Chapter 7 Flight of the Fox
Rick's demand still hung in the air as the Regess' eyes widened slightly in shock. Rick waited calmly for her to answer. And he didn't have to wait long.
"The Haydonites, as you call them, are our oldest enemy. They were the ones who drove us from our home planet long ago. They fear the awesome power of protoculture and are trying to destroy all who embrace it's power. We were the first they attacked."
Rick thought he saw a hint of sadness from the Regess but he couldn't blame her. He waited patently for her to continue.
"When they arrived, they used weapons of mass destruction to destroy out home planet."
"What did these weapons do?" He asked her.
"They created a black hole that swallowed our planet."
Rick pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. He had hoped that their own test firing conclusion was just from the technology mix, but apparently, it wasn't.
"Regess, what else can you tell us about them?"
"I know only what I have told you. And I sense that you know much of them, seeing as your vehicles posses their technology." She seemed to tower of him even more than she already did, tension rising in the air.
Rick remained where he was.
"We took their help, believing them to be victims of yours. We had no way of knowing that you were their victims. And can you really blame us? You arrive on Earth and begin a conquest of our home planet. We took the help they offered if only to reclaim our home planet."
The Regess paused, seemingly glaring at the human who would speak to her in such a way.
"Human. You forget your place. You are in the presence of the Regess, Ruler of the Invid!" Her voice booming loudly through the hollow hive core.
Rick stumbled back before regaining his composure.
"No. I remember precisely where my place is. It's here. On Earth. You feel we can not co-exists. I believe we can."
"No! Your planet still retains the malignant spirit of the Robotech Masters!"
Rick allowed a small smile to appear.
"True. We are a stubborn group of beings. But it's served us well. Regess. I understand your position on this. But we have a saying. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.'"
The Regess faltered momentarily in her ranting to appraise him.
"Wise words human. But we will not stand with you. Your species doomed itself the moment you made contact with the Haydonites."
Rick was about to begin arguing his point when a female voice sounded out behind him.
"If you will not listen to the humans, than I pray you'll listen to your own daughter."
Xxxxx
Naruto propped his feet up on a crate in the hanger bay as two men entered the bay, one of them was chuckling while the other looked redder than a tomato. He caught a comment about a little skull and had a feeling as to what had happened. The two men caught sight of him and gave a confused look before moving off to their own. Naruto smirked and went back to relaxing just before a familiar shadow fell over him.
"Lieutenant Uzumaki. I thought I'd find you here."
Naruto looked back to see Maia standing behind him, hands on her hips. On hand he noticed, had a small box. Maia glanced at the box and back at him as he slowly got to his feet.
"Good. Your looking at the box and not me. That puts you exactly one step above the other males on board." She said with a slight smile.
Naruto chuckled.
"I suppose old skull boy over there joined those ranks earlier. Oh, and congratulations on your promotion to Skull Leader."
Maia nodded her thanks.
"Thanks. It's a shame though. Your barely a pilot and already an officer."
"Must have something to do with saving my flight leader's ass."
Maia cocked an eyebrow at him.
"Or maybe you actually earned it and they were waiting on my recommendation."
"Touché. Was there something I can do for you?"
Maia nodded and tossed him the small box. He opened them and smiled as he saw the Lieutenant bars before he looked back at her.
"Okay. Anything else?"
Maia shook her head in amusement.
"It still amuses me that you haven't been busted down for insubordination yet. But yes, there is one other thing. I have recommended you to head Fox flight."
Naruto looked a bit uneasy, something that Maia didn't understand.
"What about the Hellhounds?" He asked.
"Admiral Hayes-Hunter has recommended Lieutenant Hunter to lead the Hellhounds and stay in the Dark Knight squadron. Before you ask, Lieutenant Bartlett is getting Wardog Flight and Cipher is getting Garuda flight."
Naruto cocked an eyebrow.
"What about Joker?"
Naruto saw Maia smile and felt uneasy.
"He's going to be with Cipher. I figured Cipher would balance him out better than pairing him with anyone else."
Naruto relaxed until he looked up and saw two noncoms standing at attention. Naruto sighed and turned his full attention to them. Both seemed extremely nervous.
"At ease guys. I'm Lieutenant Uzumaki, your flight leader. I know most, if not all officers are very experienced, I'm not as experienced. I'm still learning a lot myself. But I do know enough to keep us alive during a dog fight and get us back home alive if you listen to me."
He watched as they seemed uneasy at his statement and looked back to Maia who was trying not to laugh. Naruto glared at her briefly before facing his new wingmen.
"Well, we'll call it a day and meet back up her at eight in the morning."
Both Lance Corporals snapped to attention and gave him a crisp salute that he returned. He and Maia watched as they hurried away before Naruto turned to see her chuckling. She saw his look and it made her snicker even more.
"I'm sorry. It's just funny. Your not supposed to let them know you lack experience in anything."
Naruto huffed in annoyance.
"Yeah, well, I'm an honest guy."
Maia smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Which is why I recommended you for your own flight. Also, your instincts on your test show that you have the greatest potential as a leader."
"That and we need officers to replace the ones we've lost."
Maia gave him a serious look.
"No. You've been in the REF for over a year now. You've been in multiple battles even before your graduation. And you have proven on multiple occasions that you make an excellent leader. Remember the Haydonite patrol we ran across last month?"
Naruto did indeed remember that battle.
(Flashback)
Naruto yanked his throttle back and watched as the Haydonite fighter blew by him. The blonde pressed his trigger, and let loose a hail of lead at him. Naruto smirked as he backed around and watched his flight leader close in on another fighter. Naruto's eyes widened when a stream of purple rounds caught the veritech, reaching it's reactor, creating a small star that vanished in seconds. Naruto gritted his teeth as frantic cries sounded through the com. Naruto tapped his com and opened the flight wide com. Feeling very aware of the eleven other trainees around him, he took a deep breath and issued his commands.
"Baker. Svenson. Go trail and stay close. The three of us will go high and engage the bandits. All other fighters, go low and standby to provide support."
The two pilots moved into position and the three of them pulled up to provide the perfect attack angle on the Haydonite fighters. Naruto knew that reinforcements would arrive as soon as they could, but it wouldn't be soon enough. Besides, Naruto only saw a dozen fighter left anyway. Naruto adjusted his targeting system to visual targeting and increased his throttle as they moved in on the flight of fighters coming at them.
"Don't get over egger. Just do what we always do." He ordered.
The three flew toward the fighters and began weaving as the Haydonites began firing. Naruto gripped his stick tightly and pushed the fear he felt to the back of his mind and gritted his teeth as he got a lock on tone.
"Blaze, fox 2!" He declared as he let twin missiles loose.
His two wingmen followed his example and let their own SRMs followed by a stream of 35mm rounds from their gun pods. They quickly took out six of the Haydonite fighters as they screamed past them. Naruto yanked his stick back and flip over to position himself on the Haydonites six. Baker and Svenson also came around and got into position just after he did. Naruto lined up his sights and pressed his trigger again, watching the fighter explode. He watched another Haydonite explosion from twin SRMs form baker and another from combined 35mm rounds and a well placed missile. They came in on the last three.
"Baker. Svenson. Pull back and escort the rest of the flight back to the SDF-3. I got these three."
To prove his point, Naruto shifted to battloid mode and let loose with over a dozen SRMs launching from multiple hard points on his alpha and speeding off to detonate against the final three fighter. He signed and switched back to fighter mode as Cerberus Flight arrived to pick up the Flight Leaders forward pod. Naruto relaxed slightly as he followed the rest of his flight back home.
(End Flashback)
Naruto nodded his head.
"Yeah. I remember what happened."
Maia smiled at him.
"Trust me kid. You'll do fine. You did great then and you'll do great now. Just calm down." She ordered.
Naruto chuckled and gave her a crisp salute that she returned before heading off to speak with her new squadron. Naruto felt sorry for them. Maia didn't take lip from men under her command. Something he had learned the hard way.
Xxxxx
Rick waited for Arial to finish her tale to her mother of how she had seen a side of humanity that proved they could coexist. Rick had been a little startled to see a human appear in a flash of golden light, only to find out it was a resistance fighter, Lieutenant Scott Bernard. Rick was currently waiting for some response when he saw both Invid look to the top of the hive, shock on their faces. After several moments they looked to each other before looking to Rick. The Regess spoke first.
"Human. I have sensed a vision of the coming destruction. A space station of yours will be destroyed by the Children of the Shadows. They are coming."
"Do you know which station?" He asked.
The Regess nodded.
"I believe you call it Liberty Station."
Rick nodded and turned to the others, intent on getting back to the SDF-3 when the Regess stopped him.
"Human. If you are willing to share your protoculture with our race and allow us to continue to live on this planet, we will stand by you."
Rick looked at her with disbelief.
"That easily? You'd ally yourself with us from one vision?"
The Regess smiled.
"No. Not just because of that. If my daughter is this adamant about your race, than I will listen to her. Also, we have a common enemy. You have shown faith in our race, so we must do the same."
Rick smiled.
"Regess. Thank you. I look forward to working with you and your people."
The Regess nodded her head before smiling again.
"And I too. I sense that the shadow of darkness will fall upon us soon. But together, we will win."
Xxxxx
Rick appeared in a flash of light on his bridge and noticed a new addition. A tall, well built black man was staring at him in shock. Rick grinned at him.
"Don't worry Vince. I'm fine. But we have a station to save."
Vince blinked in confusion.
"What station?"
Not even a moment later, the face of General Reinhardt appeared on screen.
"Admiral Hunter. Deep Space Station Liberty just went dark."
Rick moved to his command chair and sat down as a sudden hush fell over the bridge.
"Understood. We'll head out and proved them with support. Also, I have managed to negotiate an alliance with the Invid. Until I return, no one is to make any move toward Earth."
Reinhardt's eyebrows threatened to disappear into hair.
"You wanna run that by me again?"
"You heard me. Also…I'm sending you a file that I want upload to all ships in the fleet, including the veritech fighters. It will remove a back door code in our shadow tech that would cause us trouble." He told him as he signaled his com officer to send the file to Moon Base ALUCE.
If Reinhardt was confused before, it was nothing to this.
"What kind of back door?"
"One hit from a weapon set to a certain frequency would destroy a ship equipped with shadow technology."
Reinhardt nodded his head in understanding.
"Alright Rick. You'd better hurry. If that's true, the fleet a Liberty could be in serious trouble. Reinhardt out."
The com closed as Rick sighed.
"You have no idea how much trouble."
One minute later, the SDF-3 was off to take the battle to the Haydonites. And the question everyone had on their minds was simple: Would they survive if the Haydonites were fully mobilized to erase them from existence?
Xxxxxx
Naruto leaned against his Alpha fighter when the alert sounded.
"All pilots to your stations. Skull Squadron, prepare for take off. All other flights are at condition alert alpha. Prepare for combat."
Naruto lept to his feet, cursing as he rubbed the top of his head from it impacting on the underside of the Alpha's nose. Naruto hurried to his helmet and secured it before he headed back to his fighter. He noticed both his rookies also headed for their fighters, both looking nervous and scared. The blonde tapped a few commands into his console and opened a channel to his rookies.
"Alright boys. Calm down. I know your both scared, but don't let it distract you. You'll be fine."
Both acknowledged what he had said and look a little better, but not much. Naruto felt his stomach seemed to become weightless before gravity promptly got a hold of it again. They had defolded. And Skull Squadron was launching as quickly as they could. Naruto watched as the handling officers began signaling him and his men for their appropriate take off points. Naruto eased his Alpha into position for the catapult and waited for the deck crews to give him the signal. After what felt like an eternity, they signaled him to take off. Naruto shoved the throttle forward and felt the G-forces press him into his seat as he was hurled out into space. After a moment of feeling calm and relaxed, he check his display and saw his men were already formed up on him. The blonde looked to see that the fleet at Liberty was getting hit hard. Naruto smiled darkly.
"This guys wanted to drop a surprise on our forces, huh? Well…we'll just give them a little surprise of our own. Fox Flight, let's go!"
The three fighters hurtled into the fray, ready to defend their fellow soldiers.
