Robotech: The Stargate Saga
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own demented author amusement – sadly all Robotech and Stargate characters and concepts remain the property of Harmony Gold and MGM respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.
Authors Note: Well, here we are this is my first fanfiction update of 2024. I hope you all had a very merry time over the festive period I know I did. So, without further ado let's get cracking with the new year.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
UEDF Temporary Headquarters
New Macross City, North America Quadrant
A Few Hours Later
Sitting at the head of the meeting table in a conference room of the building that was serving as the temporary headquarters of the United Earth Defence Forces – there normal headquarters having been seriously damaged by the now deceased, and very unlamented by everyone, Zentraedi warlord Khyron – Secretary Anderson listened with mounting interest to the report being presented to the defence council by Admiral Chase. He was not the only one as the entire council, both those who were present in person and those who were at this emergency meeting in holographic form, were just as interested in what the British man was reporting to them.
The reason being that Lieutenant Grant had been found.
A few hours ago, one of the two Tok'ra ambassadors – the male Selmac – had asked to see Admiral Chase as a matter of urgency. After an unfortunate wait, as Admiral Chase had at the time been preoccupied overseeing the docking of the Aurelius to one of the factory satellites external docking ports, Chase had seen him, and it was then that Selmac had dropped this particular bombshell on them. He had also told them just how the Tok'ra had been able to acquire this, much wanted, information.
Several hours ago, now a battle between two fleets of Goa'uld warships had taken place above a remote planet called Orisa. The planet, which according to the Tok'ra had previously been under the control of an underlord of the Goa'uld Sokar, had been captured by Tharos – which was apparently the name of the Goa'uld controlling Lieutenant Grant's body – for Ba'al. Who had apparently rewarded Tharos by making him the overseer of the planet and even allowing him to form his own small Jaffa army. Sokar had sent a fleet – under the command of one of his top fleet lords – to reclaim the planet. A fleet that through a combination of clever tactics, and the fact that Tharos had applied some of his hosts knowledge of robotech weaponry to create plasma beam weapons, had been defeated by Tharos with most of the ships being destroyed though the flagship had been boarded and captured.
"Did the Tok'ra say how big the fleet over this Orisa is," Colonel Matthews asked after a few moments of silence. "And what do we actually know about Orisa?"
"From what the Tok'ra tell us it was originally a largely agrarian planet, it's small population of humans working fields and orchards though there was a small amount of mining for trinium and naquada going on there as well. However, due in no small part to the planet being in a relatively remote part of the Goa'uld Empire the System Lord whose domain it fell in, a Goa'uld called Camulus, was mostly content to leave the planets population alone as long as the yearly tributes of naquada and trinium were met on time," Chase answered, "that changed when the current civil war broke out and the planet was conquered by Sokar."
"So, what changed," Admiral Gloval asked from his own seat. Technically he should still have been on convalescent leave after the injuries he suffered in Khyron's attack even though said injuries had been healed by the Nox but he had insisted on coming back to work, especially when he had been informed what this particular meeting of the Defence Council would be about. Nobody had had either the heart or the stupidity to refuse him.
"Sokar openly enslaved the entire population, expanded all the naquada and trinium mines as well as building a sizeable industrial fabrication complex there capable of building everything from ma'tok staffs, to capital ships as large as a Sha'ha'tak-class mothership," Chase answered, "two of which had just been completed and were awaiting final decorative outfitting when Tharos attacked the planet at Ba'al behest, defeated the small orbital force and made the Jaffa garrison deployed there by Sokar surrender to him.
"As for the fleet in orbit it currently stands at one Drakka'tak-class battleship the captured command ship of the force Sokar sent to retake Orisa, one Sha'ha'tak-class mothership which Tharos is apparently using as his flagship," Chase continued, "eight Ha'tak-class motherships and twelve Nar'kesh-class frigates. All with varying levels of damage from the battle with the Drakka'tak being the most heavily damaged."
"Still quite a formidable defensive force," Matthews commented, "we need to know a bit more about its make up and capabilities before we can mount any operation to recover Lieutenant Grant. Do the Tok'ra still have a ship near Orisa?"
"Unfortunately, they don't," Chase admitted, "there operative Kigash was at the end of her mission and is currently on her way back to a Tok'ra base, on the planet Vorash. However, we do have an option for getting the information that we need on the state of the fleet and the planets defences. It might even let us slip in a team for groundside recon operations before we attempt to capture Tharos."
"The Aurelius," Gloval guessed, he could see where this was going as while he hadn't had chance yet to read Captain Hunter's report on the full capabilities of the Aurelius, he knew that she had some very, very impressive capabilities including the ability to cloak itself. An ability that had already allowed them to finally eliminate Khyron and blow a huge hole in the ranks of the Zentraedi malcontents. Especially as among those taken prisoner in the attack had been Commander Azonia. With her captured and Khyron dead the only malcontent commander they had to worry about was Zeraal and he was mostly contained.
"Yes, she could travel to Orisa and carry out both a surveillance and if the opportunity presents itself even complete the retrieval mission for Lieutenant Grant," Chase replied.
"Do we have enough people with the Ancient gene to actually crew her," General Markwell asked sounding concerned, "as undeniably capable and gifted as he is we cannot possibly expect Captain Hunter to control the entire ship on his own for more than a couple of hours at a time."
"We have identified a sufficient number of people who have the gene," Matthews answered, "while none are as strong as Captain Hunter is there should be enough to form a crew especially as the crew requirements for the Aurelius are surprisingly small for the size of the ship."
"If we do go down this road, who do we put in charge of the ship," Anderson asked.
"Captain Hunter is our only real choice," Chase answered, "not only does he have the strongest expression of the Ancient gene that we know of but his own report indicates that the original captain of the Aurelius left him something called a neuro-interactive simulation which taught him how to operate the ship."
A few people blinked at that. "How could the original captain of the ship know to do that," Exedore asked after a few moments of stunned silence. He wasn't surprised that there had been a neuro-interactive simulation on the Aurelius to help someone learn how to operate the ship – such things were used by the Robotech Masters to train someone transiting to a new class of ship – but the idea that the one on the Ancient destroyer had been left for Captain Hunter by name was beyond shocking. Especially as everything they knew showed that the Aurelius had been on Calora for about ten thousand years ever since the Ancients, or as his people knew them the Old Ones, had abruptly disappeared from the universe.
"We don't know," Chase admitted, "unless time travel is involved somehow and as far as I know that is supposed to be impossible."
"Not entirely admiral," Exedore admitted, "when space folding technology was first developed it was discovered that, due to the fact that space folding involves transiting through a different subspace domain, a ship could become essentially unstuck in time by anywhere from a few minutes to several weeks. This problem was eventually corrected with the development of temporal phase compensators. Unfortunately, like all my kind I have no idea how they work only that they're a vital part of any fold system."
"Interesting but we are wandering off topic," Anderson said bringing the discussion back on track.
"Indeed, and while it would be a significant change of plans from what we had previously decided I move that we appoint Captain Hunter to command of the Aurelius," Gloval said.
"Is there a second," Anderson asked knowing that any issue put before the defence council had to have a second before it could be voted upon.
"Yes," Markwell confirmed.
"Very well then let us vote on the issue of assigning command of the Aurelius to Captain Hunter all in favour," Anderson asked, everyone on the council raised their hands albeit one or two slightly slower than the others. "Then it's decided we will assign command of the Aurelius to Captain Hunter. Once a suitable crew is assembled and assuming they can operate the ship effectively their first mission will be to carry out surveillance on Orisa. If the opportunity presents itself then they are also to recover Lieutenant Grant."
"To that end I suggest that we assign a STORM Commando unit to the Aurelius," General Markwell suggested.
"Seems reasonable," Gloval agreed, "as soon as we are done here, I will inform Captain Hunter about the change in his orders. Though if I know him, he will not be surprised by this."
"Probably not," Anderson said with a smile already quite familiar with how Hunter sometimes just seemed to know things, something that had been happening more in recent months. Something that they would have to look into sometime. "Shall we move onto the next item on today's agenda gentlemen? Admiral Chase, I believe the Asgard have provided you with a provisional time table for their counterattack on Ba'al's holdings."
From the floating holographic screen showing his image Admiral Chase nodded, he was honestly surprised and impressed by the speed with which the Asgard had drawn up there plans to attack Ba'al in retaliation for the System Lords brazen attack upon the Skuld over Calora. An attack that the little grey aliens planned to be extremely devastating and serve both the purpose of punishing Ba'al and reminding the Goa'uld in general of the price they could expect to pay for daring to challenge them.
"That and the details of what exactly they are planning to do to both punish Ba'al and remind the rest of the System Lords of their power is quite impressive," Chase confirmed before explaining to the members of the Council what exactly the Asgard were planning to do to the Goa'uld – and to Ba'al in particular – in retribution for the attack on the Skuld. The members of the Council listened intently…
…and couldn't help but begin to feel a bit sorry for the Goa'uld.
Hunter Residence
New Macross City, That Same Time
Rick Hunter smiled as he took a sip of the mug of coffee that he had just made for himself. Shifting slightly, he made himself comfortable on the rather bland chair – part of the rather bland three piece suite which like everything else in the bungalow was very pure utility furniture – and put his steaming mug down on the coffee table. Then he leaned back and enjoyed the peace and quiet both in the bungalow itself and inside his own head.
As remarkable as it had been being constantly connected to the data stream on the Aurelius, controlling the vessel with his thoughts and being able to know anything about the ship just by thinking about it, it had been quite draining. After all he had been at it constantly for hours from the moment the Caloran president had escorted them onto the Aurelius, and he had first sat in the command chair. Thinking about the ship he looked at his right forearm and pulled back the fabric for a moment and examined the slim metallic device wrapped around his arm.
It was a Lantean vambrace.
In appearance it seemed fairly innocuous. A slim metallic band, around two inches in diameter and inset with sleek crystals and seemingly held on with leather straps. Though the straps were mostly decoration as the inner surface, nestling so comfortably against his arm, had molecular adhesive properties that were tagged to his DNA and bioenergy signature so only he – or someone who had a specific tool from a maintenance room on the Aurelius – could remove. It's innocuous appearance belied its capabilities as this slim thing could do so much including, if he wanted to, let him remotely access the data stream of the ship no matter how far away from the ship he was.
As he gazed at it he couldn't help but wonder what exactly had prompted him to put it on and leave the ship with it – not that anyone had stopped him as two of the technicians who had come aboard after he'd docked the Aurelius with one of the factory satellites external docking posts had seen him put it on and he'd even been permitted by Admiral Chase to transport straight from the ship to the surface instead of sitting for an hour for the next shuttle down – and couldn't think of the reason. He remembered that the avatar in the neuro-interactive simulation of Captain Bonran had been wearing one, maybe seeing it in some way had subconsciously prompted him to want to wear one.
The sound of someone knocking on the door brought him out of his thoughts. Huh I wonder who that is, he thought as he pulled his uniform sleeve back over the vambrace – completely covering it – and standing up. A few moments later he reached the front door and opened it to find Max standing on the porch outside and he wasn't alone as Miriya was with him and Max had little Dana in a baby carrier against his chest. The baby turning her head inquisitively at the light snow that was beginning to fall on New Macross City. For a moment Rick was surprised to see Max but then he remembered that he had told Max to come here this evening so he could fill him in a bit more on their ancestors that made it that neither of them were quite as human as they had always believed themselves to be.
"Come in," he said stepping aside to let the three of them come in.
"Thanks skipper," Max replied as he and Miriya came in out of the cold into the warmth of a bungalow that was very like the one, they lived in themselves, just a bit smaller as it was bachelor quarters whereas there's was designed for married couples. "Brr it's getting cold out there. The weather man was wrong again since it was supposed to be clear tonight."
"Not really surprising when you consider how unstable the atmosphere still is after the Rain," Rick pointed out as he helped Miriya take off her thick coat, prompting the female Zentraedi to thank him before she took Dana off Max allowing him to take off his own coat. "Granted it's getting better as the shifts are not as extreme or sudden as two years ago but…"
"… I hear ya," Max agreed recalling the sometimes-extreme ways the weather could shift in the first days and weeks after the Rain of Death. It could go from a clear sky and burning hot sunshine, to monsoon rains and then a raging blizzard that dumped two foot of snow on you in the space of literally half an hour.
"Please make yourselves comfortable," Rick said as he led them into the living room. "Coffee? I just made a pot."
When both indicated that they would indeed love a coffee he smiled at them and went to fix them both a mug. While he did so Max and Miriya made themselves comfortable with Miriya putting little Dana down on the floor and getting out a few of the babies' toys for her to play with. Not for the first time she found herself entranced by the beautiful little being that she and Max had made together, after all the lives she had taken in the hundred years since she'd been first decanted from the cloning tube it still seemed so unbelievable that she had been able to bring life into the world like that. A fact that she knew other female, micronized Zentraedi who had taken Terran mates struggled to fully wrap their heads around.
The sound of Rick returning with the coffee brought her out of those thoughts. She thanked the other male Terran and took a sip of the hot, bitter liquid that she had quickly come to depend on in her day-to-day life. Sometimes she had to wonder how she had ever managed without a cup of coffee in the morning to wake her up. A train of thought that had spread like wildfire among her fellow Zentraedi, even those who hadn't been micronized or didn't want to micronize. To most of her kind now coffee was an even more precious resource than protoculture, well coffee and chocolate.
After taking a sip of the drink she noticed an odd small crystalline object – not much bigger than a mobile phone like the one in her pocket – sitting on the coffee table. "What's this," she asked picking it up. It felt slightly warm in her hand, confirming that it was indeed made of crystal, as she examined it. It was obviously technological but wasn't Terran in origin. She had to wonder if it was something created by the Old Ones, Old Ones who her own husband was surprisingly distantly related to. Something that she still couldn't quite wrap her head around as the few tales of the Old Ones that she had heard over the decades, tales which made their way through the Zentraedi ranks ever few years as not even they were immune to the phenomenon that Terrans called scuttlebutt, made them out to be beings of near god-like power.
"It's a Lantean portable data reader," Rick explained, "Primus gave it to me the last time I was on Phobos station. Like most Lantean technology its operated by neural interface. If you hand it to Max, you'll see what I mean."
Miriya raised an eyebrow and cautiously handed the device to her husband. The moment Max's hand touched the crystal device it lit up from within and Max gasped as suddenly in his head he saw a menu written in an alien language.
"What the," Max said putting it down and gazing at it blue eyes wide in shock, "what was that?"
"Saw a menu in your head?" Rick asked, knowingly.
"Yeah," Max replied a slight shake in his voice showing how rattled he was. "I couldn't understand it but…"
"…you saw it. It's that devices data stream interface," Rick answered, "I hadn't realized it had gone back to its default language."
"But why did it react like that at all?" Max asked before answering his own question. "It's the gene I have, isn't it?"
"That we both have but yes," Rick answered, "It's also active now since I was using it before I got summoned to Calora."
Max shook his head. "I have so many questions about this," he admitted before taking a sip of his coffee. "I don't know what it means well beyond the fact that I'm not as human as I always thought I was."
"I only understand a bit of it so far," Rick admitted, "especially some of the things having the gene sequence lets me do and presumably will let you, and anyone else who has it, do Max if you want."
"Like operate the ship what's it called again," Max asked.
"The Aurelius but yeah that's one of the things. Once you're in the system and the ship accepts you so to speak as the data stream is so intuitive its almost an AI in itself then you can do just about anything on the ship from simply flying to firing the weapons. Which I don't mind telling you are terrifying."
"Given how quickly they demolished the landed battlecruiser Khyron was using I am not surprised," Miriya commented, "I have been in many battles over the course of my life, and I have never seen weapons rip through a battlecruiser with such ease before. I don't think even the Guardians or the Robotech Masters weapons could destroy a fully functional ship so easily."
"Believe me Miriya the neutron cannons were only one of the weapons on the Aurelius. Using the main cannon in the bow would have been overkill to say nothing of the drones."
"Drones? You mean something like the Ghost drones?"
"No. Lantean drones are a hybrid projectile-energy weapon that use a phased plasma field to bypass the shields and hull of an enemy ship," Rick answered before frowning thoughtfully, before picking up the reader prompting it to light up. A moment later Max was sure he saw a glint of light coming from something under Rick's right sleeve. He started to open his mouth to ask what it was but before he could speak a holographic screen burst into existence.
A hologram that showed the Aurelius sitting in its hangar beneath the surface of Calora. As Max and Miriya watched a hatch on the dorsal hull between the bridge and the forward heavy turret opened. Thirty small squid-like objects, glowing with a yellow light, emerged from it and began travelling along a tunnel away from the ship. The recording – which this clearly was – followed the weapons as they passed along an artificial tunnel, through an artificial cave and out over a deep frozen world. At which point they turned sharply and started to streak towards space.
"This is a recording from the Aurelius of an event that happened when I was on Calora and the Goa'uld attacked the Skuld," Rick explained, a slight note of strain in his voice and both fellow veritech pilots realised that he was somehow acting like a relay for the recording. "I fired those to help stop Ba'al from disabling or destroying the Skuld."
Max and Miriya exchanged a look of confusion. Both wondering how if the recording was on the Ancient ship, which was currently docked with the factory satellite, Rick was showing it to them. They're attention was caught by the weapons breaking through the atmosphere and beginning to streak towards one of the Goa'uld ships firing on the Skuld and giving her a right pummelling though taking a pounding in return from the powerful beams the Asgard ship was firing. The Goa'uld began firing their defensive weapons at the weapons heading for their flagship, numerous weapons were hit and kept flying towards their target as if the defensive weapons did nothing to them.
Then they reached the Goa'uld ship and immediately penetrated the shields and tore into the hull. Both watched in shock as the weapons drilled right through the Goa'uld mothership and came out the back, arced around and did the same thing again, and again, and again. After the fifth or six run the weapons detonated within the Goa'uld vessel which was by this point visibly breaking up from the previous abuse. The blasts instantly turning it into a fireball.
The holographic screen blinked out of existence and Rick stumbled slightly feeling the energy drain. Ugh not to self don't try such a level of remote data stream use unless fully rested in the future, he thought as he shook off the momentary weakness.
"Those we're drones," he said.
"Impressive weapons," Miriya commented the warrior in her appreciating both the speed and efficiency of the kill, though what was frightening was both how small the weapons seemed to be and how they seemed to shrug off defensive weapons fire. "But how did you do that? If that recording is on the Aurelius?"
"Through this," Rick replied showing them the device on his right forearm. "This is a Lantean vambrace, it allows a remote link between me and main data stream interface on the Aurelius. I could even be aboard her in a second using this if I wanted to be."
"It looks so innocuous," Max commented as he looked at it and felt the same odd familiarity that he had when he first saw the Aurelius.
"Yeah," Rick admitted, "I get the impression that a lot of Lantean tech – and Ancient tech in general – can be like that. Looks harmless or simple but is in fact devastatingly advanced."
"No doubt," Miriya agreed knowing that technology looking simple but being highly advanced was actually quite common among spacefaring races. Praxian weapons, which could look so primitive until they fired a bolt of energy at you, were a case in point. She had trained with some upscaled for full size Zentraedi in the past. A sudden thought occurred. "Rick does anyone know that you are wearing that?"
Before Rick could answer her and inform both of them that people on the factory satellite did know, the sound of someone frantically banging the front door caught all their attention. What in the world, Rick thought as the continuous banging frightened little Dana prompting the baby to start crying. Max hurriedly picked up his daughter and began trying to sooth her while Rick made his way to the front door to see who was causing such a racket.
Within moments he was opening the front door to see an individual that he had not seen in person for just over two years. A person who looked cold and had definitely seen better days as her clothes were rumpled and torn. Rumpled and torn in a way that set mental alarm bells ringing inside Rick's head even as he took a step back and gazed upon one Lynn Minmei.
Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust, I hope you all enjoyed it. We will be venturing into some darker territory in the next update when Minmei reveals what has happened to her in the time since she split from Kyle. Let's just say she hasn't had the best of times and has run to the closest place of safety to where she found herself that she could find. Also, the Asgard will begin their offensive against Ba'al so some fun times are ahead as well as some darker – assuming I can pull it off properly – ones. Until next time.