One Half

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, Vandread is property of Pioneer, Gonzo, and Media Factory; Ranma is property of Rumiko Takahashi, Viz and a lot more companies that I can't remember to list. ---Title--- Half a Vanguard Chapter Two Being the second part of the '1/2' series By Dr. Suekeiichi Kaiton ---Briefing room--- ur sur ship has been completely engulfed by the crystal. The bridge, residential and engine quarters have been completely destroyed. The crew is now in the process of moving into the residential sections of the Ikazuchi. The bridge has finished sliding and is now situated over the ship's garden." Buzam switched the monitor to the progress of the Paksis as it swallowed their ship. Magno and Meia were sitting at the briefing table. Outside, the streak of a Dread could be seen leaving the shields of the ship as debris from the Seed Ship drifted in the vacuum. "What about the Dreads?" "Yes, captain." Buzam switched the hologram again until the Dread platform appeared. "Fortunately the Dread platform and Reg were unaffected by the change, we're currently in the middle of installing the necessary equipment and uploading the hardware. During our renovation we discovered that this ship hasn't been used in a long time, the wires and basic connections and rotting and decayed." "Perfect. Meia could you give me some good news?" Magno fanned herself as the blue-haired Dread commander shook herself out of her thoughts. "What about the shield?" "Parfet says that none of the ships systems were capable of creating the shield so it must have been due to outside interference." Meia switched the holographic display to the new Dread platform as Buzam sat down across from her. "Great. And I suppose she has no idea how the men's Vanguards can combine with our Dreads?" "Yes, captain." Magno sighed. It was getting too hot on the ship. "The Dreads that were changed by the Paksis no longer fit in the standard platform, we've modified the cargo hold to house them." Buzam changed the signal again as Meia wound down. "Although it's hard to believe, we're a long way from Mejale. It will take us approximately 270 days to arrive back in the Mejale system." "Ohh...what did we do to have this happen...?" Magno shook her head. "What about the enemy system?" "Uh...since we were short on help I sent some volunteers." Meia had the good grace to look away at the observation window. "Volunteers?" ---The debris field--- "Wow! Look at the UFOs Miss Gasco! Look, there's an Adamsky UFO!" Dita was taking pictures of the floating trash as her Dread neared the still smoking remains of the Seed Ship. Gascogne, frowning because of her position, grumbled as the ditz narrowly missed the spinning cog the size of a jumbo jet from old Earth, a cog that could have sheared off the entire front of the Dread in one sweep. "Would you please watch where you've flying?" ---Holding cells--- "So there I was, knowing that I had to survive to fight for the freedom of the Ikazuchi from the grasp of women! Fortunately I've gained two comrades." Bart crossed his arms smugly and looked at Duelo and Hibiki, pointedly ignoring Ranma as he lounged across from the blond youth. "Listen would you just be quiet? And don't think I forgot about you giving me that cheap shot in the bath!" Hibiki stood up to face Bart, both men wearing the wrist restraints, Duelo and Ranma had none - apparently Magno and Buzam didn't think they qualified. As Hibiki drew his fist back to soundly throttle Bart, Ranma spoke and ended the hostilities. "Stop this fighting now! Bart's just being talkative because he's scared of what's going to happen, it's a normal reaction to the situation we're in now." Duelo looked up and smiled at him, exactly what he would have said. He was still mulling over the feel of the guard's breasts the other day when he'd set her bones and checked for internal bleeding, how the rosy pink nipple grew hard and erect when he'd messaged her with the ultrasound scope. "Wow, he's right, nothing less from the Elite." Bart swallowed hard and took Ranma aside. "Listen up, if we can break out of here and overthrow the women we could-" "Could be able to do what?" Buzam appeared in front of the bars with an escort of two guards as always. "Mr. Navigator I'd like you to come with me." Bart sweatdropped and forced a grin. "S-s-s-sure as long as it's just talking..." The bars were deactivated and Buzam turned to leave when one of the guards shrieked in fright. Turning and expecting insurrection, she was surprised when the guard pointed at the space where Ranma once was. He was gone from the cell. The two guards as well as Duelo and Hibiki were shocked by the quick movements of their comrade and looked around quickly to see where he could have gone. Buzam, annoyed by the escape more because she hadn't seen him move, turned to call Magno when Ranma appeared in her face. Nose to nose. Refusing to give into fear, Buzam calmly exhaled and regarded the escapee. Ranma had to hand it to her, this woman knew how to keep her cool. "What are you doing out of the cell?" 'And how did you manage it' she wanted to add but kept silent. "We'll speak to you later." "I'd like to examine the alien craft, it seems to have a curiously organic nature." As Ranma stared eye to eye with Buzam he could smell her perfume. Her breasts jiggled a bit as she wiped her brow and turned to her guards. Ranma licked his lips. "It could be very valuable against them if I were to take samples." "We already have two scouts taking samples of data and metals. Take him to the bridge." She motioned for the guards to take Bart to Magno and gestured to Ranma, bringing them outside of the room and out of Hibiki and Duelo's field of hearing. Ranma leaned nonchalantly against the wall as the silver-haired woman stood in front of him. "What would you do if I let you go out there?" Ranma smirked and leaned forward until their noses touched, maintaining eye contact with her shocked orbs. "Just because I'm an Elite doesn't mean I'm devoted to Tarak. I don't believe I could escape to Tarak nor would I want to...I like it here. I want to go out in a Vanguard and take samples of the enemy's outer coating, something your scouts wouldn't think of doing." Buzam didn't reply, she simply stood in front of Ranma with a smug smirk on her face. In a swift, dance-like move, Ranma pinned Buzam to the wall with his body, pushing her generous chest into his. She seemed unperturbed by his motions and tried to push him off, instead he grasped her arms. He held her wrists against the wall as he leaned in close to her face, so close she could taste his breath in her mouth. Ranma leaned further and brushed their cheeks together as her body jumped at the contact. She shivered as he whispered in her ear. "Thanks for being so accommodating." In that moment he was gone. As Ranma walked down the corridor, he smiled to himself and dispelled the next-to-useless ki he'd siphoned from the first officer. "Heh...would've thought..." Chuckling he entered the Vanguard deployment dock. ---Briefing room--- "Because of the size of the system it's taken some time to locate a port or node, we've begun downloading from the Dread." "What is your opinion on the technology?" Magno was busily fanning herself as many of the ship's systems were still inoperative. Parfet said she needed to stabilize the Paksis core to restart many of the essential systems. "Heavily structured. Unlike anything I've ever seen. This ship seems to be a massive factory more than anything else." Gascogne frowned as Dita's space-suited body descended on the camera and pointed at a large sector off to the side. "Can I explore over there, Gasco-san?" The ditz waved at the structure and flitted around the camera as Gascogne tapped her in the helmet, sending her careening into space. "No. For the last time, no!" Magno smiled at Dita's youthful exuberance. A chime divided her attention back to the bridge. "Yes, BC?" "I've brought our navigator." Did BC's voice sound slightly shaken or was it her imagination? "I'll be right down. I leave the rest of this to you, Gascogne." "Yes, captain." The screen winked off as Magno Vivian shifted her chair 180 degrees and rolled out a pair of durasteel blast doors and down to the bridge. She was glad to see that Ezra had installed the fan on her console. "You...ah wanted to see me?" Bart looked warily at the old woman as she whapped him soundly on the head. "What was that for?" "That was for lying. Now, we need you to control that." She gestured to the flying platform terminating in the Paksis dais. "Since you're the only one who knows how it works." Buzam walked slowly to her side, deep in thought. "Well...uh..." He had to make this good, if he didn't convince them he could end up outside the airlock without a space suit. "That's because this is a male ship so only men can control it, it seems you still need me for-" Garsus' speech was cut off as the tendrils of aqua energy swallowed him back into the virtual reality controls. Magno sighed. "I really don't understand this system..." She looked up at Buzam and saw her staring off into space. Following her gaze she saw a burning trail of fuel streak across the screen. It wasn't the child, Hibiki's Vanguard, rather it was a normal one like the hundreds they'd destroyed first trying to capture the Ikazuchi. "Who the devil is going out in a Vanguard?" "One of the Elite prisoners, Ranma, wanted to go out and collect samples from the Enemy system's hull." Buzam's eyes tended to focus longer than was necessary before turning to her captain. "I believed it was alright, he can't very well escape anywhere. And if he thinks he can do anything..." Her eye twitched at the remembrance of their closeness. "It's alright, BC, I suppose it can't do any harm." Suddenly the ship shook with the tremendous G's generated by the terrific speed they began traveling at, the star field a blur as the bridge crew braced themselves. "What's going on!?" "The system's rebooted itself! We don't have control of the ship." "Launch the markers!" Buzam cried and shortly three red pods ejected from the outer hull, floating and tumbling through space. "Hopefully Gascogne will realize that something happened." "Bart! What have you been doing!?" The blonde's image appeared on screen. "Nothing! I didn't do anything! I can't control the ship!" Bart make various grotesque panicked faces before winking out of existence. Magno frowned and placed a fresh bag of ice on her head. Just then her fan turned off. It was going to be one of those days. ---Debris field--- "Look, look, Gasco-san! It's Mr. Alien!" Dita was bringing a data pod from the cockpit of her Dread when the twinkling of a Vanguard appeared from the ship. "Forget the Alien, where did the ship go!? And for the last time, it's not Gasco, it's Gascogne!" The taller of the two space-suited women looked up from her interface and withdrew another data-diskette. "All I see are markers. Something must have happened." The Vanguard was getting closer, she could make out it's plain gray-looking armor. "We'd better get going then, I have all the information, we'll probably be able to catch up with the others." Gascogne threw the last disk to Dita and was picking up her equipment when plaid-circuit boards entangled her suit. She looked in horror at the system and saw Octopi sprouting every-which-way. "Damn. Dita, get the disks back to the ship!" "But...but I can't leave you here!" "Listen this isn't some kind of soap opera here, you take the disks and come back for me. I'll be fine." She sweatdropped when Dita casually entered her Dread and fired the engines, did she really think that little of her? "I'll be back for you, Gasco-san!" With that promise, Dita sped off with Octopi in hot pursuit. The Reg commander looked up at the smelting eye of the enemy system as it began dismantling itself for reconstruction. "I guess I know what you want for dinner..." She heard the Vanguard land on the outside of the ship and listened to the staccato of gunfire as the new wave of Octopi attacked Ranma's simple Vanguard. "Get your ass down here and stop this thing!" She literally screamed over all channels, hoping he heard her summons. "I'm coming. Just wait a moment." Ranma answered as he imploded six Octopi with ki cubes, an invisible prison of ki surrounding the unfortunate mecha before squeezing into a polygon the size of his fingernail, all with fantastic pyrotechnics. Speeding away as fast as his unmodified Van-Type was able, he flew into the Vandread-blasted hole in the shell and appeared above Gascogne as the cyclopean system prepared to smelt her down to her organic components. Grasping the manipulators in his, Ranma wrenched the robot free from the umbilical cord running into the (presumed) core of the Seed Ship and plucked his charge free of the circuit boards. Quickly donning space gear, Ranma opened his cockpit and let Gascogne in, both shedding the infernal suits after the atmosphere was restored. She sighed as the horrid smell of disinfectant dissipated in the air but was all too aware that she was next-to-topless, sitting in a man's lap. Ranma grasped the controls and only succeeded in pulling Gascogne closer to him as her shapely posterior ground against his crotch. He had to get enough ki between them to refuel after those cubes and if the hoards of robots were any indication, he'd need the energy soon. "What's your name?" The question struck her as odd. "Gascogne." She turned to look at him, straddling his torso as he looke her her. Not bad, not bad at all, a bit on the muscular side but then again he always did like his women strong. "Ranma Saotome, pleased to meet you." The manipulators and Octopi were getting closer. "I'm going to need your help with this..." ---Ikazuchi--- First it was the helmswoman, Ezra, then it was the Navi-robot #6, now he was being wrapped into performing bypasses on a space craft. Duelo looked up from his interface and looked at the girl, Parfet. Memories of what Ranma had told him about females came flooding back, could it be true? They sure weren't what the government made them out to be but then Ranma had explained that before. He wondered where the medical commander was, Buzam had taken him earlier but he hadn't returned, neither had Bart. He wiped a trail of sweat from his brow, it was nearing seventy degrees Celsius in the engine room with no sign of stopping. He looked up at Parfet's breasts swinging enticingly under the thin, wet sports bra. Duelo McFile swallowed hard as she bent over to look under a panel, exposing her glistening cleavage. It was just one of those days. ---Bridge--- "Captain." Magno looked out from under her ice pack. She'd pulled off the fox-eared hood of her shawl and was trying not to move when Buzam rang. "Yes, BC?" "It seems that the male Vanguard can be deployed instead of the Dreads." The Dread launch pad was blocked by the new growth of Paksis. "I'd like to ask our attacker to search for Dita and Gascogne." "That's fine, BC, I see no reason to stop you." "Yes, captain." "Oh, BC?" "Yes?" "Why are you in the men's section?" The bridge bunnies were trying their best to stay cool, it seemed like the ship itself had a fever...if such a thing were possible. "My job is to assist you in any way, captain, Buzam out." ---The holding cells--- Hibiki lay down on the warm metal floor in just his loincloth, his shirt and pants rolled up as a make-shift pillow under his head. His hands were still in shackles as Buzam entered and stood proudly in front of the cell, her hand at her hip. "What do you want? Can't you turn down the heat?" "I'm afraid not. I came here to ask you a favor." "Oh? What?" He sat up and pulled on his pants. "We had to leave two of our crew at the enemy system when the Ikazuchi's computer rebooted, I'd like to ask you if you'd go out and bring them back." She clearly wasn't going to take no for an answer. Hibiki sighed and tugged at the restraints, knowing he was just going to be used by the women again. It was just going to be one of those days... ---Debris field, outer rim--- "Get away from me! I don't like pushy aliens!" Dita screamed as Octopi tailed her Dread, firing sporadically at the sleek craft. She had the package of data disks in a file protector under her dashboard and was following the markers back to the ship when the tell-tale glint of metal forward of her position alerted her to a pincer assault. "From the front too?!" She fired a volley of pulse bolts at the oncoming craft and was gratified by a minor explosion. "Did I get them?" "Hey! Is that any way to welcome your rescuer?" Hibiki coughed a bit of smoke from his lungs and tried to stay away from his shorting consoles. "Mr. Alien!" Dita changed her heading and gunned the accelerator as she shot forward to combine with her 'Mr. Alien'. "Let's combine!" "Ack! Anyone but her!" His bangata floundered in the vastness of space as her Dread made contact with his shield and the transformation began. He felt his seat shift upwards as the internal servos and plates that composed his cockpit shifted and allowed Dita's wide-eyed form into his lap. Two blue arms pulled out from either side of the ship as the green Paksis generators separated into two thruster / blaster silos, and wrist-mounted energy blades. The disorientating experience of combining was nothing compared to Dita bouncing happily on his lap, unknowingly awakening Mr. Happy from it's puberty-long sleep. If the ditzy red-head felt the hard rod under her ass she gave no sign. In a shift movement the Vandread sliced the Octopi to ribbons and shot back towards the Alien wreckage. Halfway there it was met by Ranma's Van-Type bangata trailing pieces of crushed Octopi behind him. "Hibiki, that thing's still active. My weapons were ineffective, it's up to you." Neither pilot of the Vandread noticed the steady breathing in the background. It seemed the colonial women liked the same things terran females enjoyed, who would've figured? "Mr. Alien?" "Uh...are you talking to me?" Ranma's voice rang through the stark white interior of the Vandread cockpit. "Uh huh, is Gasco-san alright?" The static on Ranma's end burst as Gascogne's enthusiastic cries echoed in the dark channels of space communication. "It's not Gasco...ah...it's Gascogne!" Ranma promptly shut off the signal and rocketed off for the ship, reading the marker headings as he flew with Gascogne in his lap. He and Hibiki returned to the ship at the same time, the time taken by the destruction of the Seed Ship only a few minutes which the Vandread ate up on it's way back. After the asteroid had been dealt with and the gestalt separated, both bangatas docked together. Duelo, Buzam, Parfet, and Meia were standing on the launch pad to welcome them back. Hibiki was dragged out by Dita while Ranma pulled behind him a shamefaced Gascogne who walked out of the bay stiffly, wincing as her legs rubbed together. Duelo wasn't surprised, Ranma had always boasted of his powers over the women of his past, why would these be any different? The pig-tailed Elite walked past the engineer and Dread commander, pushing towards the elevator and contenting himself with a job well done. He was sure that bangata's seat would have to be cleaned, as would his pants. Still, it was nice to know he'd broken in one of them - just to confirm for himself that they were the same. As he called the lift, it broke away from the Paksis-encrusted ceiling and two Dread pilots spilled out at his feet. He recalled the green-haired one with short hair from the first fight (he'd treated her laser burns), the blonde he couldn't identify. No sooner had they been freed from the hot and stuffy prison than they latched onto his legs, crying and thanking him. Ranma smiled as they stroked his legs in adoration. He could get used to this! ---To be continued---