Chapter III: Rain of Death part 1

Rick looked at the gigantic Zentreadi fleet in front of him, when thinking back over the past two months he find it hard how much can happened during such a short time. It had all started after the concert as he had to tell Roy, Claudia and Lisa when he learned to sing.

Flashback

"You are telling me that you, during the trip to Okinawa you just happened to learn how to sing rock?" Claudia looked at Rick clearly doubting him.

"Yup" Rick hated the situation and desperately tried to find a way out.

"Sorry pal, but I have never heard you sing in a shower before. So I agree with Claudia on this" Roy agreed with his girl.

"I can tell..." Max voiced as he rose an arm.

"Don't you dare" Rick said darkly with a glare at said person, who quickly pulled his arm down.

"We got him drunk and then hit the karaoke" Jack said ignoring the glare from Rick. "What? They were to find out sooner or later"

Roy shifted his attention to Rick again with grin. "Aha! Drunk for the first time, eh? Ah to be young again" he said dreamily while Claudia slapped his arm playfully.

Rick grumbled as he sat down beside Lisa in the cafe where they had meet after the concert to interrogate him he was sure.

"I like it though. Never saw it coming" Lisa said with a smile at him which grunted in response but felt a little better by it.

"Anyway" Roy said loudly, drawing the attention back to him. "pretty sure it was a success and such we need a name for it, should we ever play again"

"We totally should do it. Man it sure was a blast!" Ben exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah. But a name dammit" Jack replied with a wave of his hand.

"How about...the White Snake?"

End Flashback

After that they had received the news that the civilian population was not welcome back on Earth and had to stay on the SDF-1. For once all people on SDF-1 shared the same feeling, betrayal. The civilians felt betrayed because they had been promised to return back to their normal life on Earth and sacrificed much on the road.

The soldiers meanwhile felt betrayed because they all knew the reason was solely politic, which meant that all their hard work, sacrifice and death of their co-workers was all for nothing. For a moment they all hoped that the rumor that Gloval was thinking of rebellion was true but when they got words that they could leave their civilians at Toronto.

As they had arrived at Toronto though, they were attacked by the Zentreadi. While they won the battle, Toronto was destroyed, several squadrons destroyed from the overloaded 'Full Barrier System' and a critical wounded Ben Dixon. Ben had been caught by the shock wave and crashed on the ground, while he would live he would never be able to fly again so in the end he became a Destroid pilot instead.

Flashback

Rick and the rest of his squadron waited outside Bens hospital room after the huge battle at Toronto, they had all thought he was done for when he was hit by the shock wave after the 'Full Barrier system' crashed but lucky enough he had made it somehow.

"Think Ben will be alright, Rick?" Max asked as he watched his leader walked around restless.

"He better or he is so much trouble for worry me this much" Rick grumbled in response and saw one of the doctors coming out from the operation room, rushing over he asked how Ben is.

"There is both good and bad news I'm afraid" the doctor started. "The good is that the patient will be fine and make a full recovery. The bad news though is that he have got crack on his spine, he will never be able to walk again"

All kind of conversation ended as the grave news was received. Ben had always played a major roll in the squadron, not perhaps as the best fighter but rather his good nature that raised the spirits, so to have him leave the squadron.

End Flashback

However they were all proved wrong as Ben turned all his attention on getting back on his feet, and within the coming two months he was able to rise from the wheelchair with crutches but that was as good as it could be for him though. It was enough for him though as he started taking classes to pilot the huge MAC II.

They were then sent back into space where Max fell in love with a Zentreadi women called Miriya, this lead to the first wedding in space after have just meet. But hey, Rick was not complaining as Max was happy.

And this is where it all sure got even weirder as the citizens asked to make a movie, which wasn't so strange in itself but rather on the impact on the whole war. Soon a ambassador from the Zentreadi was on board the SDF-1 fearing the special moves from the movie, despite the somewhat embarrassing situation the SDF-1 formed a alliance with a smaller part of the Zentreadi fleet who had been 'exposed' to the way humans lived.

So here they were. The largest space battle ever occurred in Solar system. A handful of RDF ships and Zentreadi rebels against the whole Imperial Fleet, which was over several millions. Yeah, the odds were definitely against them.

"This is SDF-1 to all fighters" Lisas voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts, she had almost been sent down on Earth by her father but Gloval clearly made his point by saying she was more needed up here and that no place were safe enough either on Earth or SDF-1. "Enemy fleet will arrive within the next two minutes, please stand by and make final preparation. Remembered to only open fire after Minmay have started singing"

The plan was fairly simple they had all notice how the Zentreadi reacted to music, especially females it seemed, and as such the would have Minamy singing during the fight to confuse the enemy while they attacked. If working correctly it would prove very fatal for the enemy and if it doesn't it wouldn't change so much.

"Panther squadron, make the final system check and regroup at me. We, Skull and Roses will lead the charge" Rick told his squadron. "As we are the most experience pilots we need to make as much damage before the newer squadrons hits the fight, understood?"

Despite having gone through it all several times, Rick couldn't help but stress the importance of their roll.

"Don't worry boss, we have it covered" Jack replied with a grin. "We all trained three hours straight yesterday, we are ready for them"

Rick merely grumbled in response as every sensor instrument in the fleet started picking up the incoming hostile fleet.

"Holy shit" were the common thought as space craft of various size continued to enter in front of Earth and when the command ship of their supreme leader Dolza arrived with his space station with the size of a half the moon, many felt their hope declining fast.

As the SDF-1 was starting to broadcast Minmay singing the hostile Zentreadi fleet opened fire on Earth, brining the entire war machine down on Earth. Killing millions of people in just a few seconds however retribution was given. As the joint force of SDF-1 and Zentreadi rebels moved closer to engage the hostile fleet, the hidden 'Grand Cannon' on Earth fired back. With one shot it took out a large portion of the fleet, clearly avenging the damage Earth.

After shoot the SDF-1 directly started the broadcast, and as Minmay started to sing the many squadrons of Veritechs charged the enemy fleet thrown into confusion.

"All Veritech squadrons attack. Hammer the enemy until phase two is started, keep the occupied"

Rick didn't need to be told twice as he pushed his thrusters to the maximum of it's capacity with his squadron just behind him. Getting in perfect range he fired off multiple missiles destroying many hostiles as he raced past them further into enemy lines. They were quickly though forced to fight one on one rather then a squadron against squadron which were the RDF specialty.

Rick soon found himself fighting against six battlepods trying to swarm him from all direction, reacting fast he change into Battleoid mode and takes down the first enemy with a well placed burst from his GU-11. Barely notice another firing at him at his blind spot he push more power to his leg while removing more from the right, making his Veritech do a cart wheel jump to evade the fire.

"Take this you bastard!" Rick almost shouted as he fired of several missiles at the stunned hostiles making them smaller stars for a short moment before becoming scraps in the space. His warning system suddenly went hyper active, spinning around he saw a Zentreadi scoutship heading directly towards him. Hitting all his thrusters to it's maximum he tried to dodge the incoming fire, he was able to dodge all but one who destroyed his left leg extra defense.

Shifting all his attention on the small battleship he head directly towards it, his gunpod destroying various cannons as he and the battlepods behind him fly around it's hull.

"Sir, approximately 76% of the enemy fleet are within the Phase two sphere" Claudia reported as she read one of the many reports coming from various parts of SDF-1.

Gloval nodded slowly while thinking, 76% of the enemy fleet was more then he could wish for. "Lisa, order all Veritechs to pull back to Beta 2 while we activate Phase Two".

Authors note: Sorry for late update :( RL is a true bitch sometimes and when you get problems to write your ideas in a good way...well, you get the picture. Not really pleased with the chapter, and might re-write it sometimes, but I really wanted to post something for my loyal followers. You guys are great!