Once again, I am obligated to drop my .02cr on the current crop of Ranma
.5 fusion ideas. First, I feel it necessary to admonish likely authours of
the Ranma .5/Battletech fusion to keep things reasonable in terms of the
lawys of physics. The BTech universe, as my colleagues can tell you, takes
them very seriously. BTW, there's a good reason Ranma and company don't
want to be running around the battlefield on foot: Pirahnas and their ilk.
[Pirahna: a Diamond Shark antipersonnel mech mounting no less than twelve
heavy machineguns. Dodge all you want, but the laws of probability _will_
catch up... same reasoning goes for, oh, combat shotguns]
As for fusing with the Bond universe... first off, it's likely that Japan
does have an analogue of MI6, and most of its attention would be focused in
the Asia-Pacific theater. A little research (following the news, among
other things) will no doubt turn up various situations - or possible
situations - that would pique their interest. Next point: the Jyusenkyo
curses. Once again... who needs 'em? Any authours wanting help with this
are free to ask me.
With that out of the way, and as long as people're still debating the
Ranma cast's choice of vehicles, here's what you might find in an Area 88
sort of fusion:
Ryoga: A-10 Warthog
Bar none, the toughest combat plane flying... you can shoot it full of
holes, blow parts off, and it'll still come home. Aside from its main gun
- the GAU-8 30mm rotary cannon, which was designed to kill main battle
tanks - there's the matter of all the fun stuff you can hang under the
wings. As an alternate, one could use its Russian mirror, the Su-25 'Frogfoot'
Ranma: F-16 Fighting Falcon, MiG-29 'Fulcrum', or Su-27 'Flanker'
All relatively balanced, agile craft. He'd have problems with the idea of
flying a stealthy craft such as the F-22 Raptor.
Kasumi: HH-60, HH-53, or other CSAR craft
'Nuff said.
Kodachi: F-117A Nighthawk or [fictional] F-19 Ghostrider
Come now, do I have to elaborate...?
For those who don't recall, the Ghostrider is what everyone thought the
stealth fighter would look like. Featured in a Clancy novel ('Red Storm
Rising') and an old MicroProse sim, it is a graceful, smoothly curved craft
which resembles from some angles a pear and others a frisbee.
Tatewaki: F-15 Eagle
The air-superiority variant (and not the E-model Strike Eagle), 'cause
it's hard to imagine ol' stick-boy being the sort of pilot who would want
to dirty himself doing air-to-ground...
Gosunkugi: E-2C or equivalent
As chief controller, natch.
Nabiki: [none]
Every merc unit needs a broker, after all...
Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?
-Arthur Edwards
White Knight of the Order of Mihoshi Enthusiasts
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/7210/index.html