Macross Fan Fiction ❯ Direct Stages ❯ Launching Stage ( Chapter 1 )

MACROSS ISLAND

lAUNCHING DAY, 2009

"You're bullshitting me," Rodman said.

"No, I'm not," Johnnie Ladd replied, a silly grin on his face. He brushed aside long strands of blond hair as he continued to relate his tale to his fellow pilots in his squad's locker room. "I'm telling you, this guy came from nowhere."

Rodman, a strong figure with young graceful facial features who bucked the current flyboy image by having a severe crewcut, retorted, "Well, JL, that just show's your inexperience. If me and my mate Hawk were up there, we would've spotted that punk long before you did." Rodman unleashed a loud boisterous laugh. "Ain't that right Hawk?"

Sitting beside Rodman on the bench, a slim man was busy tying up his bootlaces. He was thin, but everyone in the Lightning Squadron knew that Hawk had powerful taut muscles, which combined with his quick agility, made him a fine hand-to-hand combatant and a great pilot. Razor-keen eyes looked downward as Hawk said with a suprisingly deep voice, "Got that right."

"See there," Rodman told Johnnie, acting all amug and overconfident, "you just didn't know what you were doing." Rodman pushed his sunglasses up and smiled that brilliant smile that had broken many a young heart here on the island.

Johnnid rolled his blue eyes. "Listen to me will you, you airhead? Here's how it happened." Using his hands to illustrate, he said, "There we were, flying in a perfect diamond formation, ready to do our 'bomb-burst' maneuver. Ol' Fokker was laying it on thick for the crowds. Then all of a sudden, my proximity alarms went off."

"Yeah yeah, you started shitting in your flightsuit, then what," Rodman said amidst his laughter.

"As I was checking the screens, Geek calls me and tells me there's an unidentified bogey approaching fast from our six."

Geek chipped in. He was srawny and small, had thick aviator's glasses on, but everyone in the squad appreciated his fiesty nature. That, and he often settled the various disputes between the others because of his encyclopediac knowledge. "The bogey was coming up fast, obviously in a power climb similiar to ours. His course indicated that he would come up right in the middle of our formation."

Johnnie continued, "So, I ordered the maneuver done and this red-and-white plane comes barreling through the center of our burst."

"And the crowd goes wild, right?" Rodman asked in a mocking tone.

Johnnie glared at Rodman while Geek said with a thoughtful manner, "You know, that plane did have a very sleek design. I wonder if it's one of the new designs from Tokyo. Very aerodynamic. Probably a stunt plane."

"Shut up Geek," Rodman yelled. "The only thing I want to know is that whoever that punk was, he sure did show you up."

Johnnie took the bait. "Oh yeah Rodman, well he probably would have showed you up as well. That guy can fly, but I doubt for much longer." Johnnie smiled. "I heard Ol' Fokker got a hold to him when he landed."

"Actually, I heard that the guy is an old friend of Fokker's," a strong voice said.

Johnnie said, "Et tu TBJ?"

Thomas BoJay stood up from the bench, zipping up his green flightsuit. He was of average height, good build, and had deep brown eyes. He had a ragtag mop of brown hair worn in a fashion reminscient of an old rock'n'roll band, the Beetles or something like that. He said, "Relax JL. The guy is probably a show-off, full of himself and his talent. Don't worry though. The demonstrations later on today will show him, and everyone else, exactly what our VTs can do."

"Yeah," Johnnie replied, "I'd like to see that guy go Battloid in his tiny little plane."

Rodman snickered. He stood up and patted Johnnie on his shoulder. "Stop wishing for for more embarassment JL."

Johnnie slapped his arm off his shoulder and two looked to start fighting when Thomas yelled out, "C'mon stop it."

Johnnie and Rodman glared at each other for a few more moments, then Rodman turned to finish suiting up. Though Johnnie and Geek were part of the earlier demonstration, Rodman, Hawk, and Thomas were slated for the next one. They were all finishing their final preparations when the entire barracks started trembling violently. The entire buidling felt as if it was lurching, the pilots of Lightning Squadron doing their best to stay on their feet. An ungodly thunderous noise echoed around them. But, just as quickly as it started, it stopped. The building settled back down.

Rodman yelled, "Damn it, Geek, what have you been doing?"

Geek shook his head quickly, a nervous glare in his eyes. Johnnie said, "What the hell was that?!"

Thomas and Hawk both looked at the ceiling, where flecks of plaster were still drifting down. "Let's go find out," Thomas said.

Outside, they all noticed the searing heat and that the air seemed heavier, thicker, and harder to breath. But the day was still beautiful, sunshine and blue skies while off in the distance, sea-gulls could heard. They were all glancing around when Geek looked up behind their barracks. "Look!" he shouted.

The others turned. They saw the dominating features of the grand SDF-1, but they noticed that the front edges of the ship seemed to moving back together amidst a loud grating noise. "What is going on here?" Rodman questioned.

His answer came in the form of a shrill alert. A nearby loudspeaker announced, "Red alert! Red alert! All posts assume battle stations! All pilots to their ships! I repeat, red alert! Red alert!"

Years of training took over as the members of Lightning Squad headed back inside to get all their gear. As Thomas grabbed his green and white flight helmet, he told Johnnie as he rushed by him, "Hey JL! Look's like someone else decided to crash our party!"

The airfield was controlled chaos as the ground crews rushed to prepare all the fighters for takeoff while overhead, the shrill battle alert continued to flare. Thomas ran to his brown VF-1A and quickly got into the cockpit. He readied all systems for take-off while taking time to notice his fellow squadmates also preparing to launch. Over the tac net, Thomas heard Cmdr. Hayes. "We are under attack by alien invaders in sector four-one-two. This is not a drill, I say again: This is not a drill."

The face of Captain Eddington, the Lightning Squadron leader, popped up on Thomas' right viewscreen. His black-and-grey fight helmet bobbed as he said nonchalantly, as if he had more important, better things to do than this, "Alright boys. You heard her. Let's go."

Thomas throttled his engines, awaiting his turn to take-off. Over the tac net, he heard Johnnie, his wingman, ask, "Hey, TBJ, you ready to unleash some green hell?"

Taking a deep breath, Thomas thumped his green flight helmet. He said calmly, "Let's do it."

It was like nothing Thomas or any of the others had ever seen before. Strange alien fighters with tri-thrusters, devilishly quick and packing awesome weaponry zoomed all around them. The blue skies turned violent orange with the multiple detonations of missiles and warheads. The battle was joined.

Thomas, though young and still new to the dictates of robotechnology, twisted, turned, juked, and flew his VF-1A in a crazy dance, always staying a step ahead of these alien pilots. Thomas wheezed, gasped, and grunted as tracer rounds illuminated his cockpit window while streams from recently-launched missiles streaked all around him. He kept up with Johnnie, his wingman, as they continued to participate in this dance of death.

After what seemed like hours, the call came through: the alien invaders were retreating, for the moment. Return to base.

Thomas breathed deeply as he turned his fighter back towards Macross Island. Johnnie called out, "What were those things?"

Rodman replied, "I don't know. They're like angry bees, bees that needed to be swatted."

"Actually, I think those fighter designs of theirs are limited here in the Earth's atmosphrere. With those rounded nose cones and tri-thrusters, the fighters are probably better suited for-" Geek said.

"Shove it Geek," Rodman insisted. "I'm in no mood."

Thomas saw the tail edge of Hawk's VT. Wispy trails of smoke emanated from the fusealage. Thomas said, "Hawk, you okay?"

Hawk replied, "Yeah. Took some shrapnel hits to the fusealage, but she seems to handling alright."

Suddenly, all their boards lit up. Outside, they saw massive bombardments rain down from the heavens, striking down at the lurching SDF-1 and Macross Island. Stunned, they heard the call issue forth from Cmdr. Hayes, "This is the SDF-1. Attention all strike elements: We are under attack and need immediate assistance. Incoming Veritechs, switch to Battloid mode."

Captain Eddington appeared on screen again. "Boys, we got enemies encroching upon Macross City and the battlefortress. Stand by to engage."

The squad flew down towards the devastated Macross City. Much of the city lay in ruins, destroyed by the orbital bombardment and the alien war machines now running loose in the streets. Skimming hard and fast over the cityscape, Thomas pulled down the lever marked G. He still was fascinated by the process as his fighter assumed Guardian configuration. He saw the massive arm that held his gatling gun as he landed in the city. He saw his first target: an enemy pod that stood oddly upon two legs. The pod swiveled as laser cannons atop it's head ranged in on Thomas. Giving it no time, Thomas fired, his tracer fire quickly annihilating the enemy pod. Grabbing the lever marked B, Thomas switched over to Battloid mode. Johnnie arrived by his side and quickly assumed Battloid mode as well.

Having received orders from Eddington, Thomas and Johnnie proceeded with the long tasks of ridding the streets of Macross of these alien invaders. They worked as a pair, each in tune with the other, their thoughts melding into a cohesive whole whose only intention was to rid Macross of these invaders from the heavens.

On one street, Thomas had his Battloid reclined against the side of a buidling, gun ready while Johnnie was in a similar position across from him. Johnnie checked his readouts. "TBJ, I got two pods at ten o'clock."

"JL, go high and I'll go low," Thomas responded. "Ready?" The two Battloids squared themselves up. "Go!" Thomas yelled as he swung his Battloid down low around the building, firing rapidly as Johnnie swung around high. Their two fields of fire combined agaisnt the two pods streaking down the street. Both exploded in a hail of debris, but behind them, two more pods popped up, huge missile racks apparent on both them. A huge volley of missiles launched towards the pair of VTs.

Johnnie dug his thruster feet down, and fired rapidly at the incoming volley, causing some of the missiles to explode due to fraticide. Thomas thrustered backwards and quickly assumed Guardian mode. Using his gun to help to take care of the missiles, Thomas locked onto the two pods with his remaining missiles. He sent them streaking towards the enemy pods and was rewarded by seeing them turn into fireballs. Thomas streaked forward, assuming Battloid mode and ran down the rest of the street. He said," Get the lead out JL!"

"Right behind you TBJ," Johnnie called back as the pair of VTs continued their trek through the war-torn streets of Macross. It was a bloody job, but the tactics employed by the VT squads were working. Slowly, the enemy pods were being driven back but not without some losses. Comrades that Thomas went through the Academy with, he saw demolished and devastated. Hawk had the nose cone section of Rodman's VT hung underneath his left arm of his Battloid. Rodman had suffered from a blazing onslaught of four enemy pods that downed two other members of Lighning Squad. He was still complaining as Hawk worked his Battloid forward.

Then came down the order to retreat. Again, the alien forces were turning back though some stranglers still hung around in the city. Johnnie pointed out skyward, "Hey TBJ, look up there!"

Thomas swung the head of Battloid skyward. Above them, raising on massive plumes of thruster fire, was the gleaming form of the SDF-1. For a moment, the titan ship blocked out the sun as she headed towards space. Thomas smiled. Alright you alien bozos, he thought, you don't stand a chance now. Not with the SDF-1 up and running, you don't.

Eddington ordered the squad to return to the SDF-1. Hawk and Geek were present and Rodman was still fuming over the tac net. Thomas and the others blasted off, heading towards the SDF-1 and the unknown.