Sorry about the delay on this one, I've been kinda tied up on another
project which those involved will not leave me alone about (Drew, this
is all your fault!).  Previous chapters are available at
http://templar.anifics.com/nnpcindex.html

Disclaimer: I did nothing, I was not here, I did not even get up this
morning.

No Need for Protoculture
by Andrew Wilson

Chapter 4: Gods of War

Tenchi swore as his computer reported another missile lock.  He threw
his Veritech's throttle wide open for a few seconds before switching to
Battloid mode and spinning towards the incoming warheads.  His rifle
then spat shells to counter the incoming threat.  A moment passed when
nothing happened, then a pair of incoming missiles detonated far short
of their intended mark.  More joined those two as the remaining missiles
committed fratricide.

Tenchi didn't waste time on the light show.  As soon as his computer
confirmed the missiles were destroyed, he switched modes back to Jet and
accelerated along a new vector.

Two months.  For two months after the Battle of Saturn, the alien
invaders had allowed the SDF-1 to travel through the system without any
further attacks.  That ended the instant the battle fortress crossed the
asteroid belt and entered the inner system.

This battle was just one more "poke" by the aliens against the SDF-1. 
There had been ten over the past two weeks, and fatigue was very high
among the pilots.  Each skirmish seemed to be a minor sacrifice to the
aliens, but they required the full force of the Robotech Defense Force
to be scrambled.

Tenchi reflexively ducked as a pair of shots missed his mecha by a
hair.  His maneuvering jets flared for an instant and he spun to
confront his attacker.  It was yet another pod from the endless waves he
had seen over the past six months.  Tenchi didn't even hesitate as he
blew it away with a burst from his gun pod.

That coldness worried him, but he didn't dwell on it.  He couldn't
afford to.

*******

At the edge of the system, far above the ecliptic where attention is
most often directed, there was a brief flash as a ship disengaged it's
hyperdrive.  Energy bled off the sleak form quickly as it decelerated to
a halt at a distance of almost half a billion miles from Earth. 
Normally, the ship would have taken up orbit around one of the outer
planets, but the pilot had decided that a remote station was better
suited for her mission.

Or rather, her co-pilot had thought that.

"Mihoshi."

Yukinojo was a computer.  An artificial intelligence.

"Mihoshi?"

Most scientists said that machines couldn't feel emotions.  Things like
love and hate were alien to such beings.

"Mihoshi!"

Contrary to those beliefs, Yukinojo was feeling very frustrated.  This
was the usual state of mind for the AI.

"Yes, Yukinojo?"

Yukinojo allowed several trillion processor cycles (about three seconds)
to pass before he continued. "We have arrived in the Sol system,
Mihoshi."

"Oh!" Mihoshi exclaimed. "Well...I guess we should scan the system for
any unusual energy signatures.

Yukinojo was already performing that action, but he acknowledged the
command anyway.  He was much more independent than most ship-board AI's,
but protocols had to be maintained.

A moment later, he reported his findings. "I'm picking up over one
thousand energy signatures."

"What?" Mihoshi exclaimed. "But this is a restricted sector until
interstellar law!  They are in violation of statuettes-"

"Mihoshi," Yukinojo interrupted, "The signatures are of Zentradi ships."

Mihoshi froze.  The Zentradi and their mysterious masters occupied a
huge empire on the other side of the galactic core.  They were a brutal
race whose only purpose, it seemed, was warfare.  With their power, it
was a mystery as to why they didn't simply take over the entire galaxy. 
The Jurian Ministry of Intelligence (headed by Queen Funaho) speculated
that there was *another* superpower on the far edge of the galactic rim,
and that most of the Zentradi's attention was directed that way.

"Oh no!  They came too quickly!  Tenchi and the others will be..."
Mihoshi trailed off into tears as she envisioned the horrible fates her
friends might face.

"Mihoshi," Yukinojo said, "if the Zentradi are here, then the SWAT fleet
will have to be alerted."

"That's right!" Mihoshi exclaimed. "My duty as a Galaxy Police officer
comes before any personal feelings or connections.  Yukanojo, set course
back to HeadQuarters."

Yukinojo gave the electronic equivalent of a sign as he worked through
th proper navigational calculations.  The headquarters station of the
Galaxy Police was over fourteen thousand light-years away and would take
just over three terran months to journey to at standard speeds (oddly
enough, the standard year was identical to the terran one).  Redlining
the drives might allow them to make the journey in a quarter of the
time, but that would also cause the engine core to explode after about a
day and a half.

Of course, Mihoshi would have demanded to do just that, which is why
Yukinojo had simply not presented that as an option when requesting
instructions from Mihoshi.

AI's might not be creative, but that doesn't mean that they're stupid.

Another flash lit the local area of space (not that there was anything
to illuminate) as the patrol ship flipped around and entered hyperspace
once again.

*******

Washu gave a start as her computer made a rude-sounding beep in the
middle of a set of very important calculations.  She had almost isolated
the root cause of the dimensional fluctuations she had been noticing for
the past seven, and was not in the mood for interruptions.

"What?" she exclaimed. "A GP hyperspace signature?  In this system?"

Her computer wasn't anywhere near her terminal's level, but she was able
to instal a few passive sensors into the case.  One of the more
important one was a small tachyon receptor.  Dimensional disturbances,
which most faster than light drives cause, could be detected an
analyzed, but the hardware was too small and primitive to actually
localize the disturbances.

Sasami appeared at the door to Washu's office with a plate of cookies in
hand. "What was that, Washu?"

"Mihoshi," Washu growled.

Sasami studied the computer's screen as Washu nibbled on one of the
cookies. "How can you tell?  The signature is too dim to get an
accuracte reading of what it was.  All you can tell is that something
was there.  And it could have been any mid-sized ship with a class B
hyper-drive."

Washu nearly choked on a piece of her cookie. "When did you...no, never
mind.  I'm not going to ask."

"But how do you know it was Mihoshi?" Sasami persisted.

"The timing was right."

"You mean how it's been more than enough time for her to get to the
Galaxy Police headquarters and back here?"

Washu smiled. "That and we're overdue for some major catastrophy."

*******

Tenchi stared at the approaching planet with a mixture of awe and
dread.  Despite all the times he had traveled the stars, he had actually
never seen Mars.  Which was odd, since it was right next door.  It had
always been a red dot on the horizon, but now rust-colored planet was
both beautiful and terrible in appearance.

But it's appearance had nothing to do with his unease.  The timing of
the 'distress call' had been too convenient, especially given that they
were running short of some munitions and fuels.  The lack of alien
attacks in the month since they changed course was also disturbing.

Still, it was the first time in over seven months that Tenchi would be
able to feel solid ground.  And if there was any alien trap on the Red
Planet, they should be able to handle it.

"Look alive, Masaki," Rick's voice teased over the com. "It's our turn."

"Acknowledged," Tenchi replied.  The SDF-1 had converted back to it's
original mode for landing, and the fighters were being recalled to
prevent any problems during atmospheric reentry.  Tenchi clung to Rick's
wing as they skipped the flight deck and flew their Guardians directly
into Prometheus' hanger.

They didn't exit their mecha, since the plan of action called for them
to launch once the SDF-1 was over Serra base.  The entire ship rumbled
and shook as though in the mouth of a giant dog, while some heat bled
though the exterior hatches.  This went on for close to ten minutes as
the anti-gravity drivers made the final deceleration to the planets
surface and set the ship down with a loud boom a dozen kilometers from
the abandoned base.

"Scramble Skull squadron," Commander Grant said over the tactical net.
"Establish a barrier patrol at one hundred kilometers."

"Acknowledged," Commander Fokker replied before switching to the
squadron frequency. "Alright Skulls, you heard the lady.  Move!"

The hanger doors rumbled open and the squadron zipped out the door. 
They converted to Jet Mode once they were clear of the SDF-1 and flew
under a sky for the first time in over half a year.

*******

"Masaki!" Fokker screamed over the tac net a few minutes later. "Switch
to Battleoid immediately and report back to base.  If you get more than
ten meters off the ground between here and there, you'll be busted back
to civilian faster than Captain Gloval lights his pipe!"

Tenchi's ears burned from Fokker's comments.  Skull Leader was usually
an easy-going person, but when he got mad, everyone knew it.  Chewing
out a subordinate over the squadron channel during the middle of a
mission indicated that he was well and truly angry.

As well he should be, Tenchi admitted to himself as he began the long
march back to the SDF-1.  Flying in an atmosphere was very different
from flying in space.  Almost all the pilots in Skull had been
experienced in the former, and their space flying reflected that. 
Tenchi, on the other hand, had more experience in space (not that he had
much at all).  While it was possible to pull some atmospheric maneuvers
in space, the reverse was definately not true.

In Tenchi's case he had attempted to simply put some distance between
his Vertiech and Rick's so that there was less chance of complications. 
Unfortunately, his method of side-slipping - while very efficiant in
space - caused his Veritech to go into a roll.  The roll became a spin
as the air currents caused his port engine to stall.  Only the fact that
the other Skull pilots had already spread out prevented a mid-air
collision.

*So Commander Fokker's basically said he doesn't trust me to fly in an
atmosphere.* Tenchi thought with a sigh.  Well, time to tell Grandpa
that he couldn't continue their training sessions for a while.  He had
to spend more time in the simulators.

"Skull Twenty-four," Commander Grant's face appeared again on the com
screen, "I show you as groundside, is there a situation?"

"Negative, control," Tenchi replied. "Commander Fokker's orders, that's
all."

Grant nodded and was about to cut the connection when she seemed to
notice something and leaned closer to the pickup. "Hey, kid, don't worry
about Roy.  He can be a sourpuss at times, but that only means he
cares."

"What?" Tenchi asked as the Commander cut off the transmission with a
wink. "What was that suppossed to mean?"

He never got an answer as he continued his long walk back.

*******

One of the little-known instruments on a Vertiech is a gravitic sensor. 
This little device simply measures the gavitational field around the
mecha and reports its findings to the flight computer, thereby allowing
the pilot to compensate for the gavity that is affecting them.  While
this device doesn't have much use on Earth, in space it proved its
worth.

Of course, unless someone is flying in an asteroid field, the gravitic
readings usually remain constant.  So it came as a shock to Tenchi when
the readings started going crazy a few kilometers from the SDF-1.

"Control," Tenchi reported, "I'm getting some funny readings from my
gavitic sensor."

Commander Hayes was at the com this time. "We see it, too.  Good job,
Corporal."

The connection was cut again, and Tenchi continued his walk.

A moment later he was thrown off his feet and into a small canyon as a
group of battlepods charging down the mountains to the south decided to
take a few potshots at him.  As Tenchi climbed out of the canyon,
though, he saw that the pods were leaping their way towards the SDF-1.

*Uh-oh,* Tenchi thought as he activated his radio. "Control, this is
Skull Twenty-four, there is a battalion of battlepods approaching at
high speed."

No response.  Tenchi tried the transmission again with the same result. 
A quick check of the Veritech's diagnostics showed that the radio had
shorted out.

"Not again," Tenchi muttered.  An attack was headed for the fortress and
he couldn't report the enemy advance nor could he outrun them.

*Wait a minute,* he thought, *he didn't say to stay in Battloid mode,
just to not fly above ten meters.  It just might work...*

Tenchi's thoughts trailed off as he switched the Vertiech's mode to
Guardian.  It took a bit of deft handling to skim over the red rocks and
soil, especially when his thrusters were less than a meter above the
ground.  On the other hand, the heat from the thrusters melted the
smaller rocks or blasted them to powder, so he only had to worry about
the larger obstacles.

The enemy pods were in sight a few minutes later.  So was the SDF-1.  So
were the flashes of energy and explosions that indicated a battle was
underway.  Obviously, the group of pods Tenchi had spotted hadn't been
the only ones on the planet.

Tenchi closed to spitting distance before sending his missiles into the
crowd of pods.  He remained in Guardian and skated along the ground as
the survivors of his barrage turned to face him.  Energy bolts flew
around him as he wove, tumbled, and swerved his way closer to his
targets.

Most pilots preferred to hit their enemies at a distance, to preserve
the element of surprise and give them more maneuvering room.  Tenchi,
though, was from a different school of thought and believed in getting
up close and personal with his opponents.  Obviously, the aliens weren't
expecting that.

A damaged pod that had survived Tenchi's missile barrage was the first
to fall as a burst from his gunpod blew it apart.  Tenchi quickly
switched to Battleoid mode ducked as two battlepods shot each other
through the space he had been.

*They keep doing that,* Tenchi idly speculated as he whipped his rifle
around to blast a nearby missile pod.  He rolled to the side as another
pod attempted to step on him.  A quick burst of thrusters put him back
on his feet as he shot from the hip and hit the pod right in the center
of its sensor 'eye'.

A large form clubbed Tenchi from behind with one of its arms before he
could turn to face it.  It was a larger, more heavily armed version of
the battle pods that Intel has dubbed a Command Pod.  Tenchi hit the
ground in a roll and leapt to his feet as the pod's particle cannons
burned the ground between itself and Tenchi's Veritech.  Tenchi quickly
brought up his gunpod in order to return the favor, but the alien mecha
danced around Tenchi's shots as easily as Tenchi danced around the
alien's.

Tenchi hated face-offs.  The idea of standing and doing nothing while
your enemy does the same was both useless and counter-productive.  The
battle was still raging all around him, and his enemy had decided to
force a stalemate.

The face-off was broken suddenly as the ground shook and a
kilometer-tall pillar of flame obliterated the nearby ruins of Serra
Base.  A half-forgotten corner of Tenchi's HUD indicated that the local
gravitational field had finally stabilized as the SDF-1 rose from the
red rocks on it's contra-gravity drive.  Tenchi's opponent rocketed away
along with the surviving aliens, and Tenchi let him.  His ammunition was
depleted, the spare clip would take too long to install, and without his
radio he couldn't risk pursuing.

With a sigh Tenchi switched to Guardian and flew after the rising
battlefortress.  With luck, Commander Fokker wouldn't chew him out for
going above ten meters when the only other choice was to be stuck on the
planet while his air ran out.

*******

"So what are you here for?" Tenchi asked Rick as the two pilots sat
outside Fokker's office.

Rick shrugged. "Pulled Commander Hayes out of trouble when she decided
she wasn't going to get out of the base before it blew up.  You?"

Tenchi retruned the shrug. "Demonstrated once again that I don't have
what it takes for atmospheric flight."

Rick snorted. "You just keep forgetting that there's air around. 
Everyone else has the opposite problem, we keep flying in space like we
do planet-side."

"Wastes fuel and time," Tenchi commented.

"Sure does," Rick replied. "Not much we can do about-"

Rick broke off as the office door opened.  He and Tenchi leapt to their
feet and snapped to attention as Roy Fokker stepped out briefly.

"Alright, both of you.  Inside.  Now."

When Rick and Tenchi were seated across from his desk, Fokker finally
dropped the mask of anger and annoyance he had been showing.  He propped
his feet on his desk as he tossed a pair of small boxes to the seated
pilots.

"Well, congratulation on surviving another fight against insane odds,
boys," Fokker drawled. "Though Masaki, you really need to work on your
atmospheric flight skills."

"Yes, sir," Tenchi said as he looked at the box in his hands.

"With the graduation of the second class at the achademy, the time has
come for the junior officers in Skull to branch out into new flight
groups.  Given the ratios, we're looking at organizing them in
three-ship elements, with a Skull veteran in the lead and two recruits
to back him up.  That was the original purpose of packing almost forty
pilots into a single squadron.  Skull will be the only full squadron for
most ops, but the flight wings will form composite groups when the
situation requires it."

Tenchi and Rick just stared at Fokker, who then smiled.

"That's that the brass is saying, but you two don't have to worry. 
Instead, we're trying something new with you.  I want to see how a four
ship flight group will function in tactical situations.  You two -
Lieutenant Hunter and Sergeant Masaki -" Rick and Tenchi snapped open
the two boxes to see their new rank insignia resting on beds of velvet,
"will be in charge of the new Vermillion Squadron.  You're new
subordinates should be here...now."

The admittance chime sounded a moment after Fokker finished speaking. 
the door slid open to reveal an odd pair of pilots.  The shorter man was
slim, with blue hair and glasses.  The taller was dark and burley, and
reminded Tenchi of one of his old friends from school.

*What's happening to me?* Tenchi thought. *I can't even remember his
name.*

"Hey Sarge?"

Tenchi snapped out of his daze as the larger pilot - Ben Dixon, Tenchi's
mind labled him - waved a hand in front of his face.

"Oh, sorry about that," Tenchi said.

"He does that a lot," Rick commented. "Sometimes in the middle of a
mission, that's why his Veritech keeps needing repairs."

Tenchi smiled. "Actually, my Veritech keeps developing shorts.  The
techs haven't figured it out yet.  And I can run circles around you in a
fight, Rick."

"Hey, wait a minute," the other pilot - Max Sterling - said
enthusiastically, "you're the guy that trains outside the 'Tree!"

Tenchi shrugged. "I guess so."

"Hey," Ben exclaimed, "I got an idea.  How about we hit the streets for
a little R&R?"

Ben's idea was greeted with enthusiasm, until the alarm klaxons began
blaring.

"Next time, boys," Fokker commented. "Let's move."

End chapter 4

Authors ramble: you know, I was thinking of doing the first battle where
Vermillion's a team, but in thinking it out, I discovered that all I
would be doing is rehashing the original.  Plus, I had a *very* large
battle from later in the story begging to be written out, so I'm kind of
burnt out on that.

C&C is always appriciated, since as of this chapter, I no longer have
any pre-readers.

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