ROBOTECH IV: The Odysseus Epic Superdimensional Starforce Orion by Presley H. Cannady ________________________________________________ @Copyright 1995 Anime Robotech Macross Development Group @Copyright 1985 Harmony Gold @Copyright 1993 Presley H. Cannady @Copyright 1995 Presley H. Cannady @Copyright 1989 Palladium RPG @Copyright 1994 Academy Comics @Copyright 1984 Studio Nue @Copyright 1984 Tatsunoko Std. ___________________________________ ________________________ Presode I- Meeting Grounds __________________________________________________________ Your wars with the Corron are a reflection of yourselves. You say this is different, that you are better than they because they haven't brought Armeggedon down upon you. But they are doing much more damage that the Invid, the Robotech Masters, or the Zentraedi have done to Earth. More people have died in this war, more land destroyed, more hardware lost. But since it is so spread out, you justify it as acceptable. Is the death of five hundred million people for the entirity of this war acceptable to you, sirs? -Vice Admiral S'tan'yi to Fleet Admiral Brethan and Senatorial Admiral Rawlings, 2179 Earthtime (AGS) Its amazing how difficult humans can make things. -Talunid President R'stan'ya, 2110 (After Great Severance) * * * Ishatarani VI, fourteen parsecs from the Corron border February 8th, 2169 THE BAT-LIKE PARIAH SLAMMED WHOLLY INTO THE WAVES WITH all the grace of a falling rock. A second later, Noriko shuddered as it blossomed in a fury of a fireball and steam in full force beneath her. Avoiding the plooms of boiling water, she swung her VF-20 Tymanech hard away, enjoying the rapture of the kill. The slowly rising farthest dwarf sun of Ishtar (shorthand) VI raced behind her, shadowing the clipped wingspan of her Veritech. "Scratch one," she told herself. Fortunately, Commander Noriko Hirota, Commander Vermilion Team, Mongol Squadron, didn't falter in cockiness. "Slippery bastard." Her love for combat did not stretch to those she combated with, although her "hate" was steadily geared toward them, not of bigotry, but respect. "Watch out, commander!" Her wingman knocked any stringent of cockiness out of her. The warning came just in time; she veered hard to the left, switching to Guardian configuration to avoid the incoming missile barrage. Dodging the arrows situated on her sit-awareness display was easy, however, breaking lock at this distance tended to be more on the difficult side. She had a bogey who sure as hell didn't want to be found. "Position check!" "Your in Sector-17 moving south-by-south-east," Lieutenent Takahashi said. "Moving in at 566 toward bogey at high 5 o'clock." "Well get your ass on him if you can see him!" "Since you ask so nicely, commander," Miki Takahashi said mockingly. Noriko grumbled aloud, searching for another aquisition. Within moments, a second Pariah had dominated her radar's search mode. Switching to orbital scan, she watched as its little brothers broke through the upper atmosphere, plunging towards the heated battle close to the surface. "Two fighter breaks at high 12 o'clock. Shit, they're stupid today." Stoicly, she wiped the lead fighter of with only two missiles. Switching to fighter configuration, she muscled onto the next one. A hustle. Her superior speed had not given way to overshot, as she fixated her floating target onto her radar lock. "Finally," she could taste the challenge as she danced dangerously with her new playmate. Arming her forward plasma cannons, she squeexed off a few rounds. With suprising, and suprisingly irritating ease, the Corron Pariah fighter arrogantly flew out of the barrage unharmed. Noriko sent her VF-20S into attack speed. With boosters on, she could easily wipe his smart-ass across the continent. But, unforunatly, Tymanech atmospheric light FAST-packs were in a shortage on Ishtarani VI. Her twin fusion engines roared in jet mode, hurtling her at Mach 1.1 towards her target. "No hit, repeat, no hit. Negative impact. Lost contact, Princess. Bandit out." She quickly overshot him as he switched from flying straight to a fifty-foot mecha. Menacingly devilish, the Corron Pariah resembled the old Zentraedi power suits, which they were based on. "Three more atmospheric breaks in sector Beta," Damn, she wish she had her booster packs today. "Crimean outfit thirty minutes out!" "What's taking them so fucking long!" "What, sir?" "Glad your paying attention, Miki." "Glad your watching your ass, Commander," her wingspan laughed. "Your a magnet for trouble." "Ain't it the truth," she said laconically while dodging another attack. Her GU-56 autocannon fired, ripping apart the first fighter, as Takahashi finished the other. However, the current fighter she was engaged with had- If it weren't for the dampers, the uppercut in fighter mode would have killed her. She instinctively switched to battleoid mode, fighting off the pain. Damn, this one was tricky! "Alright you rotten son of a bitch. She landed on the soft beach, as the Pariah converted to its guardian mode. She hit the trigger, tearing up landscape, but narrowly missing her target. Her tracking array was haywired from the multiple rounds, so she cut it off to recalibrate. Within a second, it was online and functioning. "Keep track of your targets," Takahashi mockingly advised. "Helps me." "Oh shut up," This sonuvabitch was as good as dead. "Target labelled Bogey-Blue heading oh-two-five, straight." As quickly as the first and second had died, a third- she labeled it Bogey Blue -shot out of the sky. The Corron Pariah first overshot, falling victim to Noriko's expert jinking manuevers. However, he wasn't to be killed so quickly. The Pariah, which resembled a Phoenix or some bird of prey, swung around thirty degrees, cutting across Noriko's field of vision. She automatically compensated, being careful to judge for her horizon at such a low level of flight. Jamming her finger on top of the key marked G, the computer automatically began transforming the Veritech into guardian configuration. The VT seemed to gracefully slide on the water, the massive exhaust thrust foaming the water into a gassy broth. Energy beams fired from her invent cannons. However, the Pariah pilot, an ace himself, avoided the obviously distinctive tactic, conceding altitude for speed. "Crawfish coming in!" the warning alerted her. The Pariah had launched two bulky Crawfish heat-seekers, the overkill weapon of the Corron fighter. But they were clumsy, and Noriko answered by dragging the ballistics into the sea. The sun began to rise as Ishtarani's sole gas giant, which seemed to be the size of the Earth's moon, descended into the cloud formation. She rose quickly as the Pariah began to retaliate, launching small missilettes from its pods. "Shit!" she shouted, Climbing higher, she threw herself into a gathering storm cloud. She hated flying in this type of weather, but her equipment allowed her to track the Pariah from here, while the inferior tracking equipment of the Pariah would not be able to locate her. "Bandit Eight to Princess, come in Princess." "Hey there, commander," her wingman replied. "Can't keep your eyes on a single target?" "Funny Takahashi," she couldn't see her wingman either. Princess- 1st Lieutenent Miki Takahashi -had been hiding out in the clouds as a second pair of eyes for her commander. "Do you see it?" "Locked. He's at four-eight-point-three. Closing in on your tail, commander!" The proximity alarm confirmed that assessment. Noriko quickly brought her Tymanech into a straight course before pulling the side- stick back violently. The gee-forces were nearly unbearable, however, the Corron fighter predictably shot under her. Quickly, she hit another configuration key, this time, converting the Veritech into a 48 foot mecha. The elven-ear like antennae focused in on the fleeing Pariah. Five long bursts erupted out of her GU-56X autocannon, but the Pariah had been well out of range. "Damn!" Noriko hit the dash. With terse anger, she forced the throttle stick full forward. The Battleoid's FCHUD (Full Canopy Head's Up Display) automatically recieved information from the VT's remote sensors, as it renofigured itself for a Level II combat zone. "He's heading mark two-eight-eight. What island is that, Takahashi?!" "Il'tana Eight," the reply came back. "Eighth in the chain of twelve islands. I read no indigenous installations there." Perfect, Noriko thought. "I'm pursuing on that course." she informed Takahashi. Then, turning her voice command microphone to her mouth, "CHATS on." The computer immediatly accessed the Cross-Hair Aquiring and Targeting System. Two axis, "x" and "y," appeared. A "z" axis was represented by the range finder already active in the radar display. The cross hairs danced about the canopy's interor until it found its mark. "Bear two-eight-seven true! Mark zero-zero-point-three!" The Battleoid crossed over the beaches of this jungle island, still dark and neglected by the rising sun's rays. Suddenly, the low whine of a target lock went active. Noriko hated flying planet-side. Especially over terrain this rugged. Il'tana Eight had five mountain chains, being part of a chain in this planet's mid- oceanic ridge. The thick jungle gourges and valleys were difficult to fly through, but were necessary to keep concealed from the inferior radar of the Pariah. Dodging overhangs and vinal growth, she suddenly saw the treeline begin to decline around her. Suddenly, her terrain ran out, and she was racing along a white- sanded beach. With the menacing grace of a Zentraedi battlepod, the Pariah burst out of the forest, firing directly up Hirota's center lane. The target lock went erratically to the right and broke. Before Noriko could interpret this, her rear-end proximity alarm lit up. Looking back, she suddenly saw the bastard Pariah in its own version of Battleoid configuration. "Not today, buddy," she said, reversing thrust hard and fast. Several missiles were launched at her, but her erractic manuever sent them skewing harmlessly into the beach below. She hit the ground, rolling the battleoid through the sand with cat- like motions. Stabilizing her autocannon, she fired at the incoming fighter. It two engaged into erratic movements, but two shots found there place in his left turbine. Realizing his wounds, the Pariah pilot immediatly broke off his attack, racing back over the sea. Noriko struggled up, switching to fighter configuration. "He's wounded," she reported, seeing the trail of acrid smoke from his fuel systems. I've got positive contact. This is one fast sonuvabitch." "I read you, five-by-five," Miki Takahashi acknowledged. "You want to stop playing down there? We've got three, no four confirmed atmospheric breaks at point Sierra-Sigma. Repeat, four confirmed breaks at point Sierra-Sigma." "Copy that, Lieutenent," Hirota replied. The VF-20 Tymanech continued straight. Its sleak Valkyrie-like design echoed its ancestry as it glittered in the sun. The movement caused the waves to part and foam around her as she pursued her current target at mach 1.6. "Where's the goddamned air support?" "Seven minutes out," Takahashi replied. "I'm engaging target Bogey- Sierra." "I didn't want to hog all the action," Noriko laughed. But her smile turned to a frown as her long distance radar showed the Istarani newcomers. The Planetary Defense Squadron, Ishtarani VI, had launched ten of its top-line Crimean fighters only fifteen minutes ago. To the displeasure of the Confederation pilots, the Ishtarani forces were rather lax in their defensive posture. The Crimeans were painted gold, to match the tint of the sky once morning reached full rise. Their aerodynamic design portrayed the combination of the oldest ATF and the F-15 Eagle it had originally been based on. "Reaching maximum battle perimeter," the lead Crimean fighter replied. "Three minutes!" The last three Crimeans rose out of the formation and started to head for the newest enemy contacts. Noriko saw it first. The fighter's trail swerved to a sharp left, its radar already fixing on hers. He released a volley of the Corron version of the AMRAAM missile. "Sunsparks!" Hirota shouted out the command. The onboard computer replied, ejecting small munition cannons as the FCHUD automatically adjusted for the new tactical situation. One-hundred-and-eight small hexagonal targeting blips on her canopy represented the maximum tracking ability of her powerful radar. All twenty enemy missiles were targetted, and the small munitions began to home involutarily on the missiles. She couldn't turn around or slow fast enough. As the munitions struck the missiles, she burst through the resultant explosion, probably searing the new wax job. Cursing, she realized that the Pariah had passed her by, heading straight in the opposite direction. A wide turn place her on his six o'clock position. Just a little closer, and he'd be unbreakably locked in her sights. Wait for it..... "Dammit!" she replied as the Pariah finally noticed her. She cursed herself for not firing sooner. It jinked out of her field of view, and she suddenly realized it was heading straight up. Out of power, she thought. It had to be running out. She must have strucked the turbines or something. "Time to press my luck." "Tallyho!" she cried out, bringing the nose to ninety degrees. The fighter raced higher and higher, the targetting blips searching for- There! She had him. The smoke was turning lighter and bluer as the purplish-yellow morning atmosphere gave way to open space. "Her, commander!" Takahashi came over the radio. "Your breaking defensive ceiling! Whataya doing?" "He's retreating, Princess. I'm gonna smoke this bastard." Three shots from an energy cannon caught her attention. While she was distracted, the Pariah had noted that she had persistently pursued him this far. Taking advantage of the situation, he had switched to his own battleoid mode again, and fired. The VT rocked as one seared her left invent. "Damn! That's it, mother-" She turned into her menacing battleoid, as if she was one with the fighter. Bringing the weapon up, she aimed full at the dark-blue mecha.. "Adios, compadre." As if pronouncing judgement, the release of the cannon fire was almost sexual in feeling. The long burst found its way to the already agitated wound on the Pariah, providing a predicable effect. The hydrogen-fusion tanks ruptured, expanding into the already warping fusealage. Within moments, the fighter exploded in a display that nearly blinded Noriko. As the debris and light cleared, she prepared to reenter by freefall, probably over the new contacts' position. She was wrong. "Forty illacamas till firing position." "Beginning main gun charge up, sir," another informed. "I read a small explosion, but nothing of consequence." The Commander leaned back in his chair. "Excellent. The Founders would be pleased." The Foxtrot-class battlecruiser began to descend on small world below. Leaving their mark on this world would be more satisfying than taking it. She didn't see it until it nearly encompassed her entire field of view. Like an harbinger eclipse, the Corron ship- Confederation labeled Foxtrot -was dark and omnious in appearence. It reminded her of old Zentraedi warships, the Marduk War- -her reason for getting the HELL away from there. As its reentry pylons extended like a bird-of-prey adjusting its flight before strike a field mouse or some other helpless animat, it began to eject hundreds of seemingly tiny objects. Pariahs, Ranoths, and mecha the Confederation only knew as Helms poured out rapidly. "Oh shit!" She quickly hit overdrive for the QUICKEST reentry she could hope for. The armada-flight of Pariahs began to pass over her, three breaking off specifically to engage and destroy Noriko. Commander Hirota descended into the lower atmosphere, ceiling at ten- thousand feet. She carefully manuevered into an abnormally high cumulus layer descending on one of the secondary continents. Concealed in the easterly moving cloud, she searched with her superior radar for her pursuers. It was her luck that they had descended into the cloud as well. The Corron Homeworld issued fighters primarily designed for space combat, with very little advantages in planetary duty. Cloud layers severely affected a Pariah fighters equipment. Without navigation, they couldn't find her unless- Three rounds of cannon fire forced Noriko into a wild evasive. Unless they made visual contact. She took a moment in her shock to ponder on how they actually found her, when she realized that she had not seen them leave the cloud layer, and all three were on her tail. She pulled out of the dangerous position her straight flying placed her in, diving for the ocean below. Th fighters followed dumbly on her route. Smiling, she hit guardian configuration and "skidded" across the silvery-purple waters. The first two Corron Pariahs, which resolved to remain on her six, were obviously rookies at this game; they hit the water without so much as an attempt to pull out of the dive. One was torn apart when he hit his guardian configuration (the Corron Pariah is actually a VT with a vulture-like shape and painted dark blue-the Corron Native Color). The third Pariah was smarter, taking a position on her six at high level. He released a small volley of missiles. Hirota fired off some sunspark intercepteroids, while dodging the surviving missiles and trying not to auger in. "Home Plate! This is Bandit Eight! Over!" Some static. Reentry often did a job on communications during reproach. "This is Home Plate. Your signal is now five-by-five. What's your situation?" "I've got a Fox cruiser on my tail! It launched a full battalion of- " "...that's Point Egarde's territory, right?" someone said in the background. Noriko blinked twice, and then repeated her message. "...we read you, Bandit Eight," the coordinator on Ch'iltana, the Confederation island base on Ishtarani VI replied. "Can you confirm that?" What the hell? "I said there-" "Where is your wingman? We don't have radar and Point-" "Point Egarde is dead, sir! Pariahs took it out three hours ago!" She had been fighting the bastards all night. "We're running low on our power matrix. Make a decision." What happened next nearly sent her on an attack course for that control tower. "Is your wingman with you! We don't have you on radar and we can't confirm your assess-" "Listen up shithead!" a gasp came over the radio. "I don't know what the hell you think you're doing, but I've got three Pariahs setting a pipeline for my ass as soon as I reenter! That qualifies me for some backup! Now get your candy-ass fighters airborne and get a cruiser here!" A pause. She wondered if bueracracy understood how many good pilots it killed. "Home Plate?" "We cannot authorize that action without confirmation. If you'd just-" "Fuck you!" she shut down her radar. To hell with them. "Princess, we've got problems." "I hear ya'," Takahashi replied. "The bastards." Her beard swooped down into formation with Hirota, as a wounded Pariah slammed into the cliff face of the small island they were passing over. "That just leaves two." "The Crimeans?" "Two are down, but they're handling the Ranoths fairly enough. We're the only VT's still up." Oh god, La Grange, Mikey. "Alright," she packed away her grief. "Let's do it!" The first Pariah had made the mistake of interpreting the movement of the first fighter as an attempt to regain the offensive. He paid for that by overshooting Hirota's VT and falling victim to the ferocity of her GU-56X. "That's one," she was pleased to see it explode on impact, instead of wounding it fatally like the first one. "One more Takahashi." "I'm on it," "Princess" replied. The second was slightly more tricky, but just as novice as the first. Takahashi tried something different. Carefully, she slipped into the stratus clouds over the small island below. The Corron's radar immediatly lost any clear lock on here. His search radar suddenly blared on. He was facing away from the sun, which had disappeared partly behind the clouds. Takahashi stealthily descended past the formation, closing in on the low flying Pariah. She let three long-bursts _delibrately_ over his head. In the panic, the poor bastard instinctively dove under the attack, at _five hundred meters!_ Moving at mach 2.2, there was nothing that could have saved him from his impending doom. "Jesus!" Noriko gasped as the Pariah found a tumultuous end in the deep. "What the hell was that for?" "Hey, I'm not the one always stuck in a rut, commander," Takahashi pointed out. Clearly satisfied with the kill, they headed for the- "Fire!" the command rang out. The ship whined with the gigajoules of energy it was being drained of. The sky went from hazy pink to bright white. Noriko shielded her eyes, hoping not to collide with her wingman. As she slid down her blast visor, she could still make out the clear white beams of the Foxtrot's main guns, blasting away at the- At the main continent. energy surge flashed on her screen. ???? "OH MY GOD!!!" she veered off just in time. The Pariah was not so lucky .The force of the energy round disintigrated him in less than an Earth second, reducing his fighter and all to nothing but the atomic subparticles he was made of. The beam, directly produced by a matter- antimatter spread over the planetary energy shield laughed at the Capitol's meager defense screens. It would slice through the civilian sector, in typical Corron retreating attacks, and killing in less than three seconds. "Holy mother of..." Takahashi drowned off. The beams laced through the sky, impacting with the capital city and quickly scalpeling the continent. Magma poured from the deep cracks as Ishtarani's governing populace screams disappeared as their origins were vaporized. The energy wave had hit first, moving faster than light. It had already turned the most of the population and structures into compressed liquid. The light seared the eyes of those dying survivors, and the heat and radiation waves quickly began to vaporize the remains. Whatever or whoever was left lay dying and crumbling, either from uncurable wounds, or radiation sickness. "Chol'ata is gone....." "Bandit Eight, this is Home Plate," There was the expected static. Hirota was too stunned to respond, or to be angry. Takahashi answered in her stead. "Roger that, Home Plate." "We acknowledge confirmation for Commander Hirota," the watch officer replied softly. "We are launching retalitory squadrons from all _remaining_ continents." Hirota didn't speak. They were too late. The battleship was already retreating. "Hey Bandit." All this for noth- "Look out commander!" Takahashi's sudden change of tone jerked her out of shock. But that would be of no consequence. Before she could move, three missiles buried deep into her right turbine and central power engines. "Oh god, Takahashi!" she called out. "I'm hit bad! Engine failure is...oh god! I'm going to have to bail." "Copy that," Takahashi said, having taken a energy beam to the invent. The Pariah shot past, thinking it had killed them both. Takahashi introduced him to the consequences of assumption, sending thim to hell with five missiles up his ass. "You can bail out here. I'll be able to track you with your beacon." She hoped that the forward fusealage was still ejectable. That way, she could glide into the ocean below. She screwed off the safety cap, slowed the VT down to subsonic speeds, and spread her swing wings open as far as possible. The VT gained the drag it need, and she turned the activation pull and yanked it toward her. Nothing. "Dammit. Takahashi! I'm going to have to bail manually. The little prick must've picked off my ejection bolts...yep. That's what he did alright." "Copy, Bandit," Takahashi replied. "There's a small atoll just one kilometer to your left. See it?" The canopy was fogged from the acrid smelling smoke leaking from her VT's wounds. "Yeah, I can make it." In a pig's eye. She carefully turned the Tymanech, under the protectful watch of her wingman, banking and turning slowly. The whine of structural integrity failure increased. Just a little more. Noriko eased herself back up, allowing the plane to decrease speed. She cut the auxillary engines- having already shut down the main power engine and right turbine -and began a gliding descent. 2000 meters. Only a few more... She placed her helmet's neck brace on and flipped open the safety cover of the ejection lever. "Five, four, three, two, one, GO!" The canopy ripped open, and the ejection seat launched from the VT at several kilometers per second. The plane fell beneath her, descending slowly until it hit the murky waves below. It survived the crash for a few seconds befor the auxillary systems and structural integrity failed, destructing the VT as quickly as a missile volley would. The force of moving air, wit a delta-v of 145 khp, seemed to crush on her. She wasn't very petite, four inches over six feet, a slight above-norm height in these days. The ejection seat fell from beneath her as her parachute deployed. The wind was somewhat favorable, guiding her toward the beaches. It looked like a clean landing right on the islands sandy- A trade wind picked up, knocking her off course. Struggling to swing her self back, she continued to fall toward the thick jungle area. Seeing the inevitabilty of her situation, she lifted her legs, tucking her body in as she descended into the treeline. The beauty of the new Tymanechs was the ejectable forward fusealage. The entire front was blown away just as the left engine exploded, sending shrapnel glittering into the ocean. The fusion reactor exploded wthinin its containment field, as it would under catastrophic situations, however, Hirota could see the explosion from ten miles out. As the fusealage glided into the waves, she closed her eyes, waiting for the impact. Branches slapped against her like whips; the protective suit offering know confort at all. As twigs and trees gave way, ripping at her parachute, she couldn't even her Takahashi's low approach as she fell through the growth. Then, in what seemed like eternity, she slammed onto the ground. Something snapped, and her world grew black.