Robotech II: The Sentinels
Rebirth
Chapter 4
Sitzkrieg
"Does it feel like a trial?" - Exile/Vilify, The National
The Praxian notion of family was fairly unique; after all, it was a planet of clones. Mind you, they were clones whose template came from a fairly normal, if belligerent, humanoid civilization with two sexes.
The concept of family persisted though, almost as a vestige like the appendix or tonsils. However, unlike these useless lumps of protoplasm, the Praxian notion of family did retain some utility. For instance it allowed personal training of a new generation of warriors. The sibling relationship also created a sense of camaraderie. In essence the family produced the necessary cohesion that allowed the Praxians to survive as a civilization, and the knowledge transfer and moral reinforcement necessary for their culture to continue. Without such a structure the Praxians would have long ago gone the way of the Zentraedi.
(I will note here, while on the subject of vestigial cultural artifacts: even after thousands of years since the war which wiped out the Praxian man, there are instances of reference to males in the Praxian language. For instance one will "man the turrets"; when someone is showing cowardice they will be told to "man up". When someone has been fooling around while on duty and a lapse has occurred, it will be speculated that they were "polishing the telescope", instead of a more proper idiom such as "giving herself the finger".)
Therefore, although Gnea was not, and could not have been, descended from the legendary warrior Emaline, she was a member of her family, and inherited the ancestral house when Gnea's mother fell in battle.
At the back of the house, fenced in by forest, was an elliptical pool, lined with blue stone and rimmed with polished volcanic rock.
Next to it, parallel to the great back doors of the mansion was a long table similar to those in the great Praxian alehouses. Clustered around one end were Gnea and her conspirators. The mansion had become their base ever since two randy enlisteds with their jumpsuits half-off had interrupted one of their storeroom meetings.
On the record, they were here to swim and enjoy themselves. As such they were clad in the usual swim fare: Jack and Rem in trunks, Janice and Karen in bikinis that would be considered risque on Earth, and Gnea in a suit which made those look like a nun's habit.
Off the record, they were here to discuss the impasse they had reached in their plan to liberate Praxis from the Invid. Specifically, the fact that they had planned a commando raid, but had no commandos.
"So if we rule out a full REF assault or planetary bombardment by the fleet as too destructive, I see that we are left with only three options," Jack said.
"Option one: we tell Bela everything, and convince her to put together a conventional force of Praxians to liberate the Whaashi," Jack said.
"She wouldn't agree to that," Gnea said.
"And once she knew what we've been doing, she would be able to stop us from continuing," Karen said. "After all, she is the acting queen of this city."
"Also conventional Praxian weapons would be useless against Invid armor. They might be able to overcome them with explosives," Rem said.
"Again, Bela would never agree to that," Gnea said.
"What about the cyclones?" Janice asked. "We could let them have them."
"Basic training on any mecha takes at least 6 months," Karen said.
"And we don't have that much time," Jack said. "All right, option two: I volunteer for the next resupply mission to Tirol. There's a guy I know in Ghost Squadron, his name's Kaifun, and he's one sneaky mothergrabber. Working with him, I'm sure we can get some of his teammates to return with me."
"You really think you can convince 48 members of Ghost Squadron to defy Fearless Leader and come out here?" Karen said dubiously.
"Even if they wanted to, Edwards would never let them leave," Janice said.
"I guess I could try to stage a coup," Jack said, rubbing his chin.
"Yeah, like that would ever happen," Karen said.
"All right, now we're down to option three. This is similar to option one, only we build our own team of Praxian commandos. Me and some other lucky person will pilot the Cyclones. Gnea, you said before that stealth tactics are considered dishonorable on Praxis. But surely there must be some soldiers, possibly entire units, that make use of them?" Jack said.
"Yeah, a dirty tricks squad," Karen said.
"No, we have nothing like that," Gnea said.
"Are you sure?" Jack said.
"People who fight in that manner are… dispatched with," Gnea said.
"Ah…." Jack said, otherwise at a loss for words.
There was a very long moment of silence.
"This isn't going to work, is it?" Rem said, finally.
"I'm not ready to give up just yet," Jack said.
"Oh for Christ's sake," Karen said. "You can't have a commando raid without a single fucking commando!"
"Karen, your strategic analysis… What if we paired it back a bit? Do we definitely need teams of 16 commandos?" Jack said.
"With that many Invid inside you'd need at least that many. They'd still be outnumbered almost two-to-one," Karen said. "They would also need years worth of training, which means we can't just take Praxian warriors off the street and train them."
"No honorable warrior would accept the training," Gnea said.
Another long moment passed in silence.
"What about chemical weapons?" Karen said.
"Okay, Saddam. Let's do that!" Jack said.
"Who is Saddam?" Rem asked.
"Dictator on Earth during the 1990s, attacked an ethnic minority with chemical weapons. He mostly got forgiven when he joined the Unification forces after the SDF-1 crashed onto Earth in 1999. Nobody trusted him and fell from favor, and he ended up running a chain of falafel restaurants in Eastern Europe," Janice said.
"Now look, I know how this sounds, but we could easily wipe out all the Invid in the facility with nerve gas," Karen said.
"But we don't have nerve gas, thank God!" Jack said.
"We do have nerve gas," Karen said quietly.
"What?" Jack said, horrified.
"It's true: anti-personnel grenades. We have about 1K of them. Ghost Squadron used them during the battle of Tiresia and reported an 85% fatality rate," Janice said.
Jack stared off far into the distance. "Why would the REF… The Geneva Convention-"
"Doesn't apply off Earth," Karen said.
"What are these 'chemical weapons' anyway? How do they work?" Gnea said.
"Poison," Jack said. "Poisoning the air itself."
"You would dare use these in the Whaashi?" Gnea said, leaping to her feet and towering over Karen.
"If it's the only way!" Karen said, leaping to her feet.
"Ladies! Stand down; Gnea's right, the Whaashi is basically an obstetric hospital. Morality aside, chemical weapons would cause even more damage than explosives would," Jack said.
"Then we're screwed," Karen said.
"I find it most curious that Earthers always use sex as a metaphor for something bad happening," Gnea said. "I could understand if it was painful, but as I understand it, it's actually quite pleasurable and actually is a driving force for most people."
There was another long moment of silence.
"Do you not like sex, Karen?" Gnea asked.
Everyone at the table looked at her in earnest.
"What the hell kind of question is that?" Karen said.
"A personal one based on a misunderstanding of human culture," Janice said.
"Thanks," Karen said with a scowl.
"Now, as much as I'd like to recreate the Claire-badgering scene from The Breakfast Club, I think we need to get back to the war," Jack said.
"I really don't know where we go from here," Rem said.
"I say we tell Captain Parino and see what she says," Karen said.
"I think we need to convince Bela to tell the REF or create her own strikeforce," Rem said. "Even if conventional tactics endanger the Whaashi, it would be much safer for the structure than using mecha."
"I'll give this a good think," Jack said. "In the meantime we need to continue our special weapon training. Karen and Rem, continue your finalizing of the commando strategy. Getting the shield set up is paramount. No matter how we modify the plan, I don't see that part changing."
They all did their usual nod in unison, but nobody's heart was in it this time.
"All right,we know what Rem and Gnea are going to be doing during the mission, that leaves the three of us," Jack said.
They were at one of the ranges that was usually used for testing mecha ordinance, inflatable mockups of Invid enforcers swayed in the wind from where they were anchored at various places around the field; some were out in the open, some on top of hills, others were hidden by rocks or concrete pillars.
Near the trio of REF officers was one of the MODAT-2 armored motorcycles, a three-wheeled bear of a machine that was commonly called a Cyclone.
"We only have two of these puppies, so we need to determine which of us is going to use them to fight the Invid armor outside while the teams inside do their thing," Jack said.
"What will the rest of your team do?" Janice asked.
"You mean the twelve commandos we don't have?' Karen asked.
"Most of their work will be done by that point, they'll sneak into the area before dawn and lay down mines and other booby traps; then they'll stay in the trees and provide supporting fire. So whoever gets bounced from the cycles will probably be better off defending Rem or providing support to Gnea's team. You'll have a much better chance against the unarmored Invid inside," Jack said.
"But back to the Cyclones… with all due respect, Janice is a com officer, she doesn't have the necessary experience," Karen said.
"Incorrect. I am a reserve member of the Wolfe Pack squadron. I have logged 120 hours on the Alpha Vertiech fighter and 200 on the Veritch Hovertank. I am also certified on all armaments of the Robotech Expeditionary Force, including the experimental Gallant X90, which we will be using in this mission," Janice said perkily.
"Oh," was all Karen could say in reply.
"That staple-gun thing is called a Gallant?" Jack said.
Janice nodded and smiled.
"Okay, Rem and I ran these things through their paces last night. It handles similar to a flashclapper due to the three-wheeled nature, but the experience is very different. Let me demonstrate," Jack said.
He straddled the beast of a machine and slid in the security key; it hummed to life. He shot down the obstacle course that he and Rem had put together the previous day. He started out at 50 mph, but quickly began to ratchet it up. He took a series of curves which slowly increased in grade as he continued. Eventually he had to make a 180 degree turn, reminiscent of some Japanese cartoon he'd seen as a kid, but forgot the name of.
The next loop involved taking out the inflatable enforcers. He skipped the ones that were in the open, since he would probably take those out with the souped-up Gallant hand weapon, which he didn't have with him. He fired his first scorpion at the one that was hiding behind a pillar, but hit the pillar instead; he swore under his breath.
He did better with the one that was obscured behind the hill, his scorpion hit the exposed portion dead-center. As this was where the cockpit was in the non-inflatable ones, it would be an instant kill.
He slid back into the groove in the dirt where the bike had originally been parked and leapt off the machine; the humming faded to silence after he pulled the security key out.
"Now let's rearm the missile launchers, and let's see how you do," Jack said.
Jack and Karen picked up the ammo boxes and began the reloading process. Janice stood stock still in place and just stared at the Cyclone.
Karen glared at her as they finished.
"Could've used some help here," she said.
"Now who would like to-" Jack said, but trailed off as Janice walked towards the machine, as if in a dream.
"Hey, you need-" Jack said, holding out the security key.
Janice gingerly sat in the saddle and the machine came to life. Jack's eyes widened. He rushed over.
"How did you-" he said, but stopped as he saw Janice flick a switch under the dashboard he hadn't known existed, and the scanner screen came to life.
"Did you read a manual on these or something? Rem and I couldn't figure out how to turn that thing on," Jack said.
"I mean, it's just obvious that's how it worked, y'know?" Janice said.
"No, I don't-" Jack said, but was cut off by the roar of the engine as Janice shot off onto the obstacle course.
Jack's eyes widened again; she must be going at least 75, he thought, but she handled each curve perfectly. As she approached the inflatables, Jack saw her doing something on the scanner screen, and when the scorpion shot out of its launcher it curved around the pillar and hit the inflatable dead-center.
"The scorpions are heat-seekers?" Karen said, impressed.
"No, those inflatables are the same temperature as the environment. It's image-recognition!" Jack said.
"In a missile that small?" Karen said.
"Penn, we traveled to the other side of the galaxy. Anything is possible," Jack said.
Janice took out another of the inflatables with her other scorpion. There was one more on the way back to the starting point, which she took out by running over it.
Jack and Karen exchanged looks. "That probably wouldn't work in real life." Jack said.
"Probably not," Karen said.
Although traveling far faster than Jack had been at this point, Janice skid to a halt at the exact same point he had and leapt off the machine. Once she left the saddle the motor stopped.
"That was incredible!" Karen said.
"I'll say!" Jack said. "How did you start it without the key?" Jack said.
"I didn't know it needed one," Janice said. She stared back at the Cyclone. "There's something I can't put my finger on… I knew how to use that machine, and it seemed to do things before I even told it to."
"That's… not the experience I had," Jack said. "In fact, it's sort of counterintuitive. I mean, why is there a switch to turn off the scanner? And why is it hidden like that?"
"Because it can be used in lower-power mode, since it uses the hydrogen for both propulsion and electricity generation, you'd probably be able to drive it twice as far with the computer switched off," Janice said.
"But I was able to fire the missiles," Jack said.
"Manually, yes. But without the computer they couldn't be aimed and would just go in the direction you were facing," Janice said, as she took a couple of scorpions out of the ammo box. "And the switch was put in an out-of-the-way place so you wouldn't turn it off on accident."
Karen looked smug as Janice reloaded the missile launchers all on her lonesome.
It took about twenty minutes to replace the inflatable Invid armor, and then it was Karen's turn.
She had trouble taking the curves, and the motorcycle was on the verge of toppling over at the 180-degree turn, which was quite the feat for a tricycle. Using the sensors she was able to take out both of the partially-covered inflatables. She was going about 35 mph when she came back, and overshot the mark that Janice and Jack had achieved, enlarging the gauge in the earth by almost 10 feet.
"I'll do another run with the sensors enabled, then we can-" Jack said.
"Don't bother," Karen said, staring at the ground. "This isn't my jam."
Jack was taken aback; he'd never seen Karen admit failure or back down from anything.
"Well, okay then. Janice, if you could set up a training schedule and regular maintenance for the two Cyclones, we should be in good shape," Jack said.
"Sure thing, chief!"
Miriya Parino was inspecting the recently deceased tree in the courtyard behind hangar 5. It had once had deep green fern-like leaves, all of which had turned brown, crumpled in desiccation and fallen to the ground. Burned through the center of the tree was a perfectly circular hole. It matched the identical hole at the same elevation in the concrete wall of the hangar fifty feet away.
She sensed someone behind her and whirled around, thankfully it was only Gnea.
"Do you know anything about this?" Miriya said, pointing to the holey tree.
"I heard Rem and Lieutenant Baker were doing some kind of weapon test," Gnea said.
"Hmmmph, I suppose we should be glad they're on our side," Miriya said.
"Well, there is always friendly fire to consider," Gnea said.
Miriya smirked.
"I was wondering if I could ask you something," Gnea said.
"Ask away," Miriya said.
"It's about you and Colonel Sterling," Gnea said.
"What about us?" Miriya asked suspiciously.
"Well… The thing is that the Zentraedi are sort of like we are, all the females lived and worked together without men. So I was wondering how you realized that you were in love with him," Gnea said.
"How much do you know about how we met?" Miriya said.
"Nothing, really. I knew you were a Zentraedi defector and-" Gnea said.
"I wasn't a defector! At least, not at first," Miriya said. "I was the greatest warrior of the Zentraedi, either female or male. But the humans were unlike anything we'd experienced before. Their tactics were erratic, their mecha was primitive but ingenious and over the course of the war it was improved and became much more effective against us.
"Our force was brought in because both Breetai and Khyron had lost more than half of their strength to a single human ship. The tide shifted against them, and I was responsible for that. But Khyron had faced one in battle who had decimated squadron upon squadron; and he said that eventually I would meet this ace in battle and die at his hands.
"So I fought them until this ace appeared, and it's true, he defeated me, and I ran like a fool from his ability. I later learned that he would have pursued and destroyed me if Admiral Hayes hadn't ordered him to break off. That was the first time I was shown mercy.
"I went to my see-oh and demanded that I be sent onto the SDF-1 as a spy with the sole mission of finding and killing this ace, in order to avenge our lost sisters. I found him eventually in a video arcade where we recreated our battles on a Veritech simulator. This time we fought to the death, and he won.
"Defeated, I ambushed him and fought him to the death, but again I was shown mercy…"
"But I don't understand, how did you become lovers?" Gnea said.
Miriya was silent for a very long time. "I don't know when it happened. I had never lost in battle before; combat had become routine, almost boring. I discovered parts of myself that I hadn't known existed. When we fought face to face, in the arcade, I began to feel things I'd never felt before. I recognized something in him that I saw in myself, and had seen in no other foe.
"Our last battle, with blades, was the worst I had fought in my life, because I knew that victory would mean his death, and I didn't want him to die. When combat was concluded, I realized why, when he told me what he felt. When he told me what love was, I realized it was what I had been feeling," Miriya said.
"But what is it, what is the feeling?" Gnea said.
"The best way I can describe it… Is the thrill of battle, but against someone you don't want to kill," Gnea said.
"But how is that different from being a friend?" Gnea said.
"In some ways it's the same, because all good lovers are also good friends. But I think what it comes down to is that a lover is someone you can be completely honest with, someone you completely trust; someone who makes you feel happy just by being there," Miriya said.
Gnea was very quiet, but had started to blush.
"Why are you so interested in this? It's ancient history," Miriya said.
"Because… if what you say is true… Then I'm in love with Jack Baker," Gnea said.
Miriya frowned. "You have my sympathies."
Jack was sitting in his bunk and sifting through the binder that he had compiled as the plan for the liberation of the Whaashi had developed. He was staring at an aerial photograph which had arrows indicating the movement of all the forces. The yellow and orange arrows, indicating Gnea and Rem's team, entered via a back entrance hidden by hills. The woods around the whaashi were filled with an assortment of purple arrows which indicated what Jack's assault team would be doing during that time (as the labels were marked with times), including two purple lines along the main road which indicated himself and Janice who would arrive last, shortly after the force field went up.
Jack sighed; it was all academic, though. There was no way that they could get the forces that they needed. He'd talked to Karen some more about cutting down the troop estimates, but she said that the only team they could trim was Rem's, and he needed the extra numbers since his mission was the most critical.
There was a knock at the door. Jack told them to come in; the door opened and he was greeted by the sight of Gnea. Her hair was in a ponytail and she was wearing a revealing Praxian garment instead of the REF jumpsuit she wore while on duty.
"Jack, I need to talk to you about something," Gnea said.
"Sure thing, take a seat," he said, motioning to his desk chair.
Gnea sat down, but wouldn't meet his gaze. It was a long time before she spoke. "Jack, I've been keeping a secret from you."
"Oh?" Jack said.
As Karen expected, Admiral Hayes had gone to the mess as her shift ended. She sat alone with a cup of coffee and stared out the window at the setting sun.
Karen took a deep breath and steeled herself. She needed to take the threats against her seriously. There was a very real chance that every Praxian ally they had would turn against the Sentinels and try to kill her as a result of what she was about to do. But she risked her life every day, and the liberation of Praxis was worth the cost.
"Do you mind if I sit down?" Karen said.
Admiral Hayes tried hard not to look bewildered; she had obviously been lost in thought. "Not at all, lieutenant. I'd enjoy the company."
Karen sat down and stirred her tea. She'd prepared this speech in her head for a week now, but for some reason she couldn't make the words come out.
"There's something I wanted to talk to you about," Karen said.
"I'm all ears," Admiral Hayes said.
"Something's been going on, and-" Karen said, but was interrupted by the beeping of her communicator. She dug it out of her pocket and glared as she saw Jack's handle appear on it.
"I'm sorry, I need to take this," Karen said.
"Jack, what is it? I was talking to the admiral," Karen said.
"Then it's good I got to when I did. Don't say anything at all, and get to Gnea's toot sweet. She just saved this mission, no ifs, ands or buts about it," Jack said.
"Grrrrh. Fine! I'll be right over," Karen said. She sighed and looked up at the admiral. "Sorry, I've got to go. Maybe some other time?"
"I'm always here, or you can see me in my office. I don't have much to do these days unfortunately," Admiral Hayes said. "Though I suspect I know what this is about."
"Oh?" Karen said, her armpits suddenly pooling with sweat.
"Yes. And although I understand how you feel, it's important for you to know: you can do a lot better than Jack Baker," Admiral Hayes said.
Karen stared at her, nonplussed. "Ah, thanks. I'll keep that in mind."
On the banks of the river Bleeheween, Rem reclined, lovingly looking at Janice, who lounged against a tree and sang in a clear, beautiful voice.
"Inside the white darkness, time passes secretly. As I doze I think I see your smile in the distance. I've lost sight of the spirit of your journey. Where are you going, when are you coming home? In quest of a bright future. Whoaaa-"
They were interrupted by the sound of Janice's communicator.
Rem groaned. "Just throw the damn thing into the river."
Janice flipped down the microphone on her headset and plugged it into her communicator.
"Hey chief, what's up?" she asked.
"Hey, is Rem with you? He wasn't in his lab," Jack said.
"I would say there's a non-zero probability of that," Janice said.
"Both of you need to get over to Gnea's right away, you're not going to believe this," Jack said. "And I mean that in a good way."
He terminated the connection without even saying good-bye.
"I wish we could just take a vacation together somewhere," Rem said with a sigh.
"Cheer up, my love," Janice said. "We just need to take the moments that we can." She knelt down and gave him a peck on the cheek.
By the time they all congregated at the banquet table by Gnea's pool, night had fallen. Torches had been thrust into the ground and encircled the patio, the pool glittered with their reflected light.
"What is this about?" Karen said. "You said you had a solution to our problem?"
"Not me. Gnea, could you tell them what you told me?" Jack said.
"I mentioned before that there are those among my people who do not choose to fight honorably. They use what your people call 'stealth' or 'special tactics'," Gnea said.
"I remember, you told us that you killed them," Karen said.
"Actually no, she said that they 'dispatched with', but when we previously discussed it, Gnea said that they were sent into exile," Janice said.
"Really?" Karen said. "I don't remember that."
"Yes, it was when Jack described honor as being a justification for doing things that defy reason," Janice said.
Karen stared at her lavender-haired companion. "Has anyone ever told you that you're like a living tape recorder?"
"You're the first," Janice responded cheerfully.
"Yes, you're correct, we do exile them. These tendencies appear in their play behavior when they're about four or so. They're given a chance to correct their actions, and if they refuse to do so they're exiled," Gnea said.
"You send four-year-olds out to live in the wild?" Karen said, horrified.
"Remember, there are no Praxian children," Rem said. "They would have adult bodies."
"And even the most cowardly Praxian is a skilled hunter and has nothing to fear from exposure or the animals of our world," Gnea said. "We know for a fact that once they are exiled they form communities."
"Hidden villages like the ninja used to have on Earth," Jack said.
"From what you've told me of the special warriors from your world, these Oofaran–as we call them–are far more skilled in every way," Gnea said. "If we can enlist their help, our mission would be guaranteed to succeed."
"Will there be enough of them to help us? How big are these villages?" Karen said.
"There is roughly one Oofaran for every two-hundred births," Gnea said.
"Given that Eallgrenee alone has a population of three million, that would mean the Oofaran population of this region is at least 150,000," Janice said.
Rem let out a long whistle.
"How do we contact them?" Karen said. "And would they help us?"
"I do have a contact in a village that is about 300 miles from here. I can't guarantee that they will help us," Gnea said. "But I wouldn't have brought this to your attention if there wasn't a chance."
"Then this could really work," Karen said, in awe.
"When will you know?" Jack asked Gnea.
"They are nocturnal, so I'll have to contact them tonight. I'll have an answer for you by tomorrow," she said.
They had dinner by the pool, and everyone went home. Gnea sat by the pool and sipped fruit wine until the moon was high in the sky. She was filled with many thoughts of a life that could have been if things had gone differently.
At midnight she walked to the east side of the house, to the external heat pump that cooled the house during the hot months. She walked six steps from it and began to dig with a small spade. She unearthed a flat box of silver metal.
She went to the library of her house and laid the dirty box on her desk. She retrieved a power cell from a desk drawer (she always removed it before she buried the box each time) and plugged it into a compartment on the bottom of the box. She opened the lid of the box, which revealed a keyboard and screen.
This was an ancient Praxian communication device, one of only three sets that still existed. It had been left by Haydon thousands of years ago. The devices worked in pairs, they could only communicate with each other, but that communication could not be blocked or spied upon.
She typed her query into the device and waited. A moment later a response appeared.
Yes.
Fifty light years away, Emil Lang awoke. Ever since he was a child he had gotten up with the sun, and this habit continued even in the light of a different star. The SDF-3 was now in geosynchronous orbit over Tiresia, which meant that the sun only rose once a day, instead of once every 20 minutes as it had when they'd first established orbit.
He pulled on his robe and went into the kitchenette of his quarters. He had returned to the SDF-3 a week ago, after Colonel Edwards had started making unannounced visits to his research facility. Lang had known about, and tolerated, the Ghost Squadron goons who had been snapping pictures of their prototype mecha and weaponry. But now Edwards was wasting his time, and he wouldn't allow that.
After making up a bowl of shredded wheat (the genuine article, from the SDF-3's stores) he sat down at his computer terminal and began checking his messages.
He sat up as he saw one that had come in from off-planet. It was a simple 13-character text string, but it indicated that MODAT-2-01 had made a complete backup of Janice's memory.
The MODAT series was a textbook case of over-engineering. It had started out as a way to create a backup of the SDF-1's computer after Doomsday. The strange non-Neumann architecture of the computer system required that they create a number of dummy peripherals because the network of connections was necessary for the AI contained within the computer to work properly.
Some eccentric genius who went by the monkeir Gryphon had redesigned the original device (which looked like a metal gatorade cooler on wheels) and replaced the dummy peripherals with actual ones. The reflex furnace was replaced with a hydrogen fuel cell, the main engines had been replaced with wheels, the weapons systems with miniature missile launchers.
So it wasn't much of a surprise that Janice and the MODAT unit had responded to each other, the MODAT had taken a backup of her memory, as was its original purpose. It had just never occurred to Lang that this would actually happen. It should have, though, since the MODAT and Janice were siblings, or at least cousins.
They were even more than that now, Lang thought. A copy of Janice's system state was floating around inside MODAT-2-01, like a ghost in the machine. Who knew what effect that would have?
"It should be me, it has to be me or Janice," Karen was saying.
They had met in the mess hall the following morning, and Gnea had informed them that she had made contact, and the leadership of the village agreed to meet with them. Jack had decided to represent the group.
"She's probably right, they'd only trust a woman," Janice said.
"Me and Rem are going to be leading two of the teams, they're going to have to get used to being around men," Jack said. "Besides, I'm off tomorrow, you aren't. We need to get this done as quickly as possible."
"Do you know where this village is? We could surveil you, at least," Karen said.
"I don't know the exact location," Gnea said. "But there is a stone post from ancient times where I meet my contact, and she takes me to the final location blindfolded. I think any surveillance would be taken as hostility."
"Are you sure we can trust that contact of yours?" Karen said. "They could be leading you into an ambush. For all we know they could've sided with the Invid."
"I know I can trust them, and I know they didn't side with the Invid," Gnea said.
"Karen does have a point, I'm afraid," Jack said. "How can you be sure that you can trust this person?"
Gnea closed her eyes. "Because she's my sister."
Karen's mouth dropped open; Jack's eyes widened.
"It is against our law to have any contact with an Oofaran; in fact we are required to kill any we come across," Gnea said. "It is a weakness that I am most ashamed of."
"Mercy is no weakness," Jack said.
"That brings something else to mind," Rem said. "How are Bela and the rest of the Praxians going to respond to our alliance with these exiles?"
"Fait accompli," Jack said. Rem looked confused. "That's a phrase on our planet, it means by the time they find out we made the alliance, there won't be much they can do about it."
"They can withhold their support from The Sentinels," Karen said. "Remember, they were supposed to treble our number of soldiers. The strategies we've developed for the other worlds won't work with our current number of troops."
"We'd lose their support anyway, if we failed to free Praxis," Jack said.
"Our two peoples have worked together in the past," Gnea said. "It's not something I would worry about."
"In the end, I guess," Karen said after a moment. "The question is: what other choice do we have?"
Jack slowly nodded. "I've requisitioned the flashclappers, provisions and weapons we'll need. We should leave after dusk, we're less likely to be spotted."
"The Invid–their mecha at least–can see in the infrared, though," Rem said.
"I'm more worried about our people, Rem," Jack replied. "The sentries will be no problem, we'll just say we're going out to watch the sunset, but our presence would be hard to explain to patrols."
"I'll get you the timetables, but they only maintain a perimeter of 20 miles around the city. You should be fine," Janice said.
"I still think I should go, though," Karen said.
"It's all right, we can go out and get 'faced," Janice said.
"You'd probably still have the same probability of being shot at, though," Rem said with a smile.
"Not if you let Janice sing the hourly song," Jack said. "What was that horrible Tyler Perry song you were singing last time, Penn?"
"Katy Perry, dumbass!" Karen said.
"Either way, it was just awful," Jack said.
They passed the outer perimeter of the REF's patrols 25 minutes after dusk, and the star-speckled dark purple sky stretched out into infinity above them.
They were both in night camo with twin badgers in each of their shoulder holsters. A wolverine each was strapped to the sides of their flashclappers.
Jack was wearing night-vision goggles. Gnea had refused the offer, saying that her night sight was excellent. Jack had always wondered about the range of vision of the Praxian's aquiline eyes, the only thing that distinguished them from human women.
He was about to switch on his headlights when he noticed movement on the scanner screen. He looked down and saw that 10 miles behind them was a smattering of triangles, moving at their position at amazing speed. Jack and Gnea had been clipping along at about 80 miles an hour, but the triangles must have been moving at over 200 mph. Invid Enforcers were true aircraft, so they would be capable of traveling at that speed, even this close to the ground.
Jack told Bela, through the use of hand-signals, to pull over to the side of the road. Jack doubted the Invid were actually following the road, but they should be able to hide in the brush without a problem. They were able to ditch, but not hide, their hovercycles before the Armor was upon. They had just enough time to hide behind the foliage before the craft sped past them.
A single Enforcer slowed down and stopped; Jack could see the large yellow eye on its visor turn to the flashclappers. It raised its right hand and blew them to bits; then it blasted off to catch up with its friends.
Jack and Gnea popped up from the foliage. Jack went over and examined the smoking wreckage, and let out a long sigh.
"Well, it looks like-" Jack started to say.
Gnea grabbed him by the arm. "Wait… listen."
At first Jack didn't hear anything, he was wondering if the ears of Praxians were just as keen as their eyes, when he heard the familiar thrust of repulsor engines. Without a word, and nary a thought, they rushed back into the brush.
Jack peered out through the leaves of the wispy willow-like bush he crouched behind, as the entire Wolfe Pack shot past. Not a one of them even took notice of the burning wreckage of their transports.
Once they were passed, Jack stood up, and just at that moment he heard the sound of particle cannons and plasma launchers not far off.
"Do you think we should have signaled them?" Gnea asked.
"We'd have to explain why we were out here," Jack said. ""Those Enforcers were coming from the direction of the city. I wonder if there was an attack?"
"Why would they attack with such small numbers?" Gnea asked.
"It was too large for a scouting mission… Maybe it was token retaliation for all that damage we've been doing to them up north," Jack said.
"What do we do now?" Gnea asked.
Jack sighed. "If we start walking now, we should be able to get back to town. We're at least fifty miles from the rendezvous point you talked about; so we'll have to go back and come back during the day."
"I'm afraid you won't be going anywhere, human," a gruff female voice said.
Jack whirled around, and saw the foliage come alive as many tall women with aquiline eyes, clad in prairie camo, came out of hiding. He turned to run back towards the road, but saw an equal number coming towards them across the road.
For a moment he was hopeful, as he realized that these must be the exiles they were going to meet. But then he saw the weapons in their hand, which were aimed at them. He was only mildly surprised to discover they were REF badgers.
"Aw, shit," was all he managed.
The Regess emerged from the vast underground into the, for her, dim light of Haydon V's star. As she looked at the metal horizon, the plastic foliage, and the mechanical beings that floated around her, she felt a spike of rage. She hated this world: she had ever since she had first set foot upon it after the Regent had conquered it.
But this was the world that Haydon had created, and as she continued to love him, even though millenia had passed, she must try to love this abomination he had created. Besides, it had the most thorough archives of knowledge in the known universe.
She'd come here straight from Optera, shedding her physical form and traveling through space at the speed of thought. She had activated the sensor nebula upon arrival, and it began searching the universe for any sign of the non-mutated Invid Flower of Life. It would find either the Lords of Tiressia, who had the last remaining seedlings, or the veritable garden of the plants that Zor had taken with him on his battle fortress on its journey into the unknown.
She would never forget the day they strolled in those hydroponic gardens, in a sealed-off area of the ship that only Zor knew how to enter. The smell of the rich, transplanted Opteran soil, the heat of the artificial sun, the unforgettable scent of the unmarreed Flowers of Life.
"These are a gift to the universe." Zor had said. "I will plant them on every world where they will grow, and they will fill the universe with light."
That had been the last time she'd seen him. Less than a year later his people had laid waste to Optera, and he'd been made a fugitive. The Regent was certain that the razing had been done at his orders, but even in her anger the Regess had to believe that what they'd felt for each other was real.
The Zentraedi's masters had sent them into the depth of space to find Zor. The Zentraedi were the greatest warriors in the universe, but they had no skill for taking their quarries alive. Their clumsy attempt to capture Zor had resulted in his death, and his fortress had escaped, driven by some great artificial intelligence which Zor had considered an even greater achievement than his bioenergy generator.
There was very little of that light that Zor had spoken of here, however. Haydon-V was a world that was drenched in Shadaw: every circuit of their technology reeked of it. She was filled with disgust as she made use of the great machines within their archive, discovering all she could of the universe outside her small corner of it. Hoping beyond some hope that she could find where Zor 's fortress had gone, or perhaps even what happened to her beloved Haydon.
But that had been futile. The Haydonites were only interested in their own history; they apparently even knew less of Haydon and his people (the Protoculture) than she did. Then again, she did have the advantage of having known him. The very oldest surviving Haydonite was barely a millennia old. The Regess had wondered if their propensity to decay as they aged was an oversight by Haydon, or if he had done that intentionally.
The Regess entered the large one-roomed building she was using as a residence while on this blasted was a single vast lamp affixed to the ceiling which shone with the exact wavelength and luminosity of Opteran sunlight at midday. The house was carpeted with Opteran flora, including the mutated version of the Flower of Life that grew on Haydon-5. She could feel the bio-energy within it, but it was out of sync with her physiology. Zor's bioenergy generator had been capable of working with any variety of the Flower of Life, but he had never shared that technology with the Lords of Tiresia, who were stuck using inefficient furnaces that only produced appreciable amounts of bioenergy with the few samples of the Opteran flower they had left.
The Regess suspected they had left Tirol in search of Zor's fortress, his flagship, his ark… Which meant she and her bitterest foes were after the same prize, but for completely different reasons.
In a corner of the giant room, purposely hidden by foliage was a giant Invid neural cluster; it was connected through a web of faster-than-light connections to all of the Invid brains around the galaxy. This was the device that the Lords of Tiresia had modeled their preposterous "Protoculture Caps" upon.
The Regess laid her slender hands upon the nerve cluster, and it rippled in response. She communed with all the Invid brains everywhere, and instantly knew what had befallen her children on Praxis.
When the Sentinels had tried to take Praxis, she had been content to let them have the one city they'd captured. She didn't want the massive loss of life that would occur if they chose orbital bombardment to wipe out her children. Besides, they had left the brain intact, it had been hidden in a warren of tunnels beneath the city and the traitorous Praxian forces or the humans had never found it.
However things started to change. They'd been flying spy missions all over the planet, but she was content to live and let live. But then they'd destroyed two of the guards she'd placed on the Whaashi. That was of little consequence, since she'd long written off her experiments with its crude technology. Even the super-drones she'd managed to produce weren't all that special compared to what she could do herself with guided mutation. The drones and armor were also easily replaced.
But then they'd started attacking the two neighboring cities, which she suspected may have been the objective of the original attack. Her forces were self-sufficient, and were able to grow replacement troopers as well as use their factories to replace the armor, but the attacks were becoming more destructive and frequent. The metals which were used in Invid armor were in short supply on the northern continent, and although they recycled as much of the destroyed mecha as possible, some was lost with every iteration.
She'd ordered some troops from a city to the south to reinforce the city to the west, but this had gotten the attention of the Sentinels in the captured city, and they'd completely wiped them out with ground forces.
The Regess had run out of patience. She sent a signal to both the main brain on Optera, as well as all the brains on Praxis. The city of Eallgrenee would be taken back, or it would be destroyed. The Invid were going to war.
To be Continued
Notes
The Cyclone they use in this chapter is not the kind that appears in the New Generation episodes, but rather a prototype which is a common ancestor of the later Cyclone and the Garland from Megazone 23. There is a diagram of it in Robotech Art 3, and it looks like the Garland with an open-air Alpha/Legioss cockpit stuck on it.
In one of the height comparison pictures that appeared in the script books, Janice Em is referred to as "Eve II". So yeah, she's Eve in an android body.
Speaking of Eve: according to the Robotech Movie, the reason the Robotecth Masters were looking for Zor's fortress was because they wanted its computer core. Which basically means they were after Eve. Fanboys, am I right?
The Perfume song "Have A Stroll", which Janice sang in the previous chapter, was on the album JPN, which would have never been released in the Robotech universe, as Doomsday occurred 7 months before. Minmei knew of the song because she was given an autographed preview CD of it before the SDF-1 left Earth for the second time.