Dawn was fast approaching and the Darcsen refugees had been slowly waking in small groups of two or three. The water basin that Ranma had used to quench the armor in his makeshift forge had been heated and the water was being used as a towel wash by the women of the group. Currently the men were stationed in the two tanks with the Elder in command. They received towels from the girls and simply cleaned their faces and hands as best they could before downing what little meat remained of last night's meal. With little to no water left in his reserves Ranma escorted half the Darcsens to his waterfall and let them fill up what they could while he, initially, stood well back to prevent a gender swap. As Ranma had reluctantly moved forward to help the youngest Darcsen with an overfull water skin the first shell was fired.
Jeriik couldn't believe the nerve of these dark-haired fiends! He had stumbled across the tank tracks as he and his men back-tracked to the waterfall and, seeing as they were heading in the same direction, investigate. As his detachment crested a large, crater of a clearing in the forest he suddenly found himself on the receiving end of his own ordinance. The low thump of the 85mm Howitzer as it expelled its Ragnite-tipped shell caused his entire platoon to drop to the charred ground on instinct as the round shredded the air above their heads. A panicked shot. His own armor surged forward to shield the infantry and the medium-tank's own 85 disgorged it own blast only to have it whistle just high and to the left of the Darcsen tank, the camouflage disguising its true shape just enough to count. Behind the cover of the armor Jeriik had his unit spread out and flank through the trees on either side of the clearing. At the same time the second pilfered armored unit tracked both of its turrets towards the only remaining light tank the imperials had. It sat hunched behind the hulking armor of the medium tank and was only peaking out with its turrets roaming for another target not blocked by its bigger brother. It then came as a massive surprise to the infantry hiding behind it as the light tank's armor rattled with the impact of a 45mm cannon round that deflected into the ground near the unfortunate group flanking left around the clearing. The gunner of the Darcsen tank managed to land the second, much larger, primary turrets shot clean and the imperial tank burst as the round shredded into it, peeling back the armor and spraying shrapnel and fire. Finally seeing both tanks clearly the medium tanks gunners readjusted their sights as their crews scrambled to reload.
Ranma cursed under his breath as the child started badly with the roar of the cannon. The water she dropped splashing over his legs as he turned into a red-topped blur was ignored in favor of returning to the cabin as quickly as possible. By channeling all the energy that would otherwise be absorbed into the ground as she jumped Ranma propelled herself stories into the air in a deceptively calm looking super-jump. Already she could see the smoke from some sort of casualty and felt the icey realization that this was it. This was the moment Ranma had been dreading ever since she had discovered the true nature of the situation in this world. The Darcsens had explained the invasion, the labor camps and the senseless loss of life this war had wrought and she had made her choice. Staring up at the unfamiliar stars last night she had come to her conclusion and this had to stop. She would be the weapon of these people, she would become their strength. Protect those that cannot protect themselves had been her code for her entire life and it would be put to the test here. These thoughts raced through her head as she leapt the final rise and came into view of the clearing in time to see a much larger Imperial tank rolling forward with no resistance from the two flaming, smoking husks that had once been the Darcsen tanks. Blasting forth as brilliant a battle aura as she could Ranma entered the fray as a blazing blue meteor.
Jeriik gaped in unabashed astonishment as the Valkyrur descended from on high to land lightly atop the roof of the bullet-riddled cabin. What few Darcsens remained from the initial salvos had holed up in the cabin with Ranma's assorted small-arms cache. The volume of fire coming from the machine guns had all but stopped to main advance of the troops and Jeriik had been waiting on the slower moving tank to reach cannon range. With the arrival of the Valkyrur, things could get very sticky, very fast. Already down one tank, Jeriik signaled for the tank to shell the house and leave the Valkyrur without, what seemed to be, friendly support.
As the tank re-adjusted its aim Ranma blasted out an assortment of warning shots in the form of vacuum blades that augured into the ground at the feet of all three troop units and sheared the top six inches of armor off of the tank's main turret. The infantry immediately threw themselves back into cover but the tank crew was committed and its two cannons fired again. With a cry and a burst of displaced air, Ranma was suddenly between the cabin and the tank as four small explosions felled trees to either side of the house. The air hung with a sound akin to the ringing of a blade after being drawn too quickly and time seemed to stand still as the medium tank groaned slightly and then slowly clattered apart into four, smoothly cut, pieces. Jeriik nearly fainted and three of his men looked ready to throw down their weapons on the spot. Eyes wide with panic the now exposed crew had drawn their side arms and began peppering Ranma with fire. Glaring at the men with inhuman fury, Ranma strode forward and met each bullet with a concentrated blast of pressure that flattened the slugs as they spent their energy on solid air.
Now Ranma was moving. With each step she skittered across the ground towards the increasingly terrified troops that had spilled out of the tank's innards and thanked whatever would listen that the tank's ordinance had not gone up. She flowed into her attack style and slide between the stumbling infantry as they tried in vain to kill her. Broken leg, shattered ribs, collapsed lung, shoulders dislocated. Each troop suffered a different fate but none got back up as Ranma produced a simple staff from stuff space and hurled herself at the unit advancing around her eastern flank. The Dance continued.
While Ranma dealt suffering to his men, Jeriik had managed to make it to a rather interesting looking gun emplacement. The crew had been easily dealt with and now Jeriik had his hands on what was looking to be the only remaining functioning heavy weapon. The gear system had easily been figured out and his men had reported that a shell was already loaded and ready to fire. With the Valkyrur so very deadly in strangely unique ranged and close quarters combat, Jeriik knew he only had one shot and slowly adjusted the gun as to not draw the woman's attention.
Just as Ranma was spinning into a brutal combination on the few remaining infantry, her danger sense spiked and she whirled to face her own pride and joy. The shell was just leaving the barrel as she turned and time seemed to stop. She had no idea what this round was capable of but if it was anything like the fuel then everyone here was going to die. She couldn't deflect it with Ki, couldn't shoot it down with Ki, in fact, any Ki at all was simply going to set it off mid-flight. With only one option left, Ranma prayed that her new jewelry would not turn this into the biggest mistake of her life. As the round closed in Ranma prepared her Ki system for a massive influx of energy and then caught the round with a right uppercut as it reached her. The resulting release of energy was more massive than anything she could have imagined and, had she not been prepared to vent the excess, she would have been vaporized. A whirling blue dragon had howled is way into reality as Ranma vented the energy into the sky in a flash-modified one-handed Hiryu Shoten Ha. With a sudden, jarring feeling the bracer on her right arm once again established a link with her internal Ki pool and began to mercilessly feed her to her own technique. The vortex doubled its power and Ranma immediately knew she would not survive this unless she did something drastic. With literally no time to spare and many other lives on the line besides her own, Ranma did that something drastic. Forming a razor thin vacuum blade along her left palm she savagely severed her right arm at the elbow and then expanded the thickness of the blade suddenly. The expansion propelled the bracer and forearm high into the air.
The dragon seemed to collapse in on itself as the source off its power came to meet it halfway. The bracer gathered all of the latent Ki in the air and quiet suddenly released it all as the crystal matrix could hold no more. The resulting cataclysmic shock wave rocked the forest in all directions to the point that every living thing within ten miles was forced to the ground by the sheer pressure of pure, released life energy. Staring up at the slowly dissipating, iridescent cloud of Ki fallout, Ranma desperately clung to consciousness as she wove her Ki over the surgically clean wound of her arm into a glowing bandage. As the last of the Ki weaves came together she pulsed her Ki once and confirmed that none perished in that final, cataclysmic moment and that thought kept her content as she retreated from the waking world in a completely voluntary, strategic withdrawal.
A/N
Okay! so heres the latest chapter (only a few days late...sorta...) more action-y and hopefully somewhat exciting. Action scenes were never my forte but then again I used to do entirely dialogue based writing...anyways... Things have been a little crazy and as short as my updates are...well you get the idea. I am without a computer for the next week and a bit so writing is harder than usual so the next update may take a while.
Notes to reviewers!
THANK YOU! I have gotten some awesome feedback from some awesome people and am greatly appreciative of this! Also Deus Ex is a very good game. immersive story, cool upgrade system and very interesting gameplay make for a great little game (30-40 hours) so it has my recommendation. Almost on par with Valkyria and the Mass Effect series in overall arkninja score...but way up there.
Hope you're enjoying things thus far!
-Arkninja