Disclaimer: I do not own Babylon 5 or its characters, those belong to Warner Brothers. I do not own Robotech or its characters, those belong to Harmony Gold. I do not own Macross or its characters, those belong to Big West and Studio Nue
Author Note: Just a word of caution for words of hurtful racial language. Humans First is an organization designed for Humans only, they consider Tirolians, Zentraedi, even the races of the Sentinels Alliance to be inferior, . They're not nice people. They give a public appearance of being inclusive, but clearly they are not.
Additional warning for a murder/suicide scene.
Earth vs Minbari – Robotech To The Rescue
Chapter 6
The Next Day
President's Office
Geneva, Switzerland
President Levy, her cabinet, and senior military leadership were sitting in a more relaxed fashion as they all were watching the morning's major news broadcast the day after President Levy had given her speech. They had watched the initial reactions last night and saw that it was mostly positive even though there were a couple opposing viewpoints. Senators that had been reached for comment immediately after both gave positive remarks in favor of the President's actions. The group of people had cups of coffee or tea and there were breakfast pastries of the sweet and savory variety in front of them as well. There was quiet conversation between the different people as they caught up with each other since the last time they saw each other.
Since it was morning and people had more time to think about the President's announcement from last night , the gathered group thought it would be interesting what the morning news media was going to say. The video screen was finishing the current program and in a few minutes the morning ISN broadcast would begin.
Right on time, the ISN logo appeared, music was playing and the announcer speaking, "Good morning planet Earth this is Interstellar Network News, here are your news anchors, Jennifer Wallace, and Steven Barnes.", the darkened lights turned on and both of the news anchors could be seen.
The camera focused on the young female news anchor named Jennifer. She was young and beautiful with long wavy blonde hair and piercing brilliant blue eyes, high cheekbones that hinted her Tirolian ancestry. "Good morning people of Earth, to our brave fighting men and women of EarthForce, and to all of Humanity out in the colonies. Today's top story: The President's stunning announcement that she was invoking the Special Clause of the Sentinels Treaty, that she's dispatched an expedition already to retrieve our Robotech ships and weapons, and that our military is already beginning to retrain to use such ships and weapons."
As the news anchor was speaking, video feed of old historical footage from the Third and Fourth Robotech War was shown briefly displaying the REF fleet fighting the Invid over planet Earth and more footage showing the REF and the Sentinels Alliance fighting against the Haydonites. Then the feed returned to the young woman as she was continuing to talk. "Here's some of what the President said last night."
The video now cut to showing the President giving her speech from last night. "People of Earth and her colonies, under my authority as President of Earth I have invoked the Special Clause of the Sentinels Treaty and have dispatched an expedition back to the Pegasus Galaxy to reclaim and retrieve our former ships and weapons of the past. People of Earth, all of Humanity, it is my strongest belief that in order to defeat the Minbari, we will once again have to use Robotechnology to save us once more." Then it cut to another clip of the President's speech. "As I speak to you now, the expedition to Pegasus has successfully reclaimed the old Robotech Factory and those ships that were stored away. Simultaneously, we have started with Robotech retraining and familiarization among our military at secret military installations while the Expedition makes the necessary preparations to return with as much Robotechnology as they can."
The footage cut away and Jennifer was looking at the camera and continued, "Reaction to the President's speech has been overwhelmingly positive. A poll started by ISN last night immediately after the President's speech is showing an overwhelming support of ninety one percent in favor of the President's decision with five percent opposed, and four percent undecided."
The camera switched over to the other news anchor Steven Barnes, a man slightly older than Jennifer with brown hair, gray eyes, and roguishly handsome. "Yes, it sure looks like the people are in full support of the President's decision. The question remains, how soon can this expedition return with those locked away ships and weapons? Additionally, how long will it take for our brave EarthForce naval crews and GroPos to be ready to fight using these old weapons? We posed that question to our experts."
The camera switched to show two different people on the screen as they were connecting to the news studio by super fast connections from their offices. President Levy spoke loudly, "Video off.", and the monitor turned off and the screen switched to a beautiful seascape of the Pacific Coast of North America.
Looking at the assembled people in her office she smiled, "Looks like we're riding a high right now.", her expression changed to a more somber one as she continued, "What we need is for Captain Sheridan and all his people to return ASAP.", She looked at General Lefcourt, "General, I need an update on the Pegasus Expedition's progress."
With a nod of his head he replied, "Madam President, our last report from last night was that the Factory was powering up all systems and that once all systems were fully powered, Doctor Lang and Sheridan's Chief Engineer Sevina would be initiating a full diagnostic on the Factory which was going to take between twenty four to thirty six hours. According to the schedule, that diagnostic should be starting in approximately two to three hours from now."
People in the room nodded their heads in understanding. Vice President Santiago said, "Do we know if they've started on the mothball fleet yet?"
Millia Sterling, the Secretary of Defense said, "They haven't been able to access the inventory records from the Factory to see what's stored over there. It seems that some of our records were fragmented or lost over more than the hundred years."
President Levy took a sip of her coffee, she looked at her notepad then said, "Secretary Sterling, General Lefcourt, with the announcement made, and the call to arms that I asked for Zentraedi and those of Zentraedi or Tirolian descent that have Robotech knowledge to come forward, I think it would be most prudent to increase the training program for the Veritechs and Capital ships. Whatever it is you need," she looked at the two leaders of Earth's military then continued, "you have it. Set up more of these simulators and get these Veritechs we have in storage out there."
Millia bowed her head in thanks. "Thank you Madam President, I was about to ask you if we could do just that."
"Waving her hand in a dismissive gesture President Levy said, "Yes, yes, do it. We need to get our people ready. I want people transferred over to Robotech warships and mecha as soon as possible after Sheridan's expedition returns."
"Does that include Destroid and Cyclone armor operation ma'am?", asked General Lefcourt.
President Levy replied, "Yes, General it does.", then she added, "When the time comes, we will launch an invasion of our own against a Minbari world. To show the Minbari and the entire galaxy that they are not invincible. So, those Destroids and Cyclones will be of great use to our GroPos forces."
Giving a smile back General Lefcourt says, "That will certainly make General Fontaine and the other GroPos commanders very happy."
"I'm sure.", she replied. Then she asked another question. "When can we expect the next Minbari attack?"
Millia was quick to reply, "We expect the next attack within the next five to seven days. Deneb is most likely to be one of the targets."
There were grim sounds and grunts from a the Generals.
"Evacuations?", she asked.
"Under way still and in some cases we're forcibly removing people from their homes.", responded General Lefcourt.
President Levy said, "We have Robotech ships and weapons coming, I don't want our forces to fight to the death, we'll need as many living personnel to crew these ships and fighters."
General Lefcourt said, "We've changed our strategy and once we have those pilots currently being trained on Veritech flight and operation, that is definitely going to be a game changer. We think Deneb is going to give us a breather if we can time the beacon shut down perfectly so that they lose a significant portion of the attacking forces. Also, we're going to institute a random beacon turn off strategy everywhere going forward."
Nodding her head in approval she said, "Get those men and women ready to fight in those Veritechs and get them out there."
"We're working on it, Madam President.", said Secretary Millia.
President Levy looked at Earth's most senior diplomat. With the Secretary of State away at Pegasus, he'd left his two Assistant Secretaries of State behind. One of them had decided to take the mission of speaking to the League of Non-Aligned Worlds personally so Assistant Secretary of State Caius Lurco was on his way to speak to the League at great risk to his own life given that the Minbari were not respecting their diplomatic flags.
Remaining behind to handle things on Earth was Assistant Secretary of State Remelia Wainwright, an older woman with long blonde hair that was starting to gray out, with a streak of gray hair on her left side above her left eye. Her violet eyes were brilliant and gave her an elfin look to go with her sculpted ears.
President Levy said, "What news do you have from our Ambassador?"
Remelia smiled and replied, "We sent him a copy of your speech last night and I spoke to him before this meeting. He is overwhelmingly enthusiastic and he hopes he will be able to convince at least a few of them to help us. He expects to arrive to speak directly to the League within the next two days. He says that they are having to take a longer route to avoid running into any Minbari warships."
"Well then", the President sighed. "We can only hope and pray for his success."
The meeting continued for a few more minutes before coming to an end. Most of the Cabinet left except for the Vice President, Secretary of Defense, the Director of Intelligence, and General Lefcourt.
President Levy started, "Well, what doe we know about the intruder who breached EarthForce High Command?"
The Director of Intelligence, a man with Tirolian features of blue hair and bright blue eyes named Spiros Alexas began, "The intruder should be undergoing his first interrogation within the hour. He should be coming out of the sedatives that were injected into him shortly. We've taken his fingerprints, blood and tissue samples, and have run his DNA through the databases and right now we're coming up blank. We know he's telepathic from the after action report by the telepaths that helped in taking him down. We've done a thorough search through the Telepathic Monitoring Commission and turned up nothing. He's a ghost."
"How is this possible?", she asked.
With a sigh Spiros said, "It saddens me to say this but someone or some group out there has a lot of money and a lot of influence.", he displayed the Identicard that they caught the intruder with on the video screen. "This is the name we have him linked to right now, 'Robert Greenwood'. It passes a fairly good amount of scrutiny. Frankly this cover identity is extremely impressive. It's on a level that compares to a governmental level of execution. I would be lying to you if I told you that this does not scare me."
"Do we know how he got in?", the Vice President asked.
Director Spiros replied, "With his cover identity, it was easy for him to get through the upper levels. If it wasn't for the undercover telepath on duty at station fourteen, he might have made it further and found whatever it was he was after."
President Levy said, "We need to know what he was after and who he's working for. I assume you're going to have some very talented telepaths on hand to deal with him."
"Some of my best people will be involved.", Spiros replied.
President Levy was clearly angry as she snarled, "Good, I want to know everything. Rip it out of his head if you have to. This stinks of treason and I want to know who's behind this."
"We'll get those answers Madam President.", assured Spiros.
"Luis, has any progress started on the evacuation plan?"
Luis Santiago replied, "I met with General Lefcourt and we're already starting on that ma'am. We've got people working on what is needed, from seeds to storage for humanity's culture. We are also beginning to start looking at the people, from all walks of life to not only ensure genetic diversity but making sure we have the skilled people that would be needed to start over."
"Good. Keep working on that Luis, Robert and keep me informed as to that progress."
"Yes, Madam President.", Luis and Robert Lefcourt replied.
The meeting ended shortly after so that they could all return to their important tasks.
Secure Facility
Location: CLASSIFIED
The operative had awakened in a bed that was definitely not his own. Looking around he could tell his was in a prison cell. He cursed silently not only his luck, but the three telepaths that took part in taking him down before he could kill himself. The operative saw clothing set nearby as he realized he'd been stripped. He saw bandages on his arm that told him they'd taken his blood at the very least. He reached for his telepathic ability to reach out and sense if anyone was nearby but was rewarded with a severe headache for his trouble.
He knew he was screwed. Anti telepathic drugs had been injected into him. He had to find a way to kill himself. As he was looking around the room to see if there was anything he could use to kill himself, he found nothing.
The door to his cell opened and two guards were there. One of them said, "Get dressed, you have two minutes or we're dragging you to your interrogation as you are."
Both guards were bigger than him, and looking at them he was immediately sure they were at least quarter Zentraedi and most likely half Zentraedi.
The other big guard hissed, "Hurry up traitor."
Grabbing the issued clothing, he began to put on the orange jumpsuit. He replied, "I'm no traitor. I'm loyal to Humanity. You're not human, you look human but you're not even human. You're a sub species."
One of the guards pulled out his baton and struck him on the lower back.
"Silence.", the guard hissed.
The operative gave a cry of pain and stopped briefly. Then grunting and groaning he finished putting on the jumpsuit. The man was handcuffed with his hands in front and taken out of the cell and brought through a maze of corridors where he was brought to a room with one table in the center and two chairs, one one each side. They placed him in one chair and brought out a short chain and handcuffed him to the chain that was connected to the table and they left the room to stand guard outside.
The operative sighed as he waited. There were no clocks in the room. He didn't see the two way mirror but he knew that there had to be one. He tried to use his telepathy again but was rewarded with another splitting headache for his trouble. Grimacing oin pain, he sighed again as he waited.
Time had passed, and he heard voices outside his room but he couldn't understand was being said. There was a conversation that quickly became very heated and all of a sudden he heard the sound of a PPG being fired twice.
Several seconds passed and then the door to his room was opened and a man with brown hair, brown eyes, a small goatee walked in the room wearing the uniform of an EarthForce Colonel holding a PPG in one hand. With the other hand the Colonel used it to gesture a sign that Humans First's known terrorist cells would make to recognize each other or to show their allegiance right before they would commit a righteous action that the media and everyone else would call terrorism.
From the door a radio check could be heard as someone was checking to ensure everything is alright then they cursed as they could see what was happening on camera in the interrogation room and an alarm was sounded.
The Colonel said, "Brother, you were not supposed to allow yourself to be captured. Your failure to complete the mission assigned to you will set us back. Your loss will be felt for a long time. I've been sent to send you on your way and to join you right after. This was not planned, our cause will suffer."
The operative replied, "I'm sorry. I was up against three telepaths, one of them claimed they were all P12. Security was extremely tight, I cannot figure out how I was discovered."
"Not important. Your journey ends here, as does mine. Humans First!", the Colonel raised his PPG and fired twice, once in the chest, another to the head of the operative .
Turning to face the door, the sound of multiple people running fast could be heard from down the corridor. The Colonel sighed but he was resolved. The people he was truly loyal to would make sure his family was looked after and taken care of. He looked up at the camera as he put the PPG to underneath his chin.
The boots of the running guards were close now. The Colonel closed his eyes, took a breath then opened them and screamed, "Homines primum!" right as the first guard was charging into the room and he pulled the trigger.
The guard was too late as he screamed in rage trying to prevent the man from committing suicide and seeing the uniformed man successfully killing himself before he could hit the man's arm away from his head. He was followed close behind by two other guards while an additional two other guards were attending to the guards that had been shot outside the interrogation room.
The other two guards inside the room reached out to the first guard. "It's okay Mike.", one of them said.
"No it's not okay! This son of a bitch traitor killed the man we needed then killed himself! Find out who he is, find out how he got down here! Are they alright? Please tell me they're alright.", the man called Mike walked out to check on the other two guards to see that they had been killed as well.
Growling in rage he activated his comm link. "Central, we've got a clusterfuck of epic proportions. The prisoner is dead and the man that killed him, killed Lewis and Clark as well before killing himself."
The amount of curses and profane words heard from the other end was alarming and educational. Orders were issued, the crime scene was secured to be processed, and very important people were called to inform them of what happened.
The Pegasus Galaxy
The Robotech Factory
It was morning aboard the Robotech Factory and the crews of the four warships were already busy. The crews were allowed to disembark and they were assigned to quarters aboard the Factory station within the station's massive section assigned for that task.
Logistics personnel started unloading supplies from the three Hyperion warships directly to the Station's own supply rooms assigned for food and other necessary logistical needs. Surprisingly there was very little dust throughout the station. Doctor Lang had explained that cleaning robots had basically cleaned up everything after the power had turned on and a charging cycle had been completed.
Crews from the four warships had been broken up and mixed together so that those personnel that had exposure to working on the Achilles could help those that had not. Then they were led to the warship simulator rooms where they could start learning what they had to know. Captain Sheridan stressed that he wanted people to know how to navigate and pilot Robotech ships so that they could go to the mothball yard soon and start moving warships out of the yard with as minimal crew as necessary so that they could move as many warships out of the mothball yard quickly and safely.
The Executive Officers from the four warships were placed in charge of getting the personnel trained with Delinda taking point on supervising the others and answering any questions they might have since she had been working on the Achilles and had experience enough to answer most questions without having to bother Doctor Lang or any of his people too much. Lieutenant Commander Khamjin, being a male Zentraedi himself still hadn't worked on a Robotech ship since he had been born decades after the Sentinel Treaty had been signed. Lieutenant Commander Serina Cabel also had no Robotechnology experience even with her Tirolian background since she and her sister had been born more recently.
This was the first day since they'd taken over the Robotech Factory. Doctor Lang and his team were overseeing the diagnostic tests now that the Factory was fully powered and all systems were on. Chief Engineer Sevina was still in the engineering section of the Factory with a team of her own running a separate diagnostic of the Reflex Furnaces.
As the Doctor was running diagnostics and having his team monitor things he was looking at a computer and looking for an inventory of what was aboard the Robotech Factory and he made a discovery. Wanting to make sure he pressed a button that would allow him to talk to the AI that was Rick Hunter. Right now, per Captain Sheridan's request the AI was pretending to be a very robust VI.
The Voice of Rick Hunter emerged from the speaker, "What is your request, Doctor Lang?"
"I'm looking at this information with regards to Bay One. Is this accurate?", Doctor Lang asked.
"Yes, the information is accurate.", replied Rick.
"Thank you. Please arrange for a transport to Bay One for me.", he replied.
"Right away, Doctor. Transport is en route, eta two minutes.", the AI pretending to be a VI replied.
The Doctor started looking at the diagnostic progress and was happy to see that only a few issues were arising. The problems that were discovered should be addressed fairly quickly.
Rick spoke, "Your transport to Bay one has arrived Doctor."
Rising from his chair Doctor Lang said, "Thank you, please direct any calls to my personal comm link while I am away."
"Of course, Doctor.", Rick replied.
Leaving the Control Center he got into the transport and it took off to its destination. The journey was just under five minutes and soon the vehicle stopped at the doors that led to the walkways that crew would use to reach the boarding tubes to the waiting warships just like in Bay Four where the Achilles and the Eisenhowers and Ikazuchi's were docked in.
Walking through the door, Doctor Lang entered the walkway that would take him to the what he had discovered. The walk wasn't too long and he soon arrived at the spot he was interested in and what he saw shocked him to his core as he looked up at the massive ship that overshadowed his initial discovery.
Robert turned around and headed back out. He accessed his comm link and said, "Doctor Lang to Captain Sheridan."
The comm link chirped, "Sheridan here."
"Please join me at Bay One right away. I discovered something.", he responded.
There was a pause for several seconds then he received a reply. "I'm on my way."
"I'll be waiting sir."
Doctor Lang had returned to his transport and sat down. He took out a bottle of water and drank from it. He contemplated what he'd discovered and wondered just how many surprises were in store. Right now, this was number two.
Five minutes later another hover car transport arrived carrying Captain Sheridan and the other three Hyperion Captains. The four exited the hover car and joined Doctor Lang as he exited his own transport.
With a wave he spoke, "Hello, thank you for coming so soon.", Doctor Lang greeted.
John responded by asking, "What is it that you found that you had to call me and the other Captains over?"
With a tiny smirk Doctor Lang said, "Follow me, you will see."
The group followed the Doctor through the door and they started moving through the walkway. The walk was brief and soon Doctor Lang stopped and with a dramatic waving gesture he said, "Look."
The group looked at what the Doctor was showing them. The warship that was docked was indeed historic and legendary. Everyone was in shock to see it. There were gasps and various cries of amazement. Captain Kania Jiina was the first to say, "This is incredible!"
The others quickly echoed with their faces of astonishment. The warship that they were staring at: The SDF-3 Pioneer.
The warship was in pristine condition. But it was in the shadow of something far more massive. The group started walking towards the SDF-3, heading to one of the boarding tubes when Captain Sheridan stopped and said, "Wait a second. What the hell is going on that this ship is in the shadow of something?"
Doctor Lang said, "That's the other thing I wanted to show you. Look up."
Everyone did and everyone's jaws dropped open in absolute shock. Words could not be formed from the four Captains for several seconds.
Captain Sheridan spoke quietly at first, but he found his voice at the end when he asked, "Doctor, What The Hell Is That!?", he pointed at the gigantic warship that looked like the SDF-1 in Attack Mode but it wasn't. Everyone could only see the ship from the bottom and they could see "arms" of the warship being comprised of a Nupetiet-Vergnitzs warship on each arm. There were two more of them, on the back of the massive warship, rising high above. They could see the"feet" which were the massive' warship's engines and stare in awe at how large they were. The reason for the shadow was that the gigantic warship was docked in its current position that caused it to be in the perfect spot where the SDF-3 was in its shadow.
Doctor Lang was looking up at the massive warship when he was asked the question. He lowered his head to look at Captain Sheridan and the group of Captains. Then he adjusted his glasses and said, "That, Captain Sheridan is a Macross Cannon."
Author Note: Surprise! We're bringing in some Macross elements to the story. Basically limited to ships and mecha. See you all next chapter.
Author Note: Translation:
Homines primum! – Humans First!