Macross Fan Fiction ❯ Robotech: Beneath a steel sky ❯ Chapter 19 - On the run... ( Chapter 19 )

---- Chapter 19 ---- On the run...

A soldier-looking figure was running though the rain, each step splashed in a puddle...

Robert was running as fast as he could after the creature that attacked him. Having already problems trying to keep up and with the visibility, he was getting tired from running. While he was running, he suddenly heard a very loud sound, not far ahead.

He stopped immediately and threw himself the ground, laying in a prone position, aiming wildly around to all angles ahead. That was a definite sound that was not normal, he thought. Again a loud sound occured, this time sounding like as if something smashed into something else, coming from behind a rather high junkhill.

Robert gathered his courage - curious to figure out what that sound was and stood up.

He suddenly saw three long green beams flying straight up into the ceiling, which blasted into the high ceiling.

Surprised by the the beams, he looked upwards in astonishment...

"What was that?!", he said to himself loudly.

Hearing more explosions ahead and behind the hill, he ran towards it, then started climbing upwards. About halfway up, he stopped when he heard a familiar sound howling sound... a death cry of an "Invid" which he heard once before... then a few loud shots, which sounded rather energetic... explosions, debris and junk flying around...

"What on Earth is going on back there", he asked himself and climbed further.

Robert reached the top, laid to prone position, then crawled foward. He noticed he was on a type of junk-platform and dead-ahead was the answer to the noise he was hearing.

Crawling slowly foward, another beam flew into the ceiling... He reached the edge and took a look ahead... He could not believe what was seeing...

A group of "Invids" were attacking some kind of ... mecha... He could identify a few "Invids"... some of the shard-shooting and slashing ones, others were unfamiliar... He took a sharp look at the mecha... the rain plus the poor visibility made it hard to tell, but he could see that it was damaged, along with a few "Invids" clinged on it's hull, others shooting constantly on it...

The young man wiped his face again and continued observing.

The mecha was very unfamiliar. It did not have the looks of those that he knew from the Military Forces of the SDF-1 nor did it have the RDF-Symbol... The mecha seemed heavily damaged and although it was a lot larger than the "Invids", it seem to have a lot trouble fighting against them...

The mecha also had two legs, arms and hands - with integrated cannons at each end upper side of the arm... the head, however, seemed heavily damaged as well.

The "Invids" on it's hull were like ticks , leeching and damaging the hull and even worse - Each time the mecha pulled one off by force, it ripped a hole in it's hull, making it more and more vunerable, leaving it's own curcuits open - similiar to ticks and leeches.

It was a fierce battle, the mecha shot again beams wild and aimlessly around it's surroundings. A few beams blew "Invids" away or tore them in pieces... violently. One beam also smashed right under the junk-platform Robert was laying on... luckily nothing happened.

Not many "Invids" were left...

Unfortunetly, the mecha seemed so heavily damaged that it could not carry on the fight.

It started walking akward, like a drunk person... It seemed as if it had trouble with it's own balance. The remaining "Invids" jumped off it's hull and gathered around it, avoiding the mecha's weird dance...

The mecha somehow fell to it's back, slamming on a hill of junk behind it. Now it was defenseless against the "Invids" that were cautiously closing in. Robert remembered he had a pair of binoculars in one of the side pockets of his backpack.

He quickly strapped his rifle to his back, found the binoculars and looked through.

Thanks to technology, these military-issue binoculars were small and fitted with zooming options, infra-red, ultra-violet and night-vision systems all in one... for sure, any scout would always have a pair of these in their inventory...

As he looked through, he could see better what was happening. He zoomed in a little, focusing on the mecha... The "Invids" stopped closing in, when they saw a "hatch" opening, along with an energetic shot flying out. One of the creatures twisted through the air as the shot smacked into it's side.

It was just as Robert thought, the mecha was controlled by a pilot and was not automated...

He could see a figure coming out of the mecha's "hatch" - the pilot - Robert proposed - hard to tell who, the visibility did not get any better as he switched through the modes...

Who ever it was, he was outnumbered by 12 or 13 deadly "Invid" creatures - all gathering themselves around the fallen hulk... He then noticed that the shard-shooters started firing... The pilot jumped up, dodging the shots, which also astonished Robert, since the pilot jumped a lot higher than a normal person could jump.

When he landed, he continued evading shard-fire, closing in on one of the shard-shooters.

Robert could not believe his eyes, as he saw how the "Invid" was slashed twice by two flashes of an energetic blades... After slashing the beast, the pilot turned around, pointing his arm straight at a group of "Invids" and shot a few energetics shots towards them...

This time, the "Invids" were ready and dodged, two of the creatures charged straight at the pilot, ready to go in hand-to-claw combat...

It was amazing to Robert...

The pilot was so agile that he could evade each slash that was hurled towards him... after dodging a few times, the pilot turned around, making a 360° turn after his last dodge, his right arm suddenly forged the energetic blade out of his wrist... Again, the slash was so fierce that both creatures had no chance to survive...

Unfortunately, due to the powerful slash, the pilot was caught off guard and recieved a few hits from shards - which forced him to the ground. Another small group of clawed-"Invids" approached the pilot, who did not seem wounded at all...

Thanks to his agility, he rolled back, getting to his feet, then streched his arm, aiming towards the group... again, a few shots fired, eliminating the opposing force...

Just one more shard-shooter and one claw-slasher were standing far away, one ahead of the pilot, the other further away from the side... right before the "Invid-Shardlings" started to fire, the pilot jumped up a little, stretching arms and legs into all directions...

A few shards were fired... just a meter in front of the pilot occured few bright flashes, along with a shortly-visible bubble around him, like a shield, holding off most of the deadly projectiles - two seemed to have pierce through...

One shot slammed into the torso region, the other against the helmet of the pilot, revealing two large cracks and both body armor and helmet... Seeing though binoculars, he could not tell if the pilot was wounded, but was definitely feeling the impact and pain of the direct hits...

Robert kept blinking his eyes and constantly wiped his face as he continued watching such an exciting battle - He noticed that the claw-slashing "Invid" was charging in from the side towards the pilot... by the time the pilot shot away the shard-shooter, he would definately be slashed a few times by the other one...

Robert immediatly stuck his binoculars into the pocket again and pulled out the sniper rifle, then aimed downwards, towards the pilot and the incoming slasher...

Just as Robert suspected, the pilot shot down the last shard-shooter, but then was too distracted as the last creature charged ahead - about to catch him off-guard...

Robert, who still laying in a prone position, was aiming down, trying to calculate his aim... not much time was left... Looking through his zoomed aim, the view was very shaky...

If he were to aim to low, he would shoot the pilot, if too high, he would miss and it would be too late...

Judging the speed of his target plus his imagination of the speed of his shot, he did one last aiming correction and pulled the trigger...

Feeling the intense recoil of the rifle, a back-flash occured along with a blazing high-power shot flying ahead. The energetic bolt flew downwards, seeming a little low-aimed...

Luckily, the shot flew right past the pilot and splattered the right side of last incoming "Invid" into pieces. A violent impact...

The pilot looked up, towards the direction of Robert... Did he spot Robert?

Robert was relieved to see that the pilot was fine... The pilot suddenly aimed his arm towards his direction...

"Wha-? Whooa Whooa, wait a minute! Don't shoot!", Robert said...

Many shots started flying around him, a few slamming into the platform and elsewhere... Robert looked back up, seeing the power of the shots... All the sudden, he heard creaking sounds...

"Uh-oh...", Robert said, sounding pessimistic... He quickly restrapped the rifle onto the side of his backpack - Unforetunately, his last fast movement shook his position. The platform he was laying on collapsed due to it's instability... "Not AGAIN!..."he shouted, as he rolled down the slope... towards the pilot...

After rolling downwards... Robert was full of pain again... ever since he fought against the last "Invid" a while ago, he received many scratches... He was lying on his back and was looking straight at the pilot, who was not standing far away.

Robert could see that one shard was stuck inside the right side of the stomach area, another stuck in the helmet, both with large cracks... The pilot stood still, then "untached" his body armor and helmet and threw them to the ground...

Robert wipe his face, not believing what he was seeing ...

The pilot dropped both damaged armor and helmet, along with other strange equipment, including wrist-canons. Surprised by the looks of the pilot, Robert remained still, lying paralized on his back.

Pale-blue hair fell to the shoulders when the helmet was taken off... The pilot turned himself around towards him, showing his true face... Robert just noticed that the pilot was not male, as he proposed...

The pilot was female... Robert wiped his face again... She opened up her eyes, revealing their blue color... Seconds past... The female pilot suddenly went into a fighter stance, apparently ready to attack Robert...

Something changed in face... Her face changed to an aggressive look... Even more strange to him, her eyes were not blue anymore, they turned to a dark red color.

She shouted in a language Robert could not understand, "Q'el-zaus Zentraedi!!!"...

Besides the first part, which he did not understand, he did understand "Zentraedi".

"Zendraedi?", he replied, "No, no! I'm not Zentraedi!", then wove both hands, trying to show that she was misunderstanding the situation. She did not seem to understand what he was saying, as she took a step closer towards him, still in a fighter stance.

"You got me wrong, I only wanted to help out, I shot at that thing that was coming from the side, not at you!", he said loudly - trying to make it clear. She did not respond, instead she went to her knees, then leaped straight at him, along with a battle cry...

She was coming straight at him... Judging the tense situation, Robert shouted, " I better pull out of here, NOW!"...

----

As Chris Caldwell made himself ready for the rescue and Robert stuck somewhere under the City Deck, another battle was being fought inside the SDF-1.

Somewhere halfway through the city, many vehicles, soldiers and civilians are on the run, followed by large numbers of "Invid" creatures. Ever since Foxy-Roxy and Mick joined the group of soldiers and refugees, the number have increased rapidly.

Before, they consisted of a few 100... now, as they rescued more and more, they consist now of 4000, constantly finding more... Forced by the power of the "Invid", the group was on a constant move, heading to the back of the City...

----

Robert rolled aside just on time, before getting stabbed by her energy-blade.

"Whoa, lady, hold on! I'm not your enemy! You're getting this all wrong!", he shouted towards her.

She looked to her left towards him, stood up and went back into a fighter stance. Robert unstrapped his backpack, along with the rifle.

She charged towards him with her arm ready to throw another slash. " Yaaaaa!", she shouted and was about to swing her blade. Standing ready for her attack, Robert lifted his arms up and tightened his fists like a boxer. An unfair sight for him, since he would have to put up with a hand-to-blade combat.

Just a second before she was before him, a sudden weakness seemed to have fallen over her, making her faint. Robert reacted quickly and caught her in mid-air before she fell to the ground. Both wrist-energy-blades flashed away - She had her hands on her head as if she was feeling a strong headache...

The pain must have been so strong that it even distracted her from what she was about to do.

Robert was on his knees with her, having both hands on her shoulders.

"Are you ok?!", was all he asked in a loud voice.

She bit her teeth together, the pain seemingly getting stronger. Now Robert started to feel something, as if something was trying to pierce into his mind... A familiar feeling...

" Oh no!", he thought, " It must be that mind-insectoid thing that tried to kill me a while ago!"

Robert knew how to pinpoint the location of the creature, since there was always source - a way to figure out where the distraction was coming from. He turned his head around and saw that one of the "Invids" that she shot down a while ago was still alive - although in a terrifiying shape.

Now he had that warning sense feeling in his mind... This intense feeling meant that it was about to shoot one of it's fierce shots. He turned around, while helping the weak female pilot.

The "Invid" was about to shoot. Robert pulled his handgun, swung his hand to the right, aimed shortly and pulled the trigger a few times, firing snapshots. Fortunetely, one bullet splattered the head of the creature - others missed or smacked through it's torso.

It stood - The rubin-eye faded into a dark rock - The lifeless body fell aside.

The young man still held his handgun pointing at the dead monster. The muzzle was smoking slightly and the only things he could hear was a sigh from his left side. His mind was freed and relaxed from the sudden mental stress...

----

"Ok... let's go", Chris said to his friends and walked along the corridor. It was "night-time" and during this time activitaty along the ship was to a minimum, but always on a steady alert, however.

The possibility of meeting someone within the corridors was rather low, but there were always a few people who wander through the ship, minding their own buisness.

As planned, Chris and the rest of his group were to hide apon a certain area of the hangar deck until the others manage to arrange their desired aircrafts.

The mechanics who had decided to assist had given already the desired passcodes and hangar numbers to find them easily. Since various aircrafts have been damaged, not all them have been repaired, only refitted with ammunition and reassembled to fly, just in case of serious occations... Lucky for Chris.

Every pilot had their flight gear on, with their helmets strapped-hanging on their back.

Two "peep" sounds occured from Chris' helmet. Someone from the other group wanted to tell him something.

He held the helmet closer and asked, "Caldwell here, how does it look up there? Can you guys manage, over?" .

A replying voice said, "We got a problem, can you see that guy over there, just above hanger bay 14 K 2 ?" Chris looked around the corner and saw that two deck guards were standing around the area, along with another mechanic high above them, looking at some screens, doing work.

The voice continued, "We can take care of the guy up there, but you'll have to do something about those two - They'll be wondering why the bay behind them will start to open as soon as we lay our hands on the controls... over"...

There was no time for fooling around, every second was vital..

"Just take care of the guy up there, I'll do rest down here.. over and out", Chris push his helmet to the back, pulled out his stungun and armed it. A short charging sound could be heard.

One of the rookies pointed to Chris showing him that the mechanic above was distracted, looking somewhere else. Chris was about to stand up when Sammie held his arm which was holding the gun.

"S-Sammie, what? We can't waste any time now...", he said.

"Please, don't harm them..." she said, with a slight tone of fear...

"It's ok, I not planning to hurt them... but I need to keep this thing ready, if things should go wrong..." - He got to feet and walked out of their hideout to the bay where to two men were standing, while hiding the gun behind his back.

Both guards looked towards him as he approached. " Hey, you!", one of them said, "What are you doing here, you are not authorized to be in this area... And why are you in that suit?!"

They both seemed mistrusted as he came closer.

Chris left his gun stuck on his back and wove both hands downward, showing them to calm down. "Now now, take it easy..." Chris replied, "You two are in big trouble, the commander is very mad about you two".

Both guards looked at each other with surprised faces.

"I think it be best if you two head to the bridge fast - and I mean - really f a s t!" Chris continued, putting urgency in his voice.

"Bu.. But what about our orders of guarding...", one guard said.

"Forget the guarding, we better report to the commander, now! You - Thanks for the tip - Com'on Allan - Let's hurry -", the other one shouted.

Both guards did not waste another second and ran off hastly.

"Man, these guys are quite trusty these days..." Chris thought.

Chris wove his hand to the others to come over, activated his helmet communication system and asked, "Ok, I fooled the two guards down here - They're on the rush to report to bridge - How does it look up there - ?".

A few seconds past, then came a reply:

"We're done up here, but we were forced to make the guy have a terrible headache when he wakes up... Just a sec... opening bays.... now".

A loud sound occured along with flashing lights. The bay gate behind them started to open. The voice spoke again:

"Lieutenant, your team better hurry up, I don't think we have that much time to load the Valk's on the carrier 'till this place is swarming with guards. Your squad's Valkyries are there where you parked them. Not all repaired fully, but refitted and still operational, over".

A few from the group ran to the carrier.

Sammie was wearing a HEC-flight suit as well, rather tight for her size. She turned around to Chris, looking with a worried face.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine", he said waving his hand, then ran off as well to their Valkyries.

The pilots were lucky to board the surveilliance carrier without needing to hack into any complicated systems. As Syrie said, the carrier truely was large, indeed with enough space to carry six Valkyries. They proceeded with the boardings.

----

Somewhere in the deep darkness under the Macross City deck...

Robert was still in the battle area - dead "Invid" creatures lying everywhere.

He looked over to the female pilot and shook her. She seemed to be unconcious.

Just a while ago she wanted to kill him and now she was lying helplessly on the ground.

Having a closer look to her face, she seemed to have face paintings... Two dark thick lines on her cheeks and one on on side of her forehead.

She remained quiet as he wiped some of the rain from her face... Amazing similiarity to terranian woman.

He looked around, trying to think of what to do next.

It definitely was not a good idea to stay longer in this area... He ran and picked up his gear, then went back to the pilot. Turning her around, he felt something that was raging out from the right side of her waist.

Roberts eyes went large when he recognized that it was a shard. Remembering the fight she had, she must have been wounded after all, when she fought against the creatures. A rather bright fluid was pouring out from the wound... definitely brighter than human blood...

The 'blood' flew in a constant stream into a puddle next to she was lying...

"Don't worry, I'll get you out of here...", he said, not even thinking that she could not understand what he was saying, "... I'll get you out of here...", he looked around and saw the mecha she was piloting... " ... somehow...". Robert strapped his rifle on his backpack and gently slid both arms under the pilot in order to pick her up.

" Huh?", he said surprised, as he lifted her up. Instead of feeling weight, he picked her up without trouble. She was as light as a feather...

No time to think about it, he reminded himself and started carrying her over to the mecha...

----

Back on board the "Oblivion", Chris Caldwell and his small band of rookie pilots were ready to take-off. Unforetunately, their activity was noticed - As they completed starting up they Veritechs, someone from the bridge has noticed unusual operation.

Commander DaCowl of the "Oblivion" was sitting on the commanding-seat in the center of the bridge, when he heard one of the bridge officers said, " Sir, I am picking up an unusual operation of units moving in launching deck #3...".

The commander turned around with a surprised face. " Unusual operation, you say?", he asked questioningly. "Unofficial activity, sir... Bay 14... K 2 ... ", the officer replied.

The grunty Commander lifted himself slightly.

"How can there be activity on that deck, there is neither alert nor have we ordered anybody to launch any crafts", he replied.

"Sir, it seems that the units are about to launch, they are already in position to launch with emergency-purge catapults..." . The commander stood up.

"What on the blazing hell is going on down there?! Who is responsible for this and why haven't any guards noticed this ealier?!", he shouted angrily, gaining attention from the other bridge officers.

Suddenly, the bridge doors opened, along with two armed men charging inside, out of breath, then they stood up straight. One of them spoke - out of breath and saluting, " Corporal... Sanson *gasp* Reporting as ordered, sir! *gasp*".

"Reporting as ordered, I did not call for you two?" - The guards looked at each other - "Wha - unsceduled flight launch ? Un-ordered call? What's going on here?", the commander replied confusingly, "I want that launch to be aborted, IMMEDIATLY! You two, get back down there and stop whoever is responsible for this! NOW that's my order!"

Both men did not waste another second and ran out of the bridge.

The engines were charging up. Chris was sitting his Valkyrie. Most of it's systems have been repaired and were operational enough to take another flight.

"Well... here we go again...", he said, then activated his helmet communication and said, ""Ok, we're done down here, you guys better come down, over"".

A few seconds past, no reply. He repeated himself, again no reply. Then all the sudden, a voice shouted, ""Sir, we've been compromised! We just blocked the door and can't get out. I'm afraid you'll have to head on without us. Get ready for automated launch, presetting for one minute! We'll try to hold 'em off as long as possible, over and out!""

There was no time to waste. Chris could see that all lights have been brightened up around them, along with voices and footsteps, apparently trouble was on it's way.

"We better move", Rixler said, "and it better be fast!".

They closed the cockpits and were ready to launch. All Valkyries including the surv-carrier were attached to the emergency ejections holders. Chris looked around and saw that armed men were coming towards them, noticing the loud noise coming from their Valkyries.

Just a few more seconds....

""Get ready for the plunge!"", he shouted to his friends over communication.

All Veritechs started to drop, plunging downward.

"Emergency Purge Launching" was famous for their high negative G generation. Each pilot felt the powerful downthrust.... dropping downwards at a super high speed.

Chris was bitting his teeth together, keeping his eyes closed for a few seconds. He always did it this way until the shaking stopped, meaning that his Valkyrie was out of the launch corridor and in outer space. He was more worried about Sammie, who is not trained at all for such stressful job...

The shaking stopped... Chris opened his eyes. Looking around, he spotted Valkyries floating next to him, on constant positions. When he looked up and saw the "Oblivion", which seemed as if it was moving away from them...

Bridge of the "Oblivion"...

The officer spoke: " Sir! One large ship along with eight smaller ones have just departed from the launch deck... *listens to the headsets* Security teams have just arrested six pilots who were in the bay control room of the deck... Security was unable to stop the other ships on time. They've managed to escape... *grabs the headset with one hand, apparently listening to something urgent* ... Commander! Two Veritechs are in Battleloid mode and are interfering against with security teams at the Hangar!"

The sensor officer turned arounded and added, "All 9 objects identified and confirmed! One medium recon cruiser-carrier CY-27 "Hawks Eye" - One VF-1J along with seven VF-1D "specials" have departed from our ship!".

The commander turned around, thinking what to do next. The situation was most likely unusual... "Give me an immediate open commline to those ships!", he said loudly and pointed his finger towards the communication-officer, "- and you! Report about this renegade action to the SDF-1!", he added as well in a loud voice, " ... and tell them we require orders urgently!".

A few "Yes sir" replies sounded around him...

"Ok, let's flip over to a standard formation around the carrier - and take course 147° - Angle minus 8° ", Chris said. The Valkyries barrel-rolled around and gathered themselves close to "Hawks Eye".

Bridge of the "Oblivion"

- An officer received a message from the security teams - then reported, "Commander, the security teams have interrogated the five pilots... *astonishment comes within her voice* The 'leader' of this renegade attempt seems to be Lieutenant Chris Caldwell, sir! According to the pilots, they seem to belong to rookie squadrons... "Vasall Hunters" and " Vallery Hunters"..."

Two peep sounds came from Chris' helmet.

""Uh oh"", Cherry said, ""Sounds like an all-open commlink""

... A deep and threatning voice spoke:

""Attention, This Commander DaCowl of the "Oblivion"- Lt. Chris Caldwell, what is the meaning of this? You are violating direct orders of the RDF and have stolen military crafts... You and your group are to return - ASAP. Do not disobey my orders or I am forced to use measures which will be rather more than peaceful...""

Monk shook his head, "This is gonna be a tough cookie", he said to himself.

""Better charge those signal-jammers - or else we're toast, Sir!"", Spence reminded to Chris.

The sensor officer noticed no reaction, " They're still on course, Commander. I can not tell where they're flying to..."

Again, the Commander spoke, this time in a voice more harsh than before:

""Lt. Caldwell, I don't know what you are up to - right now - but I'm given you one last chance to return all ships or I will fire upon you... I know you can hear me!""

The pilot of the surv-carrier showed up on Chris' displays, showing one thumb-up along with a victorious smile. ""Argo here, I've just managed to get the jammer active - Muhaha - Their radar should be showing multiple blips jumping all around - I've taken control over the 'hawk-eye' - Argo out". The screen went blank, then showed other data again...

The radar officer was locking on the fleeing targets when the signals started to be covered by a large cloud. The readings were jumping all around that area, making it impossible to have a clear lock-on...

The commander was disappointed , seeing a large deforming cloud-like signal moving more and more away from their position.

He slammed his fist against his chair... "Enough of this! I want two full squadrons to report IMMEDIATLY to deck! I'm not going to let his fool get away with whatever he wants to do out there! I also want foward direct-fire turrets ready for long range barrage as well as the Z-12s, now!"

"Z-12 rail canons - one through eight - have been armed and are ready for firing"

The flight group flew ahead...

Cherry's helmet glass suddenly blinked two read lines. She immediately look upwards and behind - seeing many incoming beams and shots slowly closing in.

""Warning!"", she shouted over communication, ""Incoming fire from 7 and 8 o'clock high!""

The optically 'slow moving' beams and shots suddenly blazed by - A Rain of pure energy - many dangerously close...

All Valkyries shook back and forth - even the carrier, which seemed to be untouched, although strange for it's size... Nervously grabbing and shaking her controls, Chessna's mind was unstable.

Triss looked downwards from her right side, looking behind all the shots - as they made their way into the deep space.

"...Zarlon particle shots...", she said to herself quietly.

Calming down again, Vinshesca shouted, ""I can't believe it - They nearly shot us all down...!"", and constantly kept looking up and behind - nervously checking all sides.

""Triss here - Although those shots were nearly successful - They fired blindly..."", a calm voice said.

Triss seemed to be the only person who was still calm - All the others were mentally outraged, since they were nearly shot down by their own ship. Chris, who was also excited, still had both hands clutched around his Valkyrie controls. Still bitting his teeth together, he looked over to the carrier, thinking about Sammie...

""WHEW! You sure 'bout that blind-firin', Triss? That was so freakin' damn close!"", Rooks added loudly, ""One beam nearly nailed our starboard 'swarmling' launcher - and we wouldn't wanna have those things get blasted while havin' them strapped on us!"" - He shook his head, "We're so damn lucky..."

The tactical officer spoke, "Commander DaCowl, the jamming signal is to high - It seems as if our attack was either evaded or totally off-target. I'm afraid we can not get even a 50% chance to hit, unless we fire off optical-guided weapons.

In a brief second, the communication officer turned around, " Commander! I've received orders from SDF-1 high command!"... he calmed his voice... "We are to abort any operations which concern on intercepting the fleeing renegades, Sir... SDF-1 will take over the problem - end of transmission", he reported.

Seconds past... the commander fell back to his chair. He wiped sweat from his forehead... sighed, then said, " Very well... We're going to have to leave this to the SDF-1... Abort all recent orders... I however want all captured pilots to be brought to one of the conversation rooms... Let's see what we can find out about this event."

Two Valkyries blazed along with the survey-carrier...

Chris' and five other Valkyries were docked on board the ship. He immediately went over to the main sensor section, where Sammie was trying to figure out how to use the consoles.

She seemed quite disorientated and confused. Chris who supposed that it was not an excuse, in fact, that she does get "space-sick" when flying with artificial gravity...

She turned around, feeling that she was being watched... then smiled, trying to hide her feelings.

"I'm fine... Don't worry... I can handle it...", she said with a rather shaky voice.

Chris smiled and went through her hair with his hand, " I know you can make it... I can feel that we're getting close to them...", he replied.

He looked away, towards the outside... " I just hope nothing interferes...", he added, sounding pessimistic...

Sammie stood up from her chair and walked over to him, nearly loosing her balance, "We are about to be out of range of the standard scanning range from the "Oblivion" and I think I should be ready to manage a deep scan ahead by then...", she said, then touched his hand gently...

Chris felt her warmness then looked on one of the screen showing perimeter scans...

"I hope we'll find them just on time... We've already wasted so much..."

The rest of the rookies were more to the rear side of the carrier, next to their Valkyries. Syrie and Rixler were checking on some components of their Valkyries while listening to the others speaking.

Leaning against her Valkyrie with her arms crossed, Cherry was thinking about something.

Noticing something as she was thinking ahead, she asked, "Hey guys, I was thinking... now that we've made it out of the "Oblivion"... Do you guys think we're gonna find someone OR something out here? I mean, it's been a while...".

Rooks looked up, " Ah, don't worry, we should find them in no time. Don't think it's that hard to find something the size of a Valk' when you got the 'eyes' of this baby, hehe ", sounding victorious, then laugh.

"Honestly now, let's say we find them... Are we going to make it back home? I mean... We -stole- these vehicles and I don't think we're going to have a welcome-back-home party either - " she replied...

Rooks stopped laughing suddenly... Sqype looked up surprised. "You don't mean their gonna fire on us again, or? ", he asked. His words did not sound very well.

Vinshesca slammed the side of her fist against the side of the Valkyrie, "I still can't believe it... A few inches and we would have been a goner!"

"Beams... Shots... Goner... I thought Valk's got a tough skin - I'm sure our baby here can handle the punishment", Piranja remarked - clapping her hand on the hull of her Valkyrie and laughed slightly, while sitting on it's wing - As if her Valkyrie were invinsible.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that", a low voice said from below. It was Triss, sitting quietly under the Valkyrie, looking upon floor.

Piranja suddenly stopped her devilish laughter... "What do you mean - Kid?! Valks could handle Zen beam-cannons with no problem - if we should ever get on our tail!", she said to her self-rightiously.

Triss kept staring on the floor and replied, "Those beams is not that what I fear, Val - It's those shots..."

"Huh, those shots?", Piranja wondered.

Syrie lifted herself from the lower side of her Valkyie and added, "La belle girl is right, Pira..."

"Those shots were Zarlon-Particle-Cells...", the young girl answered.

"What's so great about 'em?", Piranja asked, more confused than ever.

"The reason why I am so worried about those shots is that one has such a kinetical impact energy, that could tear a whole part off your Valkyrie", Triss continued.

"One hit from those little bastards and hasta-luego, sweetheart - You'd be dead before ya even noticed it...", Sqype added.

Piranja threw a surprised face...

----

Rain... darkness...

Robert carried the female pilot over to her damaged mecha. He gently laid her back against the side of it. A warm liquid flew over his left hand. More of her bright 'blood'. Although he did not know anything from her physical health, he was sure that she would not survive, if she were to loose too much of her 'blood'. Blood was just something that each being must have to survive, nevertheless.

It seemed as if he would have to treat her wound - somehow.

The shard was very tightly stuck in her thigh. Pulling it out too fast without caution would severely increase her 'bloodloss', he proposed. Robert decided to somehow operate it out -surgically- by using a sharp instrument...

He pulled out something from his side pocket... An instrument maybe not as small as a skalpel, but definitely close enough to it...

Rober was holding a combat knife, along with a large package of bandages under his arm, so he could cover up the wound before she would loose too much.

Suddenly, the female pilot started to move. Her voice was quiet, but it sounded like as if she was feeling great pain. He hesitated, holding the knife in his right hand. She opened her eyes a little...

They were quite dark - very dark...

Robert laid the package of bandages aside and held his left hand the back side of her head...

She suddenly reacted surprisingly, when she recognized him. He could hear her voice again, saying something in a frightened manor, as if her life was in danger...

The pilot tried to crawl back...

Robert dropped the knife, held both hands up and away from her, showing that he did not have the intension to attack her and said, " Easy... easy... I won't hurt you... calm down".

She still was trying to crawl further to the side... He still held both hands up, " I won't hurt you... have no fear... but we must get that thing out and cover up that...that wound", he said, then pointed his finger out to the long shard that was still stuck on her side.

She started to calm down... Robert was not sure if she understood what he was trying to show the whole time, but she did seem to understand that he did not want to attack her.

He slowly grabbed the knife and the bandages, then crawled slowly towards her again....

"Stay calm... Just stay calm"... She seemed as if she was shaking.

"She's definately not human", he thought," but why does she have the same emotions like one..."

"This might hurt a little ...", he said. She replied something... "What ? I can't...", reasking...

Her voice was quiet - "Ma'deca Ge-desis...", if that is what he understood.

He gently stuck the tip of the knife into the wound, right next to the shard... She started to make painful sounds and breathed in very disharmonic way...

"Hold on... *starts moving the blade around the shard* - just a little bit around... then... if I could figure out where it's stuck... *trying to ignore her bloodflow* I might able to get it out... I think *almost done moving knife around* Almost...". The pain must have been unbelievible...

"THERE!", he said loud and pulled out the large sharp object from her waist...

The size was amazing to Robert... Such thing would have easily gone right through her like a hot knife through butter, if she had not have her energetic shield...

He looked back at her wound and saw that she was loosing more bright "blood"... looking closer, he noticed the color ... similiar to a very bright blue color... Opening the package of field-aid bandages, along with cooling pads, he gently laid them on her wound...

A relieved face of the pilot ... Looking like as if the pain level went down... Robert decided not to give her any medical injections, since all the names from the fluids inside the needles neither meant anything to him, nor did he know how she or her physical system would react.

Again, he slowly wiped rainwater from her face and laid his hand on the back side of her head, helping her lift it up a little...

She looked over to him, her eyes half open... She must be totally weakened from her 'bloodloss', Robert insisted... His eyes suddenly wided, when he saw one corner of her mouth went higher...

Something he would not have expected... It seemed as if she was... smiling... a small but remarkable... smile... He was surprised... Weak but in a triumphing manor...

Robert also noticed that her 'corner-eye-teeth', were slightly sharper, somehow with more precise profile than human eye-teeth..

He felt strange...

A Robert Jackson, holding a wounded and weak alien -female- being, which seemed to have aspects of a human woman, in his hands - somewhere totally deep inside a gigantic ship, inside the middle of nowhere - and worst of all of it - He was lost...

Fortunately, he was not alone against the creatures that lie within this lost dark and rainy world...

She slowly lifted her hand to his face... Robert remained still, not knowing what to do...

She laid her hand gently on his face... " Ame'pri-Qu'ma... ", she said softly.

"Que pasa what?", he replied confusingly...

Suddenly, Robert started to hear multiple sounds around their vicinity... coming closer...

He looked up and around... Was it more trouble? He quickly stuck the knife back along with the bloody shard in his side pocket of his vest... and quickly reloaded his handgun...

There was no time to grab his rifle... The sounds were coming in very fast...

Many *Splash, splish, splash* sounds...

... They sounded like steps... He showed his left hand to the weakened female alien pilot, obviously showing that she should remain still, while he would try to defend themselves against whatever was coming.

Robert started to see a group of figures coming towards their position and aimed right at them...

"More of those things... how in the world can they figure out everytime where I'm at...?", he asked himself...

He slowly recognized the figures... now he was more surprised than ever...

Hesitating to move, he slowly lowered his gun... dropped it on the ground and rose his hands up, as if he wanted to surrender...

Although he could not tell exactly what the figures were... They did seem to be humanoid.

"I hope you guys won't go crazy on me like her, this time...", he hoped.

A few seconds past... One of the figures started to move it's hands...

"Huh?", Robert seemed startled...

A strange but bright energy flow started to show up from the ground and surrounded the person... then concentrated on her hands... The brightness from the concentrated energy revealed shortly the form of the person...

Another "alien women with 'human' appeals", wearing a hooded cape and a type of metallic headband...

The light went down, making it not possible to see more of the person... She suddenly "pushed" the energy-bolt with her arm towards him...

" UH-OH..." Robert said loudly... as the energy-bolt flew right towards him...

*Robert lost conciousness and fell to the ground*

----

Chris was holding Sammie in his arms... when he suddenly heard the voice of Argo, one of the pilots flying the surveilliance craft over speakers, "Um... Guys... You all better come over here to me... - It's... uhh... I don't know what to say, b-but there's something going on out there - something really big is happening way ahead- ..."

----

Somewhere far ahead in deep in space, a sudden bright flash occurred... The light was so bright that even the bridge crew of the SDF-1 could see it... After the long flash, something cloud-like ahead could be seen... It was very far away, but still visible, which meant that it's size must be tremendous...

The whole crew stopped their operations... Looking towards the front bridge screen...

Admiral Gloval stood up... surprised... Claudia Grant still had her arm in front of her face, the blaze was more than overwhelming.

"Blasted, what was that?", Gloval said, "... Another super jump-defold?".

Vanessa Leeds tipped around on her console, trying to gather as much data as possible... Her readings however were more than a mix up of information rather than showing a solid answer.

"I am unable to scan the regional vicinity of that phenomenon, Sir... It's impossible for our normal sensors and deepscan-systems to penetrate the area...", she replied.

Admiral Gloval turned towards her station. On her screen, a large fuzzing and flashing bandlike fog seemed to lie very far ahead... The data output indeed was pure junk.

Vanessa tried other measures, using different types of scanners at once...

"What can you read out of this, Officer Leeds?", Gloval asked.

"I'm not sure, Sir...", she continued, "The bandwidth is over approximately 248.78km long - expanding wider... and is approximately 40km away... getting closer.... *trys to figure out more, but fails* - It's no use, sir... Almost every type of scan-frequency beam is being either reflected or totally inverted..."

"Admiral ... ?", Commander Hayes called,"... Sir, do you remember the report from the major sun rupture? Scientists onboard said this tremendous solar flare would definitely meet us someday... Invisble... Although it's radiation is very low and beyond hazardous levels since it's bandwidth has expanded, it would still interfere severely with almost any system that has to do with communication and sensors -"

Vanessa turned towards her, " You mean the report of 'The Void', Commander?", she added.

"I suppose so...", Lisa replied, along with a nodd.

The Admiral was not pleased... " Hmmm... If this is true, then that would mean that we are going to be cut off from any deep space communication to satellites ... even more worse - We will be totally blinded - and along with that menace clinged to the SDF-1, this could come to be a major disadvantage for us..."

"I however can not figure out why it became visible... nor the sudden flash...", Lisa added as well.

"Sir, we should not forget that the renegade pilots are heading straight towards this area as well... We will lose them as soon as they enter the field of the "Void"...", Vanessa added, reminding the Admiral.

"Whatever they are up to, I don't think they are going to be that insane to fly all the way back alone to Earth in that little ship... nor do I think they will do anything that would be harmful against the SDF-1... *pauses - then speaks* I'm sure they would want to return - ", Gloval's speech was interupted by a call sound from his seat phone.

He immediatly picked it up... " Admiral Gloval here... Yes... *listens* I see, I will be there in a short moment..." and laid the phone.

"Excuse now... I must head to the briefing room... Commander Hayes, you have the bridge..."

The Admiral left the bridge, leaving the other officers in confusion.

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