I don't own Robotech or Ranma
Would like to respond to some of my reviews, but I just don't have time at the moment (RL is kicking my ass) so I'd just like to say rdde, cj-cold, TJG, great reviews, and you'll see more of what is really going on, different from what the admirals believe is going on in this chapter, though the action there won't really start until the next one.
I tried to show someone thinking two things at the same time, and I'm not certain I succeeded. You'll see what I'm talking about when you get to that section, so tell me what you think.
Chapter 20 Someone's about to shout Jenga!
The air in the conference room was somber in the extreme as Claudia, who was acting commander of the Macross without any of the higher ups onboard replayed the message that Lisa had sent her as soon as she got away from the higher ups. Not wanting the in her opinion extremely stupid orders to come at the civilian population and military population of the fortress out of the blue she had called ahead and told the other officers which way the wind was blowing.
"I can't believe they'd do something like this, it's so short sighted and stupid!" commander Drake said. "This sounds far too much like usurpation of civilian authority to me on top of just being a damn stupid idea."
"You're working under the impression that the civilian authorities would want to acknowledge what is really happening, or have any idea of trying to deal with it." Claudia said in a voice filled with contempt. "It wouldn't be the first time that a civilian government 'didn't know' something was going on officially so that they could claim ignorance at a later date. And we both know lots of people who would much rather assume that this just isn't happening because they can't deal with it. After all, how many people really want to acknowledge that our race could be facing extinction? Better to simply lie to yourselves and just keep going on with your lives you know."
Oh she had no doubt that individuals and governments were doing something, but the only way she could see humanity surviving…. Actually if the aliens attacked all out she didn't see a way humanity could survive, not unless they had been building a shit ton of really deep bunkers. That or a fleet of colony ships with stealth capabilities. Claudia was a realist, and the numbers of this fleet alone scared her beyond belief, not even taking the numbers Lisa had reported into account.
"I know I'm just fillin' in for Roy," said Ranma from where he was sitting rather uncomfortably at the far end of the table, "but is this even legal?"
"The charter for the SDF is broad based and really doesn't have any sort of set limitation on the powers the executive committee can assume. At least that's what the admirals are saying. It was made on the assumption that having a set chain of command that could handle a par war and then would give that power up after it was won." Claudia sighed sadly. "No way could they make something like these orders to keep the civilians on board stick otherwise."
"So what are we going to do about it?" Ranma asked.
"There's not much we can do about it." Drake groaned aloud, wondering about the mentality it would take to want to be willfully ignorant about the sword of Damocles hovering above your head. "Orders are orders. We can protest them, maybe make enough of a nuisance of ourselves that they'll do something about it by dragging or heals and demanding it's given in paper form as well but that's about it."
Ranma leaned back slowly counting to ten as he realized that despite all their irritation at the content of Lisa's message (and oh he was proud of his lady for sending it in the first place) everyone at the table was going to go along with the orders when they came.
Carefully choosing his words, he began to speak. "Ya know, I didn't put on this uniform just so I could fight, I put it on to do two things, neither of which is goose-stepping ta stupid, shortsighted and idiotic orders from on high." Some of the people around the table looked uncomfortable at the vitriol in his words, but he ignored them. "I put this uniform on to defend the civilians not just the civilians on Macross but anyone who can't fight back. That is our sacred duty when we put these uniforms on, it says so right in the oath we swear when we graduate the Academy. So the question isn't what can we do to protest or slow down these orders it's what are we going to do to protect the people on board? After all, if we start unloading the civilian are they really going to fire on us to stop us from doing it? Wouldn't that raise all kind of questions they don't want to answer? And let me tell ya, there are a lot of people aboard this ship who want off."
That was an understatement, the vast majority of the population had simply assumed the city would be moved somewhere, and Mayor Luan and the civilian engineers had already worked out plans for it.
"We don't have to lift capacity to move the city by ourselves." Claudia protested. Drake however was nodding along, and the civilians were all nodding eagerly.
"Who said anything about moving the city? I said move the civilians. We ask all the civilians in a questionnaire if they want to leave and those that do we put them ashore. We've got cargo haulers, I know 'cause my mom and Kas-chan left on one, we can use them. Lisa once told me that as part of the reconstruction all the stuff in the city had been given a value, give them the value in money of all the properties they have to leave behind and send them ashore with markers or something and let the UN pay for 'em. That way they'll have everything going for them if they want to start up a new life elsewhere rather than stay aboard."
"We can't just unilaterally ignore orders like that, it's bad discipline and it flies in the face of all tradition!" Protested commander Drake, but his listeners could tell it was more for forms sake than anything else.
"Yeah, but those traditions say we should be serving civilians, we can't do that if we keep them aboard if they don't want to be here."
Dr. Lang had been silent up to this point not being part of the regular military, but he said thoughtfully. "I think it would actually be a good idea to ask at least some of the civilians to stay aboard if they want to. They've taken over most of the interior construction and factory work as well, which frees more of the maintenance personnel to do actual maintenance on the ship and the Valkyries and Destroids." It was actually why they had the personnel to assign to personalizing some of the Valkyries.
"But what will command do once they see that we're disobeying them? They can cut off all our resupply if they want, and we all know how badly we need more food resources and more personnel in every section aboard the ship." Claudia asked, playing devil's advocate. "More, if they see us as being in a state of mutiny they could leave us to our own devices rather than give us any aid in the form of other ships."
"That's a risk we'll have to take" Mayor Luan said firmly. "I can almost guarantee that if this news gets out, and it will one way or another, two of the three factions aboard this ship will start rioting, and I doubt they'll stop. The peaceniks just want off, they don't care how they do it, and the neutrals are just tired and scared and…." He shook his head, "We need to get them off the ship."
Claudia grimaced but nodded.
"We still have a list of all the civilian population" said the police chief thoughtfully "running up a form for everyone to fill out whether to stay or go will be easy."
Drake looked around the table and realized that there was very little support for just following orders to be found here, and almost smirked. Really, he thought to himself, it's not like I really agree with the orders either. I just never would've had the balls to just completely disobey them like that. I doubt Ranma will ever advance beyond his current rank and he's going to be a headache for whoever is in charge of him but the boy has a fire to him, and that is far more important in a war like this one than meekly following orders.
"So we're all agreed then?" asked Claudia. Every head around the table nodded emphatically. Whatever else happened, these people were not about to obey the orders of high command without a fight.
"I-I have another idea," said Vanessa a little timidly. She was really only there as the fill-in for Claudia and well knew she was least senior officer (in rank not time in the uniform) in the room. "I heard that Minmei is going to be putting on a live rendition of one of her hit songs on the radio, and that it's supposed to go out from the ship to the nearest com tower, I thinks it's still the one near Tokyo. What if we start telling our story the same way? The RDF can block most of our radio waves, but some will get through."
Claudia smirked a little evilly at the problems that would cause the higher ups. They must be stretched to the max already trying to hide what was going on, adding this to the mix... "I agree, that way we can get the story out of how hard we fought and how much we lost and tell the world about the Zentraedi and what their capabilities. That'll be an excellent shot across the bow of the UNSF High command and it'll tell the civilians families that their relatives are all right. Maybe it'll get us some help to lift them off."
Everyone spent a few minutes discussing this idea, but after a few minutes it was adopted through popular vote. "In that case," Ranma said, "Ya'll have to excuse me, but I want to go welcome Kasumi and my mom back."
Claudia nodded, waving him and the others out the door before turning to the police commissioner and Mayor Luan, who had remained in their seats expectantly. "we should get onto this right away. I want the forms ready to be handed out and an explanation ready to go over the news feeds as soon as the captain and the others get back."
When Ranma arrived on the hangar deck he was just in time to see his mother and Kasumi exit the cargo hauler followed by two people he knew very well from his time in Nerima. He was shocked to see them, but happy. While he and Ukyo had never built up their friendship to the level it had been when they were children they still had remained close acquaintances, and he had always considered the kunoichi trained boy Konatsu to be the closest to him in skill of his age group. He did however wonder what they were doing here.
After hugging Kasumi and his mom hello the two of them described first there meeting with silver and their run-in with the dark horse. At the end of which Ranma was about to lose his temper badly. "I'm going to kill him." He said his voice almost as cold as it was when he used the Soul of Ice. "I am going to hunt him down, rip out his skull and beat him to death with it."
"Um, I don't think that's physically possible" Ukyo said, a little scared by this new and far more deadly Ranma. Konatsu on the other hand simply smiled.
"I will make it work. I have the determination. Now if you'll excuse me I need to catch a ride to Tokyo. I have a panda skin to take."
Kasumi grabbed his arm before he could turn away. "No, please Ran-chan. Remember that you're needed here, and besides he's not worth it."
"He hurt you koi, and mom too, that makes him dead meat in my book."
"Yes but you should remember my ex-husband is a master at hiding. I don't want you to waste the time it would take you to find him. Besides, you know he's no match for you now, hell he might not even fight you. Would you kill him in cold blood, my son?" asked Nodoka, placing a firm hand on his chest.
Ranma paused looking torn, but Kasumi never let go of her grip on him, shaking her head firmly. "Please Ran-koi; I don't want you to have patricide on your conscience." She pulled him into a long lingering kiss, causing Nodoka to smile and both the new comers to gape in surprise. "He's not worth that, he's not worth anything, just forget him ok?"
Sighing a little Ranma nodded, putting his arms around his chest in a hug. "Alright, I won't go looking for him, but if he shows up here he's fair game okay?" Kasumi nodded and they disengaged. Ranma turned to look at the newcomers. "Well, thank you both for protecting these two, if something had happened to them I…"
"No problem Ran-chan" Ukyo chirped happily. "We were both going out of our minds with boredom once we moved out of that mess in Nerima, so when Konatsu saw Kasumi still among the living, we decided to see what happened to your silly ass. So you think there's a place for us aboard this huge ship of yours."
Ranma grinned. "Heh, well it isn't mine you know, but there're always jobs on the civilian side, did she tell you, Kasumi's got a job doing interior design? I'm sure she could use a hand at that. And there's always the Academy if you want to sign up."
They looked at one another for a moment before the Konatsu said thoughtfully. "I think I'll sign up, I was trained as a ninja after all, and I've always wanted to have a cause worth fighting for, something that would really be worthy of my skills and this sounds perfect for me."
The cute ex-fiancée on the other hand frowned. "I don't think that's my cup of tea, sugar, no offense but the idea of being in space in a little jet is just… brrr. I'll stick with Kasumi for now and see what kind of jobs there are. Maybe after a little while I'll be open to the idea of fighting in space but not right now."
Ranma shrugged and began to talk to Konatsu about some of his experiences at the Academy and how to sign up while Kasumi led the other two women away. Little did Ranma know that this would be the first of two visits from old acquaintances that he would have in the next few days.
Scott Prescott was a one of the most decorated and experience officers the RN had produced since world war two, yet he found that it didn't help him at all.
His brother was dead, the boy who would always follow his older brothers around and get into trouble right beside them, gone.
His room was a mess, his rage and grief being so great he had literally ripped apart every piece of furniture and item in it in his fury. Now that fury was gone, replaced by cold calculation as he sat against the wall, staring at nothing as his mind worked at a furious pace. His hands were clenching a paper copy of the intelligence report that a commander Drake, previously of the Prometheus had compiled of the aliens. There was something very odd about these aliens, the complete lack of personal items found in the ships taken, the lack of any kind of societal information, but none of that mattered.
His brother was dead. Scott remembered how proud their parents were when their youngest had joined the other two in the military. Proud and worried, for both of them had been officers too, and well knew what that service could demand of their family. It was harsh to think of, but thank god they had both died of old age a few years ago.
What did matter was that the Macross had found ways to overcome the alien's numerical advantage, things that they could easily recreate here on Earth if they could be open about the Macross having returned. Of course the civilian governments probably already knew about it, really he didn't know what Hayes, Le-Chen and the others were smoking (probably something illegal) to think that they were succeeding in their mad plan to sit on the fact there as an alien fleet in orbit. He knew there were riots in most of the European countries even if their militaries and governments still parroted the 'nothing is wrong it was simply a terrorist attack' line.
And America, oh glorious, magnificent, schizophrenic America was even worse. The party in power and most of the central government might be willing to go along with the whole 'ignore it till it goes away' plan, only putting resources into the Grand Cannon idiocy because they thought bigger was better. But on the state and military base level, things were very different, he was certain.
The civilian government of his own country was neither idiotic nor schizophrenic. The country that stood alone against the Luftwaffe and its bombing for so long knew what survival could cost.
His brother was dead. They would never share stories about bar crawls, or romantic liaisons. He would never hear Eric twit him about being married right out of officer school before he could really 'sow his wild oats', nor twit Eric in turn about his inability to settle down with anyone or how much he liked the older ladies.
Yet the military geniuses that controlled the UNSF would never admit they were wrong, they had gone too far, taken too much power for themselves in the name of keeping control to let it go now. It would take something truly major to knock them out of their dais-ed mindset, not something Scott could do on his own without costing a lot of lives one way or another, something he refused to be a part of. However that didn't mean that he couldn't make plans, or join others who already were.
Marcus, god what was he going to tell Marcus? Never again would the two of them wrestle or troll for birds whenever they were in the same posting, or watch old Doctor Who episodes and laugh at the aliens in them. Jesus, why couldn't it be anyone else, why couldn't it be him that died first, that was the way it should be, oldest first.
He looked under his now destroyed bed at two hidden folders. One was labeled Operation ARK, and the other was labeled Moonfall. Japan, Australia and bits of Canada and America were onboard with those plans, he knew. They weren't doable, not unless he could use certain UN resources, or possibly a certain unhappy captain and his space fortress, but they would need a few tweaks before he would be willing to command them. And Macross was near the Pacific Fleet, Scott did have contacts in that fleet, contacts he could convince to resupply and reassign troops to it. That he would to that and command both operations that had previously hidden out of sight under his bed was not a question, at this point he would do anything he could to hurt the aliens as much as possible.
In the end he knew if the numbers Commander Hayes reported from her time in captivity was accurate the human race was doomed. They would gobble up Earth without even trying but he would be damned if they didn't choke on humanity when they did. They would pay for his brother.
They would pay for his brother, the vengeance of his family would be terrible indeed, on both the old admirals who tried to keep him tethered hear, and to the alien who took Eric from them.
But before that he had something else he had to do, something he had to do now. Be damned if Marcus learn of Eric's death in a fucking condolence letter. He got up and went over to his computer. Long range communications used to be handled by bouncing the signal from tower to tower and up to satellites, but now it was handled by rotating com planes set up at intervals and replaced/refueled in the air. Of course this was one of the things that had allowed the UNSF to keep the control they had so far, but eventually even it would fail. "Computer, connect me to Major Marcus Prescott, CAG, Woody Island base."
"Are you sure you want me to present this Doctor? I mean, I'm not very good at public speaking."
Emil looked up at the towering chief engineer, who even sitting down dwarfed him. Boroga Hibiki was easily the tallest, strongest man Lang had ever met, yet in some ways he was so self-effacing it was astonishing.
Emil knew it was to compensate for his overlarge frame, but sometimes he felt that the man took it to extremes. "Yes, I'm certain. I've been so wrapped up in my own projects that I don't know the first thing about some of the systems you've thought up, we'll need you to help explain them, and the better we do that the more scientists and engineers on board the easier it will be to sell it to the construction groups we'll need to have backing us." Construction of Veritechs and warships were all major industries worldwide, but if you talked to the right people you could get new projects started in large numbers very quickly.
Boroga sighed. He had tried to contact his family but hadn't been able to reach anyone. Not that such a response was at all unusual given his family's curse (he'd had Dr. Lang actually lead him by hand to this meeting room, and would have to get him to lead him back to the generator room the same way) but more than a year of no contact was unusual even for them. He and his son Ryoga had quite a few things to talk about as well, things the younger boy wasn't going to like hearing. Still his job came first.
Just then the large screen on the wall lit up, showing first one smaller box than over twenty boxes of smaller images, each of them filled with a man's head. Some of the men wore uniforms, none less than rear admiral, others wore civilian garb. These were scientists, renowned engineers and several company managers who also had a firm ground in engineering and a few others. They represented or controlled the vast majority of the infrastructure that kept the UNSF supplied with the newest and greatest toys, and were all here because they knew Dr. Lang personally (some of them) professionally (most of them) or by reputation (only a few of the managers).
One of them, one of the vice admirals, muttered an oath as he saw Lang and the behemoth next to him. "Emil Lang! Fuck I hope this is good, if the Macross is still in one piece and not destroyed like we were all told, then what else haven't we been told?"
Emil shrugged. "What you have been told is little concern of mine, but to give you a brief synopsis of our time…" that brief synopsis lasted a little over an hour, with his audience interrupting him from time to time to question something or ask for clarification. When that was done he asked, "I presume you all have received the data packet I sent you?"
One of the civilians, an older man with white hair and an amazingly curly beard snorted. "I didn't Lang, and I hope you don't think I'm at all interested in your physics and reflux energy claptrap. Why in the world am I here?"
Emil smiled at one of his oldest friends. Pierre Dugraith was a Frenchman by birth but had moved to America with his family when he was in his teens and was to biology what Emil was to the new discipline of reflux energy and over-technology. "I have another package for you old friend. All of the biological data of the Zentraedi we were able to collect, as well as a bit of their society that might impact their biology, mostly conjecture unfortunately by our tactical officer commander Hayes and the other prisoners. Anything you can tell us would be helpful."
Pierre nodded then waited for his computer to beep before looking back at Lang. "In that case gentlemen, I'll be signing off now. I'll share anything I can find or feel is useful later." And with that the man signed off.
A vice admiral growled. "Well the rest of us got the normal packet you sent us, and I'm going to send you the bill for the bandwidth time your package cost me. With the satellites taken out by these Zentraedi communications goes through aerial com planes, and all bandwidth is controlled but the UNSF, and the prices for uploading downloading is simply huge. And then to find out that more than half of it is full of utter tripe like this 'ki' crap and how energy can be used to create a 'weapon space'!"
One the civilians, a Chinese man, shook his head. "Ki is real, though the number of people who can use it on their own is small, and I have never heard of it being used via machinery. That was incredibly interesting reading Emil, and I have already ordered my battery factories to start making templates for the smaller batteries you designed, and my weapons factories as well. Luckily we've had our ammunition factories going overtime ever since the communications satellites went down. I have no idea what the UNSF is thinking, trying to sit on the truth of what happened to them, but we've been preparing for the worst ever since."
All of the officers in the other screens stiffened then sighed in unison. None of them knew why the higher ups were acting like this either, and they wouldn't be part of this conversation if they thought it was a good idea. "You're saying those advancements are actually buildable?"
Lang nodded affirmatively. "Yes, though we would never have even thought of them if Commander Sugita hadn't shown us how amazing ki could be. But above and beyond those, we have been thinking of ways to offset our enemy's numerical advantages, and at this point I'll turn this little presentation over to Chief Engineer Hibiki."
Boroga coughed embarassedly as all eyes turned to him, but began quickly. "Um yes, well, uh ladies and gentlemen, one of the major challenges we have been facing from the beginning is the sheer numbers the aliens routinely throw at us, both in the fighters they use and in the capital ships. Well I've been working on something that could at least help us take on the capital ships without any loss of life." He pressed a button, fumbling a minute in his nervousness. A large diagram appeared on another screen visible to everyone in the first.
It looked nothing so much as a huge barrel with a large sphere attached to the butt end, with small bulbous sections set into it at intervals, a few dozen thrusters around it for thrust and maneuvering, or in this case aiming. "This is my prototype design for a kinetic bombardment weapon. It's completely unmanned, and is about two hundred feet long. The cannon uses fold space and reflux technology to accelerate a small spear, only about five feet long, at near light speed, thus imparting a massive impact force to the target. The targeting system is crude, but the Macross could store countless of these and we estimate a single hit anywhere along its length would be enough to put a Zentraedi capital ship out of action or destroy it utterly. We could even make the nails or whatever you want to call the ammunition smaller and use it to wipe out whole attack flights. That mode has already been approved for a few of the tertiary weapons platforms on the space fortress. We estimate once they're done, which I won't lie it will take a while, maybe a month or more to convert them all, but it will aid our anti-fighter defense immensely."
One of the scientists was looking at the numbers and equations for the acceleration of the spear, and muttered "And its power, what its half-life?"
"About two days on internal power, but as long as they aren't destroyed they can be picked up, rearmed and its battery replaced. The battery however will have to be an extra large on, about the size of ten normal destroid batteries, but still easy enough to build."
A rear admiral nodded, rubbing his hands together gleefully. This was nice, robust technology on the outside at least and something they could build in atmosphere. "Well that certainly sounds promising, now what kind of numbers are we talking about here, in terms of material and time I mean, and do you have any other interesting toys to share with us?"
Emil smiled. "Quite a few actually. First let's cover the personalized FAST packs we've developed, then the…"
At Fort Winter the meeting had resumed, but despite the break tempers had yet to cool. The admirals were angry, worried (though they refused to acknowledge the feeling) and certain of their position. Some of them had even taken the numbers Gloval and Lisa had given them as more reason that any kind of offensive fleet was a waste of resources, that the only way to safeguard Earth and humanity was to push the Grand Cannon projects as much as possible. They were still working under the assumption that the Zentraedi would try to invade, if for no other reason than to take Earth as intact as possible.
They were wrong of course, the Zentraedi had no use for planets, and they had only left Earth alone because it was utterly unimportant both in terms of the danger humanity posed to them and their real objective in hunting down Zor's battleship; the retrieval of the protoculture generator. But these admirals were set in their ways, unwilling to face the reality that was closing in around their entire race.
Unfortunately others were not so sanguine about burying their heads in the sand and shouting 'la-la-la' to drown it out. Riots were increasing the world over, demands were coming from practically every government for the UNSF to take action, and in many places they had been forced to clap down via martial law to keep countries from withdrawing their support and going their own way.
Worse all the admirals there knew it, and the presence of Gloval and his officers was a visible sign that their hold on things was slipping into the abyss. And Prescott's silent, angry grim visage did not help matters. More than one of his 'peers' looked at his face and then away, shivering.
Still they were all good at controlling their expressions and none of these concerns were allowed to appear on their faces as Gloval went into detail about their activity in the last two months, the infrastructure they had started to put in place in Jupiter's atmosphere, as well as the breakout and the defense they had come up with to stunt the enemy mechs they called Gargoyles. "And so given the capabilities of these new enemy mechs, the missile packs were not just a necessity but the only way to blunt their assaults."
Prescott spoke up then, his face still showing his grief and rage, but his voice was calm. "And you say these Gargoyles didn't work with the, the Regulds at all?"
Gloval nodded. "Yes, it was obvious after going over the data form that fight that they didn't have anything to do with one another, in fact the Regulds seemed to shy away from the Gargoyles.
Here Lisa spoke up, her mind once more going over what they had seen and wishing she had been able to put that report together for Gloval about that and the other differences between the two groups. "It wasn't any kind of planned maneuver, it just seemed as if the individual units that comprised the Regulds were, were scared of the Gargoyles. The Gargoyles acted in a far more organized, efficient and controlled manner. The Regulds have always simply come straight at us regardless of any losses they might take form this, but the Gargoyles showed a distinct understanding of their own mortality, slowing down and working as a unit every time a missile wave neared them."
The Korean Peninsula admiral Bae-Chui frowned thoughtfully. "Some kind of special forces unit, or perhaps they act as internal security? Perhaps they are a second alien race altogether."
Lisa shook her head firmly, ignoring the looks she was getting at how she, a mere commander was speaking so forthrightly to admirals. "No, there is little chance of them representing a different race. For one thing, their capital ships are the same as the other forces we've been facing. For another, I doubt Dolza would allow another race that had such capabilities to survive. He's a xenophobe of the first order, no way would he ally with any other race. It could be some kind of artificial difference, but we don't have enough data to speculate on something like that."
Bae-Chui nodded thoughtfully as most of the other admirals glared at this young upstart for being so forthright. Prescott spoke up again. "I also notice the dates on much of these intelligence analyses are in the past two and half, three months, yet you've been out there on your own for over a year."
Gloval couched, looking a little uncomfortable, "Uhum, herumph, yes well, the intelligence division was one of the many that were severely understaffed when we were forced to leave. We in fact only had a single individual in that division, and he never asked for more help, and never sent us anything beyond estimate of how much it would cost to build Regulds with our resources. He even blocked a few reports, citing their source as unreliable which was simply ridiculous at the time. Eventually I was forced to court-martial lieutenant Griftel for gross dereliction of duty in wartime. He has since been in the city's rather small civilian prison." And the fact I never even noticed we weren't getting anything from him until Ranma fought Kyron that second time was a major oversight on my part, he thought bitterly.
An admiral who hadn't said much up to this point, a swarthy, tanned man who might have once been handsome before long hours of inactivity and rich food took their toll, groaned aloud. "Griftel, that useless piece of offal. His father will undoubtedly make trouble, but the boy is no patch on the old man. At least Griftel senior knows what hard work is. I'll have my own intel officer talk with this," he looked down at the intel report and read the header, "commander Drake and see what he comes up with."
There was mutter of agreement and a few rueful chuckles from the other admirals. One of them this time a Indian explained for the group from Macross. "Commodore Roberto Equistitore may look like some kind of accountant, but I can assure you, he is beyond a doubt the best intel analyst the UNSF has at its disposal. He's so good we had to threaten his parent navy to get him in the first place, and we ourselves have been known to nearly come to blows over his services. If there is anything to be learned that this Drake of yours didn't notice, Roberto will find it."
"Any insight he can give us will of course be welcome. I'll tell Drake to be ready for his contact." Gloval said gravely, then brought the conversation back to the last few operations and there were many exclamations of shock at the risks the Zentraedi took with even their capital ships, knowingly trying to fold within a gravity well, and losing so many of their ships to interpolation.
The losses the destroids and Valkyries took fighting through to Earth in the last battle also brought murmurs of surprise, and the nature of Ranma's abilities were much derided. Some of the admirals however were heard to mutter that it was probably because all of the pilots were green that they lost so many. Mannstein and Lisa shared a look as that comment carried to them then shook their heads. Even against elite pilots, the Gargoyles were simply deadly.
After Gloval finished the admirals conferred for a moment, then they began to haggle about what kind of reinforcement and how much they were willing to put on the Macross. None of them however wanted to weaken their own positions/forces. Prescott was strangely silent at this point, which was a little odd, but the others put it down to his grieving for his brother. It was decided at last to send Gloval and the others back to Macross to await further orders, as they had nothing more to add to the discussion (they did, but none that most of the admirals there wanted to hear).
As the meeting broke up Admiral Hayes tried to buttonhole Lisa again. "Commander" he said formally, still seething a little by her dismissal of him yesterday, and wanting to keep a professional edge to the conversation. "I'm going to have orders cut to transfer you off the Macross. I feel that your talents can be better used elsewhere, and you can give the staff here some insight into fighting the aliens."
Lisa stared at him then to his amazement laughed in his face. "You honestly think that I am going to just up and leave Macross? Wrong answer. Maybe a few months ago that would've been the case or I would've simply meekly followed the orders you sent, but not anymore. If you try this, I'll resign my commission and call my boyfriend to come and get me and still get aboard the Macross."
"Damnit Lisa," he exclaimed, keeping his voice down to a hoarse whisper, "I'm trying to look out for you, I don't want you on that moving death trap any longer! How do you think it will look if I just let my only daughter go back out there on what is almost certainly a suicide mission!"
"Yes," Lisa replied scathingly, invading his personal space and staring her father down. "Something you're very good at looking out for your own interests, not mine and certainly not the planet as a whole. You seem to have forgotten why we put these uniforms on in the first place, but I haven't, and I will do my damndest to discharge my duty as I see fit. More, I've made a life for myself on that battleship with people I care for, a family that I have made myself and I won't abandon them just because you say I should. I will fight these aliens to the best of my ability and with all my strength, something that you seem utterly unable to do." Without another word she turned and walked away, leaving her father gaping and shaken behind her.
Gloval, Mannstein and Connor had waited for her by the door. No one noticed that as Prescott passed by he slipped a piece of paper into Gloval's pant pocket.
At around 1300 local time a chopper lifted off from Fort Winter and began the hour-long trip to the Macross carrying the four of them back. Colonel Mannstein turned to Lisa. "You handled that as well as you could, but don't think that your father is someone who will willingly give up just because his enemy has scored a point on him. You may have changed and matured, but he will still see you as his daughter, someone who he can command at will, or as a junior officer who will obey his orders."
Lisa sighed, though again she wondered what had transpired between the two men to make Mannstein hate her father so much. "I know, and despite how he made it sound I know he's worried about me and trying to protect me, but I'm not a little girl anymore, am an officer of the UNSF. I can't just ignore my duties to the Macross, or to the people on it, above and beyond my personal reasons for not wanting to leave, and I refuse to be put aside like some fragile doll." Mannstein nodded grimly while Gloval had seemingly not hear anything about the conversation, though the small smile he wore showed his own opinion on the matter.
Lisa couldn't see Connor's face from where she sat, which was just as well. He alone of the four thought she had been in the wrong. Her father was an admiral and she had just ignored a lawful order after all, regardless of the personal reasons behind it. More he was well aware of his own mortality, and he began to wonder if the job he was doing for the higher ups was worth the danger it put him in.
Azonia sighed. The ongoing debriefings with the three spies had yielded little results, nothing that could take her mind of what her old friend had told her. Though thanks to their understanding she now knew why their cyber assault on the planets data net had failed. With the Micronians having this odd civilian/military division, their assault on the planetary data-net had failed miserably because while the civilian sector was completely open, the military was not. By the time they realized this the military was on hard lock down using LAN lines and coded messages to pass data, with no data-net they could access.
In the short run, it really did look like they would just have to overwhelm the fortress with numbers, which was going to be costly and dangerous once they forced their way inside. After all, none of her troopers knew what the proto-culture generator looked like, come to that even she didn't have any real idea, which was probably why they had been ordered so strongly to take Zor's battleship intact. And the odds of it being damaged or blown up by the humans out of spite was not something she wished to contemplate. What was worse, it seemed from the spy's reports that the interior of the ship had been completely altered. The humans had altered so much of it that even the few schematics they had could give them no more than a general sense of where things would be.
Still keeping the attacks going by Kyron's fleet will wear the humans out and whittle his fleet, hah, more like a mere flotilla by this point, down further, which is good. Plus it may allow me to figure something else out. A close in visual sweep of the fortress could reveal a weakness we can use, and even if it can't, an attack on the fortress will keep the human's attention fixed there while my forces gather samples of this chocolate and perhaps some other items as well.
Yes, she thought, that was a good plan, while deep down she knew she was using it as an excuse not to start looking at the data Sonya had gathered. Part of her already knew somehow what she would find there, and the idea of what that would force her to do terrified her. Still Azonia was made of sterner stuff than most, and she decided there and then that as soon as this attack was over she would devote all her time to those hard questions.
She called down to the electronic warfare division and was surprised to see Anya in the background working at another station while her superior took the call. "Is warrior Anya already back at work? I would have thought she would want a day or two of rest."
The EW officer looked at Anya for a moment before nodding. "She isn't working on any of the normal information, I have her looking at the scraps of news from right after we started to destroy the Micronians' orbital's. I want to see if she can give any meaning to the fact we haven't seen any general response from that act yet."
Azonia nodded approvingly. "If you want requisition Lucretia as well, but I'm going to keep Sonya free for a time to answer any questions that might come up. I wanted to know if you've pinpointed the, what was the word, country I think that was it most heavily involved in the creation of this 'chocolate' substance?"
The section chief nodded. "The main country for top quality chocolate – there seems to be levels of quality in most everything the Micronians do –is the one called Switzerland, and another called Belgium. I'll send you a detailed map of both countries in a few minutes, after I highlight their cities, military bases and largest chocolate factories."
Azonia nodded approval at the other female's forward thinking and the other female saluted. Azonia returned the salute, cut the transmission and called Miriya. The green haired ace took the call in the rec room, her remarkable healing ability already having already rid her of the damage she had taken in the last battle. "Miriya, is passing through our blockade and moving towards the planet, and I think we both know what Kyron is going to do." The two women both rolled their eyes in irritation. Kyron's hatred of the Micronians had made what was already a limited tactical mind lose all its focus, and he and his fleet, a fleet so completely enthralled by him that it no longer had any organization other than his word, was little more than a blunt weapon.
"He'll attack as soon as he possibly can." Miriya scowled irritably "His losses around the gas giant were great, he lost nearly four/fifths of his fleet with little return, and that will sting his pride even more than his own personal defeats at the hands of the Micronian Ace Ranma. Do you wish to make it a joint attack? I am fit for duty if so." And I have brought my speed up enough to negate that technique of my opponents as well. Not enough to match but enough to curb its effectiveness at least. I wonder however why using it makes me so tired afterward? I must remember to thank the spies those videos of Ranma exercising they took.
The videos in question had given her several exercises she had never thought of, as well as a good grounding in the hand to hand discipline of these Micronians. Many of them she wouldn't be able to pull off in a Queadluun Rau, the power suit was powerful and maneuverable not flexible, though Miriya herself was extremely so. Yet some of the rest was, and it would allow her to face him in close range far better than in their previous battle.
It was also good to have a face to go with her enemy for the first time. Though she was still a little bemused as to why watching the videos made her feel… odd, or why when she had showered herself after, her skin and certain portions of her anatomy had felt so energized. None of that mattered though, not if she and Ranma could face one another again.
"No, not entirely. I want you to take a single squadron along with you to observe and get us some visual data about the battleship, I want to know if there is any weakness in its defense we can exploit. I am not going to pay the price in lives that simply overwhelming the humans would take, especially when doing so could cost us the prize we want to take."
Miriya nodded firm agreement. The Meltraedi never threw themselves away like that for two reasons. One, unlike the near endless number of Zentraedi, the Meltraedi were always more concerned with losses. After all rather than having six monstrously large fleets and dozens of smaller skirmish fleets, the Meltraedi only had the one fleet, large only in comparison to a scout fleet, qualitatively superior but finite.
The Queadluun Rau was also nowhere near as easy to replace as Regulds, though they were easier to replace than a Glaug. She had literally millions of them at her disposal, but she couldn't replace those her forces lost quickly. And two, the Meltraedi, unlike most Zentraedi fleets, had what humans would term esprit de corps, an understanding of themselves as individual units that made up an elite force, and no admiral or leader would sacrifice the edge that feeling gave their troops for anything.
Miriya pulled at the ends of her green hair thoughtfully. "I'll agree to lead that so long as I am free to engage the enemy ace, this Ranma if he/she shows up. And keeping my squadron out of the battle will be hard."
"I'll agree to that request, but tell your pilots that this is not a combat mission, I need visual data of the ship to plan any further attacks. Where are the weaknesses, where are their anti-air weapons, how much more have the humans done to change Zor's battleship? Any data at all is vital. And while you are doing that, I will have Athena lead an attack on several points in this 'country' called Switzerland to see if we can collect samples of this 'chocolate' substance. If we can counteract whatever is allowing the male and female Micronians to work together, we may be able to incite civil war between them, and our job would become far easier."
Miriya didn't think that was very likely, but nodded anyway. She wanted to know why the males and female were working together as well, but these Micronians were so confusing she was perfectly prepared to never understand them. "Very well Lady. I will wait until Kyron's attack is well under way before committing my forces, but once I have, I will signal you."
Azonia nodded and the other woman saluted before cutting the connection. The admiral decided to take a break from analyzing the space fortress and instead turned her attention to the history tracks that they had gotten off the data-net, hoping to gain more insight into the, into the humans before she looked at the data Sonya had given her. It had taken them days to figure out how the humans dated things, AD this and BC that, but the EW team had finally figured it out, though what 'religion' was and why it was such an important factor to these Micronians still eluded them.
Now she looked at the land campaigns of someone called Alexander the Great, and compared his style to that found in the Art of War she was still reading. All war is deception indeed, I will use deception for now, but I have to wonder who is being deceived in the long run here.
The EW section chief breathed a sigh of relief as the call from her admiral ended. She turned to Anya and the others. "The coast is clear but you're really going to have to do that work I just mentioned as a cover. And find someplace else for this little gathering next time alright?"
Anya nodded, then went back to what she was doing. "And here we have a Minmei song and over here a tape of the 'wild horse' exercising. Which do you want to look at first?"
Around her members of nearly every branch on the ship pondered that question. Ever since the three spies had returned a black market had grown up around the goods and videos the three had brought back with them, the goods changing hands via trade of on duty hours, food rations or already acquired merchandise. Minmei's songs were very popular with some of the crew, evoking feelings and emotions that the female warriors had trouble understanding, but enjoyed despite that.
The images of clothing and dress styles had an even greater impact on the Meltraedi. They all knew that clothing was important, and style and color of the uniform were all marks of social status among them, less important than rank but still there. Azonia wasn't respected just because of her positions as admiral and as a peerless tactician but also because she had an excellent sense of uniform style. Already difference in the dress of on and off duty personnel was occurring to accommodate the new designs the Meltraedi could now see were possible.
The tapes of Ranma exercising had met with mixed results. The few who could bring themselves to watch reported feeling very strange yet somehow pleasant feelings shooting through their bodies. To others these tapes were nearly as bad as the strange 'porn' images they had taken off the internet before Azonia handed down her edict. Yet they still sold for the most in trade of any of the goods involved. Little by little the contamination spread…
By the time they got back it was around 1430 and the captain called a meeting five minutes after they touched down to brief his officers on what they would have to do, as well as how they were going to tell civilians about it. He was surprised however to see a lot of upbeat faces around the table when he finished. Claudia saw the surprise on his face and said, "We heard about the orders that might be coming already and we've got a little proposition, we would like to put before you." He looked over at Lisa, who looked away, whistling innocently and shook his head, while Mannstein grunted in humor and Connor scowled. Claudia saw this and decided to start putting some of her own plans into motion. It seemed as if things there were going to come to a boil soon.
Captain Gloval listened to the proposition about moving the civilians out in silence for a moment frowning. While it flew in the face of all military laws and regulations, yet it gave them the ability to do the two things he most desperately wanted to do: tell the regular civilian population of the aliens on the one hand, and get the civilians who wanted off of the battleship off. After a moment's thought he agreed. "You do know that this will kill any chances of promotion any of us have got correct?"
Ranma spoke up from where he had been leaning against the wall, part of the discussion once again as acting CAG. "Promotions don't matter, doing your job does and this is part of our job." Nodoka looked over at her son proudly and Gloval nodded once more in agreement. With that the meeting broke up, as he wanted to take a look at the press release Claudia and mayor Luan had prepared before using it later that day. The sooner they started on this little project, the better.
Claudia went over to Lisa, pulling her friend close to whisper in her ear. "It was all his idea, you know. You should have heard him he was actually pretty inspiring, going on and on about how it was our duty to defend the population and how it was wrong to follow orders that endangered that mission."
Lisa nodded. "He can be pretty inspiring sometimes, though only once per day, any more hurts his brain." She smirked.
Claudia giggled and Lisa waved her off to go join Ranma for a night at the White Dragon.
They moved slowly, picking up Kasumi on the way and sharing stories of how the time apart had gone for them all. Kasumi was sad to hear about the further estrangement between Lisa and her father, while Lisa in turn was angry beyond belief that her gentle lover had been threatened by the foolish panda. Ranma simply reiterated his desire to go after his father, as well as assuring Lisa that if her father tired anything to get her off the space fortress, he would come and get her whatever else happened.
Once they arrived at the restaurant, they were surprised to see the place was pretty busy despite being a little too early for the dinner hour and too late for the lunch hour. Rick was sitting at a table alone and the two went over to join him. "Hey you three," he said listlessly, "What's up?"
Ranma answered. "Quite a bit, there's going to be a an announcement over the TV in a while that will probably shake up everyone, but it's a good thing in the long run. What's going on over there?"
Lisa nodded, having already seen that the center of the crowd was dominated by Minmei and a newcomer a young man with a long blue-black hair, handsome face and thin body and a serious expression.
"Oh that's Minmei's cousin Kyle, he was born in the original Macross city, and he moved away to live with Minmei's family to go to college nearby. This is the first time he's been home in years, and as soon as everyone heard he was back they all came out of the woodwork to welcome him. You know, the old wayward son coming home bit." Rick groused, poking at his food morosely.
Lisa studied Kyle for a moment thinking that if circumstances were different she might be attracted to him. He looks so much like Karl, but he can't hold a candle to Ranma in the looks department. The thought that she had just admitted her current lover was better looking than her old boyfriend flitted across her brain but she didn't give it much thought, it was true after all, and wasn't the most important way Ranma was a better man than Karl either.
"If that's all there is to it, what's got yer boxers in a bunch?" Ranma asked, and Kasumi nodded agreement, though she would never have put it so crudely.
"Two things really, one he's a peacenik" Just like Karl, Lisa thought getting a little weirded out by how much Kyle resembled her old boyfriend, "who thinks that everything is the fault of the military, that if those of us in uniforms stopped fighting there would be no wars." Or not Lisa reflected ruefully.
"And two, I don't like the way he looks at Minmei when he thinks no one is looking. It's definitely more of a guy checking out an attractive girl look than should be coming from her cousin." And that killed what little remaining curiosity Liza had toward Kyle as she became weirded out for an entirely different reason.
"That's a little wrong" Kasumi muttered, looking a little green around the gills and Lisa nodded her head rapidly in agreement.
Ranma nodded agreement but the red/orange flash of an emergency report grabbed his attention. "Look, the captain's about to make an announcement, huh that was way faster than I thought it would be." Lisa nodded again, looking around at the crowded restaurant and wondering what the reactions of the people would be.
It only took a second for everyone, used as they were to important announcements, to turn their attention away from Kyle and Minmei to the TV. After a few minutes however the crowd began to turn ugly as Gloval relayed the high commands edict about not letting the civilians off the ship, but for the most part that changed as Gloval continued, outlining their plans to take off the civilians who wanted to leave despite their orders.
Once the transmission ended most of the civilians seemed resigned yet hopeful but several of them did not. "I lived in Macross my whole life, my house and everything is here, that's all I own. It can't just be turned into money like that!" One angry man shouted.
"It's the military's fault as usual!" Kyle said loudly. "If they didn't start this war, the aliens would never have come here. If they hadn't made a mistake with this ship's special drive or whatever none of you would have been torn from your peaceful lives! And if the military high command wasn't so concerned about keeping control then you all could go back to your normal lives!" There were mutterings of agreement, though a few voices were raised in protest of this sweeping statement as well.
Another patron agreed. "You can't just start a new life over somewhere else at the drop of a hat! I want our old lives back! It's the military's fault that we and our property are here, it's their responsibility to see we get off the ship with everything we brought on in the first place!"
"Let's ask the…soldiers …here" One of the civilians had turned to point to where Rick was sitting only to trail off as he saw that Rick was not alone.
He gulped as he saw Ranma now standing up watching the crowd with a smirk on his face. "Ya want ta ask us something?"
Kyle looked around at the crowd wondering why the rowdies now looked almost terrified while the rest of the crowd, all of whom had looked worried by the escalating tension, had calmed down Some of them, the ones who had supported the military were even smirking a little. The soldier standing up didn't look all that tough though the closer Kyle looked at him the less certain about that assessment he became. He then stared as Minmei left his side and moved to hug the soldier and then the truly beautiful honey-brown haired girl sitting at the table with the rest of the soldiers.
"Ranma, hi, thanks for getting the crowd to settle down" she smiled as she felt Ranma's arms around her for a moment. While Rick's hugs always made her feel loved and wanted, Ranma's made her feel safe, safer than even her father had when she was a little girl. She could feel the strength in his arms, strength enough to literally tear apart mountains, but knew that he would never hurt her.
"No worries Minmei, they're just scared and angry, hard ta blame 'em really."
She nodded then pulled away and hugged Kasumi in turn "Kasumi thanks for letting Rick and I borrow your plane, seeing my parents again was really great."
Kasumi smiled and pulled Minmei down to sit next to her across from Rick as Ranma turned to look at the crowd. "Ya know, I heard a lot of 'ifs' in the new guy's statement, well I don't deal with 'ifs', I deal in the here and now. Here and now, the high command has made a shitty ass decision to follow a shitty ass decision that somehow made sense to their senile, rule-addled minds."
A few people in the audience chuckled at that but Ranma continued seriously. "Here and now, the captain and all o' us are going against orders ta get as many of you civilians off the ship as want ta go. Ya still got issues once yer off the boat take it ta a politician and get 'em ta control their generals, they're the ones supposed ta be in charge after all. But as long as ya stay aboard the Macross, ya behave like the decent people ya are. If anyone wants ta still fight about it, come ta me and I'll give ya all the fight you can handle."
There was some muttering but the majority of his audience nodded, some of them even took out their phones to relay that message to others. No one, not even the most angry anti-military rowdy wanted to get on Ranma's bad side. The spar he and Motoko had in the city's main park was legendary by now.
Lisa stood up then to add her points. "We're doing all we can in this messed up situation, just as we have all along, and we will continue to do so. The captain will even start to broadcast pleas for a safe harbor to put the entire city down if we can, though if the aliens attack again that will no longer be an option. One more thing, I want you all to remember what we have all been through, the hardships you faced, the violence, death and despair we all faced together. Don't be swayed by a pretty face and glib words to forget all that."
She stared hard at Kyle, showing him she knew what he had tried to do, and that rabble rousing would not be welcome aboard Macross. "As the captain said, a survey will be going out to every address and business tomorrow. If you want off the ship simply sign up and you'll be lifted out alphabetically. But for now, I'm here to enjoy a nice dinner with my friends, so shoo!" She waved her hands as if chasing away flies and several people in the crowd broke into laughter, dispersing to leave or to move back to their own tables.
Kyle, thoroughly defanged and humiliated, stormed off in a huff.
Ranma and Lisa sat back down switching places with Minmei who sat down next to her boyfriend on the other side of the booth. "No offense Minmei but I hope yer cousin gets off the ship soon. He looks like trouble ta me."
Minmei sighed. Part of her wanted to defend Kyle, while another part of her, the new, more mature part, knew he had been out of line to say those things, especially since he hadn't been on the ship that long. "I know, I'd like to spend time with him but with his attitude I don't think I want him around much either."
"This plan actually sounds like a good idea." Azonia was understandably surprised. She hadn't had much respect for Kyron but now that had risen from absolute zero to around 2. "What do you think Miriya?"
Miriya nodded thoughtfully. Kyron had come up with a plan built around a feint, something she would never have expected from that mad fool. He would push thirty ships into the third planet's atmosphere in two waves of fifteen, covered further by a cloud of their Reguld pods and with every radar jamming pod remaining in the 11th fleet to cover their radar signal. Once down near the planet fifteen of the ships would splash down into the ocean, going underneath it to attack the space fortress from below. The remaining fifteen would attack the space fortress from above, standing off and sending in their own flights of Reguld to overwhelm the defenders and leave it open to the attack from below. "My troops and I will be ready, and once the second wave of the attack goes in, that will give us enough cover for us to gather the intel you want of the outer hull."
Azonia nodded. "Excellent, and an attack like this will pull in all the other Micronian forces in the area, leaving the other information gathering expeditions to face even less resistance."
Miriya nodded but she didn't really care. Soon, soon my Micronian foe, we will meet for the third time to settle everything. Be ready my foe, be ready.
End chapter
As you can see, I'm setting the stage for a lot of things in the next chapter, as well as hinting of problems and goodies to come. Sorry if it seems short for a two week update, but RL is really kicking my ass, and I am having trouble getting time to write even with my Dragon Naturally Speaking working once more. More there just isn't another good place to cut off for another 13,000 words or so, none of which has been proofread, organized or anything.
As always read and review.