Disclaimer: I do not own Robotech or any of its characters. I only own the eight pilots of Shark squadron

Sorry this has been so long in the making I had to fix some mistakes. Rick is a Commander and Jake is a Lt Commander

Characters from the Macross saga appearing in this chapter

Captain Rick Hunter: Pilot, Commander of Skull VT squadron.

Captain Lisa Hayes: RDF Officer in command of all squadrons in the New Macross area.

Robotech: Shattered Peace

Chapter 2: New Faces

(Two months later)

"Rick, wake up!" Rick woke up, but slammed his head into the bottom of the storage area above his bed. He looked up at who woke him up. It was Jake. "Jake, what the heck are you doing here?" He checked the clock. "It's 0500!" Rick said angrily "Sorry! But I just got a call from the Flight Controller, he says our squadron is here and the CO wants us to go meet them" Jake said as Rick put on his uniform. "All right then Jake, lets greet the Sharks.

(Ten minutes later)

Rick and Jake stepped onto the tarmac seeing eight Veritechs silhouetted against the sunrise. Rick knew that two of those Veritechs were the VF-1S variant, Rick's being the same light blue and black on white paint scheme and Jake's had a green and black on gray paint scheme, and the other Veritechs which were the VF-1R variant were identical to Rick's except with the color of the pilots choice in place of light blue. Rick and Jake looked to the left of the Veritechs and saw five people in RDF uniforms. When Rick and Jake walked up to them they all saluted, so Jake and Rick returned the gesture. Then the First Lieutenant in the group stepped forward. He snapped a salute "First Lieutenant Jack Connell, Second in command of Lt. Cmdr. Storm's flight sir!" Jack said. "Thank you Connell, now how about you introduce us to the new Shark squadron pilots?" Rick replied. "Yes sir! Second Lieutenant John Strife sir!" "Connell do me a favor? Quit calling me sir, I hate being called that. A simple Commander or even just Rick would do fine." "Yes Lieutenant." Then Strife came over and just stood there not at attention and no salute either. "Sit down and shut it." John said smirking. "In fact that constitutes as disrespecting a superior officer, punishable by court-martial." Rick laughed. "Strife I like a challenge, so I'm not pressing charges." "I'll drive you crazy by the end of the week; I may be a Second Lieutenant, but I'm a pain in the butt first class." The other pilots tried to suppress their laughter. "Trust me I know how to be a pain in the neck. So shut up and head to your quarters." Rick said laughing as Strife angrily headed toward the barracks. Rick turned to the remaining pilots "Alright now that that's over how about you introduce your selves." The only female pilot in the group stepped forward "Commander Cloud, I'm Sergeant Relena Darien." Then the tall pilot next to her stepped forward "I'm Sergeant Hiro Ishigowa." The pilot on the right end of the group was the last to step forward. "I'm Corporal Chase Ryder." "Alright then now that that's handled, you four are to follow Lt. Storm to the barracks were Lt. Strife is already. If any one needs me I'll be in my office, dismissed." He turned and headed for his office. "That's strange there's supposed to be six pilots but there's only five here." Rick thought.

(In Rick's office, one hour later)

Rick heard a knock on his door. "Come in." Two MP's entered with a girl wearing a simple black hooded sweatshirt and baggy jeans. "Get your hands off me!" the girl screamed. "What's the problem?" Rick asked. One of the MP's faced him. "This girl claims to be a pilot, Commander." "That's because I am a pilot you idiot!" the girl screamed. "What's your name and rank" Rick asked the girl. "Second Lieutenant Jordan Strike. I was just transferred here. My last commanding officer was Cmdr. Miriya Sterling. I fly the dark blue and black striped Veritech." Strike answered. Rick looked at her clothes. "Where's your uniform?" "I haven't received a new one yet sir." "Strike cut the 'sir' stuff, I hate that and it's getting on my nerves. By the way, how old are you?" "Oh, I'm only 16," Strike said "how old are you?" she asked "I'm 19 tomorrow." Rick responded.

(RDF Air Combat Range 1300 hours)

"This is Shark 001 keep an eye out." Cloud was flying a three ship flight with Strike and Sgt. Ishigowa "Shark 001 this is 007, five bogies at 12 o'clock closing fast." "Alright break formation and attack I'm on the leader." The opposing leader flew within a few feet of Cloud's Veritech. The Skull emblem on the tail tipped him "That guy was Rick Hunter, Watch out you two these guys are from skull squadron, Hunter has the lead!" Rick rolled the Veritech over and dove. "There's no way I can beat him in the air maybe I can fare better on foot." Cloud switched from fighter to Battloid mode and Hunter followed. "Come and get me!" Cloud fired a burst of paint rounds at Hunter. It was clear he missed his target "Missed, hmm well Skull leader is better than alluded to, but I need to win." Both Veritechs fired at the same time and both ended covered in paint. "Skull one to Shark 001 nice job, return to base." Cloud groaned "Who the hell do you think is going to clean this thing?"

(New Macross Base Commander's office 1800 hours)

Captain Hayes had called both Cloud and Hunter to her office. Cloud wondered what she could want with both squadron leaders. Cloud knocked on the office door. "Enter" Cloud opened the door and stepped into Hayes' office. "Commander, good to see you. I called you because you and Captain Hunter are the two most competent Squadron commanders in the New Macross area." "With all due respect ma'am Captain Hunter and I are the only commanders of a Veritech Squadron in the area." "Yes Cloud but you command probably the most Aggressive squadron in the area, and Capt. Hunter is the commander of the best squadron in the RDF." Cloud was confused but Hunter apparently wasn't. "Lisa what are you getting at?" Lisa turned toward the window. "I need your squadrons to fly out in 48 hours to attack a base only 1200 miles from our position. You see a new country has formed claiming themselves independent, then they attacked Alaska Base, capturing nearly 20 VF-1R's and from mothballs 53 VF-1J and 79 VF-1A plus the four active VF-1D's. It contains primarily former Warsaw pact nations. They call themselves the Marxist Republic of Russia and they believe that there is no need for a world government now that the Zentraedi threat has disappeared. You'll have four joint training operations as tomorrow at 0730 hours to prepare you for this mission I'm counting on you two. Dismissed

Sorry for the two year delay I've ridiculously busy.