Supernova
Chapter 4
by Black Dragon
revcoll@peoplepc.com
http://www.angelfire.com/anime2/fanficlair/index.html
Standard disclaimer applies. I don't own these characters, I just mess up their lives for my own entertainment. Wait a sec... I DO own most of these characters. Then why the heck am I still doing this for free?!
Chapter 4
Fighters and Cruisers and Huge, Organized Crime Syndicates, Oh My!
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*Fwoosh*
The hiss of air emptying and quickly fillng the small area he was enclosed in sounded against the walls of the small metal cell. Ranma took a deep breath as two large metal doors opened up before him. He stepped out of the airlock, and surveyed the scene. Two guards right outside the airlock looked at him nervously, their weapons at their sides.
Ranma glared at them. They flinched. Ranma took special note of their postures and expressions, and decided that they hadn't been ordered to shoot him in the back as soon as his back was turned.
An attractive brunette in a tight green officer's uniform (complete with short skirt and full low hem, of course) walked up to him.
"Ranma Saotome, I presume?"
Ranma looked her over for a moment, then replied. "The same."
The woman flashed a seductive smile at him. "My my, you're even better looking in person than on the holograms. This way, please."
Ranma blinked at the comment, then shook his head and followed her. Women.
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"Ah, Ranma Saotome, it is a great honor to meet you in person."
Ranma sat down at the other end of the table, and looked at the man who had spoken. He was tall and thin, with a small pointed beard and glasses. His gray-brown hair betrayed his age.
"I was kinda surprised when I recieved a summons from a crime syndicate that isn't supposed to exist."
The man chuckled. "As if. Everyone knows that Shade exists, they just want to deny it publicly."
It was true. The alleged "greatest crime organization in the galaxy" Shade never boasted any of its achievements, or even made itself known. Most governmental agencies ruthlessly denied the group's existence, especially to the general public. Everything known about them had been obtained from drunken explorers and smugglers in bars and taverns.
Ranma didn't care about any of that, however. He just wanted to get this meeting over with. That woman that had led him here was currently looking him over, and it gave him the creeps.
"So'd you just call me here to chat, or are we gonna get down to business?"
The man smiled. "Ah, straight to the point, I see. Very well, but first I might inquire as to why you have no guards? It seems rather strange for a man of your reputation to just walk into a place like this unarmed."
Ranma snorted. "Who says I'm unarmed?" He reached behind his back, and procured an armed blaster rifle out what seemed like thin air.
The man across the table raised an eyebrow.
Ranma shrugged as he put the rifle away into who-knows-where, and clasped his hands together.
"So you're not. Still, it seems like quite a risk for a man such as yourself to appear before someone like me without a guard of some kind."
Ranma snorted. "Hey, I figure that if anyone weaker than me actually manages to kill me, then I deserve whatever I get."
The man smiled. "As you say. My name is Garrion Theadore."
Ranma smirked. "Well it's nice to meet you. You mind telling me why you asked us here all the way from Mallertia?"
Garrion nodded. "Of course. As you well know, your little band of thieves is quite the talk around the galaxy right now. You've made the news holos in almost every sector with sentient life, and chaos seems to follow you everywhere you go."
Ranma waved at him, annoyed. "Yeah yeah, stop telling me things I already know."
"Very well. Your group has caught the attention of Shade. Most of our leaders want you dead."
If Ranma was surprised or worried upon hearing this, he didn't show it at all.
"The reasons vary. Some say you're invading our territory, some fear you'll destroy or take over Shade in the near future, and some just want revenge for eliminating our little sub-organization on Triar.
Ranma blinked. "You owned those guys?"
Garrion smirked and stood up, his hands clasped behind his back. "Of course. We've been abducting spacecraft there for decades, and all of a sudden, in less than a week, BAM. It's gone. Triar was surprisingly profitable. I got a brand new luxury yacht myself."
Garrion paced a bit, then stopped and placed his hands on the table. "I'll be blunt, Saotome. I want you and your men to work for me. Talent and skill such as yours are far too valuable to either destroy or have working on another team. I want that talent to help us, not hurt us."
Ranma looked down for a moment, then looked up at Garrion. "So you called me here to hire me? What about all those officials in your organization who want me dead? I'm sure some of them have to be your superiors."
Garrion smiled. "Yes and yes. Some say when you can't beat them, join them, but I want you to be on our side before you destroy most of our fleets. As for my superior officers, I find that Tanya can be a lot of help 'persuading' them."
Ranma blinked. "Tanya?"
At that moment, he felt a chill down his spine. Right after that came a rather warm touch as the woman from before wrapped her arms loosely around his neck.
Ranma slowly looked behind him to see the buxom brunette grinning at him.
He started sweating nervously. It wasn't that he wasn't used to the near proximity of attractive women, but the way she was looking at him reminded him of the way certain large, toothy, aliens seemed to look at him when he wandered around on certain hostile worlds. But with somewhat..... less malicious intent.
Tearing his eyes from her predatory gaze, he was once again addressed by Garrion.
"Now, I can assure you that should you accept my offer, you and your men will be well cared for. You will recieve a nice starting rank, and salary, be given access to any and all technology and many other recources acquired by Shade, and even a few... bonus benifits.
Tanya purred as her hands started to slide down Ranma's chest. "I can assure you, the bonuses are the BEST."
Ranma started to sweat heavily before bolting out of his chair, leaving a very surprised Tanya standing by his seat.
Ranma took a deep breath, composed himself, and then started pacing himself as Garrion sat down. After a moment he stopped, and then regarded his host.
"Now let me see if I understand some of the catches here."
Garrion was about to say something, but Ranma held up his hand, forestalling any interruptions.
"And don't even think of telling me there are no strings attached. I'm smarter than that. Now I may not know much about politics, but I know plenty about human nature. Assuming that I was actually considering selling my freedom, privacy, ship, and overall well-being to Shade, I suppose that I would then be used as a hit man, destroying and killing who or what I'm told to. On top of that, not everyone in Shade is gonna accept us just because you've got Tanya sleeping with them. Uh, no offense, Tanya."
The forementioned woman only smiled more. "None taken. I like a man who speaks his mind."
Ranma sweatdropped, then continued. "Anyway, not everyone in Shade is gonna accept us, and if I'm not mistaken, due procedure for getting rid of someone like that in your organization is basically assassination, which I've certainly had my fill of back with your little sub-division. I could also expect my ship, room, and who knows what else bugged and armed to explode if I've proven to be unloyal or if someone feels like some fireworks. On top of all that, if me and my crew do too good a job as your employees, then naturally your leaders will start to fear that I'm too powerful and want to take their ranks away from them, or take over Shade, or both. Of course, it doesn't take much of an imagination to figure out what happens if we do too bad a job either."
Ranma finished speaking, and brought his hands behind his back. Garrion was at a loss for words.
".............................................................."
Eventually, he realized he was staring, and shook himself out of it.
"Um....... I really don't know what to say........... was that a 'no'?"
Ranma smiled and started to leave. "Yup! No way, no how. Thanks for the offer though. See ya!"
Ranma walked through the large blast doors, and the huge, thick sheets of metal closed with a *thud*.
Garrion blinked. Tanya walked up to him and wrapped around him in a hug, then started to caress his chest.
"I hadn't expected that......"
Tanya sighed. "Well, the man is strange for a pirate. He seems to understand us better than we understand ourselves."
Garrion nodded sagely, then pushed a button on the table. "This is a most unfortunate turn of events. I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this."
The comlink buzzed. "Hello?"
Garrion spoke into the receptor on his desk. "What is the status of the Wild Horse?"
The comlink went silent for a moment, then the same voice came back. "The Wild Horse is currently leaving the docking bay. It's going slower than usual, and oddly enough, its shields are down."
Garrion blinked. "Most unusual. Destroy it. Use EXTREME caution. These are not men to be trifled with lightly."
Garrion switched off the comlink before the person on the other end could utter "yes sir" and turned toward Tanya.
"What a waste of talent and technology. Ah, well, if you can't join them, destroy them!"
Tanya smiled, then brought a finger to her lip with a bemused expression on her face. "It's really too bad. He was just too cute."
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
Ranma immediately noticed something was wrong the moment he stepped back on board the Wild Horse. For one thing, a lot of lights were off, as well as some other displays on the bridge. He wandered over to where Arak was playing some mech simulator against Rac.
Ranma tapped Arak on the shoulder, and the smaller man wheeled around in his chair.
"Hey, what's with all the lights and stuff? Is there something wrong with the main reactor?"
Arak shook his head. "Well, yes, but that's not what's causing it. The readouts were showing a bit of strain on the generator from the Apocolypse cannon, so Rayden's giving the reactor a once-over to see if there's anything wrong. We're currently running on the secondary generator."
Ranma blinked, then shrugged. The secondary reactor was a backup generator, for use when the main generator was damaged or destroyed, or when just undergoing maintenence, like now. It had power relays only to essential ship functions, such as life support, engines and hyperdrive, Rac, and the hangar.
"All right. Let's get out of here."
"Right aw-"
*Beep* "ENEMY WEAPON SIGNATURE DETECTED."
Ranma and Arak stopped, and slowly digested that piece of information. Ranma managed to sum it up by himself.
"Oh, fudge."
*Blaaaaaam!!!* The entire bridge seemed to shake as the first laser blasts hit, meeting no resistance as they seared into the armor plating of the light frigate.
Rac's voice reverberated throughout the bridge. "THE ENEMY NUMBERS 2 STRIKE CRUISERS, AN INTERDICTOR FRIGATE, AND 2 DREADNAUGHTS. SUGGESTED ACTION: RAISING SHIELDS MIGHT HELP."
Ranma looked up to the viewscreen, and replied in a sarcastic voice, "Gee, it's a good thing you know so much about space battle strategy. Otherwise, we might not have thought of that."
*Kroooom!!*
*Beep* "TURBOLASER TURRET 3 OFFLINE. WAS THAT A YES OR A NO?"
Ranma growled. "Turn on the main reactor and activate the freakin' shields!"
*WhoooooooOOOOOOOOOO......*
Ranma let out a brief sigh of relief at the steady, rising hum of the nearby consoles regaining power.....
*Gzaaaaaaaaaaak!*
"YEEEEEEEEEOOOOOUUUUCH!!!!!"
..... Then let out a cry of panic as Rayden screamed, and the controls went black again.
*Beep* "MAIN GENERATOR OFFLINE. IT WOULD APPEAR THAT SHIKODAN IS CURRENTLY BEING USED AS A PRIMARY POWER RELAY. UNFORTUNATELY, HIS BODY LACKS THE REQUIRED CONDUCTIVIY OF SAID DEVICE."
*Booom!!*
*Beep* "TURBOLASER TURRETS 6 & 8 OFFLINE. PROTON TORPEDO LAUNCHER 3 IS OFFLINE. HULL BREACH ON THE STARBOARD SIDE. "
Ranma felt like banging his head on the wall. "All right, Arak, launch a shield probe, then drop all power consumption to passive minimum. I'm going out there in the Ion Storm."
Arak nodded nervously, then pushed a button, targeting the path of the incoming laser blasts.
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Outside the Wild Horse, part of the hangar opened up, and a small rocket- propelled metal sphere popped out. It turned around in the proper direction, and then rocketed out into the vacuum.
Spears of deadly red light lashed out from the side of it as the probe managed to get within the flow of fire without getting hit.
Suddenly, eight long spikes shot out of the orb, and energy sparked from the tip of one spike to the next.
Energy filled the spaces between the points of the spears, and before long, the incoming blasts were being completely absorbed by the small shield cube.
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
Ranma grimaced as he dragged Rayden out of the main reactor core.
He should've expected this. He knew there was no way to predict it, but he should've at least thought of it.
The shield probe was another one of Arak's innovations. The small 4' x 4' sphere could erect a ludicrously powerful shield for the generator size. It had its drawbacks, of course. The generators worked themselves to the very limit, and always burned themselves out totally, making reuse impossible. And they were way too expensive to use liberally.
Ranma dropped Rayden off in the back of the hanger, then put on his flight helmet.
"Rac, when Rayden regains consciousness, tell him to help me out there, okay?"
"AFFIRMATIVE. GOOD LUCK."
Ranma smirked. "If I had to rely on luck, I'd be dead right now, and you know it."
Ranma jumped into the cockpit of the blue fighter, and did a quick pre- flight check before he gunned the engines, rocketing out into space.
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"Sir, we're picking up a fighter emerging from the Wild Horse. ID confirms it as the Ion Storm."
Terry Orn, Captain of the Strike Cruiser Steel Hawk nodded. "That's Saotome's ship. Direct all cannon fire onto the fighter, save, maybe, 2 turrets per ship, to keep shooting at the Wild Horse. Speaking of which, what's the status on that blasted obruction?"
"The probe has erected a surprisingly strong shield directly in our line of fire. The shield is wide enough to block all incoming lasers."
"Tell those turrets still firing at the frigate to just keep firing on the probe until they break through it. And I want Saotome taken down! With or without his ship, his goal is to get out of here alive, and the only way to do that is to destroy the inderdictor. Launch all fighters, and have the fighters launching from the station target Saotome too."
"Right away, sir!"
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
Ranma grunted as he dodged the laser fire from the capital ships. He had to get rid of the interdictor, he knew that much, but to do it would take too much time for the Wild Horse, that was currently only a few laser barrages away from oblivion. And the fighters didn't help matters much.
Of course, there were ways of taking the thing down faster, but that left other complications.
The display in front of Ranma blinked as several fighters were launched from the Dreadnaughts and cruisers. Then a new cluster of dots appeared on his back sensor as the base launched their squadrons.
Ranma weaved in and out of the incoming turbolaser fire, almost as if he knew where the bolts were going before they were fired. He spared a glance at his sensor readings.
[18 fighters to bow, and 26 to stern. Hmm... Z-95 Headhunters. Look like Mark I's too. I thought that Shade was better equipped than that. Oh well, it's their loss,] Ranma thought as he studied the various dots on the display.
Ranma jerked the ship to the right of an incoming laser blast, and sent two rounds of fire into an incoming ship. The first two bolts broke the shields, while the second two slagged the cockpit, fusing the transparisteel with the surrounding metals, and twisting the former fighter into an unidentifiable ball of scrap.
Two other fighters met the same fate as the first as Ranma weaved through the lances of energy like a missile through a hailstorm. Ranma passed through the first wave, and hit the back jets as he turned, quickening his hairpin curve as he brought his lasers to bear against his next target.
Ranma swung to port slightly to avoid a turbolaser blast, then shredded two more Headhunters with his lasers. He quickly switched to torpedoes and launched one at a retreated fighter before turning back around as the two waves of fighters regrouped, then homed in on his position.
A bright blue flash of light and the disappearance of one of the little red dots on his sensor display marked the death of another fighter pilot.
A spark of lightning lancing out into space before disappearing, plus the fading of one of the little green dots on his sensor display marked the death of the shield probe.
[Damn! I guess I'm out of time. Have to do this now.]
All at once, hundreds of darts of red streamed out from behind him, a tribute to the foreboding presence of the swarm of fighters. What didn't miss and proceed ahead splashed against his shields, sending ripples of soft blue energy across the whole of the ship. Ranma grimaced and hit a button on his console.
His speed doubled almost immediately, as two engines not previously visible on the Ion Storm's backside made themselves known. Ranma rocketed out, far ahead of the fighters' effective firing range, moving beyond the two cruisers and finally slowing as he passed the interdictor and its Dreadnaught escort.
Ranma turned the Ion Storm around without stopping his momentum, and was treated to a view of the pursuing fighters as they passed over the bulky gravity generators of the interdictor frigate.
Ranma sweated as he flipped up the tip of his flight stick, revealing a translucent yellow button. If he did this right, and was real lucky, he just might be able to last long enough after the initial power drain to make the jump into hyperspace with the Wild Horse. If he wasn't lucky, well, then he was dead.
Ranma allowed a smirk to cross his face as he targetted the interdictor right behind the swarm of incoming fighters.
"Goodbye, losers! CHESTNUTS ROASTING ON A NEUTRON DISRUPTION FIELD!!!"
He pushed the button.
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
The front of the Ion Storm seemed to suddenly erupt into flames as a huge blue light appeared right in front of it, like a bright cyan barrier.
That was somewhat less impressive then the veritable river of proton torpedoes that erupted from the bulky fighter.
Like a machine gun, the fighter spat out the deadly blue missiles in quick succession. Several of the fighters were too stunned at the sheer number of projectiles to contemplate dodging them, and they were soon reduced to their base subatomic components. Most of those that managed to gather their wits in time got out of the way, and managed to survive as the torpedoes plummeted toward the helpless interdictor.
The crew of the frigate barely had time to panic as the waves of torpedoes hit, burning the already weak shields to nothing. The entire ship shook as the rain continued, and the crew had just finished falling down from the tremors when the ceiling above them disentigrated, leaving them to the mercy of the vacuum and the remaining missiles. Neither of which were particulalry merciful, of course.
The Dreadnaught rapidly pulled away from the barrage, its relatively small size allowing it to avoid most of the onslaught. The torpedoes were of course numerous but very inaccurate; they seemed to be going on totally random courses, using only the Ion Storm's general direction as a constant. Those that hit the Dreadnaught managed to burn through the shields and wreak some damage on the surface. Those that didn't hit anything merely continued on thier courses, heading off into infinity.
And at last it was over. The Ion Storm continued its steady path backward, the only evidence of the ridiculous expenditure of weaponry being the large scorch marks on the long spikes that jutted out of the fighter's front. The interdictor was gone; reduced to nothing but twisted, molten metal which quickly froze in the black void. Only seven of the fighters survived, most of them simply passing right by Ranma's fighter, too shell-shocked to do more than gape.
Most of them.
Ranma frantically flipped a single switch on his control board, trying to feed power into the engines and shields. At this point, either one would do, but many circuits had been overloaded, as releasing that much energy at once wasn't simple.
Ranma grunted as the Ion Storm shook from a fighter's lasers to its port. The inertial stabilizers momentarily useless, its pilot was tossed mercilessly inside the cockpit as it was struck again and again. A small top view of his fighter's superstructure began to turn red in certain areas, as did his list of currently functional systems.
Finally, the enemy fighters passed, and Ranma was alerted to a somewhat more prominent danger. The Dreadnaught, though having sustained a bit of damage, still had a perfectly operational turbolaser cannon on it. The hulking gray weapon turned its guns toward the Ion Storm, seeming to move with an almost deliberate slowness; as if the gunner wanted to make sure that this opportunity wasn't his imagination.
Ranma flipped the switch again and again, but he knew the effort was wasted. The power couplers had to have a certain amount of time before they could compensate for the energy drain. Ranma held no false hopes of suriviving a turbolaser bolt either; even with the remarkably durable armor of his fighter, a single round of turbolaser fire would vaporize his cockpit, at the very least.
That single round never came, however. Before the massive gun could fire, twin spears of white stabbed into it, and the boxy construct exploded, leaving a twisted, gaping hole in its side.
Ranma smiled as he watched a black, spider-like shape rocket by, raining laser bolts on the Dreadnaught.
He flipped the switch on his control board again, and his displays exploded with light, as power started flowing into the various systems again.
Ranma's smile grew even broader as he gunned the engines.
"It's payback time."
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
Terry gaped at the remains of the interdictor frigate, even as his crew regained enough of their wits to notice other things.
"Sir, the Wild Horse is moving again. Estimated time until it can get into hyperspace: 45 seconds."
Orn snapped out of it and turned towards the man that spoke. "Is there any way for us to take it out in that amount of time?"
"I'm sorry sir, no. We're not close enough for that."
"Captain! I've gotten an ID on the second fighter. It's the Dark Angel!"
Terry grimaced and lowered his head. 'So now we face both of them. This battle is lost. I must cut my losses while I can.'
"Order all units to retreat to our ships. It looks like Saotome won this one."
"Ummm....... that will be difficult, sir."
Terry glanced at the officer, certain that he wasn't going to like whatever the man had to say.
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
Outside the capital ships, the pilots of the seven remaining Z-95's were panicking. It was bad enough when the Dark Angel decided it was done with the dreadnaught and went after them, but now the Ion Storm was fully functional again and firing on them too.
The fighters didn't stand a chance.
Rayden fired constantly, boxing his target in with laser bolts and then hitting them hard, often going after a few targets at once.
Ranma seemed to stalk his prey, trailing them as they desperately tried to shake their pursuer, and then firing at just the right time. Not a laser was wasted, and he would always hit his mark.
Soon four more fighters met the fate of their friends caught in the torpedo barrage.
Five.
Six.
The last fighter of Garrion's squadrons dodged the Dark Angel's laser blast frantically as he tried to make his way back to the nearest capital ship.
Rayden resisted the urge to make some offhand comment about the force.
The last Headhunter weaved his way out of the laser barrage, only to get tagged by two streaks of white from the side.
Rayden's rather displeased voice echoed in Ranma's comlink.
"Hey! He was mine!"
Ranma grinned. "You slow, you blow. Deal with it. That's 41 down for me, 3 down for you, by the way."
Rayden muttered something about mutiny before speaking clearly into the comlink.
"You wanna have a run at the big guys before we take off?"
"Sure. Though my torpedoes are offline, so you'll have to do all the real damage."
Rayden's voice was far from disappointed. "Excellent."
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
As Arak tried to run damage control on the Wild Horse, he didn't notice that they were moving to go into hyperspace until Rac chose to inform him of their situation.
"RECIEVING SIGNAL FROM DARK ANGEL. IT WOULD APPEAR THAT RANMA AND RAYDEN ARE GOING TO STAY BEHIND FOR A BIT. WE, HOWEVER, SHOULD NOT TAKE THE RISK OF STAYING."
Arak glanced up at the viewscreen, not yet comprehending what was going on.
"What? What do you-?"
That's when he noticed the 3-D battle display, and the lack of a certain image.
"Hey, the interdictor's gone! We can get out of here!"
"AFFIRMITIVE. HOWEVER, SHIKODAN HAS REQUESTED THAT THEY CATCH UP WITH US LATER."
Arak walked over to the communications console. "All right then. We'll need to transmit the hyperspace coordinates first, of course."
Arak started to manipulate a few buttons, and one of Rac's spherical drones hovered up beside him.
"I WOULD NOT ADVISE-"
"There! Done! Now let's get out of here!"
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
Terry Orn sighed as he watched the Wild Horse warp into hyperspace. His expression turned to confusion as he noticed the two fighters heading toward the second Dreadnaught and strike cruiser.
'They would risk themselves just to exact revenge upon a few of our ships. Figures. Garrion will not be pleased. I'll be stripped of rank for certain! If I'm lucky......'
"Captain! Were picking up a transmission from the Wild Horse! It appears to be a set of hyperspace cooridinates, but it's not encrypted!"
Terry blinked, then grinned. Maybe he could still redeem himself. "My my. Ranma's crew does seem to be making an awful lot of blunders today. Notify Snake group at 683.97. Tell them to pursue and destroy the Wild Horse and any of its crew.
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
Ranma took one glance at his communications readout, then nodded as he and Rayden approached the Dreadnaught. Then he took another glance, and felt like banging his head on the nearest console.
"Arak, you IDIOT!!"
'The fool used the wrong frequency! Everyone with a com system can tell exactly where he's going!'
Ranma growled, then hit his comlink. "Ray, you hear me? We gotta make this quick! Forget about the Dreadnaught and go straight for the big one!"
Rayden's voice came back through the transmitter. "Right. I'm on it. I've already got the Dread's shields down, so you can make a couple of runs on it, just to give the techs something to fret over when it's repaired."
Ranma nodded and began his run.
On the Dark Angel, Rayden skimmed through the turbolasers almost recklessly, diving toward the strike cruiser. The ships were far larger than the Wild Horse, and their shields were that much more powerful, too. Therefore, getting through would require some...... special measures.
Rayden shot past the laser turrets without firing a shot. As he passed over the starboard edge of the vessel, he spun around without losing his momentum, momentarily becoming a sitting duck to any gunners.
Unfortunately for the gunners, the turbolaser turrets were too bulky and massive for such quick targeting.
Rayden flipped open a switch on his control board, then pushed the small button below it.
"Launching plasma grenades! Let's burn!"
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
The Dark Angel shot away from the incoming fire of the turbolaser cannons, pausing only long enough for two small cylinders to pop out from just above his torpedo launchers.
The twin cylinders slowly made their way through space, and began a lazy arc toward the cruiser's hull, as the magnetic casing latched onto the only metal within 100 meters. As they made their way to the ship, the small tubes seemed to start glowing, then catch on fire as they were slowly engulfed by an orangish-yellow flame.
When the grenades hit the shields of the cruiser, the hot plasma that surrounded them seemed to flare up, and then started to spread across the bubble of charged ions. The superheated substance glided over the energy field like a liquid, piling up at certain points and releasing small streams of superheated flame.
Those on the Steel Hawk had to agree that it was the most beautiful weapon they had ever seen, putting the dancing lights of the brightest nebulae to shame. Most of the gunners were so mesmerized by the sight that they just stopped shooting, leaving their sister ship to the Dark Angel's mercy.
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
If you were inside the shield that the plasma was flowing over, then it was somewhat less beautiful. And if you had something else far more important to worry about, then the flowing river of plasma was of an entirely different consequence.
"Sir, our shields are being totally drained! Our deflector screens will be down in seconds!"
The captain didn't even have time to yell "what?!" before the thin cyan barrier gave out, disappearing before the assault of liquid flame.
The plasma, now with nothing to hold onto, slowly crept up to the armor of the cruiser, its vast bulk providing enough of a gravitational field to act as an anchor. It burned at the metal, peeling away layers of durasteel like skin under a stream of acid.
Of course, that was nothing compared to what the torpedoes did.
*Ka-kroom!!* *Shoooooom!*
Gaping wounds appeared in the cruiser's armor as the very atomic structures of the base materials were corrupted and destroyed, punching holes into the mighty warship. Atmosphere was leaked out into space as bulkheads were melted down to slag, then frozen into irregular blobs in the cold, hard vacuum.
Rayden hit a button on his console, and the intro music from Gundam Wing started playing.
He hummed along with the tune as he streaked over the hull of the cruiser, blasting away laser turrets and indiscriminately firing off torpedoes.
He stopped over a certain portion of the cruiser, linked his torpedo launchers, then created a nice big tunnel into the ship's power core. He flipped up the switch on his control panel, then launched two more grenades into the cruiser's main generator. With that he gunned his boosters, and got to a nice safe distance before the reactor went critical, blowing the hulk of metal in half and spewing debris out into space.
'Hmph. The jerks deserved it too.' He flipped on his communicator. "Ranma, I'm good to go. You ready to get out of here?"
The comm unit buzzed briefly before Ranma's voice came back. "I'm ready. Let's jet. Good job on the cruiser. Oh, and thanks for saving my hide back there."
Rayden grinned. "What, are you kidding? Do you have any idea how many women would be out for my blood if they found out I let you kick the bucket?"
There was an unintelligable noise on the other end of the unit, then Ranma's voice came back. "Shut up and hit the hyperspace cooridinates. And you can bet that me and Arak are going to have a LONG talk if we make it out of this in one piece."
Rayden nodded, and started up the hyperspace engines.
Outside, the crews of the Steel Hawk and the cripple Dreadnaught could only stare helplessly as the two fighters were immersed in pools of blue- white light.
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
Captain Terry Orn sweated nervously as Garrion paced before him, going over the events of the battle. Eventually Garrion turned to regard the captain, and then placed both his hands on the table.
"So you lost."
Orn gulped and slowly nodded.
"The Wild Horse had no shields, no weapons, the entire ship was totally helpless, and you couldn't destroy it before two fighters destroyed our interdictor.
Terry began to speak. "I-I'm sorry sir. We-we had n-no way of knowing that Saotome's fighter was capable of that kind of firepower......"
Garrion seemed to think this over, then nodded.
"Indeed, you couldn't have known. Everything that happened was given that little extra sting by the fact that we didn't know what to expect. We cornered a wounded lion, and we payed the price."
Garrion looked up at Orn, and gestured him away. "You may go now. I recognize that you are not responsible for the losses, and we need the Steel Hawk to assist Snake group in hunting the Wild Horse down."
Terry looked surprised. "So... I'm free to go?"
Garrion grinned. "Of course. Did you think I was going to kill you for your failures? I'm not Darth Vader. Occasional failure is the only sure thing in any campaign, and we don't exactly have so many men that our leaders can wander around killing everyone that makes a mistake. There was nothing you could have done. If the Wild Horse had been operational, you would have lost far more miserably than you did."
Terry wiped his brow in relief, then thought of something. "Um, sir, how do we know that the hyperspace cooridates aren't a trap?"
"We don't. I doubt that Saotome has the resources necessary to use such a strategy, but after the last battle, I'll take nothing for granted. That's why I've notified the local authorities of Saotome's presence. We'll simply wait in their shadow, and when the time is right, we will strike. You are dismissed."
Terry Orn saluted, then left in a most military fashion.
Tanya walked up to her employer from the shadows, and he slipped an arm around her waist.
"Saotome...... perhaps I have finally found a worthy challenge after all."
Tanya smiled and kissed the man's forehead. "I think so. We're facing a man with the power of an army."
Garrion smiled himself. "Indeed. This game has only begun. I think it's time to put down a few of my pieces."
Theadore hit the button on the comlink on his desk, and then spoke into the reciever.
"Send him into my office."
The voice that came back was uncertain. "Uh, sir, 'he' isn't here right now."
Garrion frowned. "Where is he?"
"I have no idea. He asked for instructions to the restroom forty minutes ago, and never came back."
Garrion and Tanya blinked. Then they jumped as the door to Garrion's quarters opened, and a male figure stepped out.
"Where the hell am I now? Where'd they hide that blasted men's room?!"
Garrion blinked, then settled down. Tanya was still surprised, and her hair was sticking out at odd angles.
"Ah, Ryoga Hibiki. I see you found your way here. Sort of." 'How did he get into my room without passing through here?'
The man turned toward Garrion, surprised. He wore black and yellow body armor, with a nice-sized blaster attached to his belt. He was tall, with a mop of messy black hair held out of his brown eyes by a black and gold bandanna.
"Are you Theadore?"
Garrion nodded. "That I am. Will you take a seat?"
Ryoga shook his head. "No thanks. I just want to find out where Ranma is and get out of here. The sooner I'm on his tail, the better."
Garrion looked at him for a moment, then shrugged. "Very well. You're the best bounty hunter that has offered to help us kill Ranma Saotome. Not to mention the only one that offered to do it for free."
Ryoga tapped his foot, annoyed and impatient.
Garrion cleared his throat. "The hyperspace coordinates are being loaded into your ship even as we speak. You are free to go."
Garrion had almost turned around in his chair before he swerved toward Ryoga again, who was heading back into his room.
"That's the wrong way."
Ryoga grinned sheepishly and tried to turn around, only to do a 360 and keep on going in the same direction.
Tanya facefaulted.
Garrion sweatdropped. 'Maybe I should have gone with Bobba Fett instead.'
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End Chapter 4
Chapter 4
by Black Dragon
revcoll@peoplepc.com
http://www.angelfire.com/anime2/fanficlair/index.html
Standard disclaimer applies. I don't own these characters, I just mess up their lives for my own entertainment. Wait a sec... I DO own most of these characters. Then why the heck am I still doing this for free?!
Chapter 4
Fighters and Cruisers and Huge, Organized Crime Syndicates, Oh My!
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*Fwoosh*
The hiss of air emptying and quickly fillng the small area he was enclosed in sounded against the walls of the small metal cell. Ranma took a deep breath as two large metal doors opened up before him. He stepped out of the airlock, and surveyed the scene. Two guards right outside the airlock looked at him nervously, their weapons at their sides.
Ranma glared at them. They flinched. Ranma took special note of their postures and expressions, and decided that they hadn't been ordered to shoot him in the back as soon as his back was turned.
An attractive brunette in a tight green officer's uniform (complete with short skirt and full low hem, of course) walked up to him.
"Ranma Saotome, I presume?"
Ranma looked her over for a moment, then replied. "The same."
The woman flashed a seductive smile at him. "My my, you're even better looking in person than on the holograms. This way, please."
Ranma blinked at the comment, then shook his head and followed her. Women.
************************************************************************** ********
"Ah, Ranma Saotome, it is a great honor to meet you in person."
Ranma sat down at the other end of the table, and looked at the man who had spoken. He was tall and thin, with a small pointed beard and glasses. His gray-brown hair betrayed his age.
"I was kinda surprised when I recieved a summons from a crime syndicate that isn't supposed to exist."
The man chuckled. "As if. Everyone knows that Shade exists, they just want to deny it publicly."
It was true. The alleged "greatest crime organization in the galaxy" Shade never boasted any of its achievements, or even made itself known. Most governmental agencies ruthlessly denied the group's existence, especially to the general public. Everything known about them had been obtained from drunken explorers and smugglers in bars and taverns.
Ranma didn't care about any of that, however. He just wanted to get this meeting over with. That woman that had led him here was currently looking him over, and it gave him the creeps.
"So'd you just call me here to chat, or are we gonna get down to business?"
The man smiled. "Ah, straight to the point, I see. Very well, but first I might inquire as to why you have no guards? It seems rather strange for a man of your reputation to just walk into a place like this unarmed."
Ranma snorted. "Who says I'm unarmed?" He reached behind his back, and procured an armed blaster rifle out what seemed like thin air.
The man across the table raised an eyebrow.
Ranma shrugged as he put the rifle away into who-knows-where, and clasped his hands together.
"So you're not. Still, it seems like quite a risk for a man such as yourself to appear before someone like me without a guard of some kind."
Ranma snorted. "Hey, I figure that if anyone weaker than me actually manages to kill me, then I deserve whatever I get."
The man smiled. "As you say. My name is Garrion Theadore."
Ranma smirked. "Well it's nice to meet you. You mind telling me why you asked us here all the way from Mallertia?"
Garrion nodded. "Of course. As you well know, your little band of thieves is quite the talk around the galaxy right now. You've made the news holos in almost every sector with sentient life, and chaos seems to follow you everywhere you go."
Ranma waved at him, annoyed. "Yeah yeah, stop telling me things I already know."
"Very well. Your group has caught the attention of Shade. Most of our leaders want you dead."
If Ranma was surprised or worried upon hearing this, he didn't show it at all.
"The reasons vary. Some say you're invading our territory, some fear you'll destroy or take over Shade in the near future, and some just want revenge for eliminating our little sub-organization on Triar.
Ranma blinked. "You owned those guys?"
Garrion smirked and stood up, his hands clasped behind his back. "Of course. We've been abducting spacecraft there for decades, and all of a sudden, in less than a week, BAM. It's gone. Triar was surprisingly profitable. I got a brand new luxury yacht myself."
Garrion paced a bit, then stopped and placed his hands on the table. "I'll be blunt, Saotome. I want you and your men to work for me. Talent and skill such as yours are far too valuable to either destroy or have working on another team. I want that talent to help us, not hurt us."
Ranma looked down for a moment, then looked up at Garrion. "So you called me here to hire me? What about all those officials in your organization who want me dead? I'm sure some of them have to be your superiors."
Garrion smiled. "Yes and yes. Some say when you can't beat them, join them, but I want you to be on our side before you destroy most of our fleets. As for my superior officers, I find that Tanya can be a lot of help 'persuading' them."
Ranma blinked. "Tanya?"
At that moment, he felt a chill down his spine. Right after that came a rather warm touch as the woman from before wrapped her arms loosely around his neck.
Ranma slowly looked behind him to see the buxom brunette grinning at him.
He started sweating nervously. It wasn't that he wasn't used to the near proximity of attractive women, but the way she was looking at him reminded him of the way certain large, toothy, aliens seemed to look at him when he wandered around on certain hostile worlds. But with somewhat..... less malicious intent.
Tearing his eyes from her predatory gaze, he was once again addressed by Garrion.
"Now, I can assure you that should you accept my offer, you and your men will be well cared for. You will recieve a nice starting rank, and salary, be given access to any and all technology and many other recources acquired by Shade, and even a few... bonus benifits.
Tanya purred as her hands started to slide down Ranma's chest. "I can assure you, the bonuses are the BEST."
Ranma started to sweat heavily before bolting out of his chair, leaving a very surprised Tanya standing by his seat.
Ranma took a deep breath, composed himself, and then started pacing himself as Garrion sat down. After a moment he stopped, and then regarded his host.
"Now let me see if I understand some of the catches here."
Garrion was about to say something, but Ranma held up his hand, forestalling any interruptions.
"And don't even think of telling me there are no strings attached. I'm smarter than that. Now I may not know much about politics, but I know plenty about human nature. Assuming that I was actually considering selling my freedom, privacy, ship, and overall well-being to Shade, I suppose that I would then be used as a hit man, destroying and killing who or what I'm told to. On top of that, not everyone in Shade is gonna accept us just because you've got Tanya sleeping with them. Uh, no offense, Tanya."
The forementioned woman only smiled more. "None taken. I like a man who speaks his mind."
Ranma sweatdropped, then continued. "Anyway, not everyone in Shade is gonna accept us, and if I'm not mistaken, due procedure for getting rid of someone like that in your organization is basically assassination, which I've certainly had my fill of back with your little sub-division. I could also expect my ship, room, and who knows what else bugged and armed to explode if I've proven to be unloyal or if someone feels like some fireworks. On top of all that, if me and my crew do too good a job as your employees, then naturally your leaders will start to fear that I'm too powerful and want to take their ranks away from them, or take over Shade, or both. Of course, it doesn't take much of an imagination to figure out what happens if we do too bad a job either."
Ranma finished speaking, and brought his hands behind his back. Garrion was at a loss for words.
".............................................................."
Eventually, he realized he was staring, and shook himself out of it.
"Um....... I really don't know what to say........... was that a 'no'?"
Ranma smiled and started to leave. "Yup! No way, no how. Thanks for the offer though. See ya!"
Ranma walked through the large blast doors, and the huge, thick sheets of metal closed with a *thud*.
Garrion blinked. Tanya walked up to him and wrapped around him in a hug, then started to caress his chest.
"I hadn't expected that......"
Tanya sighed. "Well, the man is strange for a pirate. He seems to understand us better than we understand ourselves."
Garrion nodded sagely, then pushed a button on the table. "This is a most unfortunate turn of events. I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this."
The comlink buzzed. "Hello?"
Garrion spoke into the receptor on his desk. "What is the status of the Wild Horse?"
The comlink went silent for a moment, then the same voice came back. "The Wild Horse is currently leaving the docking bay. It's going slower than usual, and oddly enough, its shields are down."
Garrion blinked. "Most unusual. Destroy it. Use EXTREME caution. These are not men to be trifled with lightly."
Garrion switched off the comlink before the person on the other end could utter "yes sir" and turned toward Tanya.
"What a waste of talent and technology. Ah, well, if you can't join them, destroy them!"
Tanya smiled, then brought a finger to her lip with a bemused expression on her face. "It's really too bad. He was just too cute."
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
Ranma immediately noticed something was wrong the moment he stepped back on board the Wild Horse. For one thing, a lot of lights were off, as well as some other displays on the bridge. He wandered over to where Arak was playing some mech simulator against Rac.
Ranma tapped Arak on the shoulder, and the smaller man wheeled around in his chair.
"Hey, what's with all the lights and stuff? Is there something wrong with the main reactor?"
Arak shook his head. "Well, yes, but that's not what's causing it. The readouts were showing a bit of strain on the generator from the Apocolypse cannon, so Rayden's giving the reactor a once-over to see if there's anything wrong. We're currently running on the secondary generator."
Ranma blinked, then shrugged. The secondary reactor was a backup generator, for use when the main generator was damaged or destroyed, or when just undergoing maintenence, like now. It had power relays only to essential ship functions, such as life support, engines and hyperdrive, Rac, and the hangar.
"All right. Let's get out of here."
"Right aw-"
*Beep* "ENEMY WEAPON SIGNATURE DETECTED."
Ranma and Arak stopped, and slowly digested that piece of information. Ranma managed to sum it up by himself.
"Oh, fudge."
*Blaaaaaam!!!* The entire bridge seemed to shake as the first laser blasts hit, meeting no resistance as they seared into the armor plating of the light frigate.
Rac's voice reverberated throughout the bridge. "THE ENEMY NUMBERS 2 STRIKE CRUISERS, AN INTERDICTOR FRIGATE, AND 2 DREADNAUGHTS. SUGGESTED ACTION: RAISING SHIELDS MIGHT HELP."
Ranma looked up to the viewscreen, and replied in a sarcastic voice, "Gee, it's a good thing you know so much about space battle strategy. Otherwise, we might not have thought of that."
*Kroooom!!*
*Beep* "TURBOLASER TURRET 3 OFFLINE. WAS THAT A YES OR A NO?"
Ranma growled. "Turn on the main reactor and activate the freakin' shields!"
*WhoooooooOOOOOOOOOO......*
Ranma let out a brief sigh of relief at the steady, rising hum of the nearby consoles regaining power.....
*Gzaaaaaaaaaaak!*
"YEEEEEEEEEOOOOOUUUUCH!!!!!"
..... Then let out a cry of panic as Rayden screamed, and the controls went black again.
*Beep* "MAIN GENERATOR OFFLINE. IT WOULD APPEAR THAT SHIKODAN IS CURRENTLY BEING USED AS A PRIMARY POWER RELAY. UNFORTUNATELY, HIS BODY LACKS THE REQUIRED CONDUCTIVIY OF SAID DEVICE."
*Booom!!*
*Beep* "TURBOLASER TURRETS 6 & 8 OFFLINE. PROTON TORPEDO LAUNCHER 3 IS OFFLINE. HULL BREACH ON THE STARBOARD SIDE. "
Ranma felt like banging his head on the wall. "All right, Arak, launch a shield probe, then drop all power consumption to passive minimum. I'm going out there in the Ion Storm."
Arak nodded nervously, then pushed a button, targeting the path of the incoming laser blasts.
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
Outside the Wild Horse, part of the hangar opened up, and a small rocket- propelled metal sphere popped out. It turned around in the proper direction, and then rocketed out into the vacuum.
Spears of deadly red light lashed out from the side of it as the probe managed to get within the flow of fire without getting hit.
Suddenly, eight long spikes shot out of the orb, and energy sparked from the tip of one spike to the next.
Energy filled the spaces between the points of the spears, and before long, the incoming blasts were being completely absorbed by the small shield cube.
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
Ranma grimaced as he dragged Rayden out of the main reactor core.
He should've expected this. He knew there was no way to predict it, but he should've at least thought of it.
The shield probe was another one of Arak's innovations. The small 4' x 4' sphere could erect a ludicrously powerful shield for the generator size. It had its drawbacks, of course. The generators worked themselves to the very limit, and always burned themselves out totally, making reuse impossible. And they were way too expensive to use liberally.
Ranma dropped Rayden off in the back of the hanger, then put on his flight helmet.
"Rac, when Rayden regains consciousness, tell him to help me out there, okay?"
"AFFIRMATIVE. GOOD LUCK."
Ranma smirked. "If I had to rely on luck, I'd be dead right now, and you know it."
Ranma jumped into the cockpit of the blue fighter, and did a quick pre- flight check before he gunned the engines, rocketing out into space.
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
"Sir, we're picking up a fighter emerging from the Wild Horse. ID confirms it as the Ion Storm."
Terry Orn, Captain of the Strike Cruiser Steel Hawk nodded. "That's Saotome's ship. Direct all cannon fire onto the fighter, save, maybe, 2 turrets per ship, to keep shooting at the Wild Horse. Speaking of which, what's the status on that blasted obruction?"
"The probe has erected a surprisingly strong shield directly in our line of fire. The shield is wide enough to block all incoming lasers."
"Tell those turrets still firing at the frigate to just keep firing on the probe until they break through it. And I want Saotome taken down! With or without his ship, his goal is to get out of here alive, and the only way to do that is to destroy the inderdictor. Launch all fighters, and have the fighters launching from the station target Saotome too."
"Right away, sir!"
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
Ranma grunted as he dodged the laser fire from the capital ships. He had to get rid of the interdictor, he knew that much, but to do it would take too much time for the Wild Horse, that was currently only a few laser barrages away from oblivion. And the fighters didn't help matters much.
Of course, there were ways of taking the thing down faster, but that left other complications.
The display in front of Ranma blinked as several fighters were launched from the Dreadnaughts and cruisers. Then a new cluster of dots appeared on his back sensor as the base launched their squadrons.
Ranma weaved in and out of the incoming turbolaser fire, almost as if he knew where the bolts were going before they were fired. He spared a glance at his sensor readings.
[18 fighters to bow, and 26 to stern. Hmm... Z-95 Headhunters. Look like Mark I's too. I thought that Shade was better equipped than that. Oh well, it's their loss,] Ranma thought as he studied the various dots on the display.
Ranma jerked the ship to the right of an incoming laser blast, and sent two rounds of fire into an incoming ship. The first two bolts broke the shields, while the second two slagged the cockpit, fusing the transparisteel with the surrounding metals, and twisting the former fighter into an unidentifiable ball of scrap.
Two other fighters met the same fate as the first as Ranma weaved through the lances of energy like a missile through a hailstorm. Ranma passed through the first wave, and hit the back jets as he turned, quickening his hairpin curve as he brought his lasers to bear against his next target.
Ranma swung to port slightly to avoid a turbolaser blast, then shredded two more Headhunters with his lasers. He quickly switched to torpedoes and launched one at a retreated fighter before turning back around as the two waves of fighters regrouped, then homed in on his position.
A bright blue flash of light and the disappearance of one of the little red dots on his sensor display marked the death of another fighter pilot.
A spark of lightning lancing out into space before disappearing, plus the fading of one of the little green dots on his sensor display marked the death of the shield probe.
[Damn! I guess I'm out of time. Have to do this now.]
All at once, hundreds of darts of red streamed out from behind him, a tribute to the foreboding presence of the swarm of fighters. What didn't miss and proceed ahead splashed against his shields, sending ripples of soft blue energy across the whole of the ship. Ranma grimaced and hit a button on his console.
His speed doubled almost immediately, as two engines not previously visible on the Ion Storm's backside made themselves known. Ranma rocketed out, far ahead of the fighters' effective firing range, moving beyond the two cruisers and finally slowing as he passed the interdictor and its Dreadnaught escort.
Ranma turned the Ion Storm around without stopping his momentum, and was treated to a view of the pursuing fighters as they passed over the bulky gravity generators of the interdictor frigate.
Ranma sweated as he flipped up the tip of his flight stick, revealing a translucent yellow button. If he did this right, and was real lucky, he just might be able to last long enough after the initial power drain to make the jump into hyperspace with the Wild Horse. If he wasn't lucky, well, then he was dead.
Ranma allowed a smirk to cross his face as he targetted the interdictor right behind the swarm of incoming fighters.
"Goodbye, losers! CHESTNUTS ROASTING ON A NEUTRON DISRUPTION FIELD!!!"
He pushed the button.
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
The front of the Ion Storm seemed to suddenly erupt into flames as a huge blue light appeared right in front of it, like a bright cyan barrier.
That was somewhat less impressive then the veritable river of proton torpedoes that erupted from the bulky fighter.
Like a machine gun, the fighter spat out the deadly blue missiles in quick succession. Several of the fighters were too stunned at the sheer number of projectiles to contemplate dodging them, and they were soon reduced to their base subatomic components. Most of those that managed to gather their wits in time got out of the way, and managed to survive as the torpedoes plummeted toward the helpless interdictor.
The crew of the frigate barely had time to panic as the waves of torpedoes hit, burning the already weak shields to nothing. The entire ship shook as the rain continued, and the crew had just finished falling down from the tremors when the ceiling above them disentigrated, leaving them to the mercy of the vacuum and the remaining missiles. Neither of which were particulalry merciful, of course.
The Dreadnaught rapidly pulled away from the barrage, its relatively small size allowing it to avoid most of the onslaught. The torpedoes were of course numerous but very inaccurate; they seemed to be going on totally random courses, using only the Ion Storm's general direction as a constant. Those that hit the Dreadnaught managed to burn through the shields and wreak some damage on the surface. Those that didn't hit anything merely continued on thier courses, heading off into infinity.
And at last it was over. The Ion Storm continued its steady path backward, the only evidence of the ridiculous expenditure of weaponry being the large scorch marks on the long spikes that jutted out of the fighter's front. The interdictor was gone; reduced to nothing but twisted, molten metal which quickly froze in the black void. Only seven of the fighters survived, most of them simply passing right by Ranma's fighter, too shell-shocked to do more than gape.
Most of them.
Ranma frantically flipped a single switch on his control board, trying to feed power into the engines and shields. At this point, either one would do, but many circuits had been overloaded, as releasing that much energy at once wasn't simple.
Ranma grunted as the Ion Storm shook from a fighter's lasers to its port. The inertial stabilizers momentarily useless, its pilot was tossed mercilessly inside the cockpit as it was struck again and again. A small top view of his fighter's superstructure began to turn red in certain areas, as did his list of currently functional systems.
Finally, the enemy fighters passed, and Ranma was alerted to a somewhat more prominent danger. The Dreadnaught, though having sustained a bit of damage, still had a perfectly operational turbolaser cannon on it. The hulking gray weapon turned its guns toward the Ion Storm, seeming to move with an almost deliberate slowness; as if the gunner wanted to make sure that this opportunity wasn't his imagination.
Ranma flipped the switch again and again, but he knew the effort was wasted. The power couplers had to have a certain amount of time before they could compensate for the energy drain. Ranma held no false hopes of suriviving a turbolaser bolt either; even with the remarkably durable armor of his fighter, a single round of turbolaser fire would vaporize his cockpit, at the very least.
That single round never came, however. Before the massive gun could fire, twin spears of white stabbed into it, and the boxy construct exploded, leaving a twisted, gaping hole in its side.
Ranma smiled as he watched a black, spider-like shape rocket by, raining laser bolts on the Dreadnaught.
He flipped the switch on his control board again, and his displays exploded with light, as power started flowing into the various systems again.
Ranma's smile grew even broader as he gunned the engines.
"It's payback time."
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
Terry gaped at the remains of the interdictor frigate, even as his crew regained enough of their wits to notice other things.
"Sir, the Wild Horse is moving again. Estimated time until it can get into hyperspace: 45 seconds."
Orn snapped out of it and turned towards the man that spoke. "Is there any way for us to take it out in that amount of time?"
"I'm sorry sir, no. We're not close enough for that."
"Captain! I've gotten an ID on the second fighter. It's the Dark Angel!"
Terry grimaced and lowered his head. 'So now we face both of them. This battle is lost. I must cut my losses while I can.'
"Order all units to retreat to our ships. It looks like Saotome won this one."
"Ummm....... that will be difficult, sir."
Terry glanced at the officer, certain that he wasn't going to like whatever the man had to say.
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
Outside the capital ships, the pilots of the seven remaining Z-95's were panicking. It was bad enough when the Dark Angel decided it was done with the dreadnaught and went after them, but now the Ion Storm was fully functional again and firing on them too.
The fighters didn't stand a chance.
Rayden fired constantly, boxing his target in with laser bolts and then hitting them hard, often going after a few targets at once.
Ranma seemed to stalk his prey, trailing them as they desperately tried to shake their pursuer, and then firing at just the right time. Not a laser was wasted, and he would always hit his mark.
Soon four more fighters met the fate of their friends caught in the torpedo barrage.
Five.
Six.
The last fighter of Garrion's squadrons dodged the Dark Angel's laser blast frantically as he tried to make his way back to the nearest capital ship.
Rayden resisted the urge to make some offhand comment about the force.
The last Headhunter weaved his way out of the laser barrage, only to get tagged by two streaks of white from the side.
Rayden's rather displeased voice echoed in Ranma's comlink.
"Hey! He was mine!"
Ranma grinned. "You slow, you blow. Deal with it. That's 41 down for me, 3 down for you, by the way."
Rayden muttered something about mutiny before speaking clearly into the comlink.
"You wanna have a run at the big guys before we take off?"
"Sure. Though my torpedoes are offline, so you'll have to do all the real damage."
Rayden's voice was far from disappointed. "Excellent."
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
As Arak tried to run damage control on the Wild Horse, he didn't notice that they were moving to go into hyperspace until Rac chose to inform him of their situation.
"RECIEVING SIGNAL FROM DARK ANGEL. IT WOULD APPEAR THAT RANMA AND RAYDEN ARE GOING TO STAY BEHIND FOR A BIT. WE, HOWEVER, SHOULD NOT TAKE THE RISK OF STAYING."
Arak glanced up at the viewscreen, not yet comprehending what was going on.
"What? What do you-?"
That's when he noticed the 3-D battle display, and the lack of a certain image.
"Hey, the interdictor's gone! We can get out of here!"
"AFFIRMITIVE. HOWEVER, SHIKODAN HAS REQUESTED THAT THEY CATCH UP WITH US LATER."
Arak walked over to the communications console. "All right then. We'll need to transmit the hyperspace coordinates first, of course."
Arak started to manipulate a few buttons, and one of Rac's spherical drones hovered up beside him.
"I WOULD NOT ADVISE-"
"There! Done! Now let's get out of here!"
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
Terry Orn sighed as he watched the Wild Horse warp into hyperspace. His expression turned to confusion as he noticed the two fighters heading toward the second Dreadnaught and strike cruiser.
'They would risk themselves just to exact revenge upon a few of our ships. Figures. Garrion will not be pleased. I'll be stripped of rank for certain! If I'm lucky......'
"Captain! Were picking up a transmission from the Wild Horse! It appears to be a set of hyperspace cooridinates, but it's not encrypted!"
Terry blinked, then grinned. Maybe he could still redeem himself. "My my. Ranma's crew does seem to be making an awful lot of blunders today. Notify Snake group at 683.97. Tell them to pursue and destroy the Wild Horse and any of its crew.
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
Ranma took one glance at his communications readout, then nodded as he and Rayden approached the Dreadnaught. Then he took another glance, and felt like banging his head on the nearest console.
"Arak, you IDIOT!!"
'The fool used the wrong frequency! Everyone with a com system can tell exactly where he's going!'
Ranma growled, then hit his comlink. "Ray, you hear me? We gotta make this quick! Forget about the Dreadnaught and go straight for the big one!"
Rayden's voice came back through the transmitter. "Right. I'm on it. I've already got the Dread's shields down, so you can make a couple of runs on it, just to give the techs something to fret over when it's repaired."
Ranma nodded and began his run.
On the Dark Angel, Rayden skimmed through the turbolasers almost recklessly, diving toward the strike cruiser. The ships were far larger than the Wild Horse, and their shields were that much more powerful, too. Therefore, getting through would require some...... special measures.
Rayden shot past the laser turrets without firing a shot. As he passed over the starboard edge of the vessel, he spun around without losing his momentum, momentarily becoming a sitting duck to any gunners.
Unfortunately for the gunners, the turbolaser turrets were too bulky and massive for such quick targeting.
Rayden flipped open a switch on his control board, then pushed the small button below it.
"Launching plasma grenades! Let's burn!"
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
The Dark Angel shot away from the incoming fire of the turbolaser cannons, pausing only long enough for two small cylinders to pop out from just above his torpedo launchers.
The twin cylinders slowly made their way through space, and began a lazy arc toward the cruiser's hull, as the magnetic casing latched onto the only metal within 100 meters. As they made their way to the ship, the small tubes seemed to start glowing, then catch on fire as they were slowly engulfed by an orangish-yellow flame.
When the grenades hit the shields of the cruiser, the hot plasma that surrounded them seemed to flare up, and then started to spread across the bubble of charged ions. The superheated substance glided over the energy field like a liquid, piling up at certain points and releasing small streams of superheated flame.
Those on the Steel Hawk had to agree that it was the most beautiful weapon they had ever seen, putting the dancing lights of the brightest nebulae to shame. Most of the gunners were so mesmerized by the sight that they just stopped shooting, leaving their sister ship to the Dark Angel's mercy.
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If you were inside the shield that the plasma was flowing over, then it was somewhat less beautiful. And if you had something else far more important to worry about, then the flowing river of plasma was of an entirely different consequence.
"Sir, our shields are being totally drained! Our deflector screens will be down in seconds!"
The captain didn't even have time to yell "what?!" before the thin cyan barrier gave out, disappearing before the assault of liquid flame.
The plasma, now with nothing to hold onto, slowly crept up to the armor of the cruiser, its vast bulk providing enough of a gravitational field to act as an anchor. It burned at the metal, peeling away layers of durasteel like skin under a stream of acid.
Of course, that was nothing compared to what the torpedoes did.
*Ka-kroom!!* *Shoooooom!*
Gaping wounds appeared in the cruiser's armor as the very atomic structures of the base materials were corrupted and destroyed, punching holes into the mighty warship. Atmosphere was leaked out into space as bulkheads were melted down to slag, then frozen into irregular blobs in the cold, hard vacuum.
Rayden hit a button on his console, and the intro music from Gundam Wing started playing.
He hummed along with the tune as he streaked over the hull of the cruiser, blasting away laser turrets and indiscriminately firing off torpedoes.
He stopped over a certain portion of the cruiser, linked his torpedo launchers, then created a nice big tunnel into the ship's power core. He flipped up the switch on his control panel, then launched two more grenades into the cruiser's main generator. With that he gunned his boosters, and got to a nice safe distance before the reactor went critical, blowing the hulk of metal in half and spewing debris out into space.
'Hmph. The jerks deserved it too.' He flipped on his communicator. "Ranma, I'm good to go. You ready to get out of here?"
The comm unit buzzed briefly before Ranma's voice came back. "I'm ready. Let's jet. Good job on the cruiser. Oh, and thanks for saving my hide back there."
Rayden grinned. "What, are you kidding? Do you have any idea how many women would be out for my blood if they found out I let you kick the bucket?"
There was an unintelligable noise on the other end of the unit, then Ranma's voice came back. "Shut up and hit the hyperspace cooridinates. And you can bet that me and Arak are going to have a LONG talk if we make it out of this in one piece."
Rayden nodded, and started up the hyperspace engines.
Outside, the crews of the Steel Hawk and the cripple Dreadnaught could only stare helplessly as the two fighters were immersed in pools of blue- white light.
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Captain Terry Orn sweated nervously as Garrion paced before him, going over the events of the battle. Eventually Garrion turned to regard the captain, and then placed both his hands on the table.
"So you lost."
Orn gulped and slowly nodded.
"The Wild Horse had no shields, no weapons, the entire ship was totally helpless, and you couldn't destroy it before two fighters destroyed our interdictor.
Terry began to speak. "I-I'm sorry sir. We-we had n-no way of knowing that Saotome's fighter was capable of that kind of firepower......"
Garrion seemed to think this over, then nodded.
"Indeed, you couldn't have known. Everything that happened was given that little extra sting by the fact that we didn't know what to expect. We cornered a wounded lion, and we payed the price."
Garrion looked up at Orn, and gestured him away. "You may go now. I recognize that you are not responsible for the losses, and we need the Steel Hawk to assist Snake group in hunting the Wild Horse down."
Terry looked surprised. "So... I'm free to go?"
Garrion grinned. "Of course. Did you think I was going to kill you for your failures? I'm not Darth Vader. Occasional failure is the only sure thing in any campaign, and we don't exactly have so many men that our leaders can wander around killing everyone that makes a mistake. There was nothing you could have done. If the Wild Horse had been operational, you would have lost far more miserably than you did."
Terry wiped his brow in relief, then thought of something. "Um, sir, how do we know that the hyperspace cooridates aren't a trap?"
"We don't. I doubt that Saotome has the resources necessary to use such a strategy, but after the last battle, I'll take nothing for granted. That's why I've notified the local authorities of Saotome's presence. We'll simply wait in their shadow, and when the time is right, we will strike. You are dismissed."
Terry Orn saluted, then left in a most military fashion.
Tanya walked up to her employer from the shadows, and he slipped an arm around her waist.
"Saotome...... perhaps I have finally found a worthy challenge after all."
Tanya smiled and kissed the man's forehead. "I think so. We're facing a man with the power of an army."
Garrion smiled himself. "Indeed. This game has only begun. I think it's time to put down a few of my pieces."
Theadore hit the button on the comlink on his desk, and then spoke into the reciever.
"Send him into my office."
The voice that came back was uncertain. "Uh, sir, 'he' isn't here right now."
Garrion frowned. "Where is he?"
"I have no idea. He asked for instructions to the restroom forty minutes ago, and never came back."
Garrion and Tanya blinked. Then they jumped as the door to Garrion's quarters opened, and a male figure stepped out.
"Where the hell am I now? Where'd they hide that blasted men's room?!"
Garrion blinked, then settled down. Tanya was still surprised, and her hair was sticking out at odd angles.
"Ah, Ryoga Hibiki. I see you found your way here. Sort of." 'How did he get into my room without passing through here?'
The man turned toward Garrion, surprised. He wore black and yellow body armor, with a nice-sized blaster attached to his belt. He was tall, with a mop of messy black hair held out of his brown eyes by a black and gold bandanna.
"Are you Theadore?"
Garrion nodded. "That I am. Will you take a seat?"
Ryoga shook his head. "No thanks. I just want to find out where Ranma is and get out of here. The sooner I'm on his tail, the better."
Garrion looked at him for a moment, then shrugged. "Very well. You're the best bounty hunter that has offered to help us kill Ranma Saotome. Not to mention the only one that offered to do it for free."
Ryoga tapped his foot, annoyed and impatient.
Garrion cleared his throat. "The hyperspace coordinates are being loaded into your ship even as we speak. You are free to go."
Garrion had almost turned around in his chair before he swerved toward Ryoga again, who was heading back into his room.
"That's the wrong way."
Ryoga grinned sheepishly and tried to turn around, only to do a 360 and keep on going in the same direction.
Tanya facefaulted.
Garrion sweatdropped. 'Maybe I should have gone with Bobba Fett instead.'
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End Chapter 4