fear through the fighter pilot community.

Lisa was handling bringing in the survivors who would be resupplied before heading back to their fleet. However a new variable was quickly added as the space fortress sent out the all-clear signal. A civilian plane, small but very, very fast entered the space fortress's radar envelope, coming in like a bat out of hell towards the space fortress. Vanessa picked it up quickly and Claudia sent out a signal asking its intentions. The replies she got back surprised her almost as much as the call earlier that day from the industrialist who wanted to board the ship. "My name is Dr. Pierre Dugraith, I understand that you have alien corpses aboard?"

Claudia blinked, "well I guess you could say that yes. We were after all boarded, but sir this is…"

"Excellent. I want as many specimens as I can get, so many questions to ask and to answer about these aliens."

Claudia blinked again, then shrugged. She well knew that any information they could get about the aliens was a good thing. It went against military logic, but information trumped that in her mind. "Very good, sir, please direct your plane to hangar five. It will be kept free for you."

The doctor's pilot replied, and Claudia shook her head. "Egg-heads," she muttered.

By this time Lisa had moved on to directing the cleanup duties inside the ship, leaving Gloval free to work on the casualties list and speaking with the 5th fleets admiral. The fleet had taken a ferocious pounding battling it out with the alien battleships that Kyron had sent after it while he led the boarding assault. One battleship, three Aegis cruisers, and five destroyers had been lost in the battle, though only one of the destroyer had gone down with all hands. Gloval was quick to send out his helicopters (of which the ship had four, it was supposed to have fifteen but hteo hters had been taken apart for their metal long since) and everything else he could on SAR to help them.

He was also working closely with Claudia on another little project, which he was going to call Defiance. It was a video compilation of the battle that just occurred, as well as a brief introduction detailing their trip back to earth, which would be covered in more detail in the movie that was already being planned by Claudia and others. This one though was not meant to convey information, or anything else, it was simply, well the name implied, a call to battle against all odds. Henri was a good judge of his fellow man, and knew it would be well received by many of the different nations in the world, which would hopefully help put the civilians behind the idea of an all out war.

Lisa too was busy dealing with the detritus of battle. There have been so many Regulds attacking the interior of the ship but they were still finding a few in odd places, having been cut off or trapped during the battle by the navy sappers she had used to funnel, direct and eventually crush several prongs of the almost mindless boarding assault. The orders came out crisp and clear as normal as she helped Mannstein direct his forces around the changed landscape of the space fortress. The damage had been pretty severe in some areas. One of the factories was completely destroyed though they were finding the bits and pieces of nearly a 100 battlepods in its rubble. The Spartans that made their stand there had sold their deaths dearly. Indeed, little stories of heroism were everywhere as the Tomahawks companies moved through the rubble, and pride warred with grief in all of them. Mannstein had already put in a recommendation that every Spartan operator, both surviving and dead be given the Medal of Valor for their actions in this battle.

Nothing Lisa did showed her grief at their losses, nor the rising tide of guilt for ordering her boyfriend, her lover, into a battle she knew he could not win. However on the inside she was slowly breaking down, terrified of having to explain to Kasumi how she might have ordered Ranma to his death.

Elsewhere others viewed the outcome of the days battles in a far better light.

Azonia had watched the unfolding events with no small amount of glee. While she would have preferred to take Kyron's head herself and make it into some kind of tasteful light fixture or something, this was just as well. She laughed a little at the thought that this had been truly a victory of the intelligent thoughtful mind over sheer numbers and brutality. Kyron had again and again thrown his ships, his battle pods and his people into fights never really learning from his past mistakes and his entire clan fleet had paid the ultimate price for following him so unquestioningly.

Her smile widened as Athena came through the hatch to the bridge of her command ship. "Well done Athena," she praised holding out her hand in welcome. While not nearly as close to Athena as she was to Sonya, Athena was still one of her best commanders and she grasped the younger Meltraedi's hand firmly.

"The humans on this planet were not nearly as prepared for us as the warriors on the space fortress lady," Athena replied. "Their resistance was organized and had numbers on its side but that was all. We've returned with a lot of the chocolate substance, and I have to say that I… already tried some."

Azonia nodded, that was to be expected after all every Meltraedi among her fleet were curious as to how the males of the humans controlled their females. "And what can you tell me about it?"

"It is strangely…." Athena trailed off trying to figure out how to explain it. "I tasted it, and then well, my mind seemed to shut down. It was, it was an amazing experience, the taste was, it was so powerful that my mind just blanked." One I wish to try again at the nearest opportunity Athena thought to herself. She had in fact hidden a bit of chocolate in her power-suit's cockpit. She would use it for either her personal consumption, or to trade for some of the new clothing designs that were already making their way around the fleet.

Azonia nodded, but inside she was a little worried. She had promised herself that she would start looking at the data Sonya had given her once this operation was over, and it was now, so... "Tell me," she said in a deceptively neutral tone of voice "what do you think of these 'humans'?"

Athena paused again to gather her thoughts, which were just as disorganized about this topic as it had been about chocolate, though for different reasons. They are, milady they are so much like us in so many ways, yet so different at the same times, and so varied among themselves that it is astonishing. What is the purpose of the little ones, the ones that look malformed? What is this society thing?"

And given the 'advancements' that Sonya reported, why do we not have one, thought Azonia as Athena went on. "They seem to fight at times as stupidly as any of the Zentraedi, yet at the same time their individual skill is decent enough, and their sense of duty is to be commended. And that 'song' thing that the space fortress broadcasted before entering atmosphere, that affected us greatly, myself and all of my officers and troops."

Azonia nodded. "That'll be all then. Send some of this 'chocolate' substance to my room, and then get with Miriya and her officers to look over the data from the space fortress for any weaknesses. Take as much time as you need before submitting a plan to me, I have some other work I must be doing."

Athena left the bridge and a moment later Azonia left to enter her own room. She sat down at the computer terminal and began to go over the data Sonja had given her, with an eye to asking the question of how exactly the humans had developed into the odd species they were, as well as marking down all the differences and similarities between her people and them.

The moment Lisa got off shift she literally sprinted off, uncaring of anyone who saw her down to the military hospital wing where Ranma had been brought, the hospital in the city not being open yet due to the damage the city had taken in the assault.

She found Kasumi already there holding Ranma's hand gently as he laid back in bed. His wounds, while severe and consisting of internal injuries, broken ribs and a cracked cranium, as well as shattered bones in his hands had already begun to heal before the astonished doctor's eyes as soon as they had hooked up to a machine that fed him nutrients through direct injection. Kasumi merely smiled at their astonishment and said simply that as long as he had fuel coming in Ranma's body would divert his internal energies to his healing automatically. As long as the brain survived it could do this on a subconscious level. She had seen similar things before, and was unsurprised at the speed with which Ranma could do it now. After all, she thought a little morbidly he's had a lot of practice.

"Kasumi." Lisa greeted her other lover as she moved over to stand by her, her eyes downcast. "I-I'm sorry," she blurted out, looking down at Ranma's broken form.

Kasumi looked up at her in surprise, "What are you sorry for?"

Lisa winced. Evidently Kasumi didn't know that it had been her who had sent Ranma out there, that was good in a way as she would be able to tell Kasumi about it herself, and yet at the same time very bad for the same reason. She breathed in for a moment, gathering herself then began. "I-I was the one who made the call to send him out when the Zentraedi ace showed up, even after Ranma had been so badly battered defending the interior of the ship. I-I knew it at the time, I knew he couldn't face it as battered as he was, but I still did it."

"I could've gotten killed!" She wailed suddenly breaking down entirely, "I could've gotten him kill, he would've died, Ranma would have died and it would have been my fault!" she stopped speaking and started sobbing into her hands at that point.

She was surprised to feel Kasumi's arms go around her enveloping her in a hug. She looked up in surprise through her tears and saw Kasumi smiling at her. "Don't beat yourself up about it." She said softly. Look at it this way, Ranma is a fighter, he always wants to fight the strongest opponent he can, and he wouldn't have forgiven you from not sending him out." Lisa still looked a little teary-eyed it and guilty, and Kasumi said sternly "stop that. How many lives were saved by you sending him to fight the ace?"

Lisa frowned. "I-it was tearing through all of our Valkyries like they weren't even there, it's gotten better since we first fought. I, I honestly think it could've wiped out all of the Valkyries remaining from the 5th Fleet and then started in on our own Valkyries."

"Then there you have your answer," Kasumi said smiling and leaning in to kiss Lisa gently on the lips. "You cannot blame yourself for doing your duty Lisa. Neither I nor Ranma will ever expect you to be less than what you are. What you are is an excellent tactician, a soldier and a officer. I knew," she paused, looking down at Ranma her face now a little sad in turn. "I knew what I was signing up for when I started to fall in love with him, I knew what would happen if he ever joined the space forces. It will never be, It will never be easy for me to sit here by his side, but I will continue to do so because that is who he is. And I will continue to support you as well, as that is you who you are and that is who I am. So long as you both continue to come back to me, I will be here, waiting."

Lisa shook her head and gathered the other girl into a hug kissing her softly on the lips. "Thank you." She said and then the two of them sat holding one another as the monitors around Ranma continued to beep.

Nodoka, who had stopped in to see him, smiled in the doorway and left the two girls to themselves, thanking the fates that had brought the three together.

Miriya was also dealing with the emotions of the battle that had just occurred but there was no one to help her with them. Her injuries were minor, a broken rib and her hand twitching occasionally it was only the mental trauma that was bothering her. The sight of her adversary, standing on his down fighter, bleeding broken, yet still willing to fight, had affected her profoundly in ways she had never been before. She had come to respect the human Ranma after their first match, and had known they shared a sort of kindred soul after their second. But this, their third meeting merely left her frustrated, sad, and something else she could not define.

I won, yet at the same time the outcome doesn't please me, it wasn't a true victory, not one between him and I on an even footing, it almost felt, it almost felt unfair as if that word exists in the realms of war and combat. I could have ended it there, but something was stopping me, something inside me wouldn't let me do it. After a moment she nodded, coming to a conclusion, not the right one but it was one she could understand. My subconscious knew I would not be happy with a victory like that, I would have felt unfulfilled, I would always question if I truly was better than him. No, he and I will have to meet again, no tricks no nothing, just one on one, a final match to decide everything. Yet even that thought bothered her in some undefined way, yet could not really come to grips as to why.

About two hours after she began looking over Sonya's information Azonia was interrupted in her perusal by a knock on her staterooms door. "Come," she answered and a pilot with the unit tab of the 15th wing walked in carrying a hand sized chunk of chocolate. It had been scooped out of the bins they had been taken from around Brugge, and she deposited it rather reluctantly on the admiral's desk. "A sample of the chocolate substance you asked for lady."

Azonia nodded and dismissed her before reaching out and breaking off a small chunk of this hard black substance. She popped it into her mouth, and the next hour sort of went away for her…

This was in fact happening to every single Meltraedi who tried chocolate. Food in every fleet of the Zentraedi, and the Meltraedi as well was pretty much the same, tasteless nutrient glop that came in paste form and was doled out in packages like thin tubes. There was no variety there was no change, simply water and a paste tube, and sometimes the highest ranking officers had stim-sticks. The nutrient tubes were supposed to be tasteless, yet they were in fact the foulest tasting things in the galaxy worse than any kind of human MRE had ever been. To go from that to tasting chocolate was a shock to the system, and every Meltraedi who tried it decided then and there that they were not going back to the nutrient pastes if they could help it. A very surreptitious and clandestine movement began in the intelligence departments of every battle group that began to try and figure out what this cooking thing was, as they knew that they could not live on chocolate alone, as even the many who tried to gorge on it found they were still hungry, and the energy rush it gave them dissipated quickly. It simply did not have the nutrients required to sustain them for long periods of time, though the extra energy again for short periods was welcomed.

The reverberations of the surprise attack on Belgium began almost immediately and were felt from the highest to the lowest position of the UN space forces and every government the world over. Not only was fact that there were aliens out there and that they were deadly now a fact that everyone on the planet knew (despite the UN still controlling most of the international communications), the losses sustained against the Gargoyles and against Kyron's fleet had given new credence to the space fortress's account of its battles to make it back to Earth.

Every nation in the world began to call for some kind of response or plan, riots were breaking out in cities the world over, and the United Nations Political Council was calling for mass resignations of the high command, not so much for not taking a proactive stance but for trying to keep information from them, and all of them were putting forth their own candidates to replace them. The high command had bunkered down and tried to reason with them, but very few were in a mood to be reasoned with.

In America the factions had split almost entirely. One group wanted to maintain the status quo and felt that putting all of America's efforts into building the Grand Cannon scheduled to be built in its territory would be sufficient to defend itself. This faction was led by the president, who had backed Admiral Hayes for so long, and Hayes himself, who maintained his authority over a sizable force stationed in the Atlantic and along the Eastern coast. The president's faction controlled many of the cities, as well as the largest amount of population.

The other faction however controlled the majority of the industrial capacity, and they felt that idea was so much bullshit. The same day the attack occurred, several factories that had been quiet for over a year due to lack of materials coming in started up again and America was once more in the ship building business in a big way, and military bases along the Pacific coast and in the heartland had already broken away from Hayes to back this push. This split would almost certainly cause problems down the road, possibly even spark a civil war, but it was to be hoped it would simply be a financial and social war rather than a shooting war.

This same duality could be found in the world as a whole. Many of the governments of the world were backing the high commands plan (as opposed to the people) after they were told about the Grand Cannon scheme. Many felt that this would be the best way to defend the planet, regardless of the fact that it could be scientifically proven it wouldn't work. The Grand Cannon, and deep, deep bunkers it was felt would be enough to protect the human race from bombardment from space.

Several other governments however didn't think that way, and were willing to think outside the box as well as offensively to look for ways to protect their people and humanity. And it was this group that Gloval was contacted by the day after the battle on the frequency written out on the paper that Admiral Prescott had slipped into his pocket.

He was in the secure communications room aboard the space fortress and after a few moments as security programs and scramblers went into action, six separate images appeared on the screen facing him. Admiral Prescott was one of them, and Gloval wondered where he was speaking from.

He was in fact speaking from a military base in Brazil. He had left Fort winter about an hour before the Battle in Belgium ended. "Captain Gloval" he said formally, his earlier personable manner gone as it had been since he learned of his younger brother's death. "Well done in this last engagement. I understand that you were boarded, and you believe that one of the alien admirals is dead?"

Global nodded, before looking at the other four faces. "Yes sir, I believe that the alien named Kyron, who I would characterize as a blunt, practically berserk hothead along with his entire fleet is now no longer a threat. Kyron himself is dead, commander Sugita of the Wildfire squadron killed him during the boarding action Kyron lead against us. The rest of his fleet was badly mauled during our break out over Jupiter, and by our estimation the rest of his fleet died in irbit and in the battle against the 5th fleet yesterday. I would like to recommend Admiral Douglas and his entire fleet for their actions in that battle, they performed in an exemplary fashion."

Well, except for their Valkyrie squads, who were just completely unprepared for the reality of facing the massive numbers of Regulds and the amount of time a battle against the Zentraedi could last, let alone the Gargoyles. But pitting a fleet of practically obsolete water going vessels against five space-worthy battleships and winning, that was phenomenal, which said nothing about the uneven exchange the submarines had forced. Two for twenty-five was simply fantastic, though against the Zentraedi they would probably have to exchange two for two-hundred-fifty in the long run.

"This last assault was an all or nothing attack for some reason I cannot fathom, as he used most of his remaining fleet to draw our attention while he led a smaller group in on a boarding action from below, which was the group the 5th fleet attacked. The boarding action failed, but the fighting severely damaged the interior of the ship. We will be going sorting out the damage and repairing it for weeks."

Prescott nodded and then took command of the conversation. "I understand you might be wondering who these other gentlemen are so let me introduce you. From my right is the Prime Minister the right Honorable James Bond, next to him is the American secretary of defense and marine brigadier Alastair Stephen." Alastair was actually the highest ranking member of the federal government to split from the president's party and join the proactive faction, but he had also served through two presidents before the present one. "Next to him is the Indian Prime Minister, next to him is the chief of the Russian FIS, and next to him the Israeli minister of defense."

As the most senior of the group the Prime Minister of Britain took control of the discussion from Prescott. "Earth is not monolithic," he stated frankly. "It never has been, and humanity as a whole does not have the right mentality to be so. The UNSF was a fantastic idea that many countries grabbed onto to prevent further wars among humanity and to give us a goal that could take us to the stars. But it was never intended to dominate everything as it had begun to in the past seven years or so, nor was it made so a few set-in-their-ways admirals could make decisions that could mean the life or death of our entire race! We have been working behind the scenes for years now, and with the news of the alien attacks, you can already see their control is breaking, but that was not the only reason that our little cabal came into being. The larger portion of our remit, our mandate is the saving, salvation and continuance of the human race through as many different means as possible."

The Indian Prime Minister took up the tale. "To put it bluntly Captain we have all our eggs in one basket, and it is a very flimsy one. I have had my military people looking at the data you forwarded to the high command about the aliens capabilities and power, as well as analyzing the fleet in orbit around Earth at present. Even if we had two or even three of the Grand Cannon's online now, a single fleet of that size would be able to wipe out all life on earth. And we understand from the information you were able to glean from one of your own boarding actions that it is a small force in comparison to one of their main fleets?"

Global nodded. "Indeed sir. I have no idea what force differential the aliens use, but the fleet above us seems to represent a special group, heavy assault and point defense possibly, with elite units but a finite force. Besides that we know that there are at least thirteen main fleets and a hundred smaller skirmish fleets like the one led by the alien Kyron that pursued us to its own destruction. Anyone of those fleets would be capable of rendering Earth uninhabitable if they wanted to. In point of fact I am at a loss as to why they haven't done so yet. I had assumed that the proto-culture generator that they were concentrating solely on us, but the fleet above Earth and its actions yesterday have thrown that out the airlock."

Alistair nodded grimly, his voice coming out gravelly from too many years of shouting orders as a marine officer long ago. "That was our thought as well. While deep bunkers might help some of the survivors live through such a holocaust, we need to look towards the stars for our future now more than ever."

Prescott broke in again at this point. "Operation Ark is an operation to place enclosed colonies deep into the atmosphere of Jupiter and Saturn. From your reports this plan seems doable, more we want to industrialize Jupiter as far as we can, which is something I understand you have already begun."

The Russian head of intelligence pushed a button and a schematic appeared showing a very crude factory ship, much like the ones that Dr. Lang and his scientists had devised, only larger with crew quarters, a much larger environment section, and even heavier exterior armor. By the size of a little chart next to it the whole thing would be around half the size of the space fortress.

Prescott punched a few buttons, and other ship types popped up. One ship was obviously built along the same lines as the Hercules missile ship, others were much more streamlined. "We have fifteen combat ready spaceships scattered around the globe in hidden docks just waiting to have their crew filled out" said Prescott softly. "The only problem is they can't lift off without being immediately seen by the aliens. We have over twenty in construction, and most of those will finish in the next two months. Now that segments of the American industry and other entire countries are going to be openly supporting us with more of their resources, this could just be the start. We also have this," and he pushed another button and Gloval gasped. On the screen was now an image that looked almost exactly like the SDF-1, except it was obviously was in a dry dock somewhere. "This is the SDF-2. Its weapons systems and interior are all completed, all that was required was to fit engines to it, as well as a fold-space drive system."

The Prime Minister of India nodded. "Unless your Dr. Lang has been able to do it, all our efforts at reverse engineering a fold drive have failed. As such all of the ships use regular real-space engines, and the time to get to Jupiter would be measured in months for the military ships, far less the colony ships."

Global sat back thinking for a moment before replying. "We have a spare fold-space drive" he said, not noticing how Prescott and the others stiffened in surprise. "Dr. Lang has been using a drive we removed from a Zentraedi battleship during one of our boarding actions and comparing it to the drive on the Macross, and I know he has developed his own version, though I am uncertain that he shared it the other scientists he has been in contact with just yet. He has several ideas he hasn't shared yet, simply because he wanted to test the waters before sharing many of them. Now if you say we can get some more backing behind a military buildup then I am certain he will be willing to share more. But what specifically do you want of me sirs?"

"You will be sent a dedicated computer bank that will contain within it everything about the human race, its history, its art and everything else that can be added to it just in case, as will every ship we put into space. You will also be taking on civilians as well as a massive number of reinforcements. I understand that you have already been contacted by the industrialist Lon-Cao? You will be given everything we can give you to make you as independent as possible. Then, I am afraid you will be ordered to leave earth." Bond said, his face unyielding, yet his eye showed that he knew what this would cost the Macross and those aboard it. "We need time captain, we need it desperately, and we need the Zentraedi to be concentrated on you to the exclusion of Earth. Your ship, and what they think it contains can take their attention away from us. We want you to leave in a month maximum to give us that time."

Gloval frowned, but he had known the moment they mentioned the ships they had already made that this would be asked of him and his crew. "How long do you expect us to buy you?"

"Three months minimum, hopefully as much as a year." Alistair said glumly. "Our estimates, well, if we can install fold-space drives on each of our ships, we should have a space fleet worth the name in three months, but building the colony ships will take longer."

"I'll be in charge of that fleet." Prescott said, his eyes hard. "Our first objective will be to take back the moon base and activate the SDF-2, which will serve as my flagship. After that we will remain in Earth orbit until the remaining twenty ships and the colony ships are done. After that, I will lead a force to join you wherever you are, though communication will obviously be tough."

Gloval smirked a little, and the Indian looked at him sharply. "I take it Dr. Lang has something else up his sleeves to address that point?"

Henri smiled a little wider before becoming serious again. "I do not have any issue with hits plan in the short term sir, though three weeks will be pushing it with all the work we need to do, as well as personnel transfer. But yes Dr. Lang has developed something else that uses fold space just last night, something that had him giggling like a child this morning. Now, lets get down to brass tacks. In terms of reinforcements I….."

After she had recovered from her taste induced coma Azonia carefully pushed aside the chocolate and went back to what she had been doing. Within another four hours the questions were piling up, and the answers she was coming up with didn't look very good. History, for example, most humans (she had decided to ignore the question of the 'religions' she had read just enough of this bible thing to give her a headache) had worked out much of what they called evolution. Where did her people come from? Did they ever in fact have a homeworld? A loss of that scale could explain why their hate for the Invid was so fierce. The humans however had written records of all their histories. The fleets didn't keep anything like that. In point of fact when she was young she had been discouraged from keeping even trophies of past battles. There was nothing, absolutely nothing written down, not even records of past battles, not that she or the Meltraedi as a whole had any access to at any rate. Why?

The nearest human 'culture' that she could find that matched the one of her people were the Spartans of ancient Greece: Devoted entirely to warfare, with a warrior caste that was devoted to war to the exclusion of everything else. Yet if that was the case, where were the people who made the weapons, the ships and nutrient paste? What was worse, that made no sense. The Spartans after all did not develop anything past their original class of combat. If her people had always had a society like that, how in the universe had they ever developed anything space worthy?

Could some disaster have befallen their home system? But if so, where was the information about the disaster? Where was the history of their people? Azonia sighed and put aside that for now, deciding to move on to the 'biological' data. And that was another thing, the humans had words to describe different types and classifications of intelligence. Azonia wasn't certain how knowing how an enemy was put together could help you fight them in a war, after all most warfare was in space and with weapons, but she wasn't ignorant enough to think that not knowing how an enemy thought couldn't be helpful.

So now she looked over the biological data but before that she took another chunk of chocolate, just to protect her against further shocks of course.

Around the world reactions to the alien assaults were ongoing. Many of the European countries around Belgium were simply in shock, Most government officials had never even suspected that the rumors going on about aliens were true, and to see them literally wipe out whole wings of defenders from the bases they all were home to was demoralizing to say the least. A peace movement began in France, quickly taken up in other countries to see if they could sue for peace. If these aliens were so set on getting the space fortress, this group said then maybe humanity should simply give it to them.

Of course this didn't sit well with everyone, and another movement started, that wanted total war. They wanted Earth and its industries to go to a full wartime footing and start churning out the means to take the war to the enemy. Having aliens in control of the orbitals and thus in control of all life on earth did not sit well with them at all.

The reactions among the civilians aboard the Macross to their near brush with death as well as the damage to the city were rather muted all things considered. The ones who were staying aboard simply shrugged and went about their business, knowing that sometimes ships got boarded. The fact that the interior of the ship had been so badly damaged, and that the aliens had suffered so many casualties was seen as a bright spot to them, giving them more work and a visible sign of how hard they navy had fought to defend them.

Kyle tried to stir up the civilian population against the military, but found that even the antimilitary faction was leery of starting anything. They were after all getting off the ship, and that was all they really wanted. He tried to convince Minmei and his parents once again that staying on the ship was suicide, but all three of them were adamant that they were going to remain aboard.

Minmei wanted to do her part in helping keep the morale of the ship up and greatly enjoyed being a singer. She knew that she would not have nearly as good a gig if she had to work with mainline recording companies. She likes the personal atmosphere and knowing her boss like she did, who had also chosen to stay aboard. Indeed, he had asked to bring his whole family aboard from California, and they were in Hawaii already waiting to be brought aboard at the earliest opportunity. More, she had already been asked to star in the movie that would be made about the space fortress's battles in space, which she thought sounded like a lot of fun. Her aunt and uncle too had decided to stay aboard. They had made a living here that was actually better than the one they had when Macross was on Earth, and they had dozens of friends that were staying aboard. They had actually contacted Minmei's own parents to see if they wanted to join them, but been firmly rebuffed.

It finally got to the point where Kyle's father sat him down and said bluntly "son, were not leaving. If you want to stay aboard, you will have to change your attitude. If you don't, we don't want to hear about it. We like the military personnel we interact with, we like Ranma we like Rick and the others. We like being aboard!" What he didn't say was that he and his wife had talked about it in private and both agreed with Lisa that if the aliens finally decided to simply attack Earth rather than observe it the human race would not survive. In that kind of environment, being on the Macross was actually the safest place to be with its history of surviving.

Azonia stood in front of her mirror, a luxury only senior officers had, her face rigid with shock as she held up her naked breasts one hand on each, the sight of her lizard tattoo under one hand bringing no comfort. She and many other Meltraedi had wondered why they were different from the Zentraedi, what female and male actually meant, but learning what her, what did the research call them, tits, were actually for was beyond startling. The idea that they were made to feed little, babies was it? Well, that was beyond startling. Her hand trialed down to her taut stomach, kept so by the Meltraedi 'diet' and her own desire to keep herself fit. Though not nearly as much as the idea of actually carrying such a one inside me. How is that even possible?

She was actually tempted to think the entire idea was some kind of elaborate hoax, but the information came from so many sources, and she had, even as shell-shocked as she was, taken the time to cross reference it from the information they had taken from the internet of the third planet, and it all matched up. It was beyond bizarre to her, but it was also beside the point except for one question, why did her people develop cloning as the only means of reproduction, controlled solely by Dolza? Why were the males and females separated, segregated, if it wasn't because of the female's superiority making the males look bad? What happened to my people to make us the way we are, and what does D-Dolza have to do with it?

That thought was one even harder to consider than the rest, not because there was no proof that Dolza had something to do with how her people were, though there wasn't, but because of the fear his very name evoked in her as in every other Meltraedi or Zentraedi. Yet her anger overrode her fear. Dolza had always been there, looming over her people like a giant as far back as anyone could remember. Whatever happened to her people, he must have been a part of it. Why? Who did this to us?

Her thoughts were interrupted by a sharp rap on her hatch. Azonia heard it and smirked a little, only Sonya would knock on her door that imperiously. "Sonya? Come in."

Sonya entered, closing the hatch behind her. Her eyes widened at seeing her friend standing in front of her mirror naked. Her eyes then flicked over to the computer on Azonia's desk and she smiled a little. "I take it you have taken a look at the biological information I gathered. Disturbing isn't it?"

Azonia mock glared at her friend. "You knew about this and you didn't warn me?"

Sonya smiled sadly and sat on the bed facing her leader. "Would you have believed me?"

Azonia sighed and pulled over her chair to look at her, unmindful of her nudity. The two had often showered together after all, and had equally often shared a bed for comforts sake after hard campaigns. "No, I wouldn't have. What is worse, I have found nothing to silence the questions you gave voice to about our race, indeed I have only found more."

"Oh." Sonya sighed, rubbing at her tattoo nervously. "I was hoping to simply be told I was wrong." She confessed.

"I can understand that, but as an admiral I must look at what is real, not just at what I wish to. No, we as a race have been, stunted, made less than we could be, made into a blunt object, have been manipulated by someone. There is too little information of our past for it to not be deliberate. There has been no progress, no change, we have been stagnate for who knows how long, the purpose of which I do not know."

Sonya nodded, her face firming as she looked at her admiral levelly. "What will we do then lady?"

"That, that I will have to consider. For now nothing, let the fleet see more of these humans, see what we are missing. Eventually we will need to think of the long term, but when we do move, the fleet will need to move as one whatever I decide." Sonya nodded firmly.

After that Azonia deliberately changed the subject, talking about the chocolate substance and asking her friend to describe the foods she had eaten on her spy mission.

That night the two curled up together again in Azonia's bed, and again Azonia lay theire awake, wondering what in the universe she was going to do. That she was going to do something wasn't the question, the question was how to survive turning against Dolza. Time and distance may be the only thing that keeps us alive. That and some misdirection, could keep us safe for now, while the fleet sees more of humanity, more of what they are missing, see the humans as what we could be, as possible allies. Misinformation… hmmm….. Kyron, yes, his attack, heeheh. Kyron your death will serve my people far better than you ever could in life…heheheh. With that thought she fell asleep, her naked form curling up against her friend.

Ranma woke up about a day after she had collapsed, and for once she was still very sore. She sat up weakly, looking over at the side of his/her bed and seeing Kasumi in a chair next to him working on something on her computer, all her attention on the screen before her. Ranma smiled, knowing how Kasumi concentrated so much when working on one of her interior design projects. Slowly she reached out and poked her lover in the cheek, causing Kasumi to shriek with surprise and turn to the redhead. "Ranma!" she exclaimed, and then lunged at her hugging her fiercely. "Are you ok, I know that's a stupid question but…"

Ranma shook her head caressing Kasumi's hair. "I'm okay Kaz-chan. Sorry I worry you so much. It's just…"

Kasumi shook her head in his arms. "If you weren't a fighter you wouldn't be the Ranma I fell in love with" she said softly. "I do worry sometimes that you will go out and not come back, but your track record is such that that doesn't seem very likely to happen anytime soon."

Ranma shrugged. "I don't think it'll happen either, but this Zentraedi ace is really, really just very good. He's getting better every time we fight, hell this time it could have killed me, and it let me live, I don't know what ta make of that one." She reached over and heated up a glass of water by her bedside, pouring it over her head to initiate the change. It was odd, but he knew he healed better if he did so in the form that he took the injuries. That might be in his mind but he believed it, and that was all that really mattered.

Kasumi smiled then took his hand in both of hers. "Let me ask you a question, do you hate the aliens?"

Ranma shook his head, grinning a little at her, and her own smile widened in response. "Ya know me better than that. I don't hate easy, or that , y'know, impersonally. Did I hate them right after Eric died, yeah, I guess I did. But honestly, it's just a waste of time. I just think they're the enemy at the moment, that's all, anything else just gets in tha' way."

Kasumi nodded. "Then is it so strange that one of them has honor, that this enemy ace realized that you were not up to fighting at full strength and thought it would be a hollow victory?"

Ranma slowly shook his head. "Nah it wouldn't be all that strange, especially for one of 'em like the ace, who has a bit of a personality, I can tell that from our fights, he and I are a lot alike really. The Gargoyles as a whole're really different from any of the bastards that worked with Kyron, but that ace is on a whole other level."

"But it is possible." Kasumi said. "And if they have honor, perhaps eventually we will be able to speak with them in peace."

Ranma snorted. "Breetai maybe, I liked him. He was pretty a decent guy, damn tough too from what I saw of him anyway, but Dolza? No he's not going to make peace with us anytime soon."

Kasumi snuggled into his side. "Perhaps not, but I can dream. I know what you'll be dreaming of after all."

"Yep," Ranma said happily, gathering her closer to his side and leaning back against the pillows, "my fist going through his face. That asshole has a lot to answer for." The vision of that planet dying at Dolza's command still haunted Ranma from time to time. He knew then, and he still believed now that such an act was the highest form of, of, well blasphemy was the closest word he could think of, though there wasn't any kind of religious connotation to it. Destroying an entire planet, just a make point, as easily as someone else would order breakfast? No, Dolza was going to die, and hopefully Ranma would be the one to do it.

Athena looked over her desk at Miriya, who lounged there going over the pictures that her group had taken of the exterior of the space fortress. Feeling the other females gaze on her Miriya looked up at her. "What?"

Athena cocked her head to one side. "Why did you let that human ace live?"

"Ranma?" Miriya leaned back stapling her fingers. She had had a day to regain control of her emotions, and now believed more than ever she had let him live for only one reason. "It would've felt hollow, he was so badly injured from fighting inside the space fortress against Kyron's forces, and it wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that he was instrumental in beating off that attack, but fighting inside like that would take away most of his maneuverability and all of his long-range superiority. It would've felt as if Kyron had helped me win." She shuddered dramatically and Athena laughed.

After a moment she said thoughtfully "I can see that, but these human, they're so chaotic. The chocolate is just amazing of course." Miriya nodded emphatically. She had a small sliver, and it had knocked her out for a little under an hour. "Their clothing is wonderful, and how well they fight at times can be respectable at least if you're dealing with the ones on the space fortress. The others haven't shown anything on par with that just yet."

Miriya shrugged. "They are a conundrum yet more and more I am questioning the importance of this whole operation. I realize we were told we had to retrieve a proto-culture generator, whatever that is, but surely beating down one planet and capturing one spaceship isn't as important as taking the fight to the damn bugs." And where in the universe did the space fortress come from anyway? What race built it and this proto-culture thing? They are the ones we should be searching for, not trying to capture this one ship. None of the Meltraedi, not even the oldest like Azonia or Sonya knew about the space fortress was called Zor's battleship, and only a very few of the Zentraedi knew more than the name.

"I know," Athena said, and then looked at the other pilot out of the corner of her eyes, wondering how this was going to be taken. "I wonder why they're so like us in so many ways, and so different in others." After all, if chocolate was this good, what else could be out there waiting for them to taste?

Miriya, rather than taking umbrage at the idea that any other race was similar to the mighty Meltraedi, shrugged. "I don't know, but the more I interact with Ranma across the battlefield, the more I think that we have in common." Athena nodded, and after sharing a small piece of chocolate the two went back to work.

Lisa walked into Ranma's room at the hospital a little reluctantly. She knew what Kasumi had said, but she was still worried how he would react to her. She found Ranma up and working on something on his data-pad with one hand while he ate an okonomiyaki with the other, proof that Ukyo had stopped by earlier, though both Ukyo and Kasumi were busy working in the city on a project at the moment. Ranma looked up as she came in and his welcoming smile both raised her spirits slightly. "Hey Lisa, how are you doing?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Lisa asked, moving forward to stand by his bed. The two exchanged a kiss that was in no way chaste for several minutes, then she pulled back and looked down at her feet sadly. "I'm sorry."

"Huh? What are ya sorry about?"

She looked up at him and saw he really had no idea what she was talking about. "I'm sorry about having to send you out to fight the ace when you were already injured. You could have died Ranma, and…"

"And nothin'," Ranma said firmly. "Ya did the right thing Lisa, that ace would have butchered the fighters out there. Rick's the only one that could even slow him down." He reached out and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her slightly. "Never doubt yerself like that, do what ya gotta do, that's what makes ya as good a tactician as ya are, that's what makes ya who ya are. And even as injured as I was, I had to be the one out there, not just because I was the best ta do it, but also fer myself, my own sense of honor."

Lisa giggled a little, though she was sniffling too. "You know you can be a real idiot sometimes you know that? But thank you, that means a lot to me." Ranma pouted a little but nodded too and pulled her into a hug, and those were the last words spoken for awhile, the two of them simply taking solace in one another.

Within a day and a half of the survey going out families, especially those families with young children were being escorted off the space fortress to be put ashore in the main port of Hawaii and new civilians and personnel were flowing in. This was in no way a simple operation, but as Ranma didn't have anything to do with it, he didn't realize how difficult it was. Surprisingly Lisa was not involved either. The entire operation had been taken over by Captain Gloval simply because he was far more diplomatic than the blunt and aggressive tactical officer.

Instead Lisa spent the time devising the most optimal force load out for space warfare and directing the refit of the interior of the space fortress. The Valkyries had proven to be the front line and in fact the best defense in space, but on land or in a boarding action like they had just suffered, the Destroids came into their own a bit more, thus the loadout needed to be as good as possible.

To that end, she got rid of the all of the Phalanx destroids they had onboard. None of them were in one piece obviously, their missile arms being scavenged for other jobs, primarily as missile pods, but the rest of the Phalanx body was there, so they still represented a decent force for anyone who didn't know that their tracking gear was utterly useless against the Zentraedi Regulds or Gargoyles in space. She had not informed the Hawaiian base logistics officer about that deficiency in the design, so she was able to trade them with him for a full company of Spartan destroids (minus operators obviously) and half a company of Defenders. Both of them thought they were getting the better of the deal.

After that trade was done she handed off the rest of the resupply to Vanessa. The target force distribution was 2 Spartan companies, enough to defend the ship or board another when backed up by the 2 companies of Tomahawks, 4 companies of Defenders, and one Monster. That brought the total force of destroids to 960 total. That plus a wing of thirty Valkyrie squadrons would be the best load out they could manage. The Veritech squadrons would each have at least six spare planes assigned to each along with their own pilots to replace those down in combat. It was harsh, but the reality was that they would face a rate of attrition never seen in any kind of Air force before this, not even in the world wars, and they had to plan for it. The Veritechs too would be given refitting and maintenaince priority, they were the tip of the psear, and always took more casualties than the destroids,

With the captain handling the inflow and outflow of personnel and Vanessa handling bringing in resources, Lisa handled redesigning the interior of the ship, well, those parts that had been so badly mangled by Kyron's final hurrah. That assault had made it plain that the ship could be vulnerable to a sustained and controlled boarding action, and given the enemy's ECM capabilities neither she nor the captain were sanguine about keeping future assaults away from the ship. In fact if the Zentraedi became willing to pay the price they knew that they couldn't even if they didn't use ECM. So Lisa and a few design boffins began to rearrange the interior to make any boarding assault along the same vector as before ruinously difficult if not impossible. They wouldn't be able to do it for the entire ship yet, that would take months even pouring all their manpower into it, which they couldn't, there were too many other projects that were taking up their time. But they would eventually do it by sections, especially if the influx of new maintenance personnel, which made up the majority of the first two groups of new personnel, could get ahead of the maintenance curve.

She sighed cracking her neck and rubbing one of her shoulders as she deleted a portion of the design for being a structurally unsound. The design team the Hawaii base had forwarded to help with the project were good, but sometimes they didn't realize that interior defense wasn't the only consideration. She idly wondered what the others were doing with their day, and if her friends and lovers were as busy as she was.

Kasumi was busy with her new project in the city with Ukyo though she insisted on keeping it a surprise, but Ranma had released himself from the hospital to go and check out his Valkyrie. He found it where he expected to, tucked away in a hanger bay with a mark saying it was going to be taken apart for spare parts. Ranma sighed and removed that, the maintenance people he had previously worked with had been reassigned, and the new group hadn't been briefed on his particular needs.

He hopped off the truck he had commandeered for this trip and installed one of the batteries he had brought along then got into the cockpit. His Valkyrie responded like an extension of his body and he grimaced in sympathetic agony as he felt the wounds it had sustained. "Sorry my friend, if I could I'd teach ya how ta heal yerself, but as that ain't happenin', a little TLC will have to do." With that he maneuvered the battered soldier mode Valkyrie to lay down on the truck.

After that he got out and began to move around the robot, making notes on his data-pad about the damages and the parts he would need. By this time a maintenance team had spotted him from where they had just started going over Skull Squadrons Veritechs, exclaiming excitedly to themselves about the new parts and weapons modifications they had never seen before. However before their chief could run over and demand to know what Ranma was doing, he had hopped back into the truck and driven off to get the parts he'd need from the nearest depot.

The infuriated maintenance man called in the possible theft, but after giving a description of the thief to Kim was told that it wasn't anything to concern himself with. He shook his head, wondering what that was about but resolutely turned back to his own work.

For his part Ranma would spend the rest of that day and well into the night repairing his Veritech in his own little hideaway aboard the ship, stopping occasionally to rest after infusing it with some of his ki, just like Happosai and Cologne had told them they did to their pipe and walking stick. It was a laborious process that nearly sent him back to the hospital, but in the long run it would be worth it.

As the civilians were being taken off and new groups were coming on, Motoko had gotten leave to go home. She drove Kasumi's plane with Nodoka in the seat behind her and Motoko looked at the wrapped package the other woman had with her a little worriedly. "uh sensei," She said, "I realize I shouldn't ask this given how they've treated me over the years, but please don't try to slice up my entire family."

"Oh, do you think that is a likely outcome of this little trip, why ever would I do that?" the older woman replied looking up in feigned interest.

Motoko groaned. "Just don't start anything okay? I might not like most of the hypocritical idiots, but I really don't want their deaths on my conscience."

That much I can promise," Nodoka replied.

Soon they arrived at the estate, which was a small yet sprawling complex, dominated by an estate in the Japanese style, a single story building with wood and paper siding. Much like the family itself, it showed they were proud of their heritage as Japanese, despite having immigrated here before WW2. In that much at least she could be proud of her family; they had stayed true to the way of the sword, the samurai code, even as they were vilified for a time by the locals because of that heritage. Her family had kept most of their culture intact, and was known for this as well as their swordsmanship throughout the isles and well beyond. They provided guardsmen to high and officials in the local and federal government, and so their eccentricities were overlooked.

If only they were as open to new things as they were prideful in the old she mused as she brought the plane down. They touched down on the property, and Motoko was amused to see that several members had gathered outside to gawk at them. Heh, well I did say I would be arriving by plane, it's their own fault if they didn't believe me.

She pushed open the cockpit and looked out, and she saw faces frowned even further as they recognized their wayward daughter. She refused to be cowed however, and jumped down from the cockpit easily landing on the toes of her feet then pulled off her helmet letting her hair flow out. Behind Nodoka demurely did the same, landing easily and without showing even a hint of leg despite her yukata. Motoko idly wondered how she did that, she knew if she had been wearing a skirt instead of a uniform she would have flashed quite a bit of leg. "You asked me to come," she said calmly, facing her family, "Here I am."

The next two hours were rather interminable as various family members gathered and Motoko and Nodoka were left stewing in a room by themselves, with a servant stopping by serve them tea once or twice. "I'm really sorry about this." the young Hawaiian said, looking over at Nodoka. "If I knew they were going to make us sit here and wait for whatever this is about I wouldn't have bothered coming so early."

Nodoka shrugged. "There is no dishonor accrued to you my dear, you arrived promptly at the time they designated. It is to their dishonor that they were not immediately ready to see you or to deal with whatever they wish you to be here for."

Not 2 minutes after that announcement, they were called into the main hall. Motoko had known from the very beginning that this would not be a pleasant family reunion, but any at hope of it just being a small family matter between her father, mother and her had disappeared the moment she saw how many of her family members were in residence, and now it disappeared entirely seeing them lined up on either side of the dojo hall as if in judgment, with her father at the far end sitting on a raised cushion. The honor sword next to him, the sword of their clan also gave her a clear indication that this was more about honor and face than any kind of desire to reconcile with her.

But if they thought she would be cowed by this show of formal gravity and familial disapproval they were wrong. I've faced space combat against Regulds, Gargoyles and battleships. I've been the tip of the spear in more pitched battles than all here combined and multiplied, and I am one of the best fucking pilots aboard a ship that has survived over a year of nigh on constant battle. I will not be cowed by a room of stupid, hidebound and un-blooded fools. Instead Motoko marched in head held high, emphasizing the uniform she wore with pride, the light glinting off her medals and her rank insignia, the wildfire unit tab in particular catching the light just right to make the onna-bugeisha (drawn by Kasumi at her request) on the blue fire background look dangerous and wild. There were some mutters of approval as she strode forward, but for the most part her clan looked on with anger and barely veiled disdain.

As Nodoka made to follow her into the room however two of the clansmen on either side of the door tried to bar her way. "No outsider may enter here."

Nodoka stared them down. I am the matriarch of the Sugita clan." There were some murmurings at the name, which was rather famous for several of its members at that. "As my heir is a friend of the young woman in question, I will enter to see that honor is truly served."

The two stiffened, but at a sign from the patriarch let her in. She entered and took up a position on the floor directly behind where Motoko sat, her legs folded easily under her, yet her body tense as a bowstring.

There was a moment of silence then Motoko's father spoke coldly. "When we heard you had survived there was much rejoicing, yet you did not return home immediately as you should have, why?

Motoko responded blandly. "Well, if you could actually see past your nose to the uniform I'm wearing you could tell that I have prior obligations."

The patriarch stiffened at her taunt but his voice came out level. "Yes we have heard of that, and are you still practicing swordsmanship?"

"I am" Motoko said bluntly. "In fact I am one of the best pilots on the SDF-1 because of it. I use a blade in my Valkyrie, and I practice every day."

"You were ordered to cease using our swordsmanship when you decided to run off." the patriarch growled as angry mutterings went on around the family around them. "You were thus ordered until such time as you were willing to be a true daughter, and act accordingly for the good of the clan."

You mean marry some ambitious cousin or other who is semi-good with a blade," Motoko scoffed. "Never mind the fact that I find men to be unattractive at best, and their touch repugnant at worst?"

"Your personal preferences are known here," the patriarch said even more coldly though one of his eyes glanced over at the Nodoka who didn't even blink at this knowledge. "Your lesbian tendencies are a deviancy that you need to set aside now."

"No," Motoko said, her voice firm, "they aren't. They're part of who I am. I could no more change that than I could change the fact that I am a warrior."

This phrase brought angry mutterings among the male-dominated clan, and even her mother stared at her, her face cold and eyes hard with contempt at the very idea. Her father slashed his hand downward and silence once more descended. "Enough of this. Your husband has been chosen, and you will do your duty to the clan."

"Oooorrr" Motoko said drawing out the word, her whole body screaming amusement rather than anger or concern.

"Or I will formally expel you, you clanless henceforth." The patriarch said coldly. "And as such you will not be able to use our swords style."

Motoko stood up staring at him, all her amusement gone, her stance ready and challenging. "I" she said coldly, "am the past swordsman in this room. Not one of you can defeat meal with a blade, yet you stand there and pass judgment on me, you tell me I must bow to your whims! Fuck you!" The sudden epithet struck like a thunderclap in the silence stunning all there. "Cast me out, I don't care! Come at me all of you I don't care! I will continue to do what I do and I will continue to be who I am!"

"Very well" the patriarch said staring at her angrily. "You are clanless! I declare this now, any who see you practicing swordsmanship can kill you where you stand like a dog in the streets. Now begone!"

Nodoka, who had been silent up to this point spoke up as she stood in turn, her voice an allow of contempt and scorn. "And thus you castaway a jewel, a diamond in the rough beacue she will not be ground under? Very well!" She said gaily standing up and holding out the bundle she had carried to Motoko. "Thus, I will pick it up. Motoko dear, would you like to join my clan?" Motoko stared at her, then at the bundle and Nodoka laughed again. "After all, my son has shown no inclination towards the sword, and it would be a shame if my family's style died with me."

Motoko nodded slowly, awed by the honor that Nodoka was showing her. "I will," she said softly.

Nodoka went on to the formal words as around them the Aoyama clansmen jumped to their feet angrily. "Will you honor our code, uphold the honor of the samurai, and wield your blade only in the defense of others?"

"I will."

"Will you strive always to better yourself, and to pass on the skills of the sword to your chosen successor?"

"I will."

By this point her family had recovered from the shock of Nodoka's sudden offer and some of them even her father were now moving forward angrily, their voices raised in complaint, but they couldn't stop the ritual. "Then take my blade" said Nodoka softly, "and wield it as my daughter."

Motoko grabbed the bundle, and pulled out the blade. It was a katana, a little shorter in length than her normal one. On the bottom of the hilt she saw the maker's mark, and realized with shock she was holding a true Masamune forged blade. With a twirl she will pull that out of the sheaf, and stood ready to defend herself, the gleam of the ceiling lights on the edge of the katana, the rich lines of chikei and nie glinting, showing the blades worth to all who saw it.

As her clan stopped to stare at the sword in awe Nodoka simply smiled and took the sheaf holding it as if it too was a blade. "So," she said softly. "Will you continue your folly and try to stop us from leaving, or will you finally show a semblance of real honor and let us go on in peace?" She looked scornfully at Motoko's father. And you sir are an idiot. You would cast out the greatest swordsman of her generation because you do not care for her preferences, because you wished to control her, use her as some kind of brood mare? Pathetic!" Motoko's father glared at the woman but his hand raised, stopping his clansmen from charging in. After all, he was the only one armed at present, and this woman's eyes told him she was dangerous even armed with a mere sheath, and he well knew his former daughters skill. Nodoka went on, staring into his eyes, and something in her own caused him to flinch back. "She is of my clan now, and all of my clan will kill to protect her. Remember that, should you think of trying to harm this precious one again." With that the two women left, heads held high as behind them the Aoyama clan began to shout and yell in consternation.

The party that night back on Macross was loud and raucous as Motoko was welcomed into her new family, happier than she could remember being in a long time, and with her past truly behind her now.

Henri was working on some paperwork regarding the latest outgoing convoy of civilians when Vanessa spoke up, her instruments having interrupted her own work. Captain, we've got a ship on long range radar. It's moving slowly, looks like it's one of those old gasoline clunkers, but its moving steadily towards us. We don't have anything scheduled and certainly not from directly astern but it's so slow and doesn't look as if it's an enemy or anything. I mean, it's practically shouting they're not a threat, given how slow it's moving."

"ETA?" Gloval asked.

"Well if they don't start speeding up we could be here in about five or six hours? I don't know how fast those old clunkers move."

Claudia rolled her eyes from her own station where she was putting the finishing touched on a project she called operation housekeeping. Those old clunkers were actually just ships that ran off gasoline, but most of the Navy had long switched over to reflux or nuclear power years ago so she supposed the younger woman's scorn was understandable, after all how much work had she done with regular commercial shipping? "Do you want me to hail them captain?"

Gloval nodded "Yes, we should they see what they want to say."

Claudia turned to her radio. "Unidentified craft you are entering a restricted military zone. State your business or you will be fired upon."

A few seconds later a elderly voice crackled out of the machine. "Forgive me if my English isn't so good young lady, it's been a long time since I've used it. I am Cologne of the Amazons, and myself and a few of my tribes women wish to come aboard to meet old friends." She cackled then and the younger women on the bridge had to stop themselves from shivering. "I understand you've all had some adventures, and we Amazons love adventure."

Senator John Duborn smirked a little as the voting ended and the ballots were tallied. "Very well, this body hereby puts forth a motion to impeach President O'Cairn for willful and negligent dereliction of his duty to secure the safety of these united states of America. By a vote of….."

End chapter

I realize that the section with Motoko and Nodoka came out a little oddly, but I really don't know much about how samurai clans do this kind of thing. For someone who has only looked at stuff readily available on the internet and anime I think it came out well.

I also realize that there were at least three cliffhangers in this chapter, but I wanted to let several of the events have time to settle before moving in to conclude them. I can't have everything happen all at once after all.

This whole chapter was more about recuperating and rearming than anything, but the next chapter things will start to happen and we will see more of the Zentraedi and Breetai. See you in two weeks, and as always read and review.

*Chapter 24*: Breaking, Repairing, and Coming Together

I do not own the pigtailed one or Robotech.

I truly love reading the reviews for this story, more than any of my others they are helpful insightful and well thought out. Thank you all. Thanks especially to TJG, whose reviews are always excellent. I am torn on how to introduce the flower of Life, either seriously or as a joke, but we will see. I will tell you however Lang has found something out, but isn't going to share it with anyone just yet, and never over a com.

Janissa: Shampoo and the other Amazons will start to move into the center stage in the next chapter. The academy will never be the same….

Unfortunately, I have been forced to make an announcement on my profile about my story Lion of Light, and my planned story Making Waves for those of you reading/looking forward to it. I am sorry but real life at this time of the year is simply a bitch.

In other news, does anyone know any good MShepard/multi stories from Mass Effect? Or Dragon Age stories which take a Cousland or male mage and have him not follow the routes allowed? One who is an ambitious womanizer say or someone who makes choices that change the way the story goes, like letting Arl Eamon die, or killing Alistar (I never much liked him for some reason, he was too, well too weak and too much of a follower for my tastes). I can't really write while I'm taking a lunch break at work, but I can read, and would like something new to sink my teeth into.

I know I promised Breetai would make a reappearance, but I decided to enlarge that section and expand it, so it will be in the next chapter. Now on with the show.

Chapter 23 Breaking, Repairing and Coming Together

Claudia looked over at Lisa who smirked a little evilly. "How long did you say it would take them to get here?"

Vanessa looked at her console, calculating distance and speeds. "Um about five hours or so?"

"In that case see if Hawaii base has a shuttle or something that can get out there. I'd like to have them abroad in two hours or so. Prepare the furthest hanger forward, the one we've kept clear for emergencies, for them. If these really are the Amazons Commander Sugita and the others have talked about, they represent a major source of knowledge and fighting ability." Vanessa looked through her signals and found a suborbital shuttle that had just docked with them, disgorging another dozen repair teams all of which were immediately shunted into the work being done on the interior. About five minutes later the suborbital turned around and lifted off on its new heading to pick up a very strange group of passengers.

Gloval nodded, agreeing with what Lisa was doing. "I think you should also inform Nodoka and Commander Sugita that we have incoming visitors they might want to meet. Oh, and tell Dr. Lang that his Christmas gift has come early." The rest of the bridge crew chuckled and went back to work.

Ranma had gotten permission to take his newly repaired Veritech out on a practice flight, and was out putting it through its paces when Lisa called him. "Wild 1, this is command, we have an incoming group that you might want to be on hand to meet, request you return to base."

"Er, okay, roger command, but what does this group have to do with me?"

"They say they're a group of Amazons, and their spokesperson is named Cologne." Lisa's voice, despite being professional, still held more than a trace of laughter. "I believe you've mentioned them a time or two."

Ranma blinked in shock, then smiled and shook his head. "Yeeesh, it's like old home week. Roger that command, returning to base. Recommend that my mother at least is also ready to meet them."

"Roger that, we already informed her."

Cologne and her fellow Amazons stared down at the massive ship that loomed like a sleeping giant, vast, imposing and bristling with weapons. Even with her limited knowledge of modern weaponry, the huge cannons she saw bristling everywhere in various groups and sizes were imposing if only for their size. Then again, she chuckled, I'm living proof that size isn't everything.

She turned back to face her fellow Amazons, two-hundred and ten of her tribe of varying ages and lifestyles, the best and brightest of the young warriors, all of whom, not incidentally at all had been with her in Nerima, nearly a hundred middle aged blooded veterans, and several others that specialized in farming, metal working and hunting as well as several married couples with children, all that she could convince to come with her on this venture. Of course, not all of the married couples were old, and the sight of Mousse and the visibly pregnant Perfume was a sight that brought joy to her old heart. All of them were drinking in the sight of their new home, some talking excitedly in their native tongue, others simply looking and others muttering worriedly to themselves.

She had known since about a month into her stay in Nerima that her people had to change to survive. Globalization, new technology and other exterior elements were putting more and more pressure on the Amazons in their territory, as well as the other two groups, the Musk and Phoenix people they 'shared' it with. The Musk and Phoenix had responded by retreating even further into the mountains, but that was not an option she wanted her people to pursue. She felt that they could retain their sense of identity and self and still embrace modern technology. Alas she had not been able to convince the other elders of this, nor the majority of their people. Those she could were with her now, and hopefully would be enough to continue her tribe into the future, a future among the stars.

A moment later the plane they were on came into a landing, and she looked out of the window to no see a very familiar redhead dressed in her traditional yukata. The young woman next to her however was new. She wore what was obviously a uniform, one Cologne recognized as belonging to the UNSF. She was obviously young, possibly the same age as Shampoo. Yet even form here Cologne saw her stance spoke of experience, of someone who had been tempered in combat many times over. She heard the mutterings of the veteran warriors around her suddenly become far more focused, and she nodded. None of the ones who followed her were idiots, and only an idiot would overlook that young girl regardless of her age.

Shampoo, much to her hidden dismay, didn't really have any eyes for the young woman only for the familiar figure she stood beside. As soon as the ram touched down, she and all the other girls who had been in Nerima ran forward in a jumble. "Auntie Nodoka!"

Nodoka smiled widely in welcome opening her arms and hugging all and sundry as the young girls clamored around her. "Hello dears, welcome to Macross! How have you all been?"

Motoko stood beside her new mother smiling at the warm greetings and surreptitiously checking out the Amazon girls and finding them very nice eye candy. She didn't even try to shake off the thought, after the last few days she felt she deserved to let her naughty thoughts wander a bit. Her eyes however narrowed as she saw several middle aged women come out of the shuttle, followed by a little gnome on a stick that must be the oft-mentioned Cologne. The warriors however were a surprise, each of them carried themselves like veteran soldiers and she exchanged wary nods with them all. She didn't think any were quite up to her level, but they were close, and seeing them said a lot of things about this little group. It obviously wasn't a small group of younglings looking for adventure, but what the group actually represented escaped her.

"Greetings Elder," Nodoka called out, moving through the group of youngsters with a smile. "It is excellent to see you again."

Cologne looked at the woman in front of her and then to the young woman and cackled. "Hello to you Nodoka. I see being away from that fool Genma has been good for you. You look at least ten years younger. And is this young lady yet another one chasing after Ranma?"

Motoko snorted but Nodoka answered before she could. "Not at all, may I present my daughter, Motoko Sugita."

Cologne cackled again as the young warriors turned from Nodoka to stare at the black haired, slightly tanned girl. She gazed back, her whole manner screaming amusement as well as competence. "I note you said daughter, not daughter-in-law. I take it there is a story behind that."

Motoko nodded. "Yep, but that's for later, preferably a story to share over a beer or two." She suddenly smiled as a familiar Valkyrie taxed towards them from where it had just landed, touching down almost delicately.

Ranma stepped out of the hatch and almost immediately the eyes of all the Amazons switched from the two women to Ranma, and Motoko swore she saw the one called Shampoo gulp. She laughed a little, wondering why her new brother had such an effect on girls (and how she could get some for herself).

Cologne almost gaped as she saw Ranma standing next to his Valkyrie. The boy had been good, in fact, he was easily the best of his generation before he left Nerima. Yet while he had beaten Herb and Saffron, she knew that at the time both fights had been won through luck and outside interference more than anything else. In a pinch, she knew she could have still defeated the boy at the time, but now she praised her ancestors that had not been necessary.

Before her stood a young man at least in form, but the energy he was giving off, even with as tightly controlled and bound as it was, was that of a God, that was the only way to put it. He in fact was giving off more power, more ki than that machine behind him and she wondered how the hell he had been able to gain such a level in a little under two years. She was easily the best warrior of the Amazons, and had by far the most ki of any of them, but even she and Happosai combined could never have equaled a fifth of the power that Ranma was giving off, which was more than even Herb or Saffron could hold at a given time. Once again she cursed the fact that she hadn't been able to convince Shampoo and Ranma to get gather. Oh, she knew it had been a close thing at one point, but Ranma was too wild too unrestrained and his dream of going into space would've gotten in the way at the time. But that was not the case now, and maybe, well an old woman could dream, though she wouldn't make the mistake of pushing for anything. Shampoo however took matters into her own hands and ran forward with a loud cry. "Ranma!"

Ranma grinned at Shampoo, grabbing her and twirling her around before placing her back on the deck stepping back before turning to look at the others. "Hey all, what the heck are you all doing here?" He then spotted Mousse and the very pregnant Perfume and he nearly shrieked, pointing at Mousse in shock. "Oh my god, you spawned?!"

Mousse glared back good-naturedly at his old rival while the rest of the Amazons laughed aloud.

Their meeting however was interrupted by an elderly gentleman with messy white hair and wearing a lab coat running out of the hanger, aiming straight towards them. A few of the warriors stiffened until they got a good look at him, then they relaxed, no way in hell was a man built like that a danger. Ranma's grin widened even further as the man ran up to Cologne, only to nearly collapse he was so out of breath. "A-are, y-you, are you Cologne?"

Cologne looked at the man head cocked to one side. "Indeed I am, young man. May I ask why you're looking for me?"

"Oh my god, I have so many questions for you! I'm Dr. Lang and…"

The discussion was interrupted once again by a large and very narrow wave coming out of nowhere to splash over the side of the Macross and drench Ranma where he/she stood. The now redhead shook her head, crying aloud "Oh come on!" She wiped seawater out of her eyes only to see to her horror that she hadn't been the only one struck. "CccaaaaaaaaaaaaatTtttttttt!" And with that the redhead bolted off in terror into the space fortress, knocking down several naval personnel who had come forward to try and hurry the group inside to free the landing area for more traffic.

Cologne cackled again as Nodoka sighed and Motoko gaped, never having actually believed the whole fear of cat's thing. "I see some things don't change at least."

While Ranma was meeting with Cologne, other groups were coming into the space fortress from every hanger and opening on the ship. Maintenance personnel, gun crews, and civilians led by Lon-Cao who wanted to board the ship, as well as just regular crewman, all of them were streaming in, being pressed into service where they could, and shown to the city when not. Lon-Cao had come aboard that morning and had already taken over the repair efforts of the one severely damaged factory with a group of his workers, while the others found housing for them all in the city.

About two hours after the Amazon's arrived Lisa met with a group of chief petty officers as well as the new COB.

Chief of boat was the chief petty officer aboard a ship and he was in charge of most of the discipline aboard a normal naval vessel, though obviously on a ship the size of the Macross that was a little different. The original COB of the Macross had died during Operation Blitzkrieg, and the non-coms had been taking a pounding since the voyage began, meaning they barely had any really experienced ones left by the time they returned to Earth. Without an experienced COB, Claudia and Lisa had been forced to handle between them most of the disciplinary incidents aboard the ship among the navy personnel. On a ship the size of the Macross however, that was not only a full-time job, it was one that needed a full bloody staff. The MPs were a major help, but they had their hands full most the time dealing with issues that cropped up between the sailors and civilians.

So, while Claudia was hatching her own Operation Clean Sweep to get rid of one of the largest issues aboard, Lisa was welcoming the new chief of boat with open arms, or at least the equivalent that she would show to any new officer or noncom coming into the Macross. While the Macross did not run anything like a navy vessel was supposed to run, it worked, and everything aboard and everyone who remained aboard had proven themselves in combat harder than anything seen since World War II.

The new COB was a grizzled man, medium height but with heavy muscles visible under his regular Navy uniform, and he and his fellows, all petty officers from different sections who had he had brought along from his former command, the carrier flagship Nimitz of the 5th Fleet. The carrier was going to be decommissioned soon, replaced by a submarine carrier class of all things, and he looked at the young woman sitting at the table steadily.

Something about her made him stand at perfect parade attention, something he didn't really normally do for young officers. The UNSF had expanded so rapidly that most of the young officers were really not what he would call real officers, and he generally looked down at them for this reason. This woman who was staring at him however made him realize that doing so in this case would be a very bad move indeed.

"COB Walters?" She asked looking up from her papers.

"Yes sir," he replied still standing at attention and saluting. Behind him his fellows did the same, all being experienced enough to sense the same thing he had.

"Good," she said leaned back a little and looking at them all. "I won't lie to you, when I heard we were getting a COB again I was ecstatic. I'm the tactical officer for this boat, and I've had to deal with disciplinary issues myself along with our communications officer, and frankly it's been a bitch." All four of them chuckled a little at her blunt tone and she went on. "However, this boat is not a normal naval ship. For one thing as you probably already know from your trip through it, it is far larger than any vessel made by humanity. The crew is supposed to be an even 20,000, but that's without the Prometheus and Daedalus and the interior factories which adds another nine thousand and that is actually a minimal amount that captain Gloval is looking to expand by an addition four thousand. This is far more personnel than a Hercules class missile ship has, far more than any wet Navy ship. For another, we have a city built inside the ship. You should've been looking at the news so you should know that, and if you don't well you can go down there on your off-duty hours. The provosts are pretty good, and the head of the MP is in charge of working with the civilian police, but they have their hands full with issues springing up between the civilians and military. Most of the civilian police, however, are leaving the ship along with most of the civilians we had on board so I don't know how well he'll get along with it the new police force coming in with the new batch of civilians." Lon-Cao had brought in his own security force, but whether they were useful or simply bullies in a spiffy uniform remained to be seen.

The petty officers all looked at one another, but for any of them could voice the question Lisa answered it for them. "We are taking on new civilians because they can run the factories, the farms and other things better and more efficiently than we can, plus it opens up more personnel for what the Navy alone can do. Then too, certain civilian groups are thinking ahead, and wondering what the hell is going to happen to Earth if the Zentraedi eventually attack all out," She knew it wouldn't be pretty, but she wasn't about to point that out to these guys just yet. "They'll keep the city running with all of its services, a major morale boost on a long space journey, let me tell you." Then too, they were a source of new recruits, an important point as most naval personnel couldn't be retrained for Valkyrie or Destroid work unless they already had the talent for it. She wouldn't point that fact out just yet, the idea of preparing for losses to that extent without returning to port would not sit well with any of them.

"Chief petty officer, Hopkins?" One of the other petty officers stepped forward. "I understand you came off the carrier Nimitz as well, and you're in charge of the Valkyrie maintenance squads?"

"Yes ma'am," he responded.

"Good, we don't have our full maintenance teams aboard just yet, but we have several new ones that are working through the Valkyries we have. Have you read the packet about our new Valkyrie classifications, the FAST Pack and all the modifications we allow veterans to do?"

"I skimmed it Sir." he said stiffly, disapproval plain in his voice. "It seems to me all the modification are needlessly adding to the workload of the maintenance crew without noticeably improving the fighter."

Lias's affable nature disappeared as if it had never been and she leaned forward, glaring at him. "You will read it from beginning to end chief petty officer!" she said, her voice cold and commanding, the voice of someone far older than she looked. "The changes we have made to our rules of engagement, our maintenance schedules, and our Valkyries are all based off real combat experience gained from fighting our way from Pluto back to Earth against an alien threat whose size and numerical superiority you cannot even begin to comprehend! I do not need a petty officer in charge of my maintenance section who does not understand the realities of what we are dealing with and what we have gained from that hard won experience is that clear?"

Her eyes swept over the mall and they all responded by rote, a little cowed at the sudden change, "Yes Sir."

She leaned back again her smiled back in place. Good in that case get out of here Hopkins you have some reading to do." The chastened CPO left at that point and she looked at the others. "Chief petty officer Thomas, chief petty officer Francisco, you two report down to the main engine room, a boatswain should be outside the door waiting for the two of you. CPO's Louganis, McLean, 0-3 Porter is waiting for you in the meeting room next to this one on the right. Be aware that she will probably be pushed up to 0-4, a lieutenant commander, once our full personnel compliment is aboard. She has been in charge of most of our damage crews during and after combat, a job that she has done in an exemplary fashion since our fold drive disaster. If I hear of you or any of the men assigned to her section giving her grief because of her age, gender, or lack of time in grade I will come down on you like the wrath of God, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Sir," was the reply and she nodded in those two left as well. Indeed all three of the bridge bunnies were going to be bumped up a grade, as were all the other officers. Claudia was going to be made a full commander, and Lisa herself was going to have the rank of captain, while Gloval would be a rear admiral. It wouldn't have much impact on their duties, but it would be a sign of the size of the crew and their workload. Drake would be made a captain as well, though while her specialty was in tactics his would be in intelligence.

Lisa leaned back tenting her fingers as she looked at the COB who was the only one still in the room. She had taken time off working with now- General Mannstein (the land forces were able to push that through far faster than the navies side of things) on the refit and redesign of the interior of the ship, because she felt that she needed to make certain that the new noncommissioned officers coming in understood the idiosyncrasies of the Macross. Hopefully the petty officers would take her orders to heart and take a day or two to read up on the changes and the new rules in place aboard the ship (some looser some far harsher), but if they didn't she would replace them swiftly. The COB though, was the only one that had been willing to transfer to the Macross, despite three of the 5th fleet's surviving ships being decommissioned as soon as they put into port. The reality of the battle against Kyron's fleet had penetrated swiftly where nothing else had, and America and Russia were both going back into the shipbuilding business openly now but they were concentrating on new designs and scrapping all the old ones for their crews.

"So," she said "disciplinary problems. "Most of the time the disciplinary issues have been rather small, but morale aboard the ship has been known to tank after we take severe losses, and of course that entails a much larger amount of issues, especially since the city has several dozen bars. I don't mind about the alcohol intake, but I want any stills outside of the city shut down, there are actual breweries in the city anyway. You can work with the other warrant officers and petty officers of the different sections to hunt them down, but I expect you to be the one to handle doling out discipline. However any drugs found aboard are to be destroyed immediately, and anyone, and I mean anyone, civilian, rating or officer who is found creating or distributing drugs aboard this ship is to be incarcerated immediately and if the charges proven to be accurate executed swiftly."

The COB reared back in surprise and Lisa chuckled mirthlessly. "Out in space it is just us COB, and this ship has no need for parasites like that. We have marijuana being grown in a few hydroponics plots for medicinal use, but it is strictly regulated, and anything found in anyone personal possession, well as I said, we don't need that shit." She and Gloval had both presided over trials about that very thing and the precedent was clear. "The same goes with murder and rape. Lt. Commander Grant is handling one of the larger issues we've had onboard, but I expect going forward for you to live up to your reputation and keep all these small issues from ever rearing their heads. But that is enough of the ship-side issues at them moment. Now, in terms of us being a base, the ship has it's own internal economy and currency, which…"

Claudia Grant was in fact handling the major issue of discipline and good order on the Navy side of things by at long last bringing a hammer down. Thanks to her skills with a computer (she had been in counter-intelligence before transferring to the communications department), she had been able to track and hunt down nearly every single piece of stolen hardware that one of the two black markets aboard ship had been moving around. She didn't much care about the drugs or the liquor (or the porn, now that they were back in contact with the internet), none of the current crop of crew or officers had the training to hunt those down and those were dangerous but not seditious. What she cared about was the military grade weapons, the parts for destroids and Valkyries and the fact that it seemed as if someone was trying to arm his own separate force. It was tough to see the pattern at first, but it was there.

Once she realized what was going on and had an idea of who was behind it she began to surreptitiously watch his movements and pulled back all the provosts from trying to shut down his operation, thinking that if she gave him a free hand she would be able to round up all his men all at once later on. This had worked very well, almost as if the man thought that no one was looking for him, and just that morning she had led a raid on one of the warehouses in the forward port side of the ship. This raid rounded up over fifty soldiers, and the provosts confiscated enough handheld weaponry for a further seventy-five. They also found four Spartan class destroids, and three Valkyries, all of them having a cobbled together look but still dangerous for all of that. It wouldn't have been enough to take over the ship, but it would have been enough to take over the bridge and keep it for a time, say until they were relieved by outside forces?

Some of the men were simply regular Navy personnel, who the ringleader had suborned to his cause in various ways. Others were soldiers who had left the service coming from the Valkyrie squadrons who had turned in their wings as well as their commissions. Space combat was a stone cold bitch, and two out of every ten Valkyrie pilots that made it through the Academy to join the fighting forces eventually decided after one or two battles that they couldn't handle it. Most of them simply went back to their civilian lives retrospectively easily, but at least fifteen, fifteen of the group that resigned after the battle in Saturn's asteroid ring had simply disappeared off the radar, and apparently this was why. Claudia wondered briefly why they had agreed to help the ringleader. Disgust with Gloval's orders and a desire to strike back maybe or was it something else? But in the end it didn't matter. Everyone involved in this little ring would be immediately taken off the ship to the nearest UNSF base to stand trial for insubordination and gross misconduct. They would all be hopefully drummed out of the service for those who weren't already, and the others would be turned over to the civilian authorities and no longer the concern of anyone aboard the Macross.

The ringleader however was going to be handled just a bit more forcefully. He would be arraigned solely for the offense of attempted mutiny in a time of war. If proven, and given all the evidence she had accumulated over the past six months it should be, carried a life sentence at a minimum, the maximum being death by firing squad. She wasn't certain if it would stick, but if it didn't it would be because someone higher up pulled some strings. Regardless he would be off the ship which was all she wanted right now. Now she stood outside her target's room with four MPs, all large men armed with shock sticks. A fifth stood next to her with a special card key that would open the door of any room aboard the ship regardless of any security the person inside had installed. The only one who could authorize its use was the captain in conjunction with his second-in-command as well as the head provost. Most of the time it was locked away in Gloval's stateroom, but he had okayed its use for this.

She nodded at the security man and he swiped the card through the door's lock. As soon as the door opened the four other MPs charged through. A brief exclamation of shock sounded out, and the sounds of a scuffle reached her where she waited outside, but it stopped almost as soon as it began, though the shouting continued. She walked through sedately to stare at the man who was still shouting at the MPs who had grabbed him, forced his hands behind his back and handcuffed him. "Captain Conner formerly of the Prometheus, you are under arrest for sedition against your superior officer in a time of war, drug dealing, weapon racketeering, and hell anything else I can think of to stick on!"

The man glared at him her, "how the hell did you know!"

"That," she purred "was an admission of guilt." The man tried to break free, but was held firmly by the four MPs. "And I've known about your little group for months now. Hell I knew about it almost from the moment you started it up. Did you really think no one saw how dissatisfied you were with Captain Gloval in command? Or did you just look down on us all because most of us are women? Never mind" she said, "it really doesn't matter now." She waved a hand and the MPs saluted. "Get him out of my sight and off this damn ship."

Thus one canker sore was removed before it could grow to truly dangerous size, and with the COB, new petty officers and maintenance crews and regular crew members coming in, she hoped to see the other canker sore, the drug creation and distribution, shutdown swiftly. It hadn't grown to be that much of an issue yet, but the thing about little things was that they won't stay that way for long if ignored. Still, she thought to herself as she whistled a little bit it sitting down and clicking through the man's files, a good day. I'll have to see if Roy it has recovered enough for a bit of fun. I think I deserve a little bit of a present for myself.

Dr. Lang looked around the meeting room in the sprawling and now rather large complex in the city at the dozens of scientists from around the world that had gathered here. Several of them were from Russia, China and America, others were from Italy and India and the UK, all of them had hopped on the fastest mode of transportation they could and come straight here as fast as they could for this real-time in person conference. Most of them were men he had talked to in his first conference over the Internet, but their appetites for what he had been discovering had merely been whetted to a fine point by what he had shared then. More, most of them wanted to see firsthand some examples of the work he had described.

The jewel (and even he found that a rather ugly thought when discussing this pair) of the collection however had to be the presence of Cologne and Mousse of the Joutekoutsu, both of whom were leaning against the wall at the back of the room. For the first part of what he was going to talk about they wouldn't have much to say, but in the second, and when they moved on to hand's on demonstrations, well, they would prove to be worth their weight in platinum.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, starting his presentation, "I'm glad to see you all here today. We have a lot to cover, and I'm assuming all of you wish to get to the nitty-gritty immediately, so here we go. First, I have two new discoveries based off of the reflux engine," and he pressed a button and behind him the large screen that dominated a full wall of the conference room lit up showing an engine. It was large and bulky, but the specs shown alongside the image showed that it would put out a lot of power, enough to take even the Macross into fold on its own, though the speed of the fold would be very slow, but that could be solved but simply having more units of the same type. "This," he said softly, pride and awe in his voice, "was developed by myself and chief engineer Hibiki. It is the first human made fold-space engine. We have not in fact made it yet since we lacked the room to do so until this last boarding action forced us to clear out so much of the cityscape freeing up a portion of the main hangar." Everyone nodded as the design said the thing would be at least four stories to a side. "Yet every test we have run on our computer simulations tells us this design will work. It's a cross between the style found on this battle fortress and on the Zentraedi ships our troops boarded during the Jupiter campaign. The Zentraedi design is robust, can run for far longer, but has far less output. The Macross' space fold drive," he coughed a little, "the only one of five to survive found aboard the space fortress are far more powerful, far more streamlined and rather more high-tech. If we want to talk about the technology aboard the spaceship being over-technology, Zentraedi technology is about 20 to 30 years behind it, simple to build and robust but not the best or most efficient. The only difference is that these alien designs have been built to not break down until they run out of fuel. Our design may require more maintenance, but the output will be better, and the fuel consumption is actually as good as on the drive found aboard the Macross. Questions, comments?"

the questions and answer section for that announcement went on for a few hours, basically about estimated build time and shortcuts as well as any possible problems that could arise, then Dr. Lang went on to his next development, a real-time communication device that bounced a communication signal into fold space. "With this," he said "we could keep in communication between different parts of the system, maybe even entirely different star systems in real time." He had actually reverse engineered this from one of the alien devices, but his was much smaller. Much less robust to be sure, but it would work on far less power.

One of the Brits looked at the communication gear avariciously. "Tell me," He said thoughtfully "how good is this real-time communication, I mean could you oh just as an example use it to control an automated drone of some kind?"

Dr. Lang paused for a moment then nodded. "I think you could yes if you weren't asking the drone to do lots of fancy maneuvering. I don't think it would work on controlling a Valkyrie for example through a dogfight." The Brit nodded, but decided to look into the possibility anyway.

"But you could control say a long-range missile? One that has extensive ECM suites?" A Russian asked, seeing where this would help his own people's ideas of space warfare.

"I would have to see if this signal would interfere with an ECM suites," said Dr. Lang thoughtfully but it's something to work on certainly.

The Russian nodded and the eggheads went back to putting their heads together.

Dr. Lang wasn't the only one that had ideas to share, the Russian brought along the design for a long-range missile platform that could launch missiles, have them go into ECM mode immediately and then was designed to use a fold-space drive. With Dr. Lang's new communication system to control the missiles through to their targets this system would be monstrously more effective. Dr. Lang wasn't certain how well that would work against the Zentraedi and felt it would depend on how big the payload was, as well as standard doctrine for the Zentraedi when they weren't in combat. Most certainly it wouldn't work on the fleet in orbit, which maintained a large force of Gargoyles between its positions and the third planet at all times, switching them out randomly.

The American admiral however had come up with something much more interesting. He brought a carrier design for space combat. This carrier would not carry Valkyries or any manned planes, it would carry thousands of drones armed with heavy lasers based on the Apocalypse class destroid's main weapons. The new class of fighter was a scimitar shape, with a heavy laser directly in the center of it, small engines at the back and the barest minimal wings. Dr. Lang thought they could however house one of the small barrier shields, which would give them a far higher survival time and the meeting about that took another hour. By the end of that however, humanity had a very new and very dangerous weapons platform and system to work with.

Dr. Lang then took command of the meeting nodded over to his two guests, both of whom, to his hidden surprise had actually followed most of the talk so far. "And now we are going to talk about the two areas where my guests can hopefully help us. The name of the game is survival, making sure as many of our men survive and kill as many of them as possible. For that we have developed the armor strengthening system and the enlarged magazine procedure. To discuss how to make them even better I wish to turn this offer to Cologne of the Jouketotsu."

Cologne hopped forward cackling at the looks of incredulity sent her way, save from the one Chinese man there, who simply gaped at the legend in front of him. But she was not the greatest teacher of her tribe for nothing, and she had brought along some props. With one ki-enhanced hand she lifted one such, a piece of armor off a Tomahawk, and set it into clamps that would hold it still. Then she hopped onto a table tossing her walking stick at the most incredulous face, the American admiral. "You, sonny boy, what do you think that's made out of?"

The admiral caught it deftly then shrugged, wondering what the hell this old ghoul was. Hell she barely looked alive, let alone someone who should be so spry, and what was up with that monstrous strength. "It's some kind of wood, oak maybe?"

She cackled again, sending a shiver through all their spines. "Good boy, now try to break it." The admiral did so, then winced visibly as the stick failed to break when he brought it down over his knee. Next he tried to smash it on the worktable in front of him. Instead of breaking the stick slammed into it and bounced out of his grip to be caught by Cologne, who hopped into the air to grab it. She came down cackling again. Next she thrust it into the armor she had set into clamps on the point first. Instead of simply hitting she was able to punch straight through the metal. "That is what you call the armor enhancing technique can do." Everyone stared at the short ghoul in shock and she cackled again. "Next, Mu-tse, I want you to empty your pockets."

Mousse looked at her askance. "You know how long it'd take to gather that all up again old ghoul, no way." A moment later he obeyed, muttering and rubbing at the new apple lump on his head. The admirals all chuckled a little at his discomfort, but they stopped laughing after he pulled several dozen large halberds out of his sleeves, and kept going pulling more and more things out of his sleeve, including a refrigerator, a motorcycle, a set of guns of all things, dozens of weapons, a kitchen sink and other things. One admiral later reckoned the long haired boy had pulled out at least five tons of various shit from his sleeves, neither of which had even bulged before.

Cologne cackled as he began to slow down. "And that gentlemen, is the hidden weapons technique, which you call the magazine enlargement system, performed by a master. Now, let's see what you have been working with so far, Ranma is incredibly good at what he does, but the boy's never been the best when it comes to explanations." Everyone even Dr. Lang who had thought he knew what to expect simply dumbly. The egghead conference as Ranma called it would last another week and by the end of it warfare and industry would never be the same again.

While Cologne and Mousse had gone off with Dr. Lang, the other Amazons followed Ranma through the ship section of the space fortress and into the cityscape. Well, after Shampoo changed back from a cat to her normal body, which caused quite a stir among the maintenance crew who saw it.

The group of Amazons stared around in awe, astonished that such a huge space was actually inside a spaceship, gasping aloud in shock at the huge hydroponics terraces, the fact that the city was built into the floor and sides of the massive hangar, and the artificial sky painted overhead.

The group first stopped in at the White Dragon where they were greeted by an awed Fei and Shao, who were surprised to see honest to goodness Amazons aboard. Two of the family groups broke off here to see if they could start working there, while the rest separated into different groups. Many of the older warriors and the family groups followed Nodoka around to see the hydroponics section and then the academy, while the younger set followed Ranma, who took them to see Kasumi at her new workplace.

Kasumi had been commissioned to design the interior of a brand new entertainment center built around food, computer simulations/games and other gaming systems. The backers had pulled out after finding out they could get off the ship, but that was only after they had bought the building it was supposed to be in, and paid for the interior to be demolished. Kasumi had decided to continue, assuming that someone else would come in and buy the space after she had finished renovating it.

Her plan was to make the entire interior into a single large space, with heightened terraces along three of the four walls, using metal and glass as the main building materials. There the terraces would have metal banisters all around, and each one would be devoted to a different game system, while the main floor would have the computer games spread around, with each one in its own indented section set into the floor. That way onlookers could see as much of the battles between players as possible, and food would be kept away from the devices which would save on cleaning and wear and tear. Along the front there would be a food stand.

Ukyo, who was working with her at the moment on the project, had already decided that she wanted to own that stand because she could tell the place would be making money hand over fist. For one thing, the location of the building itself was prime, right in the center of the city's shopping/merchant district. More importantly, the only thing the city offered that was as high-tech and as interesting as this place was the 3-d mini golf center, which had been making a shit ton of money as soon as the economy onboard settled down. The owners of that attraction were staying aboard, they had a son who was a Defender operator, and were forward thinking enough to see what was coming in the near future if the Zentraedi decided they wanted Earth to die.

Shampoo stared at her old frenemy being here, and stared even more at the transformation Kasumi had gone through. Gone was the rather mousy if good looking young girl she had been, replaced by a vibrant, beautiful and energetic woman.

Kasumi looked up from working on placing one of the banisters in place with Konatsu's aid and smiled in welcome as Ranma bounded over to her, kissing her neck which caused her to giggle than gasp aloud as the Amazons followed him in. "Shampoo? Everyone? What in the world are you doing here?"

Shampoo frowned a little at seeing Ranma, who had never been really been comfortable with showing or receiving affection, put his arm around Kasumi's waist. Then she sighed. She should have known that Ranma would be out of reach by this point. She had her chance before, but now it was obvious the two of them were together, and Shampoo was not willing to share. "We're here to join the forces here. Some of us will sign up to join the UNSF, others will make a home here in the city."

"Oh that's wonderful!" Kasumi moved forward, hugging a few of the Amazon girls who she had gotten close to during their stay in Nerima. "Maybe a few of you would like to work here with Ukyo, I think this place will be a major money-maker." She then paused as she noticed Perfume, and her swollen belly. She giggled again, and she began to wonder how she would look if she were pregnant with Ranma's child. She still didn't want to become so for a while yet, but in the future, oh yes, she definitely wanted children of her own.

Ukyo nodded. "I'm not willing to join the UNSF, the idea of fighting in space kind of freaks me out, even in one of the destroids that would be far too weird. You all might want to think about that before you sign up." The Amazon maidens looked at one another then shrugged. They would still sign up, if only to see what things were like.

Shampoo looked at her rival then shrugged. She had never really thought of the other girl as a real warrior, she was more a chef than a warrior even with her family's style. "I'll still try it out. I want to see how good these aliens are anyway." A few pieces of the fact based editorial covering the Macross' battle from around Pluto back to Earth had already been released, and the Amazons had watched it before boarding the ship they commandeered to catch up to the space fortress.

The group stayed there catching up and a few of the Amazons stayed behind to help out Kasumi while Ranma led the others to sign up at the academy. They would join the next class, which was going to start as soon as the academy had enough students to make a full class of 250. The Amazons would make up half of that class, and like Ranma they would be exempt from much of the physical training.

Their day was interrupted when the speakers set around the city began to blare the message "Commander Sugita, report to office of the CAG, commander Sugita report to the office of the CAG."

"Huh, I wonder what that's about?" Ranma shrugged, then waved goodbye to his friends and ran off.

"What do you mean I have to give a presentation?" Ranma asked a little dangerously. Acting CAG or not, he felt his place was in battle, leading the troops in exercises and not stuck inside giving lectures no matter the reason.

Roy looked at him from where he was behind his desk in his wheelchair. It would be another two weeks before he was cleared to remove the body cast, and another month and a half before he was cleared for duty. His lungs had been punctured by debris from his cockpit, even if the canopy hadn't shattered entirely, and while the surgery to repair them had gone well, he was still convalescing and would be for a while. His leg had also taken at hit, a piece of shrapnel from inside his cockpit pierced his leg, almost cutting his femoral artery but not quite. That injury at least was on the mend much faster, and he could start exercising it soon.

"I mean," he said sternly "that you need to talk to the new commanders coming in. We're not getting full flights or squads abroad, we're getting bits and pieces from UNSF bases around the world, people and individuals who can get away or we and our partisans can pry free. At the moment we're getting more lieutenants and squadron leaders than anything else, but none of them know anything about fighting the Zentraedi except what the high command has passed along, which unfortunately isn't a lot just yet. The next round will hopefully include more pilots who come in knowing what to expect, but this group doesn't. I've talked to a few of them and they just don't have a clue! You need to point out the reality of fighting the Zentraedi to them, and get them to believe you."

Ranma frowned and nodded, realizing that was a good idea. Especially since without Kyron's forces they would be only facing Gargoyles from now on, and they had already shown over the skies of Belgium what they would do to pilots not prepared to face them.

Roy frowned in turn, hear came the harder sell. "And," he said slowly, "You'll soon need to transfer two of your personnel over to Vermillion. Vermillion needs a new commander, and you can choose Max or Motoko for it, and they need a fourth pilot as well, that way we can have eight new pilots going to every squadron to be paired with four vets. We won't need that to happen for another week or so, but you should start thinking about it now."

Ranma scowled a bit at that. The pilots Wildfire had now, Rachel, Max, Ben, himself and Motoko had come together into one hell of a unit, and losing any of them would be a wrench. Still this would leave more room for Shampoo, Konatsu and the Amazons, and besides it was an order. So he just nodded and asked, "So how much time do I got before this meeting?"

"Well," Roy said, smirking a little, "as I've already told them to all meet you, or as I put it, 'a representative veteran', in meeting room 3, I would say now."

Ranma growled a little irritated at all this. He frankly hated being CAG. He felt that being an elite leader of a small elite force like he was as Wildfire Lead was the best place for him. He left the big strategic decisions to Lisa and, well, The Captain too, though he trusted Lisa more, Gloval tended to ignore the losses the Valkyries took these days, as if he really didn't know how address them, or connect with the pilots. "All right fine," he muttered, "but you know I will get back at you for this."

"I tremble with anticipation," Roy answered dryly, "Now get." Ranma got.

About a five minute leisurely walk Ranma brought to briefing room 3, one of the four designed for large crowds. When he walked in he was almost completely ignored by the pilots gathered there, an odd feeling.

Looking around he noticed that all of them were way older than he was, all of them had some kind of decoration on their uniform, and he realized that they were all vets or at least thought of themselves that way. Well, there're vets, and then there are space vets, he thought grimly. I wonder how many of these guys are going to survive long enough ta make that jump.

He walked up to the podium at the front of the room and calmly waited for everyone to quiet down but even the ones who saw him didn't take any real notice of him, thinking him far too young to be the one that they were here to listen to. Those that thought more of it simply thought that he was a lieutenant (missing his rank tabs entirely) there to help give the presentation they were here to listen to from Roy Fokker. Several of them knew Roy of old and they would listen to him, but a young man like Ranma couldn't possibly have anything to teach them.

After a few minutes Ranma had about enough of being ignored and he summoned a small ball of ki and shot it into the air to impact the ceiling with a loud bang. Fist still covered in blue gold ki he smirked at the now wide-eyed pilots who had all turned to him with gaping mouths and startled faces. "I trust I got your attention now? Good morning gentlemen my name's Ranma Sugita and I'm the acting Commander Air Group aboard Macross. I'm that because outside of Roy, who is currently bedridden with injuries taken in our last dogfight before hitting atmosphere, the most experienced and easily the most deadly pilot aboard this ship." The pilots began to mutter in surprise and he let them for a minute before continuing. "This is not me bullshitting you, my record is open source on the Macross' internal net if you want to check."

"The fact there is no one senior to me but Roy should tell you all that every other pilot that the Macross sailed with before we were forced to leave Earth is dead. We have in fact suffered something like 500% casualties. Some of this was from attrition taken over time, but after three specific battles the entire command air group had to be rebuilt almost from scratch."

Seeing by their now pale face he had their full attention he began his speech. "Yer all used to facing fighters that pretty much want to live ta fight another day rather than die. The kind that'll retreat if/when they realize a battle's going against 'em. Yer also used to being close to equal in numbers to yer enemies most of the time. Those two facts are not applicable to fighting the Zentraedi. To the Zentraedi a small sorties is around 300 battlepods minimum, exceeding the number of Valkyrie fighters the Macross could field at any one time. A serious assault normally came in at around 2000 and counting. Recently the Intel officer said we faced 20,000 pods in various sized waves when breaking away from Jupiter and we faced half of that earlier in the asteroid belt around Saturn. Forget about keeping score" he said seriously, his blue eyes dark with memory, "just forget about counting kills or becoming an ace. Facing the Zentraedi it's about survival and killing as many of the damn bastards as you can."

There was a lot of muttering at this point as most of the pilots there couldn't believe that the aliens could put that much forces into the field so often and not feel it. "Don't believe me," he asked rhetorically, looking around, "ask me about Silver squadron or Gold or any of the dozen others that we lost entirely in battles from here all the way back ta Pluto."

One of the pilots, a commander by his rank tab said "that's probably because there is only so much training that can be done in a simulator. Even if your numbers aren't inflated green pilots thrown into such a maelstrom wouldn't fare well."

Ranma shrugged. "We normally don't throw green pilots into the fight without a veteran swingman or at least a veteran Lieutenant leading the flight. Though yer right we do need more veterans, what we don't need is people trained in the old school coming in and telling us how to do things. I personally have been in over thirty dogfights since graduating from the Academy. Can any of ya say the same?" None of the pilots in the audience met his eyes after that. "Now are you all going to listen while I tell ya about things that can save yer lives or are ya going to sit up on your so-called veteran high-horse and not listen ta me?"

There were some more mutterings but eventually the crowd quieted down. He continued pressing a button to go through a slide show Roy had created for this presentation. The first slide popped up showing a triangular fighter plane. "This is a triangle fighter. We saw a lot of these early on in a few of our first battles but they seem to have stopped using 'em since we broke away from Saturn. While they had a lot of firepower, they didn't have the engines, the range or the maneuverability to really fight Valkyries. They also seem to have trouble locking on ta us if we were in Guardian mode, so weren't ever a big threat ta us or the destroids."

The next slide showed a battlepod. "These things we've found out are called Regulds and they form the bulk of the enemy force we've faced most of the time. They come in three different flavors," he said jokingly, "normal," he pointed to the slide that had a normal battle pod then he punched a button and the slide changed, showing an artillery pod. "Artillery and radar." The next slide showed one of the ECM equipped pod. "The radar things are bastards, enough of them can blank out the sensors of the Macross and Valkyries, allowing large groups of Regulds ta get into visual range before getting spotted. They got the drop on us quite a few times using these assholes."

The picture changed again, this time showing a heavier battlepod with two arms attached to it and slightly heavier lasers. "This is a command pod and these bastards are tough. We're working under the assumption that these guys are their equivalent of lieutenants or commanders, because they seem to be able to direct the other pods that're around 'em, so taking them out is a priority. We actually haven't seen any of these guys since getting away from Saturn, pretty much because this guy didn't believe in delegation." The picture changed again to show Kyron's Glaug. "For some reason this pod was controlled by one of their aces who doubled as a fleet admiral, and I say was with feeling." He snorted. "He was in charge of most of the forces we faced since first appearin' on Mars. His forces were way wilder and far more uncoordinated but just as deadly in large numbers, and the Zentraedi never come in anything but. He's dead now, and his fleet is too, which unfortunately leads us to the Gargoyles." His voice had been almost upbeat, but it became deadly serious at the last word, and he glared around at them all as the picture changed to show one of the powersuits.

"The Gargoyles, the most dangerous fighter class the Zentraedi have. These bad boys have armor far in excess of anything we have bar the Monster class destroid. They take a lot of killing, about ten shots from a Valkyrie rifle at about the same point or three missiles hitting all at once. They have four missile launchers that fire mini-missiles that have a range of about half of our own missiles but these bad boys carry something like a hundred of them. They're also armed with two bundles of three pulse lasers under each arm." He pointed these out on the display," and as ya can see two main cannons" he pointed to them in turn, "which are heavier than any of the other fighter weapons the aliens have except for the Kyron's personal unit. What's worse, they are maneuverable, fast and deadly. The pilots seem to be trained to a far higher level than any other alien force. When they first appeared right before we retreated into Jupiter's atmosphere they literally wiped us out. We had 270 pilots going into that fight, a little over forty of us left." There were some exclamations of shock at that, but everyone was too engrossed in his presentation to voice any disbelief they may have harbored. "We ran into a larger force of 'em nearer the moon at almost full strength, and now we're down to thirty pilots. The destroids had it a little better than us in both battles, but not by much."

He let that sink in a bit before going on. "We won't be putting any of you against these guys yet if we have a choice, which I'm sorry ta say we might not have now that Kyron's fleet is gone."

Another picture this time of another Gargoyle appeared, this one with a shoulder plate painted purple, and the other one painted gold. "A Gargoyle with this color scheme is piloted by the enemy ace and is alone responsible for at least sixty plus Valkyries shot down all by herself. If you see this mech do not engage it, regardless of your numbers! This ace is a pure killer, and none of ya are up ta facing it." Honestly with the way the Zentraedi ace was getting better after each fight, a learning curve that made even Ranma's look slow, he didn't think even the trio of Roy, Max and Rick working together could face it now. And since it had slaughtered two full squadrons and then some off the 5th fleet before their last inconclusive meeting, it was obvious any normal pilot or even a full squadron would be over matched.

"Now, I'm going ta go over the changes we've made in tactics and weapons, then common problems of fighting in space, and the different weak points we've noticed in the Reguld pods. The Gargoyles don't have any weak points except for having less range ta their weapons than us, so don't even ask. First, the FAST Pack and what it gives ya…"

Azonia woke up and knew immediately that she had slept for quite a long time, disturbed by all the things she had discovered about her race, disturbed, by the strange concepts and physical things she had discovered, the reproduction aspect especially. Though what woke her was a strange physical feeling shooting through her body, a pleasurable sensation that she hadn't ever felt before.

She felt Sonya stirring beside her, and looked down to find that her friend's leg had somehow gotten between her own as they slept and was touching Azonia's junction between her legs when she moved a little in her sleep, which sent a ripple of something through her. She found it pleasant and also very disturbing and she reached out to shake Sonya awake.

Sonya woke up slowly, and then looked at her friend before looking away and moving back, her face slightly flushed. It was only then that Azonia realized her own leg had forced its way between Sonya's, and must have been rubbing at the same place on her that Sonya's leg had been touching on Azonia. Neither of them, however were going to comment on it, it wasn't the first time such a thing had happened, though, it was the first time that both of them had been naked (Sonya having changed when Azonia didn't put on her uniform before joining her in bed) and the first time Azonia had felt such a sensation.

"So," Sonya asked looking away and reaching for her uniform, "have you though up a plan for getting our people out of this?"

Azonia nodded also looking away. For some reason she was feeling very strange, and seeing her friend bend over like that did not help matters. In fact it made her feel even stranger, a sudden urge to pull her friend back to bed and find out if they could consciously cause those pleasurable sensations going through her, but the utter strangeness of that thought let her fight off the urge easily.

It was with relief that she addressed her friend's question. "I have thought of one, whether or not it works depends on how gullible Dolza proves to be. I think we can pull it off, but it may merely be delaying the inevitable, I need to think of a long term solution after I assure our destruction is not going to come looking for us just yet."

Sonya turned to her friend, her face serious and now fully dressed, removing some of the distraction. "What would you have me do lady Admiral?"

Azonia smiled at the utter belief in her that Sonya's voice conveyed the devotion and respect she felt for her admiral plain in her friend's face. She always felt stronger, better and more confident when she had Sonya watching her back, like another pair of hands. A rush of affection for her friend shot through her, as well as something else, but again she ignored it. "Take control of the fleet for now, I will be busy with my plan to fool Dolza. Have the intelligence division send me all the data and videos we took of Kyron's assault on the space fortress, as well as a few of their specialists. Pull the fleet back until we're beyond the moon's orbit and spread us out as much as you can. Keep one division in orbit above the third planet and rotate them out every day or so. I have no idea how long this is going to take us to work on, but regardless, there'll be no more organized offensive operations against the humans. However, if small groups of our pilots wish to go down and reconnoiter, gather more chocolate or anything else, like clothing styles say, so long as they okay their assault with you I am fine with that." The two shared a grin, knowing the younger Meltraedi would pounce on that permission eagerly. The lure of chocolate, the idea of trying other food, and of course more clothing to study would be irresistible. "If anyone asks, I will be researching where on the space fortress the proto-culture generator could be for our eventual assault, as well as whether or not Kyron could've damaged the space fortress or the proto-culture generator in some way."

Sonya's eyebrow rose in surprise, and she suddenly seemed to grasp where her admiral was going with that idea, and then she bowed deeply. "I will see to it lady."

While everyone aboard the space fortress was busy, things around the globe were not exactly staid or uninteresting either. The UNSF had splintered almost entirely, the groups stationed in their home nations going over entirely to those nations save for groups like the American nationals who returned home. America had impeached its president, but he had refused to step down in a time of crisis and forces loyal to him and to Admiral Hayes had taken control of the capital and refused to be ousted. That left the states to their own devices, and they were a mixed bag in production ability, personality and desire to do anything to deal with the present crisis. Indeed, many states were split in two among their constituents on what should be done. Yet America was so large, it's industrial capacity so huge, that it was still able to churn out new Valkyries, destroids and even start building new warships. Britain was producing more parts and FAST Packs than any other country, India more destroid upgrades and parts, Russia and China had more keels laid down for capital sized spaceships, but America was doing all of the above at a high level, not very organized or efficiently but in quantity.

It made one really wonder what America could do if it got its head out of its ass, Prescott thought as he put down a force analysis of the UN and decided to go back to study the reports on the attack of Belgium. He wanted to get to know these Gargoyles and how different they were from the run-of-the-mill 'Reguld' pods. He was impressed with their general skill level, good force control, they acted like the elite force that Henri had called them. The way the reacted to the use of missile pods, the initial ambush that had been so very bloody, it all pointed to a group that knew what tactics were and how to use them to best advantage.

Yet with all that, their assault on Belgium was simply the most bizarre military action he had ever seen. For one thing he thought they didn't target anything important, nothing industrial, no population center. They slaughtered the Valkyrie wings that were able to get there to a man for little loss, and that is just scary. Yet at the same time the population of the city they attacked is still largely intact, a few deaths caused by the aliens stepping on them and a few more among the police but it's not as if the aliens went out of their way to kill anyone. But why did they attack and steal chocolate in the first place for the love of God? "What did they want with 220 tons of chocolate?" He muttered to himself.

Scott was now at home, working off a base in Britain and thankfully his wife and kids at been able to join them there in the officer's housing area. The oldest of his kids was thinking of joining up soon, and Prescott was of two minds about it. The death of his brother had affected Scott greatly, and he was really wondering if he wanted his family to continue their history of service, especially with one of his own sons. After all Marcus hadn't had any children yet, and while Eric might have a few illegitimate ones out there with the older ladies he favored, no one knew for certain if he had or not, so it would fall on his kids to continue the tradition, and though he knew it was selfish of him he didn't want them to.

"220 tons of chocolate," he muttered to himself as he got up to go down and join the family for dinner. "Soon you'll tell me they'll attack Italy for their clothing designs or New York for its pizza. It makes no sense." In the following days, he would remember this thought and curse himself violently.

Sonya looked down at her screen, her face slightly amused at the sheer number of missions that Athena and all the other captains and wing commanders had submitted. With a bit of work however she was able to tell that they all had two, possibly three objectives, they simply differed in who came up with them and the size of the force assigned. The three targets were chocolate, clothing and, in a much smaller category, other types of food.

Over the next two hours she read through them and decided that rather than use any one, she would use a mix of three. Athena had put forth one that would use half of her wing to take a human city called Naples in a clan-country called Italy. While this country was relatively large, their information told them it didn't produce much other than food and clothing designs. So Athena and her wing would lead the assault while another wing would follow down and split into two groups, attacking Naples and the other would attack the city of Milan, which was apparently known for what it could 'sell', including clothing. After that she would okay another mission to assault a city called Paris in a clan-country called France for its chocolate and clothing, allowing them to take two targets with one attack.

She frowned slightly, then nodded. Both assaults would let them take advantage of the already rattled nature of the defense forces in the Europe thing, which was all to the good. She didn't think that spreading themselves thin against other targets would be a good thing. Attacking an enemy where he was strongest, like in this America place, or worse India (the numbers of humans living in that country was very worrying, if they had a military proportionate to that size) would be foolish in the extreme. After looking over the plans again and writing up the total into one plan she let herself stretch and set the operation to start in ten local hours. That would let her get some sleep (in her own room, which made her uncomfortable and rather… lonely for some reason) before she needed to be on the bridge to see it.

The next day Athena and her wing led the assault straight down into the skies above Italy followed swiftly by smaller groups from several other wings. Valkyries scrambled quickly, but most of them were the same old style without the added firepower or armor of the ones on the space fortress. Athena wondered idly why that was, but really she didn't care. It just made them so many targets, and however strong her liking of chocolate or respect for the race that could produce it or fight as hard as the ones on the space fortress, none of her troops would hesitate.

The bases in the north of Italy had been among those who sent their air forces to aid in the defense of Belgium, and none of them had been able to replace their horrendous losses. The bases in the south sent up their forces, but they were no match for the Queadluun Rau. After the initial clash the base commanders seemed to realize this and refused to send in more sacrifices. They did send north their destroid companies as fast as they could, but only the closest forces arrived in Milan or Naples before the Meltraedi achieved their objectives.

Once Queadluun Rau had secured air superiority the destroids found the aliens cut through them just as fast as through the Valkyries. With the losses thus sustained, the northern military bases in Italy almost ceased to exist, and the sacking of Milan went off without a hitch. The bases in the south put up more of a fight than that for Naples but the outcome was never in doubt when the other countries around Italy refused to send in reinforcements this time. Yet despite the horrendous and one-sided slaughter of the defenders the Meltraedi once again went out of their way to not butcher the inhabitants of the cities they targeted. Indeed that fact caused almost as much confusion among those trying to figure out what made the aliens tick than anything else.

The clothing and pre-packaged foodstuffs were excellent, but the pizza, despite how much it was advertised on the 'internet' proved to be rather disgusting by the time they got portions of it back to the fleet. Though the pilots that tried some on the ground, Silonia for one and another few who exited their powersuits once resistance was crushed, found it most delectable. Other pilots however had gone a more cerebral route, and gathered the ingredients and tools necessary to create some on their own. Their eventual products were not very successful, but they persevered.

All around the main UNSF base in Britain looked up quizzically as a loud anguished cry rent the air. "OH come on, are you kidding me?!" This cry would be repeated several times over the next few days, nor would Scott's frustration and puzzlement be alone. Indeed these smaller, far more aimed assaults would be a constant source of confusion for everyone in the military as they went on, and something of a joke for the civilians of the countries not attacked. And once the reports of what was taken during this attacks began to circulate, that amusement redoubled.

Konatsu looked over at Ranma, who had just gotten back from leading the new Valkyries pilots through their paces and immediately joined the group of Amazons and him to exercise. By the scowl on his face the group of pilots didn't stack up to his standards, which Konatsu knew were very high. The kunoichi trained man searched for a safe topic to take his friends mind off his unwanted duties as CAG. "So, what do you think about all the attacks the aliens have been launching lately?"

Ranma looked over at him, grinning a little. "I think they're trying to divert attention from us, or that other attack over Belgium got them hooked on chocolate. Wouldn't that be cool, aliens addicted to chocolate? Maybe they'll expand, start to steal other sugar resources, or maybe even caffeine. Heh, what if they stole all the worlds coffee?" As long as the aliens weren't attacking the Macross, Ranma would leave analyzing why to other people. He wasn't a big picture sort really, he preferred to concentrate on what was in front of him.

"That would be horrifying," Konatsu said in a deadpan voice. He drank coffee by the mug every morning to wake up or whenever he needed energy so that was a threat he took very seriously. "Though it would certainly unite humanity against them like nothing else, after all money may make the world go round but it sails on coffee."

Ranma laughed and the two went back to their katas.

Three days into these little private missions, Miriya had decided that she had given her adversary Ranma enough time to heal himself, and since the rest of the fleet seemed intent on launching their own attacks on different parts of Earth, she launched alone on her own personal mission. She did not however submit a plan, she simply left.

Sonya got into touch with her almost immediately. "Flight leader Miriya, what do you think you're doing? You haven't submitted any plans, and no matter how good you are, launching alone is pure folly."

"I am finishing this, we, Ranma and I, will finally see who's the best," Miriya said proudly, her voice iron hard with conviction. "One way or another, I will know the answer after today."

Sonya stared into her screen at the other woman for a moment, but in the end she nodded. "Very well. Good luck and remember the honor of this fleet goes with you." Miriya nodded and cut the connection.

Ranma was working the new fighter pilots that had boarded over the past few days once again through their paces over the space fortress when his ki sense tingled and he turned to face up into the atmosphere. "It's coming," he said, and a wide shark like grin appeared on his face. "Command, this is Wild 1, be advised we're about to have company."

"Can you verify that Wild one, we have nothing on our radar," Lisa's voice answered promptly, then slowed as new data came in. "Wait, we have one repeat one incoming Gargoyle directly above us, seems to be going at max acceleration too."

"It's the ace," Ranma said happily. "It's back. I'm actually surprised it gave me so much time to heal after our last little aborted fight. He does have honor, I really owe Kasumi a couple kisses for calling that."

The new leader of Green squadron, one of the transplanted officers, asked "so we just go up there and kill it right? I mean it must be an idiot, or some kind of suicide bomber to come down alone like this."

Ranma laughed harshly. "Please, that pilot could kill you all, I could kill you all, just be glad I'm on your side. No, this one is mine. No one else interfere."

Lisa sighed theatrically then said "very well wild one, go get it. Just remember you're acting CAG and we don't have anyone to replace you so you come back alive, that's an order you hear?

The other commanders were shocked at this odd action being okayed, but Ranma laughed a little before saying "Roger that," and then shot up into the stratosphere. As he did so he began to play the same song Lisa had blasted on the Macross' radio, 'Die With Honor.' Hearing Ranma play that song shook Lisa, but she stood at her position on the bridge, eyes glued to the readouts, knowing this was something Ranma simply had to do alone.

All the Valkyrie pilots, even the transplanted ones realized this was something they had never seen before, and remained where they were, all their sensors trained on the air where the battle was going to take place. Gloval however was more pragmatic, and ordered the sensors to begin recording, wanting to add this video to the video Defiance, once he and Claudia were finished with it.

As soon as he came within visual range of the Zentraedi Gargoyle he transformed into soldier mode and stood there in the air using his thrusters stay in place, his rifle in one hand, his short sword in the other. The Gargoyle shot down to a place across from him at the same altitude and they stared across the intervening mile at one another. For some reason Ranma thought this was a formal challenge, and so it should be treated as such. With a flick of his controls his soldier mode Valkyrie bowed at the waist towards his enemy, his weapons crossed over his Valkyrie's chest.

Miriya had at first been dismayed that Ranma would try his music attack on her after all this time, but as soon as the song registered she simply smiled grimly, realizing he felt the same thing she did, that this might be the only time they would meet this, this cleanly, with nothing else hindering their quest to see who was the best, no other people getting in the way, no other objectives. Their previous engagements had after all been part of larger engagements, and while important to them personally hadn't really decided the outcome of anything larger. When she saw Ranma's machine bow, she bowed in turn.

After a moment the two straightened up, staring at one another, communicating in some fashion that neither would ever be able to convey to anyone else, two kindred souls staring into the mirror image of themselves, the enemies who despite that had somehow come to understand one another. They stayed like that, their gazes locked on one another then at some unseen signal they immediately shot off, the Gargoyle pressing in with its canyons and lasers as Ranma changed forms into his flight mode, shooting away and releasing several of his missiles from his FAST Pack behind him.

Miriya shot them out of the air with her pulse lasers and closed, only this turned out to be a mistake as Ranma swiftly changed into Guardian mode and came back right at her.

His rifle barked a dozen times, and though she dodged most of the rounds one of her canyons was hit and she gritted her teeth in sympathetic pain as one of her ribs gave way. Miriya returned fire as she dodged, taking out one of the FAST Pack units on one of his arms. Ranma however swiftly ejected the rest of the pack before mini-missiles held therein before they could explode as he changed into his soldier mode. That hand swiftly stabbed forward as he closed to hand to hand range, but Miriya caught the blade and ripped from his grip, tossing it aside to sail away through the air. The two came together in a flash of hand-to-hand combat, then away, moving faster and faster, trying to overwhelm one another with speed and skill. Miriya began to laugh exultantly, her entire being filled with the joy of combat, and Ranma began to chuckle aloud, his eyes sparking with battle lust.

Aboard the fleet in orbit, Athena watched in awe mingled with no small amount of fear. Miriya had been deadly before, and she had faced the younger ace at times in joint exercises, but this, this battle showed that she had become even better! I never knew that a Queadluun Rau could move that fast! Exactly how good has she become, and how good is the human Ranma to be able to face her at speeds like that?! This thought was shared throughout the entire pilot community of the Meltraedi as nearly every single Queadluun Rau operator was watching the battle closely on any sensor screen they could find.

So were a lot of other people around the globe, and on the space fortress. The Valkyrie pilots that Ranma had been leading through various exercises, who had still harbored a bit of contempt for the younger man having only been in the Navy for little over a year, and thinking him an idiot to agree to this one on one combat, were looking on now with mixed feelings of fear and respect.

An hour into the battle Ranma had gained the upper hand slightly through extensive use of his Amiguriken speed, hammering Miriya back but Miriya could take more damage than he had thought, and seemed to shrug off most of what he could do, and her own blows were beginning to get through his armor strengthening technique, despite the fact he had taken so much time over the past few days to infuse his Valkyrie with his ki like Cologne had done to her walking stick. She's got even better, he thought to himself, grinning wildly. Not even Ryoga, hell not even Herb was able to keep up with me like this, not for long, anyway.

Miriya lashed out, catching the Valkyrie's leg as Ranma tried to kick her, her claws catching on the armor and ripping off one of the thrusters but Ranma flipped in midair, lashing out with his head lasers and rifle, stitching up her side. With a snarl Miriya shot out half of her payload of missiles, forcing Ranma away to give him time to take them out. He kept on shooting them out of the sky as the battle moved from over the ocean to over a Hawaiian island.

Luckily there was no one around, though there were now a lot of helicopters in the distance, most of which were news helicopters trying to get a recording of the battle.

Ranma shot out his own remaining missiles, half targeting Miriya's, and the other half targeting her to keep her busy while he destroyed the missiles.

Miriya, however kill them too quickly and closed the distance as Ranma finished destroying her missiles. Another cannon blast smashed into him, and even as he moved with the blow trying to keep his rifle on target she got right above him her hands clenched together in an overhand hammer blow. Her bunched hands came down smashing into his Valkyries head crushing most of the sensors there as well as the lasers and sending Ranma spiraling down toward the ground.

He got control about an inch above the ground, and rocketed upward as fast as he could, coming back with an uppercut that slammed into Miriya's midriff as she followed him down, taking out her remaining cannon before she could fire at him. Another blow to her head came in from the side as fast as his Amiguriken speed could allow, smashing her Queadluun Rau's head completely off.

Miriya growled angrily and reached forward grasping the canopy of her powersuit with her own hands, pushing it to one side so she could see out, then reached forward with her Quadaluun Rau's arms grabbing one of Ranma's fist with both of her own when he tried to press the attack, ripping it off in a welter of electronic sparks, causing Ranma to cry out in agony as his arm went dead from the elbow down. A kick sent him flying backwards to hit the ground, but he flipped over back onto his feet and brought his one remaining arm forward, shouting "Moko Ha Reiku!" The ki attack impacted, slamming Miriya back and slagging one of her legs. She screamed aloud with sympathetic agony, and before she could respond Ranma was back in the air, grabbing her one remaining leg and flinging her to the ground below.

Miriya's back hit the ground, taking out one of her thrusters but she used the remainder to flip herself over onto her one remaining leg and she reached out and grabbed Ranma as he charged in to finish her, flipping him down onto the ground and slamming her fist into his mech's chest a dozen times her pulse lasers blasting at the same time before he could kick out and escape her grip. The two once more engaged in close combat, jumping around one another and up into the air. Miriya may have lost one of her legs, but she still had most of her back thrusters, and she used them adroitly. Here the battle stalemated for another hour, neither able to regain the upper hand.

Unbeknownst to either combatant squadrons from the UNSF's Hawaiian base had streaked out to try and interfere in the battle, ordered to capture the single Gargoyle to see what they could learn from it and maybe even interrogate the pilot if it could be taken alive. In response Sonya loosed two full wings of Gargoyles, one to hammer the base in question, and the other to slaughter the Valkyries. Even with most of the Valkyries sent having gotten Fast Packs form the Macross, the fight was a massacre, barely lasting fifteen minutes once the Queadluun Rau got into range. After an hour the battle ended with the remaining base personnel having retreated into deep bunkers. The Queadluun Rau remained on station just in case of further interference, though almost all of them turned the attention to the battle still going on.

Luckily Lisa and Gloval kept their own heavily depleted wing out of the action, but just watching it was enough to impress on the newbies that just maybe Ranma and company knew what they were talking about.

After an hour the reinforcement Ranma had put his Valkyrie through over the past few days began to tell, as despite his Soldier mode losing its head he could still stare out his canopy and see and even with one arm he was still at in the fight, his machine still responding as well as it ever had. His opponent's pulse lasers weren't doing much but damaging his paint job, though her punches did a lot more. His Valkyrie would be in need of another week's worth of TLC, and so would he. He was bleeding from several cuts from his shattered canopy and badly mangled cockpit, his arm was dead from the elbow down, and his ribs were broken, and he knew he had a concussion in sympathetic reaction to that head shot.

Opposite him Miriya's Queadluun Rau was being trashed. One leg was slagged as mentioned before, both cannons gone, and the rest of her powersuit was covered in dents and gouges. Miriya too was dealing with injuries, her ribs were yet agin broken, the flesh under her cannons was badly burned despite her shock suit, blood caked her hair to her head, and the rest of her body felt black and blue.

Realizing though she was slowly losing this slugging match, she fought through her pain and launched her remaining mini-missiles at point blank range.

Ranma jumped into the air to give himself distance then zoomed over to grab his rifle from where it lay on the ground. As Miriya once more took to the air his rifle rang out, taking out missile after missile. One impacted, blowing off one of his shoulder pieces, but as that was in the arm that had already been ripped off at the elbow, it didn't matter. Indeed it gave Ranma the idea to turn and take more of the damage on the stump of that arm, and given his armor strengthening technique that was enough to save the rest of his Valkyrie from destruction. His arm now felt broken and dead from the shoulder down in sympathetic reaction.

Three more missiles impacted and threw him down to crash into the ground creating a huge cloud of dust, but out of it he charged forward his rifle's last few shots having lost his reload pockets to earlier damage, slammed out en-masse. But Miriya responded with her pulse lasers and now she was back in the air so that her being only on one leg didn't matter much. A few blasts of her pulse lasers caught his rifle and it exploded, taking some of his fingers with it and he grimaced in pain as his own fingers died joining the litany of other injuries he had so far sustained. Still he charged forward, using his legs and arm as his only weapons, and Miriya was unable to back away again.

Realizing this almost immediately she'd didn't even bother, and began to pound back with all her might. This stage of the combat went on for nearly as long as the rest of it combined, and as the world watched on in awe these two gladiators slammed away at one another hammer and tongs.

Here Ranma's greater skills came into play, and he only took one shot for every four he delivered. Soon, Miriya's Queadluun Rau began to fail around her, and even as she was still willing and (barely) able to fight her pulse lasers failed, her claws started to bend and shatter under the repeated impacts and her hands and legs finally stopped moving as the battery pack on her machine, unused to being used this long at this level of activity, gave out. She nearly screamed with frustration through her broken mouth, her face a mask of pain, blood dripping from her forehead, her body on fire and she knew she was bleeding somewhere inside, yet her soul was still desiring, demanding to continue and finish the fight.

One final punch from each of them threw them back, and neither of them had the energy to spare to power their thrusters so they fell to the earth. After a moment laying there however Ranma was able to get his Valkyrie to stand up again, while Miriya despite Her best efforts just wasn't able to move her Queadluun Rau. She stared up through her broken canopy as Ranma came into view above her.

Ranma, his body twitching in agony, his ribs cracked, his arm dead, blood covering him from hundreds of injuries, stood above his opponent, and felt no desire to finish his enemy off.

He knew he should, the ace was a danger on par with nearly an entire wing of regular Gargoyle pilots, yet he couldn't. Unlike Kyron, this Zentraedi had proven it had honor, and more, he just felt they were kindred spirits, their desire to be the best, to strive ever onwards and gain strength and skill, he just couldn't do it. He even teared up a little at the idea, and he shook it away then forced his Valkyrie into a deep bow, where he overbalanced and crashed onto the earth next his opponent.

Miriya saw this and began to laugh. It was cracked, it was painful, but it was an open and genuine laugh. "You won," she muttered "you won, but I don't think you won because of skill alone." She glared out at him though her matted and bloody hair. "You won because of your machine. Your machine, with all you've done to it, outlasted mine. I have no idea how you did it how you changed it, but it's obvious that you and your machine won this round. I…"

Suddenly thirty Queadluun Rau appeared in the air, coming from the battle over Hawaii. Ranma looked up at them and then backed away warily. He had no radar and no com gear online, so had no idea what was going on, but preparing even now to sell his life dearly, he closed his eyes and began to reach out with his heavily depleted ki, trying to consciously touch that void of power that had so changed him when he connected his ki sense to his Valkyries sensors.

Three of the powersuits thumped down to land alongside Miriya and she recognized them as coming from the force she had led in the battles around the gas giant. "Lady Miriya, are you all right!?" One of them asked over the radio.

She winced in repressed agony as she reached down with one of her hands, despite it being broken in several places and her fingers feeling as if someone had tried to rip them off and pressed the button. "I'm alive," She said, "b-being alright, th-that is a different matter."

Their done the three pilots turned to her savaged opponent and began to power up their weapons.

Suddenly Ranma was able to forge a connection, and he felt the cold power of the infinite fill him, yet unlike last time he didn't lose himself in it, instead he used it. He used memories of Kasumi and Lisa, of warm touches and love to keep the cold at bay, and just let the power fill him. His Valkyrie, stood up, glowing with a cold blue light as power crackled in his one remaining hand. Surprisingly his exterior speaker had somehow survived and he keyed it on, screaming "I am Defiant! I am still standing you bastards, so bring it on if you think you're tough enough!"

The sight was the most terrifying thing any of the Meltraedi had ever seen and none of them were willing to take him up on his challenge. Miriya though thought it looked glorious. Swiftly the three Queadluun Rau grabbed their fellow turned and bolted towards space.

As they disappeared into the distance Ranma let go of the power he had grabbed, and sagged back into his pilot's seat, more exhausted than anything he had ever felt before. Despite this Ranma laughed. "Why do I think we're going to meet again somehow? Oh well, with enemies like that life is worth living."

End chapter

And on that note, another chapter done and dusted. While Ranma will be healing for a bit in the next chapter we see what Azonia has been up to, the Master manipulators worry, and Breetai makes his long awaited reappearance. And here is a question, what will a Valkyrie, that has been infused with Ranma's ki, piloted and modified by him for so long, react to being filled with that much ki all at once?

*Chapter 25*: Enemies and friends can be defined by

I don't own the Robots or the martial artists

Lot of good reviews, again love reading the reviews for this story as people really seem to give me a lot of good feedback. This chapter won't answer a lot of your questions, but it will set the stage for what is to come.

Chapter 24 Enemies and friends can be defined by which way you face

The fallout from Ranma's solo clash with the Zentraedi ace reverberated around the world. Gloval had adroitly added a video recording of the battle to his previous PR video, and Ranma had become an instant celebrity, and the idea of fighting the aliens began to gain ground worldwide, something which Gloval and all those like him were very thankful for.

Ranma did not know about any of this as by the time he got back to the fortress his initial ki rush had gone, leaving behind all his injuries and a migraine for the ages. He was barely able to land his Valkyrie, once again almost utterly wrecked, before passing out on the way to the hospital.

His Valkyrie was immediately moved to the side of the hanger with a lot of other junk to be disposed of soon. Yet something happened there that would once more make Ranma question the nature of ki. That and utterly freak out several dozen maintenance people. This would all be discovered in about a week from when Ranma got back, however while he was in the hospital the bigger picture moved on, both aboard ship and elsewhere.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Breetai frowned thoughtfully as he stood looking down at his tactical display, then nodded, his lips lifting in a faint smile, his hands behind him, his entire manner exuding quite confidence and control to the crew around him. The most important thing for any captain or admiral was to always appear as if you were in charge of everything around you, that kind of confidence was infectious and when begun at the top always trickled down. Not that those emotions weren't perfectly true in this case.

This assault on an Invid controlled solar system had been a gamble, but Breetai was a very good gambler. More the payoff would be huge. Without the factory ships in this solar system and the ones in his next target the Invid would no longer be able to replace their losses along the warfront. Indeed with the losses they had thus far sustained and the amount of time had to have been put into building their numbers up for this mass assault, their entire defense would crack, and the way into their core systems would be open. With that, they may be within two, maybe three solar cycles from crushing the Invid threat once and for all, so long as the Invid Regis did not suddenly return from wherever she had gone with her portion of the Invid forces. Yet even if she did, the losses the Invid had taken so far in what had obviously been a long planned assault on the Zentraedi felt would mean the Invid would find it impossible to launch further offensives for decades.

He frowned thoughtfully though this time it wasn't at the tactical display but at the thought of losses. His own fleet's losses had been heavy, thousands of mixed ship types lost, the majority of which came from his fleets divisions of Quiltra Queleual class carrier ships, though the most losses had been sustained in the Regulds as usual. All told he had lost a little under two fifths of his fleet in this campaign, and he had not received any reinforcements.

Yet despite this his fleet was actually in a better situation now than it had been. For one thing he had taken the survivors of the ships destroyed both in terms of Regulds and in terms of crewmen and put them on other ships bringing their strength up in turn. More he had only lost three division flagships and very few of his command Regulds letting him retain a clear chain of command from him to his division commanders and on down. Breaking his command into smaller, more specialized divisions had allowed his fleet to react to his commands even faster than it had before, and he had wielded it from the start like a weapon in his hand, and now it was sharpened to a fine point. More, his losses had been made good with the Meltraedi addition to his forces. The Queadluun Rau and the fact they already had larger, and much as he hated to admit it, better crews had given those fifty thousand ships a punch many times their size.

He glanced over at the markers designating the female's fleet smiling faintly. The Meltraedi and their vice-admiral Delmera (no Meltraedi apparently called her admiral despite their being detached from the rest of their fleet) had been a surprise, and a very welcome one considering the other horrifying surprises he had run into, let alone the even more disturbing concerns he had begun to harbor since the beginning of this campaign.

Breetai had dealt with Kyron for a few weeks before this campaign began and he had been grimly certain that Kyron would have to be destroyed along with his entire fleet regardless of anything else. The cult of personality that had sprung up in the 11th skirmish fleet (though of course Breetai wouldn't use those words is he didn't even know it cult was, that didn't stop him from seeing what was there) was pure anathema to good military order and discipline. It made the entire 11th skirmish fleet little more than a blunt object that would simply charge forward to overwhelm it with numbers or die in the attempt. Yet what he had found since beginning this campaign and interacting with the other main fleets of the Zentraedi forces was that Kyron had not been a single aberration but the new normal.

The main clan fleets were even worse in a way, completely subsumed to their admirals and commanders on a scale that was utterly disturbing, their captains and underlings little more than mindless drones that fought like berserkers without their direction, and that direction itself was even more lacking. Not a one of them was able to even think tactically, let alone strategically. Their normal way of dealing with a battle was to chuck their forces straight at the enemy and just overwhelm them with numbers. The losses sustained among the 3rd third and 4th main fleets before Breetai had taken overall command was appalling, and the 6th fleet had been entirely wiped out.

The aliens could match the Zentraedi numbers, and their fighters came far closer to matching the Queadluun Rau in ability, having far more armor but not as much offensive punch or maneuverability than Regulds. Added to that their ships could take more of a pounding than their Zentraedi counterparts for the most part, his own Nupetiet-Vergnitzs command ship of course could take as much damage as Invid factory ship, yet realistically a Zentraedi force needed of five to one advantage to make victory certain and even then you would lose most of your forces. But the bugs had even less of an understanding of tactics then the Zentraedi, and so it was the Zentraedi who should have the advantage if they could control themselves.

Instead the admirals of the other fleets had simply threw their numbers against the Invid and assumed that they would overwhelm them.

Breetai had moved to correct this immediately upon taking overall command, and the resentment and festering hatred this had begun in his fellow admirals was boht nowhere near as hidden as they may have thought and a sign of the total degeneration of military decorum. Have my people fallen so far?

It wasn't the first time he had thought that, and it seemed as if they had, since he knew that any reinforcements sent to him had been intercepted by the other main fleets and added to their strength rather than his. He also knew that several times the other main fleets had not come to his own fleet's aid when ordered to do so, with almost disastrous consequences for the campaign. His losses would've been much lighter if they had, but in the end he had preserved his fleet and prevailed in every battle as well as the overall campaign despite this behind the lines stupidity. Hopefully at the end of the current campaign Lord Dolza would let him go forward with his suggestion and he could beat some proper military organization and understanding into them. That warmed Breetai's heart as when thought about beating that knowledge into their brains, he meant it literally. Perhaps after he personally slaughtered each of their admirals in personal combat their fleets would fall in line.

Breetai didn't realize was that he was the only living Zentraedi who really remembered what military decorum was supposed to be. Every other Admiral was a replacement for those that had been in command before, in many cases several dozen times over. Only Breetai and his advisor remained from the initial group of heavy-grav modified Zentraedi that was mustered out as a military force by the Robotech Masters and trained for said, before being mindwiped of their culture and any other connection to their past lives. Indeed no one had been training anyone except in a 'do this because it works' kind of way for a hundred solar cycles.

The Meltraedi by a stark contrast understood tactics, organization and the need to work together and every other military concept that Breetai took for granted. Their leader was a very cheerful (humans would use the word perky) sort who was a very good ship-to-ship tactician. Delmera was not nearly as good using her power suits as Breetai or his commanders were, but using her capital ships was another matter entirely. That was why she had been given command of a third of his fleet for the first half of this trap.

A small notation set into the tactical screen by one of his hands started to beep and he smiled. "Order the 15th and 14 divisions to fall back to provide long range firepower, the 10th through first are to hold position, and the 16th through 20th are to launch fighters upon receipt of this order."

Even as his communications crewmen sent out these orders the Invid fleet that had been coming along like a hammer zipped just a little too close to the asteroid field that had once been a planet, and uncounted Quadlluun Rau began to boil out at them from near knife range. Even as they hit Delmera and her fleet as well as the 21st through 25th divisions of his own, all of whom were based around the Quiltra-Quelamitz class gunboats, began to fire. Even from here he could see the large beams of the gunboats, among the most powerful weapons in the Zentraedi arsenal lance out across space to impact their targets, one target for every three.

Space was vast and three dimensional, and it often amused Breetai on how few sentients were truly able to get their heads around those simply facts. No fleet, not even one the size of Dolza's personal fleet could truly patrol a solar system's outer limits with enough coverage to see everything. Just because you saw a fleet entering your solar system didn't mean that there were others you didn't and taking advantage of that kind of tunnel vision was always worthwhile. His portion of the fleet had folded into the solar system on a path coming directly from the nearest Zentraedi-controlled system, and the Invid had never even looked for dangers coming from other directions. When he entered the systems gravity well, seen their defense fleet at long range and began to move away from them at an oblique angel, the Invid hadn't even considered the idea that he might be leading them into a trap designed by another fleet having come in completely undetected on low power from the outer reaches of the system.

Now the Invid fleet was in disarray, taken unawares from the side when they thought that battle wasn't yet at hand, most of their fighters caught in their carriers and too close to fall back and regroup.

He waited a few more minutes as his task force's fighters roared out to join the battle, waited until he saw the Invid try to back away from this sudden assault. "Set a course on the following heading. The fleet will advance to engage the enemy, now."

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

No one knew when the first shot was fired or by whom. All American and the rest of the world knew was that the cold war between the president incumbent and the ex-president who refused to give up his powers and Admiral Hayes had become a hot war. Worse from a strategic perspective, Hayes had decided to go on the offensive almost immediately, and had taken and ransacked several military bases with a lot of parts and supplies. This meant that in the terms of Valkyrie and robot construction, America had lost quite a bit of its built-up surplus. Work continued apace on the Grand Cannon as well as the bunkers, but that was only because several the states had that had been constructing ships or Valkyries had been convinced to change over to that construction by the new president. What this meant was that 10 ships already laid out in various shipyards across America would not be added to the new United Nations Space Fleet anytime soon, leaving only five others that were nearing completion in other ports. This meant the 1st fleet would only have seven American built and crewed ships. The rest of the fleet would be predominately Chinese, German, Russian, and British with a large amount of Indian influence in their fighter allotment.

Worse from a long term perspective was the new president had been able to secure the loyalty of most of the US military, and many of the units that had been added to the UNSF from America had been called home, causing issues in the Middle East in particular.

Scott Prescott, who was to command the 1st space fleet didn't care much about that. Having taken a break from his growing pile of paperwork to look over this civil disturbance as well as notes about the new weapons and technologies being developed and realized that America once again was going to be putting out only half its effort and yet still be able to nearly equal that of other superpowers. The quixotic thought hit him that getting the Americans to walk in a straight line was like herding cats. "What magnificent things they could do if they all worked together in one direction," he said to himself not for the first time, "yet we needs must work with what we have."

And what we have he thought looking back at the science report is pretty fantastic. He had looked over the initial notes from the first meeting Dr. Lang had with his colleagues worldwide right after the space fortress landed, and that had been revolutionary enough. Yet the concepts being developed by the new think tank still meeting aboard the space fortress was so far beyond that it was astonishing. Stealth frigates, small ships only about the size of four Valkyries stacked end to end but with stealth capabilities beyond anything previously put in space and with a heavy punch of long-range missiles that themselves had stealth capabilities. A ship that size would move incredibly quickly in fold space. A carrier whose fighters would be completely controlled from the carrier itself with the fighters being designed around heavy weapons designed to make out enemy battleships? Real-time communication over any distance in the star system and possibly beyond, though Dr. Lang's theories on that score were derided automatically, the concept going against all approved scientific theories, but the science and numbers were backing him up.

Prescott had never been more proud of his countrymen then when he learned that Britain had laid out four carrier hulls already, all that was required was to rearrange the interior and pair them with a mobile factory ship to create more fighters, and you would have one hell of a long-range punch. That would take weeks even with technology the way it was but it was still a outstanding achievement. Of course the fighters themselves would be susceptible to the battle pods of the Zentraedi and even more susceptible to Gargoyles, but if you could keep those forces busy with Valkyries, then the Wolves, the name given at present to the new fighter type, would devastate any fleet. They were fast enough to dodge defensive lasers and missiles, and even had onboard of shielding to protect them. The barrier shields that Dr. Lang had come up with were going to be worth their weight in pure platinum. Even now hundreds mobile barrier shields were being created in practically every nation, and they would be added to every ship of the fleet. There was one little remark from a Russian scientist about what could happen if a shield was on the wrong frequency or something and then overloaded, but it was almost pure math and Prescott couldn't follow a word of it. It would take longer for the new fighter design to go into production, but when it did….

His good humor vanished however as he looked at a personal note that Marcus and sent him, and he shook his head sadly. I've lost one brother to that ship and this war already, must I lose another? Marcus and his entire squadron, call-sign Knight Squadron had requested and been approved for transfer to the space fortress.

Despite this however he knew it would be a few more days before Macross had its full complement of troops and civilians and everything else aboard and then another week or so to get organized and finish upgrading before it was ready to depart. He desperately, desperately wanted to do something to get his brother off that ship, which after all was going to be on a long decoy mission, a target to everything the aliens could throw at it, but realized Marcus would never forgive him if he did. Scott wasn't the only one that wanted to strike out at the Zentraedi who had stolen their younger brother from them.

With a sigh he put the message down and turned to the rest of the paperwork, working out tactics and strategies for his new fleet based around their new weapons systems as well as requisition forms for crews for the ships that had already been finished. A fleet didn't build itself after all.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Mousse shook hands with the man who had just sold him this building, which was right next to Dr. Lang's sprawling research lab. It had been halfway demolished during the internal battle that had occurred a few weeks ago and Mousse had gotten in it for a song. He gripped the bill of sale and nodded at the Amazons behind him, two family groups, both of whom specialized in blacksmithing and weapon work, his own wife Perfume, and one of the younger warriors named Jasmine who wanted to go into sales. She had been the daughter of one of the tribe's best merchants, but her mother hadn't wanted to come with them, afraid of the world beyond the borders of China. Jasmine on the other hand had a very inquisitive nature paired with a powerful wanderlust.

The idea for this building had come from an offhand from Ranma and Motoko about how important a hand-to-hand weapon was for the Valkyries when boarding a ship and when facing the Gargoyles in open space. Mousse thought that pilots would like to have their own, personally crafted weapons for such an occurrence, and when he mentioned this to Motoko she had answered with a firm affirmative.

The blade for her own Valkyrie had been an experiment mainly, and had survived quite a few fights, but it finally broke, shattering during the battle against Kyron and his forces in the interior of the ship. More, it had always felt a little too light, a little too flimsy for the full strength of her Valkyrie. She didn't want something too heavy she was a swordswoman not some knight with a claymore, but something a little heavier and personally made to her specifications by someone who knew what they were doing would be magnificent. The first blade had been all right, but she knew where she had gone wrong in her attempts to guide the team that made it. She also knew several surviving Spartan pilots she would love to have their own personal weapons. Word got around about that idea, and in commemoration of their fallen comrades every surviving Spartan operator would receive their personal weapon gratis on the captain's bill. The new Spartan companies that had boarded since would of course not be extended the same credit.

This plus Mousse's work at the research lab would mean that his family would be extremely well-off regardless of anything else. In fact they had already picked out several cabins on this ship side and commissioned Kasumi to design the interior. Perfume would also take part of that project with her as soon as Kasumi finished work on the arcade that she had been working on in the center of the city. Kasumi's assumption that someone else would wish to buy into that idea had proven correct the day before, and work had begun to add in the game consoles and other electronic devices already. The grand opening was scheduled for a week from now, which Mousse thought rather slow, but then he remembered that not everyone had the endurance, strength or speed of the martial artist aboard.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Lisa fell back onto the bed gasping a little but with a grin on her face that you would've had to use surgery to remove. Ranma was healing faster than ever after these fights with the Zentraedi ace, and it had only taken a day for him to be up to, shall we say, strenuous activities once more, though he still wasn't cleared for duty just yet, as the doctors refused to officially check him off as fit for duty. Said strenuous activities had been sorely missed in her case for the past few weeks, what with all the work going on around and in the Macross, and she had been ecstatic to get a night off where she wasn't too exhausted to join her lovers in bed.

She rolled onto her side looking over at Kasumi who answered her smile with a bright if exhausted grin of her own. Above her Ranma pulled out gently, causing Lisa to feel a little empty before pulling off his condom and leaving the bed to go and grab a moist towel to wipe them off with.

Kasumi looked away from Lisa looking down at her belly and gently tracing a circle in the sweat and other fluids gathered there, and Lisa's eyebrows rose at the far-away gaze on the other woman's face. "Something on your mind?" Lisa asked.

"Oh it's just a passing fancy," said Kasumi, not looking away from her stomach. "I, I just saw Perfume again today and I just think she looks magnificent."

Lisa had to pause for a minute as she tried to place the name. She hadn't had much to do with the Amazons as they had boarded, after all they were only at the Academy at the moment not part of the military, and she had been so damn busy lately. She had met Shampoo during dinner once, a very hasty dinner taking one of her very brief breaks, and she thought the purple haired woman was pleasant enough, but a little ignorant of technology and the world beyond China. She had given a brief account of how she had come to be with Ranma as well as Kasumi, and been told about how Shampoo had come close to landing him before they left Nerima, but there hadn't been any malice or jealousy there. The name Perfume didn't mean much to her.

Before she could ask what Kasumi was talking about Ranma came back and began to clean them up gently, and she smiled under his ministrations. She shuddered a little as the wet cloth passed over her nether regions, and Kasumi asked Ranma, "do you think I would look good pregnant Ranma?"

Ranma answered the question with 'typical male response number five™' before he could engage his brain. "I think you'd look lovely whatever you're wearing." Then he looked up at her in astonishment as her words actually registered. "Wait, what?"

Kasumi giggled and Lisa joined in looking down at their lover and his deer caught in the headlights expression. "Oh not right away," she said waving off his initial panic. "I just think that I will want to have children a little sooner than I had expected that's all. Possibly even in two or three years."

Lisa frowned a little. She would like to have children at some point soon too, but in the present circumstances and with the sheer amount of work she was doing and her career she wasn't certain when she would have the time. She was not going to simply have a child and then not have any time to spend with the baby regardless of anything else.

Ranma frowned too but his worry was more about the world around them than a personal one, though of course he had those too. "I don't know if I'd want to have children that soon Kasumi. Nothing to do with you or even with me really," he then shook his head, smirking a little, "though I'm not sure I could be a good father, I know you'd make a magnificent mom so that sort of evens out. But like it or not the Macross is a big moving target. Eventually the Zentraedi are going to get so irritated that they'll forget their mission to take it intact and just come on in and pound us with everything they've got, and in that kind of environment even someone like me ain't good enough to make certain the ship survives."

"I can see that Ranma-koi," Kasumi said gently reaching out to kiss him on the lips gently. "But I don't think we should let our fears make cowards of us in this case. I think we should wait until we are ready to have one, regardless of the danger outside these walls."

Ranma looked at her and then shook his head smiling a little. "As long as you are ready for it then I don't have a problem with the idea of having kids in the future Kasumi, so long as you don't ask me to bear one of them at least." The two girls looked at him in shock and then burst out into loud laughter and Ranma simply gave them a V sign with the fingers of one hand before Lisa reached forward and pulled up to lay between them. Soon enough the outside world would intrude again, but until that happened she was by damn going to get in a few hours of cuddling.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Athena looked up in surprise as the door to the ships gym opened to admit Miriya and she shook her head in awe at the other female's ability to heal.

Miriya had been almost on deaths door when she had been brought back, but within three days of the battle against the human Ranma she was now up at about. Not only that the green-haired woman was almost back to 100% with only her arm still looking moving limply at her side. She had a few more scars, one of them directly on her chin, and another one shown on her stomach, which was bare because she had decided to follow the current trend where the new exercise shorts and upper body 'bras' (and wasn't that a weird name, but the simple holders the fleet's personnel had been using before this had been the first thing to disappear when the scope of the clothing available to humans was seen) that some of the younger girls had developed going over human clothing designs, but that was all.

Regardless of the choice of clothing, Athena asked solicitously "Are you sure you should be up and about?"

Miriya moved over to the weight machine, and Athena gaped as she put more weight on it then even Sonya, who was renowned among the Meltraedi for her strength, could handle. Her jaw actually dropped as Miriya then used the weight on only her one good arm slowly counting out cadences as she answered Athena. "I'm almost back to full health, but thanks' for asking Athena."

"Is there some rush to get you back into combat?" Athena asked. "You know that you won't be authorized to try that one-on-one nonsense again. Not after the humans tried to interfere as they did."

"Yes, but no humans from the space fortress did, I found that telling after I questioned the other pilots after I woke up. And I doubt my opponent had anything to do with that either, but you're right I not going to be trying that anymore."

Rather I am looking for another way of challenging my opponent. She frowned a little as she moved over to the leg machine. One of her legs was still giving her twinges occasionally as were several of her ribs, but she ignored them. She had heard a phrase somewhere, it must've come from the human Internet originally because it certainly hadn't come from the Meltraedi, that 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger'. Despite its alien origin it was a phrase that every Meltraedi could take to heart. Miriya in particular knew this, and was determined to come back stronger than ever after her defeat. She would challenge Ranma yet again, only this time it would be personal. She already had an appointment to talk to Admiral Azonia about going through the Micronization process, and after that she would find her way aboard the space fortress. She would then learn who the better fighter was, without the abilities of their respective machines getting in the way.

To Miriya and all Meltraedi defeat meant death, plain and simple. Being defeated like this and living only because her opponent hadn't killed her when he could have left her feeling somehow unfinished, incomplete. Yet as long as she was alive she would strive to better her opponent, and she knew that in this last battle his robot had taken more damage than it had ever taken before and yet kept on coming. Because of this she thought that maybe it was because of his machine that Ranma had beaten her, and was determined to face him one on one and win.

Something shivered through her at the idea of meeting Ranma face-to-face, and she remembered watching some of his exercise videos the spies had given her. Some kind of heat started to build in her body as she thought of Ranma moving around, jumping and flashing through martial art maneuvers that she could tell were designed to add speed and flexibility. She had copied many of them for her own repertoire and found them excellent, but the heat building within her had nothing to do with that rather simply the sight of Ranma's muscles bunching and moving under his glistening skin brought whatever it was out of her. She shook off the odd mood, though she could not completely dispel the memory of Ranma's bright shining blue eyes flashing with martial fervor.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Motoko ducked under a stab from the spear being wielded by her opponent grabbed the haft right behind the forward-most hand and pulled big the younger woman off-balance slamming the pummel of her sword into the girls head sending her down and out. She spun and her sword blocked the blow from of the mace wielded by an older woman, and her leg shot out catching her right behind her leg and flipping her. The older woman went with the flip doing a full turn in midair to land on her feet and lash out again but Motoko simply slid around the blow her sword flashed out gently nicking the other girl right below her neck in what would have been a kill shot if she had so chosen. She jumped up again dodging a heavy blow from Shampoo who charged in with both bonbori whirling but Motoko blocked them adroitly with her own blade, then after a few moments of this sent one wide and the other up leaving Shampoo open to a slash through the center.A quick twirl followed by another series of exchanged blows and soon another middle-aged warrior fell to the earth, ending the match.

"Good match," she said judiciously looking around at the groaning group of Amazons just now getting to their feet. Most of them admittedly were not groaning in pain, rather it was their pride that had taken a shot today. The very idea that a foreign female could be as good or better than Amazon warriors stuck in their craws, but the proof lay all around them. 15 mixed blooded and maiden warriors had taken on Motoko in groups of four, and had been soundly defeated without even touching her once.

Sitting along the sidelines Cologne and Nodoka, the younger woman having finally gotten a bit of free time (alas without Henri) from her projects in the hydroponics section, laughed a little at the display. "I trust my daughter has proven her prowess enough for you Cologne?" She asked archly.

Cologne cackled looking at her fellow tribesmen. "A very excellent lesson of humility for them all I'm sure."

The Amazons had fit in well aboard ship. They did any physical job they were given with a will that had to be seen to be believed and represented a massive addition to the ships fighting capacity. More they got along well with the civilians that had stayed aboard all of whom understood sacrifice, hard work and dedication. Indeed several Amazon maidens had already chosen their targets shall we say, and Cologne was looking forward to a few marriages in the future. Of course the men in question might believe that the Amazons were only in it for a few brief days of pleasure, but Amazons did not do flings (at least with men).

She cackled again at a very specific memory along those lines as she watched her granddaughter get to her feet looking down at her ruined vest with a rueful expression. She had seen one young blue haired boy with spectacles, a lieutenant from Ranma's own Squadron going by the tabs and squad badge, flirt with Shampoo a time or two and he seemed a decent enough sort but if he thought that he could just have his fun and runaway then shampoo would set him straight quite quickly.

To her dismay the Amazons hadn't fit in so well at the Academy. A new and rather tough minded commandant had been brought aboard specifically to run the academy replacing the late and not lamented Captain Connor. The Amazons were well able to match or even exceed the training regimen physically but not so much mentally. Of the seventy warriors who had entered the academy Shampoo was one of only twenty who had been able to get past the 3-d environ testing to be accepted in the Valkyrie pilot program. The rest would thus be relegated to the destroid forces. It was still honorable of course, but the girls had all been disappointed. Alas it was taking far longer than she had assumed to get them up to speed even with the academy focusing solely on getting the Amazons acclimatized to the technology and military terminology. Then again it wasn't as if she understood most of the technology of the Valkyries or the destroids anyway. Still overall she was well pleased with her people's progress aboard ship, and she knew Captain Gloval and the other officers agreed.

OOOOOOOOO

Not quite yet Rear Admiral Gloval did indeed approve of the Amazons, their fighting nature, stern refusal to yield and work ethic appealed to him greatly, if only the same could be said of every group of civilians that had come aboard or tried to at any rate. One group of civilians had boarded the ship a few days ago and had promptly begun to preach a message of peace with the aliens by demonstrating outside the factories, paste slogan bearing posters everywhere and generally run amok. The police were still rounding them up and evicting them from the ship. Another group in particular was giving him conniptions. A family of very wealthy hotel owners had demanded the opportunity to board their ship, and kept on calling him despite his refusal to allow them on board unless they had something to offer those aboard the ship. None of them did, though he was afraid that they would soon try to buy out the two hotels that were in the city and use that as an excuse to get aboard. I do not want the Trumps aboard God damnit! He shook off the anger he held at that thought and looked along the conference table at his senior officers.

Captain Hayes, whose promotion had gone through already and if there was another person in recent history who had done more to earn a promotion than her he didn't know them, commander Grant, general Mannstein and the new civilian representatives all looked back at him.

He waited a few minutes then coughed gently, to get their attention. "This meeting of the rejuvenated council of the Macross is called to order. For those of you who are new aboard ship or in this council, this ruling body was designed to give the civilians a way to have a voice in the running of the ship in those areas where their authority extends, a place to air any grievances. I hope that everyone here understands that we are here together to share problems as well as solutions and new data between us for the betterment of the ship and the people aboard her. I have an announcement to make, but that will wait until the end of the meeting, so Mr. Lon-Cao, why don't you start us off."

The Chinese industrialist was a squat plug of a man looking almost like a sumo wrestler on a little bit of a diet with a face that seemed carved out of granite except around his children, where it could convey a surprising amount of warmth, though obviously that was not the case at the moment. "The factories that are still intact are now running at full capacity to create the SAM Packs as well as working upgrading the Valkyries and destroids being brought aboard to replace losses with the armor strengthening technique. My workers have already become accustomed to the new factories. They are happy with both the work and the living conditions, as are their dependents."

He smiled just a little at that thought as it extended to his own family. His daughter was all of nine years old, and she positively loved the mini golf course aboard ship. His son, just out of college had decided to go into the arcade business, and had bought out a magnificently designed place in the center of town that he was certain would be a very big moneymaker. His wife was also busy creating a spouse support group for the soldiers as well as his workers, something that she had done previously. He had no doubt that it would be up and running soon.

"The two factories that were damaged or destroyed in the assault that actually got into the ship have been repaired, but we have turned their output to the creation of defensive installations, metal plates and automated guns for the most part. The other specialized factories are also running at full capacity. We will soon have a surplus of batteries, missiles and other munitions."

He stopped speaking and Commander Grant spoke up as she acting logistics specialist now while Lisa worked to integrate the new personnel coming aboard. "Overall supplies are rising slowly but surely. We have over eighty mobile barrier shields ready for combat, and are building more every day at a rate of four a day now. Food wise we are almost to the point where we can be self-sufficient indefinitely. We're just waiting for a few more shipments of cows and other food animals to come aboard, pens and farms are ready and waiting to receive them thanks to Nodoka-san." Nodoka wasn't a part of this meeting having bowed out until her new workers could get to know her, leaving Claudia to report on her the hydroponics section. "We're still waiting for more pilots for the Valkyries, but that's really the only shortfall in our manpower at the moment. We're getting organized slowly, but we have a full crew complement and then some."

She glanced over at Lisa who nodded confirmation of that point and followed up on this point with her own report. "We have a full complement of Spartans defenders and Tomahawks aboard, though we are still waiting operators for them. In terms of operators we have one company of Spartans four companies of Defenders and two companies of Tomahawks, but the majority of the operators are green troops. I'm trying to pair the new troops with veterans, but its taking a bit or work."

"The crackdown on the criminal element among the troops goes very well, COB Walters has lived up to his reputation for efficiency, I would definitely recommend him and his ratings for a commendation of some sort. They've cleared out several stills and two drug labs we never even knew existed. The new police force on the civilian side is shaping up well too." She smirked a little as she knew that half that police force was comprised of Amazon warriors who didn't want to join the space forces under the command of a old blond warrior named Panther. She would love to see the first group of rowdies who tried to get fresh with them.

"In terms of re-arming the exterior weapons systems, all of our tertiary weapons systems have been replaced with the kinetic shotguns defense platform. We decided to go with a magnetic ball bearing type of mount rather than a traditional swivel, and all of these weapons will use a computer to target, with a team of operators for every cluster. Those should theoretically make us at least fifteen times harder to attack with Regulds, less so the Gargoyles. All the exterior work has been accomplished, and work continues apace on the interior redesign. Maintenance work is catching up to the curve, but it will be weeks yet before all of that work is caught up to where it should be."

Henri frowned a little, but nodded, knowing that the refit and interior redesign took priority. He could do without the lights all working or the corridors looking pretty for a little while longer.

Dr. Lang next spoke up looking a little smug. "My work with Elder Cologne and the rest of my think tank goes apace, but I'm certain that most of you here have already read the papers we've forwarded?" Everyone but the silent Spaniard who had taken over as temporary mayor nodded including the Captain who realized about half a page into the work that he was looking at something that would revolutionize both space and land warfare. "We've turned our minds and thoughts to other matters now, specifically trying to figure out the composition of the Zentraedi outer covering that they had on board their ships that acted so much like a self-healing skin." He frowned a little and shook his head. "Up to this point we haven't had much luck with it however, so don't get your hopes up."

The announcements continued at this pace, everyone sharing what their groups had accomplished and what was still left to be done sharing ideas views and exchanging work groups and resources.

After about an hour however Gloval decided that everyone had neared the end of what could be accomplished in one meeting, and decided to make his announcement. "All this is excellent," he said drawing everyone's attention to him. "I am proud of the work everyone here has done to make the space fortress as deadly and self-sufficient and efficient as possible. However I must inform you of command's long term plans for us."

At that phrase every one of the officers stiffened, a premonition going through them while the civilians merely looked attentive. "We have been given a deadline, and within a week and a half of this date the ship will leave Earth orbit to draw away the Zentraedi fleet in orbit. We will be doing this to allow the 1st fleet of the UN space forces to retake the moon and then continue space born operations. I'm not at liberty to say what they will be retaking there, but this is but the first step in what is being called Operation Ark. Our job during this operation will be to keep the aliens attention on us and away from Earth and its environs."

"And what will be happening back here?" asked the acting mayor.

"Operation ark is built around several large fully enclosed habitats that will be placed in Jupiter and Saturn's outer atmospheres, each of which will carry a startup group of a forty thousand, foodstuffs, animals, both frozen embryos and living, with room to expand many times over. Just in case" he said grimly, looking around the table at them all, "Earth is attacked by these aliens humanity will still survive."

That sobered everyone up and what objections they had been about to raise went away like the morning mist, and the meeting broke up soon after.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Dr. Lang walked back to his research lab in a somber frame of mind. He wasn't looking forward to leaving behind blue skies and real wind, but he understood the importance of their mission and if anything could survive being a decoy for a thousand's strong Zentraedi fleet it was the space fortress, not only because of the resources aboard in the people aboard who had all shown they were survivors, but because the aliens were routinely very leery of using their full force against it.

To his surprise he found a visitor waiting for him outside his lap. "Pierre," he said, "What are you doing back on board, I thought you had scampered back to home to your labs with your samples." One of the French born American's quirks was that he refused to work in anyone else's lab, saying he hated having to think where everything was rather than knowing by rote. Having seen his lab and its eclectic organization in the past Emil knew that was actually true rather than simple ego.

Pierre grinned at him. "I'm here to share something with you and your little think tank. I've found something about the Zentraedi that I think you and everyone else need to know."

Dr. Lang stared at him then nodded "I'll call a meeting if you wish, when would you like it to happen?"

His friend shrugged. "I think that would be an excellent idea, and as soon as possible because honestly it baffles the hell out of me, and I'm wondering what to make of it. and what it means for our war effort."

"That sounds ominous," Emil responded, looking at his friend more closely. It was only now that he noticed the bags underneath the man's eyes and the rather fevered look in his eyes. The jittering of his hands was also noticeable, as if he had been living off coffee and adrenaline for a few days. This was even more startling as he knew Pierre was a man who liked his creature comforts and would never willingly give up sleep. "I'll call for it for an hour from now alright?"

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Cologne and the other scientists, though there were many that refused to use the word scientist when talking about Cologne she took to it easily enough, were rousted out of bed and joined Dr. Lang in one of his conference rooms, wondering what the hell was going on.

Pierre started the briefing almost as soon as everyone had taken their seats. "Gentleman for those of you who do not know me, I'm one of the world's foremost biologists and geneticist. I have studied humanity and all of the animals of EWarth save a few that are still undiscovered in the Amazon jungle. And maybe a few in the depths of the sea." he paused for a moment "I can't swim and the water terrifies me. However despite this" he said, after allowing a few chuckles to go around the room before continuing "I am a geneticist of the first order. And it is wearing both those hats that I come before you now."

"I came aboard the ship right and after its assault by the supposed mad alien Kyron to study the alien bodies before they could decompose. While I found astonished me and I delved deeper."

Several images of Zentraedi soldiers popped up, and caused a moment of shock as the scientists who haven't realized how closely the aliens resembled humans looked at their enemies for the first time. Even Cologne's rheumy eyes narrowed in speculation at that and Pierre went on. "Moving past how closely these aliens look like humans for the moment as you can see these gentlemen don't look alike at all, in fact their appearance varies even wider than humans. After all we don't have blue or green skin among our normal colorations, and their hair colors are all over the place. Yet despite this on a genetic level there is very little genetic drift."

He spotted a few confused faces and elaborated, knowing the plebs rarely could follow the nomenclature of the true sciences. "Let me explain. Among a normal human fleet you would be very hard-pressed to find two people who are related on a genetic level. Oh, there might be a few cases of cousins or uncles or brothers or sisters all serving in the same fleet, but those are wildly scattered cases, not the rule. Genetic drift implies that from a certain sample size would constitute a vast difference in familial lines. Yet every sample I took from the alien bodies and I took over a thousand samples from various body parts and bodies had the same genetic structure. There was barely any difference! It was almost as if all of them came from fraternal twins.

"More, I found a disturbing amount of what is called genetic decay. This decay I hasten to add is not the kind of good decay you see in any kind of high-tech society, where brains and intelligence are valued over brute strength or survivability. Indeed it's the exact opposite, most of the genetic decay I see is in the realm of the brain. This shows a sign that the Zentraedi might be practicing some kind of eugenics program, with the warrior class being genetically modified or altered to become stronger yet more stupid over time. However I also took a sample from Kyron himself, and found that he is genetically almost identical to his troops. In point of fact he had a little more genetic decay than most, and this led into my most startling discovery."

"The Zentraedi reproduce via cloning," he said firmly looking around at their intent gazes. "Not just individual cloning but groups thousands, perhaps millions strong. And they've been doing it over time. Does anyone here know about humanity's own experiments in cloning?

No hand was raised and he sighed theatrically peons before going on. "Humans have been able to clone for a few years, and the concept is very well known in the medical field. However scientists wondered at one point what would happen if you kept on cloning. What I mean is taking a clone of something then cloning that something etc., etc. What happens is the genetic decay I've noticed. The sample becomes weaker, more susceptible to disease more susceptible to breakdowns both in terms of thinking ability and the body as a whole. To get this level of genetic decay the aliens would have to have been cloning themselves for thousands of years." Actually Pierre would later find it was only hundreds of years, but at the time he didn't know how awful the Zentraedi losses normally were.

There were some mutterings about this, but only Cologne seemed to be taking it as seriously as the geneticist thought it should be taken.

"Which leads into my biggest discovery, I believe the Zentraedi to be a created warrior race and I don't think they did it to themselves. I've gone over everything," he said raising his voice over the surprised mutterings from his audience, "everything that the space fortress was able to find aboard the ships they boarded, everything that they took off the ship's computers. There is not a single sign of any kind of society outside the fleet itself. There is no individual items, pictures from home, lucky charms, nothing! More, there is not a single sign of anything about reproduction or cloning or anything! Not even the Spartans were that cut off from their society! There is no Zentraedi society. They are simply a fleet, a vast, billions strong fleet with nothing that they are supposed to protect but themselves. I have a full write up if you want to read it, it includes all the data I've looked over, as well as some from those captured individuals that escaped, and their impressions, it all points to the Zentraedi not even understanding the word 'culture'!"

"So what happened to them to make them that way? Answer, nothing interior to a society could ever create that kind of a warrior culture, wipe out their sense of individuality of self-expression, of technology. It would self-destruct within a few generations even if you use cloning. But if it was started by an exterior source, say one that controlled the means of production and could cut out those individuals prone to questions immediately then it could work for a time."

"What do you mean for a time?" Asked Dr. Lang looking very disturbed. If there is some other race pulling the Zentraedi's strings, how much more dangerous are they from their creations? Was that the origin of the space fortress, was it a ship from this master race? Is that why they want it intact so badly?

"Ah," Pierre said, smiling a little. "Here we come to the issue of martial methodology versus crude individuality, or organized soldiers versus barbarians. The Zentraedi are 98% human. In fact we could reproduce with them though that is a very disturbing thought, so they must have individualistic views personalities and desires buried under the lack of society and culture. How well would a military survive if the military was all you knew all yet there were no rules or laws or anything like that, just the military. As I said I've studied what we found extensively, and there were no regulations or any kind of overarching organization above obey the officers. There were no rules of laws or regulations found on their computers save those related to safety and the running of the ship, and even that was a bare minimum. How long would something like that survive among humans before cracks started to appear?"

He gestured to a picture of Kyron's dead body. "This fellow was probably one of the best examples. Judging by what a few people have said about his fighting style and that of his clan fleet he didn't allow a single person to disagree with him, and every decision he made was followed immediately on pain of death, a tyrant in the truest form. How long before someone like him would no longer obey the central authority and strike off on his own and of course once you have one you have to silence that one but then another one might decide to follow the same route. How long before the cracks in their military form began to appear, especially when they are shown something like humanity. Our society may prove to be our greatest weapon against them, in fact I think we've already seen signs of it!"

"The attacks over the last few days," Cologne muttered having kept abreast of international news. Everyone else nodded. understanding dawning. "Chocolate, clothing, foodstuffs, these are things that a military society would not be able to create on their own so they're stealing it from us correct?"

Pierre bowed respectfully to her. "Exactly, just like the old Spartans didn't grow their own food and had to rely on their slave clase, they also barely made their own clothing having to trade with Athens and city states for most of it, the Zentraedi only know how to make war and possibly how to create the weapons of war, nothing else."

"Which are presumably all controlled," Dr. Lang mused "by their supreme leader. That would keep innovation down, which keeps people from questioning too much, which locks them into their structure and rewards those who go along with things blindly, who are thus cloned later and perpetuate the cycle." This could actually be the case, he thought to himself, and it isn't a pleasant thought either. Because if we have to fight through the Zentraedi to get to their masters, what will we find at the end?

OOOOOOOOOOOO

It had taken Azonia a week of working with her best electronics and video experts, which really wasn't saying much she had learned, but they were well enough able to do the job of figuring out the videos and splicing them together for what would be, in human terms, her star performance. It wasn't the first time her people had changed or tampered with video recordings of course it happened all the time after joint exercises among the Meltraedi, as well as after contests and mock battles. Everyone wanted to look their best after all, and her captains were ambitious enough to use any means to do so. Of course she saw right through such things, but they knew that too.

She had changed her orders to them a few days ago, after Miriya had that awe-inspiring battle with the human ace Ranma and his Valkyrie gave off those utterly terrifying energy readings. Something like that could only help her case, and she was almost thankful that Miriya had lost. Almost. Now she was ready prepared to do one thing that no Meltraedi had ever been called upon to do, act. Not only act, but fool Lord Dolza, the contemplation of which was terrifying.

She stood in the communications pit on her bridge, the minimal number of crewwomen around her, resplendent in her uniform, not a stitch out of place, her face set in grave lines. She breathed deeply for a moment then nodded to the communications officer, who connected her through hyperspace to Dolza in his fortress.

After a moment the bald giant, larger, thicker and wider than even Breetai, who himself was considered large among her people, stared down at her. Despite her own height, which was close to Breetai as she too was of the leader class, she felt dwarfed by the large giant, and normally that would add to the fear his mere name let alone his actual image imposed on any of her people. However, her deep and well hidden anger at the male and what he had probably been a party to helped offset that.

"Report," he growled out. "Have you successfully taken the battleship, or was it too much for the 'mighty' Meltraedi?"

The contempt in his voice for her and her people came through in that epithet, but she kept her composure. "Lord," she said calmly, professionally, "I have grave news. As you know Kyron in his fleet stayed here and was supposed to be under my command, but from the very beginning I had issues with him. Several times I forced him to not use his battleships to destroy the space fortress rather than take it, and I had hoped it that warning him I would destroy his entire fleet if he persisted would be enough. Unfortunately it was not, and for that I blame myself."

"During the last engagement Kyron led a boarding action that actually succeeded, due to a feint using the rest of his surviving fleet. I thought the operation had merit thinking that he knew well enough not to damage the interior as he took the ship, unfortunately since then our readings indicate that something has gone wrong inside the fortress."

She nodded again to her communications officer, and a brief video played on a screen behind her. The same information was also sent via the hyperspace signal to a screen in the fortress were Dolza was and he watched as a miniscule force of only around 200 battleships took up position right above the space fortress, which had for some reason returned to the third planet. Zor's battleship immediately took them under fire, and he watched as a few died, but many others somehow slid out to the side using ECM to cover their movements. He then watched the assault on the space fortress by the battle pods of the 11th skirmish fleet, as well as their total destruction.

"At this point," Azonia said, pausing the image, "Kyron seems to have been killed, and his remaining forces went mad. The battleships in orbit now began to target the space fortress rather than the area around it, and when they did I ordered their destruction. Unfortunately it seems to have been too little too late as some odd readings from the space fortress have begun.

"Odd how?" Dolza growled out wondering how the hell this had happened. Certainly Kyron had always been a misfit, a problem for matters of discipline, but he hadn't thought the fool an utter idiot to disobey him like this. Yet apparently that was precisely what he had done. The fact that female couldn't control him, was something that he should have thought of. Even Breetai had issues with him and Azonia didn't have nearly the force of personality Breetai could call on. Then too she was a female, and despite the fact that her forces were elite units they were still far weaker than the main fleets of his command.

Azonia pushed another bottom, and another video came out of some kind of energy wave flowing out from the battleship. The readings and the wave had actually been taken from the human ace's Valkyrie after the clash between the aces and then superimposed on the space fortress. Yet even so it was frightening. "This wave has been appearing periodically and neither I nor any of my people have any idea what it is. It doesn't seem to be dangerous, and yet it has had some very odd effects on any force that comes into contact with it, such that Micronian forces seem to veer off and crashed, and our own forces report issues as well despite being well away in orbit form the space fortress's current position."

Dolza scowled wondering what in the universe this meant. The readings, if he was reading it right were powerful and very strange. Dolza had never served on any of the Master's ships so had never seen anything like this, indeed only Breetai had served among them, and he knew that the Admiral had his mind wiped afterwards, much like all the other first-generation survivors. Of course Breetai was also now one of only two of the survivors still alive, the other being Exedore. Yet he was leery of pulling him back from the front with the Invid, which despite his victories was still highly contested. To be certain what the readings from the odd energy spikes meant he would have to consult his Masters, but that thought did not please him.

"Do not perform any more aggressive actions against the Micronians until I order you to," he declared angrily. "I will look into this matter, as well as a fitting punishment for you losing control of Kyron." Azonia nodded and without a word Dolza image blinked off.

Azonia leaned back into her seat, collapsing a little as tension left her body. "I hope that worked," she muttered to herself, "or we are, what was that human phrase I saw in that 'movie a few days ago, ah yes, 'up shit creek without a paddle.'"

End chapter

A bit of a cliffhanger there, but while I had about three-thousand more words written they weren't proofread, and since they were written with Dragon Naturally Speaking, it really needs it. That alas includes the parts about Mark arriving and Ranam finding out about what has been happening to his Valkyrie, so you'll have to wait.

As always read and review.

*Chapter 26*: Face to Face

I don't own Ranma 1/2 or Robotech. Minmei would not have been a main character, and Rick would have manned up if I did, the little jackass.

As usual a lot of good reviews but I felt I wanted to get this out tonight, so I will just say thanks, and on with the show.

Chapter 25 Face to Face

As soon as he cut the connection Dolza stood up and without a word left to his private quarters. There he touched a secreted button on the circular table that dominated the room, a button he had only touched once before, when he had to report their failure at capturing the traitor Zor alive, and the escape of his experimental battleship into fold-space. It had been the worst moment of his life up to this point, but this might well eclipse it.

A moment later the images of the three Robotech Masters appeared in the air above the table, which was in fact a very high tech long range holographic communication device. One of them stared down at him coldly and Dolza went to one knee under their gazes. "This had best be important Dolza, this communication is not to be opened from your end except in the most dire of circumstances."

"My Masters, he intoned, "I have news." After he described it all three of the Robotech Masters looked at one another in silent communication.

"What you describe is strange to us as well."One of them finally admitted aloud, an admission that caused Dolza to blink in shock. "We will need to think on this." Without further word the three masters disappeared leaving a very worried Dolza who was wondering what it meant when even his gods did not know what was going on.

OOOOOOOOOOO

On a very distant planet from the one Dolza's fortress currently floated around the three beings known to their creature and their followers as the Robotech Masters turned to one another, their faces displeased. "We do not know anything that could cause that sort of reaction," one muttered.

Another nodded morosely. "Yet our own instruments did detect something of that nature."

The third cursed in their ancient language and the other two nodded grim agreement with the sentiment. Their ability to sense proto-culture emissions from light years away almost instantaneously was a good one, but it didn't tell them anything about the size or the nature of the emission in question. What their instruments had reported was surely a proto-culture driven reaction, which dovetailed with the report passed on to them about the generator possibly being damaged, but how would that have been achieved without destroying the entire ship?

Not for the first time, not even for the thousandth time, all three cursed Zor's name luridly. Zor had been the first scientist to discover the use of the Flower of Life, and had delved deeper and more extensively into the nature of proto-culture than anyone else. Proto-culture was in effect energy manipulation on a scale and level impossible without the Flower of Life, and its uses were almost limitless. Zor was the first to discover how to use it as a power source, how to use even a seed of a Flower to create a far higher energy output from a hydrogen/helium reaction that would eventually power everything in their society and that of the Zentraedi fleet.

He had also been the first one to discover how to use it to offset the natural cloning degradation that allowed the Tirolians to spread their population far faster than they could have done naturally. Of course they never used that technique on the clones of the Zentraedi, what would be the point? They were supposed to be cannon fodder after all and cannon fodder didn't need to last.

Despite all his achievements Zor had never been satisfied. Instead of resting on his laurels he left his people behind to explore the galaxy to discover more life forms and energies. No one knew where he or his followers went, what other races they met or what secrets they discovered.

This allowed the three Masters, who had originally been his aides, to discover ways to use the energy to brainwash their fellows and thus create an empire. Oh, there had been resistance of course, but once the trio had brought the giant Zentraedi, genetically engineered giants designed to work on high gravity worlds, under their control, they simply crushed all resistance to their rule and swiftly consolidated power over their people.

Sixty years later Zor came back and had been horrified at the change from a republican government to that of a triumvirate Council of despots. Well that, and the fact his father had been killed during their war.

Zor himself would soon make a far better revolutionary than his father had even dreamed of. He consolidated his forces slowly in out of the way systems, well beyond the Zentraedi patrols or the reach of the Masters, hiding everything from their eyes until he was ready. Then he struck.

Before the Masters were aware of the threat his forces had launched the first assaults and crippled the Robotech Masters.. It was a very specifically targeted campaign however as he realized that he could not match them in numbers or in quality. Instead he had attacked the Masters where they were their most weakest, the proto-culture incubators. Every planet in their empire had five incubators holding Flowers of Life, and in a mere week, they were all gone, destroyed by infiltrators, spies and saboteurs recruited by Zor among the populace and among a few Zentraedi whose brainwashing hadn't quite taken. To top it off he released a virus into the interconnected data net of the Tirolian planets, wiping out every mention of proto-culture and how to best utilize the Flower of Life. No one knew how Zor did it, but it made creating more proto-culture generators or incubators impossible.

And then further disaster struck. The Invid, who had been building up their numbers and forces, slowly expanding their territory from their known planets in the opposite direction from the Zentraedi and Tirolian systems, attacked without warning. They knew who to blame for the destruction of their home-world's ecosystem, and the once peaceful Invid had taken to war just as easily as they had to manipulating the Flowers of Life.

It was only because the Zentraedi had already been amassed in monstrous numbers that allowed the Robotech Masters to survive that first push, and even then they had lost dozens of planets, all of which were now uninhabitable. The Zentraedi ships did not run on proto-culture, but a highly advanced form of fusion generation. It was the same source of fuel that the Robotech Masters ships road on, but without the proto-culture energy refinement process which allowed for much higher output, on an order of 20 times higher.

And even that wasn't as high as it could be. The readings they had from when Zor's battleship broke through the cordon around the planet it had been built on told them that Zor had figured out how to get even more out of proto-culture than before.

Now the Masters were in dire straits. It had been over three hundred years since they had a new source of proto-culture. Zor's battleship had been badly damaged before escaping into fold and had never come out until twenty years ago, with all abroad long dead. Zor himself had been killed before he could board it, but the objective of the ship had been to escape with the last remaining proto-culture generator, one he himself had created, away from the Master's grasp. Its reemergence had been a blessing, yet now it might turn out to be a curse.

The only Flowers of Life they could acquire were those in the Invid controlled territory, and not only was that a suicide mission but those plants were all mutated somehow by the damn bugs. They were the only ones that could use them in that form, though of course they could not use them as well or for as many things as the Robotech Masters could the original form.

"If this is true," said one of them heavily, coming out of his rage induced stupor. "What are we going to do? Our own reserves are running out. Our geneticists estimate that we have barely 2 more lifetimes to go before the clone bodies start to degrade. And that is only for our own clones, our people have already begun to show signs of degradation."

One of the other Masters frowned thoughtfully. "Should we send one of our own fleets to investigate this phenomenon?"

"No," said the third sharply and the second agreed, nodding his head. "We do not have the the fleets available, our entire fleet barely matches that we have assigned to the Meltraedi, and while we are quantitatively superior we cannot afford to let our home world's that defenseless. The Zentraedi may hold the line against the Invid for now, but we still do not have any news of where the Regis is."

That was another issue that had cropped up after Zor was killed that infuriated the Masters. The Regis had, in conjunction with Zor, figured out how to manipulate the Flower of Life to evolve into a higher state of being. Rumor had it that this was to help facilitate an affair between her and Zor, though most discounted that. Apparently she had not been able to retain that state of being, the energy involved being too much for her and so she devolved back into her original form after a while. Yet it had been enough to give her insight into the Flower of Life beyond anything that anyone else had bar Zor himself. About a century after Zor's battleship disappeared into fold space the Regis and the forces loyal to her, a force they estimated equal to about a fifth of the total Invid forces at the time, disappeared from their territory entirely.

No one knew where they went (including the Regent though of course he didn't exactly share that with anyone) but they hadn't been seen since, not even a hint of them. Such a force could annihilate the entirety of their planets in a bare month if they were left undefended.

Nor could they assign that duty to the Zentraedi. The conditioning they had put the Zentraedi through made them highly aggressive dangerous warriors, but they were not suited to understand that they had Masters without even more brainwashing, which they couldn't do any longer, having no proto-culture to spare on it. However that was what Dolza was for. It acted as a go between, relaying their orders to the rest of the massive Zentraedi fleet. Only Breetai and his aid Exedore still understood the significance of the space fortress and even those two had been brainwashed to forget everything about the Robotech Masters, only that the ship was important to heir race, not why it was important. Anonymity like that with clearly defined sectors what the Zentraedi were not allowed to go and the Invid on the border as a clear threat helped defend the Robotech Masters from insurrection among their creatures.

"We will have to order Dolza to send Breetai." said the first Master who had spoken, sighing. "Though I am loath to remove him from the battlefront against the Invid until the campaign against them is finished."

"Besides that, barring a miracle of some kind, we may be seeing the end of proto-culture power in its entirety." The second said stoically. "Without any new Flowers of Life not mutated by Invid influence to use during the cloning process, and with the generators on-board or own ships running low we will have to search for alternative methods of power."

The other two grimaced but made no argument. Indeed they had already been thinking along those lines, and most of their ships had secondary generators ready to go online when the proto-culture ran out but the output of them was nothing in comparison. They would be as powerless as the Zentraedi battleships and while due to the size and armament of their ships they were still a match for any 100 Zentraedi or Invid ships, they still didn't have the numbers necessary to fight the Invid.

"Rather than using Breetai immediately," one said thoughtfully, "should we order Dolza to order him to take the fight to the bugs? It's obvious they put a lot of effort into this present push, even if they weren't quite ready and decided to launch it because of that idiot in the 11th skirmish fleet. If he can break their back now, wipe their planets out we won't have to worry about that front, and we can stop the cloning production of the Zentraedi. After all if we have nothing to defend against we won't need them."

"I agree with forcing the Zentraedi on the attack that one of them but I don't think we want Breetai in charge of it." said the third firmly.

His other fellows looked at him in surprise and he elaborated. "Breetai is their best field general, able to get the most out of his forces with the least loss. If we are going to stop production of the Zentraedi we want their numbers decimated as much as possible now. Then we can have Dolza consolidate them all into one fleet under his own personal command. That way we will cut out any chance of their turning on us in the future."

"And fighting the Invid on their own ground in their own star systems, where they have been for generations is a very different thing than fighting them in the dead zone between our sectors of space." One murmured then smiled.

It should be said that while the Masters knew how useful and important the Zentraedi were to them, they also hated them with a passion. Without proto-culture to help, the masters couldn't live more than a hundred years without transferring their minds into a clone, but the Zentraedi, far more durable and genetically designed via the Flower of Life to be long lived, could live to be as old as a thousand if they were not killed in battle. Breetai and Exedore were both over four hundred years old and were basically middle-aged for their people, something that the masters, who had been searching for the keys to immortality ever since they overthrew the Tirolian Republic, could not endure without hate.

It never occurred to them that in their pursuit of immortality they had lost something far more precious, their individuality. None of the three Masters could even remember their own names anymore, and while their thoughts were not quite the same, even in that realm they are all almost identical.

"But what will we tell Dolza to tell Breetai?" Asked the second.

The first reached out and flicked a hand in midair, and a small translucent screen appeared in front of him. After a moment's scrolling through it he found the information he wanted. The screen multiplied at a gesture, the two new screens moving across to the other two who looked at the information about Breetai's mind wiping that had been done so long ago. "We didn't delete any information about Zor's battleship or its interior," he mused. "We can simply have Dolza tell him that that knowledge is why he is being chosen for this, it would be a portion of the truth after all."

"And after we will remove him, succeed or fail" said the one who had said that they wouldn't need him in charge of the war against the Invid. The other two looked at him for a moment then nodded.

There's nothing so dangerous to a slave owner as competence and intelligence in his slaves, and Breetai had both in abundance. Worse, he had a standing among all Zentraedi that despite the other admirals best efforts only Dolza could equal. In times of war that was fine, but if they were going to push the Invid and Zentraedi war to its final conclusion they wouldn't need him afterward. Best to get rid him now before he could turn on them.

"Wait until we receive word that he has destroyed the last two factory ships along the warfront," another said thoughtfully. "Without those two reinforcing the Invid numbers the Zentraedi will have a much easier time of it even without Breetai, which will let them build up some confidence before they start to lose troops in increasing numbers."

"And what if even with Breetai we cannot take the space fortress? What if this is the last of the proto-culture?" said the second. "Our ships have backups in place already, but what of us and our race?"

"Then we will have to find new ways of continuance," said the first one, "perhaps uploading our brains into robotic bodies?"

The other two Masters frowned at that idea, but nodded. If that was the price they needed to pay for immortality so be it.

The second looked at the information on Breetai then scrolled down again searching for other survivors of that first generation of Zentraedi. He found none save Exedore but then frowned thoughtfully. "One of the skirmish fleet the 7th is due for another clone resupply after the latest engagement. We can have Dolza order it back for that resupply, and have its admiral mind-wiped and download the information about Zor's battleship into its mind. Send that fleet first and see what happens, then send Breetai after it. Let the Meltraedi continue simply observing, their use as shock troops cannot be understated. I would be inclined to order them to switch to the Invid front after the 7th arrives."

The first frowned, shaking his head. "We can't ignore the chance of mental contamination after this long near these humans. We cannot let that spread. No, best to order their destruction after we are certain what is going on with Zor's battleship."

The other two thought for a moment then nodded and set about putting their plans in place. They should have remembered one of the most ancient of military axioms: No plan survives contact with the enemy. Especially when your enemy is someone like Ranma.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Ranma walked into the hangar bay where he had crashed his Valkyrie after his last fight with Zentraedi ace muttering darkly about doctors who didn't know jack shit about martial artists. They'd kept him off duty for nearly 5 days, three more than he needed to be back in fighting form! Oh, he had enjoyed the time with Kasumi of course, he wasn't ever going to complain about that, nor the amount of time he had been able to spend with Lisa when she was off duty.

No his problems with this enforced downtime came from Roy, who had found out that he had free time and decided to introduce him to the CAG paperwork that Roy had been handling up till that point. Ranma was at heart a simple person; he wanted to be a squadron commander because he felt that was the position best for him. Anything above that, there were just too many administrative duties that took time away from his training himself and his troops to be the best they could be. Thanks to Roy he hadn't even had time to practice with the Amazons since they arrived! So the fact that Ranma very dearly wanted to hit something right now, preferably Roy shaped, went without saying.

He stopped muttering however as he finally registered the maintenance teams around him staring at him whispering to one another. He looked down at himself wondering if he had something on his face or something, then shrugged and walked over to the nearest maintenance guy. "Yo, I think I crashed my Valkyrie here a few days ago, you got any idea where it is? Did you guys try to move it or something?"

The maintenance man gulped and shook his head. "Uh, no sir we, we didn't get a chance to."

That had actually pissed off his superior no end. The man was a by the books sort of the old school and regs stated that if a Valkyrie was damaged beyond a certain point it was to be taken apart for parts. When it came in the Valkyrie was a wreck and should've been taken apart immediately. But he had been stopped by the protests of the other team leaders and experienced workmen from the Macross. They all knew that Ranma wanted his machine repaired regardless of the damage, and had made so many modifications to it that if he tried to fly a regular Valkyrie it would probably come apart at the seams.

Instead something else had happened before they could even start moving it.

The maintenance man wordlessly gestured Ranma to follow him, and led the way into one of the corners of the hangar. There stood Ranma's Valkyrie, in the Guardian mode it had been when he crashed.

It looked completely repaired and he smiled. "Now you guys didn't have to do that you know. I mean I do my own maintenance and everything. It's part of my ongoing work of getting the Valkyrie used to letting my ki through it."

Ranma wanted to handle every piece of the Valkyrie and put a bit of his own ki into every piece. This last battle against the alien had shown that it worked, its performance had been greater by far than before and he felt that if he continued he'd eventually be able to get his Valkyrie to react as quickly as he himself could. Despite his best efforts there was still a lag between his reaction time and the Valkyrie's even with the inhibitor in the helmet long gone.

The problem was that he kept on getting better and the Valkyrie was limited to the limits of its mechanical parts. But those limits could be overcome (or outright ignored) if he poured enough energy into them.

"N-no sir," the maintenance man stuttered, "It um, it healed itself."

Ranma paused in his walk towards his Valkyrie, turning to stare at the man. "What did you just say?"

"It, it healed itself. We pushed it over here because well this is where we store a lot of damaged and broken parts when we're servicing the Valkyries before they get carted off. There were a few batteries over here, some bits and pieces from Valkyries damaged in the latest training session, and, and when we came back it had somehow absorbed them, and, and repaired itself."

"Did anyone see this as it was happening?" asked Ranma intently.

"A few of the others said they saw movement over here sir, but none of us were actually working in the area. It just somehow absorbed them sir! By the time one of us that noticed something was happening it was down to the final scrap piece and it simply absorbed into itself and then it's forearm armor plate somehow grew out of the skeleton of the rest of the arm and it w-was fully repaired.

Ranma gaped at him for a minute then shook his head. "All right I'm going to get to the bottom of this."

He walked forwards again and hopped onto his Valkyrie's wing and from there into the cockpit. The difference in the cockpit was even more surprising, as the helmet, which usually only had one connector from the helmet into the cockpit seat now had seven. More the joystick in the center was gone, and the buttons for the weapons, which were normally under his hands along the armrest, were gone, replaced by flat metal and some kind of indentation for his hands.

To these incredible changes Ranma's reply was a bland "Interesting," though inside he was ready to bolt the moment he heard someone say 'assimilate' or anything like that. Lisa had introduced her lovers to Star Trek a few weeks back, and the Borg had freaked Ranma out quite a bit.

He sat down and after a moment's hesitation pulled the helmet down over his head. After a moment he sent out a tendril of his energy into the device, searching around for differences and changes. He nearly stopped at the ease with which this happened, startled and amazed by how fast it was. It was almost like feeling the ki moving through his own body just on a far larger scale. With a flick of a finger he turned the engine on, and felt the power flow into the system. At that point a bit of the metal around his hands came up covering his fingers, and he felt that a twitch of one finger or another would arm and fire his missiles, and if he used his trigger finger on either hand he'd fire his gun.

He kept on pouring more of his ki into it, looking around trying to think of what could've caused the change. He didn't find any other consciousness or anything like that, but the whole thing sort of felt like, like some kind of tree or plant to him. It was alive now, but it was alive in a way that didn't lend itself to an actual consciousness, something that you could communicate with. He wondered how this would work in a combat situation, but figured he'd learn that soon enough.

Ranma began to laugh quietly and with a thought flicked the robot over into soldier mode. The change went even quicker than normal, slicing off at least half again from the amount of time it normally took, which had originally been faster than a normal transformation anyway. When it was over he stood in soldier mode and then began to go into a very complicated kata where he stood that he would never have been able to do before, it was simply too fluid. This time however it went off without a hitch and his laugh became even louder.

With another thought he changed the Valkyrie into flight mode and began to coast out of the hangar bay into the wide blue beyond, igrnoign the gaping faces of the maintenance teams. "Command 1, this is Wild one, requesting permission to exit the ship for a training flight."

OOOOOOOOOO

"You are an utter bastard," Motoko said yet again, it had seemed the only thing she could say for a bit after Ranma showed her all the changes his Valkyrie had gone through. Now the two of them moved from the hangar bay to Wildfire squadron's office she seemed finally able to say something else. "Come on, tell me how you did that, pretty please?"

"I wish I knew," Ranma replied shaking his head. "My Valkyrie now reacts faster than I ever expected it to. I just think it was the fact that it's been damaged so often, repaired so often and that I'm the one that's been doing the repairs at times, forcing my ki into it for so long both the total and the parts. I think the last few times just sort of pushed it over the edge."

Motoko of pouted a little. "That's all you can tell me?"

"Yep, sorry." At that point they had arrived at his damned office and he pushed in the door to the briefing room and found Max Ben and Rachel waiting for them. Luckily all of them knew how Ranma felt about salutes and stuff like that so simply came to attention briefly and then going back to at ease.

"You wanted to see us skipper? asked Ben.

Ranma nodded and moved around his desk, a hated object that he longed to destroy but alas was a necessity as a squadron commander, and reached into one of the desk drawers. He looked over at Ben then threw the small box at him. The large artillery specialist caught it after fumbling for a moment. Another box flew toward Rachel, who caught it easily and opened it gasping in surprise. "S-sir," she said stammering, "I think there's some kind of mistake here, I haven't been in grade nearly long enough…"

Ranma cut her off with a wave of his hand then said dryly, "Time in grade really doesn't matter aboard this ship Lieutenant. If it did I'd still be only a j.g. lieutenant at best. Put 'em on." Ben and Rachel looked at one another shrugged and put the new rank tabs for a lieutenant third class on their shoulders while Motoko and Max looked on interestedly.

"As you can probably guess, this leaves us a little top heavy and that means some of ya being transferred." Ranma said leaning back and looking at them all thoughtfully. He reached into another drawer and pulled out another box opening it to show them that inside was a commanders tabs and laying it down on the desk facing them.

"This is kind of a tough choice here." He said, then looked over at Motoko. "Motoko, while you've got time in grade over Max but I just finished saying it really don't matter. You're both equally excellent pilots, but that also doesn't matter in a commander, not really. What matters is personality, the ability to get along with others and get the most out of your troops. Tell me honestly, do ya think you can do that Motoko?"

Motoko looked down at the commander the desk then slowly shook her head. "Not right now," she said. Maybe in a few years but I'm quite happy as a lieutenant." She smirked suddenly, "After all, I don't want to deal with the paperwork."

Ranma breathed a sigh of relief. He had hoped that would be the case, but a part of him had also thought that she might want to fight about it. The fact of the matter was that Motoko was not ready for a commander slot. She didn't have the ability to get along with people that she disliked, (something which Ranma had learned despite himself from Scott Prescott) she had a rather part abrasive personality towards people she didn't know well, and hadn't quite built up that necessary shield that all women in the military must have against male condescension. Ranma hadn't actually spotted that, but Lisa had, and when he talked to her about who to promote she had given him some insight.

It wasn't a problem that Ranma ever had to deal with, he simply ignored it, something that was easy to do after all when you knew even in your female body you were the toughest mother-fucker on the ship. Motoko was getting over it, but wasn't quite there yet.

He grinned at her. "Good I'd ah hated ta lose ya." She smiled at his diplomatic answer and Ranma turned to Max. "I'll be sad to see ya go Max, but Vermillion needs a new commander and I was tasked to promote someone. I think ya'll do a great job. I'm also transferring Rachel with ya."

Max smiled a little and nodded. "Do I have any other personnel assigned yet sir?"

Ranma shook his head. "You'll be able to all your roster spots from the rookies, though unfortunately ya won't be able ta pick and choose all that much. That'll also include a lieutenant j.g., but he'll be a rookie so whether or not you keep him in that slot is up to you if ya think that Rachel can fill the slot I'll back her for another promotion immediately."

The derogatory name rookie was given to any pilot that had been transferred onto the ship from the rest of the UNSF. To the veterans aboard ship that was just what they were. You weren't a vet until you survived your first dogfight in space against the Zentraedi. "I don't suppose I have to tell you what to emphasize in your training regimen right?"

"Endurance, speed, 3-D thinking?" said Max by wrote, "Endurance most of all."

That had been the mantra since Ranma took over from Roy as CAG, and the new pilots had benefited greatly from it. Instead of flying they did endurance runs and spent time in the simulator going through moves to acclimate their bodies to the g-forces. There were a lot of grumbling about this but they had disappeared since Ranma's duel with the Gargoyle ace.

They still did not understand, they wouldn't until they were thrown into a real battle against the Zentraedi and realized the battle didn't end until every single Zentraedi was killed. The shortest battles in space had been those during the trip to Saturn and those had been part of a long-term campaign to wear down and exhaust the defenders over time. Other than that the shortest fight had been the one on Mars, and that it gone for two hours before they had finally been able to break off. The fight near the moon had lasted a full ten, and it was only because endurance had long since become a watchword among the Valkyrie pilots that more of them hadn't died and even with that their losses were horrific.

"You got it," Ranma said. "Now get out of here and go do some work." He stood up and held out his hand to Max who shook it gravely then nodded to Rachel and the two of them left.

As soon as Rachel was out of the door some of the tension in the room dissipated and Motoko breathed a sigh of relief while Ranma looked over to Motoko and Ben. "The three of us will stay alone for a bit. Wildfire, Skull and eventually Vermillion are going to be made into assault squadrons, so we'll be sifting through the new rookies for anyone good, but don't get your hopes up. Good means that they can survive against one of us for upwards of an hour." Ben winced a little at that as even against him that was going to be a tall order.

Motoko shrugged. "With the way the acceleration training for the Amazons and Konatsu, we may see them finished at the Academy in a few weeks. If we can hold up filling in any slots until then we're golden."

Ranma nodded. He had looked over the notes given to him from the Academy about the Amazons, and knew that as soon as they were able to get up to speed on the Valkyries the Amazons would swiftly become the type of fighter pilots that any good commander wanted. Endurance wouldn't be a problem for them it would simply be a case of getting used to the weapon systems and being in space. But after that, their survivability would skyrocket. It would make them perfect for the tip of the spear, like Wildfire. Point defense and point assault were among the most brutal and devastating sort of combats, and it was the kind that martial artists like them and like Ranma and Motoko were best suited for.

"I've told the new commandant to expedite it as much as possible, so yeah a few weeks among the ones that can get through it anyway."

Motoko nodded, "So what do we do until then?"

"Training, training, training," said Ranma in a singsong voice. "I want these rookies to know point blank how bad it can get before we threw them out there. We've had to rebuild our Valkyrie wing too often already, I don't want it to happen again. Not on my watch, understand?"

Motoko and Ben both nodded grimly and Ranma hit a key on his small data-pad and popped up a training schedule he had created. "Here's the roster for training flights, training runs and gravity simulations, each squadron will have three-hour training times on each every day, with overlaps of four..."

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Azonia leaned back from her admiral's platform with a sigh. Sonya had done an excellent job as her deputy while she was busy planning that lie to sell to Dolza, but there were just some things that Azonia had to handle herself. One of which was the authorization for the micronization process, something that only her flagship had access to.

The problem with the human foods was that they could not steal it in Meltraedi sized portions save for chocolate by raiding the factories. The other delicacies were far too small for them; just enough to taste but that was all. Well, except for another thing they could take from factories called Ice Cream which was spreading as fast as chocolate through the fleet. Thus she had been inundated by literally millions of requests for miniaturization, though of course most of them didn't come right out and say it was because they wanted to try the food. Unfortunately she was the only person in the fleet who could authorize that energy expense, and thus she had to be the ones to handle all the requests one by one.

Despite this irritation however, she was pleased (or as pleased as someone could be with a sword hanging over their head) at what had been happening lately. Thanks to Sonya the fleet had moved further away from the planet, spreading out in small, hundred ship strong packs at various intervals. They all randomly changed position, thus negating any attempt from the space fortress to use its siege cannon. The two packs nearest the earth were rotated out at intervals, and they themselves were so spread out that any shot from the siege cannon would have to traverse to get more than one. This allowed her troops the ability to continue to send raids down to Earth yet keep the main fleet far enough away to react to anything but also be safe from sudden assaults themselves.

This also allowed more and more of her people (and that was the way she thought of them) to come in contact with the human culture and Azonia had heard through several different sources that questions were being asked at all levels. Questions about why they didn't have certain items, why they didn't seem to have any equivalent of music or art or writing, or why they hadn't seen any innovations in weapons or tactics for as long as any could remember. Her decision to keep the connection to the humans Internet alive had proven to be a godsend, even if several thousand of her people were being disturbed daily by images of pornography.

Azonia herself wasn't quite prepared to come to grips with that aspect of human society just yet, although she had found a video during her own downtime last night (local night) that showed two girls doing something together which made her feel very strange. For some reason the idea of watching it with Sonya had occurred to her, and Azonia wondered why that was, and why the idea was so… appealing.

Her thoughts were interrupted as someone coughed in front of her. She looked up startled, not having realized she had been that out of it. She was even more surprised to see Miriya standing there. Azonia had heard Miriya was assigned to one of the ships closest to the planet. Her flagship was not close to the planet, indeed it was the furthest out. She well understood the need to keep a clear chain of command active at all times, especially in the current crisis. She couldn't trust any of the younger females to understand what was going on and how best to move forward. Well, Azonia had an idea at least, which was better than anyone else had.

"Lady Admiral," Miriya said formally, "I've come to you with a request."

Azonia nodded, then listened, startled. After Miriya finished speaking she shook her head. "Miriya, you're my best pilot I can't afford to lose you like this. I realize that putting another spy aboard ship may help us further but…"

Miriya shook her head. "Do not play games with me lady," she said softly, looking around at the other females on the bridge, none of whom were close enough to hear. "You and I both know we have no plans to attack the space fortress again."

Azonia's eyes narrowed, but she probably shouldn't have been surprised. Miriya wasn't just one of her best pilots, she was also one of her best wing commanders, able to see patterns and strategies that others would miss, when she bothered anyway. "You're right," she said slowly "we don't. There have been too many questions too many mysteries that have come out lately when I compare us to these humans."

Miriya nodded calmly. "In which case" she said not directly mentioning the fact that they both knew that they might soon be going go up against Dolza which was a losing proposition, "having a voice already there to talk to the humans might be a good idea."

Azonia frowned thoughtfully nibbling on one finger. It was a gesture much like Sonya's touching her facial tattoo, and was a sign of great concern or deep thinking. "That is true," she said thoughtfully. "Though I don't think our people would be willing to accept that just yet."

Not just yet but soon Azonia thought, The questions are piling up, the desires are piling up. The contamination was spreading, and she was gleefully helping it along. Azonia didn't know why this was done to her people or who did it, but she would make them pay for manipulating her people.

She knew she probably wouldn't survive, despite their qualitative superiority there was no way her fleet of barely 75,000 could match Dolza's force of over 800,000. No tactics, no strategy, no plan could ever get over that large a numerical disparity. That didn't mean she was going to go down without a fight and if that meant allying herself with humans she would do it gladly.

"Very well," she said looking back up at the younger Meltraedi. "I'll authorize it. There's another operation going down hitting near the space fortress, you'll be taken down and put on one of those islands nearby, how you'll get onto the ship after that is up to you."

Miriya nodded gratefully. "Thank you lady, I actually already have a plan in mind for that." Azonia nodded deciding she didn't want to know the details and simply waved the younger girl off.

As the green haired female walked away Azonia reached down and very delicately picked out a small piece of chocolate and popped it into her mouth. She waited for the sugar rush, shuddering in place for a moment then turned back to her work re-energized. A few hours later orders went out, and several thousand ships scattered throughout the fleet began to mobilize, many reluctant to leave behind the third planet, but obeying Azonia without question. While no one on Earth would realize it, Azonia and the Meltraedi prepared for war.

OOOOOOOOOO

Ranma looked out over the faces of the three new captains and their squad members This is the first time entire squadrons of Valkyrie pilot had transferred, and he was happy to see it in a way since it meant that they had a clear line of command and wouldn't need any time to get to know and train other pilots. Yet on the other hand it also meant that they had no slots for any of Macross's admittedly dwindling supply of veteran pilots to be added and give them a leavening of experience.

Ranma hoped he had hit the lecture he just finished right, and by the thoughtful looks on all their faces he had. Still only time would tell. There was literally no way of really understanding how frenetic chaotic and deadly a dogfight in space against the Zentraedi was until you lived through it and that was against the regular battle pods, pods that they hadn't seen since Kyron died. Against the Gargoyles it was a whole other story. A good Valkyrie pilot was worth about 20 normal Regulds, that same pilot was equal to about one Gargoyle if the gargoyle pilot wasn't very good. If the gargoyle pilot was good and most of them were most Valkyrie pilots would be hard-pressed to survive more than five minutes and if it was an ace they wouldn't. The one enemy ace that he had been fighting on and off could probably wipe out 60 or 70 Valkyries and come back for more.

"Any questions?" he asked and then fielded a few about specialized weapon types in the loadout, including the veteran modification option which was not going to be open for anyone until they survived one clash with the gargoyles or three with a regular battle pods. The ability to modify their Valkyries was seen as a sign of veteran status, but until you actually fought the aliens you were not a veteran to the original Macross pilots.

There was some grumbling about that but soon enough the meeting broke up, the captains and their men heading off to their quarters or into the city for some down time. The lecture had after all been going on all morning.

He raised a hand however as one in particular passed by "Commander Prescott hold up a second."

The middle Prescott brother looked up and nodded moving over to stand in front of the podium as the others left. His pilots looked at him and he just simply waved them on.

Ranma waited until the room cleared and then looked over at Prescott. "You were CAG for that base in India right?"

Mark Prescott nodded. "I was, but what with all the turmoil I felt that my position was needed here. I didn't want to be put in the position of choosing what orders or factions to follow and my men followed me." he said by rote, not mentioning the fact he had taken a downgrade in rank to be here.

"And you wanted some vengeance for Eric," Ranma said looking at him. "I served with your brother you now. He was my first commander, hell he was my only commander, I was his lieutenant before being given command of the squadron, we were using the call sign blue then. He taught me a lot. If you want to meet up sometime and just share stories I can tell you some really interesting ones." He grinned a little, though sadness was apparent on his face too. "Including a bit of a prank war if ye'r interested?"

Mark Prescott smiled a little thinly. He had lost people in battle before, he'd lead attacks on a few anti-Un bases, a few Islamic terrorist fortresses in his day, and even when faced with massively superior firepower and tech they sometimes had some surprise in store for attackers. Despite this, despite knowing people died in war, the loss of Eric was a wound that just would not heal. Though hearing the respect in Ranma's voice made him feel proud of his younger brother at least. "Sure, I'd like that I guess."

Ranma nodded and went on. "Since you have experience with this kind of thing, I want ya to meet up with Roy as soon as possible. The moment someone else can be in charge of this whole CAG crap and I can get back to just being in charge of Wildfire the better."

"You mean you don't want to be CAG?" Mark asked, a little surprised. It was the final stop a pilot had to make before trying for flag rank after all.

"Fuck it," said Ranma. "It takes way too much time away from my training and being with my own squadron. Way too much paperwork, way too much organizational crap, not nearly enough combat. I may have gotten used to the need for paperwork but that doesn't mean I have to like it."

Mark laughed a little. "That's true at any level mate. All right I'll meet with Roy as soon as I can. I'll call you if I can get free for a bit to talk."

Ranma nodded and then the two walked off in different directions.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Vice Admiral Gloval leaned back in his admiral's chair, a new addition to the bridge, though a temporary one as the flag bridge was being refitted, the entirety of it having been scrounged for parts months ago. He sighed happily as the leather moved under him. With a light tap on a small control station under his hand a small screen popped up and out of the armrest to assume precisely the correct angle for him to look at without him having to hold it.

Some of the lights still didn't work, the painting everywhere was still crap, and the lower sections of the engineering rooms, storage rooms and living quarters were still abysmal, but maintenance was finally, finally catching up on the curve of electrical and mechanical failures.

One more influx of potential civilians and crew then another few days to get them settled or find out that they are a liability, then we'll be leaving Earth for the second time. While he wasn't exactly happy about the necessity of doing so, the mission was an important one, and he could not begrudge it. More he was interested to see how the ship with all of its new refitted weapons andwith a full crew, half again the size of the crew estimated before the Zentraedi invasion, would do in combat. He knew what he would get from the destroids and the Valkyries, but the ship itself with a full crew, far more barrier shields and everything? No he wasn't certain about that all. But he was very anxious to show it off, even against the aliens who probably wouldn't understand what they were seeing.

That thought brought a little frown to his face and he reached automatically for a pipe that hadn't been there for months, ever since Nodoka had found his holdout tobacco pack. The news that the Zentraedi were a created race had spread, and the shock reverberated at every level of the United Nations Space Forces.

It gave the peaceniks more fodder, after all you didn't want to fight the slaves you wanted to fight the masters, yet at the same time it had hardened thoughts against them. The idea that they were created for war meant that peace was very unlikely. To get to the masters you often had to go through the Mamluks after all.

Regardless, Gloval felt that all out war was inevitable and he was eager to show the aliens that it would not be easy.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Two days after the last influx of personnel Ranma walked through the streets of the city, not roof-hopping this time because he wanted to take in the new sights and sounds of the city. For a few weeks there after Kyron invaded the ship the city had been a bit of a ghost town, but it slowly livened up as more and more civilians, not to mention the Amazons came in. Now it was almost at full capacity, all the shops and restaurants were open again, most of them under new management, there were new shops, new places to go, a new theater and other entertainment places.

Today was the grand opening of the arcade whose interior Kasumi had designed, and he was anxious to see how it would look. Both she and Ukyo and Shampoo would be there, Shampoo having gotten some time off from the Academy. He grinned at that thought, looking forward to the day when he would be able to have a few of the Amazons in Wildfire. Mokoto was looking forward to it as well of course, for very different reasons.

Ranma knew the Amazons would be among those that could survive combat in space against the Zentraedi, and he figured if he could just fill up his squadron with them then he wouldn't have to write more letters to grieving family members. That kind of thing gets old really quickly. he thought grimly.

He was unsurprised to see a line forming outside the arcades, what did surprise him was seeing Max near the end of it. Ranma walked up and slapped the other commander on the shoulder. "Hey Vermillion one," he said jokingly, "you sure you got time to waste here?"

Max turned around and grinned at him. Being in charge of Vermillion had meant redesigning his Valkyries decoration a bit, but otherwise had been great. Without Ranma around to measure himself against Max's equilibrium had righted itself. He was also eager to show what his squad could do.

"I could say the same for you, boss." he said jokingly. "What with you being the high and mighty CAG and all."

"Are you kidding me," Ranma said, "if I miss this Kasumi would have my hide."

Max frowned a little remembering his complete failure at trying to flirt with Kasumi while he thought that Ranma had been killed. The fact that Ranma was in a three-way relationship with Kasumi and now-captain Hayes had spread around the ship in incredibly quick order, and had given Max yet another reason to be jealous of him. Worse, the only time he saw the female Ranma she was hanging around Kasumi or Lisa, which neatly blocked him from flirting with her, and he had been forced to move on. "I can see that, and of course you wouldn't want to do anything to anger her or else someone else might just come in and sweep her off her feet."

Ranma laughed a little low, but still amused. "Not going to happen." It wasn't said arrogantly, it was just a simple statement of fact like the sky is blue. He knew Kasumi, and there was no chance of her suddenly switching her affection to someone else. Not after all the time they had been together, not with a heart as big and as certain as hers.

Max looked at his far away smiling face and frowned further then shook it off.

Ranma too came back quickly and smirked at his fellow pilot. "Shampoo should be here too you know."

the other young man blanched a little at that. While he had flirted with the Amazon princess the idea of a permanent relationship with her, and when the Amazons said permanent that was precisely what they meant, did not appeal to him at all. He'd stopped flirting with her when he learned that two other pilots had done the same thing to other Amazons but gotten further than he had and then woke up to find themselves married..

One of them was actually quite happy about the arrangement, and Rinse, the Amazon in question, was ecstatic. In fact both of them were now a highly talked about couple, and almost giddy around each other. It was almost enough to make someone believe in love at first sight, but the other relationship wasn't exactly going as well.

There had been some friction between the disparate groups of civilians, especially between the groups from Western countries and the Amazons, but not a lot. That would not have been the case if any of them came from traditionally male dominated nations/societies like the Middle East or South America, but that wasn't the case. And as more and more people trained as policemen came forward to replace the Amazons (thus freeing them up to go to the academy in the next session) the resentment toward them would fade.

The two commanders made small talk for a bit, waiting to enter the arcade. Once in however they stopped talking and looked around in amazement. The place was packed! Everywhere they could see there were consoles of various types of games platforms and combat simulators. All of them had at least 10 people around them, either waiting for a turn or cheering the players on. The group games, the ones that had five or more players at a time, had 15 people clustered around the little indented cubicles in the floor, and the lounges that were part of the computer cubicles had several people sitting in them sipping drinks while eating 'Asian fusion' cuisine as they watched the players and waited for their own turns. There was even a line in front of Ukyo's food stand, and Ranma grinned as he saw Kasumi moving in and out of the crowd with a tall well-dressed Chinese man following her greeting the crowd.

"Wow," said Max looking around.

Ranma nodded while waving at Kasumi who waved back, almost giddy at how much everyone was complimenting her work. She ran up and kissed Ranma on the cheek, almost babbling in her excitement. "Oh this is so wonderful! I've gotten so many compliments about my design, I've even had three people offer me jobs to design the interior of their houses and stores!"

"This on top of the work that Cologne was asking for?" asked Ranma putting his hands on her waist and holding her in place. She seemed ready to almost jump up and down in excitement. It always amused him how much Kasumi loved being praised for her interior design work, it tied into the center of what she was, a gentle kind soul who loved to help others. Creating a place where people loved to live or play was something she greatly enjoyed, and being praised for this was just icing on the cake for her and therefore the best part.

"Yes," she exclaimed happily and kissed him on the cheek again. "Can you believe it, oh I'm going to be so busy!" She broke into happy giggles and Ranma grinned, lifting her off the air and twirling her around for a bit.

Behind them the Chinese man frowned and sighed, mentally snapping his fingers. He had hoped the rumors about the hot Japanese woman being in a relationship had been wrong, but it didn't seem as if it was. Pity, but there were other fish in the sea. Besides which while Kasumi was his type, she was a little young for him.

He waved at her indicating that he was going to move on, and she nodded and stayed with Ranma for a few minutes before seeing Shampoo and Perfume heading their way. The pregnant Perfume was due in another month or so, and this would probably be the last time she would be out in as large a crowd as this. Ranma turned away and followed Max who was making straight for the Valkyrie simulators on the second floor.

As they walked up the glass and metal stairs Max stopped and gaped for a moment. Playing one of the simulators was one of the most incredibly beautiful women he had ever seen. She was of medium height, about the same height as Max (a little taller than Ranma in other words) had green hair cascading loosely down her back to mid back a decent and very perky bust and was wearing off duty casuals. "Who," he breathed, "is that?"

Ranma looked at the girl and shrugged. While she was gorgeous he wasn't one to really care much about physical appearances alone. No, what interested him was that she was putting off nearly as much ki as Cologne, and that was only what he could see, that meant if she had any kind of control there was more underneath. "An Amazon I guess," he said. "I would watch yourself with her if I were you."

Max of course wasn't listening. He was already moving in, taking the place of her opponent as he went down in a ball of flames. "You seem to be good at this game," he said suavely. "Would you mind having a match with me then?"

The green haired girl looked up at him appraising then looked down at his rank tabs then over at his unit badge before shrugging. "If you wish," she said waving a hand. "This is an interesting game, a simulation of combat. Not at all like the real thing of course."

"Well of course," Max said calmly, familiarizing himself with the controls. "how else could civilians handle it? You have a color preference?"

The woman shook her head, and Max chose blue, while she chose red. What followed was, well it was brutal to be honest. Max fought as he usually did, calmly, confidently, keeping his distance and using all his weapons effectively. While he was a decent marital artist he wasn't nearly good enough to enjoy hand to hand combat in a Valkyrie.

The woman however fought with a flare and verve and a nerve that Ranma found strangely familiar. She had far better reflexes then Max, something that surprised Ranma as Max had some of the best reflexes on board outside of the dedicated martial artists. This was further proof that the girl was an Amazon if he needed any other than the massive amount of ki she had.

The red Valkyrie on the screen made as if to punch the other and then the game paused and nothing happened. The green haired girl scowled angrily then flipped her Valkyrie up as if to do a circle kick but her opponent zoomed away and she scowled angrily shooting missiles at him. Max killed most of them, but one of them clipped his ring when and before he could recover the other Valkyrie was in his face firing with its head lasers and rifle. He dodged wildly but was now on the defensive.

A few minutes later the match ended in the girl's favor Ranma spoke up. "Nice moves, it's a pity that the game wasn't programmed with martial arts in mind or you would've had him 5 minutes ago."

The girl turned and stared at him, her eyes first widening as she looked at him then the narrowed as if locking on a target. Internally Ranma ground wondering what Shampoo had told her fellow Amazons about him.

Max frowned heavily, unused to losing but realized the game wasn't really what he was after here anyway. He stood up and bowed to the girl. "That was an excellent match, do you want to have another? I'd rather like a chance to regain some of my dignity after all and may I know the name of my beautiful adversary?"

"Miriya," said the green haired girl shortly, not taking her eyes off Ranma. "And no," she said standing up, "I am not in the mood any longer for these 'games'."

Max nodded hopefully. "Well if you're new on board would you like me to show you around? I'm sure we could find something else fun to do."

"No, I'm not interested in anything like that. Unless there is some other kind of combat trainer like this?" she said nodding her head towards the simulator, still not taking her eyes off Ranma.

Ranma scratched his pigtail thoughtfully staring back at the girl. There's something about this gal that's bothering me. She's the same age as Shampoo, but by the level of ki she's putting off she's worlds better than her. Shampoo was supposed to be the champion of her age group among the Amazons, so that didn't actually match up. And all the Amazons came aboard as one lump group a while ago, so there shouldn't be any new ones coming aboard, and I sure as hell would recognize her. More unlike the maidens of Shampoo's age, this girl was giving off the vibe of a combat veteran. And those move she pulled in that simulator...

He decided to test the waters a bit. "Well if you're interested in some sparring one-on-one I've got a place we can go?"

"Indeed," the green haired girl said cocking her head thoughtfully, her eyes locked on him like a turret, as they had been since first sight. "That sounds fascinating, I wouldn't miss it for the universe."

"But surely," Max said," you, um, you don't have to do that right now? It's nearly lunchtime let's go out and eat something."

Miriya shook her head. "I am uninterested in that. Let us go now" she said to Ranma.

Ranma shrugged. "Lead the way," he said bowing her out. After a moment's hesitation at the gesture Miriya nodded and walked down the stairs.

Max frowned and Ranma. "First your sister, now this girl. Why the hell do you have to try and cock block me?"

"I think you need to figure out when someone's not interested in you Max, you're not God's gift to women. Such a thing does not exist, trust me on this. Besides, that girl, she's giving off some dangerous vibes."

Max frowned angrily then moved back and began to trawl the rest of the crowd for girls.

Ranma followed Miriya out of the arcade and then began to lead the way out of the city. He decided to test her again, and said "follow me," before jumping up and taking to the roofs.

After a brief gasp of surprise or something Miriya frowned then followed him a little unsure early at first, but quickly enough. This further cemented in his head the idea that she really wasn't an Amazon, which begged the question where the hell she had come from to have a level of ki like that.

After a while they came to the edge of the city and then passed it, entering the ship proper and moving down corridors. Soon enough they came to an area where even now the maintenance crews and the rest of the crew didn't often come. It was actually very close to where Rick and Minmei had found the waterfall. That had been repaired a while ago, but this section of the space fortress was still not used very often. The fact of the matter was even with the massive influx of troops and maintenance people, the ship was still just too big. Roving maintenance bands were all that ever came down here, and that not very often.

"Where exactly are you taking us?" asked Miriya, of course she wasn't exactly unhappy with this. The further away from anyone else they went the more likely they could have a one-on-one match without anyone interfere.

Ranma led her into a large room. Of course most rooms on board this ship were large, but what was inside caused Miriya to pause to stare around her. Everywhere she looked there were bars of various length and width sticking out at odd angles as well as strange small things that looked like guns but instead of grips they had strange cylinders. Along the floor of the room as spread a large exercise mat.

"This is a training area I created fer me a while back," he said. "Kind of advanced for most people on board ship, I've only just got a a few of 'em up to snuff on it, but it builds 3-D awareness as well as danger senses."

"I see," Miriya said thoughtfully looking around, "The guns shoot what exactly?"

"paintballs, but very quickly and it will cause some pain if it hits ya."

"I see," Miriya said again. So this was one of the clues as to how he had gotten so good. This kind of training was something well beyond anything she had ever thought of and she knew that none of the other Zentraedi or Meltraedi had ever thought of it either. Still it would be an excellent way of teaching both acrobatics and 3-D spatial relationships along with combat skills. "And will the guns be on for our little match?"

"It would make it more realistic," Ranma said thoughtfully, "but I don't think we need it."

He unbuttoned his uniform top, and dropped it to the ground leaving him standing in a muscle T-shirt that he wore underneath, then leaped up grabbed onto one bar and swung himself further up onto another. He stood there balanced easily on his toes on bar about as thin as his thumb staring down at her. "Well," he said a little challengingly, his blue eyes snapping. "Are you up to it?"

Miriya scowled at him then shrugged off her own upper shirt, leaving her standing in an exercise top. Ranma blushed a little, realizing the green-haired girl was as good looking in that area as Lisa was, but he swiftly shook it off.

She leaped up and while she wasn't nearly as graceful about it as Ranma she took her position easily enough. The two of them stood on their respective bars staring at one another, and Ranma suddenly had a feeling of déjà-vu, but he shook it off, but knew now that this was going to be a lot tougher than he had thought.

At some unspoken signal they charged, Miriya leaping forward to grasp a bar above Ranma's position and swing her leg around to kick him. Ranma charged forward too, diving down to grab another bar then bringing his own legs up to meet her kick and smacking it aside making her nearly lose her grip. She retained it however and used momentum he imparted on her to flip herself around, grab another and come back with a punch that nearly hit his shoulder.

Ranma dodged that easily, staying in position then jumping up into the air hovering there for a moment and kicking out hard. Miriya blocked it with her hands but the impact threw her off her perch and she scrambled for a moment in midair, grabbing another bar and then flipping herself over into a kick that caught Ranma as he came down towards her. Ranma blocked the kick and returned it with punch and the two grappled in midair then broke apart to grab onto different bars before coming together again.

The spar continued for a while, neither able to really gain the upper hand. At first Ranma had the advantage, being as at home in midair like this as he was on the ground. However Miriya was a very fast learner, in fact her learning curve was even better than Ranma's, and she swiftly overcame her disadvantages, learning to draw him into little traps that allowed her to ripost effectively landing hits on him continuously.

After a little while the spar ended and the battle began. Neither of which them were willing to give in. One because she knew this was the adversary she had come to fight, and she would never get another chance like this. The other because of a simple stubborn refusal to lose.

By this point Ranma had recognized his opponent's combat style, but rather than being surprised or shocked he simply took it in stride. After all, while he hadn't seen any Zentraedi females since that one time on Dolza's fortress, he knew they were around. The idea of the ace being one hadn't occurred to him honestly, he was that much his father's son, but it was still within the realm of possibility.

The idea that the alien ace would want to settle things one-on-one like this didn't bother him at all either. His rivals had done stupider things after all, and if their positions were reversed he might be looking for payback the same way. Of course in my case, he thought as he winced, a blow getting through to land on his jaw making his teeth clench and blood start leaking from his mouth, I'd be looking for a way to enlarge myself to her size rather than the other way around.

He pressed forward despite the punch to the face, catching Miriya midair and throwing her back with a series of all Amiguriken speed punches, though she managed to block half of them.

She landed back first on a bar behind her, but used one hand behind her back to flip herself to a second one right below it and charging again catching him by surprise. However it wasn't quite enough and he caught her punches in his hands. But Ranma wasn't expecting the head butt which cracked into his nose, breaking it and sending him backwards enough for a kick to land. Fuck is she strong, as strong as me almost as fast, ruthless and a fast learner, he thought as he shook the cobwebs away, moving back to give himself space jumping from one bar to the other as Miriya pursued him. She's good.

In the end however it wasn't skill that won out but endurance. Even as used to moving her body around in her power suit as Miriya was, she wasn't prepared for this level of physical endurance and despite her insane learning curve this worked against her in the long run. About four hours after they began, a final barrage of punches from Ranma threw her back enough for him to land an overhead kick that threw her down it onto the ground below.

Despite this she still retaliated, three hard blows to his lower body, one catching him on the knee and nearly breaking it, another catching him high up on the thigh and one catching him in the chest with enough force to sent him reeling back. He was so exhausted he was unable to correct himself and he followed her down to the ground thumping heavily onto his side right next to her.

The two lay there not moving for a moment, simply gasping in pain and exhaustion then Ranma stood up weakly and moved over to a small refrigerator he had rigged up in corner. He reached in and pulled out two water bottles, one of which he tossed to Miriya. Even in her exhausted state she was able to muster enough energy to reach out and catch it before it hit her and she leaned back, gasping with relief as she poured some over her face and then down her throat.

Ranma set heavily on the grounds nursing his own wounds then poured some of the water over his head, triggering his transformation. Other than a raised eyebrow this didn't elicit much comment from Miriya and Ranma and looked at her, still having trouble breathing. "That, that was the best exercise I've had since," he paused for a moment then weakly shook his head, "hell since ever really."

Miriya frowned heavily but nodded all the same. She had lost again, and this time could not blame the fact that Ranma's machine was better than hers on her loss, but had been able to learn far more in this one match than watching hours of film. That thought brought a smile to her face. "I still couldn't beat you," she said.

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, but unlike you alien girl," she said, and Miriya lifted her head to stare at her, "I've had my whole life to get this good at martial arts. It was only after that that I learned to be a pilot."

"That does not make me feel better," she replied leaning back again. If Ranma was going to turn her in for this she was too exhausted right now to care. "Is this where you turn me over to your superiors?"

"Do ya want ta be?" Ranma asked, smirking a little.

"No, not really. I have a message to deliver, but not yet, I will be called when it is time." She said this obliquely, knowing that Azonia's plans for their fleet wasn't quite ready yet.

Ranma shrugged. "Honestly I don't care. I ain't going ta turn you in. I understand you all too well ta do that ta ya." The two stared at one another, communing with one another again as they had so often before and after their battles until Ranma shook her head, red hair flying around her face. "But who all did you fight before ya ran into us?"

Miriya spat to the side, face screwed up in contempt. "The Invid," she said coldly. "They're the only race that really has ever been able to match us, the bugs. Or so we used to think."

"and what do you think now?" Ranma asked wondering where that was going.

"I don't know," she said thoughtfully. 'There are questions going around the fleet, questions about why we're not more like you. Questions about who our real enemy is."

"Like how you don't have a society," Ranma said having heard that part. "Or are led by a big bastard who has no ki whatsoever."

Miriya looked up at him startled. "You met Dolza?"

"Yeah I did and he's got this aura of fear thing going on that seemed to intimidate the others there, but he doesn't have any ki, you know, like what you and I can use to move faster than a normal person could."

This segued into a discussion about ki that lasted for several hours, covering all that Miriya had been able to figure out and all that Ranma knew about it, interrupted only when Miriya's stomach began to rumble and she frowned down at it irritated.

Ranma laughed a little and stood up groaning in pain at her sudden movement. "Come on," she said laughing. "I know just the place for us to get some food."

Miriya looked at the outstretched hand before her for a long moment, then smiled and reached up to clasp the shorter girl's hand.

OOOOOOOOO

Dr. Lang crawled along the very small duct in the ceiling of the engine room, wondering how the hell this portion of the ship had been built. After all, if the aliens were the size of the Zentraedi then why the hell would they have maintenance crawlspaces that were small for humans, well most humans anyway. "I cannot thank you enough for helping me Elder Cologne," he said looking over his shoulder, something he was barely able to given the bulky RAD suit he was wearing.

The Amazon elder cackled a little moving along on her own two feet rather easily in this small cramped space. Her suit had to have been made custom for her given her size, and she looked a little like a very short ghost moving around. "Not at all, the time I've spent on board this ship has been the most mentally stimulating I can remember in a long, long time."

"Still I have to thank you. The amount of progress we've made has been astonishing, and as for this little operation…" They at last reached the side of the tremendously large pipe that was leading into the engine. For some reason the fuel in the main generator flowed into this pipe and then came out in a far more refined, energetic matter, but the actual pipe and where it lead was not on any plans of the ship he had been able to find.

"My own curiosity drives me as much as it does you Dr." Cologne said thoughtfully, looking around. Being aboard ship had made her question the nature of ki almost from the beginning, but being here in the bowels of the engine, it was like being close to a sleeping god, the energy pulsing, thrumming around them was the energy of life, yet it was coming from metal structure. It through everything she knew about key out of whack, major question it deeply.

After about ten minutes work with the plasma cutter Emil got the hatch open and the two of them stared into the pipe thus revealed.

"What," Dr. Lang said in a strangled tone of voice, "what is that?"

Cologne peered around him staring thoughtfully at the odd thing in front of them. "It looks almost like a vine of some kind, coming out of a seed and going every which way. But the energy it's giving off, I've never seen the like. I don't know Dr." she said thoughtfully, looking at it and feeling the energy it was giving off, "I don't know."

End chapter

Things are moving forward, and this hopefully will be the last chapter before things really start happening. We are entering the end game for this arc people. As always read and review.

*Chapter 27*: Leavings and Learnings

I don't own Ranma or Robotech. If I did, well… I would be a lot better off than I am now. Living one check ahead of bankruptcy sucks, er I don't suppose I could ask ya'll ta donate if I set something up? Heh, never mind, just my desperation showing there.

Some reviews I'd like to mention:

N0mster: Thank you for all the great reviews! Looking back I agree that Ranma should have handled Miriya much more easily, but I hope you enjoy the reason I give to explain away his lack of endurance and energy…

TJG: The other beings in the Robotech universe did indeed have their own problems, but a few terrified elements may still be out there, though they won't make an impact until book 2.

JohnC25: Gracias. Max I am still up in the air about, he may be paired with someone down the line, but I introduce someone else here, a sort of O.C. who I model after a character from a certain series by David Drake and Eric Flint. I want to see if anyone can figure out who it is from the little clue I give. I think he will be a fitting catch for a certain purple haired Amazon.

I wanted to do more in this chapter, but felt I was short changing Miriya getting to know the others aboard the Macross, so went back and enlarged it, moving the combat- which I want to add even more to, to the next chapter, and enlarging other sections. Its really tough sometimes managing a balance between personal relationship growth and moving the plot forward.

What will be happening now is one chapter after this with some discussion a bit of romance and a lot of violence, then a chapter with a bit more talking and a lot of expansion, and other things, then a chapter dedicated two combat beginning to end and finally another chapter wrapping it up and moving on into the next book, which I won't begin until I am done with Horse of the Dead at least.

Thanks to RDDE for pointing out a few mistakes I made. I deleted your first review as it was all about the mistakes and it would have been double posting.

Chapter 26 Leavings and Learning

OOOOAbout two Earth days prior to myriad arriving on the space fortressOOOO

Admiral Retsuc 7th skirmish fleet was terrified. He was normally an arrogant man, abrasive and overbearing with those under his command, mildly contemptuous and almost contemptible of other admirals, much like Kyron in a way though not quite as openly, or as crazily.

Breetai had been appalled by the amount of, well he used the words idiotic self-aggrandizement, which had crept into the fleets he had dealt with, but what he had seen so far merely scratched the surface. Kyron was not alone in his creation of a cult of personality his fleet, every other fleet had gone much the same way. Every other admiral, be he in command of a skirmish or main fleet, was a despot, all powerful tyrants in their fleets who did not allow any of their subordinates to question their decisions, voice their own opinions or do anything but mindlessly follow orders. All power was held in the hands of the admiral, and every one of his officers knew it. Authority came not from rules, regulations or any kind of military format like in Breetai's own clan fleet (though most of the regulations and rules were admittedly common sense things, and he did have a set and flexible chain of command coming down to his lowliest Reguld corps), but simply 'the admiral says'.

This admiral was cut from much the same cloth, but that did not matter when it came to facing Dolza. All his usual insouciance, his confidence and arrogance was gone now, replaced by a near-mindless fear of being in The Leader's presence. This was the first time Restuc had been ordered to report to the leader in person, and the fear was almost enough to stop him in his tracks.

The name of Dolza was synonymous with terror even among the ruling caste of the Zentraedi, and despite being relatively old for a Zentraedi he wasn't even close to being as old as Breetai (or Exedore) and had none of his willpower, so was unable to fight off the effects. Indoctrination was a very strong thing, and in a way the aura of fear Dolza that every Zentraedi associated with Dolza, something which was greatly magnified in his presence, was just as important to the Robotech Masters control over their 'creations' as controlling the means of production.

Of course Retsuc would never allow his own subordinates to realize this so he had entered the fortress of Dolza alone without any of the retinue his station should have given him.

He walked into the meeting room, and was surprised to find Dolza alone there. The Leader was even more massive in person, wide of girth and taller than any Zentraedi by far save Breetai, who he topped by a head. The size of him only heightened the awe and fear Restuc felt, and he fought an urge to go to his knees in deference.

Dolza stared at him and in a commanding voice that could not be disobeyed said, "Sit." The admiral sat down in the chair indicated. A moment later, as the Leader simply stood there Restuc felt movement behind him, a sudden touch of something against the back of his head, and for the next 10 min. he lost track of time.

Modifying memoires was no great feat for the masters of course. Breetai and his whole generation, of which he, Dolza (in a way) and Exedore were the only survivors, had their memories modified several times during the Masters campaigns against their own people and Zor. No, the trick was to do it in such a way that no-one but Dolza was aware of it. This room was designed not only for meetings with his admirals but also for this purpose and it had several secret chambers containing the devices which did the actual work. They were activated at Dolza's mental command and were preprogrammed from afar by the masters themselves.

The next Restuc knew Dolza was wrapping up a presentation his words merging with a prepared memory seamlessly. "Because you have a knowledge of the inner workings of the space fortress you have been chosen to see if you can figure out what is going on. You may work with the females, but do not contact them unless you feel you must. Under no circumstances are you to contact the Micronians or even be in their presence. Board the ship, find out how its creating these strange emissions they reported, and then reclaim it for our people. Other than taking the ship intact anything else you do is at your discretion."

The admiral smiled wickedly. A chance to one up both Breetai and the Meltraedi was not to be missed. "Your will be done my Lord," he said and a few minutes later left the room with his brain full of knowledge it hadn't had when he walked in. The schematic of the space fortress (or at least what the Masters thought it looked like going by their own ship interiors) was as well known to him now as the back of his hand, as was the stellar coordinates for the star system where it had been found.

A moment later, his nearly full strength 7th skirmish fleet folded out of the massive fortress, destination, Sol.

OOOOPresent DayOOO

Lisa grimaced a little as she bent over to inspect the open panel on the side of the new gun controls for one of the new interior defense guns. Despite her new rank she was still executive officer of the space fortress, which meant she had to verify and sign off on all of refurbishments. This aspect was never an issue for her before they arrived back on Earth of course simply because no one had time for paperwork beyond the bare minimum and because the maintenance section was so overworked battle damage took precedent, and even there as long as the work was done that all that they could afford. Interior redesigns had been a pipe dream, and the idea of signing off on them even more so.

Despite this she had been looking forward to this final walk-through of the changes made to the inside of the fortress because she helped design it. The space fortress now had an additional section right under the outer hall designed specifically to repel boarding actions and in many sections of the ship the defense in depth went far deeper than that. Automated gun turrets, security sections, built-in bunkers for troops with heavy weapons emplaced there, all of it were things she and the general had worked on together to make as deadly as possible for any Zentraedi assault. A human one that didn't use mechanized infantry could actually bypass it, but that was part of the plan too, allowing human troops to circle and engulf any attacking forces from multiple sides and move to the defense of one area or another uncontested.

Thus she would've been greatly enjoying the experience if it she wasn't sore as hell. She had the morning off today as well as all last night in preparation for this survey, which she knew would take days straight through. She'd be lucky to get a few hours off to sleep until they were done.

This had caused her to go overboard a little and simply stay in bed with Ranma for the entire time. The fact that Ranma simply refused to go down, as it were, had spurred her on to greater and more acrobatic heights, and by the time she was due to start her shift she was badly sore and walking a little bowlegged. Of course you couldn't remove the smile on her face with surgery, but that was beside the point.

"This looks good chief," she said and ignored the man's little smirk which he couldn't quite hide no matter how professional he was as she grimaced again and walked off waddling a little. "Let's move on."

The space fortress was nearly ready to go back to war.

OOOOOOOOOOO

By the time Ranma and Miriya were back in areas that had more human traffic Ranma was almost back to normal or at least what he had been before their spar/battle and Miriya was scowling angrily, still physically exhausted, her muscles twitching and her bruises acting up. Even with her healing speed she needed rest to recover from something like that.

In actuality, Ranma had been fighting at Miriya's level because of extenuating circumstances, not that he was complaining then or now, but it had been at the expense of quite a lot of his normal energy. This was in fact the first time that he had realized that his martial arts endurance was effected by his sexual escapades, but he wasn't about to give up on that aspect of his relationship with his ladies. His time with Lisa and Kasumi in all forms was far too precious for him to even think of that. Then too he had chosen not to use his ki attacks. In fact he didn't use his ki at all except to heighten his Amaguriken punches and kicks which Miriya had kept up with.

Not that this in any way took away from Miriya's performance in his eyes, nor his own enjoyment of their spar. For someone who had not trained specifically in hand-to-hand combat she had done magnificently. That coupled with the fact that she had been able to learn how to navigate his special training area in a single day and fight him in the air against him was enough to impress him. She had already won his respect in their battles before this, but he was still coming to grips with how much alike they truly were.

"Where are you taking us?" Miriya asked as she finished her third bottle of water. Her body was utterly decimated from the unusual activity, she had pushed well beyond what she should have but by all of space it had been glorious! She had learned more in that single battle then in all of her studies of hand-to-hand combat for this, and it was easy to see how she could use that knowledge in her Queadluun Rau.

"We're going to go over to my apartment actually. Kasumi should be done at the grand opening by this point, and I bet she'll have cooked something." Busy as she was Kasumi always enjoyed cooking for their little family, just never in the mornings. To Kasumi sleeping in was the ultimate luxury, something that she had never been able to do since her mother had passed away. Cooking on the other hand was something she always enjoyed especially for people who made her feel as appreciated as Ranma and Lisa did. Nodoka joined them sometimes but she had moved into Henri's apartment a few weeks ago on a permanent basis.

Miriya frowned a little but shrugged. At this point she was simply drifting a little, not really knowing what she should do. All of her life she had known that losing equaled death. To be the best, to be the greatest power-suit operator, to be the greatest warrior of her people was her purpose, the driving engine that made her soul go. Now she had met someone who had the same outlook on life, and the sense of camaraderie and shared purpose she got from Ranma was something altogether new.

Her fellow Meltraedi respected her, some even liked her a little, but this easy going friendship that she had formed so swiftly with Ranma was something altogether new. It was beyond surprising that she had found someone from an entirely different race that she could connect so well with. At this point she was willing to go along with anything he said because he trusted her enough not to turn her in, and she in turn trusted him not to steer her wrong.

About 30 minutes later they had slowly traversed the innards of the space fortress to his apartment, their speed controlled by how badly Miriya was banged up. She didn't think she had any broken bones, she was simply a walking mass of pain at the moment, and was grateful that Ranma had simply altered his speed to match hers rather than comment on it, keeping her attention by asking about some of the moves she had pulled off in their spar and giving her a few suggestion on how to put more power or speed into her kicks and punches.

He opened the door to his apartment walking in and motioning Miriya to follow him. "Hey Kasumi, did you have fun today?"

Kasumi looked up from slicing a daikon radish for a serving of takuan, putting her knife down and turning with a wide smile on her face that dimmed only slightly as she saw that Ranma was not alone. "Yes Ran-koi," she said laughing a little, "I enjoyed it immensely." She giggled again as Ranma reached forward and picked her into a hug, wrapping her own arms around his head for a moment then turned to the woman that had followed him in. "Who is this?"

Miriya looked at the woman before her, noting how beautiful she was, the smile on her face, and the set of her jaw and her body underneath the baggy skirt she was wearing. Ranma waved a hand at her and said, "Kasumi this is Miriya Parina. She's been my opponent for a while if you know what I mean."

After a few seconds the brunette's eyes widened in surprise then she smiled a little and held out her hands in welcome. "It's very nice to meet you. Back where we used to live Ranma really didn't have that good a relationship with his rivals and it's nice to see that he's made friends."

Ranma shook his head amusedly. How Kasumi sometimes looked at the world was very strange to him at times, but at the same time it was heartening too. If more people were like Kasumi there probably wouldn't be as many problems in the universe, he thought fondly.

Miriya gaped at Kasumi for a moment then shook her head and chuckled a little. She too reached out her hands and grasp the other woman's forearm firmly. "It's nice to meet you as well I suppose," she said, still chuckling a little. Then she turned to Ranma and nodded toward Kasumi. "I like her."

Kasumi blushed a little and Ranma put one arm around her shoulders squeezing her affectionately. "I like her too."

Kasumi turned away blushing even more now, moving to continue making dinner, motioning Miriya over to the shower with one hand. "I can tell Ranma worked you over quite a bit dear. The shower is over there, make yourself comfortable for a bit. Dinner should be ready in about an hour."

Miriya nodded and moved into the bathing area and was astonished at how it looked. Bathing areas was a necessity among the Meltraedi, but it was always done with cold water and very quickly, since water was always a limited resource. This room looked far more clean fancier than anything she had ever seen.

Ranma followed her in momentarily, pointing out which was the shampoo, which was the soap and everything else. Miriya immediately began stripping before Ranma could even leave and he gasped a little then shot out the door blushing. Just because he was used to seeing Kasumi and Lisa without clothing didn't mean he was so used to seeing other women like that.

Miriya cocked her head wondering at the strange reaction but shrugged it off. She wondered what the huge tub thing was, Ranma having not realized she wouldn't know. She twisted one of the wate taps over it and was astonished to see that water went into the tub-like thing. She ascertained the use of it immediately, and shook her head at the luxury of having water that you could simply loll about in.

She immediately hopped in, luxuriating in the new sensation. A few moments later Miriya was interrupted at one point by Ranma opening the door a crack and pushing in some of his/her clothing, telling Miriya that she could wear them.

After 30 minutes Miriya noticed that her skin was pruning for some reason, and she reluctantly got out of the tub. She moved over to the pile of clothing that Ranma had dropped off smiling appreciatively at the feel of it. Most of the clothing the Meltraedi used was coarse no matter how they tried to change it. Even now this was still true as they hadn't yet stolen enough Micronian fabrics to make uniforms from it, only able to copy the styles and cuts of them. But this felt smooth and soft under her skin.

Miriya joined her two hosts at the dinner table looking quizzically at the food. While she had tried a few of the delicacies since arriving aboard ship she had not seen any Japanese cuisine like this, and the chopsticks completely baffled her. Luckily Kasumi had thought of this and laid out a fork and a spoon as well. After seeing what the other two were doing she hesitantly tucked into the food, then smiled a little as the taste hit her.

The conversation was stilted at first as Miriya concentrated most of her attention on taking as much food aboard as she could. However she learned about Ranma's childhood, about how they the two of them had met though the idea of this marriage stuff and all that went with it went right over her head. In fact she didn't really understand a lot of it though the idea of a training journey she could comprehend easily enough. She equated it to simply going off on a ship entirely devoted to training, something that really should have occurred to the Meltraedi at some point but hadn't.

To this she replied that the Meltraedi were simply thrown into battle as soon as they arrived within the fleet. The Meltraedi were used as shock troops, sent where they were most needed and where the fire was hottest. It made for a harsh life, and a short one. The losses were always severe among new inductees, and it sometimes was only luck that saw any one Meltraedi through their first campaign, though after that the settled down.

She then went on to describe the questions that had begun to circulate around the fleet, and why her Admiral had let her go, though she didn't go into detail.

Halfway through this Lisa had come in and had not been nearly as welcoming to a Meltraedi at her table as Ranma or Kasumi once it was explained to her. However she was willing to trust Ranma when he said that she would eventually be informing the high command of her presence, something that a few months ago wouldn't have happened.

Miriya for her part had been a little leery of the officer when she was introduced, but soon got over it. Kasumi's gentle nature and her welcoming presence had completely disarmed her. Miriya had never met anyone quite like Kasumi, though, Commodore Delmera had something of the same personality, though she was less kind and more cheerful and almost bubbly. The fact that Lisa seemed to calm down after a bit helped immensely too.

Lisa also felt that learning about the Meltraedi from a Meltraedi in a setting like this was a intelligence coup that couldn't be overlooked. After a little while Lisa found herself feeling rather sorry for the Meltraedi. Everything she took for granted, society, movies/music, food, clothing, they didn't have anything like it. All they were taught was war, all they knew was combat, and there was very little in the way of let up.

She did learn several interesting items however. The skirmish fleets were used primarily as scouts, continually clashing with their Invid counterparts along the front and scouting around the edges of Zentraedi held territory, expanding their area of control by finding and subjugating other species or wiping them out. Is was unfortunately mostly the latter, since the Zentraedi had no use for other races. The Meltraedi were constantly being thrown into the toughest fights, and the main fleets continually clashed with a few subjugated races that had achieved space flight and escaped instant annihilation or the Invid's main forces.

It was a harsh life, a life that Lisa didn't think had any real purpose. Not once did Miriya describe a city or a home planet or indeed any planets as part of the Zentraedi empire. There was only the fleet and the area it controlled, another data point that pointed to the giants having been created as a warrior race to defend someone else.

Lisa leaned back a little thoughtfully staring off into space. "So you have no idea who designed your race do you?" she asked, though speaking mostly to herself.

Miriya looked up sharply at that. "What do you mean designed? The theory among the fleet is that Dolza did this to us somehow."

Lisa looked at Miriya then over at Ranma who was frowning at her. "I guess Ranma hasn't told you?" Ranma shrugged, not having found a way to bring it up.

Lisa shrugged than went for a blunt delivery. "We found out recently through what we call the biological sciences, which is the study of living things, that you and your race have been reproducing yourselves via cloning. It has a lot of long-term ramifications, but most of them have to do with the brain, how much higher thought processes you can do, your ability to think ahead and so on as well as something called cellular degradation. We'll probably have to ask you over to a lab at some point, though I'm certain if there is anything wrong we could figure out a way to fix it."

Ranma nodded emphatic agreement to that. He didn't want anything happen to his new friend. Finding someone that shared his desire to be the best that wasn't crazy or had a stupid vendetta against him was a find that he wasn't going to let go of anytime soon.

Kasumi adroitly changed the subject to asking about what the Meltraedi thought about human fashions and clothing, and while that hadn't interested Miriya so much what did was the human food and the response to that among the Meltraedi had the others at the table laughing aloud and promising to introduce her to as many new foods as she wanted.

The night passed uneventfully after that as the trio got to know Miriya and vice-versa. Later the green-haired warrior woman would collapse on their bean bags into the best sleep she had ever had. In days to come she would slowly but surely become a permanent fixture in their apartment and their lives.

OOOOOOOO

Roy looked up from his paper work, writing up a new ROE for the Valkyrie wing to explain the reasons to incorporate at least one, possibly as much as three of the VF-1J GBP 1S Armored Type, when someone knocked on the front door of his brand new apartment, the one he and Claudia had moved into together. Claudia was at this moment cooking them something from the smell of it, but she had already moved to answer the door before he could move. He got up, wincing only a little when his leg took his weight. His thigh and his other wounds were nearly healed now, and he would soon be fit for duty.

Mark Prescott stood there, smiling faintly at Claudia and then at Roy when he walked up. "Am I interrupting something, I can come back later sir."

"No sirs here man, I'm not acting CAG at the moment. Even if I was, you were CAG at that UN base outside Goa and you'd have seniority on me." Roy grinned.

Shrugging Mark followed Roy into the apartment proper, then sitting down in the chair Roy indicated. The blonde commander looked over his table at the man, smiling a little sadly at how Marcus looked like Scott, more bulky in the shoulders, not as quick looking, but the family resemblance was astonishing to anyone who had met both men. "Your message said you had some questions to ask me?"

Mark nodded. "Well, commander Sugita said he wanted me to take over from him but I don't think you want me to do that."

Roy laughed a little. "Hah, he's still trying to get out of it, funny. No, I'll take over from him when I'm cleared for duty, but he'll stay on as CAG until then. He might not know it, but he'll eventually be pumped up to CAG permanently either abroad the Macross or one of the new carriers. Probably aboard the Macross, it'll always be at the front of the battle. This just gives him some valuable experience with it before he's really asked to step up."

His guest nodded understanding but at the same time moved on to why he was really here. "Well I can understand your reasons there, but I've noticed how, well how un-military Sugita and the other pilots who originated aboard are. I've seen dozens of things since boarding that would warrant disciplinary action among the pilots, and there just doesn't seem to be any of the spit and polish I'd expect from a well run unit. I was just wondering if that was Ranma's influence or something else. I and my squad and the others are having trouble integrating into them, and they aren't making it easy. There's a distinct sense that those of us who have come aboard since you got back haven't earned our wings yet, even those of us who were veterans. In a way I can understand it, but…."

Roy nodded, leaning back a little. "What we have here is a clash between a soldier mentality and that of a warrior mentality. What we have aboard is a warrior mentality, and I'm glad it developed. Soldiers follow orders, only officers having any kind of initiative. If you don't have initiative or the ability to think for yourself in a fight against the aliens you die."

"You have to understand, the aliens don't attack like humans, they don't fly formations or stick to their wingman, they come at you like a gigantic mob, and the only way to meet them is to mix their tactics with teamwork. Individual ability matters a lot more in the kind of melee that develops when we're attacked. You need to have a warrior mentality, the kind that can stand and hold and fight whatever happens, warriors who won't break and run, will keep working with their groups, uncaring of the time passed. Soldiers aren't really mentally tough enough to do that, not normal pilots, not these days. I guess you could consider it the difference between a regular army unit and Spec. Ops troops or marines. We let our pilots do their own thing as long as they don't use drugs or anything truly bad and show up in the fights. Also you have to understand so many people, so damn fast, we never had enough veterans around to truly instill spit and polish military discipline."

His eyes narrowed as he went on. "And you aren't veterans, that much is true." He held up a hand as Mark made to speak. "Before the aliens came I was an ace three times over, a veteran of over a dozen skirmishes against anti-unification forces. In the first clash against the Zentraedi, before we left Earth, my kill total was doubled."

Mark winced a little and Roy smirked, though there was no humor in the expression. "I know that Ranma has tried to pound it into your heads, but the numbers of the aliens, even in a skirmish, are just scary as hell. Fighting those kinds of numbers calls for a different mentality. And the fights, a normal air fight against humans goes for at most an hour from the time you launch. Like Ranma told you, fights against the aliens keep going as long as they wish to throw in troops, and we'll run out of bullets and bodies long before they do if they ever just decide to overwhelm us in one go. None of the troops who have gone through one of those fights, especially against the god-damned Gargoyles, will see any of you as anything more than green recruits who need someone looking after you."

Mark leaned back, frowning heavily. Hearing those words from Roy, a veteran and someone he had known before the Zentraedi showed up, made them sink in where they hadn't spoken by Ranma. Despite his admitted charisma and personal skill Sugita had still only been in the navy for a little under two years. That was barely enough time-in-grade to be a Lieutenant, let alone a commander, and far less a CAG. But if Roy was saying the same thing, well he had to believe it. "So, endurance and personal ability?"

Roy nodded, "Those and the mentality to keep fighting for long periods of time. You'll understand once you're aboard for a time. For now, just trust that everything I've set up and that Ranma is doing has a point to it." Mark frowned even more, but nodded, willing to wait and see, and with that the conversation turned to other topics.

OOOOOOOO

"I don't know how it does it," said Cologne patiently, a patience she was actually far from feeling as the young upstart that Dr. Lang had assigned to be their assistant for this endeavor questioned her yet again on the nature of the plant. "We are trying to figure that out now, that is the point of science yes? Answering the questions to find the answers not just asking them to hear oneself speak!"

Chastened the man shut up and went back to his scanning device, running it again along the wall nearest the crystalline structure that held the vine, frowning as yet again he couldn't find anything different there than anywhere else in the ship.

Cologne went back inside the makeshift maintenance tunnel, watching as Dr. Lang very, very carefully used a plasma cutter to slice into the crystalline structure containing the strange vine that was giving off so much ki near where it connected to one of the pipes walls. In his ear he was connected to the chief engineer of the engine room who was monitoring his devices to tell them if anything changed in terms of energy output, heat or anything else he could monitor.

The moment he tried to cut into the crystal structure however he stopped as the plasma arc disappeared as if it had been sucked away.

The engineer got in touch with him at the same time. "Sir we just got a small spike in output and quark readings somehow."

Lang looked down in shock at his plasma torch and pulled away and the plasma beam appeared. Again he tried to push it in to the crystal structure only for it to be sucked away somehow, and the engineer called him again, sounding a little more worried this time. Lang shook his head and very gently extended a single finger to touch the area he had attempted to cut into. The crystal, and if it really was some kind of crystal as humans generally understood the term he would eat his personal computer, was cold to the touch, almost sucking the warmth of his hand away.

Cologne reached out with a swift hand pulling his hand away. "It was sucking your ki away Emil," she said, now staring at the thing warily.

Lang nodded to her in thanks and the two backed away slightly. "It would appear," he said dryly, "that this crystalline structure around the plant is somehow siphoning off energy."

Cologne shook her head. "If that thing is some kind of energy buffer between the vine and the rest of the ship that's astonishing because I'm still getting an extremely powerful feeling off it." The young man outside the cut tunnel shouted emphatic agreement to that, though it had been washed out by the space fortresses general background up to now. Now that they had figured out how to isolate it, the power coming off this pipe was obvious.

Dr. Lang nodded then shook out a scanner like the young man's only smaller, and ran it over vine structure. Happily as he didn't touch it to the crystal its energy wasn't drained and his system was able to analyze it a bit after which the two of them backed out of the piping.

"We'll have to figure out some other way of analyzing it," said Dr. Lang shaking his head. "I honestly don't think we'll get through that crystalline structure unless you know something I don't, some cutting technique perhaps?"

Cologne shook her head. She knew that Ranma's vacuum blade technique would probably work, but there was no way it could be used to just cut the crystal away. It would cut the plant and probably quite a bit of bulkhead away too. "No, sorry, I don't know any technique I could use to do it, not without damaging the engine anyway."

With that the two of them and his assistant made their way back to his laboratory, which had taken over yet another block of the city since Cologne and the think tank had come abroad. Most of those scientists had returned to their home fleets/forces/countries but several had stayed behind, and several dozen post-grad students had come aboard in their place, eager to come to grips with the new research being created here. A mixed blessing to the older set to be sure, but in the main a good thing.

Within moments of their return Lang had an energy analyzer trying to figure out as much as they could about the energy the plant was giving off. Cologne went over to a computer that connected to the interior sensors of the ship and ran it looking for instances of the same energy, wondering how far the energy from the plant thing spread throughout the ship of even if there were other examples of the plant somewhere else aboard.

A minute later, Cologne interrupted Lang and the two of them stared at the readings the computer was showing in surprise. For indeed there was another plant aboard, and it was sending off energy throughout the entire ship from a central location about dead center of the main hull of the ship. "Now the question becomes," said the good doctor thoughtfully looking at a schematic that he popped up right next to the readings, "should we try and hunt this plant down first or figure out what these energy readings actually mean before we mess with it?"

"They must not be dangerous to life at least," replied Cologne thoughtfully. "Else none of you would still be alive after all. It acts almost like ki, but strangely." Almost on a higher order, like the next step to ki somehow, she thought to herself, though she would be unable to explain why she felt that save to another ki master.

Ranma alas for all his truly monstrous and still growing strength wasn't a true ki master. What he did he did through trial and error and sudden instincts developed in battle, not through study and careful learning.

"I wonder what would happen if you mix ki with it?"

"I think we've already had the answer to that one," said Cologne dryly. "Ranma's little Valkyrie and what happened to it could be an example."

"Fascinating," Lang said rubbing his hands together gleefully, nearly vibrating in place. "I have one other project I want to finish, but after that I am going to turn all of my other research and ongoing duties to the others. Then you and I are going to hunt this thing down and figure out as much as we can about it. I get the feeling it could be the key to a whole new field of study."

Cologne nodded agreement, though a part of her was wondering why the thought of Pandora and her cursed box had popped into her mind just then.

OOOOOOOOOO

The next day Ranma took Miriya around the ship to introduce her to her friends. Unfortunately Ranma's time in female form had once again built up, and he had woken up that morning with a severe amount irritation and emotional turmoil, which was the only thing that carried over between forms. Deciding to get it over with he had transformed into his female form almost immediately and had been in that form since. Miriya had thankfully taken it in stride, merely nodding at seeing the transformation again, though she didn't follow the whole 'that time of the month' thing.

His first stop of course was the White Dragon, where Minmei was still working as a waitress, primarily because it let her spend time with her family.

Minmei's movie career had never really gotten off the ground. Ranma had refused to play the part of the lead in the movie created to try and show in a less factual way what had happened to the Macross during its trip back to Earth. He had felt that his duties as CAG and as Wildfire commander did not allow him enough time to be a movie star at the same time and he was very correct about that, but that was only the first of several problems.

The movie didn't have any investors most of the ones who had backed the Miss Macross contest having fled from the ship as soon as they could, they didn't have any experienced crews, and very few experienced actors. Kyle had tried to volunteer to be the male lead solving one problem, and had in fact done pretty well right up until Minmei saw the entire script and realized she would have to have a kissing scene with him. She had lately figured out his liking for her was a bit too much coming from a family member and refused to feed it in any way. This coupled with the other problems had given her the opportunity to back away.

She made the excuse of wanting to concentrate on her music career, and the studio had backed off when her boss had gotten behind the idea and pushed. Despite the fact that her celebrity status aboard ship had diminished greatly with the changeover of the civilian population she was still widely lauded as a singer aboard ship and was Mr. Deray's best talent since he had sold off all his off-ship holdings, pouring money into the rebuilding of the city.

She still got on great with practically everyone, and was seen as sort of the city's darling, almost as much as Kasumi was, which was helped by the fact Kasumi she was openly in a relationship with Lisa and Ranma, something that sort of took away from her status as an idol. It was known that Minmei was going with Rick there wasn't so much of a sense of permanence as there was with Kasumi's relationship. For some reason the public at large liked to think that their idols were virginal, and while Kasumi didn't make a point of it she was not a virgin and didn't care to be seen as such. With Minmei they could at least pretend.

"Ranma!" Minmei exclaimed as the redhead walked into the restaurant, rushing forward and hugging her before spouting questions as fast as she could. "How are you doing? Why are you in your female form? You haven't come by lately, have you been busy with navy stuff, how's Motoko and the other's doing, and who is this?"

Ranma shook his head laughing a little at her machinegun chatter. "In order I'm fine, I'm in female form because it's that time of the month and my time in this form added up again, the duties of the CAG have been keeping me busy, Motoko and the others are fine, Max has his own command now, and this is Miriya Parina. She's a newcomer aboard and I'm showin' her 'round and introducing her ta people."

Minmei raised an eyebrow at that, as Ranma wasn't the sort to ever be asked to do something like that. She figured there was probably something more to the story but knew she'd learn about it eventually. She held out her hand smiling in welcome, "How do you do?"

"I am fine I suppose," said Miriya bemused at the odd greeting before moving onto more important things. "Are you the same Minmei that made such amazing songs?"

Minmei blushed a little. "Um,I-I wouldn't call them amazing or anything I just like to sing that's all." This showed the humility that was one of the reasons she was so popular, she simply liked sharing her voice with others, that was it.

Miriya's eyebrows rose a bit at that. The reaction Minmei and Ranma's songs got among the humans and among the Meltraedi was well known, if not well understood. "I think you're selling yourself short," she said, a phrase she had learned first from the spies and then her interaction with humans and their strange 'economy'. "Your songs inspire feelings in those who hear them, even in those who are unused to such."

Minmei blushed further poking her fingers together and Ranma grinned a little. The two of them stayed there and talked with Minmei for a bit, catching up.

They would have stayed longer since Miriya found the singer a little fascinating to talk to considering the effect her songs had on the Meltraedi who heard them if Kyle hadn't come out of the kitchen and butted in. "Minmei who are your friends?" He asked, moving over and trying to place one arm around her shoulders. He had been doing this more and more lately, trying to mark his territory in no uncertain terms. He had even been doing it around Rick, and a confrontation was fast approaching between the two of them.

Minmei however wasn't having any of it and moved over to put Ranma between the two of them much like she would Rick if he was there.

Kyle on the other hand didn't seem too put out by this at least not outwardly and bowed grandly reaching for the redhead's hand, "and who may this lovely flower be?" Since Minmei hadn't been returning his advances he thought maybe if he got her jealous somehow she would open up to him more. The idea she just wasn't interested in her cousin like that didn't enter his mind.

"I'm Ranma," the redhead said coldly, "We've met."

Kyle looked up at her in disbelief. "Surely not, I would remember meeting you I'm certain, though you do have the same name as that other Ranma are you two related? And who is your friend?"

Ranma shook her head not really wanting to deal with this right now. "Minmei I'll see you later okay?" The two ace pilots walked out leaving a chuckling Minmei and a bemused Kyle.

"What an odd and fit yet strangely irritating man," Miriya said shaking her head. She didn't know why yet the moment Kyle introduced himself she wanted to slap him. That's another thing, why would I want to slap him when I could simply punch his head off his shoulders?

Ranma nodded, "He is that, I'm surprised he's still abroad ship actually, but I ain't in a position to do much about him unfortunately."

Their next stop went much better. The Amazons did their own thing while the rest of the Academy students were doing their Phys Ed course, which had replaced several other drills to instill in the cadets the endurance necessary to pilot/operate their machines for longer lengths of time. Gone was the day where cadets would need to figure out to march in step or strip a rifle in the field, replaced by martial arts training and endurance running and g-force training.

The Amazons already had endurance in plenty, and rather than force them to come along and show up the other cadets they could be found sparring with one another and anyone else who wanted try in the little park next to the Academy. It had become something of a attraction at first, but the commandant of the Academy had put his foot down and that little park next to the Academy was once more closed to the public. The park in the central city had grown over the past few months so the civilians didn't put up much of a fuss.

Miriya enjoyed the martial fervor going on around her as she followed Ranma, nodding occasionally in passing to a pair of the fighting women. This group was much more to her liking than the normal civilians she had been seeing lately. While she understood the point of having civilians to provide goods and services now, she was not a civilian, and could never be one. Her worldview had been expanded tremendously since that first time she saw Ranma's exercise program, but she was still a warrior at heart.

The Amazons too looked at her with speculation. While they had been introduced to most of the other martial artists aboard ship this one was new, and infinitely more dangerous than all save the redhead next to her. Those of them that could sense ki, most of the blooded warriors and a few of the maidens, could tell that this warrior had far more ki than any of them. Indeed she was radiating only a bit less than Elder Cologne. That was startling to all of them, unused to the idea of foreign martial artists that were better than them even now, let alone foreign women who are better than them.

"Hey Shampoo," said Ranma waving as Shampoo finished off one of her opponents.

She signaled to the others to stop and looked over at him quizzically. "Nihao Ranma, who is this?" She looked over at the newcomer, and bristled a little internally. Not only was she standing a little closer to Ranma than Shampoo really liked, but she was obviously a warrior. It was bad enough that Ranma was already in a relationship with Kasumi and Lisa, she still hadn't come up with a solution for that one but she didn't want someone else to come in and interfere, especially another warrior. The fact Lisa was a warrior in her own way was something Shampoo hadn't come to grips with yet.

"This is Miriya, she's one of the Meltraedi. Apparently they're the ones that pilot the Gargoyles, though they call 'em something else."

Miriya shook her head bemusedly, surprised by how open Ranma was about her other-worldly status.

Shampoo's eyes narrowed a little than widened. "The aliens are all women?!"

That caused some muttering among the Amazons around them, though whether it was approving or disapproving Ranma couldn't say, but Miriya swiftly shook her head scornfully. "No," she said spitting out the word and then actually spitting to the side. "We are Meltraedi we are the finest. We are all female yes, but we are a small portion of the Zentraedi, the stupid useless males. We are the shock troops, the assault force, the elite, do not compare us to them!"

It wasn't just because of their machines that this was the case. Since the Masters had made them the way they were the Meltraedi had a higher survival rate than the Zentraedi, which segued into experience and made them even deadlier than their power suits being better than the Regulds. One out of every hundred Meltraedi survived their first combat, and their survivability went up afterwards, though this was sometimes offset by the fact the Meltraedi were thrown into the toughest fights. The fleet also used a limited meritocracy, allowing survivors to move to higher positions of authority, even up to becoming ship captains, though no higher. It made for a tight-knit, well trained and experienced fleet, able to pass on the tricks and concepts needed to survive even after the most brutal campaigns. Of course if the masters had realized any of this they would have stopped it somehow, but they only saw the total numbers of the Meltraedi, and so dubbed them insignificant.

On the other hand, though only the Masters had realized this, only one of out of every ten thousand Zentraedi survived their first battle, and if they were among the Reguld users their survivability did not go up afterwards. There was no upward movement in the Zentraedi forces, you were either an officer or you weren't and you remained in you station until you died. Even among officers there was no movement from ship to ship or from command to higher command. The only fleet that allowed movement like that was Breetai's, and he had been amply rewarded in having most of his fleet survive time and time again battles that other main fleets would've been mauled in. This the Masters had seen, but they did not understand it, only that their most dangerous sword was becoming sharper, and had begun to rightly fear its turning on them.

Miriya's statement made all the Amazons smile appreciatively. The idea that females were superior to males coincided with their own beliefs after all. "So what are you doing aboard this ship? Is there some kind of peace talk going on?" said one of them, an older warrior with a scar running down one side of her head and touching her neck before disappearing under her shirt.

"Eventually there will be," Miriya replied, shrugging unconcernedly. "But my reasons for being aboard have little to do with that, I came aboard this ship to challenge Ranma personally."

"She was the ace I've been fighting on and off," said Ranma in explanation. "She's good with her hands too, gave me a damn decent workout for a few hours yesterday evening."

Shampoo's eyes narrowed dramatically at that. He never says that about me! She tried to keep her voice level but it came out bitingly almost angrily. "Oh really, you weren't just going easy on her?"

Ranma shrugged, scratching his pigtail embarrassed. "The only thing I didn't use on her was my ki attacks, without them she was able ta keep up and give me run for my money." He didn't mention the fact that he had already been rather physically exhausted, the reasons behind that were not something he was going to share with anyone.

Miriya however had bristled at the assumption that Ranma had gone easy on her, just like her interlocutor had intended. "Perhaps Shampoo would like a demonstration of how good I am?" she said staring the younger girl down.

Shampoo nodded a little grimly. "Shampoo like that very much." She gestured to a makeshift ring on the ground and moved to one end then took a stance.

Ranma shrugged and backed off, though inwardly he was hoping Miriya didn't bang up Shampoo too badly. The other amazons crowded around, cheering their champion on.

The two women circled one another for a moment, analyzing one another's stance and then suddenly charged towards one another.

Shampoo learned quickly what it meant to face someone who was faster than her. Miriya wasn't quite as fast as Ranma and nowhere near as flexible as he was in his female form, but she was fast enough normally to nearly keep up with the Amaguriken attack, one of the staples of Amazon combat at this level. Shampoo was more mobile, but Miriya simply stood her ground blocking everything that came at her and counterattacked whenever she could.

Soon enough Shampoo made a mistake, overextending just slightly, and Miriya grabbed her wrist in a grip of steel bringing her in for a combo of elbow and forearm blows that set the younger girl down on the ground wiping at her mouth to clear away the blood and shaking her head groggily.

Miriya lowered her fist from where it had struck her opponent in the temple and smiled. "What do you think now?"

Shampoo looked up at her than out around at the other Amazons who were whispering excitedly. "I think you fit right in here." She said smiling a little as she got to her feet. "How you feel about armed combat?"

Miriya shrugged her shoulders. "Haven't tried it yet honestly. If you have some weapons I can try I would appreciate it. It would be interesting to see how that works in my Queadluun Rau."

With that the other maidens clustered around trying to explain which of their weapons was better and why while the blooded warriors simply waited to test their own strength against the newcomer. Miriya laughed and agreed to try them all out, whereupon everyone lined up happy to face off against a new opponent.

Miriya grinned shaking her head and throwing her green hair back to tie into place with a leather braid that Kasumi had given her that morning, her blood rising a little at facing these girls. "I think I'll be fine here on my own Ranma," she said smirking a little. "Stop by a little later and you can keep showing me around."

Ranma chuckled a little then patted her on her shoulder and walked off, leaving Miriya among the Amazons. Cologne would later join them, and finding the newcomer among her women would be amused and then astonished at her origins. That particular conversation, as well as Miriya's open and honest admiration for her admiral and her explanation of how the Meltraedi fleet really was a different 'society' than the normal Zentraedi, would turn out to be very important down the line. Nodoka too, would find it fascinating, and Motoko, when introduced to her, would curse Ranma yet again for having such a magnificent woman after him and not even realizing it.

OOOOOOOO

Mannstein looked up from his desk at the man standing at attention in front of him. "I must admit to being surprised that your home force allowed you to transfer Captain. I'm pleased to have you, but…"

The man nodded serenely. His voice came out smooth, polished, but at the same time his English (the lingua franca of the UNSF) had a bit of an accent that hinted at his Indian heritage. If another Indian had heard it they would have been able to tell the man was from the area of India called Rajputana. Of course with this man they wouldn't have had to wait for him to speak to realize that. "My home force did indeed try to argue me out of it, but the fact remains that whatever else, this ship and those aboard it will be the tip of the spear for humanity. Myself and my men have been trained to be that spear, and here we will fulfill that duty."

Mannstein smiled, wondering how that conversation had gone, but didn't honestly care. The man was a fantastic resource, and he meant to use him. "Very happy to have you aboard captain. Now, as to your duties…"

OOOOOOOOO

Gloval smiled thinly, not exactly looking forward to what was going to happen when he finished sending in the report he had just finished. The ship was as combat capable as it was going to get outside of running some full combat exercises, and unfortunately that meant they were ready to leave earth. At least this time they would be leaving with a purpose. He knew they were ready, but he found himself hesitating on hitting the send button that would tell the new high command that they were. It was just a feeling, of coming up on a decision that would affect far more than just his ship, far more than even the human race. It was an odd feeling, and he didn't know where it was coming from but it was making him hesitate.

He scowled at himself, shaking his head. Come on Henri, get it together. This is just another operation, just another voyage. The objective may be more important but that is all. He nodded decisively then hit the send button on his screen and leaned back.

Not twenty minutes later Claudia turned to him and said, "Sir, I've got an incoming line from Admiral Prescott."

Henri sighed, but nodded. "Put it through please."

A moment later, Scott Prescott's face appeared on his personal screen. "Admiral, I understand you've just submitted a good to go readiness report?"

Henri nodded. "I can't say I'm happy about it sir, but we're as ready as we're going to get without weeks of war games and training sims, and I understand we don't want to let the aliens remain in position overhead that long." That wasn't even considering the fact that the faster they got it stuck in with the aliens again, the faster fence sitters the world over would have to realize they had to get behind a side and push.

Scott nodded gravely, understanding the point. He had in fact just convinced his wife and his kids to move with him into his flagship (once they retook Moon Base Alpha) in an effort to protect them due to how much of a target Earth was. His wife Clarissa had not been happy about it, but couldn't argue the point. "That is unfortunately true Admiral."

He straightened up formally. "I have already discussed this with my fellows, and your orders are as follows: You are to leave earth within a day and make contact, in a way chosen at your discretion, with the alien fleet and, using their fixation on the space fortress, lead them away from the Earth to give us time to retake our orbitals and move into space. A minimum time for this mission will be three months, but you are to attempt to stay out as long as you possibly can, up to a year if possible. You are also to stay away from Jupiter and its orbit, but beyond that anything goes. A written confirmation of these orders has already been sent to you. Do you understand your orders?"

Henri Gloval, Vice admiral and captain of the Macross nodded heavily, but without any hesitation. "Yes sir, my ship will be leaving within two hours."

Scott nodded. "Very good admiral. Good luck and god speed." His face softened out of its formal lines just a little. "And come back to us, your ship and all those on it are far more important alive than martyred." With that and a final salute he cut the connection, intent on calling his brother and having a last few words with him.

Gloval closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath before looking up at the rest of the bridge crew. All of them were looking back at him save Lisa, having obviously realized what was happening. Lisa however had already begun to prepare the ship for launch and was calmly passing orders down the line to all of the divisions and officers.

Gloval saw this and smiled a little, looking forward to the day when he could pass on full command of the Macross to her, a duty he knew she would perform admirably. "Ladies, the order has been given. Prepare the ship for launch."

OOOOOOOOOO

Anxiety ran high among the civilians and soldiers after captain Gloval's announcement, but he had planned for this and Minmei, and to her annoyance Ranma, had been shanghaied into giving a concert whose songs were relayed throughout the ship. Minmei's songs hearkened to home, to family and love, reminding the individuals who heard them of what they were fighting for.

Ranma's didn't. She stalked out onto the stage (causing thousands of hard-ons despite her utilitarian uniform), her stride challenging and dangerous, something that brought a smile to the face of Miriya in the crowd of Amazons near the front of the stage. "Yo. I don't have ta tell any of ya how important this mission is, how our races future might hinge on it. What I will make ya all remember is we are the elite, the tip of the spear. We faced these bastards for nearly two years and the best they could throw at us, and we not only survived we fucking conquered!" this brought a massive cheer from those who had been on the ship for a time and she went on. "No matter what it costs us, it'll cost them a whole lot more, no matter what happens we will survive and we will conquer! Because we were born to rise!"

With that Ranma segued into her chosen song, and while a few people in the audience found it strange to hear a woman's voice sing that particular song, it hadn't bothered anyone before, and it didn't this time. "So what'd you know about sacrifice when the lights go out? The price to pay when you're digging down, the skin of your teeth and the pain in your back? what'd you know about hope? What'd you know about that? Write it off as criminal, a place to cast a stone, on and on we carry on when one is not enough… We are the ones who were born to rise! We are the ones with the fire inside! I go to war with the brothers I trust and there ain't no stopping us, there ain't no stopping us. We are the ones who will bring the rain! We are the ones who will break the chain! I go to war with the brothers I trust and there ain't no stopping us, there ain't no stopping us!"

In one portion of the audience Miriya stared at her rival/friend, her eyes wide and her body thrumming with the emotions the redhead evoked with her song, finally understanding the power these humans had, and hoping with all her heart that her people could come to see it too, that it would be enough to face the avalanche coming toward them.

In another portion of the audience Mark Prescott stood and stared around him, feeling the emotions of the audience and realizing there was a core of molten steel in the people around him, the kind of fire that would see them through whatever they faced, brought now to the surface by the redhead's song. He finally understood what Roy had been trying to tell him about these people, about these survivors and smiled, looking forward to proving himself worthy to stand among them.

On the bridge Lisa smiled a faint but warm smile at the voice of her lover's female form and stared out into the stars, ready for anything that came at them. In their apartment Kasumi too smiled, seeing in the song the heart and stubborn soul of her love coming out, pushing and demanding others stand beside him in the defense of them all.

OOOOOOOO

The Macross lifted off, its future, and the future of all humanity going with it, and despite everyone's concerns about being attacked immediately, the fleet in position above the planet (or more appropriately the pack, considering the size of the force the Zentraedi called a fleet) actually moved away, keeping out of the path of the Macross. Even once they exited atmosphere the fleet kept its distance, spreading out in a globe encircling the ship.

Gloval frowned as he looked at his radar. The ships surrounding his ship were too far away to be a threat, just at the edge of the Zentraedi's known radar envelope, well within the space fortresses own even before one of the doctors from the think tank had added even more sensors to their 'radar'. He could see well beyond that point, hell he could see about a fifth of the way to Mars (or at least that was what the doctor who had installed it had said) and should be able to tell where the rest of the fleet was, or in this case, wasn't.

Where in the hell did they go? Seventy thousand plus ships don't just disappear, and there is no way I will believe they just left or were assigned elsewhere or something like that, not with the practically mindless way that they've been trying to get their hands on this ship. He thought. No, they're out there somewhere, but why keep at such a distance?

Reluctantly he ordered the ship to quarter power. It would slow their escape from the Earth's gravity well, but they needed to find out where the hell the alien fleet was, and if that meant being a sitting duck for a while longer, then so be it.

OOOOOOOOOO

Sonya smiled a little grimly at the radar screen on the ship she had taken over as her command ship of the pack assigned over the third planet. I wonder what they are up to now. Some kind of reconnaissance, a break from their high command, of some other kind of mission? A decoy perhaps, to allow other ships out of their atmosphere? Could make sense from their position I suppose.

While Azonia had been preparing her fleet for war and controlling the flow of gossip to control public opinion and turn it against Dolza, Sonya had been analyzing the humans and what was going on with them. The resupply of the space fortress was obvious, but what else was going on eluded her for a time.

The human on human combat going on in what was supposedly their most powerful clan/country confused her until she realized she was seeing some kind of power grab, an almost unheard of thing Zentraedi or Meltraedi culture, in which you were an officer or you were not, and no one ever moved from a regular to an officer. Still she could understand if she thought in terms of two admirals being assigned to the same fleet, or two fleets assigned the same mission, which had happened. Of course if Kyron had tried to overthrow or replace or whatever Azonia then his fleet would have died even faster than it did.

Still in those terms it seemed as if one of the leaders didn't want to stand down and, according to the news feeds they had intercepted, didn't want his people to take the fight to space and instead bunker down somehow. Since Sonya had seen what a Meltraedi fleet could do to a planet many times, that idea struck her as moronic in the extreme. You could hide yourself deep underground if you wanted to but what did that matter if the fleet fired enough shots to annihilate all life on the surface and turn the planet into a giant ball of rock? You might survive, but for how long with your atmosphere gone, your biosphere gone, and your planet having lost so much mass it ricocheted out of its orbit around the sun. That last admittedly she had seen only once, but it was still possible.

The whole debate about how best to combat the Meltraedi amused her a little and the peace faction first confused her, and then gave her hope. After all, why in the universe could any humans think a species more powerful and advanced than they are would ever allow them to live in peace? Barter was well known among the Meltraedi long before the influx of human goods, and she knew that you never bargained from a position of weakness, and the humans, whatever the strength of the space fortress and the admittedly amazing Ranma could only be seen as having a position of weakness in comparison to the Meltraedi.

On the other hand, her people had nearly come to the point of realizing how much they were missing, and that they could gain at least a measure of it if they made peace with the humans. That was something that nearly every Meltraedi in the fleet now understood, that somehow their culture, their future, their past had all been taken from them, and a low key, simmering fury had begun to make its way through the fleet. Yet if they really did ally with humans, they would face the might of Dolza and the Zentraedi, a daunting, even frightening thought.

Still Sonya cared not for that, she had long given her allegiance to her lady admiral, to Azonia, her friend above and beyond any loyalty to Dolza or any other concern. She knew her friend had a plan, and she felt it was a good one, but even if she hadn't thought that, she would still have followed it because it was Azonia who had thought of it.

She turned and strode over to the communications pit, nodding at the female stationed there, who immediately connected them to the Knight Dagger. A moment later Sonya saw the face of her friend appear and began to make her report. "Lady Admiral, the space fortress has just broken atmosphere and is heading away from the third planet, its course is unknown at this time. It might simply be trying to get out of the third planet's gravity well, but it might also be trying to draw us off from the planet, as it came out at an angle that takes them away from the quickest route out."

Azonia nodded thoughtfully. "Send me their current trajectory, my pack will fold out in front of them on an angle, I'll be sending the signal as soon as they are within range. Turn over command of the cordon to Wing Leader Angelia, and then get back here. Once we begin negotiations I will have need of your advice. We haven't heard back from Dolza yet, and a response must be coming soon, we need to begin moving."

Her words were professional but the look she sent Sonya told her she needed Sonya with her more for her friendship than advice, to which Sonya nodded and signed off. A moment later her ship backed away from the others and began to move toward the nearest point to escape the Earth's gravity well so it could fold out and rejoin Azonia's portion of the main fleet.

OOOOOOOOOO

The next day Miriya found herself sitting in the incredibly comfortable 'bean bag' in the family's sitting room, though why it was called a 'bean' bag escaped her. She sighed a little, stretching out and wondering what she should be doing. She knew she was waiting for the signal from her admiral to make herself known but what would happen after that?

She also missed having a Queadluun Rau on hand, she really wanted to see what her training the past few days would equate to. She had looked over the specs for the Valkyrie and all of its variants, and even with the SAM Pack installed they didn't quite match up to one of the Meltraedi powersuits. Ranma's was an aberration not the rule, and she looked forward to seeing what she could do to one of the power suits using the same armor strengthening technique among other things.

She looked up from some reading Kasumi had asked her to do (and was it just her or did everyone find Kasumi nearly impossible to say no to?) when Ranma came in, smiling a little. His/her time of the month had passed thankfully, and he was back in his male form for the moment. "Hey Miriya, you free?"

Miriya nodded. "I have some reading Kasumi asked me to do, but honestly the meaning escapes me. Why in the world does she want me to read 'Miraculous Stories from the Japanese Buddhist Tradition' anyway?"

Ranma shrugged. "I think she wants ta broaden your horizons a bit. I wouldn't worry, she'll stop if you tell her you're not interested. She tells me the same thing sometimes, but she knows I'm more of a doer than a reader. So do you want to take a walk?"

Miriya cocked her head. "The way you say that lends that term special meaning. May I ask why?"

Ranma merely grinned.

Minutes later, the duo was at one of the small maintenance hatches leading out onto the hull, both of them dressed in naval spacesuits. After getting permission the two exited the ship and moved out onto the hull.

Miriya gasped aloud with pleasure, looking out into the dark of space at the Earth receding well beyond them, at the stars overhead, and the dark of space spreading before her. "I've seen this view from my sensors more times than I can count, but to see it like this, with nothing between me and space but this thin suit… this is amazing."

Ranma touched her hand gently and Miriya followed him. The two bounded away, eventually making their way forward to the very tip of the main gun's nacelles. There he came to a stop, staring out into space. Miriya took a moment to operate the controls on her suit, activating the magnets in the boots to keep her there.

After a moment Ranma spoke, breaking the silence that had enveloped them since they left the hatch. "Dreams are what drive us sometimes. A man can strive, can work his whole life toward a dream, so much that the line between dream and goal becomes blurred. I had a goal, to be the best damn martial artist I could be, but it was my dream that drove me beyond that. This was my dream, to go to space, to see new planets, to explore. Sometimes I just come out here ta stare at the stars and wonder what else we can find out there."

Miriya sighed sadly. "And my people ruined it for you?"

"No," Said Ranma bluntly. "Your people didn't the assholes who controlled you ruined it for you. For me, fighting is as much a fact of life as breathing. I knew there would be aliens out here nearly from the moment my dream began, and I knew I'd end up fightin' 'em, if it hadn't been you and yours, it would have been someone else. No, I came out here ta talk about my dream because you haven't been allowed ta dream big like that have ya? When was the last time you dreamed about the future, about what you'd like to do with your life beyond the moment?"

Miriya stared at him, then away out into space. "Never, I've never dreamed like that. I don't think my people even have a word for that, that kind of hope for the future, something to strive for beyond simply obeying orders. We lost that, along with so much more. I realize that now. For us it has been war, unending war for as long as I or any other Meltraedi remember."

Ranma nodded, putting his arm around her shoulders. "And that is why I don't hate you or yer race. You can't dream, that was taken from you along with your culture, your past and your future. But I will help you get them back if I can."

Miriya stared at him, her face unmoving until it broke into a wide smile. "I will hold you to that Ranma." A moment later her com, which Azonia had given her personally, and which she never let leave her person, beeped indicating an incoming signal. "And now I think we need to see if we can convince the rest of your people to help as well, for the betterment of both our races."

About an hour later, time mostly spent getting back to the hatch they used and putting the spacesuits away, Ranma stepped onto the bridge with the green haired woman following him.

Gloval looked up from discussing something with Claudia, Lisa and Vanessa, still worried about the lack of attacks and where the hell the alien fleet was. After all, how could they do their job if they didn't know where the fleet was? If it was just hovering out or radar range outside the gravity well it could sweep in after they left, so finding it was imperative. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lisa stiffen seeing the woman flowing Ranma onto the bridge, but he ignored it for now. "Yes Commander Sugita, can we help you?"

"No Sir," said Ranma standing at attention for once. "But my friend here has something to say to you."

The green-haired woman strode forward, her step precise, controlled and aggressive as only a martial artists could be to stand in front of the vice admiral. "I am Miriya Parina of the Meltraedi fleet, and I am here to discuss a peace agreement between our fleet and humanity, specifically this space fortress and those aboard."

End chapter

Hope everyone liked my little homage there, tell me if you spot it. Oh, and flip the name of the admiral of the 7th around if you haven't already spotted it. As always read and review.

*Chapter 28*: Once More Unto the Breach

HOLY bleep, I so did not know how often I switched Invid with Meltraedi, my replace all screwed up big time for some reason. Thanks to Hunter Noventa and G-Force 1 for point this out.

I don't own Robotech or Ranma alas. I mean come on music as a primary weapon? What, are we on Arrakis now? (if you don't get that reference you do not deserve to call yourself a sci-fi fan)

Asking anyone if they know a good Dragon Age harem fic? Could be male Cousland or male mage please. No slash obviously. Or how about a Mass Effect harem fic? I've read Black Dog Sheppard and a few others, but always looking for more to read on my infinitesimal free time that I don't spend writing, especially any that might be off this site somewhere? I am actually thinking of a plot for a Ranma/Mass Effect cross if anyone with knowledge of both is interested PM me and we'll see if it can come about. My Fairy Tail muse has alas not recovered yet from the foul poison that is JErza. Just one new Erza/Natsu moment please! Is that too much to ask?

Some reviews:

This isn't so much a response to a review as a rant: Simply putting two words down, especially if its 'not bad' is not a review, you cockbite! Reviews need to be a genuine expression of your pleasure of reading the story, not just two somewhat insulting words! If you don't have something real to say, good or bad, please don't say anything. Thank you, and now on to the real review response.

Hiryo: Sorry dude, see above. If you like Harry Potter though you could check out my Harry/Marvel story if you're looking for something to read. CJ-cold: thanks for the excellent review. The strategic situation won't be solved in this chapter, but you will see the two groups putting a framework for further growth/learning in place.

Tatieyana: thank you for the sentiment, here is another helping. Now eat all your meat, or no pudding!

TJG: The crystal and the flower of Life will indeed both open new avenues of research and knowledge, which I will attempt to detail in the next chapter, alas other things take precedence in this one. But I will tell you that humanity will take its lumps, but in the long run they will be a hell of a lot tougher than they ever were in canon because of the great thinkers like Lang and the others.

Narsil: Lisa has developed in leaps and bounds from the hidebound, rather personally timid woman she had been. Despite what Henri Gloval may think, Lisa is quickly becoming the captain of the Macross in more than just rank. She will showcase some of the knowledge she gained by talking to Miriya in this chapter, and once more prove her tactical acumen later on. I made some references to how Ranma was building his own training ground a time or two, but never went into detail until now. And if its massive explosions you want…

n0mster: I do plan for the war against various bits of the Zentraedi to continue for a while, though book one will be coming to a close soon. I estimate two or maybe three more chapters in this book. And yes the two thirds was initially just for this, though I've gone beyond that point by quite a bit since. I need to research the Masters and their tech as well as the Invid and the others more. Shampoo will not end up with Max, I have plans for him, somewhat humorous and a bit humiliating, but that's for later. Shampoo will meet a possible love interest in this chapter, tell me if you can see where I took the character from, I'm interested.

Zbox: Not so much when you consider the people doing it my friend. They've always been a bit laid back that way.

JohnC25: Kyle will get what's coming to him soon enough, though alas not in this chapter, too much else to do. I tend to try and match the size of the harem to the universe its set into, as well as the needs of the story. For this work its three, for Lion of Light its five going on six, in Destiny vs Chaos it was three though the third person changed over time. I think any harem more than six is too much and rather unwieldy however. Again respect, and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

I'm sad no one saw the line I stole from the Hobbit, ah well. On with the show, first diplomacy, then the lack thereof.

Chapter 27 Once more into the breach

(The same day Admiral Restuc was sent to Earth in an even more distant star system from Sol)

Breetai allowed a smirk to appear on his face as the five 1,000 ship strong Quiltra-Quelamitz flotillas he had broken off from his fleet after the first clash in this system suddenly appeared right where he wanted them to be, directly below and with a clear run to the Invid factory ship. As massive as those ships were, able to take as much and dish out far more punishment than his own flagship, even it would be overcome in short order to that many gunboats using their main weapon, the converging energy beam cannon. While alone a single gun boat would be destroyed almost as soon as it entered range of a factory ship, 5,000 of them would turn it into scattering atoms quickly.

Breetai had known he needed to figure out a way to strip the factory ship in this system of its defense fleet. That was always the hardest part, because for some reason the factory ship seemed to bolster the Invid into fighting harder, faster than normal within a certain range. that he needed to use something new to do it; say what you would about Invid, but their ability to mind speak to one another long distance meant they almost never fell for the same tactic twice. They didn't understand tactics of course, they were bugs and would have begun to use them themselves if they did, but simple orders such as 'don't move away from the factory ship' were simple enough for them to use.

To combat that he had come in swiftly, attacking one edge of their formation with overwhelming local superiority, then pulled back and to the left and down of his prior assault, as if he had taken losses and was suddenly afraid of taking more. This and the death of a little over a fifth of its command had galvanized the Invid commander to come after him, pulling the factory ship with him but keeping it at the back of the formation.

Imagining the bug commander's look of shock as most of his damaged ships, unseen as he very carefully led the bugs any from the sight of the previous battle, came alive again and turned their convergent energy beams on its charge would warm his soldier's heart for months.

That did not mean the battle was over, but he had achieved his objective, all that was left was simply cleaning up the mess. And killing Invid, he thought almost cheerfully while outwardly he ordered two flotillas forward on his beleaguered left flank, then pushed his reserves (mostly the Meltraedi under Delmera) into the battle along his right flank, stacked so they came over and below the present battle, thus would once more have massive local superiority, able to turn that portion of the Invid's fleet and then push on into the rest of their fleet, crushing each Invid armada in turn. There's always time for that.

The battle did indeed continue, with the Invid leader desperately trying to escape with what forces he could now, his charge gone and thus no reason to remain, but Breetai and his clan-fleet and its allied Meltraedi harried the Invid forces until every one of them was annihilated.

After the last Invid ship blew up, the last Invid Claw fighter died under the assault of a Queadluun Rau, there was a moment of stillness on the bridge as every one of his officers stopped what they were doing to stare at one another. They all knew what this battle meant. Not only was that factory ship the last that had been supplying the assault this fleet had helped stop and even turn around, but it was the only remaining one all along the front between Zentraedi controlled space and Invid controlled space. The Invid had overextended, taken too much damage in their attempted large scale assault against the Zentraedi, and this had left them badly off balance. Now without factory ships along the front it would be months before more factory ships and fleets could be moved up to the front. For the first time in living memory the Invid controlled star systems, the heart of their power and might, was open before the Zentraedi fleets.

It began slowly, a murmur that might well have started at the far end of the ship, until it rose into a crescendo of noise, and every officer on the bridge was shouting and cheering, yelling and jumping and thumping one another's backs in exultation.

Breetai scowled at this lack of decorum and was about to bring them to task most severely when a hand gently touched his shoulder, reaching up above the owners own head to do so. He looked to his side and saw his aide Exedore standing there, his crippled form as un-Zentraedi as you were likely to see, hiding the brilliant mind within.

The far shorter Zentraedi merely nodded, looking around them. "Let them have their moment lord admiral, don't think of it as a breach in decorum, think of it as a necessary release of tension. Think about it my lord, this fleet has just opened the door for the conquest of the Invid, something that was thought impossible for untold years. Let them have their moment admiral, they deserve it, by the stars of space, they deserve it."

Breetai frowned touching his half mask where it covered his ruined eye thoughtfully, but then smiled slightly and nodded. "You are right my old friend, they do indeed deserve it."

He turned and was about to get the attention of his communication officer and send out a small speech of congratulation to his men, but stopped as the long range hologram communicator came on. He turned and saluted Dolza, one clenched fist to his chest. "My lord, I am pleased to report that the last Invid factory ship has been destroyed. The way is clear for our counter-invasion."

Dolza nodded, though his face revealed nothing of his thoughts, as was usual from the giant Zentraedi. "I know, but that assault will not be led by you. I have need of you to return to your prior task, that of capturing the space fortress."

Breetai twitched in shock, while around him the euphoria of their victory disappeared from his men like it had been sucked away by a black hole. Out of one eye he saw his communication officer toggle his system, doing something with it. "My lord? Surely the space fortress, while important, is of lesser strategic importance than taking the fight to the Invid, possibly wiping them out forever?"

Dolza frowned down at him. "That is for me to decide Breetai, remember your place."

Breetai bowed slightly more to keep the giant from seeing the anger and fury in his one remaining eye than because he was truly contrite.

"There has been an odd issue with the space fortress, some very odd readings that that idiot female has discovered." Dolza didn't even bother using Azonia's name, so contemptuous he was of her and her fleet, something that came through clearly in his voice. This did not sit well with anyone in hearing range but the fear Dolza created by his mere image in all Zentraedi kept them from speaking. "Kyron, that mad fool was able to board the ship and somehow damaged something on it so that something onboard is giving off power readings we have never seen. It is more imperative than ever that we take it intact, if the proto-culture generator was in some way damaged then we need to take control of the ship quickly before the problem worsens. The importance of that generator to our people cannot be overstated."

Dolza was actually telling the truth there, not just being a mouthpiece for his masters. The Zentraedi fleets ran on a very raw, unrefined helium/hydrogen fuel, but they were designed to run on the same source as the ships of the masters, what they called proto-culture. The output of their ships was so much less that it was laughable. He put down their losses thus far against the Invid to this reason, not realizing it was a far more dangerous problem that had truly caused those losses. He assumed Breetai had simply been cautious and careful enough to overcome this disadvantage, rather than understanding his tactics and strategies.

"You are to leave immediately for this Sol system, and once there you will capture the space fortress and return it to our control." Dolza went on grimly.

Breetai was speechless for a moment, trying to make sense of this. No matter how important the space fortress and what it carried is, surely wiping out the Invid is more important? What's going on here? "May my clan fleet take several jumps my lord, we are running low on fuel?"

Dolza frowned and shook his head. "No, it will take too long and I want you there as soon as possible. You will leave within the hour Breetai, is that clear?"

Breetai nodded, still clamping down on his anger at this turn of events. "I understand lord, what of our Meltraedi units, will they come with me as well?"

"Of course, but you are too have as little contact with the Meltraedi as possible. They have failed this task, and I wish to inform of how this displeases me in the future. One hour Breetai, that is all."

The communication ended and only then did Breetai realize he had ruined yet another metal panel, his fingers bending and twisting it out of shape with ease under the power of his anger. Around him he heard angry mutterings form his crew too, and knew those same noises of discontent were making their way around his fleet. He knew there could be only one answer to this. He stood up, thumping his fist on (and through) the tactical screen in front of him. "Enough! We are Zentraedi, act like it! We follow orders, no matter our personal feelings on the matter."

It never occurred to him that the way he allowed his men as much freedom of thought as he did was well beyond the level anyone of the other animals allowed. "We will complete this mission just like we have every other mission. We are Zentraedi, that is what we do. On top of that, you are my fleet, and I will lead you to victory!"

That had some of those listening into that little speech cheering again, though the fleet as a whole was much more subdued. Still there was nothing he could do about that, simple do his job and hope that the other admirals didn't mess it up too badly in his absence. "As soon as we have gathered survivors, this fleet will leave this system and go into fold, destination, Sol."

Breetai sat down and leaned back in his chair, watching the hubbub on his bridge while within him the small flower of rebellion was watered once more and began to grow.

OOOOOOO

Vice Admiral Gloval's first thought was to summon the military police and have them take the woman away to make sure she first that she was sane and if so clap her in irons to be questioned at length. But looking at Ranma and his somewhat protective stance he figured that wouldn't be exactly the best plan or indeed the healthiest plan both for himself and for the military police in question. Ranma may ape the mannerisms of a soldier, but his deference to those in higher positions than his own extended only so far as he respected them.

After the full story came out he realized that he would have another issue, since if this woman was anywhere close to Ranma's lethality they could probably fight their way off the ship if they wanted to. He listened intently for a few minutes after Miriya's presence was explained then nodded calmly "I see," he said, proud that his voice came out so calmly. "Ranma if you could escort your friends to the meeting room, I believe number three is open today, then we can discuss this further there shortly. I will summon my other officers, but I would first like to talk Captain Hayes for a minute in my ward room."

Ranma nodded agreeably and led Miriya off the bridge and down into the conference room a few floors below. One the way down they passed another elevator going up, not that they realized this of course, but the individuals in that elevator would be a help to Lisa soon.

Henri and Lisa left the bridge, leaving Claudia in charge of the bridge. The black woman was looking back over her shoulder at them as they walked, her face a mix of shock, surprise, and worry for her friend.

As soon as the door closed behind them Henri laid into Lisa verbally, his voice colder than most ever heard it. "What were you thinking Captain Letting an alien aboard ship, an enemy combatant?! You knew what she was and you never reported this in?! My God I should have you broken back down to commander!"

"Sir," she replied calmly, not responding at all to his outburst or his anger. "You mistake the fact that Miriya is an enemy combatant for Miriya is a spy, they are not one and the same I assure you. She is here for precisely the reason she said, to fight Ranma and to see how he is so good. The message she relayed was merely that, a message from her Admiral. The Meltraedi are almost completely without guile. Besides which, how would you have gone about questioning her, torture? I truly doubt you or anyone else could do anything to her that could make her talk if she didn't want to. Instead I got to know her in a social setting, where I learned quite a lot about their fleets and their ships over the last few days."

"That was not your call to make captain! Regardless of your personal beliefs, this is a major breach of operation and ship security, not to mention military law. You may well have ruined your career with this stunt, no matter what else happens."

At this point the door opened, and Henri turned to shout at whoever was interrupting them only to pause as he saw Nodoka and Cologne standing there." I'm in the middle of something dear," he said much more calmly than he felt, "could you wait a…"

"If this is about Miriya then we both knew about it as well," Cologne said cackling a little and hopping over next to Lisa. "how are you doing young one?"

Lisa replied easily, looking over at her superior officer, not judgmental or angry about the harangue she had just endured. "I'm fine elder, just explaining why I didn't turn Miriya in for an enemy combatant."

"It would've been utterly pointless," said Nodoka, smiling a little. "She's such a dear anyway."

Nodoka and Miriya had met a few times when she spent time with her son and the girls, and Nodoka had a very shrewd notion that there would soon be a third girl in her son's bed and his heart, an idea that had her breaking out the fans once or twice to herself. She found Miriya a interesting conversationalist, almost as devoted to her craft as Ranma was. Indeed if she hadn't already chosen Motoko as her daughter/successor, she could well have seen her way to adopting Miriya to teach the ways of the sword.

She had also found her to be completely innocent in the ways of society and culture, a empty shell that Nodoka was slowly filling with the knowledge of the samurai caste and with the help of Cologne the Amazon culture. Cologne was in fact tempted to officially adopt Miriya into the tribe. She was merely waiting for an opportune moment, such as when Shampoo realized that she had lost her chance with Ranma and moved on with her love life, though hopefully not with that Max boy, who seemed to strike her as the wrong type. He was far too interested in the physical aspect, and did not seem to be willing to settle down anytime soon, an odd disconnection from his somewhat unassuming appearance and (falsely) humble nature.

"So you were all in on this," Henri asked looking coldly at Nodoka.

"Of course we were. It's not like we try to keep it a secret Henri," she said a little condescendingly. "All the Amazons knew as well as a few others. In fact I dare say that several of Ranma's other friends had figured it out too, but none of us said anything because Miriya wanted it that way. We knew she would reveal herself officially when she wanted to, and we could tell that she wasn't here for any ulterior motive. We saw it as a great idea, being able to almost suborn an alien combatant."

Henri frowned a little but saw her point. Reinforcing that was the fact he had been impressed by Nodoka's ability to understand people. It was almost as if it was a martial art she had discovered, the ability to see the real person inside of other people. Leaving that aside for now, not because he suddenly agreed with the decision but because it had already been done he went on. "How do you think I'm supposed to act here? I can't broker a peace deal, I don't have that authority."

"If you don't," said Lisa grimly, "who does? Sir, in a way you have more authority than any ship captain has since the Age of Exploration. You can broker deals out here, and I have no doubt they will be ratified back on Earth. Admiral Prescott will get behind it and push if no one else will, and you know his word carries a lot of weight, now more than ever with him named the fleet admiral for the first space fleet. On top of that what do we have to lose? The Meltraedi are going out on a limb here to make peace with us because they've learned too much. The questions they are asking each other will get them destroyed by the Zentraedi once it is found out they are asking them. The Meltraedi may be able to fight the Zentraedi on a 1 to 4, even a 1 to 5 ratio, and in terms of their power suits that's even higher, but that's not going to be enough!"

She let a note of concern, even a bit of fear enter her voice as she went on. "The Zentraedi just have too many ships! Too many fleets! I found out their numbers do you want to hear them?" She went on before Henri could respond, speaking faster now. "A Zentraedi battle fleet has upwards of 500,000 ships in it! The Meltraedi, when their fleet is all together, have barely 100,000! There are 10 main fleet's, and Dolza's personal fleet is even larger, though Miriya doesn't know how much larger, and over a 100 skirmish fleets, each with around a thousand ships! The Meltraedi can't stand against them. you think we could without help? The only reason we've survived up to this point is because the Meltraedi and the Zentraedi were ordered by Dolza, probably at their masters' behest, to capture this ship intact. This proto-culture generator thing is worth more to their masters then any number of their slave's lives." She emphasized the word slave as she finished, calming down a little.

Henri frowned. Numbers like that and a willing ally to court made his anger at there being an enemy combatant on his ship seem to not have a leg to stand on. It just stuck in his craw about was all, but he realized this was probably a case where his instincts from fighting humans had gotten the better of him. He sighed, "Very well, let us adjourn to the meeting room and hear the details of how this peace talk will begin." This won him a kiss on the cheek from Nodoka, and he led the way out of the room with a small smile on his face from this.

Once the command group was brought together, minus most of the civilians of course, though Cologne and Nodoka took part, Miriya began." I'm here as a personal representative of my Admiral Azonia. We of the Meltraedi constitute an elite force among the Zentraedi. We are all females, and until very recently we really didn't see any problem with that kind of segregation or isolation. However interacting with you humans has made us start to question many things, questions started by our three spies that we put aboard the ship several local months ago."

Henri Gloval grimaced at that, wondering how the hell those spies and gotten aboard and stayed hidden. The others however simply took it in stride, after all if the Zentraedi had figured out any weaknesses they would've exploited them by now and obviously that hadn't happened so something else must have taken priority.

"I was not selected for this I volunteered, primarily because I needed to get aboard the ship for my own personal reasons." She glanced over at Ranma who gave her a thumb up and she grinned briefly.

She then turned to the others and went on. "I am here to broker a cease-fire so that my Admiral may come aboard to… to negotiate a peace agreement." That thought seemed to make her frown a little, but she went on quickly. "I am to send a single indicating that you are willing to talk with a codeword imbedded in the message. Afterwards a single ship, the flagship of our fleet, will come alongside and the Admiral and one other will come aboard. They will share as much intelligence as they have, in return for your aid and peace. I have been told that long term lady Azonia wishes to rebuild our culture by studying yours. Talking to your experts, talking to people like elder Cologne, scientists like this Dr. Lang who I have not met to recreate or restart our own culture. To that end we will need to make peace. I know she hopes to keep our alliance a secret for as long as possible, and that she figured out some kind of ruse to tell Dolza about you that would make him leery of sending further troops, but I don't know enough about it to explain it, or that it continues to work, I'm sorry."

"General Mannstein leaned forward threading his thick fingers together and leaning on his interlocked hands. "While I am all for peace, I would like to get more of a handle on your Admiral first. What kind of commander is she, we have seen that she isn't like that madman Kyron, but how much in control of her fleet is she? Will there be any elements who do not wish to go along with this peace process? Will there be dissent of any kind, and will she uphold any agreement we reach, or merely use it as long as it is convenient?"

Gloval looked around at his officers and suddenly realized that he and the intelligence officer were the only ones who didn't seem surprised that there was an alien in front of them. the others had taken in stride far more easily than he had expected them too. In Mannstein's case this was simply a show of his trust in Ranma and his ability to figure out people, as well as his mother and Cologne. The two of them had many interesting discussions about history since the diminutive elder had come abroad, and the older woman's sharp mind had impressed the massive German.

"Yes, she will," said Miriya calmly, not taking offense. In their position she would've been asking the same questions. "In terms of control over the fleet it is absolute. She is not a dictator or a despot, I believe those are the words that could be used to describe Kyron and those like him? She rewards loyalty and performance, she listens to those under her command, and she cares for them. All of that is almost unheard of among the Zentraedi, where the difference between the officer class and the regular class are sharply defined, and no one questions the admiral because he is the admiral. That caring is precisely why she has done this I think, her loyalty is to the fleet before it is to Dolza. She has come up with many of what you call tactics and strategies to lessen our losses. Indeed it has been many, many years since we lost more than 1,000 ships or so in any given clash even with the Invid and that is all to her and the innovations she has pushed. Though her command staff, I believe is the way you term it, though her command staff is not at the moment together here, she has the majority, and from what I understand they are all backing her decisions."

Miriya herself was a part of that command staff at time, along with Athena and a few other Queadluun Rau operators, but Miriya only rarely took part, knowing that her place was at the front in her powersuit, not making long term decisions or plans.

The head intelligence officer, Roberto Eqiustore, who had only come abroad ship the day before it left Earth, leaned back smiling faintly. "I think we are you are getting ahead of ourselves here. By your estimate how long do we have before this ruse of your admiral's stops working? And how long would it take for a force of these males Zentraedi to get here? Would they send a skirmish fleet, or a main fleet?"

If a main fleet was he sent he prayed that the colony ships had already left before they got here. Because if it was a main fleet and they came to kill with those numbers there was very little humanity could do to stop them. They could go down swinging, and he made a vow that they would do just that. And swing hard if he had anything to say about it, a thought shared by every other person at that table, but there was no point in trying to ignore reality.

Griftel and the high command had tried that and look where that got them, the Italian thought amusedly. He had never really liked most of the high command, especially Hayes, though his daughter seemed cut from a different cloth. But the images she had captured and the data Drake, who was now serving as his aide and main analyst, had gathered pointed to an ugly picture in terms of numbers. In the long run however, that might be a different story. The information about the lack of maintenance on the ships, the fact the Zentraedi for the most part didn't understand tactics, those were exploitable weaknesses in the long term.

"I don't know," answered Miriya bluntly. "I do not concern myself with such long-term thinking so you will have to ask her. I will say that this duty, was apparently given to Lord Admiral Breetai first but he and his clan fleet are now leading a campaign against the Invid at the present moment." She sighed sadly, "Those battles must be glorious."

Ranma smirked at that while the others simply rolled her eyes having already deduced this green haired woman was much like Ranma, a combat junky.

Henri looked around him seeing interest, amusement and a glimmer of hope in many cases and he sighed knowing that this was going to cause trouble for him back on Earth. No matter what Lisa said there were going to be those that thought he had overstepped his bounds, and they were going to make him pay for it. "Very well, send the signal in an hour tell her we will be ready to have her board in a four hours."

Miriya nodded and left the room, followed quickly by Ranma after he threw a hasty salute towards the vice-admiral.

Roberto touched his fingers to his lips hiding a small smile there. "This is going to be an interesting event."

Cologne cackled a little. "So long as it isn't the Chinese curse kind of interesting I think we can get by."

Everyone laughed at that, and exited the room. It was time to get their dress best on.

OOOOOOO

"Are you sure of this Lady?" asked Azonia's flagships Captain, a woman almost as old as Azonia and Sonya, experienced at her craft beyond anything most Zentraedi fleets could call on. Of course like all Meltraedi and Zentraedi she did not show her age on her body, which remained toned, taut and well muscled despite her somewhat sedentary life as a ship captain. Ilea was not one to allow herself to grow complacent or fat.

Azonia smiled at the younger woman shaking her head. "Certain no, I'm not certain this will work. Certain that this is the best move forward for our people, yes. Yes," she repeated herself, coldly, a state of mind her face followed swiftly, "I am that. Someone did this to us Ilea, some other race has been using us as their attacking animals like those dogs that you sometimes see on TV shows of the Mic… of humans. I think it's time we slipped out of our leash, and taught them the error of their ways."

The captain smirked a little evilly at that and nodded grimly.

Mira had understated the facts about the fleet's mental and emotional state and the questions being asked, mostly because she hadn't ever cared enough about rumors or anything else to know how far it had spread or the anger that was building just below the surface.

Azonia had kept the link to the human Internet open, and every ship had been able to access it as often as they wanted to. The questions of 'why don't we have that' had long since replaced by 'who made us this way', and 'how did they take our freedom away'. Azonia had been astonished at how quickly the women of her fleet had realized their actions might well be controlled by some exterior source for its/their own benefit. She wondered if there had been a sense of rebellion just bubbling beneath the surface waiting to get out that this had jumpstarted somehow. Regardless, she was riding the crest now and her whole fleet wanted to make peace with the humans. They wanted to learn about culture, they wanted to learn about clothing designs, about how to create their own designs, about food, about everything that had been denied them.

And then they wanted to go out and find who did this to them and destroy them so utterly not a single remnant of their people would remain. To say the fleet was enraged was an understatement. Everyone, from the lowest Queadluun Rau operator to the most experienced commodore was behind Azonia 100% in this. Never again would the Meltraedi blindly follow Dolza's orders, never again would they simply assume that the fleet had to be the way it was, that there was nothing else out there, no other way to live. They would have answers to their questions, they would rebuild their culture and they would move forward into the future with their heads held high.

Azonia had never been prouder to call herself a Meltraedi when she realized that to a woman they had all decided to move in lockstep with her regardless of the danger.

"You have command of the ship until I return, relay anything that comes in from our scout vessels but other than that I will probably be incommunicado for a time." The captain nodded again and Azonia turned and walked off, heading towards the powersuit bay.

There she found Sonya already waiting for her. The site brought a smile to her face and she moved over, turning so that the youngsters around them couldn't see and clasped her friend's arm firmly, keeping her voice low. "Thank you for joining in this Sonya, you didn't have to volunteer to come with me, you know."

"Yes I did," Sonya said smirked smiling a little, the only emotion she would show around the youngtsers, though she returned her friends arm clasp firmly. "After all, it was my questioning that got us to this point and you are my Admiral," she said then went on a lower voice "and my friend. Whatever else happens we will face it together. Like everything we have since we first met."

"Yes," said Azonia, straightening up, "we will face it and we will defeat it together with these humans." A final nod and the two turned and moved toward their Queadluun Rau.

These powersuits had been set aside decades ago, and Azonia's case at least. Sonya had remained in the powersuit wings for a while longer than her Admiral but had eventually given it up and moved on to command of a ship as Azonia had and then to being her chief advisor and senior division commander. Her Athena, Ilea, Delmera and several other commodores were the fingers that Azonia used to control her fleet. Yet it was only the shoulder plates that showed any kind of personalization. On the right shoulder plate of each unit was the image of the lizard beast that Sonya had tattooed on her face delineated in silver, for one of them and gold for the other.

Moments later the two Queadluun Rau exited the ship, and moved through the fifteen kilometers to the space fortress, a very short distance and all of it under the range of the guns of the space fortress which was trained on the Night Dagger. Azonia had no issues with this, if their positions were reversed she would probably have been doing the same thing, or at least she would have if she could have thought that way before interacting with the humans as they had. That peace was possible was still a foreign concept at best, but her people had seen the benefits of it.

Within two minutes of them exiting from the Night Dagger they were setting down into the hangar bay that they were escorted to by a small flight of the human Valkyries transforming spacefighters. Azonia noticed with a corner of her mind that they had been painted with the image of a skull and crossbones on them, and wondered what that signified.

The only force marker she could really recognize were the ones with the blue flame on them, since that was connected to the pilot Ranma whose exercise videos had made their way around the fleet. Azonia hadn't really seen the point to them, though the ones with the female Ranma were interesting to say the least. Again she had thought of watching them with Sonya and had in fact gone through with that idea. The two of them had watched the entire thing and by her flushed face it had affected Sonya just as much as and had her. She was uncertain why that made her happy, or why she had an urge to experiment like the two women had in that 'porn' thing with her friend, but the idea was becoming more difficult to ignore every time she was alone with her friend.

For now however she put aside such notions and prepared to step onto the human space fortress and to take the first step to creating a future for her people.

OOOOOOO

Inside the hangar bay Henri waited with a full military style welcoming party set up around them, despite the fact that Ranma and Miriya had both stated it was utterly pointless. One simply because he thought that most military panache and pageantry was pointless, if you could fight and do your job that was enough for Ranma, the other simply because the Zentraedi had no place for it in their lives, and wouldn't understand it at all.

The two massive powersuits touched down in the ten story tall hanger and as the hatch finished closing behind them they opened up at the front revealing the two giant Meltraedi. Gloval stared at them from his height on a walkway on the fourth floor of the hangar bay, looking a little askance at the sheer size of the two women as they came forward.

One was dressed in a form fitting suit, with built up pads on her elbows and knees, though she had a bit of a cape with silver trimming which she put around her shoulders after she exited the vehicle. Gloval supposed this must be the uniform used by the powersuit operators, and this woman wasn't a normal operator, or at least this wasn't her normal uniform any longer given the strange mix of the suit and the cape. Behind him he heard a gasp of shock, and was that an amused gurgle he heard from Nodoka? He ignored both sounds and kept his eyes on the two huge female Meltraedi in front of him.

The one in the lead, who had short cropped hair and an angular face must be the admiral. He knew this with certainty, the sheer presence that woman gave off was rather imposing, the commanding presence she radiated something he had seen in Prescott and a few other admirals in his time. She wore a uniform that was made of somewhat tight pants and a shirt done in dark blue with a red stripe going down one side, with a red cape falling to her feet and clasped around her neck tightly.

The one named Azonia turned looking around them at the noise of the trumpets playing the song the UNSF used to welcome flag officers aboard ships and shook her head amusedly. "I understand what this is, I think," she said in a slightly booming tone but that was more because of her size than anything else, "but there was no need. We Meltraedi have no equivalent in our culture, but that could be because we don't actually have one could've it?"

She gazed over at the welcoming party and smiled a little when she spotted Ranma and Miriya one of whom was at attention the other simply leaning on the railing beside her. "You must be Ranma. You and the one named Minmei and your songs are quite the topic of conversation among my fleet's personnel." Ranma awkwardly waved one hand at her in greeting but keep most of his attention on the woman behind her, who was looking a little sheepish under the combined stares of Ranma and Nodoka.

The welcoming party was comprised of Gloval, Lisa, Mannstein, Nodoka, Roberto, Drake, Fokker (who had just been cleared for duty the day before) Ranma Elder Cologne and Miriya. To one side of this delegation stood a crew of cameramen, capturing this moment and sending it direct back to Earth, since they were still well within communication range. What the humans back on Earth did with it would be up to them, but Gloval had decided not only to save himself from irritation later but also to show this historical moment to as wide an audience as possible.

He stepped forward saluting in welcome since offering his hand to shake given their size disparity wouldn't work. "I am vice Admiral Henri Gloval, it is good to finally meet you face-to-face."

"Is it?" said Azonia dryly, amused at the comment. "I can't help but think that my life would've been much simpler if the events leading up to this meeting had never occurred. But then I would still be under the invisible yoke of whoever has enslaved my people.

"Could you elaborate on that please?" said the intelligence officer stepping forward quickly. "How do they control you exactly? Have you any idea why you were able to throw this off now rather than at any time before?"

Sonya answered for Admiral stepping forward to join her looking across at the humans on their railing, but Ranma spoke up before she could. "I can't believe you were one of the spies Miriya told us about Sonya."

Sonya flushed a little then nodded. "I hope lady Nodoka and Ms. Kasumi did not take it wrongly that the three of us left. But our duty compelled us to return to her fleet. We would not have…"

Ranma waved it away. "Doesn't matter. I guess you kinda got distracted the moment you got on board."

"That's pretty much what happened," Sonya said shaking her head amusedly. "You humans are so strange, so different and chaotic we lost ourselves in trying to figure you out rather than your defenses."

She then turned back to the intelligence officer who had a bit of a smile on his face at the interaction, learning a bit more about these Meltraedi in that quite friendly bit of interaction. The Meltraedi truly were more like humans than unlike, though it remained to be seen if that was the case with the Zentraedi. "To answer your question, you humans and interacting with you showed us what we have been missing. The term 'progress' fascinated me at first, and I delved deeper into it. How was it that your people were able to move forward, to change your technology to be different now than it was 100 years ago? There's been no change no progress in technology or weapons or anything of that source in our fleets in a far longer time."

"If anything," she said thoughtfully as if the thought had just occurred to her, which in fact it had, "there has been degradation. That got us questioning things then we figured out that you weren't all warriors, another concept that simply, what is that phrase you humans use blew our minds? Yes, it blew our minds. Then you add in the clothing styles which appeal to us greatly, and chocolate and other food precuts to a lesser extent and you have an equation which makes us question why we don't have such things, why we only have the fleet. The only outcome, the only answer any of us could come up with was that there was some exterior reason for it. No calamity, no single event would've taken everything away from us so thoroughly and leave nothing behind for us to rebuild from."

Azonia took up the tale, her voice grim and stern. "We were warned about the Micronian Infection, but we never knew what it was, and before we knew it we were infected in such a way that our unseen 'masters' had worried about. Because of this we know now we have been enslaved with a yoke we never even saw, it's power felt but not understood. Now we come before you asking for peace so that we may in some way reclaim what we lost."

"And what would this peace entail?" said Henri quickly, wanting to move back to the main point of this meeting.

"An exchange of information," answered Azonia briskly. "And a mutual defense accord. More, we want access free access to chocolate and other things foodstuffs in quantity that we can actually eat given our size, experts to come aboard our ship and talk to us about bettering their abilities and to discuss the different cultures of you humans. We are in a unique position," She actually let her lips form into a smirk for a moment, "And we would like to look over all the examples out there. In return we will endeavor to protect you as best we can while we rebuild our culture."

There was some murmuring about that, since given their size that would be quite a lot of food. "Are you saying you won't simply adopt human culture?"

Azonia shook her head firmly. "No, we will build our own. That way no one will be ever able to take it away from us again."

Ranma grinned at that sentiment and Miriya nodded her head firmly. Cologne chuckled a little, seeing in this woman an Elder as determined and experienced as most she had met, and resolved to talk to her later. If the Meltraedi as a whole weren't perfect Amazon material she didn't know what was. Hah, her name would go down in history as the Amazon elder that brought an entire race into the tribe!

Henri and the intelligence officer looked at one another then nodded. "I believe we can agree with all those points, though the food portion may have to wait. After all I don't think the human race can make enough food to satisfy your entire fleet, not without starving itself."

Azonia waved that off. "That is in fact the least of our concerns, though chocolate in massive quantities would be a good start." She smiled a little. "That and anything with caffeine it. We use stim packets to get much the same effect but I believe coffee works better, at least that is what Lucretia, one of our other spies, said."

"Wait," said Roberto, now making the connection. "All those little attacks you made on Earth in the past few weeks battles have been to steal food and eat it, not analyze it to find an exploitable weakness in us?"

"Analyze? Why ever would we do that? The food and clothing were what we wanted in every raid that was sent out. Your cultures so open that we were able to figure out quite a lot from that, but experts in history and science and farming in space in other things would help the process along."

"We will have more time to discuss that in detail later, right now it is imperative that your people begin to spread out from your third planet. You are too vulnerable there. Any main fleet could wipe out your entire species in a single hour if they were ordered to so."

"Plans are already in place for that," replied Gloval calmly. "We were in fact supposed to lead your fleet away so that other forces could retake our orbitals and then move out into the solar system elsewhere."

Sonya nodded. "We will also need fuel at some point for our ships. We believe that the people who did this to us control our people through Dolza, who controls the means of resupply for anything, which we obviously can no long use, some kind of indoctrination, and other mental controls. In the case of the Meltraedi we broke ours through interacting with you humans and your internet, but the fear of Dolza is still there, and unfortunately the indoctrination wasn't hiding anything else beneath it."

Gloval nodded at that. "I believe we can also help you with the fuel situation at least." In fact he knew they could since he had been the one to order the resupply ships put into orbit of Jupiter. "It may take some doing to get it out to you but eventually we should be able to produce enough fuel for all of your ships."

"Which brings us to another point," said Azonia, her face grave. "The ruse I used to mislead Dolza in order for him to not our shoulders and demand progress towards capturing this ship worked for a while, but he is sending one of the skirmish fleets in to take over the operation." She scowled a little, angry at the amount of contempt Dolza had allowed to show when he informed her of that about 19 local hours ago.

"I assume it is more because they are expendable and nearby more than anything else, but their Admiral apparently has knowledge of this ship's structure, though why if he had that he wasn't sent in first before us I don't know. I estimate we have about five more days before they get here."

Henri took over the discussion again. "And what should we expect? What is your standard tactical doctrine when entering a solar system? Is there a way we could ambush him?"

Sonya, Miriya and Azonia all chuckled a little at that. Azonia waved her hands as the humans looked at them. "I'm sorry but that was just funny. A standard tactical doctrine for a Zentraedi? Every Zentraedi bar Breetai himself thinks that you just need to throw enough bodies at a problem to solve it, that's the extent of their tactics. We Meltraedi were different of course, we always have been slightly but I have made a point of emphasizing the difference once I had risen to command. Breetai too is different, but this will not be Breetai."

Her mouth firmed a little and she frowned. "If Breetai is sent after you I doubt there will be much of anything that even my fleet will be able to do. For one thing he will have access to 25,000 of my ships which will come with his clan-fleet, and as a strategist and tactician he is simply on a whole other level in comparison to me, which added to his numerical superiority would make fighting him and winning an impossible task."

She then turned back to the matter at hand. "But in order to set up a trap or ambush for this admiral Retsuc, the only thing you would have to do is simply make a big enough sign and put it somewhere and allow him to come at you."

"And how many ships will be in this fleet?" asked Roberto.

"The normal strength for a skirmish fleet at full strength is a mere thousand ships, no match for us." said Azonia waving her hand airily. "If we had some way of blocking interstellar communication my fleet wipe could wipe it out easily. I doubt we'd lose even a single ship. But as it is, we want to keep our alliance secret so will not be able to use our full force against him until the battle has begun and he is fully committed. Once that occurs he will be too busty directing the battle to try to report our betrayal."

"No," said Gloval shaking his head firmly. "We can't be certain of that and keeping your alliance with us a secret is more important in the long run than aiding us in wiping out this skirmish fleet. We humans must take this on ourselves. With this ship and a few other little surprises we should be able to do it if we can pin them in place and survive long enough for our siege gun to do it's work."

Azonia nodded judicious agreement. "But surely you would want at least a few hundred Queadluun Rau to bolster your fighter strength?"

"That will be fine I suppose, two or three ships you could explain away as having been captured or joining us for whatever reason, that Micronian Infection you mentioned perhaps. We could even record videos of it at some point. An elaborate trap like this is going to take a lot of time and planning however."

Azonia shrugged and sat down on the floor of the hangar bay. She leaned against her power suit and looked up at the humans. "Well then let's get down to what is the phrase, brass tax? Let us get down to specifics at any rate."

Thus as the world watched the first Meltraedi/human peace talks went on.

OOOOOOO

The plan the group came up with was composed of two parts. The first part would be using the scout ships Azonia had spread out beyond Pluto on the most direct route from Zentraedi held space to this solar system. The Zentraedi would probably come out of fold space there first, then move into the system in a series of random jumps looking for their prey. The scout ships would get in contact with them, and inform them of the space fortress's location and Azonia would inform Admiral Retsuc that she had lost a few wings of Queadluun Rau to the Micronian Infection, though she would be vague with how exactly the infection worked, which would make it more mysterious and therefore worrisome to him and to Dolza in turn.

If Retsuc asked for aid Azonia would refuse on grounds of not wanting to expose more of her forces to it. So even if he got off a message to Dolza before or after the battle was joined the Meltraedi were covered, for now anyway. In the long term it probably would not matter, but in the short term it might save them from an immediate assault from a battle fleet or even worse by Dolza's own fleet.

Two of the carrier class ships from the fleet would remain with the space fortress, launch fighters and fold out right before the battle was to began. This would give them to full wings of power suits, a force which in and of itself would be almost equal to the combined battle pods of the skirmish fleet they were not going to be facing. Combine that with the space fortress and they would be well protected against the Regulds of their enemies.

To this Earth added a bit more, well, once it got over their consternation at the idea of peace talks that didn't involve diplomats of any nature and the fact the Meltraedi had only a vague idea of what a civilian was as well as their demands. Two of their new drone carriers would be added to the mix as well, the kind with the heavy weapons type designed to take out enemy battleships. These drones would be launched immediately as would the power suits, then they too would fold out to a point just on the edge of their control range, which hopefully would put them well out of the battle zone, since said range was around the size of two Jovian sized planets combined. The two carriers in question, the Hood and the Queen Elizabeth had immediately broken away from Prescott's 1st fleet to meet up with the space fortress.

Earth would have sent more, but production of the barrier shields that were now seen as a necessity for any ship hadn't yet met the demand, and most of those that had been created, about two thousand in total, were unfortunately placed on the colony ships and their escorts, ships that might not even need them now, but you couldn't argue sense with civilians, especially civilians that had already gone out on a limb to go along with the colonization idea in the first place. So the rest of the fleet would need to remain near Earth for the foreseeable future until they were brought up to the minimum number of barrier shields Prescott and his advisors felt was necessary (a hundred per ship minimum, with ten activated at any time during combat).

Once Retsuc's flagship was destroyed however, was when the Meltraedi would move in. Azonia's forces would attack from every angel they could, wiping the fleet out once its head had been removed.

All in all, everyone was happy so far with the peace agreement, and agreed to address the long term concerns after this skirmish fleet was taken care of, though of course plans were already in place to meet the Meltraedi's needs.

OOOOOOO

The response on the space fortress in regards to the Meltraedi was mixed to say the least. A large portion of the civilian population didn't really know what to make of it. Many factions were for it, the Amazons in particular were amused by the idea, and the Indian forces too were behind the idea of a slave race breaking their bonds. Other groups however weren't so welcoming, and the naval side as a whole was split straight down the middle by the idea of making peace with the group that had done them so much more damage than the mad Kyron.

When this was brought to his attention by Lisa the night after the peace talks Ranma decided to handle it in his own way. He found out which bars most of the malcontents were meeting at, and went there with Miriya.

The silence as they walked into the bar was profound. Miriya smirked a little as everyone stared at them with anger in their eyes and a few others with some other emotion that she couldn't quite place. The sight of it however made Ranma crack his knuckles, something that made those individuals turn away hurriedly and stare at their drinks, so she endeavored to ask him what it was later. That and what a bar was at all. The Spies had tried to explain alcohol to the fleet at times, but Miriya couldn't see the point of imbibing something that would cause you to lose control of yourself. It was a very odd concept to her.

"Alien freak," one man muttered into his drink thinking that it would not be heard. Two other pilots, veterans from the Macross, looked at one another and swiftly pulled back from the bar moving over to another chair in one of the room's corners and hope that whatever was going to happen wouldn't include their own faces smashed in by Ranma. Everyone who had been aboard before the ship returned to Earth knew his skill in hand-to-hand, and it was only the new guys, most of which rather strangely were the ones who were the most against peace with the Meltraedi, that didn't. They both hated the Meltraedi, but didn't want to make a point of it if it meant running into Ranma. They simply stifled it for now, knowing it to be a far safer option in the long run.

Miriya stood in the center of the bar looking around at the crowd of drinkers arrogantly. "If you have something to say to me say it to my face."

"I understand you guys got a problem with us making peace with the Meltraedi?" said Ranma standing next to her, his hands in his pockets, his apparent nonchalance a sign of arrogance even greater than Miriya's.

One of the new guys aboard stood up angrily, his voice rising in protest. "Hell yes I do! These alien bitches have been messing with the Earth ever since they arrived, who knows how many people they killed!"

"We killed only those that got in our way," Miriya replied calmly. "But then again we were in a state of war at the time weren't we?. Are you saying you would do differently, to an enemy that had something you wanted, when it was the only way you knew to get it?"

"Shut up you alien bitch!" said another soldier getting to his feet beside his friend. "Why the hell should we listen to you anyway, you're one of them! I bet you were sent here to seduce us or something and weaken us from within!" There was a muttering of agreement from the rest of the crowd, though a few of them were looking as if they wouldn't mind sampling the goods so to speak.

Miriya sighed. She had learn what the word bitch meant, though why it had such a negative connotation eluded her, wasn't it just the proper name for a female dog, which was apparently some kind of 'pet' animal, whatever that meant. The rest of what the man said went right over her head too, but simply standing and allowing others to insult her wasn't something she was willing to do, so she turned to Ranma. "Is this the time we kick their asses like you said or must we keep talking?" Someone from back in the dimly lit bar threw a glass at her, and she reached out a hand negligently slapping it aside, staring at the direction it had come from.

Ranma shrugged, moving his head just slightly to avoid another thrown bottle. "I've always gotten better results talking to people after I beat their faces in so we can start that now I guess."

That seemed to be a cue and the next second everyone had charged forward at the two pilots, except for the two who knew Ranma skills. They simply buried their head in their hands as they knew this was not going to be pretty.

They were swiftly proven correct in this prediction. While Miriya didn't have Ranma's skills (and learning that he hadn't been in top shape during their first match aboard had galvanized her to train even harder) she was head and shoulders above anyone else aboard, except perhaps for Cologne but even that was based more on the fact Cologne was so much more experienced than her rather than having better physical skills.

The two pilots went through the crowd like lions through a pack of hyenas. Not once were they even hit, or even forced to move from the place they had assumed in the center of the barroom. Their kicks and punches struck with bone crushing force, and their attackers went down injured, unconscious, or simply flying back as if they had been hit by a rail gun round. The funny thing was they kept the conversation going at the same time, simply commenting on how pathetic this or that attacker was, insulting their opponents with every word and phrase they could think of.

Eventually the fight died down simply because there were no more bodies coming forward, the room now fool of groaning, moaning and simply unconscious bodies. Most of them were on the ground, but several had landed and overturned benches and tables. Two were flung across the bar itself, while another one was hanging from a rafter after a particularly vicious uppercut from Miriya, and another had crashed halfway through a wall and was now stuck there like a particularly ugly decoration.

Miriya, sighed sadly lowering her fists to her side. "This was no challenge all! I thought these people were supposed to be tough."

"Well there's normal soldier tough," Ranma said, throwing his pigtail back over his shoulder. "And then there's martial artist tough. Two very, very different things, let me tell you. You want to go first now or should I?"

Miriya shrugged. "I'll speak my piece first I suppose." She went around kicking the unconscious individuals awake, and when they were all together in a very surly and demoralized group she began. "I assume you're all in a position to hear me and more in a frame of mind to listen now? Unless you wish to go another round?"

The soldiers all looked at one another grumbling a little but subsided as she cracked her knuckles. None of the people in the bar wanted another set to with Ranma and Miriya, either singly or together. They had all heard about the marital artist's aboard, but most of them were vets and had taken such rumors as mostly hogwash. Feeling the reality had swiftly dispelled that idea.

Seeing this Miriya smiled and began. "You all know of American history yes and of slavery?" There were some quizzical nods at that question, after all in some countries a type of slavery was still in place, though it was based more on who had the money than anything else. "So would you blame a slave if he was ordered to attack you? Moreover would you blame him if he did it poorly or halfheartedly? Or would you blame the master? Here, we Meltraedi have recently learned that we are not masters of our fates. Someone else made us into weapons for them, and we hope to overcome that with the help of you humans. We learned this by sending in those raids when we were holding the orbitals above your world, and I will not apologize for the losses incurred in those attacks. Your defenders fought valiantly, and we went out of the way to avoid a loss of life in your civilian caste. We are making peace with you humans because of this, because you are no longer our enemies."

There was an introspective silence after she stopped speaking and they all looked at one another, wondering but a few refused to be cowed by this and simply glared hatefully back at her.

Ranma spoke up then. "And if that don't matter to you, here's my bit. I've been aboard this ship since the beginning, fought the Zentraedi since before I even became a soldier. Don't believe me ask around. I've lost friends, I've lost comrades, and my mentor, I've got more reason than most to hate the Zentraedi and the Meltraedi too. But I don't. I define myself as a warrior, but I don't hate my enemy, that takes too much energy, blinds ya to reality. Hate is a mindless emotion, and leaves ya far too closed to anything else. Don't fall into that trap."

That drained some of the anger out of the room as well, and a few more people turned away looking at something only they could see. There were still a few glares around, but that didn't matter much to Ranma. There would always be people willing to hate those different than them or that they could not understand. "In any case, if any more Meltraedi come aboard they'll be under my protection and the protection of the other marital artists aboard. Anyone with a problem with them has a problem with us. I won't stop at bruises if Miriya or any of 'em is attacked I'll put their asses in the ground in such a way that they will be drinking through a straw for the rest of their natural lives! Spread that word ya hear?"

With the now fearful group looking after them the two martial artists walked out the door now, talking about where they wanted to go for food as Kasumi was busy on a new interior design project, leaving behind a group of rather disgruntled sore yet thoughtful soldiers.

OOOOOOO

Later that night, Miriya was woken up from where she was sleeping on the couch (as had become her new norm) by a low moan of what she thought at first was pain, though it didn't quite seem right for pain.

She silently got up from the sofa and moved silently towards the sound of the moaning, swiftly realizing it was coming from the upstairs loft. She crept up the stairs stealthily, no longer wondering if whether or not it was the most word of pain as she heard Kasumi's voice muffled but still discernible saying "oh yes, Ranma more!"

She opened the door to the second-floor bedroom a crack and looked inside. There she saw Kasumi kissing Ranma deeply as she for some reason bounced up and down on his lap. They were both naked, but from this angle Miriya couldn't figure out what they were doing. She had never watched any of the videos from off the human Internet, and so had of the only a vague idea of what might be occurring. It was something that obviously they both enjoyed greatly given the vigorous nature they went about it and the fact that Lisa was laid out next to them a smile on her face as she watched them made it obvious it was something all three had been doing.

The sight touched her in ways she had not yet words to understand and she felt a heat build up in her body and a tingling sensation begin in odd places in her body. She reached for those areas with her hands, and nearly gasped aloud at how sensitive they were to touch.

As she watched Kasumi seemed to stiffen, the noises she was making rising to a crescendo before she fell back, he body limp, while some strange white stuff began to leak from out between their bodies were somehow connected.

After a moment they came apart in some fashion Miriya could not discern, and something, some kind of part that she supposed made Ranma a male instead of a female appeared standing straight up in such a way that looked almost painful. That sight made the heat in her build up even further and she again wondered what she was feeling.

Lisa slowly sat up, kissing Ranma for a moment before reaching for a glass of water set on the table by the bed. She and Kasumi murmured something one after another to Ranma, their voices not carrying far enough for Miriya to hear from where she was. Ranma blanched and tried to shake his head, but Kasumi spoke softly, her voice even as a murmur a calming influence. In response Ranma closed his eyes, and after a moment nodded. Kasumi leaned in kissing him again and Lisa poured the glass of apparently cold water over his head. The two full time women took turns kssing the now far shorter red-haired girl, who seemed to in some fashion be unable to respond to the stimuli.

As Miriya watched Lisa moved down the redhead's body slowly, each kiss making the redhead jolt up from where she was sitting, and then Kasumi dove down into her breasts, and Ranma let out a loud moan.

Miriya was unable to understand what she was seeing, but it was making her feel very strange, the heat and the sensation building up in her, almost demanding she do something. She resolved to ask Kasumi what this was later, but for now retreated to her sofa. Once there she tried to calm down, only to find the heat in her still there, refusing her calming exercises.

She gently lowered one hand to the junction between her legs, where the heat she was feeling was hottest. The feeling that shot through her as she touched herself sent a jolt of pleasure through her, more than she had ever felt, far more than destroying a Invid battleship, more even then chocolate. Her other hand soon joined the first and several minutes later the feelings within her rose into a crescendo, and she bit her lip to keep from screaming aloud as her first ever orgasm raced through her.

Once more resolving to ask Kasumi what it was she had felt, the now strangely exhausted ace pilot fell back onto the sofa and was asleep in moments.

OOOOOOO

Within 10 hours of the peace talks ending Prescott had been given clearance to take his fleet out into orbit. With the Meltraedi no longer in their way it made retaking the moon base and what was there very easy. It would take several more days for the SDF 2 to be powered up and operational, but Prescott had his flagship, and his crew was quickly moving about performing their tasks with efficiency, getting the ship ready for its maiden voyage. They had all been trained on mock-ups of the ship in secret since the original Macross had returned, and now that time spent training proved its worth.

While that was going on Prescott left that task to his flagship captain and moved with the rest of his fleet to drop off the colony ships in Jupiter's orbit.

His fleet was now twenty strong even without the two carriers broken off to meet up with the Macross, and they would stay in orbit over Jupiter performing war games and training simulations together while the colony ships moved into its atmosphere and set up shop until the SDF-2 was ready for launch.

This meant that they would probably miss the fight against the skirmish fleet that, but it would put them in a much more powerful position going forward against any other incursions. Not only were there now colonies to continue the human race off planet, but the majority of Earth was now on a wartime footing, and their fleet would have the time to get to know how to make war in space before being thrown into the fire.

The peace agreement with the Meltraedi had shaken up all of the governments and power blocs on Earth, and the blunt assessment of Earth's ability to survive, even after Gloval, had rather stupidly in the opinion of many informed, Azonia of the Grand Cannon scheme, had galvanized all the parties to put aside their differences and put as much effort as they could to make certain humanity survived.

Admiral Hayes was arrested for insubordination and treason, while his backer the former president was simply jailed and undergoing psychiatric evaluation. Unlike in the military gross misconduct and stupidity was not a jailing offense in civilian life, but he had lost all his credibility and his power base. The charges for him would be much more severe in the end however after all instigating a civil war was obviously an act of treason.

Despite the fact that Azonia had heaped so much scorn on the project the Grand Cannon projects went forward in some of the areas where they were being built, simply because China and America had the industrial capacity to do both that and to build up their military forces to a wartime footing. Combined both of them had put down thirty new hulls, all of them based off designs created by the think tank, but even with the massively sped up building times allowed by modern robotics and technology it would be some time before they were ready to add to the growing human fleet. The hulls would take a few weeks, but after that would be the fiddly bits which would take just as long.

Russia disdained the idea of the Grand Cannon, building its own two colony ships in record time to add to the group already built. They also put down even more hulls than before. The new Akula class (Russians were not very imaginative when named ship classes) long-range missile stealth battleships would as their name described be stealthy long ranged and, their designers hoped, deadly. They took shortcuts in this by decommissioning every one of their submarines and other platforms, taking the metal and parts of those ships to build their new ships and reassigning their crews. This gave them a large surplus of crew people, all of whom were put into fast track schools to prepare them for their new jobs.

The future looks bright, Prescott thought, if we can survive the next month or so Humanity will build itself up into a much tougher nut to crack. He knew it probably wouldn't be enough to save Earth if a main fleet was sent after them, but it might be enough to ensure that humanity survived, and that was the main thing. He briefly thought of transferring his family, which were now living in his rather cramped quarters aboard the heavy beam based battleship Rommel, to one of the colony ships, but decided against it. After all, they may well be safer on the SDF-2 if that ship could survive as well as its predecessor.

Give us the time Gloval, just give us the time and humanity may live through this, he begged silently, staring out into the dark of space.

OOOOOOO

"Oof!" Shampoo bounced off the wall that had suddenly appeared around the corner of the hallway she had been running down. Her great grandmother had held her up for her assignment to a Valkyrie squadron talking about how she would need to take order from Ranma and maybe other males now that she and her sisters had graduated from the academy. They and Kotatsu had finished the accelerated course at the academy intended to bring them up to speed on the technology and terminology they would be using as pilots in the Veritech wing, well before the others and having a small graduation ceremony the day before this. Everyone knew they would need as many pilots as possible brought up to speed before the skirmish fleet got here, which fueled the push to get martial artists up to speed quickly. The commandant wasn't happy about it, but had agreed when the Amazons had risen to the challenge of understanding the technology far better than he had truly expected.

Cologne wanted to impress on Shampoo even more than her sisters that they needed to get along and work together with the males of the normal military, and was leaving along with Dr. Lang in a few hours with a few others to look at Matriarch (let the silly males and the military people call her admiral, Shampoo knew a Matriarch when she saw one) Azonia's flagship at her behest. It would be the first show of the new alliance and would hopefully open up new avenues of technology and understanding for both species.

Cologne and Lang were both honored and excited, yet at the same time annoyed that it would take away from their searching out the strange readings they were getting from deep within the space fortress. They both wanted to find out if it came from another example of the strange vine thing that gave off so much ki, but it was buried, almost hidden in the superstructure of the massive ship, and would take days, maybe even weeks of concentrated searching to find the source of the reading, which alas they didn't have enough time to do right now. Nor did either of them want to hand off the work to others, not trusting them enough to not mess it up somehow. On the other hand Emil's little project had been finished, and was only awaiting testing before going to production. The missile ship proponents would be very happy when that happened…

Back in the here and now Shampoo rubbed her head irritably. "What stupid ass place stupid wall in corridor?"

A deep rumbling baritone voice interrupted her musings and she looked up in shock as what she had called a wall spoke. "I've been called stupid many times alas, though mostly when I was younger admittedly. A wall is new though."

Shampoos gaped up at the man who was speaking. He was taller than even Henri Gloval, who was a few inches taller than Mannstein, the next tallest person aboard the ship. But where Gloval was thin and almost wiry, this man was massively muscled, almost as much as Mannstein, and where Mannstein gave off the aura of an immovable object, this man, despite Shampoo's first impression, was built for speed as much as muscle. He wore the uniform of a Spartan operator and had the rank tabs of a captain on one side of his monstrous chest.

He was also one of the most ruggedly handsome men Shampoo had ever seen, almost as much as Ranma. His face showed his Indian heritage easily, and he had neat trimmed goatee, deep yet lively black eyes set into a somewhat thin face dominated by a wry smile.

Shampoos scrambled to her feet, cursing the blush that she knew was appearing on her face and her clumsiness. "Sorry, sir, didn't see you there, I was running late and…"

The man waved off her apology. "That is alright, I can tell you are one of the Amazons yes, the ones who were sped through the academy? You're getting assigned to your squads today I believe."

Shampoo nodded. "Yes sir, some of us anyway. Assigned to the roster positions left open for us in some of the squadrons." Only about half of the graduating Amazons would be placed in their squadrons immediately, the others would form a small and ready reserve force to be added into any squadron that took to many losses in the battles against the skirmish fleet. Eventually Lisa wanted every squadron to have at least six pilots ready to be rotated in, regardless of any considerations. For now though they didn't have that large a reserve of ready pilots, though the Valkyries were there, and would remain there for a time going forward.

"I see, well good luck. You won't catch me gallivanting about in space, I'll keep my feet firmly on the ground thank you very much. Now, I should allow you to go, a beautiful young woman such as yourself shouldn't be penalized for being late for your first squad meeting."

Shampoo blushed a little more at the compliment but saluted and went to go when she realized she hadn't learned the man's name. "Thank you sir, but um, can I ask who you are?"

The man walked on, waving one large, sinewy hand in the air in farewell. "Rana Sanga at your service miss."

OOOOOOO

Lord Admiral Retsuc shook his head blearily as his fleet at last came out of fold. Long folds like that were always irritating, but they saved time, and that was all to the good in his opinion. The sooner he could get this over with the sooner he could rub it in Breetai's and Azonia's faces.

His thoughts were interrupted by one of his bridge's crewmen speaking up. "Sir, we have a Meltraedi scout ship on the screen, it's hailing us, says it's linked to their admiral."

Retsuc sneered at the idea of talking to one of the females, especially that jumped-up useless female Azonia. Still, they might have information that would make his job easier. "Put it through."

Azonia's image appeared on his screen. "Admiral Restuc, I understand you are now in charge of taking the space fortress. I have its present position and course if you want it, the humans can't seem to realize our radar is better than their own, so my ships have been able to keep track of it easily."

Retsuc sneered at the female. "Yes I have been given this task by Dolza himself, you're idiocy with that young fool Kyron has shown Lord Dolza he can't trust you to complete it after all. And I understand that the great Breetai," he said the name scornfully, safe in the knowledge that its owner was far away from here, "wasn't able to do it either. How the mighty have fallen."

Azonia took his words calmly, though if you were better able to read a person than Retsuc had seen her, they would have seen the fury hidden in her eyes, as well as certain amusement carefully hidden, a excitement waiting for something to happen. "Indeed, I understand your knowledge of the space fortress will give you an edge. Just remember you're supposed to take it as intact as possible." She nodded to something off screen then turned back. "I'm sending the space fortresses latest coordinates now. I will warn you that two of my ships and the wings on them were brought low by the Micronian infection. It seems to be some kind of mind control thing, as they have turned against us and the fleet."

She grimaced as if in pain for a moment before going on. "We Meltraedi seem susceptible to that more than the Zentraedi, since the same never happened to Breetai of Kyron's fleets, but they will still need to be a factor in your thinking."

Retsuc sneered again. Never having worked with the Meltraedi before, he ignored the rumors about how good their powersuits were, how much better their pilots were, he cared not for two measly ships. "Then they will die like the Micronians. Enough, I have a mission to perform. Just stay there nice and safe wherever you are, and watch a true Zentraedi fleet in action."

Again Azonia's eyes told a far different story than the rest of her as she nodded sharply and cut the connection.

Retsuc turned to his bridge crew. "Power up the fleets fold drives, we'll fold in right on top of the space fortress and launch all our fighters in one unstoppable force. Within four hours at most victory will be ours, and the glory too!"

OOOOOOO

Azonia shook her head disgustedly, sharing an amused glance with Ilea. "Did you identify the flagship?" Ilea looked over at one of her officers who nodded her eyes hard. "Good, tell the humans, the idiot and his forces are on the way. Once our sensors tell us that ship has died, we will move in and wipe out the rest of his fleet. Probably doing the universe a favor too, stupidity like that needs to be culled at every opportunity."

The women around her laughed at her joke, and she turned to Elder Cologne, a fascinating individual who was sitting on her console, her diminutive size nearly disappearing in the massive bridge. Dr. Lang was down in the engine room with his team, having found something intriguing down there. "Well, now it begins. I hope your friends on the space fortress perform as well as we think they will."

The old crone cackled. "Oh don't worry dear, one thing you can count on is that the space fortress and those aboard it are survivors. They'll do their part."

Azonia smiled in response and turned back to watch the tactical screen, waiting.

OOOOOOO

Henri Gloval stared out of the main viewport of the space fortress, shaking his head in wonder at the sight of two of Meltraedi ships in visual range yet not attacking them. Even with battle immanent something chosen by Azonia's best estimate for how long it would take a skirmish fleet to fold from Zentraedi-held space to here, this still was an amazing sight.

The two ships in question were from what the Meltraedi called the Quiltra Queleual class, or what the humans called the carrier ships of the Zentraedi fleets. Not that the other ship types didn't have Gargoyles or as they were called by their owners Queadluun Rau, a name that Henri felt did have a certain something to it, well matched with the lethal nature of them and those that used them. It was just these ships held more.

These two ships could hold as many as two wings of the battlepods, or Regulds, fully 4,000 pods at full load out. The Meltraedi variant each held a full over strength wing of 1,000 powersuits. Normally only 400 would be used at a time, but in this fight they would all be sent out en masse, the better to utterly overwhelm the Reguld forces of the skirmish fleet. Indeed having seen what the Queadluun Rau could do Henri felt this was rather overkill, but wasn't about to complain.

The wings were led by a veteran wing leader named Karina, who had requested this assignment, as well as asked both Azonia and the humans leave to board the space fortress and meet someone, in her words 'the one who got away'. Henri had temporarily okayed that visit for after this battle, and Karina had agreed to the delay happily.

He smirked a little as he looked around the bridge at Lisa who was calmly speaking to Karin and her officers about the battle plan, having already done the same earlier that day. He was a vice admiral and thus was supposed to be in charge of a fleet's maneuvers during battle, but there were no others capital ships that were going to be involved in this battle. And since he hadn't come up from a carrier/Air Force background, Lisa had taken over controlling the movement of the fighter core. Eventually he would be in charge of a fleet, but until then, he was back being a simple battleship commander, which was fine by him. Even in siege mode there were still things he had to be in control of after all.

His musings were interrupted by a call from Claudia. "Sir, the Meltraedi report the skirmish fleet has arrived. Estimate another two hours before they arrive here."

Henri nodded, his formerly whimsical thoughts hardening. "Sound battle stations, destroids to battle stations for siege mode. Launch Valkyries, and tell our allies to launch and then get out of here. It's our show for now."

OOOOOOO

Wildfire, Skull and Vermillion led the way out of the hanger bays of the space fortress racing to take position along the sides of the massive ship, still under its secondary guns but slightly out of range of the tertiary weapons systems. The defense of the ship for this battle would lie solely in the hands to the tertiary weapons systems and the Destroids, the Valkyries had their own duties to perform. Whether this would remain the case throughout the battle was anyone's guess of course.

The two carriers, the Hood and the Queen Elizabeth, were kilometer long cylindrical tubes with a cross-wise head on the front sort of resembling that of a mace, and a bulbous end holding the massive engines with hundreds of hatches along the center cylinder. Those hatches opened now, disgorging the newest space fighter of the UNSF, the Sabers. The sabers were built around one large engine with two swept back wings on either side and a single massive beam weapon that was the same class as the three main guns on a Monster class destroid. Besides this they had maneuvering thrusters, and the new fold-space communication devices which allowed their operators to fly them by remote control. The saber operators were housed in small compartments along the cross sections of the mace-like front of the ship, with the bridge and leaving quarters in the center.

The Sabers were nowhere near as maneuverable as a Valkyrie or regular jet, but they were not designed to be, their primary function was to destroy capital ships. This would be the first time they were used in combat however, so it remained to be seen if the design was a viable one.

As the carriers let loose a little under 2,000 Saber's each, the operators took control of them, forming them into packs of twelve, moving them to be spaced evenly around the space fortress. A second later the two carriers folded out, reappearing at the edge of their control envelope. After a brief moment of disorientation the operators were able to re-establish contact with their birds, and thus one aspect of the carrier's design was proven up to the job.

At the same time as the two human carriers let loose their craft, the two Meltraedi carriers did the same. Soon space around the space fortress was full of the different unit that made up this battle, and the humans and their allies were ready to go to work.

Shampoo was flying under the call sign Wild 5, despite the fact she wasn't an officer and her flight was composed entirely of Amazons. Directly behind her was third flight, led by Ben, who was in overall command of her flight and his own.

Ranma had rearranged Roy's new order of battle a bit. Instead of having each flight have a GPB 1-S to supply long range cover fire, he had grouped the three together and had put Kotatsu in a normal Valkyrie with them, thinking that, since he had the best idea of fighting in space of all the newbies he would be able to look after their close in defense the easiest. Ranma was also interested in seeing if the male kunoichi could get any of his ninja skills to work through his Valkyrie.

The Armored Valkyrie's would use their superior firepower, range and lock on ability to destroy any Regulds that threatened the Sabers in their range. Third flight and second flight would be protecting the Sabers as they went about their business.

First flight led by Ranma would be attacking both Regulds and capital ships as they could. This flight was made up of Ranma and Motoko and two blooded Amazon warriors named Tiger and Lynx, both of whom had some Musk blood in them, and were the best in their age brackets. Not quite as good as Shampoo, but far more experienced and hopefully good enough to keep up with Motoko and Ranma.

Miriya had taken command of one of the wings assigned to this battle, letting Karina have command of the other one, though this really didn't amount to much since she had informed all of her fellow pilots to follow orders issued from the space fortress. This would have been unthinkable if Gloval was in charge of the fighter movements, but he wasn't and Lisa had swiftly impressed all the flight leaders with her professionalism and her sharp mind. None of them had ever even attempted to control a battle as much as she did, but if it kept their casualties low then that was all to the good.

Now Miriya and a flight of Queadluun Rau flew up to take position alongside Wildfire. "So, no singing this time Ranma?"

Motoko smirked. She and Miriya had hit it off quickly, indeed over the last few days she had gotten along with practically every Meltraedi she had interacted with preparing for this battle and now she joined in the gentle pre-battle teasing. "Yes, how can we go into battle without the voice of our very own goddess of war driving us on?"

Ranma smirked a little. "Heh, I'll remember that remark next time I'm asked to put on a concert, I heard some of the organizers wondering if they should add dancing girls to the act."

Motoko spluttered and Miriya, who only barely understood the joke laughed, but her laughter cut off as the call came in from the space fortress. "Estimated arrival time for the skirmish fleet in one minute and counting, time to get your game faces on people, and remember, your job isn't to die in the line of duty, it's to make sure these bastards die doing theirs."

Every one of the elite pilots laughed at that, though some of the humans from earth that hadn't gotten used to the laid back nature of the military life aboard the ship shook their heads at the strange note of levity in Lisa's voice.

Ranma closed his eyes breathing deeply, gathering his ki and sending it out into his Valkyrie finding once again that it was as easy as sending the ki to various parts of his own body, and soon his Valkyrie was bathed in blue and gold fire, visible in the dark of space by anyone who looked his way.

The story of his act of defiance after his final set to with Miriya back on earth had gone around the Meltraedi fleet and while all of them had agreed with Azonia on the need to ally with the humans, not all the pilots assigned to this battle had believed that particular story. Now they did.

As Zentraedi ships began to fold out all around the space fortress Ranma breathed out and opened his eyes, but where before they had been blue as the ocean, now they glowed gold, crackling with power. "Let's start this party right!" With a single thought his Valkyrie zoomed forward, faster than any save Miriya could track, appearing to teleport form his former position to right in front of one of the skirmish fleet's capital ships, already transforming faster than it had ever been able to do before the Valkyries own energy source, merging and amplifying Ranma's own.

He threw out a fist bathed in gold light impacting the front of the ship, his voice a trumpet a clarion call to war. "MOKO HA REIKU!" A beam of power, tiny in comparison to the size of the Zentraedi ship, shot out from the point of impact into the ship, burning through everything in its path until it burst out the other end.

Ranma zoomed away, clicking his music player on and blaring a new song already on the chorus over every frequency. "Sound it off this is the call, rise and revolution! It's our time to change it all, rise and revolution! Unite, and fight to make a better life! Everybody one for all, sound off, this is the call, tonight, we rise!" Tonight, we rise!"

Miriya zoomed forward a mere heartbeat after Ranma had begun to move, and her missiles impacted another battleship at its most vulnerable point, a little patch right where the engineering section met the rest of the ship, blowing through into the delicate fold drives. That ship too exploded, and seemed to be a signal for everyone else to follow the two aces' lead.

OOOOOOO

Gloval gaped at how fast Ranma and the Meltraedi Ace had reacted, but shook it off quickly, this was not the time to be wool gathering. "Fire main cannon, go to continuous fire on all guns! Secondary target the class known as Quiltra-Quelamitz," he stumbled over the odd name but went on swiftly, "destroy as many of them as you can before targeting the other types."

At his orders the massive siege gun of the Macross spoke with a roar, and a tenth of the skirmish fleet disappeared, reducing to their constituent atoms under the power of that ravening beam of energy. "Turn to redirect the beam!" Gloval ordered and the ship began to turn like a man turning in place, the beam licking out and destroying more ships as it did.

At the same time, the secondaries under Sammy's command locked on their targets, and still more Zentraedi ships began to die, and others began to fire back, launching fighters.

Lisa however left the ship to ship portion of the battle in the vice-admiral's capable hands, concentrating on her portion. "All Saber attack groups in delta and epsilon quadrants, Wildfire has given you a whole, follow it in! Wildfire flight two and three, protect those Sabers, Green and Gold squadrons do the same. All Queadluun Rau are cleared to advance, Sabers follow them in!"

OOOOOOO

For all the things he had in common with Kyron there were some things where the self styled lord admiral Retsuc differed from Kyron. For one thing, he was a personal coward, and had never, not even once, led a battle from a command Reguld or even from the front at all. His ship was positioned dead center in his fleet but thankfully (for him) not directly in front of the space fortress. This allowed him to survive the first few minutes of the shocking reverse ambush but even so it took him a moment to realize what was happening. They were supposed to surprise the space fortress, not vice versa!

Still he shook it off for the moment, turning to his flag captain. "Pull us back from the battle, get us behind the rest of the fleet!" He looked at the screen, gulping as the space fortress's beam cannon did its work. "Order all ships to spread out, move out of the plane of that beam gun! Launch all Regulds and Gnerls!"

Breetai hadn't made extensive use of his Gnerl fighter pods after a few initial clashes. Not only were they slower and not quite as maneuverable as Regulds, they were far easier to lock on at range by any of the human mechs, which made them death traps with little return. Of course Retsuc didn't know that, and even if he did, he wouldn't have cared.

He watched aghast as some kind of small spacefighter worked with two of its fellows to carve into one of his ships with heavy lasers, soon destroying it. "Wh-what are those things!"

The strange new spacefighters had gotten among his fleet and were now slashing in at any target they could hit, and he shivered at the amount of damage the little things were doing. "Order half our Regulds to defense of the capital ships, all Gnerls to attack the space fortress!"

Many of his ships hadn't been able to escape the siege cannon's beam, and fifty more died before they could escape from its area of attack. "All ships, weapons free, target the space fortress!"

His captain looked at him aghast. "But sir, we were ordered to capture the space fortress as intact as possible!"

Retsuc sneered at him gesturing at the battle. "Fool, we need to survive to take it don't we?!

The man gulped a little at the losses already sustained and passed the orders along, but Retsuc's attention had been grabbed by what looked to be a very small blue/gold star zipping in and around his ships. Where it went destruction followed and he gaped in astonishment at the strange thing. "What in the hell is that!"

OOOOOO

Shampoo and her flight and Kotatsu had been delegated to protect Ben and the other 'artillerists' as well as the Sabers and once the Zentraedi had begun to launch their own fighters Shampoo had found herself almost overwhelmed by the sheer number of targets and dangers around her. It was only her training with her grandmother in multiple threat environment situations that saved her from being destroyed in the first twenty minutes, but after that she got the hang of it, and was soon moving through the clouds of Regulds easily, always staying within range of the GBP-1S weapons, who were reaping a horrible toll on their enemies. And with the new and improved ammo expansion technique emplaced on every Valkyrie in the force, they could continue to do so for hours on end.

Kotatsu didn't have nearly as much trouble acclimatizing to fighting in space, but mindful of his duty he stayed close to the Armored Types, protecting them and any Sabers in their combat envelope with ease. He hadn't been able to get any of his kunoichi techniques to work through the Valkyrie, but he had brought along a tanto blade (made by Mousse at his new shop, much like Motoko's katana) and used it just as well as he used all of his other weapons, racking up a insane kill total.

Motoko followed Ranma into the center of the attacking fleet, finding herself hard pressed just to keep him in sight let alone stay on his six. Whatever had been done to his Valkyrie had made the thing even deadlier than it had already been, and it was performing moves and attacks that she had never seen it capable of doing before.

But that didn't mean she was without her own new tricks. She pushed her ki into her Valkyries' blade, having figure out how to do so back on Earth and having spent the time since perfecting the technique. She used her rifle to destroy first five Regulds between her and the nearest ship, then two of the ships own anti air guns. With that done, she raced forward, her now glowing blade slamming into the outer hull of the ship right over its bridge like a knife through butter. "Special attack, God-slaying BLADE!" the blade suddenly grew for just a moment to a hundred times its former length, and with a roar she swung it, biting deep and actually slicing through the ship, cutting away a full fourth of its length. She kicked off, transforming into jet mode mid-leap and raced away.

Behind her the two veteran Amazons followed her easily, and she shook her head. "Wild 3, wild 4, stay on my six, don't even try to go off on your own!" The two older women replied quickly, not a little awed at the martial display Ranma and Motoko were putting on.

Miriya destroyed yet another battleship, cutting across Ranma's path and almost negligently destroying ten Reguld pods that had been trying to follow him while he did the same for her. Fighting Ranma had helped her get even better than she had been, and she dodged the defensive beams of another battleship easily. Closing in swiftly she ripped off a section of its engine's armor with her powersuit's hands, firing into the exposed section with her cannons before boosting away, letting the ship explode behind her.

She keyed her com system. "Would you like to make a wager Ranma?" None of the Meltraedi understood the point of call signs, and refused to use them.

"What kind of wager?" Ranma grunted a little as he finished speaking dodging the fire of one of the carrier ships before slamming six missiles into the ships engine. They ripped off much of its armor, and a few ki enhanced shots from his rifle did the rest, and the ship exploded violently even as he ducked and rolled into his guardian mode, using his head lasers and rifle to destroy several Reguld pods.

"I bet I can destroy more of these scum then you. One point per Reguld, two for each Gnerl, fifty per capital ship?"

Ranma absentmindedly crushed a Regulds center with a kick then spun into jet mode, lazing away to come up behind another group that had been about to ambush a Saber that had been cut off from it's pack. "And the stakes?"

"Loser has to do obey the winner's orders for a set amount of time?" Miriya asked, almost hesitantly. She hadn't thought that far ahead to be honest.

"Heh, alright," Said Ranma, though if this was back in Nerima he would never have taken that kind of wager.

"Excellent." Replied Miriya, then the two warriors turned back to business.

OOOOOOO

Not everyone was having as easy a time of it. Marcus Prescott was a little overwhelmed by his first brush with the truly insane world of combat in space against the Zentraedi. They had no grasp of organization or self preservation or anything like what he was used to. They just kept coming! It was only because of the three GBP-1S armed Valkyries in his squadron that kept him and his men alive in that first hour of combat, and even that would not have been enough if they had been ordered to follow up on one of the assaults launched by the elite squads.

A part of him, to his credit a small easily ignored part of him, hadn't quite believed Fokker and Sugita about how chaotic a fight in space could be. Now he did, and the fact this was the biggest dustup any of the veterans had seen made it all the worse for the Earth pilots.

Despite the work his men and he had been doing since coming aboard to build up their endurance, they were beginning to flag after only an hour, and the battle was continuing without even a single sign of letting up. He had already lost four pilots down, three recoverable thanks to their armor strengthening technique around their cockpits.

Thus it was something of a relief when Captain Hayes' voice sounded in his ear. "Knight Squadron you've fallen below the acceptable loss range, pull back along the following heading…"

Prescott listened as he killed a triangle fighter that was trying to line up a shot on his second wingman, blowing it up with four shots to its side. "Roger that command one, be advised we have three pilots Dutchman, we'll need to recover them before heading back, our speed will be slowed down by this."

"Negative," said Lisa crisply. "Your squadron is dead on its feet Knight 1, get them back here now. We can recover your downed pilots after the battle, the Zentraedi don't seem to understand the concept of emergency pods. They'll be fine until after the battle."

Unless of course they get caught up in an explosion from one of the Zentraedi ships, Marcus thought grimly, but still nodded. His pilots were all showing signs of fatigue, and fatigue would kill them all unless they got out of here. "Roger that, pulling back now."

OOOOOOO

The defense of the space fortress was not exactly the soft option in this or any other battle. The mobile barrier shields were assigned to guard the space fortress from their enemy beam attacks, which became more numerous as the battle went on, leaving the defense of the rest of the surface of the ship to the Destroids and the tertiary weapons systems.

The new anti-air weapons of the space fortress, called the BFS, or Big-Fucking-Shotgun, system were utterly deadly against any kind of fighter assault. They shot small three inch long spears of metal at insane speeds, filling space much like a old time flak cannon, but at the speeds they were shot out at, even a near miss could destroy any attacking Reguld or tri-fighter in atmosphere. Out in space they weren't quite as deadly, but the difference was minimal. The crews of the BFS guns had all gone to continuous fire as soon as the Reguld and tri-fighter swarm attacked the ship, and where they were, no attacker could get within a thousand yards.

Yet this left a lot of the surface of the space fortress uncovered, which was where the destroids earned their keep. The four Defender companies were dug in at strategic points everywhere along the surface in squad or sometimes company strength, with Tomahawks dug in around the big guns in squad sized groups, with one company acting as a reserve force. Another company of Tomahawks was situated in defense around Mannstein in his Apocalypse where they were situated on the 'foot' of the space fortress, destroying the beam heavy ships of the enemy much like the secondary weapons of the Macross.

The Spartans on the other hand, the two companies of them aboard ship, had been broken into fire teams of four and set loose to roam the outer hull, attacking any group of Regulds that touched down, or lending aid where it was most needed.

Rana Sanga led one such to a breach in the defense where several hundred Regulds had touched down, using the death of an equal number of tri-fighters to get in under a tertiary gun's range. There they ran into a group of Defenders, with two Spartan gun-teams in support.

Three Spartan gun teams fell upon them from behind, loosing missiles into their backs before closing with maul and blade. Most of the destroids now carried both thanks to Mousse and Perfume's weapons shop.

Rana slammed bodily into one Reguld, knocking it off its feet before dropping his weapons to hand in space for the moment as he picked it up bodily and threw the pod into two of its fellows. Another Spartan jumped on the pile, his weapons working and all three died.

The Rajput then grabbed up his blade and maul, clipping the maul to his side via the magnetic clamp in its handle, grabbing up his rifle and blasting away at the Regulds that had attempted to jump over his position. They all went down, but he had taken a shot himself, though thanks to the armor strengthening technique he barely felt it. Unlike the Valkyries all the destroids had that technique everywhere along their bodies.

"Spartan 1-1, report status of company." Mannstein's gravelly voice echoed over Rana's communicator, the deep whuum-thrum of Apocalypse's grazers at work in the background.

"This is Spartan 1-1, company is still good to go, we haven't lost anyone yet, but I've ordered several of my troops back due to damage." A few had even returned by this point in the battle, which had been going on for over three hours now.

"Good," Mannstein grunted. The destroids as a group were doing very well in this battle, and it was all owed to the new energy based ammo case enlarging and armor strengthening techniques. "I am rotating out my reserves, one of the Defender companies along the main body port side is reporting an ammo shortage, and has taken casualties. Send two of your fire teams there to assist." With that he cut the connection, ordering his gunner to turn his attention on a gun boat that was rising beneath the space fortress in an attempt to bring its main gun to bear in an area the space fortress couldn't cover. A moment later that ship joined many of its fellows in oblivion.

OOOOOOO

Despite the fury of the battle outside, Lisa and Gloval kept a tight rein on the bridge of the Macross, an ocean of calm in the ongoing chaos. Four hours in and the last of the Zentraedi gun boats was gone, and with them a major threat to the ship. They alone had the power to punch through one of the barrier shields.

The ship had taken damage, but all its guns were still functioning, and the main gun continued to fire, though the damage it was doing was lessened by the fact the aliens had spread out so quickly. Gloval had also turned the ship on its axis and sometimes onto it's 'back or 'side to bring the siege gun to bear, and he estimated the enemy had lost a quarter of their ships at this point, though later it would be shown that after the first blast the main cannon didn't account for as many as they initially thought.

The barrier shields along the surface of the space fortress had to be replaced several times, and they were down to their last forty now, but still going strong, and Kim had directed the ten reserve shields up, as well as directing her repair crews.

On Lisa's end, her rotating the Valkyries and Queadluun Rau had kept their losses as low as they could be expected to be. Most squadrons had lost people, but not a one had been wiped out, though the squads consisting mostly of pilots that had come aboard from Earth during their time there had all been brought in, their retreats staggered throughout the fight.

The powersuits too had taken losses, but nowhere near as much as they normally would have.

The Sabers despite being defended by the Valkyries had taken far worse losses and were now down to barely half their starting strength but as they were remote controlled drones Lisa couldn't care less.

In return the Sabers and the groups ordered to attack the enemy capital ships had wiped out a little under 350 ships of the enemy. The Regulds of the skirmish fleet had taken even more horrendous losses from the Valkyries and Queadluun Rau, and between them and the main gun swatting them like flies Lisa could actually see that there was a marked decrease in the cloud of Regulds swarming everywhere in the battle.

She looked at her tactical screen and smirked a little, as she knew it was about to get worse for Retsuc and his skirmish fleet. "Beware humans bringing gifts, for they are often explosive," She murmured, before returning to barking out orders.

OOOOOOO

Retsuc stared at his tactical screen, trying to come to terms with what he was seeing, trying to override his growing terror at what he was seeing. His fleet had sustained heavy losses, but it wasn't that so much as the type of losses and the how that terrified him. The Meltraedi Queadluun Rau that had been infected by this Micronian Infestation mind control thing had ripped his Reguld forces into pieces, and the human transforming fighters were nearly as dangerous. They had lost nearly two-thirds of their Reguld and Grelf forces up to this point, and there was no sign that depredation was going to stop.

And then there were those tiny Micronian spacefighters that seemed to have only one purpose, that of destroying his ships! And they were doing a damn good job of it. While they hadn't destroyed at one shot the number of ships he had lost to that damn beam weapon of the space fortress, the cumulative effect was even worse.

On the other side of things the space fortress had been hurt, but not severely. He could still see all of its weapons firing, the siege cannon had yet to stop firing and those odd defenders that fought on its surface hadn't taken many losses.

He was no closer now to winning this battle then he had been at the beginning, if anything his position was rapidly worsening. The loss incurred by his Regulds might already mean they couldn't successfully board the space fortress even if they won through its outer defenses, and the loss of every single one of his gun boats (and how had the Micronians figured out how to tell Zentraedi ship types apart that well?) meant he had lost his most powerful weapon to break the strange mobile shield things.

One other difference between Retsuc and Kyron was he knew when to cut his losses, and was cowardly enough to do just that when the odds turned against him. He turned to his communication officer and was about to order his fleet to fold out and regroup elsewhere when she shuddered, throwing him to the floor of his bridge. "Wh-what?"

One of his officers shouted "We're under attack, left engine gone!"

Retsuc stared at him, and the tactical screen changed to show the exterior of the ship. There by the engines was the Micronian fighter that glowed blue and gold, still glowing and surrounded by the remains of the engine and the anti-air nodules around it.

The ship shuddered again just as the screen went black and Retsuc shook his head, hyperventilating as fear gripped him. "This, this can't be happening, we can't, I can't be defeated like this, not by some minor species like the Micronians! It, It's not possible!"

A moment later the ship exploded like so many of its fellows, and Retsuc found out it was indeed possible.

OOOOOOO

Ranma grinned as he killed another of the countless Reguld that were still swarming around, though he could tell their numbers had taken a real hit by past seven hours of nonstop combat. "This is wild 1, the flagship is gone, repeat the flagship is gone. You can call the rest of the ladies to the dance!" With that he put the bigger picture out of his mind, laughing as he dove into a large group of Regulds, smashing out with hands, feet and weapons.

OOOOOOO

Lisa and Gloval shared a glance and the vice-admiral turned to Claudia. "You heard the man, please tell our allies, they are welcome to join us at any time."

OOOOOOO

Azonia and the rest of the Meltraedi fleet needed no further urging. They had all been watching the fight, and saw how their fellow Meltraedi had been doing, and now were anxious to prove their worth. Azonia smiled grimly at her communication officer. "the 1st fifth and twelfth divisions will advance to add our allies, all other ships to remain on station. Gun boats are to move to optimum position and provide long range support, all other ships fold forward to engage the enemy. In one hour I don't want a single Zentraedi ship in Sol space."

This was answered by a roar of approval from the bridge crew and Ilea nodded firmly. "Your will be done lady." With that she turned and the Night Dagger led three divisions of the Meltraedi fleet into fold, appearing directly behind the beleaguered, increasingly desperate and now leaderless 11th skirmish fleet.

Her troops were as good as her word, and less than an hour after Azonia's declaration the last ship from the 11th blew up under the combined power of three Meltraedi battleships.

Elder Cologne cackled from her position on the top of one of the bridge consoles. "Well done, I must say, a most masterful ambush on everyone's part I feel."

Azonia smiled a little grimly down at the diminutive elder. "Now comes the tough part."

End chapter

As you can see there are going to be major changes from canon. For one thing the humans will be the junior partner in the alliance for now, though it might not last long. there have been a lot of technological advancements and the Meltraedi are with the humans 100%.

Some may think that the Meltraedi might be willing to be a sort of go between, trying to broker peace between the humans and Zentraedi, but remember the Meltraedi see themselves as a separate group, they have no love, and indeed the loathe the wasteful, arrogant Zentraedi.

*Chapter 29*: Building up and Counting Down

I don't own Robotech or Ranma.

Some reviews I'd like to mention:

rdde: While you are correct that in a way the battle was a failure as an ambush, given the ill luck of the flagship appearing where it did in relation to the space fortress it could have been nothing else. The Space fortress doesn't turn very well in siege mode, I've always pictured it as a bit of a lumbering brute in that more really. So if they didn't kill the flagship with their first blast, and if it was far enough back in the formation relative to the space fortress and it's people, then Retsuc would have time to react, which is what happened. The longer the battle began, the more spread out the ships of his fleet, and the less effective the siege cannon was. I went back to make some changes to make this aspect clearer and other reasons will be detailed below. The comment about the BFS was also spot on, and I went back and changed that too. Oh, and Ranma's a little arrogant really, if you aren't at his level of devotion to the art, he doesn't consider you a real martial artist.

JohnC25: I will be continuing this story into the future dealing with the masters and the Invid, but that will take time and research to do, so at present the story will end by the end of January at most and will just cover the initial war against Dolza.

Wolfman-053: Thanks for spotting that. Yes, he's based off the character from the Belisarius novels as well as from history. Don't know if the general himself will make an appearance, and Valentenian and Anastasius won't. This story already has two characters as it's death and destruction thank you.

Narsil: Yeah, the near miss thing has been corrected, you're not the only one who spotted it. Again yes Rana Sanga was taken from the Belisarius series, and yes he may be Shampoos love interest, though going forward I won't have any time to devote to it 'on screen' as it were. Same with Motoko's reaction so far, though you will see a bit of that in this chapter second hand.

Cj-cold: Thank you for the great review. In terms of the salvage, not really necessary going forward, as you'll see in this chapter. The references to Jupiter and the change in name was a mistake, thanks for spotting it.

Chapter 28 Building up and counting down

The aftermath of a battle is always hard, yet this one in comparison to many is relatively painless, Lisa mused to herself. Despite the length of the battle they hadn't even come close to the casualties sustained in the last battle against Kyron's forces. The Macross had taken several hits, and was once more down to twenty mobile barriers, but none of the hits had taken out anything important. One from a Quiltra-Quelamitz gun boat had cored straight through the Daedalus, but casualties had been relatively light, and Kim's teams had moved in quickly.

Really the fight had only lasted so long because of bad luck, the size and three dimensional aspect of space combat, and the fact the enemies flagship was the same class as a little over half of his fleet. Azonia ran her fleet from a Queadol-Magdomilla, a class of battleship the humans had been told was often used as a flagship of the skirmish fleets, but not always. In this case the enemy admiral had flown his colors on a Thurvel-Salan, alike in appearance as any other, making targeting it extremely difficult with the systems on the Macross.

On top of this, they had been struck by bad luck because the flagship hadn't folded out on the same plain or even close to the space fortress. If it had, targeting it in particular wouldn't have been an issue, it would have died with the ships around it. But this lucky chance had allowed the fleet admiral enough time to flush his Regulds and move away even further. The Zentraedi also immediately responded to the danger the siege gun represented, moving out of its plane of fire and doing the best they could to keep away from it. Lisa wouldn't be surprised if, when going over the battle afterward, they found that the siege gun did more damage to the Reguld swarms than to the enemy's capital ships after their initial blast. 10,000 ships just didn't die quickly unfortunately, and the space fortress had done a good job to kill the 362 ships it had before Ranma had destroyed the 7th's flagship.

After that it was only because he kept sending out orders that they knew which ship was the flagship at all. Even then the ship had kept moving, making it an impossible target by moving to positions where the guns on the space fortress couldn't come to bear. That left the task of killing the admiral to the spacefighters, a task they did eventually, but not without having to go through quite a bit of the enemy fleet to do it.

The casualties among the destroids, Valkyrie pilots, and allied Meltraedi had been extremely light considering the size of the enemies though. The Meltraedi had only lost about two hundred of their troops, not even a drop in the bucket to Azonia's forces as a whole, or even a large percentage of their forces involved in the battle. They would have lost more if Lisa hadn't kept firm control of them and rotated them in and out of the outer edge of the battle for some respite, and the Meltraedi knew it and were grateful for it.

The destroid operators had lost ten operator teams, three Spartans, 2 Tomahawks, and five Defenders. Again it had been proven that if the Regulds could close the distance, Defenders were overmatched. Mannstein however had pushed his reserves in at opportune moments to keep such occurrences to a minimum. The Spartans had paid for it, and besides the three lost entirely, over three dozen machines were in need of repairs, and seventeen would have to be scrapped entirely.

Sixty-two Valkyries had been shot down but only lost fifteen pilots were confirmed killed so far, thanks to the armor strengthening technique around their cockpits. Lisa was even now directing the SAR efforts to bring in the other pilots, and wouldn't quit until they found all of them.

It would have been far more if not for the GPB-1S's firepower. Every squadron had three of them, and their range, firepower and ability to hit more than one target at once had proven extremely effective. That and the fact the enemy had to deal with the attackers right in their faces from the beginning of the battle had made this battle much easier than the last few engagements, though there was also the fact the veterans had earned their wings against the Queadluun Rau. The Regulds were ridiculously easy in comparison.

This was in part a sign of the deterioration of experience and skill from the constant losses the Zentraedi accepted as part of their normal mode of warfare. It was a very rare Reguld pilot that survived a full campaign, and only a scant handful survived longer than that. On top of this attrition, none of the survivors ever thought about passing on their skills to their less experienced fellows.

Really the losses were only so high because most of the pilots they had gotten from Earth just hadn't had the physical and mental endurance to last, and exhaustion had taken its toll. That, however, Lisa and the admiral could leave to Roy Fokker (whose return to combat had been greeted by cheers from his men and Rick especially, who stepped down from his position as Skull 1) and Ranma.

Lisa shook her head in amusement, watching Wildfire returning to base, last in as they had been the first out, the sight reminding her of Miriya and Ranma's little competition. She was interested in who won their bet, but in the end it didn't matter. Where the glowing blue-gold Valkyrie and the purple painted Queadluun Rau went they sowed fear and death in their wake, which Wildfire and Miriya's own unit had capitalized on.

Beyond that, the battle had been won by the Queadluun Rau and the Sabers, and she was even now thinking of a tactical doctrine to take advantage of the Sabers and the technology that made them possible.

The Sabers had their trial by fire, and though they had lost more than half of them the Sabers had accounted for far more capital ship kills than the guns of the Macross. That might not have been the case if the enemy had bunched up or had Regulds already out to stop the Sabers from getting close without paying for it, but it had.

And the Queadluun Rau powersuits were simply scary good against the Regulds. They were more durable even now than a Valkyrie, more maneuverable and had more firepower than anything but a GPB-1S Armored Type. Against what could only be called inexperienced pilots, they were like Velicoraptors among sheep.

All in all we did damn well, and I hope to hell we've bought humanity enough time to capitalize on it. She looked over when she noticed a familiar purple powersuit making its way toward the space fortress from one of the Meltraedi carriers. "Miriya, this is command 1, requesting reason for your visit." Her tone was playful, almost welcoming, but her words were delivered crisply. After all there were regulations to follow.

Miriya responded, her voice and lack of address showing that despite their military only lifestyle the Meltraedi lacked something in the way of organization. They didn't have any com protocols or regulations after all. Or perhaps, came the errant thought, they never faced an enemy that could hack their communications and never developed anything to counter it like call signs and signal discipline.

"This is Miriya Lisa, I'm coming aboard to talk to Ranma about how we should figure out how to see who won our bet."

Lisa shook her head. "I might have known. Wildfire is heading toward Hanger Four on the aft side, follow them in okay?"

Miriya responded in the affirmative and Lisa signed off, looking over her board and going back to directing the SAR teams in their work.

OOOOOOO

Ranma had planned to go over to see what Miriya wanted as well as the two power suits that had followed her in as soon as the air re-pressurized enough in the hanger for him to exit his cockpit. This plan was put on hold when he was intercepted by several of the other vets from other squads shouting, "come on Ranma we want a song! We want a song!"

The rest of them picked it up, even the Amazons shouting "Sing, Sing, Sing!"

Ranma growled a little but shouted back. "All right you lot! But if I'm going to sing for you, I'm going to go get someone first. I'll be right back." With that he sped off moving faster than normal, still a little high from the battle. The battle had been so short, well to him and the other vets, that he still had a lot more energy to space than usual.

He sped through the space fortress, bouncing off walls and speeding up with every second, heading straight to where he knew Kasumi would be waiting, by the elevator up to the command spire. She had taken to be there after a battle, because it would allow her to either go up to see Lisa or wait there for Ranma in the most opportune section, whoever she felt was necessary. How she could tell which was which he didn't know, but she did. It had begun back when the fleet broke out of Jupiter's gravity well.

He found her there now, leaning against a wall and seemingly working on something on her data-pad, though her eyes constantly left the screen to look around her.

Ranma skidded to a halt in the open area around the elevator, his shoes making a noise audible over the background hum of the ship on the metal underneath them.

Kasumi looked up, a wide happy smile on her face and Ranma once more felt his heart do a flip. No matter what all else happened, no matter what else they did together, Kasumi's smile always brought out powerful feelings in him. He loved Lisa, and even though he didn't really know it just yet he had come to care for Miriya as well, but there was just something about Kasumi's smile. Luckily he knew he wasn't the only one who felt that way, he'd seen how Lisa sometimes got a goofy little grin on her face when Kasumi smiled at her in the mornings, and even Miriya was not immune to its effects.

Ranma returned her grin, lifting her into the air and twirling her around before kissing her soundly on lips. Kasumi giggled a little, then pulled back and asked, "I take it the battle went well?"

Ranma grinned again, "The battle went very well, but the idiots want me to put on a bit of a show for 'em, and I figure if I'm going to have to put on a show I want someone in the audience who I actually want ta sing to."

So saying he flipped her around so that he was carrying her princess style turned and zoomed back the way he had come, her giggles ringing in her ears.

He returned to hanger three to find Miriya had gotten out of her power suit along with the other two and were talking to them as they looked around in incomprehension of the festivities around them, since even without Ranma there the pilots were still grinning and having fun partying after the battle. Ranma swore he saw someone with a bottle of something passing it around. It was obvious Miriya was trying to explain things to them whether or not she was having any luck Ranma couldn't tell. He raced up to the giantess then bounced off one of her power suits arms and up onto its hand still holding Kasumi.

He set her down and she tried to regain some of her dignity fluffing out her hair and trying to straighten out her clothing. She turned to look up an Miriya who was smiling down at her. "Hello Miriya, I hope the battle went well for you as well?"

"Indeed," said Miriya quite a bit louder than normal, but given her size that wasn't exactly a surprise. "It went very well. I'm simply here to see how Ranma and I are going to figure out who did the best in the battle." She went on a little more hesitantly, leaning down as if she was going to try and whisper. "And afterwards, if I could talk to you for a moment I have some questions about human culture."

Kasumi looked up at the giant woman before her and smiled which cause a smile to bloom on Miriya's face in turn. "Of course, I'm always willing to help my friends." Miriya smile widened further at that word and she nodded firmly.

By this time Ranma had changed into his female form. He reached down into his cockpit, and flicked on the music player. The sound coming out of the speakers was a little louder than normal which surprised him, but given all the other differences between his Valkyrie now and before he wasn't going to question it. As the song began she reached up and pulled out the tie in her ponytail, letting her vibrant red hair fall loose for once. She then shrugged off the outer fighter harness, letting it fall back into her Valkyrie's cockpit.

When that was done she strode forward onto the tip of her Valkyrie's fuselage, and began to sing, ignoring the gapes and grins of those around her. Unlike most of her songs, this one wasn't one that could only be connected to battle however, and Shampoo, standing in the audience alongside Motoko, began to giggle as she listened.

"I'm on the train that's pullin' the sick and twisted, making the most of the ride before we get arrested, we're all wasted and, we're not going home tonight! Covered in black we lack the social graces, just like an animal we crawl out of our cages, they can't tame us, so if you're one of us, get on the bus!"

Ranma flipped off the nose of her Valkyrie, her hair rippling in the air around her head as she did a full flip before landing easily on her feet, spinning around and twirling as she began the chorus. "If you're a freak like me, wave your flag If you're a freak like me, get off your ass! It's our time now, to let it all hang out. So shout if you're a freak like me, you were born to burn this ain't no disease, you don't need a cure! It's our time now, to come out! If you're a freak like me, if you're a freak like me!"

Ranma stopped her spinning and leaping coming to a stop right before Shampoo and Motoko, with Tiger and Lynx, the two blooded warriors who had stuck with Motoko throughout the battle standing behind them, their somewhat feral appearances belied by the wide grins on their faces. Shampoo simply stared, a wide bright grin on her face as she realized that Ranma was talking, singing about their curses, that whatever anyone else thought, and there had been many even in Nerima who called them that hateful word, it didn't matter, they were better for it.

Ranma turned away now toward the wider audience, leaping to land on the top of the nearest Valkyrie, looking back up at Miriya and the other Meltraedi, who were staring in wonder at seeing the well known singer 'Ranma' in the flesh. Beside them Kasumi clapped her hands in time with the music, her face showing her love and devotion to the singer.

"We're underground, but we will not surrender, we're gonna give 'em something to remember, yeah so write your name in gasoline, and set that shit on fire! If you're a freak like me, wave your flag, if you're a freak like me, get off your ass! It's our time now, to let it all hang out. So shout if you're a freak like me, don't apologize, they can't hold you down, you were born to rise! It's our time now, to come out…."

OOOOOOO

Marcus looked up from where he was slumped in a chair in the ready room his Knight Squadron had been assigned. The moment he had arrived back at hangar three he had almost collapsed when the adrenaline left his body, having barely enough energy to leave the hanger. There were so many things pilots who were born and trained in atmosphere about fighting in space couldn't really understand, and the strength of the G forces that hit you when maneuvering through a dogfight for hours on end was one of them. Even with the specially designed suits a pilot's body took a lot of punishment, And Marcus's entire body felt like it was a giant bruise. So he was not in the best frame of mind when Roy Fokker shook him awake. "What do you want?" he said, growling a little.

Roy however merely grinned at him. "Not enjoying your first taste of space combat? I can understand that. But there's something you need to see."

Marcus groaned but allowed Roy to pull him to his feet. Roy dragged him back to hanger two, where Skull and Knight had both landed.

Marcus looked up as the music began to blare through the speakers and looked over at Roy wondering what the heck was going on but Roy answered his question before he could voice it. "Every battle isn't just a battle, every battle we survive means we are still alive, not just as individuals but as part of this ship. It means we still exist and we want to celebrate it."

He waved his hand at the speakers above them, and this is one of the ways we do. "After this," he said, shouting to be heard as the pilots from Skull and Marcus's own Knights danced around them stomping their feet to the music. "I'm going to find my Claudia and I'm going to get laid. Affirmation of life makes us fight all the harder to keep it. I think as soldiers we sometimes forgot that before all this began, but when you know your entire race is literally facing extinction it sort of heightens the joy of living."

Marcus nodded thoughtfully, trying not to concentrate on the fact he didn't actually have a girlfriend, but there were many single females aboard. "And the bitter pill of this conversation? You wouldn't be talking to me about this if you didn't have something else you wanted to say."

Roy nodded. "You and all the other Earth trained pilots are going to be put through endurance training and physical endurance training like you have never believed. I'm going to probably sic Ranma on you, or maybe Motoko. She's actually bit more sadistic than he is. Within a week I want all of you up to speed and able to fight for as long as the rest of us can without break. Any fight against the numbers we're talking about will be long as hell, and we need all our forces able to fight as long as we need them to."

Marcus groaned again envisioning quite a lot of pain in his future. Roy however clapped him on the back and said "cheer up. I found that the endurance earned doing this kind of thing tends to translate over into other physical activities."

That put a much more thoughtful smile on Marcus his face, and Roy left wading him into the crowd.

OOOOOOO

Back in hangar four, Ranma had sung another song in female form before surprisingly heating up a cup of water and changing back to his male form. He then jumped to the top of the largest object in the hanger, which happened to be one of the Queadluun Rau whose operator had left it standing straight up.

Below him the crowd of pilots and maintenance people had begun to rustle and move, thinking the concert was over, but they stopped when Ranma began to talk, his voice carrying to every person there and the receivers carrying his voice to the other hanger bays and throughout the ship. "You know I ain't one to know much about history, I was always too busy doing stuff, learning the art and everything. But one thing I do know, humans have often gone around enslavin' one another, mostly stupid ass reasons but whatever. The point is that eventually, either the slaves threw off their chains or someone else helped them do it."

He had their attention now, and there were many nods and some scowls from the few holdovers who still hated the Meltraedi.

Ranma decided to drive this point home with as much subtlety as he showed practically everything outside of the martial arts. He pointed at the three giant women standing together. All three pilots had enjoyed the concert, even if the reasons behind it happening were beyond the two newcomers understanding. "Our new allies the Meltraedi fought us because they didn't know they were someone else's slaves, all they knew was war. Now, we have a chance to work with them, to free them from that. But to do it we'll have to fight harder, better than ever before, we'll have to rise and meet all the challenges, united to create a revolution!"

With his impromptu speech over, Ranma began to sing. In this form he couldn't really hold a tune in a bucket, but that was beside the point, because he wasn't just singing now, he was trying to convey a message, and he had found that in this form he had better control of pure ki. His eyes and hands lit up with golden light in accompaniment to the words. "All I see is shattered pieces, I can't keep it hidden like a secret. I can't look away, from all this pain in a world we made! Every day you need a bulletproof vest to save yourself from what you could never guess! Am I safe today? When I step outside in the wars we wage! Our future's here and now, here comes the countdown! Sound it off, this is the call! Rise and revolution! It's our time to change it all, Rise and revolution! Unite and fight, to make a better life! Everybody one for all, sound off, this is the call, tonight, we rise!"

At this point everyone was stamping their feet, and they watched Ranma jump down to his valkryie, his whole body aglow with power now, causing shock and awe among most of the watchers. "Like a hand grenade, thrown in a hurricane, spinning in chaos, trying to escape the flame. Yesterday is gone, faster than the blast of a car bomb! And when the scars heal, the pain passes, as hope burns, we rise from the ashes! Darkness fades away, and a light shines on a brave new day!"

At this point Ranma's power was moving throughout his entire body and into his Valkyrie under him, which also began to glow with gold light shot with blue. It was when he unconsciously synced his own power with that of the ship in general, not that anyone could tell at the moment, that odd things began to happen. Deep in the bowels of the ship, in a room sealed and hidden away, something began to react, pouring out its own power in response to the surge around it as Ranma continued to sing. "Our future's here and now, here comes the countdown! Sound it off, this is the call, rise and revolution! It's our time to change it all, rise and revolution! Unite and fight, to make a better life! Everybody one for all, sound off, this is the call! Tonight, we rise, tonight, we rise!"

On the bridge Sammy and Vanessa both started to pick up odd readings, but when they tried to isolate found they didn't have the correct sensors to do the job. Lisa simply shrugged and put it down to Ranma trying to add some special effects to his act.

In Dr. Lang's expanded lab one of his chief assistants gaped in astonishment as the signal he had been trying to track for several days suddenly became strong enough for him to localize.

OOOOOOO

While the celebrations aboard the Macross was going on Azonia had swiftly removed the two humans from her bridge, and had begun to prepare a message she would be sending to Dolza. When the odd energy readings began to pulse out of the Macross she had immediately jumped on it, ordering her sensors teams to start recording it to add to the data package they were preparing, thus adding some more realism to it. She had her communications officer call over to see what was going on, but having been told it was the ace pilot Ranma's doing shrugged it off as not being related to anything important.

While her sensor specialists worked with their human counterparts to create the false report Azonia had the majority of her fleet reform on the Night Dagger near the Macross. She left her scout ships, about 8,000 ships, scattered around the outer edge of this star system. They couldn't cover the whole system obviously, but she had previously put them in position to cover the straight run through fold space to Sol from Zentraedi controlled space. That had worked against the skirmish fleet and she hoped it would continue to be enough. She also left over a thousand ships in Earth orbit however to take on groups of human scientists that were going to study them. Another two thousand had also been slated to be taken apart for their metal, their crews removed and their fuel, such as it was, added to the stores of the rest of the fleet.

Moving together the rest of the fleet folded out in short, energy saving jumps towards a rendezvous point between the third and fourth planets accompanied by the Macross. There they would meet up with the rest of the human fleet, including the SDF-2, which would be finished its start up flight by then.

The ship had yet to be named, since the name alas would have to be approved by a committee back on Earth. Prescott however had already dubbed it the Argo, he felt it was a fitting name for a ship that had so much resting on it and its sister-ship.

The footage from the battle had been interesting in the extreme to those that on Earth, and plans for new ship types had already begun, replacing the current vessels under consideration. The missiles ships were still going forward, as were the carriers, but new types of Sabers were being designed all the time as scientists and weapons designers put their heads together trying to create a mix that would allow them the most punch for their buck. The numbers of ships, and more importantly the numbers of Regulds in a skirmish fleet had jarred loose many of the opinionated groups of the military who had thought that drones like this would be at best a sideshow. Now it looked as if it would be the only way for the humans to in any way come close to offsetting Zentraedi numbers.

One of the most promising new designs was a ship about half again the size of the Saber called the Catapult. Instead of being armed with a grazer, it was built around a large missile launcher housing several nuclear missiles (or would once they figured out how to build them without the public of the world going into a panic about it) that it could rapid fire and order to detonate like mines when it got close enough. It was thought that enough of them could wipe out a fleet's force of Regulds, and then the Sabers could go in to tear up the capital ships. The Sabers had proven to be very effective a capital ship destruction, maneuverable enough to avoid most of the antiair fire from capital ships, but not mobile enough to tangle with the battle pods.

The good news however was that the Sabers were relatively easy to create, and several hundred factories the world over had already been repurposed to that effect. Shields had also begun to come out in larger and larger quantities as the problems of their manufacturer were solved. The SDF-1 would actually be picking up over 4000 barrier shields, which it would distribute to its fleet and the Macross. The Macross had of course already begun to replace its lost barrier shields, and work had begun in the Argo to equal the number and types of factories on the SDF-1. Once that was done the two of them they would be able to refit, replace, and rearm a fleet several times the size of the fleet they had currently if given resources and time. Two other ship designs had already been discussed, but when the Meltraedi had agreed to join with the humans that plan had gone by the wayside, which was one reason why Admiral Prescott was journeying out to talk to Azonia and her command group in person.

OOOOOOO

Dr. Lang looked askance at his communicator, which was now beeping incessantly. Admittedly they were due back soon now that their initial survey of the Meltraedi flagship was over, but the fact that it had interrupted his musings on the reasoning behind the energy core of the Meltraedi ship was irritating. He looked over his shoulder at Cologne, who had also been looking at the power core since the battle ended, but unlike him, her expression was disgusted rather than baffled. She had said it was like running a whale on the energy that you could find in an elephant, not enough energy there to do the job properly. He had understood the point of course and had agreed, but that didn't mean he wasn't intrigued by what he saw, and some of what he didn't see.

Cologne chuckled at his expression. "You should probably answer it, they wouldn't be interrupting our survey of the ship if it wasn't important. Besides," she said thoughtfully looking around. "I don't know about you but I don't think we can learn anything more here. We should hand this over to that Drake fellow, the one with a nice ass."

"So didn't need that image in my head elder," said Emil, chuckling a little. On the Macross commander Drake, second-in-command of the intelligence division felt a shiver go down his spine and he whirled, his hands almost of their own accord reaching behind him to cover his ass before he stopped himself when he realized no one was there.

Despite the disturbing knowledge that the ancient crone in front of him still might have a libido he took her suggestion and opened up the communicator. "Yes this is Dr. Lang, what is it?"

"Sir this is Terry, I continued with the work you wanted me to do, trying to find that strange power source, well something happened, and the signal strengthened enough for me to get a read on its location. I'm not certain how easy it'll be to get there, but we know where it is on the ship now."

That grabbed both Cologne and Lang's attention. They stared at one another for a moment then nodded. Hunting down that power source was much more important in the long run. Nothing here needed their attention, they had already learned enough.

The engines of the Zentraedi ships were designed for durability and to last a long time, their fuel much like the unrefined hydrogen helium mix that the Robotech technology ran on outside of the SDF-1. But that was so far below what could be, what the refined power that the SDF-1 used, and what Lang could tell they were designed for.

If that strange vine plant, or the crystalline structure around it somehow refined that fuel into what it was used by the Macross then figuring out how to replicate the process was of incredible importance. For instance, if a single battery could perform as much as the large battery for the Valkyrie and the two smaller batteries needed to run the strengthening technique around the cockpit (and for some like Ranma and Motoko, or what was being called the martial artists special) then maybe they would be able to run the strengthening technique through the rest of the chassis. That didn't even consider what could be possible with the Meltraedi ships or power suits. The power suits were amazing examples of technology, but if you could up their output they would be even better. For instance the output of the lasers could be enhanced considerably, as could their speed in real space and possibly in fold space as well.

That plus introducing maintenance and suggesting that the crews be enlarged by at least half again were among the suggestions that the human teams were going to make to the Meltraedi.

The two looked at one another then nodded. "We'll be over as soon as possible, do not do anything, do not even search for it until we get there! I will be most disturbed if I get into the shuttle and find out Macross is no longer there because someone tried to cut into something they shouldn't and the ship exploded.

The young man on the other end of the line answered in the affirmative and signed off. A moment later, Cologne and the Emil were making their way back to their assigned team of Meltraedi, and from there to the hanger bay.

OOOOOOO

The day after the battle Lisa was pulled from overseeing the repairs by Vanessa, who drew her attention to 2 Queadluun Rau zooming from the Night Dagger, escorting some kind of craft that the humans hadn't seen before. Eyebrow raised he looked over at Claudia who shook her head, indicating that the approaching was unscheduled. One eyebrow rose but she shrugged and waved at her friend to call them.

Since it wasn't a combat situation she didn't have to deal with it, and she was busy coordinating the exterior repairs. The crewmen they had taken on were all veterans, but water trained vets, and much like the new Valkyrie pilots they had a lot to learn about being in space. She was not going to have these idiots break her zero accident record, not if she could prevent it.

Claudia nodded and turned back to her board. "Incoming Queadluun Rau flight, this is command 2, requesting reason for your approach?"

She wasn't surprised to hear Miriya's voice answer, though it sounded a little odd. The two of them had met a few times both before and after Miriya had come forward to officially approach Gloval with Azonia's proposal. She hadn't really had a clue to the fact the green-haired girl was an alien, simply thinking she was another Amazon, but it hadn't really mattered to her, though she was amused by the fact Lisa had kept it a secret, since it was so beyond the pale for the formerly by the books commander. "This is Miriya I'm to be part of an official, liaison? That is the term I believe. I and a few others will begin to live on the Macross full time. Most of us are volunteers to study how you organize your military; others are people who wish to learn the sciences, the first of many of those admittedly. A few others are here to learn about your fashions first hand. And the rest, well, um, I'm not certain what the word is. Do you have a word for people who just want to go and look at something?"

Claudia blinked, and then blinked again. "The word is tourist Miriya. Are you saying you have a group of tourists aboard?"

"If that is the word then yes that is what I mean. Several hundred tourists, and about fifty people who actually have real reasons to come aboard." Miriya's voice was desert dry as she said that and Claudia could hear a few rumbles of discontent in the background. "Oh and Athena wanted to come along too, she wants to meet a pilot of yours she fought when you were attempting to get back to Earth."

Claudia frowned as a shiver of concern went through her. "Did she say why?" Behind her Lisa continued to listen to the conversation with half an ear while directing the work teams, but something about that phrase seemed to have amused her if her quiet chuckle was anything to go by.

"No, but I would presume it is because she wants to compare notes with him, nothing dangerous I assume. She's not the type to be underhanded like that."

"Alright, well, head to hanger six. Um, I'll see if I can get a welcoming party of some sort together." After that Claudia cut the connection and turned to her friend. "All right, what the hell is so funny?"

Lisa chuckled and shook her head. "Oh nothing, just thinking you should probably be grateful the Meltraedi aren't Amazons and haven't been corrupted by them too much just yet." She then scowled. "Damn it team four, you have two workers still in the area of the welding Spartans, get them back, those welders can cut your suits much easier then they cut metal!" Even when talking to her friend she had kept her attention on her job.

Claudia waited until the team leader replied, then asked, "And why's that?"

Lisa didn't turn away from her screen most of her attention on her job, but she was still able to answer easily. "Oh they have this odd law called the kiss of marriage, about how they need to marry outsider males who beat them. Team seven you're clear to move panel 32 into place, remember this is space, you'll have to hold it in place carefully. Team six, that line is going to build up excess energy the moment you let it loose, remember to prepare for that." She then turned and looked at Claudia. "I'd suggest getting Nodoka involved, and maybe one of the business owners and someone from Lang's cabal of mad scientists. Oh, and an Amazon rep, call Cologne she might have an idea of who to send." Having said her piece Lisa turned back to her present job, determined to keep her no accidents record from being broken.

Claudia frowned, at her friend's joke at her expense but nodded and activated the internal communication gear.

OOOOOOO

In point of fact Cologne was free at present. Emil and the other doctors were trying to cobble together a portable sensor array that could track the odd energy point and lead them straight to it, but making it man portable was giving them trouble. So she, one of his assistants, Nodoka, Mousse, Ukyo (as business owners) and two representatives of the farming community were waiting just outside hanger six for their visitors.

The odd craft, a re-entry pod designed to protect Regulds against enemy fire as they were employed to a planet's surface landed in the hanger, soon came in for a soft landing, accompanied by two Queadluun Rau. One of them immediately turned around and left, but the other opened and Miriya and two others leapt down from its confines.

The Micronization process took quite a bit of energy, nearly as much as a full campaign for a battleship, but given the fact that two thousand ships had been turned into salvage, and the humans had begun to bring up batteries full of power from deep within Jupiter's atmosphere, the fleet had a bit of power to spare. Not enough, but enough for this.

Given the size disparity they had to work together to control the powersuit, but Miriya refused to leave it behind, and none of the others on this jaunt were going to argue with her. Even Athena, who was nominally the green haired girls superior by virtue of seniority, didn't want to make a fuss.

For one thing she was slightly in awe of Miriya's skill, which had had been getting steadily better since her first clash with Ranma. Her kill rate in the last battle had been simply unreal, even against Regulds. She and Ranma between them had killed the better part of 47,000 Regulds, most of them with nothing more than their fists and feet, and thirty-two capital ships.

For another, she wasn't going to make an issue of Miriya's strangeness as long as the younger girl didn't point out her own. Athena was here for one reason, she wanted to get to know the one who got away, the human with the skull motif on his machine who had lead the defense of the ship during her assault and did so well at it. Part of her wanted to simply compare notes with a human wing commander. The other part wasn't certain why she was so interested, just that she was.

Miriya led the way forward, smiling at seeing the elder and Nodoka waiting there. "Nodoka, Elder, how are you? I and my fellows are here, well some of us are here for work, the rest, odd as it might sound are here to simply look around."

Nodoka smiled in welcome, pulling the young girl into a hug which was returned, though it caused some exclamations of surprise among the Meltraedi behind her at the strange ritual. "Welcome back dear." She released Miriya and looked at the girls behind her. "First thing however will be to take you all to get some real clothes rather than those smocks. And I see some familiar faces among you."

Indeed beside Miriya who wore some clothing she had from her previous visits (mostly from Lisa, whose body type she most resembled, as well as the first stolen uniform she had grabbed from an untended laundry cart) the others were all dressed in drab scrap of clothing torn from old uniforms. While fashion was well known among the Meltraedi, in their normal form they simply lacked the finger dexterity to make anything suitable for a human sized person.

At the last part of what the older woman said two of the crowd of Meltraedi stepped forward. Lucretia and Anya sheepishly looked down at their feet, but they needn't have worried. Nodoka merely smiled happily at them. "It's lovely to see you again dears and I'm certain that there are others aboard who will feel the same. Motoko in particular was very put out when you disappeared, Lucretia," she said sternly.

Lucretia shuffled her feet, wondering how the human female could make her feel as if she was up in front of the captain for some disciplinary problem. But the thought of seeing Motoko for some reason sent a bit of a thrill down her spine, though she didn't know why. "Um, I'll go and look for her once we get some real clothing ma'am." Both of the spies had used their clothing from the spying trip to get some chocolate and other delicacies, though obviously as it was scaled for a human it hadn't been worth anywhere near as much as the other things they had brought back with them.

"Very good, now let's get you girls situated, and then I think a trip down to the intelligence section to pick up captain Drake and a few of the others there to show those of you who aren't here for a specific reason around."

The Meltraedi nodded as one obeying the voice of authority, while Nodoka swiftly took control and moved them out of the hanger.

OOOOOOO

Kasumi looked up from her current design project as someone knocked on the front door of the Sugita apartment. After setting her data-pad down she stood up and moved to the door opening it and smiling warmly seeing Miriya there. She reached out and enfolded the other girls in warm hug, which was quickly returned then she stepped back and out of the way, motioning Miriya inside. "Hello Miriya, I see you were miniaturized again. Are you looking for Ranma or are you going to be moving in with us again?"

"If that is alright I would like to room with you all again. "I'm here as a part of a sort of liaison group with the Macross. Lady Azonia doesn't make too big a deal out of it, but she much prefers to work with those of you who live on this ship rather than the ones on your home planet, though other than instinct I couldn't tell you why that is."

Miriya went on much more hesitantly as the two of them sat down on the large bean bag sofa. "I, I would also like to have that talk about human culture I mentioned the other day."

Kasumi nodded. "What exactly did you want to know?"

"I, one of the nights I slept here, I was awoken by strange sounds coming from your bedroom."

Kasumi began to blush, already seeing where this was going. Oh my, this is the second time Ranma and I have been spied on, any more and I may start to think I leave that door ajar on purpose.

Unaware of her friend's thoughts Miriya went on. "I investigated it and saw the three of you doing… something together. It resembled something a few of the other females found on the human internet, but… better somehow, I cannot explain it. With those images and video files I never had an inclination to look, but when I saw the three of you I could not look away. It also made me feel odd, both inside, and on certain areas of my body. I was wondering if you could explain it to me."

Kasumi was silent for a moment, holding up a finger to her mouth to indicate she was thinking, and Miriya obligingly stayed silent. She had known since Miriya started living with them that she may well end up joining the family fully, and she knew that the way she answered this question could postpone or hasten that time. Part of her was a little sad that she wouldn't get to know Miriya more than she already had before she joined them, but another part was more than happy to welcome her into the fold as it were. After a moment's thought that line of thought won out and she smiled gently. "Tell me my dear, how do you feel about Ranma?"

"What do I feel about him? I don't understand. He's a fine warrior, a decent person, a driven martial artist. What exactly are you asking?" Miriya cocked her head to one side in confusion, though to Kasumi it looked unbearably adorable.

"No my dear, what do you feel when you are near him here?" She reached out to lightly tap the other woman's chest right above her heart. "What does he make you feel?"

Miriya paused for a moment, looking down at her own chest before looking back up at Kasumi. "He, he makes me feel warm, like I have a reactor burning inside me sometimes. Other times he, he challenges me to be better than I am, and that too makes something in me react. I don't have the words for it, nor can I explain it well I suppose, I just enjoy being near him."

Kasumi nodded. "I think for someone coming from your background you did very well. That feeling Miriya is love." Kasumi leaned back contentedly. "You might want to get comfortable. This is going to be a little hard to explain."

OOOOOOO

Cologne and Dr. Lang made their way down into the superstructure of the Macross following the readings on a handheld device that Dr. Lang's assistants had cobbled together.

For about an hour they made their way along using a jeep, with traffic and people all around them. Then for another two hours they continued, their pace set by Dr. Lang's walking pace through the innards of the ship.

Now they were finally nearing the target location, but as they rounded a corner were surprised however to hear voices ahead of them, so far distant from the normal hustle and bustle of the space fortress.

The two of them followed the voices forward, and were surprised to find Ranma and Miriya along with several other Meltraedi and several Amazons including Tiger, Lynx and Shampoo as well as Kotatsu. Cologne recognized all the others as those that had become the most adept at space warfare, and she whistled in approval as she looked around at what was obviously a training area for learning midair combat and 3-d danger training.

Their arrival and Cologne's whistle brought a halt to the combat going on across the area, and as one the martial artists turned to them. "Hey doc," said Ranma waving as he leapt from one midair bar to down onto the floor easily, knees barely bending under the impact. "What're you doing here? Were you looking for me for something, er, I don't think I turned my communicator off again did I?"

Ranma had been enjoying this training session a lot. At first he had been a little ambivalent about Miriya's suggestion of telling other people about this place. However he couldn't argue with the fact that Motoko was certainly at a level now where she could get a lot out of training here so including her didn't bother him. The others which Miriya invited also seemed to be doing better as the day went on.

It had also been amusing to see Motoko and Lucretia around one another. The day before Lucretia had gone to apologize to Motoko, who had calmly invited the buxom blonde into her apartment (she had one in the ship area of the space fortress actually pretty close to where Ranma and his ladies lived) then calmly shut the door behind her. Then she not so calmly attacked Lucretia's lips with her own, pulling her ever deeper into the apartment despite her confusion, shock and wildly waving arms. After a few minutes thankfully Lucretia lost her hesitance and became a willing participant.

Today Motoko was walking around with a spring in her step and a glow about her while Lucretia was walking around slightly glassy-eyed, blushing whenever Motoko looked her way. To Ranma and the others in the know about what had happened it was extremely cute, and Ranma hoped for his little sister's sake that she hadn't scared Lucretia off.

Dr. Lang shook his head bemusedly. "No, actually I wasn't. We're hunting down an energy reading that is much like that vine in the main reactor. I don't know if you've heard of it."

Ranma shook his head. "I haven't heard anything about a vine or anything like that, what the heck was it doing there of all places?"

"You've had other things on your mind," replied Emil. "Suffice to say we think it is somehow acting as an amplifier, making the fuel of the power engine work several dozen times better than it would otherwise, so you can see how interested we are at finding another source. I believe that secondary source is beyond that wall over there," he said after consulting his scanner, pointing. He moved forward, paused then looked up. "About two stories up from here I think."

Lang gasped suddenly as Ranma picked him up and jumped up to land easily on a metal bar at the appropriate sticking out from the wall in question. "Here's good right?"

Lang shakily ran his scanner over the wall, trying unsuccessfully to ignore the snickers from the martial artists and the cackles from Cologne at his reaction. "Ye, yes, its right here, whatever the source of the odd energy readings is behind this wall." He looked around frowning thoughtfully. "Maybe there's some kind of switch or something."

Ranma shook his head. "I've been using this place on and off for over a year now and I've never seen anything like that."

Emil frowned a little. "We'll need to figure out some way of cutting into this wall then, only we'll need to know what's behind it first. We can't afford to cut into anything that we don't want to."

Cologne had jumped up to join them balancing easily on the bar with the tip of her walking stick. "If you give me the scanner, I'll do a walk around and see if I can find another entrance, while you radio back that you'll need some equipment."

Lang handed over the scanner and Ranma jumped down with him to the ground. Once he had firm ground underneath him again Emil immediately requisitioned Ranma and three of the other martial artists to head back to his lab. Once there they were to grab a few of his assistants and some equipment that he wrote down on his data-pad which he gave to Ranma.

This proved to be a good move because the martial artists were able to cover the same ground that had taken him three hours to cover in only 20 minutes.

They swiftly returned with the cutters and the rest of his equipment. Lang purposefully did not notice the grinning face on one of the Amazon warriors who had hurried his assistants along by the simple expedient of picking each of them and running along with one under each arm like a sack of rice.

Soon with the help of the martial artists the group of doctors had set up a small platform about two stories up the wall of the large chamber. Cologne had also returned by this point, not having found any other place where entrance would have been any easier. Lang used a portable sonar scanner to see what lay beyond the wall and used this information to make out a rectangle that wouldn't cut into anything beyond the wall. After that his assistants went to work with laser cutters.

Done helping for now, the martial artists now perched all around them on dozens of the variously sized bars. It was very odd for the group of scientists to have a peanut gallery, with bags of popcorn that they passed around included.

However about three minutes in the cutters ran into problems. Behind the initial section of the wall was another portion that was made out of far denser metal or something else that they couldn't cut. "It's no good Sir, that second layer, we can't get through it." One of the interns complained.

Cologne cackled a little. "In that case it's a good thing least we still have these young ones around isn't it?" She turned and looked at her tribeswomen and the other martial artists. "Tiger, Lynx come down here, Motoko you and Kotatsu too. You've learned how to use your ki to amplify the cutting edge of your sword correct?"

The young Hawaiian native nodded, jumping down to join Cologne and the scientists on the makeshift platform. "Yeah mom taught me that trick elder. Where do you want us to start?"

The other two middle-aged warriors took out their own weapons, a glaive for one, and a pole-axe for the other. Kotatsu too jumped forward to join the effort. He had learned the technique from his family, and his tanto blade now glowed white as he readied himself. Lang took charge again pointing out the places they were he wanted them to cut at each of the rectangle corners.

Above them Ranma pouted a little. She knew how to shatter things, break or pierce metal and stuff like that, but he didn't have any techniques to simply cut, not ones that he could control to this extent. His vacuum blades were uncontrolled after all.

The two interns looked on this contemptibly, wondering how the hell Lang could think these primitives with their ancient hand to hand weapons were going to perform better than their state of the art laser cutters. Their contempt soon turned to shock as the four warriors began to force their weapons along the edges of the rectangle to the sound of squealing metal.

After a moment they ran into the same problem the doctors had but they simply poured more of their ki into their blades and started to slowly cut into it. By the time they were done Tiger and Lynx were both exhausted, and Kotatsu was close to it. Motoko still looked as if she could continue, but even she was looking a little weary.

"I just thought of something," said Lang as they were about to finish cutting. "That slab might fall inward, and if it does it might hit something we don't want it to."

Ranma grinned, happy that he could help, and he and Miriya looked at one another and nodded. They jumped down and grabbed along the edges of the square that had been cut out of the wall nodding at the other martial artists. "We've got it."

The martial artists nodded back, and finished cutting, the last of their separate cutes meeting, whereupon Miriya and Ranma gripped and pulled the whole rectangle of reinforced hypercarbon and whatever the second layer was out. The scientists scrambled and ducked out of their way, while the martial artists jumped down or up to safe spots. A moment later the two ace pilots threw aside the hunk of metal and the space beyond was revealed.

On the other side of the entranceway, which obviously was intended as an entrance way since there was nothing actually blocking it, was what looked like a cross between a hydroponic garden and an incubation chamber.

Lang quickly counted down that there were 20 small incubators about the height of an adult human and four feet across running down each side of the large chamber, with little space between them. The incubators were circular in nature, connected by tubes that were feeding them something that kept the plants he could see inside through the crystal tops of the incubators alive.

Each plant seemed to have a flower that looked larger than his head, and Lang was struck by the fact it resembled a Rafflesia arnoldii, a flower found in the rainforests of Indonesia which his biologist friend Pierre had introduced him to when Emil had foolishly gone with him on one of his excrusions into the rainforests. Below this massive flower the plants seemed to have hundreds of vines moving gently in what he supposed was some kind of clear nutrient solution, along with several larger roots right below it.

At the far end was an even larger blooming flower, separated from the rest of the room by what Lang recognized even from here as another crystalline frame like the one that held the vine they had found in the generator. Below it were what looked like some kind of catcher system for something that the flower would let drop, but it was closed for now, and he wondered what the purpose behind it was.

Everything was lit be soft overhead lights, which came on as soon as Emil and the others crossed over the threshold of the room.

"All right doc," muttered Ranma looking around his eyes wide astonished and wary, "What is all this?

"I don't know," said Lang looking around him in astonishment. "I honestly have no idea, but I think it might very well be the proto-culture generator the Zentraedi want so badly."

Miriya and the other Meltraedi looked around interestedly, but the ace pilot shrugged. "We were never told what the proto-culture generator looked like, so your guess is as good as any Dr., but, but the power coming off these plants…" She shook her head in wonder.

Ranma and most of the other martial artists nodded agreement and Cologne looked as if she was having a stroke. She had become used to being around very high levels of power since coming aboard the Macross. Ranma for example radiated enough power to dwarf even Saffron these days despite his incredible control over his aura. Miriya too wasn't exactly a slough in that department, and the ship as a whole had a ki signature far larger than even that, though thankfully it was only visible in certain places. But this place, it was mind boggling. The power these plants were each giving off were higher than anything she had ever seen, and was very odd at the same time.

All living things had a bit of ki in them of course. She had seen plants before that had more life force to them than the norm, ancient trees and so on. Yet these plants, it was hard to put into words, but if she used sound as a metaphor they radiated energy on a different frequency, a higher note than was normal.

It reminded her of the power Ranma had radiated in his last fight with Miriya, which she had witnessed from the bridge of the space fortress. At the end of that battle Ranma had somehow reached out to what could only be called the ki of the universe as a whole, bringing it out in his Valkyrie for a short amount of time. These plants felt like just a step below that.

The scientists moved forward, not touching anything yet on Lang's orders (issued with many a dire threat and with the martial artists there grinning evilly) simply looking at everything and documenting it, murmuring in low voices to one another.

The martial artists retreated outside, but most of them stood on the platform looking in.

Cologne closed her eyes for a moment, letting her senses wander, trying to ignore the pulsing power coming from each of the plants, looking for the underneath, for the hidden. After a moment she opened her eyes and hopped past the scientists heading towards the plant at the far end.

One or two of the scientists tried to stop her, but Lang waved him aside and moved in her wake.

Right behind the huge blooming flower was a small alcove, hidden so neatly that even if you knew what to look for you could still miss it. And even then you have to have very small, dexterous hands to reach inside and pull out what looked like a highly advanced data-chip from its hiding place.

"Dr." Cologne said calmly, "I believe this is a message for us, a message left for whoever found this place."

"I am wondering how much this room resembles the Pandora's Box right now," said Lang looking around them and then down at the data chip in Cologne's gnarled hand. Already plans were speeding around in his mind, wondering what this room could entail, wondering what the properties of these strange plants were, wondering how they could help humanity survive. "I feel very much like someone is about to bang two pieces of uranium together to see what happens, but if it can help us…"

"Indeed," Cologne said dryly. "Any alternative is preferable to extinction." With that the two turned and began to direct the other scientists in their work.

OOOOOOO

It had been a very long day, and Ranma was looking forward to some quiet time with his little family. Miriya however, had other plans in mind. Her discussion with Kasumi had been most informative, and she now knew what she wanted Ranma's forfeit to be. She had won their little bet by a mere two Regulds, but a win was a win.

She had of course first cleared it with Lisa and Kasumi, and both of them had agreed to it. Lisa had more reservations than Kasumi, but in the end, she had noticed the growing attachment between the two aces just as Kasumi had. In the end she could not really find it in herself to turn Miriya away. She didn't care for Miriya as much as she had Kasumi when she first joined her and Ranma, but she knew that could come with time. She did put her foot down however, saying that sharing between three of them was the limit her pride as a woman would allow.

Ranma entered the apartment, and was surprised to see a meal waiting for him there but no Kasumi or Lisa. "Kasumi, Lisa, anyone home?"

Behind him Miriya entered, dealing a sudden case of nerves.

After a moment Ranma noticed a card by the meal, which told him to enjoy the food but that Kasumi was going to spend a girls only night with Minmei and that Lisa had been called back to the bridge for some reason. He frowned then shrugged. "Well I guess it's just us Miriya."

Miriya nodded, and the two sat down to eat. Ranma made small talk, not noticing how strangely tense Miriya was. The two talked about the martial arts, and Ranma described several exercises and meditation methods to learn the armor strengthening technique.

After they had washed up, Ranma decided to go take a shower, leaving Miriya in the main sitting room. After a moment she gathered her courage and began to strip.

Ranma looked up in shock as the door to the bathroom opened, and Miriya walked in stark naked. He blushed and turned away swiftly, staring at the far wall. "M-Miriya, what the hell are you doing!? I'm still in here!"

For some reason Ranma's response to her nude form gave Miriya courage. The sight of his muscular back, wet and glistening from the shower also began that warm feeling Kasumi had told her about deep inside her. "I've decided what I want to order you to do for our little bet Ranma."

"Wh-what! Is now really the time for that, you could wait for me to get out at least!" Ranma exclaimed.

"I, I order you to kiss me and hold me, kiss me like you mean it." Miriya replied, walking forward to join him in the shower.

Ranma's blush intensified at the idea of kissing Miriya, something he had found himself thinking of since she had moved in with them, no matter how much he tried to get rid of it. He blushed further, feeling Miriya's firm breasts pressing into his back and he closed his eyes, trying not to picture how good the green haired ace probably looked with the water from the shower making her skin wet, her hair plastered to her head… "B, but what about Kasumi and Lisa? I mean, you know I can't, I won't cheat on them like that."

"I cleared this with both of them," Miriya replied, her arms going around him and trying to turn him around to face her. "They were both fine with me joining you three." Though admittedly, Lisa did take far longer than Kasumi to convince, after all Kasumi was okay with it before Miriya even brought it up.

Ranma would have questioned her about how that agreement came about but Miriya had by this point turned him around, and her lips, wet from the showerhead above them, found his. After that, he was far too busy to have time to think.

Later that night as the two cuddled in post-coital bliss, Lisa and Kasumi entered and joined the two of them in bed, proving behind a doubt they were both fine with the new member of their little group.

OOOOOOO

Azonia straightened her uniform, immaculate as usual and nodded at Sonya who was standing alongside one of the communication devices. Her friend nodded, and the communication device opened, connecting her flagship to Dolza's fortress thousands of light years away.

"Lord," she said bowing her head deferentially. "An… event has occurred here."

Dolza frowned heavily. "The last time you contacted me, it was with news of the strange readings. I trust this is not more of the same." he said, his voice and tone menacing, sending a shiver down human Azonia spine. Despite knowing what she did about him or at least what they had guessed about him, the aura of fear his very image imposed on both Meltraedi and Zentraedi was still present.

"The skirmish fleet under Retsuc attempted to assault the space fortress, but lost more than half of its members to the siege cannon before it could disperse." She sent over several copies of doctored video recordings taken from ships in the skirmish fleet. "By which time, our ships detected more odd images, and then one larger than all the others." Here she showed an almost entirely fictional reading, showing the energy readings from the Macross during Ranma's impromptu concert occurring during the battle. "The energy wave somehow disabled the ships in the skirmish fleet and before we could come to their aid Retsuc and his flagship were gone, followed by the rest of his fleet."

Dolza stayed silent a moment, staring down at his own screen in his distant fortress as the short fight played out, his anger growing on his face.

Azonia went on, making her voice as hesitant as she could (which wasn't much admittedly). "Do you, do you wish me try and assault the space fortress, or continue to monitor it only?"

Dolza growled. "No," he said, using one hand to make a sharp gesture in the air, cutting her off. "Remain where you are at a distance, this news of the space fortress once more having some kind of strange emission worries of me, but Breetai is on his way and he will deal with it."

Azonia felt as if the universe had just dropped out from underneath her. "Lord Breetai?" she said, and never was she prouder of her self-control then when she realized her voice had come out even and unconcerned. "Lord Admiral Breetai has been sent again? What of his campaign against the Invid?"

"The war front is neither your concern, nor his any longer," Dolza said angrily. "The space fortress takes priority. He should be there in about another local week, once he is give him all the data you have collected on these odd readings coming the space fortress, he will handle it from now on."

"Of course my Lord," said Azonia bowing her head. With that the connection cut off and she turned to stare at her friend in dread who was looking at her in turn, her eyes shocked, indeed she could feel the shock and even a bit of fear going through the other Meltraedi on the bridge. Against any other main battle fleet admiral maybe humanity and the Meltraedi could win, but against Breetai, there was no chance.

OOOOOOO

Unfortunately for Miriya and the humans, they didn't realize how closely the Robotech masters were monitoring the situation. While distance didn't let them monitor it as much as they could, the triumvirate was easily able to view the footage sent to Dolza. More they were able to separate it, and find out what had been modified.

One of them slammed his fist down angrily on the desk between him and his fellows in a rare show of anger. "More than half of this data packet has been modified or outright created! The Meltraedi bitch is lying out of teeth, she must have had a hand in destroying that 7th skirmish fleet."

The second to speak was much calmer. "Wait, let us review the facts. The portion that was not fake was the fact the space fortress is still heading out of the system not using its fold drive. And the energy readings and the video of the golden glow emanating from it are both real, unless you think the Meltraedi have found some way to fool even our systems?"

That idea was met by derision from both his fellows, and the first calmed down visibly, but his anger was still apparent on his face. That unfortunately meant there likely was something wrong with Zor's proto-culture generator, which meant their search for alternative energies needed to continue, as well as their plans regarding the Zentraedi.

The third spoke next, shaking his head. "Could the contamination have spread so quickly? Are the Meltraedi working with the Micronians in this, or alone?"

"Does it matter?" The first retorted. "They are working against us and our commands. They must be destroyed."

The second cocked his head thoughtfully. "Yet this level of sophistication isn't something I would think a Meltraedi was capable of. That argues for them working with the Micronians. As for the spread of cultural contamination, it was only a matter of time before any Zentraedi force that came in contact with the humans felt its effect. The question is do they know of our presence? Have they wondered about why they don't have the same kind of culture?"

"Again, it doesn't matter," the first reposted again. "Their reasons don't matter, only the fact they must be destroyed before the contamination can spread."

"Any message to Breetai would not arrive before he did. Indeed, the Meltraedi might have a chance to speak to him before Dolza can warn him of their betrayal." Said the third thoughtfully, and this was unfortunately true. Even for the Robotech Masters communicating to a ship in fold space was impossible, even tracking a ship in fold was difficult. And Zentraedi fold-space hyperlinks were temperamental beasts, able to run on low power and work for millennia, but they paid for this by being very susceptible to being whited out by fold-out.

It would be about ten hours after they fleet folded out into Sol before their systems could react to a incoming connection. "Still, I think we need to prepare for the worst. We were going to order Breetai's death after this campaign anyway, and his fleet was in contact with the humans before this. I think we need to send another fleet after them to destroy both."

"The only fleet large enough to destroy Breetai's and the Meltraedi is Dolza's, and we can't send all of it, not without stripping the Zentraedi factory satellites of their defenses." The second one cautioned.

"Yes we can. Strip his fortress of half its fleet and several of the factory satellites of their defense fleets, while consolidating their charges under the remainder. All told that should equate to a little under a million ships. That will be more than enough to destroy Breetai and the Meltraedi, and leave the factory ships and Dolza protected sufficiently to prevent them from being destroyed on the off chance the Regis returns or the Invid can free up a fleet to attack them form the defense of their territories."

The campaign against the Invid had bogged down the moment it began, as the Robotech Masters had intended. Billions of Zentraedi were being fed into the furnace now, but they were slowly wining through. The losses would have been far less with Breetai in command, but then that wasn't the point. The masters wanted the Invid defeated, but they needed the Zentraedi to be broken doing it.

"That sounds fine to me," replied the third.

The voice of caution nodded as well, but added a caveat. "Perhaps we ourselves need to take certain precautions." The other two listened to his ideas, and nodded their approval and soon enough a certain signal went out.

OOOOOOO

The meeting aboard Azonia's flagship was grim, despite the obvious amusement taken by Azonia and her officers to see the tiny Micronians all sitting on top of the conference table, a makeshift table taken from the cafeteria and placed in an empty room near the bridge years ago for just such occasions.

"Was this Breetai the first admiral we faced?" Henri leaned back in the makeshift chair they had brought aboard. He, Prescott and his flagship Captain an American named William Bainbridge along with the captains of the two carriers that had been used in the previous battle, Lisa, Roy, and Ranma were all there. Ranma was there as the next senior Valkyrie pilot, though he really didn't want to be, since this looked boring as hell talking about things that didn't matter or other things that couldn't be changed.

Still, everyone there had personally seen or heard about his prowess in combat and he and Lisa had both met Breetai in person. Their knowledge of him, and more importantly possibly of Dolza, would be important to this discussion.

"Yes. He is the most dangerous and capable admiral our people can boast. It isn't even close" Azonia said despondently. "There have been rumors about Breetai being around for the first clash with the Invid, and I know he's been in every major campaign since I joined the Meltraedi fleet. Or ever since I woke up anyway."

That last was said a little bitterly since the knowledge, the certainty of her people's enslavement was still very fresh in her mind and those of her officers. The human doctors had shared the news that the Zentraedi and Meltraedi were now seeing the downside of repetitive cloning, and the effects of it had struck her and Sonya harder than anything. The knowledge that their whole race had possibly been created merely to be cannon fodder for someone else had appalled them; it made all their beliefs in their superiority, their faith in the rightness of the fleet as dust in the wind. More the doctors had found that the Meltraedi were as close to humans as they could be genetically, except for in the area of the brain. Mental acuity dipped sharply in every generation of clones. That study had taken far longer for Lang's friend back on earth to figure out, but the bottom line was damning to say the least.

"There must be some way we could take on Breetai?" Prescott asked. "Our Sabers proved incredibly deadly didn't they? A series of long distance attacks, paring down his defenses and aiming to take out his command structure perhaps?"

"It comes down to a numbers game," Sonya responded bleakly. "If you face a battle fleet commander who knows how to use his numbers and knows how to use tactics and strategy then you cannot win. With my fleet's help and similar strategies to enrage them into mistakes you could possibly win against a normal battle fleet Commander, though the losses would be horrendous. Against someone like Breetai, no chance. Breetai won't bunch up his ships enough for the siege canyons of your SDF models to do enough damage to turn the tide against a main fleet's numbers even when he isn't expecting trouble. You don't have enough of those Sabers of yours to make much of a difference, and after fighting alongside a force of Meltraedi I have no doubt that Breetai knows exactly how to blunt my own fleets effectiveness. A tactic such as you just described could be countered by either folding out right on top of you the moment you engage a portion of his fleet with several dozen Thurvel-Salan multi-purpose battleships or by simply keeping a large enough force of Regulds out to blunt any Saber assault. Those are just off the top of my head, Breetai could come up with more I have no doubt."

Prescott scowled a little, having forgotten about the mobility the fold drive allowed. He should have remembered since the missile ships and the carriers were made to make use of it, but he had forgotten the enemy would know how to use them too.

"So what're you saying?" asked Ranma angrily. That we just have to run for it, take the Macross and run?"

"That might actually work" said Prescott sadly. "If this Breetai has still been ordered take the SDF one intact then you're leaving the Sol system entirely could lead him on a wild goose chase away from Earth and the rest of humanity."

Ranma frowned. "I wasn't really serious but if ya think it could work…"

Lisa and Henri both stiffened at the suggestion. They well knew how the troops and more importantly (or more loudly) how the civilians would react to being sent out on a long-term mission as a lure.

"There might another way," Roberto Esquitore said thoughtfully. "As I understand it, Breetai is the key. If he dies, I have no idea what his command structure is like, but there is no way that he has a second-in-command could be as effective as he is correct? Take him out, and the equation changes."

"Easier said than done," said Azonia bleakly. "Nupetiet-Vergnitzs class command battleships are on a level of magnitude tougher and deadlier than any other ship in the Zentraedi fleet." She said this rather bitterly, since she by all rights should have been commanding her fleet from one, but the bias against the Meltraedi and their smaller numbers had allowed generations of Meltraedi to only serve on Queadol-Magdomilla class battleships like the Night Dagger.

"Still, we shouldn't jettison the idea entirely," said Gloval thoughtfully. "It could work. Make the battle occur somewhere of our choosing, somewhere where we can hide in siege mode and figure out where his ship is in the fleet, and then take it out as soon as it is in range. It couldn't survive a main done siege attack could it?"

Azonia shook her head. "The only ship I know of that might survive one of your siege guns blasts is Dolza's command craft and that's more like a large planetoid rather than any kind of ship."

Ranma frowned, a thought niggling at the back of his mind about that but he couldn't quite bring it to mind just yet.

"And what will your people do if we fail in that?" Prescott asked looking up (and Up, and up and up some more) at Azonia.

"Die," said Azonia bluntly. "Neither myself nor any of my officers or even my regular females wish to go under the yoke of Dolza and his Masters again whoever they are. If we're going to die, were going to die free."

"And you're certain he'll be here in a week or so?" said Bainbridge almost plaintively, speaking up for the first time in this meeting. He had been watching events back in America unfolding very carefully, and knew that his nation, which even now was the most powerful on Earth, had just hit its wartime stride. If we had a month maybe we could have built up our forces enough to, to do something! He shook his head he knew that was a lie. It would take Earth at least 3 to 4 years to build up the requisite number of carrier ships to really be effective against a force the size of a Zentraedi main battle fleet, and to do that it would have had to completely ignore building any other ships. There was just that vast difference between 10,000 and 600,000 plus. He had no doubt that even now humanity would go down swinging, but the colony ships in Jupiter and Jupiter's orbits were scant percentage of the total of humanity.

"Somewhere around Pluto would be best," muttered Gloval thinking of where to set his ambush. "If we could blow off sufficient chunks to create an asteroid field to hide in…"

With a firm goal in mind, but with little hope that it would really matter in the long run the admirals and other officers got to work, while Ranma watched thoughtfully trying to bring to mind the idea that had tried to come alive in his head.

OOOOOOO

Azonia waited with about a third of her fleet out past Pluto near what the humans called the Oort cloud along the straight line route through fold space from Zentraedi held areas to Sol. She knew this was at a forlorn hope at best, and that Breetai might have even been ordered to annihilate her fleet, which meant that Breetai would assault her and her force here first. But their destruction would tell humanity and the other Meltraedi, under Sonya's command despite the fact that Azonia didn't really want to be parted from her friend, what to expect and they would be able to hopefully make of it what they would.

The humans had worked feverishly for over a week to bring as many of their warships online as they could, refitting as many of the Meltraedi ships as they could, working teams of hundreds into exhaustion. Her fleet now had 10 ships that had been completely refitted into farming ships, though of course it would be a long while before they could produce food, and the human fleet now number fifteen carriers, sixteen battleships, and ten long range missile ships along with the two space fortresses. The carriers and the missile ships had full loadouts, and they all had a minimum of a hundred mobile barriers. Even her own ship and forty others had the same amount, and the SDF's both had even more, and were creating as many as they could as fast as they could. The Macross was now hidden in the asteroid field that had been Pluto, while the rest of the human fleet was hidden in Saturn's rings, her own fleet scattered across the star system.

It wouldn't be enough, not against Breetai. Not even if they could lure him into the third planets orbit where the humans Grand cannon's could be brought to bear. Not unless they got lucky and killed Breetai, then all bets were off, but somehow that thought brought her no comfort.

If Sonya decided to cut and run and leave the humans to their fate Azonia wouldn't be in any position to argue, and in point of fact would probably have agreed with it anyway. Their duty was to their people, and no matter how much she had come to like the humans (though she could do without those parasites called politicians) that duty overrode everything.

She prayed it wouldn't come to that, but against an opponent who could think, who she knew was her superior in both numbers and strategy and tactics, and possibly even will, it was best to prepare for the worst.

She bided her time, outwardly calm, portraying an image of utter certainty and control as was her duty as an admiral. Yet if someone looked close, they could see that she hadn't actually turned a page in her book, the first made large enough for the Meltraedi to read, and was simply staring at the page.

That first day was a reprieve, but that only made the tension aboard all of her ships higher, and it was almost a relief when the sensor specialist turned to her. "Lady admiral, we have incoming fold space phenomenon, spread out along 220° from our position."

Azonia nodded bleakly and watched as Breetai's battle fleet came out of fold space. Even here the organization he had drilled into his fleet was seen, and they came out in serried ranks.

Rank upon rank of battleships, carriers, gunboats all in their separate divisions, spread out but in organized formations, not a mob. Almost directly in front of her appeared the largest division, a mix of classes taking up position around the monstrous form of the Nupetiet-Vergnitzs upon which Breetai flew his flag.

If the space fortresses had been here and ready maybe they could've gotten off a shot each before they were utterly destroyed, but even that wasn't likely. The space between each ship was quite large, and obviously had been chosen so that even in siege mode the Macross would have to traverse itself to take out more than one ship.

For over an hour it continued as Breetai's ships folded out one division after another, spreading out even more above and below those that had already folded out and Azonia felt despair well up underneath her iron control. She shook her head seeing that another division had come out 'near' Breetai's own division and she recognized the ships she had assigned to serve under Delmera, 22,000 strong even now.

"Can you get me a final count?" she asked, and was pleased to find her voice came out filled with dry humor rather than fear and despair.

Her sensor specialist nodded taking strength from the apparent unconcern of her admiral. "Y-Yes ma'am, final count Meltraedi forces 22,242. Breakdown is 10, 242, Thurvel-Salan battleships, 2,500 Quiltra-Quelamitz gunboats, 9,500 Quiltra Queleual carrier class. Final count for Zentraedi forces, 400,276, the breakdown is…"

"Azonia waved her to silence. "Unimportant really."

Before she could go on to say something, something like size not mattering or numbers not equating to quality or some other morale boosting lie, the communications officer raised her hand. "Lady admiral, we have incoming signal from the flagship."

Azonia nodded, not even letting her relief show. It looked as if her fleet would not die today, unless Breetai wanted to give her a courtesy call before destroying them all. "Put it through."

A second later Breetai's image appeared in the a holographic display, staring out at her and her crew, his uniform immaculate, his face stern but not hateful or grim.

Before he spoke the communications officer gasped a little. "Lady admiral, it's not just sent to us, he's opening communications with every ship in the fleet."

Azonia's eyebrows shot up in surprise but before she could do anything Breetai spoke. "Lady Azonia of the Meltraedi, it has been an honor to serve with your ships in this past campaign. Without them the victories against the Invid would've been far more costly and possibly even impossible at times."

Breetai shook his head. "I know not why the animosity between Dolza and the Meltraedi exists, nor have I seen any military reason why he should look down upon you as a lesser race. All I know is that you are competent and dangerous soldiers and that is the highest praise I can give. I know not why Dolza believes that you are in some way responsible for what has happened here rather than the vagaries of battle and Kyron's stupidity. Regardless of his opinion, Delmera and her forces were among the finest the Zentraedi could field, and I have no doubt that you and yours will perform as well as them. I hereby take official command of your fleet, and together we will succeed where I personally have failed before and where you have failed in turn. And then we will get back to our real work, that of crushing the Invid and wiping them from space for all time!"

Azonia looked around her and realized that despite his natural brevity Breetai was quite an orator. With that one speech he had completely disarmed the fear the Meltraedi had felt at his coming, reminded them of their shared enemy, appealed to their egos, and absolved them of their apparent failings, while also showing a bit of esprit de corps between them against Dolza.

But there was something else in his tone, some anger there. Azonia heard it, even if none of her officers could. Instincts, instincts that had served her well throughout her career, had served her well before she was even an admiral and had served her people in this present crisis screamed out to her, of a chance, and with lightning reflexes she took it. He's already questioning Dolza for his own reasons, take advantage of it!

She nodded to her communications officer who opened up a signal towards the flagship, and she spoke, her words formally, and measured yet urgent full of force. "Lord Admiral Breetai, your deeds precede you. I thank you for the honor you have done myself and my people, and I have no doubt that you would lead us to victory. However I am sending over a data package for you to look at, and I pray that you look at it completely through before deciding on what to do going forward." With one hand she started to pull up all the information the humans had acquired and shared, all the information her fleet had compiled, putting it into one large data pack.

OOOOOOO

On his bridge Breetai's eyebrow rose, and then his eye narrowed in sudden contemplation. There was something in Azonia's tone something guileful, an undercurrent of something beyond the mere words. Oh, he knew Azonia could be guileful, Delmera had been effusive with her praise of Azonia as a tactician and strategist, and the fact that she had kept the losses among the Meltraedi down ever since becoming admiral was well known to him. But there was a sneaking hidden nature to something she had said, as if things here were not as they seemed.

Still, she had done nothing to earn his ire or mistrust, and her forces had done much to earn his respect, he had spoken nothing but the truth in that little speech. The least he could do would be to agree to her proposal. He hit his communication button and said "I will agree to that, it does no one any good to run into a situation without completely understanding it first."

His eyebrows rose at surprised at the size of the package that his computer had just blinked at him. He quickly estimated how long it would take him to look over it and nodded. "I will be back to you within seven hours. Until then, my fleet will remain in position. Bring your fleet out here as well, save for the ships that are shattering the SDF one."

Even as Azonia turned to bark orders, her mind aflame with hope Breetai stood up. "This is going to take a while," he said looking around at the crew. "Rest the crews on every ship, we will not be fighting this day it seems." With that he nodded at exit door and left the bridge heading towards his own flag room.

He sat down in his chair, a simple utilitarian one but one that had been molded by his body over hundreds of years to fit almost comfortably, then with a sigh of resignation he opened the files.

He really wasn't looking forward to this campaign, if campaign it could be called. He had come to respect the humans as wily and canny foes. He knew that they would cost him far more than their numbers or level of technology would suggest, but the outcome was never in doubt, and that displeased him. The Invid were his people's real enemy, and it was them he should be facing now in command of the Zentraedi forces as they rolled forward to final ultimate victory over them, regardless of what Dolza felt they could glean from the proto-culture generator.

On top of that his brief interaction with Ranma had amused him greatly. Looking back he couldn't see the point of the whole kissing thing, but neither did he see it as something that should have evoked such a negative response as it had. Now however he shook off those thoughts and concentrated on the data packet Azonia had sent him.

The first document in the packet was labeled 'long term effects of cloning on the Zentraedi/Meltraedi biology and culture'. His eyebrows rose in shock as he read on and half a paragraph in he began to be angry. But he stamped hard on his first response which was to strom back to the and order the Meltraedi fleet's destruction for coming up with something like this. Two pages later he was still very angry but he ruthlessly stamped down on it and opened up the next packet. 'Progress, and what it means'. For over five hours he continued, reading through each essay, each video, each file that Azonia had sent.

Azonia had sent everything, everything her people had discovered since Sonya and the other spies had ordered the SDF one, all the questions they had been asking, all the rumors that had been proven true, all the things the humans had found out and passed on, and at the last he could not come to any conclusion but the ones Azonia and the other Meltraedi had reached.

"We have been used for so long," he said softly standing up.

The moment he was up however his calm manner disappeared into a towering rage and fury, as the information given to him had at some point broken through the mental conditioning that had been inflicted on him 479 years ago.

He remembered everything, being a miner and a leader of miners on a heavy grav planet. He remembered being called into a building run by the overseers of the Tirolian race with his twenty thousand strong work unit, a beam of light hitting him and suddenly becoming a soldier. He remembered leading soldiers against the Tirolian people, suppressing them in the order of the Triumvirate of the Masters. He remembered his first meeting with Dolza and how he had been given command of the Zentraedi and the swiftly growing expanding forces. He remembered that first assault by the Invid and Zor's rebellion, of being brainwashed to believe that only the Zentraedi fleet mattered, that only the Zentraedi fleet existed, that the space fortress was some kind of prototype created by them then stolen by a race they had suppressed. He remembered everything, and he knew there were no words for the depth of the masters betrayal.

"REAAGH!" With a roar he reached down and lifted the multi-ton table, ripping it from its bindings to the floor and over his head before he threw it against the wall where it crashed and shattered, making a lout booming sound. He roared again, turning and slamming her fist through the chair then leaned back up and throwing it aside and pounding the pieces to flinders gripped in a total fury the likes of which he had never come close to feeling before.

It took several hours for him to calm back down, and when he did his hands were bloody from pounding on the metal and steel fragments of what had once been his flag room, but he ignored them, not even bothering to wipe of the blood.

It was with a clear head and mind that Breetai emerged and strode toward the bridge. He ignored the looks of fear and shock on the few Zentraedi who had been close enough to hear his bellowing fury, until he came upon Exedore, who must have come in search of him. He grabbed his aide and dragged him to back to the flag room.

Exedore's face paled at the carnage revealed inside, and for just a moment he feared for his life, but Beetai merely grabbed the one thing that remained intact, the computer he had used to view Azonia's data packet, and pushed Exedore down to sit in front of it where it had fallen to the floor. "Read," He commanded.

Exedore was not his aid simply because the two of them were the only living remnants of that first batch of Zentraedi, but because the diminutive and crippled Exedore was by far and away the most brilliant Zentraedi that Breetai had ever met. What had taken Breetai six hours of slogging work took Exedore an hour. Most of that time was taken by reading the first paper and trying to figure out the words in it. After that his own mental blocks broke, and he absorbed the rest much more easily. And while he had none of the towering rage and fury of Breetai his mind went cold and calculating.

Moments later he was racing after his Admiral toward the bridge. "My Lord, what will you do?"

"I will do what I must," said Breetai coldly. "We have been used Exedore, our entire race made to be nothing but drones like the stinking Invid! I will not stand for this, I will fight back, and free us from this yoke!"

"But my Lord, you realize that you would be fighting Dolza and the rest of the Zentraedi forces. Against such numbers…"

Breetai cut them off sharply. "I know that as well as you Exedore, but there comes a time… he stopped as he was about to enter the bridge turning to look down at Exedore. "There comes a time when you must throw caution to the winds and stand for your principles. And this is that time. I will free our people, or I will drive us to extinction. If we cannot atone for the crimes we committed, we must at least pay for them."

Exedore stared up as his admiral, realizing that he would not be able to dissuade him from this course and he sighed and nodded his head. "Your fleet will follow you," he said simply.

"I know I'm counting on it," Breetai replied.

The two turned and entered the bridge, with Breetai striding over to the communication gear. He had yet another speech to make, but this one would be the most important he ever made.

OOOOOOO

In the end it was truly rather anticlimactic to the Meltraedi and the humans. The idea that Breetai would have listened to Azonia wasn't farfetched, but the fact he had grabbed it with both hands and run with it was. Not to mention the fact that his entire fleet was willing to follow him into treason against Dolza, though that was much easier to explain then Breetai's own reaction.

"The data package was only the beginning," Breetai explained, looking down at the human delegation to this meeting, which was happening on his flagship. Beside him stood Exedore and his two senior division commanders. The Meltraedi was Delmera, Sonya and Azonia, who were once more together. Azonia had decided after this excitement that she was going to go through with her idea to invite Sonya to view some of that female/female 'porn' and see what she thought of it. Azonia rather hoped Sonya would have the same reaction she had, and wish to try some of it.

The human delegation was composed of Prescott as the senior member, Fokker as senior CAG, the senior carrier captain whose name was Andre Sullio, Roberto, Pierre, Lang and Gloval. Surprisingly Lisa and Ranma were also there at Breetai's request, as two humans he had personally met, and respected (Ranma more than Lisa admittedly).

"The package broke the mental blocks the Robotech Masters put on me and the rest of the first generation Zentraedi. At that point of course our people hadn't been separated by gender, though actual families were not the norm."

The humans all got comfortable with the scientists and Roberto taking notes as Breetai went on, speaking for their benefit as well as the Meltraedi, who were going to find out the answers to many of the questions that had plagued them. "We were miners, genetically modified to live on heavy gravity worlds. Even back then there weren't as many Meltraedi as Zentraedi, I think the ratio was something like 1 to 4. We were genetically modified from the Tirolian people at first, made tougher, more durable, and of course larger, and Exedore and I are the last survivors of the first born from that initial stock."

Pierre interrupted eagerly. "Can you tell me how many generations there have been since then, between you and someone like Kyron for example?" Kyron and his fleet were the 'newest' clones as far as we can tell, and they had the most obvious genetic defects."

"In truth I cannot. New clones entered the fleet in million man lots to replace combat losses, and I have no idea how often. A thousand, more?" Breetai shrugged and went on. "The original genetic modifications were made upon us by Zor and his assistants, and we were given rights and representation in the Tirol Republic. That ended soon after Zor left. He was always an explorer at heart, a searcher for new knowledge. He took a crew of his people and ours and left Republic space. Soon after that, things began to go wrong. There were rumors in the mining camps of talks between the Invid and the Tirol high council, then all communication with the Invid ended, I don't know why, nor do I care. Some time after that Zor's assistants came to our world, and called us in groups to come and talk to them. It wasn't unusual, sounding out the public for some law or other, the republic was always doing that. And suddenly we were no longer miners, we were soldiers."

Roberto frowned. "Where did they get the weapons, armor etc, for you to be soldiers? And how was the brainwashing accomplished, do you remember?"

"No, I remember only a massive bright light, then I woke up and I was no longer Breetai, senior Mine Leader, I was Breetai, captain of the Zentraedi, fist of the masters. Where they got the weapons, they controlled much of the means of production, it would have been a simple matter for them to repurpose one of the factory satellites to creating weapons," Breetai shook his head. "The masters, hah! They were Zor's three main assistants, the trio that hadn't gone with him on his voyage of discovery. They called themselves masters because they understood the secrets of proto-culture and the Flower of life, but their knowledge never came close to that of Zor, I should know, I served on his ship when I was younger before returning to the mines. But it was enough for them to use it to control us, and we in turn allowed them to take control of the Republic. We were larger by far, stronger by far then the normal Tirolian, and we were armed for war, where they were not. We took the capital on Tirol itself, and after that the 'rebels' never had a chance really. They never had a chance, and after a while there were only the Masters and their followers."

"Zor, he was the one who designed the space fortress correct?" Emil frowned, remember the data chip Cologne had found, and continued to pester him into looking at. But he was far more concerned about the plants and what they could do than to try to figure out how to read the data on the chip. After all it was unlikely to be in any language they could comprehend. And with the effort made to hide the generator, Lang was worried it would have some kind of protection on it. Given the trap left in the ship's system that made the main gun fire back when the Zentraedi first showed up, he felt his concern was justified. Cologne on the other hand was much more willing to just hook it up to a computer and see.

"Indeed, it was his ship. You see, Zor returned twenty years or so after the masters took power, and found they had overthrown his republic and killed his father. Instead of simply charging in, he planned out his assault to perfection. When he did attack, his campaign was brutally simplistic, he targeted the proto-culture generators, the incubators and the data-net. Within two weeks the flowers of life were destroyed, their incubators gone, the generators they powered idle, and the information needed to repair or build new ones gone. The Masters had stored massive amounts of proto-culture of course, but nowhere near enough to power their empire."

"And while the Masters regrouped and began to search for Zor, the Invid returned." Breetai scowled, his face bleak as one hand reached up to tap the half mask that covered the ruin of half his face. "It was only the fact the Masters had kept adding to our numbers that the Zentraedi were able to push them back, at great loss of life. The Invid knew no mercy, and they utterly wiped out dozens of planets before we pushed them back. It took us hundreds of years to push them back that first war, and we lost much of the horded proto-culture doing it, and we were again brainwashed, now to forget the so-called masters and their race ever existed, only the will of Dolza mattered now. After that, we were sent against Zor, and wiped out his forces. But his own ship broke our cordon and escaped into fold space. I know not why, but it simply disappeared into fold and stayed there. Several skirmish fleets were assigned to look for it, but for another two hundred plus years, years filled with war, there was no sign of it."

Emil frowned at that, wondering how such a thing could have been accomplished. It probably wasn't done on purpose, but what kind of accident could have made a ship go into fold and not come out?

"Then our long range scanners picked it finally emerging from fold space, though it took us years to localize it to your system. The rest you know."

Pierre frowned. "The cloning, how was that done? You speak of it as if it was commonplace among these Tirol."

Emil nodded, and added his own question. "You keep using the word proto-culture, what exactly is it."

Exedore fielded that question. "Proto-culture is the term used for the fuel and for the process used to create it, so I can see how that could be confusing. The process uses the flowers of Life to somehow change the helium/hydrogen fuel into a higher order of energy. The process is called that and deals with any energy manipulation. Somehow, I know not how, the energy you get out can be used to do practically anything. It was used to offset the problem with cloning somehow, and effects living things in a profound manner."

Exedore sighed sadly. He had read over the effects the multiple cloning process had on his people. The females, since they didn't have quite as many generations removed from their original, didn't have as many problems. The males however, well the more generations cloned, the more problems. Sterility was but the start of it.

Breetai nodded down at Ranma. The two of them had greeted one another when the humans came aboard, and the strange mix of respect and amusement had gone a long way to getting over the initial awkwardness. "Your use of this ki thing you mentioned, before we met I had thought that kind of thing was only possible through use of proto-culture. I imagine the masters thought the same, the idea what they would make of you now amuses me greatly."

Exedore spoke next, his face far more concerned. "What does not amuse me, is that much of the information of Zentraedi controlled space has been deleted from our systems since we arrived here. All that is left is the emergency retreat point, which takes us to Dolza's fortress."

Prescott scowled and was about to ask rather incredulously if they were supposed to believe the Zentraedi now had no idea where their area of space was, but Azonia spoke up first. "That means someone, the masters most likely, knows enough about our dealings to prepare against us moving against them. Strange."

Exedore shook his head. "It is not martial force they fear, but the erosion of their power over the Zentraedi people through contact with the Micronian culture. You and your fleet are proof that it has power. If the contamination spreads far enough, then the Zentraedi will splinter, half the forces intrigues by it and what it could mean, and the other half fearful and lashing out at it."

Gloval frowned. "I doubt that simply wiping your data such that you cannot find them would be enough to assuage them. What else are they likely to do?"

Breetai shook his head, his face grim, like someone contemplating a inescapable avalanche coming toward him. "They will dispatch the main reserve force. Dolza's fleet. I don't know when they'll arrive, that depends on if they began to suspect and moved after Azonia sent back a report of the 7th fleet's destruction, or when my fleet arrived here."

Lisa paled visibly while Ranma's eyes narrowed, but Prescott wanted it spoken aloud. "So how many ships are talking about here?"

"That depends on what percentage they wish to send. Upper amount would be 3 million ships, all with full load out of Regulds and Dolza's special forces, the Nousjadeul-Ger powersuits. That powersuit isn't equal to the Queadluun Rau, but there will be many more of them than Azonia can field. I doubt they'll send that amount, but perhaps half that, I can imagine them peeling that from the defense of the factory satellites and Dolza's fortress. A large enough amount, but beatable if they come in as they are liable to, like a mindless horde." Breetai steeled himself and looked at the humans. "If they come however, your planet is doomed. Against that number, we will not be able to protect it, no matter what we do. It's simply too big a target. If we tried to defend it, we would lose our mobility, and they could overwhelm us."

Prescott scowled angrily. "Our duty is to defend the Earth to the best of our ability!"

Breetai cut him, scowling down at him. "Your duty, not ours. Our duty is to our men, not to your planet. I will not lead my men into a battle we cannot win! The only way to face those numbers is to use tactics and strategy, the Grand Cannon alone cannot make up the difference in numbers."

Before the argument could escalate Ranma butted in for the first time. "So, you've got the coordinates to Dolza fortress right?"

Exedore blinked at this and nodded. "Yes, why?"

"How long would it take Dolza's fleet to begin moving?"

Breetai frowned. "A few days to assemble and reposition, possibly up to a local week to bring the factory satellites together, why?"

"Well," Ranma drawled, "It seems ta me, if you can't defend, you have to attack."

End chapter

Heh, bet no one saw that coming. Many of you might have noticed, but as the action heats up I've devoted less time to romance and the regular Ranma high jinks. This is partly because I just can't fit it all in, and in this story the action is the main thing, with romance and comedy taking a second seat. The other reason is because in real life under the current crisis there would be less time to spend on such things.

Also, realize that I never read the comics, I read a few of the Southern Cross books but they were god awful, so my remaking of the Robotech past might be off canon more than slightly, but I also don't care.

And now, a confession I have to make. I know I've made mistakes in grammar and numbers and stuff, but it didn't really occur to me how small I had made a skirmish fleet until I saw it next to a main battle fleets numbers. The number for a skirmish fleet should be ten thousand, not a thousand. But that means I need to go back and change a lot of the numbers in previous chapters, so that change, and the changes to the fights it will necessitate, will be made after I've finished book 1 of this series.

Next chapter will be the last one hopefully, then maybe an epilogue, or maybe I'll put the two together, I don't know just yet. Until then, as always read and review.

*Chapter 30*: Fortune Favors the Bold

I don't own Ranma or Robotech. I would however love to own a Valkyrie. I'd probably crash it, but still, that has to be every boy's dreams, owning a transforming jet. You can keep the whole changing into a girl when wet thing though. ha

Everyone should check out the poll on my profile and vote for the next story I start, though I'll warn you it might not have as regular updates as this story. I have to say i have been pleased with the number of people who have tried to convince me, but that being said I have had many more convince me to write a Ranma/Mass Effect story than the others, so if that isn't your choice, remember your best chance to have your choice win is to try and convince me. Why should i write it, what is cool about it, why you think it would be interesting. I have only had two people try to convince me about Making Waves, so it might be ahead in the poll right now but it is actually losing overall.

Some reviews I'd like to note:

Rogue15: but where would they go? There is a limit to what the barriers would cover, and the choice to cover one place or another would be incredibly hard fought.

N0mster: You put your finger on the crux of the matter, they have to both attack and defend, and both operations have a chance of failure. But I for one would like to go out swinging if I have to. The Flower of Life and the analysis of it will happen in the future, just too many things happening all at once right now. But by that time, they will have figured out a major source of knowledge… Thanks as always for the great review.

Janissa: If you missed the hi-jinks the first half of this chapter is for you.

Okay, I know I said this might hopefully be the last chapter, but I underestimated the battles involved and what else I wanted to cover. Many of you might note that I enlarged the dimensions of Dolza's fortress more than a bit. This is because in my universe there is only one of these things. So here you are, the second to last chapter of Chaotic Space.

Chapter 28 Fortune Favors the Bold

After Ranma's surprising suggestion the feel of the conversation turned around, the almost crushing hopelessness gone replaced by thoughtful focus as everyone there realized that what his suggestion made a lot of sense. There were of course problems with actually launching an attack from both races.

The humans were wary of sending away any of their fighting strength when the Zentraedi felt that they probably could not get to Dolza before his forces were sent out, so sending off a portion of their forces might just result in them simply being killed swiftly. Humanity also didn't have nearly as many ships to spare on what might be a forlorn hope. So they had to send a force that could do a lot of damage, but couldn't send enough to strip their own defenses.

To add to this problem from the Zentraedi perspective, was that they had no fuel available to send their fleet on such a journey. Folding took far more fuel than actually fighting, the longer the jump the more fuel. Even a full campaign with someone like Breetai in charge, with all the small jumps and in system folds that he routinely used to get the better of his opponent, didn't take as much fuel as the one jump his fleet had made from the outer edges of Invid space.

After discussing it however the group agreed to send a small but incredibly powerful force to attack and hopefully divert enough of the assault they expected to come. This assault would done is be composed of both of the SDF class, ten of the Saber-based carriers, which would immediately launch Sabers and then fold out as quickly as possible, and all sixteen battleships.

On the Zentraedi side they decided to strip out enough fuel for 12,000 ships by draining utterly 5,000 Quiltra Queleual carriers from Breetai's fleet. Even as the meeting continued the ships chosen had been stationed between the moon and Earth, and then drained of their fuel in a process his troops had devised several decades below when facing a remarkably effective alien commander, who kept on trying to use maneuvers and speed against them. The respect in Breetai's face was clear when he spoke of that campaign and his adversary, but the grim anger and guilt in his voice told them how it had ended.

The placement of these ships had made the human leaders nervous when they heard of it, but they had eventually agreed to it when Breetai had agreed to let human observer teams on them. Of course there weren't that many observer teams to go around, but it made the politicians happier.

This force of twelve thousand strong was chosen by what Breetai called a combined arms unit, with the majority of them coming from a single unit of his fleet under Senior Division Leader Garaccus. Breetai personally chose him, a sign of faith that made the other man, who looked like the Zentraedi equivalent of Mannstein, swell up with pride.

His forces consisted of 4,000 Thurvel-Salan class battleships, the multipurpose battleship that made up the majority of the Zentraedi fleet and 4,000 Quiltra-Quelamitz gunboats. Added to this they swapped out the 2,000 Quiltra-Quelamitz carriers his division would normally boast with 4,000 carriers taken from Azonia's fleet. The Queadluun Rau would be under the control of Wing commanders Miriya and Athena, Azonia's most dangerous and capable flight leaders.

It would be a small but extremely dangerous fighting force. Their main objective however would be to protect the two SDF fortresses as they did most of the killing. As Breetai put it they would be appearing inside the monstrous orbital station and it was the practically knife range for space combat. Their siege guns would create monstrous casualties in such an enclosed area and protecting the bottom and top of the two space fortresses would be the objective of the rest of the fleet. Of course this begged the question of if the SDF class would either have enough time to transform into siege mode or could in point of fact transit fold in siege mode. A single experiment to this end showed that they could, and this the plan was approved.

It was decided to give Admiral Prescott overall command, since the Argo as and SDF was much tougher to put down than Garaccus' Queadol-Magdomilla command class battleship even with the mobile barrier shields it would be given for the trip. Plans to create control rooms on his ship were already begun, though actually doing it on so many ships would take everything the humans could do.

After that the plan was sent down to Earth for ratification. It elicited a tremendous argument, as humanity and its leaders were worried and of course they should be. Eventually however the groups continued statement that it was the only way to cut down or even stop an assault by an overwhelming force got through. The plan was given the green light, and work began, millions of humans sent up to help with the work on the barrier shields, and hundreds of thousands sent to observe and help the Zentraedi drain their ships of fuel while showing them what maintenance was and other things. The crews of those ships would be broken up and added to other ships of the Zentraedi fleet, carrying that lesson with them.

It was also determined that the SDF types and the other human ships could move far faster in fold then the Zentraedi or Meltraedi ships, whose ships could move quite a bit faster once they took on energy that had gone through the proto-culture process. Dr. Lang and his team spent an entire day siphoning off all of the power that they could from the engines on the Macross, then the space fortress went into Jupiter's atmosphere and resupplied itself with the fuel from the station there. This would allow the Zentraedi and Meltraedi ships to keep up with the human ships during the trip to Dolza's space station. On the back trip they would be much slower having burned through that fuel and most of their own, but at that point it wouldn't matter.

The rest of the human fleet, which was still growing even now, Sabers joining new carriers that had the minimum required crews, missiles ships that were only partially finished and with the bare-bones interior would remain with Rear admiral Oromov, who had been promoted after his exemplary work against Kyron's ships in the Pacific, in command. He would answer to Breetai and Azonia, who were in command of the mobile forces in the solar system (since most of said mobile forces were his fleet). It would take some time for the disparate groups to begin to figure out how to work together, but in the end they would do it.

Three days of almost manic work later 12,000 Zentraedi ships, four human carriers, sixteen general purpose battleships and the two space fortresses left Sol system on a mission of destruction. Of course even with the proto-culture fuel the trip would still take 2 and a half days.

OOOOOOO

Samantha Traynor was a Saber operator on the Saber-carrier Washington. Saber operation wasn't actually what she had been trained to do at first, but had been a drone operator spying on anti-UN forces. But when the news came down that there really were aliens out there and that most of them were in fact hostile, and that there was now a new discipline of combat effective drones she jumped at the chance to do her bit. Alas she had not been able to finish up training on them before the battle against the skirmish fleet. She had finished training just a few days after that battle.

Well such as it was, training like everything else was being rushed hugely these days. There was a sense of urgency to everything, as if the entire human race had a sword of Damocles hovering above them. Which, she had come to learn since they had been told their mission objectives, was in fact the case.

So here she was talking to one of the operators who had been there, on the Washington. She was thankful that her ship wasn't named after some stupid ass Senator that had alas become the norm of the American fleet. Ugh, naming a ship after a senator just because he was on the Senate oversight committee? Fuck that. Her ship was simply named Washington because it was the first carrier of the new class that America had been able to put into space, followed by two more, though they hadn't had crews or Sabers before they had to leave on this mission. Even the Washington wasn't really finished per se.

She could see that whenever she walked around the ship, missing deck plates, unpainted corridors, lots and lots of wires showing everywhere. The signs were numerous and extensive that this entire ship had been rushed into battle well before it should have been. Despite this Samantha and the rest of the operators were confident that their sabers and their fold-space control gear would work. Every operator system had been tested by the operators, and all of them worked before they had gone on this trip.

"Don't even try to fight any of the space fighters," said her friend, the senior Lieutenant Spencer. The two of them had known each other since they were children but he had gone into the air forces and become a pilot, while she had gone into the Marines and then into her drone specialty. He had been assigned to the Hood during the battle against the Retsuc and his fleet, and then reassigned to the Washington along with several dozen others to give the newbies some veteran insight, and the two of them were talking as they waited for two of their fellows to join them for cards. "Even the battlepods, those stupid walker things are faster and more responsive in space then our Sabers. Even with fold space transmission, the lag time is just enough to make any kind of dogfight a death sentence. And our birds don't have any anti-air weapons yet. I hear from the grape vine that the next design will, but this one doesn't."

She nodded thoughtfully. "I getcha, is there any kind of lag time when we fold out to when we reestablish contact?"

"Minimal, he replied. "The noise I guess you could call it of our folding in will whiteout our controls for about three to fifteen seconds, but I wouldn't worry about that. I noticed in the battle against the skirmish fleet that the Zentraedi don't really seem to react to surprises well. Even when we were in among them they didn't really respond until a few of their battleships exploded."

Samantha nodded thoughtfully. "How bad do you think this is going to get?" she asked quietly. She had seen action against a group of terrorists a few times as a Marine. The Middle East was still a hotbed of dissent and warring factions, and America had long since made a permanent base there for armed forces protecting the oil fields. Even with the onset of proto-culture energy and alternate fuel sources oil was still important on the domestic side. So she was no stranger to combat, but the importance of this battle and the scale of it was damn scary.

Spencer shrugged scratching his short cropped beard a little before he replied. "I don't know, it might be merely bad, or it might be horrible. The numbers the Zentraedi use normally are just…" he shook his head. "Out of this world. And this is supposed to be a fleet much, much larger than even one of their battle fleets. But we'll be well out of it. Remember we'll just be launching our Sabers and getting the shit out of dodge!" he finished, grinning a little.

Samantha nodded wordlessly, not mentioning the fact that he obviously didn't believe what he was saying. The carriers were made to stand off at range and send in flights of Sabers to destroy their enemies, and as such they were much more fragile than a regular battleship of equivalent tonnage. The barely space worthy nature of the Washington and two of the other carriers with them made that even worse.

At that point their friends arrived, and the four pilots did their best to forget about the battle to come for now.

OOOOOOO

A song of the variety called pop rock was blaring out the speakers on the flagship of Senior Division Leader Garaccus and even as his head bobbed to the Micronian music he thought about his orders. He had served under Breetai for over 100 solar cycles, and while that didn't make him the most senior Leader, it meant he was extremely experienced, and he thought that he had a handle on how his Lord Admiral thought.

The fact they were so desperate as to send him and his forces out on what amounted to a suicide run in the hopes of doing enough damage to halt Dolza's attack on the humans and the first fleet (as well as the Meltraedi of course, couldn't forget them, not with the contributions they had put in against the Invid) showed a lot of trust in his abilities and a disturbing amount of concern. It bothered him more than he wanted to admit that Breetai had agreed to this plan. Unless the human's siege cannons proved far more effective than he thought they would be his ships were going to die for very little return.

Yet even as he thought this the notes of the song went on, and he smiled a little thinking about what his race had lost, dreaming of what they could do to regain it and the fact that humans would be helping them do it.

Garaccus had no more of an idea about the real history of the Zentraedi than most, and Breetai had decided that on the eve of battle is not the time to share it. Despite that they had all been told that they had been betrayed, used and manipulated by another race to be their meat shields. A human who had come aboard with a team of a hundred to help set up the control center for their mobile barriers had used that term, and Garaccus had looked it up on the human internet. When he found the meaning he saw it was accurate.

That didn't sit well with him or any other Zentraedi, and Garaccus and all of his captains were prepared to pay for going along with this scheme in return for personal power. Indeed, he was now anxious to start, and his hands twitched eagerly thinking of the battle to come.

To take his mind off the battle to come he decided to follow one of the human suggestions, walking around the ship and seeing what was wrong, what could be fixed and what could be made better. The effect on morale of this was so much that he decided to do it every day, and had found several problems with his flagship that he hadn't seen before, some from combat damage, others from simply the wear of time. He spent the next day and a half in fold working with the humans and his crew to understand what they could do to help the ship get back to its original condition.

OOOOOOO

With all his other projects it had taken a few days for Lang and Cologne to get enough time to analyze the advanced data-chip they had found in the proto-culture generator room. And it had taken several hours work to figure out how to read the data-chip, since it was so advanced none of the systems save the main compute on the Macross could interact with it. But no one even thought of just plugging it in, not after the programming trap that had resulted in the ship firing at the Zentraedi two and a half years ago.

To that end Lang and his scientists had developed a independent system, isolated from the rest of the ship both physically and electronically that could do the job. While they were doing this Cologne had taken over studying the Flowers of Life, where her knowledge of ki had come in handy understanding what the plant was doing and how.

Now however they both stood in front of the isolated system, watching as one of the interns, who had begun to insist they be called red-shirts for some reason Emil and Cologne didn't understand, approached the computer and swiftly plugged the data-chip in the specially created port, a rough upraised pyramid of electronics and metal with a hollow point at the top.

After a moment the system began to read the data off the chip, but the redshirt frowned. "Sir, this is going a little fast I…" he paused and began to type at the keyboard connected to the isolated computer for a second, but his frown merely deepened. "Sir, whatever is on this thing, it's interacting with the system, actively helping it find and build a translation program to breach the gap, but it's also blocking me out, I can't tell you anything about the information inside, not yet. Maybe if we wait for it to finish but…" A moment later the system shut down for a second and then booted back up, and seemed to be running some kind of update. "This is, um, I think we were right to isolate this thing, its taken over the computer, at least I think so…" the last words ended on a querulous note but then he spoke softly. "Its finished taking in our language sir, its um…"

"I can see it Earnest, thank you," Emil said dryly. On the computer screen was the statement: 'upload sample DNA of species within ten minutes or this unit will automatically erase'. "Well, that shouldn't take long, but the mystery deepens."

Cologne cackled agreement and left to have her DNA sample taken. Seven minutes later she was back with a human memory stick and Earnest took it and popped it into a ne reader they had grabbed from another computer.

Another moment passed as the system on the data-chip searched through the memory stick and then scanned the DNA. A moment later the words: 'analysis complete, species identified as unknown. Non-Tirolian, Invid influenced, or Zentraedi confirmed, primary security program disengaging.'

Seconds later, the screen lit up again with the aged face of a very tired looking being. It was obviously an alien, no human had a cranium that large or built up in the back, nor such a thin skeletal structure or eyes that didn't have an iris. The fact it was tired was obvious too as he slumped in his chair, blue skin sallow and gaunt, yet it's odd black eyes seemed to blaze with intelligence and resolve.

This matched the voice that began to come out of the speaker that was part computer, its words translated automatically into human by the program that had taken over the computer. "Whoever thou art, I welcome thee to mine ship. If thou wert allied with mine enemies this message wouldst not be seen, and so I welcome you with open mind but with caution. For know now that since thou didst find my ship that mine enemies art thine, for they wilt stop at nothing to own that which is aboard it. I speaketh of the Zentraedi, monstrous giants that thou may have met before this, and the Masters, those fools who tooketh mine teachings and perverted them for their own mad ambitions and desire for immortality."

At the second half of that sentence both Emil and Lang gasped and leaned forward, trepidation and wonder in their faces. "Here me strangers, for I am Zor…."

OOOOOOO

Besides their looks and pension for enjoying talking about clothing and styles and dressing up, the Meltraedi had one more thing in common with their human counterparts, they liked to gossip. The latest topic of conversation was why Miriya and Athena, had both decided to remain aboard the space fortress. Even knowing that one of the Micronization machines had been placed on the ship (taken from Breetai's flagship) the idea of spending time as human and then changing back and heading into battle was odd to them. Why not simply stay in your proper body until later? What was so important to have them stay on the Macross?

"I wonder what Athena is thinking?" gossiped one of her seconds, looking over at another as they made final checks on their Queadluun Rau. "This was a human idea that all the Meltraedi had grabbed with both hands, since most of them were very familiar with the fact that sometimes their powersuits developed problems even before you took them into combat. One human technician had likened them to something called a supercar, lots of maintenance needed, but the performance was incredible.

"I don't know said Silonia, as she removed a piece of rock from one of her power suits arm joints. It might not seem like much, but in a pitched battle it might've slowed her response in that arm enough to be the difference between life and death. "Maybe the humans on the Macross have been holding out on us and have a source of chocolate?"

This brought laughter from every 'girl' (a term they had taken from the humans, and one that every Meltraedi below 160 had embraced) around, and one even went so far as to say "good one!"

The human's reaction to the fact that they had been attacking Europe to steal chocolate had been amusing to say the least. A lot of people thought it was ridiculous, some kind of lie or misinformation. The creators of chocolate on the other hand had already noticed that the chocolate factories near their assault points had been completely emptied, and simply took it in stride. One of them in fact was already advertising their chocolate in a new way. 'So good even an alien would have to be crazy not to like it' was the slogan, though the Meltraedi ahdn't particularly like the odd caricature that went with it.

"I doubt it's that," said another girl, still chortling a little. "Athena said she was meeting with that commander Fokker correct, perhaps she's trying to upgrade our tactics?"

One of the veterans from Athena's own unit nodded sharply. "Lady Lisa and her use of tactics and rotation saved a lot of our lives when we were facing off against the skirmish fleet, and if Athena can figure out how to teach us the same tactics, it'll make us even more dangerous." Respect for Lisa among the Meltraedi who had fought alongside the Macross was almost as high as it was for their own wing commanders.

"How do you think the Nousjadeul-Ger powersuits are going to stand up to us? I read some other specs, and they might have more straight-line speed than us, though their punch is much less." Asked one of the younger pilots.

It had come as something of a shock to most of the Meltraedi that the Zentraedi had their own version of their signature powersuits. Indeed, only Breetai and Exedore had known of their existence, because they were only assigned to Dolza's fleet, and almost never saw combat. Still Exedore had warned them that their pilots were elite and the powersuits themselves much more dangerous than a Reguld.

"No missiles said Silonia, the most senior pilot there by rote. "Swivel laser on one shoulder, handheld weapon with unknown ammunition and another single energy cannon in the center of the torso. It should be a much closer contest than against a Reguld of course, but that's not saying much is it?"

This started another round of laughter through the hanger, but this was much more like the sound a shark or lion would make right before the kill if they could, and the smiles all around her matched that feeling. "But yes it should be interesting to say the least."

"Hear, hear," said one of the women working with one of the techs assigned to heir ship to replace a piece of her thruster that had been damaged. Before the humans had come aboard of course she would've had to replace the entire suit if she didn't just want to suck it up as a human phrase went, but the maintenance manuals the humans had so quickly made for them all made this a relatively minor problem. "It wouldn't be right to pull Dolza down without a fight after all." Another laugh went through the room and this time there was no humor in it, just cold, dark fury, waiting to be unleashed.

OOOOOOO

Claudia Grant was annoyed, aggravated, irritated and quite frankly, pissed off. She had hoped to spend all her free time over the past few days with her fiancé doing everything they could to burn the fact that they were alive into their brains before this battle but this had run into a wall named Athena.

Athena's stated interest in Roy was based off of his experience as Wing Commander and the fact that he had developed tactics that made the Valkyrie, which despite all the upgrades to it was still not quite equal to a Queadluun Rau, able to fight the Meltraedi on an almost even footing. On the surface that looked the case, but after their first meeting Claudia knew Athena was not just interested in picking Roy's brain whatever she herself thought.

Despite the fact that she didn't know anything about intercourse or social interaction the alien woman was definitely interested in Roy and Claudia didn't like it, or the fact that she just showed up out of the blue every time she turned around. Sharing might be all right with Lisa and Kasumi (and she had heard rumors that Miriya had joined the trio it as well) but Claudia wasn't the sharing type.

At the moment there was nothing she could do about it without coming across like some jealous bitch, which made her even angrier. Roy, being the dense male that he was, hadn't noticed anything and simply enjoyed talking shop with Athena and coming up with a battle plan with her and Lisa that would utilize the Valkyrie and power suits different abilities to the maximum effect. This made it even worse of course.

She had finally gotten him to go out with her tonight, the last night before they were scheduled to come out of fold, and the two had made reservations at the White Dragon. No sooner had they sat down however that Athena appeared, striding through the door like she owned the place. "Ah, there you are Wing Leader Fokker. I had an idea I wanted to share with you."

That just about does it, Claudia thought. Super space Amazon or not this bitch is going down! No one interrupts my dates with my man and gets away with it! She was about to get up and, well get her ass kicked really when someone else interrupted them.

"Sorry," Minmei said buzzing past with her upraised arms full of lunch plates and heading for a party of ten in the corner. "We're by reservation only tonight!"

"What is this reservation thing?" Athena asked, pausing in midstride toward her target, er fellow wing leader. Then she blinked as the voice registered. "Are, are you the singer Minmei?"

"Yep, that's me, are you one of the Meltraedi? It's always nice to meet my fans." Athena nodded, but didn't have to introduce herself as Anya, coming out of the kitchen with several orders of good in her arms, did that for her. Minmei finished dealing with her table, smiling at the attempts to flirt with her but making no other reaction. She was happy to get the day off to work at the restaurant; it helped her think and was actually restful for some reason, but getting hit on became irritating quickly.

She was about to wave the tall, somewhat imposing Meltraedi into a chair at the Fokker's table when she caught Claudia's pleading expression and suddenly realized that maybe Athena wasn't actually welcome here. "Well, I'm sorry but we don't have any extra chairs tonight, but to make it up why don't you come back after we close tonight and I'll let you listen to a recording of my newest song with Anya. I've been using her as a sounding board for my songs, but a second opinion is always nice."

Athena nodded eagerly, not understanding what a sounding board was but getting the gist of it, and she left seconds later with a smile on her face. Claudia nodded gratefully at the younger girl who grinned back with a discrete thumbs-up before turning away and moving to another table.

The rest of the evening passed far better than it had began, and Claudia stayed back for a few minutes as they were leaving to fill Minmei in on what was going on. Minmei was sympathetic and told her she'd try and fill Athena in on human culture and why what she was doing was rude, but didn't promise it would do anything.

Knowing this was the best she was going to get Claudia thanked her and left with Fokker, and they swiftly made their way back to their flat, where Claudia very carefully disabled the door buzzer, put out a 'Do Not Disturb' sign, and very firmly locked it behind her.

OOOOOOO

The White Dragon was a restaurant plain and simple, they didn't have a bar and if you didn't like rice wine they were BYOB as well so the restaurant closed down at eleven, leaving the rest of the night free for Rick and Minmei to go out on a date. The two of them hadn't seen much of one another lately, and Rick had hoped to spend some time with his girlfriend together. So here he sat at one of the tables in the rapidly emptying restaurant, not knowing that Minmei had forgotten about their plans and made her own. She had switched to helping her mother in the kitchen while her father and Kyle, more intimidating figures, helped Anya chivvy the last of the stragglers out.

Shao smiled at the young man waiting for his niece. "Hey Rick, you planning on taking Minmei out tonight?"

"Yes sir, we're planning to go dancing at one of the night clubs downtown. Don't worry, I'll have her back by two or so." Rick had lost his nervousness about being grilled by the male authority figure in Minmei's life at about the time Nodoka had threatened to cut off his manhood should he harm her or press her too fast. Compared to that Shao wasn't about to intimidate him, and the man grinned at him and began to bus the tables around them.

Kyle had just chivvied the last of the diners out and he sneered when he heard Rick. Kyle had not been having an easy time of it onboard the Macross. His first attempt at rabble rousing had been followed by nearly burning his bridges with his parents with his anti-soldier attitude. Then his ego took a pounding when he found that in terms of the martial artists aboard the ship he was very small potatoes. In fact most of them wouldn't even call him a dabbler in the arts.

Kyle was like Max in a way, he wasn't used to not being the center of attention, of not succeeding at whatever he set himself to, but lately everything he tried seemed to turn to dust. His attempts to ingratiate himself with the anti-war/army faction had failed as most of that faction had jumped ship as he was coming aboard. He couldn't seem to fit in with the new population of the city, and Kyle's good looks weren't enough to get him a job at the one move studio aboard like he thought, and his anti-war stance had closed any other doors his looks might have opened. He had been forced to lean heavily on his parent's good graces, and to make matters worse his play for his cousin's affections had been firmly rebuffed time and time again.

Now he saw a way to get back at the main obstacle to that last objective, and he walked over, still sneering a little. "Sorry to hear that Hunter, but Minmei must not have known about your plans tonight, she made plans with one of those Meltraedi to listen of some of her new songs tonight. Guess you're out of luck, huh?"

Rick stared back at the older, angry sounding man and simply shrugged. "I'll wait and let here until she can come out and tell me that if that's okay with you." In another world Rick would have simply gone into a funk at the idea of his girlfriend forgetting a date. In this one he had a much better grasp of his self worth, even if he did still have a bit of a temper and quite a bit of possessiveness.

Kyle growled a little, angry at not getting a rise out of his target. "Well, it's not okay with me! Why don't you take a damn hint and leave! We don't want your kind here, and Minmei can do a hell of a lot better than some empty-headed soldier."

"What the hell is your problem with me anyway?!" Rick barked back. "Yes I'm a soldier, yes I kill, you think I enjoy it? Its jut my job, to keep your sorry ass safe." He smirked suddenly. "And besides, I think Minmei's' shown her own preferences don't you?"

That line seemed to act like a whip on Kyle and he leaped forward his hands lashing out in chops at Rick's head. Rick kicked out, falling back in his chair and away from Kyle's charge, the clatter of the chair alerting Shao and the girls in the kitchen that there was something going on.

Kyle pressed his advantage, but took a kick in the gut for his troubles that caused him to back away, rubbing his stomach, which let Rick get to his feet. Kyle moved in again, but his chops and punches were blocked until Rick grabbed his hand and twisted, throwing Kyle over one shoulder.

Kyle landed with a crash onto one of the tables, shattering it, but he got up quickly, whipping out a piece of wood that caught Rick in the shoulder before he wrenched it out of the other man's hand. Kyle pressed in again, a snap kick catching Rick in the thigh, but he grimaced and took it, his own fist lancing in to catch Kyle on the chin, throwing his head back, and setting him up for another punch that slammed into the side of his jaw.

Kyle staggered back but was still game and tried to move forward again, but was stopped by Shao, who grabbed his son under the arms and locked him into a hold, keeping him still. "What the hell are you doing Kyle!"

Minmei and the others had come out too, and now stood between the two combatants, their expressions demanding explanations. Rick shrugged. "I was waiting to talk to you Minmei, if you remember we had plans to go out tonight. Kyle came over and basically tried to get me to leave, and when I shot back a bit he attacked me."

Kyle tried to defend himself but his mother's glare shut him up, and he suddenly realized how badly he had screwed up here.

Minmei shot him a look of contempt and then nodded at Rick. "I believe you Rick, but did you two have to fight it out like two Neanderthals!" She scowled at both boys. "I'm sick of this stupid one-upmanship thing that's been going on between you two! Kyle, I'm not interested in you, I never have been, and your attitude since you came aboard has ruined what family affection I had for you. And Rick," she whirled on the smirking pilot, "You think too much with your fists! I don't doubt Kyle threw the first punch, but I know you egged him into it! You can't let your own jealousy of who I spend time with get to you like that! I've seen how you glare whenever any other boy is nearby, even Ranma sometimes, and even girls like Anya too! I don't think I want to go out with you tonight, not after this. I'll see you tomorrow, after we've all cooled down."

Rick winced, hut nodded, knowing a lost fight when he saw it. It was true after all, he did get jealous when someone got close to Minmei, and he had egged Kyle into a fight. He left, his head down, and one hand in a pocket fingering a small box there.

Athena passed him, looking around in confusion at the odd tableau. "Did I come at a bad time?"

OOOOOOO

Claudia and Rick were not the only ones having and with their romantic prospects, Shampoo was encountering trouble too.

Shampoo was both a traditional Amazon in her tastes in men and impulsive in the extreme. She had decided upon first meeting him that the man named Rana Sanga was perfect husband material. He was strong, respected among his peers, apparently some kind of royalty back in India, experienced in all martial matters as well as incredibly skilled with one of the Indian blades.

He was so good in fact that he could hold his own against the Amazons, something that had earned him their respect. That fact had been proven when he joined the martial artists with his man, all of whom had earned the respect of the Amazons as well as their interest. Indeed it looked as if the two groups would merge somewhat and the new culture coming from that union would be fascinating to see.

Unfortunately for her pursuit of her new interest Rana Sanga saw Shampoo only as a little girl. Well, not a little girl, but a teenager nonetheless. He was pushing 35 and the idea of being with someone that much younger than him did not interest him. No, he was more interested in the experienced Amazon warrior named Tiger. Her looks were incredibly exotic, with her short cropped red hair, pointed ears and tiger markings, and the idea of having a wife that could fight as well as he could was attractive to say the least.

Max too was still having trouble finding a partner that was more than a roll in the hay and less then marriage. His reputation however proceeded him, and made his search more difficult.

Not that it was all bad for relationships on the Macross. Motoko and her Lucretia had become an official couple. In fact Lucretia had put in an application for citizenship with the Macross, not wanting to go back to the fleet and leave Motoko again. It had taken her sometimes to realize that what she was feeling for the other girl wasn't affection or friendship but when she had, and after feeling what Motoko could do with her she hadn't looked back. She still was a bag of nerves at times, and it got worse when they were out in public, but her affection towards Motoko was clear.

OOOOOOO

Miriya too was spending the time before the battle with Ranma, Lisa and Kasumi, in point of fact they were playing a game called Guardians. The others had described as a team based RPG, which of course had to be explained in turn, but it was a lot of fun despite the number of words and ideas she didn't understand.

Kasumi of course was a healer. Despite the fact that she didn't want to be a nurse any longer she couldn't bring herself to actually harm other people, not even if they were little pixels on a screen. She was however excellent at healing them up and had stepped into the role of team leader.

"Oh my, look at all the little goblins. Ranma if you can block that far door and Miriya that close one for a moment, I think that Lisa can take care of all of the enemies in this room. The spawn points seem to be coming from down those two doors. And once it's clear then we can shut one of the doors and clear out the first room and then move onto the next."

"Sound tactics," said Lisa, commanding her thief forward and slicing a few goblin throats before the enemies in the room even knew she was there. Miriya and Ranma also answered in the affirmative and rushed toward the far hallways.

Even as Miriya used one hand to punch buttons on the controller, another hand reached out for some munchies that Kasumi had made, and she laughed as Ranma used one of his monk skills called the 'humiliating death', which was like a final attack or a special blow but killed the enemy in a humiliating in random fashion.

In this case Ranma had gotten in close enough to shatter his opponents armor then smash him over the head so hard it made him curl up and then kicked him in the balls as if he was a ball sending him into several others that it bowled over. For a moment the screen flashed and an animation of a bowling ball hitting several pins appeared before changing back to the battle.

"Nice one," Lisa laughed, nudging him in the arm. All of them had the day off, everything that could be done before the battle had been done and both of them would have to report for duty about an hour before fold out, but until then they could relax and enjoy their time together.

It was strange Lisa thought idly even as she knifed another goblin that had tried to ignore her and attack Kasumi. Was it just her or had it stopped in place rather than going forward with it? A lot of the civilians and military personnel are anxious, as they should be going into a battle that was going to be this huge. But the martial artists aboard the ship aren't anxious but eager, and Ranma doesn't seem worried at all.

Nor did Kasumi, and the confidence in them was infectious. It was like they couldn't even think of failing, of not coming back and seeing one another again, and that confidence grabbed you and made you believe the same thing. Miriya of course had much the same attitude, and it was enhanced or magnified by Ranma's, but Lisa had taken some more time to join the optimistic side of the Force.

This little party/family gathering was just what the doctor ordered however, and she used her off hand to slam down the special attack mode, using her minor aspect as a sorcerer to shock and stun the remaining enemies in the room whereupon she went quickly from one to the next beheading them while Kasumi shut Miriya's door, allowing her to fall back and join Ranma at his. "I want to do a humiliation kill too," Lisa whined childishly.

"Then ya should have chosen to be a kick ass monk like me!" Ranma laughed.

"Careful koi, your ego seems due for a popping." She replied dryly, causing the other women to laugh. And so the night continued.

Later that night the four of them spent their time in bed together, spending time showing one another they cared in the oldest way imaginable and it was four very exhausted people that eventually fell asleep.

OOOOOOO

The next day found Lisa on the bridge, wearing not her normal uniform but a space suit. Every naval officer aboard the ship was wearing one, and every civilian had been accounted for in the shelters deep within the ship. The entire ship would have to be literally cored straight through the middle for the bunkers to be in danger, and even then they were airtight. It had been the norm of the officers on the bridge and in deeper areas of the ship to go without spacesuits but this would not be the case now. They would lose enough people in battle even if everything went as well as they could hope, they were not about to lose more to decompression.

She looked at the screen in front of her, which was split into three showing Athena, Roy and Ranma. Ranma would be leading an assault force, which would target the forces directly in front of and between them and the command spire which was situated in a central spire in the center of Dolza's incredibly huge space station. His job would be to take out Dolza, and the computers intact. This would be incredibly dangerous, but Prescott and the others had decided that taking the computers in Dolza's fortress would allow them to figure out where Tirolian space was and hopefully much more. This assault force would be composed of Wildfire, Max's Phoenix Squadron (formerly Vermillion), Knight Squadron, Archer Squadron (formerly Green) led by Rick, its roster halfway filled with Amazons, and two wings of Queadluun Rau.

Prescott had wanted to augment this with some quadroons from the Argo, but Lisa had convinced him not to. She had convinced him that veteran though his pilots were they weren't up to the level of the experienced squadrons from the Macross.

Athena would be in charge of antiair offense. She had been placed in charge of half the Queadluun Rau wing that had come with them, as well as the Regulds from the gunboats and all-purpose battleships of Garaccus' forces. Her troops would also be protecting the Sabers as they went in against enemy capital ships. As soon as Athena, once more enlarged to her normal size, exited the space fortress she would take command, and hopefully would be as seamless as they had envisioned it before leaving Seoul.

Roy was in command of the antiair defense and had been given command of the other half of the Queadluun Rau wings and his own wing and the Argo's. Lisa was in overall command, and would be doing her best to be integrating the different commands.

The fleet would be coming out in a formation that looked like some kind of odd sandwich. Above and below the human fleet in space were the two forces of the Zentraedi, 5000 strong each, forming the buns of the sandwich. The Thurvel-Salan battleship packs were arrayed around the Quiltra-Quelamitz gunboats which would work in concert to destroy any Nupetiet-Vergnitzs battleship they before turning on the other kinds of battleships. Breetai had passed on the fact that Dolza's force used these for their division leaders, just another sign of the strange selective nature of the Zentraedi. The other battleships would be targeting the enemy gunboats, and then the Thurvel-Salan battleships, leaving the Quiltra Queleual carriers to be destroyed later. This targeting prioritizing was because they assumed that the Meltraedi powersuit would be superior to the Nousjadeul-Ger used by Dolza's fleet. They also knew that at least as far as Breetai knew that power suits made up only about five percent of Dolza's forces. That was still a hell of a lot, but not insurmountable. After all, they would just need to last long enough for the siege cannons to do their work.

Between these two 'buns' in space were the human forces, book ended by the two super dimensional space fortresses on either side of the human formation. Both of these space fortress were already in siege mode, and would began to fire their siege guns as soon as they left fold. Between the two space fortresses were the four Saber carriers and the sixteen human battleships.

The carriers, not having any of the armor or mobile barriers of the battleships, would fold out immediately. It was hoped that the second fold would enable them to move elsewhere in the star system away from any of the Zentraedi forces, but the more and more they thought of it the more Gloval and Lisa felt that that was going to be a tall order. Indeed if it had occurred to them at the time they would probably have argued against sending any of the carriers and instead bringing the long range missile ships which were much more heavily defended. But it was too late for that now, and they would have to hope for the best.

Besides the carriers, every ship in the human fleet had a hundred mobile barriers, and as many of the Zentraedi ships had them as could have been loaded onto them in the time allowed. Indeed the two space fortresses had turned over their reserves, and the space colonies had been forced to turn over their mobile barrier shields as well. The space fortresses had been able to make do their losses by switching all their factories to barrier/battery creation, and they both had over two hundred, though only enough control runs to use fifty at a time. The other battleships could only use thirty at a time.

Only Garaccus's flagship had an equal number of barriers, and they could only run ten at a time, but the human team of ten that had volunteered to stay aboard and run them were competent, and had been trained by Sammy, who was in charge of that unit aboard the Macross.

They would also be blaring out as much music as possible from every ship in the combined fleet, and all of the Meltraedi commanders and Valkyrie commanders had leave to activate their own 'audio attack' at any time. Despite the odds against them that humans had a very good chance of at the minimum causing enough damage to the enemy forces that they would not be able to attack Earth with sufficient number to overcome Breetai and the Meltraedi with him. It may cost us all our lives, Lisa thought grimly, but Dolza is going down this day one way or the other.

"Are you three ready to go?" She asked, looking down at the three faces on her communication screen.

"Athena here, QR1, ready." Athena responded formerly, using her new communication designation. The humans had organized even their communication, and it was hoped that it would cut down on the amount of disorganization inherent in any battle.

Lisa could see Ranma take a deep breath, his eyes already flickering with ki-light as his hands flexed. "Wildfire 1, all units assigned to the assault team report ready. We're good to go."

Roy cracked his neck from side to side, bringing his visor down and checking his targeting software for a moment. "All Valkyrie squadrons ready."

"Excellent, ten minutes and counting before fold out. Good luck, and lets all make it through this." the three pilots nodded and signed off, Ranma taking a moment to kiss two of his fingers and raise it to touch the com screen.

Lisa gulped a little at that, but refused to do the same with Gloval and the rest of the bridge crew around them. After a moment spent composing herself she turned to Gloval and nodded firmly. "Sir, all parasite forces are ready for combat. General Mannstein reports his forces are in position." The Spartans had in fact exited the ship and moved to their defensive positions already ,regardless of fold. Some of them were reporting odd effects, but nothing major.

Gloval nodded formally at her and turned to Claudia. "Sound general quarters, bring the ship to battle readiness. Double check and make sure that all of the civilians are in their shelters, we don't want any of them out about."

"Already done sir," said Claudia crisply, her worries about Athena and whether or not Athena was trying to force her way into Claudia and Roy's relationship forgotten for now. "Siege cannon online and charging, secondary and tertiary were weapons report all green, barrier systems are good to go and awaiting order for rollout."

Gloval nodded and leaned back, his face calm, but the tension rising within him. Part of him was sad that Nodoka was not on the bridge at the moment, but she had not passed the spacesuit course, and he was not willing to let his lady put herself in danger by being on the bridge without one. Still it made waiting even harder than normal.

OOOOOOO

Gloval was not the only one dealing with tension. Admiral Prescott was dealing with some tension too, not least because his own family was aboard his ship. This battle and its stakes were on a scale he had never imagined before, and he sent a few prayers out to whatever deity that was listening that they pulled this off. Still his ship and its parasite force were as ready as they could get, and he knew that the ships would keep formation as much as possible before then. He sat on his flag bridge, looking at the readouts, which for the moment showed nothing, but would soon light up with tactical information, and at his command team.

One of them looked back at him. "Two minutes to fold out sir."

Scott nodded and looked around at his men. Sometimes an admiral would make at a moment like this, but that had never been Scott's style, he was always more of a disciplinarian than a morale booster. So he just grinned. "You heard the man, prepare to kick some ass." Regardless of his brevity this did elicited a cheer, and everyone around him was ready and waiting as the clock ticked down.

OOOOOOO

Rick sat in his Valkyrie at the head of his squadron in hanger five, double-checking his Valkyries systems in preparation for launch. This task was interrupted when his personal data-pad beeped at him, and he looked down at it in surprise. When he brought it up he saw a message there from Minmei and he opened it eagerly.

'Rick, sorry about last night, it was just a long day and you know I hate all that macho stuff. We're about to enter the shelters, but I want to tell you I'm sorry about blowing up like that. We'll talk after this is all over, Minmei.'

Rick scowled a little at the brief almost detached message, fingering the box in his pocket again, but he shook his head, getting all thoughts of Minmei and where or even if their relationship was going somewhere out of his head. He had a battle to survive first.

OOOOOOO

Reality shuddered and juddered for a moment, more than any other fold save the first aborted one that they had tried in Earth's gravity well, and then the alliance fleet came out of fold. Even before their systems had come back online Lisa was barking orders. "All Valkyries get out there and give them hell, main gun fire! All carriers launch Sabers and get the hell out of here!" That order should have come from the flag, but she barked it out anyway, not waiting for Prescott to recover from that strange fold out.

Global shook his head slightly getting rid of the odd distorted sensation that had plagued him for a second there even as the main siege cannon of the space fortress fired. This close that first shot was able to take out over 50,000 enemy battleships before the space fortress began to traverse. Across from them in the formation the Argo also began to fire, it's beam of light more orange than the gold/red color of the original space fortress, but the color didn't seem to matter in terms of power and another 50,000 ships died..

Between them the Sabers began to eject from their carriers in droves, while above and below them the Zentraedi also began to launch fighters and hammer away at the enemy. Already Lisa could see that one of the Nupetiet-Vergnitzs nearest them but below the two space fortresses plane of fire had been hit by beams from a 100 gunboats, destroying it utterly.

Gloval took a moment and hit his intercom for a moment, connecting him directly to Dr. Lang, who despite the best efforts of his superiors had declined to remain back on Earth. He felt that the safest place for him was where it had always been, right here on the space fortress. "Dr., was that a normal fold out after so long? Get back to me when you know the answer." With that he turned to Lisa and nodded. Fight your flights commander, I'll handle the ship."

Lisa nodded and swiftly did so, organizing the chaos as much as she could and pointing the Valkyries and Sabers towards where the Meltraedi had already sent their fighters and thus weekend the defensive envelope of those ships.

OOOOOOO

As she did this Prescott commands snapped out, and the two space fortresses began to move their siege cannon having gone to continuous fire, threatening to burn up systems but in the end that wouldn't matter if they didn't win. The human battleships too began to fire at the closet Zentraedi ships, their more powerful (though far less numerous) weapons systems slamming out, rail guns and grazers alike tearing into their larger enemies.

He took a moment to analyze the tactical screen. As planned the attacking fleet had folded into the center of Dolza's massive space station. Their position was with their 'backs' to the command spire in the center. Strangely enough the screen showed that there were no ships on the other side of the command spire. Prescott couldn't believe it, his ratings were actually telling him there were over 800,000 ships in this monstrously large dock, though they weren't reacting as a group yet. That number had been whittled down by 102,000 already, and that number was rising as the siege cannons did their work.

On his orders the human battleships began to move up, providing close cover fire for the space fortresses. As he watched the command spire launched its fighters, and he was tempted to order one of the space fortresses to take it out, but that wasn't the plan, and he needed to keep the long term in mind. "All units proceed with operation Able; assault teams head out now!"

Now however the enemy fleets began to respond, and he watched with shock as the tactical system actually shut down for a moment unable to comprehend the number of enemy threat signals. It came back up almost immediately of course, by then billions upon billions of Regulds and millions of elite power suits of launched. The main capital ships had also begun to fire, and the allied Zentraedi and Meltraedi forces began to die.

The carriers quickly finished rolling out their Sabers, and folded out, but not quickly enough for all of them. One of them, the new built Montréal wasn't fast enough. Prescott could only watch in shock as over a dozen gunboats targeted it from a distance. Their beams sliced through it like a hot knife through butter, and soon enough the entire ship was just gone, more dust and pieces than actual wreckage. There wasn't even any distress signals coming from emergency life pods, and he shook his head sadly. That was all he could allow himself however and he began to order his remaining ships around, using his human battleships to defend the space fortresses, and destroy any ships that were under the siege cannon's radius but not being targeted by the Zentraedi above and below them. "All ships start the audio attack!"

The command structure of the Zentraedi was at best disorganized and the sound assault made that even worse. The Zentraedi were unable to bring their monstrous advantage in numbers to truly bear, not without going through the Allied Zentraedi forces or facing the spinning whirling death of the two space fortresses which were now moving in tandem around a central point between them their siege cannons still on continuous fire. Prescott wasn't certain, but his system was reporting actually stars in the distance now from where one of his shots had gone through space that wasn't occupied by any Zentraedi forces and had actually blown out the side of the monstrous space station.

"Argus, Carlisle, come to about 72 degrees down and to the right, that division of Zentraedi battleships need some help take some fire off them from the gunboats trying to overwhelm them. "Capt., turn your position up ten degrees, inform Rear admiral Gloval what we're doing."

"Sir!" Shouted his communication officer. "We're getting a signal from the Queen Elizabeth, there are no Zentraedi ships outside this base! Theres another smaller asteroid base or something in system, but it isn't moving in support and there isn't anything coming out toward us."

Prescott's eyes widened, but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth and he looked over his readouts swiftly. Ironsides was reporting heavy damage, its barriers having already failed as it had come under the assault of over a hundred gunboats almost immediately. "Ironsides, fold out and join the carriers, execution immediate! Any battleship is to fold out if it sustain critical damage!" He motioned over to one of the ratings by the door. "You, watch this screen, any ship icon fall into the red, open the communication and order them out!" The rating nodded firmly and sat down next to the com officer, his eyes glued to the tac screen.

As he turned back to direct his fleet Prescott idly wondered what the hell that other station was and why all of the ships here had been inside the space fortress rather than both inside and out, but figured those questions really didn't matter right now. A part of him was also wondering, in a sort of bemused, half shocked way, why the numbers they were facing was so much lower than the numbers Breetai and Azonia thought they would be facing.

OOOOOOO

Lieutenant Spencer grinned evilly as he led three of his fellow Sabers in behind a capital ship. This was known as the sweet spot in fighter parlance. The Zentraedi had thought of practically every kind of battle when they had made their ships, and even a gunboat had a lot of antiair weaponry, and fighting them was pretty tough for normal spacefighters. Unless you get into their sweet spot, he said to himself gleefully in his little capsule aboard the Washington. There were no weapons directly facing back from the engines.

He flipped his Saber over, neatly dodging under a antiair laser from another ship in his targets 'formation'. Despite their inability to actually be used in a dogfight against living opponents the Sabers were easily capable of ignoring most antiair fire. That was because the Zentraedi's weapons had a few seconds between locking on and firing, and even at this distance he was able to take advantage of that to dodge. "You locked on my six, 3, 4?" he asked, receiving two affirmatives immediately. "Fire as you bare!" The three Sabers fired as one, the heavy grazers coring straight through the outer armor of the battleship's engines and soon enough the entire ship exploded.

"Next!" Spencer shouted, then shuddered as he suddenly lost all feed. "Damnit! I'm out, shot down already!" He exclaimed banging one hand down on the desk and pulling off his VR goggles angrily with his other hand.

The Capt.'s voice came through loud and clear from the intercom a moment later. "Don't worry about it, the space fortress has already blown a hole in that giant, giant thing, were going to wait and see if that other giant thing deeper in the system can send anything out after us, but if it can't, we're going to send in another flight soon."

"Yes sir," Spencer said grinning a little evilly. Payback for the loss of the Montréal hadn't even begun yet.

OOOOOOO

Athena brought one fist up slamming into the chest of one of the elite powersuits ripping out the cannon that was about to take her head off and firing both of her own cannons another one directly below her. There were very few of these things in comparison to the number of battle pods around, but they were much tougher, and she estimated about five of them could match a Queadluun Rau, if the pilots were equal in skill. "Especially since," she muttered, firing her mini missiles at seven more that were about to attack an allied battleship, "very few of billions is still a lot."

She smirked evilly however as a squadron of Valkyries zoomed past her wing's position, their heavier missile fire splashing, a human euphemism she had learned that meant killing in dramatic fashion, over 100 Regulds that were boiling out of the carrier before their accompanying Sabers sneaked through destroying it swiftly.

The melee was becoming more and more disorganized very quickly, the wings and squadrons assigned to defense and offense becoming more muddied as time went on. But she could still hear Lisa's voice, calm, controlled and leached of everything but professionalism as she directed the combat as much as she could, taking over even the parasite forces from the Argo.

From what Athena was seeing the human Prescott and Garaccus were in firm control of the battle, their ships moving in tandem working together and around one another easily so far. It looked as if Dolza's fleet had never even trained together properly, and it was like watching that human phrase 'so many wolves among sheep'.

"But there are so many of them!" she groused to herself, even as the siege cannons began to tilt slightly, having destroyed the majority of the battleships in the plane they had been firing on and now continuing.

OOOOOOO

While the idea of exact directions in space usually depended on where in relation to the star you were, in the monstrous space dock this was not the case. There was definitely a center to it demarked by the huge command spire looking more like a connected stalactite and stalagmite than anything else, winking with lights to the 'back' of the main battle.

The entire's thing was just to fucking huge to believe, almost like a Dyson Sphere in size if such a thing could be believed. While the main capital ship defense came from the ships sequestered in this giant dock, that didn't mean the spire was without its own defense. This came in the form of Nousjadeul-Ger in their millions and it was that elite force that Miriya's wing and the elite squadrons (minus Skull) slammed into like a giant spear.

At their front was Ranma, no jokes this time, no song in his heart or playing over the radio despite the fact that every other elite force had one going. This moment was something he had secretly been dreaming about for months, ever since he had seen Dolza order a planet's destruction just to prove his own power to Ranma. It was with blue/gold fire he came, blazing like a star had awoken inside the massive space dock, a sight that filled every Zentraedi who saw it with fear and uplifted his own side.

And, incidentally startling and worrying the hell out of the Masters in their distant fortress.

Miriya flew behind him, her Queadluun Rau coated with blue green energy, confidence and bloodlust in one. Eventually she would learn how to access the pure ki that Ranma and Elder Cologne could, but that was to come. For now this would do. Her power suit had also been upgraded by Dr. Lang himself, more as an experiment admittedly but she wasn't going to complain. It now had more energy available, and its magazines as well so when her missiles fired 24 at once she wasn't out, she hadn't even scratched the surface of the amount of missiles she had now thanks to her magazine having been enlarged. Behind Miriya her wing came, and though they lacked her enhancements they tore into the elite forces like the true elites they were.

Later the Amazons would liken this to stories of the Imperial Guard in China, a pampered 'elite' force who had never actually been on the battlefield. When compared to real shock troops, which the Meltraedi were one and all, there was no contest, they proved utterly unable to face the Meltraedi and combat.

Not one-on-one at least, but then again the Zentraedi never faced anyone one-on-one, and this was no exception. Instead space literally boiled with millions of them before the assault force coming out of this command spire as quickly as they could. Against them only 2000 Queadluun Rau and 36 Valkyries came.

Numbers didn't matter, the Meltraedi and humans proved this by slicing straight through that massive swarm of Nousjadeul-Ger, and within a bare 40 minutes had come close enough to the command spire to come under fire from its antiair guns.

These guns proved worthless against the Valkyries and Meltraedi, and Wildfire followed Ranma in dodging this way and that. Ranma opened up hailing frequencies to Shampoo, Motoko and the others, absentmindedly killing one of the Zentraedi powersuits with a kick to the face as he transformed into soldier mode. "I'm sending you targeting data, everybody hit it with everything you've got, blow our way in and let's move in!"

Miriya was ordering the same thing, and the two aces merged their system for a moment. Not everyone they signaled could join them, being too busy protecting themselves. Still, ten powersuits and four Valkyries opened up on one specific point with everything they had. Missiles, rifles, cannons everything. Even as tough as it was the outer armor of the command spire couldn't take that pounding and it soon ruptured and blew apart leaving then not a entry point but an avenue into the spire.

"Everybody in!" Ranma shouted, then patched himself into Lisa. "Command 1, this is Wild 1, we are in! Recommend you turn some of your attention this way, you've got incoming Nousjadeul-Ger. I would say at least one million plus!"

Lisa came back her voice crisp and authoritative. "Roger that, the battleships have already loosed a few surprises for them, don't worry about us, just get in there and do your thing."

Ranma grinned evilly. "Roger command 1, Wild 1 out."

OOOOOOO

The surprise had actually been a new design by a man back on Earth who had followed chief engineer Hibiki's idea of a kinetic weapon and changed it into an antiair deathtrap. It was basically the size of four Sabers put together on a side, so big in fact that it couldn't actually enter any other ship, it had to be kept on the exterior. It consisted six shotgun ballistic kinetic weapons interspersed to cover 360° around a central area that was filled with ammunition for the guns and a single system which was set up to receive one signal. It was completely unmanned, as much of the new human weaponry was becoming given the numbers they had learned they were facing. It was however as deadly against friendly's is it was against enemies, and thus of limited utility in most battles. But the humans and Zentraedi that were allied with them had made a point of keeping their backs to the spire because it didn't have any weapons that could damage capital ships and they were far enough away that its antiair weapons couldn't range on them. There was actually space between the spire and the widening battle going on around the space-fortresses.

Prescott waited a moment waited until the traps were in place, centralized in the oncoming wave of Nousjadeul-Ger, which didn't even realize the strange things were dangerous, then simply said "activate."

The things exploded with kinetic fire and the entire oncoming elite wave of power suits dissolved into chaos as more than half of it died within those first few seconds. While a near miss couldn't destroy something in space, since there was no bow wave, the kinetic rounds that were being fired were fired at such speed that they still had enough impetus to destroy the power suit even at the outer edge of its range. So if they missed one target they were certain to hit another especially since the enemy powersuits had crowded together so much.

Now scattered remnants of the remaining powersuits turned and began to fire at these strange devices that had suddenly opened fire on them from nowhere, but died just as quickly. The outer edges of the attacking force had been able to escape the total distraction of the rest of their forces, but they were also out of position to bring the battle to the human ships and were swiftly taken under fire from the Zentraedi forces.

Prescott grimaced as another fifty allied Zentraedi ships died in a minute, cut off and destroyed by thousands of enemy battleships, and he shook his head. The space fortresses were doing their grisly work, and he estimated they had already destroyed upwards of 300,000 enemy ships, and the enemy ships weren't exactly working in concert or in fact working very well at all.

But there were just so damn many of them! Even after seeing Breetai's fleet he had never really understood how many ships were in a battle fleet, after all he could only look at one section of space and see so many of them at a time. Here the fleet was in close so much it was obvious that their numbers were gigantic, disorganized and chaotic, but still gigantic, enough to swat the 10,000+ ships allied with them and the humans with them.

If they were used properly of course, which they weren't at the moment. The chaos that was still expanding around them had forced the Zentraedi to come at them in a disorganized fashion, and both he and Garaccus were making them pay a monstrous price for every ship that went down, especially by taking out their command ships every way they could. "If we can just hold out enough," he said even as Gloval ordered another angle change, and the Argo followed suit. "If we just hold out our siege cannons can do this for us."

With that thought he went back to work, moving his ships around in such a way that they defended one another. Moments later he smirked evilly as Sabers began to boil in from the rents the siege cannons had sliced out of the outer edge of the space station, taking the surprised Zentraedi from behind.

Over 100 ships died in those first few seconds of the surprise assault since every ship had turned to face their bow towards the enemy among them, and the Sabers gleefully ripped into them from behind.

OOOOOOO

Ranma crushed the head of one Nousjadeul-Ger with a punch to the face ignoring the fact that actual blood had spurted out for a moment and hung in the air in tiny droplets as he turned and blew two more away with his head lasers and rifle. Suddenly gravity came back, but as most of them were already standing on the ground it didn't matter to them.

"All right," he said looking around at the others "Sit rep. None of us really know where we're going, so we're all going to break up and cause some chaos." The other officers around him laughed, shark grins on their faces. He looked over to where Max stood rearming his rifle. "Phoenix 1, you take your squadron and 2000 Meltraedi and force your way downwards from here, Knight 1, you and your squadron go with him. If the battle outside start to go south, you know what to do. Miriya," he looked over at her, you take 4000 of your troops, spread them around here and order them to just cause as much carnage as they can, then take the remainder and follow me. Wildfire on me, we're heading up."

As far as he could remember Dolza and his command center was located in the center of the spire, and they had broken below that. Not far below that thankfully, but still he had the impression they needed to go up at least fifteen levels, maybe more.

Max nodded and with one robotic hand signaled his squadron, down two from the battle so far, to follow him one way toward a lift they had found. Behind him came the Knights, moving far slower because of their burden. Mark and the other Earth trained pilots had gone through a few days of training hell, but they were along with the assault team not because they were the best pilots but because they had training in demolitions. Every one of their Valkyries had a demolition pack on it.

Miriya nodded but handed that task off to one of her felloes and waved a dozen Meltraedi towards her by name. These were the most experienced pilots, the ones she had gone into battle with before coming to Sol system and who she trusted implicitly. "I think we'll just go with you now. You'll need more than just Wildfire at your back."

Ranma grinned his eyes still blazing with power. "Fine by me. Let's go kill us an asshole."

OOOOOOO

Dolza cursed slamming one of his message head down onto his command console. In the back of his mind he felt that tingle that signified that his Masters wished to talk to him, and he could well understand why since they had responded to that human fighter's use of that odd attack when Breetai had brought him, and he had seen what looked like a human spacefighter covered in a similar power shooting towards his command spire.

If Dolza had been able to feel fear he would've felt it at that moment, watching the spacefighters of the humans and the Meltraedi slice right through his elites, but all he felt was anger and fury at the very idea that these humans and these traitors thought they could get away with attacking him in his place of power like this.

"They will all burn!" he shouted and around him his command group twitched in terror at the anger in his voice. "Use all guns to destroy the second space fortress, but the first space fortress, the one with the more golden beam must be taken intact!" It was not the first time since the fight began that he had said that, and he was furious that his troops seemed to be unable to follow his orders.

The noise attack hadn't reached his command spire, so Dolza's orders were going out and should've reached its targets instantly, but the fleet docked all around him in the massive Dyson sphere that was his command station wasn't responding. It was almost as if the humans had figured it out a way to block their communications, but that was impossible! Still it hardly mattered, they were slowly being ground under by his forces, and soon the ones that had invaded his command spire would find they no longer had a way home.

OOOOOOO

Rick gasped as a superheated plasma round slammed into his Valkyries shoulder, throwing him to the side. The two Amazons right behind him, Dowel and Comb both tried to crouch down, presenting a lower profile, but they had walked right into a pincer attack, and he grimaced as they both went down, their one Valkyrie fell apart under the assault, the other simply collapsing on its face, riddled with holes and its pilot dead, but thankfully neither Valkyrie's battery had been hit.

Rick lay his Valkyrie down using Comb's as a makeshift shield, firing over it at the enemies down the corridor, killing two of them while barking out orders. "Blow us some holes along the floor and ceiling here, 11, 12 guard our back but watch out for friendlys! Find some cover!" He winced as his Veritech's head was clipped by another round and one more squadron icon went dark. Luckily the others had fallen back to some doorways along the corridor, and they began to lay down their own fire, taking out six more powersuits and five or six unarmored Zentraedi. But they were still pinned down, unable to turn from the firefight to blow a way out. Things looked grim as more and more Nousjadeul-Ger were coming at them from both ends of the corridor now.

Rick grimaced, and grabbed Comb's Valkyrie, hauling it up and pushing it in front of him with both hands, then as it took a hit to the armor right above its batteries he threw it forward changing into guardian mode and zooming backward to join a few of his squad mates in a doorway. The explosion took out large chunks of the corridor and he zoomed forward, the remainder of his Squadron following him grimly, with the rear guard still exchanging fire with the few powersuits that had gotten behind them somehow.

Just as they were about to pass an intersection however, they came under fire from several doorways along one flank. Wash went down, her Valkyries legs blown off under her. two more Amazons took more hits, and Rick lost one of his Valkyrie's hands to a cannon round.

He was about to order they fall back when the Nousjadeul-Ger were themselves taken under fire, and a second later several Queadluun Rau moved around their broken corpses. "Are you alright?" One radioed.

Rick raised an eyebrow, that voice sounded almost absurdly young, especially here in on a battlefield. The face that popped up on his com screen matched the voice, young, a few years younger than him, with light blue hair in a ragged cut, and a bright smile on a lean, attractive face. "We're fine, thanks, what's your rank and designation?"

"Pack lead Aisha, part of Lady Miriya's own wing the 181st."

Rick smiled bleakly at the pride he heard in the girl's voice, despite knowing that Miriya hadn't been a real, traditional wing commander, instead transferring out to other commands wherever the battles were most fierce. "Well, I'm Rick Hunter, CO of Archer squadron. Join up with us and let's get going."

Aisha nodded, one of her powersuit's arms rising in a wave to urge her pack. a group of nine at the moment, to join up with Archer. After Rick had his three GPB-1S Valkyries move up to the center where they could better provide cover fire they moved off. He had stupidly left them at the back of the formation, and they had proven next to useless there.

As the reinforced group moved on, heading who knew where just to cause some carnage Aisha spoke up a little diffidently. "Um, so you're Rick Hunter, the same one who is known as a friend of the singer Minmei?" Rick answered in the affirmative, figuring he knew what was coming, and he was proven correct a second later. "Um, I don't suppose you could introduce me to her? I'm her biggest fan!"

OOOOOOO

About 10 levels below Dolza's command center Ranma and his team too had gotten bogged down in a firefight with a force of Nousjadeul-Ger that had taken up position in a open area by a large lift. The open space allowed the powersuits to consolidate their forces, and the humans couldn't quite get past them without taking losses.

Even as Ranma reached around the edge to fire back at the enemy down the corridor he thinking of how to overcome it. "Miriya, Motoko, take four others with you and circle around these assholes, different directions, clear them out for the others coming up behind!" He turned to the other Meltraedi. "Fire at the ceiling, make us a hole!"

They looked at him then looked up at the ceiling and he could almost see the power suits cocked their heads to one side. "They won't have thought of setting up a defense directly above us, and while it's tough we can get through the armor here right? If we can't fight these guys were they are we'll just go around them and take them from behind.

The Meltraedi behind him nodded and tilted backwards bringing their main cannons to bear up. It took them several minutes to break through, since neither he nor they were wasting missiles on this, but afterwards they all jumped up to the next level where they bypassed that chokepoint entirely.

After surprising a patrol of Zentraedi that hadn't been in suits they came to a lift that could take them either up or down and he split his forces again, sending half down to help take the chokepoint from behind and continuing up with the others, using his thrusters to send himself up the large lift hold.

Behind them the other Meltraedi spread out swiftly in teams of fifty, moving through the levels and killing anything they found

OOOOOOO

Motoko moved swiftly down the corridor, not staying on the floor but using her thrusters to bounce off walls and ceiling, dodging incoming fire while returning her own. Resistance here was minimal and mostly in the form of unarmored Zentraedi, so she was having an easy time of it for now while moving around the hard point to try and take it from the side to clear the way for the squads following them.

She jumped into an open area suddenly, and found herself in the center of ten Nousjadeul-Ger pouring into the intersection. "Shit! Shampoo, Tiger, fall back and give me cover! Traderis, Mohka rush the other side!" Motoko dodged to one side, skating forward to slam bodily into one powersuit, her sword under her arm and enough protruding to slice deeply into it, her rifle banging out three shots which took the head off another one before she dodged behind a third, whipping her sword down to take it's leg off at the thigh.

Shampoo and Tiger fell back and gave cover fire while the two Meltraedi with them rocketed forward, their armor protecting them just enough for them to get close and kill the Nousjadeul-Ger in the hallway in front of them. Motoko had seen what looked like a large factory kind of area beyond it and she was proven correct. The hall ended in an overlooking balcony, and the two could look down into a large hanger area which was full of powersuits and Zentraedi. But unlike their fellows they hadn't been prepared to combat the incursion, instead moving toward a doorway down on the hanger floor. The two Queadluun Rau glanced at one another and then just began to launch missiles after missile and cannon blast after cannon blast down into the factory. Soon they hit something in the rack for the powersuits, which exploded, but they kept firing into the resultant mass of flame and smoke until their sensors told them there were no more targets.

Behind them the fight went equally well. Miriya had come toward them with her team not having run into any defense in the direction they had gone and simply coming to a dead end. She and the others with her took the Nousjadeul-Ger trying to fight Motoko and her team from behind, slaughtering them. by the time they were done Traderis and Mohka were done and the teams went on.

Motoko once more looked askance at the blade Miriya held in one of her powersuits hands. "I just can't understand it Miriya, why in the world a broadsword?"

"Because it looked powerful, easy to use and learn, and because it's the only blade Mousse and Perfume had made of a size for me to use in my powersuit," Miriya replied for the tenth time at least. It actually wasn't her first choice, but the human phrase 'beggars can't be choosers' seemed to fit here. "If you think it's so horrible, teach me how to use a sword like you do when we get back."

Motoko absently gunned down a fleeing Zentraedi, then shot another in the face as he tried to stick his gun out a doorway down the hall, her mind more on the idea of walking Miriya threw the sword forms, the bodies pressed together, her arms around Miriya's lithe form… She shook her head savagely. Remember you're in a relationship now girl, can't go and flirt with someone else's girl, even if he/she has three of them the bastard/bitch. Lucretia would not like it you flirted with everything that walked and had tits. Save all that pent up horniness for her.

She licked her lips unconsciously, her body watching as Shampoo and Lynx killed three Nousjadeul-Ger between them down one corridor of a intersection while Miriya slaughtered four down another. Her mind however was back on the Macross with her girlfriend, thinking of all the perverted things she would be doing to her blond bombshell after this was all over. "Ask Nodoka-kaasan when we get back, I think that will be safer all around."

Miriya looked back at her from where she had just killed another enemy powersuit. "What do you mean by that?"

Motoko chuckled dryly. "Just trust me okay, get kaasan to train you okay?" the group continued their way through the command spire, destroying as they went.

OOOOOOO

About twenty minutes later Motoko and Miriya rejoined Ranma just as he and his team ran into another choke point.

Ranma ducked back, wincing a little as his Valkyrie's shoulder took a hit and his own stung in sympathetic pain. He pushed himself flush against the wall, firing around it offhand and looking around. He recognized this place. "All right, we're getting close. This area leads directly to the command room, and I don't know how long it would take us to blow our way a different route around these assholes. I do not want Dolza to get away, or decide to flush his system or whatever the word is, so we're going to have to do this the hard way."

Miriya scoffed, and reached forward towards a wall her suit's hands sinking into it, but when she pulled them away, only a small chunk of the wall came away in her powersuit's hands. She tried again this time with both hands and again only chunks were torn away. "So much for that idea," she cursed

Ranma shrugged inside his cockpit. "Good idea, but I tried it earlier and it didn't work. Know you're just going to have to follow me in."

Before they could ask questions he summoned up his ki, sending it into his Valkyrie and enhancing the armor strengthening technique is much as he could. As soon as he was certain it was at the maximum he could get it he turned around the corner and charged.

Fire began to slam into him the moment he came around the corner, and all of a Nousjadeul-Ger powersuit's weapons were of a higher caliber and strength then on a Reguld. He could feel his body rattling around in his Valkyries cockpit but he ignored it, all his attention was on keeping the strengthening technique at the maximum level, just absorbing the fire they came at him. He winced as he felt one of his Valkyrie's head lasers get shorn off by a lucky blow, and a cut appeared on the side of his head in sympathetic reaction, but he kept moving forward like an unstoppable juggernaut. Behind him Motoko and Miriya led the charge, and as soon as he broke out into the wider area, the two of them and the rest of their group boiled out around him, their own blades swinging, lasers and blasters firing.

In front of them was a large group of about a hundred Nousjadeul-Ger powersuits and unsuited Zentraedi armed with laser rifles. They stood and fought at first, but Miriya's Meltraedi and Wildfire bounced around dodging their fire now they had room laying down a withering hail of fire that swiftly slew a little under half of the defenders. They tried to fall back but Ranma, Motoko and Miriya, were in among them their blades lashing out, his fists crushing and shattering armor plate.

Soon enough the last enemy powersuit went down, and Ranma nodded. "Down that hall," he said his Valkyries hand lifting and pointing, "That's where the control room is." He looked at the others, ignoring the damage his Valkyrie had taken which was surprisingly miniscule considering the amount of firepower that had hit it. He felt his ki reservoir down to about a third of what it was at full strength, but the armor strengthening technique and worked incredibly well to keep the damage to a minimum. He'd need a new paint job, and the area covered by dents easily dwarfed the area that didn't have them, and one arm sort of stung at the elbow but other than that he was still good to go.

Miriya cocked her head, looking down sadly at the broadsword that had shattered when she accidentally over swung and slashed into the wall. It had stuck there and when she tried to pull it back out one of the Nousjadeul-Ger had the smart idea of targeting it before she could pull back. She still killed it of course, slamming the hilt and the half of the blade that was still connected to it into the Zentraedi's head, but it was rather irritating to lose the weapon so soon after she had bought it, which was still an odd concept to her.

She shook it off however and turned to the rest of their forces. "I think we Meltraedi should stay here, I don't know what will happen if we try to fight Dolza honestly, the fear factor he puts out…. you can't really understand it. Even I feel it even thinking of attacking him."

Ranma looked over at Motoko who was inspecting her own blade, but the katana was made of sterner stuff than Miriya's broadsword, and she hadn't been so foolish as to stick it into a wall. "What about it imouto, you ready to rumble?"

Motoko grinned inside her cockpit and nodded. "Let's do this nii-chan."

The two martial artists turned to the others and nodded at them. "Wildfire with me," said Ranma grimly and the remainder of his squadron fell in behind him leaving Miriya and his her forces to guard their back. Five of them had gone down since they had broken into the command spire. Ben was back where they had broken in, his GPB 1-S badly damaged, so much so his own Valkyries legs weren't working. Lynx had died in a counter ambush before they hit that first chokepoint, gunned down from behind, and three of the Amazon maidens had fallen, though they might still be alive thanks to the armored technique used on their cockpits. They had also lost all contact with Kotatsu, though no one had seen him go down.

Miriya shook her head sadly. It really should be them doing this, but she knew that Dolza's aura of terror would've made her and her forces at best unable to fight. At worst it might've made them turn on their human comrades. But that didn't mean her mind wasn't working. "When you do Ranma, I have an idea…"

OOOOOOO

Outside the command spire the battle had begun to seesaw. The defending Zentraedi had lost more than half their number, and were only now moving around to try and avoid the angle of the massive space fortresses siege cannon, but they weren't doing a very good job of it. On the other side of the scale losses among the Allied Zentraedi and Meltraedi had been heavy, over half the Zentraedi ships having already died, while still more had been forced to retreat.

The human forces had lost nine more ships but seven had followed Prescott's orders, and had been able to fold out to join the carriers outside. Outside continued to be safe, the other huge construction deeper into this nameless star system not doing anything to help Dolza's space station.

The other two human battleships had died in spectacular fashion. The Harpoon had interposed its shattered hull between seventy gunboats that had ranged on the Macross, taking their blows long enough for them to be destroyed by the allied Zentraedi before simply coming apart at the seams. The Agincourt had left formation when it's fold drive had been destroyed and rammed one of the command class battleships when it tried to range on the Argo.

That had taken the heart out of a pincer movement that would've come up from above through a hole in the Zentraedi defense. The secondary weapons of the space fortresses had done the rest, helped along by the fact that Apocalypse was not the only Monster class in the fight. Prescott had brought along three of the things, and had station them all on the feet of the Argo's siege mode where they could aim downward. They were having a field day destroying ships left and right, but their contribution and the contribution of the Zentraedi with them was almost beside the point in comparison to the siege cannons.

It was simple really and Lisa shook her head at the stupidity of these indoctrinated Zentraedi even as shots began to rain down on the Marcoss's main body, the few remaining mobile barriers now ordered to protect the main gun nacelles and leave the rest of the ship unprotected. In an enclosed space, which this small Dyson sphere thing still was, there just wasn't enough room for all of those ships to dodge the siege cannons as they traversed. Thousands of ships died every time the siege cannon twitched, and they had cut the heart out of the defense forces. It was still touch and go of course, the enemy still had over 200,000 ships remaining but Lisa could almost feel their desperation increasing, and they began to fire even when they didn't have locking solutions on one of their enemies, further confusing the battle and felling their own comrades.

The Zentraedi under Garaccus had no such problems. Even now he was keeping firm control of his forces, its units moving as one. His own gunbaots were wreaking holy havoc on the enemy's gunboats which were now so low in number that they couldn't even field a force equal to Breetai's fleet, and his Thurvel-Salan battleships and Quiltra Queleual carriers were working closely together, their discipline making them deadly beyond their numbers

Kim and Sammy both winced in unison, as ten beams from as many gunboats slammed into the Daedalus. "Daedalus is gone! It's just, it just sheared off at the hatch and its in pieces now!" with it had gone something around the order of two thousand crew members. "The secondaries on that side are still online!"

It got worse a moment later as one of the 'legs' of the Argo was scored by another group of gunboats. The surface of that section was gone, and a hole in it's defenses. Fifty Thurvel-Salan battleships rose up to try and take advantage, but the remaining human battleships moved in, destroying them all for the loss of another one of their number folding out, its weapons all gone, and one real-space engine destroyed.

Another ten Thurvel-Salan somehow got through the Zentraedi defense above the Macross and descended, weapons blazing. The secondary weapons of the space fortress turned and began to slam home into them, but Lisa gasped as the 'head' of the siege mode took a dozen shots, taking out its long range communication gear and opening much of the rest to space while one of the secondary gun turrets on one of the 'shoulders' above Prometheus blew apart under their fire. She slammed her helmet down and the others all around her followed suit, but the bridge was still intact for now. The majority of that first salvo was caught by the mobile barriers along the gun nacelles, though it cost them three more.

Before the enemy battleships could continue they came under fire from behind as Garraccus' flagship followed them down and destroyed the foru remaining with a single broadside.

OOOOOOO

Rana Sanga grimaced as he watched a full company of Defenders immolated by fire from one of the enemy gunboats, cursing as several hundred enemy powersuits dropped down through the breach in the anti-air defense. "General we have a major breach in topside quadrants 1-15 aft!" With a wave of one mechanical arm he sent his reinforced company of Spartan forward, and they clashed with the Nousjadeul-Ger close in, the Spartan's greater range and missile lock on ability carrying the day, but not without losses.

By the time they had temporarily cleared the surface of enemies in this sector a half company of defenders had come up with two more Spartans, dragging one of the shotgun kinetic delivery systems.

Rana and his men couldn't stay and watch what it did to the next wave of spacefighters alas. They had been called to another potential breach near the feet of the Macross. Losses were piling up, and the battle was nearing the tipping point.

OOOOOOO

Elsewhere thirty of the Meltraedi carriers died under the close in raking fire of four thousand Thurvel-Salan battleships. However their sacrifice had saved seventy others, who folded out, their power suits all launched and their own defenses hammered under so badly that it was a wonder they were still space worthy.
Their attackers in turn died under the siege blast of the Argo, unable to move back below its beam fast enough.

That idea of the humans had been grabbed with alacrity, and Garracus was thankful for it. He laughed wildly as the song changed to something called a Western, something about fiddles and the devil, whatever they were. But that wasn't what he was laughing about. On the heel of the song came under another wave Sabers from outside, once again slamming into the enemy's forces from behind.

"Note to self destroy the human carriers first if ever I have to fight them those little things are deadly and if they can get where you don't expect them to be the effect is magnified." He shook his head as fifty battleships died under the Saber's fire, including one Nupetiet-Vergnitzs battleship at the back of the enemy's formation, leaving, according to his sensors, only two in the rest of the enemy fleet. The more holes blown in the outer shell of the space station the more ways those Sabers had to attack them from behind and they were using that ruthlessly.

The battle was far from over, and he estimated that they still had less than a 50% chance of any of them getting out of here alive especially since the Zentraedi were now forcing their way through his ships to get at the space fortresses from above and below and both of them were taking heavy damage despite their remaining mobile barrier shields. Those shields were why he still had a flotilla. His forces would already have been destroyed utterly without them, but the still didn't have enough of them, not really.

"One more push," he muttered even as over 60 of his ships were bracketed inside one of the enemy's divisions and wiped out to a ship, not one of them able to fold out in time to save themselves. He looked at the enemy however and he felt their growing frustration, their growing fear. "One more push, they won't break yet, not yet, one more push!"

OOOOOOO

Little did he know, that the last push he was waiting for would soon occur. At that very moment Motoko and Ranma broke through the outer reinforced door of the control room and into the interior of the command center.

Dolza turned with a roar, enraged beyond all reasoning that these puny things dared challenge him in his center of power and had gotten this far inside besides. After this fight is over I will order the death of every one of my powersuit operators, all of my captains, all of them have failed us, failed me and my Masters! He thought.

His thoughts were derailed however when the one enemy fighter that was glowing blue laughed hollowly at him. "Long time no see Dickface."

Dolza recognized that voice and that attitude and roared again, charging at the puny mite that had for the second time challenged his power, all thoughts of being a commander of his people all thoughts of the future gone, replaced by the desire to destroy this puny insignificant creature.

Ranma grinned even as his Valkyrie crouched down to receive the giants charge. A Valkyrie came up to Breetai's chest, though it was wider in the shoulders. But Dolza was bigger than even that, and he towered over the Valkyrie both in height and width. But even with that Ranma felt no fear, only a burning desire for justice, and his eyes grew colder, his body and Valkyrie shining with gold not tinged with blue this time, just the coldness of space at the energy of the universe filling him.

"Time to face justice you son-of-a-bitch!" Just as Dolza was about to reach him he charged forward impacting the larger being with an elbow shot to the sternum which made him fly back roaring in agony.

Motoko swiftly turned and spun around, slicing a Zentraedi guard who had stood up from the floor where he had been smashed by their entrance. She then spun backwards, slicing into another one while firing her rifle at two more on that side before jumping over a stanchion to land in among the communication officers her sword and rifle smashing out. She was very careful to not damage the communications gear. The idea Miriya had come up with a few minutes ago was still very much in her mind, and she was interested to see what effect it would have. Besides, they needed star charts and everything else they could take from this place.

Dolza got to his feet with a grunt, lashing out with a fist that would've crushed Ranma's leg had it hit but he jumped up over it, kicking out and sending Dolza backward, his nose and jaw broken. He rolled again, coming up and tearing a computer station out from the floor tossing it his enemy.

Ranma grunted as he swatted it aside dropping his rifle and using his bunched Valkyrie's fists to slam it aside then Dolza was on him before he could resettle. Ranma grunted again as he was slammed back onto the floor.

Dolza raised one giant fist and brought it crashing down but Ranma blocked it, and before Dolza could bring another blow down however Ranma had kicked up and out from underneath him slamming his legs straight into the junction between Dolza's legs.

It came as no surprise however that this blow didn't disable Dolza as it would any normal male, merely lifting him off enough to let Ranma use his jets to propel himself along the floor and away.

Ranma flipped to his feet and before Dolza could charge again came back with a punch with all the power of his ki behind it sending Dolza of skidding away gasping as his chest caved in. He still got to his feet however, only to see Ranma with his hands together the gold glow of his Valkyrie concentrated now between him. "Moko Ha Reiku!"

Still the commander of all Zentraedi was able to dodge to one side, but not enough to save him. Under the unrelenting power of that ki attack one entire side, arm and leg disappeared and he screamed even as it cauterized his wounds enough so that he didn't die immediately. Ranma stared at him and shook his head. "What the hell are you made of? he leaned down, absently swatting Dolza's arm aside as it reached for his throat and looked at the wound. Metal and flesh was intermingled there, and he nodded, "A cyborg of some kind, huh?"

He heard a thump behind him and turned to look and smirked as Miriya and the others came in, the last of the defenders dying under Motoko's blade. She walked over to Ranma and stared down at Dolza who was still trying feebly to scrabble and grab Ranma's arm where he was holding Dolza's against his chest. She raised one foot and held it right next to where Ranma's hand was and passed him her katana. "Finish it nii-chan!" she said fiercely and Ranma nodded. He stood up and took a katana it in both hands, and brought it down in a vicious arc, decapitating the commander of all Zentraedi.

Behind them Miriya gasped at the sight and then began to laugh. "It's over," she said, "the puppet is gone!"

"Not quite yet," said Ranma looking around. "Any idea which is the communication console so we can connect with that fleet out there?"

As Miriya and the others looked around them trying to figure that one out, he got in touch with Lisa. "Command one this is Wild one, primary objective accomplished."

Deep in the bowels of the command spire Max breathed a sigh of relief. He and his forces hadn't found anything that looked like a engine yet, so if they had been forced to go with the secondary plan, they wouldn't have been able to do it.

Back with Ranma he looked up as one of the powersuits waved him over to a specific screen before continuing. "We're about to try something, that might have an effect out there," he said "Suggest you cut out all noise attacks, they're about to be hit by something even worse."

He could almost hear the question Lisa's voice as she replied, even with her speaking through her spacesuit's helmet. "I'm going to have to have a better idea of what you have in mind to do that Wild one, that noise attack is one of the only reasons were still alive out here."

Ranma told her and Lisa broke from her normal stern battle mode to laugh wildly. "T-that would work," she gasped and passed it on to Gloval and from there to Prescott. After a moment she had their okay and Ranma nodded at them and moved to the communications gear. "Cutting off the sound attack in 3,2,1, now!"

OOOOOOO

All the embattled Zentraedi captains were astonished when the strange sound attack that had been wreaking so much havoc in their ability to communicate and coordinate stopped. Suddenly the communication systems lit up with an incoming video call, and they all stared in shock at the sight which greeted them. The head of Dolza was being held from above, and they could see the strange human spacefighter's steel fingers digging into its skin.

A voice boomed out in the Zentraedi language, a female voice, but that merely made it more terrifying. "Dolza is dead! Surrender or join him!"

Of course Zentraedi didn't even know what the word surrender meant (it had come through in English), but the rest of the message got through quite clearly. The idea of their supreme ruler being mortal enough to die was in and of itself a shock, seeing his head removed from its body like that was worse, and morale, which had been taking a dive ever since this battle began, disintegrated, taking the remainder of the fleet with them. Captains who would have stood up against anything the Invid could throw against them, captains who had fought through this entire battle unwavering in their belief in their superiority, in their numbers and strength even when that strength was tested broke.

It wasn't a route exactly, but it was close to one. Here of there a thousand ships stayed together, but these pools of resistance drew the space fortresses fire swiftly, and they just as quickly died. The remainder however tried desperately to get away, and many thousands of them remembered they could fold out, but most of them seemed to have lost control and simply were running in real space, trying to get out of the space station. They were badly hindered by the allied Meltraedi and Zentraedi and the human spacefighters and ships moved among them slaughtering as they went. They didn't even try to fight back now, all they tried to do was get away and it took over two more hours to kill them all, since the Zentraedi and Meltraedi were now too interspersed amongst them. This meant that the space fortresses could only use their siege cannons on the edge of the enemies remaining formation, if such a word could be used for the fleeing mob.

Prescott swiftly ordered the carriers and the mauled ships outside to fold back in behind the rest of the forces in the dead zone which had already been cleared of all their enemies, and they did, saving them from being overwhelmed by the ships that were boiling out of every hole in the space stations fortress. This kept the losses, which had been horrible, from becoming worse.

By the time this slaughter ended out of a force of about 800,000 Zentraedi ships only about 53,000 were able to escape, almost all of which were the ones who had remembered they had fold-space engines.

The last Nupetiet-Vergnitzs battleship died trying to escape in real space under the combined secondary fire of the Argo and two gunboats. With it gone the 300 or so other ship surrounding it lost what remained of their hearts but surprisingly gained back their brains and folded out, still losing more than half their number before they could.

There was a moment of stillness on the flag bridge of the Argo as Prescott continued to stare down at his display in shock. There were still millions of battle pods and elite Nousjadeul-Ger out there, the capital ships not even waiting to take them aboard before escaping. But with the threat of the capital ships gone the allied Zentraedi had broken up into 10 ship groups, and while most of their antiair fire was not able to target Sabers they proved well able to stop their own forces.

He leaned back slightly, breathing in slowly, letting his exhaustion show for just a moment. The battle had been incredibly hard fought, and both space fortresses were so badly battered he wondered if they would be able to even enter fold. He winced, feeling the hull plate under his feet shudder and groan as the Argo transformed to its normal mode. This mode was slightly easier to get around in, which would help repair teams. From one screen he could see Macross transforming as well, and could only shake his head at the amount of damage it had taken.

The battle continued for another hour, but that was simply because the number of spacefighters out there took that long to kill. Most of them to were trying to simply get away like their capital ships, but there were so damn many of them killing them took time. After the last enemy designator disappeared on his system he nodded and looked over at his com officer. "All ships battle over, battle over. All available Queadluun Rau head toward the command spire and help clear it out. All Valkyries report in to your parasite commanders for SAR."

The battle was over, and this huge thing was theirs, not they could actually do anything with it. It was just too damn big, but also too under defended on the exterior to be viable, and besides, it was stationary, and they weren't going to stay here very long. "But that begs the question," He murmured to himself, "What that other big thing deeper in-system is?"

OOOOOOO

Clearing out the command spire went almost as easily as the fight outside once Dolza was dead. The Zentraedi troops, which had already lost more than half their number, simply stayed where they were. They would fight of course, but not well, it was as if their minds were broken and they were just going through the motions. Calling on them to drop their weapons and surrender didn't work however, and they all had to be killed where they were.

Ranma and his force didn't bother doing that though, simply clearing a straight path from the point where they had blown an entrance up to the command room, then lining it with defensive points and calling in the tech guys to examine everything.

While this was going on however Lang passed on a very disturbing fact in a conference call with Scott and Henri. "That turbulence we suffered folding in was not the result of our long time in fold. It was caused by the fact we came in on the heels of a major fold-out. We were wondering why the fleet we faced here was bunched up to one side of the command spire, it was because the rest had folded out first."

Dolza had in fact had what he thought was a stroke of genius. He would send in one force, which Breetai and the traitors would attack, then his next force would arrive and pin the defenders between his first force and his second. Needless to say, this had backfired badly.

"How many ships would you say would be required to leave a lingering disturbance like that doctor?" Henri asked quietly.

"I would estimate at minimum a force the same size as the one we faced here. Probably on the order of a million or more ships." Emil replied, rubbing his face worriedly.

Dolza had in fact put together a force of a little over 2 million ships all told by consolidating the factory satellites under smaller fleets and his decision to send the entirety of his own defense fleet with the rest. The assault here had taken a little over 800,000 ships out of that, but that still left the majority that had already left.

"So the forces back with Earth will be facing odds of at least two to one, possibly more. We need to get back there, the space fortresses and the other human ships can get back there in time to join the defense against them."

"And what would that accomplish?" Prescott asked looking at him. "Every ship we have is shot to hell and back. Our medical and repair teams are overworked so badly it isn't funny. Hell I know the Argo needs its hull repaired in dozens of places before we're able to enter fold safely, and I know it's the same for the Macross." Gloval winced, but still glared back at him and Scott smiled thinly. "Besides, Earth has the much vaunted Breetai and his fleet as well as Azonia and her Meltraedi. We can assume they will do their utmost to defend our home."

He was speaking out of his ass of course. Breetai had made the point again and again that tying their defense of the system down by falling back to Earth would be playing to their enemies strength, making it a contest of numbers instead of maneuverability and skill. But he also knew he was speaking the truth, the fleet here was in no shape to move, and wouldn't without days spent repairing ships the best they could. "Doctor thank you for passing this on, now go join your team and get us the information about these Tirolians we need."

Lang nodded and cut the call, leaving the two admirals to stare at one another. At this point Garaccus broke called, interrupting the stare down. "I thought you'd like to know, that other large construction deeper in the system, it's a factory satellite."

Scott broke off his staring contest with Henri to look at the Zentraedi admiral. "What is a factory satellite, Breetai mentioned them but he didn't go into detail."

"They are the factories that build our entire war machine." Garaccus replied, his voice earnest. "They can make anything, from a Reguld to a Nupetiet-Vergnitzs class battleship given enough time and resources, and that time is measured in weeks, not years even for the largest vessel. Some designs have been lost over the years but it will still have the ability to make anything large and small."

"Is it mobile?" Prescott's eyes were blazing with interest and a kind of covetous ardor as he asked that question.

Garaccus nodded. "it can enter fold, but it is slow there, I remember having to move with one through fold once along the Invid border, and they are incredibly slow. It took us weeks to reach the same destination it took us days to do without it along."

"We need to take that then."

Henri shook his head. "You just said we're in no shape to enter fold, we're certainly in no shape to face something like that."

"It doesn't matter!" Prescott exclaimed. "Do you have any idea how much that satellite is worth to our wartime production! That one satellite can probably build a fleet for us to given enough time! It might well dwarf the production capability of the entire Earth!" He drew in a deep breath. "What kind of defenses are we talking about here?"

"Minimal exterior defenses, but a lot of parasite defenders. They usually have a fleet to guard them, but I think this one was stripped away, and we probably destroyed it here. My fleet should be up to the task once our fighter forces have had a rest."

"Good, but we'll stack the deck a little more. Strip the barrier shields from the remaining human ships and the damaged vessels that still have them. The Macross and the Argo will be making more from our resources at the same time. Let your pilots get a good night's sleep, load up with as many mobile barrier shields as we have, then hit it. We want it as intact as we can get it, but I'm not interested in how pretty it is, understand?" Garaccus nodded, his eyes amused by the phrase but otherwise utterly serious. "In that case we all have things to do other than sit here, hop to it gentlemen."

With that Scott closed the connection, and went to find his wife and kids, desperate to have a few hours away from the blood and carnage. Garaccus simply laid back in his command chair and closed his eyes after passing on the order to strip the damaged ships of their few mobile barriers and to rest his parasite forces. Henri too decided to spend a few hours speaking to Nodoka. Luckily the deep interior of the space fortress remained undamaged, and the bunkers had allowed the civilians to ride out the battle safely.

Later on the operation against the factory satellite would go off without a problem. Its forces were utterly demoralized, almost as lost as the fleet they had faced without Dolza or their defense fleet around and Garaccus would take it easily. When the assault force returned to Sol in three weeks time, they would be bringing with them a true game changer.

OOOOOOO

The search for knowledge in the computer systems of the Dyson Sphere/space station however would prove in vain. The systems had been wiped of everything, not just star charts but everything else as well. Despite the knowledge they could glean from their tech, that part of the mission seemed a failure until Ranma stumbled upon Dolza's private quarters and the device within.

Emil and his team spent several hours examining it in specially designed Archimedes destroids, which didn't have any weapons but made up for this 'lack' by having the same arms and finger dexterity as on the best surgical tools. They discovered that it was a highly advanced communication system, far smaller and with far larger range than their own fold space communication gear. This find was of huge value, though Emil found it hard to balance against the lives lost taking this station intact like this.

"You're sure even if I turn this thing on you won't be able to trace the signal?" asked Ranma sadly.

Dr. Lang shook his head just as sadly. I'm afraid not, tracing a signal through fold space is beyond our means right now. Perhaps eventually we will be able to do it but not right now."

Ranma nodded then grinned evilly. "So, does anyone object if I poke whoever is on the other side a bit?"

Dr. Lang chortled a little and waved one arm grandly. "Be my guest." Behind him the other scientists and their guards crowded in, out of sight of the pickup, but still wanting to see what was going to happen.

OOOOOOO

Far, far away from Dolza's space station three beings looked up in shock as a light on their central console, a light that had burned a solid green for so long they had trouble remembering when it hadn't, suddenly went out. They all looked at one another in shock. "Now we know at least what all the proto-culture readings we were getting was. The Micronians sent their space fortress and detonated it or something."

"The how does not matter" said the second one shaking his head. "Send the order. Purge the systems of every ship of the Zentraedi and all of their stations and that space station in particular. The Micronians cannot learn where our forces are. That way even if they survive the hammer blow coming they will not be able to find us."

The signal went out and the trio began to discuss what could possibly have happened, and how to get some real information about it. This discussion was interrupted however six hours later as an incoming signal began to ding on their console. One of them looked at the third, who had been the designer of the Dolza unit. He shrugged and said coldly "Dolza is dead, whatever this is, is not him."

A moment later a voice they had never heard before came over the line, and the image in the center of their console showed some kind of humanoid spacefighter. "Is this thing on?" said a loud voice.

The three beings looked at one another not responding but it still seemed to sense they were there. "What are you?" one of them asked in its own language which the console's systems immediately translated to that odd human language just as it had done the reverse. They had taken the translation program from Dolza when it had attempted to interrogate some Micronian prisoners.

"We're the ones who cut your puppet strings oh Masters," said the thing, every inch of it screaming contempt and irony. "Don't get comfy wherever you are, I don't care if you did erase all the information about where the hell you are, we will find you eventually, and then we're going to put you masters down just like your puppet."

A glowing blue fist suddenly slammed into the system on the other end of the communication and the signal cut out abruptly, leaving the Masters to stare in astonishment at the high-end proto-culture reaction apparently being controlled and sustained by a living being. The sight sent a shiver of pure atavistic fear down their spines. "What have we awoken here?"

End chapter

There goes this fight. I know some of you wanted to read about a massive, awesome duel between Ranma and Dolza, but at this point he alone was about as much threat to Ranma and the others as a child would be. Don't worry, I won't try to just ignore or summarize the events back in Sol. Oh, and don't worry, about Zor and his message, I will cover that in the epilogue but couldn't put it here without diminishing it far too much.

Next time, Azonia and Breetai have their day, and maybe an epilogue too, don't quote me though. Until then.

*Chapter 31*: In Death Ground

I don't own Ranma or Macross mores the pity. They could both seriously do with an upgrade.

The result of the Poll will be posted on my profile later today, so if you're interested wait until four then go and see.

I would normally comment on those reviews that grabbed my attention or that helped me make this story better, but when you look at this story as a whole, there are just too many names to consider. I will just say thank you, and I hope you like the ending as much as you did the entire story.

In this chapter you all might notice I changed my combat style, this was on purpose as in one of my other fics there might be large scale space combat in the future and I want to see which style is best, so tell me what you think. OH and whoever notices the homage in the name of this chapter gets a gold star!

Chapter 30 In Death Ground

"Yes it's fold capable sir, but it's slow as molasses to put it bluntly. It's drive is large, but the mass of this factory actually ways almost the same as Dolza's Dyson sphere station, and one drive for that much mass means it will move incredibly slowly in fold, far slower than even the Zentraedi on their old fuel. Even if we had enough of the SF class's fuel it would still be slow. I would estimate it would take the factory satellite at least two weeks to get to Sol from here."

Admiral Prescott nodded at the image of Dr. Lang on one of the communication screens situated on his right, then turned his gaze back out of the window on the Argo's bridge, staring at the interior of the massive factory satellite visible from their present position. While not anywhere near as monstrously large as the interior of Dolza's space station in area, the interior of the factory satellites was a much busier and full place, with hanging gantries, ship docks, and massive factories and conveyor belts as well as silos for material everywhere you looked. Those silos weren't full at the moment, but they had enough to meet the fleet's needs.

While the space fortresses had gone to work immediately repairing themselves and sending repair crews out to the rest of the human ships (all of which had some onboard repair capability), Garaccus had taken 200 of his least damaged ships and attacked the factory satellite. These 200 were actually the only ones that were actually still battle-worthy. The Zentraedi commodore had actually needed to move his command to another ship, his old flagship having been too damaged to face more combat. As Prescott had recommended he loaded them up with as many barrier shields as he could (only about ten per, most of them had been destroyed during the fighting), as well as every Queadluun Rau and Valkyrie he could fit that weren't already busy with other duties.

This included Wildfire, which had been pulled off the scientist protection detail after they had discovered that the computers of the space station had been utterly wiped of any information they could use. While Knight squadron and some combat engineers rigged the generators of the thing to blow up the next time someone entered it of sufficient mass, Garaccus led his now much reduced fleet against the factory station.

He folded as close as he could to the massive factory satellite then launched all his fighters and the sound attack on maximum level. The battle forces aboard the factory satellite, already demoralized by Dolza's death, fell relatively easily without many further casualties. While the exterior of the satellite actually had weapons they weren't nearly as numerous as its size suggested, and they fell easily to the barrier shields protected battleships.

While this was going on the sound attack had utterly broken what little organization the defenders had, and barely trained Regulds, no matter how numerous, stood no chance against veteran Queadluun Rau and Valkyries.

Taking the interior had taken longer than the exterior fight, but even that had not been anywhere near as bloody as it should've been. While none of the Zentraedi surrendered they didn't fight smart, instead simply charging whenever an attacking force entered their sight, and went done down pretty easily. Only 40 more Meltraedi had died in taking the station, and not a single human had died, though a few had lost their planes under them.

Wildfire had led the charge, and hadn't taken any more losses. They had lost four fighters dead in the assault on the command spire, all four of them Amazons. Kotatsu had shown up while the Meltraedi had been clearing the spire after Dolza's death had broken the defenders, his Valkyrie mangled almost beyond repair, but upbeat for all of that. He and Ben had been given other Valkyries during the following day, and Kotatsu had even joined the assault on the factory ship.

After the interior had been completely cleared, a process that took an entire day, equaling the amount of time it'd taken to clear the interior of the command spire in the Dyson sphere, the battered and incredibly damaged fleet had entered it in its entirety, disappearing into the giant edifice.

Dr. Lang had already taken several teams aboard, and this last report was the only one that had contained bad news for the humans and their allies. He and the engineers felt that repurposing the interior to repair ships rather than to create them would be a simple enough task, though modifying their command protocol to be able to work with the human ships would be much tougher, being a pure programming job. But since the two SDF fortresses had enough online repair capability and resources to repair themselves and the battered human battleships that wasn't an issue.

"That's fine Doctor" Scott said waving one hand. "It's not like we're in any shape to go anywhere anyway."

"With respect sir," said Admiral Gloval looking at him through another communication screen. "With what Dr. Lang's group discovered during the battle against Dolza's fleet we should be cutting free from here and heading home as fast as possible! Let the Zentraedi and Meltraedi stay here and secure this station and then follow up after us."

Dr. Lang and his science team had found that the amount of turbulence they had suffered coming out of warp initially had been caused by a massive number of ships folding out moments earlier. That meant that the fleet they had attacked, no matter how monstrous it's numbers had been, had only been at best half the force Dolza had wanted to hurl at the humans.

"You're still not used to thinking in terms of strategy rather than tactics rear admiral," said Prescott shaking his head. "You've earned that battlefield commission of yours but you need to start thinking big picture. For one thing, none of our capital ships are prepared for another fight. I've seen the estimates Henri, and even the Macross is only at 52% combat capability and most of that 52% is because your siege cannon still works."

Scott grimaced. The Argo's siege cannon had burned out, its human made parts not quiet up to the strain of the constant firing. Luckily it had waited until after the enemy fleet broke to cut out, but the damage was severe.

He went on, "While we both may have a few barrier shields left and are able to make more, our armor is to shot pieces and both space fortress's secondary and tertiary weapons are shot to hell as well." That was actually an understatement, both space fortresses had taken one hell of a pounding in the battle, and even getting them fold worthy would take a week at best.

The rest of the human fleet was in the same boat. The parasite forces of the Argo, both Veritech and destroid, had been almost wiped out during the battle. The destroids had taken severe losses keeping the space fortresses surfaces free of enemy spacefighters. The Argo had barely two companies of mixed Destroids left. The Macross was better off, its Spartan companies were at about two-thirds strength, but their Defenders had taken heavy losses, leaving only a single over-strength company left. The Tomahawks had fared better, losing 'only' a single company worth of troops. Mannstein had done what he could, but in a battle as large as that one, such losses were inevitable.

The Regulds of the allied Zentraedi had been utterly wiped out, and the Queadluun Rau had been battered beyond belief. Roy and his defense force had been mauled, with only Skull still at fighting strength, but most of their losses would be made good eventually.

Lisa had worked herself to the point of exhaustion organizing the SAR after the battle, and the adulation this gained in both the Valkyrie pilots and Meltraedi was something to see. They had found nearly every beacon out there, though some of the time that only meant they found the pilots body, his air giving out or his suit punctured when he/she ejected. They had even found hundreds of battered Queadluun Rau with their pilots still alive, and even more survivors from destroyed capital ships.

In point of fact, the force that assaulted the command spire had lost more pilots killed per squad than the ones outside. Most of the ones that went down in the command spire went down dead or soon after. Wildfire and Knight were the only squadrons to come through that ordeal at more than half-strength. Phoenix and Seraphim were both down to barely a flight each.

On the capital ship side of things, the only ships that had sustained little to no damage had been the remaining nine carriers, but they had paid in Sabers. Not one of them had more than 50 left. Scott had already begun to write a proposal to enlarge the carriers to near space fortress size and give them some interior factories to build Sabers as they needed. It would certainly add to their ability as a strategic weapon.

Of the sixteen battleships the humans had started with, four had been destroyed with all hands lost. The Agincourt, the Potomac, the Han Yang and the Harpoon had all gone down swinging, their deaths saving their fellows or their allies and Scott had vowed that their acts of heroism would never be forgotten. Of the remaining fourteen only four were remotely battle-worthy. The others were so badly battered it was a miracle that it was a miracle they hadn't broken apart when they folded of the battle.

Losses among the Zentraedi and Meltraedi had been worse, despite the fact that their forces vastly outnumbered the humans. They had entered the fight with 12,000 mixed battleships. They now had less than five thousand, and most of them were so badly battered it would months if ever before they were battle worthy. Garaccus's own flagship was the worse off, with only two gun turrets still working, its surface shredded and more open to space than not and his real-space drive damaged. Yet the man refused to abandon it, even if he had transferred his flag momentarily to another Thurvel-Salan.

Even now he was in the process of consolidating his crews, and leaving behind the ships he could no longer crew seeing it as is rather pointless except as material for the repair of the others. A few of them had already been fed into the massive furnace of the satellite, to be taken apart for their constituent parts.

"The amount of combat ability we can add to the defense of Earth is minimal." Prescott continued, "Especially given the kind of running fight Breetai indicated he would fight if he had to. Especially when you consider the value of this place, it literally cannot be overstated how valuable this place is. This factory satellite alone dwarfs all of the manufactory ability of the human race!"

Henry glared a little but he couldn't argue. "It just sticks in my craw that we're going to be stuck out here for a few weeks while Earth could use the help Sir."

"We've done our part Admiral," said Scott sighing sadly as he remembered going over the list of the dead. While the various commanders and captains would be writing their own letters to the families of those that had fallen, he had always felt that as an admiral he needed to know the human element of any victory or loss. "I'm afraid that Earth is on its own for now."

OOOOOOO

Deep in the bowels of the ship Ranma looked up from where he was helping Motoko and Lucretia move into the quarters down the hall from his families place, smiling as he saw Miriya, once more shrunk to human size, helping Lisa down the corridor. His oh so commanding lady had been exhausted after the battle, and then had ignored everyone's orders and kept going, working herself until she collapsed on the bridge to find and rescue all the pilots that had been shot down and in escape pods or trapped in allied ships.

Henri had ordered her to take a day off but she had still wanted to go out and grab something from the city, refusing to let Ranma go and get it for her, though she had been fine when Miriya and Kasumi offered to go with her.

Now he waved at the trio. "Hey gals, you all do whatever it is you wanted to do?"

All three girls smiled at him, though Kasumi's seemed more pensive than anything and Miriya's was looking a little quizzical. "We're done koi, are you nearly finished moving Motoko and Lucretia's stuff in?"

Ranma nodded. "Yep, all that's left is a second bed."

"Which," Motoko interjected, "we won't need. You can have onii-chan back now girls." Standing next to the Hawaiian Native Lucretia blushed hotly at the implications of that statement, but didn't argue with it. The feelings she had just being around Motoko were addictive in the extreme, and as for making love, that was just beyond anything she had ever felt before, even chocolate!

Ranma grinned at her, ruffling his surrogate sister's hair for a moment then walked over to join his ladies, putting gentle arms around Lisa. "I think after yesterday you deserve some pampering love." Lisa had missed out on their night together after the battle because she had stayed on the bridge to direct the SAR. Ranma had actually been tempted to go up and carry her bodily off the bridge but had realized she would respond poorly to that, the work she was doing was far too important for her to do that to her.

Lisa shuddered, eyeing the package Kasumi held, and nodded firmly at the other brunette, who smiled happily back. Lisa looked back at Ranma and nodded, leaning in to whisper in his ear. "As long as the pampering ends up with us in bed, that's fine by me."

Ranma blushed a little at her tone, but nodded all the same. That night, Ranma was surprised when Lisa urged him to cum inside her. She was normally assiduous about making him cum outside, but he didn't have any time to question it because Kasumi jumped on him the moment Lisa collapsed backward onto the bed.

Lisa smiled faintly, utterly exhausted despite not having actually done any of the work tonight. Miriya kissed her forehead while the two of them watched Kasumi and Ranma go at it next to them, their lips locked together, as Kasumi gently rode Ranma, never breaking eye contact. One of Lisa's hands gently began to rub her stomach, wondering if this was the best idea, but looking forward to it come what may. She knew somehow that this was the right time for it, and only hoped that Ranma took the news as well as she hoped. She would wait until the others were done though, that was only polite.

OOOOOOO

"No, Mr. President, my fleet will not be doing that," said Breetai coldly looking at the screen where several world leaders were trying to once more convince him to follow ideas that were flat out suicidal for his fleet. "I will not tie more of my fleet by moving it into a close defensive position over Earth. We've been over this several hundred times, and your arguments are specious and without any logic to back them up. We have already done as much as I am prepared to do to defend as large and as vulnerable a target as the Earth."

He scowled angrily, lamenting again the fact that they sent off all the humans he had previously met and had begun to work with. Indeed the only one from that first council that had stayed was the Italian intelligence analyst who was knee-deep with Exedore and a biology team putting together a long-term analysis of the Zentraedi and Meltraedi. His problem was of course compounded by the humans having reversed engineered fold space communications, letting them talk at him as often as they wanted in real-time.

Even if Prescott succeeded in his attack on Dolza's space station Breetai anticipated they would still be attacked here in Sol. He assumed that other fleets would be pulled from defense of satellite factories elsewhere to be sent after the humans well, and Prescott wouldn't have been able to intercept those. In light of this he had stationed the majority of his fleet in position between Earth and the point where his own fleet had come into the system, knowing that was a straight line from the warfront, which gave them a rough estimate of where any fleet would appear.

He had put all of his and Azonia's scout ships around Pluto's orbit, each of them fueled by a bit of the fuel that had been run through the Flower of Life filter. They would be sent against the oncoming fleet en masse to give them an idea of numbers, shit types and command structure. At this range his own scanners wouldn't be good enough to tell them exact numbers only the size of the foldout phenomenon and a bit about their energy sources, which would give them a roundabout number but no specifics. He knew that those ships to die, and had asked the ships to volunteer. All of them had done so, which had filled both him and Azonia with pride.

He had stripped over 4000 of his carriers of their Regulds putting them on the human's lunar fortress as well as augmenting the ships already in orbit that had been stripped of their fuel. Some of those ships had then been towed over the South Pole by some of Azonia's ships, but what they were doing there he didn't know.

He had then assigned those 4000 ships to the humans, loading up with as many humans as they could. Millions of humans, mostly from India, The UK, and several European countries, had come forward to be evacuated, along with thousands of scientists and children. Russia, America and China hadn't participated as much, mainly because of lingering distrust in the Zentraedi and belief that their Grand Cannons would help defend them from the worst Dolza could hurl at him and trust in their own bunkers to see them through.

Food, seeds, trees or all kinds, animals of all kinds and materials had also been loaded on these ships, which then joined the colonies and farming ships in Jupiter's orbit. There were plans underway to make it and the rubble of Pluto into the hubs of a massive space going industry. Despite his anger at their leaders, the hard work and energy of the humans was amazing to see, and raised his spirits whenever dealing with their foolish leaders got him down.

Delmera, who he had placed in charge of this operation, had informed him of several 'museums', places devoted to art and items of historical significance, that had been emptied entirely. Breetai really didn't see the point of that when their race was in danger of being decimated, but didn't really care to argue about it.

She had truly been a godsend since the Macross and the others left. Her affable nature and open friendly face completely disarmed the humans, who had come to call her the gentle giantess, which helped her get different groups to agree to be evacuated.

It had been Delmera who had come up with the initial compromise between Breetai and the human leaders. Twenty-thousand ships, mostly Thurvel-Salan with 5,000 mixed gunboats and carriers had been assigned to mobile defense of the planet in conjunction with the stationary ships and the lunar defense base.

That didn't matter to the human leaders however, angered at the fact that he refused to pin the rest of his forces against the planet. They listened, but they didn't understand or at least did not care about the points he had raised, that it played to the attacker's strength rather than his fleets abilities and that the Grand Cannons, two of which had been completed in America and the Arctic, would not be enough to turn the tide. Nothing on the ground could offset the disadvantage of having a fleet in orbit. Thankfully the humans knew that too, and the UNSF had agreed to follow his orders as outlined in the initial peace talks.

It had also not escaped Breetai's attention that if they were in so close with the enemy his own fleet would take monstrous damage from the Grand Cannon's when they fired but again the humans didn't seem to care or at least these humans didn't. The rest of their species seemed to be much more behind the idea that they needed to work together or be hung separately, (a phrase Azonia had passed on).

Delmera had also tried to get the humans to concentrate on refitting the Zentraedi's ships for their own habitation, and had surprisingly successful. The humans had created tremendous numbers of barrier shields as well as a massive numbers of several new kinds of missiles that the human missile ships would use and their own defense bases scattered around different countries. The human had also built up a massive number of Sabers, upwards of a million, though they weren't the new kind that had dorsal weapons to defend themselves in a dogfight.

Only eighteen hours ago Breetai had stripped 120 of his fleet's carriers of their battlepods and added them to Earth's close defense force. After that the humans had gone to work stripping them out and preparing them to be used as long-range carriers. Several thousand of his own most experienced (though even in his fleet that wasn't saying much alas) Reguld pilots were already working up on their controls, and while the ships didn't have the human engines that would allow them to fold in and out so quickly the long-range punch the Sabers gave would be helpful.

"If that is all gentle beings, then I have better things to do then listen to your insipid untrusting stupidity." The American president, who had become the leader of the thorns in Breetai's side, scowled angrily, but Breetai cut the connection before he could say anything.

He chuckled, a little amused despite himself at the idea of the Americans, the French and the Spanish agreeing about something. He had read just enough of human history to know that was a highly unusual state of affairs.

Breetai turned back to his tactical screen, running several combat sims at once, trying to figure out the best way to maximize his own strengths and make the enemy's numbers work against him. He had a glimmering of a plan, but it would be dictated by how the enemy reacted, and the composition of the enemy's fleet. He had asked Azonia to do the same, since he knew they should expect an attack in the next few days.

OOOOOOO

Unfortunately Azonia had more important things to work on, well it was important to her at least. Believing that she could leave her fleets disposition in Breetai and Delmera's capable hands (and was it just her, or did Delmera seem to be spending a lot of time around Breetai) she had set her sights on a personal goal.

At the same time that Breetai cut his talks with the politicians short, Azonia and Sonya were in her room, sharing the bed again, and this time Azonia was very deliberately naked. Sonya wore one of the first new bras, actually developed by Anya before she went back to live on the Macross, with a thin black t-back panty to go with it.

The Sight started a tingling sensation that went from Azonia's suddenly hard nipples straight down to the area between her legs that the humans for some odd reason called the 'pussy'. There were so many odd words in the main human language it was a source of constant amusement, but this one seemed to make even less sense than usual. Whatever the case, her 'pussy' was tingling at the sight of her lifetime friend getting in beside her, and she deliberately flashed her naked chest at Sonya when she pulled back the covers.

Sonya stopped for a moment, the nakedness of her friend affecting her for some reason now that hadn't been there before, but she swiftly shook it off and got into bed next to her.

Azonia gently took her friends, hand, and turned on her computer, which she had moved to where the screen could be seen from the bed. "I have something I would like you to see my friend. I, I hope it gives you the same ideas that it gave me, but if it does not, I hope that it does not change our friendship."

Sonya looked at her head cocked to one side, but she nodded readily. Azonia returned her nod and turned on the TV, showing a certain film she had taken from the human's internet.

It turned out that Sonya had seen similar things before, and had indeed had ideas about them. The two of them would spend the rest of the day in bed together. Their time together would be interrupted by the news of the enemy fleet arriving.

OOOOOOO

Breetai was woken up the next morning after his last discussion with the human politicians by his sensor officer calling him from the bridge. "Sir, our long-range radar reports that we have incoming fold phenomenon on the outer edge of the system."

Breetai nodded calmly, his mind already slipping into combat mode. "Sound general quarters, bring the fleet up to combat readiness, then send the commands to the scout ships. Forward all their information to the tactical computer. Relay that information to Commodore Oromov and admiral Azonia then forward it back to Earth. I'll be there in a moment."

OOOOOOO

Dolza didn't know why Breetai's fleet was so much more dangerous than its numbers suggested, or how Breetai was able to keep his fleet from taking the heavy losses that others fleets routinely did, but he knew enough not to underestimate him. So, rather than sending a million ships, he had decided to send a little under two million ships against him in two waves, the first somewhat stronger than the second. The second wave would not be arriving thanks to the allies attack on Dolza's fortress, but the first 1,200,000 arrived without any trouble.

Unfortunately for Breetai and the humans, the Masters had decided to stack the deck even further in their favor. Rather than have a normal Admiral who would simply follow the original orders from Dolza regardless of any new tactical information they had taken the Admiral assigned to it and had… changed him.

Lord Admiral Domock had been a normal Admiral once, and had spent centuries as Dolza's second-in-command, commanding the largest detached defense fleet overlooking a solar system that held three factory satellites. His fleet had been pulled off that duty and joined several other defense fleets in lord Dolza's command satellite. He himself had been called in, and had stood before his Lord for the first time in centuries alone and then… been changed.

Now while the body may look the same, the mind was anything but. It was the mind of a tactical computer, and while he/it didn't have as much information as a similar computer that had been created by the humans would about warfare, it would be able to adapt to changing circumstances and respond accordingly.

Domock's problem however was twofold. First was the fact that it didn't have any knowledge about the human's weapons, tactics or capability, and was unable to analyze Breetai's tactics as there had been no written or computerized notes about his campaigns for him/it to analyze. The second problem was that while it could react quickly, it remained to be seen if the fleet it was leading could follow its orders that fast.

The campaign for the cyborg got off to a bad start, as not even minutes after the fleet began to fold out Breetai's scout ships began to close, racing through the fleet at maximum speed. The computer wondered at this odd tactic, but immediately ordered their destruction, realizing that Breetai wanted information for some reason.

Most of them died doing it, but the few scout ships that survived raced out the other end of the fleet, sending Breetai the specific information he needed to fine tune his plan.

OOOOOOO

Breetai stood on his flag bridge staring into the tactical screen as it was updated from the information his scout vessels had died to procure. 7,000 scout ships had been sent, and almost all of them died but they had succeeded in giving him the information he desperately needed. The fleet had come out in one giant bunch, showing him that the fleet had none of the organization or discipline that he had drilled into his own fleet. It was a force of pure terror, a blunt object and that told him all he needed to know.

It didn't have nearly as many Nupetiet-Vergnitzs flagships as it should for that size either, and the scout ships had gotten a read on nearly all of them. They hadn't pinpointed the flagship just yet, but it had to be one of them, so taking it out wasn't outside the realm of impossibility.

The majority of the fleet was comprised of Thurvel-Salan battleships though there were more Quiltra-Quelamitz gunboats than in his own fleet percentagewise, and only a bare 60,000 Quiltra Queleual carriers. Again this showed that it had been put together as more of a blunt object force than a real fleet, and he smiled a little evilly seeing the enemy underestimate him like this. After all just because it had numbers and enough gunboats to wipe his force out didn't mean it was possible. All around him his flag officers noticed that smile and took confidence from it, something that spread throughout the fleet and to the Meltraedi. They knew despite the numbers facing them that their Admiral was actually looking forward to this, he wasn't frightened but eager, and he wouldn't feel like that if he felt the fight was beyond them, and suddenly they all believed the same thing. Morale is to the physical as ten is to one.

The scout ships stayed right outside the edge of the enemy fleet's radar shadowing them for now. Moments later the attacking fleet began to follow the standard Zentraedi tactic of taking short jumps in-system towards the target and Breetai nodded again, a plan already in mind.

"Commodore Oromov," he said turning to one of the communication screens next to him. "Fold out to the remains of Pluto, from there I believe you may start the party whenever you wish. Initial targets are the Nupetiet-Vergnitzs command ships, then the Quiltra Queleual carriers.

Commodore Oromov nodded, and the fourteen long-range missile battleships of the human fleet vanished from space.

The human ships folded into position slightly to the side of the advancing fleet out of its radar range, their better radar gear able to pick out individual targets from well beyond the range of the Zentraedi's radar, though they could tell that something had folded in ahead of them. The missiles ships fired their first salvo, then moved through space swiftly away from the area where they had folded in, putting even more distance between them and the Zentraedi fleet.

The missiles of the missiles ships were very stealthy little creatures, painted to match the sky of space, small and with a lot of ECM on them that countered any chance to find them. Added to this was the fact the Zentraedi, the Masters and the Invid had never used missile ships. Their ships were armed with rockets for short-range defense against other capital ships and against space fighters, but long-range missiles? These were things that they had never encountered before.

Each missile ship fired 18 missiles, which might not seem much but their payload was very, very deadly. This was proven when the first of them impacted their targets, coming out of nowhere to the invading Zentraedi.

Dr. Lang had theorized about what would happen if a fold-space engine didn't have enough power to take an entire ship into fold. After all he had seen what happened to three of the four original fold-space engines when they performed a jump in Earth's gravity well. After that it had been a relatively easy operation to weaponize the concept.

Now this first flight of missiles impacted and activated a small fold space engine inside them taking large portions of their targeted ships and suddenly transporting that portion elsewhere. The result of course was rather catastrophic. Ships lost about a third of their length suddenly, and of course the ships exploded afterwards. Even one of the command class couldn't take more than two of those missiles hitting it. Within seconds of the first salvo, the attacking fleet had lost 12 of its seventeen Nupetiet-Vergnitzs command ships taking out a large majority of its senior commanders, leaving the communications of the fleet in tatters.

And, since each missile was targeted at one initial target with many more secondary targets, the rest of the missiles sped on to their secondary targets, taking out 200 carrier ships in that opening salvo. It's a pity Dr Lang didn't work out how to make those blasts bigger. Well, needs must, thought Oromov.

He turned to his communication officer, who had a laser line com set up to the next ship in formation, which had laser line communication with the next and so one. "Order to all ships fold to point 2, coordinates are as follows…" He rattled off the numbers then continued. "All ships switch to firing plan delta." Delta called for a mix of three different missile types, nuclear, fold, and another little thing that a team of American scientists had come up with, hardly worth mentioning really.

The trio had been on a team designing another way of faster than light travel, based around the idea of creating stable wormhole. This had stopped when they realizes they could not figure out a way to aim the resultant wormhole, though they had been able to create one of the first place. However it was how they created wormholes that had allowed their research to find a niche as a weapon.

They did so be creating miniature black holes. Small gravitonic anomalies exploded among the carrier mobs of the oncoming fleet. The resultant black holes were small, but when they suddenly bloomed against their target ship they took three or even five ships out at a time. Unfortunately they didn't have as many of these missiles as they could want.

Oromov frowned when his sensor techs noticed a fold-space energy reading. "All ships immediate execute fold out straight back to the edge of our radar envelope."

The Zentraedi fleet responded far quicker than the humans and Breetai had thought they would. 1000 ships folded out trying to figure out where the humans were by folding out randomly along the edge of the radar range then another thousand to the side and so on in a pattern designed to find the humans and flush them out of hiding.

Oromov scowled. "All ships, targets of opportunity, remember to prioritize carriers." The missiles ships were as stealthy as their missiles, and got off ten more volleys ripping into these smaller forces before retreating entirely out of range.

All told they had taken out about 2,600 enemy ships for no loss of their own, most of which were carriers. They disappeared, reappearing near Saturn's orbit where a fleet collier had been stationed to rearm with a fourth type of missile. They were not even close to being out of missiles, but the enemy fleet's speedy response had forced them to fall back.

OOOOOOO

Breetai frowned internally, not liking how quickly the enemy commander had figured out a way to fight the human missile ships. Still, the plan could go forward, and the fleet was letting out the small thousand ship teams out of range of any of the other groups aid. "Commodore Locas, take your ships and meet up with the missile ships around Saturn. Commodore's Fulkin, Dormas, and Rebak break off your units and fold in to take those outlying groups out before they rejoin the rest of the attacking fleet. Wipe them out swiftly, then fold back out." Those commanders were in charge of three of his divisions that were built entirely on Thurvel-Salan, and would be best for this kind of fast attack. "Don't roll out your mobile barrier shields yet, remember we want to keep those as a surprise." His three commodores nodded grimly and the connection cut off as their ships immediately folded out to execute his orders.

Of the thousand strong units the enemy fleet had sent out, only two were able to fold back home with the rest of the fleet, and when the fleet tried en masse to get close with their new attackers, Breetai's commodores had already broken off the engagement, leaving the shattered remains of more than four thousand enemy ships behind for barely fifty of their own.

OOOOOOO

The computer known as Domock analyzed, the computer thought, the computer saw where in the system Breetai and his forces were, the most dangerous force in the system, and decided that it could crush that fleet with little difficulty once they got to grips with it. However before that it calculated that the Nupetiet-Vergnitzs ships had been the main target of the first assault of those strange new weapons, which it ascertained to be missiles. Thus keeping his flag on one of them was contraindicated. He then immediately transferred himself to a Thurvel-Salan, but kept passing his orders through the remaining five Nupetiet-Vergnitzs to confuse any further chance to take him/it out.

An hour later the fleet folded in-system en-masse and appeared about a normal Jovian body's diameter out of range of Breetai's fleet, which was arrayed in a three dimensional rectangle facing them, one of the rectangles short ends facing the attacking fleet. Domocks fleet began to move toward its enemies, which backed away slowly, keeping its formation.

OOOOOOO

Breetai frowned internally, not letting the expression out for anyone else to see. He was happy with the way that the enemy fleet was coming on as it played into one of his scenarios well, but there was something about the fast reaction he had seen to the missiles ships that bothered him. The attacking fleet didn't have any of the panache or discipline of his of course, but was staying together in a far tighter formation than he had expected given the losses it had sustained so far, especially after the show the gravitonic warheads had put on.

This clumped together brute assault wave showed a much greater understanding of his opponent's strengths than he had expected. He also noticed that the enemy's carriers had been moved to the outer edge of the formation. The enemy had actually noticed what the missiles were up to and had moved their targets out, spreading them around so that the gravitonic warheads couldn't take out more than one or two at a time. It was callous, but the enemy commander evidently was prepared to sacrifice his carriers to soak up Breetai's missiles if it could.

However Breetai didn't really have a problem with that. After all there was a reason he had been going after the carriers with his missile ships anyway. He turned to his long range communication officer. "Inform Commodore Oromov that he is to continue fire plan beta, hold fire plan Delta until I give the word."

Breetai's Nupetiet-Vergnitzs flagship, newly christened the Iron Will (naming ships had been a Meltraedi affectation before they had broken from the rest of the Zentraedi people) was at the front of his fleets formation, a massive rectangle that resembled nothing so much like the head of a hammer in space. He had to be there, to show his troops that he wasn't afraid of their enemy, and to keep control of the slow retreat he had planned, making certain it didn't become a rout.

The oncoming horde and he used the word with feeling as the enemy fleet looked like a mindless stampede in comparison to his own ordered, layered fleet, pressed in. But it was a stampede that was even more densely packed than his own fleet and he nodded grimly, putting his unease out of his mind for now.

This was what he wanted, and he ordered his fleet to spread out even more slightly along the front, pushing the shape of the fleet so now it was one of the large sides of the rectangle that faced their enemy. Even as they did so they fell back, making it look as if the reason they were was the fact they were reorganizing.

The missile ship attacks kept coming in, taking out more and more the enemy's carriers. He hoped that the enemy commander, despite his apparent ability to keep control of his fleet, didn't realize the real purpose for this attack, or at least not the extent of that purpose.

After all, there was nowhere around here for Breetai to hide, no way he could be hiding forces to spring a trap or anything like that. He had chosen this point in the solar system precisely because there were no nearby planetary bodies, the fourth and fifth planets elsewhere on their journeys around the sun. But the enemy had only seen a brief glimpse of what human technology could really do so far, nor did they have any idea what Breetai's fleet was really capable of.

OOOOOOO

The cyborg brain that had replaced the Zentraedi admiral known for decades as Domock analyzed, and it understood or at least thought it did. The analysis was complete, and the enemies taking out the carriers seem made sense if the Meltraedi had allied with Breetai as had been supposed.

The lack of Nousjadeul-Ger and the number of Regulds the carriers could no longer add to the rest of his fleet's forces might prove to be detrimental later on, but it would not matter in the face of the power of the fleet he controlled. Yet at the same time, it felt a shiver of worry as its sensors had yet to detect any sign of the space fortress. It had bunched up the fleet in order to draw the space fortress out by giving it a target it couldn't resist, but it had failed. Given that the cyborg calculated a 79.987 percent chance that the space fortress was no longer in system.

That matched the data that there might be something wrong going on inside it. The Masters had analyzed the footage transferred by the traitor Azonia (target priority beta 1) and found that portion had been genuine, so it made sense.

With that knowledge the cyborg ordered the fleets remaining carriers to the front of the formation, and for them to launch all fighters. While the capital ships of Breetai's force were too far away for them to get there with much more energy to spare for dogfights, he estimated that there was a 66% chance that Breetai would jump on the chance to wipe out such a large percentage of its parasite force in detail, and thus could be trapped himself in turn

Moments later this seemed to prove correct when Breetai's fleet also launched fighters, and the computer that had been Domock dispassionately noted the number of Queadluun Rau among them. It seemed that the Meltraedi had indeed joined with Breetai.

Unfortunately for Domock he was still underestimating the number of tricks in the human's basket.

OOOOOOO

Breetai had indeed launched his fighters in response to the enemies launching theirs, but his main fleet was still backing away, almost as if they were afraid of the enemy. They weren't of course, and his smirk and position of the Iron Will told his fleet that, a vastly important point that no computer would've thought of.

But his own parasite forces brought along a little gift for the enemy with them. The kinetic shotgun mines that Admiral Prescott had used against the parasite forces of Dolza were not the only ones the humans had made after all. Indeed where he had only had a hundred of the things, Breetai had seven-hundred. While his battle pods and powersuits formed up a few of them hauled these forward, setting them up right behind their wall of battle. They couldn't cover as much space as that wall of course, but they covered enough.

Next he ordered his Regulds in to bring the enemy Nousjadeul-Ger to battle. Their losses would be severe, which would heighten the enemies feeling of superiority despite its losses so far, which was what Breetai wanted.

As the rest of the fleet moved backwards further, included the launched Queadluun Rau wings, the Regulds and the elite powersuits of Dolza's fleet met, with predictable results.

He let the dogfight continue for half a local hour, then nodded at the officer he had assigned as liaison to the parasite forces. "Order the Regulds to fall back. The Queadluun Rau are clear to move forward to join the dogfight but don't let them pass point K-1." K-1 was actually not a specific point in space, but it was a designation of the distance between the kinetic mines and the safe point behind them.

The Regulds fell back upon his order, and he shook his head sadly at their losses, which were going to get even worse in a moment. Those fighter pilots of his knew what was going to happen momentarily, and they had agreed to play bait for his first little trap. The fact that all of them were latest generation clones and were suffering from all the maladies of repeated cloning was well known to all of them, and they knew that their race needed them more as bait then as living people. It was harsh, but it was true. He wished it wasn't, and their courage made his heart warm with pride, but he had his own part to play in this, and vowed on their graves that he would win this battle in their memory and all those that had ever died under his command.

A moment later he estimated enough of the enemy Nousjadeul-Ger had entered his trap and looked down at one of the human officers on the bridge, set up in their own little area beside the tactical screen. "Activate them. Commodore Zorsha, commodore Getheare, go."

Roberto looked up from his work on analyzing the enemy's reaction time, something he had been looking at with a worried look on his face, and saw the massive swarm of red icons on the tactical screen suddenly become two very different and smaller swarms as the center of their formation was simply wiped out by the kinetic mines. At the same time two groups of 12000 of the Thurvel-Salan battleships of Breetai's fleet folded in into range of the two remaining swarms and began to hammer them with anti-air fire. The force that had previously been retreating turned, crushing first one section of the wing and then the other quickly. Of course they came under fire from the main fleet which hadn't bothered wasting shots on the swarms of Regulds. Over a thousand of his ships died before they finished wiping out the power suits of the enemy, but after that the power suits and few remaining battle pods retreated to his main fleet and the group he sent out folded out again, appearing in the back of his fleets formation.

Breetai knew at this point that his enemy would respond in one or two ways. One would be to fall back until the rest of your fleet could launch more fighters to defend your forces, or you could instead charge full speed ahead trying to get to grips with your fleeing opponent and then launch fighters close range. Your parasite forces would be more disorganized with the second option, but with the numbers advantage the enemy had it might seem the better course.

Moments later he was proven correct as the entire enemy fleet folded coming straight into range of his own. "All ships fire!" he said barking the order. "Pack commanders are to choose your own targets, relay them to your Commodores as per usual! All ships begin audio attack!"

The front of Breetai's fleet lit up space as he began to hammer fire at his enemy, and the largest battle in Sol system's history began. Return shots ran into the mobile barrier shields all of his ships had in varying numbers, giving them the endurance for him to plan this whole trap. The human Equistore had called it a 'space-born battle of Cannae', and Breetai had taken a few hours to look up the reference. He idly wondered for just a moment what it would have been like to meet the human Hannibal, but shook it off quickly. He had work to do.

"Continue to fall back," he said looking at the commodores who controlled the front line of his forces. "Hold the line and pound them, but continue to fall back. Watch out for any change in their positions, but otherwise keep falling back for now."

They all nodded, having realized what he had. The enemy commander wasn't utilizing the full strength of his forces. Rather than coming on as a single unit he should've broken up and tried to engulf Breetai's forces from all sides. Instead it came on like an arrow, the ships built up behind the front line, adding some weight to the fire straight ahead, but unable to really get to grips with the majority of Breetai's forces because of the friendly ships in front of them in the 'formation'.

Breetai noticed on the other hand that the audio attack wasn't doing anything, the enemy capital ships seemed to be able to ignore it, and he wondered why. Later after the battle Equistore told him that his team found out that the systems of the enemy had actually been programmed to block any and all communications from sources not on an approved list. This let them block out any signals from his own fleet, but did nothing for the Regulds and the elite powersuits. But the enemy starfighters were so badly overmatched that their confusion at the audio attack was just icing on the cake really.

He turned to another screen where more than half of his division commanders were shown, each controlling over fifty thousand ships. He felt a shiver of pleasure yet again at the changes the humans had made to his communications systems, a single screen now able to show them all at once. "You are to wait for three hours and then fold in on either side of that fleet out there." He said sketching the gestures into the tactical screen in front of him, making certain they could all see what he wanted.

They all nodded and he turned to his long range communication officer there. "Commodore Oromov you are to launch fire plan Delta, Commodore Locas, wait until fire plan Delta has been launched then launch Sabers."

The bridge shuddered under him as his flagship took a hit, and he looked over at the damage screen noticing that it was probably from one of the enemy gunboats but he shook it off. His fleet's ships were moving in formation dodging as much fire as they could yet keeping station in a way that showed the iron discipline he had instilled in his people. Added to that the barrier shields on all of his ships numbered in the hundreds. On his ship it numbered in over a thousand. Once more he thanked Delmera for convincing the humans that the mobile barrier shields were a much higher priority than building up their own ships or fighters.

Next to him Exedore coughed a little, motioning around him silently but Breetai understood. He opened a line to all of his ships and spoke, his voice firm, angry yet utterly controlled and focused. "We stand on a precipice, not only for us, but for our entire race. Will our race continue to be slaves, or will we win our freedom in the only way we can? Will we survive as a new race, or will our legacy be that of the mindless tools of those who call themselves our masters? I tell you now we will prevail! Not because of tactics, not because strategy, but because of will! You are my fleet, you are the best our race has ever produced regardless of the machinations of our former masters! Today we turn their slaves back, today we stand united and turn back their slaves, shouting with one voice we will not be used again! And so we declare this day, the first day, and our day of reckoning!"

His fleet answered with a roar coming from a billion throats, and even the Meltraedi, hidden away as a reserve screamed their defiance along with Breetai's fleet and the battle continued with a will.

OOOOOOO

In Saturn's orbit Commodore Oromov nodded. He looked over to where his own communication screen showed the Zentraedi Locas who was in charge of the refitted carrier ships filled with Sabers. "Let's go shut the back door," he said and the Zentraedi nodded getting the reference and smiling a little grimly. Moments later the 16 missile ships in the 120 refurbished carriers folded out, appearing just out of range of the enemy sensors behind them.

The enemy knew something had folded in behind him but not what, and again the ships moved rapidly away from where they had folded in. At the same time they were doing this the missiles ships fired their payload, and this time they weren't firing their various deadly payloads. These missiles were the electronic equivalent of chaff. They were intended to blind and deafen and in as many ways as possible discombobulate the enemy's ability to use radar or any kind of sensors. These missiles were not fired one at a time with specific targets in mind, they were rapid fired and soon over 450 missiles of that type were speeding through space heading towards the enemy.

At the same time thousands of Sabers that had been placed aboard the carriers launched, a massive field of them waiting for the chaff to do its job before heading in to do their own.

OOOOOOO

Domock scowled angrily, the battle was going according to its pre-clash computations, but Breetai's fleet was proving strangely durable. The odd mobile shields his ships all used blocked most of his fleet's fire, and only his gunboats were able to blast through them to do any kind of damage. So far his own losses were within acceptable parameters, but the majority of Breetai's fleet was still hidden behind his frontline, and the computer was wondering why Breetai was not using his full force. His front's wall's losses were becoming severe, but he had yet to commit the rest of his force for some reason.

In his own case he knew that his fleet's charge had backfired, the bulk of his fleet being behind the front line and unable to engage effectively. He could have ordered them to fire anyway but that would have brought his losses up from friendly fire to an unacceptable level.

Domock was just about to order his fleet to spread out when the tactical screen the cyborg was staring at shivered and popped, the screen suddenly going gray in grainy. The computer looked up sudden surmise in his eyes, but none of the other bridge officers around him were able to do anything to help the system, and his communications computer was down as well.

Everywhere in his fleet ships faltered as they lost all their radar and communication gear, and were suddenly unable to tell friend from foe, and unable to see what was coming up rapidly from behind them.

OOOOOOO

Out in space Breetai's first division had taken a pounding, with over thirty thousand ships dead for about seventy two thousand of the enemy, but that was acceptable for bringing the enemy fleet into this trap. At the same time as the Sabers when and after the chase did its work best for second, third, and fifth divisions of his fleet folded out, taking up new positions around the enemy's fleet. This allowed them to bring their fire power to bear on the enemy, which had bunched up even further in confusion and concern when they lost their radar and communications.

The alien commander had made the classic mistake of keeping his fleet centralized, which allowed him to control it more easily, but made his fleet far too dense to actually use the massive firepower it contained effectively. The ships at the center couldn't fire towards the front or the sides, forcing them to do nothing, but float there in space until the ships in front of them died. This was what Breetai was taking advantage of now.

Now in a move somewhat reminiscent of the battle of Cannae Breetai's fleet folded in on either side of the enemy fleet as well as above and below. While this enabled more of the enemy to fire on his ships the chaff had taken out their ability to actually see his ships for a moment, and that allowed him to get in a first devastating salvo. The chaff would swiftly clear of course, but by then his fleet was in position to completely envelope the enemy forcing them into an even smaller space, forcing even more of their ships to be unable to fire on the enemy.

"Forget the role of maneuverability in space warfare at your peril," he muttered chuckle and letting the sound strengthen the morale of his flag officers. "Move the second division in to bolster the first Doran," he said looking at another communication screen. Commodore Doran was his most senior division leader,, and if anything happened to Breetai he would take command of the fleet until Azonia could formally take command.

Azonia's Meltraedi were being kept out of this fight for the moment, used as a reserve hidden behind the mass of the Sun, the only place in the solar system where the enemy sensors could not detect even a hint of their presence. He would be bringing them in shortly if everything went according to plan, but he was not about to jump the gun on that. After all he well knew that things very rarely went according to plan.

In fact he felt it likely that his enemy, who had already proved a capable sort (and where had a Zentraedi commander that competent been hiding up to now) would fold out of his trap, or try to box him in by attempting the same thing. If that happened he would gladly take up the gauntlet of a war of maneuver. While his ships didn't have full tanks, they were closer than normal, and much of the fuel was human fuel, more potent than the normal kind and longer lasting. He could run circles around his larger more dangerous enemy, then rip him apart piece by piece.

He chuckled again as the Sabers hit the enemy fleet from behind, shutting the door behind the enemy fleet and nodded at Commodore Testus, who he had placed in charge of his fleet's reserves, a force of sixty thousand ships. "Fold in directly behind the enemy fleet, help the Sabers cut off their retreat."

Testus nodded and Breetai smacked his hands down on the computer in front of him, the noise like a death knell rolling out from him. "The enemy is trapped gentlemen, let's put it out of our misery."

His bridge officers answered his call with the roar, and his ship led the line now redoubled the numbers and density against the enemy firing as fast as their weapons could bear on the enemy and closing in.

OOOOOOO

Sabers roared in from behind the enemy fleet, the chaff of the missiles ships having done its deadly work. Not a single ship among the 'loyal' Zentraedi fleet could tell they were even there until they began to fire. Five Sabers worked together as a pack much like the pack template followed by Breetai's capital ships, and they were coming from behind the enemy fleet, which meant most of those fleet's ships were facing the wrong way to combat them, and they hadn't yet launched another wave of their own parasite forces, the battle up to this point being capital ship to capital ship.

As the chaff cleared those ships began to turn in sections, but the damage had already been done, and the Sabers were in amongst them. Moments later they were joined by Breetai's parasite forces from all around the enemy fleet, charging in before the chaff could fully dissipate. The enemy began to desperately launch their own Regulds and powersuits, and the battle became even more violent and chaotic.

Before that happened however the Sabers killed over 1,200 capital ships, most of them carriers and the others gunboats. In the face of the enemy's own parasite force they switched to targets of opportunity destroying more ships as time went on.

Behind them, now hidden behind the wall of one of Breetai's divisions, Commodore Oromov nodded. "Order all ships to go to rapid fire, but order all captains to make damn certain that our IFF is up to date."

His communications officer nodded and passed on the order, and the 15 battleships of Earth spread out and began to rapid fire missiles into the enemy formation. It wouldn't be long, only about an hour or so, for the before they ran out of ammo at that rate, capital class missiles were after all pretty large and they could only carry so many of them but that was what the fleet colliers back in fashion were for.

Oromov whimsically sighed, wondering what they could have done with the new magazine enlarging technique had been placed on their ships, but Dr. Lang had accidentally taken everyone who understood the technique with him, and the papers he had published about it had been derided and ignored by the scientific community without him and his fellows to ram it down their throats. Still, the fleet colliers have enough missiles to fill us all up a dozen times over, that's the best we can do for now.

They also launched as many EW missiles as they could with the rest of their payloads, but unfortunately they didn't have enough of those missiles to completely wipe out the enemy fleet's radar again. It had been simply a question of demand versus supply, and everyone from Breetai on down had thought that having more destructive missiles was more important. The number they had had done enough damage already, and the battle was beginning to definitely tilt the way of the defender's despite their enemies still appalling numbers advantage.

It remained to be seen if Breetai's envelopment was able to really do enough damage to the enemy fleet to offset the numbers advantage, but the use of the barrier shields and his own tactics to utilize all of his firepower against only a portion of his enemies seems to be working so far.

OOOOOOO

It was a full half-hour before the systems were cleared of chaff, and the tactical situation had changed so much that even a cyborg like Domock had to blink in shock for a moment. Where before the battle had been going their way, even if slowly, now his entire fleet was in jeopardy of being wiped out.

It probably didn't look quite that way to the Zentraedi around him, after all they didn't really think ahead like that, all they saw was their fleet immense power and numbers, the fact they still outnumbered their opponents but none of them would realize they needed to be worried about the loss ratio.

The computer cyborg however did know. Breetai had completely mouse trapped them here, and losses were mounted. Already they have lost over 125,000 ships, and even as he watched another 800 died under the combined fire of the tiny new fighters and the firepower of Breetai's forces at the back of his fleet. The computer estimated that Breetai had only lost about 70,000 all told so far, most of which had been lost before he sprang this trap. Even with the chaff clearing his ships were unable to truly bring their numbers to bear due to his/its fleet's dense formation, and continuing to pay that rate of attrition was not acceptable.

It was tempting to simply reverse the assault on his enemy, but Breetai had proven a wily commander, and the tools of the humans could well allow him to get away cleanly, dragging the battle out further. While an initial analysis of fuel consumption pointed to the fact his fleet might outlast Breetai's in a war of maneuver, an analysis of what had happened in this system made the chances of that falling below 29.456%.

While pondering what to do the computer analyzed its programmed objectives in the system, and came up with a solution that had an 80% chance of winning and achieving all of its objectives. He/it swiftly turned to the communication officer who patched the admiral through to a little under half of his captains, as all of its division leaders had already been lost.

Minutes later a little more than 600,000 ships folded out from the center of the attacking Zentraedi's formation, leaving it looking like a hollow sphere. While the exterior comprised of the remaining 600,000 continued to trade shots and blasts of firepower with the enveloping force of Breetai the rest had another destination in mind entirely.

The odds of winning a running war with someone like Breetai had proven to be, with the humans technology added to the equation, was below 50%. So Instead, the computer was going for a target that Breetai would have to defend, if he truly was allied with the humans. The computer was going for Earth, and it had more than enough ships to turn the entire world into it dead wasteland

OOOOOOO

Breetai watched the center of the enemy formation fold out. At this range his own sensors were easily up to telling him the number of ships that had just disappeared and his eyes narrowed, wondering where they would appear. One of his hands hovered on the button that would communicate his words to all of his division commanders at once so he could order them to fall back.

He was surprised yet again at the ability of his opponent. Rather than folding out the entire fleet he had left enough in place to attempt to pin his fleet where it was, and had taken the ships that couldn't fight in their current formation effectively.

He had plans to whittle down the enemy force even further, but cursed suddenly as he realized that the enemy was doing what he had feared they would all along, go straight for a target that couldn't retreat, a target that was too big to hide, Earth. He looked down at the humans to the side, all of whom had stiffened and stilled, fear for their home gripping them all.

He scowled inside. He knew what tactics dictated. His enemy had given him a golden opportunity to wipe out half his fleet here in detail before contending with the half it sent to Earth, and in a tactical sense that was what he should do. But he also knew what honor (and long term strategy) dictated, and Breetai sighed internally then pressed looked over at his long range communication officer. "Admiral Azonia, the enemy fleet has broken into two segments, leaving one here to pin me in place and the other heading for Earth. While I destroy this segment, I wish for you to take your fleet in and defend Earth. I trust you to do it with all your regular brilliance and panache, but nor do I expect miracles. Do all you can, but do not let your fleet be wiped out, Breetai out."

With a shake of his head he looked down at Roberto. "I'm sorry, but that's the best I can do. Whoever is in charge over there is sharper than I expected, he left enough of his force here to keep my fleet in place destroying him, the position we're in is too good to give up. We've got the room to maneuver, they don't, and we have the barrier shields. I doubt he realizes how complete that destruction will be, or how few losses I will sustain doing it but I must stay here and retain command here as we do so."

He looked back suddenly, something in the tactical screen catching his attention and he turned swiftly to his communication screen, barking out to one of his first division's commodores, whose flotilla had been hammered badly, not losing many ships, but most of them were battered to varying degrees. "Treathif, take your force immediately to Jupiter, and wipe out the force that just folded there."

Minutes after the larger force a smaller group of four thousand had folded out from the remaining fleet and it was that fold phenomenon he had noticed out of the corner of his eyes. And if they hadn't folded out of first group been there was only one real target, and he had been worried for a while that the growing weight of metal in Jupiter's orbit was visible.

It had been, but his quick thinking had given the defenders there, two wings of Valkyries, and two armed colony ships with a large complement of Sabers, enough firepower to defend themselves against the 4000 strong force that Domock sent there.

That clash was a bit of a side note really, and Breetai knew it. He wondered briefly which battle would prove to be the most important, the one he was still fighting or the one about starting or Earth's orbit, but for now he pushed that idea to the back of his mind. Even as he worried for the mass of humanity still on Earth he began to bark out orders, moving his flotillas and divisions around to cut the enemy fleet into pieces, then to wipe the pieces out one by one.

OOOOOOO

Azonia's force was hidden on the other side of the sun, forming a bit of a triangle between the sun, the Earth and their fleet. She hadn't been happy about it, but she had recognized on several levels why Breetai wanted her fleet to form his reserve. For one thing her power suits represented a major resource, even with over a third of them split off to his own fleet and to the fleet sent against Dolza she still had millions of them and if used correctly they could turn the tide of battle. They were far better at destroying capital ships than Regulds were after all.

She and her command team also represented an entirely different group that could act independently of Breetai without supervision. While his division and flotilla commanders were damn good an very experienced, they still looked to him for leadership and would not be able to react as quickly as she could.

On another level entirely her fleet numbered less than 100,000 ships far less his 460,000 plus, and her Meltraedi were more important in the long run then his Zentraedi to the future of the race. The humans had found that most Meltraedi did not suffer from the barrenness of the males. Indeed it was only the very latest generation of Meltraedi that had that issue. That generation barely made up 26% of their fleet's numbers, almost entirely concentrated in the Meltraedi wings. Other generations did have mental problems, but they were still far less than in the male forces.

This was because despite their shock troop status the Meltraedi had very rarely taken the habitually horrendous losses the Zentraedi regularly did even in comparison to Breetai's fleet. And Azonia had not been the first of their admirals to elevate people due to seniority.

What this meant for the future was that the majority of Meltraedi would still be able to give birth the old-fashioned way, and their children would not have any issues genetic issues (that couldn't be solved anyway). It astonished Azonia that many thousands of her females were actually looking forward to seeing if they could, and had taken to looking at baby videos and pictures from the human Internet over the past few days since that news had circulated. Though to her amusement many of them hadn't yet realized the other portion of that equation...

So in cold-blooded terms her fleet represented a long-term resource that their race desperately needed, making them too valuable to waste except in direst need. Breetai haven't pointed that out to her explicitly of course, but she realized it nonetheless.

Now however she concentrated on her job frowning angrily. The alien commander had reacted to practically everything that had happened so far much more swiftly than she or Breetai had assumed he would, and she hoped he didn't have any further brilliant ideas.

Still even if he did she had a job to do, and their ally's home planet was in danger. While nearly 2.2 billion people had been evacuated off the planet that still left the vast majority of humanity on earth, and made it a place they had to stand and defend.

She looked over at Sonya, who had taken over command of her flagship from Aria, who had transferred to command the stationary forces over Earth. "Let's go," she said simply, and Sonya nodded, barking orders to the helmswoman and the communications officer. Seconds later her fleet folded out from their position behind the sun in relation to her enemies.

OOOOOOO

The moment the fleet appeared it came under fire, both from the stationary ships in orbit and the Grand Cannons on the surface. One Grand Cannon in the Arctic was out of position for a direct shot and had to use the mirrors to redirect its beam to hit the attacking fleet.

That one shot took out over 40,000 ships of Domock's, but it also gave away the cannon's position and it died before it could get off another shot. And unfortunately that blast also killed off half the defending mobile ships that Breetai had left in orbit. the others died as Domack's fleet encircled them, but their parasites joined the massive dogfight spreading across the globe.

70,000 gunboats fired as one, turning the Arctic installation into a wasteland, burning off the ice around it, kicking up dust and ice into the air. The Grand Cannon in America got off two shots, destroying over 90,000 ships, before it too fell silent, along with the country around it.

Domock's orders to his captains had been brutal but simple; the gunboats were to ignore any enemy in space, and concentrate on decimating the planet, the rest of his fleet would work on decimating any space borne defenders which they began to do immediately. With his numbers he couldn't do it quickly, and those numbers took another beating the moment he appeared over the planet, but he still had more than enough ships to sterilize the entire planet.

America became the second target of those gunships, and the strongest nation on the planet died under the withering power of the gunboats beams. Gone was Washington, capital of the United States. Gone was the Grand Cannon. Gone was the rust belt, New Orleans, California and Hollywood and Florida. It all burned.

Yet because of the amount of time it had taken for Earth to be under attack since the enemy had first folded in to the solar system, and because Hayes and his ilk had were no longer in charge, millions of people were in shelters deep, deep under the earth, safe from this assault. America was one of only three countries that had been able to devote resources to the Grand Cannon, manufacturing mobile barrier shields, Valkyries, capital ships, and bunkers, and it was the only one that could perform at all those tasks at a high level. Nearly every city in the country had a shelter nearby, and while over half of them failed and the people inside them died many of them didn't.

While this was going on the rest of his fleet was dealing with the space-borne defenders. The Regulds had launched hours before Domock had folded out back with his own fleet and had spread out, then simply waited just in case. It hadn't been pleasant, but it had worked. Many of them died when he folded in, interpolating with them, but their deaths actually destroyed those ships, which they would never have been able to do alone.

The rest protected the five dozen Valkyrie wings that were also waiting for the fleet, and many of these Valkyries didn't have their normal missile complement, instead being armed with ship-killing nukes. The Regulds and Valkyries from the lunar base had also risen, and the base there as well as bases down on earth began to fire off missiles at the attacking fleet. Thousands of the attacking ships died before he launched his own parasite force, but once he did the Nousjadeul-Ger proved their superiority over the Reguld, yet found themselves almost matched by the Valkyries. Despite having nowhere near the experience or durability of the pilots trained by Ranma and Roy, these pilots were desperately fighting for their homes, which spurred them to feats far higher than anything they had ever done before.

Despite this however the numbers were against the defenders and Domock estimated a 98.256879% probability that he would easily be able to cleanse the planet within the next six hours unless Breetai followed him. The equation changed however when Azonia and her fleet folded in outside lunar orbit, and immediately assault the portion of his fleet in combat with the lunar base and its defenders. The computer whose form was that of the Zentraedi admiral Domock recalculated.

OOOOOOO

Azonia's fleet had gone into it attack mode as soon as they folded out, moving swiftly split into ten groups of ten thousand under her senior commodores, trusting in their own organization and discipline to help offset the enemies numbers.

Azonia personally led four such flotillas, moving them in on separate angles and moving along either side, above and below of the tendril of the enemy fleet that had moved to attack the lunar base. The base was still there, still sending out signals and the odd missile or two, and their intervention saved what was left and over the next hour destroyed 34,000 enemy ships losing only 800 of their own before peeling away to either side, forcing the enemy fleet to leave position over the planet to come after it.

One other group had performed a mini-fold to the other side of the gravity well then zoomed in to assault a force of 6,000 gunboats, some of the ones that had destroyed the Arctic base that had been accidentally left out of formation. It was with fury, rage and grief they came, their front spewing out Queadluun Rau as they did.

The wings of the Meltraedi were everywhere slicing into the enemy's parasite forces like a hot knife through butter. The difference of a pampered so-called elite and the real thing becoming apparent almost instantly to everyone involved, much to the dismay of the Nousjadeul-Ger pilots, and the gunboats began to die under their furious fire.

A force of 16,000 Thurvel-Salan moved to intercept, but was assaulted by the remaining five groups commanded by Delmera who had waited just out of the gravity well before zooming in and cutting them off from the rest of the fleet. They fought well, and with the gunboats support cost Delmera a little over 2,000 of her own ships but none of those ships were able to return to the rest of the fleet.

The Queadluun Rau of all six of these groups finished their work there and turned to assault the main fleet while their capital ships regrouped and retreated.

OOOOOOO

The cyborg frowned, noting its losses so far as barely acceptable and the fact that it had lost over two thirds of its parasite forces already. While it did not have enough data to compute whether or not the Meltraedi powersuits could do enough damage to his capital ships to offset his numbers advantage, it was an unacceptable loss ratio.

By this point the stationary defenses, the few stationary ships that retained their weapons, the lunar defense forces, and ships left in orbit over Earth itself had all been destroyed, but their parasite forces were still fighting hard, and they were taking out his Quiltra-Quelamitz gunboats rather than his Thurvel-Salan battleships. He still had more than enough, but he had lost a little under half of his fleet since appearing over this planet.

They were still winning of course, his numbers advantage was still too large for that, but he calculated the chances of them still having enough numbers to go back and take out Breetai's forces from behind as dropping rapidly with every gunboat pack lost.

With a barked command he ordered half of his gunboats to cease-fire on the planet and turned their guns to their own attackers, which saved Canada from destruction. It would still suffer the effects of the orbital bombardment, but because of his unilateral order it wouldn't come under fire itself.

After Africa Europe began to die but there millions again were saved because the governments there had devoted most of their efforts to building shelters, not having enough industrial capacity really add to the war effort as much as the more powerful nations. They sent people, and those people performed admirably in all their duties, but it was simple fact of numbers at places like Greece, Spain, Italy and other even smaller countries didn't have the resources available to do everything.

Unfortunately it would later be found that many of the smaller countries' bunkers were not deep enough to defend their people, and the loss of life in them was horrible.

Germany did have the resources to concentrate on several areas at once, but the Germans had also seen the merit of evacuation and had evacuated the vast majority of their people to the Zentraedi ships Delmera had organized for that purpose. India and the UK had also grasped that offer most wholeheartedly. What was left was their military installations, who fired back in vain taking out some of their attackers with long-range missiles shooting out of the gravity well before Germany fell silent.

Before that South America and Africa had come under fire. The countries there had devoted as much as they could to defense as well, but in their case their bunkers were even worse than in the smaller European countries. All of them had believed that as weaker powers they would simply be overlooked by an invading enemy. They have not been able to grasp that the Zentraedi would not be coming to invade, but to annihilate. They died, as did France for much the same reasons. There, several groups had constructed their own bunkers but they haven't had the resources to construct most of them deeply enough, and the French government had thought their neutrality would allow them to talk the enemy out of attacking them. Thus they had built only a few real government sanctioned bunkers and the loss or life in riots among those who tried to get in and were turned away was horrible, up until the bombardment began and the word took on a whole new meaning.

Their military had ignored this idea of neutrality (with the tacit approval of the UNSF) and they fought valiantly. Missiles silos the countryside over fired up against the Zentraedi in orbit, but it didn't save their nation, and the stupidity of their politicians doomed their people to death.

Africa of simply didn't have the resources nor the representation to really join the efforts to leave the planet, and their own bunkers were again not as deep as they needed to be. Surprisingly some survivors would be found among the mountains of Africa, as well as the Himalayas and the Appalachian Mountains, the concrete and stone sturdiness of the mountains having saved them, but the majority of Africa was no more. Its death and the death of South America and the rainforests they both contained as well as the amount of air burned off from the beams of the gunboats would cause problems later on, but right now no one left alive had enough time on their hands to think about that.

OOOOOOO

Azonia scowled angrily. Despite her fleet carving off bits of the enemy fleet here and there, the assault continued on the planet. Watching the once pristine and beautiful planet slowly being turned into a wasteland hurt her heart. Worse, since the enemy commander had switched half his Quiltra-Quelamitz gunboats to defense she had been taking heavier losses, and that was not good considering her enemy's numbers advantage. She was still outnumbered here 4 to 1, and while she would bet money on anyone of her ships against three or four, five was a bit much. "All slashing attacks cease, all flotillas reform on the flag, Queadluun Rau wings continue your assault."

Moments later her fleet reformed, and she nodded at her flotilla commanders. "Pull back along the avenue here," she said pointing at the tactical screen and moving her fingers through it, putting her fleet behind six derelict ships that hadn't been part of the defense forces parked over the South Pole in a wide arc.

They had been refitted to be something else and she smirked a little viciously as she saw Sonya smile evilly. Those had been Sonya's little baby. The other woman, her lover now and hopefully forever if Azonia had anything to say about it, had been fascinated by the kinetic weapons of the humans, from the rail-guns down to the kinetic shotgun, and had wondered if they could somehow figure out a way to do the same thing on a much grander scale. Those ships were the product of that line of thought, and she and hundreds of human weapons designers had used them to create something deadly.

As the Meltraedi fleet swung wide as if it was going to sweep around and come back en masse, the enemy fleet split in two. Domock left a third of his remaining gunboats behind along with the remaining carriers and a 1000 Thurvel-Salan, then took the rest of his fleet out after the Meltraedi. The cyborg had noticed Azonia's Queadluun Rau had split, half staying behind and half still attacking the rest of his fleet. His battered and reduced carriers didn't have enough Regulds left to fight them off, but the computer computed that the odds of that number of Queadluun Rau taking out enough of his Quiltra-Quelamitz gunboats to stop the cleansing of Earth was below 20%.

He cut across the Meltraedi's course, going straight across the avenue she wanted them to follow putting the six derelict battleships right in their path. They were attempting to cut her fleet in half and destroy it in detail that way, but it wouldn't work.

Rather than destroy the derelicts the enemy fleet simply ignored them, and she waited until they were in amongst the enemy then nodded at Sonja who looked at the groups of humans near the communication console. "Activate."

Aboard those derelict ships computers came online suddenly, and if they had been human they might have given a little squeal of joy at the sheer amount of targets around them.

The entire exterior of those ships had been stripped away, made almost paper-thin, from behind which thousands of large-scale kinetic guns were ready and waiting. Their payload was much larger than the payload used in the regular mines that the enemy's Regulds had run into several hours before. Those guns didn't actually have as much ammo as they should, but they had enough. After all it was very easy to make a twenty feet long piece of iron in comparison to a lot of the other technological innovations and needs of the fleets. And when those iron bars, sped up to something just below Mach 5, hit, they smashed, destroying them utterly. Within that first few firings those ships are destroyed 40,000 of the enemy, and the carnage continued even as the derelict ships came under fire from everywhere around them.

Azonia smirked. "Forward all ships, hammer them!" At her order the fleet suddenly changed course, closing from both sides and hammering their numerically superior enemy from both sides, spreading out below and above.

The fight continued, and Domock lost another 80,000 ships before he fought his way away from the ambush around the derelict ships, forcing Azonia to pull back. She had lost about 22,000 ships, which against any other animal would have been a fantastic loss ratio, but in this one it might not be enough.

Behind Domock's advancing fleet, despite the best efforts of the Queadluun Rau wings that had remained in orbit, Asia burned. Azonia stared at what had once been a life giving green blue and white planet, now almost entirely brown gray and dark, despair filling her.

Suddenly the equation changed again, as over the Arctic the missile ships of humanity appeared joined with the Zentraedi carriers contain the Sabers. In fact they actually had folded into the planet's gravity well, yet had somehow, through luck or skill, kept on target.

They were joined by over 17,000 ships of Breetai's fleet, most of them badly battered, but still game. These ships immediately attacked the 150,000 gunboats that had stayed behind Domock's fleet as he came out to meet Azonia, and without a parasite force to defend them they swiftly began to die under the fire of the vengeful Sabers, their numbers once more topped off by the fleet colliers in Saturn's orbit.

Domock responded swiftly, turning his fleet around and ordering those ships to cease-fire on the planet and concentrate on their own defense, which saved Australia and Japan and several other island nations from being targeted. All of them would have to deal with tsunamis, earthquakes and hurricanes caused by the orbital bombardment, but they would still have survivors to add to the number saved by the bunkers elsewhere.

As Domock's ships turned back to help their beleaguered fellows Azonia pressed in behind him, catching his out of position. 15,000 more ships died under her fire, forcing Domock to turn away to face her even as she retreated, letting the Sabers, the missiles ships and the heavily damaged ships of Breetai's force do their work on the gunboats behind him.

Gunboats were built around hundreds of beam colliders that rather than each firing a blast combined their powers into one beam, delivering a blast more powerful than any other in the Zentraedi fleet. It did not have nearly as many defense installations against parasite forces as other ships, and in fact it lost in any kind of fleet action without aid because despite their relative small size their guns made them slow to traverse. By the time a gunboat's gun was able to train on a fast-moving enemy battleship that battleship was probably not going to be in the position it had been.

The captains they were facing were experienced and knew this all too well and used this advantage ruthlessly, closing the distance and hammering them, utterly ignoring their fellows and the carriers, leaving them to the missile ships. With the Sabers and the missiles ships covering them the battered ships Breetai had sent to rip the heart out of the remaining 150,000 gunboats, and before they died they took over half of their enemies with them. Several, broken, dying and slowing down to the point where the full power of their enemies beams could hit them, actually rammed their enemies, taking more of them down to hell.

Behind them the missile ships continued to hammer out missiles and the sabers were everywhere, flaying the remaining gunboats and the bare hundred carriers remaining.

Domock was busy dealing with Azonia's lightning strafing run along the front and bottom of his formation, trying to envelop the Meltraedi. But Azonia stayed one step ahead of him, moving almost randomly around, keeping his/its attention straight on her while behind him the gunboats assigned to destroy the earth slowly died.

It still would not have been enough to save the rest of the planet if not for the fact that when Russia was bombarded right before the human ships arrived, and their arrival had saved Siberia. It was here where Russia had constructed it's Grand Cannon, and even though wasn't finished, even though the entire installation hadn't been fitted with dampeners or any kind of defense against blowback, the defenders of that installation, seeing the death of their nation and of the world around them had decided to go out with a bang.

They waited until the last of the Allied Zentraedi forces went down then fired. Every person in the base died from the backlash of the cannon firing, and even if they hadn't the remaining 4000 gunboats smashed their position to rubble in response, but Domock suddenly lost nearly all the remaining gunboats he had assigned to the destruction of Earth. Swiftly the next round of Sabers soared in accompanied by even more missiles taking out the shell shocked remnants before they could do anything more.

Azonia suddenly looked around as her communication officer raised a hand to get her attention. "Lady Admiral, Breetai wants to know if we can…"

OOOOOOO

The entity known as Domock was becoming increasingly concerned, it had achieved one of its primary objectives, it was 98.25% certain that the human race was gone now. But the force sent to Jupiter had failed miserably, and his forces attacking Breetai seems to be losing even faster than it had estimated by a wide margin. Is it now estimated that it barely had a 1.5 advantage in numbers, and that number was decreasing as the fleet it had left to force Breetai to remain in place destroying it died. The Meltraedi fleet had taken severe losses at this point, and was down to 56,000 ships and his own fleet was now pushing them away from the third planet. Indeed it noted that both their fleets were now entirely out of the gravity well of the planet, and began to compute the best way to begin using folds to trap the Meltraedi. But his own fleet was bound to barely 300,000 while the fleet that Breetai was battling had been reduced even more.

The computer paused giving orders, its brain trying to figure out the best scenario for it to win this battle and coming up with only a few that would allow it to do so. All of them had in common the reforming of the fleet and falling back for now, trying to use Breetai's own tactics against him, however even as it thought through the probabilities of that course of action the equation changed yet again.

OOOOOOO

Up to this point Breetai had been content with leaving the battle it long-range, conserving his own numbers in return for decimating his opponents with long-range firepower and using the advantage of the barrier shields ruthlessly. The trapped enemy fleet had been cut to ribbons, and while it might still have around 200,000 ships left, they were a broken force.

However his shields had been entirely reduced and he had also been following the battle around Earth. That fight was slowly turning against Azonia, and he was determined to end this campaign now.

When Azonia responded with the data he needed he smiled grimly. Breetai knew now where the intelligence (Breetai was almost certain that it wasn't a Zentraedi over there) controlling the enemy fleet was, and knew that if he took that out the fleet here would be of little concern. They might break entirely without the central intelligence leading them.

So his guns suddenly went silent, as every division of his fleet folded out their target a very, very different location.

Using the telemetry given to them by Azonia's forces most of those divisions would appear on the outer edge of Domock's fleet and would immediately began to take his fleet under fire from every direction. At this point they were nearly even in numbers, and Breetai would trust to his fleet's experience to see them through it.

His own division had a very different target in mind. Even Kyron would've been amazed at the daring Breetai showed folding his division of around 80,000 ships (after folding in his second division) directly in among the enemy fleet and began to fire, a move that was so unheard of and unusual that it took even Azonia aback.

Breetai lost over 1000 ships to interpollation, taking with them an equal number of the enemy ships and a few of their own ships as well, but it put him right within knife range of the enemy's capital flagship, which died almost instantly under the fire of the Iron Will. His division took a hammering, their few remaining barrier shields falling swiftly under fire from all over, but by the time a few of them had died to that fired the enemy flagship had died, and Breetai nodded to his captain who was holding on grimly as the entire ship shook under the pounding fire all around them. "Get us out of here."

Breetai's division folded out again, and several hundred ships died under their own sides fire before the captains realized that their targets had disappeared.

Breetai opened communications with Azonia and nodded her. "I'm leaving you the third and the fourth divisions, that'll bring your numbers up to 260,000 plus. I'll take the fifth the second and the sixth against the other fleet."

Azonia nodded, her eyes sorrowful at the destruction already accomplished on Earth, but this battle was no longer in doubt. Already the enemy fleet was beginning to break off, single ships and packs folding out and running for it while others simply turned and tried to flee in real space. Where they were going she didn't know, but what had been a numerical superiority was now barely equal numbers, and their fleets were still moving with purpose and firm control.

Breetai nodded over at one of his communication screens. "Commodore I'm calling in the ships sent to Jupiter and as much aid from there as I can, I'm leaving you and Testus here to defend and coordinate your rescue effort. I, I'm sorry commodore, but there was nothing we could have done that would have prevented this."

Commodore Oromov stared at the ruin of Earth, where the brown and black swirls utterly dominated the few remaining green and living bits, shaking his head. "I understand that admiral, and I know this will go down in history as a tremendous victory against the odds, but if this is victory, god save us from defeat."

The two admirals proceeded to dominate the two theaters of battle, utterly destroying the beleaguered remainder of what had once been one of the greatest fleets to have ever been assembled anywhere in space. By the end of two days of on and off combat, no more than a thousand ships made it out of the star system, and none of them had the fuel necessary to get back to Zentraedi controlled space. The Masters would be left with nothing to tell them what had happened, adding to their growing fear of the monster they had woken.

Epilogue:

When the factory satellite came out of warp its inhabitants found a system that was less and yet more damaged than they had feared. The Zentraedi fleet had taken a pounding, but still had a little less than half of its numbers, and the Meltraedi had retained just over two-thirds of their own. The losses among the Queadluun Rau and the Regulds had been high, with the Regulds of Breetai's fleet nearly wiped out, and the Queadluun Rau having taken heavy losses.

The human's ships, even the ships in orbit around Jupiter and not in its atmosphere, had come through the battle almost unscathed, but Earth had been almost annihilated, it was easier to list the places that were still in one piece rather than the ones that had been hammered. Canada was still relatively intact, but was dealing with the fallout of a nuclear winter from all the detritus in the air, as was Australia, though in it's case it had also lost a lot of its coastal cites to the tsunamis that had resulted from the orbital bombardment.

The UK and Japan were in even worse shape dealing with the after math, though thankfully much like Germany, Russia and India the UK had evacuated a lot of its citizens off planet. Japan hadn't, and was paying for it now. Even with its bunkers it had lost upwards of seventy percent of its people to the carnage caused by the initial bombardment. It was only because of the missile ships and Breetai's refitted carriers had survived.

Food was heavily rationed at first for the survivors, but that ended soon after the assault fleet returned. Elder Cologne and Nodoka had been experimenting with the effect the Flower of Life had on plant matter following some notes left by Zor, and had found they were was able to enlarge crops tremendously somehow, though they still weren't certain how, by growing them in the same plot as a Flower of Life. Tests were ongoing, but the crops seemed to suffer no ill effects for their gain in size, and nor did the Amazon Dowel, who had offered to try it out. It was still uncertain what the long term effects would be, but in the short term that didn't matter to those with hungry mouths to feed.

Despite this hardship the human race had survived in a far stronger position then it could have been in. Its art had survived, many of its cultures had survived, and though it would take millennia Earth would eventually heal itself. With the factory ship added to the resources already in place around Jupiter, its industry was back online within days of their arrival, and would soon reach heights heretofore undreamed of. Earth had fallen, but the human race would survive, with rage in its heart for the ones behind this.

Every human in the system knew it was because of Breetai and his fleet that they had survived. Even if all of the Grand cannons had worked, even if the mirror system had been good for more than one shot, humanity could not have survived against the fleet that was sent to end their race. Now the human hand was outstretched in friendship to their allies, the slaves that had thrown off the yoke of their masters. The Zentraedi, who had renamed themselves the Breezonians to further distance themselves from those still enslaved elsewhere, were now fully allied to the humans, filled with even more rage and sorrow at the Masters thanks to their long enslavement.

The Tirolians formerly known as the Master had sent their best shot against the humans and their allies, and soon would reap the consequences. The leaders of humanity and the Breezonians would rebuild and rearm for one year, but then, then they would go in search of the masters, and the Macross would be leading the way. No longer would the ship that had made such a difference for both their races carry the sole proto-culture generator. Plans were already in the works for more to be made, and nearly half the Flower's had been moved to other ships already. More would soon be removed, though the original giant Flower and the generator it was attached to would stay. The ship would be the flagship of this new armada, and when they left it would be to bring war upon Masters wherever they were, however they hid.

OOOOOOO

Ranma and his ladies cared not at all for that, they were far more concerned with personal losses at this point, as were many aboard the fleet. Kasumi mourned the loss of her father and Akane. Neither had been willing to evacuate, and were presumed dead among the thousands lost in Japan. Nabiki had lived, having moved to China and somehow gotten herself evacuated. She had in fact signed up for the UNSF, and was being fast tracked to their internal intelligence division. Kasumi mourned them and what might have been, crying herself to sleep in Ranma's arms.

Motoko was mourning her family. Even if they were estranged she hadn't wanted them dead, but they had died when the Hawaiian Islands had sunk under the rising ocean and its tsunamis. Hawaii hadn't built any bunkers, and the Aoyama clan had refused to be evacuated and had died there because of their damn pride. A few cousins had lived thanks to their jobs as bodyguards, but not many. She was being comforted by Lucretia.

Only Ranma wasn't mourning someone, the fact that no one knew what had happened to Genma was fine with her (that time of the month had struck yet again), the less she heard of the fat fool the better. But she was busy comforting all three of his girls. Miriya might not have ever had a family, but she had friends throughout the Meltraedi fleet, and many of them had died in the battles here, and she was grief stricken that she hadn't been there. She knew intellectually their mission had been as important or even more than the defense here, but that didn't help her heart get past the guilt.

Lisa too was dealing with the knowledge her father had died in the bombardment. She wasn't as torn up by it as Kasumi, but was still sad and grieving. Well, that was what Ranma thought the mood swings Lisa had been dealing with lately was about. Though he wondered what that thermometer thing was, and why she and Kasumi had looked so happy about what it told them about Lisa, but he/she wasn't going to ask any questions about what girls did when they went to the bathroom alone. Some things were not meant for men to know, even a aquatranssexual like him.

Ranma shook off that thought and looked around her at his/her lovers, who were at last sleeping after another fitful night, then quietly got up out of their bed (which had been replaced by a king size, the old queen being a little too small for the four of them) and then left the apartment.

Soon she stood out on the hull of the space fortress, looking out and down at Earth. She stared at the brown, black and blue marble for a moment, his power rippling through him and around him, her eyes glowing with blue/gold flame, then she turned and looked out into the vast sea of stars, one glowing fist raised before his face, glowing so brightly every ship nearby could see it and wondered what it was. Ranma didn't care however, his mind was on the distant masters, the ones who had caused this and untold trillions of other deaths in their quest for power. "Soon, you're going to get yours. I'm going to deliver it, personally!"

End chapter

End book one of Chaotic Space

And there we have it. It's been a long journey, longer for me than for all of you seeing as I worked on this story for over a year before posting, but there you have it. I honestly have no idea when I'll start posting the next book of this story, it needs a lot of research and thought, since I'm going to be changing a lot of the humans weapons and the tactics too, but it will deal with both the Invid (both groups) and the Tirolian Masters. What did everyone think of my changing the name of the new Zentraedi/Meltraedi coalition?

Specific Questions I need to think up answers for: The gender of the little surprise Lisa has on the way. Will Lisa be the only one?

I wont be covering the two years buildup, so should I go for a straight summary, a series of flashbacks, or both

Should I have the Regis show up in Sol like in the original, or not? Would she fight the Regent if she thought she had to?

Who should stay and who should go in terms of characters? How do I keep the numbers of the fleet sent down enough for every ship to matter yet powerful enough to make a difference?

Technology – specifically changes of doctrine, weaponry, parasite forces. With humanity so much stronger even with the damage Earth took, where will the science and tech go? - I can think of dozens of ways for them to go, but we'll see.

Form of governments for both humans and Breezonians. I can see the Breezonians becoming a meritocracy easily, but what kind of government will the humans build? At the moment the UNSF is keeping everyone together, but how long will that last?

Who should I make the main enemies, the Regent or the Masters? Should I introduce other races and if so how?

Lots of questions, but they should be run to try and answer.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it.