The battle for Gateway
Chapter 2: Combat
Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½.
Authors note: Thank you Innortal and Protector from chaos for reviewing.
The Allied Earth Forces Sulaco left Jupiter's orbit and was on its way to hook up with the rest of the fleet, everyday life went on as people went on with their jobs, the captain of the Sulaco sat in his chair on the bridge looking over some reports as the bridge crew commonly known to the fighter pilots as the 'bridge bunnies' go about their daily business. In the mess hall people eat, drink and talk except for Ranma who was talking to Nabiki in his quarters.
"So Ranma, what have you been up to since Earth?"
"Well, I'm the only original member of my squadron left alive and I've clocked up over two hundred hours of combat." Ranma replied as he pulled out a photo of the original squadron and passes it to Nabiki who looks at it and notices the name stencilled onto one of the fighters.
"Fresh meat?"
"It's a name that all new pilots are known by 'cause some don't see past first combat." Ranma replied as Nabiki handed the photo back and Ranma puts it away and walks over to the wardrobe and grabs his flight jacket and puts it on as the sirens go making him and Nabiki run to the launch bays where one of the techs hands Ranma his helmet and runs off to help load the missiles onto one of the fighters as Nabiki and Ranma get into their separate fighters and put on their helmets and close the cockpits and wait for clearance.
"You ready or your first taste of real combat?" Ranma asked over the intercom in his helmet as the rest of his squadron check in and once clearance has been given all the techs leave the launch bay before Rouge squadron take off ahead of the other squadrons.
"I don't see anything."
"Check Radar." McQuade said through the intercom making everyone check their radar when Ranma's fighter picks them up, "BEHIND US!" he shouted causing them all to break formation just as two squadrons of enemy fighters descend on them "son of a…" Nabiki said as she banked her fighter round and put her finger on the trigger as her fighter went towards an enemy fighter and pressed down releasing laser blasts from the guns on the underside of the wings and nose, "congrats, Nabs your first kill." Ranma said.
"But…"
"Look, its either kill or be killed out here." Came the reply as Ranma flew his fighter beside Nabiki's and waved to her before motioning for her to dive in which they both do "they're short range fighters, there has to be a carrier around here." Ranma said as he extended his radar search and found what he was looking for.
"McQuade, Jonesy you're with me and Nabs, we've found the source of our problem."
"Roger that, but why is one of the fresh meat pilots with us?" Jonesy asked as the two pilots came down and joined Ranma and Nabiki on each side of them.
"What's the plan?"
"We're going to buzz that carrier down there." Ranma replied as he tipped his fighter and the others do the same and see it. "Ready missiles." Ranma said before he dives and the others follow and so do several of the enemy fighters making Jonesy and McQuade peel off the attack and deal with the other fighters as Ranma and Nabiki avoid lascannon fire coming from the enemy carrier.
"Ready?"
"As I'll ever be." Nabiki replied as she followed Ranma's lead and they start firing the missiles and guns at the gun turrets and fly low against the enemy carrier "I got one missile left and I know where I'm going to place this one." Ranma said before he pulled up his fighter from his current course and Nabiki does the same and they both head off towards the bridge avoiding enemy fire. When they reach the bridge Ranma fires his last missile at the bridge before he and Nabiki leaves and head back to the Sulaco and land before some techs run to each of their fighters before they both get out and leave their helmets in their fighters before they walk off.
"It's good to see Ranma with another women."
"Yeah, sort of had me worried since Yui died." Jonesy replied before the rest of Rouge squadron leave and go to the mess hall whilst Ranma and Nabiki head off to the reccy room where other people play pool, darts and various other pub games and the two sit down and talk.
Later
Ranma and Nabiki leave the reccy room and go their separate ways back to their quarters to bed down for a few hours except Nabiki couldn't sleep and stared at the ceiling of her room "am I falling for Ranma?" she asked herself thinking back to the first time that they had met and got off on the wrong foot and all the cons she had involved him in whilst he was living in Nerima with her family, while Ranma sat on his bed staring at the floor when someone walks in.
"Can I talk to you?"
"Sure." Ranma replied as he looked up and towards the door and sees one of the new pilots walk in "I wanted to talk to you about Nabiki."
"And you are?"
"Sorry sir, Claire McKenzie."
"Okay Claire, what did you want to take about Nabiki for?" Ranma asked as she sat down on a chair.
"Well sir, I was wondering how you knew Nabiki?"
"No need to call me sir when we're off duty, I first met Nabiki years ago and it's a long story." Ranma replied as he tells Claire how he had met Nabiki and some of his misadventures whilst he was living in Nerima before Claire left and he begins to remember what happened all those years ago and why he joined up when the rest of his squadron pile into his room with beer.
"What's the occasion?"
"Nothing, we just got some beer from the mess hall." Jonesy replied as he passed a beer to Ranma and opens it before taking a mouthful and places it between his feet and looks at the rest of his squadron "you know if we're caught holding beer, we're fucked." Ranma said and the replies of killjoy were directed at him along with hisses and booing.
Next day
Ranma wakes up and looks around and sees the rest of his squadron sleeping amongst empty bottles of beer before standing up and walking over them and looks up and down the corridor and finds no one walking about so he goes back inside and grabs his jacket and head off to the reccy room and finds all the pilots and the techs looking out of the windows.
"Hey, what's going on?"
"We've hooked up with the rest of the fleet." One of the techs replied as Nabiki motions for Ranma to go over to her and he begins to move through the crowd to where Nabiki is and they look at the fleet.
"This the captain speaking, as you can see we have hooked up with the rest of the fleet for an assault on Mars." The captain said over the intercom waking the rest of Rogue squadron up and they wonder what the hells going on before everyone comes out of the reccy room and head off to their quarters and get their kit ready, the ground assault troops pack their kit ready for when the actual assault begins whilst the techs go over the landing ships and make adjustments to the fighters and load missiles and reload the gun pods before refuelling them.
R&R