Robotech vs Transformers: Revenge Road
Chapter Twenty Seven
"Fold Drive?" Claudia asked, frowning.
"It's a very early drive we used when we first left Cybertron," Optimus Prime noted seriously. "We stopped using it fairly quickly."
"Why?" Lisa had to ask.
"They were notoriously unreliable," Perceptor noted primly. "You could use them to jump from system to system, but you could barely control where you ended up."
Wheeljack added eagerly, "There were even cases where ships re-appeared in normal space inside other objects, like moons or space stations."
"So, you can build one with just Earth technology?" Claudia asked them a question to get everyone back on track.
"It's within your technological capabilities," Perceptor said. "We weren't much more advanced than you were when we discovered it," he observed.
"But what would they do with a Fold Drive?" Lisa had to ask. "They have no ships,"she pointed out, knowing their only ship was wrecked at the bottom of the sea.
"Not that hard to build one," Wheeljack offered reasonably, adding, "all they really need is a decent protective shell."
"Oh joy. We'll have to task our orbital assets to trying to spot whatever they may be building too," Lisa sighed.
"Good luck," Optimus noted.
With that the communication link ended and the bridge crew sat back and sighed. Lana sighed as she noted, "I wonder if we can get them to give US the Fold Drive tech?"
Sammi, one of the bridge bunnies, looked at her curiously, "You WANT to go into space?"
"It's been one of my lifelong dreams," Lana admitted.
'Huh,' Lisa noted. Aloud she continued, "We'll need to task all allied space resources to trying to find whatever the Decepticons are doing."
"Better remind them not to automatically tag anything from China," Claudia added, "we know they want to build their own Fortress."
"Ugh. Don't remind me..," Lisa admitted.
'Politics,' Lana thought wryly.
"We'll get the sensor crews working on it," Sammi promised. "Should we send a request to headquarters too?" she asked.
"If we bring in headquarters they'll question where we got the data," Lisa noted, "better we do it on our own, for now."
"Aye aye," Sammi agreed as she and the others went to work.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Each Fortress maintained a patrol route, while the pilots aboard flew security flights, along with patroling the region. They were hoping to catch the Decepticons grabbing a building, or at least stop them from raiding power sources.
In between jobs, of course, the pilots practiced.
Three fighters mock battled in the sky, turning and burning as they fought to nail each other with simulated weapons. Below, their squad leader watched critically in her fighter, hovering in Guardian mode.
"Hunter, tighten up those turns! Do you want a Decepticon shooting you down?" Izzy noted.
"Yes ma'am," Rick Hunter replied.
"Dixon... are you TRYING to get shot?" Izzy scolded.
"Sorry ma'am," Ben Dixon sighed.
Izzy couldn't really find anything wrong with Max's flying. Still... "Sterling! Chase Hunter HARDER! A Decepticon wouldn't let you get away with half-assing it!"
Max Sterling cheerfully answered, "Yes ma'am!"
"You really enjoy this, don't you?" Roy Fokker teased her over the radio,
"Yup," Izzy agreed willingly. "I'll let then play for a bit, then go up there myself and kick their asses," she added.
"I'd not get TOO cocky with Dixon. He's getting very good," Roy observed.
"Oh, agreed," Izzy conceded willingly. "It may not have hit your desk yet, but I've put both Sterling and Hunter in for promotion. With all the new pilots coming up, we'll need more squad leaders," she said.
"And Dixon?" Roy asked wryly.
"... I think I'll keep him for a bit," Izzy admitted. "He's not ready for command."
"Fair enough," Roy agreed. "Oh, the reason I bugged you... senior staff meeting in three hours. You're our senior squad leader, I want you there in case any pilot issues come up."
"Aye aye," Izzy sighed as he signed off. She hated meetings. She looked up, then smiled slightly. "Okay, boys," she declared to the three pilots, "playtime's OVER."
With that Izzy converted to fighter mode and rocketed off after her three pilots...
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The Fold Drive was assembled mostly be the Constructicons, with various others assistance. Cobbling together such a device with such basic technology was an incredible feat, and Megatron was actually free with praise.
"So NOW what?" Darkshadow asked.
Megatron gave her a LOOK, and she subsided. But her being disruptive was becoming more of a regular thing, and he suspected she would rise against him soon. Steps would have to be taken.
"We've done a 'smoke' test so far," Scrapper noted.
"Smoke test?" Megatron had to ask.
"Power it up. If there's a wiring fault, it'll smoke," Scrapper explained.
Shockblast snorted quietly.
Scrapper continued, "Next is a full power test..."
"What does that consist of?" Darkshadow asked.
"Someone climbs on the engine, it folds, then they ride it back," Scrapper explained.
"What's the shortest jump distance?" she asked.
"Roughly the length of a solar system," Scrapper said.
Shockblast yelped, "That's the minimum?"
Megatron just ignored that. "Darkshadow, ask for a volunteer. Tell them they'll get a extra energon ration out of it."
"Sir," Darkshadow nodded and strode off.
Runabout looked nervously at the box-like contraption. "This is safe, right?" he asked.
"There's a SLIGHT chance you might super-impose on an object in space, but it's very remote," Scrapper noted.
"Wait, what...," Runabout started.
"Powering up!" Scrapper said, and the Transformer and drive both disappeared.
"How long should this take?" Shockblast asked.
"His various systems will need to re-orient themselves on arrival. That may take some time," Scrapper admitted.
A few seconds later, the drive and Runabout reappeared, The Decepticon looked visibly shaken and, worryingly, his one leg was sheared clean off.
"Decepticon. Report!" Megatron barked.
That jarred Runabout out of his shock. "Sir, jump was successful. However, I emerged into an asteroid field, sustaining mild damage."
"Take him for repairs," Megatron ordered Shockblast, "and the extra energon."
"Yes sir!" Shockblast said, helping him limp out.
"There shouldn't have been an asteroid field... targeting might be off," Scrapper noted as he poured over the drive.
"Make your adjustments and have it ready soon," Megatron ordered, "we need to travel to Cybertron NOW."
"We still need a vessel...," Scrapper offered tentatively.
"We are already dealing with that," Megatron said smugly.
To be continued...
Notes: This is NOT how canon Fold Drives work in Macross. They're normally reasonably reliable, other than the SDF-1's first try at using one, that chucked them across the solar system.