"Breakout!" called the helmsman. The word was the culmination of one of the most anxious time of Nabiki's life. Ever since the Nemesis hit full lift every effort had been focused on surviving the next few minutes. At full lift there was effectively nothing external that anyone could do to interfere with the mission, the mechanics of the way the ship managed those speeds just prohibited it. But the moment the ship dropped back into real-space they would be vulnerable, more vulnerable than at any other moment before. The ship would still be using its power to slough off the excess energy of the full lift and unable to so much as raise a flicker shield.
If news of their destination had leaked, if the aliens had soehow managed to track their trajectory, if they were expected then they would be flying into a trap. They could expect a veritable fleet of hostiles waiting to welcome them with heated plasma. In their disabled ship their mission would come to a sudden dead halt.
So the massive ship was already in Red alert. The pilots were locked into their fighters, ready at their launch tubes. Gunners and point-defence operatives sat at their stations, waiting the moment the ship could divert enough power to make their efforts worthwhile. The battle bridge was fully manned. Everywhere the Dark Angels were on the edge of their nerves, prepared for the fight of their lives.
"Deploy!" ordered Cmdr Hayes over the Skull squadron tac-net, initiating the sudden acceleration of the pilots' vessels. Almost as one the squadron's pilots were pressed back into their seats, mass-driver catapults combining with vehicle engines accelerating them to tactical speeds in a matter of moments.
Ranma was one of the first out of the launch tubes, fighting off the threatened black-out and fighting the modified Valkyrie for control. His scanner flashed into life, desperately trying to make sense of the occupants of the starfield around them. Each friendly craft deployed from the Nemesis lit up in brilliant blue, unknowns in green and as yet no red unfriendlies.
With the others he scrambled for the Skulls' rendezvous, RV, point, boosters glowing a fiery orange, heavy lasers lit up and ready. Even as they began arriving messages were being relayed from the Nemesis. As Ranma took up his position on the leading edge of the Skulls' circling offensive crescent Misato's voice broke in over the tac-net.
"Primary threat not present. Do not stand down!" she ordered. "Locals identified as Alien unknowns. Proceed with caution."
Roy gave the order and the Skulls gunned their engines heading for the distant orange symbols that sat on their readouts. Behind them the Firestorms fell in to form the Nemesis's defensive screen and the lightning bombers formed up into their own crescents.
"Yuri and Ranko" Roy ordered "Close recon. Who are they, what are they doing?"
"Roger" the two replied, hitting their turbos and shifting up and taking their craft to the limit of their design specifications.
"This bitch is kicking like a mule!" Yuri complained, "make it stop Kei! I've got a date this evening!" As they rocketed towards the orange blips they gradually resolved themselves into real structures. In the middle was a large silver-grey, three pointed-star with a hub that blossomed like an obscene flower extending from its centre around it were a small clutch of spiky diamond shaped satellites. The space station at the centre glowed along its underside with a familiar orange Elerium fuelled light.
"I'm reading some new craft" Ranma replied; only twitching a little at Yuri's 'nickname' for him. Indeed three new icons had appeared on his readout, heading from the station, "Ops, can you get a more precise reading?"
"Read as three new bogeys, Wraith class, same as you met on the Endeavour," Misato reported, only realising afterwards that she had let a secret out of the bag.
"So lets see just how much better these guns are" Ranma muttered, jinking round into an attack vector. He didn't need to pass the message to Yuri, she fell in on his wing automatically, just as they had practised on the sims.
"Angels," Misato warned, "the furthest one is making a break for it. We cannot let it escape! Kill it now!"
"Cover me!" Ranma ordered, before suddenly pulling out the stops. His engine roared into life, his readouts simultaneously red-lining.
"Shit" swore Yuri, following suit.
Together they charged the remaining formation, splitting wide in opposite directions at the very last moment. Plasma light splashed off their shields, stripping them away like so many Moroccan veils.
"OW!" swore Yuri, "They're picking on me!" Indeed the two had both turned to attack the rear fighter. "They're just jealous cuz I'm so beautiful!"
"I'm after the runner!" Ranma told her.
"Wait!" Yuri swore "What about me?"
"Handle it!"
"What happened to never deserting a wingman?"
"Only counts for amateurs." Ranma informed her.
"I might get killed!" Yuri swore, "Or even worse bruised somewhere people might see!" Ranma ignored her and dumped more energy into the reactor. It complained, lights flashed, safeties tried to engage. Tomo had ripped then out days ago.
"Just a little further" Ranma whispered, "Come on baby, just a little more!" As if it heard him the bucking craft suddenly levelled and started to run smooth, there was a moments silence and then the whole craft leapt forwards with an almighty explosion that shook Ranma from his teeth to his toes. Spots burst in front of his eyes like fireworks over Sydney Harbour.
"MOTHER " he swore through gritted teeth. Suddenly his display lit up, a weapon lock. He jabbed the safety and squeezed off all his missiles, unable to make out more than the sudden extra flaring in front of his craft.
"CRACK" something in his ship gave, the noise transferring through its superstructure. Suddenly all semblance of control disappeared and he was thrown violently to the side, wrenching against the straps. He heard the double beep of a successful hit and then his world tore itself apart.
"oops"
o
o
o
Meanwhile Yuri was having the fight of her life. Whatever guns these 'wraiths' were packing were making short work of her shields and the little gits were doing a very good job of preventing her from getting much of a reprisal in.
So she dodged, and dodged and dodged. With an amazing set of high-g manoeuvres she managed to keep the damage down. By dumping her weapon's batteries into her shields she even managed to avoid too many penetrating shots.
"Er Guys?" she asked, "a little help?"
"Break oh one fifty" ordered Roy and she did what the hell she was told.
For the two alien craft what had been a turkey shoot suddenly went pear shaped. The void lit up with stabbing orange light, tearing into their all but untouched shields. They realised the sudden change in odds in time to make a run for it. They hauled their smart little craft around, pointing their noses at the distant starfields of home.
As they banked to run a barrage of missiles, coming in from nearly every direction, tore their vessels out from under them. Suddenly the alien pilots were exploded into vacuum and suffering the consequences. The last view of the eldest one was the hawklike wing of one of these invading fighters, as its projected shield tore him apart at the near cellular level.
In space no one can hear you scream. If you are an alien no one cares.
o
o
o
"Mission report" the words were written up on the screen, but they were meaningless. Nabiki had watched the entire show from her place on the bridge. From the moment 'Ranko' had taken point she had just known that it was not going to be a good day. Sh had watched her husband's craft's readouts red-out. She had seen the pilot life sign displays jump wildly, she had seen its sudden lurch and she had seen it scatter itself across the starfield.
Nabiki knew that she should have been happy, they had passed Breakout without any damage to the Nemesis. They had faced the enemy and won, a small victory but a vital one nonetheless. Three aliens taken out, plus a minor base station, and without losing a single craft to enemy action. The stats were better than they could have hoped for. But at that moment none of that mattered, Nabiki sat in her chair, hollow inside, it was now two hours since the Nemesis had entered Alien space and there was still no sign of her husband.
"- and following the incident in the hangar we are now two valkyries down." Misato's slurred voice droned on.
"Wait!" commanded Lisa, "Two?"
"Yes, er, pilot Valentine seems to have, er, forgotten to, er, lock her landing skids. Her fighter sort of crashed…"
"So we toast the bugs, without so much as a hint of danger, and TWO pilots trash my ships?" Lisa demanded. "I should have known, those girls are a bloody menace, permission to revoke flight status Ma'am!" To her shame Nabiki almost agreed, she knew Ranma would hate it, would scream and curse. But if that was the price of having him still breathing she would willingly pay it.
"Ma'am" prompted Lisa, only to be stopped by Misato's gentle touch.
"No" Nabiki said. "He is alive! Misato find him!" And with that she got up and left, leaving a very confused command staff.
"Aye Aye ma'am" Misato replied to the empty air. Then turning to Lisa she met the woman's mask of confusion with her own drunken determination, "increase the pattern, all ships!"
"But-
"Now!" Misato replied, "It's the least we can do, the least I can do" she quietly added, remembering the face of the man that had pulled her from the aliens' table all those years ago.
"I don't understand" Lisa admitted.
"Yours not to reason why…" Kodachi quoted, standing. "Come Akane we have work to do, HEEL!" she ordered and the very grumpy looking Akane followed, unable to comment because of a strategically placed duct-tape strip.
Lisa looked at Focker, he looked back trying for innocence, and together they looked at Evertett. The Colonel sat back, finally making the connections, he had the whelp now. A broad smile of triumph crossed his face.
"It seems, ladies and gentlemen, that the Captain" he all but spat the word "has been less than honest with us," He stood up, "Excuse me, I have some regulations to read."
Roy turned back to Lisa, who was suddenly looking at him very intently.
"You know something about this!" she stated.
"Er….. no?" he tried.
"Nice try pilot!" she observed, not meaning a word of it. "Spill!" she commanded.
o
o
o
Nabiki was in her quarters, playing with her daughter. The blessed child seemed oblivious to her mother's dark mood, instead concentrating on the latest adventures of "Baba" her doll. A doll that Kasumi had bought for her before they left, it had come wearing a pink dress and having ankle length blond hair. Ranma had helped his daughter make some modifications. Now 'Baba' wore grey combats, sported an array of weapons and had an identical cut to Kimiko's mother, but with red hair.
"Mama" Kimiko said
"Yes baby" Nabiki replied, lifting the child onto her lap.
"Daddy's okay" the child blurted, face serious.
"I hope
so baby" Nabiki responded, clutching the child into a hug.
"He
is" Kimiko asserted. "I can hear him." Nabiki raised an
eyebrow.
"You can?" she asked, "Where." Half humouring her child, and half deperate with hope.
"In here" Kimiko said tapping her head, "Daddy's sleeping now"
"Is he" Nabiki asked, hopes plummeting again.
"He's dreaming about you" Kimiko replied seriously, lip jutted out.
"What's he dreaming?" Nabiki asked, tolerantly.
"Its one of those things you are gonna tell me about when I'm olderer" Kimiko replied. "He's kissing you an you-"
"Whoa" Nabiki interrupted, "What did we tell you about listening to mommy-daddy stuff"
"The shrinks will cost too much" Kimiko said in a sing-song voice meant to sound like her mother. Nabiki squeezed her tightly, her smile back.
"Tell him to come home" Nabiki whispered.
"Okey dokey" Kimiko replied. waving her doll.
o
o
Drifting alone in space was not all it was cracked up to be. Ranma was all too aware that he was really stuffed, and the rate he was spinning meant that the view pretty much sucked too. The readouts had been saying bad ever since he first came to, apparently he had a chunk of his fighter stuck through his pack, killing all his suit's energy reserves. Without energy he was stuck with the air in the tanks, the very little air in the tanks. Fortunately that wouldn't be a problem, without power he was going to freeze to death first. He was already numb everywhere but behind his left eye, for some reason the only place he could feel his body's protests.
Deep within his Zen-shin he had slowed his heart rate and breathing to levels just beyond collapse, fully aware that this was not going to help his frostbite, but resigned to fight until the end. He had thought about stabilising his trajectory but decided that the energy expended was better used keeping him alive. He had effectively resigned himself to suffering severe frostbite and possibly losing appendages, in return he was doing everything he could to keep his brain fed.
Despite all of this he was slipping in and out of consciousness. Delirium freely mixing with reality. He had lost all track of time, At this very moment he was just coming out of a particularly vivid dream about Nabiki, some chocolate sauce and a waterbed. He wasn't that gutted though, Kimiko had come running into the room just before the dream had faded and they had been forced to scramble to hide their 'mommy-daddy stuff.'
Suddenly his arm hurt. This was a very new feeling, he had thought that it was dead some time ago. At the same moment the starfield came into sharp focus, this was also new. Somewhere in his mind a small voice was shouting something but whatever it was the rest of Ranma was far too absorbed in the arm thing to care.
o
o
"Got him!" shouted Faye, she was operating a grapple arm and managing it with more than a little skill. Aboard a modified maintenance ERV she and her mismatched 'rescue crew' had been scouring the area. In the end they had given up on all the scientific help and just stabbed a marker into the starfield repeatedly. It had therefore come as quite a surprise to actually find the missing pilot. Which had brought them to this next problem, how to catch her. Hence the claw ended arm.
"Gently" demanded Spike, "we don't get no rewards if you break her now!"
"Shhh!" Faye corrected, "Like to see you do better!"
"then move over" he replied, as if to a child.
"Have you got her?" demanded the pint-sized pipsqueak at the other controls.
"Yes" replied Faye. "Now what?"
"I'll suit up and bring her in through the airlock" Spike said, pulling his shirt off. Faye looked at him, but refused to comment.
With a lot of work they managed to manhandle the well built; girl into the small ERV, and Edward was immediately there with the med kit, and a repair kit for the suit pack. Togther they pumped the pilot full of drugs designed to keep her breathing, and cranked up the heat on her suit and in the cabin.
When the redhead gave a low shuddering gasp they all breathed a big sigh of relief.
"Well hot-damn" Spike swore, "This has got to be worth an extra pass!"
"At least" agreed Faye, and they were soon heading back for Nemesis at full throttle.
It was only when Ed 'eeped' that they turned to look at their passenger again. Ed had tried to help with a warm sponge, with some very unexpected results.
"Er..correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't he a she just now?" Faye asked, nobody replied.
o
o
o
"Ow!" Ranma swore. He had awoken a few seconds ago, lying on a medical couch. The first thing he had seen was the angry face of his Master Sergeant Major. The next thing he saw was her fist. "What the hell was that for?" he demanded, noting that something was off.
"Frightening me you twerp!" she swore, and punched him again for good measure. They were just the gentle taps that the two of them had long used to emphasise certain points but at this moment with pins and needles affecting every inch of his body the extra pain was less than welcome.
Then Ranma finally noticed, 'his body'.
"I'm a guy!" he said.
"Well done dummy" Laura replied, "Not much of one but hey I guess it was cold or something"
"What?" he asked looking down and noticing that yes, he was naked, and yes the cold had affected him. "Oi!" he demanded looking around for clothes. In doing so he tried to sit up, it didn't work. "Ow" he complained again.
"If you think that hurts" Laura whispered, helping him to lean back slowly, "think what Nabiki's gonna do to you later"
"Shit" he swore, half in pain and half in anticipation.
"Get better stud," she whispered mockingly, but squeezing his hand gently, "we're gonna need you."
Before he could ask what she was talking about he was lowered into the regenerative green goo below.