Welcome to Chapter 2
3 Days later…
Max stood on the flight deck on the SDF-1, his clothes and hair blowing in the wind. The sun was beginning to rise, golden light enveloping half the sky, while the other half behind him was dark. It looked like a battle between light and dark was happening above him. He chuckled to himself, then looked around him. People were finishing up the last of bringing in supplies, with the occasional pilot running across the deck. He folded his arms in as he watched.
"So this is it… huh..?" A voice behind him caught his ears, and a saddened one at that. He looked back to see Katie in her director's uniform slowly approaching his side.
"Yes… We will be leaving within the hour," Max nodded as he looked back to the mess below.
"It's not too late to stay here, with us… with me," she looked away from him.
Max pulled her into a hug, though she did not wrap her arms around him, "I have to do this for Humanity's future. And besides, I can't take you with me because you, your brother, your dad… they're too important to Earth's development to take with me. Plus, the SDFN class of ships were designed to do this anyway."
"I know… I… I don't want to lose another one of my family in space again…" Katie spoke, muffled by her face in his chest.
"I… I'll come back soon," Max looked away, not wanting to make any promises.
"Speaking of which," she spoke as they broke away. It was the first time Max could see she had puffy red eyes, telling him she had been crying for about an hour, "do you know how long you will be gone?"
Max placed his hands in his pockets, "honestly… I don't know… I could take months… maybe a year or two…" She noticeably flinched when he said a year or two. Max sighed, "I… I can't promise that I will return… but, I will try to be back as soon as possible."
"You better…" Katie muttered, barely audible for Max to hear.
"Admiral Holt sir!" Another voice caught both of their attentions. They turned back to see an officer saluting, a datapad in his left hand, "all supplies are loaded into the ship and all crew and fighters are accounted for!"
"Thank you. Prepare the ship for departure, that will be all," Max ordered as the officer saluted again, then marched off.
"I guess I'll leave you to it then… be back soon," Katie slumped over as she walked over to her fighter. As she hopped in her canopy and her engines roared with life, a voice in the noise caught her attention.
"HEY!" A shout from Max caught her ears, "I LOVE YOU." His hair and uniform fluttered loosely in the wind that her fighter generated. He held his left arm out in front of him in a makeshift shield.
"I love you, too…" she mouthed as her canopy closed, and she rose into the sky before taking off towards the West. Max watched her fly off into the distance, a frown casted on his face.
"Admiral Holt, we are ready to begin ascension protocols on your orders, sir!" A bridge officer called through his comms on his watch.
"I'm on my way." He spoke as he turned to leave the flight deck. He glanced back one more time to where Katie disappeared from view before sighing and continued to walk away.
As Max entered the bridge, he walked over and sat in his chair, viewing the city that surrounded the massive vessel before pointing at the helm officers.
"Take her up!" Max shouted. A flurry of orders soon bellowed from all the bridge officers.
"Engine output is increasing!"
"All personnel to take off positions!"
"Outer Dam Systems are engaged for the City!"
"Engines are at 80%. 90%. Admiral, Engines are at full power!"
"The fleet is standing by at Lunar Outpost Omega. They're waiting on the Macross."
"Good," Max said, "initiate the take off sequence, get her out of this lake!" The Macross slowly began to shake as the waters around its legs began to form waves.
"Lift off procedure initiated! Lift off at ten! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One!"
The Macross slowly began to rise from the surface of Earth. Its mechanical legs escaping the water's surface and causing waves to reach high levels, but nothing that was too alarming as the city was built for this. The ship slowly ascended over the skyscrapers as it breached the skies.
"Macross Transformation sequence initiated!"
The ship slowly began to transform back into cruiser mode as the ship began to enter the upper atmosphere. As the darkness of space soon overtook the blue skies, everyone's chatter began to die down as the stars and other planets slowly came into view.
"We've now exited Earth's gravitational field." The Macross soon approached the Lunar Station, 37 ships of both Galran and Earth design floated around a colony vessel that rivaled the Macross in length.
"Admiral, the Captain of the IGF Megaroad is hailing us."
"Put 'em through," Max raised his cap as the screen in front of him changed to a comms channel. On the other side, an older looking gentleman sat on the other bridge, a smile written on his face.
"Nice to see the Macross finally join up with us! All 37 ships are ready to go on your orders!" The other captain spoke as he chuckled like an old man. Max shook his head with a laugh of his own.
"All ships, prepare to fold!" Max shouted as the helm officer laid in a course to a distant system.
"Course laid in, sir! All ships have received the designated coordinates. Minimal Fold Faults detected in our path of travel!"
"Very Good! All ships! Commence Fold Operations!" Max ordered as 39 massive swirling purple vortexes opened up, and 39 ships passed through them, disappearing as the Fold collapsed on itself.
5 Months later…
Max stared at the datapad that had been presented in front of him, then looked up at the orange, green and blue planet in front of him. He turned to the science officer that stood next to him.
"You think that this can do the trick?" Max asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
The science officer nodded, "yes sir, the atmospheric makeup is 93.4% identical to that of Earth's. While there are still a lot of differences in time and seasonal changes, I believe that this planet can sustain human and alien life."
"Have we determined if there are any… unfriendlies down there on the surface?" Max questioned.
The officer nodded again, "yes sir, we did a thorough planetary scan, no civilizations of any sorts are present anywhere on the surface."
Max stretched his limbs out as he yawned, "5 whole months, and we finally found a planet suitable for us… excellent! Prepare to survey a suitable location for landing. Helm, plot a course for the planet's surface and be prepared to drop when a location is discovered. Sanchez, send a Fold Message to the Galaxy Garrison. Let them know we have found a suitable location for the colony and are beginning to make landing preparations." The bridge officers nodded then went to work on their respective duties.
The IGF Megaroad landed on a vast plain while the Macross and several Galran and Earth ships landed nearby. The Macross found a suitable lake for the ship to float it, so it did so. For the next 16 Months, The citizens and military personnel began constructing a massive city around the massive lake around the Macross. Large Skyscrapers pierced into the skies, while shipyards were constructed at the ends of the colony, allowing for all ships to dock and deliver supplies, as well as the construction of entirely new ships. The Colony had grown to the size of Macross City itself, so much so it reminded Max too much of home. When the Colony had been built at a certain point, he declared that this first human colony was to be named after one of the fallen Paladins, Allura. Thus, Colony Allura had been born, and humanity's first interstellar settlement had been established.
Life was beautiful on the planet, albeit a bit unusual, as days were roughly 36 hours instead of 24 on Earth. Nevertheless, human and alien life flourished in the Colony. Max smiled to himself as he sat in his captain's chair onboard the Macross, a cup of tea in his hands. Small hover ships darted all across the city. Everything had gone so smoothly for the colony's development. It almost felt a little too easy in his mind, but of course there were some hardships here and there. Max looked over to his officers that were calmly doing their tasks at their work stations, chatting amongst themselves over small topics. Since they weren't in any combat or anything too serious, Max mostly lifted the usual 'only work related topics' ban on conversations, which he wouldn't lie, made the bridge much more lively. The two officers were laughing about something that Max didn't quite catch, but he was sure it wasn't anything too important. He took a sip of the tea before setting it down on a nearby desk and leaning back in his chair, closing his eyes. He considered falling asleep in his chair, but that would be irresponsible, plus what would the bridge crew think?
He smiled to himself in his head. Dear God, they had reshaped him and how he thought about his reputation.
"Sir, I'm getting a communication from the Lexington!" His comms officer knocked him away from his thoughts as he opened his eyes and looked behind him. The young woman in the seat was waving for him. He stood up and walked over to her console, staring at the screen over her shoulders.
"What do they have to report?" Max asked, staring blankly at the screen's content.
"The Lexington was patrolling the outer edge of the system when they came into contact with an unknown ship that didn't match with any known designs we have in our database," the officer reported. Max raised his eyebrow in interest. An unknown vessel, eh? Maybe he can bring them into coalition… assuming they were friendly… that last thought made him drop his interest and replace it with slight concern. The officer continued, "they attempted to contact the ship, but they got no response on any frequencies. They managed to capture some images, but due to the range, the quality is shoddy. That's when they said the ship turned and Folded out of the system." The other officers ceased their banter and looked over to the two.
Max's eyes widened and looked down at the officer, "did you just say it Folded out of the system?"
The officer nodded, "yes sir, I'm pulling up the images so you can see them now!" The screen pulled up an image of a very distorted ship in the far off distance. Max had to squint to glimpse at the ship. Something began to turn in his head as he examined the ship.
"Ensign, clean up this image if you can…" Max spoke. The ensign nodded and began to work on cleaning out the image. Max returned his gaze back to the ship. The ship was small, no doubt the size of perhaps a Northampton class stealth frigate. The ship looked like it had a very dull green, but he couldn't really be 100% certain. Still… that color scheme of the ship was… familiar, but how? Now that he thought about it, the design was also unusually familiar, but he couldn't put a finger on it.
"Here, sir! This is the best I can do," the ensign spoke up as she caught his attention. The screen sizzled for a moment only to reveal a much more clear ship. The moment he laid eyes on that ship, he froze. There was no doubt about what he had pondered about. That ship WASN'T unknown. His heart began to race. This could get really, REALLY bad.
"How long ago was this?" He rushed his sentence, adrenaline rushing through his veins. The other officers took note of his changed demeanor, and began to get worried.
"About an hour ago, sir? The Lexington was a little outside the communication range needed to transfer this file and they wanted to clean it up before sending it to us," the officer responded, now noticing the sweat that was forming on him.
"Contact the Lexington immediately," Max ordered as he stood up and went over to the radar station.
"Yes sir!" the ensign nodded before typing away, then putting on a headset. She stood there in her seat for a moment, then took off her headset, "no response from Lexington, sir!"
"Try again-!" he was about to say before another voice caught his attention, this time from the radar operator.
"Sir! The Lexington is no longer appearing on sensors! They're not there anymore!" the girl manning the station shouted, panic evident in her voice.
"Sir, we're getting reports of several ships De-Folding near the planet," the communications officer spoke before she listened in her headphones, "wait, strike that, make that about one hundred! N-No, TWO hundred! T-THREE?!"
"Get me visual!" Max yelled as he ran to his seat. When the screen flared to life and showed him what was happening, his eyes widened in fear. "Dear God…"
"SIR! THEY'RE FIRING ON THE FLEET!" The comms officer shrieked as everyone went back to facing the console.
"Get me on all channels! All hands! BATTLESTATIONS!" Max ordered as he sat straight up, his eyes filled with anger.
In the vast void of space, four Earth ships were flying in an irregular formation. Two of these ships were Northampton class frigates, one was a Guantanamo class carrier ship, and the final was a Stealth Cruiser. Markings on the hulls of each ship indicated that they belonged to the First Human Colonization and Exploration Fleet. On the bridge of the Stealth Cruiser named Olympia, a middle aged man sat in the captain's chair. He had dark orange hair, tan-ish skin and green eyes. A scar was present that covered over one of his eyes, but he could still see perfectly out of it. He had a look of discipline on his face, but overall he was really exhausted. Several days ago, the Admiral had ordered them to do a recon in some of the nearby systems that bordered Colony Allura. While he was generally more than happy to serve the Admiral, this felt a little much in his mind.
Still though, he couldn't wait to get back to his home and sleep on his bed. A smile crept on his face as he closed his eyes and laid his arms behind his head. He never thought he would call this colony his home so fast. Is this his way of saying he would like to be reassigned to the defense of this colony.
"Sir, I'm getting something on sensors, but I can't make out what it is," a voice aroused him from his thoughts. He opened his eyes as he sat back up straight and looked down at the man who called out to him.
"On screen," he ordered as the viewscreen ahead of him flickered to show a large green object that floated in space. He raised an eyebrow as he examined the unusual object. It was extremely long for a ship, it almost looked like it could rival the Macross in size. That made him worry a bit, if that was the case and this was a hostile enemy, they may not be a match for it. It had bulges in the font that gave it the look of four dots as a face.
"Scans indicate that this is some sort of ship, sir, but there seems to be no life aboard- wait… that's strange…" the officer spoke.
"What? What's strange Lieutenant?" He asked, a sharpness in his tone.
"We can't get a good scan of the ship, not unless we get closer," the officer responded, scratching the back of his head in confusion.
"That's… unusual…" the captain muttered, then thought to himself, 'that sounds like the perfect trap.' He looked over to this comms officer, "commander, contact the Vanguard and tell them to launch a squadron of fighters to escort a Cat-Eye recon plane. Their orders are to examine the alien ship, we need to detail everything and present this information to Admiral Holt."
"Roger!" The commander nodded, then muttered the commands into a headset. They all waited for a moment before 8 MFE fighters escorting one larger plane with a giant radar dish on top of it slowly descended on the alien ship.
"Cat-Eye Recon Plane 2, standing by to examine the alien ship and transmit data back," the pilot spoke through the comms.
"Good, and remember, you are here to analyze, not to fight," the captain gave a subtitle, but still a firm reminder of their mission.
"Yes sir, transmitting data now!" the captain watched a camera view of the recon plane as it flew close to the alien ship, "it looks old captain, there are many hull fractures on the surface of the ship. We can see many ports, they look like they are either weapons ports or doors to a hangar bay."
"Sir, we're getting a message from the Apollo System… it's from Colony Allura- wait… no it's the Macross, sir! Priority 1 message!" The comms officer shouted.
"Priority 1? Play it immediately," the captain ordered. There was a pause before a staticy message began to play. The screen flashed to display a new hud that made everyone's blood run cold. The bridge of the Macross had been damaged, as smoke seemed to fill the room. A battered comms officer took the center stage of the screen, panic overwriting her face.
"This is Ensign Sato of the SDF-1 Macross to any and all- -of the fleet! DO NOT RETURN TO THE APOLLO SYSTEM! Colony Allura- -fallen! I REPEAT! COLONY ALLURA HAS BEEN DESTROYED! The IGF Megaroad has been destroyed. All ships are to evacuate as many civilians as you can and leave this system to Earth! The Macross will perform a rearguard action to cover the retreating ships. All ships are to avoid any ships that have not been identified! Ships that are mostly or entirely green in color are to be avoided or destroyed on sight!" The Captain's eyes widened as he looked up at the ship in front of him, his heart racing.
He shouted through the comms, "ALL FIGHTERS! RETURN TO THE HANGAR IMMEDIATELY!" Before they could even begin to question or react, multiple blue lasers shot from the hull, shredding each and every fighter. The screams of those pilots shook the wall and the wills of everyone in the bridge. Nine explosions glowed from under the hull of the enemy ship. The Captain slammed his fist on his chair and stood up, his eyes filling with rage and hate, "ALL UNITS, BATTLESTATIONS!"
Before anyone could react, numerous blue bolts of energy zoomed past his ship and slammed into the Vanguard, shredding apart its armor and destroying the entire ship in a matter of seconds. Everyone gasped at the sight of the ship being shredded apart effortlessly like paper.
A Northampton frigate that was to the carrier's left, the Expedition, began charging forward and firing its main armaments at the massive vessel, but its weapons had little to no effect on the ships hull. The Captain of the Stealth Cruiser could see multiple objects shimmering underneath the enemy ship, then zoom toward the frigate. Anti-ship missiles were speeding towards the ship. The frigate began firing multiple lasers to try and stop the incoming attack, and succeeded in destroying most of the incoming projectiles, but three slammed into the ship. Two slammed into the main hull while a third embedded itself into the bridge. The captain watched in horror as the missiles sank themselves into the ship and detonated from within. A massive explosion engulfed the whole ship, sending shrapnel and debris flying everywhere. A large hull fragment nearly passed over the hull of the stealth cruiser and slammed into the hull of the second Northampton frigate, a massive explosion racked the whole ship.
"The Excalibur's been hit!" An officer cried out as lasers bracketed the hull of the cruiser. The captain lunged forward from the knockback.
"Return fire!" The captain yelled, as he pointed at the enemy ship.
"Weapons are offline, hull breaches on all decks! Emergency power is active!" The Captain cursed to himself as he looked up and noticed the Excalibur charging towards the ship. A transmission came through the Excalibur as it began firing at the ship.
"Excalibur to Olympia, we're going to draw the ship's fire! Get your ass out of here and go warn Earth about this new threat!" the captain of the Excalibur shouted as the frigate zoomed past the dreadnought.
"Right! And captain… good luck…" Olympia's captain spoke as the comms went dead. He yelled at the helm officer, "ENSIGN! REVERSE COURSE! GET US OUT OF HERE! SET COURSE TO EARTH, SUPER LONG DISTANCE FOLD JUMP! I DON'T CARE IF WE BLOW OUT THE GODDAMN ENGINES! JUST GET US THERE NOW!" The ensign yelped, but nodded as the ship slowly began to turn away from the battle and fly away. A massive swirling purple vortex opened up in front of them as they began to go through the space fold. What they never saw was the Excalibur being massacred in a matter of seconds, exploding in a magnificent ball of fire, killing all on board and the alien ship beginning to turn on them.
"KEEP THAT MESSAGE PLAYING AT ALL TIMES! ENSIGN, FULL SPEED AHEAD, GET US THE FU-!" The captain was cut off as three silver missiles slammed into the body of the ship, one landing about 100 feet away from the main bridge. The sound of the shrieking metal made his ears want to bleed. He slowly stood up as the missiles just remained lodged in the hull, the ship slowly approaching the Fold. He sighed, "Well… Fuck…". No one heard any screams as the ship exploded as it entered the Fold, the vortex collapsing in on itself before it could present any evidence of the ship's existence.
18 months after the Macross left the Earth.
Director Katie Holt rushed through the hallways, slamming into everything and everyone in her path as she made her way into the intelligence room. She would shout apologies as she blitzed past everyone, knocking them out of the way. When she got to the intelligence room, her face was red, her breathing was shaky as she gasped, hunching over out of breath. She lifted her hand up, though her arm and hand were equally as shaky.
"I'm… I'm here..!" she sputtered out before she slowly stood up straight, albeit wearily, "Now… What was it you wanted to speak to me about that you had to wake me up this early again?" It was then she noticed that this meeting was with the highest officers in the Galaxy Garrison and the Coalition. Shiro was there, looking at her with a look that made her worry. Keith was also there, though his expression was just as emo as ever. It made her nearly giggle out loud every time at the fact he always looked so emo at the most serious moments.
"Katie…" Shiro's voice drew her attention to the man. He sighed, "there's… no real way of explaining this to you…"
A Commodore slowly stepped forward, her face grim, "Katie… you know how it can take several days to get messages to and from the Expeditionary Fleet, right?"
"Right..?" Katie raised her eyebrow in 'yeah, I know that?' Why did she bring that up anyway? Katie's mind began to turn to a fact, 'well, it HAS been a long time since Max has responded to me, but I always thought it was because he was busy, because he had said he was working on something big over there before he was going to leave…'.
The Commodore lowered her head, "then there is no easy way to say this but…" Katie looked up at her, her heart beginning to beat faster, "Katie… we've lost contact with the fleet and all personnel aboard it…"
Stunned wasn't even the proper term to describe what she heard… what she felt. Lost? No way! They were just delayed! Yeah! That's it! Just delayed! They'll send a message in a few hours! No big deal.
She fell to her knees, fresh tears began to form in her eyes. No, no no no NO NO! This CAN'T be happening again! Not again!
"NOT AGAIN!" She screamed, slamming her fist into the ground with such force that it startled most of the staff in the room, except Shiro and Keith.
"It's been nearly a month since their last message. We need to face facts, they're gone!" An officer spoke up.
"THIS again?! We can't just leave them without knowing what the hell happened!" another officer refuted. Soon a heated debate began to take place, but there was no way a human could stop it. Katie had already tuned out everything besides her ringing ears and her heartbeat. Her breathing became hoarse as she gave out a soft wail. Why does this have to happen to her… AGAIN? Is this the Universe's way of mocking her, torturing her?! What had she ever done to deserve this.
An alarm rang throughout the room, coating the room in a crimson red light, bringing her attention back up to everything around her. Everyone was looking around the room in confusion before someone on the intercoms shouted, "Yellow Alert! Unscheduled DeFold in Progress!"
Shiro rushed to a holo-console in the middle of the room and pressed a button, "this is Shiro, give me a visual on what's going on out there!" There was a pause before the table came to life and projected an image in front of them. There was a defold gate that was close to Earth, the moon in the distance. Three ships were slowly approaching the gate, prepared for anything that would come, but not even the mightiest battleships and most stern of crew could have prepared enough for what they were about to see.
A fireball soon came through the Fold, shrapnel and debris flying everywhere. They slammed into the hulls of the ships nearby, causing hull breaches and explosions, though not enough to destroy those ships. Then a massive fireball slowly emerged from the Fold before it closed behind it. Everyone's eyes widened at what they saw come through. What had actually emerged was a barely recognizable hull of a Stealth Cruiser, floating adrift in space. The hull was beyond a mess, as massive holes in the sides indicated it had been slammed with high yield missiles or torpedoes. It was terrifying for the officers in the intelligence room, even Keith was shaking a little.
"Identification markers are showing this ship to be the IGF Olympia…" An officer spoke, their voice wavering.
"Wait… the Olympia..? That ship was part of the Expedition Fleet!" Another officer shouted in panic. The room erupted into panicked murmurs and fear.
"Commander Shirogane, we're picking up a message that's playing from the debris of the Olympia," someone on the comms spoke.
"Play it," Shiro's voice was dark, evident that would have transpired just now had hardened him, yet shakened him to his core as well.
Static erupted in the comms before a female voice came through, shouting, "This is Ensign Sato of the SDF-1 Macross to any and all- -of the fleet! DO NOT RETURN TO THE APOLLO SYSTEM! Colony Allura- -fallen! I REPEAT! COLONY ALLURA HAS BEEN DESTROYED! The IGF Megaroad has been destroyed. All ships are to evacuate as many civilians as you can and leave this system to Earth! The Macross will perform a rearguard action to cover the retreating ships. All ships are to avoid any ships that have not been identified! Ships that are mostly or entirely green in color are to be avoided or destroyed on sight!-" Everyone was speechless at what they heard. Keith's eyes were wide and his mouth was agape. Shiro's hardened stance began to falter, but Katie had already broken. She suddenly collapsed, having fainted from the message played out. Several officers rushed to her side, trying to wake her up, but she didn't respond.
"Take her back to her home… she needs to rest… and calm down," Shiro muttered, his voice held no emotion. He looked down to the floor in disbelief. The officers carrying her nodded before exiting the room. He didn't say anything as his hands began to shake. A new comms frequency opened up to the meeting hall. On the other side was Colonel Iverson, standing on the bridge of a Stealth Cruiser.
"Commander Shirogane… under Admiral Holt's contingency initiative order 57A, you are hereby promoted to the rank of admiral and in command of the Galaxy Garrison. I congratulate you on your promotion…" Colonel Iverson spoke solemnly through the comms, "I… just wish this was under much better circumstances." Shiro only nodded as he kept looking down, the comms suddenly ending. Too many thoughts were rushing into his mind at once, he didn't have time to process anything. He almost felt like slamming his face on the console in front of him.
"A-Admiral… your orders?" an officer nervously spoke up, but he didn't move or even budge. The officer was about to speak again, before Shiro suddenly looked up, his face had anger written all over it.
"All Commanders and high ranking officers are to report to the main hall in 4 hours. Any Earth vessels that are on assignment are to return to Earth immediately. No ships are to leave without my permission. Contact the Coalition and the New Galran Republic and get me in touch with their leaders. All units are to go to high alert! Dismissed!" Shiro shouted as everyone rushed out of the hall. Only Shiro and Keith remained in the room as the half Galran slowly approached his side.
"So, you think there's a new threat on the horizon?" Keith asked, putting his hands in his pockets.
Shiro looked at him, with a deep scowl on his face, but both were aware that the expression was not directed at him. Shiro nodded, then looked at the destroyed ship in front of him, "Indeed, and one that can destroy humanity without a second thought…"
I hope you enjoy chapter two!
I'm trying to post chapters as fast as I can, but I am still a student, so I have priorities for my work first!
Take care everyone!
