Chapter 11

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David woke with a start, sitting up in his bunk and looking around. Tony must have covered him with a blanket sometime during the night, and he pulled himself out from under it. He tried to remember what it was that had awakened him, but he couldn't recall, no matter how hard he tried. <Oh well, must've been a nightmare or something.> David stretched and looked around the room, searching for the clock. He spotted it and sighed. <Don't have to be at roll call for another hour. Wonderful.> He walked over to his locker and rummaged around until he found his toiletry kit. <Might as well get this over with.> he thought, heading for the shower.

A shave and shower later, David felt a lot better. As he walked back into the room, Tony was sitting up in his bed, rubbing his eyes sleepily. "Finally awake, sleeping beauty?" David asked.

"Oh, shut up." Tony said grumpily. "At least you had a good night's sleep."

David just smiled and dug a uniform out of the closet. "You'd better get cleaned up. We've got forty minutes 'til roll call."

"Oh, joy." Tony replied, grabbing his kit and heading out of the room. "Just as long as we have time for breakfast!" he called over his shoulder.

David watched him go, then began pulling on his uniform, whistling a happy tune who's name he couldn't recall.


David stood at attention, Tony beside him, as Lieutenant Landers called each member of Black Squadron by name. After making sure that all the pilots were present, she set about describing the schedule for the day's battle. Black Squadron was going to launch on patrol duty three hours before the battle was set to begin, and would maintain their patrol stations until after the battle was over, when the newly-formed Vermillion Squadron would take their place.

As the Lieutenant read off each wing's assigned patrol position, David allowed his gaze to wander among the many faces in the crowd. Some of them he knew well, such as Christopher "Don't call me Chris" Underhill, the resident ex-medical student. He took great pleasure in describing complex surgical proceedures, just to see who got sick. Then there was Montgomery Overhill, who everyone called "Slim." He was tall and skinny as a toothpick, but he was also highly skilled in Tae Kwan Do, and was spending his free time teaching many members of the squadron (David included) some basic moves. The chess-playing Montgomery brothers. Sergeant Terry McCann and Corporal Chris Rice, the only other two female full-time pilots in the squadron, either one of whom could wipe David's face all over the pavement and still look feminine doing it. The mysterious Izabelle Fate was also a pilot in the squadron, but she was never around - which made David both curious and relieved at the same time - so he didn't count her as a fully-fledged member of the squadron.

David's attention returned to the briefing. Lieutenant Landers was giving last-minute instructions, insuring that the wing commanders knew their duties. She held Sergeant Malone back, whispered something to him, and David saw his face tighten. <Great, just what we need. A pissed of NCOIC. Gonna be a long flight.>


They rode in the back of the jeep as it jounced it's way through the darkened and deserted streets of Macross City, towards the Prometheus. David and Tony exchanged looks, each painfully aware of Sergeant Malone's not-so-quiet cursing from the front passenger seat, which carried above the growling of the jeep's engine. "Damned bitch." he was muttering. "She did this on purpose. She's trying to keep me out of the action because she's threatened by me. Afraid I'm a better commander than she'd ever be. Well, I'll show her. I'll show them all. We'll see who winds up on spud patrol after today."

Tony tapped David on the arm, then made a circling motion around his temple. David offered a slight smile, and nodded. <I'm with you, Tony. Loony toons.> David couldn't quite figure out what had the Sergeant so upset, unless he thought that the wings assigned to the wide-range patrols were going to see more action. Gamma Wing had been assigned to patrol the area immediately around the SDF-1, which was as far from the action as they could feasably get without being on the other side of Saturn. David sighed. If everything went according to plan, then Black squadron wouldn't be seeing ANY action, except from a distance.


Black squadron assembled in the second level, aft deck, of the Prometheus, for a final roll call. Everyone was present and accounted for, and they all headed for their individual Veritechs. Tom Charter and all the other technicians were there, their faces cheerful, but their eyes betraying their concern. As David climbed into his Veritech, Chief Technician Charter himself handed him his flight helmet. "You take care of yourself out there, okay?" Charter said. "And don't scratch the damned paint."

David gave him a thumbs up and cautious smile. "You got it." <Scratching the paint is the least of my worries.> Tom smiled, and the canopy descended. David finished his pre-flight check and started the Veritech's turbines. All his indicators were showing green, and David inched the throttle forward, following the aircraft director towards the flight elevator. As the elevator raised him to the flight deck high above, David found himself staring in awe at the magnificent sight arrayed before him. Black Squadron's Veritechs were lined up neatly on the launch deck, each awaiting their turn at one of the Prometheus's six catapult launchers. And directly in front of the Prometheus lay Saturn, half in darkness, half in light. It hung there like a sparkling jewel, and David smiled. It was even more beautiful than he had imagined.

Lieutenant Landers appeared on the right comm panel. "Alright, Black Squadron. Let's move out!"

David waited as the Veritechs before him were launched, and then it was his turn. He opened the comm line. "This is Black Twelve. Prepared for takeoff."

"Roger." came the First Officer's voice.

David grimaced. <Well, this is it.> He kicked in the afterburners and felt the gee forces shove him into his seat as his Valkyrie accelerated away from the Prometheus. He waited until he was clear of the super-carrier, then located Sergeant Malone and Tony on radar. He adjusted his course and came up alongside them.

"'Bout time you showed up, Marshall." Malone said tersely. "You done sightseeing?"

David sighed. <Yep, definitely going to be a long flight.> "Yes, Sergeant."

"Good. Now, you two form up in an echelon left formation." Sergeant Malone swung his VT slightly to the right. "Marshall, you take the last position."

After Tony had acknowledge the order, David did the same. "You got it, Sergeant. We aim to please." <Might as well enjoy myself.>

"Don't get flip with me, Marshall." Malone shot back. "Just do what I tell you."

David shook his head and glanced to the left. He saw Saturn there, it's rings radiant in the light from the distant Sun. He also saw several wings of Black Squadron's Veritechs heading out to their long-range patrol stations. Gamma Squad quickly swung around the SDF-1 to their holding position, slightly above and to the right of the massive bridge. The plan was to hold position by the bridge, with a routine fly-by patrol of the rest of the ship every five minutes. Sergeant Malone and Tony changed their Veritechs to guardian mode, and David followed suit, taking special care to maintain his position in the formation. He switched his comm system to monitor the command frequency, listening for any orders or sightings. Then he eased back into his seat and prepared for a long patrol.


[]

David watched silently as squadron after squadron was hurled off the deck of the Prometheus. He mentally kept track of who was where, and who was yet to come. Red, Green, Orange, Blue, Silver, Angel, Skull, Wolf, Yellow, Purple, Sepia, Eagle. The list of squadrons being launched for this attack was extensive. David watched as they formed up, and headed for the rings. "Godspeed." David whispered.

"Attention escort units." Commander Hayes' voice spoke over the comm line. "SDF-1 is descending into the rings. Maintain relative positions."

"Roger." David heard Sergeant Malone answer, and he wondered how the Sergeant felt about taking orders from another woman. "Alright, Gamma Squad, follow me."

David rotated his Veritech slightly and followed Sergeant Malone and Tony into the rings. As they descended, David heard Commander Fokker over the combat frequency, saying "Okay, let's get 'em!"

The battle was on.


"Green sixteen! Break left! Pods on your tail!"

"Sepia six, roll out! Roll out Tom!"

"Yellow leader! I'm hit! I'm hi-<snap>"

"Blue Squadron, change to vector three fiver fiver!"

"Red leader, come in! Red leader, do you copy?"

"Wolf Five, break right! I'll cover you!"

David listened in horror as the orders and shrieks and grunts of battle filled his cockpit. No amount of simulator time could prepare someone for this. From the sounds of it, the RDF forces were barely holding their own. He strained his ears, trying to make some sense of the chaotic transmissions, but they were too garbled. He looked out of the cockpit, in the direction of the battle, but all he could make out were brilliant spheres of light, the signs of someone dying a fiery death. From the screams on the combat channels, many of them were friendlies. He shuddered at the thought.

Suddenly, his threat indicator came alive. He checked the radar system, then opened a comm line. "Sergeant Malone! I'm showing multiple bandits at ten o'clock, relative! Range, eighty kilometers."

"I see 'em." Sergeant Malone replied. "Guess the Lieutenant missed a few." <Damn. He almost sounds happy about it.> "You two up for a little mop-up action?"

David hesitated a moment. "But Sergeant...we're supposed to remain with the SDF-1, not go chasing after flights of enemy pods!"

"Dammit Marshall!" Sergeant Malone snapped. "I'm the one in charge of this wing, not you! I will give the orders here, got it? And I say that those bandits are inside our engagement sphere. Understand?"

"Yes, Sergeant." David answered through clenched teeth.

"Good. Now I say we go rack us up a few kills." He smiled evilly into the visual pickup. "Unless you two girls are afraid?"

David sighed. "I'm not afraid, Sergeant." <Terrified is more like it.> "But I don't like it."

"Noted." Malone replied. "Now let's go! Assume a horizontal vee formation, Marshall, right. Martuchi, left." He chuckled. "Now I'll show that slut who's hot stuff. Move out!" He closed the circuit.

Tony's face remained on the left view screen. "David?" he said, his voice wavering. "Are we doing right?"

David sympathized with the frightened young man. "Don't worry, Tony. I'll be with you all the way. Let's go." David switched back to fighter mode and matched his speed with Tony's, coming up slightly behind and to the right of Malone's Valkyrie as they closed the distance to the enemy formation.

David studied the radar. He counted two dozen contacts, and they were moving slow. Too slow. They weren't maneuvering to evade Gamma Wing, either. Something about the whole situation struck David as odd, but he couldn't lay a finger on it. <It's almost like they're waiting for us. Or posing for us.> He didn't like the implications of either option.

"Black ten, why are you breaking formation? Over." came Lisa Hayes' voice over the comm line, sounding rather irritated.

David heard Sergeant Malone reply. "We are moving to engage an enemy formation, sir."

"You're not authorized to break away from your assigned station, Black ten. Return at once!" the First Officer snapped.

"Too late, sir. We are engaging the enemy now!" And with that, Sergeant Malone fired a volley of missiles at the enemy pods.

<Oh great!> David thought. <Now we'll be up on insubordination charges! Just what I need.> He looked up and saw several pods fire in his direction. "Look out!" Tony shouted, and David kicked his vernier thrusters, skewing his plane to the left just in time to avoid a particle beam barrage.

"Stick close to me, girls!" Sergeant Malone shouted, his Veritech transforing to battloid mode. He swung his gun pod around and began spraying cannon fire towards a group of three pods that were closing in on him. He quickly outdistanced David and Tony, who were busy fending off enemy pods.

David switched to guardian mode and fired a short burst at a lone artillery pod. <Damn! Missed!> The pod fired a spread of missiles his way, and he rolled hard to the right, stabbing the ECM controls, causing the incoming missiles to lose their lock on him. He fired three missiles in return, and they caught up with the fleeing pod. David turned away from the explosion, quickly got his bearings and vectored towards Tony's position.

"I'm okay!" Tony called out, seeing David coming. Tony spun his guardian-mode Veritech around and came up on David's left. "Let's join up with Malone!"

David consulted the radar, located the Sergeant, and re-oriented his Veritech. "Follow me!" he told Tony, then glanced back at the radar display. The enemy pods were forming up between Gamma Squad and the SDF-1. <What the hell?> A feeling of dread settled over him. <Oh, no...>

"Yeeeeehaaaaa!" Sergeant Malone shouted at the top of his lungs, two pods exploding slightly in front of him. "This oughtta show that damned bitch who's got the right stuff!"

"Sergeant!" David called out. "I think they're decoying us away from the ship!"

"What? Ridiculous!" Sergeant Malone spun his battloid around and pierced a heavy artillery pod with a dozen rounds. "They're not even putting up much of a fight!"

"Look at your radar, Sergeant!" Tony yelled. "It's plain as day!"

"It's plain that you two think too much!" Sergeant Malone shot back. "You've been listening to the Lieutenant too much. She doesn't know diddly about squat!" He shot another pod to emphasize his point. "This is where I belong! COMBAT! Not some piss-ant guard duty with two wet-behind-the-ears rookies!"

David shook his head and consulted the radar again. A dozen pods stood between them and the SDF-1 now, and David began to get really worried. Tony shot another pod, and David fired ineffectively at an officer's pod. <Sonuvabitch! I can't seem to hit anything!> He switched to battloid mode and checked the ammunition count on his GU-11. <One quarter gone already, and only one kill. Not good.>

Sergeant Malone racked up another kill, and turned to face a trio of battle pods. "Gotcha!" he shouted. "You suckers trying to ambush me?" Malone easily dispatched all three pods, then spun and headed for a large concentration of enemy mecha.

"Sergeant!" Dazvid called out. "You're too far out for us to cover! You've got to-" David watched in horror as fire from at least ten different pods converged on Sergeant Malone's Battloid. For a moment it stood there, as if nothing had happened. Then it burst apart at the seams and exploded. "Oh, God. Tony!"

"I saw it!" his panicked voice responded. "What'll we do?"

David thought furiously. Almost absently he spun and blasted an enemy battle pod - his first "official" GU-11 kill. "Form up on my position, back to back in battloid mode!"

"Roger!" Tony replied. "Approaching from below!"

David checked the radar display again. He increased the range and saw another formation of pods approaching the SDF-1 from within the rings. There looked to be at least two dozen, probably more, and they were heading towards the now-unprotected SDF-1. "This is not good. Not good at all." he said to no one in particular. He keyed the comm line, wondering how far away the rest of the squadron was. "Black leader, this is Black Twelve! We've been ambused! Sergeant Malone is dead! We need immediate reinforcements, now!" There was a burst of static, someone trying to say something, but David couldn't make it out through all the interference. "Lieutenant Landers! Do you copy?"

"Oh no." Tony said quietly. "What now, David?"

David was paralyzed for a moment, his mind blank. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. <What do I do know? What do I do?> A battle pod appeared before him, spitting blue death, and David reacted instantly, forgoing the gun pod for a straight punch. The battloid's metal fist punched through the pod's "eye", cracking the pod like an egg. The giant pilot, exposed to vacuum and hit hard by the battloid's fist, flailed about for a moment, then lay still. David straightened in his seat. "Tony! Head towards the formation bearing one zero six five."

"What?! Are you nuts?"

"Just do it! Stay abreast of me!" David snapped, already rolling his battloid around. He quickly calculated distance and closure rates in his head. "When we get to two thousand meters fire all your missiles at the main concentration! Try to target as many individual mecha as you can. We've got to break through!"

"Whatever you say, boss!" Tony replied, racing to join David. "What mode?"

"F mode." David said, pulling his own mode selector as he said it. His Veritech went from battloid to fighter in a smooth motion, and he increased his acceleration. He activated the missile targeting system and armed all of the missiles he was carrying. He glanced at the radar again. Thirty-four pods stood between them and the SDF-1. "Tony! Belay that missile order! Fire only HALF of your payload! We may need the rest later!"

"Will you make up your damned mind!" Tony shouted.

David watched as the distance rapidly diminished between them and the enemy formation. Five thousand, four thousand, three thousand meters. He was all too aware that several pods had fallen back from the group and were firing at him and Tony. As soon as the indicator read two thousand, David depressed the firing stud, loosing six high explosive missiles. Beside and slightly behind him, Tony did the same.

The missiles streaked ahead of the two speeding Veritechs, reaching the enemy formation in seconds, slamming into the thickest concentration of enemy pods, explosions ripping though more than half of them. The remaining pods seemed confused, milling around in confusion. "That's it! Through the gap!" David shouted, pushing the throttle as far forward as it would go. One instant he was facing a cloud of shredded pods, the next he was through. He checked to make sure that Tony was still with him, then raced full-speed for the ship.

Ahead of them, explosions blossomed around the SDF-1.


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