Pilots Lost in Time and Space
Chapter 2. Ragna
Previously…
"T-That's what we are heading?" Carolina shakenly asked.
"That's right, miss. Welcome to Macross Elysion!" The pilot of the orange aircraft replied.
Sora and Carolina cannot believe their eyes on what they saw from their cockpit as they are escorted by two unknown fighters towards their base of operations, the Macross Elysion. It is described to be a large fortress-like humanoid robot with seemed to be two aircraft-carrier like ships. The two pilots are in awe as if they have seen enough science fiction in their lives for a just a day after that dreadful attack on their test flight and at the same time, an attack of unknown advanced fighters.
"Sora, we are not dreaming, are we?" Carolina started to wonder if the is in delusions of all this time.
The male pilot also shared his same feeling, "I have your same sentiments, Carol. Everything's science fiction. I hope when we woke up, we're still on Langley." Sora pinched himself on the cheek exposed by the helmet and breathing apparatus to hurt himself to wake up to this absurd dream. He feels is reddened cheek and surrendered. "Yep. This is not a dream at all."
The F-14QX, along with the two unknown escorts began to descend towards one of the "arms" of the giant humanoid fortress as they are directed to land. They landed on the designated platform as an empty hangar opened. The male and female pilots observed from their cockpit some mechanics and engineers working along with more futuristic-looking aircraft. Some people aboard the carrier are wearing greyish white uniforms with red and black motifs and they might conclude that they are also military personnel from this military contractor, Xaos. As their aircraft are put into a full-stop, the personnel suddenly notice their peculiar aircraft as if they are familiar or haven't seen it for a very long, long time.
"What is this aircraft? It looks old-fashioned." A random male personnel wonder. "Yeah. It even has primitive tech." another one commented. "Yeah. Primitive jet engines, if you ask me." One mechanic answered. "It looks pretty banged up."
"What's with these people? As if they haven't seen this F-14 before." Sora started to get annoyed from the people below and started to realize their situation. "Oh yeah. We've been flung to an unknown territory into an unknown world. Figures."
"Will you just shut up, Sora? I'm trying to check the QDD here!" Carolina checked again the status of the QDD from her controls and it seems that the QDD indicators lighted up in red which is bad news for her. "Well, the QDD's definitely busted." She sighed in defeat.
"If you want to check that QDD, let's get down from here. I'm getting cramped from this stress." Sora suggested. The two grabbed their military packs and as descended from their cockpit with their helmets on through a ladder, they heard a young female voice.
"Alright. That's enough you guys. Time to go back to your own stations except you guys. We'll handle this one." The other personnel left the hangar and the two helmeted pilots looked at the individual that gave orders and looked surprised again. She is described to be a young teenager roughly in their age, with pink hair fashioned in pigtails wearing a mechanic's suit and the two, especially Sora, noticed her "assets" unzipped from her uniform.
"Hey, Carol. She seemed to have much larger assets than you." Sora whispered and sniggered to the female pilot. In slight annoyance and anger, she elbowed Sora. "Shut up."
"Ow!" the male pilot rubbed his elbow side.
"Oh hello! You must be the pilots that were rescued by the Delta squadron." The pink haired girl started to talk to the two pilots, still wearing a helmet.
"Well, yes, ma'am." Sora sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "I really want to thank that pilot who intercepted the enemy Draken."
"Yeah, miss! He's pretty much skilled. I believe I caught a glimpse of a grim reaper insignia on it." Carolina explained in a thankful manner.
"Don't mention it! It's what we always do here!" the pink-haired girl cheerfully proclaimed. "Oh, where are my manners, I am Makina Nakajima, a mechanic that also work as one of the singer for Walkure!"
"Walkure?" Sora wondered. "Isn't Walkure a Norse word for Valkyrie?".
"Yes! Glad someone know it! Well, can you introduce yourselves?" Makina asked the two.
"I'm…" Before they have to introduce themselves to Makina, they are again interrupted with two individuals. One of these individuals is another female holding a clipboard with short, red hair with blue eyes wearing a blue skirt with blue-collared shirt. Beside her is a tall, well-built man with red hair and beard wearing an unzipped jacket with white, red, blue and black motifs. As the two pilots saw the two new individuals, both of them gazed to the bearded male as if they are familiar with him from 1998.
"Hello! You must be the pilots we rescued. I am Captain Arad Molders, leader of the Delta squadron." The bearded man, known as Arad introduced himself.
"M-Molders? Seriously? H-He looks like the c-captain if he has a longer hair and full beard and they even shared their surnames!" Sora inwardly shocked as he heard the introduction of Arad to the pilots.
"I know what you're thinking, Sora. You are shocked as I am here." Carolina got the gut feeling about Sora's thoughts as she stared at Arad.
"What's the matter you two? It seems you like saw a ghost." Arad interrupted the two pilots staring at him. "Well? Will you not introduce yourselves?".
"Um, captain is right. You should introduce yourselves to us and also, please remove your helmets too." The red-haired girl added.
The pilots got back to reality and they removed their helmets together exposing the male pilot's brown shaggy hair and silver eyes and the female pilot's short blonde hair and violet eyes.
"Uhm. I am 2nd Lieutenant Sora Yokozuka of United Nations Defense Force, sir." Sora salutes Arad.
"1st Lieutenant Carolina Lockheed." Carolina also saluted.
"At ease, you two. No need to be formal here in Xaos." Arad demanded to ease down their salutes. "You said you're from United Nations Defense Force? Are you referring to NUNS?"
"Yeah. UNDF is already an obsolete term for NUNS before the Unification Wars." The red-haired girl added.
"Obsolete? Unification Wars? NUNS?" both pilots are confused on what they learned.
"They seemed to be confused, KanaKana. As if it's their first time hearing the word NUNS and Unification Wars." Makina interrupted.
"That's enough, Kaname. I think you two will further elaborate this one when we meet the rest of the Delta squadron and the Walkure." Arad suggested to both of the pilots.
"I agree with captain here. Please enlighten us on what happened out there." The red-haired girl, known as Kaname also added.
"Yeah. And explain why you're in old-fashioned pilot uniform and this old aircraft of yours." Makina also added.
"Um, can we have a minute with my partner here?" Carolina excused to the three and dragged Sora and whispered.
"Sora, can we trust these guys? It seems they are suspicious about us." The female pilot asked Sora by whispering and the latter replied. "What choice do we have here? They even don't know about UNDF. And also, I think we are in an unknown territory where they claimed that this is another planet."
Carolina understood what he meant where everything seems to be futuristic with the giant robot fortress, transformable aircraft and the weirdest part of that is that the leader of the squadron closely resembled and even shared the surname of their captain from their squadron. It seems that they concluded that they teleported, or rather traveled to the future and to a new planet.
"Well, you have a point there. That QDD prototype must have transported us here." Carolina whispered and went back to Arad, Kaname and Makina. "Oh sorry, 'bout that. Okay, we'll explain the whole story when you have your meeting."
"Very well. But first, you have to go our medical ward first to check you up for injuries. After all, you were attacked earlier." Arad added. "Kaname, please call the rest of the Delta squadron, the commander and the Walkure for this meeting later. Makina, please lead these two to the medical ward."
"Yes, captain." Kaname affirmed Arad's request and walked away from the hangar to call up the rest of her comrades. "Okay, captain! Guys, please follow me." Makina also affirmed and request Sora and Carolina to follow her.
A few moments later after Sora and Carolina went to the medical ward thanks to Makina, the two are still on their green uniforms carrying their packs and helmet and were awed on the interior of the whole facility as if they only seen it on fictional sci-fi movies. As per Makina's instruction, they followed the direction given by her to reach the briefing room where they have to explain anything. As they reached the briefing room, the automatic door slides open, surprised to see many individuals inside aside from Arad, Kaname and Makina. Among these individuals is a blue-haired male with lean build, wearing the similar jacket worn by Arad that wears green cargo shorts and shoes. Sora also observed that the blue-haired guy is surrounded by two girls. One of these girls is a petite, orange-blonde, short-haired girl with a heart "accessory" wearing similar uniform as Kaname and the other girl is a tall, slim, maroon, long-haired girl in ponytail wearing the same jacket as Arad along with short shorts and thigh-high boots. One peculiar thing that they noticed to the other girl is that she has pointy ears.
"It seems this guy is definitely a ladies' man. I think this guy is as lucky as that bastard Roy. Not to mention, that other chick has elf ears." Sora inwardly thought upon seeing them.
Another individual they've noticed is a medium-built guy with dreadlocks and tanned skin, wearing the Xaos uniform and one thing they noticed that he has fins and gill slits on his neck.
"Fishman? Okay. This is definitely not a special effect by movies." Carolina commented from her mind upon seeing the fish-man.
Another individual that they also met is a silent green-haired girl in uniform with pointy ears fiddling with some holographic projection from her fingertips beside Makina, who changed with the same uniform as Kaname.
"Welcome to the future." Another mental comment by Sora.
As he looked around in the briefing room, he found another individual wearing similar uniforms as the Kaname. This time, she's a tall, slim woman with a long purple hair fashioned in with a bun and with four separated ends and he noticed her crimson eyes.
"Whoa." Sora muttered.
But last but not the least, the two pilots noticed a large, green-skinned bearded male individual on board wearing a white uniform and cap, speculating that he might be the commander of Xaos Ragna HQ.
"He's freakin' huge!" both Sora and Carolina are awed.
"Alright, settle down. Our guests have arrived now." The large commander ordered his personnel inside the briefing room.
"So, these are the pilots from that aircraft earlier?" the maroon-haired girl questioned.
"And they look weird. I'm surprised that there are two pilots." The fishman commented.
When Sora and Carolina heard their voice, they instantly reacted. "Hey, you two are the ones who escorted us here, right?" Sora wants to confirm.
"Yes. I forgot to introduce myself. I am Lieutenant Mirage Fallyna Jenius of Delta Squadron. The one who also escorted you is Chuck Mustang." The maroon-haired girl known as Mirage spoke while gesturing introductions to the fishman known as Chuck.
"Pleased to meet you two." Chuck also replied in a friendly tone.
"Thank you very much for escorting us out of there especially that one with the grim reaper insignia who saved our butts. Do you know who's the pilot?" Carolina asked Mirage and Chuck about their savior as if she really owed her life to the pilot. Without any hesitation, Mirage and Chuck pointed towards the blue-haired guy beside the orange-blonde girl.
"You can thank Hayate since he is the one first dashed towards you." Mirage confidently introduced the blue-haired guy, known as Hayate. Both pilots, especially Carolina, is surprised about the guy who looks much younger than them.
"Whoa. He's much younger than us, Sora. He might have rivalled that jerk." Carolina told Sora as she meant for that jerk as Roy.
"Yeah. He might not look one but his skills are impressive." Sora replied.
Carolina walked towards Hayate and began to shake both his hands in a very thankful manner with tears in her eyes. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, um, Hayate! I'm really grateful to you that you saved us!" The female pilot still continued to shake hands.
"Um, yeah. You're welcome, miss. Glad you guys are alright." Hayate, still don't know what to do about Carolina, acknowledged her thanks. "Um, can you stop?"
"Oh. Sorry." Carolina suddenly stopped and Sora dragged her again.
"Carol, don't embarrass yourself in front of everybody!" Sora told her in an embarrassing look. "Sorry, 'bout Carol here. She's always like this if someone saves her life." He apologized to everyone.
"It's okay, man. Don't worry." Hayate replied with an amusement to Sora's revelation.
"Okay. It seems your little girlfriend beside you is jealous." Sora teased the ace pilot, now blushing, as he is amused with the jealous reaction of the orange-blonde girl.
"Howawa? That's not true!" the orange-blonde girl blushed as she protested to the brown-haired man.
Hayate suddenly diverted his embarrassment towards introducing himself and to the orange-blonde girl. "Okay, now back to the topic. I haven't introduced my full name yet. I am Hayate Immelman and this girl beside me is Freyja Wion."
"I-It's nice to meet you." The orange-blonde known as Freyja, also replied and bowed, still embarrassed from what Sora said earlier.
"Nice to meet you too, Freyja." Sora greeted. "Oh, she's named after a Norse goddess, huh?" inwardly thought again.
"Oh, I haven't introduced my partner here." Makina slumped her hand to the green-haired girl's shoulder. "She is Reina Prowler. You can call her ReiRei!" she cheerfully proclaimed.
"Hello, Sora and Carol." Reina silently replied.
"She must've told our names." Carolina mentally concluded on how the green-haired girl, known as Reina, knows their name.
"And I am Kaname Buccaneer of the tactical musical squadron Walkure." The red-haired girl earlier, now known as Kaname, introduced herself. "You also know Captain Arad Molders since he already introduced himself to you first." She added while gesturing introductions to Arad. "And the purple haired girl over there is our Mysterious Venus, Mikumo Guynemer." Another introduction added by Kaname towards the purple-haired girl known as Mikumo. The purple-haired diva simply waved hello to the two pilots and they also waved back to the girl.
"Well, Sora and Carol, behind me is the commander of Xaos Ragna Division, Ernest Johnson." Arad introduced the large man, known as Ernest.
"Pleased to meet you two. It seems you haven't seen a Zentradi, right?" Ernest asked as the two pilots still stared at them in disbelief.
"Well, he is an excellent judge of character. I take note of that." Sora mentally noted. "Well, I'll introduce myself again and my partner here. I am Sora Yokozuka and my partner here is Carolina Lockheed."
"You can call me Carol or Lina, whichever you prefer." Carolina added.
"We're members of the Alpha Squadron of United Nations Defense Forces stationed at Langley Air Force Base in United States. I don't know if you are familiar with it." Sora dropped some information about them.
The rest of the Delta squadron and the Walkure murmured on the information given by Sora like questioning about the unknown terms such as UNDF, Langley AFB and United States. Kaname broke out the conversation, "Excuse me but UNDF is again, non-existent here and there's no Langley here or United States here in Ragna."
"Wait. So what Mirage said to us earlier is true? We are not on Earth anymore?" Carolina replied with worry.
"Yes. Wait, what? You two came from Earth?" Kaname was surprised on what Carolina spouted about coming from Earth. Suddenly, Reina broke her silence to everyone as she showed the rest with a hologram about the UNDF, Langley and United States.
"Kaname-san, they might tell the truth. I searched the entire NUNS database about those terms. USDF, as you all know, is a peacekeeping force way before the ASS-1 crashed on Earth. We can say NUNS originated from UNDF." Reina speaks in a low voice. "And one of their base of operations is in Langley Air Force Base, which is located to an Earth country known as United States."
"See? Even Reina here did her research. We are telling the truth here!" Sora convinced anyone.
"If you're telling the truth, how come you've reached Ragna? The Earth and the Brisingr Cluster is like a billion light years away from here." Ernest, not yet convinced, asked Sora.
"Yeah. Unless you folded or teleported from Earth to Ragna instantaneously which deemed to be impossible." Chuck speculated.
"Well, to tell you the truth, guys? I think that's what happened." Carolina replied.
"WHAT?" everyone had a surprised expression except by Arad and Mikumo, that they only slightly raise a brow.
"How come? Even with our latest technology here in Xaos, we haven't done that yet!" Kaname questioned the two.
"Okay, okay, just listen to our tale here." Sora told them as they became silent.
In the briefing room, Sora and Carol take turns on explaining on their situation as test pilots for the prototype Quantum Displacement Drive on UNDF and how they were suddenly attacked by Anti-UN force while doing the test flight. They also explained how they are transported on their logic by the QDD by after the critical hit by the missile on their aircraft, it might have hit the QDD causing them to be transported, instead of teleporting them, to Ragna and also, added the attack of these Drakens. Carol added that she connects the dots that the QDD's hit might overloaded the quantum displacement. After that lengthy explanation, everyone in the briefing room is silent on the two pilot's explanation. Suddenly, Freyja broke the silence.
"They weren't kidding about this story." Freyja commented. "But still, I find it hard to believe."
"So, you mean to say that the UNDF accidentally invented a fold drive?" Makina, still confused while asking the question. "I still agree with FreFre. I find it hard to believe, SoraSora."
"And you say you might came from alternate dimension too?" Hayate also wondered.
"Yeah but we need to confirm first. Captain Arad?" Sora shifted his look from Hayate to Arad. "Do you know what year is it now?"
"It's 2068, Sora. Why did you ask?" Arad answered them directly.
"Today is 2068?" again, Sora was surprised.
"Maybe at the same time, we are flung not only in another planet but to the future?" Carol added.
"Well, I don't know about you, guys. What year did you test fly your aircraft then?" Arad followed up a question.
"I can remember until this day. July 28, 1998." Sora answered the question with a heavy atmosphere.
"WHAT?" everyone in the briefing room was shocked on their revelation.
"So that's the reason why you're wearing those pilot suits! You are from the past!" Makina concluded.
"And at the same time, folded here from Earth." Reina added to Makina's conclusion. "According to your medical records recently from the medical ward, you…don't have fold bacteria inside your bodies."
"That means, this proves you're telling the truth." Kaname added.
"You guys are right. Man, I will add another thing again." Sora again looked at Arad. "Captain Arad, are you related with Arvin Molders by any chance?".
With Sora's question, Arad was shocked on his revelation, "Yes. I know him. He is my great-grandfather who is also a veteran of Unification Wars on Earth. Why did you ask?".
"Well, to tell you the truth, captain Arad, he is our squadron leader in UNDF." Sora pulls out a group photo of him and Carol sitting on the cockpit while Arvin and Roy are just below them and gave to Arad.
"What?" this time, Arad was surprised on Sora's another revelation, as he was handed by the photo by taking a closer look at the photo where is great-grandfather looks exactly like him only with much cleaner haircut and trimmed beard. Out of curiosity, the other people nearby Arad sneaked to see the photo with much of their surprise.
"I can say that you and your great-grandfather look alike here!" Ernest commented.
"Well, if you cut your hair like that, you just might look like him." Kaname also commented.
"He's like your doppelganger, captain!" Makina added.
"Alright, alright. That's enough." Arad broke away the others to return and began to thank Sora. "Thank you very much for showing this, Sora. I know you are under the good leadership of my old man here."
"Don't mention it, Captain Arad. When we first saw you, we are hesitant to ask if you are related to him. Thank goodness I confirmed it from you here." Sora commented.
"Say, Sora. Who is this blonde guy beside my old man here? It seems he looks fiercer than you here." Arad teased as he pointed out the blonde guy in the photo.
"That jerk? He's just eavesdropping on our photo. That bastard Roy Focker…" Sora grumbled.
When they heard the name "Roy Focker", it suddenly rang a bell to them. "Wait, what? This guy here…is Roy Focker?" Arad and the others surprisingly asked Sora.
"Hey! How did you know about this jerk?" Sora was also surprised and annoyed at the same time on all of them reacting to his name.
"Don't you know that he is one of the greatest pilots that fought the First Space War?" Mirage added.
"Yeah! He is the legendary Skull Leader, you know?" Chuck also added.
"But unfortunately, he died during the war." Kaname added with a downcast expression.
Sora and Carol were shocked on their revelation about their friend as a war hero and his status as a legendary pilot. Both of them have mixed feelings of envy, being proud and sorrowful at the same time. The male pilot, suddenly shed a tear.
"You bastard! You really did well, huh? Darn you." Sora thought about his friend and rival way back in UNDF.
"A-Are you alright, Sora?" Mirage asked.
"Y-Yeah. I can't believe it myself too that Roy had a legendary status and legacy left to you guys." Sora smiled. "I admit he is a big jerk but at the same time, the best pilot I've met in UNDF."
"So, it seems you are proud of him, Sora." Mikumo suddenly spoke to him.
"Y-Yeah." Sora just muttered.
"Well? Can we conclude this meeting now that you believed us that we are from the past?" Carol broke out the conversation.
"That explanation of yours is pretty lengthy, if you ask me and provided Reina also showed your medical records too. For now, we believe in you." Ernest replied. "We still need to check out your aircraft and this QDD, that you told me about."
"Now, we will properly introduce you now. Welcome to Ragna, my friends!" Arad welcomed them.
The meeting with the two pilots from the past and the rest of Delta squadron and Walkure have adjourned after the long explanation of the two. Since a lot of things happened to the two, they decided to get some rest on Barrette City, a city facing the ocean just below the Macross Elysion. Sora was invited by Chuck to stay at his place, in which is also the place where the male squadron members stay at a floating Chinese restaurant at Ragnyanyan, in which he cannot say no. Meanwhile, Carol was invited by Freyja and Mirage to stay at their dorm where there is a spare room for her to rest. As they separate ways to their respective accommodation, both Sora and Carol think about their situation wondering if they can still go back to their own time or stay on this timeline forever.
Sora reached Ragnyanyan, as he is welcomed by Chuck's siblings along with Hayate to their home. He felt like he hasn't been at home for at least, a very long time, due to his duty as an air force pilot of the UNDF. He unpacked his backpack he carried, removed his current black t-shirt to wear some spare white shirt with the printed UNDF at the back. After wearing the shirt, the unzips his pilot suit only on the top half tying the sleeves like a jacket on his waist. He wears this combat boots again to go down the stairs. When he got down, he was surprised that the rest of the Delta squadron and the Walkure plus Carol, are present with their casual clothes and Carol wearing a black tank top and her pilot suit's sleeve tied like along her waist.
"Hey, Sora! We're just getting started for a welcoming party for you with Carol here!" Chuck called Sora.
"Why?" Sora asked.
"Because we wanted to! We also want to destress here. This is our usual place to relax after hard day's work." Arad answered while munching fried jellyfish. "And you gotta try these fried jellyfish. They're the best!"
"I beg your pardon, captain. Fresh jellyfish are still the best." Reina interrupted while munching live jellyfish.
"Don't mind her, SoraSora. She just loves live jellyfish, you know." Makina answered while wrapping around her arms on Reina.
"Whoa. The girls just dragged me here, Sora. I got to admit, they know how to destress!" Carol also answered. "And look! They even got beer here!"
"Well, okay. Guess I need this day-off too." Sora smiled as he joined the rest that are eating, drinking and having fun with Carol and the rest of the Delta Squadron and Walkure that they just met this day.
Author's Note:
And there you have it, folks! This chapter is mostly on dropping info bombs by the characters and a lot of conversations. Please stay tuned for the next chapter! Don't hesitate to leave comments too!