Legend of Megaroad: Book Two :::Director's Cut:::

by Newtype Alpha

In a distant corner of the galaxy, a loose federation of human colonists and Zentradi rogues fight for survival against the dreaded Supervision Army. The only hope for the future: the music and spirit of Lynn Minmei, and a battleship called SDF-Victory...

13. Chapter 12: Lady of Starlight

Chapter 12: The Lady of Starlight

—June 19, 2018—
—14:30 GST—
SDF-Gaviaten finally arrived at it's destination after a series of short but quick jumps. The Kaladan system, arguably the most unremarkable stellar landmark in the universe. It had many planets, most of them in satellite orbit around the three massive gas giants in the system, the other four being mid sized worlds a quite bit smaller than Gallaron but still alittle bit larger than the micran home world Earth. The ancient charts didn't have any information on this system, which to him indicated that there was never anything there worth visiting in the first place, but the old records also indicated an old legend that ghosts lurked in the Kaladan system and that it should be avoided at all costs. There were alot of these little legends floating around, so Hallas was inclined to ignore them.

Once SDF-08 and the scout unit from the 6th fleet arrived at Kaladan in orbit of the 4th planet, they immediately dispatched a squadron of E-Valks with recon packs, searching the system for any sign of enemy activity. General Hallas found himself bored with this whole situation. Everyone knew there was nothing dangerous in the Kaladan system, it didn't make sense to be worried about anything. The ship was in cruiser mode when it arrived and half of the officers were asleep at their posts, which was where Hallas wanted to be right now. "Lieutenant Raltha, I'll be in my quarters. Let me know if they find anything."

"Yes sir." Raltha sat back in his seat and rested for a moment, waiting for the familiar post-fold calm that usually followed all the systems checks and scrambling of fighters. No sooner had General Hallas closed the door behind him, all hell suddenly broke loose on the radar and the comm channels. Two meltrandi in Queadlunn-Rau armors were screaming at the top of their lungs, and after listening to the signals for a few seconds and sorting through a number of other voices that suddenly joined them, Raltha pieced together just enough to move his hand to the dial to sound general quarters.

Hallas stopped in the corridor barely half a step from the elevator and went strait back to the bridge, finding his officers already exploding into action. "What happened!"

"We've got fighters and battlepods coming in from all sides! Patrol units are overwhelmed, the others are scrambling now!"

Hallas punched up a tactical display on this monitor from the E-Valk recons and the ship's own radar system. There were so many enemies around them the formation almost read like one massive vessel instead of thousands of small ones. "Do we have a target!"

"Too many of them! I can't..."

"Three battleships and two destroyers, sir!" The radar officer called out. "No, four battleships and six destroyers... General, it's an entire line fleet! They're just now coming into range of our scanners!"

"Then they shouldn't be within firing range yet..." Hallas said, not really planning on going anywhere with this line of thought. "How'd they sneak up on us like that! Didn't the sensors pick them up!"

Raltha checked the data again and listened to the pannic on the radio. "Queadlunn-Rau units report the enemy appears to be ascending from the surface of the 4th planet! They're... incoming fire!"

"Reflex barriers!" Hallas grabbed onto his chair just as an energy beam slammed into the barrier system on the underside of the ship. Barrier control registered a 40 power loss to the field, which was a pretty clear indication of what kind of weapon had fired on them. "Raltha, trace the firing point immediately!"

"I came from the surface sir! Enemy ground-based energy cannon..." Another beam fired up from the planet below, along with several others aimed at his fleet. Hallas saw one of the beams slam into one of the destroyers on his port side, punching through all four pinpoint barriers at once and blowing the ship in two. "The P'karg's been hit sir! The cruisers Lamiz and Femiz are reporting damage and the Kyunan's going down!"

Hallas broke into a cold sweat. They were poised in orbit over what appeared to be a gauntlet of particle cannons not unlike the shore batteries of the GSDF, only the Supervision Army had never been known for doing things on a small or even medium scale... "Have all ships activate emergency systems and fold out of here right now! Recall all fighters and begin flash evac procedures!"

"All fighters returning sir, but enemy pods and mecha are closing in behind them!"

"Missile batteries, buy them some time! Helm, move the ship on a lateral trajectory to keep their ground gunners from hitting us!"

The navigation officers replied promptly and the ship started to move sideways just as another beam fired from far below, missing the ship by only a few dozen meters and striping the paint off the entire starboard side. Four other ships weren't so lucky; the two damaged cruisers were finished off by another blast from the ground, along with a Zentradi carrier and a destroyer caught in a maelstrom of fire from at least 6 different guns. Hallas noticed that more cannons were firing now than there were in the first barrage, which indicated to him that the enemy was just getting warmed up. The next barrage would probably have even more of them. "Navigation, I want my fold drives up to power! We only have 7 ships left!"

"A few more seconds, Captain! We need more power!"

"We don't have a few more...!" Several explosions almost one after another went off barely a hundred meters in front of the command tower, the death rattles of battlepods caught by a spread of missiles from the ships defensive batteries. More and more missiles fired and more lasers opened up, but at that same time plasma cannon fire from thousands of battlepods began pounding the hull in what looked exactly like a heavy rain storm. Even weapons as small as that would reduce the ship to shredded tinfoil in a matter of minutes with that kind of conentration, and the variable fighters and powered armors around the ship were being cut down a hundred at a time. Hallas watched one of his particle turrets buckle and explode under the assault from the enemy swarms, and then suddenly he had an idea. "Kumu, full surface scan! Upload the data to the rest of the fleet until they're ready to fold! Helm, dive the ship towards the planet immediately! We're going to fire the main cannon!"

Everyone understood what Hallas was saying even as he gave the orders. It wasn't like they had a choice; their odds of making it our alive were slim enough anyway. "Beginning scan sir, transmitting data. I have the location of the enemy's ground cannons if you..."

"You're damn right I do! Nose down 80 and line up the shot!" The Gaviaten was already pointing towards the planet, and under Kumu's careful hand it aimed its bow directly at the glowing stalks of the defensive cannons on the surface. The main cannon now opened and prepared to answer the enemy's attack, even as battlepods and powered armors were tearing the ship apart inch by inch. "Main cannon, full power! Fire when ready!"

"Taking aim sir..." Kumu caught a glimpse of something flashing on the planet below, a tiny point of light flickering through the chaos of the attacking pods. The only reason he could see it was because it seemed to be passing into the night side of the planet, but before he could react to it the glimmer burst into a brilliant flare that almost blinded him before he put up his hand to cover his eyes. The beam from the energy cannon hit the ship a few degrees of center, raking along the armor plating on the port side, blasting the ARMD platform and the main engine on that side to bits. Stricken by the blast, SDF-08 began spinning out of control before another blast struck the vessel, this time hitting the main hull just between the two booms of the open main cannon. The doomed ship lingered for a few moments before it's entire mass was enveloped in a powerful explosion of nuclear energies, destroying everything around the ship either friend or foe.

The cannons on the ground fired up again, striking down two more destroyers and another cruiser with a single shot each before the remaining four ships of the scout team finally managed to activate their fold drives and escape the system.

Four out of twelve ships escaped to rejoin the rest of the 6th fleet, and upon their arrival immediately loaded SDF-08's last transmissions to the computers of their comrades for analysis. All twenty three vessels remaining in the 6th fleet immediately powered up for another fold, this time heading strait back to within range of the comm. relays to spread the word. The Supervision Army was in the Kaladan system.

—June 22, 2018—
—07:10 GST—
Kai Chan's eyes were fixed on the schematic before him, as were the other marines gathered behind them. The oversized holographic screen in the Macron briefing room displayed the image of a fighter design he had never seen before; something about it was highly reminiscent of the normal VF-1 Valkyrie design, but it seemed different somehow, more sleek, more curves, as of a mad scientist had completely torn the fighter apart and put it back together with entirely new components. He wasn't entirely sure if what he was looking at was a Valkyrie upgrade or a new fighter altogether. "When do they arrive?" He said nervously.

Imura was standing on the catwalk next to them, looking at the same schematic on a smaller screen on the bulkhead next to her. "We're expecting ten units on the next supply ship, along with the new parts for that Apache prototype the labs have been working on. The unit is scheduled for mass production, but the assembly lines to build them aren't complete yet and won't be ready until much later this year. Alpha Factory is giving them to us because they want real-world combat data, and a test of their new systems."

Lieutenant Beecher looked over Kai Chan's shoulder, "And you're assigning this..." she read off the text under the schematic, "VFX-12 A.T.V.F. to the ten of us?"

"Your squad has pioneered a number of new designs during the course of the war. You're being type-cast as our combat test-pilots."

Boris shrugged passively. "I can live with that. If anything we might be able to get some descent food from now on."

"Good thinking, Boris," Kai Chan turned slowly from the schematics and looked at his micronized commanding officer standing on the catwalk next to him, "Is there anything in particular you want to use these fighters for? Recon missions, squadron leaders..."

"Actually, Captain, it's the ten of you that interest me more than the fighters."

"How so?"

"Your group seems to have a knack for pulling off really difficult missions... you rather remind me of the old Quodrono units of the Meltran fleet..." It occurred to her all at once that Kai Chan and his team lacked a frame of reference to the Quodrono... or did they? "Your squad is being re-designated to Marine Recon Special Forces. Your codename will be Section Zero."

All ten of them suddenly began to tremble with excitement. "M-M-Marine Recon?" Beecher said, a quiver in her voice.

"Special Forces..." Alako added.

Private Forest, as usual, was the only one to state it openly, "Dagnammit, Skippa, we done started playin wit da big dowgs!"

"Do we have the training for that?" Kai Chan said self consciously, "You know, Special Forces isn't just a badge you can pin to somebody's chest..."

Imura frowned, "In this war, we consider ourselves lucky if the regulars have any combat skills at all. Trust me, you're as close to Elite as any unit in this woman's army."

"I guess that's true." Kai Chan tapped the controls next to the monitor and the image of the new VF disappeared, "If you don't mind me asking, who's gonna take command of the battalion with the rest of us transferred like this?"

"Captain Brooks is fully capable. In fact, she's expressed an interest in taking your job once you get killed."

"That she has... good thing it didn't come to that."

Imura nodded and turned to leave the room without another word, disappearing through the smaller hatch leading to the passageway into the Miclone section of the Victory. Kai Chan and the newly formed "Section Zero" stood around and stared at each other, each both feeling and seeing each other as far more important than ever before. "Special Forces," Kai Chan said wistfully, "Damn, do you have any idea the kinda benefits they give you?"

"I'm aware of that, but aren't those Marine Recon types supposed to be frickin invincible?" Beecher asked, suddenly nervous, "I'm not sure I'm up to that."

"In this day and age, it takes a real ace to get that kind of status. We're the aces on this ship, at least in the infantry. I suggest we act the part."

"What do you mean, act the part?"

Kai Chan stared at Beecher with a sudden mischievous glint in his eye, "It means we're going to drill like we've never drilled before."

Alak and Forest both said in unison, "Oh shit..."

"Suit up, gang, get your armors. We've got work to do." Kai Chan pushed past them and opened the Macron-sized door to the infantry hangar, leaving the other nine soldiers of Section Zero shaking their heads in sudden frustration.

"I'm not sure I wanna be in Special Forces anymore..." Alako said bitterly, "Kai Chan's taking this too seriously."

"That's because this is a serious thing, Aziz." Beecher followed Kai Chan out of the room, "Very serious. Get in the spirit, man, this could be fun!"

—09:41 GST—
"Today begins the last and for some the most difficult part of basic space fleet training." Captain Topper said dramatically. "Travel in space can be one of the most physically demanding experiences of you lives, so over the next few weeks we will be working with each of you to make your space flight experience more comfortable. Now Rollins, Minmei and... what's your name?"

"Fusé."

"Right. You three got a little taste of this on the Macross so this test should be the only thing you're not used to."

"Begging your pardon sir," Rollins said, tugging at the flight suit they had given him barely an hour earlier. "Is there a point to all this? I mean we're not going out for..."

Topper rolled his eyes, irritated at being asked the same question once gain. "You know something, every week I have to deal with a hundred cadets complaining about how pointless this exercise is since none of you are fighter pilots. You know how I handle that question?"

"What?"

"Anyone who asks gets an extra rotation. Just as will you, Mr. Rollins."

"Me and my big mouth..." Rollins said sadly.

Topper grinned at him and went on with the briefing. "Now, those of you from Earth will have a natural handicap since you're already in higher than normal gravity, but the protocrans shouldn't have too much of a problem with this."

All of the recruits were nervous, all wrapped in GSDF flight suits exactly like the ones used by VF pilots, but Minmei was distressed that hers seemed about three sizes too small. Whenever she brought it to the attention of the instructors they waved her off and told her not to worry about it, which in too many ways had quite the opposite effect. "How much force are we getting sir?" She said, tugging at the fittings again.

"It's calibrated in Earth gravities, so... about 8 Gs. Keep in mind, since none of you are on the pilot track there's no way you can fail this test, this is just to get an indication of your personal G-tolerance." Everyone nodded, a few people clenched their fists to keep their hands from shaking. "Rollins, you're up first. Fusé, you're up second, Pop Star goes third. The rest of you draw straws or something to figure out the order."

Everyone else sat down on benches outside the control room, but Minmei felt herself tense up nervously. She didn't even think, just reacted on instinct. "Can I go first sir?"

Captain Topper shot her an amused glance. "First?"

"I'm afraid for my life, this machine actually haunts me in my nightmares. I'd like to get this over with, if that's okay with you."

It took every ounce of self control for the Captain to keep from busting out laughing. "Alright then Pop Star, saddle up." He opened the door and let Minmei into the control office outside the centrifuge. All three technicians inside turned around and smiled at her before Topper pushed her into the inner door.

She entered into a massive circular chamber about 50 meters across with a huge motor-cylinder in the center attached to a long metal arm with what a small pod attached to the end of it. That was her destination. She walked across the chamber, climbed up the ladder into the pod and strapped herself in as tightly as she could with her hands shaking. Captain Topper put a helmet over her head and connected the lines for the radio and tubes for the breathing, and finally she was ready to go. "You'll... uhhh... you'll stop this thing if anything goes wrong, won't you?" Minmei said nervously.

Topper started closing the hatch. "Probably."

"Probably!"

Topper closed the hatch on her mid sentence and walked back across the chamber to the control room to start up the test. Once there, he glanced over to the other technicians and grinned. "Two thousand Yulins says she passes out by 5 Gs."

"You're on." The technician said, throwing the switch to start the simulation while fishing into his pockets for the money. "By the way, you noticed that flight suit is a bit too small for her?"

Topper chuckled. "That's intentional. I had the mechanics alter her measurements by a couple of inches."

The technician grinned again. "Looks good on her."

"Damn good." Topper added. "C'mon, let's start her up."

—July 1, 2018—
—24:30 GST—
Hikaru came home like he always did to the ever-present energy of his wife, sitting at a desk milling over combat actions reports again. As he always did after the day's shift, Colonel Ichijo dropped into his favorite arm chair and leaned back as much as he could, letting anything that might have stressed him out before simply melt away into nothingness. In minutes he would be asleep, and there he would stay for two more hours until it was time for one of them to pick Miko up from school, at which point life would resume as normal again. But today was different; almost as soon as he dropped his weight into the chair, Misa appeared next to him with a wild look in her eyes that made him think he had forgotten something. "Okay... What did I do?"

"Nothing yet, but I need you to shopping."

"Shopping? Now?"

"Right now." Misa said sternly.

Hikaru groaned. He should have seen this coming miles away; he got home dead-tired with a splitting headache and the only thing he wanted to do was relax, and here Misa already had a list of chores for him to do. "I want a divorce."

"Fine with me, but you still have to go shopping."

Hikaru sighed. "Alright, what do we need?"

Misa handed him a shopping list and a wad of cash out of her purse. "The sooner you get to it all, the sooner you can come back and relax. And by the way, it's your turn to do the dishes tonight."

"Yeah, thanks." Hikaru got up out of his chair, grabbed his coat and started out the door. "I'll be back later." He closed the door behind him and started walking down the hallway.

Misa giggled to herself after he was gone. She knew his patterns, he wouldn't look at the list until he was already outside the building and on his way to the store so he could decide which way to go. This was the same kind of prank she had pulled on him several times before, but getting him with it a this time was a major point of amusement for her. She stood up carefully and waited in front of the door for a few minutes. She imagined he was walking out the front door... now he was checking his pockets and seeing how much he needed... now he was understanding it all and turning around angrily... right on time, Misa heard the sound of clumsy footsteps running back down the hall. After a moment, the door burst open and Hikaru stepped back into the apartment with a grim expression on his face. "Very funny." He said, holding a roll of Monopoly money in his hand.

"You fall for that every time!" Misa said, handing him a wad of real bills.

"That's not fair!" Hikaru slapped the list down on the desk and walked back over to his couch. "You keep getting me when I'm half asleep, that's cheating!"

Misa laughed again and picked up the shopping list out of his pocket. "Is it fair to tickle-torture a paraplegic until she passes out? I think not. Actually, I was hoping you would notice one of the items on the list, but I can see now you didn't really look at this list anyway, and that more than anything makes me feel so unappreciated and ashamed..."

"Alright, I'll read it again! GEEZ!" Hikaru snatched the list out of her hand and read it over before she could complain again.

2 quarts Milk
3 sticks of butter
1 bag of pocky
A new baby
1 bag of rainbow sprinkles
2 bags of flower
A dozen eggs
1 tub of cool whip

Hikaru looked up and shrugged. "What am I supposed to notice?"

Misa stared at him for a moment, not sure if he was serious or not. "Are you not paying attention or something?"

Hikaru crumpled up the list and tossed it across the room. "Seems like every time I turn around my wife's having babies. This is getting tiresome, ya know?" Misa stared at him for a long moment, letting the awkwardness of the situation slowly evolve into humor until both of them broke into laughter. "Miko's gonna flip, you know that right?" Hikaru said, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her closer. "I guess we could call it an early birthday present... or a late one, depending on how you look at it."

"Koru says it's probably a girl."

Hikaru laughed again. "If that's true you know she's gonna go crazy over this! You know what, let's go get her from school right now and have a little celebration!"

"Don't get her hopes up like that! What if it's a boy?" Misa said.

Hikaru pulled away from her and reached for Misa's coat. "In that case, I'LL be the one celebrating. How does Roy Ichijo sound?" Misa shot him an accusing glance, and Hikaru shrank down half an inch. "Did I say Roy? I meant Takashi after your father. Yeah Takashi Ichijo, sounds good right?"

Misa nodded in appreciation. "That's better."

Hikaru was in a good mood over this to say the least, but for some reason he had it in his mind that a good mood was the best mood to let Misa in on a family secret. "Misa, there's one thing you need to know that just might complicate matters."

"Which is?" She said, fighting back feelings of deja-vu from the last three times he had tried to tell her something and been interrupted.

"When you were hurt on the Megaroad during that big battle..."

Misa waved him off. "Let me guess. I miscarried and didn't know it?"

Hikaru did a double take. Suddenly the entire burden of having to break the news to Misa had vanished before his eyes, and somehow he felt both cheated and relived at the same time. "How the hell did you know about that!"

"Miko told me." She said smugly. "She overheard you talking to Koru about having another child and she came to me and said the doctor didn't like the way I carried things. It was so cute, I couldn't bring myself to get all depressed about it."

Hikaru sighed with relief and disappointment. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

"It was a question of timing, I completely understand. Anyway, that's the main reason I got those incense cigars. Gashi taught me some kind of morning ritual to help protect the spirit of unborn children as long as the child is conceived 24 hours afterwards. So every morning, right before you woke up, that's exactly what I did. Quite a coincidence isn't it?" Misa found herself growing amused by the look on her face until something else dawned on her. "By the way Hikaru, didn't you say you hired Miko to spy on me?"

Hikaru hung his head. "Two sour pops."

Misa gasped in horror. "I paid her three sour pops! Why that little sneak! She's been playing double agent just to get extra candy!"

Hikaru chuckled. "I keep telling you, she's a genius. She's alot smarter than she'd like us to think. She's even started thinking of names for the baby."

Misa stepped forward and took her coat from Hikaru's hands. "Like what names?"

"She showed me this whole list the other day. If it's a girl, she demands that we name her 'Hitomi.'"

Misa paused and thought it over for a moment. "Why Hitomi?"

"She said it came to her in a dream. Something to do with Taosan and Yu and a church or something..."

"Really? You know... that actually sounds pretty good! Hitomi Ichijo... where'd she hear that name anyway? I don't know anyone named Hitomi."

"Genius. She must get that from her mother." Hikaru moved closer to her and put his hands on her waist. "Maybe Hitomi will inherit her father's good looks, you think?"

"Didn't you say the same thing about Miko?" Misa held up a wallet photo of Miko taken a year back. "You know, I was just thinking, with all that we've been through together, with our daughter and the war and me being crippled for over a year... I'm impressed with you, more than ever. I never thought you could be so... so strong for so many people..."

"You really think that's all me?" Hikaru tucked the picture back into Misa's purse. "I don't think I ever showed you, I mean really showed you how much I needed you. I couldn't do this without you, even if Miko IS my mental clone. Are you that impressed with your own handiwork?"

"Don't give me all the credit. Not all men can handle that responsibility, and Minmei's situation was just something to remind us of that."

Hikaru kissed Misa on the cheek and hugged her there for almost a minute, no thought, no cares, simply and purely happy to be here in this moment with her. Misa felt the same way, just overjoyed to be alive for now, even as the realization sank in that she wasn't actually alone with her husband right now, that something else was sharing this moment with them on some distant level. "C'mon, let's go give fly-girl the good news."

Misa smiled. "I'll get the net."

—August 1, 2018—
—17:45 GST—
The 7th fleet had not met any formal resupply since its departure from Gallaron eight months prior. Superdimensional warships were almost entirely self-sustaining, theoretically capable of operating in space for several years in complete autonomy. But the word from the survivors of General Hallas' expedition sent waves through the entire fleet, and now every last one of them was on the move. This meant fresh supplies: fresh ammunition stores, replacement pilots and fighters, spare parts, fuel, anything the fleet's local machine shops and production facilities would have a hard time manufacturing on their own. With a major fleet action like this, all the unit organizations would soon be reorganized, but on the whole, a Gallaron battle fleet was a closed mobile nation that only received outsiders once every two to three months with the arrival of a replacement cruiser or destroyer, or a small barge ferrying replacement pilots or planes to and from the fleet.

By this time, the GSDF maintained a fleet over just over four hundred ships of varying classes. A new recruit to the Super Dimensional Fleet could get into space one of two ways: she could be assigned to a new ship as part of its launch crew, or she could catch one of the annual or semi-annual heavy transport convoys intended to top off the fleet's stores of equipment and supplies. For this reason, few officers in the GSDF ever reached their stations without amply amounts of training, even some as poorly acclimated to military life as Lynn Minmei.

By the time she arrived in her new quarters, all of her things had been moved in by the transport committee and unloaded, not surprisingly, with especially delicate care. Some of the pictures she brought with her had been hung on the wall, the bed was made up and she even found a mint resting on her pillow when she looked around. Minmei couldn't help but laugh at it all, trying to picture a half dozen giddy enlisted men moving her stuff into the room as if it was all made of glass. "The perks of being famous..." She said to herself. "I bet the maintenance crew draw straws to see who gets to fix my shower when it breaks down."

Taosan was still sleeping in the stroller next to the door, but Yu was wide awake and examining his surroundings with wide eyes. He was obviously aware of his new surroundings, though whether or not he approved of this place was anyone's guess. He didn't seem to want to go to sleep anytime soon, and Minmei got an idea. "Hey Yu, what do you say? Wanna go see the ship? You wanna go out, see everything?" Yu fixed his two little eyes on his mother with a dazzled expression that she correctly translated as a yes. "C'mon then..." She picked him up from the stroller and carried him on her arm, using the other to open the door. She knew she still needed to report in to someone named Lieutenant Doyle, the man in charge of Victory's media department who was basically the commander of all the local combat correspondents, but her duty shift didn't officially start until the next day so she decided to take a few hours to relax for a bit before reporting to his office half a day early. Even in uniform, she still didn't feel like a soldier, whether she was carrying a one-year-old baby in her arms or not. But her assignment here did seem to fit what she expected to be doing on the Victory; she was part of the newly assembled "culture warfare" department.

She went all over the ship with Yu, showing him everything there was to see in their tiny little universe. She herself found she was seeing alot of it for the first time, it was totally different from the Macross. Most of the buildings were roughly the same size, separated by narrow allies that crossed a staircase to the lower levels. Every building was three stories tall, with the ceiling just fifteen feet above the tallest rooftops; the sky was painted with a holographic representation of the Gallaron sky, with built-in noise cancellers to prevent any echo from the city. The streets of Victory were narrow, too small for any car traffic—in a city devoid of cars—but more than wide enough for bicycles and motorcycles used by most of the population.

Even being smaller than Macross city, Minmei observed that it was quite well filled. The city block was divided into four "levels," and each level was divided into 5 "decks." Each deck seemed to contain a small town of its own, so at each deck of all four levels of the ship there was an entirely different neighborhood with it's own unique features. Just on Level Three, the top level of the city block where Minmei's apartment was, there was an entire community with its own self-contained businesses and services. There was a nursery school on A-Deck, a daycare center, a church, a dentist and a liquor store on B-Deck, an elementary school, shopping mall and playgrounds on C-Deck and a discount grocery store and hospital on D-Deck. E-Deck, it turned out, was entirely residential except for a pair of Buddhist temples packed into the corners, but just going through level three took Minmei almost an hour and she didn't bother looking through the other two levels andten decks of the ship's compressed city block. Even being smaller in terms of volume than Macross City, she could tell the Victory made much better use of it's space.

What interested her the most was what could be found in the compartment just forward of the city block, an area arranged in much the same fashion, only the top four decks were all non-existent except for a catwalk on deck three of each one. Minmei ventured into this section, not sure what she was looking for but eager to try out her curiosity to see what there was to see. The catwalk followed a narrow corridor (by macron standards anyway) running from port to starboard with two enormous doors, both macron scale, set into the forward bulkhead on opposite ends. Both were labeled in Zentradi, one of them marked "Armory" and the other marked "Barracks." She was only a few steps into the section on the catwalk with Yu squirming around in her arms, looking around at everything in utter amazement until both of them heard the unmistakable clatter of a giant's footsteps. She realized the sound was coming from one of the lower levels, and followed the sound to one small hatch on the other side of the corridor with a giant-sized ladder poking up from it. She watched it for a few moments as the footsteps became louder and louder, then held her breath as they paused, then smiled as the ladder started vibrating with the load that was pulling its way to the top now.

Just as one massive head emerged from the opening, Minmei heard the familiar sound of a grumpy marine. "... yeah that was really damn funny... bunch of monkey-ass bastards..." he was grumbling.

"Hey, loverboy!" Minmei shouted out. "Guess who came to visit?"

Kai Chan stopped on the ladder and turned his head, not quite believing what he was seeing. "Minmei!"

"You were expecting Bette Midler?" She said, trying not to smile too big.

"No way!" Kai Chan climbed off the ladder and knelt down in the narrow corridor to look at her face to face, so to speak. "What are you doing here! And where'd you get that uniform!"

"I enlisted with the media corps. You're looking at the new lead singer for the Victory's band."

Kai Chan was less surprised by this than at seeing her here on the ship. It seemed like wherever there was a stage, Minmei was somewhere nearby. "Someone did tell me they brought in some new talent... I had no idea it would be you though! Welcome aboard!"

"Thank you... oh, are you too big to tell which twin this is?" She held him up a bit so Kai Chan could see him.

"It's..." Kai Chan squinted at the tiny object squirming around in her arms. "That's definitely Yu."

"No, it's Taosan." Minmei said.

"It's Taos...? Quite playing, that's Yu."

Minmei chuckled and kissed Yu's head. "You're getting better at this Kai Chan..."

"Kat Shan!" Yu shouted, staring at the oversized marine in front of him. "Kat Shan! Kat San! Kat Shan!" He chanted, waving his arms up and down in rhythm.

Kai Chan was impressed. "Cute little guy. When did he start talking?"

"Just now, I think!" Minmei said, holding him up a bit so she could see him better. "Taosan started talking while I was training, but Yu's never said anything until just now!"

Kai Chan looked at Yu for a moment and started glowing. "How do you like that? I'm the kid's first word!"

"Imagine that..." Minmei said, too quiet for Kai Chan to hear. "By the way, you wouldn't happen to know where the band meets on this ship do you? I keep worrying about getting lost..."

"It's right bellow the main antenna in the command tower. That'll be command level, E-Deck, section L, room 519. It's a big door with "Starlight" written on the nametag."

"Starlight?"

"That's the unofficial name of the band. Kinda corny, but it starts to grow on you after a bit. They've been selling albums in the city for a couple of weeks but no one buys them. Then again, now that you're here I'm sure they'll go flying off the shelves."

"I hate to say it but you're probably right." Minmei turned Yu around and put his ear right up to her face. "Say Bye bye, Yu!"

"Bye Kat Shan!" Yu shouted.

"He's a genius, Kai!" Minmei said, turning to go on her way.

"Sure is." Kai Chan squinted down again to try and focus on little Yu, glaring at him over his mothers shoulder as she walked back down the catwalk to meet up with her fellow band members. "By the way, the fastest way to get anywhere in the ship is with the omni-rail. There's one on every corner of the city, with three cars in a vertical shaft that operate just like elevators. One of them is express, goes strait to the bridge and main fighter bays and doesn't stop unless you tell it to."

"Ok, thanks." Minmei looked around slowly and located a sign pointing to the nearest rail platform that could take her pretty much anywhere on the ship she wanted to go.

"Oh Minmei,"

"Yeah?"

"It's uh... it's great to see you again."

Minmei stopped on the catwalk and beamed at him, her cheeks glowing just a bit. "It's good to see you too, Kai. I mean that."