Chapter 2

[Reality Check - Saturday Jun. 27 2009, 1517 hours, Macross Island SDF-1 Base] 

Thallin gazed up in stunned awe as the super-fortress lifted up into the sky. He barely registered the explosions around him or even the enemy Pod that stood above him. All he could do was stare at the departing fortress with a blank look on his face. <I gotta be dreaming.> But he knew this was a reality that could kill him, not a dream he could wake up from. 

Above him, the fortress gave a shudder, then another. Pylons detached from it and continued their skyward climb as the fortress hung precariously in the heavens for a single second before falling back towards the ground. <Oh, shit.> Thallin scrambled for cover as fast and as far as he could. Behind him, the pod had barely begun to turn around and follow him when the falling super-fortress crushed it without pause as it settled in a cloud of dust onto the tarmac. 

Thallin paused for a moment, to see if the pod would explode. When it showed no sign of doing so, he got up and ran for the lock he had previously tried to reach without success. This time there were no surprises and the door swished aside and permitted him entry. 

"What the hell happened?" yelled Thallin to one of the technicians, trying to get his voice heard over the klaxons. 

"The anti-grav worked too well. The struts couldn't take the strain and snapped. We've lost power to half the AA systems and are still moping up damage from the energy surge." Thallin nodded and kept on moving towards the bay where VX-001 was stored. 

The bay was a shambles as fire-retardant foam had spilled from a near-by compartment. Thallin rushed towards the assembly of tubes and boxes that sat quietly beneath a tarpaulin in a corner and ripped the fabric off it, revealing a seat surrounded by controls. On the seat was a helmet that fully encompassed the wearer's head, blocking all vision. Thallin grabbed several thick cables from the assembly and dragged their ends towards sockets in a nearby wall. As he finished plugging them in, he slapped home a power switch and the assembly came to life. 

He sat down in the seat and let his eyes roam the controls, checking each in turn, waiting for the lights to turn from orange to green as the deck went through its warm-up checks. Eventually, all lights turned green and Thallin breathed a sigh of relief - the deck had not been damaged. He strapped himself in and wiped his sweaty palms on his jacket before speaking. 

"Computer. Open priority channel to Luna Research Facility." 

The computer lights flickered ever so slightly its internal status was modified. "Channel open." responded the deck's tinny voice. 

"Thallin to Bahamoud system - requesting level 7 access. Eve, you in there?" 

The status lights on the deck turned red as the communication bandwidth was saturated. Outside the Macross, half a dozen Valkyries lost contact with ops as the Macross' computer re-routed their bandwidth to accommodate the demand from the deck. "Hello Thallin." said a female voice. "I have not heard from you in quite a while. How are things on Macross Island?" 

"How are thing? Here, take a look for yourself." He typed in a few commands into the deck, routing outside surveillance cameras to the Luna Research feed. 

There was slight pause from the other end. "Initial analysis indicated Zentraedi presence. Current estimates are 120 Regult of various types, 3 Glaug, 5 Nosjaedul-ger and one Quel-Qualie Recon Craft in geo-synchronous position above the island." 

"You know these guys?" blurted out Thallin. 

"Yes. Projected strategy on their part will be the assault of the Macross. Secondary targets will be major centres of population density." 

"Major centres of..." <Oh shit, the shelters!> Thallin pressed controls on the deck in a hurry. "Eve? The Neural Net in this deck is not operational yet. I'm gonna need your help flying the plane." 

"I must remind you that I do not have practical tactical experience. I would be of little use to you in combat." 

"Just you make sure you keep the plane together." replied Thallin as he donned the helmet. Screens lit up inside, giving him a view of the hangar from the VX-001's perspective. "System checklist, please." 

"Reaction mass, check. Lasers, check. Reactor starboard, check. Reactor port, check. Gun pod, loading... check. Thallin, did you wish to utilise the MMLs?" 

Thallin glanced at the four box-like shaped sitting on automated loaders, two to a wing. Missile cones could be seen protruding from their front. "Yeah, might as well. If you're gonna do it, might as well do it whole-hog. Load the suckers." 

"Multi-Missile Launchers; Launcher 1, loading... check. Launcher 2,..." 

Thallin left Eve continue with her checklist as he conducted a few test on the comm-link between the deck and the Valkyrie. A few seconds later, Eve's voice interrupted him. "All checks completed. Will this be a submergence sortie?" 

"I'm afraid not, Eve. We still haven't managed to get a working neural interface working. I'll be using the helmet." 

"Affirmative. All systems check. You have control." 

Thallin blinked a couple of time and reached out to grab the controls surrounding him. He eased the throttle forward and brought the plane around to face the bay's door. "Open bay doors please Eve." 

The doors opened onto a scene of utter chaos. Veritechs going toe-to-toe with pods, buildings erupting in flames as laser and other rays strafed their sides, and all around, people dying. 

Thallin eased the plane out of the hangar and mechamorphed to Guardian, allowing him to take-off even though the runway was damaged beyond recognition. The plane responded to his controls smoothly and efficiently, as though he himself were in the cockpit. He kicked the after-burners on and took height to survey the area. 

No sooner had he cleared the top of the SDF-1 that a voice came in over the tac-net. "This is Vee Tee One Three Three to anyone who can hear me." The sound came in distorted, washed over by magnetic interference. "I'm being pursued by an enemy...uh, an enemy 'egg' and I need help." A slight pause, punctuated by the sound of laser-fire. "I'm at angels three, heading 224, speed-" The tac-net squealed as the signal was lost. 

"Eve, you got a bearing for me?" 

"Heading 153, he's on radar." 

Thallin mechamorphed back to plane and flipped around at over 9G, a manoeuvre he knew the on-board computer of a normal Valkyrie would have denied to protect its pilot. He glanced at the tactical radar and immediately spotted VT-133. The Valkyrie was plunging headlong towards the ground, trying desperately to manoeuvre away from a pursuing pod. Thallin line up the VX-001 and kept on accelerating towards the pair. He waited for the computer to acquire a lock on the enemy pod, a Fighter according to Eve, before pressing the missile stud. Two missiles detached themselves from the wing and raced ahead for a split second before the still-accelerating VX-001 caught up with them. 

"Shit!" Thallin banked between the two missiles to avoid them, then had to bank again as he passed between VT-133 and its hunter. A split second after he cleared the conical pod, the two missiles impacted with it, turning it into a ball of flame. 

Thallin looked over his shoulder at the receding VT-133. "Shit!" He pulled the throttle back to slow the plane's headlong race. "Eve, memo to myself and whoever else it applies to. We either have to speed up the missiles or slow down the plane. I can see a few people shooting themselves out of the sky otherwise." 

"Affirmative, Thallin. I noticed you used your two regular missiles. Why didn't you use the MMLs? Are they faulty?" 

"I wasn't prepared to fire an experimental missile pod in the general direction of a friendly, that's why." Thallin looked around, trying to find the civilian shelters amongst all the ruin. He felt himself shake for a moment and wondered if the plane had been hit. "What was that?" 

"The SDF-1 is taking off on conventional thrusters. Veritech squadrons are being recalled to defend it." 

"What about the civilian shelters?" 

"A handful of Valkyries are disobeying orders and remaining behind to protect the shelters. However, they are now outnumbered." 

"It never rains..." Thallin banked and brought his plane low over the ground, skimming rubble as it raced towards its target. 

"Warning." Eve said in his ears. "You are driving above the prescribed speed limit for this area. Please slow down to 80 klicks." 

Thallin smiled. "Is this your attempt at a joke?" 

"You know me better than that. I never joke." <Oh, yeah?> thought Thallin. <Then why do I hear a smirk in your voice?> "Thallin, what is your plan?" 

"I want you to override the missile lock controls." 

"These controls have been put there for a reason, Thallin. They are to stop you from firing without prior acquisition of a lock." 

Thallin yanked the stick hard to jump a fallen building. "Quit yackin' and start hackin'." 

"Override completed, Oh Mighty Overlord." Eve sounded miffed. 

<Oh great, just what I need. A pissed-off co-pilot.> Thallin did not have time to reflect on this. As he crested another rise, the civilian shelters came into view, surrounded by a large contingent of Regult and defended by a handful of Valkyries. As Thallin approached, one of the Veritech was hit four or five times and collapsed in on itself as its generator exploded. 

Thallin thumbed the missile-select wheel to full and pressed the firing stud. The four boxes underneath the VX-001's wings spat out missiles, three volleys of five each. The missiles twisted and turned. Lost and wondering aimlessly without a computer targeting lock, each missile sought a target of its own, covering a wider area than the computer ever could. Thallin charged in after them, his finger pressing tight on the firing mechanism of the GU-11 gun pod, send round after round of trans-uranic slugs into the fray. 

The missiles impacted on the pods, wiping most off the surface of the shelters. Valkyries dove for cover but two of the small missiles impacted on the left side of one of them, blowing its arm clear off. The rounds from the GU-11 impacted with yet another pod, causing it to blossom into a fiery ball. The VX-001 swooshed past the carnage and around an outcrop of rocks. 

"How'd we do?" asked Thallin. 

"Sixty missiles fired in total. Eighteen Regult destroyed, one Valkyrie hit - damage unknown. Gun pod took out another Regult pod on the way out. You really should be more careful next time, you could have killed that pilot." admonished Eve. 

Before Thallin could respond, a warning light flashed, accompanied by a buzzer. "We got company." 

"It's a re-entry platform. Probably what transported all the pods down to Macross from orbit." reported his co-pilot. 

Thallin mechamorphed to Battloid and landed near the platform, gun-pod at the ready. The platform looked like a large upturned pasta bowl with a gigantic door on its side. All was quiet on this side of the cliffs, all the fighting was confined to the city-side of the island. 

"Thallin. If you're thinking what I surmise you're thinking, I'd like to point out that this is a BAD IDEA!" shouted Eve over the com-net. 

The Battloid peered around the door, then stepped inside the platform. "Relax." answered Thallin. "See. It's empty." As if on cue, two shapes emerged from the darkness, wearing armour and wielding what looked like an organic version of the GU-11. They were only slightly shorter than the Battloid - but what they lacked in size they made up in stature. Thallin whipped up the nozzle of the GU-11 and pressed the firing stud. 

The weapon clicked empty. 

"Oh boy." 

Forward to Chapter 3.
Back to Chapter 1. 

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