The battle for Gateway

Chapter 4: War games

Authors note: I can't believe this story getting all those reviews so far in such a short space of time. Tai Kahn I will mention what happened in this chapter… ENJOY!

Disclaimer: I own fuck all.

Nabiki walks into Ranma's room with a cup of cold water in her hands and finds Ranma still asleep and throws the contents of the cup of Ranma before leaving "MCQUADE YOU'RE DEAD!" Ranma shouted as he ran out of the room and spots Nabiki looking at him.

"Which way did he go?"

"Why are you still male?" Nabiki asked as Ranma started to wring the water out of his tank top, "After I left Nerima I met someone called Washu Hakubi slightly tapped but means well, she basically split my cursed form and gave her a body, she works on the bridge as a bridge bunny." Ranma replied before he walked back into his room and returned with a towel wrapped around his neck. "I'll show you." They both head to the bridge and find the bridge bunnies working when Nabiki notices Ranko working at the helm when Ranma walks over and talks to her before she looks over her shoulder then at Ranma "what's she doing here?" Ranko asked.

"Relax, she's one of the new pilots and making quite a name for herself." Ranma replied as Nabiki walked over and looked at Ranko "look, I'm sorry for all the things that happened in Nerima." Nabiki said as she held out her hand making Ranko look at her then shook Nabiki's hand before Ranma left and goes back to his room and finds a letter before picking it up and reading it.

To Rogue squadron

We of Alpha squadron on the AEF Altron challenge you to a friendly war game; unless you are too scared to fight a real squadron, we await your reply.

The pilots of Alpha squadron

"That does it." Ranma said as he left his room with the letter in his hand and rounds up the rest of his squadron and they hold a meeting in the hanger "so, we going to reply to their little challenge?" McQuade said as he passed the letter to Jonesy "I owe one of them a punch."

"What do you guys think?" Ranma asked the other pilots of his squadron "I say we do it." Whistler replied as she handed the letter to Ritchie "I say we go for it."

"Alright, you've convinced me."

They leave and Ranma replies to Alpha squadron and tells the captain of their challenge and get some techs to modify the gun pods on their fighters so they would fire blanks and word spread amongst the crew of the challenge and Nabiki had set up a betting pool and was already taking in bets as Rogue squadron await the reply from Alpha squadron.

"Hey Ranma, why don't you talk about your past?"

"There's nothing to talk about." Ranma replied, as the others looked at him "bullshit!" they all replied at the same time "okay." Ranma replied.

Flashback

After the failed wedding Ranma went up to the guest room and packed his bag and came downstairs with it on his back and finds Akane fuming looking at him.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm enlisting." Ranma replied as he goes to walk past her but Genma blocks his way "OH THE SHAME, YOU UNGRATEFUL HONOURLESS BOY!" Genma bellowed. "Honour? What do you know about honour, all those people that you sold me to so that you could fill your greedy stomach." Ranma replied before he started to walk away when Akane summons her mallet and goes to swing for Ranma but Ranma turns round and punches Akane through a wall.

"WAH! MY BABY!"

"Oh shut up you cry-baby." Ranma said to Soun as he goes into his demon head and Ranma just looks at him with a cold glare in his eyes making Soun back off as Ryoga enters the scene "PREPARE TO DIE!" the war cry of the lost boy as he charged at Ranma only to receive a kick that sends him backwards before he walks away and Genma tries to stop him only to end up embedded in the floor as Ranma walks past and out of the gate and out of view as the rest of the fiancé brigade arrives.

End flashback

When they get a message from Alpha squadron they scramble their fighters and wait for them when they come into view in their x-wing style fighters without the top two wings and a cannon on each wing "okay, lets sort out the rules." Ranma said through the intercom in his helmet "if you've been hit in the aft of your fighter or any other major area you return to your ship… agreed?"

"Agreed, last pilot remaining of either squadron is the winner." Ranma replied before they scatter and soon the game began with two of Alpha squadrons fighters on Ranma's tail dodging laser fire before he dived down as McQuade's fighter got the two chasing Ranma.

"TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!"

"Don't get too cocky McQuade." Ranma said as he watched McQuade's fighter get hit and returns to the Sulaco as Ranma banked his fighter and brought it round to help Whistler and fired his cannons on the fighter chasing her and hit it before it heads back to the Altron as the game continues and people were watching from the bridges, reccy room and anywhere that had windows as both squadrons went head to head as both squadrons started to lose people and soon it was Ranma and Alpha squadrons leader on Ranma's tail firing constantly hoping to hit Ranma when Ranma looks at his radar and notices a debris field and heads towards it at full speed with the other fighter chasing him when he gets amongst it and turns his engines off waiting for the right time to turn the engines back on. The last pilot of Alpha squadron in the game flew round the debris field scanning for Ranma's fighter, inside Ranma's fighter he cranes his neck and looks up as the other fighter flew other him before he restarted his engines and chased the other fighter watching the targeting system track the other fighter and opened fire as the other fighter got into the centre of his filed of fire winning the game for the AEF Sulaco and heads back and lands before taking off his helmet and gets out placing his helmet on the seat and turns round and sees the techs and everyone else clapping and cheering as he walked down the ladders and McQuade and Jonesy lifted him on their shoulders as the crowd parts and they walk down the gap and get to the steps and they put Ranma down and he heads off to the showers.

Later

Ranma walks into his room and lies down on the bed before looking at a photo of the original Rogue squadron line-up and the other line-ups of the squadron to the current line up when Nabiki walks into his room wearing her flight jacket and a pair of jeans and sits on a chair.

"Yes?" Ranma asked.

"I see you still answer challenges."

"Only the ones that insult the honour of Rogue squadron." Ranma replied as he sat on the bed "it seems that you're making quite a name for yourself."

"I am?"

"You may not realise it, but you are." Ranma replied, elsewhere McQuade and Jonesy sit in the mess hall with a deck of cards playing solitaire "I wonder what Ranma an that Nabiki girl are up to?" McQuade asked when the rest of the squadron walk in "best not to think about it man." Jonesy replied as the others sit down with them.

"So, what's the current topic?" Whistler asked.

"Ranma's love life." McQuade replied as he reshuffled the deck and put them away when Whistler leans across the table "and what was that meant to mean?" she asked grabbing hold of McQuade's jacket.

"Have you seen how close that Nabiki girl and Ranma are?"

"Well, come to think of it… yeah." Whistler replied as she let go of McQuade's jacket and he start down straightening his flight jacket out "so, what's the plan?" Ritchie asked making the rest of the squadron look at him.

"There's no plan, we just let this run it's natural course." Whistler said before they left and head to the reccy room to play some pool.

Authors note: Some of the Nerima gang will be appearing soon…. R&R.