Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Crossover With Non-anime Series Fan Fiction ❯ Soldier, Sailor, Jedi, Sith ❯ Chapter 18 ( Chapter 19 )

EarthForce Headquarters
Lunar Royal Palace

 

“General,” Admiral Gerrod said, acknowledging the presence of his superior, as Ranma walked in. “I take this isn't a social call?”

“No, Gerrod, it is. How has operations around Sol been occurring?”

“The fleet's on constant rotation; Tibanna gas mining is beginning to meet expectations, as is ore mining in the asteroid field. Martian terraforming is in its earliest stages.”

“Very good. And the prisoners? How are they adapting to being, well, prisoners?”

“That is a problem, General. I contemplated asking for the evacuation of the civilian population of Australia, and just turning it into a large penal colony. But those are far too many refugees to force on to the rest of the planet, and the inner colonies.

“As it is, we've placed most in northern Africa, as well as in the center of Australia, far from population centers. They have sufficient supplies to survive, but no weapons of any kind, or equipment that can be converted into weapons or explosives.”

“Good, good…” Ranma was interrupted by an alarm klaxon sounding.

“Planetary Alert, this is Crystal Palace to all EarthForce sections. Nuclear event detected—continental United States. This is not a drill; I say again, this is not a drill. All EarthForce stations remain online for further information.”

Ranma hit the communications stud on his desk. “Crystal Palace, this is EarthForce Actual online.”

“EarthForce Actual, go ahead.”

“What exactly are we dealing with here?”

“Ranma, this is General Hammond at NORAD Headquarters. The detonation was in the Washington metropolitan area; we've scheduled a reconnaissance out of Edwards. The Blackbird should be airborne and on it's way within the hour. We'll know more when we get the report. But we're looking at over 1 million casualties”

“Understood, General. We'll begin preparing rescue and recovery teams. Any word on President Whitmore?”

“The President is at Camp David. However, the Cabinet and Congress were in Washington. NORTHCOM has begun closing and securing airspace above the continental United States, as well as placing all air defense assets and WMD teams on alert.”

Ranma shook his head. “Thank you General. I'll be sending Admiral Gerrod to take charge of the recovery operations. Keep us apprised of the situation.” Hitting another set of control studs on his desk, Ranma pulled up a holographic map of the affected area. “With easterly winds, your best landing fields will be to the west of Washington, Admiral.

“I want you to set up your command post at Dulles Airport. It's close enough to the blast zone, but far enough away that it wasn't affected. I want a reconnaissance of BWI and Dover AFB as well. If they're clear, you can use them as treatment sites for radiation cases downwind.”

“Of course, General. I'll see to having several of the freighters converted to medical ships. What about refugees?”

“Coordinate with Northern Command to utilize military installations outside the blast area, preferably the farther away the better. We'll have a lot of displaced civilians, and not a lot of time.”

“Command post to General Lim,” the intercom squawked. “Additional events detected—London, Moscow, Tokyo, Beijing, Paris, Canberra, Seoul, New York. General, it looks like it's a massive and coordinated nuclear strike. Sir, NORAD's just been taken out. ”

“Dear god, no…” Gerrod whispered.

“Command post, put it on screen down here.”

“Aye sir.” The 72 inch LCD screen, that normally showed the goings on in Spacedock, lit up with a real-time composite image of the Earth. Areas targeted by nuclear weapons were highlighted with red circles. Additional events exploded on the screen as they happened.

“Where was Lady Pluto,” Ranma asked, his voice tight. He didn't want to hear the answer.

“Tokyo, sir. Visiting your mother.”

Ranma awoke with a start, and looked around his quarters. The darkened bedroom was lit with the pale glow of the Moon hanging above the Star Destroyer, as an old fashioned grandfather clock in the living room of the suite tolled the hour. As he used a breathing technique taught to his martial artist trained half by Tibetan monks to regain his center, he shook his head. “Just a dream,” he said quietly.

“What was that Ranma,” Setsuna asked, sleepily.

The Jedi Master pulled his wife into a hug. “I had a dream that first Washington, then other capitals were hit by a wave of nuclear attacks.”

“Criofan? Or someone else?”

“I…don't know. It also didn't have the feel of a dream, but more of a future memory, or a Force-inspired vision.”

“Something that will come to pass?”

“You're the Guardian of Time, Setsuna. You should know.”

“Difficult to see, always in motion the future is,” she replied, mysteriously.

“Only Yoda could get away with that,” Ranma quibbled.

“It doesn't make it any less valid, my love.”

“Bridge to General Lim, we're beginning our final approach to the Royal Airdock.”

“”Very well, then; advise Northern Command that I want to speak with the senior watch officer. I'll also want updates on the terraforming of Mars and the Jovian moons.”

“Understood, General.”

Ranma climbed out of bed and threw a robe over his track pants. “Time to go to work already,” Setsuna asked.

“It is. I have a thousand things to do today. Especially if I want to prevent that from happening.” Ranma was out of the bedroom before his wife could reply.

00000

A small EarthForce task group dropped out of hyperspace near a small, unassuming star system, some forty light-years distant from Vulcan. The smaller Corvettes took flanking and point positions, as the larger Dreadnaught-class heavy cruisers Victory-class Star Destroyers stayed close to the core of the group—the EFS Saturn, and the newly commissioned Yuri Gagarin. Sensors had indicated that the dagger-shaped ship that had popped into the 40 Eridani system picked up faint traces of her passing through this system, before losing the signal entirely in this system.

It was a rather inelegant system that the EarthForce taskforce was searching. The star gave off hard radiation that played havoc with the sensors and Stargate ring transporters so recently installed on the former Imperial and Republic warships, while large clusters of asteroids funneled ships through specific channels, like the Straits of Malacca on Earth. Of course, the shielding on the ships was more than sufficient to protect the human occupants of the 10 starships. It was within this style of star system that pirates were quite comfortable operating in, a concept that the former Republic Navy officers were familiar with.

Hotaru stood on the bridge of her Imperator, having long since gotten over the awe of having men and women much older than her reporting to her. “Anything at all, Mr. Bellamy?”

The former US Air Force AWAC sensor operator looked through his screen. “Nothing at all, Lady Saturn. At least what I can see through the natural jamming that star is putting out.” Lieutenant Bellamy was something of a wunderkind in the AWAC community. He was able to pick out a threat through even the heaviest of jamming. This was why he'd been assigned to the Saturn, as she took lead on the hunting unknown ship. “As it is, ma'am, I'm lucky to see the Agamemnon three light seconds out.”

The teenaged Senshi of Destruction sighed. “Alright. Captain Ramsay signal the fleet to make the jump to lightspeed.” Command of a starship had definitely given her a boost to her self-confidence.

“Yes ma'am,” the Saturn's captain replied. The elderly Alderaanian walked on to the catwalk above the command pit. “Communications send the fleet…”

“Captain! New contacts bearing 45 mark 270 relative. Distance 40 thousand kilometers.”

Ramsay looked over towards the sensor station. “How many?”

“Best guess 5 ships, sir. Unable to determine class or type.”

Ramsay looked over to Hotaru. “Hailing frequencies, Captain,” she said. “Let's see if they're at least friendly.”

“Of course, Lady Saturn.” Captain Ramsay turned towards the communications officer. “Hailing frequencies, Lieutenant.”

Bellamy stared and squinted into his display, trying to watch the five unknown contacts. “30 thousand kilometers, Captain,” he called. “Targets entering weapons range.”

He looked over the screen again, when the communications officer called out from the pit. “Captain, Agamemnon is reporting inbound missiles, and requesting permission to return fire!”

Ramsay looked at the teenaged Senshi. Hotaru had a momentary look of confusion on her face, as though she was remembering something in the distant past; before she looked back at her flagship's captain. “Defend my battlegroup, Captain. Weapons free.”

“Yes, milady,” he replied. “Communications—to all ships: `Weapons free. I say again, weapons free,' and inform EarthForce Headquarters we are being engaged by unidentified ships. Tactical—Sound battlestations, set Condition 1 throughout the ship.”

Lighting on the bridge of the Saturn dimmed, as alert klaxons resonated throughout the mile-long battleship. The drive units on the escorting Corvettes began to glow as their captains increased their speed to intercept the bogies, while the capital ships began long-range bombardment of the hostile ships.

“Captain,” the communications officer called, “Odysseus is reporting a radiological alarm…”

She was interrupted by the tactical officer, and multiple alarms going off. “Nukes loose, I say again, nukes have been deployed by the hostile ships.” Detonations in the megaton range could be seen in the distance, illuminating the particle and ray shielding of the EarthForce ships. Ruby and emerald laser and turbolaser bolts crisscrossed with the opposing battlegroup's energy weapons.

Hotaru sat in the command seat, watching her officers fight the battle. At least that's what it would appear she was doing. Were one to actually look at her eyes, they would notice a dull, vacant look—the “thousand yard stare”—as if the Senshi of Destruction was remembering a battle 30 millennia ago, where wave after wave of demonic warships overwhelmed the Lunar Court's naval forces. Of course, one might also assume that she was nervous for one of the pilots in the 542d Fighter Squadron, embarked on the flagship for this mission. Rumor had it, and even on a mile-long battleship the grapevine is as efficient as in a high school, Hotaru and this particular pilot had been seen in various locations throughout the ship, mainly just walking arm in arm and quietly talking.

The Saturn was rocked, as multiple blasts from one of the opposing force's destroyers—an ugly squat green-grey thing, whose bridge sat far forward of the engines, on a thin connecting neck—strafed the battlegroup flagship. Personnel on the bridge of the EarthForce Star Destroyer were knocked to the deck as inertial dampening lagged, then caught up. A short-lived ball of fire erupted on the forward face of the command tower, as the bridge deflector screen failed. “Bridge deflector out!” The tactical officer shouted over the din of klaxons. “Back ups are not responding.”

“Intensify forward batteries,” Captain Ramsay ordered, as the mile-long battleship trembled from hits along her armor. “Nothing gets through.”

“Captain, Yamato's been hit. Power failure to most of her systems. Invincible and Nemesis are towing her out of the combat zone.”

“Sith spit. Communications, task Hornblower and Nimitz to provide cover.”

“Yes sir.”

 

Off in the distance and lost amid the wash of electromagnetic pulses, background radiation, and the starfield, a missile launched before it could get an accurate lock on a ship had locked on to the largest signature it found—the Saturn. Hotaru shivered, before fixing her gaze on a certain spot, on the ship's relative 12 o'clock. Even as experienced bridge officers ducked as two more enemy destroyers exploded near the command tower, the Senshi of Destruction was already walking towards the forward-most viewports, Glaive in hand.

She stopped and stared past her reflection in the transparent steel viewport, her eyes tracking the unseen missile. Ramsay looked at the nominal commander of the battlegroup, before a realization came to him. “Helm,” he called over the din, “evasive maneuvers! Tactical, more firepower forward. Melt the barrels if you have to. Engineering, where are my damn shields?” A free-fire zone erupted all along the dorsal hull of the Star Destroyer as laser and turbolaser tried to shoot down the incoming missile…which was about as effective as taking a mallet to a certain perverted troll.

“Hang on,” Ramsay called out to the bridge crew as the missile became visible in the viewport. Dear gods, we're going to die, he privately thought to himself. He'd seen several Star Destroyers die in this very same manner.

Bringing the Silence Glaive parallel to the deck of her ship, Hotaru quietly said “Silence Wall,” and focused the defensive barrier into a bubble surrounding the bridge module. The 10 megaton warhead detonated against the barrier, bathing the forward hull of the command tower in nuclear fury. Shadows were burned into the bulkheads before the viewports functioned as designed—automatically turning opaque to protect the crew from flash.

Hotaru fought the blast, to keep the Silence Wall from collapsing, and allowing the lethal radiation to kill off the command crew. Sweat began to bead on the teenager's brow as the strain of holding the barrier up against the raw elemental fury of a thermonuclear explosion. As soon as it began, however, it was over. The Saturn had maneuvered clear of the blast, as the evasive maneuvers her helmsman inputted caught up with her inertia. With a small grin on her face, Hotaru let the Glaive fall from her suddenly weakened hands; the blade silently embedding itself in the polished black deck.

Several officers rushed over to Hotaru, as she followed the Glaive to the deck. “Milady,” Ramsay asked, as he sat her up.

“I'm glad…I was able…to save my…ship…this time,” she whispered.

“Captain, medics are on the way,” the communications officer said. “All ships have reported in, with various extents of damage. Enemy casualties are at 95%. Two small ships have reportedly escaped.”