I do not own Ranma or Robotech

Here We Go!

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Chapter 1 Invading aliens do not have the right of way

Commander Lisa Hayes, UNSF looked around at the bridge of what was going to be the flagship for the UN space fleet and sighed happily. I am so glad that the captain decided to go to the launching ceremony, after all one of us had to be on the bridge for the launch. Though I wonder why, I thought he'd want to be on the bridge during the first launch of the Senator Edelmen.The name of the space fortress made her twitch for a moment before she shrugged it off. The name was chosen by the US military, which had donated the bulk of the material and man power needed to first research the alien ship and then get it up and running again but that didn't mean that naming the monstrous battleship for some faceless U.S. senator made any sense to her.

Maybe his willingness has something to do with the rumors that he's been stepping out with a woman for the past few months. Lisa shook her head slightly, sending her shoulder length honey brown hair to bounce slightly. That's enough of that Lisa, let the gossip to the gossip trio, right now you've got work to do.

It had taken the UN ten years to research, repair and renovate the alien starship, but at last it was ready to launch. Today marked the second day of the launch ceremony, a, in her opinion, overblown political circus designed to garner political and civilian support for the UNSF, which had been in danger of getting downsized for the past few years as a space borne threat failed to materialize. But Lisa was a career soldier, and unlike her admiral father she hated politics, so being on the bridge was probably the best place for her to be; that is, far away from smarmy politicians who for some reason felt that any woman in a uniform (which she filled out extremely well, though she didn't see it) would willingly spread her legs for them if they just found the right price.

Lisa again shook her head, looking over at her friend and fellow officer Claudia Grant. "Well how are doing on your end?"

Claudia smirked. "The MP's are done clearing the area and moving the civilians to the designated watching areas, and the power up is continuing apace. Dr. Lang hasn't reported anything wrong yet, and the reflux engine is purring along nicely. Don't worry, we've been planning this for weeks Lisa, nothing's going to go wrong."

Just as she said that the long range sensor specialist spoke up. "Ma'am?" Lt. Laird, Vanessa to her friends turned in her seat. "I've got a gravitic anomaly on my scope just on the other side of the moon."

ON her heels Claudia's hand went up to her head, receiving an incoming signal from the long range communications section. "Space-com reports luminescent phenomena from the same region. They think it looks like what a space fold should, and matches what was recorded when the space fortress appeared ten years ago, though of much larger magnitude."

Lisa quirked an eyebrow at her friend, who shrugged apologetically. "Show me the readings." Lisa said, suddenly all business. Lisa spent a mere minute looking at the readings then nodded decisively. "Get the Veritech CAP in the air just in case and radio alpha base to do the same, and then sound general quarters. We may have incoming and if they're hostile I want us ready to assist the defense fleet. Start to…" The lights suddenly cut off for a second before going to emergency yellow as the ship shunted all available power to something else. "Claudia what the hell is going on?!"

"The entire system's going haywire!" Claudia was flipping switches and rotating dials to no avail, while behind her Lt Kim young did the same at her station. "All power shifting from everything to the main firing system. Main gun coming online, and I can't shut it down! It looks like some kind of dormant program came up, I can't get in. Main gun firing in five…"

"What about targeting?" Lisa asked anxiously. Here she was on the bridge of the most powerful ship humanity had and she was powerless to stop what was about to happen. And the day had been going so well…

"Sensors have detected thirty ships moving around the moon, the targeting computer seems to be locked on two of them." Sammy Porter, the head of the gunnery department reported.

Claudia spoke crisply from where she had been issuing orders to the various departments. "Dr. Lang reports he's unable to cut the power manually."

Sammy shook her head. "Too late anyway, main gun is firing sir."

Reflux energy appeared in a crackling torrent forming between the two booms of the main gun, building for a few seconds in which more power than an entire continent used coalesced, and then in another second shot forward in a ravening spear of power. The entire ship rocked from the discharge, and Lisa was forced to grab her station to keep from being knocked to the floor as warning lights flickered on every console throughout the huge ship.

The beam, white and red hot zoomed upwards through the atmosphere then out into space, impacting and blowing straight through one of its targets then slamming into another, obliterating it in turn before dissipating.

"Systems have been returned to our control." Claudia murmured.

Lt. Kim young scowled from her console, where she directed the interior maintenance and repair of the Edelman. "That shot did a lot of interior damage. We've got reports of structural damage coming in from all quarters, and most of our guns and the propulsion unit are offline."

Vanessa gulped. "Long Range radar just picked up a swarm of small objects entering earth orbit."

Lisa clenched her teeth for a moment then nodded resolutely. "Sound general quarters and the air raid alarm then get the Emergency broadcast system up and running. And someone get the captain here on the double!"

Ranma and everyone else in the White Dragon looked up as alarms began to blare across the city. "Attention, attention all residents of Macross city are to make their way to assigned shelters immediately. Repeat, all civilians are to make their way to assigned shelters, this is not a drill, repeat this is not a drill."

Ranma looked over at Kasumi and shrugged. "I didn't do it, I swear."

Kasumi giggled nervously, wondering what was going on. Fei, Shao and Minmei followed her. "We should get going though. Kasumi, you and Ranma follow us, we've been through emergency drills before so we know where our shelter is."

The group exited the restaurant and made their way along the streets with a throng of other people moving around them in the same direction. Unfortunately within fifteen minutes of exiting the restaurant they started to hear screams and shouts from behind them.

Ranma glanced back the way they came and saw some kind of huge two legged robot stalking down the road towards the group of fleeing civilians. After getting over his shock at the sight he growled deep in his throat, pushing Kasumi and Minmei to move faster before turning and facing the whatever-it-was. "Keep going, I'll see if I can hold that thing off!"

Minmei made to turn around, but Kasumi grabbed her arm and pulled her along. She knew that when Ranma spoke seriously like that it was time to listen.

Ranma jumped onto the side of a building pushed off and rocketed back the way they had come. The thing tried to lift a leg to stomp on him, but he grabbed one of its claws and flipped under it coming up and hanging in mid air right in front of what he would guess was the cockpit. "Moko Takabashi!" A cerulean sphere of energy lanced out from his cupped hands and smashed into the machine blowing a small hole through its torso. After a second it slowed, then tumbled onto its side, crushing half a building under its weight as it fell.

Ranma blinked momentarily, looking down at his hands then back to the downed walker. "Wow, they really ain't as sturdy as they look." With a grin he jumped to the rooftops, deciding to take the fight to the invaders.

One block later he came upon two more rampaging battlepods that were crashing through buildings and firing randomly into others while a few civilians ducked and ran for it. Ranma snarled moving in, slamming another Moko Takabashi attack into one before it could react. The other turned quickly, raising a foot and smacking him out of the air and into the ground with enough force to drive the wind out of him.

Crap, that actually fucking hurt! If not for the Bakusai Tenketsu training I'd be done. Wincing a little he stood up only for the alien invader to try and step on him again. This time though Ranma was ready and caught the things foot in his hands above his body. Grimacing as the thing continued trying to step on him he slowly twisted out of the way, and before the battlepod could try again he brought both hands slamming into the joint right above its foot "Iron Hand school final attack, Steel Crusher!"

The force of his blow shattered the joint and the battlepod overbalanced slamming into the concrete. The lasers that it had not heretofore wanted to use on him tried to turn far enough to get him within their sights but Ranma dodged forward getting to close for them to depress enough to hit him. Another Moko Takabashi followed this time aimed from between the pods legs. This part of the pod must have been weaker than the frontal armor Ranma had hit with his first two attacks because instead of creating a small hole the blast blew through the pod from top to bottom.

Ranma whistled in surprise as he stood back, looking at the damage he had caused for a moment before cocking his head and listening to the sounds of battle. It sounded like it was getting closer, and he grinned. The battle pods were large, but not so large they could move through buildings as easily as they could along the roads and he had the advantage of being smaller, faster and tougher. "Alright you alien bastards let's party!"

Captain Gloval cursed as he rubbed his head, having banged his head on the top of the bulkhead. At six feet nine inches he was about a foot too tall for most of the airlocks in the SDF-1 and for some reason could never remember to duck when he was in a hurry, and he most certainly was in a hurry right now, "Situation Report commander Hayes!"

Commander Hayes, the SDF-1's tactical officer spoke without taking her eyes off the tactical board. "At 0930 this morning long range space radar picked up several unidentified objects in near moon orbit, but we began losing satellite input at around the same time, so the numbers we've got are guesses at best. At 1000 the SDF-1 charged and fired its main cannon without any operator input the target being two of the unidentified objects. Dr. Lang and Lt Young think that it was a hardwired response in the computer core. It was at that time that we first tried to contact you captain."

The very blasé way she said this only underscored her irritation with him for not having his com on, and behind her Gloval flushed heavily. She had in fact sent an MP to the ceremony to find and hurry him along. Imagine her surprise when the MP reported that he wasn't even at the party any longer.

Nodoka, who had accompanied him despite his best efforts to convince her to seek shelter, merely shrugged unapologetically. It had been a very long time for her after all, and they both had a lot of time to make up for.

Hayes continued "Radar reported several hundred incoming objects in high orbit at the same time. Twenty minutes after that we received the first report from Space Command that their Hercules missile forts had engaged the enemy. About five minutes after they engaged all contact with the ten Hercules class forts in orbit between us and the moon was cut off."

"About fifteen to twenty minutes later our Valkyrie patrols reported incoming fighters of two designs, one a sort of triangular fighter plane and the other a two-legged robot or combat suit. The U.N. Space Navy scrambled fighters from the Daedalus to assist but our initial losses are heavy across the board. Some flights are reporting at only quarter strength, or even less. Skull 1 has taken command out there, and those losses have petered out, but the dogfight is still continuing. There are also reports of the battlepods attacking the city, but the Destroids haven't mobilized yet."

The flatness of her tone communicated a further message and Gloval manfully suppressed a groan. Colonel Mannstein had never made any big secret that he didn't like taking orders from someone junior in rank to him and female to boot. There was no doubt he would drag his feet as much as possible in obeying her orders, especially if he had heard about the losses the Valkyrie squads had already sustained.

"Well, Captain what are you waiting for, let's get this ship moving." Senator Smith, head of the UNSF Oversight committee had made his way from the ceremony on the runway and arrived on the bridge right after Gloval and Nodoka. "Surely after the vast amount of resources we've put into this ship it can meet this assault. I've come here to see what it can do and while that blast it fired off was interesting I think we need to see more return from our investment."

Lt Young spoke up. "Senator, the drives haven't been tested under full power, and we have structural damage all through the hull from firing the main cannon on the ground. I really can't recommend starting the engines until my teams have completed their survey and repaired the most important damage.

Senator Smith was an overweight choleric man (picture Uncle Vernon from the first HP movie) and was a firm chauvinist as well and his face reddened noticeably from being addressed by some tart in a suit. "When I want your opinion young lady I will ask for it" he snapped. Kim wilted noticeably under his glare, and the other girls shrank back as well. "Get this ship into the air captain that is an order from the Senate Oversight chair." The politician smiled, looking the perfect image of a fat cat.

Gloval winced inwardly as Kim and Claudia both winced and the other girls gulped. The Senator was in fact in his direct chain of command, but this command could be the death of them. Yet it was a lawful order. Gloval inhaled, opened his mouth and…

Are you an idiot?" The dry caustic voice cut across the bridge's tension like a knife. "You've just been told that the drive remains untested, and you are going to order them into battle? Miss…." Nodoka looked at Claudia who smiled more than willing to do her bit to take some wind out of the blowhard's sails, "Lt. Cm. Claudia Grant miss."

"Claudia, what is percentage of the SDF-1's, what was it, the anti-gravity generators not working?"

"Roughly 35-65 percent ma'am. Probably at the high end, we're still getting reports of new structural problems from firing the main gun, nothing horrible individually but taken together it adds up."

"I see. And what would happen if they failed?"

"We would almost certainly crash, causing a lot of structural damage to the ship, and even more damage to the ground. Depending on how fast we came down the damage to the port and the surrounding city could range from bad to disastrous. The damages would be in the millions at a minimum."

The fat senator had paled first in anger as Nodoka spoke up than in growing fear and when he spoke you could almost hear the wheels going in reverse as he distanced himself from what was happening. "Um, y-yes well then, perhaps my suggestion wasn't well thought out. I, I will leave you to your business captain, obviously you know best."

As soon as the hatch closed after the fat man everyone breathed a sigh of relief and heartfelt "thank yous" came from several of the bridge crew. Nodoka nodded graciously, moving over to leaning against a bulkhead, somehow radiating a sense of calm that everyone could feel. The three younger girls seemed to respond to this and went about their work with renewed efficiency.

Crisis averted, Gloval shot his lady (and god did that feel good to think) a look of admiration and thanks before turning to the crisis at hand. "All right now that that's settled let's get some order here. Lt. Porter, order all gun crews to stations. Commander Hayes, launch two spy eyes one to the port to keep communications open to the fleet and one straight up to give us a better view of the battle. After that get in touch with Commander Fokker and start rotating some of the Valkyrie squads back to re-arm, meanwhile they are to take to the air and stay there. Commander Grant, get Colonel Mannstein on the phone, while I'm talking to him get the ships still in dock from the Pacific Fleet out into the ocean. I want them far enough away to be out of immediate danger but close enough to provide support."

A second later colonel Mannstein's Gallic face appeared on his display. "Colonel I want to separate your forces into three parts. The Spartans are to move out now and head to the city, try to force the invaders there out. The Defenders are to load with flak and go to continuous fire and work on creating as large a bubble of fire as they can."

"Flak, Captain? I don't think flak will do much against these aliens."

"It's not supposed to, but it will disrupt their communications and video link. By the time you start firing we'll have two spy eyes up and be able to punch signals through it, but I want to confuse the enemies command and control as much as possible."

"It will also make aimed fire impossible for our targeting systems captain."

"Have you ever heard the artillery term 'rolling thunder' colonel?" Gloval smiled thinly, as Mannstein looked blank for a moment before starting to smile grimly. "See to it colonel."

Fifteen minutes later the destroid battalion moved out of its hangers and to their positions, the anti air defenders immediately darkening the midday sky with clouds of shrapnel in a swiftly growing circle around the SDF-1. The Defenders had over 3 kilometers of range using their main guns and soon the entire battle was covered within their envelope.

The battlepods almost to a pod descended to the ground and began to make their way forward, putting up their own anti-air fire against the Valkyrie squadrons, who pulled back and up, keeping in contact but out of range. The green triangular fighter pods, while slightly more heavily armed than the battlepods were even less armored and many exploded in midair from direct hits from the flak cannons. Their organization destroyed, they were easy pickings for the more durable Veritech fighters who could ignore even a direct hit from flak cannons.

The Fortress and Tomahawk Destroids began to fire as well, a wave of un-aimed artillery and missile fire starting at the maximum range and moving back in toward the SDF-1 boxing the attackers inside their envelope. The battlepods on the ground started to take casualties, not many as they could dodge the incoming fire, but still more than they had taken prior to this, and their advance slowed to a crawl.

While this was going on Lisa was on the horn with Commander Fokker who had a few observations to pass on. "Neither type is very durable, but they came from practically every direction at nearly brigade strength, so we lost a lot of men. At least three dozen got right past us moving toward the city. Can I start rotating my troops in now, Vermillion and Green squads are running on fumes, Red is down to only three combatants and Orange and Blue are only a little better off. Skull has lost two men down and the squadrons from the Daedalus are nearly all gone, they just weren't as well trained to their Valkyries as my men were."

"Roger that commander, you're clear to rotate your flights in to the SDF-1, we're closer, but we want a CAP to stand off and direct the artillery fire. Start with the worst off and move up from there."

"Roger that. Skull-1 out." Fokker sounded a little bitter, and he had reason to. A lot of the fighters they had lost had been men he had trained after all so Lisa understood his anger and did not call him on it. She had watched the battle since its beginning after all, and had seen far too many friendlys disappearing. "Kim, is the runway clear?"

"We've got everything clear but Valkyrie 01, the one that was out there for the parade tonight hasn't moved yet."

"Who's assigned to it?" Sammy asked.

"Who cares?" Lisa tapped issuance commands into the computer, "V01 this is Fortress 1 respond!"

"Huh?" The pilot's voice sounded sleep of all things and Lisa's face darkened. How the fuck could anyone sleep through a battle like this?

"Why are you still on the ground when we've been at full alert for an hour and a half?! What's your rank and id number?" Her anger was showing through her tone of voice and behind her Nodoka closed in reaching out a gentle hand to touch her shoulder and Lisa sighed as she also saw Claudia giving her a look of reproach. They were right and she knew it. As therapeutic as yelling at someone was, she couldn't afford to lose it right now not while the battle was still going on. "Never mind, just get in the air right now, we have incoming fighters on empty and they won't be able to land with you in the way."

"Er, roger, taking off." On the view screen the lone Veritech was shown lighting its engines and lifting off a little shakily but swiftly and Lisa put it out of her mind when she saw incoming Valkyrie squads.

As Lisa directed the maintenance crews in rearming and repairing the Veritechs, the battle continued, with more and more of the downed battlepods being taken out by the rolling fire of the Destroids.

As the main battle seemed to be petering out, the radar and video specialist Vanessa directed the spy eye that had been moving toward the port back to the city. A minute later she blinked, staring at her screen. The screen didn't change.

Vanessa first sniffed the air suspiciously, wondering if something odd had been pumped into the bridge. A surreptitious glance around showed no one else showing any ill effects thought and she looked back at the spy eyes streaming video. When the screen still didn't change took of her glasses and cleaned them on the front of her uniform. Putting them back on the screen still hadn't changed and she shook her head. "Uh, captain, there's something here you should see."

Once he had escorted the last of the civilians in the area to the shelters Ranma ranged across the entire metropolis and turned the entire city into a battle ground. With his use of the umi-sen-ken and his ability to roof-hop at amazing speeds he appeared, attacked and disappeared only to reappear somewhere else. While any one battlepod could easily have killed him if they could have hit him with their cannons, Ranma never stayed in one place long enough. They also seemed to have only the most basic idea of how to fight someone so much smaller than them and they frankly sucked at it.

The chaos and destruction the battlepods were creating in their march through the city also worked in his favor. None of the groups of invaders could figure out what was taking them out, and they didn't seem smart enough to start working together.

As the sounds of the main battle began to ebb in the distance, Ranma jumped from the top of one building to land on top of a battlepod slamming his fist down on its top. "Steel Crusher!" The metal blew inward under his fist and he jumped away, aiming his hands at another walker behind the one he had already destroyed. "Moko Takabashi!" A cerulean sphere lanced out, impacting and slamming through the front of the alien walker making a small hole right into its central core. The walker's legs kicked spasmodically as it fell backwards, slamming onto the pocked and marred roadway behind it dead.

Ranma landed on his feet between his two victims and had to immediately dodge behind the leg of one of them as a cannon blast impacted right in front of where he had been standing. "Oh come on, how many more of you bastards are there!?" Peering over the leg he saw two more battlepods, followed by a third that was of a different design. This one was a little larger, and had two arms complete with hands and two larger cannons than the normal type set into its central body.

Concentrating he faded into the Umi-sen-ken and jumped away as the cannons of all three pods ranged on where he had been hiding and then spreading out along the pavement in three directions. But instead of falling back like they had been expecting Ranma charged forward, getting in close again.

Two Moko-Takabashi's took out both of the normal walkers, but a similar shot only scarred the surface of the new model which responded swiftly against the marital artist who had dropped out of the Umi-sen-ken to use his ki attacks. A massive fist swung almost blindingly fast clipping Ranma in midair smashing him back into and through a burning building for his attempt.

Ranma groaned as he pushed himself off the pavement. "Damn thing packs a better punch than the other one did!" He jumped to his feet barely avoiding another cannon blast, shooting back with a "Kijin Raishin Dan!"

The battlepod didn't realize the danger of the vauum blades and lost a cannon an arm and a rocket pack as the vacuum blades sliced through them like a hot knife through butter. The walker responded with another cannon blast, nearly hitting Ranma as he ducked underneath a burning girder. He came up juking and diving as the now heavily damaged pod continued to spray fire wildly around in an attempt to smoke him out.

Ranma came up underneath the battlepod, and slamming both hands out into the legs on either side of him. "Steel crusher times two!" The metal imploded on impact and Ranma rolled forward, barely evading the body of the walker as it crashed to the ground. Not taking any chances he turned immediately and shot out two more vacuum blades, bisecting the body.

Fight over for now Ranma fell to his knees, gasping in great lungfuls of air. He felt his ribs and stomach for a moment. At least two broken ribs, and several others are bruised. Not a lot for someone with my healing ability, but I still need time and energy to heal. That and Ranma could feel his ki reserve was already badly depleted by this fight. He wasn't nearly strong enough to down battlepods without resorting to his ki attacks, they were just too damn big and he had been using them more than he had in any other fight, even the fights against Saffron and Herb. "I am so going to clear Minmei and her family out of all their food when this is all over, and then sleep for a week."

He twitched as a shadow fell over him. Not having felt any danger Ranma looked up quizzically and saw some kind of plane overhead. As it wasn't actively shooting at him he ignored it. Taking a deep breath he stood up grinning as he heard the sounds of more cannons in the distance. With a farewell wave at the watching plane he jumped up to a nearby rooftop, disappearing between one jump and the next into the Umi-sen-ken. The battle wasn't over and he still had some work to do.

Gloval had ordered Vanessa to switch the feed from the spy eye to the main screen and the bridge crew had watched torn between disbelief and awe as Ranma had taken on and destroyed several battlepods with his bare hands. Gloval was the first to recover his voice and he spoke in a near whisper. "Wh-what is he?"

Nodoka had also watched, torn between fear for her son and pride in his skill and courage. She coughed quietly, bringing everyone's attention back to her. "That is my son Ranma, and I believe I did mention Henri, that he is a most exceptional martial artist." They all looked at her wide-eyed.

Their shock was interrupted by Dr. Lang, who doubled as the primary authority on fold drive technology and reflux energy and was also the SDF 1's chief engineer. "Sir we've finished all the structural repairs from firing the main cannon on the ground. We are clear to lift at any time. I estimate an above 85% chance that our antigravity and propulsion engines will work up to spec."

Gloval grasped this announcement as a lifeline to pull himself back to the realm of normal. "Excellent, Commander Hayes, get us airborne posthaste. Move us out to sea via over flight of the city, we'll provide cover fire for the Spartan's as they move in. All other destroids are to return to their hangers. Recall all Valkryie's except for skull squadron, they'll act as our SAR team." All around his subordinates jumped to obey, glad to get back to the real world.

Having followed the sound of combat Ranma jumped from an adjoining rooftop into what had been a parking center around a sports complex. The large building's side had been caved in by a crashing Valkyrie, the kind he had seen flying overhead several times since moving to Macross Island. The Veritech had transformed to what he had heard a few soldiers call the guardian mode and with a start he saw that Minmei was being held in one of its fists. Moving in from the side were three more battlepods, one the tougher type and the other two the normal version.

Ranma darted forward and wasted no time with his lesser attacks, calling out "Moko ho Rieku!" Instead of a cerulean sphere a wide beam of pure golden ki lanced out hitting the be-armed battlepod in the back ripping into the back and causing an explosion that ripped the pod apart when it hit the walker's power core. Ranma turned to the left and "Moko Takabashi!" the pod on the left fell with a small hole drilled through its side.

Before Ranma could turn and deal with the last pod shots rang out riddling it from the front. He turned rapidly but relaxed as he saw another Valkyrie with black and gold stripes on its side landing in the clear area of the parking lot. As it landed it transformed into its robot mode, and Ranma saw the skull and crossbones of skull squadron, the RDF's elite squad emblazoned on its chest. A voice rang out from the machines speaker: "You've gotta tell me what the heck you hit those walkers with man. Rick you okay in there?"

Ranma realizing he was addressing the pilot of the downed Veritech with that last part turned and ran forward, jumping onto the guardians arms and plucking Minmei out of the things grip. "Minmei what the hell are ya doin' here! I told ya to get ta the shelter, why the hell are ya still out here!"

Minmei looked close to tears from her ordeal, but answered gamely. "Kasumi and I reached the shelter with the others but when we got there an old couple was coming out to look for their dog. We couldn't let them go, so Kasumi stayed with them while I went out to look for the dog. Rick, that's the pilot, he found me and saved me from those things but we couldn't get away."

She stopped, her lip quivering and Ranma sighed gathering her into a hug before she could break down entirely. "I didn't mean ta snap at ya Minmei-chan, I'm just worried for ya. As long as yer alright then it's all good, just remember that you're way more important than any bloody dog could be alright?"

Minmei sighed, recovering her composure a little as she enjoyed the hug. Ranma may not be boyfriend material but by god he was hunky, and the hug felt sooo good and was just what she needed right now.

In his cockpit Rick Hunter narrowed his eyes in a sudden spurt of jealousy, but squashed it easily. After all he had just met the girl and this guy, 'Ranma?' had just destroyed some of these weird alien things with his bare hands. Rick's musing was interrupted as Roy, a man he had always thought of as family called him again. "Rick, are you alright little buddy?"

Rick shook his head inside his flight helmet. "Uh, yeah Roy, just a little shaken up I guess. I can still fly if I can figure out how to change back into the plane mode."

"Good, then we better get you and these two back to the fortress. I imagine that the higher ups will want to speak to him and as for you two, the battle may be mostly over but the fortress is still the safest place for both you and the girl." Roy reached forward with his Veritech and pulled Rick's guardian form out of the rubble of the sports complex a little then moved back. "Press the large red button and push the small lever on the left side to the first position. That'll change you back to fighter mode."

Roy's Veritech changed as well, and once back in fighter mode, he popped his cockpit. "Hey you two, let's go. There are still invaders in the city and we've got Spartans moving in to clean up. We can get you both back to your families after this is all over."

Ranma looked at Minmei and she nodded, reluctantly moving out form his embrace to climb into Rick's now open cockpit. Ranma looked after her a moment, making certain she got in alright then turned and swiftly made his way to the skull emblazoned fighter. Once inside and buckled in Ranma sighed, leaning back and shaking his head wearily. "Thanks for the assist dude, I'm just about running on empty right now. Using all those ki attacks takes it outta even me. Names Ranma, what's yours?"

Roy grinned, never one for military decorum he was just fine with the personal way Ranma was talking to him. "No problem Ranma, my name's Roy Fokker, but you have to tell me how you were doing that."

Ranma nodded, closing his eyes and feeling around with his ki sense, a little confused. It felt as if he was standing near or maybe within a huge aura, as big as Saffron's but with a weird feel to it, no emotions at all, just pure ki. "Uh, yeah, those were my ki attacks, they were the only way I could take out those walker things. But I don't know about teaching ya, it took me nearly thirteen years to build up enough ki control to do those attacks." He winced when the safety strap banged his ribs as Roy took off. "You have any idea where those things came from? They weren't after anything specific that I saw but they did seem to be searching for somethin', they were all over the city in groups and chased anythin' moving."

Roy shrugged. "Thirteen years huh, well maybe we can find some way to shorten that if you can explain it to me later. As for the aliens all I know is that they appeared in moon orbit and there was some kind of computerized booby trap that took control of the main gun and fired at their mother-ships in orbit. After that their fighters invaded right away. There's been no communication before or since."

Ranma nodded, but his attention was firmly on the view outside the cockpit. "Damn this is even cooler than I thought it would be. I can't wait to sign up."

Roy looked back over his shoulder for a moment and saw Ranma's grinning face staring out the side and he smirked before turning back to his flying. Looks like somebody just got bit by the flying bug. "If you want to join up kid why haven't you, you're certainly in good enough shape?"

Ranma shrugged, not looking away from the vista laid out before him, exhilarating in a speed and flight beyond any martial arts school, beyond even the phoenix tribe's abilities. "My grades are against me. I did alright when I was able to go, but that was so few times I barely passed high school. Even on an athletic scholarship no college'd touch me, and I was told the same thing when I applied ta the RDF, since they can pick and choose from the world's militaries."

"That was true in peacetime kid, not now that there might be a war coming. I'll put in a good word for you and we'll see what happens okay. I'm CAG for the SDF 1 so my word will carry a lot of weight with any recruitment board."

Ranma turned flashing an even wider grin. "Thanks man. I'll look into that after I see if my families okay."

By this time the fortress was in sight and Commander Hayes voice came through on Roy's radio. "Commander Fokker we have you on visual, you and your 'friend' are cleared for landing on runway 7. And later we're going to have a long talk about proper procedure and why it's a bad idea to allow civilians into military grade fighter planes."

Roy sighed. Lisa was an okay girl, but she really did seem to have the rule book stuck up her ass sometimes. Worse she often forgot that he in fact outranked her as CAG. "Roger that. Reporting three civilians in tow, one Lynn Minmei I recognize from the local Chinese restaurant, one Rick Hunter whose flying skills I'll vouch for, and one Ranma… What's your last name kid?" He called over his shoulder.

Ranma looked away from the view outside for a moment. "It's Sao-no wait I'm using my mother's clan name now, its Sugita, Ranma Sugita. Still ain't used to that."

Roy's face blanked but he dutifully went on with his report. "Ranma Sugita, who I think the higher ups and certainly the science division will want to talk to."

Commander Gloval's voice cut in unexpectedly at that point. "That is confirmed Commander, mess hall two is clear for now so you and your passengers can grab some food there if you want. Myself and others will meet you there. Fortress out."

"Er, Roger that captain. Skull-1 over and out." He turned off his radio and spoke again to Ranma. "Hey, kid you said Sugita, any relation to the WW2 ace Souichi Sugita?"

Ranma nodded now watching as Roy brought them in to land. "Yeah, he was my great-grandfather; my mom's been telling me stories about him lately, really cool stuff. Why, is he famous or something?"

"Or something," Roy muttered. Now he just knew he had to get this kid into the Veritech forces. If he had even half the skill his great grandfather had...

In space several huge bulbous dark green spaceships sailed through the debris that had once been the Hercules missile defense fleet, moving to geosynchronous orbit above Macross island, their pace slow but unstoppable.

Ranma, Rick and Minmei were escorted by Roy and a few maintenance personnel to a mess hall near the main hanger deck of the SDF-1. Ranma almost made a beeline for the food dispensers but stopped as he caught sight of Minmei's face. She was starting to shudder and hyperventilate, going into shock now that the action was over and her adrenaline was leaving her.

Ranma looked at Rick's wide-eyed and panicking face and sighed. Knowing that he was much better able to handle emotions and mushy stuff in his female form he went over to a sink and splashed himself with cold water. As soon as he had Rick fainted in shock and Minmei bolted, slamming into the now equally short redhead with enough force to stagger even her, sobbing uncontrollably. Ranma sat down, pulling Minmei into her lap as she stroked the younger girl's hair, murmuring wordless reassurance and rocking back and forth.

It was to this scene that Nodoka, Gloval, Roy, Dr. Lang and a non-descript man with lieutenant's insignia walked in on. The soldiers and Dr. Lang all blinked in shock, but Nodoka walked forward swiftly opening her arms and gathering Minmei and her son turned daughter into her arms. Looking over the blue haired girls head she looked into Ranma's face, smiling softly. "I am very proud of what you have done today my son. Now leave Minmei to me, I think these gentlemen have some questions to ask you."

Ranma smiled and got up, nodding at the others. Roy was the first to speak. "But, um, I brought a black haired young man in here, who the heck are you?"

Ranma moved over to the sink again and turned on the hot water. "It's a curse I picked up in China in the Bayankala mountain range. Cold water turns me into a girl, hot water back into my birth form of a boy. No my mind doesn't change, no there is no cure, yes it is a major irritant, no I am not a pervert and have never taken advantage of this form in any way." The last part was growled out and the redhead dumped a cupful of hot water over her head, gaining black hair and nearly a foot of height as the others watched in shock. "Any questions?"

Dr. Lang's eye glittered with the urge to examine this strange phenomenon in greater detail but for now he refrained. "Fascinating, but not what I am here to ask about. Captain Gloval and the other bridge crew passed on the report of some remarkably odd powers you manifested, and Commander Fokker. I was wondering if you could explain to us how you accomplished those feats."

Ranma grinned lopsidedly. "A lot of blood sweat and tears really. The attacks I used're called ki attacks, and only come from really intense training. Anyone can learn how ta do them so long as they can put in the time ta learn. If ya want ta talk about how ki really works and what it means that's gonna take a lot longer ta explain."

Gloval nodded. "A discussion between you and Dr. Lang might be very interesting at a later date then. Right now however I'm interested in how you were able to take on those walkers and if you were able to tell us anything about them, the main fight didn't give use any information other than they prefer overwhelming numbers and, judging solely by the little amount of punishment they are able to take, the fighter equivalents seem to be entirely comprised of relatively expendable units." Behind him the unknown man took out a voice recorder and a mechanical notepad, sitting down at one of the tables.

Ranma gave a brief description of the start of the battle form his perspective as well as the number of civilian stragglers he had seen and protected who hadn't responded to or responded too slowly to the order to head to the bomb shelters. He told about the two weak points he had noticed about the walkers, the one on the bottom between the legs, and the backpack which, while more armored would explode if hit hard enough. He went into detail about his fights and the techniques he used, promising Dr. Lang to show him them at a later date. "What really got me though is the fact that even before you guys sent up that hale stuff, whatdaya call it, flak, the groups didn't work together but it got way worse after. They almost appeared lost, just destroying stuff for the sake of destroying stuff, like they just couldn't think on their own or didn't really know what they were here for. The only ones that seemed to think about more than just plowing ahead were the ones that had arms on their pods and tougher armor. Those things were tough bastards let me tell ya."

Roy nodded as the still nondescript man kept taking notes. "We ran into several of them in the air, and they were even tougher there. Maybe they're aces or flight leaders, although there didn't seem to be nearly as many as there should have been for the number of other walkers we saw."

The unnamed man spoke up for the first time, glancing at Ranma. "Did you see the pilots of these machines, or were they automated?"

Ranma shrugged uncomfortably. "Yeah I did. The one pod I sliced in half I looked inta. The pilot wasn't in the best shape but he was a giant, about three stories tall maybe, he kinda crouched in the battlepod with his legs stuck half way down the legs of the machine. I couldn't tell anything about his skin tone or anything 'cause he was wearing some kinda full body suit, purple with green flex points and a spacesuit helmet. That was all I saw before I moved on."

Gloval and the man exchanged glances then Gloval nodded. "Well, I think that's about it for now ensign. Thank you for the report and I think Dr Lang will be talking to you in greater length later. Right now however I think I speak for the civilians you saved when I say thank you."

Ranma looked at him with his head cocked to one side. "Ensign?"

"That is the entry grade for Veritech fighters. I think after your performance and with both my own and Commander Fokker's recommendations we can waive the application educational requirements." He smiled sardonically. "I think we can also waive the physicals and go straight to fighter simulation and computer and tactical training at the earliest opportunity."

"I," Ranma paused a moment, gathering himself visibly before going on. "Thank you captain, I, my dream has always been to go into space and defend people with my art, this is my dream come true. You won't regret this, I swear it. I'll be the best Veritech pilot you've ever seen! Count on it!"

Fokker smirked. "Hey kid, don't count your chickens and all that. I'm the best pilot there is, and don't forget it."

Ranma grinned. After Gloval and Fokker left with the other man Ranma walked over to Nodoka. As he had been talking Rick had woken up and convinced Minmei despite Nodoka's objections. If it hadn't been for the fact she could see the attraction between the two she would never have let her go regardless, but when Rick learned his plane was on the Macross he had insisted on taking Minmei home.

When she informed Ranma, who had not noticed their leaving of this he was a little worried but decided to stay with his mother for now. With Ranma munching on a few ration bars the two went in search of an infirmary to get someone to look at his ribs.

When Gloval returned to the bridge it was to find the fortress already over the port, forming up with the super carrier Daedalus and the nuclear missile sub Prometheus. Lt. Cm. Hayes had already ordered them into position as well as the lesser escorts, and the whole fleet had begun to move in formation. "Excellent work Commander Hayes. ETA for the space launch point?"

"ETA six hours until reach the launch point and are far enough away from any island or object that can be injured by the tsunami we'll cause on launching. All Destroids have re-boarded. We were able to pick up fifteen of the downed Valkyrie pilots and they're already in the infirmary."

"Excellent. Commander Grant, any further orders from Space Command?"

The black skinned communications specialist shook her head sadly. "They've radioed orders for us to lift and get out of the gravity well as soon as possible. We have no more radar satellites in orbit so the earth is pretty much blind above the stratosphere. They also think that the aliens target is the Macross, not the rest of the planet and that getting us away seems the best idea. They're ordering us to take up orbit around the moon and await further orders, probably to form up with the second generation missile ships under construction when they're done in a few weeks."

Gloval's lips pursed in irritation, but it didn't come as much of a shock. The U.N was not prepared for an assault of this magnitude and buying a few weeks time could have far reaching consequences. "Very well, continue on this course, and prepare to cut loose the fleet in five hours. We don't want anyone else close by when we light off our main propulsion engines." The two women both answered in the affirmative and turned back to their stations.

Not fifteen minutes later however the peace of a well run bridge was interrupted by Lt. Vanessa Laird shouting. "Captain, incoming fire from orbit right above us!"

Gloval didn't even have time to curse as incoming fire lanced down, huge beams of light, almost the size though not of the same color or density as the reflex cannon, but they were more than powerful enough to obliterate two of the frigates as he watched out of the viewport. "All hands to battle stations signal the Prometheus to dive, Daedalus and the escorts to stand off. Is the reflex cannon online!?

Sammy Porter, the Lt in charge of coordinating repair and refit shook her head. "We prioritized repairing the structural damage from its initial firing as well as making certain the anti-gravity engines worked. It's not ready to fire yet, not without causing us as much damage as the enemy."

Gloval cursed as Lisa cut in. "Frigates Epee and Lunge destroyed all hands, cruisers Rapier and Escalade have taken heavy damage and are off the tac net . All frigates out of the area."

"Prometheus reports it's submerged far enough to be safe, Daedalus reports some damage, but has yet to sustain a direct hit and is battened down. Its captain is refusing to move out of formation however, and at a super carriers best speed it's probably pointless anyway." Claudia reported.

Gloval cursed as yet another way of fire slammed down, by some miracle missing both the Macross and the super carrier escorting it, but it was only a matter of time until their luck changed. He needed more options, but with no ability to hit back and not having enough speed to run away, he was left with one very risky option. "Begin calculations for a space-fold operation."

Claudia and Lisa both looked over at him aghast. Claudia was the first to respond and she did so even as another barrage slammed into the ocean all around them. "Captain, the space-fold system is still untested. We don't even know if it'll work, or what the consequences for the environment around us."

Gloval's teeth flashed in what no sane person would ever call a smile. "Nothing like a test under fire, and it is the only way to get us away from this bombardment intact."

"Sir." Claudia's voice dropped into a formal cadence and she activated a small recording device, the ubiquitous black box that every ship or plane carried. "I understand and will comply with the order to execute a fold, but I officially object to this order and want it so entered into the log."

Lisa stared at her friend in disbelief. "Claudia, right, or wrong, he's the captain, it's his call."

"Just as it is my right and duty to voice my disagreement Cm. Hayes." Claudia still spoke formally emphasizing that, equal in rank or no, she still had way more experience than Lisa, who got the message loud and clear and subsided.

Global nodded. "Your disagreement has been noted and recorded. Cm. Hayes, begin calculations for a space-fold jump to the other side of the moon."

Claudia turned back to her screen, punching the button for internal speakers. "All hands, prepare for fold-space jump, repeat prepare for fold space jump." With another button she switched to an all ships frequency. "All ships Macross is about to engage its space fold drive system, the effects to the surrounding environs are unknown suggest you leave the area as fast as possible."

"Calculations complete. Course laid in and space-fold engines powering up."

"Jump as soon as you are able."

"Jumping now!" And with that the space fortress and everything within ten kilometers of the fortress simply disappeared from the face of the earth.

end chapter 1