Notes: Sorry for the last chapter if anyone hated it, most of last week was pretty busy for me. This chapter might be a little longer than the others and will mostly take place on the ship. Sorry to all those who like fight scenes. Tell me how I did on this chapter, like it? Hate it?
In addition, I still need to know whom I should pair Ranma up with.
AmericanPie5745@aol.com
Seross: I have very little time to say this sooooo......Here's the second chapter to Vanguard Dragon Claw!
Vanguard Dragon Claw
By Xion Fang
Chapter 2:Revalations
*************************
It has been two days since the attack on the Nirvana and the introduction of some new enemies as well as the Vanguard Dragon Claw.
The crew was left shocked after the message that was playing by Misty's data globe, the truth that the harvesters were created by what was left of Earth's population.
It seems that nothing will shock them more than that...........
Well Ranma's recovered from his battle with the new DBs, or Dragon Beetles, and has been summoned to the war room by the captain and B.C to reveal what was on the message cube that came with him.
Well, the crew better be prepared to be shocked again, because what is on that message cube will tell what has been happening in Mejeiru's and Taraaku's area, and this news will prove to be devastating for the crew, and it's new addition................
***********************
In the war room, Gascogne, the Captain, the commander, and Meia stood waiting for their new 'addition' to their crew.
They didn't have to wait long; Ranma walked through the sliding door.
He was dressed in what he had been wearing after he exited his Vanguard, which they had code-named Dragon Claw. He had his armor and four new additions to his dress. One was his bandanna that ran around his forehead, holding his black hair out of his eyes.
Second, he had a silver cylinder hooked to the left side of his belt, which they presumed to be some sort of energy weapon. On the right side of his belt, he had an old-looking gun, looking like a modified desert eagle pistol from the colonization days. It had odd add-ons here and there, as well as a laser aim mechanism hooked onto the top.
Last, he had a sort of a small scepter that had the tip of a beetles pincer strapped to his back.
Ranma looked around as he walked into the war room.
At the head of the table, he saw an old woman he concluded was the captain, wearing a purple cloak that hid most of her features, as well as accenting her ancient aura. Standing at her left was an platinum-haired woman, her tanned skin and dress making her to look like an exotic model, as well as giving off a dangerous aura of a veteran warrior.
He made a mental note to never mess with her, though me could maybe take her, she just had that 'don't screw with me or I'll kill you later' feel around her. Sitting in a chair at the right of the table, with her legs propped on the edge of silver plated table was a stocky female; a toothpick clenched in-between her teeth. She was dressed in a worn outfit; she was probably a mechanic, or something of the like.
The next person caught his attention.
She was the girl he had seen when he was in that glowing blue ocean. However, now he could see her features more clearly.
Her blue eyes matched with her hair, something that rarely does, and gave her a serene beauty that screamed calm. She had a contraption on her left eye that was in the shape of a crescent moon, black and worn, it was either very old, been worn in many battles, or both. Her blue hair was cut short, only going to in the middle of her neck. She was dressed in a white and black suit with blue trim that fit perfectly, and had gray shoulder pads on.
She was stared at him in a way he would check a persons battle skills.
He turned to the captain.
"So, what did you want me here for?" He asked her.
B.C held up the message cube and put it in a slot near the captains' seat.
The room went black as a screen lit up in front of the table saying input code on its display. B.C turned to Ranma gesturing towards the screen.
"Say something." She said.
"What?" He asked her, confused.
"What do you mean, what?" She asked him.
"I mean,"Started Ranma,"What do you want me to say?"
"This,"she pointed towards the screen,"is supposed to be for you, that means the person probably put a voice code on it, so say something like start message."
"Oh,"Said Ranma, turning towards the screen,"Well here goes, start message!"
The screen displayed the message; code accepted and a hologram appeared in front of them. They all looked at the person on the screen. It was a slightly younger version of Ranma.
"My name is Commander Ranma Saotome of the devastator squadron of Vanguards, if you are hearing this, then I must be there." A voice from the hologram started.
They all stayed quiet, unknowing that the message was being broadcasted through the whole ship.
********************************
In the medical bay, Duro saw all his screens turn to an image of Ranma.
The image started to talk,"I am sorry for your loss in memory, Ranma, but the cyro-stasis was experimental. Now if I am talking to the women who sent the message of the harvesters, I regret to inform you that no one, accept a few, took it seriously when we received it on Taraaku."
"My surrogate father was one of the few that believed it and sent me and my squadron to covertly patrol Taraaku space, checking for the harvesters."
The young Ranmas face took on a look of sadness as he continued.
******************************
People in the mess hall, a lot of the ship, stared at Ranma as he continued.
"When they came, no one was ready, and all we could do was watch as the planet of Taraaku was harvested, we fought until the end, even my squadron wasn't enough, and all but me were destroyed. Taraaku was, after the harvest, blown to bits, only a fraction still in space where a proud planet used to be."
"After I went into cryo-stasis, I launched my pod to where I received your message from, my devastator Van stored in a cargo box under my cryo-ship. Later, I was awakened to be notified of a cryo pod, and, due to the harvesters being about, I told the ship to take the occupant of the pod, and put it within my ship, mostly because my ship had shielding and her pod didn't."
"Before the battle my commander and father started to build me a stronger Van based on harvester technology. I am giving you this message because that before I had entered cryo stasis, I detected the signal of that Van of what was left on Taraaku. If you find that Van, then we might be able to help Mejeiru in their battle against the Harvesters. In this message, I have included the signal identification, so that when you get to what's left of Taraaku, you might want to get the Van."
*********************************
In the war room, everyone looked at the younger Ranma as he bowed to them and said,"Thank you for your time, goodbye."
Then the hologram vanished and the lights came back on.
The captain, who had propped her chin on her hands at the beginning of the message, lifted her head and looked at Ranma.
"So, you have no recollection of what happened before?"She asked him.
He turned to her and shook his head,"No, I guess that, as my younger self said, that that memory had been lost when I had started my sleep in the cryo-ship."
The captain nodded and seemed to be in deep thought, but internally, she was totally shocked at the destruction of Taraaku, and, by taking a quick look at the other women in the war room, she knew she wasn't the only one.
Then, B.C checked a panel that was built into the table and looked at the captain.
"Well, this isn't a secret, the message was broadcasted throughout the entire ship, everyone knows, which will mean that the men won't be happy."
The captain nodded.
There will be more things happening from now on, she thought.
*******************************
The commander was right, the men weren't happy.
Within the brig, Hibiki was just sitting, shocked at the prospect of his home being destroyed. Bart was ranting about how this was the womens fault, but Hibiki knew otherwise.
He could still remember everyone on Taraaku, everything was now destroyed. His deepening sadness and depression was overwhelming for him, but he was still able to somehow hold back any show of emotion externally.
This wasn't the way a man should act, he thought to himself.
"I need to get some food." He told Bart, then walked out of the room, leaving Bart all alone.
Bart stood there, now thinking about what had happened.
Everything he knew was destroyed, though most of it was bad memories, he still was sad and angry about it.
Sad about what happened to his home, angry at the Harvesters for doing it to his home.
He now made a vow, a vow that he would never let anything like that happen to this ship, his new home would never die when he was still alive. Not like his past home.
He walked out of the brig, then towards the bridge, his face now a mask of determination.
**************************
When Hibiki arrived in the galley, he looked around.
A lot of people were there, almost all girls. One man, Ranma, sat near the window. Right now it was around eight at night and all the girls were just finishing dinner.
He picked up a meal from the line then went over to Ranma's table to eat. He got there just in time to see Ranma finish his last plate, out of ten.
'Whoah, this guy can eat!'He thought to himself.
Ranma now stood at the table, looking at the glass in his hand. It was filled with a dark brown liquid and was filled with ice.
As Hibiki sat down, one of the ice cubes fell and made a clinking sound, and Ranma looked up at Hibiki.
"Hey."He said to him,"So you're one of the only other men on the ship? Nice ta meet cha', my name's Ranma.....Saotome, I guess."
Hibiki looked at Ranma,"What do ya mean, I guess?"
Ranma half-smiled at him,"That's just it, didn't you hear the message, I was told who I was, by the way, what's your name?"
Hibiki stuck out his hand,"Hibiki, no last name to know of, nice ta meet ya."
Ranma took it and smiled.
"So, how many more men are on this ship?"He asked.
"Two more, one was the medical doctor, Duro Mcfile, then there's the so-called helmsman, Bart, we don't know his last name, so we call him by his first one."
Ranma smiled and took a sip of his drink.
He remembered that he didn't like to drink alcohol, it hampered his combat skills, but now wasn't then, and he needed to relax a little, all these women were making him unusually tense.
He watched as Hibiki started to eat, not unlike himself, though at a much slower pace. He had been able to eat at a rate much faster than humanly possible, though he didn't know how or why, just that he could do it.
As he watched Hibiki, his thoughts went back to when his younger self, and the message he had brought.
What was this ultimate Van his commander had built? Was it so strong that it could destroy the aliens? He had barely destroyed the main ship of the harvester task force, and that had taken a lot of firepower.
He had heard with great power comes great responsibility, but if that thing had so much power, could he handle the responsibility that came with it?
Somehow he knew he must try, weather it be because he was stubborn to admit that he couldn't handle everything, he knew he must try.
He was broken out of his thought pattern by Hibiki,"So did they go down in a fight?"
He focused on Hibiki,"The planet?"Hibiki nodded,"I still can't fully remember it, but I have the bits and pieces, and from that, the planet had taken out a command ship of the enemy, before it was devastated by the harvesters. I can also remember a few ships actually getting away from the planet, so maybe we aren't the only ones left."
Hibiki looked at him and nodded,"We can always hope......"
Hibiki's not-so-favorite sound in the world interrupted them,"MR.ALIEN!"
Hibiki's face turned downcast,"Dang it, not now!!"
He ran off as Ranma encouraged him,"Run man! Run for your life!"
Dita scrambled after Hibiki, holding a bundle in her arms.
Ranma chuckled as they ran past.
"Don't encourage them."He heard a voice behind him, and turned to face the female from before in the war room, the one with blue hair.
"Huh? Why, it's fun!?"He said to her.
She pointed behind herself with her thumb, and Ranma looked there.
He remembered the girl from the cryo-ship, the one with the blue hair and ponytail running towards them.
She was yelling something as well, by the look on her face, with her mouth open, it couldn't be anything else. As she got closer they were able to hear what she was saying,"Get back here you red haired witch! Wait for me Hibiki!"
"How did this come about, Miss...?"He asked the blue haired girl, who he didn't know the name of.
"My name's Meia, no Miss, just Meia, and this came about when you were recovering from your battle."She said to him, while staring out the window,"By the way, how did you do that stuff out there?"
"Huh? Do you mean the Dragon Claw?"He asked her.
Meia nodded,"Yeah, and those maneuvers, they seemed like they weren't mechanical at all."
Ranma thought about it for a second, then answered,"From what I can gather, when I enter the cockpit, the suit neural connects with me, remember when I came back? I had all those injuries, just as if I was the one fighting out there? It's like that, that's the down side of this, I trade better motion and reflexes for actual pain when the suit gets damaged."
"So is, was that a new weapon created by the men?"She asked him, slightly confused, If the men had this kind of technology, why didn't they use it against Mejeiru?
"From what I remember, only my commander and father had this technology though, what I remember doesn't seem to be as advanced as what I have in the Dragon Claw now, but I don't know how it could have been changed."
Meia nodded, accepting the answer.
Ranma was getting uncomfortable in the silence so he spoke up,"So your the dread team leader?"
Meia nodded.
Ranma started to walk away, "I've got to go, nice job out there, by the way."
Meia felt a burning on her cheeks form the compliment, but, due to not having any emotional experiences, she didn't know that she was blushing.
*********************************
Meanwhile, in the halls Dita and Misty were chasing Hibiki.
Hibiki was frantic; he needed a place to hide! It was just then that he saw Gascognes' sectors' door.
He rushed into it and closed thew door behind him, leaning heavily against the other side the door, his breath erratic.
He heard Gascogne's voice behind him,"What's with you? You look like you're being chased by demons."
He turned to see her smirking face as she said,"Or is it two girls, hmmmm?"
Hibiki growled,"Stop teasing' me! I was just finishing lunch and was talking to Ranma when those two girls ran towards me! I'm getting rather annoyed now, I mean, I'm happy that the Harvesters haven't attacked us yet, but it makes me so bored!"
Gascogne closed her eyes,"So you fight for fun?"
He nodded at her,"What else can I do?"
She turned her head to him and opened her eyes,"There's a lot, maybe some cards will calm your nerves?"She said, holding up a deck,"I think that you could probably beat the new guy, he came in here a few minutes ago, beat um' about eight times."
Hibiki looked dully at her,"So you think he's worse than me?"
She closed hers eyes again,"Nope, your much worse."
He facefaulted, then got up with a determined face,"I'll show you! Deal me in!"
**************************
Within the practice range a shot rang out and a crashing noise followed, signaling the destruction of a target plate.
Ranma held his gun in front of his face, and pulled the trigger again.
Another shot rang out, and another target was hit.
He never liked to use them much, guns, he remembered. They were the cowards' weapon. However, one needed to do what one needed to do to stay alive.
He sighed and put his gun back into its holster, then picked out the metal cylinder, and ignited the weapon.
Soon, the light that erupted form it took form as an old-time sword, a long katana that had two peaks jutting out from its curved end.
He held his hand over the blade, fingers spread, as his eyes focused on the shimmering light. His gray-blue eyes were alight with the eerie red flame the sword gave off.
He slowly lowered his hand as he heard a whizzing near him.
A flash of red light was seen, and the crunching noise signaling the destruction of the disk was heard.
Over the next few hours, many different noises could be heard from the room if one had time enough to listen. Bangs, shouting, crunching, and a weird sizzling noise could be heard from the confines of the target range.
******************************
Within Red Central, Hibiki and Gascogne were engaged in an intense game of poker.
"Argh!"Hibiki growled as he looked at his cards.
'Stupid two of a kind, I better get something better!'
He slammed thee of his poker cards on the table saying, "Give me three!"
Gascogne calmly gave him the cards, all the while smirking with her eyes closed. As Hibiki looked at his cards he tried to keep his face calm, he really did!
However, by the look on Gascogne's face, he didn't succeed very well, and he was assured that he was being read like a book.
He threw his hand, which consisted of two 2's and one king, one three, and a jack.
"Fine!" he said, looking away,"You win this time!"
Gascogne laughed, one eye opened, which was directed at Hibiki."So girl troubles, right? Don't try to lie to me, the last time you played as bad as this was when you and Dita were in that fight."
"Hmmmmr." Was heard from Hibikli's face, which was embedded on the table.
"I take that as a yes. So is this about the new crewmember, right? I guess she can be a pretty big handful at times, right?"
Hibiki lifted his head off the tabletop and looked at her,"Exactly."He said as he placed his hand on his forehead, letting off a sigh,"This is getting very tiring, I swear, if I hear another, "Mr. Alien!", "Hibikli!", or a "Combine with me!" one more time, I'm leaving!"
Gascogne looked at him, her facial expression stern;"You're serious." She said.
It was a statement, not a question. Hibiki looked at her and nodded.
She sighed and decided she needed to do something abut this. She smiled her half smirk as she spoke to Hibki,"Then go, take a load off, I'll talk to them. If you need something to do, go talk to that new pilot, I think that you two would find that you have a lot of things in common."
Hibiki smiled at Gascogne as he got up and started to walk away,"Thanks, Gascogne, thanks a lot."
As the door closed, Gascogne opened her other eye and smiled,"You're welcome, stagehand."
************************
Later that night found Hibiki walking through the ship.
It had been delightedly quiet through the day, he had managed to evade his two tormentors, of course, and he wasn't lucky enough to evade his third so-called tormentor.
"Oh Hibiki?" He heard the husky voice behind him and jumped.
He had not even heard the blonde beauty's approach. He turned around to face Jura,"What do you want?!" He asked, or more specifically, yelled at her.
She smiled at him, a smile that made a shiver come over his spine."I've come to collect my request."She said, moving closer to him.
He took a step back, his face a mask of nervousness,"Wha, what request?"He asked his voice shaky, due to the closeness of her and his bodies.
She smirked at him,"My baby Hibiki."
Hibiki's face turned to an expression of pure terror before he ran, just trying to get away from the crazy demon..er woman.
He ran from her voice.
Everything was a blur, all the doors, all the people he passed, unknown to him. He picked one door out of all the rest.
He looked at his surroundings; he was in a room, that was obvious. Then he was shocked as a voice yelled out,"Hiryu shoten ha revised! Thermal wind!"
He turned around, to where the voice had came from and was greeted by the sight of a swirling wind of red color. He tried to get closer, but he was pushed back by the intense heat that came form the red tornado.
He watched in awe as the winds died down, and a form was seen.
He looked wide-eyed at the figure that was revealed by the tornado of flame. Ranma's cloths were in tatters, and sweat ran down his body, a soft spiral of blue and gold winds of energy. He saw Ranma's battle armor off to the side, only his red silk shirt and his black training pants could be seen, or what was left of them.
He also saw a golden armband that depicted a small snake-like dragon wrapping around his right arm, midway between his shoulder and elbow. With the red jewel's as eyes and the red painted tongue, along with the scale-like designs that decorated its gold body made it look so life-like he could swear he could see it writhing around in the same place, as if it were alive.
Hibiki looked at Ranmas face and saw he had a far away look on his face, as if was remembering something from a long time ago.
"Ranma?"He asked him.
Ranma seemed to snap out of a trance, blinking a few times, he turned towards Hibiki.
Hibiki decided that he would say the first thing that came to his mind,"How did you do that?"
Ranma shook his head,"I'm not really sure, it was something from my past memories, I think that I liked to train, just for the heck of it."
Ranma didn't tell what else he remembered, that that's the only thing that he could do, he had nobody other than his father and another person of his squad, he couldn't remember his name, that he could actually have fun with.
"Do you know what it is?" Asked Hibiki.
Ranma squinted, as if concentrating really hard, and said,"It's something called Ki, or that's what my surrogate father told me. He said,"Ranma, Ki is the power that is within all things, your soul force, some people, martial artists mostly, can focus this power into physical form, project it even." and then he would say something about go train or something like that."
"Oh,"Said Hibiki, then got an idea,"If this power is within all living things, then can you teach me how to do the things you do?"
Ranma thought bout it, then said,"Sure, but you'll have to also learn martial arts as well."
Hibiki thought about it, then nodded,"What will I be learning?"
Ranma puffed out his chest with pride,"You'll be learning Anything Goes Martial Arts, from it's grandmaster!"
"Anything Goes, weird name, but if it will help me, I'll learn."
Ranma smiled, then gestured to the middle of the floor, "Ready to begin?"
Hibiki nodded,"Sure."
**********************
Around an hour later Hibiki came limping into his quarters, tired as hell, but with a smile on his face.
Duro, who was sitting there, looked up at him,"Hello Hibiki, what happened to you?"
Hibiki laughed,"Ranma happened to me, he trained with me and it was tiring!"
Hibiki neglected to say, due to a promise to Ranma, about how Ranma had powers, he thought he knew how Ranma felt, if he told people about some of his dreams, they would think he was crazy too.
Duro nodded at Hibiki,"So, is Ranma coming here?"
Hibiki nodded as he took off his shirt and headed towards the bathroom, fully intending to take a cold shower. "Yeah, the women haven't gotten much better, they put Ranma with us as well, I told him where the bathroom was so he could take a shower as well, he's going to need it."
After he walked away, Duro sat there, thinking again to their new addition to the crew, the martial artist Ranma.
Around ten minutes later, Ranma came in, and took off his shirt, his back to Duro. Duro noted the scars that ran over Ranmas body, and decided to ask him about that mark on his neck.
"Ranma, what's that mark on the back of your neck."He asked the pigtail youth.
Without turning around, he said,"Don't know, well, see ya, I got to go to the bathroom. I worked up one hell of a sweat."
With that he put a towel around his waist and walked out the door, a bundle of cloths in his arms.
***************
When Ranma reached the door, he opened it and walked in.
Unfortunately, Hibiki had made a slight mistake in his directions.
***************
Around too minutes earlier, Meia said hello to Barnette as she walked out of the bathroom, and she walked in and took off her cloths.
She walked over to the spa and dipped her foot in, as well as the rest of her nude flesh. She relaxed in the water and was left to her thoughts.
As she mentally went over the day, a certain event stood out over the rest, a certain meeting with a certain pig-tailed individual. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door opening. She turned around and pushed herself up, then stared at Ranma, who had accidentally just come into the bathroom.
Authors Notes: Anyone thinking you seen this before? Well there's the second chapter! What did you think of it? Tell me at AmericanPie5745@aol.com
Next Time: An Ordered Date! Aliens attack!
Enter the Dragondread
The incident in the bathroom has some unexpected results, and Ranma and Meia are ordered to do something by the captain very...unusual. An enemy attacks and even the Dragon Claw has no chance against it! Next Time!
In addition, I still need to know whom I should pair Ranma up with.
AmericanPie5745@aol.com
Seross: I have very little time to say this sooooo......Here's the second chapter to Vanguard Dragon Claw!
Vanguard Dragon Claw
By Xion Fang
Chapter 2:Revalations
*************************
It has been two days since the attack on the Nirvana and the introduction of some new enemies as well as the Vanguard Dragon Claw.
The crew was left shocked after the message that was playing by Misty's data globe, the truth that the harvesters were created by what was left of Earth's population.
It seems that nothing will shock them more than that...........
Well Ranma's recovered from his battle with the new DBs, or Dragon Beetles, and has been summoned to the war room by the captain and B.C to reveal what was on the message cube that came with him.
Well, the crew better be prepared to be shocked again, because what is on that message cube will tell what has been happening in Mejeiru's and Taraaku's area, and this news will prove to be devastating for the crew, and it's new addition................
***********************
In the war room, Gascogne, the Captain, the commander, and Meia stood waiting for their new 'addition' to their crew.
They didn't have to wait long; Ranma walked through the sliding door.
He was dressed in what he had been wearing after he exited his Vanguard, which they had code-named Dragon Claw. He had his armor and four new additions to his dress. One was his bandanna that ran around his forehead, holding his black hair out of his eyes.
Second, he had a silver cylinder hooked to the left side of his belt, which they presumed to be some sort of energy weapon. On the right side of his belt, he had an old-looking gun, looking like a modified desert eagle pistol from the colonization days. It had odd add-ons here and there, as well as a laser aim mechanism hooked onto the top.
Last, he had a sort of a small scepter that had the tip of a beetles pincer strapped to his back.
Ranma looked around as he walked into the war room.
At the head of the table, he saw an old woman he concluded was the captain, wearing a purple cloak that hid most of her features, as well as accenting her ancient aura. Standing at her left was an platinum-haired woman, her tanned skin and dress making her to look like an exotic model, as well as giving off a dangerous aura of a veteran warrior.
He made a mental note to never mess with her, though me could maybe take her, she just had that 'don't screw with me or I'll kill you later' feel around her. Sitting in a chair at the right of the table, with her legs propped on the edge of silver plated table was a stocky female; a toothpick clenched in-between her teeth. She was dressed in a worn outfit; she was probably a mechanic, or something of the like.
The next person caught his attention.
She was the girl he had seen when he was in that glowing blue ocean. However, now he could see her features more clearly.
Her blue eyes matched with her hair, something that rarely does, and gave her a serene beauty that screamed calm. She had a contraption on her left eye that was in the shape of a crescent moon, black and worn, it was either very old, been worn in many battles, or both. Her blue hair was cut short, only going to in the middle of her neck. She was dressed in a white and black suit with blue trim that fit perfectly, and had gray shoulder pads on.
She was stared at him in a way he would check a persons battle skills.
He turned to the captain.
"So, what did you want me here for?" He asked her.
B.C held up the message cube and put it in a slot near the captains' seat.
The room went black as a screen lit up in front of the table saying input code on its display. B.C turned to Ranma gesturing towards the screen.
"Say something." She said.
"What?" He asked her, confused.
"What do you mean, what?" She asked him.
"I mean,"Started Ranma,"What do you want me to say?"
"This,"she pointed towards the screen,"is supposed to be for you, that means the person probably put a voice code on it, so say something like start message."
"Oh,"Said Ranma, turning towards the screen,"Well here goes, start message!"
The screen displayed the message; code accepted and a hologram appeared in front of them. They all looked at the person on the screen. It was a slightly younger version of Ranma.
"My name is Commander Ranma Saotome of the devastator squadron of Vanguards, if you are hearing this, then I must be there." A voice from the hologram started.
They all stayed quiet, unknowing that the message was being broadcasted through the whole ship.
********************************
In the medical bay, Duro saw all his screens turn to an image of Ranma.
The image started to talk,"I am sorry for your loss in memory, Ranma, but the cyro-stasis was experimental. Now if I am talking to the women who sent the message of the harvesters, I regret to inform you that no one, accept a few, took it seriously when we received it on Taraaku."
"My surrogate father was one of the few that believed it and sent me and my squadron to covertly patrol Taraaku space, checking for the harvesters."
The young Ranmas face took on a look of sadness as he continued.
******************************
People in the mess hall, a lot of the ship, stared at Ranma as he continued.
"When they came, no one was ready, and all we could do was watch as the planet of Taraaku was harvested, we fought until the end, even my squadron wasn't enough, and all but me were destroyed. Taraaku was, after the harvest, blown to bits, only a fraction still in space where a proud planet used to be."
"After I went into cryo-stasis, I launched my pod to where I received your message from, my devastator Van stored in a cargo box under my cryo-ship. Later, I was awakened to be notified of a cryo pod, and, due to the harvesters being about, I told the ship to take the occupant of the pod, and put it within my ship, mostly because my ship had shielding and her pod didn't."
"Before the battle my commander and father started to build me a stronger Van based on harvester technology. I am giving you this message because that before I had entered cryo stasis, I detected the signal of that Van of what was left on Taraaku. If you find that Van, then we might be able to help Mejeiru in their battle against the Harvesters. In this message, I have included the signal identification, so that when you get to what's left of Taraaku, you might want to get the Van."
*********************************
In the war room, everyone looked at the younger Ranma as he bowed to them and said,"Thank you for your time, goodbye."
Then the hologram vanished and the lights came back on.
The captain, who had propped her chin on her hands at the beginning of the message, lifted her head and looked at Ranma.
"So, you have no recollection of what happened before?"She asked him.
He turned to her and shook his head,"No, I guess that, as my younger self said, that that memory had been lost when I had started my sleep in the cryo-ship."
The captain nodded and seemed to be in deep thought, but internally, she was totally shocked at the destruction of Taraaku, and, by taking a quick look at the other women in the war room, she knew she wasn't the only one.
Then, B.C checked a panel that was built into the table and looked at the captain.
"Well, this isn't a secret, the message was broadcasted throughout the entire ship, everyone knows, which will mean that the men won't be happy."
The captain nodded.
There will be more things happening from now on, she thought.
*******************************
The commander was right, the men weren't happy.
Within the brig, Hibiki was just sitting, shocked at the prospect of his home being destroyed. Bart was ranting about how this was the womens fault, but Hibiki knew otherwise.
He could still remember everyone on Taraaku, everything was now destroyed. His deepening sadness and depression was overwhelming for him, but he was still able to somehow hold back any show of emotion externally.
This wasn't the way a man should act, he thought to himself.
"I need to get some food." He told Bart, then walked out of the room, leaving Bart all alone.
Bart stood there, now thinking about what had happened.
Everything he knew was destroyed, though most of it was bad memories, he still was sad and angry about it.
Sad about what happened to his home, angry at the Harvesters for doing it to his home.
He now made a vow, a vow that he would never let anything like that happen to this ship, his new home would never die when he was still alive. Not like his past home.
He walked out of the brig, then towards the bridge, his face now a mask of determination.
**************************
When Hibiki arrived in the galley, he looked around.
A lot of people were there, almost all girls. One man, Ranma, sat near the window. Right now it was around eight at night and all the girls were just finishing dinner.
He picked up a meal from the line then went over to Ranma's table to eat. He got there just in time to see Ranma finish his last plate, out of ten.
'Whoah, this guy can eat!'He thought to himself.
Ranma now stood at the table, looking at the glass in his hand. It was filled with a dark brown liquid and was filled with ice.
As Hibiki sat down, one of the ice cubes fell and made a clinking sound, and Ranma looked up at Hibiki.
"Hey."He said to him,"So you're one of the only other men on the ship? Nice ta meet cha', my name's Ranma.....Saotome, I guess."
Hibiki looked at Ranma,"What do ya mean, I guess?"
Ranma half-smiled at him,"That's just it, didn't you hear the message, I was told who I was, by the way, what's your name?"
Hibiki stuck out his hand,"Hibiki, no last name to know of, nice ta meet ya."
Ranma took it and smiled.
"So, how many more men are on this ship?"He asked.
"Two more, one was the medical doctor, Duro Mcfile, then there's the so-called helmsman, Bart, we don't know his last name, so we call him by his first one."
Ranma smiled and took a sip of his drink.
He remembered that he didn't like to drink alcohol, it hampered his combat skills, but now wasn't then, and he needed to relax a little, all these women were making him unusually tense.
He watched as Hibiki started to eat, not unlike himself, though at a much slower pace. He had been able to eat at a rate much faster than humanly possible, though he didn't know how or why, just that he could do it.
As he watched Hibiki, his thoughts went back to when his younger self, and the message he had brought.
What was this ultimate Van his commander had built? Was it so strong that it could destroy the aliens? He had barely destroyed the main ship of the harvester task force, and that had taken a lot of firepower.
He had heard with great power comes great responsibility, but if that thing had so much power, could he handle the responsibility that came with it?
Somehow he knew he must try, weather it be because he was stubborn to admit that he couldn't handle everything, he knew he must try.
He was broken out of his thought pattern by Hibiki,"So did they go down in a fight?"
He focused on Hibiki,"The planet?"Hibiki nodded,"I still can't fully remember it, but I have the bits and pieces, and from that, the planet had taken out a command ship of the enemy, before it was devastated by the harvesters. I can also remember a few ships actually getting away from the planet, so maybe we aren't the only ones left."
Hibiki looked at him and nodded,"We can always hope......"
Hibiki's not-so-favorite sound in the world interrupted them,"MR.ALIEN!"
Hibiki's face turned downcast,"Dang it, not now!!"
He ran off as Ranma encouraged him,"Run man! Run for your life!"
Dita scrambled after Hibiki, holding a bundle in her arms.
Ranma chuckled as they ran past.
"Don't encourage them."He heard a voice behind him, and turned to face the female from before in the war room, the one with blue hair.
"Huh? Why, it's fun!?"He said to her.
She pointed behind herself with her thumb, and Ranma looked there.
He remembered the girl from the cryo-ship, the one with the blue hair and ponytail running towards them.
She was yelling something as well, by the look on her face, with her mouth open, it couldn't be anything else. As she got closer they were able to hear what she was saying,"Get back here you red haired witch! Wait for me Hibiki!"
"How did this come about, Miss...?"He asked the blue haired girl, who he didn't know the name of.
"My name's Meia, no Miss, just Meia, and this came about when you were recovering from your battle."She said to him, while staring out the window,"By the way, how did you do that stuff out there?"
"Huh? Do you mean the Dragon Claw?"He asked her.
Meia nodded,"Yeah, and those maneuvers, they seemed like they weren't mechanical at all."
Ranma thought about it for a second, then answered,"From what I can gather, when I enter the cockpit, the suit neural connects with me, remember when I came back? I had all those injuries, just as if I was the one fighting out there? It's like that, that's the down side of this, I trade better motion and reflexes for actual pain when the suit gets damaged."
"So is, was that a new weapon created by the men?"She asked him, slightly confused, If the men had this kind of technology, why didn't they use it against Mejeiru?
"From what I remember, only my commander and father had this technology though, what I remember doesn't seem to be as advanced as what I have in the Dragon Claw now, but I don't know how it could have been changed."
Meia nodded, accepting the answer.
Ranma was getting uncomfortable in the silence so he spoke up,"So your the dread team leader?"
Meia nodded.
Ranma started to walk away, "I've got to go, nice job out there, by the way."
Meia felt a burning on her cheeks form the compliment, but, due to not having any emotional experiences, she didn't know that she was blushing.
*********************************
Meanwhile, in the halls Dita and Misty were chasing Hibiki.
Hibiki was frantic; he needed a place to hide! It was just then that he saw Gascognes' sectors' door.
He rushed into it and closed thew door behind him, leaning heavily against the other side the door, his breath erratic.
He heard Gascogne's voice behind him,"What's with you? You look like you're being chased by demons."
He turned to see her smirking face as she said,"Or is it two girls, hmmmm?"
Hibiki growled,"Stop teasing' me! I was just finishing lunch and was talking to Ranma when those two girls ran towards me! I'm getting rather annoyed now, I mean, I'm happy that the Harvesters haven't attacked us yet, but it makes me so bored!"
Gascogne closed her eyes,"So you fight for fun?"
He nodded at her,"What else can I do?"
She turned her head to him and opened her eyes,"There's a lot, maybe some cards will calm your nerves?"She said, holding up a deck,"I think that you could probably beat the new guy, he came in here a few minutes ago, beat um' about eight times."
Hibiki looked dully at her,"So you think he's worse than me?"
She closed hers eyes again,"Nope, your much worse."
He facefaulted, then got up with a determined face,"I'll show you! Deal me in!"
**************************
Within the practice range a shot rang out and a crashing noise followed, signaling the destruction of a target plate.
Ranma held his gun in front of his face, and pulled the trigger again.
Another shot rang out, and another target was hit.
He never liked to use them much, guns, he remembered. They were the cowards' weapon. However, one needed to do what one needed to do to stay alive.
He sighed and put his gun back into its holster, then picked out the metal cylinder, and ignited the weapon.
Soon, the light that erupted form it took form as an old-time sword, a long katana that had two peaks jutting out from its curved end.
He held his hand over the blade, fingers spread, as his eyes focused on the shimmering light. His gray-blue eyes were alight with the eerie red flame the sword gave off.
He slowly lowered his hand as he heard a whizzing near him.
A flash of red light was seen, and the crunching noise signaling the destruction of the disk was heard.
Over the next few hours, many different noises could be heard from the room if one had time enough to listen. Bangs, shouting, crunching, and a weird sizzling noise could be heard from the confines of the target range.
******************************
Within Red Central, Hibiki and Gascogne were engaged in an intense game of poker.
"Argh!"Hibiki growled as he looked at his cards.
'Stupid two of a kind, I better get something better!'
He slammed thee of his poker cards on the table saying, "Give me three!"
Gascogne calmly gave him the cards, all the while smirking with her eyes closed. As Hibiki looked at his cards he tried to keep his face calm, he really did!
However, by the look on Gascogne's face, he didn't succeed very well, and he was assured that he was being read like a book.
He threw his hand, which consisted of two 2's and one king, one three, and a jack.
"Fine!" he said, looking away,"You win this time!"
Gascogne laughed, one eye opened, which was directed at Hibiki."So girl troubles, right? Don't try to lie to me, the last time you played as bad as this was when you and Dita were in that fight."
"Hmmmmr." Was heard from Hibikli's face, which was embedded on the table.
"I take that as a yes. So is this about the new crewmember, right? I guess she can be a pretty big handful at times, right?"
Hibiki lifted his head off the tabletop and looked at her,"Exactly."He said as he placed his hand on his forehead, letting off a sigh,"This is getting very tiring, I swear, if I hear another, "Mr. Alien!", "Hibikli!", or a "Combine with me!" one more time, I'm leaving!"
Gascogne looked at him, her facial expression stern;"You're serious." She said.
It was a statement, not a question. Hibiki looked at her and nodded.
She sighed and decided she needed to do something abut this. She smiled her half smirk as she spoke to Hibki,"Then go, take a load off, I'll talk to them. If you need something to do, go talk to that new pilot, I think that you two would find that you have a lot of things in common."
Hibiki smiled at Gascogne as he got up and started to walk away,"Thanks, Gascogne, thanks a lot."
As the door closed, Gascogne opened her other eye and smiled,"You're welcome, stagehand."
************************
Later that night found Hibiki walking through the ship.
It had been delightedly quiet through the day, he had managed to evade his two tormentors, of course, and he wasn't lucky enough to evade his third so-called tormentor.
"Oh Hibiki?" He heard the husky voice behind him and jumped.
He had not even heard the blonde beauty's approach. He turned around to face Jura,"What do you want?!" He asked, or more specifically, yelled at her.
She smiled at him, a smile that made a shiver come over his spine."I've come to collect my request."She said, moving closer to him.
He took a step back, his face a mask of nervousness,"Wha, what request?"He asked his voice shaky, due to the closeness of her and his bodies.
She smirked at him,"My baby Hibiki."
Hibiki's face turned to an expression of pure terror before he ran, just trying to get away from the crazy demon..er woman.
He ran from her voice.
Everything was a blur, all the doors, all the people he passed, unknown to him. He picked one door out of all the rest.
He looked at his surroundings; he was in a room, that was obvious. Then he was shocked as a voice yelled out,"Hiryu shoten ha revised! Thermal wind!"
He turned around, to where the voice had came from and was greeted by the sight of a swirling wind of red color. He tried to get closer, but he was pushed back by the intense heat that came form the red tornado.
He watched in awe as the winds died down, and a form was seen.
He looked wide-eyed at the figure that was revealed by the tornado of flame. Ranma's cloths were in tatters, and sweat ran down his body, a soft spiral of blue and gold winds of energy. He saw Ranma's battle armor off to the side, only his red silk shirt and his black training pants could be seen, or what was left of them.
He also saw a golden armband that depicted a small snake-like dragon wrapping around his right arm, midway between his shoulder and elbow. With the red jewel's as eyes and the red painted tongue, along with the scale-like designs that decorated its gold body made it look so life-like he could swear he could see it writhing around in the same place, as if it were alive.
Hibiki looked at Ranmas face and saw he had a far away look on his face, as if was remembering something from a long time ago.
"Ranma?"He asked him.
Ranma seemed to snap out of a trance, blinking a few times, he turned towards Hibiki.
Hibiki decided that he would say the first thing that came to his mind,"How did you do that?"
Ranma shook his head,"I'm not really sure, it was something from my past memories, I think that I liked to train, just for the heck of it."
Ranma didn't tell what else he remembered, that that's the only thing that he could do, he had nobody other than his father and another person of his squad, he couldn't remember his name, that he could actually have fun with.
"Do you know what it is?" Asked Hibiki.
Ranma squinted, as if concentrating really hard, and said,"It's something called Ki, or that's what my surrogate father told me. He said,"Ranma, Ki is the power that is within all things, your soul force, some people, martial artists mostly, can focus this power into physical form, project it even." and then he would say something about go train or something like that."
"Oh,"Said Hibiki, then got an idea,"If this power is within all living things, then can you teach me how to do the things you do?"
Ranma thought bout it, then said,"Sure, but you'll have to also learn martial arts as well."
Hibiki thought about it, then nodded,"What will I be learning?"
Ranma puffed out his chest with pride,"You'll be learning Anything Goes Martial Arts, from it's grandmaster!"
"Anything Goes, weird name, but if it will help me, I'll learn."
Ranma smiled, then gestured to the middle of the floor, "Ready to begin?"
Hibiki nodded,"Sure."
**********************
Around an hour later Hibiki came limping into his quarters, tired as hell, but with a smile on his face.
Duro, who was sitting there, looked up at him,"Hello Hibiki, what happened to you?"
Hibiki laughed,"Ranma happened to me, he trained with me and it was tiring!"
Hibiki neglected to say, due to a promise to Ranma, about how Ranma had powers, he thought he knew how Ranma felt, if he told people about some of his dreams, they would think he was crazy too.
Duro nodded at Hibiki,"So, is Ranma coming here?"
Hibiki nodded as he took off his shirt and headed towards the bathroom, fully intending to take a cold shower. "Yeah, the women haven't gotten much better, they put Ranma with us as well, I told him where the bathroom was so he could take a shower as well, he's going to need it."
After he walked away, Duro sat there, thinking again to their new addition to the crew, the martial artist Ranma.
Around ten minutes later, Ranma came in, and took off his shirt, his back to Duro. Duro noted the scars that ran over Ranmas body, and decided to ask him about that mark on his neck.
"Ranma, what's that mark on the back of your neck."He asked the pigtail youth.
Without turning around, he said,"Don't know, well, see ya, I got to go to the bathroom. I worked up one hell of a sweat."
With that he put a towel around his waist and walked out the door, a bundle of cloths in his arms.
***************
When Ranma reached the door, he opened it and walked in.
Unfortunately, Hibiki had made a slight mistake in his directions.
***************
Around too minutes earlier, Meia said hello to Barnette as she walked out of the bathroom, and she walked in and took off her cloths.
She walked over to the spa and dipped her foot in, as well as the rest of her nude flesh. She relaxed in the water and was left to her thoughts.
As she mentally went over the day, a certain event stood out over the rest, a certain meeting with a certain pig-tailed individual. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door opening. She turned around and pushed herself up, then stared at Ranma, who had accidentally just come into the bathroom.
Authors Notes: Anyone thinking you seen this before? Well there's the second chapter! What did you think of it? Tell me at AmericanPie5745@aol.com
Next Time: An Ordered Date! Aliens attack!
Enter the Dragondread
The incident in the bathroom has some unexpected results, and Ranma and Meia are ordered to do something by the captain very...unusual. An enemy attacks and even the Dragon Claw has no chance against it! Next Time!