Disclaimer

Macross is owned by or licensed to lots of people - Tatsunoko Studios, Harmony Gold, Studio Nue, Streamline Video...note that none of them are me.

The same can be said of Ranma 1/2 - Rumiko Takahashi, Kitty, Shonen Sunday Comics, Viz Video. Not me.

I didn't create any of them, and I certainly do not own them. Any use of them in this story is meant as nothing more than tribute. Please don't sue me.


Wednesday's Child

Thirty-Two: The Parting Of The Ways

May 2nd, 2012

"The point I'm trying to make," said Max, "is that the Malcontents are a serious danger to people, and the Service is doing nothing to reduce that danger."

"There isn't a hell of a lot we can do about them," countered Ranma. "In the meantime, we've got the recloning chamber under wraps, and the Skull posted at Trad for security. Milia's smoothing over the ruffled feathers—"

"And it's only a matter of time before the Zentraedi try stealing the chamber again," said Max. "Except that they won't know where it is. How much damage could they do before they're stopped?"

"Well, what the hell are we expected to do?" asked Ranma. "Round up all the Zentraedi, put 'em in detainment camps, and force them to reclone?"

"No." Max shook his head. "There are plenty of Zentraedi who are innocent, who really want to live out their lives in peace. It's the ones who—"

"Problem is, Max, we can't see inside their heads," said Ranma. "So until they do something stupid, all we can do is wait. I believe the technical term for it is, 'innocent until proven guilty.'"

Max sighed. "Well, I don't envy you this mission. Being at Colonel Tendo's beck and call—"

"Actually, according to the official TO&E, she's at my beck and call." He snorted. "However well that will work out in the end.


Luckily, her mission had gotten off the ground in the wee hours of the morning. By lunchtime, Milia had managed to iron out the basic plan for the security of the recloning chamber. So it was with a deep feeling of satisfaction that she sat down opposite Nabiki for a well-earned break.

"The biggest problem," she said, "is that Trad wants a Cat's Eye AWACS on station at all times."

"They don't ask for much, do they?" said Nabiki sourly. "We don't have a hell of a lot of those birds, and keeping one on station means detaching five for this mission alone."

"The U. N. Spacy has control over only two recloning chambers," said Milia. "The other is emplaced within Macross, which is orbited by AWACS at all times. Certainly, for such an important piece of equipment, sufficient protection should be made available."

"What about ground forces?" asked Nabiki. "I've already been on the horn with General Alvaro. He's willing to base Third Cav out of here. That's thirty-six Destroids, including one Monster."

"An entire Cavalry company to guard a single recloning chamber?" Even to Milia, that sounded excessive.

"Not exactly," admitted Nabiki. "Third would be establishing a fortification. Standard training, maintenance and staging base, probably six kilometers north of here. But even for a Tomahawk, that means they can reach Trad in ten minutes. And Alvaro is putting Rabel in command, and she understands the need for civil defense units. Probably, they'd have six Destroids on station within Trad at most times."

Milia nodded. "That would be within the parameters of the mission."

"Anyway, I've sent the Jolly Rogers back to Macross City, but the Diamondbacks are still here, until we get the heavy metal moved up." She bit her lip. "Commander Saotome had some strong words with me about tying up our best Valkyrie squadron, but—"

"His combat experience is superior to your own," broke in Milia. "You should have heeded his advice."

"If you would let me finish my sentence before leaping to defend your 'Master'," snapped Nabiki. "He agreed that a Valkyrie squadron was needed for security, and I agreed that the Jolly Rogers should be released. We don't need the best here, but the Diamondbacks are probably the second-best Valkyrie team. Plus it gets Hikaru's face out of the limelight."

Milia nodded.

"Plus, it's only for two weeks at the outside, and given a Valkyrie's speed advantage, they can still serve as fast reaction units anywhere in their flight radius. Which is considerable."

Milia nodded again. "So the physical security of the recloning chamber is settled. Next, the Trad city council is concerned about civilian access to—"

The explosion was some distance off, but the overpressure wave still shattered the windows of the little cafe, showering them with bits of glass. Milia jumped to her feet.

"Another attack!"

Nabiki stood up, wiping the blood from a small cut from her cheek. "Who the hell would be stupid enough to try this twice in one day?"

Milia glanced out the window, and saw the Glaug combat pod. The one with the red and white livery. And she knew exactly who was behind the attacks.


"Snake Bravo, Snake Lead. Shift west two kilometers and put some suppressing fire on those artillery pods."

"Lead, Bravo Three. Wilco."

Max cursed, and pulled Falconeur through a high-gee turn. He haloed one of the attacking Regult battle pods and put a twenty-round burst from the gun pod into it. He shifted to GERWALK, sliding down into the street, and spotted the Glaug.

That clown is probably the one leading this attack...but where the hell did he get that thing?

Though still relatively fragile compared to the Valkyrie, a Glaug had greater mobility on the ground, and much heavier firepower. It turned, and fired off a missile. Max haloed it, blew it to hell with the LASER turret, and opened up with the GU-11. The Glaug turned, deflecting the shells off its armoured carapace, and returned fire with its particle cannons. Max broke off his run, scrabbling for altitude and shifting back to Fighter mode.

All right, fine. The gun can't really hurt it. But let's see how he likes a spread of missiles—

He cursed as he remembered that all of his missiles were CD gas warheads. And the Glaug was airtight.

Fine. I've still got options.

He dived towards the Glaug again, firing the main LASER cannons. Two hits burned holes in the robot's armour, and he followed it up with a spread of missiles as he broke off.

Maybe if he's busy trying to shoot down missiles—

He cursed as he saw contrails rising towards him. The Glaug had fired off two missiles of its own. He reconfigured again, to Soldier Mode, and spun in mid-air, bringing the GU-11 to bear. He shot down first one missile, then the other, then reconfigured again to GERWALK and dropped down towards the city street.

The Glaug took off at a dead run, weaving between buildings, and he cursed again. Goddamn thing is faster on the ground than it has any right being.

He turned a corner...and stopped.

Sixteen Regult battle pods and four Nousjadeul-Ger powered armour units were waiting for him.

Where the hell did they get all this metal?

He stomped left rudder, slewing the Valkyrie around, and jerked the trigger several times. Six battle pods went down under his fire, and he fired off the rest of his missiles to try to keep them busy as he once again clawed for altitude. Massed particle beams flew around either side of his ship as he yanked the pole, trying to find cover.

"Snake Lead, Charlie. We're getting hammered over here. They've got five female powered armour—"

What?

"—and they're tearing us up."

"Roger, Charlie." He cursed; without proper warheads, his Snakes were getting eaten alive. He turned and dove towards the small knot of battle pods, hammering away with every gun on his ship, then reconfigured to Soldier Mode before slamming foot-first into the last standing unit—a powered armour unit. He checked his ammo counter, and cursed yet again, then discarded the now-empty gun pod.

Why the fuck didn't Saotome order us to carry at least a few live rounds?

The fact that it had been Colonel Hayase, not Saotome, who had ordered his loadout was forgotten. He flipped the Nousjadeul-Ger that he'd just drop-kicked over, and quickly dismounted its particle cannon. They'd learned that this weapon was independantly powered, and could be used—albeit clumsily—by a Soldier-Mode Valkyrie. It would tie him to the ground, but—

A Queaddlun-Rau leaped into the air above him, and he turned and jetted backwards. He needed thirty more seconds to modify the particle gun, and the Zentraedi was obviously not going to give him that time. Out of ammo, can't use the LASERs— He charged forwards, grappling the Queaddlun-Rau, but it merely opened up with its chest-mounted autocannon, causing Falconeur's ablative armour to flake off in massive chunks.

Can't take this for long—

The world turned white for a second, and Max shook his head to clear the glare from his eyes. The Queaddlun-Rau had become inert, and he threw it off, then glanced around.

From the top of a nearby building, Saotome Ranma waved at him, then leaped back off into the fray.

What the hell did he do to it?

He didn't have time to ponder it; he turned his attention back to the particle cannon.


"All enemy forces are in retreat."

Ranma nodded, and sighed. "This was obviously not an impromptu attack. They were too well-equipped, they had a plan, and there were a hell of a lot of them."

Nabiki nodded. "I agree. Furthermore, all the male-type combat robots had the same unit insignia, according to the surviving Snakes."

"How many of them are there?"

"Five."

Ranma winced. The Diamondbacks had been well and truly mauled in this battle. Mostly because they were underequipped.

Of course, nobody expected an attack of this nature. Why didn't we? Who screwed up?

"This is all my fault," said Nabiki bitterly. "I should have expected that the Zentraedi Malcontents would organize. They come from a military society, dammit!"

Ranma shook his head. "No. Even a well-organized force of Malcontents would not have been this dangerous. For one thing, they wouldn't have had so many combat robots. Did we see any infantry?"

"No."

"Then this was probably a Renegade faction, not Malcontents." He bit his lip. "And that's one hell of a lot more dangerous to us."

"If they're Renegades, why did they wait so long before showing themselves?" asked Nabiki. "They could have hit us any time before now, and we'd have been much less able to defend against it."

"They want the recloning chamber," said Ranma.

Something seemed to click in Nabiki's mind. "Right. Until the last two months, there hasn't been one whose location was widely known. But Trad made no secret of its existence."

"And the Renegades might be filling out their numbers with Malcontents, many of whom are currently Micloned."

"We don't have the HUMINT resources among the Zentraedi that we need," said Nabiki. "We need to fix that, fast. Where's Milia?"

"Thought she was with you," said Ranma.

"She was, but she went to check on the recloning chamber," said Nabiki. "The last radio message I have from her, she'd confirmed it was secure, then went looking for you."

Ranma flipped open his wrist radio. "Milia Fallyna. Please report."

There was no reply.

"Milia, this is Commander Saotome. Please report."

Still nothing.

Ranma sighed. "Her radio might be damaged." He flipped his wrist radio shut again. "Or she might be injured, or even killed in the fighting. But I ain't gonna count her out just yet. Can we organize a search party?"


Kim Kabriov blinked, and adjusted her instruments. Then turned to Claudia.

"Lieutenant? I've got something here I think you need to hear. It's on Zentraedi Tactical Communications channel Theta."

"Oh?" Claudia walked over to the enlisted tech's station. "Put it on screen."

Kim flipped a switch, and the face of a Zentraedi appeared. From the odd resonance in his voice, she could tell that he was full-sized.

"...in five hundred mil. And the fate of all those who would rebel against the lawful authority of the Zentraedi Imperative will be made plain. Should the guilt of Assault Leader Parino be proven, she will be executed for her crimes against the Zentraedi people. Please attend carefully."

The screen went dark.

Claudia bit her lip. "What did I miss?"

"They captured her at Trad, according to that man," said Kim. "And they're putting her on trial, 'according to the customs of the Miclones she obviously has chosen to emulate,' as he put it."

"I highly doubt it will be a fair trial," said Claudia acidly. "Contact Colonel Tendo."


Ranma was in a rare fury. "We have to do something to stop him. Call back the Jolly Rogers, and get someone to fly Hawkwing up here. Contact—"

"Calm down, Saotome," snapped Nabiki. "We're three steps ahead of you already. Hawkwing is on its way, and so is both the Jolly Rogers and the Gunfighters. Plus, we've got half a dozen volunteers from Trad—"

"This isn't a place for civilian interference," he snarled.

"The volunteers are full-size Zentraedi," said Nabiki. "Colonel Hayase has come up with a rescue plan that will need the help of some of the volunteers."

"Misa?"

"She's on her way here as well," said Nabiki. "She'll be co-ordinating the rescue mission."


Forty Valkyries and two transport aircraft had overloaded the airstrip's capacity by a significant amount, and most of the Valkyries crouched, vulture-like, near the hangars. The understrength tech teams worked feverishly, loading weapons and testing components.

One of the hangars had been converted into a temporary command post. Misa was going over the mission brief.

"We don't have time to bring up any Destroids, so the Gunslingers and the Jolly Rogers will be under heavy fire. Once the retrieval signal is sent, you are to break off and retreat. Is that clear, Commander Ichigyo?"

"Understood," said Hikaru.

"And Commander Simmons?"

"Yes, Ma'am." Simmons was a cheerful, bloodthirsty pirate—or at least, that was his public persona—but that was laid aside in place of steady professionalism.

"That covers the diversion. Now, for the extraction itself. The remaining Diamondback forces will—"

"Excuse me, Ma'am." Ranma stood up, bracing himself to attention. "Commander Saotome requests permission to make extraction."

She shook her head. She'd seen this coming. "No, Mr. Saotome. Commander Jenius' airplane is an S-type, whereas your jet is a J-type. The S-type is more capable."

"Begging the Colonel's pardon, but Hawkwing is a Block Four Jaybird, whereas Falconeur is a Block One Super. And Falconeur is without augmentation packages. Without augmentations, a Block One Super is inferior to a Block Four Jaybird."

Misa considered this, then said, "You are correct. Very well. I shall place Commander Jenius temporarily in command of the Jolly Rogers, and Commander Ichigyo will lead the extraction team."

Ranma was visibly grinding his teeth. "Ma'am—"

"Commander, I understand why you wish to lead this mission." And I really wish I didn't. "But you know as well as I do that U. N. Spacy protocol does not permit an officer with a personal attachment to a hostage take part in a hostage-rescue mission."

"Then why did you order Hawkwing to the front?"

She blinked at his tone. "I had intended to use Hawkwing in the diversion."

"That would still be a violation of the same protocol," said Ranma. She could tell that he was seething in rage, but that was just one more reason to keep him out of this mission. "Furthermore, Hawkwing was fitted with the SACS—" He referred to the Space Augmentation Combat System. "—which is not in sync with your proposed use of the ship."

She had no answer for that.

"None of the other Valkyries on the distraction mission are equipped with SACS," he continued. "In atmosphere, SACS is almost a liability. Only the extra missile load makes it break even. So why drag all those extra tubes out here if not to use them where they'd do the most good?"

"The aircraft loadout was assigned by your plane captain, Commander," said Misa. "I have to find the best use for it to—"

"The best use for it," he interrupted, "would be to carry out the extraction mission."

"Commander Saotome, the only way that Hawkwing will be flying the extraction mission will be with an officer other than yourself in the cockpit." She hated the cold way that she had to deliver the order, but nothing else was working. "Commander Ichigyo, since you have the superior airplane, you will fly the extraction mission. Commander Saotome, you will take overall command of the distraction portion of the mission."

He opened his mouth to argue further, but she cut him off with a cold glare.

"My order is final."


"Look at you, Milia."

Lap'Lamiz sneered down at her Micloned prisoner. Milia was imprisoned in a cage fashioned from Zentraedi-scale eating implements, a plate balanced on top to prevent her from merely leaping out of it.

"You stand there nearly naked, practically advertising your weaknesses to the world. Have you sunk so far into Miclone corruption?"

Milia glanced down at her attire. The pale blue blouse was quite thin, and was not overly low-cut—though considerably more than the high-necked Zentraedi tunic her jailer wore. Her slacks were also rather thin, but were still full-length. Overall, she felt that she was hardly 'nearly naked', but from the Zentraedi viewpoint, she was quite underdressed.

She hadn't realized until this moment how little she noticed anymore.

"The old ways are gone," she said. "At this juncture, the Zentraedi must adapt, or become obsolete."

"The old ways are not gone," snapped Lap'Lamiz. "We have been preserving them, while you and the other traitors have turned your back on us. You have led the Miclones' assault on our ways, spreading contamination behind you."

Considering the ardour with which Lap'Lamiz had greeted her captor, Milia doubted very much that she remained uncontaminated.

"Your desire for power has clouded your judgement," she said.

"Power?" Lap'Lamiz shook her head. "Oh, how poorly you understand me, Milia. I do not hunger for power, or for glory. My only goal is to leave this miserable planet."

"Then why take part in this charade?"

"Because he wills it," she said. "And until the time comes for us to leave, I must have my allies. What is that Miclone saying? Expediency makes for strange bedfellows."

It was the emphasis on the final word that filled Milia with dread.

Lap'Lamiz smiled. "Miclone culture does have its high points, doesn't it?"

Milia shuddered. Her Zentraedi conditioning is almost certainly destroyed, and she's had no proper guidance while it came apart. Which means that she's gone completely insane.


"Ranma."

He turned, and glared at Misa coldly. "Yes, Colonel."

"Oh, fucking relax, Ranma." She sighed. "Look, believe me, I know why you want to fly this mission."

"No, I don't think you do, Misa."

"She's your student, and your friend," countered Misa. "And I know you'll move heaven and earth for a friend."

"It ain't just that." He set down his clipboard. "Look, Dr. Wood put her in my care, okay? She ain't just my student, or my friend. She's my responsibility."

"She's a grown woman."

"No, she ain't," insisted Ranma. "We still don't know how old she is physically, but mentally, she's not much more than ten years old. That freaked-up excuse for a society they had doesn't give them room to grow. The only reason why Vwritlai is as sane as he is is because he's almost two hundred years old!"

"So you look at her as a child?"

Ranma threw up his hands. "Look, I wanna speak frankly here, okay?"

"Off the record and forgetting rank," agreed Misa.

"I know you're jealous of her."

She bit back a retort. "I am, yes. I know it's stupid of me, but I can't help how I feel."

"I said we could hook back up—"

"But you didn't say it was what you wanted," said Misa. "And that's why I refused." She looked down. "But it's so hard, Ranma. I remember what we had, when it was good, and I..." She glanced back up at him sadly. "I still kick myself every day for the things I said to you, the day we broke up. And it hurts to see you with another woman. And to see her throwing herself at you so blatantly—"

"She ain't exactly bein' subtle, is she?" agreed Ranma. "But the fact is, I'm not interested in her."

"I know you better than that, Ranma." She took a step closer to him. "You talk about her as though she were a daughter, but when you look at her—"

"Misa, don't." He raised a hand. "Look, I'll admit I like her, a lot. She an' I are alike in so many ways. But I don't love her, and I doubt I ever could."

"You do love her," corrected Misa. "You've proven that often enough. But not the way she wants."

Ranma shook his head. "She's so goddamned starved for affection she'll take anything she can get. An' she wants more. But I can't give her what she wants, because it would be a violation of our trust."

"Whose?"

"Mine and Dr. Wood's," said Ranma. "She placed Milia in my care. Mine and Milia's, because I swore to her that her life was her own. Mine and yours, because I still love you."

Her heart leaped to hear him say it at last, even if it was far too late. "And I still love you. But you have to know that you and I would never work out. And you shouldn't be lonely just because you don't want to hurt me."

"I'm used to bein' lonely," he admitted. "An' even with you sayin' that, there's lots of other reasons why I gotta keep her at arms' length."

"You've already used up those reasons," said Misa. "She's her own woman, now, and much as I hate to say it, she's decided that you're the one for her."

"Like a friggin' Amazon," muttered Ranma.

"At least she doesn't turn into a cat," said Misa with a smile.

"I don't get it, Misa," said Ranma. "You've been actin' all jealous over Milia, and here you are, now, tryin' to convince me to go out with her. Why?"

"Partially because I want you to be happy, even if it hurts me," said Misa. "But mostly because I'm tired of feeling like a jealous bitch all the time." She sighed. "I didn't deny you the lead in this mission just to be catty, Ranma. We need someone who can go into this objectively."

"Max can't do it, then." Ranma chuckled. "He's way more hung up on Milia than I am."

"He is?" Misa's eyebrows rose in surprise. "I had no idea."

"That's because you didn't work every day with the guy for half a year," said Ranma. "Granted, I don't know if he's as bad as he was, but he was pretty goddamned bad."

"Then it's a good thing that Hikaru's flying the extraction mission."

"Hikaru, is it?" Ranma grinned. "You know, you two are gettin' along a hell of a lot better than you used to."

Misa laughed. "Don't even start, Saotome!"

"Turnabout's fair play," he said. "If you're tryin' ta hook me up with Milia—"

"I am not!" she said. "I'm just trying to get you to stop lying to yourself."

He shrugged. "I've never lied to myself," he said. "I just don't think I need any more complications in my personal life." He picked up the clipboard. "An' as nice as this chat has been, I really gotta get my plane pre-flighted."

"We'll pick this back up after your mission," promised Misa. She returned his lazy salute, and turned to walk back to the command post.

Never lied to yourself, my ass. The only person on the planet who does that more often is...me.


The Zentraedi knelt next to the commo device. "It's been a few years since I've operated this equipment, Commander. But I think I can remember how."

"Just like riding a bicycle," said Ranma.

The Zentraedi scowled. "They don't make bicycles in my size." But he remained focused on setting the controls. "Okay, I've got it set up. Frequency Alpha is reserved for emergency communications. Should we start now?"

Ranma shook his head, then realized that the Zentraedi wouldn't be able to see him doing it, as Ranma was currently in his Soldier-mode Valkyrie. "Not yet. We have to wait for the kidnappers to start their broadcast."

The Zentraedi nodded, and pulled out an oversized cigarette. It was one Human habit that Ranma did not approve of the Zentraedi adopting, but unfortunately, some few among them had done so. The big fellow searched through his pockets, but evidently had not brought along any means of lighting the cigarette.

"Let me get that for you." Ranma rotated his LASER head turrets down, and fired a shot across the cigarette's tip.


"Soldiers of the Zentraedi, please attend carefully."

"Receiving."

Claudia adjusted her instruments. "Working a bearing...two eight three point six."

Misa picked up the telephone headset—to reduce the chance of signals intercept, they'd run a hard line to the listening post. "Shammy, are you getting it?"

"Yes, Misa. We've got the bearing for you...it's two eight three point one."

"They aren't close," mused Claudia. Her headset was patched into the telephone line. "And the distance will make it harder for us to get a point bearing...Okay. Grid reference twenty-six fifteen by ten sixty-six. Plus or minus five hundred meters. It's pretty close to NA-D37."

Misa nodded, and picked up her radio. "Cat's Eye Three Oh Six, your grid reference is twenty-six fifteen by ten sixty-six. Visual by telescopic."

"Pretty flat out here, Colonel. We'll have it for you in...okay, it's a crashed Zentraedi cruiser. Designated NA-D37."

"Thank you, Three Oh Six." Misa clicked the radio off. "That's a confirm, Claudia."

Claudia nodded, and tapped into yet a third communications system. The LASER communications system relied on line-of-sight, but was uninterceptable except by direct interruption of the beam. "Location pinpointed. Commander Saotome, start your operation."

"Roger."


The Zentraedi switched on the communications system. "This is Rogai calling any loyal Zentraedi troops. We are under attack—"

Ranma fired a burst from his GU-11 over Rogai's head, and the Zentraedi ducked insinctively. "We are under attack by Miclone troops, and we're outnumbered. We could really use some help out here!"

There was a moment's pause, then a voice crackled from the communicator. "Hold tight as long as you can, we're under—"

Ranma waved the hand of his Valkyrie, and Rogai cut communications.

"Think that'll do it?"

Rogai grinned. "They'll come running. I can guarantee it."

"Hayase to Saotome. The broadcast of the 'trial' has ceased, and Cat's Eye reports several armoured units approaching your position."

"Here they come," said Ranma. He hunkered his unit down, and watched as the four Gunfighters started a brawl with the five full-sized Zentraedi.

This was the hardest part of the operation. The Valkyrie pilots had no negative feedback on their machines, and it was hard for them to judge how to pull a shot so that it inflicted no damage, without looking like they were doing it. It seemed to be working, though; the Renegade robots had just crested the ridge, and were accelerating towards the brawl.

They slowed, however, when both the Valkyries and the Zentraedi broke and ran...both 'factions' in the same direction.

"Alpha Force, spring the trap."

The other thirty-two Valkyries rose from their concealed positions, weapons at the ready. And now Ranma could see the Glaug leading the enemy forces, and its red and white livery.

"Kamjin!"

He leaped forwards, gun pod roaring, and the Glaug turned to engage him. It rippled off all six of its onboard missiles, and he hosed them down, then reconfigured to GERWALK and fired eight GA-34 Stiletto heat seekers back at it.

He realized, as the Glaug tried to evade his missiles, that the pilot couldn't be Kamjin; he was showing none of that Zentraedi Ace's talent. Five of the Stilettos slammed into the Glaug, downing it.

He jetted forward, reconfigured to Soldier Mode, and flipped the cracked canopy off the robot.

It was a woman inside, and one he recognized: Lap'Lamiz, Milia's former commander.

"No!"

The voice spoke in Zentraedi, but he knew that word, at least. He twisted his Valkyrie aside, and a burst from a GU-11 tore through the space he'd occupied less than a second before. He turned, to see the Zentraedi Warlord, still firing his stolen cannon, charging forwards.

Ranma brought his own cannon up, and loosed a burst, but Kamjin twisted aside, then swung the expended gun to smash his Valkyrie's head.

The cockpit, of course, was in the Valkyrie's torso, but it still irritated Ranma to lose his primary sensor mount. He brought the Valkyrie around, lashing out with one enormous metal foot, and caught Kamjin across the torso. The giant alien absorbed the kick, and grabbed the Valkyrie's foot.

Ranma gritted his teeth, and rammed his throttle forward to maximum, blasting Kamjin in the chest with plasma. The giant's armour burned, shedding massive flakes of scorched ballistic plastic, and still Kamjin kept coming.

"Well, I've had about enough of you."

Ranma jumped, reconfiguring to GERWALK, and climbed, then nosed down and fired four Diamondbacks from his arm mounts. They slammed into the ground all around Kamjin, but the alien still seemed unharmed.

Must be pure rage keeping him upright, mused Ranma. He checked his stores, and decided that the SACS was only slowing him down now. He reached for the Jettison handle.

"Snake Lead to Hayase. They had a hell of a lot more in reserve than expected. The rest of my team is down, and I've got to retreat. Hope you got a Plan B."

Ranma's hand hovered over the jettison handle. He still had eight Stilettos, six Diamondbacks and the two Jackhammer-C missiles...He instead tapped into the Tac Net. "Hayase, Saotome. I can complete the extraction mission."

"I knew you'd find away around my orders." Misa's voice was light. "All right. Execute the extraction."

Ranma brought the nose of his jet around, ignoring the raging Kamjin below him. He reconfigured to Jet mode, and firewalled the throttle. Five seconds after reaching maximum velocity, he activated the rocket engines.


The six Regult battle pods surrounding the crashed destroyer never knew what killed them. Two Jackhammer-C missiles ended their flight over their heads, and rained their submunitions down on the combat robots.

Ranma aimed for the docking bay, dropping down onto the deck in GERWALK mode and matter-surfing at just under the speed of sound. Ten Zentraedi, wearing standard body armour, were opening up with the crappy assault rifles they'd been issued, and he flipped on the thermal imaging system and designated his eight remaining Stilettos. They screamed out of the tubes, three of them killing Zentraedi Renegades and causing the rest to dive for cover.

With the SACS now completely empty, it was only slowing him down; he twisted the Jettison handle, and the six modules were blown off his jet. He swept around in an arc, hammering at the Zentraedi with the last of his cannon rounds, then ejected the empty clip and reconfigured to Soldier Mode long enough to jam in a fresh one.

The Zentraedi, effectively unarmoured against Valkyrie-scale weapons, broke and ran, and Ranma stalked forward into the ship.

Milia was still in her cage, and he lifted the plate from the top of it, then bent two of the forks outward. She climbed through the gap, and into the hand of his Valkyrie. He turned, gun pod held in one hand, but no further Zentraedi menaced them.

He flipped on the external loudspeakers. "Grab hold, Milia. We're going to GERWALK."

He reconfigured, and ramped the throttle up. The Valkyrie shot out of the docking bay, and towards Trad.

"Hayase, Saotome. Mission accomplished."


Hawkwing alighted at the end of the runway, and Ranma knelt the bird and popped the canopy. He hopped out of the cockpit, and walked towards Milia.

"They mistreat you or anything?"

"Aside from detaining me unlawfully, no." Milia grimaced. "Of course, they intended to do a very thorough job of mistreating me once the trial was complete."

"Well, at least you're okay."

"In thanks, no small part, to you." Milia looked up at him and grinned. "Now, shall I give you the reward so commonly mentioned in your folklore?"

Ranma blinked. "Huh?"

Misa's voice broke in. "Kiss her, you idiot."

He glanced over, to see the Colonel standing nearby. He hadn't even noticed her jeep pulling up.

"Go ahead," said Misa quietly. She had a smile on her face, but it didn't reach anywhere near her eyes.

Ranma glanced back at Milia. She was staring at him, a look in her eyes that he'd seen before. But never from her.

He shook his head. "No. Not yet."