AMAZONS

"It’s called a stun pistol," said Rico. "One pull of the trigger, and your chosen target is rendered unconscious."

Bron and Konda stared at the weapon, impressed. Bron looked back up at Rico. "And with this, we’ll be able to capture the Meltran?"

"You got it." He set down the pistol, and hefted a small but heavy device. "As soon as the red light goes on here, we zap the Meltran, then head for the Battle Pod."

* * * * *

Kuh Lon looked up as the bell over the front door rang. "Welcome to the Nekohanten! Please take a--" She paused; her danger sense was pinging faintly.

The woman framed in the doorway was wearing traditional chinese clothing, similar to the one Son-in-Law had worn in the talent contest. Her hair was green, right down to the roots, and unbound. And Kuh Lon could clearly see the knife hidden up one sleeve. Oh, anyone else would never notice, but her own senses were nearly superhuman.

In Cantonese, she asked, <Are you one of the Sisters?>

The woman looked at her, puzzled, then spoke in English. "I’m afraid I don’t speak that tongue." Her accent was odd; Kuh Lon couldn’t place it.

The Elder switched to English. "You seem familiar to me. Perhaps you are an Amazon, of a tribe not familiar to me?"

The woman considered this, then nodded. "Yes. I am an Amazon."

"I thought so." The old woman cackled. "So good to see a Sister, even one from a distant tribe. Please, be seated, and I’ll send my great-granddaughter out to serve you."

Miriya glanced around the room, and sat down with her back in one corner. Shortly, a young Microne female came from the back room.

"You Amazon?" The girl’s speech was halting, and very heavily accented.

Miriya switched to Japanese. "Perhaps you speak this language better?"

"Some better, yes. Thank you." The girl smiled brilliantly. "You is Amazon?"

"Yes. Though my...tribe...use a different word."

"What is word?"

"Meltran."

The girl tilted her head. "Is unusual. Don’t know language. You want ramen?"

"Ramen?"

"Food. Too-too delicious."

"All right. How much is this ’ramen?’"

"For Amazon, is free. Here only. Be back soon!" The girl turned and bounced off. Bouncing seemed to be her normal mode of movement.

Miriya frowned. It seemed incredibly unlikely that the girl, or her great-grandmother, were Meltraedi. They claimed to be, but of course they could be lying. She would have to investigate more thoroughly.

* * * * *

Elsewhere...

Reality rippled, and a fleet of a thousand warships fell out of the rift in space/time. They immediately dispersed their tight formation, spreading out until they encompassed a half-sphere of approximately fifty thousand kilometers diameter. And moved in, unerringly, on Earth.

On the bridge of the flagship, Breetai, Supreme Commander of the Botoru Armoured Regiment, surveyed the tactical arrangement of the Meltran Fleet. He turned to his aide, a tiny - for a Zentran - and rather gnomish man. *Exedore, please establish communication with Azonia’s ship.*

*At once, My Lord.*

The projecbeam crackled to life, and Azonia’s face formed before him. *Ah, Lord Breetai! What brings you to this part of space?*

*The fact that you have failed in your mission, Azonia. The Protoculture Fortress remains in the hands of Zor’s Descendents. Dolza has charged me with its recovery. The Alliance remains; we shall both reap the benefits of the Fortress’ capture.* Breetai allowed himself a tight grin. *But I have been placed in command of this operation.*

Azonia’s face darkened. *I have not had sufficient time or resources to allocate to--*

*You have had six megapulses to complete the assignment, as well as the fifth Botoru Batallion to assist the Quadrano.*

*Fifth Botoru is a liability, and has cost us three battles.*

*Nonetheless, you have failed, and Dolza has ordered me to resume command.*

Azonia smirked. *Do not think that you can merely step in and take command. Any one of my troops is worth five of yours.*

*But you are outnumbered ten to one. The nearest Meltraedi fleet would require three kilopulses to arrive.* He crossed his arms. *You will submit, or you will be destroyed.*

Azonia cut the projecbeam; Breetai turned to Exedore. *Transmit the recovery code.*

*If I may, My Lord...* Exedore folded his arms and leaned back into his seat. *Azonia will not accept this change of command without some act of resistance. Either she will attack us, or she will attack the Micrones. Either way, we should wait for her to make her move before recovering our spies.*

*Yes...* Breetai closed his one good eye, and nodded. *Under cover of the resulting chaos. Excellent thinking as always, Exedore.*

*I try my best, My Lord.*

* * * * *

There was a knock at the office door. Ranma glanced up from the sheaf of paper on his desk. "Come."

The door opened, and Lisa Hayes stepped in. In one hand was a Navy cup - flared lip and base, so that a sudden shift of axis was less likely to spill coffee. In the other hand was a very bulky folder. "Captain."

"Commander." He nodded. "How may I help you?"

"Three things." She set the coffee on his desk, opened the folder and started flipping through it. "First, I have received your request for more operational Mecha, and have approved it." She pulled out a number of pages, stapled in the top left-hand corner, and dropped it on his desk. "Four Destroids, two of them Tomahawks and two Spartans. That totals...seven Rapiers, nine Valkyries and six Destroid-type mecha. Enough rides for the entire squadron, plus four left over."

"Good. We’ve needed them for a while."

"Yes. Captain’s considering another boarding action, and that will probably mean your team. Second." She flipped further through the folder. "I went through your debriefing, and noted that you’d experienced some sort of hallucination, shortly before you performed a space fold operation."

"Yeah." He shook his head. "It’s kinda fuzzy; I don’t really remember what happened. But I remember one part." His hand fell to the Reflex battery, strapped to his belt. "You know how Reflex energy lets the Valkyrie reconfigure?"

Lisa’s eyes widened, as Ranma shifted from male to female, and back to male. With no water.

"Turns out it’ll let me reconfigure, too."

"Very interesting. Doctor Lang will be interested in hearing about this."

"Oh, no!" Ranma raised his hands. "Don’t you dare tell him about it! He’ll have me back in the lab, covered with goop and sensors, and a wire up my butt, before I have time to blink."

Lisa giggled. "All right. I won’t tell anyone." She flipped through the folder. "It also says that you raised a pin-point barrier to block an incoming missile." She looked up. "How?"

"No idea." He shrugged. "Just instinct, like the first time I folded. I could probably do a fold in my sleep, now. But only in the modified S."

"Why?"

"Might have to do with all the extra Reflex energy a Kustonov Heat-Pile gives off."

"Ah." She closed the folder. "Since Reflex energy is also tied into the pin-point barrier system on the Macross, it seems likely that only the modified S will be able to raise a pin-point barrier."

"Seems that way." He nodded. "That it on the debrief?"

"Yes." She hugged the folder to her chest, and hesitated.

"The third thing?" Ranma prompted.

"Umm..." She bit her lip. "Would you care to join me for dinner tonight?"

Ranma sighed, and dropped his head into his hand.

"I’m sorry I asked." Lisa turned to leave.

"Wait, Commander." He looked up. "Look, just hear me out, okay? It’s not like I don’t like you or anythin’. But there’s two little problems."

"Rank?"

"Not really...one pay grade isn’t much. But you *are* my direct superior. And second...I’m engaged, remember?"

"But not married."

He raised a finger. "True...but my family and hers view it as a matter of honour. How long, do you suppose, before the gossip circle gets back to Colonel Tendo on the Daedalus?"

She sighed. "Well. I’d be kicking myself forever if I hadn’t asked."

"Under normal circumstances, I’d jump at the offer. But I’m afraid I can’t. Sorry."

"I understand." She opened the door. "I’d better get back to the bridge."

She stepped out of the office, closing the door...and grinned.

~He said he likes me! He said he’d jump at the chance!~

As usual for Lisa Hayes...objectivity goes right out the porthole.

* * * * *

"It was not enough that I was defeated." Miriya paused to drain her coffee cup, then slammed it down on the table. "But to be defeated by a male!"

"Xian Pu understand." The Amazon girl nodded. "Is same to happen to Xian Pu."

"So I’m trying to find him, so I can avenge myself."

"’Avenge?’"

"I mean to kill him."

"Kill? No!" Shampoo shook her head. "Sister not understand laws?"

Miriya frowned. "What do you--"

"Is Amazon law, if defeated by male, then woman must marry! This bring more strong into tribe." Shampoo’s Japanese suffered, the more excited she got; she forced herself to calm down. "Miriya find this man, and make him husband."

"Husband..." Miriya considered. "I’m afraid that I don’t know that word."

Shampoo repeated, "Husband," in English, and Miriya nodded.

"Ah! I see. I must bend his strength to my will, bring him under my control, and conserve, not destroy that strength."

"Yes!"

"I don’t know how I will do that...I haven’t even found him yet--"

The bell over the door rang, and the three Zentraedi spies entered. The small one was holding a sidearm of some sort. Miriya jumped to her feet.

The small one blinked. "Parino!"

"What are you--"

She got no further; the Zentran raised his pistol and fired. She ducked to the side, then abruptly realized that she had not been the target; Shampoo yelped, and fell to her knees.

"Bastards!" Miriya drew her knife, and leaped towards them. The largest of the three stepped forwards, prepared to grapple her, but she sidestepped him easily and charged the pistolero.

A fist slammed into the side of her head, and she reeled. The big guy was much faster than he looked; he delivered a kick to her ribs, knocking her away from the group. She rolled to her knees, and glanced up...to find that the pistolero had leveled his weapon at her.

"Easy, Parino. Nobody has to die here." He glanced over at Shampoo, who was still on her hands and knees. "We’re taking her with us, taking her back to Azonia."

Miriya scowled. Her knife lay six feet away from her; she couldn’t possibly recover it before the Zentran fired. "She isn’t--"

The Zentran fired. The blast hit her like a wall, flipping her backwards. Her vision blurred, and it felt like there was a two hundred pound weight on her chest. She tried to get up, but was unable to do more than twitch.

The Zentran fired again, she assumed at Shampoo. His voice came to her faintly, like her head was wrapped in cotton.

"Piece of cake! We should fight Meltraedi more often..."

* * * * *

Someone was shaking her, and yelling in English. She shuddered, rolled over, and pushed herself up.

"I’m alive..."

"You’re lucky to be alive." The woman was dressed in U.N. Spacy whites, and had a red cross on the sleeve of her uniform. "They abducted the waitress."

Miriya shook her head. Defeated, again by a male! Though at least this time, it was by three armed Zentraedi males, when she had had nothing more than a knife.

This time, she could ignore it.

* * * * *

"Conn, I have forty-eight bogeys closing on us."

Commander Hayes leaned forward. "Type?"

"I think they’re powered armour, Ma’am. Female type. We’re now also picking up another contact. Too far out for a make, but it looks like a small capital ship."

The ’Female’ designation was based on Captain Saotome’s belief that they were only piloted by females; though they still had no proof of this, the usage had spread. Lisa bit her lip. "Scramble the Alert One. As soon as they’re clear, call up Ready Five. Oh, and call the Irregulars to Ferryboat’ hanger." She slammed a hand down on the command chair’s intercom. "Captain to the bridge!"

* * * * *

They had tied Shampoo very efficiently, and gagged her to boot, then made their way down to the salvage bay. During their explorations, the three micronized spies had had the great good luck to discover a battle pod, in almost pristine condition, and with micronized controls. Though they didn’t realize it, it was the same pod used by Rick, Lisa, Ben and Max to escape from the Zentraedi. Once they had been recovered, the pod had been dumped in the salvage bay and forgotten.

Already, it was half packed with Micronian artifacts. They tossed Shampoo’s unconscious body onto an air mattress, then set to work. Rico manned the pilot’s station, Bron took engineering, and Konda took over the guns.

"Peak power in thirty centipulses..." Bron flipped a switch. "Particle cannons are online."

"Right." Konda switched on the targeting reticle. "Seal the hatch."

"Already done."

"Good..." Konda sighted on the bay door, and pulled the trigger.

Dual charged particle beams slammed into the door, which promptly exploded. The sudden depressurization blew the pod, with a bunch of other junk, into vacuum.

Rico fired the thrusters, and aimed towards the recovery vehicle. "We’ll be home within the hour."

"Yeah..." Bron sighed. "Home."

* * * * *

Azonia noted the approaching battle pod.

*Fourth wing, take that pod in tow. Fifth wing, disable the Zentraedi recovery vessel. The rest of you...Charge!*

Four wings of Meltraedi Battle Armour dove to engage Green Squadron. Azonia hung back, watching, as her troops tore up the Valkyries. She smiled. ~I didn’t even need to commit the destroyer. Inside a kilopulse, the Protoculture Fortress will be mine."

Her IFF beeped at her; she glanced down at her instruments, and cursed. The Micronians had launched reinforcement, and the news could simply not be worse.

Skull Squadron.

Maybe she would need that destroyer after all.

* * * * *