Second Chances
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters that I am about to mangle around for my own demented author amusement – sadly all Robotech characters remain the property of Harmony Gold – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Robotech Factory Satellite Svartalfheim
A Short Time Later
Captain Henry Gloval gazed calmly around the conference table as their resident time travellers – and the few others beside himself who were in know about them and the apocalyptic future that they had sent their memories and knowledge back in time, through some mechanism that he hadn't asked about as he wasn't sure he'd understand it anyway, to prevent – made themselves comfortable. As he watched them Gloval considered how some of the other senior officers who had been assigned to the SDF-1 were starting to get a little suspicious as to why he had chosen this particular group of advisors. Colonel Maistroff especially was becoming suspicious and was making increasingly thinly veiled queries as to what knowledge or experience it was this group of people – especially two newly qualified veritech pilots – brought to the table that he and others assigned to the command group couldn't. I might have to consider letting him in on the secret, he thought, the trick will be proving it without Dennis thinking I have cracked under the stress of our situation.
It was quite the conundrum as he doubted the proof would be as easy as it had been when they'd shown him the flowers of life and the protoculture matrix what seemed like a lifetime ago. He put the issue out of his mind for now as he saw everyone was settled. It was time to get to the purpose of this meeting, he could decide what to do about Maistroff and those other senior officers in the command group later.
"Thank you all for coming," he said as he began the meeting. "I know it is a bit soon since our last meeting but considering who we have encountered here I am sure you all understand the reason for it."
"We all do," Rick replied calmly and something in his manner indicated that the admiral in him had come out to play. Gloval suspected that it was something to do with the Karbarran captain as something told him that Rick had known him in the other timeline. A grin abruptly appeared on the younger man's – yet not so younger at the same time, this time travel stuff got mighty confusing like that – face. "Though I admit it will be nice to see L'Ron again, even if he will be in Karbarran military uniform instead of the robes we're all more familiar with."
"Robes?" Claudia questioned.
"All members of the Sentinels Council wear red and black ambassadorial robes," Lisa explained, "they're surprisingly comfortable as I know from experience. Before the Haydonite betrayal and the destruction of the SDF-3 I was the Terran representative to the Council."
"You know I still can't quite see you as an ambassador Lisa," Roy commented.
"It wasn't my first choice," Lisa admitted, "but it was the best way I could serve our people after I recovered from the worst of the injuries I sustained when one of our own betrayed us and formed an alliance with the Invid Regent to attempt to take over the Expeditionary Force."
"Maybe we should get to the purpose of this meeting," Gloval suggested, he could see that both Claudia and Roy wanted to ask questions about the mutiny she was talking about, who was involved – hell he would like to know that himself – but that wasn't why they were here. Plus, he had a feeling that talking about it would be very painful for both Lisa and Rick, why he didn't know but he just knew it would be and he had long ago learned to listen to his instincts when it came to these things.
"Understood sir," Roy and Claudia both acknowledged though both decided to quietly ask Rick and Lisa about it respectively at another time, like Gloval they could tell it was going to be quite a painful conversation for all involved.
"Now then what can you tell me about the Karbarrans?" Gloval asked addressing the time travellers directly. "Also, what are these Sentinels you speak about?"
The four time travellers looked at one another, seemingly deciding which of them would answer. In the end it was Lisa who spoke up. "The Sentinels is a coalition of civilizations in the galaxy that formed after the end of the Robotech Masters empire," she explained, "an end that is already beginning as we speak as more and more of the Masters robotech systems stop functioning due to their ever-declining protoculture reserves. At the moment it is only a decline but within the next few years decline will tip over into complete collapse.
"As for the Karbarrans they're a technologically very advanced species," Lisa continued, "one that has been capable of interstellar travel, first through hyperlight engines a type of warp drives and more recently through the development of space folding technology, for over a thousand years indeed until Zor discovered the flowers of life on the Invid homeworld Optera and discovered protoculture they and the Tirolians were contemporaries of one another and indeed had been allies and trading partners for centuries."
"So, they're as advanced as the Robotech Masters?" Claudia asked. "And if they're allies, are we in danger from them? Should we simply destroy the Karbarran ship now and move to a new location?"
"The Karbarrans are not as advanced as the Robotech Masters," Doctor Lang replied, "they don't have robotechnology or protoculture. Instead Karbarran technology is powered by a material called sekitan – a coal-like ore that when burned releases small amounts of an element that cannot naturally exist in normal space-time for more than a second before breaking down. When it does so it not only releases a large amount of energy but also produces small quantities of antimatter particles. The heat of the burn, the energy release of the breakdown of the element and the reaction of antimatter particles with normal surrounding matter is used to power almost all Karbarran technology."
"That being said only a fool underestimates what Karbarran ships are capable of," Rick added, "Karbarrans have particle energy weapons just like we do and while individually the ion beams from their weapons are less powerful, they have a very high rate of fire and similar range to our own guns. Add in the presence of energy lances on their battleships and they are fully capable of defending themselves."
"Energy lance?" Gloval questioned.
"It's kind of like a proto-reflex cannon," Lang explained, "energy from their sekitan furnaces is collected between the firing booms of the weapon before being directed at a target. It maybe less powerful than a reflex cannon – due to the fact that it doesn't produce either the gravitational sheering wave or antimatter particle overspill that a reflex cannon does – but it is still extremely powerful. Few ships would survive a direct hit and those that do would be seriously damaged."
"Are they a threat?" Claudia repeated.
"I don't believe so," Rick replied, "from our own experience with them it was at around this time that their old alliance with the Tirolians came to an end. The fact that they are here, obviously looking for allies, tells me that that alliance has indeed ended and the whole Karbarran Commonwealth, one hundred and twenty-three inhabited planets beyond Karbarra itself, is at risk."
"From the Robotech Masters?" Roy asked guessing that they were the ones threatening their former allies, likely out of retribution for them leaving the alliance for some reason.
"No, the Robotech Masters won't want to get into a fight with the Karbarrans, while they would eventually win the Karbarrans are powerful enough to make it an extremely costly victory in terms of both lives and protoculture expenditure. No, the threat certainly comes from the Invid," Rick answered. "The Invid have been on the warpath for about a century or so by this point, ever since Zor returned to Optera in the company of the Zentraedi and defoliated the planet taking all but a handful of the flowers of life from the planet for the Robotech Masters. Until relatively recently they stuck to raids and border skirmishes – striking and then quickly retreating before the Zentraedi or the Tirolians themselves could show up in sufficient numbers to drive them away – but with the bulk of the Zentraedi fleet redeployed to search for the SDF-1 and the protoculture matrix they have by now, if I remember right, begun getting a great deal bolder. Encroaching on places like Karbarran space and numerous other worlds visited by Zor in the last year of his life."
"Why would he be doing that," Gloval asked realizing that this was important to their current situation and might even reveal a bit more about what led to that apocalyptic future Rick and the others had come from. Which could only be a good thing as the more they learned about what had ultimately led to the events of that future, the greater the chances they had of preventing it and creating a better future for everyone. A future that didn't involve genocide at the hands of a race of very sneaky and underhanded machines.
"To explain that we first need to give you a brief history lesson," Lisa admitted, "as it dates back to why Zor left Tirol the first time and eventually found Optera. I will endeavour to be as concise and quick as possible."
Gloval nodded in acceptance, Lisa nodded back and began to outline the important history that they needed to know. We should have filled them in on the history awhile ago, she thought, with a mental sigh. She really wished the angels who had sent them back in time would have given them time to get together and prepare a plan for just how they were going to do this. But they hadn't they'd literally thrown them in at the deep end, dumping them here into their younger selves' mere hours before the outbreak of the First Robotech War. As a result, they were having to be reactive and not proactive more than any of them would have liked.
She put that thought out of her head for now and instead began narrating the history as they knew it, as Cabell had explained it to them and as records recovered from the old Tirolian Senate Archives indicated – as the chief archivist had quietly, secretly kept the copies of all the old Senate debates and motions despite Nimuul and his siblings ordering their destruction after they rose to absolute power. She explained how Tirol's native energy sources, which had always been smaller than what they enjoyed on Earth due to Tirol being a much younger planet, had rapidly become exhausted by the industrialisation of its people and their evolution into a spacefaring society. How they had increasingly become dependent on imports of energy – especially sekitan ore and the pressurized furnaces needed to take full advantage of its capabilities – to survive and how that had ultimately led to a mounting trade deficit. Which had prompted Zor to join a techno-voyage to search the stars for a new power source to sustain the faltering economy of the Tirolian Republic and allow its people to continue with the quite lavish lifestyles that they were accustomed to.
She went on to explain how, while Zor had been gone and ultimately stumbled across Optera, the situation across the Republic had rapidly degenerated with political and social instability becoming rife due to the ever-increasing deficit. And how an ambitious, amoral senator named Nimuul and his two equally ambitious and amoral siblings Karuul and Saruul, had used the instability to cease power and cracked down hard. Imposing a totalitarian regime across the Republic a year or two before Zor returned to Tirol bringing with him samples of the flowers of life. How Nimuul and the others had forced him to serve them by holding his former senator father Zol as a prisoner – with his life hanging on Zor's compliance. Thoroughly intimidated and desperate to keep his only family alive Zor did as they asked, ultimately creating the first protoculture matrix.
Gloval winced as she spoke. He could see a great many parallels between how the Tirolian Republic had been turned into a harsh totalitarian state and the times it had happened on Earth. And how such things never really ended that well for anybody and indeed frequently led to war with the most devastating of said wars having been the Second World War. Guess the Tirolians are not really that different to us, he thought sadly, they make the same mistakes and can unleash the same horrors. But is it really so surprising as at the end of the day they're just another species of human. He mentioned for Lisa to continue with her summary.
She did so explaining how Zor continued to make discoveries with the protoculture and the properties of the various different grades created during the refining process could be used. Eventually leading to the creation of entire species including the Zentraedi who it turned out had been originally created not to be warriors but miners on the giant planet Fantoma. And how eventually the downtrodden people of the Republic rose in revolution against Nimuul and his regime which had already rechristened themselves the Robotech Masters. And how to win the resulting civil war Nimuul repurposed the Zentraedi into the warriors they now were.
"It was still a long war," Lisa continued. "But in the end the Masters' won but doing so drained them of virtually all of their stored protoculture and the flowers of life they had had aged to the point that they could no longer produce anymore. While Zor was creating more fertile flowers through the use of a bioengineered lifeform called a Pollinator it wasn't enough for what the Masters' wanted."
"So, they sent Zor and the Zentraedi back to Optera to get more," Gloval guessed.
"Not more to get them all," Lisa informed him, "with Zol's life still on the line Zor did as he was bid. Though as we said he didn't take all the flowers, he left one small grove of them intact. Why we were never able to find out, but that grove let the Invid survive and ultimately transform from a peaceful, agrarian species into one of the biggest threats in the entire galaxy. Sometime before he returned to Tirol with the harvest Nimuul in perhaps his biggest blunder had Zol killed after the remains of the Republicans tried to free him from his jail cell. It sowed the seeds of Zor ultimately rebelling against them and deciding to work to bring them and their empire down."
"Which was why he launched the kernel device that built this station," Gloval said.
"Among other likely kernels yes," Rick agreed. "As part of his plans Zor began taking the SDf-1 to numerous planets around the galaxy where he began seeding the flowers of life, both to give other races the chance to discover and possess the power of protoculture and to give him and his followers – mostly those republicans in the Tirolian colonies that escaped the Masters' crackdown – access to the fuel. Unfortunately, Zor made a terrible mistake."
"What Zor didn't realize is that the flower of life is actually an extremely fussy plant about where it grows. Both the local solar emissions and the local space-time strata have to be exactly right," Lang added. "Without those two being correct while the flower will still grow it will mutate into a sterile form that cannot produce protoculture – however it can feed the Invid. Which is why the Invid will be invading worlds where even the mutated flowers grow both to feed their ever-growing hoards and fuel their war against anyone and everyone other than themselves who possess protoculture."
"Is there no way to negotiate with them?" Gloval asked.
"We tried when we first encountered them," Lisa admitted, "they responded to our hails with plasma beams. Though this time we might have a bit more luck, if we mention the Haydonites or as the Invid apparently called them the Children of the Shadow we should get their attention maybe enough for at least the Regis to hear us out even if the Regent does not. But that is for the future right now…"
"… we need to decide what to do with the Karbarrans," Gloval finished, feeling something of a headache coming on as he realized, not for the first time since he'd learned the truth, how complex, convoluted and interconnected this conflict over protoculture that had been raging across the galaxy for centuries now really was. An interconnected mess that they somehow had to resolve without Galactic Armageddon being the result. "When Captain L'Ron comes aboard do we agree to help them?"
"I would say yes," Rick replied, "the Karbarrans are a very good people, highly intelligent and very industrious with a grasp of engineering and mechanics that far supersedes any other known race. If we help them, they will become extremely loyal and capable friends and allies."
"And if we are to stop the genocidal plans of the Haydonite Awareness we will need all the friends that we can get," Lisa added. "If we attempt to take on the Awareness alone, we will certainly be destroyed by the Haydonites there technology is simply too far advanced beyond our own."
"I see your points," Gloval admitted, he could see the benefit of helping the Karbarrans as it could well pay dividends in not just dealing with not just their current enemies but the threat that lurked in the shadows. "Very well we will hear what L'Ron has to say, and what his people need and what they'll be willing to offer in exchange. So, tell me what I need to know diplomatically about the Karbarrans if I am to make a success of these negotiations."
Which they promptly did.
Zentraedi Command Ship
Arcturus System, That Same Time
"I am not sure I understand commander."
Exedore looked in puzzlement at both Breetai and the holographic screen showing the face and upper torso of Commander Azonia. He had just finished selecting which intelligence trained operatives – of which he didn't have many to be honest as the Zentraedi were not routinely trained for such things – would undergo the micronization process ready for insertion onto the micronian homeworld when he had received a summons to Breetai's office. Naturally he had immediately attended only to be told that Breetai and Azonia wished to make a modification to the plan.
"It is really quite simple Exedore," Azonia replied, "I was discussing the mission with Miriya, preparing for our attack on the micronian defence grid when Miriya pointed out that we would be sending our intelligence operatives into hostile territory with no one to protect them should they be detected by the micronians or run into any other trouble. After considering her counsel on the issue I agreed."
"As did I," Breetai added, recalling how Azonia had contacted him half an hour ago with Miriya's observations and recommendations for how to correct this oversight. While their intelligence operatives would have military training of course – all Zentraedi did – they were not frontline battle troops. They would not last long against the micronians if they were to be detected and confronted, a distinct possibility that needed to be accounted for especially as there would be nothing their fleet could do to help them should trouble erupt.
"So, what do you wish to do," Exedore asked. "I have already completed my selection of the intelligence operatives to be micronized and sent to the surface of the micronian planet once we have broken a large enough hole in the orbital defence grid. They only things left to do is carry out the micronization procedure and to fabricate appropriate clothing based on our analysis of micronian transmissions."
"Miriya has suggested that we micronize a number of our elite warriors and send them to the surface of the planet with your intelligence operatives to act as protectors," Azonia replied, "she has volunteered to lead the protection mission herself."
Exedore blinked. "I see," he said, "I understand the concern, but I don't really think it will be necessary. From what we have observed so far it should not be that difficult for our operatives to pass unnoticed by the micronians as long as they're careful."
"Be that as it may Exedore both myself and Azonia believe it would be better to err on the side of caution," Breetai replied, "we have underestimated the micronians too many times already and have paid quite heavily for doing so. I will not risk sending some of our few intelligence specialists into what is unfortunately currently enemy territory without some escort."
Exedore grimaced but knew better than to argue. Plus, in his heart he found that he didn't really want to argue because he could see what both commanders were thinking. If only we were allowed to talk openly to the micronians this would not be necessary, he thought. "I see. I would however advise that the size of the escort be limited to no more than a dozen individuals," he answered at last. "After all the larger the party we send to the surface the greater the risk of detection becomes."
"We agree with that," Azonia replied. "Aside from Miriya I only have two other individuals waiting to undergo the micronization process to act as guards."
"I have only three who would be willing as well," Breetai added. "Can you prepare additional data packets for all of them to review prior to undergoing the micronization procedure."
"Easily commander. It will not take very long at all."
"Then see to it," Breetai replied. "In the meantime, we will fold back to the micronian system and begin making our final preparations for the diversionary attack on the defence grid. Have you contacted Captain Delitz and had him increase surveillance operations on the defensive grid?"
"I have done so commander," Exedore confirmed. "As we speak, he should be folding a pair of ships to the dark side of the micronian moon, they well send out Cyclops reconnaissance craft on stealth observation trajectories from there. We should have the first reports in another couple of hours. Now if you will both excuse me, I will go and prepare the additional data packets."
"You may go."
Exedore nodded, bowed politely then left the room leaving Breetai and Azonia alone.
"Well, that went well," Azonia commented. "I was expecting Exedore to object far more strenuously against us sending guards along with his intelligence specialists."
"He did not object because he knows that we are correct," Breetai replied, "the micronians are in many ways still an unknown to us, especially now that the even more mysterious Cylons are involved as well. Given those factors Exedore knows we would beyond foolish not to take some additional precautions ourselves."
"That is true," Azonia agreed. "What about your finder beam? Has it been able to locate exactly where the micronian factory satellite has space folded to?"
"No," Breetai replied a frustrated look appearing on the part of his face that wasn't covered by the metal prosthetic. "The micronians are learning quickly. So far, we have only been able to determine that they have executed multiple space folds of varying length and duration. Which is making it very difficult for the finder beam to identify and lock onto their destination coordinates."
"That's going to make things difficult," Azonia answered with a growl, her frustration at this latest setback clearly as great as his own was. "I have to admit Breetai these particular micronians are proving to be quite a challenge. It has been a very long time since anyone, let alone a bunch of micronians, frustrated us in this manner. You have to admire them for that."
"Indeed Azonia. Frankly when this is over, and we have the battlefortress, I intend to recommend to the Robotech Masters that an alliance be formed with this particular species. The close in defensive capabilities of their ships alone would be of huge benefit to us against the likes of the Invid."
Azonia grinned slightly at that. She had seen the recordings of the frighteningly dense fields of physical and laser flak that the micronian ships seemed to like to put out to defend themselves, not to mention those high-speed defensive missiles of theirs that put their own defensive missile capabilities to shame, the mere thought of seeing the Invid encounter that made her feel warm inside. It would be nice to see those foul creatures swarm warfare tactics come apart when they ran headlong into those killing zones.
"It would be worth it just to see that sight alone," she commented at last. "When you are ready to send the recommendation to the Masters' let me know. I will send a concurring one in as well."
"Of course, Azonia your support would be most welcome. Now though we should stop talking and return to our respective command centres to organise the fold of sufficient assets back to the micronian system."
"Indeed Breetai. We will of course speak again to finalize our plans before the attack."
"Of course."
Azonia nodded back and closed the communications link from her end causing the holographic screen displaying her likeness to pixel out of existence as the projector field powered down. Breetai remained seated for a moment before standing, stretching slightly to loosen up some cramped-up muscles in his back, and making his way out of his office towards the command blister. After all he had a fold to organise and after that a battle to plan. He just hoped that Exedore's plan worked, and they not only found out more about the Cylons but found the location of the battlefortress...
…as Dolza would have their heads if it did not.
Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all enjoyed it, frankly I am amazed at how quickly this particular chapter came together when I got round to starting to write it. I know that this chapter might read to some of you like filler, but it is all necessary to lay the foundations for the next arc of the story. Hopefully if the muse continues to cooperate – and doesn't get abducted by the Haydonites again – the next arc will be ready to start soon. Until next time.
