Macross Fan Fiction ❯ Robotech: Beneath a steel sky ❯ Chapter 9 - The Sub Deck ( Chapter 9 )

---- Chapter 9 ---- The Sub Deck...

 

Somewhere deep under the Macross City deck...

 

Fighting to stay up and keep calm, Robert was flushed away by the intense currents of the water. Not knowing where to go or where to swim. Staying above the surface was all he could do to survive as he was flushed away by streams. Pulled away by the stream of wild water, he was taken through dark tunnels he never had seen before. Trying to keep up with strange floating objects upon the surface, Robert has been fighting to stay up for nearly two hours… or four… He already lost conscious of time - and staying alive was his only goal. Although he was sure he would stay at surface easily by dropping everything he was carrying, he surely would be defenseless against any hostilities. There were several unidentifiable things and objects floating on the surface that at least allowed him to stay above.

The equipment and the rifle he held was getting heavier and heavier as his strength was slowly fading away... Despite the total darkness he was in, his eyes got used to it. Noticing that his wild and wet ride was starting to slow down as he saw he was entering some kind of gigantic room, he became worried as suddenly feeling an alarming motion of water being sucked downwards. Feeling that he was about to get pulled down, he came to the conclusion that there must be a large hole right below him.

"""This is it... I guess this is it....""", he thought.

There was no sense in trying to stay above - The weight in addition to the downwards-current was already pulling him down as if he were tied to an anchor. Robert just managed to take a very deep breath right before he plunged into the deep. He could feel that he was speeding up, as the down-flow of current was getting more and more powerful. Having no idea what where he was going, he fell deeper and deeper into nowhere. Unsure if he was going to survive, he held his breath for 15 seconds that more likely felt like an eternity. Feeling the need to breathe, he started to become anxious, holding his hand in front of his mouth to avoid the reflex. Suddenly, he felt that he was more likely stopped by water-resistance. Though surrounded by the mass of darkness, he looked upwards, spotting some type of reflection. It was very dark but he still recognized reflections that seemed as a surface high above his head. Gathering the last bit of strength he had, he swam upwards... more likely fighting to reach the surface with his gear.

Having just a few seconds of air left, he could feel that he was about to breathe in a lot of water if would not hurry up. Robert had a hard time trying to swim upwards since he was still near the down-flow current.

Still eager to keep all of his stuff with him, he laid the strap of the rifle around his neck and started his attempt in surfacing. Just moments before drowning, Robert made it to the surface. He shot halfway out of the water like a dolphin and coughed several times. Even though the surrounding area was by far strange, he ignored whatever was around him as he spotted a shore-like area not far away from his position. Feeling dizzy, he slowly swam with the power he had left. Relieved from lying on a solid ground, Robert felt like he swam through the whole Pacific Ocean and finally found an island for recovery. He crawled forward, using one arm to get forward, using the other to pull his rifle by the shoulder strap. Despite the fact that he felt cold, weak and hungry, he felt relieved to be on solid ground....

 

...and alive...

 

----

 

Macross City...

The streets were quiet and messy. Restaurants, stores, and others similar buildings were heavily damaged - from broken windows, to bloody walls and to dead bodies lying everywhere. Nearly every corpse had either many shards in them, dismembered body parts, or was completely shredded that could not be explained by words. Mick knew that the "Invid" were responsible for this mess... and he was sure that they were not far away. The once striving city of men and women getting used to life in space was shattered by a dark and unknown force of evil. The streets were quiet, dusty, with blood and corpses lying at almost any possible spot, cars and other damaged or destroyed vehicles were everywhere, as if their drivers went on a suicidal crash-party against anything that was harder than rock and steel. Indeed, the scenario was apocalyptic and frightening. Mick was more than surprised how this street changed only after a few hours.

 

Driving the best he could, he avoided several obstacles that were lying on the street. The jeep was the only thing that was making noise, constantly changing gears. As the constant gush of wind blew threw FoxyRoxy's hair, she felt more and more miserable by the second.

"Mick, I don't feel so well...", she said, feeling dizziness again...

"We're almost there, Roxy. We're almost there - Just hold on! I'm driving as fast as I can...", he replied, but then, as they took the next turn around the corner, Mick spotted a very large obstacle up ahead. Slowing down until a full stop, Mick could not believe what was ahead. Right ahead, many buildings seemed to have been destroyed, blocking the passage totally, making it impossible to drive further.

"Yeah... Right... Of course... We're just about to get there... and now this... Looks like we gotta head on foot now...", he said ironically.

 

FoxyRoxy's breathing was hearable and sweat was on her forehead - "... oh... ok..."

But just as her feet met the street, she felt nothing from her legs, not even the simple vibration. For the short moment, both of her legs went numb, causing her to loose balance.

"...Uh-oh...", she said and fell to the ground clumsily as the dizziness became stronger. Mick got out, ran around the jeep and kneeled down next to her. He used his hand to lift her head a little.

"I'm fine...", she said in a weak voice.

"You kiddin' me?”, he said back to her. Just the looks of her told him that she was in bad shape, “Let me help you up", he said and lifted her up, using one shoulder to keep her up.

 

The young co-pilot looked around as Mick slowly helped her walk.

"I still can't believe what those... those... things have done...", she said, slightly frightened, "... but why is it so quiet here..."

"My best bet is that the troops must have evacuated the civilians...", Mick replied. "One thing which I don't get, is that those things made a mess like this - then disappeared into nowhere..."

 

Mick carried her slowly through the vast area of rubble... "Damn...", he said, "I just hope we'll manage to get there without trouble. That's the last thing we could need. That 'dog' at the hospital was already enough of a headache for me..."

Within a second, he pulled out the sub-machine gun from his side - worried about meeting any inconveniences on the way.

"... Mick... Did you really think about me before that 'dog'...?", she asked with a soft voice as she felt weaker.

 

As Mick carried her slowly past a destroyed car, he suddenly felt more weight that fell upon his left shoulder. FoxyRoxy fainted away. Just a few seconds later, she woke up again and said, "Wha...what happened?", with a lost voice.

"You... You just lost consciousness... black-out."

Deciding to take a break, Mick carried her back to a destroyed car and laid her back against it. He noticed more sweat pearls showing up on her forehead - For some reason, she seemed to be totally exhausted...

 

"It must be the infusions...", she said, then sighed... " - but Mick, there is something else I have besides these side-effects...", Mick seemed confused as she opened the side of her suit-integrated backpack and pulled out a small injection gun. Holding the injection-gun with her left hand, she screwed in a tiny bottle-looking dose into the rear side of it... Mick did not understand what was going on.

"Erm... what're you doin'?", he asked, surprised as he saw her connecting the tiny dose of a strange fluid into the injection-gun, "... Drugs?" FoxyRoxy took a deep breath as if she were getting herself ready to explain something.

"No... no", she said quietly, "That's not the point... listen... There is something else I've got besides the 'Syndrome'... I'm suffering under…”, she gasped a few times, “under the effects of… `Extrolus Diabetes'..."

 

"Diabetes?", Mick asked and scratched the backside of his head.

She shook her head and corrected him, "Not 'Diabetes'... I wish it were that easy… 'Extrolus Diabetes' is the name. It's an advanced… version of Diabetes...”, now she started to pant a few times, “while it is not as dangerous at first as diabetes is, it does has some major effects... on me..."

"Like fainting away all the sudden?", he questioned as rubbed his forehead.

"Well, from time to time - Let's say just sometimes sudden weakness occurs... sometimes it effects my eyes... Right now… I am already suffering the fourth stage of the effects", she explained, then looked away.

“Fourth - stage?”, he asked her and rubbed his chin.

 

“Yes, the sickness has seven stages… The first actually comes in combination, sudden weakness and temporary loss of senses, the third - which you just saw - is a short unconsciousness… The fourth, which is happening right now, is oxygen deficiency - My lungs are failing as time passes by…”

She needed to take a break and take several deep breaths… FoxyRoxy was so out of breath that made her sound worse than a person suffering intensive asthma.

“But how…”, Mick wanted to ask, but she interrupted him, wanting to explain everything.

“- Please, you must listen, Mick… The fifth is the most dangerous, since it causes a shock throughout my whole body and hallucinations, which could either bring me to the sixth… total coma… or the seventh… sudden death… The first five stages can happen within an hour, the last two might occur within the next four hours…”

 

Again, she needed to take several breaths and coughed. Mick checked their surroundings, making sure that nothing suspicious near by, then looked back down at her. Just the looks at this young woman was astonishing…

“Foxy… How - How could survive so long with such pain? How could you be in the RDF with such a disease?”, he asked… There were so many questions he wanted to ask.

 

"Ever since… the last years of the Great War on Earth... Probably the worst years, nations around the globe were loosing hope of surviving against the AUL. Our Air Force already was crumbling and failed intercepting the bombers invading the skies of the Netherlands... Those…”, she held her hand against her chest, “dreaded… Strato-Bombers… attacked us… Ignoring Germany and France's air defense. The sky… was the key… If we were to lose the sky, we would have all fallen into the grip of the AUL… I was young back then, a person who lost her family and friends by a single attack just because we pledged for neutral-immunity”.

It was a total flashback for FoxyRoxy - a time of pure fear and anger… Mick listened carefully as she told her story:

“Since our country… did not possess any real military air force at all… The AUL invaded the Netherlands with an expected invasion of paratroopers… A brutal force that eradicated any… resistance and slaughtered even civilians who tried to oppose them. Sabotaging the power plants, the AUL attacked several cities within the darkness…”

The night sky was filled with falling parachutes as the young Roxanne ran through the streets. Roars of wild gunfire, screams of fleeing civilians filled the streets. Death already struck upon her family and there was no chance that they survived. For sure, if she wanted to survive, she needed to leave the city behind her. It was a wounded policeman who actually forced her to leave the city - giving her an `out of date' bolt-action rifle and bullets. Roxanne could not remember all of his words, but she did remember one word … `Liberty'.
Three days long, she was forced to survive on her own…

“I survived… the days and nights of the onslaught… One day in the words somewhere near a small town, I stumbled upon a group of AUL paratroopers who captured group of civilian resistance militia - executing them slowly one by one…”

She paused as she remembered herself lying far away, hidden inside a bush with the old rifle against her shoulder while looking through the iron-sights with her left eye. Many scratches and much dirt was everywhere upon her skirt and clothes… She was so dirty that she was practically invisible for the troopers. A few of them laughed as they shot another of their prisoners. So much anger filled her veins that she mindlessly pulled the trigger.
Having an open view upon the troopers, who consisted of five - standing at least 200 meters away, the bullet smacked through the head of executioner. Surprised by the sudden view, the other six immediately turned around as they heard a non-forgettable cracking sound coming from their surroundings.

Another shot… and another soldier killed by the invisible shooter.
Roxanne heard a shout, although in a language she did not understand, it did sound like `sniper!'… She shot with such precision that even the next two soldiers were killed as they ran to the side for cover. Wanting to survive, the last AUL trooper noticed that there was no chance in finding the hidden shooter before getting shot himself… Ignoring the rows of the civilians, he ran as fast as he could. The empty bullet shell sprang out of the rifle's chamber in front of her face as she pulled the bolt-coil for the next bullet. Her left eye followed the man running away through the iron-sights. Unable to escape, the bullet punched through the right side of the fleeing soldier, incapacitating him with such violence that he was knocked to the ground.
Walking slowly out of the bushes, the civilians spotted a dirty red-haired young woman in a dirty dress walking towards them. As she approached the row, she laid her right hand upon her shoulder, which was bruised by the powerful recoil. After freeing one of them, she lifted herself again and walked over to the soldier who was bleeding severely. Her face was pale and showed no reaction as the soldier rolled over upon his back, not believing who shot him down...

 

As days and months passed by, Roxanne began receiving the same reputation of a long forgotten Russian hero that fought in the last world war. Her skills in marksmanship were like no other. As the militia began to see that no matter how many confrontations they would survive, another army of paratroopers was already falling from the sky… Finally understanding the key of success, or at least survival, Roxanne made her way to the France, hoping she would be able to enter the Air Force of the Central European Coalition. Both training and her hidden sickness made it a rough time for her… Though unusual for a person of such to begin training in flight, it soon became clear that Roxanne was a talented pilot indeed…

 

Her mind returned into reality, back to the streets of Macross City, which was filled with wrecked buildings. The time she needed to tell her story was for her like an eternity…

“…These streets…”, she said quietly as she looked around, “These streets remind me of that time… I don't want to remember it…” It was the sound of her voice that expressed how much she feared their surroundings. Thinking about her experience and all the pain she went through, Mick finally understood why Major Bronco shouted at his rookie group. They surely did underestimate the women of the other group without even expecting their true skills.

“I understand…”, Mick said, much surprised about her past and looked at her injection-gun, “- What about your sickness, shouldn't you take the treatment?”

“- I try to live with it, but the 'Syndrome' makes it even worse... It's a really bad mix...", she held up the injection-gun. "This shot", she explained, "contains a substance... a special type of Insulin and who-knows how much Adrenalin..."

 

Mick shrugged his arms... "Umm, shouldn't you take it - immediately?"

 

"I know - I know", she said quietly, " - My only chance of survival is to take it now... There is a 2% chance that I won't survive the injection... but if I do I can live another long while until the next weakening..." - she sighed - "Listen Mick, I can't do this alone, not again... Ever since, I always had someone from my squadron or a flight doc to do this..."

He scratched his head and said, "You mean... You kept it to yourself and a selected few... as a secret?"

"Yes...", she said as she took a deep breath...

 

"Don't worry, your secret will stay secret."

 

"Thanks, Mick... You've rescued me twice... and you are about to do it again..."

Opening up her hand, she gave the injection-gun over into Mick's hand, who himself still was surprised about what she just told him. As she gave it over, she spoke further, "The fluid inside contains the substance which will help me... when injected, I could start to shake... and might get a nerve shock.... but that shouldn't happen..."

 

Mick's short smile suddenly disappeared as FoxyRoxy's hands went down to her suit - opening up straps of her HEC suit. The suit's circuit unit beeped twice just to remind the user that the suit was no longer sealed.

"Umm, what are you doing?", he asked, wondering why she was discharging her HEC suit, "I thought I should inject it into your arm - or something?"

The young co-pilot shook her head and answered, "I'm afraid that won't work, Mick... The fluid itself is a highly instable product. Its effect dissipates within no time if it is not injected properly... What I'm saying is that injecting it into my arm or leg would not cause it to spread fast enough throughout my body...". As she spoke, she started to make her chest region free to the skin. Turning himself immediately away, Mick blushed and said, "Hey - Wha-? What are you -"

 

"It must be injected between the fourth and fifth rib on the left side - Mick... right - here", she said, pointing at certain spot of her chest.

Shaking his head frequently, Mick replied, "Whoa Whooooa, hold on a sec, Roxy! I - I can't just stab this... thing into your heart!", he said anxiously, shaking his hands - "Are you insane... This could kill you..."

 

She made a sad face... He did not know what to do.

"Mick. I've been doing this since my 7th birthday... I can't do it myself... You must..."

"...but... but I can't do that! Y-You c-could...", he stuttered....

 

The young and beautiful co-pilot blushed as she started to understand his concerns about her health. She lifted one hand to keep the left part of her chest open and laid the other on the hand of Mick, which held the injection gun.

She smiled, looked at him straight into the eyes and tilted her head a little to the side.. She felt a trusting feeling as she stared into his eyes... Mick, who for sure would never forget this moment, could not believe what she wanted him to do.

 

"... Mick...", she said in her soft voice, "You trusted my skills... although you and I were strangers to each other... You rescued me by flying through enemy fire... and rescued me from the beast in the hospital... I owe you my life... but now, I need your help". She tightened her hand on his shaking hand, which was holding the injector... A tear slowly ran from her right cheek, "... and now I must trust your skills..."

 

Mick was unsure and nervous. Both of them were looking each other into the eyes. Hers were crystal blue, clear like a blue sky, clear like the water from the lagoon of Macross Island... but she was determined and ready...

Mick gives her a short but soft kiss on her forehead...

"Just imagine I'm the female version of Dracula", she said.

He shook his head and smiled shortly - It was incredible how she could still show such courage and humor in such a serious situation like this...

 

"... Forgive me... Roxanne... Are you ready?"

"...Ready when you are, Mick..."

A short second passed by... "I'm starting to hate it when you say that... "

Having her hand on the injection-gun, he slowly moved his hand toward her chest. The needle was silver... and the surroundings around them was quiet... before the needle was about to touch her skin, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, opened his eyes again and pushed the needle slowly into her chest - About halfway in he felt a strong pulsing movement, which could be felt through the gun...

 

FoxyRoxy had already closed her eyes. Her back was lying against the destroyed car, sitting upwards - feeling the slight pain as the needle made it's way through... She tried to ignore it...

"Deeper... until the needle is nearly inside..."

 

A terrifying feeling for Mick - He was slaying the female version of Dracula... even worse, it was his beautiful co-pilot. He could feel that the pulsing shaking speeded up - becoming a little unstable... the needle was now in position...

"Mick... you must pull the injection trigger..."

 

Mick had sweat on his forehead and he felt that he would need to pull the trigger if he wanted her to survive... It was a one-way - no-way-back situation… he hesitated...

 

"... Pull...", she repeated softly as her hand tightened around his on his hand - Looking into his eyes, she gave another short charming smile just before Mick pulled the trigger...

A 'click' along with a loud 'shhtsssssshhh-'occurred. She took a loud and deep breath. Mick could feet that the pulsing speeded up, getting faster and faster, beating stronger and harder by each beat.

He noticed that the substance inside the gun went empty and immediately pulled out the gun. She could feel the cold fluid flow inside her... She looked up and started to shake...

Her body fell to the left, shaking on the ground, like a suffocating fish on a shore with air around it. Mick tried to hold her still., but she kept shaking... She shook one minute long making very loud inhaling breath sounds... Her eyes were closed and her mouth was open and widened each time she fought trying to gasp for air.

Mick was still holding her, trying to keep her sill, but then... Her shaking started to slow down... calming down... Mick held her body up... He smiled shortly as he finally felt she was calming down...

In fact, she calmed pretty well down...

Too calm...

 

Shaking her shortly, she did not react at all - Her body only was shaken back and forth smoothly like a lifeless doll. He shouted, "Holy CRAP!" and laid his head on her chest, trying to hear a sound, but only heard a single soft and weak beat... Getting on his knees, he laid both hands on her chest and began CPR measures. Though nervous if he was doing it right, Mick tried to lay his hands right. He counted, stopped, open her mouth and exhaled air using his mouth, then repeated, "Com' on, Roxy! BREATHE!"

 

He repeated on and on... A minute passed... Noticed that she moved a little, it seemed as if he managed to revive her after all. Immediately putting his ear above her chest, he heard heartbeats... Irregular but beating... He felt tremendously relieved. FoxyRoxy moved her head a little...starting to become a bit conscious. She coughed a few times and took deep breaths as if she came from diving over a very long period. Her eyes opened slightly.

 

"Thank goodness, you're alive...", he said and hugged her shortly...

She seemed a little disorientated...

"Roxy... you're alive! You made it!"

"... We made it... Mick", she replied with a very weak voice, and then fainted away.

Mick got scared and laid his hand on her chest, but felt relieved again as he felt a strong pulse from her chest. He sat next to her, putting his back against the demolished car, pulled her up to his left side, laid one hand on her neck, the other hand holding the sub-machine gun.

 

"""I gotta make sure she stays alive... and I got to stay awake... hold guard...""", he thought...

He could feel her pulse... one by one, slowing down and starting to beat in regular intervals again... Laying her head against his side, he thought about Rooks and the others...

The air was cold and windy as quietness filled the area.

 

-----

 

Somewhere far and deep under the Macross City Deck…

A man was laying on a shore-like area in the darkness, surrounded by a vast area full of metallic pieces and other junk. Slowly coming back to consciousness, Robert opened his eyes and took deep breath, but as he inhaled, he immediately coughed several times as the air itself smelled metallically. Woken by the smell that stung his nose, he immediately rolled around and started to crawl away from the shore area, pulling the strap of the rifle. Feeling hundreds of tapping drops upon himself, he felt that water was coming from high above.

He had absolutely no idea how long he laid there. Robert looked around. Despite the endless darkness all around him, he could still see, not light, but he could see surfaces and edges such as water, hills of strange junk and hear a constant noise of rain everywhere. All in all, the things around him were illuminating very weakly - Yet, it was still too dark to even see colors. He recognized he was in a very large hall, more like a Deck. The ceiling at least 400 meters high above him, a wild guess, but that was his impression as he looked upwards. The ceiling was very high - Actually, it was just as high as in the Macross Deck… Or was he still there? He was not sure at all. He spotted many waterfalls pouring and splashing from the ceiling - along with thunder-like beams flashing way above.

 

"...Where… the heck am I... ?", he asked himself...

 

Having a short flashback, Robert remembered fighting for his life, trying to stay alive, surrounded by the dangerous mass of water. As he looked up towards the waterfalls, he just figured out that luck was on his side. His wild and wet ride downwards must have happened within one of these waterfalls.

He fell to the ground, smiled and suddenly started to laugh.

"I'm alive... I'm alive!", he said as he laughed - a strange reaction, although he felt victoriously. He looked upwards towards the ceiling - "hahahaha..."

He laughed about 10 seconds long... Then stopped as his smile disappeared as several drops of water dripped upon his face. The cold wave of reality was coming back to him - "I'm alone...", he said towards himself, "There is no way I can survive alone..." Robert lifted himself up slightly and looked upon his left shoulder side. The shoulder radio, though soaked with water, did not seem damaged at all. Hoping to get help, he pulled a small cable with an ear phone connected to the radio and turned it on. Robert got to his knees, turned on the shoulder radio for transmission and reset it to the bridge frequency exactly how Major Goodings showed him and as he held the headset button he said:

"... Umm, hello hello, this is Robert... Hello? Can anyone hear me? This is Robert..."

 

The shoulder-radio only replied loud frequency-scratching ,""FssshhhhZzzzzZsshhhhhhhhhfhfffffhchrrrsshhhhh....""

"""Hmm, either the radio got too much water in it… or I am in some kind of forgotten unknown place...""", he thought.

 

Robert looked at his rifle and picked it up. Finding a spot to lean against, he crawled towards that area and looked upon the rifle that Major Goodings gave him. It had a small RDF symbol on it… but as he observed the rifle, he spotted a small dark blue blinking light. A button just waiting for him to press it. At the same moment he laid his finger upon the light, a female synthesized voice spoke from his shoulder radio:

"E -fourteen-Gallant Mark-Four Assault Rifle - Protoculture technology - latest version "Vee" - two - period - five - six. Rifle check... no major malfunctions...”

 

"Well, that's some good news...", he said to himself, but then he heard a sound that beeped twice.

 

The female computer-voice spoke further:

"Warning, ammunition depleted... Due to hydro-discharge… Do not let H-2-O or any other substances contact the power cells and fuse unit... Discharging effect will occur if not applied... Remove empty cell and replace with full cell... Detecting… Five… active cells in belt-recharger..."

 

"Eh, aw right - all right", he repeated - as if he were talking to the voice.

He pulled a slide-button, making the cartridge-holder come out, holding a dark cell. He took the dark cell out. Just as he pulled it out, a small amount of water poured out of its chamber. After shaking the rifle a few times, he replaced the dark cell into the belt with a brighter one and stuck it into the rifle-chamber.

 

"... Rifle charge… and ready... standing by...", the voice said.

 

“Well I'm glad that…”, Robert said, but then suddenly, he heard several things getting knocked over, as if something large just busted through something. Surprised by the noise, he ducked and rolled away as pieces of junk flew around. Looking around, he noticed that something large was in the darkness, not far away from his spot. Now he started to see movement - Robert already expected the worse to come.

Having no time to distinguish the object, he picked up the rifle and immediately started making a run for it. Several sounds of stomps could be heard behind him. Though tired and lost in the darkness, he made his way away from the shore area. Several drops of rain splashed upon his face as he ran…

 

----

 

Inside the consciousness of the SDF-1…

The blue holographic existence of Navigator Lindsay Young sudden woke up, surprised an avalanche of data-streams, lines, numbers, stars, voices and other things. Overwhelmed by the view, she looked around wildly. Now her view was clear. The consciousness of the SDF-1 must have regained a few of its systems, as an asset of gigantic three-dimensional holo-compasses and navigation lines appeared far around her. Highly detailed wire-frames built up, showing the surface of the SDF-1's hull with a very strange titanic object attached to hull. Recognizing it as the same thing that defolded from Hyperspace right behind the Zentraedi vessel. Whatever happened, the object was now stuck on the frontal part of the SDF-1, somewhat sucking the whole rails of the Reflex-Cannons.

Thousands of voices could be heard around her… Communication lines drew themselves at high speed between the SDF-1 and the hordes of Valkyrie units, which were floating between the SDF-1's hull and the gigantic wire-frame object that definitely was the “Majestica”. There was no need to try calling out for help - She was non-existent for them all…

Lindsay was floating at the same spot where the bridge citadel was - but no matter how many times she tried to turn around and see the bridge or at least the systems, the same view ahead of her reappeared, seeing the frontal deck of the SDF-1 and the beast stuck upon its hull - having no chance to even send a message or anything alike to one of the operatives.

Millions of stars, varying in size, color, intensity and names appeared as well. Looking down, started to see layers of wire-frames laid all across in through the SDF-1, showing the gigantic city and millions of other objects she never saw before. Spotting several vast regions of energy, which were disrupting the view of the stars in the frontal arc of the SDF-1 and beyond, it was easy for her to distinguish that these were contaminated fields of radioactive energy - Sure that the Admiral called the Chinese for their superior strategic weapons.

But then, Lindsay suddenly noticed something else strange. She felt a grid of control upon herself, regaining control of the systems - feeling herself being at hundreds of different places at the same time. Navigational interfaces appeared in around her. Although the many of the SDF-1's systems were down, she closed her eyes, stretched out her arms and started to concentrate on stabilizing the whole battlefortress, since it was slowly moving backwards… The system responded to her thoughts, although it would take another three hours before the secondary maneuvering thrusters would bring the whole fortress to a full stop. Though it was a mystery for her why every single primary thrusting unit was offline, but she did not let that distract her.

Among all the garbled voices upon the broadband channels and grid-communication, she heard a distanced voice calling out that gained her attention, a voice that had a lot more interferences than the others. It was a voice that actually overlaid everything she was hearing right now… As if it were sent directly to her. Despite its disrupted transmission, the voice's words were partially understandable for the lost Navigator.

 

“”Umm, hell sshhhrrzz, thizzz is Roberrrrsshshh... Hel-skkrrssssshrt? Can anybody hear me -shhhhs? This isssst...””

Lindsay opened her eyes again and looked around.

“””Wha- ? Where is that voice coming from? Who is it? Can you hear me?”””, her mind said…

 

No answer anyhow. Hoping to trace the signal back, she looked around, hoping to find that certain communication line that was sent into her mind - but there was nothing that gave her the slightest hint on where that transmission came from.

Looking back upon the SDF-1, she spotted several inactive patch-fields of turrets upon its hull. Feeling confident, Lindsay stretched her arms out towards the fields and concentrated shortly… Hoping she could provoke a reactivation sequence…

 

----

 

Somewhere far under the Macross City deck, deep within the darkness…

Robert misfortunately tripped and fell to the ground full of metallic junk. Just as he rolled over, he spotted his follower… Standing not far away from him was a spider-like creature with an asset of red eyes and a countless number of legs and arms. Rather surprised, he was overwhelmed by its size that caused him to hesitate, instead of reacting with his rifle. The creature immediately struck several of its legs towards him. Leaping away, Robert was barely missed by the creature's attempts to kill him. Though inexperienced in the use of his rifle, he rolled over a few times and aimed towards the arms of the monster that was about to strike again. Streams of wild shots flew at blinding speed ahead, a few smacking through the arms as they were thrown towards him. Seeing one of the dismembered limbs coming straight at him, he dove his head as it struck just a meter behind him. Just as he lifted his head, the creature came closer and tried to stab him. Having no chance for a clean shot, Robert was forced to dodge each swing the beast did with its legs. Again, Robert held the trigger, firing another long stream of shots, which landed hits upon the sides of the creature that immediately caused them to burst.

The creature squealed loudly and seemed somewhat distracted by the damage he did upon it. Robert however, could not believe his eyes as he saw several pieces of junk, fluids and other objects spilling out of it. Whatever it was, it must have been gathering junk until it came across him. Not giving the creature a second chance, he again lifted the rifle and fired with full auto until the female computer voice said his rifle was out of power. The body of the creature was unable to withstand the constant fire that it busted several times and dropped to the ground like a giant.

Robert lowered his aim… still surprised about the beast… Suddenly, another strange creature ripped the head region of the spider…Disgusted by the view, Robert was too frightened to react at first… Following the fact that this thing had the same eye, it must have been in control of the spider, as if it were its brain. He had no time to reload, the creature or whatever it was just released itself from organic tissue strings and went straight for him. Unable to distinguish the whole profile of the beast besides its two sharp-looking claws, Robert needed to think fast - He totally forgot about the handgun in the holster - and it was surely was not a good idea to defend himself with an empty rifle…

For a brief second, he looked behind himself and spotted one of the dismembered legs stuck in the ground behind him. The joint was ripped and had several hoses looking out, dripping some fluid that surely was its `blood'… Despite that some parts of it were still moving, it did seem like a potential weapon…

 

Robert was out of thinking time.

He turned around and tried to pull it out… but it hardly moved. The charging creature was coming in close and he was not even sure if he was going to get this thing out. “Oh com' on!”, he shouted as he squeezed his hands around the leg. More of its `blood' shot out of the hoses upon his vest, but he ignored. He tightened his grip around the strange long thing and pulled as hard as he could. All the sudden, the leg that was hooked to the ground like an anchor released itself. Surprised by its release, Robert lost balance since he used all of his strength to pull it out. Clumsily falling backwards, the sharp end of the leg was wielded in a wide arc vertically as his back met the rough ground….

Just as his back was on the ground, a think fluid suddenly splashed upon his face right after the leg crushed through something… More fluid spilled into his face that he was merely blinded by all the mess. Still holding the leg, he felt back and forth movements… then nothing…

There was a lot of weight against the `pole' he was holding. Wiping the fluid off his face, Robert spotted the creature above him, its arms hanging down… Even the `red' eye was not visible anymore - Only a dark thing staring at him. Looking around a bit, he saw that the leg he was holding penetrated through the torso of the creature… Disgusted at what he was seeing, Robert threw the leg along with its stabbed victim towards the side, rolled away and wiped his face several times. He was so disgusted that he shouted a few times and crawled backwards away. The young technician was more than shocked…

 

Countless drops of rain fell upon him… but for this moment, he ignored it.

 

Totally exhausted from the excitement, Robert got to his knees and looked at the creature, which still had the leg stuck in its torso. Rain kept falling upon the young man and it took at least a minute until he finally calmed down - Just the looks of both the small dead creature and its ten… or twelve-legged monster just gave him the creeps. All the slime and junk it spilled from its compartments did seem like the same junk around… until he saw a corpse with missing limbs in the mess.

"... I gotta get out of here...", he said to himself again and got to his feet as fast as he could. Robert found his rifle lying on the ground and replaced the depleted cell with a charged one. After taking a step ahead, he looked back at the leg stuck in the creature… Despite its ugly look, it did save his life. Though sure that the creature was dead, Robert approached the small dead creature once more - slowly, step by step. The leg that stuck within its torso pulled itself together and fell off its slain victim… Robert could not believe his eyes. Just a second ago, it was at nearly as tall as he was - but now, it shrunk to the half of its usual size, pulling itself together.

 

Not knowing why, he felt the urge to pick it up. He tried to hold himself back, but something… something in his mind was forcing him to grab it. Both of his hands touched its surface, which was wet, smooth and silky. The object was not that thick - It was light and was roughly a meter long. As Robert lifted it up, he felt a type of organic tissue hung from one end to another and its slimy layers. At the same moment his grip tightened around, the limb of the dead creature suddenly shot out cloudlets of `blood' from both ends in an instant, once again expanding into a long object.

Stunned and surprised, he slowly looked back and forth upon this strange thing…

 

To his right, he once again spotted the end of limb, the joint that was torn off the creature - but when he looked at the left, he spotted something remarkable… A very sharp blade was raging out of its end and a strange vertical slit under it, but he had no idea what it was for. Robert could not tell what color it had due to the lack of light, but it did have the same looks of Hyper-Carbonite and the junk all around him. No wonder the second creature that attacked him was killed in an instant. - The limb was in fact like a spear… Or something alike, he thought. Though surprised how deadly this blade was, he wanted to drop it - Get rid of this strange thing that bled practically endlessly…

Just when his grip loosened in order to drop it, both the busted joint end and the bladed part of the spear retracted themselves into the central region, once again letting a long slimy - but tight - organic tissue hanging. Robert could not drop it, no matter how much he tried to. It did not need much science to tell that this `spear' was `intelligent', maybe even still alive.

 

The mysterious cold rain that kept tapping upon him and the darkness that surrounded him woke his mind. His surroundings seemed to be like a junkyard. Robert was alone… He knew that wherever he was and wherever he would be heading to would be the most challenging task in his entire life. Armed with a rifle, which had some quite remarkable technology, a radio that had more water inside than a wet sponge along with a female computer voice as company... and a live spear that was just as creepy as its former owner… He was sure that he was in for big trouble. Robert threw the organic tissue-belt of the retracted spear over his shoulder and tightened his grip around the rifle. Besides the vest he had, the pants and the mechanic's suit he wore had was torn here and there - but he did not have any wounds… Thankfully.

 

Lost in a dark world of junk, he made a step forward and walked ahead, into the deep...not knowing what was ahead... cold, wet and hungry as he was... He began his lost journey in the depth of the Under Deck.

 

"This is definitely not going to be my day..."

 

 

 

 

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