I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

I don't own any of these characters or situations. They belong to someone else. Also this is done purely for fun, not profit. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, yet to be born, or visiting from other dimensions is purely coincidental. I'm doing this for fun.

Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.

- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -

University Part 11

- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -

Ami hurried across the open space that separated her and Ranma's dorms without breaking into a run. Her footfalls made crunching noises on the light coating of snow. During her quick walk, she reexamined herself, trying to discover the source of the pain she felt earlier, but nothing came of it.

Quickly hiking up the stairwell, she soon was on Ranma's floor and then in front of Ranma's door. Being in a hurry, for Sailor Moon said it was important, Ami knocked on the door impatiently. After a brief moment that seemed too long for her, the door swung open and was replaced by a pigtailed man.

"Yes?" the man asked.

"Is Ranma here?" Ami asked while trying to look around the man who blocked the doorway.

"Are you a friend of hers?" the man asked.

"Yes," Ami answered as politely as she could at that moment. "I need to speak with her. It's important."

The pigtailed man entered the hallway and partially closed the door behind him, blocking Ami from entering. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm Tenchi - Ranma's boyfriend. If you're a friend of hers, you need to know that she just got word that her grandmother died."

Ami stared at Tenchi with uncertain eyes.

"She's packing a few things and heading home soon," Tenchi continued. "She's pretty upset right now. If you could help her get her things together, she would appreciate it."

Ami nodded and entered the dorm room. There she found Ranma throwing some clothes into a bag, stopping at each toss to fight back sobs as she did.

"Ranma," Ami ventured gently, her need to hurry put aside.

Ranma looked up and noticed Ami. "Hey Ami," she greeted with a suppressed sob. "I guess Tenchi told you."

Ami's heart went out to Ranma. Even though she was the most powerful of the Senshi, emotionally Ranma had always been fragile. "I'm sorry," Ami said softly.

Ranma threw some underwear into her bag, looked red eyed at Ami and sniffled. "S'okay," she replied sadly as she zipped her bag. "Just gotta go home and take care of some stuff."

Ranma exhaled haltingly as she stood there and studied the zipped up bag that rested on her bed. She looked as if she were contemplating it or looking for answers from the inanimate object.

"I'll take care of your classes for you," Tenchi said, making Ami jump slightly since she'd forgotten he was there. "I'll get any assignments and get them to you if you have to be gone for long."

Ranma nodded and lifted her bag from the bed. Tenchi took it from her as she was about to sling it on her shoulder and slung the strap over his own shoulder. Ranma didn't protest the help.

"Walk you to the station?" Tenchi asked softly. Ranma just nodded her response, not feeling like talking very much.

Ami followed them out of the dorm and soon excused herself. She had to get to the rest of the Senshi. Ami dashed to the back of the building, quickly found a nook between the back of the dorm, a tall evergreen bush and some maintenance equipment and transformed. She then took to the roofs.

The air rushed through her hair as Mercury dashed from one roof to the next. She had gotten used to tagging along with Sun as she moved through space and felt as if it were taking forever to get to Juuban. Not only that, it had been so long since she had roof hopped, she was out of practice and unsure of herself as she not-so-boldly leapt from one roof to the next. It took a few hops to get back into the swing of things and after almost falling due to a thin coating of ice, Ami took it more cautiously. After what seemed like hours, but was really only a handful of minutes, Mercury was on top of a store looking down at the scene.

With disbelief, she studied the disaster that the shopping district had become. The street and buildings were pockmarked with craters and great gaping holes. A broken water main spewed liquid high into the sky as icicles formed on nearby debris fueled by the misting geyser. Great clouds of dust hung like a fog over the entire scene. What drew Ami's attention the most was the huge pile of rubble that used to be a multistory shopping center. Surrounding the rubble were various rescue vehicles, people in orange vests, some with dogs sniffing through the concrete, poking into and around the pile, looking for survivors.

She also noted the covered stretchers being loaded onto the back of a truck and the covered bodies under blue tarps.

"This is not good," Mercury thought to herself as she resurveyed the scene.

The others were talking to a uniformed man as Japanese Defense Force soldiers moved about, cordoning off the area and assisting the civilian forces with the rescue of the survivors. The uniformed man looked vaguely familiar, but Mercury couldn't put a name to the face. She leapt from the rooftop and alighted on the ground, careful not to slip on any ice, next to Sailors Mars and Jupiter. Sailor Mars glared at the newly arrived Senshi. "What took you?" she asked sharply. "And where's Sun?"

Ami, who was not in the mood, cut to the point, "I had things that needed to be taken care of and Sun's not coming. I'll explain later."

Mars was obviously not satisfied, but remained silent.

"Mercury, we need you to do as a complete scan as you can of this," Moon said while motioning to a pile of twisted metal that looked roughly like a man. "We need to know what we are dealing with."

Mercury nodded as she summoned the Mercury computer and the display visor snapped into place. Mercury noted the uniformed man standing near Sailor Moon and tried to place him. Moon caught the look, even though it was invisible to the man due to the masking field, and made the introductions. "You remember General Takei, Mercury?" Moon asked. "He was the officer in charge of fighting the Protectors when they invaded."

Recognition dawned on Mercury. "Of course!" she exclaimed. "I knew I had met you somewhere before. It is good to see you again." Mercury finished with a polite bow.

"And you," General Takei said, returning the bow. "I wish it could have been under more pleasant circumstances."

Mercury nodded in understanding.

"Mercury," Moon said, drawing everybody's attention. "General Takei has been charged with assessing and determining what this is and what to do about it by the JDF. We have agreed to share any information between us, so I'll need you to supply a copy of your findings to the General."

Mercury raised an eyebrow, but didn't question the request. "I'll get right on it."

- - - - - - - -

Ranma sat silently next to Tenchi who, after a silent and quick debate, decided to come along and make sure Ranma got where she was going all right. Ranma was lost in her own inner turmoil of emotions and shock. Tenchi held her hand throughout the ride and watched as various emotions played over her face. Ranma's expressions changed from neutral, shock, anger and then grief that so screwed up her face in pain that it looked as if she were going to burst into tears again. After a particularly painful look, Tenchi shifted so he had his arm around Ranma's shoulder - public displays of affection be damned - to comfort her. Ranma was hurting and he wanted to make it stop.

After what seemed like a long quiet, Ranma turned to Tenchi. "She can't be dead, she can't be," Ranma told Tenchi. "She was fine the last I talked with her. She can't be dead."

"I'm... I'm sorry Ranma," Tenchi said softly as he squeezed her hand gently. "I don't know what to say."

Ranma shook her head slowly and leaned into Tenchi, lost in her thoughts again. "She can't be dead," she whispered and fell silent once more. Tenchi watched the top of Ranma's red head as she leaned into his comforting embrace. He felt her tense up and relax, obviously reflecting the emotional cycling that she was experiencing. Ranma's tensing up sometimes got uncomfortable for Tenchi when Ranma leaned too hard into him, but he grimaced and bore it, knowing that Ranma was hurting worse than he was.

"I should have been there," Ranma said with anger surprisingly lacing her voice. "I should have been there for her like she was for me."

Tenchi patted her back and rubbed it gently as they sat together. They ignored any disapproving looks that other passengers gave them, but they still made Ranma aware of how tightly she was hanging on to Tenchi and she sat up and away from him a bit. "I'm sorry," she said. "It's just that... I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Tenchi said soothingly while drawing Ranma back to him. "I remember when my mother died. I was little and don't remember anything really, but the feelings. I'll be here for you if you need me."

Ranma looked at the taller Tenchi with a sad smile on her face. Her lower lip trembled as if she were going to burst into tears again, but didn't. "Thanks," she said. "I appreciate it."

She then leaned back into him.

- - - - - - - -

"Before I start, what happened?" Ami asked.

"This thing," Sailor Jupiter answered while motioning with her hand to several lumps of metal. "Landed over there and destroyed that department store." Mercury looked at the sites that were indicated by Jupiter. "Then Mars showed up and we took it down."

Mercury nodded for Jupiter to continue.

"It just started blasting everything - for no reason," Jupiter said with an exasperated tone. She breathed a few heavy breaths, rubbed her forehead with her hand and continued in a voice thick with emotion. "They're still pulling bodies out of the rubble. I don't know how many died."

Mercury had her computer out and began scanning the wreckage of the machine that caused so much destruction and death. She moved here and there, looking at the heads up display before her eyes. She moved to a large chunk of the machine that was somewhat intact.

As she scanned she was able to see the intricacies, the exotic materials used in its construction and something else... a trace of... something organic?

"I'm getting something weird here," she announced, "but it is residual."

"What is it?" Jupiter asked.

"It's... organic," Mercury said.

"You mean there was something alive in there?" Mars asked.

"Most likely," Ami said with a nod.

"Is it safe to open?" General Takei asked. "I feel we should investigate what's inside."

Mercury scanned the wreak again before nodding. "I don't detect any booby traps, but watch the liquid that's leaking here," she pointed out the puddle underneath the power suit, "it's poisonous."

General Takei nodded and motioned for some men armed with blowtorches forward. After giving them Mercury's warning on the liquid, he stepped away to allow the men to work. "Open it up," he ordered.

While the men were working on torching open the mass of metal, Mercury took the time to examine her surroundings carefully. It wasn't pretty and the smell wasn't either. The smell was that of rotting, wet rags and burnt asphalt, a very nasty combination that made Mercury feel slightly ill.

The air still had the fog of dust and smoke from the collapsed building. The streets and surrounding buildings were pocked marked with holes ranging in size from that of a fist to a yard in diameter. Except where water rained down from the broken water lines, the entire block seemed covered in a powdery ash from the settling dust.

"It's open, sir." The sound of the man's voice drew Mercury's attention back to the matter at hand. She turned in time to see the two men with the welding equipment quickly withdraw from the armored suit.

The other scouts geared up for anything. Moon had her tiara charged and in her hand as Mars had a Fire Snipe ready just in case. Jupiter was ready to pounce on whatever threat might come crawling out of the wreckage. None came. Mercury had her computer out and began taking new readings.

"Jupiter," Moon said with a nod.

Jupiter took point as Moon and Mars flanked her sides, wary of any attack. Mercury brought up the rear, taking readings all the way. "It's safe," Mercury declared. "The bio-reading is residual. Whatever is in there is dead."

The other Senshi relaxed their guard only slightly. Jupiter toed the panel that had been freed by the torches. "Ready?" she asked of the others. The replies were tense nods. Jupiter kicked off the heavy armored door, revealing the innards. The three other Senshi crowded around to peer inside. What they found surprised them.

"What the hell does this mean?" Mars asked of no one in particular.

Moon shook her head and spoke barely above a whisper, "I don't know."

- - - - - - - -

Tenchi walked beside Ranma, closely, as he carried her bag over one shoulder. She hadn't been too responsive to anything around her and occasionally squeezed his hand. It would have been such a lovely day if it weren't for the reason for the visit to Ranma's home.

"Tenchi?" Ranma ventured quietly. "Can you do me a favor?"

Tenchi looked down upon the women walking beside him. "Anything."

Ranma forced a smile - a small one, but a smile none-the-less. "Could you... tell my boss... where I work..." Ranma voice trailed off then.

Tenchi smiled back at her. "Sure," he said, understanding where Ranma was coming from. "I'll tell them what happened," Tenchi said, then felt the need to remind her of what he said earlier. "I'll get whatever assignments for your classes that come up this week while you're gone."

Ranma's forced smile waned as she nodded. All too soon they were outside the Yoshi Cafe America. It looked the same as the first time Ranma had laid eyes on it. The only difference was the 'Closed' sign that was unusual for the time of day. Ranma tried the door, jiggling the knob and found it locked. Digging through her purse, she quickly retrieved her keys and slid the correct one into the keyhole. Just as the keys jangled against the tumblers, the door opened from the inside.

It was Uncle Yoshi.

"Un- uncle," Ranma squeaked out.

The man's shoulders sagged. "Come in," he beckoned. "We're waiting for your sister to arrive."

Tenchi was about to excuse himself when Yoshi motioned him inside. Feeling it would be impolite to decline, Tenchi entered. The dining area was lit only by the light that streamed in from the windows. He watched Ranma as she took a chair across from a round faced woman with greying hair. The women took Ranma's shaking hands into hers.

"What happened?" Ranma voice asked, sounding small and hopeless.

The women rested her hands over Ranma's and gave them a gentle squeeze. "Ranma," she said gently, "Akiko died of a heart attack."

Ranma blinked at the women as Ranma's Uncle Yoshi moved toward the kitchen to make a phone call. "Hea-Heart attack?" Ranma questioned. "No, that can't be," she insisted with a shake of her head. "She was fine when I saw her. She was-"

"Ranma," the woman said firmly. "I know this is hard to take, but the doctors said that..." her voice trailed off as she saw that Ranma had stopped listening and was looking down, weeping. "Ranma..." she said gently.

Tenchi felt a bit out of place standing by the front door. On one hand, he felt that he was intruding on a very private moment and didn't belong there. On the other, he was invited inside and should stay with Ranma until she got herself together. Unsure as to exactly what to do, since Ranma's family was present, he decided that Ranma's needs were more important than the discomfort he was feeling and decided to approach Ranma. With that decision firmly in mind, he placed Ranma's bag on the floor and came up behind the seated redhead. He knelt down and wrapped his arms around her. Ranma buried her face in his shoulder and cried for all she was worth.

- - - - - - - -

Hunched over the battered remains of a control console and strapped into a form fitting seat, was the body of a young man. He wore a uniform of some sort, decked out in blue with darker blue trim and black gloves and boots. He was young and had reddish-blond hair and an almost peaceful look on his face. He was quite dead.

"What does this mean?" Mars asked again. "I was expecting a Protector or something like that. I wasn't expecting a guy."

Moon shook her head. "I don't know what this means, but we're going to find out. Mercury, gather as much information as you can. Don't forget to include a copy for General Takei."

Mercury nodded as Moon continued, "Mars, Jupiter gather as many pieces of this..." she motioned with her hand at the remains of the armored suit, "... thing that you can find. We need to know what makes it tick, where it came from and how it got here."

Silence fell among the four Scouts as the noise of the nearby digging penetrated their senses. Moon looked up at the remains of the building and the men working on removing the survivors. "Maybe we should concentrate on more immediate matters first," she said. The other Scouts agreed with a nod.

-------

"I'd like to thank you for helping Ranma the way you did," Ranma's uncle, Yoshi, said as he walked Tenchi back toward the bus stop. "It means a lot to us."

"You're welcome," Tenchi replied as he walked beside Ranma's uncle. "She was really... hurting. I had to do something."

The man nodded. "Ranma was adopted into the clan about two years ago. As I understand it, her life before coming to us wasn't very easy."

Tenchi gave a sidelong glance at the man, wondering what and where the conversation was going. "I knew she was adopted," Tenchi commented. "I got that idea from what she has told me. She doesn't like talking about her past too much - and I don't blame her."

Yoshi nodded in understanding. "Just be there for her," he said. "Ranma was very attached to my mother. I think this affects her more than anyone."

Tenchi remained silent for a moment. "I kinda got that impression. She did speak very highly of her grandmother."

Yoshi nodded. "For Ranma, Akiko and Michiko were the first real family she ever had in her life."

The two continued on in companionable silence to the stop.

- - - - - - - -

The Juraian Fleet Command was a huge building that took up several square miles of Jurai with its massive domed structure. Though many functions of the fleet were delegated down to subcommands that were scattered all over the Empire, here many of the most critical decisions were made. Dotted over the surface of the massive, weather-stained dome are aerials, antennas, and satellite dishes that point upward at various angles toward the stars. Many of the relics didn't work anymore, for they had been replaced by newer and more efficient means of communication. But the projections remained as reminders of when times were more primitive. The whole effect these outcroppings gave the surface of the building was that of a high-tech cemetery.

This was the heart of fleet operations.

In the large and dimly lit heart of the building, a large circular table, like a ring, dominated the room as the Fleet Admirals sat in their chairs. Each being in the room was focused on the center of the room, where a holographic projection replayed the destruction of the fleet stationed near the Royal family in the Sol system for all to see. The replay ended with a shot of the bridge of the command ship as the strangely dressed enemy destroyed the ship. At that point, the image faded into nothing.

The men, women and other beings that weren't human, that made up the Admirals and their staffs, sat in quiet contemplation as the hologram faded and the room lights came up.

"How was the enemy able to destroy the fleet?" one of the many important people in the crowd asked.

"Unknown," one of the staffers answered. "Analysis has not been completed yet and we're hindered by a lack of data."

"What do we know?" another Admiral asked.

"Not much, basically just what we see at this point," the man dressed in a white outfit answered. "The recordings from the sensors of every ship in the fleet registered massive amounts of power coming from this... being. So far, the computers and scientists haven't even been able to identify what kind of power. We're still working on it."

"Where did this thing come from?"

"After the destruction of the fleet, one of our monitoring probes that was stationed within the Sol system itself, detected the flight path of this... person," other man in white said. "The projected destination was the third planet. The same planet that the Royal family is residing on."

On those words, the room broke out into various conversations, side conversations and speculation. The droning of the Admirals, their advisors and the scientists present rose as each group tried to speak over the other.

"Order. Order!" came the overpowering and commanding voice of the Grand Admiral. The room quickly fell silent. After the Grand Admiral was satisfied that order had been restored, he addressed the scientist that had spoken. "Are you telling us that this thing headed for the third planet?"

"Yes sir."

"But that just tells us were it went, but not where it came from. Correct?"

"That is correct, sir."

The Grand Admiral rubbed his forehead while he thought. After running his fingers through his thinning hair, he announced, "We can cannot risk the lives of the Royal family. We must retrieve them from potentially hostile territory before we can deal with this menace."

"I can agree with that," another uniformed Admiral said.

"Has the Emperor been informed of this?" another questioned.

"Not any of the details yet," the Grand Admiral answered. "I wanted to present our findings and our recommendations in one meeting. If we are going to act, it must be quickly and decisively."

"I think we should get a small strike team together and do a 'hit and run' operation," one of the Admirals suggested. "Let's get in there, get the Royal family and get out as quickly as possible."

"I disagree," another Admiral said. "We must get the Royal family to safety, but I recommend that we also use this to demonstrate the power of the Juraian Fleet by sending the third, fifth and sixth fleets to do so."

"You do realize that would mean committing over three thousand ships to this operation," the Grand Admiral pointed out.

"Yes," the Admiral that had spoken said. "But if the threat did originate from this planet, a show of force would prevent any more hostile actions."

"Or it might provoke one," another Admiral from across the table pointed out rather harshly.

"True," still another uniformed man agreed.

"A fleet that size would be easily detected," yet another Admiral pointed out. "We need to get the Royal family out first."

The Grand Admiral mulled over his Admirals' suggestions. After a moment of silence in which he pondered the best course of action, he spoke. "I'll recommend to the Emperor that we send a small strike team in first to recover the Royal family," he finally said. "I am also going to recommend that this strike team be backed by a fleet. That way if there is any trouble, we'll be prepared." He looked around the circular table at each of his subordinates."Any more suggestions?"

He was greeted by several shakes of the head.

"Very well," the Grand Admiral said. "I want everyone to start setting things into motion. If the Emperor gives us the okay, I want to be already rolling."

- - - - - - - -

"Will we make it in time?" an eager voice asked over the roar of the engine.

"Maybe," came the terse reply.

On the streets of Tokyo, in Minato, near Iigura Elementary School, a low, sleek sports car weaved around the sparse traffic that populated Sakurada Avenue as it sped to its destination. The driver was slightly hunched over the steering wheel as she pulled the car from one side of the street to the other, causing her strapped in passenger to shift from one side of her seat to the other within the confines of her seat-belt.

"I knew we should have left earlier," the driver complained as she dodged around another moving obstruction. "We might be late for curtain."

The passenger, who was strapped in and hanging on for dear life, pouted a bit before smirking. "You didn't seem to mind the reason for our tardiness."

The driver flushed slightly, then returned her full concentration to the road. "Well..."

Haruka didn't get to finish as a heavy metal robot-like thing fell from the sky to smash into the middle of the street directly in her path. Haruka pulled the wheel hard causing the car to fishtail around the unexpected obstacle and skid sideways down the street. She worked the wheel one way, then the other, in an effort to straighten the car out. After one and a half three sixties, the car came to a stop in the middle of the street, pointed in the wrong direction.

"What the hell?" Michiru said, as she looked at the thing in the middle of the road. "That looks like one of those things that Moon and the others fought."

"Let's get somewhere and change," Haruka said as she reengaged the gears and tore down a side street before quickly guiding the car into an alley. "If we hurry, we can take it down before it kills anybody."

Michiru nodded as they got out of the car, looked around and transformed into their Senshi forms. The two arrived back at the scene just as the armored suit moved its shoulder gun into position and began powering up. Making a quick visual scan, both were relieved to find that most of the people had hightailed it out of the area. With a quick glance at one another, both positioned themselves to go on the offensive.

"World Shaking!" Sailor Uranus cried as she unleashed her attack. The ball of concentrated energy traveled along the ground, tearing a furrow in the pavement as it did. As it neared its target, the ringed ball of energy became airborne and slammed into the side of the armored suit, causing it to stagger like a drunk. Part of the arm was shredded and the entire side was left smoking.

Sailor Uranus had gotten better thanks to time and training from the newest Senshi. Her attack recharge time had been more than halved and she prepared another 'World Shaking' for the staggering armored suit.

The attack was very well planned out. Coordinated attacks were so much better than individual efforts.

The aqua blue ringed ball of Neptune's 'Deep Submerge' tore at the opposite side of the armored suit that Uranus had hit, causing the arm below the elbow to be blown completely off along with bits and pieces of the chest area. By that time, another 'World Shaking' connected with the armored suit, blowing the heavy suit off its feet and flat onto the pavement. There it sparked a few times from rents in the thick armor before falling silent, smoke pouring out of gaping holes that now covered its body.

Sailor Neptune approached Sailor Uranus, together they surveyed their handiwork. Both jumped into a ready stance as the metal monster's foot twitched once with a sizzling sound before going still. After a few heartbeats, both Senshi relaxed somewhat.

"This is almost like two years ago," Neptune said.

Uranus replied only with a nod.

- - - - - - - -

"What did you find out?" a worried Washu asked Tsunami as soon as her image appeared in the hologram.

"Nothing," Tsunami answered. "All the power suits are accounted for. Whatever attacked, didn't come from Jurai."

"That can't be!" Washu insisted. "There have been more attacks over the last week and I even managed to retrieve a sample of armor from one of the battles. They were small true, but enough to analyze. It was definitely what was used in our power suits back then. Why, we even use the same type armor today, in our military ships."

"You sure?" Tsunami questioned.

"Yes!" Washu insisted. "I can even show you the results."

"I'm not questioning your results," Tsunami said patiently. "I'm just reporting what I found. All the Juraian Special Forces power suits that were deactivated and mothballed are all present and accounted for. The seals on the storage bunkers were still intact and my sources had to break those to check the inventories."

Washu shook her head. "It was clearly a vintage Special Forces power suit."

"I understand," Tsunami said. "Is there any way for you to get a hold of something more substantial? Something with a serial or service number on it?"

Washu shook her head. "After the Senshi were through examining them, the military carted them off somewhere. I was always too late to find out where and none of the Earth communications have mentioned them so I wouldn't even know where to start looking." Washu paused to catch her breath before continuing. "But in spite of that, I did manage to track one down, but security is too tight for even me to crack."

Tsunami raised an eyebrow, a motion the Washu caught.

"The remains of the power suit is constantly surrounded by guards, technicians and scientists poking around it," Washu explained. "I may be able to sneak in after they're through examining it, but until they relax their guard, I can't get close."

"What about sending a small spying device to get the information to you?"

Washu nodded once before shaking her head. "I could do that. I've been so busy building and maintaining the hunter/killers for the devices that are spying on us, I didn't even think about it," Washu explained. "I've got several hundred hunter/killers patrolling my lab to be sure that we're not spied upon. Who ever is spying on us has gotten smarter too, because they're using hunter/killers against our hunter/killers."

"So you been waging a little war here by yourself?" Tsunami asked.

"More or less... Well, yes. You can say that," Washu answered.

Tsunami sighed. "How long to make some spies of your own?"

"About four or five days," Washu answered. "Then I'll have to deliver them near where the power suit is stored. With the other side's hunter/killers in the area, I doubt my little spies would be able to get out."

Tsunami nodded. "What are you doing in the meantime?"

"I have posted some devices in Tokyo in hopes of obtaining something the next time one pops up, also I'm trying to use screen shots from the news feeds to get the service numbers that way."

"Good," Tsunami nodded. "You may want to revisit the areas of the fights anyway. There may be something you overlooked that belonged to one of the suits for further analysis."

Washu nodded. She had already thought of doing that, but saw no need to mention it.

Silence fell between them as each mulled over their thoughts.

"Washu, I have some news... bad news," Tsunami said softly. "I don't know how you are going to take it."

Washu sighed. "What else can go wrong?" she wondered as she motioned for Tsunami to continue.

"The fleet stationed here to evacuate the Royal family in case of emergencies has been destroyed," Tsunami said gravely.

Washu looked at her ghostly friend. "Destroyed? Why? By who?"

Tsunami shook her head. "We don't know why, but I think I know who." Tsunami then reached through the haze that marked the border between her world and Washu's. "Here," she said as a capsule oozed into existence. "A recording of made as the fleet was attacked. I'll let you analyze it and we'll compare notes."

"You think whoever set loose the power suits may have destroyed the fleet?" Washu asked as she picked up the capsule from the floor.

"I would rather you do your analysis free from any preconceived notions," Tsunami said in a very serious manner. "I want to know what you come up independently from me."

Washu blinked at the seriousness in Tsunami voice. "Okay," she conceded. "I'll call you as some as I find out anything."

- - - - - - - -

"What did you find out?" Moon asked Mercury at the weekly meeting of the Senshi. Everyone was there with the exception of Pluto, who was still at work at the Gates of Time, and Sun, who was at a funeral.

"Well for the most part," Mercury answered as she pulled the Mercury Computer out of stuff space and opened it. "The alloy used in the construction of the armored suits is made up of common elements found here except for several which are not native to Earth."

Mercury hit a few buttons on the keypad of the Mercury computer and a holographic image of what looked like an transparent, egg shaped structure made of multicolored points that were connected by lines. The points were grouped by their colors and overall, the effect was rainbow-ish.

"What's that?" questioned Mars.

"It's the 'Periodic Table of Elements' from the Moon computer," Mercury answered offhandedly. "The Moon scientists laid out the elements in relation to their evolutionary creation and how they're related to one another. The simple and basic elements that were created with the big bang are in the center, the more complex ones are toward the outside. The color represent Groups and Orders while the lines represent the Families that the elements were derived from."

"Okay, what does this have to do with this?" Venus asked, somewhat intrigued.

"Well, the elements found in the solar system are these," Mercury tapped a button and a series of elements were highlighted and flashing. "The ones found in the alloy of the power suit are these." She once again tapped a button and several more elements were highlighted and flashing slightly off from the others.

The group of girls stared at Mercury's presentation.

"Because of the amount of these exotic elements in the armor," Mercury continued, "it suggests that these armored suit came from another star system, one made up of elements alien to our solar system."

Moon, Jupiter, Mars and Neptune blink-blinked and stared at their short haired friend.

"Huh?" Jupiter asked for the group intelligently.

Mercury blinked back, cleared her throat and spoke.

"There are only so many elements that can be found naturally in the solar system because it was formed from the remnants of two supernovas colliding and coalescing," Mercury explained. "You see, more elements, especially the heavier ones, are created with every generation of star building. So elements that are common in older star systems, are rarer in younger ones."

The other girls in the room just stared back at Mercury, uncomprehending. Several moments ticked by.

"And what does that have to do with the armored suit?" Moon finally ventured.

"The power suits armor contains elements that cannot be found naturally in this solar system," Mercury said patiently as she tried to get her point across. "They contain heavier elements from other, older star remnants. Second generation stars wouldn't have some of the heavier elements of a third generation star, and a third generation star wouldn't have some of the elements of a forth..."

"And?" Jupiter asked, breaking the moment of silence that followed. She tried to grasp what Mercury said.

Mercury sighed and rubbed her head in thought. "The exotic elements that I found in the armored suits alloys can be manufactured here on Earth artificially, but they would be expensive, crude, unstable and highly radioactive compared to natural occurring elements."

"So what does that mean, and what are we dealing with?" Mars asked, wanting Mercury to get to the point.

"The amount of elements that are non-terrestrial," Mercury said carefully, hiding her frustration, "suggests that the armored suits were manufactured with materials from a forth or fifth generation star system."

"And we're a third...," Jupiter muttered, dimly grasping where Mercury was going.

Mercury nodded as silence fell among the group of girls.

"So, what you are trying to say," Moon summarized, "is that the armored suits that attacked for no reason came from outer space?"

Mercury shifted a bit in her seat, then nodded. "Well - yes... exactly."

Silence fell briefly before an exasperated Moon shook her head and said, "Why didn't you just say so in the first place?"

- - - - - - - -

The grounds of the small temple were clean and orderly. The torii gate that marked the entrance of the compound was made of stone unlike the red painted, wooden ones that lined the steps up to the shrine. The light wooden structures within the temple compound were topped by red tiled roofs with ornate trim. Ranma would have compared the temple to the Cherry Hill Shrine, or to the one Tenchi lived at if she were not so numb with grief.

The night before had been the wake. When it was over with, Ranma took turns with Yoshi's and Shoji's wives in staying up and watching over the remains of Akiko. Each took a three hour watch with Ranma's being in the middle of the night. She did most of her grieving then and felt emotionally drained by the time Shoji's wife relieved her.

Ranma was dressed in a formal black kimono as she knelt by her sister Michiko, who was dressed identically. Ranma was beside herself in grief and Michiko wasn't in any better shape. Both young women had clung to each other in their mourning and only now were able to function in a somewhat dazed state.

The day was beautiful. Rounded, white clouds drifted slowly through the blue sky. The limbs of the barren trees that filled the of the temple grounds' courtyard swayed gently in the cool, autumn breeze. Though the trees were without their foliage, they still processed a certain beauty all their own, like a sleeping child. Snow littered the ground and the branches of the trees.

Ranma felt betrayed by the day. She felt that the weather should have reflected the mood of the moment. Ranma felt that it should have been overcast, cloudy, rainy - something more suited for the occasion, not the sunny, partly cloudy, let's-spend-the-day-outdoors day it turned out to be.

In front of the temple altar was another smaller one built by the mortuary. Before that was the casket that held the worldly remains of a woman that Ranma had grown to know and love like a mother. Sitting upright, propped against the casket, was a wooded tablet that Akiko's posthumous name was inscribed on. This was to keep Akiko's spirit from coming back every time her name was mentioned.

Ranma sat and listened to the balding, orange robed priest read a sutra, but she was not really paying attention to what was being said. She looked blankly at the crowd of people who showed up to pay their last respects. Part way through the sutra, the priest called for the offering of incense. The first to make their offering was the very elderly Hiroji, Akiko's father. The offering moved down the family tree, with Ranma - being the most junior member of the clan, being last.

After Ranma took her turn, it was the visitors turn to make their offerings. Akiko was well known and liked in the neighborhood and many people came to pay their respects. All during the offerings the priest continued the sutra. Ranma sat by her sister and watched each guest kneel on the cushion before the urn, bow, then make an offering of incense before bowing again.

Ranma was too numb to really feel anything during the whole process. Though she felt numb, she did feel the tears as they tracked down her cheeks.

- - - - - - - -

"What does this mean?" Washu thought with a frown as she ran through the analysis for the third time knowing what the outcome would be.

"This can't be, but how?" she thought frustratedly. She rested her elbow on the floating keyboard in front of her and rubbed her temples with her fingers. She hated headaches and she was looking at the biggest one she'd seen in quite some time.

She had painstakingly extracted and separated every wavelength and channel of the doomed fleet's recording and managed to generate a image of the waveform of the attacker. It was iron-tight proof that the Senshi were involved in the fleet's destruction. Each waveform was like a fingerprint or a sample of DNA - unique and individual to each person, or Senshi, in this case.

The conclusion was unmistakable. A conclusion that she had no doubt that Tsunami had also come to.

She sagged down further into her floating seat, feeling the weight of all the eons pressing down on her. Rubbing her temples with her forefingers and thumb, Washu wondered what to do. She sighed heavily and looked at the evidence before her.

Two screens that floated before her displayed two waveforms. One showed the waveform of Sailor Sun that she collected from the ancient files that she downloaded from the Moon computer earlier in the summer and later readings recorded during Ranma's visit to Tenchi. The other screen displayed the power waveform of the unknown assailant that attacked and destroyed the fleet.

They matched.

Perfectly.

- - - - - - - --

"What can we do?" Neptune asked the group of girls.

"Well," Mercury began, "I've started looking into the Moon Kingdom's defenses to see if there is anything like an early warning system. I figure there would have to be since they went through the trouble of creating Sailor Sun."

Mercury was greeted with several nods.

"After all this time, would there still be anything left around?" Mars asked incredulously.

"We are," Mercury pointed out. "By the way, I put the Moon Computer on level five security. No one but me and Sailor Moon can access it now."

Moon nodded in approval, then questioned, "How long will it take you to find out if anything is left of the early warning system?"

"About two days, maybe three," Mercury replied. "If there is anything still functioning, I'll get as much of it up and running as fast as I can." She paused for a breath before continuing. "In the interim," Mercury said, "I put out a crawler to see if there was anything here today that would help us."

"Crawler?" Mars queried as the others gave puzzled looks.

"Yes," Mercury began to explain. "A crawler is a program that the Moon computer uses to access and search for information that is stored on computers all around the world. I wasn't expecting anything, but I got a hit."

"What?" Moon asked, slightly surprised. "You mean that there is something here, now, that could help us?"

Mercury nodded as she brought up the relevant screen on her computer before continuing. "Yes. It seems that the Americans are working on something called 'Project Excalibur'. It's based on technology that was captured from the Nazis at the end of World War Two."

"World War Two?!" Jupiter exclaimed. "The Nazis?!"

Mercury continued. "But the technology didn't originate in Germany, it came from knowledge gleaned from archeological artifacts the Nazis gathered before the outbreak of the war. I haven't had time to fully research it yet, but it seems that the Germans were doing a lot of that before the war - looking for new sources of weapons."

"What are the American's using this - technology - for?" Uranus ventured.

"Well, Project Excalibur is part of a FTL project," Mercury explained. "There was a reference to 'Fruit of the Loom' - whatever that is - I suspect that it was some kind of in-joke, but I discovered that FTL stands for 'Faster Than Light'."

Silence hung at the end of that statement.

"Faster Than Light? Is that even possible?" Mars asked.

"Of course it is," Venus said sharply. "Remember the Starlights?"

Mars nodded. "I had forgotten about them," she admitted. "So Excalibur is a faster than light space ship?"

Mercury nodded. "Yes, and from what I was able to find out they're going to move through space the same way that Sailor Sun does: By folding space."

"I always wondered, how far can Sun travel by doing that?" Venus mused aloud.

Mercury shrugged her shoulders. "As far as I know, Sun can travel anywhere in the universe almost instantaneously. Her only limiting factor would be navigation."

Moon cleared her throat, drawing the attention of the other girls. "As nice as this all is, what does it have to do with our current situation?"

"Umm... yeah," Mercury said weakly. "Is seems that the Americans are using something in their project called 'Space Field Sensors' to monitor the fabric of space for abnormalities."

The circle of girls blink-blinked at the blue haired Senshi.

"Umm... what does that mean and how does that help us?" Uranus asked.

Mercury sighed. "It mean that the Americans can detect deep space/time disturbances - almost instantaneously. The way that do it is-"

Mercury was stopped by Moon's upheld hand. "Mercury, as enthusiastic as you are about this - how does that help us?"

Mercury blinked. "Sorry," she said meekly. "That means that I can tap in and monitor things using the American array. Think of it as radar for the fabric of space. It's cruder than the sensors that the Moon computer will have access to, but it's all we have until I get the Moon's deep space sensors up and running."

Moon nodded as the did the others. "Get a hold of Sun and tell her what's going on," Moon said to Mercury. "If this is an invasion from outer space, she'll be the only one that can deal with it."

Mercury nodded, then slowly shook her head. "True. In fact, Sun was made specifically for this type of combat. I'll try to get a hold of her, but Sun should be tied up with her grandmother's funeral right now. It'll probably be a few days before I can get a chance to talk to her."

"Would it be safe to use her?" Venus asked worriedly. "You know how powerful she is."

"She should be fine. It's not like she going to blow a planet up or anything," Mars interjected. "Besides, she was designed for this kind of stuff."

Jupiter nodded absently. "Yeah... and she does have better control over her powers than when she fought the Protector two years ago."

"That's true, but didn't she have to take the fight to outer space to do it though?" Venus reminded them.

"That still doesn't change the fact that Sun is the only Senshi among us that is equipped to handle this," Moon stated quite matter-of-factly. "As Mercury and Mars pointed out, Sun was designed and built for just such a thing."

Silence revisited the girls. Moon's choice of words were slightly disturbing to them. It was uncomfortable to be reminded that their origins were to serve as weapons.

"Jupiter, have you heard anything from Pluto since she left to repair the Gates?" Moon asked breaking the silence.

"I did contact her earlier today and she said she would be here after she was through trying to get some probable readings on the future," Jupiter said.

Moon nodded to that statement.

"What about the man, the pilot of the armored suit?" Mars asked. "Was he an alien?"

Mercury shook her head. "That's the weird part of this. The pilot of the armored suit was definitely human, but he had some odd genetic variables."

"What do you mean?" Usage asked.

"I mean than there were differences- small differences - to suggest that he was not too far removed from the gene pool here on Earth," Mercury answered.

The room descended into silence.

"So he was a close relation to people on Earth?" Uranus questioned.

Mercury nodded. "Yes, very close, but there more oddities too."

"Like?"

"The fact that the pilot had been dead for at least twenty four hours before the attack."

Further discussion was interrupted by Pluto wavering into existence.

"Pluto, how are the repairs going?" Moon quickly asked.

"Slowly," Pluto answered tiredly. "I was able to get some readings on the immediate future though."

The room fell silent as the girls waited for the other shoe to drop.

"There is a space fleet coming," Pluto announced. "Within the limited reference points that have been replaced, the fleet showed up in about five out of six futures."

"How many ships?" Moon asked worriedly.

"A lot," Pluto answered. "I'm not trying to be evasive about this, but the way the time-streams are, I cannot give you a accurate count. Thousands would be a safe guess."

"Thousands of ships...," Mercury whispered. "This is just the kind of thing... Oh No!"

The others in the room jumped at Mercury outburst.

"What's wrong?" Uranus asked Mercury, rubbing her ear since she was seated next to her.

"Mars, when you visited Sun, what did she say her grandmother died of?" Mercury asked.

Mars blinked at her fellow Senshi before answering. "A heart attack. Why?"

"It may be a coincidence, but it's just too convenient," Mercury said. "First-"

"Wait," Pluto interrupted, slightly shocked. "Sun's grandmother is dead? When did this happen?"

"Earlier this week," Mars answered. "She's at the funeral."

"Right," Mercury said, getting back into the conversation.

"What are you worried about?" Moon asked.

"Sailor Sun is the only Senshi designed to handle combat in space,right?" Mercury pointed out. "In fact, she was specially created to fight against invading space-fleets."

Silence fell among the girls as they digested that tidbit.

"Great," Moon said as she rubbed her forehead with her fingers. "Just great. We have an invading space-fleet that could show up any time and our best weapon against them is tied up with a funeral."

"You're thinking that Sun's grandmother was killed to tie her down?" Uranus asked, joining in on the speculation.

"I don't know," Mercury responded hesitantly while biting her lip. "But with all that's going on, we shouldn't rule out the possibility. The timing of her death is suspicious and killing Sun's grandmother would be a good way to keep her occupied and unfocused."

Moon and Pluto nodded in agreement as the others mulled that around in their heads.

"If it wasn't a coincidence, then we might be in bigger trouble than we thought," Uranus said.

"True," Mercury agreed while nodding.

"Why?" Mars asked, not getting the meaning behind Uranus' words.

"Because it would mean that whoever did this knows Sun's identity," Moon answered. "It also means they might know ours as well."

Silence revisited the girls once again. The disquieting thought that their friends and loved ones might be targets was alarming.

"It had to be a coincidence," Venus said with more than a little hope in her voice. "After all, no one else has an unexpected death in the family - and it was a heart attack."

"Or who ever they are, doesn't consider us enough of a threat to warrant any action against," Mercury pointed out.

Everyone pondered that.

"I need one of you," Moon said suddenly and seriously to Mercury and Mars, "to get a hold of Sun. Today. Fill her in what's going on, and tell her to stand by."

"What about our suspicions about her grandmother's death?"

"We'll keep that to ourselves for now. We have no real proof and telling her what we suspect would do more harm than good," Moon answered. "Pluto, can you try to use the Gates to prove one way or another if this was an enemy action or not?"

"I can try," Pluto said. "It'll take me a few days, relative, to do it."

Moon nodded. "Do your best."

"Wait a minute," Neptune interjected. "If killing Sun's grandmother was something to tie her up, then wouldn't they be attacking now?"

Moon thought on that while looking at each of the Scouts present. She sighed. "Sun is the most powerful Senshi among us, probably the most powerful being ever. But in spite of how powerful she is, she has always been... emotionally fragile compared to the rest of us."

The other girls looked at one another.

"I don't know," Mars said. "I think killing Sun's grandmother would, like, piss her off? Make her go for vengeance?"

Moon nodded in agreement with that though. "True," she said. "But they may be completely unaware or have underestimated how powerful Sun truly is and acted."

Silence fell among the group for a heartbeat.

"This whole thing isn't making sense," Neptune interjected, adding in her two cents. "First someone spies, that is tracks Sun... wait... how would they know who Sun's grandmother is when she spends most of her time on campus? You'd think they go for her boyfriend instead." She paused, shook her head, and continued. "The reference points for the Gates get destroyed and then someone goes through our files on the Moon computer, and then drops robot things here and there that go on rampages with dead guys in them. At about the same time Sun's grandmother dies..."

The various girls nodded at Neptune's summarization.

Neptune shook her head again. "Nothing's really adding up.... and now a big space fleet is heading our way."

"There is a lot of what's going on that doesn't make sense," Moon said. "But when you're dealing with invaders from outer space, they may have a different value system. To them, what they are doing probably makes perfect sense, even if we can't understand it."

Silence fell among the girls.

"Mercury," Moon drawing the attention of everyone. "That early warning system you are working on?"

"Yes?"

"Hurry up and get it running."

- - - - - - - -

Ranma, along with the other members of the family, watched as they unloaded the casket at the crematorium. The casket was placed in a shallow pan that was affixed to a sturdy roller-topped table. Then is was rolled up to the door to the crematorium oven. The door was then opened and the casket, tray and all, was slid into the retort. The neatly dressed attendant presented the key to the portal to Akiko's son Yoshi with a deep bow.

"Please return in three hours," the attendant said politely while holding his bow. "All should be ready then."

Yoshi returned the bow. "Thank you for your kind services," he said. "We will return in three hours."

- - - - - - - -

"What did you find out?" Tsunami asked.

"The same thing you did, that the fleet was destroyed by Sailor Sun," Washu said quietly.

Tsunami sighed and her shoulders drooped. After a few heartbeats, she looked at Washu and asked, "I thought you were tracking her? What happened?"

Washu shook her head. "I don't know," she confessed. "I do know that at the moment of the attack, Ranma was in bed - I'm assuming she was asleep."

"Where is she now?" Tsunami asked.

Washu sighed and shook her head. "I don't know," she admitted. "The space/time tracker's frequency has been altered. Why, I don't know and I can't seem to get a lock on it."

"So she could be anywhere right now?"

"Yes," Washu said, "but that doesn't change anything. She was in her dorm room during the attack - there is no doubt about that."

"Are you sure?" Tsunami questioned seriously. "She does have the ability to curve time if she wants."

"I'm sure," Washu said with equal seriousness. "I checked and double checked: There were none of her space/time anomalies at the time of the fleet destruction."

Tsunami shook her head. "That doesn't mean anything," she explained. "Sailor Sun can even escape the detection of the Gates of Time, you not finding any anomalies means nothing."

Silence fell between the two women.

"Could the Mistress be involved in this somehow?" Washu asked Tsunami. "She seems to be stirring up trouble back home."

"I thought of that," Tsunami admitted. "But she was spotted by one of my probes ten minutes after the fleet was destroyed according to my records."

"So unless she can travel half a galaxy in less than ten minutes..."

"She couldn't have been involved," Tsunami finished Washu statement.

"So - what does this mean?" Washu asked.

Tsunami shook her head. "I don't know what it really means, but I do know one thing." Washu watched Tsunami let out a sigh. "It means," Tsunami continued tiredly, "that Jurai is sending several Grand Fleets here - and each is armed to the teeth."

The quiet that descended was deafening.

Washu sighed heavily. "Preparing for war?"

Tsunami nodded in response.

- - - - - - - -

Ranma and the rest of the family returned to the crematorium later in the afternoon. Yoshi led the procession since Hiroji, Akiko's father, couldn't make it for health reasons. He handed the attendant the key, then the group followed the attendant to the oven's portal. Inserting the key into the lock, the oven door was unsealed and the tray was retracted onto the table. Ranma found herself holding the urn as the rest of the family paired off and, with the help of the attendant, started picking the remaining bones from the ashes with chopsticks.

Holding out the urn, Ranma concentrated on capturing every piece that the others were placing into it. Ranma dutifully made sure no piece was lost as each bit was carried by two sets of chopsticks from two family members seated on each side of the long tray. As with custom, this was the only time when two people were allowed to hold the same thing with chopsticks.

It seemed to take forever.

Finally the task was completed, Ranma was relieved of her burden and the urn was taken from her and wrapped in a white cloth. Yoshi bowed to the crematorium attendant and took the urn containing the bones of his mother and led the family members out of the building and into the brightness of the cold winter's afternoon.

- - - - - - - --

"Let's see," Mercury said. "There have been three other attacks since the first one. The JDF stopped two and Uranus and Neptune took care of one."

"How did the JDF stop the other two attacks?" Mars asked.

"They used high velocity armor piercing rounds with depleted uranium cores," Mercury answered offhandedly.

The other Scouts looked at Mercury. Mercury blinked back in return. "That is, according to General Takei," she continued. "That is a secret, by-the-way. They apparently had to get them from the Americans."

The other nodded, understanding Japan's sensitivity to anything remotely atomic in relation to weapons.

"The thing that is confusing me, is why?" Jupiter asked. "I mean, these things just drop out of the sky and cause death and destruction and nothing more."

"They might be testing our defenses," Neptune suggested. "Remember the Protectors a few years back? This could be the same thing."

Uranus nodded in agreement. "Yes, that's what we thought when we fought that one earlier this week."

"But why have dead men in their power suits?" Jupiter interjected. "That makes the least amount of sense to me."

Mercury pondered this as did everyone else.

"Maybe to mislead us," Moon suggested. "Maybe the people who are doing this are not human at all and they want us to think they are."

Everyone considered that as silence filled the room.

Mercury shook her head. "We're just guessing," she said. "We really have no idea about the motives behind these attacks."

Moon nodded. "Between this, the Moon computer being compromised, Sun being tracked and her grandmother dying....," Moon's voice faded as the others were lost in their own thoughts.

Mars sighed. "Why here?" she asked wearily. "I mean of all the places in the world, why here. Why not Korea or China or South America?"

"Beachhead theory," Mercury answered immediately. The others blink-blinked at her.

"Beachhead theory? What's that?" Neptune asked.

"Well, it's a theory put forth by Professor Forbin of University of Texas, Eldorado in the United States, that if the Earth was ever invaded from space, the invaders would set up a beachhead that was near major populations and natural resources but geographically isolated."

Silence fell among the group.

"That means the invaders would most likely look for an area that is geographically isolated from the rest of the world but near enough to major continents with exploitable natural resources."

"Okay," Mars said with a drawl. "What does that have to do with Japan?"

"Geographically isolated... like an island," Moon said, catching on to what Mercury was saying. "But Japan is resource poor compared to other areas of the world."

"True, but Japan has location going for it," Mercury said. "There are surprisingly few places on the Earth that fit the bill." She pulled out the Mercury computer from stuff space and opened it. "Among the list of candidates for beachheads are Japan, Sumatra, Burneo, Cuba, England, and Madagascar."

The rest of the Senshi were silent, waiting for Mercury to continue.

"For various reasons most on the list are unsuitable for a beachhead, England for example. Though it is part of, and isolated from the European continent, the continent itself has a large population but really lacks a good number of natural resources. Madagascar is near a continent with large amounts of natural resources, but not many people."

"Would you want that though?" Neptune piped up. "It seems that it would make it easier to get to the resources without opposition."

Mercury sighed. "No," she said. "You see, a decent size population is a resource. You wouldn't go through the expense of moving a workforce through space, you'd use what is available locally to mine the natural resources for you."

"Slaves," Mars said quietly.

Silence revisited the girls as each contemplated that.

"But why go through all the trouble of invading? Surely there are easier ways of getting what you want than going through the expense of coming here to take it," Neptune asked. "And wouldn't setting up a beachhead make them more venerable to attack?"

"Depends on the level of technology that they have," Mercury pointed out. " A beachhead can be easy to secure when you have the high ground, and orbital battleships would definitely count as the high ground."

That brought everyone's mind back to the immense space fleet that Pluto said was coming.

"When the objective is to subdue, not destroy, most of the population, you would need someplace to use as a base of operations for military purposes," Mercury continued, "and later for administering the planet after the take over."

"What about asteroids or other uninhabited planets?" Venus asked. "Why wouldn't they use those first?"

"Cost," Mercury answered. "You would have to use robots, which would be expensive or space-suited personal, which would even be more expensive. Conquering a planet like ours would offer them a ready made work force and natural resources to tap into - relatively cheaply."

"Then why hasn't anything been reported in Cuba?" Mars asked.

"Because China has plenty of people and natural resources to exploit and Japan is right at its back door," Moon answered for Mercury.

Silence fell once again among the group.

"This is so not good," Venus commented.

"You have a gift for understatement," Mars said dryly.

- - - - - - - -

The graveyard looked like a miniature city with the many tombstones standing at various heights like buildings. A city populated by the dead.

The priest unsealed the side of the short blockish tombstone that was before the taller, slender one that bore the family name. The urn was placed reverently inside and the priest resealed the tombstone. The graveside services were mercifully short. Ranma knew it wasn't over with because, as per family custom, the grave would be visited by family members on scheduled days. The third, fifth, seventh, thirteenth and twenty-first days being the important days up until the forty-ninth day. After that, Akiko's memory would be commemorated on the yearly Obon, which was considered mid July by the Yonai's, when the spirits visit their relatives.

- - - - - - - -

Somewhere, far away.

"Are the fleets assembled in their assigned coordinates?"

"Almost sir," a blue uniformed man said as he studied a readout from a transparent screen. "The Forth Grand Fleet will be at their assigned coordinates in four days."

"What is the status of the strike team?"

"They've just finished reconnaissance and gathering intelligence and are laying down plans to extract the Royal family. They report they will be ready by the time Forth Fleet gets into position."

"Good," the Admiral answered with a nod. They didn't begin this little war, but they were equipped and determined to end it.

The Admiral rose from his command chair and strode over to one of the many large screens on the bridge that displayed the strength of the fleet. "Yes sir," he thought to himself proudly as he looked over the thousands of ships at his command. "If that person - that thing - shows up again, it won't be facing a mere twenty ships... and we'll have more than enough firepower to take care of it."

- - - - - - - -

Ranma returned to the restaurant that had been her home with Michiko. The two girls were accompanied by their Aunt Komachi who agreed to watch over the two still grieving girls. Ranma and Michiko supported each other as they climbed the stairs to their shared room. There, each girl collapsed onto their futons and Ranma, exhausted emotionally, fell asleep.

- - - - - - - -

Moon shook her head slowly. "There is no doubt then, is there? Everything... the attacks, the spying and now the space fleet coming... all of what we discussed points to one thing..."

The others looked at their leader, concern and worry etched on their faces. Sailor Moon looked at each of them, measuring what their reactions would be to her next statement.

"... we are at war."

=========

Howdy!

Yes, I know: It took me long enough.

I know my updates have been coming in longer intervals, and I do apologize. My muse has been very flighty and she has been fluttering to one story to the next a lot lately. My other story, Final Approach Ranma, has graduated from 'anti-writer's block' story to 'full-all-out' story so that commands some of my time. The title for 'anti-writer's block story' has been passed down to: Lesbian Amazonian Dominatrix. It has been fun as hell to play with and a plot was starting to jell out of nowhere before I got rid of it. I want to keep it as pointless and plotless as I can, that way I don't have to think.

This is on top of my other hobbies, summer being here, and 'real life' that has been intruding more often now. There are somethings that are more important than writing, and spending quality time with the person you plan on getting old, stinky, and falling part with is one of them. (Hey! We've been together this long!)

As always, I would like to thank those of you that took the time to leave a review.

Thanks for reading.