A Left Turn at Albuquerque
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes I am about to mangle around for my own amusement – sadly all Robotech and Star Wars characters remain the property of Harmony Gold, Lucasfilm and Disney respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.
Authors Note: Sorry it has taken so long to get this update done but unfortunately, in the aftermath of watching The Rise of Skywalker, this story became stuck in the quagmire of writers block as my star wars muse completely deserted me and has only recently worked its way free thanks to a bit of inspiration provided by a couple of omakes by Raneko over on spacebattles. So, without further ado let's get cracking on the update.
Chapter Twelve
UES Agamemnon
Calanda Expanse
Ambassador Lisa Hunter frowned thoughtfully as she, along with Captain Vanessa Leeds, gazed upon a hologram detailing the results of a detailed scan of the asteroid identified by the flight of fighters launched a short time ago from the Tanganyika. Upon being informed by Commander Mars that their fighters had detected what appeared to be an abandoned base inside the asteroid Vanessa had ordered a more in depth, comprehensive scan of the asteroid using the Agamemnon's main sensor arrays which were naturally both far more powerful and far more advanced than anything that could be mounted on a small platform like an Alpha fighter.
What they had revealed was both surprising and interesting.
The Agamemnon's sensors confirmed that indeed a base had been painstakingly created by somebody inside the asteroid. They'd detected clear evidence of production lines being present in several of the larger artificial caverns inside the base along with silos filled with refined raw materials as well as numerous magazines. Finally, they'd detected several large independent contacts - that were clearly starships with at least one comparable in size to one of the old Zentraedi command ships - berthed in what was clearly the facilities main docking bay.
It was clear to the two of them that the asteroid housed this galaxies version of a robotech factory satellite. While much smaller than the ones that they had back home, many of which were big enough to qualify as small moons and housed more industrial production capacity than a planet, was still an impressive accomplishment especially as they'd so far seen no sign that the civilizations of this galaxy possessed anything like the kernel technology that they had inherited from the now long vanquished Robotech Masters. It had obviously been highly prized at the time of its construction given that a sixteen strong fleet of warships had been deployed here to protect it…
…yet now it, and its guardians, had seemingly been abandoned here to rot.
"I do not understand this," Vanesa commented with a puzzled frown, verbalising what they were both thinking. "Why would someone just leave a perfectly good station and perfectly good ships out here to decay? It seems incredibly wasteful given the amount of time and resources that would have had to have been invested here, especially since the people of this galaxy don't seem to have nano-kernel technology."
"I have no idea," Lisa answered with a confused look of her own. There was something very peculiar going on here in this system, a system where according to the information provided by Captain Edmodarn there shouldn't be anything because it was quite far from any hyperspace lanes. If they were right and a hyperspace lane was what the people of this galaxy called a shipping route then, to better facilitate the flow of raw materials to the station as well as the ease of distribution for whatever was manufactured here, it would logically have been built and hidden much closer to the nearest hyperspace lane. Instead of being placed here in what was by all current accounts very much a galactic backwater.
"We need more information don't we," Vanessa commented. "I would say we should send a boarding party over to the station to investigate it but given what happened a few days ago with first those security drones and then that Imperial Fleet showing up I…"
"… worry we could run into yet more trouble," Lisa finished for her. She could see where Vanessa was coming from with regards to that train of thought, given their track record in this galaxy so far it would be just their luck for something untoward to happen if they boarded the station. Unfortunately, she couldn't see any other option but to take the risk they needed more information about this galaxy that they found themselves in and maybe – just maybe – they would find the parts needed to repair the Twilight Monsoon on the station. Saving themselves some resources, resources that they had to conserve as much as possible at least until they either found a means to get back home to the Milky Way or they found a secure location where they could, if going home wasn't possible, begin the process of building a new civilization for themselves here in the Corusca Galaxy.
Not to mention that, if everything checked out and there were no unpleasant surprises hidden onboard like more of those robots that Colonel Dante had encountered on the Kimbala, the station would make a good temporary base.
"Exactly you have to admit Lisa that our track record in this galaxy so far is not good," Vanessa replied.
"Indeed, but I see no alternative but to take the risk," Lisa answered with a sigh. "If nothing else we might find the parts needed to repair the Twilight Monsoon on the station, conserving our own resources which as you know as well as I, are finite right now."
"Shall I tell Dana to prepare a boarding party then? And should I let Rick know what we're doing?"
"Tell her to prepare the teams and make sure they're well-armed just in case. As for Rick, advise him of what we're going to do and that I believe it to be worth the risk, especially as if it's truly abandoned this place could be just what we need right now."
Vanessa nodded. "I'll tell him and then I'll set things in motion with Dana."
"Good," Lisa answered a moment before the door to the office that Vanessa had temporarily provided her with chimed. "Ah that's going to be our guest from the Twilight Monsoon."
"No doubt. I'll leave you to the diplomat thing then Lisa. Do you wish me to inform you when the boarding parties are ready to launch?"
"I would appreciate it Vanessa thank you."
Vanessa nodded back, adjusted her glasses – which had started to slip down her nose while they'd been speaking, that when combined with the lines on her face and her now grey hair gave her the air of an old school headmistress – and left the room. Lisa for her part walked over to the desk, sat down, and made herself comfortable before bidding her visitor to come in.
Somehow, she wasn't surprised when Captain Halsey came in along with Captain Edmodarn. Kaidan was well experienced dealing with civilians and would no doubt have taken it upon himself to escort the native captain to meet with her, being well aware that to anyone not that familiar with the layout the interior of any robotech warship could be something of a maze. It was a passive security feature built into their ship designs, to confuse and slow down any hostile boarding parties. Though boarding actions were somewhat rare given the sheer amount of energy robotech warships usually tossed about in battle, energies sufficient to glass entire planets in minutes. The little droid trundling along behind them, which for some reason reminded her of the old drinks serving droids that they'd had on the SDF-1, was a bit of a surprise though. She wondered idly what it was here for.
"Ah Captain Edmodarn welcome," she said in greeting, while giving a nod to the younger man next to him to let him know she really appreciated him taking the time to escort their guest to her. She stood up and offered her hand. "I am Ambassador Lisa Hunter, thank you for agreeing to meet with me."
"My pleasure ambassador especially since you're going to be repairing my ship for me," Jordmar replied taking the stately-looking older woman's hand and gently giving it a gentlemanly kiss. Behind him R4 gave a bleep of greeting. "R4 says hello as well. What did you wish to speak with me about?"
Lisa gestured for him to sit down opposite her which he carefully did so. "I would like some information from you if possible," she told him. "As you have probably gathered from looking at our ships we are not from around here."
"I had noticed," Jordmar agreed from what he'd seen of them, which really wasn't a lot, these people whoever they were came from an extremely advanced civilization possessing a level of technology that was considerably higher than the galactic norm given how one of their light cruisers – or as the Anaxes war college system would define it a frigate – had swatted a dreadnought-class heavy cruiser from the sky as if it were an annoying insect with a single blast from its main cannon. Not even the massive star destroyers of the Imperial Navy could destroy a dreadnought that quickly. "I figured that you're probably from somewhere in the Unknown Regions or even Wild Space."
Lisa sighed. "If only it were that simple, we are actually from a great deal further away than that and currently lack any credible means of getting back home. We don't even know where home is right now aside from the fact that it is nowhere in this galaxy."
Jordmar blinked in astonishment. These people were from another galaxy? It seemed impossible as everyone knew that intergalactic travel was impossible, the hyperspace anomalies at the edge of the galaxy made it impossible for any known ship to pass without being seriously damaged if not outright destroyed by the attempt. And yet he had a feeling that it was the truth and it explained so, so much about these people, the incredibly power their ships put out, the stealth on their fighters and how their technology in general seemed so different.
"You know I shouldn't believe that, but it explains so much about your ships and technology from what I've seen," he said at last. "How is it you came to be here at this time?"
"It was an accident, we were forced to execute an emergency space fold in an extremely strong gravity well," Kaidan answered, though he concealed the fact that the gravity well in question was created by their test firing of a neutron-s missile, which had revealed the true horror of that weapon. There was after all no reason for the other man to learn about it not to mention that Admiral Hunter had classified all information on neutron-s missiles. "Something that is really not recommended as it can completely screw up all fold calculations, so you have no clue where or when you're going to emerge back into normal space. Though we didn't have a choice; it was taking that risk or die as our ships were slowly ripped apart by a baby black hole."
Jordmar winced at that. "Nasty," he commented even as part of him wondered what the hell they were doing near a new born black hole in the first place, unless they'd been observing its formation for some reason and been caught out by the sudden gravitational pull. Though he would have thought that would be the job for a research vessel not a couple of warships. "I'll tell you what I can though the Force only knows how useful any information I can give you would be. Me and Wevv – my co-pilot and business partner – are just independent cargo pilots these days."
"That's actually the perspective we need," Lisa replied, "we know a little bit about the Empire from probing the minds of some survivors from an Imperial fleet we destroyed."
"You destroyed an Imperial fleet," Jordmar exclaimed shocked knowing that an Imperial fleet – even a small one – was not a foe to be challenged lightly possessing enough firepower to annihilate almost anyone brave, or foolish, enough to challenge them.
"Not on purpose," Lisa admitted looking a little sheepish which shocked him even more, "they challenged us, giving us a minute to surrender to them or be destroyed, when we refused, they opened fire. Naturally, we fired back we wanted to disable them but… we overestimated the strength of the Imperial shields and hull armour. Instead of disabling them our weapons ended up destroying most of them, only three of them escaped into hyperspace and that's only because we let them go when it was obvious that they were trying to retreat."
"That was noble of you, but I am going to be blunt and tell you that it would have been better for you if you had destroyed them as well. The Empire will be gunning for you now with everything they have."
"Why would they do that?" Kaidan asked looking curious. "After our last confrontation with them surely they'd realize that any Imperial warship sent against us would be destroyed. Especially if we choose not to pull our punches."
"They wouldn't care as by destroying that fleet you've made the Imperial Navy, and with it the entire Empire, look weak and vulnerable. That is something that the Imperials cannot, and will not, allow to stand. It goes against the Tarkin Doctrine."
"What's that," Lisa questioned frowning not liking the sound of that at all. While they had superior weapons to the Imperials, well from what they'd seen of them so far at least, that advantage was off set quite a bit by the fact that the Imperials had many, many more ships than they did. Which was a big advantage as battles with the Invid had shown time and time again that quantity had a quality of its own.
"It's the central political-military doctrine of the Empire at least as far as I understand it. It's named after Grand Moff Tarkin, governor of the Outer Rim over-sector. It mandates that the Empire rule the galaxy through fear, any resistance to their regime is met with overwhelming – frequently excessively so – force. Of course, all the fear the Empire creates no doubt benefits our beloved Emperor since I don't doubt that he's a Sith Lord and thus the more fear there is the more power he can reap from the dark side of the Force."
"Sith Lord? Dark side? Force what does all that mean?"
"You don't know about the Force?"
Lisa and Kaidan both shook their heads prompting Jordmar to run a hand across his brow. Whoa these people really are from another galaxy aren't they, he thought though he was also aware that there was an entire generation of people growing up who would never learn about the Force, hell even during the last few decades of the Republic most worlds had stopped really teaching their citizens about it. His own homeworld of Corellia amongst them, though he'd still known about it from his early career in the Republic Judicial Forces not to mention his second cousin had been taken in by the Green Jedi when he showed Force sensitivity but had been too old for training in the eyes of the main Jedi Order on Coruscant.
"Okay this is going to take some explaining though since I'm not Force sensitive I cannot explain more than the basics about the Force, the light side and the dark and about those orders who use, or used, it."
"That's fine anything that you can tell us would be greatly appreciated. After all, the more we know about how things work in this galaxy the better," Lisa said kindly.
Jordmar nodded and started to open his mouth to begin what would have been a marathon, probably headache-inducing, discussion about the Force – what he knew about it anyway as he couldn't claim to be an expert hell not even the Jedi had known everything about the Force as much as they might not have admitted that fact – but before any sound could emerge a bleeping sound filled the air. A sound he recognised from his previous meeting with Captain Halsey on the Tanganyika as coming from the desk comm.
Lisa tapped the comm. "Yes?" she asked prompting a holographic screen to pixel into existence above the desk showing the face and upper torso of Vanessa Leeds. "Yes, Vanessa what is it?"
"The boarding party for the asteroid station is ready to launch, Lisa," Vanessa reported.
"You're sending someone over to the asteroid station," Jordmar asked before Lisa could respond.
"Yes we need to know some more about it, not to mention we might be able to find the parts needed to repair your ship over there," Lisa replied, "is there anything you think we should know about it?"
"Only that you advise whoever is going over there to be extremely careful. The Separatists were known to include a number of booby traps in their military facilities, even more secret ones like this one whatever it is."
"What kind of booby traps," Vanessa asked from the holoscreen.
"The most common ones tended to be ray shields and automated droid activation systems designed to summon entire legions of battle droids if an unauthorised person walked within their range. Hopefully, the power cells on any droids over there will have been depleted by now, the Clone Wars ended nineteen years ago but if there are any droids in storage and a sensor does trip."
"They could come to life," Vanessa finished. "Captain Edmodarn do you know what types of droids they'd be?"
"If your people do encounter any, they'd almost certainly be B1 droids," Jordmar replied. "They're thicker than durasteel, chattier than a protocol droid and the most appalling shots your ever likely to meet but for everyone you see there are usually at least twenty more nearby. They were the most numerous of the battle droid models the CIS used in their military because they were dirt cheap and easy to produce in vast numbers. They'd also be the ones most likely to be provided as security for a secret base like this."
"I'll let Dana know to be careful thank you captain."
"Your welcome."
"Send Dana but put some reinforcements on standby just in case," Lisa instructed her former subordinate and still very dear friend.
"I am getting some additional personnel ready as we speak. Rick already told me to do that," Vanessa replied, and Lisa hid a smile. Leave it to Rick to be on top of this already, she thought, he's come a long way from the brash cocky pilot he was when he first came to Macross Island.
"Good. Send Dana and her squad on their way and make sure she knows to keep us up to date with all developments," she instructed.
"Understood. Bridge out."
The holographic screen pixeled out of existence as Vanessa closed the communications link with the bridge. Lisa turned her attention back to Captain Edmodarn.
"Now then captain let's get back to our discussions. Maybe you can start by telling us a little bit more about these Clone Wars you just mentioned."
SDF-3 Pioneer
A Few Minutes Earlier
"…I have Dana preparing a large boarding party as we speak. They should be ready to launch in another couple of minutes."
Sitting behind his ready room desk Rick listened intently to Vanessa as she relayed to him just what it was they believed they had unexpectedly found in the otherwise lifeless solar system both the Agamemnon and the Tanganyika had folded to – the latter with the disabled local freighter Twilight Monsoon in tow. To say he was surprised by the discovery would have been an understatement given that until now this galaxy had – so far at least – not shown any indication of having the technology needed to create a factory station. Though at the same time he was puzzled as to why it was seemingly abandoned.
"Do you have any idea how long the ships and station have been abandoned," Rick asked.
"While we cannot be certain it's likely that they've been abandoned for a decade or more. Neither the ships nor the station shows any signs of active power generation, though we are picking up a few low power signatures on all of them, almost certainly coming from emergency batteries, that are quickly fading away. The power generators on the ships are also completely cold and if our scans are right the interior temperatures of the ships matches the ambient temperature of the space around us."
"So they've been abandoned for a long time then," Rick commented knowing that it took years for the internal temperature of a ship to fall as low as the ambient temperature of the space around it, even after active power generation stops. Heat just didn't leach out of a ship that quickly. "Very strange, still if we can get in there and power things up enough, we might be able to learn a bit more about this galaxy."
"Indeed, that's why Lisa and I think it's worth the risk to send Dana and her marines over there."
"It is. Alright proceed with the boarding action but remind Dana to be careful and not to take any unnecessary risks also prepare some back up boarding parties just in case she does run into trouble on the station," he instructed. Which knowing Dana is likely to happen since Max and Miriya's oldest daughter is, and always has been, something of a trouble magnet, he thought, though Maia's not that much better. Must be something that comes with the mixing of Terran and Zentraedi DNA.
Vanessa nodded. "I will make sure of it," she replied. "Dana should have her teams ready to shuttle over in another couple of minutes. I am going to also dispatch a squadron of veritechs to escort and support them, if their does turn out to be something nasty hiding or sleeping over there then their firepower could be needed."
"At the very least their pilots Cyclones would be of help even if the fighters themselves cannot leave whichever docking bay their in. Good thinking."
"Well you know me Rick I'm not just a pretty face." Rick chuckled at the teasing tone. It was always refreshing to talk to Vanessa like this, most of the other captains in the fleet were from the younger generation and were thus more respectful and formal when they talked. Vanessa on the other hand, being one of the few fellow survivors of the SDF-1 left alive, could always be counted on to talk to him more as Rick and less as Admiral Hunter.
"Very true. On another note Vanessa how is Lisa holding up?"
"She seems to be holding up alright at the moment but I am keeping an eye on her to make sure she doesn't push herself too far," Vanessa replied reassuringly knowing that as the good husband that he was Rick was concerned for Lisa's welfare, especially given how fragile both her physical and mental health had become since the loss of her unborn child and near loss of her own life during Edwards little mutiny. She would be lying if she said that she wasn't as concerned as he was. "Right now, she's in a meeting with the captain of the Twilight Monsoon, Captain Halsey is in there with her."
"Understood. Alright Vanessa I won't keep you on this channel any longer as I know you'll have quite a bit to oversee there. Just keep me up to date with any developments, will you?"
"Of course, Rick."
"Hunter out." Rick hit a button on his console causing the holographic screen to pixel out of existence as the communications link between the SDF-3 and the Agamemnon was closed. He summoned up a new screen and was just beginning to read through another of the seemingly endless series of reports that came not only with his current rank and position when the intercom came to life.
"Bridge to Admiral Hunter." Now what, Rick thought with a mental sigh at the interruption. It never rains but it pours around here. Shaking off the sudden surge of irritation he reached out and touched the desk comm unit.
"Yes?"
"Admiral we're receiving a distress call from the Windermere," Lieutenant Pren reported urgently, "they report that their ship has been heavily damaged by a collision with multiple space dwelling lifeforms and is going down."
Rick's eyes widened in concern. "Where is the Windermere?" he asked knowing that the Windermere was the third of the three light cruisers he'd sent out to scout for a new place for the fleet to space fold to.
"They had just completed their second hyperspace fold jump sir," Lieutenant Pren reported as she checked her screens. "They're near a desert planet called Tatooine. Captain Somerville reports that they have managed to stabilize their descent though impact is inevitable. There engines and antigravity generators are too damaged to push them back up into orbit. Time to impact five minutes."
"Damn it. Sparks."
"Sir?"
"Order the Baikal, Sumatra and Geneva to break away from the fleet and move to the aide of the Windermere immediately. They're to recover any survivors from the ships crash, recover as much equipment and protoculture from the crashed ship as possible as for the wreck they're to destroy it. If they the encounter the Empire and it attempts to stop them or interfere with them in anyway then tell Captain Zendril to do whatever he needs to do to discourage them."
"Aye sir."
Minutes later a single Ikazuchi-class cruiser-carrier and two Garfish-class light cruisers began moving away from the rest of the fleet, which was still maintaining its orbit above the giant snowball that was the planet Hoth. Forming up into a standard cruising formation the three robotech warships cruised away from the fleet – engines expelling streams of superheated fusing ions – until they were far enough out of the planets gravity well that it would not be able to adversely affect their fold engines.
As soon as they were far enough away the three ships stopped accelerating and came to a halt. For a few moments more nothing happened then with a gyroscopic flash of Cherenkov radiation each ship became surrounded by an energy field that, to any observer, would have looked like a whirling ball of frosted glass as their fold spheres formed. The silhouettes of the ships within the spheres blurred and became instinct mere nanoseconds before the spheres collapsed down from kilometre plus wide structures to something no bigger than a tennis ball. Then they shot off into the distance vanishing into hyperspace, with the faintest of gravitational ripples to mark their transition from normal space to the deeper hyperspace layers used in space folding, on course…
…for Tatooine.
Authors Note: Well another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. It is not as long as I was hoping it would be but it is an important filler chapter as the REF starts to build their relationship with Jordmar – which will be important as events unfold – and the fate of the third cruiser sent out on scouting missions. Bet you all thought that I had forgotten about that one didn't ya – and before anyone asks I will repeat again that the cruisers name is not a reference to Macross Delta but is in reference to the largest of the lakes in the UK lake district, a very beautiful part of my homeland that most Star Wars fans would recognise as Takodana – I hadn't as this was always going to be her fate. As to what's going to unfold on Tatooine you will have to wait and see but I will tell you now that I really plan to turn destiny and fate on its head in the next chapter. With that to whet your appetites I will leave this author note there. Until next time stay safe everyone.