Right. *NOW* the action starts to heat up. ^_^
C&C Always Welcomed, of course.
--------8<--------8<--------8<--------
The Protoculture Wars
Aubry Thonon
Robotech:
Alternate Points
Of View
Thallin
Braywater
This book is dedicated to the following people:
K. Wiley kkwiley@uccs.edu Lieutenant Kay Landers
Alex profnut@nyongwa.montreal.qc.ca Warlord Agar
Derek MondoMage@aol.com Sergeant David Marshall
Steve epustay@aol.com Augustine Rassimus
Kirstin adathono@cc.uq.edu.au Sergeant Tamara Sam'di
This work is c 1994-1996 Aubry Thonon, except for those names,
songs and concepts copyrighted to the appropriate owners (how
do *I* know who they are? They know, that's good enough).
Feel free to copy this book and distribute it as long as:
A) The copyright notices are left in;
B) If it is printed in a fanzine or any other free,
non-profit publication, could you mail me a copy
please?
C) It may *not* be printed in a commercial publication
without the prior assent of *all* the copyright
owners, myself included.
[Reality Check - Saturday Jun. 27 2009, 1540 hours, Macross Island]
They say that time stands still in moments of
insurmountable stress. They also say that your whole
life flashes before your eyes. Thallin certainly was not
seeing his whole life, but there were momentary
highlights.
Waking up early in the morning, the grey light of pre-
dawn casting its shadowy brilliance across the bed, and
turning towards the form of his girlfriend. It had been
the first time for both of them. He would later find out
the reason for her not waking up as he left her room was
that she had died of a brain-embolism during her sleep.
Standing over his father's grave during the Global
Civil War, cursing the Eastern Alliance for the bombing
that had destroyed his parent's home. His mother was
visiting him at the time and had been spared. She would
be run over by a run-away military truck the following
week.
Joining the Armed Forces and being told he was unfit
for active duty. The military had not yet gotten to the
point were they would grab anybody off the streets, even
those with prescription glasses, and press them into
service.
Being admitted into the Air-Force's Research
facilities at Kangaroo Point in Australia. The
desolation brought on by the bio-warfare of the early
days of the war still evident outside the city as most of
the trees struggled not to calcify.
Looking up at the sky as the Visitor ripped through
the atmosphere on its descent towards South Atalia
Island. The explosion and tremors were felt all the way
clear to the Kangaroo Point facilities, causing buildings
to crack and some water-towers to collapse.
Being told by Dr. Lang to gather a team of scientist,
the top of each field. The pride that swelled in his
chest as he realised *he* had been chosen as the best in
the Aero-BioElectronics department.
The size of the ASS-1 as the chopper dipped in towards
the camp set beside it. People standing around the ship,
measuring the rapidly diminishing space-time distortion
effect in the ship.
The simple mistake as he made his way back from a long
day of exploration of the ship, opening doors at random
and suddenly finding himself in a small closet somewhere
on the ship. The door closing and the closet suddenly
filling with a salty, brackish liquid, causing him to
pass out.
The rescue team dragging him away from the open closet
some time later, smoke emanating from the doorway, the
smell of burning electronics strong in the air. The
questioning, the voices asking him questions he could not
understand.
The realisation, five years later, that he had not
physically aged a single day. The rounds of secret
physical examinations order by Dr. Lang and the military
brass.
The lack of ammo that would cost him the Veritech he
had worked so hard to build.
Before Thallin could brace himself against the
feedback that would occur when the Valkyrie was destroyed
a Battloid flew past over his left shoulder, gun pod
firing shells after shells, strafing the room from left
to right. The first giant folded and crumpled to the
ground almost instantly, but the second one had time to
raise the organic-looking gun-pod and fire at the newly-
arrived Veritech, causing the paint on its right forearm
to bubble and burn as the energy-beam lanced past.
The Veritech ducked, twisted and skidded along the
floor of the gigantic room, turning for a better shot,
firing a short burst into the chest of the remaining
protagonist. The giant fell, blood spraying through its
clenched fingers.
"Thallin," warned Eve, "I have just intercepted calls
from SDF Control to the ships in orbit. The ARMD
platforms have been prevented from making contact and
coupling with the Macross. The ship is preparing for
Fold manoeuvres and is rapidly dropping towards the
Island to escape orbital bombardment."
"Thanks Eve." Thallin looked around at the other
Veritech who was approaching his Valkyrie and giving him
the once-over.
"Are you all right, buddy?" The voice was female,
stressed somehow, but a welcomed sound after the
incessant explosions and weapon-fire. "What's going on?"
asked the pilot.
Thallin was about to open his tacnet to answer when
he spied the first giant moving and raising a rifle
towards the back of the other Veritech.
He saw the trigger-finger tighten. "Oh boy."
[Reality Check - Saturday Jun. 27 2009, 1543 hours, Macross Island SDF-1 Base]
Thallin did not even think before getting VX-001
moving. Forcing the Veritech Battloid to move so fast
its servos groaned in protest, he shoved the other
Valkyrie aside, grabbing its GU-11 in the process. He
had not even managed to raise the gun when the ammo from
the Zentraedi rifle ripped through the mecha's armour.
Two beams sliced the left laser emitter from the
Battloid's head, barely avoiding the optical systems
contained in it; the last three shots penetrated the
chest of the Veritech, about cockpit-height, and blasted
a hole some two meters wide all the way through from
front to back, exposing circuitry and completely
destroying the control areas of the Battloid.
Back on the SDF-1, Thallin groaned as the feed-back
caused two displays on the console to spark, then
implode. <I should have used crystal displays> he mused
before turning his attention towards the body lying prone
on the floor. He targeted it and pressed the firing
button, not letting up until the gun-pod ran out of ammo.
Of what was left on the floor by this stage, the less
said the better.
"Thallin," called Eve, "we have a situation on our
hands here. Would you please stop acting like Rambo and
get your ass in gear?"
"What's the problem?" he asked her, handing the gun-
pod back to the other Valkyrie, trying to move the
damaged VX-001 out the gigantic door. The mecha
responded sluggishly but nonetheless managed to turn
around before the left leg froze.
"*That*," responded Eve smugly, "is what I meant. The
plane is shot to Hell Thallin. Lang's gonna have your
hide for this."
"No problemo. I'll just.... err..." Lights flashed
red and amber as system after system was shutting down.
"OK, maybe I won't do that, I'll just..." More red
light. "Not that either, huh?"
"We are loosing containment in the left plasma coils.
Plasma containment will fail in ten minutes if we don't
shut the engine down, five if you continue to jerk this
plane around." Thallin stopped his attempts at moving
the Veritech. "Most of the control equipment got blasted
with those three shots in the chest, there isn't much
left there."
Thallin was gazing at the other Veritech, who had
moved to his front and was studying the hole in VX-001's
chest quizzically. "I guess not." He touched to com-
screen, opening a channel to the other mecha. Only then
did he realised the pilot had been trying to contact him.
"...ll right?" the voice was asking. Thallin looked
at the panels, the soft blues of the indicators quickly
changing to red all over the board. <No, not really.>
He cleared his throat.
"Excuse me, err..." He glanced at the Veritech's call-
sign, "VF-117. Could you help me back to the Macross?
I'm afraid I'm going to pass out soon." No sooner said
than the controls to the Veritech went slack and the
screens turned black all around him.
The SDF-1 changed orbital momentum and started to
loose altitude as it plunged back down towards Macross
Island. Energy readings inside the ship were building up
as the Fold engines were brought up to potential.
"So what do we do now?" asked Eve in a oh-so-innocent
voice. "Do I space you myself or leave that pleasure to
Emil?"
"Quit being so high and mighty, would you. At least I
didn't muff up my landings like some people I know"
"That's not fair!" exclaimed Eve. "*You* try piloting
a ship through Fold with Invid on your tail and Zentraedi
breathing down your neck. *Then* we'll see who does a
better landing."
"Invid? Wazzat?" asked Thallin absent-mindedly as he
surveyed the damage his sortie had caused. The floor was
a good foot deep in fire-retardant mush and one of the
Veritechs that had been stored in the Bay had
disappeared. <I hope I didn't push it out the lock by
accident.>
"Nothing you should be concerned with." replied Eve
quickly. "The ship is about to Fold any moment now and I
really should be out of their computer to give them their
processing power back. Just remember that you need to-"
Her voice was abruptly cut off as the ship gave a
sickening lurch three seconds forward in time, causing
after-images to form all around every objects in the
hangar bay. All colours shifted into the red end of the
spectrum as a grating, whistling sound filled the air,
giving Thallin an instant headache.
Suddenly the effects stopped and Thallin scrambled
back to his feet. "What the hell was *that*?" he
screamed as he ran towards one of the view-holes next to
the gigantic air-locks. He took the outside view in,
then closed his eyes for a second. He re-opened them.
The pattern of stars outside was still there. "Eve, do
you know where we are?" There was no answer from the
Deck. "Eve?" he turned around, realising she had said
nothing since the light-and-sound show. "You still
here?" Still no answer.
Thallin turned back towards the view-port where the
frozen remains of Macross Island drifted idly past the
dark shape that was Pluto. "Oh boy."
Neoculture (Crash-Test Dummy On The Information SuperHighway)
-------------------------------------+------------------------------------
Dans le froid glace de l'Olympe noir | Dans le vide de l'espace infernal -
Les Dieux malins ont en vain | Fatigue, lasse, vainqueur -
Use de leur puissance, leurs pouvoirs| Ulysse pres d'une Aurore Boreale
Contre Ulysse 31. | Rechauffe un peu son coeur.
-------------------------------------+-------- Aubry.Thonon@qed.qld.gov.au