Nabiki was sat at her desk, sucking a lollipop, in the heart of the frenetic colony that was Cydonia base. She was feeling a little guilty about her sister's continued humiliation, the latest report said that her story had gone global and the picture of her wearing the new uniform and kissing Yuri was now one of the hottest downloads on the net. Apparently whereever Akane went she was being mobbed by fanboys, fangirls and desperate look-alikes, all begging for her 'attention.' Acting as Akane's agent, authorised by a deal from their school days, Nabiki had already signed Akane up for some 'casting' sessions and more than one in depth interview. The best thing was that Nabiki did not actually have to do much more. Just as all she had done to set Akane up last time is arrange the package's delivery and that Akane's name would be on the show list. Akane just seemed to have a knack of saying the wrong thing at just the right moment.
Nabiki ignored her conscience twanging and fired off another love letter to Yuri in Akane's name.
"Boss, there's a high priority code from earthside," Nabiki's secretary called through her door.
"Put it through," Nabiki ordered. The message came through to her console and she was promptly asked for a passcode. The prompt was one she had set up with Jack a long time ago. Nabiki tapped in her answer and was rewarded with a beep of recognition. Jack's nearly unintelligible scrawl flashed into focus.
Super-Dooper Top Secret!
Bad
things happening here
Ranma
arrested
Aliens
running Atlantis base
Not my
fault!
Nabiki bit down on the lolly and half-squinted. She sucked in a breath, this required some thought. She discounted the idea that Jack might be exaggerating, immediately deducing that the man would be trying to put a rosy spin on things. She also made the immediate connection with their secret investigations. It didn't take a genius to work out how they got Ranma, they probably sent some rookie soldiers to arrest him with enough protection and fire power to force Ranma to chose between killing people he felt responsible for or going quietly.
"When is the next Earthshot?" Nabiki called, already knowing the answer.
"Not for a month" replied the secretary.
"Not good enough, I need one by the end of the week! Make it happen" Nabiki ordered. "And cancel my five o'clock, double up my psi-session instead."
Nabiki set about preparing for war.
-
Three days later Nabiki was earthbound on what was to be the fastest trip between the two planets for many years to come. Burning Elerium and running mostly empty the specially designed craft could have set record time, what made it the fastest for years to come was an experimental engine. Taken from designs found on the Alien database the ship was equipped with the very first prototype hyper-jump engine. It had never been tested and was not designed for operation inside a solar system. The ride quickly made it apparent what some of the problems were, a small mote of space dust wiped through the ship and the atmosphere soon followed. The hyper-engine suffered catastrophic failure and tore free of the craft. The small amount of cargo blew out into space and the craft went into free fall. But it had done its job, Earth to Mars in a solar day. The pilot dropped the command pod into Earth's atmosphere in the same way that the very first cosmonauts returned, aeroplaning through the atmosphere using friction to slow them down the hot way.
Nabiki and the crew were rescued quickly afterwards, and flown to Okinawa soon after that.
She arrived at X-Com HQ less than a week after the first message arrived at her desk. The command staff pointedly did not mention the reckless way she had arrived nor the risks she had taken with other people's lives. No sooner was she ensconced in her office than she had fired off her report on the engine to the Cydonian Egg-heads and was reviewing the latest intelligence from Atlantis.
The first record she pulled was Ranma's only to get a double shock. Firstly Ranma had filed for a 1301, permission to marry and secondly there was a 'Saotome Ranko' listed in his file, but nowhere else.
She walked into Jack's office. He turned to face her, hiding some of the stacks of paper that habitually obscured his desk-top. "Yup, what can I do for you" he asked.
"Bravo Commando," she said simply. "you can have Alpha I want Bravo, and I want them ready to go asap."
"Don't you want to know what we are doing to get Ranma out?" Jack asked hopefully.
"No, that's a military mission, I trust you not to let me down"
"Gee thanks" replied Jack
"Bravo?" Nabiki asked.
"Will be ready for dustoff in five minutes."
"Make it ten, and you better tell Sumner I'm coming."
-
Nabiki was introduced to the crew of Bravo Commando and their leader a former British SAS officer.
"Atlantis base has been heavily compromised." She informed them, "We are going in to sort things out. Do not take no for an answer and anyone who so much as twitches in my direction eats fiery death." She stopped to look around the team emphasising her point. "This is a no losses run ladies and gentlemen and I am a soft target. Primary objectives are command bay and Col Sumner. Secondary objectives are comms and armoury bays." She turned to the Englishman. "Captain, your team." He laid out the specifics and finished with the order to load up.
The flight was quick but took them half-way around the world. They came into the bay and deployed at full tilt. The landing officer moved up to ask the captain what was going on only to be floored by a rifle butt.
Bravo set up a rapid defensive perimeter and then deployed again, seizing key points in the facility with ruthless trained efficiency. The Captain himself secured the barrack area with two others, stun bombs floored all the Aquanaut commandos and then the door was sealed fast.
Nabiki went with the Command Centre securing team. She had relaxed her non-violent principles and wore a holstered plasma pistol over her severe-cut charcoal-grey trouser suit. The command centre was taken without opposition, the only hard moment coming when Sumner went for his side-arm, He was quickly struck down by Bravo's Master Sergeant.
Nabiki took hold of the intercom microphone, and made an announcement. "Atlantis Base is now under full lockdown. Everyone will report to their containment stations and wait for clearance to move. Anyone disobeying this order will be assumed to be under alien influence and dealt with accordingly" then she stepped away from the console and over to Sumner. She placed one heeled shoe onto his groin and exerted enough pressure to concentrate his mind, "Now I'm not combat trained like the others here, but I am deep down vicious. You hurt someone I care about and I am giving you fair warning, if he is hurt in any way, any way, then I promise you a world of pain. And I don't care if you did do it cuz you've got a box in your head or cuz they got to you some other way. I'm just not fair that way."
-
The base complied, almost to a man, those that didn't were rapidly deposited in a holding cell. The medbay was clean swept and doctors rapidly cleared by the Bravo Psi-ops and support medics. Once that was done the business of scanning the facility staff started, Beginning with the Aquanauts.
-
The vetting had been going on for hours; they were turning up a frightening number of staff who had been mentally altered. Nabiki sat in the command bay reviewing files. One of the very first she pulled up was Ranma's, eager to see more details of the 'hows and whys'. She noticed a strange symbol appearing on the top corner of his sheet. The reason it stood out was because it looked very much like one she had seen everyday on Mars, on the wall of her office. Quickly checking the others she saw it repeated several more times.
"Major Sheppard, to report to the office" she called out to her aide.
Shortly later he appeared. She immediately handed him a list of the marked people, "Check these out first, there's something Fishy going on, and we need to know what now!"
Ten minutes later Sheppard called the office from one of the missile bays. "Tendo-san we got big trouble. Corporal Collins has gone off the deep end. He's armed and hiding amongst the ammo. He was on the list!"
"Shit," she said "Get him out of there, any way you can."
"Roger, out"
It was at that moment the proximity alarm went. Intruder detected range ten miles ETA fifty seconds
"SHIT!" Nabiki swore. "Sheppard, get clear!" she called on the com, then she turned to fire control, "Ensign, target or whatever, kill! Kill! Kill!" She finished by hitting the all base alarm.
-
The defensive volley missed. The Aliens crashed in hard. It rapidly became apparent that this was no ordinary raid; there were vastly more troops on board than they had seen before. The invaders were extremely well armed and showed a completely new sense of unit tactics. In short things were not going well.
During the ensuing fight Nabiki held out in the command centre, giving location reports and computer assistance. She could tell from very early on that they were in deep.
She watched the aliens frag the labs, blood and gore sprayed across the austere white walls. She heard them move into the room afterwards, shots fired into the faces of scientists and technicians alike. They were not talking chances.
She watched as Taylor's team were gradually whittled down, the woman's weapon ran empty and she was finally overrun. Live on the screen she saw a lobster man close its claws through the woman's neck, saw the blood spray and saw the body fall. Sheppard managed to hold out in the medbay for a long time, then they brought the roof down, and let the water in. It took all of Nabiki's control to continue her work, the tears ran all the same.
Gradually the troops retreated back towards the command centre. They made the aliens pay dearly for every foot, every corridor and every life they took. But it cost them dear. The commandos were running short on ammunition, armour and troops. They had left their final grenades as booby traps along the way and were rewarded by Nabiki's kill reports. She told them how fast they were losing ground, how many aliens were after them and where they were. At last the remnants fell back into the command room. Twenty-eight souls trapped a mile under the earth, in a secure room deep within a doomed base. They had few weapons and fewer full magazines.
Three times the aliens tried to force the room, three times they were thrown back. Then there was nothing left to fight with. Everyone had an improvised weapon, ready for one last act of defiance.
It never came, the aliens cheated. Stun bombs from their own armoury peppered the room, bursting, sending out waves of stunning force, disorientating and numbing. All that was left was darkness.
-
Nabiki woke up groggily, the first thing she noticed was that it was drafty, the second that she was restrained. She was naked and clamped to a wall. She was not alone to her left hung another girl, similarly stripped and tied. To her right a man hung, the Bravo captain. From above a steady drip a clear goo fell onto the captives. Below, below was hell, larval forms of alien terrorists swam in nutrient ooze, interspersed with slowly dissolving skeletal parts. As Nabiki watched she heard a scream and a form fell from the wall, the creatures swarmed, the water boiled and two voices screamed. One was her own.