The Saotome Gambit

by Shinji Ikari7

Not writen by me but thought it would be good to have the story on FF.N

5. Chapter 5

Star League Defense Force Proving Grounds

Test Region Four-West

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

The Magistracy of Canopus

8 June 3025

Ranma awoke with a start to find himself dangling ten meters above the ground. He looked up to see that he was hanging in his parachute straps, and that his reserve chute canopy was tangled in the branches of the trees. Sap from broken branches had run cold and sticky into his cracked helmet crown and down into his hair and his neck ring seal, adding to the discomfort he felt upon awakening.

It was just a bad dream, he moaned, though his head did not hurt any less for that simple truth. Just a bad dream. Akane doesn't hate me, he assured himself. I know she doesn't. He looked around, wondering how he had ended up like this. He only vaguely recalled the process of ejecting. The blow to his helmet had stunned him, and as he pitched over in his seat straps he had made a desperate grab at the yellow and black striped ring between his legs. The shock of the instantaneous thirty-gee acceleration had succeeded where the impact against his helmet had failed, and he had blacked out.

He regained consciousness to find that he was falling, and falling rapidly through the cold black sky. His nylon main chute had malfunctioned, giving him the dreaded 'cigarette roll,' where the friction of deployment had melted portions of the canopy to the shroud lines and itself. Shaking off his stupor, he remembered frantically cutting away the main chute, and deploying the reserve. He was lucky that he had one. Mechwarriors and the pilots of purely atmospheric craft didn't have reserves.

He was so low when the reserve finally opened that he had come screaming into the treetops at close to sixty kilometers per hour. A frantic tug of his control lines flared him just shy of the treetops, and he remembered nothing after that.

He was awake now. Awake and alive. A quick inventory determined that his limbs were intact. The padding of his pressure suit had absorbed some of the pounding he must have taken as he broke through the trees, and the helmet had spared him a fatal head injury, though it was clear that his suit was ripped and torn beyond repair. He was intact, but bruised and battered all over his body.

He noted this as he lifted his arms to release the neck seal ring. Popping the ring was so tasking that he was forced to lean his head forward to help remove the helmet, letting it slide off his head to fall to the musty ground cover below. He panted with the effort it had taken him to do such a simple thing.

The thought of sustaining a ten meter drop in this condition was not appealing. The thought of hanging there until he starved to death was worse. He studied the ground below him carefully, ensuring there were no nasty surprises waiting for him before tugging at his releases.

His somersault was stiff and clumsy, and he hit harder than he would have preferred, rolling with the impact to sprawl out breathless and gasping painfully from having the wind knocked out of him.

When he was breathing normally once again, he pulled himself into a sitting position against the spongy trunk of a tree. His survival kit was lying half covered by piles of dead leaves nearby, but he didn't have the strength or the willpower to retrieve it just yet. He decided to rest a bit first.

It was midday when he realized that he had passed out.

He felt a little strength return to him over his nap, but his limbs were even more stiff and sore. It was a struggle to pull himself to his feet, and he had to pause often to massage the knots out of his strained muscles. The survival kit was his goal. It had his radio, his food and water, and his change of clothes. The pressure suit was heavy on his body, too heavy to want to drag it around with him.

The bag appeared to have broken loose from his parachute harness on impact, and he could see that his rescue radio had not survived. The food was crushed within its vacuum sealed pouches, but was probably still edible. One of the canteens had opened, soaking his clothes.

He shrugged off the pressure suit anyway, letting it drop around his ankles as he pulled his feet out of his boots. His sensor-studded 'long-johns' were damp with sweat, and he peeled himself out of them gratefully. The forest was absolutely deserted, by his appraisal, and so there was no need for modesty where it conflicted with comfort. The clothes would dry soon enough.

He ate sparingly, regaining his strength, and trying to put together a mental picture of what had happened that night. He had seen Akane eject from her falling Warhammer. She had to be around somewhere, and he needed to find her.

As he thought about it, he realized that they might be separated by quite a distance. Assuming that her parachute had functioned normally, bailing out at such a high altitude meant that she would have been carried by the wind, whereas he had plummeted nearly straight down most of the way with his damned cigarette roll of a parachute. With his radio broken, there was no way to get in touch with her.

The first thing he needed to do, he decided, was to find the crash site. It was the landmark most likely to be spotted by Yuka and Sayuri from the air - though that was assuming the girls hadn't been shot out of the sky by their attacker. Once he found the crash site, he could follow the direction of the prevailing wind, and hopefully, find his not-so-uncute fiancee.

She might have been a stupid macho tomboy, but he was worried about her all the same. His own landing in the trees hadn't been pleasant, and the thought that she was hurt and alone somewhere on this stinking planet made his heart seize in his chest.

"You've gotta be okay, Akane," he said as he rose unsteadily to his feet. It was late in the afternoon, and it would getting dark within a few hours. He had to find her, to see with his own eyes that she was alive and well. "You've just gotta be okay."

He had other concerns, like whether or not the Palomino had been able to land safely, who or what had attacked them without warning, and how he was going to be able to find his father and his friends. His only desire was to find Akane. Nothing mattered more to him than knowing that she was all right.

Assuming his estimations of his trajectory were correct, the crash site probably wasn't far from where he had landed. He picked a direction and began to walk, slinging the survival kit over his shoulder. The pressure suit and helmet he left behind; they were useless to him now, and too heavy to carry in his injured condition. His dark green mandarin blouse and black drawstring trousers were mostly dry, and he dressed himself stiffly. He hadn't been this sore even after his last big fight with Ryouga on Tiber.

The colors of his clothes probably weren't the best for being spotted from the air, he noted grimly, but they did help him blend in to the foliage. The planet was a complete unknown to him, and while he did not imagine that there many dangerous predators lurking about, there was always the chance that he might run into the people responsible for this mess.

He walked about a hundred meters along a meandering game trail before being rewarded with a scrap of burnt metal that had fallen through a gap in the canopy. It was probably a piece of his LAM, he reflected. He continued on, the loss of his Phoenix Hawk only now hitting home with him.

He was Dispossessed once again, and in less than six months...

The trees began to thin, and soon the woods opened up onto a wide plain that was littered with debris. Steam wafted from a blackened crater near the center of the field, and he knew that he had found the crash site. He started for the crater, picking his way around the bits of burnt LAM.

Akane's Warhammer was surprisingly intact. The legs were smashed to bits under the force of the impact, but the torso was largely in one piece, if blackened by an intense heat. Upon a closer inspection he could see the long rent along the side of the torso where the breached reactor vessel had vented plasma through the hull. The innards of the battlemech were probably gutted.

Mindful that the area was probably contaminated with tiny radioactive particles, and heedless of the slight risks associated with exposure, Ranma pulled himself up the still warm hull of the Warhammer to inspect the cockpit. The escape hatch in the roof was blown, and as he peered down into the darkness of the cockpit, he could smell the lingering traces of the solid fuel rockets that had lifted Akane free of her plummeting 'mech.

She had ejected. At least she got that far, he thought to himself. All he had to do now was follow the prevailing wind, and he would find her. He licked his fingertip and held it up over his head. There was only a slight breeze to guide him, but he took it anyway.

The breeze led him to the top of a low hill nearby. He paused to look around and get a feel for the terrain. It was mostly woods, though in the distance he could see some kind of swampy mire. He hoped that she hadn't landed in the trees.

As he began making his way down the hill, a flash of movement in the distance caught his keen eyes. He could see two figures walking into the woods opposite from the crash site. One, the taller of the two, was dressed in dark clothing. The other was wearing an olive drab coverall that looked suspiciously like survival kit issue.

"Akane?" he asked himself aloud. There was one way to find out. He cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted her name. The two in the distance continued on, heedless of his repeated calls.

Cursing in frustration, he rummaged through his survival kit to produce his signal gun. He checked that a starshell was loaded and fired it into the air, hoping that the sudden radiance would attract their attention as the sunlight faded.

The red star shot into the air with a hiss, its parachute deploying to let it fall slowly from a height of two hundred meters. If they saw it, they did not notice, and Ranma lost them in the trees.

"Dammit!" he swore, and started after them at a hobbling gait. By the time he reached the treeline, the sky had darkened, lit only by the thin sliver of an orange crescent moon and a handful of stars that shone through the broken cloud cover. He stumbled on blindly in the near darkness of the woods, forgetting that he had a small box of chemlights in his kit, and nearly cold-cocking himself as he ran into a low branch.

When he shook away the pain and the dizziness, he realized that they were long gone. The game trail branched off in two different directions. He stood at the fork in the path for some time, agonizing over his decision. If he guessed wrong, their trail would grow cold by the time he realized this and backtracked.

Finally, he took the path on the right, and stumbled on under the eerie glow of a green chemlight. He cried Akane's name from time to time, but received no answer other than the chirps, warbles, and moans from the local nocturnal wildlife. After what seemed like an hour to him, the path opened up into a broad swampy meadow.

There was no sign of Akane.

He turned wearily to start back the way he came, when he heard a distant and familiar rumble in the sky.

He squinted against the darkness, and was rewarded with the blue flash of an aerospace fighter's HEPLAR drive. It was far across the meadow, circling over what he assumed by dead-reckoning to be the crash site. Again, a agonizing decision came over him. Did he try to flag down the fighter in the hope that it was Yuka or Sayuri, or did he continue the search for Akane?

He started across the meadow. If it was one of the girls, they could take word of his survival back to the Palomino. He didn't figure Ryouga would have any problem going out in his BattleMaster to look for Akane. If Akane had found one of the locals, it was probably safe to assume that she was going with him to whatever passed for a settlement on Ryuugenzawa. Finding that settlement couldn't be too hard, he supposed.

The fighter began to turn towards him as he struggled through the mire. He raised the flare gun and fired his second starshell, mindful of the fact that he only had one left.

The fighter, a Sparrowhawk from the look of it, screamed overhead, and turned hard to come back around for another look. He decided to risk his last shell, and fired it as the fighter came back around. The light of two stars was enough to illuminate the meadow and make him stand out clearly from the air.

The Sparrowhawk reduced speed, made another pass, and turned once again to return. Ranma sighed with relief as the landing lights came on, and the pitch of the fighter's turbojets increased as it shifted over to vertical propulsion for a landing.

He dashed as fast as his tired legs would carry him to the fighter. The canopy was rising as he reached it, and the voice of a girl he had once considered an enemy addressed him.

"Ranma!" Sayuri cried. "Is that really you?"

"It's me," he returned.

"I'd almost given up hope," she said to him, leaping down from the cockpit to catch him up in a completely unexpected hug. "Have you found Akane?" she asked as she released him.

"Maybe," he replied, bewildered by her show of affection. "I think I might have seen her a few hours ago, but I lost her in those woods behind me."

"She's all right then?" Sayuri asked, her voice cracking with weariness. In the light of the Sparrowhawk's landing lamps, he could see how bone-tired she was.

He shrugged. "If it really was her, I think so. She was with someone, from what I could tell. Probably a local."

Sayuri blanched. "A local?"

"I guess," he replied.

"Come on, then," she told him. "If she's that close, she should be within my radio range."

He had to agree with that. Sayuri clambered up to the cockpit and began fiddling with her commo set.

"Akane, this is Sayuri," she said hopefully. "Do you read me? State your position if you know it."

There was no answer. Sayuri repeated her request.

"Oh come on," she protested. "Answer me already."

"Maybe her radio's on the blink," Ranma suggested. "Mine doesn't work either."

"It's possible," she admitted. "But then how is she going to contact us?"

"Did the Palomino make it down safely?" he asked her instead.

"More or less," she sniffed. "The ship's beat up pretty bad."

"Go back to the ship," he told her. "Send Ryouga and Ukyou out at first light in their 'mechs."

She gave him a dubious look. "What about you?"

"I'm gonna see if I can catch up with her."

"Do you need anything?" she asked him. "You said your radio wasn't working."

"Does your Sparrowhawk have a remote?"

She yawned wearily, nodding her head. "It does, and you can have it. I want to make a few more passes before we head back to the ship. She might hear my engines and shoot up a flare the way you did."

"Sounds good to me."

Sayuri strapped herself into her seat, then removed the remote radio relay from her commo console. Removed from the fighter, it had a very short transmission range, but it would allow Ryouga and Ukyou to contact him once they were within ten kilometers. She handed it to Ranma, then lay back in her ejector seat for a moment, looking absolutely exhausted.

"Maybe I should fly us both home," he offered. "You look pretty bushed."

She yawned again. "Yuka and I have been searching non-stop since early this morning, but I can handle it."

"Are you sure?"

She levelled a hard look at him. "Go find her, Saotome. I'll be all right."

"I'll do that," he said.

"Good luck," she said as she lowered the canopy. "I really mean that, Ranma. Not just for Akane's sake, but for both of you."

He stepped away from the fighter as it powered up for lift off. The Sparrowhawk rose into the sky on a column of superheated air. Ranma watched her as she increased speed and flew out over the woods. Their radios were tuned to the survival bands, so if Akane could hear the fighter's engines, she would know to contact them.

There was no response, not even a flare, to indicate that she had noticed them. Sayuri made passes for twenty minutes, and still there was no answer from below.

"Nothing," Ranma grumbled, listening in over his remote. "Come on, Tomboy, say something."

"I hope she's all right," Sayuri sighed over the commo.

Ranma closed his eyes for a moment. "I hope so too."

"It's good to hear you say that," she returned.

He blinked in surprise. "What's up with this?"

"What?" she murmured.

"You being nice to me."

"You've finally earned it," she yawned.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Everyone knows what you did for her last night," she said so softly that he had to strain over the radio static to hear her. "How you risked your life and your 'mech to save her. How you wouldn't give up even while we were getting shot at." She turned for the DropShip and increased her speed. "Even Yuka admits what you did for Akane, and why."

He took this in silence. The reasons why he had done what he did were never clear to him. He had simply acted, as he had done before, to protect her. There were no thought processes behind it that he was aware of.

"Why do you think I did it?" he asked her, but she was already flying out of his range, and didn't hear him ask.

He set the remote to 'standby' and turned for the woods once more. As the prospect of meandering through the darkness loomed, he found himself wishing that he had gone with Sayuri back to the DropShip. But Akane was out there somewhere, and he had to find her.

Akane dozed in the hammock Shinnosuke had lent to her. There was a distant rumbling to the east, like thunder, and she hoped that it wouldn't rain tonight. With the clouds rolling in as they had before they entered the dense woods, she would not have been surprised by it.

Shinnosuke slept like a rock in a nest of dead leaves that he had made for himself. He seemed much very at home in the outdoors, living a life so primitive that she could hardly imagine it. Was this all that Ryuugenzawa had to offer?

The DropShip Palomino

8 June 3025

Yuka watched as Sayuri's Sparrowhawk circled once over the Palomino, and sighed wearily.

"I guess it's my turn," she lamented.

Genma Saotome cleared his throat for attention.

"Don't bother," he said to her. "You and Sayuri should get some sleep. You're too tired to fly."

She whirled on him. "And who's gonna search for Akane and your son, you?"

He cracked his knuckles noisily. "If necessary."

"Do it with Sayuri's fighter then," she insisted. "If she'll allow it."

"Don't get your panties in a bind," Genma growled. "You know you're an even bigger bitch when you're tired?"

She shot him a dirty look. "Get bent," she told him. "Sir."

Sayuri settled down on the grass during their exchange. The canopy hadn't finished rising, and she was already squirming under it to escape the cockpit.

"I found them!" she cried excitedly.

Yuka and Genma rushed over to her at the news. They were joined by Ukyou, Konatsu, and Ryouga.

"Where?" Ryouga demanded. "Are they all right?"

Sayuri was nearly breathless with excitement.

"I found Ranma, actually," she began. "But he said that he had seen Akane, and that she appeared to be okay. He tried to follow her, but he lost her in some woods. He's still out there, looking for her."

"What about their 'mechs?" Genma asked.

"Destroyed, from what I could see. They both must have ejected."

Ryouga looked to Genma. "Request permission to assist Ranma," he asked.

"Denied," Genma grumbled. "We still need your 'mech for shore power."

"What about your damn Griffin?" Ryouga shot back. "You aren't using it."

"Take the Griffin," Genma said. "But I don't want you to leave until sunrise."

"What for? They could be in trouble by then!"

"I don't want you getting lost as well," Genma pointed out. "You're bad enough in daylight, let alone on a dark night."

"I'll go with him," Ukyou threw in. "That should keep him out of trouble."

"Not until morning," Genma growled. "We're short on physical security around here as it is, and furthermore, we don't know what happened to Master Happousai since he took off this morning. There could be hostile elements nearby."

He paused for a moment as a voice spoke to him from the Palomino's Flight Deck through his ear bead.

"Everyone mount up," he ordered. "Radar has painted multiple airborne contacts approaching our position from high altitude."

Ranma and Akane were quickly put aside as the mechwarriors and pilots ran to their respective machines. Ryouga knew that he might have to separate from the DropShip if he was to fight, and that doing so would reduce the Palomino to its emergency battery backup.

He watched his radar display as the targets approached. They were still very high in the sky, well beyond his PPC's range. What puzzled him was that while two of the targets were about the same size as a heavy fighter, the other eight were much smaller - too small to be a threat.

He watched as Ukyou's Hatchetman stomped towards the western treeline. Her battlemech had an excellent air-defense tracking suite. If anyone could divine the nature of the inbounds, it was her.

"That's odd," he heard her remark over the tac-net.

"What is it?" Genma asked her.

"I've got one of the smaller contacts locked in my bifocal unit," she replied. "It just deployed a parachute." There was pause. "There goes another one!"

Ryouga trained his telescopic camera into the sky. Sure enough, the smaller contacts, mere smudges of reflected moonlight in the darkness, were deploying blaze orange parachutes. Strobe lights flashed from them as they sank lower in the sky. If he didn't know better, he'd have to say they were...

"Life pods!" he cried. "Those are life pods!"

"Palomino," a voice crackled over the radio. "This is Nymph. Request immediate landing support, over. I say again: Palomino, this is Nymph. Request immediate landing support, over."

Ryouga turned pale. The Nymph was one of the Dragonfly's boats. If the other large target was the Sylph, plus all those life pods, then that meant that the Dragonfly had been abandoned!

"Copy Nymph," Genma replied. His Griffin turned its floodlights on, illuminating the clearing around the DropShip. "What happened up there?"

"We were attacked in space," Captain Ninomiya's voice declared over the tac-net. "The Dragonfly was destroyed."

Ryouga's heart sank. They were marooned on this worthless mudball forever!

"Say again, Nymph," Genma requested, not believing what he had heard.

"I'll explain when we land," Hinako snapped. "Nymph, out."

"Whatever they were, Orochis or some other kind of orbital defense system, is moot," Hinako said to the assembled officers and mechwarriors of the two ships. They were in the Crew's Mess aboard the Palomino. "The point is that we have no JumpShip to get us out of here."

"The Palomino isn't going anywhere for awhile either," Grant remarked. "Not until we can patch up the reactor coolant system. The starboard loop looks like swiss cheese, and the port loop started springing leaks about two hours ago."

"So, we're stuck here then," Genma observed. "We're down to two fighters, three battlemechs, a busted DropShip, and we're missing Ranma, Akane, and Happousai. What else could go wrong?"

"Whatever it was that blasted us could decide to wipe us out on the ground," Hinako said gravely. "I'm both grateful and surprised that you haven't been attacked since you landed here."

Genma shrugged. "Blind luck more than anything, I think."

Doctor Tofu cleared his throat for attention. "Can I make a suggestion?"

The officers turned to him.

"Go ahead, Doctor," Hinako said.

"I think the first thing we need to do is find Ranma and Akane," he said to them. "It's good that you know they're alive, but we need to get them back."

"I think the doctor has a point," Hinako noted. She looked to Genma. "What can you spare for the search?"

"The girls are toast," he replied, referring to Yuka and Sayuri. "I sent them to bed an hour ago, but they'll need a full night's rest before they can do us any more good as airborne searchers. We've got two 'mechs we can send out, plus the two six-by's in the cargo hold, plus the two Boomerangs - but I'm the only one qualified to fly one since Ranma isn't here."

"And you say you haven't seen Happousai since this morning?"

Genma nodded. "He took off sometime between two and three hours after sunrise, local time. He probably went to investigate the ruined starport about thirty kilometers northwest of our position. He hasn't responded to our hails, and we haven't had the resources to go looking for him."

Tofu gave him a dubious look at this last remark, but held his tongue. It was no secret among the officers and crew that Genma Saotome cared very little for his master.

Grant sipped from his coffee mug. "We'll need to think about sending an expedition to the starport sometime soon," he said to them. "We need tools, parts, and supplies that we don't have on board if we want to put the Palomino back together, and there's the chance that we might be able to scrounge together what we need from there."

"If we patch the Griffin into shore power, I can take my BattleMaster to the starport to give fire support to the salvage team," Ryouga offered.

"Fair enough with me, sugar," Ukyou added. "I'd just as soon go looking for Ranchan."

"No one's made any decision on that," Genma rumbled. "I agree that we need to find my son and my future daughter-in-law." Ukyou winced. "And that the starport may contain materials that we need to repair the DropShip. But I'm reluctant to go releasing all of our protection at one time."

"What good does it do to just sit here and twiddle our thumbs?" Ukyou riposted. "I say we act, and act now."

There was hearty agreement from the rest of the crew following her declaration, and Genma found himself in the firm minority of opinion.

"All right," he conceded. "I'll see about getting my 'mech hooked up to the DropShip. But I still think that this is a dangerous plan, and I'm asking you all to wait until Yuka and Sayuri are rested enough to provide air cover."

"A reasonable compromise," Hinako declared, desiring to keep the level of contention between the group to a minimum. "We could all use some rest, and I suggest that we take the opportunity while we can."

9 June 3025

"Good morning, Ryouga dearest," Akari greeted Ryouga, giving him a peck on the cheek before settling into the rear cockpit seat of the BattleMaster.

Ryouga smiled back in a blissful daze. He could hardly believe that his miserable life had turned around so dramatically and in such a short time by making her a part of it.

"Let me know when you're ready to go," he finally managed to say to her.

She finished strapping herself to the ejector seat. "Ready, dearest."

He turned to face the canopy as it locked into place. The BattleMaster took a hesitant step forward as he eased the throttle forward, its wide armored foot sinking into the soft ground.

"I hope this doesn't get any stickier," he said aloud.

He followed behind the two 6x6 trucks as they slogged through muddy grass drenched with early morning rain. The ruined starport was thirty kilometers away - a good hour's journey at the pace they could manage in the mud.

Their primary mission was to search the ruins for materials they could use to repair the DropShip. Akari was leading this end of the mission, as she was familiar with what was needed most. Ryouga would provide protection with his 'mech while the techs and crew did their work.

Finding Happousai was their other mission. No one was eager to discover the whereabouts of the lecherous little pest, but his Locust was too valuable to leave behind. Doctor Tofu had been a mechwarrior before his career in medicine, and could always take over piloting duties in the event that something terrible had happened to Happousai.

There was something of a third mission, which was to discover if any of the fuel processing and delivery stations were operable. Captain Ninomiya wanted to investigate the orbital space station - particularly the drydock. There was a thin shred of hope that a servicable JumpShip might be found in orbit, though Ryouga didn't think it was likely.

They needed fuel for the two Ship's Boats, Nymph and Sylph, since they had expended nearly all of their reaction mass getting to the planet, and did not have enough left over to reach orbit. The two boats represented their only means of reaching space with the Palomino out of action. Since there were no assurances of anything useful remaining in orbit, the search for a fueling station had been given the lowest priority.

Ryouga had no great expectations for either of their other missions. What did it matter that they repaired the Palomino? he wondered. They couldn't risk going into orbit with the Orochis waiting to blast them to bits, and it had been agreed that they would instruct the Confederation transport fleet to remain where they were once they arrived in-system. They were stuck here until the Orochis could be neutralized, and he had few illusions about them succeeding.

"I hope Captain Saotome finds Lady Akane soon," Akari said behind him.

"He will," Ryouga assured her. Since he had confessed his feelings for Akari, a sense of fulfillment had come over him. He still loved Akane, but knew and accepted that his feelings had shifted further in the direction of love in the Platonic sense.

Akari, of course, was as blissfully happy as himself. One of the things that had drawn him to her in the first place was her cheerful industry. She frequently hummed or sang while she worked, and since yesterday's confession her considerable fatigue in the face of the Palomino's engineering woes had given way to a new burst of optimism and energy from her.

That he was the wellspring of her joy exorcised the ghosts of loneliness and misery that had long haunted him, and he felt like a man reborn. Now if only he could get up the nerve to kiss her the way he had in Berthing so many weeks ago!

"Konatsu and I are off to find Ranchan," he heard Ukyou call to him on the tac-net. Her Hatchetman strode off to his left flank, the figure of her pet kunoichi visible on the shoulder of the 'mech, and the massive axe like battle-spatula clutched in its metalshod fist.

"Good luck," he called back.

"Luck is not a factor, honey," she returned with a smug grin, and signed off on his cockpit display.

He wished them well anyway. His opinion of the former brigadier was in a state of continuous flux. He appreciated what she had done for the expedition on Genevieve, but her motives were obvious and questionable. She was in love with Ranma, though the gods only knew why, and she did seem to have a legitimate claim to him. He may not have been the most observant of people sometimes, but it seemed clear to him that Ranma did not love her in quite the same way that she loved him.

"I feel sorry for both of them," Akari remarked to him.

"P-Pardon?" he returned.

"It's no secret that Mechwarrior Kuonji is in love with Captain Saotome," Akari said evenly. "But she doesn't seem to realize, or at least accept, that he doesn't feel the same way about her."

Ryouga nodded. "You're probably right."

"But the worst part is that poor dear Konatsu is in love with Ukyou," she continued. "And he knows that she doesn't feel the same way for him, but it doesn't stop him from serving her so devotedly."

He didn't know what to say to this, so he kept silent.

"What makes this so sad is that both of them will do anything for the sake of the one they love, and yet it won't change anything between them."

I know the feeling, he thought grimly. Even with Akari in my heart, I know that I would die to protect Akane, and Akane... loves Ranma. Nothing will change that either.

They continued on.

The starport was overgrown with vines and weeds, making it difficult for the six-bys to traverse the tarmac without churning up a storm of shredded greenery. The BattleMaster trudged on without such hindrances, crushing the vines under its feet and splattering green juices up to the ankles. From his high vantage, Ryouga scanned the area for a sign of Happousai's Locust, and found it standing under a quonset hut style hangar that was overgrown with vegetation.

"I see the 'mech," he told the crew in the two trucks. "I'm going to investigate."

The men in the trucks agreed to wait where they were. Ryouga stomped towards the hangar.

"What hit this place?" Akari asked.

"A weed bomb, if you ask me," he replied.

"Before the weeds," she clarified. "Look around, Ryouga dearest. This place was blasted from the air."

Taking a closer look at the facilities, he could see that Akari was right. Craters filled with plants pocked the tarmac. Buildings overgrown with clinging vines were scarred with black streaks of carbon. What he had mistaken for a crumbling hill a hundred meters away was actually the burned out hulk of a Leopard Class DropShip.

"You're right," he muttered. "Something terrible happened here."

"Do you think it was the Orochi?" she asked.

"Possibly," he hedged. "I can't imagine why, though. You would think that something designed to protect the planet from invaders wouldn't do this to the place it was supposed to be defending."

He stopped the BattleMaster outside the hangar, which was too low to accept his 'mech.

"I think you should stay here," he said to Akari.

She gave him a pouty look. "You're going to leave me all alone?" she simpered, batting her eyelashes at him.

He crumbled. "Well, okay, I guess... But stay close to me." He produced a stout red shamboo umbrella from his personal storage locker and hefted its reassuring weight.

The two of them climbed down the 'mech to the dingy concrete pad of the hangar floor. The vines and weeds had a tougher time getting established in the smooth, mostly intact floor, leaving their path clear to the Locust.

It stood silent and still on its spindly, reverse-articulated legs. Both could tell that it was shut down by the silence that filled the mostly empty hangar.

"I don't see any damage," Akari noted.

"The cockpit hatch is open," Ryouga added, pointing up to the top of the hull.

"Do you suppose he left his 'mech to go looking for something, and never returned?"

Ryouga shrugged. "One way to find out." He shimmied up one of the legs to the hip and then pulled himself over on top of the hull. Akari watched breathlessly as he crouch-walked over to the open hatch.

He kicked something loose accidentally, and an object flew from the hull to shatter spectacularly at Akari's feet. She shrieked in surprise and alarm, drawing a worried look from him.

"Are you okay?" he hissed. "What was that?"

She composed herself, and stooped to examine the remains.

"It was a sake bottle," she declared, holding up a piece of glass that remained glued to a paper label that was yellowed and stiff with age.

"Is that what I smell?" Ryouga returned, wrinkling his nose in distaste at the foul odor. "I thought it was paint thinner."

She chuckled softly and pointed to the label. "Well, Ryouga dearest, this bottle is almost two hundred years old."

Ryouga looked down into the cockpit through the open hatch.

"I found him," he said dully. "Passed out drunk in his cockpit, with about ten more empty bottles inside, plus one half-full that's about to spill in his lap."

She let the piece of glass fall from her hand. "What should we do with him?" she asked.

Ryouga shrugged back. "I dunno. Let him sleep it off?"

"We do have a lot of work to do, my love," she agreed.

It was several hours march for Ukyou to reach the place where Sayuri had claimed to find Ranma. The ground was swampy and difficult to traverse, and the recent rainfall had generated broad puddles of indeterminate depth that made the trip slow and difficult.

"Any sign of him, Konatsu?" she asked her kunoichi.

He leaped off the Hatchetman's shoulder to investigate. She watched him bound about the swampy mire, searching for clues in the mud. She didn't expect him to find anything useful after all the rain that must have fallen on the ground.

What kind of blockhead was he that he would insist on staying out here instead returning to the ship to get help? she thought angrily. It was because of HER, she lamented. He had stayed behind to search for Akane.

It just wasn't fair. She would give anything to have him feel for her what he obviously felt for Akane. What was she even doing out here looking for a jerk like that, anyway?

Konatsu returned, clutching a scrap of olive drab nylon cloth.

"I found a parachute, sir," he said to her, holding the piece of material up so she could see it clearly.

"Terrific. We know where one of them landed now. Too bad we have no idea where they went."

Konatsu stuffed the cloth fragment into a pocket. "What should we do now, sir?"

Ukyou sighed. "What else? Look for Ranchan. I'm not going back until we find him."

Though if the jackass doesn't answer his radio, it might take days!

Planet Ryuugenzawa

10 June 3025

They had been walking for two days now, and Akane's feet ached. Most of their travels had been through woods of varying size and density, and Shinnosuke's expert fieldcraft had provided them with nourishment and fresh water for their trip, while avoiding the numerous pitfalls of an unknown biosphere.

He was quiet most of the time, their infrequent conversations turning towards the Inner Sphere at large. He seemed disappointed by the total balkanization of human space and the three major wars that had been unsuccessfully waged to regain unity. Once, she had even overheard him cursing Kerensky's name. He also seemed to be a touch absent-minded, asking her questions about matters that they had discussed several times before.

The subject of why she was here had not come up. She was reluctant to tell him that the only reason why the Dragonfly had come to the system was to see if they could plunder the Star League proving grounds for lost technology. She certainly hadn't expected to find anyone living on the legendary world when she arrived.

The fact that he wore the device of the Star League Defense Force on the back of his coat also gave her pause. It was a large embroidered patch of some sort, and from her casual examinations, it seemed as if it had been cut directly from a coat of similar make and sewn into place. The patch looked very old, much older than the material of Shinnosuke's coat.

"We're coming up on the village," he said to her as they carefully picked their way through a tangling web of stinging vines. "It's been awhile since they've seen me, so we should have a pretty good reception."

"You mean you don't live there?" she asked him.

"No," he replied. "I live with my grandfather deeper in the forest."

"I see," she remarked. "What exactly are you doing out there."

Shinnosuke stopped walking. "Grandfather and I are caretakers for the facilities," he replied. "Living out in the forest puts us close to where we're needed."

At this revelation, Akane decided to take the plunge.

"Would these be Star League facilities?" she asked.

He nodded. "There isn't much to do anymore," he said to her. "Grandfather says that we're mostly there to make sure the place doesn't completely fall apart before Kerensky's army returns." He fished an ancient text pager from his pocket. "What little still runs is all automated," he explained. "When there's a problem, the automation system pages me or grandfather, and we go out to take a look. Usually it's something cool to fix like a leaky pipe in a basement, or a blown fuse somewhere." He put the pager back in his pocket and shrugged indifferently. "But mostly we just keep everything clean."

He started walking again, as if unwilling to continue the subject. She supposed that he must have felt a little overwhelmed by her being a mechwarrior, with him nothing more than a custodian for an abandoned facility. General Kerensky was long dead by now, and his descendents were somewhere very far from the Inner Sphere. They had been gone for over two hundred years, so it was safe to say that they weren't coming back.

The village was a mixture of old technology and new improvisation. Structures made of advanced building materials like cement and glass stood alongside primitive log cabins, teepees, and lean-to's made of corrugated metal and crumbling sheets of plastered drywall. Most of the place was under the shelter of a few carefully placed trees. The ground cover and the smaller trees had obviously been cleared, allowing the remaining trees to spread their canopies wide and conceal the place from the air.

At first glance, Akane judged that the village was home to at least three hundred people. Children played a game of baseball in the middle of the dirt lane that passed for main street. Women hung homespun laundry on lines, and yelled at their young ones to keep the dust down. She saw a man in a lash-up watchtower carrying a lethal automatic rifle at sling arms. The weapon might have been a few centuries old, but it had been kept in pristine condition.

When Shinnosuke appeared, the children stopped their game and began shouting with glee. The laundry women looked up from their chores and offered waves. The man in the watchtower threw him a jaunty salute. It was as he had said; a good reception.

One of the older women, her face carefully aged with crow's feet at the corners of her eyes and deep laugh lines on either side of her generous mouth, took the two of them aside with an offer of lunch.

"Shinnosuke!" she cried happily as she seated them at a small table on the porch of her log cabin home. "It's so good to see you. You rarely come this way anymore."

"Well, Grandfather does keep me busy," he replied sheepishly.

The woman looked Akane over approvingly. "Allow me to congratulate you on your new wife," she gushed. "She's quite a beauty! Did you find her at one of the Outsider camps?"

Akane turned crimson, as did Shinnosuke.

"This is, uh..." he replied weakly, looking mortified at having forgotten his companion's name.

"Akane," she prompted quietly

"Uh, yeah," he stammered. "Akane. I'm sorry to say that she isn't my wife."

"Shinnosuke is helping me find my way," Akane added.

The woman frowned slightly at Akane's accent, before offering them both apologetic smiles. "I see. You're a true gentleman, Shinnosuke, to be escorting her through the forest. It's a dangerous place for young ladies."

She went inside to fetch lunch. The children playing ball clustered around the wooden fence that separated the property claimed by the woman from the street.

"Hey, Shinnosuke!" an older kid cried. "You get married?"

Shinnosuke shook his head, his face red.

"I'll take her if you don't want her!" the kid added, then tried to cajole his comrades into playing another inning.

Shinnosuke turned to Akane. "I'm sorry about this," he said to her. "I should have known this would happen. Girls get married pretty young in the village, and since I haven't been by in awhile, they must have thought..."

"It's all right," Akane insisted. "I understand."

"I know that Grandfather has had some of the men of the village offering their daughters as a wife for me," he continued uneasily. "They were all pretty, some even as pretty as you, Akane, but... I - I guess I'm just not ready to get married."

"You don't have to tell me this," she returned, sharing in his embarrassment to some degree. "It's none of my business."

He looked away shyly. "I guess it's because I'm waiting for the perfect girl to come along."

"I'm sure she will," she said, trying to lift him from his sudden melancholy. "So tell me about these 'Outsider camps.'"

He looked back at her. "Grandfather knows a little more about them than I do. They're the descendents of people who were marooned here by the Orochi after Kerensky left. Most of them are decent people, but some of them are bandits who raid the outlying farms - even this village - for food and clothing. No one here really trusts outsiders because of that."

"Everyone must think that I'm an Outsider," she remarked.

"As far as these people are concerned, anyone who doesn't live here or at one of the nearby farms is one," he pointed out. "They're good people, really, but with all the raids, they've lost their ability to trust strangers."

"I can see how well you're treated here, Shinnosuke, but are you an outsider to them?"

He shook his head. "Grandfather and I don't count. It's a long story, and he'll explain it better than I could. We'll get going as soon as we're finished with lunch."

Lunch came, light and refreshingly civilized after eating berries and the various roots, mushrooms, and tubers Shinnosuke had procured for them in the woods. Meat was something Akane hadn't thought she would miss, but after three days without, the sight and smell of a sizzling tray of skewers made her mouth water. She ate with gusto, and their host gave an approving nod.

They talked for some time afterwards, in spite of Shinnosuke's assurances that they would get on the road again. Akane didn't mind, so long as the conversation stayed away from who she was and where she had come from. To his credit, Shinnosuke seemed to sense her desire to remain anonymous - although his absent-mindedness probably had something to do with it - and did not mention that she was a mechwarrior from another planet. Akane noted that it might have been easier for both of them to pretend that they really were married.

The woman talked mostly of life in the village, its gossip, and predictions for the coming harvest and the winter that would follow. Shinnosuke politely declined the casual offer of the woman's daughter as a bride for him, earning a wry look from the lady. Apparently, she remained unconvinced that Akane wasn't already filling the position.

As the men came home from the fields, they were at last able to beg leave. They offered thanks for the meal, and were about to sit up from the table when the woman ran inside to fetch something for them.

She returned with a dark red cape of rich homespun cloth.

"For your lady friend," she said, handing it to Shinnosuke. "You've got another day at least in the woods, and I know how cold it can get out there at night."

"I couldn't..." Akane said, trying to beg off. She could tell by the weave of the cloth that it was quality work, and from the lack of similarly colored clothing among the villagers, she knew that the pigment used to dye it was rare.

"I insist," the woman said. "Think of it as a wedding present."

She blushed uncomfortably and bowed, knowing that it would be rude to press the matter. "Thank you."

They started onto another forest path that lead steadily uphill. The boys followed them for some time before finally withdrawing to the village. Apparently they couldn't get enough of gawking at her, and more than one had offered himself for the position of her husband.

She was glad they were gone. Obnoxious boys drove her up the wall when she was sixteen, and they weren't getting any more tolerable at nineteen. In another month she would be twenty, and she doubted that her opinion of them would be any different.

What was it that made her love Ranma then? she wondered. He was pretty obnoxious most of the time. Was it those few moments when he had been mature and thoughtful that gave her hope? She was still tickled over the flowers he had picked for her, even though some of them had turned out to be poisonous.

Please don't let him be dead! she offered in prayer to the heavens.

In the meantime, she would follow Shinnosuke to meet his grandfather, and then ask him questions about Ryuugenzawa. If there was any chance that the expedition hadn't been in vain, she would seize upon it.

11 June 3025

"Grandfather!" Shinnosuke called to the neat wooden structure that was his home.

"Shin-boy!" an aged voice called from within. "You're back!"

Shinnosuke stepped through the door with Akane.

The small home was a one room affair divided by a few folding screens into a sleeping area, a living area with a floor pit fire, and a small kitchen. The floor was made of sanded wooden slats that were as finely crafted as the simple but fine construction of the rest of the home.

The fire pit was lined with large river stones, and a bed of red coals filled the house with warmth, cutting the chill she had felt in the woods. Stew simmered in a crude cast iron pot. It was all very rustic, but she also noted the bits of high-technology Shinnosuke and his grandfather possessed.

They had a laser rifle hanging over the door, looking functional even after all these years. A portable photovoltaic array was on the roof, and she could see the power cables running down to an inverter and to several charging stations. A pager like the one Shinnosuke carried was plugged into one of them, and so was a laptop terminal. On the opposite wall was draped the flag of the Star League. Ancient photo and stereographs surrounded the flag, presumably the ancestors of Shinnosuke and his grandfather.

"Who is this?" Shinnosuke's grandfather asked with some surprise.

"This is... uh..." he supplied for his elder.

She nudged him gently and whispered her name.

"Akane," he finished, again mortified that he could have forgotten her name.

The old man had a bushy grey beard and thick eyebrows that accentuated his bald pate. Though he was laying in bed with the sun still up, he seemed to possess a fiery vigor about him.

"Akane," he said, rolling the name over in his mouth. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Akane."

She curtsied for him. "The pleasure's all mine, sir."

"Akane's a mechwarrior from another system," Shinnosuke supplied. "The Orochi must be awake again."

The old man frowned deeply at this. "That's a terrible thing to suggest, Shin-boy. In any event, the satellite units are autonomous from the Orochi. I think we'd know if it was active again."

He rose from his bed and looked Akane over. "Is this true?" he asked her. "Are you from another a system?"

She blushed meekly. "Yes sir," she replied. "My DropShip was attacked several nights ago."

"A pity," he sniffed. "You're probably stranded here, then. I'm sure the boy told you that."

"I'm not going to give up hope just yet," she replied.

The old man grunted something under his breath. "I was a boy Shinnosuke's age the last time a ship came to Ryuugenzawa. The Orochi satellites destroyed it, and the survivors landed here. The ones who were able to adapt to our, ahem, primitive conditions ended up marrying into the village, or else joined one of the Outsider camps."

"Shinnosuke told me about them," she said.

"Did he tell you how they're bandits, murderers, and thieves?" the old man asked her in an acid tone. "How they came to plunder this world?"

Akane tensed at his accusations. He was not going to be sympathetic to her plight, because this was exactly the reason why she had come to the system.

"Shinnosuke said to ask you about it," she said at length.

The old man put on a dark coat similar to his grandson's. "Liars, too," he added. "Talking about how the Star League had collapsed, how it was everyone for themselves."

She knew it might be dangerous for her to disagree, but it was clear that he was wholly ignorant of the Inner Sphere's current state.

"It's true," she said. "The Star League collapsed into civil war over two centuries ago. Kerensky's army never returned. No one's heard from them since they left."

He gave her a sour look. How could he not believe this? she wondered. They had been waiting for generations on this planet for Kerensky or his people to return. One would think that after all this time, they would have given up hope.

"Who exactly are you?" he asked her.

She swallowed hard. When in doubt, give them the truth. "My name is Akane Tendo, youngest daughter of Grand Duke Soun Tendo of the Nerima Confederation."

She could see him rifling through the stacks of his memory, trying to place names with what his ancestors had taught him.

"A Tendo, eh?" he said finally. "So you're one of the people who tore the Star League apart."

His accusation was filled with bitterness.

"I'm a Tendo," she returned evenly. "But I didn't have anything to do with what happened two hundred years ago. How could I? All I know is that the Furinkan Combine is trying to conquer the Inner Sphere, and if I don't find a way to stop them, they will."

He gave her declaration some thought. "So you came here for what purpose? To steal technology? Are the stories of the collapse really true? Have things become that bad in the Inner Sphere?"

"We didn't come here to steal anything," she insisted. "We didn't even expect anyone to be here. To the Inner Sphere, Ryuugenzawa is just a legend. A myth." She shook off the cape the woman in the village had given her. "And yes, the stories you heard about the collapse are true. We've lost the ability to make Jump Drives, HPG arrays, and so much more. It was our hope that we would be able to recover that technology here."

Shinnosuke's grandfather folded his arms across his chest. "I see. So you can defeat the Furinkan Combine and rule the Inner Sphere yourselves."

"That's not it!" Akane protested. "We're just trying to protect our families and our property, not conquer everything. We just want a better life for our people again. Is that so wrong?"

He looked her over gravely for several minutes, apparently locked in a battle with himself over her plea.

"I believe you, young lady," he said at length. "I shouldn't, but there is a sincerity in your voice that I find difficult to ignore."

"Will you help me then?" she asked him.

"I'm afraid that you might be disappointed," the old man intoned. "When General Kerensky asked the SLDF to desert and join him in exile, most of the Proving Grounds staff and their projects went with him. A few of the scientists, engineers, and their families remained behind, thinking that they would better their positions when the Star League moved back in. Aside from them were the colonists Kerensky had brought in to make the place more habitable for the research staff, and the representatives of the various military contracting firms whose equipment was being evaluated for use. They had no way to leave the system and no place to go if they did.

"Those who were left behind suffered terribly. After a few years without contact with the rest of the Star League, there was an ugly war here as the colonists vied for control of the remaining facilities and food production areas. Most of the colonists died in the years of violence that followed, and all the survivors could do was buckle down and try to carve out a new life in the wilderness. Shinnosuke and I represent the last of a line of caretakers for the facilities, keeping the hope of Kerensky's return alive for the people of this world."

He seemed beaten down by his recounting of the world's turbulant history, but continued.

"What attacked you was the Orochi; a network of defense satellites that was supposed to preserve the planet from harm. I do not know when the Orochi began to malfunction - it happened before I was born - but I do know that it nearly completed the destruction of the colony here. It also destroyed all the ships that entered the system, turning their survivors, most of them nothing more than bandits and treasure hunters, against us.

"Even as we keep watch over the bandits, we must also keep hidden from the Orochi, as it becomes active from time to time, and causes great damage to us before it goes dormant once again. All sources of advanced technology are its targets, which is why we live so simply these days."

Akane thought this over. "So anyone bringing in advanced technology triggers an attack by the Orochi?"

The old man nodded. "This has never specifically been put to the test, but yes, when the Orochi becomes active, it will destroy any targets that it cannot identify as friendly."

"Why doesn't it distinguish between the colonists and a real military target?"

"That, I do not know. My own grandfather theorized that the powerful solar storms that rage every few years have caused some kind of malfunction within the computers that direct the Orochi network. It no longer recognizes certain facilities as friendly targets - like the starport - and subjected them to a terrible bombardment. Most of the colonists killed by the Orochi died when it levelled the starport and the outlying colony town. It seemed prudent after that to build shelters away from any remaining facility, and better still to conceal them from the air."

"There isn't any way to stop the Orochi, then?" Akane asked.

The old man shook his head. "There is a bunker to the north of here, where the Orochi network can be controlled, but we lack the authentication codes to send it any commands. My grandfather tried for many years to bypass the security system, but it proved to be too difficult. The best we can do is monitor the network."

"I could take her there, grandfather," Shinnosuke remarked. "I had to go there to change out a sump pump in the basement about a month ago, so I know where it is."

The old man pursed his lips in thought. "I don't see what good could come from it," he said at last. "As I said, there is no way to control the Orochi network. They were designed for autonomous operation and to resist all unauthorized attempts at controlling them."

The matter was settled as far as he was concerned, so he returned to his sleeping mat.

"There is food if you are hungry," he said, pointing to the pot over the coals.

"It's not much, but it'll do, won't it?" Shinnosuke asked her.

Akane looked over the steel drum sitting on cinder blocks above a bed of coals that was to be her bath.

"It should," she replied, wanting a bath desperately, and not caring that was under such primitive conditions. Running water was nice, but a bath was a bath.

"Let me stoke the coals a bit first," he said, pointing to a hollow tube of fibrous wood that resembled shamboo. He blew through the tube, forcing air over the coals and making them glow brighter. Wisps of steam wafted up from the water in the drum after several minutes of this.

"It should be ready now," he said, and left her to bathe.

She smiled for him as he went. Once he was around the corner of the house, she began to strip out of her olive drab coveralls. The mud on her legs had dried on, and she knew it would take a good soak to wash it away. Her filthy tank top and shorts she cast aside. She could wear the coveralls until she had a chance to launder her other garments.

The water was very hot, forcing her to ease herself in gently. Once she was covered up to the shoulders, she relaxed, letting the heat soak into her tired and sore body. Wisps of steam drifted past her eyes, further soothing her.

It was primitive, but she could get used to living like this. Fresh air, lots of exercise, sleeping under the stars; there was a lot to be said for Shinnosuke's way of life. If his grandfather knew what he was talking about, there was a good chance that she would be living like this for the rest of her life. The Dragonfly must have been destroyed or else driven off by now, perhaps after an attempted rendezvous with the Palomino. It was a sobering thought, because the crew had done so much for the expedition, and she cared for all of them in a certain sense.

Ranma, Ryouga, Yuka, Sayuri, the others... Were they dead? Were they alive and stranded somewhere on this planet just like she was? She had no answers, only the faith that Ranma had somehow survived.

Shinnosuke knew most of the facilities that made up the Proving Grounds, and it was possible that he could lead her to a radio transmitter powerful enough to reach the Jump Points in time to warn the transport fleet away. It would mean being marooned forever on Ryuugenzawa, but there was no sense in endangering the lives of so many of her people for nothing. Perhaps a rescue force could be assembled someday that was powerful enough to destroy the Orochi network, but she wasn't counting on it. Whatever secrets Ryuugenzawa had left to it might have to stay secrets forever.

There was another thought that disturbed her. After all of the struggle to get to this planet, the fact that they were stranded here meant that there would be no relief against the Furinkan Combine. Sooner or later, Prince Kuno would win, and he might learn of the coordinates to the Ryuugenzawa System. With his Nightlord Class battleship, Imperator, there was the possibility that he might be able to destroy the Orochi network and seize the planet for himself.

She sighed. To be rescued by Tatewaki Kuno, of all people...

She finished bathing and stepped out of the drum, wondering where Shinnosuke had put the towel. As she did so, he came around the corner, clutching the towel in question. His eyes slammed shut at beholding her in all of her naked glory, and he placed a hand over them for good measure.

"I - I'm sorry!" he stammered. "I forgot about your towel, and..."

She walked over to him and took the towel from his hand. When she had wrapped it around herself, she stepped back and told him it was safe to open his eyes.

He did so reluctantly, his face burning with shame.

"I'm sorry," he repeated.

She cocked her head to the side. "Uh huh... An accident, right?" she teased.

"R-Right!" he concurred. "It'll never happen again, I promise!"

"I forgive you," she chuckled. She had been ready to explode, but his obvious embarrassment and effusive apologies had defused her. He was kind of cute in a bumbling, self-conscious way; like Ranma, only without the ego.

She walked past him, smiling, to retrieve her coveralls and get changed for bed.

Shinnosuke could only watch, breathless, as she passed him.

12 June 3025

"Oh man, what the hell have I gotten myself into?" Ranma Saotome asked herself as she slogged uphill through the dense forest growth. For four days now she had been searching for Akane, and had nothing to show for it except hunger, fatigue, and more bruises. She wasn't even certain where she was anymore, as the sky had been overcast for much of the past two days, catching her in more than one cloudburst, and making it difficult for her to navigate by the sun.

She was just wandering now, and wondering if this was what Ryouga felt like when he got lost. Her only link to her friends lay in the radio that Sayuri had given her, but she could only receive at long range. Transmissions were only good for about ten kilometers.

If there was anything to feel hopeful about, it was that she must be close to what passed for civilization on Ryuugenzawa, as she had discovered a fairly wide path through the forest that spoke of human intervention. She had been following it since that morning, when it abruptly petered out into a forked set of narrow twisting paths.

There was a hill nearby, so she resolved to climb it and get her bearings. If there was a settlement nearby, as the road possibly indicated, she might be able to see it. Climbing the hill meant scrabbling up the loose, muddy ground, slicked with fresh rainfall, but she was already so flithy that she didn't care.

She was exhausted by the time she reached the top of the hill, and paused to nibble on the last of her survival rations. She had stretched them as far as they would go, and now she was out of food. If she did find a settlement, she hoped that they would be friendly enough to offer her something to eat. If not, well, it wouldn't be the first time she had stolen food to survive...

Having eaten what was left of her rations, she perched herself on a fallen, rotting log and scanned the horizon. The sky was hazy and indistinct in the distance, but through the mist she could see what looked like tilled fields, and the tiny dots of people tending them.

She whooped in delight. Civilization at last! She judged the distance to be close to ten kilometers, perhaps a two hour walk if the trails held up.

As she sat up from the log, she spied a glint of metal in the distance near the fields. Squinting against the mist, she caught sight of a battlemech approaching from what she thought was the south.

She pulled out her radio remote and set it to a Confederation tac-net frequency.

"It looks like farmlands," Ukyou said to herself.

Konatsu peered down through the open hatch.

"Shall I take a look, sir?"

"Let me get us a little closer first," she said, spying a muddy road lying nearly parallel to their course and turning to follow it.

As she approached, she could see people tending the fields. They hadn't noticed her yet, but as her Hatchetman drew near, they would feel its feet pounding into the ground.

She was surprised when she saw a flare rocket into the sky from the other side of the fields. The farmers immediately scrambled for the road and started running away from her.

"I think they've spotted us, sir," Konatsu said. "I can hear a bell ringing in the distance."

"Stay cool, sugar," Ukyou replied. "We aren't here to hurt anyone."

She switched her optics over to the thermal-imager, which cut through the mist to reveal the tiny, fuzzy shapes of people moving into what appeared to be a good sized village. There was no telling what kind of hardware they might have had handy, but she doubted that they had anything that posed a threat to her battlemech.

All the same...

"Konatsu, honey, you might want to take some cover. I'm an awfully big target, you know."

Konatsu agreed. He leaped down from her 'mech and scrambled to a position behind her right leg, jogging to keep up with her pace. She reached up and dogged her hatch shut as a precaution against grenades.

She continued her ponderous advance. A few people showed up on her thermal imager, leaving the buildings to take up what were likely to be defensive positions. They had firearms, but it was difficult to tell if they possessed anything big enough to cause her harm.

"That's far enough!" she heard a voice shout. She trained her parabolic mic around to pinpoint the source, and found an old man pointing a rifle up at her cockpit.

She stopped the Hatchetman fifty meters short of the village perimeter and waited. No man-portable SRM launchers appeared from cover to take a shot at her. The village militia didn't seem to have anything bigger than a light machine gun set on a rusty tripod mount. She could cancel it with one of her lasers with a mere thought if she had to.

She decided to take a chance and prove her peaceful intentions to them. She undogged the hatch and raised it, then slowly came out, hands first so they could see that they were empty. She peeked up out of the hatch, waiting for a bullet, but none came.

They were cool customers, she decided.

"I'm looking for some people," she shouted. "Have any of you seen a guy with dark hair in a pigtail in the last few days?"

There was no answer.

She pulled herself up out of the hatch and threw her legs over the brow of the Hatchetman's head. "How about a girl with short, dark hair, answering to the name Akane?"

The old man with the rifle advanced from cover, keeping the weapon handy, but not raised against her.

"Get that thing out of here, and maybe we'll talk!" he shouted back, pointing to the battlemech.

She faced him. "Look, pal. If I wanted to turn your village into smoking ruins, I'da done it already. Lighten up." She offered her hands to them in a gesture of supplication. "Now could you please answer my question?"

"The answer's no to both your questions!" the old man replied. "Now git!"

She kept her temper, understanding how something like her Hatchetman would strike fear into a village like this one.

"Thanks for your help," she said dryly, and dropped down the hatch.

She turned the battlemech and started heading back the way she came. Konatsu pulled himself back up onto her shoulder.

"Do you think he was lying to you, sir?" he asked her.

"Hard to say," she replied. "We certainly weren't welcome." She shook her head wearily. They had been out for days now, and their supply of food was running low. "Perhaps we should go back to the Palomino and resupply," she remarked.

Konatsu appeared at the hatch. "I shall stay behind and continue the search, if you wish it."

"Don't do that to yourself, honey," she replied. "You're just as tired and worn out with the search as anyone. Besides, if you got caught sneaking around, they'd probably lynch you."

She turned back to her instruments, calling up the map her battlemech's computer had been able to generate of her surroundings. The DropShip was a good hundred and thirty kilometers away - too far for a radio message without a satellite relay, and while there were probably commsats in orbit, she did not possess the codes or commo protocols to access them.

"Heya, Ucchan," a voice crackled over the radio as she pondered this.

"Ranma?" she cried in surprise. If it was him, he was currently a 'she' - which was no surprise given all the rain they had endured of late. She clicked her mic. "Ranchan? Is that you?"

"Where are ya goin'?" Ranma asked. "You're walking away from me!"

Ukyou brought her 'mech to a halt. "You can see me?"

"With a radio as wimpy as mine, I'd almost have to."

She turned her 'mech around in a circle, trying to spot her.

"I don't see you," she said finally.

"I'm near the top of a hill," Ranma said to her. "I can see some farmland in front of me, southeast of my position, I think."

"I just came from there," Ukyou replied. "They told me they hadn't seen you."

"Makes sense," Ranma agreed. "I haven't actually made it to the village yet."

"Don't bother. They aren't very friendly towards strangers."

"Did they know where Akane was?"

Ukyou frowned. "No. At least they said they didn't."

"Dammit! Where could she be?"

"I don't know, Ranchan, but I think you had better come with me. Hold your position, talk me in, and I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Copy that, Ucchan," she said. "I'll be the one freezing his butt off in wet clothes."

"Shouldn't that be 'freezing her butt off,'" Ukyou teased.

"Oh, ha ha."

"I'm really glad you're showing me where this bunker is, Shinnosuke," Akane said to him.

"Grandfather won't like it, but I don't see the harm in showing you," he replied. "He's right though, there isn't any way of controlling the Orochi. People in my family have been trying for as long as we've been the caretakers."

The mention of family raised a question within her that she had been wanting to ask, but had held back for fear of upsetting him.

"It's just you and your grandfather now, isn't it," she said.

His pace slowed a bit. "Yeah," he replied. "I've got a few older cousins living in the village, but that's it."

She almost hated to ask. "Your parents?"

He stopped, and turned towards her. His face held a grief that had long since passed into a dull ache.

"They died years ago. I was very small then. I don't even remember it." He pawed at the muddy ground. "Grandfather's been taking care of me ever since."

"I'm sorry, Shinnosuke," she said softly. "I shouldn't have pried."

"No!" he protested. "Don't be, Akane. I feel like I could tell you anything about myself, no matter how painful."

She blushed shyly at this. Shinnosuke was such a sweetheart that it was amazing that he hadn't found a girl to settle down with.

"Well, lead on," she said sprightly to him. The bunker would be connected to a radio relay for communications with the Orochi network, and she could use it to warn the transport fleet.

They continued on, passing between a pair of hills near the village on their way north to the bunker. As they took the leftmost path in the fork, the surrounding forest became very quiet and still.

"Something's wrong," Shinnosuke said, gripping his pushbroom tightly.

"More of those bugs?" Akane asked worriedly.

"No," he replied. "Something else. Be careful, Akane, and keep your eyes and ears open."

They continued warily. Akane could feel eyes upon her, but nothing was visible in the dense forest growth to either side of the path. She found her hand slipping into her survival kit. The pistol was there, but it was empty. She would need to put the spare magazine in before -

Movement on the path in front of them caught her by surprise. She watched as three men wearing loose strips of cloth dyed to match the foliage jumped out of cover, two of them armed with crude spears, the third with an ancient and rusty pump shotgun.

"Run!" Shinnosuke cried to her. She turned to find three more behind them, two of them with guns.

"We're surrounded!" she cried, fishing in her kit for the extra magazine.

"Hey, Shin!" the man with the shotgun called to them. "Make ya a deal! Give us the girl and you can go on sweepin' floors!"

"That's not gonna happen, Graham," Shinnosuke replied. He raised his pushbroom. "Go back to your own lands before you get hurt!"

The man called Graham jerked his head in Shinnosuke's direction. "Teach the boy whose lands these are," he said with a grating laugh. "This whole goddamn planet is mine, kid!" he called after Shinnosuke as his spear-armed cronies advanced down the narrow path. "Don't you be forgettin' that!"

Shinnosuke braced for a charge, turning his head briefly to Akane. "I said run! These people don't play games!"

Akane loaded her pistol instead. "I'm not leaving you!" She pulled back the slide to chamber a round, and took aim at the men behind them. "Back off, or I'll blow holes in you big enough to drive a battlemech through."

The three scattered to either side of the path, taking cover.

"The girl's packing heat!" one of them called, presumably to Graham.

"So?" he called back from behind the safety of the two spearmen. "What do think you're carrying, slingshots?"

"You want us to shoot her?" one of them cried. "I thought you said you wanted her alive?"

"Shoot her in the leg or something!" Graham hurled back impatiently. "Do I haf'ta explain everything myself?"

One of them found his courage and popped around the tree he was using for cover. Akane fired a snapshot, the 10mm hollowpoint striking the trunk of the tree near eye level, and sending the thug ducking back behind cover with a girlish shriek of fright.

"I'm not joking!" she called to them.

"Akane..." Shinnosuke grunted tersely to her. "Run!"

"We'll both run," she replied, nearly quaking with fear. They only had one way to go, and that was up. Trying to move down would put them in a tangled mass of brambles and stinging vines. "I'll start shooting to keep their heads down, and we'll start running up the hill."

She began firing a sustained series of shots at the ones behind them while sidestepping up the hill. As Shinnosuke started to move, she pivoted and fired twice more at the spearmen, catching one in the bicep and blowing a very satisfying chunk of meat off his arm. His hollow wail of agony drowned out the angry voice of Graham exhorting his thugs to action.

They clambered up the hill, clawing desperately at the muddy ground for purchase as Graham shouted curses at them. A blast from his shotgun sent crude cast lead buckshot pellets whining through the air just over their heads to explode in the foliage on the hillside above them. The strong sulfurous scent of blackpowder filled the moist air.

"They don't even have smokeless powder!" Akane shouted indignantly over the din. "I can't believe I'm about to be killed by something that's practically out of the stone age!"

"Keep climbing," Shinnosuke grunted. "We're not out of range yet!"

A second blast from the shotgun confirmed this. A pellet lodged in the back of his leg, centimeters below the knee. He spasmed in pain, stopping his progress.

"Shinnosuke!" she cried, trying to drag him up the hill. His leg twitched uncontrollably, making it impossible for him to use it for purchase, and he was too heavy for her to drag through the mud.

"Now we've got 'em," Graham hooted from below.

Akane pulled the still warm pistol from her coveralls and fired at the cur. The bullet struck a branch over his head, dusting him with green needles. He didn't even flinch as he raised the shotgun at her.

She saw that the slide was locked back on her pistol, and threw it at him with a curse, spoiling his aim. The shotgun blast ripped into the hillside well to her right.

"That'll be enough outta you, missy!" he snorted triumphantly. His remaining thugs formed a skirmish line and began moving with methodical patience up the hill towards her.

"Go to hell!" she screamed at him, and tried dragging Shinnosuke up the hill once more. He tried to assist her, but his wounded leg had gone limp.

She managed to pull him up to a level patch of ground, but the hill became much steeper beyond, and she knew she could barely climb them herself, much less help her wounded friend. She unzipped her coveralls to the navel to give herself some room to move in them, and dropped into a fighting stance.

They were going to have to kill her.

"Akane, what are you doing?" Shinnosuke cried to her.

"I won't let them hurt us," she snapped. They were almost upon them.

"Akane, no! Your life is more important than mine! Run, I'm begging you!" He pulled himself upright, his left leg supported by the pushbroom."I'll hold them off."

"Shinnosuke!" she cried. There wasn't time for more, as one of the spearman lunged at her. She wasn't there for the blow, however, since Shinnosuke pushed her aside with a grunt of warning. As she fell to the ground, she watched the spear sink into his shoulder. The thug kept the spear inside, throwing his weight behind the shaft to pin Shinnosuke down and hold him while his comrades continued their advance.

"Shinnosuke!" she cried again. One of the rifle-armed thugs swept at her head with the butt of his weapon. She ducked the blow easily and landed a kick to the solar plexus that sent him tumbling down the hillside.

"Don't play with her," Graham yelled at them. Naturally, he was behind the remainder of his men. "If she's a little bruised and bloodied, it's no big deal. She'll heal in time."

The spearman twisted his weapon in Shinnosuke's shoulder, making him scream in agony.

The scream distracted Akane, and she was caught flat-footed by the second rifleman's buttstroke to the stomach. She reeled over, about to be sick, when he reversed his stroke and took her in the jaw. She saw stars then, and tumbled to the wet ground by Shinnosuke's side, too dazed to act.

"Akane!" he cried to her.

Graham was laughing. "See boys! She ain't so tough."

He started the rest of the way up the hill, chuckling evilly.

"Bastard!" a girl's voice cried. A green and black blur flew down from the hill at the man who had laid Akane out. He barely had time to look up before a savage kick to the side of the head snapped his neck like a twig. His body became as limp as spaghetti, and he slithered down the hill to pass the stunned Graham.

The girl then lunged with her elbow at the spearman who kept Shinnosuke pinned, catching him square in the throat and crushing his windpipe. He fell down the hill, choking for breath that would not come.

The remaining thug charged at her as she recovered from her lunge, his spear sliding into the narrow gap between her arm and side. The girl clenched up, spun on her heels, and ripped the weapon from his grasp with her maneuver. As he backpedaled, fumbling for a knife at his waist, she brought the butt end of the spear against the side of his temple hard enough to splinter the shaft.

"Who the hell are you?!" the shotgun-toting brigand shouted at her as the last of his men on the hill fell stone dead.

The girl in the green mandarin blouse and the black drawstring pants jerked a thumb at her buxom chest.

"I'm Ranma Saotome, asshole, and I'll make sure you don't forget it for the rest of your miserably short life!"

Graham jerked his head to work out the kinks in his neck, and raised the shotgun to Ranma's chest.

"Somehow, I doubt that."

When Ranma did not try to duck or evade, he had to give the savage girl credit for spunk. He did not realize that a 10 centimeter spot of red coherent light had materialized on his chest as he peered down the length of his shotgun barrel.

There was a brilliant flash of light, a deafening crackle of ionized air, and then the wet whhooommmphh of ninety kilograms of human being and several dozen kilograms of dirt and vegetation behind him being rendered instantly into a rapidly expanding cloud of moist steam.

High atop the hill, a Hatchetman stood, a wisp of vapor wafting from the focusing optics of the medium laser embedded in the shaft of its battle-spatula.

Ranma turned and waved to the battlemech.

"Good timing, Ucchan!" she cried. "Though I think you gave me a sunburn from that blast."

"I was wondering what the hell you were doing running away from me," came her reply over the mech's external speakers. "You could have said something more specific to me than 'Hey, Ucchan, something's up. Come quick!'"

"Yeah, well, I didn't have any specifics 'til I got here."

She turned, looking at her fiancee with concern as the adrenaline rush of combat faded from her system and left her feeling shaky and anxious. Blind chance had put her on the same hill as Akane, close enough to hear the gunfire and fearful cries and to act in time to save her. She didn't know who the men in the makeshift ghille suits were, but it didn't take a genius to figure out where they stood on the scale of enemies and allies.

"Akane," she said softly to her.

Akane pulled herself up onto all fours and crawled over to the body of the young man she had fought beside. The spear which pinned him to the ground was still lodged within him, and an expanding stain of wetness soaked his coat. He was still alive, his eyes glazed over with pain.

"Shinnosuke," she whispered fearfully, and buried her face in his chest. "Please don't die... Oh, Shinnosuke!"

Ranma's jaw dropped. After four days of searching for her, after saving her life not once, but twice in those four days, the first thing she does is worry and cry over some strange guy from the forest?

"Akane..." she grunted, anger and stunning injury creeping into her voice.

Akane, her eyes spilling tears and her lip bleeding, turned up to face Ranma.

"We've got to help him, Ranma," she pleaded.

She could feel an icicle sinking into her heart. Akane... how? Why...?

The stench of the vaporized brigand that lingered in the air became overpowering to her, and she nearly retched where she stood.

"What's going on down there?" Ukyou asked over the radio.

"Better get down here," Ranma replied numbly. "We need a medevac."

"I'm sending Konatsu with an aidkit," she replied.

Ukyou Kuonji looked through her cockpit viewport at the extended hands of her battlemech as it tromped across the grassy plains of Ryuugenzawa. Cupped within them were Akane, Konatsu, and the injured young man. Konatsu was keeping an eye on his patient, while Akane hovered worriedly over the two of them. Ranma perched silently atop the head, and though the hatch was open, did not feel up to conversation with her.

She did not understand what was going on. The strange young man was obviously Akane's new-found companion, and she was certainly concerned for his well-being, despite Konatsu's assertion that the injury he had sustained was not immediately life-threatening. All she did know was that Ranma was acting like he had been crushed, and that Akane had done the crushing.

She didn't know what to make of that. On the one hand, any kind of relationship problems between Ranma and Akane were good news for her, and at the same time, seeing her beloved Ranchan so miserable made her wish that she could do something about it - even if it meant patching things up between them. Not that she would have made that option her first choice. As soon as she got the chance, she resolved to try and comfort him in her own special way.

"How much longer?" she heard Akane ask her with a shout.

She checked her map display. Lacking the codes to access the planet's GPS network, she could only rely on her Inertial Navigation System to fix her position, and that was subject to error. She was familiar with the present terrain, and confident that she was heading in the right direction to reach the Palomino, but not exactly sure how far away it was.

"Probably another forty-five minutes," she replied over the external speakers. "Why, is your friend's condition getting worse? I'm in radio range now. I can call for help." The two Ship's Boats from the stricken Dragonfly had enough fuel remaining for short hops if necessary, and she wanted very much for this Shinnosuke fellow to remain among the living. Her future with Ranchan depended on it.

"There's no hurry, sir," Konatsu assured her, his voice losing some of its falsetto as he shouted to be heard.

It was actually closer to thirty minutes as they neared the perimeter treeline. The Palomino was concealed beneath its netting and tarps, making it blend better with the surrounding forests. Genma Saotome's Griffin continued to provide external power, she noted - not a good sign. Ryouga's BattleMaster and Happousai's Locust were parked close by.

She keyed up the alert frequency the DropShip was using, and clicked her microphone switch.

"Palomino, Kuonji; I'm approaching the perimeter from the southwest. Request that Doctor Tofu and a medical emergency team be standing by when I get there."

"Copy that, Kunoji," one of the Dragonfly crew replied.

As she slipped under the camouflage netting, she could see Doctor Tofu, the Dragonfly's hospital corpsman, and two of the starship's cooks standing by with a stretcher. Genma, Captain Ninomiya, Ryouga, Yuka, and Sayuri were also present.

She came to halt, and knelt carefully to place her charges on the ground. Tofu and the others took them from her battlemech's hands, with Shinnosuke being placed on the stretcher. Doctor Tofu went to work immediately as Yuka and Sayuri exchanged tearful hugs with Akane.

"What happened?" Tofu asked as he listened to Konatsu give a report of treatment administered thus far.

"Never mind that, Doctor!" Akane cried. "Will he be all right?"

Tofu examined the wound, taking Shinnosuke's pulse as he did so. Shinnosuke was conscious, but suffering mildly from shock, his eyes dull and unfocused.

"I think he'll pull through," Tofu declared. "The wound looks more serious than it probably is, but I won't know for certain until I get him under the scanner."

Ukyou pulled herself through the hatch of the 'mech, watching Ranma as she watched the drama unfold below.

"You look like you could use a shower and something to eat," she observed.

Ranma bowed her head, her blue-grey eyes glinting with sharp lights of hurt and betrayal, but said nothing in reply.

Ukyou bit her lip, wishing she hadn't come across so flippant. She took her place by Ranma's side and put an arm around her. When Ranma eased out of her shell enough to lay her head against Ukyou's shoulder, she kissed Ranma's brow tenderly in reply. A month ago she could not have imagined being so intimate with another girl, but she had quickly come to learn that Ranchan was still Ranchan, even if he had boobs some of the time, and that her feelings for him had not changed.

"Come on, honey," she said in a quiet voice to Ranma. "Let's get cleaned up. After four days of being cooped up in a 'mech, you're not the only one who could use a shower. After that I'll see about making us some okonomiyaki." She gave Ranma a squeeze. "Though I shudder to think what we'll have in the way of fresh ingredients."

Ranma rose with a wordless nod. Shinnosuke had been carried into the DropShip, and most of the onlookers had followed. Only Genma and Ryouga remained behind, waiting for him to come down from the Hatchetman.

She pulled herself down from the head, when Ukyou had expected her beloved to leap. She followed after her. Genma Saotome stood across from his son, his arms folded across his chest.

"Good work, boy," he said to his son. "I knew that if anyone could save Akane's life, it was you."

Ranma gave a bitter half-hearted laugh, and shambled past her father without another word. Ukyou had nothing to say to him either, and caught up to Ranma on the bounce.

Ryouga was next, bowing slightly in gratitude. "Thank you, Ranma," he said evenly. "For saving Akane's life, I can't hold anything against you anymore."

"Heh," Ranma snorted. "Just wait, Ryouga. I'm sure you'll have something to hate me for very soon." She continued on, leaving Ukyou to make a helpless apologetic gesture in reply.

13 June 3025

"Has anyone seen Ranma lately?" Akane asked the people in the Crew's Mess.

"I saw him with Kuonji last night, ma'am," one of the Dragonfly's engineering techs replied. "Last I saw of him."

"He missed chow this morning," his Palomino counterpart added. "It's the first time I've seen that happen since the transit from Capra to the Jump Point."

Akane frowned. She remembered it clearly. He had been jealous and upset over her giving Ryouga a kiss on the cheek. Now what had gotten into him?

Another thought worried her. What was Ukyou's part in this?

"Thanks anyway," she offered. "If you do see him, could you tell him that I'm looking for him?"

"Will do, ma'am," the two replied.

As she left the compartment, she ran into Petty Officer Howard, who wore the gunbelt and carried the clipboard of the Roving Watch.

"Hi, Tad," she greeted him.

He smiled shyly. "Good morning, ma'am," he replied.

"Have you seen Ranma?"

"Captain Saotome?" he asked. "I saw him not too long ago, actually."

Akane brightened. "Really? Where is he?"

"I saw him in the dorsal transverse passageway while I was making my rounds," he replied. "Said something about getting a little fresh air. He's probably up on the hull."

"Thanks, Tad!" she cried, and headed for the stairs up to the Upper Deck.

She found him where Tad had suggested, sitting with his knees pulled up to his chin on the armored deck of the DropShip. The flutter of the camouflage netting just a few meters above them made a snapping sound in the breeze that offset the shrill noise of grinding tools and welding equipment from the engineering techs who worked on the hull damage below them on the starboard side.

He took note of her as she pulled herself through the dorsal airtight hatch to stand on top of the hull with him, but said nothing.

"I've been looking for you," she broached in a friendly voice.

"How's your friend?" he asked sullenly in return.

She was taken aback by his tone. "He'll be okay. Doctor Tofu says he should be up and around in a few days, actually."

"Well good," Ranma snorted. "I bet you're very happy about that."

Akane knew something was wrong with him, but couldn't for the life of her figure out what. His hostility was absolutely bewildering to her.

"Ranma, are you feeling okay?"

"Why shouldn't I be?" he growled. "After all, I only spent the last four friggin' days wandering through the forest; soaked to the bone, half-starved, and all beat up from falling four thousand meters through the air - most of it without the luxury of a working parachute - trying to find you."

She winced at this. "That's why I've been looking for you," she said to him. "I wanted to say thanks for what you did for me."

"You're welcome," he grunted, and turned back to watching the camouflage netting sway in the breeze.

She stood in fuming silence for a moment, watching him ignore her.

"Do you mind telling me what the hell is wrong with you, Ranma?"

"Nothing's wrong with me," he barked. "Does it look like there's something wrong?" he added, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Then why are you so angry with me?" she demanded. "Why have you been avoiding me ever since we returned to the ship?"

"Avoiding you?" Ranma snapped. "Get real. I've been on the ship the whole time. Where were you?"

Her jaw hung open. She was incensed with him, and yet found herself incapable of giving words to her ire.

"Lemme guess," he continued. "You spent the night in Sickbay."

She pursed her lips. "So what if I did?"

He shrugged. "It don't mean nothin' to me," he replied. "You do what you want. Isn't that how it's always been?"

Akane stood in silence for some time. She wanted to pound him for being such a jerk to her, but even if he deserved it, which he probably did, she knew it wouldn't help matters between them.

"Well, whatever I did that has you so pissed off at me, I'm sorry," she said to him. "Okay?"

He made a dismissive gesture with his hand. "Whatever."

She huffed at him. "What is with you, Ranma?" There was a pleading edge to her voice that forced him to look at her. "I mean, we nearly died together five days ago. The next time we saw each other wasn't until yesterday - when I almost died once again - and now all you can do is treat me like dirt!" She started to reach out to him, then pulled her hand back to her lips apprehensively. "This really hurts me, you know."

The hard glint in his eyes wavered for just a moment before he spoke.

"What do you know about gettin' hurt?" he snarled. "You've had it easy your whole life. Money, power, respect, you've always had those things - never once had to work for 'em. Probably the only time in your entire existence when you didn't get your way was when you got stuck with me, and even then it ain't like it ever mattered. It sure as hell don't seem to matter now."

He held up something which glinted in the mid-morning sunlight. Akane saw that it was the silver and brass collar insignia of a Mechwarrior Captain of the Confederation, the only one she had been able to find on the Dragonfly to give to him after he accepted his commission, and even that one had been a lucky find sitting in a dusty corner of the tiny ship's store.

"It looks like we ain't ever getting off this mudball," he went on, still fingering the collar insignia. "No chance of ever passing the paperwork on to higher authority, so what's the point?" He threw the collar device away, glittering in a slow arc as it fell to the grassy field far below them. "So we made it to Ryuugenzawa. Screw it. I resign anyway."

Akane was speechless. When she finally found her voice, it was tremulous and weak.

"I-I refuse to accept that," she said to him.

"Get used to disappointment," he returned. "Maybe you'll understand me better that way."

He sprang to his feet, startling her with his swiftness, and stepped past her to drop down the dorsal hatch.

She raced after him. "You swore an oath!" she cried.

"So what if I did?" he retorted from the bottom of the ladder.

"You didn't just swear it to the Confederation," she returned, her voice cracking with emotion. "You swore it to ME...!"

He looked up at her, his blue-grey eyes trembling.

"Let's get one thing straight between us. I didn't betray you, Akane," he said in a quiet voice that she somehow heard crystal clear over the din of the repairs. "You betrayed me..."

Nerima Confederation DropShip Palomino

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

The Magistracy of Canopus

14 June 3025

"What are you talking about?" Akane demanded. "How did I betray you?"

Ranma started walking away. "If you can't figure it out by yourself, then there ain't no point in me pulling teeth to explain it."

Akane jumped down the ladder to catch him.

"That's right, Ranma!" she challenged. "Just run away! It's what you're good at, isn't it?!"

He tossed her a casual wave, not even looking back.

"Coward!" she spat at him.

He froze up at her accusation, then turned slowly to face her.

"Says who," he grunted.

"I do," she retorted. "You might be brave on a battlefield, Ranma, but whenever something comes between us, all you ever do is run away. You don't have the guts to face me and answer a simple question."

The pained expression on his face told her that her barb had hit the mark. Would he keep running? she asked herself in that moment, wanting the jerk to show some spine, and fearing that he would disappoint her once again. She didn't want to chase him off, and yet she felt that he needed a good kick in the ego if he was ever going to grow up.

More than anything, she wanted to hear that she was important to him, that the reason he was so out of sorts was because he was hurting inside at something she had done or said. Even if she was the cause of it, at least it meant that he felt the same way about her as she felt about him. She wanted so badly for Ranma to love her that his hostility was tearing her apart.

"I just want you to be happy," he said at length.

Akane stiffened at his cryptic reply.

"How is resigning your commission supposed to make me happy?" she demanded. "Don't you realize how proud you've made me because you accepted it?"

His expression shifted from defiant to ashen-faced. Akane wanted an answer from him, but the words kept spilling from her lips.

"I don't know what I did or said to make you so angry with me, Ranma, but I apologized," she went on, her voice beginning to crack again. "Why can't you forgive me?"

Ranma looked away.

"You wouldn't understand," he muttered.

"Explain it to me!" she pleaded. "I'll listen!"

"No!" he shouted, anger seeping back into his voice. "I can't explain! It ain't that easy! It's better if you just forget it, all right?!"

She took a step back from him, edging against the cold steel ladder that led up through the dorsal hatch.

"It's not all right, Ranma," she said quietly, her eyes fixed at her feet. "And I can't just forget it. All I want is a simple answer. You say I've betrayed you. Then you say that you just want me to be happy. You say all these things, and yet nothing else you've done or said since we returned to the Palomino has made any sense to me."

"There ain't any simple answers!" he retorted, his voice beginning to crack as well. "I don't even understand all this, so how can I explain it to you?!"

"You could start by talking to me instead of shouting!" she riposted, her pensive demeanor flashing into outrage. Her hands balled up into fists as she started towards him.

Ranma stood his ground. How the hell was he supposed to explain anything to her when he didn't understand how he felt?! Six months ago everything had been so simple in his life. It was true that he was broke, Dispossessed, and a fugitive from the Jusenkyo Commonwealth, but at least then he knew where everything stood.

The moment Akane had been forced upon him, all that had changed. What little comforting certainty in his life had been turned upside down, and for what? He had a fiancee that didn't want to marry him, a responsibility to her that never seemed to end, and a host of enemies because of it. For what? he asked himself again.

He had risked his life for her over and over.

He had killed for her.

That was part of his turmoil, he knew. As a mechwarrior in an age of constant war, death was an unavoidable part of the job, one that he had been taught to accept. Before losing the family 'mech, he had racked up four victories against aerospace fighters, and only one of those pilots had bailed out. He had destroyed two battlemechs, with neither mechwarrior opting for survival if it meant joining the ranks of the Dispossessed. He could accept that they had chosen to stay and die with their crippled battlemechs - that was their decision, not his. He could accept that fate had ended a pilot's life with the sudden brilliance of an exploding fuel cell, or an ammunition explosion, or that one unlucky beam that penetrated the cockpit armor. They had chosen to play the dangerous game of mechanized warfare, and they had known the risks.

As a martial artist, however, he had a responsibility to limit his use of force to the minimum of what was necessary to resolve a conflict. The ascending ladder of force ingrained into him as a youth: take no violent action when peaceful means were available; fight to contain rather than injure; injure rather maim; maim rather than kill; and take a life only when no other response was effective or prudent - these tenets had existed in an uneasy cohabitation with the reality of combat using giant war machines and weapons that could not be recalled once released.

That same uneasy cohabitation in which he had lived his life came apart the moment he had seen Akane beaten with the butt of a rifle. The homicidal impulses that had flowed within him had been no blind fury, but a cold and very personal hatred. Though there was no conscious debate over the matter as he rushed down the hill, he had come immediately to an inescapable moral certainty that those men did not deserve to exist for what they had done to Akane.

Now he had three more lives called to their accounts because of him, and all for a girl who had thrown herself at some other guy the moment the dust had settled. Six months ago, he wouldn't have cared, but now...

He froze up as Akane approached him. He couldn't say that he didn't care anymore. He might deny it to her, but he couldn't deny it to himself. If she was bossy, hot-tempered, and unfeminine at times, she was also the closest thing he ever had to a friend. Not even Ryouga, with his on-again off-again rivalry, had come close to being the friend that Akane was. She mattered to him; her happiness and well being had become the most important things in his life - and she had rejected him and everything he had ever done for her sake over some clown she had known for what, four days?

He had every right to be angry with her. The betrayal was hers, not his, and as for his oath, what good was it when given to a person who had so heartlessly cut down the trust that had grown up between them?

Akane was uncomfortably close to him now, her eyes boring into him as she looked up at him. It was easy to stew over what she had done to him, but explain it to her? He couldn't even explain to himself why he let it hurt him so much!

Doctor Tofu had admonished him to be honest with his feelings, first to himself and then to Akane, but that was easier said than done. Even if he understood his feelings for her, what kind of idiot would set himself up to get slammed like that? Akane had chosen, and it hadn't been him. What he felt didn't matter any more.

It didn't matter, he realized. That made what he had to say a little easier.

"It's like I told you," he began. "I just want you to be happy. If this Shinnosuke guy makes you happy, then I can live with that. Just don't ask me to like it."

Akane was dumbfounded for a moment.

"W-What are you saying, Ranma?" she asked him.

Ranma rubbed the back of his neck anxiously. "I'm just saying that if you want me to, I'll step aside." He closed his eyes, not daring to look at her. "If he means that much to you, I won't get in the way. We've still got a lot of work to do here if we want to survive, so it ain't like I'm leaving again. I just can't be your Lance Commander anymore."

A long silence passed between them before Akane spoke.

"I can't believe you're saying this, Ranma. Do you really mean it?"

He bit down on his lip, his eyes cast to the deck.

"Yeah."

Another silence passed between them.

"You are a complete idiot," she said to him tonelessly.

Ranma bristled, the rollercoaster of emotions he was on lurching from total surrender to attack.

"Whatever," he growled back. "Maybe I should go find Ukyou. What do you care, right?"

Akane stabbed a finger into his chest. "Do you really think that I'm in love with Shinnosuke after everything that we've been through together?!" She shouted this at him, at last understanding what was bothering Ranma, and furious that he would think so little of their friendship to come up with something so stupid.

"It sure as hell looks that way," he shot back, leaning into her stabbing finger to practically yell it in her face.

"That's impossible!" she cried angrily, thrusting her face right back in his.

"Oh yeah!?" he roared, his eyes just centimeters from hers. "Tell me why it's so goddammned impossible!"

She shoved him away with both hands, slamming him roughly into the opposite bulkhead. "Because, you moron! The only guy I happen to be in love with is YOU!"

Ranma could only stare slack-jawed at her as he slid down the bulkhead to the deck.

"Akane - y-you... you love me?"

She whirled away from him, her face flushed and her breathing coming in huffs. "Don't ask me why," she added, her voice full of heartache. "Because I should probably have my head examined for feeling this way." She trembled with emotion, her fists shaking at her side. After some moments of this, in which Ranma remained immobile and silent on the deck, she turned her head to look over her shoulder at him. "Damn you, Ranma Saotome! You are the only man in the universe who could make the way I feel about you come out like an indictment!"

Ranma watched her storm off down the passageway, but did not try to stop her for the simple expedient of his brain having seized.

Genma Saotome observed his son down on all fours, searching through the grass surrounding the DropShip for something he had apparently lost.

"What do you think you're doing, boy?" he asked gruffly. "There are a hundred more important things you could be doing right now than this."

Ranma glanced up at his father with a look that could have frozen helium.

"I dropped something," he grunted. "Gonna make something of it, old man?"

Genma blinked in surprise. "Tell me you didn't start wearing contact lenses without informing me about it, boy," he growled. "I knew it was a crap shoot that you inherit your mother's sharp eyes instead of my lousy nearsighted ones, but you can't be going blind on me now!"

Ranma returned to his search. "Yeah well, don't sweat it. I ain't looking for a contact lens."

Deciding that it was not worth his trouble to press the matter, Genma shambled off, leaving his son to continue what he was doing.

Ranma watched his father go. He felt his defensive anger subsiding as he returned to his task, replaced with a feeling of anxiety brought on by his disastrous encounter with Akane. They had been in fights before, but this one had ended in a way that none of the others ever had. For one thing, he had never felt like such a heel as he did at that moment.

He was in uncharted waters now, and all because of a confession that he had never imagined Akane would make to him. He tried to come to grips with the simple, elegant fact before him, and found it anything but simple or elegant.

Akane loved him.

A tingle of pride ran through him at the thought - pride and something more. Yuka and Sayuri had been the first to point out Akane's true feelings for him, but at the time there seemed to be little evidence to back up their claims. Now, having heard it firsthand from Akane, he could no longer deny the matter to himself.

He honestly did not know what to do about that. Love was something that had always been an abstract to him, something that other people felt. His life as an itinerant mercenary had little room for love, and in traveling exclusively with his father for almost the entirety of his life, he had never been able to assimilate the reality of love between two people the way almost everyone else did: by observing and emulating their parents. He could not even remember what his mother looked like most of the time, so how was he supposed to remember how she and Pop lived together?

He marked it as yet one more failing in his father's attempt to raise him. What were you supposed to do when someone was in love with you? More importantly, how were you to know if you felt the same way?

He suspected that he did. There was nothing conclusive about the matter, no heavenly chorus singing hosannas from on high, just a funny feeling deep inside him that he felt the same way about Akane as she did for him.

For one thing, he had never put someone's happiness ahead of his own the way he had Akane's. He hadn't been kidding around when he said he would step aside and let Shinnosuke have her - if that was what Akane wanted. The thought of letting her go like that hurt; hurt more than he imagined it was possible for a thought to hurt, but he was willing to do it for her.

For another, he had never risked his life so carelessly for another person before he met Akane. He was no stranger to peril, and a soldier protected his buddies, but looking back on the things he had done for her made him wonder if his head needed examining. Sane people did not take on trained assassins unarmed, insult the de facto warlord of the Furinkan Combine to his face, sneak into Goddess Empress Azusa's Collection of Cute, or drive their battlemechs to fiery oblivion to save a person's life.

For that matter, what was a normal person doing on his hands and knees, scrabbling through the grass looking for a worthless piece of metal he had just thrown away? - Now THAT was an epiphany, one that made his head swim as he searched vainly through the grass.

Was love really a form of insanity? he wondered. Do I really love Akane, or am I just plain nuts?

The truth was that he didn't know the answer to that question. If the question had been put to him another way, such as which was worse; being in love with Akane Tendo, or being absolutely bonkers, he still wouldn't have an answer, and wouldn't be entirely convinced that being in love with Akane didn't automatically mean that he was bonkers.

He halted his search for a moment at another striking thought. If being in love with Akane was really just another way of saying that he was nuttier than a fruitcake, was being crazy really so bad? He had to admit to himself that even a smile from her made him feel lightheaded sometimes. To get a hug from her was practically overwhelming. A kiss... He started to break out in a sweat. Kissing her was... well... he didn't have words for that.

He wanted to feel that way again with her though, and if he didn't find that lousy collar device, he was going to blow it for good. One thing was for certain at this juncture in his exploration into the nature of love, and that was that love made people do damn-stupid things.

"I've gotta be nuts for doing this," he grumbled aloud.

"You'll get no argument from me," Ryouga said suddenly from behind him.

Ranma turned his head to see Ryouga standing there, watching him root around in the grass.

"Don't ask," he said to the fanged mechwarrior.

Ryouga folded his arms across his chest. "Ask about what?" he returned. "The fact that you're crawling around in the grass when there's work to be done?"

Ranma's guarded expression soured considerably at this. "Don't get me started, Ryouga. This is important."

Ryouga returned the look he was getting from Ranma. "If you say so. I was just coming over to see if I could help."

"Ha! Don't make me laugh. I don't need to go looking for you as well. With your sense of direction, you'd get lost and wander off in no time."

Ryouga narrowed his eyes at his rival. "Fine, Ranma." He brandished a shiny piece of silver and brass between his fingers. "I guess you won't be needing this..."

"Ryouga!" Ranma gushed. "Buddy! Pal! Old friend! Not so fast, man! I was just kidding!"

The fanged mechwarrior snorted something under his breath and started to leave.

"Hey, Ryouga!" Ranma cried in a pleading voice. "I apologize already! Don't go, man!"

Ryouga Hibiki remained where he was for the moment, clearly enjoying Ranma's grovelling. He tossed the collar device into the air absently, and caught it with a similar ennui.

"I was going to ask you how you lost it," he said finally.

"Maybe I should ask how you found it," Ranma returned.

Ryouga shrugged again. "I was helping with the repairs along the starboard side of the hull when I saw it fall out of the sky. At first I thought you had simply dropped it."

Ranma remained silent, allowing Ryouga to continue.

"I just ran into Akane a few minutes ago, and she was upset, Ranma." His eyes bored into his rival. "Usually when she gets upset, I don't have to look any farther than you for the cause of it."

Ranma continued to remain silent, though the guilty look on his face spoke volumes.

"That's when I realized that you hadn't dropped it," Ryouga went on, the tone of his voice taking a harder edge. "You had thrown it away."

"It was a mistake, Ryouga," Ranma returned. "Can't you see that's why I'm here, looking for the damn thing?"

Ryouga nodded slowly. "That's what I thought," he agreed. "That's why I came to return it to you." He clenched the insignia in his fist. "At first, I was coming to ram it down your throat."

Ranma stood up, ready for Ryouga to do just that.

"I want an honest answer from you, Ranma," he said in a low voice.

"And you'll give my collar device back to me?" Ranma countered.

"That depends on your answer. Will you tell me the truth when I ask?"

Ranma looked away for a moment.

"Lay it on me, Ryouga."

Ryouga crossed his arms at his chest. "I want to know if you really care about Akane," he said, a question that did not surprise Ranma in light of recent events. "I want to know if you love her the way that she loves you."

Ranma stiffened.

"The truth?" he squeaked.

"The truth," Ryouga said tersely. "Don't lie to me, Ranma. That's all I ask."

Ranma stood silent for some time.

"The truth... is that I don't know."

Ryouga's eyes crossed in a fury. "You call that the truth!?" he yelled. "Do you or don't you love her!?"

"I said I don't know!" Ranma protested. "That's the goddamned truth!" He threw up his hands and started pacing and gesticulating in front of Ryouga. "You wanna ask me if I care about her - yeah! You wanna ask me if I want her to be happy - yeah! You wanna ask me if I'd die to protect her - hell yeah! You wanna ask me if I think she's the best thing that could have ever happened to me - I'll even say 'yeah' to that!" He stopped cold, turning slowly to look at his rival. "But ask me if I love her? Man, I don't even know what that really means..."

He stood there for a moment, panting and trembling as he exhausted himself with his struggle to define his feelings.

Ryouga nodded gravely and reached out to drop the collar device into Ranma's hand.

"You get off this time," he said quietly. "But consider yourself on notice, Ranma: you treat her right, or there'll be hell to pay."

"She's my fiancee, Ryouga," Ranma growled, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and lifting him up onto his toes. Ryouga glared down at him, his body taut, but did not resist.

"She is your fiancee, Ranma," he agreed gruffly. "I accept that. That's why I'm going to make sure that you don't hurt her like that again. Akane doesn't deserve someone like that, so you're going to have to earn her love every step of the way."

Ryouga's declaration took the fire out of Ranma, and he let his rival down and released him. Ryouga brushed at his tunic absently, seemingly unfazed by what had gone between them.

"I'm in love with Akari," he said to Ranma. "She's made me happier in the last few months than I've felt in my entire life, and I'd never give that up. But Akane will always have a special place in my heart, and I won't let you or anyone else hurt her."

Ranma nodded wearily. He had come to learn just how closely tied Akane's happiness and well-being was to his own. Hurting her had only ever ended up hurting him as well. He didn't need Ryouga to tell him that.

"Not that anyone listens to me," Doctor Tofu Ono complained lightly. "But you shouldn't aggravate your wounds by moving around too much."

Shinnosuke sat up in the single bed that served Sickbay. His arm was wrapped in a sling, and a bandage oozed blood and other fluids from the wound in his shoulder. His clothes had been set aside for laundering, leaving him clad only in a pair of olive drab shorts on loan from one of the DropShip's crew.

"I'm a little sore in places, but otherwise I'm fine," he insisted. "I need to contact my grandfather. I can't just lie in bed for two more days."

Tofu shook his head. "You'll fit in just fine around here," he lamented, thinking about Ranma and Ryouga as he did so.

Akane stepped through the open door from the passageway, prompting both men to look up at her. She seemed more than tired or out-of-sorts. She seemed emotionally beaten.

"What is it, Akane?" Shinnosuke asked her.

"Are you feeling well?" Tofu added.

She nodded absently, taking the only available chair without a word. The two remained silent while she composed herself to speak.

"I'm okay," she said finally. "Ranma and I just had another fight. I've been walking around for the last thirty minutes trying to clear my head, and I thought I'd stop by in here to say hello."

"Ranma?" Shinnosuke asked. "That girl who came to our aid in the forest?"

"The same," Akane replied, knowing that the issue of Ranma's gender-switching curse was bound to come up sooner or later, and unwilling to get into the matter right away to explain it.

"I owe her a great deal," Shinnosuke observed. "I owe all of your friends for what you've done for me."

"Think nothing of it," Tofu returned.

Shinnosuke looked around him, proud of the fact that he was sitting inside a spaceship. It didn't matter to him that at the moment, the Palomino wasn't capable of going anywhere, it was a spaceship, and its crew were people from other worlds. To a young man with hopeless dreams of the stars, it was a miracle.

His eyes fell upon Akane again, and his buoyant mood was dispelled. She and Ranma must have been good friends to let a fight get to her like that.

"Is there anything I can do for you, Akane?" he heard Tofu ask her, and winced at not being the first one to say something like that.

She cast Tofu a despairing look. "I don't think so, Doctor Tofu," she replied. "Not this time."

"Maybe you need to get away for a little while," Shinnosuke suggested. "I was just about to return to my grandfather's house and -"

"Oh no you don't!" Tofu admonished. "Your shoulder is bad enough, but I don't want you walking for a hundred or so kilometers on that wounded leg."

"I agree, Shinnosuke," Akane added. "You're in no condition to travel."

Shinnosuke was about to protest this when a voice addressed them from the door.

"He doesn't need to do much walking," Ranma said coolly. "With your permission, Pop and I can fly the four of us there in the Boomerangs. That is, if you want to come along, Akane."

Akane looked up at Ranma standing in the doorway to the Sickbay, and instinctively prepared for another round of verbal brawling. At first she didn't know what to make of him, or his curious offer. Then, as he stood uncomfortably in the doorway, she realized why he was really there. It was the glint of silver and brass at his neck. Pinned to his ubiquitous red mandarin blouse was the collar insignia he had thrown away. His expression was outwardly aloof, but she could see the apprehension that lurked behind his blue-grey eyes.

The tension and heartache within her melted away, replaced with a tremendous upwelling of love. She could forgive him a hundred times over for not apologizing to her directly, for in their time together she had come to understand that his pride would only allow him to show so much humility, and certainly not in front of other people. The sight of the collar device glittering on his blouse was all the apology she needed.

She closed her eyes, nearly overcome with emotion, but determined not to make a scene. Ranma had made it clear with his unspoken apology that he was hers, personally as well as professionally, and that as far as he was concerned, the fight that had taken place atop the Palomino had never happened. It was a sentiment that she agreed with whole-heartedly, and the regret and anxiety she had felt after confessing her love to him evaporated.

She opened her eyes and favored him with a sly and knowing smile that told him that she knew exactly why he had come to see her in Sickbay, and that he was forgiven for everything.

"That would be fine, Captain Saotome," she added warmly, just in case the dope hadn't read her loving look the way he was supposed to. His faint blush in return made her feel lighter than air. "I'll leave all of the arrangements to you."

He straightened up and tossed her a jaunty salute. "Assuming Pop decides not to go, I can get Sayuri or Yuka to fly the other plane. We can be ready to go in two hours."

With that, he ducked out of sight, the sound of his slippers padding on the linoleum deck matting fading into the indistinct buzz and hum of the repair work.

"I guess things are better between you and Ranma now," Tofu observed dryly.

Akane was too happy to notice the concerned look from Shinnosuke.

NCWS Tautog

Ryuugenzawa System Zenith Jump Point

Ryuugenzawa System, the Magistracy of Canopus

14 June 3025

Nodoka Saotome floated weightlessly within the confines of Tautog's Bridge, watching over the shoulders of the three techs and their supervisor manning the ship's sensors. The three men and their female supervisor studied their displays with silent intensity, sifting through mountains of visual data for anything that might be of importance to the ship's mission. To an untrained eye such as Nodoka's, there seemed to be little difference between one pixel of colored light and another; it was inconceivable that she even try to interpret the polychromatic muddle on the host of gas plasma displays that dominated the Sensory station.

"What are they doing?" she asked the supervisor.

The middle-aged Chief Petty Officer looked up from her own panel to answer the question. Nodoka was a personal friend of the Grand Duke, and while His Grace was standing on the conn discussing matters with the skipper and Captain Hauptmann, it fell to her to keep the woman occupied. She didn't resent having to do it, but she did think it was an indulgence best enjoyed when their situation wasn't so precarious.

"All three of my techs are monitoring important sections of the electromagnetic spectrum through our passive arrays. Cheng listens to the high frequency radio and microwave bands for any signs of communications, automated telemetry equipment, or radar use; Phelps watches the infrared and visible light bands for an active maneuver drive, or, if we're lucky, the glint of sunlight off a distant ship hull; and Nomura looks after the X-ray and low-energy gamma frequencies that would be emitted from plasma ejected by a maneuver drive that might be too distant for Phelps to notice effectively at his end of the spectrum."

Nodoka absorbed this in silence. While she had no experience in such matters, it was all so fascinating. She felt in some way closer to her husband and son by exposing herself to their world.

"So you're depending on data coming in from space in order to know what's around us," she remarked.

"That's right," the Chief agreed. "We don't want to give away our position by using our radar. So we 'listen' on the passive EMS arrays and scan our telescopes for close visual contacts."

Nodoka pointed to the particularly busy display of the IR-VIS bands monitored by Petty Officer Phelps.

"And you can tell what all that color means?" she asked him.

"It's not that hard," Phelps answered her. "I learned this board sitting on my dad's knee when I was thirteen."

"I see," she replied, not quite certain if she should approve. "You bring children aboard?"

"On training runs," the Chief answered quickly. "This ship and all the other corvettes in the squadron are manned by the descendents of the original crews from the end of the Star League. We're all family here, and unless we have an aptitude for something else, we usually learn the jobs our parents did. I sat in one of those chairs with my parents when I was thirteen. Both my mother and father were Sensor Techs - from different ships, mind you - so it was pretty obvious what I was going to do when I was old enough to sign up with the Navy."

Nodoka nodded, seeing the wisdom of it. She felt that she now understood something of Captain Hauptmann's motivations as well, for he had undertaken the assignment of bringing Akane home with the hope that she would rescind the order to scrap his ship out of gratitude for his service.

It was one thing when a vessel was assigned to you by the government, and quite another when you grew up on that ship, the ship at least one of your parents had called home, and their parents and grandparents before them. Though the Tang technically belonged to the Nerima Confederation, it really belonged to the dozens of families that had scrupulously cared for it over the last two hundred years, men and women who were losing their heritage and their legacy to a decision implemented by a cold, impersonal bureaucracy for the simple expedient of saving money.

Hauptmann was risking his life for a chance to save his ship.

She turned her head to see him conferring with Soun, Kasumi, and the commander of the Tautog, Captain Olivera. She did not know the details of their discussion, but she was certain that it had much to do with the fact that the Dragonfly was not at the Jump Point when they arrived in the system.

Soun Tendo studied the small holotank representation of the system at the conn with a deep frown. The JumpShip carrying his daughter and the rest of the expedition was not at the Jump Point. Since they were unsure if they had actually beaten the Furinkan Combine fleet to Ryuugenzawa, they were reluctant to probe deeper into the system with their radar for a sign of them.

"I don't think we have any choice but to proceed deeper in-system," Hauptmann remarked.

Olivera grunted thoughtfully, then sipped from his sealed mug of coffee through a straw that was deeply stained with use.

"I concur, but I'm also concerned about the level of solar activity this system's primary is putting out. Once we drop down into the ecliptic plane, the interference will make it difficult for us to spot anything with our passive sensors."

"That could work in our favor," Kasumi returned. "If the Combine fleet has arrived before us, they would have a hard time detecting us as we approached."

"I'd like to wait until we get a good-sized solar flare, one nice and heavy with particles," Olivera said after another thoughtful sip. "We could slip in behind it and ride it out from the sun."

"That shouldn't be too difficult to accomidate," the Astrogator said, handing Olivera a report. "Based on my observations, that neutron star companion should be swinging back around the primary to face the planet as we speak. It'll kick up a few good blasts of matter and energy as it continues its orbit."

"Dear me," Nodoka remarked as the three sensory stations began to light up in one quadrant. Whatever had happened, it had stirred up a great deal of energy across the electromagnetic spectrum.

The supervisor gave them a cursory inspection, satisfied with what was happening, and reaching for her intercom mic.

"Conn, Sensory; Detecting intense solar activity at this time. Estimated particle density reaching our position will be low."

Olivera watched the solar flare form on his sensory repeater display. It was a monster all right, full of alpha particles and free hydrogen that would smash into Ryuugenzawa's protective magnetic fields like a runaway train. It would be invisible to the naked eye by the time it reached the planet, but not to the instruments of any hostile elements that might be waiting for them. To hostile sensors, it would be almost opaque, and with the Tautog's hull stealthing and emission control measures in place, they would be well hidden. Though it was moving at a speed much faster than the Tautog could hope to reach in such a short time, once they dipped down into the ecliptic plane, nothing within that plane ahead of the flare could hope to see them, and there would be more flares to come that would overtake and screen them.

"Sensory, Conn; aye," he replied over the intercom. "Sensory, Conn; start a track on that flare." He looked to the Astrogator. "Plot a course that'll put us behind it with a minimum of acceleration and still let us remain covered out to the planet."

The Astrogator nodded. "Aye, sir. That shouldn't take but a minute."

He went back to his station as data from Sensory flooded in. A few prompts to the Astrogation Computer brought forth a solution to the problem.

"Conn, Astrogation; new course ready for execution. Recommend thrust at Ahead Standard for one-one hundred minutes; course change to two-seven-six, minus one-five. Closest point of approach will be bearing zero-zero-one, plus zero, at five hundred-thousand kilometers, in seven-point-seven-five hours. Estimated time to the planet, six-four-point-two hours."

Olivera jotted this down in grease pencil on the conn's writing surface.

"Astrogation, Conn; aye..." He looked to Grand Duke Tendo. "With your permission, your Grace, I'd like to proceed to the planet."

Soun nodded while stroking at his mustache. "Proceed, Captain."

Captain Olivera inclined his head towards his Officer of the Deck, who would give the actual order. The OOD cleared his throat and called to his Helmsman.

"Helm, All Ahead Standard; twenty degrees left yaw, one-five degrees negative pitch."

"All Ahead Standard; twenty degrees left yaw, one-five degrees negative pitch, Helm, aye." The Helmsman entered the data into his log and took over control of the corvette from the computer. The main engines began to fire, their thrust minimal at first, but ramping up gradually to one-gee. "Officer of the Deck, Maneuvering answers All Ahead Standard."

"Very well, Helm."

Nodoka watched the interplay between the conn and the helm, oblivious to what was about to happen. As the rest of the crew reached for handholds, she realized that something was up.

"Ma'am," the Sensor Supervisor called to her. "You might want to hold onto something for a minute or two."

"Oh?" she asked, noting that the distant scream of the main engines was also dispelling the condition of free fall about her. She reached for a handhold on the ceiling, steadying herself as the deck actually became 'down' for her. After weeks of free fall and less than normal gravity on the Grav Deck, one-gee felt oppressive to her.

Her discomfort was tempered by the thought that the ship was bringing her closer to her son.

Musk Dynasty JumpShip Invictus

Approaching the planet Ryuugenzawa

Ryuugenzawa System, the Magistracy of Canopus

14 June 3025

Mechwarrior General Herb watched the planet Ryuugenzawa through the telescope displays on the Bridge as the crew carried out their duties around him. He was in the fabled Ryuugenzawa System, three days away from claiming the technological riches that would catapult him to dominance over the Jusenkyo Commonwealth, and by extension, the Inner Sphere itself. The pitiful force of the Nerima Confederation described by Colonel Mousse could not hope to resist him.

In fact, his only concern lay in the intense solar storms that raged from the Ryuugenzawa primary. The streams of particles and radiation unleashed from the tortured G-type star by its neutron star companion wreaked havoc with the sensors and communications gear of his fleet, making it difficult to survey the planet and its surroundings for a sign of the Confederation JumpShip. Telescopes were the only devices not rendered useless for the moment, and detecting relatively tiny objects with them was a time consuming and uncertain process.

As he pondered these matters, one of the ship's officers approached him. The man was a hybrid like himself; the feline features of a jaguar were most prominent in his yellow eyes and his lean and graceful body.

"General Herb," the officer began. "We are detecting some unusual signals both from the planet and from a position ten light-seconds off our starboard beam."

Herb raised an eyebrow at this.

"What are the nature of these signals?"

"The signals from the planet are not conclusively from the surface, but most likely from sources in orbit around the planet. We have detected at least one large man-made object in a lunar polar orbit as well, though we are unable to classify it at this time with only telescopes."

Herb considered this. "A space station?"

The officer shrugged. "Unknown, General. We have detected what appears to be a space station in geosynchronous orbit above the planet, along with what appears to be a recharge facility and some lesser satellites. We have received weak signals from some of these objects, but these signals appear to be nothing more than automated data exchange and positioning system markers."

"I see," Herb replied. "Nothing to indicate that someone has detected us and is trying to communicate, then."

"No sir."

Herb's reptilian eyes flicked to the holotank, where a hazy shimmer of blue represented the unknown signals in space to starboard.

"What about the other set of signals?" he demanded.

"It's troubling, General. Every time we train our arrays away from the planet, the interference from solar radiation plays havoc with our sensors. Nevertheless, we are detecting what might be radar sweeps, as well as fragments of communications possibly following Furinkan Combine protocols."

Herb's blood pressure rose a notch. "Possibly?" he asked incredulously. "Possibly isn't good enough, lieutenant! I want answers immediately, if not sooner. Dispatch a GunShip with long range fighter escort to investigate!"

The officer saluted hastily, and floated away with all haste to carry out his orders.

Herb took a deep breath and thought hard about what he had been told. How had the Furinkan Combine known about this place?

He snapped his fingers as the answer came to him. The Confederation must have transmitted the coordinates of the system back to Capella, and that treacherous Tendo regent, Nabiki, must have given them to Prince Kuno as part of the surrender deal. That was terrible news, for if the Furinkan Combine under the prince had come to Ryuugenzawa, then he would have his entire fleet with him, including the dreaded battleship, Imperator.

Possessing only a pair of broken down Star League-era destroyers in his own fleet to face the Combine, he had one chance to win, he realized. He had to launch an immediate and all-out attack against the Combine fleet with his forces while the solar storms made detection efforts difficult. The Imperator, having engaged in open battle against the League of Five Nails during the battle for Capra, was technically fair game as a target, but that wouldn't have mattered to him. Every JumpShip in the Combine fleet had to be destroyed if he was to take possession of the Ryuugenzawa System for the Musk Dynasty.

"Belay that order!" he yelled to the officer. "Convene a meeting of all my senior staff officers in the Wardroom immediately."

He had an attack to plan, and little time in which to do it.

Black Rose Terror Regiment Flagship

Approaching the planet Ryuugenzawa

Ryuugenzawa System, the Magistracy of Canopus

14 June 3025

Kodachi Kuno cast her heavy-lidded gaze upon the sleeping form of her lover, who curled up cozily by her side, his head settled in her lap. Pansuto Tarou was an exquisite specimen of manhood, with a lean, sculpted body that begged to be undressed, caressed, and possessed. More tempting to her than his body though, was his essence, for he was in fact closer to her own secret soul than she had imagined possible in a man.

He was arrogant, true, but she found his haughty and condescending demeanor compelling. She was not accustomed to such behavior from her servants and troops - would not suffer it from the rabble - but coming from him it seemed to beg her indulgence. She enjoyed the company of a man who held himself so high over others, and unlike her fulminating brother, Tachi, Pansuto Tarou comported himself in such a manner as to suggest that he had nothing to prove in his superiority.

He was also possessed of a moral flexibility that she approved of, unpretentiously adopting that Nietzchean tenet that established the superior class as being above such petty restraints. He was a man of powerful ambition and surpassing appetite, and it did not matter to him if someone got hurt in the process of fulfilling both these desires.

Tarou was also a hedonist of the first rank, though she had to draw that part of his nature out of him one sweaty and feverish coupling at a time. She sought to refine him now, and suitably encouraged by their consuming passions, found him an apt pupil in the arts of pleasure seeking. That his personal tastes mirrored closely those of her own made the task as simple as it was personally fulfilling.

The door chime sounded as she lay in bed, dispelling her sense of contentment.

"What is it, Sasuke?" she asked with mock sweetness over the intercom.

"Mistress, Captain Hayton wishes to report that we are ready to cast off all DropShips," Sasuke replied.

Kodachi stroked Tarou's brow as her ninja manservant spoke. She had decided to leave for the planet Ryuugenzawa ahead of her two JumpShips in order to maximize the amount of time she would have to search for Akane Tendo. The DropShips with their greater thrust potentials could reach the planet far sooner on their own than they could be carried by the JumpShips, and she needed every hour gained if she wanted to ensure that she could find and kill the horrid Tendo girl before Tachi arrived.

Her personal DropShip Thorn, was already outfitted for the trip. All she and her handsome lover needed to do was transfer themselves over from the regimental flagship.

"Very well, Sasuke," she said coolly. "What news of the system?"

There was a pause while her ninja formulated an answer.

"We continue to search in vain for the Confederation JumpShip, Mistress," he began. "But with the solar flares and subsequent radiation emmissions, it hasn't been easy."

"No excuses, Sasuke," she retorted. "Tell Hayton and his crew that I expect results."

"Of course, Mistress," the ninja demurred.

"That will be all, Sasuke. We shall transfer to the Thorn within the hour." She cut out the intercom before he could acknowledge, and leaned forward to nibble on Tarou's ear.

"Wake, my lover," she said in a low voice.

"I heard," Tarou grunted, turning his head to face her. His look of disdain never failed to make her hot under the collar, but she restrained herself this time. He could only be expected to perform so many times in a day, after all, and she wanted him to be fresh later, after dinner.

She furrowed her brow and gave him a mock expression of disapproval. "Eavesdropping, were we?" she teased.

"Enough to know that they haven't found the Dragonfly," he replied.

"Does that fact upset you?"

He sat up and stretched. "You're the one who's interested in killing Akane Tendo," he said flatly. "Not me."

"I see," she returned with a pout. "You have no interest in making me happy, then?"

"I don't care one way or the other if the Tendo girl lives or dies," he replied, scratching at his chest and slipping off the pair of pantyhose draped over his shoulder. "If you desire it, then so be it."

"How sweet of you," she said in a droll voice. "And what do you desire, my lover?"

Tarou stretched out once more, popping his ribs and his back. "I want what's hidden on Ryuugenzawa. You know that, as you know the reasons why I want it."

"Ah yes," Kodachi chuckled. "Your dreams of destroying the Amazons and the Cult of Azusa. Both are worthy pursuits, lover. I shall enjoy assisting you in both of these endeavors."

He drew her face to his, kissing her deeply before releasing her. "You realize that in order to kill the Tendo girl, you must first kill Ranma Saotome. He'll never let you harm a hair on her head without a fight."

She stiffened. Sasuke had been spreading his poison directly to her beloved, apparently. All the more reason to be rid of him, and soon.

"He was a passing fancy of mine," she returned evenly. She was consumed with Tarou now - Ranma Saotome was but a footnote in her memory. He was handsome and gallant, but in their many conversations, Tarou had made it clear where the pig-tailed mechwarrior stood in his devotions, and that was firmly by the side of Akane Tendo. Though she thought it was a waste, he would have to die if he dared to prevent her from having her revenge on the Tendo witch. "He was nothing more than a fever dream brought on by my injuries on Capra, anyway."

Caretaker's Residence,

Test Region Four-North

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

14 June 3025

It took almost an hour to find the house once they reached the general location, since Shinnosuke had no experience in navigating by air. The Boomerang carrying him was piloted by Sayuri, as Genma had declined to no one's surprise. Ranma made certain that the person occupying his right-hand seat was none other than Akane.

The flight with her had been a quiet one. Both of them seemed content with the other's company, and neither had felt the need to discuss what had passed between them that morning. He certainly didn't want to be reminded of what an idiot he had been.

As something of a peace offering, he had let Akane keep control over the tiny plane for most of the flight. Given the simple nature of flying a steady course, it was no real challenge for her, but she seemed to appreciate his gesture a great deal anyway.

"I think I see a place where we can set down," Sayuri said abruptly over the commo.

Ranma watched her make a gentle aileron roll and turn toward a low hill shrouded in trees. He spied the clearing a moment later as he followed her in. It was a small field, but the Boomerangs' short take-off and landing requirements would serve them well enough. He let Sayuri land first, making lazy circles overhead as she taxied to the edge of the clearing to give him plenty of room to land.

It was going to be a good hike up the hill to Shinnosuke's house, but the guy would hear nothing of being carried. He had his pushbroom for a crutch, and too much pride to be treated like an invalid. Ranma had to give him points for moxie.

They started up along a well-worn path, scattering a skittish covey of small ground-dwelling birds before them. Shinnosuke used his pushbroom for support, though it was of little comfort to his wounded leg as they climbed.

"Need some help?" Ranma offered.

Shinnosuke gave him a pained look. "I can manage."

"It's no trouble."

"No, really," Shinnosuke said flatly. "Thanks anyway."

Ranma shrugged, his eyes flicking to meet Akane's for a moment. She seemed troubled, but did not raise any objections.

"Suit yourself."

At the top of the hill, shrouded by trees, was the house. It was quiet as they approached, but the smell of woodsmoke indicated that it was occupied.

"Grandfather, I'm home!" Shinnosuke called to the house. He limped a little closer as Ranma and the others waited for a response.

"Shin-boy!" a voice cried from within. They watched as a grizzled old man clutching a laser rifle appeared in the open doorway. "You're alive!"

"Of course I'm alive, Grandfather!"

The old man took a hesistant step out. He recognized Akane, but the man with the pigtail and the brown-haired girl who stood by his side were mysteries.

"I heard the worst news from the villagers," he said to Shinnosuke. "They said some of Graham's men had been prowling around, and that there had been a big fight." He noted the sling that Shinnosuke kept his arm in. "Tell me, Shin-boy!" he cried, close to tears. "What happened to your arm? Why are you walking with a limp?"

"Graham and his men were prowling around," Shinnosuke said quietly. "They attacked us in the forest."

"But why?" the old man asked his grandson. "What were you doing so close to the village?"

Shinnosuke blushed in embarrassment. "I was taking Akane to the Orochi bunker."

The old man frowned. "I thought we already discussed that."

"Yes, Grandfather," Shinnosuke concurred sheepishly.

The old man then looked at Akane. "The villagers also said a battlemech confronted them, looking for you, apparently."

"She was one of my troops," Akane admitted. "I hope she wasn't rude."

"That's difficult to say," the old man returned. "They don't like strangers, and a battlemech is something out of old nightmares for them. What happened to Graham and his men? I was told that at least three of them were found dead."

"That was us," Akane replied quietly, gesturing to Ranma as well.

The old man nodded slowly, having suspected as much. "I suppose I should invite you and your comrades inside," he said at length. "You're welcome to stay for awhile."

"We can't stay for long," Akane returned. "We need to investigate the bunker as we had planned to do yesterday. A fleet of JumpShips is on its way to the system, and we need to find a way to transmit a warning about the Orochi to them so they'll stay away."

"I see," he grunted. "Yes, I suppose that would be the right thing to do." He looked at her sternly. "If you really are a Tendo, and the daughter of the Grand Duke, do you think they'll listen? If you're in danger here, won't they try to rescue you?"

"I don't know, sir," she replied. "But we have to try to warn them."

"If you could give us coordinates or something, we could fly there in no time," Ranma added.

The old man looked him over. "Come inside. I think you'll appreciate what I have to offer you."

Once the five of them were inside and seated around the firepit to enjoy some freshly brewed tea, Shinnosuke's grandfather began to rummage through several metal strongboxes. He produced a handful of notebooks, and leafed through them absently.

"Aha!" he cried. "This will serve you well enough." He neatly tore a page out of the notebook and handed it to Akane.

She looked at the paper for a moment, recognizing in the crabby handwriting some information of vital importance.

"These are access codes and protocols for the GPS system and the communications network," she gasped.

"We haven't had much use for them," the old man told her. "Shin-boy and I know the forest like the backs of our hands, and there isn't much call to go elsewhere."

"But they'd be great for flyers," Ranma observed.

"Once you patch in, you should be able to configure your Lostproof systems with downloads of the planet's cartography," the old man said to them. "Every SLDF facility at the time of Kerensky's exodus should be listed, along with the ruined starport and colony town, and the individual contractors' facilities. If there are any radio transmitters remaining that might reach the Jump Points, you should be able to find them with this."

"How do you know about all this stuff?" Akane asked him.

"It's something that is passed on from one generation to the next," the old man replied. "I was planning on showing my grandson here all of these things, since I'm getting to old to carry on my duties. He might as well learn them now."

"You aren't that old, Grandfather," Shinnosuke protested.

"Nonsense," the old man spat. "I'll be seventy this winter. There are no guarantees after that."

Ranma leaned over to Akane as Shinnosuke and his grandfather spoke. "Now that we have this stuff, let's send for some people who might be able to tell us what's going on at the control bunker, like Hinako and some of her crew. They can meet us here first in the Nymph, then we'll all fly over together to the bunker."

Akane nodded her head. "Best idea I've heard all day," she said with a smile. Things were definitely better when they weren't at each other's throats.

Star League Defense Force Proving Grounds

Bunker Nine, Test Area North

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

14 June 3025

The bunker was a reinforced concrete box set almost entirely into the side of a long windswept hill that sloped gently from north to south and ended in the expanse of forest growth. A pair of parabolic dish antennae and a slender radio array projected from a mossy pad of concrete set on the top of the hill, and provided the bunker with its communications and data links to the Orochi network. Trees and bushes had grown up around most of the exposed face of the bunker, making it difficult to spot unless you knew something was there.

"I'll wait here, if that's all right with everyone," Yuka declared. She had piloted the Nymph to the rendezvous at Shinnosuke's house, delivering Captain Ninomiya and her Astrogator, Lieutenant Davidge.

"Are you sure?" Akane asked her.

She nodded, brushing back her short ponytail. "It's a nice day out, and someone should probably keep an eye on the craft."

"Good idea," Ranama agreed. Though the tension between them had eased from its peak on Tiber, he remained less than enthused with the idea of having her around. Sayuri on the other hand, was actually being nice to him now.

"Need some company?" Sayuri offered.

"I'm fine. Don't take too long."

Ranma turned back to Shinnosuke.

"It's all yours, ace."

The caretaker nodded in agreement, and turned to the doors with a grunt. The armored doors of the facility were covered with moss and creeping vines, though they opened easily at a prompt from the magnetically-encoded key he carried on a chain around his neck.

"The place has power?" Ranma asked him as the doors sighed open.

Shinnosuke nodded. "The bunker has a dedicated fusion plant in the basement to provide power and heat. It's been a reliable unit. Ever since my family became the caretakers, no one has ever had to do more than the most basic maintenance on it."

He stepped through the doors, and fluorescent lights flickered for a moment, struggling to come on.

"I just wish the lights worked as well as the reactor," he lamented. "I'd replace the ballasts, but I'm running out of spares."

Ranma and the others followed him inside. The first chamber was some kind of security lobby, though in the many years of the place's abandonment, it had become something of a refuse pile for broken equipment and a makeshift storage room. The furniture was covered in a thin layer of dust, and the air had a musty smell.

"This place was manned all the time once," Shinnosuke said, giving them the tour. "Most of the bunker is sunk straight down into the ground. There's a kitchen and dining area on the next level down, then a sleeping and living area for twelve people, then finally the control room for the network."

He then went to a panel against the far wall, behind a desk that had been used by the bunker's security staff at one time. The panel creaked open, and he flipped a series of circuit breakers. Circulation fans kicked on, though they sounded like they needed a little grease.

"Once the fans are on, the heating and cooling units should come up automatically, but you never know," he remarked to them. "Anyway, once the fans have had a chance to run, the air really cleans up."

"I hope so," Akane replied. "It's a little stuffy in here."

Hinako brushed at the silky strands of some local insect that stretched across a doorway to the stairwell. "Why did they want to control the Orochi network from a place way out in the middle of nowhere?" she asked him.

Shinnosuke tried to remember. "According to Grandfather, this was a backup location for the primary control center, which was at the Starport. That facility was obliterated over a hundred years ago." He slipped past Akane and started down the stairs. "The elevator doesn't work," he added.

Ranma, Akane, Captain Ninomiya, and the others followed. Shinnosuke skipped the habitation areas and went straight down to the control room. The doors were locked as well, though Shinnosuke's key opened them with a rusty click and a dry hiss of unequal air pressure.

The lights were already on as they stepped through. The entire room was filled with computers, communications equipment, and numerous display panels, most of which were busy putting out information for the benefit of absolutely no one. There was no dust here, indicating that the chamber was kept at a positive pressure and had working precipitators.

"This is it," Shinnosuke said proudly. "You'll find notebooks over on that console that were compiled by my ancestors as they tried to figure out a way to control the Orochi. I hope they'll do you more good than they've done me."

"How many years did they try?" Akane asked him.

He was quiet for a moment. "A long time," he replied. "Grandfather doesn't know this, but I like to come here and read the notebooks. Most of it makes no sense to me, but I feel like I can get closer to my family this way. One of my Great-grandfathers used to write in them like they were a kind of journal, and that's how I know most of my history."

Akane smiled. "I think that's really neat, Shinnosuke. Don't worry, we'll take good care of them."

Shinnosuke bowed for her in gratitude, and watched the others examine the room. Ranma looked around, utterly lost. Akane seemed content to let the others work. Sayuri ran her hands along a bank of monitors, pointing out little details about each one. Only Captain Ninomiya and Lieutenant Davidge seemed at home in the place.

He watched as the two began sifting through the notebooks. Davidge went right to the various technical manuals, their pages yellowed and stiff with age.

"It's going to take a few hours at the least to get a basic familiarity with this equipment," he noted at length.

Hinako sat beside her Astrogator and began to prod at the controls to the communications units.

"I'm sure I can get the satellite network to respond," she said in her sultry voice. "We should contact the Palomino and tell them that we have arrived successfully."

"I'm gonna take a look around outside," Ranma announced, and stepped back through the doors without another word. "Let me know if you find out something interesting."

Akane watched him go, but said nothing. This wasn't within the range of his abilities, and it was clear that he was already bored. Shinnosuke approached her as the other three continued to inspect the equipment.

"Akane?" he asked pensively.

"What is it?" she returned.

"Can I speak to you for a moment?"

She sensed that something was troubling him. "Sure."

They were seated at one of the tables in the dining area on the first sublevel. Shinnosuke kept ancient packets of instant hot beverages in one of the cupboards, and as the bunker had its own well for potable water, quickly produced two cups of tea for them.

Akane noted that the tea was a little flat, probably because foil-sealed pouch or not, it was still over two-hundred years old.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" she asked him.

Shinnosuke sipped at his tea uncomfortably.

"It's hard for me to say this," he replied slowly. "But it's about Ranma."

She brushed it off. "He is a little annoying at times. Don't let it get to you."

"That's not it," Shinnosuke replied. "It's just that you and he seem to be... well... More than friends, I guess." He fidgeted with his tea cup. "I saw what passed between you two in Sickbay."

Akane realized what he was getting at, and cringed inwardly at the idea that Shinnosuke was harboring a crush on her. She should have realized it - the signs were there.

"He's my fiance," she replied softly.

He looked away. "Oh."

"I'm sorry, Shinnosuke," she added. "I had no idea that you might, you know, be interested in me."

He blushed shamefully. "I knew it was too much to hope for." He turned back to her. "Do you... I mean, are you two close?"

She nodded once. "I love him," she answered, marveling at how easy it was for her to say it aloud now that she had told Ranma.

He remained silent, accepting what he knew she would say to him.

"I don't know what else I can say," she added, feeling terrible for not recognizing his feelings a little sooner.

Ranma saw Yuka standing idly by the Nymph, and considered ways to avoid her. It wasn't that he was intimidated by the aerospace pilot - far from it - it was just a matter of him wanting to keep the number of conflicts raging at any one time to a minimum.

She turned her head at the sound of the doors closing behind him, however, and looked him in the eyes.

"Is there a problem, Captain?" she asked as he approached her.

"No problem," he replied coolly. "I was just bored, that's all."

"And you came out to keep me company," she observed. "How sweet of you."

He couldn't tell how sarcastic she was trying to be, so he decided to let it pass for genuine.

"You looked a little lonely," he said uncomfortably. It was true, she did look lonely standing there by the Ship's Boat. He never thought he would feel anything other than animosity towards her, but it didn't come. "I thought that maybe..." He looked her over, noting how taut her body had become at his proximity. "Nevermind..."

His reply took her by surprise, and her eyes grew wide for a moment.

"Do you really mean that?" she asked him warily.

"Don't take it the wrong way," he replied. "I ain't trying to pull your chain."

"Maybe," she sniffed, unconvinced.

He found himself drawn by her implied challenge to prove what he had said. She watched him with that same wariness she had used to challenge his sincerity.

"I never wanted to be your enemy, Yuka," he said to her.

She considered that for a moment. "You've done a pretty good job of being one so far."

He bristled with frustration at this. So much for offering up the peace pipe...

"Look, just forget it," he snorted. "You go back to hating me, and I'll go back to hating you, okay? Is that what you really want, Yuka? If it is, I'll be happy to oblige you."

She pursed her lips at him. "You're really trying to apologize, aren't you?"

"Not apologize," he said. "It's too late for apologies."

"Then what's the big deal, Saotome? Why the look of contrition?"

He threw up his hands. "I was hopin' we could start over between us, or something. Just forget about the last six months and start fresh." He gave her a critical look. "If that ain't asking too much from you."

She gave that some thought.

"I see your point," she replied.

He thrust out his hand. "So how about it?"

She eyed his hand for a moment, then took it in hers. They shook once, firmly, then let go of each other.

"Friends?" he asked.

"Don't push your luck, Saotome," she said, but she favored him with a tiny grin as she said it, drawing a brief chuckle from both of them before they lapsed back into an uncomfortable silence.

The two of them enjoyed a breeze that was pregnant with the promise of rain looming on the horizon. Ranma studied the clouds for awhile, noting that the storm would probably pass them to the south, just missing them. He felt like he had just avoided a similar storm from the girl who stood next to him.

"If you break her heart again, I'll kill you," Yuka said abruptly.

"You'll have to stand in line for that," he replied, thinking of Ryouga.

Star League Defense Force Proving Grounds

Bunker Nine, Test Area North

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

14 June 3025

"It's been eight hours now," Ranma groused. "Tell me this wasn't a waste of time. There are some places around here I wanna go check out."He had been examining the layout of the Proving Grounds ever since Shinnosuke's grandfather turned it over to them, and there were places listed that might still contain useful technology - maybe even working battlemechs.

Hinako gave him a hard look but said nothing.

Lieutenant Davidge gestured to the displays. "We've got a unique window on the system from here," he began. "The entire satellite network, including the Orochi, can be monitored from this control room."

"But can you control it?" Ranma asked.

Davidge shook his head. "Not without the access codes, and there doesn't seem to be any traces of them in these manuals, the vaults, or in the databases."

"Terrific," Ranma snorted, and sat down in a rolling chair behind him.

"Isn't there some way you can bypass the codes?" Akane asked him.

"According to the tech manuals on the network, the Orochi was designed to resist attempts by an enemy to subvert or control its function," Davidge replied, rubbing his brow as he thumbed through a few crinkled pages. "Not only is it protected by a long string of codes for access, but that code transmission must also follow on a precise frequency-hopping schedule that we also don't seem to have any trace of."

He sighed. "Basically, it's impossible for us to try and gain control over the Orochi network remotely. The only conceivable means I can think of to take control is to patch into the primary satellite locally, but you can imagine how well protected it is against such intrusions."

"So what do we have in our favor?" Akane asked.

"Well, we can use each Orochi satellite plus the various observation and weather satellites to see what's going on within about half a million kilometers of the planet's surface. That will give us some warning in case the transport fleet or maybe even the Commonwealth shows up. We now have the ability to access the GPS and commo networks so we can all get around and communicate better on the surface."

Ranma leaned over in his chair. "So could we use what we know about where the Orochis are looking to let us sneak up into orbit to check out that space station?"

Hinako's hard look melted into a smile for Ranma, as she had been thinking about the space station and what it might hold for some time now.

Davidge gestured to the displays. "It can be done," he agreed. "From what I can see of the seven lesser Orochi satellites, they are all operating in a reduced capacity." He gestured to several of the monitors, where various strings of red alphanumerics flashed. "This system experiences some intense solar activity, and you can see where sensor arrays and other components have been damaged. I'm sure that time has done its share of damage as parts wore out. I've looked at some of the program databases from the Orochi units as well, and they've got substantial amounts of corruption in them - probably also because of solar radiation. With no one left to upload a good database, they've progressively lost more and more of their ability to function."

He pointed to another display, which showed their positions in orbit above the planet. "It's possible to time a launch from the surface that could reach the space station while one of the most heavily impaired units was overhead. We know that they can coordinate their efforts, but if the right Orochi units are overhead, it shouldn't matter."

Hinako called up a status report on several of the Orochi satellites. "We have what could be a favorable window coming up in two days," she declared, looking at Akane. "With your permission, Lady Akane, I'd like to take the Nymph up with a small crew and investigate the space station."

Akane gave this some thought.

"It's worth a try, Captain Ninomiya, but I don't want to send you up just to have you stranded there for weeks on end waiting for another opportunity to return to the surface."

Hinako would not be so easily put off. "I can make it to orbit in four hours, and return in less than two. With an eight hour window, that leaves me with two hours to explore, which is more than enough time to investigate the drydock to see if there is a JumpShip we can use to flee the system interred there." She brushed back her long dark brown hair before continuing. "Besides, we've already seen how the Orochi network could have blasted us after we abandoned the Dragonfly, but for whatever reason, chose not to. I believe that it wouldn't open fire on us even if it could detect us - so long as we used the Nymph."

"It's probably part of the programming," Davidge threw in. "The Star League was always concerned with minimizing casualties during battle. Once the JumpShip itself was rendered incapable of operation, any life pods or small craft fleeing it would be considered non-combatants. A DropShip and fighter on the other hand wouldn't receive the same consideration."

Akane remained unconvinced. "I'll have to think about it. Begin the preparations to go, but I reserve final judgement until later."

Hinako bowed in gratitude for her.

"Well this was great," Ranma said sourly. "I'm gettin' hungry. Anyone else want to head back to the Palomino with me?"

He was looking at Akane as he said it, but she remained aloof. Realizing that he was on his own, he started for the door.

"Hello!" Davidge cried suddenly, halting him at the threshold. "The network just shifted over to some kind of alert stage." Most of the boards began flashing with activity, confirming his analysis.

"What's going on?" Hinako demanded.

Davidge consulted the myriad displays in search of an answer. "The network seems to be reacting to sensory information directed towards the system's primary." He tapped out a few commands, and was rewarded with more information that nobody seemed to understand but him. "I'm detecting two distinct sets of multiple spacecraft converging on the planet from a distance of forty light-seconds."

"I thought that was out of the network's range?" Ranma asked him.

"The network is detecting radar and communications signals over the noise of the solar storms," Davidge replied. "It's polling the various Orochi units for capability and position to best respond to the incoming ships."

"Two sets of ships," Akane breathed. "Could one of them be the transport fleet? Are we too late?"

"We can transmit out to them," Hinako noted. "Our communication system can reach the satellite relay, and from there, the Jump Points, but the question is, do we transmit a warning before we know who they are?"

Davidge continued to analyze the data. "I really need a sensor tech to look at this stuff. Right now, the best I can do is go off what the Orochi network thinks is going on. It looks like an ETA of sixty-five hours, based on current velocity."

"Any guesses as to who they are?" Ranma asked him.

He shook his head. "Let me put up some of the voice transmissions the network is receiving."

He tapped at the console and at once speakers clicked on. Over the wash of static and warbling noise came the distinct sound of gruff male voices speaking in an alien tongue.

"That sounds like Chinese," Ranma remarked, having heard enough of it on Lightoller to last him a lifetime.

"The Commonwealth!" Akane gasped. "They must have had ships waiting to journey to Ryuugenzawa the moment Shampoo's accomplice delivered the system's location to them."

"Speaking of Shampoo," Ranma added. "Let's bring her here and get her to translate for us. I'd like to know what the hell they're saying, and if they're talking about us."

Akane gave him a dubious look. "I doubt she'll cooperate."

"It's worth a try," Ranma replied. He started for the door. "Call the Palomino and tell them to have her ready to go when I get there. I'll fly her back here as fast as I can."

"Do you really think that's a bright idea, Ranma!" she called after him. What was that dope thinking, knowing that he was going to have Shampoo sitting next to him the entire flight back to the bunker."We'll send the Nymph back instead!"

"Don't waste the fuel!" he yelled as his slippered feet slapped against the stairs. "We don't know if Akari's crew can get that processing station functional yet."

Akane grit her teeth and tried to remember that she loved the idiot.The moment passed, and she turned back to the displays. "So far, all I see are readouts for the seven minor Orochi satellites," she observed. "Where is the big one right now, and what is it doing?"

Davidge called up some data. "Currently, it's parked on the far side of the moon in what looks to be a stable synchronous orbit." He frowned. "Odd, it seems to be mostly dormant."

Shinnosuke spoke up. "It usually is," he said to them. "When it wakes up, it starts attacking the planet. Once it runs out of targets, it goes dormant again."

Davidge called up a few more displays on the primary Orochi. What he saw made him pale. "The thing's almost fully functional," he declared. "The only serious problem I see with it right now is some corruption of some of the ancillary databases." He flipped hastily through the tech manuals, tearing some of the ancient pages in his haste. He compared what he read in the books to what he saw on the screens. "Target discrimination, IFF passcodes, and the failsafes..." he intoned, realizing what all of that meant.

"Your friend here is right, Lady Akane. When the Orochi comes out of dormancy mode, all hell is gonna break loose. The only things it won't shoot at in space are the station, the commo and GPS sats, and the other Orochi units. Anything else without the IFF passcode is fair game, and even then it won't matter because the database telling it what the valid codes are is shot. I don't see anything else limiting its attacks on the surface, either."

"How long do we have?" Hinako asked him.

"Within seventy hours," Davidge replied. "There's a countdown running to full system activation." He pointed to the corner of one display, where a countdown ran in bold red numbers.

"So we have seventy hours to get up to the station, hope a JumpShip is there that can take us out of the system, and leave?" Akane asked.

Davidge shrugged nervously. "Essentially. Either that or we wait out the Orochi's temper tantrum and hope for the best."

"It will probably attack those two groups of ships approaching the planet first," Hinako pointed. "Perhaps their destruction will appease its programming, and it will go back into dormancy mode."

"As long as one of them isn't the transport fleet from Capella, I wouldn't mind seeing it happen," Akane agreed. "But until we know for certain, I think we should consider the possibility of transmitting a warning to stay away."

Hinako shook out her hair. It was going to be a long night of watching the displays. "I suppose I should call the Palomino and tell them what to expect."

The DropShip Palomino

Ranma let the engine run on the Boomerang as he hopped out of the cockpit and started towards the ship. Genma, Ryouga, and Doctor Tofu were waiting for him, and with them was a sullen and shackled Shampoo.

"What's going on, boy?" Genma demanded to know. "What's so important that you need Shampoo?"

"A Commonwealth fleet is on its way to the planet," he replied. "I don't know much more than that, but we want Shampoo to translate what they're saying for us."

Genma blanched. "A Commonwealth fleet? Are you serious, boy?"

Ranma nodded. "As a heart attack, Pop. We gotta start putting together some kind of defense, cause we've got about two and a half days 'til they get here." He pointed to Ryouga. "You're in charge of the defense of the DropShip, man. I need you to work up some kinda plan in case we get attacked from the ground or the air. If you need Ucchan's help, take her, but otherwise I want her to come with me. If you can get Happousai to help with things here, great."

"What about the salvage crew at the starport?" he asked, thinking about his beloved Akari and her techs.

"I don't know if we have the resources to cover them too. They'll probably have to wrap up what they're doing within the next day or so."

"You're probably right," Ryouga agreed, and saluted him, feeling a little odd to be doing something like this to Ranma of all people. He left to carry out his orders, knowing that Akari would not be happy about having to leave the starport sooner than she had planned.

Doctor Tofu stepped forward. "I'll start putting together a triage, but that's about the best I can do with the limited facilities on the ship."

"Do that for now, but know that I might need you in a 'mech, Doc," Ranma replied. "I've got a map of the old Proving Grounds, and there are couple of places where there might be some useful hardware still around. I want to check them out, but if I do find some 'mechs, we might need you to help defend the ship."

Tofu nodded. He was not one to shirk his fighting duties if matters came to that.

"Are you serious, boy?" Genma grunted. "Show me this map."

"I ain't got it on me," Ranma groused. "So don't get all greedy on me. How much longer will the repairs take on the ship? We might need to move it to a more defensible location."

"I'll get with Grant on it," Genma agreed. "But I want you to give me a copy of the map. Two groups can cover more ground than one."

"As soon as I get a chance, Pop." Ranma said to his father.

"Hey, Ranchan!" Ukyou called to him from the ramp to the 'Mech Bay. "You need me?"

"I need you to follow me in your 'mech," he replied. "Bring Konatsu too." He then turned to Shampoo, who had watched all of this in hopeful silence. "I'm giving you the chance to come quietly with me in the Boomerang," he said to her. "Otherwise, you get to ride in the Hatchetman's fist. What's it gonna be?"

Shampoo's violet eyes lit up. "Shampoo come quietly. Am very curious to hear so-called Commonwealth message."

"Glad to hear it, Shampoo," he replied. "Come on."

She followed him towards the plane, pulling herself into the right hand seat without the offered help from him. He knew she was shackled, but the only thing that might prevent her from attacking him was knowing that they would crash if she did.

He jumped into the cockpit as Ukyou climbed up into her Hatchetman. Her battle-spatula tested the air with a few perfunctory swipes, then the battlemech lurched forward towards the plane.

"Do I really want to know what you and Shampoo are doing in there," Ukyou called to him over the radio.

Shampoo gave him a feral look as he closed the canopy and goosed the engine.

"Don't worry," Ranma returned. "She'll behave."

"Just tell her to keep her lips to herself this time," Ukyou sniffed.

Ranma released the brake, and the Boomerang surged forward and into the air. "Will do."

Ukyou followed from the ground in her 'mech as they started off towards the bunker. Ranma gave her the access codes so her 'mech could use the GPS system and get a local map to work from. They'd have to do that with all of their equipment if they wanted to take advantage of the situation against any Commonwealth forces who managed to get past the Orochi network to land on the planet. He called the crewman manning the DropShip's radio and told him what to do about it. Eventually, Pop would figure it out too, and stop hounding him.

Once that was accomplished, all he had left was survive his trip back to the bunker with Shampoo. She remained quiet in the seat next to him, her eyes looking hopeful. He supposed that she had a right to feel that way, with the Commonwealth practically coming to her rescue.

"Since it's a moot point now," he said to her. "You mind telling me how your accomplice got off the ship with the stolen database?"

She considered his question for a moment. "You and I not only ones who have Jusenkyo bodies," she said to him. Ranma detected a hint of loathing in her voice as she spoke to him.

"You don't still blame me for falling into one of the pools, do you?" he asked.

"Not anymore," was her curt reply. "At one time, yes. Shampoo want to kill you for what you do. Now Shampoo must kill to avenge honor of clan."

He checked her chains with a sharp glance of his eyes. "What did I do to deserve that?"

She gave him a long cold look.

"No make joke to Shampoo. You break into secret lab. You escape from Shampoo on Lightoller. You escape from Shampoo on Capra. Now Shampoo have death sentence from clan elders. Only way to appease them is to kill you and stupid panda father."

"It ain't gonna happen," he returned.

Her violet eyes flashed for an instant as she pondered proving him wrong that very instant - even if it mean that she died in the crash that would soon follow.

"Ranma think what he likes," she sniffed.

They continued on for some time, circling occasionaly to let Ukyou catch up. One other question plagued Ranma about Shampoo, but he was reluctant to bring it up. The silence between them grew more oppressive, however, and he found himself saying it just to have something to say.

"So why did you kiss me?" he asked her.

She flinched slightly at the recollection of her ignominious defeat on the Dragonfly.

"Shampoo no want to talk about it."

"Uh-huh," he groused, figuring as much from her, and went back to his flying.

Shampoo sighed absently. "You want know truth?"

"Are you going to tell me the truth?" he countered.

"Shampoo kiss because it Joketsuzoku law. Outsider who defeat member of clan must marry defeated warrior. It how we get strong babies for clan. Shampoo also hope kiss make Ranma have sympathy for her; help in escaping."

Ranma swallowed hard.

"Ranma no need worry," she added ruefully. "Shampoo not able to get baby from him right now."

"Oh yeah?"

"Is true," she sighed. Her manacled hands patted her trim belly. "Shampoo already have baby inside her. One she not want."

Ranma threw up his hands in protestation. "Don't look at me, I didn't have nothin' to do with it!" He remembered now of Tofu mentioning at one point that she was pregnant.

She had to smile at his naivety. "Shampoo know, stupid Ranma," she scolded him gently. "You ask about accomplice. Accomplice name is Mousse; Shampoo get baby from him."

Ranma thought about that for a moment, then put two and two together and hoped it didn't make five. "So you're having this Mousse guy's baby, then, right?"

Shampoo nodded silently.

"And you don't want it," Ranma continued.

She nodded once more. "Shampoo no like him. No want his baby, either."

"Why not?" he asked. "If you didn't like him, why did you, uh... you know..." he began to sweat nervously.

"What you talking about?" she demanded, wishing that she had a greater command over the Standard tongue.

"Well, you know," Ranma grunted. "Why did you sleep with him if you didn't like him."

She bowed her head for a moment. "It, how you say... It complicated."

"I guess," Ranma snorted. "Though I can't imagine why anyone would, well, have s-sex with someone that they didn't even like." His stammering on the 's-word' was embarrassing, and he hoped that she hadn't noticed.

She gave him a penetrating look, understanding something about her enemy at long last.

"You never make love to someone before," she pointed out smugly. "Shampoo can tell. You still - what is word? - virgin. You still virgin. Yes?"

Ranma did not reply. He let his red face and his steady gaze out of the canopy speak for him.

"It no matter," she said to him at length. "Shampoo no mind being first time for Ranma."

The Boomerang plummeted into a sharp dive as Ranma lost control of the plane for a moment.

"S-Sorry!" he gasped, his hands clenched on the controls of the aircraft in a death grip.

"You no do that!" Shampoo hissed worriedly.

"Everything okay up there?" Ukyou asked over the radio.

"Everything's fine," Ranma managed. "I just slipped off the controls for a moment."

"Keep your hands to yourself, sugar," Ukyou warned him. "And that goes double for that Amazon hussy you're carrying."

"I'm doing my best," Ranma returned. "Believe me."

Shampoo sat back in the chair, looking pleased with herself.

The bunker was the first example of Star League construction that Shampoo had seen on Ryuugenzawa, and she wondered at its purpose as she was led down the stairs in the company of Ranma, the spatula-girl, and the spatula-girl's lapdog kunoichi. It was undoubtedly a communications center of some sort, but she expected more of a facility than what she saw before her.

Once she arrived in the control room, she spied Captain Ninomiya, who gave her a chilly look. At least she was in her adult body, Shampoo noted gratefully. Her child form probably would have scooped her up and started petting her - whether she was human or not.

The numerous displays and control consoles staggered her for a moment as she was led to a seat next to the Astrogator - the man whose hand she had rent in the process of stealing the database patch. At least two of her claws had left thin white scars along the heel of his hand.

"Voice signal activity has since dropped off," she heard Davidge say to Ranma as he and a wide-eyed Ukyou took up positions behind her. "I do have some recordings for Shampoo to listen to."

He leaned over her and tapped at the console.

Static filled the air as she waited with trepidation for the sound of her battle-sisters. They were coming to Ryuugenzawa. They would rescue her from her captors, and she would become a hero to her people.

The voices over the speakers shattered any such dreams in an instant. Her blood ran cold with the realization that her battle-sisters weren't coming at all.

"I'm very curious to know why I haven't heard any female voices," Davidge observed aloud. "I thought most of the ship crews on Commonwealth JumpShips were female."

Shampoo knew the answer to that. The ships they had detected were not Commonwealth Ships any more than she was one of Empress Azusa's pets.

How? she asked herself. How had the Musk Dynasty known of this place?

She knew the answer though. There could be only one real explanation, for although General Herb's spies were good, his arrival was too soon for pure chance.

Mousse had betrayed her. He had joined General Herb and his Musk Dynasty, and he had given them the database patch she had intended for her great-grandmother. Of course, now that she considered it, his desire to keep her in the dark about their mission was probably due to the fact that he had been working for Herb from the very beginning.

The escape from her cell on Tau Ceti, the spyship that was waiting for them at the starport, even the show-trial that had handed down its death sentence - all of these things had been engineered by Herb for this moment, and all of this was done with the help of Mousse, his able servant. It was galling to think of how easily Mousse had deceived and betrayed her. Of course, she had done nothing but deceive and betray him herself, so perhaps there was a perverse sense of irony at work.

The most telling irony was that she was now pregnant with her betrayer's child.

She slumped back in her chair as the voices grunted out orders in their battle-language, a dialect of the Joketsuzoku's own version that reflected their uniquely male perspective on matters.

"What is it, Shampoo?" Ranma asked her, his voice filled with concern. "Do you know what they're saying or not?"

She understood a little of it, but that wasn't the point. Who they were was far more important than what they were saying to each other.

"Shampoo understand little," she sighed. "It special battle-language."

"You're a mechwarrior," Akane pointed out. "You should understand any battle-languages from the Commonwealth."

She shook her head. "Not this one," she returned. "These ships not part of Jusenkyo Commonwealth."

"Huh?" Ranma grunted. "Then who the hell are they, and how'd they get here?"

There was no point in withholding anything from them. They shared a common enemy in General Herb.

"They Musk Dynasty," Shampoo replied, her violet eyes trembling with dread for the days to come. Herb was probably bringing a full regiment of battlemechs to Ryuugenzawa to secure the world and its secrets for himself. "They want overthrow Elder Council, and put all mens in charge. They enemies to Shampoo."

Akane stepped forward. "So how did they know how to reach this system?"

"I know how," Ranma remarked, and Shampoo turned in her seat to give him a hot look of warning which he ignored. "Your friend Mousse, the guy whose kid you're gonna have. He gave them the patch you stole from us."

Her eyes burned with loathing for Ranma, but she said nothing.

"He screwed you in more ways than just the usual," he continued smugly. "He must've been working for these Musk guys on the side."

Shampoo lurched out of her chair to kill him, but was restrained by the flash of a razor sharp blade from Konatsu at her throat. She hadn't even seen the kunoichi in the dim lighting of the control room. Konatsu leaned in close to her ear, whispering so softly that she had to strain to hear the words.

"Remember this knife?" he asked her, applying a touch more pressure to the blade against her pulsing jugular vein. "It's yours, Shampoo; the knife you nearly killed me with. Remain quiet and still in this chair, please, or I shall be compelled to give it back to you in a manner you would find least pleasant." His soft, breathy falsetto was devoid of all malice as he spoke, but Shampoo knew sincerity when she heard it.

"It no matter," she said at length, easing back into her chair. The blade was withdrawn wordlessly. "Musk Dynasty kill you all same."

"Maybe," Ranma admitted. "First they gotta get past the Orochi network, but you probably got a point. Hey, at least you'll get reunited with your boyfriend when they get here."

She tensed in the chair, wanting desperately to kill him, but seeing no way in which she could do it before getting her own throat cut open by Konatsu in the process.

"Careful, Ranchan," Ukyou remarked. "You aren't winning any points for congeniality saying stuff like that to her."

"She brought it on herself," Ranma snorted. "Even if we all get killed by this Musk Dynasty she's talking about, it might be worth it to see the look on her face when her boyfriend shows up."

The night sky above the bunker was filled with swirling bands of luminous greens, blues, and violets that were bright enough for Ranma and Akane to cast faint shadows from where they lay. The brilliant auroral fireworks were courtesy of the intense solar storms bombarding the planet's magnetosphere, something that neither of them had ever had the opportunity to observe on any of the worlds they had travelled before. Beyond the pretty lightshow, they knew, lay ships from the Musk Dynasty, coming to lay siege to Ryuugenzawa and make it their own.

The Orochi network would attack them of course, and possibly even wipe them out, but any survivors would likely remain their enemies. At least until the main Orochi platform completed its return to normal function from a unknown period of dormancy, anyway. At that point, they were probably all as good as dead.

Ranma wanted to believe that they could escape, and if they abandoned all of their technology to the Orochi's bombardment, they probably would. They would become just like all the other humans living on Ryuugenzawa, struggling to survive on a hostile planet with no hope of ever returning to their former lives. He was a mechwarrior, not some rustic farmer.

"What are you thinking about?" Akane asked him suddenly.

"Who says I was thinking about anything," he returned. There was no real challenge in it, and she made none of her usual shows of indignance.

"You were so quiet," she went on. "That's all."

He turned his head to where she lay next to him on the grassy hilltop above the bunker. The lights of the aurora were reflected in her eyes, and he was spellbound for a moment, just looking at her. It was times like these that he understood how incredibly cute she could be when she wanted to.

She smiled at him, realizing that he was staring at her, and why.

"Yes?" she asked him teasingly.

"I wasn't gonna say nothing," he returned lamely.

"Oh," she said with a pout that he knew was a put-on, and turned back to look at the sky.

He lay back as well, watching the streamers of light silently sway and curl above them. It was just the two of them together. Yuka had flown Shampoo back to the Palomino in the Nymph, while Ukyou and Konatsu walked home in her 'mech. Captain Ninomiya and her Astrogator remained in the Control Room, while Sayuri took a reluctant Shinnosuke home to await further instructions. The only thing keeping him here was Akane, and when she was ready to go home, he would fly her in the remaining Boomerang.

"Hey, Akane," he asked her.

"What is it, Ranma?"

"Do you mind if I, well..."

"Yes?"

"That is, can I, uh, hold your hand?"

She slipped her hand into his and gave him a squeeze. "You don't have to ask me about something like that, Ranma... Just take my hand."

"O-Okay," he returned, his voice a little more tremulous for her than he would have preferred. He could feel a blush starting on his cheeks as he gazed fixedly at the display above them. Her hand was warm,callused along the palm from years clutching her Warhammer's controls, but surprisingly soft everywhere else. Without thinking about it, he squeezed a little tighter, enjoying the comfortable closeness between them.

She sighed in response, and snuggled a little closer against his side. Encouraged, Ranma tried another squeeze, and was rewarded by a little squeeze from her and a quiet giggle in return. Somewhere in his mind, he had a niggling suspicion that there was something inane about all of this, that he was being unutterably foolish, or maybe even crazy. He thought back to earlier that day, his hands scrabbling through blades of grass looking for a piece of junk. Yeah, crazy. He squeezed her hand one more time. But this kind of crazy sure felt good, he admitted to himself.

He turned his head to look at her again. She was watching him with a tiny smile on her face, which widened slightly when their eyes met. There was almost a challenging look in her eyes, twinkling through the reflections of the torrid sky, reminding him of their first kiss, the way she had dared him to kiss her. He hadn't been able to, he recalled with some embarrassment, and then she had shown him up with a kiss of her own.

She had always taken the initiative, he realized suddenly. From their first kiss to their last, when they had steamed up the Dragonfly's elevator, she had always been the one to express what they both were feeling. Right now, he could see from the look in her eyes that they were both thinking the same thing, and if he left it too long, she was going to beat him to the punch - again.

He rolled to his side, propping his head up on a hand so he could look down at her, and cleared his throat. "Um, Akane?"

She blinked prettily. "Yes, Ranma?" There was a note in her voice that told him she knew exactly what he wanted to say, but was going to make him say it for himself.

"Uh, well..." His voice sounded squeaky to his own ears, and he coughed self-consciously. "So, like, do I hafta ask you if I, uh, if I can kiss you?" That didn't come out quite as cool as he had hoped to be, but it seemed to get the job done, from the way she tilted her head up to his.

Their faces were only centimeters apart, but they seemed to be an impassable chasm as he slowly dipped his head to hers, his heartbeat pounding an accompaniment in his ears. When her cool lips finally touched his, misted with a sigh, it was as if their trials and arguments, ever since they had first met on Nerima, had only existed to bring about this one moment. This was what he'd fought for, sacrificed for, bled for - Akane, warm and sweet in his arms.

They parted briefly, breathlessly gazing into each other's eyes, a look of affirmation passing between them before their lips joined again. There was nothing tentative about this second kiss; it was warm and tender, all-encompassing. Ranma felt his apprehension waning at Akane's obvious willingness to keep on kissing him.

How long they lay there, kissing under the joyous night sky, he didn't really know, though they paused often to breathe gaspingly, sometimes just to look at one another with giddy smiles until their lips met again. What he did know was that he was getting a crick in the neck - but that wasn't any reason to stop kissing, he reasoned with himself, and regretfully slipped his hand from her silky hair and eased it down to where he figured the ground probably was - though the ground seemed awfully soft today...

Akane's muffled gasp against his lips startled him, and he glanced down to see his hand on her breast. He quickly returned it to its warm, safe nest in her hair. "S-sorry," he croaked, half-expecting her to hit him after all.

She gazed up at him with a look in his eyes that he couldn't quite figure out, except that it was intense and, somehow, inviting. At length, she shifted slightly and smiled. "No need to apologize, Ranma," she said in a soft, trembling voice, a whisper really. She turned her head slightly to kiss his wrist, slowly returning her gaze to his, as if waiting... for...

Swallowing nervously, he eased his hand out of its hiding place and back down along her bare shoulder, the strap of her tank top... His breath left him in a sigh - when had he started holding it? - as his hand curved gently and cautiously around her breast again, realizing with quickening pulse that she wasn't wearing a bra. Akane rewarded him with a faint smile, her breath catching as their lips met again, teasing gently as he explored this new and fascinating terrain.

There was something oddly intoxicating about the tiny, choked noises she made in the back of her throat with each movement of his hands; he found himself testing, trying to discover just which spots made her gasp the most sharply, which made her arch her back and press herself more firmly against his palm. Their kisses were frantic now, broken by gasps and sighs; he found that kissing her chin made her giggle breathily, and kissing the hollow of her throat made her sigh, and kissing her there, just where the swell of her breast escaped the neckline of her tank top...

Akane's hands weren't exactly staying still, he realized fuzzily, but were stroking gently over the satin of his shirt, testing the contours of his chest and back, tracing delicately up his spine... When her cool fingers slipped under the hem of his shirt to stroke at his back, the feel of her hands on his naked flesh was electric, and he gasped despite himself, pressing his forehead to her bare shoulder.

Akane kissed the top of his head teasingly, and he raised his head to meet her laughing eyes. She raised her eyebrows as if in challenge, hands stroking maddeningly just above his waistband, and Ranma found himself smiling ferally in response, his fingers slipping under her shirt, across her warm stomach... She was unbelievably warm and soft under his fingers, and their lips met hungrily again. Her hands were bolder now, and his hands... He tugged impatiently at the supportive lining of her top, the elastic constricting his fingers as he made her gasp and shudder yet again, though how he could tell over the sounds of his own pounding heart and ragged breath he wasn't sure.

She shivered then, convulsively, and he snapped his eyes up to her face.

"You're cold," he said, his voice rough.

She started to shake her head in response, then smiled with a mix of nervousness and daring. "I guess so."

They stared at each other for a long moment, disheveled and breathless, his smile growing to match hers. Unspoken was the accord between them, the mutual realization that a decision had been made somewhere in the tangle of kisses and caresses. He felt giddy as he slowly reached out a hand to take hers, helping her to her feet. They hugged then, trembling bodies pressing close together in affirmation.

Akane led the way into the bunker, tiptoeing down the musty stairs with Ranma's hand in hers - as if the few staff remaining in the communications room would be listening for them. He followed her in something of a daze. When she tripped on a step and fell against him, it only seemed natural to take the opportunity to kiss; the next time she tripped it didn't seem to be much of an accident, but he didn't complain. The third time, he found himself pressing her up against the wall of the stairwell, kissing her urgently until she wriggled away, teasingly dragging him down the last few steps to the bunker's residential level.

Again by unspoken accord, they crept down the hall to the last of the rooms, closing the door behind them silently. Ranma fiddled with shaking hands at what he thought was probably a lock until it seemed to be engaged, turning to face Akane.

She was staring at the bed - a single bed, blankets piled at the foot of the bed as if the resident had just left for the day - or it would have seemed so if it weren't for the thin layer of dust over everything. He stepped up behind her, trembling, and slipped an arm around her waist; she leaned back into him with a sigh. Ranma wondered with sudden apprehension just what he was supposed to do next - the porno's Pop had shown him had always skipped through this part. Did they just take off their clothes and have at it? What did Akane want him to do?

"Let's make the bed," Akane said firmly.

Ranma frowned. That wasn't quite what he'd been expecting her to say. "We don't need to make the bed... Do we?"

"Of course we need to make the bed. I'm not... I'm not sleeping on all that dust." She cast him a hot look over her shoulder, her eyes promising something more than sleep.

Ranma pressed closer against her. "But the blankets are just as dusty as the bed," he insisted. "You'll get dusty, no matter what..." The nape of her neck was enticing; he dipped his head to kiss it, only to meet empty air as she shoved him away playfully.

"Barbarian," she said teasingly. "I'm making the bed." She shook out a sheet from the pile of blankets, sending motes of dust into the air. As she bent to tuck it around the mattress, she glanced back at him thoughtfully. "While I'm busy with this," her low voice lilted, "you could always get naked."

Ranma felt his face turning red, and for a moment he was at a loss for words. There was something surreal and dreamlike about being in this small, stuffy room, watching Akane make a bed in preparation for... for... And he had never expected her to be so, well, bold. Wasn't he supposed to be the one making all the moves now? Of course, he thought as he watched the mesmerizing sway of her hips, he didn't really mind her being just a little bit bold. It must have been part of that tomboy nature of hers... He shook himself out of his reverie. She had turned her head to look at him expectantly, the second sheet clutched in her hands; Ranma smiled back at her deliberately. "Me?" he said lightly. "You're the one I'd like to see getting naked."

Akane blinked at his riposte, a slow smile crawling across her face. "Is that so..." she said quietly, feeling deliciously wanton. "In that case, shouldn't you be doing something about it?"

He reached her in two steps, taking hold of her shoulders and leaning in for a firm kiss. Akane felt her eyes flutter closed, a thrill of satisfaction tingling up her spine. Doctor Tofu had been absolutely right, she realized with an inward grin; it hadn't taken much for Ranma to come around. The events of the past... hour? half hour?... were threatening to overwhelm her - she wanted this, and wanted it badly, but at the same time she couldn't help but feel a quiver of apprehension. There was no turning back once she got in that bed, and while she knew intellectually what was going to happen there, if their encounter so far was any indication, the real experience was going to be far more intense than she could ever have imagined...

His hands were tugging at the bottom of her tank top, and she stepped back, lifting her arms to allow him to pull it off her. She watched his face flush with wonder at the sight of her, and resisted the urge to shield herself from the intensity of his gaze. He had seen her naked before, once, but there was a world of difference between then and now, and she felt suddenly vulnerable.

She ducked her head to hide her sudden blush, and stepped close to unfasten the frogs of Ranma's shirt. His hands had come to rest reverently on her shoulders, stroking slightly with his fingertips as his hot breath rustled through her hair. She had seen him naked before as well, but the revelation of his hard chest, centimeter by centimeter, was strangely fascinating. Unable to meet his eyes just yet, she softly stroked his flat stomach before pushing the shirt off his shoulders.

He seemed to be getting somewhat impatient, yanking his arms out of the sleeves as quickly as he could and cursing under his breath when one arm got caught; somehow, it made her feel more at ease, and she slid her arms around his waist and pressed close, her cheek resting on his chest.

The feel of his naked chest against hers was unbelievable; she felt she could lose herself in his warmth. Pressed this close, she could also feel without a doubt how he felt about her right at this moment, and the realization filled her with a strange sense of wisdom. She tilted her head back for his kiss, reveling in the feel of his hands and body, and the certain knowledge that he wanted her.

She reached down between them and unfastened her pants, letting them drop to the floor and kicking them off her feet one by one, taking her shoes with them. Ranma didn't seem to have noticed - his attention and his hands being rather thoroughly occupied by other portions of her anatomy - and so she pushed on, tugging at the drawstring of his trousers. That seemed to get his attention, as he froze, waiting breathlessly as she slowly pulled them down past his knees. As she rose, she played her hand up his thigh and across the front of his boxers - drawing a gasp from him - and finally resting her hand on his stomach, which lurched raggedly under her fingertips.

She wasn't prepared for him to scoop her up in his arms, and she let out a sound halfway between a shriek and a giggle as he carried her the few remaining steps to the bed, tenderly placing her in the middle. To her surprise, he knelt down beside the bed, looking down at her hand as he stroked it.

"What is it, Ranma?" she asked, her laughter fading at his serious demeanor. He raised his head and fixed her with a penetrating look.

His voice was low and strained. "Are you sure about this, Akane?"

She gazed at him tenderly, knowing just what it must have cost him to hold back at this of all moments. He wanted her - she had felt the proof of that - but she could see by the look in his eyes that if she were to change her mind, even now, he would let it go without an argument.

Not that she wanted him to.

"You idiot," she whispered, pulling him up onto the bed beside her. He responded with a kiss filled with all the passion he had held in check.

For all of his passion, though, he wasn't yet entirely sure of himself, and she found that she rather liked it that way; there was something endearing about the way his hands paused before venturing across her hips, carefully avoiding the soft cotton triangle of her panties. As she considered this, he surprised her with a sudden kiss on her hipbone, where she hadn't even known she was ticklish. He was kissing her in all sorts of interesting places now, and she found herself simply stroking his fine dark hair and his shoulders, laughing occasionally at the brush of his bangs against her sides, or other places even more unexpected.

They met face to face again, his hands stroking gently across her stomach as he questioned with his eyes, fingers teasing nervously at her navel. She kissed him fervently in response, feeling his hand dipping in lower and lower circles until his fingertips rasped against cotton, and then she couldn't think, could only clutch at his shoulders and press her face into his chest until she nearly suffocated.

He was fumbling with the elastic of her panties then, and she dazedly lifted her hips and wiggled as necessary until her panties were gone, and he was touching her again, but this time... She listened to her own voice muttering strange, inarticulate things interspersed with Ranma's name, and kissed him over and over, not caring if what her lips touched was shoulder or neck or his own soft lips, tense with effort.

It wasn't fair, she thought with sudden clarity, and then said it aloud. "You... you need to be... you, too." Her voice was rough and barely recognizable, but she knew what she wanted to say, and when he paused for a moment she tugged at his boxers until, with a deep breath, he slid them off his hips.

There was a moment of silence as each regarded the other, eyes filled with wonder and desire and anticipation. She was the first to move, gently curling her fingers around him, and he let out an agonized groan. "Akane, don't..."

"Don't what?" she teased breathlessly, fingers teasing curiously.

In answer, Ranma slid up her body for yet another kiss, but there was something reckless and rough about it that she found strangely exciting. She couldn't stop smiling, even as they kissed raggedly, even as their hands explored with clumsy abandon. This was the moment, she realized, and though the moment itself took more fumbling and giggles and groans to commence, it still seemed somehow sacred, consecrated.

She had known it would hurt, but even expecting it, the strangeness of the pain took her by surprise, and she pushed at him instinctively. He pulled back at her faint cry, an apology springing to his lips; before he could utter it, she kissed him full and deep, pulling him back to her. The pain would stop, she told herself, it would stop - and though it didn't quite stop, with each moment it faded a bit more, replaced with something just as intense, almost like pain, but something much more.

He was gasping into her shoulder, his back tense and face contorted with effort; she almost wanted to laugh at his expression, it was just so odd - but the urgent, spastic rhythm of his movements and the incredible sensations she was beginning to feel distracted her from that thought before she even finished thinking it, and she simply held him tight.

"Akane," he gritted out through his teeth, and she met his fevered eyes, expectant. "I... I can't..." In a rush, she realized what he was trying to tell her, and the knowledge filled her with a strange, womanly wisdom; she smiled, and pressed his head to her breast.

"Don't," she said softly. "It... It's okay."

Before she was even done speaking, he was crying out, his hands convulsing on her shoulders. She clutched him closer, feeling with every muscle and nerve the tremors that wracked him, feeling her smile grow with the barely-coherent knowledge that she had done this to him, that she had brought him to this point. When he collapsed atop her, sweaty and heaving with release, she stroked damp locks of hair back from his face, murmuring little meaningless endearments into the near-silence of the room.

"I'm sorry."

Ranma's voice summoned Akane back from the reverie she'd been drifting through, thinking he was asleep but unwilling to let him go just yet. Her hands stilled their motions on his brow, and she glanced in surprise at his serious expression.

"What... what for?" she asked in confusion. She was pretty sure she'd made it plain to him that this was exactly what she wanted, hadn't she?

"I... well, dammit, I couldn't... This wasn't how things were supposed to end, okay?" His eyes were filled with self-loathing, and she blinked as he rolled off of her, lying on his back beside her.

"But, Ranma, I thought... What's wrong with ending up in bed together?" If he thought she was going to let him off the hook now...

"No, not in bed... What I mean is, you didn't... You were supposed to... Look, don't tell me you got what you were supposed to get out of this!"

Akane pressed her lips together grumpily. "An orgasm, you mean?" Her voice was clipped and a bit surly, but if he couldn't get to the damn point, she wasn't going to cut him any slack.

Ranma seemed to deflate a little, rolling his eyes slightly. "Uh, yeah. An orgasm."

She shifted onto her side, propping her head up on a fist and glaring down at him. "No, I didn't have an orgasm." His guilty look intensified. "BUT," she said firmly, poking him in the chest, "that doesn't mean I didn't have a damn good time. You were... you were really wonderful. I can't even explain how much."

"I was wonderful?" He looked at her dubiously.

"Yes, you were." Akane leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. "Now, I'm not saying there isn't room for improvement, but if you'd like to... look, I love you, and I'm willing to give you another chance to do things right." She gave him a smoldering look. "Soon."

Ranma's eyes filled with relief, and he relaxed towards her, eyeing her mouth like a piece of candy. "How soon?"

Akane smiled wickedly, dipping her head down until her lips were bare millimeters from his. "As soon as you're ready," she breathed. "How soon can that be?"

As it turned out, much to Akane's satisfaction, that was very soon indeed.

Orochi Network Primary Status Display

Auxilary Control Bunker

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

15 June 3025

Lieutenant Davidge drowsed at his chair, his head tilted back over the headrest, and a snore rolling up from the depths of his throat. Captain Ninomiya, having reverted to her child-body in the interim, lay sprawled in her own chair, a snot bubble expanding and contracting from her nostril as she slept. They had been working non-stop on a way to subvert control over the primary Orochi unit without success, and even if they had been awake when Ranma and Akane fumbled their way giggling down the stairwell, they would not have noticed them.

The main display suddenly jumped, characters dancing across the screen as telemetry information was received from space. Davidge groaned, but did not stir as other displays mirrored the main.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SLDF AUTOMATED ORBITAL BATTLESTATION PROTOTYPE EVALUATION

ROUTINE FOR YAMATO-NO-OROCHI CLASS, PRIMARY UNIT

-Rev 4.2.13- 08/29/2782

currentpos: Ryuugenzawa L4 Lagrange Point/76.20mym

interrupt//.00&FF/stackdump

//7AFF80&FF

//5B339A&FF

//221CC4&FA

// query/commandcom/node1/status:execute

//interrupt//awk...50012D&3F

//wait...

//report/commandcom/node1/peripherals/autointellection-OK

//report/commandcom/node1/peripherals/autoassessmentfunc-OK

//report/commandcom/node1/peripherals/threatassessmentlogic-OK

//report/commandcom/node1/sensors/passiveEMSarrays-OK

//report/commandcom/node1/sensors/activeradar-OK

//report/commandcom/node1/sensors/activelidar-OK

//report/commandcom/node1/commo/telemetryfunc-OK

//report/commandcom/node1/commo/nodecommarray-OK

//report/commandcom/node1/engineering/maindrive-56rising

//report/commandcom/node1/engineering/auxdrive-44rising

//report/commandcom/node1/engineering/reactioncontrolsys-30rising

//report/commandcom/node1/engineering/regenheatexchanger-30rising

//report/commandcom/node1/engineering/nonregenheatexchanger-50rising

//report/commandcom/node1/engineering/RXcontrolsys-OK

//report/commandcom/node1/engineering/RXcontrolcom-OK

//report/commandcom/node1/engineering/RXpowerindication-10thermal

//report/commandcom/node1/engineering/turbogeneratorcap-04

// changestate/sensors/radar/mode/RWS:execute-allnodes

//commandcom/ack/node2/ - ACK/changestate/sensors/radar/mode/RWS:execute

//commandcom/ack/node3/ - ACK/changestate/sensors/radar/mode/RWS:execute

//commandcom/ack/node4/ - ACK/changestate/sensors/radar/mode/RWS:execute

//commandcom/ack/node5/ - ACK/changestate/sensors/radar/mode/RWS:execute

//commandcom/ack/node6/ - ACK/changestate/sensors/radar/mode/RWS:execute

//commandcom/ack/node7/ - MALF/commlost-error/000000&00//reply not valid//

//commandcom/ack/node8/ - ACK/changestate/sensors/radar/mode/RWS:execute

//report/node1/statuschange/ACTIVE RADAR SET TO RANGE-WHILE-SEARCH MODE

//interrupt//commandcom/sensors/555FFAbrg:280+04/rng:3.03lightsec

// query/warbook/classify/newcontact-all:execute

//wait...

//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0001:LEOPARD-III/IFF-NEG!

//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0002:LEOPARD-III/IFF-NEG!

//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0003:LEOPARD-IV/IFF-NEG!

//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0004:UNION-I/IFF-NEG!

//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0005:UNION-II/IFF-NEG!

//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0006:OVERLORD-III/IFF-NEG!

//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0007:HUNTER-II/IFF-NEG!

//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0008:INVADER-VI/IFF-NEG!

//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0009:INVADER-VI/IFF-NEG!

//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0010:ESSEX-III/IFF-NEG!

//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0011:ESSEX-II/IFF-NEG!

//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0012:STARLORD-I/IFF-NEG!

//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0013:INVADER-VI/IFF-NEG!

//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0014:INVADER-V/IFF-NEG!

//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0015:BALAO-V/IFF-NEG!

// changestate/THREATCON/THREATCON-DELTA:execute-allnodes

//commandcom/ack/node2/ - ACK/ changestate/THREATCON/THREATCON-DELTA:execute

//commandcom/ack/node3/ - ACK/ changestate/THREATCON/THREATCON-DELTA:execute

//commandcom/ack/node4/ - ACK/ changestate/THREATCON/THREATCON-DELTA:execute

//commandcom/ack/node5/ - ACK/ changestate/THREATCON/THREATCON-DELTA:execute

//commandcom/ack/node6/ - ACK/ changestate/THREATCON/THREATCON-DELTA:execute

//commandcom/ack/node7/ - MALF/commlost-error/000000&00//reply not valid//

//commandcom/ack/node8/ - ACK/ changestate/THREATCON/THREATCON-DELTA:execute

// queryclock/node1/opcommandcom/dormancy/revive

//wait...

//report/node1/OPERATIONAL COUNTDOWN: 056h59m32.78s

Star League Defense Force Proving Grounds

Bunker Nine, Test Area North

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

16 June 3025

Akane Tendo awoke in darkness.

She felt disoriented at first, finding herself in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar sounds and a musty odor that permeated the air in spite of the running ventilation system. A muted grunt from Ranma settled her nerves, and she looked at him with eyes that slowly adjusted to the thin shaft of red light that leaked through the doorway from the hall. She remembered where they were now, and as she watched him sleep, she remembered what they had done together.

It was an odd feeling, to know that she had finally put the last vestige of her childhood behind her. That same sense of womanly wisdom she had felt when she and Ranma had made love came to her once more, and she kissed him tenderly upon the brow while he slept. He muttered something in his sleep, the words themselves incomprehensible, but the feelings behind them clear.

She loved him - even if he acted like a dope most of the time - and her love for him grew with each affirmation of her feelings. She could not put her finger on exactly when her lingering fears and anxieties about him had been cast aside; perhaps it was when she had seen him wearing the insignia he had thrown away, or perhaps it was in the fierce hug they had shared before they entered the bunker together - when by an unspoken accord they had made the decision that now had her lying naked by his side in a bed that was too small for two people, even two people as intimate as she and Ranma had become.

She stroked his shoulder and along his smooth chin - it would be some time before he would need to start shaving on a regular basis, she determined. As she considered these possibilities, she decided at last that it really didn't matter when she had let go of her doubts. He was hers now beyond all question, and if his first performance had been short - if sweet - then his encore had firmly established him as man she would look forward to loving for a very long time. It was certainly easier for them the next time around; the passion was a little more focused, and while some of the mystery had been lost, his improving confidence made the experience even better - for both of them.

His eyes flicked open, drawing a smile from her as he scanned the room without moving from where he lay. He must have felt that same sense of disorientation that I did, she mused, and kissed him on the tip of his nose.

"Good morning, sleepy head," she said to him.

He blinked. "How can you tell?" It was quite dark, after all.

"It just feels like morning," she replied.

Ranma rubbed at his neck. "How'd you sleep?"

"Okay," she returned. In truth, her sleep had not been that great. She was naturally unaccustomed to sleeping next to someone, let alone someone who liked to sprawl out while he slumbered, and in the single bed this problem was amplified. She was sore all over from the contortions she had endured to keep from spilling off the bed, but was determined not to make Ranma feel bad about it.

"I didn't sleep that well," he replied, much to her disbelief. Ranma slept the sleep of the dead from her point of view.

"I'll go check on the time," she said to him in return, sitting up and stretching out the kinks in her back. "If it's too early to get up, we can always go back to sleep."

Ranma watched her with not a little fascination as she rose to fetch his mandarin shirt from the floor. She supposed that the red shafts of light from the hall played in interesting ways across her naked curves. She blew him a kiss before pulling on his shirt, admiring the hungry look he gave her as she fastened the frog closures. On her body, his shirt was just barely long enough to cover her where modesty demanded, and that must have made a compelling sight to Ranma.

She struck a pose for him just to let him know that she was on to what he was thinking.

"How do I look?" she asked coyly.

"You look good," he breathed, his eyes huge and dark in the dim light of the room. "You look damn good," he amended huskily.

She smiled for him and padded over to the door. His hasty attempt to lock it had failed, she realized with a grin as she opened the door without pause and stepped out into the hall. There was a clock in the living area, if memory served her.

Assuming the clock was accurate, the sun was probably just beginning to poke above the horizon. This presented her with a dillemma. Should they get out of bed now, before Hinako and Davidge woke up, or should they take another hour or so to snuggle before they had to face the real world again?

She thought about the look Ranma had given her before she left the room, and decided to snuggle.

Much later - after they had snuggled, of course - they retired to the communal shower to wash up. The water was stale and dingy at first, having sat stagnant in the pipes for the last two centuries, but it soon cleared as fresh water from the bunker's well pumps reached the tiny fusion reactor's auxiliary heat exchanger, and from there, the shower head. They washed without soap because there was none, taking pleasure in rubbing down each other's bodies with their hands, and letting the hot water do most of the work since this provoked a round of smooches that threatened to send them back into bed.

They had to drip dry, as there were also no towels to be found. The best solution under the circumstances was for Ranma to sacrifice his trousers as a towel, and content himself with his boxers and tank top while Akane teased him with the sight of her wearing nothing but his mandarin blouse and her panties. Taken in this context, he didn't mind a bit, and she had to fend him off delicately as the urge to get her naked again took him.

"I've created a monster," she said, only half-joking, while she prepared tea for them in the dining area. She only wished that there was some food available. She was famished, and could only imagine how starved Ranma must have been feeling about then.

"Can I help it if you look so good?" he retorted with a smirk, his eyes straining as he tried to look up underneath the backside of the red satin blouse she wore while she leaned over the counter to fetch something to pour the tea into.

Akane set the mug of tea before him, amused by his randiness, which was in stark contrast to the reserved, almost asexual personality he had possessed yesterday. Yes, Doctor Tofu had known exactly what he was talking about when it came to Ranma and the idea of sex.

Thoughts of Doctor Tofu reminded her of what she had neglected to do for the last week...

"Drink your tea," she admonished him gently, realizing that she had not taken her birth control pills since the day she had been blasted out of the Palomino by the Orochi. The doctor would not be pleased, and she felt foolish for having forgotten to return to her regimen upon her rescue, and a little scared by the idea that she could even now be pregnant. Ranma had certainly done his part to contribute to the making of a baby. "We'll have to go back and face the music soon enough."

Ranma thought about that. They were supposed to have returned to the Palomino last night. "I guess so."

She sat down across from him at the small circular table, content to throw loving looks in his direction in spite of her nagging worries about pregnancy, and smiling when he flushed red in spite of his recent experiences with her. Their shared goo goo-eyed looks were starting to cross over into the realm of the inane when the sound of footsteps on the stairwell was heard.

Akane started as the door to the dining area opened, and Captain Ninomiya flitted into the room. Her astrogator followed after, looking nearly dead to the world. The two young mechwarriors froze at the sight of the two starship officers, realizing that they were sitting together in what amounted to their underwear.

"Good morning!" Hinako chirped, apparently oblivious to their relative state of undress.

"...Coffee..." Davidge groaned from behind his captain, his eyes bloodshot and weary as he shambled into the kitchen and began a search for the vital elixir.

"I think there's some instant in that cabinet," Akane managed lamely, pointing to one of the open cabinets above the countertop while wishing she were somewhere else.

Hinako jumped up into a chair and smiled at them.

"You're here awfully early," she said sunnily.

Ranma turned away uncomfortably. "We, uh, spent the night here."

Hinako looked at them as if for the first time that morning. "I see," she said with a bemused grin.

"We should probably get going," Akane added hastily, catching at Ranma's tank top and pulling him out of his chair.

Hinako gave them curious looks, but let Akane drag Ranma out of the room without further comment.

"What the heck was that for?" Ranma demanded as Akane led him downstairs to the berthing level of the bunker.

"Do you like standing around in your underwear for perfect strangers?" she returned.

"We've only been living with Hinako and the Astrogator for the last six months," Ranma countered. "I don't think that makes them strangers. Besides, since when did you get so modest all of a sudden?"

"Modest?" she cried. "I'm just being reasonable, Ranma. You're the one who doesn't seem to care what people think about us."

It took Ranma several moments to realize what she was getting at with her remark, and only after she had flung his slightly damp trousers at him to put on.

"So what do you care if people know about last night?" he asked her. "It ain't like it was going to stay some kind of secret."

She gave him a look that said if he valued his life, he would keep his mouth shut until further notice. Naturally, he didn't heed it.

"So what's the big deal?" he asked her. "What's really bothering you?"

Her face screwed up into a scowl.

"Do you really want to know?"

He threw his arms wide. "Yeah."

She had finished dressing by this point, and in passing him to reach the door to their room, she told him.

"I might be pregnant right now."

His jaw settled against his chest with a thud. With great inertia, he spun around to confront her on this, but she was already darting up the stairs. He was suddenly too angry with her to wonder about the validity of her statement, because what was the point of running away from him when he was her ride back to the ship?

He caught up to her at the Boomerang, where she stood pensively, trying to pretend that he wasn't looking at her. He decided not to dance around the issue.

"What exactly did you mean by pregnant?" he asked.

"What do you think pregnant means?" she shot back.

He pawed at the grass with his foot. "It, ah, means you're gonna have a baby."

"Your baby, to be specific," she said with a bitter quality to her voice that stung him.

He opened the canopy for her to get into the plane. "I thought girls who were mechwarriors and such took stuff to keep that from happening?" he asked her, although now that he thought about it, wasn't Shampoo supposed to have been doing something like that herself?

"I was," she sniffed, unwilling to break and yet approaching that point with haste. "But I sort of missed a few days after we were stranded here. I just realized it this morning, Ranma."

He was thoroughly unfamiliar with the mechanism by which girls avoided this sort of thing, and knew that the one fairly reliable option guys could exercise was something he had certainly not done last night, and so he took her word for it.

"So how do we know for sure?" he finally asked her, offering her his hand to settle her in the cockpit of the plane.

"We don't," she replied as she took her seat. "Not yet, anyway."

He plopped down in his own seat. "Okay, so don't worry about it," he told her as he adjusted his throttle and choke settings for engine start. His voice started to catch in his throat. "I mean, would it be that bad if you were?"

"It's not something I would have hoped for," she retorted. She saw the surprisingly hurt look he affected in spite of himself, and softened her tone. "I mean, not right away."

Her hand drifted to rest upon his, which lay limp upon the throttle.

"I can't believe I'm saying this to you, Ranma, but someday, I do want to have kids with you."

His eyes became huge with surprise.

"Y-You do?" he squeaked.

She kissed him softly on the cheek. "Of course I do. Just not right now."

His breath caught in his throat.

"You mean that?" he said quietly, almost reverently.

"Start the damn plane, already," she said with a grin. "We'll talk about this later."

Ranma let out a whoop as the engine roared to life behind them.

Genma Saotome may not have been in charge of the expedition, but he was still Ranma's father, and the one Grand Duke Tendo had entrusted the care of his youngest daughter to. He was not amused as the two young mechwarriors stepped out of the Boomerang and walked across the grass to the DropShip.

"Where the hell have you been, boy?" he demanded.

"I was busy," Ranma growled back.

"Doing what? You've only been out of radio contact for the last twelve hours. What if something had happened?"

Ranma brushed him off as Akane started up the ramp. "We were at the bunker the whole time, old man. If you needed us, all you had to do was call Captain Ninomiya."

"At the bunker!" Genma cried indignantly. "You and Akane spent the night at the bunker? Alone? Just what the hell were you two doing all night..." A strange expression crawled across his face as he continued. "All alone... in that bunker... just you and Akane..."

He regarded his son with a penetrating look.

"You dirty dog..." he growled, though there was tremendous pride in his voice.

Ranma turned crimson and pulled uncomfortably at his collar, which was all the confirmation that his father needed for his suspicions.

"That's my son!" Genma cried, clapping Ranma stoutly on the back. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he swept his son up into a manly bear hug. "At last you've become a man! You don't know how proud you've just made me!"

"Quit it already," Ranma barked. "I don't want to talk about it with you, all right?"

Genma lifted him up in the air despite his protestations. Though there were times when the elder Saotome seemed a worthless, slovenly, and sedentary man, his great strength had not been diminished with age, and he spun Ranma around in midair while laughing boisterously in some personal triumph nearly twenty years in the making.

"You can set me down now!" Ranma gasped.

Genma did so, though he would have danced a jig if his son would have permitted it. Ranma's sour look did little to dampen his spirits.The marriage was as good as done, now, just like he had planned from the beginning. All they had to do was find a way off the planet and get back to Nerima. Oh sure, they had their rough moments together, but he had faith that they would fall in love - or at least lust, which was good enough in Genma's book - eventually.

"Are you done celebrating yet?" Ranma asked him in an acid tone.

Genma retained his smug grin. "Not yet, boy."

"Then I'm outta here," he growled, and stumped up the ramp to find Akane.

Genma watched him go, his smile of pride and satisfaction welded onto his face.

Ranma bit back a curse. He was in over his head, and he knew it. If Akane was... was pregnant, then he would be a father. He had even less of a clue about being a father as he did about handling girls, and once again, his old man was not providing a good example to work from.

Was it worth it? he asked himself. Was what he and Akane had shared together worth all this aggravation? Was it worth getting saddled with a kid that neither of them were ready to have?

There weren't any simple answers to that, for he knew that if Akane wanted to sleep with him tonight, he would not - could not - say no to her. In fact, the whole morning had been a big distraction for him as he idly pondered ways to get her alone somewhere where they could...

He almost stepped on Happousai as he thought about taking Akane's clothes off.

"Watch where you're going, ya little punk!" the wizened mechwarrior barked at him.

Ranma looked down at Happousai, who barely came up to his knees.

"Who are you calling 'little'?" he asked archly.

"I'll let that slide," Happousai replied coolly. "Considering your great achievement in recent history."

Ranma didn't like where this was going.

"Start making sense, old fart," he prompted.

"Hmmm..." Happousai replied, stroking at his wispy moustache. "You and Akane stayed out all night away from the ship... You come back the next morning, and both of you have these goofy grins on your faces... And I found Akane paying a visit to Doctor Ono not a few moments ago. It doesn't take a mental giant to put these facts together and come up with what you two did together last night."

Ranma really didn't like where this was going.

"What Akane and I do together is none of your business, you old geezer."

"Ah, Ranma..." Happousai sighed. "To think that all this time I thought you were gay. You gave me a little hope with the flowers bit, but even then I had my doubts. Now..." he sighed again. "Now, I can relax, secure in the knowledge that the future of the Anything Goes School is assured."

Ranma shook his head in disgust. "Does this mean you'll stop trying to change me into a girl?"

"Absolutely not!" Happousai shrieked indignantly. "In fact, now that you and Akane are so lovey-dovey, I think that this would be the ideal time to try for a threesome!"

Ranma choked back acrid bile. "Not only no, you old fart," he growled. "BUT HELL NO!!!" He then punted Happousai through the airtight door to the 'Mech Bay, his body shaking with nausea at the idea of him and Akane, and... and... Happousai...

"But it's every man's dream to have two girls at once!" Happousai wailed as he flew across the Bay. "Why can't you make an old man happy?"

"Is there some kind of test you can run?"

Doctor Tofu gave Akane the look of disapproval she knew to expect from him. After all, this was her fault.

"Not for a few days at the least," he replied. "But let's not get ahead of ourselves, shall we?"

He rose from his tiny fold-up desk in Sickbay and stepped gingerly past the medical supplies he had been going through to prepare for combat action. He rifled through a drawer that served as the DropShip's unrestricted Pharmacy and produced a small foil pack. "When did you last menstruate?"

She had to think about it for a moment.

"I finished my period right before we embarked aboard the Palomino to come here," she replied.

Tofu consulted the scrap of paper that went with the foil pack and did the math.

"You're probably not pregnant then," he said evenly. "But just in case you might ovulate a little early this time around, take this. Then come back tomorrow and take another one."

He handed Akane the packet.

"What does it do?" she asked sheepishly.

"It's sometimes referred to as a 'morning after' pill," he replied dryly. "Appropriate, considering the circumstances, don't you think?" He returned to his seat. "Think of it as a super-strength birth control pill, because that's essentially what it is. It will prevent you from ovulating just like your normal prescription, but if implantation has already occured - which is extremely doubtful in your case - it won't help." His expression darkened as he thought of Shampoo, who for whatever reason, had chosen not to take that option, and now it was too late. "There are of course, other treatments at that point..."

"So I'm not pregnant?" Her relief was most evident.

"Probably not," Tofu confirmed. "But if you don't take that pill, and then come back for your followup tomorrow, I can't guarantee that you'll stay that way. And furthermore, get back on your schedule! You can probably pick up where you left off, since this megadose should about put you back to where you were hormonally."

She ripped open the foil pack and swallowed the pill dry.

Tofu rubbed at his temples. "I'm really disappointed in you, Akane," he said at length.

"I know," she returned. "I feel pretty dumb about this."

"Well, I guess we can hope that this has been enough of a scare for you that you'll take my advice more seriously, and follow your prescription as ordered."

She bowed her head sheepishly. "Yes, Doctor."

Ian Cameron Starport

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

16 June 3025

"Ryouga dearest?"

Ryouga spun around in surprise to see Akari giving him a puzzled look. He sighed with relief at finding her, having wandered across a good portion of the ruined starport complex looking for her. She and those members of her tech crew who were not engaged in repairs to the Palomino were busy with the fuel processing plant.

"Uh, hi, Akari," he returned. It was difficult to meet her eyes when she was smiling at him, because it made his knees turn to jelly.

She stepped over to him, wiping her hands on a rag before presenting herself with a demure grin. He took her cue haltingly, leaning forward while wringing his hands in nervous anxiety as he gave her a kiss. It was a miracle that he could even bring himself to do it, but then as far as he was concerned, Akari was probably a miracle in and of herself.

He hated to tell her that she would have to discontinue her work on the fueling station, that it was too dangerous to remain while the battlemech forces of at least two different powers were on their way to the planet.

She brushed at his chest with her hands while he pondered a gentle way

to break the news, making him start in his boots.

"Is something wrong?" she asked him.

He looked away, his finger absently poking holes in the wall next to him. "I ah, have some bad news," he said to her.

"What's going on?"

He began wringing his hands again. "You have to stop what you're doing. An invasion force from an unknown power and one from the Jusenkyo Commonwealth are both on their way. It's been decided that we can't spare enough 'mechs to protect both the Palomino and the starport at the same time."

She wrinkled her nose in distaste at the news.

"I'm staying, dearest," she returned evenly.

This was not the response he was expecting from her.

"B-But, Akari..."

She turned away from him. Several of her techs stopped what they were doing, having overheard the news. "We need this facility, Ryouga dearest, and we are almost ready to put it back on line. I can't walk away from a job half-finished."

Akari picked up her wrench and returned to her work.

"How much time do we have?" she asked him.

Ryouga shook his head in disbelief. He was in charge of the defense of the DropShip and its crew, why couldn't she understand that? "I don't understand how that matters. We need to prepare our defenses."

"How much time?" she asked again.

"Two days," he relented. "At best."

She smiled prettily for him. "I can be ready to refuel the Nymph by this afternoon."

Ryouga struggled for a moment with himself before deciding that she was right.

"Okay," he relented. "But once the Nymph is refuelled, you and your crew need to return to the DropShip. We have to rush the repairs to it if we don't want to be sitting ducks for the Commonwealth."

"Of course, dearest," she replied, looking him over as she finished what she was doing. "Will you be staying here for awhile, or will you be returning to the DropShip?"

"I need to return to the ship. We're having a meeting at thirteen o'clock to discuss what we're going to do."

She consulted her watch. "You're going to be late if you don't hurry," she pointed out.

Ryouga looked uncomfortable. "Um, you wouldn't have happened to have seen where I parked my BattleMaster, would you?"

Akari looked over his shoulder to the large open wall of the refueling station where he had walked in. The looming mass of the battlemech stood less than a forty meters away.

"Perhaps I should come back to the ship with you for the meeting," she said delicately.

Nerima Confederation DropShip Palomino

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

13:08 Local Time, 16 June 3025

"So," Ranma said to the assembled officers and crew on the Mess Deck. "What're we gonna do?"

It was a question that seemed to be on everyone's lips. Unfortunately, no one seemed to have any answers.

Hinako was the first to finally speak, standing up on a table to be seen by all.

"I'd like to take the Nymph up to orbit as soon as possible then, to investigate the space station and the drydock," she declared. "No matter who might be on their way to the planet, we still need a way to Jump out of the system. It might be our only chance."

"That's assuming we can get the Palomino repaired in time," Captain Grant countered. "We need at least four more days to patch eveything up."

"Can't you cut some corners?" Ranam asked in an acid tone.

Grant glared at the pig-tailed mechwarrior. "I don't know about you, Captain Saotome, but I like my two gigawatt nuclear fusion reactors to be fixed the right way when I go to light them off."

Akane rose to put a hand on Ranma's arm before things got ugly. "I understand completely, Captain Grant," she said coolly. "But at the same time, we're faced with a real dilemma. The Palomino is the only ship that can transport everyone and their 'mechs into orbit - assuming that there is in fact a ship that can take us out of the system waiting for us in that drydock. The Palomino is also currently in one of the worst defensible positions I can imagine against a strong invading force."

Grant sipped at his coffee, the days without sleep evident in his bloodshot eyes. "If we delay the cooldown and depressurization of the port reactor cooling loop for a little longer, I can start up, lift the ship, and put it a short distance away - and I do mean a short distance."

"Can you make the starport?" Genma asked him.

Grant shrugged. "Thirty klicks is probably about as far as we could go. We're on seriously diminished capacity right now on the port loop, and the starboard loop still has another week or two to go before we can even attempt to repressurize it and put it back on service - at a minimum."

Genma and Doctor Tofu looked over the map of the starport that Shinnosuke and his grandfather had provided for them, comparing it to the modern-day observations Yuka and Sayuri had made from the air.

"It's probably the most defensible position we've got, considering the condition of the ship," Genma conceded.

"The only problem is that the starport will probably be a likely target for investigation by the Commonwealth forces," Tofu pointed out.

"That's unavoidable," Genma returned. "Personally, I'd like to see the Palomino safely on the other side of the planet, but that isn't going to happen."

"Getting back to the matter of investigating the space station," Hinako interrupted.

Akane nodded in reply. "Can your Executive Officer handle the bunker operations?"

"Commander Malloy is in charge there right now," Hinako answered anxiously.

"Then make preparations to leave as soon as possible," Akane ordered.

The diminutive captain beamed happily.

"At once, milady," she cried, and flittered out of the room.

Ranma gave his fiancee a nudge. "Why'd you say yes to her?"

"Can't you guess?" she whispered.

"Not really."

She rolled her eyes at him. "We've got too many chiefs and not enough indians around here as it is. Besides, if she does find a ship up there, she'll need time to get it ready to leave. We don't have much time before the Commonwealth gets here."

Ranma nodded grudgingly. "You gotta point."

"This is all fine and good," Grant observed, "But it still brings us back to the Palomino's condition. We can't lift off for a safer location for at least two more days, and that's 'cutting corners.' We've got the Jusenkyo Commonwealth and some other group on the way. So do we fight, or surrender? I'm not much for giving up, but then I'm not in charge here."

"I'm not going to surrender without a fight," Genma declared, surprising everyone. "Even if the boy and I weren't marked for death by the Commonwealth, we all worked hard and made a lot of sacrifices to get here, and I'm not just going to roll over and let the Amazons take everything."

"We fight a holding action then," Ranma agreed. "We buy time for the Palomino repairs to reach a point where we can lift the ship and make a run for the other side of the planet."

"Guerrilla tactics," Tofu added, remembering a battle he had fought early in his career as a mechwarrior where gaining time was more important than victory. Of course, he had barely escaped with life and battlemech in that fight, but his current circumstances were no different. "Hit and run. We don't have the numbers to take on any 'mechs in a frontal assault, so we keep them guessing and on the defensive long enough to finish up the repairs."

There was a general agreement at this, silenced only when Shinnosuke and his Grandfather were shown in by one of the Dragonfly crew.

"My grandson told me what was happening," the old man said, taking a seat near the bug juice dispenser. Shinnosuke remained standing, his pushbroom crutch under his armpit.

"I'm sorry for bringing them to your world," Akane told him. "I feel that it's my fault."

The old man shook his head wearily. "They aren't the first to come here looking for spoils, and they probably won't be the last." He took a sip from a cup of hot tea Shinnosuke poured for him. "I discussed the matter with the people of the village before we were brought here. They won't help you fight, if that is what you choose to do, but if things go badly for you, they have agreed to take you in and hide you from your enemies."

"A bolt hole is always nice to have," Genma observed.

"We're grateful for whatever help they can offer," Akane added.

The old man brushed at his bushy beard. "So, what news of the Orochi?"

"It's due to reactivate in about thirty-six hours," Akane replied grimly.

"That's the other problem," Ranma groused. "When that thing wakes up, it'll blow the crap outta the starport, most likely."

"Should we reconsider moving the Palomino there, then?" Akari asked.

"We're up against the clock no matter what," Ryouga replied, knowing that his beloved technician was going to be at ground zero for any orbital bombardment from the rogue defense satellite. "And since the Commonwealth is due to get here before the Orochi satellite reactivates, we'll have to deal with them first. The starport is probably the best place we can hope to fight a delaying action."

"Let's not make this too complicated," Akane said to them. "We'll move the Palomino to the starport early tonight, after Captain Ninomiya leaves for orbit. Then we'll make preparations to defend the starport."

"We need more 'mechs to even have a chance at this," Genma noted. He looked to Shinnosuke and his grandfather. "Know where we can find some?"

The two caretakers gave each other measured looks before the old man nodded gravely to his grandson. Shinnosuke faced them, his face a mask of guarded emotion.

"The SLDF 'mech garage is intact," he said to them. "I have the keys to the facilities. If it will help you, I can let you in to take a look."

"Any LAMs there?" Ranma chirped.

Shinnosuke shrugged. "I don't know. I don't think so."

"That's okay," Ranma replied. "I got a decent angle on one from the area map you gave us." Akane gave him a puzzled look, surprised at his cavalier attitude toward the matter.

"Let's get going then," Genma suggested. "If there are usable 'mechs there, we won't have much time to prep them."

"If you get lucky and find enough for all of us, don't forget Shampoo," Ranma told him.

"Shampoo?" both Akane and Genma asked incredulously.

Ranma nodded his head.

"Yeah. Shampoo. She's got even more to fear from this so-called Musk Dynasty than we do, and if I'm right and the other force is from the Combine, they probably won't be happy to see her either. We need as many 'mechs as we can put into the field, and Shampoo's a good fighter."

"I think you need professional help, Ranchan," Ukyou declared. "I wouldn't trust that Amazon bimbo any farther than I could throw her."

"I'd rather take the chance. As long as we make it clear what's going to happen, I'm sure she'd rather fight than wait it out as a prisoner. Let's make it worth her while. If she fights well, we drop the spying charges against her."

"Are you insane?" Grant asked bitterly. "It's because of her that the Musk Dynasty knows where this place is!"

Ranma folded his arms across his chest. "That's in the past. Right now I'm trying to make sure we all live to see the future. Our best chance is with another 'mech. You don't like it, we'll put her out at the bunker. They need protecting too. Konatsu can keep an eye on her until it's time to mount up."

The kunoichi stood and bowed for him. "I would be honored to accept such an assignment, sir."

Ukyou gave him a nudge. "Careful, honey, she's a slippery one."

"Fair enough," Genma conceded impatiently. "Any other objections?"

Akane was tempted to speak, but decided to give Shampoo the benefit of the doubt.

"Other than the fact that she's pregnant right now, I can't think of any reasons," Doctor Tofu declared.

"We'll give her the choice then," Ranma declared.

"I'm outta here," Genma growled and started once more for the door.

Akari cleared her throat gently for attention.

"Pardon me, Commander," she said to him. "But it seems as if my section will be busy aiding in the Palomino repairs. I don't know how much support we'll be able to give towards battlemech preparation."

Genma waved her off. "I'm sure we'll be able to handle the basics," he told her, then rose. "Time's wasting. Come on, Shinnosuke."

Ranma watched his father go and shook his head. "He's taking off in a big hurry."

Ryouga nodded in agreement. "Ukyou and I will go with him if you don't need us here."

"Go for it."

The Mess Deck cleared of people, leaving just Ranma, Akane, and Shinnosuke's grandfather.

"I wish you all the best of luck," the old man said to them.

"We'll need it," Ranma said sourly. "Thanks for all of the help."

"I've had to face some hard truths since you arrived," he replied. "The fact that the Star League is no more is the hardest. There is no more point in looking after the facilities here, so if you will do me this one favor, I would be forever grateful."

"What is it?" Akane asked.

"If you do somehow manage to escape the system, take my grandson with you."

"Shinnosuke?"

"There is nothing for him here," the old man said sadly. "Just his tired old grandfather, and who knows how long I've got left to me. No, he's better off far away from this lonely place. Take him with you back to the Confederation. He'd make a fine mechwarrior I think - it's something he's always dreamed of."

Akane took the old man's hands in hers. "I will," she said to him. "I promise."

Fort Dealy Underground Battlemech Garage

Star League Defense Force Proving Grounds

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

16:27 Local Time, 16 June 3025

Ukyou brushed back her hair from her eyes as Genma Saotome and Ryouga Hibiki strained against the armored vault door. The door bore the scorch marks of cutting lasers and several attempts at blasting from looters in forgotten decades. Shinnosuke's key had unlocked the stout portal, but the abuse it had suffered had left it jammed shut.

"Need some help?" she asked the two, knowing that their male pride would not suffer it.

"We got it," Genma huffed, his muscles bulging and sweat streaming down his brow.

"You're sure now?"

"We're sure!" Ryouga barked. The door squealed in its running track, and jerked open a centimeter.

"That's got it," Genma cried hopefully. "One more push."

The two put their all into the door one last time, driving it halfway open, before collapsing against the reinforced wall with panting gasps.

"I think I threw out my back on that last one," Genma wheezed.

Ryouga wiped away the sweat from his eyes. "So get Doctor Tofu to fix it, already."

Ukyou sauntered past them, pulling herself through the door. "As much as I like ogling big sweaty men, I'll pass up the opportunity for now and take a look inside." She smiled at Shinnosuke and Konatsu. "Coming?"

"Right behind you," Shinnosuke replied. He had always wanted to take a look inside the SLDF 'mech garage. Konatsu followed wordlessly after.

"No fair," Ryouga gasped. "We did all the work."

Ukyou's eyes adjusted to the dim lighting as she crept her way down a long sloping passageway that ended in a cavernous hangar. The smell of stale air and ancient lubricants filled the place, and the looming shadows of vaguely humanoid shapes standing in reinforced revetments made her heart clench in her chest.

"Paydirt," she whispered.

There were at least twenty battlemechs in the 'mech garage, but at least half of them were in some state of disassembly. Still, there were more than enough for them to man in defense of the starport. She reminded herself that a share of whatever they could recover here was hers.

"I'm surprised that there are so many 'mechs remaining, sir," Konatsu said to her.

"Think about it, honey," she replied, gesturing to the many empty spaces for battlemechs. "From the look of things, the SLDF cleaned out as much as they could before they left. What's here is probably everything they couldn't cram into a DropShip hold."

"How many battlemechs do you need?" Shinnosuke asked her, his eyes wide with excitement.

"One for Ranchan, one for Akane, one for Doctor Tofu, and one for Shampoo - though I think it's a mistake - at the minimum," Ukyou replied. "But it might not hurt to grab a few extra as spares."

"Shouldn't we consider taking them all, sir?" Konatsu asked. "At the very least to deny them to our enemies."

"Good thinking," Genma replied, catching up to them, with Ryuoga close behind. "The way I see things, if we're successful in fighting off the Commonwealth long enough for the Palomino to slip away, and Captain Ninomiya does find a starship up in orbit that can carry us home, we can still make off with most of the loot."

Shinnosuke gave him a hard look. "Grandfather and I agreed to help you fight the invaders," he said sternly. "But you shouldn't be taking anything more than you need."

Genma shook his head. "Who else is gonna use this stuff, boy?" he returned gruffly. "You? No offense, but I don't think so. Better that we have these battlemechs than letting the Jusenkyo Commonwealth have them."

"We won't be able to take more than ten of them at the most, anyway," Ukyou soothed. "The rest of them don't look like they're in any condition to travel." She placed a comforting hand on Shinnosuke's shoulder. "Face it, honey. No matter what happens in a couple of days, your job as caretaker is over. In any event, the Star League fell over two hundred years ago, so it's not like you're protecting all this stuff for anyone. It's first come, first served."

Shinnosuke looked away sullenly. "I'm sorry. You're probably right, but it's just that I take my duties very seriously."

"We haven't got time for hurt feelings," Ryouga declared, a sense of urgency strong in his voice. "It will take almost all of the time remaining to us to get these 'mechs ready for action. We need to find out what we have here."

"Two Warhammers, a Victor, three Centurions, two Catapults, a Panther, a Wasp, and an Orion," Konatsu supplied briskly. "Eleven in all that appear at first glance to be functional."

"As the Master would say, 'what a haul!'" Genma cried joyously. "I've got dibs on the Orion!"

"Say, where is that old goat, anyway?" Ukyou asked as Genma danced up and down the garage.

"I don't know," Ryouga replied. "Frankly, I don't care. He's been nothing but a headache this entire time."

"He's been keeping a pretty low profile ever since we got here," she observed. "I'll bet he's up to something no good."

Ryouga sighed and started up the gantry ladder to inspect their first 'mech. "You'll get no argument from me."

Allied Aerospace Corporation, Special Projects Division

SLDF Contractor Facility Annex

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

18:12 Local Time, 16 June 3025

The facility was in ruins as Ranma passed overhead in his Boomerang. The three standing buildings had obviously been looted at some point by the stranded colonists, or perhaps by bandits from the Periphery who were marooned by the Orochi network. Bad weather and general neglect had done the rest. There didn't seem to be much point in landing, but Ranma set his flaps to full and swooped in for an approach.

"Are you sure about this?" Akane asked him.

Ranma didn't answer at first, his mind preoccupied with setting them down in one piece. There seemed to be a large clearing near the buildings, grass that had overgrown much of what looked to be a concrete runway. Seeing the ruins of a runway gave him hope.

"I just want to take a closer look," he said as they taxied to a halt.

Akane could understand his desire. She had a Warhammer once again, and while there might have been other battlemechs in the SLDF garage, none of them were Phoenix Hawk LAMs. With both an unknown but presumably hostile power, and the Musk Dynasty that Shampoo spoke of to worry about, Ranma could do the most good in a machine he was comfortable using, and after losing his 'mech to save her life, she would be happy to see him find another LAM.

They searched the buildings, finding little of value. Anything that hadn't been taken by looters had been damaged by the elements over the past two centuries. The conclusion of their search was that the above-ground facilities were little more than offices for the Allied Aerospace Corporation, serving the bureaucrats, lawyers, and functionaries that worked with the SLDF's engineering and evaluation staff to meet the Army's battlemech and aerospace fighter needs.

What Ranma was looking for was the 'mech garage. Allied Corp must have had their own staff of engineers and technicians working on their prototypes during the evaluations, and even their own garage space to work in. Since there did not seem to be any such facilities on the surface, they were either at the ruined starport, or else underground nearby.

"What are we looking for?" Akane thought to ask him as he opened every door remaining in the place. Looters had long ago done away with the need to force the ones that might have been locked.

"The basement," he replied, abandoning his fruitless search indoors for an access outside.

He inspected the grounds to no avail.

"Now what?" Akane asked. She felt bad for him not finding what he wanted.

"Back to the Boomerang," was his curt reply.

She followed him in silence. Rather than admit defeat, Ranma seemed to be paying a lot of attention to the hard flat surface of the concrete runway where he could see it through the riot of grass and weeds. He stopped short of their little scout plane, then began a slow spin, his eyes fixed in the distance.

"There," he said, stopping abruptly, and pointing to the slope of a low hill at the far end of the runway from the complex.

Akane examined the hill. Even with its lines broken up by the trees and the unchecked vegetation, she could see that its shape and its position relative to the runway were a little too ordered to be natural.

"I see what you mean," she replied, and followed after him as he trotted with mounting anticipation towards the hill.

The hill was in fact man-made, as they suspected. Once they were close enough to notice, they could see the outline of a large hangar door, its surface too uniformly coated with grass to be anything other than an intentional feature of the design, that apparently led into the depths of the hill.

There must have been some kind of regulation from the SLDF in regards to the environmental impact of the various facilities, Akane decided. Everything was underground and out of sight. Planets habitable by humans were fairly common in the galaxy, if the Inner Sphere was any example, but terran planets were still rare enough to kill for. A planet as lush and beautiful as Ryuugenzawa deserved to have its glory preserved wherever possible.

"Now comes the hard part," Ranma observed. "Getting inside."

"I don't suppose this place has any power left to it?"

"Probably not."

They searched around some more before coming across a man-sized door whose access was partially blocked by the gnarled and exposed roots of a tree that had sprung up on the sloping side of the hill in the intervening centuries. A good kick forced the door part of the way open, and from there, Ranma was able to wedge himself into the opening and force it the rest of the way by using his back against the tree trunk for leverage.

He pulled himself through the opening, disappearing into the darkness for a moment before reappearing at the threshold with an outstretched hand for Akane.

"Coming?"

She considered the dark, dank, and narrow opening for a moment before giving him her hand. Once she was through, Ranma produced a pocket-sized flashlight and switched it on. They were at the top of what looked like a sloping reinforced concrete ramp that led down into the interior. The ramp served both the personnel door and the hangar access, apparently. The smell of lubricants and old synthetic rubber was strong enough to overcome the musty scent of age that filled the place. Indigenous rodents the size of sewer rats with whiplike tails and large floppy ears scrabbled along the wall - startled by the light - to run down into the interior.

Akane cringed when she saw Ryuugenzawa's evolutionary answer to the rat, but did not voice her concerns to Ranma, who was emboldened by his success and started eagerly down the ramp. She followed after him, keeping certain to stay within arm's reach of her fiance, and away from the wall.

The interior was a large open space, with cranes, motorized chainfalls, and an extensive system of gantry catwalks. Large crates with shipping stencils dating right up to Kerensky's Exodus sat in one corner of the chamber, unopened, their contents untouched by human hands in over two hundred years. Ranma gaped at what he saw to be Allied's ill-fated attempt to make the popular Shadow Hawk design into a LAM. The battlemech remained suspended by cranes, with its retrofit cranked-delta wings curiously extended, over a large flatbed HEMMT trailer. Long strands of myomer bundle whose color had decayed from a bubblegum pink to a washed out beige dangled from snapped hip and knee actuators.

There was an eery sense of time at play in the chamber, as if the work had been stopped by the Exodus right in the middle of the repairs to the Shadow Hawk LAM prototype. Ranma looked around and saw other signs that this had indeed taken place. Techs were scrupulous about maintaining their tools, but he saw them scattered about various maintenance, repair, and construction projects as if they had been in use only minutes ago.

"Someone actually tried to make a Shadow Hawk into a LAM?" Akane asked aloud, trying to start up a conversation because the place gave her the creeps.

"Pretty dumb, huh?" Ranma replied, jerking a thumb towards the 'mech carcass. "The thing looks about as aerodynamic as a brick. After the Wasp and Stinger LAM conversions proved to be so popular, everyone wanted to get in on the act. Allied got the rights to the Shadow Hawk and Phoenix Hawk designs, and after the Shadow Hawk bombed, the Phoenix Hawk became their only entry into the battlemech market. It's too bad that they never got the chance to work out the landing gear and the heavy laser glitches before everything went to hell."

"Where did you hear this?" Akane asked, impressed with his knowledge of pre-Fall history.

"Mechwarrior of Fortune magazine," he replied with a straight face. "Look, I know I'm getting my hopes up here, but I gotta go look some more," he said to her as he walked away from the chamber to a row of cells set off from the main facility.

"I understand, Ranma," Akane said to him warmly. He did not say anything to this, for he had turned a corner, and stopped short, stunned.

The first thing he saw was the silvery glint of the eight-pointed Cameron Star that served as the device for the Star League Defense Force emblazoned upon the torso. The silver, white, and black-trimmed Phoenix Hawk LAM stood in Battlemech Mode; looking as new as the day it had rolled off the assembly line. Clutched in its metal fist was its rifle-like heavy laser, the protective cover for the focusing optics still fixed to the muzzle. The left forearm retained the same launch tubes of a twin SRM rack as his last Phoenix Hawk, the ill-fated T-507 he had borrowed from the Grand Duke.

"It's an SRM variant," he said half to himself. He had never been very fond of the regular models of the Phoenix Hawk LAM such as his old family 'mech, as he found the twin machine guns practically useless against an enemy battlemech, and the idea of using a 20mm automatic weapon on a person both revolting and cowardly.

He took a hesitant step towards the LAM, hoping that this wasn't some hallucination on his part, that the Phoenix Hawk was real. Only when his fingers brushed against the cold armor plate did he sigh with relief and let loose his anxiety.

"Phoenix Hawk LAM ASX-002," Akane said aloud, holding up the ancient maintenance log for the machine. "It's a prototype," she announced. "A 'Super Phoenix Hawk LAM,' whatever that means."

"Who cares," Ranma breathed, caressing the machine in a way that made Akane feel incredibly jealous. "It's all mine..."

Akane shook her head and paged through the specs.

"Ranma?"

"Yeah?" he said, touching the battlemech reverently.

"Try not to drool on it, okay?" she asked coolly. "We wouldn't want the thing to rust..."

Ship's Boat Nymph

Approaching the SLDF Space Complex

in orbit above Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

20:21 Local Time, 16 June 3025

"Soft seal," the pilot of the Nymph declared as the ship settled against an external docking port with a thunk.

"There's power," Hinako observed, gesturing out of the viewport to a series of lights on the far side of the drydock. "Either there's an active fusion plant running somewhere, or the station draws power from the recharge facility photosail full time."

Hinako was beside herself with excitement. The Orochi Network had taken no action against them as they rose into orbit, confirming Davidge's theory about what was considered a valid target. It took some of the pressure off to know that they could return to the surface with little to fear. Now if only her own theories were correct...

"Time to go take a look," she declared. Her handful of spare sailors clutched at nailguns as they filed to the ship's airlock. They each wore a pressure suit as a precaution, though there seemed to be breathable air on the other side of the hatch.

Beyond the hatch was darkness. Suit lights pierced the gloom, revealing a long corridor that led into the facility just below the drydock. On a whim, Hinako tried the light switch, and was surprised when the lights came on.

"There's definitely power here," she breathed.

They continued on, searching for a ladder well or an elevator that would take them closer to the drydock. After some time of searching, it became apparent that the station had been occupied by people other than the SLDF staff.

"Lousy housekeeping," one of the sailors remarked, gesturing to the piles of trash that littered a recreation lounge.

"It's worse than that," another said in a low voice. "Come take a look."

Hinako and the others joined the sailor, who nudged a pile of trash away from a couch to reveal a withered claw-like hand. The former captain of the Dragonfly recoilled at the sight of it.

"He's been dead for some time," the sailor remarked. "Gunshot wound to the head."

"Decades, I'd say," another sailor agreed. "The station's ambient temperature is hovering around minus ten degrees. It looks like he's practically freeze dried."

"Not much decomposure," Hinako managed, trying not to lose her lunch inside her helmet facebowl.

"With the cold, and all the radiation this place probably gets, I'm not surprised," the second sailor answered.

"No uniform, no ID," the first said. "The guy looks pretty scraggly, even for being dead."

Hinako looked him over. "He's probably someone who was stranded in the system the same as we were," she said quietly. "And decided to try his luck here."

"Just like us," the second sailor noted ominously.

"Exactly. We can't be sure that there isn't some form of automated security system in place here, so I want you all to be extra careful."

"Captain!" one of the others cried out over the radio.

"What is it?" she asked, moving towards him.

"Blood spatters on the bulkheads," the man declared. Brown stains and tiny aggregate clusters of crystals marked where blood had spilled. "It looks like your guy on the couch dragged himself through this hall from somewhere else before he croaked."

They decided to take their chances and follow the blood trail back the way the dead man had come.

"It's very strange how there'd be power and air, and yet it's so cold here," Hinako said at length.

Before anyone could reply, they stumbled across a tableaux of ancient carnage. Men in a polyglot of colors and fashions sprawled lifelessly before huge bay windows that looked out across the drydock. They had been murdered: shot to death, or hacked up with damage control axes clutched within the dead fingers of their killers.

"What in the hell happened here?" one of the men asked gravely.

"They look like pirates," another remarked. "Probably got into a drunken brawl or something."

"Or else they had something worth killing each other over," Hinako said, pointing to the windows.

They looked through the double layered duraplas, and saw the most beautiful starship in the Inner Sphere hanging at anchor within the drydock bay. A single bank of overhead lights illuminated the ship, letting them see its name and markings.

"SLDFS Coronet," Hinako intoned, recognizing the name from somewhere, and not quite placing it.

"Light Cruiser class," one of the sailors piped up abruptly. Hinako recognized him as the one the rest of the crew had banned from any games involving trivial knowledge. "It was General Kerensky's flagship during the Reunification War because of its speed and maneuverability. He had it fitted out with the most luxurious amenities of its time; a real scandal, if I remember correctly."

One of the sailors thumped him on the back of the helmet.

"So tell me, smart guy, if this is such a great ship, why didn't the General take it with him wherever it was that he went?"

The sailor shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine, but there it is."

"We need to investigate," Hinako said to them. "Whatever happened with these people here is a mystery for another time."

Nerima Confederation DropShip Palomino

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

22:40 Local Time, 16 June 3025

"That's my report at this time," Captain Hinako said to Akane over the radio from orbit. "We have a ship in drydock here, but it will take a week at the minimum to prepare it for space. Any engineering crew you can spare us will reduce that time."

"I'm not certain that we can spare more than a few techs right now," Akane replied. "We have taken possession of several Star League 'mechs and are preparing them right now."

"That's good news," Hinako agreed. "We're still limited by the Palomino's readiness then, in any event. At least now we have a little hope of leaving this system, and perhaps with some of its treasures as well."

"I think your news is better, Captain Ninomiya," Akane returned.

"Good luck, milady. I'm off to continue the inspections of the ship."

"The same to you. Palomino out." Akane said warmly, and switched off the commo.

"Well?" Ranma asked her. "What do you think?"

Akane threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly.

"That good, huh?" he replied, his voice muffled.

"We've got hope again, Ranma. It's something I thought we had lost for good."

"Aw come on, things ain't that bad. Whoever these clowns are, they still gotta get through the Orochi Network. Who knows? They might all get themselves wasted in the process."

"Now that's too much to hope for," Akane countered, kissing him on the cheek. "We have to assume the worst. Anything else than total disaster will then become a pleasant surprise."

"Rig for failure, eh?"

She gave him a crooked smile. "Something like that." Then she settled into his lap. "Have you eaten yet?"

"I've been busy with the LAM," he admitted. "Why? You got dinner plans or something?"

"Dinner for two," she declared, reaching down to the deck, where two prepackaged survival meals awaited them. She handed him one of the entree pouches and a plastic spork to go with it. "I realize that the light of the Flight Deck control panels isn't quite the same as candlelight, but I suppose it probably suits the two of us better."

"This'll be the best meal I've had all day," he said dryly.

"That's because it's the only meal you've had all day."

He dug his spork into the pouch. "Yeah, well, I haven't had much appetite lately."

"That's a surprise," she remarked. "The way you inhale food..."

"I've been pretty busy today. Eating just never came up." He took a bite and made a face. "Besides, no offense, Akane, but this ain't exactly what I call quality chow."

She turned her head up to give him a thoughtful look. "Well here's to hoping that you'll enjoy dessert a little more than dinner."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked after a moment.

She took another bite before responding.

"I'm not pregnant, Ranma."

He chewed on that for a moment. He was relieved to hear the news, but why she had chosen this particular point in time to bring it up, he had no idea. "So what's that got to do with dessert?"

She turned around in his lap, sitting up straight so that she could leer down at him.

"Has anyone ever told you that you were denser than lead?"

He looked up at her, perplexed, but amused with by her soft tone of voice.

"Usually you, though not in so many words."

She leaned in for a lingering kiss, surprising him with its intensity.

"Figured it out yet?" she asked him at length.

He looked up at her, admiring the way the lights were reflected in her eyes.

"Maybe you should explain it some more. I'm pretty dense, remember?"

NCWS Tautog

Approaching Geosynchronous Orbit

Planet Ryuugnezawa, Ryuugenzawa System

17 June 3025, 23:33 Local Time

"No, wahine, your hands, dey must flow wit de music."

Nodoka Saotome tried to assimilate this instruction from Shogun Kuno.

"Like this?"

The Shogun of the Furinkan Combine shook his head slowly, his tanned face wrinkling in abnegation.

"No, wahine. De hands, dey tell de story. You gotta move like you tellin' de story, yes?"

He stepped in front of her, his hips swaying and his hands moving with a hypnotic sureness as the steel slide guitars played. Several of Kuno's hula girl retinue joined their lord in the cramped confines of the starship's activity room, and Nodoka watched with utter fascination as they completed the dance.

He looked at Kasumi as the music stopped. "How 'bout you, eh, wahine?"

"No thank you, your Eminence," she demurred.

Kuno cocked his head at her. "Why de long face? We gonna be makin' planetfall soon. Dey say this place got strong tides. I say, we have us a big luau and spend de week surfin'."

Kasumi regarded him for a moment before her father stepped through the airtight door. The two Tang crewmen detailed as security for the Shogun snapped to as he entered.

"Bad news, I'm afraid," he said to open the conversation. "We've been unable to locate the Dragonfly."

"Dat's no good, bruddah," Kuno agreed. He placed a coconut filled with the last of his dwindling reserve of rum punch in the Grand Duke's hand. "We don' find your daughter, we not gonna be able to settle dis ting between us."

Soun took a drink from the coconut and nodded his head absently.

"I still don't understand why you insist on taking this course," he said after a moment. "As the Shogun, you could order your son to desist in his actions. After all, you've told me a thousand times that you have no interest in continuing the war."

Kuno shook his head. "It not so simple. De reasons we fight go back long before you and me, bruddah. If I had my way, we'd settle dis whole ting wit' a limbo contest, but dere too many people who want dis ting to go de way it been goin'."

"Including your son," Soun pointed out, a rebuke that had once colored their dialogue and now had little of its original venom.

"He's young," Kuno observed. "De boy, he got brains, but no sense. I tink he gonna figure tings out sooner or later, like his old man, but dere be other brahs who stand behind him, tell him what dey expect for de support o' de country. Dey never gonna figure tings out 'cause dey want dominion too much. We Kunos, we be de Big Kahunas O' de Combine, but we not all powerful, eh, bruddah? De Daimyo want war, dey want spoils; dey gonna get 'em, or else dey find demselves a new Shogun, no shit."

Soun stroked at his chin. "It keeps coming back to that."

Kuno clapped him on the back. "What you gonna do, eh, bruddah? Dese tings, dey work demselves out..."

Kasumi looked on with mild amusement. A rapport had developed between her father and the Combine Shogun. After two centuries of conflict, to even dream of the leaders of two Successor States sipping rum drinks, dancing hulas, and actually talking about the problems between them was nothing short of incredible.

The day that Shogun Kuno had set down his neurohelmet and picked up a surfboard had been a pivotal one for the Confederation. It had given her country a full ten years to recover from war - before the Shogun's son Tatewaki again took up the crusade of the Succession Wars.

"One day, Tachi gonna be de Shogun," Kuno said at length, his voice losing its usual merriment, and taking on a sober tone. "If he gonna be First Lord, too, he gonna hafta earn it. He no get it from me. He gotta pay price for rule, and dat price, it ain't cheap, bruddah. He pay in blood, yah, an' not jus' de blood of his troops. He gotta bleed for it if he want it. He gotta sweat for it, sweat 'til he drop to his knees. An' he gotta cry for it to; de tears flowin' down his face at de pain he cause and de pain he endure."

Kuno folded his arms over his chest.

"If de boy can do all dat, den he deserve to get de throne." His sober expression widened into a grin. "Me, I know de price too much. It ain't worth de blood, sweat, an' tears to be First Lord o' de Star League." His hand slipped around the waist of one of his hula girls, who squealed coyly. "Me, I jus' wanna drink beer, eat roast pig, dance de hula, and catch de surf, no shit."

Soun opened his mouth to agree with the Shogun's sentiment, and was interrupted by the 1MC.

"MAN BATTLESTATIONS!"

The General Alarm klaxon sounded; seventeen gonging tones that foretold of disaster in the making.

Kasumi looked to her father, who started for the door. Shogun Kuno reacted calmly, gathering up his retinue of hula girls, musicians, and beefy Polynesian warriors to return to their segregated berthing compartmentdeep within the corvette. This had nothing to do with him, as far as he was concerned. He took Nodoka's hand calmly and led her away with the rest of the party.

Out in the main passageway of the Grav Deck, organized pandemonium reigned. With over half of the crew of the Tang aboard as well as the Shogun and his retinue, the ship was crowded. Many of the sailors had been pressed into damage control parties; those with small arms experience formed up a repel boarders/prize crew team. She watched as they began pulling pressure suits out of storage crates that had been bolted into place along the bulkheads, the soft sigh of nylon and synthetic rubber whispering against flesh as they squeezed into their suits.

The overhead lights flicked to half power as hydraulic sounds deep within the ship echoed through the bulkheads and spoke of weapon turrets preparing to break the plane of the ship's hull stealthing to engage a foe at close range. Kasumi found herself struggling salmon-like against the tide of sailors, some of them already in armored battledress pressure suits and carrying nailguns and short, machete-like swords, to reach her father at the ladder well to the hub. The elevator was out of the question at this point, since the crew had priority - even over the Grand Duke - in carrying out their duties.

"What's going on, Father?" she asked him as they pulled themselves up through the hatch and into free fall. The clatter of boots on the deck below them, and the hiss of life support hoses plugging into the ship's manifolds filled her ears.

"Your guess is as good as mine," he replied.

They were in the hub now, pulling themselves hand over hand up a second ladder well, this one running fore and aft along the long axis of the corvette. The shouts of men from the Torpedo Room in the large compartment directly off the ladder well to her left captured her attention, as the Reload Party reported to their battlestations and took up the herculean task of man-handling the massive Barracuda antiship missiles into position on the loading ram of the launch tubes with wooden poles and block and tackle, all to the accompaniment of a chanty from the Torp Supervisor whose origins were lost to the antiquity of a forgotten age.

The hydraulic carousel handling gear for the torpedoes must have failed again, she realized, though there was a zeal in the excited shouts and curses of those in the Torpedo Room as they did their work that made her wonder if some of them preferred it that way.

"ALL HANDS PREPARE FOR BATTLE ACCELERATION WITHOUT NOTICE!"

Knowing that the Tautog was capable of up to five gravities of acceleration during battle conditions, she stepped off the ladder well and onto the landing before the Torpedo Room airtight door. Her father followed suit on the next deck up. The crew in the Torpedo Room, many of them Tang crew who needed a place to go during battlestations, continued their work, ramming a Barracuda home in the Number Two Loading Ram with a war-whoop.

The thin scream of the Main Engines whistled through the deck as she watched them, the thrust of the ship ramping up with less than the usual deference to comfort. Gravity made her sag against the bulkhead as she went from free-fall to almost two-gees in under ten seconds. Two-gees became three, and she heard a man scream below her as his grip failed, and he fell to the bottom of the ladder well. He had not stepped off the ladder like everyone else.

The Main Engines were howling through the superstructure now as they climbed past four gravities of acceleration. Kasumi heard groans of pain and dismay from the Torpedo Room as the ship continued adding thrust. Her head rolled onto her shoulder under its own weight as she sank down to the deck of the landing. The sound of a wrench hitting a hydraulic header in the Torpedo Room rang with ear-splitting intensity.

She felt as if her chest were in a vice that slowly crushed the breath out of her. How long were they going to keep this up? she asked desperately. She was young and healthy, but there were civilians on this ship, Mrs. Saotome among them, who had never experienced this kind of punishment before.

"Secure that weapon!" came the tortured command of the Torp Supervisor over the din. Kasumi managed to roll her eyes enough to look through the door, where a vertically suspended Barracuda swayed just outside the secure stays of the Number Four Loading Ram. In free-fall, the Reload Party did not have gravity to contend with, only the weapon's mass. Now, that antiship missile weighed ten tons.

No one could move to follow the order. Not under five-gees. If the chainfalls and cables that suspended the weapon snapped, it would fall and crush the entire Reload Party. Worse, the weapon's liquid hydrogen fuel cells could rupture, spilling supercold fluid throughout the room and down the ladder well - where a single spark could turn the entire ship into an inferno.

One of the cables parted with a crack that rang off the bulkheads. The torpedo swung lazily under the straining second cable, ready to fall, before the main engines faded out, and the cruel press of acceleration lifted. It took several moments for anyone to manage to rise to their feet and secure the errant Barracuda.

Kasumi pulled herself upright and took a hesitant look at the ladder well before deciding to start climbing again. One of the Damage Control parties at the bottom of the well was already tending to the man who had fallen, but judging from the splatter of red on the deck twenty meters below her, it seemed like there was little hope.

She looked up and saw her father looking down. He had seen what had happened, and shook his head gravely. In that moment she knew that Captain Olivera's reasons for taking the ship to five-gees had better be sound.

Kasumi took an offered pressure suit before stepping onto the Bridge with her father. Everyone on the Bridge was already suited up, though most kept their visors open. A direct hit on the Bridge that would depressurize it was probably going to kill them all outright, the way she had heard them argue it, and any other hits would give them plenty of time to drop their visors.

She noted a palpable odor of fear in the compartment, a cold sweat gone stale as it evaporated and mingled in the recirculated atmosphere. Most of the crew did not make eye contact with her, keeping their attentions firmly on their instrumentation. It made her wonder what fate they had just avoided.

Captain Hauptmann manned Fire Control as head of the Tracking Party, while Olivera was on the Conn. She exchanged looks with the former Tang skipper, and knew at once that their situation was grim.

"Conn, Sensory; the weapon has lost acquisition, and is continuing on its straight track away from the ship at two-hundred KPS, relative."

Olivera looked over his shoulder at the Grand Duke before responding.

"Very well, Sensory. Keep your eyes peeled for more."

"What's going on, Captain?" Soun asked, not wanting to mince words in an obvious crisis situation.

"Someone took a shot at us with a Shark antiship missile from over the planetary horizon, your Grace," Olivera declared. He pointed to the Tactical holotank, where a fading red line arced over a representation of the planet's northern pole towards what was presumably their position. "Once we were firmly within the magnetosphere, things finally cleared for our sensors, and that was when we noticed that this place is crawling with active orbital defense satellites."

He pointed over to the Fire Control station, where the Warbook projected the Yamato-no-Orochi Class battlestation in several plan views, with commentary, and none of it reassuring.

"The only reason we're still alive is because the torp's guidance system somehow failed just before the terminal phase of the intercept," he added. "We were able to scoot out of its way." He wiped at the sweat on his brow through his visor opening before adding, "But that's not all."

He called up several more displays at his station, pointing out several interesting bits of data as he continued.

"We went to battlestations because of this: two separate squadrons of DropShips are approaching from almost dead aft of us. I say separate because their course tracks have them originating at two points in space separated by forty light seconds. Our SIGINT gear has also managed to pick out a little of what they're radiating out into space, and get this, your Grace: one group has Commonwealth protocols, and the other Combine."

Soun grappled with this even as Kasumi did. The Combine was an understood risk, but what was the Commonwealth doing here?

"A joint mission?" he asked.

"Johann and I don't think so, your Grace," Olivera replied, gesturing to Captain Hauptmann at Fire Control. "From the look of things, there is a force of ships from the Commonwealth approaching the Combine JumpShips at high relative velocity. I'd say it's an attack about to happen, say in three hours at the most."

"What about this satellite network, Captain," Soun pressed. "Could it have attacked the Dragonfly, and that's the reason we haven't located it?"

Olivera nodded, not wanting to broach the subject in this way. "It's a distinct possibility, your Grace. An Invader Class ship wouldn't stand a chance against one of those satellites. Right now the whole area of space around the planet is being bathed in radar energy by those things. We seem to be avoiding their attention for the moment - how I'm not sure - but it might have something to do with the defense sat that is almost directly in front of us, at a distance of fifty thousand kilometers."

He looked over to Fire Control. "Put up the telescope track on Echo Two-Zero on the main display."

A telescope image of the satellite did not put them at ease. The Orochi unit was bristling with Naval Particle and Laser Cannons that could atomize a ship as small as the Tautog in just a few salvos.

"This one appears just about dead in space," he declared. "No radar, an intermittant lidar unit. No telemetry signals, unlike the others in the network. One of the others must have spotted us, and sent the Shark missile at us before it receded too far over the horizon. Hopefully they weren't able to localize us better by the plasma trail we put out trying to evade the missile, but in any case, I'm betting that the Orochi unit below us is the only thing in range at the moment."

He showed them several prospective tracks on the other units. "We've detected three units altering their orbits to intercept us, but that gives us a window of about six hours before they can maneuver into range." His finger drifted across the display to a yellow dot of light. "This is some kind of space station, with a recharge facility and what looks to be a drydock. I'm willing to guess that if we can maneuver very close to it, the programming of the Orochis won't allow them to shoot at us for fear of hitting the station."

Soun nodded in understanding. "Can we reach the station in time?"

"We can," Olivera assured him. "The only problem I can see is figuring out what to do from there. They can box us in by planting themselves in orbits that can keep them within range if we try to make a run for it."

Soun nodded once more. "You can be assured that I have no intention of leaving this system until I know what became of my daughter, Captain."

"Of course, your Grace," Olivera demurred. He knew as well as any that the entire reason they had come here was to find and return Akane Tendo to Nerima in order to unseat Nabiki.

"If this is a stealth ship, Captain," Kasumi threw in. "How can these satellites see us with radar?"

Olivera had been considering this question himself, based on the tired look he gave her.

"There are two possibilities," he replied. "One is that parts of our hull have been damaged by the solar particle emissions from the Ryuugenzawa primary, and that the energy absorbant material has been cooked off. The other is that no stealth technology is foolproof. We absorb a lot of energy with the hull, but the shape of the hull itself is designed to gather and direct reflected radar energy along very narrow paths. Most of the time, any of this reflected radar energy that gets picked up by a hostile sensor array lasts for just a moment, as our ship is in motion, and the beam path never again reaches the array. Simply put, on hostile scopes we at best show up as some intermittant radar noise, or a ghost image. Nothing you can classify or track.

"Now it's possible that a coordinated sensory network could detect us, since they would have many arrays, and could collate all of the intermittant data they received to form a coherent picture of what and where we are. It's possible that this Orochi network is capable of doing something like this."

"So we can't hide from it," Soun noted grimly.

"Not likely, your Grace. The best we can hope for is to keep close to the station, or close to that dead satellite in the network. At the station they won't be likely to shoot at us, and near the dead Orochi, they can't use it to locate us while we can use it as a shield."

Soun looked first to his daughter, then to Captain Hauptmann.

"Make it so, Captain Olivera."

Musk Dynasty WarShip Emperor Qin Shihuang

4.15 light-seconds from planet Ryuugenzawa

18 June 3025, 01:14 Local Time

Captain Li Xinhua of the Essex Class Destroyer Emperor Qin Shihuang studied his Sensory repeater displays grimly, searching for a sign of the terrible and mighty Furinkan Combine fleet. What he saw gave him pause for both concern and elation. Where he had expected to find a fleet of starships led by the dreaded battleship Imperator, he found instead two Invader Class JumpShips that had apparently already launched their DropShips for the planet - easy targets for the guns and fighters of the force at his command.

Where was the rest of fleet? he wondered. He feared a trap, that these two JumpShips were bait to draw him in, and that the Imperator and its escorts waited for him elsewhere, concealed by the maddening solar storms that limited the effectiveness of his radar and most of his passive sensors to almost point-blank range.

"Do we have any telescope images yet?" he demanded.

"We have resolution on Contact Victor One," his Sensory Officer replied. "Putting it up on the main display, now, Captain."

Li watched as the image pixelated onto the display. A JumpShip, definitely Invader Class, was beginning to unfurl its JumpSail. He thought that was odd, considering the levels of high energy particle flux that permeated space even this close to the magnetosphere of the planet. A few hours of alpha particle bombardment might render the precious and terribly fragile photoelectric collector useless.

"Order another radar sweep," he instructed his Sensory Officer. The beams of microwave energy from his radar were certain to be detected by the Invader at such close range, but he needed to know what else was out there before the distance between them narrowed to the point where escaping any traps was no longer possible. Given the pitiful armament of an Invader, it wouldn't matter if they knew he was out there, as they would still be destroyed quite easily.

"At once, Captain. Radiating now."

Radar data posted itself smartly on his repeater display, confirming the range and bearing of the two Combine JumpShips, and also, comfortingly, the absense of any other ships within striking distance. He waited for several more moments, knowing that reflected radar energy could still be on its way back from a target light-seconds away. The pixels of colored light on the display began to fade, with those photons of radar energy first received also fading first. The most recent data was the brightest, and by definition, indicated the great distance they had travelled from his ship, out into space, and back to the passive receivers.

At the very limits of his effective range was a small clot of targets, and they were very close to the planet.

"Conn, Sensory; new contacts Romeo Three through Romeo Six, bearing two-six-one plus zero, range; four point zero one light-seconds."

Li had his suspicions. "Classify those contacts."

He waited while his sensory section examined the data.

"Conn, Sensory; Contacts Romeo Three through Romeo Six designated as DropShips. Romeo Three and Five are mid-displacement, possibly Union Class. Romeo Four is light displacement, Hunter or some other type of small infantry transport. Contact Romeo Six is mid-displacment, possibly Overlord Class."

His suspicions were confirmed. These were most likely the DropShips the two Invaders had launched. This was some advance force for the Combine, he determined. Perhaps General Herb would get the time he needed to loot the storehouses of Ryuugenzawa for the technology that would overthrow the hated Elder Council without having to battle Prince Kuno over it.

"Communications, prepare a transmission detailing the contacts we have detected, and their intentions. Stand by to transmit it to the JumpShip Invictus on my command."

"Communications, aye."

His eyes drifted back to the main display. The Invader had nearly completed unfurling its JumpSail, but with the current attitude of the starship, the sail was oriented away from the sun instead of towards it to collect energy. He called for more magnification on the sail, wondering if the Combine crew was simply incompetent, or if they meant something by this bizarre state of affairs.

The smiling image of Kodachi Kuno, almost four hundred meters across on the JumpSail, and holding out two fingers in the 'V' sign, appeared on the display. The image of the Combine Princess was surrounded by a wealth of dark grey roses with thorny stems.

"The Black Rose!" Li choked out in disbelief. The Black Rose of the Furinkan Combine was in the system! He knew that the General would need this information at once, as it changed everything.

"Communications!" he barked. "Add that we have identified the Combine ships as belonging to the Black Rose Terror Regiment. Request clarification of our orders, and transmit!"

"Communications, aye!"

He suspected that his orders would remain unchanged. Destroy the Black Rose's JumpShips and leave her stranded on the planet. He would be doing the entire Inner Sphere a great service with such an act.

He was wrong about his orders.

"Astrogation," he called out as he read the printout he had received directly from General Herb's staff. "Plot an intercept course for contacts Romeo Three through Six. Assume a high-gee transit."

"Astrogation, aye."

This is absurd! Li thought in disbelief. Attack the Black Rose DropShips when their only way out of the system was through JumpShips that he was in position to destroy without effort?

Perhaps the General is worried about facing the Black Rose on the surface, he decided. It was an unworthy fear from their great commander, casting doubt upon his will to overthrow the Elder Council. Li stroked at his chin, knowing that command of the Musk Dynasty was concentrated in one man, General Herb, and if he were to be discredited, all power could shift easily into the hands of the prepared.

A captain such as himself, one with the cachet of commanding a priceless WarShip instead of one of the more pedestrian JumpShips of the fleet, could be just such a man. And if not, then he would be a man some other worthy would have to court for support. Power was built upon the dependency of others, as he well knew.

"Course plotted, Captain. Estimated time to intercept: nine hours and twelve minutes."

Captain Li nodded silently, and settled down to wait.

Black Rose Terror Regiment DropShip Thorn

Forty thousand kilometers from planet Ryuugenzawa

18 June 3025, 9:48 Local Time

Colonel Princess Kodachi Kuno gave her DropShip Captain an impatient look.

"Yes, Captain? I trust there is an explanation for manning battlestations a full hour before Drop Stations?"

The man nodded.

"I apologize for the disturbance, milady, but as we cleared the solar activity we detected a network of what appear to be defensive satellites in orbit around the planet."

Tarou scratched his temple. "Would that explain why you've been unable to detect the Dragonfly?"

"It's a possibility," the captain conceded.

"Dispatch a few of our fighter wings to destroy these satellites," Kodachi said brusquely. "I fail to see why you have disturbed me to report this."

"Ma'am, that might be very difficult," the captain replied quietly. He directed her to the Warbook display, where the Yamato-no-Orochi class specs were detailed.

"I see your point," she replied in a whisper, her voice uncharacteristically meek, and edged with disappointment. "Is it possible that my quest for vengeance against Akane Tendo has been prematurely ended by one of these... things?"

"We are unable to determine that," the captain replied diplomatically. "However, we have detected what may be signs of human activity on the planet's surface. We have received neutrino emissions from fusion plants from at least two locations, though naturally we are having difficulty pinpointing exact positions from our detectors alone."

Kodachi nibbled on her lip as she traced her riding crop across a projection of the planet's surface below them. "There," she said suddenly. "They'll be at this group of structures here. What looks to be a starport."

Tarou leaned over her shoulder to look. She nipped playfully at his ear, her apprehension evaporating as a newfound confidence came over her.

"I feel it in my blood," she added coolly as she gave Tarou a heated look. "Akane Tendo is alive, and down there on the planet. Have my staff plan for a landing zone east of the starport. We shall set down there - providing these 'Orochis' let us."

"We may have a way around them, milady," the captain declared. "It appears that this unit." He pointed to the radar display. "Has not moved or reacted to our presence in any way since we entered the planet's magnetosphere. This is in contrast to two other satellites, which by our projections will not be able to reach us in time to attack if we continue on our current course and velocity."

"Make it so," Kodachi sniffed, unconcerned with the details so long as her goals were achieved. The secrets of Ryuugenzawa paled before her burning desire to see Akane Tendo atomized.

She turned to leave the flight deck when several alarms chirped for attention.

"Captain!" the sensory tech cried. "Hostile contacts dead aft of us; range sixty thousand kilometers! Contacts are illuminating us with active radar."

"What?" the captain responded. "Classify!"

Kodachi looked on as her crew reacted to the surprise news.

"Contacts appear to be two Essex Class Destroyers, plus GunShip escorts!"

"Essex Class?" the captain asked, stunned. "The Confederation doesn't have any ships of that class!"

"Nor does the Magistracy of Canopus," Kodachi observed coolly. "None of which matters if they destroy us. Now how did they approach undetected?"

"They must have tailed us through the solar storm," the captain answered her. We could not keep our sensors trained aft for long without running the risk of burning them out."

Kodachi was steaming with anger over being ambushed. "Prepare an attack at once," she ordered crisply.

"Never mind that," Tarou grunted. "Our first thoughts should be of landing on the planet with our forces intact. Let the Orochi network deal with them."

Kodachi was about to rebuke her lover, knowing that he wanted the treasures of Ryuugenzawa more than anything, when the captain interjected.

"He has a valid point, milady. The Orochi satellites won't be able to reach us in time, but these interlopers won't be so lucky."

"Very well," she pouted, wanting to smash them herself. "Continue the landing operations." A dark thought took her as she assessed their situation. "I only hope that we'll be able to leave this accursed planet after the Tendo witch is dead."

A beam of charged particles cut across their bow as she spoke.

"Essex Destroyer opening fire on our position!" Sensory noted. "Second destroyer charging up main batteries..."

"Chrysanthemum and Widowrose reporting damage," Communications added tensely.

Beam blasts continued to ripple through their formations.

"Evasive maneuvers!" the Captain ordered. He turned to Kodachi, who shot an angry look at Tarou. "Milady, perhaps you should retire to the 'Mech Bay. We shall hold them off."

"Orochi contact is preparing counter barrage!" Sensory cried gleefully.

Kodachi strapped herself in as the ship began to fire its drives. "That won't be necessary, Captain. I wish to see these ships eliminated, one way or another."

Musk Dynasty WarShip Emperor Qin Shihuang

100,000 km from planet Ryuugenzawa

18 June 3025, 09:56 Local Time

The face of General Herb was blocky, and frequently derezzed on the display as he transmitted through the intense solar radiation to the Emperor Qin Shihuang. Captain Li knew his lord General was impatient for the destruction of the Black Rose, so much so that he had dispatched the upstart, Mousse, with the entire regiment to arrive on the heels of his own establishment in orbit.

"We'll be in weapons range in five minutes, my lord General," Li assured him. His solitary tiger nature made him indisposed to such interference from others, even his superiors, and it chafed him.

"Captain," Sensory interrupted. "We're detecting an unusual amount of radar activity in the system, focused on what appears to be the satellite network that we detected earlier."

"Never mind that!" Li hissed indignantly. He bowed to the display. "Forgive the interruption, my lord."

Herb's face crackled out of existence for a moment, his words cut off even his as his lips moved to speak. When he did return, whatever it was that he had said was lost.

"Could you repeat that, my lord? We appear to be breaking up."

"Captain!" Sensory shrieked.

Li whirled on the man, his face turning purple. "Silence!" he roared. "How dare you interrupt me when I am in communication with our honorable lord!?"

The ashen faced tech bowed his head severely in rebuke. "Forgive this intrusion my lord Captain, but the reason for the communications interferance is that we are being jammed."

This had Li's attention.

"Jammed? By whom? The Black Rose's ships?"

"No, Captain, by one of the satellites. Since you have forbidden us to use active sensors during our approach, we have been putting together a composite picture of the orbital system with our passive arrays."

"Get to the point!" Li interjected angrily. Herb's face was washed out blues and greens on the display, which frequently buzzed into static. There was no audio now.

The flustered tech bowed furiously in apology. "My lord Captain, there is a danger here. These satellites are quite large, and are likely some form of defensive network. Our Warbook database is running through the data now for an idea of classification."

Li growled. He did not like complications to his missions, and this one had been full of them. "The closest satellite is well out of weapon range," he observed.

The tech was now wringing his hands nervously.

"Begging your forgiveness, sir, but they are out of our weapon range, which, while considerable, may not necessarily compare to anything these satellites are carrying."

Li was not to be put off. "Continue to overtake the Black Rose ships. Do not illuminate them with active radar until we are within weapon range, or until they attempt to launch fighters at us. We shall deal with these other contacts after we have eliminated Princess Kuno's fleet."

The tech bowed deeply, his apprehension clear. "Of course, my lord."

"Conn, Fire Control; Target acquired and in range for Main Particle Beam battery salvo."

Li grinned ferally. "Very well, Fire Control. Communications to all ships: permission granted for weapons-free. Fire at will. Sensory may illuminate with active radar."

He watched with satisfaction as the first beams ripped into the Black Rose fleet. It would take several direct hits to destroy the Union Class ships, and the Black Rose's Overlord could endure considerably more punishment, but the outcome was preordained as none of the tiny DropShips had weaponry that could hit them back. It was almost a firing squad.

"Conn, Fire Control; multiple hits scored. Continuing volley fire."

"Conn, Sensory: energy surge from satellite bearing zero-five-six, minus two zero."

Li turned to look at the holotank. The satellite was over eighty thousand kilometers away!

"Nothing to be concerned about," he assured them. Eighty thousand klicks was well beyond beam weapon range.

A blinding bolt of annihilation proved him wrong, as it ripped into the flank of his sister ship, the destroyer Wrath of Heaven. The capital ship took the bolt amidships, huge plates of armor boiling off instantly in an expanding cloud of gas that obscured the ship from view. When it cleared the fireball, Li could see the jagged tear through the hull, which flickered with raging fires fed by leaking atmosphere.

"Wrath of Heaven has dropped out of battlenet link," Communications announced.

Li's stunned look gave way to fury. "Fire Control, target that satellite for immediate torpedo attack! Helm, change course to intercept. Steer a zig-zag pattern to avoid fire as we approach. Signal the fleet to launch all fighters to attack the Black Rose ships while our GunShips follow behind us in a sphere formation!"

"Fire Control, aye; Firing solution for torpedo salvo set."

The Helmsman looked at him if he were on fire, but punched codes into his computer to comply.

"Helm, aye."

Li stood as his crew swung into action. He would not be cowed by a mindless automaton, no matter how much firepower it had.

"Fire torpedoes!" he ordered. "Maintain torpedo barrage at five minute intervals to cover our advance, but keep the last salvo in reserve until ordered otherwise."

Another bolt of particle beam fire wracked the Wrath of Heaven, blasting apart one of the outboard weapon pods, and sending the destroyer into a slow spin. He feared the worst until the flare of its maneuver drive convinced him that the ship was still in a condition to fight. As his own torpedoes shot away, the sister ship launched its own torpedoes in revenge.

The minutes ticked away with dreadful slowness as the Orochi satellite shifted its fire to destroy the incoming Shark and Orca heavy antiship missiles. This was the break he needed, as his own weapons were almost in range. The satellite he faced was light cruiser class, just a step above his own, but he was a human against a simple if terrifying machine. He was confident that he could destroy it and ensure the safety of the approaching battlemech regiment under Colonel Mousse.

General Herb would have to recognize his audacity in this attack, and his own power within the Musk Dynasty would increase with his reputation. As such, he was commited to destroying the accursed satellite quickly, before his fighters could finish the Black Rose and keep the glory for themselves.

"Two torpedoes have scored hits on hostile satellite, now identified as Yamato-no-Orochi class," Sensory declared. The name meant little to Captain Li. He knew of their reputation in Kerensky's War against Amaris, and he also knew that the Orochis in orbit around Earth had been defeated. These would prove no different.

"Estimate damage inflicted," he ordered.

"Target's throw weight unchanged," Sensory returned after a moment's pause. The satellite's combat firepower had not changed appreciably with the hits.

"Fire Control reports final torpedo salvo loaded and awaiting launch."

"Wait for it," Li advised. He wanted to let the Orochi have it at point blank range, where its surprisingly effective point defense guns would have the smallest amount of time available to shoot them down.

"Fire Control reports target in range with main batteries."

He could see it now on his main display, an ugly thing, bristling with firepower that now trained on his approaching ships as the last of the torpedo salvos were dealt with. A cold shudder ran through him at the sight of it, but he fought back the urge to withdraw. It would be his head on a pole, figuratively if not literally, if he showed cowardice now.

"Commence fire!" he shouted to get his courage up. "Fire at will!"

The Orochi opened up at the same time as his destroyer. Its deadly laser and particle beams sought out Wrath of Heaven once again, the combined firepower at what was for the Orochi medium range proving to be more than the battered WarShip could bear. Li watched in disbelief as the destroyer exploded with such fury that the expanding fireball of superheated plasma incinerated two of his GunShip escort.

The bridge displays crashed to static for a moment as the electromagnetic shockwave of the thermonuclear explosion washed over them, disrupting their systems. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the gamma radiation counter at Sensory spike, indication that his entire crew had just been dosed with about ten-thousand millirem of acute exposure from the dying Wrath of Heaven.

He turned back to see the results of his own salvo. The Orochi was hit in several places, a nimbus of ionized hull armor shrouding the hated satellite in golden motes. The sight of it encouraged him, and he ordered his GunShips to attack at close range from above and below in order to stay clear of the cat's cradle of annihilation energies that crackled between the two heavies.

Now that the Wrath of Heaven was gone, the Orochi turned its full might upon Emperor Qin Shihuang. Massive Naval Particle Beam turrets trained on them, their violet beams of light roaring soundlessly through the void to slam into the heavily armored bow. The ship rocked with each hit, but he watched his own guns selectively targeting the turrets in response, whittling down the Orochi's firepower with each salvo. It was a high energy slugfest as the two vessels approached to within five thousand kilometers on a collision course.

"'C' and 'D' Decks report depressurization of the port compartments!" Engineering called out over the din Fire Control and Sensory were making. "Fire on 'F' Deck near the Number Three Battery!"

Li was too absorbed with the gun battle to care about the damage. He saw how his weapons were picking off the Orochi's main turrets and gun directors - limiting both its throw weight and its ability to deliver fire accurately. He knew he could win.

"Fighters report contact with Black Rose fleet," Communications announced.

Li made a fist in triumph just as a lucky beam of laser light cut a swath through his bow. The ship recoilled from the expanding plasma cloud of ionized armor, knocking several main systems off-line, and bringing up his only redundancies.

"Bow armor nearly depleted," Tactical advised. "Recommend immediate aspect change."

"Are you insane?!" Li countered. "You saw what that thing's guns could do to our flank armor! Continue head-on attack. Withdraw all unnecessary personnel from Decks 'A' through 'C' instead." He would minimize casualties, but he would not give up his fight.

"Conn, Sensory; second Orochi satellite closing with our position. Estimated time to weapon range is one-eight minutes."

Captain Li blanched. Eighteen minutes! Fighting one Orochi was costing him dearly. A second was a disaster. Could he destroy this unit and still get away in time?

"Fire Control!" he shouted. "Launch final torpedo salvo!" He had to pray that it would do the job.

"Fire Control, aye; torpedoes away!"

The torpedoes slammed unchallenged into the Orochi, blasting huge chunks of hull and superstructure off the side facing his ship and setting it alight in the darkness. His guns continued to hammer the satellite, but still the Orochi returned fire. They were now only two thousand kilometers apart, and the beams were murderously accurate.

"Deck 'A' systems offline!" Engineering cried.

"Number One Gun Mount destroyed!" Fire Control added.

"No response from Deck 'B' Port subcommand. Reaction Control System not responding on port side."

The Orochi spat a final volley of fire at the Emperor Qin Shihuang, setting the destroyer ablaze from stem to stern before its guns fell silent. Li pulled himself up from the deck as his shattered Bridge tried to regain control over the battle. Smoke filled the compartment and soot from numerous small fires speckled his pressure suit visor. Lighting had failed, and he was left only with the illumination provided by the control and instrumention panels.

"Damage reports!" Li demanded.

"The Helm does not respond," Helm answered immediately. "Auxiliary Steering does not answer comms from the Bridge."

"Fire Control down. Weapons off-line. No response from individual gun mounts."

"Sensors down. Active radar destroyed."

"Main Computer down. Attempting reboot from archives."

"Internal communications system down," Engineering reported, explaining why they were out of contact with the rest of the ship. "All sections out of contact."

"Unable to reboot Main Computer," Astrogation updated.

They were dead in space.

Worse, they were on a collision course with their nemesis, the Orochi satellite, whose tiny point defense mounts spat ineffectually at them like little fireflies in the darkness. The blackened mass of the satellite grew larger and larger in their telescope display. Apparently it too was incapable of maneuvering.

"Can we signal General Herb?" Li asked evenly.

"Commo arrays have likely been destroyed," Communications responded quietly. "We get nothing on any channel. Not even jamming effects."

"I see," Li said wearily.

They continued to race towards the hapless Orochi. It was clear to everyone on the Bridge what was going to happen next, but no one said a word. Each member of the crew submerged themselves into the task at hand, however futile they were.

Behind a thick lining of soot, hidden from view by his crew, Captain Li began to weep. He saw at last the price to be paid for hubris as the Orochi filled the main display without the aid of his ship's telescopes.

Star League Defense Force Proving Grounds

Bunker Nine, Test Area North

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

18 June 3025, 10:29 Local Time

"Node Five systems offline," Lieutenant Davidge announced gravely. Though the Orochi Network kept them marooned on Ryuugenzawa, he felt a terrible loss at the satellite's passing. It had taken out both Musk Dynasty destroyers and most of their GunShips before failing, making it their ally in the battle against their enemies. "Telemetry and sensor datalinks offline."

Commander Malloy switched over to the nearest satellite, Node Four. The sensor picture of medium orbit was restored, showing the ruined Musk destroyer on a collision course with the crippled Node Five.

"Contact estimated in six minutes," he supplied dryly.

"The incoming ships are maneuvering for atmospheric interface," one of the Dragonfly's sensor techs announced. "Possible landing zones include the starport facility at this time."

"Any identity?"

"I don't want to believe it, sir, but I'd say it was the Black Rose Terror Regiment."

Malloy shook his head, not wanting to believe it either. "Alert Lady Akane and Captain Grant of the Palomino. Give them updates on estimated landing positions and times."

Shinnosuke looked up at the cloudless sky outside the bunker while in the company of Konatsu. The kunoichi said nothing as they watched the heavens, knowing that the armies of two great powers were approaching the planet. Shinnosuke was not sure what to make of the shy but pretty girl in his company, but she seemed to exude confidence that they would prevail in the coming fight.

It was difficult to agree with her though, as the bunker's only defense rested upon the two of them and the Amazon girl from the Jusenkyo Commonwealth, who was being trusted with their only battlemech support. The rest of the 'mechs were at the starport, protecting the DropShip Palomino.

He wanted to fight, to drive away the invaders to his homeworld, but he was just a man, not a mechwarrior. He did not understand how Konatsu could feel so confident in spite of their enormous disadvantage in numbers and firepower. Whenever he gave her questioning looks in this regard, she returned only coy smiles that made him quiver inside.

A brilliant flash of light lit up the sky as he turned away shyly from one of her smiles, and he caught sight of a tremendous explosion. At least he assumed it was tremendous. It seemed very far away.

"One of the Orochis has been destroyed," Konatsu announced softly. Shinnosuke had almost forgotten that the pretty kunoichi had an ear bead radio receiver, and could communicate with the people inside the bunker.

"You mean that flash of light?" he asked her. He could not imagine that it was possible to destroy one of the satellites that had kept the system isolated for two centuries.

Konatsu nodded. "We can expect the Combine ships to land within two hours."

Musk Dynasty DropShip 108 Demon Princes

Forty thousand kilometers from planet Ryuugenzawa

18 June 3025, 11:14 Local Time

Mechwarrior Colonel Mousse reviewed his last conversation with General Herb prior to his departure with the regiment. They were scant minutes away from a confrontation with the Orochi Network, the same one that had decimated Captain Li's squadron, and had only the hope that the satellite they intended to pass within a thousand kilometers of would remain dormant. The General had ordered him to the surface of Ryuugenzawa to destroy Kodachi Kuno and her Black Rose Terror Regiment, a task that the late Captain Li had failed to accomplish in his foolish decision to engage the Orochi Network.

This he would do - provided that the Orochi let his forces pass as they evidently had allowed the Black Rose to do.

"Your orders are clear," General Herb had told him. "I believe that you have a score to settle with the Black Rose from the Capra System, do you not? Take this opportunity to do so, and your reward shall be handsome."

He did have a score to settle, though killing Kodachi Kuno would be reward enough for his efforts.

"My lord Colonel," the DropShip Captain announced. Mousse looked him over, noting the faintly rodent-like appearance of the man. What the Breeding Program scientists had been thinking when they proposed a hybrid of such a nature, Mousse had no idea. Perhaps his small stature was an asset for service aboard DropShips.

"What is it?" he asked, pulling his glasses down off his brow and into place over his eyes.

"We are approaching the estimated limit of the Orochi Network's weapons," the little man declared nervously. "Contact Romeo Four continues to remain oblivious to our approach, although other Orochi units are painting us with radar."

Mousse nodded slowly. Herb had prepared a contingency plan to minimize contact with the apparently functional components of the Orochi Network.

"Launch the decoy wing, and have them attack the closest threat," he ordered, knowing within the pit of his stomach that he was sending those men to their deaths. He hoped a few would survive the attack, but he was not counting on it.

"At once, my lord Colonel," the Captain replied. He relayed the order to one of his Flight Deck crew.

"How long until Drop Stations?" Mousse asked, knowing that he would stay on the Flight Deck to supervise the regiment's approach to the planet's atmosphere for as long as possible, and yet not wanting to stay any longer than he had to.

"Fifty-two minutes, my lord," came the curt reply. "Interface in eighty-nine minutes at present velocity."

Mousse nodded, watching the streaks of plasma from one of their Leopard CV DropShip fighter carriers as the decoy wing of fighters launched on their suicide run. He followed their departure for ten minutes with his eyes - the time they remained in visual range, then watched on the radar scopes for another twenty when they had passed out of sight.

The Orochi unit they were ordered to attack stirred on the sensor scopes, pulses of light and heat from maneuvering jets were detected, as were the probing fingers of new radar beams.

"Contact Romeo Six has energized gun directing radar in X and T bands," the Sensory tech announced.

"Decoy wing reports ready to launch missiles," Communications added.

Mousse wished he could see the fight with his own eyes. The telescope images he viewed were too hazy and indistinct to capture the wing's attack, only the menacing bulk of the Orochi itself was clear.

"Decoy wing reporting missiles away."

They were carrying Barracuda antiship missiles on external pylons, a gamble on Herb's part, as they represented the lion's share of his personal arsenal. He was counting on the technology they would recover at Ryuugenzawa to make up for this costly and otherwise irreplaceable expenditure.

Almost at once the Orochi lit up in a blaze of light, but this was not the fiery explosions of missile contact, as he hoped, but the firing of the many beam weapons the satellite carried. A full array of particle and laser cannons erupted in the darkness, long lances of deadly energy that sought out the incoming Barracudas as well as the ships that launched them.

"Order our forces to maximum drive," Mousse commanded, knowing that they had perhaps a few minutes to capitalize on the distraction before the Orochi turned its long-range ordnance on them. It seemed a kind of insanity to approach the planet when there were no guarantees they would be able toleave again, but he followed his orders, trusting to General Herb to find a way to stop the Orochi Network if the planet-bound regiment could not.

108 Demon Princes surged ahead on maximum drive, the force of acceleration pressing him into his seat. The rest of the regiment's DropShips followed suit, making a break for the atmosphere and what they hoped was safety. The telescope image jumped out of focus for a moment as tracking systems compensated for the sudden change in velocity. When it returned, he watched with satisfaction as first one, then a second Barracuda slammed into the satellite's hull.

Two brilliant fireballs erupted from the Orochi, swelling with heat and light until they appeared to consume the defense satellite. Mousse found himself hoping that this was so, but as the fireballs faded, the Orochi came back into view, its weaponry still blazing forth with undiminished intensity. Only two blackened holes in its hull marked the impacts, with long fingers of carbonization stretching out from them like dark stars.

"Report status of decoy wing," he heard the Captain demand over the roar of the main engines.

There was a pause while the Communications section tried to hail the wing.

"No response, Captain."

"Radar holds no contact," Sensory added grimly.

"We knew the outcome," Mousse found himself saying, though the bile stung his throat. Herb had thrown them away, and he had made it so. "Continue our approach."

Crimson beams of laser light split the void around them, visible only through backscatter off the particulate matter that littered orbit. The Orochi was shooting at them now.

"Incoming fire," Sensory updated lamely.

Only the Overlord DropShip 108 Demon Princes possessed the ECM gear that could screen them, and its coverage envelope was very small for such a large flotilla of ships. Mousse watched in agony as a Leopard DropShip on the fringe was vaporized by a direct hit, its crew and troops never knowing what hit it. The deathlight filled the cramped Flight Deck, momentarily blinding them.

"Talon destroyed by enemy fire."

"Fighter carrier Sirius reports heavy damage to drive section; atmospheric insertion is doubtful." There was a pause as another death light bathed them in its cold radiance. "Contact with Sirius lost."

"Sirius destroyed by enemy fire."

They were nearing the hopefully-defunct Orochi satellite the Black Rose had used as cover. Its mass loomed before them; darkness against the glowing blue-white of the planet beyond. Sensors did not register anything more than faint energy readings and sporadic bursts of radio and microwaves.

The flotilla of DropShips passed it by minutes later, coming within a thousand kilometers, as predicted. Mousse did not realize that he was holding his breath until after they had passed without event.

"Weapons fire has ceased," Sensory noted. "We are beyond the range of Romeo Six's weapons."

For the moment, Mousse knew. And there were other satellites lining up across orbital space to take a shot at them as they descended. They could not tarry in low orbit, but had to land, and quickly.

"Long Range telescopes detecting Black Rose landing zone," Sensory updated as the Flight Deck took a collective sigh of relief. They were past the immediate danger.

Mousse looked over the hastily prepared map of the surface. The Black Rose was near what appeared to be an abandoned starport facility.

"Tactical, arrange for a landing zone on the opposite side of the starport facility from the BRTR units. I want at least twenty kilometers of separation between us, and a full fighter escort as we reach the troposphere."

It was necessary to achieve some breathing room, both to ensure the security of his own landing, and to allow his forces time to form up into combat units. The loss of two DropShips and their troops would mean some hasty reorganization before committing to battle, but this could be handled by his staff without his intervention. That she had chosen the starport indicated that it possessed something of value for her, and as he was charged by General Herb to sieze Star League assets, he was duty bound to take it from her. The only unknown he faced now was Kodachi Kuno's intentions.

Why had she come to Ryuugenzawa? he wondered. Was this some sort of attempt to get back in her brother's good graces, or was it another of her defiant tantrums against him?

He did not ask how she had come by the information regarding the Ryuugenzawa System itself, because it explained little even if the most likely source of the data was her brother. She could have been sent by Prince Tatewaki, or her spies could have stolen the information from him after his meeting with Nabiki.

"Landing Zone selected. Touchdown in forty-two minutes," Tactical declared.

Mousse closed his eyes. He might never get answers to these questions, but at least he would have his chance against the Combine.

Ian Cameron Starport

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

18 June 3025, 12:03 Local Time

Senior Technician Akari Unryuu watched from the shoulder of Ryouga's BattleMaster as DropShips from the Black Rose Terror Regiment descended on columns of starflame a scant fifteen kilometers east of the starport perimeter. The two Union Class DropShips were fearsome spheres, bristling with weapons, and capable of carrying a full company of twelve battlemechs plus two aerospace fighters and a covey of small vehicles and infantry as support, but it was the massive egg-shaped Overlord that made her tremble breathlessly in terror. A full battalion of three 'mech companies could travel aboard an Overlord, and while Colonel Princess Kodachi Kuno's personal ship was believed to have been modified to accommodate her creature comforts at the expense of troop capacity, simply knowing that the Black Rose herself was aboard was enough to make Akari fearful.

Black Rose fighters peeled over the starport a moment later, and she could almost feel the probing arrays of their sensors as they searched the place for a sign of their quarry. The carbon-fiber and retinyl schiff-based camouflage nets they had spread over the Palomino to protect it were screened to some degree against radar, and Captain Grant had taken care to place the vessel next to the overgrown hulk of her long-destroyed sister ship to aid in her concealment, but still Akari worried that it wasn't enough. The Black Rose would still send troops to the starport to investigate, and there was no where else they could go.

She felt Ryouga's hands settle haltingly on her waist as she watched the last of the Black Rose fighters recede over the horizon, and turned to face him. He was dressed for battle; a tank top, cold-water cooling vest, and shorts to preserve him against the tremendous heat of the BattleMaster's cockpit. His cooling vest hoses were thrown over one shoulder to keep them from dangling until he was strapped into his 'mech, when they could be plugged into the cockpit refrigeration system. His eyes were clouded with concern, though his jaw was firmly set with the determination that no Black Rose 'mech would come within weapon range of the Palomino while he lived.

"You need to get below," he admonished her gently.

"I know, Ryouga dearest," she returned. Her place was with her crew of technicians. They and the shipwrecked engineers from the Dragonfly had to complete enough of the repairs to the reactor plant to allow the Palomino to make more than short-distance hops, and that meant at least another six hours of work. Lady Akane, Captain Saotome, Mechwarrior Kuonji, Doctor Tofu, Commander Saotome, Master Happousai, and her beloved Ryouga all had to hold back the Black Rose Terror Regiment for six hours...

She put her arms around his neck and stood up on her tiptoes. Ryouga trembled at her touch, his hands moving up her waist to her back to support her. "I want to know that you'll be all right," she whispered as she leaned in against him.

He tried to smile for her. "I'll be all right."

"Promise me, Ryouga." Her words came out like a plea, which they were, but she wanted to appear strong for him - as strong as he was for her. "Promise me that you'll be all right."

"I promise," he declared solemnly, circling his arms around her now to hold her. She buried her face in his shoulder, her lips brushing softly against the exposed flesh at the base of his neck. He gasped lightly at this touch and held onto her fiercely in response. She could feel the moisture from his clenched-shut eyes as it spilled down his cheeks to his jawline, and soaked into her hair.

They swayed together for several moments of silence. Ryouga summoned up the courage to stroke her long fall of hair, starting at the temples, and following the straight locks of pink that began there all the way down to the middle of her back. She squeezed him with an urgency borne of danger and the uncertainty that she might never get another chance.

The roar of a fighter passing nearby broke them apart, and they looked into each other's eyes. Ryouga swallowed his anxiety first, and then dipped his face to hers. Their kiss was brief and sweet, saying all that needed to be said when the words wouldn't come, and then even that moment passed.

She turned reluctantly for the boarding ladder to begin the long climb down the torso of the battlemech, then changed course for the electronics package bay mounted just behind the large bubble cockpit canopy. She knelt next to the battlemech's head and placed a hand reverently on the cold armor plating, her head bowed as if in prayer.

"Keep him safe," she whispered to the BattleMaster. The 85-ton war machine seemed to rumble a little louder in response as the turbogenerators deep within the torso completed their programmed start-up ramp to full operational capacity. She placed a tiny kiss of thanks upon the diamond hard aligned-crystal steel, then climbed down the boarding ladder, her eyes fixed upon her beloved Ryouga as she dropped out of sight.

Ukyou Kuonji watched the Black Rose fighters through her bifocal suite, and wondered what the hell she was doing here. Her only reason for joining the expedition was gone. Ranma and Akane were more than just reluctant victims of their fathers' marriage schemes now, they were lovers. She had lost Ranma once, and then lost him again. It was easy to console herself with the idea that she really hadn't had a chance the second time around, but such pithy statements did nothing to ease the hole she felt in her heart.

She felt alone, even in the company of her fellow mechwarriors. She was an outsider, having no ties to the Nerima Confederation other than having browbeaten her way aboard the expedition to find Ryuugenzawa. The only person whose allegience she could trust completely was Konatsu, and he was at the bunker with Shinnosuke and Shampoo to protect Commander Malloy and his starship crew monitoring the Orochi network for them.

For a moment, she wondered if she would have been better off back in the Federated Shiratori. The answer to that was a resounding no. Sitting on a backwards planet in a forgotten star system, while preparing to face both the Black Rose of the Furinkan Combine and a regiment of pissed-off male Amazons from the Jusenkyo Commonwealth - in a battle that would almost certainly end in her untimely death - was much better than facing Mikado Sanzenin and his vacuous Empress-bride.

She clenched a little tighter on the controls as intelligence data from the satellite network posted itself on a secondary display. She could see the Black Rose 'mechs forming up by lances at their landing zone; each war machine an angry red dot against the light green of the terrain. Malloy and his crew in the bunker were their ace in the hole against the Black Rose and the Musk Dynasty. While the invaders (Ukyou had to laugh at the term, since she and the other members of the Expedition had only been on the planet for about ten days, and hardly qualified as natives) busied themselves with trying to set up lines of communication and scout their lines of advance, she and her fellow defenders enjoyed a bird's eye view of the battlefield to see where the enemy was, predict where they would go, and subsequently the best places to attack them. Unless the Black Rose committed herself early to a mass attack - something history had shown that she was reluctant to do unless the situation clearly favored her - they would be able to multiply their meager numbers into an effective defensive force.

It was a slim hope, but the only one they had.

Doctor Tofu Ono tried to push his glasses back up on the bridge of his nose, and failed when his fingers struck the clear polycarbonate faceplate of his neurohelmet. It had been years since the last time he had been in the cockpit of a battlemech, and he had almost forgotten what it was like. With an embarrassed and nervous oath, he slipped his hand under the chin of the helmet and up inside to push his glasses into place.

His Centurion seemed a little clumsy to him, a factor of the long period of dormancy, he supposed. Like the biological muscles of a sedentary human being, the myomer bundles of a battlemech in lay-up needed a warm-up period of light activity and stretching. It must have been a curious sight for the crew of the Palomino to see the 'mechs in their extremely-rump company (or was it a reinforced lance?) doing slow knee bends and isometric arm circles prior to battle.

The remarkable Star League 'mech was otherwise ready for battle. Its primary weapon was a standard 155mm heavy autocannon: a formidable piece that made up the entire right arm, and loaded with twenty discarding sabot shells in the magazine ready to tear into the enemy armor. He had goggled at the HUD display when he casually ranged in on a distant shipwreck hull and found that his battlecomp considered it a valid target well within the range of his weapon - a distance that was far in excess of an Inner Sphere autocannon of similar make.

His ten-rack LRM launcher in the left torso had a similar tale to tell. Not only were the missiles capable of hitting from a much greater distance, they also had basic guidance packages that would afford them a measure of terminal guidance when the target was illuminated with something called a NARC beacon - a device that Akane currently carried on her Warhammer. The medium lasers he mounted fore and aft were of the plain vanilla variety - not like the high volume pulse lasers Ranma packed in his LAM - but also had a range advantage over the weapons the Inner Sphere could produce.

He knew that they had to exploit their range advantage wherever possible. Getting into point blank slug-fests was no way to survive a battle where you were outnumbered ten to one or more. The problem with this idea was that any open ground that would allow them to take advantage of their superior range would also expose them to enemy fighters. Yuka and Sayuri could not hope to fight off so many foes at once, and were going to have to settle for lightning-fast raids on the fringes of the enemy's air cover.

He studied the intelligence update from the bunker, his brow furrowing deep in concentration. There was one place where they could really do some damage. The Black Rose forces needed to cross a relatively flat space of ground before they reached the starport, and if they positioned themselves right inside the treeline that screened the perimeter, they could blast them with impunity.

He keyed his commo mic to tell Akane of his plan, knowing that his transition from mechwarrior to man of medicine had come around full circle. He was a soldier once again.

Genma Saotome tried to relax within the roomy cockpit of his Orion. It was the first time since Capra that he had mounted up for battle, and the first time in many years when the odds against him had been so bad. Unlike previous conflicts where he had fought for pay as a mercenary, this time he felt as if he were fighting for something that was truly his.

The quest for Ryuugenzawa had started with Chance G. King, but he had been the one to succeed where his predecessor had failed. This was his triumph, even if they had suffered greatly in getting here, and he considered the spoils of Ryuugenzawa rightfully his. The Furinkan Combine and the Musk Dynasty were nothing more than vultures trying to deny him the wealth and fame that he had struggled for all his life.

In spite of this, he knew that they could not win this fight. Their enemies were simply too strong and too numerous to defeat. Survival was their option now, and much of that rested upon the survival of the Palomino as a functioning DropShip. If Hinako and her crew could restore function to the starship they had found in orbit, they would have their means of escaping the system with at least a portion of the lostech they had recovered.

Somehow, he had to come out of this on top. After twenty years of being a loser, this was his chance to finally win!

Ryouga Hibiki tried to focus himself on the job at hand. It was not easy for him, for everyone in his life that he cared about was in danger, even... even Ranma. Watching Akari climb down the boarding ladder of his BattleMaster was the hardest, though. He wanted her with him, where at least in the backseat of his 'mech he had some control over her safety.

She was needed at the Palomino since they were so close to being finished with the repairs. He couldn't deny that her place was there. His fists clenched as he begged the gods to see them through this day. If they lived, he would propose to her!

He had wanted to propose to her before she left, but as usual, his nerve had failed him when he needed it most. He had to trust now to fate, and to his skill in battle to see them through to a time when he could do so without the spectre of death hanging over them. He could care less about Ryuugenzawa now. From what he had seen of the place, there would be no cure for his Jusenkyo body to be found. He could not be a whole man for Akari, at least not in his own mind, but faced with the prospect of losing her, his pig self did not matter.

There were other concerns. The Black Rose and her Terror Regiment were here, and that meant that Akane was in even greater peril. With Ranma detached from the rest of the 'mechs, it was up to him to make certain that she was protected from Kodachi Kuno. He had a terrible premonition that something dire would happen to Akane if he failed to do so, and that he could not bear.

All of the happiness he had enjoyed since joining the expedition, the love that he had found, all of it was in jeopardy. There was always a price to be paid for such things, and if he valued any of it, he must be prepared to pay that price - even in blood.

His hands flexed on the controls. He was ready to spill blood and to shed his own. He would not surrender what he had been given.

Happousai puffed on his pipe as he sat atop his Locust, concealed in a quonset hut hangar near the perimeter. It was the same hangar where he had been discovered dead drunk the day after they had been forced down on this miserable world. He had his reasons to be here, and those reasons were not for the chumps who presumed to command him.

He'd take orders from Akane any day of the week, but with those two jokers, Ranma and Ryouga, in charge, he could have cared less. The punks had no respect for their elders, and as practitioners of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, they were certainly going about this the wrong way. A true master of the School knew that altruism had no place within his heart.

And yet he remained at the starport instead of slinking off into the forest to ride out the storm of conflict and wait to see how it ended. If by some chance the Orochi network was defeated, and ships could enter orbit unmolested, he would have his ticket off this planet - and with the treasure he had so painstakingly accumulated and secreted in a place well away from the likely points of attack. It would be no difficult task to bribe his way aboard, no matter who won in the end.

Though he thought of himself as the very Ideal of the School, he had to admit that he felt bad for them. They didn't have a chance against the Black Rose Terror Regiment, let alone the force from the Musk Dynasty. He knew of General Herb's reputation from recent wanderings in the Rim Worlds Alliance in the Periphery, and knew that he was a brutal tyrant who did not offer quarter when it did not suit him. Herb would crush them under his boot if Kodachi didn't get them first.

He didn't know exactly what it was that kept him there in the face of these threats, but he supposed that it might have been in some small way because of Ranma. He was a rotten little punk, but Happousai had seen the glimmer of greatness within him, struggling to get out - with the proper guidance, of course. Whereas his father had been a slave to his appetites since even before he had begun his training, Ranma seemed to have at least a little self-control borne of pride.

A true master of the Anything Goes School could work with that, could make Ranma into a worthy successor to the School. Happousai knew that he wasn't getting any younger, as he was often fond of pointing out, and prospective students of the School worth their salt were now few and far between. Ranma and his blockhead companion, Hibiki, were about the pick of the litter. Akane was cute, but she was ultimately wanting in that she was female. He did not consider it misogyny that she did not measure up because of her sex. To him, it was simply common sense.

He wanted to see his chosen heirs become paragons of the school, and hopefully sire lots of strong boys to fill the ranks of the Anything Goes School. (Ranma he had faith in, due to recent events, but Hibiki was still a toss-up in spite of his apparent relationship with that sweet-assed Senior Technician, Akari.) If that was going to happen, they had to survive this hopeless battle. To do that, they needed his help.

He wasn't going to play it their way for long. Sure, they had a few good ideas for their defense, but clinging to the Palomino was not only moronic, it was suicidal. Telling them this wouldn't do any good. They had to discover this for themselves, and hopefully before it was too late to make a run for it into the woods. Let the Black Rose and General Herb duke it out over a bunch of worthless old buildings and a handful of Star League 'mechs, and let the Orochi wipe them both out. When the dust settled and the fires were burned out, he would have the only treasure that was worth anything to the future of the Inner Sphere, and while he would hate to see the Confederation swallowed up by the Combine, he could console himself with the knowledge that he would become a very rich and influential player in the near future.

Ranma Saotome was itching for a fight. His silver and white Phoenix Hawk LAM seemed to be aching for one as well. He squatted in Airmech Mode beside Akane's Warhammer, which was painted in a drab green and brown woodland camouflage - there simply wasn't the time or the paint available to render the 'mech in her customary red livery.

As for his own 'mech, he was glad that it couldn't be painted in time. The sight of the Cameron Star of the Star League Defense Force glittering in silver and black on his radome made him feel strangely patriotic for an army that had ceased to exist over two centuries ago. This unlooked-for patriotism had prompted him to suggest that instead of painting the proud white and purple fishcake of the Nerima Confederation on all of their 'mechs - even the ones that had survived the expedition intact from the beginning and were without insignia for the sake of anonymity - they should bear Cameron Stars as well.

Akane had taken to the idea with more enthusiasm than he had expected. It was as if his strange and sudden loyalty to a state - perhaps even an ideal - that no longer existed, had touched her in the same way. They were hardly in any position as the Nerima Confederation to claim the system, and as the planet's defenders against the Furinkan Combine and the Commonwealth faction known as the Musk Dynasty, it seemed somehow proper that they bear the colors of the SLDF into this nigh-hopeless battle.

He knew their odds were bad. There was no escaping that fact. At best, they could perhaps force their two enemies back with a preemptive strike of such violence and ferocity that they could buy enough time to complete the repairs to the Palomino and try to escape to the other side of the planet. The Orochi would have dealt with any starships by that point, and probably have given the surface forces a good pounding too, and then they could all be low-tech castaways on this mudball together. It didn't have a great deal of appeal for him, but at least maybe he wouldn't be dead.

As long as Akane was alive at the end of all this, he would gladly suffer the indignity of life as a farmer with her over fighting to the death against Kodachi Kuno. If Akane... didn't make it... Well, he was going to take a hell of a lot of people - the Princess of the Furinkan Combine included - with him before he followed his fiancee into the beyond.

The urge was strong in him to babysit her, to watch her like a hawk and keep her from harm. He knew that it was wrong, that no matter how much better he considered himself in the cockpit, she was a good mechwarrior, and she had beaten the Black Rose once before. He was needed elsewhere; his LAM was too fast and mobile to get caught up in a static fight - not when he could be hitting the enemy's flanks, disrupting their rear areas and nailing their ammo and supply dumps, and generally raising hell to blunt the force of any thrust.

Though he was Lance Commander, it was going to be up to Ryouga to lead the 'mech lance. Akane had the command and control gear to coordinate the battle with guidance from the bunker, so she was the strategic leader of their defense. That left him in command of just himself, the way he was used to doing things, and the way he preferred it. He just wished that he could get his mind off Akane. Mechwarriors needed clear heads to control their machines, not minds torn between conflicting priorities and clouded with doubt.

Akane Tendo, Heir to the Nerima Confederation and de facto Defender of the Planet Ryuugenzawa, took deep breaths to ease the butterflies in her stomach that always surfaced right before combat. This was almost like leading the Nerima Guards, she supposed; she was in command, with a rear area staff that supplied her with intelligence data, officers to direct, and troops to carry out her orders. Almost, except for the significantly smaller scale of her army. They weren't even two full lances of 'mechs, plus two fighters, compared to the mighty regiment she had commanded six months ago.

She told herself to get a grip on their situation. They weren't here to hold every last square meter of the starport. They were to fight a holding action until the final repairs to the Palomino could be completed, and the DropShip moved to a safe haven by the time the Orochi primary satellite was fully revived. They didn't have much longer until the battleship class rogue satellite was ready to rain down death on the planet, and she didn't have any illusions about Kodachi or the Musk Dynasty being able to stop it in space.

She took another deep breath. They, on the other hand, had an option; not one that she looked forward to under any circumstances given the nature of their hole card - for it also meant almost certain death for Ranma - and all with no guarantee that it would work. Their lives were in enough jeopardy as it stood, and she was already asking the man she loved with all her heart to take enormous risks single-handedly against the invaders. If he survived his raiding actions against Kodachi Kuno, and then against the Musk Dynasty as well, it would be heartless of her, a betrayal in fact, to condemn him to death against the Orochi.

That Ranma would do it if she asked him only made the thought worse. She could not take advantage of their relationship like that. She simply couldn't live with herself.

She shuddered, driving away dark thoughts by sheer will as data posted itself on her command display. Commander Malloy and the transplanted Bridge crew from the Dragonfly were making a tremendous difference with their efforts. The planet's surveillance, communications, and signal intelligence satellites were invaluable resources, and they were handling the network like career pros.

Commander Malloy's voice addressed her over the command channel.

"Red Leader, Eyes Front; be advised of BRTR advanced party in company strength approaching along the east-west roadway from LZ Black to the eastern perimeter at map reference November-Four-Four by Oscar Six-Zero. ETA: three-five minutes."

"Copy that, Eyes Front," she replied curtly.

Doctor Tofu Ono's face appeared on her HUD as Hinako's derezzed.

"Red Leader, Red Five; I have a suggestion to make regarding our first line of defense."

Akane concealed a smile from behind her neurohelmet. Tofu had served under Kasumi during the brief time when her eldest sister had commanded the 1st Nerima Guards. He had been a Mechwarrior Captain - before he resigned his commission to go into medicine full time - and had lead in combat during a fair share of battles. Since the Confederation had been fighting a defensive war for far longer than she had been alive, it was a given that Tofu's experience was often that of a commander whose force was badly outnumbered.

"Go ahead, Red Five."

"Ma'am, I'd like to recommend an attack with long-range weapons from the perimeter treeline, engaging the enemy with opportunity fire until we come into range of their counterattack, then making an orderly withdrawal by twos to our next line of defense."

She considered this. Several of their 'mechs had LRM and long range energy weapon capacity.

"What about their fighters?" she asked. The Black Rose had several Air Lances buzzing overhead as she spoke, and if not for their cautious desire to remain well above a thousand meters, the DropShip might have been spotted already.

"We stay just far enough inside the treeline to give us cover," Tofu replied evenly. "If they waste their ammo trying to dig us out, so much the better once Ranma blows away their ready resupplies at the LZ."

It sounded reasonable. Hit the enemy from a distance, let them know by the missiles and other weapon fire that pounds them from well outside the range of their return fire that they are outclassed, and all without revealing their true numbers for the abysmally understrength figures that they were. She also had to admit that she was in love with the idea of bearing the Cameron Star of the SLDF into battle. It might give her enemies pause to believe that their foes were Star League.

That was a powerful psychological advantage, she knew. It would make even the elite troops of the Black Rose overly cautious to know that they could be gunned down en masse by a clearly superior technology, and be helpless against the barrage. Any advantage that bought time for the Palomino crew to finish the final welds, repressurize the coolant system, and commence an emergency start-up of the fusion reactor for liftoff was worth pursuing in her opinion.

"We'll go with it," she replied. She keyed up Ryouga on the command channel. "Lieutenant Hibiki, advance by twos to map reference November-Four-Four by Oscar Six-Zero. Position in the treeline to avoid exposure to their air cover, and engage the enemy at extreme range. Withdraw to the next line of defense as you begin to take effective answering fire."

Ryouga repeated his orders verbatim and gave her a grim nod. His usual warm personality seemed to submerge into secret depths of being as he took his orders, leaving only a cold and unyielding executor of her will. She wasn't sure if she approved of his transformation. He had always seemed to be a man of great passion.

The stress of battle affects us all in different ways, she supposed. She turned to her right flank, where Ranma waited silently in his Super Phoenix Hawk LAM for her command. True to form, he tossed her a casual wave through the clear armored canopy, as if sensing that her eyes were upon him even though her Warhammer did not move.

He could not see her as she put a gloved hand to her tinted armored viewport in return, wanting to touch him one last time before they were commited to battle, but perhaps he could sense this gesture, too. She wanted to tell him how much she loved him, but her sense of military decorum wouldn't allow it over the radio. Hers was a small force, and even within the intimacy of such a small band, it was still her responsibility as their leader to provide a good example.

"Red Eagle Lead, Red Leader;" she began over the tac-net. "Commence harrassing and interdiction attacks against targets of opportunity at your discretion."

She watched him throw his arms out, working the tension from his shoulders before responding.

"Copy, Red Leader," he said tersely, his voice all business. "Red Eagle Lead to Red Eagle Flight: It's showtime, ladies."

"Red Eagle Deuce; copy and affirm," Yuka cut in.

"Red Eagle Trey; copy and affirm," Sayuri followed. The two would blast from their positions well away from the Palomino and give the Combine fighters something to chase. Ranma would do the same. They were to circle back at the first opportunity to challenge the air cover, hoping to distract and draw them out to keep the heat off the starport.

She watched him look over his shoulder at her as ripples of heat rose from the foot thrusters of his LAM. She could almost see his cocky grin.

"Go get 'em, Tomboy," he said to her in a soft and hopeful voice, then exploded skyward atop twin columns of plasma that seared the air and scorched the grass beneath his battlemech.

Headquarters Lance

Black Rose Terror Regiment

12:19 Local Time

Colonel Princess Kodachi Kuno scanned the Landing Zone with her Marauder's sensors. Her troops were forming up with remarkable precision considering that this was the first time a lot of them had ever worked together. The surviving officers of the regiment from the disaster at Capra were keeping things together, a good omen since almost half of her 'mechs were piloted by mercenaries.

Her lover advanced his Hunchback down the ramp from the DropShip Thorn. Tarou seemed antsy for some reason, as if anticipating a combat he had looked forward to for some time. She knew it wasn't Ranma Saotome that he sought. To him, Ranma was merely a calculated risk in her own bid to kill Akane Tendo.

"Looking for someone, my lover?" she asked him over the tac net.

Pansuto Tarou's handsome and haughty face appeared on her display.

"You could say that," he said tersely. His cryptic words and his coarse demeanor were making her hot, and she bit down on her lip to quell her desire.

"Anyone I know?"

"A mechwarrior known as Happousai," Tarou replied. "He claims to be the master of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, and was the teacher of Grand Duke Tendo and Ranma Saotome's father."

She grinned at his ambition for even considering a duel with a master mechwarrior. "It sounds awfully dangerous, lover," she said dryly. "Would you care for some company?"

"I would prefer to fight him alone," he said, drawing a sour look from her that he noted immediately. "Of course, he may well be in the company of the Tendo girl and Ranma Saotome."

"Say no more, lover," Kodachi said with an eyebrow raised at him. "You settle your grudge, and I shall settle mine - and woe to anyone else who dares cross our path!"

She opened up the command channel. "Iris and Lily companies shall remain on perimeter patrol. Dahlia company shall accompany me as my guard. All other companies shall carry out their preassigned searches." She laughed maniacally. "Onward, my dears!"

Musk Dynasty Regimental Landing Zone

Star League Defense Force Proving Grounds

Test Region 4-A

13:27 Local Time

Mechwarrior Colonel Mousse marched down the ramp of his DropShip in his mint condition Crusader. General Herb had taken the liberty of having it painted in the same battle colors as his first 'mech; which was reduced to scrap on the hated world of Capra. The serpentine dragon-device of the Musk Dynasty now adorned the shoulders of his 'mech in place of the 'beckoning cat' of the Jusenkyo Commonwealth.

His mission was to secure as much of the Star League facilities as possible for General Herb's arrival, and in the meantime, he was to find and annihilate the Black Rose Terror Regiment. If possible, he was also to find out if it was possible to take command of the Orochi network, which hung over the planet with Damoclean menace. They had been fortunate to pass by a satellite that was apparently damaged or malfunctioning during their descent, but as the crews of their ill-fated Essex Class destroyers had learned - as well as two of his precious DropShips, not all of the network's units were so impaired.

His first objective was a matter of time and dispersion. Since he was now occupying the highest density of man-made structures outside of the starport, he had essentially taken most of the Proving Grounds by fiat. Whether any of these old and broken structures contained anything of value, only time would tell. It did not concern him at the moment, not with the Black Rose loose on the planet.

Destroying Kodachi Kuno and her forces would be sweet revenge for the casualties they had inflicted on Capra; his Crusader, Kima, and Joyful Cloud chief among them. While his ignominious withdrawal from the planet represented a different era from the one he now considered himself a part of, he had always respected Kima, and Joyful Cloud was simply too young to have died the way she did. The Black Rose would pay.

He considered the possibility that Shampoo was alive as he strode confidently with his headquarters unit towards the distant starport and his impending battle with the rogue Combine regiment. There had been no sign of the Dragonfly in orbit, making it likely that they had been destroyed by the Orochi network, but there was that nagging possibility that at least some of the crew lived.

If some of the crew lived, and they had not seen fit to kill Shampoo, either after she had stolen the database patch which had brought the Musk Dynasty to this place, or had executed her later in a more formal setting, then it was possible that he might encounter her once more. A perverse satisfaction came over him at the thought of presenting himself as one of Herb's trusted commanders to her.

He wanted her to know that she had been the one to turn him against his elders, the very way life that he had sworn to uphold - even if he had been little more than an object of scorn and ridicule for them. His eyes may have been weak, but they were open now, and he would no longer stand for Joketsuzoku rule. He had Shampoo to thank for that, and he found himself offering up a prayer to the gods that she was still alive, and somewhere on Ryuugenzawa so that he could show her what he had become.

"My lord Colonel," one of his commo techs on the DropShip called to him over the tac net.

"What is it?" Mousse demanded, brushing away a lock of black hair from his face as his Crusader stomped through the virgin forests of Ryuugenzawa.

"We are detecting more of those signals through the local sat-comm network," the tech replied.

Mousse considered this. Someone was manipulating the planet's satellite communications network, and they were doing it from the surface of the planet. It was possible that the Saotomes had survived their encounter with the Orochi, and were now in control of the network. They might even have been the ones directing the Orochi to attack the incoming ships of his fleet and that of the Black Rose.

"I want a direction finder fix on the ground source of those signals," he ordered the man. "Relay the coordinates to me the instant you have them."

Star League Defense Force Proving Grounds

Bunker Nine, Test Area North

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

19 June 3025, 13:30 Local Time

Shampoo's mouth gaped open at the sound of Mousse's voice. Davidge and the communications section from the Dragonfly had mastered the communications and signal-intelligence satellite network, and transmissions from both the Black Rose and Musk Dynasty forces were being intercepted, their puny Inner Sphere encryption standards cracked by the advanced computers of the Star League era, and presented to them in near-real time.Since she spoke Chinese, she had been selected to listen in on the Musk Dynasty transmissions if and until it became necessary for her to mount up in her Star League Panther to defend the bunker.

Though it disturbed her that fate would see fit to have her serving her enemies, it was even more disturbing to hear Mousse's voice over the Musk tac-net frequencies, and addressed as a Mechwarrior Colonel no less! There could be no doubt that he had betrayed the Joketsuzoku to Herb. She found herself hoping that he would find the bunker, just so that she could race out to kill him for what he had done.

The baby that was theirs seemed to stir within her at these thoughts. Though it was still almost microscopic in size at this point, she could somehow sense that her child did not approve - or was this simply the nagging of her conscience calling to her in a new voice because she was ignoring the old?

"I go prepare for battle," Shampoo said to the assembled techs in the bunker.

"Now?" Malloy asked her dubiously.

"You have choice," she replied. "Stop transmitting, and Musk no find this place, or else wait until they knocking on door - then it too late."

"Do what you have to then," he advised her, hoping that she had been telling the truth, and would not betray them to the Musk Dynasty. He had great respect an admiration for Lady Akane, but felt that she was perhaps too trusting for her own good. In any event, he was not the one to try and stop an Amazon warrior from doing what she wanted to.

Shampoo didn't wait for him to change his mind. "I go. Keep safe."

She wrenched open the control room door and stepped through, stripping off her shipsuit as she went. She paused on the habitation level long enough to pull on her cooling vest and take her neurohelm before racing up the stairwell to the bunker entrance.

The Panther stood outside the door, waiting for her. It was not the 'mech she had left behind on Tau Ceti, the one that had been her mother's battlemech, and her grandmother's before, but it would serve her just as well. Its Star League armor and weapon systems would give her the edge she needed against Mousse and his forces.

The caretaker boy and the kunoichi lapdog watched her as she climbed up the leg of the Panther to the torso, and then the cockpit hatch. She did not spare a look for them. Her fight was coming, a battle against the man she had once trusted - perhaps foolishly considering the way she had always treated him - but she had trusted him, and he had betrayed her and the rest of the clan.

Let me win this day, she prayed as her Panther's systems came on line. Let me defeat Mousse, and let me face General Herb that I might destroy him.

Furinkan Combine WarShip Imperator

Approaching the planet Ryuugenzawa

Ryuugenzawa System, the Magistracy of Canopus

19 June 3025, 12:57 Local Time

"Speak," General Prince Tatewaki Kuno commanded his Operations Officer.

Captain Kyle stepped forward.

"My lord Prince, we are detecting what appears to be a pitched battle in orbit above the planet."

Tatewaki raised an eyebrow at this unexpected news.

"Dost thou know the identities of the principals?" he asked.

Kyle nodded. "Based on long range telescope observation, and what we've been able to pick up through the solar interference, we have tentatively identified a satellite defense network, and what appears to be two large forces of DropShips attempting to make planetfall." He paused for a moment to let this sink in. "One force appears to be from the Commonwealth, though how they got here is a mystery."

Tatewaki's hands clenched the leather upholstery of his command chair. The Commonwealth? Here?

"And the other force?" he demanded archly.

Kyle cleared his throat uncomfortably. "It appears that your sister has come out of hiding, my lord."

"What?!" Tatewaki bellowed. "My sister is in this cursed star system?" He reeled, apparently shaken by this news. "How is this possible, and to further what foul end does she come hither to this place?"

"Unknown, milord," Kyle returned quietly.

Tatewaki placed a hand to his brow in thought. There could be only one reason for her to come to this place - he would leave the explanations for how she had found the way for another time. His suspicions were aroused at the possibility that Nabiki's hand was at work here, drawing his enemies into her nets of intrigue that they might destroy him at a distance well removed from Nerima.

"There is naught but peril here," he said slowly, letting the momentary anxiety of the moment pass through him. "We must not tarry, Kyle, lest we allow through our inaction that Akane Tendo might come to harm." He rose from the chair, aware that all the eyes of the Executive Bridge were now upon him. "Press on, man!" he bellowed. "If this day truly belongeth to Tatewaki Kuno, then it is also true that he must seize it! Let not faint heart, nor the foe's spitting cannon mouth keep the Blue Thunder from his conquest!"

Tatewaki closed his eyes in rapture as the crew raised a lusty cheer in response to his declaration. This was the climax to a long and weary campaign. This day would see his cursed sister brought to heel, Nabiki's treachery put to rout, and Akane Tendo's hand sealed forever with his in marriage.

NCWS Tautog

Geosynchronous Orbit

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

19 June 3025, 10:53 Local Time

"The lights are on," Hauptmann declared.

"I can see that, Johann," Captain Olivera grunted.

"Someone's beaten us to the space station, it would seem," Grand Duke Tendo observed.

"The question remains, your Grace," Hauptmann returned. "Should we put a landing party aboard to investigate?"

Soun regarded the former corvette commander for a moment before speaking. Hauptmann was chafing under the command of Captain Olivera, not for any personal reasons, but for the simple fact that he was a ship captain who had been Dispossessed. He needed command, any command, to feel like he was needed.

"I can tell by your tone that you think we should," he replied.

Hauptmann jumped at the chance to justify his position.

"Your Grace, we've been tracking the Combine and Commonwealth ships since we discovered them, and they haven't made a move for the space station. If the lights we saw around the drydock are indicative of people living

there, then it could only be survivors from the Dragonfly."

"There's no guarantee of that," Olivera cautioned. "Let's not rule out the possibility of an indigenous population."

"After two hundred years without outside support?" Hauptmann snapped. "That's bullshit, and you know it."

"Enough," Soun grunted. "Captain Olivera, I think Captain Hauptmann has made a valid point."

Olivera nodded brusquely for his lord. "As you wish, your Grace. Captain Hauptmann, take a detail of your Tang sailors over to the station to investigate."

Hauptmann flushed with anticipation. "I've got a crew standing by to act."

Olivera shook his head ruefully and sipped at his coffee. "Chief of the Watch, make preparations to break stealth integrity. Ready the shuttle bay."

"Chief of the Watch, aye."

Soun clasped Hauptmann by the shoulder before he could leave. "I'm counting on you to be right about this," he said in a low voice.

"So am I, your Grace," Hauptmann returned.

"Shuttle Bay One outer doors indicate shut," the Chief of the Watch announced. "Superstructure realigned for stealth integrity."

"Very well, Chief of the Watch."

Soun watched the sleek black shuttle drift on tiny attitude jets towards the drydock. From their position in orbit close to the space station, the Tautog remained screened from the Orochi network, whose units now seemed to be preoccupied with the invading forces from the Furinkan Combine and Jusenkyo Commonwealth. The Combine forces looked like they would escape the Orochis' wrath the same way that they had - namely using the chink in the defense system's armor created by the defunct satellite. The Commonwealth fleet seemed hell bent on doing the job the Orochi Network had been unable to manage.

What were these two fleets doing here? he wondered. The Combine force was far too small to indicate the presense of Tatewaki Kuno in the system, and the Commonwealth fleet was a hundred light-years from its own home territory. Whatever had brought them here, it was clear that neither side wanted anything to do with the other.

"Weapon directors," Sensory intoned nervously. "The Commonwealth ships have opened fire."

Soun watched the holotank as two Combine DropShips sustained hits from the Commonwealth destroyers. The damage wasn't enough to finish either vessel, but it was clear that the fight would be very one sided if it was allowed to continue.

"Contact Echo Two-Two is readying some sort of barrage," Sensory announced abruptly. "The Commonwealth force appears to be the targets."

"My God," Olivera breathed. "That thing can actually hit them at that range?"

They watched through a secondary telescope monitor as the Orochi satellite blasted the distant Wrath of Heaven, and the sudden shifting of Commonwealth attention towards the satellite. Only fighters threatened the Combine force now.

"They're going to make it if it's just fighters against them," Soun declared.

Olivera's attention was fixed upon the holotank, where Captain Li's two destroyers bore down on the Orochi satellite. "Begging your pardon, your Grace, but I'm more concerned by what's taking place higher above us."

The two of them watched with detached horror at the tremendous display of firepower put out by the Orochi satellite, and at the near suicidal tenacity of the Commonwealth destroyers. The Wrath of Heaven was destroyed, and still the other ship kept coming.

The sudden cessation of weapons fire brought them up short.

"What happened?" Olivera asked Sensory.

The Sensory Supervisor consulted with her techs. "Radar emissions from both vessels have ceased. Heat emissions are consistent with combustion. No drive outputs. No commo signals."

Soun looked at the telescope monitor, where the two vessels winked in the darkness with sudden flashes of flame.

"Have they crippled each other?"

"Quite possibly," Olivera grunted.

"Conn, Sensory; both contacts are on a collision course. Estimated time to impact: ten minutes, two-zero seconds."

Olivera nodded absently at this. "It seems that the Orochi has taken care of the most significant threat from the Commonwealth."

"In this case," Soun replied. "The enemy of my enemy is not my friend. We may still have to face other Orochi satellites when we leave."

The holotank display shifted to show the Black Rose Terror Regiment forces entering the atmosphere, having dispatched the majority of the Musk Dynasty fighters. The survivors fled to their scattered carriers as two units from the Orochi Network closed in on them.

Phoenix Hawk LAM ASX-002

Above the Ian Cameron Starport

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

12:31 Local Time

"Go get 'em, Tomboy."

Ranma didn't wait for a reply from Akane as he shoved the throttles forward to the stops. The Super Phoenix Hawk LAM shuddered for an instant as raw helium plasma spilled from the reactor vessel and into the linear magnetic accelerators that served as the battlemech's HEPLAR drive. Then it was roaring aloft on twin columns of superheated air, crashing through the tree-top canopy and bursting above the forest that surrounded the starport.

A flight of Black Rose Shilones passed overhead, their long wingspans casting shadows over him as he rose to meet them. Their attentions were focused on the dogfight that was starting to rage in the lower stratosphere as the first of the Musk Dynasty DropShips made their final descent. Despite the acceleration forces that crushed him into the base of his ejector seat, Ranma felt excited by the prospect of the battle he was throwing himself headlong into.

The Phoenix Hawk's arms stretched out claw-like as he continued his climb, rising above the two Shilone fighter-bombers. He pushed the LAM over into a shallow dive, sweeping the wings back and keeping the drives at maximum to intercept. His airspeed indicator began to flash amber, then red as he approached the sound barrier - a velocity that he dared not exceed in Airmech Mode if he wanted to stay in one piece.

The Shilones split apart abruptly as he closed the range to less than a dozen meters, and he spat out a curse for his bad luck. Either they had finally spotted him, or someone else had, and warned them. He vectored his thrust and lurched after the fighter on the right as it tried to bank away from him.

Four Short Range Missiles belched from the aft-mounted launcher on the fighter as he pursued. It was a wild shot on the Black Rose pilot's part, just something to get him off his back, but Ranma cringed inwardly as a missile sailed over his cockpit canopy close enough to make out the black and yellow stencils on the olive drab missile body. He had forgotten about the Shilone's aft missile rack, and his error had nearly cost him.

The other Shilone was pulling a punishing nine-gee turn to get to him - the mark of a pilot who was in excellent condition, and skilled enough with his craft to fly at the bleeding edge of the performance envelope without destroying himself. Ranma knew that he didn't have time to toy around. He triggered the rifle-like heavy laser in his 'mech's hand, releasing a rippling torrent of blue-green light from the muzzle that splashed across the enemy fighter from right to left, boiling off whole sections of armor and lancing deep into the thruster ports.

The effect of wielding that kind of firepower was so intoxicating to Ranma that he kept his finger on the trigger, hosing the Shilone with rapid fire bursts from the heavy pulselaser, and ignoring the fact that his heat levels were rising to dangerous levels. The Shilone pilot tried to evade, but Ranma walked the beams right back into him, blowing a wing off at the wingroot, and sending the medium fighter-bomber into an abrupt death spin that ended just as abruptly when it crashed into the treetops and exploded into a cartwheeling fireball.

His finger eased from the trigger as overheat warnings sounded in his headset. The heavy laser had shut down - a technical problem with the weapon that had never been solved, even in the days of the Star League, and one that hadn't been helped by his firehose tactics against the Shilone. He only hoped it would come back online soon, as he was going to need it against the second Shilone.

He had other problems as well. The waste heat generated by his trigger-happy excesses had caused his fire control computer to shut down the other weapon systems as well. Even with the double-capacity heat sinks his LAM carried, he was still deep in the red.

Thinking quickly, he shut down the plasma drives and settled back into cruise mode with the turbojets to bleed off some of the heat. The fast chirping of the second Shilone's RCA Instatrac XI weapons radar in his ears reminded him of the Shigunga LRM-20 rack that was about to disgorge its lethal payload in his direction, and he tumbled over into an aileron roll, transforming on the move to Fighter Mode. The Shilone launched, and the letters 'ECM' began to strobe in amber on his HUD - the Star League Phoenix Hawk had recognized the threat and had engaged radar jamming countermeasures automatically to deal with it. ECM systems were something he had never had to think about as a mercenary, as they didn't exist on the battlefield in great numbers anymore.

The missiles arced around him crazily, spoofed by his dramatic change in aspect and by the radar jamming which had confused the Shilone's targeting system into launching a much wider spread than was indicated by the tactical situation. Most of them exploded into the trees below, but in spite of his countermeasures, two out of the twenty managed to strike the LAM, and he fought through the hits for control. At high speed and low altitude, all it took was one minor but destabilizing hit to spike him straight into the ground.

The Shilone was still nine hundred meters out as he looped over into a Split-S to get his nose on the target. The Combine pilot had enough time for one more salvo with the twenty-rack at him, and at the worst possible moment, right before their paths would intersect. His weapons were still reading offline due to the heat, limiting his options.

He saw Yuka and Sayuri soaring aloft from their positions at the other end of the starport. At least the noise he had made with his attack had drawn Black Rose attentions away from them. They stood a pretty good chance of getting clear.

The chirping of the Shilone's radar warned him that the fighter had reacquired him after his maneuvers, and he weighed his options. In about four seconds they would be in range to shoot - only he didn't have anything to fire back. The override options installed on so many Inner Sphere 'mechs didn't exist on a piece of test machinery for a Proving Ground.

He decided not to turn tail and run. Not only was it asking to get shot in the back, the very concept of running from a one on one battle got his hackles up. He could survive a salvo of LRMs if the jamming system did its part and his reflexes were up to the task, and if his weapons didn't come back in time, he had another option.

"Ranma's in a bit of trouble," Sayuri noted as she and Yuka made a break for the horizon.

"Stick with the plan," Yuka answered coolly. "Saotome can take care of himself, and there are a lot of our people down there who are counting on us to draw away any fighters from the starport."

"This is no time to make this personal," Sayuri shot back in a clipped voice.

"Exactly my point!" Yuka barked. "We have jobs to do. Saotome knows that better than anyone."

Sayuri's Sparrowhawk wavered for a moment, as if sensing its mistress' indecision.

"Stay on me," Yuka commanded her in a calm yet insistent voice. "Do you think I don't know how Akane would feel if she thought we left Ranma to die? As soon as we reach our turn-around point, we'll head back to help him out, but until then we follow the plan."

This might hurt, Ranma noted as the LRM salvo rushed from the bow tubes of the Shilone. The pilot must have overridden the targeting computer's input to the launcher, for the barrage was tight in spite of the jamming.

He tugged at the transformation lever as the salvo of twenty missiles looped in at him at short range. As the Phoenix Hawk shifted from sleek fighter to bird of prey Airmech, his airspeed dropped off, extending the time to intercept by a second, and granting him a few meters of clearance as the ballistically guided weapons spread a little farther apart in their arcs. His mind buried in the deepest alpha state, Ranma threaded the gaps with his Airmech as proximity-fuzed missiles exploded around him, buffeting him and sending hot bits of shrapnel ringing off his armor.

His weapons were still reading offline as he shifted his course slightly to ram the Shilone. A crackling beam of laser fire answered his move, tearing into the port engine-pod armor before the Black Rose pilot decided to climb and evade. The Combine fighter began to soar into the sky as he transformed into Battlemech Mode in midair, boosted into a climb that would match the fighter's, and curled up tight to slam shoulder first into the port wing.

The wing shattered under his blow, blowing apart the port fuselage as heat sinks ruptured and armor spalled into critical control surfaces with explosive effect. Ranma's Super Phoenix Hawk LAM somersaulted through the hit as the fighter burst into flames behind it, his wings flaring out and his leg thrusters firing to check his fall. As he slewed around with the grace and stylings of a figure skater in midair, he saw with some relief that the Combine pilot had ejected from his stricken craft.

The sky above the starport was clear for the moment. Any dogfighting that was going on was happening much higher up than he was willing to travel, and in any event, every fighter shot down by the Black Rose Terror Regiment or the Musk Dynasty was one less fighter that he had to deal with. He was perfectly happy to let the two antagonists slug it out on their own.

In the meantime, he had a visit to pay to the Black Rose herself.

Akane breathed a sigh of relief as the Combine fighter crashed into the woods behind her position. She wanted to be angry with Ranma for being such a show off - shooting down a Furinkan Combine fighter without even firing a shot? - but in truth she felt a great deal of pride instead. He was an amazing mechwarrior, there was no doubt about that.

"Black Rose 'mechs spotted at one-nine hundred meters," Doctor Tofu advised her as they finished their march to the treeline guarding the eastern approaches to the starport.

"Hold fire until all units are in position," she replied. Genma's Orion was still a little too far back in the trees to be effective with the missile launcher. "Commander Saotome, move up five zero meters."

Genma did so, but by the way the battlemech moved, she could tell it was only reluctantly. What did he have to worry about? she wondered. They had a good thousand meters of range advantage over the Inner Sphere 'mechs, and Ranma had just removed their immediate air support!

She could see the first 'mechs clearly in her telescopic array as they advanced along the highway, keeping to either side of the cracked pavement to stagger their formation. It was a recon lance from the look of them: two Spiders, a Jenner, and a Locust. The lance beyond had a Shadow Hawk, two Hunchbacks, and a Griffin. Beyond them was the fire lance; heavy missile 'mechs like the Trebuchet, Archer, and Crusader.

"Let the Fire Lance come into range," she said tersely over the commo.

It would mean that the Recon Lance would be within five hundred meters when the shooting started, but they had little in the way of firepower that could even reach them at that distance, much less hurt them. She had a very good

reason for letting them get close, and that was to let them see that they were fighting the SLDF.

Her slender gloved hand rested over the controls for the NARC beacon that would light up the Black Rose battlemechs and guide the missiles unerringly to their targets. A shudder coursed through her body at the thought of such power at her disposal. A single regiment of Confederation battlemechs equipped to Star League standards would be worth an entire division of Inner Sphere 'mechs. If they managed to escape Ryuugenzawa, the Confederation could turn its losing war with the Combine into a expansion of territory unheard of in the country's entire history!

She checked herself at the thought. She was fighting to end the Third Succession War, not win it. She had seen enough destruction and the hardships and sacrifices her people had endured in her tender few years to know that she wouldn't wish it on anyone else - even her enemies. There had to be a way to convince the Kunos and Gosunkugis and even the Shampoos of the Inner Sphere that fighting over the ruins of the Star League was a shameful waste.

But first, she had to live through this day.

Her hand lifted the red safety cover over the enable switch, and she flicked it into position. A green box appeared on her HUD, and she thumbed it over with her stick's tophat control to cover the smudge of black and grey that was Black Rose Archer over a fifteen hundred meters away. She squeezed the trigger on her control stick, and the box became red, and subtitled with the ominous jargon word 'ILLUM.'

The NARC beacon was painting the Black Rose Archer, telling the missiles that would follow exactly where to hit.

"Commence LRM fire," Akane said quietly, and waited.

Doctor Tofu's Centurion and Genma's Orion spat a volley of long range missiles from the treeline. After the flash of the weapons leaving the tubes, Akane noted that their propellant was surprisingly smokeless, another advantage of Star League technology over the cheap and simple solid propellant used by Inner Sphere munitions factories. The missiles arced like normal unguided LRMs at first into the sky, then with uncanny precision began to close ranks and ride the invisible NARC beam straight into the distant Archer.

Halfway to the target, the Combine 'mechs noticed the barrage and began to scatter, but the NARC beacon tracked the Archer's movements with a clinical precision that terrified Akane. She could not imagine what the Black Rose mechwarrior must have been feeling as all his efforts came to naught.

The missiles struck precisely where she had aimed, the right torso LRM-20 launch door. Through her telescopic camera she watched as each missile screamed down upon the hapless Archer, blasting apart the armor plating in under a second. The ready-fire missiles loaded in the rack below the ruptured armor exploded an instant later, and from there, the rest of the magazine.

The Archer was ripped in half by the blast, its severed right arm flying high into the air as the ruined torso was blown to the ground in scorched heap. Missiles corkscrewed crazily from the left-side launcher as the ammunition cooked off with the tremendous heat released from the breached fusion reactor. In a final insult, the severed arm came down hard on the cockpit of the battlemech, crushing the pilot to death if he had somehow escaped immolation by the ammunition explosion.

Akane didn't watch after the first explosion. Instead, she swallowed hard and thumbed the NARC box over to the next Black Rose 'mech on her HUD. More missiles flew from Tofu's Centurion and Genma's Orion. The Fire Lance Trebuchet was obliterated as quickly as the Archer. Again, she did not watch the battlemech's fiery death throes as she turned the cruel NARC beacon on another Combine target and gave the order to fire.

This was pure slaughter, she realized. Nothing to feel proud about. The rest of the company was rushing the treeline, desperate to find and fix their hidden assailants under their guns before it was their turn to die. It was Ryouga's job to hold them off, and Master Happousai's job to pursue any stragglers that might escape the BattleMaster's attack.

The thunderclap of a PPC bolt marked Ryouga's first attack. The Spiders had charged at the onset of the missile barrage, and now one caught the hit square in the center torso. Armor boiled off in a fraction of a second as the blast penetrated into the vital internals of the recon 'mech. The spindly war machine teetered drunkenly for a moment as its gyro failed, then toppled over to divot the pavement.

Akane returned her attention to the NARC beacon. It had taken a second barrage to cancel the Fire Lance Crusader, as the pilot sacrificed his mech's left forearm to stop the salvo aimed at his shoulder LRM launcher. Doctor Tofu had twenty four volleys in his launcher, but Genma had only sixteen, and it was their combined missile barrage that made them so deadly. They would have to conserve their ammo wherever possible.

She selected the Shadow Hawk next, as its autocannon would be the first significant weapon to come into range. More missiles leapt out of the launch tubes. The Shadow Hawk fired its jump jets to escape, but the NARC beacon held its track, and enough of the missiles retained sufficient reserve energy to alter their arcs in time to connect. The result wasn't as precise as the previous barrages, but the midair pounding was enough to make the enemy mechwarrior lose control over his jumping war machine and crash head first into the ground. The 'mech did not make any attempts to get up.

Ryouga blasted the second Spider as it jumped at him in a near-suidical death from above attack. The beam blew off the arm, but did nothing to stop the leaping strike until Ukyou stepped in with her Hatchetman. Her battle-spatula swung through a full arc to rip apart the thirty ton 'mech at the waist in a shower of sparks and billowing clouds of spilled liquid nitrogen coolant. As the crippled Spider tumbled impotently at Ryouga's mech, he caught it up in his metalshod hands and sent it flying out of control over his shoulder to crash into the trees behind the BattleMaster.

"Thanks, Ukyou," he panted at her.

"My pleasure, honey," she returned. Her Hatchetman then pointed to the left. "Heads up now!"

Ryouga turned his attention towards the indicated direction. The hulking assault 'mech then turned its pistol-like PPC on its next target, a Jenner whose SRM launcher was firing at Doctor Tofu's Centurion. The bolt slammed into the pod-like left arm, obliterating the pair of medium lasers as Tofu answered the missile barrage with his autocannon, tearing apart the identical weapon pod in the right arm. The Jenner pilot quickly established his situation as untenable, and fired his jump jets to scoot clear of the shooting.

"Let him go," Akane admonished them. "Don't break ranks."

Happousai was busy dueling with his opposite in the other Locust, having ignored her orders in favor of showing the Black Rose pilot who was master and who was student. Rather than shoot it out with the Black Rose 'mech, the wizened little pervert cut inside his opponent's high speed turn and lashed out a spindly armored chicken leg to trip the enemy Locust, which subsequently tumbled over into the soft ground. A single laser blast to the cockpit hatch ensured that the Black Rose pilot would not be up for a rematch.

There were only the three 'mechs in the command lance now, plus the sole surviving recon lance Jenner, and these were turning tail as fast as they could. Akane lined up one of the fleeing Hunchbacks in her HUD, but didn't have the heart to light him up.

"Be careful, Akane," Tofu admonished her gently over the tac net, apparently realizing what she had chosen not to do. "You'll face him sooner or later today, and the next time he might be in a better position to fight back."

"But," she began, and let her voice drop.

"This is survival," Tofu replied. "This isn't martial arts. Fairness and honor have nothing to do with living to see tomorrow. Think of seeing Ranma again soon, and remember that."

"You're right," she said. By now the Combine 'mechs were out of range. "Withdraw to our second line of defense," she ordered. Commander Malloy would feed them with updates to the Black Rose's next move. She only hoped that the slaughter she had just inflicted upon them would be enough to persuade Kodachi to be more cautious. Caution bought the Palomino time to finish its repairs and escape.

Headquarters Lance

Black Rose Terror Regiment

12:47 Local Time

Kodachi Kuno was beside herself with rage.

"What do you mean, you encountered heavy resistance at the starport?" she demanded of her Snapdragon Company commander. "Tendo's forces don't equal more than a lance at best. An hour ago you had an entire COMPANY at your disposal."

"Mistress, they were Star League 'mechs!" the frightened officer replied. "They tore us apart! Missiles that didn't miss their targets! I saw them!"

"You saw what, exactly?" Kodachi asked him archly. Her Marauder's derringer-like forearm weapon pods trained in his direction threateningly.

"The Cameron Star!" the captain protested in a high voice. "They bore the SLDF's colors!"

Kodachi considered blasting him in disgust for his cowardice.

"He could be telling the truth," Tarou put in abruptly.

"The Star League Defense Force?" Kodachi snorted. "After all these years?"

"It could be remnants of the original garrison," Tarou declared. There was a hunger in his voice at the thought of possessing 'mechs with the kind of firepower that ruined a veteran company while suffering no losses of their own. "It might explain why we received such a warm reception from the Orochi Network as well, if they were somehow directing it."

"I don't like it," Kodachi said at length. Her voice wavered between anger and concern. "I'm here for Akane Tendo's head, not to lose my precious battlemechs to a phantom force of centuries old Star Leaguers who don't like strangers."

She returned her attention to the captain. "As for you, reorganize what's left of your unit and report to Captain Merril. You are to serve as the shock troops for his follow-up attack, and if you are lucky, you won't live to answer to me this evening." She gave him a harrowing look over the monitor. "Have I made myself clear, captain?"

"C-Crystalline," the mechwarrior replied haltingly.

The Griffin saluted and beat a hasty retreat from Kodachi.

"What next?" Tarou asked her.

"What else?" Kodachi snapped. "Captain Merril will lead a force to attack from the east."

"Is it wise to attack from the same direction as your last attack?"

Kodachi favored Tarou with a wilting look, a sign of how angry she was at the moment. "Merril will be instructed to keep up the pressure without committing himself to a full attack. That is what that coward Lassiter is for. Whilst these so-called SLDF 'mechs are busy with them, you and I shall slip around from the south."

"What if Tendo isn't at the starport?"

Kodachi cackled scornfully. "That is not your concern, lover."

Sasuke appeared on both of their monitors.

"My Mistress, I bring news of the Musk Dynasty's landing."

"What of it?" she demanded. "How many DropShips did we shoot down?"

"None, I'm afraid," Sasuke replied calmly. "Our fighters were heavily outnumbered."

"Excuses!" she railed at him. "Why must I be hobbled with the excuses of my subordinates?"

"In all fairness, Mistress," Sasuke countered gently. "Our pilots were able to shoot down thirteen Commonwealth fighters at a loss of only four of our own, although two more are unaccounted for, having last reported over the ruins of the starport."

"The starport," Kodachi noted with icy calm. "Why, perhaps if either of the dolts who disappeared yet lived, they might tell a story of Star League fighters that could outfight an entire squadron single-handed."

"Mistress?"

"Never mind, Sasuke," she snapped at him. "Direct our fighters to continue harassing the Commonwealth landing zones, and leave the mystery of the starport to me."

SLDF Drydock

12:50 Local Time

"Point that thing somewhere else before I shove it straight up your ass, sailor."

Captain Hauptmann brushed aside the muzzle of a flechette 'nailgun' that tapped against the side of his pressure suit visor as he said it. The Dragonfly crewman who held the weapon lowered it slowly, not sure if he should believe his wondering eyes.

"C-Captain Ninomiya?" he called into his suit radio as the rest of the Tang boarding party spread out in the vestibule that linked the Coronet's quarterdeck with the drydock. "I think you should come down here, ma'am."

Hauptmann didn't wait for a reply from the other end. "We're here to rescue Lady Akane," he said to the sailor. "Is she here?"

"She's on the surface," the man replied. "Trying to buy time for the other survivors to repair the Palomino."

Hauptmann remembered the two landing forces that were probably already on the planet by now. Olivera and the Grand Duke needed to know what was going on if they were going to do something about it. Captain Ninomiya was probably the best source for answers to his questions, but until then...

"What happened to the Dragonfly?" he demanded.

"The Orochi got us," the sailor answered. "Blew the hell out of the ship, even got a piece of the Palomino, which is why they need to repair it."

Captain Hinako Ninomiya appeared as he spoke, looking grubby and worn in her child body. She had been forced to endure the indignity of being an eight-year-old because her small size allowed her to reach into tight spaces to conduct the start-up procedures for the Coronet.

Hauptmann had heard about Ninomiya and her difficulties, but he had never met her face to face. The insular environment of the corvette community kept him away from most JumpShip commanders.

"Captain?" he asked haltingly.

"That's me," Hinako chirped. "It sure took you long enough to get here!"

"What exactly are you doing up here?" Hauptmann asked. "Shouldn't your crew be down on the surface repairing the DropShip?"

"To go where, silly?" Hinako asked, poking him in the chest with each word. "No JumpShip means no way to leave the system."

The former Tang captain looked around him. "You mean this ship is operational?"

"Not quite," Hinako countered. "We're at the point where we can light off the reactor, and the main computer is already up and running, but I can't make any guarantees about anything else."

"How long?"

Hinako gave him a funny look. "We could start the reactor within the hour. After that, I guess it's a matter of how well everything holds up after being in layup for the last two-hundred years."

"The weapons?"

"Haven't even looked at 'em," she admitted. "Why? You have plans for my ship?"

Hauptmann frowned at the idea that the ship might belong to this little girl, even if she was a decorated Confederation Navy captain. He had come to the drydock to make the Coronet his!

"It might be necessary to shoot our way out of the system," he declared. "The corvette we came here in is no match for the Orochi Network, and there are other powers in the system."

"I know," Hinako chirped. "We were planning on letting them kill each other, and sneaking out while they were busy doing that." She yawned wearily, having had no sleep in the last thirty-six hours, and poked him in the chest again. "You need to get in touch with Lady Akane. I have commo frequencies that will allow you to communicate with my XO, who is currently in the Orochi Control Bunker on the planet. He can patch you through to her from there."

"Control bunker?" Hauptmann asked. "You mean you're controlling the Orochi right now?"

"We wish," Hinako snorted, a gesture that was terribly amusing when coming from an ersatz eight-year-old. "We don't have the access codes. About all we can do is observe, but it also means that we can see everything that the network can right now."

Hauptmann pulled out a notepad and stylus. "Give me the codes and freaks, and I'll get them over to the Tautog. The Grand Duke will probably want to speak to his daughter personally."

"Oooo!" Hinako squealed with excitement. "His Grace is here?"

"It's a long story," Hauptmann said, nodding. "Suffice it to say that things have not gone well for the Confederation since your ship left the Capella System."

Star League Defense Force Proving Grounds

Bunker Nine, Test Area North

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

13:12 Local Time

Commander Malloy could not believe his ears.

"Say again?"

The reply was clipped, but the voice was unmistakable.

"This is Grand Duke Soun Tendo, in orbit above you aboard the Confederation corvette, Tautog. I wish to speak to my daughter at once."

Malloy looked at his transplanted Dragonfly bridge crew, who returned with equally surprised expressions.

"A-At once, your Grace," he replied. "Patching you into the commo net now."

"They're coming in from the east again," Happousai reported. His Locust bore a black scorch mark from a lucky laser hit.

"How many?" Akane asked, wondering why Malloy hadn't updated her with this bit of news. Was he having problems with the network?

"Sixteen there, Sweet Cheeks," Happousai returned. "A company plus what looks like the surviving chumps of the company we spanked a half-hour ago. I recognize the Jenner at least."

Akane brushed his insulting nickname for her aside as Doctor Tofu's admonition came back to her. They were indeed fighting the same 'mechs she had let escape, and this time they had another full company to back them up.

"I don't want to hit them in the same place as last time," she said at length. She consulted her map display. "Let's draw them in to this complex of ruined buildings to the southeast. There are lots of good crossfires in there, plus a few fire lanes where we can hit them with long range missiles."

Happousai brushed his Locust against the hull of her Warhammer in a catlike show of affection that scraped the paint on both 'mechs down to bare metal. "Oh, Akane!" he sighed. "I love it when you get all tactical on me!"

"If you don't cut that out, I'll start getting medieval on you instead!" Akane fumed angrily.

Ryouga raised his BattleMaster's fist threateningly at the Locust. "Why don't you make yourself useful and go back to scouting!"

"Fine!" the wizened master mechwarrior sniffed. "I'll do that!" The Locust sprang away into the woods to the west, kicking petulantly at trees as it went. Curiously, he did not turn around and start heading east, where it might be expected to encounter the enemy, but continued west, towards the starport.

"The Master seems awfully upset," Genma cautioned from his Orion.

"I don't know about that..." Ukyou countered. Her Hatchetman's sensor head turned to watch the retreating Locust. "He seemed awful eager to leave. I don't think he's turning coward, but it makes me wonder what he's up to."

Akane considered asking Ukyou to keep an eye on him and quickly decided against it. They were short on numbers as it stood, and while Happousai was an excellent mechwarrior, his relatively puny Locust could only do so much against Black Rose heavies. They wouldn't miss him that much, she concluded.

Commander Malloy appeared on her display as she turned her Warhammer towards their next ambush site.

"Eyes Front to Red Leader," he called to her. "You're not going to believe this, ma'am, but I have an urgent commo dispatch for you from your father."

"What was that?!" Akane returned. "My father? Here?"

"Soun?" Genma chirped.

Grand Duke Tendo's face took the place of Commander Malloy on their commo displays.

"Akane," he said to her, his face drawn with concern. "What is your current situation?"

Akane was flabbergasted.

"Dad? Is it really you? How did you get here?"

Soun shook his head. "That's not important right now. I'm here, and so is Kasumi. We're here to evacuate you from the planet before Prince Kuno's fleet arrives."

"He's on his way?"

"That is correct," Soun replied. "Our sensor operators aboard the Tautog have detected the approach of his fleet. We have less than two and a half hours before they get here."

Akane thought about her last progress report from the repair crews.

"We need at least that long before the Palomino can be made ready to lift off, Dad."

"If necessary, we'll take everyone off the planet in shuttles," he said. "Pass the word to Captain Grant that it may be required of him to abandon the ship where it is."

"B-But, Tendo!" Genma spluttered. "We have Star League technology in our possession. We can't just leave it all behind."

"I know that, Saotome," Soun sighed. "But my daughter's life is more important right now. Furthermore, the very future of the Confederation rests in returning Akane to Nerima to unseat Nabiki as Regent before she manages to surrender everything to the Furinkan Combine."

"Nabiki?" Akane cried. "Regent?!"

"Again, there's no time to explain," Soun said to her. The radio transmission broke up for a moment. "We're starting to enter the atmosphere now. I'll speak to you more when we arrive."

"You're coming down?" Akane asked her father. "I can't recommend that, Dad."

"You need all the help you can get to fight off the Combine and the Commonwealth forces until the repairs can be completed," he said to her. "I'm told you have a few 'mechs to spare for your sister and I."

Akane choked back a sob. How long had she dreamed of this moment, to prove herself as a leader to her father, to fight alongside a man who had at one time been a great mechwarrior serving the Confederation?

"We'll be waiting for you," she managed. He gave his acknowledgemnt as the transmission broke up into static with the shuttle passing through the ionosphere.

She flicked her commo over to the Palomino's radio frequency. "This is Red Leader, what's the status of the repairs?"

Petty Officer Tad Howard's voice came back to her in reply. "Wait one, ma'am, I'm calling down to them now."

The harsh strobe of welders lit the cramped confines of the Reactor Compartment in flickering blue-white light, hissing and crackling over the sound of portable forced draft blowers supplying the repair parties with fresh air from outside. Even then, the hot smell of melted metal and the acrid tang of ozone filled the space.

"We're way behind schedule, Captain Grant," Akari lamented, watching as one of her techs suspended himself upside down from a run of coolant piping to reach the back side of the main header welds. The man strained with the effort, knowing that he had to lay down a steady, even bead to properly rejoin the ruptured main coolant loop to the heat exchange circuit. When he finished on his side of the weld, he gingerly passed the hot electrode to a tech below him, who completed the weld on the opposite side.

The work was tedious, but vital. The header had to remain tight at a pressure of hundreds of atmospheres and at temperatures up to a thousand degrees Kelvin. They had already cut the last corner they could - the twelve hour 'temperature soak' of the pipe with electric heating strips at 400 degrees Kelvin that was recommended for welding on the high-yield alloy, and they had foregone the use of the inert argon gas 'tent' as well for the time it took to set it up and take it down between welds. Akari knew that even if they possessed the radiography equipment and the time to inspect the completed welds, that they would never pass. That wasn't her concern. As long as the header held tight for just a few hours, that was all that would matter.

"There's always Plan 'B,'" Captain Grant said to Akari without a hint of enthusiasm. He referred to the use of thermite-welding techniques on the last two welds that remained. In theory, the welding process itself would take about thirty seconds as the thermite burned at five thousand degrees to fuse the sections of header together, and the pipes themselves could be ready to fill and press up in under thirty minutes, but the process had never been attempted before by anyone on the ship. The battle with error was already an uncertain one as it stood.

"We can repressurize the header in twenty minutes once we finish the welds, sir," Akari said, knowing where the captain was going with his statement. "There's no time for a proper hydrostatic test, but if it passes the static drop test, then I think we can make it." She resisted the urge to wipe at the sweat that beaded on her brow and matted her bangs together under her bright yellow anti-contamination hood. Instead, she gripped a stanchion with her rubber gloved hands and tried not to think about the discomfort.

"Do we even have time for a drop test?" Grant asked her.

"If we do it while you begin the pre-liftoff checks and auxilliary equipment startups, sir, we should have about ten minutes to watch the pressure gauges to see if it will hold." She shrugged in resignation. "If it doesn't hold, I don't know what we can do. Unless the leak is gross enough to pinpoint easily and tack down with a blob of weld bead, we won't have time to grind down the welds and start over."

The sound of a distant series of explosions rolled into the cramped and crowded Reactor Compartment, reminding all of them of the urgency of their repairs. Ryouga and the others were out there, fighting to buy them time. Akari closed her eyes briefly and thought of her beloved and his battlemech. Captain Grant reached for the ringing telephone that was probably the Flight Deck demanding a status report.

"Two hours?" Akane repeated worriedly. She knew the answer to her next question, but found herself asking anyway. "Tad, is that the best they can do?"

"The skipper tells me they're doing everything they can, ma'am," he replied.

Akane understood. Still, it was going to be a closer call than they had anticipated.

They were at the next ambush position, a series of ruined buildings that flanked the southeastern approaches to the starport proper and provided for two lanes of NARC-assisted LRM fire to soften up the Black Rose attack. Even as she rechecked her observations of the place, the ominous red pings of Musk Dynasty forces moving in from the northwest gave her pause. Should she split her meager army in two to engage both adversaries at once, or pray that she could turn the Black Rose's next push in time to prepare for the first Musk attack?

The scream of fighters overhead made her start in her ejector seat, until she recognized them as Yuka and Sayuri doing turns and burns over the starport as they duelled with a pair of Black Rose fighters. The two Confederation pilots had caught their enemies by surprise, and their combined attack had nearly creamed one Black Rose Slayer. Now all four fighters wheeled above her, striving for shooting position. Storm clouds loomed beyond the dogfight, threatening a cloudburst that would render their orbital observation satellites next to useless.

Doctor Tofu's Centurion cast a worried glance around. "Has anyone seen Ryouga?"

"He was supposed to be with you," Ukyou pointed out.

Tofu's battlemech shrugged. "I know that," the doctor replied curtly. "He was just here. Now I can't find him on my scopes."

"Marvelous," Ukyou muttered. "Of all the times for him to wander off."

"Red Leader to Red Two, respond please," Akane called over the commo.

The tac-net was silent.

"Ryouga, come in please. Where are you?"

"He's in a BattleMaster," Genma observed at length. "How hard could it be to lose track of something as big as that?"

"In these woods," Akane remarked. "Not that hard at all. Ukyou, do you think you could look for him?"

"I don't mind it," she replied. "But is that a smart idea? The Black Rose 'mechs will be here any minute now."

Akane looked crestfallen on the display. "You've got a point, but I still want you to look. Don't move more than a few klicks from our position, and if we call for you, come running."

"Will do, sugar."

The Hatchetman stalked off into the woods, leaving Akane to wonder what had happened to Ryouga. And where the heck was Ranma? she wondered. It had been too long since she had heard from him.

"Red Eagle Lead, this is Red Leader," she called on the tac-net. "Respond please."

There was no answer. She tried again to no effect. Still nothing. She then tried another tack. "Red Eagle Deuce, Red Leader, respond."

Yuka's strained voice came over the airwaves as she gutted out a turn.

"Eagle Deuce copies," she replied. "Wait one."

An explosion in midair marked the destruction of the wounded Black Rose Slayer. The other Slayer, finding itself suddenly outnumbered, made a break for the horizon.

"Red Eagle Deuce standing by, Red Leader."

"Yuka," Akane called to her friend. "Have you seen Ranma since he took off?"

There was a strained silence. "No."

"He hasn't reported in," Akane returned, her voice cracking slightly. "If you spot him, could you let me know?"

"Y-Yes, ma'am," Yuka replied, her own voice taking on a guilty edge that almost made Akane question it. Instead, she tried to reach him again. "Ranma?" she called out into the ether. "Answer me!"

"Ran-chan?!" Ukyou chimed in worriedly, realizing that there were now two missing mechwarriors. "Are you there, honey?"

Genma's Orion moved from its position.

"The boy's probably just busy," he said, trying to believe it himself.

"Come on, you piece of crap!"

Ranma wrenched at the access panel to his LAM's heavy pulselaser rifle, finally getting the recalcitrant portal to open. The weapon should have reset by this time, but something was holding it back. Worse, the shutdown was forcing certain weapon interlocks that kept the rest of his armament offline. Ranma suspected that there was a safety disconnect open within the pulselaser's power electronics, something that he would have to land and dismount to fix. The LAM now rested in Airmech Mode in a tiny clearing that did little to screen him from the air. He peered inside the pulselaser's innards as rolling booms of thunder and exploding battlemechs surrounded him. A tangled mass of coolant piping and power conduit revealed itself, and he had to go by touch to figure out which was which. He leaned into the access, hissing with discomfort as the heat from the weapon's components remained high in spite of the liquid nitrogen cooling system.

At last he spotted what he thought was the failed disconnect. The component would have to be forced back into position, though he saw with some relief that it could be locked shut to keep it from popping open the next time he got a little too eager on the trigger. He reached in to get a grip on the throw switch, and cursed when he couldn't quite fit far enough inside the weapon to touch it.

A thunderclap overhead startled him, and he slammed his head against a coolant pipe. Still cursing, he fell out of the access hatch and landed on the ground. It was going to rain, he saw, and very soon. The steady thud of battlemechs in motion made it clear that if the rain didn't get him, they soon would. He could see the treetops swaying in the distance as they pushed through the woods to reach the starport.

The first sprinkling of rain began to fall as he realized that he had no tools on him that could reach inside the weapon. Finally, in desperation, an idea came to him, and he looked up at the sky with shaking fists.

"Rain, dammit!" he yelled. "I dare you to rain on me!"

A cloudburst opened up over his head with a flash of lightning and the peal of thunder, granting his request, and turning him into the buxom redhead that had been his curse for the last six months. The enemy 'mechs were close now, close enough to see them through the sudden rainy gloom.

Ranma wasted no time, pulling herself back inside the weapon, where her smaller body could squeeze into a position to reach the disconnect. She grasped the handle tight and forced it shut with all her strength. The disconnect slammed shut with a bang, and the weapon began to hum with power once again. She cried out in triumph, barely remembering to pin shut the disconnect in her excitement before wriggling clear.

A Black Rose Rifleman loomed overhead, its Garret radar array spinning slowly over its head as it searched for enemy fighters. Ranma could tell that its mechwarrior's attention was focused on the sky, and not on the Phoenix Hawk LAM at its feet. It was easy enough, since if the Black Rose pilot had noticed it, she would be dead by now.

She pulled her helmet back on as she scrambled for the open cockpit. The Rifleman couldn't miss her for long, and there were other Black Rose 'mechs stomping around who might recognize an easy kill when they saw one. The canopy locked closed with a hiss as she adjusted her seat straps for her smaller body. As the last strap locked into place, she pivoted the Airmech on its heels and brought up the heavy pulselaser.

She squeezed the weapon trigger and held on, sending streams of blue-green laser light into the Rifleman's right knee joint. The coruscating beams were quickly lost in wispy clouds of steam from vaporized rainfall, but not before cutting through the battlemech's thin leg armor to the fragile knee actuator beyond. The Rifleman's twin-cannon arms flailed wildly as the pilot lost his balance, and with a shove from the pulselaser muzzle, Ranma toppled it over into the trees.

She goosed her thrusters even as it pitched over, blasting into the sky while the other Black Rose 'mechs trembled in surprise at her sudden appearance. A wild volley of LRM fire exploded behind her, throwing shattered trees into the air as she fought for altitude. Laser beams from an entire company sizzled through the air, discouraging any further attacks from her.

Ranma muscled her way through the low hanging storm clouds and pondered her next course of action. It had taken far longer than she had hoped to fix her weapon systems, and there was no telling how far the Black Rose and her troops had advanced to the starport. She needed to put some pressure on their landing zones if she was going to put them off balance.

The small Electronic Warfare panel on her right lit up with ambers, blues, and reds as it detected and identified the radar beams and commo arrays of a half-dozen Black Rose DropShips obscured from sight by the rainstorm. Glyphic symbols scrolled across her HUD as she put her nose on target and boosted into supersonic flight, haloing ASX-002 in its own sonic boom. The Super Phoenix Hawk LAM bit into the cool air with a vengeance as it tore through the cloud bank with a lightning bolt cracking in its wake.

The egg-shaped Overlord Class DropShip Thorn was the first thing she saw as she broke through the clouds and dove into the rain. She aimed for the deployed communications array at the very top of the ship, and loosed a pair of Streak SRMs at it as she passed overhead. The two short ranged missiles were self-guided, needing no external radar illumination to reach their mark.

The missiles' aim was true, and Ranma noted with some satisfaction that an entire band of color faded abruptly from the Electronic Warfare panel, marking the sudden loss of the DropShip's commo link. She hoped that Kodachi was in the middle of talking to someone back at the Drop Zone when it happened.

The Phoenix Hawk LAM dropped down to the deck as battlemechs in the security detachment shook off their surprise and began to shoot back at her. Ranma transformed to Airmech Mode, the most versatile of the three modes for hit and run attacks, and rocketed back at them with the heavy pulselaser at the ready. She all but ignored the enemy battlemechs as she ranged in on the crates of ammunition staged for ready use by returning units seeking to reload, and let loose with a full salvo.

The laser beams tore into the crates, detonating the ammunition in a blinding fireball that raged against the falling rain. Ranma shot through the roiling cloud of smoke and steam to spoil the aim of the enemy battlemechs, then transformed back to fighter mode to make her escape. Though she could have tangled with them for a little while longer, her purpose was terror and disruption, and that purpose had been fulfilled. She was needed back at the starport now, before her tomboy fiancee got in over her head.

Star League Defense Force Proving Grounds

Bunker Nine, Test Area North

13:35 Local Time

"Mark time to shuttle arrival," Commander Malloy ordered.

"Any time now, sir," a commo tech replied. "The pilot wants to make a quick scan of the surroundings before he puts down."

Malloy nodded anxiously.

"Uh, sir, this doesn't look good," Lieutenant Davidge declared abruptly as he manned the main display.

"What is it?" Malloy demanded.

"The primary Orochi unit is making an orbital insertion burn," Davidge replied, scrolling through line after line of command code and calculations. "It's hauling ass, sir; a full burn with its plasma drive."

"Where's it going?"

Davidge scribbled some numbers furiously on a notepad as the other Dragonfly bridge crew called out updates to Black Rose and Musk Dynasty positions. "High orbit, roughly eighty thousand klicks altitude, right smack dab over our heads. ETA is one hour and ten minutes."

"Unit Three is illuminating the surface with radar," one of the former sensor operators announced. "Looks like it's gonna light up someone's life."

"Warn Lady Akane," Malloy ordered. He turned back to Davidge. "Any idea of the Big Guy's intentions?"

"Yeah," Davidge replied as the ground shook around them. "He's gonna blow the hell out of us."

"Beam strike near Musk Landing Zones," the sensor operator declared. "Damage assessment impossible due to the cloud cover."

"Better them than us," someone intoned.

Musk Dynasty Regimental Landing Zone

Star League Defense Force Proving Grounds

13:37 Local Time

The particle beam bolt split the dark sky in a convincing imitation of the wrath of God. When it struck the ground, the planet seemed to shake with the force of the hit, and a terrible shock wave rolled out from the impact point with the force of a gale. Cries of panic from the men led to their battlemechs casting furtive glances to the clouds above, dreading the next strike.

Mousse steadied his Crusader as falling chunks of the ground pelted his pristine white armor. He turned his mech's head to see a steaming crater to the west, near one of his assembly points. The hole was at least forty meters deep, and of the lance of 'mechs that had been standing there, only red hot bits of metal remained, pattering down with the tortured clods of earth uprooted by the energy of the blast.

Orbital bombardment had gone out with the First Succession War, and with it the defensive tactics that could have spared those men. Realizing that this battle was not going to be like anything he had ever experienced before, he gave orders to his commanders to disperse, and commanded his DropShips to lift off to safety. Black Rose fighters were nothing to be feared compared to another blast like that one.

This is suicide, he thought darkly. He had nothing that could engage the Orochi satellite responsible for that costly attack.

"Send to General Herb," he called to his signal group. "Inform him that the Orochi network is subjecting us to bombardment from orbit. Humbly request his permission to withdraw from the planet until a way can be found to neutralize it."

General Herb's face appeared on his display even as the commo officer repeated back his orders.

"There will be no withdrawal," the serpentine Musk commander said to him. Mousse was surprised by the lack of interference in the transmission. "My ship will be landing within an hour, Colonel. If you feel that you are incapable of carrying out your orders, I will personally relieve you."

Landing within an hour? Mousse wondered. Herb must have decided to proceed to the planet himself not long after dispatching the main force to Ryuugenzawa. Had he not told him of his departure out of mistrust, or was it a spur of the moment decision on Herb's part?

"That won't be necessary, honored lord," Mousse demurred. "I was about to investigate a curious group of signals from the surface that might be the control center for the network."

Herb's eyes lit up. "Capture it intact, if you can," he commanded him. "We can always use the Orochi against Prince Kuno when he gets here."

"Prince Kuno, my lord?"

"He's on his way, according to the fleet. It should make for a very interesting battle."

Star League Defense Force Proving Grounds

Bunker Nine, Test Area North

13:41 Local Time

Shinnosuke watched from a position of cover against the rain as the black shuttle from the Tautog flared out into a hover, and settled down on the muddy meadow with the scream of turbojets. The nose ramp dropped down, and men in battledress carrying rifles fanned out to either side of the action. Though Konatsu had told him of the coming arrival of the Grand Duke of the Nerima Confederation, he was taken aback by its matter-of-factness. Shampoo's Panther tracked the shuttle with its PPC arm for a moment, then, apparently satisfied with its identity, stomped off on another circuit of the bunker's surroundings.

The kunoichi ran out to meet them, ignoring the readied weapons aimed at her and bowing deeply for the Grand Duke and his entourage. Shinnosuke decided to follow after her, a little shamed by her courage. He bowed as well for them as they took their first steps onto Ryuugenzawa soil.

"Your Grace," Konatsu said in his breathy voice.

Soun studied him for a moment, seeking recognition in him and not finding any.

"Where is Commander Malloy?" he finally asked.

"Please forgive him, your Grace," Konatsu replied. "Given the current tactical situation, he was unable to meet you on the surface. He is still below in the bunker."

Soun grunted acknowledgement. "That's fine," he replied. "Kasumi and I have to join Akane at the starport. We're only here to put off some non-combatants." He gestured to an attractive middle-aged woman with a striking resemblance to Captain Saotome, and to a deeply-tanned man in a floral pattern shirt with a Polynesian entourage.

"My lord?"

"The Tautog is about to engage the Orochi network," Soun explained. "A space battle is no place for civilians."

Konatsu bowed again, at last understanding what the Grand Duke expected of him.

"I would be honored, your Grace," he said in reply.

"Take good care of them," Soun said. "The Shogun is my personal guest, and his entourage are to be treated with the utmost respect and courtesy." He turned to Nodoka and the Shogun. "With luck, we'll be seeing you again very soon."

Nodoka bowed gracefully for him, then kissed Kasumi's cheek. "Both of you be careful, and when you see Ranma, give him my love."

"You'll see him soon enough, Mrs. Saotome," Kasumi replied with a wan smile. She did not relish going back into combat so soon after the Battle of Oni, but again, duty called.

Shogun Kuno gave him the 'hang loose' sign. "Take care, bruddah." He and his entourage stepped off the shuttle and into the rain. "De sooner we get dis over with, de sooner we go surfin'."

Konatsu placed a gentle hand on Shinnosuke, making him blush. "You should show them to the bunker while I make another round."

The caretaker stammered agreement, and turned to lead the civilians away from the shuttle. The middle-aged woman produced an umbrella from her kimono, though Shinnosuke's eyes were drawn to the curious bundle tied to her back with a length of silk. It looked rather like a sword.

The Shogun led his hula girls and beefy Polynesian men towards the bunker while Shinnosuke found himself on Nodoka's arm. As soon as they were clear of the shuttle, the ramp closed and the engines spooled up. The group paused to watch it lift off, and then nose away to make a high-speed, low altitude transit to the distant starport.

"We get out o' dis rain, ya bruddah?" the Shogun asked Shinnosuke.

"Right this way," he replied, feeling useless and a little put off with having to shepherd a bunch of offworlders - even supposedly important ones.

Happousai hadn't intended on coming to this place until well after the fighting, but his greed had gotten the better of him. He needed to check up on his trove just one more time to feel secure. The service pit in the reinforced concrete floor of the quonset hut was lined with old sheets of armor plate, making it about as secure as one could get on such short notice. Within the pit was an armored and padded case, the lining shielded against electromagnetic interference.

He opened the padded case with care, as if the contents would crumble to dust at the slightest mishandling. It wasn't true, but considering what he had, a little caution was never a bad thing. His eyes lit up at beholding the Treasure of Ryuugenzawa, and a thin line of drool cascaded down his lips.

"How beautiful," he sobbed.

Overcome by the emotion of the moment, he stood back from the case, trying not to cry. The Inner Sphere would never forget him after today. He would be a savior, a messiah, and the way he figured it, and with few exceptions, most messiahs did pretty well in the booty call department.

"When did you plan on telling the rest of us about this?" a gruff voice behind him demanded.

Happousai spun around to see Ryouga looking down at him. It was clear by the angry scowl on his face that he had seen everything. A thunderclap outside the quonset hut punctuated the man's angry glare, and rain began to fall.

"R-Ryouga," he cried out greasily. "Didn't hear you coming."

"I know," the fanged mechwarrior growled. "I followed you after you left us."

Happousai did a double-take. Since when was Ryouga even able to walk a straight line?

"So," Ryouga continued. "Are you going to answer my question, or do I have to beat it out of you?"

Happousai edged back to the case and shut the lid, while keeping his eyes fixed on Ryouga. "I was going to tell everyone," he replied. "Honest I was. The timing just hasn't seemed right, that's all."

"I may not know much," Ryouga snarled. "But I've learned to tell when you're lying, Happousai."

"O-Oh yeah?" the wizened mechwarrior replied, looking for an opening to make his escape. "How's that?"

Ryouga's eyes narrowed to burning slits. "Your lips move."

Happousai took a slow and deliberate step towards him. "Now take it easy, Ryouga," he soothed. "There's no need to get angry. I'm willing to cut you in on this."

Ryouga eyed him warily. "Go on."

Happousai's face turned up into an easy smile, surprised at Ryouga's reaction to his offer. "We both know how much the contents of this case are worth. I'm willing to share the take with you if you keep your mouth shut about it." He stepped up to Ryouga and gave him a conspiratorial nudge. "Think about it for a moment. A girl as beautiful and sweet as Akari deserves a good life, and with even a fraction of what I'm offering you, you can give her everything she's ever wanted. A nice mansion on a landed estate, the most expensive fashions, gorgeous jewelry from across the Inner Sphere. Hell, you could build her her own little 'mech workshop and let her tinker to her heart's content for the rest of her life."

He looked away for a moment. "Think you can do that for her as a lousy lieutenant in an army that's gonna end up on the Furinkan Combine payroll someday? Or as a wandering mercenary?"

"No..." Ryouga replied sheepishly. "No, I guess I couldn't do all those things for her if I was one of those."

"So whaddya say?" Happousai cried, offering up a wrinkled hand. "Share and share alike?"

Ryouga took Happousai's hand in a firm grip. "I could never give her those things as a lousy lieutenant in the Nerima Confederation Army," he said to him. "Just like I could never live with myself for betraying the people who have come to mean so much to me if I do what you say!" He threw Happousai down to the ground and gave him a savage kick.

"What was that for?!" Happousai wailed.

"You -" he spluttered at Happousai, who cowered at his feet and whimpered. "You incredible bastard! Doesn't Akane mean anything at all to you!? Or Grand Duke Tendo!? Or even Ranma!? You'd sell them all out for the contents of that case!?"

"You idiot!" Happousai howled as Ryouga pinned him with a foot. "Don't you understand what a Library Core is? Everything, I mean EVERYTHING the Inner Sphere lost to the wars is in that case. That knowledge and technical information is the greatest treasure in the galaxy! A ransom for a thousand star systems!"

Ryouga grabbed Happousai by the scruff of his neck and held him up to his face.

"You won't get one C-bill of it!" he shouted, spittle flying off his lips and into Happousai's eyes. In his rage, he threw the little mechwarrior to the concrete. "Tarou was right! I should have helped him kill you on the Dragonfly!"

His fist plunged down at Happousai, intent on crushing the very life out of the twisted little man. Happousai turned the blow aside with a casual flick of his hand, dropping Ryouga's fist into the concrete with a crash. Chunks of the floor exploded around them, battering Ryouga and stunning him long enough for Happousai to make his break.

"Come back here, you!" he called after Happousai.

Happousai dashed for his Locust, which was parked outside the hut. It was a fortunate circumstance, for Ryouga's BattleMaster was also outside. He couldn't chase after him without turning into a pig in the rain.

He hated to do this, but there was no choice. Barring a lucky shot, he would be forced to bring down the hut on Ryouga. When the fighting was over he would dig out the rubble for the case, which he was confident was protected against any collapse. Ryouga had seen too much, and more to the point, had refused to play along.

Ryouga watched Happousai flee into the rain and stopped short of following him. As a pig he would be defenseless. The little bastard was running for his Locust, though his intentions beyond escape were unknown. It did not occur to him that Happousai would actually try to kill him, even in spite of what had just passed between them.

When the Locust's turret-like medium laser projector pivoted to bear on the hut, he knew he was wrong.

A rippling beam of laser light cut across him to blast apart a section of wall on the opposite side of the hut. Though the beam had barely missed, the heat was tremendous, searing his skin and nearly blinding him with its intensity. He staggered backwards, his vision filled with painful blotches of color. The water-filled cooling vest on his torso spat out a jet of hot liquid from the safety relief, reminding him of how close he had come to being fried.

Happousai sent another beam at him, tearing up a trench in the concrete floor and blasting shards of it into the air. Stinging bits of the stuff pelted him, and he covered up instinctively against the barrage. Still half-blind, his watery eyes groped for a place where he could take cover.

A third blast ripped into the hut, though now it was clear that Happousai was no longer trying to hit him. He was going for the quonset hut's supports instead. The ancient building groaned in protest as a section of the struts that held up the curved roof were evaporated.

Rain began to spill through the holes in the roof that Happousai had made, and Ryouga tripped clumsily around them as he staggered for the only shelter he could think of. A fourth blast took out an entire corner of the quonset hut, and the tortured metal shrieked as it failed. The building was collapsing on him, and all he could think about was Akari.

Happousai took no satisfaction in watching the quonset hut fall in on itself. He blamed himself for his clumsiness in being followed, even for his weakness in wanting to take another look at his treasure. He took a calming puff on his pipe as wisps of steam from rain evaporating on superheated metal wafted up from the uneven pile of debris.

It was possible that Ryouga had survived the collapse. He was a tough one, and the idea of stomping on the rubble with his battlemech crossed his mind. When the time came to dig out the debris to recover the Library Core, Ryouga was much better off being dead. Especially if by some miracle, the Confederation managed to pull off a victory.

The scream of distant weapons fire distracted him from his internal debate. Akane and the others were probably mixing it up with the Black Rose forces again. For a moment he considered himself to be on Akane's side, and knew he was needed there. He let it pass. A true master of the Anything Goes School knew when to cut his losses, and this was that time.

The Locust turned and began trotting south with the intention of skirting the fighting and waiting out the battle from a safe distance. The Library Core wasn't going anywhere now that it was buried under a few tons of rubble. As he fled, he felt a pang of conscience, the first he had felt in decades.

Ignore it, he told himself. You've never needed it before. No need to start now.

SLDF Drydock

14:02 Local Time

"We have approximately half an hour before the primary Orochi satellite takes up a position above the starport," Captain Hauptmann said to an freshly adult Hinako Ninomiya on the Coronet's quiet Bridge. The Dragonfly sailor who had made the brave sacrifice of energy for his captain floated in peaceful unconsciousness in free-fall nearby.

Hauptmann could see that the auxilliary systems were online, though many of the stations were unmanned as the crew finished up preparations for launch. "The Tautog will do what it can to distract the damn thing, but that won't be much. We need to launch this ship."

"I'm not so sure that we'll be able to make much of a contribution," Hinako replied. "We don't even know if we can leave drydock, much less use the ship's weapons."

"What about the torpedo systems?"

She shook her head. "The torpedoes were offloaded before the ship went into drydock. They were probably put on some tender in orbit, and that ship probably joined Kerensky in the Exodus."

Hauptmann didn't want to give up. "The spinal mount, then," he said.

The Coronet was one of the few Star League ships to carry a particle beam cannon so massive that it was laid along the very backbone of the vessel for support. Such weapons were known as spinal mounts, drawing their power directly from the fusion reactor. Though they were the most powerful energy weapons known to man, they required that the ship itself line up with the target, making them difficult to use in battle. It was one of the primary reasons why they weren't very common in the SLDF fleets.

Hinako rolled her eyes. "There doesn't seem to be any reason why the spinal mount won't function, aside from the fact that the reactor hasn't had to answer that kind of instantaneous power demand for over two hundred years. We could knock out the entire electrical generation and distribution system trying to fire it."

"You're right," Hauptmann snorted. "We should just sit here and watch the planet get blasted by the Orochi."

"That's not what I'm saying," Hinako retorted, her sultry voice taking on a hard edge.

"Then what are you saying?" the former corvette skipper demanded.

Unlike most men Hinako had known, he seemed to be immune to her many charms. She regarded him for a moment before replying. "Believe me, no one wants to see Lady Akane and the others safely off the planet and out of the system more than me. I simply don't see how we'll be doing them any favors by facing the Orochi in a ship we have no experience with, and one that might not even function in battle."

"We don't have time to debate this," Hauptmann countered. "In thirty minutes this discussion becomes academic." He gestured to the viewport, where the planet below shuddered with another particle beam hit from Unit Three. "One of the smaller ones is already pounding on them. The big Orochi has ten times the firepower."

"All right!" Hinako cried angrily. "I'll order the countdown for launch. But for the record, I think this is a terrible mistake."

"I'm not going to concern myself with it," Hauptmann replied. "If it is a mistake, none of us will be alive to regret it."

NCWS Tautog

14:05 Local Time

"Tommy, what have you got for me?"

Captain Olivera watched his Executive Officer make a last check of his information before replying.

"Well, skipper, the lesser Orochi satellites have these sensor/commo nodes running through the vertical axis in the dorsal and ventral quarters. If we hit them both, it should knock out all but their low-frequency radar and some low bandwidth radio links for backup commos and telemetry."

"Will that make it blind and deaf?"

"Mostly," the XO replied. "With the LF radar it will still be able to detect targets, and our stealthing is particularly vulnerable to LF and VLF radar frequencies, but the lack of resolution will make it very difficult to target anything with its weapons systems, and the low bandwidth commo links will make it difficult for other Orochi units to provide it with targeting data."

"Sounds great," Olivera remarked. "What's the catch?"

"The catch, sir," Tommy replied. "Is that both nodes are relatively small targets versus the bulk of the entire hull, and both are ringed with a dozen point-defense gun turrets."

"But you have a way around that, don't you."

The XO opened his helmet visor to wipe away the sweat. "If we get really close, and I mean close enough to see chipped paint without a telescope, we can get off a volley of torps at point blank range that might get past the turrets and knock out the nodes. If we use our laser turrets, we'll have better odds of hitting, but we'll expose ourselves to detection from the other Orochi units closing in, and we'll have to be almost as close."

Olivera was nodding his head as the XO spoke. "We'll have to put our most vulnerable quarter to the planet and creep up on attitude jets. That damn Orochi unit has to go before it starts targeting parts of the planet we care about."

He thumped his XO on the arm. "I'll leave the approach to you, Tommy. In the meantime, we need to brainstorm a solution to the primary Orochi satellite."

"That might not be necessary, sir," the Sensor Supervisor declared. "The main Furinkan Combine fleet is on a course to intercept. Estimated time to weapon range is four-two minutes."

Olivera looked at the holotank. "I never thought I'd be glad to see the Furinkan Combine, but I'm sure it'll pass soon enough."

Near the Starport

14:11 Local Time

Ukyou screamed into her commo mic as her battle-spatula cleaved through the hull of a Black Rose Wolverine that had nearly gotten the drop on her. The enormous 'mech blade severed the enemy battlemech's left arm in a shower of sparks and flame and dug deep into the torso armor, knocking it off balance. Crying out in a frenzy, Ukyou wrenched at her controls, bringing her Hatchetman's knee up to strike the Wolverine as it teetered, and sending it to the muddy ground with a crash.

She pulled at her embedded battle-spatula to free it as more Black Rose 'mechs appeared through the gloom. Cursing to herself, she let the weapon go, and fired her jump jets to spoil her enemies' aim. A cat's cradle of laser fire cut through the air around the Hatchetman as it sprang airborne under the shriek of fusion heated turbojets.

Knowing that it was dangerous to do so, and even more dangerous not to, she lined up a Black Rose Phoenix Hawk in her gunsight and fired her hip-mounted heavy autocannon in midair. The recoil sent her tumbling, and she fought her battlemech into a somersault, putting all of her martial arts intincts to the test to land upright. As she touched down and prepared to fire another round, she saw that her shell had hit its mark, blowing the enemy battlemech's head apart in a shower of smoke and flames.

There was no time to gloat over her marksmanship though, as the Wolverine she had cleaved pulled itself to its feet. The six-pack SRM launcher on its shoulder spat a volley of missiles at her, and she threw herself into a copse of trees to avoid them. Missiles exploded into the tress and cratered her armor in three places as she called out for help over the radio.

She had gone looking for Ryouga, and had found a Black Rose reconnaissance lance instead. Now she was outnumbered and cut off from the rest of her companions.

"Anybody out there?" she cried into her radio once more. The Wolverine crunched over the fallen Phoenix Hawk towards her, its hand-held autocannon spitting out a hail of shells that chopped down the trees in front of her with murderous efficiency. Her battle spatula was still embedded in its armor. Beyond the Wolverine was a Griffin and a Valkyrie. The Griffin tracked her with its PPC, waiting for a clear shot.

"What is your position?" a voice, Akane's, called out over the commo in return.

Ukyou's eyes flicked to the map display for a second as she ducked and weaved her Hatchetman between trees to avoid fire from the Black Rose 'mechs. "Three klicks southwest of you," she managed. A PPC bolt carromed off her shoulder, lighting up the woods for a moment as some of her precious armor boiled off into hot gas.

"Can you disengage?"

Ukyou spat out a curse before answering her. "If I could do that, I wouldn't be begging for help!"

"We can't break away right now," Akane returned, her voice just as urgent. The sounds of battle were clear enough over the commo to let Ukyou know that Akane was in the middle of a tremendous fight. "Avoid contact if you can, and try to work your way back towards us."

Ukyou knew then that she was truly on her own. The Wolverine and Griffin were working in tandem while the Valkyrie protected the rear, each covering the other's advance while she stumbled on through the woods trying to escape. The only problem with her strategy was that she would enter a clearing on her present course, giving them an unobstructed shot at her while remaining in cover themselves.

She needed a better plan, and she needed her battle-spatula back.

The Hatchetman stopped running and turned around. She fired the autocannon to keep their heads down, then triggered her jump jets. The 'mech lurched into the air as the Wolverine shrugged off the cannon hit, its ball-turret medium laser tracking her arc through the sky.

The laser blast bit into her Hatchetman's torso, but the armor held. The Wolverine raised its autocannon too late to gun her down, and she crashed into the 'mech feet first. The crunch of armor and the groan of actuators filled the rain soaked woods as the Wolverine crumpled and fell to the ground once again.

This time she wasn't going to let him get up. The autocannon barked, blowing the Wolverine's head clean off. The Griffin that had dogged her was now too close to use its PPC or its LRM launcher, and decided to throw down in hand to hand combat instead.

Ukyou wrenched frantically at the haft of her battle-spatula as the Griffin fired its jump jets for a death from above attack of its own. The trees shivered as it crashed through the canopy on its fatal collision course. The battlefield became shrouded in mist from the steam of evaporated rainfall.

The spatula ripped free of the armor that held it fast, and she brought it up to strike the Griffin as if fell upon her. The scream of pierced metal deafened her, and the shock of impact knocked her senseless. Alarms wailed in her cockpit as the Hatchetman fell over.

When she opened her eyes, the view out of her armored cockpit visor was dark. A quick scan of the cockpit told her that her 'mech systems were still online, but the clock was reading twenty minutes later than the last time she had looked. Had she been unconscious that long?

She tried to move her 'mech, but something was keeping the limbs pinned in place.

With some trepidation, she undogged her cockpit hatch and opened it. The Hatchetman had fallen onto its back, and as she crawled out of the hatch, she discovered why she had been unable to move. The Griffin lay over the top of her 'mech, its arms splayed out to either side of the Hatchetman's head. Her battle-spatula had cleaved through the bubble cockpit canopy of the enemy 'mech, and she had to look away at the sight of a smear of blood that trickled down the blade to wash away in the rain.

Of the enemy Valkyrie, there was no sign. It must have written them both off for dead and left to rejoin its company. All that remained were the enormous footprints of its passing that filled with rainwater.

The adrenaline of combat was starting to wear off, and she wobbled unsteadily on her feet. She had never fought in such an ugly, desperate battle before. Her days as a general in the Federated Shiratori had simply not prepared her for this.

She plopped down on the muddy ground and hugged her knees to her chest. The rain continued to fall as the sounds of thunder mingled with the sounds of battle to the north. She just needed to rest for a little while, she told herself, wiping the rain out of her eyes. Then she would go back to the fighting.

Red Leader

14:19 Local Time

Akane lashed out at the Black Rose Hunchback she had let escape in their first encounter, clouting it with both PPC cannon arms. The squat, ugly war machine pitched over, its torso caved in and gouts of nitrogen gas from its breached cooling systems venting through rents in the armor. She stomped over the top of it as she drew a bead on the next enemy 'mech, blasting it with a double barrage of particle beam fire that plowed through the thin rear armor of the enemy Thunderbolt. The heavy 'mech fusion reactor exploded with such fury that it took a wounded Rifleman with it, and ended the battle as abruptly as it had begun.

She blinked away the spots that swam before her eyes. It might have been a foolish thing to meet the enemy charge head on, but the alternative was to be completely overrun. The Black Rose's troops were fighting with a fanaticism that she had never seen before - not even on Port Said.

Doctor Tofu's Centurion drew a wary bead on the tree line with its heavy autocannon as she stomped back into cover. The cannon muzzle on his 'mech glowed a dull red, even in the rain. Two ugly tears in his torso armor made it clear that he wasn't fit to be mixing it up at close range anymore.

Even Genma's Orion was battered. His instincts for self-preservation made him a poor choice for front rank duty, but she had to admit that he was a formidable mechwarrior in a pinch, having destroyed or seriously damaged four 'mechs single-handedly. Of course, he had been completely cut off from help at the time and it was fight or die, but the results were still the same.

"Still no word from Ryouga or Ukyou," Doctor Tofu said to her.

"I hope they're all right," she returned anxiously. There had been no word from Ryouga, and Ukyou had gone silent after her last transmission begging for help. Ranma wasn't answering the commo, though the reasons for this weren't clear. The situation did not look good for them, even with the Orochi network bombarding the Musk Dynasty positions and keeping them busy.

"I'm almost out of ammunition," Tofu added. "One shell left in the gun; no missiles."

"I'm out of missiles and shells," Genma chimed in.

"All right," Akane panted. "We'll fall back to rearm. I want to see if we can link up with Ukyou, or at least find out what happened to her, so we'll take the southern route back to the DropShip. Keep an eye out for Black Rose units along the way."

The three battlemechs formed up into a loose wedge and moved out.

Test Area North, near the Orochi Control Bunker

14:18 Local Time

Shampoo was a hunter. Next to a lightning fast raid, she preferred nothing more than stalking her prey unawares. It was even more enjoyable for her when her prey belonged to the traitorous Musk Dynasty.

She could see them moving through the rainy gloom. The Orochi network had been unleashing deathbolts from orbit on their positions for forty-five minutes now, and they were too busy keeping one eye on the sky to watch out for a lone Panther with a mistress that was out for blood. She hadn't bothered to tell anyone at the bunker that she was leaving. In fact, she was rather concerned about becoming the victim of orbital bombardment herself, and standing next to a target like that was asking to get killed.

Now she was free. Free to hunt her clan's enemies. Free to take revenge on Mousse for his betrayal. He was out there somewhere, commanding the troops that had come to make Ryuugenzawa theirs, and she would kill him.

The Musk Dynasty 'mechs were much closer now. Their radars probed the woods around them, but with the heavy rainfall and all of the trees, it was doubtful that they could see her. Thermal sensors were almost useless.

She kept her Panther's reactor powered down anyway, content to let the lance of 'mechs pass her by. They trudged past from a distance of one hundred meters, dark shapes moving through the woods oblivious to the source of their own deaths. She breathed a silent prayer to the gods of war, then flicked the combat start-up switch for the reactor.

The fusion plant came to life with a low rumble. Two weak plumes of steam vented from her Panther's heat sinks in response. She waited until the plumes disappated, then moved forward at a crawl.

The Musk Dynasty Dragon at the rear of the file did not detect her approach. She followed it as quietly as a thirty-five ton war machine could, which when matching the Dragon's footsteps with her own, was silent indeed. As she closed the range, her PPC arm rose slowly to target a known weak spot in the battlemech's armor. It was too small for an average mechwarrior to target in the heat of battle, but for a skilled mechwarrior such as herself with the element of surprise for an ally, it was no challenge.

The PPC erupted at the touch of the trigger, sending a ball of blue-white lightning into the Dragon's back. The battlemech lurched with the hit as it annihilated the thin rear armor and blasted deep into the internals. The Dragon's autocannon ammunition exploded an instant later, gutting the 'mech in a shower of green and orange flame.

Shampoo leaped her Panther to the side, taking advantage of the steam clouds produced by the bolt and by the rain to conceal her. The other Musk Dynasty 'mechs spun around to face the apparent direction of the attack. One even began firing blindly with its autocannon. Tracers lit up the gloom as she circled around behind them once more.

She aimed once again for the weak spot, smiling to herself at how easy this was. Were these not the greatest men in the Inner Sphere? She had to laugh as she touched the trigger and obliterated another Dragon. Fools. Pretentious upstarts with no conception of what true skill in battle meant.

Again the surviving Dragons spun to face their attacker. She could almost hear their panicked cries over the radio, and was tempted to tune her commo array to their tac-net channels. Again she slipped around to attack them from another direction.

Autocannon fire streamed from their guns as they fired wildly into the surrounding woods. Several shells spanged off her armor, but she did not react with answering fire. Crouching her Panther to practically crawl through the muddy undergrowth, she crept slowly into position, and waited for them to run out of ammunition.

They were wary now, turning in slow circles that denied her a clear shot at their weak spots. Undaunted, she twisted her torso to the side while keeping her PPC arm levelled at the closer of the two. From the chest of her 'mech erupted a volley of four short range missiles. They were Streak SRMs, which was a pity to waste under the circumstances, but they had their desired effect.

As the missiles exploded into the trees, the Dragon pilots turned to face the blasts. Shampoo aimed carefully for the cockpit, which was no easy shot given the protective cover of the 'mech's oversized shoulder armor, and fired. The bolt grazed the canopy, blinding the mechwarrior, and giving her time to jet into the air.

Laser and autocannon fire pounded her late position as she sailed over their unsuspecting heads to land on the opposite side. The crash of the trees alerted them, and they lumbered around to face her once more. Shampoo was ready for them, aiming once more for the cockpit, and was quickly rewarded with the sight of one of the two turning right into her gunsight. The thick-barrelled autocannon of the Dragon spat out a single shell before running dry, a shot that carromed off her armor as she blew the cockpit to smithereens.

The last Dragon lurched after her, intent on clubbing her to the ground with its depleted autocannon. Shampoo stood her Panther up, and let the charging Dragon have a bellyfull of SRMs before jetting clear. The missiles cratered the 'mech's thick frontal armor, and the blasts obscured her from sight.

She let the foolish Dragon pilot thrash around in the woods. He would have called for help by now, and she was late to set up her ambush of the relieving forces. With luck, perhaps Mousse would be leading them.

Headquarters Lance, Black Rose Terror Regiment

South of the Starport

14:20 Local Time

Kodachi's Marauder broke out of the treeline to see the ruins of the colony town laid out before her. The place had been destroyed over a century ago, and the prolific plant life of Ryuugenzawa had quickly moved in. There was good cover here, which concerned her. It was an ideal spot for an ambush.

"What is it?" Tarou asked her.

"It's nothing," she replied. Ever since the Thorn had been attacked by an unknown LAM with SLDF markings, she had been on edge. She was here to kill Akane Tendo, not tangle with the locals in a turf war.

The most curious aspect of her brief campaign was knowing that her hated rival was somewhere close at hand. Her SIGINT people had been able to identify her voice on several occasions during the past hour, and the limited Direction Finder fixes they had obtained seemed to indicate that she was east of the starport proper - where Captain Lassiter had suffered his first defeat, and then, if the lack of signals from him was any indication, his death.

In trying to reconcile the mystery of the Star League battlemechs that had mauled her precious regiment with Akane Tendo, she could only conclude that the Tendo witch had found the 'mechs in the ruins. Tarou had obviously come to the same conclusion, for he had become increasingly bold as they neared the starport. Her lover wanted a share of the spoils, and if only Akane Tendo and a rag-tag handful of Confederation pilots stood in the way, there was nothing to be feared.

"Advance," she ordered her troops. Akane Tendo and her men were too far north to reach the ruined colony town in time to set up an ambush for her.

Tarou stomped out onto the cracked pavement of the colony town's main drag. He passed several deep pools of water, taking care to note their tactical use in case they ended up having to fight in this area. He did not know that they were craters formed by orbital bombardment at the time of the town's destruction, nor would he have cared. The Orochi network was preoccupied with the Commonwealth landing zones, as the regular flashes of light and dull booms of thunder on the horizon confirmed.

As he thought warm thoughts of the Commonwealth's annihilation, the sight of a Locust tromping past his Hunchback drew him up short. The pilot of the light 'mech had apparently missed seeing him as it rounded the corner of a ruined building. From the battlemech's distinct loping gait, and the fact that a Cameron Star was crudely painted on its hull, he decided that it could belong to only one person.

"HAPPOUSAI!!!" he roared at the Locust, and fired his monstrous Tomodzuru Type 20 autocannon. The depleted uranium dart punched a neat hole through one of the SRM launcher pods projecting from the tub-like hull, and the force of the impact blasted it into glowing shards of hot metal.

The Locust staggered with the hit, but did not fall over. It turned to face him as Kodachi and the rest of the lance moved to join him.

"Well, I'll be!" Happousai replied over the commo. "Fancy meeting you here, eh, Monster Boy?"

The use of Ryouga's hated sobriquet for him made his blood boil even hotter than before.

"I'm here to kill you, Happousai!" he shouted back.

The Locust darted off into the ruins. "Take a number and stand in line, loser!" Happousai cackled.

Kodachi's Marauder fired a twin blast of PPC bolts at the fleeing Locust. The bolts burst apart a low wall just short of their target. Tarou stomped off in pursuit as she drew up alongside him.

"Is this the man you were talking about earlier, lover?" she inquired sweetly of him.

"The same," Tarou grunted.

"Would you mind if I tagged along?" she asked, eying him with an expression of faint amusement.

"Be my guest," Tarou replied tersely. "But remember that the final blow must come from me!"

She cooed huskily. "You know how hot it makes me when you talk to me like that, my dear." She then gave a shrill laugh at the prospect of fighting a master mechwarrior. "Charge into battle, my dears!" she called to her 'mechs.

The DropShip Palomino

Ian Cameron Starport

14:15 Local Time

Grand Duke Soun Tendo checked his cooling vest connections with the ease borne of long practice. Though it had been many years since the last time he had mounted up, he found that the old ways had come back to him as if it had only been yesterday. The sight of the Star League Warhammer and Victor standing tall under the camouflage netting that draped both the battlemechs and the DropShip filled him with a sense of exhilaration that he felt he did not deserve under the dire circumstances facing them.

He watched as his eldest daughter Kasumi received a few last moment bits of advice from the tech who had prepped the Victor for action. Soun was glad at least to be accompanying her into battle. The helplessness he had felt during her ordeal on the moon of Oni had weighed heavily on him during the campaign, and even in the month of abrupt exile he had experienced at the hands of his middle daughter.

He did not know what to do about Nabiki. If they managed to evade the Furinkan Combine and the Orochi network, then her reign as Regent over the Confederation would be ended. After that, he was unsure. He knew that many of his advisors would recommend that she be executed for treason, but could he order the death of his own flesh and blood? More than that, she was the child of his beloved late wife. Killing her did nothing to stop the Furinkan Combine, and in the end, would it make any difference?

These were questions which preyed upon his mind as he climbed up the boarding ladder to the Warhammer's cockpit. Kasumi cast him a brief wave before buttoning up her hatch, which he returned in an attempt to convey a sense of jauntiness to the affair which bound them into a desperate battle. The Tautog was about to commit itself to battle to prevent the Orochi satellite which pounded the planet from targeting the starport, and if were crippled or destroyed in the process, then only Captains Hauptmann and Ninomiya could hope to get them out of the system.

"What are your orders, Father?" Kasumi asked him over the tac-net.

"We'll wait here until your sister returns to rearm," he replied. Akane's message to the Palomino stating her intention to do just that had come minutes prior to the shuttle's arrival at the starport. "Until then," he added. "We'll protect the DropShip from attack."

Kasumi Tendo studied the cockpit controls of the Star League Victor to familiarize herself with their layout. The Star League Defense Force had mandated a set of standards for control systems to minimize the costs of training mechwarriors on different models of battlemech, and so it was just a matter of learning that the heat sink status board was to the left and over her head on the Victor, and not to the right and level with the control yokes as on her Atlas. The status board itself was nearly identical in layout and function.

The weapon systems on the Victor were similar to her Atlas, lacking only the LRM launcher, and downgrading the SRM launcher to a quad rack. The massive Pontiac 100 autocannon that was the Victor's primary armament took up the entire right arm, something she was not used to with her old mech, which retained two fully articulated hands. Her Victor could also jump, being one of the few assault class 'mechs to be outfitted with jump jets.

While the capabilities of the 'mech would force her to alter her fighting style, she did approve of how neat and orderly the Victor's cockpit was. Most Inner Sphere 'mechs were untidy tangles of patchwork repair and modification, making them nightmares for technicians to service. It was a most agreeable battlemech, she decided.

Her father's order to wait she found a little harder to accept. She wanted to see Akane again. It had been hard having her baby sister away for so long, and with Nabiki's betrayal, she needed to have as much of the family together and united under a common purpose as possible. She also wanted to ask her sister how she was getting along with Ranma, but knew that any answers were best left until things were quiet again. As far as she was concerned, Ranma and his parents were already part of the family, and she wanted him to be reunited with his mother after so many years apart.

The sounds of battle rolled in the distance. None of this was possible until after the fighting stopped, and there seemed to be no way to end the fighting without running from Ryuugenzawa, the prize that had given her so much hope over the last half year. Was it right to flee from the planet after so much sacrifice and hardship? What did all of the people who died on Oni give their lives for, if only to see the Confederation routed from the Ryuugenzawa System, and Tatewaki Kuno made the final victor?

She was troubled by the answers she gave to herself, for they only generated more questions. It was so complicated, and all she really wanted to do was go home, find a sensible and hardworking young man, and raise a family with him. No matter what she wanted or deserved, Duty's clarion call would not release her to follow her dreams, and all she could look forward to in the next few hours was more carnage.

Test Area 4-A

14:20 Local Time

Ranma Saotome studied her enemies closely through the heavy brush and thick foliage provided by the local trees. The Musk Dynasty had been in disarray since the Orochi network had commenced a haphazard bombardment of their landing zones, but now it seemed as if they were starting to pull themselves together. It made her wonder if there wasn't someone important close by that was rallying them, someone that needed taking out.

Akane's urgent voice on her transmitter remote squawked out over the white noise of rain falling gently in the trees. Ranma had the volume turned down low to avoid giving away her position while she observed the Musk forces, but felt uncomfortable ignoring her. From the sound of Akane's voice, she was probably getting worried about a lack of response, but it couldn't be helped. Ranma's Scout instincts were strong, and Scouts did not give away their position with pointless radio transmissions to reassure their worried fiancees.

The absence of Ryouga was bad enough news, she supposed. She had heard Akane and the others calling for the lost boy on several occasions, all without success. Had the dope gotten lost again? It took all of her willpower not to leave her position and go looking for him, because if she could take out the guy who was in charge of the Musk Dynasty landing force, she might be able to keep them off balance for the rest of the battle - or at least as long as it took to fix the DropShip and get the hell off this mudball.

A white Crusader strode into view, bearing several marks that indicated that its pilot ranked high on the Musk Dynasty food chain. Ranma tensed for a moment, feeling a twisting in her gut that this must be the one. The Crusader halted before a pair of mobile MASH vans and a coolant truck, the cockpit hatch opening as it stopped.

She pulled out her magnigoggles and took a closer look. A young man with thick glasses perched atop a fall of long blue-black hair pulled himself out of the hatch as lackeys below him on the ground snapped salutes. Ranma shook her head ruefully. They should have known better than to salute in the field.

The man apparently did, for he berated them for their foolishness. Ranma did not understand Chinese, but she knew when someone was getting their ass chewed, no matter what language was being used. There was no doubt now that this was the guy to whack.

She didn't like to think of it as assassination as she slid down the wet grassy slope to the open cockpit of her concealed Super Phoenix Hawk LAM. Assassins worked their trade in peacetime, against political figures. This was war, and her target was an enemy military officer.

It would be her first time at it, though. Her Pop had usually handled the job in the few instances when it had come up, with herself acting as a spotter and escort. She felt a little uneasy about killing someone with a battlemech's heavy pulselaser. It felt wrong, even cowardly.

She swallowed hard and edged the LAM over the ridge. The long rifle-like heavy pulselaser projected from the underbrush. A gun-camera mounted over the focusing optics fed the targeting computer, and projected an image of the scene beyond in a window on her HUD. Centered in the reticle was the man in indigo robes and the long dark hair. He looked vaguely familiar to Ranma, and it took several moments to realize that this was the man who had arrested them on Capra, and who had been present in the jail with Shampoo.

Mousse. The man whose baby Shampoo was going to have.

Now she felt really uneasy about killing him like this. Killing an enemy was a regrettable if oftentimes necessary fact of war, but all her enemies had been so impersonal before now. Squeezing the firing stud on Mousse would not only end the man's life, but orphan his unborn child at the same time.

Ranma's finger eased off the trigger. She took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. She couldn't do it. Not like this.

Maybe she'd better go look for Ryouga instead.

Mechwarrior Colonel Mousse started in surprise as a white and silver Phoenix Hawk LAM blasted out of the treeline a scant hundred meters from his position. He dropped through his cockpit hatch without a second thought, ready to fight the intruder, when he realized that it was leaving the area at high speed. He bit back a curse and watched the LAM transform to Fighter Mode, knowing now that he had more than just the Black Rose to deal with. The Cameron Star of the SLDF had adorned that fighter, which meant that there was probably a force of indigenous mechwarriors protecting the planet - probably the same ones who directed the Orochi network, the ones whose signals his men were still trying to pinpoint. Any survivors from the Dragonfly were probably helping them in their work, though he was tempted to write that thought off as wishful thinking on his part. His hope that Shampoo might yet live was clouding his judgement.

They had to be close by, as the Orochi seemed to be preoccupied with his troops and not with the Black Rose's forces in the east. What few Direction Finder fixes his SIGINT people had been able to establish supported that theory, but the lance of Dragons he had sent out to investigate had failed to find anything more than an ambush that left all but one 'mech destroyed.

General Herb's DropShip would be landing shortly, he thought to himself. He can handle the rest of the regiment. It's time I investigated these signals personally. Again, he questioned his real motivation for wanting to search, and found only Shampoo in his innermost thoughts.

"Captain Lime," he called over the tac-net.

The beefy, somewhat obdurate face of Lime appeared on the display.

"Yes, my lord Colonel?" It was obvious from his tone that he was still bitter about Mousse's rapid advancement in the ranks of the Musk, and especially because he was not a hybrid like so many others in the movement.

"Send General Herb my regards, and inform him that I have gone to investigate the signals we discussed in an earlier transmission. All units have regrouped by company, and are proceeding to their ordered objectives without contact."

Mint appeared next to Lime on the display. "What are you up to, lord Colonel?" he asked in a threatening tone.

"I follow my orders," Mousse replied curtly. "General Herb has instructed me to find and capture the source of those signals, and that is what I shall do. Now follow your own orders!"

Mint saluted grudgingly, and disappeared from the display. Lime followed without a word.

The forest surrounding Ian Cameron Starport,

4 kilometers east of the DropShip Palomino

14:30 Local Time

"Ukyou?"

The former Federated Shiratori general opened her eyes. Akane Tendo and Doctor Tofu were kneeling at her side in the mud. The rain had slowed to a gentle sprinkle around her, though she was soaking wet.

"I'm all right," she managed. Looking up, she could see the three battlemechs of Akane, Doctor Tofu, and Genma Saotome standing over her.

"What happened?" Akane asked her, her voice filled with emotion. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Concern from her rival was not what she was expecting, but it was welcome. She brushed away wet chestnut bangs of hair from her eyes and tried to stand. The cold and damp made her joints stiff and sore, and she did so only with a little help from Doctor Tofu.

"Got in a little scrape with the Black Rose regiment," she said in a quiet voice. She gestured to the Griffin which lay over the top of her Hatchetman. "This one here fell on top of me after I took out his partner."

Tofu followed the line of toppled trees to see the steaming wreckage of a Wolverine.

"You destroyed both of them by yourself?"

"Plus a Phoenix Hawk about two hundred meters that way," she replied, pointing. "I think the last 'mech in the enemy lance left me for dead."

Akane put a steadying hand on her shoulder. "You don't look so good," she observed.

"I'm fine, honey," Ukyou replied, shrugging off the suggestion that she wasn't fit for combat. Her pride would not allow it. "I think I got a little shaken up in the fall, and I know I'm a little tired, but I can hack it. I just need some help pulling this Combine wreck off my Hachetman."

Genma's Orion, privy to the conversation with his directional mics, leaned forward to oblige. The heavy 'mech nudged the fallen Griffin over with its foot. The sight of the battle-spatula bisecting the bubble cockpit canopy and the blood that was splattered everywhere inside from the bisected pilot must have been a grim reminder to the elder Saotome of the hazards of operating a Griffin.

"Remind me not to get on your bad side, Ukyou," Akane joked weakly at the grisly sight.

Ukyou preferred not to be reminded of it herself. "Did you get ahold of Ranchan or Ryouga?"

"No," Akane replied, her expression dimming. "There hasn't been any word from either of them. I hope nothing has happened."

Genma clicked on his external speakers. "I don't want to be rude, but your father is waiting for us at the DropShip, Akane. We should get back and rearm before the next attack comes."

"We'll be right along, Mister Saotome," Akane replied.

NCWS Tautog

In orbit above planet Ryuugenzawa

14:32 Local Time

"Conn, Sensory; Contact Echo Two-Nine bearing zero-four-five, plus eight-eight. Range: four-zero thousand kilometers."

Olivera sipped from his coffee, which had grown cold since the last time he had it filled.

"Very well, Sensory," he replied in a clipped voice. He had other concerns. The primary Orochi unit would keep for just a little longer, he was certain. Unit Three, on the other hand, was shifting its orbit slightly to remain in position over the starport area, and there were ominous indications from the control bunker on the surface that it had changed its targeting priorities.

"Mark bearing and range to Echo Two-Five," he ordered.

"Contact Echo Two-Five bears zero-zero-three minus zero-four," Sensory replied. "Range to target: two thousand meters."

The Orochi satellite loomed before them, a baleful white oval on the main display. The image was without magnification. Olivera wasn't sure he wanted a closer look at it just yet.

"How much closer, Tommy?" he asked his XO.

The man lifted his head from the Fire Control station. "We need to be within five hundred meters to even have a shot at this with a torpedo."

"Damn," Olivera cursed. "That's too close."

"Conn, Sensory; Contact Echo Three-Zero now bearing zero-four-nine, plus eight-nine. Range: one hundred-thousand kilometers."

Olivera's eyes swept over the holotank as the first of Prince Kuno's fleet entered the fray. They were going to take on the primary Orochi satellite, which given the circumstances, they were better suited for. He wouldn't mind if they destroyed the damned thing - so long as they were destroyed along with it.

He wasn't going to bet either way. Arrayed against Prince Kuno's battleship and other escorts was the primary Orochi satellite and four of its lesser units. No matter which side won, the survivors would be hurting. The Confederation was counting on that to escape, but what if their enemies succeeded in destroying each other?

It was a heady prospect, because Hauptmann wasn't the only one who wanted to see the Confederation profit from the Ryuugenzawa System. If the Grand Duke and his people on the surface were the last ones standing, then they would win the planet by default. Nabiki and her faction of spineless traitors couldn't hope to remain in power when His Grace returned in triumph to Nerima with the secrets of Ryuugenzawa in his possession, and if Kuno and his fleet were destroyed, there would be little to threaten their country as they rebuilt with the recovered technology.

"Conn, Sensory; Echo Two-Five has fired upon the planet! The starport appears to be the impact point!"

Sensory's announcement shocked him out of his speculation. "Has the Palomino been hit?" he demanded.

"No, Captain," a commo tech replied. "They are continuing to transmit to Lady Akane."

"Then what was that thing shooting at?"

"Unknown at this time," Sensory declared.

He clenched his teeth. "Dammit... Tommy, we need to take a shot now, before that thing refines its aim."

"A torp shot doesn't have much of a chance, even at two klicks, skipper," the XO declared.

Olivera came to a decision, one that might cost them. "Chief of the Watch, raise the laser turrets. Fire Control, prepare to fire Guns One and Two."

An electric tension filled the Bridge with these orders. Everyone understood that the Captain intended to take on the Orochi point blank in a slugfest they couldn't possibly win. Knowing this, they still followed their orders.

"Chief of the Watch, aye."

"Fire Control, aye."

Olivera strapped himself to his chair. "Helm, stand by to execute full evasive maneuvers. Fire Control, prepare to fire at targets selected by Commander Thompson."

The XO let out a deep exhale. "Pretty ballsy of you, skipper."

Olivera set his coffee bottle in a mesh bag at his seat.

"I'm getting tired of all this sneakin' and peekin'. If we don't make it through this, the Duke will still have the Coronet to get him home."

"Turrets One and Two are locked into position," the Chief of the Watch declared. "Stealth integrity compromised."

"Targets acquired. Fire Control standing by."

"Conn, Sensory; Contact Echo Two-Five has illuminated us with active search radar in T and X bands, gun-directing radar, and ultraviolet band lidar."

Olivera snapped his visor into place. "Let 'em have it, Fire Control."

The Tautog's two Naval Laser turrets spat out thready streams of light at the Orochi satellite. The beams struck the oblate saucer-shaped battlestation at top and bottom center, blasting what they hoped was its weak spots.

"Sensory, what's going on over there?" Olivera asked.

"No effect, Captain," the Supervisor announced grimly. "All radar and commo systems seem to be online."

"Well then, keep shooting, for Christ's sake!"

The whine of the turrets firing above and below them echoed through the Bridge.

The Orochi reacted to the presence of the corvette's attack as if it could feel the damage. Sensor arrays under fire trained upon the hostile ship, and with them tracked the fearsome guns in its arsenal.

The Tautog shook as a bolt of particle beam fire ripped along the port side hull.

"Helm, negative three-zero degrees pitch, All Ahead Flank!" Olivera ordered.

"'F' Deck portside reports heavy damage," the Damage Control Assistant declared over the roar of shearing metal. "Engineering reports damage to Number Two Main Engine induction dampers. Maximum drive output reduced to four gravities of acceleration."

"Very well, DCA," Olivera grunted. It was better than he had feared. They were still breathing.

The ship began to accelerate, building up to punishing amounts of artificial gravity as the Orochi continued to shoot at them. A second beam creased their dorsal hull, ripping a swath through their heavy stealth-lined superstructure.

"Fire Tubes One through Six!" Olivera ordered over the noise of the engines and the strain of four gees. With any luck, the Orochi would waste some of its firepower on the Barracudas, and spare his ship some grief.

The six Barracuda torpedoes launched with loud thuds in rapid succession from the electromagnetic catapult tubes aft and below the Bridge. Olivera watched the weapons on the telescope monitor as they raced on full burn towards the orbital battlestation. To his amazement, all six weapons hit the thing broadside, exploding deep into armor and blackening an entire side of the hull.

The Helmsman commenced his one minute throttle-back on the engines to take some strain off the crew, and gave Olivera a chance to review the situation. "What's happening?" he asked Sensory.

"I think we got at least one of the nodes, Captain!" the Supervisor cried.

The Orochi continued to shoot at them, but now the beams were scattered and useless.

"We must have hit the ventral node hard enough to knock it out," the XO added. "The Orochi is firing its attitude thrusters to bring the dorsal node to bear on us so that it can track."

Olivera turned to his Astrogator as the Orochi maneuvered. Beams splayed across the void between them as guns on the dorsal side of the saucer came to bear. One ripped across their bow, vaporizing a section of stealth-lined superstructure in a cloud of plasma.

"Keep us out of that thing's entire dorsal hemisphere!" he shouted, knowing that to do so, they had to come even closer to the thing. "Fire Control, what is the status of reloading tubes one through six?"

"Tubes One, Three, and Five are ready in all respects. Tubes Two, Four, and Six are pending. Port Torpedo Room reports manual reloads will take four minutes at the soonest."

Olivera understood. "Fire Control, Vertical Salvo: Tubes One, Three, and Five. Fire Two, Four, and Six just as soon as they're ready," he ordered. "How about the Gun Turrets?"

The corvette bucked as a laser beam stitched across its dorsal armor belt, sending displays crashing to static for a moment with the shock.

"Gun Turret One is knocked out," Fire Control responded when the systems cam back online. "That last hit got it. Gun Turret Two is still online."

"Good enough. Helm, put on one-hundred eighty degrees left roll." As the corvette rolled, it would put its functional turret to bear on the Orochi.

"Helm, aye."

Olivera looked at his XO. "We might live through this yet."

Ian Cameron Starport

14:36 Local Time

From the twisted wreckage of the quonset hut that Happousai had destroyed came a flicker of movement. A few pieces of rubble fell away from a secton of half-melted trusswork to reveal a small black pig, soaked with the rain and smeared with mud from crawling through the remains of the building. Its tiny grunts of pain and exertion went unheard over the patter of the storm.

Ryouga had expected to die as the quonset hut collapsed on him, but as the building fell apart over his head, a splash of rainwater had turned him into his hated Jusenkyo body. That lucky accident had spared him as the rubble fell down, the surviving trusses piling up to form small pockets of safety that a man could never have used. It had taken all of his effort to free himself from his tomb of debris, but now as he tasted the clean air and felt the wind on his face, he let out a squeal of defiance at the man who had tried to kill him.

He could see the low hill of camouflage netting that marked the Palomino in the distance. It was much too far for a pig to travel, and especially so when that pig had no direction sense. He turned in a circle to see if Happousai had left his BattleMaster intact, and rejoiced when he saw it kneeling on one knee close by.

He skittered across the wet, cracked tarmac towards his battlemech, where he would find a flask of hot water that would turn him back into a human. Then he would hunt Happousai down and kill the freak.

The BattleMaster waited for him as he scrambled up the rain-slicked arm to the torso, and from there, scrabbled into the cockpit. The 'mech was still online as he fumbled with his hooves to work the flask's flip-top lid open.

Hot water spilled from the flask over his head, affecting his transformation. As he donned his neurohelmet and strapped himself into his ejector seat, he realized that he was naked. His shorts and cooling vest were still trapped under the rubble.

With a blush, he realized that he would have to continue the battle in this condition. There wasn't time to rush back to the DropShip for a change of clothes, and he couldn't bear the thought of Akari accidentally seeing him in the buff.

As the BattleMaster stood upright, he surveyed the area, looking for the footprints Happousai's Locust might have left behind. It was possible that his nemesis had fled to the south. He resolved to find out, but first there were a few things he needed to take care of.

The BattleMaster stomped over to the ruins of the hut, then began pulling the debris off and casting it aside. The strongbox that held the Library Core had looked pretty solid, and there was a chance that in its armored pit it could have survived. Happousai must have thought so when he chose to bring down the building.

He would recover the strongbox so that no matter what happened later, Happousai would not get his hands on it. It belonged to Akane, and to the Confederation he had sworn to serve, not to a greedy, murderous little monster like Happousai. He would see to that.

He found it right in the center of the pile. With excessive care, he picked it up between two fingers and brought it up to the cockpit. He opened the armored canopy enough to stay out of the rain, and lifted the heavy box from his battlemech's grasp. Once the box was securely strapped into the rear seat, he sealed the canopy.

The Treasure of Ryuugenzawa was his now. All he had to do was deliver it to the Palomino. Then he could go hunt down Happousai.

The Ruins of Ryuugenzawa City

14:40 Local Time

"Come on out, Happousai," Pansuto Tarou's voice grated over the tac-net. "Stop running like the spineless old weakling you are, and face me."

Happousai ignored the man's pathetic attempt to draw him out. Such a tactic might have worked on a knucklehead like Ranma or Ryouga, but he was smarter than that.

His battlemech was crouched in the burned out shell of a school building, and he watched as more Black Rose 'mechs than he cared to see stomped past him out on the street. How Tarou had stumbled into Kodachi Kuno's camp and won her over, he did not know, but it seemed clear that Tarou had taken the secret of the Ryuugenzawa System's location with him when he parted ways with the Dragonfly. He had to admire the man's underhandedness, if nothing else.

His best bet was to wait out Tarou and let the battle progress. Kodachi would grow weary of the cat-and-mouse game soon, and wander off with her troops to go destroy something - like the Palomino - and that would leave Tarou on his own. He knew he could take the chump, even in a damaged Locust.As for the Palomino, well, they should be finishing up the repairs about now. He didn't think they were in all that much danger.

Kodachi gave a bored sigh. "Really, lover, if he intended to fight you, he would have done it by now. Let's go find Akane Tendo. Perhaps that will be the impetus to draw him out."

Tarou snorted in reply. "The old goat could care less about Akane Tendo. It's his own skin he's worried about."

Kodachi's Black Marauder put up its derringer-like forearms in a shrug. "Then what do you propose to do?" Her voice was edged with a touch of irritation.

Tarou pointed to a cluster of buildings. "Smoke him out." He fired his arm-mounted medium lasers at one of the structures, pumping energy into it until the ruined husk collapsed in on itself. "He's hiding somewhere in this abandoned town. If we knock down every standing structure left, he'll have to come out."

Kodachi pursed her lips in thought. "Very well, my lover. I shall indulge you. I'll send one battalion on ahead, and order the rest of my troops to begin razing the city." She arched an eyebrow at him, and her perfect white teeth nibbled playfully upon the haft of her riding crop. "Of course, it shall cost you later this evening."

The DropShip Palomino

14:45 Local Time

Akane studied the steaming crater less than five hundred meters from the DropShip as she and her battered lance of battlemechs stomped out of the treeline. The shot had come from one of the Orochi satellites in low orbit, the one that had been pounding on the Musk Dynasty forces. She was glad the shot had fallen well short of the Palomino, and wondered when the next one would come.

A Warhammer and a Victor stood with weapons ready as they approached, and her heart began to swell with emotion. The two 'mechs had to be piloted by her father and eldest sister.

"Dad?" she called out over the tac-net. "Kasumi?"

The face of Grand Duke Tendo appeared on her tac-net. He was wearing a neurohelmet, the first time she had seen him in one for ten years. "I'm here, Daughter. Your sister Kasumi is also here with me."

She didn't know where she should begin, so Akane started with the questions closest to her heart.

"Dad, you don't know how happy I am to see you and Kasumi, but why did you come, and what is this about Nabiki taking over the Confederation?"

Soun cleared his throat to speak, for Nabiki's betrayal continued to sting. "To be brief, your sister Nabiki and some of the nobles relieved my of my authority," he replied, his voice thick with emotions he had suppressed ever since the coup. "Your sister and I were taken hostage, and were then rescued by loyalists. We've come here to return you to Nerima. Nabiki's reign as Regent is only temporary; as soon as you come home, she has to step down."

Akane's eyes began to glisten with angry tears. Nabiki had gone too far. The surrender summit was bad enough, but to overthrow her own family and lock them up as prisoners? She had to escape from Ryuugenzawa and put things right!

"As soon as the DropShip is ready, we'll lift off," she declared. Her battlemech came to a halt just outside the camouflage netting, where a handful of Akari's techs were waiting with ammunition to reload them. She popped her hatch and scrambled down the boarding ladder. Genma, Ukyou, and Doctor Tofu did the same, and were followed by Grand Duke Tendo and Kasumi.

They met in the middle of the 'mech formation. Akane threw her arms around her father and squeezed him tightly, hugging him in a way she hadn't since she was a child.

"I missed you, Dad," she cried softly. "It's been hard without you and Kasumi around."

"It was even harder for me," he replied. Kasumi was the quiet strength of the family, and Nabiki had been the wise voice of reason, but it was his youngest daughter who embodied the very spirit of the Tendos. He could see how much she had grown up in the last six months, and silently thanked Saotome for insisting that she accompany them on the expedition. Genma locked hands with him, as if sensing his thoughts.

"It's good to see you, Tendo," Genma said to him.

"You've done it, Saotome," he replied. "If it ever appeared that I doubted your ability to succeed, let me dispel those doubts now."

Ukyou Kuonji watched the reunion in silence. She should have felt a little miserable at the sight of it since she was an outsider and seemingly all alone, but instead she felt a sense of pride and satisfaction. Akane and the others had shown in the past several days that she was more than simply useful baggage to them. She had become part of their team. When Akane and Doctor Tofu had come looking for her, it was because they cared about her.

Yes, she was still hurting from losing Ranchan, but by her concern, Akane had made it clear that she was a friend in spite of their rivalry. Could she turn that aside out of petty jealousy? The answer was a very obvious no. Akane and the others counted on her, depended on her with their lives, and that was a relationship born out of trust and respect that could not be broken.

The Grand Duke and his family were part of that bond of trust that had formed, and so whatever the consequences of her birth, she now considered herself one of them, a member of the Nerima Confederation, all fighting the Combine and the Musk Dynasty together. She wasn't going to stand for the likes of Kodachi and Tatewaki Kuno tearing them apart, and there was no way in hell some lousy machine menace like the Orochi was going to, either.

Akane released her grip on her father, and presented Ukyou to him as she came to that decision.

"Dad, this is Ukyou Kuonji, a friend of Ranma's." It was a bit of diplomacy on Akane's part to describe the relationship between them in that way, but she understood and accepted the reasons for it. "She's been a tremendous help in getting us the location of Ryuugenzawa."

The Grand Duke offered his hand. "A pleasure," he replied. "Although I'm sorry that we had to meet under such difficult circumstances."

She took his hand, unsure of whether she should kiss his ring or just shake hands. She decided to shake, and he seemed satisfied with that. His forthright nature appealed to her, and she decided that serving the man as a mechwarrior was the right choice to make.

Doctor Tofu Ono wrung his hands anxiously as he stepped up to speak to Kasumi. She was an angel standing there in her cooling vest, clutching her neurohelmet under her arm. She was the reason he had become a mechwarrior in the 1st Nerima Guards while a career in medicine was calling to him, and when she had stepped aside to let Akane take over the regiment, he had lost his reason to fight.

He was so much in love with her that he could not think straight, and even now, as he opened his trembling lips to speak to her, he could not think of a single intelligent thing to say. He was lost in her eyes, the faint sound of her breathing, and in her smile, so warm that it could melt glaciers away. He had promised Akane that he would tell Kasumi how he felt about her, and now here he was, unable to speak.

"Why hello, Doctor Tofu!" Kasumi said to him. Her voice was sweeter to him in that moment than anything he had ever heard before.

"Uh, hel-hello, Kasumi. Whatever brings y-you here, to, er, ah, this p-place?"

He felt as foolish as he sounded, and Akane's eyes caught him as he looked away from Kasumi in shame. She gave him a silent nod of encouragement.

He looked back to Kasumi, who seemed to sense that something wasn't quite right with the situation, but seemed unsure of what it was.

"W-Would you mind if I, er, s-spoke with you alone for a moment, Kasumi?" he managed, his voice a little higher than he would have preferred.

Kasumi responded gamely. "Of course, Doctor." She led him over to her Victor, where she opened the conversation with a thankfully safe topic. "This certainly is a lovely planet," she remarked as the rain came down in light sprinkles around them. "It reminds a little of home."

Tofu decided to run with it, and somehow work in what he had to say. "Y-Yeah, I've been thinking that too. If you throw out the rain and add a few thousand people, it's almost like the place we went together for the Spring Festival."

Kasumi smiled. "Ah, I remember that. I had such a good time there with you."

Encouraged by this, he plunged on. Or at least he tried to. "Th-There's something I've been meaning to tell you, Kasumi... Something I meant to say before I left Nerima on the expedition."

She gave him a puzzled look.

"What is it, Doctor?" she asked him.

He started to say it, and his jaw seized up. He was a master of the martial arts, of acupressure and other biomanipulation techniques, and yet here he was, completely unable to control his own body.

Kasumi gave him a worried look. "Is there something wrong, Doctor Tofu? Are you injured?"

"- heart -" he managed to blurt out.

Her eyes lit up in alarm. "You have a heart condition?" she gasped.

"S-Sort of," he croaked, fighting to say the words instead of babbling out the gibberish his tongue wanted to spill.

"What's wrong?" she asked him, coming to his side and putting her hands on his shoulders. "Is there anything I can do?" She was about to cry for help when he answered her.

"My h-heart..." he said to her, his glasses fogged and his voice unsteady and weak.

"Yes, I know," she gasped. "You have a heart condition and..."

"Th-That's not it," he replied, his hands trembling as he set them on her waist. She stiffened with surprise at his touch. "Kasumi, I... I... My heart belongs t-to..." He grimaced as the words would not come. "What I feel for you is..."

"Doctor Tofu?" she cried in a whisper, her hands falling from his shoulders to touch the hands that rested upon her waist.

"I can't..." he said in defeat. "I just can't say it... I'm a fool for even trying."

"What are you trying to say, Doctor?" she asked, drawing even closer to him. "I don't understand what you're trying to tell me."

"I'm sorry, Kasumi," he said in hoarse whisper. "You deserve better than a fool like me." ...Who was I kidding, anyway...?

He let go of her and turned away. Akane couldn't see them from where she stood, and so he could pretend to her for a little longer that he had done what he had set out to do.

Kasumi, however, caught his hand in hers as he started to go.

"Doctor Tofu, whatever it is that you're trying to tell me, I'll listen," she said so quietly over the gentle patter of the rain that for a moment he only imagined that he heard her. "If it will take time for you to be able tell me, I'll wait." He turned back to see her glowing smile and felt his knees grow weak. "I'm very patient, you see."

His glasses fogged once again.

"Ka-Kasumi..." His voice came out cracked and strained.

She brought his hand up to her breast. "You're a kind and gentle man, Doctor Tofu, and even if you don't believe it right now, I think you're very brave and strong," she told him. "Between you and Ranma, I couldn't have trusted Akane's care to any better people."

He was speechless as she cupped his hand in hers.

"If you would like to take me to another festival on Nerima," she said to him with a gentle smile. "I would be happy to join you."

Near the ruins of Ryuugenzawa City

14:45 Local Time

Yuka caught the glitter of refracted laser light in the distance as she and Sayuri swept at treetop level over the forest to the southwest of the starport. The Black Rose fighters had grouped into two formations, one attacking the Musk Dynasty positions in fits and spurts, and the other keeping jealous watch over their own landing zones. Neither location made for a good place for two small Confederation fighters to go, and that made the selection of targets slim for them.

"Did you see that, Sayuri?" she called to her wingmate.

"It looks a little far south to be ours," Sayuri replied.

Yuka gained some altitude to get a better look. "I don't know..." she muttered. "With Ryouga getting lost, he could be just about anywhere by now."

"Do you want to take a look?"

"It couldn't hurt."

The two fighters accelerated, each pilot mindful of their low fuel reserves. They wouldn't have time for more than a few passes before they would have to consider returning to the DropShip to refuel.

They made a swift pass at low altitude. Through the gaps in the trees they saw a Black Rose Shadow Hawk fall to its knees with a huge smoking hole through its armored chest, and the flash of Ryouga's BattleMaster stalking off deeper into the woods.

"We found our lost boy," Sayuri remarked as they pulled up for a steep banking turn that would take them back towards Ryouga.

"Yeah, but where's he going?" Yuka asked.

Concentrated fire from a Rifleman engaged them before Sayuri could respond; green lines of autocannon tracers stitching across the sky to slam into her Sparrowhawk. The light fighter was thick-skinned, and so she weathered the barrage long enough to dive for the deck as Yuka put her nose to bear on the offending air-defense 'mech.

"Black Rose Rifleman," Yuka grunted.

"Yeah, I saw him," Sayuri returned curtly. "Thanks for the heads up."

Yuka triggered her Corsair's lasers at the Rifleman, and lit up the woods around the 'mech in clouds of steam and golden flashes of vaporized armor. The Rifleman's Garret radar and tracking array allowed the Black Rose pilot to aim on instruments, and returned fire with both heavy lasers.

She caught the beams full on in the fuselage as she made a break turn to evade, and shuddered as damage lights came on. Her previous dance with an 80-ton Slayer had left her armor weak in spots, and now she was hurting.

"I'm hit," she said tersely.

"How bad?" Sayuri wanted to know. She made a strafing run on the Rifleman just to keep it occupied, then punched her HEPLAR drive to maximum to avoid the counterattack.

"Bad." Yuka's tone was at once cool and grave.

Sayuri craned her neck around to see Yuka's Corsair limping away. The 50-ton fighter trailed a line of black smoke, which was an unusual and ominous sign for a fusion-driven craft.

"Can you make it back to the ship?" she asked.

"I don't know," Yuka replied. "I've got a fire that the suppression system can't get a handle on. If it reaches the fuel cells, I'll explode."

"Dump your fuel," Sayuri advised. "Coast back to the ship on reactor waste heat with your turbojets."

"That's a nice idea, except that my emergency dump valves are showing up as offline on the damage control board. I think the signal links between them and my control system are severed - or burnt."

Sayuri tried to think of what her friend could do, and saw two Black Rose fighters moving in from the west. They were probably returning from attacks on the Musk Dynasty forces on the other side of the starport, and had been vectored in by the Rifleman to hunt down enemy fighters. The course they took would put them on a direct intercept.

"We've got more problems," she said to Yuka. "Two Black Rose fighters at seven o'clock high."

"I don't think I can take them," Yuka returned.

"Then it's up to me," Sayuri returned. "Head for the Palomino, and if things get bad - eject."

Sayuri pulled her Sparrowhawk into a steep climb for altitude. It would help her enemies spot her, but she needed the room and the energy that altitude provided if she was going to fight them. She had already resigned herself to the fact that they had spotted them by their intercept course.

The two enemy fighters were Shilones, medium fighters with long slightly-swept wings that gave them the nickname of 'Boomerang.' She could only hope that they had depleted their Shigunga LRM launchers fighting the Musk Dynasty, as her small Sparrowhawk had no long range weapons of its own, just two medium and two light lasers that she would have to get well into dogfighting range to use.

One of the Shilones moved towards her, while the other dropped its nose and banked to intercept Yuka. Sayuri knew that she had to employ the only advantage the Sparrowhawk had over the larger fighters, and that was agility. Her pressure suit inflated against her stomach and thighs as she expended precious reaction mass to accelerate through the sound barrier while rolling and turning to bear on the fighter threatening her friend.

She let go with a stream of laser fire at extreme range, the rippling bursts of light crazing the enemy fighter and lighting it up in a blizzard of glowing, golden motes. The Black Rose Shilone snap-rolled to minimize its exposure, taking the pressure off of Yuka for another few seconds. The second Shilone wallowed through a steeply sinking turn that bled off airspeed and put it firmly on her tail.

Beams of laser fire from the enemy fighter behind her burned the air around her Sparrowhawk as she jinked for all she was worth. Her foe was a persistant one, matching her maneuver for maneuver with his larger craft, and she knew that she had to do something crazy if she was going to shake him.

The only problem with something crazy, she reflected as the beams crisscrossed around her cockpit canopy dome, was that she needed fuel to pull it off. The reaction mass cells were practically empty, and when they finally ran dry, she would lose her maximum rated thrust capabilities. Her rear-warning radar screamed in her headset as she calculated her reserves; the Shilone on her back had loosed a volley of long range missiles at her, and her time had run out.

"Sayuri! Missiles in your six!" Yuka cried over the tac-net.

Her mouth went dry as she squeezed the booster studs on her throttle and fired the HEPLAR drive. The Sparrowhawk leaped in protest as she pulled up into a steep climb, and continued accelerating as the fighter bled off its reaction mass into the plasma drive. As she peaked at the top of her short loop, Sayuri rolled out upright, then slalomed left and down into the path of the oncoming missiles for the beginning of her desperate Cuban-Eight maneuver.

The first part of her gambit paid off. The missiles, denied the chance to make direct contact with her after her violent aerobatic maneuver, exploded around the Sparrowhawk as their crude proximity fuzes detonated them. Shrapnel rang off her armor as she plummeted through the fiery clouds of dying weapons, the shock waves buffeting her and making her clench her controls with a deathgrip.

The roar of the Shilone passing overhead was the signal she needed to finish her Cuban-Eight, and she climbed once more. Her drives spluttered as the last grams of propellant were expended, and she was forced to surrender the energy she had gained in her dive to complete the climb. The Shilone had lost contact with her in the fireballs, and in presuming her dead, turned to continue the pursuit of Yuka's wounded Corsair.

Sayuri completed the final loop of the Cuban-Eight, and dove back down on the Shilone's tail. She was out of fuel, running only on her fusion heated turbojets now, and she knew that she had to end the fight quickly if she and Yuka were to survive. Her lasers charged up for a full volley at close range as the Shilone pilot realized his mistake and tried to evade.

She let him have all four lasers at once, the beams streaming into the enemy fighter's thruster ports in a cascading series of explosions that climaxed in a devastating fireball of molten metal and fusion plasma. Blinded by the intensity of the blast and nearly stunned by the shockwave, Sayuri began to juke away from the dying Shilone, and was thrown against her seat straps as the nose of her fighter struck something solid. Pain flooded through her body as alarm sirens wailed in her headset.

Whe the spots before her eyes cleared, she was in a tumbling free-fall, the Sparrowhawk's nose lasers crumpled and bent. What was infinitely worse than the damage done to the fighter was the long, jagged piece of the Shilone's wing that was impaled through her canopy, and in turn, through her chest. Blood was everywhere in the cockpit; splashed with abandon over her instruments, spattered across the canopy, and fouling the HUD projectors that gave her flight control data. Her mind in a detached state of horror that went beyond panic, she realized that she could not move her left arm, and that it was agony to breathe.

Outside the starred canopy, the sky rolled sickeningly, and was frequently succeeded by the verdant ground cover of the forest. She was falling to her death, unable to eject because doing so would rip her apart as long as she was impaled. The sound of Yuka's voice screaming her name over the crackling commo was distant in her ears, and her failing consciousness struggled drunkenly to comprehend why her friend of so many years sounded so heartsick.

Her head lolled against her ejector seat as she watched the blood swirl in free-fall around her. The buzzing in her ears grew louder, and she felt herself draining away into the parachute bag that made up her seat cushion. From out of the corner of her tear-streaked eye, she saw a light flashing on one of her panels, and heard the sharp hiss of her AutoMedic injecting drugs into her veins. It was futile effort, she managed to think over the swimming dizzyness that enveloped her. Once I crash, there won't be anything left to save.

There was a sickening crunch of metal, then silence.

Yuka looked on at her HUD in disbelief as the Black Rose Shilone that she had been desperately fighting off with her rear-mounted light lasers suddenly exploded into a billion glowing fragments. She knew that she hadn't hit it that hard. Her question was answered a moment later in a flash of silver and white, and the sonic boom of the Super Phoenix Hawk LAM's passing bucked her in her failing fighter.

It was already shedding velocity as it shot past behind her, the engines howling and twin cones of plasma in blue-on-blue shock diamonds raging against the leaden sky. She watched as it rolled wing over wing into Airmech Mode, then unfolded further into Battlemech Mode, its arms spreading wide as it flew at the falling Sparrowhawk. Ranma caught the crippled light fighter, tucking the damaged cockpit under the Phoenix Hawk's arm as the LAM slid the last twenty meters to the ground feet first, and with the turbojets flaring out full braking thrust.

Yuka brought her nose around in a careful turn, noting how sluggish and unresponsive the controls were becoming as gouts of mud and foilage spurted up from the ground where the LAM touched down. Trees snapped and fell, then a cloud of steam roiled up from the forest where the LAM came to rest. Farther south from Ranma's position, a thunderclap and the bright flash of a PPC blast indicated that Ryouga had found another target.

"Saotome?" she called out over the tac-net. An alarm tone sounded as she spoke, indicating that the fire had spread to her port side turbojet systems.

The was no answer for several moments, and she called to him again. The fire was spreading, and her engines began to make an low droning buzz as coolant systems were overwhlemed by the heat.

"Yeah...?" she replied finally.

Yuka reduced her altitude as she passed over the LAM. It was sprawled out in a ruin of fallen trees and covered in mud. The wrecked Sparrowhawk was still cradled in its arms. Her own fighter was failing, and it took most of her attention to stay on course.

"Is Sayuri...?"

"I don't know," Ranma returned. "I'm gonna go find out."

"I'll be there in a second," she told him. Her Corsair was done for, and her friend needed her. She put the fighter that had served her so well into level flight, quenched the fusion reactor, and pulled hard on the ejection lever.

The force of ejecting knocked the wind out of her, and she gasped against the cold wet air as her faithful fighter struggled on in level flight below her for a few hundred more meters before pitching over into a dive and crashing into the forest half a kilometer from where Ranma had touched down. Her parachute opened fully as the fighter hit, and she began a slow fall to the ground.

Ranma retracted the roof hatch of her Battlemech Mode cockpit and pulled herself through the opening. The mech's head was tilted forward against the muddy torso, and she used it to climb down to the battered hulk of the Sparrowhawk still clutched in its arms. Steam wafted up from the hull as the drizzle evaporated on the hot metal near the engines, and she found herself hoping that the fusion reactor had shut down safely. Dying of radiation sickness was not high on her list of ways to go.

The sight of the burned wing section projecting through the polycarbonate - and the blood streaks on the canopy - did not make her feel any more comfortable. Was Sayuri already dead? The sound of Yuka's fighter crashing in the distance made her start out of surprise as she fumbled with the canopy release controls. She looked up momentarily to see her one-time nemesis floating towards the ground, steering her parachute to put her down as close as possible to the Phoenix Hawk.

Releasing the canopy was going to be tricky with the wing section stuck through it, she realized as she turned her attention back to Sayuri. She could see the pilot slumped back in her ejector seat, and the horrible wound she had sustained, and did not know if she was just wasting her time by doing this. In the complicated process of catching the fighter in midair, she had been too preoccupied to notice what had happened to the girl.

The grunt of Yuka touching down close by was followed by the rustling of the parachute canopy collapsing. She turned to see the girl running towards the wreck with her parachute trailing by its harness behind her.

"Is she dead...?" Yuka asked her with panting gasps. "Please tell me she isn't."

Ranma looked back to the cockpit. "I can't tell," she replied dully. "But it doesn't look good."

She tried moving the canopy forward in its track to let the wing section pass through the hole it made, and managed to get it halfway open before damage to the track itself prevented her from moving it any farther. It was open just enough to reach inside and check for a pulse.

Yuka looked on as Ranma leaned into the cockpit. Sayuri's face was pale, and her pressure suit was sticky with blood. It had soaked through the cloth outer liner to form a large stain on her chest around the jagged piece of metal that Ranma could already see was a through and through injury just above her left breast. The wing section projected through her back well into the ejector seat itself.

She gently turned the pressure suit helmet the half-twist necessary to unseat it from the neck ring seal, and pulled it off to let Sayuri's sweat-matted light brown hair spill onto her shoulders. She discarded the helmet with a grunt, and slipped a hand down to her throat.

"I think I feel a pulse," she said to Yuka. "It's weak and slow."

"Check the eyes," Yuka returned hopefully, shrugging out of her parachute harness.

Ranma lifted one of Sayuri's eyelids. The pupil shrank mercifully in the sudden influx of light.

"She's unconscious," Ranma declared. A brief examination of the pressure suit's surviving instrumentation confirmed her suspicions. "It looks like her AutoMedic did its job."

Yuka pulled the transmitter remote from Ranma's belt. "Come in, Palomino," she called out. "This is Red Eagle Deuce. Request urgent medical support at map reference Mike-Four-Four by Oscar-Five-Eight."

"Copy that, Red Eagle Deuce," Petty Officer Howard replied over the remote. "Be advised of friendly units moving towards your position from the northwest."

Ranma took the remote from Yuka as the ground shook with the footfalls of approaching battlemechs.

"This is Red Eagle Lead; You said the northwest, right?" she asked Tad.

"Yes, ma'am... er, sir," Tad replied.

Ranma checked the sky for the hazy glow of Ryuugenzawa's sun to confirm her bearings. The sound of the approaching 'mechs was from the southeast.

"We've got company," she declared to Yuka. She clicked the microphone button on her remote. "Palomino, Red Eagle Lead; that medevac needs to bring cutting tools and lots of Type-B whole blood. Red Eagle Trey is in bad shape, and you need to hurry, over."

"Copy that, Red Eagle Lead," Tad replied. "Cutting tools and Type-B whole blood."

Ranma handed the remote to Yuka. "See if you can patch this through what's left of Sayuri's console. If those are Black Rose 'mechs out there heading our way, I gotta go draw them off."

Yuka took the radio remote from her, her eyes trembling with emotion. Without a word, she reached over and kissed Ranma fleetingly on the lips. Ranma drew back in surprise from Yuka's kiss, blushing furiously.

"Wh-What was that for?" she asked.

Yuka looked away, almost as embarrassed by what she had done as Ranma.

"I know that you wouldn't have done it for me," she began. "But I can't tell you in words how grateful I am for what you did for Sayuri. She's my best friend..." Her eyes closed. "And she would be dead right now if you hadn't done what you did."

Ranma wiped away the sudden sweat that misted her brow. "Y-You're welcome, I guess," she managed. She started for her Phoenix Hawk LAM, then turned back to face Yuka. "I'm not sure you'll believe me, Yuka, but I probably would have done the same for you."

Yuka offered her a dubious smile. "Probably?"

Ranma shrugged and gave her a crooked grin. "If I didn't give myself time to think about it, anyway," she conceded.

The moment was shattered as a Black Rose Cicada leaped through a gap in the trees fifty meters away. The medium 'mech successor to the Star League Locust continued on, oblivious to what was passing between the two rival pilots on the ground.

"Get going," Yuka told her.

Ranma was already jumping up to the top of the Phoenix Hawk's torso. She gave Yuka a brief wave before dropping through the hatch and locking the sensor head into position. The LAM came to life a moment later, carefully lifting the Sparrowhawk off its lap and settling it onto the churned ground.

Sayuri gasped in pain from the depths of unconsciousness at the shifting of the metal wing section that pierced her, and Yuka prayed that she wouldn't begin to bleed heavily from it. The Phoenix Hawk picked the fallen trees off its metal body, set them down away from the Sparrowhawk, then stood up into a crouch. The heavy pulse laser was trained warily in the direction the Cicada had come from as the vibrations of more battlemechs shook the ground.

Yuka watched with fascination as the mud covered battlemech crept closer to the sound of the approaching Black Rose forces. As a second Cicada sprang from the woods on the trail of the first, Ranma exploded out of her crouch, checking the 40 ton reconnaissance 'mech, and sending it sprawling into a stand of trees with a thunderous crash. The heavy pulselaser cracked like a cannon shot in the cold, humid air, the beam etching a fading afterimage on her vision as it put the Black Rose 'mech down for the count.

A flurry of tracer fire lit up the air as more Black Rose 'mechs opened fire on Ranma. Yuka watched as the LAM boosted on its leg jets, catapulting skyward as light autocannon shells spanged off its armor, then transformed to Airmech Mode to lead the enemy away from the crash site. The Black Rose troops took the bait, and the stomping sound began to recede into the east.

Yuka turned back to her friend, whose labored breathing and pale skin spoke of her proximity to death. She took Sayuri's hand in hers and gave it a squeeze to let her know that if she was going to die, she wasn't going to die alone.

The DropShip Palomino

Ian Cameron Starport

14:50 Local Time

"Red Leader, this is Eyes Front, respond please!"

Akane reached for her radio remote as the techs finished loading Genma's Orion. Doctor Tofu had opted to take out one of their reserve Centurions rather than reload his damaged 'mech, and now stood beside Kasumi's Victor, ready to go. He had apparently told the eldest Tendo daughter of his feelings for her, and judging by the way they stuck together next to the DropShip, she had received his declaration favorably. Akane felt pleased about that. As far as her feelings on the matter went, Doctor Tofu and Kasumi were good for each other.

"This is Red Leader, go ahead Eyes Front," she said absently.

"Ma'am, we've located Lieutenant Hibiki on our sat-scans," Davidge told her. "He's not answering any hails, however."

"What is his position?"

"South of the DropShip, approximately fifteen kilometers. He is approaching the ruins of the colony town." Davidge let out a gasp. "Wait, there's a break in the cloud cover. Scanning..." A curse quickly followed. "There's a whole battalion headed our way, ma'am, and Red Two is right in their path."

Akane looked to her father before responding. He gave her a solemn nod in return. "We're on our way."

They scrambled for their 'mechs, knowing that time was running against them. As if to punctuate that thought, a bolt of hell thundered down from orbit from the Orochi satellite. The particle beam bolt lashed at the fuelling complex that Akari and her techs had worked so hard to restore two days ago, and the reinforced concrete structure exploded in a brilliant fireball of burning hydrogen. The sound and shockwave of the orbital blast and following secondary explosion was numbing, driving everyone not protected by a battlemech or the DropShip's hull to the ground.

Akane picked herself up from the wet concrete and looked at the Palomino, now doubly vulnerable to attack with the Orochi network taking potshots from orbit.

"Report on the Orochi!" she cried to Davidge over the tac-net.

"Unit Three is engaging the Tautog," Davidge returned tersely. "That last shot was a stray bolt aimed at them, believe it or not."

Akane wan't sure she could. "That random shot came awful close to us," she said in reply. "Tad, what is the countdown status?"

Captain Grant came on line instead of Petty Officer Howard. "We're commencing an emergency reactor start up right now, ma'am. I can get us off the ground in fifteen minutes."

"I hope so, Captain," Akane said to him. She tucked her remote in her shorts as she climbed up the side of her Warhammer. Grand Duke Tendo was preparing to move out with Genma's Orion on point, followed by Kasumi, Ukyou, and Doctor Tofu in a wedge formation.

She quickly rejoined the rest of the 'mechs as they stomped across the tarmac to the south. Several lines of black smoke were visible against the gloom, and beyond, ragged streaks of sunlight filtered down. Ryouga was taking on an entire battalion of the Black Rose's troops by himself!

Why wasn't he answering hails? she asked herself. And where the hell is Ranma?

"Red Leader, Palomino; urgent medevac requested by Red Eagle Deuce at map reference Mike-Four-Four by Oscar-Five-Eight. Red Eagle Trey is down. Cutting tools and Type-B whole blood are especially needed."

Akane heard Doctor Tofu's voice break into the tac-net. "What is the nature of Sayuri's injuries?" he asked.

"I don't know, sir, but Captain Saotome specifically requested those things," Tad replied.

Tofu's face was grim.

"Red Leader, Red Five; request to answer medevac."

"Granted," she responded, her heart pounding. Ranma was with Yuka and Sayuri out there. "I'll come with you."

"Stay with the lance," Soun commanded over the net. "Saotome; you and Mechwarrior Kuonji remain on point. Doctor Ono; you and Kasumi respond to the medevac."

"Daaaad!" she protested.

"This is no time for your emotions to get the best of your good judgement," he returned. "We'll need your firepower on the line if we're to hold the Black Rose back in time to let the Palomino lift off."

She saw his point. Still, she needed to have words with a certain jerk who had been ignoring her ever since the battle had been joined.

"Red Eagle Lead, this is Red Leader; respond."

There was a harsh crackle of static, followed by the sound of an irate and female Ranma cursing. Red locks of hair tumbled down her brow on the display as she maneuvered, and the grey sky above her cockpit canopy was streaked with piercing rays of sunlight that made her blue-grey eyes flash with intensity.

"I'm busy!" she barked. An explosion rumbled over the speakers, and whorls of black smoke swirled around her canopy.

Akane bit down on her lip to keep from shrieking at him in anger. "Where have you been?!"

"Around!" Ranma shot back. "Can this wait?!"

"I was worried about you, that's all!" Akane spat angrily. "Excuse me for caring about you!"

"I'm with Akane on this one, honey," Ukyou added, jumping into the conversation. "You've got us worrying sick about you."

"I'm okay," Ranma hissed back, her face contorted by acceleration forces that made the sky spin around her. Another explosion sounded over the tac-net. "At least for the moment. Things are getting a little hot right now."

Akane understood. She looked to the Palomino to see that one of the Dragonfly's cooks was already running down the ramp from the Mech Bay with four half-liter bags of precious blood taken from Sick Bay. A tech followed after with a saw-zaw and a pouch of spare abrasive wheels. Doctor Tofu relieved the two of their burdens, then clambered back up into his Centurion to respond.

"Red Five moving out," he said over the tac-net as the 50 ton 'mech started south.

Akane tried to move her throttle to maximum, only to find that it was already there. "We're on the way," she said to him, worry creeping into her voice. "Just hold on, Ranma."

"I'll do that," she grunted. The shriek of turbojets filled the dead air that followed her voice, then the rapid cycling of pulsed medium lasers. "Akane..."

"What is it, Ranma?"

"I'm a little on edge right now," she said in a clipped voice. "Sayuri's hurt real bad. I don't think she's gonna make it."

Tofu's Centurion was already as far ahead of them as was safe, his battlemech peeling away from the lance formation as he closed on the rendezvous site. Kasumi followed close behind, covering his dash from tree to tree with her heavy autocannon. They were doing everything they could to save Sayuri.

"Ryouga's south of me," Ranma added. "The whole freaking colony town - what's left of it anyway - is coming apart, from what I can see. I don't know what's going on, but it looks like Kodachi's trying to start a firestorm there."

"Is Ryouga in the town?" Ukyou asked worriedly.

"No, he's mixing it up just north of the ruins. The moron won't answer his radio."

"Sounds like some other blockhead I could name," Akane retorted.

"Oh, ha ha. It is to laugh," Ranma growled. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go find out what the hell is going on." Her face faded from their commo displays.

Akane checked the tactical display. Black Rose 'mechs were moving in force from the south. If they didn't do something to slow their advance, they would overrun the Palomino's position before it could lift off.

"Please hold," Akari prayed as the main coolant header slowly pressurized. Two of her techs monitored the pressure meters in the Maneuvering Room while the DropShip's Engineer completed his preparations for liftoff in the spaces.

"Maneuvering, report status of lift off preps," Captain Grant ordered over the 2MC intercom circuit.

Akari picked up the intercom microphone to respond. "Header pressure rising to the green band," she told him over the muted scream of the cryogenic plant scroll-compressors. "Pre-injection coolant temperatures at one hundred fifty degrees Kelvin."

They were introducing the supercooled liquid to the system gradually to minimize thermal stresses, but this also limited the speed with which they could start the fusion plant. The magnetic bottle that contained the plasma required that its attendent electromagnets have sufficient cooling to allow superconductivity under full load.

"Keep me posted," Grant finished, and signed off.

Akari brushed aside a sweat-matted lock of hair and sighed. The ship was not ready to go anywhere, and yet they had no choice but to leave. She had felt the blasts of the Orochi from deep inside the reactor compartment, and the Musk Dynasty was approaching unchallenged from the west.

SLDFS Coronet

14:47 Local Time

"Attention on the Bridge!" Johann Hauptmann declared to the new crew of SLDFS Coronet. "This is Captain Hauptmann, and I have the Deck. Captain Ninomiya retains the Conn."

"Helm, aye!" the Tang's former Helmsman replied. The rest of the stations acknowledged in turn.

"Chief of the Watch, aye! The ship is rigged for space and manned for Battlestations."

"Astrogation, aye! Main Computer online."

"Communications, aye! Contact with Eyes Front established. Datalinks online."

"Engineering, aye! The ship is on internal power. The Main Engines are ready to answer all bells!"

"Tactical, aye! Orbital simulation routines linked to Orochi System BattleNet."

"Sensory, aye! All active and passive arrays online."

"Fire Control, aye! Main Gun in Preheat Mode. All batteries indicate ready."

Hauptmann turned to Hinako. "Take us out, if you would please, Captain."

Hinako gave him a curt bow and turned to the Communicator.

"Signal the Drydock to open the forward and aft doors."

"Open forward and aft doors, aye, ma'am."

The drydock doors began to open slowly as the lone Tang crewman remaining on the station commanded them to operate, and then made a beeline for the connector tube that linked the drydock to the cruiser. There was no need to conduct an extensive pumpdown, as the facility had been in vacuum for decades.

"Drydock doors coming open," Sensory announced. "Drydock doors are open."

"Petty Officer Cruz is aboard," Commo added.

"Main Airlock hatch indicates shut," the Chief of the Watch declared.

Hinako looked to the Chief of the watch next. "Chief of the Watch, cast off all lines. Retract the docking tube."

"Cast off all lines, retract the docking tube, aye." He flicked a bank of switches at his station. "All mooring lines released. Docking tube is retracting into the ship... Docking tube indicates stowed. Armored shutters indicate in position."

"Very well, Chief of the Watch," Hinako acknowledged. Now came the hard part. "Helm, All Ahead Easy."

The Helmsman turned around to seek clarification from Captain Hauptmann, who refused to interfere in Hinako's operation. He didn't like the idea of having co-captains on the ship, but that was what they had come down to. Hinako outranked him, being a full Captain while his rank was only that of Commander, but he had all of the combat experience that she lacked and the ship needed to succeed. Hence, she maneuvered the ship, while he fought it. He didn't want to think about what might happen if he needed to countermand one of her maneuvering orders.

"Ma'am?" the Helmsman finally asked Hinako.

Hinako waved her hands at her. "There's about five meters of clearance on either side of that door. This isn't going to be like pulling your dad's car out of the garage, and we have no tug support, so move us out nice and easy."

The Helmsman turned back to her panel and bumped the throttle control a tiny amount. If she could skip a corvette off the surface of a moon without destroying the ship, she could pilot a cruiser out of drydock. "Aye aye, ma'am. Maneuvering answers All Ahead Easy."

The ship trembled imperceptibly as the Main Engines fired for the first time in two-hundred years. A thin streamer of plasma spilled from the aft end of the drydock as the cruiser began to edge forward.

"Two meters per second forward way," the Helmsman announced. She focused on the narrow opening Hinako had described, knowing full well that a ship as big as the Coronet would not be able to turn the way the tiny Tang could.

They were going to cut it close. Hauptmann felt himself pulling to one side, as if trying to will the ship to follow him.

The Helmsman was already on it, her fingers caressing the attitude thruster controls with the pluck and skill of a concert harpist. Coronet began to roll and yaw, then its bow broke the plane of the drydock doors. The widest part of the starship passed through an agonizingly slow minute later, and then they were clear. Sunlight from the Ryuugenzawa primary shone undiminished on the gleaming armored hull for the first time in two hundred years, the ten meter high Cameron Star of the SLDF glittering on Coronet's bow in precious silver paint.

"The ship is free to navigate," Astrogation announced.

Now it was Hauptmann's turn. "Mark bearing and range to closest Orochi satellite. Use active sensors." They didn't have time to play around with the lengthy process of gathering data from passive arrays.

Sensor data filled the holotank as the ship collected information on all objects in orbit.

"Conn, Sensory; Contact Romeo One, bearing zero-three-five plus one-zero. Range: ten thousand kilometers. Contact Romeo Two, classified as Balao Class Corvette, bearing zero-three-eight plus zero eight. Range: ten thousand kilometers."

"Olivera's in trouble," Hauptmann observed with preternatural calm. He could see the tiny corvette fighting to stay out of the Orochi's weapon arcs, and slugging desperately at in in return. "Fire Control, designate Romeo One as primary target, and slave the Helm. Prepare to fire the Main Gun."

"Fire Control, aye."

"Helm, aye. Helm slaved to Fire Control."

Hauptmann cast a glance at Hinako, who was busy crossing her fingers. The spinal mount would soon get its first test. The Coronet maneuvered in space to put its bow directly on Orochi Unit Three in preparation to unleash a few quadrillion joules of hell.

"Conn, Fire Control; Main Gun aligned with primary target. Ten seconds to firing sequence completion."

"Alert Engineering," Hinako ordered her Engineer, the Dragonfly's Lieutenant Fulton. There was no telling what would happen down there when the spinal mount fired.

"Very well, Fire Control," Hauptmann replied. He wished his own XO was on board to share this moment with him, but the man had family, and had been selected by Commodore Tanaka to stay behind with the remainder of the Tang crew that had not accompanied the Grand Duke.

"Contact Romeo One is reacting to our presence," Tactical warned. With the codes and frequencies supplied by Hinako's Number One down in the Orochi bunker, they had an inside look into the processes that guided the network.

"Fire Control, match bearing rates and fire the Main Gun as soon as you are ready," Hauptmann ordered.

"Fire Control, aye. Firing the Main Gun!" A strident alarm hooted three times in warning, and Hauptmann and the rest of the crew found themselves wondering what in the hell they had just gotten into.

The lights flickered for a moment, and the ship trembled as a terrifying beam of energy belched forth from the cavernous muzzle in the cruiser's bow. The particle beam reached out across the void to strike the Orochi satellite amidships, haloing it in a golden ring of plasma that expanded out for a hundred kilometers before fading. Secondary explosions rocked the orbital battlestation, and it began to glow with the heat of something coming apart disasterously within.

"Neutrino emissions from Contact Romeo One becoming erratic," Sensory advised. "It's leaking x-rays like a sieve."

The Orochi satellite obliterated itself in a spectacular thermonuclear explosion a moment later. The blindingly bright blue-white sphere of plasma expanded into nothingness as instruments onboard the Coronet squawked in protest.

"Goddamn..." Hauptmann breathed. "Was that a lucky hit, or is this gun that damn powerful?"

"A little of both, I think," Hinako replied.

The lights failed as soon as she had spoken, and alarms began to wail.

"Conn, Engineering; The Main Reactor has quenched on a containment field instability fault. The backup Nuclear-Heated Gas Turbine Reactor is commencing an automatic startup, but we will be without the Main Engines or primary power for at least ten minutes."

"Conn, aye," Hauptmann replied. "Shit!"

"The gun," Hinako added. "A magnetic accelerator as powerful as that must wreak havoc on a reactor's containment fields."

Hauptmann nodded grimly in agreement.

"Well I understand now why the Star League never went for humungous spinal mounts."

Furinkan Combine WarShip Imperator

Ryuugenzawa High Orbit

14:50 Local Time

General Prince Tatewaki Kuno was beside himself.

"What manner of vessel is that!?" he wondered aloud to his staff as the Orochi satellite's deathlight faded on the telescope monitors.

Kyle was the first to respond. "Milord, the ship appeared from the SLDF space station in geosynchronous orbit. From our preliminary Warbook interpretations, the vessel appears to be the SLDFS Coronet, a light cruiser class WarShip."

"THE Coronet?" Tatewaki cried in astonishment. "Kerensky's own flagship?"

"Yes, milord. We believe it used its Spinal Mount particle beam to destroy the Orochi satellite that had been bombarding the planet. Based on their neutrino emissions, they currently seem to be suffering some sort of reactor malfunction - perhaps a side effect of firing their main gun. We know that such super weapons were historically plagued with reliability issues."

"This vessel," Tatewaki said slowly. "To whom doth it swear allegience? Be it my hated sister's churlish rabble, or could it perchance be to our mutual enemies, the thrice-damned Amazons of the Commonwealth?"

Kyle consulted the data that scrolled across his Operations displays.

"Indeterminate, my lord Prince," he replied. "While the ship did attack the Orochi satellite which was bombarding the Commonwealth landing zones, the communications protocols we've intercepted appear to be based on ancient Star League Defense Force codes."

Tatewaki looked to Hikaru Gosunkugi, who floated pensively by his side. The Heir to the League of Five Nails was carrying an armload of occult paraphenalia, ostensibly to ensure both the success of the Combine's mission, and to break whatever foul hold Ranma Saotome had on Akane Tendo and the Pig-Tailed Girl.

"Soothsayer," he addressed the frail scion of the House of Gosunkugi. It pleased him to think that he had such an important man for a personal servant. "Speak of the omens and portents surrounding yonder vessel? Should the Blue Thunder attempt to capture the ship, shall he make it his own?"

Hikaru consulted the best augury he had on the matter, a small black sphere that had served him well in the past.

"'Signs point to yes,'" he intoned gravely.

Tatewaki's eyes lit up in delight. "Captain Kyle, dispatch a company of Marines with fighter escort to seize yonder starship. It shall become the Prize of Tatewaki Kuno, First Lord of the Star League, and he shall rename it Bin Sen!"

"At once, my lord Prince," Kyle responded, then after a diplomatic pause added, "What of the Orochi satellites approaching our positions, my lord?"

Tatewaki made a dismissive wave of his hand. "Dispose of them." He narrowed his eyes at the prospect. "Thy orders are to shake the very heavens, Kyle. Is that clear?"

"Perfectly, sir. We're running simulations now, and the results look promising."

Tatewaki looked on as his ships assembled into formation to attack the first of the Orochi subunits. He had assembled the entire complement of the Furinkan Combine's WarShips in a bold gambit to ensure success in taking Ryuugenzawa for himself, and now had no regrets with his decision.

Shake the very heavens indeed!

"Prepare my landing force," he told Kyle. "The destruction of the Orochi network is an operation for the Fleet. The destiny of the Blue Thunder of the Furinkan Combine awaits him upon the surface of the planet."

"It is done, my lord prince," Kyle replied. "Though I must recommend caution in approaching the planet within range of the Orochi units."

Tatewaki whirled upon him, incensed. "Thy job, Kyle, is to ensure that those cursed automatons are occupied solely with this fleet, ere their total destruction!"

Kyle bowed his head, abashed. "Yes, lord."

Hikaru turned away from the two men and tried not to snicker. The Mystic Eight-Ball in his hand reflected the true prophecy, the one he had not given to his oppressor. Glowing faintly in the dark blue fluid, the oracle's response was an answer Tatewaki would not find so inspiring.

'MY ANSWER IS NOT ONLY NO, BUT HELL NO,

SO DON'T BOTHER ASKING ME AGAIN LATER.'

His oracular inquiries had made it very clear that he was going to be very close to Akane Tendo soon, and he had no intention of having the situation come to pass as Tatewaki Kuno's servant. The more trouble the Furinkan Combine prince encountered, the better it suited Hikaru Gosunkugi. Now all he needed to do was find a way to the planet, where he was sure to find Akane.

"My lord," he called to Tatewaki, his voice quavering with a mixture of fear and anxiety. He hated his oppresser, and yet he had great need of his favor.

"Speak," Tatewaki ordered him.

Hikaru prostrated himself before the Prince of the Furinkan Combine, no easy feat in free-fall. "I beg to accompany you to the surface, my lord."

Tatewaki gave him an indulgent nod. "Of course. I shall have need of thy services. Prepare thyself at once."

Hikaru raised the armload of scholarly and occult materials, most them prepared to inflict the maximum amount of harm upon his captor, but there was no way for a neophyte like Tatewaki Kuno to realize this. "I have all I need, my lord." He tried not to smirk as he said it.

Revenge!

Musk Dynasty Regimental Headquarters Company,

Approaching the western perimeter of Ian Cameron Starport

14:55 Local Time

Mechwarrior General Herb strode purposefully over the low chain-link fence that segregated the starport from the surrounding woods. His Grand Dragon mirrored his mood in its motions; it was cool, alert, and full of importance. He was taking the entire Star League complex under his control, and as soon as Prince Kuno and the Orochi network wiped each other out, he would be master of this world.

How soon he would be able to parley his victory into more substantial terms, he did not know, nor did he particularly care. It was enough that the Orochi satellite that had been bombarding his positions had been distracted by a small spacecraft, presumably of Combine origin, and that he now had a free hand in his operations. Cologne was teetering on the brink of her rule's end, and in the mad scrabble by the Elder Council to fill the inevitable power vacuum, his Musk Dynasty would quietly grow strong enough to topple them all.

There was one issue that he needed to address right away, and that was Mousse's inexplicable desire to abandon his regimental command duties in order to search the wilderness in the northern portion of the Proving Grounds. It was unlike him, since he was the type of creature who followed orders to the letter, knowing how tenuous his claim to mechwarrior status was with his poor eyesight. In fact, Mousse had only ever disobeyed him once before.

The realization stopped him cold, and the other 'mechs in his personal guard spun around to face him, expecting trouble.

"Shampoo..." he whispered. Somehow, he has discovered that Shampoo is here on this planet. Or at least has reason to believe it...

Could it be possible? he wondered. Of course it was possible, another part of his mind answered for him. The only question that remains is Mousse's motivation.

Was the fool overcome by her again? He did not know, but he suspected it. Shampoo was a most alluring, magnificent, and dangerous animal, as he well knew. He had risked Cologne's wrath quite needlessly by trying to keep her posted to his garrison on Lightoller, and all because of the desire she had stoked within him. A weak-willed man like Mousse was simply putty in her supple hands.

"Captain Mint," he said over the tac net.

"My lord!" Mint replied.

"Take Lime with you, and find Mechwarrior Colonel Mousse," he ordered the little man, whose eyes lit up at the veiled implications behind that order. Herb did not disappoint him. "If by chance you should find him with Shampoo, arrest him at once. If he resists, kill him."

Mint raised an eyebrow at the mention of Shampoo.

"And if I should in fact find the lord colonel with Shampoo, most exhalted one, what shall I do with her?"

Herb hardened his heart. He wanted to possess her body and soul, he wanted it deep within his being, both for the pleasure of it and for the agony it would bring to Cologne, but he knew how dangerous Shampoo could be to his ambitions. She had destroyed Mousse with her beauty, had turned him against his oath of loyalty to the Commonwealth, and if she had turned him against his new master in the Musk Dynasty, then she had destroyed him twice over. He did not need such a poisonous influence close to him, no matter how much he desired her.

"You are to kill Shampoo on sight," Herb replied, then added, "Do not hesitate in your duty, Mint."

Mint's teeth gleamed over the tac net display.

"I shall obey, my lord General!"

The Ruins of Ryuugenzawa City

15:01 Local Time

Happousai waited inside his Locust as the ruins burned. Tarou was destroying what was left of the town, and with it his source of concealment. In spite of this, he snickered to himself as he sucked on his pipe. In trying to smoke him out, Tarou was playing right into his hands.

The fire and smoke would screen him from prying sensors, allowing him to slip out with being detected. Once he reached the edge of the town, the superior speed of his Locust would see him swiftly past his enemies. It was almost too easy.

He extinguished his pipe with a swat from his hand upon the bowl and shrugged back into his seat straps. A Black Rose Wolverine roared past him without pause, and he waited to see if any others would follow. When no other 'mechs did, he advanced cautiously out of the burning hulk of the school building.

The street was completely engulfed with flame, making his heat sinks ineffective. He would have to go easy with his laser should he need to use it. Fortunately for him, that meant Kodachi's troops would be likewise impaired.

He made his way through the tortured ruins of the former colony town carefully, mindful not to stumble into any Black Rose 'mechs that might be searching for him. The fires were fully involved now. When they were finally extinguished, there would be absolutely nothing left but char marks and ashes.

At last, he reached the smoldering outskirts of the town. He throttled up his Locust and made a break for it, stomping for all he was worth to reach the line of trees that marked the southern edge of the woods cordoning the starport.

"It's about time, Happousai," Pansuto Tarou's voice echoed over the tac-net. "I was ready to go in after you."

A depleted uranium long-rod penetrator howled over the top of the Locust as Happousai spied his nemesis waiting for him in those very same sheltering woods. Kodachi's black Marauder was by her lover's side, and she laughed shrilly at the sight of him.

"You think you're so smart," Happousai barked, putting his Locust into an abrupt turn as more Black Rose 'mechs opened up on him. It was harassing fire, meant to turn him back towards Tarou, but he had no illusions about them sparing his life if he pressed them.

So be it, he decided. Time to teach the little punk a lesson in respect.

The Locust hopped away from the sizzling beams of laser fire and turned back toward Tarou's Hunchback.

"Think you've got enough friends to back you up?" he taunted his enemy.

"They're only here to keep you from running away, Happousai," Tarou growled back. "Now it's time for you to pay for what you did to me on Lightoller, and then Capra after that."

"Capra?" Happousai asked shrilly.

The Hunchback stepped out of the woods. "Don't play games, old fool," Tarou said icily. "Do you really think that I wouldn't guess who had sold us out to the Commonwealth? You were their agent, Happousai, and you knew we were on Capra."

Happousai remembered his offer to give up the two to Cologne.

"So what?" he shot back. "Nothing came of it." He brought his Locust to a halt at a distance of a hundred meters to face Tarou.

"No thanks to you," Tarou intoned.

"You already took your best shot at me, punk," Happousai returned. "I fondly recall the feel of your knife in my back. I'd say that makes us even."

"Hardly."

The Hunchback fired its Tomodzuru autocannon, but Happousai, mindful that the 'mech had an automated bracing routine for its myomer bundles to contain the weapon's massive recoil, was watching for the sight of it tensing up. The ultradense projectile slammed into the ground well behind him as he hopped clear.

"I don't see why we're fighting," he observed as Tarou's arm-mounted lasers sliced the air around his Locust to no effect. "I'm willing to make you a deal."

"You have nothing to offer me!" Tarou cried, advancing his Hunchback menacingly. "Nothing at all but your death!"

"You knucklehead!" Happousai shot back, swiping at him his turreted medium laser. "I have the most valuable treasure on this entire stinking mud ball in my possession! Do you think I just sat here for a week and a half waiting for you to show up?!"

He judged by the momentary pause in the Hunchback's motion that he had struck a chord with Tarou, and eased his thumb off the firing stud for his remaining twin-rack SRM launcher.

"How about it?" he asked, making a wary circle of the fifty ton battlemech, which stood silently in the clearing between the burning town and the woods.

"Depending on what it is," Tarou began slowly. "I might consider it worth the price of letting you live a little longer."

The Locust stopped behind the Hunchback, its turreted laser pointed between the 'mech's shoulders. Kodachi levelled her Marauder's twin derringer weapon pods at him from the woods, ready to annihilate him should he prove untrustworthy once again. The laser slowly lowered in its mount to the ground, and she relaxed.

"At last you're being reasonable," Happousai purred.

"Start talking," Tarou replied, pivoting to face the Locust once again.

"Can you trust him, lover?" Kodachi asked in the pregnant pause that followed.

"No," he replied. "But he knows when a situation is untenable. Happousai is the Inner Sphere's premier survivor - no matter how many bodies he has to step on to do it."

"I'm flattered," Happousai said sourly.

"You have seconds in which to live," Tarou growled back. The autocannon trained squarely on the Locust. "Spend them wisely."

Happousai tsk'ed. "It so happens that I've come across an intact Library Core," he said diffidently. "For safe passage off this mudball and an end to this ridiculous vendetta of yours, I'm willing to cut you in on half the profits I'll get in peddling out the data to the highest bidders."

"Comstar would kill to keep that kind of information to themselves," Tarou muttered. "I'm not certain that I want that kind of attention, old fool."

"I'll make you and the lovely Princess Kodachi my silent partners," Happousai said greasily. "Comstar doesn't have to know a thing about you."

"It is a tempting offer," Kodachi put in, thinking about how such extravagant wealth would go a long way towards replacing the day's mounting losses, to say nothing of buying enough favor with the Daimyo to make her immune to her brother's wrath and allow her return to the Furinkan Combine.

"As you said, time's running out," Happousai added. "What's it gonna be, Tarou? Shall we let bygones be bygones and enter into a fresh start between us, or would you rather risk the chance of dying for nothing?"

Tarou snorted contemptuously at the notion of perishing at Happousai's hands.

"Convince me that you have this thing," he said coldly. "And I'd be willing to overlook your past transgressions. Pop your hatch and show it to me right now."

"I don't have it on me!" Happousai replied. "Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Do you take for some kind of fool!?" Tarou countered. The Hunchback began to tense up.

"Mellow out, already!" Happousai shrieked. "I hid it somewhere safe."

"Where?!" Tarou demanded.

"Back at the starport. Once you secure the place, I'll show you, but you'd better hurry, because the Musk Dynasty aims to be in charge of all of Ryuugenzawa's real estate by nightfall."

"That's what I've been saying all along, dear," Kodachi said to Tarou. "Shall we consider this a truce for now?"

Tarou made a low growl in his throat. It was clear that he wanted to kill Happousai now, while he was bracketed in his sights, but the promise of exactly the thing he had come to Ryuugenzawa for was too alluring, even from a liar and a thief.

"You will march in file directly ahead of me at a distance of fifty meters," Tarou said to his mortal enemy. "If you deviate from this or exceed sixty kilometers per hour at any time, even if we are attacked, I will blow you away without a second thought."

Happousai knew that Tarou could do it. One hit from the Tomodzuru autocannon into the center mass of his Locust would completely destroy the battlemech, and himself with it. Still, he liked the opportunity he had been given, not only to live a little longer, but to learn more of the relationship between Tarou and his new lover.

Kodachi was the unknown variable in their shaky alliance. From what he knew of her, she was capricious with her partners, throwing them away at the first hint of a cooling relationship. It would be to his advantage to find out ways to gain her favor, and thus leverage over Tarou.

The problem being with that was that the Combine princess seemed truly smitten with Pansuto Tarou. While Happousai considered himself devilishly handsome, seducing Kodachi might not be as easy or as useful as he might hope. He shrugged, knowing that a one-night stand with her would be reward enough.

"You've got a deal," he replied. "Let's get cracking." A pang of what well-adjusted people might consider a conscience wracked him for a moment, because the Palomino had not yet lifted off. In leading them back to the starport, a confrontation was inevitable, and his two leading lights in the Anything Goes school, Ranma - and now Akane, since Ryouga was dead - would be in the thick of it.

Why doesn't the damn DropShip take off already? he lamented. Having them gone would make things much easier for everyone involved, and quiet that uncomfortable nagging in the back of his mind.

"There isn't going to be any deal," a haggard voice snarled over the Combine tac-net channel.

Happousai, Tarou, and Kodachi turned to see a BattleMaster standing at the edge of the woods, a crushed recon lance Stinger dangling limply by the neck in its massive left fist. The Cameron Star of the Star League Defense Force was painted upon its charred and muddy hull, and the double-barreled PPC in its right hand glinted with wordless malice as a ray of sunlight broke through the cloud bank to illuminate the dreaded assault 'mech.

Steam and wisps of smoke swirled from the Black Rose battlemech as Ryouga tossed it to the ground before him with a heavy thud.

"Who do you think you are?!" Kodachi demanded of him.

"...Ryouga..." Tarou grunted to himself.

Happousai was stunned. The lost boy was alive!? It wasn't possible! Not even someone as thick-headed as Ryouga could have survived a collapsing building!

"Ryouga! How did you...?"

"There isn't going to be any deal," Ryouga intoned once more, the BattleMaster shaking with rage that translated from his mind to the machine it controlled. "Because I have the Library Core now... If you kill me, you destroy it."

"Ryouga," Tarou said calmly, surprised and dismayed to see his former comrade. He had expected to in the course of the fighting, but even expecting it had not prepared him for this encounter. "I'm warning you right now not to do anything rash... Now what exactly do you want?"

Ryouga Hibiki; naked, battered, physically exhausted, filled with hatred and a heartsick rage that could not be extinguished, and weary to the core of his soul with the fighting he had endured, slowly closed his finger around the commo 'talk' button on his control stick. The motion of his taut muscles made an audible crackling sound over the radio channel before he drew breath to speak, and an ominous and expectant tension filled the air. Heavy drops of sweat splashed off his brow and down his chin to dribble down his bare chest and then puddle in between his naked thighs, chafing him and making him grit his teeth in discomfort. The BattleMaster's turbogenerators made a deep basso rumble in the base of his spine, serenading him with their dark oaths to invoke fiery death at his command.

He had not expected to meet Pansuto Tarou on Ryuugenzawa - not in a million years. That he was in the obvious company of Kodachi Kuno, the Black Rose of the Furinkan Combine, only meant that he had betrayed the expedition at the very first opportunity. He was sick of the backstabbing, sick of the betrayals and the lies, and most of all, he was sick of the suffering his friends had been put through. He had heard Yuka's plea for assistance, and knew that Sayuri was probably dying somewhere in the woods. He knew that if Tarou and Kodachi were allowed to continue - with Happousai leading them - the Palomino would be destroyed, and the woman he loved with all his heart would die too. Ranma and Akane as well, and Ukyou, Doctor Tofu... They would all fight to the last breath. All his friends would die.

"I'm here to kill you, Tarou," he said quietly into the microphone. The fearsome BattleMaster raised its PPC as he took in the sight of the many Black Rose 'mechs that watched him with dread. A low and urgent tone sounded in his ears as the six-rack SRM launcher acquired its first target. The hot smell of his cockpit filled his nostrils with its acrid fragrance. "I'm here to kill every last one of you..."

The Ruins of Ryuugenzawa City

15:10 Local Time

The thunderclap report of a Particle Projection Cannon filled the cool damp air as Ryouga opened fire. The bolt of lightning slammed into Happousai's Locust even as the flight of six short range missiles burst from his launcher and into Tarou's Hunchback. Both 'mechs reeled from the hits, with Happousai's Locust bursting into flames and tumbling to the muddy ground as motes of fire coruscated from its spindly, flailing legs. Happousai's yelp of surprise and alarm was cut short in a squawk of static. The Hunchback caught most of the volley square in the turret-shaped head, blasting away the armor in orange clouds of flame.

Kodachi shrieked at Ryouga as he charged at her, the four laser projectors in the BattleMaster's torso flaying the armor of her black Marauder in white hot streams of yellow-green light. She answered his salvo with a double PPC blast of her own, the thunderbolts crisscrossing with the laser beams in a cat's cradle of annihilation that made the air shiver and tremble between the two battlemechs.

Ryouga felt the bolts cutting into his torso armor through his neurohelmet link with the battlemech. The armor was thick, as thick as any 'mech short of an Atlas, and he knew it would hold up against the continued onslaught of Kodachi's Marauder - at least long enough for him to rip her apart limb from limb. The BattleMaster dropped its shoulder for a collision with her as she realized too late that he wasn't going to stop.

The impact sent her Marauder staggering backwards, the derringer forearm weapon pods turning mad circles in the air as the Black Rose fought to control her machine. She toppled over onto the ground, knocking down several tall trees as she fell. Ryouga pivoted the eighty-five ton BattleMaster smartly as the rest of her troops shook off the mesmerizing carnage he had inflicted in just a few seconds, and began to bear down on him. Their beams and bolts buzzed chaotically around him as he took careful aim with his own weapons, consumed with a cold fury that meant the deaths of anyone foolish enough to stand their ground against him.

He was firing every weapon in lethal salvos at his enemies, expertly maneuvering his monstrous battlemech with the determination to bring his next target to bear and then destroy it. Black Rose 'mechs staggered and fell under his onslaught, and a haze fell over the wooded battlefield from the tremendous heat released from the weapons and pouring from his heat sinks. The Black Rose forces, mostly Federated Shiratori mercenaries recruited to Kodachi's banner with the promise of easy wealth and fame, began to break and run under the barrage of the lone BattleMaster and its homicidal pilot.

Ryouga pursued them, his mind lost in the moment, wanting only to annihilate his enemies before they could hurt anyone else today. Only one 'mech stood its ground, a Black Rose Grasshopper whose laser arrays were steaming with heat from wild, panicked fire.

The BattleMaster's metalshod fist crushed the weakened torso armor of the Grasshopper as it tried to cover the retreat of its fellows. The arm sank into the enemy 'mech up to the elbow as Ryouga felt his battlemech's hand grasp the fiery fusion heart of the seventy ton Grasshopper, and with a savage snarl that carried over his external speakers to the entire forest clearing, he ripped the reactor from its mounts in a spray of liquid nitrogen coolant and plasma flame. The reactor fused itself into a lifeless grey lump of steaming metal in the BattleMaster's hand as Ryouga held it up for the fleeing Black Rose 'mechs to see.

He turned slowly to face Tarou, who had righted his battlemech next to the burning hulk of Happousai's Locust. Ryouga grinned ferally at the handiwork of his PPC. The last time he had shot Happousai with it, on Capra, the bolt had just missed hitting the center of mass and all of the battlemechs' vital internals. This time, his aim had been true, and the Locust was all but obliterated.

Tarou was in better shape, but only just. The Hunchback's head had been blasted wide open by his missiles, and he could see his former friend and companion through the blackened rents and streamers of smoke. The rest of the 'mech was hardly touched, however, and the Tomodzuru autocannon was aimed right at him.

"Damn you," Tarou said to him, his voice wracked with pain, and taut and drawn with smoke inhalation.

"Is that all that you have to say to me, Tarou!?" Ryouga returned. "'Damn you?'"

"We could have worked something out," Tarou replied with a cough, the Hunchback moving slowly to circle the BattleMaster. Ryouga rotated to follow the 'mech, not trusting his one-time friend for a moment. "Happousai was my enemy too, or have you forgotten that?"

"You were ready to cut a deal with him!" Ryouga shot back.

Tarou laughed bitterly. "Do you think for one moment that I would have honored a deal with that inhuman piece of shit?"

"I guess you're right," Ryouga said evenly. "But then, you didn't keep your promise to Akane either."

The Hunchback tensed for a moment - a mental flinch translated through Tarou's neurohelmet to his battlemech. Ryouga noted the reaction with a scornful grunt.

"That's right," Tarou admitted at length. "I've always looked out for Number One, Ryouga. I've never hidden that fact about me from you."

"There was time when you were my friend, Tarou," Ryouga returned, his voice losing some of its scorn for a softer, regretful tone. "We may not have seen eye to eye on things, but we always looked out for each other on the battlefield. Were you looking out for 'Number One' then, too?"

Tarou was silent for a moment before responding. "What do you think, Ryouga?"

The BattleMaster, its hull blackened and trailing wisps of smoke from its savaged armor plating, wavered for a moment.

"I want to believe that there was a time when you actually cared about someone other than yourself and your petty revenge," Ryouga replied.

"Don't talk to me about petty revenge!" Tarou snorted. "You were ready to tear Saotome's head off over a stupid bread feud when we ran into him on Capra! How long did you nurse that grudge, Ryouga? Seven years?"

"I got over it!" Ryouga snarled back, his fingers tensing on the weapon release triggers the way he knew Tarou's must have been. "I've made my peace with Ranma, and worked to make the Expedition a success! You sold us out the first chance you got! You broke your promise to Akane, and by bringing the Black Rose to Ryuugenzawa, you've hurt and threatened people I care about!"

He almost expected Tarou to fire in that moment, and with his weapons aimed at the Hunchback's head, the exchange would have been instantly fatal to both of them. Instead, the Hunchback lowered its arms and stood silent before him.

"It doesn't have to end like this, Ryouga," Tarou said quietly.

"If you and Kodachi leave this planet, it won't," he returned.

"We can still make a deal," Tarou pressed. "You need us to fight off the Commonwealth. If we join forces, we can still escape the system with the Library Core. Think about it, Ryouga."

Ryouga wanted to squeeze the triggers, but his fingers wouldn't move that last millimeter.

He did not see that Kodachi's Marauder had risen to its cloven-hoofed feet behind him, the forearm weapon pods poised to strike him down in twin bolts of particle beam fire.

Tarou, however, did.

"Aim for the legs!" he cried, throwing his Hunchback clear as Ryouga realized too late that Kodachi was behind him. "We need that Library Core intact!"

The bolts slammed into the backs of the BattleMaster's thighs. The armor held, but the double impact sent him staggering forward, the aft-mounted medium lasers of his 'mech firing wildly at her in return. He twisted as he stumbled forward, bringing his own PPC to bear on Tarou, as more bolts of particle beam fire struck him in the back.

His guns fired at Tarou, striking the Hunchback square in the chest and just low of his intended target - the head. Then he was toppling over to fall face-first onto the ground. He fought his controls as he tried to roll upright and continue the struggle, all with Kodachi cackling maniacally in his headset.

"What's the matter, dear?" she chortled with mock-sweetness. The Marauder loomed over him as he rolled onto his back, the twin weapon pods aimed low at his battlemech's torso and the vital gyroscope mount that maintained his stability. "Did we fall down?"

"Give us the Library Core," Tarou added. "It's all we want. When we get it, we'll lift off and never visit this mudball again."

"Speak for yourself, lover," Kodachi snorted. "As long as I'm here, I want to kill Akane Tendo."

"Never," Ryouga spat before Tarou could rebutt his Combine mistress. "You'll have to kill me."

"If necessary," Tarou returned.

"Let's be done with this," Kodachi sniffed. "He's caused more damage to my regiment than I care to think about." She dropped one of her weapon pods down at the BattleMaster's bulbous cockpit canopy until it was touching the clear polycarbonate armor, the medium laser mounted just beneath the PPC emitter aimed squarely at Ryouga's lower cockpit seat. She could burn through the canopy and fry him without risking harm to the armored strongbox in the other seat.

"Don't you touch him!" a girl's voice cried out over the tac-net. The voice was followed by the staccatto crackle of a heavy pulselaser, and brilliant flashes of coherent light slamming into the hull of Kodachi's Marauder.

The Black Rose pivoted on her heels to face Ranma in her Super Phoenix Hawk LAM.

"Do I know you?" Kodachi asked her, her voice dripping with menace.

"That's Saotome!" Tarou cried. "Kill him!"

"Ranma Saotome?" Kodachi asked incredulously. The voice she heard over the radio sounded nothing like the man who had defied her attempt to kill Akane Tendo on the planet Capra. "Are you joking, my love? THAT'S Ranma Saotome?"

"It's him!" Tarou confirmed. "Trust me!"

Ranma goosed her jets, her LAM leaping into the air as Kodachi hesitated. She soared overhead to land behind the Black Rose, and hammered her once more with pulselaser fire from her engine/weapon pod. Tarou let fly with a wild shot from his autocannon, the depleted uranium dart clipping a chunk of armor off the pod before sailing on uselessly downrange.

"You okay, Ryouga!?" Ranma asked worriedly while hosing pulselaser fire back at Tarou.

"Leave Tarou to me, Ranma!" Ryouga snarled, drawing his BattleMaster up to its full height, and stomping towards the misshapen battlemech while it was busy fending off Ranma's barrage.

"No argument, man," Ranma returned. "Good to see you're still alive."

Kodachi interrupted them with a long burst from her autocannon, the shells howling around Ranma's Super Phoenix Hawk as she juked and dodged wildly to avoid them. As she gained altitude in Airmech Mode, she saw that the rest of Kodachi's forces were rallying near the burning ruins of the colony town, and were starting their return to the fight.

"We've got more company on the way," she cautioned Ryouga.

Ryouga didn't respond, because he was busy attacking Tarou. The Hunchback bobbed and weaved to avoid his blasts meant for the battlemech's vulnerable head, and in turn Tarou was handicapped by the need to cripple his foe without risking the destruction of the library core. The two 'mechs spiralled around each other, firing madly as they went.

"It ends here, Tarou!" he barked.

"I've worked too hard for this to let you stop me!" Tarou returned fiercely. A shell from his autocannon slammed into the BattleMaster's knee, blasting apart the armor and damaging the actuator. The assault 'mech staggered with the hit, but not before the final missile volley from its six-rack SRM launcher slammed home into the Hunchback's torso.

Both battlemechs went down, obscured by smoke and flames. Ranma cried out Ryouga's name, and was answered only by another burst of autocannon fire from Kodachi. The shells spanged off her armor, gouging craters in the precious ferro-fibrous plating that protected her, and haloing her in a nimbus of golden sparks.

"That's about enough outta you, sister!" she yelled at Kodachi, and put her LAM into a power dive. Kodachi raised her derringer weapon pods to blow her away with a double PPC barrage, only to lose an arm at the elbow joint as the Super Phoenix Hawk swooped overhead, grabbing the limb, and ripping it out of its ball-and-socket connection.

"How dare you!?" Kodachi shrieked indignantly at Ranma. "Assaulting the Black Rose of the Furinkan Combine?! Such impertinence!"

The Phoenix Hawk LAM cast the severed limb aside as it banked for another pass.

"Yeah, what do you think I was gonna do, lady? Let you shoot me?"

Kodachi was wroth, and it showed in her voice. "It's the least you can do, peasant!"

"Man," Ranma snorted. "You sound just like your idiot brother."

Kodachi gasped in disgust at the idea. "You horrible creature!" she cried angrily. "To think that I once desired you!"

Ranma tried to suppress a cold shiver at the notion that Kodachi wanted her. It was too sick to think about.

The Black Rose fired another long burst at Ranma with her autocannon, which succeeded only in chewing up the forest around the agile LAM as it boosted clear.

"Hold still, you!" she cried impatiently. "At least try to die with some dignity and grace!"

Ranma gave her a wet raspberry over the tac-net as she raced away from the battle in the hopes of drawing the Black Rose away from Ryouga and Tarou. The BattleMaster didn't look like it was up to a two-on-one confrontation. She did not see how the two combatants had knocked each other over as she fled with Kodachi in hot pursuit.

"Hold on, Sayuri," Yuka begged her friend, who was growing paler by the moment.

The thump of heavy battlemech feet made her look up with a mixture of hope and dread. A Centurion burst through the trees, its heavy autocannon probing for the enemy. When she saw that it was Doctor Tofu and not an enemy, Yuka waved and yelled frantically for its attention.

Tofu dismounted at once with his medical kit and a portable cutting torch in hand. A Victor stomped into the small clearing formed by the crashlanding Phoenix Hawk LAM, and took up the job of protecting them while Tofu went to work.

He blanched at the sight of what had happened, and understood the need for the cutting tools.

"How bad is it, Doctor Tofu?" Kasumi called over the external speakers.

"I might need your help, Kasumi," he replied.

"I'll be right there."

Yuka hovered over the doctor as he checked Sayuri's vital signs and pronounced her condition as grave. He dug into his kit for the bags of whole blood and his transfusion apparatus, knowing that he needed to replace her blood volume now before any attempts could be made to cut her free. More than the whole blood though, he needed lots of blood plasma for Sayuri to keep her pressure up, a commodity he did not possess. There were other concerns, for the shard of metal had clearly pierced her left lung, and she risked aspirating blood into the uninjured right lung if he could not drain it and repair the damage.

"One step at a time," he told himself. If he didn't stabilize Sayuri, and soon, none of his other concerns would matter. "Set up that cutting torch," he ordered Yuka, more to keep her out of his way while he did his work than anything else. Kasumi's gasp of horror at the grisly sight of Sayuri's injuries was his first indication that she was there. The fear that he would seize up when Sayuri needed him most gripped him, but to his surprise he found that with something urgent to occupy his mind, he could function normally.

"I need you to elevate this for me, please," he told the woman of his dreams, and handed her the bag of precious type-B whole blood.

"Of course, Doctor Tofu," Kasumi replied coolly. "Do you think you can save her?"

Tofu caught the worried look in Yuka's eyes and nodded. "I haven't lost a patient on this expedition, and I don't plan on starting now."

The transfusion started, he began assessing the situation. The best way to release her from the piece of metal that impaled her was to cut it from both ends and remove her from the cockpit with the rest still inside. He didn't have the facilities to try and remove all of it safely in the field.

"Start about five centimeters back from the point of penetration," Tofu advised Yuka. "The metal will act as a heat sink for the torch, but under the circumstances, it should work in our favor. Any cauterization caused by it will slow the bleeding until I can get her to Sickbay on the Palomino."

"I don't know if I can do this," Yuka said uneasily.

"Then hold this," Tofu told her impatiently, taking the bag of whole blood that drained into Sayuri's vein from Kasumi and handing it to her. "Kasumi, I need you to steady Sayuri while I make the cut."

"Of course, Doctor," she replied quietly. The crush of heavy battlemech feet made the ground tremble slightly, and she wondered if she was really serving them better by standing here, and not in her Victor.

It was awkward having to work in such a narrow space as the gap in the canopy afforded, and he wasn't the most experienced hand with a cutting torch. He struck the flame and edged carefully into the cockpit as Sayuri emitted a low gasp of pain. He drew the plasma torch over the section of wing as quickly as he dared, trying to vaporize as much metal as possible without dribbling molten drops of it onto the girl's legs and torso. He was mostly successful, and the pressure suit's ablative lining helped with the rest, but she was probably going to have a few small burn scars when all was said and done. Her tiny hisses of pain through her unconsciousness were enough to tell him that.

When he was through with the first section, he wrenched at the canopy, shoving it clear and giving him more room to work with. The section of wingtip that had penetrated through her body and into the seat came free, and Sayuri pitched forward. The section that had penetrated her back was much shorter than he had feared, and Tofu decided to leave well enough alone.

"Let's get her out," he said to the two women, and lifted Sayri gently out of her cockpit seat.

"Which 'mech should we transport her in?" Kasumi asked.

"Yours, I think," Tofu replied. He turned to Yuka. "Ever pilot a battlemech before?"

Yuka rubbed at her temple, relieved that her friend was no longer pinned into her wrecked fighter. "Once. I wasn't very good at it."

"Consider this a second chance," the doctor told her. "The neurohelmet is in the cockpit."

Yuka nodded reluctantly, and started for the Centurion. Tofu, holding Sayuri in his arms as Kasumi took back the blood transfusion, gave her a gentle look.

"I don't want to lose anyone, Kasumi," he said quietly as they walked carefully towards the Victor. "But I know it might be too much to hope."

"I know, Doctor," she replied, thinking about the suffering she had witnessed on Oni. "All we can do is try, and I admire you for not giving up on anyone."

He blushed at this, and tried not to drop his precious charge in his delirium. It was difficult, because hearing such a thing from Kasumi made his heart leap in his chest.

"Ranma! Where the heck do you think you're going?!" a certain Tomboy cried out over the tac-net as Ranma's Phoenix Hawk LAM evaded Kodachi's weapon fire.

"Why are you asking me such dumb questions?" she retorted.

"Akane Tendo?!" Kodachi shrilled before Ranma's fiancee could muster up a scream. "Is that really you?"

Akane's face appeared abruptly on the Black Rose's display. She was wrathful and grim, a combination that the Combine princess found quite unsettling. "It's me, Kodachi. I'm three hundred meters north of you right now, so if you want to finish what we started on Port Said, I'd be happy to oblige you."

"Done and done!" Kodachi cried happily in spite of her misgivings. "May we fight in all fairness!"

"Oh no!" Akane shot back. "I'm not falling for that again."

"Why, you detestable little trollop, whatever do you mean?" Kodachi said, her voice dripping with malice.

"You know what I'm talking about, you crazy witch!" Akane cried angrily. "For every crime you've perpetrated on the people of the Confederation, I'm going to pay it back with interest, and I'm going to do it in spite of your dirty tricks!"

"You and what army, harridan!" Kodachi trilled.

"I don't need an army, Kodachi. Remember what I did to you on Port Said!" Akane pointed out gleefully. "You couldn't retreat fast enough from me!"

"How dare you accuse the Black Rose of cowardice!?"

"It's easy: I just tell it like it happened!"

Kodachi let out a strangled gasp of rage and frustration, and then abandoned her pursuit of Ranma to attack Akane.

Ranma watched the two close with each other at full speed. "And people say the two of us bicker?" she remarked to herself.

Akane was ready when Kodachi's Marauder bore down on her. As the black battlemech cleared a row of trees that separated them, she let her enemy have it with both Donal PPCs. The weapon arms spat forth twin arcs of blue-white lightning that tore into the Marauder's leg armor. She corrected for her low aim as her father positioned his Warhammer for a shot of his own against the Black Rose, and Ukyou triggered her Hatchetman's jump jets to attack from behind.

"Kodachi's mine," she growled to them. "Help Ranma and Ryouga!"

"If you insist, hon'," Ukyou replied, and maneuvered in mid jump to put her closer to the dueling BattleMaster and Hunchback. Soun moved past the two combatants at a distance, followed by a wary Genma Saotome in his battle-scarred Orion.

"Your confidence amuses me," Kodachi chuckled, and returned fire with her autocannon, blazing streams of armor piercing shells that spanged off the Warhammer's torso in flurries of red and gold sparks. "Though it is completely without merit."

"I beat you once," Akane returned. "I'll do it again."

"A fluke," Kodachi sniffed. She slowed her advance to bring her remaining PPC to bear. "I shall defeat you with only one arm!"

The PPC fired, and the thunderbolt crashed into the Warhammer as Akane triggered her six-rack SRM launcher. Fingers of electricity crackled from the impact point of the particle beam, reaching out to caress the stubby missiles as they sprang from their tubes. The missiles began to explode right in front of the Warhammer, engulfing it in a fireball.

Kodachi shrieked laughter at her sudden windfall, and charged in to attack in the confusion. As the fireball blackened into a column of oily smoke, the long armored tube of a Donal PPC appeared, clouting the Marauder across the snout-like cockpit with a resounding impact.

"Wicked strumpet!" Kodachi cried indignantly, reaching up underneath her neurohelmet to rub her temple, sore after getting rattled in her cockpit. Akane's Warhammer stepped through the smoke with the other arm coming up to deal a second blow. "You cheated, making me think that you had exploded so conveniently!"

The Black Rose turned it aside with the stump of her Marauder's right arm, and followed through with a backhanded bitch-slap across the Warhammer's cockpit visor with her remaining derringer arm. The Warhammer reeled from the blow, but its low center of gravity kept it from toppling over. Kodachi then hammered away at point blank range with her Whirlwind autocannon, one of the few weapons she could use effectively this close. Then, receiving a sudden flash of inspiration, she shifted her fire into the trees behind the Warhammer, cutting them down and sending them crashing into the battlemech.

The Warhammer staggered under the hits of ancient hardwood trees, and was engulfed in their green foliage. The gun-barrel PPC arms swiped madly at the branches in an attempt to clear them away from her blinded sensors, but lacking actual hands, the task was less than successful. Kodachi blasted her with her remaining PPC while she struggled, chortling over the external PA with her victory.

"Now who's the cheat!?" Akane snarled accusingly. She wiped at the thin line of blood that trickled from her lip where she had bitten down on it with the force of Kodachi's slap. As she moved, the weight of the trees dragged them off her hull, and finally cleared her view.

She began to backpedal, moving under a hail of 90mm shells and the assault of Kodachi's maniacal laughter, to give herself an effective field of fire with her twin gun clusters. She raked the Marauder with laser and machinegun fire, tearing into the two turbine-driven cooling pods on either side of the battlemech's cannon. The intakes caught a stream of fire that disintegrated the thinly armored intake screens and then proceeded to blast apart the turbines.

The Marauder twitched spasmodically at her hit, nearly falling to its knees. Akane fired the six-rack SRM launcher once more, and without a particle beam bolt to interfere with her shot, was rewarded with the sight of all six missiles hitting. The black Marauder's steeply-sloped armor made the hits less than effective, however, as most of the explosive force was spread out along the long curved sweep of the battlemech's flanks. Head-on fire at the torso wasn't going to work; she needed to hit it from an oblique angle at the every least, and directly from the sides at best.

At least her gun clusters had been effective. She could see the expanding waves of heat mirage coming from Kodachi's radiators, and knew that without the turbine fans blowing tons of air across them, her ability to dissipate heat was going to be greatly diminished. Hopefully, she'd think twice about firing her remaining PPC.

"Where do you think you're going?" Kodachi demanded in a shaky voice as Akane moved her Warhammer away in a flanking attempt. "Running away already, are we?" Her autocannon pivoted on its mast-like mount to continue spraying the Warhammer with fire.

To hear fear creeping into the Black Rose's voice made Akane's heart swell. Kodachi had done so much damage to the Confederation in the past, ended so many innocent lives, and terrorized entire planets. Now she was alone, fighting to the death in a battlemech that was half-crippled. Now the debts she had accrued against the Confederation would be repaid.

"I don't have to explain myself to the likes of you," Akane retorted, and let Kodachi have it with both Donal PPCs. The twin thunderbolts gushed from the tube-like weapon arms with deafening reports, and dashed against the Marauder's broad expanse of torso flank. The chattering of the autocannon stopped abruptly, followed immediately by the stacatto flashes of ammunition cooking off within the weapon's magazine. The force of the blast ripped the intact left arm off at the shoulder joint, venting catastrophically from the torn armor, and flinging blobs of bright green tracers in lazy arcs into the remaining trees.

The Marauder toppled over and crashed in a twisted heap. Long plumes of black smoke poured from the carbonized hole in the torso armor, and small fires burned within. Akane brought her Warhammer up to inspect her fallen enemy, and noted with satisfaction that the Marauder remained as silent and still as death.

She sank into her ejector seat with a long, drawn-out, and weary sigh. This was the ending that should have happened on Port Said six months ago. Kodachi Kuno, the Black Rose of the Furinkan Combine, was defeated.

"I'd watch those damaged knees if I were you," Tarou observed sardonically as he maneuvered through dense woods to evade Ryouga's particle beam riposte. "They'll be the death of you."

Ryouga knew it without needing a reminder from his enemy. The actuator damage his 'mech had suffered was slowing him down. He was at full throttle and only managing cruise speed in his pursuit. Another good hit would tear off a leg, which he was sure was what Tarou had in mind. He was as obsessed with the library core as Happousai had been.

He also knew that Tarou was almost out of shells for his Tomodzuru autocannon, and that when they were expended, he would be down to a pair of medium lasers for his armament. Ryouga still had his formidable array of lasers, plus his PPC. That came out to a significant advantage in a fight.

Getting Tarou to use those last two or three shots without being hit was the challenge.

The battered Hunchback turned around the copse of trees to come back at him. He responded with all four of his medium lasers, the beams crackling through the air at the battlemech, and cutting four black swaths through the torso. Sparks flashed from the rents in Tarou's armor, and for a moment Ryouga thought he had set off the autocannon's ammunition.

The depleted uranium dart that crashed into his torso was proof enough that he hadn't. The impact staggered his 'mech, and spoiled his aim with the hand held PPC. His armor was practically gone over his right torso, the last hit gouging a crater in the thick plating with a diameter big enough for a man to stand inside.

How many of those do you have left, Tarou? he wondered angrily. The patient and loving work Akari had invested in his Battlemaster was being destroyed by that terrible weapon, and he wasn't going to stand for it.

"I'm going to finish this, Tarou!" he cried. "Now, stand and fight it out, Monster-boy!"

"Be reasonable and eject!" Tarou returned. "Or if you're so eager to die, at least eject your rear seat and spare the library core!"

"I'd rather see it destroyed than have you or Kodachi get your hands on it!"

Ryouga put his 'mech into a charge, intent on running down the Hunchback that he out-massed by thirty-five tons. Tarou stopped short and fired another shot from his autocannon that crashed into the center of the BattleMaster's torso. Armor spalled off in waves, and curled up into steel shavings at the red hot edges of the crater, but the plating was at its thickest there, and it held - barely.

"You're forcing me to kill you, Ryouga!" Tarou answered, hosing laser fire at the BattleMaster's legs. "I've tried to avoid that so far, but you leave me no choice!"

Ryouga triggered his lasers again, the beams slicing apart an arm in clouds of ionized gas. "I won't allow you to profit from your betrayal!"

He could see the Hunchback tense for another autocannon shot and knew that he wouldn't reach it in time to ram. One more hit from that thing would be enough to destroy him, and if Tarou's aim was true, he would lose a leg, and his enemy would win.

The shot did not come, nor did he hear Tarou's scream of frustration over the din of his own war cry. The BattleMaster crashed into the smaller Hunchback, forcing it up into the air as its massive limbs grappled. Still yelling his lungs out, Ryouga wrenched the Hunchback up over his battlemech's head before throwing it down with all his might. The BattleMaster's myomer bundles groaned in protest over the load as he exerted them to their very limits.

The Hunchback hit the ground with a crash, bits of metal and clods of dirt flying from the huge divot it made. Ryouga spun his BattleMaster around, kicking the fallen 'mech with a full power blow. The Hunchback's right arm was torn away from the elbow joint, leaving it completely defenseless to his attacks.

He laid into Tarou with everything he had; punches, kicks, stomps, and more. Sparks flew from his battlemech's hands as they smashed apart armor, foamed aluminum skeletal components, and magnetic-piston actuators. He continued pounding on the Hunchback in a rage, long after it had ceased to be a battlemech; it was now nothing more than an ugly, formless lump of steel and composites that smoldered and leaked nameless fluids from the folds and rents.

"Ryouga!" Ukyou called to him. "That's enough already!"

He didn't hear her as she again called to him to stop. It took a mechanized hand on his cocked fist to get his attention.

"You got him," she said quietly. "Trust me on this one, honey."

His throat was raw from screaming, and it took him a moment to find his voice. It unnerved him to think that he had become so mindless and insane in a battle, even one on which so much depended.

"Okay," he panted finally. "You're right."

He turned to see the Warhammers of Akane and her father, Commander Saotome's Orion, and Ranma's Super Phoenix Hawk LAM standing in a line, watching him worriedly.

"Are you okay, Ryouga?" Akane asked.

"Yeah," he gushed. He did not want Akane to see him like this, not like some wild animal that needed to put down for its own good. "I'm all right... Wha-What about the rest of Kodachi's troops?"

"Makin' a run for it," Ranma replied. "It seems you scare the piss outta them, Ryouga." The Super Phoenix Hawk's head inclined in Akane's direction. "And with the cavalry coming like it did, they totally lost their nerve."

"Great," Ryouga huffed wearily. "What now?"

"Musk Dynasty forces are approaching the Palomino's position," Akane replied. "There's no chance of us getting back there in time to stop them, even if we had the numbers to do it, but I just spoke with Captain Grant, and he says they're ready to lift off."

"So we headin' to the bunker then?" Ranma asked her. She was all for leaving the planet as soon as possible.

"Just as soon as we link up with Kasumi and Doctor Tofu," she confirmed. "I only hope Sayuri can hold on a little longer."

"Let's move out," Soun said to them. "We can't stay here."

Akane's Warhammer set a PPC arm against Ranma's Super Phoenix Hawk LAM as the rest agreed and turned northwest. "Stay with me on the ground for awhile, Ranma," she said to him.

The battlemech cocked its head at her, aping the gesture Ranma made within her cockpit.

"What for? You'll need an eye in the sky if you want to avoid those Musk jokers."

The Warhammer emitted a puff of steam from its heat sinks, an autonomous heat dumping function that was utterly coincidental with Akane's mood shift. Ranma's 'mech edged away nervously from her anyway.

"I just wanted to see you," Akane said to her through clenched teeth. "You worry me half to death with your wandering off and not reporting in, then you take on a force ten times your own without so much as a simple request for help, then you... Oh, nevermind."

"All right already," Ranma replied. "I'll stick around for a few minutes if it'll make you feel better. Jeez..."

The two 'mechs began walking together, leaving Ryouga behind. The fanged mechwarrior took one last look at the ruins of Pansuto Tarou's Hunchback, and tried to forget the years they had been comrades. Though those days had been anything but idyllic, they represented a simpler time that was now forever lost to him.

"Goodbye, Tarou," he said to the pile of burnt scrap.

"Coming, Ryouga?" Akane asked him over the radio.

He nodded his head, looked over his shoulder at the armored strongbox that contained the library core, and let out a sigh.

"On my way," he replied.

The DropShip Palomino

15:18 Local Time

"Kick the tires and light the fires!" Grant yelled to his crew while stepping onto the Flight Deck with his pressure suit helmet under his arm. "We've got less than ten minutes before this position gets overrun." He wanted to give Lady Akane and the others more time to return, but the Musk Dynasty wasn't allowing it.

"Commencing reactor start-up," the Co-Pilot declared, punching in the commands to his board. The DropShip's computer acknowledged the command with an automated warning over the ship's 1MC intercom circuit. "Ignition in five... four... three... two... one... mark!"

The lights flickered for a moment. Displays shifted and danced on the Flight Deck as vital systems prepared themselves automatically for activation.

"The reactor is online. Fusion plant power indications stable and ranging within normal variances," the Co-Pilot announced. "Port cooling loop pressure holding steady. Shifting the power distribution system to a normal full-power line up."

"Main Engine sequence start," the Pilot added. The massive engine turbines in the Port Atmospheric Manuevering Engine began to spool up with a deep drone well aft of the cockpit. The DropShip shifted slightly on its landing gear, as if anticipating its coming leap into the sky. "Main Engine induction pressure rising. Main Engine low induction pressure alarm clear."

Captain Grant nodded coolly for them and then turned back to face Tad and the two Gunner's Mates.

"Status of weapons and sensors?" he asked them.

"Fire Control is green. All weapon mounts indicate ready."

Petty Officer Howard gave him a 'thumbs up.' "All active and passive arrays are green. Request permission to radiate with active radar."

"Hold off on the active radar," Grant cautioned him. "I want to make certain we can get off the ground before I advertise our presence. With Yuka and Sayuri down, we have no air support."

"Main Engines ready for lift-off," the Pilot announced a moment later.

"Good," Grant rumbled. "Inform Lady Akane that we are lifting off, and that we will meet her and the rest of Red Lance at the secondary rendezvous point."

"Aye aye, sir," the Co-Pilot acknowledged.

"Take us up," Grant ordered.

The Pilot throttled up, and with a roar of fusion heated turbojets, the Palomino began to rise into the air. A cheer went up as the Pilot rotated the ship ninety degrees to put it on the proper heading, and then began edging forward slowly so as not to overtax the engines.

"Quiet!" Grant barked. "We're not out of this yet! Tad, you keep your sensors peeled for the bad guys. We know they're close."

Tad was already hunched over his displays as the DropShip picked up speed.

"Aye sir, scanning now... Captain, I'm picking up ground based search radar, Garrett-type air defense sets." He bit his lip nervously as he punched in several command functions into the sensory gear. "Bearing two-two-six, relative; range is real damn close, sir!"

"How close?" Grant demanded. "I want specifics!"

Autocannon tracers lit into them as he asked, and the DropShip trembled as they bit into the thick portside armor.

"Eight hundred meters!" Tad replied. "Enemy battlemechs bearing two-two-six, relative; range eight hundred meters!"

"Increase speed!" Grant ordered the Pilot. "Return fire!"

The whooosh of the port-side LRM-20 rack was quickly followed by the crackle of the twin heavy laser and point defense medium laser turrets. It was a relatively small amount of firepower, but with luck, sufficient to the task of harassing the enemy and denying them an easy shot.

The Palomino began to shake again as more autocannon fire struck the ship. Then two particle beam cannon bolts slammed into the aft section, sounding alarms on the Flight Deck. The gunner on the port side returned fire with all he had, and yet he did nothing to stop the onslaught.

"There's a whole battalion down there," he shrieked, still firing his weapons as fast as the systems would permit.

"Pressure's dropping in the port coolant loop!" the Co-Pilot added. An alarm wailed as he spoke. "Port Loop Low Pressure Alarm!"

"I'm losing thrust in the manuevering engines," the Pilot intoned. "Switching to HEPLAR drive; hang on!"

The DropShip's plasma drive ignited with a roar, and the sudden increase in thrust threw off the Musk Dynasty aim, giving them a few blessed seconds of relief. The Palomino careened just above the verdant Ryuugenzawa forest, trailing lines of smoke from its wounds as it sought escape.

"Damage report!" Grant ordered, watching as the Engineering repeater display began hemorrhaging red light.

Akari's quavering voice answered for the Engineer. "We have a leak in the port loop!" she said over the intercom. "We're compensating by injecting fresh coolant from the cryogenic plant, but once we run out of liquid nitrogen..."

"How long?" Grant asked bitterly.

"Ten minutes at present rate of consumption, sir. Probably less than that if the leak rate increases with pipe erosion through the source of the leak."

"Keep the pressure above the safety shutdown point," Grant ordered. "Strike that!" he amended. "I order you to take the Reactor Protection System console to Battleshort!"

"Take the RPS console to Battleshort, aye," Akari replied. The Battleshort Mode would disable all of the fusion plant's automated safety shut-down commands. Grant intended to run the reactor into the ground if necessary to escape the Musk Dynasty. "Flight Deck, Engineering; the RPS console is set to Battleshort."

Grant acknowledged Akari's report and turned to his Pilot. "Keep us in the air," he told him. "Plot a course for the Orochi bunker. We can get that far at least, and then have the Tautog's shuttles pick us up from there."

"I'll keep us in the air," the Pilot returned. "But I don't like the idea of abandoning ship."

"Neither do I," Grant said tersely. "But we've got to keep our options open."

Musk Dynasty Headquarters Company

Ian Cameron Starport

15:22 Local Time

"That was unexpected," Mechwarrior General Herb said to himself as the Palomino escaped. There had been no reports of Black Rose DropShips within the bounds of the starport.

"Track them," he ordered his operations section. "Dispatch a lance of fighters to destroy that ship at once."

The thought occured to him that the ship might in fact belong to the Confederation, that they had in fact survived the Orochi. It made the case for Shampoo's survival that much more compelling, and made him wonder again where Mousse had run off to. Lime and Mint had thus far failed to find him.

"A change in plans," he told his Operations Officer. "Have the fighters tail the DropShip at a distance, but do not have them engage. If the ship should land for any reason, I want its location reported to me immediately."

"At once, my lord General," the officer replied.

The matter settled, he returned his attention to the starport. He wasn't impressed. The place looked as if it had been mauled a very long time ago. If there was anything of value here, he would need a lot of uninterrupted time to search for it.

As his 'mechs cleared the ruined hulk of an ancient Leopard class DropShip, he spied several battlemechs standing in a line, their arms at their sides, and their systems apparently quiescent. One of them, a Centurion, had been heavily and recently damaged. The others; a Wasp, another Centurion, and two Catapults, looked pristine in their SLDF livery.

"Hold your fire," he ordered his troops. "Approach with caution, but I want those 'mechs captured intact."

We must have frightened the DropShip off with our advance, he realized. These Confederation fools obviously know where this world's treasures can be found.

An officer with a hulking bear-like frame and yellow ursine eyes appeared on his display, interrupting his train of thought.

"My lord General, our scouts have located a pitched battle twenty kilometers south of our position between Black Rose forces and an unknown third party. They are requesting further instruction."

Herb considered this. The third party in question most likely belonged to the Confederation. He needed knowledgable prisoners if he was going to make his search for lostech more efficient.

"Have them remain out of sight, but in contact with the battle. They are not to engage. If they are attacked, they are to withdraw while keeping me informed of the enemy's positions," he declared. "Order Fox and Serpent Companies to turn south and engage the Black Rose's troops. Any other 'mechs encountered are to be captured with their mechwarriors alive. The remaining companies will stay here and secure the starport."

"At once, my lord General!"

He turned his Grand Dragon on its heels, and headed back towards his personal DropShip. He would wait there for any prisoners that were captured, or for news of the Confederation DropShip's destination. The planet was by all rights his now, all that was left was the extermination of Kodachi Kuno's rag-tag regiment, and the final disposition of Mousse and Shampoo. Tatewaki's fleet was surely headed inexorably towards their deaths at the hands of the Orochi, and he wanted to be close to his sources of information for the battle in orbit to confirm this.

SLDFS Coronet

15:23 Local Time

"Engineering, report status of restoring main power," Captain Hinako Ninomiya ordered. They had been dead in space for over half an hour since they had successfully fired their Main Gun to destroy an Orochi satellite, an act which had quenched their fusion reactor in the process. A back-up fission plant was to have come on to provide emergency power, but it too had inexplicably failed.

Lieutenant Fulton, Hinako's Assistant Engineer from the Dragonfly, and currently Chief Engineer of the Coronet, answered her over the intercom system.

"Ma'am, we think we've got the problem isolated to a logic controller in the power distribution system," Fulton replied. His face was damp with sweat, as the engineering crew was operating without the luxury of the ventilation system to conserve the cruiser's emergency batteries. "It's holding up both powerplants on a switchgear fault, making their controllers believe that the main distribution switchgear is grounded, and keeping them offline."

"What does all that mean in terms of time to restore power?" she asked him. Engineers tended to speak as if everyone within earshot understood their arcane jargon, and it had been a long time since she had attended the basic engineering courses required of prospective starship commanders.

"If we swap the controller out with a spare, factor in time to load the program from the archives, and everything actually works as advertised, I'd say we can start up the fusion plant within forty-five minutes."

Hinako slapped her forehead with the palm of her hand. A look from Captain Hauptmann at the Fire Control station confirmed her misgivings. "Fulton, we don't have forty-five minutes. There are six troop carrier shuttles on their way to take this ship as a prize."

Fulton grimaced at the news. "I don't know what to tell you, ma'am. This process is pretty straightforward. There really aren't any corners to cut, but we'll do our best."

Hinako sighed wearily and signed off. Captain Hauptmann waved her over to the Fire Control station. Passive sensor data was displayed for them, showing the six Furinkan Combine ships on an intercept course.

"ETA is nineteen minutes," Hauptmann declared. "If we don't get our drives back before then, we're in trouble."

"That's probably not going to happen," Hinako told him flatly. She had been against firing the Main Gun, but not for the reasons she now regretted."What are our options?"

"The Tautog is having its own problems right now, so we can't expect any help from them in the near future. Olivera says they are at bare minimum combat capability, and their current orbit has them drifting over the planetary horizon in ten minutes. They won't come back around for another two hours and twenty-five minutes."

Hinako had to agree that this was not good. "What can we do from our end?"

Hauptmann pointed at the fire control panels. "The primary gun batteries won't fire without main power, but we have our secondary turrets. Those can operate off the emergency battery, and if we use the lasers sparingly, we shouldn't drain too much juice."

Hinako considered it. "It's probably more than enough firepower to stop those shuttles," she replied. "But what then?"

Hauptmann cocked his head at her. "It buys us time to get this crate back to full capacity. I don't want to be anywhere near when the Orochi Network and the Combine fleet go at it hammer and tongs." He shrugged. "If you have a better idea, Captain Ninomiya, I'm all ears."

A smile lit up Hinako's face.

"Something just came to me," she said. "I'll need everyone you can spare to meet me in the shuttle bay."

Hauptmann looked at her questioningly. "What exactly do you mean by 'everyone I can spare'?"

"The absolute bare minimum to navigate. One person at the sensors. One person at fire control. The minimum watchstanders in Engineering. The Chief of the Watch can handle commo from his station."

"What for?"

Hinako crossed her arms over her breasts. "You'll have to trust me on this, Captain Hauptmann."

"Captain Hauptmann," the Chief of the Watch called out. "The Furinkan Combine boarding party demands that we surrender our vessel at once."

Hauptmann punched the intercom for the shuttle bay staging area. "Our guests are about to arrive, Captain Ninomiya. Are you ready for them?"

"You betcha!" a child's voice chirped back in reply.

Hauptmann shook his head gravely and turned to the Chief of the Watch. "Tell them that we surrender. Open the shuttle bay doors to receive them."

The Chief of the Watch did so. "Aye, Captain. Shuttle Bay doors indicate open."

"This had better work..." Hauptmann muttered.

"Spread out," the Furinkan Combine Marine sergeant barked to his men in the Shuttle Bay. "Don't bunch up! We don't know what kind of welcome we're going to get on the other side of that door."

The other five shuttles started to disgorge their troops, until there were sixty heavily armed and armored Marines waiting to charge through the airtight door and into the interior of the ship. They were armed with machete-like short swords, two-meter long boarding pikes, nailguns, and laser pistols for close combat within a fragile starship. They didn't expect much resistance from the crew, but that would be of small condolence to anyone who ended up dead.

When the airtight door suddenly slid open with a hiss, the Marines were ready with every weapon they had. They were not ready, however, for the sight of an eight-year-old girl in the ill-fitting uniform of a Confederation Navy Captain.

"Hello everybody!" the girl cried happily to them.

"What is this, sarge?" one of the Marines hissed to the sergeant. "Some kinda joke?"

The sergeant gave a noncommital grunt. "It's the lieutenant's problem now. Keep your heater on the door and your eyes peeled."

"Is everyone here?" the girl asked them, skipping up to the center of their ranks.

The Combine Marine lieutenant stepped forward to greet Hinako with a look of reproach. "Look here, little girl. I don't know what your parents think they'll accomplish by sending you to us, but it won't work." He raised his voice to the open airtight door. "I demand to speak to the master of this vessel at once, that I may accept his formal surrender!"

Hinako tugged at his armored hand.

"I'm right here," she pouted.

He brushed her off. "Go away, little girl." He affected an irritated look for his sergeant. "Sergeant, take this child to the shuttle at once."

"Hey!" Hinako cried shrilly. "I'm NOT a little girl! I'm the Captain of this ship! One of them, anyway..."

The lieutenant looked to the open airtight door, feeling that there was something wrong about this situation. Something horribly wrong. What kind of barbarians would send a child into the ranks of their enemy if they intended to resist?

It came to him as a Marine scooped up Hinako and carried her screaming towards a shuttle. They were planning on resisting, and this was their way of ensuring that she didn't get hurt. Clever bastards...

"Sergeant, have the first squad advance through the door," he ordered. "They have premission to fire without warning."

Hinako's wailing ceased abruptly, followed by the sound of something heavy hitting the deck of the shuttle. In the tension of the moment, all the lieutenant noticed was that the child's crying had mercifully stopped.

"Yes sir," the sergeant grunted. "First Squad up!"

"Hello boys," a sultry voice called to them from the shuttles.

The Marines turned as one to see Hinako Ninomiya in her two-sizes too short miniskirt and extra-tight red turtleneck uniform sweater. Jaws dropped appreciatively as she raised a fifty-yen coin between two fingers and leveled it at them with a smile and a wink.

"Surprise!"

"Captain Hauptmann, Captain Ninomiya reports that the Shuttle Bay is secure, and that the prisoners are in custody," the Chief of the Watch declared proudly.

Hauptmann and his Helmsman traded looks. Neither had much faith in Hinako's plan, but they were happy in this instance to be proven wrong. "Ask the Captain what she plans to do next."

The Chief of the Watch relayed the question.

"She says that depends on the outcome of the battle between the Orochi and the Combine fleet."

Primary Orochi Unit

Approaching the Furinkan Combine Fleet

15:21 Local Time

Threat assessment routines running within the Orochi's controlling computer studied the signatures of the small craft launched from the invading fleet. None of the craft, identified as several types of shuttle craft, troop carrier, and battlemech DropShip, possessed authentic IFF codes, and were therefore determined to be hostile. Hostile ships were to be destroyed in accordance with its programming.

The capital ship in low orbit was initially classified as friendly, but when it destroyed Node Three, the Orochi was forced to redesignate it as hostile. It was apparently crippled, however, and so it was assigned a low priority along with the troopships. The Orochi could descend into a lower orbit and destroy them at its leisure.

The fleet of starships that descended from high orbit were also identified as hostile, and these included several types of capital ship, including a battleship. The threat assessment routines assigned a higher incidence of priority towards these vessels, as they represented a greater threat level than the other ships. Thus did the Orochi network shift from an orbital bombardment mode of operation to system defense, sparing the enemy forces on the planet for the moment.

As range and target motion analysis subroutines fed the computer with data, the decision to act was made, and the appropriate combat programs were loaded from hard memory into the process loop.

Sensor arrays locked in on the approaching enemy fleet, and massive weapon mounts shifted to bear on their targets. The mighty fusion furnaces deep within the heart of the Orochi ramped up their output, charging power banks for the tremendous volley of fire it was about to unleash. Engine nozzles the size of houses rotated in their mounts as the battleship class automated orbital battlestation adjusted its orbit to block the invader's path.

Furinkan Combine WarShip Imperator

Ryuugenzawa High Orbit

15:21 Local Time

"Prince Kuno's landing force has cleared the effective weapon range of the Orochi network," Sensory declared. Captain Kyle gave a sigh of relief at the news.

"The Orochi has bigger fish to fry," Imperator's captain added. "Us." He strapped himself into his chair and sealed his visor. "Fire Control; prepare to fire all weapons at the primary satellite."

"Fire Control, aye. Gun directors locked on target. Estimated firing range in two minutes, mark."

"Conn, Electronic Warfare Bay; radar and lidar countermeasures are being deployed by the network. Counter-countermeasures underway."

Kyle could do nothing from his station until the battle was joined. As Prince Kuno's Operations Officer, he had been tasked with coordinating the fleet's action against the network, and he had given the ships and fighters their orders. Now all he could do was observe, try to divine last moment intelligence, and attempt to be proactive rather than reactive. It wasn't as easy as it sounded.

"Conn, Sensory; detecting gun directing radar. The Orochi network is targeting us with their weapons."

"Helm; evasive maneuvers," the captain ordered at once. Imperator began to vibrate as its plasma drive fired to alter its course. Even the powerful primary weapon mounts of the battleship were not yet in range of the Orochi, and yet the network was already preparing to blast them.

Star League Defense Force Proving Grounds

Bunker Nine, Test Area North

15:34 Local Time

Commander Malloy and Lieutenant Davidge watched the battle in space from the Orochi's point of view. Terrible energies were being unleashed up there, the power of four lesser satellites focused on the lead ships of the Combine fleet while the primary satellite attacked the Imperator directly. Two Combine ships were already burning, but the Imperator had now come into range, and its powerful weapons were now being felt.

"Unit Two primary gun mounts bravo and delta destroyed," one of the Dragonfly crew updated. "Fire in transverse busses alfa and charlie."

Red damage prompts scrolled across the displays for Unit Two, then suddenly stopped in a squawk of garbled telemetry.

"Unit Two destroyed," the tech announced, surprise evident in her voice. "I didn't think they hit it that hard."

"Kamikaze attack," Davidge replied. He had a visual lock on the battle courtesy of a weather satellite reoriented to look into space. "Two Leopard GunShips crashed into the main engine ports from what I can see. The blast must have gone straight to the powerplant."

"Unit Six is drifting," another tech called out. "The guidance package failed again. System attempting to reboot from the hardened backups."

"I hate to say it," Malloy observed. "But the Orochi network wasn't prepared for this kind of fight. They've been up there too long without maintenance or repairs. Half of them are only at marginal readiness."

"Unit One is the only one worth a damn," Davidge agreed. "At least it's the big one."

"Combine Essex Class Destroyer is taking fire from Unit One. Heavy damage estimated."

"Unit Six is not responding to guidance control from the network. Main Computer down. Back up processors are not responding."

"X-ray damage from the explosion of Unit Two," Malloy guessed.

"Fighter elements approaching Unit Six... Point defense systems engaging... All fighters destroyed!"

Davidge looked to Malloy. "It's hard to tell who to root for," he remarked. "The Orochi or the Combine."

Malloy nodded as more reports came in. People were dying by the hundreds up there, and ships that had existed for a century or more were being reduced to red-hot scraps of metal.

"I know what you mean. This is one battle where I'd like to see both sides lose."

"Combine Essex Class Destroyer has been destroyed."

Another set of monitor displays went dark.

"Unit Six is destroyed," the same tech announced quietly.

"Combine light cruiser under fire..."

Furinkan Combine WarShip Imperator

Ryuugenzawa High Orbit

15:41 Local Time

Captain Kyle picked himself up off the deck where he had been thrown by the last volley of fire. The fleet was disintegrating under the heavy guns of the primary Orochi satellite, and there was little he or his staff could do to change that.

He wiped at the greasy soot that coated the tactical displays and made the holotank shimmer disruptively. Fires raged throughout the ship, and the hiss of the crew breathing through the life support umbilicals made it difficult to relay commands by voice.

Imperator shook again, and alarms wailed.

"Turret 'A' reports heavy damage!" someone at Fire Control announced. "The mount will not train!"

"Fires have broken through blast doors on 'E' Deck and 'F' Deck starboard outboard, between radials zero-five-five and zero-eight-zero," the Damage Control Assistant declared. "No reserve fire-fighting teams are available at this time."

The captain of the battleship caught Kyle's eye.

"Any suggestions?!" he cried.

Kyle knew that there was only one way to defeat the Orochi. "Continue directing all fire towards the primary satellite!" he yelled over the din. Sparks flashed from a nearby panel as the electrical system rebelled at the abuse. "The entire system coordinates through the primary unit! If you take it out, the remaining satellites will become disoriented. You can then isolate them and destroy them easily."

The captain laughed bitterly. "And in the meantime, we let those lesser satellites pound us into dust! I like your plan, Kyle!"

The main display glowed white as Unit Two exploded, raising a brief cheer from the Bridge crew.

"An expensive trade," Kyle muttered angrily. Two precious GunShips and an irreplaceable Essex Class destroyer to knock out a single secondary unit.

"The price will be even higher before this is over," the captain observed. "Maintain all fire on the primary unit! Continue targeting the upper and lower sensory nodes!"

A particle beam from the primary Orochi tore through the hull of the light cruiser Repulse. The ship trembled with the hit, its main drive still firing at maximum to evade. Kyle could see that the cruiser was dying, as plumes of burning air burst from the scorched hull in angry yellow jets.

"Repulse has jettisoned its log!" Sensory declared. "Detecting life pod separations!"

Kyle knew then what the Repulse's captain had in mind. He watched as the cruiser's reaction control thrusters blazed, pivoting the burning starship, and orienting it at the remaining secondary satellite. The main drive continued to fire at maximum, and the cruiser accelerated inexorably towards the Orochi satellite.

Beam blasts ripped the Repulse's habitat apart before it could reach its target, but the drive section and ultraheavy jump core plowed on through the expanding clouds of gas and impaled the Orochi. The satellite exploded with such a fury that the radiation pulse shut down the monitors on the Imperator for several seconds.

The sound of hull metal bouncing off the Imperator began a steady patter, until it was a rain of particles that sandblasted off the hull what little dark blue paint remained.

"Sensory!" the Captain cried. "Status report!"

"All arrays are down. Main and secondary telescopes damaged."

"Reports from the frigate Perry indicate that the primary Orochi has ceased all fire," someone at Communications threw in to the chaos of the moment.

Star League Defense Force Proving Grounds

Bunker Nine, Test Area North

15:46 Local Time

"Oh shit..." Davidge moaned. The rest of the crew echoed his sentiments as their displays crashed into static.

"What happend?" Malloy demanded.

"Another big radiation pulse," Davidge replied. "Right as that light cruiser hit Unit Eight. Those satellites have been up there a long time, getting bombarded with solar radiation for two hundred years... Their shielding must be pretty fried by now. They're vulnerable to this kind of attack."

"So what happened?" Malloy asked him. "Did the whole system crash?"

Several banks of displays came back on line as Malloy asked. Davidge held up a hand for quiet, and began pouring over the data that came back.

"A lot of telemetry garbage," he replied uneasily. "Error signals everywhere. I think the network has totally crashed." He scanned the displays for the primary Orochi. "Unit One is at only nineteen percent effectiveness. Main Drive damaged and offline. Primary reactor is still fully operational, but distribution faults have crippled the big guns and most of the sensors. All secondary and point defense batteries are functional. Reaction Control System at thirty percent."

"What about the Combine fleet?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, sir," Davidge replied. "Only the primary Orochi is still functional. The others are either destroyed or else suffering massive malfunctions. I don't see any more hits coming in, so for the moment I'd say the Combine is as bad off as the Orochi."

Malloy let out a sigh of relief. "Well that's good news. We should let his Grace know about this at once."

Davidge studied tracking data as it came in from other orbital sources.

"It looks like the primary unit is in a decaying orbit; estimated time to atmospheric entry is thirty-nine hours."

"We'll be long gone before then," Malloy replied.

"I hope so, sir, because I don't want to be here when that thing hits. In the meantime, we've got Furinkan Combine DropShips on their way down, and nothing to stop them. Estimated time to touchdown is two-zero minutes."

"Where?" Malloy asked him.

Davidge ran a few calculations. "About twenty-five klicks southwest of our position, roughly between us and the Musk Dynasty landing zones."

The DropShip Palomino

Approaching the Orochi Command Bunker

15:48 Local Time

"I'm at minimum safe coolant pressure in the loop," the Co-Pilot announced as the Palomino soared at treetop level over the forest."Reactor internal temperatures are still climbing."

"How much farther?" Grant asked the Pilot.

"We should be within five klicks now," he replied. "I can set us down anytime you like."

Grant turned back to Tad. "How about those Musk fighters?"

Tad shook his head. "They're still back there, sir."

"Turn us away from the bunker," Grant ordered. They had been expending precious flight time trying to lose their cagey pursuers, and now time was running out. "We can't risk drawing those fighters any closer."

The DropShip's nose dipped sharply, forcing the Pilot to wrench at the controls to stabilize the ship.

"We might not get that chance," the Pilot replied through clenched teeth. "I'm losing thrust." The stall alarm sounded, and the ship wallowed into a shallow dive. "Port atmospheric maneuvering engine failure!"

Grant grabbed at the 1MC microphone as everyone of the flight deck held tight. "Prepare for crash landing and hold tight, everyone!"

The Pilot fought through the sluggish controls to put the ship on a controlled dive. The bow of the DropShip smashed through trees as it dipped lower in the air, absorbing some of their energy in preparation for contact with the ground. With milliseconds to spare, he fired the HEPLAR drives in one furious and final burn, and the Palomino hit the ground. The ship slewed sideways through the forest, snapping trees like kindling as it decelerated.

The Palomino heaved to a stop with its bow buried in the side of a low sloping hill. The crew on the flight deck came around in a chorus of groans as dust shaken loose by the impact settled on the displays.

"Anyone hurt?" Grant asked. No one was. "Engineering; mark status of the reactor."

Akari answered after a long pause. "The reactor is down. The port loop appears to be completely depressurized. I had to vent the plasma manually or else -"

"I understand," Grant said calmly. "You did what you had to."

"The ship is essentially grounded, sir," Akari said quietly. "What should we do?"

Grant thought about it. "We sit tight and wait for Duke Tendo and the others to get here. I don't want to put the bunker at any more risk than necessary." He wiped at his sweaty brow. "Rig the ship for reduced electrical loads, and break out with the small arms just in case an enemy patrol comes to investigate."

Nerima Confederation Red Lance

North of Ian Cameron Starport

15:50 Local Time

"How is Sayuri holding up?" Akane asked over the tac-net.

"Doctor Tofu says her condition is stable," Kasumi answered for him. The doctor and his patient rode within the cupped hands of her Victor as they marched north towards the Orochi bunker.

"That's it?"

"I'm sorry, Akane," Kasumi soothed. "I'm afraid there isn't much else to say."

"She'll be all right," Ranma broke in. Her LAM cruised at low speed above them.

"You don't know that!" Akane snapped.

"Hey, take it easy, all right?" Ranma returned. "If anything goes wrong, there isn't much you or I can do about it, so there ain't no point in worrying."

"Sayuri is a childhood friend," Akane said in a bitter voice. "I wouldn't expect you to understand."

The LAM swooped overhead to land in front of Akane's Warhammer. Ukyou and Genma's 'mechs stepped out of the way in case the two decided to start pounding on each other.

"Remember who the real enemies are..." Ukyou advised them.

"What do you want, Ranma?" Akane asked her archly.

"I want you to lay off," Ranma replied. "I know this ain't easy for you, but -"

"You know nothing, Ranma!" she cried.

The LAM transformed to Battlemech Mode in time to ward off a blow from her PPC arm. Ranma wrenched the tube-like muzzle aside and brought her sensor head against Akane's armored visor. "I know enough to understand that a commander has to put her personal feelings aside sometimes, before they get in the way of her judgement."

Akane tensed at Ranma's accusation, but did not respond.

Ranma continued. "I don't want Sayuri to die any more than you do. I wouldn't have risked my neck saving her if I did. The thing you gotta remember is that she's a soldier just like you an' me. She knew the risks, and she accepted them. If she dies, she dies." The LAM released the PPC arm and stepped back a pace. "You gotta get your head in the fight, and think about what we need to do next to get off this mudball in one piece. You can't spend all your time worrying about one of your troops - even if they're friends of yours."

Akane closed her eyes. "Even if you love them...?"

Ranma blinked several times in embarassed silence. "Especially if you love 'em," she finally replied.

Soun motioned with his Warhammer's PPC arm for the others to follow on ahead. Ukyou had point in her Hatchetman. Genma followed after in his Orion. Kasumi walked at a steady pace in her Victor while Yuka stumbled along clumsily in Doctor Tofu's Centurion. Ryouga walked drag in his blackened BattleMaster, the war machine that had brought the Black Rose Terror Regiment to its knees on Ryuugenzawa.

"I hate to admit this, Ranma," Akane said quietly on the air lance channel, where the others couldn't hear them. "But you're right."

The Super Phoenix Hawk LAM gave her an infuriating wave. "Glad to see you're finally making sense," Ranma said with a laugh.

"Thanks for being your old modest self, Ranma," Akane huffed. She started walking past him. The LAM made a deep bow for her.

"My pleasure," Ranma replied.

"You are a total jerk," Akane pointed out. "I just want to make it clear that even though I'm completely in love with you, you still manage to piss me off on a regular basis."

Ranma blushed at her fiancee's candid declaration of love. She tried, but couldn't find her voice.

"Let's go, Ranma," Akane said at length. "I'm getting a priority message from the Orochi bunker. Kuno's forces are about to land south of the bunker."

Ranma snapped back to attention. "Close?"

"Twenty-five kilometers is the estimation," Akane replied. "But it gets worse. The Palomino didn't make it to the bunker. Their cooling system failed about five klicks short. They had to make a crash landing."

"Marvelous," Ranma snorted. "Give me the coordinates and I'm gone." The LAM transformed to its bird of prey Airmech Mode, and brandished its heavy pulselaser rifle. "Any unfriendlies giving them a hard time?"

"Two fighters," Akane replied. She would have said more, but Ranma was already blasting into the air to attack them. She watched her fiance transform to Fighter Mode on the fly, and the white shock wave of a sonic boom rolled out from the silver hull.

"Be careful, you jerk," she whispered to her.

Blue Thunder Regiment Drop Zone

Test Area North

16:25 Local Time

Tatewaki Kuno, Prince of the Furinkan Combine and would-be First Lord of the Star League, took his first steps onto Ryuugenzawa within the cockpit of his Thunderbolt battlemech. He was a man consumed with the idea that his destiny was at hand, the culmination of years of conquest and struggle. He looked to the stereographs of Akane Tendo and the Pigtailed Girl that graced his cockpit, sighing longingly for the time when he would be reunited with them.

"I am here, my loves," he said to himself. "Despair no longer; thy handsome prince is come to save thee from thy oafish captors."

He visualized for a moment the sight of Ranma Saotome and his father dangling from a gallows, their eyes bugging out of their sockets, and their tongues hanging limply from their purpling lips. Ah, to see those curs pay for their crimes against him... Hanging them was almost too good a death.

"News from the Fleet, milord," an aide called to him over the tac-net, interrupting his reverie.

"They have succeeded in destroying the cursed Orochi Network?" he replied absently. His mind was focused elsewhere.

"Yes, milord. Though they have suffered heavy casualties. All of the fleet's WarShips save the Imperator have been destroyed or damaged beyond repair."

This caught his attention, and he arched an eyebrow in disbelief at what he had heard. "All save the Imperator?" he cried. So many irreplaceable ships! "Nay... The report must be in error. Consult with Captain Kyle and seek clarification at once!"

"At once, milord!"

He refused to be troubled by the news. Taking a moment to compose himself, he called up the tactical situation on his map display. The Commonwealth landing zones were vulnerable with the majority of their battlemech forces scattered across the various installations. His first task would be to hit them there.

Two of his battalions would attack, leaving the rest of his regiment to search out for the Confederation force's whereabouts. Nabiki Tendo had insisted that they were here, and for once he did not doubt her. The fact that his twisted sister was on this world was all the proof he needed.

"What news of my sister?" he asked his intelligence section while his mind was on the subject.

"Very little, my lord prince," a captain replied. "We have intercepted scattered signals indicating that the Commonwealth troops have routed them south of the starport, and are pursuing them back to their drop zone."

He weighed the idea of dispatching some of his fighters over to pay his sister a visit. It was tempting, but he was already short of air cover, having left over half of his fighters with the fleet to fight the Orochi network. Let the Commonwealth have their way with her for now...

"Hold two squadrons in reserve," he ordered. "Inform me at once if they should attempt to flee this world, and dispatch the reserve fighters to destroy them ere they escape the atmosphere."

"At once, my lord prince."

The aide returned to his display as he marched his Thunderbolt south to deal with the Commonwealth upstarts.

"My lord prince, Captain Kyle sends his regards."

"Speak, man! What news of the fleet?"

The aide was grave. "As before, milord. The Orochi network secondary satellites have all been destroyed. The primary satellite is in a decaying orbit, and is believed to be heavily damaged and non-operational. All combatant ships save the Imperator have been destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Fighter and GunShip losses are over sixty percent..."

Tatewaki could not believe the reports. "Madness!" he cried. "Surely my captains were not so incompetent as to lose the entire battle fleet?"

"The transports are all intact, milord," the aide replied, knowing it was of little consolation.

"Damn the transports!" Tatewaki thundered. "My fleet is in ashes! The toil and treasure of two centuries spent in the sum of an hour!" He put a hand to his brow as tears of rage spilled down his cheeks. "O rash and bloody day!"

He punched at his command channel override, opening a direct link to all of his officers down to the lance and platoon levels.

"Thy orders are to attack the Commonwealth foe wherever he may be found," he said bitterly. "Let no one yield, nor any among you raise the cry for mercy upon them!" He swallowed back bile and clenched the controls of his battlemech before continuing. "I am aflame with the madness of war; so let one fire burn out by another's burning, and let one pain be lessened by another's anguish! Spare no one!"

His commanders responded as one voice, crying out for the blood of the Jusenkyo Commonwealth. Their shared wrath tempered his own hot rage, allowing him to clear his head sufficiently to think once again.

"Tell my servant that his labors are to commence," he called to the DropShip Oda Nobunaga.

"What shall we do with him, my lord?" the captain of his unmounted guard asked over the radio.

"Let the fool be made serviceable according to his folly," Tatewaki huffed. "By whatever means, he is to bring me victory and my two loves."

Hikaru himself appeared on the display a moment later. Lit candles were tucked into his headband, and dripped wax down upon his shoulders. His sunken eyes gleamed dully with excitement as he prepared one of his arcane formulae for use.

"I assure you, lord, that my assistance will provide very tangible effects for you," he said in a weedy voice.

"For thy sake, sorceror, I do hope so," Tatewaki replied coolly. "If I cannot have the cretinous ne'er-do-well, Ranma Saotome, mounted 'pon the prow of the noble Imperator, then perhaps the scion of the House of Gosunkugi will provide an acceptable substitute..."

With that, Tatewaki signed off, and his Thunderbolt marched away to do battle with the Commonwealth.

Hikaru Gosunkugi watched the Thunderbolt depart from the vantage of the flight deck. Most of the Furinkan Combine forces were leaving the drop zone to fight the Commonwealth, and he saw opportunities for escape, but to do so, his persistant shadows in the form of two Marines from the Imperator would have to be dropped. He had an idea of how to go about doing that, but first he needed an idea of where he could go.He was not disappointed.

"Skipper," one of the Overlord Class DropShip's commo techs said over the cacophony of the flight deck.

"What is it?"

"I'm picking up some unidentified signals. I'm not entirely familiar with the protocol, but it appears to be old SLDF codes."

Hikaru raised an eyebrow at this. The Star League, here, after all these years? A glimmer of hope welled within him, for he had experienced a dream only the day previous of the eight pointed Cameron Star, a device that he aspired to one day as First Lord of the Star League. It seemed to be an omen, and listened carefully to the exchange on the flight deck.

The captain glanced over at the commo tech's board. "Get a DF fix?"

"I'm working on it, sir." The tech tapped at several keys. "I've got a rough fix, since it looks like direct UHF sat-comm signals, and those are mostly line-of-sight with a little leakage."

"Where?"

Hikaru watched as a computer-projection map of the surface appeared on the main display. The positions of the Blue Thunder regiment, the known or suspected positions of Commonwealth and Black Rose troops, and the source of the unknown signals were displayed. The signal source was relatively close.

"Send it down to the war room," the captain ordered. "Let them decide what they want to do about it. We're just the bus drivers, remember?"

Hikaru knew then that he had to find the source of those signals. It was a coincidence that could not be denied.

"I'm going to have to go outside," he told his handlers.

"What for?" the senior of the two Marines asked him.

Hikaru held up one of the spellbooks Kuno had provided him. It was an utterly useless fraud, but it was filled with arcane drawings and suitably alien babble words printed in all-capital letters in appropriate places. More than enough to fool the rubes.

"I need material components for the hex his Highness has demanded that I cast upon the Commonwealth forces," he replied shakily. The two Marines looked like they could break him in half over their knees.

"So?" the first Marine replied, unconvinced.

"S-So..." Hikaru stuttered. "I need fresh herbs and native soil from this world if it's going to work." He steeled himself. "You wouldn't want his Highness' spell to fail, would you?"

The two Marines gave each other flustered looks. On the one hand, they didn't believe Gosunkugi's occult crap, and on the other hand, their lord apparently did. They decided to play it safe.

"Sure," the senior of the two declared. "But if you think you can pull a fast one on us..."

Hikaru began to sweat. "I-I would never think such a thing," he gasped.

Test Area North

16:37 Local Time

Where are you, Shampoo...? Mousse asked himself as his Crusader stalked through the forest in search of her. He was supposed to be searching for the source of the mystery communications signals, and found himself obsessed with idea that Shampoo was alive and somewhere on Ryuugenzawa instead. Though he had no rational explanation for it, he knew she was close. He could feel it in the tension that knotted his stomach and made his hands tremble on the controls of his battlemech.

He did not know what he would do or say when he found her. The anger that had consumed him after they had parted ways on the Dragonfly had burned itself out. Part of him still wanted to gloat at her for what he had become, to make her feel the betrayal that he had suffered at her hands. Another part wanted to beg her forgiveness, and he cursed his weakness for even thinking it.

Shampoo did not love him, he knew that. He even accepted it, though it stabbed at him with a cruelty that only she could inspire. What he could not face was that he still loved her in spite of everything she had put him through.

If there was even one chance in a million that she would grow to love him someday, he knew that he would be foolish enough to take it. He knew that if she so much as batted her eyelashes at him, he would melt. It was infuriating, but he knew that he was so very weak-willed when it came to her.

The only solution to his dilemma, then, was to kill her.

One of them had to die, there could be no alternative. His pain would end one way or the other. True, killing her would make him miserable, but not killing her - having her go on tormenting him, or even worse, seeing her become General Herb's plaything - would be infinitely worse. Better to end it in one bitter moment of hell than to endure a torturous chipping away at his soul.

The flash of movement at the periphery of his vision ended his sullen woolgathering, and he brought his Crusader to halt within the cover of a thick copse of trees. Hanging vines glistening with afternoon rain obscured his vision just enough to be bothersome, but not enough to prevent him from seeing a Panther battlemech creeping through the woods in front of him and to his left. There was no doubt in his mind who the mechwarrior of that machine was, for he could see Shampoo in the sinuous way the Panther moved through the forest.

Shampoo...

Afraid that she would hear him even behind the armored walls of his cockpit, he flicked the arming switches on his two fifteen-rack long range and two six-rack short range missiles launchers. He brought the lasers up to power with another touch of his controls, and waited silently for her to move closer to him. He doubted that his missiles could penetrate the thick foliage without detonating prematurely, and he knew that he couldn't defeat her without them.

She moved as if she had noticed him, positioning herself to his left flank, where she could fire and then bolt before he could turn to respond. He knew her tactics in close quarters situations, and knew the capabilities of her chosen 'mech. He could expect the liberal use of her jump jets as well, though if he was lucky, he could use that to his advantage.

What he knew was most important, however, was that he could not surrender the initiative to her. As long as the pace of the fight was set by him, he could beat her. He had been beaten by her often enough in simulator duels past to know that much.

Keeping his torso facing away from her, he extended his left arm out to her and fired the medium laser and 20mm machinegun mounts in the forearm. The fire was unaimed, but lashed into the woods she used as cover close enough to make the Panther rise to its feet in a flash. The thin scream of Shampoo's jump jets echoed across the forest as she leapt into the sky.

He was ready for her, pivoting to bring his shoulder-mounted LRM racks to bear. The range was very short for the tube-launched missiles, and the dispersal pattern would be very narrow, but he fired nonetheless. The armored hatch covers sprang open with metallic rings, and the missiles began spurting from the tubes and into the air.

He watched as Shampoo twisted in midair to avoid the first volley of screaming missiles, only to catch the latter half of the second volley. Explosions obscured her from sight in firelit clouds of black, and white shockwaves of compressed moist air rolled from the impact points as she fell. He broke out of his cover to give his hip-mounted SRM launchers a clear shot, and aimed for the streamers of smoke concealing the falling Panther.

The SRMs hissed out of their launch tubes, slamming into the Panther as it touched down. More explosions rocked the forest, and for a moment Mousse saw the battlemech topple over through the smoke and flame. He revved his throttle, charging out of the trees to attack at close range, where her arm-mounted PPC would be least effective.

It was exhilarating to be able to attack her so easily, he realized. No pangs of conscience assailed him as he streamed laser fire into the woods where Shampoo had fallen. He had expected it to be hard, perhaps impossible to squeeze the trigger on her, but he was doing it.

The sixty-five ton Crusader leaped through the black clouds of smoke to find that Shampoo was gone, and the woods ripped apart where her Battlemech had crashed through them in a desperate attempt to escape. Her obvious panic stirred him further, making him laugh out loud. No longer was he under her heel! This was the freedom he had so desperately sought when he made his break with her on the Dragonfly, come to him at last in this moment of triumph!

Shampoo's hands worked the controls furiously, maneuvering at top speed through the forest as she ran damage control routines to contain the fires and outtages that assailed her Panther. She had been careless with this Musk Crusader, and he had taken her by surprise. She was hit badly, her battlemech functional but borderline, and she was in no shape to continue the fight on her enemy's terms.

At first she did not realize who her attacker was, but as she concentrated on where she went wrong in her ambush, she realized that there had been only one battlemech, painted white with grey trim. The same livery used by Mousse.

The realization made her stomach churn. Shampoo, the pride of the Joketsuzoku, had been nearly killed by a man, and a spineless, weak-willed, and half-blind fool like Mousse!

What was he doing out here, if not looking for me? she asked herself.

"Mousse," she called out over the Musk Dynasty frequencies. There was no response. On a whim, she switched to a commonly used Commonwealth frequency, and tried again.

"What is it, Shampoo?" Mousse replied. There was something dead in his voice as he spoke, though it was brimming with arrogance.

"Why have you come here, Mousse?" she found herself asking. "Why have you joined General Herb?"

There was pause before he spoke. "You know why I've joined the Musk Dynasty, Shampoo, and you know that I'm here to kill you. I'm only sorry that it has come to this."

"You won't find me easy prey," she returned shakily, and cut in her jump jets. She soared over the treetops, moving laterally to interrupt the obvious path she was making through the forest. He might hear her fire the jets, but he would have to guess which direction she would take.

"It won't matter," Mousse replied coldly. "The outcome will be the same."

He blames me for something he should have known about me all along, she realized. But perhaps he isn't entirely wrong in thinking that I'm responsible for his betrayal.

"I never wanted to hurt you, Mousse," she told him as she fired her jets to slow her fall for landing.

"No, you just wanted to use me for your own pleasure!" he retorted, anger rising in his voice where icy calm had reigned. "You preyed on my love for you to get what you wanted!"

And I'm paying for it! she cried inwardly, nausea creeping into her belly and making her stomach curdle. She landed in a crouch to the right and well in front of Mousse, her PPC arm raised to fire as he blundered into range. The white Crusader did so a moment later, and she let fly with a bolt of lightning that ripped across his torso, tongues of plasma flame licking against the head armor and melting one of his commo aerials.

The act of shooting at him made her sick to her stomach, as if the child within her could sense that she was trying to murder its father and rebelling in the only way it could. The thought was nonsense; she was just projecting her own feelings of guilt into her baby, but the urge to vomit came strong enough to make her cup a hand to her mouth out of reflex.

The Crusader skidded to a halt and lurched in her direction as she gritted through her nausea and fired a second time, the particle bolt crashing with a thunderclap square into the thick torso armor, and leaving a long black scar in the once-pristine white.

Even as her second blast struck him, the Crusader was firing its SRM launchers. Twelve missiles corkscrewed across the short distance that separated them, detonating in the trees and exploding into the ground at her feet. The shockwaves buffeted her and filled the air with the whine of hot shrapnel. She was moving before he could correct his aim with a second volley, dashing to her left in a bid to outflank him and perhaps strike at his vulnerable rear armor.

Incredibly, he anticipated her move, rocking on his hips and making a diving leap at her with the right arm extended in a clothesline tackle that shook the forest with a terrible clash of metal on metal and the heavy thuds of a hundred tons of battlemech hitting the ground. Shampoo reeled in her seat straps from the double impact of forearm and ground, her head swimming dizzily as she tried to right herself.

Both battlemechs came up at the same time. Shampoo thought her Panther through a front kick that savaged the Crusader's head, while a brutal full-on punch to the breadbasket from Mousse smashed apart what little armor she had remaining in her center torso. Damage lights flicked on and alarms sounded in her ears as the four-rack SRM launcher malfunctioned. Though the Crusader toppled over once more from her blow, she was in no position to take advantage of it, as she was forced to repeatedly slam the ammunition dump button before the remaining eighty missiles in the magazine cooked off.

She righted the Panther clumsily, noting that her main gyro had also been hit, and drew up to her full height. Jumping was no longer an option for her - not with a damaged gyro in the middle of the forest - and she was no swifter than the Crusader which out-massed her by almost double. She had to fight it out here and now, and end this once and for all.

"It's over, Mousse," she said to him as she limped her Panther over to where the fallen Crusader lay. The head was crushed in at least half a meter over the right temple where her Panther's foot had connected, and it was possible that he was already dead from the force of the impact. She kept the PPC aimed at him nonetheless, and prepared to deal the finishing blow in an execution-style shot to the battlemech's forehead. Though her stomach churned and her bowels threatened mutiny, she was a daughter of the Joketsuzoku, and her will was master over the frailties of the flesh - or at least she tried to tell herself this as her finger trembled on the trigger.

The Crusader's hand came up with incredible speed before she could bring herself to fire - faster than she would have thought possible - and grabbed at the muzzle of the PPC. The powerful battle fist of the Crusader crushed the emitter aperture of the weapon with a squeal of tortured metal, and as she squeezed the firing trigger reflexively, the entire tube-like projector glowed white and exploded.

When she came to, her Panther was sprawled over the fallen and splintered trunks of several centuries-old trees. The entire right arm was gone, and a blackened smear of carbon encrusted what was left of her battlemech's torso. She still had main power, but one look at the reactor controls told her that she was leaking coolant badly, and close to a total and catastrophic shutdown.

The Crusader was thirty meters away, nearly laid out in a half-sitting position against a stand of trees. Smoke wafted from the torso and head, and she could see rents in the armor where the shrapnel from her exploding PPC had torn through. The right arm was missing from the elbow down, and red hydraulic fluid leaked from the burnt limb in a grisly imitation of arterial blood on the dirty white hull.

Cursing her carelessness once more, she wrenched at her controls to bring the Panther to a stand. The battlemech's myomer bundles groaned plaintively as they tried to comply, but the Panther would not move. A look at the flickering damage board told her why: the gyro had failed.

She wiped at the haze of smoke that wafted through her steaming hot cockpit. The cooling system was about to go next, and if she didn't shut down the fusion plant, she was going with it. Her hand swiped at the controls to do so, and she was relieved to hear the hollow droning of her failing powerplant shrink away to nothing.

She pulled herself up out of her ejector seat to the cockpit hatch, which had sprung partly open from the shock of her final impact with the ground. A tug on the handle opened it the rest of the way, and she eased herself out to the loamy wet soil. The smell of hot metal, ozone, and cut grass made for an overpowering sensation, one that she was not prepared for in her disoriented state. She fell over double and retched, then collapsed onto her hands and knees and heaved spasmodically until she sank against the crumpled armor plate of her Panther's head.

Test Area North

16:49 Local Time

Shinnosuke gripped Konatsu's shoulder as the thunderclap report of a particle cannon shook the woods. A second blast followed in rapid succession after the first, and then, moments later, a somewhat muffled explosion.

The two of them had been out searching for Shampoo, who had slinked away from the bunker without so much as a word of warning before she left. Tracking a 35-ton war machine was no difficult matter for a man who had lived his whole life in the forest.

"I heard," Konatsu breathed quietly. "We should be cautious."

Shinnosuke grunted agreement. His leg throbbed as he put weight on it, and his shoulder ached from the recent spear wound he had suffered, but these physical pains were nothing compared to the crippling boredom and feeling of helplessness he had felt waiting at the bunker. His world was under attack, and he wanted to make some contribution to its defense.

"Do you think it's the Furinkan Combine?" he asked the kunoichi.

"I don't know," Konatsu replied. "They landed close enough to be a threat, but there's also the Musk Dynasty to think about."

They continued on, Shinnosuke with his pushbroom and Konatsu with whatever weapons she had secreted on her person. The kunoichi was very pretty, and it pleased him to have her company. It almost dulled the ache he felt at knowing that Akane was in love with someone else.

They were travelling in a direction roughly in line with the sound of the particle beam blast, following the tracks Shampoo's Panther had made in the soft muddy ground. Silence filled the forest now, and the animals, fearful of the terrible goings on, remained in hiding at every turn. Shinnosuke, himself well attuned to the woods, shared their anxiety.

"I hear something," the kunoichi whispered softly as they crested a low tree-lined rise.

The two of them peeked over the rise to see a frail looking young man running away from two Furinkan Combine Marines, who yelled their demands that he stop at once or be shot.

"I think I recognize that man," Konatsu said quietly. "Unless I miss my guess, that's Hikaru Gosunkugi. The sunken eyes and the pallid skin are a dead giveaway for the entire Gosunkugi family."

"Who?" Shinnosuke asked. The name Gosunkugi sounded familiar from Grandfather's history lessons, but he did not make any connections.

"The heir to the League of Five Nails," Konatsu replied. "What is he doing here, and as a prisoner of the Combine?"

"I don't know," Shinnosuke replied, gripping his pushbroom tightly. "But I do know when someone is in trouble and needs help." He scrabbled over the edge of the rise and made a limping sprint for the fleeing Hikaru.

Konatsu blinked twice in surprise before following after Shinnosuke. He took to the trees and began leaping from branch to branch in pursuit.

Hikaru Gosunkugi staggered up the wooded slope out of breath and out of time. The Marines were almost upon him, and if they had not shot him yet, they might well do so out of spite for throwing mud in their faces and then leading them on such a chase. With his lungs burning and limbs about to seize with exhaustion, he tripped over an exposed tree root and tumbled to the muddy ground. His books and scrolls spilled in his wake, their fragile pages floating to earth about him as he gasped for air.

This was it, he realized dully. They were going to kill him. If not here, then certainly at the order of Tatewaki Kuno when he returned in triumph from his conquest of Ryuugenzawa. He had failed in his bid for revenge and for the hand of Akane.

Where had his auguries gone wrong?

Still, though he was a coward and a weakling through and through, he vowed that just this once he would fight back with everything he had left within him. His hands dug furiously for the mallet and sack of namesake iron spikes with which he would use to sell his life dearly.

He pulled himself up into a stooping posture, the mallet gripped in his right hand and the spike in his left, and faced off against the Marines as they neared him.

"So... Who wants to die first?" he asked them between pants for breath, having always wanted to say something dire and witty like that when it really counted.

The Marines stopped short, and for a moment, Hikaru thought he had actually cowed them.

Then they started laughing the kind of cruel, heartless laugh that made Hikaru want to wet himself.

"You think we should we should break his legs, or just shoot him in the kneecaps?" the first Marine asked the second.

"As long as you're the one carrying him back to the drop zone, it's all the same to me," the second replied.

"Right," the first one said, twisting his head around to work the kinks out of his neck. "We break his legs..."

Hikaru threw himself at the Marine with a strangled cry of anguish and impotent rage before he could make good on his threat. The Marine turned the spike aside with a wrist lock, and wrenched him bodily into the air for extra altitude before throwing him straight down to the ground. As he lay trembling with pain and utter dread for the end, the Marine put his boot against the back of his neck.

"You gotta give the little guy credit for trying," he observed.

"That mean you ain't gonna break his legs?" the second Marine asked.

"Hell no. I just said that you gotta give him a little credit for trying," the first replied. He tapped Hikaru with his boot. "Not bad, you little twerp. Now I'm really going to hurt you..."

"Don't mess him up too bad," the second Marine remarked. "His Highness'll probably want to nail 'im up to that cross again."

"I'll try to keep him in one piece," the first replied, spitting into his hands and drawing back to strike Hikaru with the butt of his rifle. "This is gonna hurt you a lot more than it's gonna hurt me..."

The blow never connected, as Shinnosuke leaped out of the nearby trees and swatted the marine across the bridge of his nose with the business end of his pushbroom. The Marine staggered backwards, spouting blood and curses, before tripping over the same exposed tree root that had been Hikaru's downfall earlier, and slamming his helmeted head against a rock. The armor might have spared his life, but not his consciousness.

The second Marine fumbled with his rifle as Shinnosuke landed, favoring his wounded leg, and thrust the pushbroom into his face. The mighty implement of good housekeeping connected solidly with his jaw and cold-cocked him. Konatsu sprang out of the trees a moment later, only to find that there was no one left to beat on.

He knelt over Hikaru instead, who was busy clutching his arms over his head and chanting a sutra for divine intervention. When no blows fell upon him, he stopped his chants, and looked up into the flashing eyes of a girl with long raven-black hair.

"Are you all right, my lord?" Konatsu asked him.

Hikaru's face reddened.

"I-I'm fine," he replied. She was beautiful! He turned to see Shinnosuke relieving the two Combine Marines of their weapons. The Cameron Star of the SLDF was embroidered in silver and white on his black homespun jacket.

"The Star League..." he gasped in awe. The omen of his dream had come true!

Shinnosuke met his gaze with a slow shake of his head. "I'm not Star League," he replied. "Not anymore. I'm just a janitor and a handyman now, and not even that for much longer."

"My companion and I will see you to safety," Konatsu added softly, wanting to spare Shinnosuke any further grief. "Although I must admit that even our position on this world is tenuous."

"Who are you people, then?" Hikaru asked. "If you aren't Star League."

Konatsu helped him to his feet. "We're with the Confederation, under the command of Grand Duke Soun Tendo and his daughter, Lady Akane."

Confederation! Hikaru could hardly contain his glee. Akane!

"Lead the way," he told them after gathering up his scattered occult materials.

Thank you, O Gods above and below!

Shampoo saw him standing there wearing indigo robes in place of his regular white, his long fall of blue-black hair mussed and spilling carelessly over his shoulders. The thick pair of glasses that was his trademark perched on his brow, a crack running across the middle of one lens. His face was a mask of indifference, though she could feel the tension radiating from him.

"Hello, Mousse..." she said quietly.

He watched her for several moments, his jaw taut and his blue eyes hard and distant.

"Shampoo," he replied. The way he said her name was both mournful and full of regret. She noticed the long, straight-bladed sword he carried in his hand for the first time as it came up silently to caress the underside of her chin. The steel of the blade was as cold to the touch as the feel of his eyes upon her.

"If you're here to kill me, Mousse, be quick about it," she managed. For the last six months she had known humiliation, hardship, and defeat, and now she simply did not care anymore. Death would at least grant her the release from pain she had been unable to earn through success. "To tell you the truth, I want to die. Kill me, and be done with this."

He grunted in affirmation, and lifted the sword from her chin. The blade came back to a point above his shoulder, from which he could bring it down swiftly and cut her head from her neck.

The sword whistled down at her, and she dropped her eyes to the ground. She did not want Mousse to be the last thing she saw in life. She felt a pang of conscience for her unborn child, but argued with herself in that last moment that this was for the best.

She felt the icy blade touch her neck and made a final gasp.

But death did not come for her.

The sword remained where it had stopped, the thin edge of the steel just biting into her flesh. She looked up to see Mousse's sword arm trembling, and his eyes wet with tears.

"Don't say it," he moaned. "I already know that I'm a fool and a weakling. I can't bring myself to kill you, Shampoo, even though it's the thing I want most in the world right now."

He let the sword fall from her shoulder and drop point first into the dirt. The hilt dangled limply in his hand for a moment, then slipped from his numb fingers.

"Go," he said to her, turning away. "To hell, or back to Jusenkyo, I don't care. Just get out of my life forever."

Shampoo wiped at the blood that trickled down her neck and looked at it for a moment. Then she eyed the sword that lay there on the ground at her feet. Finally, she looked at Mousse's vulnerable back.

"Congratulations," she said ruefully to him.

He turned around, his face twisting into a rictus of anger.

"What are you talking about?" he demanded in choked voice.

She picked up the sword and brought the tip to his chest just a hair to the left of his sternum and over his heart. He did not flinch as the blade pressed into the folds of his robes to rest directly against his flesh.

"You finally resisted me," she replied dully, keeping the tension of the blade against his body as she spoke. "You finally refused me something."

He blinked at her in confusion.

"Shampoo...?"

Her violet eyes flashed at him. "And I hate you for it, Mousse. The one time you resist me is the one time I wanted you to obey me more than anything. I despise you, Mousse!" She leaned on the blade, which tore the fabric of his robes and dug into his flesh, the steel grating on the edge of his sternum with a metallic ring. He did not move, did not attempt in any way to prevent her from plunging the sword straight through his heart.

She too, stopped short of dealing a fatal wound. She ached to kill him, to use him as the object of her revenge for everything that had gone wrong in her life, from the things he was responsible for to the things he was innocent of doing. The stabs of conscience would not allow it, but they did little to soften her heart in that agonizing moment of decision.

"I want you to go on living with my hate, Mousse," she whispered in a trembling voice, tears running down her cheeks in hot streaks. "I want you to know that if I survive this day; if I should return to Jusenkyo; that I will dedicate my life and the life of our child to destroying the Musk Dynasty and any who stand with it."

Mousse's eyes opened, and he looked at her in awe.

"That's right, Mousse," she confirmed for him. "I'm pregnant with your baby. One more reason I have to hate you." She let the sword drop at his feet the way he had done with her. "I swear to you that I will raise her to hate her father with every fiber of her being."

She stepped back from the weapon. "This is your last chance, Mousse. Pick up that sword and do what you should have done the first time. Harden your heart against me because I do not love you, and if you should spare me a second time, know that I will be the cause of more pain and suffering in your life than anything you've ever known before."

He looked down at the wound in his chest, felt the darker spot on his dark robes where his blood soaked the fabric, and then let his gaze fall upon Shampoo.

"I can't kill you, Shampoo, and even if I could, I can't kill my own child," he said at length. "If one day, she rises up against me, even then I couldn't lift a hand to stop her." He recovered the sword from the ground and made it disappear within the folds of his robe. "We shall continue as nothing more than holes in each other's hearts until then."

He turned and started for his Crusader, head high, unbowed. He did not say goodbye. He did not look back.

Musk Dynasty Headquarters Company

Ian Cameron Starport

17:12 Local Time

Mechwarrior General Herb watched as another lance of Furinkan Combine battlemechs assaulted his position at the starport. Brilliant green tracer balls arced across the sky, the criss-crossing of laser beams filled the air with an electric glow, and the screams of the wounded and the dying went unheard on the tac-net over the roar of cannon fire and the teeth-rattling explosions from falling 'mechs. It was mechanized slaughter, and no one was exempt.

The Combine 'mechs attacked with a desire to annihilate his troops that bordered on the fanatical. Clearly, General Prince Kuno had ordered his men to give no quarter, for he had witnessed several of the Combine 'mechs shooting out the cockpits of fallen Musk units even while taking fire. The ferocity of the Combine's attacks had driven his own troops to such acts of barbarism and bloodlust that he secretly feared that he would be unable to control them.

A wave of missile fire stopped the Combine advance in its tracks, and as supporting bolts of particle beam and laser fire tore into them, he could see that, at least for the moment, his position was not threatened. This was of little comfort to the hybrid general, for he knew that Kuno had more troops, and they were fresher than his own, who had been fighting the Black Rose Terror Regiment all afternoon.

He took the pause in the fighting to assess his situation. Reports from low orbit seemed to indicate that the Orochi network had been neutralized. That Kuno's warfleet was in shambles was only of small consolation. All it meant in the final analysis was that neither side truly controlled system space, and that he would not have to fear continued orbital bombardment.

It also meant that he could withdraw unhindered from the system, if necessary. He was no coward, but a cold and calculating tactician. Continued battle over the ruins of the Star League proving grounds was useless in the short term.

It was time to pull back from the starport and cede it to Kuno - at least for the moment. He would need to harass the Combine prince to ensure that he did not profit from the ruins, but at the same time, it was foolish to remain where he was. That Kuno's regiments were not heavily supported by aerospace fighters as they pressed the attack gave him hope for a successful counter-attack. It was possible that the prince had held most of his fighter assets in space to fight the Orochi, and had lost them in the battle.

He punched up his adjutant on the command channel, and gave the word to fall back by company to the Drop Zones. Let Kuno have the muddy ruins for now, and see how useless and untenable the position ultimately was in the struggle for possession of the planet

North of the ruins of Ryuugenzawa City

17:05 Local Time

The smoking wreck of a MAD-3R Marauder lay sprawled out across the torn green carpet of grass at the edge of the forest. Well behind it, the ruins of the ancient colony town burned itself out under thick plumes of grey smoke. The scattered bits of armor and shattered technology of a dozen 'mechs lay strewn around the Marauder.

The cockpit hatch came open slowly, and a slender black gloved hand reached out into the open air. Kodachi Kuno wriggled clear of her 'mech, pulling herself wearily to her stiletto-heeled feet. In spite of what she had been through, she looked remarkably unhurt. Only her tousled hair and her bitter sneer betrayed her defeat.

She looked around the clearing for a sign of one of her troops. There were none. None, at least, that were intact. The BattleMaster in the service of that witch, Akane Tendo, had destroyed them all.

She called out Tarou's name, wanting him close. That she needed him in that moment to comfort her, she did not think too much about. Hers was a primal urge, an instinctual desire that had nothing to do with sex in that moment, and might have been considered genuine affection if one believed that Kodachi Kuno was capable of such emotions.

He did not reply, and something within her cringed in misery. She was alone, again. As always.

The wreck of the Locust belonging to the mercenary, Happousai, was a burned out husk as she walked past it. The heat had been so intense that the remaining armor had sagged, half-melted, from parts of the frame. Even now, it was too hot to approach closely, and she worried about lingering radioactivity leaking from its sundered fusion plant.

She continued on, picking her away around the jetsom that littered the battlefield, in search of Tarou. When she found what may have been the remains of his Hunchback, a hand came up reflexively to her lips, and she gasped in horror at the sight. The battlemech looked as if it had been pounded into a misshapen lump of metal - probably at the hands of the cursed BattleMaster pilot, Ryouga.

A tear welled in the corner of either eye as she looked over the slagged wreck of the Hunchback. The turret-shaped head was crushed beyond recognition, and the torso battered and torn open to reveal the shattered innards. Hydraulic and other fluids dripped in long lines of green, brown, and red from the wounds, and soaked into the muddy ground in stinking pools.

She called out his name once more.

And was answered.

She ran to the sound of his voice, brushing past fallen trees, her black PVC maillot fortunately resisting the snags of the branches. He was dangling by parachute straps from the forest canopy, his clothing torn and stained with sap and dried blood. A lock of his hair was matted in clots that ran from an oozing cut on his scalp.

His look of condescension, however, remained intact.

"Missed me, did you?" he said in a mocking tone.

She tapped a foot imperiously as she looked at him. "I had written you off for dead," she replied. "Perhaps I should let you hang there until the birds pick you clean."

"No need," he replied, and tugged at his harness releases. He tumbled to the ground, managing to land on his feet.

She eyed him for a moment. "You chose to hang there just to make me feel sympathy for you," she accused. "Didn't you."

Tarou brushed himself off. "I did no such thing," he retorted, giving her an evil look that made her shiver with desire. "I only just came to at the sound of your voice."

Her lips curled up into a crooked smile. "How touching," she harrumphed, but it was clear by her shifting stance that she was getting hot and bothered by his withering arrogance.

He stepped up to her, looking down at her as she feigned indifference. He knew better from her by now.

"Would you care to know how I escaped?" he asked.

"Hardly," she sniffed. "Why should I be bothered in the least with the escapades of my underlings?"

Her retort caught him off guard, but he managed to retaliate with a particularly devastating sneer that made Kodachi weak in the knees. She feigned a swoon, falling into his arms in such a way as to press her ample bosom into his chest.

"Unhand me, you peasant," she cooed to him.

"Never," he replied. His hands fell around her waist instead.

Much later, Tarou stood up and stretched out his arms. A sheen of sweat made his skin glow in the fading afternoon light. The fighting seemed to be in another world at that moment.

Kodachi curled up in his lap with a contented grin on her face.

"It's quite strange," she remarked. "By all rights, I should be furious right now."

"And you aren't?" Tarou asked her.

She stroked his bare inner thigh with a finger. "I am," she replied. "And yet I am not."

"You're distracted," he observed.

"Perhaps," she sighed. "But I find this distraction pleasant enough to take my mind from other things."

Tarou grunted something under his breath.

"What is it, lover mine?" Kodachi asked him sweetly.

He looked down at her, his scowl freshened by a thought.

"I've fallen for you, haven't I," he said coolly.

"As have I," she replied, kissing his knee. "Ghastly, isn't it?"

"Quite," Tarou returned.

"We should return to the Thorn, assuming that it's still here," Kodachi said after a pause to kiss her lover. "My Marauder is still functional to some small degree, but I'm afraid that we have lost this battle."

Tarou scowled again. "Damn that Ryouga Hibiki," he growled. "I should have known better than to think I could have dealt with him."

Kodachi gave him an earnest look of affection. "We escape, my love, to plot anew." She rose then, pulling him to his feet. "We shall rebuild the regiment, and make it a plague upon all who have crossed us."

Tarou arched an eyebrow at her.

"Of course," Kodachi continued. "I shall have to find a place for you now that your battlemech is destroyed. My personal towel boy, perhaps."

"Or your executive officer," he suggested darkly.

She kissed him again. "You can work your way up from Towel Boy while I secure for you another 'mech," she told him with a chuckle. "I'd consider it a blessing to be rid of such a hideous looking thing as that Hunchback, really."

Tarou opened his mouth to rebuke her, but remained silent. His lost battlemech had been an heirloom from his family, but now he saw it as little more than psychic baggage from another time. He would always hate the Cult of Azusa, would always nurse a grudge for the Commonwealth witch doctors who had given him his Jusenkyo body, and could now add Ryouga Hibiki to his long list of enemies, but with his old mech destroyed, he also saw the opportunity to start his life anew.

Perhaps this was the direction his life was meant to take, doing things his way and for himself, and with a woman who appreciated such things by his side.

Perhaps this was the path to the happiness and fulfillment that had been long denied him.

The two lovers walked back to the smoldering Marauder together, hand in hand.

The DropShip Palomino

Five kilometers east of the Orochi Bunker

17:03 Local Time

Ranma Saotome could see two fighters from the Musk Dynasty making cautious high-altitude passes over the swath of destruction carved intothe forest by the Leopard Class DropShip as it hit the ground. The ship itself seemed intact, though it was obvious that the repairs had not held. Their transport off the planet was apparently not going anywhere any time soon.

The fighters reacted to her presence by making a high-speed run for the horizon, surprising her. She had been spoiling for another fight, and their sudden departure disappointed her. She watched the fighters for several moments to make certain they were leaving, then dropped altitude and glided in Airmech Mode towards the DropShip.

Ranma scanned through the radio channels looking for something that wasn't scrambled, and would perhaps shed some light on what was going on. There was nothing except some jabbering in Chinese, which she didn't understand in the slightest, and some encrypted burst commos that could only be coming from the Combine. From the anxious tones of the speakers, however, it seemed as if the tables had turned on the Musk Dynasty.

She kept an eye on her radar warning indicator for a moment to make sure they weren't going to try and sneak up on her, then set herself to the task of landing at the DropShip.

The Palomino looked like hell, its port side scarred with weapon hits, including a nasty scorched hole over the aft end that must have been the coup de grace for the ship.

"Anyone alive down there?" she called over the radio.

"We're okay, Captain Saotome," Tad replied.

"What happened?"

"We lost the cooling system again. I think -"

Tad's voice was replaced by that of Captain Grant.

"Saotome, this is Grant. Where is the rest of Red Lance?"

Ranma rolled her eyes at the captain's intrusion. "They're on their way. I just came ahead because I heard you were having trouble with some Musk fighters."

"We appreciate it," Grant replied. Ranma couldn't tell by his tone. "We're about to make our way to the bunker in the trucks, and could use an escort."

Ranma blinked in surprise at the news.

"You're abandoning the ship?"

"The batteries won't hold out for another hour. After that, we're just a big helpless target. We really have no choice."

"Understood," Ranma replied. So much for getting the 'mechs off the planet.

The DropShip Palomino

17:25 Local Time

The rest of Red Lance appeared, a narrow line of battlemechs, most of them heavily scarred with action. Kasumi's Victor was near the head of the file, and cradled in its left hand were Doctor Tofu and Sayuri. Akane and Soun moved their Warhammers aside to allow the Victor quick access to the ship.

Ranma was waiting for them with Tad and two of the Dragonfly's cooks. They had the entirety of Tofu's Sick Bay apparatus with them, as the crippled DropShip no longer had power to run lights or any of the life support equipment.

Kasumi knelt the Victor carefully, and allowed Tofu and his patient to be handed off to the ground.

Ranma's eyes met Tofu's as they huddled over the stricken pilot.

"She gonna make it?" she asked him.

Tofu snapped off his bloody latex gloves and slipped on a fresh pair offered by Tad.

"I don't know. She needs surgery, and at the moment, the facilities for it aren't available," he replied. "I'll do my best."

"You might be better off taking her to the Orochi bunker," Ranma suggested. "They have power, and you'll have a roof over your head."

"I was thinking the same thing myself," Tofu agreed.

Kasumi climbed down from the Victor, and Yuka appeared from the Centurion that Tofu had piloted earlier. Both appeared shaken but calm.

"I'll assist where I can," Kasumi offered.

"The same here," Yuka added.

Tofu nodded wearily as Sayuri was placed on a stretcher and carried to the open Cargo Bay door where one of the six-by-six trucks was being readied by one of Akari's techs. "Yuka can stay," he said at length. He looked at Kasumi then, and his heart turned somersaults. "Ka-Kasumi... I-I think your sister will need you in your 'mech." It was easier to tell her that than it was to tell her that he might be too shaky and nervous performing surgery with her around. He felt like a total ass around her as it stood.

She seemed to sense this, and bowed respectfully for him. "Of course, Doctor. I understand."

"We better get a move on, Doc," the tech said to him as he watched her return to her father and Commander Saotome.

"Yes. Yes, you're right," Tofu replied. He wanted to have Kasumi near, but not at the cost of Sayuri's life.

Ranma excused herself when it appeared that Tofu had all the help he could use. The ground from the DropShip to the bunker was fairly level and clear, so she wasn't worried about them taking too long to travel the five kilometers to the bunker. She turned to the blackened mass of Ryouga's BattleMaster, and wondered why the moron inside hadn't popped his canopy to join everyone else.

Akari wondered the same thing. The shock of seeing the BattleMaster in such bad shape made her heart twist in knots, both out of empathy for the battlemech, and for the man she loved who commanded it.

"Ryouga...?" she called up to the starred canopy.

"He hasn't come down yet?" Ranma asked Akari.

"No," she replied, trying to remain stoic when it looked like she was going to break down at any moment. "He hasn't."

Ranma risked the jagged metal and started to climb the blackened hull. "I'll go see what's up. Don't you worry. It'll take more than this -" She gestured to the ruined armor around them. "- To take out Ryouga Hibiki."

Ukyou walked up to them. "I hope so, Ran-chan, because I can't get him to answer on the commo."

That revelation gave Ranma pause, but she refused to be daunted by it. "He didn't seem to be in any trouble on the way here," she replied. "Besides, the way this thing's shot up, I wouldn't be surprised if his commo system fritzed out." With that, she continued her climb up the ragged hull.

When she reached the cockpit, it became perfectly obvious why Ryouga hadn't joined the others or answered his radio. She gave him a sly grin and tapped on the canopy.

"Hey, Ryouga," Ranma said to him. "Put some clothes on, for God's sake! What are you, some kinda pervert?"

Ryouga Hibiki was already beet red, so the remark could do little more than add a little purple to his complexion. His hands shot to his groin, covering himself with his neurohelmet as best as he could.

"This isn't funny, Ranma!" he snarled.

Ranma worked open the manual canopy release.

"What are you so worked up about?" she teased. "It's not like I haven't seen a guy naked before."

"You're a girl right now!" Ryouga growled. "It's... It's a little weird being looked at by a girl like this..."

Ranma rolled her eyes. "Do I even want to ask why you don't have any clothes on right now?"

"No," Ryouga snapped.

"Fair enough," Ranma said with a shrug. She spied the heavy armored case in the rear seat. "So that's what Tarou wanted? That's the library core?"

Ryouga nodded, his face a twisted mask of shame and fear as Akari called to him from below.

"Happousai found it in the ruins," he said in a low voice. "He was going to keep it for himself, and use it to buy his way off the planet in case we failed to escape. When I found about it, he nearly killed me. Changing into a pig was the only thing that saved my life."

Akari called out his name once more, Ukyou joined in, and then a third voice was heard.

"What's going on up there?" Akane demanded. "Ranma!? Ryouga!?"

"I'm doomed..." Ryouga lamented. "If they see me like this... I'll... I'll die!"

Ranma chuckled. "I've got a better idea." She unstrapped the library core and hefted it out of the seat. She then placed it atop the battlemech's torso before returning her attention to the cockpit.

"What kind of plan is this?" Ryouga demanded.

Ranma leaned over his lap, making him cover up again with an anguished grunt of surprise as her chest brushed against his. She took the water tube used for drinking and refilling cooling vests and pointed it at Ryouga's face.

"Oh, no you don't," Ryouga managed when he realized what she was going to do.

Ranma opened the valve, splashing Ryouga with cold water before he could launch her out of the cockpit.

"Think of it this way," she said to the angrily squealing pig. "This will be the second time today that your piggy alter-ego will end up saving your bacon."

She snatched him up by the bandanna and leaned out of the cockpit to look down on the three women.

"Heads up!" she cried, and dropped Ryouga.

The pig squealed in terror all the way down into Akane's arms.

"P-chan!?" she cried in surprise. "How did you get up there?"

"Ryouga took the pig with him?" Ukyou chirped. "As a good luck charm or something?"

Akane shrugged. "I guess so." P-chan uttered a tiny squeal of dismay.

"Where is Ryouga?" Akari called up, disappointment in her voice.

"He wasn't up here," Ranma replied. "It was just the pig. He must have needed to take a leak or something, and split before we could all assemble." She looked around the cockpit for a moment before calling down to them again. "Anyone got some rope? About twenty meters of it should do the trick."

"For what?" Akane returned, stroking her pet pig behind the ears. Ryouga seemed to have let his anger pass, at least for the moment, in Akane's care.

"To get this library core down. We're gonna want to put this case somewhere real safe. It might be the only thing of value we get off this mudball."

Genma stalked over as she shouted down to them, accompanied by Grand Duke Tendo.

"Send that thing down here, Ranma," Genma called to her.

"I was tryin' to do that, old man!" she returned.

"So it's true?" Soun asked. "There is such a thing?"

Ranma nodded. "Happousai seemed to think so."

The mention of that name made the Duke turn pale.

"Speaking of the Master," Genma said uneasily. "Has anyone seen him?"

"He went down in flames, from what I saw," Ranma replied. "I didn't see it happen, but I saw the Locust, and it was a total write-off."

Soun and Genma looked at each other for a moment. Both men nodded solemnly, then began to dance a jig.

"Oh happy day!" Soun cried, tears flowing down his face.

"Farewell, Master!" Genma sobbed with mock sorrow. "We'll miss you!"

"Death in battle," Soun blubbered. "It's what he always wanted..."

Genma gave his friend a crosswise look, his expression sober and guarded.

"I always thought he said that he wanted to die of exhaustion in a cathouse..."

Soun returned the look.

"Who cares, Saotome, so long as he's dead?"

The two nodded solemnly again and began issuing hallelujahs and waving their hands in the air like a Southern Baptist revival.

Ranma rolled her eyes at the two. "Keep doing stuff like that, and the old freak'll return from the dead just to spite you."

Soun made the demon-warding gesture while Genma clutched his hands to his face in a passable impression of The Scream.

"Don't say such things!" the Duke admonished him.

"What's gotten into you, boy?" Genma added. "Have you lost your mind?"

Ranma ignored them, and climbed down the BattleMaster to join the three girls.

"Grant says the Palomino is down for the count," she told Akane.

"I know," she replied evenly. She inclined her head towards the Senior Technician. "Akari told me."

"We need to get off this mudball, and soon," Ranma went on. "Even without the 'mechs, so long as we have the library core, we win."

Akane's expression hardened, surprising Ranma. "This isn't a game, Ranma. It's not about winning or losing."

"Oh yeah?" she retorted. "Then tell me what this is all about? Are we here for our health? The fresh air?"

Ukyou put up her hands in a calming gesture. The way Ranma and Akane could go from calm to incindiery was unnerving to her. "Easy there, Ran-chan."

"There are hundreds of innocent people on this planet!" Akane shot back. "People who have nothing to do with the Succession Wars, and whose lives are in danger now because we came here!"

Ranma realized where she was going with this. "You can't be serious," she returned. "You think we can afford to fight both the Musk Dynasty and Prince Kuno's armies?" She waved her hands to the motley assortment of battlemechs in their possession. "With this?"

"I know that!" Akane cried angrily. "I understand how impossible that would be! What I'm trying to say is that I don't approve of the way you're looking at all of this. We aren't 'winning' anything here. We're just escaping with our own lives!"

Ranma started to say something in rebuttal, but held her tongue. Akane watched her for a moment in tense silence.

"I know," Ranma finally said. "I hate the situation we're in." She looked to the Phoenix Hawk LAM, scored with weapon hits and yet still fully functional. "I don't want to give up anything we have right now. Not after we paid so much for it. Getting the library core off the planet with us will be a victory we really deserve."

"We need a DropShip for that," Ukyou put in. "What are the odds that we can steal one?"

Ranma and Akane gave her surprised looks.

"Ucchan, that's brilliant!" Ranma cried approvingly.

"It's more like suicide," Akane retorted. She then gave a shrug. "Still, it might work. We need to get to the bunker and find out what's going on tactically."

Ranma nodded her head in agreement. "Sounds like a plan. Let's get everything we can off the Palomino and then mount up for the bunker." She took the pig from Akane's arms. "Come on, P-chan, let's get you cleaned up."

"Ranma!" Akane shrieked. "What are you -?" She let it drop as it appeared that P-chan was not offering his usual protestations to Ranma's handling. Had her beloved pet finally warmed to her beloved fiance?

"That was weird," Ukyou said, mirroring her mind. "Since when did the pig ever put up with Ranchan?"

"Never mind that," Akari said mournfully. "What happened to Ryouga?"

"Is it much farther?" Hikaru whined. Tromping through the woods like this was killing him. He failed to notice that Shinnosuke kept up the pace in spite of the fact that he had reopened the wound in his leg, and that his trousers were getting soaked with blood.

"Not much farther," Shinnosuke replied, biting down on the pain.

Konatsu leapt down from the trees as he spoke. "Trouble," he hissed. "Battlemechs approaching."

The three of them squatted down in the brush as the heavy thump of metalshod feet echoed through the forest. The chirr and cry of birds went silent.

"How many?" Shinnosuke asked.

Konatsu's eyes flashed with anxiety for him, making him gasp involuntarily. To Shinnosuke, the kunoichi had become terribly beautiful to behold over the past few hours. Perhaps it was a reaction to his disappointment at discovering Akane's love for Ranma, or perhaps it was because he knew the chances of them getting killed were very high, and he didn't want to die alone.

"Two. Both of them Commonwealth as far as I could tell," Konatsu replied.

The sound of the battlemechs grew in intensity, shaking the trees and making the ground thump beneath them. A thin scream of dread began to shrill from Hikaru's throat before Konatsu and Shinnosuke both clamped hands over his mouth. The surprise contact of bare skin between the two made Shinnosuke shudder with delight, and he forgot all about the huge 80 ton Awesome that stomped past them with scant meters to spare.

"Mother!" Hikaru squeaked from beneath the two hands.

"Shhhh!" Konatsu hissed.

An Assassin loped past a moment later, catching up to the lumbering mass of the hulking Awesome with ease.

"Definitely Commonwealth," Konatsu declared. "We should warn the bunker."

Shampoo watched as Mousse walked back to his Crusader. She was furious with him, and yet she felt a touch of pride in the fact that even in his treason to the clan, he had become a man she could respect. He was no longer a slave to her, no longer the spineless weakling she had despised for years.

Nausea still wracked her as she followed him with her eyes. It had to be the baby, she usually recovered from falls sooner than this. She placed a hand to her belly, willing the tiny child within her to leave well enough alone. It was silly to think that at this stage, a child as tiny and undeveloped as hers could be expected to obey her mother, but she did so anyway. The baby was a child of the Joketsuzoku, and she would learn the discipline and obedience to her elders that her mother had failed to learn herself.

"Farewell, Mousse," she said quietly to him.

Mousse forced himself not to look back at Shampoo. He was beyond her as much as he was beyond redemption. There was nothing for him now, and not even General Herb's new order for the Commonwealth held anything for him.

His daughter... Shampoo was carrying his child!

It was his dream to make Shampoo his bride and to start a family with her, a dream he had cherished most of his life. Now there was a child between them, but no love. There was only resentment and hate, and a vow to turn that child against her father.

The weariness he felt at that was nearly total. It took an effort of pure will to continue walking away from her, when what he really wanted to do was lay down and die. Vengeance held nothing for him, it was a hollow desire whose empty promises had been revealed to him in their entirety in his confrontation with Shampoo.

As he plodded dully over the torn ground that separated his battlemech from the fallen Panther, he searched for something, anything, to motivate him. The distant rumble of clashing 'mechs to the south caught his ear, and he turned his head towards the sound. The sight of Shampoo standing in the distance at the corner of his vision made him wince inwardly, but he had his answer.

There was only battle for him now. Battle against the Furinkan Combine, and though he had no reason to believe it, to him it already seemed a lost cause. His Crusader was still operational, though it was missing most of its right arm. It would serve him long enough to fight his enemies and earn the valiant fall in combat that had also been the dream of a young boy growing up in the shadow of great warriors.

It was the last dream he could hope to achieve, the others being crushed under cruel heel of fortune.

The voice of Mint addressing him came down as the other heel.

"A question for you, Mechwarrior Colonel," Mint said in a mocking tone.

Mousse turned to see the hated lieutenant of General Herb peering at him from a tree limb. His Assassin battlemech stood nearby, its armored hull obscured by clinging vines that hung from the verdant woods.

"Why is it that you have not destroyed an enemy of the Musk Dynasty who stood helpless before your wrath?" Mint continued, his voice tight with barely concealed glee.

Mousse swept back his hair, a gesture meant to give him the opportunity to search for Lime without drawing attention to the fact. He did not see him.

"She poses no more threat to us," he replied. "Her battlemech is destroyed."

"I can see that," Mint returned, his voice retaining that manic edge that made Mousse wary of a surprise attack. "I regret that I just missed the battle between the two of you. It might have been interesting to see exactly how devoted you were to the task."

Mousse's hands dropped into the folds of his robes, a gesture whose significance was not lost upon Mint, who raised a suspicious eyebrow at him.

"General Herb sent you," he said to Mint. "Tell me why."

Mint laughed at his question. "You already know why, Colonel. Don't attempt to patronize me."

He dropped down from the tree limb, landing silently before Mousse. There was a considerable difference in height between them, though Mint seemed unconcerned by this.

"But if you must know, my orders were to locate you," he added dryly. "If I were to find you in the presence of Shampoo, I was to arrest you, and bring you to the General."

A moment passed with neither man moving or speaking. The sound of footsteps well behind Mousse made him tense with wariness. It had to be Lime.

"Of course you should know," Mint continued coolly. "My orders were to kill Shampoo on sight."

Mousse tried not to let his surprise show. Herb would order her death?

Mint leered at him. "You were not expecting that?"

Mousse pushed past him roughly in reply, and started walking towards his Crusader. Mint backed away with a sadistic grin on his face.

"What are you doing, Colonel?" he asked Mousse.

"I am going to confer with General Herb. If these orders are true, then I won't stop you from carrying them out."

"I don't think so, Colonel," Mint said brusquely. "You're under arrest, remember? It wouldn't do to have you mounting up in your battlemech."

Mousse stopped several paces short of the war machine. He turned his head back to regard Mint, the blue of his eyes frosting into deeply damask'd steel, and causing the diminutive henchman of General Herb tofreeze up in spite of himself.

"Stop me."

Mint shrugged off the glamour of Mousse's unfeeling eyes and leaped at him with a shriek, his twin serpentine-bladed knives flashing in the dappled sunlight of the ravaged forest clearing. There would be no mercy in this - he had been looking forward to having an excuse to kill the pureblood upstart ever since Herb had given the order to look for him. He cleared the distance between them in an instant, his daggers slashing madly into the depths of flowing indigo robes as Mousse whirled to face him.

It was like striking at shadows.

He ducked low to evade a counterattack that never came, screaming for Lime to assist, and then leaped at Mousse again. The daggers ripped into the dark robes once more to no effect.

As he tried a third time to cut Mousse down, a flash and roar blinded his eyes and filled his ears with terrible noise as Mousse produced a long curved sword, drawing it up from his tattered robes and igniting the butane jet-torch that made flames lick along the entire length of the blade. The flaming sword caught him above the hip-point of the pelvis with the ring of steel on bone, and then carved cruelly up through his ribcage until it cleaved through his clavicle and rang smartly off his jaw. He was too surprised to cry out in pain, his lips flapping open and his numbing limbs flailing against the sheer heat that assailed him as the ground loomed ever closer.

His last thoughts were only that he would miss the sight of his general in her exquisite female body.

Mint fell to the mossy ground, his entrails spilling at the base of the Crusader's scorched white hull, and his hair catching fire. He squirmed once, gasped out what Mousse supposed was a final yet unrecognizable curse, and then died with a wet rattle. Mousse regarded him for a moment as the flames began their slow and steady work of reducing him to ash.

There wasn't much time for introspection, however, as Lime's blood-curdling cry of rage carried over Shampoo's cry of warning. He turned and saw her waving her arms frantically from across the clearing, and knew that she had tried. Strength flowed through his arms at this, an enormous upwelling of power and courage where before there had only been the adrenaline madness of hatred to guide his stroke. Lime charged across the clearing at him with a huge thick-bladed glaive in both hands that resembled nothing so much as a gigantic kitchen cleaver.

Mousse met his charge at a run, his flaming sword held high and trailing hot sparks behind it.

They met in the center of the clearing with an earsplitting clash of metal on metal. Lime's greater mass carried him through the charge, driving Mousse to the ground flat on his back, half-stunned.

The Musk hybrid snarled out an incoherent curse for Mousse as he chopped with the glaive at the dark-haired mechwarrior's knees. Mousse coiled up tight at the strike, narrowly avoiding the heavy blade as it dug into the soft ground. He sprang from his coil with a shout, kicking at Lime's hands in an attempt to disarm him.

Lime absorbed the kick as if he hadn't even felt the blow, recovering his glaive and again chopping down at Mousse, who managed to roll frantically clear. The hybrid mechwarrior roared a curse, his tiger blood running hot and thick in his veins, and attacked with even more ferocity.

Mousse dodged another blow from the glaive, only to take a backhanded return strike from the hardwood handle and reel once more to the ground. Lime stepped up to hack him apart, bringing the glaive down at his head.

Feeling his own terrible madness flowing through him, Mousse parried the blow aside, and left his humungous assailant with a face full of pepper spray produced from the depths of his sleeves. The sneak attack gave him the chance to drag himself away from the gagging and choking Lime. When he was clear of the blindly slashing strokes of the glaive, he pulled himself upright and raised his flaming sword once again to attack.

"I will not allow you to harm Shampoo," he snarled at Lime. "I don't care what happens to me at this point, whether I live or die, but I will NOT ALLOW you to hurt her."

Lime wiped at the thick line of drool and snot that dribbled down his lip. The pepper spray should have kept him out of the fight long enough for Mousse to cut him down, but Lime was already starting to fight it off.

"Traitor," Lime spat hatefully at him. "First to Cologne's whores and then to us!" He spat a thick wad of mucous on the ground between them. "You are an enemy even to yourself, traitor, and I mean to make sure that you pay for killing Mint."

Lime's words stung more than his blows, all the more so because they rang of truth. He was an enemy to himself; and had been one his entire life. Was it any surprise then that his life should come to such a miserable and bloody end?

They fell upon each other then with furious ringing blows. Sparks flashed from their clashing blades and the heat of the flames made their strivings hazy and indistinct, as if watching them through a mirage. Lime's strength was the greater in this dire contest, but Mousse was fighting for the only cause that had ever mattered in his life, and his sword turned the heavy glaive aside again and again even as it sought out his enemy's heart.

The final blows fell, and for a moment it seemed as if both men would die, for the blood of each was spilled onto the mossy ground.

Lime stumbled backwards dumbly as his chest spurted forth frothy waves of blood that sizzled where they quenched the flames ignited in his clothes. His glaive came up in a clumsy attempt to beat out the fires, then fell from his weakening fingers to plunge blunted-tip first into the muddy ground. He fell to his knees, still bleeding out in thick pulses from the horrible trench carved across his sternum, and gave a final hateful scowl to Mousse before toppling slowly backwards in death.

Mousse fell to his knees as well, the flaming sword sputtering out as his grip on it weakened. He was singed from the heat of the flames, and the bitter truth of the battle's end was that Lime had scored as well, though not with such fatal results. He did not realize that he was shaking until a hand fell upon his shoulder to steady him.

He raised his singed brow to see Shampoo standing over him, her hand supporting him against the faint that threatened to take him.

"I don't want your pity," he managed for her. "Or your thanks. I did it to save our daughter."

She did not reply, but her hand never wavered from his shoulder.

"I meant that, Shampoo," he rasped. "Let me go. I have one more task left to me; a task I cannot shirk."

He rose, shrugging off her hand, and started walking towards his Crusader once again. The smell of burnt flesh made him wince, as did the pain that tingled through the wound in his side.

"What do you plan on doing, Mousse?" Shampoo demanded of him. "Are you off to kill General Herb now?"

"Lime was right," Mousse responded, not looking back at her. To do so would cause his will to crumble, and he would not show his weakness to her again. "I am an enemy to everyone, including myself. Killing Herb will at least be some atonement for the wrongs I've done and the betrayals I've committed."

"You can't hope to defeat Herb in your condition," Shampoo asserted. "And your Crusader is only slightly less of a wreck than my Panther. What do you think you'll accomplish other than a futile death?"

Mousse climbed unsteadily up the armored torso to the hatch of his Crusader. Blood dripped freely from his side where the tattered indigo fabric of his robes were soaked through with it. When he reached the hatch, he finally turned back to Shampoo. She was so beautiful to him, so lovely and beloved, that he could not look at her without feeling the pangs of heartache rend him apart. She was forever denied to him, by her own choice.

"Perhaps a futile death is all that I deserve," he said to her.

With that he dropped through the hatch and sealed it tight.

Shampoo put herself well clear of the Crusader as it struggled upright. The damage was extensive, yet mostly to the armor. Aside from the amputated right forearm, and the medium laser and machinegun mounts it had contained, the 'mech was essentially fully armed. All four of the missile systems appeared intact, and that was what Mousse would need against Herb and his bodyguards.

Still, it was suicide, and she knew it as well as he did.

The Crusader took a moment to orient itself, then it began to stomp towards the south, and its fateful duel with the leader of the Musk Dynasty. She watched it go in silence for a moment, before finally clenching a fist in anger at him.

"Idiot!" she shouted at him. "I know what you're trying to do, Mousse, and I will not let you hang your death on me!"

She made a quick circle of the clearing before spying the Assassin that had once belonged to Mint. She would have preferred the massive triple-PPC carrying Awesome over the awkward looking medium-light Assassin in combat, but there was no way she could catch up to Mousse in such a slow and ungainly 'mech.

"Shampoo!"

The voice made her spin around, and she saw the spatula girl's pet kunoichi running from the trees towards her. The local boy, Shinnosuke, trailed along behind him, and bringing up the rear looked like... it couldn't be... There was no way a Gosunkugi could be here, could there?

"Shampoo!" Konatsu cried again. "What happened? Are you all right?"

"I fine!" she huffed, having no time for chit-chat. "You go now! Shampoo have thing to do!"

"What thing?" Shinnosuke gasped between pants for breath. "Aren't you hurt?"

Shampoo ignored him, and ran for the Assassin battlemech. She hoped that Mint had left it idling, as she did not have the time to go through a pre-startup on a battlemech with which she had very little familiarity.

"Hey!" Konatsu cried after her.

"You go back to bunker!" she yelled back. "Shampoo no have time to explain!"

She climbed up the battlemech and pulled herself through the hatch. Mint's neurohelmet rested on the ejector seat, and the steady thrum of the reactor reassured her. The harsh voices over the Musk tac-net indicated to her that the day's fighting had turned from certain victory to a protracted slugfest against the Furinkan Combine.

She thumbed through the commo presets for the command channel, and was rewarded with the sound of General Herb issuing orders to his troops. Mousse might not prevail against the Musk general, but he might give her an opening to use.

The Assassin lurched forward. It was a little heavier than her Panther had been, but the weight was distributed differently around its frame. It would take all the time she had before she caught up with Mousse to adjust to the motion.

Shinnosuke and Konatsu watched the battlemech stomp off into the forest while Hikaru gasped for breath.

"Where does she think she's going?" he asked Konatsu.

The kunoichi offered an apologetic shrug. "I don't know, but wherever it is, things are going to get hot." He scanned the sky for the sun, which was sinking in the west. "It's going to be dark in a couple of hours," he said in his breathy falsetto. "We need to return to the bunker."

"C-Can't we wait a few more minutes?" Hikaru gulped. The oracles had said nothing about a marathon today...

"Let's go," Shinnosuke replied. The stench of the burning corpses was beginning to get thick.

Star League Defense Force Proving Grounds

Bunker Nine, Test Area North

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

19 June 3025, 17:26 Local Time

"This is it," Shinnosuke said to Hikaru, who stumbled along behind them, gasping for breath.

The sight of the Red Lance battlemechs and their pilots standing outside the ancient Star League facility gave them pause. Where was the DropShip?

"Ukyou dearest!" Konatsu called out to his beloved mechwarrior. She turned at the sound of his voice and waved, drawing the attention of the others.

"Where the heck have you been?" she demanded of him.

"Chasing Shampoo, sir," Konatsu confessed. Shinnosuke hobbled up to them, half-dragging the exhausted Hikaru Gosunkugi with him.

"Oh my word, Shinnosuke!" Akane cried upon seeing the caretaker. "Your leg!"

"It's nothing," he replied, trying to brush it off. "I'll be all right."

"Who's this guy?" Ukyou asked, pointing at Hikaru. "A Combine P.O.W.?"

Hikaru's lips flapped open and shut like a fish out of his bowl.

"His Excellency, Hikaru Gosunkugi of the League of Five Nails," Konatsu replied when it became clear that Hikaru was too winded to speak. "From what we were able to get out of him, he's been a prisoner of Prince Kuno for awhile. He escaped from his handlers, and we ran into him in the woods."

Hikaru offered a weak wave of his hand.

Akane grabbed Ranma by the arm. "Help them, already, Ranma!" she demanded. "Get the two of them inside to see Doctor Tofu."

Hikaru made a giddy sighing noise at being so well thought of by Akane, and he sagged against Shinnosuke a little more. Thoughts of curses and hexes on Ranma Saotome were far from his mind, though he realized dimly that his theories of Ranma and Kuno's enigmatic Pig-Tailed Girl being the same person were probably right on the mark. He uttered a gleeful yet weak cackle at the idea of Kuno being unknowingly infatuated with his hated rival.

Ranma, on the other hand, threw up her hands with a huff. "I wanted to hear about what happened to Shampoo first!"

"It's complicated, Captain Saotome," Konatsu answered for her. "We tracked her south for awhile before coming across the wreck of her Panther. She was okay, but there was some kind of fight on the ground outside of the 'mechs, and before we could get any answers from her, she was off chasing a Musk Crusader in a captured Assassin. There is still an Awesome out there unclaimed, if you think we should send someone for it."

"Chasing the Crusader?" Akane asked. "But why?"

"She seemed to know the man," Konatsu replied in his breathy falsetto. "It's funny, but in spite of what we saw, I don't think that she was betraying us to the Musk."

"I hope not," Ranma groused. "Because she can lead them right to us."

"Weren't you the one who thought she should have a 'mech?" Ukyou pointed out.

"Yeah," she admitted. "But it doesn't matter how loyal she is to us if she gets captured and forced to talk." She steadied the swaying Hikaru Gosunkugi and led him towards the armored door. "You gonna make it all right, Shinnosuke?"

The SLDF caretaker made an affirmative grunt. "I'll be right behind you." He offered Akane a gentle smile before following them inside.

Ukyou looked to Konatsu. "No more heroics, okay, honey?" she admonished him. "I'm not going to stand for you getting killed today."

Konatsu offered a weak blush in reply.

Akari dabbled ointment on Ryouga's nose, where he had been injured as a pig trying to claw his way out of the twisted rubble of the quonset hut Happousai had brought down on him. Thanks to Ranma getting him out of Akane's hands and into the Palomino's head, he was able to change back into a human with no one being the wiser, and his spare tunic and trousers were right next door in berthing. Now he was in Akari's care within the bunker, and for a moment the concerns of battle and their escape from this world were put aside.

"You don't know how happy I am to know that you're all right," she continued. "When I saw what had happened to the BattleMaster, I -" She let the words hand between them for a moment. Ryouga's face began to bloom with heat.

"I know," he said softly. "I'm sorry if I frightened you."

She brushed at his sweat-matted hair.

"You mean the world to me, Ryouga dearest," she said softly to him.

He managed to meet her eyes. "I-I could say the same about you," he managed lamely. He loved her with all his heart, and she knew it, but even with all of that between them, it was still hard sometimes for him to say it to her.

Instead he took her hand in his and brought it up to his chin, where he nuzzled it softly. "We're almost home," he told her.

"I love you, Ryouga," she replied.

He squeezed her hand. "I love you, Akari," he said, marvelling at how easily the words spilled from his lips. He seized the sudden courage that welled up within him, and told her what he had been aching to tell her since his return from the fighting. "I love you with all my heart."

"I know," she whispered, pressing her face into his shoulder. A sob escaped her lips. "We're so close to getting out of here, and yet we're still in so much danger. I just want to be with you for the rest of our lives, that I'm afraid something will happen, and then-"

"Nothing's going to happen, Akari," he assured her, though he was wracked with hidden doubts. "I won't let anything come between us. Ranma and the others are working on a plan to get us a DropShip, and we still have the Coronet and the Tautog up in orbit. If we have to leave the 'mechs behind, we'll do that, but we're getting out of here, I promise."

"It's meatball surgery, but it'll hold until we can get her up into orbit and a real medical facility," Doctor Tofu Ono proclaimed. Sayuri lay unconscious on a table in the dining area of the bunker, surrounded by the crews of the Dragonfly and Palomino, as well as some of Shogun Kuno's retinue.

Yuka wiped at her runny nose with a sterile cloth. "Thank you, doctor," she gushed.

"Just doing my job," he replied, spying Kasumi coming through the doors from the stairwell. "If you'll please excuse me." He made his way over to the first born Tendo daughter.

"How is she?" Kasumi asked him.

"She'll make it," he replied. His jauntiness wavered as he continued to speak. "Kasumi, I'm... I'm sorry about the way I b-brushed you off at the Palomino. You deserved better from me."

Kasumi put a hand to her lips. "You were doing your job, Doctor. I can't fault that."

He nodded weakly. It was settled between them, and yet he still felt like an ass.

She gave him a demure smile. "I came down to tell you how grateful I am for taking care of my sister on the expedition," she said to him. "And for helping her and Ranma work things out with each other. Father's ecstatic about it."

He began to blush. "Th-That's me," he said a little too loudly. "Tofu Ono, professional matchmaker!"

She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, paralyzing him with joy. "Please don't think me too forward, Doctor," she said to him. "But I never got the chance to do this before you left Nerima."

Tofu made a high pitched squeak in reply, articulate words being beyond his present faculties.

"Aloha, bruddah!" a voice called to Hikaru Gosunkugi. He turned and saw the Shogun of the Furinkan Combine looming over him in the recreation room, a pineapple-shaped mug of what Hikaru could only guess was rum punch in his hand. What in blue blazes was he doing here? He began to question the accuracy of his divinations once more.

"Fancy meeting you here, eh, brah?" the Shogun continued.

Hikaru felt himself being pulled bodily from the chair in which he slumped. The Shogun pressed the pineapple mug into his hand.

"Have a drink, bruddah," the Shogun advised. "We gonna start de limbo contest soon. Da Duke, he gonna be down here too!" Steel slide guitar and bongo drums began to play in the background as the musicians warmed up and beefy Polynesian men in red and gold loincloths began to limber up.

Hikaru took a weary glance around the room. Akane was here somewhere, he knew. He took a fortifying sip from the rum punch, amazed that the Shogun could manage to keep the stuff in stock for his perpetual luau. The hula girl he recognized from the Maui Atoll on New Hawaii slipped up to his side and whispered something in his ear. He didn't speak Hawaiian, but it sounded like a good idea, whatever it was.

The Shogun gave him a wink and a hearty thumbs up.

He looked around once more. For a situation that looked pretty grim, the Confederation people were filled with optimism. The Shogun himself didn't seem to have a care in the world; a concept that Hikaru found vaguely liberating.

Perhaps Shogun Kuno was on to something.

Ranma offered a tired sigh as Akane settled down against the wall of the bunker next to her.

"What now?" she asked her fiancee.

"There's still a lot of fighting going on to the south," Akane replied. "Not much activity from the Black Rose landing zone. The Coronet isn't answering hails, and neither is the Tautog. I just hope they weren't destroyed."

"What about us getting put of here?"

Akane slipped her hand into Ranma's. "I don't know. Without the ships in orbit, we're stuck. I'm almost tempted to try and steal that DropShip."

"It's crazy," Ranma conceded. "Maybe if one of the landing zones was getting overrun we could slip the Palomino crew in during the confusion, but that kind of coordination is too big a problem to pull off without practicing for it."

"So I guess we wait it out here until we hear from one of the ships in orbit, or until the winner of the battle between Kuno and the Musk Dynasty comes for us," Akane replied.

"I guess so," Ranma agreed.

Akane gave Ranma's hand a squeeze. "If it ends like that, I'm glad that I'll be with you."

Ranma turned and gave her a sanguine look. "It ain't gonna come to that," she declared. "I ain't losing you to Tatewaki Kuno. Period." She returned the squeeze. "Not without a fight that'll see either him or me dead."

"I don't want you to die, Ranma," she told him. "Not even to save me. I've already gone through that once with you on this planet, and believe me, I don't want to go through it again."

Ranma's look softened. She hadn't thought about what Akane must have been going through after their disastrous introduction to Ryuugenzawa. She had been half-crazy looking for Akane, and she had known that her fiancee had survived. At the time, Akane had nothing to go on for her fiance's survival but hope. Now that she knew how much Akane loved her, she could understand what Akane must have endured in those lonely hours after touching down.

"I won't die," Ranma replied. "I wouldn't give that Combine jerkoff the satisfaction."

Akane laughed in spite of herself.

"Please don't," she said, and hugged Ranma fiercely. Ranma returned her embrace, pausing only to kiss Akane's brow gently.

Grand Duke Soun Tendo watched his youngest daughter kiss Ranma Saotome firmly on the lips and smiled. It was a little disconcerting to see them kiss when they were both female at the time, but to see them do anything more than shout at each other was a miracle, as far as he was concerned.

"What did I tell you, Tendo," Genma said with a clap on his shoulder. "Get them together for the trip, and let the danger and excitement of the mission bring them closer to each other."

"Since when did you become a genius, Saotome?" Soun retorted with a good natured smile.

"I've always been a genius," Genma asserted. "You were just too jealous to notice."

"Yes, well, you're too modest," Soun grunted. He turned away from the tender moment his daughter and future son-in-law were having, and walked Genma back towards the open door of the bunker.

"Forgive me for not mentioning it sooner, Saotome," Soun went on. "But I forgot to tell you about a special guest of mine, who unfortunately ended up accompanying us to Ryuugenzawa."

Genma raised an eyebrow at this. "Oh?"

Soun coughed into his hand. "Your wife is here on the planet," he said to him. "She's down inside the bunker right now, I expect."

Genma's jaw dropped to his chest.

"Nodoka!?" he gasped. "She's HERE? NOW?"

"Don't thank me all at once," Soun sniffed. "You could sound more exicted about the prospect of seeing a woman you haven't been around for almost seventeen years." His voice took on a cold tone of reproach that even Genma did not miss.

"I can explain, Tendo," he managed.

"The matter is between you and your wife," Soun returned. "It's none of my business."

Genma nodded solemnly. "Does the boy know yet?"

Soun shook his head. "Unless Kasumi told him, I haven't had the chance to yet. She's a good woman, Saotome. She wants desperately to see her son, and yet she knows that with the fighting still going on, that she will probably have to wait."

"She's gotta keep waiting!" Genma cried nervously. "Tendo, if ever I was your friend, promise me something!"

It was Soun's turn to raise an eyebrow at him. "What is it, Saotome?"

Genma took his friend by the shoulders. "Do NOT tell my son that she's here!" he pleaded.

Soun shook him off. "Why in God's name not?" he demanded. "Really, Saotome, what's the matter with you?"

Genma's expression was grave. "Trust me, Tendo, It's a matter of life and death!"

Blue Thunder Regimental Headquarters Company

North of Ian Cameron Starport

17:34 Local Time

"A pox on them all!" Tatewaki snarled as he watched the Commonwealth troops continue their withdrawal back to the landing zones. If only more of his fighter assets had survived the assault on the Orochi Network, he could crush them utterly!

"My lord Prince," his divisional Operations Officer, Colonel Singh, called to him.

"Speak, man!" Tatewaki barked in reply.

"The Fifth and Eighth Sword of Thunder Regiments have arrived at their objectives. The starport area is secure."

It was news of hollow import. So long as the Commonwealth troops remained in force and organized, his hold on the Star League facilities was tenuous. The Commonwealth commander must have realized that when he ordered a withdrawal.

"Hath thy reconnaisance section detected the departure of any DropShips?" he asked.

"No, my lord," Singh replied. "All indications point toward the Commonwealth forces withdrawing to a defensive cordon within two kilometers of their drop zones. No retreat off-world has been detected."

"They test my resolve," Tatewaki said to himself. "Unthinking, these curs bring forth the very impetus for their own destruction... Very well then! Order my Fifth Sword of Thunder regiment to commence probing attacks on the heathen Commonwealth perimeter."

"At once, my lord Prince!"

Tatewaki turned his attention to other, more important matters. Akane Tendo was somewhere on this world, and he had to find her. He did not believe that she had fallen captive to the Commonwealth troops, for even the most doltish commander would have realized her value as a bargaining chip, and offered terms to him for her.

Nor did he believe that what remained of his damnable sister's troops to the east had her either, for Kodachi would have offered the same by now. He would have to finish the job the Commonwealth had started, for he did not feel comfortable with even a diminished Black Rose regiment on his flank. That task he left to his mixed units of armor and mechanized infantry, supported by his remaining close air support.

Still, a certain caution was in order. His sister had slipped her leash on him before.

"Singh," he called to his operations officer.

"Yes, my lord Prince?"

"Dispatch two companies from the Eighth Sword of Thunder to my sister's positions east of the starport. Have them offer quarter." It was foolish of them to expect it in light of the mass executions of Black Rose officers the last time they surrendered, but Tatewaki was a stickler for formalities, and if his sister should be slain in the ensuing battle, at least his alibi to the Daimyo would be in place.

"And if they refuse to surrender, my lord?" Singh asked, his tone of voice suggesting that he understood exactly where his prince was going with this line of action.

"Annihilate them," Tatewaki replied coldly. He was still smarting from the loss of his starfleet, and his sister had already exhausted the last reserve of his good graces.

With that settled, he maneuvered his Thunderbolt northwest, towards the Commonwealth drop zones. Once the intelligence data from his probing actions had indicated the defenders' soft spot, he would personally lead the charge that would obliterate them.

Soon, Akane Tendo, you shall be mine. Once my enemies are slain, nothing shall hinder me in my search. I shall tear apart this planet if I must to uncover your hiding place...

Star League Defense Force Proving Grounds

Bunker Nine, Test Area North

Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System

19 June 3025, 18:26 Local Time

Lieutenant Davidge rubbed at the bridge of his nose wearily. With the network down, he was forced to communicate separately with every remaining satellite in orbit if he wanted an idea of what was happening up there. It was painstaking work, and it was made worse by the cascading damage inflicted by high-speed debris falling from upper orbit. Many of the satellites were non-functional, forcing him to retask other birds to cover the affected areas and almost certainly expose them to damage.

"Any luck?" Malloy asked him.

"Unless the big guy restarts its telemetry, I don't see how I can come up with a plot on it."

"What about the Coronet and the Tautog?"

Davidge wiped away a bead of sweat. "The Tautog's on the other side of the planet right now. It won't be back on our side for another hour. I haven't heard anything from the Coronet."

Several of the displays came to life abruptly as he said this.

"Hello!" he cried. He plunked down in his chair as Commander Malloy looked on.

"Is it the Orochi?"

Davidge scanned the text. "Looks like it." His fingers tapped several keys. "I have telemetry data. I'm going to see if I can request a status report."

The displays danced and jumped as fresh information posted itself.

"The big bugger has shifted over to a 'safe' mode," he replied. "If I remember correctly, that means no main drive use, and no weapons."

"Sounds good to me," Malloy observed.

Davidge wasn't so sure. "There's something really wacky going on here. I keep getting this weird protocol that's preempting all of the unit's functions." He pushed off with his chair to roll across the room to the stack of aging binders and technical manuals that explained the network and its components.

He sifted through them at a rapid pace, searching for an answer, and tearing more than one fragile page from its bindings. As the other ex-Dragonfly crew looked on, he slammed his finger down on a page and started reading.

"It's some kind of emergency protocol," he began, his finger tracing along the lines of text as he read.

"Is it searching for drydock?" Malloy asked.

"I don't think so," Davidge said in a clipped voice. "In fact, I think this could be extraordinarily bad..."

"Define 'extraordinarily bad,' lieutenant," Malloy ordered, his voice dropping an octave.

Davidge checked a cross-reference in the manual before replying. What he found did nothing to reassure him.

"It means, sir, that we are in deep shit."

Ranma, Shinnosuke, Ryouga, and Akane followed after Grand Duke Tendo and Genma Saotome as they hurried down the stairs to the Orochi bunker control room. Whatever Commander Malloy had to tell them, judging by the urgency in his voice, it couldn't be good.

"What's up?" Ranma asked Akane as they reached the bottom of the steps.

"I wish I knew," she replied.

Commander Malloy and Lieutenant Davidge were ready for them as they stepped through the doors.

"We have a serious problem with the Orochi," Malloy began.

"I thought that Prince Kuno's fleet had dealt with it," the Duke pointed out.

"Apparently not well enough, your Grace," Malloy replied. "I'll let the lieutenant explain."

Davidge gestured to several displays, where the words 'FADED GIANT' flashed in red in the top righthand corner of each monitor.

"The primary Orochi unit has initiated a highest-priority protocol," he said to them. "You can see it there flashing on the monitors."

"Faded giant?" Ranma asked for all of them. "What the heck is that supposed to mean?"

Davidge gave them sobering looks.

"It means that under specific command guidance, the Orochi network is programmed to destroy the Star League facilities here in order to prevent them from being captured. It was probably a protocol that Kerensky would have insisted on shortly before the Council of Lords sacked him from command, as a way to prevent the Great Houses from seizing SLDF assets in the event of civil unrest."

He pointed to several displays full of garbage. "It's not supposed to be something that the Orochi can decide on its own," he went on. "You have to tell it to initiate the protocol, and you have to have the command access to do it; something that's impossible to get at the moment. Somehow, during the big firefight up in orbit with the Combine, the Orochi glitched out. When it restored function to itself, it ended up stuck in this 'faded giant' protocol."

"So what does this mean for us?" Ryouga asked.

"It means that the Orochi has adjusted its orbit to put it on a direct impact with the Star League Proving Grounds. Given a mass of almost half a million tons, and a current velocity of twelve kilometers per second, it's going to hit our particular piece of real estate in about fifty-eight minutes, give or take a minute or two."

"Fifty-eight minutes?" Ryouga gulped. "We have less than an hour?"

Davidge offered a weak shrug. "Give or a take a few minutes."

Akane raised her hand slightly to speak. "Do I even want to know how hard it will hit?"

"This is just an estimate," the astrogator hedged. "But if this thing actually hits the planet - and it looks like it will - it'll be like a few thousand nukes all going off at once."

An assortment of gasps and curses filled the room.

"Are you serious?" Akane cried.

Davidge nodded ruefully. "The armored hull will protect it from the heat of reentry, so almost all of the satellite should make it to the ground. The energy released will be somewhere in the range of eight-thousand to ten-thousand megatons of exploding TNT," he replied. "It'll make a crater five or six klicks in diameter at the very least, and the blast will probably kill everything within a few hundred kilometers. It won't be enough to wipe out all life on the planet or cause some kind of global catastrophe, but it'll still suck to be us when it happens..."

"It seems that a rapid evacuation would be in order then," Duke Tendo observed solemnly. "We'll have to ferry people in the shuttles to the Tautog and Coronet as quickly as possible. Keep trying to raise them on the commo, Commander Malloy."

"It's not that simple, Dad!" Akane retorted. She looked to Shinnosuke for a moment, who stood with his mouth open in mute horror. "There are hundreds of people who call this world home, and most of them live within a hundred kilometers of this bunker. They won't have time to flee! Their lives will be snuffed out if we don't do something to stop the Orochi!"

"What can we do?" Ranma returned, earning a hot look from Akane. She continued on in the face of her fiancee's glare. "It ain't like there's anything any of us can do to stop a gigantic satellite from crashing into the planet!"

Genma and Soun exchanged looks. The Duke offered a brief nod in reply to the question that passed unspoken between them.

"There may be something we can do," Genma observed uneasily.

Ranma looked to her father. "Like what?" she asked incredulously. "Spit on it? Ask it real nicely to change its trajectory and hit the open ocean instead of us?"

"Not exactly," Genma replied. "Excuse me for a moment."

Ranma watched her father go. "Wait up!" she cried. "Hey Pop!"

She chased after him, leaving the rest of the assembled party to themselves. Akane looked after Ranma as she charged out of the doors to follow her father.

"Dad," she broached uneasily. "This isn't what I think it is, is it?" She had pondered this very option herself, before she had learned of her family's arrival on Ryuugenzawa, though not for this reason.

Soun nodded gravely. "It is," he replied.

Her eyes widened. "Then that means that Ranma will be the one to..."

Soun nodded again. "Yes. He will. His LAM is the only thing that can reach the Orochi in time to do something."

Akane clutched her arms to herself as the others looked on in puzzlement and concern.

As Genma Saotome made his way up the stairs from the control room, he spied an attractive middle-aged woman standing next to the Heir to the League of Five Nails and the well-tanned Shogun of the Furinkan Combine, and cringed. It had been years since he had seen his wife, but she had changed very little over that span of time. Remarkably, she had kept her good looks, and he felt a pang of regret for letting them go to waste the way he had.

He did not dare face her at that moment however - not with Ranma in his girl body - and so he doused himself with a splash of water from his canteen, becoming a panda before she spied him. Ranma followed through the door after him, still demanding to know what his big plan was. He hoped like hell that his son was telling the truth when he said that he had forgotten what his mother looked like. There wasn't time to steer him away from her - certainly without drawing the attention that he wished to avoid.

"What gives, old man? What's with the circus act all of a sudden?!" she demanded, trying to collar him with a hand on his wet fur. He could tell by the incredulous look on his son's face that she was going to press the issue of why he had decided to change into his panda body, and that was definitely an issue he was unwilling to address where Nodoka might overhear.

Shut up and follow me, he signed to his son. You want answers, you'll get them, but not here.

Ranma threw up her hands and made a sound that was half growl, half shriek. She walked past Nodoka without recognizing her long lost mother, feeling instead only a weird sense of knowing her, but not from where. Genma was escaping up the stairs to one of the storage rooms as she pondered the strange woman, and so she was forced to chase after him.

"Wait up, ya old coot!"

Nodoka Saotome watched the interaction between the huge furry black and white beast and the boisterous and very unladylike red-haired girl in the silver and white pressure suit, and frowned to herself. There was something peculiar about the way the beast shambled along, something that was oddly familiar. She couldn't quite place it.

The girl was equally enigmatic. Nodoka couldn't help but feel that she knew her, and at the same time, she was so unusual that she should have remembered any such encounter in the past. They were gone before she could confront them, though, and she turned her attention back to the Shogun, who was asking her if she wanted to dance.

"I'm terribly sorry, your Eminence," she demurred. "I'm afraid I don't feel quite up to dancing at the moment."

The Shogun was easy about it. "No problem, wahine." He made a gesture to the door Genma and Ranma had taken. "De Duke, he no say nothing about no circus acts when we get here. Dis is a war zone, yah?"

Nodoka shrugged uneasily. "I'm afraid that when it comes to battles and such, my knowledge of these things is rather limited."

She cast a final look to the door, hoping to see the girl again. She wanted to know why she seemed so familiar...

Genma poured a flask of hot water over himself once they were in the storage room, returning to his human form.

"So what's with the quick change act?" Ranma demanded.

"My change was an accident," Genma replied, not caring if Ranma actually believed it. He gestured to a packing crate, where a large cylindrical device rested within. "The answer you seek lies over there."

"What the heck is going on?" She took another look. "Hey, waitaminute," she muttered ominously. She recognized the crate from the trip over from the Palomino. The techs had been very, very careful when handling it. "That isn't what I think it is..." She gave him a narrow-eyed glare. "Is it?"

"It's a thermonuclear weapon," Genma confirmed in a deadpan voice.

Ranma Saotome eyed the thing sitting before her within its reinforced packing crate. She had never seen one up close. Ever, in fact. The closest she had come to such things had been the Tendo Armory deep within the mountain at Azure Cloud Castle.

"This is your big plan?" she asked her father warily. "We're gonna nuke the Orochi before it can reach the atmosphere and cream us?"

Genma nodded.

Ranma looked the weapon over once more. She did not like where her old man was going with this.

"So how big a bang are we talking here? Twenty, maybe fifty kilotons?"

Genma cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"One megaton," he replied.

Ranma choked. Her eyes rolled around in their sockets, and she began to twitch as if her head were about to explode. Veins bulged at her temples, and she made a strangled noise before her brain regained its grip on her paralyzed speech center.

"Are you out of your mind, Pop!?" she yelled, grabbing him by the throat and bobbing his head back and forth. "One MEGATON!? You gotta be kidding me! What the hell was Grand Duke Tendo thinking when he gave you a ONE MEGATON THERMONUCLEAR BOMB!?"

"It was intended to be a demolition device," her father replied coolly, shrugging her off with an indifferent press of his hands. "In the event that the location of the facilities was compromised, the device would be used to deny the Confederation's enemies access to any advanced materials. We were planning on threatening its use at the starport in case the DropShip couldn't get off the ground in time."

"Yeah, but ONE MEGATON!?"

Genma held up his hands in a calming gesture. "We weren't sure how big the facility would be. We were just playing it safe."

Ranma stepped back from her father and the bomb. "Playing it safe? With a megaton class nuclear weapon? That's..." she spluttered into silence, utterly stunned by what she was dealing with. Finally, she found words. "Why didn't you tell me we had this thing?"

"The information was on a need-to-know basis," Genma explained. "You didn't need to know."

"Like hell!" Ranma retorted. "As long as you've got me pegged to deliver this mother, and I know you do, you're goddamned right I needed to know!"

Genma gave an apologetic shrug. "Now you know."

Ranma threw up her hands and stomped around in circles, keeping her distance from the bomb. "I don't believe this!" She stopped abruptly and whirled on her father. "It's against the Ares Conventions to use nuclear weapons!" she challenged him.

Genma shook his head. "It's against the Ares Conventions to use nuclear weapons on people," he corrected. "The treaty doesn't mention anything about using one on an out-of-control automated orbital battlestation that's about to slam into this planet and kill everyone living here." He gave his son a weak shrug. "The bomb is technically a demolition device. Think of this as demolition on a moving target."

"A moving target with enough particle beams and laser cannons to light my ass up from here to Christmas!" Ranma shot back. "And the best part of your ridiculous plan is that if the goddamned Orochi doesn't get me, the blast from your so-called 'demolition device' will!"

"Oh, stop your whining, boy," Genma growled. "At one time Tendo and I were considering the use of one of the TEN megaton devices in his inventory. You should be grateful for the amount of discretion we've shown in this matter."

Ranma leveled her darkest gaze upon her father.

"I hate you, Pop," she said evenly. "I really, really, really hate you."

Genma smiled. "You make your old father proud when you say that, boy."

SLDFS Coronet

18:30 Local Time

"Main Power online," Lieutenant Fulton called from below in Engineering. "Main Engines ready to answer all bells."

"It's about time," Captain Hauptmann muttered. "Charge up the active sensor arrays and do a full spherical sweep." It had been over an hour since they had been able to watch the surrounding space with more than passive instruments, and he rightly wanted a better look at their situation.

Getting hit without warning by debris from high orbit had banged them around a little, and damaged some of their commo arrays. He wanted to know when the next batch of space junk came tumbling down on him, and he wanted the ability to get out of the way when he spotted it.

Hinako minded the conn while he hunched over the displays with the sensor techs. She seemed very smug after her subduing of an entire company of Combine Marines in the landing bays.

"Radiating," the sensor tech declared. A pulse of microwave radiation sprang from the hull of the Star League cruiser.

The radar returns began bouncing back almost immediately.

"The Combine fleet is descending cautiously from high orbit," Hauptmann said after analyzing the data. "And there's something else."

"It's the Orochi," the tech said, fear in her voice. "Contact bearing two-two-one plus five-four, range three-zero thousand kilometers."

Hauptmann trained the telescope over to the indicated bearing. The image of the battered and blackened hulk of the primary satellite appeared on the main monitor.

"Did they get it or didn't they?" he asked aloud.

"I'm getting energy readings," the sensor tech replied. "The fusion plant is still online, and I'm detecting indications of reaction control system jets."

Hauptmann caught the tiny flashes of plasma on the display.

"So it's moving under its own power then," he said.

"It appears so," Hinako replied.

"So why isn't it blasting us?" Hauptmann asked. It has power, and I can see at least one weapon mount that hasn't been touched."

"I don't know," Hinako admitted. "But perhaps we shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth."

"Captains!" the sensor tech called out to both of them.

"What is it?" Hauptmann demanded.

"I'm plotting a course for the Orochi," she began. "And it appears to be on a collision course with the planet. In fact, it appears to be making slight course adjustments to place the impact point right in the middle of the Proving Grounds."

"What?!" Hauptmann cried.

"Are you quite sure of that?" Hinako put in.

The tech nodded. "It's very definitely on a course to hit the planet, with the intact lower hull aligned to absorb the intense friction of reentry, apparently."

"Some kind of suicide option?" Hauptmann asked himself. "A doomsday feature?"

"Possibly," Hinako agreed. "We need to try and reestablish a communications link with the surface."

"All of the high-gain arrays have been knocked out, or are already nonfunctional," the Communication section advised. "There's lasercomm, but unless the weather clears up down there, it's a dicey proposition."

Hinako had a better idea. "What about the Tautog?"

"What about them?" Hauptmann asked.

"We could relay signals through them to the surface," she replied. "They should be far enough over the planetary horizon by now for us to reach them with our lasercomm, and they can send the surface a message through what's left of the satellite network."

Hauptmann looked to the techs. "Do it," he ordered. "Sensory, spot that corvette and give Commo some good numbers to match up the lasercomm array."

Several minutes passed while the information was exchanged.

"Coronet, this is the Tautog," a voice crackled over the ether.

"Put Olivera on line," Hauptmann barked into the microphone.

There was a pause.

"Captain Olivera speaking."

Hauptmann didn't mince words. "Captain, we've got a serious problem here, and we need to warn the surface about it. Can you relay us through the satellite network?"

"Sure." The sound of him giving orders in the background followed. "What's up?"

"The main Orochi satellite is going to crash into the Proving Grounds, and make a hole big enough to park Prince Kuno's ego inside with room to spare."

Olivera made a low whistle over the commo. "I can see it on my sensors," he replied. "Don't count on us for any help in knocking it out, if that's what you have in mind. I'm fresh out of torps, and my guns are all out of action."

"How about your shuttles?" Hautpmann asked him.

"How much time until the Orochi hits?"

Hauptmann looked at the numbers on the sensory board. "About five-zero minutes."

"They'll never reach the surface in fifty minutes from our position in orbit, even if I sent them right now," he replied.

"Damn..." Hauptmann swore. They had the shuttles, but only Combine pilots to fly them. His own crew had only a single shuttle pilot among them, and at best they could squeeze in perhaps twenty people at a time.

"We need to warn them in any event," he told Olivera. "Patch us through and stay close as a relay. Most of our commo suites are out of action. We'll try to think of something on our end."

"Copy that," Olivera replied. "Good luck. Tautog out."

Hinako arched an eyebrow at him. "The Main Gun?"

Hauptmann nodded. "It's the only thing I can think of that might put a dent in that thing."

"I'm not sure if we can survive another shot ourselves," she replied. "I'd better warn Lieutenant Fulton."

Hauptmann agreed. "Order the shuttle to land at the bunker. Tell the pilot to take the Duke, the rest of the royal family, and as many others as he can cram into that thing, and get them the hell out of there."

Star League Defense Force Proving Grounds

Bunker Nine, Test Area North

18:38 Local Time

"Hey, I'm getting something from the Coronet!" Davidge cried. All but Ranma and Genma were still in the control room at the time. "They must have detected the Orochi, because they're warning us about it."

"Tell them to send down shuttles at once," Grand Duke Tendo ordered. "At the very least we can evacuate the non-combatants."

Davidge relayed the order.

"The best they can do is send one shuttle," he replied. "They only have one pilot."

"That's enough," Tendo declared, knowing that there wouldn't be time for more than one round trip to the planet. "Have the Shogun and his retinue, plus any of our techs and ship's crew that aren't needed for continued operations, assemble on the upper level of the bunker. They'll be the ones to go."

"What if our plan doesn't work, Dad?" Akane asked him. She didn't want to think about Ranma failing to destroy the Orochi, but it was something they had to consider. "Can we hope to survive the impact in this bunker?"

Soun turned to Davidge, who appeared to be the answer man for these kinds of questions.

"I don't know," the lieutenant replied. "I think we'd manage to weather the blast effects all right if we sealed up the bunker right before impact, but the temblor the Orochi will generate on impact, it'll be something right out of a disaster movie. We might get sealed up in here forever."

"We're better off here," Ryouga declared. He made an oath to himself that Akari would be on that shuttle.

"I hope you're right," Akane said, and left the control room to find Ranma. She made her way up the stairs, stopping short at the sound of Shinnosuke's voice.

He was at the foot of the stairs, balancing on his pushbroom for a crutch.

"Akane," he said to her in a voice filled with emotion. "I wanted to thank you for not forgetting about my people. Even if there isn't much hope for them, it was a kind gesture."

Akane felt a lump form in her throat. "We're not dead yet, Shinnosuke, and neither are they. Ranma can do this, I know it."

Ranma appeared on the stairwell from the storage room above her.

"This is nuts, old man!" she cried.

"It's our only chance," Genma threw back.

"I know that!" she snarled. "Don't you think I don't know that?! I still don't have to like it!" Then she realized that Akane and Shinnosuke were there.

"Ranma!" Akane called to her.

Ranma looked down at her, her face falling in dismay.

"I believe in you, Ranma," Akane told her.

Ranma closed her eyes. "I'll do my best," she said. Then she grabbed Genma by his neck. "Let's get this goddamned firecracker of yours armed, already!"

"We need Akane to arm it," Genma replied in a tight voice. "Only a Tendo can arm one of the family's nuclear arsenal, and she was the one this bomb's codes were entrusted to."

Ranma looked down at Akane in disbelief. "You knew about this?"

She nodded slowly. "I never thought we'd ever have to use it," she replied softly. "And I never thought that you would be the one to..."

Ranma waved her off. "There's no time for this," she growled. "Let's just get it over with."

"Ranma, I'm sorry!" Akane cried.

"Forget it!" she shot back angrily. Ryouga and the Duke appeared at the door to the control room below them with questioning and concerned expressions. "I said there's no time. I still have to prep the LAM for an orbital flight, and we still have to figure out a way for me to carry this thing up into space."

She jerked her father around and started pulling him up the stairs to the upper level. "Chop chop, old man!"

Akane, Ryouga, Shinnosuke, and Grand Duke Tendo followed after them.

Musk Dynasty Regimental Headquarters

Musk Dynasty Landing Zones

18:40 Local Time

"You're quite certain of that?" Herb asked over the commo. He had to prepare a defense against a Combine attack, and did not have time to be considering yet another variable in his calculations. The officer aboard his personal DropShip had apparently received some very disconcerting news from space.

"Impact is projected to occur in approximately forty-four minutes, my lord General," the officer replied.

Herb grit his teeth in anger. The Orochi was about to crash right into the Proving Grounds at a velocity high enough to wipe the entire facility off the landscape, destroying all of the planet's fabled technology in one cataclysmic moment, and there was nothing that he could do about it.

To lose like this, when the contest for possession of the planet was not even decided!

He struck the console of his battlemech in a rage, cracking the hard plastic shell and driving one of his ancillary displays offline.

Damn it all! he swore. So much was lost, and for nothing!

"Order a general recall of our forces," he ordered. "Troops are to withdraw to the DropShips for immediate evacuation of the planet. Third Battalion is to fight a rearguard holding action until ordered to retreat in haste."

He needed to salvage what he could of his troops and escape the system. Prior to Mousse's departure, they had been able to acquire a few bits of lostech from the facilities they had captured upon landing, plus the mechs that had been abandoned at the starport, so perhaps the expedition was not an utter failure. At least he would not be going back empty-handed, even if the gains didn't precisely square the balance books with the loss of two destroyers.

A rare smile lit across his face at another idea. If he could keep Prince Kuno and his forces occupied up to the last moment, they would be obliterated by the Orochi! A stunning victory for the Commonwealth that would do much for his standing with the Elders he wished so ardently to overthrow.

He thumbed a personal channel on his commo suite. "Lime, Mint, I order you to return immediately, and at best speed to the landing zones."

There was no response. At least not from either of his men.

"Lime and Mint are dead, General," Mousse replied over the commo.

A vein bulged on Herb's forehead. "Colonel Mousse!" he barked. "Explain yourself!"

Mousse appeared on his display. "They're dead, General. I killed them. As I am coming to kill you."

Herb tried not to let his surprise show at the revelation that his underlings were dead. "So..." he said slowly, drawing out the moment between them. "She still has dominion over you, eh, Mousse? I must confess that in the final analysis, I'm not surprised by your utter faithlessness to anyone or anything but her."

"No, I expect that you weren't," Mousse replied. "Not after I learned about your standing order to kill Shampoo on sight."

Herb nodded his head in concession. "To the last, you are so miserably predictable, Mousse. Can't you see that I've been trying to free you from her?"

"I am free from her," Mousse returned. "Killing you will be my first and last act as a free man, and I do it for someone who is not myself nor Shampoo."

In an instant of clarion prescience, Herb understood what Mousse was saying.

"A child..." he replied dully. "That purple-haired harlot is carrying your child." He slammed his fist down again, consumed with a fit of jealousy that last stirred itself with the revelation that Shampoo had made love to Mousse aboard the Domingo. Was it possible that she had intentionally become pregnant as insurance against any duplicity on Mousse's part?

"Killing you will be my gift to her," Mousse confirmed. "That she might grow up in a world without the Musk Dynasty!"

"ENOUGH!" Herb roared imperiously. "I have had enough of your fool's tongue, speaking glibly of righteousness while its master wallows in treachery! The promise of the Musk Dynasty was the greatest gift that could be given to the men of the Commonwealth, and yet you have spurned it for nothing more than a whore's whelp and your own tortured sense of self! No more!"

He activated an omnidirectional radio beacon and turned his battlemech north, the only conceivable direction where Mousse could be.

"Continue the withdrawal!" he ordered his men on the command channel. "Have a Leopard Class DropShip standing by within two minutes of my broadcasted position to evacuate me." He switched back to the private channel with Mousse. "There is little time to conclude this, traitor!" he called out. "Home on my beacon and we shall settle this matter to the satisfaction of all!"

Blue Thunder Regimental Headquarters Company

East of the Musk Dynasty Drop Zones

18:52 Local Time

"Very strong indications of Commonwealth total withdrawal," the tac-net buzzed.

"Leopard Class DropShip lifting off," another voice put in. "Heading north at high speed."

"Union Class ship lifting off," a third voice announced. "It appears to be making an orbital insertion burn."

Tatewaki Kuno watched the Musk DropShips lifting off through his cockpit visor, long streams of white-hot plasma streaming below them as they raced for the heavens.

"Press the attack!" he ordered. "Onward, men!" His own Thunderbolt strode free of the forest, missiles bursting from his shoulder mounted launch drum and into the harried Musk Dynasty rearguard.

"General Prince Kuno!" Captain Kyle called over the command channel as he cleaved a Musk Shadow Hawk in half with his Thunderbolt's katana.

"Speak!" Tatewaki bellowed, angry for the interruption in such a desperate moment. The Commonwealth withdrawal may have only been temporary, to put them out of immediate danger of being overrun, and allow them to counter-attack at a later time. He needed to destroy as much as possible before that happened.

"My lord, our long range sensors are plotting the descent of the primary Orochi satellite," Kyle said to him. "It is on a direct collision course with the planet at roughly your position! Estimated time of impact is in thirty-two minutes!"

"What of it!?" Tatewaki cried angrily. "Do you not realize that I am putting these heathens to rout!?"

Kyle made an exasperated face. "My lord! The reason they are departing is that the impact of the Orochi will destroy everything within one hundred kilometers or more! I urge you to fall back immediately to your DropShips and leave the planet!"

The look on Tatewaki's face became equally tortured. "Withdraw, man!?" he raged. "Without Akane Tendo and the Pig-Tailed Girl in my possession!?"

"But it is suicide to remain, my lord!" Kyle pleaded with him.

Another voice broke in over the command channel, cutting Tatewaki off from his rebuke.

"My lord Prince," the voice declared. "We are detecting what appears to be the command beacon of the enemy forces, radiating from a position north-northeast of your own, at a range of two kilometers, and heading north. A Leopard Class DropShip appears to be paralleling that course, at low altitude."

Tatewaki considered it. The Commonwealth commander was not leaving the planet with the others, not yet, but he was keeping the option open for evacuation. Why was he not fleeing with the others?

Unless...

"He knows something," he said aloud. "There is something valuable to the north, something that he dares remain behind, and without his troops, to obtain..."

He turned his Thunderbolt north, catching the rest of his company off-guard.

"To the north, men!" he ordered them. "Akane Tendo is there, I can feel it!"

Kyle broke in once again. "We are detecting unknown signals using Star League protocols from a position twenty kilometers north of your location," he conceded. "But there is no time for you to get there, my lord!"

"Bah!" Tatewaki sneered. "My only fear is that I shall be too late to stop the Commonwealth commander from taking what is rightfully mine!"

Test Area North

18:59 Local Time. T-minus 25 minutes to impact

The smell of blood in the cockpit was strong. Mousse ignored the smell, and shook off the feelings of dizziness that could only be attributed to blood loss as Herb came into range. With a quiet curse and a prayer for just a little more strength, he lined up his twin LRM-15 racks to shoot.

The Crusader was at the edge of a large clearing, a perfect place for his duel with General Herb, as his missiles would have clear paths to their target. The approaching general had apparently not noticed him yet, but he would very soon. When the green box that haloed the Musk Grand Dragon in his HUD turned green, he squeezed the triggers with a curse for the evil hybrid general.

Longbow missiles peeled from their launch tubes in the Crusader's shoulders, corkscrewing across the clearing in twisting arcs of grey and white smoke. Herb saw the missiles as they fell upon him, and explosions obscured the battlemech from view for several moments as they struck. When the smoke cleared, the Grand Dragon continued on, its armor cratered but intact.

Herb answered with a bolt from the Grand Dragon's arm-mounted PPC, which whipped through the humid air with fiery arcs of lightning wisping from the blast. He struck the Crusader low in the torso, scorching a thick black rut on the armor.

"I thought you would prefer something more intimate than an artillery duel, Mousse," Herb said to him, scorn dripping from his voice.

The Crusader was already charging forward into medium range. Herb launched his own volley of missiles at him as Crossbow SRMs leaped off the Crusader's hip racks. The missiles wove fiery trails between each other as they crossed paths, and more than one weapon hit another in the middle.

"When the time comes, I'll tear you apart with my hands," Mousse countered.

Herb fired back with another blast of PPC fire. The shot struck Mousse hard, blasting apart several critical heat sinks in brilliant clouds of fire and smoke. He reeled from the hits as alarms rang within his cockpit.

The Grand Dragon followed up with a barrage of laser fire that knifed into the battered Crusader, carving off chunks of armor and setting the half-amputated right arm alight as the beams dug into the exposed myomer bundles.

"It's not too late to come to your senses," Herb told him as the Crusader burned. "Give up your vendetta and return to the Musk!"

"Do you take me for a fool?!" Mousse countered, hammering at the Grand Dragon with his left arm machinegun while he prepared another SRM barrage. "There is no place for me there!"

"I understand all too well the effect Shampoo can have on a man," Herb said coolly to him, while aligning his own weapons for a close range shot. "I'm willing to overlook your behavior under her influence. I'm even willing to put aside the deaths of my henchmen, Mousse, because I see what an asset you can be to the Musk Dynasty!"

He held his fire even as Mousse held his.

"Why do you think I came to you with that assignment on Tau Ceti?"he went on, confident that he had Mousse's attention now. The two 'mechs circled each other warily as he spoke. "You are more important to me and the future of the Musk than any hundred loyal hybrids, Mousse. You were one of the Joketsuzoku, pure blooded, and yet your coming over to the Dynasty is the spark of inspiration my army needs to succeed."

"Think about it," he continued. "Who better to serve as an example against the corruption and virtual slavery of the Elders than you?"

Mousse thought about it for as long as it took to squeeze the twin weapon triggers on his controls.

"It's too late for all of that now!" he bellowed as the missiles screamed off their hip racks, blasting into the center mass of the Grand Dragon. A PPC bolt crackled into him as they exploded, and he felt the Crusader buckle from the hit. Something deep within the torso came apart with a roar, and the battlemech began to tremble and shake. Alarms screamed in his cockpit, the low wail of the high radiation alert foremost in his mind.

He desperate glance at the dosimeter display as he fought for control over his battlemech told him what he feared: parts of the fusion reactor radiation shield below his cockpit had failed, and he had received at least two-hundred centigrays of exposure - a potentially lethal dose without dedicated medical treatment. The reactor began an automated shutdown, which he cancelled with a slamming fist on the override button. Not yet. Not like this.

Herb's Grand Dragon shrugged off the missile hits, but he could see by the ragged armor that Herb was vulnerable. He threw his battlemech forward into a clinch, grappling with Herb and trying to wrench the Grand Dragon off its feet with his right arm stump.

The Grand Dragon was only a little lighter than his sixty-five ton Crusader, but Mousse's 'mech had been designed for formidable strength, and was able to lift his enemy from the churned ground. The Grand Dragon clubbed at his head savagely with its PPC cannon arm, knocking him about the cockpit as he wrenched at his controls, but he did not let go.

The Crusader slammed the Grand Dragon to the ground with a thunderous sound, then fell upon it, spilling liquid nitrogen coolant from the many rents in its armor and systemry, and freezing the hulls of both 'mechs in frosty patches of white. Arcs of plasma from the fusion plant licked across both war machines as the Crusader began to fail. Missiles began to cook off from the shoulder launchers, spiraling crazily into the distance.

Mousse eyed the dosimeter as he coaxed strength from his battlemech's failing limbs. Four-hundred centigrays and rising. He could almost feel the gamma and fast neutron radiation cooking him, though even this lethal amount of energy left no immediate physical marks upon him.

He locked his good limb upon the Grand Dragon's head and squeezed as hard as he could. Armor buckled under his grip, and the cockpit visor spidered into a tracery of cracks. General Herb's scream of mingled rage and alarm was music to his ears.

The reactor failed of its own accord before he could finish the job, and the hand actuators went limp. He watched numbly as the cockpit hatch on the Grand Dragon sprang open, and his nemesis crawled clear of the wreck.

He was exhausted. The blood that had soaked into his ejector seat was now sticky and congealing. His fingers felt tingly, and his head swam as he blinked at the dosimeter. Seven-hundred centigrays. If he didn't die of blood loss, he had about three weeks of slow death from radiation injury to look forward to.

He pulled himself up from the ejector seat and through his own cockpit hatch. Herb would die, he had to die. There would be no place for him in the afterlife if he did not succeed in that.

The hybrid general did not hear him as he slithered from his hatch. He was preoccupied with his radio remote, calling to a nearby DropShip to come pick him up. Mousse blinked his watery eyes, and saw the blurry brick-shape of a Leopard Class ship moving in from the southwest. Herb reached into his robes and withdrew a signal star, shooting it into the sky to mark his position.

Mousse lost his balance then, and fell badly to land upon the hard and scarred torso hull of the Grand Dragon. The sound caught Herb's attention, and Mousse heard the sound of footsteps approaching him. He raised his head to see Herb looking up at him from the ground two meters below and in front of him.

The hybrid general cocked his head at him questioningly.

"Radiation?" he asked smugly.

Mousse croaked out a reply.

"I thought so," Herb said, nodding. "You left your mic open during our struggle, and I heard the alarm inside your cockpit." He made a tsk'ing sound. "I suppose I'll be doing you a favor by killing you now, before you have a chance to succumb. I'm told that the experience is quite horrific."

Herb coughed into his shoulder, flexed his arms, and threw out his hands in preparation for one of the lethal ki-blasts for which he was most notorious.

"You'll forgive me if I don't get too close to you," Herb said sourly. "Farewell, Mousse... You can take comfort in the fact that Shampoo and your child will be joining you shortly in the void, as I am reasonably assured of the fact that the Orochi satellite is within twenty minutes of crashing into the planet and turning this entire section of the continent into charred ruins."

Energy began to crackle within the outstretched hands of the hybrid general.

Mousse turned his head from side to side, looking for escape, attack, anything to keep from ending like this. What he saw filled him with one last desperate hope.

As Herb's ki-blast built up to the level where even aligned-crystal steel armor plate would be torn asunder, Mousse threw one of his hidden weapons with the last of his strength. The weapon arced over Herb's shoulder in a dull olive flash, narrowly missing him. Herb greeted this last gesture of defiance with a smugly raised eyebrow as he drew breath for the shout that would annihilate Mousee.

The weapon, however, had other ideas.

It struck the casing of a longbow missile that had fallen from the shoulder launch tubes of his Crusader and onto the muddy ground. Then, being an antipersonnel hand grenade, and not a knife as Herb had believed, it exploded.

What followed was a lesson on the effects of sympathetic detonations in destabilized plastic-bonded high explosives.