Dragon Lady of Macross (part 17 of 30)

a Ranma 1/2 fanfiction by Calamity-Queen of Cordite

Back to Part 16
December 2009...

"This is SO embarrassing," Ranma whined. "I hope you're happy. I can't 
even go into town anymore for fear of being accosted by my 'adoring 
fans'."

"Oh, I'm thrilled," Lisa smirked with amusement. "I'm marrying the 
confirmed most desirable woman on the ship." Ranma grumbled under her 
breath. "What was that, Sweetie?"

"I should have told them I was a man-hating, militant lesbian," Ranma 
quipped. "I'm never gonna live this down." Lisa snickered.

"At least they let you transfer the recording and movie contracts to 
Minmei," Lisa said.

"Yeah, but only if I agreed to sing at least one track on her album and 
the backups," Ranma pointed out. "I just don't understand how I managed 
to win the silly thing."

"Think about it, Love," Lisa said. "You had the biggest support base. 
All the Marines, most of the pilots and some of the crew, plus a good 
portion of the civilians. Minmei probably had some of the pilots and a 
majority of the civilians, while I had most of the crew and some of the 
civilians."

'You knew, didn't you?" Ranma accused.

"I suspected," Lisa giggled. "I wasn't sure about the civilians, but I 
knew you'd have the military vote sewed up. You're so cute when you're 
being indignant, you know that?"

Ranma couldn't help it. She burst out laughing.

"Come on, Sweetie, I'm hungry," Lisa said giving her a wicked grin and 
grabbing her hand.

"But Lisa, that's the bedroom," Ranma mock protested.

"Yup," Lisa said as she pulled Ranma in and kicked the door shut.

(oO\O/Oo)

January 2010...

"Vermillion Lead, Gunsight 1, one of my Veritechs is damaged. We're 
returning to the ship," Rick said over the Tac-net.

"Vermillion Lead, if the damage is not major, we need you to stay out 
there," Lisa responded.

"Negative, Gunsight 1," Rick said. "It looks like a direct hit. 
Vermillion squadron let's bring it home."

"Lieutenant Hunter, are you refusing to obey a direct order?" Lisa 
asked, sounding irritated.

Rick got pissed. How dare she tell him to stay out here with one of his 
pilots in a damaged Veritech? He was just about to start running his 
mouth when he heard something shocking.

"Hold it a second, Gunsight 1," Ranma said. "Vermillion Lead, Wild Rose 
Lead, do you have a visual on the damage?"

"Roger, Wild Rose Lead," Rick said. "It looks pretty bed. He's loosing 
fluid. Looks like hydraulic."

"Roger, Vermillion Lead," Ranma replied. "It's your call, kid. The 
safety of your pilots is your responsibility. Gunsight 1, I hate to say 
it but Rickhead is right this time. He can see the damage. You can't. 
You can't make that call."

"But...but...I..." Lisa sputtered.

"Negative, Gunsight 1," Ranma said. "You don't send a soldier into 
battle with a broken sword unless he's all you got. We ain't that 
desperate yet. Besides, Moose has a hard enough time keeping a Veritech 
under him without starting out with a damaged one."

"Roger," Lisa said through clenched teeth. "Vermillion Squadron, return 
to the ship."

"Roger, Vermillion Squadron inbound," Rick said. "Thanks, DL."

"Yeah, well, don't go thinking I'm going soft on you," Ranma snorted. 
"But you were in the right this time."

"Somebody's sleepin' on the couch tonight," Akane teased over the 
squadron channel.

"Yeah, well, she'll get over it," Ranma chuckled.

(oO\O/Oo)

Lisa was waiting for Ranma when she exited the locker room.

"Lt. Commander Saotome, I would have a word with you," Lisa said coldly.

"Sure, Commander, my office," Ranma walked away without bothering to see 
if Lisa was following. She opened the door and entered, moving to stand 
behind her desk. She heard the door shut and she turned. Lisa was 
standing by the door quaking with fury.

"Something on your mind, Commander?" Ranma asked causally. Sometimes it 
was just better to detonate the explosive device than sitting around 
waiting for it to go off.

"Where do you get off undermining my authority over an open frequency?" 
Lisa demanded angrily.

"Where do you get off trying to order a squadron leader to make his 
pilots stay out in a potential combat situation with a crippled 
aircraft?" Ranma fired back.

"That pilot said he was fine," Lisa snarled.

"That pilot also doesn't have the sense god gave a common dog," Ranma 
said. "Come on, we are talking about a cherry that charged solo right 
into the middle of an enemy formation and nearly got himself killed. He 
has way more balls than brains. Firstly, he couldn't see the damage to 
his plane. Rick could, and Rick made the right call when he saw it 
leaking fluid. What would have happened if he took that plane into 
combat and the flight controls failed because he lost hydraulic 
pressure? Wouldn't you have felt wonderful knowing that you’re the one 
that caused his senseless death? You don't have to write letters to 
parents explaining to them why you let their sons or daughters get 
killed. I've had to write two too many so far and believe me, it's not 
at all pleasant, Commander Hayes."

"How dare you..." Lisa began, but Ranma interrupted her.

"No, how dare YOU second guess the pilot that's out there looking at 
it," Ranma said. "Out there is combat, Commander Hayes. Out there is 
death. Out there is the cold airless vacuum. Out there, there is no room 
for unnecessary risks. If a pilot comes running back to base and there 
wasn't a good reason for it, charge him with dereliction, but don't by 
god second-guess him when he knows there is a problem. You're not the 
only person on this ship that happens to be a professional. You know 
damn good and well that Rick was following procedure. If your ego is too 
overblown to admit when you're wrong then one of these days you will get 
someone killed."

"Lt Commander, don't you speak..." Lisa all but screamed in rage before 
Ranma interrupted her again.

"Don't like the truth?" Ranma snarled. "Then charge me with 
insubordination, because I ain't gonna sugarcoat it for you when the 
lives of our pilots are at stake."

"So that's how it is?" Lisa growled.

"If that's the way you want it to be," Ranma replied. "You could just 
let it go, forget about the whole thing. Hell, you could even apologize 
to Lieutenant Hunter and admit you were wrong."

"Fine," Lisa said. "You want to forget about the whole thing? Sounds 
good to me. Here you can have this back, you...you...FREAK!" Lisa took 
her engagement ring off and threw it at Ranma.

Ranma didn’t even flinch when the ring hit her in the face and clattered 
across the floor. The furious brunette whirled and yanked open the door 
to see the whole Wild Rose squadron standing outside, looking everywhere 
but at her. She stood glaring at them for a moment before storming off 
down the corridor.

Ranma stood still for a moment and then grabbed the edge of her desk to 
steady herself on her suddenly rubbery knees, feeling like she had been 
kicked in the gut by a destroid. She began to shake.

The five original Rose's plus Akane filed in the room. Max started to 
come in, but Erin stopped him with a hand on his chest and mouthed the 
words 'girl talk'. Max nodded and he and the new members moved off as 
Erin shut the door.

"Hey Hon, you okay?" Vicki asked gently, putting her hand on Ranma's 
shoulder.

Ranma shook her head, dislodging a tear from the many gathering in her 
eyes. The tear fell down to splash on her desk. Vicki collected her in a 
hug.

"Oh Honey, I'm so sorry," Vicki said and the dam broke.

Ranma's body convulsed once, then again, and then she was being wracked 
with sobs. Through the sobs she began to speak.

"Why?" Ranma sobbed. "Why couldn't I keep my damn mouth shut? Why 
couldn't I just let her get it off her chest? Then everything would have 
been fine. No, I had to prove a goddam point. I had to be right. Why?"

The five other women in the room came over and joined the hug, offering 
their support. One of them even offered an answer.

"It's because you two have synced up again," Marissa said softly. 
"Honey, she didn't mean what she said. It was just the PMS talking. Just 
like it was making you stand your ground. You were right, by the way. A 
little harsh, but right none the less. It'll be alright in a few days. 
Once she calms down and realizes what she's done. You two love each 
other too much to let this end things."

(oO\O/Oo)

February 2010...

Over the next four days, the SDF-1 saw many new developments. They had 
made contact with UNEDC and were told to not return to Earth to buy time 
for them to prepare for the enemy. The enemy, in a horrifying display of 
firepower, had destroyed a large asteroid that was more of a small 
planetoid, miring the SDF-1's movements in the resulting debris field 
after a carefully placed shot that took out their long-range radar. And 
Ranma and Lisa were still not on speaking terms. It was safe to say that 
morale among the bridge crew and the flight crews was at an all time 
low.

Captain Gloval was seriously considering spacing his XO as he listened 
to her dress down yet another poor bastard that had committed some 
unintentional and trivial gaff in procedure. That made the third one 
today and the shift just started two hours ago.

"Vanessa, have you finished plotting a course out of this debris field?" 
Gloval asked.

"Negative, Sir, the debris field is too large to plot all the debris 
with our short-range scanners," Vanessa reported.

"Try switching to long-range radar," Gloval ordered. "It's not like they 
don't know where we are anyway."

"Sir, long-range radar is still being repaired," Vanessa said. "Repair 
crews say it will be inop for another two days at least." Gloval 
muttered something under his breath in Russian.

"Very well, we will send out a Cat's Eye to be our eyes," Gloval said. 
'And this with will give me a great excuse to get rid of that 
insufferable irritating woman for a while.' "Lisa, I want you aboard the 
Cat's Eye."

"But, Sir..." Lisa began to protest.

"DON'T argue with me, Commander!" Gloval said harshly, a clear sign that 
his patience was at its end. "I'm sure we are all competent enough to 
handle things without you here."

"Yes, Sir," Lisa said with resignation.

Meanwhile, while Lisa left the bridge, Claudia was putting her own plan 
into effect.

"Hey Roy," Claudia said into the phone.

"Yeah, Claudia?" Roy asked.

"Gloval is sending Lisa out in a Cat's Eye to scan for a path out of the 
debris field," Claudia said. "I think Lieutenant Commander Saotome 
should be the pilot of that Cat's Eye."

"Both of them in the same plane, are you crazy?" Roy asked. "They'll 
kill each other."

"Either that, or they'll make up," Claudia said. "Either way morale will 
improve."

"You have a point," Roy chuckled.

"It's Claudia's..." Claudia announced.

"And Roy's..." Roy played along.

"Operation: Get Them Back Together Or At Least To Kill Each Other So We 
Don't Have To Listen To The Whining Anymore!" both of them intoned at 
the same time.

(oO\O/Oo)

"What are you doing here?" Lisa hissed as she walked up, seeing Ranma 
doing a preflight walkaround of the Cat's Eye.

"I'm flying this crate," Ranma said casually. "Commander Fokker wants me 
to evaluate the new addition of a defensive weapons system to the Cat's 
Eye during this mission. He said he wanted someone familiar with the 
weapons system to test it out. Since I assisted Lang in developing it, I 
got the job. What are YOU doing here, Commander?"

"The Captain ordered me to lead this mission," Lisa sneered.

"I see," Ranma said carefully. "Well, I'm a professional and this is a 
mission. I don't see where my personal feelings have any place here."

"Well, I'm a professional too," Lisa said haughtily. "I won't allow my 
personal feelings to affect the mission either." Ranma snorted. "And 
what's that supposed to mean?" Lisa's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Nothing," Ranma dismissed, unconcerned. "Doesn't mean a thing. Just so 
you remember, I'm in command of the aircraft."

Ranma climbed into the cockpit and set about securing her restraints as 
a chief assisted her by hooking up the leads from her flight suit and 
helmet that would form the neural link to the aircraft. Lisa was doing 
the same.

"You're all set, Lt. Commander," the chief said.

"Thanks Chief," Ranma said and hit the button to close the canopy. She 
ran though the preflight checklist as the Cat's Eye was pushed to the 
elevator and lifted to the deck. Finishing the list as the elevator 
reached the flight deck; she began the start up sequence for the 
aircraft's engines. "Let me know when you've finished your preflight, 
Commander."

"Preflight complete," Lisa said a minute later.

"Roger," Ranma said as she taxied the plane over and began staging on 
the cat. The cat crew did their thing and soon Lieutenant Flynn was 
giving Ranma the spool up signal. Ranma throttled the engines up and 
asked, "You ready, Commander?"

"I'm ready," Lisa replied and placed her hands on the assist handles on 
her windscreen frame to keep them from striking something inadvertently 
during the launch.

Ranma gave Moira the thumbs up and grabbed her own assist handle. Flynn 
gave the signal and the shooter released the cat, launching the recon 
craft into space where the rest of Wild Rose Alpha Flight awaited them 
to fly escort.

(oO\O/Oo)

"Longview 4, Wild Rose escort, I have six battle pods, inbound, 10 
o'clock relative," Lisa announced.

"Roger, Stick and I will take care of them," Vicki acknowledged. "Fury, 
stay with the Cat's Eye." Vicki and Max broke formation and streaked 
toward the incoming Zentradi.

"Wild Rose 2, break formation and go help them, we can look after 
ourselves," Lisa said.

"Ah, Ma'am?" Akane asked.

"Um...Commander," Ranma said, "Wild Rose is based on a four plane flight 
and they are used to flying with one wingman as opposed to the new three 
plane flight with two wingmen."

"Yeah so?" Lisa said. "Are you saying your pilots can't do it?" Ranma 
sighed.

"It's alright, Fury," Ranma said. "We can handle things here."

"Roger, Ma'am," Akane said. "Wild Rose 2 breaking formation and engaging 
the enemy."

"Commander, you had better hope that one of my pilots doesn't get hurt 
because you ordered them to use an unfamiliar formation," Ranma said.

"Is that a threat, Lt. Commander Saotome?" Lisa asked dangerously.

"No, it's an observation," Ranma replied calmly. "Because you're going 
to have to live with the consequences." They continued on in silence as 
the dogfight raged some kilometers away.

"SDF-1, Longview 4," Lisa said. "We are nearing position and are 
initiating data link."

At that moment several things happened. Lisa picked up the signature of 
one of the enemy capitol ships and Ranma spotted four battle pods 
jumping them from behind a large piece of debris. She began evasive 
maneuvers as enemy fire began to come in. Ranma brought them around and 
fired the defensive lasers to keep the battle pods at bay as she angled 
away from the larger ship. Unfortunately she hadn't counted on the large 
chuck of debris, nearly four times the size of the Cat's Eye that had 
collided with the hull of the large enemy ship and was sent hurtling 
into their flight path.

"Son of a..." Ranma snarled as she caught sight of the rock.

Ranma evaded as much as she could but it wasn't enough. The Cat's Eye's 
large sensor array struck the hurtling rock and was torn free. The 
impact ripped Ranma's seat from its mountings and slammed her faceplate 
into the glareshield above the instrument panel shattering the strong 
transparent polycarbonate material and knocking Ranma out. As the 
structure holding the sensor disk was wrenched and twisted, one of the 
coolant lines for the defensive lasers ruptured inside Ranma's cockpit 
and sprayed hot fluid into Ranma's shattered faceplate. Miraculously, 
the abused cockpit maintained its integrity and held pressure.

"Ranma?" Lisa said, dazed from the impact. "Ranma? Are you okay?" There 
was no answer. "Ranma! Answer me!" Lisa said starting to panic as she 
still got no response. Then she remembered that she could call up the 
crew vitals on the status display. Hoping that the system still worked 
she brought up the display and breathed a sigh of relief. Ranma was 
still alive. Lisa concluded that she had been knocked out.

Her relief was short lived however when she heard a crunch and realized 
that they had been captured and were being taken to the large Zentradi 
warship.

"Hold on Commander, we're on our way," Vicki said over the comm.

"Negative," Lisa said. "Get out of here, save yourselves. We're done."

"Negative, Commander," Vicki said.

"That's an order, Wild Rose 3," Lisa said.

"Well, you'll just have to bloody well charge me when we get you back to 
the ship," Vicki said flippantly, "'cause you got our CO in there with 
you and we're bloody well going to rescue both your sorry carcasses."

Lisa sighed and wondered, 'Why is it those headstrong idiots never 
listen to me?'

"Commander, how is Mom?" Akane asked.

"Unconscious, I think, Wild Rose 2," Lisa responded. "I'm still getting 
good vitals for her."

The Cat's Eye was brought into a landing bay and placed on the floor, 
and then all hell broke loose as three pink and white battloids burst 
into the bay and began to lay waste to the enemy forces there. The enemy 
retreated into the ship and the Earth forces found themselves locked in 
the bay.

"Status," Vicki called.

"I'm almost out of ammo," Akane said.

"I'm getting pretty low too," Max said.

"Alright, Commander, let's get you out of there," Vicki said as she came 
over and ripped the cracked canopy off Lisa's cockpit. She held out her 
battloid's hand to let Lisa climb out on to it but before that could 
happen the door flew open and a larger than average Zentradi charged in 
and knocked Vicki's battloid skidding across the deck into the wall.

The Zentradi turned and received a punch to the jaw by Akane's battloid 
fist. The large Zentradi stumbled back a few steps and Akane stayed on 
him. They grappled, hand to hand, in a contest of strength. Slowly, 
Akane was losing, but she had a few tricks yet.

"Hey Stick, fire your missiles into the ceiling above me," Akane said.

"Okay, sure," Max said and fired, blowing a hole in the side of the ship 
and opening the compartment to space.

Akane rolled back, pulling the Zentradi with her and planted a foot in 
his gut. As her battloid's back hit the floor, she kicked up with her 
leg at the same time as she fired the foot thrusters into the Zentradi's 
belly. The Zentradi flew up and out the hole into space.

Meanwhile the cabin pressure was being sucked out into space as well, 
carrying with it whatever wasn't bolted down. This included Lisa who had 
managed to release her seat restraints and climb out of the Cat's Eye. 
As she sailed up toward the hole she was caught in the hand of Vicki's 
battloid.

"Gottcha, Commander," Vicki said.

"Thanks," Lisa said relieved as the alien ships hull sealed itself.

"Yeah, well, Mum would never forgive me if I let anything happen to her 
beloved, right," Vicki chuckled.

"In that case, you should have let me go," Lisa said glumly. "She 
probably would have given you a commendation since I'm sure she hates 
me."

"Hates you?" Vicki chuckled. "Don't be stupid, Commander. The only 
person Mum hates is herself for hurting you. Now let's see about getting 
her out, shall we. Fury, Stick, see about cutting through the airlock 
with your lasers, what."

"Roger," Akane and Max said and got to work.

"Oh dear," Lisa said as she climbed up to Ranma's cockpit.

"What's wrong?" Vicki asked.

"Her faceplate has been broken out," Lisa said. "And it looks like she 
was sprayed with HOT coolant." Lisa hoped that Vicki caught the 
implications since the other two weren't in the circle of people that 
knew.

"Bloody hell," Vicki cursed. "So now what? We can't exactly open this 
compartment to escape if her P-suit's been compromised."

"Well, just have to stuff her in your cockpit," Lisa said pragmatically. 
"You can fly hand's free right?"

"Sure," Vicki said. "I guess that'll work. Let's get her out first."

However, at that moment, the large Zentradi that Akane had thrown out 
the hole somehow managed to not only survive the vacuum but also found 
his way back on the ship. He descended from above them delivering a 
crushing blow to the head of Akane's battloid. Akane mule kicked the 
Zentradi and turned to face him, only to be caught in a flying tackle.

As the two wrestled on the ground, more Zentradi troops charged in and 
began to fight with Max and Vicki. Soon, three Zentradi soldiers had 
Vicki's battloid pinned and the large Zentradi had tossed Akane against 
some spikey projections sticking out of the wall of the bay. The spikes 
had pierced her veritech and pinned her to the wall. As the big Zentradi 
began to rip Akane's veritech apart, Akane ejected.

The large Zentradi leapt up and caught Akane out of the air. Max, seeing 
this threw off the soldier that was fighting him and shifted to guardian 
mode, rushing over to try to save Akane. However, as he did so, Akane's 
veritech exploded, blowing the large Zentradi away from Max's attack and 
blowing a hole in the side of the ship. The resulting rush of pressure 
leaving out of the hole and Max's own momentum sucked him out into space 
before the ship sealed itself.

(oO\O/Oo)

Ranma groaned, slowly coming to. Something wasn't right. Slowly that 
something made itself known as a dull crushing ache between Ranma's legs 
and a general feeling of wearing clothes that are a couple sizes too 
small all over. 'I'm in guy form,' Ranma thought to himself.

"Oh thank god you're awake," a voice said from above him.

Ranma looked up into the scared and concerned face of Lisa and realized 
his head was pillowed in her lap.

"I was so worried," Lisa said as tears began to build in her eyes. "When 
you didn't answer me I thought you might have been d...dead and I never 
got to tell you I'm sorry and that I still love you." The tears began to 
flow as she stroked his hair.

"It's okay, Lisa," Ranma croaked. "I'm okay. And I love you too. 
Um...what happened?"

"We were captured by the Zentradi," Lisa told him. "Apparently, you were 
knocked out in the collision with the chunk of rock and your face plate 
was shattered. A coolant line also ruptured in you cockpit and caused 
your change."

"Remind me never to change in a flight suit," Ranma groaned and tried to 
adjust himself to ease the pressure on his currently crushed groin.

Lisa snickered a little at the absurdity of the situation. She had 
earlier unzipped the top of his flight suit so he could breathe a little 
easier and nearly broke into sobs. When she had done that she saw his 
dog tags lying on top of his sports bra. Next to them, hanging from the 
chain was both their engagement rings. She reached out and stroked them.

"You kept them here?" Lisa said.

"Yeah, close to my heart," Ranma said. "You can have yours back if you 
want."

"Please?" Lisa said with a tearful smile.

Ranma undid the chain and pulled Lisa's engagement ring off it, passing 
it to her. She quickly slipped it on and leaned down to kiss him.

"I'm so sorry for what I said," Lisa said. "I have no right to ask you 
to forgive me."

"You don't have to ask," Ranma said. "I forgave you as soon as you 
walked out. It was myself that I couldn't forgive for hurting you."

"You were right though," Lisa said. "About everything. I do let my ego 
get me into trouble and put others at risk. As much as what you said to 
me hurt, I needed to hear it. It didn't really penetrate though until I 
thought I had gotten you killed. If I hadn't sent Akane after the 
others, we wouldn't have been captured."

"Still, I was too harsh with you," Ranma said. "I was PMS'ing and I knew 
I was being mean but I couldn't back down. I just had to make my damn 
point. I'm sorry for that."

"I needed you to be harsh with me," Lisa smiled sadly. "It was the only 
way to penetrate the righteous indignation I was feeling. I felt so 
betrayed when you defended Hunter and told me I was wrong over the 
Tac-net. All I could think about is how stupid you made me look." She 
shook her head sharply. "How gaddam selfish I am. All I was worried 
about was looking foolish when I should have been worried about the 
lives I had put at risk. I deserved your harshness." Ranma reached up 
and wiped her tears away.

"I love you," he told her gently.

"I love you too," Lisa said back.

"You two are so bloody sweet I'm going into sugar shock here," Vicki 
said from off to the side.

Ranma's eyes widened and he looked over and saw Vicki seated next to 
Akane, who seemed to be brooding about something. From the way she 
refused to look at him, he could guess about what. Ranma sighed heavily.

"Max?" Ranma asked.

"Escaped, we think," Vicki said. "I saw him get sucked out a hole in his 
veritech." Ranma nodded.

"So anybody have a plan?" he asked.

"Not as yet," Lisa said.

Ranma sat up and groaned, his hand going to his head as he paused to let 
things quit spinning. When things settled he immediately felt the strong 
need to tend to another problem.

"Excuse me," he said climbing to his feet and stepping to the opposite 
side of the enclosure they were in. Unzipping his flight suit all the 
way he stuck his hand down his underwear and unkinked himself, breathing 
a sigh of relieve as he did so. Zipping back up partially, he turned, 
blushing sheepishly. "Um...sorry. It was really painful being folded in 
half like that."

Lisa and Vicki giggled while Akane ignored him.

"I take it you've told her?" Ranma said, gesturing to Akane.

"Yeah, the poor girl didn't take it too well that the girl she viewed as 
her idol and has a crush on turns into a guy," Vicki said.

Just then Akane stood up and looked at Ranma.

"It's you," she accused with narrowed eyes. "You're Genma's son. You're 
the one that he said betrayed him and set him up to get captured by 
those Amazon's."

"Yes, I was Genma's son," Ranma said. "No, I did not set him up. He 
stole their food all on his own. I just refused to fight them for him. 
He had just caused me to lose my manhood in those stupid springs and as 
far as I knew he had taken my dream of going into space from me as well. 
I'll be goddammed if I was going to suffer for him anymore. So yeah, I 
left him to their justice. I left him there and got away from him before 
he fucked my life up any worse. Not that I could think of how at the 
time, but I wasn't willing to take that chance anymore."

"So what kind of pervert goes around pretending to be a girl?" Akane 
sneered. "Did you get off on watching us in the shower? Did that do it 
for you, pervert?"

"I was not pretending," Ranma hissed. "I haven't been a guy in a long 
time. Unlike Genma's curse, I can't just change back with warm water. It 
takes boiling water to change me to male. Ever tried to intentionally 
pour boiling water on yourself? Believe me it ain't fun. So what choice 
did I have? Tell me Akane? What choice did I have but to make a life for 
myself as a woman? It was either that or die. Dying would have been 
admitting I was too weak to face life as a woman. So I chose to live my 
life as a woman, so that I could use my skills to help people. Anyway, 
who the hell are you calling a pervert. As I recall, it was you that was 
caught taking advantage of me when I was passed out drunk that one time. 
So Akane, do you get off on watching me and the other women shower?"

"You bastard!" Akane screamed and attacked with a haymaker.

Ranma stepped aside and planted his fist deeply in her gut. Akane folded 
over, coughing and collapsed to the floor.

"Not fun when someone makes accusations based on something you have no 
control over, is it Akane?" Ranma said to her as she knelt on the floor 
holding her gut. "I can't control the fact that I change sexes. But 
please try to understand, I have lived my life as a woman for the last 
nearly seven years now. I'm no longer a man, though I have a male body 
sometimes." Ranma continued to explain to her about the effects of the 
curse and how the only social education he'd ever had was as a woman. He 
explained that he was now more comfortable as female and that his male 
body was no longer his true form.

"You bastard," Akane growled. "It's all your fault I had to leave my 
family and give up being the heir to the dojo."

"How do you figure that?" Ranma asked stunned.

"If you hadn't run away from your father you would have been my 
fiancée," Akane said angrily. "My father wouldn't have tried to engage 
me to that sick pervert, Kuno and I wouldn't have had to leave to get 
away from them."

"Yeah, like you would have been any happier being engaged to someone 
that changed into a guy," Ranma said. "Don't blame me for your 
situation. I didn't even know you then. It was all your father's greed. 
I got out before my father destroyed my life. It seems to me you made 
the same choice I did, so don't go condemning me for doing the same 
thing you did."

"Mum's got you there, Love," Vicki said. "Look, all of us original Roses 
know about the...condition. Some of us took it badly and we made Mum 
prove herself by entering the Miss Macross pageant to prove she was 
really committed to being a woman. Who knew she would have won? Anyway, 
we've all accepted her as the person we came to know and trust. And if 
we don't mind being in the shower with you, then why should we mind 
being in the shower with her? Unlike you, we've never caught her 
checking us out." Akane blushed deeply, having been caught with her eyes 
on the cookie jar.

"Heh, yeah," Lisa said. "Ranma is so NOT perverted that I practically 
had to rape her the first time. Of course, after that she was much more 
willing." Now Ranma was blushing.

(oO\O/Oo)

Dictionary of Acronyms and other Jargon

2IC--Second In Command

AMRAAM--Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missile

APU--Auxiliary Power Unit

ATC--Air Traffic Control

AWACS--Airborne Warning And Control System

BDU--Battle Dress Uniform (fatigues)

BOQ--Bachelor Officer's Quarters

CAG--Commander, Air Group

CAP--Combat Air Patrol

CAS--Close Air Support

CBU--Cluster Bomb Unit

CO--Commanding Officer

ETA--Estimated Time of Arrival

GBU--Guided Bomb Unit

HARM--High speed Anti-Radiation Missile

INOP--Inoperative

JSDF-- Japanese Self Defense Force

LAV--Light Armored Vehicle

SAM--Surface to Air Missile

SDF--Super Dimensional Fortress

UNEDF--United Nations of Earth Defense Force

UNEDC--Untied Nations of Earth Defense Command

RDF--Robotech Defense Force

XO--Executive Officer (second in command)

Angels in reference to altitude is a navy thing, and is a way of saying 
flight level, which basically means adding three zeros on the number for 
the altitude reference. (JRA)

Port--left

Starboard--right

Onwards to Part 18


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