I don't own the robots or the Ranma

Not much action in this chapter but it's a lead up to one of the most important episodes in the Macross Saga. So everyone knows, I've taken a more sci-fi route in describing their weapons, so a Gatling gun is now a gauss rifle, a cannon a rail gun, etc.

RDDE, yes I knew that fact about the sun, and I wanted to plant the idea of solar powered lasers now, it won't pan out for a long while if ever, and it won't be used in combat. I'm basing that part of my story on the Troy series by John Ringo. He's good at putting the science in science fiction.

The discharged pilots will be part of ongoing issues that Lisa in particular will be dealing with off and on until they get back to Earth.

I have found in many harem/multi fics, the ladies join up too quickly to give any real romance to their joining. I hope to aim for a more gradual inclusion of Lisa and eventually Miriya to the already solid relationship of Ranma and Kasumi. To that end, I have gone back and wrote up a short flashback for their first date and stuck it in the last chapter. Those who are interested in it should go back and read it.

Oh, and I won't be breaking the fourth wall anymore. The scene where Ranma makes his vow mentioned last chapter has also been written and placed in chapter one.

As for the intelligence section, they won't be added to until they return to Earth. Gloval is really acting out of his depth here, and hasn't realized he should have been receiving regular intel updates about more than the aliens tech.

Sutam1, I'll keep her in mind as I do agree with you. I think you'll be happy with what happens when the Meltraedi are introduced. Either her or Shampoo (heh)

A bit of Max bashing in this, just warning you

Chapter 9 Normal life, what is this word 'normal'

Breetai stared into his tactical display, hands clenching and unclenching as he tried to master his ire. Behind him a voice spoke from the communications hologram. "You were caught out of position Breetai."

Breetai and Exedore turned and both went to one knee as Dolza's image appeared. "My lord I have no excuse. These Micronians have consistently proven to be more capable than I have thought, and I have failed to bring them to heel."

Dolza looked at his most experienced battle commander silently for a minute then shrugged. "You have been plagued with poor luck more than anything else Breetai. I have seen the reports of the first battle you fought against them, and you were very close to winning through. I realize that capturing the ship is much harder than destroying it but we must have that ship and what it carries! You're losses however are worrisome."

Breetai shrugged. Until the Micronians used the siege cannon his losses had been relatively light. After all what were a thousand or even two thousand Reguld mechs to his forces, a bare pittance. Yet the assault by the cannon had changed that, taking out a twentieth of his forces in one strike. Still it was a paltry amount compared to the total, he had lost more than that in many a campaign. Dolza continued "I have decided to send you another fleet to add to your own, the 11th Skirmishing Fleet."

Exedore twitched at Breetai's side. "The 11th sire, but isn't that the clan fleet controlled by Kyron?"

Breetai knew that name. "The one called the backstabber?"

Dolza nodded, scowling now. "Yes, Kyron the backstabber, Kyron the foolish! He has recently earned my ire. He moved his fleet out of position to attack an Invid factory ship that was moving between their fleets undefended. The attack succeeded, but the 15th battle fleet was badly mauled because the 11th skirmish fleet was out of position, leaving them to be flanked and pinned down. I have decided that Kyron and his entire clan are a liability now. Use them, bleed them until they fall, I care not. Let them do the dying for you Breetai."

Breetai nodded. "I will my lord. I have already devised another way to gain control of Zor's battleship. We will succeed my lord."

Dolza's stared down at him coldly. "See that you do Breetai, my patience with failure is not without limit."

Breetai and Exedore both bowed again, and the image cut off.

Ranma sighed as she woke up in female form. Ugh, that time again. Ranma had noticed early on in his time with his curse that it was fully functional and the time in it added up to its menstrual cycle. On the other hand the mood swings did cross over, so he tended to remain in his female form until it was over. His periods tended to be more emotional than physical than a few others he could name, yes Ranma felt a little bloated, but she didn't have the headaches, exhaustion or monster cramps that Kasumi had.

Ranma groaned and got out of bed. It was her turn to make breakfast and she had the day off today, so she had no real excuse to skip it. As she cooked a simple breakfast she smiled happily at how the last few months had gone. The time in Saturn's atmosphere had been the best time in his life bar none, punctuated with him and Kasumi's relationship starting. He still wasn't certain about the whole marry someone else thing, but he did love her and that was more than enough. What's more Kasumi accepted him, curse, combat junky attitude and all. Though she had been telling him she wanted Ranma to work on his accent…

The time since they left Saturn had been good too. While in its atmosphere he had concentrated on building up his ki and learning the paperwork, once they left, he was back on the clock once more and he poured his time into flying. Which reminded him; that was one of the things he'd been meaning to do for the last two weeks but had kept on putting it off.

A giggle from behind him broke him out of his thoughts and he turned. Kasumi stood by the kitchen doorway giggling as she took in Ranma's appearance. Ranma was wearing an apron open at the back that said 'it takes a man to really cook' and loose lazy shorts, no shirt and no bra. Her hair was loose and stuck out everywhere, and she looked altogether adorable. "You look so cute Ranma-chan! Where in the world did you get that apron though?"

Ranma growled a little but she knew Kasumi meant well so she didn't lash out. "I got the apron from a specialty shop in the city that stencils stuff. And no offense Kasumi, but I'm not in the mood, its 'that time' y'know."

Kasumi's face immediately assumed a sympathetic expression. As bad as periods were for her physically, Ranma had more mood swings than any woman she had ever seen. Akane was worse, but that wasn't so much mood swings as her violent and aggressive tendencies coming out 24/7 with no real counterweight. "I'm sorry Ranma-chan. Is there anything I can do to make today easier for you?"

She moved forward and began to give the shorter girl a massage on her shoulders. Ranma leaned back purring into her touch for a moment before answering. "Nah, I'm off duty today, just gotta meet with Doctor Lang this morning. After that unless you want ta do something I'll just crash here. I've got some stuff I need ta do on the computer that'll keep me occupied. What're your plans for the day Kas-chan?"

Kasumi smiled brightly at the nickname, something Ranma only used when they were alone. "I'm meeting up with Lisa and Claudia, we're going to buy some food for a party that's coming up, its Roy's birthday soon and Claudia wants to throw him a party. Apparently she needs help to make his favorite ice cream and pizza. And if you want to we can make it a girl's afternoon out and go miniature golfing. Have you gone yet?"

"Pizza, is that something like okonomiyaki? Mini-golf sounds like fun, and yeah, if I'm up for it I'll text ya. I ain't been yet, I tried ta go with Rick and Roy but they refused ta play with me. Said my being a martial artist gave me an unfair advantage." She sniffled a little. "it's not like I could help it or nothin'."

Kasumi put her arms around the redhead hugging her tightly. Her emotions really do go all over the place with her period don't they? The last time this happened Ranma had gone from sickeningly sweet to violent to happy and then crashing down into gloomy depression all in the course of a single day. Even Mousse and Ryoga knew not to bother Ranma when her time hit, though Genma never had learned that particular lesson. Of course he did make a wonderful punching bag…

After a few moments of wordless cuddling Ranma was able to break off the hug, smiling brightly at her lover. She checked the soup and her pancakes, which had just turned an appetizing brown. "Could you go get mom for me? Food's ready."

Kasumi nodded and went to wake up Nodoka. Since the first harvest had come in Nodoka had been busy going over data seeing what worked what grew best and estimating the minimum amount of workers necessary to free up the man power for other projects. The military factories and repair teams were always looking to augment their numbers. And of course there was always the academy, which had grown in size and could handle a class of over four hundred now.

The still sleepy woman joined her children, smiling as she saw the acceptance of Ranma's form in Kasumi's face and body language. It was something that had concerned her, not having been around the two since they became a couple, and Nodoka knew it had been hard for her at first. Not the fact her son changed, but the fact the change was a full one. It had worried Nodoka at the time because she was afraid it would influence his thoughts. It hadn't however, whatever his form Ranma still thought the same. The conversation was pleasant for all three women and they went their own ways afterward.

Ranma reluctantly dressed for the day and left to catch a bus to the other side of the city, which was closer to Dr. Lang's new lab. She wore her uniform, thinking that it was a good compromise between the most comfortable and least appealing outfit she had. She was used to being hit on when in this form, but wasn't in the mood today to deal with it and hoped that the uniform would scare everyone away.

Unfortunately she was going to be denied that hope. Almost as soon as the bus started moving she heard a male voice in front of her, causing her to look up from her data pad. "Excuse me miss is this seat taken?"

She looked up to see a young cadet in his uniform with the tab that indicated he was in the Veritech class. He had blue hair in a mop cut on his head, and glasses of all things. Can you even pilot with glasses on? Weird. She grunted, and the boy took that to mean he could sit down.

She went back to working on her data-pad, filling out some paperwork to explain his use of music in the battle two weeks ago. She was interrupted by the blue haired boy again. "So what's your job in the SDF miss? Do you have any tips you could give me, my names Max by the way. I joined the academy to be a pilot, I can't wait to see if my skill with simulators translates like they say it does to the real thing."

Ranma looked up at him angrily. "Alright, here's a hint for you Max, don't flirt with, don't talk with every attractive woman you see. Some of us don't appreciate it." With that she to up and left the startled blue haired youth behind. Her words however didn't register as his eyes slid down to follow her rear as she walked off.

After only fifteen minutes he arrived at the huge three story building that had been converted to Dr. Lang's new workshop. The word workshop fit it far better than lab. There was more than just science experiments in here, there were machines being tested, built, engines being taken apart and robotic pieces everywhere on the first floor. There was also a rather officious young man at the desk by the door. He looked down his nose at her and asked "Can I help you?" in a nasally sort of voice.

Ranma's eyebrows started to twitch, and a vein began to appear on her forehead. "Ranma Saotome to see Dr. Lang. I know I'm early but meh."

"The Ranma Saotome I have listed here is a boy ensign, perhaps you should try your little joke elsewhere." He sneered and made to turn away.

Ranma had had enough. Reaching forward he grabbed the man by his jacket and hoisted him up out of his chair over the desk and into the air with one hand. "Look pal, you must have heard some rumors about me so don't give me that bullshit. Or you can take it like this, how many people on this ship could lift ya up like this? You either let me in ta see the doc or you go see a different kind of doc, wakarimas?"

The man nodded frantically and the elevator door opened at the far end of the room. Ranma smiled up at him sweetly and then thumped him back down into his chair. "Thank you." And with that he hopped off. That actually made me feel better. Stupid stinking period! Ranma didn't realize how much his/her thoughts about the curse had changed since arriving on the island. Where before Ranma had hated the curse now he/she only cursed what came with it.

On the third floor the elevator deposited him at Dr Lang's office, which apparently was the only thing on this floor. He looked around at the large white boards that were everywhere, filled with equations and schematics, and the floor that was filled with paper, a few batteries and some other less recognizable junk. At the far end of the room from the elevator was a single large desk with a computer screen on it and what looked like a very comfy chair next to it.

Dr. Lang looked up from a screen of calculations and saw his visitor, and after only a second recognized her as Ranma in female form. "Ah, Ranma excellent, I'm sorry to pull you in here on your day off, but I have a few experiments that I'd like you to help me with. Why the female form though, normally you change back unless you have a reason to be in it."

"Hey doc, no problem, I just hope the experiments are on something else and not me if ya know what I mean. And I'm in female form cause my time added up ta a month again. On that note ya may want ta replace your receptionist, he's a bit of an asshole and if he gives me grief when I leave he's not gonna be able ta talk or eat solid foods fer a while."

Emil blanched at the knowledge of Ranma's form and his threat toward his receptionist, a young intern from the college who apparently had pissed off one person too many. "Yes well, anyway come over here for a moment this is what I wanted to show you."

He and Ranma went down one level and entered an area that was part science lab and part shooting range. Set into the wall separating the two areas was a gigantic ammo collier, easily the size of six normal magazines for the standard Veritech rifle.

The Veritech Howard GU-11 55mm gauss rifle was a solid state shooter that fired out at extremely high speeds, much like its ancestor the Vulcan gatling gun, only the rounds went much faster but were pumped out at a slightly slower rate. A single round in the right place (I.E. any place other than the legs or frontal armor) could destroy a battlepod, and two rounds could punch through even their frontal armor. A magazine held 200 rounds, and a Valkyrie had places alongside it outer legs for two more magazines, giving them a total of 600 shots with it before they had to retreat to resupply. This was enough to last a normal pilot for about two hours against the aliens if the pilot was frugal with his shots, a span of time that any pre-space pilot would have been either aghast or awed by. Awed because a plane could stay in the fight that long and the pilot face the g-forces without blacking out, and aghast because they had to.

Ranma looked at the collier, walking around it from all sides and saw a large something on the top of it. Dr. Lang opened the thing up and inside was four spheres like those found in the engine room where he had used the Soul of Ice maneuver. Along both sides was what Ranma recognized as the prime energy containers for a Veritech battery. In the direct center was what looked like some kind of bullet injection system. "What is this thing doc?"

"Do you remember telling me about hidden weapons space? Well this is the beginning of our research into that state. I want to see if we can build that 'larger on the inside than the outside' concept into our magazines."

"Seriously? Okay that sounds damn awesome. What da ya need me for?"

"Step right this way." He gestured her into the shooting range where two other scientists were putting the finishing touch on setting up the area for analysis. In front of them was a human sized rifle, with wires and a small reflux battery set into it by the shoulder. "Before we begin are there any differences in how you use your ki from one form or another we have to make allowances for?"

Ranma shook her head, moving forward to look at the weird rifle and running a finger over it, sending a brief pulse of ki into it. A monitor on the side lit up as he did so and one of the scientists ran over and began to take some notes from it. "Nah, not in my ki anyway. I'm a little quicker ta anger, don't have so much emotional control, but the only real difference is physical. In my female form I'm a hell of a lot faster, but in my male form I'm a hell of a lot stronger. In my female body I can only bench 800 pounds rather than 2000, but can move at an almost equally faster rate."

One of the scientists scoffed at that but stopped as Ranma easily hefted the rifle, a rifle which with its present modifications and monitoring equipment three grown men could barely move, onto her shoulder easily. "Now, what the hell am I supposed ta do here?"

"I want you to feel the energy moving through the rifle and see if the energy is" he grimaced, he hated being so unscientific, but it couldn't be helped "moving in the right way to form the weapon space pocket, then see if the bullets come out of the pocket correctly and are able to be used."

"Kay." The redhead stood there for a moment, and her hand began to glow blue gold as it held the rifle by its trigger mechanism. The other scientists went mad, running around and taking notes from the computers as fast as the readouts could print. Ranma however shook his head. "Nah, it's not moving right. What ya want ta do is sort of…." She paused. "It's like, I think ya need ta think about it like gravity. Ya have too much of it at one place, concentrated on one place and space warps right? Using ki like this sort of does the same. What ya got here is more like yer trying ta power up the shots."

She turned, raising the rifle in one smooth motion and fired down range. Rather than putting a small hole through the target the target exploded like it was hit by an artillery round rather than a rifle bullet. While the target went up in flames she turned, scaring the scientists witless as she grinned, her red hair flashing around with the fire as a backdrop. "See? Ya put too much power into the round, the real power needs ta be part of the magazine."

Dr Lang ignored his fellow scientists as they backed away from the redhead, one going so far as having to clench his legs to avoid voiding himself. "Would you be able to use that 'technique' as you call it on a magazine and let us look at it?"

"Well, like I said I don't use that technique, but I think I could figure it out, a brute force approach anyway. When we get back ta earth I'll introduce ya to Mousse though. He'll probably be able ta show ya how ta do it easy. What else did ya want me ta look at?"

The next experiment took a few hours, as Dr. Lang was far close to getting this one right. He had continued to try and figure out a way to charge armor to become stronger and denser, like the Steel Body technique. He was a little off though in that the metal wouldn't hold the 'charge' for long, and it wouldn't last for very long under continuous pounding. The metal would also warp and bend under the strain of the energy, and there were far too many connections necessary to distribute the energy equally into the twenty foot piece of leg armor they were using to experiment on. The energy needed was also exorbitant.

It took Ranma and the scientists nearly two hours to solve most of the problems with it. The metal would no longer warp (not an even distribution of power), it would hold the charge slightly longer (something that had to do with the 'frequency of the energy for want of a better term) and there was only a single central connector necessary to pump the energy out into the rest of the metal. Ranma likened it to the metal having veins through which the power could flow, inside it rather than be pushed into from the outside. The power consumption problem however was still a major hurdle, and one Ranma couldn't help them with.

"I know I use a lot of my ki when I use the body hardening technique, so that's probably not something that ya can do without." It was true too. Before he arrived on the island Ranma had only been able to use the toughening technique for a few hours. Now though he could go for hours on end. He had built up his ki reservoir to a level he hadn't even known existed before. It was startling in a way that being away from the distractions of the constant sparring and rivals had allowed him to improve far faster.

To Ranma, there was no point in getting better or stronger, getting stronger was the point. He never asked himself 'am I strong enough', he only asked 'am I stronger today than I was yesterday'. Since leaving Nerima that question was always answered with a 'yes'.

Dr. Lang asked "Would you be willing to take some recordings when you're next in combat? We really need real time data on this. We may be able to add a battery to the existing Valkyrie but it will decrease the overall speed and agility some, so some other way to power it needs to be found."

"Sure doc, set whatever ya need up in the cockpit of my plane. I'll see if I can do the hidden weapons technique normally, and then try it on a magazine for ya."

"That'll be excellent. Thanks for your help Ranma." Lang walked Ranma to the door, making certain that his receptionist watched as he did so the better to save the man from considerable pain, though the look of fear that crossed the man's face was amusing. "I'll text you if we need any more help, but today has already shaved months off the armor strengthening project at least."

Ranma nodded and with one last handshake left the building, intent on meeting up with Kasumi and Lisa for some lunch. Again deciding to take a bus, this time to the shopping district she was happy to see no one else on the bus.

That good fortune continued until he got off the bus. "Ah we meet again my scarlet haired beauty." A voice said from her right and she whirled half expecting to see Kuno suddenly appear but it was only the man from the bus standing there. He smiled, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "This must be fate for us to meet twice in one day. I have to apologize for whatever I said that set you off earlier. But really a lovely woman like you shouldn't spend her day alone. Let me make it up to you by buying you some lunch."

Ranma growled, for some reason this guy was pushing all her buttons. Maybe it was because he reminded her of Kuno or maybe it was just his pretty boy attitude on top of her hormonal issues but it was really pissing her off. "Look pal, I really ain't in the mood, and I never am for guys okay?"

"Don't be like that miss, deep down I can tell you're just a little lonely. Come on, we could have a lot of fun together."

Ranma gripped the back of the bus-stops metal seat, gripping it hard enough to leave dents as the man continued talking about going to see a play and where they could eat. She was about to lose what little patience she had when she heard Kasumi's voice behind her.

Kasumi spent most of her morning with Lisa and Claudia lending a sympathetic ear to her friend's problems and receiving one in turn on her own as she taught Claudia how to make pizza (it was almost exactly like okonomiyaki) and then how to make homemade ice cream. Homemade ice cream was something she had done a time or two while still living with her family, so she knew how to churn the milk and add ingredients properly. As she watched Claudia cooking Lisa was telling her about her own problems, all of which were work related of course.

"The main thing right now, with the aliens not attacking as often is that there seems to be two criminal groups operating within the civilian population and the military. One of them is your normal every day criminal group, they seem to be operating mostly from the city and only have a few members who are also in the military. I've left them to the police mostly, just letting them use some military hardware if they need to. Not like they will, most of the civilian population is pretty law abiding. But the other group worries me."

Kasumi stopped Claudia from putting in more sugar too soon, and set a small timer in front of her. "Why is that? Are they more violent or something? If you want to scare them we can always send Ranma-chan out after them. I know she'll need something to pound on today. It won't even be the first time she's done something like that. The second time she had her period my younger sister was having an 'issue'" she raised her fingers in the universal quote sign for a moment "with the yakuza trying to set up operations in Nerima again. You'd think they'd learn… anyway Ranma went out and found them all and put each and every one of them in the hospital with humiliating and severe but not life threatening injuries."

Claudia chuckled as Lisa shook her head. The fact that Ranma's female form was completely functional was a source of much amusement to Lisa, yet came as a shock at first. On the whole though, she rather liked the fact that Ranma got the full treatment as she thought of it rather than just the good stuff. Claudia pointed a finger at her cooking instructor. "You can't just let us hang like that, what kind of injuries?"

Kasumi giggled, a little wickedly actually and Lisa and Claudia exchanged a speaking glance. Kasumi may come off to most as a bit of a wall flower but she had a nasty sense of humor at times and there was an extremely sharp mind underneath that kind face. "Well I remember him mumbling about pipes, rear ends and permanent chastity belts, though how those all tie together I don't know…"

Claudia gaped at her then joined Lisa in breaking out into laughter. Lisa however got control of herself quickly. "No, it's not that this group is violent, it's the fact they have a far better grasp of our computers and logistics system than I like. We've got parts and certain supplies coming up short in our inventories and I can't seem to find where most of its going. My teams have only been able to hunt down about half the food supplies and the weapons they tried to make disappear from the system so far. The police and MPs have only caught two of this group so far as well. What's more it's pretty obvious this group is working like a terrorist group with cells. One of the men knew only about his own operation, not even the existence of the others nor who was passing him orders, and the other was the same. That will make shutting this group down devilishly hard."

Kasumi nodded. "Well if you need any help in, what's the word, scoping out places or guarding something Ranma has this technique where he can go invisible that might help."

Lisa shrugged. Feeling she had bitched enough about her problems she changed the subject by asking Kasumi how her studies were going.

Kasumi answered they were going well save for one class. The new semester had begun and she had signed up for the next round of classes as usual but one of the classes was taught by a middle aged man who had begun to flirt with her. What was worse she was worried he may tamper with her grades somehow to take advantage of her.

Lisa nodded sympathetically and told her about some of her own run-ins at officer school. Claudia hadn't had that problem, being a friend and off again on again girlfriend of a fighter pilot helped keep the losers at bay. It was a simple, normal conversation and somehow it was just what Lisa needed to get her mind off her responsibilities for a time.

After the ice cream was put away to freeze and harden the three women went out to meet up with the gossip trio. The five ladies spent an hour shopping and then made their way back to the bus stop to meet up with Ranma. Lisa was the first to spot him/her and was about to call out to him when Kasumi giggled. "Oh no, what is with Ranma-chan's luck?"

Vanessa looked then giggled. "Oh I know him, that's Max, he's a trainee at the academy, everyone's been talking about his scores in the simulator. Wow he's really handsome huh?"

Kim agreed. "I bet we could have a lot of fun with that guy." Having a boyfriend already Sammy was ambivalent about it, but she did like the new boy's face at least.

"Yes and he's hitting on Ranma-chan. Excuse me I think I have to step in here before Ranma kills him."

That turned everyone's attention to short redhead and they now saw she was nearly vibrating in anger. Oh shit she's gonna blow! Lisa thought, a sentiment that was shared by Claudia.

The other three however were more concerned by the fact that their bodies didn't stack up to the boy turned girl's, whose proportions and figure made her look like a model even in the SDF uniform, which was horrendous for showing off anything but the legs (something all three knew all too well). The five soldiers watched as Kasumi quickly raced forward calling out to Ranma. "Ranma-chan!"

Ranma's head came up and swiveled to the side her rage evaporating as she saw the welcome vision of Kasumi walking towards her. "Hey Kasumi-chan, had a good day so far?"

"Yes Ranma-chan, but how are you doing, have your violent mood swings died down a little?" The brunette asked, deliberately emphasizing the word violent.

To the side Max mouthed the words 'violent mood swings' to himself as Kasumi continued "I bought a crate of those stress balls, I know you destroyed a dozen of them last month."

Max mouthed 'destroyed' to himself then the phrase 'last month' registered in his brain and he paled. Kasumi closed in for the kill, turning towards him for the first time. "Ara, you seem to be a sturdy sort, would you be willing to walk around with us? I'm afraid I can't guarantee your safety but the store owners would probably thank you."

Max looked from the admittedly very pretty brunette back to the redhead who, she noticed had grabbed the back of the bench with one hand and actually seemed to be twisting it out of shape somehow. He saw this and showed that he was smarter than the average Kuno by turning tail and running. "Um, I'm sorry but I just remembered a prior engagement elsewhere. Have a nice day." He turned and strode away, the words of his father going through his mind (don't run Max, they smell your fear, just walk away quickly) until he was out of sight round a corner then ran like the hounds of hell were after him.

Ranma waited until he was out of sight then leaned her head against Kasumi's shoulder as the others walked up to them. "Thanks Kasumi-chan, I was seriously near to my breaking point there."

She smiled at him warmly but Vanessa had to ruin the sweet moment. "I am so bloody jealous of you right now its not even funny. You have that perfect body and you were just hit on by the cutest guy in the academy."

Sammy nodded. "Aaaaah, what god do I have to worship to get a figure like that?"

Kim giggled reaching around Ranma's back and rubbing her chest. "Maybe we can get some through osmosis! Pass your bust size to us, to us…" She began to rub them and her two friends giggled and joined in. Claudia and Lisa looked at eachother and shook their heads at how embarrassing the three were being but Kasumi merely giggled.

Ranma on the other hand wasn't having fun and used his speed to move away from their grasping hands to hide behind Kasumi. "It ain't like I asked for this form, and hell you could say I cheated ta get it so ya can't be jealous of me. if ya want ta be jealous of a real girls figure, Kasumi's body is way better than mine. Lisa and Claudia are both pretty too." All three women blushed at the compliment and the three gossipers giggled.

The seven women began to walk towards the miniature golf center, exchanging stories of their day and grabbing food from the vendors they saw. Ranma was incensed to hear about Kasumi's problems with her new professor and even more so with the problems Lisa was having with the thieves and the logistics department. To his mind something like that was undermining their ability to do their job and defend the ship from the aliens and it pissed him off. Lisa was in turn happy that Dr. Lang was making progress in his projects, and stunned that Ranma was able to power the experiments that had previously taken several batteries to charge.

Ranma shrugged that away but for just a minute he felt the cold of space again, and he knew that his experiment with the radar all those months ago had done something to him, broke some kind of barrier in him that had allowed him to push further in the area of ki than he had been able to before.

The memory receded however as she felt Kasumi's arm around her stomach and the memory of the times they spent together filled him, driving away the cold. Ranma really wasn't the sort to ponder the infinite, like he had said to Lisa after that experiment. Life, eating, living, fighting, breathing (and now the pleasures of the flesh) were far too sweet to him for him to enjoy a glimpse of a life that was above such things. She grabbed Lisa's hand with one of her own and looped her other arm around Kasumi in turn. "let's go, I feel the urge to beat the crap out of innocent little white balls for the good of my sanity!"

The others nodded and finished their food before following him to the miniature golf center. The golf center was more involved and plain old fun than anything that could be found on earth. The tricks you could do on a ship where gravity was an optional and mostly changeable factor were unbelievable. Grav-plates would pull the ball one way or the other, other plates would make the ball go faster or slower forcing the player to vary his shot power. Long loops of plastic tubing with anti-grav helped the player shoot through wondrous designs. Other holes played more like darts with a club, forcing you to aim the ball into the air to hit a moving target. And of course there were floating obstacles, water hazards (both the normal kind and the in the air kind) and angles to be considered, both normal and with height added in.

Ranma, for all his/her physical control had no real advantage here. Her knowledge of angles was good, but she couldn't predict the gravity changes, or the power necessary for certain shots through varied grav areas. Of course her mood swings and irritation issues didn't help matters. By the end of the round she was stuck right in the middle with Kasumi leading followed closely by Sammy and Vanessa and Lisa, Kim and Claudia having much the same problems but even more so. Still they all had fun. The day ended with the four older girls having some fun with video games in Claudia's apartment.

A few days later Ranma growled in frustration once more hit the clear button on his data pad for the fifteenth time in three hours. He had been told a few months back that aces were allowed to customize their Valkyries paint scheme and their electronics, but at the time he hadn't really bothered. He hadn't really felt any kind of connection to his machine at that point, it was simply a tool. But with his new machine he definitely felt a connection. Moving his ki through this machine was already easier than through his last one, and he wondered what the heck the differences were that allowed him to do so., of it was simply all in his head.

So here he was on his afternoon off trying to figure out what kind of design he wanted to put on his Veritech.

Kasumi walked out of her room and kissed him on the four head as she went to grab some lunch. She had slept in, as classes hadn't resumed yet, but Ranma had had to get up early to lead his squadron in some callisthenic exercises. Eric had been very emphatic that everyone in the flight had to have some martial arts training, and Ranma had gleefully accepted the request that he start leading them in those exercises.

While he didn't like to have to fill out the evaluation forms afterward, he found that he did enjoy teaching. It had also served him well because he could figure out which area of martial arts was the best place to start that would carry over into piloting the Valkyrie. While he wasn't allowed to really put the squadron through their paces, after all Eric did know what he meant by that and knew that he personally could never have completed it, he was able to teach them a few katas that helped with hand eye coordination, as well as physical endurance.

With the G forces necessary to successfully pilot of the Valkyrie through a dogfight the endurance aspect was a major issue. Far too often stamina and the ability to repeatedly take the g-forces the pilots subjected themselves decided whether a pilot lived or died. It was also an area that couldn't really be emphasized enough at the Academy, given the nature of the courses and the short amount of time that each graduating class had.

While none of the pilots of Blue squadron would ever come close to matching his own endurance, after a few days they began to feel the results and became much more enthusiastic about learning from the marital artist. Mokoto, who had already been anxious to learn from Ranma was even more enthused, and kept on pestering him for one-on-one lessons. He had responded to this by giving her some pointers, but refusing to take up the time necessary from his other excursions, and his own exercise to be her teacher. She didn't have enough energy yet to really be taught ki exercises.

More his style was entirely hand to hand, while she was wedded to the blade, so she was forced to acquiesce. It didn't mean that she stopped pestering him about it however, especially when she saw him in female form for some reason.

Everyone in the flight had at this point seen him transform into a female and Ranma had been surprised by how accepting of it they had all been. Most of them simply seem to shrug and ignore it as unimportant, which in the long run it was. For one or two, magic was outside of their view of the universe and therefore they refused to acknowledge it one way or the other. Mokoto seemed to enjoy the fact that there was a man who understood what women went through, and much preferred to be shown exercises by his female form. Ranma had no real objections to this, as some of the exercises had a different impact given which form he was in.

On a personal level other than Mokoto, Rick and Eric Ranma still hadn't learned any of their names, but they were coming up to the point where he would. The past few weeks had been quite on the alien front, but they still were called out once a week or so. Another few dust balls and maybe, just maybe he think they'd survive long enough for him to want to get to know them personally.

Ranma broke out of his thoughts when Kasumi leaned over his shoulder, not incidentally pushing her chest into his shoulder and neck, causing him to blush hotly. "What are you working on Ranma?"

Ranma looked up and at her still blushing which increased as she stole a kiss before he could reply. He was always more wary about receiving affection when other people were around, and his mother was in her room working. "Um, I'm trying to figure out a decal for my Valkyrie. I want it to be a full plain paint job, but I can't seem to get the computer to let me use the design I want."

Kasumi looks down at what he had been trying to draw on the data pad and blanched. "Maybe" she said delicately, as she took the pad from him, "you should try to describe it to me and I'll design it. After all, I do have a steady hand and your talents, well, your talents lie elsewhere dear" she said gently.

Ranma puted, looking depressed for a moment but nodded. After a few sentences to describe what he wanted she went to work, and not fifteen minutes later Kasumi finished punching in the design and handed it back to Ranma. Ranma took one look grinned at her, kissed her on the lips and took off grinning like a madman. "I guess he liked it." She said amusingly a small giggle escaping as Nodoka came out of her room, eyebrow raised in inquiry.

Ranma spent the rest of that afternoon gathering paint supplies and requisitioning one of the paint machines to do the actual work. The next day, as the rest of Blue went off watch having completed a boring patrol, he stayed behind and got to work.

After several false starts, the machine was able to follow Kasumi's design, and Ranma watched gleefully as his new paint job took shape.

When it was done Ranma nodded, well satisfied. The regular squadron colors had been expanded, the blue stripes now looking like flames with little golden tips. The rest of the plane was painted matte black, with a few little stars of white here and there. On both ventral fins, the wings that stuck up and out in jet mode, was a yin-yang symbol of dark crimson and blue, with the stencil of a horse in white rearing in the center. Another matching symbol was in place that would be in the center of the soldier mode. All in all the plane looked magnificent and Ranma nodded well satisfied.

That night, after spending the rest of the afternoon with Kasumi and Lisa and introducing them to Motoko, he took Kasumi out on a date in thanks for her help. The night ended with them back at their apartment once more sharing a bed, as thankfully Nodoka was out with the captain. It was a normal peaceful time, but events outside the ship would soon make such peaceful moments more and more rare.

End chapter. Tell me what you think of Ranma's design for his machine. I think it's a nice mix between cool, Ranma's desire, and overdone.