Off Day
Today could definitely be called an... off day.
I guess it started out pretty normally. I woke up and went into work on time, like I normally do, and when I saw that today would be another slow day, like they normally are, I went to one of the only places on this planet where you could lay in the sun and still stay cool. However, it wasn't long before my fairly normal routine was interrupted by my boss.
I know he isn't a bad guy. Some of the other humans at the port had some misplaced grudge against him for being Zentradi, but on the few occasions I interacted with him outside of the work, I knew he was just your average guy trying to make an honest living on a planet where it was probably easier to make money doing dishonest work. So yeah, not a bad guy. Doesn't mean I can't call him a cheapskate though. I think I earned that after he fired me.
So there's the first thing that kind of threw me off my normal routine. But it wasn't exactly world shattering. I've been fired before and quit more jobs than I have fingers... nd toes. The point is, unemployment stinks, but there's always the next job. At least I was getting closer to the answer of what I wanted to do with my life. Driving around the workroid was definitely one of the more fun jobs I've done and I was at least grateful my boss was going to let me finish out the day driving one around. But that was when the second 'off' event in my day occurred.
Security had been unusually paranoid since around midday and my boss had said it was a stowaway. However, once I began driving around, I kind of forgot about most everything else and let the music that came over the speakers help me make my job at least a little more interesting with a good beat to move around to. However, it turned out that not even that could be enjoyed today. As I was beginning to think about a lunch break, I heard a voice that wasn't coming from the speakers around the port, instead it was coming from one of the containers in my workroid's grasp.
I quickly placed the container down and opened it, a big no-no in the business, but I was getting fired anyways. Inside among a large pile of apples was a young girl, maybe no older than 12 if I had to guess. No sooner had the sun hit her surprised face did she start to apologize like a corrupted audio file. More to stop her repetitive requests for forgiveness than any kind of altruistic act, I offered her the arm of my machine to jump down onto. Just as I thought she would start another round of apologizing, she instead told me she was very hungry. I don't know what led me to do it, maybe the heat was starting to get to my head, but I offered to share some lunch with the hyperactive child.
I guess after being on an apple diet for a couple of days, rice must taste amazing or something because the girl who introduced herself as Freyja Wion ate my simple rice balls like a depraved animal. Throughout the meal, she would interject her tail of woe upon me, something about running away because she didn't want to get married to an apple farmer or something. She also added something about wanting to audition for the Walkure.
I won't deny that I like to listen to their music, their songs are enjoyable to dance around to in the heavy lifter and have a way to get me into a more productive mood. But this woman was on the borderline of fanaticism. No, she was definitely past that line. So it was somewhat difficult to inform her that she had missed her destination planet of Ragna by nearly 30 light-years. Somewhat difficult. I had been having a rough day myself so the information was easier to break to her than it probably would've been otherwise.
As soon as she recovered from the news, she began to try and hype herself up again, going into a speech about how this 'minor' setback wouldn't stop her from achieving her goal of joining Walkure. However, before I could comment about how unlikely that outcome was, a drone buzzed over head and zeroed in on the stowaway. She quickly ran off leaving me to wonder if this day could get any stranger.
Maybe if the universe was a kinder mistress, that would've been the end of my weird day. But the universe is the most unforgiving lover in existence and my day was fated to become even more... off.
When I finally got to the surface again, a law enforcement vehicle drove by, once again reminding me of the stowaway. I followed with my eyes to spot Freyja being cornered and knew that if something didn't happen in her favor, she would be going back to wherever she had come from and probably marry that apple farmer, never finding out if she had a shot to be part of Walkure.
Maybe it was because I was being let go and I planed on leaving the planet anyways. Maybe some part of me felt sorry for the girl who was having just as rough of a day as me. Or, maybe it was just that the heat today was especially powerful and frying my reasoning mind down to nothing. Whatever it was, I grabbed my speed-bike and drove to the girls rescue. For a split moment, she and everyone just stood there stunned. I impatiently waved my hand at her and told her to get on, spurring her into action just in time for us to speed away from the people who decided it wasn't worth their trouble anymore to arrest some 12 year old girl and a delinquent boy.
As the sun began to set, I decided we had traveled both far and long enough that we'd at least be good for the rest of the night. I pulled the bike into an alley and got off the vehicle, Freyja hesitantly following me as we began to walk down the alley. I tried to offer her a way off the planet and back to her home world, but I somehow knew even before she flat out refused that she wouldn't go. After all, if she did, she would've just turned herself into the authorities. I was about to offer to get her in touch with a guy I knew who might be able to get her to Ragna if she could pay the price when a metallic click came from behind me, adding another point to my off-day score.
I had been to some of the more seedy parts of the cluster in my endeavor to find work, so I knew that the mechanical click came from gun. I quickly stuck my hands up into the air hoping the girl who had been with me would follow suit, but I quickly discovered that her 12 year old appearance went with a 12 year old sense of naivety.
I quickly found myself pinned on the dusty ground with a strong female voice accusing me of abducting a small girl to do unsavory things with, in addition to being accused of being a stowaway. That part at least got Freyja to speak up. After quickly explaining that nothing like what she had thought was going on was actually occurring, the woman who had pinned me to the ground quickly apologized and introduced herself as a member of Third Fleet of Chaos Ragna, Delta Platoon, Second Lieutenant Mirage Farina Jenius. I was surprised she had been able to say it all in one breath with as much stiff formality as a marble brick.
I quickly noticed her pointed, elongated ears, helping explain some of her rigidity as an ancestral trait from at least one of her parents who were probably some percentage of Zentradi. Even something about her name, Mirage Farina Jenius, rung a bell. However, what Freyja noticed was her claim to be part of Delta Platoon. After quickly explaining to the bewildered Mirage that Freyja was something of a fan of Walkure, the 12 year old was all over the woman with auburn hair. But, the events making my day an off one were only beginning to speed up in occurrence. Before Freyja could act any more like a fan girl, a beautiful, yet somehow disturbing song began to... well, it wasn't that I could exactly 'hear' it. I more or less felt the strange solemn tone. Judging by Freyja's gasp and Mirage's troubled look, I gathered they could also feel the music that had suddenly started. Mirage was quickly contacted on some sort of communication device and after a couple of quick nods finished her call and told us to seek shelter, only explaining the sudden panic to be the cause of a Var outbreak. Almost as soon as she had left our alley-way, I began to hear large explosions a couple hundred meters away.
I quickly grabbed Freyja's hand and began running to the nearest sandstorm shelter, the sturdy buildings being the best place to take shelter in my mind. However, before we could reach the building, one of the missiles that the NUN's weren't able to intercept impacted the road near Freyja and I, throwing a massive amount of heat and debris in our way and forcing us to the rubble strewn ground.
So yeah, an off day to say the least.
However, before I could curse my luck any further, a lone voice that filled me with a sense of wonder began to reverberate the air around me. I looked over at Freyja to see if she heard the voice as well and saw that she seemed to be frozen in place.
"What's wrong?" I asked, hoping I wouldn't have to snap her out of her stupor.
"I hear a... rainbow colored voice!" she replied, snapping her head back towards the source of the melodic singing. Confused by the statement, I also looked back to see a lone woman walking up the street... towards the explosions and mayhem. Before I could question her sanity, the woman began to glow in a blinding purple light that ended with her now dressed in some kind of outfit that looked more appropriate for an idol competition. "I knew it!" Freyja exclaimed, jumping up with energy that I was beginning to suspect was boundless. "It's Mikumo!"
As I struggled to try and catch up with whatever was going on, I head the high pitched wail of four VF-31's overhead. The four planes shot towards the lone woman who had never stopped her beautiful singing and before I could fully rationalize what was going on, three more woman similarly dressed had joined her.
"Lend an ear to the songs of a goddess!" the woman who had started the enchanting singing exclaimed with enough vigor to match the hyperactive girl standing beside me.
"Super Dimension Venus, Walkure!" the four women shouted in unison, finally bringing some light to the situation. For me at least. So this was the group that I had been listening and dancing to for the last couple of years. Well, they sure knew their showmanship if the shouting group of fans who were already beginning to gather in the streets were anything to go by.
Just as the woman who had led the procession began to really start singing, a large battroid jumped behind Freyja and I. However, before it could fire off it's lasers, the woman jumped from her impromptu stage towards the two of us, flicking her wrist as she flipped through the air. A group of drones that had been launched from the VF-31's gathered between us and the battroid and instantly materialized a nullifying field that rendered the fired laser beams from the machine as effective as a gust of air.
Before the pilot of the hostile armor could react, the drones dispersed into an orbiting pattern around the machine, distracting it as one of the VF-31's came down low enough to be used as yet another impromptu stage for the lead singer. As she rode the Variable Fighter, the machine transformed into it's own towering battroid mode and rapidly dismembered the hostile machine that had fired upon us, reducing it to a harmless pile of steel.
For a moment, I was able to tear my eyes away from the captivating performance of both the pilot and the singer to see that the three other fighters were performing similar activities of destroying the hostile battle mecha's. And all while a concert with a large group of civilians listening was going on.
"Amazing!" Freyja kept shouting out from beside me. And, for the first time that day, I found myself unable to disagree with her.
With most of the immediate threats dealt with, the four fighters regrouped in front of the singers, all in their battroid forms to perform a quick choreographed dance. However, when they all took off yet again, one of the aircraft lagged behind the others. It wasn't anything hugely significant, but it was noticeable to me at least, having danced around in my own mechanized suit.
"One of them is off," I commented idly to Freyja who was to busy listening to her idols to really give my comment much consideration.
Suddenly, one of the hostile battroid's that the VF-31's hadn't neutralized yet sprinted onto the scene, causing the crowd of people to momentarily realize that they were still in the middle of a battlefield. The lead singer, Mikumo if Freyja's screams were anything to go by, quickly jumped towards the machine and seemed to put on a personal show for the pilot inside. For a moment I thought the woman had lost it, but the machines limbs began to tremble before they went limp altogether.
"They neutralized the Var with music..." I realized. I had head the stories and read the reports like everyone else, but until just now and seeing it with my own eyes, I had always been a little skeptical of the power of the Walkure's singing. I refocused my attention on the singing women before me, in awe that such a thing could really be real. I allowed myself to enjoy the final moments of the impromptu concert before I began to urge Freyja to move along again. But she wasn't having any of it. Her idols were right in front of her and she wasn't leaving until... well, I didn't really know what would make her leave.
Unfortunately, my answer came in the sound of loud sonic booms.
"Who're they?" I asked aloud, looking back up at the sky as a group of incoming objects approached us. I didn't really expect an answer from anyone, but when the four VF-31's that had been loitering in front of Walkure took off towards the incoming aircraft, it was enough of a response to let me realize this wasn't part of the show. As if to confirm my suspicions, red streaks of laser weaponry began to fill the evening sky as the beams of light tried to strike down the VF-31's that flew towards the new incoming threat. I stood enraptured for a moment, the flying of the aircraft more captivating than any part of the concert had been, the planes dancing around to some unheard song.
I was forced from the entrancing dance when one the enemy fighters dropped out of the fight and launched a ridiculous amount of missiles at the lead singer of Walkure, Mikumo.
"Mikumo!" Freyja cried out from beside me, pulling my attention away from the moment of impact. Things started spiraling out of control after that.
With the rest of Walkure becoming distracted by their leaders unknown status, the remaining people who were afflicted by the Var were beginning to become a threat again. As if to serve as an unwelcome reminder of that, one of the battroids caused an explosion right behind Freyja and I. Covering my face for the few seconds the rubble fell, I tried to think of what I needed to do now.
Just as I was about to begin my dash towards the sandstorm shelter again, I heard Mikumo's voice again, and while her voice was just as lovely as it was before, the song she sang seemed to be almost taunting in nature. Seeing that their leader wasn't in any kind of immediate danger, the rest of the Walkure group joined in with their own voices, beginning anew their battle against the var crazed pilots in their battroids, this time without any support from the VF-31's that were still tied up with the unknown fighters.
"Are they crazy?" I asked, a perfectly valid question in my mind.
"No..." Freyja replied from beside me. I glanced over at her trying to give her an incredulous look, but stopped upon seeing the heart shaped hair accessory she had been sporting throughout the day glowing a pink hue. "This feels amazing..." she continued, making me feel slightly uneasy. I didn't know how I felt about calling explosions that would kill you in an instant amazing. "... I can't hold it in," she declared, standing up for the first time since the last explosion knocked us down. "Time to show some Winderemere power!"
"She's a Windermeran?" I asked myself as she ran off, her hair accessory now leaving a strange trail in her wake. I heard the girl begin to sing as well, her voice admittedly very well synchronized with the rest of Walkure. But no amount of synchronicity would save her from the plethora of bullets whizzing past both our heads. And unlike the Walkure who still had the drones that had been launched earlier, Freyja had nothing protecting her.
"Take them outta here quickly!" someone beside me yelled. I quickly looked over to see a field medic removing a pilot from a downed variable fighter that had been damaged earlier. "Release the security so it can be moved easily!" The medic and his aide quickly removed the wounded pilot and swiftly left, leaving me right beside the still functional machine. I glanced back and forth between the crashed fighter and the clearly crazy girl still running towards the carnage where the Walkure were.
"AHHHH!" I cried out, jumping towards the open cockpit of the fighter. It couldn't be all to different from the workroid could it? And really, all I needed to do was stick by Freyja until all of this sorted itself out. The machine quickly booted up with multiple warning screens but I impatiently ignored them, feeling out the cockpit and quickly adapting my grip and position to try and make the most of the few seconds I was being afforded for control familiarization.
"It's essentially the same," I told myself in an effort to convince my mind that this wasn't going to be anything too difficult. The fighters cockpit finally closed itself and the primary systems booted up so that I could finally walk around. It didn't take much for me to begin to rapidly accelerate towards where Freyja had run off towards, spotting her just as one of the rampant mecha's tried to trample her. I reached out with the arm of the fighter, using the augmented strength I now had to stop the small girl from being crushed.
"You okay?" I asked, pushing back the hostile machine. "We're running!" I shouted, not waiting for a reply from the terrified girl. I reached out with the free hand of the fighter and began to look for a safe area I could escape to. However, the Var infected pilots didn't seem to want me to leave. Two more machines joined their toppled ally as it began to get back up, forcing me to begin to take evasive actions to avoid the weapons pointed at me. I found that the song Walkure was singing made my movements feel even more natural than they had when I danced at the port during my unloading work. I began to find it easier and easier to dodge and counter the hostile battroid's movements and shooting. However, just as I was beginning to think I could dance my way out of danger, I noticed a barrage of missiles coming towards me that no amount of dodging would avoid. A glint in the night sky proved just the inspiration for me to remember that I was in a machine that could fly if it needed to, and right now that was exactly what was needed.
The fighter shook hard for a moment from my rough and inexperienced handling, but was able to accelerate away from the missiles and before I knew it, I was in the unfamiliar environment of the evening sky. But even though the circumstances were strange and on the borderline of morbid, I couldn't help the feeling that came over me. The feeling of...
Rightness. Of belonging.
And all to soon, that feeling went away. A bright trail of laser energy hit the wing of my aircraft and sent me into a tumble that I had no idea how to recover from. The fact I had even gotten into the sky was accidental. Now I had no idea how to get back down to the ground. Before I could freak out anymore than I already was, one of the VF-31's that had been doing the performance with the Walkure, the same unit that had lagged behind, grabbed hold of my plane and slowed the decent of Freyja and I to a much more sedate rate.
"Pilot, are you okay?" a familiar voice asked, cool professionalism quickly confirming her identity before my frantic eyes could focus on her video feed being displayed. "Who are you?" the woman who had introduced herself as Mirage asked, clearly surprised and confused to see the person she had earlier thought to be a stowaway now in a military aircraft. Seeing as she wouldn't be getting a response from me anytime soon, the woman cut off the feed and placed my hijacked aircraft down on the ground just as the strange fighters began to retreat. I quickly got out of the machine and helped out Freyja who looked like she was in some kind of socked trance. Once I was sure she would be okay, I walked over to a fallen piece of debris and tried to sort out my thoughts.
Both an eternity and a moment seemed to pass before some one addressed me.
"You, civilian!" a demanding voice called out. I looked up to the see stern scowl of Mirage approaching me.
"Hey," I said, standing up to greet her. "Thanks for saving me," I finished, feeling a little embarrassed that I couldn't have handled myself better while I had been falling through the air. However, before I could feel much anything else, the woman launched a sucker punch right at my face that I was in no way prepared for and received fully.
"What the hell was that for?!" I asked angrily as I stumbled back a couple steps.
"Do you realize you just hijacked a military unit?" the woman asked with quick and clipped words, her eyes would've been comical were it not for the serious accusations she was leveling. "Make one mistake and the whole operation falls apart, putting the city at risk! Even the smallest lapse can cost you your life!"
"Calm down!" I yelled back at the woman, feeling that maybe half of her anger was justified, but mystified by where the remainder of her rage was coming from. What was I supposed to do about Freyja, just let her wander into that weapons fire? My actions had been justified. "Listen to me firs-"
"Don't tread on the battlefield so lightly!" the woman yelled as she grabbed my shirt and threw me against a car I had backed up against. My face began to burn with anger and embarrassment from not being able to explain my case and being man handled by the woman. Now, backed up in a corner, I decided to use everything I could to save some amount of face.
"You screwed up too!" I shouted back at her, maybe with more venom than necessary, but it was enough to get her to give me another opening at a verbal counter. "I saw you. Earlier, you were off beat when you took off!" I may not be an expert when it comes to what Walkure does, or what Delta Platoon's mission was, but I knew enough that everything about their concerts and airshows demands perfection and the highest degree of precision. While being off beat may seem like picking at pebbles, to a pilots pride, especial a demonstration one's, it is a great blow. "Aren't you the one taking this too lightly?" I retorted as I swatted away her now limp hand. The look of anger on her face might have been enough to frighten someone who hadn't seen a pissed woman before, but I had worked for too many strong willed ladies to be intimidated by the face Mirage was sending me. Facing a full sized Meltran builds character.
"Mirage, what are you doing?" someone in a similar flight suit as Jenuis asked from somewhere behind her. "We're leaving." Realizing she now had superiors watching her, Mirage came to the position of attention and gave me a seemingly well rehearsed phrase.
"Please report any complaints to my superiors. Excuse me." She then executed one of the crispest about faces I had seen and walked away without a glance over her shoulder. Still feeling a little unsatisfied with the encounter, I quickly gave a vulgar gesture to her back. Much to the amusement of her superior officer. As the man and Mirage walked off to their fighters, I began to look for Freyja. I found her just as the shuttle for Walkure took off, the four VF-31's following after it.
"So, you're serious about singing with them?" I asked, already knowing what her over exaggerated response would be.
"Yes! Absolutely! 100%!" She replied, giving me one of the most determined faces I had seen on someone as young as her.
"Okay, okay, I get it!" I replied, holding my hand out for her to stop. "Look, I know a guy who owes me a couple of favors. You said you needed to get to Ragna, right?"
"... yes."
"Alright. I'll take us there. I need to find new work myself, and I hear there's some kind of festival coming up soon over on Ragna. Maybe they'll need some-"
"You'll do that for me?" the girl interrupted, her face so transparently hopeful that no one could lie to her in that moment.
"Yeah," I replied, a small smile coming to my lips at her expressive nature. It had been too long since I had been around someone this genuine.
"Really?" small tears of joy already coming Freyja's eyes.
"Whoa! Whoa! Yeah, really!" I replied, not looking to have a crying girl hang around me until I could get in contact with the man who really did owe me a couple of favors.
"Thank you!" the Windermeran cried out, wrapping her arms around me to give a crushing hug. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank y-" I began to pry off the girl as looks were sent my way.
"Yes, yes, I get it. You're happy and thankful. Can you please let go now? You're causing a scene."
"AH!" the girl shouted out in surprise, clearly having forgot about the group of people around us. "Sorry!" she shouted out as she jumped back and pressed out her clothes. I sighed for who knows what time that day. At least it was finally coming to an end and I could mark it down as the most 'off' day in my life and be done with it.
Oh how wrong I was.
AN: So, after watching Macross Delta, I came here looking to try and sedate my need for a happy ending for Mirage. I. Didn't. Find. It. So I decided to create it.
I'll admit that my experience in the Macross universe is pretty limited, I've only seen Delta, Frontier, and Zero. But its growing! So if I make a canon mistake that I failed to research properly, my greatest apologies.
That said, this story is going to be in AU territory. Not because I'm going to throw in 20 different OC's, Delta had enough underdeveloped characters as it was, but because events and relationships will be tweaked to play out in the way I want them. Most noticeably, Freyja's relationship with Hayate will not be as... significant as it was in the anime. She'll still be around to create some angst and minor plot fuel, but in the long run, I will make it clear that she never stood a chance against the clearly superior woman that is Mirage Farina Jenius.
...
I will try not to let my fanaticism overwhelm you. She will of course have character development as she did in the anime, but it will be further expanded and developed along with Hayate.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy my attempt at giving Mirage some love. See ya when I see ya.