QUESTIONS

Within the bowels of the alien flagship, a scientist entered the fleet commander's ready room. The alien commander, a massive individual whose face was partially covered with a metal plate, glanced up at the scientist.

*My Lord, our recon ship has returned with recordings of the Micronian transmissions. From this, we have managed to reprogram our translation devices. We will now be able to address them in one of their own languages.*

*How prevalent is this language you have deciphered?*

The gnomish alien scratched his chin. *We have cause to believe that it is the dominant language not only of the Micronians within the Battle Fortress, but of the majority of those on the planet's surface.*

*Excellent work, Exedore. We can now convince them of the folly of resisting our might. Call up the Fifth Botoru Battalion.*

*Excellency, are you sure this is wise? The commander of the Fifth is quite unstable...*

*Immediately.*

The scientist bowed. *Yes, My Lord.*

* * * * *

Ranma dropped into his seat at the White Dragon. The table was not actually Skull property anymore; it had sort of converted into "their table." While Roy was still CO of Skull, and the other three pilots normally at the table - Kramer, Saotome and Hunter - were all ex-Skull members, the latter three all had their own commands. Ranma commanded the Angel Squadron, reporting directly to Commander Hayes; Kramer still had command of Green; Rick had just been promoted to command of Vermilion. Never mind that Vermilion had been completely mangled in the attack near Saturn; Rick had two brand new pilots under his command, and was expected to rebuild the unit.

~Pretty tall orders for a Lieutenant, even one who's as shit-hot a pilot as Rick.~

Commander Hayes, two orders envelopes in hand, walked up to the table. "Hi, boys. Mind if I join you?"

Roy shrugged. "You outrank all of us, ma'am."

"True." She pulled up a chair, then tossed the envelopes on the table. "One for you, Roy, and one for Mark."

Roy pulled out his orders, scanned them, and started chewing his lip. "Hey, Kramer. What did you pull?"

Kramer was frowning. "Command of Skull. How 'bout you?"

"Oh, nothin' much. Just a promotion to Major, as well as CAG for Promotheus."

"HUH?"

"My sentiments exactly." Roy dropped the envelope on the table. "Ma'am, want to explain this? Since when did Promotheus rate its own CAG?"

"There are now twelve squadrons operating solely off of the Promotheus, as well as six off of the Daedalus and eighteen off of the Macross itself. It was the decision of Colonel Maistroff that one CAG was insufficient to manage thirty-six squadrons. So he's divided the U.N. Spacy Air Division into three commands. Colonel Tendo will be taking the Daedalus command. You're getting the Promotheus command."

"And who gets the Macross Command?"

She sighed heavily. "Colonel Maistroff." She produced a third envelope and tossed it to Ranma. "This is your squadron's orders."

"You got a squadron, Ranma?"

"Yeah, Rick, it's a long story. And I think he needs to know, Commander. I'll fill him in later." Ranma tore open his orders packet and glanced through them.

"Hey, Roy."

"Yeah?"

"My squadron's been transferred to your command, and you're losing Sepia to Tendo."

"Really?" Roy grinned. "You won't be getting away with any of that crap you could pull under Commander Hayes."

The ship tilted weirdly, and the lights flickered. Ranma was jolted right out of his seat. He wasn't alone in this; both Fokker and Kramer looked less than comfortable in the angles they found themselves bent into, and Rick was nearly knocked cold. Lisa was also knocked sprawling, but she recovered and ran from the room.

Roy struggled to his feet. "Damn, that was a really solid hit. Wonder what it was?"

"Dunno." Ranma seated himself, then glanced at his now-unrecoverable dinner. "But two gets you five we'll be paged in the next five minutes."

"Commander Hayes to the bridge. Colonel Tendo, Major Fokker and Captain Saotome to the briefing room. Lieutenants Hunter, Kanzaki and Tendo to the briefing room."

"No bet, Saotome. Let's go."

* * * * *

"Five minutes ago, the aliens attacked the ship. A single mecha, of a type previously uncatalogued, came in fast and hard and struck the primary radar boom and the sensor array. This has left the Macross blind in the middle of transiting the asteroid field.

"Two minutes after hitting the sensor array, the enemy transmitted the following message."

Gloval pressed the play button on the tape recorder.

"This is the commander of the Zentraedi Fifth Botoru Battallion. The last attack was a warning. We have sufficient firepower to destroy your ship and your home planet. Surrender the battle fortress and we shall allow you to survive. You have one hour to comply."

Roy leaned back. "So now we know what they call themselves."

"Yes. It is my decision to send a Cat's Eye Recon jet forward to find us a safe way out of the asteroid field. I am detailing Vermilion Squadron for escort, and Angel Squadron for backup. You'll be on the cats, six at a time. Understood?"

"Sir!"

"Good! Dismissed."

Roy hopped to his feet. "Come on, ladies. Time to rumble. Ranma, better change."

"Yes, Sir!" Ranma grabbed a glass of water from the table and dumped it over his head, giving Rick a very bad case of bug eyes. "Angel, suit up. Flight One will go on cats first, followed by Three."

Roy glanced over. "Why not Two up second?"

"Two had last patrol on our last duty cycle."

"Ah."

Rick was babbling. "How...what...He's a girl!"

"Later, Hunter. Right now, you've got a job to do."

* * * * *

"This is Eyes Front. We are under attack by approximately fifty Zentraedi mecha. Please assist."

Ranma shot forward. "Lisa! What the hell is she doin' in that recon bird?"

"As you were, Angel Lead. Angel Flight One, Macross. Launch and intercept Zentraedi mecha."

"Macross, Angel Flight One, Wilco. Flight One, Lead. Go!"

Ranma pushed the throttle all the way open on the fighter, then flagged the cat chief. She was smashed back into her seat by the force of the catapult accelerating her fighter from zero to four hundred klicks in three seconds. When her vision cleared, she thought the jet through a turn and formed up with the other five units of her flight.

Ranma growled as she lit her bird's afterburners.

~No-one's gettin' their claws on the CO!~

But they didn't get there on time. Ranma saw a flash of light ahead, then the Cat's Eye's transponder dropped right off his scope.

"Crap! Macross, Angel Lead. Eyes Front has vanished. Repeat, I have no returns from Eyes Front's transponder. And I ain't gettin' returns on any of Vermilion either."

"Angel Lead, Macross. Affirm. We think we picked up a fold operation on scope."

"Lead, Three! I got bogeys closing on us!"

"Three, go evasive! Wings break. Two, you're wingleader. Let's get em!"

"Two."

Clark snapped her fighter around on a dime and thoroughly waxed a fighter pod, then shifted to Gerwalk. Her rifle barked three times, and three Zentraedi Battle Pods went up in smoke.

Ranma blinked. ~Woah! Where did that come from?!~

Clark was all over the sky, shifting back and forth from Soldier to Gerwalk, and occasionally back to Fighter, bringing the autocannon, the head lasers or the forward lasers to bear on anything that moved. Ranma was hard pressed just to stay on her wing, and it was quickly becoming apparent that she didn't really need the assist.

"Angel Flight Three is up and inbound, Lead. ETA five minutes."

"Roger, Flight Two."

And a damned good thing, too. Between Clark and Saotome, the Zentraedi were taking a shit-kicking, but the humans were still outnumbered by four to one at best.

The rest of the wing were definitely making up for lost time as well. Ranma noted that Four - a quiet, mousy type named Hikaru - was performing particularly well, though spending most of her time in Gerwalk.

Then he noticed the cruiser bearing down on them.

"Where the hell do they keep getting these things? Macross, Angel Lead. There is a Zentraedi battlecruiser closing on your position, ETA three minutes. We can't hold that thing off, Macross!"

"Understood, Angel Lead. Just try to keep their Mecha busy. Angel Flight Three has just left the cats and is inbound on your location."

"Roger that, Macross."

"Three's hit! It's not too bad, but I can't shift."

"Understood, Three." Ranma checked the Tac Net. Three was stuck in Soldier Mode. "Can you extend your wings?"

"What control is that?"

"None - just visualize it."

"O-okay..."

As Ranma watched, Angel Three slowly cranked out her wings. They deployed jerkily, as if Kosuji was having trouble interfacing with the Mecha.

"Three, are you hurt?"

"Bit of shrapnel in the leg, nothing serious."

"Bug out, Three."

"Aye."

It left her understrength, but Third Flight was just arriving. And she also realized that it had become quiet. Could they actually have beaten the Zentraedi off?

"Hey, Captain! Can we play?"

"Sure thing, Kanzaki. All right, listen up, First. That ship is ninety seconds outside of firing range of the Macross, and we've managed to mop up their Mecha screen. But you can bet they have more. But for now, we're gonna try to take out that cruiser. Lieutenant Tendo."

"Aye?" Angel Flight Two was still sixty seconds out.

"Meet us in the middle."

"Aye, ma'am!"

"Flight One, let's go!"

First and Third Flight, Angel Squadron, spun and began bearing down on the enemy battlecruiser. Most shifted to Gerwalk and began to matter-surf along the enemy ship's hull. Ranma tapped six targets into his battle computer - gun turrets, radar booms, whatever - and sent a cloud of missiles after them. To his left, Clark, still in Soldier Mode, but flying with wings extended, turned the rifle pod on target after target.

Ahead of them, Zentraedi in powered armour began to appear.

~Rat race? You want a rat race?~

"Targets ahead. Powered armour. Angel, shift to Soldier."

It was the same game Ranma had fought in Macross City, save that this time, it was fought among the alien projections and gun turrets of the Zentraedi battlecruiser. And this time, there were a lot more enemies. Three of Ranma's squadron disappeared from his scope as their mecha went up in fireballs.

And then Angel Two arrived on high, raining death on the Zentraedi with missiles, laser fire and depleted transuranic slugs. Ranma whooped, then patched into the Tac Net.

"Welcome to the front line! And just in time, too."

Claudia Grant clicked onto the Net. "Angel Squadron, disengage and move away from the target. We are beginning our attack run."

Ranma thought of the Macross' main gun. "Yes, ma'am!"

* * * * *

"Sir, we cannot complete modular transformation in the time remaining, and we can't fire the main gun if we don't!"

"I doubt we can fire the main gun anyway, Kim. Lisa and the Vermilions could be inside that thing. Signal all ahead full."

"WHAT? Uh, Aye, sir!"

Gloval sat back and watched the viewport as the enemy cruiser swelled in it.

~At least it's clearing the asteroids from our path!~

* * * * *

Ranma watched in amazement as the SDF-1 leapt forward at the enemy cruiser.

"He's gonna broadside it!"

The SDF-1 slipped below the Zentraedi battlewagon and began running down her length. Her secondary batteries, normally of too short a range to be bothered with, began hammering into the underbelly of the enemy ship. Massive steel slugs from the rail guns and bolts of energy from the converging-beam reflex cannons, as well as firepower from the MAC II Destroids on the ship's surface and long range missiles from its anti-aircraft batteries, all of it tearing into the mammoth five-kilometer-long cruiser.

The Zentraedi ship had no weaponry on the underside; all she could do was take the pounding. Macross slid out from under her, and began a slow turn. Ranma glanced at the Tac Net, and saw the assault shuttles leaving the Macross.

"Angel Squadron, let's give them some cover. Angel Lead to assault shuttle group. Suggest you hit the hangar deck."

"Angel, this is Ferryboat Lead. Care to give us an escort?"

"No problem."

The enemy cruiser was still reeling from the hammering that Macross had given her. It was launching no fighters or mecha, and Ferryboat was able to make an uncontested entry. The six shuttles opened up, and disgorged their cargo of Tomahawk and Spartan Destroids.

"Angel, form up around the shuttle. We're gonna do guard duty."

"Flight Two, Aye."

"Angel Flight Three. Aye."

Ranma shifted to Soldier Mode, and dropped down next to a shuttle, cannon pod at the ready.

"How are y'all doin' for ammo?"

"Two's got one clip and six missiles."

"Four's got one clip."

"Five's empty."

"Angel Flight Two has all pilots, two clips left, and no missiles. We used them all pulling your asses out of the fire."

"Angel Flight Three has all pilots, one clip left, and eleven missiles among us."

"Right. Flight Two, can you loan us a clip?"

Akane hooked one out of her Mecha's leg and tossed it across to Five. "Now you owe us two."

"Yeah, right. We'll settle it later. But for now, your Flight's name is Guardian. Eyes sharp, people."

But it proved unneccesary. The Destroid raid kept the enemy busy, and the Destroids themselves returned unhindered, though with a few holes in their ranks. The shuttles blasted off, and Angel formed up to escort them back to the Macross.

"Angel Lead, Ferryboat. Suggest we put on the gas. We left them a present behind there..."

* * * * *

Three Zentran clustered around the small barnacle-shaped device in the engine room. One of them activated his personal comm.

*My Lord. The Micronians appear to have...lost something. What should we do about it?*

The Zentraedi Commander frowned. *What is it?*

*We're not entirely certain. It is small, grey and round, and has a black patch with red marks on it. The marks keep changing.*

Another Zentran spoke up. *One of the sets of red marks has disappeared.*

The Zentran stared at the device, trying to make sense out of the markings.

4...

3...

2...

1...

* * * * *

Behind the Valkyrie flight, the cruiser suddenly erupted into a massive fireball.

"Yikes! Brace for shockwave!"

And then the mecha were tossed around like leaves on a summer hurricane. The shuttles fared worse, and as Ranma watched, one of them crumpled and exploded.

Then they were out of it, and it was smooth sailing all the way back home.

* * * * *

The noise level in the O-Club was rapidly approaching lethal levels. Most of the pilots on the Macross were nowhere near the fight - only Angel had been on the cats - but it was the first real victory won by Mecha. And the fourteen remaining pilots of Angel Squadron had rapidly discovered that they would not be permitted to buy their own beer. Period.

But Ranma wasn't in a celebratory mood. Shortly after the party began, she slipped out and headed for the White Dragon.

It was fairly late, and the White Dragon was mostly empty. In one corner, Ranma noticed Colonel Tendo and his eldest daughter, Kasumi. She shrugged, then went over.

"Hi. Can I join you?"

Kasumi beamed. "Of course, Ranma! Nabiki will be here soon, but there's still one seat."

"Thanks." Ranma dropped into the seat. "Hi, Colonel. How come you aren't at the party?"

"I could ask you the same thing, Captain."

Max brought over a small kettle, and Ranma poured the hot water over herself, triggering the change. "Well, I didn't really see a point in celebrating. Angel is down four pilots, and we failed our mission." Too late, Ranma remembered Kasumi's presence. Tendo noticed his worried glance, and made a negative motion with his hand.

"Don't worry - you've not said anything that won't be on the news tomorrow. And since we're both off duty, let us treat each other not as officers, but as family."

"Yeah, okay."

Tendo grinned. "Much better. So tell me, when are you and Akane getting married?"

"Oh, man..."

Luckily for Ranma, Kasumi stepped in. "Now, Father, I don't think you should rush them into this. I mean, both of them have careers to think of. Oh, my! I never thought that Akane would join the army!"

"Hey, she's kickin' butt, Kasumi. She's one of my best pilots."

Tendo nodded. "And after this last battle, I imagine she'll be pushed to the top of the promotion list. She may make First Lieutenant in a month."

Kasumi tilted her head. "Does this mean I'll have to salute her?"

Ranma grinned. "Ah...no, Kasumi."

"Hey, Saotome." Nabiki walked up to the table. "You joining us for dinner?"

Ranma shrugged. "Why not?"

Nabiki sat down across from him. "I have some information you may want."

"Really? Do tell."

"Not so fast, Saotome. This information is kind of important and, as such, is going to set you back some cash. But seems how you're almost family, I'll let you have a discount. Two thousand yen, up front."

"What could be THAT important?"

"Do you want the information or not?"

"All right, all right! Here!" Ranma slid two bills across the table to Nabiki. "Now what's the information?"

"Four days from now is Akane's birthday."

"Gimme back my money, I coulda got that from her personnell dossier."

"True, but would you have even thought to look if I hadn't reminded you?" Nabiki slipped the cash into her pocket. "I figure that just telling you it was coming up was worth the two thousand. I threw in the exact day as a freebie."

"Yeah, whatever..."

"For an extra five thousand, I'll tell you what she wants."

"Forget it, I'll just guess."