SMST 6D: The Ace of Hearts! – By DS Wynne
Disclaimer: SM, R1/2, ST and other genres belong to their respective owners.
Note: This is a multi-genre story.
Part 25
Meanwhile…
WHOOM!
Captain Gloval grimaced, as weapons fire nearly glanced the bridge of the SDF-1 "Macross".
"Where are our shields?" Gloval demanded. "And where is Commander Hayes?"
"No word on her whereabouts, sir," Claudia asked. "It's possible that she might have gotten caught up in the transformation sequence."
"Blast it," Gloval said. He then turns to Hoshi.
"Hoshi, launch all squadrons," Gloval said.
"Yes, sir," Hoshi said, as she makes the call…
Down in the Prometheus, Roy was getting anxious.
"Where the hell are they?" Roy said, as everyone gets suited up.
Ranko, Serene, Haruka, Minako, Ben and Hotaru show up, ready to go.
"Ranko!" Roy said. "Thank god you're here!"
"I got caught up in the gears, along with Rick, but I don't know where he and Lisa disappeared to."
"Great, just great," Roy said. "And Max is still out there."
"We'll do what we can,
Meanwhile…
WHOOM!
Minmei looks up towards the ceiling, hoping that the lighting will not fall on top of anyone. She then looks onto the crowd in the audience.
"Remain calm!" Minmei said through the microphone. "We'll get through all this! Believe it!"
The crowd roars with approval, as Kyle, who was standing next to Minmei, turns towards her cousin.
"I think you're being naïve, Min," Kyle said.
Minmei sighed.
"You know I'm right, you know-"
"Just SHUT UP!" Minmei yelled. "Yes, our situation is tough, but it's tougher for the soldiers trying to defend everyone on this ship. You like to blame the military, but you have NO idea what you are talking about. Instead, you're talking out of your butt, because you don't have anything interesting or relevant to say."
Pause.
"The politicians are the ones who make the decisions to go to war, NOT soldiers. So to blame the soldiers for respecting the authority of the civilian government, is stupid and not helpful. We should appreciate them, even if we disagree with the decisions that WE THE PEOPLE make."
Pause.
"And if you can't handle THAT, Kyle, then I'd rethink our relationship."
"Min…"
Meanwhile…
RATATATATATATAT-!
Serene steers left, as she blasts another Zentraedi battlepod, while still being "tailed" by Zentraedi fighters.
"Haruka, do you need assistance?" Serene asked.
BOOM!
Haruak finishes blasting her foe, and banks left.
"Negative, Serene," Haruka replied, before-
WHOOM!
"Eeek!" Hotaru yells, as she is nearly "tagged" by a Zentraedi.
"Hotaru, hang on-!" Haruka yells, as she shifts gears to assist her foster-daughter. However-
WHOOM!
"Don't worry, I got you," Minako replied.
"Th-thanks, Mina," Hotaru manages to reply.
"Hotaru, are you okay?" Haruka asked, as she brought her Veritech alongside her daughter's.
"I guess so," Hotaru replied. "I'll be careful next time."
Haruka smiles. She still has misgivings about Hotaru being a Veritech pilot, but…she'll have to let Hotaru find her own way.
"Okay, group," Haruka begins to say. "Let's go back up the Princess…"
"RIGHT!" Hinako and Mina said in unison.
Meanwhile…
"This place…is weird," said Max, as he and Sailor Mercury walked along "The Moebius Road". Essentially, it was an infinite path that ran in a literal moebius strip.
"It is," Sailor Mercury said, as she continued to walk.
"So…how can we get to where we need to go, then?" Max asked.
"Two ways: physically or mentally."
"I…don't understand."
"Simply put, if you can travel past the speed of light, you'll slow down long enough to find the exit. However, the easiest way to get whey you are going is by thinking."
"Thinking?"
"Yes. Remember when I said, back when we landed in front of the entrance of Malkuth, that in order to get to ME, you have to think speed."
"Oh. How?"
"It's like have that rush, when you discover a new mathematical concept, or using a new maneuver with your Veritech."
"Huh. It's 'the rush'."
"Precisely. All you have to do…is think speed, and what helps is to recall those feelings that gave you that…'rush'."
Max nods his head, and closes his eyes. He thought about all those times when he fought the Zentraedi, and got a thrill every time he pulls off a successful maneuver…
"Well, well…look what we have here?" says a booming voice.
Max opens his eyes to see the silvery forms of…giants. One appeared to be the Olympian messenger god, the second one appeared to be a man with the head of a bird (called an "Ibis"), and the third appeared to be a Viking war chief…
"Whoa," Max said. "Are they…?"
"Indeed," Sailor Mercury said. "These gods represent the Western perspective of magic and knowledge, though they are not the only ones."
Max looks around. Somehow, the ended up the size of Chess pieces on top of a stone table top in the middle of an arboretum filled with a strange, looking plant (called "Moley").
"So, what's next?" Max asked.
"We ask for their help, of course," Sailor Mercury said, as she turns to face her "Elders". "Lords, I-"
"We know why you are here, Ami," Hermes said.
"However, we cannot intervene on your behalf," Thoth replied. "Our time in the mortal planes is over."
"But there has to be something that you can do with Earth's enemies," Sailor Mercury said.
"There is a way, Ami," Odin said gently. "You have the power within YOU to accomplish your goals."
Max turns towards Sailor Mercury.
"You knew how to stop the Zentraedi?" Max said.
Sailor Mercury sighs, and turns towards her friend.
"Aye, I do, but…it will cost me."
"What?"
"My mortality."
"?"
Meanwhile…
"They managed to break into SDF-1, and taking the fighting to Macross City," Roy said. "I want you, Ben and Serene to assist the armored division."
"Right, sir," Ranko replied, as she begins the chase. "Guys, lets go!"
"Right!" Ben and Serene replied, as they followed Khryon and his squadron into the bowels of the space fortress…
CHOOM!
BOOM!
Parts of Macross City were already destroyed, as Khyron's men began to shoot indiscriminately.
"Ma'am, we need to regroup!" said the second officer, who was the executive officer of the 15th Tactical Squadron. He and a few of the available Destroids were trying to prevent the Zentraedi from pushing into the area where the civilians were: Macross Memorial Theater.
Meanwhile, Brianna uses a 'Mega Rod'—a club-like weapon that can be used by the Destroids for mecha combat—on one of her opponents, causing it to explode upon impact.
WHAM!
CRASH!
Brianna taps her secured link to the rest of her squadron.
"We hold the line," Brianna replies. "At least, until we get re-enforcements-"
Suddenly, Khyron pops up.
"Surprise, Micronian!" Khryon yells, as he releases a volley of weapons fire.
"RATATATATAT-!"
Brianna's mecha is cut to shreds.
"Urgh!" Brianna growls.
"Now, to finish you off-!"
WHAM!
Khyron's officer's battlepod is knocked down by-
"Ranko!" Brianna yells happily.
"Sorry we're late," Ranko said, as she switches fully to "Soldier" mode. "We were held up a bit."
"Hey, the only thing that matters is that you are here, Ranko. I don't think we'll last too much longer-"
FLASH!
Suddenly, Max appears in his Veritech.
"Max-?" Ranko replied.
"It's imperative that we move away from Mercury…and quickly," Max said. "It's…what Ami would want."
"Okay," Ranko said, as she patched to the Bridge…
"Why are the micronians moving off?" Breetai asked his advisor Exedore.
"I do not know, sir," Exedore replied. "Do they not know that we can simply follow them-?"
BEEEP! BEEEP! BEEP! BEEP-!
"Sir!" said a Bridge Officer. "Some sort of spatial distortion is developing amidst the fleet-!"
A sphere of some kind appears in the heart of the attack fleet, and is continually expanding, swallowing Zentraedi ships and fighters alike.
"Is this some micronian super-weapon?" Breetai asked.
"I do not know, sir, but if we do not leave, we will be caught in this trap as well," Exedore replied.
"All remaining ships: retreat!" Breetai replied.
Only a handful of ships managed to survive the impromptu space fold attack, thanks to the efforts of Sailor Mercury…
"It is…done," Sailor Mercury said, as she slow took on a silver color…like mercury. "Now, that fleet is further than the furthest star, yet closer than a heart beat…"
"You have mastered spatial dimensions, Ami," Hermes said, as he continues to play his game of Chess with Thoth.
"And by doing so, you have become…an Exemplar," Thoth replied, as he made his next Chess move.
"But by doing so, by breaking mortal conventions, you sacrificed your mortality, and achieved the Road of Moebius," Odin interjects. "You are now an aspect of US."
Sailor Mercury sighs, as she picks up a Chess piece. She only wished that she could have properly said good-bye…
SLAP!
"Ow!" Ranko said, as she felt the slap from Haruka. "What the heck was THAT for?"
"I don't know, but it felt good," Haruka angrily.
Everyone had gathered together in Serene's room for a "Sailor Scouts meeting"…
"Dear, calm down," Michiru said.
"How can I?" Haruka yelled. "Don't you see a pattern forming? One by one, we're dying out!"
"Haruka, no one has died," Serene said with a sigh. "Makoto, Rei, Ami…they had to embrace their destinies sooner or later, which is no different from what Setsuna has to endure for nearly forever."
"Then…I'm next," Minako said. "Something is going to happen to force me to leave this ship."
Silence.
Minako turns towards Ranko and Serene.
"Do you know when this will happen?" Minako asked with pleading eyes.
"No, I do not," Serene said. "I'm sorry."
Minako looks out towards the planet Venus. She had a feeling that something was going to happen. Unfortunately, she would be proven right, when Khyron, in an effort to pay back the so-called micronians for his humiliation, unleashes a biological agent on board the ship. As a result, Minako would be forced to go to the Umbra Realm of Venus, in order to retrieve the "Song of Life" from Lady Victory, an aspect of Frigga, Freya and Venus. While the dying listened, Minako would give the performance of her life, by causing even the cells of the human body the sing the universal song that was a component of the Life Equation. Rallying the troops to defeat Khyron, Minako became a living song, and thus left mortality behind…
A month later, the SDF-1 swings close to Earth's orbit. Upon its proximity, Lisa was giving transfer orders by her father, Admiral Hayes. Everyone knew that Admiral Hayes didn't want to risk his only child, which was patently unfair to everyone else. However, Lisa saw the transfer as an opportunity to convince UN Spacy that peace was possible between Earth and the Zentraedi, thanks to various interviews with Zentraedi defectors. Armed with this information, Lisa, escorted by Rick, Max and Ben, went through enemy lines and safely reached Lunar orbit, which was the defense line that kept the Zentraedi away from Earth. Claudia was now Captain Gloval executive officer on board the SDF-1 "Macross", with Hoshi taken up Claudia's position…much to the consternation of the other Bridge Bunnies.
And now, thanks to a slow down in enemy activity, a special event was now taken place, an event that could change the course of an unwanted war…forever.
"…And that was Minako Aino's 'Life's Song', the only single that last year's 'Miss Macross' was able to put out before her untimely disappearance," said the radio announcer over the radio. "This 'Reddy Red', bringing all the hits, courtesy XMAC Radio-"
CLICK!
Ranko sighed, as she rolled over in her bed. Since Minako's disappearance, the Veritech pilot was a bit depressed. She couldn't even bring herself to listen anything that Minako had sung.
CHIRP!
Silence.
CHIRP!
Silence.
"Ranma, you need to get up," Serene yelled through the door. "Max and Miriya's wedding is going to start soon."
Ranko rolls over.
"Why should I? You and I both know that the moment we broadcast their wedding, the Zentraedi will attack…again."
SHOOP!
Serene, decked in her bridemaids outfit, enters the room. She turns on the lights.
CLICK!
"Ranma, get dressed," Serene replied. "We got to go."
"I don't wanna."
"Hmmmm," Serene mused. "You know, I haven't practiced Inujutsu for a while-"
"Okay, I'm up," Ranko said, as she gets up. "You don't have to molest me into compliance, you know."
"You know, you love it," Serene smiled.
"No, I don't. You were a bit…rough."
"I told you…it had been 18 months since I was with a man."
"Yeah, and I was sore for a week because of that 'drought' of yours."
Silence.
"Ranma, we'll see Minako again," Serene said gently. "Trust me on this one."
"I know, but…all these sacrifices Minako and the others have made…WILL make…"
"I know. It's just as bad for me as it is for you. But…as long as we are alive, we'll have that second chance."
Ranko nods her head, as she took Serene's hands.
"You're right," Ranko said. "I shouldn't be such an idiot about it."
"No, you have heart, something that Zentraedi will never understand."
"What about Miriya? She understood it long enough to marry Max after their first date."
"And I am duly corrected," Serene said. She then glances at the wall clock.
"Come, we better hurry, if we are not to be late…"
Meanwhile…
Umbral Realm of Venus was teaming with life of all kinds from every era imaginable. The land was varied in topography, but what was amazing was the fact that the Umbral Realm was divided into four sub-realms based upon the seasons. So, one can enjoy skiing in the morning, but then surf the waves in the afternoon. The only danger is that certain plants and animals were predatory in nature. Thus, it was possible to get "consumed"…
"There you go," Minako said, as she puts her baby into its basket. For the past month, the guardian of Venus has been living in a cottage that overlooked a blue sea.
"Goo!" the baby replied.
Minako smiles. Who would have known that she could create a child…thanks to that last kiss she had with Ranko? And all it took was "French kiss"? Still, she didn't want to tell her daughter that she was the result of some skin cells from her father's mouth…
"But don't worry, little one," Minako said. "Someday, you'll know who your father is…"
Tbc.
Next Time: Breetai sends Exedore to the SDF-1 as an emissary for peace, while Ranko continues to reflect his time with the shinobi. See you then!