Georgious Katsulas awakes to music. As expected he is lying on a bed in the master bedroom of his home. He can feel warmth next to him. He does not have to check to know the warmth is being radiated from his dear wife. Seeing the darkness, it is still nighttime as expected.
"You awake?" he asks.
"Yeah,"replies Mrs. Katsulas, yawning.
"Got to get ready," says her husband. "You have to be at the field in one hour, Colonel."
She walks into the adjoining bathroom. "I know. Gotta make this quick."
George opens the door and walks out of the hallway, turning on the lights and illuminating the plaster walls . He knocks on some white-painted doors.
"Em, Nick," the man calls out. "Mommy's about to leave."
The doors squeak open, and two children come out. Emilia Diana Katsulas looks about ten years old, with dark brown hair still messed up. Nicodemes Stefan Katsulas has short cropped hair which is a lighter shade of brown, and his much shorter than his older sister.
"It's early," says Em.
"Mommy has to leave early," says her mother, wearing a green MARPAT camouflage outfit and carrying a green duffel bag. "It's the Army."
"Just put something on," says George. "After we drop Mommy off, we can come back here for breakfast."
Soon, the two children are ready. They walk outside the rear door in the dining room towards the backyard, and then walk through a side gate leading to the driveway. A Starfire hovercar rests on struts on the concrete surface. Mrs. Katsulas walks out, placing a billed cap over her blond hair.
"I'll do the driving," she says. "I probably won't be able to do any driving for weeks."
She gets in stand starts the car. Looking behind her, she backs the hovercar on the driveway as its hoverbank levitate it from the ground.
The outlines of the houses and trees along the street still look familiar, the headlights illuminating the asphalt road ahead. There is little other traffic on the road, this very early in them morning.
"I was thinking," says George. "After school, why don't we visit Uncle Jason? We can go out for pizza for lunch.."
"Yeah, I wanna go see Uncle Jason," says Nick, excitement making him fully alert this moment in the early morning.
I wish you could've met your Uncle Steve.
Less than ten minutes later, much shorter than the just-under-twenty minutes it usually takes to drive from their home to the base, the colonel makes a right turn and reaches the main gate house of Joint Forces Air Field Tirol. She recognizes the signs informing them that they are entering the territorial jurisdiction of the United Earth Government, and that all vehicles are subject to search. A Space Marine military police corporal steps out.
"Hi, Phil," says Mrs. Katsulas, presenting her credentials.
"Colonel," replies Phil. "I see your family's with you, ma'am."
"I'm being deployed to deep space again. Can't say when I'll be back with my family."
"You and your family may proceed, ma'am," says the military police corporal.
The colonel drives through. She is very familiar with the streets, having first been here ten years ago; she figures she spent a total of three cumulative years assigned to this base, one of the most important bases of the United Earth Forces.
"Can we go bowling?" asks Em.
"Bowling alley's closed," answers her father, "and besides, you have school today. We might have time to take you bowling this Saturday."
The car soon reaches the hangar; there is a visible security force already there. The security force personnel salute Mrs. Katsulas, and she in turn returns their salute.
Her husband and children step out of the car. She looks up, seeing the full Planet Fantoma, around which this moon called Tirol orbits.
She then sees someone else.
She sees a man wearing a peaked cap over his white-haired head and short-sleeve service khakis over his body. There are four silver stars pinned on his khaki collar.
The colonel salutes him.
Admiral Rick Hunter of the United Nations Spacy, commander of the Robotech Expeditionary Forces Command, returns his salute to Mrs. Katsulas, dba Colonel Dana Sterling of the United Nations Army, assigned to Headquarters, Robotech Expeditionary Forces Command.
"Are we ready, Admiral?" asks Dana.
"We're not in that big of a hurry that I can't say goodbye to friends," replies the admiral. He looks at her husband. "Good to see you, George."
"Well, goodbye, Rick," he replies.
"And you two behave yourselves or you'll have to answer to your mom when she gets back."
"Okay," Dana's children replies.
The colonel hugs her two children. "Say goodbye to Mommy," she says. She then looks at her husband, who had been her rock these past twelve years. She gives him a kiss.
Her heart races for a bit, for a second, only this man exists.
"Take care, my darling," he says.
Dana follows Admiral Hunter into the shuttle. It is a small shuttle, used to ferry people from the surface of Tirol to interstellar vessels orbiting high above. She and the other passengers strap themselves in.
The pilots in the cockpit do a last minute check on their instruments.
The board is green.
The tower clears them for takeoff.
And soon, the shuttle lifts from the surface and aims its nose upwards towards the night sky, the gas giant Fantoma high above them.
It is not long before the shuttle escapes the moon's atmosphere.
The pilots contact the air boss of the SDF-3 Pioneer, who clears them to land in the flight deck.
The Pioneer is a huge space fortress, over 1,200 meters long, bristled with various weapons. It serves primarily as a mobile base for an attacking force, as well as a mobile command center for admirals like Rick Hunter.
The shuttle slows down to match the velocity of the battle fortress, and enters the flight deck. Porous force fields help slow down and arrest the shuttle.
A lift lowers the shuttle down to the hangar deck, where various spacecraft are stored. Maintenance crews in overalls are working on about half of them.
They all get off. A man dressed in white, with four one-inch stripes on his shoulders, escorted by other uniformed personnel, greets them.
"Permission to come aboard," says Admiral Hunter.
"Permission granted, sir," replies Captain Rodrigo Ramirez of the SDF-3 Pioneer, confident in the security measures. "My crew will show you and your advisors to your staterooms."
"And you have a conference room ready? My staff and I will need a meeting."
"Aye aye, sir."
A Spacy corporal in gray overalls escorts Colonel Sterling along the hallways of the huge battle fortress. After riding some people movers and elevators, they reach a section of the ship that has a berthing area for senior passengers.
Dana uses a keycard to open the door to her assigned stateroom. It is essentially a small studio apartment, with a living area with leather couches and seats, a king-sized bed in the far back, and a kitchenette in an alcove to the right in case she does not feel like going to the guest wardroom.
"Is everything look fine, ma'am?" asks the corporal.
"It looks like it," replies the colonel. "A full inspection will have to wait. I have a meeting with Admiral Hunter. "Back to your post."
"Aye aye, ma'am," she replies before leaving.
Dana tosses her duffel bag into her stateroom and closes the door. She briefly thinks of her husband and children before joining the admiral's meeting.