Kamjin sat at the head of his ready room's conference table. His focused eyes peered out over his steepled fingers. He had been brooding ever since Breetai sold out and defected his fleet to join with the micronians. It was unheard of that a veteran warrior such as the old High Commander would cripple over just because he had heard a string of strange sounds from a micronized Meltran. This was nearly comical, the way that the Empire keeps losing that damned ship. In the last battle the ship would have been forfeited, the micronians had no defense whatsoever. But then Breetai just let it slip through his fingers. No more. It all stops here.
Surrounding the table were a collection of Kamjin's finest and most loyal warriors, each of them elite class. They had served under him on several missions and share his feelings towards the situation involving Breetai and him losing the ship. Those who could not find a chair stood around the room and waited attentively for their Warlord to begin.
"My fellow Zentran, we are prisoners against our will to Breetai's madness," Kamjin opened with and then leaned back in his chair, relaxing, slightly, his knotted fingers, "he involves us loyal servants of the Empire with his scheme in defecting to the micronians. Right now he and Advisor Exedore are on the planet's surface, talking plans for a truce with the micronians. How dare he betray our Creators and allow their ship to be lost to our enemy? Actions must be made."
With that said the entire room roared with a boisterous commotion in favor to their Warlord. Each Zentran in attendance mentioned their take with one another and then simmered down as soon as Kamjin took the floor once more.
"There are others who share our views aboard the rest of the ships in this fleet. I want to help liberate us and return to the Empire. I shall not go down in history as a deserter and betrayer to the Empire. And as soon as we lift Breetai's override I want to establish communications to Lord Dolza's fleet and plead our case."
His audience cheered him on once more.
"I have an ally in the Meltran warlord, Azonia and she has reported to me that there is an equal amount of unrest aboard her ships as well," Kamjin started and then he leaned in close to his warriors and continued with a lower tone, "I propose, my fellows, that we take back our ships. If Breetai wants to defect, so be it. He and his heretics have paved their own path. I say we liberate our ships and devise a way to return to Lord Dolza's armada post-haste. But in the meanwhile we will lay low and keep our plans a secret. We will attempt to blend in with Breetai's warriors until we have successfully recaptured our ships and reestablish a direct line to Lord Dolza, only then can we continue our assault on the micronians. Now then, are you with me?"
The entire room exploded with agreeable cheers from his loyal elite warriors. They pounded on the table top and roared with enthusiasm now that they have found the means to return to their glorious lives as warriors of the Empire.
As Kamjin rallied for support in orbit around Earth, Captain Gloval has been called forth by the UN. This closed off session has been set up without the aliens in attendance. This forum was designed for the talk of providing asylum for the aliens or not. The UN has their opinions about the situation but have allowed Captain Gloval to speak in defense of the Zentraedi defectors.
"Please rise," the chairman droned out and everyone within the large chamber did so respectively as the leaders of the UN made their way in. Leading them was the President, and then the respective members of the UN military, the UN army general, the UN air general, the UN navy admiral, and the UN spacy admiral, one Admiral Hayase.
"Be seated," the president ordered. The entire audience took their places at their seats surrounding the chamber.
"Captain Gloval, Bruno J. of the UN Spacy's SDF Macross, have you prepared an opening statement as to why we should allow the Zentraedi asylum on Earth," the President asked.
"I have, Mister President," Gloval spoke and gave a cough. He filled his glass with some water and took a small sip and then leafed through his reports.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the United Nations of Earth, I come before you today not as a captain of a ship, but as a citizen of the planet Earth during a time of turmoil. I am speaking in defense of an alien people calling themselves Zentraedi. It was on one July fourth, two thousand nine that we as a planet met with the awesome force of this alien people by means of an attack upon Macross island and then the rest of the world, leveling every major city on the face of the map. During our two year voyage home we had had numerous run-ins with these people. But it was in our final attempt in returning home that we had made contact with one of their own, High Commander Breetai. He had called of his own fleet despite the blatant show of insubordination to his superiors. He had declared, and I quote, 'I will protect Protoculture.' With further discussions with High Commander Breetai I have learned that Protoculture is a term his people use for us, the human race. You see, gentlemen, the Zentraedi are a race solely made up of clones. Generations upon generations of cloning. Their Creators, another people named the Marduk, as it was told to me by Breetai, had created them to be a warrior race and to fight off the Marduk's enemies. It has been explained to me that the Marduk had come to Earth during humanity's dawn and had collected DNA from our ancestors to create the Zentraedi people. So in that, the Zentraedi are in fact human beings after all and denying them asylum on their own homeworld would be obtuse of us as a people altogether. The Zentraedi mean us no further harm. Their attack on us was made from a series of mistakes against any of our clairvoyance. You see, the Zentraedi were sent to Earth to retrieve the Macross. The Macross had originally belonged to the Marduk, it was stolen by rogue Zntraedi years upon years ago. As High Commander Breetai's fleet neared our solar system the Macross' main guns were activated and fired off into their course, obliterating hundreds of their ships. They took this as an offense from the surviving rogues. We had no idea that the ship had any remaining programming in its computers that would set off such a booby trap. It was this series of events that brought our two people into an interstellar war. High Commander Breetai has considered this series and have offered himself to give into truce with us, the people of Earth. I trust the Zentraedi enough to accept his offer by granting his people asylum here on Earth."
There was quiet for amoment as Gloval finished his opening statement. The UN leaders began talking to themselves in silence. Once they had come up with their rebuttal, the admiral of the UN Spacy was given the floor.
"Captain Gloval," Admiral Hayase began, the tall and wise looking man combed through his moustache and then peered down from his seat above the chamber, "though you pose a very well argument I must bring your attention to the atrocities that the Zentraedi have managed to accomplish here on Earth. Once your ship disappeared our major cities were destroyed by the further pressings of the Zentraedi assault. Millions of lives had expired in the weeks to follow. Many of those lives included civilians, Captain, civilians with no prior training to war. Need I also remind the members of the UN that we had just come out of a Global Civil War just a few short years earlier? And in these times in which we thought peace would come with this new dawn, we are attacked from above by a ruthless race of aliens hell-bent on retrieving the Macross, as Captain Gloval stated. And let's say that we do give the Zentraedi asylum, what gauruntee do we have that they will not consider attacking us once more. The Earth has lost more than half of its population because of the aliens. They can just as easily finish the rest of that half. We just don't invite homicidal maniacs into our homes for dinner. There are places designed for such people and that is behind bars."
"Are you suggesting that we imprison every alien out there, Admiral," Captain Gloval shot out.
"Order," someone cried.
"Sustained," the president called back, "Captain Gloval, let me remind you that it is not your turn to speak. Admiral Hayase is still on his opening statement and he will be given a chance to finish just as you were."
"Yes sir," Gloval spoke out meekly and took another sip from his glass of water. He could already tell that these delegations will be long.
As the UN held their secret meeting in the Alaska installation, Dave spent his afternoon on surface patrol. Many survivors roamed the ruined cities of Earth looking for aid or looking for trouble. Those who didn't make it into a shelter found themselves at the mercy of roving gangs who fought for dominance in terfs across the wastelands. It was up to Dave and other soldiers to return the law to the lawless.
"Luke, you still there," Dave called out over his com line in his battroid. He made his way down the freeway offramp and then kicked over a junked car out of his way. The scene looked like hell to him as he looked out across a post-holocaust San Francisco.
"Check, I'm here, I just thought I caught something on my scans, but it was a stray dog," Luke returned over Dave's line.
"Roger that," Dave answered back and returned to his patrol. According to preliminary scans there were a few hundred survivors left in this city. Of course the scans haven't dictated whether or not these survivors would be trapped beneath the rubble or not and this turned into a long day's job.
Dave marched his battroid down a street and caught glimpse of a shadow drawing over a building front. He watched as Luke's battroid clodded its way back to their meeting spot.
"Anything," Luke's voice asked over Dave's com line.
"Negative, I wonder if the rest of the boys had any better luck," Dave answered. He blinked a few more times. It was getting hot inside his battroid. They've been searching for survivors beneath the sun for hours now without a break and Dave was saturated in his own sweat.
"Ruff, ruff," Luke's channel sounded.
"Luke, can you repeat that, I could've sworn I heard you bark at me," Dave shot over the com line.
"It's that stray I told you about, I decided to give him a lift," Luke laughed over the line.
"Well, just keep that quiet when we check back to camp," Dave warned, "I don't want the CO to chew you out."
"No problem, me and Lucky will be quiet as mice," Luke said.
"Lucky, you already named it," Dave questioned and then wiped a layer of sweat from of his brow with the back of his hand.
"You know," Dave started, "it's approaching seventeen hundred hours, I'm heading back to base camp."
"Roger."
The two friends walked back to base as the hot summer sun continued to punish them for being in their mechas. Both men were sweaty and probably smelled too ripe for the picking. And on top of it, Luke found his friend could not stop licking his face, the dog's breath added to the stench inside his battroid.
"I'll race you back," Dave challenged as he brought his Valkyrie into gerwalk mode.
Luke followed suit and accepted.
"Wait," Luke cried out before the two could begin, "I'm picking up a reading just north of here."
"Woo-hoo, looks like we found ourselves some survivors, let's go find them," Dave added as he pulled his gerwalk into the path of his life scans in the north.
As the two skated their way along the deserted road in their gerwalks they managed to spot someone up in the distance. They slowed down and brought their Valkyries to a stop and got out. Luke made sure that Lucky stayed behind while they checked on the survivor.
They approached and found a broken woman in rags lying in the middle of the street. A fresh line of blood trailed from a head wound that matted her hair together. There was something a little peculiar about this whole situation and neither of them liked it.
"She's not breathing," Luke said.
"Quick, begin CPR," Dave ordered and took his position above her chest while Luke made sure her airway was clear.
As the two administered CPR to the war-torn girl they found that she began to stir. So Luke stopped his rescue breathing and allowed her cough herself into conscienceness. Dave stood beside her, still kneeling and observing other wounds on her person. Her wrists and exposed ankles had these markings on these, they almost looked like rope burns.
The girl tried to say something but she was still too week to mutter anything intelligent. Luke leaned in to hear her better, he was expecting her to say thanks, or something to that effect.
"What is it, luke," Dave asked as he retrieved a canteen from his pack.
"She says," Luke began at length as he strained to hear her words but that's when she exploded into life in his arms.
"Watch out," she screamed and pointed behind the two pilots.
As Dave and Luke turned around they found themselves at the wrong end of a shotgun. They followed the barrel up to its wielder, a brutish looking man dressed in makeshift armor and draped in bandoleers of ammo. In his other hand he held onto a throng of leashes which were fastened at the ends of collars around several more girls' necks. And around him were his stooges, a collection of nomads equipped with any weapon they could gather in these hellish times.
The lead thug laugh and motioned for the two pilots to take a position on their knees with their hands up in the air.
"Well well, it looks like ol' Jo Jo came up on two fine pieces of weaponry, now I can run this town," the thug laughed as he mentioned Dave and Luke's Valkyries.
"Welcome to hell, boys," Jo Jo said as he then bashed the butt of his shotgun upside the two pilots' heads, sending them into darkness.
Surrounding the table were a collection of Kamjin's finest and most loyal warriors, each of them elite class. They had served under him on several missions and share his feelings towards the situation involving Breetai and him losing the ship. Those who could not find a chair stood around the room and waited attentively for their Warlord to begin.
"My fellow Zentran, we are prisoners against our will to Breetai's madness," Kamjin opened with and then leaned back in his chair, relaxing, slightly, his knotted fingers, "he involves us loyal servants of the Empire with his scheme in defecting to the micronians. Right now he and Advisor Exedore are on the planet's surface, talking plans for a truce with the micronians. How dare he betray our Creators and allow their ship to be lost to our enemy? Actions must be made."
With that said the entire room roared with a boisterous commotion in favor to their Warlord. Each Zentran in attendance mentioned their take with one another and then simmered down as soon as Kamjin took the floor once more.
"There are others who share our views aboard the rest of the ships in this fleet. I want to help liberate us and return to the Empire. I shall not go down in history as a deserter and betrayer to the Empire. And as soon as we lift Breetai's override I want to establish communications to Lord Dolza's fleet and plead our case."
His audience cheered him on once more.
"I have an ally in the Meltran warlord, Azonia and she has reported to me that there is an equal amount of unrest aboard her ships as well," Kamjin started and then he leaned in close to his warriors and continued with a lower tone, "I propose, my fellows, that we take back our ships. If Breetai wants to defect, so be it. He and his heretics have paved their own path. I say we liberate our ships and devise a way to return to Lord Dolza's armada post-haste. But in the meanwhile we will lay low and keep our plans a secret. We will attempt to blend in with Breetai's warriors until we have successfully recaptured our ships and reestablish a direct line to Lord Dolza, only then can we continue our assault on the micronians. Now then, are you with me?"
The entire room exploded with agreeable cheers from his loyal elite warriors. They pounded on the table top and roared with enthusiasm now that they have found the means to return to their glorious lives as warriors of the Empire.
As Kamjin rallied for support in orbit around Earth, Captain Gloval has been called forth by the UN. This closed off session has been set up without the aliens in attendance. This forum was designed for the talk of providing asylum for the aliens or not. The UN has their opinions about the situation but have allowed Captain Gloval to speak in defense of the Zentraedi defectors.
"Please rise," the chairman droned out and everyone within the large chamber did so respectively as the leaders of the UN made their way in. Leading them was the President, and then the respective members of the UN military, the UN army general, the UN air general, the UN navy admiral, and the UN spacy admiral, one Admiral Hayase.
"Be seated," the president ordered. The entire audience took their places at their seats surrounding the chamber.
"Captain Gloval, Bruno J. of the UN Spacy's SDF Macross, have you prepared an opening statement as to why we should allow the Zentraedi asylum on Earth," the President asked.
"I have, Mister President," Gloval spoke and gave a cough. He filled his glass with some water and took a small sip and then leafed through his reports.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the United Nations of Earth, I come before you today not as a captain of a ship, but as a citizen of the planet Earth during a time of turmoil. I am speaking in defense of an alien people calling themselves Zentraedi. It was on one July fourth, two thousand nine that we as a planet met with the awesome force of this alien people by means of an attack upon Macross island and then the rest of the world, leveling every major city on the face of the map. During our two year voyage home we had had numerous run-ins with these people. But it was in our final attempt in returning home that we had made contact with one of their own, High Commander Breetai. He had called of his own fleet despite the blatant show of insubordination to his superiors. He had declared, and I quote, 'I will protect Protoculture.' With further discussions with High Commander Breetai I have learned that Protoculture is a term his people use for us, the human race. You see, gentlemen, the Zentraedi are a race solely made up of clones. Generations upon generations of cloning. Their Creators, another people named the Marduk, as it was told to me by Breetai, had created them to be a warrior race and to fight off the Marduk's enemies. It has been explained to me that the Marduk had come to Earth during humanity's dawn and had collected DNA from our ancestors to create the Zentraedi people. So in that, the Zentraedi are in fact human beings after all and denying them asylum on their own homeworld would be obtuse of us as a people altogether. The Zentraedi mean us no further harm. Their attack on us was made from a series of mistakes against any of our clairvoyance. You see, the Zentraedi were sent to Earth to retrieve the Macross. The Macross had originally belonged to the Marduk, it was stolen by rogue Zntraedi years upon years ago. As High Commander Breetai's fleet neared our solar system the Macross' main guns were activated and fired off into their course, obliterating hundreds of their ships. They took this as an offense from the surviving rogues. We had no idea that the ship had any remaining programming in its computers that would set off such a booby trap. It was this series of events that brought our two people into an interstellar war. High Commander Breetai has considered this series and have offered himself to give into truce with us, the people of Earth. I trust the Zentraedi enough to accept his offer by granting his people asylum here on Earth."
There was quiet for amoment as Gloval finished his opening statement. The UN leaders began talking to themselves in silence. Once they had come up with their rebuttal, the admiral of the UN Spacy was given the floor.
"Captain Gloval," Admiral Hayase began, the tall and wise looking man combed through his moustache and then peered down from his seat above the chamber, "though you pose a very well argument I must bring your attention to the atrocities that the Zentraedi have managed to accomplish here on Earth. Once your ship disappeared our major cities were destroyed by the further pressings of the Zentraedi assault. Millions of lives had expired in the weeks to follow. Many of those lives included civilians, Captain, civilians with no prior training to war. Need I also remind the members of the UN that we had just come out of a Global Civil War just a few short years earlier? And in these times in which we thought peace would come with this new dawn, we are attacked from above by a ruthless race of aliens hell-bent on retrieving the Macross, as Captain Gloval stated. And let's say that we do give the Zentraedi asylum, what gauruntee do we have that they will not consider attacking us once more. The Earth has lost more than half of its population because of the aliens. They can just as easily finish the rest of that half. We just don't invite homicidal maniacs into our homes for dinner. There are places designed for such people and that is behind bars."
"Are you suggesting that we imprison every alien out there, Admiral," Captain Gloval shot out.
"Order," someone cried.
"Sustained," the president called back, "Captain Gloval, let me remind you that it is not your turn to speak. Admiral Hayase is still on his opening statement and he will be given a chance to finish just as you were."
"Yes sir," Gloval spoke out meekly and took another sip from his glass of water. He could already tell that these delegations will be long.
As the UN held their secret meeting in the Alaska installation, Dave spent his afternoon on surface patrol. Many survivors roamed the ruined cities of Earth looking for aid or looking for trouble. Those who didn't make it into a shelter found themselves at the mercy of roving gangs who fought for dominance in terfs across the wastelands. It was up to Dave and other soldiers to return the law to the lawless.
"Luke, you still there," Dave called out over his com line in his battroid. He made his way down the freeway offramp and then kicked over a junked car out of his way. The scene looked like hell to him as he looked out across a post-holocaust San Francisco.
"Check, I'm here, I just thought I caught something on my scans, but it was a stray dog," Luke returned over Dave's line.
"Roger that," Dave answered back and returned to his patrol. According to preliminary scans there were a few hundred survivors left in this city. Of course the scans haven't dictated whether or not these survivors would be trapped beneath the rubble or not and this turned into a long day's job.
Dave marched his battroid down a street and caught glimpse of a shadow drawing over a building front. He watched as Luke's battroid clodded its way back to their meeting spot.
"Anything," Luke's voice asked over Dave's com line.
"Negative, I wonder if the rest of the boys had any better luck," Dave answered. He blinked a few more times. It was getting hot inside his battroid. They've been searching for survivors beneath the sun for hours now without a break and Dave was saturated in his own sweat.
"Ruff, ruff," Luke's channel sounded.
"Luke, can you repeat that, I could've sworn I heard you bark at me," Dave shot over the com line.
"It's that stray I told you about, I decided to give him a lift," Luke laughed over the line.
"Well, just keep that quiet when we check back to camp," Dave warned, "I don't want the CO to chew you out."
"No problem, me and Lucky will be quiet as mice," Luke said.
"Lucky, you already named it," Dave questioned and then wiped a layer of sweat from of his brow with the back of his hand.
"You know," Dave started, "it's approaching seventeen hundred hours, I'm heading back to base camp."
"Roger."
The two friends walked back to base as the hot summer sun continued to punish them for being in their mechas. Both men were sweaty and probably smelled too ripe for the picking. And on top of it, Luke found his friend could not stop licking his face, the dog's breath added to the stench inside his battroid.
"I'll race you back," Dave challenged as he brought his Valkyrie into gerwalk mode.
Luke followed suit and accepted.
"Wait," Luke cried out before the two could begin, "I'm picking up a reading just north of here."
"Woo-hoo, looks like we found ourselves some survivors, let's go find them," Dave added as he pulled his gerwalk into the path of his life scans in the north.
As the two skated their way along the deserted road in their gerwalks they managed to spot someone up in the distance. They slowed down and brought their Valkyries to a stop and got out. Luke made sure that Lucky stayed behind while they checked on the survivor.
They approached and found a broken woman in rags lying in the middle of the street. A fresh line of blood trailed from a head wound that matted her hair together. There was something a little peculiar about this whole situation and neither of them liked it.
"She's not breathing," Luke said.
"Quick, begin CPR," Dave ordered and took his position above her chest while Luke made sure her airway was clear.
As the two administered CPR to the war-torn girl they found that she began to stir. So Luke stopped his rescue breathing and allowed her cough herself into conscienceness. Dave stood beside her, still kneeling and observing other wounds on her person. Her wrists and exposed ankles had these markings on these, they almost looked like rope burns.
The girl tried to say something but she was still too week to mutter anything intelligent. Luke leaned in to hear her better, he was expecting her to say thanks, or something to that effect.
"What is it, luke," Dave asked as he retrieved a canteen from his pack.
"She says," Luke began at length as he strained to hear her words but that's when she exploded into life in his arms.
"Watch out," she screamed and pointed behind the two pilots.
As Dave and Luke turned around they found themselves at the wrong end of a shotgun. They followed the barrel up to its wielder, a brutish looking man dressed in makeshift armor and draped in bandoleers of ammo. In his other hand he held onto a throng of leashes which were fastened at the ends of collars around several more girls' necks. And around him were his stooges, a collection of nomads equipped with any weapon they could gather in these hellish times.
The lead thug laugh and motioned for the two pilots to take a position on their knees with their hands up in the air.
"Well well, it looks like ol' Jo Jo came up on two fine pieces of weaponry, now I can run this town," the thug laughed as he mentioned Dave and Luke's Valkyries.
"Welcome to hell, boys," Jo Jo said as he then bashed the butt of his shotgun upside the two pilots' heads, sending them into darkness.