Macross Fan Fiction / Transformers Fan Fiction ❯ Transformers: Frontier ❯ Chapter 3: Concerning Fleshlings ( Chapter 3 )

A/N: On “Captains” - in the navy, a captain is the highest ranking officer that commands only one ship. He is an O-6, which makes his equivalent in other branches a colonel. In non-Navy branches, captains are O-4; they command companies (90-150 guys) in the army and squadrons in the air force. I'm assuming NUNS ship crews follow navy structure, and Valkyrie pilots follow air force structure.

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“Fold Wave - A naturally existing energy wave in super dimension space that travels effectively Faster-Than-Light and is used for near-instantaneous intergalactic communication. The mineral fold quartz allows for communication via fold waves as used by the Vajra; humans and Zzentradi infected with the V-Type virus can do the same, although this is fatal to those who were not infected in utero.”

~New General Encyclopedia, 5th Edition

 

Chapter 3: Concerning Fleshlings

 

Ten sleek forms zipped across the black where the Belleau Wood made its last patrol, the exhaust trails from their engines making them appear as streaks of light among the stars. Three were Queadluun-Rea powered armor units, three were modified AIF-7S Ghosts, and the rest were VF-25 Messiahs. All bore the insignia of the Strategic Military Services, colloquially known as SMS.

 

SMS had started out as a private military contractor company hired by the Frontier government to bolster its forces. Due to its unique position as a weapons tester for the LAI Corporation, SMS had access to much unique and advanced weaponry that standard NUNS forces did not have, including the VF-25 Messiah variable fighter. Its owner, a Zentradi business mogul named Richard Birla, had been implicated in the conspiracy that started the Vajra War, resulting in SMS being seized from him after the war ended. However, due to the instrumental role that the fighting men and women of SMS played in the conclusive battle of that war, SMS was allowed to keep its autonomy as well as its contract with the Frontier government. Now, they were under the command of Captain Jeffery Wilder, captain of the Macross Quarter, with NUNS First Lieutenant Cathy Glass as their government liaison.

 

“This is Pixie-Lead, we're not picking up anything, just wreckage,” Captain Klan Klang called out into her comm as her red Queadluun-Rea's sensors scanned the area. The mecha resembled what would happen if you took a ballerina and placed her in the pads of a hockey or American Football player - on the whole, it was a graceful-looking machine, save for the massive shoulder and knee pads that held missile launchers and the impersonal grille that formed its face. Despite its designation as a powered armor, the Rea was easily around the size of the Messiahs that the rest of SMS flew. That was because Klan was a Meltran - a female member of the race of giants that had once warred with humanity - and was only slightly shorter than a variable fighter in its humanoid Battroid mode. “What about you, Skull-Lead?”

 

“Nothing here either,” Major Ozma Lee replied. “Hmph. These guys just die like jackals,” he scoffed. “Skull-3, what about you?”

 

“Simon, Johann, Peter…no signals,” First Lieutenant Luca Angeloni answered as he checked the transmissions from his affectionately nicknamed Ghost drones. Luca piloted a recon variant of the VF-25, which came with a flat circular radome attached to the top. “I don't think that's fair to them, Major. Their equipment is inferior to ours, after all…” Luca had experienced that firsthand, when the majority of SMS had gone on an investigation back during the Vajra war, and he had stayed behind to protect his girlfriend Nanase Matsuura. The Nightmare Plus wasn't a bad plane; it just couldn't touch the Messiah.

 

Ozma was about to make some retort along the lines of “it's not the machine, but the man inside” when a triumphant shout from Luca's comm entered his ears.

 

“Major! I found one of the Ghosts! It's damaged, but still functional.”

 

“Good,” Ozma replied. “Skull Squadron, deploy tethers and bring it in to the Quarter.”

***

Soundwave was in the middle of processing the information he obtained from his hacking of the NUNS network earlier. Despite his highly advanced processors, there was a lot of information to sift through for important pieces, and he was growing slightly annoyed with the sheer amount of useless slag out there. He must have browsed through at least two million images of common household pets with misspelled captions. Why did these meatbags use their FoldWeb for such insipid things?

 

Suddenly, he received a transmission from his minion Laserbeak. Soundwave opened it up and saw that the drone was currently being taken into a ship of some kind, escorted by small vessels similar to the ones the Decepticons had engaged earlier, along with three other robotic craft that did not seem capable of transformation. The ship itself appeared to be a much smaller version of the main human flagship, and the words SMS Macross Quarter were painted across its sides.

 

Soundwave immediately filtered through his databanks, searching for any and all information on the vessels he had just seen. What he found, especially in regard to the Quarter's capabilities, surprised him immensely. Megatron must be aware of this at once, Soundwave thought as he began to compose a message to his leader. After he sent the note, Soundwave made on last order to Laserbeak, then continued attempting to digest the volumes of information from the human network.

 

“Operation: Infiltration. Primary Objective: Intelligence gathering. Secondary Objective: Self-preservation. Tertiary Objective: Sabotage.”

***

Battle Frontier was the Macross Frontier fleet's flagship, a 16.55-million ton monstrosity that was over 1.6 kilometers long and housed around 800 variable fighters and attack craft, as well 200 non-transforming Destroid mecha for point defense. It was covered from bow to stern with anti-ship guns, smaller beam turrets and point defense, and its main Macross cannon could easily wipe out a small fleet with a single shot.

 

Admiral Oliver Perry was a mustachioed man of average size and fair complexion nearing the end of his middle ages. He was also the captain of Battle Frontier as well as the commanding officer of the other ships in the Frontier Fleet. This, combined with his experience back during Space War I and the Vajra War, meant that Perry had a vast amount of power at his disposal.

 

Yet Perry also knew that as much power as he wielded, he was not invincible, as the loss of three ships within the course of thirty minutes demonstrated. At this moment, he pored over a map and a set of media files containing what little footage there was of the last minutes of the Belleau Wood and the meteor shower afterwards. As far as he could piece together, there seemed to be two waves of meteorites, the first of which landed sporadically, the second of which seemed very peculiar as to which areas each meteorite hit.

 

“New Gallia Allied Zentradi Base, Wellington Army Base, Curtis LeMay Air Force Base, Shinnakasu/Northrop Grumman's manufacturing plant in Island 4, and Island 1's police department,” Perry murmured to himself. “All preceded by a communications blackout.” Part of him hoped that this was mere coincidence, part of him recognized the signs of a hostile attack, and part of him toyed with the idea that everything would just end up being some big misunderstanding that would be cleared up as soon as they had some popular idol singer belt out some tunes.

 

His attention then turned to the most recent transmission from the ground recovery crews, who had been extremely unlucky in finding survivors. Most of the escape pods never even made it off their respective ships; such was the nature of space battle. However, one was recovered from the Belleau Wood, containing a tech crew and one Ensign Megumi Kaminska. Interesting combination of names, Perry thought as he made a note to launch an investigation as soon as possible.

***

Many decorations adorned the Tenkumon Concert Hall in preparation of the second anniversary of the end of the Vajra War, which would feature a joint concert of idol singers Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee, whose combined songs finally provided a way to communicate to the Vajra's hive-mind and ended hostilities between the Frontier fleet and the Vajra. Currently, the two were hard at work practicing for their performance.

 

At least, they would, if not for the fact that both singers were way out of it that day.

 

“Ladies, ladies, come on,” Elmo Kridanik pleaded as he tried to motivate the two stars. “The big show's only a week away, and we have so much to prepare for!” Elmo was a Zentradi veteran of Space War I who turned from his warrior heritage to walk the path of a manager for musical talents. As such, he spent most his times Micronized so as to interact more easily with his human clients.

 

“I'm sorry, Elmo-san, I'm just tired,” Ranka Lee sighed as she plopped down on to a bench. Her green hair, a sign of her one-fourth Zentradi ancestry, drooped down to match her fatigue. “I didn't sleep very well last night.”

 

“Same here,” Sheryl Nome added, barely stifling a yawn. “You know that thing where you're not really awake, but not really asleep either? It was kind of like that. I had the strangest dream, too, like something was calling to me, but I didn't know who.” She turned to Elmo and shot him a wry smile. “So, yeah. That's what's going on.”

 

“Really? Me too,” Ranka said. “It was like talking with the Vajra, but different. More individual voices, I think.” Ranka's mother was infected by the V-type virus while pregnant, which allowed Ranka to connect and communicate with the Vajra's hive-mind. Sheryl was infected as an adult, which ordinarily was fatal, but Ranka was able to “mutate” the infection so that Sheryl had the same abilities Ranka did. “A lot of them panicky, and some scared, but there was this one voice, this one really deep and rumbling one, that calmed everyone down.”

 

“Hmm, interesting,” Elmo noted. “Well, take a break if you need to. I'll go check on the backup dancers.”

 

“OK, thanks,” Ranka said as she and Sheryl left to grab some coffee. “Um, Sheryl?”

 

“Yes?” the older idol replied.

 

“Don't think I'm weird or anything, but…I really think someone was trying to call to me. I couldn't really make out what they were saying, but I think I caught the last sentence.”

 

“Oh? I couldn't hear anything, just felt a vague swirl of emotions,” Sheryl said. “What did they say?”

 

“Well, it sounded like some kind of farewell or a good luck wish,” Ranka said. “Till all are one.”