Disclaimer
Macross is owned by or licensed to lots of people - Tatsunoko Studios, Harmony Gold, Studio Nue, Streamline Video...note that none of them are me.
The same can be said of Ranma 1/2 - Rumiko Takahashi, Kitty, Shonen Sunday Comics, Viz Video. Not me.
I didn't create any of them, and I certainly do not own them. Any use of them in this story is meant as nothing more than tribute. Please don't sue me.
Wednesday's Child
Nineteen: Sacrifice
June 17th, 2010
Science and Technology Report
Prepared by Cmdr. Nabiki Tendo, Intelligence Division
The Officer's Battle Pod
As with the standard Battle Pod, the designation for this unit is tentative, until such time as we learn its proper name. Also, unlike the Battle Pod, we have not managed to capture one of these intact as of yet, nor even managed to destroy one. They are quite uncommon, numbering about one per every fifty standard Battle Pods among the Zentraedi male forces. They are more powerful units, and their pilots seem to demonstrate better training or experience, and as such, it is believed that the use of this machine is reserved for the Zentraedi elite male officers.
The Officer's Pod is a four-limbed machine, two arms and two legs. It carries what appear to be the same particle cannons as the standard Pod, but relocated to paddle-shaped appendages at the end of the arms - the Pod lacks articulated hands. The lower-mounted 13.3mm impact cannons are still present, though the ammo payload appears to be somewhat lower; the Officer's Pod has not been observed to fire the chest cannons as frequently as the standard Pod.
In addition to the particle cannons, the hand-paddles also carry two cannons, bore size unknown but believed to be between 25mm and 30mm. These are rapid-fire weapons, with a rate of fire over 1000 rounds per minute, and the Pod has been observed firing multiple five-second bursts. Therefore, these weapons must have at least two hundred rounds available per cannon.
The rear-facing lasers have been removed from this design, and replaced with a single forward-facing particle cannon of considerably greater power than the standard ones mounted on Battle Pods. Estimates place the capabilities of this cannon on par with that found on our MBR-04 Tomahawk combat robots, making this weapon a serious threat to Valkyries, or even the lighter-armoured Destroids such as the Spartan or Defender. To round out its armament mix, the Officer's Battle Pod carries six missiles, similar to the GS-11 Coral Snake. The capabilities of this missile are at best inferred; they cannot be jammed by electromagnetic radiation, and have thus far failed to be spoofed by chaff or flare. The best estimate is a laser-guided weapon.
The Officer's Battle Pod is a highly mobile machine, as well. Its top running speed is in excess of 200 kilometers per hour, and it can leap at least thirty meters in Earth-type gravity. In space, its acceleration exceeds that of the VF-1A, but its vectored thrust is inferior. Computer support and powerplant capabilities are not yet determined; not even estimates are available, until such time as we capture one of these machines relatively intact.
The one bright spot in this report, however, is the machine's armour. Though heavier than that of the standard Pod, it is still laughably thin. GU-11 fire can damage it, though we have not yet managed to kill one as of yet with guns alone. A direct hit from a GA-23, or a near miss from a GA-31, will destroy the robot, whereas such a hit would not do much more than scratch the paint on a Tomahawk. GS-11 Coral Snakes seem to be unable to track the unit. It is believed that it carries some sort of radar-absorbent material, that disrupts the frequencies used by the GS-11's BRCLOS system.
The largest weak point that the unit has is the sensor window at the lower front, just above the impact cannons. A hit to this port appears to blind the unit, resulting in it leaving the battlefield. Pilots are advised that, on an approach, multiple bursts from the GU-11 is recommended, as it increases the chance to hit this small but vulnerable point.
"Hey, look who's back!"
Ranma grinned. "Guys, a few weeks of close quarters, is all. Not like I was gone years or nothin'."
"Says you," said Kakizaki. "We've been pining away for you."
Ranma flicked the Jolly Rogers patch on Kakizaki's uniform shoulder. "What's with this? Since when do you wear the Skull?"
"Didn't you hear?" Kakizaki laughed. "Me, Max and the Boss were assigned to Skull."
"Really."
"In fact, Ichigyo's the new CO of the Skull."
Ranma rolled his eyes. "I'm out of it for a month, and everyone gets delusions of grandeur."
"No, really," said Max. "They rolled out a VF-1S - the last one, I heard - and Lieutenant Ichigyo got it painted up in Skull One colours. The same black and yellow as...you know--"
"Yeah." Ranma's good mood crashed down abruptly.
Pilots are, by nature, superstitious. And one of the biggest taboos that they have was that you did not mention death. To do so was to invite His attention. You did not mention a dead pilot, lest the bad luck that led to his death plague you as well.
Add to that fact that Roy was one of the greatest pilots to have served in this war. Almost immortal, his kill tally having exceeded one hundred and twenty five - Ace Cubed, as he'd referred to it once - no person thought that he could be shot down. Much less killed.
The Zentraedi Ace, firing her cannons into his crippled fighter, ensuring his death.
"Well, the good news is," continued Kakizaki, "they got your jet out of the body-and-fender shop. She's ready to roll, and to kick Zentraedi ass. And I'll be up there with you, watching your back."
"Great. Thanks, Hayao. I feel really secure, now." Ranma smirked. "We got a new CAG yet?"
"Scuttlebutt is that Jackson's been tapped. But there's been no announcement from the Skipper as of yet."
The hatch to the ready room hissed open. "Attention on deck."
Ranma and Hayao leaped to their feet as Misa walked in.
"Lieutenant Saotome." She pulled a folder from under her arm. "Your orders, Sir."
"Thank you, Ma'am." He took the folder, but did not offer a salute. His cap still sat on the table.
"I'm sorry to say that, because you were in hack, you were not promoted to command the Jolly Rogers."
"Oh?" Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Not that I really wanted the job - especially not this way - but who did get it?"
Of course, he'd already heard. But he felt certain that he'd get Misa's opinion of the new CO.
She did not disappoint him. "Lieutenant Ichigyo." She sounded more than a bit disgusted. "Apparently, the Captain decided that, since he'd done a bang-up job protecting us on Mars, plus rescuing you after that recon unit shot you up, plus several other things of that sort, he was obviously command material."
He couldn't resist needling her. "May I assume that the Commander disagrees with this assessment."
She scowled. "You know my opinion of Lieutenant Ichigyo well enough. Hell, I thought you shared it."
"Well, he did bust me, Hayao and Max out of that Zentraedi interrogation cell--"
Too late, he realized that he'd pushed it a bit too far. Misa's face was icy.
"Then you should have no problems briefing him in, Lieutenant."
She turned abruptly away and stalked through the hatch.
Kakizaki whistled. "Trouble in paradise."
"Shut up, Hayao, or you'll be eatin' through a straw."
He bit his lip. Misa was, at the best of times, rather touchy. This would not be the best of times.
At least she didn't mallet me. Why is it I always end up with the easily aggravated women?
"Permission to enter, Skipper?"
"Huh?" Ichigyo looked up in confusion. "Oh. Yeah, that's me. Come on in, Saotome."
Ranma sauntered in, allowing the hatch to hiss closed behind him, and sat down opposite Ichigyo. That worthy's desk - formerly Roy's desk - was piled a foot deep in forms, books, reports and briefings.
Ichigyo waved a hand at the pile. "I can't believe that Roy ever found time to wade through all this."
"Good." Ranma nodded. "Because he didn't."
"Really?"
"You want to make a molehill out of this mountain? Ya gotta learn to delegate."
"Is that so?" Ichigyo leaned back. "Coffee?"
"Thank you, Sir."
"Oh, cut the 'Sir' crap!" Ichigyo snorted. "First off, we're the same pay grade. Second, you're senior to me by - what? Eight months?"
"But you're the Commanding Officer of the Jolly Rogers."
"It should have been you," pointed out Ichigyo. Ranma snorted.
"Yeah, right. I'm a mustang officer. Wardroom mentality, an' all of that. More importantly, have you seen my dossier?"
Ichigyo waved helplessly at the desk again. "It's in here somewhere."
"Lemme save you some time diggin'. 'Insufficient educational preparation. Insufficient organizational skills. Improper temperament for command of a unit larger than a squad.' Those are from my Marine report."
"But that's for Marines."
"Just what do you think this outfit is?" Ranma stood, walked over to the coffee machine. "I don't drink a lot of coffee. Mind if I run this thing for hot water?"
"Sure," said Ichigyo. "There's tea bags in the credenza."
"I know." He filled the carafe, poured it into the machine, and double-checked the filter compartment to ensure that it was free of coffee grounds. Then dumped it and washed it; the fine skim of mould on top would not improve the flavour of tea. "Anyway, when they developed the Variable Fighter, the idea was that it'd serve the same role as a Navy fighter aircraft. But that was wrong. At least, it was right when in Fighter mode. But in GERWALK, it acts more like an Air Force attack helicopter. In Battroid mode, it operates more like an Army tank. Only one armed force can fill all three roles: the Marines."
"Fair enough," Ichigyo allowed.
"So we operate like Marines. We can deploy at any time into any environment. Air, land, sea, space. We're first in and last out. We pave the way for less flexible, but more powerful, units. With me so far?"
"Of course." Ichigyo scowled. "We got the same lecture in Flight."
"At the same time, a Valkyrie needs fewer support personnell than any fighter jet or helicopter - though a bit more than, say, a tank. Thus the goofy rank structure that we use."
Ichigyo chuckled at that. "I know that prior to the Valkyrie, only officers were allowed to fly."
"Except in the Army, where enlisteds could fly helicopters, even combat choppers." Ranma thumbed the power switch on the coffee machine, and turned to lean against the credenza. "How many support staff are required for a Valkyrie One-A, Block Two?"
"Fourteen." The answer was automatic.
"In the Marines, you'd put a Corporal in command of fourteen people."
"Corporals fly Valkyries." Ichigyo bit his lip. "But almost every Valk pilot is bumped to Sergeant upon completing their first sortie."
"But that's because you need more than fourteen people to support one Valkyrie. Only fourteen work on the jet itself. How many support staff for an eighteen-fighter Squadron?"
"That's in here somewhere." Ichigyo frowned. "I think it's the other side of five hundred, though."
"Five hundred and twenty." Ranma touched a finger to his lip as he worked the math in his head. "Comes to about twenty-nine people per Valkyrie. But a lot of them work at the Squadron level, instead of the fighter level. The fuelers and ordies, for example. Except for one permanently-assigned ordnance technician per fighter, the ordies go from plane to plane. The fuellers are even more loosely-assigned; no single Valkyrie has a regularly-assigned fueling technician. But I'm gettin' away from my point. Twenty-nine people calls for a Sergeant. Twice that calls for an officer - in our rank structure, a Warrant. Each Sergeant bosses his plane crew, but the real officers - six in each Squadron, one each per Wing - command seventy support staff each. An' the CO and XO boss them all."
"Okay, I follow you." Ichigyo snorted. "Vermillion never had more than a single Wing. We had ninety-five support staff."
"And that's too much for a single Wing. That's why we have the Squadrons."
"Okay." Ichigyo breathed out heavily. "So I'm responsible for five hundred and twenty enlisted ratings, plus eighteen officers or reasonable hand-drawn facsimiles."
"Bingo."
"Why the hell didn't they give Jackson this job?"
"Because he was pulled out of Skull four months ago for a staff position."
"Kramer?"
"Shot down two weeks ago." Ranma darkened. "The Jolly Rogers were well and truly decapitated that day. I'm the most senior officer left, an' I spent two weeks in hack at the worst possible time."
"So they mint me a Squadron Lieutenant, and toss the ball in my court," muttered Ichigyo.
"You've been flyin' longer than me."
"Right." Ichigyo chuckled. "Well, Lieutenant. I understand you've got some briefing material for me?"
"Five shiny new nuggets, fresh from repple-depple." Ranma tossed the folder on Ichigyo's desk. This dislodged several other papers, that cascaded to the deck. "Plus, I see you brought Hayao and Max from Vermillion. Any ideas on how you're organizing this circus?"
"I want you as my XO."
Ranma shrugged. "Okay."
"You've got more than ten years' experience in the military on me, and I want the benefit of that." Ichigyo sighed. "I was a nugget myself, six months ago."
"You've been doin' good," admitted Ranma.
"I'm leaving you in Skull Thirteen, Flight Leader Charlie, and assigning all five of these nuggets to you."
Ranma grinned. "That's the usual use for Charlie. An' it's what Roy had me doin', if you recall."
"Only too well," chuckled Ichigyo. "As to Bravo Flight, I was thinking of putting Max--"
Ranma raised a hand. "Wait. Max is a good pilot, and that's why you were thinkin' about puttin' him in as Bravo Leader, right?"
"Yeah."
"You might wanna reconsider that," offered Ranma. "I ain't sayin' he won't do a bang-up job, but good pilot ain't necessarily good leadership. Otherwise, I'd be running this Squadron."
"Fair enough," said Ichigyo. "But I don't know any of the other pilots in this Squadron well enough; I only flew in Skull for two sorties."
"Want me to make the call?"
Ichigyo frowned. "Jackson's detached, Kramer's gone...who are the Wingleaders?"
"Hendrikksen, Rossikov, and Park."
"And they're all Warrants?"
"Yep." Ranma frowned. "But Park's up for promotion to Flight Lieutenant, an' talkin' about transferring to the Wolves. They got a space in their TO&E."
Ichigyo rolled his eyes. "We've got two Flight Lieutenants, in Max and Hayao, and if I promote a Warrant to a slot that needs a Lieutenant, both of them are going to feel slighted. As it is, I kinda had to give you the XO's slot, because you're senior to me, and Commander Hayase was foolish enough not to give you the CO's slot."
"Make Kakizaki Bravo Lead."
"He's an idiot," countered Ichigyo.
"No, he ain't. He's hot-headed and doesn't always think things through, but he's big-hearted and friendly, and we don't know what his limits are yet. You can always change it later."
Ichigyo pondered this, then said, "All right, it's worth a risk. I'll put Jenius on Alpha Two Wingleader, Rossikov on Kakizaki's Two, and--shit. Hendrikksen."
"You want my outfit for cadre, right?"
"Yeah."
"I'll tell Hendrikksen, let him know that he's being bumped for training purposes. He won't mind if it's explained to him right."
"Okay." Ichigyo nodded. "And if you could write me up a real nice FitRep for Park, just leave me room to sign it, we can get him his board."
"Good," said Ranma. "You're learnin' to delegate." He pulled a single folder from the bottom of the desk pile. "I'll just need this to do it with."
Ichigyo blinked in amazement. "You understand this chaos?"
"I just don't understand how he could be so needlessly, thoughtlessly cruel." Misa wiped her eyes. "I mean, okay, I can understand about him being upset that Ichigyo was promoted over him. That can happen, has happened, will happen again, to thousands of officers. But to lash out at me over it--"
"I seriously doubt that he was lashing out at you." Nabiki paused to sip her tea. "Ranma isn't like that."
"That's what I thought. But he--" She waved a hand in the air helplessly. "He threw my failure in my face. I lost it, when we were captured by the Zentraedi. If it weren't for Hikaru kicking my ass and keeping me moving, I might have just given up."
"That's not the story I heard."
"Hm?" Misa blinked.
"Ichigyo Hikaru, right? Former CO of Vermillion Squadron, now of the Jolly Rogers?" Nabiki nodded. "He helped me out with the analysis of the Battle Pod you guys brought back, and filled me in on the events of that little affair.
"First off, he pointed out that any clever idea they needed, you came up with."
"But he--"
"Second, you had the tracer, and the knowhow to use it, that allowed you to track down and rescue Ranma and the other two, right?"
"I--"
"Plus, despite serious emotional strain - that's from your own report, not his - you managed to deduce several key facts about Zentraedi culture."
"Actually," said Misa, "Both Ichigyo and Saotome managed to outdo me on that."
"Doesn't change the fact that you picked a few out yourself." Nabiki leaned back and picked up her teacup again. "So I think you're selling yourself a bit short, and I seriously doubt that Ranma viewed your actions during that encounter as a failure. He's a nice guy, deep down, but he's awfully insecure. And this shows by his tendency to tease people."
"I've never seen him do it before."
"No? It's a defensive reaction." Nabiki smirked. "He doesn't really understand emotions, or women. And he reacts to them with barbs and jests. Last time the three of us got together, he did much the same. Or just after I signed up; he referred to my rank as being 'bogus'. Still, I'll admit he's learned a bit better to use his brain before running his mouth. So he must have been more than a bit rattled to needle you quite that badly."
"Why would he be that upset? Over the promotion?"
"No." Nabiki shook her head in disgust; how could this woman be so dense? "Over Article Sixty Five, United Nations Code of Military Justice."
"Oh..."
"You know," she said brightly, "I was planning to steal him away from you."
Misa's eyes widened. "You--" She shook her head. "I thought you weren't interested in him?"
"Oh, I do quite like him. He's got a lot to recommend him, that boy." She chuckled. "But now that I know just how badly he's hung up on you, I don't think I'd have a prayer."
"Yo, Minmay." Ranma waved as the door to the White Dragon closed behind him. Then ducked as the inevitable cup of water flew in his direction. Unfortunately, it hit the door behind him, splashed, and cascaded over him.
She straightened up with a grimace, and wrung the water out of her pigtail. "Ya know, just once, I wish you wouldn't do that." She glanced down at herself. "Makes the uniform look like hell, on someone too small."
Minmay giggled. "I know, I know...but you're just so much cuter this way." She pouted. "Plus, Ichigyo doesn't get so jealous when we spend time together with you as a girl."
"Jealous? Of me?" Ranma snorted. "He should realize by now that I'm spoken for."
"Besides, when you're here as a girl, business improves. Two Miss Macross finalists in the same restaurant?"
"I woulda thought you'd be workin' on the film." Macross had started producing its own television shows, and was now in the process of making a feature-length motion picture. Unsurprisingly, Minmay was in the female lead role.
"They gave us two days off while they work on foleys and special effects cues. We start filming again tomorrow. Where's Misa?"
"She's handlin' the flight." Ranma sat down at the table. "Global came up with a plan to get you guys home."
"What's the plan?"
"Well, since the brass don't wanna admit that you're even alive, they haven't told anyone about it. Nobody on Earth save a select few know that the civilian population of South Ataria survived. So Global's been advertisin' the fact by flyin' over major cities, broadcastin' on all radio frequencies and yellin' over the loudspeakers. He figured that surely someone will decide they'll take ya."
"Oh!" Minmay's hand flew to her mouth. "Won't the Army try to stop him?"
"Probably." Ranma grinned. "But we got the biggest, baddest weapon of all. Peace through superior firepower. And it's workin'. We're on course to Hamilton, in the Ontario Quadrant, to offload the civilians."
The bell rang again, and Max Jenius stepped through. His boot slipped an inch on the wet floor, and he glanced down in puzzlement, then back up. "What happened here?"
"Minmay dropped a glass of water," said Ranma.
"Oh. Look, Ma'am, I'm glad I ran into you."
"Don't call me Ma'am."
"Sorry. I wanted to apologize for what happened on the Zentraedi ship."
"'Bout time," grumbled Ranma. "Why didn't you do it earlier?"
"Well, I haven't seen you since then."
Ranma's frown deepened. "Sure you have. You saw me two weeks ago--wait, no you didn't. I was in my jet. Never mind."
"Anyway, I'm sorry that I called you an alien, or a spy, or doubted that you were a Lieutenant. And I spoke to Commander Tendo, and she assured me that you're not one of her girls."
"Commander Tendo--" Ranma paused. "What exactly did she tell you?"
"That you and the other Lieutenant Saotome were very close, 'born at the same time, to the same parents', I think she said. So it makes sense that you'd copy your brother's style. Twins often do that, I'm told."
Ranma banged her forehead off the table. "Damn her."
"What? You and Ranma don't get along?"
"Do you try to be stupid? Minmay, can you bring me some hot water so I can wise this clown up?"
"Coming up."
The alert klaxon chose that moment to blare, and Misa's voice came over the PA system. "VFA-113, report to the flight deck. Scramble situation."
"Damn, didn't even get your phone number. Gotta run!" Max turned and dashed out the door. Ranma hesitated long enough to douse herself with hot water, adjust his uniform, and followed at a dead run.
"Two Zentraedi warships, on radar." Ichigyo looked worried. "One of them is a troop transport, and it looks like it's launching units at this time."
"How many?"
"Dunno, my radar gave up."
That was bad news; the VF-1S could track almost two hundred targets. If the Zentraedi were fielding that many bad guys...
"Skull Leader, Cat's Eye Three Eleven. I make your target area at four hundred fifteen bogeys."
"Jesus."
Ranma clicked his mike open again. "What type, Three Eleven?"
"Male forces. Battle Pods, mostly."
"Thank God for small mercies."
"Lead, Thirteen. Recommend that you whistle up some reinforcements."
"Good idea. Gunsight One, Skull Lead. Request additional forces."
"Roger that, Skull Lead. We are prepping Wolf Squadron and Blue Squadron to assist."
And we're currently matching Windsor Squadron's speed. A total of seventy-two Valkyries, mused Ranma. Still not nearly enough.
"Skull and Windsor, we're going for a massive missile bombardment, every weapon you've got." Ichigyo was setting up the targeting parameters as he spoke; Ranma noted his battle computer taking up its share of the load. "We'll have to use guns up close and personal, but it's our best chance to knock that mess down before the furball starts. Set it up."
Macross began throwing flak towards the incoming horde, and Battle Pods started vanishing from his screen. He began punching target data into the computer, isolating twelve pods, and hastily set up a firing pattern. Checked his range; fifty kilometers, well within the ballistic range of the GA-23. But he held his fire, waiting for the order. Range dropped to forty kilometers, then thirty, before the order came.
"Skull Squadron, open fire."
Ranma stabbed the commit button, and over the radio, yelled, "Golf Two!" Missiles began to launch from his fighter, one every second, until the racks were clear. Around him, Skull and Windsor matched his actions, and a total of four hundred thirty-two Diamondback missiles went howling downrange. One for each of the approaching units, but they just might have jammers--
White noise flooded the radar screen, and he lost telemetry to the missiles. But their backup infrared guidance was still active, and the Battle Pods were giant heat sources. He reconfigured to GERWALK, slowing his approach speed, and waited.
Detonations filled the sky ahead of them.
"Awright!"
"Skull Lead, Three Eleven. I show around two hundred fifty kills from that salvo. Target count is down to one hundred fifty-five."
"Skull Lead, Gunsight One. We are stopping the flak, and the Wolves are now launching."
"Skull and Windsor, Skull Lead. Let's take the fight to them."
And the furball was on. Skull Fourteen and Fifteen, both cherries, tabbed their overthrusters, and Ranma fell in behind them. They were out of range when they opened up with the lasers, but Fourteen - a fellow named Roberts, rather loud and friendly - managed to tag a Battle Pod, dazzling its sensors and forcing it from the fray. Then the Valkyries were mixed in with the Pods, at point-blank range, and Ranma found himself hard-pressed to keep them in his sight.
Fifteen managed to get two of the Fighter Pods on his six, and Ranma lined up the first, and pulled the gun trigger. To get nothing; he howled in frustration. The damned Redshirts musta forgotten to plug in the gun again! He flipped the arming ring over to the dogfighting lasers, and blasted the pod, but the other one fired into Skull Fifteen, and the fighter began losing altitude. Ranma roasted the other Pod, then noted with relief that Fifteen had punched out of his doomed fighter.
"Lead, Thirteen, I have suffered a failure on my GU-11. Manual controls still probably work, but I can't use the gun in Fighter Mode."
"Noted, Thirteen."
He doubted that Ichigyo would come up with any changes in their tactics to deal with this issue; he was still too new at this. But he'd get better with practice.
Then he noted that the enemy pods were pulling out.
"What the hell?"
"Gunsight One, Skull Lead. The enemies are falling back."
"Jesus, six more cap ships!"
"Who said that?"
"Skull Lead, Skull Seven. We've got six more Zentraedi capital ships joining up with the first two."
"Where did they come from? Gunsight One, Skull Lead. Request fire support."
But it was obvious that that would not be forthcoming. As Ranma watched, the air around Macross rippled in a spherical pattern. The Barrier was coming online.
"Skull Lead, Gunsight One. You and Windsor are to carry out suppression of enemy air defences. Concentrate on the command cruiser."
"Gunsight One, Skull and Windsor are both out of missiles."
"Use guns. They can't target your Valkyries with their gun turrets, once you're on the decks."
"All right, boys, you heard the lady. By elements, break and attack the gun turrets."
Ranma shifted to GERWALK, the gun fitting into the Valkyrie's fist, and glanced over at Roberts' jet. "Fourteen, I have lead for this; it's my specialty."
"Roger that, Charlie." Roberts used the alternate call sign for Skull Thirteen.
Ranma firewalled the engines, and dove towards the Zentraedi command cruiser. He flipped the radar over to ground-attack mode, and it promptly complained about his lack of missiles. Well, it wasn't his fault. He started locking up gun turrets, selected the closest one, and fired into it with the GU-11.
A single twenty-round burst was all that was needed to put the gun out of commission.
Maybe this will work after all.
There were still Battle Pods deployed, on close escort on the Zentraedi ships, and he shifted to Soldier Mode and waxed one. "Keep an eye out; they've still got Pods loose around here."
"Roger."
The turrets around him began belching fire, and he was relieved to note that Misa was right; they weren't targeting the Valkyrie. Unfortunately, it seemed they were targeting Macross. The beams were distorted by the Barrier, bending away from the ship. But not without effect; the Barrier flared under the impact.
"Skull Lead, Gunsight One. The Barrier is absorbing some of the energy, and the Zentraedi are firing too quickly for the Barrier to cool down. We need you to take out more of the guns."
Ranma blasted another gun turret, then targeted a third and shifted to GERWALK to head towards it. "Gunsight One, Skull Thirteen. I don't think we can take them down fast enough. There's a hell of a lot of guns."
Another volley of fire hammered Macross from the Zentraedi fleet, and Ranma could now see the barrier field glowing reddish-orange.
"Too late. The Barrier's now on a runaway overload. Get clear, now!"
"All right, ladies. You heard the boss. Maximum speed out of here."
"Boss!" Kakizaki's face appeared on the MFD. "Skull Nine is down, and can't get clear. He's lost one powerplant, and the other is outta reaction mass; on air only, his top speed is too low."
"How the hell could he run out of reaction mass? We've only been airborne for--"
"Battle damage, Skull Lead. I need to make pickup--"
"No time!"
"Dammit, he's my man!"
Kakizaki rolled his bird inverted, and pulled it through a Split-S, diving back towards the downed Valkyrie. Ranma cursed, and toggled his channel.
"Skull Charlie, get clear. Skull Lead, I'm assisting Bravo."
"Saotome--"
Ranma ignored him, pulled his own fighter around, and firewalled the engines. He shifted to GERWALK, slid in beside Kakizaki, and assisted him in getting Skull Nine's nose detached.
"I'll get him out of here. You cover us."
"My man, Saotome."
"Button it, Kakizaki. I've got a Block Two, and fifteen percent more acceleration. Cover us!"
Kakizaki turned and started loosing twenty-round bursts, encouraging the enemy combat robots to remain under cover. Ranma discarded his gun pod, and attached the nosecone section to his centerline pylon. He rammed the throttles forward again, triggering his overthrusters, and slid along the hull until he had enough airspeed to lift off.
"Skull Seven, let's go."
"I can't. Artillery Pod. I'm keeping him pinned down, but until you get out of his missile range--"
"Move it, now!"
Kakizaki hesitated, then turned and fired his thrusters to boost his Soldier-Mode Valkyrie clear of the deck. He shifted his bird to Jet Mode, and surged forward.
The Barrier overloaded.
The shockwave raced towards them, consuming seven of the eight Zentraedi warships. Idly, Ranma noted the one they'd just left clawing for altitude, struggling to get out of the energy wake. It was shielding his Valkyrie from the blast, and he angled up to keep himself in its shadow.
But the vibrations of the explosion was rattling his jet, and Kakizaki's. As he watched, Skull Seven lost control, and slipped out of the blast shadow.
The energy wave tore the fighter apart.
"Kakizaki! Come in! Dammit--"
"I'm sorry, Hikaru." Ranma swallowed heavily. "He didn't make it."
