Eh, didn't have my heart much in this one. It's the second of two parts, so I hope you don't mind. The routes will be joining very, very soon...
Chapter 5 (Tara) – Vega Attacks! Macross Under Siege! (Part 2)
The Macross was on high alert after the initial attack. Citizens were evacuated into massive escape pods that could be jettisoned at a moment's notice, and all eighteen squadrons of Variable Fighters were to be scrambled…even Milia Jenius, the mayor of Macross was out there waiting for the Vega Empire's next attack.
Mylene Jenius, the youngest daughter of Milia and Max Jenius and bassist for Fire Bomber, was off on her own, looking to do her part to help in the defense of her home, as well as to impress Basara. Wandering the hangar, she happened upon Tara, who was working on finishing adjustments to Lifthrasir alongside several Variable Fighters and their pilots, who were also working on their machines, Gamlin being among them.
As soon as Mylene spotted the ace pilot, she called out to him.
"…Gamlin!"
Both Tara and Gamlin looked up to see her. Tara recognized her from Fire Bomber music videos, and immediately frowned.
Great…here comes the one thing standing between me and Basara.
The enmity she had for Mylene was common among the more rabid female Fire Bomber fans, something that was only exceeded by their insane love for Basara himself. Not wanting to even listen to how annoying her voice was, she stepped into the blue portal, and dropped into Lifthrasir's cockpit. Xemmey started up in response.
"My sensors indicate that you may be experiencing some rather strong negative feelings. Care to share them with me?"
"You're a computer, not a psychologist. You can't help me," Tara said dismissively.
"If you were more psychologically complex, perhaps you would have to see an actual mental health clinician. However, I must sadly admit, you are easier to read than a simple math problem," Xemmey replied. "You harbor a great deal of ill will to Mylene."
"She's an annoying little twerp who doesn't deserve to share the stage with Basara Nekki. That's all."
"My point exactly…you are shallower than a puddle on a sunny day," the computer replied. "Your standards for men can only be met by Basara Nekki himself."
"Hey, who's the boss around here?" Tara snapped.
"I am merely stating the facts."
"Shut up! Who do you think you are, my mother?"
"No, but…"
"Another word about this out of you, and I'll upload Boss' favorite video game into your hard drive!" Tara said with a leer and a rather unnerving smirk. Xemmey hesitated.
"…Very well. I'll say no more of this."
"Good. Let's recalibrate the beam tonfas."
The Cyber Beast Force, the four pilots of the Super Beast Machine God Dancougar, awaited the arrival of Zero not far from the Kururugi Shrine near Mt. Fuji, where they were told he would be by Zero's associates in the Black Knights.
Sure enough, they saw Zero's custom Burai coming over the hill. He had just come from a conversation with Taizo Kirahara, the man in charge of the shrine, and leader of the Kyoto House; he was now only the third person to know his true identity.
The Dancougar towered over the Burai, but Zero stepped out of it with the utmost confidence. Shinobu Fujiwara, the leader of the Force, was the first to approach Zero, but the masked man was the first to greet him.
"Shinobu Fujiwara, I presume," he said.
"It's about time you showed up, Zero," Shinobu said harshly.
One of Shinobu's co-pilots, Ryou Shiba, laughed. "Yeah, any longer and Shinobu would have beaten you over the head with the Dan Kuu Ken!"
Zero was silent for a moment as he looked up at Dancougar.
"I do appreciate you agreeing to meet with me. Dancougar is a very valuable Britannian weapon, one that could easily turn the tide of battle. Do you wish for a liberated Japan, as I do?"
"If we get to pound that jerkass Shapiro Keats into the dirt, it's fine with me!" Shinobu replied. The red-headed female of the group, Sara Yuuki, nodded in agreement.
"That's it? No demands, no questioning of my motives? You're just going to go along with my plans? I have no particular quarrel with Shapiro, mind you." Zero replied, surprised at how quickly Shinobu had decided to go along.
"Shapiro is practically the darling of the Empire," Sara said, disgusted by that very notion. "He cares for no one but himself, but he pretends to be loyal to the Emperor, and says exactly what they want to hear.
Alan wasn't kidding when he said they were eager, Zero thought, remembering his conversation with Alan Igor. Well, he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He would know their true nature for this upcoming mission. Would they be able to stain their hands with innocent blood if it came to that? It was something he was all too familiar with already.
It wasn't a moment too soon that the Macross' defenders finished their preparations than did another alarm sound: The Vega Empire was massing its forces for their real attack, and there were far more forces this time: at least two hundred and forty in total, a mix of Saucer Beasts, Slave Monsters, Beast Fighters and UFO Robos. The Variable Fighters were about sixty in total. They were outnumbered 4-to-1 at best.
Gamlin watched as Daisuke and Koji, in Grendizer (within its UFO-shaped Spazer) and Double Spazer respectively, swooped into position. It already seemed like Koji was getting the hand of piloting the fighter that served as Grendizer's wings.
"Glad to see you finally found a pilot for the Double Spazer," Gamlin radioed Daisuke. "It's too bad we couldn't save Mazinger Z."
"Ah, save it. We'll get it back!" Koji declared. "But wow...there's way more than last time!"
"Attention all units," the voice of Milia, mayor of the Macross, said over the communicator. "Our mission is to keep the enemy from entering the city long enough to mount our counteroffensive: the Battle 7 and Nadesico will move in and attack the command vessel with their main armaments."
"The Nadesico's back in action? Nice!" Ryoko cheered. "Okay, ladies and germs, you heard the lady...keep these bozos busy!"
"Koji, prepare for Combination Cross!" Daisuke said. "Chute In!"
"Right, sure," Koji said with less than wild enthusiasm.
"What about Akito?" Kallen said, looking back at Macross. "Is he still holed up in there? I know it's hard losing your best friend...but it's been three days now. I'm worried about him."
"Worry about him later, Kallen," Tara replied. "Xemmey, let's rock!"
Akito sat quietly in the darkness, with the Gekiganger 3 episode featuring Joe's death running on continuous loop to provide light. Of course, Akito was practically in a trance now, having gone for three straight days without food or sleep. But suddenly a tremor from a stray missile that struck Macross jolted him out of his torpor.
"Huh? What's going on?" he thought out loud, rubbing his eyes as he got up for the first time in days. "How long have I been..."
Akito felt his stomach growl and moan, desperate for any sort of sustenance. He stepped out of his quarters and noticed that there was literally no one around. When he looked up at the great dome above the city, he caught a glimpse Ryoko's Aestivalis swooping by.
"Oh no, this place is under attack? I...I...gotta go help!"
His stomach churned again, but Akito knew that he had to fight.
Basara stamped his foot in frustration as he looked out at the battle. It wasn't fair that he was sitting on the sidelines while everyone else, even Mylene's mother, was out fighting. Basara abhorred fighting, but he wasn't one to just sit back and do nothing. Gamlin of all people knew that the Sound Force could be helpful beyond just fighting Protodevlin, yet refused to admit it.
Suddenly, he heard someone running by right towards one of the hangars. Was there someone else who wasn't willing to go to the shelters?
It was Akito, though he was in too much of a hurry to notice the rock idol just twenty feet from him, and Basara certainly didn't recognize him. Seeing this made him decide: he would go out there, Milia's orders be damned.
"Hey, wait up!" Basara yelled to Akito as he rushed after him. The young man skidded to a stop when he recognized Basara's voice. To the rock idol's pleasant surprise, Akito seemed rather unexcited to meet him.
"Oh? Aren't you Basara Nekki?" Akito exclaimed, wiping the black tear streaks off his eyes with his sleeve. "Why aren't you in the shelters with the other citizens? I bet your fellow band members are too."
"I'm not gonna sit around while our guys try to defend themselves from this senseless attack! Where are you going?"
"I...I...I'm going out to fight. I'm...I'm not scared! I might die, but I'm not scared! Listen, we can talk more later."
Basara could tell that this kid was putting on an act, and decided to give this kid some real courage. Nothing a little hot-blooded rock-and-roll couldn't fix...
"Yurika, we're receiving a request for permission to launch," Jun exclaimed as the group was making their preparations for the Nadesico's launch.. "It's...Tenkawa!"
"Akito! I knew he'd come back to us!" Yurika cheered. "Akitooooo!"
"Hi, Yurika; everyone...I'm sorry if I worried you."
"Just as long as you're not sitting around being useless," Megumi quipped as she readied Akito's 0G Aestivalis for launch.
"Yeah! This kid'll show you just what he can REALLY do!" Basara said over the communicator.
"Akito, you do realize that's rock idol Basara Nekki talking, don't you?" Ruri said in her usual blunt tone. "The citizens of the Macross will never forgive us if he dies out there."
"Hey, cool it, kiddo, so I can show you the power of my song!"
"Okay, Basara, you are cleared for launch," Megumi said. "Akito, keep him out of trouble, okay?"
"Sure, I guess. Let's go, Basara!"
The battle was not going very well. While the Aestivalis, Lifthrasir, Grendizer, Guren and Aphrodite A were avoiding the worst of it, the Macross had already lost some good men to Vega's powerful horde, and they were struggling just to maintain their position.
"…Sayaka!" Tara cried when she saw Aphrodite A take a nasty hit from one of the Beast Fighters. She wheeled Lifthrasir around and rushed at the monster, beam tonfas primed to kill. She opened up a portal in front of her, set its exit point to behind the monster, and zoomed inside, popping out right on target, and beheaded it with one shot.
"Tara, I'll be okay…" Sayaka grunted. "Thank you for saving me, though."
But suddenly, Tara's ears perked up, as a familiar sound filled her ears. Even for all the crazy stuff that she had just been through, she couldn't believe it.
A red Variable Fighter was zooming in, along with Akito's maroon Aestivalis, but the more amazing sight was Basara Nekki; his Variable Fighter, a customized VF-19 Valkyrie, was being controlled via a guitar. The rock idol, furthermore, was belting out one of Fire Bomber's many hits…
"…POWAH TO THE DREAM!"
Omigod it's him! It's Basara Nekki! Tara thought as her heart raced with excitement. He's singing live…he's even better than in music videos…
Even those who were not huge fans of his immediately felt invigorated by his music, their energy renewed and their souls aflame with passion. In reality, Basara was infusing all of them with the power of Spiritia.
Even the currently bummed out Koji felt himself fired up by the rock idol's music.
"Daisuke, let's show them what we can do!" he yelled excitedly. "We'll hit 'em full force with our combined strength!"
"Indeed! Let's go!" Daisuke replied eagerly. "Minions of Vega, prepare yourself! SPACE THUNDER!"
"CYCLONE BEEEAAAM!" Koji bellowed.
The two attacks, sweeping through the horde, managed to off quite a few Beast Fighters and UFO Robos. Meanwhile, the Variable Fighters, their morale regained, moved in and began unleashing a veritable blizzard of missiles at the enemy, taking out thirty more.
Tara, meanwhile, decided to try something new: she created a portal near her, then set its exit point right in the middle of the swarm of monsters. She then pulled both rifles and charged them.
"LIFTHRA DIVIDER!" she yelled out.
The lasers landed in the portal as two straight beams, but came out as numerous beams, shooting down another five. Her attention turned elsewhere as she fired another pair of shots at an incoming Saucer Beasts, blasting its head off. The two portals began to close automatically as the fabric of space-time started to right itself.
The tide was beginning to turn in favor of the Macross' defenders.
General Blaki was beside himself with rage and confusion. Just moments ago, he was on the verge of victory. But the arrival of that single red Variable Fighter had somehow reversed the tide of battle completely. And that song…even he could hear it, and it drove him crazy.
Then it hit him.
A human…a low-life human…had become the Anima Spiritia. Not a Vegan, nor a Boazanian, a Fleedian, not even a Zentradi, who had kept the secret of Spiritia in the first…but a miserable human; Blaki couldn't stand it.
His intense rage made him ignore something increasingly obvious: two battleships, one of them transformed into a super-massive robot, coming from around the colony, both charging weapons.
The Vega general couldn't scream the order to retreat any louder when he finally saw them.
His ship just barely managed to evade the Nadesico's Gravity Blast and the Battle 7's main cannon, though 90% of his force was wiped out in the process…which was far more than anticipated by the planners of this strategy.
When the two blasts met, they interacted with something, creating a full-blown rip in spacetime, pulling in the nearby forces like a black hole. When Tara realized what was happening (and somehow, she knew), she furiously hammered the blue button to keep anyone else from getting devoured by the portal, even as she was being drawn to it. By the time it was over, only Blaki's ship and a few Saucer Beasts remained, while all of the Macross' defenders that remained avoided the unusual vortex.
"These Earthlings…could they have mastered portal weaponry already? I must report to Emperor Vega!"
Blaki's ship and the remaining troops turned tail and ran, leaving the Macross' defenders stunned but victorious.
Ruri, as if compelled to understand what had happened, played the footage from the battle back again and again. She could have sworn that something was drawing in all those troops from the Vega Empire, but it was there and gone in less than the blink of an eye.
"Omoikane, slow the footage down as much as you can. Pump up the frame rate as well while you're at it.
The ship's computer did so, and began playing the footage back at a whopping 6,000,000,000 frames per second, the absolute limit that it could go. Suddenly, a mere five frames revealed the truth: Tara's portal had not yet completely closed, and the combination of the Gravity Blast and the main cannon of the Battle 7 over-energized it, turning it white…just like the ones those winged soldiers used, only far less stable.
Lifthrasir…just what is it truly capable of? Ruri wondered. And could it be related to those winged beings?
She would have put those answers on hold. The Nadesico still wasn't fully prepped for traveling to Mars, and there was still much to be done.
Out of nowhere, the portal that had swallowed the Vega forces began to shake, and the fabric of spacetime distorted, as if something else was coming through...
Next time...the routes join!