I don't own Ranma or Robotech.

FYI I will be following the Robotech version of the Zentraedi – continually cloned to make up their numbers, but each generation will be weaker than the last and monstrous amounts of indoctrination to insure their loyalty

You know what's in this chapter, so I won't say anything here.

Chapter 10 Mars has life but he's an asshole

"Lord Breetai, while we're waiting for the 11th Skirmish Fleet to arrive, what are your plans to take the fortress?"

"My plan uses the abandoned base our scouts found on the fourth planet from the sun. They found a signal array there that we can restart easily. If they detect a signal from the base there the space fortress will investigate. Once on the ground we can use gravity mines to pin it in place and simply send in enough troops to overwhelm them. That is what we will use the 11th fleet for, as the losses in such an assault will be heavy. I also do not like how many tricks these Micronians seem to have come up with, suddenly being able to use the ship's siege mode, being able to replace their losses so quickly and that sound attack, and the strange shields we have spotted concern me. Nor do I like how they seem to be making them up as they go along, how in the universe are they doing that?"

"I don't know the answer to that my lord, but it may well have something to do with the proto-culture generator onboard the ship, it can have odd effects on leaving beings. It may be worth our time to see if we can capture some Micronians and interrogate them. Surely that will give us more knowledge of their abilities and why they are becoming more formidable with time."

"Hmm." Breetai stared at his chronometer. "The 11th skirmish fleet is late, but what else can you expect from someone so disorganized as the backstabber. But yes, that may be a good long term strategy. I would prefer to get some more intelligence on them before we capture any though, laws forbid us from coming into contact with the Micronians. On that subject, have you made any headway on translating their language?"

"Yes my lord. A basic translating program has already been written and is ready for installation. I would recommend placing it on all command mechs as it might give us an idea on the strange transmissions our ships continue to pick up at times, as well as the strange audio attack the Micronians have employed twice now."

Breetai grunted assent. A moment later alarms went off all around the bridge. Breetai turned to his sensors officer who reported before being asked "Incoming fold space phenomena interspersed throughout and around the fleet, far within the standard safety zone!" Breetai's eyes widened but before he could say anything new Zentraedi warships began to pop into being throughout his clan-fleet. More alarms blared as one ship scraped along two in succession before halting its forward momentum.

Elsewhere in the fleet other near collisions occurred, even Breetai's own flagship shuddered for a moment as one far smaller ship scrapped along its side. Breetai stood up staring hard at the main screen as the new fleet finished fold-out.

One Thruvel Salan class battleship, the same ship that had scrapped his own Nupetiet Vergnitzs class flagship, which was marked as the flagship of the 11th hailed them. Breetai nodded at his communications officer and a moment later the image of the admiral of the 11th fleet appeared in the hologram machine.

Kyron was young, barely 200, with long blue hair down to his neck and a haughty arrogant cast to his features, despite his smile. "Lord Admiral Breetai, I apologize for our folding out in your fleet, my fold space operator will be flogged for this occurrence I assure you."

In the background of Kyron's transmission another transmission appeared on a screen behind him. A Zentraedi wearing captains tabs spoke through the connection "I told you we'd hit seven ships admiral, I…"

He was cut off by an unseen signal and Kyron shook his head. "Ignore the idiot my lord, I have no idea what he's talking about."

Breetai stared coldly at Kyron for several minutes, letting the silence speak for him until the other Zentraedi looked away, sweating uncomfortably. When Breetai spoke his voice was cold and commanding. "Do not play games with my Kyron, or I will end you and your clan. You are here to redeem yourselves from failing to follow orders and instead seeking personal glory, do not make Lord Dolza or I regret giving you this chance."

Kyron nodded convulsively, all his normal hauteur and arrogance deserting him under the cold stare of the older warrior. Breetai was practically a legend among the Zentraedi Fleets, and no one angered him lightly. He also seemed even more humorless than normal, and Kyron decided to tread lightly, for a little while at least. "Yes my lord, what would you have us do?"

"At the moment I want you to take your fleet to the far side of the fourth planet. We are hunting down Zor's space fortress, and are under orders to capture it intact. As such we will be laying a trap for the Micronians that have taken it over at their former base on that world. My aide Exedore will give you the details. Breetai out." The disfigured Zentraedi turned to the crippled one. "Watch him Exedore, watch him closely. He is not known as the 'backstabber' for nothing." Exedore nodded mute agreement.

The ship had been moving through space for nearly a month since leaving Saturn and little had occurred. The aliens still sent probing attacks, giving the Valkyrie pilots something to do and valuable experience, but not enough to rouse the other defenses. The fights were so short and small that Ranma didn't even try to piss them off.

In that time control runs were put in place for the mobile barriers thus far built and plans were going forward to install the steel strengthening defense designed by Dr. Lang with Ranma's help onto the secondary weapons, as well as the front to the main cannon, though that may interfere in its firing. It would take a lot of power to protect even these small sections, but the ability to withstand that much more damage to your main and secondary weapons was well worth it.

Even the old soldiers like Gloval hadn't been able to feel anything wrong. They all knew the aliens hadn't given up, but the shock of the main cannon's assault had obviously made them wary of pressing an all out attack against the battleship.

Lisa however was not happy, though only Claudia knew the reason for it. She stared glumly out the main viewport on the bridge, but she wasn't really seeing the stars and space beyond. Instead she was seeing a day from long ago, when she was a young girl of sixteen and just ready to enter the academy. But this memory wasn't a happy one, for it was the day her boyfriend, Karl Ryber left for Mars Base Sara.

Karl had been an older man, one of her father's aids who often had to look after her when the admiral was 'too busy'. He had been her first boyfriend and she considered him the love of her life. He had been everything she wanted in a boyfrend, mature, solid, kind, attentive, everything. She had been seventeen when he had taken a posting at Mars Base Sara but the two had still communicated to eachother, and their relationship hadn't ended until the day three years ago when the base's geo-dome had been opened to space by a terrorist attack, killing everyone there. The day she heard that on the news was the worst day of her life, and now every year at this time she was struck with the melancholy and sadness that remembering Karl always brought her. She became snappish, distant and even cold to everyone around her.

This year though was especially bad for those who were around her, for this was the first year where her normal sadness had not come as easily to her. This year she looked back on Karl as something from the past that she might eventually move past, not as a vow to never find someone else. It had come as a shock to her when she realized that that part of her soul, which had remained cold and shut in for so long, had begun to warm again. The faces of her friends, Claudia, Kasumi and Ranma, even the youngsters, had begun to fill that void. It almost felt like sacrilege to even think like that, a betrayal most foul of what she and Karl had shared.

She was broken out of her musings by Claudia gasping in surprise at her station. "What is it Claudia?"

"We're getting something off the long range communications relay. A distress signal of some kind. I need to localize the origin."

Lisa's eyebrows rose in surprise. "I'll call up the captain."

Four hours later the officers and Dr. Lang met in the conference room, and suddenly Lisa had no problem remembering her lost love. "Mars base Sara are you sure? The SOS signal is coming from mars base Sara?"

Claudia nodded, shooting her a sympathetic look, one of many she had given her younger friend in the past few days. She knew this time of year was always hard for her, and this year appeared especially bad, probably because both her best friends had found someone. "The signal is clearly coming from the ruins of the base there, but that's all we can tell from this distance."

Gloval shook his head. "If we were facing human forces I would say this was obviously a trap, but with the aliens I just can't see them bothering with something so elaborate. Their strategy thus far has been brutally simple, leaning heavily on bringing their numbers to bear and overwhelming us, tricking us has never come into it. Even the ambush in Saturn's rings is obvious in hindsight as simply the culmination of a campaign."

Conner agreed. "I think if they had the forces in place to attack us we would be seeing a lot more out of them than the probing attacks we've been seeing these last few weeks. The question is should we divert the ship to investigate? I'd vote against it, we've been out of communication with Earth for too long as it is."

Lisa countered this swiftly. "But sir if there are people still alive there, we have a duty to help them."

Dr Lang nodded thoughtfully. "And if I remember correctly the base would have quite a lot of material that we could use. Not raw metals but plastics, rubber, luxury items, already built electronics and frozen foods."

Gloval and Connor both stopped thinking for a moment at that thought; the idea of eating even a frozen steak was enough to send them into ecstasies. That was a problem facing the ship as a whole at this point: no meat was to be had for any price, fish, meat or fowl it had all been used before they even hit Saturn. And tofu was only good for so long before you really craved some real meat in your diet. "B-be that as it may" Connor answered weakly, "the fact remains that would take us nearly a month out of our way." The battleship was anything but slow, but the solar system was simply far too vast to traverse at any speed. Worse from the ships perspective was that they were playing catch up with the Earth as is moved around the sun.

Lisa was about to speak up again but saw that the captain was thinking and fell silent, which was probably for the best. Any more from her and both Connor and Gloval would realize she wanted to divert the ship to Mars for personal rather than professional reasons. If there was even a chance that Karl was still alive she had to take it.

Gloval was unaware of her inner thoughts, but his were going something like this: meat, hmm, meat, no wait can't divert the ship, but supplies, electronics, meaaaat. "I think that if there is a chance of survivors, or even simply supplies we need to take it, besides changing our course now may throw the aliens off our tail entirely. Set course for Mars."

Later that day the news was broke to the pilots and was met with ambivalence or acceptance. Some of the survivors of the fortress's original Carrier Air Wing (all ten of them) knew people who had been stationed on Mars when the terrorists struck. Everyone else was happy about the idea of getting some meat, no matter how frozen it might be, into their diet.

The only one who was against the plan was Ranma who put forth his reasons thus: "I think we are seriously underestimating these aliens. They've got numbers like nobody's business, they've got the science and the know-how to get them here, meanin' the solar system, from wherever they came from. I think they've got enough brains ta set a trap like this. It's like a martial artist changing his style in a fight, first hard now soft since hard hasn't worked."

Roy, who didn't know about Karl Ryber (in fact the only two on board who did besides Lisa were Claudia and Kasumi, who had promised to not share that story with anyone) had known a few people stationed on the Mars base when it went silent, so was all for trying besides, "Just because you can live off rice and tofu for the rest of your life doesn't mean the rest of us can kid. Besides, what kind of trap can they spring that we couldn't blast our way out of?"

"I don't know, but all my instincts tell me this is too good ta be true, like finding a cure for my curse underneath the school gym that one time. It sounds great, but there's no way it's true."

"You're worrying too much Ranma, you're beginning to sound like your alternate form you know." In weeks to come Roy would look back on this line and wonder if he should have court-martialed himself for stupidity. For now however he wanted to know what had become of his friends.

Ranma scowled, he was an expert when it came to analyzing his opponents and all his instincts were screaming at him that this was a setup. "Alright wiseass how 'bout a little wager?"

Roy's eyebrows rose at the 'wiseass' comment, but he answered with a grin "alright, if nothing happens, you get to pose in your alternate form for a pin up calendar that the pilots can all use."

A vein in Ranma's forehead bulged for a moment but he nodded. "And if you and Eric are right then I get to oppose some kind of penalty on you both." Roy gulped at that, but couldn't back down now without losing face so agreed. Ranma smirked evilly at him and walked off, already planning what he would do to them when, not if he won. Behind him Eric began to give his commanding officer the evil eye, and had no intention of stopping anytime soon.

The next three weeks of easy sailing appeared to prove Ranma wrong. The alien probing attacks dwindled and then ceased altogether, as if the battleship was at last leaving its pursuers behind. The fortress even sent out spy planes in all directions to see if they could spot any alien mother ships, and couldn't find any. This made the captain and the other officers certain that they had thrown of the aliens by changing course. Ranma however grew more and more paranoid with every peaceful day that passed. He continued his own training and pushed Eric to push the rest of the flight hard in their training to get them ready for anything but eventually Eric put his foot down. Kasumi figured out something was going on and went out of her way to keep Ranma's mind occupied in various ways. Moving his nearly finished training area to an unused section of the ship also took his mind off what he was becoming more convinced was a major danger. It wasn't quite finished yet, but when it was it would be great for space combat training.

Despite Ranma's worries they arrived in orbit around the red planet without spotting any enemy activity. Captain Gloval was present on the bridge as they matched their orbit with the planet and he stared down at the readouts they were getting from the base. "Hmm, no place within the base we could land, we'd need to land over here near the crags, it's the only ground that's reading as dense enough for us to land on. Once we're in the atmosphere order a detailed sensor sweep of the area by Valkyries. Pay specific attention to any sites that may be used as ambush points."

Claudia, Vanessa and Kim all jumped to obey and within minutes the base and the areas surrounding the landing site had been surveyed to a fare thee well. Gloval wasn't happy with the amount of canyons and hideaways there were, but again he felt the aliens were not tactically inventive enough to have set such an elaborate trap. Once the site was deemed safe the space fortress began its descent.

About an hour later the ship landed on the surface of Mars with a thump. Blue, Vermillion and Gold immediately launched to join the two squadrons already in the air, Tan and Silver. The Tomahawk and Spartan destroid companies rolled out of the lower hanger decks, moving into a defensive cordon around the ship, followed by the command Monster class of colonel Mannstein, slow but five times as powerful and durable as the other mechs. He had changed back to it for this operation, believing that since they were on the surface he would be able to use its guns more effectively than in space. The Defender platoons took up station on the top of the ship facing outward in all directions.

As soon as the perimeter was secure Gloval nodded. "Launch land crews, search the base for survivors and any and all supplies."

This was the moment Lisa had been waiting for and she took it. "Commander I wish to volunteer to lead this operation."

Gloval looked at her for a moment, perplexed by the declaration. He had initially decided on giving the job to Captain Connor, but looking at Lisa he somehow knew there was more going on here than he knew. Pulling his cap over his eyes so Lisa could not see them he glanced over at Claudia to his right and behind Lisa. She nodded and he said "Very well Lt. Cm. Hayes, you may lead the search. Remain in radio contact at all times and call back here every hour on the hour. Dismissed." Lisa saluted and ran off the bridge.

Ranma was reaching out with his ki sense as he flew above the forming convoy by the ship. He wasn't connecting himself to the radar, he really didn't to revisit that feeling again, but he was trying everything else to get a feel for this place. All of his Genma/Nerima-honed instincts were screaming at him that something was going to happen. I'm surprised that the captain and old man Mannstein can't feel it, though maybe they can but are ignoring it 'cause of the pay off. I guess I can relate, the idea of meat does sound good, but still... Below him the convoy began to move out as Commander Prescott's voice sounded over the radio. "Blue squadron, we've been tasked to escort the convoy to Mars Base Sara and then take up high orbit over the space fortress. Tan squadron will be staying with the search teams for the first four hours then we'll switch tasks."

Ranma confirmed his orders almost absentmindedly as he flew beside the now moving convoy. He was still reaching out with his ki sense when he felt a very familiar aura among those in the convoy. "Huh?" He moved his jet over to the front of the convoy right by a jeep that was leading the way and peered through his canopy at the people in it.

Lisa's voice crackled over the radio, a mixture of dry wit and something else he couldn't put a finger on. "You do know that curiosity killed the cat ensign Sugita?"

"Uh, y-yeah Commander Hayes, just wondering what ya were doin' is all. Ranma asked, wondering what she was doing here. It wasn't like Lisa to leave the bridge if there was even a hint there was going to be some action soon. Maybe she thinks they'll have problems in the base? "You expecting trouble?"

"Not at all ensign, everything is a-ok here. I just wanted to take command of this action myself that's all."

"Huh, well it ain't like ya need my permission or anything Commander, just wanted ta see what was up. Stay safe ok, I'd hate ta have ta explain to Kasumi if you got hurt."

"Heaven forbid ensign, Hayes out."

"Right." Ranma hit the thrusters a little more, pulling up and ahead of the column to retake his position in the escort detail. Not fifteen minutes later the convoy reached the base. Tan squadron landed, transformed to soldier mode and began to move through the base looking for anything dangerous. Blue lit off their afterburners and ascended high into the sky to patrol the area over both the fortress and Mars base Sara. So far nothing had happened, but Ranma still couldn't get rid of the feeling something bad was about to occur. To take his mind off it he called the bridge. "Command this is blue 5, quick question, can you tell me the frequencies most used by the enemy?"

Claudia answered him, sounding amused. "Transmitting data now blue 5, you seriously going to see if you can use smack talk on aliens?"

"Already know I can insult 'em command, just want ta see if they understand the language enough for me ta take it to the next level, so to speak." That said Ranma refocused his attention to the surrounding area, searching for whatever was making his danger sense tingle.

All was not well in the mech divisions of the 11th skirmish fleet, hidden deep within the caverns and protected from enemy radar by the rocks and metal all around them. All of the Reguld pilots had been inside their combat mechs for over four hours by now, having gone into hiding an hour before Zor's ship hit orbit, and they were all going a little stir crazy.

Even Kyron, or perhaps it should be especially given his temperament, in the much more spacious and comfortable Glaug command mech was feeling irritated at the time spent in such a cramped space. "How much longer until the gravity mines are at full power Grell? I'm getting tired of waiting."

Grell, his square-jawed and square faced subordinate answered promptly. "65% and climbing Lord Kyron, estimate another two hours until full power."

Kyron glowered at him through their visual screens. "Make it an hour and a half Grell or when we get back I'm going to use you as target practice. I want this done perfectly and quickly! Kyron will succeed where the mighty Breetai has failed, that will show that fool and impress lord Dolza at the same time."

Lisa organized the survey teams and the pickup and supply teams within a half hour of arriving at the base. By the time that was done, it had become obvious that there was no one left alive here. A few suits with fossilized corpses in them, a few pieces of clothing ripped and torn by the wind, open doors and the silence of the dead stood mute testimony to that fact. They had swiftly found the beacon that had called them here, a jury rigged device that someone had activated long ago but who obviously had not lived to see its signal answered

Once everything was organized Lisa went off to explore the base on her own. First she checked the armory and cafeteria domes, ostensibly to check in with the team leaders there but really to see if there was any sign, any sign at all of habitation. There wasn't but she continued to search determinedly. After a while she found herself in the main dome that housed the old fusion generator that powered the base as well as the living quarters. She walked its empty halls looking around desperately for some sign that someone might still be alive here. Then she found it, a door with the name 'Ryber, Karl' on a plaque set into the metal of the door.

Lisa slowly opened the door, part of her, hoping against all reason that he would be there. But he wasn't and she stepped in, looking around. For a moment she stood there looking at some of his belongings, all neatly put away and organized. It was only when she saw the one picture on the small desk in the door that she broke down and cried. How long she was there she didn't know, but when she recovered she wiped her eyes and stood up, looking around one last time before leaving and closing the door behind her. For some reason the cry had been therapeutic, like it had helped begin the process of letting go at last. Or perhaps it was the knowledge that she had people waiting for her back on the fortress that made her get up and go. Whatever the case, she had a job to do, and Lisa Hayes never left a job half done.

"I'm running out of patience Grell, tell me the gravity mines are fully powered or else I'm going to come back there and motivate you personally!"

Grell didn't bother to point out that he still had ten minutes to meet Kyron's deadline, he knew that would pointless. "95% lord, another ten minutes and they will be at full power. The space fortress won't be moving anywhere after that.

"Excellent Grell, you've just saved yourself from the firing squad."

As Kyron said this off to one side of his Glaug a Reguld began to shake in place. "Lord Kyron, I can't stand any more of this, I'm going now!" And without waiting for orders the pilot boosted his thrusters jumping up and beginning to leave the cover of the canyon.

"You'll do no such thing fool!" Growled Kyron, taking aim and blowing the errant Reguld out of the sky with one of the heavy impact cannons mounted in the mechs arms. As the burning Reguld crashed to the sand below Kyron turned and faced the rest of his command. "Let that be a lesson! If I have to suffer like this so do all of you, we move when I say we do and not a minute sooner, understood?!"

A chorus of frightened assents answered him and he nodded grimly.

On board the SDF-1, Vanessa looked at her readouts. "Captain, there's been some kind of disturbance up in the canyons between here and the mountains, section 12. My readings indicate it may have been laser fire."

Gloval cursed. Perhaps this was too good to be true, but damn it we needed the meat, I mean the electronic parts! "Order a fly-by of the area and get Commander Fokker and Mannstein on the line. Inform them what we are doing and why. Then radio Cm. Hayes and tell her to expedite the convoy's movements." Claudia and Vanessa nodded, turning back to their consoles to carry out his orders. As they did Kim powered up the tertiary and secondary weapons and Sammy sent out an alert to her repair teams.

Silver was the closest squadron to the disturbance and captain Foss decided to do a fly by in force, thinking that if something was there it would be better if they were there in force. Something was there, but nothing a single squadron could handle. As soon as they flew over the last canyon between the ship and the mountains he saw the canyon packed wall to wall with battlepods. "Silver one to command, battlepods incoming via the canyons, repeat at least three hundred plus battle pods coming our" that was the last thing he said as below him a new type of pod no human had seen before fired with the cannon on its back vaporizing his Veritech with a single shot. The air was suddenly alive with canon and laser blasts, forcing the rest of the Valkyrie squadron into evasive maneuvers.

Despite it not having been ten minutes Kyron was happy that the trap had been spotted as it allowed him to get in the first kill and he watched happily as the rest of his force pounced on the other Micronian fighters who had found their hiding place. "Oh well, that does it. Grell power up the gravity mines now! The rest of you, attack!" With that order a little under two regiments of Reguld mechs moved forward along the surface and inside the canyons, their mission to sweep all the defenders before them and take Zor's mighty vessel for themselves.

Gloval cursed again as the radar began to spawn red dots faster than he could count them. "Get Skull and the other reserves into the air now, all squadrons to engage and try to cut up their assault lines. Move the destroid companies to that side, Mannstein has discretion on their positioning. Can we depress the secondary weapons enough to use them as artillery?"

Kim shook his head and Gloval curse again, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his pipe. Sticking it between his teeth he continued. "Lt. Porter, get us out of here, once in the air we'll move to Mars Base Sara and pick the convoy up there somehow, maybe using the Veritechs to lift the trucks into the air, that'll give the Valkyries and destroids more room to maneuver." Sammy nodded and began to power up the main repulsor engine. Suddenly the ship lurched. She poured more power into it, and the ship lurched again but that was all.

Vanessa shouted from her position, "Captain four large gravitic anomalies detected situated around us. They're preventing us from taking off!"

Gloval cursed again and was about to light his pipe when Sammy said "Captain smoking on the bridge is prohibited!" Gloval sighed. The ship was about to face possibly its toughest fight yet and he couldn't even smoke despite Nodoka not being on the bridge this time. Life sometimes wasn't worth getting out of bed for.

Far above the ship Ranma followed Commander Prescott and his squad-mates as they dove down on the area where Silver was ambushed, torn between cursing and laughing. "Ha, I told you all, I told ya, prepare for weeks of 'I told ya's' everyone, and boss, you and the commander prepare for your punishment games!"

Prescott answered him, irritated. "Yes, yes, Blue 5 now can we possibly concentrate on killing these arses?"

"Heh, fine" Ranma became serious as they flew directly above the battlepods in the canyons. "Recommend we use missiles on the sides of the canyon above them, bury the bastards."

"Negative, conserve your ammo" Prescott said automatically, knowing that the heat seeking missiles were sometimes the difference between life and death in a dogfight.

The gravelly voice of colonel Mannstein suddenly spoke over the radio. "Overruled commander Prescott, sending telemetry now, destroy the canyons at positions marked on your map. I'm sending Green on the same mission on the other side. After that's done start attacking battlepods on the surface according to Commander Fokker's orders."

Prescott looked at the now marked map and raised an eloquent eyebrow. "Roger that, be aware this disposition leaves the most direct route to the city open."

"That is the point," Mannstein drawled.

"Heheheh" Ranma laughed "Sounds like someone wants ta get it stuck in huh old man?"

Mannstein barked a laugh. "Heh, that's colonel to you sonny boy, but you're right Apocalypse is hungry."

Ranma laughed then cut the connection. Following his squad mates into an attack run, he hammered the sides of the marked canyon with missiles. The thirty missiles hit almost as one, causing a massive landslide to bury several battlepods and cutting off that canyon. This forced many of the battlepods out into the open ground around the down fortress and they immediately began to take fire from the Defenders. As they moved closer that fire would be augmented by the fire of the Tomahawks and Spartans. All around most of the canyons leading toward the Macross were blocked off from the rubble forcing the battlepods in them to either backtrack to the main canyon leading to it or to come out onto the surface. Ranma and the rest of blue squadron began to take potshots at the forces below as they came out. They stayed up high, well out of the gravity anomaly that had forced the battlepods to remain on the ground just like the fortress, an unforeseen consequence that was going to cost them dearly.

The Monster-class destroid was built by the Russian company Uralvagonzavod, a company that had previously specialized in tank manufacture. It had tried to bid for the contract to build the first spaceships on the power of their heavy grazer, plasma based laser, design. Unfortunately they lost out to the missile proponents, but this left them with several heavy weapons designs just lying around, as well as a design for a heavy but small spaceship. Slap some legs on and voila, the Monster was born. It looked nothing so much like a hunchback, bent under the weight of its four huge main grazers, which were of a size that they wouldn't be out of place as a short range secondary weapon on the space fortress, though their range was a little too short for that. Each of its arms it held two heavier versions of the PPC's that made up the arms of the Tomahawk. A Monster could battle a water based battleship and come off on top with relative ease, but because of their cost were very rare. Of the five that had been created before the aliens attacked two had been on the space fortress. One, nicknamed Onslaught by its crew had been decommissioned, but the other, Apocalypse, was Mannstein's original command platform.

In space of course their lack of mobility and anti-air weaponry was an issue, as was its inability to turn quickly. On terra-ferma however that was not a problem, especially when the enemy came to them along a single route.

Mannstein had planned this defense on the fly but it was a good one. Apocalypse accompanied by a single company of Tomahawks and backed by a company of Defenders stood in the main canyon leading towards the space fortress, but the other destroids were really only there to protect him from getting surrounded.

Mannstein looked down at his gunner with a grim smile as the first group of battlepods appeared around a corner of the canyon. "Fire."

The canyon was suddenly filled with blazing light as the gunner fired their grazers, superheated plasma zooming down range in a ravening blaze. The first two hundred battlepods didn't even know what hit them before they died, none of them even able to see it save the front row they were packed in so tightly. The next second four PPC blasts five feet to a side followed, destroying a few dozen more. After that Apocalypse went to rapid fire and death walked the canyon, hundreds of battlepods dying every few seconds. A few shots answered, but against the heavy frontal armor of the Monster they were ineffective.

Kyron cursed as fire cut down more of his front ranks. The gravity mines cutting down their own ability to jump had severely limited their maneuverability and whatever that was ahead of them had more than enough power to hold the last open canyon against them. "All battlepods make your way to the surface, use the rubble the Micronians made, use anything but get out of the canyon and join the others!"

He turned and followed his troops, bounding as much as he could to make his way slowly up a pile of rock and to the surface.

Ranma dove down hammering a series of shots into an enemy battlepod on the surface before turning into guardian mode, skimming in front of a line of the enemy and cutting several of them down as Rick stayed above blazing away with his own guns from where he was in the air. "Ranma you idiot, now you won't be able to get back in the air!"

Ranma grinned, pushed his ki out and pumped even more power into his thrusters as he jumped up, stomping on a battlepod and using it as a springboard into the air. Ranma felt his Valkyrie shudder, but he kept pouring more power into it and after a second he powered out of whatever was holding everyone else to the ground. "Oh really?"

Rick dodged fire from several battlepods automatically even as he gaped at Ranma who smoothly transformed back into his fighter mode and went back to strafing runs. "Damn I don't know how you do it."

"It's all about ki and control Rick, that's all there is to it." Ranma frowned as he saw more and more battlepods coming out of the canyons and moving over the level ground towards the fortress. "Er, blue 1?"

"I see it Blue 5. Fall in, we're going to do a strafing run right down the canyon to the left, see if we can catch more of them that way."

"Roger." Ranma fell in and blue squadron formed up and flew down hammering the wave of battlepods in the pass. As they pulled up Ranma frowned watching as one of the remaining battlepods below them blew up from fire behind it, then fire ripped into the sky, clipping the last two Veritechs to pull away. Out stepped a new type of pod that he hadn't seen before. Larger in every way than a normal pod with a hunched appearance it had two large arms with two weapons on each and a large cannon on its back that was still smoking. "Oh now that just ain't right. Blue one, I'm gonna go check out something, be back in a few."

"Blue 5, what the hell are you, wait get back here, Blue 5, damn it get back here!"

Ranma had already changed into his soldier mode and turned off his thrusters, dropping like a stone straight toward the new type of battlepod. "Banzai!" By the time he arrived the pod had moved on slightly but he still smacked into its side, sending it skidding back down the slope. He toggled his radio onto the channel Claudia had said was the enemy's main communication channel and began the smack talk. "Ya seem ta like ta hit people who won't fire back, why don't ya try me on fer size ya giant asshole!" Not his best but hey, he was trying to insult an alien, best to start simple.

Kyron shook his head from the surprise attack, and he turned his mech to look up the boulder strewn slope at the Micronian machine that had struck him. It was the same type as their flyers in soldier mode, but the paint job was different. It had blue markings on its wings like a few others he could see thought they were different, and the rest of the robot was painted matte black save for the center which was dominated by a strange circular symbol of deep crimson and blue with some kind of beast etched in white in front of it.

He blinked in shock and then reddened with anger as the transmission came over his radio. That new program of Exedore's seems to be working at least. "Leave this one to me, the rest of you keep going!" he powered forward faster than the other Robot could compensate for, blasting with both arm mounted cannons as he came. "I am going to gut you like a dresh Micronian scum!"

"Uh command, be advised that Blue five has engaged some kind of commander on the other side in single combat. I tried to order him away but…"

Gloval cut into the communication, staring at the tactical readout in shock. "Don't worry about it Blue 1, it seems Sugita's instincts have helped us here." On the screen he watched as the attack which had been moving forward with purpose and a driving intelligence behind it suddenly bogged down. Again it appeared as if the normal aliens couldn't think past the need to get to grips with the enemy, which was paying dividends for the fortress and the defense as a whole but not for isolated units. He winced as a Spartan company that had closed with the enemy was slaughtered to a man as they used their still superior speed and agility to keep the distance open and gun them down. Yet on the other side a group of Tomahawk destroids destroyed over three times their number in two minutes before falling back in good order, drawing even more battlepods toward them rather than straight to the ship. Without a commanding presence to make them keep their distance from such hard points and to force the aliens to concentrate on the fortress the aliens were at a serious disadvantage but they still had vast numerical superiority.

Mannstein seemed to be fighting the land battle as well as he could, and Apocalypse was reaping a terrible toll while Fokker had his flights aiding the rest of the defense. The real problem however was that more seemed to be coming forward all the time, bypassing the Apocalypse held canyon and coming over the ground at the fortress. No matter how valiant the defense it was only a matter of time before the numbers began to tell. "Lt. Laird, Cm. Grant, are we any closer to finding a way out of this trap?"

Vanessa nodded. "We've managed to isolate where the gravity anomalies that are keeping us here are originating from, but without being able to depress the secondary guns we don't have any ordinance that can dig deep enough to get them."

"How many would we need to destroy before we could lift off?"

"Only one, even now it's taking all their power to keep us here. With even one less the fortress could power through it." Sammy responded from the helm.

"Show me their positions on the map." She sent the data Gloval stared at the map for a moment. "Lt. Young would this one" he pointed to one between the fortress present position and Mars base Sara. "be within the range of the explosion if we set the bases generator off?"

Kim used her console to do some calculations for a moment and then nodded. "Yes captain, it would be, but we still have people there."

"Get Commander Hayes on the line. It looks like we made the correct decision to send her. Signal the withdrawl, I want all destroids back in the fortress in an hour."

A moment later commander Hayes' worried face appeared. "Captain, how goes the battle? We're nearly ready to pull out here, just loading the last of the supplies now."

"Commander, I have a job for you." Gloval stated gravely.

Lisa expedited the convoy off its way, ordering Tan squadron to leave with them as guards. It was a good thing she had because even as they were leaving a lost column of battlepods attacked the convoy. The fight was brief but intense, but what was worse was an errant shot had the misfortune to fly through the open gate a slam into the jeep Lisa had intended to use as her getaway vehicle, slagging it.

Lisa didn't notice, having already turned away as the convoy left the base, running inside the main building to carry out her orders. It took her about five minute's hard running to traverse the interior to the generator room. Once inside she sadly looked at the skeleton in the chair, its clothing so worn that she couldn't even see the name tag, just another nameless soldier who would never have a proper burial. Another two minutes to set the generator to overheat, and she walked back the way she came. Another minute passed before the base speakers began to blare a warning. "Warning self-destruct sequence activated, warning self-destruct sequence activated, warning self-destruct sequence activated!"

Lisa ran back out of the base to the entrance, only to find her jeep somehow destroyed. She stood there for a moment, knowing now she was going to die here, ther was no other way to get out of the blast radius, she certainly couldn't run that far that fast. At least Karl and I can be together in death then. A voice in her spacesuits helmet pulled her out of her depression for a moment. "Commander Hayes, Lisa, what's your status, we're reading massive fluctuations in the base generator, you did it! What's your eta back here?"

Lisa sighed. "I don't think that's going to happen, Claudia. My ride is totaled, must have been a stray ordinance or something. Either way I can't get out of the blast zone. Still it's all right as long as the ship can get away safely."

"W-what are you talking about, don't give up like that! You still have a lot of years ahead of you before I let you talk like that! We're going to get help over to you right now! Just stay put!"

"In the time left there's no way you could get someone out to me and then back out of the blast zone, don't throw someone else's life away trying the impossible Claudia it's okay. I-I'm okay with this. At least this way I'll see Karl again." She cut the connection before Claudia could say anymore.

Lisa looked out over the base for a moment before turning and walking back inside the main building and up to Karl's room. Once there she took the photo of the two of them from off the desk, sat down and stared at it. For a time she sat there, lost in her memories. With the image in front of her the new, warm part of her soul stood no chance against the melancholy that gripped her.

Until that is, she heard a voice from outside the window.

Surprised by the speed of his enemy Ranma couldn't back away fast enough and was forced to dodge most of the oncoming energy beams but one clipped him, throwing him to the side despite his augmenting his armor with the energy from his Veritechs battery. Still they do have some kind of translation program, cool, that means I can really get into it! "Oh did I hurt your feelings ya asshole, ya shoot worse than a day old trainee!" Man I wish I knew more about these guys, insulting 'em takes a little more thought than I'm used ta, to they even have mothers or old people?

He fired back but his shot went wild as this new pod jumped up and attempted to land on him. Ranma rolled his mech, coming to his knees and spraying fire at the enemy pod, who took one shot on the nose before dodging the others.

"How dare you Micronian! I'm going to bury you here on this planet!" Firing again the alien mech closed in further only this time Ranma moved to meet it, dodging the shots and the hammer strike from one of its arms, thundering back with his free arm and then kicking off the pod's side, sending him backwards and the mech onto its side for a second before the pilot righted himself.

"Is that all ya can say, scum, come on put some effort into yer insults ya mangy, cowardly genetic defect!" Damnit give me something ta work with!

"Ge-genetic defect, h-how dare you, you shit eating piece of garbage! You will regret the day you met Kyron!" The so named Kyron pumped out more blasts from his hand cannons, but Ranma dodged them almost negligently, using his head lasers to stitch up the side of his enemy.

"I can tell yer having problems here, so I'll give ya a hint. Ya need ta find something yer opponents sensitive about, then insult it as well as ya can. Something like, you guys are so big 'cause you're overcompensating for yer little dicks and little brains. At the mere sight of our mighty fortress your ship captains shrivel and shrink in fear! The reason you need so many mechs is ta even the odds 'cause no one of ya is worth even a fiftieth of one of us!"

Kyron didn't understand everything the Micronian had said but what he did he didn't like. "Little, shrivel, shrink, you miniscule Micronian I'm going to reduce you to your constituent atoms and scatter them to the four winds!" He charged again, forgetting for a moment that he could even use his robot arms for more than blunt weapons.

Ranma grinned, his 'make-em mad make-em stupid' plan had worked very well here, and he'd learned a bit more about what could tick these guys off. "Man, ya need ta work on this don't ya, that's a threat not an insult, get it right fucktard!" Ranma kept his distance lobbing more insults Kyron's way, trying to figure out what other buttons he had for the next fifteen minutes. When he decided enough was enough he closed in.

Grabbing the left arm of the enemy mech, he twisted it down to fire into the ground then ripped it off as the mech turned body checking him away, nearly cracking his canopy and taking two of the lasers on his robot's head off with a another blast from its back mounted beam gun.

It tried to bring its back mounted beam gun to bear again but Ranma brought up his own blaster, taking it out before it could fire. In return he lost his right shoulder from a return shot by the enemy's other arm, his arm dropping to the ground still holding his blaster. He tried to fire his remaining head mounted lasers but they refused to fire, the mechanism damaged from the shot that nailed the other side of his head.

Ranma ducked forward again closing the distance before the enemy could re-aim and smashing his fist against one of the mechs robot legs. As Kyron brought his last arm down like a monstrous hammer onto his back cracking and denting his back armor he concentrated his ki into the fist of his Veritech and "moko ha Reiku!" For a moment the fist glowed gold and then a beam of golden fire blew straight through the knee of his enemy.

The pod crashed to the ground next to him, and Ranma, robotic joints groaning and battery nearly exhausted from using his ki stood over it. The pod tried to push itself off the ground but was only able to move along the ground a little. Ranma smirked triumphantly. "Heh, ain't as easy as hitting your own side from the back is it loser?" He reached down and picked up his cannon with his Valkyrie's still functioning left arm.

Just as he was about to turn and finish his enemy off he got a call from the fortress.

"Blue six, emergency! Commander Hayes on orders from captain Gloval has made the reactor go critical, it's going to blow but she's trapped inside. You're the only unit nearby with enough speed to get her out of there!"

Ranma stopped, looking around and realized their fight had taken them nearly all the way around the fortress from the main battle. In the distance he could see the base. He was about to boost away when the alien called him. "Wait, Micronian where are you going! Finish me off!"

Ranma smirked, bent his robot over and smacked his ass before rocketing into the air on a ki boosted blast from his thrusters. "Ya got a reprieve this time loser, next time ya won't be so lucky. Try ta think up some better insults before the next battle, oh, and brush up your piloting skills too, later asshole!"

"Micronian, wait! Come back here, Micronian!"

Ranma ignored him, changing into his guardian form then boosting even more power into his thrusters in a race against time. It took him only a moment to get to the base, and another two minutes to home in on Lisa's transponder. When he did Ranma was surprised to see it in the main building rather than outside waiting for pickup. Circling the building he peered into each room until he found her, sitting on a bed and crying quietly while holding a picture in her hand.

Realizing this was a private moment he hesitated for a second then the urgency of the situation made him speak. "Y'know that's touching and all, but can we get outta here? The generators gonna blow in five minutes."

Lisa whirled toward him and even through the glass of the window and her spacesuit helmet he could see the shock on her face. "Ensign Sugita what the hell are you doing here, I told Claudia not to send anyone!"

"Well she did anyway, so we might as well attempt the impossible and try ta get out of here in one piece. Besides I've kinda made a living out of doing the impossible."

Lisa was never certain later whether it was her love for Karl Ryber that made her speak, or the part of her that was still an infatuated little girl who thought that dying to be with your love was the height of romance. Regardless she snapped "No, I told Claudia I was fine with dying here. Now leave me alone and save yourself"

Ranma lost his temper a little, "Hell no! I'm not gonna let you make a selfish decision like that, no way!" He reached up with one finger and began to carefully peel away the outer wall of the room, worried that if he did it more violently Lisa would be hit by debris.

"Selfish how is it selfish to want to be with the man I love!"

"Its selfish 'cause you're not thinking of all the people who'd miss ya if ya died! How do you think Kasumi or Claudia would feel losing their best friend, or the gossip trio losing one of their friends huh, or me! I don't got so many friends that I'll let one of 'em throw her life away just 'cause she think she's in some bad romance novel!"

That said he finished removing the window, just in time to hear the voice of the base computer through the bases interior speakers. "Two minutes to self-destruct, two minutes to self-destruct!"

"Now are you gonna come quietly or am I gonna have ta just grab ya!?"

Lisa stood stunned by the declaration and the passion in his voice it really drove home that she would be missed if she died. She hadn't thought how her death would affect other people. I really was being selfish. And with that realization she stepped forward onto the Valkyrie's outstretched hand. As he brought the hand up to the cockpit Ranma put on his re-breather, then popped open the canopy. Lisa dropped inside, sitting on his lap as the canopy closed. Without a minute to spare Ranma poured all his ki and the remaining power of the battery into his thrusters and blasted off, changing into plane mode as he left the base behind.

Lisa popped her helmet off, and reached down to take Ranma's re-breather off as he worked the controls. "Th-thank you for the rescue ensign. and for the words too. I'm sorry, I guess I was behaving immaturely there."

"Nah, ya just read too many romance novels as a kid, it could be worse, I met a guy who read so many fantasy books he thought he could turn himself inta a voodoo witch doctor." She chuckled a little as they crossed the edge of the danger zone, far faster than she would have thought possible. It was then she noticed that Ranma had his eyes closed and his hands were glowing with the blue gold fire that indicated he was using ki. She realized their quick escape was costing him as he labored to breathe for a moment before going on. "Yer gonna have ta tell me about him sometime, he musta been on hell of a guy ta be worthy of ya like that. Or better yet tell Kasumi, she's way better at emotional stuff than me."

"Yes, yes he was. Maybe we four could have a sleepover I understand those are always good for getting over romantic entanglements. I think, I think I'm ready to talk about him now" Lisa said, and was startled to realize it was true. Whether it was Ranma's words, or that her attempted suicide had been the last desperate act of the part of her that still loved Karl and lived in the past with her memories of him, she really was ready to move on.

Behind them the generator at last exploded, and within seconds the mine nearest the base was destroyed. As soon as it wasn't adding its power to the field holding the space fortress Kim poured power back into the engine andMacross broke free, heading skyward. Lisa saw it and directed Ranma who still had his eyes closed with concentration to move in that direction. "Of course that implies I'm going to survive the chewing out Claudia is about to give me."

"You'll survive, you're tough like that, just don't have any more Juliet moments okay? I don't mind savin' ya, but I don't want ta make a habit of it."

She blushed a little at the compliment. "Duly noted ensign, and Ranma" she turned his head up to look at her and he opened his eyes in surprise. Blue eyes met green for a moment as she smiled and said "Thanks."

Ranma blushed, before going concentrating on moving his ki through the Veritech again. "Y-you're welcome."

Lisa giggled as ahead of them the space fortress loomed large, one hanger bay already opening.

From his place on top of his wrecked Glaug Kyron glared up at the escaping battleship with a look of utter hate on his face as Grell pulled up beside him in his Reguld. "Lord Kyron, the ship escaped when they blew up the old base, we never thought they'd do something like that! What should we do now?"

Kyron scowled. "Gather the men up, and signal the fleet in to pick us up. This operation failed, but we're not done with the Micronians not by a long shot." And when next we meet my talkative adversary, you will meet your maker! I swear it!

As Ranma's Valkyrie settled into the tarmac he sneezed drawing Lisa's attention form the glowering form of Claudia on the other side of the glass overlook. "Catching a cold Ranma?"

Ranma shook his head. "Never had a cold, it's probably someone swearing eternal vengeance on me or something."

"Happens often does it?" Lisa asked dryly.

"More often than I care ta think of." Ranma said sadly.

End chapter

So what do you guys think of my introduction to Kyron? Can anyone say comical rival, I knew you could.