Disclaimer: I hereby declare that I do not in any way own the rights to the anime known as Robotech. This includes plot, characters, the mecha, and the ships, the only things I officially own is my own stuff introduced as part of this story. Therefore please no lawyers I do not have any money to give them. Thank You.
Wings of a New Dawn
Book 1 of the New Macross Saga
A Robotech Story brought to you,
By
William R. Woods
"Deathzealot"
Chapter BGM is Fate's Arrow – Skull Squadron's Theme, from the Super Dimension Fortress Macross Soundtrack
Part 06: The Skull Rises
VF-01 Skull Squadron had always been an Elite Squadron since its formation being made up of veteran pilots from the Unification Wars and the Global Civil War, however once under Commander Rick Hunter it became the legendary squadron we known today. From this new Skull Squadron many famous familiar names have arisen like Rachael Hunter, Maximillian Sterling, Sarah Conrad, Kira Yamato, and Samuel Rush.
Taken from The VF-01 Valkyries and the Aces Who Flew Them
Publish May 10, 2022AD
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Skull Squadron Ready Room
SDF-1 Macross
April 9, 2010
Off the Coast of California
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A few days after the reunion of Rick and Rachael Hunter found them along Max Sterling, and one of the remaining veteran Skull Squadron pilots Samuel Rush sitting in the sadly empty Ready Room for Skull Squadron. The group where looking into rebuilding Skull Squadron from the ashes it had been for the past days from the losses suffered during the Battle of Lagrange One and transfers that followed the battle. Of the original Skull Squadron pilots only Lieutenant Junior Grade Samuel Rush remained the other surviving pilots having been transferred out to either get command of their own squadron or other such things. The gathered group for the past few hours had been going through personal jackets of various pilots wanting to be transferred to the premier elite squadron. After being reunited with her brother Rachael had been officially transferred to Skull Squadron on Rick's orders after he had got ahold of her personal jacket and once she was transferred she was put to work alongside the other pilots to find new pilots to fill the squadron.
"Here we go Ensign Sarah Conrad, formerly of Sepia Squadron. She had been the pilot that I teamed up with briefly during L1," Max Sterling spoke up interrupting the rustle of paper and such coming from the group. Rick looked up from paging through a personal jacket to look at his friend before holding his hand out for the folder which Max with smile handed it over. Rick quickly read through the notes and such before getting the real gem of the file the pilot's test scores and such.
"Hmm… interesting while her general flight scores are not all that high her gunnery skills are off the charts. Looks like we have a keeper here folks," Rick said with a small smile making the other three pilots sigh in relief at this as the Commander set the folder on top of two other personal jackets of those he had chosen. Rick in rebuilding Skull Squadron had made a decision in really turning the Squadron into truly an Elite Squadron. This comes about after hearing from Rush and from his own observations during a few battles that Skull Squadron had very high casualties sometimes higher to those from the so called newbie squadrons like Red, Blue, and Green which is where many of the lion share of the newly trained pilots where assigned for their first few missions before being assigned to one of the more veteran squadrons like Vermillion, Sepia, Wolf, and Skull. This according to many veteran Skull pilots comes from the Fokker Curse, which is curse said to affect the wing mates of Roy Fokker since the time of the Unification War either they die or heavily wounded. Therefore to avoid similar casualties in the future with Skull Squadron Rick was planning on making the squadron truly an Elite Squadron that it is known for.
"Well that is three down five more to go," quipped Samuel Rush with a tired smile on his face making the other groan.
"Rick we have been doing this for hours why don't we take a break for a bit, these personal jackets aren't going anywhere," Rachael mentioned after stretching and rubbing her eyes the others could only nod in agreement with her. Rick smiled before stretching as well before nodding at the other pilots making them cheer.
"Sure why don't we head for that new arcade Max here has been gloating about for a while, maybe we can see this woman he has been chasing around the city," Rick said with a large grin on his face making Max blush, and the others laugh for they all have heard of his fascination with some green-haired woman running around Macross City. With that said the group of Skull Squadron got up and left the ready room behind along with the cursed personal jackets.
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Milky-Way Arcade
Macross City
SDF-1 Macross
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The group of veritech pilots stepped into the darkened arcade stopping to let their eyes adjust to the darkened room. The room was darkened yet at the same time had a low-level lighting thanks to not only the screens of the games but the large EVE projection that took up the roof of the room showing the Milky Way galaxy hence the name of the arcade. This arcade was smaller than the main Macross City Arcade yet it was known for its more sci-fi feel thanks to having only sci-fi games unlike the mixed games of the larger arcade.
As the group got use to the low-light they noticed the crowd forming around the recently introduced Veritech Attack Game that had been created originally to help train pilots in Veritechs and had been turned into a game. Both the Milky-Way and the Macross City Arcade sported these games yet the Milky-Way sported over twenty of these games all linked therefore allowing squadron vs. squadron games instead player vs. player. Curious the group made their way over to the crowd to see what is going on and was surprised to see a single player on the Blue Squadron side and four players on the Red Squadron side. All five players wore the Veritech Pilot Uniform of the RDF similar to those of the group from Skull Squadron. Yet had the patches for the various rookie Squadrons meaning that these pilots are rookies fresh from training. What is even more shocking and surprising to the group of veteran pilots was that the single pilot on the Blue side was actually wining against his four opponents. Trading glances with his fellow pilots Rick pushed through the crowd to get a good look at the large scoreboard set-out between the two sides with a series of monitors bracketing it showing various shots of the battle itself. Rick was shocked to see the score of the sole Blue side pilot was very high and as he watched he finally knocked out one of the red pilots making that pilot curse and lean back away from the game. In the next few minutes Rick was just outright shocked and even pleased as the Blue pilot managed to shoot down the remaining three opponents with almost no scratch to his own projected fighter. He hadn't seen someone like this pilot since he saw Max going at it during his first battle. Though this pilot apparently had sloppy gunnery skills and relied a lot on firing a storm of missile at the enemy, yet at the same time his flight skills where downright amazing and most likely better than his own.
"That's it Yamato! You are going to die for this I don't care if you were at the top of the class this is the last time you are going to beat me," one of the defeated pilots raged advancing onto the other pilot who only stared a little fearfully up at the other pilot. Jolted from his thoughts Rick decided he couldn't let a fight happen in the middle of a civilian area, not to mention he wanted the name of that pilot.
"Atten-hut! Officer on deck!" Max called out from behind Rick before he could say anything making Rick nod back at his friend before turning his attention to the five pilots seeing them standing at attention in front of the game looking a little lost wondering who shouted the order to stand at attention. They soon got their answer as Rick flanked by both Max and Rachael stepped towards them making the light from the screens reflect on their uniforms making the eyes of five rookie pilots widened in shock.
"What is the meaning of this pilots?" Rick asked and was quite surprised he managed to come out like a senior officer. The five pilots looked at one another before the pilot who had yelled stepped forward.
"Sir just a disagreement between some academy buddies," the young man mentioned making Rick blink at him in surprise not only at his statement but now that the pilot was under the light from the screens looked to be quite young maybe sixteen. With a shake of his head at this Rick sit aside the issue of their age before looking over at the group seeing the others nod while the last pilot the one who defeated the others just frowned.
"Must be some disagreement Warrant Officer for you to yell like that. However I don't buy it, maybe you and your buddies are just mad that this other Warrant Officer manage to defeat you all single handedly in a game. That must be some embarrassment for you guys. Now why don't you lot get out of here before I do something I will regret later since we need all the pilots we can get," Rick said looking down at the shorter pilot who looked shocked for a moment before his face became red from shame and embarrassment. With that salute the group started towards the door however when that single pilot started to walk past him Rick stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
"Not you Warrant Officer. In fact I believe you just found a spot in Skull Squadron," Rick mentioned to the young pilot who looked up at him in shock. Rick just smiled down at him with while Max and Rachael behind him just grinned. They had found the fourth new pilot of Skull Squadron literally underneath their noses.
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Skull Squadron Ready Room
SDF-1 Macross
April 11, 2010
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A couple days later found Rick standing in front of the eight pilots he had chosen to choice Skull Squadron alongside himself, Rachael, Max, and Samuel Rush. These three pilots stood behind Rick standing at attention. Taking a deep calming breath Rick looked around the group before nodding.
"I like to welcome you all to Skull Squadron, however if you think it is going to be easy from here on out you are mistaken. For I intend to keep this squadron the elite of the elite, and therefore if we are not in the air for some reason we will be training wither it is a simulation or in the air with our Veritechs. This training will not be easy I guarantee you and I will like to mention that I along the pilots standing behind me will be joining you in this training. Does anyone have a problem with this?" he asked looking the group over and was quite pleased to see no one speaking up. His eyes fallen onto a few of the pilots like Kira Yamato, the young pilot they had found in the arcade and not the most junior pilot but the youngest as well.
"Very well for the next two weeks we are going to be going through our main training regimen to turn us into a real squadron. This will start bright and early tomorrow morning therefore you lot are dismissed and get some rest," he ordered stepping away from the group and turning to look at the three pilots behind him while the rest of the pilots dispersed leaving the ready room behind them. Some went to get some rest like requests while some others decided to head out to celebrate their appointment to Skull Squadron.
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Jackson Isle
A Hundred Miles off the Coast of California
April 16, 2010
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A few days later found the squadron training on a small island named Jackson Isle about fifty miles from the landing site of the SDF-1 and over hundred miles off the coast of California. The squadron where training against a few companies of Destroids basically trying to breach the defense line of Destroids and to get a small hill at the center of the island. The group had done this a few times in last few days after a single straight day of simulation. Now they were training their skills in Battloid mode against the opposing Destroids.
"Skull Five watch your six you have a Spartan trying to sneak up on you," Rick called out over the radio as he ducked behind a hill and away from an approaching Tomahawk Destroid. The mentioned veritech snapped around fired off a few rounds at the enemy Spartan which soon became covered with blue paint symbolizing that unit was now down. As it did this Rick exploded out of cover and sent a few rounds of his own down range at the enemy Tomahawk downing it as well. With his target down Rick looked around to see the other eleven veritechs of Skull Squadron standing over the frozen forms of the "enemy" Destroids.
"Will it looks like that is last of them boss," drawled out Lieutenant Rush with a smile making the other pilots cheer for this is the first time in the last few days the group had won against the Destroids.
"It looks like we did it however let's help the Destroids back to the Dropships and start this over one more time," Rick ordered helping the Tomahawk up from its kneeling position. The other pilots both Veritech and Destroid only groaned in answer but followed his orders walking back towards the landing site of the four Destroid Dropships that had carried the large mecha to this small island.
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Simulation Room 3
SDF-1 Macross
April 19, 2010
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Another few days later found Skull Squadron going through simulations back on board the SDF-1 itself. Many of these simulations where of space missions since without a dedicated carrier vessel or boosters the Veritechs couldn't make it into space to train. While the RDF did have vehicles that could make it into space on their own power thanks to anti-gravity equipment, like the Star Goose Shuttle nothing was large enough to carry the Veritechs into space.
"We need to push them back! Move it Skull Squadron," Rick ordered with a snarl taking out a few simulated battlepods trying to break through him and get to the simulated form of the SDF-2 that lay behind him. The rest of the squadron responded to his order by plowing through enemy pods destroying several more. A few minutes later the screens around the cockpit went dark as the simulation ended, and the cockpit opened showing a large room with dozens of other pods shaped like the escape pod of a VF-1. With a sigh Rick dragged himself out of the pod and turn to look at the proud and tired faces of the rest of the squadron. Not a single one of them had been shot down during the simulation. They all stood awaiting the order to jump into yet another simulation. Yet Rick only smiled tiredly at them before checking his watch and looking over at the group.
"I think that is yet for tonight folks. You all did great and deserve some rest so get out of here," he ordered with smile making them cheer tiredly before breaking up and leaving the simulation room behind them Rick proudly watching them.
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Skull Squadron Ready Room
SDF-1 Macross
April 26, 2010
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Two weeks after Rick first formed his squadron he stood before the group once more in the squadron's ready room looking over at the group proud of them for they went through some of the most intense training that anyone of them have ever been through. With a smile he looked over the group knowing that they were no longer strangers to one another but squadmates, and friends.
"Alright Skulls listen up, as you known it has been two weeks since we had first started training and I must say I am impressed as well as proud not a single one of you dropped out which I was somewhat expecting when I first formed this squadron. Yet not a single one of you quit and that is something that deserves some credit. Therefore you all, along with myself, get a week long liberty leave in Macross City. Go have fun and see your family that perhaps you haven't seen in these two weeks," he said to the loud cheers of the squadron. With that said Rick went around exchanging handshakes and some hugs with his pilots before the room was once more empty leaving Rick behind. With a smile Rick made his way out and headed for his quarters.
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Quarters of Rick Hunter and,
Lisa Hayes
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With a sigh Rick crawled into bed and smiled as Lisa turned over to look at him with tired eyes staring at him. He smiled at her and rubbed her cheek making her close her eyes and sighed in comfort at this.
"So it's over I take it?" Lisa asked tiredly snuggling up against his from. Rick just threw an arm over her and inhaled her scent.
"Yes for the next week I am all yours Miss Hayes," Rick mentioned as he looked down at her making her smile up at him pleased.
"Very good maybe we can actually finish a date," Lisa mentioned with a chuckle that Rick made Rick smile for after their disastrous first date they had tried to go out on a few other dates but were all interrupted for some reason or another.
"Yes ma'am," he said as he started to fall asleep pleased that he managed to create the Skull Squadron he wanted to create, and hope Roy wherever he is was proud of what he had created for the Skull Squadron was reborn like a phoenix from its ashes.
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Post Chapter Notes:
Well folks! Here is Chapter Six and I am sure many are wondering why I wrote this instead of continuing on the path of Part Three of Frozen in Time. Well my answer to that is that I needed to some way to rebuilt Skull Squadron since in Frozen it just reappears in Part Five during the attack on New Carter as a complete squadron. So here is how Rick rebuilds the Squadron making it into the Elite of the Elite by making it go through two weeks' worth of non-stop training.
As for the Fokker Curse mentioned in this chapter, well that I got from the From the Stars comics where Roy has lost several wing mates during his career along the one he had in the comic itself Lieutenant Steve Arnold. Therefore this so-called curse has carried over to Roy's service in the RDF in the form of Skull Squadron receiving numerous casualties during the early battles of the First Robotech War. As for the pilot known as Samuel Rush, yes I intend for him to become the father of Marlene and Marcus Rush from later in the Robotech series.
Also the introduction of Kira Yamato to the squadron is most likely going to make a few readers a little peeved at me however I am not going to make him some sort of super-ace like he becomes in his own series. That is Max's position in this story after all. He does sport remarkable flight instincts yet at the same time his gunnery sucks, and he often relays on firing off a storm of missiles to destroy his target. Therefore I have given him some weaknesses to counteract his flying abilities.
I do believe that is it and with that said I shall try very hard to get the next chapters up fast as possible. Hopefully I can get them all done before I have to start writing Wings of Freedom when November 1 rolls around.
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Omake 06: Shadow War (Part 1)
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In the offices of Lieutenant General Gunther Reinhardt the acting overall Supreme Commander of the entire Robotech Expedition Force, or rather what remained of the Expedition anyways after the Invid and later the Haydonites got through with it. The mentioned man sat behind his large desk talking with another man who stood in front of his desk. This man happened to be Captain Vince Grant former commander of the Shimakaze Class Battlecruiser Icarus now currently the new commander of the Ark Angel a former colony ship.
"The refit of the Ark Angel is going ahead as planned and your suggestions have been taking into count. However I don't think we will have the time to equip her with a Reflex Cannon like you have suggested, but even then the idea to turn her into a combined support ship and carrier is a good move. This is something we can do with the limited facilities we have here at ALuCE. If I could I would send her back to Space Station Freedom or the Karbarra Shipyards but that would take months. Time we don't have," General Reinhardt was saying the larger man standing in front of him.
"Thank you General. I know that we are loading up half of the Fleet's remaining Protoculture supply onto the Ark Angel for our search of the SDF-3. I do have a suggestion for you sir to help keep your Protoculture use down yet still allow you to have some patrols," Captain Grant mentioned taking the data pad he had under one arm. The general looked up at his senior captain with a frown but waved him on.
"When I was searching for some ships to join the Ark Angel on this mission I found the ship register for the Tranquility Reserve Depot. On it I saw that there are several of the old Oberth Class Destroyers still at the depot," the captain said sitting down the pad onto the general's desk making the older man look up at the Captain in surprise. Grant mentioned the other main lunar base of the REF which was used as a mothball yard where they placed their old ships when they don't need them anymore.
"The Oberth Class are relics Captain and do not sport fold drives. What do you expect me to use them for?" he asked with a frown and a shake of his head. Captain Grant simply chuckled before bringing up something on the pad on the desk and turning it so the general could read it.
"These old Oberth Class ships were built before the introduction of Protoculture powered Reactors sir. They are powered by Fusion Nuclear Reactors," the Captain replied with a small grin on his face. General Reinhardt looked up at him with his jaw hanging open in shock for he didn't know that.
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So ends Part One a series of Shadow Chronicles based Omakes, since the SC Plot bunnies are multiplying I needed a way to appease them somehow. Anyways for the purpose of this series the Oberth class is not powered by protoculture or at least I don't think that they are anyways in Robotech I haven't found anything that says they are anyways.
With that said I shall get the next chapter out ASAP!
