The battle for Gateway

Chapter 7: Evacuation

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

Authors note: Half of that last chapter was written at night, and Ranko will come to play an important part in the later chapters.

Ranma, Nabiki and everyone else were waking up to sirens when Ranma bolts up and tips the table over waking up Nabiki, "what's all the commotion?" she asked as Ranma started to run down the steps "EVAC SIRENS GOING OFF!" Ranma shouted before Nabiki followed him and they meet up with the rest of Rogue squadron and Kasumi. "Head back to the Sulaco and prepare for launch." Ranma said as they head towards where the Sulaco is docked whilst all the crewmembers were running to their ships whilst the soldiers on the halfway house were more organised and formed orderly ques whilst the pilots that got n their carriers strapped themselves into their fighters and pulled their cockpits down after putting on their helmets and waited for the order to scramble, Kasumi watched as Ranma and the others strapped themselves in and closed their cockpits.

"Okay guys, usual drill."

"So Ranma, what about all those other women in your life?" McQuade asked as they waited for the order to scramble "who told you all that McQuade?" Ranma replied as the techs started to run, leaving all the fighters ready for combat as the Sulaco was ordered to leave and form a blockade with several of the other carriers to buy some time for the evacuation of the halfway house's population. The carriers forming the blockade launched their fighters "attack formation and good luck." Ranma said as he armed his missiles and the others do the same as they head to the enemy fleet to buy some time for the others "Jonesy, you know what you can have if I don't make it back." McQuade said as he followed the others into the attack by buzzing the lead ship and taking out some of the turrets before enemy fighters were launched and the AEF squadrons got most of the enemy fighters to follow them as they flew through trenches on the enemy ships, Ranma go several to follow him as he headed towards the bridge whilst dodging lascannon and enemy fire and headed towards the bridge before he pulled up and doubled back as two fighters went through the bridge causing he enemy ship to go down whilst parts of the ship exploded "we've done what we came to do, lets head home." Ranma said as he headed back to the Sulaco with the rest of his squadron and the other squadrons forming the blockade before they landed in their respective carriers and got out and took off their helmets before putting them back in their fighters and head off to the showers.

Meanwhile Kasumi and whatever people they could have before they were ordered to help form a blockade were in one of the spare hangers whilst an officer briefed them on their current situation before they were shown to their new quarters whilst Ranma and the other squadrons were in the reccy room relaxing after their mission "hey McQuade you never did tell me who told you?" Ranma said from the pool table.

"Your friend Kasumi, she told me."

"Now we got more grunts on board." Jonesy sighed before he threw a dart at the dartboard as Ranma took another shot on the pool table as several of the grunts walked in making everyone stop what they were doing and look at them before they went back to what they were doing as the grunts walked in "stupid fly boys." One of the grunts said making all the pilots stop what they were doing "hey, who saved yer asses back their." Whistler said as she stood up from her spot and joined the others before a fight broke out and soon it had ended up in the corridor, even Nabiki joined in and two hours later the fight ended with a victory for the pilots of the Sulaco, the bleeding had gone to the infirmary and Ranma found Kasumi attending to the wounded "oh my, that looks painful." Kasumi said as she treated Jonesy who had a nasty gash on his head.

"Feh, I'll survive."

Ranma watched from the door before he left and headed back to his quarters and sits on his bed and begins to think over the last few days before wondering what the future will hold before the others of Rogue squadron find him in his quarters sitting on his bed staring at the floor "HUP! GET UP AND CLEAN YOUR SHORTS!" McQuade shouted making Ranma look up at him and replies in his own way by punching McQuade in the solar plexus sending flat on his ass as Ranma got up and left his room and headed towards the bridge, when he gets their he finds Ranko sat at her station wearing her light grey uniform as he leans on the doorframe watching the bridge bunnies working before he left.

Meanwhile Nabiki lay on her bed staring at the ceiling when Ranma walks in "looks like you could use someone to talk to." Ranma said as he sat down on a chair opposite Nabiki as Nabiki sat up and looked at Ranma "just go away." Nabiki replied as she lay back down "you listened to me before I left Nerima and now I'm returning the favour." Ranma said as he puts his hands behind his head and stretched his legs "you did some good fighting back their Nabs."

"Well I did watch the best."

"Some of the guys have organised a small party for all the squadrons and the techs." Ranma said before he and Nabiki leave and walk to one of the spare hangers and enter through a small door and Nabiki finds that it had been converted into a gig hall and spots Jonesy on the stage with a guitar tuning it in before plugging it into an amp and starts to play Fade To Black as the others on the stage set up their equipment and join in playing Fade To Black.

Later

The converted hanger was full of all the pilots and techs on the Sulaco all-talking to each other when opening chords of Aces High are heard before the lights go down before they go back on and Jonesy and the others in the band run on stage and Jonesy runs to his place behind the mic. After they finish the song everyone cheers before Ranma lifts Nabiki on his shoulders, which scared her slightly at first but she got used to it "ya'll ready for some fucking fun tonight?" Jonesy shouted and everyone cheered back in response before they kicked off into some Less Than Jake (a brilliant ska band if I may add) before a skanking pit began (do not go into one of these if you value your shins.)

Next day

Ranma wakes up naked next to an equally naked Nabiki when she wakes and looks at Ranma before she kisses him on the lips "thank you for such a wonderful time in bed last night." Nabiki said as she got out of bed and put some clothes on before grabbing her showering gear and leaves for the showers leaving Ranma to wonder what happened last night.

Flashback

Ranma and Nabiki leave the gig and head to the reccy room where Ranma opens an air vent and pulls out a crate of beer and puts it on a table and passes a bottle to Nabiki who opens it and takes a mouthful before Ranma opens his beer and downed half of the bottle and puts it between his feet. "I never knew Jonesy was in a band?" Nabiki said.

"There's a lot you don't know about Rogue squadron."

"Like what?" Nabiki asked in hopes to get Ranma to talk about Rogue squadron "well, this is the sixteenth line up of the squadron, McQuade's been in the second longest and Whistler and Jonesy are the two more recent ones, only been in the squadron for two years." Ranma replied before he finished his beer and opened another one before he puts them back in the air vent and they leave as Nabiki latches onto his arm and drags him to her room.

End flashback

"That little sneak." Ranma muttered to himself whilst getting dressed before he left Nabiki's room and went to his room and grabbed his shower gear and heads to the showers where most of the squadrons are, takes his shower dries off and gets dressed before going to the mess hall for something to eat before he leaves and goes to the reccy room and grabs a set of darts and went over to the dart board and begins to play Darts by himself until some others come in and play pool and it wasn't long before the reccy room was full of pilots and infantry men and other various crewmembers relax.

Authors note: Fade To Black copyrighted to METALICA, Aces High copyrighted to IRON MAIDEN.

R&R