Dana yawned loudly in her Hover tank's cockpit. The patrol for today had been in a dense jungle where absolutely no enemy activity had been reported. Yet command insisted that it was a prime landing spot for the enemy. They don't land they swarm everything in their path Dana silently thought to herself, suddenly becoming angry. Louie interrupted her brooding "Hey boss! Having fun over there?", came his silly voice over the Tac net. Dana whirled around in her tanks pilot seat to flip him a finger or two, when the radar alarm went off. "Saved by the enemy Lewis", Dana said vexed. She looked at her radar, trying to pinpoint the source of the enemy attack. " All units, battleoid mode.", Dana instructed. She sat back, and the magic of robotechnology began its work. The tank seemed to stretch upward as the legs came out from underneath, while at the same time turning around, to extend the cannon that was the most powerful weapon of the tank. Then, the cannon retracted, as the tank stood straight up, the arms coming out of their holding areas. The armor shifted here, flipped there, and the head was extended. Then, Dana's seat began a short ride into the battleoid's "head". The seat stopped, and paralleled it's self with earth. The mechamorphisis was complete. She was now in command of the most advanced type of mecha in the Southern Cross. The feel of the power thrumming through the controls thrilled her, filled her with adrenaline, and she had to force herself to let out a yell of joy. "Awright boys, lets check it out!", she said, excitement filling her voice. The pressed the foot pedals, and the battleoid began to stalk forward, now holding a particle rifle. She sweeped her camera's across the landscape. Nothing. She had felt the land quake in a bioroid landing. She called for them to choose a "buddy" and fan out. This would reduce there search time, as the team could cover more area, and cover each other...but she didn't have time to continue her thought, as a battleoid on her monitor disappeared. The entire 15th Alpha Tactical Armored Corps division quickly converged on the site. Oddly, no one's radar had reported a bioroid of any type. Dana was half hoping for the wicked red one, who haunted her dreams. Louie was telling her to be extremely careful, as the enemy hadn't even been detected. Dana smiled. Count on Louie to state the obvious. She was, however, nervous about that. The 15th had a major advantage. It was likely a single enemy, and the red one. The tactic Dana was observing was one she had seen in a very old earth movie, called "007". He was a British spy who worked his way through enemy forces (sometimes) taking them out one by one. And bioroids couldn't fly without those crazy platforms either. The battleoids in her division could. Then, a flicker of motion caught her eye. "Over there!", she yelled, sending multiple shots into the trees. She almost doubted herself, when a pitch-black bioroid shimmered in front of her. "What the...", she started to say, but the 'roid attacked instantly. It lifted its pistol, and sent three energy discs at her. Dana responded immediately. She mashed the foot and backpack thrusters of her vicious fighting machine, sending it into the air, while returning fire. The 'roid looked up, and leapt to follow, but Dana was sure she was out of reach, even of this new model. But it didn't slowly tumble back to earth, it fired its own foot and backpack thruster systems, and chased her, dodging her deadly accurate shots with ease. Louie and Bowie were half way to the rescue, when the black 'roid turned on Louie, who was caught totally off guard. Three discs went sailing at his battleoid. Louie raised the shield on the left forearm to deflect the blow. The discs would not penetrate it. But the discs weren't any energy discs. They were of superior power, and cut Louie's battleoid in half. The legs were torn from the mecha, and they exploded, but miraculously, Louie was unscathed. Bowie was already firing a volley of particle shots at the vicious new bioroid, only to have it disappear right in front of him. Bowie had to cut the engines, then go full reverse to keep from plowing into Dana's floating battleoid, and swing the rifle wide to keep from destroying her. "What the hell was that?", Bowie said with anger and fear in his young voice. "I don't know, but we can't let it live.", Dana said with surmising calm. When she tried to raise headquarters for reinforcements, all she got was static. "Damn.", she muttered. "Alright then. Angelo, stay back and guard Louie until this thing gets wiped. I don't to lose anyone." Angelo did not respond verbally, he simply parked his battleoid in gladiator mode, and stood in very close proximity to Louie's damaged battleoid. Dana and Bowie slowly moved forwards, searching, every sense on hyper alertness, their hearts, a drum roll, and adrenaline slamming it's way through her system, filling her with fear, and pleasure at the same time. Dan thought she saw something and raised the right forearm cannon, firing a quick burst of lasers into the trees. The black bioroid must have taken a hit, because sparks flew in every direction. "This thing has some sort of invisibility device that no other mecha has, and it can fly on its own," reported Louie. "Something isn't right here..." he finished nervously. Dana saw Bowie suddenly fire a huge volley, and sure enough, the 'roid was on the attack. It was zooming forward on foot thrusters at a massive velocity, faster than anything ever recorded. Bowie held his ground, firing all the time, but the bioroid dodged with seeming ease, as if it were part of a routine. It raised it's hand gun, and sent three discs at Bowie, who dived to the right, imaging the fall as he went. The battleoid went into a tuck-and-roll as he whirled and fired again. Dana was now onto the bioroid-which she had dubbed the phantom- as well. She leapt, and was flying in at the bioroid, and amazingly caught it in a bear hug. The phantom struggled with unprecedented strength, and Dana could literally hear the armor groan in resistance. The struggled and fought the forearm lasers into a position where she could hit the bioroid. She managed to get one shot into the waist of the thing before she could no longer hold it. But, it didn't disappear, as she had expected it to. It whirled on her raising the hand weapon. Dana raised her own rifle to it, and they both stood there, the physiological warfare easily sensible. It was almost as if she were on a western street, standing in a duel. She licked her lips with anticipation. If it was coming down to this, she had better finish this thing.*** The Robotech Masters watched with great curiosity as their newest bioroid prototype, the wraith class bioroid, stood perfectly still. Indeed, it had a worthy opponent, for a micronian anyway. This earthen mecha pilot had actually managed to score two hits on the vastly improved version of the bioroid family. It had been given a protoculture light-fracturing device, which allowed it to disappear for hours upon end. It had it's own propulsion system, and it could enter and re-enter the atmosphere. The master's briefly looked up, and nodded in approval. Then, the battle resumed. *** Dana had finally had enough. She let out one of her mothers faintly remembered battle cries, and dove at the attacker. The battle was furious. The two war machines circled each other, firing at point blank range, each performing a series of incredible evasive maneuvers that made mouths drop. Dana and her opponent twisted, juked, dodged, ducked, leapt over, jinked, and rolled out of the way each other's volleys. Finally, Dana formulated a plan. She brought forth the main battery of her tank, the heaviest weapon available to her. She aimed it directly at her opponent, who showed no fear. Dana shifted the rifle to her battleoids left hand, and fired at the ground at her opponent's feet. As she had hoped the foot thrusters sent it into a wild jump. She hefted the main battery, aimed, and fired. The massive blast of energy shot from the cannon with a mighty roar, and smashed it's way into the phantom bioroid with an apparent passion. Circuits were instantly fried, damage control systems overloaded, reactor punctured, and the bioroid torn in half. Then, the secondary explosions came, tearing it apart, casting the million pieces of utter destruction everywhere. The 15th ATAC division cheered. *** The three Robotech masters drew back in surprise. How had a meager earthling defeated the greatest marvel of technology the masters had ever developed? It was impossible! The masters dare not tell each other what they were feeling. Dreaded emotions...those were dangerous to them. So! Our latest edition is easily defeated! We will cease this waste of protoculture, as we are even lower in our supply. The other masers concurred instantly. Earth would still succumb to their attacks.