Macross Fan Fiction ❯ Robotech: Beneath a steel sky ❯ Chapter 27 - Hide and Seek... ( Chapter 27 )

---- Chapter 27 ---- Hide and Seek...

The SDF-1's frontal part of the hull is infested by a strange organic mass which has formed from the "mouth" of the "Invid-Exodus". As the days have passed ever since the Impact, the hordes of "Invid creatures" have taken over at least one-forth of Macross City and one-third of the outer hull...

The high command of SDF-1 has lost contact to the frontal half and were forced shut down all possible district terminal-gateways. The inner city is in chaos... Many battles are constantly being fought, other areas are unreachable, abandonded or hopelessly lost from contact. Even law and order under the civilians is slowly falling.

The Battlefortress is still trapped deep inside the phenomical Nebula called the "Void"... Totally covered by a yellow-ish haze, nearly totally hidden by dense areas of sulferic-looking clouds.

The "Oblivion" Destroyer, levitating high above the SDF-1, is keeping an idle position, waiting for the next call of alert.

The organic "Invid-Exodus" itself is surrounded by many numbers of swarming creatures... Biological Guardians of the beast are slowly moving around it's Mothership and the infested areas of the SDF-1's hull, attacking anything that would dare to enter their perimeter...

Unknown to the creatures possibly... There are indeed two large objects inside their perimeter, floating at least 11 kilometers away from the "Invid-Exodus" and 8 kilometers away from the "Nautilus" - One of the super-class ships attached to the right flank of the SDF-1...

Not even one light signal was emitting from the "Nautilus"...

Closing in on the two objects hiding deep inside a dense field of the "Void", two corvette-carriers connected to each other and two VF-1 Valkyries could be seen, holding their positions in a very tight formation...

Inside one of the carriers, a group of men and women could be seen...

Lt. Chris Caldwell's and Commander Roy Fokker's group have recovered from their last flight... Many of the young pilot wondered why they still have not returned to the SDF-1 yet...

Inside the briefing room, while both Squadron Commanders were away, Chris' group was waiting on one side of the room, Fokker's on the other side. A few of the pilots have had a slight argument why they have not returned yet - blaming each other for the trouble now -, while others tried to calm them down...

Rooks was pulled back from Cherry and Pres, while Rick Hunter was pulled back by Max Sterling and another pilot of the Vermillion Squadron...

"Don't tell me any crap, Hunter!", Rooks shouted at him, still being held back, " - it's not our fault being stuck in this mess now!"

"You tellin' me?! How can a group of rookies like you guys just grab yourself a pair of Valk's and take off just-like-that, huh?! You've gotta be kiddin' me - We wouldn't be out here if you guys haven't done such a trash!"

Holding Rooks' arm tight, Cherry said to him loudly, "Darn it, Rooks - Knock it off! It doesn't make sense to put up with them!" - "Yeah Rooks", Pres added, also fighting to keep him calm, "Let's not get into more trouble now, we can't afford it!"

He was full of anger - It seemed as if the whole Vermillion Squadron was against his own and their survival mission on getting Jester and Sparrow back...

"Now listen to me...", Rooks replied towards his opposing group and rose himself slightly... calming down slowly. Both Cherry and Pres released his arms, hoping he would finally keep cool...

"... and listen carefully", the angry pilot said towards the Vermillion group, "... I'm fed up with all this crap I'm hearing about ' It's all our fault ' and crap like that... Actually, I don't like the Vermillion Squad' - I don't like your flying - and I don't like you, Hunter!", he said loudly towards Rick, "... but that doesn't matter... Jester and Sparrow were stuck out there and our wing commander counted on us to get him back - and I don't know about the others, but I would never let Jester nor Sparrow down, just because some wimps like you guys have something against it - If ya don't like it - then BEAT it!"

The room went silent... Although at least half of the Vermillion squadron was about to start the argument from the beginning - one of the doors opened suddenly, reveiling Commander Fokker, Lieutenant Caldwell and his beloved Sammie Porter, who was still wearing an uncomfortable HEC-suit.

"Aw crap", Rooks said quietly to himself... Cherry bumped her elbow against his side... "Quiet you!", she snarled quietly.

Everybody moved out of the way slightly, making space for the three to enter the room. All three sat down on the large briefing table.

Commander Fokker shortly held a communicator next to his ear and asked, "Eagle-Seven, Hershy, Zacharino, Argo - you hear us?"

""*click*Argo, Loud and Cleary, Over""

"Affirmative, Commander - Eagle Seven reporting...", a voice replied - It was the pilot of the other 'Hawk Eye' carrier of the Vermillion squadron, "Hearing you loud and clearly over directlink communicaton... Over"

"Gotcha Commander - Hershy here - Everything's fine out here, holding our position - Just like you ordered, sir? Over..."

Two seconds past by...

"Zacharino here, sir - I've got a lousy uplink to the signal... Must be this darn cloudy area but I'll get the most of what you guys over there got to say, over!"

Fokker laid the communicator on the table, so that they listen to the upcoming speech...

Syrie, Vinshesca and many other pilots around were slightly above on the side of the room, since they were in the upper level of the room. They both also looked downwards...

"Ladies and Gentlemen", Fokker started, "I'm glad to see that all of you have recovered and I'm glad to see you all here in such an instant..."

Both Rooks and Rick Hunter crossed their arms and grumbled something to themselves...

"I'm sure you are all wondering why we aren't back yet - Well... let's get started, because we're in for another flight - and it's gonna be a lot tougher than our past Search-and-Rescue mission", Roy said towards his men, then looked over to the group of rookies, "... and it's gonna be beyond the difficulty of that renegade-rescue move you guys did..."

Many of the pilots seemed shocked... Commander Fokker continued as he rubbed his forehead:

"Alright - Listen, this is the situation - The 'Nautilus' Carrier has not responded every since we were on our way back... Although we thought that the "fog" out there was responsible for interferances, we found out that the 'Nautilus' is inactive, when we finally had a visible contact. Along with that, there is a large swarm of hostile units flying around as well. According to the report of the rookie squadron, we've figured out that the 'Invids' seem to have the same problem like we have - Low visiblity and detection range ability - in which we will use for our advantage. We're around eight or nine klicks away from the 'Nautilus' and are holding the position at a 3 o'clock angle from the SDF-1 inside one of the super-dense areas of the 'fog'... Using this opportunity, we've decided to stay here until we could come up with a plan..."

All pilots around the table and all aboved leaned slightly closer... The Commander spoke further:

"... Admiral Gloval gave us specials orders to dock on that Carrier in order to investigate the inner city and shut down a special core somewhere which is going to be a vital step in starting a return-fire operation... Lt. Caldwell is ready to give us additional support in completing this task, too - I know - It's sounds suicidal, but the outcome of this whole invasion will depend more likely on our success... So here's the plan... I'm giving the word to SDF-1 Operative Sammie Porter", then rose his hand towards the young officer.

Sammie seemed nervous as she noticed all eyes attention focused on her lips... It also took her a few seconds before she started to speak:

"H-Hello, yes - I-I'm Sammie Porter and I've assisted Lt. Caldwell's group in sensor operations and guidance control the best I could. I am not really the right person for this task, but I'm determined to help out as much as I can. As Commander... Fokker said, we are around nine kilometer away from the 'Nautilus'. Constant Communication-retries to Bridge Command and the 'Oblivion' have been aborted due to the fact that we are forced to keep maximum stealth upon the swarms of hostile units ahead. We can not stay out here forever since the number of the patrolling swarms have increased and their sweep-areas are slowly expanding. Referring to the words of the Commander, we will need to dock on the possibly-abandoned 'Nautilus'... and there is only one way to do this"...

Sammie paused.

Rixler suddenly spoke from above, "What should we do? Blast our way through the hordes? Don't think we've got enough of those swarm-missiles..."

She shook her head, "No no... Our main advantage and probably the reason why we are still undetected is that the "fog" or whatever that large cloud is completely masking our energy output, as well as other emissions... However, we are not completely invisible, since our position is not totally dense, but nevertheless - the 'Invids' do not seem to have the same 'eyes' as we do, they seem to rely more on passive surveillance... That's at least my theory."

"Hey... I get it", Max's voice said, "Subtility... Stealth - That's our advantage..."

"Yes - exactly", Sammie added and nodded her head, "Hiding in dense areas of the 'fog' is our best advantage - and this will probably be the main problem of upcoming plan. There is a way to dock onto the 'Nautilus' by manually sending in a recall-signal to the independant receivers of one of the landing docks. In order to do this, we would need to sneak our way past the 'Invid patrols', get one of the carriers at least within a 700meter radius to send the signal without catching too much attention."

"And that's the tough part, ladies and gentlemen", Chris added, "We will need to move slowly from cloud to cloud, avoid detection and try to make a safe landing... If we are detected, we definately won't stand a chance in fighting all of them off - We would be on a hot pursuit trying to get in before we would get overran..."

"Both Hawk-Eye carriers are fitted with special uplink communication systems that do not send active signals through space. Both carriers will be able to uphold communication between our units and guide them through - from one cloud to another", Sammie explained loud and clearly, "The simple law of sensory-avionics do not apply in these clouds - but nevertheless I will try to guide all of you as eyes-and-ears the best I can. It is important that no active scanning systems are used or else we might give up our only chance of survival. I've spoken with the pilot of the other carrier and he will take care of the clearance-signal for the docks while I guide his ship and most of the fighters".

Commander Fokker took the word again, "Thank you - Officer Porter, we'll really appreciate your help - Alright people, in 25 minutes, I want all of you to be ready to dispatch from the carrier. Got that?"

The room replied with a loud "Yes Sir!"

...

"Dismissed..."

Many of the pilots started to talk to each other. Everybody seemed astonished and anxious about the upcoming mission... Above the group, Vinshesca and Syrie were speaking to each other, when both looked over towards one of the windows on their level... noticing a young female pilot in a Vallery-Hunter HEC-suit looking out of the window...

It was Triss... Although she listened to the conversation, she did not move herself away from the window. For at least half-an-hour, ever since the argument between Rooks and Rick Hunter began, she stood before the window, glaring into the dense fog outside. Concentrating herself, she could see a slightly darkened area way ahead - Although it was hard to see, she could tell that what she could see was the 'abandoned and inoperative Nautilus carrier'...

Suddenly, she shook suprised as she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning around, she looked up slightly and saw that it was Syrie's hand - standing next to a smiling Vinshesca. Syrie smiled as well, leaned down slightly and said towards her in her soft frence voice:

"Triss, ma soeur... What's wrong? You 'ave been looking outside of the window for a long time..."

"Yeah Trissy", Vinshesca added, "Something going on? You look very worried..."

For a short moment, Triss did not react.

Her eyes closed slightly, looked down to the ground - then she turned herself slowly towards the window again... "It's... nothing... really...", Triss replied in a very low voice. "I will see both of you at the hangar section..."

Both Vinshesca and Syrie looked at each other. They just could not tell what was wrong with her... Quietness did belongs to one of Triss' strange personalities and it was like a hard shell which could not be penetrated...

The young girl continued looking outside. Slightly below, she could see the other Hawk-Eye carrier very close beneath and two VF-1 Valkyries floating right above it, not moving at all. She could see faint figures of the pilots helmets moving around. Again, for a few seconds, she could distinguish the faint profile of the SDF-1 and the strange mass attached to it's front... Many small dark spots were moving around... then the vision got worse, as the area got dense again.

Meanwhile, the group of Skull and Vermillion squadron pilots led by Commander Fokker walked down the corridor, heading towards the connection point between both carriers. As they all walked back, Rick tapped the shoulder of Roy and said, "Hey big brother, you can't be serious?! We're suppossed to fly out there and get in Macross... with THEM?!". Rick's voice did sound kind of annoyed.

"Rick, although they've done something wrong, we're just gonna need all the help we can get. We can't just leave them out here - They need our help - and we need theirs."

Ben also ran up a little and added light-heartingly, "Yeah - How can a bunch of rookies like them help us out - We've got more experiance than they do - HAHAHA" - Ben laughed a few seconds loudly.

"Hold it you two", Max interrupted, "- Although they're rookies, they've managed to shoot down many bogeys during the second sortie above the SDF-1 deck. If you ask me, I don't think it's a good idea to under-estimate their skills". Ben suddenly through his arm around Max, "HAHA, listen buddy, we belong to the elite of the elite, there's no way than can beat us just like that" - Again, Ben laughed loudly as the group walked further.

In the hanger section of the Hawk-Eye carrier, Trovski, the russian rookie pilot, Sqype and Piranja used the few minutes they had to try to repair a few systems from their Valkyries...

"You can forrget dis system", Trovski said, speaking slighty disappointed as he laid a large circuit unit to the side, which had many outburned areas and two dark blue shards sticking in it, "- It iss totally out of comission..."

Sqype, who was on top of the wing of the Valkyrie, looked downwards, "Well, we can live without that unit - but what I'm worry about is this primary fire control unit from Wiseguy's and Piranja's Valk' - It's a total pin-cushion!"

"Dis is not good..."

Both men looked towards the side, as Piranja just slammed in the secondary fire-control unit for the main cannon of her Valkyrie...

"Damn it...", she said angrily, "This thing here is also wasted! How the hell am I supposed to target anything if we haven't got any functioning guidance system?!"

"Beats me...", Sqype replied, "No chance in fixin' 'em here... but that doesn't matter - We'll need to keep quiet out there anyways..."

Piranja knocked her fist against the hard surface of main cannon...

-----

In the meantime, in the open and wide field between the buildings the command base of the Utopia Chenarra district, troops of civilian and military units were firing upon the flying targets. Both Mechas constantly fired upon the creatures... but despite the fact of being large, their targets were swift and evasive. Although they managed to hit the flying "Invids", their shell was indeed highly protective...

Time was running out for Mick, as his remaining-energy displays slowly lit in red... but he did not really react to it since he kept his concentration on the targets. Again, one of the smaller ones swooped past his Mecha, starting to gain height. Using this opportunity, Mick pulled the left controls to the side and lifted his right controls along with certain hand movements. This caused his Mecha to turn around and aim the cannon upwards, right towards the back escaping insectoid beast.

Obtaining a clean line of sight, he pulled and held the trigger as his cannon unleashed a rain of rounds toward the rear side of the beast.

As the bullets impacted the back of the beast, parts of it's wings ripped violently off along with a spray of green-blue "blood" and other organic materials... The creature slowly stopped floating upwards and started to drop uncontrollable from the sky, gaining more speed as it fell...

It did not take long until it's body crushed and splatted onto the solid street of the field... A few soldiers were splashed by the pool of it's goo...

Mick reactivated the comm line and shouted, "To all units - I think I've figured out their weakspot. Aim for their backs - not for their frontal area!"

During the fierce battle, machine gun fire and loud Mecha movement could be heard...

The truck with it's secret cargo which bashed through the defensive lines a while ago was still steaming. When two soldiers and one civlian of Mick's troops investigated the crash site, they were suddenly outgunned by four other men and the irishman, who claimed not to let anyone identify their cargo. Although their position was near the command building and it's compound, they were stuck in this area until the situation would cool down. The criminals held the both soldiers and the civilians captive...

FoxyRoxy, who reached the area alone, was surprised as she saw the battle being fought - recognizing to large battleroid hulks and many foot-troops firing at two flying creatures... Hiding behind an abandoned car, she looked across the field, noticing the strange looking truck... Judging the marks on the street, it seemed to her as if it crashed into many things before it came to a stop... As she observed the truck from afar, she looked at the strange object hidden under the dense tent-like net, which was lying onto of the rear side of the truck...

Something seemed familiar on it... especially when she noticed many marks and scratches on the left side of the object... The object seemed quite long and very heavy and had a familiar symbol with a white dagger-looking symbol on a red circle...

"... A... RDF-symbol...", FoxyRoxy said to herself...

She has decided to make her way across the field in order to investigate the truck.

It did not take long until she reached the frontal area of it... Before she managed to have a closer look on the cargo, she heard a strange laugh from the other side. Slowly looking around the corner, hiding behind empty barrels, junk and other destructed objects, she could see a group of armed men aiming at two soldiers and one civilian-looking man who had their hands held to their head, kneeling in front of the aiming rifles...

FoxyRoxy leaned back slightly, making sure that they would not see her...

Again, the same voice that laughed a few seconds ago suddenly spoke, with an irish accent, "Hahaha, oi - This is amusing - Did you militaristic fools think you could just come and steal our loot?! Well, nevermind that now - Our truck is slightly overheated and it just needs to have some cooling down, 'ey?"

Another voice spoke, "Hey boss, shouldn't we just kill 'em here and get this thing over to..."

Again, the irish voice interrupted, "Shad-up you fool! Luck is on our side that those other fools are taking care of that buisness we pulled with us. As soon as the truck has cooled down, we should be out off 'ere before them troops get here - We'll already be heading north-west before they even noticed were gone - Now ain't that charming, mates! Now then, get these fools here tied up - I don't want any unwanted heroic moves 'ere!"

"Who the hell are you guys?!", one of the captured men said, "What's the whole deal of this... ooof!" - FoxyRoxy heard sound of a rifle's end being whacked upon somebody... Having a short look again, she could see one of captivities holding the side of his bleeding lip...

The young female pilot felt overwhelmed about what was going on...

It seemed as if these five men were some type of criminals trying to steal something big... Referring to the conversation, it could really happen that they would get away before Mick or any other troop would even notice...

FoxyRoxy decided to call for help and pulled out her radio... Clipping one of the switches and holding the broadcast button, she whispered, "Can anybody hear me - Hello?! Anybody?! I need help - I'm hiding near some large truck which seemed to have crashed through many things and it looks like as if these people are not friendlies... They've taken three of our men captive and..."

As FoxyRoxy whispered into her radio, one of the armed criminals look around, hearing some a strange voice coming from the radio of the truck. Climbing in shortly, he pulled out the cordless radio from the truck's cockpit.

"Ey boss", he said, "I can hear some voice talkin' over the frequency" - The irishman turned around suprised and replied, "What? Gimme that 'talkie!"

The man threw the radio-gadget over to his leader, who caught it and listened.

The irishman could hear a female voice whispering over the line, "... They are armed and possibly dangerous - I repeat, five armed men who are hiding next to a large crashed truck have taken three of our men captive and are keeping themselves away from trouble until the truck is reoperational - I need immediate assistance... Hello?... Has anybody picked up this signal?! I need help here..."

Looking up suprised, the irishman wove his hand anxiously, showing his men to get down and stay quiet...

The radio signal started to make a long fuzzing sound...

"Psst!", one of the armed men of the irishman whispered, gaining attention, "Boss... I can hear sumpin' behind those barrels over d'ere!"

"Oi then - you two - Go check it out!"

FoxyRoxy held the radio next to her ear, hearing the fuzzing sound in low volume, waiting to hear a response... Not getting any reply, she took a very short look around the corner - then threw herself to the back again as she noticed that two armed men were slowly sneaking themselves towards the barrels she was hiding behind of...

She still had her rifle on her back, but it would be too suicidal to go head on head against the five if they would be expecting trouble... She also knew that they were up to something and that it was important to figure out what. The young woman laid the radio on the ground and crawled around towards the other side of truck... They must have noticed her call for help...

-----

Back in space, far away from the SDF-1 inside the dense fields of the "Void", the two carriers have detached from themselves...

All pilots were inside their cockpits and were waiting for being transfered to the outside...

Chris' voice suddenly spoke over comm, ""Alright boys and girls, recap: We've gotta keep it cool and smooth while we sneak our way past those slimebags around the SDF-1. Sammie's gonna need a better position to monitor the enemy movement first before we can guide the other carrier to send in the signal - While I'll command you guys, Commander Fokker will take care of the others. Argo will have us open on the outside, but we won't dispatch unless we get compromised - Try to maintain radio silence and keep all sensors off, over and out.""

""Argo here - decompressing hanger-slots now... finished... opening slots to the outside and gonna hold you guys outside, over"".

As Agro said, all hanger bay-capsules opened up, holding the VF-1 specials ready for dispatch. ""Ok, guys, stay detached""

""Argo, Rookie squadron - This is Eagle-Seven - All Valkyrie dispatched and are holding tight formation around the carrier. We're ready for waypoint-orders from your sensory - Over and out.""

Rooks kept his hands tight on the controls as he looked around... seeing nothing besides the dense haze.

Sammie was in front of the main sensor screens, seeing garbled signals and many "cloud" areas moving around. Within a short moment, she managed to plot waypoints along the area - dangerously close near "Invid patrol" zones - However, those areas would be dense enough if they would want to hide two large objects...

Grabbing the headsets near the console, she attached it on her head and held the microphone close to her lips...

Meanwhile, Argo had both hands ready on the carrier's control...

""To all ships, this is Sammie Porter speaking here..."", said a shaky female voice over comm, ""Scans have been completed - Stand by for waypoint-guidance... In order to avoid early detection, we should proceed with a super low cruising speed of 50km/h...""

A few guiding lines and circles appeared on the cockpit window right in front of Argo - The display was very fuzzy and jumping around, but it was still possible to follow the plotted course. Clipping up a few switches on his side, then gently pushing the thrust-controls, he could feel the ship slightly rumbling as the engines reactivated themselves.

"Ok, Roger - Engines powered on and set to the desired cruising-speed...", Argo replied over comm. Eagle-Seven, the other carrier, confirmed as well.

""Attention flight-group"", Sammie reported, ""Leaving safe dustcloud in approximately 20 seconds - Next cloud will be in reached in approximately 30 seconds...""

As both carriers and Commander Fokker's Valkyrie group escorted along, Scarlet - Trovski's RW co-pilot - seemed very uncalm. Although she was not alone in her cockpit, she felt unease... both hand shaking nervously...

All systems were powered off... only a few instruments were illuminating light...

Both pilots started to notice their cloudy surroudings slowly clearing up.

----

Utopia Chenarra District...

Two mechas and many armed groups of men and women were still defending themselves versus the gigantic insectoid "Invid" and it's minion...

During the chaotic battle, the crashed truck was still not investigated neither by Mick's troops nor by Corp. Briggs' command... Finding out that the truck-drivers were actually hostile people, holding three other men of Mick's team captive, Foxy-Roxy tried to call for help via radio. Unforetunately, the truckers picked up her broadcast and found out that somebody was nearby...

Foxy-Roxy crawled as fast as she could - Trying not to make any noise as she moved herself forward. She could hear the footsteps of the two men slowly walking towards her previous hiding position, sneaking their way ahead. Reaching the other side, she could see further away, seeing many groundtroops firing towards the sky and two Mechas trying to shoot down the flying targets.

She lifted her head and looked towards the high tower of the command center, straight at the glass windows where the main center was... Hoping that she would gain attention, she wove her hand - Hoping that somebody would notice a red-purple suited co-pilot in trouble...

Turning around again, she noticed the large object on the cargo-platform of the truck - Moving over towards it, she rose the dense net which was covering it. Uncovering the side, she recognized a symbol she would have never expected.

Both of her eyes went wide open in astonishment...

The area she uncovered reveiled a RDF symbol - totally scratched and full of dents. She moved more of the net aside, uncovering more of the object's side.

"...A...cockpit...?", Foxy whispered to herself, "...It's..." - Looking down to the right, she slowly started to recognize what this object was... Having a short look inside, she discovered many cockpit controls cracked and damaged... along with a helmet in bad shape - It's glass full of cracks...

Moving the net more to the side, she discovered the name platings of the pilot on the outer side of the cockpit... It had many scratches and dents as well - but it had a very familiar name of a person she knew the most about...

"...Mickerson... This... is... our...", she whispered -

"*tap... tap*" - Hearing the men moving towards her previous spot, she immediately dived down again behind all the crushed barrels, sandbags and other bashed junk.

Both men who stalked ahead stopped as they found her radio lying on the ground, making constant fuzzing sounds...

"Oi! Have you to found something?!", the irishman shouted loudly, as he noticed them coming back.

One of them held her fuzzing radio up and replied, "Boss - it's some kinda walkie-talkie - D'ere must be somebody around here!"

"Well, then...", the irishman said ... then looked towards one of their hostages... "You - You there with that sweat-shirt! Get up!"

The hostage which he meant was the one who already was bleeding... His hands were tied up behind his back and he was unable to get it, since his head was still throbbing from pain... The irishman suddenly went over to him and gave him another hard slap to the side of his face with the end of his rifle.

Foxy-Roxy, who was hiding behind the truck's side could hear the hostage trying to call for mercy... in pain.

"Get UP, you fool!", the leader screamed at him and pulled the wounded hostage to his feet, then kicked him down to his knees again...

Both soldiers tried to get up, but were either knocked by rifle-swings or by kicks from the oppressor.

*shick shick* - The young co-pilot heard...

It was the sound of the irishman's rifle... now aiming at the backside of his hostage.

For a short moment, they all could hear the fierce battle further away...

The civilian who was being held hostage on his knees was out of breath...

Shouting in a threating irish accent, the irishman shouted out loud, "I don't know who's out there - but we know you are out there! Come out - or else we will shoot these men!"

She shook as he heard his words... Now this was unexpected...

"I know you are still there, who ever you are! I am going to count down from ten to zero - and if you don't show up, this man will be shot... and if you still haven't shown up, I will shoot the next one - I hope you bloody understand me!"...

She pulled out her rifle from her back and unlocked the safety quietly...

"TEN!... NINE... EIGHT..."

Both hands trembled upon her rifle, which she was holding tightly against her chest...

"SEVEN... SIX..."

She could feel how she was getting nervous... This was not how she wanted the situation...

"FIVE.......FOUR.......THREE.....", the irishman shouted further, slowing down the countdown and shaking his head negatively. The other soldiers were still downed by the other criminals.

"Damn... it", Foxy whispered to herself...

"TWO...!", the irishman said, looking down at his hostage again - aiming directly at the rear side of the head, "...ONE... Well then... say farewell - mate..."

Just before he was about to pull the trigger, a loud shout of a woman could be heard from somewhere...

"DON'T FIRE!!!", Foxy shouted out loud... "Hold your fire!!!"

The other criminals aimed their rifles towards the direction of the voice...

The irishman kicked his hostage aside and said, "... Well, well... What have we here?..."

"Don't shoot... I'm coming with my hands up...", Foxy shouted and laid her rifle aside...

Slowly moving around the corner, the men spotted the young woman wearing a strange tight red-purple suit with two different badges on each side of her arms - A few of the criminalistic men recognized the RDF symbol and took a few steps back.

"'Ey Boss! It's one of d'em RDF cops!", one of criminals shouted - aiming his weapon straight at her - " - Probably lookin' for d'heir plane we stole from 'em!"

...

Meanwhile, a lot further away from the current hostage situation - Mick had a tough time trying to shoot down their oppressors. The minion of the "Invid-Aggressors" suddenly swoop down, heading straight for the other Mecha...

"Crap! Flagger - Watch out - It's comin' straight for ya!", Mick shouted over comm...

The flying creature came in deeply and at blinding speed - Making it impossible for the other VF-1G Battleroid to dodge. Bashing into the Mecha, the "Invid" thrusted it's strange sharp tentacles through it's victim and carried it into the sky...

Mick lifted the controls, making his Mecha aim straight at the beast -

"Damn it! I don't have a clear sight!", he shouted.

The pilot of the captive VF-1G was unable to free his Mecha.

Many controls of Clark Flagger's cockpit fuzzed and he tried to do the best he could.

The tentacles have pierced through the armor and tied themselves tightly around the limbs of the Mecha...

Hanging on his back, he shouted - "Arrgh - I can't get out of here!"

The "Invid-beast" carried the creature higher and higher...

Mick was still aiming for them - unable to fire... His hands shook as he was anxious to pull the trigger... "Com' on... Get out of there... Get out of there!"

Another tentacle shot out from the side of the "Invid" towards it's captive victim - Flagger's vision went totally offline and out of commision as the tentacle crushed the "head" of the Mecha into many pieces.

Again, near the crashed truck site, one of the armed criminals looked upwards, after hearing a rather destructive sound high above them - Noticing many parts of debris falling from the sky, he shouted around as the parts fell towards them.

Acting quick, Foxy-Roxy ran towards one of the armed men who was distrated by the sudden shout...

A few parts crashed nearby - crashing into the many barrels and other junk, many parts splashed to all sides, unluckily hitting one of the criminals...

Taking the only opportunity, Foxy-Roxy charged ahead - straight for the irishman and fought trying to take the rifle away. One of the captured soldiers stood up to his feet and charged another hostage-taker. Although his hands were tied up to his back, he did managed to tackle one of them down. The other soldier turned himself and kicked the rifle of the man behind, along with another kick towards his face.

Struggling to take away the rifle, the young woman fought against a man who could surely crush anything with his bare hands. Slowly pushing her downwards, she started to notice that this guy was a lot stronger... She bit her teeth together, trying to push him back...

"...Ngh...!"., she said with a struggling voice... This man was beyond her strength - It would only be a matter of a few seconds before he would bring her totally to the ground if she would not figure something.

A sudden fact lit in her mind - This guy was putting all his weight against her...

Trying to use her common sense, something told her that she would only need to fool him by surprise...

The irishman's face suddenly went from an aggressive fighting face to a grining one, looking successful...

"Heh..Heh... Look's like as if the Missy is going down, eh?!", he said towards her, "...Why don't you..."

Foxy-Roxy used this opportunity of his secure talking and turned herself around, kneeling down while showing her back towards the man - then pulling both rifle and him over her shoulder. Catching the irishman totally by surprise, the strong man flew easily over Foxy's shoulder. Foxy managed to perform a shoulder-throw, making the man loose balance and loose grip of the rifle.

Taking one step back, she aimed the rifle directly at the irishman's face, who was still surprise about what just happened...

"Aw-right now! That's enough now!", the young pilot shouted, gaining attention of all, "Hands up, pal! And tell your 'mates' to drop their guns and free those three or else I'm sending YOU to hell!"...

Her voice was loud... clearly and definately threatening. All men ceased their fighting when they heard her voice.

The irishman, who seemed over whelmed as he lied on his back lifted both hands - Seeing upside-down the beautiful young lady holding the rifle towards his forehead...

"No no! Missy! Uhh... Aye! Don't do anything - ", the downed man replied surprisingly, " - Oi mates - You heard the Missy - Release them..."

Foxy took a few steps to the back while still aiming at the head of the irishman... The other criminals did as she demanded and freed both soldiers. Both snatched their rifle and pushed them away, then ran towards the wounded civilian...

"whew...", Foxy sighed... "- Is he ok?"

The civilian was bleeding and seemed exausted...

"Gonna need a medic, but he should could through - I'll get that radio over there and call for help", one of the soldiers replied.

Foxy-Roxy looked at the other criminal who was hit by the debris from the sky...

"Better make it quick - That guy over there could need some real medical support"

Waving her aim around, Foxy showed the irishman to get up. Slowly moving away from her with her hands up, the soldiers aimed as well towards the criminals, forcing them to make a row.

"Good job... Miss...?", one of the soldiers said towards her.

"Just call me Foxy - and thanks", she replied with a slight smile.

"I bet when we get these guys under arrest, they're gonna tell us some things about what they were up to", he continued.

Remembering about something, Foxy-Roxy turned around - Looking towards truck and it's cargo platform, then looked beyond, seeing the battle of the armed forces versus the two flying "Invid" creatures...

Again, her view went down slightly, recognizing the scratched RDF symbol on the "cargo"...

"You two - call for help and keep an eye on those guys - If they move, blast 'em", she said towards the two soldiers.

Foxy walked over towards the "cargo" and detached the net from the side, then went over towards the other side and pulled it off as hard as she could. The dense net slowly revealed what she expected as it fell to the ground.

She climbed up and took a closer look.

It was the VF-1 special of Mick and Foxy-Roxy... Exactly the same one. Full of dents, scratches and many other types of physical punishment possible. The cockpit-glass was also gone, only a few pieces left...

Looking inside the cockpit, she noticed that both damaged helmets were still there... Mick's standard Veritech helmet with a few dents and her special targetting helmet - which had many cracks within the glass. Many cockpit screens, including her console touch-pads were damaged and full of cracks as well...

Turning around and looking up at the fierce battle, she could tell that that one Mecha and the ground-troopes were surely in deep trouble... The other "headless" Mecha was still being carried around.

Foxy pushed both helmets down to the feet area in the pilots cockpit, making sure they would stay put and then climbed into the co-pilot's seat.

"Erm... Hey lady, whatcha doin' ?!", one of the soldiers asked loudly, while aiming at the captive criminals.

"There's no time for explanations - Our guys need help over there and I think this thing still works...", she shouted back, " - Try to call the guys in that command base over there and tell them to send some troops here - and tell them we've got some badguys captive and need medics... Gonna see what I can do!"

"Aw-right, just be careful, miss!", the soldier shouted back.

For a short moment, Foxy-Roxy had a flashback of what happened back then, when both she and Mick crashed down...

She remembered being shaked around as they slid down the street, bashing through everything that was lying around...

Foxy shook as she woke up from her flashback to that point when the destructed car rolled over the cockpit... She looked around in the cockpit, only seeing damaged touch-pads and thin screens with cracks. She pushed them aside and laid her hands on the cockpit controls of the damaged Valkyrie.

"Hope it works"...

Triggering a few switches, she could hear the drives shortly charging... then a sudden discharge - probably meaning that the start-up failed... There was a screen that seemed to have gone active, which must have survived the crash-landing after all. It was the damage-indicator of the Valkyrie, showing the fighter-version of it.

Many layers were red - Distinguishing the "leg" and turbine of the fighter, she could tell that it was black-red, showing that it was totally inoperative. Throwing a few switches down, she caused the next start-up to be without trying to reactivate both turbines.

"Here goes again...", she said and tried it out.

Hearing the engines charging, many screens started to fuzz, constantly showing blinking pictures and other garbled displays.

"... It's working!"

-----

Somewhere in space, not far away from the "Nautilus" super-carrier of the SDF-1, deeply inside the "Void".

Two small "Hawk-Eye" carriers and a group of Valkyries could be seen, as they moved from one dense cloud area to another. As the time passed by, they kept "hopping" from leaf to leaf like a frog, hiding inside moving areas of dense fog. Their flight-route has changed often due to some circumstances of "Invid-Patrols" moving along the area, but they still have managed to stay undetected... until now.

Chris, who was very cautious, was looking around, when he suddenly heard the voice of his beloved Sammie speaking over the direct-linked communication lines, ""Attention! We - We've got a problem!"", she shouted.

Her loud voice woke the attention of many pilots up.

Inside the Rookie "Hawk-Eye" carrier, she could see that there was a group of flashing red objects moving across her screen, which suddenly have appeared as they came through one of the dense areas on the screen. Although the signal reflected everywhere, she could tell that if the objects would continue, they would cross the path of the flight-group, which could definately jeopardize their subtilty...

Sammie's face showed up shortly upon many screens of the pilots, fuzzing slightly:

*fuzz*

""Attention - There is an Invid-Patrol of perhaps three Shardlings... and other unknown bogey moving at a cruising speed of 120 km/h towards our position. If I am not mistakening, we have not been detected. But nevertheless, if they continue their flight-route they would cross our path! At the moment, we are too far away from any "safe-spots" and are in slightly dense stream of the cloud which could hide our visibiltly slightly - To all, shut down all systems! I repeat, deactivate ALL systems! We must avoid being detected by active emissions of all kinds!""

*Another fuzz, showing Commander Fokker*

""Ok, got it! All squads - attach yourselves somewho on the hull of "Eagle-Seven" and shut down ALL systems!""

Argo, the pilot of the Rookie carrier, tightened the formation between both carriers shortly and immediately pulled all thrust-controls down, discharging all power of the carrier. Many cockpit-lights went off, along with down-charging sounds. Sammie also made sure that nothing was emitting or active - Only her screen was showing passive-detected objects still heading their way. All corridors, rooms and other areas of the street went dark.

Sammie started to feel slightly anxious as her room faded to darkness... and thought about Chris.

""Eagle-Seven confirms orders fulfilled and will remain under total radio-silence and power-down until the coast is clear - Eagle-Seven, over and out!""

""Rixler here, Rookie squad ready for the hide-and-seek - Ok, all... now.... Sssshhhh...""

Silence...

The whole group was now moving without control... Floating ahead...

Helios, who held his cockpit controls tightly in his hands kepts looking around, constantly repeating, "Crap... crap... crap...". Both him and his RW co-pilot Vinshesca kept looking around nervously. The visibility range was horrible. It was possible to see the faint profile of the SDF-1 and the "Nautilus", but it was just impossible to see anything else that was smaller.

Triss, who was sitting behind Spencer, remained silent. Both of her hands were on her cockpit controls rather than on her touch-pad consoles - Besides Syrie, many other Rookies were very anxious what was about to show up...

Looking high towards the right side, Wiseguy looked up sharply, as he noticed something dark objects moving... After a short second, he leaned back with wide eyes when he recognized the objects...

"Ooooh shit...", he whispered.

Nearly everybody could see the incoming patrol.

Indeed, as the area slightly clear up, the patrol consisted of what was reported by Sammie - Three "Invid-Arc-Shardlings" along with an unidentified life-form which had two long "fins" - Dorsal and ventral... Both were twice as long as the creature itself with many thin layers. The creature also possessed winglike fins as well.

All in all, they were only flying straight ahead and would pass the flight-group highly above the them... If they have "eyes", the possibility of detection would be dangerously high...

Not only the Rookie pilots were the only ones at unease - Even their flight commander, Chris Caldwell was having a hard time trying to keep cool. Being patient and having both a whole squad and Sammie as sitting ducks at the same time was more than troublesome. Every single cockpit display was offline, only the strange light from the "Void" was emitting it's strange yellow-sulfurish light.

His left hand started to shake a little...

----

Back inside the SDF-1...

Foxy managed to reactivate the damaged Valkyrie.

Pushing both pedals and setting "Gerwalk" mode, the Valkyrie floated up shortly, then "dispatched" the feet of the Battleroid along with one heavily damaged arm and a scratched heavy caliber cannon-rifle...

The Valkyrie landed again on the platform of the truck, which cushioned as it landed softly again. The "belly" of the Gerwalk-Veritech was full of scratches and other possible types of dents. Although it was heavily damaged, Foxy-Roxy could count on it's reliablity.

She smiled shortly, feeling relieved that this Veritech was active again.

All men seemed astonished of her controlling the aircraft...

Waving downwards, she shouted, " - Ok, I'm sure you guys will be fine without me! I'm gonna assist the others with this Veritech - Be sure to those guys under control until the others are here!"

"You can count on that!", they shouted upwards.

"Ok guys! See ya around!", she replied loudly, then turned the Valkyrie - facing the battlezone. Pushing both controls ahead, along with certain hand movements, the VF-1reacted just as she wanted - thanks to her neural-gloves. Making two steps, the Veritech walked off the cargo-platform of the truck, making two familiar "stomp" sounds as each foot touched the ground.

Foxy-Roxy was rather visible in the rear section of the open cockpit, having only a simple reserve-seatbelt holding her.

After taking the steps, the Veritech stopped and lowered it's "nose" slightly.

"It's been a while since I've flown such a thing by myself... Alright, let's see if the main turbine can keep me above the ground", she said to herself and activated the main thrusters on the "back" of Valkyrie. The engines flashed and roared, unleashing a remarkably strong ignition for a Valkyrie that seemed actually heavily damaged.

Although the Valkyrie only had one active "foot" for hovering, the main thruster managed to compensate the missing turbine easily. Holding both controls in her hands, she pushed the throttle ahead, along with the pedals.

She could feel the constant gust of wind blowing against her face and her red hair as the Valkyrie gained on speed.

Trying not to lose control, the Valkyrie dashed ahead - Heading straight for the battlefield...

-----

Back in space - Two powered-down "Hawk-Eye" carriers with numbers of attached Valkyries floated ahead like derelict objects...

Looking high, Chris and many other pilots could not move their eyes away from the "Invid-patrol"... The situation was critical. The young Lieutenant had both hands ready for emergancy dispatch...

From far away, the helmets of the pilots could be seen as they followed the beasts past by... By now, they should have had visual contact with towards both carriers - but they remained on their patrol-route, moving along - high above the group as if nothing was there.

Especially the Vermillion Squadron was more than surprised, seeing their dreaded enemies not detecting them.

A few minutes passed by...

The "Invid-patrol" disappeared totally into another cloudy region of the "Void"...

Rooks leaned back...

"Damn... now that was close...", he said loudly...

"... Yeah... Too close... But have you also noticed that they should have had eye-to-eye contact?", Cherry replied - sighing as well. Rooks thought back shortly...

"Now that you say it, you're right - How come didn't they see us? Even though I'm kinda glad they didn't pick us up... They must be blind as hell, eh?!", he snarled.

His RW co-pilot shook her head...

"Maybe..."

" - maybe what?", Rooks asked.

"Maybe... Maybe they are blind... From the research report of the enemy I once had in my hands never really said anything about optical organs such as eyes...", she continued, "maybe they truly do rely on something else - I've never seen that other creature which flew between them before... You know, that one with the big vertical wings?"

"Yeah... I wonder, too.. Do you think -", Rooks was about to ask something when they both suddenly heard a short frequency scratch from their helmet...

The soft and nervous voice of Sammie Porter spoke:

""...Flight-Groups... It - It looks like as if the patrol is moving along. We haven't been detected... If we do not want to get compromised, we should better plot a direct course from this angle towards the 'Nautilus'.""

""Commander Fokker here - Everybody fine?""

Suddenly, Ben's humble voice spoke loudly over the comm-line, ""Yeeeah, we've fine over here - Looks like as if we're gonna have no trouble after all - HAHAHA""

""Ben! Keep quiet!"", another voice ordered... Ben did as the voice said.

""Sammie reporting in - I've transmitted the course to Eagle-Seven. Eagle-Seven and both flight squadrons will land as first aboard the 'Nautilus'. Eagle-Seven will dive slightly in an -10.5 degree angle and disengage engines, while transmitting a constant signal towards the boarding receivers. If everything runs as planned, the designated barrier-gates of the bay should open. After Eagle-Seven completes it's landing, Hawk-Eye One will follow... Over""

Chris was pleased to hear how Sammie was managing the navigation despite her space sickness plus the "Syndrome". Indeed, it was never a mistake of taking her with them on this dangerous mission...

""Eagle-Seven here, received data and are en-route towards bay 3-Beta for corvette size ships... Course plotted... Re-engaging all systems... Changing course towards nav-coordinates... Engaging thrusters - now...""

As the pilot of "Eagle-Seven" reported, the carrier on the right side of Chris went back online, activated it's thrusters and started to move ahead - First making a slight curve then started to take landing procedure... As it moved ahead, it started to disappear into the clouds.

""Direct-Commlink is already starting to dissipate.. Hope I will hold until we're onboard. We're 692 meters away from the bay and have taking landing AoA. We have also dispatched the Valkyries just to keep bodyguard formations...""

Things were going "so far so good" for the flight group... Did not seem as if trouble was coming...

----

Again, inside the SDF-1.

As Foxy-Roxy entered the battlefield, she recognized that one VF-1G was still held captive by many tentacles of the flying "Invid-Minion". Hovering past many troops, many of them wove cheerfully as the severely damaged Valkyrie - shaking back and forth due to sloppy flight control - flew ahead.

Suddenly...

The "Invid-Minion" did a sharp curve, then hovered high above the battlefield...

Slowly turning itself, it seemed to focus it's "view" towards Foxy-Roxy's damaged Veritech... then dropped Flagger's captive VF-1G, releasing all tentacles from it's side. It did not take long until Flagger's crippled VF-1G crashed through the top .

Making a sudden stop, Foxy-Roxy immediately disengaged the thrusters and made her Valkyrie do a braking slide, both "feet" scratching various numbers lines upon the street.

Corperal Briggs, who was observating the battle and commanding the ground troops from the command tower suddenly noticed an unfamiliar Veritech moving into the battlefield. It was a white-blue colored Veritech in Gerwalk-mode, with many scratches along it's sides. The window-screen view displayed another circle around his view, then started to zoom in - getting a closer look on the person who was piloting it.

His eyes widened when he recognized the familiar red-haired co-pilot in the backseat...

Just another second passed by, when Mick's Battleroid suddenly blasted towards the sky - then landed on top of one of the building. Aiming high, he managed to catch the flying "Invid-minion" off guard, since it was focused on something else...

Inside the Battleroid, Mick shouted loudly, "Now I've got you!", and pulled the trigger while concentrating on his aim. Various numbers of shots impacted upon the rough skin of the beast, but it was still in the air... It suddenly turned towards his Mecha, ignoring Foxy-Roxy's Veritech. Mick kept firing, but the rounds just kept ricocheting off it's sides...

Hearing sudden alerting sounds, he started to notice many screens fluctuating, including screens blinking on and off quickly. "What the -?"

A computer voice spoke, " - Warning,auxiliary power cells depleted - Primary system shut-down imminent - Warning, primary system shut-down imminent..."

This was not good...

The Battleroid suddenly kneeled down, dropping both arms and rifle to the roof of the building...

The main-screen remained active, but all the other displays went offline - along with discharging sounds. He tried to reactivate his Battleroid, but it did not react...

Looking up at the "Invid-Minion", he could see the sides opening up... Revealing a large batch of sharp projectiles aiming towards his direction.

FoxyRoxy and a few soldiers and armed civilians looked up towards the building, seeing that that Battleroid was in deep trouble. Hearing a fuzzy and familiar voice over the cockpit's onboard radio, FoxyRoxy immediately looked down at the radio - "Mick?!"...

A constant rain of small shards started to hail down upon the Battleroid, making hundreds of sounds of metallic darts hitting a solid object....

""... God-damn it! Mick here, require assistance -My roid's out of power - unable to ... Damn it! I need back-up!""

She suddenly made a face full of anger, then looked up at the beast again. Determined to stop the beast, she turned her Veritech towards the flying beast high above - then pushed both pedals to the maximum, along with the controls.

Both, main thrusters and operative foot-turbines, blasted at full power - igniting large blue flames upon the ground. The Veritech started to lift-off, then blazed ahead, straight for the "Invid-beast"...

The wind blew into the face of the angry co-pilot who was sitting in the rear section of the cockpit.

Mick was being shook back and forth as the rain of shard-fire continued - The remaining displays showed that the armorplating was loosing on integrity dangerously fast. He was not sure how long this Mecha would withstand the constant attack before being penetrated. Suddenly, as he looked towards the left, he saw a familiar white-blue Gerwalk-Veritech coming up from the side, flying straight at his attack... The Veritech was in a terrifying shape and it was more than strange seeing it fly.

The young man immediately shouted, when he recognized which maniac was piloting it...

"FOXY?!"

----

As the battle continued somewhere inside the SDF-1, another one is bound to be fought outside - in the vicinity of the "Daedalus" super-carrier... Although Eagle-Seven managed to land without being detected, the Skull-squadron was about to be compromised by an unnatural event which was about to occur.

While the "Hawk-Eye" carrier of the Rookie squadron held it's position inside a dense cloud area, Sammie Porter - their volenteering sensor-officer - suddenly discovered a disturbing fluctuation on her screen. As she sat in the darkness of the sensor operationroom, her screen showed a blinking darkgreen "wave" moving along the area... She was unable to tell what it was but it was moving at a very high speed towards the Skull-squadron's position, who were approaching the "Daedalus" for landing.

Not having much time, she immediately contacted Argo, saying that he should repositioning the carrier by engaging the retro-thrusters.

"Argo? Argo - This is Sammie Porter - We've got a problem!", she shouted loudly over her headset.

Inside the cockpit, Argo immediately responded to her call by activating the comm-line.

"Argo here - Gotcha - What's wrong, Miss Porter? Have we been detected?!", he replied nervously.

""Argo, there is a turbulent band moving across the SDF-1 which is more than 8km wide - wide enough to push the landing Skull-squadron and us away from our positions! You must immediately activate the engines and revert towards six-o'clock! I will immediately inform the Skull-squadron, but it might be too late!""

Looking up surprised, Argo anxiously grabbed the controls of the cockpit, then flipped various numbers of switches...

Outside in space, attached to the side of the Hawk-Eye carrier, Rooks was looking around, when he suddenly noticed sounds activating from his right side, along with a strong motion pushing him towards the front.

"Hey - What the - What's goin' on now?!", he asked. "- I - I don't know", Cherry answered - also wondering what was going on.

*frequency scratch*

""Attention all units - Attention all units! Porter here - Incoming turbulentic force! Coming in from four-o'clock high! Skull-squadron, your landing procedure is under danger of being disturbed by this force. We must leave this stealth-position or we might sustain a high risk of being torn totally away from this cloud! Under all circumstances, you must land! Engage thrusters and immediately land on the 'Daedalus' at the same dock of your carrier! We must face the fact of being compromised by 'Invid' forces if we engage all systems...""

*frequency scratch*

"Hoo...boy..."

Argo's carrier-status screen blinked five areas showing that the carrier-thrusters have opened their retro-hatches and are ready for engaging the full power thrust.

""Argo here - Attention all hooked up on the Hawk-Eye - It's gonna be tight, dunno if this gigantic slug is gonna make it out of the area-of-effect on time - Engaging thrusters, now!""

Pulling the desired controls towards the back, along with both pedals set on thrust-control, the whole carrier and it's 'captive' Valkyries started to move backwards, gaining on speed.

""Skull-squadron responding, Commander Fokker here - We've got the message and makin' a run for it! Aborting stealth-cruise and getting ready for landing""

Sammie's voice replied, ""Hurry, Skull-squadron - The wave will arrive within 35 seconds!"" - She also strapped on her seatbelts over her shoulders.

The situation was getting critical - not only that the "Invids" were around the area, they were about to be blown totally off the course...

The formation of the Skull-squadron reformed into two lines of Valkyries transformed in Gerwalk-mode, all having the same landing velocity and decreasing angle of -10 degrees. The angle of approach was perfect, but they were running out of time. As the first few managed to touchdown on into docking-zone of the 'Daedalus', they immediately parked their Veritechs away from the runway and took cover behind solid areas. The "Eagle-Seven" carrier and the Vermillion-squadron rolled far ahead inside the "Daedalus".

The deck itself was offline, wide and empty... but there was no time to worry about this matter for now.

All rookies, including Chris Caldwell, were getting nervous about the situation...

Sammie started to countdown in seconds as the field made it's way.

Looking high towards the right, they could see a large field of the "Void" closing in on them... It was a gigantic wall of clouds moving along.

""We're almost out of the area of effect, but we might get some of it, Argo out!""

""Oh my!"", Vinshesca shouted, ""Look - It's a shockwave...""

""Everybody, hold tight and be ready for anything!"", Chris shouted - doing as he said himself.

Indeed, the shockwave fell upon them like the force of a hurricane pulling by.

The whole carrier, including all Valkyries attached, started to roll uncontrollable...

The shockwave also ripped two Valkyries of the Skull Squadron away as well, 100meters before landing...

----

In mid-air, Foxy-Roxy changed her damaged Valkyrie into Battleroid mode, right before bashing into the flying "Invid-Minion". Rather suprised by the ended transformation, a large portion of the "head" of Battleroid was missing - She was still rather unprotected by an open-air cockpit...

Nonetheless, she still threw the arms of the Mecha ahead and grabbed the sides of the beast, while overcharging all thrusters. Managing to interrupt one of the rapid-flapping wings, both Veritech and beast, fell towards the roof another building. The creature fought to get back up, but was constantly being tackled by Foxy's counter-reactions.

It's tentacles whipped around, slapping the roof a few times.

She could hear the wings of the beast clapping loudly upon the hardened floor of the roof and she was being shaken around. It had a tough will and was trying to do anything to get the Mecha off it's side...

Just managing to gain the upper hand, the Mecha crushed one of the wings and stood up slightly, trying to the damaged foot-thruster right on top of it and aimed the rifle at the torso area of the beast.

Mick, who was trying to open his cockpit manually, suddenly heard a roaring burst-fire of a heavy caliber weapon. Lifting her head, the side of FoxyRoxy was splashed by a greenish goo - along with other disgusting parts from the creature. She was quite exausted after having a hardtime fighting with beast.

Looking to the left, she suddenly heard two rockets flying towards the last flying creature...

It looks like as if the ground troops have came up with some firepower and reinforcements. One missle missed it's target - but nevertheless the gigantic creature seemed as if it knew it was outnumbered.

She could hear more groups of rifles and other handheld weapons and machine-guns being fired upon the enemy.

The creature was outnumbered...

Although it did have a tough skin, there was no way to withstand the constant attacks...

Making a swift movement, it's wings pulsed rapidly and it suddenly gained on speed, it's "blood" spewing everywhere. It's shadow flew passed the building where FoxyRoxy was, making a run for it. Wiping the goo off the side of her face, she looked down and sighed...

"...Bloody lucky..."

-----

Everybody besides Jester and Sparrow felt the strong shockwave throwing them violently around. Many Rookies nervously looked around - They only could see yellow clouds moving around them, not knowing where up and down was.

Fighting to restablelize the ship, Argo kept pulling the controls. Various systems were blinking along with alerting sounds.

"...Warning... Stability Failure...", a computer voice kept repeating.

"... You ain't kiddin'...! Ngh!", he replied, "Gotta... get us... out of this mess..."

Going against the advice of Sammie, he reactivated the controls - including all main power systems and other navigational aids. Many navigational displays started to show heading-aids. His empty screen filled up. Although messy, it did help to figure out how to restabilize the ship.

Chris was looking around anxiously as he kept being shake around... but that was not his true worry.

He was more likely worried about Sammie, who was probably undergoing pure hell. There was no chance to get to her now.

It did not take long until the turbulent rotation started to seize.

Looking high to the left, Rooks could see the turbulent shockwave moving away into the distant deep of the "void"...

"... Damn... What a ride", he said - rubbing the side of his helmet, "... You ok back there?"

Sounding dizzy, his RW gunner replied with a shaky voice, " That ride was even worse than you're barrel rolls..."

Looking around again, Rooks looked to the front. "Hehe, sounds like you're aw-right..."

Noticing that the visuality has cleared up slightly, something started to disturb the young pilot. "Hey, Cherry - Have you've noticed that it's not so cloudy anymore? I mean - it's not so dense now, or?"

After shaking her head, she looked around as well...

"Now that you're saying it - It is kinda clear...", she replied.

Making a suprised remark, Rooks shouted, " - Actually... it is too clear...!"

---