Macross Delta: The Song of Death
A Halloween Short Story
Written by,
William R. Woods
aka, "deathzealot" or "deathzealotzero"
Brief Foreword
Before we start, I want to mention that I am not usually a fan of horror movies or any other scary stories. I just figured it would be fun to write my own Halloween story for Halloween, you know.
That out of the way now some overall background of this story. Initially, I started to write a small short story for Halloween last year, though that was for Gundam, thanks to my 2018 National Novel Writing Month project being a Gundam story. That little story really didn't go anywhere outside of a short introduction summary, and I mentioned that I was going to see about maybe writing up a few brief scenes for the story this year. However, since my National Novel Writing Month project this year is actually for the Macross franchise I decided to do a short Halloween story for Macross instead of expanding the story from last year's Halloween. I know some people wanted to see more of that story, but I really don't want to get any ideas for Gundam when I should be focusing on Macross.
Alright that said, this story takes place either before or after the Macross Delta series, and no, it won't be related to Vars Syndrome since we got plenty of that during the series. Instead, I decided to keep it original with only a small nod to the events in the series through the use of some sort of song. My original plan for the story was to use characters and such from the series since it would hit a lot harder if canon characters were included in what I had planned, but I since abandoned that idea for a few reasons. Instead, I shall be using original characters, so I don't feel all that guilty killing a canon character or two in this story.
Okay, all of that out of the way. Time to get to the main event. Enjoy!
- William R. Woods
October 28, 2019
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System AHE-1745
Brisingr Globular Cluster
October 21, 2068AD
A lifeless and out of way solar system known only by a string of letters and numbers to many outside of the system. Located on the outer edges of the Brisingr Globular Cluster, which itself was on the outer rim of the galaxy it was indeed a dead system with nothing going for it. It sported a large Red Giant as its sun and only a trio of small rocky planets orbiting around it not a single asteroid or meteor could be found in the tiny solar system. If it weren't for the vast graveyard of wrecked ships and debris that dominated the orbit and the surroundings of the last of the small planetoids, then it wouldn't be all that special in the scheme of things. However, what really made the vast graveyard of dead ships extraordinary and a bit of mystery to some was that it was quite recent. If it hadn't been for a damaged transport ship mistakenly arriving in the solar system, then the inhabitants of the cluster wouldn't have known a thing about it.
All of this was in the thoughts of Senior Lieutenant Bobby Burns of the New United Nation Spacy Brisingr Alliance Garrison Forces as he flew his General Galaxy VF-171 Bloc II Nightmare Plus Variable Fighter through the debris field. Behind him flew the other four variable fighters of his flight through the packed graveyard of dead ships and debris. The young lieutenant was a tall and lanky young man with short brown hair and oddly shaped hazel eyes, which were narrowed in some thought as he eyed the various massive green-painted ships that were spread around his fighter. All the vessels wherefrom the Zentradi, a race of giant human-looking aliens that the humans of the New United Nations were quite familiar with after a supermassive fleet of Zentradi ships had been reasonable for the large-scale orbital bombardment of humanity's homeworld of Earth over fifty years beforehand. In the modern-day outside of zentradi that lived along humanity and those that were just allied with humanity, there haven't been any sightings of largescale zentradi fleets like this in years. Therefore, it was up to Lieutenant Burns, his men, and the several other similar flights flying elsewhere in the massive graveyard along with the small fleet of ships they had arrived on to start investigating where these Zentradi ships came from and who had destroyed them.
"This has to be an Adoclass Type Branch Fleet with all of these ships," a voice came over his radio with an awed whistle from one of his wingmates mentioning the designation of medium-scale Zentradi Fleets used by the New United Nation Spacy after the name of the zentradi fleet which had made first contact with humanity in early 2009 and which would later defect to the humans side before that final disastrous battles with the Bodol Zer Main Fleet. Lieutenant Burns could only chuckle at the other pilot's comment before he turned his attention to the fifth fighter in his small flight, an RVF-171 Nightmare Plus reconnaissance variant, which he along with his wingmates where escorting. The fighter's large dish-like radome spinning slowly as the various sensors, and such built into the radome scoured the surrounding dead ships for any clue on what had happened here.
"Are you getting anything interesting in this graveyard Recon Three?" he asked over the radio to the pilot of the reconnaissance fighter.
"Negative Spirit Nine. All we are getting is straight Zentradi debris, nothing on what had killed all of these poor saps," the other pilot replied with a frown in his voice, making the young Lieutenant frown as well for that was not good at all.
"Maybe the Zentradi were fighting each other for some reason," came the voice of another of his wingmates a bit shaky as his confidence dropped at that report.
"Or whoever killed them policed the battlefield afterward to prevent anyone from knowing what had happened here," the gruff voice of his second-in-command, Junior Lieutenant Jack Gregory mentioned making Bobby nervously eying the nearest dead ship: a Zentradi Thurvel-Salan Class Battleship his instruments helpfully informed him. The over two-kilometer-long ship sported several holes in its hull from weapon fire, and several giant Zentradi bodies could be seen floating around one of the closest of the holes. He swallowed at this before shaking his head to clear it and focused away from the dead ship switching a setting on his fighter's communication display.
"Spirit One, Spirit Nine here. So far, my flight hasn't picked up anything strange sir. What about you?" he asked over the radio towards the distant fighter of his squadron commander. A moment passed before one of his lateral cockpit screens flashed and then showed the helmeted face of Lieutenant Commander Ralph Merryvale, the commander of the SVF-609 Variable Fighter Squadron, code-named Spirit Squadron.
"Roger that Nine. So far, we haven't found anything either in this eerie ship graveyard," the older man replied in his usual low monotone though Bobby could detect some slight unease in the Commander's expression which funny enough actually made him feel much better. A beep from his instruments made him look down briefly before he looked back up to focus on the face of his commander.
"Understood, sir, we are swinging close to the planetoid in a few moments. Maybe we will find something there," he mentioned to the older man making him nod in some understanding.
"Be careful Nine, this graveyard is making me feel a bit uneasy," the Commander replied, making Bobby nod in agreement with his senior officer. He briefly looked once more at his instruments before looking back up at the monitor.
"I understand, sir, we can wait up for Two Flight to meet up with us since they are not that far if you want?" he asked the man who hesitated a moment at this suggestion before shaking his head.
"No, Nine. The sooner you scan that planetoid, the better I think," he replied making Bobby nod in understanding at the order.
"Understood Three Flight will move to scan the planetoid momentarily, sir," Bobby returned with a quick flash of a salute before changing his communication setting back to the channel shared with his flight and their assigned reconnaissance unit.
"Okay, Three Flight listen up. Since we are currently breaking through the back end of the debris field, we are going to run a scan on the planetoid to see if it has anything to do with the destruction of the Zentradi fleet and then back into the field for further scans. So, keep your eyes peeled for anything unusual. Recon Three start your scan at your discretion," he ordered the other four fighters flying alongside his own. He quickly received acknowledgements from the other pilots before Bobby looked up through his cockpit's canopy just in time to get a full-on view of the small planetoid. He frowned, seeing nothing on the rocky surface of the planet just scars and craters from millennia of spatial debris impacting the small boring planetoid. He looked over his shoulder through the back of the cockpit canopy to observe the reconnaissance type Nightmare Plus as it started its scanning. He turned his attention back towards the planetoid with a frown seeing that there wasn't really that special about it, but with such a sizeable zentradi fleet gathered around it, there had to be something that drew their attention. Just as he thought that a harsh beeping started to sound from his communication system making the young pilot blink in some surprise as a haunting and eerie sounding music began to be played through his helmet speakers.
"What the? Do you guys hear that?" a confused voice of one of his wingmates asked out loud just as the unknown music started to gain volume, and an ethereal sounding voice began to sing to the music in an unknown language.
"It's coming from the planetoid itself!" the voice of Recon Three's pilot mentioned a moment later before suddenly cutting off as with a squeal of static another transmission suddenly blared through the fighter's communication system
"Mayday…this…Spirit…Zentradi…" the broken voice transmission of Lieutenant Commander Merryvale said, making Bobby curse quietly before turning his to look over at the graveyard of zentradi ships. He was just in time to see various Zentradi mecha boiling out of the nearest broken vessels like bees from a hive. Bobby could only gasp in shock at the vast amount of mecha that he could see and deeper in the graveyard he could see several firefights erupting as NUNS fighters of the other scouting units engaged the zentradi.
"Holy shit! There are thousands of them!" the panicked voice of Recon Three said, making Bobby take a deep breath and shoved his own panic back of his own mind.
"Alright, you lot listen up!" he barked out to his gathered flight and brought his fighter away from the planetoid.
"The carriers are on the other side of that graveyard, and we are not even going to try to fight our way through that mess to get to them. Instead, we are going to go all the way around the graveyard," he ordered his flight as he eyed the graveyard seeing several explosions inside knowing that many of his fellow pilots were fighting and dying.
"But sir, what about the rest of the squadron? They are going to get slaughtered!" one of his wingmates angrily mentioned over the radio, making Bobby sigh, but before he could say anything in response to the other pilot Lieutenant Gregory beat him to it.
"Do you want us to be killed as well, Simmons?" the gruff but calm voice of the Junior Lieutenant barked out making the other pilot sputter a bit.
"Exactly. We can do nothing to help them. The only thing we can do is get back to the ships and report on what is going on here," the man continued on after a few moments of dead air before he sighed sadly before going on.
"That is the only way to make their deaths have any meaning. We have no choice," the other two pilots of the flight and the recon pilot could only make sounds of agreement.
"Okay, let's come around and start heading along the edge of this graveyard," Bobby ordered after a few more seconds of dead air. The other pilots quickly acknowledged his orders and brought their own fighters to follow behind him. Bobby nodded at this as he started to bring the flight around one side of the vast graveyard away from the denser parts of the massive debris field. As they did so the song continued, and more explosions could be seen by the Flight as the fight keep going. Bobby knew that there had been about ten squadrons had been launched from the small fleet of NUNS ships that arrived to investigate the mystery of a graveyard of zentradi ships. They were all spread out in individual flights throughout the graveyard, each covering a single Nightmare Reconnaissance Type; therefore, could not gather in larger squadrons to more appropriately fight against the swarming Zentradi mecha. Besides they didn't launch with any extra ordnance on their hardpoints, outside of six AMM-211 Sparrow anti-fighter missiles and the micromissiles from their Bifors launchers. He could only sigh at this before turning his attention on getting his flight out of this trap. Though he wondered how those mecha were able to hide from the high-end scans from the Reconnaissance Fighters and the lesser scans of the regular Nightmare Plus fighters escorting them. A moment later he opened a private line with Recon Three.
"Recon Three, you are sure there was nothing on your scans when we went through the debris field?" he asked over the line mostly to the young woman who was the reconnaissance fighter's backseater and reasonable for the fighter's scanning equipment. Unlike later reconnaissance variable fighter designs the Nightmare Plus Reconnaissance Types used by the Brisingr Alliance NUNS Garrison Forces still sported extended cockpits with a second seat for a dedicated Radar Intercept Officer allowing the pilot to focus on piloting and fighting the fighter.
"I'm positive that there was nothing active hiding in those hulks, sir," she replied a moment later, making Bobby frown at this before bringing up any scans his own fighter had taken during their flight through the debris field. He read the readings for a moment before he blinked and turned back to the still open communication line.
"You said you detected nothing active. What about non-active?" Lieutenant Burns asked, knowing that active meant having a functioning power plant or any source of power.
"There were thousands of non-active signals, sir, the computer tagged them as dead mecha with no power readings at all. Hell sir. I even more thoroughly scanned some of the closer mecha we found, which said that they were truly dead and were quite heavily damaged with parts blown off entirely," she replied, making Bobby blink in some surprise. However, before he could say anything in response, one of his fighters suddenly exploded as several missiles impacted it making everyone else in the flight cry out in some surprise.
"Simmons! Damn it!" Lieutenant Gregory yelled out while Bobby grunted in some shock before trying to find where those missiles came from and why they hadn't detected anything at all. Soon he had his answer as his fighter's sensor array focused on something bringing it up on his primary monitor.
"The hell!" he cursed as he spotted several Queadluun-Rau Metran Power Armor approaching his flight clearly the ones who had launched those missiles. However, what shocked him was that there were no power readings at all from the mecha and were quite clearly damaged, with even two of the power armors only having one arm while another one had no legs at all. Thanks to having no active power readings their fighters simply labeled them as non-active debris and only had locked onto them when they started to move towards them.
"How in the world are those things still flying?" Recon Three's pilot asked in some sheer shock at what they were all seeing.
"I don't know, but they apparently are still dangerous, so spread out and engage them!" he ordered his remaining wingmates. The other two gave curt 'rogers' before moving to engage the damaged power armors.
"Sir! There are more approaching! Dozens of Battle Pods!" the voice of Recon Three's RIO making Bobby curse as he turned his fighter to see that there were indeed a few dozen Zentradi Regult Battle Pods approaching them. Like the Power Armor all of them were damaged in several different ways with even one sporting no cockpit hatch showing the body of its pilot with a couple of large holes through their suit. He took a brief moment to look at his sensors and found the location of the fleet, which was holding several kilometers from the graveyard waiting for the recon teams to give the all-clear before the rest of the fleet moved in to further investigate the wrecked ships. He made a quick decision, one that he really didn't want to make but it had to be made.
"Recon Three, keep going towards the fleet. We will cover your escape," he ordered with a rough voice knowing he was throwing away the lives of his remaining men, but he could see no other way of warning the fleet on what is going on.
"We can't leave you here, sir!" the voice of the young RIO of Recon Three protested while the pilot himself only gasped in some shock at that order.
"You have no choice we need to get your data back to the fleet and warn them on whatever is going on here," he replied as he locked on several of the approaching Battle Pods with his fighter's Bifors Micromissile Launchers and with a squeeze of his finger he launched several micromissiles at them. He spared a quick look at his wingmates, seeing them mixing it up with the power armors which were joined by several other Battle Pods.
"Just get out of here, Recon Three!" he barked out and briefly watched the other fighter pause a moment before boosting away from the battle heading towards the distant fleet. Bobby nodded at this before opening a line with his remaining wingmates.
"Gentlemen, it has been an honor to command you. Now let's show these Zombie Mecha what it means to be a Valkyrie Pilot!" he said as he changed his fighter to battleroid mode and shot down three of the Battle Pods with his GU-14 Gun Pod before changing back to fighter mode to zoom off towards another enemy. The other two pilots of his flight could only grunt in answer before turning their attention to their own battles.
The three remaining VF-171 Nightmare Plus Fighters of Spirit Squadron's Third Flight kept fighting for several further minutes bringing down numerous damaged Zentradi Mecha however they couldn't face against the ever-increasing amounts of enemy mecha. One after another, each fighter was brought down by sheer numbers with Lieutenant Burns shoving his empty gunpod into a Battle Pod while a heavily damaged Gnerl Fighter Pod rammed into him, destroying his fighter. The other two pilots of his command didn't last for much longer after that, with Lieutenant Gregory being swarmed by dozens of Battle Pods while the final member of the flight rammed his own damaged fighter into a remaining Power Armor.
The RVF-171 Nightmare Plus of Recon Three thanks to the sacrifice of its escort managed to make it back to the fleet, or what is left of it anyways as numerous other damaged Zentradi mecha were swarming around the small fleet destroying several ships and their own escorting variable fighters. That said, Recon Three quickly managed to dock with a damaged Northampton Class Frigate before it disappeared through a fold out of the system alongside a couple other remaining ships of the fleet. A few minutes later, the many zombie-like zentradi mecha stopped cold once more as that haunting song came to an end. Once more the Graveyard of wrecked ships and mecha was silent with no activity at all.
After this, the New United Nations Space Garrison Forces of the Brisingr Alliance and the individual governments that made up the Alliance would order a dedicated quarantine of the system, dropping numerous beacons around the system to warn off anyone from going further into the system. This was to try to prevent anyone else from getting surprised by this strange trap and getting themselves killed. Even then that didn't stop several groups and polities from launching their own investigations in the strange orbital graveyard of System AHE-1745 trying to figure out the trap on the system's third planetoid. However, like the NUNS scout unit before them they all fell to the overwhelming numbers of zombie-like mecha, which now included many variable fighters of NUNS along their number. It also didn't stop more dedicated looters from trying to recover the damaged mecha from the graveyard itself and supplies from the dead ships themselves. Even the looters who avoided the planetoid itself couldn't escape from the trap as it went active when they tried to recover any of the damaged mecha.
It quickly became a notable ghost story of travelers around the Brisingr Globular Cluster and a warning to the newcomers to the cluster. Over time it became just that a ghost story to tell people in bars and dives of the Cluster. After the last looter tried its hand at retrieving any damaged mecha from the graveyard no one else tried anything afterward, and the massive graveyard became forgotten in the minds of the inhabitants of the Cluster with only the ghost stories remaining to join the aging stories from Earth in being told around the time of Halloween. It was just that, a ghost story to many and not real. Or was it. Who knows?
-o-End-o-
Post Chapter Notes
That is a wrap! My first ever Halloween story I ever have written. Wow. I finally managed to do a Halloween story after trying to do one last year. I really enjoyed myself writing this little story of mine, and I hope you all enjoyed reading it.
That said. I pretty much sprinkled a few nods to Halloween lore and history throughout the story of which I took from the Wikipedia Page for Halloween. I also tried to make it more Macross-like with the use of a song that activates the trap. How those mecha were able to still move even with parts blown off the way they are is something that will remain a mystery. Another question you may ask why NUNS doesn't just whistle up some heavy ships like allied Zentradi Flagships or Gunships to just Macross Cannon, the planetoid to death. Well, from what I understand the Brisingr Alliance is poor and not all that much of a priority for the rest of the New United Nation Government. Therefore, they wouldn't have any ships like that outside of the Macross Elysion which isn't a NUNS ship and only one is only a short one-shot after all, and these things don't really need an extended explanation.
One final thing to mention before I end these notes. I may post another version of this story later, which changes things a bit with the trap for while having something like a Song able to do stuff like making dead mecha move like they did is kind of a Macross way of doing it. I had thought that there was a better way of doing it. Hence, I wrote out another version of the story with something else being the center of the trap, and the way the Zentradi mecha are moving is entirely different from just having a Song being able to move them. I may or may not post it later on. It all depends on what you folks think of the story.
Okay. That is about it for these notes. Again, I hope you all enjoyed this story. Stay tuned for my National Novel Writing Month Project, for it is right around the corner.