Mutiny

Ranma tapped the Tac Net. "Position check, all Flights." She waited until he had sufficient reports on his screen, then tapped a waypoint into her nav computer and uploaded it to the Net. "Angels Flight One and Three, and Blue Flight One, rendezvous at this point."

"Angel Lead, Aye."

"Blue Lead, Hai."

It would take a few minutes. The fighters were scattered all through the enemy fleet. Ranma tapped the Tac Net again. "Six-Six to Macross."

Claudia's face appeared on the com screen. "Macross. Report, Major?"

"All nukes expended. You should be able to see the results on your tactical display."

"Yes, they seem to be in considerable disarray." She grinned. "We're having a bit of a slow start at the moment. To compensate, the Vengeance is being dispatched to capture a Zentraedi Command Cruiser."

Ranma blinked. "Ah...Ma'am, the Vengeance is just a destroyer. Will she pack enough firepower to capture a Command Cruiser?"

"She's been fully loaded with Destroids, and the Zentraedi Command Cruisers carry few Mecha. You are to escort her, and provide assistance during the boarding action."

"Yes, Ma'am." She tapped the Tac Net again. "Angel Lead, Blue Lead. We're playin' escort duty. I'm designating this temporary Squadron Web." She considered. "Lieutenant Parino, you are Web Lead."

"Understood, Major."

"Nay, this is not acceptable!" The Squadron Net blinked, and a familiar pair of arrogant eyes appeared. "For this Squadron to be led by an alien is not right. Particularly when there are better choices available."

Ranma blinked. "Kuno?" She tapped the commo screen again. "Captain Tendo. Ya never mentioned Kuno in your report."

"Sorry, Ma'am. I figured you only wanted reports on anything that mattered."

"Don't call me 'Ma'am'."

"Surely," continued Kuno, "it would be far more mete for yourself, lovely pigtailed warrior, or for the powerful Tendo Akane, to lead this assault."

Her commo screen was getting crowded. She closed the links to Macross and to Blue Lead. "Listen, Kuno. We're about to invade an alien ship, so I want our resident alien to lead the way. Got it?"

"All due respect, My Lady, but I am forced to agree with Blue Six." Miriya shook her head. "That is not a Meltraedi warship; I doubt I would be of any particular assistance. Captain Clark would be better suited--"

"Captain Clark is ridin' herd on Angel. She'll have her hands full. Same with Captain Tendo." Ranma shook her head. "And before ya mention me, I gotta keep half an eye on the rest of Sixth while they reform. So it's gotta be you."

"I still feel--"

"Miriya, it's an order."

"Yes, My Lady." With Miriya, orders were trump. "Web will form on my lead. I shall upload navigation data in a moment."

Ranma cleared his commo window, then punched up Sepia Lead. "Captain Taggert."

"Aye, Major?"

"I've got a mission for you. Can your outfit still handle Iron Hand?"

He grinned. "We've only got the Scorps left, but all of our units are Jaybirds."

"Excellent." She smirked. "ContactVengeance for nav data."

The damage to the Zentraedi communications network was far more extensive, and serious, than the Humans had expected.

Dolza glowered at the dark screens around him. His flagship had not been attacked by the Micronian mecha, but with the disruption of the network, not a single ship was answering telemetry. He turned, scowling, and asked, "How long to restore communications?"

"Perhaps half a megapulse, if we're lucky." The Zentraedi officer was the closest thing to a technician that his people had. "We'd need to figure out what exactly they hit us with first. However, it might not be necessary at the moment." He hesitated.

"Go on."

"Well, My Lord, it should be possible to link up the remaining ships to form a commo net. It will take a kilopulse or so, but we should be able to route links through undamaged ships."

"Get on it."

"Yes, My Lord."

Dolza turned back to the tactical display, as one screen lit up. "What do we have?"

"Botoru Battalion, My Lord." The Zentraedi tapped controls. "Fifth Battalion."

"Breetai."

The screen cleared, to show the cowled face of the Zentraedi Warlord. "Dolza. I hereby order you to stand down your troops and surrender your ships."

"Insolent traitor." Dolza crossed his arms. "You have no right to issue me orders."

"You are wrong. My right is given to me through the Imperative. The Protoculture live!"

Dolza's arms fell loosely to the side. He staggered towards the screen, jaw agape, and gasped, "You lie!"

"No." Breetai smirked. "They are here, on the Earth. And they possess a weapon sufficient to destroy you, and your entire fleet. Obey your Imperative, and surrender."

Dolza chuckled. "Imperative? That might matter to someone younger than me. But I have served the Zentraedi people for over thirty gigapulses."

"You must still obey the Imperative."

"No." He shook his head. "I have been free of the Imperative for twelve gigapulses. Ever since the day I destroyed the last of the Protoculture."

There was a stunned silence.

"You have acted against the Imperative?"

"Of course."

Breetai shook his head. "You have even ordered Zentraedi against the Imperative?"

Dolza smirked. "Easily enough done; the prohibition against Micrones was part of the Imperative, and the Protoculture were, as you have discovered, Micronian."

Breetai cut the link, and Dolza laughed.

"And today, we shall truly destroy the Protoculture for all time!"

"Signal from Breetai, Captain." Claudia turned to face Gloval. "He's got what we need."

"Good." The captain packed more tobacco into his pipe. "Transmit it to Maistroff, and give signal to begin Phase One of Schedule Minmei."

"Captain!" Sammy jumped to her feet. "No smoking on the bridge!"

Gloval looked up at her, then unrepentantly sparked a match and lit the pipe. Once he had it going, he casually blew a smoke ring at the ceiling. "If we're here in the morning, you can write me up, Sammy."

"Only two guards." Lin Kyle leaned back. "Think you can fake them out, Jimmy?"

"Gimme the mirror." The mirror in question was a girl's hand mirror, probably one of Minmei's, he mused. Kyle handed it over to him, and he used it to peer around the corner.

"No. Damn. Sergeant Bronson was present all through my court martial." Jimmy leaned back, and handed the mirror back to Kyle. "No way he'll forget that I was drummed out."

"All right. We'll go with Plan B." He tossed the stun pistol to another of his compatriots. "Jacob. Let's go."

Sergeant Bronson looked up as two civilians rounded the corner. "Why aren't you two in shelters?"

"Lost." Kyle scratched the back of his head. "This ship sure is big." He pivoted on the ball of his foot, and his hand snapped out to catch the Sergeant across the bridge of the nose. Bronson crumpled, hands flying to his face, and Kyle put him down with a second chop to the back of the neck. The stunner howled, and the other guard joined his sergeant in an unplanned nap.

The other three came around the corner, and Kyle jerked a thumb at the two unconscious guards. "Make sure they aren't going anywhere."

Jimmy tapped the door. "Passcode protected. But I installed this one." He popped the control panel, examined the innards, and frowned. "Anyone got a conductor of any sort? Necklace, hairpin, anything?"

"Here." Kyle pulled a jack-knife from his back pocket. Jimmy extended the blade, and shorted out two contacts.

The door slid open. Kyle stepped through, and looked around the armoury.

"Perfect. Guns for all." He turned back. "Everyone grab a laser pistol."

The liftlock doors bulged, and exploded inward. The resulting blast of air, caused by the decompression of the chamber behind, blew fragments of hull and Zentraedi warriors out into space. Corporal Tesch grinned. "Perfect."

"Good work, Corporal." Ranma's Soldier-mode Valkyrie stepped through the gaping hole. "Where are we, Miriya?"

"Forward fighter hangar, Major." Miriya followed Ranma into the hangar. "The Nupetiet-Vernitzs class of ship normally has seven hundred and twenty fighters in this area." She glanced around the abandoned hangar. "I would be surprised if as many as three percent were still operational across the entire ship."

"What about Mecha?"

"The Mecha hangers are mostly on the deck above us."

"Can we stop them from coming down on us?"

Miriya shook her head. "I am sorry, My Lady, but we cannot."

"Don't call me that." He waved the Destroids forward. "First Platoon, set up post here. Fall back if the Zentraedi make a push, but keep me informed."

"Aye, Ma'am."

"Which way, Miriya?"

"A lift at the far end of this hangar will take us to Deck Five. From there, we can gain access to the bridge."

Jimmy examined the mass of circuits, then shook his head. "I can get most of it, Kyle, but I got a signal on the emergency override line. It's a constant hot, with some kind of encrypted signal. There's no way I can bypass it without setting off the override command."

Kyle frowned. "How big of a wrench does this throw into our plans?"

"Well, the override command is activated by a button on the Captain's chair. If we can disable the button at the source, it should stop the override. But from here, I can't do it. Intraship communications I can cripple, as much as we want."

"We can't cut them all off, or the Bridge will know something's up. Just kill what commo you can running both to and from Auxiliary Control."

"You got it." Jimmy pulled a pair of wire cutters and went to work.

The lift ground to a halt. Ranma glanced up at the level indicator.

"Deck Four? We're one short."

Miriya joggled the lift control. "Bad news, My Lady. It looks like this lift will not descend any further."

"Crap." Ranma considered. "Is there another lift?"

"Yes, on the starboard side," said Miriya. "The bad news is that we have to cross the training area to reach it. I doubt that the training area is in use in the middle of a battle, however."

"Okay, we don't got a lot of choice." She opened the hatch a crack, and extended a sensor boom through the gap. "Looks clear to me. Lead us through, Miriya."

Miriya opened the hatch all the way and walked her Valkyrie through. "Corporal Tesch, take this lift back up and pick up some more Destroids. Angel, Third Lance, follow me."

"Aye, Ma'am."

Third Lance was composed of two Spartans and a Rifleman, with one Tomahawk for support. The Spartans and Rifleman readied their GU-11s as they left the lift. Ranma swept the area with his passive sensors. "What is this area exactly, Miriya?"

"Training area. This particular compartment is just a companionway, leading from the lifts to the lockers and the main training hall."

"So we shouldn't encounter anyone in Mecha?"

"No."

"Good."

They reached the lift, and Ranma sighed. "Almost anticlimactic." She toggled the lift control, and the hatch opened...to reveal a rather surprised group of Zentraedi in battle armour.

Miriya yelled, "Advance to the rear! Third, provide cover fire!"

The group started to fall back, and the Destroids opened fire with the gun pods. An alarm klaxon started to wail; Ranma cursed.

"They're on to us!" The yell came from Clark.

Half a dozen Zentraedi had already been killed by gunfire, but the remainder brought up their assault rifles and opened up. For the most part, the rifle rounds bounced harmlessly off the Destroids; the Rifleman lost its boom antenna, but no damage was obvious on any of the others.

However, more were coming; Ranma's sensors pinged angrily at him, and he glanced down long enough to see almost fifty more Zentraedi approaching. And unlike the ones in the lift, they wore powered armour.

"More incoming."

"I see them." Miriya's voice was calm. "Nousjadeul-Ger Powered Armour. Angel, smite them!"

"Aye, Ma'am." Amy Clark brought up her rifle/cannon, and drilled an incoming Mecha through the faceplate with a well-aimed 100-round burst. "Positive count, forty-seven units. Angel Thirteen, advise that our Flight is out of missiles."

"Understood."

The Destroids finished putting down the lightly-armoured Zentraedi, leaving the lift a blood-soaked abattoir. They then turned to engage the powered armour. Both Spartans popped open their missile packs and began firing laser-guided missiles, while the Spartan opened up with its particle cannons. But the Human forces were badly outnumbered, and had no cover.

Ranma watched in horror as two Angels were knocked back, their Mecha shedding fragments all over the companionway. Angel Six had the entire torso torn open, and Angel Three lost a leg, followed by its sensor head. The Tomahawk absorbed five separate plasma cannon blasts, and its missiles began to cook off, gutting the machine. She roared her fury, and unlimbered her gun pod.

The 966-PFG autocannon was designed as an anti-aircraft weapon. Its massive 30mm bore spat magnetic proximity-fused explosive fragmentation shells at a rate of twenty-five rounds per second. Unlike the smaller GU-11, it was actively cooled, and could maintain constant fire for up to five minutes – far longer than the under-sized clips feeding it could hold out.

Ranma's Valkyrie grasped the forward grip on the gun with its left arm, and levelled the weapon at the hip. She swung the gun about until the CCIP on her HUD intersected the left-most Zentraedi Power Armour, and she held down the trigger on her stick. The gun roared, its lower rate of fire giving it a booming chatter completely unlike the tearing-cloth sound of the GU-11s around her, and she slowly traverse the weapon across the entire column of armour. The rounds exploded like grenades, tearing up the armoured suits and their occupants with ridiculous ease.

The gun clicked on empty, and she ejected the spent clip, smoothly slapped in her spare, and cranked the first round into the chamber. She glanced around the companionway, to see that the remainder of the Zentraedi mecha were down.

"Angel Three, report."

"I'm outta this fight, Captain. Reactor Two is gone, all sensors gone, my GU-11 is gone."

"Affirmative. Dismount the fighter, board Private Michaelson's Spartan. Angel Six, report." Clark paused. "Warrant Park, respond. Song, can you hear me?"

Ranma swore, and tapped his Divisional Net medical readouts. "Sorry, Amy...she didn't make it."

"Aw, shit." Amy's voice was low, but when she spoke again, it dripped venom. "Angel, form up and board the lift."

"Hands in the air! All of you!"

Captain Gloval turned in shock. Lin Kyle stood at the bridge hatch, laser pistol in hand. Five others poured in behind him, each covering one of his bridge officers.

Kyle glanced around. "Where's Hayes?"

"At her duty post. The Star Bowl." Gloval scowled. "What exactly is the meaning of this?"

"I am taking over this ship."

"Captain!" Vanessa turned to face Gloval. "Auxiliary Control doesn't respond!"

Gloval dived for his command chair, but Kyle pulled the trigger, burning his leg. He crashed to the ground, a meter and a half short of his goal. Kyle strode forward, and casually burned the entire control console on the chair to slag.

Claudia turned back to her station, and mashed the all-freq emergency broadcast button. Jimmy yelled, and shot wildly in her direction, but only managed to damage the console.

"Bitch!" Kyle turned, and shot her in the back. She screamed, and collapsed to the ground.

"Hands in the air! All of you!"

The commander of the Zentraedi ship was large, but not in the same league as Breetai. He turned to see the remaining Mecha of the Angel Squadron and Third Platoon filing into his bridge.

"What the hell do you--"

"I am Miriya Parino, Quadrano Ace. I command this force, and I am taking command of this ship." She levelled the GU-11 gun pod at the Zentraedi officer, and gunned him down. "Any dissent shall be met with lethal force."

"Ya might have warned him first, Miriya," grumbled Ranma.

"Corporal Santino, please connect us with the Macross Tactical Net."

"Aye, Ma'am." Like the Valkyrie, the Spartan had several small manipulator arms built into its wrist. Santino extended them, and began tearing down a commo console. Ranma reached into the right-side weapons bay of his Valkyrie, and withdrew a transceiver. Santino grabbed it, and within minutes had it talking to the Zentraedi commo systems.

Ranma tapped the Divisional Net. "Vengeance, this is Saotome. We've got you patched in, and you can begin transmission any time you like."

Colonel Maistroff's face appeared on the screen, devoid of its usual arrogance. "Major, we have a serious issue aboard Macross."

Ranma's blood ran cold. "What's wrong?"

"Better tap into Tac Net."

Ranma's fingers flew across the controls. A most unwelcome face swam into visibility on his screen.

"Kyle!"

"I now control the bridge of the Macross, and Auxiliary Control has been locked out."

"What the fuck are you doin'?"

"It's simple, really. The Zentraedi could have blown this ship out of the stars any time they wished. Obviously, the only reason that they haven't done so is because they've wanted to recover it intact." He smirked. "Now I've done this for them. I will turn it over to the Zentraedi commander, and the war will end. No-one else need die."

"Don't be a moron, Kyle! They'll kill us all as soon as they have it. Ya gotta know that!"

"Major Saotome is correct." Miriya had also tapped into the Tac Net. "Supreme Commander Dolza now knows that Micronian cultural contamination has spread throughout the Botoru Battalion, and will act to purge it. In addition, no cease-fire between the Quadranos and the remainder of the Dolza Fleet was ever declared; he will move on to destroy my people as well. And to ensure that no further contamination will occur, he will finish off the rest of the Earth."

"Givin' him the Macross will just mean he's got more weapons to shoot us with! Don't do this!"

"You're both wrong." He shook his head. "If you remove the source of the conflict, the conflict will end."

"This ain't about the Macross anymore! It's about survival!"

"I must act to end this war!" Kyle angrily snapped the commo system off.

"Aw, fuck. He's completely lost it." Ranma shook her head. "Sixth, report. Who's closest to Macross?"

Maistroff answered. "Sepia is closest, with elements of Angel and Blue nearby as well. But we're still several hours away from Macross; I don't think your fighters will have the reaction mass to reach them. Skull Squadron is the next closest, and have full tanks, but they are engaged."

"So nobody can do a thing to stop him?"

"I'm sorry, Major. I wish I had better news."

"Well, wishes won't--" She paused. "Wish. Of course. I can reach Macross in mere seconds!" She turned, and ran the Valkyrie towards the lift.