Private Bet #10 ver. 1.00

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1c: Save the World, See the Galaxy, Sign Up Today!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A destiny of glory.
A fate worse then death.
Hero.
Villain.
Savior.
Destroyer.

[Choose.]

{Why me?}

[You are the one.]

{I don't understand!}

[That is why you are the one.]

{Are these images real? Will they happen?}

[Perhaps. The future is never set, always can it change.
In your hands lies the way. All things are possible,
never forget that.]

{I...I see.}

[The Universe will always need protectors. Will you become one of mine?]

{I don't know...This is so overwhelming. Why didn't you pick
someone more suited to this then me?}

[Why would someone else be a better choice?]

{I mean look at me, I'm a loudmouthed jerk! I keep getting into
trouble and I'm lost in a strange dimension. I'd probably mess up as a
CosmoKnight the very first day!}

[So?]

{Huh? Don't you get it?}

[It is your choice. It has always been your choice.
If you fear the consequences then so be it. To accept is
to take the greatest challenge you will ever face, in return
all I can promise is a chance to defend the good and the innocent.
The rest is up to you.]

He thought about it carefully, this decision would probably be the
most important one he ever made. Was it really worth it?

Then he thought of all he had seen since he had got here. The cruelty,
the suffering and the oppression of countless beings to the forces of evil.
Here was his chance to make a difference.

For once he had been given a chance to decide
without interference or coercion.

{...okay, you've convinced me. How do I sign up?}

[You already have.]

Ranma could have sworn that the voice smiled.

{Wha...?}

Then everything went light.

~~~~~~~~~

Ranma awoke with a startled gasp.
That dream had been so real...

Then he looked down.

No doubt about it. Things were going to be a lot more interesting from now on.

~~~~~~~~~~~

-Five Years Later

Ranma looked at the canopy of stars that stretched as far as the eye
could see from the port in his room. He had changed so very much
that he doubted even his own father would recognize him anymore.

He'd grown, not just physically but mentally and emotionally as well.
The Neko-ken was a thing of the past, along with most of his immaturity
and boorish attitude. After getting it pounded into his head day after day
he was able to finally admit, (grudgingly mind you) that women did indeed
have a place in combat and that fighting was not only a "guy" thing. (1)

The Cosmic Forge had for all intents and purposes wiped
Ranma's karmic slate clean, giving him the chance for a fresh start.
This time without the mistakes of his previous life haunting him.

Ranma had never been one to waste second chances.

He smiled sadly as he took a drink of some distilled Narmah nectar,
the tangy orange syrup was one of the few indulgences he still took for himself.
While he no longer required nourishment in the relative sense,
appearances needed to be kept up and he still did enjoy the taste
of good food.

{I've seen and done things that I'd never have imagined
in my wildest dreams or my worse nightmares. It's amazing
how quickly you get used to the unusual to the point where
it seems odd when nothing out of the ordinary happens.
But now this, just when I thought the Universe had run
out of ways to surprise me it goes and flips upside down
on me anyway. Funny, I've never been afraid of going anywhere,
be it Rifts Earth, Phase World, Wormwood or any of the
hundred or so worlds that I've been to. But now the thought
of going home, the one I left behind all those years ago scares me
more then when I confronted the Four Horsemen.}

Home. It was almost an alien concept to him now. For as long
as Ranma could remember he'd been living on the road. Even
before he'd arrived in this strange dimension he'd never stayed
for more then a couple of months in any one spot, his father had
always been on the move to stay one step ahead of all the people
he'd swindled or stolen from. The closest thing to a home that he
had now was his ship.

His ship.

Ranma never got tired of thinking about her that way.

~~~~~~~~~

Free World Starship 119 Untamed Stallion, a Shadowstar class
corvette that had been "liberated" from an unnamed source.
Originally intended for hit and fade operations and fire support roles
she'd been designed to move fast and hit hard. After Alliance
technicians got done with her, she also had a hide thick enough to
back up her bite and live to tell about it.

And when Ranma and Silvia had finished with their modifications...

All the proof needed of how effective she was at what she did
was shown at the skirmish off Antares IV. The Untamed Stallion
took on two Kreeghor Berserkers attacking a Free World
convoy and won. The ship was in dry dock for repairs for over
a month afterwards but still, it had won.

The ship itself sported a formidable (and in most cases highly illegal) array of
energy and solid projectile batteries along with several missile and
torpedo launchers. A pinpoint defense system had been crammed
in along with a revolutionary binary force field. The FTL system was
faster then most standard military and commercial drives, easily allowing
the ship to catch its intended target or run from larger opponents. Its cutting edge
sensor stealth system along with the latest in electronic countermeasures gave
the ship its nickname "Ghost Horse". Last but definitely not least was
the launch bay. Holding four fighters and over a dozen power armors, this
was where the true strength of the Untamed Stallion lay. The versatility
provided by this small but well armed force had proven to be extremely
effective in the various missions carried out by the unconventional ship
and her unconventional crew. (2)

Over the past two years several other useful upgrades had been made.
Four phase cannons taken from pirates supported by the Kreeghor on
Epsilon II now supplemented the ship's already formidable defenses,
a true cloaking system from the planet sized ship of Glarg the Devourer
of Mid sized Planetoids (Although they still hadn't gotten all the bugs out of it yet)
and several others ranging from "sorta semi-legal" to "so blatantly illegal
that you'd better make sure that your ship is never ever boarded by customs"
had been installed as well.

But the crowning achievement had been the Universal Code breaker,
a piece of equipment no bigger then a toaster that could crack the most
advanced Confed, Kreeghor, or Federation encryption. That one
little gadget was worth almost as much as the entire ship; Ranma had
wisely chosen not to ask where his chief engineer had gotten it.
The result could have been horrible, she might have told him.

The FWS Untamed Stallion had been the terror of the Kreeghor
shipping lanes, with over two hundred successful raids credited
to it and over a thousand confirmed kills, one hundred and fifty
of them capital ships. The daring exploits of Captain Saotome
and his heroic women had spread far and wide to every bar and dive
a ship could reach. There was a remote planet of jelly-like aliens that
didn't even know what a human was and even they had heard about
Ranma and his legendary luck, both in battle and with the opposite sex.

If the taletellers had bothered to ask Ranma about it he'd say
that they had it backwards. It wasn't luck, it was a curse!
Of course along with the truth came hundreds of false or exaggerated
rumors and stories of the women the Captain had seduced, what
Saotome and his crew really did when they were off duty, and the history
of the mysterious man named Ranma.

Popular opinion was that he was a transformed Dragon or a True Atlantian
or some other kind of supernatural being in disguise. Others said he was a
godling that had been imprisoned by the Kreeghor before being freed by
the Alliance. Some speculated that Ranma was a member of a previously
unknown humanoid race that had only recently been discovered by the Alliance.

None of them believed that Ranma was just a human.

A human reborn in Cosmic Fire to become a champion of
Justice and the Light.

A human with a billion credit reward for his death, courtesy of the Empire.

A human with a trillion credit reward for his capture, courtesy of a
planet of beautiful amorous females that wanted to make Ranma their next
Adam and wouldn't take no for an answer.

A human that had forever altered the face of the Multiverse and
saved it from destruction more then once.

But Destiny wasn't through with Ranma Saotome, not by a long shot.(3)

~~~~~~~~~~

Eight years ago he would have been ecstatic
to find that he was going home. Now all he felt
was a bittersweet sense of nostalgia for his planet of origin.

The vision that had come to him last night had been crystal clear though.

It was time to go back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The worst part was he would have to leave his ship, and more
importantly his crew behind. He'd miss them all, in a way
they'd become like a surrogate family to him.

Ayla and her steady shoulder that he could always count on.
Perky Tania with her cheerful smile no matter what the current crisis was.
The challenging chess games with Silvia, as well as the heated
and often quite loud arguments the two had had over the
tinkering she wanted to do to the ship.

A hundred memories swept over him, good and bad, of the times
he and the crew had had together on and off of the ship.

This wasn't the first time he'd left the them behind, but
this would be the first time he wasn't coming back.
They were not going to take this well. If he was lucky
the girls would settle for just maiming him when he told
them he was leaving.

With a silent plea he looked up to the ceiling.

{It's not my fault! I didn't ask them to all fall in love with me!!!} (4)

For a moment he thought he heard a quiet chuckle in response, then
dismissed it as his imagination panicking at the thought of the future
pain that his loyal crew was going to inflict on him in...

Ranma checked his chrono-unit.

...less then fifteen minutes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Fifteen Minutes Later

A brief moment of stunned silence followed the Captain's announcement.

Alas, it wasn't going to last.

"WHAT??!!?!?!?!!!"

If anyone had been watching the Untamed Stallion from the
outside they would have been treated to the once in a lifetime
sight of a starship doing better then lightspeed suddenly jumping
like a cat with a firecracker up its...tail.

{Well, they're taking this better then I thought they would.}

Somehow that thought wasn't very comforting to Ranma.
Perhaps it had to due with the blue glow that was now being
emanated by the bridge personnel, an event he suspected was being
repeated all over the ship as the crew got over their shock and went
from stunned to "Someone is going to be in a whole world of hurt
once we find out who's responsible for this".

{Better think of something fast Saotome.}

"Uh...that's all I've got to say. It's been an honor serving
as your commanding officer, I'll miss you all."

{Doh! That didn't come out right.}

"RANMA!!!"

That would be Lily, the security officer looked
like a feral hunter ready to rip her unlucky prey limb from limb
and she wasn't even in her feline form yet. Damn, this wasn't
going to be pretty. She was strong enough to literally hurl him
across the bridge and while it wouldn't hurt much it would be
rather...awkward.

Of course he might be better off that way.

{Oh Gods. Please, not the "adorable hurt puppy eyes
with shining tears in them" routine!! Anything but that!!!}

*Sniffle*

Ranma decided that the Universe must hate him.

"Y..you're le...leaving us?"

Tania looked like she'd burst into a flood of tears any second.

"Captain?"

Ayla sounded shaken, this was the first time he
had ever heard her speak with anything but
absolute confidence.

The rest of the bridge crew was looking at him too.
What was he supposed to do now?!

Time for the tried and true
Saotome Anything Goes Final Attack.

"I'll be in my quarters if anyone needs me.
Commander, you have the bridge."

Captain Saotome fled before anyone could reply.

(to be continued...)

*$*$*$*$*

(1) This took a bit longer then you'd think,
despite all the changes he's undergone he's still Ranma.

(2) Trust me, you have not seen the last of them.

(3) Foreshadowing is so much fun and I'm just getting started.

(4) Yes, this will come back to haunt him.

The Mentioned Crew of the FWS Untamed Stallion

Commander Ayla: Chiang Ku Dragon, one of the few remaining
in this Dimension. Desperately in love with the Captain but keeps
her feelings pretty well hidden. Very, very competent as well as
an accomplished tactician. This is NOT someone you want
as an enemy. Normally assumes the form of a stern but devastatingly
attractive red haired green eyed woman in her mid twenties.

Communications Officer Tania Sha'isti'a: She's blonde, blue eyed,
and got pointed ears. She's an Elf; handy with sword and bow but
hopeless with any weapon more advanced then that.
Took to radio and laser link communication like a fish to water.
Radiates cheerful cuteness on a level equal to high grade plutonium.
Like the rest of the crew she's got a crush on Saotome.

Chief Engineer Silvia: A Phantom, member of a race of intelligent life
composed of pure energy although they can take a material form if they
choose to. They're known as the TV otakus of the universe, primarily
because they've watched so many old shows that they have a tendency to
mimic or imitate their favorite characters. Silvia is one of the more level
headed ones, although she has a weakness for a syndicated sci-fi show
that was very popular a couple millennium ago. One of the results of this
is a fascination with all advanced technology, especially engineering. The
other is her insistence on speaking with a pronounced Scottish accent
since "all great engineers are Scots". Constantly making improvements
to the ship, however her improvements often have a habit of failing at
the worst possible moment. On the other hand she's also able to jury-rig
repairs on the spot with little more then spit and thread, a talent which
has often saved the Untamed Stallion when its chestnuts were roasting
in the fire. Nobody knows why she looks exactly like a green haired
version of Ifurita.

Sergeant Lily: During a mission on Rifts Earth Ranma rescued a girl
under attack by a Coalition extermination squad. Turned out that the
girl was actually a were-panther, having nowhere else to go she
tagged along with him. Eventually wound up going back with him
to the Free Worlds where she joined up. Shortly thereafter she was
assigned to the Untamed Stallion at her request. Originally from
South America, her human form is much like her panther form,
sleek and deadly curves with a temper to match.