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 Six
Skull Two
That Same Time
Rick Hunter would, if asked, admit to feeling no small amount of trepidation as he guided the veritech designated Skull Two through the skies above Macross Island alongside not just his big brother but the rest of said big brother's squadron. He supposed that it was understandable as he was heading into real, not simulated combat, against the Zentraedi a race that they still knew so little about beyond the fact that they were a) literally giants standing at a minimum of fifty feet tall, and b) that they were warrior-servants of another race in a similar vein to the Jaffa with the Goa'uld. Though as he recalled they knew even less about the race that had created the Zentraedi, and who said Zentraedi served, than they did the Goa'uld. All they knew was the fact that they were alternatively known as Tirolians and as the Robotech Masters. That and the fact that their empire was mindbogglingly vast, far surpassing the Goa'uld Empire that had dominated vast swathes of the galaxy for the last eight and a half thousand years.
"Alright everyone looks like the Zent's have noticed us coming," Roy said as his face appeared on the comm screen, speaking on the squadron command frequency. "We have multiple Gnerl-class fighters breaking away from flying cover over their landing forces and heading towards us on intercept course. All fighters engage."
A chorus of rogers came from the other pilots, Rick adding his own acknowledgement to chorus a moment before the comm screen flickered momentarily as Roy changed channels to a more personal one.
"You ready for this Rick," Roy asked him genuine concern in his voice not to mention a hint of regret. Rick understood all too well that Roy really didn't like having to ask him to take part in a real battle so soon but that he had no choice because of his on leave wingman getting stone cold drunk due to having a few days off. He was really going to have to rip Turner a new one after this as yes he'd had a few days off but part of the agreement for time off on Macross Island was you had to be ready, and corpus mentis enough, to return to duty at a moments notice. Something that Lieutenant Turner clearly had ignored or forgotten. He wasn't the only one who would be in for a severe telling off when he was sober Jack Archer would be in for it as well having made the same mistake.
"If I am honest Roy not really," Rick admitted bringing him out of the thoughts about what he would do to those two to make his displeasure, as the CAG, known, "this is very different to the simulator after all." No reset button if I screw up for one thing, he thought not that he had really ever had cause to use the reset button. Especially when it came to the flying parts as he was a Hunter after all, his family had been flying planes ever since the days of the Wright brothers and flown hot air balloons before that. It was practically in his blood to the point that there was little he did not know about flying and hadn't known since he was a child.
"It is that," Roy agreed, "but it is also not that different to the old days at the flying circus. Just trust your instincts and your training and you'll do fine little brother."
"hanks Roy."
"Anytime okay here they come lets give 'um hell."
"Right with you," Rick answered. Roy smiled back and vanished as he closed the commlink down from his end. Rick for his part immediately gave full attention to the weapons systems especially his missiles quickly locking onto the approaching Gnerl who – having used up their onboard supply of missiles helping to take down the islands defence shield – were intent on dogfighting the insolent micronian fighters coming at them. Almost instantly he heard the familiar lock-on tone. Eat this, he thought. "Fox two."
He pressed the trigger and immediately one of the newly developed Stiletto III medium range missiles slung under his wings detached from one of the weapon nacelles and shot towards his target at hypersonic velocity. All around him the rest of Skull Squadron – with numerous calls of 'fox two' – did the same unleashing a major missile volley. The Gnerl that Rick had targeted was hit almost instantly, the small cobalt-naquada warhead detonating with enormous force that simply vaporised the Zentraedi fighter and its pilot in a momentary flash of yellow plasma flame.
Dozens of other Gnerl met there end in an identical fashion, both the short range and the sheer speed of the Terran weapons giving them no chance to begin to defend themselves against the attack. Incensed the Zentraedi pilots returned fire the triple pulse particle cannons in the nose of the vaguely bell-shaped fighters unleashing a blistering hail of charged particle bolts. Most of the shots went wide, Rick for his part angling his plane slightly so the bolts went straight past him, though the few that did hit the veritechs revealed a – to the Zentraedi very unwelcome – surprise. Instead of ripping into and tearing apart the impacted fighters – as they had always done before with not even the strongest of fighters or battle mecha able to resist their force – the blasts broke apart a centimetre or so above each Valkyrie's fuselage and dissipated in the distinct blue-white haze of an object or vehicle being protected by an energy shield.
The veritech's responded with not only another salvo of missiles but with their own energy weapons. Pulse laser cannons, mounted on each side of their nose cones in fighter mode, and heavier pulses of compressed plasma from underside mounted gunpods shot forth in a wall of energised yellow death. Dozens of Gnerl exploded under the deluge of fire and then the two groups smashed into one another in a totally free-for-all aerial brawl.
Zentraedi Command Dreadnought
Standing in his command blister, gazing at the dozens of tactical holograms floating in photonic projection fields, Commander Breetai raised his solo remaining eyebrow – the other being covered by the metal and crystal faceplate covering the left side of his face the result of taking an Invid plasma blast to the face – as he observed the alien fighters engaging those Gnerl inside the atmosphere. A gasp of surprise emerged from his lips as he observed charged particle bolts sleet ineffectively off energy shields. Energy shields on fighters! That should be impossible, he thought more than a little shaken by this latest demonstration of this races power and technology. Clearly they had underestimated them to an even greater degree than he had previously thought, if they could put energy shields on fighters then what else could they do?
"Energy shielding on fighters how is that even possible," Exedore exclaimed from beside him as incredulous as he was. "Not even the Robotech Masters can do that."
"I don't know," Breetai admitted inwardly smiling despite the circumstances when he realized how the Robotech Masters would react to this little development when they eventually read his report on the battle. They would no doubt want to acquire the technology for their own forces – especially given the variety of threats the Empire faced from minor annoyances like the Disciples of Zor and the Invid to very real and dangerous threats like the Asgard who even the Masters would think at least twice about crossing – as soon as possible. Though how they would set about the acquisition so far from the borders of the Empire he had no idea nor did he care to speculate. Not only was it not his concern but centuries of experience had ensured that he was well aware of how frankly odd micronian thought processes could be. In that regard the Robotech Masters/Tirolians could be no different.
"Commander the leader of our ground forces reports that all forces have assembled on the beaches of the island fortress," one of the communications technicians reported, "they have been joined by surviving warriors from the ships that crashed into the ocean after being shot down. They report they are ready to commence a ground attack."
Breetai frowned slightly at that. He could hear the eagerness in the other Zentraedi's voice, no doubt reflecting the attitude of the Zentraedi on the planet below. They no doubt wanted to invade the city, to slaughter and destroy everything they could, in retribution for all the losses they'd sustained since they had first folded in and found themselves confronted by the surprisingly powerful inhabitants. It was rare after all to encounter anyone – well other than the Asgard who even the Masters were cautious around – who could stand up to them and hurt them this badly.
Thus it was understandable that his warriors wanted to rampage in vengeance. There pride and belief in their near invincibility badly stung. Breetai would be lying if he said that he didn't feel such an urge himself but he controlled himself. Going on a rampage was not there mission here. Recovering Zor's battlefortress was.
"Tell them to stand by," he ordered knowing that it wouldn't be popular but none of the other warriors would dare to defy him over it, "what is the battlefortress doing now?"
"It his holding position one thousand, five hundred and twenty-four meters above the centre of the island," a sensor officer replied.
"Odd," Breetai muttered not understanding why the battlefortress was not coming up to confront them, as even with the stock weapons a Sian Macross-class battlefortress – being a Tirolian warship - could wipe the floor with a Zentraedi fleet with relative ease and that wasn't factoring in any changes the people had made to the weapons systems as they'd clearly changed a great deal about the vessel, and instead staying where it was. "Are they damaged in some way?"
"Negative commander. While their energy shield is giving the sensors some trouble as far as we can tell all systems are fully functional."
"Thoughts Exedore?" Breetai asked his confusion clear for the smaller Zentraedi to hear.
"I believe that they are waiting commander."
"Waiting? For what?" Breetai asked wondering what in Zor's name the mysterious beings who called this world home – who he already suspected were micronians as most species were – and who now had Zor's ship would be waiting for. Logically they should have moved up to confront his fleet by now, using their powerful main gun to open the engagement. To just sit there in the atmosphere and wait for something did not make sense.
"While our knowledge of shield technology is very limited one thing we know commander is that a shield that has been collapsed is not always disabled for good," Exedore reminded him. "I believe that the battlefortress is waiting where it is to provide cover for the island while engineers and technicians work to restore its shield."
"I suppose that's logical," Breetai replied.
"However, I believe that in remaining where they are to protect the island the crew of the battlefortress have made a tactical error," Exedore continued garnering Breetai's complete attention. "One of the weaknesses of most known energy shields is they are noticeably less effective inside the atmosphere of a planet than they are in the vacuum of space."
"Interesting. Do we know how less effective shields are inside planetary atmospheres?"
"It varies with the type of shield and the amount of power available to it commander," Exedore answered, "it can be anywhere from a ten to sixty percent reduction in efficiency. Why this is I don't know but even Asgard shields are known to have this weakness."
"They're vulnerable. If we have some ships concentrate fire on there shields..."
"... we can collapse the force field and disable the battlefortresses main sublight engines forcing them to land. Which would let our ground forces board and capture the vessel."
"An excellent strategy, Exedore," Breetai complemented though he knew it would be far from an easy one to bring to a successful conclusion. Even with the atmosphere induced reduction in efficiency the battlefortress shields were no doubt extremely strong especially if like the other ships it was using naquada to augment all systems...
... still it was there best chance to bring this battle, which had been surprisingly costly as the people here were powerful there weapons devastating even by Zentraedi standards, to a successful conclusion.
"Destroyer squadrons six and seven and cruiser squadron five open fire on the battlefortress," he ordered into one of the scope-like comm units. "Concentrate all fire on there shields. Send down additional fighters to assist."
"Yes commander."
Silent as ghosts and deadlier than any predator nature had ever produced thirty-two Zentraedi warships – most of whom were the Tou Redir-class destroyers that formed the majority of all Zentraedi armadas across multiple galaxies – changed position moving slightly closer to the Earth. Along there green and purple hulls gun turrets – each looking vaguely like a pair of vampire fangs poised to drain the lifeblood of some unfortunate victim – rotated and locked onto where Zor's battlefortress was still hovering deep within the planets atmosphere and gravity well.
For a moment more nothing happened. Then the generator rails, which gave them the fang-like appearance, crackled momentarily before searing blue particle beams blasted forth. Though slower than the beams generated by the Earth ships the Zentraedi beams still shot forward at a significant fraction of the speed of light. As such they crossed the distance between the ships and the planet nearly instantly slashing down into the thick oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere of the Earth with irresistible force until they reached their target. Most of the beams slammed into the elliptical bubble of the SDF-1's energy shields. The shields glowed fiercely and the battlefortress visibly shuddered under the attack but held. However several beams, either by accident or deliberate design by turret gunners eager for revenge upon the micronians daring to stand against them and who had already killed so many of their brothers, struck the island and Macross City.
Massive explosions erupted as entire city blocks simply ceased to exist, being instantly transformed into scenes of utter devastation. The blasts creating powerful seismic shockwaves that violently shook the whole island, terrifying the civilian population hiding in the deep bunkers. The Zentraedi though paid it no mind firing again, again concentrating the vast majority of their fire on the SDF-1 though still "accidentally" slamming some beams into Macross City.
For a few more moments nothing happened, then two things happened virtually simultaneously. First ground to space beam cannons fired back, quickly striking and eviscerating two of the low orbiting destroyers turning them into plumes of energised flotsam. Second the battlefortress, her shields flaring with strain, moved changing her orientation so that her blunt prow was pointed at the attacking ships. Then her shape began to change.
Bridge
SDF-1
A Few Moments Earlier
Captain Henry Gloval was not surprised when the Zentraedi warships began firing at the SDF-1 from orbit. The giant bioengineered warrior servitors of the Robotech Masters had clearly run out of patience – having no doubt expected them to have risen into orbit sometime ago now to confront them, not realizing that they already had a plan to either destroy or drive away the fleet that was here – and were now trying to provoke them into coming up after them.
"Status report," he ordered as the ship shuddered under enemy fire, the viewports filling with reflected light from the weapons fire sleeting off their shields.
"Sir the shields are holding for now," Claudia reported, "but they are under tremendous strain, especially when we factor in the atmospheric reduction in shield effectiveness. Sir we're reading seven direct heavy beam strikes in Macross City."
Henry's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Damage?" he asked wondering if the hits in the city was just collateral damage as some military personnel were had often called hitting something other than the target they were actually aiming for or if it was a direct and deliberate attack. After all they knew that the Zentraedi had no concept of civilians or the rules of war as they understood them.
"Sir island operations reports multiple city blocks destroyed," Sammy reported from her station, sounding honestly like she wanted to cry at the damage, "fires are now breaking out in surrounding blocks. Fire services responding."
"Ask island operations how much longer will it be before they can restore the city shield," Gloval ordered as more blasts shook the SDF-1 as the enemy fired upon them again.
"Sir shields are down to eighty-three percent," Claudia reported a note of anger entering her tone as she spoke the next part, "more hits in the city sir. Sir I think someone up there is using firing upon us as an excuse to hit the city."
"Very likely," Gloval agreed.
"Sir island operations reports that they have begun repowering the shield generators and emitters," Sammy added, "three minutes to shield restoration as long as we can keep the Zentraedi guns off them."
"They need time we can give them that," Gloval said a predatory smile appearing on his face, he knew just how to give island operations the time they needed to finish restoring the shield. It would also let them take out the murderous bastards who were deliberately firing on the city. Though the civilian population was in no danger having all been evacuated to the shelters it was the principal of the thing that mattered here. "Claudia reorient the ship so that our main gun is pointing straight at the Zentraedi warships firing upon us. As soon as we are in position commence the firing sequence. Lisa make sure none of our fighters are within the projected backwash cone I don't want any friendly fire incidents."
"Aye sir," both Lisa and Claudia acknowledged as the ship shuddered under more Zentraedi fire even as at Claudia's orders the helmsman a few levels below the bridge began manipulating the anti-gravity field being created by the anti-gravity wave generators to bring the ships blunt prow inro line with the warships firing upon them, which incidentally had their currently on standby gravitic ion engines pointing at the smouldering city below.
"Sir we are in position," Claudia reported, "commencing reflex cannon firing sequence. Connecting main gun to the power grid, connection confirmed. Opening firing boons." As she spoke the whirring sound of incredibly powerful motors filled the air as the first four hundred meter section of the battlefortress split apart and then rotated forty-five degrees before locking into place.
"Commencing power up," Claudia added as the inner surface of the now open booms began to glow a moment before rippling arcs of yellow orange starfire began crackling along them – looking for all the world like some bizarre High School science experiment with electricity – before snapping together between the boons. "Discharge in twenty seconds. Sir surface cannons on the island have begun firing back at the Zentraedi fleet. Two ships already hit and destroyed."
Gloval nodded in acknowledgement not at all surprised by how powerful the surface to space particle beam cannons were. They were after all designed to be able to take out hostile vessels, even vessels equipped with defensive energy shielding vessels like a Goa'uld mothership, with a single blast. Thus, they were far more powerful than any particle beam weapons that could be mounted on a ship – well anything that wasn't a quantum energy weapon in the way the reflex cannon was – at least at this point in time. As he understood it the currently still in the prototype stage Matterhorn-class battleships would be equipped with two of them as axial weapons as they were much easier to mount than a reflex cannon was.
"Reflex cannon power up sequence complete," Claudia reported as she flipped up the safety cover over a single small, completely ordinary looking red button. A button that controlled one of the most powerful and devastating energy weapons known to exist in the known universe. With only a moment of hesitation – something that she felt was completely understandable given what this thing was – she pressed the button. "Firing."
The moment Claudia's finger stabbed down upon the final commit button a command flashed at near light speed from the bridge to the computer controlling the reflex cannon instructing it to discharge. Immediately the mass of energy that had gathered between the firing boons – which now glowed so brightly it seemed like the ship had a star held captive between her firing boons – was unleashed with a roar that would have made the most ferocious of beasts jealous transforming into a searing river of unfathomable power and violence over three hundred meters wide. The massive beam streaking towards space at a significant percentage of light speed.
The first victims of the reflex blast was the swarm of Gnerl fighters coming down from the Zentraedi fleet, Gnerls that had been intended to disable the battlefortress engines and anti-gravity systems once her shields went down. They stood no chance as the stream of quantum devastation enveloped them and in less than a nanosecond swept every single one of them from existence as it continued charging spacewards.
Moments later it broke through the bonds of Earth's atmosphere and gravity well and slammed like the fist of an angry god into the group of Zentraedi warships that had been engaging the battlefortress. A dozen Zentraedi ships vanished in an instant as the beam's energies attacked the very basic elementary structure of the matter that made up the ships and everyone aboard them instantly transforming ships, and warriors, into clouds of superheated, highly energised quarks, leptons, bosons and mesons. The nearby ships were not spared death either as spilling from the edges of the beam came first a massive gravitational and electromagnetic sheering wave, Armour shattered like brittle glass and spaceframes twisted and tore as though they were made from wet spaghetti and not a hypercarbon-trinium alloy. But worse was to come for even as the sheering waves ripped and mangled the next and most devastating wave arrived in the form of a superheated firestorm of antimatter particles. Antimatter which naturally reacted very badly to the normal matter it encountered.
The reflex blast vanished, its energy spent, but the damage had been done. Only a handful of the targeted ships had survived the assault and all of them had been reduced to half shattered, barely holding together wrecks that belched clouds of atmosphere, debris and the bodies of dead and dying crew.
Zentraedi Command Dreadnought
Breetai scowled as he observed the reflex cannon blast that shot up from the planet, from the battlefortress, and almost completely tore apart the squadrons that he had tasked with disabling the battlefortress. Given that it had not been used before now he had assumed that the battlefortresses reflex cannon was not working for some reason, possibly due to lingering damage from when the vessel had crashed here.
Now it appears that was not the case. Not only was the weapon working but it was seemingly even more devastatingly powerful than ever before. If that was at all possible. It had certainly charged more quickly than normal taking only twenty-five seconds to build up to a firing charge from the start of the firing sequence compared to the normal forty-five.
He could only think of one explanation for that.
"It appears that they have used naquada to enhance the main gun as well," he commented.
"Indeed, commander likely in the energy converters and beam condensers," Exedore agreed as she scowled at sensor readout repeats that revealed traces of that same devastating signature in the refle discharge as their had been in all this micronian races weapons. The signature of naquada. Where are they getting it all, he wondered, naquada is supposed to be extremely rare. Unless that isn't the case in this galaxy. Maybe its far more common here.
That wasn't a pleasant thought. Especially as they were seeing here and now what happened when you put naquada – and its hyperconductive, energy amplification properties - together with robotechnology. To say that the resulting hybrid technology base was powerful would have been a monumental understatement. Both Dolza and the Robotech Masters were sure to have heart attacks when they eventually found out about all this.
"What do we do now commander?" he asked breaking the silence that had fallen on the command blister, and in general the bridge below them, at the latest sign of this races power. Power that while it was a very long way from the levels of power possessed by the Asgard or the Robotech Masters commanded both respect and caution.
"We continue with our mission it is all we can do," Breetai replied, "sensors where is the battlefortress now?"
"It is still holding position above the island commander," sensors reported a moment later. "Commander the shield around the city and base on the island has been restored and is back at full power."
Meaning we will have to pound it down all over again while taking heavy fire from both the bases guns and those of the battlefortress, Breetai thought resisting, just, the impulse to groan in a mixture of annoyance and frustration. This was one of the reasons why he really hated having to deal with an enemy who had energy shield technology, defeating it could get annoyingly repetitive. Yet at the same time his confusion only grew as to why the battlefortress was staying where it was.
"Commander we are picking up a change in the battlefortress power emissions," sensors reported, "it's fold drives are powering up."
"Powering up fold drives in atmosphere! Why would they do that," Exedore mused in confusion as it wasn't something that was usually done "that isn't logical. Unless…"
"… unless they plan to ascend into space and fold as soon as they're far enough out of the gravity well," Breetai finished for him suddenly seeing the same strategy that Exedore was seeing. It was definitely unorthodox in the extreme and incredibly shrewd at the same time. His forces had already expended a large amount of energy – energy that they could ill afford to waste – fighting this battle. The micronians here – whatever they called themselves – obviously knew that. Just like they clearly knew folding the battlefortress away as soon as possible would force them to expend even more of their precious reserves finding it again.
"A most cunning strategy commander."
"It is that. This race is proving itself to be a worthy opponent. Of course, now we know there plan we cannot let them carry it out," Breetai answered before speaking into the comm-scope again. "Destroyer squadrons nine through twelve, cruiser squadrons five and six open fire on the battlefortress. Target shields and engines only I want to force them down not destroy them. Strict fire discipline will be observed this time. Anyone firing "accidentally" on the island itself without orders will answer to me and I will not be merciful."
"Yes commander."
Bridge
SDF-1
That Same Time
"Sir engineering reports that the fold drive is fully charged and online," Claudia reported, "fold computations for Mars orbit are complete and verified."
"Understood," Gloval replied, "Lisa are all our veritechs within our fold perimeter?"
"Yes, sir they are including Skull Two."
"How did young Cadet Hunter do?" Gloval asked.
"Surprisingly well," Lisa replied sounding genuinely impressed. "We show six kills and four mission kills. Damage to the veritech only a few points off its shield."
"His debrief should be interesting then," Gloval said with a smile, already deciding that when this was over he would have a word with both General O'Neill and Admiral Hayes about giving that young man some kind of reward for stepping up in the way he had. He was about to change the topic back to the planned fold operation, to order its execution, when there was a rumble of thunder and the battlefortress suddenly shook again.
"The Zentraedi have resumed firing on us sir," Vanessa reported, "there are a lot more of them firing on us this time."
"They've realised what we are planning to do," Gloval said, "they want to collapse our shields and force us down before we can fold. But it's not going to work. Claudia initiate fold jump."
"Aye sir thirty seconds to fold," Claudia reported as the ship shook violently under heavy fire, "shields are weakening quickly sir down to seventy percent and falling. Twenty seconds to fold."
"Kim have engineering divert as much power as we can spare to the shields," Gloval ordered as the ship shuddered again and again under the ferociously heavy fire.
"Aye sir."
"Ten seconds to space fold. Nine… eight….seven….six….five…four….three….two….one. Executing space fold."
No sooner than Claudia finished speaking than a thrum of power ran through the ship. Everyone tensed slightly as there was a sudden feeling that they were all being put under some kind of stain in away that nobody could quite put their fingers on. Everyone's vision suddenly began to wash with strange colours and shapes that phased in and out of existence producing uncomfortable groans from all around the bridge. There was a sudden, violent jolt and the sudden blaring of a warning alarm…
…before all hell broke lose.
Outside the battlefortress a fold sphere rippled into existence with a gyroscopic flash of blue radiation. As it did so it revealed two critical mistakes and misunderstandings in how fold technology worked in comparison of the hyperdrives all the other ships in Earth's fleet used. Hyperdrives created portals – colloquially referred to as windows by every race in the universe with the technology – between normal space-time and a very specific subspace domain that was unaffected by gravitational conditions in the normal universe. As such it was perfectly possible to enter and exit hyperspace from inside a planetary atmosphere.
Fold drives however didn't work that way. Instead of opening a portal to a deep subspace domain they twisted and distorted the interphase layer between normal space and the infinite realms of subspace twisting it into a sphere around the folding ship then phasing it into the interphase layer and transit down a short-lived wormhole that was very different to the types of wormholes created and manipulated by the Stargates. As such it was vulnerable to interference created by strong gravitational fields such as those created by planets as a result the fold field was unstable rippling with distortion waves.
The second misunderstanding was the size of the fold field. With a hyperdrive the subspace bubble that created the conduit effect of hyperspace travel was small in footprint extending outwards only a few dozen to a hundred meters from the hull of the ship generating it. While it could be extended further it was generally not done as doing so exponentially increased the amount of power needed to generate and maintain the subspace field. A fold sphere on the other hand, unless specifically configured otherwise, expanded outwards for dozens of kilometres around the folding ship. Such is what happened with the bubble generated by the SDF-1 – it expanded outwards by dozens of kilometres enveloping not just Macross Island but a sizeable chunk of the surrounding Pacific Ocean right down to the abyssal plane three kilometres below.
The fold sphere was further destabilized by an incoming barrage of particle beam fire from the Zentraedi fleet. The energy of the beams merging with the sphere making it glow bright white-blue and look almost like a new sun had been born on Earth. Glimmering ripples of spatial and gravitational disturbance rippled all around the sphere until, with a breathtaking suddenness vanishing from existence taking the ship, the island and a chunk of the Pacific Ocean with it into the interphase layer known to Zentraedi and Tirolians as foldspace.
In so doing it sowed the seed of a natural disaster. Unknown to many of the citizens who had called the city home Macross Island – like many of the other islands and islets that dotted the surface of the South Pacific – had started its life deep within the molten bowels of the Earth rising due to the great collision of tectonic plates that was the Ring of Fire. A molten heart that it was still connected to. As the overlying island and a chunk of the surrounding ocean vanished into a subspace netherworld it uncapped a deep, still active magma chamber. Suddenly relieved of the overlying pressure of a trillion tons of solid rock the gasses trapped in the thick magma spontaneously separated shooting upwards brining the molten rock with them eager for freedom.
It met a deluge as the surrounding Pacific rushed in to fill the enormous void left in its surface by the space fold. Diametrically opposite elements met, the incoming water flashing violently to steam even as it tore the rapidly rising magma stream apart creating the devastating volcanic phenomenon known as a phreatomagmatic eruption. A massive mushroom cloud of ash, steam and pumice shot up to the very edge of the stratosphere even as the force of the blast pushed away the inrushing ocean sending giant tsunami's racing outward from the epicentre.
In less than a day they would circumnavigate the world leaving destruction, death and heartache in their wake.
Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust, I hope you all enjoyed it. The battle for Macross Island is over as is the first Battle of Earth – there will eventually be another though the circumstances of that are going to be quite different – as Breetai will hardly stick around Sol for long. Instead, he will begin what will for him be a frustrating pursuit of the SDF-1 as she appears somewhere else in the galaxy. Where she ends up? You'll find out soon enough, let's just say things are going to get really interesting soon especially when the Zentraedi begin to run across the Goa'uld who will not react well at all to these giant humanoid warriors traipsing all over their Empire looking for the SDF-1. Until next time.