I don't think music's a war changing weapon, and understand Romance is something built through mutual trust rather than being solely pushed together by exterior forces.

This is another chapter I had shared nearly a year ago now with my Patty Ron fans, and I am hereby uploading it here. This probably won't be updated again until one or both of my SW stories are finished, my alien/sci-fi muse being wholly fed by them at the moment. Still, it shows how some of the parts of the fleet work even as it introduces a new wrinkle in the galactic scene...

Oh, and it hasn't been betaed. Sorry.

Anyway, hope you all have a Merry Christmas or at least enjoy some time off LOL. And now on with the show!

Chapter 3 Lady Luck Rolls A…

"Sir, we're coming up on our emergence time. Any further orders for the flotilla? That is, if you're not too drunk to know which side is up?" The last words were said caustically as the second in command of the Kursk asked, not quite glaring at the man sitting in the captain's chair.

Smirking unrepentantly behind his beard, Alexei Amasovo went right on singing along with his bridge crew, all of whom were Russians save his second in command. He finished the refrain, then took a long swig from the extremely non-regulation bottle in his hand before answering. "Da, so we are, right on time as always. Dampeners are on, are they not?"

"They are sir, but I have to reiterate you are disobeying Admiral Breetai's orders to come in this close to the sun's gravity well. We were supposed to appear at the equivalent of Pluto's orbit, not Uranus'."

"Da, we were. But then I got to thinking, hmm, I got to thinking that if we saw anything going on in the system, best to be close enough to see and react if we wished to." The man smirked again at his second in command, a young Canadian officer who had apparently made a name for himself as a good organizer and people person in the Canadian reserves in the battle of Earth before making the jump to the UHBA.

"You see, the Admiral, he is a good admiral, thinking of the whole fleet. But I, I am old hand at this, yes, this scoop and scoot, I believe I heard an American once put it. You get in close, get the goods, and get away without being seen." Alexei seemed to go off into an odd memory for a moment. "Ah those Ami ships, so slippery, so silent. I could wish Mother Russia had been able to build the like, though of course we could always go deeper than they. But ahh, those days are long gone."

He took another drink from his bottle before going on. "Suffice to say that I know what I am doing. We are scouts, scouts get in close, and if we started that far out, it would take far too much time."

Scouts with very dangerous arrows in our bows, he mused, smirking. The missile ships were about half again the length of the Russian Borey class submarine, and three times the width. They even looked vaguely like their water-going forebears, being diamond shaped at the front with long cylindrical hulls moving back from there. Their hulls were marked by five missile ports along the diamond prow, with another four directly aft, along a large lip which surrounded the main engines, and several small bulges along its hull, part of the design's triple redundancy dampener system.

The lip at the back of the ship kept the 'wake', the energy signature from the engines, of the ship small and only facing the direction the ship came from. And over everything was the incredibly expensive paintjob which was part paint and part Breezonian hull coating, that made the ships look like the space they were passing through. Alexei could all too easily remember the politico's squealing like stuck pigs when they saw how much that coating had cost.

The missile ships came out of hyperspace in formation, disappearing under cloak almost immediately, their dampeners fully active. A ship would have had to be within weapons range to have seen anything from the hyperspace splash, and by the time the splash dissipated the four missile ships had disappeared into cloak. Even the other ships of the First Fleet would have had trouble finding them now.

Mind you, I could wish we could take more punishment. The missile ships were designed to be invisible snipers, they didn't even have any barrier shields in their inventory, and their hulls, while thick, were not nearly tough enough to stand up against an enemy battle line. The tradeoff for that lack of defenses was even more internal space for missiles, and their dampener systems.

The four missile ships spread out using the line of sight laser coms to stay in contact for a time. Not that this mattered to the crewmen themselves, who could be as noisy as they wanted so long as they made no use of radios or other communication devices. Hours went past as Alexei moved around the ship, always drinking, always having fun. Bolstering morale he called it, rabble rousing his lieutenant commander thought it.

Alexei was once more on the bridge as they came close enough to start to make out details of the actual star system. "Four planetoids, one gas giant, three smaller planetoids in the outer edge of the system, visible on this side of the star, which is a Sol type, though larger by sixty-two percent or so. No planets within the life bearing range in sight. If that holds true it would be somewhat strange given the planets in the outer system…" said one of the sensor specialists, looking at the astrological data.

"Sir!" said one of the other sensor specialists. "There's a battle going on out there!"

"Show me." Alexei said, cutting off the song he'd been singing and putting his drink down. The main screen lit up with a tactical screen, showing energy discharges and the explosions of what could only be ships dying deep in system. "Can't get a better read than that sir, the battle data's coming in with light speed lag at this range. We need to move in to get a better idea of who's who, though I can already tell you it's been going on for a while."

"Very well." Before his second-in-command could interject Alexei was barking out orders, no sign of the amount of alcohol he had imbibed evident in his face or voice. As his second-in-command, Alexei hadn't bothered learning his name, gawked the rest of his crew sprang to action themselves. "The pack will shift formation from a sweep into a line, remain using line of sight com lasers. I want each ship in turn to start spreading out along that line as we advance, we will use a string of pearls satellite buoys to keep communication constant between us and leading back to the rest of the fleet. Upload the data we already have to one and prepare to dump it out now. We will update it via the string of pearls when we have new information."

"S, Sir, what are you doing!? We don't know what the hell is going on, we should at least stay as far away from whatever it is until the fleet arrives, the two forces fighting are undoubtedly Zentraedi and Invid."

"Niet." Alexei said crisply. "We have no information about what is going on, that is true, even who is actually fighting. Our mission isn't just to police the area around the fleet, it is to get information commander. And we will do so. Our ships are made for this."

After a moment the man nodded, looking at his commander in a new light. Perhaps I will need to learn his name after all, Alexei mused.

For a few hours the ships continued, spreading out in a line facing into the system towards the battle. Each ship began to drop the small communication satellites moving up on a diagonal slowly now to 'overlook' the battle.

Even spacers sometimes had trouble realizing how vast space was, and that it applied to up and down just as much as around them in a circle. Each buoy was separated by dozens of kilometers and still each ship in turn was nearly out of their hundreds of buoys before they came near enough to see the battle going on in real time. They could have crossed that same distance in an instant, but jumping within a system's gravity well made the hyperspace wake even worse, and they would have been spotted before they could go back into cloak.

And it was a good thing Alexei had decided to get some more information, because while one of the combatants was most definitely Zentraedi, the second did not match anything they had on the Invid. Alexei smiled coldly. "Well it would appear as if the Zentraedi are still in the extermination business." He frowned thoughtfully, then smiled. "Order the Backstrike to remain where they are, the other two will join us on a new route. I think we might be needed in a more combative role soon."

OOOOOOO

Ranma lounged in bed, a smile on his face as he turned on his side to look at the three women who shared his bed, and his heart. I have no idea what I did to deserve this life, but if there is a god out there, I have to say thank you. For all the crap my life's been at times, I can honestly say it was worth it in moments like this. Of course, anyone would think that, being in bed with goddesses such as these three.

He smirked suddenly, cocking his head as he sat up to look down at them . Let's see, Lisa would be Athena, goddess of war, tactics and learning, not just because she is an excellent officer, but because she also is invested big time in the educational side of things. Then Kasumi would be Amaterasu, because she's the center of the family around which we all orbit, and her smile is like the sun coming up, only better. And Miriya would be… Enyo maybe? Goddess of valor and war, from what Shampoo told me about her she's more of the in-your-face kind of war goddess, so it fits.

And me the lowly human trying to be Hercules to be worthy of them. Ranma sighed faintly, looking away from their sleeping faces. He tried to spend time with them all, tried to be there for the kids as often as he could, but with his duties as CAG, and he thought he did a good job. But what if one day I…

"Stop that," Kasumi ordered, her eyes opening as her hands snaked up to grab Ranma by the hair, pulling him down into a deep kiss. When it ended, she smiled into his eyes, her fingers still in his hair. "That was one of those guilty little sighs you sometimes make when you think you are thinking sober thoughts of some sort. Don't. I, we love you and each other, none of us would have entered this relationship if we didn't know that and what the future would hold."

There were murmurs of agreement from Lisa and Miriya, whose arms tightened around Kasumi as she lifted her head off the pillow, her green hair messy and matted from last night's exertions. On his other side Lisa leaned up to kiss his back right between his shoulder blades.

Neither said anything though, as Kasumi kept speaking. "I know you three are mortal, but I also know that you all will come back to me whatever you face, you're too tough, too good for it to be otherwise. So no more maudlin thoughts love, alright?"

Ranma simply nodded, and Miriya tightened her hug around the home owner. "Your vote of confidence is welcome Kasumi," she murmured into the other's ear. Then she smirked at Ranma. "I have no idea why you were having such sad thoughts either. After all if I couldn't kill you when I was fighting on the other side, it should take nothing short of a solar explosion to do the deed especially now, when we all have so much more to fight for."

They all laughed at that, though there was real worry underneath the bravado. All three of the soldiers felt some measure of anxiety heading into real battle again after so long. That they would face war soon was something all of them took for granted, what form it would take was up in the air, but the three humans knew Breetai's statement had made it a practical certainty, and Miriya had slowly been swayed to that belief.

"Come on," Lisa said, slipping out of the bed from Ranma's other side, stretching and cracking her shoulders, smirking as she felt Ranma's eyes rake her naked form. But when he reached for her hips she moved away, shaking her head. "None of that, it's about time the kids get up, and I doubt any of us are ready to have that particular talk just yet."

"Get Nabiki to do it." Ranma replied with a smirk, pulling the covers off Miriya despite her growling protests.

Kasumi didn't protest, merely laying there and watching him move, resplendent in her own nakedness, one hand on Miriya's upper thigh. "Harsh, anata. You know how much trouble I have just to get her over here occasionally. Let's have her do some babysitting first before we try to spring that on her.

"I doubt your sister would be able to handle Eric and Ranko, led alone my Dana, Tenma possibly. He's not nearly as mobile as the others after all." Miriya replied, frowning and turning to get out of bed now that the warm covers were no longer in reach.

By the time they had dressed, the kids were indeed up. Dana was waddling behind Tenma, trying to get him to walk on his own, but the baby wasn't cooperating. Eric and Ranko were in the kitchen, trying to figure out what they could make when Kasumi swooped in on them, sending them packing before they could do too much damage to the kitchen.

Miriya took Tenma from Dana, lifting her daughter to one shoulder as she held the baby in her other hand. "Shall we make a picnic of it with the others?"

"I think that would be a magnificent idea." Lisa replied, smiling. "I'm not due on duty for another six hours so I'm quite happy just lazing about out here." That she would be taking over right before they began to breach the Oort cloud and enter the real system around the star in question was left unsaid.

The day continued from there, with Motoko, Lucretia, Rana and his family, Shampoo and others from the small community coming over bringing food. The day turned into an all day picnic and party which the kids enjoyed, though Eric and Ranko at least realized the adults were worried about something. They responded to this by going out of their way to get in trouble, pulling Rajiv into their antics with ease.

The picnic expanded as the day went on, with more Amazons and Rajputs joining them as the day went on. Though I wonder, Ranma mused at one point, if they should still be counted as two separate groups given how much intermarriage has gone on. Even a few other people joined them, notably Scott Bernard and several dozen men and women from the Macross' crew, both old hands and new. Minmei, and Kim Young both showed up as well. Shampoo was there as well, and for once didn't look irritated when she saw Rana, Rajiv and Tiger together.

But it was the unit patch of the Spartoi that made Ranma think about that right then. The patch was a small circular shield with two sabers, one the cavalry sword of the Rajputs the other the Chinese style saber of the Amazons, crossed over it. The words Forever Free was written on a ribbon of purple underneath the shield. While many Amazons had made the jump to the variable space fighters, more had joined the Spartoi, and been welcomed with open arms (and beds) by the Rajputs under Rana Sanga which dominated that force.

Hopefully they wouldn't be needed in their actual mechs today, but if they were, they would be ready.

Eventually the day began to wind down as people left to change into their uniforms and report for duty. Lisa, Rana, Ranma, Tiger, and Miriya left the festivities at the same time as Kasumi and the other scattered civilians began to chivy the kids along, breaking the party up. Ranma was not surprised to find their kids still outside in the communal park, waiting for their parents. "What's going on dad?" Eric asked bluntly, taking the lead, with Rajiv nodding along with him as Ranko stood silent between them. "You all look a lot more serious than you normally do when you're just doing exercises."

"That's because we're not getting ready for an exercise Eric, we're getting ready to fight for real. We've entered space where the Zentraedi, you remember how we explained how they were different from the Breezonians?" Eric nodded and Lisa went on. "Well, we need to be ready in case we run into them."

"And if we do, we're going to kick some," Ranma began then broke off as Kasumi's smile flickered out of existence and her eyes narrowed. "Rear?"

The other adults laughed and the kids nodded seriously as Ranko held up a fist to her dad. "Kick some booty daddy!"

Ranma grinned, ruffled his kids' hair, and left without another word as did Rana, nodding solemnly at his son. Lisa kissed all the kids on the check, then caught up with him. Ranma's grin remained on his face, though it began to segue into another sort of smile over time, his pulse beginning to slow (that hadn't actually changed, much to a few doctor's surprise, Ranma was still calmer in battle than out of it) and his adrenaline flow as he prepared himself to face combat again after five years of nothing but exercises.

"Into the fires of battle unto the anvil of war." Lisa said softly, her own eyes beginning to glimmer as Rana laughed harshly beside them.

OOOOOOO

Lieutenant Commander Pasqual looked up in irritation as the hatch to the bridge opened again, not ten minutes after Minmei of all people had shown up early to her post, taking her position at communications quickly. His irritation disappeared and he stood up abruptly from the captain's chair. "Captain on the bridge."

"As you were." Lisa said, moving over to her chair, idly noticing that only Pasqual, the tac office and the helmsman had come to attention. Kim waved at her from where she was at the Damage control board, a headset over her head as she got in touch with all of her crews scattered throughout the ship. Minmei did the same from her own post. Amusing to see that it's the girls who are the old hands here, when a bare fifteen years ago the idea would have been laughable.

"I have the con commander," Lisa said formally, returning her XO's salute. "Anything to report?"

"Negative Captain, we're about to exit the last edge of the Oort cloud, and should be within secure communication range of the missile ships in another hour after that." Clifford reported. Though a Vice Admiral and the highest ranking human in the fleet, Lisa was still captain of the Macross, and was addressed as the power after god aboard her ship when she was acting in that role.

"Good. Tactical, I want a double check on our dampeners. Sound general quarters, let's get the civilians moving. I'll want all of the sectors checking in over the next ten minutes. No rush just yet, but I want us ready." Lisa said as she sat down in her chair.

Clifford blinked as Minmei immediately obeyed her command, looking around before shrugging his shoulders and exiting the room. He wasn't about to question Lisa about something like this, even if he could already hear the squalling of the civies if it turned out to be just another drill.

Moments later messenger buoy from one of the scout missile ships was picked up on long-range sensors. A moment later a detailed image of the inner system appeared on the tactical screen and Lisa knew that their worries had been spot on.

The message on the buoy was dated a few hours ago, and it wasn't so much a message as a short record of the missile ship's latest scans with an accompanying text, telling the fleet that the second fleet in the recording was not in the human's databases. Lisa frowned at that, looking at her com screen with the flag bridge. "Admiral Breetai, does this look familiar to you?"

For a moment Breetai simply stared at his own plot, not responding as he hit the replay button, his analytical mind telling him that he was seeing what looked like four skirmish fleets working together against a single enemy fleet. It was the enemy fleet that made Breetai pause, for they were not Invid. No, they were something else entirely.

There were four ship types shown in the missile ship's observations of the unknown fleet. One of those ship types was a fighter class, the equivalent of the human's Valkyries though very different in design. It looked like a squid almost, with half of its tentacles moving back and the other half pointing forward. Small lasers shot out from each of those points, direct fire weapons of course, but if they had missiles it wasn't apparent.

They were also much smaller than most space going fighters, but incredibly maneuverable, able to dance around the Regulds of the Zentraedi fleets. Though of course they didn't have anywhere near the numbers to fight the swarm of battle pods that the skirmish fleets had put into space on an equal footing.

One of the capital ship designs, which seemed as large as his old flagship, made up about a third of the fleet. These ships seemed to resemble a hammer, though they had heads at both ends, the one at the back noticeably smaller. The heads appeared to hold the majority of the weapons systems, while the shafts contained launching ports for missiles and fighters.

The ships making up the majority of the fleet were about half the size of the hammerhead types, and looked like a picture he had seen of an Earth manta ray. Their surfaces were covered with small blisters, which housed their main weapons, mostly energy-based weapons of all sizes. These weapons were the equivalent of Zentraedi Thruvel-Salanweapons, although with much higher output per weapon.

The fourth ship type was even larger than the hammerhead ships. But whereas those ships were built primarily for war, the five ships of this last class seemed to be the equivalent of civilian ships, with very little armament for their size but a lot of armor. They consisted of a roughly spheroid shape, with a built-up central circle connecting to half-spheres, one of which was much more bulbous than the other.

Breetai wasn't able to tell all of this from the missile ships reports of course, with them using only passive sensors that would have been impossible. No, Breetai knew all of that from memory, because he had fought ships like what he was seeing before. And looking at them now, the memories came back with a vengeance.

It had been one of the first campaigns he'd ever commanded that wasn't against the Invid, and even now Breetai would list it as one of the hardest fought. The enemy Admiral had been a wily commander, who understood space combat on a level Breetai himself had yet to reach at that point. If he'd not had such crushingnumerical superiority, Breetai knew he would've lost that campaign.

Defeating that alien and fleet should have been one of the highest points of Breetai's life. Instead it was a dull, aching memory. That race had evolved somehow on gas giants in the life bearing zone of their system. They lived on huge ships riding eddies of the gas giant's atmosphere as if they were islands in a sea.

But they didn't fight from them, they fought out in space, from one edge of the system to the other and when the last of their spaceships had been destroyed, Dolza had ordered the entire planet destroyed, a bombardment that set the gas of the massive world on fire burning the inhabitants of those islands alive. It'd turned the honor of the campaign into ash in Breetai's and for many of his commanders.

Of course after returning to Dolza's fortress the memory had been wiped from their minds but it had returned to Breetai when his indoctrination was broken in the Sol system. Now seeing those ships again, he had to smile. "We didn't win after all, they survived, somehow they survived." he said aloud, getting some very odd looks from the Zentraedi and human com and tactical officers around him in his command center.

When he spoke again however he had thrown off his moment of reflection. Not again, not this time! "All ships battle stations. Drop all dampeners, bring up all sensors I want real-time coms with the scout battleships, and I want it now!"

Seconds later he had it, while on the screen the tactical situation was updated automatically. The scout battleships had closed on one another, now in a curved formation set well above aphelion, with the last joining the other three as he watched. They were well out of beam range, at the edge of their own missile range, and would be firing 'down' on the battle going on. "Commodore, excellent work, keep your ships back for now, but ready missiles."

Before Alexei could reply Breetai had moved on. With a gesture he ordered one of the men to bring up the communications to all the ships. "While this is outside the bounds of what we expected to find, it is well within what we can handle. And while we cannot know at this point whether or not this second force will be friendly, is there any among us does not wish to take the chance to find out?"

He was answered within the affirmative roar from the human commanders, even Lisa voicing it despite her habitual discipline. What they saw was another race in danger of being wiped out just like they had almost been. None of them would stand for that if they could help it, especially Ranma and the other martial artists aboard.

"However, since this battle has already begun and this unknown force is mixed up with the Zentraedi so much, we will be unable to use our siege cannons. I…"

At that point he was interrupted by his wife, Commodore Delmera. "Admiral, the anti-fighter weapons on the battle globes, they haven't been programmed to recognize unknowns as friendly! And what will this new race's response be to our own ships?"

Breetai paled. One of the things that made the Zentraedi's new anti-fighter weapons 'wicked' as Tiger had put it, was they were fully automated, controlled by computer systems programmed to kill anything not broadcasting IFF and mounted on magnetic pintle mounts which could move far faster than any other type. Unknowns like the fighters in the fleet out there would not be recognized as human or Meltraedi built, and come under fire from them.

Worse, our ships outside our battle globes are entirely based on Zentraedi designs. If they see them they will assume the worst. Even if they don't, there's no way to prevent 'friendly fire' issues.

It took Breetai a second to get over his shock, but he quickly came up with a workable plan. "Very well, the battle globes will remain here, with their parasite ships still embarked. Commodore, I want every computer and programmer you have working on the automated guns' programming, I want it reprogrammed to be friendly to unknowns until otherwise proven within the hour."

Ignoring Delmera and the other battle globe commanders wincing at that Breetai went on, tapping a position directly up from where the scout missiles ships were pulling back, with the ongoing battle between the two positions. "The super-carriers will make a micro-jump forward to this position immediately. Commodore Amasovo, I want you and your ships ready to launch missiles in conjunction with the unmanned fighters hitting the battle from the opposite direction."

"The human battleships and the space fortress will micro-jump in here," he said, pointing to a position directly behind where the battle was currently taking place. It looked as if the gas giant dwellers were escaping out system from the gas giant, which was either their new homeworld, or, Breetai hoped, a colony of their empire.

If it wasn't, the Zentraedi might have already wiped out most of their race here. And looking at the tactical data Breetai doubted the aliens would be able to escape the star's gravity well enough to make a long jump. And he remembered they didn't use short jumps very often, their ships were not as energy efficient as even the old Zentraedi style ships were. No, they won't make it, or they wouldn't without our intervention.

Even as he watched another one of their large hammerhead battleships exploded, despite all the maneuvering it could do. If they were facing an enemy that could only match the numbers or even only exceed their fleet by two to one they could win the day, but as it is, they will die quickly at this rate.

"I'll leave your tactics to you Vice-Admiral," he said formally to Lisa. "Be aware that you are not facing a single unified force here, you are facing at best four skirmish fleets, and I doubt they have any training in working command will remain with me but you are in command of the battleships and space fortress along with your embarked parasite forces until the arrival of the rest of the fleet. As soon as you are within communications range, I want you to start sending out translation programs. I want that race to know how to communicate with us, and that your ships are friendly ones."

"Understood Admiral," said Lisa crisply, already devising tactics while nodding to one side to Minmei, who quickly began to pull up the First Contact package.

"We have a chance here, a chance to not only make an ally, but right an ancient wrong." Breetai said softly. "I recognize these ships, I recognize them because my former masters ordered me to destroy them, and we thought we had. I refuse to allow that to happen again. I expect every man and woman in this fleet to do his duty. That is all."

Lisa cut the connection, thinking that for someone who didn't like giving speeches Breetai certainly could condense a lot of emotion into very few words. Seconds later the battleships and super-carriers jumped out to their disparate destinations.

The Macross and the battleships came out of hyperspace directly behind the Zentraedi fleets, almost within firing range already. "Launch fighters." Lisa ordered taking a bare moment to glance at a small image of Ranma as the Macross and the battleships formed into a three-dimensional arrowhead with the Macross at the point.

Her tactical officer reported in crisply. "All weapons systems online, all barrier shields rolling, barrier shields are going active now!" To one side of Lisa a small three-dimensional image of her ship appeared, with points on it pulsing to indicate where the barrier shields were moving.

"Gun crews online," said another officer. "Secondary, tertiary and primary weapons all online."

"First Contact Package sent! All ships reporting combat readiness. Fighters launching." Minmei reported, her voice cracking a little, but still rather more composed than it might have been for a girl facing her first trial by fire. "All battleships report combat readiness."

"All battleships are to wait to fire until our strikes will hit at the same time as our fighters." Lisa ordered, analyzing the tactical screen. "Let's see what happens if we wield a big enough hammer all at once. If these ships really are from four separate scout fleets rather than the remains of a battle fleet, we may be able to break their cohesion rather than give them time to work together."

OOOOOOO

Ranma was the first out of the hangar decks, the rest of his command flying out behind him. "Orange, Red, White, you're on defense. The rest form up on Wildfire. We're the tip of the sword people, let's dig deep. And when we get back, I'm going to smack Breetai one for tempting fate like he did."

Around Ranma Wildfire formed up into an elongated diamond formation, with Ranma at the tip above and forward of the Macross' path, which meant just out of the arc of its guns. Ahead of them the Zentraedi fleets began to respond to the human's presence with the disorganized mass rush to engage they had expected, if even more disordered than that.

Whole flotillas turned at once, ships almost smashing into one another in space, which should have been impossible given the size of space. Literally uncounted thousands of Regulds around the edge of the battle already occurring turned and made their way back the way their fleets had come, moving towards this new threat which had so foolishly appeared. Here and there were a few packs of capital ships moving with somewhat more control, but not many.

Ranma's lips pulled back and he bared his teeth into a feral smile. Time to get it stuck in again. To one side, flew Motoko's customized Durendal, it's lines far more stream-lined, than Ranma's Valkyrie should have been, had it not somehow evolved over time as Ranma pumped his ki into it. Miriya, having enlarged herself to her original size and transferred to her Queadluun Rhea, was stuck back with the rest of the Breezonians, something which no doubt… displeased her. But given that Breetai wasn't certain how the people they were trying to help would react to even the Queadluun Rhea it made sense.

"Alright, you all know what to do, get it stuck in, and get it stuck in hard!" Ranma growled.

A second later the battleships and the space fortress entered firing range for their primary weapons. Or at least primary except for the space fortress, but Lisa couldn't use the siege cannon without hitting both the Zentraedi and the unknown fleet.

It didn't matter. The rail guns shot out their massive rounds, their targets carefully chosen just in case they missed so they wouldn't hit the unknown ships. The beam cannons of the human ships lit up space between the two fleets, and dozens of Zentraedi ships died in a matter of a few seconds. Each battery of four had a single target in that first fusillade then split off, every two cannons aiming at a new capital ship, destroying them in turn.

Not as completely, but still thoroughly. The majority of the enemy ships were the small picket ships, the Thruvel-Salan main battleships, with a leavening of the Quiltra carriers and a few scattered gunships. Those gunships within range died quickly, the humans knowing they were the true ship to ship threat. the others didn't have the range to engage the humans in turn for now.

The Regulds which weren't destroyed by the beam weapons like flies caught in a furnace came on. But by that point Wildfire, Blood Lord, and Hammer squadrons slammed into their 'formation'.

Ranma flew through space, his hands flashing this way and that on the control as his thoughts activated his Valkyrie's weapons. Transforming into guardian mode he flipped end over end, his leg kicking out to a passing Reguld, sending it careening into a second like a billiard ball before both exploded from a missile from Motoko. Ranma's kick sent him moving to an entirely new direction, and he twisted and juked around his Gatling blaring to one side as his lasers took another Reguld under fire.

"All squads, save your missiles for the capital ships." He said calmly, even as he transformed into Battroid mode, his fist reaching out to rip a leg off a Reguld his Gatling flashing as he killed still more. "The capital ships have to be more of a threat than these fools."

'Roger," come the reply from the other squadron commanders, but the leaders of the Blood Lords, Eustace Munyan, an American of Polynesian descent, took the time to expound upon that reply. "This is like killing sheep! They don't seem to understand the concept of squad flying at all, and none of them are very experienced. They have the numbers, nothing else!"

"Exactly." Ranma nodded. "But watch out for the tri-fighters, those things have more firepower than Regulds, and they have missiles too, try not to let any of them through."

Motoko opened up a private communication line with Ranma, her own Durendal in Battroid mode The Durendal was a more streamlined design than the Valkyrie in all of its formations, with two small thin laser cannons over its shoulder which ran on an internal battery which could be augmented by Motoko's ki. In one hand she held the upgraded version of the old solid slug gun of the Valkyries, a quantum energy gun pod, which spat out silver death.

In her other, Motoko held her specially crafted katana which lashed out in an intricate display that sliced dozens of Regulds around her into pieces as she spoke into her mic. For a moment there was even some blood from the Zentraedi within the pods visible in space, hovering as little globules in space around her before freezing and shattering. "Boss, I've not seen any of those damn things, but these guys really don't have a clue! Recommend we bring up the other squads, we could rip the guts out of these bastards here and now."

"Negative, the line ships'll need them." Ranma said, only half concentrating on his own part of the battle as he looked at that tactical screen. As air commander Ranma's tactical screen had been upgraded to show the entire fight. The Macross and the Battleships had begun to open the range, trying to draw the Zentraedi after them. More than three hundred Zentraedi ships had already died, but that wasn't important.

What was, was that the missile ships had joined the party from above the battlefield, timing their attack with the unmanned fighters coming from below. As he watched the Zentraedi suddenly realize they had more enemies than the battleships at their rear Ranma also noticed the captains of the carriers had decided to send the Broadswords in with only a bare flight of Rapiers to protect them.

The Rapiers were small, incredibly maneuverable unmanned fighters which were designed around a simple ball with thrusters on it and four lasers which rotated around the ball, able to kill Regulds with single shots. The Broadswords were arrowhead shaped vessels with several large missiles under their wings, and a large plasma cannon at the front. Both had small barrier shields, and were tough to kill.

They slammed into the battle zone, spearing through the fight going on between the new aliens and the Zentraedi. The rapiers cut into the Regulds ahead of their larger fellows, and then capital ships began to die under the Broadswords' fire. The missiles from the missile ships hit seconds later, targeted against single ships searching out any Zentraedi ship that seemed to move with more purpose than the others.

This included the four command class ships, the same kind Kyron the bastard had used. And there goes their admirals.

Ranma took a brief moment to kill a few more Regulds then launched his missiles into the side of a Thruvel Salan as he flew along it, dodging its anti-fighter fire with ease. Its sides exploded, and then the Thunderbolts of flight three flew past, launching their own missiles, finishing the ship quickly.

The VF-25 Thunderbolt was the replacement of the Valkyrie, and was altogether a tougher fighter platform than its predecessors. Relying on a new Gatling gun system and missile bays enlarged through ki-tech, it could carry even more ammo than Ranma's Valkyrie, but lacked the internal batteries of the close-in Durendal or his own ship. It's designers had realized early on they would never be able to match the specially made-close in combat types, so had opted to add firepower, speed and maneuverability over agility and durability.

Ranma honestly thought the wasp-like waist made them look girly, but since several of the pilots of them, in particular in Wildfire, were Amazons, that made sense. "Good job Shampoo! Motoko, move squad three to the left of your current position, Blood Lord One, your flank looks like it's having trouble, rotate your second squad back to the barn, and tell them they're on shit duty for the next week!"

Those four worthies had apparently forgotten that even ki-enhanced ammo bins could run out, and had been too profligate with their fire. They still had their energy guns, the two small guns in their Battroid's heads or at the front of their fighter form, but that wasn't much.

"Roger." Eustace returned his voice grim. "Be aware we're having some leakers now, looks like you were right to leave half the wing back boss."

"That's why they pay me the big bucks." When Ranma looked back watched The Zentraedi skirmish fleets broke apart into their constituent fleets. One fleet was trying to push ahead of the main battle, trying to find the ships launching missiles and fighters at them. Another, the one which had been hammered by the Macross and the battle line's fire, had turned around entirely now and was trying to close with the battle line. Another was continuing the fight against the original enemy.

And the fourth… "Oh hell."

OOOOOOO

Aboard the Macross, Lisa had seen the same thing: fully a fourth of the Zentraedi capital ships remaining had just micro-jumped. The move had shattered dozens of ships near to their own, but lots of ships, hundreds, had been able to jump successfully. "All ships prepare for enemies to our rear. Concentrate on the gunships if you can." She said calmly.

A second later over four hundred mixed appeared all around and within their formation. The Gungnir took fire almost immediately, stitching up its side, but his barrier shield's held. The Macross also rocked with a few hits, but where the barrier shields couldn't stop them, the armor held.

The main problem for the Gungnir was that one ship had materialized in front of them less than a few hundred meters, crossing the Gungnir's T as it were, though that really didn't matter much in space. It began to fire, but that was almost beside the point.

Lisa watched in shock, but a second was all the captain of the other ship needed. He ordered as many barrier shields forward as could get there, and then put more power to his main engines. He rammed the other ship, and for a moment Minmei could dimly hear someone shouting, "Taste my spear!" over the communication line with the other ship.

There was the bright flare of a ship's generator blowing, and then the Gungnir was clear. It had lost a full bank of weapons to the wreckage of the other ship, and its surface was now pitted and scarred, but the rest had been protected by barrier shields, and they began to fire.

"That was brilliant, insane but brilliant. All ships, continue to return fire at your own discretion. We're still the most dangerous things in this fight people, remember fire discipline." Lisa said shaking her head.

The ships around them began to die, the short range allowing them to strike back, but the barrier shields and the human ship's better armor meant they were still on the losing side of things. They even still had time to fire on the fleet still pressing the attack on the unknown enemies, which was also getting torn up by the Broadswords and Rapiers. Hundreds of the unmanned ships had died, but not enough to dent the numbers the super-carriers could still roll out.

The real threat to the humans was the fleet that had spread out to try and find the super-carriers and the missile ships. Suddenly those ships also micro-jumped, and the missile ships ceased firing, disappearing under their cloaks as they 'dove' away on a course taking them down and away from the fight. The super-carriers however stayed put, launching fighters to protect themselves, the ones already in battle losing their com locks as they were replaced by the new ships.

The super-carriers were almost as large as the Macross, almost as heavily armored as the battleships, with just as many barrier shields. They had few external ship-to-ship weapons of their own however, though they did have massive banks of anti-fighter weapons banks. The Regulds from the enemy ship ran right into those weapons dying by the hundreds, by the thousands, as the Rapiers and Broadswords cut through them to their mother ships. Behind them the super-carriers all juked this way and that, but they were in danger of being overwhelmed, their barrier shields popping out, and more than one super-carrier began to show damage.

Lisa had ordered their captains to micro-jump out if the enemy closed with them, but they hadn't yet. She was about to order them to do so again when the Breezonian battle globes appeared enclosing that portion of the battle. Then the super-carriers all jumped away as one, leaving their fighters behind, to appear dozens of light years away, still within com range of their fighters but out of the fight themselves. Of course, Breetai ordered them to remain there just long enough to play bait, damn he's good.

"Fight your ship captain." Breetai ordered from the flag bridge, his image appearing on the small screen set into the arm of Lisa's chair. "You maintain control of the human battle line."

"Yes sir." Lisa replied, pro forma. But it didn't really matter, the battle was over now, the Zentraedi just didn't realize it yet.

The battle globes opened fire with their siege cannons, not launching their fleets yet since there was no need here, and they still didn't want to chance the unknown aliens firing on them. The skirmish fleet which had been fighting the super-carriers died under those siege weapons, their large beams flaring in space like condensed solar flares as they crisscrossed that portion of the battlefield.

Even Zentraedi could be startled by such sudden losses, and whoever had somehow gained command of the three remaining skirmish fleets balked, not reacting for a moment, thereby losing any chance to break off en-masse. Then the missile ships opened up again on the battle still occurring around the unknown alien fleet and the battle globes turned in space, every move screaming unstoppable might, as they moved into the battle.

The fleet which had tried to micro-jump around the human's battle line had mostly died by this point, and the one which had tried to close in real space, which had been held up by the efforts of Wildfire and the other attacking flights, died under their blistering fire now.

The Zentraedi's cohesion, what there was of it, disappeared a moment later. Single ships tried to break away, tried to jump, but they were too deep into the star's gravity well to get away from UHBA's sensors. The battleships broke up in turn to follow them, as did the unmanned fighters the space fortress' wing, and the missile ships still sending unseen death into the Zentraedi ships. Not a single Reguld in space survived for more than another hour, and the last ship died two hours after that.

Slowly the fleets came together again, moving to mirror the unknown fleet, recovering all of their fighters as they did, a feeling of euphoric shock going through the entire fleet. There had only been four deaths in this entire battle, an unheard of ratio for the amount of ships they'd just destroyed, and even Lisa couldn't believe it for a moment.

Then reality reasserted itself. Of course, the damn skirmish fleets probably all became or were already like Kyron's mad bunch before Breetai broke off. these were the Zentraedi's worst fighters, who've only learned the wrong lessons from war if they have learned anything at all, and we're all veterans every one of us. Plus we trained to face whole main fleets, not piddling little skirmish fleets. The next battle will be tougher, no doubt about it.

There was a moment of silence between the two fleets, neither the UHBA or the aliens seeming to know what to do. It lasted long enough for Ranma to get from the hanger bay to the bridge. It ended when Minmei turned to them from her station, a wide smile on her face. "Captain, we're being hailed!"

End chapter