Even though these things give you about as much legal coverage as a G-string on a stripper, I am going to include it anyways. Most of the characters in this story are the property of Harmony Gold, and a whole lot of other companies who's names escape me at the moment, and are used without their permission. However, since this is a not for profit undertaking, I dont think its neccecary to worry about it. At any rate, I'm so broke suing would be a waste of time. The few original charecters in here are mine, so please ask before using them in a fic of your own. Comments and Criticisms welcome: E-Mail Starrngr@aol.com. Flames will be promptly filed in file 13 and ignored. Previous parts of this story can be found at: Ranger HQ: HTTP://home.talkcity.com/TheSanitarium/Da_Muck/Libr/wndr/ AND at Sofaspud's Couch HTTP://www.sofaspud.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tales of the Wanderer: Book 2: Wandering Ace Chapter 8: Fight of the Intruders Muck looked up as 'Sinker' Thompson ducked through the hatch into CIC. (1) Looking down at his watch, Muck gave a mock glower and noted, "Your five minutes late, Stinker. What was it this time; a blonde, a car or both?" "Both, of course. Why bother with a blonde who doesn't have a hot car, Muckster?" Sinker replied with a gloat. "You are TOTALLY incorrigible, Sinker. Now I know why the CAG saddled me with you." Muck sighed, and tossed a large book to his wingman. "Here's your SATOP (2), sucker. You have the watch. I'll be down at my plane if you get in over your head." "Aye aye, Cap'n. I have the CIC watch," Sinker acknowledged, his broad grin unwavering. Muck just ignored it and headed out the hatch. Sinker had earned his incorrigibility the hard way; he admitted to himself on the ride down to the Macross City level, with 65 missions and 30 kills to date. Still, it would be nice if he was on time for something other than flight duty once in a while... The hanger deck was in its usual state of controlled chaos when Muck arrived. Finding a parking space near the connector passage, he avoided most of the chaos by heading straight for the maintenance office. As expected, he found his plane captain, AM1 Grafton there, filling out yet another form in the endless chain of paperwork and other documentation that the plane captains swore were the real fuel of the RDF. "Yo, Jake. How's it look for flight testing tommorow?" "Everything's looking dialed-in, Cap'n. Mating tests are finished, so unless something falls off tonight, you're good to fly." As part of Muck's ongoing strike project, it was discovered that the simulators didn't have accurate data on the flight characteristics of a VT carrying several anti-ship missiles. The armory wasn't certain that they could even be mounted on a VT to boot, hence the present tests, using Muck's personal bird as a test bed. Mating tests were complete, proving that the specified weapon payload COULD be mounted successfully on a VT, and, as his plane captain noted, unless something broke overnight, he would spend tomorrow in test maneuvers gathering the data needed for the simulators. All in all, until Lang was willing to release one of the new Super VT's for testing, he was as much on track with the project as he could be. "Roger that, Jake. Anything else I'm needed for?" "That's a negative, Cap'n. Why don't you go into town or something and let us worker bees get on with our jobs? I know how to get a hold of you if there's a problem." "You've got it. See you in the morning." * * * * * * * * * The three rules of a successful business are Location, location, and location. Oh, and having a superior product doesn't hurt either. Java Joe's had both, being just across the street from the Star Bowl and within walking distance of most of the shopping area's stores. It also served the best Mocha Latte Muck had found aboard. Granted, he probably could have made a better cup himself, but he was feeling a touch lazy today, and it had given him an excuse to come into town. Muted singing and music from Minmei's latest concert drifted softly from across the street. As he waited for his second cup, even Muck was caught up in its spell. 'She definitely does have a better singing voice than her voice actor did back home'; he admitted to himself as he picked up his cup and savored the aroma before taking a sip. It was a sip that wound up all down the front of his uniform as alarms began to sound all across Macross city, followed by the voice of Commander Hayes both warning of an attack and ordering all off duty personnel to battle stations. The hot coffee on the front of his uniform was forgotten as years of training kicked in, and Muck was sliding behind Fred's wheel even before the commander had finished her announcement. As he pulled out and whipped the large beast through a U turn, he saw that quite a few pilots had decided to come into town for the concert as well, including his boss. "Need a Lift, skipper?" Muck asked semi-rhetorically as he stopped in front of Lt. Cmdr. Hunter. Rick's game face was already on, and he just nodded and climbed into the front seat as three other pilots piled into the back. Muck floored it and headed for the Prometheus. For once, there were no snide comments about close shaves as Muck threaded his way through traffic. Not that Muck would have necessarily noticed either... In fact, it wasn't until later that he realized that he was SEEING the vectors and velocity of the surrounding vehicles as he barreled towards Prometheus. Muck slammed into a parking space in the hanger deck with a move known as a Bootleggers reverse, and no sooner than they had come to a stop than everyone had jumped out and was running to their planes. Muck was into his flight suit and climbing into his plane before his plane captain caught up with him. "Wait, Cap'n! You've still got that anti-ship load hanging. We didn't have time to download it." "No time now, Jake. I'll just have to fly with what I have. Get those pins pulled." Jake nodded as Muck hit the start button on the APU (3) before pulling on his helmet and gloves. Jake appeared from under the wings, holding the safety pins up for Muck to count just as Muck had finished confirming the seals on his suit. Nodding at that, Muck lowered the canopy and switched to the hanger frequency. "Skull 22 ready to taxi." "Skull 33 ready." "Skull 34 is hot." "Skull 32 ready to rock." "Skulls, report by wing." "Skull 2 with 3, ready to fly." "Skull 3 with 3, Locked and cocked." "PHC, this is Skull Lead with 12, ready for transfer to flight deck." "Skulls, PHC. Stand by for tow to elevator 2." Muck threw a salute to Grafton, who ducked back under the wings and emerged with the wheel chocks just as a yellow tow cart pulled up and attached to the Veritech's nose wheel. To Muck, it seemed a semi-eternity as they were ferried up to the flight deck in groups of four. Once on the flight deck, they were finally able to start engines and unfold their wings. Muck concentrated on the launch procedures. Into the launch queue... Blast deflector coming down. Taxi forward into the box. Wait while they attach the bridle and hold back bar. Blast deflector up, check controls. Throttles to burner, Salute and BLAAM! A giant hand pressed him into the ejection seat for three long seconds, and he was up and away from the ship, raising the landing gear and turning towards the squadron rendezvous. Lisa was on the command net as Muck tuned in. "Cruisers and Battle-wagons. No mecha as yet. You should have their signatures on your threat evaluation display now." "That's affirmative, Lisa. Skulls have formed up, vectoring for box Alpha 1." "This looks big, Rick... Be careful, Ok?" "You don't have to tell me twice. Skull lead out." Twelve arrowheads of death turned and streaked towards their appointment with the enemy. Muck waited for a second before coming up on the channel. "Lead, Three. I've got a small problem here... I'm still carrying the anti-ship test load. I don't think its going to be useful once they launch mecha." "Three, Lead. Do you have ANY air to air weapons?" "Nose and head lasers only, Lead. Request permission to try a strike run on an escort." Suddenly Lisa's face appeared on a comm screen as she jumped into the conversation. "Skull Thirty-one, do you mean to say you launched WITHOUT your GU-11 pod?" "Affirmative, Commander. I've got an ECM pod hanging there instead." * * * * * * * * "Good Lord, now I have to deal with TWO of them!" Lisa sighed into the still open communication channel. "Thirty-one, what on earth possessed you to launch in that condition?" "Something called a general scramble, Commander," came the calm, semi-metallic voice over the comm channel. "No time to re-load." Sammie interrupted Lisa before she could reply. "Commander, I have a note here that Skull Thirty-one was performing static load tests leading up to a flight test tomorrow. I don't think he planned this deliberately, Ma'am." Lisa strangled a scream and briefly entertained thoughts of strangling assorted wise-guy pilots and bridge technicians before turning to Captain Gloval. "Let him try, Lisa," Gloval replied, having already made his decision during the preceding conversation. "Have him target the cruiser to the right of the lead battle-wagon. That one is ours." * * * * * * * * * "Skull squadron, you're cleared to attack the cruiser at zero-one-zero relative. Do not, repeat NOT engage the lead battle-wagon," Lisa ordered from the left comm screen. Ahead, launch bays on the approaching enemy vessels opened and began to disgorge their swarms of deadly mecha. "This is your play, Muck. Tell me what you want to do," Rick ordered from the right comm screen. "You and Max blow me a hole through that screen. I'll keep three flight with me to keep any leakers off my six while I make my run." "Ok, Skulls, you heard the man. Three flight, stay with three lead. One, Two, Let's plow the road!" Rick ordered, and two-thirds of the ships charged ahead. The four remaining ships also rocketed ahead, but at military power instead of burner. Muck's voice became slightly more mechanical. "Three flight, go tactical. We're going straight through the center. Once through, I want you to hang tight, Sinker. Go-go, CP, take high cover. Keep anyone off of me till I finish the attack run." Three almost bored rogers came back as three flight hid whatever personal thoughts or fears they might have. Ahead of them, space began to erupt in the lighting flashes and spherical explosions of a dogfight in progress. "Three flight, Burners NOW!" Eight blue comets split the darkness as Third flight tore into the middle of the dogfight. The flashes and explosions grew closer, then were past in the blink of an eye. Space grew quite for a second as the cruiser appeared and began to swell in their cockpits. "Watch for triple-A", Muck warned, as the fighters continued to close. A second later, beams of light began to blast towards the attackers from the cruiser, streaking past their cockpits and buffeting them. "Keep jinking, and get down low over the hull, flight," Muck ordered as the 4 fighters kept boring in. The fire from their target, while heavy, was easily dodged by the nimble fighters; then stopped as they screamed in low over its massive hull. "Twelve tri-thrusters coming in from two-zero-zero low," Go-Go reported. "We're on them." The aft two fighters rolled left and reversed course. "Hang on, Sinker. This is where it gets interesting. Starting Music (4)," Muck noted just before the pair flashed over the stern of the cruiser. In response, the aft guns again spat coherent light and electrons at the seemingly retreating fighters. A quartet of rather large missiles shot past them, making Sinker rather nervous when Muck flipped his fighter through a max-g Immelman; as he came over the top, two missiles flashed out from his outer hard-points. Sinker was barely able to stay with him as the pair flashed back at the engines of the massive vessel. The first two missiles hit their targets, wiping out two of the aft facing fire control radars as Muck ripple fired his four remaining missiles, heavy Decca ship-killers with reflex warheads. The weapons waited for a long second or two before igniting their own engines and closing in on the emissions of the engines dead ahead as the two fighters raced for safety. Anti-missile fire reached out for them, catching two of the large missiles, but the other two jinked and continued to home in on the radiation coming from the massive drives. Diving deep into the heart of them, the Deccas detonated, the chain reaction blasting deep into the stern of the ship, releasing a great flare of light. * * * * * * * * * "Report from the Anastazi, M'Lord," Exedore reported on the bridge of Breetai's flagship. "Enemy mecha have broken through her screen and disabled her engines. She otherwise remains battle-worthy." Breetai nodded unemotionally. "Very well. Pull our mecha in closer to the ships to prevent them from doing it again. Close formation and remain on course. All ships open fire." * * * * * * * * * Aboard the bridge of the SDF-1 a shout erupted as fire blossomed from the rear of the closest cruiser; then died as the twenty-nine remaining attackers closed ranks and returned fire. "Return Fire!" Gloval snapped. "Vanessa, what happened to that cruiser?" "It looks like they intercepted two of the missiles, sir. The other two got through, but weren't enough for a kill. He got her engines though, she's dead in space," the bridge tech replied. "Very well, Vanessa. Lisa, prepare the Daedalus. We'll punch them from space one by one if we have to!" * * * * * * * * * Rick Hunter, at this point, was caught in the deep space equivalent of a rolling scissors with an enemy officer pod intent on ruining his day. Whoever was piloting that pod was darn good, and Rick's options were narrowing... his one best disengagement route took him through the kill zone of a flight of Tri-thrusters coming into the area... also assuming the officer pod would LET him get away. The tactical equation suddenly changed as a familiar blue trimmed Veritech flashed in from below and chased off the officer pod with a brace of missiles even as another flight of 4 swooped in and obliterated the tri-thrusters. "Someone call the cavalry?" Muck asked from a side comm screen as the half dozen fighters fell back from the main battle and re-grouped. Getting clear of the fight showed the lead battleship impaled on the end of the Daedalus. "Aw, CRUD!" Muck was groaning, as the Daedalus pulled clear. Rick waited for a moment, but the expected explosion of the massive Zentraedi vessel did not materialize. "Boss, we need to RTB ASAP!" "Why?" Demanded a rather irritated Rick. "Cause the enemy just boarded the SDF-1. AND my flight is low on ammo and go-go juice." "Same here, Skipper..." Max added. "About the gas, anyway. No comment on the other." Rick was about to switch into the central TAC net when Lisa appeared on his screen. "Skull one, Return to base immediately. Skull one, Return to base immediately. Enemy mecha aboard ship! Request assistance!" "IN the ship?" Rick repeated in disbelief. "They're destroying everything, Rick," Lisa confirmed. "Return to base immediately." "Skull lead inbound with five, Lisa. Have they hit the amphitheater?" "I don't know, I don't have a status report... We need you back here now!" The center comm screen went dark, and six fighters turned and raced back to their home in space, unaware of the enemy mecha tailing them. * * * * * * * * * The six Battleoids stepped through the final hatch into the Macross City hold and stopped dead in their tracks. The devastation was immediately visible, and massive. Everywhere buildings were at best heavily damaged; at worst, smoking piles of rubble. Overhead, the EVE sky was gone, revealing the bare metal ceiling. Smoke and steam filled the giant space, reducing visibility. "This is so NOT good," Sinker observed over the comm channel. "Maintain comm discipline. Orders, Skipper?" was Muck's reply. "Wait one... Lisa, this is Rick... We're in. Where are they?" "Civil Defense is overwhelmed... We can't get a fix from their reports. It looks like they're everywhere down there, Rick." "Roger that, Lisa. Ok troops... Split up and go hunting. Lets try and round these guys up before they wipe out everything. Go-Go, CP, Sweep Right. Muck, Sinker, go left. Max, you're with me." "Right." Muck waved Sinker into the next block over, and continued moving up the street. Two block further down; he encountered a Civil Defense Destroid, destroyed by a shot straight through the cockpit. Muck shook his head, unaware of the fact it was mirrored by his Veritech, and reported the find. Otherwise, it was a stroke of luck, because the pilot had armed his machine with a GU-11 pod, which Muck appropriated to replace the jamming pod he had launched with. * * * * * * * * * Five Battle-pods lead by an officer swaggered down the main drag of Macross, leveling everything in sight. Four blocks away, Muck and Sinker hunkered down behind a pair of office buildings and prepared a trap. "CDC, Skull 31. Five bandits on Main, Grid K-13, headed towards the Star Bowl. Engaging," Muck reported tersely. A look over at Sinker, and they both popped out from cover, 55mm cannon blazing. Their shots hulled one Battle-pod, but the answering fire from the Officer pod in the lead was devastating. Both mecha came to rest on the side streets on the opposite sides of the intersection from where they had started, emitting sparks and smoke. "Ung," muttered Muck, shaking his head to clear it. "You ok over there, Sinker?" "Had better days, boss. Belle's right arm is off at the shoulder, but I'm ok otherwise." "Better than I am. I'm showing critical damage to all systems. Better bug out, Sinker. I'm going EV and doing the same." <> >>Activating. << * * * * * * * * * Khyron shook his head in a mixture of amazement and disgust at the confused babbling of the pilot he had just detained. 'So, the rumors Grel reported are true. Not only is this scum trying to defect, but he seems to have lost his mind as well!' He centered the pod in his targeting recticle pulled the trigger; instead of the expected bolt of leashed death, HIS mecha rocked with the force of an explosion instead, and a warning light flared on his panel indicating that his top mounted cannon had somehow been destroyed. The defectors battle-pods reacted, realizing his intentions and began to flee. "After them! Destroy those stains upon our name!" he commanded his personal troops, even as he looked about for what could have attacked him. His external microphones picked up a shout above and to his right, focusing his attention on a rather ridiculous sight; some sort of miniature enemy mecha, no taller than the average Micronian, armed with some sort of sword and shield, was taunting him! "Hey Ferret Face! Why don't you just head on back to whatever hole you crawled out of!" it demanded. Khyron may have been unfamiliar with the Micronian language, but he was not stupid, and definitely knew an insult when he heard one. One Derringer like arm raised and blasted away at the insolent gnat, only to miss; the gnat had leapt up and over his mecha. Kyhron's instinctive follow up reply did not miss, though, as his other arm caught the descending insect squarely with a sweeping blow, brushing it away as one might a fly and threw his pod into pursuit mode, intent on chasing down and destroying the defectors. * * * * * * * * * Star Ranger came to rest buried in a building three blocks away from the point of impact, feeling much the worse for wear. >>Present tactics are ineffective. Recommend that you change them before you're next encounter. << <> >>Affirmative. << <> >>Minor damage to all systems. Combat efficiency at 75% << <> >>1.5 klicks from Star Bowl, bearing 057 local; under 1.5 meters of rubble. << A few blasts from his Shockwave Launcher freed Star Ranger from the debris, allowing him to take to the air. The Star Bowl quickly came into view, a mass of devastation; with Skull One in Battleoid mode moving away. <> >>Command on audio. << #Rick, Come IN! Report! # Lisa's voice blared over the radio. #Command, Star Ranger. Skull Lead is... Unavailable at the moment. # #I don't see you on the CD display. Where are you? # #Command Star Ranger is EV from Skull Three-One and just outside the Star Bowl. Looks pretty bad, we need a rescue squad here ASAP. # #Skull One just told us that. How bad are the casualties? # #Hard to say, there's a lot of debris here... Wait one. I have Minmei and Lynn-Kyle in sight. They look to be OK. # #Understood, Star Ranger. Be advised that we need to get those people out of there ASAP... The enemy is bottled up and the killing ground is just short of your location. # #Roger that, Command. I'm on it. Ranger out. # --- (1) Combat Information Center. (2) Space Aviation Training and Operation Procedures. The aviation bible on the SDF-1. (3) Auxiliary Power Unit - provides power to the airplane without running the engines... a good idea on a busy hanger deck. (4) Starting Music: Commencing jamming with ECM and ECCM.