Disclaimer
I don't own Macross. If I did, I would be far too rich to be
bothered writing fan fiction.
Prologue
Trailing mists like some great bird, the VF-1A Valkyrie cut
cleanly through the cloud cover and into the clear air below.
The sun was just rising behind Seraph 210, burning across Sora's
shoulder and illuminating the black and white Valkyrie. Far
below her feet, through the wonders of the holographic cockpit,
Sora could see the jungle of Viet Nam, mostly untouched by the
Zentraedi holocaust. Not completely untouched; the city of Ban
Me Thuot, forty miles ahead of the pair of fighters, had been
lasered from orbit, and a Zentraedi Destroyer had crashed into
the heart of the city. Nothing grew for miles around the impact
site, even though the city had been abandoned; the toxic fallout
from the ship's engines had poisoned the very ground for many
miles about.
The earpiece in her helmet crackled. "Come right to three-five-
four for ten seventy, ascend to Angels twenty."
She checked her nav computer, and sighed; a return heading to
the base at Haiphong. Pity; she loved flying, even a simple
patrol, and she was unfortunate enough to have a group commander
who knew it. Unfortunate, because the CAG's favourite
punishment, whenever Sora was in hack, was to ground her. She
started to think the jet through the turn, then paused as her
radar pinged at her.
"Hold on, Lieutenant." She adjusted the set, and frowned. "Two
contacts, sir. Bearing two-six-five for fifty, down in the
clutter."
"I've got nothing on passive." Protocol for this sort of patrol
called for the wing commander to run with his radar on standby;
this made little sense when the wing commander was driving a
VF-1S, with its powerful sensor system. But nobody said that the
rules had to make sense.
"Hold on, running IFF..." She thumbed the button on the
throttle, and her radar transmitted an IFF - Interrogation Friend
or Foe - request. IFF was a little more advanced than it had
been last time there had been an air war here; even a civilian
aircraft whould respond with its transponder code, and there were
no hostile aircraft in the region.
No response was forthcoming this time. She scowled, and thumbed
it again. "Sir, I'm getting no response." She checked the radar
again, but the A's system could only give bearing and distance,
and a rough guess at velocity and direction of travel. "I've got
no reliable velocity figure, but their bearing appears to be
about forty degrees northeast."
"Probably just some civvies in a prop job."
"I don't think so, sir. Rate of climb is measurable, and it
wouldn't be on a civilian prop aircraft."
The Lieutenant sighed. "You just want to have an excuse to
continue flying. All right, Hasukawa, we'll go check out your
contacts."
"Vector two-seven-zero at six hundred for intercept, sir." Sora
advanced her throttles and pulled her jet slightly to the left.
"I'd advise you to go active, sir."
"Good idea." Her RWR beeped quietly as the more powerful radar
on the VF-1S came online. "Got them now...they're just above
supersonic. Skin paint says VF-1, but the computer's not 100%
certain." There was a click, then he said, "Sora, get within
five and give me a visual. I'll backstop you."
"IFF cannot confirm or deny friendly aircraft, sir."
"Master arm is on."
Sora threw the throttle all the way forward, past the afterburner
detente. The engines roared, as the "afterburner" began dumping
water into the thermal stream of the FF-2001 fusion engines,
producing a blast of plasma. The fighter leaped forward, and
Sora could almost imagine it was a state of the art machine,
rather than the fifteen-year-old relic that it was.
"Visual contact, sir." She rolled the fighter inverted, so she
didn't have to rely on the holographics. "Not VF-1 types at all;
some atmospheric fighter, probably Eagles or Flankers. They're
pretty big." She frowned, and rolled her ship upright. "Aspect
change on them...I think they're getting curious."
"Back off, Hasukawa."
"Roger, sir--"
The RWR went nuts, giving off the high-pitched warbling noise of
an active radar homing missile. Her eyes widened. "Missile!"
"Confirm. I'm jamming. Return fire."
Her hand flew across to the master arm ring and depressed it,
cranked it, and let it pop back up. "Weapons hot." She spun the
weapon selector, located on the throttle just under her thumb,
until it rested on Point Five, the laser turret. She pickled her
thumb button once, and the laser came on line.
She glanced through the holographic floor at the incoming
missile, and pickled again. A burst of laser fire slagged down
the missile.
"Missile is down."
She pulled on the stick, bringing the fighter around on the
bandit. The fighter reconfigured as she maneuvered, the engine
booms swinging outward to sharpen the turn. She never had to use
the reconfiguration levers anymore; the Valkyrie could read her
mind, through the sensor-studded helmet and gloves, and act on
her very whim.
She dropped in behind the bandit, and rolled the weapon selector
switch to Point One. The warbling tone of a locked-on heatseeker
filled her ear, and she squeezed the weapon release trigger.
"Fox one!"
Th missile was homing, hot and true...but to her shock, the
fighter ahead merely reconfigured, reshaping itself into robotic
form, and hosed down the missile with its cannon, now held as a
rifle.
"Lead, target is a variable!"
"Confirm. Get the hell out of there!"
She pulled up, but the reconfigured bandit continued firing the
rifle/cannon at her, and she screamed as the fighter started to
come apart around her.
"Two's hit!" She glanced over at her engine controls.
"Starboard engine's out, and I'm losing power on port." She
fired two more missiles at the bandit in front of her, then
jettisoned the rack. "Jettisoned...still losing power. I'm
punching out!"
She reached down between her knees, to the ejector handles, and
gripped them firmly. She hesitated long enough to mutter, "Good
riddance", and pulled them sharply. There was a series of sharp
cracks, as the canopy was blown away, and then she lost
consciousness as the blast of the ejector seat catapulted her out
of the doomed Seraph 210 and into the air.