Robotech: Pyrrhic Wardance
- A Sentinels-MOSPEADA Serial
Chapter Four: And So It Begins
By SithKnight-Galen
SK-G: Alrighty, let's see if I can pick up the tempo any here and see what I can do with a real combat scene, ja ne? The last chapter was kinda angsty, I know, but I did say that this great project of "kick the Pincer" proportions would be just that. Now let's get on with the action and adventure, shall we?
A/N2: No, I do not own Macross, Robotech, MOSPEADA or any of the people, events or equipment from it, although I would not mind my own Gallant H-90 with rifle stock. I would just keep it as a trophy over my computer, really. Right next to my lightsaber and my Grimoire. Also, feel free to send Reviews, flames, or just asides about life in general. Even agents of the Dark Side do get curious as to how they are doing sometimes.
Now on with the Story.. *Enter Macross Theme*
*******
Captain Brandon Derringer checked the straps to his crash couch one more time. You never could be too careful after all. Being bounced around by turbulence or an out of control aircraft had been the death of more than one pilot thru the ages, and he didn't particularly care to be added to that statistic if he could help it. Baelanos looked over at the other assembled fighters going thru their pre-flight checks on the flight deck, and could not help but pray that all of them would really make it back from this mission. The other seven LEGIOS combos were already on the prep deck, and the flight crews were conducting the time honored tradition of going over everything with a fine tooth comb for the five hundredth time. The two Horizont shuttles were launching from the forward deck and then would wait for the escort squadron to form up around them before making the short fold jump into Optera space. And then a short hop in, a quick recon of the planet and surrounding system, a quick jump out, and everything would be over and kosher. Supposedly. But Brandon knew how often military operations really went according to plan.
'Maybe I am just getting to cynical in my old age…..after all, how many more battles are we going to have to go blazing into before we can hang up our belts for good? How many more sacrifices are we going to have to make in order for this to finally be over? God, first the Zentraedi, now the Invid…and from what Intel tells us, we still have to somehow pray that we can beat the Masters back to Earth go thru this dance of death at least one more time with them, if we don't let our own hubris and small-mindedness do their dirty work for them first.'
Brandon pulled his thoughts back to focusing on getting his own VT into launch position as the CT officer signaled him into position. As the twin golden rods stopped pulling him forward and crossed into a holding "X", a voice came thru his helmet, loud and clear."
"Diamondback Lead, you are clear for take-off in thirty. Your departure co-ordinates and waypoint flight plan has already been confirmed with the CIC."
"Thank you flight control. Diamondback Lead is ready for take-off."
"Good hunting Diamondback Lead. We will be in position to pick you up on your signal. Tokugawa Main Flight Control Out."
"Roger Tower," Brandon replied, smirking slightly as it occurred to him for not the first time that the BETA component pilots seemed to have it easy on the take-offs and landings procedures. He didn't dwell on it too long as the CT was already flashing for him to get ready for the catapults to sling him off the TARMAC and into deep space. He felt the sudden increase in G-force even thru his pressurized flight suit as the ship was launched into space, going from zero to mach 5 in mere seconds. He quickly leveled off and brought his ship around as he waited for the rest of his squadron to form up and then head off to the rendezvous co-ordinates.
'two, four, three, seven, eight, five..and six makes the full roster….'
***
"WhoooHAhhh!!" Came over the comm.-net as Diamondback Five was flung out of the Ikazuchi Class SDF Battlewagon. Lieutenant Whetstone always loved the thrill that rapid increases of G-forces always seemed to bring out in him. He took notice that most of the other fighter jocks made at least some sort of comment or reaction to the catapult launches, then he recalled the odd look on his own Alpha component pilot's face. He knew that she was a good pilot, but it looked almost as if she were afraid of going back out there.
'It couldn't have been because of that last fur-ball over Graja, could it?' John thought as he continued to observe her on his side screen. She seemed to come back to grips with the job pretty quick alright, but that still didn't mean that he shouldn't worry about the woman, especially if she also held HIS life in her hands.
"Hey, El-Tee, anything you want to talk about?," He asked over the comm.-net, switching it over to one of the private frequencies so the whole flight couldn't hear them talking, although the CO could always bump in if he needed to.
"No, why do you ask?," came back the all-too-cool and collected reply. Spencer pivoted her head slightly so that she could look more clearly into the vid-screen after she made some minor course corrections to line her up with the rest of the fighters in a holding pattern formation.
The junior pilot had to think hard and fast for a moment before answering her. While her temper was not something that was widely talked about in the ready room, her vindictiveness and ability to take things out of context and use them to hold Battle Pod sized grudges were. 'Well, I am the one who walked myself into this….way to go, Otaku. I knew I should have used a sick day or three and stayed to watch that 'Lost Universe' marathon.'
"Well, ma'am, you seemed a little..umm, distracted I guess, during the preflight and seemed a bit sick when we launched. You sure that you are okay?"
Angelina seemed to hesitate before she answered, and a definite sigh was heard on the radio. "As I said, Ensign Whetstone, I am fine. Those take-offs just get to me a little bit, that's all. They always have. Once I am in the air, I am just fine." She smiled into the camera, hoping that that would re-assure the other pilot, even if it didn't quite work for her. "I much prefer take-offs and landings in an atmosphere."
"Ahh, okay. Just it seemed like it might have been more than that. I am not quite a medical doctor or anything, but it seemed like you were about to faint for a minute or two there. Either that, or have a panic attack."
'Hmm, great now my wingmate thinks that I am mental, wonderful,' Angie thought spitefully. "No, seriously, I am fine. Now that we have launched, I am back to being me. We got a bit of a flight ahead of us, so I guess we should make the most of it."
"Guess your right, El-Tee. However, if you get bored or something, just give a yell back my way or something. I'll be playing solitaire or something until we get into Optera space," Whetstone said over the comm-channel, his thoughts split between the condition of his wingmate and the mission ahead. She was definitely hiding something, but he really didn't know if it was his place to pry. After all, she had passed her psychological and medical reviews and had been a combat pilot for almost three years, so what did he know anyways? Bah, thinking about it was too much effort that he could spend doing something that might actually relax him a bit before everything began to hit the fan.
Lieutenant Spencer did not answer, as her own mind began to ramble off into it's own direction, playing over again the events of the last two years, and culminating with that encounter in the gymnasium with Ryan. She remained focused enough on the job at hand to stay in formation as they met up with the Horizonts and moved to the edge of the fleet perimeter, but she kept most of her attention on her own personal life.
'That stupid, arrogant,…….MAN. Why in the world did he have to re-enter my life? I thought that he was gone for good, and now I find him on my ship again! What was he doing there anyways? It's not like he is still attached to a combat unit or anything, and he is Army, which means he should have minimal contact with me. So why am I letting him affect me like this then? What really is going onto me, and with us? Is he still blaming himself for the collapse of the relationship? Well, good, I hope he is, not like he'll learn anything from his mistakes anyways. No, I shouldn't say that after seeing how he reacted to me yesterday. Why does he have to make everything so complicated?' Angelina pondered as she maneuvered her jet thru it's final positioning as the Horizonts began the navcomp checks and cyclic countdowns until the jump to light speed. 'It's not like I am trying to lead him on or anything. He should know by now how I feel, and that nothing he can do or hope to do will change that. Now if I could only convince myself completely of that, it will all work out.'
She continued to contemplate the situation that she still found herself in with her personal life, trying to use the quiet time to plan out her next course of action. She honestly had not expected to see Ryan again, and his sudden re-appearance in her life was something that she felt she did not exactly need to be dealing with just then. Angie had thought that she had purged those demons from her life, but obviously that wasn't quite the case. Sighing more to herself than anything else, the young woman tried to push back the turmoil that had decided to plague her life once more to the back of her mind so that she could focus on the mission at hand. After all, this was her life now, and the past needed to stay buried in the past. As the ships entered hyperspace, and that odd feeling of displacement overtook her and her wingmates, Angelina actually began to relax.
*******
The CVR-3 combat suit clad officer walked into the tight bridge, his visor up so that he could look at the Horizont's commander without any enhancements and without her having to think he was up to anything. Too many people had already been claiming that of him lately. This flight was already making him feel more tense than usual, and not getting his people enough actual downtime with untested equipment and being paired with an unfamiliar naval fighter detachment were not adding to his confidence.
"Commander Derringer, did all units make it out thru the fold operation intact?"
The transport commander glanced down at her monitors momentarily before addressing the speaker. While she often wondered the same thing during these operations, having heard some of the horror stories from the SDF-1's ill-fated jump to Pluto-space back 2009, and then the near disastrous jump into Tirol-space that began the current war they were engaged in, Janine felt that she obviously had more faith in their equipment and training than her groundside counterpart at the moment.
"Yes, Major, all units made it thru intact and are all still in formation."
She then glanced up and noticed that the tension was still evident on the dark complected man's face as he continued to stare intently out the front view port and the faint silhouette of a planet off in the far distance.
"Are your people ready?"
"Yes, they are." Simple, and without any emotion was the reply.
'Odd, I heard that the man was cold, but it sounds like he is reciting a wake.' Janine then did give Darmouth a more intense look. That was when she noticed the faint wrinkles around the eyes and at the corners of the lips. And the man didn't look to be more than thirty, if that. 'Just what is he worried about…or better yet, just what does this guy know that the rest of us don't….or is he just being ultra paranoid?'
"Something on your mind, Major?"
"Hmm," Ryan looked back to the naval officer, his face lightening in it's hardness for a few moments. "Just thinking of what might come to pass, that's all. I have often been accused of being a bit of a worrier of the small details. Why do you ask?"
"You just seem to be staring awfully hard at our target up there. We are still close to an hour away from the drop zone and you are already locked into that "thousand yard" stare."
The military specialist smiles at the pilot then, his grim visage gone for the moment. "Is that so? I wonder why no one ever told me that before? I never thought that I was that intimidating. Hmm, I wonder that might have also been one of the reasons…." His voice then trails off as all humor begins to ebb from his face.
"One of the reasons for what?"
"Nothing of any importance anymore, I suppose. I guess I am just being cynical with Command's little "snoop and scoot." I have done of a few of these, and they never turn out as nice and easy as the top brass likes to make it sound."
"Well, this may be that time that is the exception instead of the rule."
"For all of our sakes, I really pray that you are right, Commander." He smiles grimly, then pivots on his heel, and his armored boots vibrating against the floor as he walks back to the troop assembly area are the only sounds in the cockpit until the access door shuts behind him.
"Man, talk about doom and gloom. That dude has it in spades," commented Ensign Brody Atkins from his spot on the other side of the cockpit. He had watched the entire exchange and was not all that confident with the results himself anymore.
"You might want to watch what you say there, kid," Chief Petty Officer Cartwright said just loud enough for both pilots to hear from his own seat. The veteran loadmaster had had his own misgivings about this kind of mission, but he hadn't voiced it like the outspoken Major had. That however, did not mean that Rico did not agree with what Ryan had said. "That man probably has more combat experience than all of us combined. And he doesn't seem to be the type that would make up something without some real reason."
Janine nodded as she made course corrections on her board. The loadmaster had made a good point, but he was also a pessemist by nature as well, almost as if the service turned you into one by nature if you lived long enough. There seemed to be something off on her sensors, but that was here flight officer and co-pilot's areas of overwatch, and they hadn't said anything just yet.
"And just why do you say that, Chief? That man was just acting.....spooky, like he was thinking we were all going to our deaths or something. That ain't exactly the kind of talk I wanna hear when I am going into battle, ya know."
"Yeah, well he wasn't exactly saying that we were going to die, either," the older man retorted, going back to his own sensors. "That man has alot on his mind, and as he said, he had been on a few of these missions, and talking from experience, these things rarely go as planned, especially with us testing this new equipment like this."
"Well, whatever the case, we need to get ourselves focused and back on task. We are coming up and aroudn the darkside of the moons now, so we need to be prepared for anything. Hopefully, we will be able to sneak in right under their collective snouts, though."
The elongated diamond crep forward and came closer to the planetary gravity well, the collective crews praying that the cloaking technology was actually doing it's work this time around, and that the Invid really did not detect them as they had hoped. So far, everything appeared to be going as planned, but appearances could well be decieving. Janine split her attention between monitoring the unusually muted fighter TAC channel and her own sensor boards, torn between just wanting a horde of pincerships to go ahead and make their move and be done with it, and being able to successfully sneak in and complete this mission without even a single slug noticing any of them.
"Commander, we have contact in system," Derringer's flight engineer and communications specialist stated suddenly from her rear post, breaking the spell of silence that had crept over them. "It appears to be SDF class...I think it's the Valivarre."
"Get confirmation on that. See if you can find out what the Zentraedi are doing here" Janine growled as she began making her course corrections to line herself up with the planet growing in her view screen. Fortunately, this could be used to their advantage, between the Zentraedi under Lord Breetai, whose arrival, while unexpected could be the distraction the team needed, and their own stealth technology, they might be able to actually sneak past all of the Invid planetary defenses after all.
"IFF pings positive for Valivarre. She is assuming high planetary orbit and has just taken out two orbiting carrier ships. She appears to be launching ground forces."
"Then we sneak in using them as cover. They clear the way, and we sweep in and slip thru during the mass confusion," A new voice said from the entranceway. Everyone except Derringer turned around to see that the Cyclone commander was back and was watching the ensuing battle out in the star lanes with a somewhat enigmatic look on his dark face, the sunglasses back in place over his eyes..
Janine heard Darmouth, but chose not to answer the man just yet as she was still focusing on getting the people she was carrying to their destination in one piece. As she and the other Horizont began to go into their re-entry burns, she notices that the Veritech escorts were beginning to fan out in an expanded diamond to give a more adequate field of protection. Planetary re-entries were always amongst the most dangerous of all combat maneuvers because the transport ships pretty much had to stay on one set course and could not deviate from it the entire time that they were punching thru the atmosphere, which made them pretty much sitting ducks without even the benefit of being able to attempt evasive maneuvers. The first mild rockings of Optera's gravity well vibrated thru the deck plates of the cockpit, and Janine knew that there was no turning back now. With cool nerves, the transport commander eased herself into the re-entry corridor.
Brandon watched his wife settle her ship into position with what seemed to be practiced ease. Both of the transports began their runs, and so far, everything was going according to plan. However, the Zentraedi battle cruiser was an unexpected twist to this little operation, and it's presence had sure stirred up the hornet's nest in regards to the Invid defenders. As long as it kept their attention away from him and his combat team however, he could care less. While he harbored nothing personal against the giants, especially the ones that had joined the REF, he still was a bit glad that it was them that were engaging the Invid and not human warriors. Despite their technologically inherently inferior equipment, they seemed to be able to dish out a lot more punishment to the Invid than any of the Sentinel member races were able to. As the fighter escort moved into their assigned postings, Baelanos observed one vibrantly colored REF Officer Pod rip thru a formation of Invid space scouts, go tumbling thru their heavier brethren, and then kamikaze itself against another troopship that had decided to join the fray and was just beginning to disgorge it's compliment of fresh Invid when it was consumed in an eerie Zero-gee fireball. He continued to observe this maelstrom of death and destruction for a few moments more until his threat board began to ping incessantly for his attention. He looked down and grimaced.
'So much for the damned cloaking devices. I knew that they wouldn't watch us thru this mess,' he thought as he began his weapons prep check-list.
"Heads up boys and girls. Got a pack of stragglers that seem to want to sniff out our neck of the woods. Let's makes sure that they don't find the packages, shall we."
There was a chorus of affirmatives as the other fighters began to burn to intercept speed. They knew that twenty four scout ships weren't going to be a major threat in and of themselves, but they could always call upon enough re-enforcements to actually be said threat. That could not be allowed if this mission was going to succeed. Baelanos locked on to the lead scout, and let loose a spread of short range high explosive missiles that seemed to cut the lead element to ribbons before they even knew that they were hit. The remaining Invid craft seemed to paused, as if confused by the attack since they could detect no other Robotech mecha at the moment besides the Zentraedi off on the other side of the planet. They did not have to be bewildered long however, as the rest of the Diamondbacks swooped in and made short work of them.
'Whew, that was easy, almost too easy…but I guess we really shouldn't be pressing our luck and second-guessing all the little blessings that we are being given in this,' Brandon mused as the team regrouped after the turkey shoot. They were still maintaining combat level communications at the moment, and although they had all splashed some bogeys, they really were too tense to bother with congratulating each other with kills. Besides, this had only been the opening salvo.
"I got something on my scopes," Diamondback Two suddenly reported. I have possible visuals, but the planet's EM-field is causing too much background interference for my scopes." Lindsey's voice was devoid of emotion as she maneuvered her fighter to engage the new unknowns.
"Can you get a positive ID?"
"Umm, moving in to find out now."
"Got positive locks," Diamondback Five suddenly came on and thru the tac-net. It seemed that Spencer was not exactly happy with the revelation, or else something else was bothering her. "Armored scouts with booster packs coming out of the atmosphere. They are making a beeline for the transports. Seems ETA is 45 seconds." 'Why in the hell would they be anything else? We ARE over their Homeworld after all, ' Angie thought with a bit of venom as she tried to lock onto another one of the armored slugs. It took a long twelve seconds for the IFF to finally lock onto the target, and in Angie's mind that was about eleven seconds too long. She let loose a quad of missiles and smiled darkly as the contrails ran home on her selected victim and the spreading explosion caught the target Invid's two closest wingmen in his death blossom. Taking only a second to tally up her fresh kills, Spencer then went after her next prey.
Merlin continued to monitor the ongoing fight from the slightly more armored BETA section of his LEGIOS. With his better half handling most of the chasing down and hunting down aspects of this dogfight, Steven was able to focus on the tactics that the Invid were employing for this, because they were supposed to be invisible to the slugs sensors after all, but somehow they had been able to pinpoint their location anyways. The Invid so far seemed to only be homing in on the pair of Horizonts who were currently cutting thru the ionosphere, even though most of them were getting swatted out of the air by the veritechs before they could get close enough to actually inflict any serious damage, yet.
'Just how are they homing in on us, they can't detect our power supplies anymore, and the stealth shielding is supposed to include our radars and comm arrays as well, so what gives?,' he thought as he felt himself getting righted in his seat once more as Lindsay came out of a tight spiral. He glanced at his monitors on the ships breaking orbit and then it hit him. 'No wonder they are tracking those two crates like homing pigeons. The burn-off is causing them to glow like micro-stars, and of course the Invid are going to investigate something like that. That was how they were able to take out the original testing team as well. It wasn't the stealth gear that failed them, it was the planet itself!'
"Captain!," The male Niequiest shouted into the tac-net. "They can pick them up by their heat signatures. The Invid are following their heat signatures as they are burning off in the atmosphere!"
Derringer came out and under the expanding debris cloud from the last command pincer and made a beeline for the Horizonts…..and his wife. So that was how they were finding them, and there really wasn't any way to stop them from homing in and eventually scoring with that tactic either, unless the fighters went to ground with the transports to give them a literal body shield. The fighters would probably get mauled in the process, but that was what they there for, after all.
"All units close in on the Horizonts. Defend them by any means necessary. Once you get into the ionosphere, things will get a bit choppy, so keep with the Horizonts and watch your backs," he stated even as he slid in along the starboard bow of Janine's Horizont.. The rest of the escort squadron split itself off by the numbers and followed Derringer's lead even as the third wave of Invid combatants rose from the surface to engage them.
This the veritechs once more began to repel the Invid, but this time there were two added problems. First, they were traveling thru the atmosphere on re-entry, so maneuverability was shot to about nil, and second, the Invid had decided to pick up a new tactic this go-round. While still shooting erratically at the Horizonts, and now the VFs as well as they became somewhat visible thanks to the atmospheric effects they were going thru, the scout ships and pincers had decided that kamikaze runs might work more effectively than plasma bursts. While this tactic had been done before, it as not exactly what the diamondbacks or the transport crews were expecting, at least not until the first suicidal impact.
Diamondback 7 started to wobble and the Beta component began to smoke horribly after a Scout raked across it with it's pincers. It wasn't quite knocked out of it's trajectory, but it began to pull back and away from Lightning Bolt 2. Sensing an opening, a trio of scout ships accelerated to flanking speed, barreling thru the defenders and taking full advantage of the gap that the limping veritech had made. Angelina and Johnny tried to make up the slack by throwing out a withering sheet of pulsated energy at the incoming fighters, but somehow despite their best efforts, one of the dogged little buggers was still able to get thru and slammed into the Horizont just aft of amidships. The ship rocked as a shower of debris came billowing out from it's undercarriage. It was a miracle that the ship held together after the impact.
Brandon paled upon seeing the Invid actually break thru and inflict that kind of damage, even if it was from a kamikaze attack. Fortunately, they had all come out of the most perilous part of the re-entry process, and could now maneuver somewhat against the next wave of fighters, but how they were going to do it and keep themselves from losing anyone else when half of what they were defending was already falling to pieces and was beginning to go into what looked like a full acceleration burn.
"All units, separate and engage new intruders! Protect those transports!"
The smaller, yet nimbler Alphas broke away almost as one from their larger BETA components and dove into the rising squadrons of Shock Troopers with a renewed frenzy. Merlin and Primrose dove straight into their formations and there were already a dozen blossoming explosions before they even realized that the humans were among them. Most of the Diamondbacks followed their element leaders leads and cut their own bloody swathes thru the enemy lines in scant seconds. The more massive and heavier armed Betas then came in following the Horizonts thru the gap created by the Alphas, vaporizing another two dozen Invid war machines in the process. The stragglers tried to fight back, and were successful in finally destroying the limping Diamondback Seven Beta in a three viciously manic way crossfire, even if he did take the trio out in the process. However, against the superior firepower of their somewhat invisible foes, the Shock Troopers did not stand much of a chance.
"Thank you for the assist, Diamondbacks, we are beginning our drops now, " the cool, melodious voice of Lightning Bolt lead's CO came over the net. The drop from upper atmosphere to lower atmosphere went pretty quick with all the ships dropping like rocks and going in at full burn. The lead Horizont landed perfectly, dropping off it's bunkers and then using them as fortifications that it could land behind as it landed itself.
The second Horizont began to mimic it's flight leader and had just dropped it's first bunker when about a dozen more shock troopers suddenly exploded out of the ground and leapt straight into the air and launched themselves at the already stricken starship before any of it's crew or defenders had a chance to react. The purple colored carapaced monstrosities swarmed about the Horizont and began to systematically tear it to pieces in mid-air. The attached bunker suddenly fell to earth, part of the wing still attached, and then seconds later the whole transport just blew up with the Invid still trying their hardest to rip more chunks of it's guts out as it blew. The ground pounders were just pouring out of the settled bunkers as this was happening and were met with a shower of fragments of what was once one of their ships.
"Oh crap, we're stuck here now," one cyclone jockey muttered with a wide-eyed expression as his squad watched what was left of Lightning bolt 2 come crashing down to earth in a fireball of twisted metal and burning reactants.
"Well, I guess that means we give the Regent that much more of a repair bill, doesn't it, trooper?," retorted one of the heavy weapons equipped power armor troopers with the name "Fitzgerald" emblazoned on his name plate.
"Ahh, Yessir, Sergeant." The younger man stammered, collecting his Gallant and helping the rest of his squad set up a perimeter even while looking in three directions at once for the next onslaught.
*******
Back in the air, the VTs were exacting a deadly vengeance for their fallen comrades. The hunter-killer type Alpha and Beta teams were hunting down any and all Invid vessels within a few miles of the landing zone with complete success. Captain Derringer had basically given blanket discretion for targets, and it was open season on all Invid. The pilots of the Diamondbacks made it a point to follow that particular order to the letter.
Primrose found herself separated from the rest of the squadron and even her wingmate after she had chased down and knocked out of the sky a pair of extremely elusive armored scouts. Getting her bearings, she suddenly took in the site of another battle taking place below her that caught her attention. Below her, there was a pitched battle going on between numerous hard pressed Invid, including an inordinate number of Royal Enforcers were fighting tooth and nail with an equal number of REF re-fitted full sized Zentraedi, most of them proudly sporting both the REF Diamonds and the sigils of Lord Breetai's personal command. After a moment, she thought that she could make out Lord Breetai himself in his command power armor, ripping thru first one team, then another of Royal Enforcers, seemingly intent on making his way to one larger than normal Invid Power suit, which rushed forward to meet the Zentraedi legend head-on in a battle of metal-clad titans. She watched the fight to the death between the two great warriors play out, little more than an observer when Breetai finally launched the both of them high above the other combatants as his finale act of defiance to the creature known as the Invid Regent. She then saw the look of peace on Breetai's face and horror etched into the Invid as it started to struggle during those final moments.
Then the world exploded.
At least their little corner of it did at any rate. It took Angelina Spencer a full ten seconds to blink the spots out of her eyes, and then all she saw was rain of debris from the two ill-fated combatants raining down upon their soldiers below. All fighting had seemed to stop for the moment as both the giants and the slug-like aliens realized that both of their great leaders had just perished in that inferno. The Zentraedi survivors were the first to recover their senses, and unleashed their unified grief upon the still stunned Invid. A score of them simply disappeared under the concentrated barrage of hellfire unleashed by the Zentraedi, and close to three times that number crumpled to the ground, exploding on impact or mortally wounded and unable to continue the fight. The barrage continued, but in clusters the Invid began to fight back, and re-enforcements were already on the way. The Zentraedi continued their Kaba-Brek death chant even as more of their dwindling number began to fall to plasma blasts and pincer strikes. Finally, one of the female command officers finally was able to re-gain control over her troops and began to order a fall back to the drop ships. Angie recorded the entire episode, knowing that command would most definitely want to know what had befallen one of their heroes.
Karianna Hesh had tears of grief streaming down her face as she led the hundred odd troops that were still able to fight back to their transports. They had been able to break the back of the Invid warhost, but at such a high price. She needed to be strong for her soldiers, but she wanted nothing more than to die here and now with her Commander, and her lover. She almost got that wish when a trio of Armored scouts came down and strafed her column of troops, blowing one arm off of her Officer's Pod and toppling her over. She watched them swoop around like a trio of hawks lining up an evening meal, when suddenly the center one exploded into metallic confetti. It's right hand wingmate followed suit a moment later as a beam of coherent energy bore thru it and materialized before continuing on out of it's sensor suite. The third one began to evade but got no further than the beginning of it's barrel roll before it met the same fate as it's wingmates courtesy of a high explosive missile.
Karianna looked up just as what appeared to be a black and gray REF alpha fighter streaked by overhead at a high rate of speed. She knew that her people didn't have any of those in their current arsenal, or else they would have been deployed here. She saw the rose symbol thru the Terran Reptile symbol embossed on the tailfin and made note to thank that particular pilot some day, should they both survive this. She then got the rest of her people on board the troopships and prepared to lift off. They needed to fulfill one of Breetai's last orders and find Admirals Hunter.
Angie smiled tightly as she watched the second troopship lift off and climb for orbit with few Invid pursuers. She knew that she had over-extended her time in the combat zone, but she also knew in her heart that she had to help her allies escape.
'At least someone was going to be able to get out of this hellhole to tell them what happened here,' the woman thought as she pushed for more speed to get her back to her own unit and report to what exactly it was that the giant warriors turned miners turned warriors had been up to…..as well as what they had accomplished and at what price. That was when she noticed the pinging on her threat board and she came back into full focus of what was going on around her. Somehow a squadron of Invid fighters had been able to detect her and were now coming in for the kill. She was still too far out from the rest of the combat team and her chances of making it to them before the Invid overtook her were slim to none, and as she glanced at the IFF, she felt her heart sink a bit as her chances slid a bit further in the nil category.
Counting down the seconds until they were in range and were upon her, Angie suddenly realized that for all of his faults, there was at least one thing that Ryan had been able to teach her that should hopefully come in handy in this situation and might actually allow her to survive this: Allow you opponents to assume that they have the upper hand and continue to allow them to assume this even as you exploit any AND all momentary weaknesses that they will eventually exhibit. She was about halfway back to base camp when the first plasma discs came whizzing by her canopy, quickly followed by the lead pair of BOOSTER equipped armored scouts, both of whom had just missed making nice swipes at her with their diamond tipped forearm claws. Angie quickly drops two heat seekers on the right-hand one more out of instinct than anything else, and is already corkscrewing, clawing for altitude before the missiles run home, knocking out the first of her attackers. Switching to Guardian mode, while still spinning she trap shoots another of her attackers straight out the air as it zips right past her, and she follows up by fly-trapping it's partner after it gouges the left arm deeply with it's own claw.
Feeling the inertia from the erratic moves pushing her deeper into her grav-chair and G-Force threshold, Spencer let the spin ride it's course until she was upside-down, and then made a run for ground, dropping another quad of missiles directly on top of the one scout that decided he wanted to try to come up under her to catch her un-awares. Flying thru the debris cloud nearly cost the fire haired VT pilot her life. Two more scouts came zipping up after her, assuming that she has still climbing for orbit instead of diving, and the trio nearly slammed headfirst into each other. Only her own finely honed instincts saved her from smashing completely into them. As it was, she bounced hard enough off of one of two crab colored ships that she felt blood tingling in her mouth, and felt the ship shudder even as she unloaded a long burst that disintegrated it's partner even as they broke contact.
'Comon, hold it together for me, just a little bit longer.' She coaxed her machine as the diagnostics systems began to go red across the board. 'Just how many of those little bloody buggers did I pop off, anyhow?,' went thru her mind as she thru the protesting alpha back into fighter mode and continued once more to try and close the gap between her and the rest of her party. She could see friendlies at the furthest range of her targeting computer and hoped that that also meant that they were within transceiver range as well. Unfortunately, in spite of her best efforts, she still hadn't equated out the odds in her favor.
"Diamondback Nickel alpha to home plate, please respond. Am under heavy fire and may not make it back to score. Diamondback nickel alpha, requesting assistance, looking at imminent splashdown in hostile territory and am requesting any assistance possible. Repeat, this is Diamon…Agghh..!!" Angelina screamed into the comm array as another set of plasma burst were aimed her way, and this set finding it's way home, splashing across the nosecone and forward fuselage of her fighter, causing a few of her cockpit systems to blow-out, spark flashing her in the process, including the comm array from the looks of it. Primrose then returned fire, her GU-XX autocannon spewing out a rain of death that enveloped the hapless Invid and his wingmate as well.
"Great," she muttered as she made note of the new damage her poor fighter was taking. "Now the comm's out, and my targeting computers fried, I got minimal avionics and my port thrusters is all but shot. And I still got at least three more of these ugly buggers on my tail as well." She angrily toggled over her joystick and set the missiles for a full spread. She then turned back to give a little payback to her tormentors.
The last flight of scoutships had double backed and were now preparing to finish off their quarry. The formation leader had already watched these spawn of the Robotech Masters destroy too many of his hive mates. He could already taste the sweet victory that ending this one's existence would bring. It would not bring their beloved Regent, their All-Father, but they would have their vengeance. He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts of victory that he failed to realize the earth mecha had turned back around to face him once more until the cursed ship had already launched it's deadly array of ballistics weaponry at them. The Invid formation fell apart as the high explosive missiles fell amongst them and cut them to ribbons. The of the scouts blew up instantly as their armored systems were simply overwhelmed by the amount of devastation being sent at them. Another just simply ceased to be as a fair number of missiles swept over him. Number four tried to veer away, and he almost made it. Almost. He had pulled out a few seconds too late and the missiles had already locked onto him, and pulling up and into them only gave them a more oblique target profile to slam into. The junior scouts screams were still in the formation leader's mind as he let the fury wash over him and he pushed his own fatally crippled mecha forward at the psychotic human.
Angelina thought that she took out the entire formation by expending her entire missile payload in that one surge of power. Seeing one come out of the fratricide cloud hell-bent on ramming her was not what she was expecting, and she barely had time to do much more than swerve her craft just enough for the impact not to be head on. The ship finally gave in to the inevitable and just died, and thus began to drop like a rock, spinning like an erratic shuriken towards the ground. Spencer tried her best to fight back the threshold gray out as the gee-forces on her body increased geometrically. She barely had time to check her ejection seat and find that it was indeed inoperable before the ground rushed up at her, and she slammed her head against the canopy hard enough to blissfully allow the darkness to overtake her.
******
Merlin punched his ship into full burn, knowing that Whetstone was not that far behind him. They had picked up a scrambled distress call a few moments ago while on patrol, and it was relieving to hear that Primrose's luck had held out once more, it seemed that that celebration may have been short lived indeed. They had just made it to the area where the last fateful distress signal had been sent, and all they could find was a debris field, most of it from the charred remains of Invid mecha.
'At least she made them pay a very high cost to bring her down. I always knew that she was good, but even she didn't deserve to go out like this.'
He switched on the mike, all joviality gone from his voice as he turned his Beta back towards the base camp.
"No sign of her Captain. It looks like from all intents and purposes she gave a lot better than she got though, if it is any consolation. Unfortunately, we aren't picking up anything so I have no idea what happened. Requesting permission to return to base camp."
"Yeah, permission granted Lieutenant. Bring them on in." Brandon closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose as he heard the communications sever on the other end of the mike. It took him a few moments for him to remember to shut his own end down. He sighed and turned around at the sound of approaching armored boots clanking on the deck plates.
"Is there something that I can help you with, Major Darmouth?"
"Well, I was coming to give you a status report on available assets after losing Harrington and his crew, but it seems like you are having to deal with some new losses."
"You could say that. One of my pilots went down, but we couldn't find anything of her bird when we sent out a patrol to search over the area of her last transmission."
'A Her?.. Nah, now way….I would have been told if she was assigned to this,' So I guess with this lost pilot, we are down to seven LEGIOS, one Horizont, 7 operation destroids at the moment with a slim chance of getting two more up and running. We also got 19 injured men from my unit, and at least one of your pilots." The dark man removes his shades and ball cap, rubs his temples, then looks over to the senior officer. "So what are you going to do about your missing pilot, you going to send a team out to at least attempt to recover the body, or at least her flight recorder?"
"If we could figure OUT just what happened to her, sure. The problem is, it's like Lieutenant Spencer simply fell off the face of the planet. We can't pick up a transceiver, IFF, or anything from her boat, and without those, we just don't have the ability to even know where to begin searc…." Brandon stopped upon seeing the suddenly ashen look on Ryan's face. "Something wrong, Major? Major?….. Darmouth!"
"Hmm….oh Yessir." Ryan visibly shakes himself back to the present. "Lieutenant Spencer, you said. Umm, this wasn't by chance Lieutenant Angelina Spencer, was it?"
"Actually yes it was….hey wait a minute!! Where the hell are you going?"
Ryan didn't answer the veritech pilot, as he was already running full tilt back to the main hatchway, pushing aside a pair of cyclone riders as he leapt out of the command ship and made a beeline towards the mech area, a feeling of death warmed over coming off of him in waves.
******
A/N: And thus ends another episode of this weird rancor-roll type rant. I had to pay homage to the Jack McKinney books here and pull a bit out of the Sentinels Book 5: Rubicon. I remember how I felt the first time I read that battle and how Breetai basically ended it by sacrificing himself to kill the Invid Regent.
I apologize for the long delay between this chapter and the last one, as a few things have kept me from being diligent with my postings until now. Gomen Nesai.
Well until next time……..
Roll * Macross closing credits*