Hi folks. Y'know, this chapter was actually kinda enjoyable to read. So was chapter 9, truth be told, even with all the character bashing.
ANYWAYS! I'd just like to repeat a note I originally put on chapter 24, the second half of this chapter. I still have not seen a single episode of Robotech past the seventh. It probably doesn't matter, since I haven't tweaked the plot, but for the few of you who are reading this for the first time, yes. I wrote it entirely without having seen a large portion of the series, only using episode guides. It was a test of whether I could write a fanfic without knowing what the hell I was talking about. Although today I consider this thing a little bit of an 'old shame,' at the time I thought I'd succeeded.
Anyhow, I talk too much. On with the show!
Chapter 10, The battle of Ontario.
Captain Gloval sat at his desk, reading maintenance reports. The SDF-1 was almost completely refitted and it's new firepower was quite substantial. All of the battle damage from the Zentraedi assaults had been repaired and the ship had been fully resupplied. The only problem gloval had now was that the civilian population still hadn't been evacuated. Sighing, he put down the final maintenance report and walked to the bridge door.
Walking out, he took note of the bridge crew working diligently to prepare the ship for launch.
"Sammy. Any word on asylum for the civilians?" Gloval asked, hopefully.
Sammy porter sighed. "No sir. We have had several messages of thanks for the "Great film" and the UEG has been trying to yell at us for the past 10 minutes but..." She was cut off by a light on her console beginning to glow. Picking up her headset, she slipped it on.
Gloval was surprised by the joyful expression that spread over Sammy's face. "Really?" She asked, Talking excitedly into the Mic. "I'll inform captain Gloval immediately. Thank you!"
"What's going on, miss porter?" Gloval asked, slightly hopeful.
"The Autonomous republic of Ontario has just offered refuge for the civilians. They said that we should fly to Toronto and offload them there."
Gloval nodded. "All crew, prepare for launch. We're going to Ontario." Then his face became puzzled. "What's Ontario anyways?"
Kim Young, who was from Canada, face faulted.
Captain Gloval just looked confused.
HR.
Ranma walked towards Vermillion's...er... The wild horse Briefing room, excited. The squadron was finally going to be allowed to launch for the first time since the Macross had landed. Ranma was eager to get back into combat after such a long break but was worried about what was going on.
Turning into the briefing room, he noticed that the entire squadron was already there. He had been delayed by the necessity of grabbing the mission orders. Walking up to the podium at the front of the room, he opened the orders sheet and read. Closing it up again, he began to talk.
"Alright. We've got escort duty for the ship today. Apparently, the Captain has found us a place to drop off the civilians and we're going to make sure that the drop off is un-interrupted. It'll probably be a peaceful flight, since the Zentraedi haven't entered the earth's atmosphere since the first attack on Macross island. Alright, suit up and move out. Since this is our first mission in a long wile, I'll say this once. Be careful out there."
The squadron began to cheer. They were finally back on the flight line. The cheering subsided as Ranma glared at them. "Let's get going."
Embarrassed, the five other pilots walked out of the briefing room.
HR.
The Wild Horse squadron launched off of the flight deck of the SDF-1 and began flying a holding pattern over the floating fortress. As the ship lifted out of the water, Ranma's chi radar picked up a massive power spike coming from the east. Since it quickly subsided, he just ignored it.
The SDF-1 had successfully pulled itself out of the ocean and now floated about 100 meters above it. Turning towards North America, it began to move at it's usual slow speed, the wild horses keeping position with one on each side and two flying above it.
A couple of hours into the flight, Ranma picked up several chi signatures heading rapidly towards the ship and it's escorts. They didn't feel like Zentraedi battle pods... More like human fighter pilots. No reflex signature, just the chi.
"This is Wild Horse lead to the SDF-1. I've got several aircraft coming in on an intercept vector. They don't feel like Zentraedi. I think they're UEG planes."
HR.
Captain Gloval, aboard the SDF-1, frowned. 'What's the UEG doing?' He thought, before turning to the front of the bridge. "Miss Porter. Order Captain Saotome to hold his fire until further notice. Have Wild Horse surround the UEG aircraft when they come in range."
HR.
Ranma received the orders and relayed them to the squadron, which pealed out of they're guard positions around the SDF-1 and flew towards the UEG aircraft.
Ranma had been right. They were UEG F-22 fighters and they were headed to the SDF-1. The lead fighter sent a message on all radio frequencies. "This is UEG fighter squadron Blue 3. You are ordered to reverse course or exit the planet's atmosphere immediately. We will give you five minutes to comply and then open fire."
Captain Gloval scowled. 'They have to be kidding.' He had expected some action from the UEG but threatening to blast the SDF-1 out of the air? This was ridiculous.
Ranma had heard this announcement as well and his hand twitched towards his Veritech's weapons locks. He stopped himself as he remembered captain Gloval's orders and reluctantly put the hand back on his flight control stick.
Five minutes passed slowly and the UEG planes began to split out of formation. Their last transmission was, "You have been warned. We will now open fire."
HR.
The F-22 aircraft were not as heavily armed as a Veritech, however they were made for flight in earth's atmosphere as aposed to the Veritech's mostly space flight role. As a result, the F-22s were slightly more maneuverable than a standard Veritech. Also, the Wild Horse pilots had mostly flown in space and hardly put any flight time in on earth. Ranma was the only one who really knew how to handle a plane in atmosphere. As a result of this, Wild Horse squadron was having they're asses handed to them in the dogfight. They were just barely able to dodge the fire of the enemy aircraft but the F-22s easily danced out of the way of countering fire. The only casualty so far was one of Wild Horse 3's thrusters, but the enemy wasn't even scratched.
Eventually, Ranma managed to hit and destroy one of the enemy aircraft using his Chi enhanced maneuvering thrusters and his head laser turret. This show of strange new abilities by the lead Wild Horse aircraft disconcerted the UEG Pilots and caused them to make mistakes. Eventually, Max Sterling in Wild Horse 2 managed to shoot another one down and the SDF-1's squadron began making a come back. After another few minutes of intense flying, the remainder of the UEG forces were forced to retreat.
"This is Wild Horse lead. All enemies destroyed or routed. Permission to return to SDF-1? We're pretty tired out here."
Receiving Permission from Captain Gloval to return to base, Ranma and his squadron put down on the flight deck, to see Roy Fokker's skull squadron going out to take they're place.
"Good luck out there, Roy!" Ranma yelled, climbing out of his Veritech.
Roy grinned as he reached up to seal his own. "We're the skull, kid. We don't need luck."
Ranma felt a cold chill at these words but couldn't figure out why.
HR.
Ranma walked into the white dragon, slump shouldered. "So...hungry." He muttered, over acting slightly.
Minmei laughed. "Your normal coming right up Ranma. Hey, Brun. Can you get me a Ranma special?"
A voice echoed from in back. "Sure thing Miss Minmei."
Minmei groaned. "And for the last time, stop calling me that."
Ranma slumped at a table, sighing.
Minmei looked surprised. "What's the matter Ranma? You aren't your usual cheerful self."
"Nothin. Don't worry about it, Minmei." Ranma said, waiting for his food.
Minmei's voice became stern. "Now Ranma. I tell you what's wrong with me all the time."
Ranma growled. "I shot down a human pilot todayj, alright!"
Minmei blinked, surprised. "Human?"
"Yeah, they were UEG fighters. They took exception to us going to Toronto to drop off the civilians, and me 'n the squadron had to shoot them down."
Minmei didn't know what to say. "Ranma..." She had an idea. "You fight the Zentraedi and shoot them down all the time. What's so different about other humans?" She didn't particularly agree with this sentiment but didn't really want to say anything about it to Ranma, who had only done what he had to protect the ship.
"The Zentraedi are actively attacking us. If I didn't shoot them down, they'd shoot me down."
"So what's so different about those UEG planes?" Minmei said, just as brun walked in carrying a bowl full of Ramen and wearing a rather unusual expression.
"Here's the Ranma special, Miss Minmei. I was wondering if I could have the rest of today off with Reko and Kunda." Brun said, hopefully. "We have something to do."
Minmei nodded. "Sure thing Brun. Have fun." She took the plate of food as the Zentraedi spy walked out of the door and ran off to the civilian apartments.
Ranma seemed to have dropped his deep thoughts as soon as the food had arrived, although they still ticked away in the back of his brain. He had reluctantly acknowledged that Minmei had a point, but would have to think more about this later.
HR.
Reko, Brun and Kunda stood around a small pod, hidden in the back streets of Macross City, near one of the Zentraedi sized airlocks. Inside the pod, there was just barely enough room for three humanoid adults, between the sheer mass of 'Micronian Artifacts.' These artifacts mostly consisted of Minmei records, Minmei dolls, pictures of Ranma's female form, Random posters and a few copies of "Wild Horse 1."
"So are we ready to go?" Reko asked, tapping the side of the pod with his foot.
Kunda nodded. "Yep, we have all of the Micronian artifacts packed and the attack is set to happen in 3 hours."
Brun hadn't said much since he had returned from his shift at the dragon, but he spoke up now. "Is this really right? I mean..." He trailed off.
Reko and Kunda looked at him oddly. "Is what right?" Reko asked.
"Destroying the Macross. I mean all of these Micronians are really non combatants."
Kunda looked slightly troubled for a moment. "I think we've been around Micronians too long. I'm beginning to see your point."
Reko nodded. "This must be the corruption that the ancients warned us about."
The three Zentraedi went back to preparing they're escape pod, confident that they would be leaving the Macross later that day.
HR.
Shortly after finishing his meal, Ranma walked out of the white dragon and towards his quarters. He figured that he would turn in early and take Roy's first patrol tomorrow morning as payback for Roy's having to launch early today. Walking into his room, Ranma hung his RDF uniform on a hook and went to bed.
HR.
Roy Fokker had been flying with his squadron for about three hours now. It was getting a bit boring but being back in the air made it worth it. He had been getting as stir crazy as Ranma being on the ground for so long and rejoiced in being back in a Veritech. His musings were interrupted by a slight prickling at the back of his head, followed by a very definite hit on his chi sense.
"Damn. We were almost to Toronto, too." He muttered as he felt the Zentraedi approaching. "This is skull lead to squadron. We have company."
Rick hunter and the other members of the skull closed around Roy's Veritech, prepared for combat.
HR.
Captain Gloval cursed as he heard the transmission from Skull lead. "Commander Lang. Is that new Omni-directional barrier ready yet?"
Lang shook his head. "Sorry sir. We have all the equipment ready but without determining the proper frequency, we could cause an overload."
Gloval nodded. Until Commander Lang and his engineers were finished work on the new barrier, the SDF-1 was still reliant on it's fighter screen and the smaller, less effective Pinpoint Barriers.
HR.
The skull was fighting hard against the Zentraedi battle pods. There were a lot of the new, more humanoid, pods and almost twice as many of the older variety. They seemed not to be effected by the fact that they were in an atmosphere and were using they're new advantage for all it was worth.
Roy was currently locked in battle with the leader of the humanoid pods. He had seen this Zentraedi fighting Max sterling a while ago and admired the pilot's skill. Unfortunately, now this skill was turned on him, when he had a disadvantage.
HR.
Miriya smiled. She had finally found "Vermillion 2." This pilot was just as good as the one she had remembered fighting earlier. In fact, he seemed slightly better. She knew full well that the Micronian mecha had a disadvantage in atmosphere but didn't much care. A kill was a kill right?
Miriya's smile got larger as she scored a hit against "Vermillion 2," Causing it to veer wildly. "Good..." She thought.
Roy frantically struggled to right his damaged Veritech as alarms wailed in the cockpit. He could feel something digging into his rib cage painfully and was pretty sure he had sustained a fatal or near fatal injury but wanted to continue fighting.
"This is Skull Lead to macross." He said, his voice slightly weaker than usual. "Reinforcements requested."
HR.
The bridge of the SDF-1 went silent. The skull never asked for reinforcements. They were given them if the situation warranted it but never in the history of the squadron had captain Fokker asked for help during a battle. Captain Gloval was getting worried. "Call up Wild horse. I know they're tired but they're the second best squadron we have." Gloval ordered, sternly. As Sammy porter went to follow Gloval's order, any bridge crew members that didn't have anything to do at the moment looked worriedly at the front viewer.
HR.
Ranma tossed and turned in his sleep, small whimpering sounds escaping his mouth. He was having a dream, or more accurately, a nightmare. In his mind, images of cats, attacking, growling, hissing and spitting swirled. He bolted up in bed as he heard an insistent beeping sound. Noticing his intercom was blinking, he leaned out of his bed and pushed it. "Yeah?"
"Skull squadron's in trouble. Captain Gloval ordered you and your squadron to launch."
"Roy's in trouble? You do know that wild horse 3 is still in for repairs, right?" Ranma responded, groggily.
The reply came back immediately. "Captain Fokker requested assistance. Wild horse 3 is still flyable. Now get the squadron into the air."
Ranma bolted out of bed. If Roy had asked for the help, things must be serious. Throwing on his uniform, he ran out the door to wake up the rest of the squadron.
HR.
Roy noticed the Zentraedi battle pod that had hit him was now proceeding on to his wingmen. 'Probably thinks I'm dead.' He thought as he struggled to keep his damaged machine on a straight path. He was still in the air but his maneuverability was severely compromised and his missile system was disabled. He could also feel the disconcerting sensation of the wound in his stomach area dripping blood. His vision blurred and he shook his head violently. 'I will not pass out...' He thought, determined to stay in the fight.
HR.
Ranma, who had assembled the wild horse squadron in record time, launched off of the Macross's launch deck. Surveying the situation, one thing caught his notice. Roy was flying oddly and his Chi signature was getting weaker.
"Wild Horse Lead to Skull lead. Are you all right Roy?"
Roy's voice came through the radio, weak and slurred. "I'm aight kid... Just got a little beat up that's all."
Ranma blinked. He was right. "Roy, I can sense Chi a lot better than you. From what I'm getting, you're either very badly wounded or having your chi drained. Since Miss Hinako is nowhere near here, I gotta think it's the first one."
Roy responded. "Miss Who? I don't wanna know."
Ranma laughed but quickly returned to his serious tone. "Roy, return to base."
"No Kid. I'm fine. I'm tellin you."
Ranma gritted his teeth. "Roy, You're gunna go back to the macross or I'm gunna haul you there by the wing."
Roy sighed. 'How did the kid get to the level where he could threaten me?' He muttered, annoyed, before heading back to the SDF-1. "This is captain Fokker to Skull. Rick, you're in command. Bring them home in one piece."
As Roy flew towards the Macross, Ranma and the wild horses engaged the enemy, with the help of the remainder of Skull.
Max Sterling found the Zentraedi battle pod that he had let escape while in space about a month ago. The pilot's parting shot still troubled him. Deciding that he had to finish things up, he flew towards the enemy battle pod.
HR.
Miriya noticed that one of the Micronian Mecha was flying right at her. It looked somehow familiar although she couldn't place it's squadron markings. The paint job rung a bell somehow. Then she heard her radio crackle. "This is Max Sterling, Formerly Vermillion 2. Let's finish our little dogfight, shall we?"
Miriya hadn't caught some of that statement, the word "Dogfight" confused her slightly but she recognized the name. 'I thought I already shot down "Vermillion 2." Oh well, I suppose I'll have to fight the real thing now.'
Miriya's face bore a grin as she pushed her throttles forward and dove at the Micronian mecha.
HR.
The battle around the SDF-1 raged as it moved towards Toronto. It was almost there and its fighter squadrons were all out in force. Wild horse was leading the defense against the enemy battle pods, with Ranma going from one target to another, Ben Dixon launching missile barrages from a distance and Max Sterling in the dogfight of his life.
Every time he thought he had the enemy in his sights for a final attack, it would spin out of the way in a way that he hadn't seen coming. In addition to this, it kept getting behind him and almost shooting him down. He had carbon scoring on the outside of his left wing from where a laser had just barely missed and he was finding it harder and harder to evade attacks.
HR.
Miriya smiled as she came close to hitting the Micronian Mecha again. This was the best fight she had been in for a long time. She was being challenged. This was definitely Vermillion 2. Seeing a chance for a clean hit, she turned her pod 30 degrees to the left, swung in, and missed.
HR.
Max saw the perfect rear shot on his enemy. Smirking, he slammed his thumb down on the trigger of his gun pod and scored a direct hit. "Yeah! Finally got you." He said, excitedly into his Mic. The pod was still not destroyed, limping off the battle field and towards it's mother ship. Just as Max was about to hit the trigger to launch a missile to vaporize it, something stopped him. He was never sure why he let that battle pod go until much later.
About 5 minutes later, the SDF-1 arrived over Toronto's airspace. Most of the enemy pods had been blasted by this point and the squadrons were preparing to return to the ship. That's when Ranma's Chi radar went nuts.
"This is Wild Horse Lead to Macross. I think we still have a problem." Ranma said, as the overwhelming signal hit his chi senses.
"This is the Macross. Could you be more specific?" A rather annoyed Sammy porter came through the comm.
"I got a really big fold signal out here. Bigger than any I've ever seen." Ranma said, his voice tense.
HR.
On the bridge, Captain Gloval and the rest of the bridge crew gulped. "Commander Lang. Is that Omni-Directional Barrier ready yet?" Gloval barked, worried about the ship's safety.
"I think I have the frequency right. It could still be dangerous though. We should actually..." He was cut off by gloval's order.
"Activate it."
As Lang scrambled to comply, the SDF-1 went through it's transformation sequence for the second time since launch. The new barrier needed the Reflex reactor that normally powered the main cannon in order to work, and the Macross needed to be in battle mode in order to activate it.
A few seconds later, a greenish bubble of energy appeared, surrounding the Macross, which was now floating above the city of Toronto like some sort of gigantic statue.
"ODB Activated sir." Lang said, sighing in relief.
Gloval mirrored his sigh, reaching for his pipe before taking a glance at Sammy porter and pulling his hand back.
HR.
Ranma's only thought on seeing the SDF-1 in it's new state was, 'Holy shit.' His deep thoughts were interrupted at the arrival of the massive object that had made the massive fold signature Ranma had detected. Actually, It was several massive objects. Three Zentraedi battle cruisers had folded into the upper atmosphere and were now descending to the Macross's level, launching fighters all the while.
HR.
Roy Fokker was in a lot of pain. He was currently lying on a bed in the med Lab, a doctor looking over the wounds on his chest and stomach.
"Captain Fokker, You're lucky to be alive. If you were out there any longer..." The doctor trailed off as he took a needle out of a drawer, filling it with something. "This could hurt a bit."
Roy's last thought before the needle was injected and the general anesthetic took effect was, 'Damn kid. I don't care if you saved my life. You're still dead when I get outta here.'
HR.
Brun, Reko and Kunda were sitting in their escape pod. they had felt it picked up as one of the battle pods pierced the lines of the Macross' defenses and grabbed it an hour earlier and they were now feeling it sway back and forth as it was being carried somewhere by soldiers.
"Do you think we made it back?" Reko questioned, from his seat at the front of the pod.
"Micronian mecha don't swing things when they carry them. I'd have to assume that the pod is being carried by Zentraedi or Meltraedi." Kunda said, analytically.
Brun hadn't spoken since they had been picked up, still thinking about the Macross.
The pod came to an abrupt halt as the three micronized Zentraedi spies felt a shuddering bump.
The hatch on the top of the pod opened and they were confronted by the overly large face of their commander, Bretai. "Well, have you brought back intelligence on the Micronians?" Bretai asked, in his booming voice.
The three Zentraedi spies spent the next ten minutes answering questions.
HR.
Ranma swung his Veritech around, in Battleoid mode, and brought his foot down on the left wing of a Zentraedi Battle pod. The pod spun out of control, slamming into one of its allies. This kind of thing had been going on for the last few minutes, as Ranma and the rest of Wild Horse had used up all their ammo on the previous enemy. Max had joined Ranma in the Melee combat while Ben returned to the ship to be re-armed, since he had been trained in some martial arts in civilian life. Ranma still had a single long range weapon, his laser cannon, which he used to full effect. Unfortunately, using the cannon so much was depleting his Reflex and Chi reserves severely.
The Zentraedi were getting the worst of the fighter war, however their battle ships were pounding the Macross heavily. The ODB seemed to be able to deflect the attacks, however with it active the Macross couldn't fire it's main guns.
HR.
On the bridge, a console beeped urgently. Looking over, Commander Lang's eyes widened. "No." He breathed, rushing to the station.
Captain Gloval jerked his head around to face the scientist. "What's happening."
Lang answered, in a shaky voice, "The frequencies programmed into the ODB were incorrect. It's going to overload in 5 minutes."
Gloval's eyes widened. "What will happen if it does?"
Lang shrugged. "I don't know. I'm guessing that it would cause an explosion roughly equivalent to a multi-megaton nuclear warhead. The worst part is, we can't shut it down."
Gloval paled. "Can we get out of range of the city?"
Commander Hayes shook her head. "Our best speed would get us to minimum safe distance of that kind of blast in about 10 minutes."
Gloval gritted his teeth. He couldn't figure out any way to stop the destruction of the city and the ship could be destroyed as well. "Order our squadrons to fly to Minimum safe distance. At least they can get out."
Sammy porter grimly relayed the order.
HR.
Ranma received a signal from the Macross. 'What? It's going to overload?' Hitting his comm, he ordered Wild horse to get out.
As the squadron flew out of range of the explosion, Ranma noticed that Ben Dixon was missing. "Wild Horse lead to 3, where are you?"
Ben's voice came over the radio. "This is three. My damaged thruster just failed again... I can't get the speed to get out of range."
Ranma gritted his teeth and searched the Radar for his wingman. Ben had just launched from the Macross when the orders from command had come in, and was still very close. Ordering the rest of Wild Horse to stay in formation, Ranma flew back to Ben.
Grabbing a hold of Ben's Veritech, he tried to toe it behind him. He was just a bit too slow.
HR.
A few minutes later, The SDF-1's Omni-Directional Barrier overloaded, sending immense quantities of energy out from the center and destroying all of the nearby Zentraedi warships. Fortunately, the ship itself was at the exact center of the energy release and was not hit by any of it. Unfortunately, the city of Toronto, and most of the rest of Ontario, was in the blast radius. The last thing the 4 million residents of the city saw was an intense flash of light before everything went white.
HR.
As Ranma saw the wave of energy bairing down on him and Ben, he frantically tried to think of some way to avoid being obliterated. Boosting his engines wouldn't work, he already was. He couldn't fly over or under the wave, it was a solid sphere. Then he remembered something...
/Flashback./
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...
/End Flashback./
"Space fold field!" Ranma exclaimed, suddenly realizing what that strange dream had been about. Closing his eyes and visualizing the inside of the SDF-1's launch bay, He attempted to reconstruct what he had seen in the dream using his chi and succeeded.
Ranma and Ben disappeared just as the wave reached their position, reappearing in a clear space in the Macross' launch bay.
Ranma sighed in relief and then collapsed from the amount of chi he had used up in his last ditch plan.
HR.
Ryoga Hibiki ran over to the two Veritechs that had just appeared in the center of the launch bay. Seeing that they both bore the unit flash of the Wild Horse squadron, he popped the canopy of the most damaged looking one. Ben Dixon staggered out.
"What happened?" Ryoga asked, looking at the two planes.
"I couldn't get out in time and captain Saotome came back to get me. The energy wave was about to hit and then..." Ben trailed off, confused.
Ryoga walked over to the cockpit of the other Veritech to see Ranma slumped forward in the seat. When he used his chi sense on Ranma, Ryoga gasped. "He's almost out of chi." He muttered as he picked up the unconscious captain.
HR.
Roy Fokker lay in one of the med lab's hospital beds, his lower chest and stomach wrapped in bandages. He still felt groggy from the anesthetics and pain meds but wanted to get out. His train of thought on this subject was derailed as he saw someone else being wheeled into the room. Recognizing a black pigtail that was hanging over the side of the stretcher, he sat upright, wincing in pain. "Kid?"
Ranma was put in next to Roy, who glanced over to see what was wrong with him. He didn't seem to have any injuries. All that was visible was an expression of concentration frozen on his face.
A few hours later, Roy was disturbed by a rustling sound from the bed next to him. "Hmm?" He asked as he turned his head.
"What hit me?" Ranma asked, flatly.
Roy grinned. "You got me kid. You've been out for the last few hours."
Ranma then remembered something. "Is Ben alright?"
Roy blinked. "I...think so. Why wouldn't he be?" His question wasn't answered as Ranma had already fallen back to sleep.
TO BE CONTINUED.