WILDSTAR

By Matt Saotome

Disclaimer: I make $12 an hour to live my life somewhat comfortably. If I owned Ranma ½, Dragonball Z, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X-Men, Sailor Moon, CSI, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, House or any of the herein otherwise interweaved mess of shows, I would most certainly be living extremely comfortably somewhere in Japan in a quite unrepressed carefree manner. So, seeing as how I'm not doing that last part… I guess I don't own them, do I?

Note: This is the beginning of the end. What you thought you knew throughout the total duration of this story will now be tested, and all will be made clear. Pffft! If I have any sanity left after the end of this, it will be a MIRACLE!

On With Ze Shew!

Mission 2 Chapter 10

"See What a Tangled Web We Weave"

Seven different control junctions exploded sequentially behind Vegeta, who had raised his arm to shield his eyes from the near blinding light just ahead of him. He could only thank his lucky stars for giving him a second shot at the Human-Super-Saiyan wannabe before deciding that the Wildstar needed to be blown sky high. No sooner than the last circuit in the set exploded, the blast dissipated to nothingness, and the shield around the core fizzled out of being, leaving only the integrity field. This would have been all there was around the core to begin with were it not for the past experience of the Wildstar's chief engineer, who lowered his arm as his expression hardened. Commander Stoltz obviously was not picky whether or not he completed his duel with Vegeta before attempting to destroy the Wildstar. This meant no more games. If Steven would not desist, Vegeta would have no choice but to exterminate him. He told himself that it would be for the best, even though a part of him screamed that it would be a shame to eliminate the first true promising warrior that the human race produced whose blood was not tainted by that of another race, if such was not, indeed, the case.

Steven, for his part, stood staring at the untouched warp core with wide eyes. His heavy breathing betrayed the unnatural amount of energy he had expended to create the blast in the first place. He was kicking himself mentally. Over and over again, he tried to sort out how he could have not considered this outcome. Vegeta was, after all, a Super Saiyan, and would therefore be prepared for anything he had experienced prior. That list, somewhere down the line, obviously included someone powerful picking a fight with him in an engine room.

"That," Vegeta growled as he stepped slowly towards Steven, "will cost you dearly."

Stupid, stupid, stupid, Steven mentally crucified himself. Now I'm all out of juice, and Vegeta's just getting warmed up! How could I have been so foolish?!

"Because now, you see, you've become a threat to the entire ship, not just my engine room; And I have only one way of dealing with threats." Vegeta finished. He stopped walking as he completed speaking, turning a shoulder slightly in Steven's direction to strike an intimidating pose. A few seconds ticked by in silence before Vegeta suddenly fizzled out. The instant Steven's eyes registered this, his insides abruptly felt like they would explode. Vegeta had appeared in front of him, and was laying a brutal beating on the Commander. He had no intention of relenting until the marine lay dead at his feet.

Steven's head began to spin as his adrenaline went mad to try and save his life, though he could do nothing about it since Vegeta was moving much too fast now. He could feel the sharp, stinging pain of every point of impact before he finally felt Vegeta's hands close around either side of his head. He prepared himself, as best a man could, for his neck to be broken and death to take him.

"It's a pity, really," Vegeta spoke in his ear. "So much potential… wasted."

He tensed to complete the act.

Vegeta, Stop! Goku's voice rang through his mind, the surprise of it happening bringing Vegeta to a grinding halt. In his hands, Steven succumbed to unconsciousness and went limp.

"Why should I?" Vegeta asked out loud. "He's a traitor and a threat. Given the chance again, he just might reduce this ship to dust!"

He can't do that right now, Goku reasoned with him. And you know as well as I that without a sensu bean, it will take him over a day to recover from his power drain.

Vegeta growled, knowing Goku was correct. He released his hold on Steven's head, and the marine collapsed to the ground at his feet. He gave a humorless smirk; Not dead, but it would have to do.

Thank you, Vegeta, Goku sounded much calmer.

"I seriously don't know why I do these things for you, Kakarot," Vegeta grumbled, grabbing the back collar of Steven's shirt and dragging him away from the warp core towards the exit. The traitor was the medical staff's to deal with now. Besides, plowing his way to 'Sickbay' was sure to make him feel better. He tapped his com badge.

"This is Commander Vegeta to all evacuated engineering personnel. Resume your posts. I repeat, man engineering immediately, and then GET BACK TO WORK!"

The holodeck was a bustle of noise and activity, filled with doctors, nurses and wounded alike, yet coming up short in the necessary staff department. There was a great deal of noise coming from the officers that were not critically wounded, compounded upon by the beeps and sweeps of equipment and the shouts of the medical personnel trying to make their needs known over the barely controlled chaos.

"He'll live," Akane stated hurriedly, folding up her tricorder and moving on to the next patient. She'd been on the move since the instant she had beamed into 'Sickbay', a medical tricorder being shoved into her hands by an obviously overrun Dr. McCoy, who barely had time to welcome her back before running off to see to more patients.

She was just passing in front of the doors when they swept open to reveal Logan supporting Scott walking into the holodeck. Scott was holding his side where an exacerbated injury was gradually bleeding out. Already on automatic, Akane strode to Scott's other side and aided Logan in carrying him to the nearest bio bed. From the erratic movement of Scott's head on his shoulders, it was obvious that the man was about to lose consciousness.

"What happened," Akane asked as she and Logan laid Scott back on the bed. She immediately opened her tricorder and began to analyze the wounded marine as Logan did his best to explain.

"We were ambushed. One of the insurgents had a modified weapon of some kind. It looked like an old earth shotgun sawed off at the barrel, but it fired some kind of concentrated plasma bolt. One eye here was grazed in the side by one."

"The wound itself isn't deep, but the residual energy from the blast appears to be hindering coagulation. And the charring around the wound is like nothing I've ever seen before."

Logan eyed Akane with a little trepidation. "It was a pretty bad-ass gun, like I said."

"No kidding," Akane replied. Closing her tricorder, she turned to the nearest help and sidetracked her.

"Nurse Ogawa, prep this man for dermal reconstruction immediately."

Ogawa obediently altered course and moved to the side of Scott's bed, relieving Akane to move on and continue her work. As a parting, Logan looked over at the nurse, raising one finger to point at her as he spoke.

"I wanna know the second he's recovered," he instructed, then turned and left the holodeck the way he had come.

No sooner than the doors had swept shut behind Logan, a transporter whine filled the air. Akane paid it little mind, injured personnel beaming in being a regular occurrence during this particular battle. She continued in the direction she was heading for another second before her name was hollered out over the noise.

Using her ears as a point of reference, she altered course, moving quickly around people and equipment before reaching the place where the transport had occurred. Who she saw laying on the biobed with an obvious wound in her shoulder slowly bleeding out caused her to gasp, a hand moving quickly to cover her mouth.

"Shampoo…"

Oh My God, they've reached the bridge, Akane suddenly thought, but she quickly dismissed this from her mind. Shampoo could have just as easily been sent to aid the security forces on the upper decks. Besides, it was easy enough to determine whether or not the 'bridge' had been taken over.

"Computer, engage medical surveillance. Location: Sickbay. Clearance: Tendo 141 Delta."

The computer chirped, and mid-air just above her shimmered as a holographic image was set into place. She could clearly see that the makeshift bridge was still under the control of Ranma and Goku. Only an instant was wasted on this confirmation before Akane shook her head to clear it and called for the surveillance to be deactivated. She opened her tricorder, and pulled the sensor free from its housing, hovering just above Shampoo with it as she moved it back and forth. The results of her scan made her brow furrow.

"Her wound is almost identical to the one Scott has, preventing coagulation and with the same charring, but she seems to have taken a direct hit instead of being gra… What the - !!"

The biobed's tracking of Shampoo's vitals suddenly flatlined, a constant whine coming from the console instead of the steady beeps caused by a heart that was still beating. Akane's eyes went wide. Shampoo's heart was obviously no longer doing this. She called for help.

"Doctor McCoy, I Need You!"

Bones was quickly at the biobed. He took a look at the console before pushing a switch on the side of it.

"What happened?" he asked as four slender mechanical arms at each corner of the bed rose up to a position just above the height of Shampoo's horizontal body, a holographic control surface readout appearing between them that hovered mere millimeters above the Amazon's torso.

"She's been hit with some kind of modified plasma weapon." Akane hurriedly explained. "At first glance, everything was the same as the wound on Scott, with the exception that Shampoo appears to have taken a direct hit. Then I detected a sudden Pulmonary Embolism, and she flatlined. Cause unknown."

McCoy gave a single nod, understanding now why Akane had called for help. If she was unable to determine why Shampoo was dying, then two minds working on the problem were always a better idea than one. He poured over the surgical readout's more sophisticated scan results, hoping to find something that could help them, and in a hurry. With a grunt, he realized that there was nothing of the sort to be found.

"The readout is inconclusive," he scowled. "We have no choice but to try and revive her regardless. Maybe then whatever's causing this will rear its head."

"Prep for defib!" Akane ordered with a sharp nod.

The two of them got into the necessary positions at the readout, Akane watching the charge rate while McCoy reached out with both hands and pushed two small white circles in the holographic interface down until they made contact with Shampoo, one just above her left breast and the other below it and slightly to one side. He gave a little more of a push, and the circles slipped under Shampoo's tunic and out of sight.

"Sub-dermal Defibrillator Pads applied," he informed Akane, looking back at her with a professional gaze mixed with pity for the conflicting emotions that he knew she must be experiencing right now.

For Akane, the moment seemed to happen in slow motion, every detail imprinting itself on her mind. Shampoo had been the cause of much trouble in hers and Ranma's relationship. It was no secret that her feelings towards the Amazon and vice versa weren't very friendly. As the charge up completed, a two second process that seemed to drag on for an eternity, Akane steeled her resolve as a healer, and a look of sheer determination crossed her face.

Shampoo would NOT die.

"CLEAR!"

The ship under Grissom's feet shook violently again and he grit his teeth in another wave of sympathy for the damage to his pride and joy. The Sheffield was no Cutter Class, making it quite outgunned were it not for the Wildstar's presence in this particular battle. Grissom knew there was only so much pounding his ship could take before it came apart at the seams.

"Science, how long until those probes are reconfigured?!" he asked quickly. They desperately needed an edge in this battle, and being able to confuse the Leviathan's plasma weapons lock would certainly be beneficial.

"They'll be on-line within seconds, Captain," came the preoccupied response.

"Sir, two more ships are entering the sector," the tactical officer reported in a rush. Grissom's head shot around to face him.

"Identify them," he instructed. The lieutenant set to work to do exactly that, but after a few frustrating seconds he slapped his hands on his console and looked back up with an expression of surrender.

"I can't," he breathed. Grissom paused for a second before turning his head back around to face the viewscreen.

"Not good."

As the doors closed behind Lita, she scowled across the corridor to her opponent. She wasn't sure why, but instinct told her that this fight wasn't going to be a walk in the park. Her opponent appeared to be human, but she knew all too well how deceiving looks could be.

Across from Lita, Rebecca's brow furrowed as she tried to damp down the nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach. She knew that Lita had taken out Xandir's team with ease, determinable by the fact that Lita had not a scratch on her. But she also knew that she herself had gone up against teams of a dozen or more in the past, and come out the other side ready for more. With this last thought at the front of her mind, she leapt at Lita with deadly intent, going straight on the offensive.

Lita's left eyebrow twitched, and she jumped forward to meet Rebecca head on. Fists began to fly, and their battle was initiated.

Lita held the benefit of years of hand to hand combat training and experience in Starfleet intelligence, and her 'civilian' life prior, also. She defended perfectly against Rebecca's initial attacks, managing to deal out a few swings of her own. Rebecca was effectively able, in turn, to block these as well.

Their first round lasted only seconds before they burst apart, returning to opposite sides of the corridor. Their primary assessment of each other's skill level was complete, and each of them prepared to bring the next round up a few notches.

The deck shook hard underneath them, distracting Lita for an instant only, but it was certainly long enough. Rebecca, much more accustomed to fighting on a ship under fire, caught the sudden hole in the other woman's defense and leapt at her, hammering her fist into Lita's stomach.

Lita barely managed to catch the blow in time to ride it, only losing about half the air in her lungs instead of all of it. She immediately grabbed the offending fist in her hand as it withdrew and pulled hard towards herself, swinging the elbow of her other arm up to meet Rebecca's face as it came into range.

Rebecca reeled from the attack, throwing herself away from Lita again, who gathered her energy fast and let off a sudden burst of her lightning, intent on bringing the fight to a very rapid close.

The result, however, was far from what she had expected as her lightning made a sickeningly symmetrical curve away from the Leviathan's chief of security.

"What the fuck?!" Lita growled under her breath. Across from her, Rebecca smirked. She brought a hand down to her utility belt, where she pointed to a device no bigger than a buckle that had lights flashing across its surface in sweeps. Once she was sure that Lita had seen and understood the implications behind the gadget, she reached behind her back and unclipped a small box that was no more than one inch cubed. She fixed the box to her right wrist, giving off a little hiss of brief pain as it obviously attached itself in place on her skin. Then, with an almost predatory grin, she fixed her eyes back on Lita.

"Why don't you try that again?" she smirked.

Lita looked hard at the device on her opponent's belt, assessing it to be some kind of polarized shield generator. Her lightning, being electrical and therefore polarized itself, would only continue to be repelled away from the shield like two magnetic positives facing each other. When she brought her gaze up to the box on Rebecca's wrist, her eyes widened slightly. The cube gave off a chirp, and then suddenly unfolded. Metal jacketing formed itself around the security chief's hand to make a perfect fitting glove, which quickly started to radiate energy. Lita barely had time to jump to the side before Rebecca unleashed an energy attack of her own. From that moment on, the Sheffield's first officer was on the defensive.

Rebecca fought with practiced precision, dealing out attacks with speed and accuracy against Lita, who seemed to be able to defend herself from the attacks just fine, but not return any of her own. Point of fact, the commander was too wrapped up in internal analysis of her opponent to deal out any attacks. Every move that Rebecca made, Lita observed and dissected, preferring to learn as much of Rebecca's fighting style as she could before deciding how to react; and react she most certainly would. With her personal shield in place, energy attacks were a moot point against Rebecca. So Lita was going to make damn sure that, when she did finally retaliate, it would hurt like hell!

Rebecca shot three fists in succession at Lita, all of which were blocked before connecting with her head, shoulder and solar plexus. A high-aimed kick met Lita's forearm instead, causing Rebecca to wind back and let a glowing red orb the size of a basketball go from her ki-glove. Lita swept her arms to the side, and the blast crashed into her lightning shield, their combined energies cancelling each other out.

The combatants stepped back from each other once more, Rebecca's breathing even, but accelerated. Lita's brow slowly let loose a single bead of sweat that ran down her face to fall from her jawline. It was at that moment that something interesting caught her eye. Behind Rebecca there was an air duct, a silent breeze emanating from it. The thing that got Lita's attention so swiftly was that Rebecca's hair was moving. Her eyes widened ever so slightly as an idea embedded itself in her brain. Grinning, she proceeded to act on it.

"You know, if you were any slower, I just might fall asleep dodging," she smirked at Rebecca.

The eyes of the Leviathan's chief of security widened at first in mild disbelief that her opponent was resorting to such foolishness, then narrowed further than they had yet as she registered exactly what had been said.

"What did you say to me??" she barked, causing the grin on Lita's face to grow in size.

"I said your slow," Lita repeated. "Sloppy, too. Couldn't hit the broad side of a barn!"

A wordless cry of rage erupted from Rebecca, and she threw herself at Lita with reckless abandon, her speed climbing through the roof, but her telegraphing increasing. With a quick chuckle, Lita began to dodge again, her movements forming a circular pattern as the temperature of the air around her began to drop.

Rebecca continued her attacks, pressing what she considered to be her advantage. Strikes were mixed with blasts from her ki-glove, adding to the destruction around the two, and every time that Lita thought Rebecca's anger might be starting to fade, she would throw another insult her way, keeping the circular pattern of her movements going.

So it was that Lita's last breath came out in a fog, her ki temperature at a perfect zero degrees while Rebecca's own was burning as hot as lava. Lita planted her feet and threw her fist forward with a cry.

"Hyriu Shoten Ha Horizontal!"

Rebecca's eyes went wide as a real life twister came flying at her from Lita's outstretched fist, slamming into her with incredible force as it drained every last bit of heat from her ki. She was propelled down the hall in a long drawn arc, slamming back down onto the deck hard enough to knock her out as her body slid another 20 feed before coming to a stop.

Lita stood, let out a deep breath to regulate her temperature again, and walked down the hall to finally reach Rebecca's side. Kneeling beside her opponent's unconscious form, she assessed her to be in stable condition and removed her weapons, shield generator and (once she'd found the shutdown switch) ki-glove. Then she stood and tapped her com badge.

"Computer, beam the hostile in front of me to the maximum security brig and activate the forcefield."

There was a chirp, and Rebecca's unconscious body was beamed away. With a quick intake of breath, Lita turned and made her way back to the 'bridge'.

Ranma could swear that time slowed to a crawl as Mousse brought up the image of the incoming ships on the viewer. Would it be a cavalry for them? Or was it aide for the Leviathan that was warping in under sensor cloak? He swallowed as he thought about the implications of the inability to scan them, realizing that it was more than likely the latter. Not that he would think even for a second that the Leviathan was a match for his beautiful starship, but with the odds going that far against them, it would be foolish to think that coming out the other side of this alive was going to be the walk in the park he originally thought.

The viewscreen flickered, and the two incoming ships were instantly two pinmarks in the distance making their way into the system.

"Magnify," Ranma instructed.

The image leapt forward with a sweep of rapid clicks, and two Sovereign-class Starships filled the screen. Curiosity the better part of his current thought process, Ranma tilted his head to the side.

"Mousse," he inquired slowly. "Why can't we scan them? Those're only Sovereign-class."

"Sheffield to Wildstar," the com came to life at Shampoo's empty console before Mousse could reply to Ranma's question. "Those ships are NOT your average Sovereign-class, and I can guarantee it. Starfleet Intelligence is not in the business of applying sensor cloaks to their vessels. Those are definitely Section 31 vessels, and they don't want us to know how strong they are."

Ranma's face fell to a scow immediately. Behind him, Lita entered the 'bridge', stepping out of instinct to the first empty post she saw, which happened to be Shampoo's post. Taking a second to familiarize herself with the temporary rig, she entered her access code and took over the station without a word. Ranma only spared her a glance out of the corner of his eye, more to assure himself that the station had an officer at it again than anything. Lita was here to help, and it seemed she was more than prepared to do so.

"Should we take the initiative then, Captain Grissom?" he asked out of respect for Grissom's probable experience in matters such as these. "Since I'm sure they already know that we know who they are?"

Ranma could almost hear Grissom shake his head negative over the com line before his actual response came.

"I don't think it's such a good idea to attack them if we don't know how they're equipped. We could be stepping into a trap."

"Not like this whole thing isn't one in the first place," Ranma grumbled. Then louder, "Commander Kino, open a channel to the lead Sovereign-class vessel."

Lita slipped into the order like it was the most natural thing. "Aye, Captain. Channel open."

"This is Captain Saotome of the Starship Wildstar to the approaching Sovereign-class vessels. Identify yourselves."

Goku smirked at the 'no questions just do it' tone in Ranma's voice. It was a tone that clearly stated his intent to just outright attack the ships if they did not answer. Given their current situation, Goku couldn't blame his captain for the shoot-first-ask-questions-later mentality one little bit.

A second passed in silence before a male voice echoed over the com system in reply.

"Well since you asked so politely, I suppose I'm obligated to respond, aren't I?"

Ranma snarled audibly in reply to the sarcasm, merely waiting while the viewscreen flipped over to the responding ship. What appeared was a man in his thirties, clean shaven and with short yet messy dark hair sitting in what was obviously a captain's chair, but to a totally unfamiliar bridge design.

"Captain Saotome," the male drolled casually on the viewscreen, crossing his legs in the chair and fidgeting with an isolenear chip in his right hand, his left sitting idly in his lap. "You're quite a ways from where you're supposed to be. I had Starfleet send you to Risa, not all the way out to Deep Space 3."

"Well I tend to get a little lost when it comes to the old man's directions," Ranma chuckled darkly. At that moment, the viewscreen split down the middle to accommodate another image. This was the same bridge design as what he saw behind the male, but with a female in the captain's chair, her long dark hair tied back into a tail behind her.

"Booth, there's no need to chide him like this. We came here with a specific purpose in mind, and I suggest that we proceed without further delay. To do any different would be like pulling the wings off a predominantly avionic insect just to torture it before its demise."

On the other screen, the male (Booth, Ranma made a note) rolled his eyes at his accomplice in what was obviously affectionate annoyance, the hint of a smile playing at the corners of his mouth making Ranma's anger spike unnaturally high. Insect???

"Oh come on, Temperance," Booth replied. "Don't you think you should take some advice from your first name and exercise a little restraint? Besides, come on Bones, this is the fun part."

"FUN PART??!" Ranma hollered in pure unadulterated rage. Goku turned to observe his captain again, having never seen Ranma truly get angry. It was a sight to behold as the pigtailed martial artist's eyes converged into cat-like slits, the copper-blues fading hue between their natural color and a yellow-gold of a cat's eye. He only caught the briefest glimpse of it, Ranma's aura strength becoming almost a bitter taste in the back of his throat before the young man managed to dampen down his rage and keep the control he so badly needed right now. Goku hadn't realized it at first, but the shaking of the deck beneath his feet had been his captain's aura, for once not caused by weapons fire from the Leviathan (which was obviously now waiting for its superior's authorization to continue the attack). He instinctively took a single step back, not wanting his own aura to mingle with Ranma's, uncertain whether or not they would react to each other and cause severe damage to the inside of the ship.

"The Fun part??" Ranma continued, teeth clenched hard together and fists balled painfully tight and raised to waist level. As he fought to remain in control of himself thru his anger, his energy shone thru his eyes, turning them white-hot and completely blocking his retinas and corneas from sight of the two on the viewscreen, who had immediately taken to shutting up and now stared blankly at what was happening to the captain of their prey. "How Fucking DARE YOU!!! There are over TWO THOUSAND PEOPLE on this ship, and you'd laugh about throwing their lives away as casually as you'd rip the wings off a fucking butterfly?? You both make me sick to my stomach!! Close the channel, I don't even want to talk to these fucking Neanderthals!!!"

"The Crossroads and the Nevandeer," House mused. "funny, I don't think our own bosses trust us to finish the job. Not a lot of faith there, wouldn't you agree, mon capitan?"

"Pfff," Will chuckled. "Shut up, House. If they came, it's because this is important. Like I can't handle a stupid Cutter class on my own."

House pointed at the viewer, his face betraying none of the sarcasm he was just dripping with. "Well, THEY sure seem to have tons of faith in you, don't they? Not an asshole thing to do on their part at all."

Will just stared at the viewscreen. He knew how much fun his superiors liked to have with their prey before squashing them, and he was more than certain that it would be a very messy squash indeed. While the Crossroads and the Nevandeer appeared to be standard Sovereign class starships, they were heavily modified with easily twice the original arsenal, some experimental weaponry, and regenerative shielding.

"Your orders, Captain?" Spike asked from the helm. He was getting restless doing nothing, whereas before he was having the time of his life. Now that they weren't in the process of blowing anything up, he found himself twiddling his thumbs much more than he cared for.

"Hold your position until we hear from Admiral Booth," Will replied in monotone, his face scrunching up slightly as he tried to grasp something that was just beyond his reach. His face stayed like this as he turned and walked back over to his chair, sitting down in it and crossing one leg over the other. He turned his head and leaned his chin against his closed fist, deep in thought.

House regarded Will from his chair, turning his head to the side a little in a futile attempt to decipher what was bothering his captain. Finally, he just gave up and did the only thing that came naturally to him: be ridiculously straight forward and ask.

"Something troubling you?"

Will didn't answer for a moment. His mind was too occupied flying over blueprints that he hoped he had properly memorized. As this was the case, it took him a few seconds to lift his head a little from his fist and answer his first officer.

"I feel like I'm forgetting something," he said quietly in reply. "The bad part is, I'm pretty sure it was something pretty damned important."

Just as he finished his sentence, the two sovereign class on the screen swooped in on the Wildstar and began to open fire. Will quickly straightened himself in his seat. It was time to get back to work.

"Helm, attack pattern victor seven. All weapons lock onto the Sheffield. Let's keep her off Admiral Booth's ships."

Vegeta came storming into 'sickbay', still dragging the unconscious Steven behind him. He walked to the nearest empty bio bed and swung the commander onto it like he was a sack of potatoes, then turned to the nearest nurse and grabbed her arm to get her attention.

"Make sure that man stays unconscious," he growled before releasing her arm, turning about and walking back out of the holodeck. As he began to pass through the doors the ship bucked under his feet again, forcing him to reach out and grab the arch of the doorway for support. With a snarl on his lips, he jumped up a foot, hovering in the air as he looked back and forth down the hallway.

"Nuts to this bullshit," he spat, then raised his voice as loud as he could holler. "MAKE A HOLE, PEOPLE, OR I'LL RUN YOU OVER!!!!"

That done, he shot down the corridor on his return to main engineering.

Back inside the holodeck, the nurse Vegeta had cornered shook her head as she looked at Commander Stoltz lying unconscious. She came to the conclusion that he would be fine for now, and turned to her more important patients.

Not two seconds after she had walked away, Steven's right hand twitched.

The 'Bridge' shook under Ranma's feet, the Crossroads and the Nevandeer apparently switching straight into attack mode now that they had been hung up on. Ranma had taken a moment to count to ten a few thousand times in his head, and now felt reasonably back in control of his temper (though he was certain it was barely reigned in, if anything).

"Ryouga, defensive pattern Geneva 2. Full impulse."

Ryouga swung his seat to one side of his console, punching in a few commands, then moved back over a little and floored the throttle control, bringing the ship up to maximum impulse. He grinned at his accomplishment. He knew he'd get the hang of this eventually.

"Mousse, fire all phasers. Target the leading sovereign class and get her weapons offline. Lita, status on the countermeasures?"

Mousse responded with an affirmative and set to work as Lita looked up to Ranma.

"Ready to rock," she answered. Ranma nodded once in return, signaling his desire to deploy them immediately. It was at this instant that the whole ship rocked hard to one side, throwing everyone to the floor.

In space, pieces of debris floated off the starboard side of the Wildstar's primary hull, several bodies strewn here and there about the wreckage of what used to be the aft side of the ship's primary phaser bank.

Grissom stared at the viewscreen with his jaw dropped, even as the Leviathan bore down on his ship. The Crossroads may as well have just opened the maw of Satan himself as far as he was concerned. Whatever the weapon was that they used, it went right through the Wildstar's shields like they weren't even there, blowing a hole through the starboard aft quarter of the Cutter class's primary hull.

"Oh My God," he breathed out.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?" Goku hollered as he got back to his feet.

"Major hull breach!" Lita responded, her hands flying wildly over the ops panel. "Primary hull ruptured. It's a through and through. We have bodies outside the ship."

"Are our shields even up?!" Ryouga looked as disbelieving at what had just occurred as Ranma felt, who was getting to his feet with a grumble. If what Commander Kino had just told him was true, then their new company had the capability to blow his ship away one gaping hole at a time."

"Primary phaser bank will not respond," Mousse informed him. "Switching primary to dorsal secondary."

Ranma looked over to Goku, who caught his captain's gaze with a furrowed brow and shook his head once from side to side. Ranma took a deep breath, knowing that Goku's thoughts were following his own. There was no way in hell that they could win this fight. The odds seemed stacked in Section 31's favor now.

Ranma knew it was time. His mind screamed at him to give the order, even as he fought against it with the reasoning that they could still at least TRY to inflict some damage before going out with a bang. His own words from a month prior returned to haunt his decision making abilities.

'So everyone knows, I'll be considering this a kamikaze solution at best. Don't count on me issuing this order. Ever.'

"Commander Kino," Ranma called, his eyes not yet leaving Goku's. "What are the odds that we'll be able to do a damn worth of damage to those two sovereign class before they take us out?"

Lita punched in some calculations and ran a quick simulation. A few seconds drifted by in silence before a red light blinked on from her console, shining off her face like a sign from Hell. Her frame slouched a little in mild disbelief at how quickly the simulation had ended before she looked back up to Ranma and shook her head.

"Pretty much zilch I'm afraid," she breathed in silent surrender.

Ranma's facial features hardened and for a moment, all eyes on the bridge were on him. He turned to the 'viewer' beside him, giving the titan hybrids on the screen one more hard stare.

"I had hoped it wouldn't ever come to this."

"Captain," Goku seemed to be pressing at him to give the order, knowing that the next shot either the Crossroads or the Nevandeer took at them could go right through their makeshift 'bridge', and then it would be all over. Ranma sighed in resignation to what he knew he had to do.

"Hail the Sheffield," he instructed Lita. "Tell them to get the fuck out of dodge."

Ranma reached down to his left and punched an intercom switch as Lita informed the Sheffield to clear the area, even though she wasn't quite sure why she was doing it.

"All hands, this is the captain speaking…" he trailed off as he looked back at the viewer. It all came down to this moment for him. His ship was battered and beaten, and certainly no longer a match for their opponents. So it was with a sense of sadness for what he was about to do to his pride and joy that Ranma breathed out the one word he swore to his crew he never would. It slipped from his lips like the breath of God coming down from the heavens.

"Wildfire."

EOC Notes: Dear God, it's been ages... I took a yearlong sabbatical on all my stories when my brain turned to mush sometime in early 2009. I've recently done a pile of reading, creative writing and the like, however, and after pouring over a few of my favorites again, I feel I'm back in the saddle enough to keep this going!

Now I know at the end of the last chapter, I said this one only had one more chapter left, but it would just be on hell of a rushed finish, so lets do it right, shall we? here'll be one or two (maybe three) more for the finalization of this mission. After that..... Who friekin knows what this ship's gunna go get tangled in next??!

Stay tuned for the next installment coming out absolutely ASAP. Same Matt Time... Same Matt Channel!

MattSaotome