It was Nick's 1st day at basic combat training. Nick was older than most of the other recruits. If not for the Robotech War resulting is such heavy casualties, Nick would have been passed up for recruitment. All Nick had to do was keep going. He knew the Self Defense Force was not going to kick him out. The training would still last eight weeks. And Nick would get private courters.
Nick's wife had stayed on Earth. She would send him care package twice a week. The last packages contained bottled coffee. Recruits were allowed to keep these items in their private rooms. The food was great and recruits could visit the chow hall up to four times a day. But coffee was very difficult to come by.
Training was both intense and physically rewarding. Nick finally had the motivation to get into better physical shape. Nick felt like his mind was also sharper than it had been. No one at basic training seemed to get into any serious trouble.
There would be random mock drills. During week six the recruits got real mission experience by helping out mecha pilots. This helped kill the boredom and of course, no one was allowed to talk about how they helped out! After week seven it felt to Nick like he had always wanted to enlist.
Nick had thought that there was a delay in the daily mail. Nick had not received any care packages from his wife during week seven. It was unusual but Nick wasn't going to let it stress him out. After all, she had half his income and credible health insurance.
It was the beginning of week eight and there were still no care packages from Nick's wife. When Nick got to formation there was a sense of being not organized. No one had called roll call. There was a sensation that something was terribly wrong.
After about fifteen minutes a lesser-known high ranking pilot showed up. Well, Rick was lesser known at that time. He informed all the recruits to show up for duty rosters. The last week of training had been canceled. One could easily tell that Rick was trying to relay a sense of confidence but it was clear that he didn't really know what he was talking about. This was typical of most junior officers. He said something about the last week of training would be completed at a later time. That just sounded like nonsense.
Nick returned to his room to find a chaplain waiting outside for him. The chaplain was about Nick's age and looked better at his age. The chaplain told Nick that his duty roster for the next three days had been cleared. The chaplain informed Nick that he was being given this time to grieve.
The chaplain sat on Nick's bed. It really hit Nick harder than anything else in his entire life. It took a few moments to sink in. Macross City was "gone"!
A lot of things were going through Nick's mind. Was his wife really dead? What happened to their two cats? Was it possible that there were survivors and maybe she was injured?
Nick took the three days off. He brought each of the bottled coffees that he had to a few of his friends. Nick drank one coffee by himself.
Rather than to prolong Nick's loneliness, Nick decided to start volunteering for more dangerous duties. Someone had to do it. Nick felt that his time and his wife's time should be the same. Nick didn't want to keep her, or their cats, waiting on him...
Then one day Nick found himself working for Roy! Rick was injured and the rumor mill was that Rick was in a coma. Nick took to Roy pretty quickly. Both Nick and Roy had lost someone that they loved. Nick knew that this is where be belonged. Rank for a formality and it was only a concern when other officers were present.
Roy offered Nick the position of "co-pilot for a day"! Nick thought to himself, "yes! This is what I want"! It was a secretive mission. It was only to last about two hours total. Two hours wasn't too long to wait. All Roy could talk about was Rick. Maybe Roy sensed that Nick didn't really want to talk about Nick's deceased wife. Still, the end came quickly. With both of us critically injured, Roy tried to take the fight jet back to the SDF1. The Self Defense Force could stand to lose a few pilots. But planes were getting more difficult to come by!
Dying hurt a little more that Nick expected. But it was quickly over. It was the strangest sensation. Nick could taste that bottled coffee in his mouth.