Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ The Goddess Dilemma ❯ Fourteen ( Chapter 14 )

Disclaimer: Man, I really need to copy and paste my disclaimers. I'm running out of ideas on how to say I own NOTHING. Wait, that works.

 

Rant: Oh boy, here we go! Thanks go to weebee for pointing out a site that has the Ranma manga online. Oy, I didn't think it was that long. Besides, I don't do canon (obviously).

 

After several dozen attempts, I just couldn't get into the next universe without sounding (more so than usual) like a complete buffoon. So, I've retooled the ending of this chapter which will help me re-launch the fic in the direction I want it to go.

 

The Goddess Dilemma, part fourteen

 

By: Jim Ohki

 

**--(Seniwa Prime, day thirteen late evening Earth time)--**

 

“GO!” roared Ranma, taking point in the running ground battle with the Juraian occupants. Azusa had gotten tired of so many systems leaving the Empire that he had sent garrisons of troops to the key worlds in their arm of the galaxy.

 

Seniwa Prime being one such world, as it housed several shipyards and research facilities.

 

The Battle of Seniwa had begun in orbit, the ships that were in Ranma's wing chasing a few that had survived the Battle of Todain. Just as the Juraian ships reverted from hyperspace, they broke apart with a partial mayday sent out as the Earth ships came pouring into the system.

 

The Senians had been laying in wait for the opportunity to attack their oppressors, and when the humans entered their system engaging the Juraian fleet they attacked from the flank. Once the path was cleared, the Iwo Jima-class ships would do flyovers and deposit marines on the ground.

 

Ranma was with the Five-Oh-First legion, making a bid at taking the capital. The Juraians were entrenched, having plenty of hidey-holes and supplies to make it a war of attrition.

 

“Boo yeah!” roared Ranma, swords swinging in wild arcs taking out eight more enemy troops as he ran passed. He had gotten behind the left flank line, and was wreaking havoc as he went. “Suck on this!” he added, right before making the opposite temperature swords touch launching a horizontal Hiryu Shoten Ha causing bodies to fly in all directions.

 

“Glad you're on *our* side,” came over the small headset communicator, one of the marines having seen his maneuver.

 

The Juraian marines launched their counterattack from the rooftops of the taller buildings, sniping at the ground forces. That worked for all of three seconds as the Streamrunner-class ships would zip passed on bombing runs. While that was happening, the natives launched their own attack on the rear flank furthering the chaos.

 

“This battle is ours!” came from one of the garrison commanders'. “Enemy troops in full retreat . . . EVACUATE!”

 

There was a split second thought of `Why?' before the friendly troops ran for it. Turned out to be a good thing as the Juraians, in a desperate bid to turn the battle in their favor, detonated a nuclear-like device.

 

“JESUS!” exclaimed Ranma, having bounced his way back to the primary command post outside of the city. Nearly half of his marine contingent was lost in the explosion, while the Juraians were making an attempt to retreat with their few remaining troops and ships. “Let them go, but make sure that they do go and didn't leave us another surprise.”

 

Taking a look around him at the destruction, Ranma sent a silent prayer to those lost in the conflict. He knew that this was not the grand finale, that he'd have to do the same thing many more times before this war was said and done.

 

Having returned to Prometheus, he took a moment to himself to shed his anger at the blatant disregard for life. Without the concrete proof that the order for the device came from Azusa, he instead directed it at the ground commander . . .

 

A man by the name of Tennan.

 

Seems the Tennan Financial Group was in on the power play, led by the one and only fop named Seiryo. There were unconfirmed reports that Seiryo had gone mad after the events at Earth shortly after their disappearance, severing his ties with the Pirate Guilds to return home and slaughter his family. Being the only Tennan left (sans the children he had sired on that icy world), he inherited the family business and joined Azusa in his bid to wipe the Earthlings off of the galactic map.

 

Thought that pinked-haired idiot was going to fade into obscurity? Think again. One side note to all of this is that Komachi hadn't been seen in a week. There was speculation about her fate, ranging from having fallen under Seiryo's madness to working behind the scenes as an information specialist.

 

Shaking his head at the position he now found himself in, Ranma put those thoughts aside to fill out the required paperwork. If there was one lesson that had stuck, it was to cover his own ass and create a `paper' trail that documented everything he did in the theatre.

 

His personal life, was just that.

 

That thought made him pause, wondering how the rest of his family was doing. His mind wandered from Earth to Renza to open space and all points in-between . . .

 

**--(Earth, Nerima ruins earlier that day)--**

 

“Was this wise?” asked Rei, listening to her gut for the first time in a while. The last time she had was when had the urge to protect Shinji.

 

“Rei, you know better than that,” answered Shinji, no malice or sarcasm present in his voice. “We're totally out of our element here. Fighting Angels is one thing; fighting other humanoids is another. I doubt we could have it on our conscious, the number of lives we would cut short intentionally.”

 

“Yes, you are correct,” she responded several seconds later. Taking stock of the happenings around her, she decided to continue the train of thought. “What about abandoning NERV? Or Misato?”

 

Her husband of thirty-three years let out a sigh. That was one of the great questions floating around in his head, generating doubts about their actions.

 

“What is done is done,” he replied after a moment, “And if I had to do it all over again, I'd make the same choice.”

 

“Again you are correct,” Rei half smiled at Shinji, taking his left hand in her right. “And I would gladly follow you wherever you went.”

 

“Come on you two,” stated Junior as he wandered passed, “We have much work to be done.”

 

The pilots of Evas Zero and One nodded in agreement at the same time, releasing each others hands to climb into the plugs of their bondmates.

 

With none of the old flair did the Evas rise, and begin to operate like construction droids. They moved on a searched area, one that had been confirmed cleared of any dead.

 

The rubble began to disappear quickly, the hands of the Evangelions acting like giant buckets clearing foundations. Concrete and steel were moved to a recycling plant, built under the watchful eye of Washu.

 

While the recycling plant went to work creating new building materials, the Evas moved back and forth clearing even more rubble out then on the return trip bringing the larger reconstructed components back to the waiting crews for assembly.

 

Speaking of the scientist, Washu had decided to exclude herself from the war for personal reasons. She was not alone in that regard, most of her family having stayed at Earth to assist with the rebuilding process.

 

“Sector seven reports clear,” said Mihoshi, not having learned of the fate of her homeworld yet. “The Evas are moving through sector six and are almost finished there.”

 

“Good,” said Ayeka, one of the spearheads of the recovery of her home away from home. “Have the droid units begin work in sector nine, the teams have reported in there.”

 

“HOLY SHIT!” exclaimed Ryoko, having stayed to aid the defense force at the request of Tenchi. She had only agreed because Tsunami threatened Ryo-Ohki with a banishment from carrots for a decade if the cabbit interfered.

 

The others stopped what they were doing to have a look see at what had gotten the long retired space pirate agitated. She had been watching the Galactic News Network for any signs of her husband and his family.

 

“This feed is live from the Todain system,” said the reporter behind the desk. “As you can see, war has erupted between the Juraian Empire and the newly discovered power of the Earth Forces. While we reported the outbreak of war on the Renza Union border two days ago, this attack was not unexpected after the attack on the human homeworld of Earth . . .”

 

“It has begun,” intoned Kiriko, barely containing her rage at many things. The first and foremost was that Seina had declared that they, along with their cabbit Fuku, were to remain at Earth for reasons unspecified. How he had commandeered Mizuki was a mystery, one that was going to have to wait until he came home. Another cause of rage was the actions of Azusa, added together with the feeling of helplessness.

 

“-ooks like the Earth Forces came to win,” continued the reporter, drawing the attention of those gathered back to the vidscreen only to see what was left of the Juraian forces in full retreat.

 

“Where's Tsunami and Sister?” demanded Amane, already not liking the way things were turning.

 

“More than likely cloaked,” reassured Washu. “Those two ships would cause a breakdown of moral in the Juraian ranks. They're probably with Ranma's task force.”

 

“The fleet is spreading out,” commented Balta, having kept her eyes on the screen. “Seniwa, Alpha, Beta, Renza, uncharted, Todain . . . they're going to force the Juraian Navy to spread out.”

 

“Seniwa?” questioned Mihoshi, suddenly paying attention to the goings on in the galaxy at large. “Daddy?”

 

“Oh great, here we go,” joked Ryoko, trying to lighten the mood.

 

Before Mihoshi could launch into one of her rare angry rants, the GNN came back to life.

 

“This is unheard of,” said the same reporter from before, completely awed at what has happening. “The EF ships have a drive faster than that of any race in the galaxy that we know of. This is a live feed from Seniwa Prime . . .”

 

“Azusa is insane,” drawled Neju, taking note of the ground crews that were in hiding filming the occupation force gearing up for a battle.

 

“Oh no!” gasped Mihoshi as the ground battle got under way following a short space battle. Those watching could see the level of devastation before the battle even began as the Juraians had to fight down resistance.

 

Then the camera caught sight of Ranma, leading the charge into the capital.

 

“GET'EM!” Mihoshi yelled at the screen, making an attempt to mirror the movements of Ranma as he sliced and diced his way behind the left flank. While there was an obstruction in the way, it didn't take much imagination to recreate the attack that had sent bodies flying everywhere.

 

“Reports coming in from the sectors nearest Earth,” broke in the reporter, while the live feed continued. “Multiple fronts have appeared in nine different systems . . .”

 

The view switched from the closing Battle of Seniwa to a shot of the Beta system, before immediately jumping back to Seniwa.

 

“By the Maker!” gasped the reporter, while somebody off camera could be heard crying. “The Juraians have used a city neutralizer on the capital of Seniwa Prime . . .”

 

The rest was tuned out as the ground crew, having noticed the hiatus by the Earth Marines had followed them to their command post, only to look back and see most of the capital leveled.

 

“Jesus Christ,” deadpanned Kiriko, “Now this is over the top.”

 

No reply was forthcoming as Mihoshi broke into a fit of hysterics, bawling her eyes out. “Please, no!”

 

While her family moved to comfort her knowing all to well the power of loss, the Yamada wives continued to watch the GNN.

 

**--(Alpha system)--**

 

The Will of the Kami moved gracefully through space. She had plenty of fighters in a shield formation as the ship continued on her way with the battle raging.

 

The element of surprise was long gone after the attack at Todain. Now the Juraian Naval crews were wide awake and not sitting on the toilet. They were prepared with plenty of Drones, frigates, destroyers and even two Second Generation treeships.

 

“Tell the left flank to tighten up,” barked Urd, cutting loose her little known battle prowess. “Have the right speed up by five percent. The enemy is trying to box us in.”

 

While things appeared to be calm on the Imperial-class Star Destroyer, the space two hundred kilometers in front of her was anything but. Urd was using the ships at her disposal in a quarter moon formation. With her was the Seventh Fleet, comprised of a hundred different ships, ten of each class except any Star Destroyer types. It helped to set her ship apart from the rest of the fleet, and luck happened to be on their side as the Juraians couldn't locate the command ship.

 

Hey, having one of it's class threw many off the trail as to the real command ship. The enemy thought it was a decoy, to lead them away from what they presumed to be the real target.

 

The battle waged as fighters flew between the engaged ships, attempting to blow one another into pieces. The Juraians kept the two treeships in the rear of the battle, hoping to repel the attack on the held Alpha system with the various cruisers, destroyers and frigates in their own fleet.

 

“That's better,” stated Urd, “Have the left guard Galaxy wing deploy their antimatter bombs at the Dreadnoughts. Use the right guard Sovereign line to plug the hole.”

 

Just like Urd wanted, the Juraians were attempting to group their firepower together then make a push at the center of the bowl formation closing around them. It turned out to be their undoing as the antimatter bombs flew from ten saucers, overloading shields and breaching hulls with ease. Eight of ten Juraian Dreadnoughts were completely destroyed in the maneuver, the last two being knocked out of commission for a long while.

 

**--(Beta System)--**

 

“Hold the line!” barked Karin from the situation table on her Victory-class Star Destroyer Wild Child. While the battles of Seniwa and Alpha were a success, her battle in the Beta system was not going so smoothly. The Juraians were getting desperate after three consecutive losses, and had dug their oldest ships out of mothballs to aid their failing lines.

 

Her Galaxy and Venture wings were already gone, only two Sovereign's, five Defiant's, four Streamrunner's, a single Intrepid, two Aegian's, three Iwo-Jima's, two Akira's remained while her enemy had just gotten a reinforcement of thirty Dreadnought-class attack cruisers.

 

“We need a miracle,” whispered one of the bridge officers, watching as the next to last Sovereign died. “Ma'am, it's either call for reinforcements or retreat. Those are our only options.”

 

While Karin thought, having to break the rust off of her military training to wage this campaign, her ship came under attack. The port side turbo laser batteries went silent from a power failure, while the starboard torpedo and missile launch tubes were fused shut.

 

“Send out the mayday,” she spoke at what seemed to be long last, even though only five seconds had elapsed. “We're closer to open space, so bring the remainder of the fleet around to present the enemy's flank to that direction.”

 

While her crew went to work on getting her orders accomplished, she took a moment to think about the situation. She silently sent a mental distress call to Ranma, hoping that by some miracle it would reach him.

 

“Engines down!” shouted one of the engineers from the command pit, right before her station exploded. While the wounded engineer was moved aside to save her life, another had taken over a spare console to see just how bad the damage was.

 

“We're dead in the water,” he reported, “The port engine exhaust manifold is fused closed, central is suffering a power flux while starboard isn't even there anymore.”

 

“Tell the rest of the fleet to retreat to Alpha point,” barked Karin, before letting a single tear fall. “Then initialize self destruct sequence Bravo.”

 

**--(Earth, Nerima ruins)--**

 

“No, no, no, no!” shouted both Ryoko's at the holoscreen at the near defeat taking place in the Beta system. Both ex-pirates had grown attached to the displaced numerous times woman, and at the moment were feeling completely helpless.

 

“Wait a minute, what's that?” wondered Washu as she paused in her supervision of the reconstruction work.

 

“I see it too,” added Amane, her eagle-eyes having noticed the distortion at the same moment as the Greatest Scientist in the Universe.

 

“YES!” shouted the four, drawing the attention of the rest of the Family on Earth.

 

**--(Beta System)--**

 

“Spatial distortion nine hundred kilometers behind the enemy line,” barked a Lieutenant on sensors.

 

“Another wave of reinforcements?” questioned Karin, her right index finger resting just below the self-destruct activation button.

 

“Unknown . . . wait, a single ship has just entered the system. It's the Kimiko.”

 

Just looking out the view ports took care of verifying the sensor readings as the heavily-armed Super dove headfirst into the enemy formation, all forty thousand weapon ports going full tilt.

 

“More ships reverting from faster than light,” cheered the Lieutenant. “The Gates of Hell, Dark Ninja, Amazon and Ranchan are hailing us!”

 

**--(Earth, Nerima ruins)--**

 

“That was too close,” commented Junior while holding his brother Yuri. The original shouting of the former pirates had gotten the young child's attention, and since the GNN had a nasty habit of placing the ever popular screen labels on the various ships as they fought, it didn't take him long to know that his mother was in serious trouble.

 

Being only three, there were a limited number of words the tike could speak and read. Two of them, his first words to be precise, were Wild Child.

 

“Get 'em!” cheered Peorth, her sudden return from Yggdrasil control scaring a few of those present. She had been the one drafted to assist in repairs to the World Tree, which suited her just fine considering the alternative.

 

“This is going to take too long,” intoned Washu as she did some quick number-crunching in her head. “A war of attrition is something we cannot afford.”

 

“So much to do, ne?” quipped her daughter, before the communications network came to life. There was chatter going everywhere at once, threatening to overload the system.

 

“Apparently, Ranma agrees with you,” commented Kiriko who had taken a glance at the sky. Her comment had acquired the others attention, and they looked in the same direction to see all but the Nineteenth and Twentieth fleets break their orbits to reinforce the front.

 

**--(Jurai system)--**

 

“What is the meaning of this?” demanded Azusa as his situation table went bonkers with the movements of the enemy fleets. The pests from Earth had changed directions again, which was actually a sound tactic as it caused confusion. Instead of attempting to come at him from all sides, they were gearing up with a large fleet to come straight at him. The Renza fleet had broken their engagements, shifting to add their firepower to the eight hundred `fresh' ships coming from the human homeworld. When the fleets regrouped, two light years in his direction from Todain, the table gave up the ghost as the counter couldn't go much passed thirteen hundred in one group.

 

“Have all available ships return to Jurai!” bellowed the Emperor while taking a mental count of his own firepower. The eighteen hundred ships coming from the bane of his existence could match his fleet, but the added hundred from the Renza Union tipped the scales in their favor. “By Imperial order, the three remaining Chobimaru's are to be brought online and stationed at the homeworld!”

 

One was lost, but the other three were going to come in real handy. Azusa nodded with satisfaction as the situation table, once its' operational programming was retrofitted to handle the load, turned into a large sea of green around Jurai Prime.

 

Not that it lasted long. He ignored the two red dots heading back to Earth, as the nineteen hundred ship enemy fleet suddenly appeared on the perimeter.

 

**--**--**--

 

“Let's get low, let's get fast!” whooped Ranma as the melee in space began. The fighter squadrons rushed the Drones, while the destroyers, frigates, cruisers and capital ships engaged their counterparts. The Streamrunner-class ships were doing what they were originally designed to do, fire tri-cobalt torpedoes from a distance like an artillery platform.

 

Beam weapons of choice flashed back and forth, along side torpedoes and missiles. It was numbers for the Family versus durability for the Juraians, as both sides began to accumulate casualties. Ships burst into a momentary flame before the vacuum consumed that too.

 

The confusion was great as three thousand ships performed their deadly dance, making it impossible to keep track of all the traffic zipping around.

 

“Where's the Prometheus?” demanded Hild, her small sector having a miniscule lull, allowing her the time to take a look at the maelstrom.

 

**--(Throne room, Royal Palace)--**

 

“You and me, right now,” taunted Ranma, using his lessons of yore to aggravate his adversary to no end. It had already come as a great surprise to the guards when he had appeared right next to the Emperor from out of thin air.

 

Azusa wasted no time with Sinai speeches and the like, jumping straight into combat. The guards could not assist in fear of hitting the Emperor.

 

Swords clashed in the deadly dance. Ranma was gauging his opponent while Azusa was simply trying to kill him. They had been fighting for twenty minutes when Azusa overextended and Ranma used the hilt of his blade like a bludgeon.

 

“Do you yield?” he demanded as he pushed the tip of his sword into the Emperor's throat. The guards that had not acted before took one step forward before realizing that if they interfered Azusa would be headless.

 

“Go ahead and kill me,” taunted the millennia old man. “Give my people the justification to exterminate your species from the galactic map. Let me live, and the same thing will happen. Either way, you and your elk are doomed!”

 

**--(Jurai Prime space)--**

 

The battle in orbit had been just out of range of the Chobimaru super-weapons. Their standing orders were to destroy any enemy vessels that came in range of the planet as a last line of defense. One major flaw in their plan to act as a shield was the very planet they were trying to protect.

 

The orbital defense satellites that had been silent as the enemy hadn't wandered into their effective range came to life.

 

“What the hell?” demanded one of the station commanders. There was absolutely no reason for the defense grid to target them.

 

“Distortion in sector five . . . Holy Goddess, it's Tsunami!” reported one of the scanner technicians.

 

The battle appeared to pause as Tsunami decloaked near the front of the Earth line. The Juraians, certain of victory now, were completely dumbfounded when the communications network was overridden with a Royal command code.

 

“To all Juraian Naval ships engaged in combat in systems one and four-eight-nine, you are hereby ordered to stand down,” said the never publicly seen before Princess Sasami. Even though she now had the appearance of an adult. “Authorization: Tsunami. Stand down now, please.”

 

“So, she's been corrupted too,” mused a second Chobimaru commander. “I knew letting her stay on Earth was a bad idea.” Turning to face the weapons control console, she spoke again. “Range to target?”

 

“What . . . are you insane?” returned the Lieutenant, gesturing at the vidscreen. “That's Tsunami, Goddess of Jurai and you want to *blow her up?*”

 

“She's been turned by those disgusting Earthlings. Now, range to target?” tried the commander again while taking several steps in the direction of the weapons console.

 

“Range to target . . . Seventy-nine inches,” groused the controller. “Take one more step in my direction and I'll blow us to Hell.” Reaching down, she punched in a series of equations that would cause the Superlaser to fire the wrong way. Straight through the power core.

 

**--(Royal Throne Room)--**

 

“All right, this is a challenge,” quipped Ranma as his opponents geared up for another assault. He'd almost had the Emperor of Jurai yield when Seiryo Tennan made his much feared appearance.

 

“Be quiet you wretched Earthling!” roared Seiryo as the pair attempted a flanking maneuver. They were certain that this move would work as Ranma had only the one sword in his hand and they were coming from two directions.

 

The sentient sword was having none of it, however. It hadn't had this much fun in millennia, and wasn't about to lose the first person to wield it successfully in that long a time. A random thought from its' host gave the sword an idea, and being a weapon of destruction it went for it.

 

Azusa and Seiryo both came screaming in, aiming for the same spot on opposite sides of the intruder's torso. Ranma himself had paused for the briefest of moments before moving again.

 

The swords split into their original forms, before he brought the hilts together, blades flowing one hundred eighty degrees from each other. The hilts recombined before extending to a length of two and a half feet with five foot long blades on either side.

 

The Juraians were surprised when their tactic was defeated by Ranma rolling his shoulders, the now double-side sword singing as it intercepted their weapons.

 

“Let's dance,” was all that Ranma said. He began twirling the double sword in varying circles, making certain to do it fast enough that neither of his opponents could spot the miniscule openings in his defense.

 

The fight was joined anew, Seiryo and Azusa attacking randomly in a vain attempt to break his defense. Vain, as in since they were using the random tactic there was no coordination between the two.

 

**--(Earth, Nerima ruins)--**

 

“Looks like everybody except Ranma and his `crew' are back,” offhandedly remarked Tenchi. He knew that if Azusa died in the current combat being broadcast to anybody out there that he would have to take over the Throne. Not the greatest of ideas in his book, as Ayeka had filled him in on the modus operandi of the Juraian politicos.

 

“I wonder why Karin grabbed a Runabout and headed for the front,” mumbled Seina, who was still sore from the ass chewing he'd received from his family. While they cooled down, he took stock of the current goings on.

 

The command vessels of the Saotome family had returned to the Sol system, along with the remains of their fleets. Absent were the commanding officers of the ships, having ordered them home from the Prometheus. Tsunami was in the midst of organizing the remains of the Juraian Navy, having seized control of the Empire while Azusa was engaged in combat. Seina knew the same thing Tenchi did concerning the Throne, and pitied whomever followed the current Emperor.

 

No matter what happened, there would be one hell of a mess to clean up. That much was certain.

 

Focusing back on the live feed from Jurai, Seina noticed that Ranma was losing what little remained of his patience. Seiryo and Azusa both took a mighty horizontal swing at point blank range, to which Ranma back flipped to avoid.

 

All eyes across the galaxy bugged out as the swords passed through the two Juraian nobles, while Ranma suddenly had the wish to have blocked that last attack instead of dodging as usual.

 

The guards that didn't act in fear of hitting their leader charged in kamikaze style, surrounding Ranma as a transporter took hold. Not two seconds later, they gathered around the bodies of Seiryo and Azusa, at a complete loss as to what to do next.

 

The fragile alliance they had, however, instantly turned into a blood feud. Those loyal to Seiryo that had the resources attacked those loyal to Azusa, beginning the first Juraian Civil War in eighteen millennia.

 

The planetary cameras went offline at that point, so the GNN displayed what was happening in orbit. Some of the ships, ranging from frigates to capital to even a few treeships, stayed in close proximity to Tsunami on guard duty, while the rest had turned their weapons on each other.

 

Two of the three Chobimaru's self-destructed in the midst of the Seiryo loyalists, taking many their number with them. The third, however, was looking for different prey.

 

**--(Juraian Prime, Orbit)--**

 

Those watching across the galaxy had no clue of the mutiny aboard this Chobimaru. It was swift, it was deadly.

 

It was stopped.

 

The loyalists to Azusa were seeing red, with more reasons than one. Their prey, their primary target, had already turned and transitioned to hyperspace, taking her escorts with her.

 

“Tsunami may have escaped, but there is still one Earth ship in range,” spoke the Commander of the planet-killer with madness in his voice. “Charge the primary weapon quietly, then blow her out of space.”

 

“Sir!” was the answer as the weapon techs set to do their task. It was much harder to charge the Superlaser in such a way to avoid sensor detection of the power buildup.

 

On the outside, the dish that comprised of the weapons' focus was away from any prying eyes. The sections that comprised of the dish pulled into the hull, and energy slowly began to build.

 

“Fifty percent charge,” barked a Lieutenant. “Time to fire . . . they're on to us!” On the main screen, they could see their target begin to accelerate away from the gravity well of Jurai to reach a Lagrange Point and make a light speed jump.

 

“FIRE!” shouted the Commander, knowing that even a fifty percent charge would be more than enough to destroy the ship.

 

The weapon on the Chobimaru fired seconds in front of a transphasic torpedo being launched from the enemy vessel. The tracking systems took over the fire control, swiveling the beam around to graze the port nacelle before the device of the doom impacted on the hull.

 

The Prometheus was scorched, but beyond that was unharmed as she made her jump to warp. At least, that's what the sensors said . . .

 

**--(Onboard Prometheus, en route to Earth)--**

 

“Chaos, chaos wherever I go!” sang Ranma as he lavished being cleaned by the sonic shower. He'd rather have a bath right now, but as this was the only way to make do, he figured he'd enjoy it.

 

His wives were lounging around in their quarters, rolling their eyes every time he hit a note off key. The events on Jurai were fresh in their minds, but as their task was complete they were chatting up a storm about rebuilding Earth.

 

While they talked, and Ranma continued to bombard their ears with his off-tune singing, something in the engines of the ship finally triggered an alarm.

 

“Ma'am,” a Second Lieutenant barked across the room. “The plasma converter in the port nacelle is vibrating zero point one zero beyond specifications.”

 

“What?” returned the Chief Engineer, running several calculations through her head as she made her way to the station the alarm had come from at a brisk pace. “It was fine a minute ago, what's going on?”

 

“Unknown,” answered the tech, “But the vibration is getting worse. Now at point two-two and climbing. The static warp bubble is becoming unstable.”

 

“Engineering to Bridge,” barked the now agitated Chief after slapping her communications badge. Once she got a response, she continued, “We have a problem down here, drop us out of warp!”

 

As the warp core slowed the matter/antimatter reaction in response to the commands issued by the helm, the entire ship bucked.

 

“The port nacelle just exploded!” came from across Main Engineering. “Attitude thrusters off-line, we're spinning and out of control!”

 

“*Warning, core breach imminent. Five minutes until detonation.*” came the monotone of the computer, sending the on duty engineering staff into a frenzy.

 

“Dump the core!” came from the shift Commander. “All nonessential hands to the escape pods! Repeat, all nonessential hands to the escape pods!”

 

As the crew in Engineering set to their task of ejecting the core, those that had been rudely awakened or had their quality time interrupted made tracks for the pods. While the abandon ship order hadn't been issued yet, it was better to be safe than sorry.

 

“Core ejected!” shouted the Chief as she watched the reaction chamber drop from view as it was propelled along the ejector rails. Once the core was gone, all of the nonessential systems shut down to conserve power from the fusion reactors.

 

“Impulse is back on line!” came another shout as the ship gave a slight lurch, an indication that they were no longer spinning in random circles.

 

The bridge was in chaos when Ranma and his crew walked through the lift door. Several stations had shorted out, blowing monitors and sending pieces of plastic everywhere.

 

“Report!” barked their leader, irritated that he couldn't relax yet.

 

“We've ejected the warp core,” said the Commander on duty. “The port nacelle had more damage than we thought. The plasma converter had been knocked so slightly out of alignment that the sensors couldn't detect it until just before the entire nacelle blew apart.”

 

On the screen, some five million kilometers behind the Prometheus, a new star was briefly born before the vacuum absorbed the light. The impulse engines had done their job, carrying them just far enough away that the shockwave from the matter/antimatter explosion simply vibrated the ship as it passed.

 

“All right, stand down from general quarters,” barked Karin. “How close are we to the Sol system?”

 

“We are in the system now,” came from the navigator. “But I'm not picking up any signs of the fleet.”

 

“Maintain course and best speed,” ordered Ranma before gesturing to his personal entourage towards the conference room. “Inform us upon our arrival, we'll be in a meeting.”

 

Once the conference room was straightened up, at least to the point that they could have a seat, the group stared at each other for five minutes.

 

“I have a feeling we're on the road again,” finally said Xian. She was met with incredulous looks, before acceptance took hold.

 

“I've lost my connection to the system again,” came from Hild, earning nods from Urd and Peorth in confirmation of their similar situation.

 

“Where do you think we've ended up this time?” asked Kasumi, her mind drifting back to the last universe visited. While the memories of those lost still hurt, she put them aside to attempt to be a pillar of strength.

 

“No idea, but it had better be . . . more pleasant than the last,” declared Nabiki, catching her sisters' mood with ease.

 

“This time we're alone,” commented Ukyo. “We don't even have the support of Washu to find a way back, if we are indeed in another universe.”

 

“Well, we're not truly alone,” remarked Taki, making eye contact with those gathered around the table. “We have each other, and Washu will come looking for us once we fail to return.”

 

“So, what now?” wondered Urd.

 

“Go with the flow,” answered Peorth. The two Goddesses looked at each other, not having to say anything else. If they were indeed in another reality, then they'd just had to do what they could to survive long enough to be found.

 

“And I thought life was getting dull,” quipped Karin, earning smiles all around.

 

Just before Ranma could throw in his two cents, they were summoned back to the bridge.

 

“Okay ...,” he deadpanned at his first glance of the viewscreen. Yes, it was Earth. Only this one hadn't been shelled with a tri-cobalt type bomb. It looked eerily similar to their home before Azusa came, while at the same time several things were different.

 

“What's with the debris field near the South Pole?” questioned Kasumi, her ever present eye for detail catching the hulks of at least three gigantic ships.

 

“Heat plume rising from what would be the Nevada desert,” said one of the scientists cataloging the day to day life on the surface.

 

“Helm, move us at best possible speed to behind the moon,” calmly stated Ranma, before turning to the Chief Engineer. “Get the spare core installed and as operational as can be without the port nacelle.”

 

“Trouble?” wondered Nabiki, her right eyebrow raised to show her incomprehension, or would that be suspicion, of the situation.

 

“Do you really have to ask?” retorted Karin, now a veteran of Ranma's weird chaos effects.

 

The Prometheus was still agile, even without her warp drive. It became obvious that she also had a better sensor package as well when the craft rising from the surface had lost them as they moved behind the moon.

 

**--(Home Universe)--**

 

The power vacuum in the Juraian Hierarchy had to be plugged, and quickly at that. The Civil War was threatening to spill over into the neighboring territories, already leery from the amount of fighting that had occurred after the attack on Earth.

 

Tenchi and his family had bugged out to Jurai Prime, doing what they had to do to stabilize the region. Seina and his family opted to stay in the Sol system, holding down the fort until Ranma returned minus Karen, Surien, Haruken and Gyokuren as they were needed at their homeworld.

 

“They're over an hour late,” commented Kiriko as she eyeballed the sensor readouts. While it was known that Ranma was a joker, he did at least have decent timing with the delivery and wouldn't fool around too much with work to be done.

 

“The scout just reported in,” barked Amane as she walked towards the plot table. “They found what appears to be the remains of one of Prometheus's nacelles here, and a subspace fissure here.” She pointed out the two areas that were almost on top of each other, before finishing her report. “There is space-time continuum damage in that sector.”

 

“Forward all of our data to Washu on Jurai,” Seina finally spoke up, his voice tired from constant use. “We need them home to take care of things here while we go back to the GP.”

 

While the meeting was happening, the sensor buoys recorded the sudden appearance of a small craft that was out on a recon mission near the moon. It registered as so much of a non-threat that, while listed as an unknown contact, the software of the array didn't send a red alert throughout the system. When the contact disappeared the same way it had appeared, it was cataloged for further study and `forgotten' about.

 

Then it's carrier ship appeared, in virtually the same spot ten minutes later. This much bigger craft triggered the alarm, not that it mattered by this point as it had used a space-fold `Jump Drive' right into the middle of a Star Destroyer squadron.

 

In the path of the Super in charge of said squadron.

 

The former Imperial ship speared the newcomer on the starboard side, her bulk not being able to stop in such short distances.

 

Over the screams of protesting metal, the sounds of shorting electronics, and the collision alarm that nobody seemed inclined to turn off, more ships appeared. There were plenty of friendly ships available to contain the growing chaos to the far side of the moon.

 

“What the hell is going on out there?” roared Ryoko, wanting time to take a nice long bath.

 

“You know, I'd swear that looked like a refugee fleet,” Neju commented as she passed by to a different plot table. “That one that got shishcabobbed is an obvious heavy cruiser, but the rest look too . . . civilian. They're all damaged to some extent.”

 

“Tell our boys to back off out there,” barked Seina, having watched a transport panic at a proximity alarm, turn hard port and drive straight into a larger transport. Both survived the collision, however communications chatter intensified with pleas for help with the wounded.

 

“Well, I'd put money on that cruiser being named Galactica,” deadpanned Amane as a live visual feed came up on a monitor. The port side, not having a ten kilometer long ship sticking out of it, was tilted slightly downward to present the landing bay and gigantic nameplate for all to see.

 

Unnoticed, the world glitched . . .

 

**--(Battlestar Galactica, outside the Sol Oort Cloud, time minus ten minutes)--**

 

“This has to be it,” Admiral William `Bill' Adama said, his gravelly voice carrying through the quiet Combat Information Center. The Raptor had came screaming back in, all too eager in reporting their findings.

 

“That's a lot of firepower,” commented his First Officer, Colonel Saul Tigh. “If this is Earth, just what the hell do that need that much protection from?”

 

The video feed from the Raptor continued to play on a monitor near the plot pit. The shipyards were obvious, as a badly damaged hulk was being towed into position for repairs. Same went for the defense turrets and sensor buoys, each clustered at regular intervals to promote overlapping coverage.

 

None of the ships, however, matched any design in the Library. More than a few looked to be civilian transports, until they executed impossible maneuvering for vessels of that size.

 

“Well, at the very least if this isn't Earth they should know where it is,” dryly commented Laura Roslin, President of what remained of their Twelve Colonies. She watched the plot pit, what little tactical knowledge she had for being a former school teacher giving her a list of possibilities. Not that she'd voice them, not in the CIC and not to anybody else other than Bill.

 

“I guess we should introduce ourselves,” lightly joked Saul. “There's not much in the way of a hole in their patrols, except here near this moon.”

 

“Yes,” agreed Roslin, “we should introduce ourselves. As well as warn them about the Cylons.”

 

“Begin jump prep,” the Admiral barked to his crew. “That moon is a good place to come in to wave a white flag in peace.”

 

“I should go back to Colonial One,” said the President as she began to head for the door. She didn't fail to notice Adama looking at her with that calculating look he gives all tactical situations, which caused her to pause.

 

“No,” finally came from Bill, “You should stay right here. Like the Colonel said, there's a lot of firepower in that system. Galactica can take a bit more of a beating.”

 

Oh, surprise of surprises as there was no argument forthcoming from Laura for a change. She simply returned to her previous spot at the plot table in the pit, looking smug for some odd reason.

 

“Give the fleet the jump coordinates,” Tigh had ignored the little byplay happening with the two highest ranking people in the fleet. “Have them hold station for five minutes then follow us into the Earth system.”

 

Ah, there's the mistake that would create havoc on a solar scale. Adama and Roslin were busy flirting while trying not to get caught flirting, and the Colonel hadn't thought the way his order would be interpreted with that magic word Earth present.

 

The jump was smooth, the landing was not. As soon as Galactica was in the system, DRADIS went nuts with contacts galore. The three in the pit were sorting out the information as quickly as possible, looking for either the command ship for the fleet or a relay station pointed at the planet. Then they found themselves on the floor as the ship shook violently around them.

 

“Report!” barked Adama, while Roslin could be heard in the background `Are they shooting at us?'.

 

“Collision, starboard flight pod. Hull breach and heavy structural damage,” Lieutenant Felix Gaeta shouted over the collision alarm.

 

“Sir,” Petty Officer Anastasia `Dee' Dualla was barely heard over the alarms and now protesting hull, but the shock in her voice got Adama's attention anyway.

 

Turning to look in her direction, he saw what she was looking at and had to grip the plotter for support. This action caught the attention of his XO and the President, they, in turn, turning to see what had the Old Man so obviously disturbed.

 

“How big is that thing?” demanded Saul immediately after seeing what was on the monitor. One of the old docking cameras had survived after all this time, thus enabling them to look down the length of the ship they had collided with.

 

“Judging from the size of that one over there,” Gaeta pointed out another one of the monster ships, “I'd say ten kilometers give or take.”

 

“FRAK!” came from Colonel Tigh, “The fleet followed us in almost immediately and they're getting bounced around out there!”

 

Sure enough, calls for assistance began to come in as transports collided with each other or one of the battleships in their jump zone. The Astral Queen, all to eager to be in first to spread the gospel of Zarek, had gone into an uncontrolled spin after turning too hard for her design, slamming into the surface of the moon and exploding.

 

“Very quietly launch the Raptors for damage assessment and medical transfers,” ordered Adama, taking note that the insanely large fleet around them was slowly backing away. While they did stop at a respectable distance, as soon as the Raptors appeared waves of fighters spewed from their bellies or moved in closer from their support station.

 

Not one shot was fired. This worked out good for both sides, as the unknown fighters and what Adama thought was their Raptor equivalent flew in a loose CAP formation. As they appeared to be ignored, the Raptors moved faster between the damaged transports.

 

“What the hells is that thing supposed to be?” loudly demanded Tigh, a new ship having entered the sphere around them. “Damned thing almost looks organic.”

 

**--(Moon orbital track, Tsunami's Sister)--**

 

“Is there any reason they are not answering our hails?” asked Seina, keeping his cool even after watching a ship explode against the surface of the moon.

 

“Their long range communications are down, short range is low band radio,” answered Kiriko. “Our hails are on a frequency much higher than the one they are using.”

 

“Okay, this just gets weirder and weirder,” quipped Amane. “Low band radio on a cruiser? Anybody that wanted to could listen in very easily.”

 

“I see they haven't launched any fighters,” came from Neju, her eye for detail scanning the entire area. “Those shuttles are doing damage control and transport of wounded back to the cruiser.”

 

This time, when the world glitched people noticed. After all, it's not everyday that a partially finished Super Star Destroyer appears from nowhere.

 

“What the hell?” demanded Ryoko, as they began to hunt down this design in the Archives. “No, it can't be . . .”

 

“By the Gods I'm glad Ranma isn't here!” let out Kiriko after locating the design specifications in the computer.

 

“An Eclipse-class Super Star Destroyer,” gasped Neju, having finally taken a look at Kiriko's screen. “Scanning . . . The coaxial Superlaser is functional, as is life support and the sublight engines.”

 

“No life signs,” added Ryoko, turning to look at Seina. She studied his facial expression, then had to voice one of the few standing orders that Ranma would force onto them. “You know we have to destroy her Seina. If nothing else, it's because of the Superlaser planet killer that's built into her.”

 

“Let me deal with him when he gets back,” spoke up their leader and defacto absentia leader of the fleet. “Board her, take her to the shipyards for completion. We have bigger fish to fry.”

 

**--(Galactica CIC plot pit)--**

 

“What the hells is going on in this forsaken system?” bellowed Tigh to a silent CIC. That lone ship had paused the fleet around them, before several of the small ones took up escort positions to lead it to the shipyard.

 

“What-that's not possible!” blurted out Gaeta from his post, before looking over at a second display for confirmation. “There were no life readings onboard that ship that appeared out of the blue, now there's over a thousand!”

 

“Just what is this place?” wondered Laura before DRADIS went nuts again.

 

“Cylons!” shouted Gaeta, before visibly paling.

 

“How many?” wondered Admiral Adama, looking up at his own display above the plotter.

 

“All of them, sir,” was the whispered reply, as on the screen the ninety-forth Basestar jumped into the system.

 

“Recall the Raptors, tell the fleet to move further in system and launch every available fighter,” ordered Bill, preparing to draw the line in the sand. “Can we move?”

 

“No sir,” answered Colonel Tigh. “We got speared clean through the starboard flight pod and a quarter of the way into the main superstructure. If we try to move we'll break apart.”

 

“Communications?”

 

“No luck so far. We can't detect any of their frequencies.”

 

“Sir, that ship we're attached to is moving,” came from Mr. Gaeta. “She's turning in system, away from the potential battle zone.”

 

“Okay, so they know we're in a jam over here,” encouraged Laura. She was doing her best to stay out of the way, especially with the appearance of their enemy.

 

“Sweet merciful FRAK!” loudly understated Adama as the planet itself came into view. There were still a couple of fires burning in the remains of a city, tiny dots of construction crews moving about doing the prep work to repair what they could and rebuild what they couldn't.

 

“Did the Cylons get here before us?” whimpered Dee, her hopes beginning to go up in flames like the city below.

 

“No traces of radioactivity,” reported Felix, “Large clusters of life readings, numbering well over five billion.”

 

“Wow, that's got to be cramped,” said an awed Colonel before coming back to the business at hand. “Arm bow, port and aft guns. Keep starboard offline as we don't want to shoot our taxi.”

 

**--(Tsunami's Sister)--**

 

“I get the distinct impression that those are not friendlies,” groused Ryoko. She didn't have to look at anything other than the visual feed from the forward ships as the new arrivals began dumping insanely large amounts of fighters into space.

 

“The impaled ship is launching what little fighters they have, they're taking up positions slightly in front of our own line,” reported Amane as Sister went into combat mode.

 

“Malware detected,” said Kiriko, “Apparently our friends out there tried to use a backdoor exploit on the system. Firewalls holding and counterattacking.”

 

One of the many perks of having Washu around. At least with computer code, there was no equal in the universe. It would be her experiments that would blow things up.

 

“Do they really think nuclear warheads are going to do any damage to us?” wondered Neju.

 

“I bet they haven't encountered torpedoes at all, let alone the variety that we employ,” offered Ryoko, as she turned to Seina.

 

“Let's keep it simple at first, no transphasics,” he said to her silent enquiry. He looked into his own plotter, taking notes on who was where. Very quietly he sent orders to the Marines on the Eclipse to turn about and hold station. “First order of the day, the enemy is not to reach Earth.”

 

His wives paused for just a moment, before nodding their heads in agreement. There was no anticipation of battle, no having to psych up for a fight for survival.

 

The Basestar in the head of the enemy fleet tried to cruise pass what they believed to be an adrift Imperial Star Destroyer, only to be stopped dead in their tracks by the tractor beam.

 

Let the shooting commence!

 

Pure and unadulterated chaos would be the only descriptor to the situation now. The enemy fighters tried to engage the capitol ship only to run into a literal cloud of the oddest fighters they had ever encountered.

 

The capitol ships began to exchange fire at this point. And the enemy was certainly surprised as their solid slugs had no real effect on the shields while the focused energy of the turbo lasers ate through their hulls like rocks passing through glass.

 

“Nukes loose!” shouted Ryoko.

 

The warheads fired off by the Cylons detonated on many a ship, the EMI blinding sensors and DRADIS alike. Being in space it took one tenth the time it would in an atmosphere for the electromagnetic interference to clear out.

 

**--(Galactica, CIC plot pit)--**

 

“Sir,” began Lieutenant Gaeta, “The Cylons have launched their computer attack.”

 

“Looks like it worked,” scoffed Colonel Tigh. “The home formation is drifting apart and the Toasters are making a run at the gap.”

 

All Adama did to acknowledge the reports and commentary was grunt while his eyes were focused on the DRADIS display over the plotter.

 

“What was that?” demanded the Admiral moments later as the lead Basestar stopped for no apparent reason. He'd heard rumors of the Colonial Fleet R&D working on a type of energy tow cable . . . what did they call the blasted thing? A tractor beam?

 

“Oh frak me,” said a surprised Tigh as reports filtered in from the Vipers in the combat zone. “Sir, you should hear this.”

 

Picking up his own handset, Adama motioned Dee to announce his presence on the air.

 

“Galactica Actual, the Cylons are at a serious disadvantage out here,” reported Major Lee `Apollo' Adama. “These flying spears are holding the Basestars in place with what I could only describe as an energy ribbon. The ships also have some type of energy shielding system that's deflecting or absorbing the weapons fire from the Cylons.” Every word sounded more and more like it was coming from a child that was frightened. After all, in their corner of the galaxy the primary weapons systems had been rail gun slugs and nukes, with good old fashioned armor to protect the ship. “Sir, their primary weapons are energy based . . . with enough punch to damage the Basestars hull . . .,” here he paused, his tiny DRADIS system feeding new data to him. “Nukes loose, I repeat nukes are loose.”

 

“Now we'll see just how good those shields are,” barked the First Officer.

 

The entire CIC was silent as the nukes were tracked to several different targets. The targets were varying sizes of the flying wedge, including one like the ship they were involuntarily docked with. With the EMI, DRADIS was blinded for a moment before several gasps of surprise were heard.

 

“If only . . .,” started Roslin, her eyes glazing over at one of the many things Fleet R&D had been tinkering with on a limited budget.

 

“Yeah,” gruffly agreed Adama before returning to his Admiral persona. “Redirect the Vipers to the flank with the fleet. Keep Apollo and Starbuck on the front as our eyes for now. It seems the home team has things in hand, at least for the moment.”

 

“Expecting something?” mumbled Tigh so that only the Admiral would hear him. Not looking in his direction, already knowing the answer he instead looked upwards at the DRADIS display. Two of the smaller oddly shaped ships were pulling back, fires burning through several punctures in the hull.

 

Then the saucer shaped ships with their insane speed and maneuverability got involved.

 

“Galactica Actual, Apollo,” came over the wireless almost immediately after the second wave engaged the enemy. “Those secondary ships have some type of solid-state continuous fire laser that is eating clean through the Basestars. One of their command ships is engaging the enemy and has a point defense system. The Cylons keep launching nukes in their direction but none of them are getting through.”

 

“Apollo, Galactica Actual. What makes you think that is a command vessel?” asked Adama while not taking his eyes off of the display over the plotter. The DRADIS echo was showing a design unlike any he'd ever even dream of. The saucer was enormous, with the engines tucked underneath and a weapons pod mounted above. While he wouldn't voice the thought, the ship looked too civilian and scientific to be that heavily armed.

 

“She's the only one with that design on any DRADIS, sir,” was the reply, causing the three at the central plotter to look around on the display to confirm that assessment.

 

The distraction was enough that they missed the opening in the formation of the defenders. When they did spot it, the Cylons were already trying to rush it with as many Basestars as they could.

 

“What type of missiles are those?” asked Laura to nobody in particular. Not that she expected an answer to her query as the small, rapid fire and self-propelled dots tracked across the display. When they impacted, there was no electromagnetic interference as they thought there should be. The Basestar that the nine missiles were fired at was destroyed with apparent ease, before several of the defenders vanished in a massive nuclear attack.

 

“Galactica Actual, Starbuck,” came from Captain Kara `Starbuck' Thrace. “Those were too small to be missiles. I've never seen any that glowed red and could turn like that, let alone deliver that much punch from a tiny warhead. Now their formation is . . . what the hells? FRAK ME!”

 

It had been bothering Adama that the defending fleet had yet to close up their formation, until it became a moot point after a Basestar in the middle of a tight Cylon formation was killed.

 

With one shot. The debris had a ripple effect, taking out four other Basestars.

 

“Where did that come from?” barked Tigh, his eyebrows up near where his hairline used to be. His one good eye was rapidly checking the DRADIS display. One of the icons started blinking, and it seemed that his eyebrows were now ready to leap clean off of his head.

 

“Energy spike from that incomplete ship!” shouted Lieutenant Gaeta. Now that he knew what to look for the system readily showed what he had missed the first time. He, along with those in the CIC, looked at the bigger display monitors as the black ship fired again at a cluster of Basestars. The Raiders in the path had zero chance as they evaporated, then the central vessel exploded. With the explosion and rapid expansion of the debris field the six other ships around it had no chance to escape before being destroyed themselves.

 

“By the Gods,” gasped out Roslin, understating the situation as it stood now. The Cylons that had unintentional cover from `friendly' vessels retaliated at the enormous loss of their brethren with several dozen nuclear missiles.

 

“Oh, that must have been a bad idea,” joked Saul, his strict `by the book' persona not being able to cope with the absurd amounts of firepower present in this system. Not voicing it, he had the thought that this might be the end if the defenders turned out to be hostile themselves.

 

**--(Tsunami's Sister)--**

 

“Seina!” shouted his present wives, appalled that the Eclipse had announced her presence to the galaxy at large by taking out twelve enemy capitol ships with only two shots.

 

“What?” he asked in return, a look of innocence displayed by his facial expression.

 

“This is not going so well,” said Kiriko. “We've lost thirteen Victory-Twos eight Acclamators, six Victorys, three Imperials, dozens of fighters, four Intrepids, seven Streamrunners, eleven Iwo-Jimas, two Aegians, five Galaxy's and six Sovereigns. Our fighter squadrons are requesting assistance with containment. The enemy fighters are carrying nuclear missiles along with the capitol ships.”

 

“Send in the Corvettes,” responded Seina. “Have them compliment the fighter squadrons. Redirect the larger ships to the front and pull the smaller ones back into orbit to prevent a flank attack. Let`s see if we can lure the enemy into the defense grid.”

 

The orders were sent out, even as the Eclipse fired into another cluster of enemy ships. However, now they were learning and had begun to expand the size of the formation. Only two capitol ships were lost in that barrage, the proximity of the enemy forcing the unfinished ship to back closer to Earth and the defense grid.

 

“Use of quantum weapons is authorized,” he added a moment later, noting that more of the Fleet was pulling out of the shipyards to reinforce the front.

 

“I have the radio frequency of the Galactica,” happily reported Neju, one of her many tasks finally complete. “You know, if we can read the nameplate on the hull we should have no communication problems.”

 

“Standby on the translator just in case,” stated Amane, anticipating the thought process of Seina.

 

“Have the Colorado move into best point defense position,” suggested Ryoko while the communication link was established. As the fleet moved into their new positions, the hail went out.

 

**--(Galactica, CIC plot pit)--**

 

“They're suffering heavy loses,” Adama declared to nobody in particular. At the moment, the Cylons had the momentum as the home fleet was beginning to fall back. It did take a sustained nuclear attack to overwhelm the shields on the ships, but if there was one thing that they had an abundance of, other than ordinance, was patience. The Toasters had even spread their formations out to prevent heavy loses from the ship killer that was now retreating towards the planet.

 

“They both are,” added Colonel Tigh moments later. “Although they've lost a lot of ships, the home fleet just seem to have more coming out of the woodwork.”

 

“The Cylons have lost one quarter of their fleet,” Lieutenant Gaeta chimed in, knowing just how much of a hard time DRADIS was having with the number of contacts.

 

“Incoming message,” Petty Officer Dualla called out, her eyes looking at nothing in particular. She was obviously stunned by whatever it was that she was hearing. “It's from that organic looking ship, identifying herself as . . . Tsunami's Sister? They wish to speak to you, Admiral.”

 

Picking up his handset again, he looked in her direction. “Put it on speakers.” After her nod, he keyed the mic, “This is Admiral Adama of the Colonial Battlestar Galactica . . .”

 

TBC

 

Ah, much better even though the cliffhanger will probably get me killed. Like I stated above, I had to retool this chapter as the direction I previously took stalled out completely. So I figured, why not?

 

Ja!