Disclaimer: I do not own Macross nor Vocaloid. They are the property of their respected owners. This is just a fanfiction.
MACROSS PIONEER
Chapter 1
A Voice from Afar can still Hurt
Prologue: In the year 2047, a Colonization Fleet called "Pioneer" discovered a habitable planet on the far edge of the Milky Way's Cygnus Arm. The planet was subsequently named the same. In the four planet system, orbiting a star slightly smaller than Earth's sun, the habitable planet itself is orbited by two moons. Both of them dead and heavily cratered. The larger of the two moons orbits the closest about the same distance as Earth's moon from Earth, while the smaller moon, only 1/8 the size of the larger, orbits nearly twice as far. The star system itself defies the odds of even being formed where it is. Being on the far edge of the galaxy there's less material to work with to form stars, much less planets around those starts, but this system has defied those odds and even formed a habitable planet.
It is now the year 2055 and the planet Pioneer Is slowly being transformed with settlements being built on its surface. The main island of the fleet that has settled this planet consisted of two cities on Earth; Charlotte from the former United States and the city of Sapporo in Japan. However, even though it's been eight years since the planet was settled, and all the advanced construction technology; the sheer distance from space faring resources and the size of the cities themselves has made the transferring of the cities from the main island to the land itself a slow process. Only about half of both cities have been transferred. The other eight islands of the fleet had landed on different parts of the planet and are building smaller settlements.
Both cities are being rebuilt several miles from a large natural harbor with large cargo and navel facilities being built there, with the cities themselves separated by ten miles. In between the two cities is a large UN Spacey Military base shared by both cities. However, given that most of the limited resources are going to transferring the cities and building settlements, the military's resources are very small. Most of the ships used in the colony fleet have been either decommissioned or mothballed, including the only Macross 6 class, the Pioneer itself. The large 7,770 meter, or nearly 5 miles, long ship has been temporarily mothballed until the resources come available to run it again after the cities have been completely transferred. Even the number of active duty Valkyrie VF-171s and YF-19s are limited. End Prologue.
Tuesday, August 31st 2055. It's just after 4:00 PM when the school bell, from Sappororyukoku Gakuen High School just outside downtown Sapporo, finishes going off. Most of downtown Sapporo is still in the middle of transferring so the skyline is still incomplete. The highschool itself had only just reopened just before the school year started after having finally been transferred to the mainland from Island 1. As such the school is celebrating its new class of freshmen. And just as the bell gets through, four girls walk out its front gate. These four girls are members of the "Wanna be Pop-Idols club." A club dedicated to helping and improving one's chances of one day becoming a pop-idol; perhaps the first on/from Pioneer. They have let out early for a special reason today. One of the girls is getting a lot of attention from the other three, and for good reason. Today is her 16th birthday!
A short green haired girl steps in front of a long green haired girl, who is the center of attention right now, and walks backwards in front of her. "Come on Miku! You know you want to!" says the short green haired girl with a smile. "Oh Gumi, you know how bad I am. Are you sure you want to hear me?" asks the long green haired girl. Nagumi Nakajima, Gumi for short, a 16 year old short green haired girl and Miku's long time best friend. They've been together since second grade. Miku Hatsuchi, a new 16 year old girl with long green hair, has been on Pioneer ever since they laded because of her father's work for UN Spacey Research and Development Pioneer division.
"You know Miku, if you ever want to realize your dream of becoming a pop-idol you need to practice and get better whenever you can. A Karaoke party would be just perfect for you to practice." says a long blonde haired girl with her hair done in a side ponytail. "Ah, who cares if it's practice or not? Miku it's your birthday and we're here to celebrate with you! And a Karaoke party sounds perfect! Besides you have a few hours before your parents come to pick you up right?" says a long silvery-white haired girl with her hair done in a back ponytail. "Ah! Neru! Haku-sempai! You too!?" says Miku.
Neru Akita, a long blond haired girl with a side pony-tail, is a 15 year old girl who has been friends with Miku since Junior High, they often get on each others' nerves, but are close never-the-less. And Haku Yowane, a LONG silvery-white haired girl with a back ponytail and a buxom chest, is a 17 year old girl and the other girls' sempai. She has also known Miku since Junior High since they lived right next to each other then. "Yes I do have some time before my parents come, but-" "Then what's the problem!? Not scared to sing are you?" says Neru with a smirk interrupting Miku. "Oh Neru! *sigh* Fine let's go! I'm out numbered here. I guess it can be fun." says Miku.
"YEY!" yelps Gumi. "So where should we go?" she asks. "I hear that the Meneki Neko Karaoke Box on 36 just recently reopened after finally being transferred. Why not there?" says Haku. "Sounds perfect!" says Gumi with a thumbs up. Miku may look a little embarrassed now, but the truth is she really wanted to go the entire time. It only takes a short five minute tram ride for the girls to reach the building next to city road 36 where the Meneki Neko Karaoke Box is located in. They head up to the third floor. "Miku your parents are coming to pick you up at about 6:00 PM right?" asks Gumi. "Yeah." Miku answers. "Okay then. I guess an hour and a half block will be long enough." says Gumi. Gumi, Neru, and Haku all pitch in to pay for Miku's way and they enter their designated room. Gumi however stays behind for a second to tell the receptionist something and then catches up.
Room #5, the "Calico Room." Each karaoke room is named after a different kind of cat. As the girls scroll through the list of songs Gumi speaks up. "So who's going to go first?" she asks. "I guess I will. I've already found the song I want to sing." says Neru. As Neru grabs her microphone and heads up to the 3D hologram projection stage, her selected song begins. Miku instantly recognizes the song. Sharon Apple's famous "After, In the Dark Torch." Despite the fact that Sharon tried to wipe out humanity and her popularity subsequently fell to nearly zero after that, you still manage to find an occasional fan. Neru, oddly, is one of them, even though she's only a fan of the songs and not of Sharon herself. The 3D hologram projection screen holographs over Neru's clothes into Sharon's famous long green dress and golden triangle earrings. Then the holograms also make it look as if Neru is singing to a large crowd in the Eden concert arena. It makes her look quite stunning actually.
The nine minute long song seems to fly by with Neru's near perfect singing. The other three girls are mesmerized by her good singing despite the fact that her high pitched voice isn't exactly a match for this song. As she finishes the song the holograms shut off leaving Neru back in her school uniform. The computer screen behind her tallies her score and within a few seconds displays an 84; a very good score indeed. "Wow Neru! That was great! You looked absolutely beautiful up there!" says Miku as they all applaud. Neru blushes slightly. Her Tsundere personality though, comes back in an instant. "Well what do you expect!? You're looking at the hardest working person here." she says with a gratified smile and her hands on her hips.
"Okay Haku-semapi! Your song is next!" says Gumi looking at the song list. "Oh! You're right." Haku responds. She grabs her microphone and gets on stage. As her song begins everyone recognizes it. Lynn Minmay's "Tenchi no Enogu." The 3D holograms converge on her and the clothes of Lynn Minmay when she first sang this song appear along with the famous SDF-2 stage. Pink boots, light blue tights, a light-blue shirt with violet sleeves, with a pink shawl around her waist, a pink scarf like cloth over her shoulders with a blue pendant in the middle, pink gloves, and a pink turban around her head. If it wasn't for her long silvery-white hair she's be a dead reckoning for Minmay herself. As Haku sings it's apparent she doesn't have near as much talent as Neru. She only manages to get half the notes right. As she finishes, the holograms shut off and her score is tallied on the screen; a 63. "Oh dear. It looks like I still have a long way to go before I'm good." says Haku with a sigh.
"What are you saying Haku-sempai!? That was good!" says Gumi with a toothy smile. "I agree! Haku-sempai. It was fun watching you sing." says Miku as they both clap. "Thank you both." says Haku as she sits down. "You sure are one for the classics aren't you Haku-sempai." says Neru. "Well I find singing the classics is like studying history. If we don't learn it we're bound to fail in our endeavors." says Haku "OH BOY! My song is next!" yelps Gumi. Before she even gets on stage Miku can pretty much guess which song it'll be. And as soon as the first note plays, she headdesks. Firebomber's "Holy Lonely Night." Gumi has been a fan of Firebomber ever since she was a very young girl. As far back as Miku can remember Gumi was almost always humming or singing this particular song. So much so she herself could sing this song word for word if she wanted to.
Gumi has the hugest crush on Basara Nekki and she loves to dress up as Mylene Flare Jenius. And guess whose clothing the holograms bestow on Gumi… Mylene Flare Jenius'. Complete with punk rock looking red swimsuit with a white belt, large off-white shoulder pads with blue glass orbs in shoulder areas, and finally a large silver metal headband. You may never know it but Gumi has a deepish voice compared to her small frame, almost perfect for this song. Gumi by far has the best talent for singing out of all the girls. She can sing both the male and female parts of this song nearly perfectly. And after the song ends and the holograms turn off, her score reflects that. A 95.
"Wow Gumi! That was spectacular!" says Miku with a large smile while all three girls clap. "I have to agree. With the new scoring system they've installed here, it's so rare to get a score above a 90, even if you have great talent." says Haku. "Oh come on guys I just had a good day is all. I was just lucky to get this score." says Gumi with a sheepish smile. Neru claps but grumbles at the same time. She knows Gumi has been approached several times buy professional producers and signing trainers wanting to turn her into a pop-idol. Oddly Gumi has always turned them down. Neru has worked so hard to get to where she is with her singing and she hasn't been approached once. What Neru can't figure out is why Gumi has always turned them down. And Miku seems to know nothing about this.
"It's your turn Miku!" says Gumi. "Eep! Um… are you sure you want to hear me?" says Miku looking down while blushing. Out of the four girls, Miku knows she's the worst. "Oh come on! We're here for you today!" says Gumi as she grabs Miku's hand and pulls her out of her seat onto the stage. "Just remember. No matter the result we're here to support you Miku. That's what us club mates and friends are here for!" says Gumi with an encouraging smile as she hands Miku the microphone. Miku blushes some more as she takes a hold of the microphone. She looks over at Haku. "Good luck Miku!" she says with a calm smile. Miku then looks over at Neru. "Break a leg!" she shouts sarcastically. "Okay I'll give it a shot." says Miku. "YAY!" yelps Gumi.
Miku scrolls through the lists of songs, and, like Haku, decides on an old familiar classic. Well more like an ancient song; one that is 500,000 years old. And when it starts everyone instantly recognizes it. "Do You Remember Love?" sung by countless singers all over the galaxy, but most notably by Lynn Minmay. As the song begins the holograms converge on Miku and dresses he up in the pure white dress with a pink bow belt, and pink shawl over her shoulders, pinks gloves, pink socks, and white highheel short boots, that Minmay wore. They also hologram in the SDF-1 Macross' battle stage. The same one Minmay herself sung in the final battle of the first space war. But despite looking every bit the part, the first line Miku sings is completely off key…. BADLY. The other girls are grimacing, but manage to put on an "entertained" look as Miku continues through the song missing just about every key.
When the song finally ends, and holograms turn off, the tallied score reflects just how bad the singing was. 24. Miku slumps over standing up with a defeated dark look on her face complete with large sweat drop. She knows she did terribly. "Well…. look at the bright side Miku. You can only get better from here." says Haku with a forced smile. Miku only slumps over further and moans. Gumi immediately goes over to Miku and puts her hand on Miku's left shoulder. "She's right you know. You can only get better from here. That's why this club exists. We help each other improve. I believe deep down in my heart you WILL be a pop-idol one day. I just know it!" says Gumi with a sincere smile. "Gumi…" says Miku nearly silently as she looks into Gumi's kind face, the face that has given her courage so many times before.
"I will say this Miku…" says Neru. Everyone looks at Neru who has her elbows on the table, her chin in her hands with a bendy-straw in her mouth with an almost bored look on her face. She leans back in the booth and takes the straw out of her mouth like it was a cigarette. "Out of all of us here, you're the only one who truly looked the part of a super pop-idol. I hate to admit it, but when I was watching you sing and go through the motions of the song, I could almost swear I was looking right at the famous Lynn Minmay." says Neru seriously. Everyone stays silent for a moment. It's rare to hear Neru give such an honest comment. Haku then gives a small giggle. "She's absolutely right Miku. The one here who can actually pull off the look of a true pop-idol is you. You're very cute, you have a perfectly proportioned body, you hair flows perfectly, and your movements are exact and smooth. If we can help you improve your singing I'm sure you'd be able to become a pop-idol for sure!" says Haku.
Miku lowers her head slightly and blushes deeply. "You guys…. Thank you." she says a bit choked up about to cry. "Oh come on Miku! Don't start crying on us! You're going to get me started! It's your birthday! You should be cheerful and happy!" says Gumi. "But I am happy!" says Miku as she wipes a tear away from her eye. Suddenly there's a knock at the door. "Ah I bet that's your little treat Miku. Go sit down in the booth please." says Gumi as she points to the booth and waves Haku and Neru to the door. "What treat?" asks Miku. Gumi turns off the lights and opens the door and in walks a waitress with a round birthday cake with 16 lit birthday candles. Immediately all three girls begin singing "Happy Birthday to You." The waitress brings the cake over and sets it in front of Miku who again has a teary-eyed look on her face. She looks and reads the message on the cake. "Happy Birthday Miku! We're here for you! May all your wishes and dreams come true! Love Gumi, Neru, and Haku."
The girls finish singing and gather around Miku. "Make a wish Miku! But we can all guess what it is." says Gumi with a smile. Miku takes a brief moment to say the wish in her head. "Please help me become a pop-idol!" Miku takes a deep breath and blows out all the candles in one go. Gumi turns on the lights and they all cheer. The girls spend the rest of the time singing, laughing, dancing, and eating cake.
Meanwhile, in orbit around Pioneer, onboard the UN Spacey Guantanamo Class Freighter Escort ship, Carlos, one of the few remaining ships still on active duty, all seems normal and routine. Suddenly an alert flashes on the sensor officer's screen. The short brown haired woman with an officer's cap on turns to her screen and focuses on the alert symbol. But just as quickly as it popped up, it disappears. "That was odd." she says to herself as she begins typing on her console to review the anomalous reading. The captain, who had seen the alert flash on her screen from his chair, approaches behind her. "Something wrong lieutenant?" he asks. "I'm not sure sir. There appeared to be a brief de-fold reading from behind Pioneer B. But the reading was so brief that I'm not really sure it was there or not. I think either the moon skewered the reading, or it was just a sensor echo of some kind." she reports.
"Pioneer B" is the military designation for the smaller of Pioneer's two moons; "Pioneer A" for the bigger one. "Are the sensors functioning properly?" asks the captain. The lieutenant runs a quick diagnostics test and the results are quickly posted. "Sensors are running at 99.97% efficiency sir." she answers. "Hmmm." ponders the captain. He turns to his tactical officer. "Lieutenant. Are there any ships scheduled to come into the system today from the vicinity of Pioneer B?" he asks. The male lieutenant taps on his console really quick and brings up the scheduling list. "None sir. In fact no ships are scheduled to come into the system at all." he responds. The young captain strokes his fledgling beard a couple of times. "Well I guess we'll need to go check it out then. If anything if would be a nice break from all the mundane patrolling we do day after day." he says.
The captain turns to his commander. "Inform command we're going to go check out a sensor anomaly around Pioneer B." he orders. "Sir. Do you want us to go on stand-by alert?" asks the commander. It only takes a second for the captain to make his decision. "No. No need for that. It's more than likely just a sensor echo of some kind. This shouldn't take us long anyway, so no need to put the pilots on stand-by alert for every little thing." answers the captain. The Carlos breaks orbit around Pioneer and begins heading toward Pioneer B. "ETA to Pioneer B, 15 minutes." says the helmsman.
Meanwhile, back on the ground, Miku and her friends have finished their party, have cleaned up the room, and are now walking out of the building. Miku reaches into her school bag to retrieve her phone that is going off. She pulls out her fat leek shaped phone. She taps on it a couple of times and up pops a 3D hologram of a text from her mother. The text says that her mother will be there in a minute to pick her up. As Miku shuts off the text Neru speaks up. "I'll never understand why you like leeks as accessories." she grumbles. "You're one to talk Neru. Haku's is in the shape of a sake bottle, Gumi's is built into her red sunglasses, and yours is in the shape of an old fashioned cell phone from the early 2000s. I happened to like leeks. They look cute." says Miku. Neru just makes a simple annoyed look of disbelief on her face.
It only takes a minute or so for Miku's mother to arrive in their family's white sedan. The window rolls down and Miku approaches the car but then notices something. "Hey mom! Um. Where's dad?" she asks. "Oh he got hung up at work." responds Miku's mother. "What? You mean he's not coming to my birthday dinner?" asks Miku with a little shock. "No. No. He texted me earlier and said he's only been hung up for half an hour. He says he'll meet us at home and then we'll all go out. He swore he wasn't going to miss his daughter's 16th birthday." says Miku's mother. "Whew, well that's a relief." says Miku. As Miku gets into the car Gumi bends over to look into the car. "Hey Mrs. Saki." says Gumi as she waves. Saki Hatsuchi is Miku's mother. With medium length green hair, Miku looks nearly identical to her mother except for her eyes which are green like her father's instead of blue like her mother's.
"Hey girls. How did your little party go?" asks Mrs. Hatsuchi with a smile. "It went fine, except Miku's singing." says Neru. Gumi immediately stomps on Neru's foot to shut her up. "Heeeee!" Neru squeaks in pain. "We had a lot of fun Mrs. Saki! I hope you three have fun going out for dinner!" says Gumi. "Thanks guys! See you all at school tomorrow!" says Miku as she waves goodbye. "Bye Miku!" "Bye!" says Gumi and Haku. All three girls wave as the car pulls away while Neru waves and nurses her foot at the same time. "I hope they didn't fill you up with too much cake Miku." says Mrs. Hatsuchi. "I don't think you have to worry about that. I sang and danced so much I pretty much burned off all those calories." responds Miku. Miku and her mother share a nice giggle as they continue on.
As they make small talk it takes them about ten minutes through city traffic to make it to their house. It's an ordinary two story western style house. It's in a more upscale part of town, but Miku's father seems to earn plenty with his important job for UN Spacey's Research and Development Pioneer department. As they enter the house Miku takes a quick glance around inside as she usually does. Yep. Nice and clean like it was this morning. "It's going to take your father about another 15 minutes before he gets home. Why don't you go change your clothes into something better and I'll do the same." says Mrs. Hatsuchi. "Okay!" says Miku with a large smile. She knows just which outfit to change into. She quickly rushes upstairs to her room.
Meanwhile, back in space, The Carlos reaches Pioneer B and takes position above Charleston crater, the largest crater on the little moon that's named after the ship that did the first extensive survey of Pioneer B. "Entering orbit now sir." says the helmsman. "What do your scans say Lieutenant?" asks the captain to the sensor officer. "I'm not picking up anything sir. If there is anything in the vicinity, then it's probably on the other side of Pioneer B facing away from the planet." she reports. "You heard her helmsman. Take us to the other side of the little moon." orders the captain. "Yes sir!" comes the response. Given that Pioneer B is just over 1,300km (800miles) in circumference, the Carlos only needs to go 650km (400miles) to get to the other side. The Carlos covers that distance in less than a minute.
As the Carlos reaches the other side, at first there doesn't appear to be anything. "I guess it was a sensor echo…" mumbles the captain. Suddenly the sensor alarm goes off all over the bridge. "SIR! Detecting a massive object dead ahead on our orbital path!" shouts the sensor officer. "What!?" shouts the captain back in disbelief. Everyone looks up out of the bridge viewport. There, coming over the little moon's horizon, is the biggest most massive ship the captain has ever seen. It's easily, ten, no twenty times the size of his own ship. It's much bigger than even the Island 1 ship from the colony fleet. The ship is a dark color, maybe a dark blue or red and is shaped like an upside down bowl with spires sticking out of its bottom side. The spires get longer and longer until they reach a super-long spire directly in the middle. There are thousands of small lights blinking on a off on smaller structures around the ship.
The captain's training finally kicks his head back into reality. "Report!" he shouts. "Sir she ship…. is unknown. Nothing, even in the Zentradi databank. It's… 500km (310 miles) in circumference and nearly 200kms (124miles) tall!" reports the sensor officer. "My God. It's got to be some kind of civilization ship." says the tactical officer. "Sir! Should we try to make first contact?" asks the commander. Again it only takes the captain a second to make his decision. "No. Alert Command! Helmsman! Get us the hell outta here!" he orders. "Yes sir!" comes the double response. The Carlos begins a hard turn to port (left). Suddenly a flash of light erupts from the large ship and quickly grows bigger. "SIR! DETECTING A MASSIVE ENERGY READING DIRECTED TOWARDS US! POSSIBLE ENERGY WEAPON!" shouts the sensor officer. "EVACIVE ACTION!" orders the captain in panic. "TOO LATE!" shouts the helmsman as the bridge, nay, the entire ship is engulfed in a blinding, super hot, bright light.
Meanwhile back on the planet, Miku comes back down stairs having finished changing clothes. She's wearing a white blouse with a short green shawl around her shoulders that's tied at her chest, a matching green skirt that's just longer than her knees, and white sneakers. "Oh Miku. That one again?" says Mrs. Hatsuchi. "I can't help it mom. You know it's my favorite one." says Miku in return. "Oh okay. It's your birthday so you deserve to wear what you like." says Mrs. Hatsuchi back in a defeatist kind of way. Mrs. Hatsuchi is wearing a light blue dress shirt with matching dress slacks and shoes. "Dad still not back yet?" asks Miku. "No not yet but he should be here any minute now…. Oh speak of the devil. I think that's him now." says Mrs. Hatsuchi as the girls hear a car pull into the driveway. "Yey! Daddy's home!" says an excited Miku.
Within a minute Miku's father comes through the door. Dr. Keitaro Hatsuchi, a tall man with light brown hair and green eyes, is the head doctor at UN Spacey's Research and Development Pioneer Division over on the base. Sometimes his work forces him to be quiet about some matters, for obvious reasons. Both Miku and Mrs. Hatsuchi have come to understand that and don't pressure him about it. "Hey dad!" says Miku as Dr. Hatsuchi enters the house. "Oh there's my little birthday girl!" he says with a big smile. "Oh Daddy! I'm not a little girl anymore you know. I am 16 now!" says Miku back.
"Oh! Sorry. How's my BIG Birthday girl doing? I heard your friends threw a party for you. How did that go?" he asks. "Oh we had a lot of fun! We went to a Karaoke Box and we sang and danced so much, though I didn't sing very well… They even bought me a birthday cake!" says Miku. "That does sound fun. I hope you didn't eat TOO much cake though. Your mother and I are taking you out somewhere very special, and expensive, tonight to prove that you are a big girl now!" says Dr. Hatsuchi. "Wow really!? I can't wait!" says Miku about to explode with excitement. "Just give me a minute to go set my stuff down and we can go." he explains.
Dr. Hatsuchi goes to their bedroom and sets his two paper sheet briefcases down on his and Mrs. Hatsuchi's bed and is about to lay his lab coat there too when the phone suddenly goes off. "I got it!" says Dr. Hatsuchi. Since the phone is located in the living room just around the corner from their bedroom, he grabs it at the end of the second ring, still holding onto his lab coat. "Hello?" he asks. He instantly gets an annoyed look when he recognizes the voice. "*sigh* Chuck I told you not to call me after work today. You know I'm taking my daughter out for her birthday dinner tonight." he says with much annoyance. "I hope dad isn't forced to go back to work." says Miku. "Don't worry he's gotten permission from his superiors. This is more than likely a question from Chuck about the work he did today." says Mrs. Hatsuchi. Miku now has an annoyed look.
"Well of course I turned off my cell-phone. As I said I didn't want to be disturbed tonight." says Dr. Hatsuchi. He listens in but gets another annoyed look. "What? Wait. Slow down. I can't understand a word you're saying." he says again. "What could this Chuck possibly want?" says Miku to herself. "WHAT!?" Dr. Hatsuchi nearly shouts. That shuts both Miku and Mrs. Hatsuchi up. "WHEN!? HOW!?" he shouts back to back. Miku watches in silence as within seconds her father's face goes from one of annoyance to one of color draining terror. "Something must have gone wrong at the base." she thinks to herself. "Right…. Right… Okay. I'll be there in about ten minutes." says Dr. Hatsuchi. "Oh dad….." says Miku silently with disappointment knowing that her dad must be having to go back to work. But what her dad says next sends a cold chill down her back. "Okay. I'm bringing my family along because they'll be safest at the base. See you there." says Dr. Hatsuchi. He then hangs up the phone.
"Dad. What's going on?" asks Miku with a little fear herself. "Get to the car." he orders. "But-" "There's no time to explain! We have to go NOW!" orders her father more forcefully interrupting her. Miku jumps a little at her father's forcefulness. Something really MUST have happened at the base, or somewhere in the city to have her father panicked like this. Without saying another word Miku, her mother and father all head out the door to her father's car. Dr. Hatsuchi instinctively puts on his lab coat on the way. Unlike the white family sedan, Dr. Hatsuchi's bright red car is a V8 beast capable of reaching 240kph (150mph). Although it's a little tight in the backseat. Before he backs out of the drive way, Dr. Hatsuchi reaches into the center console and pulls out an identification card, one with a very complicated barcode on the back, and hangs it from the rear-view mirror.
Miku's seen that card once before, though it's been a long time. It's meant to send a signal out to traffic lights to give them the right a way and to alert any police nearby that her father's had an emergency recall to the base. The last time she saw it was six years ago when she was ten. Back then the city had just barely begun it's transferring to the mainland. The military and government was installing the city's warning system and wanted to test it out. So they ran an emergency evacuation drill. Miku's blood runs cold when the realization of what's happening hits her. Something dreadfully terrible has happened, or is happening, that requires the city to be evacuated, and fast. But before Miku can ask why they're being evacuated; Dr. Hatsuchi backs the car out of the driveway WAY faster than what's safely recommended, then throws the car into drive and slams the gas pedal down as far as it'll go. The back tires squeal in protest before being forced to take traction by the advanced deferential, pressing all three occupants deep into their seats.
As Miku recovers from the several G load, she looks at the side of her father's face from the back passenger side seat and sees the intense concentration on his face while he sweats bullets. As the car roars down the neighborhood street Miku finally works up the nerve to ask her father. "Dad what's going on!? Why are we being evacuated!? And why are you taking us to the base for shelter!?" she demands. Miku sees his eye twitch. He should have known she would put two and two together. But he doesn't answer her. "Dad!" she shouts. "Answer her Kei. What's happened?" orders Mrs. Hatsuchi. Dr. Hatsuchi's face finally breaks. He may be part of the military, but his wife is still HIS superior at home. "What I have feared the most has come, Saki." he finally says. This time it's Mrs. Hatsuchi's face that drains of color, like she knows what's happening. "What's come!? Dad!" demands Miku again.
Dr. Hatsuchi sighs. If it wasn't for him having to drive he probably would have looked away and closed his eyes in thought before telling her. He hesitates for a second never-the-less. "Ten minutes ago, the frigate escort ship Carlos was attacked and destroyed." he finally says. The car takes a sharp right turn down another street. "Destroyed?... By who?" asks Miku, this time with more reservation. "We're not really sure by who or what. But whatever it is, it's HUGE, and it's headed our way. What few ships that were in orbit were getting ready to attack and defend against it as I was getting off the phone with Chuck. All military personnel have been emergency recalled to the base to prepare for the attack." says Dr. Hatsuchi in a serious tone. Miku's eyes open more in shock as they dilate at the same time.
The car takes another sharp turn to the left that snaps Miku back. "I need to call Gumi and the others to warn them!" says Miku as she begins to pull out her cell-phone. "There's no need. You know the government will be issuing an evacuation order in a couple of minutes to warn the civilians." says her father. "Daddy please! At the very least let me warn them so they and their families can get a head start to the shelters!" pleads Miku. Dr. Hatsuchi isn't going to argue. "Fine…" he says. He then reaches into his lab coat pocket and pulls out his cell phone and tosses it back to Miku. "… But use my cell phone to do it. By now all commercial communication lines have been switched over to military use. Be sure to dial **3 then the number. That will switch you over to the military's emergency line and your call should go through." explains her father.
Miku first dials Gumi's number. It rings a few times before Gumi's voice mail picks up and tells her to leave a message after the beep. "Damnit Gumi. What a time to have your phone off or away from you." she says annoyed. *beep* "Gumi! It's me Miku. Listen to me. You need to get out of your house get to your closest shelter NOW! My dad is telling me the city is about to come under attack. I'm not joking here so PLEASE get to your shelter as soon as you get this message!" she explains. She hangs up and quickly dials Neru and then Haku. Thankfully they pick up and heed her desperate warning. "Thanks dad." says Miku as she hangs up from Haku and hands him back his cell phone. "No problem Miku." he says calmly as he puts his cell phone back in his lab coat pocket.
As the car speeds along she notices other cars joining and keeping pace. Obviously other military personnel headed to the base as well. As they reach the outskirts of the city the evacuation alarm finally goes off. 3D holographic screens pop up everywhere warning people on the street and inside that they need to seek shelter in the closest shelter immediately. At first nothing happens, but when the announcement says that this isn't a drill, panic and screams begin. Miku can only hope and pray that Neru and Haku are already headed to a shelter and that Gumi got her message before the alarm. Suddenly a deafening roar goes by while a strong gust buffets the car. Miku looks out the back window and sees a three flight of YF-19's having just flown over head, headed towards the city. As soon as they're over the city they immediately pull vertical and head straight up. As Miku follows them with her eyes something comes into view that puts this whole attack into focus.
There, above the few clouds in the evening sky, are the tall tailed sings of a space battle. Miku can make out at least four UN Spacey ships desperately firing their lasers and such at something she can't see because it's obscured by a cloud. Then the three YF-19s that she had been watching blast through the cloud, blowing it apart at the same time, revealing what it was obscuring. What Miku sees causes her to freeze in fright. A massive dark upside-down bowl shaped space ship with spires sticking out its bottom. Her father wasn't kidding when he said it was huge. But this ship is BEYOND huge. It's massively gigantic. The UN Spacey ships attacking it are like gnats next to it. Suddenly a bright white light shoots out of the massive ship and engulfs one of the UN Spacey ships. Miku looks on in terror as the UN Spacey ship basically banana-peals and then explodes.
Movement outside the car gets her attention. She watches as a dozens of plates in the ground retract around the outskirts of the city and Anti-Aircraft batteries of several verities slowly emerge out of the ground. Some are laser cannons, some are missile batteries, some are shelled canons, and others are rail-guns. She then sees smoke come out the back of some of them. It's the missile batteries going off. She watches as dozens of missiles streak skyward at over mach 5 at something, or some things, way above cloud top level that she can't see yet. Miku counts about eight seconds after they pass the clouds before she sees more smaller white beams shoot back at the missiles, blasting away many of them. Some of them make it through the barrage however and impact at whatever they were being fired at. The distinctive circular explosions of micro-reflex warheads light up the sky and then quickly fade into their distinctive crescent shape.
Another barrage of missiles are launched and this time the laser canons and rail-guns join in. Then, out from the clouds, Miku spots what they're shooting at; a swarm of little black dots. But they're not dots. From this distance she can't quite tell what they are, but they look… pyramid shaped. Miku's seen enough and she turns back around. "Dad! Step on it! They're already over the city and coming this way fast!" warns Miku with fear in her voice. Dr. Hatsuchi takes one quick glance in his side mirror and sees the same thing. He kicks the car into overdrive and the massive V8 engine goes to full power. The car pulls ahead of the pack. "We'll be at the base very soon, just hang on." Dr. Hatsuchi responds. Within a minute they arrive at the base, but Dr. Hatsuchi doesn't slow down. Miku glances out of the front window and can see five destroids already around the base; three Tomahawk MK III class and two Defender MK III class. The base's AA defenses are already up and the missile batteries are already launching.
As they speed towards the gate, the gate's sensors detect Dr. Hatsuchi's card and the arm begins to rise. The car just barely makes it under the arm. "Hold on!" Dr. Hatsuchi shouts. He pulls the emergency brake and spins the steering wheel left and the car enters a G inducing power slide into the base's parking lot. He then lets go of the emergency brake and slams the gas pedal down again causing the car to take off. The car cuts across the partially filled parking lot. Miku feels herself being thrown side to side hard as her father weaves around other cars in the parking lot; missing some by only a few inches. As the car exits the side of the parking lot, Dr. Hatsuchi puts the car into a right power side and shoots the car down an alley way between two long buildings. Miku prays that her father doesn't screw up here. The car only hits the occasional box, some being crushed under the car, while others get sent flying over it.
The car exits the alley way and immediately enters another parking lot, this one sparsely occupied, and turns slightly right. There ahead of them are the base's shelters. Miku looks up out of the back window and can see missile explosions in the air but very close to the ground. The occasional Valkyrie also flies by. She watches the far end building that they had just been driving next too in the alley, take a hit and partially explode. The car rockets across the parking lot and reaches the right side of it in mere seconds. Dr. Hatsuchi skids the car to a halt at the end of the parking lot, the shelter doors only 30m (100ft) away. "Let's go!" he orders. The three exit the car and Dr. Hatsuchi can see Chuck, and balding older man in a lab coat wearing big rim glasses, at the doorway to the shelter waving them on. The three start running to the shelter when Miku feels herself get jerked back. In her rush she had accidently shut her dress in the door. "Damnit!" she yelps. She opens the door and frees herself.
She looks up and sees her parents are already about 15 meters (50 feet) ahead of her, so she immediately takes off in a full on sprint to catch up. Miku can feel her heart pounding in her chest and can feel the adrenaline pumping through her veins, heightening her senses. Good thing too, because she then hears something strange off to her right. Not a rocket engine, explosion, or jet, but a rumbling hum of some kind. She looks over to her right and sees something that causes her stomach to sink in fear. One of those dark pyramid shaped crafts is making a strafing run over the base. Except it's not all a pyramid. Up closer she can now see it looks like a pyramid sitting on top of a smooth cornered cube. Like flying stubby obelisk with smooth corners is the only way she can describe it. If it wasn't for her being terrified for her life right now, the craft would look almost comical.
Then to her horror it makes an almost impossible, inhuman left turn and begins heading STAIT AT HER! She quickly notices that the pyramid part of the craft doesn't come to a point at its tip. Instead there's a little round hole. Suddenly a small white laser beam flashes out of that little hole. Miku immediately stops and dives backwards as hard and as fast as she can just a split second before the beam gouges a 20 meter (65 feet) gash in the ground two meters (6 ½ feet) deep and nearly a meter (just over 3 feet) wide, right where she had been standing. Pieces of dirt and concrete pelt her as she lays on the ground and as the craft flies on by. "That was close." she thinks to herself. "MIKU!" she hears her father shout. She looks up and sees her father in the doorway of the shelter. "MIKU! COME ON!" she shouts at hear as he waves at her to hurry and get in. She gets up and shakes a little dirt from her face and then starts running again.
She's just about to leap over the gash when she hears the rumbling hum again. She looks left and sees the craft has made an impossible 180* and is bearing down on her again. She stops in her tracks and watches it, seeing what kind of attack it will make so she'll know which way to dive for cover again. She watches as four slits open up on the pyramid, one on each side near the laser at the tip. Is it going to fire five lasers at her now? Then four missile like projectiles fire from the four slits, but right off Miku notices that they're not aimed at her. But where? To Miku's horror she realizes where they're headed; THE SHELTER! But she doesn't even get the chance to warn her parents to take cover. The missiles puncture strait through the thick double-layered reinforced steal and titanium roof and simultaneously detonate inside. The constrained blast rips out through the front of the shelter sending a massive concussion wave full of flames a debris right at Miku.
The shelter door gets ripped from its hinges and gets sent flying over Miku's head, missing her by inches. Miku instinctively covers her face and head with her arms as she's engulfed by the flaming, debris filled, concussion wave. Debris rips, tears, slices, and crushes her arms. One small piece of metal gets past her arms and stabs itself right into her windpipe. The blasts itself sends her flying backwards. She does one complete uncontrolled back flip and then lands near vertical HARD on her left leg. Miku hears and feels the worst sounding crunching, and snapping sound she's ever heard and immediately the worst pain she's ever felt shoots up into her from her left leg. She goes sliding across the parking lot on her back for about ten meters (about 32 feet) and feels something slice into her right foot. The pain she feels from her right foot is dwarfed by the sheer throbbing pain from her left leg. She can't even feel her arms now.
Shock… her body has immediately gone into shock because of the pain. Miku tries to scream but can't get anything out. The small piece of metal in her throat is preventing her from doing so. She can't even move. She can barely move her head, but doesn't want to look down for fear of what she might see. She can feel herself all wet. But it's not water. She realizes it's her own blood, she's bleeding heavily from all her limbs. She can barely breath, pain is shooting into her from all angles and she can't move. She realizes she's going to die here; on a cold ripped up parking lot with her body torn to shreds, and she can't even speak a last prayer. Then the rumbling hum returns again. Miku slowly looks to her right and down a little and sees the pyramid craft bearing down on her again. One last strafing run to finish her off. "Good…. end my pain." says Miku to herself. She closes her eyes and welcomes the inedible.
After a few seconds she realizes it's not firing on her. Did it just go on past? No she can still hear it. Her eyes slowly flutter back open and there she sees it hovering directly over her. It hangs there for a second or two before she sees the "box" portion of the craft split into four. The four parts slide out via the corners of the pyramid part then unfold. They stop and another part of those fold out, this time further past the 180 to the 270. Miku realizes what she's just seen. The craft has unfurled legs and feet! The craft slowly lowers itself onto the ground directly over her. Amazingly through all her pain, shock, bleeding, and now starting to feel cold, a little bit of curiosity manages to come through. "What's…. it doing?" asks Miku weakly to herself. Something splits open on the bottom of the pyramid part of the craft. Then something slowly starts to be lowered. It also opens up. Miku can see it's a scoped claw of some kind.
Miku finally realizes what's happening. "Am I about to be… abducted?" she says to herself. Abduction; being taken away against your will to probably become an experimental test subject for some unknown alien species; a fate clearly worse than death. The thought of that instantly makes Miku start to panic again. "No!... I don't want to be abducted!" Miku weakly screams in her head. Tears start streaming out of her eyes and down the sides of her head as she realizes she can't do a thing about it because she can't move. She closes her eyes again not wanting to see her horrible fate coming when suddenly the scooped claw stops. Miku slowly flutters her eyes open again, this time taking more effort to open them, and sees the scooped claw stopped just a couple of feet above her. In a flash the scooped claw is quickly retracted and the craft seems to quickly twist as if looking at something to its left (Miku's right).
As soon as it does it leaps into the air, and just as quickly retracts its legs and takes off to Miku's left. It doesn't get very far though. Two missiles suddenly streak in from Miku's right and impact in the alien craft's rear. The craft goes toppling end over end and crashes violently into the ground a few hundred meters away from Miku. Then something bigger goes streaking past her. A few seconds later she feel and hot, dry, dusty gust of wind blow over her and hears and feels something heavy land over to her left. "Can you hear me?!" comes a shout. "Angels?" Miku wonders to herself. Could they be coming to get her soul now as she dies? "Hey! Are you still alive?!" comes the shouting voice again. Miku's head is all a blur now. Her shock is quickly getting worse, but she manages to realize it's no angel shouting at her but a person. She's still alive. She slowly turns her head towards the direction of the shout and slowly blinks.
What she sees is a large walking dark figure with a very long nose. She can't tell what it is….wait…. where is she again? Her mind and cognitive thinking are quickly fading on her and she's feeling even colder now. "Hang on! I'm going to pick you up!" comes the shouting voice again. Miku realizes now that she's hearing the voice from a loudspeaker. She watches as the figure takes a couple of steps to its left to get a better angle on her and slowly brings both its hands down towards her. Miku can finally see now what the figure is. IT'S A VALKIRIE! Specifically another YF-19 in Gearwalker (Guardian) mode. It's a friendly! And she's being rescued! Miku feels a somewhat sense of relief. The YF-19's left hand gently pushes her up a little then its right hand scoops under her. It hurts! It hurts a lot being moved and picked up. She tries to scream, but again, can't.
"Sorry! I know it hurts! But I've got to get you out of here!" comes the shouting voice again. The pilot brings the right hand up to cockpit level and Miku can barely make out the pilot's face, although it's partially blocked by his helmet and her vision is fading quickly. But she can barely tell he has blue eyes. "Hang in there! I'm going to take you somewhere safe where you can get help. Just please hang on!" comes the voice over the loudspeaker again, this time with urgency. Miku can barely understand him, but she manages to slowly nod her head at him. The pilot lowers the hand a bit and covers her with the left. She then feels the Valkyrie take off and quickly accelerate. As the feels the high speed wind blow through her hair and over her face and body, she can see out from between the YF-19's hands.
The scene she sees is by all terms chaotic. Explosions are all over the place; up close, far away, and everywhere in-between. Lasers and other anti-aircraft fire shooting up in all different directions. Missiles of all different kinds streak past. Rapid fire bullets whiz by too. She sees one of the Tomahawk MKIII destroids get sliced cleanly in two by one of the white laser beams and explode. A VF-171, with its left engine on fire, makes a hard right banking turn and then takes two alien missiles into its back and immediately explodes; no sign of the pilot having ejected. But it's not all bad for UN Spacey side. She watches as another one of the alien pyramid shaped crafts gets turned into Swiss cheese by another VF-171's Gatling gun, and it goes crashing into the ground… without exploding. Yet still another VF-171 in Battloid mode, defending a crippled destroid, manages to shoot down another. The Valkyrie she's in takes a turn to the right and it opens a view up to Sapporo off in the distance. She can see smoke rising from and explosions above many points in the city. She's too far away to tell what kinds of damage has and is being made.
The YF-19 takes another turn, this time to the left and her view goes back to the base and its chaos though now it's a little more ways off. Miku suddenly feels very faint a sleepy. She feels the coldest yet and her vision begins to blacken. She feels the YF-19 begin to drop altitude. "Hang on we're about to land now. You should be safe here so please just hang….on…." says the pilot's voice again, but now it's fading away quickly. Miku can't stop it now. She blacks out.
End of Chapter 1.
To be continued in Chapter 2: Silence is Truly Deafening.
Author Note: Wow! What a chapter 1 eh? This is the longest chapter 1 I think I've ever done. I've had this idea to do a Vocaloid/Macross cross over for a long while now and I thought to myself JUST DO IT ALREADY! So I have. I haven't seen one on and that surprised me. So I hope you all will continue reading this fanfic as I eventually add more chapters to it.
Story Note: An unknown alien species has attacked the lone planet of Pioneer and our heroine Miku has latterly been caught up in the devastation. Who lived and who died in this battle will all be reveled soon. Look forward to the next Chapter!