Chapter 2
Alto was eager to find out what kind of emergency was worth calling him and Sheryl to duty on their wedding night. Not a single emergency call for a year and there has to be one tonight of all nights.
"Come on Sheryl. We'll be the last ones there," he said.
"I'm two feet behind you! It's not like I'm slowing you down," she came back.
They rounded the final corner and could hear that the briefing had already begun.
All heads turned as Alto bounded through the hatch and came to a dead stop, causing Sheryl to run into him.
"Jeez, don't stop short like that Alto!" Sheryl scolded before realizing all eyes were on them.
"Saotome, Nome," Captain Ozma said, "nice of you to join us."
"Sorry, Sir," the two replied in unison.
Ozma smiled at that. If these two don't belong together, I don't know who does.
They stood to the side of the crowded briefing room as the Captain continued.
"As I was saying, at 2130, we received a distress call from the direction of the galactic core. The message was full of static and originated from what appears to be a colony ship in trouble. The ship's identity is unknown." He nodded to Ram Hoa at a nearby console and the audio message began playing.
A female voice spoke very deliberately but without panic: "This is the colony sh..." static "disabled and adri..." static. The static continued for several seconds before it continued. "...in fold for..." static "...scort ships... destroyed and only three remain... level one distress call. To any and all... distress. Request immediate assistan..."
There, the message ended.
"Comments?" Ozma asked.
"Are we sure it isn't a trick, Sir?" asked Luca. "The Galaxy's main island maybe? We know she's still out there somewhere."
Alto glanced at Sheryl who simply closed her eyes in thought. She had hated the Galaxy, but it had still been her home for all but the past year of her life. The memory of what had happened to that colonization fleet still weighed heavily upon her. She shook it off and made eye contact with Alto, mouthing the words "I'm OK" to him.
"There is that possibility," the Captain answered. "However, we are bound by law to respond and investigate."
We're going active thought Alto, a grin appearing on his face. It's been a while.
"To that end, we've procured several fold boosters from L.A.I. for immediate use," Ozma said, nodding to Luca who had, once again, pulled some strings with his family's company to get them.
"Saotome?" Ozma called.
"Sir!"
"You're leading the mission. Chose three pilots to accompany you. Luca's going too. I want his recon capabilities out there in case it becomes a search and rescue operation." Ozma then turned to Luca, "take your Ghost Drones as well. They could come in handy either in SAR or some other unexpected situation. Alto?"
Without missing a beat, Alto called out, "Klan, Sterne, Nome, you're with me.'
"Yes, Sir!" a trio of voices responded from around the room.
"OK. Captain Saotome, you and your team stay for a moment. Everyone else, dismissed."
The briefing room emptied and the five pilots approached the podium at the front.
"Sorry to call on you two tonight," Ozma said, turning to Alto and Sheryl.
Alto was about to respond when Sheryl answered "it's all part of the job, Sir!."
The Captain looked at Alto and smiled, tilting his head in Sheryl's direction as if to say "see what you've got there, Alto."
Alto smiled.
Ozma turned to the Zentradi teen. "The fold booster isn't adaptable to your power-armor Klan. You'll have to take a VF-25 out and you'll have to do so in your micronized state. Any issues with that?"
"No, SIR!" she answered in that high-pitched voice of hers.
"Good." The micronized Klan may take the form of an adolescent but she could still pilot the hell out of a VF-25. "In the meantime, we'll get the Quarter ready for flight in case we're needed."
Neither the Macross Quarter nor the Battle Frontier had flown since the final battle against the Vajra. Both were still undergoing extensive repairs suffered in the war.
"The Quarter is still a couple weeks away from being space-worthy. But we'll pull workers from the Frontier and get it done as quickly as possible in case you need us. If they require a mass evacuation, you'll need the Quarter," Ozma stated. "But even once she's ready, it's still at least a 30-day real-time fold. Luca, you've got to get your boys working on a bigger fold booster."
"They already are, Sir," Luca agreed.
They were indeed working on it. Unfortunately, the sheer size and mass of ships as big as the Quarter was the stumbling block. With current tech, a super fold booster to assist the Quarter would need to be more than half as big as the ship itself. And the amount of power required for it to maintain a fold... Luca didn't even want to think about that. Still, the Vajra could do it with their big ships. I'd love to get my hands on one of those, thought Luca. We could learn a lot from them.
Captain Ozma called up a space chart on the holo-display showing their route and destination.
"You'll drop communications buoys here and here," he said, indicating areas roughly one and two thirds of the distance between Hinan and the disabled colony ship. "Contact the Quarter at each drop point and maintain regular contact upon reaching the objective."
"Yes, Sir," Alto replied.
"OK, you all know what to do. Sheryl, just take it easy," Captain Ozma said. "No worries out there. Alto wouldn't have chosen you if he wasn't confident in your abilities."
"Thank you, Sir," Sheryl replied, glancing at Alto with a lopsided grin.
"All of you, be careful out there and do Skull Squadron proud. Dismissed! Wheels up in 30 minutes. I'll get the crews started on prepping your fighters."
"Yes, SIR," five voices replied.
In the men's ready room, Alto, Brera and Luca were pulling their flight gear on including their EX-Gear.
"Alto?"
"What is it Luca?"
"I'm sorry to ask this but do you really think Sheryl-san is ready for an active mission?"
Alto had expected this and he glanced at Brera who just shrugged as if saying "valid point."
"Guys, she's been training for nine months. And she's an incredible sniper. This is a good mission for her. We're not expecting combat so it's a chance for her to get out there and get her feet wet. Satisfied?" Alto realized his response sounded more defensive than he had intended.
Luca looked at Brera and both broke into grins.
"Jeez," Alto complained, realizing he'd just been the victim of a joke.
Despite the prank, he added, "besides, if things get hairy, I'll have her find a nice, safe sniper position and do her thing."
"She's ready," Brera said to reassure Alto. "She was ready a while ago. The only thing lacking was a mission."
"For all of us," Alto agreed.
They finished suiting up and checked each others' gear.
"Let's go," Alto said.
Sheryl came out of the stall wiping the corner of her mouth with her sleeve.
"Oh shit, Nome! You puked?" Klan yelled, before bursting into laughter.
"Shut up!" Sheryl responded before dropping down onto the bench in the women's ready room. She took a deep breath. "I guess I'm more nervous than I thought I would be."
Klan let her laughter trail off and sat next to Sheryl.
"Hey, we all were before our first mission."
"Really?"
"Uhh, no," Klan confessed. "I was just trying to make you feel better." She let out a loud whoop of a laugh.
Sheryl's shoulders sank. Klan was definitely not making her feel better about this.
"Well, Luca was, if that helps," Klan added.
"Not really," Sheryl replied. "What about Alto?"
"Well, his first mission was unexpected. He was kind of thrown into it and didn't really have time to get nervous," she said, thinking back. "Alto saved my life that day you know."
"Oh?" Sheryl asked. "Tell me."
"As long as you get moving and get ready, Nome! The men are probably already waiting for us!"
"Deal!" Sheryl perked up and started changing into her gear.
Klan continued suiting up and began.
"It was his practical test. Mock combat in an asteroid belt and ancient Zentradi battlefield. Alto, Luca and," she paused, remembering her lost love, "Michael."
Sheryl stopped what she was doing and looked up in sympathy but Klan shook it off and continued.
"Those three were taking on my Pixie Squadron when a Vajra de-folded right on top of us. I ordered everyone back to the Quarter since Pixie Squadron had live ammo from a scouting mission we had just been on. Well, you know Alto. He refused to run, of course, and actually charged at the Vajra. He had no live ammo, mind you. He was going to attack with nothing but his combat knife. So I intervened. I took a shot at the Vajra. Hit it but didn't kill it. Then the bastard shot me right back. My power armor was disabled and I was a sitting duck. Then, here comes the Princess with a thousand-year-old Zentradi cannon he had spotted earlier in some wreckage. And he lands on the Vajra, jams the cannon into the damage my shot had done earlier and fires right into it. Point blank. It was a huge fireball. The Vajra just disappeared. I thought Alto had bought it for sure. Did a ton of damage to his VF." She laughed. "Ozma was so pissed!"
Sheryl zipped up her flight suit and was just putting her EX-Gear on.
"He's never told me that," she said.
"Well, commanding officers aren't supposed to be so reckless," Klan replied. "And he'll probably chew me out if he finds out I told you about it! So keep it to yourself!"
"It'll be our secret," Sheryl confided.
"Secrets from the husband already, Nome?" Klan said before breaking into laughter again.
She locked her own EX-Gear's belt around her waist and sighed.
"I don't know how you humans do it."
"Do what?"
"This!" Klan yelled. She then shifted to a much softer tone than normal. "I feel so fragile like this." She held out her arms in a display. "Micronized. And going on a mission like this? I must be insane!"
Now it was Sheryl's turn to laugh.
"Hey! What's so funny about that?" Klan yelled, getting in Sheryl's face and poking her with a finger.
"You, Klan. Get real!"
Klan's face began to turn red in anger
"Even like this, in the body of child," Sheryl paused, "you're still the toughest bitch I know!"
Klan jumped back and a smile slowly spread across her face.
"Well, OK then!" the young Meltran said.
"OK then," Sheryl mimicked.
They double checked each other's gear and headed for the door.
"Hey, Nome?"
"Yes."
"Thanks."
"You too," said Sheryl, giving Klan's arm a little squeeze.
Klan returned the gesture - in the form of a bruising punch to Sheryl's upper arm.
The five pilots entered the hanger and gathered in a small circle.
"Luca?" Alto said.
"Captain," Luca began, "fold time will be approximately three hours, forty-two minutes. Thanks to the fold boosters though, that will be real-time. No lag."
Without super fold boosters, an almost four-hour fold meant almost forty days would pass in real time. The basic rule of thumb was that for every one hour spent in fold, ten days would pass in normal space. If a spacecraft hit a fold fault, those mysterious barriers in fold space that had begun appearing about a decade earlier, the lag could become much worse. New tech, however, facilitated folds with no lag time and allowed navigation through fold faults. The trick, however, was actually getting access to the new super fold booster. There were very few in existence. They were all built by L.A.I. and all of them (save for a couple sent back to Earth for testing) were located here on Hinan. And, most importantly, they were suitable only for small personal fighters. This meant that should Skull Squadron need help, the most they could hope for were a few extra fighters. The big capital ships or the Macross Quarter would take more than a month to reach them.
"We will drop fold communications pods at two locations on our route. The coordinates are pre-determined and we'll all drop out of fold at each drop point so we can stay together. At the final fold-out point, we'll drop out slightly off the mark so we can observe what we're getting into - we don't want to de-fold right in the middle of a firefight, a debris field or some other hazard that may be in the target zone. I'll do an immediate scan of the area and the Captain will assess the situation." Luca nodded to Alto signifying he was finished with his briefing.
"OK Skull," Alto said, "it's been a while since we've been on anything other than a training mission. And there a bunch of firsts with this one."
He slowly looked at each team member.
"A rookie, a new team member, Klan, well-"
"Just bring it!" yelled the pint sized Zentradi warrior and everyone laughed.
"And," Alto continued, "a new leader. I promise you all that I will not only command but serve you all to the best of my abilities. Although I'm your commanding officer, you are my comrades and friends..."
"And wife," yelled Klan, giving a mortified looking Sheryl a shove.
"And, yes, there's that," Alto allowed with a smile. "If I can lead half as well as Captain Ozma once led this squadron, I'll consider that a success."
The group looked at Alto, smiling and appreciating his words.
"OK, what are you all standing around for? Let's get going!" Alto yelled.
The circle shrunk and each member of the team gave an encouraging word to Alto.
"Well said," from Brera.
"I look forward to serving, Leader," Luca declared.
"You've come a long way Alto," Klan said before clapping him roughly on the arm. Even in micronized form, she packed quite a punch.
Three of the pilots headed to their respective mechas leaving Alto and Sheryl standing there together. Sheryl took it all in with a sigh. Alto looked at her and smiled.
"Well said indeed," a gruff voice said, surprising Alto and Sheryl. They turned to see Captain Ozma approaching, Ranka accompanying him. "Especially the part about only doing half as well as I."
"Captain. Ranka!" Alto said.
"Hi Alto-kun. Hi Sheryl-san!" Ranka said giving them a little wave. "I just wanted to say good luck!"
Sheryl and Ranka hugged.
"Thanks for coming to see us off. Some honeymoon, huh?" Sheryl said, drawing a grimace from Alto.
"I don't know," Ranka replied, ever the optimist, "at least it's a little adventure!"
Sheryl smiled. "You know, you're absolutely right!" she said, appreciating Ranka's amazing ability to cheer her up. "I've got to go now. Thanks again for coming."
They hugged again.
"I'll be watching the take-offs from the bridge," Ranka said and added in a whisper, "show the others how it's done."
Sheryl chuckled, "I will."
"Good luck Alto," Ozma said, offering his hand in place of a salute.
"Thanks, Sir. We'll be in touch at the first comm buoy drop. Thanks for seeing us off Ranka-chan."
"Good luck Alto!" Ranka said as she threw threw her arms around him adding lowly, "you watch Sheryl's butt out there."
"Always," he replied with a smile, triggering a blush and a giggle from Ranka.
"Captain," Ozma said.
"Captain," Alto replied before each spun and went their separate ways.
Skull Squadron readied their craft. Klan sat and toggled a switch. The floor pedals rose to her feet, the seat moved forward, the cockpit seemed to shrink around her. If it weren't for the cockpit's adaptive abilities, she would never be able to take part in this mission.
Brera merely sat in the crimson VF-27 and thought through the start-up process. His VF-27 was the only place he still used his cybernetic implants. Engines fired. All systems go he thought and the crimson plane began rolling.
Luca pressed buttons and checked numerous read-outs. "Ghost units nominal. Recon pack nominal. All systems nominal," he reported.
Sheryl checked the status of her craft. All was normal. "Craft status: ready," she reported. "Pilot status: nervous," she added to no one in particular. She began her roll out to the flight deck. Looking to her right, she caught Alto watching her as he did his own pre-flight. He smiled at her and gave her a quick wink before returning to his checklist.
Alto's readout flashed the customary "READY" screen and he tested his controls.
Ahead of him, Klan had just been the first to launch, her afterburners rapidly shrinking into the night sky, and Brera was just waiting for the OK.
"Here we go," Alto said to himself.
Skull-1, Alto, was the last to launch and he quickly joined the other four in formation for a flyover of Island 1, Battle Frontier and, finally, Macross Quarter. As they flew past the bridge of the Quarter, Alto spied the waving Ranka Lee and wiggled his wings in acknowledgement.
"OK Skull. Proceed to fold point on my mark. Three, two, one, Mark."
The five craft, all bearing armor packs and the streamlined super fold boosters, accelerated into a full climb. The planet's ring, actually the solid, boney-looking former habitat of the Vajra, was coming up quickly.
As they passed it by, Alto wondered if it was truly empty. Everyone assumed the Vajra had all left following that final battle. All except Ranka's friend Ai-kun anyway. But no one had yet attempted a landing on the ring. He didn't know if it was superstition, fear or some other reason, but aside from orbital observation cameras, it had not been explored. The government had done only enough research on it to know it was stable - it wasn't going to come crashing down on their heads - and that appeared to be enough for them. Yet Alto was increasingly curious about both the ring as well as the Vajra. They had turned out not to be the enemy they had thought and feared and had actually allied themselves with the Frontier's forces during the final battle. And in a stunning sacrifice, thousands of Vajra gave their lives to save Island 1 from complete destruction at the hands of Battle Galaxy's main gun.
Thinking back to that emotional day, he hit a switch and called up a private channel.
"Sheryl?"
"Alto?" came the reply
"I'm glad you're here."
Sheryl smiled inside her helmet. "Really?"
"Yeah. I thought I'd be more worried for you but I'm not. Your confidence must be rubbing off on me."
"Well you could show a little concern for me. It is my first mission after all and I'm nervous as hell!" she exclaimed. "Klan will probably tell you later, I lost my dinner in the ready room!"
Laughter came over the comm.
"Alto!" Sheryl yelled defensively.
"It's OK. It's pretty normal. A lot of pilots do that before every mission!"
"Oh," Sheryl said. "Well, I hope it's a one-time thing for me!"
"I'm sure it is," replied her husband and commanding officer.
A tone sounded in their helmets followed by Luca's voice.
"Approaching fold coordinates."
"Roger," Alto responded. "All craft activate fold boosters."
The five pilots tapped in the short code that began powering up the pods mounted atop each craft. Within seconds, all pilots had reported successful activation.
"Macross Quarter, all craft preparing to fold. We'll be in touch," Alto reported.
"Roger, Skull-1. Godspeed," came Ozma's voice over the comm.
Five glowing portals appeared in front of the spacecraft, the gates into fold-space shimmering in the colors of the spectrum.
"All craft, ready," Alto commanded. "Three, two, one, fold."
Four VF-25s and one VF-27 advanced into the gateways.
Space fold was a relatively uneventful form of travel. Unless the pilot chose to exit fold-space early, the flight computers controlled everything. The pilot could take over - there just wasn't usually a reason to. Because of this, Alto was never too fond of fold travel. It wasn't flying. It was riding. And it was boring. Sheryl never really liked it either but for an entirely different reason. She was prone to fold lag - that sick, worn out feeling that affected so many people during and following fold travel. Thankfully, Canaria had medicine that took care of that and it was no longer a problem for Sheryl. Still, as soon as they entered the fold, Sheryl set an alarm and notified Alto she'd be taking a nap.
"It's been quite a day for me!" she told him before signing off.
Brera, on the other hand, enjoyed the light show in fold-space and just sat there taking it in and meditating. Klan chatted with Alto every few minutes discussing everything from Ranka's newest song to how weird it felt to be in a VF-25 to hair styles to how awful this year's Miss Macross was. Alto could only roll his eyes. She's certainly a talker when she's micronized Alto thought. Luca spent his time running diagnostics on the recon package of his specialized RVF-25, talking to his Ghosts and going over reports for L.A.I. Everyone did their own thing in a fold.
The first fold-out to drop a comm buoy went as planned and Luca sent a check-in message back to Hinan confirming their location. They didn't bother waiting for a response. It would be close to an hour for the signal to reach Hinan and another for the response to come back.
Upon reaching the second drop point, the five pilots discovered they had emerged into the middle of an uncharted debris field. They quickly determined it was yet another ancient Zentradi battlefield. In other words, lots of metal, low-level radiation and other forms of debris that would cause trouble for a comm buoy. A quick fold got them out of the area and into clear space where Luca detached the final pod.
"OK Skull, here we go. We're still an hour out but I want everyone checking and double checking their systems," Alto ordered. "Nap time's over, lets go."
"Three, two, one, de-fold. Look sharp people," Alto radioed to his team.
Upon re-entering normal space, Klan, Ranka and Brera immediately slowed while Alto and Luca went ahead for a recon. The radome atop Luca's fighter began turning, scanning the area.
In the distance, everyone could see the brilliant point of light slowly moving against the backdrop of stars. It slowly brightened and then dimmed, repeating the sequence. That was their target although no one could make out any detail from this distance.
"Everything looks clear Captain," Luca reported. "The only ship I'm seeing in the vicinity is that one. There are three other vessels pretty far out. Probably the escorts mentioned in the distress call. She appears to be adrift and in a slow spin. I'm not reading any radio traffic whatsoever."
"Weird," said Alto. "No distress signal even?"
"Nope. They're quiet. So are the other three," answered Luca. "Captain, my active scans can't lock-on either. That ship's putting out some kind of field. It doesn't appear to be dangerous but it's definitely got my scanners confused."
"OK gang, lets proceed. Luca, keep an eye on those other three ships," Alto said. "When we get closer I'll attempt to make contact."
The fighters accelerated toward the point of light. It steadily grew and over the next few minutes they were able to make out a little detail. That spin should make landing fun Alto thought. The entire forward part of the ship was transparent. It was dark inside but it looked as if a city was contained within. OK, Alto remembered, not unusual for a colony ship. But not a recent one. This entire ship was only a fraction of the size of a New-Macross class main island. Any concern he had about this being Galaxy's main island evaporated. But a new mystery took its place. Just what ship is this?
"Attention unidentified ship. Attention unidentified ship." Alto called over the open comm. This is Captain Alto Saotome of the 25th New Macross-Class Colonial Fleet and the planet Hinan responding to your distress signal. Please reply."
There was no response. Alto repeated his hail but the result was the same.
"Keep broadcasting standard hails Luca," Alto said. "They've either lost comm capability or they're purposely not answering."
"Or it could be that field, Captain," said Luca. "I've done a quick analysis of it and I think it could be interfering with communications. I'm guessing their distress call probably came from a pod they jettisoned clear of the field."
As they approached closer, Alto began to make out more details. He noticed the framework of the ship holding the transparent sections of the hull in place appeared almost organic. Occasional lights flickered inside the superstructure. Two enormous struts, really just extensions of the main hull, jutted out from the rear portion of the ship. Each carried two massive engine assemblies. And high above the bulk of the ship was the bridge. And a bridge it was - in every sense of the word. From both sides of the top of the hull, two supports angled up and over. They created, quite literally, a bridge over the top of the ship. Mounted dead center of that bridge was the control center. The huge, transparent front looked so much like other bridges Alto had seen. And there were lights on inside.
"I'm going to have a look at the bridge. The rest of you hold back," Alto said.
Slowly, he approached the nerve center of the ship. A weird feeling came over him. It was a feeling of recognition. He'd seen this ship before. Probably in history books he thought. He slowed and used his thrusters to match the speed and spin of the ship, trying to get a look into the huge transparent front of the bridge. His eyes were immediately drawn to the emblem on the floor. It was something he absolutely remembered from history books. The red circle around the white, bifurcated, four pointed design. It was the old style U.N. Spacy rondel. Below the symbol, Alto could make out writing. It was the ship's designation. He could see it clear as day but he didn't believe it. Alto had to read it three time before convincing himself it was real.
"Guys," he reported excitedly, "I think we just found Megaroad-01."
He looked again just to be sure. The designation read "SDF-2 Megaroad-01."
"It's the SDF-2!"
10