Chapter 7: First Flight
IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE! IT'S FINA-LILY HERE! Yes, friends, there is finally an honest-to-goodness new chapter of Macross 30! And the finale to part one of the story as well! Some of you may have been wondering why, since this is a crossover, how come only one "legacy" character has shown up so far? Well, that's just how the game goes; part one is essentially set-up to how the rest of the game plays out and the fact that a certain Macross "enemy' shows up in this chapter should give you a hint as to who is going to show up next... assuming you haven't played the game before. ;)
The hatches to the simulators opened and Roy and Mina stepped out onto the floor of the sim room.
"How did I do, Major Focker?" she asked tentatively.
The time-lost pilot frowned slightly, looking the young woman up and down for a moment. "Normally I wouldn't heap praise on a pilot recruit, gotta watch out for that ego and all, but you… you've mastered the basics of piloting a Variable Fighter a LOT faster than I thought you would. Its only been a week and I'd say you're ready for your first flight."
"Really?!" cried Mina, her eyes shining in anticipation.
"Yeah, really. But don't get me wrong, Rion and I will be putting you through your paces. According to Ms. Aisha, there have been a lot more bandit incidents over the last few days and I don't train anyone just so they can get shot down their first time out. Just because you've got the basics down, doesn't mean you're an ace. Got it?"
"Yes sir!" replied Mina, doing her best at a formal salute. Roy returned the salute with a chuckle and they both made their way up to the Gefion's bridge to report in to Aisha.
Aisha was in her usual place, next to the globe-like holographic display on the right-hand side of the bridge. despite being the de-facto Captain of the Gefion, Aisha preferred this chair as she could easily access all of the ship's systems from that position. A few moments later, Rion also stepped onto the bridge.
"OK, the gang's all here," Aisha said, turning in her chair so that she could talk to all three of them, "Rion, we've received another request from the Hunter Guild to do a pickup job.
"A pickup job, huh?" he said, a noticeable lack of enthusiasm in his voice.
"Not every job can be an actual bounty, besides this will be a good job for Mina to earn her wings on. All you have to do is fly out to Leopold City, it's on the other side of the archipelago from Britai City, pickup some supplies and fly them into the city and you'll be done. Any questions?"
"No, that should cover it," replied Rion, "You ready to fly, Mina?"
"Yes! I've been waiting for this ever since Major Focker began teaching me!"
"Just call me Roy, kid, you're not military so no need to be too formal."
"Alright, 'uncle' Roy," Mina cheekily replied and flounced out of the bridge before anyone could reply.
"Ah to be a teenager again," Roy said, wistfully.
Aisha followed them down to the hangar so she could personally present Mina with her new Valkyrie. Mina's personal machine was hidden under a white tarp but some of its hull wasn't covered completely, exposing some sky-blue colored fins. Aisha uncovered it with a dramatic flourish and Mina practically squealed in delight while Rion couldn't help but offer a rueful, "I don't suppose there's a VF-11 for me to fly, is there?"
"I wouldn't mind giving her spin either," added Roy, rubbing his chin in thought.
"Unfortunately not, Mina gets the new one since she's a more inexperienced pilot than you or Roy."
"Well, hard to argue with that. OK, Mina, let's get started on the preflights."
Despite saying that though, Rion couldn't help but be a little envious.
Soon enough, Rion's VF-0S and Mina's VF-11C Thunderbolt were ready to launch on the Gefion's ramps.
"Remember, you don't need absolute full throttle to launch, that's what the electromagnetic catapult is for," Roy's voice crackled from the headsets in their helmets. His VF-1S was still parked on the internal elevator, waiting to be lifted into place as soon as Rion and Mina took off.
"Right, I remember," Mina said, a little nervously.
"Just relax and remember your training and you'll do just fine," said Rion, reassuringly. Just then, holographic lights began to flash across his launch ramp, indicating that the catapult was charged and ready to go. Rion looked to his left and saw one of Gerrol's deck crew, the "shooter," giving him the OK sign. He pushed his throttle up to take off speed and as the modified reaction turbines of his Phoenix replica roared to life he called out, "Siegfried 1, launching!"
His Phoenix rocketed off the ramp, dipped slightly as gravity took hold but then soared up into the wide blue sky. For Mina's part, she couldn't help but still be nervous, after all she was about to do something she'd never done in her life, at least as far as she knew. She went through the pre-launch steps just like Roy had taught her, gently pushed the throttle forward but when she looked at the shooter standing to her Valkyrie's left, he was waving his hand in a message that was not the "OK to launch" sign. It took Mina a frantic few seconds to remember that it was the hand signal for her to apply more throttle. Her cheeks burning from embarrassment, she pushed the throttle slightly more forward.
"Mina Forte, Thunderbolt 037, launching!"
No amount of training could really have prepared her for the jolt as the electromagnetic catapult engaged, augmented by the thrust of her engines, hurling her and her plane across the ramp. her Valkyrie dipped much more than Rion's had and wobbled left and right as Mina tried to compensate. She managed to level out but that wasn't technically what she was supposed to have done; she was supposed to have pulled up and looped around the Gefion, waiting for Roy to launch.
Rion pulled up alongside her, although it took her a moment to notice between rapid breaths.
"It's always a little startling the first time off the ramp but I'm sure you'll get used to it in no time," he said.
A few minutes later, the three valkyries were winging their way across the islands and blue water of the Julia Islands. After the rocky start, Mina was doing much better now, and Roy and Rion got treated to an impromptu airshow as Mina looped and cartwheeled across the sky.
"You're doing great, Mina!" said Rion, frankly amazed at how well she was able to fly after just a little more than a week's training.
"Fun is fun, kids, but we do have a job to do," Roy reminded them.
"Sorry, Roy, it just feels so… so… incredible up here!" replied Mina.
"Then let's put your training to the test and see how well you can keep formation. Rion, lead the way. That should be Leopold City up ahead."
Leopold City, like Daoren, was built into the underground, or rather, underwater interior of the large island it was situated on with only a small aerodrome complex above the surface for vehicles, transports and Valkyries to land and take off. The SMS trio soared over the city entrance and made their way to a pair of mountains. The mountains had perhaps been one formation some time in the past but their sides dropped off into a canyon that split the two formations in twain as if a giant's axe had cleaved them apart. Near the one opening of the canyon were the containers that the trio had come to retrieve. As Rion and Roy supervised, Mina transformed her Thunderbolt into GERWALK mode and maneuvered into place to grapple one of the containers and lift it skyward. She was just about to when a large red object came zooming out of the canyon almost on top of them.
"What in the hell was that?" asked Roy, trying to get a lock on the object in case it was hostile. Rion felt his jaw drop when he got a good look at the intruder.
"I don't believe it. It's a Vajra!"
"What's a Vajra?" asked Mina.
"They're a life-form that the Frontier and Galaxy fleets encountered near the galactic core. They were initially thought to be hostile but after it was revealed that the Galaxy fleet was trying to use them for their own purposes, Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee managed to communicate with the Vajra and the Galaxy Conspiracy was routed. But the Vajra were supposed to have left after the war, migrated to another galaxy maybe. I don't know why there'd be some here on Ouroboros," Rion explained.
The huge, insect-like alien drifted down towards the three Valkyries, it's flight pattern slightly erratic, twitching this way and that.
"That is one ugly space bug," remarked Roy, the barrel of his gunpod pointed squarely at the red Vajra.
"Don't fire on it," advised Rion, "I don't think it'll attack us if we don't attack it."
The Vajra drifted around them, seemingly examining them then, with a sudden burst of speed, it flew away.
"That was close," said Mina. She hadn't been expecting that they might get into combat on her first sortie.
"Yeah, but it's gone now, so let's get the containers and get out of here," said Roy.
Fortunately, the rest of the mission had no more surprises in store form them, though Rion couldn't shake the feeling in his gut ever since they had run into the Vajra. It almost seemed like an omen somehow.
For Mina's part, she managed to make her first carrier landing or "trap" as the pilot's parlance went, much better than her take off. While Roy stayed in the hangar to argue maintenance with Gerrol, Rion and Mina reported to Aisha on the bridge.
"Hmm, you're right Rion. There shouldn't be any Vajra here on Ouroboros. I wonder if they were brought here by the Aurora as well?" Aisha said, tapping the eyeglasses she kept tucked into the front collar of her top. "Well, in any case, it sounds like you guys completed the job just fine and Mina did great for her first flight. Let's celebrate down in the galley, my treat!" With that, Aisha bounded out of her chair towards the door, Rion and Mina following, hungrily anticipating the feast to come.
Man, it's good to have this chapter finally done, even though it was fairly short compared with the rest. I was all geared up to write it, I had the last of the old chapters updated and everything... and then, after two years of dodging the bullet, I end up with COVID and lose about a month. Now, with exactly two months left until the franchise's 40th anniversary, I doubt that I'm gonna be able to finish this before then. But at least I'll be well along by then
In any case, I hope you enjoyed part one and are looking forward to part two. See you next deculture!