RANMATECH 1/2: FIRST GENERATION ****************************************************************** Greeting and salutations all. Well this is my third fic. I said I'd write Ranma 1/2: ROBOTECH. I might as well and go ahead and write this right know and YES I know I still have two fics still incomplete but I have an excuses: WRITER"S BLOCK!!! :( Well before warned that in these stories people do get killed and people do indeed die cause this is a Sci-Fi/Adventure and you can't have that type of story without people dying. No its not a DARK FIC or a LIGHT FIC; its more of a GRAYISH FIC. Well on with the show.... ****************************************************************** Prolog: In the year 1999, it was the time of a Global Civil War and an unknown craft was approaching the Earth at an increadible speed. Its entry was that of a powered object, and it had appeared form nowhere. Its long descent spread destruction and death as its shock waves and after-blast of its engines leveled cities, deafend and blinded many, made a furnace of the atmosphere, and somehow awakened tectonic forces. Cities burned and fell, and many, many died in its wake. It came to rest on a gently sloping plain on a small island in the South Pacific, called Macross. Chapter 1: BoobyTrap 10 years has passed since the great catastrophe and on Macross island it was a time for celebration. The SDF-1 construction/reconstruction has finally been completed and during the 10 years the small island managed to grow in population and a city was built around the ship. "Fireworks," Lt Commander Genma Saotome murmured to himself as he watched the light show. "Fireworks instead of bombs; celebrations instead of battles. I hope it's aways like this: parades and picnics. We've seen enough war!" ************** Across town, a motorcade made its way with flashing lights and wailing sirens towards the SDF-1's platform, already late for the ship's scheduled launch on its maiden flight. "Captain Tendo doesn't seem too happy about it," Vern said to the mayor. Not happy, indeed. "Don't look so sour, Tendo! It's our big day! Surely you realize all those loyal citizens out there consider you their hero! You could at least wave back to them." Tendo grunted, chin sunken his chest, arms folded. He was wearing a dress uniform and decorated with meddles that he was entitled to wear was in place. "All right, I'll wave," said Tendo, hoping the speech-makers' fool- ishness and political hacks' patting themselves on the back wouldn't last long. Tendo only wanted to be out in space with his new command. **************** Up on the bridge of the SDF-1, Commander Akane Tendo arrived to make sure everything would be squared away for launching. She'd carved out an amazing career for herself. At twenty, she'd been made First Officer of the SDF-1. A lot of that was due, no doubt, to her familiarity with with the ship's systems. But there were her endless commendations and top evaluations as well, and two single-minded in obsession with duty, but no one accused her of not earning her rank. She paused to survey the bridge, a slim, tall, pale young woman with brown hair that was wrapped up on her head. Her subordinates were already at their duty stations. Nodoka Saotome seemed to have things well in hand, speaking into an intercom terminal from her position at the Bridge Officer's station. "Roger, engine room; that's affirmative." Yuka, Sayuri, and Kim, three young female enlisted-rating techs, completed the bridge complement; Tendo like running things with as little as little confusion and as few people possible. Yuka was feeding computer projections of fuel consumption to the engine room while Kim finished up the astrogation checklist and Sayuri saw to the manual systems. They were all young, like Akane----but most of SDF-1's crew. Robotechnology and the weapons and machines it had spawned were a hole new game; taking people while they were young and instilling its strange disciplines in them had proved more workable, in most cases, than trying to get veterans to unlearn what they'd already taken to heart. Akane sighed, brushing her hair back with her hand, making her way to her station. "The ceromony starts in fifteen minutes. I hope the captain gets here on time. The scuttle-butt it that he didn t get much sleep last night." Nodoka gave her a smile, her light face creasing, eyes dancing. "Yeah; the flanking officers threw him a farewell party. They probably stayed up all night telling each other war stories. You know how they are. " Akane hid a mischievous smile. "And where were you, Nodoka? Hmm?" Nodoka was taken off guard. "What're you talking about?" "You didn't get back to you quarters untill four in the morning, that's what! You must ve been partying too." Nodoka stuck her nose in the air and struck a glamorous pose. She was taller than Akane and several years older, with exotic goo looks crowned by a cap close coffee-colored curls. "You jealous? I had a late dinner with Commander Saotome." Akane had been joking, assuming Nodoka had spent her last ground-side leave visiting her family, but suddenly the first officer was angry. "Nodoka! You stayed out all night when you knew both you and Genma both had flight duty today?" Duty was everything to Akane; she had trouble understanding how anyone could be so causual about such an important mission. "My private life is my own buisness! Nobody else's! I hate to bother you, but hadn't you better check you monitor, Commander?" Then Akane relized that an instant signal was sounding from her duty station. She crossed to it, trying to put the argument out of her mind as Kim called out, "It's an unidentified incoming aircraft, Akane!" Akane opened up a communication link, "Attention, aircraft approaching on course 1-0-7. Please identify yourself." A youngish male voice came in response. "This is Ranma Saotome. I have an invitation for today s ceremonies, invitation # 2-0-3." Akane checked it against the computer display of invitation number list. She responded, "That's confimred as an invitation from Lt. Commander Saotome." Saotome! It s too much of a coincidence' Akane thought to her self. Follow course 5-7 for landing." "Roger," the voice said cheerfully, and signed off. Meanwhile Ranma? It couldn t be my son, but Genma said that he had a suprise to give me today during the celebration' though Nodoka. ****************** Ranma Saotome whislted as he got a better look at the SDF-1. The descriptions the papers gave didn't begin to do it justice to the astonishing size of the thing! The two supercarriers anchored among the flotilla of the ships in the harbor were of the new Thor class----each longer than a 150-story office building resting on its side----yet they were modest in comparison to the battle fortress. And the sky was full of the sleekest, most advanced-looking fighters Ranma has ever seen----Robotech fighters, the newscasts had called them. Whatever that meant. For a moment Ranma couldn't blame his parents for dedicating themselves to this Robotech stuff. Ranma maneuvered his ship smoothly through the traffic, relying not on his computers but on his own talentand training----a point of pride. He was the offspring of a proud daring breed of fliers. He was 18 years old and hadn't been outflown since----well, long before his voice had changed from a kids to a young man's. He tossed a dark forelock of hair back and adjusted his tinted goggles, then went into a pushover and power dive for the SDF-1. This Robotech stuff *looked* impressive . . . but maybe it was time to somebody showed these military flyboys that it was the *pilot* that mattered most, not some pile of mere metal. ************** Far out beyond the orbit of Earth's moon, a portentous tremble shook the space-time continuum as if it were a spiderweb. It was only a preliminary disturbance, yet it was exacting and of great extent. A force beyond reckoning was making tentave contact on a day that marked a turning point in the history of the unsuspecting Earth. ************* On Macross Island, in the shadow of the SDF-1, Genma didn't have time to notice the tiny racing plane making a pass over the ship's bow, thousands of feet above him. The public address system carried an announcement of the tens of thousands gathered there. "And now we present an amzing display of aerial acrobatics, demonstarting the amazing advances we have made through Robotechnology. Lt. Commander Genma Saotome, leader of the Veritech fighters' Skull Squadron, will desribe and explain the action for us." Genma made his entrance to enthusiastic applause; he was known to and well liked by most people on Macross. "Today, ladies and gentlemen, you'll see how we've applied human know-how to understanding and harnessing a complex alien technology." Overhead, a half sozen swift, deadly Veritech fighters peeled off to begin their preformance. "Keep your eyes on planes 2 and 4," Genma went on as 2 and 4 lined up for the first maneuver, engines blaring. "Flying at speeds of 500 mph, only fifty feet above the ground, they will pass within mjust a few yards of each other. Robotechnology makes such precision flying possible." Genma was thinking about that happily as he spoke, waiting for the inevitable gasps from the crowd as the first high-speed pass was executed. It took him a few seconds to realize that the people below him on the ground weren't gasping . . . They were laughing.