Macross Fan Fiction ❯ Robotech: Beneath a steel sky ❯ Chapter 3 - Knights and Vanguards ( Chapter 3 )

---- Chapter 3 ---- "Knights and Vanguards"

 

As the RDF continued with their preparations of building defensive fleets around the SDF-1, it was indeed known that time was running out. At least two and a half hours have gone by and everybody within the bridge citadel could see the strange object of colossal size, which was following the Zentraedi command ship. Was it a new ally of the Zentraedi? Sitting on the commanding seat of the bridge, Admiral Gloval smoked his pipe quietly. It was the lack of knowledge about this strange object that plagued his mind with mere trouble. As for the rest of the crew, there surely was a sign of concern. Still surrounded by darkness due to the lack of lighting, the bridge surely gave the impression as if it were nighttime. Looking far ahead upon the hull, Gloval started to see several small blue pairs of bright stars leaving the deck and spreading out…

 

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Back at the Veritech launching deck, all Valkyries of the rookie squadrons were ready for deployment. The deck itself was a gigantic hall that even had enough space for a horizontal skyscraper. Filled with hundreds of Veritech hardware, pilots and other deck operatives, the area just got louder and louder by the second as every combat unit slowly began to charge their systems. Feeling rather lonely, Mick sat in a sealed-closed cockpit, waiting slightly nervous for something to happen. It was the waiting that killed the little bit of patience he had. He was so quiet that even his new RW co-pilot stayed quiet, perhaps thinking about something else. Several times, Mick turned his head to the left and right, looking at the many other cockpits of other `Valley-Cats' parked further away. He could see that both his squad mates and their new backseat strangers behind them were slowly getting along with each other. Practically everybody was having a conversation, somewhat in-depth talking. Not wanting to disturb anybody, Mick did not contact any of his friends at all - Although he was sure at least Wiseguy could need a familiar face, especially since his new co-pilot neither seemed to be the talkative nor the friendly type of person.

Suddenly, as Mick leaned his head towards the back, the screen on the right-hand side fuzzed shortly, then showed a face of a woman he has never seen before - and yet, her voice was very familiar.

“”Attention, Veritech fleet. This is Commander Hayes of Bridge Command…”“, the woman announced.

“Hoo boy…”

““…All Valkyries have permission for take-off. Condition `Red Seven'! All units are to dispatch and maintain their position close to the SDF-1. Fleet Command will brief you shortly - Bridge Command, out.””

Within a flash, Commander Hayes disappeared just as fast as she appeared. He leaned back into his seat, trying to remember that voice, “”"Man, I could have sworn I heard that voice once before..."”” - then he spoke up, "Hey, you ready back there?"

Finally, his co-pilot broke the silence, "Everything is ok back here, Mick", she replied. For guy like Mick, it was not really easy to start a conversation with a person who was a total stranger - and yet, FoxyRoxy did seem to be eager to start a chat.

 

Noticing one of the technicians outside waving his hand back and forth, he noticed that the Valkyrie fighters around started to float slightly above the ground. As for the whole hangar area, the whole ground was fitted with special magnetic and anti-magnetic rails. When activated, they generate a field that caused the Valkyrie to hover above the ground with great ease.

FoxyRoxy felt a little bit weird for the second and took a deep breath as the Valkyrie lifted up. Mick pulled up the landing gears.

””Attention, ladies and gentlemen””, Major Bronco's tough voice suddenly said over the commline, ””Hope all of you have got used to your new cockpit. Anyways, this is the situation - A Zentraedi vessel has appeared out of nowhere and is on the move towards the SDF-1...””

Jester's voice suddenly interrupted the communication line, ””Yeah right, and now we have to destroy it and those hordes of pods, huh?””

“"Not quite, hot shot. There is another problem out there"”, the commander replied - sounding rather strange.

 

Jester continued speaking, looking back, sounding slightly angry, "”This sucks, sir! First, we get woken up in the middle of the sleeping period, then we get called up for a flight mission, for who more experienced pilots are more likely capable and needed for, rather than a handful squads of rookies like... Now I get a passenger...and NOW I hear we are not gonna fend some Zen's?!"”

Annoyed once again, Bronco shouted, “"Blast it, Jester! Our job is to defend the SDF-1 and obey orders, no matter WHAT!"”

“"Sir, whose idea was it to bust us on a two-seater?”", Rooks asked quietly, hoping he would finally get an answer.

“"The big boss, himself, kid..."”, the commander replied, sounding sure that they understood he meant.

 

Mick's thoughts went through his head again:

”””Yeah right, I should have known... The one and only - Admiral Gloval -... I should ha-”””

 

His thoughts were interrupted as Bronco's voice started to explain something interesting, "”Ok, now all listen up carefully. This is important. The situation is very serious. As a few of you have noticed, the SDF-1 had a blackout. Well, the reason for that power shortage was actually the Reflex-Cannon, which backfired somehow and disrupted several internal systems throughout the SDF-1. Bridge Command said that many difficulties have happened ever since and that they would require every single unit the RDF has to offer - but that's not all. There's something else that came out of the same jump point. Something even larger than the Zen's vessel itself... "”

An unknown female voice spoke, "”Sir, this is Spades... How large is 'it'?"”

- Major Bronco sounded at first unsure, " `Very large' - We're talking about something that is as large as the SDF-1 itself! Nobody has ever seen something like that and they don't have a single clue how the Zen's got such a big thing. The Bridge said it was some kind of 'Bio-Mechanic ship'””

“"Biological - ?..."”, Rooks repeated, his co-pilot added, “"...ship? And that large?"”

“"Great... What's this now? Now we have to put up with something more unknown than the Zen's themselves..."”, Jester said with a low voice.

“"We'll see about that”", Bronco replied, “"but right now we have to check what that Zentraedi vessel is up to. I want all Valkyries under my wing to build a close echelon formation after the launch."

All rookies confirmed his order. The magnetic rails, which were controlled from the launch-center, could easily lift Valkyries with the special anti-grav and magnetic technologies above the ground. Afterwards, they would be carried over the rails to the launching bay, where all Valkyries would hit full throttle and leave the SDF-1.

 

Mick himself was ready... although he felt a lot more nervous than before, especially since this was going to be a real outer space mission and not some quiet how-to-fly tour. Although his hand trembled slightly, he did manage to keep his coolness after all - at least up to a certain point. Unlike his co-pilot, Mick did hear heavy breathing from behind even though he was wearing a helmet. Deciding to make sure everything was alright, he asked one more time, "Hey, you sure that you're ok back there? You sound -..." She shook her head, "I'm fine... I was just...”, trying to find words, FoxyRoxy hesitated shortly, “...um, was just checking our primary weapon systems..."

"Oh - Well , um… Is this your first launch?", he asked.

"Not really... actually, I've flown a VF-1 only once myself...", she replied, "but nearly crashed into one of the gun turrets... Pretty lucky that it was just a scratch...", and smiled slightly with embarrassment.

 

Again, his thoughts struck his mind like a lighting bolt, ”””Holy... that must be the same pilot I've seen who skimmed the hull! Bloody lucky that I'm the one flying this thing...!"””

A green signal blinked several times upon his HUD and showed numbers counting downwards. He shook his head, "Well, guess we've got three minutes left, Foxy. Better get ready for the ride.” Reacting to his words, FoxyRoxy immediately grabbed both handles next to her sides and as Mick did the last check-up, he noticed her rather unease movements - It was only a short while until the launch, and yet she already grabbed the handles firmly. There was not really much time to get in touch or even familiarized with each other, but from what he knew up to now, he did notice something interesting. Despite what Major Bronco said about the striving careers of the female squadrons before, he did sense that she was just as surprised about their new assignment as he was. Of course, she already gave the impression of knowing the hardware in-depth, but it was clear that she was afraid about what was going on.

Staring on the image, which showed this young female RW co-pilot, she stared towards the outside, perhaps looking at one of her squad mates in other Valkyries. It was still impossible to tell how her face looked like - Her mouth was the only thing that he could distinguish behind the dense blue glass of her helmet. Strapped into her seat and surrounded by several thin touchpads with holo-images around her, she also gave the impression as if she were crushed by all the responsibilities she was about to deal with. Her rather small body made her seem like as if she were a young girl who feared the world around herself.

Snapping out of his imagination, he turned off his secondary screen and looked around. Looking left and right, their Valkyrie was surrounded several others in a row, floating slowly back and forth, waiting for the last step of launching to be done. As for the all launching bays throughout all ships of the RDF, invisible atmospheric force fields kept the air pressure inside the launching bay like a bubble - These systems are especially known for their reliability even during power shortage times, since they have their own backup auto-emergency power grids. Whenever a Valkyrie should bypass this `bubble', a large mass of air is pulled out into space, which would freeze instantaneously, leaving a trail of a cloud glittering in a beautiful crystalline blue color along with the high sound of gushing wind.

 

This was it - The time was up.

“Ok now hold on tight. Here goes!"

Mick activated the Valkyrie's afterburners. Feeling the roar and pure power of their Valkyrie's thrusters, both Mick and FoxyRoxy felt overwhelmed by the intense acceleration. The acceleration was so strong that he was pressed back to his seat as the metallic-eagle blazed through the launch corridor. FoxyRoxy could feel pressure everywhere against her body... She tried to keep quiet, but was forced to sigh a very loud, "Nggnnnhh..."

"Just hold on a little… bit! The cockpit grav-harness should kick in a few secs..." Mick said, biting his teeth together.

“”Wooooohooooo!”””, Jester's voice suddenly shouted joyfully over the commline.

Seconds passed and the rumbling still shook the whole ship like a mixer… but then, the shaking stopped. As waves of frozen air particles flushed behind them and other fighters, their Valkyrie left the bay and was now in outer space. Just as he said, the gravity-harness systems activated and the cockpit's heavy Gs slowly went down. He started to feel relievement on his shoulders, "Ah...Better..."

“”Wow, baby””, Jester a few times again, “”That was fun! Can we do that again?””

 

While several voices of rookie pilots shouted `shut up!', Mick did waste the thought if Jester really meant it. Just as Mick started to clear his mind, he heard FoxyRoxy breathing loudly. Although the ride was very strenuous, he did wonder why she was so excited. A few Valkyries from other squadrons dashed beyond their sides along with waves of other heavily armed fighters. As he looked outside, several images such as holo-lines and displays suddenly appeared all around his cockpit glass, along with a computer voice speaking as it began activating several systems automatically, “”Activating navigation systems. Auto-frequency tracking, online. Tactical systems, online…””

As the voice spoke, the wings of their `Valley-Cat' as well as those of the others spreaded themselves wide open, along with the secondary wings next to the thrusters. The sight around them was remarkable as their Valkyrie floated straight ahead... and he had no idea what was really awaiting him.

Suddenly, Bronco's voice shouted along with his typical angry face which appeared on screen, “"Wake up and quit the daydreaming, kid! Get into formation immediately!"”

"Oops... that's a roger, sir!", Mick replied with a very nervous voice.

 

At first, he did not move the control stick until a few guiding lines appeared around the cockpit glass, showing his designated position. Fitted with microscopic small fiberglass-lines, information could easily be transferred to the pilot coming from the ship's A.I.-core. From incoming warning signals to direction/waypoint lead supports - All in an understandable perspective - a remarkable source of information for new rookies, especially for those like Mick. While his helmet-glass only showed some visual gimmicks from time to time, like incoming messages for an example, he remembered seeing his RW co-pilot's helmet-glass showing more visual-aids and other things than his. Perhaps some aiming aids, he thought. Controlling the Valkyrie was indeed not a problem for Mick, since he belonged to one of the best of his class. Reacting to his control stick movements and pedals, the Valkyrie turned slightly and flew a clean curve. His thoughts reminded him that he was not alone in the Valkyrie... He only heard FoxyRoxy pressing a few buttons and switches... having no idea what for.

 

Mick flew towards his position and noticed that his and the other rookie squadrons were the only ones in flight. When he flew past structures on top of the SDF-1's hull, he saw hundreds of blinking wingtips and far-away flashing dots. There were so many that he had no chance in even counting how many squadrons were out there. It was like a sky filled with hundreds of thousands of floating bees, surrounding the frontal area of the SDF-1. Slowing down while turning upside down like all other fighters, it was a weird feeling for him to be next to so many Valyries, while having the SDF-1 above him... The upside-down feeling was confusing indeed.

"So many Valks? Didn't expect the whole army..." he said.

FoxyRoxy spoke, "Hey, Mick... Look over there. Can you see that white-grey thing far ahead - over there around 11 o'clock? It must be that ship Major Bronco was talking about."

Hearing her padded fingertips touching something soft a few times, Mick started to hear a sound coming from their Valkyrie. She aimed the head cannon of the Valkyrie into the direction of the unknown bio-ship, zoom in and displayed it on Mick primary multi-display-screen. "- I still can't tell how it looks like... It's too far away..."

"Yeah, must be it...", he said, then looked on the other side and saw massive groups of Destroid battalions ready and armed on the deck of SDF-1. Recognizing the many Destroids with five long barrels, he added, "...Wow... they even got the Monster-class Destroids on deck...", and looked straight ahead again.

"This is very strange...", FoxyRoxy said - Her voice was filled with concern. Just from his point of view, the situation started to get more serious than expected. Just the looks of the SDF-1 made him worried - probably just as worried as she was, just by hearing her rather loud breathings.

“””Maybe she got `Rookie Fever'”””, Mick thought, the pilot slang when novice pilots feel slightly ill as well as the feeling of the air in the helmet and suit pressing hard against lungs, making breathing difficult. `Rookie Fever' is actually only a very minor psychological matter that would disappear after a long while in space - at least he hoped it would it be short matter.

Looking back down on the battlefortress' hull, which seemed to have not really recovered well at all during the last weeks, it's defensive capabilities and the fleet of flexible units surely gave Mick the impression that Bridge Command was a lot more desperate than Bronco reported… A lot more desperate…

"Hey, Foxy...?", Mick said, asking for her attention.

"Hmm, yes, Mick?", ready to hear what he wanted to say as she lifted her head slightly - Her attention even caused her breathing to calm down, maybe because she was distracted… but the short pause before speaking gave FoxyRoxy the thought that something troubled him...

"I don't know really...", he continued with a firm voice, "but we better keep sharp... Got a real bad feeling about this. Got this feeling tellin' me that we're on to something... big ... Something far more dangerous... - we better keep sharp..."

 

Although he did not see his co-pilot at the moment, he did sense her worried face behind him…

 

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