Macross: Thunder and Blackness

[Chaser617]

Chaser frowned as he almost stabbed his gloved fingers through the shutdown controls on the side panel of his Hellcat after landing back aboard the Ronald Reagan. He closed his eyes, ignoring the crew-chief scrambling up the side of his fighter, painting on two more kill marks to his already impressive total. In fact, right now he just wanted to shove the man off he was so furious, but, instead, simply waited wordlessly as the paint was sprayed, and the Hellcat was secured to the deck before it was lowered down to the hanger-deck on the aircraft carrier’s elevators.

Once he felt the ‘thump’ of the elevator as it reached the low point of travel he popped the canopy, all the while methodically disconnecting his oxygen tube, medi-sensors, data-link and the other umbilical that connected him with his fighter. That done he stood and nearly ripped his flight helmet off his head, shaking his sweat-soaked hair out as he stood on the ejection seat of his fighter.

When one saw Chaser, they would understand why he had earned the call sign “Goliath.” At six five, he nearly did not fit inside the fighters he piloted. The young man was nearly as broad at the shoulders, with a face that, for the last few months, never seemed to smile. With slate gray eyes he wore his hair short, unlike many pilots in those times who preferred their hair shaggy and almost unkempt. He was well respected by everyone, though several of his newer pilots admitted that they were afraid he would erupt at them at any moment. That just wasn’t true. Chaser was not a man of outbursts and rage, even if he felt like it now. The only thing he raged about was the loss of a pilot. And because of that, at the moment he was furious as he jumped to the deck, a thud sounding in the area as he stalked off towards the hatch.

“Congratulations Goliath,” one pilot said smugly with a fake smile. “Your now the highest scorer on the Reagan.”

Chaser turned, his slate gray eyes had fire in them. “What?”

“I said you broke the record.”

“You think I give a damn about the record?”

“What… what are you...”

“You bastard, I lost a pilot up there and you think I should be happy just because I broke some record!?” Chaser marched up to him, staring him down his face coloring. “Good men and women die every day. You here that? Die!!! I don’t give a damn about records; I don’t give a damn about your egos. What I give a damn about is the letter I have to write to Peter Covington’s mother!”

“who?”

“The man I lost up there, that’s who you bastard!”

“Listen, Goliath…”

“You listen!!” the roar of his voice filled the hanger deck, and for the first time anyone could remember the entire hanger deck stopped and was quiet as the enraged pilot’s voice echoed about. “This is a war damn it! A war! We loose people, and we cause people to be lost. Lost, you know what that mean? They are blown up, shot, drowned, anything you can think of, they aren’t going home!!! Is this all a game to you? Huh is that what you think? I have a news flash for you, it isn’t. You don’t get to hit reset on you computer whenever you’re shot down!!!”

“Commander McLoude!” a voice rumbled and Chaser straightened to see the wing commander, CAG Thompson standing at the hatch.

The young pilot frowned, but got the point, backed off his fellow, and tossed his helmet to his crew chief, who ‘ooffed’ and stumbled back from the force as Chaser stalked away. He followed Thomson to his office.

Once the hatch was closed and locked the shorter, older man spun on chaser. “Just what the hell were you doing Commander?”

Chaser looked. “Sir, I…”

“I don’t want to know Chaser, I don’t want to know.” He sighed. “I could have you court-martialed for what you did in the air today.”

“Sir?” Chaser felt his anger rising again. What he did in the air?

Thompson looked at him “You know exactly what I am talking about. You nearly disobeyed an order up there Commander.”

“CAG! He killed one of my pilots! I had a clear shot and you order me to stand down?!?!”

“Because he wasn’t the enemy.”

“What!? Sir, he shot down Covington!”

“Damn it McLoude don’t you understand? The War’s over!”

That one caught Chaser cold for a few moments. “O…Over?”

“You heard me Commander over.”

“When?”

“Ten minutes after you went up.”

“Did he know?”

“Yes.”

“Then he killed Covington after the war ended, you should have let me shoot the bastard down!”

Thompson just looked at him. “I agree with you Commander, but that doesn’t mean we can just cut loose.

“CAG, the bastard’s a war criminal! He sank a cruise liner as his first acion in the War and his favorite targets have been refugee camps!”

“I know Chaser, I know, I feel the same way, but, the leaders of the World Government felt it best that we put such things behind us now that we are all one big happy planet.”

“So they’re not going to prosecute him.”

“No they’re not. Anyway, that’s not the real reason I called you in here.”

“Sir?”

“The VF-33rd is being disbanded.”

Chaser’s moth nearly fell agape in surprise. :Sir, the Starfighters have served continuously not throught this war, but since nineteen twenty-eight!”

“That being said, you just flew your last mission as a member of the VF-33rd. All members of the squadron are to be transferred.”

“Where?”

“To Macross Island, that’s all I know.”

Chaser looked at Thompson for a good long while. “Macross, what is going on at Macross?”

“I have no idea, all I know is that UN High Command asked for the members of the VF-33rd to be transferred, they mentioned you by name actually. They said your record spoke for itself.

“Even though I’ve gone on record about being uneasy of a World Government?”

“Apparently that doesn’t matter anymore. You’ll ship out tomorrow, take a CV-22 to Macross along with your squadron. There, you’ll get your new orders,” Thompson stood, extending his hand. “For what its worth, I don’t like the idea of loosing you, but, whatever they want you and the Starfighters for, they made a good choice.”

Chaser slowly nodded, not really understanding what was going on, but, his orders were orders, wherever they had come from. With that, he first shook Thompson’s hand then stiffened to attention and saluted before walking out, not knowing he would never the man he had served under his entire military career again.

***

Chaser frowned as he waited for the ramp to lower at the rear of the CV-22A Osprey tilt-rotor carrier cargo aircraft. He had felt the bird ‘thump’ down a few moments before and was wondering what was so special that the United Forces had dragged an entire squadron out of service and out to this little rinkie-dink island in the middle of nowhere.

“All right Commander, we’ll let you dis-embark now. The ‘Sprey with the squadron is about an hour out,” the load master informed him.

Chaser nodded and hefted his duffle over his shoulder. He was still wearing a USN flight suit; in fact, he had his flight helmet under his other shoulder because he had worn it during the flight out. He took two steps forward as he heard the hydraulics of the Osprey whining and the first cracks of light appeared around the edges of the door.

The first thing that hit Chaser was the humidity, though, after serving in the pacific for the majority of his duty, that was nothing new. The next was the fermiliar smells of jet-fuel and other orders one found on the flightline, be it a carrier or land base. Chaser smiled gently, well he thought, atleast they’d let us keep flying… he hoped with a second thought as he stepped off the cargo aircraft.

And that was when he caught sight of something he never expected to see. Towering above the flight line of the local military base, dwarfing the modern city growing about it was a huge… huge… Well, he had no idea what the hell it was, but, whatever it was, it was huge!

“What in the world is that!”

A passing officer in UN United Forces uniform smiled at him, bowing slightly. “That, Commander McLoude, is part of the reason you are here, it is the Super Dimensional Fortress-Zero One, The Macross.”

“Wh…what?!?!”

“he smiled. “Commander, you and your squadron have been chosen to be part of the corps of the UN Spacy, Earth’s space defense fleet, and that…” the man waved to the giant construction. “Is its flagship.”

[Dangard Ace]

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