All Purpose Ranma Fanfiction Thread

"You know, one of these days we're gonna look back on this and just laugh." Queen Serenity, ruler of one of the most powerful empire in the universe pointed out as another burst of white energy flew from her hand, carving into the ranks of power armor pressing toward her. The black shaded combat armors withstood the beam's enormous potential momentarily before being cut down into a glowing molten slag. Her white formal dress was easily at odds with the raging warfare surrounding them

"Over sake and moon cakes, your Highness?" Sailor Pluto spun around, unleashing a Dead Scream into another platoon of the bulky combat units encroaching on their left flank. The ball of pink death plowed through several ranks before detonating deep inside their formation.

"Yeah, something like that." Serenity paused, affecting a wistful look before lashing out at one of the larger four legged armors as it spat plasma at her from one of its many turrets. Three legs came off as the line of energy intersected with them, sending the lumbering armor to the earth. "But I was thinking something more along the lines of Mercury fire wine and crackers."

Pluto scoffed at the suggestion as another half dozen mecha evaporated under her assault. "Light weight."

"Push over." Serenity retorted. "So when are those girls of yours going to get her?" A plume of fire accompanied the question, sending a magical white hot mushroom into the dusk sky ...In addition to a few hundred tons of atomized reactive plating.

"Dropping in fifty seconds, your highness." Sailor Pluto reported and returned to her negotiations, taking a out a mech that had strayed to close to their position with a Chronos Typhoon. The time storm tore through its armor like tissue paper, rendering it an impotent heap. Yeah, the negotiations were going really swell. At least they had been up until fifteen minutes ago, where upon a state visit to negotiate the Hyrdri Cluster's territorial annexation had turned into an ambush. Serenity improvised point defense as a trio of fighter-bombers streaked over head. Guided beams flashed out from the Queen, eviscerating the fragile aircraft as they blew overhead.

Damn she hated assassination attempts.

Well that's what you get for trying to bring a backward sector of the galaxy out of the dark ages, Pluto thought sarcastically. No good deed ever goes unpunished, and Serenity chan had been doing her share of those lately… Sometimes at gunpoint. The Senshi counted down the remaining time. Reinforcements oughta be arriving right about…

"SPACE SWORD BLASTER!"

"DEEP SUBMERGE!"

…Now. Pluto smiled as two women in skin tight body suits descended from the on high, riding their attacks home in a spectacular display of chaotic destruction. The pair of newcomers tore into the rear enemy lines with feral intensity, and anything that wasn't washed away by an elemental flood was quickly sliced apart by the flashing energy blade.

Queen Serenity took a break from her workout, watching the two take their enemy apart from behind. Serenity arched an eyebrow. "Energetic, aren't they, Set-chan?"

"Eager to please." Setsuna corrected as a large blocky drop ship rumbled overhead. "Royal marines in thirty seconds. Orders?"

The Queen surveyed the destruction wrought around them, and spared a moment to watch Sailors Uranus and Neptune clean up the last of the shattered strike force with a sigh. Well, she had given them the easy way out and they passed it up. "The hard way it is, then."

Sailor Pluto nodded, her face taking a mask of seriousness. She motioned the disembarking commander of the royal marines over, who stepped up to them sharply. Silver plated troops bearing heavy weaponry flowed around their position, forming a defensive ring around the ladies. "Take the planet apart, Commander. Quarter to any who ask it."

The commander snapped smartly into a half bow. "Your will, m'lady, your Highness." Serenity nodded and the officer produced a sharp about face. She turned her eyes to the sky and found more of the bulbous ships making their orbit to atmosphere decent. Pluto secreted a sidelong glance to her friend and monarch, who stared into the darkening sky. She didn't like this part. Sure, Utada Minor and the surrounding cluster of stars would be a better place when they were done, but in the mean time they'd have to settle for copious amounts of destruction. Hopefully the local government would have the common sense to not put up a big fuss. If they did, their forces would have to get serious and the Queen wasn't exactly the most social when she was serious.

As if hearing her thoughts, Queen Serenity's eyes broke from their stargazing. Her face mirrored Pluto's serious mask. "Let's go, Set-chan. Time to finish this."

The RSN Agamemnon was a silver jewel in the night, easily eclipsing its brethren warships that held in loose formation around it. She was a curved stiletto with an hour glass figure that spanned no less than six kilometers in length, her drive ring another kilometer and a half, floating along the hull's narrowest span free of support. It was a sharp contrast to the next ship down the line, a Harbinger class heavy cruiser. It was only two and a half kilometers in length and far less imposing. Of course, few things were more imposing than five hundred and eighty million tons of super dreadnaught falling in system at three quarters the speed of light, annihilating everything in its path as if the forces arrayed against it were nothing more than wet tissue paper. In all, thirty ships of various type were assembled in formation around the Agamemnon for this particular operation, which itself was culmination of a brutal two year campaign flung across fourteen star systems and several million light years.

Normally a ship as formidable as the Agamemnon wouldn't be present for something simple as penetrating the enemies last line of defense, save for the fact this was the last of the enemy, their last system and their last, final line of defense. It was an event that warranted the presence of the fleet's only Hyperion class heavy dreadnaught and Queen Serenity's flagship.

A light squadron of six enemy cruisers and four battleships accelerated out from behind the second moon of one of the systems more inconsequential planets and painted the Queen's Fifth Battle Group with their attack sensors. All in all it was a rather successful surprise attack, if not utterly and completely futile in nature given the disparity in mass and numbers against the opponent they faced. The launch of their first guided weapons marked their deaths, as thirty warships brought their own weapons to bear. Even as the enemies fire ablated against the fleets combined point defense, the queen's sword roared in like a tidal wave. One instant the short squadron was there, the next it ceased to exist, as Elerium fury tore the space around them apart.

Princess Pluto arched an eyebrow as the giant tactical screen in front of her erupted into white-hot fire. "Apparently they had a few hold outs in-system." Queen Serenity nodded at the green hair woman standing next to her from her command chair.

A middle aged officer dressed stepped up to the pair, his immaculate white uniform marred only by the numerous combat decorations that covered his right breast, many of which she had personnally awarded. "Hiding in the second moon's magnetic shadow." He supplied. "They should be the last of our surprises until we hit Geidi Prime, ETA three hours, twenty eight minutes."

"The Second?" Princess Serenity asked, stroking a silver lock of hair.

"The Second Battle Group has successfully penetrated the system's southern plane and is hold position as per your orders."

"Any attempts to reinforce the home world?" Pluto asked, and the officer shook his head.

"A few." The officer replied, keeping an even expression. "The Second has dealt with those attempts."

Pluto smiled. It was a grim one. In other words, those attempts at reinforcing the home world they were now assaulting had ended in the decomposition of their component matter by violent means. Geidi was well and truly cut off from all outside support. "Time to make the call, Serenity-chan." She whispered softly.

Queen Serenity only nodded silently and stood up from her command couch, smoothing out her flowing white robe. "Open a com, wide spectrum. I want everybody to hear this." The captain of the Agamemnon turned to the communications officer across the bridge and nodded. Seconds later they were broadcasting across the EM spectrum and into open space. "This is Queen Serenity of the Silver Millennium Empire. Your government is hereby ordered to stand down and surrender its authority. Resistance will be met with overwhelming and lethal force. Serenity clear."

The channel closed with a slight beep and Serenity deflated with a sigh. "That was certainly terse, your Highness." Pluto noted with a trace of humor.

"A mere formality," The monarch waved the observation aside. "We both know The Emblem won't surrender their power."

Both turned away from the main viewer, Pluto following her friend's lead as they walked to the rear of the bridge and the armored hatch that represented the primary exit. "Of course, you realize where this will lead…?"

Serenity nodded, seemingly without emotion as the hatch hissed open, admitting them into the jet way. The door closed and she spoke into air. "Royal One." The only sign that the computer had obeyed her command was the slight compression of gforce as the lift dropped and navigated its way to her stated destination. She turned back to Princess Pluto, frowning. "Of course. But if you can find me another alternative to dealing with a government that traffics in demonic powers and has turned their entire world into a gate to the dark plane, I'm all ears."

Setsuna remained silent for a moment. "Political fallout will be—"

"—negligible." She finished Pluto's thought. "I'll just remind them who it was that glassed Cambriea and Meridian."

Pluto remained silent, if only for the fact that she couldn't find any fault in Serenity's reasoning. The Emblem had taken Serenity's galactic expansion to xenophobic levels, refusing any and all negotiation towards a peaceful coexistence. In the end, they had opted to drawing on demonic energies to augment their forces and saturated two of the Kingdom's worlds with nukes. Cambriea had been a gas giant mining facility. It was now a micro nova with a lifespan of a few hundred years. Meridian was… A different story entirely. The vibrant blue world had been a population center of twenty three billion before Emblem forces swept in like a tidal wave and dropped nearly fifty gigaton-range nuclear weapons into the atmosphere. All that remained of the outer rim trade world now was blackened crystal memorial.

Negotiations died that day and Serenity retooled her empire for war.

The lift door slid open silently and the pair stepped out onto the Royal Deck. Two guards in full battle plate and field automatic plasma rifles snapped to attention, and Serenity acknowledged their presence. Setsuna had been there in the hour her friend received the news. She had been calm at first, asking for a moment alone within her chambers. Everybody was ushered out, even her Alpha Guard. What followed next was a display of violence that Setsuna herself would have been hard pressed to duplicated. An hour later, she emerged from the smoke filled shell that used to be her residence and called for an emergency council.

It was a war to the knife.

"I'm going to my chambers to meditate." Serenity said as they found her room, which had another pair of Alpha's standing watch outside. Instead of the field automatics, this pair wielded crescent moon staves, with a bladed ring on the opposite end. They too snapped to attention and her door opened on sensing her presence. "Let me know the moment we're in range."

The Princess of Pluto nodded silently and Serenity disappeared behind the door. Meditation. That was one word for it. In reality, the Senshi knew what that meditation involved. It involved the crystal. She had been repairing it, perfecting that blackened crystalline cinder that was once part of Meridian with her formidable magic. The last time she laid eyes on it had shown a startling enough transformation. When Serenity had personally set foot on the world and retrieved it, it was black. Scarred. Pluto had caught a glimpse of it three months ago and saw how half the crystal had been purified. It was still scarred, but light was actually passing through it. It was simultaneously the queen's guilt and hope for a people who had long since passed out of the realm of the living.

With Pluto gone, Serenity's eyes fell on the clouded crystal floating over the pulse grav plate in the center of her room. It had been a permanent fixture since taking up residence on the Agamemnon and she kneeled before it, focusing, straining to find the point where she left off.

There. The crack down the left hemisphere. The Queen pooled her power and focused on the crack. Time slowed to molasses.

Beep!

Serenity blinked.

Beep!

Her eyes came back into focus and off the crystal in front of her. The crack she had been focused on was all but gone now. "Yes?"

"Time minus ten, Your Highness." Pluto's voice echoed over the room com.

"On the way."

Queen Serenity stepped out off the lift and the command deck instantly snapped to attention. "Serenity on the bridge!"

"As you were." She stated, her tone all business. She stepped up to Pluto and the Captain, who were conversing with one another. "Status?"

"The Fifth is decelerating and will anchor just beyond the range of their orbital defense platforms." The Captain detailed, "Make it minus seven. The Xianghua, Arclight, Damascus, Resolute and Arcadia are running ahead on point."

"I've taken the liberty of rearranging our formation." Pluto stepped in, smoothly taking over the report. "I don't expect much more in the way of resistance, but you can never be too prepared."

Serenity nodded, taking her command chair. "Any word from The Emblem?"

"None, Your Majesty." Setsuna frowned. "We've been broadcasting every fifteen minutes for the last hour."

"We should consider fractional-cee bombardment of the orbital platforms before taking up fixed positions over the planet." The captain advised and Serenity simply stared straight ahead. "From there, it should be trivial to—"

"We won't be landing troops on this world, Jonathan." Serenity's voice held an edge of steel and the Captain of the Agamemnon froze as the Queen used his first name. He knew that was a bad sign, and not for him. She glanced at the chronometer counting down their arrival time. Four minutes. The advanced screening elements on point should have cleared away any unwanted guests by now, opening the path to Geidi Prime itself.

"Then your orders, my Queen?"

Serenity closed her blue eyes and folded her hands at her chin. After a minute of silent contemplation, she opened them, staring straight ahead and into the viewer that held an angry red world on display. "Ready Z90 Point Singularity Weapons." Then she added as an after thought. "How many will it take to destroy Geidi Prime?"

The captain recovered from his shock. "Four, your Majesty."

"Allocate six ."

"Y-Yes, your Majesty." It was rare that his monarch displayed this level of feral ruthlessness. Thus far, she had spared all of the Emblem peripheral systems, opting to land troops instead. Today, he almost pitied the enemy… almost.

"Open a channel." Another moment and a small flashing light on her armrest indicated the active frequency. "Emblem forces. This is your final opportunity to surrender. Failure to do so will result in the removal of your home world from this existence. You have…" Serenity glanced at her armrest once more. "Ten minutes. Serenity clear."

"The Fifth has arrived on station, Serenity-chan." Pluto reported from her perpetual position next to her Queen's command couch. Small flashes lit around the planets orbital shell as its defensive platforms died by fire. "Our attack corridor is clear."

"Now we see—"

"Tactical alert!" An officer called from across the bridge. "Picking up multiple surface launches! Reading them as long range ballistics, AR-303 types. Point defense has a solid lock on all inbounds, estimate three hundred with more clearing their silos."

"Bring us to condition one, Commander!" The captain bellowed, and his subordinate began barking orders to the bridge personal. A claxon sounded, and the main bridge lighting faded to an ominous red. "Battle formation Echo-six, layer our point defense for maximum yield."

"Echo-Six established." The Commander reported. "Tactical, seed decoys and light up the ECM arrays."

Pluto sighed wearily. "I guess that's the answer."

"Indeed." Serenity agreed in a dead tone. "Captain, slave release of all Z90s to my board."

"Rerouting fire protocols." The Captain managed after a moment of pause. "Release on your mark, your Highness." And ominous red button blinked to life on her left armrest and a finger caressed it lightly. "Give us some room." He ordered and the helm officer silently relayed the command to move the fleet back and away from the doomed world even as their last gasp streaked toward them. It would be a largely ineffective last gasp as most of the Emblem weaponry would be dead long before it reached the fleet and what did would die under the curtain defensive missile and energy fire.

Pluto knew what she was doing. Knew her like the sister she virtually was. Some would view her need to push that button personally as some megalomaniacal need for vengeance. Of course, vengeance was a component part of her action, but not the sum total. She knew the Queen and it was personal responsibility that drove her now. If she was going to order the annihilation of an enemy home world, there would only be one person that responsibility and guilt would fall upon at the end of the day.

Beep.

"Reading weapons release." The tactical officer reported. "Six Z90s down and running. Minus twelve seconds to impact."

The Z90 Point Singularity Weapon was the pinnacle in Silver Millennium strategic weaponry and six of those torpedoes descended into the Geidi Prime's gravity well at half the speed of light. Each warhead contained not only the planet crushing micro singularity itself, but a full suite of ECM and active beam weaponry to ensure the elongated oval would reach its target unmolested. Without orbital platforms to intercept the weapons, it was up to home world's surface batteries to intercept the lethal devices, but even this was a largely futile effort, unless the defenders had a few light years to spare. They didn't. Even if their efforts managed to penetrate the Z90's potent ECM suite, active beam defense and energy shielding, it still would have only destroyed delivery system, not the singularity itself, and planets weren't well known for their evasive abilities.

At eight seconds from impact, they separated, breaking formation and pursuing the most optimal route to detonation assigned to them before beginning their terminal dive.

"Units have armed, minus two." Tactical reported and suddenly, the planet darkened visibly. "Impact on all weapons."

The seat of The Emblem seemed untouched at first, nothing noticeable beyond the darkened hue that now surrounded it. Then it happened. Six Gaping holes began to mar the surface of Geidi Prime, sucking down the surrounding atmosphere and surface matter into a maw of unimaginable gravimetric pressure. Four of these singularities would have prolonged the planet's life another three minutes. As it was, a world that took millions of years to form would disappear in under a minute. With the surface matter and atmosphere sucked away, Geidi Prime faded into a featureless black sphere whose diameter steadily shrank as the micro black holes turned on one another from within.

The remaining mass coalesced to a pinpoint and hung in space a few more moments before destabilizing, streaming hard radiation into space in the form of a blinding point of light. What had once been the mass of six micro black holes and one category C8 planet with a population of thirty two billion was now loosed into the void as pure, white energy. The cosmic pyre lasted five more minutes before what remained of The Emblem home world flickered out entirely.

Silence hung across the bridge of the Agamemnon until Serenity broke it with a long, weary sigh. "Captain, take us home. I'll be in my quarters."

Getting drunk, Princess Pluto mentally appended, knowing her best friend all too well.