Author: Cyclone
Feedback: Please be gentle.
Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.
Rating: Mechanized violence and harsh language.
Spoilers: Up to Chosen for BtVS. Anything goes for the other.
Disclaimer: Some of the characters depicted herein belong to Joss. The jury's still out on others. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Summary: The Scooby Gang must endure an apocalypse they cannot stop.
Author's Note: Much thanks to David Wangen, Yorath, and Anime Ronin for their input not only in this part, but in previous parts as well.
"Plus, there was that pilot I met during my road trip."
Xander had told the truth. He had met a pilot during his road trip. In fact, he had met several. But his first -- and most... educational -- experience flying had been without the benefit of a teacher.
--Flashback--
Xander picked his way through the rubble. It was his fifth day in this crazy world, and it was starting to look like he should consider making plans for a more permanent stay.
He glanced over his shoulder to make sure his companion wasn't having any trouble, but the albino pilot was fine. She was the pilot of the giant robot that had nearly crashed on him, and the concussion she'd suffered in the crash had him worried. It was three days before she'd woken up, and aside from her name -- Reiya -- she had hardly said a word since then.
He turned back to his own progress and felt her blood red eyes drilling into his back as he pressed onward.
And stopped.
"Whoa."
It was definitely some kind of spacecraft; that much was obvious. It looked like a giant metallic bird with a large barrel under each wing, and it couldn't be terribly aerodynamic. The left pod was completely wrecked, but the right seemed mostly intact, though the front panel seemed to have been wrenched askew.
Xander glanced over his shoulder back at Reiya, "Wait here, okay?"
She met his gaze for a long moment, then nodded. He ducked into the ship's right pod and looked around, momentarily wishing he had a flashlight.
WHAM!
Stumbling back from whatever he'd walked into, Xander scowled and rubbed his forehead. Reaching out a hand, he cautiously felt his way around until he found a small panel that opened up. Feeling inside, he felt a button, and with a shrug, he pushed it.
He heard something mechanical move nearby, and he headed in that general direction until he found a chair.
"Huh," he muttered. After a long moment, he shrugged again and sat down. His hand brushed against something, and panic struck him for a moment as the chair shot upward.
He blinked and looked around. It was some sort of cockpit. Ooh! Was that a manual?
--End Flashback--
He'd done a fair bit of damage to the surrounding area with the Beta fighter he'd found, but he was damn glad he had found it.
Xander suddenly realized the CAG had said something while he was lost in his memories, and now the two of them were looking at him expectantly.
"What?"
"Yeah, I know," the CAG said. "Hard to believe the offer's real, but you've got talent, Corporal." He leaned across the table, "Personally, I think you're wasted driving those walking targets."
He wants me to fly? With one eye? Xander thought incredulously. He shook his head and tapped his patch, "Think you might be forgetting something, sir."
"Not that long ago, you'd be right, Corporal," Fokker replied, "but things are different now. Instrumentation's better, and the fact is, one eye or two, I've never seen anyone blow through a sim like that without veritech training, and we're not exactly overflowing with pilots these days."
Xander looked at Dawn to see what she thought. Her eyes were sparkling, and she was smiling at him with a hopeful look that was downright frightening. He wasn't sure why, but he could almost see cherry blossoms floating around her.
Clearly, she was in favor of this.
"It'd be a lateral transfer," Roy said. "I'd put you through an accelerated program. If you can cut it, you fly with us. If not, you go back to driving Tomahawks."
Xander leaned back thoughtfully.
"Think about it," Roy said, rising to his feet. He paused and looked back, "Oh, and one more thing: We get better billets." He winked and started out again, "C'mon, Lieutenant, we've got to see about getting you a new fighter."
"Yes, sir," Dawn nodded and followed.
Xander watched them leave as he considered the offer.
A moment later, Xander realized something.
Something very, very important.
He was a ground pounder. Alone. In The Cat.
This could get ugly.
Lt. Donald Spencer, RDFN, looked to his left. Standing there at attention was one Destroid Corps Corporal Alexander Harris, Tomahawk pilot, Goliath Squadron. He looked like the final reel of a Rocky movie.
He looked to his right. Sprawling, staggering, and swaying there were twenty veritech pilots, including six who were unconscious and held up by their fellow pilots. None of them looked any better than Harris.
He looked back at the corporal and raised a questioning eyebrow.
The corporal shrugged, "I'm a marine, sir. Ooh-rah."
Lt. Spencer knew the marines prided themselves on being tough fighters, but this was ridiculous. Why did this have to happen when he was duty officer? The Destroid Corps was never going to let anyone forget this.
Xander, meanwhile, took the opportunity to give one of the battered pilots a nasty glare.
Sgt. Rick Hunter flinched.
Well, thought Xander, at least it wasn't a total waste. He knew he was going to be in for it for not giving Dawn the first crack at him, but once the fight broke out, he saw the shot and just had to take it.
Now, if only he could figure out how he was going to explain to the Gunny what he was doing in The Cat...
Xander resisted the urge to flinch as Gunnery Sergeant Adam Church, his immediate superior, bawled him out for the bar fight.
And he'd thought Darth Willow was scary.
"About the only consolation is that you were still standing at the end of that mess, unlike some of those Navy and Spacy pukes! I suppose that counts for something. Somewhere." With a shake of his head and a disgusted sigh, the gunny turned and left, muttering too low for Xander to pick up what he was saying.
Shaking it off, Xander headed for the NCO lounge.
He never did finish that drink of his at The Cat.
It was surprisingly late before he finally returned to the townhouse he shared with Giles and the girls. He'd taken a detour to the observation deck and started watching the Prometheus's flight deck as a training squad practiced cat launches and carrier landings.
Although the catapult was hardly needed in outer space -- the SDF-1's internal fighter bays attested to that -- the catapult had the advantage of giving the launching fighters a velocity boost that conserved their supply of precious reaction mass, extending their effective mission flight and dogfighting time.
It was why the CAG -- even though he was Spacy, and Prommie was definitely a Navy ship -- had brought his Skulls on over and stationed them on Prommie.
In addition, trying to transport a veritech between Prommie's hangar bay and the SDF-1's internal bays was a messy business that crossed a quarter of Macross City and gummed up traffic; landing right back on the Prometheus was more expedient for those stationed there.
While the Prometheus wasn't originally designed for space, its submersible construction made it possible to refit it for space use, and it now occupied one of the docking arms intended for the ARMD missile ships, while the Daedalus his Tomahawk was parked in was atteched to the other.
The Prometheus effectively increased the SDF-1's fighter capacity by half, which was another reason carrier landings were necessary. With the influx of pilots and the ship's internal manufacturing facilities, the fighter bays were kept as close to full as possible. There just wasn't room in the SDF-1's internal bays for all the veritechs.
He knew only a little less than half of the pilots he was watching would actually regularly use the skills they were working on. Because of the initial velocity boost Prommie's catapult provided, those launching from Prommie tended to be the first into combat besides the CAP, and therefore, they took disproportionately heavy casualties as compared to those assigned to the SDF-1's internal bays. The new pilots would be assigned to fill in the gaps in the squadrons -- instead of pulling more experienced pilots from other squads for the job -- in order to preserve unit cohesion as much as possible.
"Hello, Corporal."
Xander was startled out of his reverie by the unexpected voice and turned. He stood at attention and saluted, "Commander."
"As you were, Corporal," Lisa Hayes said, an amused look on her face. "I'm off-duty." He must have been staring, for her next words were, "Contrary to popular belief, Corporal, I don't, in fact, live on the bridge."
"Err, of course not, ma'am," he stuttered. Damn it, why the hell are all the senior officers popping up and wanting to chat with me?
"I heard about your performance in the simulators."
"You did?" he blinked in surprise.
She nodded, "From Commander Fokker. He was very impressed." Actually, she had heard it from Claudia who, in turn, had heard it from Roy. According to Claudia, Roy was impressed enough to regret that no one had found him years ago, back during the Global War. And if he had been any less talented, I would have signed his death warrant, she thought soberly.
"Oh," was all Xander could think of to say.
They stood there in companionable silence for a long moment.
"Well, I'm going for a walk, Xander," Lisa said, finally breaking the silence. "Care to join me?"
Xander blinked at that and ran through a series of possible responses and probable -- based on his experience -- consequences until he finally settled on: "Nah. I'd better get back. It's getting pretty late."
"All right," she said, turning and walking toward one of the obs deck exits.
Shaking his head, Xander began the trek home.
By the time he'd gotten back, Xander had figured out how Lt. Cmdr. Hayes had known to call him Xander -- he'd told her back when they'd first met face to face after his first inadvertant combat outing -- but he was still trying to figure out what he would do when Giles and the girls saw his battered condition.
As he opened the door, grim faces greeted him, dissolving into worry and concern as Willow and Buffy began fussing at him. Xander looked at the weaponry strewn about.
"Okayyy..." Xander said, "what's with all the hardware?"
Giles finished cleaning his glasses and said, "There's a vampire on the ship."
Author's Postscript:
Well, thanks to everyone who responded to the poll, but I've decided to go with one that wasn't among the initial choices.
Oh, and if anyone has any suggestions as to what the other Scoobs (particularly Giles) could do while most of the action's happening in mecha, I'd really appreciate it.
