Macross Fan Fiction ❯ Legend of Megaroad -- Book One ❯ Chapter 7: Future Priorities ( Chapter 7 )

Chapter 7: Future Priorities

--March 23, 2016--

--06:40--

"There's three on the left! Engaging!" Hikaru changed course once again, veering in on three Glaug battle pods that were trying to outflank him. The leading pod took aim with it's beam cannons, but Hikaru quickly transformed and sprayed two of the machines with his gunpod. The third one got off a lucky shot that clipped off a piece of his right wing before Hikaru put it away with his own beam guns. He switched back into fighter mode and flew through the debris of the pod before checking the situation boards of the enemy status. There didn't seem to be much contact with enemy warships other than the destroyer that was charging the fleet and a small escort of picket ships. If anything, it was a relatively easy battle, but the excited chatter over the radio would seem to suggest otherwise.

Hikaru flew around the asteroid field where the battle was being waged and listened to the com traffic, picking out individual voices from the chatter to try and make sense of the situation. "Get the one to the rear! They're bringing in reinforcements!" That was Lieutenant Harper's voice from somewhere off to his right. Hikaru changed course and moved to assist him, blasting a pair of Regults on his way over with his beam guns. He saw Harper's Lighting leading a section of fighters from the Iron Chiefs squadron against two squadrons of Regults that had apparently been hiding in the rocks for a chance to set an ambush, only to be ambushed themselves by the nimble Lighting fighters.

"You a little busy there Harper?" Hikaru said as he approached.

"Aw, stow it boss!" Harper said, firing four missiles from under his wing. Two Regults fell victim to his attack, and three more felt the fury of his gunpod as he transformed for close combat. "Now THAT takes skill!" Harper said, bragging.

"Not bad Lieutenant, but watch the master!" Hikaru was out of missiles already, so he switched to battlloid mode and charged head on into the midst of the Regults. He drifted right past their formation and quickly sprayed four of them before they could turn around to reingage him. When they finally did turn to face him, Hikaru had already changed back into fighter mode and was well out of their firing range.

"What's so impressive about that?" Harper said.

"Never mind! Open fire dammit!"

Harper was confused at first, but then he realized Hikaru's maneuver had drawn the attention of the Regults and more than half of them were flying with their back to him. Harper's three wingmen all seemed to notice this at the same time, and all four of them opened fire at once. It was all over in a matter of seconds, and all 10 of the remaining Regults were now either destroyed or drifting with a dead pilot. "Way to go commander, but how much skill does that take?"

Hikaru moved up next to Harper and they moved on through the battlefield to rejoin the main skirmish line. "None whatsoever! But fighting wars has less to do with skills than it does with tactics. Fancy flying and fighting skill are nice, but sometimes all you really need is one well timed maneuver."

Harper nodded. "Good point. I never thought of that."

"Don't worry about it. These guys don't seem to have skill OR tactics, so we can just have fun!" Hikaru noticed something on his radar and broke formation suddenly to avoid a burst of fire from a pod far bellow him. "…Of course, you still have to keep your guard up!" He grunted under the G-force.

--07:15--

"Skipper, enemy is coming into range." Ensign Ryder was tracking the ship at last on her tactical scopes in the front of the bridge.

Broli stood up from his chair and shook the cobwebs from his head. He had almost fallen asleep waiting for that destroyer. "Outstanding. Standby to fire reflex warheads on my command."

"Missiles armed sir! Firing range in two minutes!"

Broli walked over to the large radar screen on the starboard side and checked the enemy formation. They were in horrible position, and he started to wonder if the main cannon would have a greater effect. But there were 5 picket ships around the destroyer, and the way they were moving around it, the reflex warheads would have to be aimed very precisely if he wanted to take them all in one attack. "Have all forward batteries open fire. Move the destroid squadrons forward and tell them to cover the ship until we're in range."

"Yes sir." Gallows said, passing on the orders.

Broli felt the deck shake a little, and looked off to the right as a destroid monster, stricken by a flury of beam fire from a half squadron of Regults, collapsed in a sputter of sparks before exploding completely. "Dammit! Get some Tomahawks up here right now!"

"They're already on the way sir!" Gallow said. "Sir, we're passing right through the skirmish line! Our defenses are gonna have their work cut out for them!"

"That's unavoidable. Range to target?"

"Almost there sir." Ryder said.

The Phoenix was passing through a ruthless melee of armed space craft and a galaxy of explosions that was the skirmish line. As near as anyone could tell, the Regults were loosing the battle by a huge margin, but it was still a very intense battle. The large beam cannons on the hull of the Phoenix added to the confusion, spitting pulses of energy at the Zentradi destroyer at regular intervals. At long last, the ship was through the skirmish line with a clear line of fire to the enemy ship. "We're in range! All missiles confirm lock!"

"Activate reflex warheads! And FIRE!" Several large hatches opened on the front of the ship, and the Phoenix fired 6 missiles at the destroyer. The missiles covered that distance very quickly before veering off towards their spread pattern and exploding around the destroyer. The fireballs from the detonations filled the space around and between them to form one massive mini-sun which consumed all of the enemy ships. After a few seconds, the destroyer quickly disintegrated along with it's small fleet of picket ships in the midst of the great explosion, which itself faded to nothingness only a moment later.

"Enemy ship destroyed." Ryder reported.

"Outstanding. Have all secondary batteries and destroid squadrons commence support fire for our fighters. Begin recovery operations as soon as mop up's complete."

"Aye sir!" Gallow said. "Should I contact the fleet?"

"Please do. I'm sure Captain Ichijo's been worried about us."

--07:35--

General Karga was standing at the lectern in the briefing room of the Megaroad. All of the highest ranking officers in the fleet were either in the room, or following along on a hyperspace channel with audio and visual feed. It was only a few minutes into the briefing, and General Karga was filling them in on the tactical capabilities of the forces that had been harassing them for the last few years. "We've been seeing many ships belonging to the original creators of our people. Their most common class is a destroyer roughly 800 meters in length. They aren't especially powerful on their own, but they do have a very large energy cannon mounted on the front of the ship that can be fired about once every 5 minutes. Though the weapon is not nearly as powerful as your Macross cannon, a well placed shot can cause severe damage to even our largest ships."

"What kind of fighters are they using?" Misa asked.

"Their main fighter support usually consists of Quodrono powered armors and Glaug battlepods. It is believed they attained this equipment when they captured our armory planet some time ago. We were able to destroy the planet before they could produce large enough numbers of weapons, but it is still unknown how many of them they have. The fact that their attack groups are almost entirely comprised of Glaugs would suggest they have alot of them."

"Obviously, your Regult pods are no match for a Glaug. I don't suppose you'd want to stock your fleet with Valkyries, would you?" Misa said, joking.

"That may not be such a bad idea. We have no Meltrandi in our fleet, so of course we lack Quodrono armors. As far as firepower and maneuverability, your Valkyrie fighters are a much closer match for them than anything in our arsenal. If you could spare a few hundred for use by our fleet..."

"We only HAVE a few hundred. We won't be able to build any more until we get on of your factory satellites up and running again."

"We can wait, Captain. I'm sure a few of my people wouldn't mind being micronized if it meant piloting a superior craft. Any time you can begin to supply our fleet with fighters would be appropriate, we can wait as long as it takes."

"Do we know how many ships they have?" Captain Gouraz asked over the radio, quickly changing the subject.

"We don't have an exact number, but we guess anywhere between two and three hundred. Most of them are destroyers, but they do have at least ten battleships. We have yet to encounter any operational Macross class ships among them."

"That's a comfort." Misa said. "Have you made any scans of the planet's surface in recent years?"

"No, we've never needed to. The only time when one of our ships goes down there is to gather food or for training purposes. But if you're wondering about salvageable ships, I can tell you first hand that there are many vessels on the surface of the planet. Our soldiers usually use them for target practice by bombing them from orbit or drop simulations, but at this time there should still be a few dozen or more cruisers and destroyers."

There was an electric whistle as one of the monitors in the room displayed an image of Corina on the bridge. "Sorry, to interrupt you all, but Commander Broli has just reported in that the enemy fleet in the Epsilon sector has been destroyed. The Phoenix is commencing recovery operations and will be rejoining us within the next three hours."

"Thank you Corina, keep watch until we're done here."

"Yes ma'am."

The monitor clicked off, and Misa addressed General Karga again. "Speaking of which, I might as well ask you about those Zentradi warships we've been running into on the way to Gallaron. We've never had to fight this many in the four years we've been traveling the universe, why are they attacking us now?"

"Since the fall of the Bodolza fleet, the Zentradi forces have splintered into a thousand tiny factions and sub-factions. In addition the Supervision Army and a race of beings called the Talgor Empire, our fleets have also had conflicts with two large fleets and a dozen smaller bands of transient Zentradi vessels for some time now."

"What are THEIR capabilities?"

"Very little. The larger of the two main groups has 112 ships, and the smaller has no more than 80. Each fleet has but one battleship as a command vessel, but like most Zentradi fleets their most common vessels are ordinary destroyers. We do know that the smaller fleet has an unusually large number of gunboats, which makes them a considerable threat to us."

"How often do they attack Gallaron?"

"Rarely if ever. But they are a constant nuisance to our patrols and advanced fleets around our systems. Their main objective is really just to capture one of our vessels and cannibalize it for their use in their private little wars against nearby planets, civilizations, and each other. We've offered to pool our resources with them for our mutual advantage, but they are just too ambitious."

"I understand." Misa said. "General, this has all been most helpful and we'll get to analyzing the data right away. But there is one thing I think you'd like to know. Our forces have developed a defense system that can deflect enemy attacks over a given area of a vessel. It's not exactly fool proof, but it can provide protection for key areas of a ship or for a damaged section that needs to be protected. We've used it in combat with much success, and we'd be willing to install something similar in your ships while we complete the repairs."

"That's a generous offer, Captain. It might very much help to balance the scale against the superior technology of the Supervision Army's fleet." Karga smiled, and then stood up to leave. "It has been a very enjoyable visit Captain, but I must be getting back to my ship as soon as possible. We have much work to do with the help of your engineers."

"Go right ahead, and come back any time you wish."

"Not for a while, I'm afraid. The micronization process is a very long one."

--10:13--

"Delta control, this is Gunsight Two, returning from battle zone."

"Affirmative Gunsight. Nice work out there."

"Thanks Corina, it was our pleasure. How 'bout dinner tonight?" Broli said on the visual monitor.

On the Megaroad, the entire bridge crew turned around and looked at her, watching passively from their stations. "Uh... sure!" Corina said, slightly embarassed. "Where are we going?"

"King Lao's, just for a change of pace." He said. "Pick you up at seven?"

The two ops officers in the rear of the room giggled, and Misa tried her best to look inconspicuous even though she was silently cracking up. Corina blushed heavily. "Seven sounds good. I'll be looking forward to it."

"Great. And by the way, could you wear that little black dress you had on at the club the other night?"

"Okay. See you tonight." She said, just above a whisper.

"See you then. Over and out." The screen clicked off, and Corina turned around to shoot an evil eye at the half dozen giggling people on the bridge. "What's so funny?!" She said.

"Nothing." Said Sara, suppressing a chuckle. "It's just that you've been dating him for almost 4 months now, isn't it about time you moved on to the next step?"

"None of your damn business, Sara!" She snapped. "Since when did my personal life become everybody's private entertainment?!"

"Oh, don't be mad Corina. We're just bored, lonely women with nothing better to do that gawk at those of us more fortunate."

"But, Captain, you're MARRIED! How come you find this so entertaining?"

Misa giggled again. "Because you and Broli make such a cute couple! Hey, don't get upset about it Corina. We're all just looking out for you, so go out and have a blast."

"Thanks, Captain." She said. "But if I catch any of you guys following us around like the last time, I swear I'll crack your heads open!"

Misa stopped laughing. "I swear on my daughter's soul, we will do no such thing!"

There was a chirp on Corina's consol indicating an incoming message. "Signal from the Quedrali, sir. Dr. Varcus on the line."

"Put him through." Misa said.

The holoscreen in front of the bridge lit up with a display of Varcus on the bridge of the ship, Captain Gouraz sitting behind him looking at a printout. "Captain Ichijo, I have a concern about moving into the Gallaron system. We've been picking up a local phenomenon around this sector of space that is directly related to our proximity to the galactic core. It would seem that a large gravitational anomaly that occupies this region of space makes fold navigation difficult if and somewhat hazardous. Correcting for this effect shouldn't be to hard over a short distance, but long range fold operations will be next to impossible to navigate as well as extremely dangerous for the ship. You experienced a similar phenomenon when the SDF-1 attempted a hyperspace fold within the Earth's gravity well, and ended up on the opposite side of the Solar System."

"I get it. You're saying that if we tried to take this ship strait to Gallaron from here..."

"...we'd probably end up on the opposite side of the Galaxy."

"That's no problem, even though we will have to make more stops. What's our ETA look like if we cut our routes in half?"

"At this point, it should be possible to reach Gallaron in three to five days."

Misa shrugged. "So we'll arrive two days later than we planned. That's no big deal..."

"One other thing, sir. This gravitational anomaly effectively blocks all hyperspace frequencies over long range. It is possible to communicate between systems without interference, but after a range of about 20 light years, the signal begins to degrade and quickly becomes unreadable."

"Which means that once we get to Gallaron, we'll be out of direct contact with Earth?"

"No Captain. I'm saying we are ALREADY out of direct contact with Earth. Any transmission sent back to Sol will not be received by their com relays with enough power to be noticed, assuming the signal reaches them at all."

"Then what can we do? If we're going to build a colony on Gallaron, we'll need to be in touch with Earth."

"As true as that may be, we both know you've been keeping the SDF-102 out of the reports, and you haven't told them about your mission to Gallaron either. Why is that exactly?"

"Well... let's just say I'm selfish."

Varcus nodded. "It would seem our races have more in common than we ever dreamed. There's an old Zentradi saying: Victory is indeed a beast best eaten whole; share the bounty with no one."

Misa winced a little, but she got the point, as did the rest of the crew. "You read me well enough, Varcus. Tell Captain Gouraz to prepare for hyperspace fold."

"Yes sir." Varcus said as the monitor clicked off.

"So now what Captain? If we can't contact earth about the colony, are we even allowed to go there?" Asked Sara.

"Why contact them at all? The earliest any fleet can get here is 9 days of fold time, which amounts to almost a month of travel time with stops and maintenance. We might as well plant our feet on Gallaron and then send a ship out beyond this gravity phenomenon to relay the message back to them. They won't really care if we're late with the reports."

Corina leaned against the seat-rest behind her consol and folded her arms behind her head. "You know, sometimes I wonder why you're so relaxed about everything these days. You're the only commander I've ever served under who's ever cared so little about the opinions of her superiors."

Misa sat in the Captains chair relaxed a little bit. "This isn't exactly ARMD-04 you know. We're so far away from Earth that I need to have exclusive control over all of this ship's activities. I don't ask Chief Gloval or Admiral Britai or anyone else for that matter for advice on how to run my ship because any time I ask them if something is worth the risk, it takes three weeks to get a reply out here and the answer is always no."

"You could still tell them about your decisions. I mean by the time a response comes in, you'll have done it already, so what's the big deal?"

"But that's the thing about Gallaron. We're not really sure how long it'll take to set up a colony, and then they'll probably order us to find a safer settlement before we've got the our colony established. And no matter how far we are from Earth, I can't disobey a direct order."

Corina sighed. "I guess they ARE pretty protective of us, sir. Remember that time you wanted to find that lost SDF you spotted from Britai's ship? I haven't been patronized like that since my mother warned me about boys when I was ten!"

"And I don't blame them. We were their first colony mission into deep space, so of course they'd want to make sure we got off to a good solid start. And I don't blame your mother either. You have funny taste in men."

Corina growled. "Well, I happen to think Broli is the sweetest guy on the entire ship! You're just jealous."

"You could be right, or it could be the fact that Broli looks so much like Admiral Britai without the chrome-dome. Or it could even be the fact that I miss the feeling of DATING Hikaru instead of being happily married to him."

"Speak of the devil!" Corina said as a single Lighting fighter appeared in front of the bridge in battleoid mode.

"Can Misa come out and play?" Hikaru said over the radio.

"Sorry Colonel, Misa's grounded for a week. Care to leave a message?"

"Tell the Captain that the arrangements she asked about have been taken care of, and it should all go down like we planned it."

"YES!" Shouted Sara.

Corina looked around the bridge and noticed that everyone else seemed overly excited all of a sudden. "What arrangements? What's going on?"

"Never mind, Corina. Tell Hikaru to meet me in D-block in 15 minutes after he's docked. You have the con."

"You're leaving the bridge at a time like THIS?!"

"Just trust me Corina, for your own good."

Corina growled in frustration. "Yes Captain."