Robotech Stargate Saga: Otherworld
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own amusement – sadly all Stargate and Robotech characters and concepts remain the property of MGM, Amazon and Harmony Gold 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 profit to give to anyone.
Chapter Five
The seven assault sections detached from some of the Queadol Magdomilla-class strike cruisers in Commander Breetai's fleet were surrounded by roaring sheaths of plasma flame as they rapidly descended through Earth's atmosphere towards first the vast blue expanse of the South Pacific Ocean and then Macross Island. There descent was quick and rapid, the crews operating the assault modules knowing that they could not afford a more gradual descent – as to do so would open them up to attack from any surface-based beam weapons that the inhabitants of this world had, beam weapons that had already displayed fearsome power and could cut through even their strongest armour to immolate a warship with ease – but that the turbulence and interference from the plasma created by a rapid descent would prevent weapons locking on and blasting them right out of the sky.
All too soon though the protection of the plasma sheath faded away as the descending craft reached the thicker and denser lower reaches of the atmosphere. The assault sections – each over thirteen hundred meters long – levelled out with only a few hundred feet between their keels and the ocean waves. The waves rippling in distorted patterns as the craft passed overhead, aligning their approach vectors to coverage on the island from multiple vectors, due to the backwash of their engines as they began making their approach to the island. Giant doors on the underside of each of the assault craft and a storm of Gnerl fighter pods was released, forming up around the ships to await a battle that the crews knew was not only inevitable but one they were quite looking forward to.
They did not have to wait long.
The moment they crossed the horizon, bringing the island and the softly shimmering force field protecting it into view, particle beams shot towards them as island defence systems opened fire. One of the assault modules was hit immediately, naquada-enhanced beams of near relativistic charged particles cutting through the dense armour almost immediately to tear deep into the hull, eviscerating the superstructure with an ease that was both contemptuous and terrifying. The beams vanished but the damage had already been done as the hit module staggered back like a boxer who had just taken an uppercut to the chin gas, flames and debris spewing out from the deep wounds ripped in its hull. It's engines and antigravity generators failed and the whole vessel slammed at high speed into the rippling surface of the ocean – beginning to sink almost immediately as sea water flooded in through the breaches.
Headless of the loss of their comrade the remaining six modules returned fire with every cannon they had. Thirty heavy particle beams and a hundred and twenty conventional beams slammed into the shield surrounding and protecting Macross Island. The shield dome flared brightly, glowing like a second sun as it resisted, just, the tremendous strain of the attack. Not about to be outdone by the bigger assault sections the cloud of Gnerl fighter pods send a wall of missiles towards the shield. Many were intercepted well short of the island as defensive missile launchers salvo fired a wall of Foxfire missiles. Stil many pierced the initial cordon of defensive fire and continued heading for the island, more vanished in flashes of flame as defensive gatling plasma cannons opened up. It was not enough as seconds later the missiles impacted the force field even as the assault modules unleashed a second blistering salvo of beams.
Particle beams shot back gutting another module like it was a fish on a slab. The module exploding a moment later as its reflex furnace was sliced open. Even as it turned into a miniature sun the shield around the island glowed and flickered momentarily as the sheer volume of fire striking it began to cause damage to the energy matrix of the force field.
For the Zentraedi crews it was an encouraging sign. As a result, they kept firing cycling both heavy and standard beam cannons as quickly as possible maintaining the pressure. Another ship went down, hull ripped open along its entire length by alien beams, crashing into the sea and sinking to a watery grave but still they kept firing with every available weapon. The glow of the force field grew brighter as the strain on the matrix grew ever stronger.
It was just a matter of time until it failed.
Island Operations Bunker
Standing before the main situation table General Jack O'Neill allowed himself a small smile as he saw a fourth Zentraedi assault ship be burned from the sky by the islands defensive particle beam cannons. The remaining three continued firing, pelting the shield dome with heavy and standard particle beams, putting the shield under increasing amounts of strain. Something that wasn't helped by the fact that their escorting fighters were also firing missile salvos, missiles that while individually weren't that powerful – since the Zentraedi apparently didn't take advantage of the amplification abilities of naquada and possibly didn't even know about it – were adding to the strain.
"General engineering reports that the shield emitters in sections seven to twelve have overheated and shut down," one of the operations officers reported grimly, "the load has been rebalanced to the other emitters but they're all reaching the point where thermal overload will trigger them to shut down."
Jack grimaced slightly at that. It wasn't particularly surprising that the shield was failing under the stress of the Zentraedi bombardment, they'd already soaked up enough energy to burn what had once been the United States to glass, still he had hoped that it would weather the storm just a little bit longer.
"How long do we have before the shield goes down?" he asked.
"Less than two minutes sir," the officer reported.
"General sensors are picking up another wave of assault modules coming down from the Zentraedi fleet," one of the sensor officers reported. "They're not on their own a few cruisers and a whole pack of Kitsune-class combat dropships are coming with them."
Shit, Jack thought though again he wasn't surprised that the Zentraedi were sending down another wave of assault modules that had detached from more of the strike cruisers. The crews on the ones attacking had no doubt summoned reinforcements. Reinforcements that wouldn't get here in time to help the ones that were already here – as he watched the islands defences shot down the last of the assault modules sending it crashing into an increasingly turbulent Pacific Ocean in flames – but they didn't need to.
"How many," he asked knowing that the islands defence shield would struggle to repel another major assault.
"Five more assault modules and three heavy cruisers," the officer replied, "they'll no doubt deploy fighter and battlepods as they get closer. We're reading twelve dropships as well."
"What's their ETA?"
"Four minutes and fifteen seconds."
"Damn. How long until the SDF-1 can launch?"
"They're taking on the last of the crew and most of the currently assigned air wing has returned though several officers – including Lieutenant Archer - are too drunk to fly. Commander Hayes estimates they'll be able to take off in another five or six minutes if their final systems checks are all green."
"Commander Hayes not Captain Gloval?" Jack asked even as he noticed fresh explosions blossom on the shields as the remaining Zentraedi fighters from the first wave of this massive attack pelted them with another missile salvo. Defensive missiles and gatling plasma cannons answered them, but it seemed that for every Gnerl fighter or Regult battlepod they blew away another would be ready to take its place.
"Yes, sir Captain Gloval is currently in an urgent strategy conference with Admirals Hayes, Chase and Xia. They're apparently trying to come up with a new plan to drive the Zentraedi fleet away from Earth."
Understandable as while the fleet tried its best it wasn't enough, Jack thought thinking back to the brutal battle in space that they'd observed. While they had better energy weapons than the Zentraedi, and their ships had the advantage of energy shields, the sheer numbers of the enemy had overwhelmed them and force Xia to pull his ships back to regroup and recharge depleted shields. Even using Operation Hellstorm hadn't been enough to give them victory. If only the ORC platforms had been operational but the first of them was still several weeks from being operational enough to even use the particle cannons and heavy missile launchers of its secondary armament to say nothing of its main weapon.
"Understandable. Tell Hayes to send as many of her veritechs as they can spare to engage the fighter pods already here," Jack ordered noting the incoming capital ships were nearly to firing position. Soon the beam assault on the shield would resume and the shield, already badly weakened – indeed a check of a side screen showed that shield strength was down to forty percent – would fail leaving the island, and everything and everyone here including his family, wide open to attack from giant humanoids who were no doubt extremely pissed off given all the losses they'd taken since folding in.
"Yes sir."
As the officer began to carry out his instructions Jack turned his full attention back to the situation table just as the Zentraedi reached firing position and once again opened fire. This time with the added back-up of heavy anti-ship missiles from the three Thuverl Salen-class heavy cruisers that had accompanied the second wave of Queadol Magdomilla assault modules down into the atmosphere. The islands fixed defences began firing again, attempting to knock down as many of the incoming missiles as possible, while particle cannons fired on the capital ships.
Battle was once again joined.
Landing Grid
Macross Island Military Base
That Same Time
Cadet Rick Hunter smiled as he climbed out of the cockpit of the latest Valkyrie that he had taxied from where a group of them had been set out on the bases exhibition grounds – where they had been intended for VIP demonstration flights until that was the Zentraedi decided to show up and get rowdy - to the arming station. While he hadn't been flying it had been enjoyable as it had just been in the cockpit of a real veritech instead of the very realistic flight simulators that they had at the academy. While the controls were naturally identical there was a subtle, undefinable difference in how they felt compared to the simulator.
For a moment he turned and looked back at the veritechs he had moved here, veritechs that now had ground crews swarming all over them arming them and making them ready for pilots returning from the city and ready for combat. Combat that from the constant flashing of the shield over their heads, and the near constant thunder-like rumbling of weapons fire pelting and steadily wearing down the force field, was already well underway.
"Rick."
The sound of Roy's voice behind him made him turn around. Roy was still in the flight suit he'd been wearing earlier though like Rick himself he was now wearing a light armour over the top. Armour that was there to protect a pilot in the event that they got shot down over enemy territory. It was supposedly rated to withstand one or two shots from a Goa'uld ma'tok staff though given how thin it was – especially when compared to the heavy armour worn by army troopers to say nothing of the Tristan powered combat armour the STORM Commandoes wore – Rick had his doubts about that.
"What's up Roy," Rick asked, frowning slightly as he saw the look on Roy's face. He knew that look well as it was one that Roy had been known to wear when he had to ask something that he didn't really want to ask. Or do something that he really didn't want to do but was being forced by circumstance to do. "Okay Roy out with whatever it is."
Roy grimaced. "I need your help again little brother," he admitted, "it's not something that I can order you to do, and there won't be any blowback if you refuse and just want to get to one of the shelters but…"
",. you want me to volunteer to jump in a veritech and join the fight," Rick finished for him. "I've never flown in combat before Roy."
"I know but I've seen your test scores for atmosphere combat including mode shifting," Roy answered, "you'll be fine if you want to that is."
"Why do you want me?"
"Skull Squadron is a pilot down," Roy admitted, "Turner, being the big, damned idiot that he can be, decided to spend his day off doing a pub crawl and is now passed out drunk. They've taken him to a secure shelter while he sleeps it off. He was my wingman; I could fly without one but…"
"…. That would be very dangerous as there would be no one to watch your six," Rick finished for him making up his mind. There was no way on Earth that he was going to let Roy go up there without someone to watch his back. "Alright Roy I'll fly with you. Are you sure the brass won't mind you know what they can be like."
Roy nodded understanding Rick's worry. He had already spoken to Lisa and cleared this with her, though she had made it perfectly clear that it would have to be at Rick's agreement as it was highly irregular to say the least. He was started to open his mouth to inform him that it was alright but before any words could emerge from his mouth there was a tremendous boom a moment before a powerful shockwave slammed them both to the hard hypercrete floor. The ground shook from the force of the blast and both immediately heard car alarms and burglar alarms go off in the city.
"Ugh what the hell was that?" Rick groaned out as the shockwave died away and he picked himself up off the floor. The sudden absence of lightning like flashes of energy from above prompted him to look up and answer his own question. "The island's shield is down."
Roy nodded as he picked himself up. "Which means we're soon going to be facing an invasion of alien battle mecha," he replied quietly impressed by how long the islands defence shield had withstood the Zentraedi bombardment. It also wouldn't be down for too long, as long as there wasn't any physical damage to the generators and emitters, as once the overload had been dissipated the engineers would be able to reset and repower the force field bringing it back online. Still there would be a window in which the Zentraedi could invade the island after the SDF-1.
"Come on little brother," Roy continued looking over at Rick, "the planes are this way."
"Lead on Roy." Roy grinned back then the two of them set off at a run to where two Valkyrie's – in the distinctive white, gold and black livery of Skull Squadron – sat fully armed and ready to take off.
"Take that one Rick," Roy said pointing to Skull Two, the plane normally flown by Lieutenant Steven Turner who'd booked the day of the launch celebrations off and promptly gone and gotten himself so drunk that he could barely stand up – at least until he'd collapsed into a stupor – and certainly wasn't corpus mentis enough to fly even a normal patrol to say nothing of combat flying.
"Okay Roy," Rick replied touching a small button on his right vambrace causing his helmet to deploy from the neckpiece of his armoured flight suit. He hadn't needed to use it while he'd just been taxing the planes around, so he'd left it retracted but now it was a definite necessity and truth be told seeing and feeling it deploy was always downright cool. Without hesitation he walked up to the veritech that Roy had indicated he was to go in and climbed into it. The moment he sat down he felt the seat cushions adjust themselves to his frame, then he closed the canopy before quickly going through the process to bring everything he would need fully online from the weapons and mechamorphic systems to the shield and inertial dampener.
A moment later his comm screen lit up. "Are you ready Rick?" Roy asked from his own cockpit.
"Ready as I will ever be," Rick answered feeling the rattlesnakes of nerves performing a mating dance in his stomach. For all the simulator training he had undergone – especially in the last year – this was the first time that he would be facing living opponents and not an AI which, despite its sophistication, could get somewhat formulaic in its tactics and patterns. Something he had long had a knack for spotting.
"You'll do fine just remember your training and trust your instincts," Roy answered even as he scanned his screens and saw the whole of Skull Squadron were ready to launch. Thus, he broadened the channel to include the bridge of the SDF-1. "Skull Leader to Bridge. Squadron ready for launch."
"Rodger that Skull Leader launch when ready," Commander Hayes said as her image appeared on another screen, she then turned his attention to Rick. "Cadet Hunter, are you sure you want to do this?"
"I'm sure ma'am," Rick replied.
"Very well good luck," Lisa answered giving the young cadet a look of respect before she signed off and went to order another squadron into the air.
Following Roy Rick positioned his temporary fighter at the head of the runway then pushed his throttles fully forward. The veritech immediately began shooting down the length of the runway its speed rapidly climbing. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Roy's fighter doing the exact same thing and within seconds they reached the speed known to pilots as V1, the point at which a take-off could not be safely aborted, and a second or so later both veritech's were rocketing into the sky the rest of Skull Squadron around them…
…just as high intensity energy beams began striking Macross Island.
Bridge
SDF-1
Standing at her station at the front of the bridge Lisa Hayes had distinctly mixed feelings as she watched Skull Squadron take off. She had to admit, to herself at least, that she was not that happy about sending a cadet into battle in the way that they were currently doing. If it had been anyone other than Commander Fokker who had asked for Rick to be allowed to join the battle that was raging beyond the islands outer edge as island defences and the Zentraedi continued to exchange fire and his insistence that Rick would be able to handle it, she would never had allowed it.
"You did the right thing," Claudia said softly from beside her. "Rick can look after himself and I've seen a lot of his training scores, Roy is very proud of him and has shown me a few times. Trust me Rick will be able to handle this."
"I hope your right it just… it doesn't feel right sending a cadet to war. He should still be in the classroom not in the cockpit of a veritech."
Claudia nodded in understanding and started to open her mouth to say something to reassure her, but before she could make any sound a brilliant flash of light accompanied by the distant thunder-like rumble of a powerful explosion caught the attention of the entire bridge crew.
"What was that," Lisa demanded even as she faintly heard the door to the bridge open.
"It's the Zentraedi cruisers off the island," Vanessa reported, "they're firing on the defensive and offensive cannon emplacements."
"Then they are preparing to land their ground troops," the voice of Captain Henry Gloval said as he finally returned to the bridge after being called to a strategy conference with Admirals Hayes, Chase and Xia. A meeting in which they had hashed out a new plan that would hopefully be successful in giving them victory over the Zentraedi at least for now as driving away or destroying the fleet that was here would hopefully buy them enough time to finish the defence grid as well as get their next wave of warships ready.
Though first they would need to deal with the ships besieging the island as with the theatre shield down it wouldn't take the Zentraedi long to destroy their fixed defence installations leaving only their mobile forces like the destroids and the veritechs to defend the city.
"Vanessa how many Zentraedi vessels are there in atmosphere assaulting the island?" he asked. "Sammy contact Island Operations and find out how much time they need to get the theatre shield back up."
"Sir there are five remaining Zentraedi capital vessels attacking the island. We read two assault modules and three cruisers," Vanessa reported immediately.
"Sir island operations report that they need at least ten minutes to restore the shield," Sammie added a moment later, "the generators energy matrix needs to be restored, and the shield emitters need to go through a full cool down and repower cycle."
Gloval swore under his breath in his native Russian. Ten minutes was a virtual eternity in any battle but at the same time it wasn't surprising how long it would take to restore the islands defence shield given the sheer amount of firepower it had soaked up.
"Understood," he replied at last. "Claudia are our anti-gravity wave generators fully charged now?"
"Yes, sir they are all flight and flight control systems are fully powered we can launch at any time," Claudia replied, "also all gunnery control rooms report manned and ready."
"Okay engage the anti-gravity wave generators and take us up to a heigh of five thousand feet above the island. As soon as we're clear of the city raise our shields. Once we're in position we will engage and destroy the Zentraedi cruisers. We will remain on station to help protect the island and the city until they get their shield back up."
"And then what sir," Lisa asked wanting to know what the plan was.
"Then we will execute a precision fold jump to Mars and link up with the Second Fleet under Admiral Chase. The whole fleet will then execute a precision hyperspace jump to the rear right flank of the Zentraedi main fleet in high orbit. Admiral Xia will do the same on the rear left flank at the same time. That will let us catch the Zentraedi fleet in a crossfire and either destroy it of at least make them retreat."
"Understood sir."
"Does anyone else have any questions?" Gloval asked looking around at his bridge crew, noting not for the first time how painfully young all of them really were and now he would be leading them into battle with a powerful alien race.
"No sir," everyone chorused in unison all of them getting the plan that had been quickly thought up as the Zentraedi had proven themselves to be far more formidable than had initially been believed. In no small part due to the sheer number of heavily armed, though thankfully unshielded, robotech warships they had brought to Sol with them.
"Alright then Claudia take us up. Instruct the gunnery control crews to open fire all standard weapons as soon as we're in position."
"Aye sir."
Light flared at numerous points on the underside of the great battlefortress making her rock slightly on the giant cradles that she had been carefully lifted up onto early during her decade of reverse engineering and reconstruction. With an initial almost glacial slowness the great vessel began to rise into the air, repelling the powerful gravitational pull of the Earth. Quickly her speed began to increase as the anti-gravity wave generators – which had replaced her original anti-gravity pods – cycled up to full power. A she rose light momentarily flickered around her as her own defence shields were raised.
In seconds the battlefortress reached her chosen altitude and came to a stop much to the surprise and confusion of the Zentraedi cruisers and assault modules watching her and who had been preparing to give chase. Gun turrets along the great warships hull changed orientation, targeting the nearest Zentraedi warship, specifically one of the Thuverl Salen-class cruisers. The muzzles of the dual heavy particle beam cannons in the locked on turrets glowed for a moment before unleashing dual pale blue beams that were if anything even brighter and faster moving than the beams fired by even the heaviest of Terran warships.
The beams struck the doomed Zentraedi cruiser like the fists of an angry god. Armour vaporised instantly as the beams tore through the ship disintegrating and dissolving everything in their path as they eviscerated the vessel. Secondary explosions erupted throughout the heavy cruiser even as beams exploded out of its stern and aft port flank. The beams vanished and for a moment the gutted cruiser hung their spewing fire and debris from its compromised hull. Then it erupted into a fireball as fuel and munitions stores let go.
Even as the first ship to feel her wrath dissolved into fiery oblivion the battlefortress fired again, this time at one of the assault modules. It faired about as well as the heavy cruiser had, turning into a ball of roaring plasma flames as the mighty guns of the battlefortress simply tore it apart. Return fire shot towards the battlefortress, the Zentraedi gunners focusing on the engine section in the hopes of damaging the SDF-1 enough that she would land again, land and be thus wide open to invasion by their ground combat mecha.
It did no good as the beams simply impacted and dissipated into a cloud of Cherenkov radiation as they encountered the SDF-1's defensive energy shield. The same could not be said for the battlefortress guns as they claimed another Zentraedi cruiser, tearing it to pieces in seconds before firing on another then another. Until the last cruiser dissolved into oblivion, the ships swept away like sandcastles before a breaking wave.
Island Operations Bunker
"General the last of the attacking Zentraedi warships has been destroyed."
Still standing at the main situation table Jack nodded though the report was unnecessary as he had seen it himself. Watching the weapons of the SDF-1 simply tear the Zentraedi ships from the sky, cutting through them with even more ease than the best weapons they'd come up with had been awe inspiring and utterly terrifying in equal measure. It had been known for the better part of a decade – really since Macross Island had cooled down enough after the battlefortress first crashed – that the SDF-1 was a warship possessed of a previously unthinking level of firepower.
Knowing it was one thing but seeing it, seeing her fire her guns in anger, was quite another. Plus, he was willing to bet that some of the alterations they'd made to the ships systems – including the weapons – which had included the inclusion of naquada enhancements had made her guns even more devastating. And those were just her conventional heavy and standard particle weapons, he thought with a mental shudder wondering just what the reflex cannon – the ultimate expression of what he called in his head at least of a big honking space gun – would be able to do.
"So, I see," he replied, "any reaction from the fleet above?"
"Space monitors and Alaska Base report no reaction from the main Zentraedi fleet," a communications rating responded immediately.
"That's strange," Jack muttered knowing that when they'd shot down the last of the first wave of warships the Zentraedi commander hadn't hesitated to send down more ships and send some heavy backup in the form of three heavy cruisers to boot. So why was he not reacting now, it didn't make any sense unless the Zentraedi were scared of the battlefortress power. That or the giant humanoid aliens were planning something. "What's the status of the restoration of the defence shield?"
"Engineering indicates that they need at least another ten minutes as two shield emitters have actually fused into useless lumps of metal. They're having to replace them."
"Ouch keep me informed," Jack ordered.
"Yes sir."
No sooner than the other officer had spoken than alarms abruptly ran through the subterranean operations centre. Jack blinked in surprise as he recognised them as being perimeter warnings. What on Earth, he thought.
"Report," he demanded.
"General perimeter sensors and cameras indicate Zentraedi battle mecha and armoured warriors coming onto the beaches all around the perimeter of the island. They're coming right out of the surf itself."
"Show me," Jack ordered feeling an icy chill go down his spine at the report.
"Yes sir."
A new photonic projector field powered up and a holographic multi-screen pixeled into existence over the situation table. Jack could immediately see that the officer was right as emerging from the now quite badly stirred up Pacific Ocean – seemingly completely unconcerned by the pounding waves, waves that at any other time would have attracted the islands small surfer community out in droves to ride them – was a massive force of Zentraedi mecha. Most were various types of battlepods but with them were a large number of what looked like massive, powered armour suits of some type as well as warriors clad head to toe in sealed purple armour.
For a moment he wondered where the hell they all were coming from then the answer dawned upon him. Most of them had no doubt come from the Kitsune-class dropships that had set down a few miles offshore, using the cover of the exchanges between the islands defences and the attacking warships as cover. But some, especially the warriors in sealed armour had come from those warships that had crashed in the sea instead of exploding when they'd been shot down.
Not that it really mattered where they came from. The giant humanoid warriors were clearly forming up and would soon begin advancing inland towards the city. He sighed softly to himself before starting to issue new orders to those around him.
The next phase of this battle was about to begin.
Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust, I hope you all enjoyed it and how different and far fiercer this current battle is compared to Robotech canon. Next chapter will be the final one of this particular battle there will be others especially as more familiar Stargate enemies will begin making their appearance soon. Hopefully it won't take me too long to write it but naturally I cannot promise anything. Until next time.