Pilots Lost in Time and Space
Author's Note:
Hello! This is my first time writing a fanfiction. Please forgive me for some redundant words in my fic and some of its absurdity. This is my original fanfiction of Macross Delta that is set a year after the final episode. Hope you will enjoy! There are some characters here in this chapter that are from SDF Macross.
Chapter 1. Test Flight
In year 1995, the United Nations established the UN Defense Force or UNDF, a global peacekeeping force assigned all around the world as an all-around government support to its member nations. UNDF consist of selected military personnel all around the world from US Forces of United States, the PLA of China and NATO of European Union and many others. This global force is well-equipped with updated military equipment from different contributing nations.
In year 1998 at the UNDF Langley Air Force Base in United States, two of the best pilots in the ranks of 12th Division Alpha Squadron, 1st Lt. Carolina Lockheed, described to be an 18-year old Caucasian slim woman roughly 5'7" in height with shoulder-length blonde hair and 2nd Lt. Sora Yokozuka, an 18-year old Japanese-American male with 5'8" in height with shaggy brown hair are selected to test fly the military's standard aircraft equipped with Quantum Displacement Drive. The selected aircraft equipped with the prototype QDD was the F-14 Tomcat, a classical multi-role fighter jet in service on US UNDF Forces, dubbed as the F-14QX. As the two pilots walked toward the runway, they are met by two familiar faces. One of them is another pilot from Beta Squadron, a 19-year-old tall, blonde male with unkempt hair and long sideburns that smokes a cigarette and also considered as an ace pilot named 1st Lt. Roy Focker. Another person that greeted the two is their captain described to be a tall, muscular-built male with well-trimmed red hair and goatee named Captain Arvin Molders.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here. Little Sora here's gonna be a test pilot, huh?" Roy teased.
"Shut it, Roy. After this, I'll gonna kick your ass!" Sora said angrily.
"Boys, just calm down already. Sora, you're too hot-headed." Capt. Arvin said.
"Dream on, boy! You can't beat me yet at your level. After your little test flight with your girlfriend, let's have another competition above the skies." Roy mockingly teased Sora.
"ROY! SHE. IS. NOT. MY. GIRLFRIEND!" Sora yelled to Roy.
"AND HE IS NOT MY BOYFRIEND EITHER!" Carolina also yelled.
As both Sora and Carolina denied angrily with Roy, Capt. Arvin simply laughed to both of them.
"Alright, that's enough you two. Roy, just sit back and watch. My two of the best pilots can fly that baby without a problem."
"Well, Captain Molders. Explain to me why they are piloting the older F-14 instead of the latest F-22?"
"Lieutenant Focker, I don't know what out higher-ups are thinking. Maybe they don't want to risk our latest fighters for this QDD testing."
"Seriously, cap?" Roy baffled on Captain Molder's reply.
"Honesty, I really don't trust this test flight because of lots of risk." Captain Molders answered Roy. "This is the first testing of their QDD. I don't know how those science and engineering guys from our science department came up with that. Second, the F-14 might not hold enough for this one."
"I heard that the QDD can allow instantaneous teleportation, as they can say it. Sounds like Einstein's theory to me." Roy replied.
Captain Molders diverted the conversation by questioning Roy. "Yep. By the way, how's Aries Turner?"
"Aries-sempai? I haven't got any update of her ever since she left to Peru studying these Nazca lines." Roy nonchalantly answered as he is clueless.
"Ah, that geeky girl. Always workaholic." Captain Molders smirked.
"Yeah." Roy affirmed. "She might get old with her line of work."
"Ahem. Are you forgetting something, Captain?" Sora suddenly interrupted.
"Yeah, cap. You just left us out here with your conversation with Roy." Carolina followed.
"Oops. My bad. All I can say is that good luck, you two." Captain Molders answered the two.
"Yes, sir!" Sora and Carolina saluted.
"Carry on." Molders called the two to be at ease.
As Sora and Carolina walked out the hangar, they reached the F-14QX and began to climb towards the cockpit. As they reached the cockpit, Sora sits down on the front pilot seat while Carolina occupies the back-pilot seat as the RIO and also, records data from the QDD. Sora took out a photo from his pilot suit with himself, Carolina and a blue-haired kid in the photo. Memories suddenly flooded his mind about the moment he befriended with the blue-haired kid a few years back on the European UNDF base in Brussels.
"Still thinking about that kid, Sora?" Carolina asked.
"Yeah. That kid really reminded me of my little brother. All that kid wants is to fly. They even share my dreams to soar the sky." Sora answered.
"So that's how you get your name, right? Your name means sky in Japanese."
"Of course you know this already, Carol. So, how about you? How do you feel about this test flight?"
"Honestly, I'm still a bit nervous about this."
"Aw come on now, Carol. You can just pop your Walkman on your one ear and listen to that awesome movie soundtrack you always listen."
"You definitely know me, Sora. To think a Japanese boy like you also listen to this kind of music."
"Hey, I don't mind about that. Makes me ease out my stress on the controls."
Suddenly, the radio in the cockpit speak out.
"Lt. Yokozuka, Lt. Lockheed, prepare for test flight."
"Roger that, command. F-14QX preparing for take-off!"
As the jet engine whirred, the thrusters of the aircraft roared at its power to push the jet fighter toward the runway to take off to the skies. The F-14QX takes off the air base 3000 miles away towards the Atlantic Ocean maintaining altitude and speed. The QDD attached on the plane's fuselage glows blue signifying the drive is now operational. While the test pilots are up to the skies, a number of UNDF scientists along with Captain Molders are on the air force tower.
"Command, this is Garuda and Harpy. Preparing for QDD operation. Over."
"Roger that. Commence QDD testing. Now, pilots, turn on the phase 1 of QDD."
"Harpy here. Affirmative. Commencing QDD Phase 1."
Carolina, dubbed with the callsign Harpy, switched on the Phase 1 flick switch on her controls to activate QDD. Suddenly, the F-14QX is engulfed in blue light and suddenly disappeared from the radar.
"Where are they now? Garuda, Harpy, do you copy?" Captain Arvin suddenly demanded the scientists.
"Relax, Captain. In five seconds, the aircraft will appear in the radar again. That's the essence of the quantum displacement after all." The head scientist answered.
True to the scientist's word, the F-14QX in a flash of blue light appeared in the radar and also in the visuals from air force command center.
"Calling command. Honestly, I'm a bit scared back there. It's like a blue light engulfed us for like, five seconds."
"Well it appeared that we are now in the European airspace now, captain."
"Glad you're fine, Garuda and Harpy."
"Teleportation by 5000 miles towards European airspace! QDD Phase 1 complete! QDD still needs to proceed to phase 2, captain." The head scientist suggested.
"Alright. Commencing QDD Phase 2."
Carolina carefully turned the lever on the controls of the QDD that changes its color from blue to green glow.
"Here we go, Sora. Time to commence teleport!"
"Let's go, Carol!"
As the F-14QX glowed into green light, a black colored Su-27 suddenly appeared on the radar towards the teleporting aircraft.
"Hey, what's that approaching to us?"
"It's not one of the UNDF's planes?"
"Garuda, Harpy, teleport now towards the air base!"
"W-What's going on, captain?"
"It's one of those renegade fighters!"
"Renegade fighters? By which faction?"
"The Anti-UN forces!"
"Garuda, Harpy, return to air force command immediately!"
The newly identified Russian aircraft fired salvo of missiles towards the glowing F-14QX but it successfully teleported towards the base in a matter of time.
"Phew. Thank God, we're not hit there, Carol. Good work."
"It's not yet time to celebrate, Sora. We're still being tailed by other Anti-UN fighters!"
True to Carolina's word, two additional Su-27s began to chase them to a dogfight firing salvo of missiles. Sora began to do evasive maneuver the F-14QX avoiding the incoming missiles. As the first missile missed the target, another missile goes directly toward the cockpit of the target but Sora began to pull the control stick to tilt the aircraft towards the left avoiding the missile again. During this situation, Sora began to become agitated.
"Darn it, Carol. We need to fend them off!"
"On it! Time to perform the phase 3 in these situations!"
"Just do it to save our tails!"
Carolina flicked the switch on her control panel for the QDD Phase 3 of teleportation where the QDD glowed pink. As they fly towards the air force base glowing in pink, a surface-to-air missile suddenly popped out of the nearby sea 5000 miles away from the Langley Air Force Base hitting the underside of the glowing F-14QX causing an explosion that plummets the aircraft towards the US Eastern Seaboard.
"We're losing altitude, Sora! That hit must have jammed our ejector seats!"
"DAMN IT! Carol, we're still glowing, right?"
"WHY DID YOU ASK THAT?"
"IT'S TURNING RED! THEY SOMEHOW ALSO HIT THE QDD!"
"NOOOOOOOOOO!"
The glowing red aircraft suddenly intensified as it plummets toward the surface and in a big flash, the aircraft disappeared as if it teleported somewhere. USDF's Beta Squadron arrived late towards the testing site destroying the source of the surface-to-air missile that hit the experimental aircraft, an Anti-UN Akula-class nuclear submarine. The squadron managed to destroy the surface-to-air missile sites on the submarine preventing an unwanted nuclear explosion. In desperation, Lt. Roy Focker on his F-12 Eagle tried his best to contact Sora and Carolina through radio frequency.
"Sora! Come in, Garuda! Harpy! Do you copy? Come on, dude! Answer!" Roy gritted with frustration while trying to radio out the two missing pilots.
"Garuda! Harpy! Please respond!" Captain Molders also radioed the missing pilots from the air force command.
"Captain, I have bad news. It seems that the QDD was hit during the attack that made them disappear without a trace. They were in the middle of phase 3 of quantum displacement."
"What does that mean?" Capt. Molders asked.
"It seems the QDD did more than teleportation. They may be disintegrated, I'm afraid." The head scientist answered.
"Darn it."
In July 28, 1998, the UNDF declared 1st Lt. Carolina Lockheed and 2nd Lt. Sora Yokozuka to be "killed in action" during the attack of the Anti-UN forces as they attempt to destroy the QDD before its perfection. Due to this incident, the discontinuation of the quantum displacement research by UNDF was done to prevent this kind of mishaps.
In an unknown territory, the downed F-14QX fighter jet suddenly appeared in the sky after that attack from Anti-UN forces still plummeting towards an island due to the damaged undercarriage. Luckily, Sora managed to regain control of the plummeting aircraft back albeit of the smoked damage. As they fly on the unknown territory, Sora and Carolina noticed that they managed to teleport right after they plummeted towards the US Eastern seaboard to on an open ocean, thinking that they are on the opposite side of the world.
"Seriously, that teleport thingy from the QDD saved our butt back there." Sora thanked fate for their lives.
"Yeah. It seems we've teleported way back here at a vast ocean." Carolina is also relieved and also wondered. "But something's off with this place."
As Sora checked the surroundings from his cockpit, he did notice the vast ocean. "Maybe we've been transported to the Pacific?" he guessed.
"Maybe. If we are in the Pacific, we might just need to contact a nearby UNDF base." Carolina suggested. "But let me check the QDD if it is still operational."
Carolina checked the indicator and the controls of the QDD and she discovered that the QDD was heavily damaged due to the earlier attack.
"Man, we're definitely stuck here in the Pacific. We better fly this one and make sure we need to contact a nearby UNDF base." Carolina suggested again to Sora.
"Okay, Carol." Sora controlled the aircraft towards west to find contact as Carolina tries to radio any nearby UNDF base but to no avail since to military frequency is detected.
"This sucks, Sora. There's no military frequency available here." Carolina sadly admitted. "How can we fix this and go back to our base?"
"We'll just keep flying until we can find a place to land this one. We're almost out of jet fuel." Sora suggested his co-pilot.
"I guess so. Wait, Sora! The radar detected something here!" The female co-pilot is surprised on her discovery on the radar. "There are three aircraft going towards us!"
"What? We're not sure if these are the same Anti-UN guys or one of our own." The young pilot answered the female co-pilot. "But we'll find out."
True to what their aircraft detected, there are three dark blue-colored peculiar fighter jets approaching their position in high speed. They are described to have a double-delta wing with green thruster trails adorned with white trim and a symbol decorated with a bird-like insignia. When Sora took a closer look to the fighters, he was surprised due his familiarity with those fighter jet's shape and form.
"Carol, are you seeing this? Why are the Swedish Drakens here? And what's with their insignia?" Sora wondered.
"I'm not sure. Judging by their design, it seems they look more sleek and advanced, if you ask me." Carolina replied. "But I have a bad feeling about this."
"In the name of Windermere, we will avenge our Lord Roid! Die, earthling!" One of the unknown pilots proclaimed to an open channel. Suddenly, the three jets open fired their laser-like guns towards Sora and Carolina's aircraft. As the unknown three fighter jets fired, Sora evades them by maneuvering the plane to tilt away from the fire and eventually the plane performed a 360 degree spin dodging the additional fire. As they increase the boosters, the three enemy fighters quickly dashed towards them.
"This is definitely not our day, Carol! What the hell are those fighters proclaiming about Windermere? I don't know what the hell is Windermere!" Sora angrily yelled due to the consecutive attacks towards them. "And who is this Roid guy anyway?"
"Darn it! The QDD is toast for this wrong time! We definitely need to defend ourselves!" Carolina also yelled.
As they speed up, one enemy fighter suddenly outrun them and maneuvered it in front of them a couple of kilometers as it appeared to have a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capability. With surprise, the enemy fighter suddenly transformed into a humanoid robot form holding a giant gun pod. Sora and Carolina are definitely surprised on what they witnessed and to their impending doom.
"WHAT THE FUCK? THAT DRAKEN TRANSFORMED INTO A GIANT ROBOT?" Sora screamed with surprise and fear.
"Darn it! These enemy fighters are way too advanced from ours!" Carolina slammed her controls in frustration. "Advanced or not, we need to go through!" She suddenly had visuals on the transformed enemy aircraft with the targeting system locked. "Eat this!"
The approaching F-14QX fired its missiles towards the transformed enemy fighter and successfully hit it but the enemy fighter appeared to be unscathed by raising its shield with an energy-like bubble.
"FUCK! OUR WEAPONS DIDN'T GAVE A DENT!" Carolina swore with anger.
"Weak earthlings! Die!" the enemy humanoid robot popped out a cannon from one of its shoulder as it fired a powerful laser blast.
In split second, Sora inwardly thought on approaching their awaiting death. "Are we gonna die with this bad luck? Fate must have been very cruel and at the same time, gave us only a split-second luck."
When the laser is about to struck the aircraft, another unknown flying object tackled the F-14QX away avoiding the blast. As the smoke cleared out, the pilots overlooked the object in awe that pushed them away to see a similar-looking humanoid robot holding a shield. Instead of dark blue, it is a blue and grey-colored humanoid robot with an insignia that resembled that of a blue knight. The said humanoid robot began to fire its gunpod to successfully hit the enemy on the shoulder and its shoulder cannon causing an explosion plummeting the latter to the ocean.
"Holy smokes, Carol! We're saved! Fate has been good to us again!" Sora rejoiced but a bit shaken as he steadily pilots the fighter away from the conflict and suddenly noticed the silence of his partner rendering her speechless. "Carol? Hey! Earth to Carol? Are you alright?"
"I-I can't believe it. W-We're…saved." Carolina muttered incoherently with tears in her eyes.
"Are you crying, Carol?" the lead pilot asked.
"Of course, I'm crying, stupid! We are saved by these things that came from science fiction!" Carolina yelled to her co-pilot.
"It seems our mysterious savior are still fighting the two enemy Drakkens." Sora commented as he flies the aircraft towards safety. One more unknown aircraft with dark-green and red color and with the similar design of their savior began to zoom towards the conflict. "What do you know. Backup has arrived!".
Two more similar aircraft arrived towards them, one is colored maroon and one is colored orange with a large disk at the top. With a sudden turn, the two aircraft began to go side-by-side on the F-14QX as they are meant to escort them.
"Pilot, are you alright?" the unknown pilot from the maroon aircraft spoke up through an open channel. The two pilots instantly identified the latter pilot a female.
"Yes, ma'am. We are suddenly attacked by three Swedish Drakkens out there." Sora replied the female pilot of the magenta-colored fighter.
"Thank you for saving our butts out there. I'm definitely thankful for your squadron." Carolina spoke up.
"Wait, there are two pilots? And why are you calling them Swedish? What's with this aircraft of yours? Anyways, we can talk this when we reach our base of operations." The pilot of the orange fighter spoke up in the open communication channel.
"Roger that. What squadron are you from? Are you sent by the nearby UNDF base from our distress signal?" Carolina asked the two unknown pilots.
"UNDF? I haven't heard anything about this UNDF. We are the Delta Flight from Xaos Ragna HQ." the unknown female pilot replied.
"Xaos? Ragna?" both Sora and Carolina are baffled.
"What are you talking about? You are here in planet Ragna!" The unknown female pilot replied to the two as if they are just fooling around.
"What? Did I hear it right? Another planet? Hahahaha!" Sora laughed what the unknown female pilot said and he then noticed the dead air in the frequency as if the woman is serious. "Wait, seriously?"
Before the unknown female pilot reply the young pilot, the three aircraft already see the horizon as they approach towards their savior's base. Sora and Carolina are again, are in awe and disbelief that they noticed a giant humanoid robotic fortress sitting on the mountains.
"T-That's what we are heading?" Carolina asked with disbelief.
"That's right, miss. Welcome to Macross Elysion!" The pilot of the orange aircraft replied.