Chapter 25: The War Cloud

--July 3, 2016--

--07:40 GST--

What was left of the Phoenix and 60 other vessels folded into Gallaron orbit near Alpha Factory very early in the morning. Corina's shuttle arrived at the factory only a few minutes after the ships arrived, and now she was standing in the space harbor block of the main pod where the ships were scheduled to dock. When the massive doors opened to allow the ships entry into the facilities, everyone stared in amazement. The Phoenix itself was a floating wreck; both of the main cannons were missing and one of the impulse drives was on fire. It was holding the left grappler module in it's right hand, and a number of variable fighters were actually standing on the hull as the fighter bays had all been destroyed in battle. It was truly amazing to think that this ship could was even intact, and when it entered the pressurized block of the harbor observers could see smoke rising up from various points around the vessel.

The crew of the Phoenix, the majority of which were Zentradi, spilled out of the ship's docking ports and flowed across the tunnels to the relative safety of the factory block before their ship exploded behind them. Corina didn't mind waiting, the wooden figure of the Phoenix was safe and sound on her shelf. The last people off the ship were Commander Mike Gallows and Lieutenant Amelia Ryder, arm still in a sling. And then there was Broli, 6 feet 11 inches of Zentradi officer come home once again. "Kitten." He said, walking out of the boarding tunnel. "I told I'd be back."

Corina ran up and threw her arms around him. "You jerk! What took you so long?!"

Broli stroked her hair with his hand, almost swept away by the notion of holding her again. He hadn't even known how much he'd missed her until the moment he walked off the ship. "We'd still be out there if the Phoenix was in better shape. We only got about half their fleet and the others scattered. Karga's gonna have to finish them before they get away."

Corina looked up at him. "I know. The Golgrono left last night with an entire fleet." She started walking towards the docking port where the Megaroad waited, arm in arm with the grinning Zentradi officer. "By the way, Shikari's fleet brought in a new battle fortress."

Broli paused in the passageway. "Really? How's Shikari doing these days?"

Corina looked up suddenly. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason." Broli shrugged. They stopped at a slot in the wall of the massive passageway where a human-sized hover disk waited for them, and the two of them stepped on for the rest of the way back to the ship. They stood in silence for a most of the trip, and Broli began to notice Corina seemed a bit less energetic than usual. "What's wrong? Has something happened?"

Corina looked up at him, and then looked at her feet. "It's Minmei."

"What about her?" Broli said, remembering the pretty little woman with the beautiful voice Corina always hung out with.

"She got married."

"Really?" Broli said, suddenly more interested. Then again, he noticed Corina's mood to be a bit of a puzzle. "I thought that's supposed to be a good thing. What's got you so depressed?"

"Because of the man she's married to... he's abusive."

"Of what?" Broli said, not grasping the human context of the word.

Corina looked at Broli's face with tears in her eyes. "Broli, she's pregnant, and her husband beats the shit outa her every other night!"

Broli looked at Corina suddenly very confused. "I don't understand. What did she do to him?"

"She doesn't do anything! He's a drunk, he can't control himself! He has too much to drink and he looses his temper and then he just starts beating her..."

Broli's head started to hurt. "Kitten, you're not making any sense. People don't get married so they can fight each other... at least I don't think they do. After all, if they're married, aren't they supposed to love each other?"

"She DOES love him, and he probably loves her too..."

"Then what the hell is the point of attacking her? I mean... well I'm not as smart as Shikari or Varcus, but that's... that goes against everything I have come to understand about human culture!"

Corina leaned against her and rested her head against his chest. "You're right. It's totally wrong, it's the exact opposite of what's supposed to happen. But it happens like that sometimes, a husband looses control of his temper and takes it out on his wife or his children..."

This opened a new door for Broli. He knew his own strength, and he though he never imagined doing so he knew he could easily break Corina in half with the slightest effort. The idea of hurting someone you love was almost as foreign to him as love itself had once been, and the idea worried him. "Kitten, what if... what causes a man to loose control like that? I mean... what would happen if I lost control of myself..."

Corina shook her head slowly. "You're a warrior, Broli. You know the time and the place for violence better than most people. I know you'd never hurt me like that." The hover disk came to rest near the docking port next to the Megaroad's dry dock, and Corina and Broli walked the rest of the way into the ship. "You wanna see where I put that your little ship?"

"I would, but I think we'll be too busy." Broli said plainly.

Corina looked at her watch. "Busy? We've got 12 hours before either of us need to be anywhere."

"12 hours huh?" Broli's lip curled in a mischievous grin. "We've got alot of catching up to do. Is that gonna be enough time?"

Corina giggled. "Easy there big fella! I'm delicate, you have to be gentle."

Broli grabbed her wrist and lifted her off the ground, cradling her in his arms for the rest of the way back to Corina's quarters. "As you wish Kitten."

--15:45 GST--

Her day off served her well. Misa had gotten so used to supervising the refit of the Megaroad that she had actually started seeing the great hull of the ship in her nightmares. She couldn't even think of the last time she took a moment to walk around on Megaroad city, but when she got back to her house she found Hikaru and Miko had both gone out somewhere. Once again, she thought back on the last few weeks and realized suddenly that she had not seen her husband or her daughter in almost a month, though with the amount of work they'd both had it seemed like only a few days. Not even when the Megaroad passed New Eden on its way out into space had Misa ever been separated from her family for so long, and at this time she was infinitely distressed at their absence from the house.

Feeling a sudden weight on her shoulders, Misa climbed the stairs to the second floor and pushed the windows open in their bedroom to climb up onto the rooftop. She sat down on the little mat Hikaru had nailed to the shingles for just such an occasion and stared up into the sky. The sun was directly overhead, beating down on the city with its heat, but somehow the air was as cool as early morning. Korazan and Varcus had discovered that thanks to Gallaron's large size and its three moons, the seasons of the northern continent were relatively mild, even compared to other places on the planet. This, Misa remembered, was actually one of the coldest days of the Gallaron winter. She started to wonder what summer was like...

A shadow moved across the rooftop, followed by the roar of a jet engine at full afterburner. Misa shielded her eyes from the sun to see a VF-4 Lighting-III fly overhead at high speed, then banked sharply and pulled off a high-G turn in the air. Misa watched the plane darting around in the sky and thought of Hikaru, the man she wanted more than anything to see, and Miko, the child she wanted more than anything to hold in her arms before she vaulted off the roof some day. Something about the way the plane danced around in the sky made her think of Hikaru AND Miko; the strange, far out look they both had whenever they looked at airplanes, the way neither one of them were ever content to sit still for any amount of time, the way both of them ran and chased after each other in the yard, as if at any minute a strong breeze would lift them off the ground and they would fly away. Misa had seen it since Miko was just a baby; appearances aside, she was her father's child.

She thought to go off looking for Hikaru and Miko to see where they went, but then taking another look at the plane darting through the air it suddenly occurred to her where they both must have been. She slipped back inside the house and walked up the stairs to the attic where Hikaru kept an old radio "in case of emergencies." She decided this was something that couldn't wait. "Attention all planes, air raid warning over Megaroad City! Shoot down Skull Zero! I repeat, shoot down Skull Zero!"

Hikaru and Miko both laughed over the static. "Oh very funny! When'd you get back?"

"15 minutes ago." She said, looking out the attic window. "I should've known I'd have to drag you out of the air. You just can't seem to keep your feet on the ground can you?"

Hikaru laughed, and then turned up the volume on Miko's radio. "Hi mommy!"

"Hi there Miko! You having fun?"

"Daddy and me are fighting the monsters!" She said laughing again.

Misa looked out the window to see the plane fly another loop around the sky. "Hikaru, how long have you been up there?"

"About... I don't know. At least an hour."

Misa sighed. It wouldn't have surprised her if he'd been up there for three days. "You wanna set it down some time so I can see my family?"

"Just a minute old lady..." Misa shut off the radio and walked back down and out the window to the roof. She saw the fighter fly over the house one last time, and then in a flash it transformed to gerwalk mode and stopped in mid air. Now, slowly but less than carefully, the VF-4 Lightning descended to the street next to the Ichijo house and moved in front of the rooftop. Hikaru turned the plane and rested the nose of the fighter on top of the roof and opened the canopy, and Miko leapt out of the pilots seat and into her mother's arms, squealing with excitement. Hikaru climbed out after her and kissed her on the cheek. "Finally took a vacation, huh?"

Misa laughed. "I sure picked an odd time for it, didn't I? Broli's fleet came back from Zjen-Kari in pieces, and Karga left last night to reinforce them. And Shikari's trying to set up an outer defense line in the Mishalla system..."

"Jesus Misa! Are you home or not?!" Hikaru said, putting his hands on his hips.

Misa sighed. "Okay, no business. But you of all people know how much trouble we're in."

Hikaru nodded. "I know. If you wanna talk business there's only one thing we should discuss." He put his hand on her back and started to lead Misa off the roof into the house, still carrying Miko in her arms.

"And that is?" Misa started walking down the stairs in front of him, but looked up as Hikaru did not follow her. "Hikaru?"

"I want to take Miko out of this city."

Misa paused and set Miko down on the steps bellow her, then turned to face Hikaru. "Take her where?"

"SDF-04 is almost completed. I want to take her up there where we can protect her..."

Misa was about to say no, but then she looked at Miko again still sitting on the stairs. "Away from potential targets?"

"That's right. I want to get her as far away from this planet as possible. I don't want to leave her on the factory satellite, because again it's just one big target..."

"And SDF-2 will be a major battleship and will draw alot of fire."

"Exactly."

Misa reached down to pick Miko up off the stairs, but found the girl had already run off somewhere else in the house. "I assume you know I need more commanders."

Hikaru nodded. "That's why I'm taking Miko with me. We might be gone for months or maybe even years. If I take command of SDF-04, at least I can think of excuses to come and see you."

Misa walked down the stairs just in time to hear dull thud on the ground as the running Miko tripped over the same lump in the carpet once again. "No more business. Let's just relax for today, okay?"

Hikaru walked up beside her at the bottom of the stairs and put his arm around her waist. Both of them watched Miko running around in circles in the living room, pretending once again that she was flying.

--20:30 GST--

The reports from the front were far less than encouraging. Lacul had committed just over half of his forces, 2000 ships in all, to attack and destroy the planet Gallaron. The larger of the three attack groups had been completely wiped out shortly after contact with the enemy, and the smaller group near the Berren system had lost more than half of their fleet to enemy ships along with most of their reinforcements. What frustrated him was the manner in which the GSDF was fighting him. They were using some of that very same ancient technology he so desperately needed, the same technology hidden away on the planet Gallaron. The new barrier systems used on the Gallaron ships could be mounted on just about anything bigger than a battlepod, and could take more punishment than the antique system from the Schism War. To make matters worse, the third group he'd sent to the Mishalla system had encountered what appeared to be an enemy forward defense line and for some reason they could no penetrate it. Things just kept getting worse.

Lacul heard footsteps from the catwalk around his knees. He looked over to see Kraken walking around in front of him with a data module, obviously more bad news. "What is it this time Kraken?"

"Our courier ships have finally cleared the spatial cratering of the Arturo sector. They have made contact with friendly units nearby, but they report that they are passing through rough space and are still several weeks away."

Lacul cursed under his breath. By the time his reinforcements could arrive, Gallaron would be too strong for them to move against them. Failing to capture the planet by now was costing him more and more in resources every minute. "Kraken, send the courier ships farther out into space. Have them join with the other Supervision Fleets and act as a communication line between us."

Kraken nodded. "Yes my lord, but there's one other thing I think you should see." He slipped the data module into the computer and an image appeared on the holographic monitor in front of him showing a large, Earthlike planet 22,000 kilometers in diameter. "Our forces in the Kaladan system have discovered an unidentified object on the 4th planet. We do not know what it is, but we believe it may have origins with the protoculture." The image shifted to a cylindrical object almost 3 kilometers long with two large rings on either end, floating in space among several Supervisionist warships. "We believe it to be some kind of space craft..."

"NO!" Lacul stood up from his chair, almost crushing the catwalk with the force of his enormous overgrown body. "A FOLD WEAPON!"

"A fold weapon?" Kraken said. "I've never heard of it."

"I'm don't imagine you have. The fold weapon is the ultimate weapon of mass destruction. It destroys entire sections of hyperspace, causing normal matter over a given area to cease to exist and creating a powerful gravity wave. I never thought I'd actually see one intact!"

Kraken called up the schematic of the scan data from the device. "Is it anything like the device we think is on Gallaron?"

Lacul shook his head and sat back down on his chair, causing the entire ship to vibrate for many kilometers. "This device appears to be a smaller version of the weapon, probably less powerful but still just as effective." An idea started to form in the protodeviln's mind. This kind of device was one of a kind and difficult to produce, then again the facilities of his Fulbtz-Berrenz command base were more than up to the job. "Have that fold weapon brought hear at once for study. It might be possible to produce additional units for use against the Gallaron army." Kraken acknowledged and started to head back to the com room, but Lacul stopped him with his massive hand. "And one more thing. Get the navigational data from the micronian ships and start making fold calculations for the planet Earth. We need their factory satellite in order to continue this war."

Kraken nodded. "As you wish my lord. Will you destroy the planet or capture the inhabitants?"

"Capture them, of course." Lacul said smirking. "We'll be needing more soldiers to operate our ships once we have the new factory."

--July 8, 1016--

--27:40--

It was truly a strange thing to see Lao Fei Chan eating in his own restaurant, but he took pride in his business and he knew he could trust his own cooks not to poison his food to remove competition. Aside from that, anything they ordered was free. It was one of the many luxuries of being King Lao. Kai Chan and Fei Hong were at the table with him, all of them as usual ordering almost the exact same thing with one or two twists. "Royal noodle special with two eggs." said Fei Chan.

"Same thing, only with one egg and a wonton." Said Fei Hong.

"Same thing, only with two eggs and shrimp." said Kai Chan. The waitress wrote it all down and took their drink orders... Pepsi, Pepsi and diet Pepsi... and went off in the kitchen to fill the order. Kai Chan looked around the restaurant while he waited for the food. "You really fixed this place up, Fei Chan." He said, impressed. "Last time I was here, there were more rats than people."

"That rats WERE the people. We just stopped getting ugly customers." Fei Chan snickered.

Fei Hong found himself looking around, noticing something very different. "Where's Minmei? She working tonight?"

Fei Chan shook his head. "She quit."

"What?! Why?!"

Fei Chan didn't want to bring his brothers down at a time like this, especially with Kai Chan being off duty and back to small size for the first time in two weeks, but Fei Hong was a die-hard Minmei fan. "Remember I told you about her husband?"

"The big secret? Yeah, I remember."

"He almost killed her the other night."

Fei Hong turned pale, and Kai Chan stared at him in disbelief. "What was he doing?"

"Nothing really, he just got alittle drunk. He almost skewered Commander Matheson with a protoculture weapon."

Kai Chan rubbed his fingers through his hair. "Well... I guess these things happen, I mean sometimes we all get a little tipsy and..."

"It's not the first time." Fei Chan said, lowering his voice. "I don't know how long it's been going on, but Minmei was coming in almost every day with bruises before she quit."

Kai Chan sighed and sank into his chair, and Fei Hong gave it more thought. "Why doesn't she just leave him?"

"She's pregnant."

The entire table jumped as Kai Chan's knee jerked underneath it. "Wha.... pregnant?! Are you shittin me?!"

Fei Chan shook his head. "Don't get all worked up about this Kai. It'll work out for the best."

"The hell it will! Where does she live?!"

Fei Hong put his hand on his shoulder. "Easy Kai..."

"Where does she live?!" He repeated slowly.

Fei Chan sighed. "213, Galaxy Boulevard. Apartment 504"

Kai Chan stood up from the table to leave, but Fei Hong grabbed his sleeve and pulled hi back down. "Knock it off, hero. You'll just get her into more trouble." The waitress returned with their food and Fei Chan passed out the plates of noodles.

"I can't just sit here while she...!"

"What're you gonna do, beat the shit outa the guy, kidnap Minmei and keep her chained up in your locker?" Kai Chan started up again, but Fei Hong pulled him back down again. "Don't be an idiot. Sit down and eat your noodles." Kai Chan reluctantly sat back down and started to eat, not realizing until then just how hungry he was. "I know it sucks but there's nothing we can do about it. Why are YOU so worked up about this anyway?"

"Why not?" Kai Chan said, scooping up his noodles. "She's a nice person. I don't like to see bad things happen to good people. That's one of the reasons I joined the marines."

Fei Chan nodded. "I know how you feel. The only thing we can really do is hope she comes to her senses and walks out on him... and of course I've got the girls to keep calling her to make sure she's alright."

Kai Chan swallowed a mouthful of noodles. "What's the number?"

"555-stay out of it." Fei Chan said.

Kai Chan found it hard to swallow the idea of standing by while someone hurt Minmei, even though he was probably the one person at the table who had the least amount of interest in her. From what little he'd seen of her she seemed like a very nice person, and the idea of such a kind hearted individual in that kind of trouble deeply disturbed him. But he knew his brothers were right about there not being anything he could do about it. Under the circumstances, the best thing was to try and ride it out, but to be ready to jump in if things too a turn for the worst.

Eventually, the Three Kings finished their noodles and the waitress returned from the kitchen as if by magic. "You want desert boss?" She said.

"You still have those sugar cookies?" Fei Hong said hopefully.

"Sure do."

"I'll take one, with almonds and raisins." Fei Hong said.

"I'll take two with almonds and M&Ms." Fei Chan said.

"I'll take one with raisins and M&Ms." Kai Chan said. "And some fortune cookies with that."

The waitress stared at all three of them for a long moment, then gave up on trying to figure them out and started to walk back to the kitchen.

--29:30--

The book Richard had bought her from the store made for interesting reading. 247 pages describing in detail all the weird things that happens to a woman in the 12 months after conception, psychologically, emotionally and even physically. Minmei had never imagined having a baby was so complicated, and she only hoped she could remember all the things she was seeing in the text. On the other hand, she reminded herself, since she had the books on hand, all she had to do was look it up if she needed to know about something.

She had been so engrossed in the book she hadn't even noticed the door open and Richard slip inside with a bag of groceries, but she did notice suddenly when something soft slipped in between her lips. "Wha... Richard!"

"What do you think?" He said, holding a baby bottle in his hand. "I did good?"

Minmei looked at the bottle for a few moments, not sure what to make of this. "Did you go shopping?"

Richard nodded and gestured to the bags on the counter. "Just picking up things for the baby. Some toys and stuff..."

"You should wait until we know it it's a boy or a girl." She said, standing up to examine his purchases. When she looked through one bag she found almost a hundred dollars worth of baby toys and a pair of pacifiers, and in the other bag she found almost a hundred dollars worth of power tools. "Ummm.... like I said," she pulled an electric drill out of the bag and looked at it. "You might want to wait."

Richard laughed and walked over to the door. "I got this too." He opened the door and pulled a large cardboard box into the room and started to open it.

"What is it?"

"Look." He pulled the top off and started to pull out the wooden parts of a baby's crib. "I'm thinking we'll clean out that extra room we never use and make it the baby's room."

"That's a great idea." Minmei looked through the third bag and started to put the food in the fridge. There wasn't much, she already had everything they needed for the weeks, and for a change Minmei was delighted to see that he hadn't picked up any more alcohol on the way home. "I know I shouldn't be bringing this up, but I'm getting alittle worried."

"About what Mei?"

Minmei closed the fridge and put the cans on the shelf over the stove. "All this war. I heard some of the soldiers talking and they say even though we've been doing really well so far, the enemy's still alot more powerful."

Richard shrugged. "I heard that too. Actually, I think it's the first time I've ever had any interest in anything a Zentradi had to say. My manager was telling me all about it."

"What'd he say?"

Richard sat down on the couch and Minmei came out of the kitchen and sat down next to him. "He said the people who created the Zentradi, the protoculture, also created another more powerful kind of soldier even bigger than the Zentradi called the Ehvil. The Ehvil soldiers ended up being possessed by some kind of demons and then they went around swallowing up the spirits of people and Zentradi all over the galaxy and turning them into slaves. The demons were called Protodeviln, and their slaves became the Supervision Army."

Minmei thought about this for a long time. "You know, that sounds like an old legend I heard when I was a little kid..."

"Yeah, I know. It sounded to me like some kind of Zentradi superstition, but then when you think about it, it makes alot of sense. I mean the Supervision Army is obviously real, and the protoculture are even more superstitious than the Zentradi."

Minmei raised a brow. "How do you know that?"

Richard grinned. "You're not the only one who's been studying. There's half a million people living in the old city who only speak Zentradi, so I've picked up a few phrases over the past few weeks."

"Is that so?" Minmei turned on the TV and kept the volume down. "Honestly though, I'm getting really worried. We keep having these air-raid drills almost every day, and they've started taking volunteers with the ground defense forces to help the protocrans install defense systems around the city."

Richard nodded. "I saw them putting a new particle cannon under a sliding hatch down the street from the office. They're turning the city into a fortress."

Minmei paused on one of the news stations that was broadcasting news about the latest battles in space. General Karga's 3rd fleet was still fighting the enemy at Zjen-Kari, and Broli's 1st fleet was limping back to Gallaron in a steady trickle as what few ships were still in the battle field took damage. No matter how many enemies they destroyed, there always seemed to be more lined up behind them. "What if the enemy invaded the city?"

Richard chuckled. "I'd whip out a bottle of vodka and move in with them."

Minmei rolled her eyes. "I'm serious Rich. The way things are going, what would happen if they invaded the city and captured us?"

In the many months he'd been living with Minmei, Richard had long ago noticed that Minmei rarely actually said what was on her mind, and through trial and error he had learned not to pry deeper into her thoughts than she would freely allow him. In this case, however, curiosity got the best of him, as per Minmei's design. "What are you thinking about? You want me to join the defense forces?"

"No..." Once again, Minmei thought back to the Macross, and that one and only time she had used her voice as a weapon. It sickened her whenever she remembered her part in the holocaust of two races, but like so many others she felt history repeating itself. "You know, I kinda participated in the Space War."

Richard shrugged. "Doesn't surprise me. Come to think of it I'd be surprised if EVERYONE on Macross didn't get their hands dirty considering all you people had to go through."

"That's true, but I had a more... central role."

Richard looked at her surprised. "You were a soldier?"

"No, nothing like that. But I'm wondering now if the GSDF couldn't use a hand."

Richard snickered. "Yeah right. YOU joining the defense forces?"

"Hell no! I wouldn't even survive the training!" Minmei said giggling. "Besides, I'm not cut out for all that violence anyway. I'd just like to help them, maybe entertain the soldiers or help the medics or something."

Richard gave this some thought. "You know, that's a pretty good idea. If anything it would give me a reason to dry up."

Minmei smiled brightly and hugged him. "Great! This Saturday we'll go over to the GDF headquarters and see..."

"New calendar, remember. There are no Saturdays."

Minmei laughed. "Oh that's right! Sunday then, we'll go down to the GDF headquarters and we'll see if there's anything we can help them with."

"Sunday it is." Richard kissed her and grabbed the remote to turn off the TV. "Let's move all this stuff into the baby's room. We'll work on it later."

"Okay." Minmei stood up from the couch along with Richard, and they started packing the baby toys and the parts for the crib back into the cardboard box. Minmei hadn't been this excited in years, even despite the uncertainty of her new plans. She was certain he would be uncomfortable with the idea, and perhaps even a little upset at first, but in their situation it was almost her only choice. After all, not too many men would think twice about being Lynn Minmei's manager, weather they'd heard of her or not. And as far as Richard was concerned, she wasn't actually coming out of retirement but actually starting a glamorous new career.