Chapter 3

A couple of days had gone by since the catastrophic 'tank incident' and Ranma had all but repaired the actual tank. For purely educational purposes he told himself. The armour had proven a challenge as he had no idea where to find more metal and had turned to Ki smelting a lot of non-serviceable weapons and larger shell casings into a type of hybrid alloy armour using a huge, flat stone and a large water basin. By infusing it with his Ki he had created an exceptionally durable material but given the amount of material to work with he only had the front three-quarters covered. The end result looked like a hodgepodge armoured gun from the front and an open ended death track from the back the turret still turned through a series of wheels and cogs and as far as he could tell the 75mm gun should still be in working order. The engine seemed to be alright besides the fact that its fuel tank was now so much dust. The shells themselves had given Ranma some trouble as they seemed to be tipped with the same crystals that were popping up in all this other-world technology. The thought of what it did before gave Ranma pause but with extremely controlled, long range Ki bursts he had managed to infuse three shells with Ki. As he figured it, as long as there was nothing connecting the Ki to his core reserves, as directly channeling it had in the initial failure, he was safe and the result fairly stable. The resulting munitions glowed a bright blue and Ranma was wondering what possible application this could be used for that would not result in peoples deaths.

Even though Ranma had come to terms with the fact that the death of the one may save the lives of the many he refused to kill unless it was absolutely necessary. To date, Saffron had been Ranma's only kill and he could foresee no reason to kill another but with the apparent war going on Ranma had the threat of professional solders who would not hesitate to kill innocents weighing on his mind. What if he were put in a situation where innocents were in danger? The horror of war was all too well engraved into history and Ranma had no illusions that this world would be any different in that regard. Still, if he could avoid it he would. To that effect he had been trying to add more power to the Ragnaid canisters that he had.

After leaving the tank by the house Ranma had ventured off into the impact crater left by the explosion that had become a "ground zero" testing site of sorts. It was where the shells had been imbued and it was here he would try the Ragnaid. Where his female aspect had the greater control, he had not been male for very long as he was constantly using the inherent benefits of his female aspect and thus decided to try it in male form for once. Test one was simple: try to 'recharge' a spent Ragnaid canister. Settling the dull canister in the center of the field Ranma started small and fired a tiny Ki ball at it.

A few hours away from the cabin the Darcsens made their move.

The three tanks the Imperial patrol kept with them were all lightly armored and made more for speed than anything else. Originally designed years before the conflict they were still the backbone of the Imperial armored divisions. The tank itself was heavier than anything the Galians brought to the table and boasted a frontal shield, a smaller 45mm anti-armor secondary turret as well as the larger 85mm Howitzer in its main turret. Overall it was a great machine that, on paper, was amazing but the only problem was that the tanks themselves could only seat four at a time and for the plan the eldest Darcsen had required all ten prisoners to escape with priority given to the two youngest. That meant at least two of the three tanks needed to be taken in order to allow them all to move. Three tanks would make a ton of noise so the Elder decided to keep it to the minimal two. Waiting until nightfall the entire group had made camp and the troops were called to a general meeting to discuss the tactics for the following day. This action left the three tanks and the ring of prisoners guarded by a single solder and the opportunity he had been waiting for. As was customary, the prisoners were arranged in a circle around a tree then the first and last linked to prevent escape. Quietly releasing the broken link he called out to his guard quietly asking for a drink for the youngest.

"Drink? You want me to waste water on this Darcsen runt? I'll tell you what old timer, I'll give her a 'drink' all right. You may want to watch this carefully." With a cruel glint in his eye the guard turned towards the chained girl and began fiddling with the rather ornate belt buckle of his pants. Swiftly standing before the bastard could get any farther than undoing his fly, the Elder smashed his manacles across the guard's skull. Catching him quickly as he crumpled, the Elder proceeded to relieve the guard of his keys and unlock the rest of his companions. As silent nods of thanks and wide eyes were directed at the Elder, he was busy dividing up the group and assigning them a tank. With the group split in two, with the children in the lead tank with three other adults the second tank had a full able-bodied crew to allow it to buy time for the children should the need arise.

"Surprise and stealth is the key tonight. I've removed the fuse-key from the last tank and that should keep it immobile for a while unless they have a spare. Leave it be for now. Stick close and watch our backs." With that the Elder handed over a fuse-key to the leader of the second group and dropped into the gunnery seat of lead tank and gave the order to move out as slowly as possible. As far as he could tell from the overheard discussions the Imperials planned on hitting the remains of a supply depot in the area to see if they could find some heavy ordinance before facing the Valkyrur in the area. If he could get his group to this Valkyrur he may be able to use her as either an ally or a shield against the Imperials.

As with any plan it had its share of flaws, in this case it was counting on a Valkyrur of all things for assistance. Valkyrur and Darcsens had forever been enemies and the Elder failed to see any reason for this one to be any different besides the fact that it was on Gallian soil. For all he knew it could simply be a run-away Valkyrur that hated the empire or a Valkyrur on a personal mission to destroy all Darcsens but he saw little choice in the matter. Beyond this area there was little in the way of civilization and if there was it certainly wasn't military in nature. The only other location that may have been able to help would have been Bruhl but that town had been annihilated in the opening days of the war. Going back would bring them through too much of imperial controlled Gallia and that left only the rumoured Valkyrur as the only force strong enough to oppose his people's captors.

Three hours later he noticed a blue hue had lit up the forest in front of his tank. Cold fear suddenly washed any trace of fatigue from his system as this may be the Valkyrur they are looking for. Ordering the tanks to halt he set out on foot to see what this was. No sense getting the rest involved if this turned ugly. With strict orders to keep their guns pointed at the light but not to fire or approach until told otherwise, the tanks stayed where they were. Tense and understandably nervous the Elder stepped, unarmed, into the clearing. What he saw took his breath away and relief flooded through him as he spotted, not a Valkyrur but another Darcen.

Ranma had been running his small tests well into the night and had finally gotten the Ragnaid to hold a 'charge'. Said energy was now thrumming quietly within the canister and felt much more potent than the unused ones that Ranma had on hand. Taking out an unused canister Ranma experimentally brought the two of them together as far away from himself as possible with a powerful force redirection technique between his body and the canisters. With a soft 'clink' the two made contact and barring a small increase in the glow of the unused canister, the two remained stable. Sighing in relief Ranma noticed a slight presence at the edge of his testing clearing. This startled him to no end as it showed not only were his reserves lower than he had anticipated he was no longer alone in these woods as he expanded the scan and found nine other Ki signatures. It was time to meet the locals.

"Name's Saotome Ranma, sorry about this."

A/N

Chapter 3! yay!

Review responses: This takes place sometime just before the liberation of Fouzen. Tho Im wanting to take it until after the first game ends. I have also come to the conclusion that more of the world needs to play Valkyria and experience the awesome! In regards to chapter one Ill probably do a rewrite of that when this is all said and done...I hate the feeling of just being dropped into something with no back story as to how we got there. Even if its a point form version I cant just leave a time gap that big...it irks me...