Well Here we have the Second Chapter, Thanks goes to AndrewJamesWilliams for the top notch beta work.
Hope you guys can give me some feedback here.
"Status," Barked Captain Grant as he entered the bridge, with Dr. Nichols and Janice Em in tow.
"Bogies should crest the horizon in twenty five minutes." Stated Lt. Commander Nigosky.
After that, they would be in effective weapon and sensor range and the Ark Angel was a big target. Odds they would be ignored? Astronomical.
"Contact Alaska Command, inform them of our situation, Lt. Voight."
"Understood."
"What is our status?"
"Gun crews report all turrets ready and waiting, all missile tubes are loaded but outer doors are still closed." reported Lt. Commander Paul Uribe, from the weapon station.
"Legioss teams?" queried the skipper.
"Legioss teams are armed and ready with conventional load outs." answered Eliss Gautier crisply.
"Too late to open the Reflex Lockers," lamented Grant, "And the Destroid teams?"
"Are being deployed as we speak," finished Warrant officer Gautier.
"Sir," Laura Voight interrupted, "Admiral Hayes is on the horn."
"Patch it thru."
The holo screen flickered and replaced raw data with the face of a man clad in an old fashioned UEGDF admiral's uniform. He was looking far more worn for wear than he had half an hour previous.
"Admiral," acknowledged Captain Grant, with a salute.
"Captain," replied Hayes, returning the salute. "It seems you were right, these Zentraedi aren't a force to take lightly."
"Agreed, however, I must inform you we have more pressing problems."
"Yes, your comm. officer informed us of the situation," said the older man, with a grimace. "How long till you are made?"
"We estimate ten minutes. Fifteen if we are lucky."
"Understood," Donald Hayes acknowledged. "There isn't much I can spare to support you, but the first flotilla should be able to link up with you before that."
"Much appreciated, Admiral."
"I'll patch him in into this conversation." he said before turning slightly off camera.
A few moments latter another image filled the holoscreen. A man in an old fashioned RDF uniform, with a rear admiral insignia.
"Rob," started Hayes, "This is Captain Grant of the Ark Angel. Captain Grant, this is Rear Admiral Robert Mattock."
"Ah, the captain of our mystery ship. A pleasure, I only wished circumstances were better."
"So do I Admiral." replied Captain Grant.
"I have my force in an intercept course to your current orbit, we should arrive in time, if only just." warned Mattock.
"Thank you."
"Let's leave the pleasantries for afterward," responded Admiral Mattock, "where do you want us?"
That actually surprised Vince, he had expected some reluctance from Mattock, taking orders from an unknown officer with a junior rank, no matter the oddity of the situation.
"Deploy in a perimeter around my ship, think your code is Alpine Six." Grant said, trying to recall the old codes.
"Understood, Captain," he said with a sigh, "anything you can tell me of the contacts?"
"We are currently tracking ten hulls in the enemy force, though that might change, will probably change," he amended, "we estimate a single heavy cruiser with nine sloops as escort."
"Smaller than the force that wiped out the second flotilla." interjected Mattock, in reference from the combat at L1.
"That it is, but keep in mind those ships might join us shortly."
"Not a happy thought, Captain."
"Not a happy situation, Admiral." countered Grant.
Commander Eekron Zolf paced though the length of his command pod. He had been the commander of the 537 Scout Flotilla, part of the Adalas fleet forward element, for the past four hundred cycles. Carrying out his duties with great skill and dedication, if he did say so himself.
The main reason for his success was his tendency to look beneath his orders, to read not just the letter of the orders like most Zentraedi, but to understand the reasoning behind them. It was unconventional – which had raised more than a few eyebrows among his fellow Zentraedi – but it got results.
Which brought him to his current set of orders, to investigate an emergence wave on the far side of the micronian planet. It seemed simple enough on paper but his instincts – which he had learned long ago to trust – were saying that something was well off. Wasn't right.
Which was more than a little strange. The locals were a bunch of primitive micronians. Normally it was something he wouldn't linger about, micronians just... were, and were generally left to their own devices; they stayed on their planets and bothered no one.
But these micronians were perhaps the oddest of their kind that he had ever heard of. First, they had allegedly repaired Zor's battlefortress – something which he would have thought to be impossible for such a primitive species to do but done it they had. Second they had built a small flotilla of ships, very simple and poorly commanded ships, but armed well enough that they had been able to bloody the nose of the 546th as it moved towards the L1.
That had been a surprise.
And then Command had detected the emergence wave and surprise became concern.
He understood that concern, Commander Breetai's concern. There was a very narrow chance these micronians had been able to accomplish these task on their own. But it was more likely that they hadn't which that meant foreign support from another power. That meant a number of names no Zentraedi would speak casually, like the Disciples of Zor. The same group command suggested had murdered Zor and commandeered his battelfortress in the first place.
But that was all just speculation and wild guessing, they needed facts. That meant doing a very careful sweep of the planet, particularly the area near the emergence wave that was, currently, hidden from most forms of active scanning by the planet itself.
Hence this mission.
"Status?" he barked. Right now the scouting elements of his force were crossing the horizon.
"Saldus 78214 has visual on the emergence wave area. No contacts to report, yet."
"Keep me appraised." he acknowledged.
"Yes, Commander."
Curious and curiouser, he thought. His eyes went back to the holoscreen showing the sensor returns. He had expected something, the emergence wave was very, very fresh and very loud, and there wasn't any form of immersion wave either. Whatever it had been had defolded there and hadn't folded again.
His eyes wandered back to the planet... it could be hiding there, under the clouds or beneath waters, for instance. A risky maneuver, but not unheard of. Now if only he could...
"My Lord, Saldus 78214 reports contact."
"On screen."
It was a strange vessel, bigger than his own Thuverl Salan, easily more massive, but he didn't recognize it and neither did the expert system.
It also was surrounded by a micronian flotilla. No, not surrounded, escorted. Those ships were in a tight formation, perhaps too tight for his tastes, then again the micronians had shown themselves to be rank amateurs at space warfare, so far. This had just become more complex, not unexpectedly so, at least a part of him expected something of the like. But an unknown ship?
He needed to call that in. The doctrine was clear on that.
"All ships stop on station," he commanded. So far only Saldus 78214, a simple short range Quel-Quallie scout, was exposed, and either it hadn't been detected or it was left alone for some reason he couldn't fathom.
And now for the tricky part.
"Open a comm channel to the Command Ship" he ordered the expert system.
And with that the image of the alien vessel as replaced with another of Breetai's command pod.
"Commander Breetai," he stated, saluting his superior.
"Commander Zolf." replied his lord.
"I believe we have located the mystery ship."
"Indeed?" Breetai said, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, I am forwarding the image to you," Zolf said, bowing slightly.
"Hmmm..." the larger Zentraedi seemed to be deep in thought as an image of the unknown vessel appeared before him, "An unusual configuration."
"Indeed, it matched no known design in our databases."
"Actually, it does resemble the micronian ships... up to a point," interjected Exedore as he too studied the image.
"Indeed, perhaps it is their version of a Battlefortress?" suggested Breetai.
"Hmmm... it could be, however I do not believe that to be the case, it seems to lack any obvious Reflex Cannons. Then there is the matter of why would they hold it in reserve, perhaps it is a Landing Ship? Unless..." hesitated Exedore.
"Yes?" Breetai asked, somewhat impatiently.
"It could be that we caught the ship returning from a mission, the emergence wave is fresh."
"And thus it would be critically low on combat supplies or fuel," completed Breetai as he massaged his chin.
"Precisely, however, I should note this is simple speculation." noted Exedore.
"Indeed, we need more information." the larger Zentraedi said turning towards the screen. "Commander Zolf, I am ordering you to engage this second micronian force, priority target is to be the unknown vessel, secondary targets the micronian ships themselves. This is to be a probing attack, do not over commit, commander."
"It shall be done."
"Targets will crest the horizon in T-60 seconds."
Vince Grant grimaced, here it came. The Spacy ships that were 'escorting' him were now in a tight formation, with his ship in the lead. Tight for space combat was a relative term, there were kilometers from one ship to the next, but they were close enough they could hide behind the Ark Angel's omnidirectional barrier if the need arose.
Surprisingly Mattock had put him in overall command, citing his own lack of experience and Vince's familiarity with the enemy's strengths and tactics.
It wasn't the first time he was in overall command, he had been Commodore of a small task force during the Edwards Rebellion, but it paled in comparison to the seriousness of the situation.
"I want all gunnery crews ready and firing solutions on the lead ship as soon as it crests."
"Understood."
"Patch me through to Mattock." he said to Lt. Voight.
A moment latter a small holoscreen popped up before him showing the RDF Admiral.
"So?" he asked
"Any second now." replied Vince as he drummed his fingers on his armrest. The plan was simple, they would fire the main particle cannons while launching a massive missile barrage. The beams were there to force the enemy fleet to close ranks so that when the missiles arrive they would, in turn, saturate the forward elements with Reflex warheads and just as the heavy cruiser broke though, if it broke though, they would fire on it with all anti-ship particle cannons, a basic decapitation strike. It was a functional plan, possible only because the enemy was moving on a mostly 2d pattern due to the closeness of the planet.
But as far as Grant was concerned, sometimes you caught lucky breaks.
"Sir, Target Epsilon-two has crested" informed Hanse Sandoval, the senior sensor operator. That was a theater scout, a small 84m long vessel better known to the RDF as a 'Cyclops'. It was only the sensitivity of Tirolian sensors that let them track such a, relatively speaking, small and stealthy target from the other side of the planet.
Any moment now. He felt all the doubts and hesitations, for a moment and then he dismissed them with a deep breath, it was the right plan.
"Targets have stopped moving and are holding station on grid quadrant A-265, Z178"
"What?" both he and Mattock said at the same time.
Both men looked at one another though their comm screens. Things had changed.
It was Vince who reacted first.
"Stay in the same formation, if we move now they'll know they've been had." he said, "Besides our orbit is taking us away from them as we speak."
"So we 'fly casual'" replied Robert Mattock with a small grin.
Vince blinked twice, it took him a few moments to get the reference but when he did, he cracked a smile and nodded. "I'd say more like orbit casual, but a few station keeping thrusts to keep us pointed in the right direction wouldn't be out of place," he added with a small predatory smile.
"Understood." replied Mattock, with a similar smile.
It didn't take long before the tension was broken once more by Warrant Officer Hanse Sandoval.
"Captain, we have incoming, I am reading three sloops moving again, heading 047, same orbit."
"Only those three?" questioned Vince.
"Them three sir, but I am also detecting a diffuse cloud, probably a formation of Gnerls at point."
"Understood," he turned towards the air control station, "Eliss, ready to vector in our flyboys towards the cloud."
"Understood, sir," she replied, "Air compliment is deployed and standing by."
"Omega one is cresting." added Sandoval, "Detecting sensor ping, they are trying to paint us."
"Janice," he said turning towards the resident android, "make their lives miserable."
Since coming aboard, Janice Em had to fight an uphill battle to integrate into the crew, she was of Haydonite technology, if only in part. It was an ongoing struggle, but one that, after six months, that lessened somewhat. She had, however found her place as the ship electronic warfare officer. Not only could she interface directly with the computer system, diminishing reaction times, but she had a natural knack for it too.
Vince closed his eyes for a second, wishing there could be another way, but there was no talking to the Zentraedi, no response to the first contact packages or to the radio pleas, just indifference and silence. He knew the Zentraedi had probably decided to ignore them, contact from micronians was to be shunned, under normal circumstances; they were only thinking of neutralizing the defense forces and retrieving the battlefortress.
And he couldn't permit that. The Robotech Masters couldn't be allowed to have that ship, nor the protoculture matrix it carried. No matter the cost they had to be stopped.
"All ships, follow fire plan A-16," he exclaimed, "fire at will!"
The Ark Angel was a storied vessel. She had begun her life as an Ark Class colony ship, one of the dozens built at the Factory Satellite and at Space Station Liberty once it become operational.
During her trials, a thruster misfire had caused her to collide against the scaffolding of Space Station Liberty and suffered heavy damage starboard amidships. It had been a serious incident and had resulted on a lengthy investigation before the ship was prepped for repairs.
During the repairs the hull had been given over from the colonization division to the R&D department who was toying with the idea of an arsenal ship and had decided that, of the existing hulls, the Ark Angel would be the best testbed.
They had removed habitation areas and increased the number of factories and storage areas, cutting down civilian capacity to nearly 50%, to around 50.000 civilians, in the stern city sections only.
They had also added point defense batteries, missile tubes and anti-ship batteries, especially a pair of massive Tribeam Turrets to the sides. Those turrets represented the heaviest particle cannons, short of a Reflex or a Syncro cannon, in the human arsenal.
There had been work done to include a forward firing Reflex Cannon as well, mounted in the style of a Zentraedi monitor, but regretfully the construction was halted before completion, due in part to the availability of the new Syncro Cannon technology and in part because the biggest backer of the project had been none other than General T.R. Edwards.
After that, she had languished in dock until Vince had commandeered her.
Ironic, it was the second ship he had commandeered from Edwards, one way or the other.
In short, while number of turrets was a bit anemic compared to a ship of an approximate tonnage (for instance a Super Dimensional Fortress or a Zentraedi Nupetiet Vergnitzs command ship) it was still a powerhouse and it was that arsenal that had zeroed in on the lead Tou Redir Zentraedi sloop, known to its fleet as Hisho 7825.
The results were quite impressive. Beams from both heavy turrets (known as Able and Bravo) and most of the in-range anti-ship turrets, struck true against the ship's thin, by Zentraedi standards, bow armour. Instantly the armour vapourised allowing the powerful beams to slice into the vessel, eviscerating the superstructure with frightening ease. The ships mortally wounded reflex furnaces gave way and the vessel erupted into a fireball.
The rest of the flotilla, sixteen Oberth Missile Destroyers and Three Armor Platforms, had concentrated on Omega two, better known as Hisho 7820, with similar results, perhaps not quite as spectacular or as quick as the demise of the 7825, it took two barrages and allowed the 7820 to return fire, damaging the Oberth 'Galileo' quite badly, but died shortly after as the slower reflex missiles finally reached the target.
It had been a limited barrage of missiles, fifteen in total, but all of them had reflex warheads, of which eleven fell to the point defense system. The already mangled hull was, however, unable to absorb any more damage and broke into small fragments as the sun dawned four times along the length of its battered hull.
The third target, Sosho 1785, had been able to fire a few times, scoring a few hits on the Ark Angel, however all beams were intercepted by the ships' pin-point barrier system and then the missiles from the Ark Angel reached it.
These were conventional payloads, mostly plasma explosives, but a capital warhead was nothing to sneeze at and the missiles weren't designed as contact warheads, but as penetrators designed to pierce into the hull of the ship before detonating.
The end result was nothing short of amazing. Sosho 1785 failed to break up, but she ended up looking a battered ruin, a complete loss of a hull, in a slowly decaying orbit.
And then the only the Gnerls were left.
Zentraedi doctrine didn't put much thought into smallcraft, outside of, perhaps, the Quadrano power armor, they were meant to be auxiliars, functioning as a screening force, engaging their equals in fleet engagements, and supporting landing elements in amphibious ops.
They weren't to be discounted, however. The Gnerl was a good, agile fighter, capable of considerable damage even to capital ships if present in sufficient numbers.
There were 150 of them in approach towards the 1st flotilla and the Ark Angel.
They were too small and too agile for the main batteries of the Ark Angel, however, she also had a number of dual purpose secondary pulse particle turrets spread all over her hull. Capable of a high firing rate, as well a considerable range, the turrets let loose their barrage, as the ship turned to show them their starboard, to allow more of the secondary batteries to engage the incoming fighter swarm.
The ships second flotilla opened fire as well, letting loose a missile spread as well as well as beam spam, but, like the Ark Angel held the fighter wings in reserve, hoping to use them to intercept any Gnerl lucky, or unlucky enough to survive the gauntlet of fire.
Zolf watched in disbelief as the first sloop division of his 537th was slaughtered in short order. The fighters were still en route, but it was a done thing. They wouldn't change the outcome of the battle.
He had expected to lose those ships, but he had miscalculated the power of the alien vessel.
Yes, it might have lacked a reflex cannon, but it had more than enough firepower in those hellishly big particle cannons to make up for it. Far superior rate of fire as well.
He was about to commit the second and third division of his forces when a holoscreen popped up before him.
"I have seen enough, Zolf, return to the fleet." Breetai stated.
"Sir?" Zolf said in unsure.
"That ship, as interesting as it might be, is not our target, Zor's battlefortress is, for now." was his lord's reply.
"Understood." Zolf finally acknowledged, the matter wasn't done, not yet, but at there was going to be time for it, afterward. With that the screen disappeared.
He turned a last glance towards the ongoing battle, only to see the last remaining Gnerls shot down well away from the alien vessel or its micronian escorts. No, the matter wasn't finished, but he lacked the means to do anything to that Alien Battlefortress... not yet.
There were a few cheers in the bridge of the Ark Angel as the last of the Zentraedi Gnerl fighters were destroyed. Vince knew better, those pilots had never stood a chance, and neither had the sloops themselves. What did puzzled him was why they had only send those three in. yes, it was a probing attack, but why stop at three ships?
His mind was in overdrive trying to see if he had overplayed his hand. There were few instances in Zentraedi doctrine where you left an enemy be, and most of those didn't spell anything good for the enemy itself. Unless they had decided they wanted his ship intact as well?
No, odds were that Breetai was planning something.
"Shall we pursue?" asked Mattock from one of the holoscreens.
"No, I don't want to clue them on our sensor range, just yet," he sighed, "I think we might have done too much already."
"I don't understand."
"Zentraedi never retreat," Vince explained.
"They seem to be doing that right now," Mattock commented.
"They might seem to, but I frankly doubt it, they've been recalled," replied the future captain.
"Recalled?" Mattock said, rising an eyebrow.
"Admiral, do keep in mind that they're here for the SDF-1, we are just a sideshow." he hesitated, "of course, we might have just graduated into a secondary target."
"You say it as if it were a bad thing, Captain." Edwin Mattock commented.
"Because it is, you don't have an idea of the scope of the Zentraedi forces. This is nothing to them, loosing those three ships was routine. Hell, even if they'd have committed all vessels it would have been acceptable losses for a probing attack."
"So you are saying we are that outnumbered?" asked the admiral.
"It is probably worse than what you imagine, Admiral, their fleet's number in the thousands and the hulls? In the millions. We are not only outnumbered, we are facing an enemy that considers even cruisers as ammunition." Vince replied, calmly.
"Then how do you propose we fight them?" Mattock questioned hesitantly, "Can we fight them?"
"No enemy is unbeatable, they have their weaknesses. They can be beaten, bit it will take guile, not brawn to survive this thing."
"Good,"he said before turning from the screen for a few seconds, "Captain, I am getting reports that the SDF-1 has finished its orbital burn, they are approaching what is left of the Second Flotilla. Perhaps we should join them?"
"Where are they surfacing?"
"Sector E-15" that was near the tropic of Capricorn, not far from Macross island, just like in his timeline and very much in range of the Zentraedi fleet beyond the far side of the moon.
"I think..."
But Hanse Sandoval interrupted him "Sir, I am detecting energy buildups beyond lunar orbit."
"Reflex Cannons?" Vince asked, with concern.
"No sir, just primary batteries, from the readings, it is still a whole lot of them." replied the senior sensor tech.
Vince gave an inward sign of relief. So things were still moving more or less as he remembered them. Good.
"Admiral, what is the status of the second flotilla?" Vince asked the holoscreen.
"They seem to be under heavy fire," he paused for a second, "shit! They are reporting heavy casualties and the SDF-1 is diving back into the planet."
"There is nothing we can do for them right now, can you command the survivors to link up with us?"
"And Gloval?" questioned the Admiral.
"He has a plan, if things go as they did, it is not going to work, but it will have positive results for all of us" I think, he added in his mind. He really wished this was the right thing to do.
"An atmospheric fold," exclaimed a stunned Exedore, "why, that should have been impossible."
"Agreed, I am getting more and more convinced that the battlefortress is being crewed by micronians."
"Yes, that doesn't match with existent Disciple doctrine,"
"I will go further, no experienced space hand would even try for an atmospheric fold."
"That much is true, however they couldn't have gone very far."
"That is true, Exedore." agreed Breetai.
"There is however another matter..." started Exedore.
"The matter of the alien ship." completed Breetai.
"Quite, there is something that is not quite right with that vessel."
"Beside's the point it has localized defense barriers?" Questioned the Zentraedi Commander. Only the Masters' ships possessed that technology, and then only in the massive motherships, not even the frontier fleets had them.
"There is that," Exedore nodded, "however, there is something off; something I quite can't put into words." the Advisor hesitated.
"That is unlike you, Exedore,"
"I apologize, but I am, quite frankly, unsure. It is a powerful vessel, more so than the micronians we've faced thus far."
"But, you yourself said it, the ship has the same lettering on its hull as the micronian ships." Breetain countered. "Unless you are suggesting there is a link between them and the Disciples of Zor?"
"No, I don't think so, if there were, their doctrine would have been more robust, same with their vessels."
"Then perhaps an unknown faction?" wondered the Zentraedi commander.
"That is my concern." admitted Exedore.
"Something new," said Breetai almost to himself. It had been some time since he had faced new enemies.
"Possibly." stated the Zentraedi adviser.
Breetai nodded before crossing his arms before him. "We need to track the Battlefortress that is our mission," he stated, "However, I feel we can't ignore that ship either."
"Hmmm... are you suggesting we destroy it?" asked Exedore, unsure.
"Tempting, but if it represents something new..." responded Breetai.
"Yes, I understand." agreed Exedore, if it was something new they needed to know more about it, simply destroying it would accomplish little in the long term and it was thinking long term what won campaigns.
"Good, then I will leave the 2nd Battalion behind, they do need to lick their wounds after that little tussle."
"They are going to need a new commander," supplied Exedore, during the battle at the L1 the command ship had been one of the ships lost, it was regrettable, but that was the fortunes of war.
"Yes," Breetai paused for a second, in thought, "Perhaps Eekron Zolf?"
"His is a scout flotilla," noted Exedore.
"Yes, but he has seniority and," Breetai smirked, "their task is more akin a scout flotilla's duty than a fleet unit."
"Conceded," agreed Exedore, "Rules of Engagement?"
"Like I said, watch and learn. Though perhaps they ought to do a small run on that L5 facility, no point leaving it be."
"It is a micronian facility," cautioned Exedore, there were unwritten rules within the Zentraedi doctrine about leaving the micronians be, that implied their things as well, though most didn't venture past their planets atmosphere. Of course, they had already ignored that rule quite a bit in the name of expedience and a bit more wouldn't hurt anyone, still it was Exedore's place to remind his commander of the situation.
"Yes, you are right, however if that ship approaches the facility, it should be fair game." replied Breetai.
"Agreed," Exedor said, nodding.
"Good," Breetai said with a smirk, "prepare the rest fleet for fold, we are going after the battlefotress, search pattern Epreak, they couldn't have gone too far given the diameter of the fold bubble. In the mean time I will contact Zolf, and give him his new marching orders, I am sure he will be quite ecstatic."