Standard disclaimer applies. I'm doing this for free, unlike the hundreds of authors who couldn't write a good story if their lives depended on it and yet get paid more than I'll ever make in the course of my entire life. Sheesh.

Chapter 5
Crusade of the Lost Hunter
**********************************************************************************

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Rayden held up Arak by the front of his shirt, shaking the smaller man furiously.
Arak managed a weak smile. "C-c'mon man, I made a mistake. It could have happened to anyone!"
Rayden glared down at him, though he actually accepted the statement as a valid excuse. Arak knew very well that Rayden wasn't going to hurt him, but his angry stare was still unsettling.

Ranma sighed nearby, then looked at one of the masses of fried electronic devices. His ship was a wreck.
"All right Arak, we forgive you. However, please note that both our systems failure and the fact that we're currently under siege by both Shade and the Galactic police are both YOUR fault. So naturally, you get to stay here and repair the ship while Rayden and I go explore the nearby towns. Got it?"
Arak lowered his head and grumbled incoherently. Getting the job of fixing the ravaged Wild Horse while Ranma and Rayden went out drinking was certainly no fun.
"Fine. I'll get the power grid up and running, but beyond that, you know there's not much more I can do."
Rayden nodded. "Yeah yeah, it's up to me to patch up that huge gouge in the hull. Just get your job done, okay?"

Ranma and Rayden left the strategy room, then stopped at the entry hatch of the Wild Horse. Ranma made a gesture with his finger, and one of Rac's floating sphere drones hovered up to him.
"What's the status on this place, Rac?"
The drone let out a strange click, then answered in Rac's automaton, monotone voice.
"WE HAVE LANDED ON KEERYU, THE SECOND PLANET OF THE TIAR SYSTEM. MINERAL RESOURCES ARE SCARCE, AND THE PLANET IS CURRENTLY USED FOR SETTLEMENT PURPOSES. TECHNOLOGY IS LIMITED, AND THE PLANET CURRENTLY HAS NO ORBITAL DEFENSES OR STATIONS. ATMOSPHERE IS RATHER UNSTABLE, WITH FREQUENT HIGH-ALTITUDE ION STORMS THAT INTERFERE WITH ORBITAL SCANNING. WE ARE CURRENTLY BEING PROTECTED BY ONE SUCH STORM."
Ranma nodded. Rayden spoke up. "What about the orbital blockade?"
"BEFORE WE TOOK COVER UNDER THE STORM, TOTAL COUNT OF ENEMY SHIPS WAS 8 GALACTIC POLICE ASSAULT VESSELS, AND 3 DISGUISED SHADE WARSHIPS, INCLUDING THE STEEL HAWK. WITH THE WILD HORSE CURRENTLY DAMAGED AND ON EMERGENCY POWER, ODDS OF BREAKING THROUGH THE BLOCKADE WITH THE WILD HORSE INTACT ARE SOMEWHERE AROUND 0.00005%. WITH THE CLOAKING DEVICE DOWN, AND THE VERY ADVANCED SCANNERS ON THE GALACTIC POLICE VESSELS, THE ODDS OF SNEAKING PAST THE BLOCKADE ARE EVEN LESS. DO YOU WANT TO HEAR SOME NUMBERS?"
"No thanks, I think you made your point quite clear," Ranma replied in a flat tone.
"Anyway, Rayden and I are leaving now. Notify me if you need to."

They started to leave, but Rayden suddenly turned around and addressed the small floating sphere.
"Oh, and make sure Arak doesn't screw up again? For a genius he can be pretty dumb sometimes."
The sphere beeped appreciatively. "I'LL KEEP A SENSOR ON HIM."
Rayden nodded and left.
__________________________________________________________________________________

Ranma looked around at the surrounding area, his mind content and in harmony. He would never admit it out loud, but he actually did prefer a little peace and quiet to scavenging a derelict space cruiser or crushing an enemy fighter squadron.
Rayden, on the other hand, was bored out of his mind, ceaselessly chewing on his sandwich and hoping for an explosion or something. To him, every moment of peace and quiet was a moment you could've spent somewhere else.

And so they walked through the streets of the small city, making small talk and trying not to think of the life-and-death firefight they had just come out of. Well, Ranma tried not to think about it.
Ranma commented on how bright and colorful the ion storms looked from down below. Rayden commented on how tame they were, since they didn't throw down huge bolts of energy like he'd always seen on the holovids.
Ranma rolled his eyes, then explained very slowly, and sarcastically, the difference between holovid special effects and real life.

And then, as if the heavens themselves were mocking him, a thick stream of blue streaked down and collided with the tallest building in the city, blowing off huge chunks of duracrete and glass as pressure lines broke and ignited, spewing flames throughout that floor of the structure.
Rayden looked at the scene of chaos and destruction for a moment.
"Cool."
Ranma sighed. "It figures. It really does."
A woman passed by, screaming relentlessly. "The embassy is on fire! Somebody do something!"
Rayden stared after her for a moment more, then turned back to Ranma.
"You know what this means, don't you?"
Ranma nodded. "Of course. We can't just stand here and do nothing."
They looked once more at each other for a moment, and then ran off to loot the place.
__________________________________________________________________________________

Huddling in a room surrounded by flames, an executive governer gathered his family, whispering hushed words of assurance that they would get out of this alive.
It was a lie, of course. The only doorway out of the room was covered with fire, completely unaccesible to those that needed it the most.
The governer took one long, last look at his wife and 6-year old daughter, both of them crying in terror as the wall of burning heat crept forward.

And then, as if by some act of God, one of the walls burst inward, spraying dust and plaster out over the nearest flames.
A figure stepped out of the whole, searching the area quickly with his eyes.

Rayden looked around the room quickly, before deciding that the three people in front of him were the only ones still on this floor. He gestured toward them.
"Quickly! Out this way!"
The governer quickly rushed his daughter and wife through the hole, the latter thanking the man very profusely before retreating. The governer was about to follow when a hand stopped him.
"Wait! There might be other people around here. I'll need your wallet to get them out!"
Nodding quickly, the man surrendered his pocketbook and left with his family.
It would be several hours before he regained the mental concentration necessary to ask himself WHY Rayden would need his wallet to save anyone else.

Rayden smirked as the governer left and he pocketed the treasure. What a sucker.
"Well, I've done my good deed for the month. Now let's see what's in that safe."

Rayden walked toward the small steel box, totally unconcerned with the raging fire that surrounded him. A few quick hops and he was over the worst of it, and he could weather the rest.
He grabbed the safe, tore off the door, and was rewarded with a number of expensive jewelry pieces and a few wads of credits. Pocketing the valuables, Rayden beat down the wall before him with his fists, breaking his way into the next room.
'God I love my job.'
__________________________________________________________________________________

Ranma smashed the desk to pieces with a single punch, breaking the fire-cracked wood easily. Sifting around in what was left of the drawers, Ranma picked out what papers he could find and quickly shoved them in his pockets while he searched for valuables.
His eyes eventually found their way to a small box lightly covered in velvet, and he picked it up, casually wandering away from the fires as they engulfed the desk and what remained of its contents.

Ranma opened the small box, and raised an eyebrow.
"Well well. A wedding ring. Real Gornan's Eye, too. Must be one lucky lady."
Smiling, Ranma took the ring out of its case, and threw the container back into the raging flames.

Ranma walked up to the wall seperating him from the next room, still observing the piece of jewelry.
Breaking out into a grin, Ranma got on one knee, then slowly looked up into the eyes of an invisible companion.
"Mi'lady, I would be greatly honored if you would consent to marry me. Please, let our love last for-"
"HEY!! Can't you two find a better time to do something like that?!"

Ranma nearly stumbled at the sudden interruption, then realized the voice came from the other side of the wall.
"Uh, sorry, it's just me. Are you okay over there?"
The voice didn't respond for a moment, but when it did, it sounded rather angry.
"Am I okay? Am I OKAY?! I'm trapped in the corner of a room surrounded by flames and burning gas on the top floor of a building that's quickly tearing itself to pieces and you're asking if I'm OKAY?!?!"
Ranma winced slightly. "All right, stupid question. Do you need some help?"

Ranma could actually hear the person on the other side of the wall trying to calm down.
"Yes, I could use a little help here."

Ranma shrugged and charged the wall with a barrage of punches, and the reinforced plaster and duracrete crumbled like plywood.
Ranma immediately assessed the situation as "really bad". The fire was everywhere. The room that he was in was a kitchen, and all of the gas lines had ruptured, making the entire room into a maze of flamethrowers. The energy cells that powered the main oven had also burst, bathing the floor of the kitchen in superheated plasma.

And then he saw her. A young woman, maybe a couple years younger than he was, huddling behind a metal table that was angled to deflect the flaming spray of a shattered fuel pipe.
'Hm. Smart kid.' The table was only 10 seconds away from being melted through completely, but it had done its job well. It wouldn't matter much longer, however, as the puddle of hot plasma snaked its way to her exact position.

Ranma quickly decided on a course of action. Whipping out his sidearm blaster from Kami-knows-where, He blasted the same fuel line that was spraying fire at her at a point on the ceiling. A brilliant river of yellow flame flowed from the rupture as the others died,all the fire's fuel being emptied at an earlier point.
Jumping up, Ranma's hand gripped tightly into the ceiling, creating handholds where before there were none. Ranma quickly clambered across the ceiling like a spider, avoiding the raging inferno.
Once he got over to the girl, Ranma quickly dropped from the ceiling. Before the young woman knew what was happening, Ranma scooped her up in his arms and then leapt onto the nearest counter, the fires licking at his legs angrily.
He reached the end of the room in seconds, only pausing to wince from a burn on his thigh. Turning his head, he rapidly located the nearest safe exit, and left the building, just as the primary support beams melted and the titanic structure collapsed in on itself.
__________________________________________________________________________________

Once outside, after avoiding the falling debris and rubble, Ranma laid the girl out on the ground, her form still trembling from the near-death experience.
She was actually quite beautiful, with long emerald green hair and a slim figure, complimented by soft blue eyes.
Ranma moved her skirt up her legs to check her for burns, and she felt like her cheeks had lit up hot as the inferno she had come out of. She hadn't gotten a good look at him before, and being fussed over by a handsome young man just held... a certain appeal to it. So she obediently stayed put, trying not to blush too much as he ran a hand over her leg.

"Well, there's no serious burns. After we get some cold water on you, you'll be fine."
Ranma flashed her a smile, and the she nearly felt her heart stop. She tried to reply, to thank the man or to ask for his name, but she suddenly found that her mouth had gone dry. She licked her lips and was about to try again, but suddenly the man jolted upright, startling her, and looked around himself frantically.

Ranma nearly went into a panic. He had been so occupied with making sure the girl was alright, he hadn't even noticed that he was in the middle of a crowd of people. Naturally, with the building he had just escaped from burning down, he should've expected the scene to attract a crowd. When you were on the "top ten most wanted criminals in the galaxy" list, it was generally a bad idea to attract this much attention, especially when you were right in the middle of commiting a crime.
Ranma picked a direction, and was about to flee, when a padded microphone was suddenly shoved in his face, and an attractive female reporter materialized in front of him.

"Such courage in the face of danger! This man has risked his life to save the ambassador's daughter! Tell me, what were you thinking when you were braving the widespread inferno?"
Ranma stared blankly at the woman, with his mouth hanging half-open.
"Uhhh..............."
"Were you in the building when the fire started?"
His mind still reeling and panicking, Ranma subconsciously latched onto something he could grasp.
"Er... no."
The woman grabbed his arm and spun him around, so that he could clearly see a large camera and a small operating crew pointing straight at him. He froze up like a deer in the headlights.
"INCREDIBLE!!! Risking certain death, this man actually rushed into the building to save any survivors!"

All over the settlement, at exactly the same moment, about 400 different police officers watching the news spit out their drinks upon seeing who was on it.

The woman spared him a respectful glance. "I must say, on behalf of all of Keeryu, that our colonies need more people like you!"
"Ah... uh... er..."
Ranma stuttered, his mind having long past gone from panic to outright hysteria.
"May I ask, sir, what is your name?"
The girl he had rescued walked up beside him, also curious as to who her savior was.
Ranma twitched. The reporter, not having gotten any kind of answer, passed her hand back and forth in front of his face, to absolutely no effect.

Then, like a beacon of light in the middle of a foggy ocean, an opportunity to escape came.

Ranma pointed toward the still crumbling building, and towards a figure just emerging from it.
"Hey look! Someone else is coming out!"
Everyone immediately turned toward the new figure, and Ranma bolted. The girl, seeing her savior attempting to escape, decided to follow him.

Rayden pulled himself out of the building's remians, cursing every god he knew of for the structure collapsing while he was still inside. He had just gotten his bag of treasures out of the debris pile, when he felt the stares of a crowd of spectators.
He didn't even get the chance to turn around fully before the reporter was upon him.
"Sir! It would appear that you too have braved the fires of the inferno, and escaped unharmed! What was it like to make your way out?"
Rayden blinked at the suddenness of the question, then gave it a bit of thought.
"Well, the hardest part was getting all the stolen valuables out of the building without too much fire damage."
"....................................................."

The reporter, as well as the entire crowd, was totally silent for a moment, merely staring at Rayden blankly.
The heavy-set man snapped his fingers suddenly.
"Oh yeah, that reminds me!"
Rayden reached into his trench coat and pulled out a large cylinder, about three feet long and nearly a foot in diameter. The trigger near the handle of the object, plus the big hole at the end of it, was quite enough to identify it as a weapon, while the metal ring that held several smaller cylinders near the rear end of the weapon was enough to identify it as a grenade launcher.

Rayden pointed the business end of the device at the reporter, who dropped her microphone from her stunned fingers.
"Now, how about you hand over your purse?"
__________________________________________________________________________________

Ranma sighed as he walked down the duracrete road with his hands in his pockets, absently staring at the trees which hadn't been removed for construction yet. The police were probably searching the entire planet for him, so they would have to leave soon.
'Yet another planet I can never go back to again. Not that we could've stayed here long anyway.'
Ranma let out another heartfelt sigh.
'Sometimes I wonder if it's all worth it... the stealing... the killing... is it all worth it for a bunch of bank notes?'
He stopped to look at a particularly tall tree, and a smile slowly spread on his face.
'Ah hell, what am I thinking? Of course it is!'
Ranma turned around and prepared to head back to the ship. 'I knew the risks when I took the job. It's time for me to stop feeling sorry for myself and-AH!'

Ranma struck out with his arm, and nearly crushed the girl's skull with his reflexive attack, his hand stopping just centimeters from her forehead.
Said girl could do little more than freeze in absolute terror, her mind absently wondering over how much force that strike had behind it.
Ranma sighed and retracted his arm, mentally berating himself for letting the girl get close enough to him to surprise him.

Once the girl seemed to have snapped out of her trance and was breathing normally, Ranma slowly turned to look at her.
"Sorry about that. I get kind of jumpy sometimes. Why'd you follow me?"
The girl blinked, and tried to remember why she followed him, her thoughts trying to pierce the thick cloud of adrenaline reeling in her mind.
"Oh yeah! I just wanted to know who you are. Ya'know, since you saved me and stuff..." she trailed off there, blushing slightly and looking at the ground.
Ranma looked at her, and tried to figure out what she was thinking. However, Ranma had never been good at reading people, especially women, and as such his senses failed to percieve what was obviously the beginning of a full-blown crush.
He sighed. "Name's Ranma Saotome, what's yours?" 'God, please don't let her know that name.'
She beamed a smile at him. "I'm Yuri Xero! Uh, thanks, by the way."
Ranma gave a mental sigh of relief. He didn't need the locals calling for his blood. "No sweat. I'm just glad I got to you in time."

Yuri blushed some more, and her gaze lowered to the ground as they walked down the street. Then something tugged on her memory, and she frowned slightly.
"Ranma Saotome...... I could swear I've heard that name before." She looked up into Ranma's face, trying not to get distracted by how... attractive he was. Shaking her head slightly, she tried to fit his name into some hole in her mind.
Ranma was sweating. Having already found a nice escape path, he was about to bolt when she spun around a put her finger on his nose.
"Ah HA! You're a famous holovid actor, aren't you?!"
*Bam* Ranma facefaulted.
"Ah, no, not exactly."
Yuri put her finger to her lip in thought, then gave up.
"Then I don't know who you are. I was so sure though! I mean, with your looks, you could easily be an actor!"
Ranma sweatdropped. Once Yuri realized she had said that last part out loud, she blushed heavily and tried to change the subject.
"Uh, well...... yeah, I think I heard your name from my dad..."
Ranma looked at her for a moment. "Your dad? The ambassador, right?"
Yuri nodded. "Right. Ambassador Xero. Have you ever met him?"
Ranma shook his head. "Nope. Isn't he the one that got fried trying to put the moves on some oni girl at a diplomatic conference?"
Yuri winced, all too aware of the only act of her father's that had gained any real publicity.
"Well, yeah, but he is a bachelor, and he swears that he thought she was flirting with him first......"
Ranma grinned. "Don't let it get to ya. We all make mistakes, and-look out!!"

Yuri looked up in question at that last comment, before Ranma gently pushed her to the side. She looked back to see a large metal cylinder fly into Ranma's palm, right before he swung around, keeping his hand in a wide arc, and tossed it back in the direction it came from with no loss in momentum.
After discarding the projectile, he quickly gathered up Yuri in his arms, and dove for cover behind one of the duracrete housing bunkers right before an explosion went off.

Yuri glanced up at him fearfully as he held her tightly against the wall of the bunker.
"Was that a-"
"Fragmentation grenade, maximum yield." Ranma replied, not taking his eyes off the corner of the house.
'That's heavy-duty stuff. Definitely military level. But the officials would never use military in the middle of a residental area, so that must mean it's......'

As if to confirm his thoughts, a 13 foot tall mech landed in front of the pair, jump jets blazing. It landed facing opposite them, and quickly tried to turn around to bring its weapons to bear. Painted in bright blue letters across the calf of the machine was Shade.
"Yuri, get out of here!" Ranma yelled as he charged the machine.
Yuri's eyes widened in shock, not only because they were currently under attack by heavy assault units, but also because Ranma had actually charged one of those units while unarmed.
The pilot wasn't much better, except that his was derived more from the confidence that there was no way that this man could possibly harm him behind the thick plates of ironix shielding his body.
Ranma gave the armored trooper 8 swift kicks in different parts of his armored suit, then turned back to Yuri.
"C'mon, get out of here!"
Yuri stared at the mech, idly wondering why it hadn't fired yet. "But what about-"
"Don't worry about me! But things'll be getting ugly soon, and I don't want any bystanders getting hurt!"
Yuri looked at Ranma for a moment, then nodded and scrambled into the bunker.

Inside the mech, the pilot was now quite frustrated. This frustration stemmed from many sources: society, government, the state of the current economy, his less-than-satisfactory paycheck; but mostly from the fact that the jerk that he was sent here to kill had managed to trash all major power junctions to the limbs of his mech, making him completely helpless, and the stupid cretin didn't even use a weapon!
Smashing the comm button in frustration, he spoke into it hastily.
"I need some backup here! Get over to me!"
The comm was silent for a moment, then a voice spoke up.
"We gotcha covered! Which direction are you headed in?"
The pilot winced, then spoke. "I 'aint goin' nowhere now! Get over here!"
Another voice came from the speaker.
"If you're not pursuing him, which way is he headed?"
The pilot growled. "He's not headed anywhere either! He's right here! Come and get 'im!"
"But we don't see any explosions or weapons discharges... where are you?"
"I'M RIGHT HERE WHERE I LANDED MORON!!!"
"Er... then why aren't you shooting at him?"
"IF I COULD I WOULD, BUT I CAN'T, SO GET OVER HERE BEFORE I DEMOTE YOU TO PRIVATE!!!!!"
"But I'm already a private, and so are you, so you couldn't demote me even if I-"
*Crash* *Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt*
His comlink destroyed, the pilot of Mongol 07 proceeded to take out his frustrations upon his mech's internal systems.

Outside the helpless piece of battle armor, Ranma took out his blaster rifle and held his position right in front of the heavy machine, ready to jump behind it if he ever needed to use the hulk of ironix as a shield.
He was surprised when he suddenly heard explosions, and wondered just what was going on. If they weren't shooting at him, that meant that either they had met up with the planet's ground forces, the Galactic Police's ground forces, or......
Ranma jumped up on top of the housing bunker, abandoning the powerless fighting machine. Looking around the area, he quickly spotted the orangish-red liquid clouds that marked the presence of plasma grenades. Fortunately, they were at Shade's end of the battlefield.
Firing off the superheated explosives was Rayden, crouched next to what used to be an agricultural station. He was cornered, but he was also taking down an armored suit with nearly every shot. The tanks were more of a problem, since they didn't have any joints to burn off. Either way, Ranma was sure his friend wouldn't last long if nobody intervened.
The powered armor was low-quality, but still effective enough for battlefield use. Mongols had the standard light assault mech chassis, with backward-bent knees and armored thighs and calves for the legs, and a laser cannon and powered claw on the arms. They were also equipped with shoulder-mounted fragmentation grenade launchers, obviously for anti-infantry use.

Quickly scanning the area to make sure that there were no soldiers around to shoot at him, Ranma took aim and fired into one of the armored troopers. The pilot never knew what hit him as a spear of white energy stabbed into the ammo supply of his grenade launcher and exploded, sending much of the arm with it.
A few soldiers turned to attack the newcomer, when a plasma grenade completed its arc right into their midst, blowing a huge gouge in one and effectively stunning the others. Ranma disabled the energy cannon on another of the mechs with a quick laser shot, but didn't get the chance to take advantage of the others when he was forced to jump off the roof of the bunker.

The thermal detonator hit the roof right where Ranma had been standing, bouncing twice before exploding and sending up a shower of duracrete.
Ranma looked around the area calmly, trying to find where the object had originated from. Thermal detonators were far more expensive ordinance than grenades, which meant that whoever, or whatever was wielding them wasn't some wanna-be rookie.

"Hyah!"
The shout came from behind him, and acting on reflexes that had taken years to hone, Ranma leapt up and kicked downward, knocking his airborne assailant down into the crater that his weapon had made.
Ranma assessed his attacker as the man got up, an expression of pure rage on his face.
'Hmmm. Fangs. Black and gold armor. Bandanna. Black hair. I think I've seen this guy before, but where? Whoever he is, he's got guts coming on to me with no power armor or nothing.'

"So what, now Shade's sending in the commandos?"
Ryoga looked at his prey furiously, then slowly let a smile play across his features.
"If only you were so lucky! This is the end Ranma!"
Ranma gave him a flat stare.
"The end. Really. Well, I must say, you really don't look like the type to take me down so easily, and I don't see no army or battle fleet behind you."
Ryoga stood up fully and dusted himself off.
"I don't need one! I'll kill you by myself! You'll pay for what you've done to me!"
Ranma frowned at this. He may have had an infamous reputation, but he always liked to keep all personal vendettas to a minimum.
"What, did I capture a ship that you were protecting or something? Who are you anyway?"
Ryoga snarled and charged at him, a vibroblade emerging from his arm gauntlet as he stuck his hand forward to slice into his opponent.
"I'M RYOGA HIBIKI, AND NOW YOU DIE!!!"
Ranma's eyes widened, and he jumped over the charging bounty hunter, giving him a kick in the back while on his descent.

"Now I remember, Ryoga Hibiki, from flight school! How ya been, big guy?"
Ryoga recovered from the kick instantly, then turned around as he pulled a sidearm from his belt.
"Miserable, thanks to you!"
Ranma danced and twisted around the blaster bolts, not terribly impressed by the larger man's aim.
"What's wrong, did ya get lost and end up on the wrong planet again?"
Ryoga put his blaster away and extended his arm blade again, then closed in with Ranma. Ranma just barely managed to keep out of reach as Ryoga swung wildly at him.
"Hey, what are you so mad at me for?"
Ryoga growled at another near miss.
"Shut up and let me kill you!"
Ranma flipped over a vertical swing and brought his foot down in a somersault kick right on Ryoga's head.
"Is this about how you missed graduation because I couldn't find you in time to lead you there? You know I tried, man!"
Ryoga swung at Ranma's neck, only to have his target duck and then give him an uppercut to the jaw before backing off.
"Or is this one of those 'rival' things where you have to kill me because I always did better than you did?"
Ryoga's right gauntlet opened up to reveal some sort of weapon with a horizontal slot barrel, and the Lost Hunter aimed it at his bounty.
"This is for everything! Every single little thing you've ever done to humiliate me or make my life miserable!! DIE!!!"
Ryoga fired, and a yellow disc of light emerged and whizzed by Ranma, only to slice right through another duracrete bunker behind him.
Ryoga kept it up, and Ranma was forced backwards from the deadly projectiles.
"This is for the tests that I failed because I got lost and was never there in time! This is for all the simulator scenarios I lost because I couldn't set the hyperspace coordinates right! For all the lunches I missed!! For the time that I accidentally found my way into the girl's locker room!! For my getting thrown out of the military because I destroyed a few walls getting to the bathroom!! For my girlfriend leaving me!!!"
Ranma sweatdropped as another energy disc flew past his head.
"Er, how is any of that my fault?"

Ryoga actually stopped to consider this, getting more frustrated than ever as he failed to make any logical connections in his mind. Then his mind's admittedly rusty gears made a slow turn, and a little light bulb popped into existance over his head.
"Well, it is your fault that Sakura left me! Don't try and deny that!"
Ranma blinked. "What? But she told me that she left you 'cause you stood her up so many times, getting lost and all."
Now it was Ryoga's turn to blink. "What? B-but, I made all our dates on time... at least up until graduation..."
Ranma scratched the back of his head in thought. "Graduation? But when we went out she said that you'd broken up just recently, before the second semester..."
It took exactly 2.08 seconds for Ranma's brain to realize what he had just said, and to whom.
"Eh heh heh heh heh... did I say we went out? I meant when we, uh, studied together! Yeah, that's it!"
*Choo* *Choo* *Choo* *Choo* *Choo* *Choo* *Choo* *Choo* *Choo* *Choo*
Ranma ran as fast he could into the forest, just barely avoiding the hundreds of energy discs and laser blasts trying to dig into his back.
Ranma didn't even dare look back until some of the trees behind him started falling down, attributing Ryoga's wavering aim to the increased distance between them.

Up ahead, Ranma spotted an open area behind a large bush, and leapt over it, heading straight into a clearing......

And right off a cliff.

Ranma barely had time to grab onto a rock jutting out of the cliff face before he had gone completely over the edge, and onto the sharp crags below.
Cursing his rotten luck, Ranma pulled himself up to the ledge, only to be suddenly hoisted up by his flight vest, as something grabbed onto him.
Ranma groaned inwardly as he saw Ryoga's grinning face. Then he gulped inwardly as Ryoga shoved his energy disc projector into his gut, making it clear that any movement would bring him a swift end.

"Well Ranma, you put up a good fight, but it looks like I win anyway."
Ranma glared at him, though he knew there was nothing he could do at this point. Still......
"So Ryoga, what're waiting for?"
Ryoga raised an eyebrow and looked over Ranma's shoulder.
"Oh, I just thought that maybe you'd like to see something important before you die. I really wouldn't be satisfied to just kill you right off the bat, anyway."
Ranma blinked. "Show me what?"
Ryoga held Ranma out over the edge of the cliff, and then gestured for Ranma to look down. Ranma did so, then gasped at what he saw.

The most noticeable thing was a wide trail of blood leading behind one of the larger crags beneath the cliff. The second most noticeable thing was the small group of heavily armed war machines blowing away at the area, making the rock barriers fairly useless as far as shielding went. The third most noticeable thing was Rayden, trying vainly to hide behind the rocks and bleeding all over the place.

Ryoga smirked. "Well well, it looks like you're not the only one that's going down today. At least you'll have company in hell!"
Ranma looked away from the scene below, then jerked his head upward to look at something over Ryoga's shoulder.
"Yeah, I guess I'll see you there."
Ryoga blinked, and was about to look behind him, when something snapped to attention in his mind.
He laughed. "Oh please! Did you really think I'd fall for such a stupid-"
*Scree*
An extremely hot, white bolt of energy shot past Ryoga, continuing forth to stab deeply into one of the tanks below. It exploded immediately, showering metal plates and fragments over its two companions.
The other tanks, as well as the mechs which had stepped onto the crags to kick Rayden around before they finished him off, all focused their attention upward, where they saw the Wild Horse, in all its red, fiery glory, slowly eclipsing the sun as it passed overhead.
The Wild Horse's belly turrets blazed overhead, raining spears of white death upon the Shade forces. The tanks were pierced all the way through to the ground, and their ordinance detonated from the lances of sheer heat, sending metal flying. The armored troopers didn't get off so lucky, being instantly vaporized by the heavy turbolasers.
In seconds, the remnants of the Shade's ground forces had been completely wiped out.

Ryoga's jaw dropped as he watched the units get trashed one by one. Then, very slowly, he turned around, just as the shadow of the legendary light frigate engulfed him.
It was probably just the shock of the occurence, not actually fear, that led him to remove his fist from Ranma's stomach.
But whatever it was, Ranma wasn't about to pass up the opportunity. He kicked Ryoga hard against the jaw, sending the Lost Hunter into a nearby tree. Then he whipped out his blaster, aiming it at his foe.
Ranma grinned. "Well looky here. Looks like my luck hasn't run out quite yet, huh?"
Ryoga was trembling with barely restrained anger, only the knowledge that a well-aimed blaster bolt to the face could just barely kill him keeping him from charging.
Ranma's grin only got wider. "Don't worry about it. I'm not gonna kill ya. At least not like this."
*Bweeooh* *Bweeooh* *Ka-kroom!*
Ryoga's gauntlets exploded, making the weapons they held totally useless.
Ranma pocketed his blaster. "I say we make this a fair fight. Whadd'ya say?"
Ryoga looked at him for a moment, and then started chuckling.
"I'd say that that's the biggest mistake you've ever made! HYAH!!"

Ryoga charged at Ranma, who, to the Lost Hunter's surprise, actually charged back.
What really surprised Ryoga though, was when Ranma fell onto his back and grabbed Ryoga's outstretched fist, throwing the larger man over him and toward the edge of the cliff.
Ryoga just managed to scramble away from the edge and get up, when he was struck 8 times in chest from Ranma's blaster.

Ryoga gritted his teeth against the pain as smoke wafted out of the holes in his armor.
"I though you said this was going to be a fair fight..."
Ranma rolled his eyes.
"Only an idiot expects a pirate to keep his word. Which is probably why I'm not surprised right now."
Ranma popped the battery pack out of the blaster, retrieved another one from his pocket, and slapped it into the weapon.
"You know Ryoga, you made a big mistake back there. Not in attacking me, or trying to kill me, lord knows everyone's tried that..."
Ranma focused a glare on the Lost Hunter, who could only just barely glare back.
"But when you showed me how Rayden was doing and then made that comment about him going down... well that just plain pissed me off."
Ranma looked down, as if contemplating the turn of events. Then he aimed the blaster at Ryoga's chest.
"Don't mess with my friends. They've all I've got. Capeesh?"
*Bweeooh*

Ryoga jolted backward in pain as the lance of energy stabbed into his chest, almost sending him over the edge of the cliff. Then he was sent over, courtesy of a kick to the stomach from Ranma.

As Ryoga plummeted toward the rocks below, Ranma shook his head as he pocketed the blaster.
__________________________________________________________________________________

"HELLO RANMA. WELCOME BACK ABOARD."
Ranma smiled as he helped Rayden into the med room aboard the Wild Horse.
"Thanks Rac. Good timing, by the way. Power systems all up and running?"
"NEGATIVE. POWER IS AT 85%. AUTO-REPAIR SYSTEMS ARE FUNCTIONAL, HOWEVER."
Ranma nodded. "Right. Make sure you get Rayden all patched up, all right?"

A new voice entered the room.
"Oh, so how is it that Rac gets credit for coming to the rescue?"
Ranma smiled at Arak as the smaller man walked into the med room.
"Well, 'cause he's the one with the guns, obviously. How are you?"
Arak looked at Rayden's comatose form.
"In better shape than he's in. Multiple fractures, plasma scarring, tons of energy burns, shrapnel shoved in his face; did he try and take on the planet's entire ground battalion or what?"
There was a groan from the table.
"It sure feels like it......"
Ranma shook his head.
"Rayden, how many times have I told you to fall back when you're outgunned?"
"I did. Problem was, they had those darn guns that seemed to keep aiming right at my back....."
Ranma rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay, just take it easy, all right?"
Rayden groaned again. "Couldn't you at least have taken out the grenade fragment in my leg. It hurts like hell......"
Ranma flinched slightly. "I would have, but I was afraid that it was the only thing holding in the rest of your blood."

Arak closed the lid over the med table, and Rayden's tube started to fill with medical bacta.
"He'll be fine. His regenerative abilities just barely managed to get him through this one alive, though."
Ranma nodded, then looked thoughtful.
"Well, now that our systems are back online, I say we pay our tormentors a little visit."
__________________________________________________________________________________

Up above, in orbit, the Steel Hawk and two other frigates disguised as cargo freighters stood watch over the planet, waiting for a report from their ground forces.
The atmosphere was so tense, that nobody really listened to the guy who thought he saw a big ripple out in space.
They regretted it soon, as the foreboding image of the Wild Horse appeared on their scanners, materializing seemingly from nowhere.
The ships' crews rushed to their battlestations.

2/3 of them never got there, however, as the huge orange tachyon beam that was Arak's aptly named Apocalypse Cannon tore through the hulls of two of the ships, passing through the shields and armor effortlessly as bulkheads were dematerialized into their component atoms.

The crew of the Steel Hawk could only stare in horror at the pure destructive force of the ship.
Unfortunately, this cost them any opportunity to get in a hit for their fallen comrades, as the Wild Horse wasted no time in turning around and escaping into hyperspace.

Also quite unfortunately, the Wild Horse's presence attracted the attention of the Galactic Police forces, who immediately decided to investigate the remaining frigate.

If you happened to be a Shade operative at the time, life just plain sucked.
__________________________________________________________________________________

Over on the Wild Horse, the mood was just a tad more jovial.
"Good work Rac, Arak. How 'bout we get a drink?"

Ranma pulled out some Corellian brandy from a storage housing, and Arak took it.
"I almost feel guilty drinking this stuff with Rayden still being patched back together."
Arak looked at him.
"Almost. Cheers!"

Their celebration was cut short by one of Rac's floating drone spheres, its little red sensor light flashing a warning.
"I REGRET TO INFORM YOU AT THIS TIME, BUT WE HAVE A PROBLEM."
Ranma slapped his forehead. "Great. Now what?"
"I HAVE DETECTED A STOWAWAY ONBOARD."
Ranma's gaze hardened. "Really. And why didn't you notice before?"
"SYSTEMS WERE NOT UP TO FULL POWER. SCANNING WAS CONSIDERED LOW PRIORITY THEN."
Ranma sighed. "All right, bring him here."
"THAT WILL BE DIFFICULT."
Ranma blinked. "Uh, why?"
Then, in answer, a voice sounded through the hallway of the ship.
"All right, all right, I'm going! You don't need to push!"
Ranma's left eye twitched as he realized that he knew that voice.
Arak blinked. "It's a girl."

There, being led into the bridge by Unit 01, was Yuri Xero.

**********************************************************************************

End Chapter 5