Ah, This chapter's the one where my bastardization of Minmei's character really starts to show. Then again, according to reviewers, this is infinitely better than her original character, which is apparently a lot like Chibi-Usa, only worse... I guess you could think of that as the good thing that came from this fanfic, maybe.
Anyways, sorry for the rambling. Here ya go.
Chapter 7, Ambush is a relative term.
Roy Fokker listened intently to his Radio as they were about to announce the winner of the pageant. He expected, of course, that it would be Minmei. As a result, he almost rolled his Veritech in a 180 as the winner was announced. "Ranma Saotome!"
"Um...Rick, did you just hear?" Roy asked, stunned.
"Yeah Roy, Yeah I did." Rick responded, equally stunned.
"Well, our patrol ended 3 minutes ago. let's go congratulate the kid." Roy said, a hint of a chuckle in his voice.
Suddenly, Ranma's replacement in the flight spoke up. "What's the big deal about that "Saotome" person winning?"
Roy laughed. "That "Saotome person" Used to fly skull 3."
The new skull 3 pilot just sputtered.
HR.
Minmei, unlike the others who had been told that they lost, was not disappointed. She was too busy laughing her butt off at the stunned and horrified expression on Ranma's face.
"Come on up here Captain Saotome!" Furbish said, enthusiastically.
Ranma numbly walked forward to the microphone.
"So, how do you feel?" Furbish asked, holding the mike in front of Ranma's mouth.
"Erhm...Well, kinda confused actually..." Ranma responded, hesitantly. "You guys do know I'm actually a guy right?"
The audience clapped, apparently acknowledging that point. Actually, the final vote was a combination of many things. About 1/3 of the half of the crowd that had known about Ranma's curse before the pageant voted for her just because she gave them a good laugh. Others in that side of the crowd honestly just thought Ranma was cute and didn't care that she was really a guy. As for the other half of the crowd, They were kind of confused by the constant references to one of the contestants being male, with such lines as "Do you see any men up there honey?" being repeated occasionally, but they did know good singing and humor and Ranma did both. That half of the crowd was a deadlock between Ranma and Minmei. In the end, Ranma had more votes and won.
Furbish laughed. "Well, in my office I told you that from the look of your picture, you would have a good chance of winning."
Ranma groaned.
Furbish walked over to the side of the stage and grabbed a white sash. Putting it over Ranma's head he said, "Now come on. Wave."
Ranma unthinkingly obeyed, still too stunned to do anything else. She heard clapping from behind her and turned. There, standing at the back stage entrance were...
"Roy? Rick? What's going on? I thought you guys were on patrol."
Roy walked up and clapped Ranma on the shoulder. "We figured we'd come and congratulate the lovely young lady who won the contest." He said, with a smirk. "Let's go to the Dragon. Minmei says she'll unlock it for us and even make us something."
Minmei could be seen, smiling and laughing, behind Roy.
Ranma growled. "I'll get you for that "Lovely Young Lady" crack...but I'm hungry so I'll take you up on that offer of free food."
As the group of four, Ranma, Roy, Rick and Minmei, walked to the door, Furbish ran up behind them.
"Wait! Captain Saotome, you forgot your prize."
Ranma blinked and turned. The older man handed her two pieces of paper. "What are these?"
"That's a contract for a recording company in town. The other is a Movie deal for when we get back to earth." Furbish said, pointing to the respective pieces of paper.
"Recording...Movie deal?" Ranma blinked a few times, shrugged and pocketed them. "Thanks I guess."
The four walked off.
HR.
"Sorry Minmei, I was honestly trying to lose that contest." Ranma said, as they walked down the street.
"It's Ok Ranma. I got to the finals and that comedy act was payback. I wish I'd gotten that recording deal though..." Minmei said, slightly longingly at the end.
Ranma pulled it out of her pocket and smoothed it out. Looking over it, she saw that there was no name on it except for the space for the signature. "Well, the contract isn't specific...You can have it if you want. I don't wanna sing anyways."
Minmei's eyes widened. "Really?" Her voice was excited.
"Yep, here you go." Ranma flipped the paper to Minmei. "I'm keeping that Movie deal though...It could be fun and if it's a martial arts flick..."
Roy laughed. "Kid...I've said this before and I'll say this again. You're weird."
Rick just walked silently, looking from Minmei to Ranma to Roy and back again. Then he spoke up. "You know captain, we look a lot like a couple of couples right now." He was immediately glared at by Ranma and Roy.
Two responses came at once. "Shut up Rick, before I hurt you."
Rick gulped.
The group walked into the white dragon after Minmei had unlocked it. "Yay, food!" Ranma said, enthusiastically.
Roy and Minmei laughed, Rick was still too nervous to find much funny.
"Oh, Can I get some hot water?" Ranma asked, sitting at a table.
Minmei nodded as the other two sat down next to Ranma.
Roy spoke up. "So, other than this...oddness, what's been going on with you kid?"
Ranma shrugged as she accepted a glass of warm water from Minmei. "Nothin' much, the squadron's been pulled off for repairs, as you know. These new types of Veritechs are supposed to be really good." She stopped as she poured the water over her head. He winced as his RDF uniform became uncomfortably tight for a second before the strings loosened off.
"Man, No matter how many times I see that..It's still weird." Minmei said, chuckling.
"Look at it from this side." Ranma said, also chuckling.
"No thank you!" Minmei said, vehemently, causing the other three to start laughing.
"Don't worry, I only got one packet of instant Nannichuan and I ain't wasting it on you." Ranma said. "I'll probably use it if I need to stay in normal form during a rain storm or something."
"Instant what?" Rick asked, confused.
"Oh, it's a powder that simulates a Jusenkyo curse. That's what I used on Lang a couple months back, Remember? Unfortunately it's only temporary."
Roy shrugged. "Whatever works." and then smiled as he saw Minmei, running off to the kitchen and returning with four plates of food.
Setting them down, she made a show of yanking her fingers back at Ranma's for fear of having them bitten off. The second said fingers were out of the way, Ranma lunged for the food.
"Man Minmei, I love your food, It's almost as good as Kasumi's." Ranma said from behind a mouth full of rice.
"Hey kid, I've always meant to ask, why do you eat that fast?" Roy asked, eating his food at a normal rate of speed.
"Well, I first started doing it when pops started stealing food off my plate. After a while of doing it, I realized that it was helping my reflexes. Getting food from a plate to my mouth that fast without spilling any, I mean." Ranma's unusually intelligent statement caught Roy off guard.
"Yeesh kid, is everything martial arts to you?"
"Pretty much." Ranma responded, shortly.
Rick, Roy and Minmei blinked.
"You know, the scary thing is...he's serious." Minmei muttered. Rick and Roy just nodded.
Ranma got up. "Well, I gotta go sleep this meal off. Thanks Minmei. Vermillion's got its first patrol in a week tomorrow and I think I'm gunna have to deal with some smart mouthed pilots. See ya."
"See ya later Kid." Roy said.
"Later Ranma. Don't hurt 'em too bad." Minmei chuckled.
Rick just shrugged.
HR.
Reko, Brun and Kunda were three Zentraedi technicians. About 3 hours ago, they had intercepted some sort of strange Micronian transmission from Zhor's ship. It looked like some sort of Combat Ritual. As Brun listened to the strange noises that two of the Micronian Females were making, he began subconsciously tapping his foot.
"Brun, what are you doing?" Reko asked.
"Come and listen to this Reko, it's pretty pleasant to listen to even if I can't understand the language."
Reko shrugged and walked over, putting on a headset. "Wow, you're right. This is nice. I wonder what kind of purpose it has in combat. Something to encourage the troops?"
Kunda, who had already heard the strange Micronian noises earlier, shrugged. "I don't know. All I know is that it's nice to listen to. I made a recording of it for myself. If I understood the little bit of their speech that I could make out correctly, the two Micronians who were making those noises were named "Ranmasaotome" and "Linminmei.""
Brun raised an eyebrow. "I wonder why such long names?"
Reko looked contemplative. "Well, the Meltraedi have pretty long names as well. Remember that "Meriaparino" and her Quadranos?"
Brun and Kunda nodded. It had seemed a little odd to call in a Meltraedi strike force for this mission...but Commander Bretai had to know what he was doing...right?
Reko took a recording of the entire signal from the Micronian ship out of the player. "I have to get this to Commander Bretai." The other two just nodded as he walked out of the room.
HR.
Ranma Saotome was rudely awakened from a dream about him, Akane and a Kasumi cooked picnic by the sound of something smashing on the hallway floor. Groaning, he rolled over and stuck his pillow over his head. As the banging and crashing sounds persisted, he finally got fed up and got up from his bunk, only wearing a pair of boxers and a T-shirt.
Opening his door, he yelled "Shut UP! Some people are tryin to sleep over he..." He trailed off as he saw the five people standing at his door, A bunch of Cameras arrayed behind them. "What the hell is going on here?"
One of the people spoke up. "We're here to interview Captain Saotome. She disappeared so fast after the pageant, we didn't get a chance."
Ranma growled. "So, you came around, banging stuff off the walls at 5 AM to INTERVIEW me? That's it, I'm goin back to bed. Unlike you jokers, I actually have a JOB to do in a few hours." He slammed the door.
The reporters exchanged glances. "Interview him?"
"Then he's ..."
"She wasn't kidding."
They knocked frantically at the door again. Growling, Ranma pulled on his uniform pants and shirt, figuring that he didn't have a chance of going back to sleep now.
"What is it?" He snapped, as he reopened the door.
"So you're Captain Saotome?" One of the five reporters, who had somehow missed Ranma's death glare spoke up.
"...Yeah, Why?" Ranma said. "Look, I'm busy with important work like helping to keep this place from being vaporized. I'd appreciate it if you people don't do this again. Got..." He was cut off by another of the five reporters throwing a bottle of water at him. "Um...and you did that because?" She asked, even more irritated.
All of the reporters blinked and began asking questions at once. Deciding this was getting ridiculous, Ranma just hopped over them, crushing a camera in the process and ran down the hall.
On her way to the white dragon for an early breakfast, Ranma cursed as she realized that the place was probably not open. Not to mention that she had left her wallet back in her room. To make her morning even better, she heard someone running up behind her, and jumped out of the way just in time as Ryoga stabbed his umbrella right through where she used to be.
"What did I do now, Ryoga?" Ranma asked, quickly getting annoyed with the lost boy's timing.
Ryoga almost let his grin escape as he said, "You entered the MISS Macross contest Ranma. What kind of a guy are you. Worse yet, you won." He swung out in a spin kick, missing Ranma as she retaliated with a brutal straight kick to his back.
"Look P-chan. I had no choice. As for winning...I tried to lose." Ranma said, exasperated.
"Shut up with your excuses Ranma. You sicken me!" Ryoga picked himself up from the ground where Ranma's kick had sent him. Brushing his engineer's overalls off, he charged.
Ranma engaged in a half hour struggle against Ryoga, until she managed to hit his "Instant Unconsciousness" shiatsu point and put him to sleep. "Damn...Ryoga's getting better..." She huffed as she placed the comatose lost boy on the ground. She whirled as she heard clapping.
"Roy? How're you doing?" Ranma asked, as she saw Roy Fokker sitting on a low wall next to the battle field.
"Ok, I'm just watching a pretty good fight. At least I was, until you knocked him out." Roy said, chuckling.
Ranma shrugged. "I'd probably have enjoyed it if I wasn't so damned tired."
Roy raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, you are up kinda early for you aren't you. Why?"
Ranma scowled. "Some idiot reporters showed up at my room. They made so much noise that I got up. When I opened the door and said I was Ranma Saotome, someone threw a bottle of cold water at me and started asking questions...so I ran."
Roy started laughing. "Kid, now you've got reporters after you, too? Funny, I thaught all you had to worry about was lost people and girls."
"Shut up Fokker." Ranma growled. "I'm the same rank as you now so I can say that."
Roy shrugged and walked off. "Better get moving Saotome, You're shift starts in 40 minutes."
"AK!" Ranma yelped as she saw the time displayed on a clock. She had been wandering longer than she had thought and that fight with Ryoga took up WAY too much time. She began running towards the area of the ship that contained the Vermillion Briefing room.
HR.
Ranma ran into Vermillion's briefing room, actually short of breath. Somehow, she had managed to end up on the complete opposite end of the ship and it had taken her 20 minutes to get back here. The problem was that the flight launched in another 20 minutes and Briefings usually took about that long.
"Hi Captain." Max said, Grinning. "Great work yesterday."
Ranma growled. "Shut up sterling or I'll assign you to maintenance again."
Ben spoke up. "Sir, Why are you a girl?"
Ranma looked down at herself and realized that she'd forgotten to snatch any hot water on her headlong rush through the ship. "That is a long story which I really don't want to get into. Let's just say that reporters are as annoying as everyone says they are."
Everyone blinked and decided not to ask.
Ranma walked to the podium at the front of the room. "Alright, our machines are back from the shop and have been upgraded to VF-1J Variants. Mine is still the same R type but yours should have more maneuverability and a better radar set. The J Variant has fewer missiles but a better lock system and its pilot to mecha link is marginally better than a VF-1A's. Mr. Sterling suggested these upgrades a week ago and we now have them. These planes should be a pleasure to fly. We've drawn close patrol today and for once that's good. We'll be testing out our new aircraft. Is that understood?"
Everyone in the squadron had big smiles on their faces. The general train of thought was 'Oohh A new toy!'
Ranma chuckled, noticing the grins on her pilots' faces. "Alright, let's get down to the launch bay."
HR.
Ryoga Hibiki came too shortly after Ranma ran out of sight. "Ow...that's one hell of a headache." He rubbed the back of his head. "Man, maybe I shouldn't have challenged him right after that disaster. NAH! that was fun!" He walked off into the darkness of a random maintenance passage, seeking the maintenance crew quarters. Needless to say, he wasn't seen for a while.
HR.
Brun, Reko and Kunda had been assigned the task of attempting to translate the Micronian language. From recordings of Micronian Radio chatter, as well as the Macross Television Network's broadcasts, they were making pretty good progress so far. Only a few words still eluded them and the intonation and grammatical structure was becoming clear.
"Brun, have you figured out what "YEHAW!" means yet?" Kunda asked, as he pored over the recordings of a pilot named "Gold 4."
"Not yet, He said it right after he shot down one of our pods...Maybe it's like "I've got a kill."" Brun answered, still thinking. This was going to be a LONG project...
HR.
Vermillion squadron was, once again, causing the bridge crew grief. They were repeating they're performance of a few months before, buzzing the bridge, the main boom and every other part of the Macross. This time, there was a difference. They were doing it MUCH faster. The new J type Veritechs were handling very well, as the chatter from Vermillion's pilots attested.
Gloval, having long ago gotten accustomed to the rather odd behavior of his two front line squadrons, smiled just a bit. "Those enemies are going to have one hell of a surprise next time they attack...Maybe we should refit skull as well..."
Lisa Hayes nodded. "The strange thing is that Captain Saotome seems to be able to keep up fine...and he's actually in a Veritech that's a bit slower than a VF-1A." There was slight admiration and something...else in her voice.
Gloval heard the something else but decided not to comment on it.
HR.
In the white dragon, External ship cameras showed Vermillion's fake dog fight on a television screen. Since the Macross Television Network couldn't always keep programming on the air, external camera feeds were often used as 'filler.' Several people were clustered around the display, cheering for one pilot or the other.
"Man, those new planes are impressive." Rick hunter said, as he sat and watched, Absent mindedly sipping a soft drink.
Roy nodded. "Hey, look. Sterling's almost got the kid...Oh, Nope."
Minmei walked up behind the two men. "Anything I can get you?" She asked, leaning down and kissing Rick on the cheek.
"A towel to wipe the sap off of this scene?" Roy asked, dryly.
Rick and Minmei glared at him.
"C'mon Minmei, watch the Air show with us. Vermillion's almost as impressive as we are." Rick said, automatically making it clear that Skull was still better than Vermillion.
"I don't know." Minmei said, trying to look contemplative. "The only Skull I've seen flying like that is Roy. I think Vermillion's got you guys beat." She laughed at the horrified expressions on Rick and Roy's faces.
HR.
Ranma slammed her thrusters to max and poured power into them as Vermillion 2, piloted by Max, flew in and tried to lock onto her with his missile sensor. "Sorry Sterling, Too slow." She swerved to the left, causing max to hit Ben Dixon instead.
"Hey Max, I thought we were on a team against the captain." Ben squawked.
Max retorted, "We are. Captain Saotome made me do that."
Ranma chuckled. Man this was still easy...although it was getting harder.
HR.
The next few days passed relatively peacefully. Ranma got rid of the reporters by the simple expedient of shooting a chi blast at a camera. they never came back after that, for some reason. Minmei used the record contract to start making an album and wasn't at the dragon as much anymore. Vermillion went out on Patrol, and on the third day, they engaged the enemy...and thrashed them soundly. Skull was taken off for repairs and refitting to VF-1J aircraft, which Roy was rather pleased with, until it was revealed that he was getting a VF-1R instead.
HR.
Ranma walked down the streets of Macross City, looking for good food or something to do. There was a lot less of the former since the dragon had temporarily closed and the latter had always been a rarity while off duty. As if responding to that thought, The Macross shook violently, and Ranma started running towards Vermillion's briefing room.
HR.
Vermillion squadron gathered in the Briefing room, slightly confused. Captain Saotome had called them all in for an emergency mission.
Ranma walked into the room and up to the podium at the front. "Alright, here's the situation. about half an hour ago, a spacecraft of unknown origin crashed into the Macross' main Radar array. Shortly after this, a message came in from outside." Ranma pressed a button on the podium.
"This is Commander Bretai of the Zentraedi. You're ship is blind and defenseless. You will surrender or we will take your ship by force. You have two hours to send your response."
Ranma pressed another button, cutting off the rest of the speech. "We've got a name for the enemy now. They're called the Zentraedi. We've been assigned to escort a Cat's Eye Recon jet which will scout the path for the Macross. Flight one will escort the jet and Flight two will hold in closer to the Macross to repel any enemy threats. We will launch in 25 minutes. Suit up."
HR.
Ranma stood in the launch bay, gaping in disbelief. "Commander Hayes? You're flying the Cat's Eye?"
Lisa nodded. "Captain Gloval felt that I would be the best candidate. Do you have a problem with that Saotome?"
"Commander, You're a valuable asset to the ship...we can't risk losing you." Ranma objected, looking worried.
"Look Captain, you have your orders. Now follow them." Lisa walked towards the Cat's Eye, leaving a sputtering Ranma.
HR.
Ranma and Vermillion squadron launched off of the Macross, quickly followed by the Cat's Eye. Ranma was still grumbling slightly about Commander Hayes coming on the mission, but worried about his career and rank, he did it with his mike turned off. Flicking the mike back on, he spoke. "This is Vermillion lead to flight 1. Form in box formation around the Cat's Eye. Follow its lead."
Acknowledgments came from the other two planes in his flight, and Ranma moved into formation.
"This is Commander Hayes, we are moving out to the front of the Macross, approximately 3 clicks out. We will hold that position until we are called in." Lisa's voice came over the radio.
HR.
"Sir, the Micronians are sending out some of their mecha." a technician reported from a station on the bridge of Bretai's flag ship.
"Good. Keep me informed of their position and prepare to begin operation Micron in 60 cycles." Bretai said. Soon, the Micronians would be captured and all of their secrets of protoculture would be his for the taking.
HR.
Ranma was getting bored. At least in a normal patrol, he was moving. Here, all he did was fly a straight path at an extremely slow speed. They had been at it for an hour now and it was getting old pretty fast. About half an hour ago, Max had started humming. He had told him to shut up several times but he just started up again. Ranma's head shot up and his eyes widened as he felt something. it felt like a spacefold signature.
"This is Vermillion lead to Flight 1. We got company. It's kind of vague...I can't localize it."
A few seconds later, Ranma realized why he couldn't localize it, but by that point, it was too late as the Zentraedi battle ship had already folded in, with Skull and its escort caught inside of its fold signature.
Ranma braked his Veritech frantically before he could hit the wall that had suddenly materialized in front of him. The other two Vermillion Veritechs did the same, but the Cat's Eye wasn't so lucky. It smashed into the wall and crunched.
"Commander!" Ranma yelled into his Radio.
A weak voice responded. "I'm fine captain. My copilot wasn't so lucky though." Lisa sounded like she was going to be sick.
The Cat's Eye was a two person aircraft. One to fly it and one to use the radar equipment. Apparently, the pilot had been in the forward cockpit and was now dead.
After hearing Lisa's reply, Ranma took a second to survey his surroundings. It wasn't a very big room, by Veritech standards. It was about 60 feet from floor to ceiling and only about 500 feet wide and long. There was a door in one wall.
"Is this an enemy ship?" Max asked, shining a spotlight from the head of his Veritech around the room.
"Well, it's big enough. I'd say we're in a supply closet or somethin." Ranma was interrupted by the sound of creaking metal as several giant humanoid beings ran into the room, carrying rifles. He swung his Gui-11 around and began shooting.
HR.
Captain Gloval's eye twitched. "Where the hell did that come from?" He demanded, looking at the large green Zentraedi vessel that had just appeared.
Emil Lang answered. "It appeared out of fold space a few seconds ago. It looks like some sort of flagship for their fleet."
"Where are Vermillion and Commander Hayes?" Gloval asked, having a sinking feeling that he already knew.
"They were inside the area of space that thing folded into, sir." Vanessa Leeds responded, somberly.
"Launch Skull Squadron and order Vermillion flight two to engage that target. We can't risk shooting the main cannon at it. Commander Hayes and her escort could still be alive in there." Gloval ordered.
Suddenly, a short range radar console began to beep nearby. "Sir," A random tech reported. "We've got a whole lot more signals coming in. It looks like a whole bunch of battle pods."
Gloval cursed, grabbed his pipe out of his pocket and clenched it in his teeth.
HR.
Roy Fokker ran down the Corridor, throwing on the top of his flight suit. He had been yanked out of a sound sleep by Captain Gloval's order and hadn't been briefed on the specifics yet, but in order to yank a squadron that had just finished a patrol back to the flight line, it must be important.
Seeing Rick running out of his room, generally in the same state as he was, he called. "Hurry it up hunter! We got a mission."
Rick worked harder at getting his uniform straight as he ran next to Roy. "So Captain, What's going on?"
"Don't know." Roy said shortly. "Gloval just said it was an emergency." Rounding the final corner, Roy ran up to his plane. A black haired man with a bandana tied around his head was standing next to it.
"Get going Captain. Vermillion's in trouble." the man said, as he did the final check on Roy's plane. "Bring Captain Saotome back alive...I want to kill him."
Roy blinked. The kid was in trouble? This guy wanted to kill him? Oh well, now wasn't the time. "Don't worry. Saotome's tough. he'll be alright." Jumping into His Veritech, he cranked the engine and taxied to the Catapult.
The rest of Skull lined up behind Roy as he was lobbed off of the launch deck. Captain Gloval came over the Radio directly, cutting out Sammy's circuit. "Captain Fokker. It is imperative that you clear those fighters as quickly as possible. Use all means necessary. The battleship in the distance has captured Vermillion squadron as well as Commander Hayes."
Roy's eyes widened. "Saotome got captured? With Commander Hayes? Yes sir, I'm on it."
HR.
Skull squadron tore into the Battle pods, destroying them as quickly as possible. The new J type Veritechs that they had been issued the day before were performing very well.
Roy Flew his Veritech in between two enemy battle pods and executed a 180 turn, switching to Battleoid mode and Spraying the two craft with fire. He dodged a missile from a third before switching back to fighter mode and launching a volley of his own. He smiled as his kill count went up one more.
Rick hunter flew through swarms of enemy Battle pods, dodging fire. This new Veritech was great. It handled a lot better than the old VF-1A and it had a better target lock system. Locking a new target, his gun pod automatically tracked it and he fired, blowing it to pieces. "Yeah, got one."
HR.
Ranma's Veritech finally ran out of ammo. Max's had done so about 30 seconds ago and Ben's was rapidly reaching that point. Going to hand to hand, Ranma realized that fighting PEOPLE in a Veritech was a whole different thing from using Martial Arts moves against battle pods. He was holding his own, but his fighting style reminded him of Ryoga. Punch hard and take the hits. There was one problem with this. The hits didn't bounce off his hide like they did Ryoga's. Several sub Systems had been destroyed and his Reflex storage unit had been shot off.
Just before his leg motors failed, Ranma desperately concentrated his Chi into his Head Anti Missile Laser. Firing it, he blew away several of the enemy... as well as a wall. Max Flew out of the hole into space, before it somehow sealed itself up. Apparently he was too far away, and a quick check with Lisa reassured him that she had managed to hang onto something. Ben was clutching one of the structural support beams at one corner of the room.
"Woops...Guess I over did it." Ranma said as his Machine's leg motors finally gave out, sending him crashing to the ground. He was soon followed by Ben, who's main Reflex energy unit had been hit by stray fire.
Commander Bretai walked into the small room where the Micronians had fought. Looking down he saw many of his own soldiers spread across the floor and two micronian Battle Mecha crumpled nearby. Feeling a slight stinging sensation in his lower leg, he looked down further to see a single Micronian shooting him with some sort of weapon. It just bounced off of his skin, tearing very small holes in his uniform.
Bretai laughed at the small show of resistance as two guards walked in, one picking up the Micronian who wasn't in a vehicle and the other getting the two unconscious pilots of the Mecha.
"Take them to the special holding cell." Bretai ordered.
"Yes Commander." The guards responded, before walking off.
Roy and the Skull had almost cleared away all of the Zentraedi battle pods when it happened. The large battleship on the edge of the combat area disappeared into Fold Space.
"Damn it! We're too late." Roy cursed, slamming his hand down on the instrument panel of his Veritech.
A radio signal came from the Macross. "This is SDF-1 to skull Squadron and Vermillion wing two. Return to base...I repeat, Return to base." Sammy porter's voice sounded sad and defeated as she spoke.
"This is skull lead. Acknowledged." Roy said, as he turned his Veritech around and flew towards the Macross, the rest of Skull squadron following behind him.
HR.
The mood in the Skull Briefing room after the battle was not a happy one. Every member of the squadron knew that this time, they had failed. They had been given an assignment and it had not been completed. This was a first for the skull, which had always succeeded before.
"If we'd just been a bit faster..." Roy muttered, frowning.
"Aw, C'mon Captain. We did the best we could." Rick Hunter said, trying to cheer up his CO.
"Just like we did with Neomoto. Now they're both gone. Both of the people I asked to join the RDF." Roy's voice was slightly bitter at the end.
"You said yourself Roy. Saotome's a tough kid. He'll be alright." Rick said, trying to reassure Roy. "Anyways. Yeah, you asked them to join but they decided to."
Roy just shook his head sadly and walked out of the room.
HR.
Later that day, Rick walked down the street towards the recording studio where Minmei was making her album. Walking in, He sat down at a chair in the waiting room and waited for Minmei to come out.
About 10 minutes later, an excited Minmei ran out of the door to the recording area, Ran up and hugged Rick. "Wow, It was so great Rick. I had so much fun out there, just singing and...and..." She trailed off at the somewhat sad expression on Rick's face. "What's wrong Rick?"
Rick thought for a moment and then decided to tell Minmei what was wrong. "Minmei...Captain Saotome's flight was taken by the enemy today...We haven't been able to trace them."
Minmei's eyes widened. "So...Ranma's..." She trailed off.
"I don't know...I just figured I should tell you before you heard it through the grape vine. I know he was your friend." Rick was surprised as Minmei started to cry into his uniform shirt. He just stroked her hair and tried to calm her down.
HR.
Ranma woke up, groggily looking around. Commander Hayes was sitting, slumped against a wall and Ben was knocked out about 3 feet away. "Unh...What hit me?" Ranma croaked as he propped himself up on hands and knees.
"The floor." Lisa responded, shortly. "They threw you and Ben in pretty hard. I was awake so I could cushion my fall but you guys thwacked your heads off the floor pretty hard."
Ranma looked around to see a small room with a window in one wall. The window showed a view of stars, slightly blurred and seemingly stretched. "Where are we?"
Lisa shrugged. "I think we're on some Zentraedi battleship. As for where it is, I think we're in fold space."
Looking around for a door, Ranma didn't see one. "Well, I don't know about you but I'm getting out of here." He started to charge a Chi ball in his hand...and screamed in agony.
Lisa jerked her head up to see Ranma, battle aura blazing, and collapsed on the floor, clutching his head. "Saotome?" She asked, tentatively.
Ranma's battle Aura seemed to be drawn towards the window and the Fold space beyond. Finally, It faded out as Ranma fell unconscious. "What the hell was THAT about?" Lisa muttered as she crouched beside the now still form of Ranma.
HR.
Ranma was dreaming. Not about Akane and a Picnic or about getting cured of his curse like he usually did. No. This was a very strange dream. He was floating in space, a white bubble surrounding him. He could tell that he was going very fast and that the bubble around him seemed to be made of Pure Reflex energy. Reaching out to try and touch it, His hand came in contact and he jerked it away. "I thought you couldn't get hurt in dreams." He complained as he cradled his burnt hand.
Suddenly, his eyes widened. He saw the entirety of the sphere for what it was. It was a...
HR.
"Saotome! Wake up!" Ranma jerked awake, losing the revelation that he was about to have as Lisa shook him.
Putting it out of his mind as unimportant, He responded. "Alright, Alright, I'm awake. What is it?"
Lisa sighed in relief. "You just screamed and collapsed about half an hour ago...I haven't been able to wake you up until now."
Ranma remembered back to the last time he was awake. "Ugh...Yeah. Remind me NEVER to use a chi attack in here again. That hurt."
At the simple frankness of this statement, Lisa actually started to laugh. The two heard a groan coming from one corner of the room and realized that Ben was awake. They spent the next little while filling him in on the situation.
HR.
Max Sterling was currently in a position that he thought, with good reason, he would NEVER be in. That position being sitting on top of a toilet...in a Veritech...which was wearing a Military uniform.
He had managed to hold onto a spike on the outside of the ship when he was forcefully ejected and work his way up to an airlock. Getting in, he had clubbed a Zentraedi guard with the butt of his Gui-11 and stole his uniform. Now, he was hiding in hopes of finding out where Captain Saotome and the others were.
HR.
Zigar hid in a supply closet on the lowest level of the Flagship. Whoever had clubbed him in the head and stolen his uniform as a prank was going to PAY!
HR.
Bretai studied the surveillance camera tapes of the Micronian captives. He was...confused. The female seemed to be the leader over the two males. Also, one of the males seemed to have some strange ability. He wondered if it had something to do with Protoculture.
One of his subordinates walked up to him and he gave him permission to speak. "Sir, When the Micronian male began to glow, our Fold engines got a small burst of extra power. We believe that the two are connected."
Bretai smiled. Yes, these Micronians were going to give him all of the secrets of protoculture...he just knew it.
HR.
Ranma was annoying. Such were the thoughts of Commander Lisa Hayes as she watched the aforementioned Martial Artist/Pilot running around the outer wall of they're cell. "Would you stop doing that?" She asked, irritated.
"Why?" Ranma asked, coming to a stop. "Am I bothering you?"
"Yes." Lisa said, bluntly.
Ranma just shrugged, sat down cross-legged and began to do Chi focusing exercises, Being careful not to generate a battle aura.
About 20 minutes later, Lisa spoke up. "Where do you think we're going Saotome?"
Ranma shrugged. "I dunno. I'm guessing they're main base or somethin."
Their question was answered in a rather short time as the window in front of them suddenly changed from a view of blurred stars to one of a single planet, surrounded by what seemed to be a solid wall of floating metal in the shape of battleships, carriers and fighters.
"Holy..." Ben said, whistling.
"How many of them are there." Ranma asked, awe in his voice.
Lisa just looked on, stunned. This she hadn't expected.
TO BE CONTINUED.