A/N - Updated the chapter spelling errors, and a few other things that I noticed when re-reading. Added Tech notes at the end. Enjoy!
Chapter 2 - What the hell just happened?
"Jump!" Was the last word heard by the crew of SDF-1.
On the outer edges of a double binary star system, a sphere of white light appeared then vanished. In the wake of the disappearing light, the remnants of an island and its surrounding water appeared. Amongst this field of debris, were four ships. Two modern aircraft carriers that were providing the security screen for the launch ceremony, an alien ship that was sheared in half by the fold, and one, a giant ship that dwarfed the others.
SDF-1 Bridge
The bridge crew uncovered their eyes as the light dissipated from the Fold Hyperspace jump, widening in horror as they see the remains of Macross Island, and the darkness of space around them.
"Bozhe moi!" Captain Gloval curses. "Commander Hayes am I seeing this correctly or am I dreaming?"
"Captain… That is Macross Island. It seems our jump engines are more powerful than we thought." Commander Lisa Hayes replies. "Oh my! We are not in orbit of the moon as planned Captain; actually I can't seem to find anything that indicates that we are even in our own solar system anymore."
The rest of the bridge crew gasp as the last of Lisa's words leave her mouth, Sammy the youngest of the bridge 'bunnies' begins to cry.
"Captain I recommend that we send out the rest of the air wing to search for survivors, as well to take care of any more of the alien invaders that hitched a ride with us." Lieutenant Commander Claudia Grant stated.
"Da, make it so Commander" Captain Gloval said, "And get me Dr. Lang, we need to find out what has happened. We do not know when the enemy will reappear, and we need to be battle ready as quickly as we can."
"Yes sir." All three-bridge bunnies replied as they set off on the tasks of contacting the various department heads and reporting to the Captain.
Macross Island surrounding space same time
Rick Hunter and Linn Minmei look out at the expanse of space as the light from the transition clears. Linn wraps her arms around Rick's neck, choking him, and knocking his helmet down covering his eyes as she realizes that they are in space. Coughing from being nearly strangled to death by the girl he asks. "Linn, why are you freaking out so badly?" Wordlessly she points out the cockpit window. "Woah….. Is that what I think it is? We're out in space!" Minmei nods her head and randomly mumbling. "How in the world did that happen?! OH Crap! That is Macross Island as well and what looks like some of the military ships out there. Man, big brother is so going to be angry that I didn't stay in one spot."
Rick notices the SDF-1 launching more of the strange fighters that he was in before. Hmmm… I wonder if I follow them, we can get back into the ship. "Minmei, I'm going to try to follow those jets, maybe we can get back inside the ship. Ok?"
"Ok Rick, I'll trust you. I hope that my family is okay," Minmei says. This is way too scary, not something that I ever wanted to do. Even though this boy is kind of cute and did save my life a little while ago. I still don't like this. "Why can't we just head back to the White Dragon?"
Looking at his control console, Rick sees mass amounts of warnings, noticing the compass randomly spinning. "Minmei I don't have a way to find out which direction to go to find it. The ship would be the best place to find out about your family. I bet you they are even starting to pull the shelters to the ship so that they can take care of everyone. "
"Oh Rick, I didn't think about that. We'll go with your idea, it sounds good." The first smile appearing on her face since this started.
Blushing, Rick tells Linn "Hold on, I'm going to start the rockets I have to get us moving towards the ship. It's going spin a little as we are going in the wrong direction." The rockets start pushing them back into the seat. After they began moving, Rick starts one side and another to get the stunt flyer pointed in the right direction. As the flyer moves toward the SDF-1, Rick looks around some more, wondering what had happened and where they are.
Skull One prepping for launch same time
Commander Roy Fokker was being prepped for launch once again, along with another eight squadrons prepping for take-off from the flight deck. Their current assignment from Claudia was to eliminate any remaining enemy mecha survivors from the attack.
They had just completed the Hyperspace-Fold, and pri-fly said they had made a clean escape to outer space. However, what they had failed to mention and what Skull one found out as he cleared the launch bay, the darkness of space and no presence of the moon, or First fleet anywhere in sight. Questioning what was going on, his jaw dropped in astonishment as he saw remains of Macross Island and the two ships that were supposedly guarding the island in space with him. "What the hell is going on?!" Pulling up the tactical channel "Claudia you said that we had escaped, but you didn't say that we pulled the island into space with us!"
"Roy, we pulled a lot more than that with us. We also managed to slice an enemy ship in half with the fold." Roy's face showed nothing but astonishment at the statement. "We need you and the squadrons to clear out our space before we can even think of taking care of the Island and the carriers, along with that alien ship. It's the first piece of semi-working tech from the aliens we've got. Think you can handle them now that we aren't being attacked by their fleet fly boy?"
"You know I can, but there needs to be some explaining when we pull in. Got that Claudia?"
"Yes sir!" Claudia answered with a smirk and a mock salute. Roy grinned at her and shut off the tac-channel, opening the squadron channels relaying the orders to the rest of the squad leads.
The 144 Veritech fighters formed up into their respective squadrons and moved forward with all intent to eliminate the remaining enemy fighters. In clearing out the last of the enemy, what somewhere calling 'battle ostriches', Roy ordered the squadrons to cover the now 'space borne' ships and island, along with the sheared in half alien ship. Skull squadron making another pass of Macross Island before reporting back to Claudia.
Oh boy, this is not something I was thinking of doing when I got up this morning. Roy thought as he banked Skull one past what remained of the former air control tower with the rest of Skull flight following behind. The devastation of the island from both the attack and transition to space was something that many would not soon forget.
Minutes after Zor's battle fortress Hyperspace-Folded from the planet
Breetai stood there in astonishment, something that had not happened to him in many thousands of years, at the sheer audacity of the move made by the Micronians; folding a spaceship whilst in an atmosphere. Something that even the most insane of Zentraedi would never do, as it had the distinct possibility of destroying the vessel if not the planet it was attempted on. The shock wore off quickly as they detected the power signatures of fifty more of the Micronian ships, with hundreds of smaller ones which were the fighter craft heading in their direction. Along with an increase in the power signatures coming from what first appeared as smaller moons of the main world, which according to sensor readings now appeared to be battlestations, some of which were larger than his flagship.
"Exedore, we need to discover where they have taken the ship. We have not spent the past 15 mega-pulses searching for it, only to have it disappear once again from our grasp."
"Yes Commander. I would have not thought that any ship, even Zor's battle fortress could have done a space-fold within the atmosphere of a planet. It must have been something that the Micronians did in the rebuilding process." Looking over readouts of the brief battle, Exedores' eyes widen when he came upon the power levels recorded of the ship. "Commander Breetai, somehow these creatures have managed to increase the power levels of the ship by tenfold! That would be a possible explanation for how they managed to pull off the fold."
"That ship is, or was, a small battle-fortress of the fleet. It is now twice its original length with the power output of two battleships now. Well, that is something that we can figure out once we capture it later on. But, we need to continue our search and leave this world now as our bounty has vanished." Weapons fire from the human ships started incoming, and striking some of the larger ships, causing minor damage to most. Some of the smaller destroyers and frigates of the fleet felt the attack to a larger effect, having weaker shields than the larger ships started dying at first in ones and twos, then by the dozens when the first of the battlestations fired their BSPFG's.
"Though, I think that it is time we teach a lesson to these creatures for attacking the Zentraedi. All ships open fire!" As the ships of the Breetai's scout fleet open fire, they are shocked to find that the Aliens have shields installed upon their ships. The Human ships manage to deflect some of the pulse cannon fire, but the weight of some 100,000 ships firing upon them will wither any shield eventually. Within twenty seconds of fire, the first of the ARMD ships was destroyed, exploding with a spectacular explosion, leaving no hope for survivors.
The remaining ships start to go in an evasive pattern, trying to avoid enemy fire, but as these are some of the first generation Human spaceships, they lack the skills and experience to stand toe to toe. Another dozen ships soon follow their destroyed sister ship into the dark abyss. Those that managed to survive, start a retreating back behind the moon on the orders of Fleet Captain Anatole Leonard another volley of the human version of the pulse cannon and missiles towards the enemy before pulling back towards Earth on the orders of fleet captain Anatole Leonard.
"That will teach these creatures to try to stand up to the power of the Zentraedi" As Breetai gloated with the minor victory, Exedore continued to study the information that was gleamed from the battle, his face furrowed in deep concentration. "Fleet Hyperspace-Fold to 250 mega light pulses and we will continue our search for the battle-fortress." As if like one mind, the ships simultaneously fold out of what will soon become a troubling world for the Zentraedi.
Arriving at the designated point and receiving the status report of the fleet from the navigator. Breetai turns to Exedore still studying the results of battle, he starts Breetai asked his longtime friend "We are nearing the time limit that Dolza has given us in finding the missing battle-fortress. That last meeting with him was not very pleasant. He showed a deep anger towards our lack of results."
"Yes Commander, he was most upset with how the search continues." Frowning, Exedore continued, "I was going over some of the older records from the earliest times of the Zentraedi, and from what I was able to learn the creatures that we attacked and recovered the battle-fortress from are called Micronians. It is mentioned that none should go near them as they could bring about the destruction of the race."
"What! How can creatures as small as they are possibly destroy us!" Shaking his head at the thought of something small enough to be crushed under his foot could defeat one of his mighty warriors, Breetai continued. "We have battled across the stars for countless mega-pulses and have come across none that can defeat us. I want you to find out as much information as possible about them. Maybe the Masters were wrong about this, but without knowing more of what they had done with the battle-fortress we cannot possibly recover it in time."
Frowning once again, Exedore thought of the supposed logic of the Masters orders, one to know and understand your enemies to a point you know them better than they themselves, and the order to stay away from Micronians. This was most perplexing to him. "I will do as ordered. However, I would like to send a small scout ship back to the system we left to infiltrate the enemy and learn more. Maybe they will let slip where the battle-fortress has went, and will let us discover the whereabouts sooner."
"Good idea Exedore, make it so. In the meantime we shall start by sending scout fleets out amongst the local stars to see if there are any signs of the ship."
30 minutes post Hyperspace Fold
Three people were sitting around the ready room table looking at a steady stream of incoming reports from all over the ship, a ready carafe of coffee sat between them, and two mugs of already half-drunken coffee with a steady haze of smoke arising from the Captains' pipe. Sammy delivering the latest stack of reports to her superior officers, she crinkled her nose at the smoke and gave a stern look towards the Captain. Gloval shirked from the glare and put out his pipe with an apologetic smile, whilst other officers continually streamed in and out delivering more reports as the three officers continued to develop an overall picture of the situation. Captain Gloval, Commanders Hayes and Grant continue to write notes and giving orders as situations arise, whilst all looking over at the constant flow of reports coming in from the department heads, and Dr. Lang.
A frazzled LCDR Grant speaks up, starting a conversation that all do not want to hear "So far sir, the DC teams have managed a temporary seal on the holes created by the gravity drives, and the damage from battle that we took prior to taking off. Along with, Skull reported has just reported in that the last of the enemy fighters have been destroyed, any intact and recoverable debris are being towed to the secondary hanger bay." Claudia said, "Skull and Wolf squadrons are surveying Macross Island, Blue and Sepia are each covering a carrier respectfully, and Vermilion is doing the flyby on the part of the alien ship that we dragged with us. Three other squads are providing early warning patrol and will be rotated out in about four hours."
"Has anyone provided an explanation as to why the alien ship did not explode when it was brought with us Commander Hayes?" Gloval asked, "Also how bad is the damage to shelters on the island, and to the carriers as well?"
As she just finished looking over the most recently received stack of the preliminary reports, Lisa replied. "It seems sir that we managed to have caught it in the Hyperspace-Fold just forward of the main power plant. That is what some of the engineers are giving as a possible explanation as to why it might not have exploded, but we won't be certain until security and engineering teams get onboard to investigate. Once we finish the fly-bys of the alien ship, we will send in a security and research teams to see what we can find out." Sighing heavily she continued, "For the carrier's sir, both carriers look to be salvageable with minimal damage to them. Sadly, from the pre-lim reports from the carriers XOs' is that they lost contact with both the bridge and pri-fly watch teams. They expect them to be dead as the DC teams onboard said the glass blew out when we folded, due to the glass not being space rated. Also they lost all crew that was not inside, or sealed in their gear for condition one." Both Gloval and Claudia shook their heads in the pointless deaths. "On the good side is that a few dozen or so more that are still floating around with life signs, and they are in process of pulling them in."
"For the shelters, we are still trying to get in contact with all of them. Those that have responded to the EMS, have said they are in good condition, with just a few minor bumps and bruises and no major medical emergencies to worry of as of yet. However, since we got a hold of the Governors shelter he has been on the line constantly making demands. I've had Ensign Porter put him on hold for now as we sort out this mess. I would like to vent his shelter just to get rid of that fat bastard. He has been nothing but an annoyance since we did." She sighed. "He did bring up one good point before we muted his transmission; he asked when we are going to be bringing them aboard the SDF-1."
Fuming, Captain Gloval growled out "This is a warship, not a cruise liner to live upon his whim; we could be destroyed by that alien armada with everyone coming onboard if we took them." Sighing, "I would almost say vent his shelter or at least jostle him around a little when we bring them onboard." Rubbing his chin in thought. "Claudia is their room in the secondary cargo bay to put the residents, and maybe even set up a temporary shelter for them?"
"If we get the ground Destroid division in on the repairs instead of point defense, and moving the miscellaneous supplies, and assisting with bringing the shelters in, we should have all of them in about two days to about a week or so." Claudia said with an evil grin to her face. "Now if we want to move a little faster, we could open the cargo bay to space and just shove them in."
All three laughed at the thought of the Governor bouncing around his shelter and screaming like a scared little child that he was.
"Ah… Ok. As much as that would be entertaining Commander, we must still accommodate our civilian leaders. Go forward with the plans of using the cargo bay, and try to expedite the moving in of our guests." Gloval said. "Has Dr. Lang given his report other than having his division heads give the basics Commander Hayes?
"No, not yet. When I last spoke to him he was working on trying to figure out what had occurred, also why the fold drives are not responding."
Looking at a newly received report from the Commo, "On other news; the report I have received from Lt. Young on our long-range external communications being restored, including the hyper-wave radio. Though what she reports seeing on the Comm bands is a mass amount of RF energy, and a type of radar pulses similar to the invaders."
"Some of the stuff is ranging from simple tracking beacons, to what seems to be voice, though we have no way of deciphering it as of yet, and encrypted voice traffic. She had this preliminary map made that is a first run of the signals we've detected from the four stars around us." Typing on her tablet and pulling up a display of surrounding space for all to see. "So far we have isolated some of the stronger signals around the two closest stars. These two larger spots seem to be planets, or large bases from the amount of signals coming from this star." Pointing to the closest star. "We seem are around 630 astronomical units away from this one and the other binary set is about 0.15ly distant, which is highly unusual from what we know about astronomy. The signals from that binary set are a bit more diffuse, giving us a bit more difficulty in isolating their sources. The astronomy section is pulling together some larger telescopes to see if we can get a better visual on any planets or fleets."
Both Gloval and Claudia look on in amazement as they see all four stars surrounded in dots indicating the transmission sources coming from every direction.
"My goodness, we are practically surrounded and totally defenseless!" Commander Grant calls out "Did we fold into the aliens' home system, instead of escaping from them?"
"So far it seems like we are in entirely different aliens' star system." Lisa said, "It seems they have colonized all four stars and if we are to believe the lesser concentrations of signals they have thousands if not hundreds of thousands of ships and space stations flying between each of these stars."
"If we are not to be mistaken, it seems that we have gone from one batch of aliens attacking our home world, to jumping into another's' backyard all together." Shaking his head and taking a deep breath from his pipe. "Bozhe moi! This is almost a worst situation than the Global Wars. If we are to get out of our current situation, our best bet would be to recover the civilians from Macross Island, and both carriers to add to our armament." Both officers taking a moment to think about the captain's statement and nodding their heads in agreement. "Try getting a hold of Dr. Lang and see if there is a way to attach them to us, also tell him to hurry up with his reports. We can hope that these aliens would be friendly but we cannot be certain."
Rick and Minmei near SDF-1: 30 minutes post fold
At that moment the stunt flyer nears the SDF-1, Rick wiped the sweat off his brow and huffed out. Wow, that was a lot more work than I thought getting us closer to the ship. At least we avoided the fight with more of those strange craft. I really don't want to be in another fight again. "Minmei? Minmei?" finally waking up the sleeping girl.
"Huh, What is it Rick?" Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, and noticing that they were next to the giant ship; that was always in the background of her life on Macross Island, now brought into sharp focus once again, as hope raises in her eyes the chance to save her life.
"We made it to the ship, but our radio is still out, so I still can't call for help. We'll just have to look for a way to get inside, 'cause I can't see where the jets came out of."
"So, why can't we get some help from one of those strange robot thingies again?" Linn said questioningly
"Linn, I just said that we don't have a radio. I would have to go outside the flyer to fix it. And neither of us have a spacesuit to go into space." Rick harrumphed.
"I think I see a way into the ship," Minmei said pointing towards one of the now open hatches along the hull of the ship that were opened whilst SDF-1 was in process of removing cargo and placing items in preparation of moving the largest shelters inside the ship. The cargo hold that they had found was one that was not on the handlers list for any immediate usage; and just left alone for future expansion if needed.
Excitedly Rick replied, "Yes! That will work. We can land in there and close the hatch. Then we can find some way to get inside and help from the military."
"Yay! I'll see my aunt and uncle again!" Linn bubbled with cheer. Little did they both know that it would be almost a week before either one would see anyone else.
Tech Notes
BSPFG - The Battlestation Space Particle Force Gun, this is an upgraded and station mounted version of the main particle-canon now present on the SDF-1. When investigators and researchers first saw the specifications for this weapon in the computer files, they believed that there was a mistake in the translation software for the power output. Only to discover that this was a smaller version of the ones used on the aliens ships. When they stated building the Station sized version of this weapon it they decided to double the power capacitance along with installing more focusing units to enable a more focused beam that could also move off center axis, giving an increased offensive capabilities.
Asteroid Space station Habitats - An idea that has been thought of since the golden age of science fiction in the fifties to take an asteroid and hollow it out to make room for people to live in. With the technology discovered on SDF-1 it was decided to take a nickel-iron asteroid drill out a hole to the center then insert cometary ice inside then seal it back up while heating it with solar-powered lasers. This caused a ballooning effect which created a station of anywhere from five to fifteen kilometers in diameter depending on the initial size used. The largest one now created is the Zeus battle station which is home to the main UN Space yards. It is the largest one in the solar system with it being just over fifteen kilometers in diameter, and the ability to build and berth up to twenty ships, and enough room to house the encompassing personnel and equipment needed for operations.
Hyper-Wave Radio - Using a dedicated fold drive that does not truly transcend into fold space, though allowing it to still be accessed via dedicated equipment. It enables communications between two such devices within a fifty-light year distance instantaneously. Though the plans and difficulty in constructing the device limits every vessel in space having one and are only placed on the largest of ships such as command vessels or bases. There are plans to further refine the device to allow its placement on smaller vessels, along with future expansion plans by the UEG to setup deep space relays allowing communication between vessels and command that exceed the range of the Hyper-Wave radio.
Shields (Magnetic Defense Shields) - Constructed for defense against both incoming armament and deep space radiation, they are able to encompass a vessel or space station preventing damage through a means of manipulating the weak force, enabling a stressed band of gravity along the same lines as a neutron stars gravity field to encompass said shielded object so long as a continuous draw of power is available. The current drawback to these devices is the amount of power required of them, only stations and dedicated warships have been built with the appropriate generation capacity required.