The Freeman Chronicles

by Basara549

An accident during the recovery of a derelict Zentraedi ship turns a family into the focal point of a shadow war between forces trying to manipulate history to their own ends. But, not even the manipulators can predict the final result of their actions, or the actions of those changed in the process.

10. Book Three, Part Nine

Robotech: The Freeman Chronicles

Book Three: The Promise

By: Stanley Bundy

I dedicate this book of R:TFC to the following:

The Alan Parsons Project, (who at one time had all 4 parts and the book named for their music), Queen, Tina Turner and all the other musicians of my youth;

All my choir teachers, through the years, who had the courage to teach pop, rock and show tunes in an area where some people still preach that all pop music is the work of Satan (now if I could figure out why the bastards in the music company gave the sopranos the lead in "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "California Girls"...)

Once again, Miles Yount, this time as the player of Alex, and Shannon Jones, as the comic relief in the form of Tensen;

The cast and creators of Xanadu, who subliminally manipulated me into making Karen Freeman what she is ("...and do you believe me now, Sonny?"). I didn't catch all the weird connections until a friend pointed them out to me while watching the movie, after reading my handwritten rough drafts;

Don Bluth, Lynn Ahrens, Donna Lewis and Richard Marx: I originally wrote this book of my tale in 1989-90, but it wasn't until October 1997 that I started typing it in, and mid-December that I finished Part Nine. In the middle of this, the song "At the Beginning" from Anastasia came along and blew me away, as it could just as easily have been Alex and Noel's love theme. The other two major songs just as easily could have been part of this story as well, but I'm not going to go THAT far in stealing music.

All the other musicians whom I've "borrowed" lyrics from for my epigraphs;

and all the fans that have been bugging me to finish typing the story in. Can't a guy work on his gaming files for a while? =)~.

When you need a friend,

Don't look to a stranger;

You know in the end

I'll always be there.

And when you're in doubt,

And when you're in danger;

Take a look all around

And I'll be there.

I'm sorry, but I'm just trying to think of the right words to say

(I promise you)

I know they don't sound the way I planned them to be

(I promise you)

But, if you wait around awhile I'll make you fall for me

I Promise you, I Promise you, I will...

- When In Rome, "The Promise"

Part Nine: Hopes and Dreams

Chapter One:

"On a countdown to zero,

take a ride on the nightmare machine;

There ain't gonna be heroes,

There ain't gonna be anything.

Oh, Here it comes, here comes the night

Here it comes, hell in the night

Here it comes, here comes the night..."

- Def Leppard, Gods of War; from the album Hysteria

2 January, 2029, 1:54 AM

Recreation Room, 15th Alpha Tactical Armored Company Barracks

Second Lieutenant Alexander Hamilton Tyler, M.D., stood in the dark, gazing out into the night through the panoramic window of the barracks lounge. In the faint peacetime lights of the access road and parking facilities, he could see the surrounding terrain's sharp outlines. It would be many years before this desert would again resemble the Montana where he was born in 2009.

2009: The year the Zentraedi found Earth, though the civilian populace was kept blissfully unaware of this for over a year, until Khyron's mad attack on the SDF-1 over the suburbs of Toronto. How could it be just 20 years ago that he was born into a world that no longer existed? He and his parents survived the Holocaust of 2011, only for him to be orphaned when his home got in the way of the last survivors of Khyron's mecha forces as they fled ruined New Macross, where Khyron died, taking much of the RDF command with him.

Living with his godfather, Hikaru, he began home-schooling at an early age, watching his parents' old science fiction videos and his godfather's anime in breaks between studying. By 8, he was taking classes meant for early high school, and began study at the Gloval Memorial School for Gifted Youngsters. Surrounded by others of similar potential, he finished high school at 12, and continued on in the school's university branch until he had to transfer, in order to go to graduate school. Along the way, he joined the Southern Cross, to fund his education, as Hikaru had died in 2026. Now, he found himself in temporary charge of a combat unit, of all things!

He still watched the old videos, now and then. Kirk & Spock, Apollo & Starbuck, Londo & G'Kar, Donovan, Julie and his namesake, Ham Tyler; he knew them all by heart. But his favorites to watch were classic anime, such as the Gundam, Orguss, Dirty Pair and Yamato series, all in the original Japanese that he had been taught by Hikaru, who had come to the US prior to the Global War. How the animators and scriptwriters of the anime must be laughing at us from their graves, he thought. So many of their visions had come to pass... A devastated Earth, seemingly abandoned by its best, civilian and military despots in control of what remained. How they must laugh.

Suddenly, his reverie was interrupted by someone tapping on his shoulder. He turned to find one of the corporals under his command.

"Alex, you having another rough night?"

"Yeah, Louie. I don't think I'm cut out for command. I'll be glad when the new XO gets here, tomorrow night. You know as well as I do that my rank's due to my M.D., not my leadership skills. Dammit, why can't Sean keep his hormones under control? As it is, I'll STILL probably end up as XO due to his screwups, only under someone with no time in grade. I doubt he'll remain an officer much longer, if he isn't discharged outright."

"How did you end up in a combat unit, anyway? Someone with your skill and degree should be in research; at worst, practicing at a base hospital."

"My specialty was xeno-medicine, including the Zentraedi, but I wasn't even considered for a research position, while several of my classmates were chosen, some of whom were known to falsify data! Every one chosen held grudges against the Zentraedi, and went into the specialty for the express purpose of trying to find biological weaknesses in Zentraedi. I'm almost convinced that Research wants to scrap the old RDF ban on biological weapons, and it scares me. What about you, Louie? In my time here, I've seen you pull things with our equipment and your own little toys that were supposed to be impossible. Why aren't you working in mecha R&D?"

"My choice was simple, Alex. I didn't feel that I should use my ideas to build weapons, or be told what to make, either. I noticed the same tendencies you did, in Research, and figured that I'd be much better off fighting aliens individually, than trying to commit mass murder against them. If the Zentraedi are human, and were created from their Masters' genetic material, doesn't logic indicate that the Masters are human as well?"

" I know what you mean. But the time that the SDF-3 has been gone seems to indicate something went wrong. We may have to fight the Zentraedi, or even their Masters, here. But I don't want to do it as a unit commander; I'm a doctor, dammit! I'm supposed to help people live, not order them to kill, and be killed!"

"Speaking of orders, have you heard anything yet about our new XO?"

"Nothing official, but I have a few ideas on who it might be."

"Could it be Sterling? That would explain why you're not getting transfer papers to a hospital unit. Her foster father would want a specialist near her, in case she got sick or injured."

"Maybe, but I hope not. I dated her once - ONCE. She tried to rape me -"

"You've got to be kidding."

"Nope. If Emerson hadn't come to my rescue, I don't want to think about what might have happened. That was a couple years ago, and I was still a virgin then. I wasn't quite ready to lose it in that manner, on a first date! She's a nice enough person to pal around with, once you get to know her socially, but heaven forbid she asks you out. Her views toward relationships are akin to Zentraedi views on combat."

"Have you met her sister, Noel?"

"Sister?"

"You haven't then. Noel Freeman was adopted by a couple members of Skull Squadron; Shannon Freeman, and his Zentraedi wife, Kayra. Noel was left with Emerson, just like Dana and Bowie Grant were."

"Freeman... Wasn't he the guy who killed the traitor, Edwards?"

"No, that was Shannon's brother, Scott. Come to think of it, Scott was married to a cousin of Max Sterling, so the families must have been really close."

"Interesting; I wonder why Dana never mentioned her."

"Could it be that Noel is shy, quiet, extremely intelligent, very beautiful, and supposedly the best shot in the Southern Cross Robotech Academy, including the instructors?"

"How do you know her?"

" I met her once, at the jazz bar in town that Cadet Grant sometimes sneaks into to play piano. When he goes, Noel goes to listen, sometimes sing, while Dana tags along to keep them out of trouble."

"Just how good a shot is she?"

"I heard that, in training two weeks ago, she bullseye'd the target with all 30 shots from an old M-16 assault rifle, from 500 meters, in less than a minute."

"Impressive, but not impossible."

"But she was firing it without a scope, and all 30 shots hit the same 3 centimeter area."

"You've got to be joking."

"I'm not. The range supervisor thought she must have missed the target several times, so he pulled her target. When he removed the cover sheet, all 30 slugs fell to the ground, in a fused clump. He immediately put in for ALL of his built up leave time."

"Do you blame him?" Alex looked Louie square in the eyes; for once, Louie was without his trademark goggles. "Didn't think so. Louie, do you think things will ever be normal, again? You know, the way the older generations describe the time before the Zentraedi. I sometimes find myself wishing for the days when alien invasion was something you watched on TV or at the movies as entertainment, and you had to travel through miles of woods and grasslands to get to a desert, instead of vice-versa."

"We can't look back, Alex. All one can do is get on with what life has given us. Go back to bed, and get some sleep. Remember, you have to represent us at the graduation ceremonies tomorrow."

"If I have to take Sean's place in one more ceremony, I'll solve all our problems by neutering him! But, you're right as always, Louie. I'll see you in 5 hours, at breakfast, and you can tell me more about Noel Freeman. You've got my curiosity piqued."

Chapter Two:

"The cycle repeated as explosions broke in the sky

All that I needed was the one thing I couldn't find

And you were there at the turn, waiting to let me know..."

-Linkin Park, "Burn it Down"

2 January, 2029, 2 PM

The graduation ceremony was a media circus, for several reasons. First was the scheduling, so that the ceremony coincided with the 15th anniversary of the destruction of the SDF-1 and New Macross. Second was the fact that this was the first wholly Southern Cross graduating class from the former RDF Robotech Academy. Last was the change of venues, from the spacious auditorium on the Academy grounds, to the UEG continental parliament building, a half-kilometer away, in order to include ceremonies involving the first reason.

Anatole Leonard, the pompous political general who led the Southern Cross, gave the graduation address. While he didn't directly play up the presence of Bowie Grant (nephew of the SDF-1 martyr Claudia) in the graduating class, he did harp long on those events, making an accidental spectacle of himself when he listed off the SDF-1 bridge crew victims of Khyron, and forgot to list one of the bridge bunnies.

The unit assignments were given out inside the diplomas, but weren't made available to the audience until after the ceremony. As a result, they were long gone by the time that Alex found out that Dana was, in fact, heading for the 15th, along with Bowie and Noel. Alex had been shocked when he finally got to see the latter. If anything, she was even more beautiful than Louie had described. No wonder Dana kept her dates from meeting Noel, he thought.

He made his way through the seething crowd of departing relatives, to the retro-designed jeep that had been issued for the use of the 15th. He threaded it through the parking lot, using his military credentials to get access to one of the cross-streets that had been closed off for security and crowd control. He cruised down it to the academy, where he again used his position to get a space reserved for visiting officers (which he was, technically). He then began his search for the three graduates.

He checked the women's dorm first, to find out that Dana and Noel had checked out before graduation, and had their bags moved to Bowie's room. Armed with that knowledge, he headed there. As he approached, he could hear the sounds of a guitar coming from the room, accompanied by a beautiful female voice - definitely not Dana's - singing the old ballad "Scarborough Fair". He waited for the song to finish, then knocked on the door.

"Come in," Bowie called out.

Alex stepped into the room, to find Bowie sitting on a beat-up bar stool, guitar in hand. Dana was lying on Bowie's bed, legs overhanging the foot, and her feet on the ground. Noel... Noel was leaning on the window sill, sipping spring water from a squeeze bottle. The way the sunlight played off her hair and highlighted her form made Alex hesitate a second in the doorway. He quickly composed himself.

"Hi, Dana; it's been a while."

"'Hi' yourself, Alex. Did I ever get around to telling you that you had a cute butt?"

"Yes, when you tried to molest me. Let's cut to the chase; I'm here on official business."

"Really?" Dana asked coyly. "What kind?"

"I'm here to welcome you to my squadron."

"Your squadron?" Bowie questioned. "I thought Sean Phillips commanded the 15th?"

"He does;" Alex replied, "at least when he's not in the place with the vertical blinds." Dana chuckled at the reference, being more familiar with the scuttlebutt surrounding Phillips' exploits.

"Such as now?" Dana asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah, and when he's indisposed, I'm stuck with his job - at least until you report for duty, Dana. By the way, you've not introduced me to the other lovely lady in the room, and I don't mean you, Private Grant."

Noel recognized the cue, and responded. "Private Noel Freeman. And you?"

"Second Lieutenant Alexander Hamilton Tyler; but you can call me Alex. Don't bother with my rank when we're not around the brass; it came with my medical degree."

"What did I tell you, sis?" Dana teased. "I always said I'd introduce you to a doctor sometime."

"Dana..." both Alex and Noel responded, Noel blushing. Alex tried to change the subject.

"Noel, I heard you singing as I came up to the room. You have an incredible voice."

"Thank you. Are you a musician?"

"I play the sax a little; both tenor and alto. How long have you been singing?"

"My 'Aunt Karen' originally worked with me, along with my mother, starting when I was six. Actually, Karen wasn't my aunt, but my Aunt Marie's best friend; they babysat us often, when either or both sets of parents had flight duty. Both Karen and Mom were professional singers, though Mom was blacklisted during the Malcontent wars, because of her being a Zentraedi. Karen, on the other hand, recorded two albums before leaving with the REF, including several songs with Minmei and Janice Em."

"Karen... Karen Ellison?"

"Yes, that was her."

"I've been looking for copies of her albums for years."

"I can make you copies, if you'd like. But, after Karen and my family left, Rolf arranged for Bowie and me to study with some of Minmei's voice and piano teachers. I think we broke their hearts when we chose to go into the military with Dana."

"How well do you remember those days, before the REF left?"

"Quite well, actually; I have an eidetic memory - what used to be called a 'photographic memory'. Speaking of photos, I think I have a photo of us with Karen and Marie in my travel bag. It was taken Christmas, at my sixth birthday party. Dana?"

"I'll get it." Dana began rummaging through Noel's gear, finally pulling out a small photo album. "Here you go; if the surroundings seem a little odd, it's because the photo was taken at the bottom of the barrel of the old Brasilia Grand Cannon. Parts of it were converted as a habitat, and we used to live there. I remember Mom and Dad joking that they had to help Santa deliver our presents, as we were at the bottom of the world's biggest chimney."

Alex looked at the time-worn photo, of the two little girls posing with their babysitters. Dana was in Karen's lap, Noel in Marie's. The resemblance caught Alex off-guard. "Dana, have you and Noel ever noticed how much you look like them?"

"I never really noticed before, but now that you mention it... But that's not too strange. After all, Noel's aunt was my father's cousin, so there's bound to be a family resemblance. And Noel's always tried to look like either Karen or Kayra."

"Even then, to the point of hair color?"

"Don't tell anyone, but Mom and Dad used to have my hair dyed some sort of aqua color, half way between her natural hair, and his dye job," Dana commented, diverting Alex. "I'm just glad they let me go natural before I started kindergarten-"

Dana's recollections were cut off by every alert siren in Monument going off, simultaneously, followed a second later by Alex's duty pager.

"What the hell? Alex?" Dana looked to him for an explanation.

"Let's see... Priority message coming in... The authentication code is correct for today; the rest - Oh, God..." Alex almost dropped the pager, from shock.

"Alex?" Bowie asked, jumping over to his side to steady him.

"The code is 'zero_zero_alpha'."

"Which is?" Noel asked nervously, dreading the answer, as the sirens continued to wail behind her.

Alex tried to explain it slowly, to convince himself that it was really happening, if anything else. "The first number is the scope. A nine is unit-level, on up to a one for a planetary alert; a zero is a solar-system wide alert, and hasn't been used for real since the system was established. The second number is the priority rating. A high number is a casual warning, a middle number something to be done today, a one being something to be done immediately; a zero means everyone who isn't bedridden or dead reports to duty station even faster. The last digit is a number, for drills and low priority messages; letters are reserved for special cases, such as terrorist attacks, disasters, etc. We've got to get back to the ATAC barracks."

"What's the code mean?"

"The worst possible code, alpha, is an alien attack. As a zero_zero message, it means either an invasion, or a Dolza-style bombardment is imminent."

"Zentraedi?" Noel asked, warily looking out the windows.

"Probably not. Code zebra is specifically Zentraedi. Alpha means that the aliens are totally unknown, based on the data the Zentraedi gave us."

Suddenly, someone pounded on the door, causing them all to jump from nervous reflex.

"Alex, are you in there?"

"Louie? What are you doing here?"

Louie stepped in. "I guess you've gotten the notice, huh?"

"How long have you known?"

"About an hour ago, several large vessels, bigger than Zentraedi ships, were picked up approaching the Moon. I left to come get you then, keeping track of the broadcasts with my special equipment." He touched his goggle frames, that Alex knew concealed a receiver that picked up military channels, not to mention signals from the descrambler set that Louie had as a relay unit in his quarters. "While I was looking for you here, Moon Base and the Way Station Liberty between Earth and Mars were both attacked, and went off the air from jamming, if not worse. That's when the alert sirens finally went off. I guess someone managed to keep a cool head longer than we thought he could."

"Or else Leonard was having a late lunch after the ceremony, and Emerson was in charge. Take your pick, but I'd bet on the latter. Well, you're here now. Make yourself useful, and grab their gear."

"What about the rest of my things?" Bowie asked. "I was only half-packed."

"Leave it; you can come back later, if the aliens give us a chance. I don't think they'll throw out the belongings of a General's godson, without asking first."

"Colonel Fredericks? What are you doing here?" Alex asked, surprised to see one of the top officers in the GMP waiting for them as they entered the barracks. They had drove at breakneck speed back to base, to the point where the jeep would probably need transmission work before it would be usable again.

"I'm here to make sure your unit is responding correctly to the alert, Lieutenant. Especially since your commander had gotten himself locked up for contempt of court in his military inquiry, right before the alert sounded. I see you're just now returning from the graduation ceremony."

"Yes, sir. I was picking up Lieutenant Sterling, and privates Grant and Freeman when the alert sounded, and felt it would be best to bring them directly in, since their graduation leave would most likely be canceled anyway."

"You made the correct decision. Now, are you ready to assume command of the 15th, until we have the ability to reconvene Phillip's inquiry?"

"No, sir, I am not." Alex's reply caught Fredericks off-guard.

"And why is that?"

"Colonel, I'm not a line officer; I received my commission as a result of my medical degree. On the other hand, Lieutenant Sterling is a line officer, Academy-trained, and has a better knowledge of tactical situations. Furthermore, I was supposed to relinquish my position as Lieutenant Phillips' executive officer to her upon her arrival here, but the alert caused us to arrive earlier than planned."

"Do you agree to this, Lieutenant Sterling?"

Dana suddenly felt like someone had set a Destroid on her shoulders. "Yes, sir," she replied, though not completely thrilled with responsibility this soon.

"Then, God help us, Lieutenant Sterling is now in temporary command of the 15th ATAC, until such time as Lieutenant Phillips is indicted, or cleared to return to active duty."

"The 15th won't let you down, sir," Dana responded, trying to be confident.

"We'll see, Lieutenant. We'll see."

Chapter Three:

"The second generation of Robotech Warriors differed from their forefathers, in that they had spent their entire lives preparing for war, instead of having it thrust upon them like the people of Macross. Some were more prepared than others, and two were more prepared than they had ever imagined."

- from Rand's The History of Earth 1995-2035

From The Collected Journals of Alex Tyler (annotated autobiographical version)

"The next four months were spent preparing for a follow-up attack that never came. Dana settled into her position as "temporary" commander of the 15th, much to the chagrin of many a member of the unit, as she had several things going against her at this point. She was a teenager; only Bowie and Noel were younger than she was. She was a woman, in charge of a unit previously known for its, well, less savory reputation. She was half-Zentraedi, at a time when we didn't know one way or the other if the aliens overhead had any connection to the Zentraedi. Lastly, there was that "temporary" tag she had. Until something was done about Sean, to clear up the command once and for all, she was hard-pressed to get the clowns she had been given under control.

"It was during this time that I began getting to know Noel better. Louie had been right on target, in some aspects. Noel and I shared many interests, especially in musical areas, and I often acted as chaperone, so to speak, in taking Bowie and Noel to places that were supposed to be off-limits, in order for all three of us to perform. The three of us all were more the type that would rather perform, than fight; which made the incident in May, just prior to the resumption of hostilities, rather ironic. Dana took us on a 'joyride' to the barracks of Marie Crystal's 15th TASC unit, and inter-unit rivalry erupted into a full brawl - where the three of us did more damage to the flyboys than the rowdy members of the squadron.

"Bowie, of all people, threw the first punch, and that's when everyone (but Dana and me) joined in, Dana screaming repeatedly (and half-heartedly) for the fighting to stop. I tried to go to Marie Crystal's rescue, figuring that, with her help, Dana and I could stop the fight. She kept inadvertently getting involved in others' fights, so when I approached her, she assumed I was the next attacker, and started tearing into me. I did my best to try to convince her I didn't want to fight, but all I got out of it was giving as good as I got, and we beat each other fairly black and blue. Noel was showing her true fighting form, having disabled three of the TASC pilots, two by misdirecting them into each other, and never was touched offensively the entire fight. In fact, she was looking for more opponents when we heard the approaching sirens of the MPs.

"We split up, and by some miracle well all made it back to barracks - except Dana. She got pulled in by her old classmate, Nova Satori, the next morning, leaving me in command again, as Sean was finally going to face his court martial that week. Ten days later, the enemy made their move on Earth, and I was dreading actually becoming a combat leader. Luckily, the rumors that she'd be sprung in case of enemy activity proved true, and she rolled into camp, just as I was about to lead the troops in her stead."

"Dana? Thank God you're here!" Alex was never more glad to see her walk through the ready room door, as he'd been about to take the unit out into real combat for the first time.

"Don't thank God, thank Fredericks. I think he wants to see me screw up, so he let me out to come back and lead you guys. So, let's prove him wrong. Let's move, 15th!"

The squadron scrambled to the powered ladder that went to the mecha bay, and was soon on the way toward the battle zone, where Battloid units were being totally routed by the faster alien mecha.

Initially, they used the howitzer mode of the Hovertanks against the fast-moving mecha; but while it did prove successful in getting one-hit kills on the aliens, it also made the Earth mecha more vulnerable, and several of the 15th paid the price. Dana ordered the 15th to go to Battloid mode, and to concentrate on the aliens' hover platforms, to limit their mobility. However, one of the enemy Bioroids, the only red one, seemed to not be really hampered by the loss of its transportation. While Alex and Noel managed a successful crossfire that took out three Bioroids, Dana soon found herself in a very evenly matched battle with the red; a battle that ended up with her running into Alex & Noel's field of fire, and forcing to drop their guard to avoid hitting her, resulting in all three being surrounded.

"Angie! Where are you? We're pinned down and need some help breaking it!"

"I see you Alex! I'm about a hundred meters away, at your seven. Hang on, and I'll cause a diversion!"

Angie got his Battloid into a run, then did a thruster-assisted leap to directly behind a blue Bioroid. He activated his outside speakers and yelled at the enemy. "Hey, Ugly! Wanna dance?" As the Bioroid spun around, Angie practically put the EU-11 barrel up to the Bioroid's head, and pulled the trigger, dropping it instantly. The other two blues pinning the others down turned toward him, giving Alex and Dana shots that dropped them, as the red jumped to safety.

At this point, one of the alien drop ships arrived, distracting almost everyone - but Louie. He transformed back to howitzer mode, and tried to take a pot shot at the red Bioroid. The shot missed, but hit the transport. At that instant, all the surviving Bioroids abandoned combat, and fled back to the transport; Louie's accidental hit had evidently did more damage than actually showed. The transport took back off for its mothership, leaving a tired and confused 15th ATAC to pick up the pieces.

"Angie, what in HELL did you think you were doing?" Alex snapped at the burly sergeant.

"It worked, didn't it?"

They made a quick scan of the battlefield, but found no survivors from the destroyed mecha on either side. It appeared that, at least in this battle, you either survived unscathed or died, and there were almost equal numbers of each, counting the dead Battloid pilots they had been sent to reinforce, but were gone when they got there. The survivors then transformed their mecha back to transport mode, and headed back in to base, for a well-deserved cold beer, and some time to reflect on the events of the day.

They arrived home to find Nova waiting for them, Sean in tow. The court martial, despite Sean's confidence, had found him guilty, but sent him back to his unit anyway - as an E-2. As a result, Dana was now the permanent CO.

"What did I tell you, Louie? Less than 6 months, and I'm already XO again," Alex moaned.

"It could have been worse, Alex. She could have gotten demoted for her offenses, too."

"Don't remind me..."

Chapter Four:

"No battle plan survives contact with the enemy."

- One of "Murphy's Laws of Combat" (Anonymous)

3 July, 2029

From The Collected Journals of Alex Tyler:

"Today was one big FUBAR. It's a miracle we survived.

"It started off with a near-suicidal frontal attack on one of the enemy ships in low orbit, using most of Monument Sector's trans-orbital fighter squadrons. The first wave was made up Spectres, flying at their altitude ceiling, and Redhawk Veritechs. The Spectres didn't belong there; at that altitude, they handled worse than a cargo plane on landing approach. I should know, having logged about 20 hours a week in simulator time in my days at the then-combined RDF/SC academy, trying out the sims of every aircraft in the SC inventory. As for the Redhawks, they were okay. But they were few, the VAF-4B being a stop-gap measure brought about by the still-unexplained cancellation of the Centurion & Privateer projects, and the delays in the AJACS. Besides, the VAF-4 was a derivative of the VAFX-2 Veritas test-bed project that was the ancestor of the REF's VAF-5 Alpha and VVF-1 Vindicator, and it showed its age. Plus, it had never really outgrew its undeserved reputation as a widowmaker, that resulted from the Petrey/Cyberpirate incident. One of these days, I'm going to have to ask Dana about the part she played in the exposing of that mess.

"As expected (by me, at least), the fight was short, bloody, and entirely in favor of the visiting team. As the debris from the first wave began raining down on the suburbs of Monument, the Black Lions launched. Unfortunately, it was also about this time that the enemy turned off their AA batteries, and sent out their mecha teams. At least the Lions stood a chance of surviving the encounter; they were the only TASC unit in North America that exclusively used the Logan fighter (barring their duty as test pilots, presumably for the AJACS project, back in December). While others maligned the Logan as a "Flying Rowboat" (indeed, at 6 meters long, it's about the right shape and length), Crystal and her pilots had perfected the use of vectored thrust in flight with the VTOL craft, taking a cue from the pilots of the pre-Global War British Harrier pilots. This type of piloting, all but ignored by the rest of the SC air forces (who were too dependent on computer control), made the Black Lions unbeatable in last year's war games.

"Back to the battle... While the Black Lions were on their way up, we were stuck guarding an area of absolutely no strategic value whatsoever; probably some UEG senator's dildo factory or something." (Actually, we found out years later that one of the buildings in the office park was one of Zand's "extra-curricular" research facilities. A.T.) "The casualty numbers were starting to come in over the command circuit; we got to listen to it, and the battle, thanks to Louie's penchant for tinkering. Then, the reports came in that the enemy was moving on Fokker Field in a retaliatory strike. The Black Lions were the only unit still cohesive enough to fall back to defensive positions, and we could see from our vantage point, 4 klicks away, that they were getting hammered. Finally, Dana couldn't take it any longer, and ordered us in to assist. Angie squawked about it, and chose to stay behind - until Nova rolled in less than a minute later, and Angie preferred combat to trying to explain Dana's actions to the GMP.

"Whatever rivalry Dana and Marie have , they don't let it interfere with their duty. In fact, they seem to complement each other on the battlefield, in more than one meaning of the word. Maybe it's the synergy of Marie's head for strategy and Dana's gut instinct for the right risks, at just the right time. Our abandonment of our post was proof of this ability of Dana's, as we slid onto the airfield just in time to save Marie from certain death. Of course, our arrival caused the attackers to change their priorities, as we had bested them before. In fact, the damage patterns on the lead, red, mecha identified it as being the same one we had fought before, and it apparently recognized us as easily as we recognized it.

"The battle got real ugly, real quick, and we began splitting into pairs of mechs, in order to prevent a single strafing run from taking out half the unit. Dana & Bowie, Angie & Sean, Louie and Jordan, Noel & me; each pair, back-to-back in Battloid. Of course, the enemy liked playing in teams as well, sending in groups of three from both directions at once. Only Dana wasn't getting the treatment, but she had her own problem, as 'Big Red' decided to make it a battle between unit leaders. Dana was none to happy with this, especially as it kept shrugging off her laser hits. Finally, she went with a tactic it wasn't prepared for, and shot the probable cockpit area of the flying troop carrier that had brought the enemy in. With that, the enemy quickly retreated, leaving the spaceport a mess.

"The fight was over, but we dreaded what we might hear when we got back to barracks, as we'd abandoned our post to go into battle. At least we were able to get Marie to come back with us, to speak in our defense, and to get me to do a check-up so that she wouldn't have to wait hours for one at the med center, from having to wait for all the critical cases to be handled. She got a clean bill of health, but I doubt the 15th will be as lucky with the brass."

5 July, 2029

"A lot has happened since the battle. First of all, despite her talking on our behalf, Marie thought Dana would be lucky to get off with just not being punished for her decision. Instead, Dana got a promotion out of the incident. We found out that we were going to be ordered in to assist, but the order wasn't issued until we were engaging the enemy. Dana had managed to anticipate the order, and had we waited for the order to actually reach us, Fokker field and the Lions would have been wiped out. In fact, at the time that the brass heard we had begun engaging the enemy, they were actually lamenting the fact that they had waited so long to order us in, and were sure we couldn't act on the orders in time to save the base. Unlike Marie, I'm thrilled that Dana's getting the promotion, as it makes it that much more difficult for Dana to get busted back down to where I'd be expected to take command again.

"Dana showed up at her promotion ceremony with all the tact of a Black Panther at a Klan rally, throwing puns and sight gags in all directions. I half-expected the brass to put the promotion back into his pocket, and turn her over to Col. Fredericks (who was present) for psych evaluation. But, they went ahead and gave it to her (thank God), even if they had to bite their tongues to keep from commenting about how Dana's VHT sprouted rabbit ears to go along with her 'rabbitechnology' puns. But then, I'm just glad that we stopped using the squadron nickname "Playboys" when Dana was made our CO, and that no one tried to make Dana or Noel wear a 'bunny' suit at the party, like what happened with females present at Sean's last party as CO (then again, that party was one of the incidents cited in his court martial). The party lasted till 0400, and it was a bunch of unhappy, hung-over ATACs that had to go out on patrol at 1000. I'm still trying to catch up on my sleep, and I left the party at 0100!"

13 August, 2029

"I wish Dana had spoken to me before volunteering us for the shuttle mission. Mom was born the day that Challenger blew up, and my grandparents named her for the teacher on board. Now, Dana wants me to go up on a COMMUNICATIONS mission in a shuttle - the Challenger IV. Isn't it bad enough that the Challengers II & III ALSO blew up, albeit at the hands of the anti-unionists and Zentraedi? I don't want to go out like my mother's namesake. If I die in this war, I want to go out with a gun in my hand, not a microphone!"

Chapter Five:

"It's so simple, so very simple,

That only a child can do it..."

- Tom Lehrer(20th Century musical satirist) The New Math

13 August, 2029

Dana, Alex and Marie Crystal were in Emerson's staff room, along with the mission team for the other shuttle, being briefed on the mission. The general's aides and advisors were giving them their first full briefing of the day on the shuttle mission. While Emerson himself had given the official, short, briefing, he was sitting back now, letting his aides test their briefing skills on subordinates. It was also one of his tools for detecting problems in his own plans, as he could more objectively study it as an observer. The major began his interpretation of the briefing...

"We've known for quite a while that Luna Base survived its sole encounter with the enemy. They were able to send a laser message back to us, listing their status. As you know, though, the large amount of dust and debris still in orbit from Dolza's destruction makes laser communications unreliable, and it took several days of analysis of the repeating laser signal to rebuild it completely. Now, we've received another message, that we weren't expecting - REF Communications Base Liberty out in the asteroid belt.

"The people at Liberty took an ingenious route to contact us. Too far away to try a laser, and with civilian and military subspace channels jammed, they knew, as did Luna, that a direct radio message would also be jammed. Instead, they sent their message to a solar science probe in a polar orbit around the sun, which then relayed it to Earth as part of its data stream. Unfortunately, it took a month before the scientists got far enough into the data to discover the message, and relay it to us. Since the discovery, we've been able to use standard optical telescopes to confirm that the station is indeed functional, and not a trap like Sara. Unfortunately, the probe can't be used for two-way communication.

"However, we've come up with a solution to this, ironically because of Sara base's destruction twenty years ago. When Sara was built, we had not yet been able to duplicate Zentraedi subspace technology. The best we had come up with was a very inefficient FTL system, that had an effective range of only several light-minutes, without relay stations; it's tech that either the Zentraedi's creators never had, or abandoned long ago when they developed communications that use the hyperdimension that are used by fold travel. In order to communicate with Sara, multiple relay satellites were put into orbit, spaced in two orbits roughly one-third and two-thirds the distance between Earth & Mars orbit, every thirty degrees. These stations were mothballed in place when Sara was destroyed, and by the time we recolonized Mars, we had plenty of the Zentraedi communication sets to use instead."

"What's our part in this?" Dana asked.

"That obsolete communications system is disrupted by passage through an atmosphere, even one as thin as the one on Mars. But, we have a couple weather satellites retrofitted with laser transmitters and the special broadcast equipment that we launched last week, that the aliens haven't bothered with because their sensors don't register them as military or communications hardware. These will be used to communicate between Earth and the old relays, once they are activated. However, activating the old relays can't be done with them, as they require a more conventional signal - and it will take getting beyond the orbital jamming to send that wake-up call - if those satellites can even be woken up. Complicating matters is that the off-planet bases don't have the activation codes, only we do. So, we have to send a potentially suicidal mission into one of the gaps between the orbits of the alien ships to attempt the activation. We're sending two shuttles for this job. Each will attempt to contact one of the two closest satellites in the closer orbit. Waking just one satellite will cause it to send signals to the others to activate."

"

"So, what will the shuttle complements be?" Dana asked.

"The shuttles selected are ones primarily meant for things like satellite launch and recovery, so are lightly armed. They require a pilot, co-pilot, a communications tech for the transmissions, and there are three defensive gun turrets, one of which can be handled by the copilot. The bays are large enough for two Redhawks, or four small mecha such as Logans or Hovertanks."

"Why only five crew?" Alex asked. "With two gunners, and a radioman, that would only leave either the pilot or copilot to go out if mech support was needed, with the other remaining behind at the controls. The shuttle can seat six; eight if the two extra mission workstations are installed. Why not use that space for three more mecha pilots, so that we can send out all four mecha and still keep some of the shuttle guns firing?"

"We didn't want to unnecessarily risk more people than we have to, and we expected a lack of volunteers. If you can get three volunteers from your own unit, we'll put in the extra seats for you. What about you, Borgnine?"

"My squadron's currently inactive from losses in the last battle, sir. There's just enough of us that I can crew the primary shuttle completely, and provide one of the pilots for the other. As Crystal's and Sterling's units have had the most success so far in combating the enemy, it would be best to crew the rest of the second shuttle from their troops."

"Fine, then. Report to Fokker Field at 0800 with all your equipment. Launch will be at 1000."

Half the active duty 15th ended up on the mission. Alex, Dana and Angie manned the three weapon stations, Bowie the radio station, and Noel took sensors, assisting Marie. Lt. Heideger, the volunteer from Borgnine's CU squadron, had the pilot's chair, while Marie rode shotgun. Alex was starting to feel more at home on the shuttle, as it had been his insistence that got Dana to the launch on time. He also made sure she left her fashion magazine behind, as he was sure it would end up floating around the shuttle in everyone's way if the artificial gravity went out, which the class of shuttle had been notorious for in training missions (but, then, that could have just been sadistic instructors).

Alex was needed for another reason. Bowie's congenital heart condition was corrected as a child, but this was the first time since the Hunter wedding that he'd been in space, and the first high-g military liftoff for him as well. For that matter, it was the first space shot for Dana & Noel in just as long. As the liftoff stress eased, and the artificial gravity kicked in, Alex got up and checked each of the others, starting with Bowie. All were normal, with only the high pulse and blood pressure one would expect from liftoff. As he wrapped up the checks by checking himself, the other officers began discussing strategy with Borgnine. Because he wasn't occupied, he was the first one Noel went to with the sensor data.

"Alex, I've detected position shifts by two of the motherships."

"Any indication of their vector?"

"Toward us."

"Great." Alex stood up, and walked into the conference. "Folks, we've got company coming."

Everyone went quiet, and Marie asked, "How much company?"

"Two big, bad ones."

"Well, so much for trying to do this quietly. Every, take your positions. Bowie, how soon can we contact Liberty?"

"Not for a while. I can try satellite activation as soon as we're fifty thousand kilometers out. It will take about five minutes from the time of activation for the antenna to realign to point toward Liberty, so we can expect a reply about a minute after that - IF everything is in working order."

"Get ready to raise your antenna -" Marie cut her command short, as she saw the other shuttle accelerating. "Borgnine! Cut your engines! Retrofire!"

"We're trying, Crystal, but nothing's working! I've got a runaway, and the computer's down."

"Eject, dammit!"

"We can't. The escape pod would just continue on a collision course, with something that large."

"Their mecha!" Noel yelled from the back of the pack. "Have them launch!"

"Borgnine, do it! At least four of you will make it out that way," Marie added, seizing Noel's inspiration and making it an order.

"Right." He turned to the others on his shuttle. "GO! Get out of here! I'll take care of the shuttle. Don't bother with putting on your suits until you're clear and retrofired off the collision course!"

The others left through the access way to the cargo bay, and Borgnine sat back down at the controls, trying desperately to buy the others as much time to launch as possible. The Redhawks were two-seaters, so the other four on board could escape. As the twor Redhawk gerwalks cleared the shuttle, and began flying away from the shuttle, he sent one last message. "Good luck, Marie, John; you're on your own." Seconds later, the Potemkin impacted against one of the two motherships, blossoming into a blinding flash of light, visible as a momentary star in the afternoon skies of New Detroit and Manhattan. The Redhawks themselves were pretty much out of combat, as it would take every bit of reaction mass they had just to alter their course to get back to Earth; staying around for combat would be out of the question.

The destruction of Borgnine's shuttle had varying effects on the crew of the other shuttle. Angie and Marie were the least affected outwardly, though it did unnerve them a bit. Heideger had tears streaming down his face, from both grief and rage, as Borgnine had been his squadron XO, and they had been two of only six uninjured survivors out of a wing of sixty pilots. Alex whispered a quiet prayer for the dead he had learned in a literature class in college. Bowie was visibly shaken, and was crossing himself in prayer as well. Noel was sobbing on her console, not wanting to look up at the aftermath. Dana had the strangest reaction of all; she just sat there in shock, staring at the image of the ships in the targeting monitor of her weapons console.

However, the crash appeared to have no effect whatsoever on the ship it hit, or its defenders. Within seconds, the shuttle was pounced upon by the several of the alien troop ships, acting as fighters since their only weapons were forward-facing. Some made a half-hearted attempt to chasee the two escaping Veritechs, but massed missile fire from the two proto-Alphas deterred pursuit. The shuttle wasn't as lucky, as they HAD to stay in harm's way to complete their mission. However, the shuttle's weapons appeared to be up to the task, as it only took a few hits for them to destroy the larger red craft. Conversely, the transports' weapons seemed to have little effect on the armor of the shuttle. But, one gun on the shuttle wasn't firing.

Dana was still in shock from the destruction of the other shuttle, and repeated attempts to rouse her by simple talking failed. Finally, Marie hauled back and slapped some sense into Dana, bringing Dana back to the verge of coherence. The enemy finished the job, as they finally got a hit in good enough to shake the shuttle, with the impact close to Dana. Within seconds, Dana was firing back, back to normal.

"Nice to have you back, Lieutenant," Dante commented, as Dana's fire quickly became the most accurate from the shuttle.

"Thanks, Angie; but tell Lieutenant Crystal if she ever slaps me again, I'll chuck her out an airlock."

"You and what army?" Marie snapped back between shots, but with obvious humor intended.

They continued onward, their course taking them uncomfortably close to the two motherships, but it couldn't be helped. Slowly, the enemy started to get more accurate hits, and everyone was getting nervous; especially Bowie.

"Lieutenant Crystal; I need the shuttle on a steady course before I can send the signal."

"I'll do what I can, but the enemy's blocking our flight path..." Suddenly, the incoming fire stopped, as the attackers broke off at high speed. "I don't like this."

"Like what?"

"What did the Zentraedi and RDF always break off from an incoming enemy for?" Alex asked, already knowing and dreading the answer.

"A main gun shot - they can't be serious!" Marie exclaimed. "Do you know how hard it is to hit a target as fast and small as we are?"

"I'm picking up a directed force field," Noel called out from the sensor station. "Probably the guidance for a particle beam projector."

The beams lashed out, barely missing the shuttle, as Marie made evasive maneuvers.

"Evidently they don't care how difficult it is,"Angie commented. "You were right, Alex, but I wish you hadn't been."

"Like I wanted to be right?"

"Hang on, everyone," Marie called out through the clutter. "I'm going to get us in closer."

"Closer?"

"Weapons like those don't have a maximum range to speak of; at least not short enough to do us any good. However, if we get in close enough, they won't be able to traverse fast enough to hit us."

Soon, they were almost "under" the ship, if the original orientation of the assault ships that attacked them earlier was any indication. The rapid particle beam fire had stopped when they'd cut their previous distance in half, and other types of weapons fire had yet to take its place.

"Nice move, Lieutenant," Angie commented. "What do you think they were up to?"

"They probably thought we'd panic and try to pull back. If we had, we would have been vaporized." Marie then turned her attention to the surface of the ship. Noel; any sign or the AA batteries that took out most of the fighters in the last battle?"

"Not yet; they could be retractable."

"This thing's gigantic," Angie understated. It's like flying upside-down over the Death Star."

"And who are you supposed to be, Angie?"Dana teased. "Chewbacca?"

"Grrr..." Angie growled, trying to break the tension.

"I HATE creepy silences," Bowie commented.

"I suppose you'd rather have them still shooting at us?" Angie joked, still playing the comedian.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Alex said, joining in.

"Cut the comedy back there!" Marie snapped. "Private; any luck sending the signal yet?"

"I can't be sure... there's a lot of interference from the other ship."

"Then, I guess we'll have to pull further out. Get ready to resend the codes."

"Ready, and waiting."

"John, take us up," she said to the pilot. "I'm going to suit up, to take some of the heat off of you."

The AA fire started the instant they pulled back out from the ship, followed by three assault ships' worth of Bioroids. Luckily, the closeness of the shuttle to the mothership prevented the Bioroids from using their platform guns, limiting them to their hand-held weapon pods. Marie finally launched her Logan, and was immediately set upon by the Bioroids. She managed to take out four before taking her first minor hits. Then, the red Bioroid turned its attention to her. She managed to avoid it at first, taking down another half-dozen blues in the process, but it hit her hard as she moved to protect the antenna. Alex was first to jump up to go back to the hangar, and join the fight. There was just one problem...

"Dana, get back here!"

"What's up?"

"That last hit knocked your tank loose. I can't get into mine, until yours is moved!"

"I'm hit!" Marie cried out, from outside. "Dana; it's that red Bioroid. He's too quick for me!"

"Hang on, Marie! Alex and I are on our way!"

"Thanks; the more the merrier."

"Bowie, any response yet?"

"No, but it's not been long enough yet. Ask me again in a minute."

"Dana, Alex! Form a circle with me!"

The two Hovertanks quickly formed up with the smaller Logan, and began making quick work of the blues. Finally, the red tried its luck again.

"Dana, Red's coming your way!"

Dana had got the pattern of the red's evasive moves, and led one of its anticipated turns. It played directly into her play, and was blown off its platform by her shot.

"Got him!"

"Good shot!" Alex commented, "But a blue grabbed him on the way by, and is hauling him in. I get the feeling we'll see him again soon. At least they're retreating, now." He then turned to Marie, whose Logan was badly shot up. "You think you can get that leaky rowboat back into the cargo bay?"

"No problems some Bondo won't cover up," Marie joked, the wisps of smoke from several slug holes showing the boast was a little exaggerated.

"Guys, I got some bad news," Angie reported as they were closing the cargo bay.

"What is it?"

"Heideger was hit by a power surge from the nav computer. He's out cold; maybe comatose. Noel's found a weak pulse, but we'll have to keep a close watch on him on the flight down. At least he got us on a course back toward Earth before it happened."

"Damn! I'll be up there to help you with him in a second," Alex replied. "Find out if there's a blanket in the survival closet, and wrap him up in it, and move him to my station." Just when they thought they'd made it through unscathed, this happens.

"On the other hand, check this out. Bowie, switch it to their com channel."

"- is Space Station Liberty, calling Earth. Do you copy? We have relayed your message to Moon Base. Repeat, Moon Base has resumed contact as well."

"Bowie, send them confirmation, and when to expect the communications system to come on line full-time."

"Yes, ma'am."

Alex parked his Battloid mode Hovertank, and tried to open the airlock to the crew section. The door refused to open, giving a red light in response.

"Hey, Angie! Close the airlock door!"

"It is shut, Alex."

"That's not what the indicator says!"

"Let me check..." A minute passed. "Lieutenants, you're not gonna like this. One of the hits during the battle warped the door frame on this side. The air lock's not usable."

"Then, who's gonna fly us back in?" Dana asked.

"Angelo, can you turn on the auto-landing system?" Marie asked.

"No ma'am, I can't. I tried to turn it on when I found Heideger. It was one of the systems that got fried with him."

"Great. Are the telemetry and flight readouts still functional?"

"More or less. I'm not sure how reliable they'll be after the surge, but they appear to be functioning normally."

"Then, you'll have to land us," Alex replied, realizing why Marie was asking.

"WHAT?"

"Think of it as a video game. I've seen you fly sims; this is not that different. Marie will give you constant instructions, until we get to where Monument can take over helping you. Put Noel in the co-pilot seat, to help you. Have Bowie monitor John for me, and keep me appraised on his condition, on another channel."

"That, I can do."

"Sergeant, don't worry;" Marie said, trying to calm Angie. "Flying one of these shuttles is easier than falling out of an alert bunk."

"Why don't I like the sound of that?"

A half-hour later, the shuttle rolled to a stop on the tarmac of Fokker Field, and the crew debarked, the officers having to jump/fly their mecha out of the cargo bay.

"Sergeant, that was an excellent landing," Marie complemented.

"Don't thank me, thank Noel. She anticipated every command you gave, including the reentry procedure. She flew that shuttle like she could have done it with her eyes closed. All I did was relay your commands, and help with the flight stick."

"Are you joking?" Dana couldn't believe it. "Noel's never been in a flight simulator before, let alone a real cockpit."

"Maybe she takes after her parents," Angie chided.

"Not likely, seeing how she's adopted," Dana fired back.

"Anyway," Marie interjected, trying to change the subject. "It's probably worth a promotion to her, not to mention a medal of some sort."

"You'll have no argument from us on that," Dana replied, as the others nodded their approval.

The six headed to debriefing, as soon as Alex made sure Heideger was stable. After the debriefing, they and the crew that escaped from the Potemkin went to a bar and bought a round of drinks in the memory of Borgnine, the only fatality on their side. The fact that his death had been a freak accident was not lost on them. All the skill in the world wouldn't stop a cruel twist of fate.

Chapter Six:

"That night, in the ruins of New Macross, was when it finally dawned on us how close we'd become. How she acted instinctively, to save my life at the risk of her own, was not only a sign of our bond, but an ominous portent of things to come."

- Alex Tyler, describing his relationship with Noel Freeman, in Hopes and Dreams: The Personal Relationships of the Second Robotech War, by Claudia Hunter Telon

2 November, 2029

"So, who's got patrol duty tonight?" Alex loudly asked Dana in the barracks lounge, over Bowie's stirring piano rendition of the Spinal Tap classic "Lick My Love Pump". It had been over ten weeks since the space mission, and everyone was starting to go stir-crazy from the combination of constant alert with total inactivity. If it wasn't for the presence of the alien ships at the L-5 Lagrange point, things would otherwise seemingly be back to normal.

"I haven't made up my mind yet," Dana replied. I'm about to go nuts, sitting here while the enemy sits up there, neither of us doing nothing. All of us are. All the while, the Brass keeps us from having leave, citing 'imminent danger.' " Dana said the last two words parodying Leonard's pompous accent.

"So, you're thinking about taking it yourself, then?"

"Yes, and taking Bowie as well. I know he's starting to lose it; it's the only time he plays music from old comedy films, like that instrumental he's banging out right now. Trust me - you don't want to KNOW where it came from, and what it's called."

"Are you sure? Maybe you're confusing that piece with another."

"I don't think so. Besides, before you came back from your volunteer shift at the hospital, he led the entire squadron through a rendition of 'Men in Tights' - choreographed!"

"And they went along with it?"

"Every single one, except Noel and me, and she was doing the choreography!"

"This is worse than I thought." Alex could picture the scene in his head, and just the ABILITY to do so scared him. "Got room for two more on the patrol?"

The patrol was one of those make-work types that military commanders seemed to love, to send people out into secure areas in order to find absolutely nothing. Essentially, they were to drive out to the border of the New Macross Reclamation Zone and back, at a speed that made it unlikely to notice things anyway. Dana and Bowie left their bike helmets in the garage, against SOP, but Noel wore hers, and was unusually insistent that Alex wear his - not that he would have gone riding without it, being all too familiar with what can happen to a person in a crash without one.

They rode out in a festive mood, racing some times, doing stunts at others; an uninformed viewer might think they didn't have a care in the world, or a real reason to be out there. Along the way, they stopped for a while at the ruins of Alex's childhood home. He had sold it after Hikaru's death, and it was destroyed by a wildfire two years later. He picked through the rubble a while, coming up with a couple of old Indian arrowheads that, as a boy, he had stuck behind a loose rock in the fireplace.

He rejoined the others on a bluff overlooking the old Macross/Monument highway, watching the sun go down. As he looked at the others in the fading light, a strange, old memory seemed to come out of nowhere. A memory of Dana, Noel, and two others on this same bluff, but with him only as a boy. He shrugged it off, figuring it was just his mind playing tricks on him.

They continued on toward the New Macross ruins, and were about to go further than the patrol was intended, when the call came in from headquarters.

"Dana," Bowie shouted over the wind roar, "HQ says we need to return to base, right now! There's been some strange activity in orbit by the aliens."

"I don't know whether to be happy or afraid to hear that," Dana joked to the others. "Okay, let's come about, and-" Dana stopped short, as she noticed strange lights in the distance. "Do you guys see what I see?"

They all turned to look in the same direction as Dana. In the middle of the New Macross ruins, a highly restricted area, the glow of lots of artificial lighting could be seen, including a stray spotlight beam.

"Yes, Dana, we do," Alex replied to the rhetorical question. "It looks like somebody's lighting up the center of Macross sector brighter than a ball field."

"But, who could be doing it?"

"I dunno, Dana; and I'm not exactly eager to find out, either."

"Bowie..."

"Just kidding!" Bowie replied, though they could all tell he hadn't been. There was something creepy about the now-buried ruins at night; some described it as a feeling of being 'haunted'. But, in reality, few had died in the city's destruction, and most of those were on the two SDFs.

"Okay, then; let's check it out."

"But, what about headquarters? Shouldn't we call in?"

"Alex, if they're that interested in us, they'll come looking. Besides, there's a good chance that the people with the lights could be monitoring our communications. I don't want to tip them off that we're coming." Alex had to concede the possibility.

They took off down the ruined road toward New Macross, using only the lead bike's war-subdued headlight to light the way. Twenty minutes later, only a ridge of dirt and debris separated them from the source of the lights. Amazingly, no sentries had been posted on the ridge. Quietly, they crept up the ridge, and looked into the heart of the old city - the filled crater where the three dead ships were buried.

An amazing panorama was before them. On the far side of the lights, a fully functional spaceship was grounded. It was about the same size as the Southern Cross' largest interplanetary shuttle, and probably served most of the same purposes. The lights that had drawn them here appeared to be some sort of autonomous bipedal robots, with spotlights for bodies. In turn, these robots were illuminating the SDF-1 mound for a group of Bioroids, who were busy digging into the mound, as if searching for something.

Suddenly, they could hear a voice they "knew" was coming from the red Bioroid, yet no speakers were visible, no echos were present, and it was unhampered by the noise of the digging.

"There can be no mistake," the tinny voice stated. "The creatures of this planet have attempted to disguise the Protoculture with a radioactive substance." The Bioroid walked around the area, scanning the mound with a giant hand-held sensor. "You will notify the mothership that our calculations were correct; we will make further preparations to excavate."

The four ATACs' curiosity was getting the better of them as they peered over the edge, watching the blue Bioroids move around heavy equipment. Finally, Dana realized that headquarters HAD to be told of this, and she motioned for the others to begin pulling back.

Without warning, the Red turned toward them, vocalizing (?) "I sense an enemy presence."

"Geddown! Freeze!" Dana whispered curtly to the others. Alex and Bowie needed no encouragement, but both Noel and Dana quickly looked back over the edge after ducking only briefly.

Suddenly, it hit Alex. "Bowie," he whispered; "that voice we've been hearing. We're hearing it with our minds, not our ears! It's some kind of telepathy."

"What's wrong with Dana and Noel?"

"Huh?" Alex looked up at the girls, who seemed to be transfixed by what they saw. He hoped the 'deer in the headlights' analogy that popped into his head was not a correct one. He and Bowie edged back up to where they could see as well, and saw the alien. He was human, or very close; tall, lean and handsome. Alex almost felt jealous that Noel was staring at the man. Something about the alien's appearance nagged at Alex, possibly from his studies in school. The man seemed familiar; but how, from where? Then, Bowie slipped, sending a stream of gravel cascading down the slope toward the aliens.

"Just as I thought!" the telepathic shout went out, as his mouth definitely didn't move. "There they are! Do not attempt to escape! You will remain where you are! Lights! Sentries, take them!"

"Oh, great!" Alex moaned. "You've done it now, Bowie. Let's get out of here!" Alex shouted to the others, who really didn't need the encouragement, as they scrambled back down to their hoverbikes. "Dana, you and Bowie go one way, Noel and me the other. Hopefully, it'll throw them off!"

"Sounds good!" Dana shouted back, too shaken by her experience to come up with a plan of her own. "See you when we get out of this!" Dana hopped on her bike, taking off with Bowie down the road they'd originally followed the lights in on. Alex and Noel took off a second later, down the avenue that used to lead away from the Daedalus. After a few seconds, Alex called back to Noel on their helmet radios, to get an estimate of the situation.

"How many are following us?"

"Two blues; they're gaining on us. Take evasive! They're raising their gun pods!"

The Bioroids began firing wildly at the two cycles, more in an attempt to unnerve and cause a crash, as oppose to actually trying to hit. This made the tense situation even worse, because if they'd been aiming, at least an attempt could have been made to dodge the attacks. Suddenly, Noel drew her bike even with Alex, then dove off her bike into him, sending them both tumbling off into a pool of water. As he fell, Alex saw his hovercycle explode in a ball of fire from a direct hit.

The water was cold, but their tight uniforms and helmets kept out much of the water. Alex tried to surface, but Noel pulled him back down. She held him to her for a long minute, their faceplates touching. Finally, they rose to the surface together, to find the Bioroids gone.

"Noel, why did you do that? I could have drowned."

"Would you rather have been captured or killed? I know CPR, if it came to that; and besides, you had plenty of air trapped in your helmet. We had to stay under, to convince them we were dead."

"I hate it, but you're right. But, why didn't you warn me what you were going to do? When did you notice he was going to shoot me?"

"I didn't have time; and I truthfully don't know how I knew. I just... just knew you were in danger."

"Did you see where your bike went?" Alex asked, quickly changing the subject. "It's a ten mile hike just to get back to the patrol path. It would be morning before we'd get back to where they'd actually be looking for us."

"Isn't that it, over there?" Noel pointed to an angular shape, sticking out of a ditch.

Alex walked over to the ditch, and found the bike sitting right side up, but nose down in the ditch at an awkward angle. He slid down the back of the seat, bracing himself on the foot rests, and restarted the engine. He adjusted the throttle and thrusters, then boosted it backwards out of the ditch, almost throwing himself of it in the process.

"How does it look?"

"Driveable, but not very fast. The front gear's bent. Well, do we go back to base, or go looking for Dana and Bowie."

"Dana's in trouble; she needs us."

"How do you know?"

"Trust me. For some reason, ever since we were little, we've been closer than if we'd been real sisters; twins, even. When one of us is in trouble, the other knows."

"I find that a little hard to believe, but we'll go look for her."

"Thank you, Alex."

Chapter Seven:

"I've really, truly fallen in love with Noel. If anyone else is actually reading this, you probably figured that out by now, and it doesn't make any difference who knows. But, with the events of the last wee or so, a whole new level of complexity has been added to our relationship, and it's bothering her a lot more than it does me. Questions like 'Who is Noel Freeman, really?'; 'Where did she come from?'; "Who are her real parents?' I know she wants - even NEEDS - to know these things, but what if the answers are NOT what she wants to hear?"

- The Collected Journals of Alex Tyler, entry dated 11/4/2029

They found Dana on the path towards the south, nursing a sprained shoulder. Alex broke open the first aid kit on Noel's bike, and put a sling on Dana's arm. They then managed to all squeeze onto the one hovercycle, and began the long ride back to base, expecting pursuit to start any second. But the pursuit never came. Any other time, Alex would have been thrilled to be sandwiched between two good-looking females (well, probably more so if one wasn't Dana). But, with Bowie in the hands of the enemy, there was a real damper on their spirits on the trip back.

As luck would have it, the hovercycle finally gave out from its abuse as the reached the base perimeter, and they had to walk to the guard shack to request a ride to headquarters. There, they received a lukewarm welcome from General Emerson, who was glad to see the girls alive, but was even more worried about his godson. The debriefing didn't last very long, at least not for Alex and Noel. They were let go after filing their reports, and they waited outside for Dana. While waiting, Alex asked Noel some questions that had been haunting him.

"Noel, I was wondering something. How well do you remember your parents, and the people you grew up with?"

"Mom and Dad were pretty busy as part of Skull Squadron. They gave me everything I ever wanted, but they always seemed overprotective of me. Most of the time that they weren't there, I was babysat by at least one other member of Skull; either Miriya, Marie or Karen. That is, unless it was a full alert, in which case Dana's 'uncles' Rico, Bron and Konda would watch us. They were funny; almost like having the Stooges for babysitters. When they weren't being silly, they taught us about the Zentraedi culture - what there was of it, that is."

"Do you remember anything about your birth parents? According to your records, you were adopted at age five."

"Not really, though I think the Freemans were their friends. The earliest memories I have are from before the time of my adoption, but the Freemans were part of my life even then. I found some pictures of me with the Freemans, looking as young as two, posing with Uncle Scott and Aunt Janet. They're reprints, dating from a few months before the adoption, according to the print dates."

Alex got a sinking feeling, in the pit of his stomach. Noel's answers, instead of dismissing his suspicions, went even further in shaking the foundations of the official story of her origins. A story Alex had began to doubt on the day he first met her, and had been disturbed even further by his strange flashback(?) on the cliff by his childhood home.

"This may seem a strange question, but what is your natural hair color?" Alex had never once seen the type of fading, darkening or unevenness one would associate even with a salon color job, over time, and it was one of the things that always seemed to be pounding on his internal "alert" button.

"This is, silly. Why do you ask?"

Alex's jaw almost hit the floor. All this time, and Noel didn't even suspect? Sure, lots of people have dye jobs; it had come into fashion before the SDF-1 launch, and the fame of Dana's father (with his hair dyed to match his blue Veritech) and the actual presence of these colors in Zentraedi genetics only made them more popular. But to go through life, not realizing you were unique?

"Only Zentraedi have green hair naturally."

"But..."

"With your hair color, it's possible that Kayra may actually be your real mother, or your 'aunt' Karen. But, why would this be such a deep, dark secret that even you were kept from knowing it?"

"I...I don't know," she replied, hesitantly. "Alex, could you please try to find out my past, my real past, for me? I'm not sure who or what I am anymore." Noel was starting to lose what little composure she had left, and Alex couldn't blame her. Her early life had been a total fabrication, and on top of that, she was denied her true heritage as well.

There were only two possibilities; either Noel was half-Zentraedi, or she somehow was a Zentraedi herself. The last wasn't as far-fetched as it sounded, Alex thought. Both Emil Lang and his reclusive former colleague, Lazlo Zand, had sufficient knowledge to reprogram a Zentraedi cloning chamber, and Noel could have be the result of one of their experiments.

"Alex, please hold me; I'm scared." Noel was shivering; whether it was a result of their earlier dunking, or the shock of the revelations of the last few minutes, was the least of her worries.

"Noel, don't cry," he whispered, as he held her close. "I'll help you, no matter what it takes."

"My, my- don't you two make such a lovely scene," Dana said loudly, spoiling the tender moment.

"Alex straightened up, trying to act more formal within earshot of the General's office, while still comforting Noel. "Dana, how did the rest of the debriefing go?"

"As expected. We need to get back to barracks; I have something to do tonight." Alex had gotten to know Dana well enough over the last eight months to know exactly what "something" entailed.

"Count us out, Dana. Noel's having problems, and needs my help. Tonight's been hard on her."

"Is that your personal opinion or your medical one?"

"Both. Now, can we cut the B.S. and get moving? She needs some bed rest."

"Yes, Doctor," Dana teased, only to notice that Noel's knees were buckling. "Alex, catch her!"

Alex caught Noel as she passed out, and picked her up in his arms. "Can we go now, Dana?"

"After you," Dana replied, holding the outer door of the waiting room with a flourish. "By the way, why was she so upset when I came out? I know it just can't be from Bowie's situation."

"She found out that her past wasn't what she'd been told."

"Such that she's half-Zentraedi?"

"How did you know?" they stepped into the waiting elevator.

"I figured it would come out, eventually. I've known as long as we've known each other. That's why our babysitters paid as much attention to her as to me. We were the only two of our kind to survive the race wars in the Southlands, as far as anyone knows. She was classified 'Top Secret' for her own protection. I was too publicly known, thanks to my parents, and my role as a baby in the capture of the Factory Satellite. Having a second crossbreed in spitting distance, as her father would say, would make the two of us too tempting a target for radicals on either side. I was nearly kidnaped several times, and the one time an attempt succeeded, they got Noel as well."

"Really? I never heard of this incident."

"Not surprising, seeing as it was never publicly announced. We were rescued by our 'aunts', Karen & Marie. In fact, it was that mission that introduced my cousin Marie to Noel's Uncle Scott. The kidnapers knew what they had, with me, but not with Noel. It was the fact that, despite her hair color, no one knew she was half-Zentraedi, that the decision was made to raise her to let her think she was totally human. We were tutored privately till 2023, and it was before we entered real schools that Rolf gave me a letter from our parents, asking me to protect Noel's secret, even to the point of convincing her of the validity of the cover story."

The elevator door opened, and they remained quiet as an MP helped them get Noel out of the building and into a jeep Rolf had arranged for them. When the MP left, they resumed the conversation.

"Dana, are you sure you can drive with that bum wing?"

"I can handle it. In fact, get this thing off of me! My arm is all right, now."

"Okay, okay. Just be sure to let me check it out when you get back tomorrow. But, back to the subject of Noel." Alex pulled a blanket out of the back of the jeep, and draped it over the unconscious Noel, who was curled up in a fetal position on the seat. "Do you know who her real parents were?"

"No, but Shannon and Kayra always seemed to act like she wasn't adopted, which is silly."

"Why?"

"Because Shannon would have had to have been twelve when Noel was conceived. I don't think a kid that young could have gotten lucky with a Quadrono, no matter how naive some Zentraedi were. I didn't meet the Freemans socially until early 2017 anyway, except Kayra, who met my mom during the reconstruction of the Southlands."

"That's right. When the bigots destroyed Kayra's singing career, your parents recruited her."

"Kayra was one of the few Zentraedi Veritech pilots not to serve in the 23rd Squadron, because my parents were so impressed by her skills."

"Well, enough of this for now. Start the jeep, and let's go. At least you've given me a starting point for the research I'll have to do to dig up the truth."

"Alex, just take care of her for me; especially if the exercise tonight goes FUBAR." Dana didn't have to define FUBAR, as it was obvious she was referring to the possibility of the squadron - especially Bowie and herself - not coming back.

"I will."

Alex had put Noel to bed, and headed for the ready room, to see if Louie could hack him computer access to several classified systems. He got there at the same time as Dana, to find Dante blocking the door, trying to be a putz.

"Well, well, lieutenants... Did you forget something out there in the desert? Like Bowie, for instance?"

"Move it, Angie." Dana was upset enough about what had happened, and wasn't in the mood to have salt rubbed into the wound.

"Oho! You talk tough for someone who could abandon their best friend like that."

"If I hadn't come back, I wouldn't be in any position to rescue him, would I?" Dana began shifting her weight, which Alex noticed, but Angie didn't.

"May I, Dana?" Alex asked, winking at her.

"Of course, Alex."

"Have some respect for your commanders, dirtbag!" With that, Alex executed a perfect leg sweep, sending Dante crashing to the ground as his supporting leg went out from under him. As he hit the floor, Dana put the heel of her boot on his neck.

"Got it? I thought so. Sergeant, it is my considered opinion that this unit needs some night training maneuvers." She moved her foot, and gave him a hand up.

"Like, in that off-limits area?" Angie caught on quickly.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Sergeant. Get the squad suited up; we're rolling out in 15 minutes. The only two staying behind are Alex and Noel, for medical reasons."

Angie smirked at the last, but figured it was none of his business. Dana, however, wasn't liking the thoughts apparently going through Angie's head.

"You have your orders, Sergeant. Get Moving!"

"Yes, ma'am!" He saluted, then ran back into the male enlisted barracks to wake up the others, who had been catching some illicit shut-eye while their officers were out, as they couldn't have been ordered out without one.

"As for you, Dr. Tyler; don't do anything to Noel that she doesn't consent to. I've heard of doctors like you."

"Hey, I'm a doctor, not Sean Phillips."

"Keep it that way, or you become the third female member of the 15th, if you catch my drift."

"Understood, loud and clear."

Chapter Eight:

"Because somewhere in one of those memories is the evidence. If I get in far enough, I could reconstruct it." - Kevin Flynn, Tron (novelization, by Brian Daley)

Alex started his research in the files he could access legally; Noel's medical and military records. There wasn't much to be found there.

| Personnel & Medical File: Armies of the Southern Cross |

| Last Name: Freeman First: Noel Middle: Karen |

| DoB: 25 December 2012 Height: 165 cm Weight: 50 kg |

| Hair: Green * Eyes: Green Race: Caucasian |

| Birthmarks/Other Distinguishing Features: Scars: 0, Tattoes: 0 |

| Permanent Green Hair color; result of gene therapy accident |

| (Experimental) using Zentraedi DNA, as a child. |

| Immunizations: All current, next due 12/2030 as per schedule |

| Medical History Notes: No major illnesses or allergies that |

| effect combat performance. |

| Full Medical Files Personnel Files Return to Main |

Alex clicked first on the link to Noel's full medical history, and it filled the screen. At least, part of it did. Conspicuous by their absence were any entries prior to 2018, the year of her adoption, including the supposed condition that was the reason for the "gene therapy" excuse for her hair color. He called up the security access page, and entered his override code. The code, under normal circumstances, allowed access to records sealed by court order, such as the parental information of adoptees. Instead of answers, a message came back that he'd never ran into in the medical system before; only in the research system.

The information you have requested is classified, under a NEED-TO-KNOW basis. Only the following persons can grant access to these files, through Security Regimen Delta.

"Regimen Delta? God, somebody must have been paranoid," Alex mused. The security regimen in question was the most intensive ever used, requiring retinal, voice, DNA and password parameters to be met, before the information could be unsealed. Alex took a look through the list of names. All were familiar, but only two were still on Earth.

Hunter, Richard A. RAdm, REF

Hunter, Lisa Hayes Adm, RDF/REF

Lang, Emil Head of Robotech Research, REF Branch

Grant, Jean Surgeon General, REF

Emerson, Rolf BGen, ASC

Sterling, Maximillian Cmdr, REF

Sterling, Miriya Parino Cmdr, REF

Freeman, Scott C. Cmdr, REF

Freeman, Marie Sterling LCmdr, REF

Ellison, Karen N. Lieut, REF

Freeman, Noel K.

Clearance set 4 January 2020

Emerson had clearance; presumably, because of his position as her guardian, as "Bullethead" didn't. Noel was the other, but the password for her would be a guess, at best. Then, he noticed something odd. Noel's middle name was Karen; Karen Ellison's middle name began with "N". A couple of clicks later, and his hunch was confirmed; Karen's middle name was Noel. Another twist in an already twisted situation. Did that mean that Karen was Noel's mother, clone-sister, or what? It could even be a red herring, for that matter, put into the records by the person entering the files, as Karen's middle name was not entered anywhere in the records until the security block was laid down on Noel's records. He bounced back over to the ASC computer net, and went to Noel's personnel records.

| Personnel Records: Noel Karen Freeman |

| Select desired type of Record: |

| Pay Records |

| Military Service Records |

| Birth Certificate |

| School Records |

| Miscellaneous Records |

| Return to Summary |

| Return to Main Menu |

He chose the Miscellaneous Records first, checking to see if there was anything unusual in the adoption or guardianship papers. The documents were there, in perfect order. However, there were no indications as to the identities of Noel's birth parents on the adoption papers. Uncommon, but not unheard of, especially for foundlings. He backed up one level, and selected the birth certificate.

For all appearances, it was a perfectly normal birth certificate - which was odd, because of the lack of parental information. Then Alex noticed a few other things that didn't seem right. He used another terminal to get back into the RDF database, to check out these hunches. He struck gold on the first one.

First, there was the attending doctor for the delivery. Jean Grant was listed, but she was on leave for that entire month, taking care of her own ailing child. Second, the birth location was listed as Brasilia, but the Grants didn't move there until 2014. There were only two possibilities: either the doctor's name had been changed as part of the security classification, or the entire birth certificate was bogus. He suspected the latter.

Of course, asking Dr. Grant (had she not gone with the Sentinels) would have led him back to the circle of people with clearance, so there was an apparent method to the madness of those who set up the facade. But with so many of those listed being with the REF, God only knew where, it was left up to Noel and her guardian to try and pierce this final veil of secrecy.

He checked in on Noel, and found that she was shivering. Their earlier soaking had definitely affected her more than she had initially let on, and she had been the one catching the brunt of the wind chill from the movement of the overloaded hovercycle, being in front of Alex and Dana. He went to her closet, and pulled out an extra blanket, which he used to cover her. He then laid down beside her on the bed, on top of the edge of the blanket, and fell asleep.

Alex had a bizarre dream that night. He was on an alien planet, where he was part of a force seeding the planet with a strangely familiar, yet alien, plant. In the midst of the procedure, his ship departed unexpectedly, followed by the arrival of those he instinctively knew to be the enemy.

A fire fight ensued between the insectoid enemy craft and his fellow troopers, and it was only then, from his equipment, that he realized he was a Zentraedi. As the enemy broke through to the command building, which had both Zentraedi and Micronian sized sections, his team raced to avert disaster. They entered the building, only to hear the cry go out "Zor is Down! Zor is Down!", as the last of the enemy fought to the death against forces that included both Dolza and Breetai, the latter's famous facial wound freshly gained and bleeding. As the fight wound down, he felt himself collapse from his wounds, and everything faded out.

Alex woke with a start; the room was dark, and he could hear thunder in the distance - but there wasn't a storm front for hundreds of kilometers. He went to the window, opened the blinds, and in the false dawn saw the streaks of supersonic aircraft heading toward the ruins of Macross. Not knowing whether this was a good or bad sign, he went back to bed, and collapsed onto it once more, his exhaustion overtaking his apprehension about his unit's situation.

"Wake up, sleepyheads!" a voice yelled out, stirring Alex from his fitful sleep.

"Wha... Bowie?"

"Yeah, I'm alive and in person, Alex. You look like your night was almost as bad as mine."

"I doubt it; but it was a pretty rough night, anyway."

"How is Noel? She slept through my yelling, so she must be out of it pretty bad."

"She suffered a bit of hypothermia last night, when we got dunked in a pond to escape the Bioroids. As a result, she's coming down with a cold. Other than that, she's fine. What time is it, anyway?"

"About 1500."

"1500? I've been asleep almost 13 hours - not counting when the jets going over woke me up."

"Well, you got a lot more than I did. I spent the night locked up in a storage room by Zor, the alien commander. I was nearly electrocuted trying to escape."

"Wait a minute... What did you say the alien's name was?"

"Zor... He's the red Bioroid pilot that keeps giving Dana fits. He's a real hands-on type, from what I can tell."

Part of Alex's dream came back to him. In the dream, the commander was human-sized, and looked exactly like the Bioroid pilot. When he was hit by the blast effect of one of the enemy's plasma weapons, the cry went out "Zor is down!" But, before Alex's persona in the dream fell, that Zor had died from his injuries. And, where had he heard that name before? He'd have to think about it after being awake for a while, and his head cleared.

"Thanks for waking me up, Bowie. I'm not sure your other 'sister' would have approved of where I spent the night."

"Are you kidding? She was the one who found you in here. She thought it was so cute, especially the way you were laying there with your arm around Noel like you were protecting her from something."

"Really?"

"Dana may threaten a lot; but deep inside, she's a born romantic." Bowie looked around, to see if Dana was listening. "She'll never admit it, though."

Noel finally stirred. "Alex, Bowie?" Noel asked, through her sniffles. "How long have I been out?"

"Nice of you to rejoin the living, sis," Bowie prodded. "But, it sounds like you need to stay in bed, though. As for the time, it's after three in the afternoon."

"When did you get back?"

"About fifteen minutes ago. Dana and the squadron rescued me at sunrise, but got pinned down. Help arrived, but it turned into a slaughter when the enemy's reserves showed up." Bowie looked down at his feet. "Maybe it would have been better if I hadn't been rescued."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Bowie. They would have ordered an attack on the ship anyway. If Dana hadn't sprung you, the battle might have been worse, as some of the others might have held back, fearing that Emerson would be upset if you were hurt by friendly fire."

"If you say so, Alex; but how can I be sure?" Bowie went quiet again for a few seconds, then continued. "I'll leave you two to get straightened up, and to decide whether Noel's fit enough to join us for a late brunch in the mess at half-past."

"If not, we'll just have to feed her breakfast in bed."

"Well, I'll see you two later - I need to take a quick shower."

As Bowie left, Noel sat up in the bed. "Well, did you find out anything?"

"Not much. All your birth records are fakes, though. Every approach I've tried so far runs into classified information. The only two people cleared for the information are Emerson and yourself, but there's a password block on it we'll have to try to figure out."

"When can we try to get into it?"

"First, I want you to get better. Besides, it will take weeks to arrange things with Nova for the other ID checks, if we go through channels. I did find out one thing from Dana, though. You're half-Zentraedi, but she didn't know more than that."

"At least I know that much for certain, now." Noel paused. "I also know that I love you, Alex."

"And, I love you, too." The confession of the feelings they'd inferred, but never really spoken before, made Alex a little nervous, among other things. "I'm going to go change clothes myself, and when I get back, I want you to be in your thermal underwear, with your sweats over them, so you'll stay warm during the meal."

"Okay. See you in a few minutes, then."

Alex stood up from the bed, and left the room. He got about ten steps from the door when he broke into a run, finishing in a cartwheel shouting "She loves me!" to anyone who happened to be listening. His day was already starting to look brighter.

Chapter Nine:

"If I ran away

I'd never have the strength to go very far;

How could they hear

The beating of my heart?"

- Madonna, Live to Tell; from the movie At Close Range

18 December, 2029, 4:32 PM

"Why can't we figure out the password? AAUUGH!" Alex moaned, imitating a classic 20th century comic strip character, pounding on the desk, next to the keyboard.

"Calm down, 'Charlie Brown';" Noel quipped back, catching the reference. "We can always go to Uncle Rolf for help."

It had taken six weeks of red tape clearing to get access to the GMP equipment that would allow them to try and break the seals on the information. They had successfully passed all the hurdles, except the most important - the password to the computer lock on the box that held the documents.

"I hope so. We've tried every word, name or phrase we could think of, that we thought your family might choose for you."

Noel dialed up Emerson's personal voice line, and he answered after the first ring. Noel put it on the speaker phone.

"Emerson speaking."

"Uncle Rolf, this is Noel."

"Noel, how are you doing? I heard you were sick recently."

"It was only a bad cold; I'm fine now."

"You just missed Dana and Bowie. They convinced me to let your unit attack one of the ships again, if the one currently approaching drops into the atmosphere. It's the same one that picked up the escort-class ship that was digging around in the ruins."

"Louie, our team resident technical genius, thinks he's found a weakness."

"So I've been told. Now, how can I help you?"

"I found out a few days ago that I'm half-Zentraedi. I understand why it was kept secret, but I now have so many doubts about who I am. I need the password to the lock box containing my classified birth documents."

"It's been so many years; I'm not sure if I can remember what the password was. What have you tried, so far?"

"Dates, family names, nicknames, my favorite toys; everything I thought they might pick for a password that I'd have to figure out on my own."

"Hmm... Family members... What family have you tried?"

"Mom, Dad, Scott, Marie, Janet, Karen, Dana's parents; I even tried our Zentraedi babysitters."

"Have you tried your mother's sisters?"

"Huh? I didn't know she had any. What were their names?"

"One was a big-shot in the E.B.S.I.S. Zentraedi forces, before they were nearly wiped out in the Battle of New Kinshasa. I doubt she'd use it, and I'd have to look it up to be sure what her name was. The other was fairly famous; her name was Tinya."

"Tinya? As in, 'The Ballad of McCloud & Tinya'?"

"That was her. And Daniel, God rest his soul, was Anatole's godson."

"No wonder Leonard banned the song from performance by or for Southern Cross personnel," Alex noted. "Kinda hits him below the belt."

"Uncle, you let me and Bowie learn that banned song, and knew of its connection to my family? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want you to overly concern yourself with it. I let you learn it BECAUSE of your connection to it, and someday I knew you'd find out that Tinya's series name was Marinoni, like your mother's. But, I didn't want you carrying that knowledge into the military like a cross to bear, or worse, a wrong to right. Between that, and the disappearance of a boy that was supposed to be his son, Anatole's life was a living hell in that period. He only realized in the last few years how much he was to blame for the events that led to all his suffering. Unfortunately, he's come to treat his command as a surrogate child, and has become ruthless and single-minded in protecting it, even if it means issuing quick orders that would lead to more casualties than a carefully-made plan of attack. Some of us who consider him a friend are worried he's developing an 'Ahab' complex. But, enough of parts of the past that are better left where they are; try the name."

Noel typed in T-I-N-Y-A into the keypad attached to the lock, and hit [enter]. There was a faint hiss as the vacuum seal unlocked.

"That was it! How can I thank you, Uncle?"

"Get back to your barracks. The Fifteenth will be attacking Zor's fortress in the morning, if all goes well."

The first document in the box released the contents to the first person on the "allowed usage" list (the one Alex had found on the computer) to open the box, and left it up to that person to reseal the box, or take possession of the documents, leaving it up to that person to decide whether to declassify them after study, or reclassify them accessible to additional people. Noel chose to take the documents, grant Dana and Alex official right to review them, and take them with her for further study. After she went over them back at the barracks, she'd decide whether resealing or declassification was the better option.

But, before they got back to the barracks, curiosity got the better of her, and she opened the packet of documents while they were in the military taxi heading back to the base. Alex saw tears come to her eyes as she looked at the old pictures included in the file. Then, as she read the medical documents, all the blood seemed to drain from her face, leaving her as pale as a corpse. Finally, she came to her birth certificate, and dropped the whole packet into the floor, shuddering.

"STOP! Stop the car!" she screamed, causing the driver to slam on the brakes. When the car skidded to a halt, she threw open the door and jumped out, running as fast as she could. Alex ran after her, telling the driver to wait for them, but couldn't find her in the same maze of buildings that, months before, Dana had went AWOL in after the fistfight with Marie Crystal's unit. Giving up for the moment, he returned to the taxi.

He ordered the taxi to continue to the barracks, planning on recruiting the rest of the squad to come look for her. He picked up the loose documents from the floor, and began examining them for the reason why Noel had suddenly lost control. On top, where Noel had left it, was the birth certificate.

"Parents: Shannon and Kayra Freeman; Date of Birth - December Twenty-Fifth, Twenty-sixteen. Twenty-sixteen?" This made Alex do a double take, as it made no sense. Confused, he looked into the other documents. Most of the rest of the packet were medical documents written Dr. Jean Grant, Bowie's mother. They chronicled the abnormally rapid development of Noel Freeman, from her advanced development at birth, on Christmas 2016, through the kidnapping in June of 2017, and a physical after her return in July. All the evidence claimed that, chronologically, Noel was not even thirteen, yet physically and emotionally, she was much older. Alex didn't want to believe it.

However, the remaining evidence in the pile left him with no choice but to believe it. Photos of Noel as a child, taken every week, her back to a measuring scale on the wall. Other photos showed her with family members. And the reversal of names on the birth certificate - Karen Noel Freeman - was yet another mystery, compounded by the fact that one of her babysitters, her "Aunt Karen", had exactly the same first and middle names.

"What's going on?" he muttered to himself, trying to come to grips with the impossibility of it all. All the while, he kept staring at the last photo from the pile; a photo from New Years Day 2017, showing a 4½-year old Dana holding a near-infant Noel.

Chapter Ten:

"Occasionally, I think about Noel, and the past we created for her. Eventually, she's going to find out her past is a lie, and it will undoubtedly hurt her. But, what will happen when she finds out the 'truth' behind the lie isn't exactly kosher, either? I have to find a way to tell her the truth myself, but how?"

-Diary of Lieutenant Karen Freeman, entry from second week after defeat of Invid at Karbarra..

"Alex, that's crazy! Noel can't be just thirteen;" Dana fumed. "We grew up together."

"Laugh this one off, Lieutenant Sterling." Alex shoved the New Years picture from the folder into Dana's hands, and waited for a response.

"This can't... be...but... but, I remember. This can't be happening! People don't age five years in five months!"

"But, she did age that way, and this IS happening. Finding out has shaken her up so bad, she's run away. And, can you blame her? But, if we spend the night looking for her, we'll be in no shape for the attack."

"I know. I can also tell you're not leaving her out there for the sake of the mission, though she would be a liability up there in the state she's in. You feel she's safer down here than with us."

Good call. Not only is she too shook up to fight right now, I'm not sure we'll be coming back from this. I mean, the thought of using ground mecha at an altitude of eighty kilometers scares me."

"Don't even talk like that; especially not in front of the others. When we get back, is there anything we can do for her?"

"Well, we can try hypno-regression techniques, to try to bring your childhood memories to the surface. If it works, we can use that to confirm or deny the documents."

"You got it, Alex. I just hope Noel doesn't face a court-martial for running off."

"Don't worry, they won't. I'll write up a medical leave for her tonight. And, if they do try something, we can always argue that she's underage, and get her a general discharge."

"Funny, Alex; real funny. How come you're not worried about her?"

"I am; I just know that the whole situation's out of my hands right now. My duty is with the 15th. Besides, she's safer AWOL than with us, remember?"

The mission had been on the verge of failure, when a stray shot from Dana caused an eruption of energy that led them to their goal. Of course, while she and Louie were working on the best method of wrecking the gravitic system, the rest of the squadron was stuck with the job of covering them.

Alex was having a hard time of it, holding an end of one of the defensive lines. He managed to take out four Bioroids, before a lucky shot blew the EU-11 out of his hands, damaging it beyond use. He took out several more, firing the tank's rotary cannon by extending it out of its arm shield, but it ran out of ammo after only three minutes. As the tank gun had been disabled to install the single missile intended for use on the power grid, he was left with only one option.

His choice of target was made simpler by Dana, who called out her team's success in blowing the grid, ordering everyone to jump off the slowly falling ship. Alex targeted a group of three Bioroids between himself and the ship's side, and fired. The Bioroids disappeared in a ball of fire and secondary explosions, and he started running toward it before the explosions fully subsided. As he neared the side, he saw that Dana was right beside him, and they were the last two off. Some of the others did stunts as they leaped for relative safety, so Alex took a more silly variation on this idea, and had his Battloid "hold its nose" as it dove off, as if into water.

A shuttle quickly flew in after them, and they switched modes and used their mecha's hover thrusters to board it. As they rode back down to earth, they watched the reports on the ship they'd damaged, noting that it still had some flight capability as it didn't fall as much as it drifted down on backup systems. It passed over Monument on the way down, crashing in the Black Hills. A couple of jokes were made about their liability if it HADN'T missed Monument, but neither Alex nor Dana took them well, seeing how Noel was still missing somewhere in the city. The only delay to their search for her would be their post-mission debriefing session.

It was near sunset when they reached Monument Park. Contrary to the belief of many of the town's younger generation, the city was not named for the monuments in the park. Monument City was named for Mount Rushmore, about 100 kilometers away, and near the crash site of the Masters' ship. The choice of the name was from the movement of the city towards the mountains, instead of rebuilding on the ruins of Rapid City, and "New Rapid City" was a bit too convoluted for casual use, even in 2012. The monuments in the park weren't even built until 2014, almost three years after the founding of the city, and two after the renaming.

There were two major monuments in the park, standing on opposite sides of a plaza made of bricks laid in a mosaic pattern to depict the old United Nations flag. The first monument was the Macross Memorial, listing those who sacrificed their lives in the SDF-1's active service, from the ill-fated launch ceremony to the battle with Dolza. It was an exact replica of the one that used to stand on the shore of the SDF-1's crater lake, from the names inscribed on the granite slabs taken from the Black Hills, to the statues of Fokker, Kramer and other fallen aces of the war. The second was a monument to those who died in the SDF-1's final battle, topped by statues of the fallen bridge crew. They found Noel sitting on the steps of the former, staring at the statues of the latter, as if seeking guidance from them.

"Noel?"

"A... Alex? Stay away from me; you'll only get in trouble."

"Don't say that; it's not true. Dana and I showed General Emerson the documents, and he cleared you to return to the squadron."

"It's not that. We shouldn't be together; you're almost twice my age!"

"I don't care! And neither does Dana, Rolf, or anyone else. It doesn't matter that your thirteenth birthday isn't for a week; physically, emotionally, and legally, you'll be seventeen, and that's what matters. I love you for what you are; nothing could change that."

"R... Really?"

"Really. Now, come back to the barracks with me. Dana's waiting for us in a jeep by the gate. You gave us all a worry." He picked her up in his arms, and kissed her. "Don't ever leave me again, you hear?"

"I won't; I promise."

He let her down near the gate, and they stood there, and kissed again. They were there quite a while, before they were interrupted by Dana.

"Hey, you two, break it off! The last time two people kissed in a park like that, I was born nine months later! You can waste time in the barracks doing that."

"We're coming, Dana."

Hand in hand, Alex and Noel walked to the jeep.

"We were strangers, starting out on a journey

Never dreaming what we'd have to go through

Now here we are, and I'm suddenly standing

At the beginning with you."

- Donna Lewis, "At the Beginning"; from the movie Anastasia