[FFML] [Fanfic][Xover][R1/2/LOGH] Twin Stars Prelude & Chapter 1

[Ignacio Moreno]

Disclaimers:
- Ranma belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.
- Legend of the Galactic Heroes belongs to Yoshiki Tanaka and Kitty Films.
- This story is made for fun and is meant for the enjoyment of the fans.
- I have to thank Kirra for preread these chapters. Thank you very much.
- Please C&C


-----------------------------------------Twin Stars: Prelude:


Shampoo woke up, turned around in the bed and watched the luminous
digits of the bedside table's clock. It was 6:43 am. She put aside the
sheets grumbling, got up and approached slowly to the window walking
barefoot by the cold metallic floor. Once there she stayed looking by
the window.


A vast dark veil, upholstered with countless bright diamonds scattered
at random, spread at the other side.


Shampoo stretched her arm and covered a handful of these luminous
points with her open hand.


'It seems that I could get them only by stretching my arm.' Shampoo
thought, while she closed her hand in the air. 'But I know that I
can't get them. These little lights are stars; enormous spheres of hot
gas, that are very far.'


She slowly lowered her arm and the stars appeared again in the same
place. Shampoo sighed and went away from the window.


'Some would say that to realize this is to be mature.'


Shampoo left these thoughts with a shake of her head, and went to the bathroom.


-----


Shampoo was finishing dressing when she heard the buzzing of the
intercom. She let it buzz while she tied her shoes. Finally, she
pushed a button and the buzz ended.


"Yes?" Her tone of voice was clear, self-confident and calm; it was
very different to the one that she used in Nerima, but these times
were, literally, very far.


"Sir!" A male voice answered respectfully. "We've just contacted with
the fleet of Rear-Admiral Akane Tendo."


"All right! I'll head to the bridge right now."


Without waiting for an answer Shampoo turned off the intercom.


The clock was precisely 6:59 A.M.


"She's punctual as ever."


Shampoo smiled and went out of the room.


Tbc…


-------------------------------Twin Stars: Chapter 01: Reunion:


A small shuttle passed through Shampoo's fleet formation towards the
admiral ship.


Shampoo's flagship was a standard battleship named Valkyrie.


Its design was completely functional and it was focused to fulfill its
task: transport the cannons and its servants to the battlefield.


The basic form of the ship was a long rectangular parallelepiped with
two other parallelepipeds, nearly as tall as long, added at each side
on the rear of the main hull. These had three of the four engines of
the ship. The last one was in an appendix that projected from the
lower part of the main hull. All the ship was painted dark blue with
the exception of a few circumferences painted metallic gray. The
emblem of the New Reich, a golden lion, was painted in the center of
the ship.


The general appearance of the ship was similar to that of a gun.


The three huge doors of the hangar opened when the shuttle came near
the side of the Valkyrie. The transport ship entered in and fit in an
airlock. Two robotic arms secured the ship while the hangar's doors
were closed.


When the moor maneuver ended a guard opened the door of the airlock
and moved away. A few seconds later Akane Tendo appeared by the
airlock.


Although she'd lived hundreds of years in hibernation, her biological
age was only 30 years old. She had turned in a beautiful young lady
but her look was very similar. The most notable differences were a
white scar in the chin and a resolute but calm expression. Rivers of
blood had killed her youthful impulsivity and had forced her to
maturate.


Akane wore the uniform of Flag Officer with the rank of Rear-Admiral.
This consisted of black shoes and trousers, and a white shirt hidden
under a long black army jacket. The cuffs were made with a light, gray
metal and they were encircled by a silver-plate circle with curved
ornaments. The T-shape epaulettes were joined with the collar. Both
pieces were made with the same material that the cuffs and they had
silver borders. Two silver stripes crossed each epaulette vertically
showing the rank of rear-admiral. A last metallic piece completed the
adornments of the jacket. It was below the collar and had a triangular
shape. A semiprecious oval stone was embedded in the center. At each
side of the stone two silver lines made curved ornaments. Two vertical
white lines came up from the lower edge of the jacket to the edges of
this piece. A metallic belt with an elaborated buckle clung the jacket
around her waist.


The guard, that wore a simple black army jacket with two rectangular
epaulettes without stripes, stood to attention on seeing a flag
officer and saluted. Akane returned the salute, with a fast movement,
before she went down the stairs of the airlock and got up to the
mobile path that crossed the ship.


-----


Less than five minutes later Akane arrived to the Officers' lounge.
The door of the room was opened so Akane entered without knocking and
closed the door.


The lounge was a rectangular room with a large window that showed the
outer side of the ship. A long sofa, a few armchairs, a cocktail
cabinet and a rounded table with four chairs were the set of furniture
in the room.


Shampoo, which was looking at the space out the window, wasn't
surprised when she heard close the door because she had seen Akane's
reflection from the window.


Shampoo had matured into a beautiful young woman as Akane had. Her
prideful personality had been tempered by the experience. She had
turned more sensible and receptive. The most important change in her
look was that she had cut her hair. It hardly covered her neck
although she had let it as long as the military ordinances allow it.

Her uniform and rank were the same that Akane.


"You are late," Shampoo commented with a smile while she turned towards Akane.


"Excuse me, Mister Gale Wolf," Akane joked knowing that she had
arrived right on time, while she fought against the impulse to stick
her tongue out to her friend.


After this curious greeting both of them joined in a friendly hug.


"I missed you," Akane admitted while she moved away.


"Me too."


Any of their old acquaintances had been surprised by these words, but
Akane and Shampoo had become good friends after everything that they
had endured together. With the many years spent in space, the rivalry
between the two had vanished.

Both of them were the only ones that had lived in a time where the
Earth was the only occupied planet. The fact that they didn't belong
to this age had joined them in a way that hadn't been possible before.


Shampoo went to the cocktail cabinet where she took a bottle of white
wine and two glasses while Akane sat down.


"How did the six months patrol go?" Shampoo asked while she put the
bottle and the glasses on the table and sat down too.


"They were calm," Akane answered while she watched Shampoo pouring the
wine. "The most serious was a grade 8.5 earthquake in the planet
Ubuntu."


"It had to be terrible."


Shampoo passed a glass of wine to Akane. She took it with an
absent-minded gesture, since her mind was remembering the images of
collapsed buildings and squashed corpses.


"We've seen worse things." Akane raised her cup of glass and drank a
nip. "Excellent! What vintage is this wine?"


Shampoo accepted the change of topic with a smile.


"It is a 410 vintage."


Akane let out an appreciation whistle.


"You have turned into a wine gourmet."


Shampoo shrugged her shoulders.


"This bottle was a gift from Frederic."


Commodore Frederic Charles Dreyer was Shampoo's chief of staff.


Akane left the glass on the table and leaned towards Shampoo.


"I think that he likes you," she commented confidentially.


"Nonsense," Shampoo replied gruffly. "You must know that it isn't a
good idea to get involved with anybody from the work, and less in the
navy."


"Sure!" Akane said with a smile in her lips while she watched her
friend drank her wine at one gulp.


"What about you? When was your last date?"

Shampoo left her glass on the table too and looked at Akane, who
awkward averted her eyes.


"You know very well that I haven't had a date." After a short silence
Akane continued. "The last night I dreamt that I was with Ranma again.
I believe that he is alive."


"Akane, don't do that to yourself!" Shampoo reproved. "It is almost
impossible that Ranma is alive. Okay, suppose that he is alive, where
are you going to search for him?"


Akane remained looking at the table in silence without know how respond.


'These are a very wise words,' Shampoo thought. 'Then why don't I
follow my own advice? Accept it, you can't forget Ranma either.'
Shampoo sighed. 'We are two stupid romantics and, at that rate, we
will turn into two stupid old maids.'


Before either of them could add any more a call rang by the
intercommunicator. Shampoo approached to the communication device and
answered it.


"What's happening?"


"Sir," a voice answered with an urgently tone. "We've just detected a
fleet of more than six thousands ships that come towards us. The FOF
signal doesn't belong to any allied fleet and they don't answer our
calls."


"Six thousands ships!" Akane exclaimed while she met Shampoo at the
side of the intercommunicator. "These are four times our combined
combat force."


Shampoo didn't make any comment but Akane noticed the worry in her face.


"How far are they?" Shampoo asked.


"We will be within their range in less than fifteen minutes."


"Shit!" Shampoo cried out at the same time that she turned off the
communicator so none on the other side could hear her. "The warp
engines will take more than thirty minutes to be ready."


"They have caught us with our trousers down."


Shampoo nodded and switched on the communicator again.


"Order to all the ships: Red alert. A six thousand ship fleet is near
our position with unknown intentions. Face it up and adopt a defensive
wall formation. Position the battleships in the front line to serve as
a shield. Get ready the warp engines and inform me when they are
ready. Don't fire until you receive the order or are attacked. I
repeat it: Don't fire until you receive the order or are attacked."


Shampoo turned towards Akane while they heard by the device how her
orders were being sent to the rest of the fleet.


"We can't do anymore now," Shampoo told to Akane.


'Wait for the best and get ready for the worst. That is the only thing
that we can do,' Akane thought. 'I don't think that this fleet has
come only to greet us. Who can be? With all of humanity united, it is
impossible that there is an enemy!'


Akane stopped speculating because she had to do other things more
urgent at this moment.


"With your permission, may I have contact my ship," Akane said.


"Go ahead."


Shampoo moved away allowing that Akane could use the intercommunicator.


"Rear-admiral Akane Tendo speaking."


"Sir," was the answer from the other side.


"Send the next message to commodore Reinhard Scheer of the flagship Mjolnir."


Shampoo observed how her friend gave exactly the same orders in spite
of they hadn't the time to agree.


'Anyhow it is the only logic course of action,' Shampoo meditated. 'We
have to present a united front to resist the necessary time to put
online the warp engines. But will they allow us to make the jump?'


"Until my return on board the fleet will be under rear-admiral
Shampoo's orders. That's all. Send it quickly."


"Right away sir!"


After hearing the answer Akane turned off the intercommunicator and
looked at Shampoo.


"Reinhard is very capable," Akane commented. "There won't be any problem."


"Then the arrangements are already under way. The fleets will be in
position around ten minutes."

"We have less than five minutes of margin. It isn't bad. Now we will
only need a plan of action just in case that we be attacked."


Without lose any more seconds both commanders started to develop their
tactic plan in the short time that they had.


Tbc…