As it was explained to Dave, once he came to in the sick bay, Max and Ben continued their attack on the remaining bogies when another three fighters were sent in to attack Lt. Comm. Hayase and Cadet Ichijo at the ruined base. Hikaru had to tear Misa Hayase away from the ruins of the Mars base and now, her fiances final resting place as it was proposed that he too died in the assault on Sara. Knowing that the Catseye was impossible to manuever well in combat, and that Lt. Comm. Hayase was in no shape to pilot, Hikaru stole her away into his fighter and he tore into the sky where he then engaged the three fighters. Soon Max and Ben arrived on scene to help out their buddy. After the alien fighters were subdued, the three went to go search for Dave and Luke.
Dave had taken a hit to his starboard fastpack thruster and consequently lost his communications as well. With little to no stablization Dave had to set down his ship in a hurry. He eventualy smashed up his Valkyrie as he brought her down on a flat feild. Max sat his fighter down to check the wreckage. Dave doesn't remember what he said, or that he said anything at all for that matter, but he told Max that Luke had followed his bogie into a tunnel somewhere in a canyon.
With that information, Ben flew the length of the nearest canyon and scanned the floor for any sign of life. He found a faint trace buried under a cave-in in this tunnel. Max and Ben converted their fighters into battroid form and began shoveling rock and debris out of the tunnel where they found Luke's fighter stuck in gerwalk form, dented and beaten by the collapsed ceiling. Luke was still conscience and had taken little to no injury, he was just stuck in the tunnel's darkness, waiting for anyone to find him. He had also lost his com line and sensors from the impact and was stuck there in dead silence under the surface of Mars. The first thing he asked when he was brought aboard Ben's fighter was where Dave is. Ben told Luke that Max had Dave and that they are heading back to the Macross right away. Dave had taken some bumps and bruises but he had gone unconscience and it was apparent that he needed a medic.
This morning Dave came to and found himself looking around with blurry vision. Everything here was bright white and smelled like anticeptic. When his eyes came to focus he saw Luke. A few gauze pads were taped down over his brow to conceal a simgle cut on Luke's forehead but other than that he was all right. Luke was the one who brought him up to current events. He also told Dave that another battle went on in Mars' orbit. The aliens who had leveled the Mars base remained in orbit undetected. The fighters that were on the surface had been recon fighters sent to check on Dave and the rest. When they were engaged, the aliens must have informed the fleet. Within a few hours the Macross was in defense mode once more. A fleet of destoyers sent their few fighters out to engaged Valkyries, but the smaller, well armed ships had shot up the Macross rather well. Many pilots had died in this battle and the Macross' hull had been pierced and many crew members had lost their lives this way. Right now there are mechanics at work, around the clock, at repairing the damage that the Macross took.
Dave's head spun in circles, partly to his headache and partly to the trajic news of more lives being lost.
"Do you remember what happened," Luke asked his friend.
"I was chasing down a bogie when I was hit from behind, I tried to bring my jet in for a crash landing and that's all I remember," Dave confessed.
"Well, you were lucky, your head took most of the shock," Luke tried to laugh, "it's a good thing you have nothing up their to damage."
"Hey, easy pal."
"Easy, man, you had me worried there for a while, when I heard your com line sizzle out, I thought I had to go find a new best friend," Luke said as he slugged his friend's shoulder lightly.
Dave felt those words hit him like a ton of bricks. Suddenly he felt the weight of his mortality and it frightened him. A lump of cold fear choked of his throat. What if he had died, he would be dead on another planet, he would never see his dad again and his girlfriend would be devestated. So many people would be crushed, including his friends on Vermilion squad, Roy, Minmei. It was a scary thought and a bolt of pain shot behind his eyes and temple.
"Are you okay, Dave," Luke asked.
"Yeah, I just have a headache," Dave said, "how hard did I hit my head?"
"Hard enough to knock you out for a day," Luke said, "but here's the good part, you slept during combat so you didn't have to go back out there."
Though it was grim, what his friend just said to him, Dave shrugged and laughed lightly as he hit his call button so that his medic could come in with some asprin.
A shadowed fell over from behind Dave's curtain, but it wasn't a medic, instead it was his squad leader.
"Cadet Monroe," he began with a serious tone in his voice.
"Yes sir," Dave said weekly as he tried to salute.
"It is to my understanding that you had disobeyed our captains orders in remaining in recon and not to engage any enemy, is this true," the squad leader barked out.
"Yes sir, I had disobeyed the captain's orders, I just thought that it would be under better judgement to engage and deal with the enemy before our cover was blown, sir."
"Your better judgement has landed you into a heap of trouble, son, you not only left an officer behind, unescorted while three bogies intercepted, but you friend and yourself both wound up here in sick bay, where you should have landed your ass into is the morgue where you would be boxed and spit back into space."
"Yes sir."
"This reflects poorly on me as your squad leader, did you ever consider that, cadet? Is this how I teach my fighters to follow their superior's orders?"
"Sir, I meant no disresepct to you our my squad when I did what I did, this will not happen ever again, I promise you that," Dave said as he held his head, this berating was hell on his headache.
"Now I have to charge you with a proper punishment for this boner you just pulled, cadet," the squad said as he leaned in a bit closer to Dave's aching head, "your pilot's liscense has been revoked for two weeks. But in the interest of fairness, your wingmen will be pulling double shifts to fill your awfully big shoes and I'll be sure to let them know to thank you individually, am I making myself clear?"
"Crystal, sir," Dave said.
"I have already punished your three cohorts, Right, Genius, and Dixon, they will be doing maintenance work in the hangar bays for the two weeks while they're not on patrol," the squad leader said as he looked over at Luke.
"I want you to get your rest, when you report on duty next, you will be pulling double watch for your two weeks," he barked at Dave once more as he left the sick bay.
The nurse came in with a paper cup full of water and two capsules of aspirin. She had heard everything that the squad leader had said to Dave and the look on her face showed pitty.
"Here you go, flyboy," the nurse said, handing Dave the medicine.
Dave took them and gulped the pills down, he then chugged the water but choked. He coughed and water went down his chin.
"Easy, not so fast, you're not that strong yet," she said as she towled off the water from his gown.
"I'll leave you two alone," Luke said with a mischievous smirk.
"This really isn't necessary, I'm feeling much better now," Dave told the nurse.
"Oh?"
"In fact, when can I get out of here," he asked her.
"Let me get the doc and have him check you out, he's the one who gets to say if you can go or not, 'kay sugar," the nurse said and pat Dave on his head very gently.
Luke hung around on the other side of the curtained and the nurse walked right by him. He returned to his friend's cot to check on Dave once more.
"Dave, bro, what was all that about, you could've worked the angle on her, and what a score that would be, man, a nurse," Luke squeeled to his friend.
"Not today, man, tonight's the Miss Macross contest, remember," Dave reminded his friend.
"So you can remember that but you can't remember that you took one of the nastiest crash landings ever," Luke shot back.
"Naw, I so the ad on the TV, and you gave me your judging spot," Dave said, "by the way, how long do I have untill I have to be there?"
"Hmm, five hours," Luke said.
"Excelent, all I have to do is get checked out and head back to the barracks, get changed, and head over to the ampetheater," Dave said as he attempted to sit up on the side of his cot. He felt a bit woozy at first, but as soon as all the pretty colors faded away, he had his bearings once more. He turned over to meet his friend's concerned face and gave his trademark crooked smile. This put Luke at ease, well, at least a little bit.
Hikaru caught up with his big brother just outside of the ampetheater where the Miss Macross pageant will be taking place. He rode his bike across the hull from his barracks down here and he worked up quite a sweat.
"Whoa, slow down there, Hikaru," Roy said as the younger pilot rode up.
"Hey Roy," Hikaru managed to huff out as he parked his bicycle of to the side.
"Hey, congratulations on your promotion, I told you Lt. Comm. Hayase isn't that bad once you get to know her," Roy mentioned.
"To tell you the truth, big brother, I wish I didn't know her this well," Hikaru said as he remembered how crushed Misa had looked as she fell to her knees, sobbing, heartbroken that her fiance is dead. All this time Hikaru had treated the officer like a spoiled child, talking back to her all the time whenever he went out on patrol or flew in combat, but this difinately put Misa in a whole new light and he was unsure how to feel about that. In a way he felt his heart ache too, after all, how would he feel if he found out that his sweetheart, Minmei was killed.
"It's not everyday you get to save such a beautiful officer, enjoy it, Lieutenant," Roy said as he slugged Hikaru in the shoulder softly.
Hikaru gave a slight smile. After all, he should feel proud to have saved Misa's life when the alien fighters attacked the ruins. He managed, with the help of his friends Max and Ben, to stop the enemy and fly Misa back to the ship, away from such an awful place that was Sara.
"So, your little girlfriend's going to be in the pageant, eh," Roy added.
"Um, yeah," Hikaru spoke out at length, trying to determine where Roy's angle was going.
"Hey, relax, don't get all jealous, she's all yours, I'm just an impartial judge, that's it," Roy said defensively.
Hikaru eyed Roy for a moment as he remember the first time he and Roy saw Minmei. It was shortly after Hikaru was grounded and Roy chewed him out. After that the two went over to a soda machine and began to catch up on old times. Hikaru always wondered why Roy never came back to Japan and continue to fly in Hikaru's father's airshow. Roy had explained to Hikaru that he became involved with secret test flights of the Valkyrie variable fighters and that his war was not finished. He did not want to give the Ichijos any grief so he remained in America where he signed aboard the UN Spacy's SDF project. Roy knew that this would be very important and that's when they saw her. Minmei was chasing after her little brother who was harassing a vending droid. The kid wanted to order a soda but Minmei said otherwise. The scene broguht attention to her as the two best friends watched her. She looked up at them and blushed and then stole her brother away. Roy was the first one to make a coment on Minmei when Hikaru mentioned that she's too young and too inocent for an air jock like Roy. Ever since then, Hikaru had his eyes on the beautiful young Lynn-Minmei, and secretly, he thought, so did Roy.
The PA system blared with Misa's monotone voice as she requested that Lieutenant Ichijo report to the hangar bay for launch, he had a back to back patrol.
"What, impossible," Hikaru cursed.
"Welcome to the life of an officer, little brother," Roy teased his young counterpart.
"But I just finsihed my patrol and changed already, this is rediculous," Hikaru cursed, "it's not fare that Cadet Monroe's mistake has to be taken out on all of us."
"Hey, don't look at me, if I was in charge of your guys' squadron, I would've just had his ass kicked," Roy laughed.
"You would," Hikaru asked.
"I'm joking, you better run along before you get your ass in a sling for being late," Roy said.
Hikaru huffed as he picked up his bike and pumped the peddles as hard as he could to make it back to the barracks so that he could change into his flightsuit.
No sooner did Hikaru leave then Dave showed up.
"Yo, Roy, am I late," Dave asked, he was still wearing dressings around his head.
"Monroe, what are you doing here, where's your buddy, Luke," Roy asked.
"He told me I could take his place as judge, I'm on sick leave anyways for another day or two and Luke's on gaurd duty at the barracks, he's pulling a double," Dave informed Roy.
"So I heard," Roy started, "a word of advice, kid, sleep with one eye open tonight, you pissed off your entire squad, I wouldn't be surprised that they give you a blanket party tonight."
"Eh," Dave shrugged it off as if the threat were nothing.
"Well, come on, we need to get you in the judges stand," Roy said defeatedly as he led the way to the backstage area of the ampetheater.
Just outide of Mars' orbit, Azonia's fleet crept up and eventualy came to a hault. They did not want to become noticed by the micronians. Exedore has spent several hours trying to decypher the alien dialect but he has yet to come up with a proper translation. He had told Breetai that as much as he could make of it, this micronian was attempting to communicate with Kamjin's figheters on the planet's surface. It must be something asimilar to addressing who they are and from where they are from and that they want a reply.
"All of that means that," Breetai asked as he listened to the strange syllable once more over the audio player.
"Indeed, though I'm not sure what word, if these are words, translates into what," Exedore said.
"We shall have more information soon, I have informed Azonia to have her team ready," Breetai said.
Just then, Azonia entered the bridge, accompanied by another Meltran, Millia, and Warlord Kamjin, they were all dressed up in their combat armors. They awaited their High Commander's orders in a ready pose.
"Azonia, are your elite warriors prepared," Breetai asked as he turned to the three.
"They are, my lord, they are collected within a canister in the hangar," she answered.
"Very good, whenever you are ready, Warlord, you may proceed," the larger Zentradei said as he returned to busines with his advisor.
"Yes, my lord," Azonia spoke once more as she led her fellows down the gangway to the hangar.
Hikaru felt truly honored when he was told that he would be patroling in the new Amored type battroid. This prototype is equiped with heavy armor plating all over the Valkyrie's battroid form. Fastpacks were mounted on it so that it may be more mobile, to compensate for the added bulk the armor supplies. Additional features include rocket housing on the wrsits, shoulders, chest, and thighs of the mecha. It was a walking fortess designed to take more damage than previous Valkyries and it could dish it back out as well. He had been in orbit for some time and was growing incredibly bored, fast. He flipped his com line on and tuned in the MBS radio station so that he could at least hear what's going on at the Miss Macross contest.
"Lieutenant Ichijo," Misa's voice shot over the com line, reaking oer the contest's broadcast, "are you reading incoming ships from quardinates eight, three, niner?"
Hikaru glanced over his screen and recognized two tiny blips on his display. They were almost too faint to see at first. These are small, one man fighters from far off in the distance. It's impossible to believe that any alien survived the destructive force of the Macross cannons, these are possibly recon from reenforcements.
"Roger that Lieutenant, I bearing on that course as we speak," he said as he banked his battroid and shot ahead into the void.
"Blast, we've been spotted," Kamjin cursed.
"It's only one fighter, dispose of it and I shall accomplish our mission," Azonia added.
The three Zentraedi shot ahead to meet up with their would be advisary.
As Hikaru came closer he realized that there was a ghostly third image appearing on his radar. He froze slightly as he anticipated three enemy fighters. Up ahead in the distance he began to make out a fighter and that one elite fighting pod. As the images grew larger and larger as they covered more distance he saw a third shape, something that looked like a suit of some kind.
"Macross, this is really strange, there appears to be three targets coming in, two of them are fighters and the third is a space suit, please advise," Hikaru asked over his com line.
"Reconfirm, Lieutenant, did you say a space suit," Misa asked.
"For lack of a better word, that's what it looks like to me, a giant, humanoid suit," Hikaru added.
"These enemies are in our airspace, treat as hostiles, Lieutenant, I will have reenforcements readied," Misa said as the transmission ended.
Hikaru psyched himself up and moved into intercept his targets.
"A brave micronian," Kamjin said as he watched the armored battroid move in and ready itself, "but a dead one."
The Zentraedi Warlord pushed his elite fighting pod and drew a bead with his weapon systems on the micronian. With a sinister grin he fired a few shots from his cannons and watched as the would-be-warrior spun and rolled to dodge the attack. The enemy followed up with a burst from it's gunpod, the rounds were alit with tracing phospheresence.
"Cunning worm," Kamjin hissed as he dove after his target. Following him was the other fighter pilot, Millia. The Meltran ace launched some rockets and they chased after the micronian's armored battroid.
With little hesitation the crafty micronian spun around and shot down the entire score of rockets that were coming to his direction. He then returned another burst from his gunpod and another shower of tracers went screaming across the void and into the Zentraedis' direction which was easily avoided.
"Cover me," Azonia began, "this one's all mine." She opened up her thrusters on her battle armor and sped of. The housing to her rocket pods opened and revealed several deadly missiles ready for launch.
Kamjin and Millia returned to Azonia's wings and chased down their target. Azonia tucked herself into a tight little ball and launched her entire payload of rockets which screamed all about in every direction. They flew about in chaotic twists and turns and then they corrected themselves and went after the micronian.
"There's too many," Hikaru exclaimed to himself, "I need to outrun these guys."
The rockets came up on him real fast and collision was eminanet. He decided to jettison his aromor and convert to fighter configuration, hopefully the fastpacks will carry him out of her fast enough.
The rockets nearly hit him as he successfully changed to fighter mode and scream into an extreme climb. The missiles all detonated once they hit the armor casings which was left behind. After the explosions, there was very little left of what was onece his battroid's battle armor.
"That was too close, where's my backup," Hikaru added, "Macross, are you there, over?"
There was silence.
Hikaru played around with the reception on his com line but what came over wasn't what he wanted. Instead of hearing Lt. Comm. Hayase's voice, he heard Minmei's. Her sweet voice was singing. He must have found the reception to the Miss Macross pageant on accident. In a panick he tried to find an emergency channel for anyone to hear him.
"By the Creator's, what is that sound," Kamjin asked as a pirate broadcast came over his com line. It sounded like a micronian, yet different, this one's voice was not as gruf as the recording that they had heard from Mars, this sounded more Meltran-like. But there was something more haunting behind what this micronian Meltran was saying, there was this beat and rythem behind her words.
"Is this some kind of attack," Azonia asked as she too heard the haunting sounds of this micronian.
The two warlords were difinately appalled by the sound and hung in the void with caution, however, Millia felt a strange sensation creep over her. At first the sounds were terrifying, but then she became enthralled by it and eventually found comfort in these strange sounds.
Hikaru watched from his canopy as he saw the three enemies slow their approach. Almost as if something had froze them in their tracks.
"I don't like the look of this," he confessed to himself, "I better turn this off," he said as he flipped the com line off, killing Minmei's song from the pageant.
No sooner did he turn his com line of the three aliens sped off to the Macross.
"Dammit," Hikaru cursed as he dove into pursuit.
As he jockeyed for psoition on their tails he found that he was greeted by the two fighters. The third in the suit continued its path to the Macross.
"Bring it on, you two," Hikaru said as he moved in to engage the enemy.
As he took on the two he found that he was overwhelmed by their skill. He started taking hits from all sides as the two aces flew circles aroun him. His pannels all lit up with alarm after alarm as each hit registered as a critical hit to some location to his Valkyrie. If this kept up he would most likely meet his end. He decided to take his chances at detatching his fighter's nose and wait for reenforcements to arrive and pick him up.
"Minmei, I love you," he said as he pulled hard on the nose release. With some resistance, the nose began to slide out of its housing and soon it was shot away from the fusalage with a great deal of pressure. As he gained his bearings he watched his Valkyrie blow up. With nothing left to do he activated his beacon for his allies and turned his com line back on to listen to the rest of the Miss Macross contest.
Meanwhile, Azonia flew her battle armor in unnoticed and began cutting through the hull with a plasma torch. As she breached the surface of the ship she found herself in an unused part of the ship. This must have been ment for storage as bits and pieces of stuff littered the length of the ship's bottom. She sat the capsule down and left the deck. As she left she sealed the breach up once more and contacted her elite warriors, telling them that it is safe for them to leave the confines of their capsule. After that she met up with her two fellows and returned to her fleet on the other side of the planet.
Dave had taken a hit to his starboard fastpack thruster and consequently lost his communications as well. With little to no stablization Dave had to set down his ship in a hurry. He eventualy smashed up his Valkyrie as he brought her down on a flat feild. Max sat his fighter down to check the wreckage. Dave doesn't remember what he said, or that he said anything at all for that matter, but he told Max that Luke had followed his bogie into a tunnel somewhere in a canyon.
With that information, Ben flew the length of the nearest canyon and scanned the floor for any sign of life. He found a faint trace buried under a cave-in in this tunnel. Max and Ben converted their fighters into battroid form and began shoveling rock and debris out of the tunnel where they found Luke's fighter stuck in gerwalk form, dented and beaten by the collapsed ceiling. Luke was still conscience and had taken little to no injury, he was just stuck in the tunnel's darkness, waiting for anyone to find him. He had also lost his com line and sensors from the impact and was stuck there in dead silence under the surface of Mars. The first thing he asked when he was brought aboard Ben's fighter was where Dave is. Ben told Luke that Max had Dave and that they are heading back to the Macross right away. Dave had taken some bumps and bruises but he had gone unconscience and it was apparent that he needed a medic.
This morning Dave came to and found himself looking around with blurry vision. Everything here was bright white and smelled like anticeptic. When his eyes came to focus he saw Luke. A few gauze pads were taped down over his brow to conceal a simgle cut on Luke's forehead but other than that he was all right. Luke was the one who brought him up to current events. He also told Dave that another battle went on in Mars' orbit. The aliens who had leveled the Mars base remained in orbit undetected. The fighters that were on the surface had been recon fighters sent to check on Dave and the rest. When they were engaged, the aliens must have informed the fleet. Within a few hours the Macross was in defense mode once more. A fleet of destoyers sent their few fighters out to engaged Valkyries, but the smaller, well armed ships had shot up the Macross rather well. Many pilots had died in this battle and the Macross' hull had been pierced and many crew members had lost their lives this way. Right now there are mechanics at work, around the clock, at repairing the damage that the Macross took.
Dave's head spun in circles, partly to his headache and partly to the trajic news of more lives being lost.
"Do you remember what happened," Luke asked his friend.
"I was chasing down a bogie when I was hit from behind, I tried to bring my jet in for a crash landing and that's all I remember," Dave confessed.
"Well, you were lucky, your head took most of the shock," Luke tried to laugh, "it's a good thing you have nothing up their to damage."
"Hey, easy pal."
"Easy, man, you had me worried there for a while, when I heard your com line sizzle out, I thought I had to go find a new best friend," Luke said as he slugged his friend's shoulder lightly.
Dave felt those words hit him like a ton of bricks. Suddenly he felt the weight of his mortality and it frightened him. A lump of cold fear choked of his throat. What if he had died, he would be dead on another planet, he would never see his dad again and his girlfriend would be devestated. So many people would be crushed, including his friends on Vermilion squad, Roy, Minmei. It was a scary thought and a bolt of pain shot behind his eyes and temple.
"Are you okay, Dave," Luke asked.
"Yeah, I just have a headache," Dave said, "how hard did I hit my head?"
"Hard enough to knock you out for a day," Luke said, "but here's the good part, you slept during combat so you didn't have to go back out there."
Though it was grim, what his friend just said to him, Dave shrugged and laughed lightly as he hit his call button so that his medic could come in with some asprin.
A shadowed fell over from behind Dave's curtain, but it wasn't a medic, instead it was his squad leader.
"Cadet Monroe," he began with a serious tone in his voice.
"Yes sir," Dave said weekly as he tried to salute.
"It is to my understanding that you had disobeyed our captains orders in remaining in recon and not to engage any enemy, is this true," the squad leader barked out.
"Yes sir, I had disobeyed the captain's orders, I just thought that it would be under better judgement to engage and deal with the enemy before our cover was blown, sir."
"Your better judgement has landed you into a heap of trouble, son, you not only left an officer behind, unescorted while three bogies intercepted, but you friend and yourself both wound up here in sick bay, where you should have landed your ass into is the morgue where you would be boxed and spit back into space."
"Yes sir."
"This reflects poorly on me as your squad leader, did you ever consider that, cadet? Is this how I teach my fighters to follow their superior's orders?"
"Sir, I meant no disresepct to you our my squad when I did what I did, this will not happen ever again, I promise you that," Dave said as he held his head, this berating was hell on his headache.
"Now I have to charge you with a proper punishment for this boner you just pulled, cadet," the squad said as he leaned in a bit closer to Dave's aching head, "your pilot's liscense has been revoked for two weeks. But in the interest of fairness, your wingmen will be pulling double shifts to fill your awfully big shoes and I'll be sure to let them know to thank you individually, am I making myself clear?"
"Crystal, sir," Dave said.
"I have already punished your three cohorts, Right, Genius, and Dixon, they will be doing maintenance work in the hangar bays for the two weeks while they're not on patrol," the squad leader said as he looked over at Luke.
"I want you to get your rest, when you report on duty next, you will be pulling double watch for your two weeks," he barked at Dave once more as he left the sick bay.
The nurse came in with a paper cup full of water and two capsules of aspirin. She had heard everything that the squad leader had said to Dave and the look on her face showed pitty.
"Here you go, flyboy," the nurse said, handing Dave the medicine.
Dave took them and gulped the pills down, he then chugged the water but choked. He coughed and water went down his chin.
"Easy, not so fast, you're not that strong yet," she said as she towled off the water from his gown.
"I'll leave you two alone," Luke said with a mischievous smirk.
"This really isn't necessary, I'm feeling much better now," Dave told the nurse.
"Oh?"
"In fact, when can I get out of here," he asked her.
"Let me get the doc and have him check you out, he's the one who gets to say if you can go or not, 'kay sugar," the nurse said and pat Dave on his head very gently.
Luke hung around on the other side of the curtained and the nurse walked right by him. He returned to his friend's cot to check on Dave once more.
"Dave, bro, what was all that about, you could've worked the angle on her, and what a score that would be, man, a nurse," Luke squeeled to his friend.
"Not today, man, tonight's the Miss Macross contest, remember," Dave reminded his friend.
"So you can remember that but you can't remember that you took one of the nastiest crash landings ever," Luke shot back.
"Naw, I so the ad on the TV, and you gave me your judging spot," Dave said, "by the way, how long do I have untill I have to be there?"
"Hmm, five hours," Luke said.
"Excelent, all I have to do is get checked out and head back to the barracks, get changed, and head over to the ampetheater," Dave said as he attempted to sit up on the side of his cot. He felt a bit woozy at first, but as soon as all the pretty colors faded away, he had his bearings once more. He turned over to meet his friend's concerned face and gave his trademark crooked smile. This put Luke at ease, well, at least a little bit.
Hikaru caught up with his big brother just outside of the ampetheater where the Miss Macross pageant will be taking place. He rode his bike across the hull from his barracks down here and he worked up quite a sweat.
"Whoa, slow down there, Hikaru," Roy said as the younger pilot rode up.
"Hey Roy," Hikaru managed to huff out as he parked his bicycle of to the side.
"Hey, congratulations on your promotion, I told you Lt. Comm. Hayase isn't that bad once you get to know her," Roy mentioned.
"To tell you the truth, big brother, I wish I didn't know her this well," Hikaru said as he remembered how crushed Misa had looked as she fell to her knees, sobbing, heartbroken that her fiance is dead. All this time Hikaru had treated the officer like a spoiled child, talking back to her all the time whenever he went out on patrol or flew in combat, but this difinately put Misa in a whole new light and he was unsure how to feel about that. In a way he felt his heart ache too, after all, how would he feel if he found out that his sweetheart, Minmei was killed.
"It's not everyday you get to save such a beautiful officer, enjoy it, Lieutenant," Roy said as he slugged Hikaru in the shoulder softly.
Hikaru gave a slight smile. After all, he should feel proud to have saved Misa's life when the alien fighters attacked the ruins. He managed, with the help of his friends Max and Ben, to stop the enemy and fly Misa back to the ship, away from such an awful place that was Sara.
"So, your little girlfriend's going to be in the pageant, eh," Roy added.
"Um, yeah," Hikaru spoke out at length, trying to determine where Roy's angle was going.
"Hey, relax, don't get all jealous, she's all yours, I'm just an impartial judge, that's it," Roy said defensively.
Hikaru eyed Roy for a moment as he remember the first time he and Roy saw Minmei. It was shortly after Hikaru was grounded and Roy chewed him out. After that the two went over to a soda machine and began to catch up on old times. Hikaru always wondered why Roy never came back to Japan and continue to fly in Hikaru's father's airshow. Roy had explained to Hikaru that he became involved with secret test flights of the Valkyrie variable fighters and that his war was not finished. He did not want to give the Ichijos any grief so he remained in America where he signed aboard the UN Spacy's SDF project. Roy knew that this would be very important and that's when they saw her. Minmei was chasing after her little brother who was harassing a vending droid. The kid wanted to order a soda but Minmei said otherwise. The scene broguht attention to her as the two best friends watched her. She looked up at them and blushed and then stole her brother away. Roy was the first one to make a coment on Minmei when Hikaru mentioned that she's too young and too inocent for an air jock like Roy. Ever since then, Hikaru had his eyes on the beautiful young Lynn-Minmei, and secretly, he thought, so did Roy.
The PA system blared with Misa's monotone voice as she requested that Lieutenant Ichijo report to the hangar bay for launch, he had a back to back patrol.
"What, impossible," Hikaru cursed.
"Welcome to the life of an officer, little brother," Roy teased his young counterpart.
"But I just finsihed my patrol and changed already, this is rediculous," Hikaru cursed, "it's not fare that Cadet Monroe's mistake has to be taken out on all of us."
"Hey, don't look at me, if I was in charge of your guys' squadron, I would've just had his ass kicked," Roy laughed.
"You would," Hikaru asked.
"I'm joking, you better run along before you get your ass in a sling for being late," Roy said.
Hikaru huffed as he picked up his bike and pumped the peddles as hard as he could to make it back to the barracks so that he could change into his flightsuit.
No sooner did Hikaru leave then Dave showed up.
"Yo, Roy, am I late," Dave asked, he was still wearing dressings around his head.
"Monroe, what are you doing here, where's your buddy, Luke," Roy asked.
"He told me I could take his place as judge, I'm on sick leave anyways for another day or two and Luke's on gaurd duty at the barracks, he's pulling a double," Dave informed Roy.
"So I heard," Roy started, "a word of advice, kid, sleep with one eye open tonight, you pissed off your entire squad, I wouldn't be surprised that they give you a blanket party tonight."
"Eh," Dave shrugged it off as if the threat were nothing.
"Well, come on, we need to get you in the judges stand," Roy said defeatedly as he led the way to the backstage area of the ampetheater.
Just outide of Mars' orbit, Azonia's fleet crept up and eventualy came to a hault. They did not want to become noticed by the micronians. Exedore has spent several hours trying to decypher the alien dialect but he has yet to come up with a proper translation. He had told Breetai that as much as he could make of it, this micronian was attempting to communicate with Kamjin's figheters on the planet's surface. It must be something asimilar to addressing who they are and from where they are from and that they want a reply.
"All of that means that," Breetai asked as he listened to the strange syllable once more over the audio player.
"Indeed, though I'm not sure what word, if these are words, translates into what," Exedore said.
"We shall have more information soon, I have informed Azonia to have her team ready," Breetai said.
Just then, Azonia entered the bridge, accompanied by another Meltran, Millia, and Warlord Kamjin, they were all dressed up in their combat armors. They awaited their High Commander's orders in a ready pose.
"Azonia, are your elite warriors prepared," Breetai asked as he turned to the three.
"They are, my lord, they are collected within a canister in the hangar," she answered.
"Very good, whenever you are ready, Warlord, you may proceed," the larger Zentradei said as he returned to busines with his advisor.
"Yes, my lord," Azonia spoke once more as she led her fellows down the gangway to the hangar.
Hikaru felt truly honored when he was told that he would be patroling in the new Amored type battroid. This prototype is equiped with heavy armor plating all over the Valkyrie's battroid form. Fastpacks were mounted on it so that it may be more mobile, to compensate for the added bulk the armor supplies. Additional features include rocket housing on the wrsits, shoulders, chest, and thighs of the mecha. It was a walking fortess designed to take more damage than previous Valkyries and it could dish it back out as well. He had been in orbit for some time and was growing incredibly bored, fast. He flipped his com line on and tuned in the MBS radio station so that he could at least hear what's going on at the Miss Macross contest.
"Lieutenant Ichijo," Misa's voice shot over the com line, reaking oer the contest's broadcast, "are you reading incoming ships from quardinates eight, three, niner?"
Hikaru glanced over his screen and recognized two tiny blips on his display. They were almost too faint to see at first. These are small, one man fighters from far off in the distance. It's impossible to believe that any alien survived the destructive force of the Macross cannons, these are possibly recon from reenforcements.
"Roger that Lieutenant, I bearing on that course as we speak," he said as he banked his battroid and shot ahead into the void.
"Blast, we've been spotted," Kamjin cursed.
"It's only one fighter, dispose of it and I shall accomplish our mission," Azonia added.
The three Zentraedi shot ahead to meet up with their would be advisary.
As Hikaru came closer he realized that there was a ghostly third image appearing on his radar. He froze slightly as he anticipated three enemy fighters. Up ahead in the distance he began to make out a fighter and that one elite fighting pod. As the images grew larger and larger as they covered more distance he saw a third shape, something that looked like a suit of some kind.
"Macross, this is really strange, there appears to be three targets coming in, two of them are fighters and the third is a space suit, please advise," Hikaru asked over his com line.
"Reconfirm, Lieutenant, did you say a space suit," Misa asked.
"For lack of a better word, that's what it looks like to me, a giant, humanoid suit," Hikaru added.
"These enemies are in our airspace, treat as hostiles, Lieutenant, I will have reenforcements readied," Misa said as the transmission ended.
Hikaru psyched himself up and moved into intercept his targets.
"A brave micronian," Kamjin said as he watched the armored battroid move in and ready itself, "but a dead one."
The Zentraedi Warlord pushed his elite fighting pod and drew a bead with his weapon systems on the micronian. With a sinister grin he fired a few shots from his cannons and watched as the would-be-warrior spun and rolled to dodge the attack. The enemy followed up with a burst from it's gunpod, the rounds were alit with tracing phospheresence.
"Cunning worm," Kamjin hissed as he dove after his target. Following him was the other fighter pilot, Millia. The Meltran ace launched some rockets and they chased after the micronian's armored battroid.
With little hesitation the crafty micronian spun around and shot down the entire score of rockets that were coming to his direction. He then returned another burst from his gunpod and another shower of tracers went screaming across the void and into the Zentraedis' direction which was easily avoided.
"Cover me," Azonia began, "this one's all mine." She opened up her thrusters on her battle armor and sped of. The housing to her rocket pods opened and revealed several deadly missiles ready for launch.
Kamjin and Millia returned to Azonia's wings and chased down their target. Azonia tucked herself into a tight little ball and launched her entire payload of rockets which screamed all about in every direction. They flew about in chaotic twists and turns and then they corrected themselves and went after the micronian.
"There's too many," Hikaru exclaimed to himself, "I need to outrun these guys."
The rockets came up on him real fast and collision was eminanet. He decided to jettison his aromor and convert to fighter configuration, hopefully the fastpacks will carry him out of her fast enough.
The rockets nearly hit him as he successfully changed to fighter mode and scream into an extreme climb. The missiles all detonated once they hit the armor casings which was left behind. After the explosions, there was very little left of what was onece his battroid's battle armor.
"That was too close, where's my backup," Hikaru added, "Macross, are you there, over?"
There was silence.
Hikaru played around with the reception on his com line but what came over wasn't what he wanted. Instead of hearing Lt. Comm. Hayase's voice, he heard Minmei's. Her sweet voice was singing. He must have found the reception to the Miss Macross pageant on accident. In a panick he tried to find an emergency channel for anyone to hear him.
"By the Creator's, what is that sound," Kamjin asked as a pirate broadcast came over his com line. It sounded like a micronian, yet different, this one's voice was not as gruf as the recording that they had heard from Mars, this sounded more Meltran-like. But there was something more haunting behind what this micronian Meltran was saying, there was this beat and rythem behind her words.
"Is this some kind of attack," Azonia asked as she too heard the haunting sounds of this micronian.
The two warlords were difinately appalled by the sound and hung in the void with caution, however, Millia felt a strange sensation creep over her. At first the sounds were terrifying, but then she became enthralled by it and eventually found comfort in these strange sounds.
Hikaru watched from his canopy as he saw the three enemies slow their approach. Almost as if something had froze them in their tracks.
"I don't like the look of this," he confessed to himself, "I better turn this off," he said as he flipped the com line off, killing Minmei's song from the pageant.
No sooner did he turn his com line of the three aliens sped off to the Macross.
"Dammit," Hikaru cursed as he dove into pursuit.
As he jockeyed for psoition on their tails he found that he was greeted by the two fighters. The third in the suit continued its path to the Macross.
"Bring it on, you two," Hikaru said as he moved in to engage the enemy.
As he took on the two he found that he was overwhelmed by their skill. He started taking hits from all sides as the two aces flew circles aroun him. His pannels all lit up with alarm after alarm as each hit registered as a critical hit to some location to his Valkyrie. If this kept up he would most likely meet his end. He decided to take his chances at detatching his fighter's nose and wait for reenforcements to arrive and pick him up.
"Minmei, I love you," he said as he pulled hard on the nose release. With some resistance, the nose began to slide out of its housing and soon it was shot away from the fusalage with a great deal of pressure. As he gained his bearings he watched his Valkyrie blow up. With nothing left to do he activated his beacon for his allies and turned his com line back on to listen to the rest of the Miss Macross contest.
Meanwhile, Azonia flew her battle armor in unnoticed and began cutting through the hull with a plasma torch. As she breached the surface of the ship she found herself in an unused part of the ship. This must have been ment for storage as bits and pieces of stuff littered the length of the ship's bottom. She sat the capsule down and left the deck. As she left she sealed the breach up once more and contacted her elite warriors, telling them that it is safe for them to leave the confines of their capsule. After that she met up with her two fellows and returned to her fleet on the other side of the planet.