Chapter 1

[Reality Check - Saturday Jun. 27 2009, 1326 hours, Macross Island SDF-1 Base] 

"Would you be careful with that?", yelled Thallin. "I've spent five months redesigning this plane." 

The handling crew barely noticed his admonitions as they prepared to load Veritech VX-001 into one of the SDF-1's numerous storage bays. Thallin had been yelling at them since the start, shouting orders, not actually helping in any respect. Why should he? After all, that was what the handling crew was there for, right? 

He was preparing himself to yell a few more instructions when a small plane swished past overhead and disrupted a flight of fighters. Climbing vertically with the help of its boosters, the little plane became part of the formation of fighters as they continued their flying display. 

"Excuse me," asked one of the crew, "but where exactly do you want this thing placed?" He pointed to a contraption that looked like tubes and cables wired hap-hazardly to a large box. 

"I'd like it placed next to the VX. Make sure that cables are connected properly," Thallin yelled at the already retreating figure. He sighed and turned just in time to see the small plane land just outside the hangar he was in. The cockpit opened and a young man stepped out in time to greet a pilot which had been running toward the plane, microphone in hand. Thallin recognised the latest arrival as Roy Fokker, one the of VF squadron's best pilot. Fokker yelled a few things at the young man, throwing down the microphone he had been holding in the process, and dragged the civilian pilot away. "I wonder what that was all about." remarked Thallin out loud. 

The Veritech had been stored away and the handling crew had gone back to watch the preparations for the launch of the Fortress. Thallin himself had simply checked that the plane's mooring had been secured by the scutter droids before leaving the ship. He was wondering around the crowds in Main Square, stepping out of everybody's way, when the klaxons sounded. Looking about, Thallin noticed that the shadows around him where changing, as though something was moving overhead. He looked up and noticed that the front of the SDF-1 was splitting in two, both halves rotating as they spread to each side of the ship. 

Thallin looked dumbfounded for a second. "Oh shit." was all he could whisper in a small voice. 

The SDF-1 fired its main cannon, the beam smashing into the rocks in front of the ship, vaporising them as it went. The firing itself had been silent apart for the crackling of static energy as the charges built-up within the tines of the cannon. However, a gigantic thunderclap resounded a split second later as the atmosphere moved in to fill the vacuum left by the beam's disintegration of the air molecules in its path. Buildings shook as the air rushed in with the force of a small tornado. Down on the street, a small figure was lying on the pavement, spread-eagled. 

"Oh shit, oh shit, ohshitohshitohshit" Thallin repeated over and over again. He picked himself off the concrete and started running towards the SDF-1 and the military base. "Gloval's gonna be pissed. The crew's not even all here yet." He rounded a corner and came face-to-face with a scene of utter destruction. A Veritech had crash landed into several buildings, then mechamorphed to Battloid after hitting the ground. It was now trying to get to its feet, its internals having obviously sustained heavy damaged as evidenced in the shaky way it moved. "I don't have time for this. I don't need this. I don't want to be caught in the middle of urban warfare." He shut himself up, realising he was beginning to whine. Then the missiles hit. 

The volley, it was discovered later, had been calculated by the Zentraedi to be 'small, but effective in creating large areas of open space.' Whatever their intent, the results were destruction on a scale none in Macross City had envisioned. Building simply disappeared under the onslaught, returning to dust in an instant. 

Thallin ran as fast as he could, trying desperately to keep moving towards the SDF-1 and relative safety. But the destruction of landmarks, the spraying about of rubble and the thick black smoke rising from the ruins made it difficult to be certain which direction was which. Thallin could only hope he was going the right way. 

He clambered over a series of concrete blocks and looked over to the high ground of the Island. High up on the surrounding hills, coming down very fast towards the remnants of the city, were a series of objects - very large objects if the trees next to one was anything to judge by. They looked like headless, wingless metal ostriches with various barrels sticking out of their bodies. Some even had what looked like rocket launchers on top of them. A few looked like red-and-white fish with the same reverse-articulated legs and arms ending in weapons. They even had a large tank-gun above them. "This is not good. I want out of here. This is not what I signed up for!" Thallin shouted to no-one in particular. 

Thallin ran down the pile of rubble and up another. Reaching the top, he spied something on the other side and tried to skid to a stop to hide. The block of concrete he was on slipped down the side of the rubble, carrying him with it, and came to rest at the bottom of the pile. 

Thallin looked up the length of the enemy's rail-gun. <All these years>, he thought, <and I'm gonna end up as minced-meat on a pavement. What a way to go.> He looked quickly left and right but could find no cover. He closed his eyes and waited. 

Inside the enemy pod, the Zentraedi lined up the puny micronian with his gun. Obviously, this must be one of the slave-races of the planet. After all, the pilot had engaged in battle a Zentraedi-sized opponent in some sort of bizarre armour. Nevertheless, slave or not, all were to die to fulfil the imperative. 

His thumb moved to the trigger as the sights settled on Thallin's head. The Zentraedi's smile was cut short as his computer started to print information about his target onto the screen. 

Thallin waited for the slugs to rip his body to shreds. He waited. And waited. Finally, he opened up his eyes to find that the enemy craft was still standing over him, but no longer pointing its gun at him. It was now busily destroying any egg-like mecha that tried to approach it. <Wow. A defector?> wondered Thallin. This line of thought was quickly cut short as the craft above him - an officer pod, he would later find out - turned its guns against a Veritech Valkyrie Battloid and utterly destroyed it. 

<OK. I've had my quota of weirdness for the day. I'm outta here!> Thallin started to run down the street, towards the SDF-1 and, he hoped, safety. The Officer pod behind paused for a moment then started to chase him. 

The Zentraedi officer was confused. His target was not behaving as predicted. Instead of standing and fighting, it had started to run away. He reflected upon the data from his battle-computer. Maybe the target was leading him to better victories. Smiling at this thought, the Zentraedi turned to pursue the fleeing micronian. 

Thallin ran down the road as fast as he could. Looking over his shoulder he noticed the re-and-white pod following him. <Oh, great. He's playing cat-and-mouse with me.> He ducked to his left, fleeing through the front door of a building and back out its rear exit, hoping to loose his hunter. No such luck. As he looked back, he saw the pod emerging from the building. It had not even bothered to slow down as it crashed through the walls. 

Thallin panicked. The ground underneath his feet was shaking with every step of the enemy mecha as it ran after him. <What am I gonna do now?> he asked himself. He looked about as he ran and spied a man-hole in the street. He ran towards it, heaved the cover off, breaking a couple of nails in the process, and jumped down to the sewers. 

He paused, trying to catch his breath and sucking on his bleeding fingers. The ground above him shook as the Pod searched for him in the surrounding rubble. "Keep looking, sucker. I'm gone!" he said out loud, rejoicing in the sound of his voice. <waddayaknow. I'm still alive.> He proceeded down the tunnel towards the SDF-1, pausing every so often to read the signs and re-orient himself. 

He had been crawling down the sewers now for a good ten minutes. According to the signs, he was back at the SDF-1 compound, just a few hundred yards for the Macross itself. During his flight down the tunnels he had tried to draw parallels between this attack and the previous aborted attempts by the Anti-Unification Forces to seize control of South Atalia Island. But he could find very few points in common. For one thing, the Valkyries had never had to be deployed in Battloid mode to fight off the AUF. And for another, at least you could anticipate the reactions of the AUF. But this new enemy was not human. And if it was even half as brutal and savage as the records of the Bahamoud computer core found in the Macross implied, then humanity was in for some rough times ahead. "I never should have accepted this posting. Why didn't I stay in Tokyo? A cushier job I'd never find. All I had to do was pour through the computer memory of the Bahamoud. But, nooo. I wanted to stick my nose into Robotic Technology, didn't I? I wanted to be a big shot. Well, mister Big Shot, how'm I gonna get myself out of this one?" 

He crawled to the nearest exit and took a peek outside. Nothing moved out there except as blown about by the odd missile impact. "All you've got to do is climb out of this hole and run the last few hundred yards. No problems." he lied to himself. He clambered out of the hole and laid on the tarmac, waiting for a group of explosions to die down. He looked about and spotted a service door on the SDF-1 that was still opened. Better yet, it was sheltered by one of the support pylons that held the SDF-1 suspended above concrete of the compound. He got up and ran towards that door. 

No sooner had he started to run that the ground shook beneath his feet. Thallin looked around in fear and saw a red-and-white shape rise from behind the rubble and walk towards him. "No, not you again! It can't be! I lost you in the sewers! I lost you, Damnit!" Thallin ran headlong towards the door, concentrating his thoughts on it and excluding all else, particularly the pod bearing down on him. 

He was fifty feet from the door when the hatch swung shut and locked. Thallin stumbled to a stop, dumbfounded at this stroke of lousy luck. To make matters worse, he could hear engine noises coming from the fortress. His legs gave out under the realisation that hit him. Slowly, majestically, his last refuge lifted from its support and gained altitude. 

Thallin looked on in shock, barely registering the approaching metallic footsteps. "Oh boy." 

Forward to Chapter 2. 

Return to the Thallin Braywater contents page.