Chapter 2 – A Question of Choice

Horizon City, the capital of the Macross Horizon emigration fleet. Located in the center of the primary clam-shaped colony ship, Mirai, one might compare the city to a pearl shining brightly within a sea of stars. Millions of people called the city their home or place of work, and it is from this central hub that the Horizon government reigns, materials are transported to the rest of the fleet, and businesses are operated. The bustling cityscape can be seen even a hundred-and-fifty kilometers away from Island 30 in the back of the convoy, a true testament to the city's role as the busiest place in the fleet.

Mirai, Horizon City

The next afternoon, Carol, who had since been discharged from the hospital ship Marianne, picked me up in her car – a sleek, pure white 2062 Steele Nebula – to drive us to our dinner. It was a nice change of pace to ride through the streets of Horizon City not in a streetcar or bus, but in a fancy sports car for once. It was only marginally faster than the Fleet Transit System, but it was also more private – there were no crowds, and it was a lot quieter with only two people in the car. No wonder these things were so expensive. Maybe I should buy a car...

"Carol," I began with a sigh as we began walking away from her car and towards the restaurant, "I still think this whole dinner party is too much…"

A hard slap on my back knocked me forward slightly, and I stumbled to regain my footing. I turned my head to glare at Carol, who simply responded by pointing a finger gun at me and winking, "I told you already, tonight is on your senpais!"

"I know, but there's just so many people coming tonight." I objected. Carol had texted me a list of the people expected to be attending, and including ourselves, around 20 people were expected to dine with us.

Carol moved her hand onto my shoulder and began pushing me along, "This is your night, Hiroshi. I want it to be special! So stop fussing over everything, and just relax!"

As expected, Carol and I were the first to arrive at the restaurant. After Carol showed her reservation to the people at the front, we were shown to the VIP room in the back of the restaurant, where a grand oak table awaited us. Just a single look of the tablecloth, plates, and utensils laid out on the table gave the signal that this would be an extravagant night.

Since the celebration was in my honor, I sat at the very end of the table by myself, while Carol occupied the closest seat to my right.

"So, are you nervous right now?" Carol asked as we settled into our seats, tilting her head to the side.

I shrugged, "Kinda."

"Oho," Carol's eyes widened as she leaned onto the table towards me. She continued on in an excited, curious tone, "Really? Do tell me why."

Well, it's not like I have anything better to do…

"For starters, it's still a bit jarring to think that the famous Lightning Queen will be one of my crew members, and not to mention that I'll be meeting her tonight. What if I don't meet her expectations?" I told her. I shook my head before continuing onto my next worry, "And you know of the issue with her sister, Takao. I can only assume that she gave me the cold shoulder yesterday because I didn't remember her, so who knows how our ability to work together will be affected by my mistake?"

Carol shook her head with a closed-eye smile at my response to her question.

She opened her eyes, and stared into my own, "Hiroshi, how many times have I had to tell you over the past day to not worry about it?" She said in a somewhat scolding tone. "Take all of this one step at a time. Think of tonight as your chance to start anew with Takao, and just be yourself. Take your time to build trust and friendship with everyone, and I'm sure that it'll all work out fine."

I scoffed, "Easy for you to say that."

"What do you mean?" She responded with a raised eyebrow. "That's exactly how I earn the loyalty of my crew, don't you think? Y'know, there was a point in time when we were just strangers, but look at us now! How do you think our relationship got to this point?"

She certainly wasn't wrong, but watching and being the receiver of Carol's style of leadership was a completely different thing than doing it yourself…

I shrugged to Carol's seemingly rhetorical question that I knew both of us already knew the answer to, and decided to playfully respond in a tone slightly higher than usual, "Because I'm your cute kouhai that needs to be watched over, right?"

She sighed, "Hiroshi, I'm being serious." She paused for a second to shake her head in disapproval before giving me her real answer, "It's because we got to know each other outside of work and became normal friends, silly! Take initiative and show interest in your officers in your spare time. I'm sure even Takao has something she enjoys that will help her open up to you and forget your memory mistake!"

Well, since she was so adamant about it, I guess I might as well try putting some thought into applying what she had just told me to the 5 officers on my soon-to-be-crew that I was already familiar with while we were just sitting here and waiting. What could I talk about or do in order to bond with them? Akashi and Kirishima were already my friends, so I wouldn't have to worry about them, but what about the Takanashi twins and Ooyodo?

I now found myself staring into the roof as I pondered on that question. Atago, being a top pilot, would probably enjoy talking about flying or something; if not, she seemed sociable enough to carry on a conversation about just about anything – she wasn't the queen of the Officer's Academy for nothing, after all. I don't have any prior knowledge to go on for Ooyodo, but judging from her texts from yesterday, she at least had a serious side to her, but she seemed friendly enough; like Atago, there shouldn't be much trouble with getting to know and bonding with her.

And that left me with the issue of the hour, the mysterious twin, Takanashi Takao. All I knew about her was that she was an operations officer like me. She was mostly silent yesterday, so I couldn't get much insight on her… I guess I would have to employ the help of her sister and Ooyodo for figuring out more about her.

A satisfied hum from Carol brought my out of my thoughts, and I refocused attention to her as she said, "Good. I can see you're really thinking about what I said. You'll be a fine captain, Hiroshi, don't you worry~"

A few moments later, a waiter came through the doorway, followed by a pink-haired man and glasses-donning woman with a bob cut – these were two familiar faces I had not seen in-person for a few weeks.

"Kirishima-chan! Akashi-kun!" I practically burst out of my chair to greet the two. "It's been a while, huh?"

"Why yes it has, dear Kanchou," Akashi sarcastically said with a bow befitting of a butler as I came to stand in front of the two. "It is truly an honor to be serving with you."

I began to shake my head and wave my hands in front of me in disapproval to Akashi's comment. While I knew it was a jest, I didn't want our dynamic to change now that I would be their superior...

Before I could say anything in response, however, Kirishima sighed and jabbed him in the side, "Oh, quit it, Akashi-kun." She now turned to me, "How have you been, Hiro-kun?"

"Well other than a bit of anxiety due to my promotion, I've been doing great," I started, before bowing down to her – while I had thanked her through text for her involvement in the last battle, I hadn't seen her directly until now, "But more importantly, thank you again, Kirishima-sama!"

"Oh, it's nothing, Hiro-kun," she stepped closer and patted me on the shoulder, "You know I'll always have your back."

After raising my body back up, I nodded in affirmation to Kirishima before addressing both of my friends, "But anyways, please don't think of me any differently, guys. Seriously."

"Of course."

"You know I was just kidding, dude."

"Thanks," I smiled before changing the subject. "Well, what about you two? How have you guys been doing?"

Akashi answered first with a chuckle, "The same as always, or rather, as hectic as always. You never know what you're going to get when it comes to Valkyrie maintenance." He sighed and lowered his head before going on in a melancholic tone "However, it's been getting kinda lonely here since my squadron always comes back from scouting missions when yours' go out, so I've just been sitting at home tinkering with stuff lately."

"Well, I don't think timing of us being in town will be an issue anymore," I commented.

Kirishima nodded from the corner of my eye.

"Fair enough," Akashi shrugged. His eyes sparkled as looked back up at us, "But on the bright side, the extra free-time has given me a good chance to make some new gadgets that I could sell, though!"

Of course he had - you could always count on Akashi to make something if he had access to access to parts. The actual usefulness of these items, however... Well, let's just say that his skill in fixing and maintaining machinery is preferred in most situations.

"You can still continue making them while on my ship," I teasingly offered. I let that statement sink in before adding with a chuckle, "Although, I'll have to ask for a 30% cut of your sales as your dear Captain~"

He snorted, "As if! Like you'll have any money issues with that new paygrade of yours."

Kirishima softly giggled in response, which drew both mine and Akashi's attention as we simultaneously turned our heads towards her. It was clear that it was now her turn to speak.

"And what about you, Kirishima-chan?" Akashi asked as Kirihsima's giggle died down.

"Well, other than saving a certain someone's butt," she said with a nod towards me, "It's been a bit slow for me recently, too. Not much to do other than firing drills most of the time."

She paused for a moment to think before adding, "Oh, and there's also this one person who's also transferring from the Sirius alongside me. Although, I have to say, she does scold me sometimes for being a bit noisy, and I don't really know her well, so I'm not super stoked about it."

There was only one other officer from the Sirius that I knew of, and that particular person would also be transferring to my own crew... She had to be talking about Takao, right?

"Would her name happen to be Takanashi Takao?" I asked, my curiosity now piqued.

"Yeah! How'd you know?" She responded, surprised. A split second later, she answered her own question, "Oh yeah! Takao-san was handling communications between us and you during that last mission..."

Now that I think about it, I could have probably probed Kirishima for some information about Takao yesterday, in addition to Ooyodo. However, she did say that she didn't know Takao that well, so it would've been better to just stick with asking Ooyodo anyways… Wait a second. Does Kirishima even know about the relationship between Atago and Takao?

"By the way, did you know that she's the twin sister of the Takanashi Atago?"

"Nope," she shook her head. "I actually had that thought when I first met her since they share the same family name, but I figured it was just a coincidence and never asked."

Akashi hopped into the conversation with a hint of surprise in his voice, "Really? Lightning Queen has a sister?"

"Apparently," I shrugged. "I only found this out yesterday; it seems like no one has ever heard of her until recently. Even Carol didn't know about her, and she's met Atago before!"

"Huh? What was that about me?" Carol's voice rang from the table, causing all three of us to turn to face her. In a sweet, yet somehow menacing tone, she called out, "Y'all three should come sit down and stop leaving me out of your conversations~!"

"She's right. Let's go sit down, shall we?" I offered, gesturing my two friends to the table.

Over the course of the next 15 minutes, more and more people began to show up. Carol's friends Bailey and Iowa showed up first and were soon followed by a few members of the North Carolina's bridge crew. Then, some of the officers that would be joining my crew on the Yokohama appeared, just as Carol had assured me.

Greetings and congratulations were hurled my way with each new group that joined us. While it was nice being the center of attention, it was getting tiring having to repeat the same exchanges every few moments…

Soon enough, there was only one group had yet to show up for tonight's gathering, and as it turned out, it was the one that I was most looking forward to seeing – Sarah's group, which consisted of Sarah, Atago, Ooyodo, and Takao.

Since Carol was already chatting with Bailey and Iowa while constantly checking her phone for updates from Sarah, and Kirishima and Akashi were in a deep conversation about some highly detailed and expensive replica of Ranka Lee's concert microphone, I gazed around the table, trying to match faces to names and positions. I would have to get to knowing their names sooner or later, so there was no time like the present to get a head start on it.

The girl with the long blue hair… Helen… Wait, no. It was Helena. Helena Taylor. Secondary sensors operator, and in charge of information analytics…

The man with the clean beard and grey-dyed hair… Edward Drake, navigation officer. What a fitting name…

The black-haired woman with twin-tails… Uh… Akatsuru Rui-… No, Zuikaku. Primary helmsman.

And over there was…

"Hey, Hiroshi!"

I was snapped out of my trance-like state by a voice calling to my left.

"Hiroshi!" Carol's voice came clearer this time, and her hand now shook my shoulder in an attempt to get my full attention.

I blinked hard to moisten my eyes, which had since gone dry from my focused scanning of the people gathered at the table, before turning to Carol.

"What is it?"

"Sarah and her group are here," Carol explained as she turned her phone screen towards me and began to point at it. "But they're having trouble proving that they're here with our party, so go up to the front of the restaurant and sort it out, okay?"

"Why can't you do that yourself? Isn't this supposed to be my party?" I countered, feigning a tired tone.

"I suppose," she began before giving me a sly smile, "But I thought you wanted to make amends with Takao? This is a good opportunity for you!"

Her hand did a shooing motion toward the door, and a small sigh escaped my lips as I pushed my chair out. I really couldn't argue with Carol, huh?

As I approached the front lobby of the restaurant, I spotted a group of four now very familiar women at the counter, just as Carol had said. Talking to the desk man was a tall brunette woman in a flashy white dress, who I immediately recognized as Sarah. Next to her, in a black, but similarly risqué dress that certainly didn't leave much to imagination, was none other than the Lightning Queen herself, Atago Takanashi. And finally, watching from the sidelines behind Sarah and Atago, were Ooyodo and Takao, who wore light and dark blue dresses respectively, which I might add were considerably less revealing than their counterparts.

"-just check the VIP room. We're with them." I heard Sarah say with a forced politeness as I entered hearing range.

It was at this point that I saw Ooyodo, who had been looking around idly, notice me and tap Sarah on the back, getting her attention. She then directed Sarah's view to me, and even from my distance, I could see the relief in her face.

"See? Here he is!" Sarah told the desk worker as she pointed in my direction.

I greeted the four women with a light wave as I stepped into the lobby. However, I didn't get enough time to look at their responses, as I turned to the desk worker to deal with the issue at hand.

Now that I had a clear look of him directly, rather than from the side, I recognized that he was the same guy that Carol and I had encountered earlier when we first showed up.

He seemed to recognize me as well, as he lowly gasped, "Oh, it's you, Mr. Nakajima. Forgive me for this misunderstanding…" He raised his arm and gestured towards the interior of the restaurant, looking at Sarah, "Please, go ahead, ladies."

Sarah responded with a smug, victorious grin on her face as she strode past me and was silently followed by the other girls, leaving me in the dust. Honestly, I would be annoyed too – I had no idea how he didn't let Sarah and the others through. Maybe it was because so many people had already showed up before them, claiming to be part of Carol and I's party? Whatever the reason, it didn't change the fact that I still had to show them where the VIP room was…

After catching up with Sarah and silently guiding them, I now held the door open for the four women to enter the VIP room. I followed suit after the last in line, Takao, had entered the room.

While I intended to return to my seat and look at the menu immediately after this, Sarah and the rest had a different plan in mind now that we were in relative privacy. Upon entry, I was blocked by Sarah and Atago, with Ooyodo and Takao standing slightly behind them, just as they had done to the desk worker earlier.

So, this would be how my first encounter with the Lightning Queen. Additionally, I still needed to talk to Ooyodo and Takao, anyways, so this was a good way to tackle two birds with one stone.

Without warning, Atago stepped forward, and then again, moving until she was right in front of me. Her sharp amber eyes began to run up and down me, inspecting for something. What kind of impression had I made on her already?

Seemingly satisfied, Atago nodded to herself and greeted in Japanese, "Ara, so you're that Nakajima Hiroshi guy that Sarah has been telling me about, huh?" She gave me a bright smile and outreached her hand, "Nice to meet you, Kanchou. I'm Takanashi Atago."

My God, she was even prettier up close... Aside from that, judging from her friendly tone, I guess that whatever Takao had probably told her about my forgetting of her had not had much impact on her impression of me. However, I still had to ensure that her attitude towards me would remain the same until I was able to get to know her better.

I confidently returned the smile and firmly grabbed her hand, "I'm glad to make your acquaintance, Takanashi-san. I'm a big fan of yours."

"Oh please~" she playfully replied with a giggle as our handshake ended, "Just 'Atago' is fine."

"Atago it is, then," I confirmed.

Seeing my affirmation, she then turned sideways, allowing me to see Ooyodo and Takao behind her as she motioned at them, "I'm aware that you have already met them, but this is my twin, Takao-chan, and her bestie, Yodo-chan~"

'Yodo-chan', huh? That's a pretty cute nickname. I wonder what Takao calls her, then...

She continued, "Well, I heard from a certain someone that you three have something to discuss amongst yourselves, so I'll leave you guys to it." She began to turn around but before she took off, she looked over her shoulder back towards me. Looking me directly in the eyes, she said in a sultry voice, "Oh, I forgot to tell you, but we'll be working together quite closely from now on, so don't be afraid to get a bit more personal with me, Hiroshi-kun~"

She added in a wink before striding past Sarah, Ooyodo, and Takao to find a spot on the table to sit at.

I perplexedly shook my head as I processed Atago's last words to me. What exactly did she mean by 'personal'? She had to be joking right? And did she just skip from addressing me as '-san' straight to '-kun'? She's even bolder than any gossiping had ever made her out to be!

While I was thinking, Sarah had walked up to me and began to pat me on the head, bringing me back into reality.

"Don't worry, Hiroshi. Atago won't bite!" She said as she wrapped up with my head and then left, presumably to sit with Atago, without any further words.

How reassuring of her...

With Sarah's departure, I was left standing with Ooyodo and Takao, the two people I wanted to talk with tonight. My first thought as I focused on them was how elegant they looked. Their attire was indeed on the simple side, as both of them wore long dresses whose most revealing aspect was its low neckline, but it was that simplicity that drew my attention. Maybe it was just because I didn't know them too well, or because I hadn't seen them in anything but the New UN Spacy uniform until now, but I found myself staring briefly at Takao, and then Ooyodo. Takao was occupied with staring off to the side, but when Ooyodo tilted her head in a confused manner in response to my gaze, only then did my head realize what I was currently doing.

As I shook my head and tried to forget about staring at the two, I averted my eyes towards the floor and began slowly stepping towards the two. After a few seconds, I began to move my sight back up towards the two women so I could get my words in with them.

As my focus panned up back from the ground, I noticed that Ooyodo was firmly holding onto Takao's wrist. Had she tried to run off while I was talking with Atago? Good to know that Ooyodo was in support of me as well…

"Well, it looks like we ended up seeing each other a bit sooner than expected," I opened the conversation with a wave, referencing our final spoken words to each other from yesterday.

"Indeed," Ooyodo lifted her free hand to her mouth and softly giggled. "I hope that you'll still treat Takao-chan and I to more private meal in the future – I was under the assumption that your treat would only be us three."

Oh, that's right. I had agreed to take them out on Sunday to eat. Honestly, tonight didn't even cross my mind as counting towards that agreement anyways since Carol and her friends were paying the bill, not me.

"Of course. This was entire dinner was Carol's idea. Sunday is still fine with you two, right?"

"Yep~"

Takao remained silent as she stared at the floor. Only when she was poked in the shoulder by Ooyodo did she give a brief nod of agreement.

Ooyodo leaned closer to Takao and said in a hushed, but still audible voice, "Takao-chan, I understand why you're upset with him, but come on. It's not that big of a deal." She shook her head as she turned back to me, "Hiroshi-san, I'm awfully sorry about how stubborn Takao-chan is being right now. I promise that she isn't usually like this."

"And why would Takao-san be upset with me?" I asked for confirmation. Although I suspected it was because of my failure to recognize her, that was only my intuition speaking. What if the reason she was mad at me was for something else entirely?

When Takao continued to remain silent, Ooyodo softly answered in her stead, "I'm afraid it's a bit of a personal matter… My apologies for being so vague, but please, let's just leave it at that for now."

A 'personal matter'? Takao's attitude towards must have to do something with her experiences then, rather than just my failure to recognize her, then. I'll admit that I'm very curious now, but it would be in bad taste to probe any further, so this would be a problem best solved the next time I see these two.

"It's alright," I assured her, trying not to let a sigh out. Even if I couldn't get the full story from her now, I still had to make amends with Takao and apologize to her, anyways.

"Takao-san," I firmly said as I clapped my hands together while looking in her direction.

When she turned her head to look at me, I took a bow even deeper than the one I had given Kirishima earlier and said with my most humble tone, "I apologize for my ignorance and hope that you can forgive me for not recognizing you on the Battle Horizon. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your assistance to not only me, but the entire crew of the North Carolina during our last mission. I hope that we can put this pointless drama behind us."

I waited in my bowing position for a few more seconds after finishing my apology for an acknowledgement from Takao, but was met with silence. As I slowly straightened back up and peeked at her, I saw that she was motionless, her facial expression being the same as when I had initially gotten her attention. Even Ooyodo staring at Takao in confusion.

However, before I could say anything, Takao slowly nodded her head while pursed her lips slightly before saying, "I'll think about it."

She'll think about it? I restrained myself from rolling my eyes while Takao was still looking at me. It's an apology! You either accept it or you don't!

Ooyodo was similarly perplexed, her mouth slightly ajar as she continued to stare at Takao in disbelief.

After glancing towards Ooyodo, and then back to me, Takao briefly shut her eyes and sighed. Her voice barely audible amidst the constant chattering in the background, she said, "I'll forgive you, Kanchou…"

While it was probably a fake acceptance in order to get the pressure off of her, it was at least a start. Giving the best smile I could, I offered my hand to her for a handshake to further emphasize that I had no harsh feelings toward her. While she did oblige, her grip was far too light, and as soon as I let go of her, she took no time in disengaging from our conversation.

Ooyodo briefly gave me the words, "I'll keep trying to talk to Takao-chan about this whole situation. She'll accept you eventually, Hiroshi-san, don't worry," before skipping off to catch her friend.

Unsurprisingly, they went to sit down in next to Sarah and Atago, which also happened to be in front of where Kirishima and Akashi were seated. And, almost immediately after those two had sat down, Akashi had redirected his attention from the conversation he was having with Kirishima and Atago to Ooyodo and Takao. If there was anything he was good with other than machines, it was women…

I continued observing those five for a few more seconds before I noticed Carol waving at me from the corner of my eye. I should probably get back to my seat to tell her what happened and decide on what I would be eating.

With ordering out of the way, the entire table burst into conversation and story-telling while we waited for the first round of food. In my sector of the table, all eyes were on Atago as she recounted her first ever combat sortie during the end of the Vajra War as part of the New UN Spacy reservist forces in an old VF-11 Thunderbolt III.

"So there was this huge Vajra that was taking aim for one of the frigates," Atago explained, stretching her arms apart to show how big this Vajra was. Her tone went up as she described her heroic actions, "But right before it fired, I was able slam into it from below, causing it to miss the shot!"

She paused for a split second to let the story so far sink in.

Seeing that everyone seemed to be paying attention to her, she continued, "Now at this point, I was out of ammo, and I had lost my knife. The Vajra attacked from the left, and at that point, my instincts just kicked in and I put the fighter into battroid (1*) configuration and blocked it with my gunpod like I would in kendo. I held it in this spot for a few more seconds, and then the rest of my squad came in and was able to finish the job," she nodded to herself and crossed her arms in a pleased manner as she finished.

Akashi spoke up with a question, "Wait, so that's how you got the idea to incorporate kendo into your combat maneuvers?"

"Exactly, Akashi-kun!"

Sarah butted in, "Guys, Atago may be acting cool, but she's not telling you the whole story. You all should've seen how scared she looked in the cockpit of her Thunderbolt before she sortied! The mighty Lightning Queen was on the verge of tears!"

"Sarah!" Atago glared at her and jabbed her in the side.

"See?" Sarah gestured towards the rest of the table and laughed, "That's how you know it's true!"

She was immediately joined in laughter by the rest of us. It was enjoyable to see that even Atago had her moments of softness, rather than being the perfect student, pilot, and woman that the rumors had made her out to be.

Soon after Atago had ended her story of her first sortie, the appetizers had come in, and the conversation briefly died down as everyone took their first few bites. However, after these few moments, Carol decided to restart the talkative mood around the table with a new topic.

"How about we hear about the man of the hour's first mission?" Carol stated loudly as she pointed at me.

I immediately began to shake my head as hard as I could. Unlike Atago's story, I didn't have any moments of heroism – in fact, it wasn't even a battle! It was a scouting mission!

Carol smirked, "Well, since he doesn't want to tell everyone, I guess it's up to me instead~"

"Oh, I remember this one!" Sarah commented with a giggle. "This was when-"

"Hush, Sarah! Don't spoil it for everyone!"

I rolled my eyes and groaned as Carol sarcastically smiled in my direction. It wasn't that serious of a story, but regardless, it was still a bit embarassing.

"So, we were scouting an asteroid field. Nothing too out-of-the-ordinary," Carol began. "We were looking for materials to bring back to the fleet and whatnot, while also keeping an eye out for any Zentradi, as per usual conduct."

"And then out of nowhere, Hiroshi gets spooked. Like, he gasped and quite literally jumped out of his seat!" She began to giggle to herself and paused.

During Carol's silence, I briefly scanned over the table – everyone was looking my way now.

I glanced to my right towards Kirishima and Akashi, who both already knew this story, and were softly giggling amongst themselves.

To their right, or farther down the table from my point of view, was Ooyodo and Takao – Ooyodo gave me a polite smile, while Takao seemed to be drilling a hole straight through me with her eyes.

Across the table from those two, Sarah was whispering something into Atago's ear, probably the punchline to this story… Atago on the other hand, noticing that I was looking at her, tilted her head and waved at me.

After a moment, Carol continued, "But that's not even the best part!"

I buried my forehead into my hand as I cringed, already knowing what Carol would say next.

"Then, he points off into the distance at some long, pickle-shaped asteroid, and goes 'It's a Zentradi battleship!'"

And the entire table burst into laughter in perfect sync.

"And then Alice," I heard her say before pausing, probably to point out where the lady in question was seated, "Brings up the sensor readouts – no fold waves, no heat signatures, absolutely nothing whatsoever coming from that direction that could indicate a starship. Then, she pulls up the optical feed and zooms in – it was just a big rock."

The roar of laughter could be heard from all around the table once more. Once it had died down a bit, Carol added, "But, he really has come a long way since then! I mean really, you can't make this stuff up!"

Hearing the positive compliment towards me, I raised my head from my hand, finding Carol looking straight back at me with a certain proudness in her eyes.

"In a span of two years, he went from identifying an asteroid as a Zentradi battleship to defeating a Zentradi battleship in an asteroid field!"

And just like that, the laughter that had previously been thrown my way was changed into cheers.

And so, the conversation had finally moved on from stories… Or so I thought…

"We have a story to tell, too!" Kirishima announced, raising her hand high into the sky like a grade schooler answering a question.

From her side, I could see Akashi nodding in agreement.

I hope their tale isn't anything too outrageous or silly… I'm honestly thinking that confidence in my ability to lead has been slowly spiraling down since Carol was joking about me…

"Oh, cheer up, bro!" Akashi almost shouted in my direction. "It's just a simple, light-hearted one, we swear!"

Kirishima confirmed with a nod before starting, "So, it was the Halloween of 2057…"

Halloween 2057… That was… Second year of high school, I think? So this must have been the time when we dressed up as Fire Bomber, if I remember correctly.

"And the three of us decided to cosplay as the band Fire Bomber for our school's costume party," Akashi piggybacked off Kirishima.

Yep. Right on the money. So they were telling the truth – nothing odd or embarassing happened during that event.

"I was Mylene, Hiroshi-kun was Basara, and Kirishima-chan was Veffidas."

Sadly, we weren't able to find a fourth and final person who was willing to cosplay the famous band's keyboardist, Ray, so we had to make due with our trio with me as this century's king of rock, Basara, Akashi as the legendary Jenius family's musician daughter, Mylene, and Kirishima as the silent and stoic Meltran, Veffidas.

A sharp giggle from Atago interrupted Akashi. "Forgive me, Akashi-kun, but did you just say that you were Mylene? Oh, that must have been quite the sight~!"

"Indeed I did~" He answered with a certain smugness in his voice as he pulled out his phone, probably to show an image of the event in question to Atago.

"Yeah," Kirishima added, "Plus, he was already dying his hair pink back then, so he made for a really good Mylene!"

"You know, Kirishima-chan," I commented as Akashi was showing off pictures to Atago and other nearby, interested groups, such as Ooyodo and Takao, "You were also a very good Veffidas that night – it must have been the quietest I've ever seen you!"

"I could say the same thing about you, Hiro-kun," Kirishima chuckled. "You're usually pretty mild, but in the true spirit of Nekki Basara, you were so damn loud that night!"

And so, the dinner continued on, with various groups picking up the conversation with a new tale to tell after the previous topic had died down.

While I had my fair part in the discussions around the table, I spent most of the time continuing to observe some of my new crew, although it was a bit limited to those closest to me.

Everyone was getting along fine. Akashi and Ooyodo seemed to be getting along almost like old buddies. On top of that, from what I could see, even at the end of the table, the officers that I recognized as being part of my future crew were cheerfully chatting with those of the North Carolina.

And of course, there was Atago, the shining ace pilot. She was the one person that everyone here knew, and to be honest, I don't think I ever saw her not talking with someone whenever I turned to look at her. Meanwhile, the situation seemed to be the opposite for her sister, who had from what I had observed, kept to herself with an occasional input into either Atago's or Ooyodo's current conversations...

The main courses had come in, and while the chatter around the room had died down a little bit as everyone began to dig in, it had by no means gone completely silent. While the conversations continued to mainly revolve around stories, there was one particularly interesting topic brought up...

"Any of you guys wanna share your career goals?" Bailey Moore, the captain of the squadron's other cruiser, the Baltimore, and Carol's previous executive officer, called out, likely since no one had said a word for a few minutes.

Since she already knew me and some of my career-related goals, I remained silent and began sipping on my water – this question was probably meant for the new officers to the squadron. I glanced at Carol from the side of my eye - hopefully, if she ever did become Fleet Admiral, I'd at least get to be in charge of a Hyperion one day...

"I want to be the captain of the Kirishima!" Kirishima immediately answered.

Honestly, one of the reasons I even thought about joining the Spacy in the first place was because Kirishima – she had that dream of becoming the captain of the Hyperion-class battleship, Kirishima (BBS-204) since we were kids, and eventually, I guess her rambling caught onto me. At this rate, however, I think I'm well on my way on winning our bet on which of us would be the first to captain a battleship.

A chuckle was heard all around the table, most notably from Carol, Sarah. and Bailey, the three officers at the table who shared similar names to their ships, the North Carolina, Saratoga, and Baltimore respectively… Does High Command do this kind of stuff on purpose? This can't be a coincidence…

"Yeah," Carol started while still laughing, "It's quite the feeling to share the name of your ship, right Sarah?"

"Yep! It makes me feel more connected to her," Sarah agreed with a nod.

"I'm sure that as long as you remain on the path of justice, you'll become the Kirishima's captain one day," Baltimore gave an encouraging thumbs-up to Kirishima. Then, she called out again, "Anyone else?"

And again, Kirishima answered.

"What about you, Takao-san?" She asked, now looking at Takao. "Our fleet has a battleship with your name sitting on it, too!"

Takao was caught by surprise – for a few seconds, she sat frozen as everyone nearby stared at her, awaiting her response. After what seemed like an eternity, she finally let out an obviously forced laugh and softly nodded, "T-That would be interesting, I suppose..."

"What Takao-chan means is that if she would be honored to ever be considered for such a prestigious position," Atago immediately spoke up for her sister, which immediately stopped the nearby muttering after Takao's weak answer. "The warship name of Takao and the Takanashi family both have a great deal of importance to the New UN Spacy, so if she were ever to be put in command of that ship, she would do her best to honor the legacy of these two names and add onto their services to humanity." She elegantly gestured at Takao, drawing attention back to her sister, "Right, Takao-chan?"

"Yes…" She said, a bit louder this time. "I couldn't have put it better myself, Atago."

As those nearby began to chatter about their agreement to what Atago had said, Takao seemed to sigh in relief, now that the center of attention was no longer on her, as Ooyodo comforted her friend with one of her hands reassuringly rested on Takao's shoulder.

The party was wrapping up – everyone's dessert plates were either clean or nearing clean. The condensation on the sides of drinks were slowly trickling down, dampening the coasters below; meanwhile on the inside of the glasses, drinks were slowly becoming increasingly watered down from the slowly melting ice.

It was time to give my parting words for everyone, lest someone or some people begin awkwardly exiting the venue at random.

The room was rather quiet already, so I could easily just use my voice to call attention to myself.

I loudly and firmly called out, "Could I get everyone's attention, please?"

Those that were near me cut their conversations and began to look my way. Like a wave, others further down the table slowly began to fall silent as they realized what was going on.

"Alright, I'll keep this short since it's getting a bit late," I stood up and began, seeing that I now had everyone's attention, "First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for coming tonight, regardless if I just met you tonight, or if I've known you since primary school. Secondly, I'd like for everyone to please give their utmost thanks to my dear mentor and friend Caroline Baker and her other friends for paying for everything tonight," I pointed towards Carol, Sarah, Bailey, and Iowa, as chuckles were heard from the rest of the table.

"For those of you who have been assigned to work under me, just based on the short interactions I've had with you all so far and seeing how cordial you've been with the other officers in the squadron, I know that we'll all make a good team in the coming weeks," I continued. "I'd also like to get to know most, if not all of you, a bit more personally, so I'll also be taking some time over the next week or two to have a short conversation with you all personally. So, be on the lookout for a phone call from me."

I paused to observe the reactions. Mostly head nods – good.

"Well, that's about it – you're all free to leave whenever you please. Have a good rest of the night, everyone," I concluded my short talk and sat back down.

And with that, the chatter around the table resumed, albeit in a less lively manner than before, as some groups began to rise from their seats and head out of the room.

Slowly but surely, various parties and groups followed suit and began to trickle out of the room. Most of the people leaving simply waved or nodded at me as they left, save for one glamorous ace pilot by the name of Atago Takanashi, who personally invited me to her home to get started on my 'conversations with officers' mission. I was planning on talking to her, her sister, and Ooyodo first, anyways, so no complaints there.

By the time Carol and her friends had paid the bill, everyone else had left. And after Carol's friends had bid me their final congratulations and compliments, they departed as well, leaving Carol and I alone. With little else to do, Carol and I thanked the restaurant staff and took our leave.

It was now nighttime throughout the fleet, and the artificial light created from the holographic generators overhead were disabled, allowing the awe inspiring image of the Milky Way to be seen from within the colony fleet. Because it was already late into the night, the roads throughout the fleet were practically empty. Theoretically, I could have been at home already, but Carol had decided to take the car on a joyride, and being the passenger, I had little choice but to come along for the ride. The bright lights of Horizon City were now obscured behind the mountainous terrain of the Appalachian, Island 15, leaving the car's headlights and the distant stars all around the fleet as the only source of illumination.

"Good job back there," Carol broke the peaceful silence between us that had remained since she had first decided to go on this joyride.

"Thanks," I simply responded.

"That whole fiasco with Atago and her sister wasn't that bad after all, now was it?" Carol smugly asked. I couldn't see her face due to the darkness, but she was definitely smirking.

"No, not really," I admitted. After my exchange between Ooyodo and Takao had briefly flashed in my mind, I added, "Although I was told that Takao had some 'personal matters' that were preventing her from really seeing eye-to-eye with me."

"Hm," she murmured, her eyes still locked on the road. After a few seconds of silence, she continued, "Honestly, that is really, really vague. But regardless, it's good that you sorted all that out already. I know I keep on saying this, but the trust and synergy between you and your crew is of utmost importance as a captain. Don't forget that."

"Yes, ma'am."

The car was now approaching an intersection, and I slowly began to lurch forward as Carol applied the brakes.

As we came to a stop, Carol turned towards me and asked in a curious tone, "Oh, and speaking of your crew, do you have any idea on who your executive officer will be yet?"

While I had had put a little bit of thought into candidates for the position, I had not made a final decision on who to choose as my second in command just yet. I turned my head up towards the car's sunroof and the sky above, or rather the ceiling of the Appalachian, and stared into the vastness of space beyond as I prepared my response to Carol's inquiry.

By the time I had pieced together my answer and its accompanying logic, the car had begun accelerating past the intersection.

"Well," I began, "Preferably, I would say Kirishima, but she's not on the command deck, and I don't think that her specialization in weapons and math would really help with day-to-day operations. It may also effect everyone's morale by making it look like I'm showing Kirishima favoritism."

"Well said," she complimented. She then shifted into a more inquisitive tone, "But on the contrary, doesn't Kirishima want to become a captain one day, too? How will she learn to effectively command a ship during normal operations?"

"I considered that as well," I responded. Of course I had realized that by making someone other than Kirishima the second in command that I would be impeding on her goals, but as her friend, I still wanted her to get that experience even if she wasn't in that seat. "I think that I'll have her work closely with Takao's operations department outside of combat drills or potential combat scenarios."

"That's reasonable. It's not like there's much for a weapons officer to do outside of those two situations," Carol agreed.

I crossed my arms as I leaned farther back into the seat, "My point exactly. She complained about that earlier, as well."

"Other than Kirishima, was there anyone else you had in mind?" Carol asked, getting back the question she had originally asked before I had gone onto the tangent about Kirishima.

"I think it should be either Ooyodo or Takao," I answered. "They occupy the two stations right in front of my own, and based on their records, they seem to be competent and fitting for the job, being the sensors and operations officers respectively."

"And why would you say that?" Carol only asked further.

"Why are you trying to test me?" I groaned. She knew very well why I would think of those two to be the XO – she had made a similar decision when she chose to make me her XO over Alice!

But Carol remained silent. She was going to get my reasoning out loud, regardless if she already knew it herself.

I sighed while rolling my eyes, "As you know, the top deck of a Northampton's bridge contains three stations, those being the flight operations/sensor officer's station, the ship operations officer's station, and of course, the captain's seat. I would consider these three to be the most important people on the ship."

"And why are they important?"

"Carol, this is a question that a high schooler in an integrated officer's training program could answer," I confusedly looked at her.

"Excellent," she said teasingly. "Then you should be able to answer this with flying colors~"

I rolled my eyes again as she perfectly countered my complaint.

"The flight operations and sensors officer is essentially the eyes of the ship, detecting anything notable within range of the fold sensors and directing the ship's fighters. Conversely, the operations officer is the nervous system of the ship who coordinates the rest of the departments in order to effectively accomplish the task-at-hand by the orders of the captain, the brain of the ship. Needless to say, other than Atago and I, they were the two most important people on the ship."

Carol briefly took her hands off the wheel and gave me two claps, "Very well said. I would have come to the same conclusion myself regarding your XO candidates."

"Then why did you ask me those basic questions?" I asked in a deadpan.

"Well, you know that it never hurts to brush up on the basics!" She enthusiastically answered.

"I guess," I shrugged. "But who do you think I should choose between the two?"

"Shouldn't that be obvious?" It was now apparently Carol's turn to sound confused. "I'd pick Ooyodo. She's been more amiable and willing to work with you thus far."

"You're not wrong," I admitted. The bespectacled girl did have more of my favor, so my mind did naturally incline to select her as the executive officer... "However, I would be lying if I said that I wasn't curious about Takao now, after my interactions with her tonight. Once I get to know her better, and find out what that 'personal matter' is, I think I'll be able to come to a better final decision."

"That makes sense. I take it that your XO dilemma is also part of the reason you told all the officers you'd be talking with them personally in the coming days?"

"Exactly."

"Well, whoever you decide to make XO, I'm sure it'll be the right choice," she said as she took her right hand off the wheel and patted me on the shoulder.

Footnotes:

(1*) Battroid: The standard humanoid 'mecha' mode of a Macross variable fighter.

A/N

Since the main characters and the most prominent supporting characters have now been introduced, here is a more complete character guide for the convenience of Kancolle/Azur Lane fans reading this:

(Format – Character name in this fic = AL/KC equivalent)

Hiroshi Nakajima = Commander/Admiral

Takao Takanashi = AL Takao

Ooyodo Nakano = KC Ooyodo

Atago Takanashi = AL Atago

Caroline Baker = AL North Carolina

Sarah Thompson = KC Saratoga

Akashi Kawasaki = KC Akashi (Genderbent)

Kirishima Seto = KC Kirishima

Zuikaku Akatsuru = KC Zuikaku

Helena Taylor = AL Helena

Edward Drake = AL Drake (Genderbent)

Bailey Moore = AL Baltimore

Iowa Holloway = KC Iowa

Nicole Kennedy = KC Colorado

This chapter marks the start of the first, quick arc of this fic, being 'who will the executive officer be?'. I understand that my interpretation of that process definitely isn't close how it would be in real life, but I wanted XO to kind of mirror the role of secretary ship in Kancolle/Azur Lane, so here we are. Additionally, from what I've seen in spaceship anime, the XO is usually someone that sits close to the captain and may or may not also have another job on top of being XO (such as Misa in the original Macross, or Mirai in the original Gundam), so that's also why it's not its own distinct job.

I also just wanted to make a quick comment about genderbending. I wanted a more balanced gender distribution of characters, but I think I did too little of it, and now the only major genderbent character would be Akashi (which I did so mainly since he kind of relates to the backstory I had in mind for Hiroshi, and I needed the 'playboy glasses-wearing friend' archetype, too). I don't think it really matters too much anyways since most of these characters I'm using are kanmusu, who are always female; and additionally, the bridge crew in Macross does tend to be mostly female, so whatever.

Well, if you've been reading these author's notes... Uh... I swear it really did take me a month to write this, if you care for it! After I put up the last chapter, I spent 3 weeks writing a oneshot, so it definitely didn't count towards my time writing Macross Horizon (totally...). Then, I took like a 2 week break since I felt discouraged about writing, but then I came back. So all-in-all, I spent a month actively working on this, which technically is taking 1 month to write (definitely…). Also, I had this completed on Wednesday, but I waited to post this until Saturday since I think I posted the first two chapters in the middle of the day on Monday, so I'm just trying to see what the change in traffic (if any! Lol!) will be…

Anyways, I wrote like half of the next chapter sometime last September, so expect that one to be up relatively quicker. Cya.