Author's Rant:
I couldn't help myself. The thought of our favorite lost boy finding himself in the world of Planetside was just too funny not to write. Please excuse this fanfic. I wrote it for my own enjoyment, but who knows, someone may even like it.
Disclaimer:
Planetside is property of Sony Online Entertainment. Ranma½ is property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am only using them to write this story for a non-profit. I really don't want to be sued by two different parties. It was definitely put a slight damper on things.
" " dialogue
' ' thoughts
( ) voice comms
Ukyou hummed to herself as she cleaned up her restaurant. It was late at night, and her last customer had departed. Things were getting quiet in Nerima these days. Yes, Ranma still got attacks by rivals everyday while still trying to fend off starry-eyed fiancées, but it had settled down into a sort of predictability. As she finished cleaning and was about to turn in for the night, there was a knock on her door. Wondering who it could be this late at night, she opened the door and saw the last person she expected to see.
"Uh, hi Ukyou. Guess this means I made it back, finally." Ryouga Hibiki, the eternal lost boy himself, said with a nervous laugh.
"Whoa, Ryouga! I haven't seen you in months! Come on in. I'll take you to the Tendo Dojo in the morning." The chef led Ryouga into her restaurant and fried up an okonomiyaki for him. As he sat at the bar, munching on his Japanese pizza, she asked the typical question. "So where have you been all this time?"
He got a distant look in his eyes. "Uh, around" He mumbled, fingering something inside his shirt.
Noticing this, she pointed at his chest. "Hey, what's that?"
"Huh? Oh, this…" Ryouga took off a chain that was hanging around his neck. Attached to it was a giant golden medal inlaid with deep blue gems. He handed it over to his companion. "Got it on my travels. I was planning on giving it to Akane." She rolled her eyes at that.
Ukyou flipped it over, examining the inscription on the back, and reading out loud. "Given to Ryouga Hibiki for outstanding valor in the face of enemy fire that allowed the successful defense against an enemy invasion." Ukyou gasped. "Ryouga, this is a military medal! What are you, a war hero!"
He performed one of his trademark nervous laughs. "Well, I guess so…"
She arched an eyebrow. "Do tell." Finally something new, it was about time.
Ryouga sighed. "Are you sure you want to hear this story? It was a war, and a lot of people… died. A lot of them were my friends."
Ukyou sobered up some at this, but pressed on anyway. "I can handle it, sugar."
He nodded and began his tale. "Well, I was lost and trying to find my way back to Nerima…"
RYOUGA IN PLANETSIDE
CHAPTER 1: Incomming Martial Artists!
Ryouga Hibiki wandered through the woods, searching desperately for any sign of the way out. Has had been trapped in them for months, which was bad, even for him. From the sounds of it, there was a massive battle going on nearby, and some of the trees were shattered from explosions. Another explosion went off about 100 meters away. Things were getting dangerous he had to get out of this place.
"Dammit, how do I get out of here!" the lost boy screamed in frustration, kneeling down and punching the ground with his fist.
"Who the hell are you!" a voice asked, none too friendly.
Ryouga looked up to see a rifle barrel pointed at his face. Holding the rifle had to be the goofiest looking soldier he had ever seen. He had a predominantly blue and gold uniform made of some kind of blue plastic mixed with what looked like spandex. His helmet was made out of the same kind of plastic, but had a light blue visor to protect the eyes. Strapped to his back was a weird looking bazooka. The lost boy would have laughed if not for the mean looking sneer he had on his face. "Let me guess… a TR spy!"
Ryouga was too shocked to say anything useful. All he could manage was a faint "Uh…"
The soldier snarled and kicked him in the face knocking him on his back. "SPEAK, TERRAN SCUM! Use that hole on your face or I'll make a new one in your chest. Tell me what you know!"
"Waste 'em Evans. We don't have time for this, enemy armor will be on use in a matter of seconds!" another voice sounded, behind the soldier who Ryouga assumed to be Evans. This new voice was female. A female soldier walked up in a similar blue uniform, but this one appeared to be not as heavily armored, and from the multiple awards, it appeared that she was a higher rank. The girl had a rifle on her back, and was holding a pistol in her right hand.
"But if he's a spy, then SOP requires we get information out of him. He could have access to enemy battle plans." Evans protested.
The girl was about to reply when all three noticed that the ground started to shake heavily. "Shit! Get down! NOW!" She dove for cover next to a fallen tree. Evans threw himself and Ryouga down next to her and pressed the nose of his barrel to Ryouga's nose. The expression on his face made it clear that the lost boy was not to make a sound. The rumbling steadily increased until a giant tank appeared. It was colored red and black, which obviously meant it was not a friend to the two soldiers that had detained the lost boy. The body looked like an old WWII tank with a swiveling gun turret the contained double tank cannons. Fixed to the top of the turret was a dual gattling gun. Both guns were swiveling around, searching for prey. Ryouga and the two soldiers held their breath as it rumbled pass. Before it left, the gattling gun shot a stream of bullets at the fallen tree, causing the three of them to press lower into the dirt. After it was gone, they sighed in relief.
The girl looked around, worried. "We gotta get back to the front. The longer we stay here, the greater chances of us not making it back at all. Common, this way."
The guy pressed his rifle into Ryouga's back. "Follow the Lieutenant, and don't try anything! I'm watching you. Oh, and you better start talking or I'll just kill you now and be done with you."
Ryouga sighed and started talking.
One hour later...
"You're a civilian? Then what the hell are you doing on Hossin!" The girl, Lieutenant Rikari asked. "This is a warzone! Hell, we could all die in the next few seconds!" She was about to elaborate on that when suddenly there was a knife sticking out of her chest. Rikari fell to the ground, gasping for air. "C-cloaked enemies… detected…"
"SHIT!" Evans fired his rifle randomly, screaming at the surrounding forrest environment. "YOU COWARD! STAND AND FIGHT!" He raised his rifle just in time to deflect a stab from the hidden enemy's knife. When the soldier raised his rifle to fire, the enemy had vanished.
A sinister laugh echoed around them. "Die, miserable traitors!"
Evans roared with a primal fury. "YOU TERRAN BASTARDS! YOU THINK THIS IS ALL A DAMN GAME! ALL WE WANT IS OUR FREEDOM!" The rest of what the young man screamed was incomprehensible.
Sensing that their lives were in danger, Ryouga concentrated on the surrounding, trying to sense where the invisible enemy was hiding. With finely trained martial artist eyes, he managed to pick out the outline of the cloaked man trying to circle around behind them. The lost boy rushed forward and punched the enemy square in the jaw. A punch from Ryouga made a jackhammer seem like a love tap. The man flew into a tree with a sickening crunch, disabling the invisible shield that surrounded his body. As his body slid to the ground, Ryouga could tell that he wasn't getting up anytime soon.
Evans was impressed. "Wow kid, that was some punch! I know you said you were a martial artist but… wow. Guess you weren't the enemy after all. You would've just waited for him to kill me and continued your mission. I owe you an apology, as well as my thanks. You really saved my bacon." The soldier walked forward and extended a hand.
Ryouga flinched at the word bacon, but shook the man's hand anyway. "No problem. You were just being cautious. But I'm worried about your friend, she looks bad." The bandanna clad boy knelt down next to the fallen soldier, who was now laying in a pool of blood.
The girl smiled up at him, pulling the knife out of her chest. "It's ok. I knew... the risks of… g-going to war. We're fighting for… freedom…" With that, the girl closed her eyes and prepared to meet the reaper with open arms.
"Oh, no you don't." Evans fumbled through his pack until he pulled out a thin box with a red cross on it. "You aren't leaving me alone behind enemy lines, missy." He knelt down next to Rikari and opened the box, taking out a compress and secured it to her knife wound by wrapping a bandage around her body. The two males then helped her up and they started making their way through the trees, keeping alert for more enemies.
"You shouldn't have done that, corporal. That was the last medkit we had." Rikari said dryly.
Her companion shrugged. "Eh, we'll manage."
Ryouga decided to ask a question that was bugging him for awhile. "What are you two doing behind enemy lines in the first place? This doesn't seem like a very safe place to be."
"We got shot down." Rikari explained. "We're pilots for the New Conglomerate. We were flying a three man bomber plane called a Liberator. It seats a pilot, bombardier, and a tail gunner. We were flying bombing missions against the Terran Republic, but got shot down a little north of here. We were making our way back to NC lines when we ran into you."
Ryouga was puzzled. "If it seats three people, then shouldn't there be one more with you?"
Evans laughed at that. "That's why we got shot down. I told her to pick up a tail gunner before we left, but she couldn't wait. One pass over their base and we had two Mossies and a Reaver on our tail." After seeing the blank look on the martial artist's face, he added "Those are different types of fighter planes."
"I didn't think there would be any trouble. Command told us that we had taken out their air vehicle terminals." Rikari explained. "When those planes showed up, I was so surprised that they shot us down without much effort."
"Apparently they repaired those terminals." Evans laughed bitterly. "Or they came from elsewhere. Common, it's just good practice to bring a tail gunner… Incomming enemy MAX units!"
All three hid behind a fairly large tree. Ryouga was wondering just what a MAX unit was when saw a VERY heavily armored man walking by in the same black and red colors as the tank. This guy looked like a walking tank, and the lost boy didn't like those two guns attached to his forearms. After the man rushed past, Rikari shot a look at Evans. "Why didn't you take him out with your phoenix?" she demanded.
He waved an arm at the forest around them. "You think I can guide a rocket through all of these trees!"
She crossed her arms. "Gates could've done it."
"WELL GATES AIN'T HERE, IS HE! You're stuck with me til we get back!" the man yelled. He then whirled around at Ryouga who was busy laughing his butt off. "What's so funny!"
Ryouga calmed himself down. "You two remind me of a couple I know back home, though she's supposed to take out a mallet and hit you with it by now. But tell me what's going on here. I don't know what a phoenix is, or who you're fighting and what you're fighting about."
Rikari started to explain. "Well, we are members of the New Conglomerate. We used to be part of the Terran Republic, those guys in red and black that you ran into. However, the Republic started to get too demanding on its citizens. So we and another faction called the Vanu Sovereignty broke free, and now we're fighting to STAY free. However, the Vanu Sovereignty, or VS for short, has this strange idea that being free means turning everyone into soulless cyborgs. So it's actually a three way war. The TR wants us back, we don't want to be back, and the VS wants the technology on these continents to accomplish their goals. Right now, we're on one of our home continents where the TR decided to invade a few weeks ago, and control nearly half of it by now. There's just too many of them, and we're spread so thin!" she growled in frustration. After controlling herself, she grinned in bitter amusement. "But we just got reports that the VS showed up behind the TR. With an enemy on each side, they'll be hard pressed to defend all their stuff. Now is the time to strike back!"
The three of them finally stepped out of the forest and looked around. They were currently on top of a large hill, and down the slop was a base swarming with blue and gold troops and vehicles. The companions grinned like fools as they realized that they had made it into safe territory. Rikari turned to Ryouga and smiled. "Welcome to Irkala, and the NC frontlines."
Ryouga was about to reply when something amazing happened. Out of the sky came a gigantic flying bipedal robot. It was so huge that it made Tokyo Tower look like a street cone. The bad thing about it was that it was painted red and black.
TO BE CONTINUED
Oooooh, suspense! Well, hope you liked it. I'll probably update, but they'll be few and far between. I'm pushing hard on completing the first continent for Silver Dream, the video game I've been working on for the better part of a year. Heh, maybe I'll make a fanfic about that too. I'll eventually update A Fighting Chance sometime. I've already got the next chapter in my mind, I just have to get around to actually typing it up. If you want information about Planetside, just go to its website for the back-story. I play VS myself, but I can't think of a reason for Ryouga to fight for anyone but the NC.