[Ranma/Battletech][FanFic] Battletech: The Saotome Gambit Part 24

[Jamie and Bridget Wilde]

Nerima Confederation WarShip _Tarpon_
Capella System Zenith Jump Point
Capella System, the Nerima Confederation
24 May 3025

The Balao Class corvette _Tarpon_ glided silently through the void,
passing undetected within five hundred meters of the flagship of the Furinkan
Combine fleet - the formidable _Imperator._ They were so close that they
could make out the individual lights of the battleship's viewports against
the blue hull. The corvette's sensors and signal detection gear were fully
deployed as the ship carried out its mission of monitoring the cease-fire.
Any hostile act against the Confederation's defensive battlestations anchored
at the Jump Points would result in an immediate and point-blank launch of
the six Barracuda antiship missiles loaded in _Tarpon's_ tubes. Not even the
mighty _Imperator_ could weather such a salvo and escape drydock.
The Bridge was abuzz with muted voices as the crew monitored the ships
of the Combine fleet. They were technically in violation of the cease-fire
for their proximity to the _Imperator,_ but this was a game they were used
to playing, and it did not concern them. The _Tarpon,_ and her sister ship
in the 777th Squadron, _Trepang,_ had seen extensive use during the Third
Succession War as spy ships carried to distant star systems aboard larger
JumpShips for the purpose of signal intelligence and reconnaisance.
"Conn, Communications," a tech called to the Conn over the intercom.
"We're picking up some radio traffic from the _Imperator._ They're using
an omnidirectional antennae, so we presume this is a general message to the
fleet."
"So why are you bothering me with it?" Captain Okuda grouched. He was
hunched over the Fire Control station, keeping an eye on the _Imperator_
through the station's data feed with Sensory.
The tech stood his ground. "It's mostly computer code from the look of
it, Captain," he returned. "And the transmission itself is rather lengthy.
Unless it's Prince Kuno giving a speech to the fleet, I hazard the opinion
that this is something important."
Okuda considered this. His crew were first rate, and he trusted their
opinions, but the decision to act on this bit of informaton was still his
to make.
"Are we recording?" he asked.
"Yes, Captain," the tech replied.
"Once you've got it all, send a copy to Squadron - mark it Priority."
'Priority' wasn't the highest level of precedence for communications, but
at least it would receive attention before those marked as 'Routine.'

___________________________________________________________________________
J. Austin Wilde and Fission Park Press proudly present:

BATTLETECH: THE SAOTOME GAMBIT
PART TWENTY-FOUR

by J. Austin Wilde
Safety Control Rod Axe Man,
Fission Park Press
wild...@gci-net.com
http://www.gci-net.com/users/w/wildeman/

The characters and situations of Ranma 1/2 are the
creation and property of Rumiko Takahashi and
Shogakukan/KITTY/Viz Video. Battletech and its
related materials are the property of FASA, inc.
No infringement of copyright is intended nor
should be inferred by this work of fanfiction.
___________________________________________________________________________

Chapter One

Corvette Tender NCJS _Mare Island_
in orbit above the planet Nerima, Capella System
The Nerima Confederation
25 May 3025

Captain Hauptmann waited impatiently outside the office of the 777th
Squadron's Commodore. He was furious, and though he was doing his best to
keep his temper, it was showing through enough to keep the Commodore's
secretary visibly nervous around him. The reason for his anger was no
secret about the administrative spaces of the corvette tender.
They were taking his ship from him.
The repairs planned for the _Tang_ had been cancelled. As its usefulness
as a stealth ship was over, the _Tang_ was to be scrapped for repair parts for
the remainder of the squadron to use. He and his crew were now Dispossessed.
Their ship had been a part of their families for centuries, and now they had
nothing.
The order had come from someone much higher on the food chain than the
Commodore. Hauptmann knew that, and he also knew that he had to start with
the man directly over his head if he was going to protest. He could do
nothing less for the sake of his crew.
The secretary approached him nervously as he stewed on the sofa.
"The Commodore will see you now," she said to him.
Hauptmann stood and marched forcefully past the girl and into Commodore
Tanaka's office.
"Ah, Johann," Tanaka said as he stomped through the door. The Commodore
was a short man, squarish and possessed of a wiry strength. He could see the
look on Hauptmann's face as he entered, and his expression shifted to match
his subordinate's mood.
"I'll spare you the tea and crumpets B.S., Johann, and come to the
point," he added. He produced a bottle of scotch and two large tumblers.
"Wanna drink?"
"Go on, sir," Hauptmann replied, stopping short of the desk. "And yes,
thanks."
"The order to scrap the _Tang_ came from Admiral Darland," Tanaka said
evenly as he poured four fingers neat of the honey-colored imported Terran
scotch. "I fought it as best I could."
"What about Barber?" Hauptmann asked tersely, taking a sip of the scotch
and grimacing appreciatively. Admiral Barber was Tanaka's boss, and oversaw
all of the Confederation's special warfare spacecraft, from tiny stealth
shuttles to the Balao Class. His opinion technically carried a lot of weight
with Darland, who was Deputy Chief of Naval Operations - the number two man
in the Confederation Navy, and in light of his boss's unfortunate loyalty to
the deposed Grand Duke, the defacto Head Honcho.
Tanaka shook his head. "Barber rolled over, of course."
"Seems like most of the brass hats have been rolling over lately,"
Hauptmann snorted. Nabiki's treaty with the Combine assured the flag-rank
officers of their positions - an assurance they welcomed, as they would have
been the first to be replaced after the Confederation military shifted over
to the Furinkan Combine Mustered Soldiery. No one wearing starbursts on his
collar was too eager to rock the boat in light of that guarantee.
Tanaka took a deep gulp from his tumbler that made Hauptmann wince,
and further confirmed the Commodore's reputation as a hard core drinker.
In a peacetime navy, he would have been cashiered for his alcoholism, but
he was simply too valuable to the Confederation in wartime. Hauptmann knew
the FCMS would have no place for him in their future, however, and that
treaty or no treaty, this would be Tanaka's last command.
"The official explanation is that given the _Tang's_ extensive hull
damage, it no longer has any viability as a stealth warship."
"No stealthing? So what?" Hauptmann protested. "Throw some more armor
on her and she'll be a Superheavy GunShip! Isn't that what those Regular
Navy jackoffs have wanted from us all along?"
Tanaka sat down in his chair and took another gulp.
"You know as well as I do that Darland is just the hatchetman," he
said evenly. "This is coming straight from the Regent. Nabiki doesn't want
to spend money to repair the _Tang._ All the repair money went to reinstall
the _Tautog's_ Jump Core."
Hauptmann tried to contain his surprise. He had known that _Tautog_
went into drydock shortly after the Grand Duke was deposed, but the whole
affair was kept hush-hush. Not even her skipper, Captain Olivera, had
mentioned anything to Hauptmann in the few times they had run into each
other since then.
"The _Tautog_ can Jump again?" he asked.
Tanaka nodded. "You didn't hear it from me. Nabiki wants an escape
hatch in case Prince Kuno decides to break the terms of the treaty after
he gets what he wants from her. The _Tautog_ has been detailed to carry her
out of the system in that event."
Hauptmann nodded. It sounded like something she would do. How had the
Confederation come to this, laid low by a daughter of the Grand Duke who
was only looking after the self-interests of an elite few?
"I want you to understand something, Johann," Tanaka said to him at
length. "The reason we're having this conversation is not to allow you a
chance to vent your frustration over losing the _Tang._ I've got something
for you, a mission so important that it could change everything in one bold
stroke."
Hauptmann looked up from his drink. The look on Tanaka's face was grave.
"Sir?" he asked.
Tanaka rose from his desk, walking over to a side door in his office
that led to a private conference room. He rapped twice on the door and opened
it, saying something to someone inside that Hauptmann couldn't make out.
"His Excellency will see you now," Tanaka said, turning to face
Hauptmann. "Listen to what he has to say, Johann. If you're in, great. If
you want to pass, fine, but you don't breathe a word of this afterwards."
Tanaka then stepped aside for him as he entered the conference room.
Count Baldur Thuringia of Tikonov was waiting for him, along with a covey
of mid-grade officers, army, navy, and even a Marine.
In spite of himself, he broke out into a sweat. This had the uneasy
feel of a counter-coup in the making. He had no love for Nabiki and what
she had done to the Confederation, but no desire to start a revolt, either.
"Sit down, Captain Hauptmann," the Count said to him. "I can see by
the look on your face that you think we're here to discuss a coup d'etat
against the Regent." He levelled a penetrating look at Hauptmann. "Far from
it."
"What exactly do you have in mind, then?"
The Count wiped at his red-rimmed eyes. "We mean to set things right,
Captain. To put the Heir on the throne before Prince Kuno can get his hands
on her. We need your help, and the help of your crew to make that possible."
"I'm not in if it means an insurrection," Hauptmann replied tersely.
"Otherwise, I'm listening."
Baldur inclined his head in acknowlegement of Hauptmann's sentiment.
"The Regent rules the Confederation with the understanding from the
nobles and the military that she does so in Akane Tendo's absence. We accept
that as legally binding in principal, if not precisely valid within the
accepted jurisprudence. By returning Akane Tendo to Nerima as quickly as
possible, we force Nabiki to step down as Regent, and perhaps end this sham
of a treaty with the Combine."
Hauptmann gave him a guarded look.
"Pardon me for saying so, your Excellency, but weren't you one of
Nabiki's main allies in deposing the Grand Duke? Don't you stand to lose
your county if the Combine takes the Tikonov System by force?"
"Those are fair questions," Baldur replied. His voice took on a bitter
tone. "Would it appease you to know that I have discovered a few things about
Nabiki Tendo that have forever estranged me to her?"

* * *

Nerima Confederation Intelligence Agency Safehouse
27 May 3025

Kasumi Tendo stared out into the dark night sky, wondering where Akane
was, and if she was getting along with Ranma. The silhouette of the roving
security agent moving below her second story window distracted her for a
moment, and served as yet another reminder that she was a prisoner of her
sister, Nabiki. They had been here for two weeks now, after having spent
a miserable time in the South Tower of Azure Cloud Castle.
The safehouse was somewhere near the equator, she knew, judging by the
warm and balmy climate at a time when Gondolin was starting to feel the first
chills of autumn. She had been blindfolded at the time of her transfer from
the tower, along with her father and Nodoka Saotome. Given her sister's
contempt for the Saotomes, she could only imagine how Nabiki must have felt
upon discovering who the Grand Duke's guest was. In any event, they were a
long way from the capitol, and completely cut off from help.
They had received absolutely no news of what was going on in the Inner
Sphere, a precaution taken by Nabiki to keep them passive and subservient.
Fortunately, she had not felt it necessary to keep them under sedation for
long. About the only thing they had received was sympathy mail from the
people of the planet, each carefully examined and censored where necessary.
They were not allowed to reply - that was being taken care of by the newly
reinstated NCIA. Apparently, Nabiki was playing up the removal of Father in
the most positive light, not seeking to demonize him, but to portray him as
a man who had given his all for the Confederation, and had been broken by
his struggle. Kasumi had to admit that it was a wise strategy.
She withdrew from the window, turning to see Nodoka offer a supportive
smile from the sofa. One of the security agents had brought them tea while
she was wool-gathering before the window.
"You're thinking of Akane again, dear?" Nodoka asked her.
Kasumi smiled wanly. Mrs. Saotome was something of an enigma to her
even after their month of confinement together. She was a woman of great
patience and understanding, and yet she was married to a man like Genma
Saotome. Perhaps those qualities were necessary to tolerate him, she
supposed, but then, Genma Saotome hadn't exactly been around much to test
Nodoka. She couldn't imagine how painful it had been for her to live most
of her life having never seen her son grow to manhood.
Somehow, Nodoka endured it, though she revealed her emotional scars
from time to time. In spite of this, Kasumi admired her a great deal. She
had been something of a spiritual anchor for them, keeping them together
and sane through their bitter confinement.
"I worry about her," Kasumi admitted. "I always have."
Nodoka sipped daintily at her teacup. "I remain hopeful that she and
my son are all right."
"I admire that optimism," Kasumi returned. "Of late, I find that I've
lost some of mine."
"You're still feeling guilty about letting Nabiki get the best of you,"
Nodoka pointed out. "Don't torture yourself over it, dear."
Kasumi frowned. "I *do* feel guilty," she admitted. "I knew that she
was plotting against Father, and I didn't do more to stop her."
Nodoka nodded. They had been through this many times without final
resolution since their imprisonment.
"And what, I ask for not the first time, could you really have done?"
"I should have had her arrested," Kasumi snapped. She blushed in shame
at having lost control over herself, and looked away from Nodoka.
"That is what Nabiki would have done," Nodoka pointed out quietly.
"What you need to ask of yourself is whether or not arresting her before
she had the chance to betray you would have been lawful and just."
"I know the answer to that, Mrs. Saotome," Kasumi returned. "But it
doesn't change how I feel right now."
Nodoka offered her a cup of tea, which she accepted absently.
"I understand, dear. The heavens know what I might do differently in
my own life if given a second chance." Her eyes fell upon the tiny wisps
of steam from the teapot's spout. "For one thing, I would never have let
my husband take Ranma away from me for so long - an oath to make him a man
among men or not."
A tear welled in her eye, which she brushed away with as much grace
and dignity as she could muster.
"Seventeen years," she sighed sadly. "I'd give anything to have them
back."

Gunnery Sergeant Tran Minh Ky watched through his nightglasses as one
of his men neutralized the perimeter rover. As the Intelligence Agency thug
went down, he trained his nightglasses over to the kitchen door. Two more
commandos appeared from the hedgerow that screened the house from the
distant paved road that led to the seaside resort town of Paraiso Aqui.
They were all survivors of the Fifth Brigade. The unit was shattered
after the battle of Oni, and faced imminent deactivation. Like so many of
the other participants in this desperate operation, they were men and women
who had little to lose.
Gunny Ky watched as the commandos entered the kitchen, the signal that
the remainder of the team was to proceed. He clutched his autoloading shotgun
in hand as he and the others scrambled into the open. A flashbang grenade
went off as he drew close to the house, followed by a brief crack of a medium
caliber handgun that could only belong to one of the security agents, as all
of his men inside the house carried nearly silent laser weapons. The handgun
did not fire a second time.
"First floor clear," a voice hissed over the commo net.
Ky shook his head. If the snipers didn't get the two agents on the
second floor, things could get ugly. He hoped like hell the team assigned to
kidnap the Combine Shogun was doing a better job.
"Second floor clear," a second voice added. One of the snipers.
"Move in, you apes," Ky growled into the radio. As long as their dustoff
appeared on schedule, things just might work out.

"What was that?" Nodoka cried fearfully.
"It sounded like a grenade," Kasumi replied. She pulled Nodoka down to
the floor, keeping the sofa between them and the door.
A pistol shot rang out, followed by the sizzling crackle of a laser
weapon, and a wet shriek cut short before it had hardly begun.
"A counter-coup?" Kasumi said aloud, trying to puzzle out what was
happening. A ray of hope began to well up within her.
The sound of breaking glass nearby caught her attention, followed by a
wet thumping noise against the door. She watched as the doorknob turned, and
one of Nabiki's NCIA agents fell through the opening door, a large portion
of his forehead splattered down his face and the front of his clothes to his
knees. In the moment before he toppled over, Kasumi could see right through
the hole in his head to the wall opposite the door.
The sounds of footsteps stomping up the stairs made her duck back behind
the sofa, where Nodoka trembled silently and waited for the end.
"Lady Kasumi," a voice called to her. "I'm with what's left of the Fifth
Marines. We're here to evacuate you and the Grand Duke."
She considered this for only a moment. If Nabiki decided to liquidate
them, she would not have resorted to such heavy-handed theater.
"I'm here," she replied, standing slowly. A Confederation Marine in
blackout camouflage clutched a blazer in both hands, the narrow beam of a
barrel-mounted flashlight playing across her as he swept the room. "My father
is in the next room," she added.
"We've got that covered, ma'am," he replied.
She watched as a pair of Marines helped her groggy father past the
fallen yet still twitching corpse of the NCIA agent as he said it.
"Are you hurt?" the Marine asked her.
"No."
The Marine said something into a commo headset. "We don't have much
time," he told her. "If you and Mrs. Saotome would please come with me."
Kasumi looked down at Nodoka, who nodded and stood slowly. She cupped
a hand to her mouth in horror at the sight of the pool of blood slowly
spreading from the twitching body of the dead agent.
"He's still alive," Nodoka gasped, pointing to the dead man. "Aren't
you going to help him?"
"No, ma'am," the Marine replied. "Trust me, he's dead. Folks twitch
like that sometimes when you shoot 'em in the head."
Another Marine appeared as Nodoka gasped in disgust at his comrade's
frank reply, clutching two heavy body armor vests in his free hand. "You'll
need to put these on," the Marine told them. "For your safety until we can
get you into orbit."
Kasumi led Nodoka gently past the dead agent, brushing aside the Marine
offering them the body armor and trying to keep from losing her lunch. She
had seen the horrible aftermath of violence before, but the casual way in
which these men killed and handled death was unnerving to her.
There was a second corpse on the stairs, his body nearly cut in half
along a diagonal wound trench from a laser that stretched from his shoulder
to the opposite hip. Nodoka made a retching sound, but managed to keep
herself together. Kasumi kept a tight grip on Nodoka's arm as they went
down the stairs, ignoring the hasty salutes from the commandos who had
come to rescue them.
Once they were downstairs, a short and stocky man of Vietnamese descent
presented himself and saluted. Kasumi could see by the subdued insignia on
his collar that he was a Gunnery Sergeant. More Marines from the Fifth
Brigade were stacking up the bodies of NCIA agents in one corner of the
living room. Most of them had been thoroughly lasered, several were
dismembered in various places, and the air stank of ozone and burnt flesh.
"Ma'am, I'm Gunny Ky," the Marine announced. "And I'm gonna have to
insist that you and your companion wear the body armor my men offered to
you. There aren't any guarantees that one of your sister's agents won't
attempt to kill you rather than let you escape."
The Marine with the vests followed them down the stairs. Kasumi
reluctantly allowed him to dress her in the body armor, while another
Marine assisted Nodoka.
"Gunny Ky," she said to the stocky Marine. "May I ask what is going on
the capitol right now?"
"Nothing, I hope," was his curt reply. His attention was taken by
something he heard over the commo. "Dustoff in two minutes, people!" he
called to his troops.
Kasumi turned to see her father standing near the kitchen, dressed in
a body armor vest and listening intently to what a Marine major in blackout
gear had to say. In spite of the horror of what she had witnessed, she had
to smile at the sight of her father regaining some of the stature and
dignity he had lost with his capitulation to Nabiki.
The distant sound of jet engines rumbled in the sky above the house.
"Stay in the house until you're told otherwise, please," Ky advised
them.
Kasumi waited in silence with Nodoka, though she had a thousand
questions to ask. Her father was too busy it seemed to approach at the
moment, which only made her wonder even more about what was going on. Was
this a counter-coup against Nabiki, or was this simply a rescue mission
that would see them living out their lives in exile somewhere?
The sound of the jet engines grew louder, until it was a piercing
scream from outside the kitchen. Kasumi watched through a window as a
black shuttle craft touched down forty meters from the house. Flares
burned red on the grass outside, and the draft from the engines kicked
up clouds of white smoke that obscured the ship from view for a moment.
"Your ride's here," Ky declared. "Awright, you apes!" he said to
his men. "Let's pack 'em up and move 'em out. We've gotta be back in the
barracks in two hours!"
"You aren't coming with us?" Kasumi asked him.
Gunny Ky smiled. "Ma'am, as far as the official record is concerned,
me and the boys spent a quiet night restricted under guard to the base for
drunk and disorderly conduct." He thumped one of the Marines upside the
helmet and reproached him for his sluggish performance before turning
back to Kasumi. "That's my story, ma'am, and I'm stickin' to it."
"Kasumi!" Grand Duke Tendo called to her. "Nodoka! We must be going
now."
"Coming, Father," she replied. She and Nodoka were led by a small
contingent of Marines to the shuttle as Gunny Ky and the rest of the
commandos filtered into the darkness of the hedgerows. A man in a drab
blue shipsuit was waiting for them at the ramp, along with several sailors.
She recognized him even without the braid-encrusted ballcap on his head
which read 'NCWS TANG SVT-721.' The sailors also wore _Tang_ ballcaps,
though the shuttle itself was clearly from the NCWS _Tautog._
"Captain Hauptmann!" she cried.
"Your Grace, Lady Kasumi," he said to them as he welcomed them up the
ramp. "There isn't much time for explanations at the moment, but once we
rendezvous with the _Tautog,_ I assure you that I will tell you everything
I know about what we hope to accomplish."

* * *

NCWS _Tautog_
in low orbit above the planet Nerima
Capella System, the Nerima Confederation
28 May 3025

Grand Duke Soun Tendo nodded slowly at what Captain Hauptmann had to
say.
"I see," he said at length. "So this isn't a counter-coup after all."
"No, your Grace," Hauptmann confirmed. "The remaining Loyalists in
positions of authority feel that a rebellion against your daughter would be
counterproductive. We wish to avoid a civil war by removing Nabiki in as
lawful a manner as possible. Once Akane returns to Nerima, Nabiki will have
to step down as Regent. Her support among the nobles is based largely on that
premise, and as you have seen, Count Thuringia has set himself completely
against her now."
"Would that I could have counted on him a month ago," Soun sniffed.
"This nightmare wouldn't have happened."
"I understand your feelings, your Grace," Hauptmann demurred. "But the
truth is that he has sacrificed most of his fortune and possibly his seat
to free you. We couldn't have located you in time to put together a rescue
without hefty bribes to some of Nabiki's NCIA mercenaries." He shrugged.
"Now I'm just a corvette skipper, your Grace, and I don't pretend to
understand half of the politics involved in this mess, but I do know what
the Count has done to set things right."
Soun was silent a moment. "I see... What about taking the Shogun from
my daughter's custody?"
Hauptmann made an absent gesture with his hands. "Call it insurance
against Prince Kuno, and it also weakens your daughter's position with the
other nobles to be without him."
Soun nodded silently in agreement with the captain's estimation. "I
think I should like to speak with his Eminence. Perhaps we could reach a
mutual understanding where we've failed to do so with his son."
"I take it then, Captain Hauptmann, that you know where Akane is?"
Kasumi asked him, returning the conversation to its original topic.
"Several days ago we intercepted a transmission from the Furinkan
Combine fleet prior to their Jump from the Capella System. The transmission
was a database patch for their astrogational systems that included the
Ryuugenzawa System. We already had the abstract in our possession, but the
fact that the Combine has been given the data by your daughter is the reason
we were forced to act quickly to free you."
"They found it?!" Soun blurted. "Saotome, you genius!"
Nodoka blushed with pride at this revelation.
"They apparently did, your Grace," Hauptmann agreed. "Unfortunately,
as I said, your daughter gave the data to Tatewaki Kuno, and told him that
he could find Akane there. Kuno is on his way to Ryuugenzawa to seize Akane
for his bride, as per the treaty Nabiki arranged with the Furinkan Combine."
"Are we too late then?" Kasumi asked.
"We don't think so, ma'am," Hauptmann replied. "A ship as small as the
_Tautog_ doesn't need nearly as much time to recharge her Jump Batteries as
does a battleship like the _Imperator._ We should actually be able to beat
them to the Ryuugenzawa System in spite of their lead."
The 1MC crackled for attention above their heads.
"All hands prepare for acceleration."
Several moments passed in silence before the distant rumble of the
corvette's drive signalled their departure from orbit.
"Assuming we can escape the system," Hauptmann said to them. "We'll
be home free."
"What are our odds?" Soun asked.
"Chances are that Nabiki hasn't realized your escape yet. The _Tautog_
leaving orbit unannounced will cause a stir, but the only ships who can hope
to find us are the other ships of the 777th Squadron." He smiled and brushed
back his thinning hair. "I can reasonably assure you that according to
Commodore Tanaka, they'll have a very difficult time of it."

Chapter Two

Furinkan Combine WarShip _Imperator_
Betelgeuse System Zenith Jump Point
Betelgeuse System, the Nerima Confederation
5 June 3025

Weeks after the fact, Hikaru Gosunkugi could hardly accept that Tetsuo
was dead.
The news had come with their arrival in orbit around Nerima. His cousin
had been murdered by a man acting under orders from the Grand Duke. At least,
that was the official story. Though he took anything from Nabiki Tendo with
a grain of salt, the pain within him at the loss of his friend and confidant
made a thorough examination of the evidence impossible at the moment.
For now, he would accept her story, and vowed to make the Grand Duke
pay, and pay dearly for his treachery. If the nagging suspicion within him
that she was lying about Tetsuo's death for her own reasons was proven
correct, he would add her to the list. There were other matters that required
his attention now, and he could ill afford to be distracted if he wished to
have his revenge upon all of the parties who had wronged him.
He studied the wound scars on his wrists where iron spikes had fixed
him upon Kuno's cross. Though advanced medicine had been able to close the
holes, the damage done to his tissues and bones had left him with very little
strength in his hands. Physical therapy had helped some, but the prognosis
of the _Imperator's_ medical staff was that he might be better off opting for
cybernetic replacement of both arms below the elbow.
He did not like that idea in the least, and in any event, there was no
guarantee that Kuno would authorize the expense for his hostage, even if
Hikaru was acting in the capacity of the prince's retainer.
He had to laugh at that, though the sound that spilled from his lips
was bitter and despondent. Prince Kuno had spared his life in order to
procure his occult services in severing whatever bond had formed between
the nonpareil Akane Tendo, and the hated upstart, Ranma Saotome. He had
reviewed the sketchy battlemech flight recorder video logs from Capra at
Kuno's behest, and it did indeed seem that she had feelings for the cursed
Saotome.
That wasn't all that he noticed. He had watched, stunned, as Ranma
transformed from a man into a busty red-haired girl with a dousing of water
from an unknown source above the cliffs where Kuno had captured him. Kuno
was convinced that the buxom redhead that he refered to reverently as The
Pig-Tailed Girl was a different entity from Ranma. Hikaru wasn't so sure
of that.
He wished that he had access to his library, for an answer to the
mystery might be found within the many dusty tomes of forbidden lore in his
possession. That was impossible, however, as his personal JumpShip had been
forced to flee the system when he was captured, and Kuno had no intention of
returning him to Angbad to secure his research materials. The best the Combine
prince could come up with was a handful of material, hastily gathered, and
most of it popular tripe from ancient charlatans such as Aleister Crowley
and Anton LaVey, a book of fraudulant mystical formulae that owed much to
Lovecraft's obviously fictitious Mad Arab, and most surprisingly, Sir James
Douglas Frazier's magnum opus of anthropology-cum-the-White-Man's-Burden,
"The Golden Bough," a work that touched upon so many fundamental aspects of
magic and yet missed their significance out of staggering Victorian arrogance.
Despite these dubious works, there were a few gems to be had in Kuno's
collection. There were scrolls from the Chinese esoterics that had scholarly
occult value. In particular there was a translation - with a commentary by
Carl Jung - of an essay by Confucius regarding the study of the Book of
Changes. There were the dabblings of a few famous 2nd Century Kabbalists,
including Rabbi ben Akiva. Not to mention a stunning treatise on Astrology
compiled by an islamic mystic from 11th Century Baghdad that Hikaru had been
searching out for years without success. Nothing, however interesting these
works were, that shed light on this particular enigma.
If the redhead in the flight recorder logs really was Ranma Saotome,
he would have to be careful in executing any kind of magical attack against
him. There was the possibility that Saotome was in fact a sorceror, as Kuno
had claimed. Hikaru practiced a form of sympathetic magic that did not call
upon the Dark Powers, and the last thing he needed was some demon breathing
down his neck and no useful way to deal with it.
Of course, the shortcoming of his preferred system of magic was that
lacking anything personal from Saotome, he could not do anything harmful
to him either. Kuno didn't seem to grasp that crucial fact no matter how
many times he had explained it to the numbskull, and had refused to press
Nabiki for hairs, articles of clothing, or personal effects belonging to
Saotome while they were in orbit around Nerima. He could not work with
nothing and expect results, and yet Kuno was pressing him daily for
progress.
Naturally, he had lied through his teeth about the matter to his jailor.
Tatewaki Kuno was not the kind of man who countenanced failure, and the
alternative to glowing reports of his magical attacks on Ranma Saotome was
an assuredly grisly death. He shuddered at the thought of being nailed to
that cross once again.
If there was one thing his captivity aboard the _Imperator_ allowed him,
it was access to his mortal enemy. If he had nothing with which to use against
Ranma Saotome, he had plenty to use against Tatewaki Kuno. His spare time had
been spent preparing a host of straw effigies of his erstwhile host, and he
had yet to miss an opportunity to procure hairs, clothing fibers, even a few
flakes of Kuno's dandruff for raw material in his spells.
He would have his revenge on the Combine prince. Somehow, someway, he
would see him cast down from on high. He would destroy Saotome in time, the
Grand Duke as well for the death of Tetsuo, and perhaps even Nabiki to boot,
but first he must concentrate on bringing down Tatewaki Kuno.

* * *

Black Rose Terror Regiment Flagship
New Syrtis System Zenith Jump Point
New Syrtis System, the Federated Shiratori
6 June 3025

Sasuke waited until the bestial grunting and groaning subsided before
sounding the door chimes to his mistress' bed chamber. He did not want to
see the two of them together - was disgusted in fact by the way that Pansuto
Tarou had seduced his mistress - but as they were never far from each other's
company, he resigned himself to the inevitable.
"Yes?" Kodachi's voice trilled sweetly over the intercom.
"Mistress, I have urgent news," he said wearily, hoping that she would
demand that he speak from the other side of the door and not enter.
"Enter," she commanded, and he hung his head in exasperation.
The door slid open, and the heavy, musky scent of rut washed over him,
making him wince. Fortunately, the lighting was dim, and so his mistress did
not see his expression of dismay. He could not stand to be mocked again by
her so soon.
There were pairs of pantyhose strewn everywhere; draped over chairs,
the settee, hanging from the lighting fixtures on the walls, and especially
the bed. His mistress maintained a four-poster bed aboard her personal
JumpShip, and from the look of things, she had put its stout construction
to the test. Again, he winced. They were like crazed weasels in heat!
Kodachi lay upon the bed, her head and shoulders propped up by a red
satin pillow against the carved cherrywood headboard, with one long bare leg
crooked decadently at the knee in a pose that some would argue provocative,
and others - like Sasuke in that moment - mildly obscene. The matching red
satin sheets were twisted and mussed, and covered the rest of her body with
only the barest deference to modesty. Her skin glowed with the sheen of
pleasant exertion, and her eyes burned with their usual coal black intensity,
though her sly smile hinted at her enormous satisfaction.
Tarou had his head in her lap, his perpetual look of disdain directed
now at Sasuke. He was naked as well, lying in a supine pose like a sleeping
David carved by some Florentine Renaissance master, covered only at the waist
by an almost accidental placement of a corner of the sheet. A pair of beige
pantyhose was wrapped loosely around his neck, the ends of which were gripped
lightly in Kodachi's left hand.
"Yes, Sasuke?" Kodachi purred to him. "What news do you bring me that
is so urgent?"
"I bring news of your brother's dealings with the Confederation Regent,"
he began.
Her expression darkened at the mention of her brother.
"Go on."
Sasuke collected himself and plunged on. "It seems that Nabiki has given
him the coordinates to the Ryuugenzawa System as part of their surrender deal,
Mistress, and he is making for the system at best speed."
"Dammit," Tarou cursed. "This so-called secret is spilling out all over
the place."
Kodachi stroked his temple. "Pay it no mind, my lover," she told him.
How quickly her ardor for Ranma Saotome has faded in light of her
passionate exchanges with her current bedmate, Sasuke noted dryly.
She yawned fetchingly to show them how little concern she felt over the
matter. "It seems that once again I must reach a star system ahead of my
brother if I wish to kill that horrid Tendo girl."
She stroked again at Tarou's temple.
"Leave us," she commanded her ninja manservant.
Sasuke bowed low for her, though his displeasure with her was clearly
evident, and retreated quickly and silently from the room.

"I'm going to have to have him killed," Kodachi remarked dryly. "Alas,
sooner than later, I should think."
Tarou turned to face her.
"I don't understand why you even bother to keep him in the first place."
She gave him a taut smile. "He amuses me," she replied. "And he does
have his uses as a source of intelligence. In the many games I play with my
brother, it pays handsomely to have someone of Sasuke's resourcefulness
available."
"Are you certain that Sasuke wouldn't try to do the same to you?"
Tarou asked.
She chuckled, full of mirth at the notion. "Assassinate me? Of course
not! My lover, there is one thing you must understand about Sasuke. No
matter how much he becomes upset with me over my choice of bedmates, he is
still utterly devoted to me." She ran one finger along the side of Tarou's
jaw, tracing down his neck and across the sweep of his collarbone. "If I
commanded him to commit suicide, he would do so without hesitating."
Tarou thought about this. "Then why all the fuss about having him
killed?" he asked. "If you want him dead, just order him to slit his throat
and be done with it."
She laughed at this. "My dear Pantyhose," she purred. "So simple and
direct in your ways. Though you are without a doubt the most exquisite
lover, there is much that you do not understand about me, nor could you
hope to know in the brief time we have shared together."
She arched a leg over him, caressing his flank with her toes. "I
play games with Sasuke as well, my dear. One of my favorites is keeping
him guessing about which of my hands is holding the knife. No, he would
not raise a finger against me, dear Pantyhose. There are other ways in
which he seeks to destroy me."
Tarou snorted. "Is everyone in your life just a source of amusement
to you?"
Kodachi ran her fingers down his arm.
"Yes," she whispered, leaning close to him. "I particularly enjoy the
games I play with you."
He kissed her hard on the mouth, surprising both of them with his
sponteneity. He did not understand the nature of the spell she held over
him, but he knew that he belonged body and soul to her. It was more than
just the sex. Kodachi Kuno's attraction to him lay deep within the folds
and recesses of his being, arousing him on a primal level that he could
not name.
Perhaps it was because she reveled in who he really was as a person,
that he did not have to be anything other than himself around her; amoral,
arrogant, even a little hedonistic. It was more than refreshing to live
free of the restraints and mores imposed by society, it was invigorating,
and in her, he had found a woman who filled him with a passion that he had
never known before. He was hungry for life and all its pleasures with her,
and she understood that revenge was one of the sweetest of all.

Chapter Three

Nerima Confederation DropShip _Palomino_
Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System
7 June 3025

"Tell me you can set us down in one piece," Captain Grant asked his
Pilot.
"I can set us down in one piece," the Pilot assured him in spite of
the many red alarm lights on his control panels. "Just as long as nothing
else goes wrong," he added, rapping on the main console so as not to jinx
them.
The _Palomino_ sank through a layer of clouds, revealing a rolling
expanse of woodlands below. The treetops were textured black against the
lighter color of exposed hilltops and scattered meadows at night.
"Anything on radar?" Grant asked Tad.
"Two aircraft at high altitude bearing one-nine-nine, range two-zero
klicks. IFF says they're the Air Lance. I hold no other contacts at this
time."
Grant frowned deeply.
"How about word from Captain Saotome or Lady Akane?" he asked the
Co-Pilot.
"All frequencies are silent," he replied. "I can't even raise the
_Dragonfly._"
"Silent? You mean the jamming has stopped?"
The Co-Pilot nodded. "The radio bands are deader than a politician's
conscience right now. Same with the microwave bands. Lasercomm has so far
failed to reestablish the link with _Dragonfly._ The array is searching,
but it isn't finding their signal."
Grant didn't want to think about the implications of that. Nothing
from the _Dragonfly,_ and no word from either Ranma or Akane spelled total
disaster.
"I'm getting a metallic return on radar," Tad chirped. "Bearing three-
zero-zero, at ground level. Looks like a structure of some sort."
Grant studied the data on his repeater display. "Mark it on our INS
board. It might bear checking out once we find a place to land."
"I just passed a clearing on our starboard side that looks big enough
for us to set down in," the Pilot noted. "Want me to try for it?"
"The sooner we land, the sooner we can examine the damage we took,"
Grant returned. "Take us in."
The Pilot was as good as his word, setting them down with as much
care as his lack of a maneuvering engine could provide. The _Palomino_
settled down in a meadow clearing, surrounded on three sides by forest,
and the fourth side bounded them with a low windswept hill that was bare
of trees.
The Mech Bay doors began to roll open as Yuka and Sayuri made low
passes overhead to observe the area. Happousai's Locust was the first to
touch down, having been nearly shoved out of the bay by Ryouga's massive
BattleMaster.
"Where did Akane fall?" Ryouga demanded over the tac-net. "I'm going
out to look for her."
"It's about a hundred klicks from here, at least," Yuka replied from
the sky above. "We were going to go back and take a look once you landed
safely."
"Did you see what happened?" Ukyou asked, her Hatchetman stepping
down onto the grassy meadow and walking towards the BattleMaster.
"No," Sayuri replied. "Whatever it was that zapped the _Palomino_ the
first time started taking pot-shots at us. We couldn't stick around."
"So you left Ranma to die?" Ukyou asked her hotly.
"We didn't have a choice!" Yuka snarled back. "Besides, it was your
sweetheart, Ranma, who told us to go!"
"Enough of this bickering!" Genma yelled. His Griffin stomped around
the bow of the DropShip to confront Ukyou. "Since neither Ranma or Akane is
here to give orders, I'm assuming command of the Lance. Yuka and Sayuri
will alternate searches over the area where we lost Akane. One looks while
the other stays here to protect the LZ."
His battlemech made a sweeping gesture with its arm. "The first thing
we need to do is secure this area. Ryouga and Ukyou, you two take opposite
sides of the DropShip and spiral out from there to a distance of one klick,
then spiral back in. The Master and I will stay here as the rearguard, and
as reinforcements in case one of you is attacked.
"We don't know what exactly happened to us up there, and there are no
guarantees that we won't be attacked on the ground as well. I know that you
all care about what happened to Akane and my boy, but we aren't doing them
any good by setting ourselves up to be attacked while we search."
"Fair enough," Yuka said in reply. "I'll make the first search effort.
How long do you want me out before I switch with Sayuri?"
"No more than an hour," Genma replied. "After that, you come back and
land. We shouldn't push the fighters too hard."
"Copy that."
Yuka waggled her wings and screamed off in the direction of Ranma and
Akane's last known position.
The mechwarriors watched the Corsair go. Ryouga marked the direction
on his battlemech's INS computer. Air searches were fine, but in darkness,
he didn't count on them having much success. The best they could hope for
was to receive a rescue radio transmission from Akane.
"We should set up a radio beacon for Ranma, in case he returns," he
pointed out over the tac-net.
"Good idea," Genma agreed. "For all we know, the boy has already
picked up Akane safe and sound."
"I'm hesistant to go transmitting any long range signals until we get
a better idea about this place's defenses," Captain Grant jumped in over the
tac-net. "But I don't see any other way of letting Captain Saotome know of
our position."
"What about word from the _Dragonfly?_"
"Nothing," Grant said dully. "We've lost all communications with them."
"That isn't good," Genma growled worriedly. He had not expected such a
hostile welcome from the planet. Other Star League depots weren't this well
protected. "Where exactly are we on the planet?"
"From our observations in orbit, Ryuugenzawa has only one major
continent. We're on the northeastern end of that land mass, about forty
degrees north latitude from the equator, and about two-hundred klicks from
the sea."
"Did you spot any structures?" Genma asked hopefully. Thoughts of
exploring the famed Proving Grounds were already taking precedence over
concern for his son and future daughter-in-law. Besides, the boy knew
what he was doing. They'd be okay...
"We spotted something on radar not too far from here, a structure,
but there was no sign of any life."
Genma nodded slowly. "Perhaps we should investigate."
"I'm all for it, but in daylight if you would please, sir," Grant
demurred. "We've got a lot of work to do tonight, starting with a damage
assessment of the _Palomino._
"I'd like to take down our reactor plant, seeing as how it suffered
the loss of half it's cooling system, but without a source of shore power,
I don't know how feasible that will be. We've only got a few hours on our
batteries, and if we can't restart the reactor, we're dead in the water."
Genma thought about the problem. The _Palomino_ was currently the
only source of civilization they could count on at the moment. If they
lost power for good, their stay on Ryuugenzawa was going to take a decided
turn for the primitive.
"Would it be possible to run your hotel loads through the shore power
feeds from one of the battlemech reactors?" he asked finally.
Grant shrugged on the display. "I'll ask my Engineer. It'll probably
have to be either yours or Lieutenant Hibiki's mechs that does it, though.
I don't think a Locust powerplant could provide enough juice, and the
Hatchetman is iffy."
"If it's all the same to you, Genma," Happousai broke in. "I'll take
Hibiki's place so he can come back and get hooked up to the DropShip."
"I don't know about that, Master, I--"
"Good," he cackled. "I knew you wouldn't mind."
The Locust stomped off in the direction of Ryouga's BattleMaster.
Genma watched his master go, taking comfort at least in the idea that
he would be out of his hair for awhile. Captain Grant was right. One look
at the scarred and blackened starboard side of the DropShip was enough to
realize that they had a lot of work ahead of them.

* * *

Nerima Confederation JumpShip _Dragonfly_
Approaching the planet Ryuugenzawa
Ryuugenzawa System, the Magistracy of Canopus
7 June 3025

"Captain Ninomiya," Communications called to her. "_Palomino_ reports
detecting a contact in orbit above the planet." He paused. "It's tentatively
identified as an Orochi Class Automated Battlestation. They want us to confirm
their observations."
"They must be kidding," Hinako said to herself. "Sensory, go active with
our radar. I want some answers."
"Aye aye, ma'am."
Hinako watched the sensory holotank as it projected yellow points of
light against the blue sphere of the planet. The space station was there, as
expected, as were a constellation of small satellites in varying orbits.
"I don't see anything," she protested.
She spoke too soon, as a large object resolved itself near the curvature
of the planet.
"There's something there," Sensory declared.
"Run it through the Warbook."
"Running now."
Hinako waited for the data to come through, worried that Grant's
estimation of the unknown contact was correct.
"Conn, Sensory; the Warbook confirms contact Romeo Two-Five as an Orochi
Class Battlestation."
"Sound General Quarters!" Hinako ordered. What had Genma Saotome gotten
them into?
The ship's General Alarm klaxon rang throughout the ship. She watched
the contact begin to slide behind the planet's curvature, and hoped that it
had not noticed them.
"Conn, Sensory; detecting search and acquisition radar from contact
Romeo Two-Five."
Hinako ordered the ship to alter course to remain in distant support
of the _Palomino._ Given the starship's meager armament of two PPCs, there
wasn't much else that they could do except observe.
"Conn, Sensory; detecting energy weapon fire from contact Romeo
Two-Five!"
"Conn, Communications, we've lost radio and lasercomm contact with
the _Palomino._"
Hinako paled. Were they destroyed?
"Astrogation, plot an escape course back to the Jump Point," she
ordered. "Helm, be prepared to execute course change. Sensory, locate the
_Palomino._"
"I've got them, ma'am," Sensory reported. "The ship appears to be
intact on my radar. They are descending in a controlled fashion."
"What about that Orochi?"
"It's sinking behind the planet. The shot was a massive particle beam
that passed through the upper atmosphere to hit the DropShip."
Such power! Hinako thought with dread.
"Course change plotted," Lieutenant Davidge reported.
"Helm standing by."
Hinako was gripped with indecision. What could she really do? The
_Dragonfly_ was no match for a GunShip, let alone an orbital battlestation
with technology dating back to the height of the Star League! They were too
far away for a rendezvous, and in any event, the _Palomino_ was trying to
reach the surface of the planet to escape the beams.
A bolt of blinding power ripped through the _Dragonfly_ as she pondered
this, shaking them in their acceleration chairs.
"Damage report!" she cried. "Sensory, where did that come from!?"
"Conn, Sensory; new contact Echo Two-Six bearing zero-five-nine, plus
zero-two. Range, indeterminate but distant!"
Hinako watched as the holotank updated. Another Orochi satellite was
above and to their starboard beam, hanging in high lunar orbit!
"Another one!" she lamented.
"Engineering reports heavy damage to the Jump Core," the Acting
Assistant Engineer declared. "No possibility of repair at this time."
Hinako shook her head in disbelief. My ship! I just got finished putting
it back together again! "Helm, execute course change! All-Ahead Flank!"
A second bolt blasted through the ship. The lights flickered off for a
moment and displays crashed to static.
"Port Greenhouse destroyed! Emergency airtight seals deployed and
holding!" the Acting Assistant Engineer cried. A third bolt slammed into
them, rocking the ship violently and causing small fires to break out on
the Bridge. "Engineering reports heavy damage to the Main Engines and the
Main Reactor!"
"Loss of Helm Control!" the Helmsman added. "Main Engines and Reaction
Control System not responding."
Power failed completely for a moment, leaving the Bridge Crew in
darkness. A fourth bolt blasted apart the lower docking compartment, nearly
severing the habitat from the shattered Drive Section.
"Loss of all primary power! Depressurization alerts on 'C' Deck port
side and 'F' Deck starboard! Fire in Engineering on 'H' Deck!"
Hinako pulled herself upright in her chair as the emergency lights
came on. Tears were in her eyes as her beloved ship was being blasted apart
around her. One more hit on the habitat, and they were done for.
"Pass the word to abandon ship!" she ordered. She looked to Davidge.
"Make certain a copy of the Log makes it to the _Nymph._"
A fifth annihilation bolt vaporized the aft section of the Jump Core,
severing the Main Engines and the JumpSail completely from the ship.
_Dragonfly_ began to tumble slowly, end over end, as its hull glowed a dull
orange from the heat of the particle beam strikes.
"Assuming that we live to abandon ship," Davidge observed gravely.

* * *

Shampoo heard the General Alarm sound and wondered what was going on.
There was no provision for a guard during Battlestations, and she watched
as her current jailor leapt up from his seat to respond. She was alone after
that, just her and the tiny baby growing within her.
Her time was running out if she wanted to terminate her pregnancy.
Doctor Tofu hadn't mentioned it ever since he broke the news to her, in fact
he had been more focused on ensuring that she ate right and took her vitamins.
She humored him in this regard, glad at least for his compassion and his
humanity. To the rest of the crew, she was at best a sex object, and at
worst, an enemy of the state, deserving only of a swift trial followed by
a swifter execution.
Ranma had never once come to see her, even to gloat. She felt a little
disappointed by that. Her kiss was meant to seduce him, or at least to sway
him to her advantage.
Her train of thought was interrupted by the sudden hammering of the
ship by a distant orbital battlestation. Shampoo could only brace herself
against the walls of her cell, and await the moment when the compartment
was blasted to atoms or vented to space.
She counted five bolts against the hull, and then silence. The lights
were out, leaving her only a single battle lantern to see by, and the fans
had stopped. The centrifuge that was 'D' Deck was slowly winding down, and
the ship was tumbling slowly end over end.
Shampoo did not know what had happened, but whatever it was, the ship
was in serious trouble, if not crippled beyond all repair.

"All hands abandon ship!" the 1MC ordered the crew. "All hands abandon
ship!"

She watched the airtight door to the passageway beyond the Brig. After
what seemed like fifteen minutes had passed, she realized that no one was
coming for her. Everyone was too busy trying to save their own lives. She
didn't blame them, but she didn't want to die like this, trapped in a tiny
cell while the air grew slowly foul around her and the light from the single
battle lantern faded and left her in total darkness.
The light from the battery powered lamp failed abruptly, confirming her
worst fears.
Shampoo sat on her sleeping pallet, drawing her knees up to her chest,
and prepared herself for death.
The airtight door opened as she considered this, and a flashlight beam
played across the clear polycarbonate wall of her cell.
"Shampoo?" Doctor Tofu asked to the darkness.
She stood up. "I here!" she cried.
"I'm here to let you out," he said. "The crew is abandoning the ship."
"What happen?" she asked.
"I don't know," Tofu said, thrusting the key into the cell door's lock.
"I don't want to stick around and find out. Captain Ninomiya is only giving
us ten minutes to make it to the Boat Bay before they leave, and if we start
getting hit again, I don't think she'll wait even that long."
The door opened, and Shampoo bounded out to glomp Tofu in a fierce
embrace, her lips pressed against his for what seemed an eternity to him.
"I no forget this!" she assured him. "You no have to come rescue Shampoo,
but you do anyway."
"Well, ah," Tofu stammered, his face blazing with heat. "We should, er,
be, ah, going."
Shampoo smiled prettily.
"Lead way."

* * *

Captain Hinako Ninomiya scowled in the dimly lit Ship's Boat, _Nymph._
"Where is that crazy sawbones?" she complained from the Boat's flight
deck. The ship was starting to fail structurally, its creaks and groans
becoming more torturous with each passing moment. Fires raged in Engineering,
which had been abandoned even before her order, as the surviving crew down
there remembered vividly the horrors of the last inferno to hit those spaces,
and knew by the pounding they were taking that the ship was beyond help.
Tofu appeared with Shampoo as she said this. The two pulled themselves
aboard the _Nymph,_ while one of the Bridge crew sealed the airlock door.
"You almost missed the boat," Hinako groused. "All the other lifeboats
left."
Tofu strapped himself into a seat as the _Dragonfly_ trembled, its main
bulkheads near collapse.
"I came as fast as I could."
"You and your altruism," Hinako snorted as the Boat Bay was evacuated
with an emergency vent valve. The Bay door would not open without power, and
they were forced to blow the explosive bolts. "You risk your neck and everyone
else's on the _Nymph_ just to save the life of a prisoner we'll probably end
up executing anyway."
"I'm a doctor," Tofu protested. "My job is to preserve life. If you had
a problem with it, why did you give me permission to go? Why did you wait?"
"Forget I said it, Doctor," Hinako snapped. The _Nymph_ pulsed its
reaction control jets, scooting free of the Boat Bay. "In case you hadn't
noticed, I've just lost the most important thing in my life!"
She gestured out the viewports to the blackened and rent hull of the
_Dragonfly,_ and knew that she had been correct in giving her order to
abandon ship. There was no saving a starship so badly damaged. To attempt
it would have been throwing lives away. As it was, they were extremely
fortunate that most of the hits had been to unmanned portions of the ship,
such as the Jump Core, Greenhouse, and the Drive Section. They had suffered
no fatalities - all hands had escaped.
She glared at the distant moon of Ryuugenzawa, knowing that her ship's
destroyer was out there, and vowed to get even.
"Captain," her Helmsman reported. "I'm detecting a low power radio
signal from the _Palomino._ It's their emergency beacon, I believe."
Hinako observed the tiny cluster of life pods and the other Ship's
Boat, _Sylph,_ that hovered in empty space a safe distance from the dying
starship. "Tell the others to home on the _Palomino's_ beacon. We'll make
planetfall there and link up with any survivors." She huffed in resignation
for the disaster that had befallen them. "After that, I don't know what
we're going to do."
Without the _Dragonfly,_ they were marooned in the Ryuugenzawa System.

Chapter Four

The discontinuity in Akane Tendo's consciousness between the moment
she yanked desperately on her ejection handle, and the moment seconds later,
when she was kicked loose from her ejector seat was jarring enough for her,
but the fierce cold that bit into her limbs and the horror of watching
Ranma's Phoenix Hawk LAM disintegrate in midair before her eyes was
absolutely numbing. She rotated in her parachute straps as her eyes scanned
the skies. Her falling Warhammer was lost against the darkness of the ground
far below her, and only dull fingers of smoke and fire spread into oblivion
from Ranma's LAM.
"...Ranma...!" she choked out into the freezing air. She could not see
a parachute that would confirm his escape from the falling machine.
Please, no! she begged.
The high-altitude wind whipped into her in a powerful gust, swaying
her from side to side in her straps, which dug into her bare legs and made
her shiver with cold. She was almost four kilometers high, an altitude far
above anything she had ever considered before as a mechwarrior.
When she finally landed - assuming that she didn't die of exposure
first - it would be a long way from the final impact point of her Warhammer.
If Ranma had been able to escape, and she wasn't willing to admit yet that
he hadn't, he too would scatter with the wind. Hopefully they would land
close enough together that she could find him quickly. She didn't want to
spend any more time alone on this miserable planet than she had to.
As she descended she put away fears of Ranma's death and thought about
what had happened. She could hardly remember their descent through the upper
atmosphere, and had no recollection of the explosion that had thrown her
battlemech clear of the _Palomino._ Her first distinct memory was of Ranma,
struggling against nigh-impossible odds to save her life.
"Idiot!" she spat to the dark and silent skies around her. "Ranma,
you... You... Idiot!" She began to sob. "I told you to save yourself...!"
But against her protestations, he hadn't let go of her, had even
screamed back in defiance of the idea that he should save himself and
let her die. The stupid jerk didn't even realize that she couldn't bear
to live a life without him!
She hung in her straps, shivering with cold and shaking with sobs of
grief as she fell at an agonizing pace through the night sky. She almost
missed the rapid approach of the ground at the end of her fall, and hit
hard, rolling into soft muddy soil and tangling up in her shroud lines.
When she got her breath back, she was covered in freezing cold mud.
She began to pull at the shroud lines of her parachute, trying to free
herself before collapsing into exhaustion. Her last act before she passed
out was to draw the remains of her parachute canopy over herself for warmth.

* * *

Akane awoke to the stark fingers of dawn low in the eastern sky. She
was still bitterly cold beneath the thin nylon of the parachute canopy,
though the mud seemed to have dried itself to her skin. She pulled herself
painfully into a sitting position. With a little daylight to aid her, she
was able to untangle herself from the shroud lines, and took her first
halting steps on the alien world of Ryuugenzawa.
She saw that she had landed in some swampy mire, and that a thick grove
of trees a hundred meters away represented the only appreciable shelter from
the elements. She shrugged off some of the disorientation she felt, and
rummaged about for her survival kit. A clean pair of coveralls was there,
to be donned once she had scraped off most of the mud. There was food as well;
compressed rations and two liters of water. The most important items were the
flare gun and its three starshells, and the short-range rescue radio. If the
_Palomino_ had survived the attack, they would be looking for her and Ranma.
She switched the radio on. Ranma would have his radio as well, and if
they were within ten kilometers of each other, they could communicate!
"Ranma?" she called to the ether. "Are you there?"
The radio sputtered static in response. It was possible, she conceded,
that they had touched down too far apart to be within the relatively short
range of their radios. The alternative was unthinkable.
She tried again, this time hoping to reach someone, anyone, who could
help her.
"_Palomino,_ this is Akane Tendo. Do you read me?"
Again there was nothing.
She set the radio to standby to conserve battery power. Yuka and Sayuri
would come looking for them, and she would be able to hear their radio calls
when they came near. They could also home on her rescue beacon, but until she
knew they were close by, she did not want to transmit more than she had to.
Whoever had attacked the _Palomino_ might be listening.
Standard ejection procedure dictated that a mechwarrior in hostile
territory bury her parachute, but Akane was unwilling to do so right away.
There didn't seem to be anyone around that could threaten her, and she was
reluctant to do away with something that would make her easier to spot from
the air.

* * *

The afternoon was growing long, and still there was no sign of any
help. They must have been looking in the wrong place for her, she realized.
Even worse, her rescue radio had conked out, and she could not get it to
work again. Any radio transmissions being sent to her could not be received.
Akane didn't know what to do. Her best chance for rescue meant staying
close to where she had landed, but if they hadn't found her yet, did that
mean that no one was left alive to look? Whatever had blasted a hole big
enough in the DropShip to make her Warhammer fall out of the bay could have
easily destroyed the _Palomino._
If that was true, and Ranma... hadn't made it... then she was the only
one left alive out of the expedition. Her heart clenched at the thought of
it. Hope might remain with the _Dragonfly,_ but they were probably still a
hundred thousand kilometers out in space, and whatever had attacked the
_Palomino_ would annihilate any shuttle launched by Captain Ninomiya in a
rescue effort.
If she was truly on her own, then she couldn't stay here in this
swampy mire. She had to find dry ground, locate a reliable source of water,
then food. Her rations wouldn't hold her for more than three days, six if
she stretched them, but she might need every calorie right away if she was
going to exert herself with a survival trek.
She packed up her meager belongings into the survival kit. She could
see a hill in the distance, and figured that she could use it to find a
suitable place for shelter. Perhaps she could spot the impact crater of
her Warhammer, and wait there for a rescue.
Akane began to trudge through the mire, which had thawed during the
day and was now warm and squishy beneath her feet. Her legs were filthy,
covered in grime and muck up to the knees as she walked, and she found
herself wishing for a hot shower followed by an equally hot soak in a big
bathtub.
The scraggly woods at the edge of the mire offered a little shelter
from the sun, and the ground was a little drier, but there was a feeling
of gloom and dread about the place. The planet seemed to have a fairly
sophisticated ecosystem, including small vertebrate mammals and several
species of birds, but once she reached the woods, her surroundings became
quiet and still.
She reflected on the necessity of self-defense. She was confident
that her martial arts could carry her through any kind of predatory
confrontation long enough to run away, but after twenty minutes of
picking her way through the dreary woods, she found herself reaching
for the 10mm autopistol in her survival kit. It might not do much against
a large animal, but the noise and the smell of the burnt propellant might
be effective in scaring it away. She tucked the weapon into the waistband
of her shorts. Knowing that it was quickly available to her did a lot for
her morale.
She brightened further at the sound of running water. There was a
small creek running parallel to the animal trail she was using, and the
empty canteens rattling on her hips reminded her of the need to replenish
them. She detoured off the game trail to the creek, stepping carefully
over mossy stones, and hunched over the water.
It was surprisingly cold to the touch. She filled both canteens, and
dropped in purification tabs, mindful that while the water looked good,
she couldn't afford to come down with a case of dysentery before her
survival efforts had even begun. After shaking thoroughly and waiting the
requisite time period, she sipped at the first canteen, wrinkling her nose
at the aftertaste from the purification tablets. Satisfied that she could
drink without gagging, she drank down half the canteen in one go, paused
for a moment at the cold-headache it gave her, then finished it off.
A lowing sound full of vibrato behind her made her freeze up with
fright. It sounded like the warblefrogs she used to catch as a little
girl back home on Nerima, only much, much bigger. She turned slowly
towards the sound, but did not see anything that could have made such a
sound. A swarm of tiny gnat-like bugs was the only thing around.
She watched the roiling cloud of gnats for a moment, wondering if
they had anything to do with the noise.
The lowing sound was louder this time, to her left. She spun towards
the source, and felt something big whip buzzing past her ear. She shrieked
out of reflex, batting whatever it was away, and screaming once again when
she realized how big it must have been by how solidly it had resisted her
blow.
She crouched down as a segmented insect with three pairs of shiny
wings spaced along its full meter of length flew past. It made the lowing
sound once more, and dove through the cloud of gnats. More of the giant
flying worms began to appear, their lowing sound becoming frightfully
loud as they whirled around her.
Akane caught a glimpse of their twin sets of clacking jaws, each as
big as lobster claws, and screamed once more. One of them nipped at her
hair, and she spun around, swatting at them to keep them away. Her screams
only seemed to draw their attention, and they began to buzz around her in
earnest, their long segmented bodies glistening in the shafts of sunlight
that filtered through the treetops, and highlighting their fierce green,
ochre, black, and red colorations.
Close to panic now, she pulled the handgun from the waistband of
her shorts and began firing wildly at the things. A splatter of yellow
gore stained her tank top, disturbingly warm as it soaked through the
thin cotton material, and she watched one of the horrible bugs go down
as if it were a puppet with its strings cut. The noise of the gunfire
infuriated the rest, their lowing reaching a deafening intensity as they
renewed their attacks. She felt a set of jaws scrape her arm, then her
leg, while another nipped at her ear.
She unloaded the rest of the magazine at them, killing at least two
more, before dropping into the icy water of the creek and drawing her
arms and legs up into a ball to protect herself. Her screams of terror
competed with the awful sound the bugs made.
A battle cry broke over the din, the voice of a human coming to her
rescue. She did not dare to look up as the bugs whipped around her, but
she could hear the sound of something clubbing them to the ground, and
the man's voice growing more and more triumphant as he drove them away.
Finally, the bugs were gone, either dead or driven off, though she
didn't care which.
"Are you okay?" the voice asked her.
She looked up through the gaps of her fingers at him. He was tall,
with a headband and a broad jacket of coarse black homespun cloth. He
clutched what looked to be a pushbroom in both hands, and Akane could
see by the yellow gore dripping from its worn bristles that he had used
it as a weapon against the bugs.
"I- I think so," she replied. She looked herself over to note that
the bugs had been more of a frightening annoyance than any real source
of injury to her.
"The dragonworms are attracted to loud noises," he supplied for her.
"They eat bugs most of the time, but I've seen 'em eat small animals and
birds before."
He gestured to the empty pistol in her hands, the slide locked back
to indicate an empty magazine.
"Was that you doing all the shooting?"
She looked at the pistol as if for the first time. "Um, yeah..."
"I thought so," he replied. "It's pretty rare that you hear a gunshot
these days, let alone a whole bunch of them at once. I decided to come take
a look."
Akane released the slide and tucked the depleted weapon into her
survival kit. "I'm sure glad you did."
He helped her to her feet. "I don't think I know you," he observed.
She smiled shyly. "No, I don't think that's possible," she agreed.
The man bowed for her. "My name is Shinnosuke. I'm pleased to meet
you."
"I'm Akane." She pawed at the mossy stones with her toe. "Boy, am I
glad to see you. Is there a settlement or something close by?"
Shinnosuke gave her a quizzical look.
"You aren't from around here, are you?"
"No," she replied, wondering how much she should tell him.
"I thought so," Shinnosuke remarked. "You have a funny way of talking."
He must think that I have an accent, she realized.
"I'm from another star system," she admitted.
"Really?!" His excitement was clear. "I've never met someone from
another star system! My grandfather remembers a time when people from space
came here, but that was when he was a boy." He looked away thoughtfully.
"Sometimes I would sit up at night and wonder if it wasn't just wishful
thinking that people lived on other planets than this one."
She gave him a sympathetic look. "They do, Shinnosuke. There are
hundreds of other worlds where people live."
He looked her over. "Grandfather should know about this," he declared.
"Do you mind coming with me? It's a couple days walk from here."
She shrugged. What else was she supposed to do?
"I was hoping that you would ask," she replied. "But could you do me
a favor?"
He took on a childlike look of reverence that she had only seen on
one other face, and that was Ranma. "Anything, Akane."
"Someone else was with me," she began. "We were separated. I'm trying
to find this person."
He frowned. "You're the first person I've come across in a week."
"I know," she returned. "But we arrived late last night. We were
attacked high in the sky, and... Well, I managed to bail out, but I don't
know if my friend was able to."
His face lit up in recognition. "I saw that!" he cried. "Huge lines
of fire lit up the sky. I didn't know what to make of it at first. I mean,
the Orochi hasn't attacked us in years - not since before I was born."
"The what?" Akane asked, certain that this 'Orochi' was what had shot
them out of the sky.
He cocked his head at her for a moment. "The Orochi. Grandfather says
that it was supposed to protect this planet, but whenever it wakes up, it
just starts blasting everything in sight."
"That must have been what it was," she conceded. "So you say that you
saw this?"
Shinnosuke nodded gravely. "I saw something fall from the sky last
night. It was as bright as the sun, and when it winked out with a big flash,
I thought it was just a meteor. This morning, I saw where it hit, only..."
"It wasn't a meteor, was it," Akane finished for him.
"Not unless meteors are made entirely of metal and plastic," Shinnosuke
agreed.
"Could you take me to see it? My friend might be somewhere nearby."
He shrugged. "It's in the wrong direction from Grandfather's house, but
I guess so."
She smiled. "Good, because your meteor was really my battlemech falling
from the sky. My friend was in another 'mech trying to save me." Her face
clouded with concern. "It started to explode... I don't know if he was able
to eject."
"You're a mechwarrior?" Shinnosuke asked reverently.
Akane nodded silently for him.
"I'll take you to where your 'mech crashed," he said at length. "But
I think I should tell you now that I don't think your friend escaped."
Her heart sank. "How do you...?"
He looked away, unable to meet her wounded eyes.
"You'll know when you see."

* * *

Hours later, it was getting towards sunset when they left the woods
behind and crested the hill that Akane had made her objective for the day.
As the sun hung low in the west, she could see a vast grassy plain beyond
the forest, littered everywhere with thousands, perhaps millions of
glittering objects, and in the center of them was a deep crater gouged
into the ground, still smoldering with heat.
It was far worse than she could have imagined, and she choked back
a sob as she ran headlong down the hill towards the crater, passing
thousands of bits of scorched metal, most of them no larger than coins.
A few larger chunks were scattered about, and she spotted the half-melted
ruin of the Phoenix Hawk's nose landing gear. The LAM's head, buried
halfway into the ground in its own crater, lay cracked wide open, the
sensors and other equipment spilling out like cybernetic grey-matter.
Wispy threads of myomer fiber were strewn about, their normally bright
pink strands melted and discolored to a lifeless biege.
She found bits of the HEPLAR drive pods; these mostly shredded by the
exploding turbines in the legs that had torn the rest of the LAM apart, but
there were no easily recognizable pieces of the main body to be found. The
most intact part of Phoenix Hawk LAM #T-507 was its rifle-like Anderson
2000 Heavy Laser. The weapon was impaled muzzle-first and nearly upright
into the ground, its 'mech-sized black nylon shoulder sling flapping
absently in the early evening breeze.
"Do you understand what I mean, Akane," Shinnosuke said to her.
"It looks like the thing blew itself into a million pieces in midair.
You saw how far the debris field is spread out - it has to be at least
three kilometers in radius."
"I know," she groaned. She felt weak in the knees, and collapsed
to the ground as her head swam with grief. The touch of Shinnosuke's hands
on her shoulders felt distant, as if she were in an entirely different
place from her body.

Chapter Five

North of the DropShip _Palomino_

Happousai wasted no time in stomping his Locust through the light woods
that screened the Landing Zone. Ukyou's Hatchetman was on the opposite end of
the LZ, meaning that no one was close enough to see him slip away from his
appointed patrol area.
He was headed for the structure located by the DropShip's radar, a
structure confirmed by those lovely ladies of the Air Lance, Yuka and Sayuri.
In their brief passes, they had discovered more than a simple building or
two, but the ruins of a small starport. There was bound to be something of
value there, he figured.
The planet was turning out to be something of a disappointment so far,
but he had the feeling his luck was about to change. He knew that he needed
to seize upon that feeling, and especially before that ingrate Genma got
around to scrounging up a search party to take a look at the place.
"First dibs!" he cackled to himself.
He crested a low rise, coming upon a broken paved road overgrown with
weeds and a few trees. Beyond was the remains of a fence and an entry gate.
He slowed his pace to a walk, crunching the trees underfoot as he approached.
The gatehouse was well weathered, and missing a portion of its roof.
Paying it no further mind, he stepped over the gate and onto the worn
and cracked concrete of the tarmac. Most of the surface was overgrown with
weeds and a kind of creeping vine that covered the tarmac in a verdant
carpet. It was easy to see why the _Palomino_ crew had missed the extent
of the place during their descent.
Most of the hangars were intact, if overgrown with vines and other
plants to the point where they resembled regularly spaced mounds more
than buildings. The only places that had escaped the greenery were the
pumping stations for liquid hydrogen and helium fuel, which were lined
with a plastic spill containment that was apparently capable of surviving
intact through the centuries. The vines and other plants simply couldn't
force their roots through the material.
The control tower appeared to have fallen over at some point, which
was disturbing given its apparent reinforced concrete construction. Where
the vines had not completely covered the ruins of the tower, Happousai
could see the tell-tale scorch marks of a fire. He could not determine the
true cause of the tower's collapse without dismounting first, but this was
something that he was prepared to do.
After all, Fortune favored the brave.

* * *

"What is it, Konatsu?" Ukyou asked her former adjutant over the external
speakers of her battlemech. He had scrambled up her walking Hatchetman
unnoticed until the point where he had waved his hands in front of her
cockpit viewport.
"Pardon me, sir," he began. "But is there any word of Captain Saotome
and Lady Akane?"
The Hatchetman came to halt, and the cockpit hatch sprang open. Konatsu
drew back in surprise to see Ukyou pull herself up onto the sloping rise of
the Hatchetman's head, her eyes red and her face puffy.
"No, Konatsu, there isn't," she replied gruffly.
"Forgive me, sir," Konatsu begged. "I did not mean to upset you."
She shook out her chestnut fall of hair, letting it float for a moment
in the breeze as she took deep cleansing breaths. "I'm not upset because of
you, Konatsu," she told him. "I'm upset because of HIM."
"Pardon?"
"Ranma," Ukyou clarified. "If anything happened to that jackass, it's
because he chose her over me."
Konatsu scratched his head. "I don't understand, sir."
"What's to understand?" Ukyou asked bitterly. "When Akane was blasted
out of the ship, he nearly ripped off the door trying to get outside to save
her." She bowed her head. "I just finished speaking with Sayuri over the
tac-net. She told me how he wouldn't leave her falling Warhammer, even though
he couldn't lift it with his engines."
She looked away for a moment. "I almost wish that it had been my 'mech
that had fallen."
"Sir!" Konatsu cried in horror at the idea.
"At least then I'd know for certain where I stood with him," she added.
"If he did the same for me that he did for Akane, then I could be happy. If
he didn't, well... At least it wouldn't matter for long."
"Ranma wouldn't let you die," Konatsu insisted. "I've only known him
these last few weeks, but I'm certain that he cares enough about you to come
to your rescue."
"Maybe," Ukyou replied, unconvinced. "But does he love me?"
Now it was Konatsu's turn to look away.
"I know," Ukyou sighed. "You don't have to say it. I do have eyes,
you realize." She brushed at her hair distractedly. "It just isn't fair.
How could he be in love with her, and not me?"
Konastsu bit down uncomfortably on his lip. "You don't know that he
loves her, sir," he offered.
"Ha," she snorted. "That's a good one. If that was true, then why does
he always get so uptight whenever I try to show him a little affection? Why
does Akane get flowers and not me?" She shook her head ruefully. "So what
if the doofus didn't know that some of them were poisonous, the fact remains
that he picked them for her."
Konatsu had nothing to say to this. He hated to see his beloved Ukyou
like this, and yet, knowing that Ranma was no threat to his dream of someday
winning over her heart, he could not help but feel a little pleased as well.
"I've been in love with him since I was little," she cried without
preamble. "When he left me the first time, I was shattered, unable to open
up my heart to another man!" Fresh tears began to flow from her eyes. "My
life has been nothing but loneliness and heartache for ten years, and then
*suddenly* he comes back into it."
She pounded a fist on the hard armor of the Hatchetman's head.
"Was it too much to ask that the two of us could fall in love?!" she
lamented. Her face fell, and she seemed to collapse in on herself just a
little.
Konatsu watched her, helpless to do or say anything, and knowing that
this was something she had to work out for herself.
"Why the hell can't I get a little break now and then!?" she whispered.
Konatsu scuttled close to her, touching her gently with a forwardness
that he would not have dared a year ago.
"You're very tired, sir," he soothed. "We all are. Perhaps you should
return to the _Palomino_ for awhile. Commander Saotome did say that he would
keep himself available for relief."
She shook her head ruefuly. "That would be the first time that he's
ever done me any favors. If the lying bastard hadn't left me behind ten
years ago..."
"You can't say that for certain, sir," he replied, his voice losing
some of its falsetto to become more masculine. "You don't know how things
would have turned out between you and Captain Saotome if his father hadn't
left you behind."
She gave him an accusing look. "Go to hell, Konatsu. For even thinking
something like that, go to hell."
He bowed low for her, scraping his forehead against the armor plate in
his devotion.
"As you wish, dearest Ukyou."
With that, he leaped down to the ground and dashed off into the trees.
Ukyou watched him go, now feeling even more miserable for the way she
had treated him.

* * *

The DropShip Palomino
8 June 3025

Ryouga Hibiki sat disconsolately atop the shoulder of his BattleMaster.
The 85-ton battlemech's powerplant was plugged into the _Palomino's_ shore
power trunk, supplying electricity to run the stricken DropShip while the
crew assessed the damage and gauged their ability to repair it with what
little they had on hand. The war machine rumbled quietly for him, the pitch
of its turbogenerators changing almost imperceptibly as the electrical
demand from the DropShip's systems changed. While they depended on his
battlemech for power, he was stuck at the Landing Zone, unable to join in
the search for Akane.
And Ranma, he admitted to himself. Neither of them had been found yet.
Yuka and Sayuri had been looking for over twelve hours, rotating back and
forth as per Genma Saotome's orders. While he doubted that either of them
were eager to find Ranma, he knew that they would spare no effort to find
Akane.
The two pilots' frustration over their failed search was growing, to
the point where they no longer even trusted their search areas. Anything
was possible, he figured. In the confusion of the drop, with some monstrous
orbital construct trying to blow all of them out of the sky, it was more
than just possible that they should be unable to relocate the likely crash
site of the Warhammer, it was highly likely. He didn't know what to make of
the failure of both Ranma and Akane to call for help on their survival
radios.
What could not be denied was Sayuri's bitter insistence to Ukyou that
Ranma had been doing everything in his power to help Akane at the time when
the two fighter pilots had been forced to flee. The former F-S brigadier
had a hard time reconciling that Ranma had most likely sacrificed his life
for his fiancee. Ryouga no longer doubted it. He had to concede that, like
himself, his pig-tailed rival would do anything for Akane's sake - even die
if it meant that she could live.
"Hello, Ryouga dearest," Akari said gently to him from the cockpit
boarding ladder. He looked over his shoulder and offered a tired smile for
her.
She had brought him a thermos of hot tea from the Crew's Mess, a rice
ball loosely wrapped in wax paper, and what appeared to be cup ramen, the
steam wafting from the peeled back paper lid.
She set the food down by his side, and joined him quietly where he sat.
Their legs dangled over the top hull of the BattleMaster's shoulder as they
sat, their feet just above two of the torso-mounted medium laser projectors.
He looked at her for a moment and knew that she was exhausted from spending
the last half day with the _Palomino's_ Engineer trying to find a way to
repair some of the damage to her V84 StarDrive engines and her Main Reactor.
He picked up the cup ramen, having little appetite but determined to
see that Akari's effort on his behalf, and in spite of her own weariness,
was not in vain.
"Have they found Lady Akane and Captain Saotome yet?" she asked him
after he had slurped up some noodles.
"No," he replied.
She closed her eyes in grief, expecting as much. Ryouga shared her
feelings on the matter, but he wasn't ready to give up hope for them yet.
"When do you think the _Palomino_ will be ready to start up its
reactor again?" he asked her.
Akari sighed. "I don't know. Tomorrow afternoon, maybe, if they can
cut away enough of the wreckage around one of the starboard radiators to
get at the damaged coolant loop by tonight."
Ryouga, having no idea what the interior of a Leopard Class DropShip's
Reactor Compartment looked like to understand the nature of the problem,
merely nodded his head. As he did so, he realized that Akari was looking
at him with a mixture of sympathy and apprehension.
"You want to go looking for her, don't you?" she asked him.
Her question cut deep.
"Yes," he finally replied.
She nodded knowingly. "I understand." Her feet kicked idly above the
BattleMaster's lasers. "You love her, don't you. I can see it in your eyes
when she's around you."
He swallowed hard, not expecting such a biting and yet emotionless
accusation from her.
"I do," he said quietly. He could not pretend to her any longer. She
deserved the truth from him, just this once. "I can't help it, Akari."
She tried to smile, but her mouth wouldn't quite obey. "I don't hold
it against you, Ryouga dear." A tear began to well at the corner of her eye
in spite of her glib remark. "Really, I don't."
He set the ramen down on the warm hull armor. The styrofoam container
shook with the subtle vibrations of the active powerplant. "Akari, I..."
His hands clenched nervously over and over into fists before relaxing.
"I know that my feelings for Akane can never be more than idle dreams.
She loves Ranma, and I'm... I'm pretty sure that he feels the same way about
her." He stood, eyes cast to the horizon. "I accept that. I accept that my
love for her will never be returned in the same way."
Akari nodded mutely.
"I should go," she said to him at length, her sorrow evident in her
tiny voice. "There's still so much work to do."
Ryouga, his face wracked with indecision, watched her turn away.
What was he doing standing there like a fool? he tried to ask himself.
Didn't he have feelings for her too? Wasn't he breaking her heart with this
terrible confession? Didn't he care too much about her to ever let her get
hurt like this?
His anger with himself struggled with his shame and his anxiety at
laying bare his feelings for her, the tendons in his arms creaking with
tension as he wrestled with his very soul.
What kind of a man was he that would allow such a thing to happen to
the woman he loved?
No man at all!
"Akari--" he called to her. She stopped at the base of the cockpit
ladder and turned her wet eyes towards him. If he didn't say something to
bring her back, it was going to be all over with her. "Could you, ah, stay
here for just a few more minutes?"
He wanted to hit himself as the words spilled out. Was that the best
he could do?
She wavered for a moment. "I'm sorry, Ryouga," she replied softly.
"I'd love to, but I--" She wiped at her eyes, trying to hold herself
together. "I have a lot to do."
She started down the ladder, her descent drawing him towards her
reflexively. His heart of glass trembled in his chest, ready to shatter
into a million pieces.
"Akari!" he cried. "Please..."
She paused in her descent, keeping her face carefully averted from
his.
"There's something that I, ah... I have to t-tell you," Ryouga continued,
his voice weak and tremulous with apprehension. "It's too important to wait."
She hung there on the ladder for a moment, locked in an inner battle
of her own, before slowly pulling herself back up to the shoulder of the
BattleMaster where he stood.
"Akari," he said, his body trembling and his hands shaking as he tried
without success to look at ease with himself. "There's something else you
should know. You see..." He cleared his throat before continuing. "Y-You see,
th-there's this other g-girl that I'm..."
He swallowed hard, cursing inwardly at his failing nerve, and closing
his eyes to steel himself. "That I'm in... in lo-lo-love..." His eyes opened,
meeting hers in that moment. "That is, um... Th-that I'm in love with..."
Akari's soft gasp nearly melted him. "And... and... Well, lucky me, she wants
to m-m-marry me s-someday, I guess, and..."
She looked up at him, face filled with hope.
"Ryouga?"
His face was nearly purple with embarrassment, but he held out his hand
to her.
Akari took his hand, the tears in her eyes finally set free and spilling
down her cheeks in hot streaks to fall upon the BattleMaster's thick armor
plating.
"You don't have to say another word," she whispered to him as his arms
closed tightly around her. She lay her head against his chest and sighed
softly into the folds of his tunic.
Ryouga Hibiki felt strangely weightless as he held the girl with the
long streaks of pink hair in his arms. Perhaps it was the feeling of vertigo
from standing high atop his mighty BattleMaster, perhaps it was the feeling
of joy within him that made his heart flutter at a hummingbird's pace. He did
not know. What he did know was that he loved the beautiful Senior Technician
in his arms, and that she loved him. On a hostile planet where everything
else had gone wrong, the two of them together seemed to be only thing that
had gone right.

END OF PART TWENTY-FOUR