Okay folks, here's the next installment. Here I appear to insult Ryoga's intelligence, and initiate the worst foreshadowing on the face of the earth.
Oh well, as always, I hope some of you like it, and at least four actually seem to. :D
Chapter 5, Mars Attacks.
Ranma sat in the white dragon, eating breakfast. Today was going to be busy and he wanted to get a jump on the morning rush so it was only 06:00. Polishing off the remnants of his scrambled eggs, he paid Minmei and walked out. Walking to the nearest lift, he went up to the bridge to talk to Captain Gloval.
HR.
"You want to what?" Gloval asked, surprise.
"I want to take a double Patrol for both of my flights." Ranma repeated his request.
Gloval blinked. "Are you sure those new pilots can handle it?"
Ranma grinned. "I guess I'll find out. I want to start doing training exercises with my squadron to tighten them up and the normal four hour shift isn't good enough."
Gloval shrugged. "Alright Mr. Saotome, you're authorized for the double shifts but I'm keeping skull on standby for the second shift. Come back in if your pilots can't handle it."
Ranma nodded and said "Thank you sir."
"Dismissed." Gloval said, and Ranma walked out of the room. 'That boy will be a great hero some day...or die young' Gloval mused internally.
HR.
Ranma walked into the Briefing room, somewhat more confident than he had been the day before.
"Alright! Today we got a double shift. Before you start cursing Captain Gloval, it was me who arranged it. Both flights are going up at once and we're practicing offensive maneuvers. Understood?" A wave of grumbling went through the room but quickly settled.
Max spoke up. "Sir, why are we double shifting?"
"We're a new squadron and we don't know each other's capabilities, also I noticed yesterday that Ben needs a refresher on basic flight formations and I haven't seen flight 2 fly yet at all." Ben looked down slightly and then raised his eyes again, reluctantly acknowledging Ranma's point. "Alright, this should be a peaceful Patrol. We're in open space. Everyone Suit up and let's get down to the launch deck."
HR.
Roy Fokker looked on, puzzled as he saw six Veritech fighters launching at once. He ran to an observation window nearby, where Rick Hunter was already watching. "Is something going on?" he muttered.
Rick heard him. "I heard Vermillion requested a double shift. Both of their flights are launching and staying out for eight hours."
Roy blinked. "They requested one? I wonder what the Kid's doing." Suddenly, Roy saw Vermillion lead break formation and start spiraling and looping. The other 5 Planes struggled to keep up and every once in a while he saw a Missile targeting laser trace along a part of the Macross' hull.
"They're...flying drills?" Rick said, confused.
Roy's eyes widened. "He's training them. He suggested it in Skull once but I didn't think we needed it..." Suddenly Vermillion lead stopped and the other 5 formed on its sides, making an arrow head formation. They began flying around the Macross, switching formations occasionally, and even went into a 3 on 3 dogfight. Then things got REALLY weird. Vermillion lead switched to Battleoid mode and began to punch in air. Seeing this, the others switched, as well.
"This must make REALLY interesting Radio chatter." Roy said, a slight hint of laughter in his voice. ""Now just punch straight out. Sure it's useful in battle. You've never seen Skull flight in combat, have you?" I can hear it now."
Rick just laughed.
HR.
Captain Gloval's pipe twitched in his teeth as he saw Vermillion doing...whatever they were doing. "Are they maintaining patrol route?" he asked.
Vanessa Leeds responded. "I don't know how but yes sir they are."
"Well, so long as they keep on route, I guess it's alright." Lisa spoke up.
"Sir, Smoking is prohibited on the bridge." Sammy said, out of the blue. Now Gloval's eye was twitching instead of his pipe. Sometimes he wanted to throw Ensign Porter out an airlock...
HR.
Ryoga Hibiki sighed. He had another week of boredom before he could get out of training. It wasn't really all that bad, only reading and tests. It reminded him of his short time at Furinkan high. The problem was that he was almost as bored as he had been back in Nerima. Well, there was only a week of it and after that, he would be able to observe Ranma and challenge him whenever he wanted. At least that's what Foreman Fujiyama said.
HR.
Ranma brought his Veritech down on the launch deck. His squadron had managed the full eight hours, but the fatigue in the new pilot's voices when they spoke over the Radio spoke volumes. He was probably going to cut back to four hours on and eight off after this. Even with the fact that the pilots were all dead tired, they had done surprisingly well. Ben's formation flying had improved slightly and Max seemed to react just a bit more quickly. The other flight was, unfortunately, outclassed by Flight one. They were good pilots but compared to Ranma or even Max, they didn't have a chance. Ranma resolved to train them so that they could survive.
Getting out of his Veritech, he mopped the sweat from his brow. "Ok, good flight today. Tomorrow we fly the normal four hour shifts. For the rest of today, you have the day off. I can get Captain Fokker to take our shifts with skull." The sighs of relief and tiredness from his squadron brought a smile to Ranma's face. He would have them whipped into shape soon enough. So long as he didn't use any of his father's motivational methods, he would do fine.
Vermillion squadron walked out of the bay, in a slump shouldered line and yawning. Ranma walked the other way, looking for Roy.
HR.
Hey Roy!" Ranma yelled, as he ran down a corridor on the Macross' Main level.
Roy Fokker stopped and turned. "Hey kid, what can I do for you?"
"I was wondering if Skull would take my squadron's patrols for the rest of today?" Ranma said, hopefully.
Roy grinned. "I suppose we could do that...for a price."
Ranma was suddenly reminded of a certain Mercenary Tendo sister as he gulped. "What would that be?"
"Train me." Roy said, bluntly.
Ranma looked puzzled as he replied, "That's it? What do you want trained in? You're still as good a pilot as me and you didn't show much interest in Martial Arts so..."
"You said I had some ...what was it? 'Natural Chi ability'. Right?" Roy asked.
"Yeah, some. That's how you managed to get rid of all those enemy pods a few weeks ago...Wait a second. You want me to train you to use Chi?" Ranma said, getting where Roy was going. "I'm sorry... I trained for about 10 years before I got to my level of Chi manipulation and what I had to go through to learn it wasn't pleasant." Ranma had a strange look in his eyes as he said this.
"Well, can't you try?" Roy asked. "Or aren't you good enough?" he had learned what buttons to push with Ranma from Hiroshi before he died and was now using his knowledge.
"I'm the best and don't forget it!" Ranma's knee jerk reactions took over. Even though he had grown quite a bit since Nerima, some things hadn't changed.
"You'll do it then?" Roy said, a victorious look on his face.
Ranma sputtered and then sighed. "I wish Hiro hadn't told all those stories about me...Fine. I'll do it, whenever ya got time."
Roy walked off, whistling as Ranma scowled after him.
HR.
The next week passed rather uneventfully. Ranma continued putting his squadron through its paces during the days and began trying to teach Roy how to access his Chi at night. Vermillion Flight 1 was actually shaping up to be as good as Skull or better. Ranma was as good as ever and Max had improved some. Ben was still slightly behind but he was progressing. As for Roy's training, the best word that could be used to describe it was...frustrating. He kept over-analyzing and seemed to be unable to clear his mind enough to sense his Chi. Ranma was about to get drastic and do something to Roy like the old Ghoul had done to him and Ryoga to get them to access they're Chi...until he got an idea.
HR.
Roy walked into Ranma's quarters after a rather hard day. A small Enemy force had attacked the SDF-1 and all the squadrons had attacked. It had taken half an hour of constant fighting to repel them.
Flicking on the light, Roy saw Ranma sitting in the middle of the room.
"Hey kid, why'd ya call me he..." Roy started, before being interrupted.
"You're pathetic!" Ranma yelled, surprising Roy. "You poor excuse for a man. Your flying stinks and I personally think my girl form is more of a guy than you."
This aggravated Roy slightly. He'd just gotten in from a hard fight and Ranma was insulting him. "Kid, what the hell are you doing?"
Ranma heard the slight tone of anger in Roy's voice. It was working. Now for the last part. "In fact, you know what? It's your fault Hiro got shot down. You pathetic moron. You let him die. You could have saved him, couldn't you?"
Roy was REALLY pissed now. This KID was saying that one of the worst things that had happened in his career was his entire fault? He was saying that he could have stopped it. "No." Roy whispered. "Kid, stop that."
Ranma continued goading Roy. "Yeah, you coulda stopped Hiro from being shot down and Y'know what? I bet if anyone in your squadron is in the least bit of danger, you'll just sit there and watch, won't you?"
This pushed Roy over the edge. "SHUT UP KID!" he roared, his voice echoing off of the walls of the room. Then he was confused by Ranma's slight smile.
"I'm sorry I said that Roy, but go look in a mirror." Ranma said, with true apology in his voice.
Roy walked into Ranma's bathroom, trembling with Rage. He would give the kid one last request before he beat the holy hell out of him and if this was it then... His thoughts trailed off as he caught sight of his reflection in the mirror. A reddish haze surrounded his body, clearly outlining it.
"Congratulations Roy, you generated a battle aura." Ranma said, coming up behind him. "It looks like your emotion is anger. That's really gunna suck for the enemy I guess 'cuz in battle people tend to get angry."
Roy blinked. The kid had only said that stuff to get him pissed off? He had done it intentionally. "Hey Kid, you're the bravest man I ever knew. As for that Girl Form Crack..." He turned the tap in the bathroom sink, put a finger under the faucet and doused Ranma. "You don't look all that much like a guy to me."
Ranma looked on in astonishment as Roy left her room. Shrugging she muttered, "I guess I deserved that..."
HR.
The next day, Ranma walked into the Launch Deck, Ready for another day's patrol duty. He was brought out of his slightly distracted haze by the rather familiar shout of "Ranma! Prepare to die!"
"Ryoga? What're you doing back here?" Ranma said, as he caught sight of Ryoga's clothing. It was a yellow engineering jump Suit. "You joined the RDF Ryoga?"
This odd question from the guy he was trying to kill caught Ryoga off guard. "Yeah, I thought it'd help me beat you!" He said, as he threw one of his bandanas.
Ranma jumped the bandana and the real fight was on. Foreman Fujiyama watched on in astonishment. That new recruit really did hate Saotome. Ranma ducked under a thrown punch from Ryoga and slammed his elbow into Ryoga's stomach.
"Ryoga, I don't have TIME for this right now. I've gotta get into the air." Ranma went into the Amaguriken and pummeled Ryoga back into a wall.
Ryoga countered with his umbrella and yelled, "Shut up Ranma, You'll fight me and I'll beat you. THEN you can go." He threw his umbrella after jabbing Ranma with it a few times. It missed and buried itself in the floor.
"Aw man, that's it." Ranma said, as he noticed his wingmen standing at the door, looking on in astonishment. He grabbed a bucket of water. "Sorry Ryoga but I've gotta end this fast." He threw it up into the air and it splashed everywhere. Ranma felt the change ripple through his body as Ryoga disappeared into his clothes. Picking him up, she said, "Man, give it up. This was annoying in Nerima and it's annoying here." Tightening the strings in her flight Suet as she saw that there was no hot water nearby, Ranma looked at the Foreman. "Sorry 'bout this. You can turn him back with hot water. I gotta go."
Max looked on in wonder as he saw...someone...walk up in Ranma's flight suit.
"Ok guys, let's go." She said in a high soprano voice.
"I TOLD you" Ben said, a grin on his face.
"Y-you're Captain Saotome?" Max asked, needing confirmation.
"Yeah, I guess you've never seen the curse, have you? I've been relatively free of Water Magnet moments for the last little while. Anyways, let's stop standing around and get going."
The other pilots in Vermillion shrugged and got into their planes. They taxied to the Catapult, then launched.
HR.
The next couple of months passed rather peacefully. Actually, Ranma thought, too peacefully. He just KNEW the enemy was planning something but all that had been happening was small scale and easily repellable raids. Even with the lack of enemies, Vermillion was steadily improving. They were now acknowledged as the second best squadron on the Macross and they were threatening to steal first from Roy and the Skull.
Roy's training was actually going well. Now that Ranma knew what Emotion Roy's Chi was based on, he could help him try to feel it. Roy hadn't gotten to the Chi blast stage but he seemed to be able to control it inside his Veritech. He could sense Chi with his Radar just like Ranma had been able to do when he started, but his progress was much slower than Ranma's.
Ranma figured that whatever the enemy was going to do would happen when the SDF-1 got to mars. He didn't know how right he was.
HR.
As Ranma put His Veritech down after a particularly hard patrol, Ryoga started his daily ritual. "Ranma! Prepare to die!" Ranma sighed and jumped over Ryoga's first strike.
"Aw man, gimme a break! I'm tired." Ranma said, his voice filled with exasperation.
This seemed to anger Ryoga as his attacks accelerated. "Shut up Ranma! I'll get you this time!" He threw a flurry of kicks, one of which caught Ranma on the side of the head, leaving an imprint.
"Look Ryoga." Ranma said as he dodged the remainder of the blows. "I can't do this. What happens if the ship is under attack and I gotta launch fast. You can't get in the way." He flipped over Ryoga's over-extended arm and slammed his feet into Ryoga's head.
Ryoga reeled back from that blow and stood, trying to catch his breath after the flurry of attacks. "Under...Attack?"
Ranma's eyes widened in surprise at that question. "What? Do you think I go out and fly 4 hour patrols for fun? We're in a war damn it." His voice rose at the end of the statement. "I'm trying to keep this place in one piece, including your sorry pig hide. Now can you stop attacking me every day?"
Ryoga had never wondered why Ranma had become a pilot. He had just assumed that it was some sort of training to humiliate him. Now with this new information, he began to reevaluate his constant attacks on Ranma. "Fine Ranma, I won't attack you here. If I see you ANYWHERE else on the ship though, you're mine!"
Ranma shrugged, it wasn't quite what he wanted but it would do. "Thanks Ryoga. I appreciate it." He said, as he left the launching deck.
HR.
Ranma was reading his orders sheet for this week. "On standby for 30 hours? That's gunna suck." He muttered to himself.
Vermillion squadron was to be on standby for the entire Mars base exploratory mission. Apparently, the bridge had detected a distress signal from an old, and thought abandoned, Colonial base. They were going to check it out and see if they could get supplies. Skull was taking the Main Recon with Commander Hayes in a new Fanjet, loosely modeled after Rick's. At least that's what Ranma had heard through the grape vine. The Macross' grape vine was rather healthy and he had heard it straight from Sammy Porter so he believed it.
He was interrupted from his contemplation of his orders by Lin Minmei, coming up to his table in the white dragon. No matter how many times he ate here, he always liked the food better than the officer's mess and would always come back. "Hey Minmei, How's it going?" Ranma questioned as he put his orders sheet down on the table.
"Pretty good Ranma, I asked Rick on a date today."
Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Isn't it supposed to go the other way round?" He questioned, a slight tinge of amusement in his voice.
Minmei blushed. "Yeah...usually, but he did accept. We're going to the movies together."
Ranma smiled slightly. "Congratulations. Oh, watch out for explosives!"
"Ranma, This ISN'T Nerima. People don't throw explosives on dates here." Minmei said, giggling.
Ranma laughed himself and said, "Well, I'm glad for you anyways. Hunter seems like a pretty nice guy... aside from his low tolerance for weirdness."
Minmei swatted her friend on the back of the head. "Your kind of weirdness is something very few people have a high tolerance for. You freaked me out pretty good the first time I saw you change and those Chi blast things are pretty odd, you have to admit."
Ranma scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously, before something caught his interest. "Hey Minmei, what's wrong with Commander Hayes?" He asked, pointing at the commander holding her head in one hand at a back table.
"I don't know. She walked in an hour ago, ordered a coffee and has been nursing it ever since." Minmei responded, sounding slightly confused at the change of subject.
Ranma got up from his table, paid Minmei for the meal he had eaten before he started reading his orders, and walked over to Commander Hayes's table. "Hey, can I sit here?"
Lisa Hayes looked up and shrugged. "If you want, Captain." she said, sounding almost as depressed as Ryoga on a good day.
"So...what's wrong with you?" Ranma said, with the same blunt directness that had gotten him in trouble countless times before.
Hayes glared at him. "Captain, how exactly is it your business?" She slumped as she realized that she'd just bitten off the head of an innocent officer. "Sorry Captain, I'm just a bit...well..." She trailed off.
Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Just a bit...well? So you're mostly sick?" He asked, teasing a bit.
Hayes actually chuckled before responding. "Fokker was right about you, you know? You're about as tactful as a thermonuclear strike."
Ranma grinned. "So I've been told. I believe it has been referred to as the "Saotome Foot in Mouth" Syndrome. Well, Now that I've pissed you off, care to tell me what's got you so "Just a bit...well"?"
Lisa had to laugh at this, but her mood quickly deteriorated back to its former depression. "Well, there was this guy. He was the entire reason I joined the RDF in the first place. He was one of the colonists on Mars base. The base was bombed by a terrorist group a few years ago and all the colonists were killed...including Karl."
Ranma sighed. "I'm sorry for asking you. I'm sure you didn't want to bring that up...I don't know what I'd do if Akane..." He trailed off into silence.
"Akane? Is that your girlfriend?" Lisa asked, seeing a way to change the subject.
Ranma blushed a bit and looked away. "Yeah, she's the cutest tomboy you'll ever see. She can't cook though."
Lisa started laughing and this time, her mood didn't darken again. "Thanks Captain. I think I needed to tell someone about that. I'm feeling a bit better now." She smiled at Ranma and got up, ready to return to the bridge.
HR.
Ranma and the rest of Vermillion sat, rather bored in front of the situation display in the briefing Room. So far, nothing had happened. The SDF-1 had landed successfully on Mars and Skull flights 1 and two had escorted the Mockingbird Fanjet to the old mars base. All in all it was looking to be a pretty boring day for Vermillion, just looking at blips on a screen.
HR.
Roy Fokker sat inside his Veritech, about a mile away from the base. The Mockingbird had flown ahead and landed, and Skull was standing guard. Suddenly, his recently acquired Chi sense flared. "This is skull Lead to flights 1 and 2. We are about to get company. Be prepared."
The other 5 aircraft in Skull formed up near Roy and waited. Suddenly, a large force of battle pods came flying out of the upper atmosphere and towards the Skull. Roy kicked in his thrusters and jetted up to meet them, switching from Battleoid to Fighter on the way. Within seconds, the battle was on.
HR.
Lisa Hayes walked through the old abandoned base, jumping at every sound. This was like walking through a graveyard except for the lack of bodies and tomb stones. Her flashlight played over the doors to the rooms as she looked for the supply room. Suddenly she stopped cold as her flashlight illuminated a particular name plate. "Karl Ryver."
She pried the door open and saw a rather bare room. A bed, a desk and a book shelf. On the desk was a picture, resting face down. Dust covered it. Lisa lifted the picture and saw an image of her and Karl, holding hands and grinning at the camera. Karl was in his Colonial Space Core uniform and she was in a pilot's flight suit. She put the picture back down and wiped a single tear from her eye.
After a few moments of silent grieving, Lisa exited the Room and continued on her search for supplies.
HR.
Rick hunter jerked his Veritech through a set of maneuvers and managed to get behind a battle pod. Firing his Gun pod, he hit the enemy dead center and destroyed it. "Yeah, another one bites the dust!" He said, jubilantly into his radio.
Roy Switched to Guardian Mode and matter surfed along the surface of the planet, keeping out of the Radar range of some of the heavier artillery. He raked fire along a clump of battle pods and half of them exploded. Stopping for a second, he received a signal from the SDF-1.
"Skull flight, do you need back up? Vermillion and Gold are on standby."
"Don't worry Macross. We can stick it out. Try and keep them in reserve for a bit longer. I don't think this is the main force." Roy said, as he went back to splattering enemy targets.
HR.
Lisa had finally found the supply room. The neutron bomb that had killed the colonists had done a number on the supplies as well. All of the organics like Fruits and Vegetables being grown in Hydroponics were decomposed and anything in cans was useless. Fortunately, Lisa had found a large, heavily shielded emergency store of Frieze Dried foods that were unaffected by the neutron explosion.
"This is Commander Hayes to the SDF-1." Lisa said, as she tapped her comm link. "I've found a store of food and water. It's pretty easy to bring back to the ship. It's all in freezers."
"Good work commander. We will send a transport Helicopter to pick up the supplies. Stay on station until they get there." Came the reply from the ship.
Lisa settled in for the half hour wait for the Helicopter.
HR.
Roy finished off the final battle pod group and took up his station near Mars base. "Area clear for traffic, Macross." He said through his radio.
"Confirmed. Good work skull flight."
HR.
Vermillion squadron slumped back into they're chairs. Still no action.
"Man this sucks." Ben Dixon muttered to max Sterling.
"Yeah, it's more exciting watching paint dry." Sterling Responded and they had a few laughs.
Suddenly one of the guys at the back of the Room, from flight 2, spoke up. "Hey, Captain Saotome?"
"Hmm?" Ranma replied, coming out of his half asleep state.
"I was in that shelter with Lt. Neomoto when he was telling those stories. I was wondering if you've got any more so we don't go nuts with boredom."
Ranma shook his head frantically. "NO! No way, no how."
"Aw c'mon sir." The same man continued, badgering his CO.
Ranma sighed resignedly. "You ain't gunna leave me alone until I tell you one are you?"
The man shook his head, and smelling the end of boredom in the air, everyone else did likewise.
Ranma sighed again, and went into thought. A few minutes later, he said, "Well, there was this one time me and Ryoga..."
HR.
Captain Gloval smiled as he saw that the last load of supplies were onboard the SDF-1. "Is that everything Miss Young?"
"That's all Commander Hayes mentioned so I think so." Kim Young responded.
"Alright, let's get this ship into the air." Gloval ordered. ":Power up gravitic drives and keep the fusion engines on standby just incase they fail again." Gloval was referring to when the SDF-1 had first attempted takeoff back on earth. The main Gravity Pod Drive System had literally flown away, leaving the ship to fly on its fusion engines.
"Gravitic drive powered up sir." A random tech at the back of the room reported.
"Activate." Captain Gloval commanded, as he reached for his pipe.
The SDF-1 lurched off of the planet's surface, shaking slightly, The whine of the gravitic drive as a slight background noise.
"Sir, gravitic Drive fully functional." The random tech reported. "We're ready to go."
The SDF-1 rose into the air and, shuddered, crashing back to the surface.
"What the hell just happened?" Gloval yelled, angrily.
Emil Lang spoke up. "Sir, it appears that the planet's Gravity has increased somehow. The gravitic drive can't get enough power to gain escape velocity."
"Gravity has increased?" Gloval questioned, incredulously.
"Yes sir, It looks like...Sir, I have detected some sort of gravity mines planted on the ship's hull. They're drawing power from the generator at Mars base. It looks like the enemy snuck them in when we were busy dealing with the battle pods." Lang tapped at the controls on his sensor panel.
Gloval slammed his hand down on the arm of his chair. "Can we cut off the power to the mines?"
"Yes sir, all we have to do is shut down the power core." Lang reported.
"Tell Lisa to shut down the core." Gloval ordered and Sammy porter sent the order.
HR.
"Shut down the core?" Lisa Hayes muttered. "Alright..." She started walking towards the main control room of the base, having to override the doors all the way.
Entering the central control room, Lisa moved to the Power control Console and typed in the Deactivation code that she had written on a pad. The computer displayed a message. "Unauthorized access detected. Please enter correct confirmation code." Lisa tried the code again and the computer came up with the same message.
"Hayes to Macross, the computer system is giving me an error every time I try to enter the confirmation code. Just to make sure, the code is 17701A correct?"
"That's correct commander," came the confirmation from the Macross.
Lisa tried to type in the code again and got the error again. Then the computer's automatic safety kicked in and shut it down. Cursing, she realized that she'd have to go down to the core and shut it down herself.
HR.
Lisa ran into the main core room and her eyes widened as she saw that the main console was smashed to pieces. Someone REALLY didn't want her to shut the core down. Finding an auxiliary console for the control rods, she set them on a 15 minute count down for complete withdrawal. Setting her Radio for all frequencies, Lisa began to speak. "This is commander Hayes, I've set the Base's Reactor to start a cascade Reaction in 15 minutes. Minimum safe distance is 5 miles. Please get out of range."
HR.
Roy heard the transmission in his Veritech and signaled his flights to follow him as he flew out of Range of the base. He noticed that the Mockingbird wasn't following.
HR.
Lisa sat, in Karl's room, looking at the picture. She ignored the radio calls from the SDF-1. She had decided to stay on the base when it went up…to follow Karl.
HR.
Captain Gloval yelled, "Try it again porter!" a tone of desperation in his voice. The enemy had attacked a few minutes ago and skull squadron was fully occupied fighting them off. Commander Hayes wasn't responding and the base was going to go up in 12 minutes.
"Sorry sir, she's not responding." Sammy said, just as desperate as Gloval.
"Alright, we have to send someone to see what's going on. Is there a member of Skull free?"
"Negative sir, Skull is fully occupied. Gold and Vermillion are still on standby though." Vanessa Leeds responded to the Captain's question.
"Call Vermillion. Get Captain Saotome into the air and tell him to get Commander Hayes out of there." Gloval said, his voice tight.
"So I hit him over the head with this mallet, and the mark disappeared." Ranma finished his story and the Vermillion squadron Pilots began laughing. Suddenly the intercom buzzed.
"Captain Saotome, Report to the Launch Deck. That's Captain Saotome."
Ranma jumped out of his chair. "C'mon guys. We've got action." Vermillion squadron charged out of the briefing room and onto the nearest lift for the Launch deck.
HR.
"What? I'm launching alone?" Ranma said, incredulously.
Captain Gloval spoke through the radio in Ranma's Veritech. "Look Captain, Commander Hayes is at Mars base and she's not responding. We need someone to go and get her and we only have 9 minutes. You're the fastest pilot we have so you're going to get her."
"Understood Captain, I'm launching now." Ranma said, as he pushed the throttles forward on his Veritech, launching from the Catapult.
Ranma flew through the biggest war zone he'd ever seen. Tons of Battle pods were engaged in combat with skull. Gold could be seen launching out of the other launch bay and Vermillion was lined up as well. Wanting to join in the fight but knowing he had to get going, Ranma re-routed his Reflex and Chi reserves into his engines, exploding forward in a massive burst of speed.
Lisa heard a different voice from that of Sammy porter coming over her radio.
"Commander Hayes, This is Captain Saotome from vermillion. Please respond. I'm standing outside the base entrance and am coming in. Hang on, whatever's going on, hang on."
Lisa's eyes widened. Gloval had sent a pilot out to get her...he'd be caught in the explosion. She got up, cursing and grabbed her radio. "Get out of here Saotome."
"Commander? Are you alright? Can you get to the Mockingbird?" Ranma's voice was filled with relief. Even he knew what an overloading power reactor could do and he really didn't want to stay around for it.
"I'm fine Captain, I'm not going to the mockingbird...I'm staying here." Lisa's voice was quiet, with a slight quaver in it. "I thought Karl could be alive...but he isn't..."
Ranma's voice came over the radio. "What? So you're gunna die with him? What kinda pointless bullshit is that? Commander, the Macross needs you. Now c'mon!"
"No Captain, please return to the ship. Tell Captain Gloval I'm sorry."
Ranma was pissed off now. "No! I don't think I will. Commander, I'm goin in there and if you resist when I take you out, I'm gunna knock you unconscious. Is that understood? Oh, by the way, we've only got about 5 minutes left and if you do resist I'm probably not gunna make it out so I'd appreciate it if you don't."
Lisa stood stunned, this man had just threatened her and told her that if she didn't come out, she was going to cause his own death. "Damn it Saotome...You're going on report for this!" She said as she walked for the door. As she left the room, the picture of her and Karl on the desk fell to the floor and broke.
TO BE CONTINUED.