Part VI: Lovely Escape
Commander Lisa Hayes-Hunter moaned as she came too from being out cold. Her vision slowly returned to see a man standing over her with an awful sneer on his face in a red uniform like all the terrorists. This left her confused but it soon came back to her, the terrorist storming the dance hall, herself and a handful of civilians trying to defend the others, the killing of all the others, the death of Kyle Hunter, and then finally being hit from behind then all black. Now she woke up to find some ugly excuse for a man staring down at her.
"Well, well you're awake," the man said with a heavy Russian accent. This told her that these terrorists were one of the Communist type terrorists.
"Just my day, getting captured by Commies of all things," Lisa remarked smartly to the man before her. The man's sneer melted to a scowl as he reached down and grabbed her by her hair.
"What I want to know is who the hell you are?" the man asked as he placed a knife across her throat.
"I'm Commander Lisa Hayes, Robotech Defense Force and I believe you interrupted my leave thank you very much," Lisa said with a snarl. The man's narrowed and Lisa took the time to inspect were she was. It looked like the Airport's Adim Building but retrofitted as a command center.
"So I guess I'm supposed to be impressed with that Commander Hayes," the man said with a sneer.
"No just respect that's all I want you terrorist scum," Lisa replied harshly clearly aware of the knife at her throat. This made the man suddenly laugh clearly surprising Lisa for she thought he was going to push the knife down a bit to draw blood.
"I like you Commander you have some guts to say that with a knife at your throat," the terrorist said with a smile as he went to back to lean against the wall. Lisa suddenly noticed a single Masamune class Destriod walking up to the CVT with several other people scrambeling to cover the immense mecha out the window. It only took one guess for Lisa to figure out who was the pilot of the Destriod.
"Anyway commander I shall guarantee a quick death for your people here," the man said with that evil sneer of his. Lisa smiled as she saw Rick talking on a radio most likely the long range set up they had in the cargo pod to contact the SDF-1.
"Hmmmm... I see well I believe you missed a few scumbag," Lisa said with a smile hoping that Rick and his team can hold them off for awhile int'l reinforcements arrive. The man looked around confused trying to figure out what she is talking about.
"Outside by the hangers is what I think she is talking about," said another terrorist most likely the one who captured her. His comment made the man most likely the commander by the others comment turn to look out the window to see Rick most likely putting the radio away.
"What the hell were did they come from, get the main taskforce moving out now. I will join them soon..." the man said as he started too snap out orders. Suddenly Lisa went white in fear as it came apparent that the Commander was holding something back.
"By the way Ross and your remaining men watch them," the commander ordered before walking out of the building. The man from earlier along an even dozen troops stayed and started to play some cards. Lisa silently started to pray for her husband and her new family's safety.
1st Lieutenant Max Sterling silently welled his Veritech to go faster as the Californian seaboard came into view. Around him where the rest of the Skull Squadron who like him were burning with a blood lust for their leader was in trouble and since all of them were Veterans they all owned Rick their lives or the lives of their families. The most pissed off pilot was 2nd Lieutenant Rachael Hunter for she was just pissed that her brother and sister-in-law were in trouble but her family and friends were in trouble as well. Just then a trio of High Speed VTOL Transport cruised up next to the squadron surprising the Max and the rest of the pilots.
"This is Skull 02 of Skull squadron based onboard the SDF-1, to unknown transports identify yourself," Max ordered as he looked the transports over to see the RDF kite emblem emblazed along the side, along with the golden kite telling him that it was frown Alaska Base which made him sneer in loathing for they were the ones why they were trying to get their fast.
"This is Captain Adam Blair of the Special Operations Unit Dragoon, we were dispatched to help with the crisis in New Carter by Admiral Donald Hayes," came the reply from the lead transport. Max raised an eyebrow for before they left Captain Gloval mentioned that Hayes sent a unit –against orders mind you- to help in the evacuation of New Carter.
"So you are the guys who we were told would be helping, well glad to have you guys with us," Max replied with a smile looking over at the transports.
"Thank you very much so do you guys have any clue how we are going to Evac all those people?" the captain asked with a frown in his words.
"Yes the SDF-1 would be following us to help out we are to go in and kick some terrorist butts so they can the people out," Max replied with a smile. He heard a grunt and then silence for a while.
"So why are you guys such in a hurry because I can tell you are straining those Veritechs a lot beside the threat of Missiles destroying a civilian town?" the Captain suddenly asked as they flew past Sacramento and on to New Carter. This took Max by surprise as he turned to regard the transports.
"You don't know!" Rachael suddenly butted into the conversation having been monitoring the exchange.
"Know what?" the captain asked in return which made both pilots sweatdrop in confusion. Both VT pilots looked over at each other across the skies between their fighters.
"Well Captain your Admiral's daughter and her husband are down in New Carter as we speak and frankly we don't want to lose both our CAG and XO sir," Max deadpanned as New Carter came into view. Which made every commando, VT pilot and transport pilot gasp in surprise for the city was smoking from numerous fires around the city as well as gunfire could be heard over the external mikes in the VTs.
"HOLY SHIT!!! Commander Hayes is down there!" Captain Blair exclaimed with curses aplenty. Seconds later they were screaming over the city heading towards the airport. Max's quick eyes spotted an old Masamune Destriod fighting off a Spartan Destriod. He quickly jammed his finger down on the trigger to let loose a flight of missiles down at the target. It felt strange doing Air-to-mud fighting while he mainly dealt with Air-to-air, while he was trained for it but it still felt wrong. No other VT managed to get a shoot off as they screamed past the fight and started to slow down to get ready for a fight and so they could turn around. Meanwhile the Transports started to spiral down towards the airfield but A-A fire started to reach up to try to claim them. Max cursed and turned hard to the right to get back, he would transform to Guardian or Battliod but he was under orders not to transform from Captain Gloval wanted to use this as an ace card. So instead he managed to turn the hard way to rejoin the fight.
Rick gritted his teeth as the last Cheyenne fell to his Gunpod, even if he was winning the fight of the gods as it came to be known thanks to his experience and knowledge with Robotech, but on the ground his comrades were less then lucky for they were fighting off troops fives times their numbers along with IFVs supporting the troops. But suddenly the single Spartan appeared out of no were and started to fire into the mass of troops with its anti-personal weapons killing both friend and foe, Rick barely saw one round hit Brain and killed him instantly. Tears coursed down his face as Rick moved to engage the Spartan to save the troops on the ground.
"Well what do we have here a civilian who somehow managed to hijack one of my Destroids, a pity I have to kill you for your good but not good enough," came a voice from the COMM system. Rick sneered in contempt for the man since he had no idea who the hell Rick was but he kept his silence.
"A silent type I take it well I guess you won't scream if I kill then what a shame," the voice said yet again. Rick still kept his silence as he extended his Gunpod to return fire but all it did was click indicting it was empty. Rick silently cursed and ignored the others taunting as flipped the gunpod over to use as a club. But suddenly the Spartan turned and fired all weapons into the group of civilians on the tarmac next to the Admin building kill at least a good percentage of them. Rick's eyes widened in horror as he saw the civilians either get ripped to shreds or get cremated by the Spartans lasers. Rick's eyes then started to redden in anger, and the pilot did another thing that pissed him off.
"Well pilot its been fun but I have to go so I will kill Commander Hayes in the Admin building over there," the man said with no remorse for what he did. Rick eyes widened again upon hearing the threat of death for his wife.
"HOW DARE YOU... THREATEN... MY... WIFE... AND KILL...MY FAMILY... AND... FRIENDS!!!" Rick roared out as he advanced towards the Spartan and threw his gunpod to distract then sucker punched the enemy mecha throwing it down to the ground. Just then to further the enemy's hurt, eleven VTs screamed over head. One loosed a volley of missiles right into the group of tanks destroying them instantly. By the blue paint job Rick knew it was Max.
"Who the hell are you?" the enemy asked clearly in pain and started to fell fear. Rick grinned evilly as he kneeled the Masamune down to address the other.
"I'm Commander Rick Hunter, commander of the SDF-1's Flight Group and Ace pilot of the RDF," Rick informed him before launching his last few grenades into the disabled mecha killing the pilot instantly. Suddenly Rick grew aware of the radio yelling at him.
"Rick call those fighters off the A-A Batteries and IFVs are going to cream them," Pops yelled over the radio with gunfire clearly heard in the background. Rick then smiled again as he looked up to see Skull Squadron orbiting the city along with a trio of transports which were spiraling down to land. Knowing that most likely the VTOLs would hold ground troops Rick turned back to the VTs as he switched his COMM channel to "open" Channel so everyone could hear him.
"Skull Squadron, this is Skull Lead switch to Battleiod and secure the city for SDF-1's arrival and the VTOL landing," he ordered which Max breily replied before the VTs screamed back in but this time they were going through Dr. Langs mechamorphis till finally becoming their armored knight like Battliod Mode much to the amazement of the people on the ground.
"This is Captain Adam Blair to Skull Lead were do you want my men?" came the request from the lead VTOL.
"Captain Blair land one VTOL over by the Admin building to save some civilians inside, second land the last two to help with the ground battle," Rick ordered curtly. The other man acknowledged with a smile in his words. The two VTOLs landed right behind the enemy troops and much to Ricks surprise three Spartans drooped down from one while the troops from the other one moved to help the others.
Lisa moaned in pain as the terrorist named Ross started to kick her repeatedly as well as the others, they were kicked, punched, and abused by the terrorists. Just then the door flew off his hinges by an explosion and nine black clad commandos stormed into the room. Ross was caught looking up and so his face was splattered all across the walls of the building. The lead Commando leaned down next to her with a frown.
"Commander Hayes are you alright ma'am, that guy hit you pretty hard?" the man asked with genuine concern in his voice. This left Lisa confused as the man helped her up and cut her restraints.
"Ma'am I'm Captain Adam Blair commander of the Special Operations Team Dragoons in service to your father Admiral Hayes," Captain Blair said with a smile. Lisa's eyes widened in surprise for she all heard all about the Dragoons from her Father.
"My Father?" Lisa exclaimed with a frown. Blair nodded as he started to help her to the door so she can get some fresh air.
"Yes Ma'am he sent us here in the first place when word came in that New Carter was under attack, but he sent us against orders for Marshal Zhukov launched cruise missiles here and they shall be here in a few minutes," Blair reported with a frown opening the door for her.
"Thank you Captain, tell him when you get back I'm sorry for doubting him and I will talk to him if he survives the court marshal that is," Lisa ordered with a smile when they stepped outside to see that the battle was over and other commandos along with civilians were gathering up wounded and the living.
In seconds it was all over and after a quick update on the progress of the UEG missiles from the Enterprise Rick sent the men into action.
"Captain Blair I want you and your men to get the wounded ready to transport to the SDF-1, while the prisoners shall be taken with you back to Alaska base via their own VTOLs," Rick ordered and after a brief thank you to the man who now identified himself as loyal to Admiral Hayes, Rick gathered the remaining civilians of New Carter in front the Admin building as the SDF-1 landed on the ruined airfield. Rick sighed as he witnessed all the destruction around him before leading the people aboard the massive battlefortess.
Major Justin Goodrich sighed as the SDF-1 landed ready to take on the civilian refugees on New Carter and after a brief conversation with Captain Blair, Justin decided to send a few Dragoons with Commander Hayes to stay with the SDF-1 to look after her and her new husband. He then along with the rest of the Dragoons started back to Alaska Base most likely for a court martial. But Justin never once spoke up to introduce himself to neither Commander Hayes nor Commander Hunter, but he had a feeling that he would be seeing them pretty soon.
The SDF-1 lifted off on a course for the Ontario Quadrant just in time as the UEG Cruise missiles rained down on the New Carter vaporizing the Nuke which controller was clutched in the bloody hand of Commander Ivan Yudin with the thumb pressed on the main arm switched and the light a fiery red. It appeared to be defective and was a sigh of relief for the SDF-1 crew along with Admiral Hayes and his supporters at Alaska Base. Admiral Hayes was indeed brought up on charges, but were soon dismissed for every single person on Earth now knew of the bravery of the Dragoons. The SDF-1 was mysteriously not included in the report, and the New Carter civilians were reported to be in route to a safe location. While onboard the SDF-1 the New Carter civilians were told that they would be dropped off along the Macross civilians at the Ontario Quadrant.
Onboard the ship Captain Gloval requested the presence of the two Hunters in his office for an official report. Both Commanders reported to the man's office on time and in uniform.
"Rick, Lisa it's good to have you two back but I need to know what happened at New Carter," Gloval said with a frown inviting the Hunters to sit down in front of his desk, while he took his own seat behind the desk.
"Well sir..." Rick and Lisa started and proceeded to tell the Captain what all happened to them during their stay in New Carter, minutes later they were done and pause to talk a breath of air.
"Well what I want to know is how many civilians lived in New Carter?" Gloval asked lighting his pipe as he lean back in his chair.
"Well the population of New Carter was two hundred and fifty civilians sir," Rick answered truthfully knowing were this was going. Gloval closed his eyes and picked up the report to read it.
"Well... we managed to save fifty-seven people from New Carter, but twenty-six died of their wounds soon after coming aboard. The rest a measly thirty-two people are being put up in unoccupied homes in Macross.
"Oh my God that's about ninety percent casualties!" Lisa said in a horror filled whisper as it became clear. Rick closed his eyes to block out his tears and wonder how sad his parents would be when he gave them that number.
"It's all my fault if I had destroyed that Spartan before it fired into that crowd a lot more would be alive today," Rick said harshly as he finally opened his eyes to find a very pissed off Captain raising from his chair.
"COMMANDER HUNTER!! It was not your fault it was the terrorist's fault for using human shields like that!" Gloval bellowed with a frown looking at his CAG in the eye. Lisa was surprised for she never had seen Gloval like that and it clearly surprised Rick for he was not expecting it.
"I do not need a CAG full of self pity right now Rick," Gloval managed to say for softy the before. Rick nodded but looked like he didn't believe Gloval.
"Lisa take him home and get him some rest," Gloval ordered with a sigh as he sank back into his seat. Lisa nodded and started to lead her husband out of the office.
"Goodnight sir," came Lisa reply as she left the office. Gloval nodded and looked out the window behind his desk and sighed knowing that he should have sent more back up., but he quickly banished that thought before it could take root. Finally Gloval settled down to smoke his pipe and watch the starry night sky before him.
3 Days Later...
Rick sighed as he leaned over the balcony rail looking down at the sea as the ship glided majestically over it. Rick when arrived home got a stern lecture from Lisa, as well as Claudia who had come over to say hi and welcome back to the Hunters. Even though he finally decided to stop blaming himself over the death of those people he couldn't get the picture out of his head. Even when he went to sleep he had awful nightmares for the last two nights in a row. Suddenly he felt a presence behind him to see his mother and father standing behind him.
"Hello Rick how are you doing honey?" his mother asked with that pleasant smiles of hers. While his father just grunted out a greeting as he limped over to his son.
"Fine Mom, just can't shake the nightmares of the killing that's all," Rick commented sourly. Ann sighed as she rubbed Ricks back like she used to do when he was a baby.
"So dad did you and Rachael talk it out," Rick said trying to change the conversation.
"Now young man, I want to hear about these nightmares for you have told no one about them, Lisa only knew about them thanks to your reckless sleep," his father said banishing any thoughts of changing the conversation. For an hour he became a kid again telling his fears to his parents like old times. He managed to save his family from a gruesome fate and he lived to tell the tale.
...TBC
Heh....heh you guys like well I had to rewrite this several times before it became what you have just read. But I still don't like this chapter for some reason. I plan on having two more chapters before ending this. By the way you guys most likely were not expecting the dud nuke... well I leave the nuclear fallout to Dolza when he appears.... Heh heh heh
Lord Destroyer: I'm glad you liked it and sorry but Menmei is not going to die for she plays big part. But to make you happy I'm planning on a very nasty death for good old Kyle there. No I'm not going to tell you how he dies!
SHAWN, Warior: Thanks for your wonderful replies and I hope you keep them coming. By the way Warior thanks I thought people would tear off my head for the Destriods but I am glad you like it.
SithKnight: Yes its very interesting and don't you worry you haven't seen anything yet. There shall be more power plays and such! As for the Dragoons they are already RDF, you just meant with the SDF-1 right.
Knights Templar: Thank you for you wonderful comment and keep them rolling in or I will stop writing this.
Kitsune-Baka: THANK YOU GOD! A new reviewer! Thank you so much for reading this and I hope you come back. Sorry about the problems but I really want to get this fic finished so I might leave something bad in it. The doctor bit was to give you an idea of how loved and respected Lisa was around the ship even if she was the old sourpuss. Heh heh nice turn of phrase there don't you think! Thank you again and I hope you read this.
GenX: FIRST OF ALL! Robotech is not MACROSS! So don't think of it that way. Robotech is different then Macross and Macross Plus is not a sequel to robotech its only a sequel to Macross itself. Secondly thank you for your review and I hope I didn't sound to harsh.
Thank you all and I hope you keep coming back! Please feel free to email me about anything, from Kyle's death sequence or anything else. My email is: Anakin736 at American Online
As you can see I am using a new way of seperating my scenes and I hope you like this way better then the older way for it is provided by FF.N in Quickedit. Thank you guys again and I hope like everything in this fic!
Next Time on Frozen in Time:
As Rick and his family take a much needed break, the ship approaches Canada as more powerplays arise in to block the ships path... how well the SDF-1 survived this in Part VII: Politics of Love! Stay Tuned!!!