Reinforcements [FMP]

[Lord Raa]

I have worked on that crossover idea I had and decided that it's appropriate to post it here, since it's mainly set in the FMP universe and will have very little to do with the Ranma cast.

(See below for the updated post with "proper" formatting)

 

[Hymn of Ragnarok]

Reinforcements

Well this was good for a few chuckles. The halcyon days comment was particularly good.

 

[vel10]

Reinforcements

Hah, this is quite awesome.

 

[marthf1]

Reinforcements

What's the term? Dry humor? Something like that. Anyways, that's actually pretty refreshing compared to what I've been seeing around for the last good while. Your stories/snippets are enjoyable for that alone, hah hah.

 

[Lord Raa]

Reinforcements

            

 

[Prince Charon]

Reinforcements

ôCobras will be too hard to come by on such short notice,ö Ranma said. ôBut in all seriousness, throwing you guys into a pit with starving animals was never an option.ö

ôIÆm glad to hear it,ö Kurz said, putting his knife and fork onto his tray.

ôEven if I thought it would be effective, youÆre too weak to survive such advanced training in the first place. Hell, cats would be too much for you guys, never mind cobras or bears. But if youÆve all finished lunch, head back out to the training area. IÆll meet up with you after IÆve gotten our equipment.ö

Huh. I was expecting him to say 'Only a complete idiot would do that,' and then show Genma sneezing.

 

[Master of Squirrel-Fu]

Reinforcements

ôCobras will be too hard to come by on such short notice,ö Ranma said. ôBut in all seriousness, throwing you guys into a pit with starving animals was never an option.ö

ôIÆm glad to hear it,ö Kurz said, putting his knife and fork onto his tray.

ôEven if I thought it would be effective, youÆre too weak to survive such advanced training in the first place. Hell, cats would be too much for you guys, never mind cobras or bears. But if youÆve all finished lunch, head back out to the training area. IÆll meet up with you after IÆve gotten our equipment.ö

Huh. I was expecting him to say 'Only a complete idiot would do that,' and then show Genma sneezing.

It' also future insult fodder since he survived it at age 10.

 

[Hymn of Ragnarok]

Reinforcements

Man, Uruz team are going to be badasses when they take to the field again, won't they?

Looking forward to more torture passed off as training!

 

[zeebee1]

Reinforcements

It won't help much since they are mere pilots.

 

[theunderbolt]

Reinforcements

It won't help much since they are mere pilots.

At the rate Ranma is going they wont need mechs to stop the enemy :lol:

 

[Preventer Squall]

Reinforcements

I'm just curious how Sosuke's taking all this. We've seen Mao and Weber gape and reel at the various boulders being thrown at them, and barely word from the last Urzu member. I find it amusing they haven't even heard him complain for any of it, and can imagine him slowly getting ahead of the class since this isn't his first time in Ranma's hard knocks lessons.

 

[zeebee1]

Reinforcements

Sousuke is clearly the best physically of the three. We already know this. But this is Ranma. He'll only be able to keep up until Ranma ups the training. After all, this training isn't actually for Sousuke, so he just has to keep up with people who are playing catch up.

 

[armedlord]

Reinforcements

I'd say this is where Sousuke gains the hidden weapons technique that he does in Fumoffu.

 

[Lord Raa]

Reinforcements

When I get around to writing the next section, it is planned to be a flashback to when Sousuke and Ranma first met.

That's all I can say for now.

 

[TerraBull]

Reinforcements

I am actually surprised some of them did not challenge Ranma, saying "You cannot wrestle a armored vehicle/ tank/ suit barehanded and emerge victorious!"

Just to see him back-handing armor and crushing it like tinfoil.

 

[zeebee1]

Reinforcements

If Sousuke can use the Lambda Driver he might have the advantage.

 

[Lord Raa]

Reposting for the sake of not having weird formatting.

Maybe people will be able to read this and suggest things. Or maybe you'll all tell me to abandon this one.




Reinforcements


By Lord Raa


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Disclaim-me-do: I’m not entering a discourse with you, I’m a disclaimer!


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Part 1


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As the Tuatha de Danaan sat docked at a Mithril base for repairs, the senior members of its SRT unit Urzu team were having a discussion about the latest encounter with Gauron and his infiltrators.

“Kurz, how did you pass your CQC certification?” Melissa Mao asked, shaking her head at the blonde man resting in his bunk.

While Kurz Weber had managed to avoid being seriously injured during Gauron’s attack, there were still some issues to be addressed. Namely, the way he’d been going about the knife fight that she’d seen him in rescued him from.

“Hey, I’m a sniper,” the blonde shrugged. “The idea is for me to stay back providing covering fire.”

“That may be the case, Kurz, but you should still brush up on your hand to hand skills,” Mao countered. “And I know just the person to help you with your training.”

Weber didn’t like the look on the woman’s face as she issued her order, “Sergeant Kurz Weber, since the doctor has declared you fit for combat duty, I’m ordering Urzu team to report for advanced combat training at 0900 tomorrow morning.”


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Captain Tessa Testarossa was dealing with the fallout of the battle with Gauron. She had been discussing new security arrangements with her superiors and senior staff.

While the betrayal had been shocking, it had served as a wakeup call for Mithril. When you’re paying people for their services, you can’t be surprised if they decide to sell them to a higher bidder.

Mithril Command had acknowledged that this was something that was obvious in hindsight, but that still didn’t excuse the extent of the lapse in security.

With the measures being put into place, Tessa was looking forward to spending some time with Sousuke Sagara. She knew that it wasn’t feasible to go out on a date with him at the moment, but dinner was certainly a possibility.

‘Especially if I make it a personal request,’ the Captain thought with a devious smirk.

“Captain,” an older man called out to her. “You’re scheduled to inspect the repairs.”

“What? Now? But I was going to invite Sousuke to dinner…” the silver haired girl sighed.

“I’m sorry, Captain,” Richard Mardukas said. “But it’s protocol. It shouldn’t take more than two hours.”

“Two hours? But it’ll be too late to spend time with Sousuke then!”

“I’m sorry, Captain, but we need to inspect the repairs before the engineers can progress. Mithril Command has prioritised the repairs to the Tuatha de Danaan in order to conduct patrols in the Pacific.”

“Fine,” Tessa said, resigning herself to an evening of technical specifications and status reports. “Lead the way, Mr. Mardukas.”


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It was just coming up to 9am the following morning when Sousuke, Mao and Weber approached the obstacle course only to see half a dozen men limping away.

“What happened to you guys?” Kurz asked.

“New…Instructor…” one gasped.

“But you guys look like you were put through the wringer!” the sniper protested. “You guys are Special Forces.”

“Not human…” another wheezed.

“Quit belly-aching, you big babies, I was doing this before I was ten,” a young man’s voice called out, chiding the soldiers. “Or do I have to go harder on you tomorrow?”

“N-no,” the exhausted men said, jumping to attention.

“Good, now get lost. We’ll continue where we left off tomorrow.”

As the six men marched off to the infirmary as best they could, Urzu team looked for their tormentor. Both of them had expected to see a man the size of a grizzly bear, scars from countless missions covering his body and a thousand yard stare that could melt metal.

What they saw nearly caused Mao and Weber to burst out laughing.

“Can I help you two?” the young man asked.

Sousuke, however, studied the young man intently. There seemed to be something familiar about him.

“We’re looking for the new CQC instructor, Sergeant Saotome,” Kurz answered.

The young man checked his rank insignia and name tag. “I guess that would be me, Sergeant Saotome, what can I do for you?”

“I’m Sergeant-Major Mao and these are Sergeants Weber and Sagara, I believe you’re expecting us for advanced CQC training.”

“Ah yes, I remember that. Apparently, Sergeant Weber got his ass handed to him in a knife fight,” Sergeant Saotome nodded in understanding.

“Hey!” Kurz protested.

“Then come at me, teach me a lesson.”

Three seconds later, the instructor had placed a boot on the neck of prone sniper. “Now I see what the orders meant; he sucks.”

Kurz mumbled something unintelligible into the ground.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure that you would have taken me out at 1000 metres if you had your favourite rifle,” Saotome said, rolling his eyes. “Now then, how best to turn you from a remedial student into something resembling a fighter?”

“You going to make him train under waterfalls and wrestle bears?” Mao asked, jokingly.

“Please, he isn’t fit to wrestle bear crap, let alone an actual bear. No, I think we’re going to have start from the very beginning. How long have I got with him?”

“Three weeks.”

The instructor winced. “That’s barely enough time to get him ready to take on three armed men at once. Still, if we don’t need him to take on armoured vehicles, I suppose I can skip the mental conditioning.”

“What kind of training takes three weeks to get you in a position to take on three armed men?” Mao asked, morbidly curious.

“The kind that means if I had six weeks, he could kill five men with a banana.”

The instructor nodded and allowed the blonde to get up off the ground. “Ok. Mao, Sagara, Weber, get ready, we’re all going for a 10K run. I realise that you’re probably not able to go the same pace as me, so we’ll take this easy. Half an hour is your target time with one hundred extra pull ups for every second over.”

“Half an hour? That’s… that’s doable.”

“I’m glad you think so. Now, stretch for a couple of minutes and we’ll start. By the way, my name’s Ranma.”

“Why are you telling us your first name?”

“So you know who to curse.”

“Wait, Ranma Saotome?” Sousuke asked. “I’ve heard that name before.”

Ranma looked at the scarred youth. He scratched his head as he tried to recall where he might have encountered this Sagara fellow before.

“You know, you look kind of familiar yourself. You got a first name, Sergeant Sagara?”

“Sousuke.”

“I spent time in Helmajistan with a Sousuke Sagara.”

“I spent several years living in Helmajistan,” Sousuke confirmed.

Ranma closed his eyes for a moment. “You’ve got a burn scar just above your left elbow,” he said, indicating the spot on his own left arm. “You got it during a fight.”

“How did you know that?” Mao asked, recalling the scar in question. It was the width of two fingers and about eight centimetres long. “You can’t see Sousuke’s elbows with his sleeves down.”

“I was there when he got it. Good to see you again, Sousuke.”

“Likewise, Ranma,” Sousuke nodded.

“You know each other?” Kurz asked. This was big news – Sousuke never really talked about his childhood in Helmajistan and this was a good chance to learn more about the serious young man.

“I trained him to fight bare handed,” the instructor beamed.

“And I gave him survival training for harsh conditions,” Sagara added. “Those were some good times.”

“Good times,” Ranma smiled and nodded in agreement. “But if you’ve got time to gossip, you must have finished stretching. Our thirty minutes starts… Now!”


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29 minutes later, and Ranma smiled proudly at his students. “Well done, you all managed to get in before the thirty minute deadline. As a reward, two minutes rest.”

“W-what kind of reward is that?” Kurz panted.

“What, did you expect me to hand out beers to help you celebrate running ten kilometres in less than half an hour?” Ranma demanded. “What good would that do? If I coddle you, you’re just going to remain soft. Tomorrow, you run with a full kit load out. Same time limit applies.”

“But that’s nearly 40kg! And why aren’t you out of breath?”

“I didn’t realise I was training a little girl. And I’m not out of breath because I’m not weak and soft like you; 10K is nothing. I only chose that distance because I needed to quickly know how much stamina you have.”

“D-damn you, Ranma!” the sniper cursed.

“That’s the spirit!”

Mao glared darkly at the cheerful man. ‘Just what kind of man is this?’

“You will have one thing to help you tomorrow,” Ranma said casually.

“What’s that?” the blonde asked, slowly getting his breath back.

“We’ll have water to help us get through the run,” Sousuke explained. “That wasn’t always the case when we were training in Helmajistan. In fact, sometimes, we’d have to do it on an empty stomach.”

“Ah yes, the old supply runs,” the instructor smiled in fond recollection. “Having to run 10km, sneak into an enemy supply dump, grab what you need and run home before they realised you were even there.”

“What if they caught up with you?” Mao asked.

“If it was properly planned, we’d lead them into a trap. If not, we’d just have to fight our way out,” Sousuke recalled.

“You two make it sound almost idyllic,” the Sergeant-Major said, rolling her eyes.

“Being challenged to be the best at what you do while fighting the good fight? Halcyon days, Sergeant-Major, halcyon days,” Ranma said, completely missing her point. “Anyway, let’s head back to the training ground before you start to cramp up. I don’t want any excuses for poor performance during the next stage of your training.”


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If the start of Ranma’s training had seemed harsh, the next phase was making it look like a picnic.

Urzu team had been instructed to attack Ranma, and it had gone much the same way as Weber’s first attempt.

Mao and Kurz had found themselves thrown about like they were ragdolls. Even Sousuke was having difficulty staying on his feet.

“Hmm, I’m not sure that you guys are even trying.”

“We are!” Kurz insisted.

“But are you trying hard enough?”

“It’s not easy trying to fight a martial arts master after a 10K run.”

“Are all you Mithril soldiers such whiners? Those Special Forces guys wouldn’t stop bleating. ‘We can’t jump three metres from a standstill’; ‘we’re not expected to stop armoured vehicles without material support, so we don’t need to punch holes in hardened steel’; ‘we have barriers and tank traps that are designed to stop vehicles, we don’t need to move boulders to create roadblocks’. It was starting to get me down.”

Mao and Weber looked at Ranma in disbelief.

“In all fairness, Mithril is a well funded organisation; we have a great deal of equipment at our disposal,” Sousuke said. “It’s not like our time in Helmajistan, where were had limited ammunition.”

“I suppose so, but you really should have a backup plan. Anyway, it’s time for lunch; you guys need to keep your strength up. Or in Weber’s case, build it up.”

“Hey!”


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Sousuke was reminded of Ranma’s ferocious appetite as his instructor practically inhaled his food while Mao and Weber sat there dumbstruck.

“Don’t you ever get sick from eating so fast?” the blonde asked, entranced by the way Ranma’s limbs were moving.

The instructor finished his mouthful of food before answering. “I learned to eat fast when I was a kid. Even before I met Sousuke in Helmajistan, if I didn’t fast, I didn’t eat at all.”

“Because you were always under fire and had to be ready to move a moment’s notice?” asked Weber.

“No,” Ranma shook his head. “If I didn’t finish my food quickly, it’d be stolen from me.”

“That’s horrible,” Mao said.

“It’s good training,” the martial artist corrected. “It teaches you to be ready for attacks at any time.”

“Hmm…” There was a pause as Ranma considered using this training method. “No, I better let you guys eat normally. I remember the whining from the last time I tried the really intensive training: ‘I have to watch out for attacks while I’m eating!’ ‘I can’t keep Ranma from stealing the food off my plate!’ What a bunch of cry-babies!”

Melissa Mao was beginning to regret agreeing to train under Ranma, while Kurz Weber was wondering if he should arrange for an ‘accident’ to happen to Ranma.

Sousuke Sagara, however, was glad that he’d reconnected with an old friend. Through his line of work, Sousuke did not have many chances to make friends, so those that he made, he treasured.

Yes, there were times when there was banter that involved a few jokes at Sousuke’s expense because of his limited social and cultural experiences, but that was normal for a military unit and it did mean that they learned to trust each other on the battlefield.

If a unit couldn’t trust its members, then what happened when Sousuke was seconded to the Indian Ocean Unit would be repeated.

“What’s the plan for this afternoon, Ranma?” Sousuke asked.

“Accuracy training,” the instructor replied. “You won’t be ready for the speed training until next week at the earliest.”

“Why wait until then?” Mao asked, somewhat sarcastically.

“Because I need to teach you how to dodge first,” Ranma explained. “Plus it’ll take me until then to find enough poisonous snakes.”

“Oh, ok. Wait, what? Poisonous snakes!?!” the Sergeant-Major demanded, her instructor’s comment finally sinking in. “Are you out of your mind!?!”

Most of the Mess Hall turned to face where Urzu team were seated.

“I can’t use non-venomous snakes because they don’t have the reflexes I need,” Ranma explained. “Besides, I’m going to drain the venom off before you face them.”

“Even if they’re not going to poison us, they’re still going to bite us!” Weber protested.

“Only if you’re too slow,” the instructor smirked. “But you don’t need to worry, we’re going to work our way up to the snakes.”

“Oh, I guess we overreacted!” Mao rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe we thought that you were going to just throw us into a pit of cobras and expect us to fight our way out.”

“Cobras will be too hard to come by on such short notice,” Ranma said. “But in all seriousness, throwing you guys into a pit with starving animals was never an option.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Kurz said, putting his knife and fork onto his tray.

“Even if I thought it would be effective, you’re too weak to survive such advanced training in the first place. Hell, cats would be too much for you guys, never mind cobras or bears. But if you’ve all finished lunch, head back out to the training area. I’ll meet up with you after I’ve gotten our equipment.”


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Mao turned to Sousuke as they waited for Ranma to return to continue their training.

“What’s the deal with Ranma?”

“He’s Ranma,” Sousuke answered somewhat unhelpfully. He saw the unimpressed look on Mao’s face and went on to explain how he’d met Ranma. “When we met, we were eight, nine at the most. He arrived at our camp with his father…”


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And the flashback starts here. But I don't know what to write for it.

 

[fuyu]

Heh, this is great, a crossover where the two guys are actually friends instead something making one hate the other.

As for the flashback, maybe something to do with how Sousuke got that scar they were talking about?

 

[Deathwings]

Oh my, that certainly look interesting. I hope you won't stop it.