Along A Different Path:
An AU Macross/Robotech RP

AD 2014: Tirol Orbit
Two Weeks After the arrival of the SDF-1 Macross in Tirol Space, Two Weeks after the battle against the Invid Fleet...

Captain Henry James Gloval looked out of the curve of the Macross bridge window, standing on the command balcony level of the ships' multi-story command deck. Out beyond the reflections of the bridge crew hard at work, the sleek, alien shape of the Core Worlds starship - they called it a 'battlecarrier', he remembered - hung in space. The alien ship was wholly three-quarters of the length of the mile-long Super Dimensional Fortress, and he knew from experience from the frantic battle that had broken out when the SDF-1 had emerged from fold-space into orbit of the world hanging below them, that the ship packed as much power as it's hulking lines implied. The only thing it was lacking in was a similar 'ship-killer' to the SDF-1's own main gun.
The captain sucked on the end of his wooden pipe, tapping his lip with the end of the stem as he looked out at the vista. Lights shuttled to and from from the outstretched ARMD carriers that formed the 'arms' of the SDF-1, and from bays all over the ship. Shuttles and fighters, transferring supplies, equipment and personnel to the ship of their new allies, the self-styled 'Sentinels'.
As a movement behind him caught his eye in the reflection, he locked eyes with his first officer, a tall and elegant dark-skinned woman; Claudia Grant.
"Penny for your thoughts, Captain?" she said in a smooth and confident voice.
"Ah, Claudia," he replied in his thickly Russian-accented voice. "I know we don't have much choice, stuck here so far from home and with so many to look after. But I still can't help thinking: Are we getting ourselves into more trouble by making this alliance? Are we making more enemies we don't need? And am I sending my people into danger?"
"I know you're worried, Captain - but would we do anything less for anyone else? They need our help, as much as we need theirs. I don't see what else we could do. And we had to send someone to help with command".
"You're right, Claudia, of course. Don't mind me; I'm just an old man gathering his thoughts".
"Ah, it's okay to care, sir. And don't worry, they can look after themselves. The Invid won't know what hit 'em".
One particular twinkle of light launched from the deck of the ARMD carrier on the port side of the SDF-1, accompanied by the blue exhaust flares of an escort squadron, and the captain followed it with his eyes as it approached the Sentinel's landing bay, pushing the tiny shape of the Star Goose shuttle along with all the good will he could muster.

In the bay of the ship, the crew were hard at work finding parking and landing spots for the influx of Destroids, Variable Fighters, Dropships and vehicles. Not to mention bunks and berths for the humans who'd come along with them, and all of their associated supplies. The human crews and their new allies worked together, but there was still a wary curiosity between the two groups. Small knots of people of all species stood around, almost like the first few dances of a party where people are too shy and awkward to talk to each other, other than the first few sideways nervous glances and awkward conversations over the buffet table.
Announcements in a half-dozen languages sounded as the latest landings were announced, and among them the human commander of the RDF forces, Commander Hayes, was coming aboard.
The aerodynamic yet bulbous shape of one of the human personnel transport ships hove into view, escorted by a trio of their swift and sleek fighters, which held a neatly-positioned formation around the fighters.

On the deck, a small reception committee from some of the Sentinels' members had formed. Ordered to assist in receiving the commander and the pilots, the group were a mixed bunch. A Selachai, Olthranan, Tirolian and Felness.
"Fall in, boys and girls," ordered the Red Panda. "We should probably at least try and make this look good, since these-" she paused and frowned, trying on the human language without the aid of her communication translator "-Arrr Deee Efff are giving us such a helping hand with all their mecha and people. And they certainly know a thing or two about fighting. The ones here are some of their best, too, so we ought to thank them and make them feel welcome, all right?"
The shuttles' gear came down as it lined up on the landing pattern, hook down to catch the arresting wire across the mouth of the cavernous bay. A short distance back, the fighters dropped back, staying in their impeccable formation.

In the cockpit of the left-most variable fighter, a VF-1 Phoenix, Gabe 'Struck' Strucker spoke over the communications channel to his wingmen - or women, in this case - as the Star Goose lined up neatly.
"All right, ladies - let's keep it nice and neat for the commander. Not to mention our new friends, they may have seen what we can do in a fight, but now's the chance to show them we can do spit-and-polish just as well as we do rough and tumble",
He eyed the SV-52 and VF-1 on his wings, and mentally noted how well both Svenja and Rita flew. Both women were exacting and precise in their movements, but still had their individual edge and fluidity, that 'signature' each pilot had in their movements. He knew that his own style was a combination of smooth movements and swift changes of mode and direction, though that was as much a mark of his craft as it was his professional touch.
Turning his attention to the ship ahead, he searched the brightly lit interior of the bay as it swallowed the shuttle. He'd seen and met face-to-face a few members of the alien races aboard, and had been surprised by how similar they were to humans in a lot of ways. But living and working alongside them... what would that be like? Would he get to know them, become friends with them? It was exciting and a little scary to imagine. Only weeks earlier, he'd still been in near-denial of the fact that aliens existed at all, despite being aware of the origins of the technology that was behind the VF's and the SDF-1. Now, here he was after having fought beings from another world, and fought alongside others still.
A processed voice coming from the Sentinels landing control informed him of landing approach, and he let down the VF-1's landing gear and lined up on the bay mouth.
"Struck, on the ball. All green" called the RDF landing operator. "Looking good, keep it coming," he advised, coaxing the fighter-mode mecha down into a landing. The familiar grab pulled at his stomach as he felt the gear kiss the deck, a good trap on the second wire, he thought.
A vulpine-looking alien dressed in blue overalls waved him to a parking spot with a pair of lighted batons, and he felt hypnotized and slightly disoriented by watching the XT perform so familiar an action, until he taxied into position alongside the parked shuttle and shut down his engines. The ladder extended from below the cockpit, and he climbed down, waiting for the others to catch up as the shuttles' air stair folded down.

Commander Hayes stepped down from the hatch on the side of the Star Goose. Willowy and lithe, the Commander carried herself with an air of quiet authority and commanding presence, despite a hint of doubt behind her eyes.
Looking at her fellows to either side of her, Irry stepped forward to meet the commander, as the other humans made their way over.
"Commander," she said, carefully measuring her words and making sure they sounded right. "Welcome aboard the Sentinel. Thank you for coming, and we look forward to working with you. All of you," she added, nodding to include the fighter pilots.
The Commander looked to the red panda-like XT and nodded in reply, smiling warmly and offering her hand, before looking to the others.
"Thank you," she replied in a warm, confident voice. "I'm glad to be here. And on behalf of the RDF, I-"
She was cut off as alarms sounded, and the overhead lighting turned red.
"Battlestations! All hands to battlestations! Enemy defold detected, Invid troop carriers launched and closing in!

"I lift off... My wings lift to the skies... Hm mm hmm... Arise from ashes, and now I fly.... Hmmm mmm..." Calmly humming as she made precise, yet carefree movements with the centre-stick control of her VF-1A Phoenix Variable Fighter and watched the stellar scenery, Rita kept alongside her squadron-leader. Wearing a bored expression, she alternated between singing the lyrics of a song that had appeared in her head and taking a sip from the bottle of flavored yogurt that she cradled between her legs. Making sure that outward comms from her were off, she smiled somewhat when she confirmed that no one could hear her song. Rita liked to think of herself as a decent enough songstress, it was more a concern of privacy when it came to her not wanting others to eavesdrop on her music.

"All right, ladies - let's keep it nice and neat for the commander. Not to mention our new friends, they may have seen what we can do in a fight, but now's the chance to show them we can do spit-and-polish just as well as we do rough and tumble" The voice of the squadron-leader, a Gabriel Strucker, that apparently most people called Gabe or Struck and a man eleven years her senior (not that it made much difference in the grand scheme of things, Rita reflected silently) spoke over the comms. The second part especially struck a cord with Rita; during her earlier aptitude testing planetside, she had remarked that there had been a large amount of non-human observers. Rita hadn't found it too bothersome, only slightly peculiar that the opinion extraterrestrials gave would be a deciding factor in letting her remain in RDF service. Shrugging this detail off as she sucked on the straw leading into the bottle, she finished the drink, the bottle of which she then crushed underneath her foot and stuffed in a button-less area next to her seat as she spoke her response.

"Gotcha sir." She yawned shortly after and adjusted her helmet on her head as they followed Star Goose in for a landing on the Sentinel. Slowing down to let the squadron leader land first, she made note of how he landed on the alien deck. Noticing the arresting gear, she realized how close human technology was to the ET's, not just in how advanced it was, but in the methods of doing certain things. She likened it to how almost every human civilization had come up with the bow and arrow at some point, despite some not having any contact with others. I guess we have more than a few things in common. She thought silently as she lined up the fighter for a landing. The hook came out from behind, awaiting to latch onto a cable on the deck and after waiting for Gabriel to taxi into a position out of her way. Slowing down enough to still have enough forward momentum but be slow enough to have enough precision, an easy feat considering the lack of danger of stalling, due to her flying in space, she brought the Phoenix to land on the deck. Latching onto the first cable, she smiled and patted herself on the back as a congratulation on the near perfect landing. She realized that perhaps her approach could have been a bit smoother, but she still was satisfied enough with the landing. "Not bad for a first time on a ET ship.", she muttered to herself as she let a rather furry looking fellow guide her to parking her plane. She awaited a moment for the ladder of the Phoenix to lower before manually lifting the canopy and climbing down.

Walking over to stand next to her squadron-leader, she nodded to him, giving him a playful thumbs-up to compliment his own landing. She watched as the commander, stepped out of the shuttle. Shooting a salute that barely lasted a second, she then watched as a red panda-esque alien spoke to her. Speaking in a way that indicated that the human language was something of a difficulty for her, she offered her greetings not only to the commander, but to the fighter pilots too. Smiling and nodding in the ailurus fulgens' direction, she then observed as the commander offered her hand to the extraterrestrial being. Suddenly, the lighting overhead turned a nauseating shade of red and an alarm sounded, one that Rita couldn't exactly classify as a Klaxon due to its distinct difference in sound. An urgent but clear voice clarified the situation:

"Battlestations! All hands to battlestations! Enemy defold detected, Invid troop carriers launched and closing in!" Sighing, Rita turned to the blonde man standing next to her and spoke with a slightly cheerful tone in deep contrast to the situation.

"Orders?"

"Fall in, boys and girls," ordered the Red Panda

mike stepped lively into position, using his left arm to align and space himself with the group, once the short jostle was over he snapped to attention watching the human ships carefully make their way to the landing bay. the shapes seemed similar to the sentinel's own, but blockier, and less refined, but seeing them in action, he knew they had the strength and speed to rival anything they, or the enemy had.

mike took a quick glance to his left and right, to the motley bunch he was in. of all the species to put in a welcome party, they put a Felness, A Selachai, and a Tirolian. each being stereotyped as a manipulator, a potential fight, or what some people still considered traitors, despite the Tirolians being left in a figurative shithole. in truth, mike liked the Tirolians, the ones he met, while blunt, were honest and worked hard. he'd have thought they would have sent a groomed squad of Vulfen, they seemed more suited to mingle with other races, his own being the exception.

this would give a PR agent a heart attack. mike thought as he sighed, catching himself midway and locking back into position. he supposed it didn't matter what he thought, his job was to pilot a metal monster, far be it from he to cast stones. in either case, life was about to get a little more complicated in space.

As the shuttle touched down, Tashia Wex snapped to attention along with the rest of the welcoming party. The long-haired Tirolian's face was set in a professional frown, her uniform and salute impeccable. It wasn't just for the humans' benefit - It had been months since the Tirolian remnants had joined the Sentinels, but she still copped the occasional suspicious glare or snide murmur in the flagship's corridors and mess halls. The Robotech Masters had held power in the core worlds for so long that some people still saw Imperial jackboots every time they looked at a Tirolian. Well, she had been chosen for the welcoming detail, not them. That fact alone was somewhat reassuring to the young pilot - maybe someone up the chain of command saw things differently.

She was distracted from her train of thought as the human commander stepped down from her shuttle. The new aliens were always odd to look at, she thought. Not because of how different they were, but because they were so familiar. This Commander Hays even more so, with her build not as stocky as most humans - If she squinted, she could have mistaken the tall brown-haired woman for a pale Tirolian. The ramifications of this had been dominating the shipboard rumour mill ever since the battle above Tirol, especially amongst the Tirolian crew, but for her part Tash had kept herself too busy to indulge in much speculation. The humans were good fighters, that would have to be enough for now.

Tash was trying to follow the conversation between her own CO and the human commander - she had scrambled to learn the human language when it had been announced they were joining the fleet, but she was sure she had been making embarrasing mistakes every time she talked to a human in the Sentinel's corridors - when the emergency lights snapped on. She stiffened, heart racing as she cast a meaningful look at the Felness beside her, Mike. Talk about a warm welcome...

Roland seemed to have a somewhat more commutative stay in the ship unlike others. Over the short period he had on board the fox has managed to situate himself in a room where he placed all of his personal belongings inside along with a music player given to him by some human. He traded something of value for it, but felt he cheated the man for the music player. Regardless, it was in his room now so he couldn't fix all of that. The fox glanced over his shoulder at the equipment he brought from the armory, which was laid out across a table. He went over to pull everything on then made his way back towards the armory, relieved to have familiar weapons in the firm grip of his pawish hands.

The trip back to where he got his guns was a smooth one, the Sentinel listening to the broadcast as it spoke about the commander's arrival in his language. Oh.. I hope my English is well enough He though, clearing his throat after glancing over to a small group he walked by. "Hello, I am.. Roland. I am happy to meet you." He said to himself, there was almost a delay for each word but he felt confident for his language acquisition despite the fact it was only basic English, the pilot knew it was going to be a roller coaster ride to decipher these terms.

Of all the human languages why did they choose the most difficult one for us to learn? Why are there three there's?! Do I use it's or its? Aii aii aii. The quarter master could see the young pilot's worries as he handed his rifle and handgun over, letting out a slight shuddered sigh before looking up at the crew member who was giving him a reassuring smile. He in return nodded back and went towards the door, hummin to himself a reggae tune he had been listening to on the music player. If only the player wasn't soo bulky, he would've been able to take it around with him instead of leaving it in his room... His room seemed like a good idea right about now.

Right when Roland was heading out the door until a thought had hit him, the broadcast he heard about the humans. "... Uh oh!" The fox muttered, bursting into a full dash straight to the hanger without a moment to take his breath. Upon entry he was panting heavily for a few seconds before falling in, trying to make himself as presentable and not exhausted looking as possible. It was a relief that nobody noticed his late appearance, or so he thought, and before he thought otherwise the alarms snapped him back into full attention, the fox glancing around the hanger for a split second before looking over at the COs, turning to face them. "I am ready, sir."

Svenja popped the canopy and unstrapped herself from her craft's seat. She was thankful the Sentinels' aerospace technology was as similar to mankind's own as it was; at least they had the same common design principles, and that allowed for compatibility between the RDF and Sentinel's fighter complements. Still, Svenja unknowingly cast a worried face at the Sentinel crewmen who attended to her craft. It was as if someone took a handful of zoo animals, dressed them up and taught them how to crew aircraft; although Svenja had to remind herself that these weren't simply animals, and were very much sentient beings. It was very surreal.

The Swedish ace pulled her helmet from her head and clutched it in her arm as she regrouped with her wingmates. In a sea of sentinels, it was a bit of a relief to find a familiar face. She watched the Commander exchange greetings with the Sentinels' representative, and was thrown off when the red panda-esque Sentinel opened her mouth to speak. Was it wrong to think this was so bizarre? Let alone the Sentinels' animal counterparts on earth could never hope to speak due to their mouth shapes, that is, if they somehow tried. Come to think of it, what would the Sentinels think if they saw the animals back home? Especially the way we keep pets, or use them for labor. Svenja didn't want to imagine what would happen if they saw the gritty depictions of animal testing, or mass food farms. Maybe if the rest of the earth population connected with the Sentinels, it would make it rethink its treatment of animals.

Svenja's mental ramblings were interrupted by an ear-grating cacophony, and her vision turned a violent shade of red. "Battlestations! All hands to battlestations! Enemy defold detected, Invid troop carriers launched and closing in!"
She wanted to protest and shout, "We just got here!" but her body was already bounding back to her craft. Diplomacy would have to wait.

Mino was not the type of man to be particularly tuned into the feelings of those around him, but he could tell that a little hope had returned to the fleet. Just as well, the arrival of the RDF and the resulting Sentinel victory given Mino a small amount of optimism—enough to belay his normally salty attitude for the past two weeks since. He could confidently tell himself that the peace wasn’t a delaying of his race’s extinction, but the beginning of the end for his enemies. He might not necessarily see said ending, but he had survived to see the Invid suffer a loss, which was very satisfying in and of itself.

Topping things off, Mino had somehow managed to the distinction of being place on a welcoming committee for the leader of all the humans that had been appearing around The Sentinel. He had been told that his long record of survival was to blame, but there were definitely other, more, “sociable,” looking pilots with the same sort of distinction. Then again, those pilots might have finally kicked the proverbial bucket. So he stood, hands on hips, casually waiting for the guest of honor. When the expected shuttle made its way into the bay, Mino glanced at his comrades and found a half smile stubbornly stuck on his face. Something about the group amused him. He only found out what it was when the last member of his new(ish) squad, a vulfen, came running in and settled into the line, almost as if nothing had happened. The smile persisted all through what greetings the human commander received, up until it was cut off by the ship’s intercom.

The offending occurrence turned Mino’s smile into a frown. To him, the ship’s alarms had lost their initial edge. While the change in lighting and sudden volume had at one point startled him, he had grown used to it. Instead, the fear that the alarm had originally inspired, slowly transformed into feelings of dread, as each battle stretched his lucky streak thinner and thinner. The more he flew, Mino knew, the lesser his chances of ever seeing Selachia again. He groaned and muttered a few curses, before hustling off to where his SV-VII had been parked.

When he reached transforming war machine, he latched onto the ladder that was propped against its side and released a breath he hardly noticed he had been holding. His fighter was the double-edged sword of his life and dreams. Let’s get it overwith, he thought as he climbed into the cockpit. One of the crew handed him his helmet and helped him through his system checks.

The Wail of the alarms broke the proceedings with mixed reactions of relief and panic. mike caught the Tirolian's glance with a daredevil's grin.
"oh good, I was wondering when they'd show up" mike muttered patting the Tash on her shoulder before running towards his VF, fluidly dodging techs and pilots each milling for their positions.

"GOOD LUCK, SEE YOU OUTSIDE!" he yelled back as he caught his stripe adorned helmet and jammed it on his head before jumping into the cockpit. he watched the crewmember in front of his FV, and followed his instructions, going through a hasty systems check. finally the ferret gave him the go ahead to taxi into the runway and was replaced by a hare who motioned for the fighter in front of mike's to launch.
< Lt Mike, Nawlin to tower, requesting permission to launch> mike called over the radio, watching as another SV-II moved into position and launched.

<Tower to Lt. Nawlin, permission to launch granted, good hunting> the response was echoed by the hare pointing to mike, positioning him in front of the blast deflector and into launch position. Easing the throttle up, mike tapped at the mini music player strapped to his thigh as his other hand slowly increased the throttle, waiting for the hare who nodded to him and dropped into a forward kneel, pointing star ward.
With nothing else to do, mike slammed the throttle forward in challenge to the black vacuum and jarred with the sudden lack of gravity, before steeling himself. a quick check showed him on Channel and wasting little time he called out.
<Nawlin here, moving to intercept hostiles> he growled reducing throttle to under redline, and joining the rest of the defending forces.

Irry looked up with a grimace as the alarms sounded, before shifting his glance back to the others. Around her, they all showed the same gut reaction she did; at least the reactions of fighter pilots were something that were the same across the species divide. They all moved instinctively, heading for their craft.
"Commander," Irry said, pausing to turn back to Hayes. "Are you going to return to the Macross?"
"No," said Lisa firmly, shaking her head. "Space is about to get a lot more dangerous in the next few minutes, and an unarmed shuttle is no place to be in the middle of it all. And besides - If I'm going to be working from the bridge from now on, I ought to take my place there instead of hiding. Now go; your pilots need you. I can find my own way. Good luck!"
Irry managed a passable imitation of the humans' salute, before she too ran for her SV-VII, hot on the heels of the rest of her welcoming committee. As she turned, she caught the eye of the blond human. He paused as he met eyes with her, giving a tight smile and an affirming nod. She twitched her tail and returned the gesture, and waved to the others.
"Be careful!" she called, before running to her fighter and climbing aboard. A crewman tossed her helmet, and assisted her with buckling in, before the overhead grapple-crane arm locked around the points on the back of the fighter, and lifted it onto the elevator with the human and a handful of other Sentinel craft close behind. Armoured bulkhead doors slide closed behind the fighters, and the elevator lifted them to launch deck level.
Fighters were already streaming off of the catapults, Alpha/Beta pairs, solo Alphas and Betas, and Delta fighters. Across the gulf between the two ships, she caught sight of the same routine underway on the Macross as the two 'arms' of the ship thrust fighters into the void from their deck-side catapults. Then the deck-crewman waved her along with lighted batons, close behind Nawlin, who launched moments ahead. She glanced sideways and saw the blond human in his white-and-blue fighter, his head was down, but then he looked up and saw her again, giving a thumbs up.
The catapult shoe engaged, and she ran the engines up to power at the light-signal from ahead, before toeing off the brakes. A slam in her back, and the Alpha was airborne.

Gabe felt whisked along as events continued around him. The sirens going off had been the start of it, and he'd been swept up since then. So far, it was all so familiar; the grapple arm was a bit different, but served the same purpose as an aircraft tug, and the catapult deck was familiar enough.
He caught sight of the red panda, who was looking his way. He gave her an affirmative thumbs-up, she seemed nice enough so far, and was looking out for the human contingent pretty well. Besides, he recognized her Alpha from the previous battle. She'd covered his ass at one point, and he'd done the same back. She had some skills, and had put herself out there for the RDF forces. That kind of thing was something you gave a little respect and understanding for.
The Sentinel manning the catapult waved him forward, and the shoe engaged with a CLUNK. A blast deflector came up behind, and a familiar human voice crackled in his ear; another of the crew who'd crossed over as part of the RDF contingent, no doubt.
"Commander Strucker, cleared on takeoff. Form up with uh -" there was a quiet moment, before the voice came back "-Lieutenant Colonel Jacquo and her unit. Intercept enemy bandits, and draw them away from both friendly vessels so we can engage the enemy targets, over".
"Affirmative, CIC. Received and understood. Break. Ahlstrom, Suzuki - form up on me. We're joining the Sentinels lead on this op, the objective is to intercept the battle-crabs before they reach home-plate, and draw them off so they can bring the big guns into play. Over".

Irry monitored the stream of info going back and forth as the Sentinels and RDF pilots sorted themselves out of a muddle and into something approaching a tactical formation as the Invid ships closed in. Ahead of their main ships, a trio of the clam-like assault carriers powered ahead, accelerating to reach the predefined point in space where they'd open their shell-like doors, and all manner of crab-like Invid mecha would vomit forth into the void. Unlike the bigger vessels, their hulls gleamed burnt red under the distant glow of Valivarre, the system primary star.
"Stand by for contact," Irry advised in a tense voice over the squadron channel. "Launch long-range missiles on my mark, over"
"Wait one," advised Lisa's voice from the CIC. "Hold your current course and speed, over"
A flurry of flashes of light rippled from the Sentinel and Macross, as anti-ship missiles blasted forth from the VLS silos on both ships, and from the remaining escorts. The swarm of missiles rapidly overtook the fighter formation, lancing ahead toward the Troop Carriers and more distant capital ships. Bright beams stabbed out from the Invid ships, and numerous explosions dotted the silent expanse. However, almost as many of the cap-ship class missiles, each bigger than the fighters themselves, got through, and dotted the hulls of the enemy ships with silent wounds.
Then the Invid ships were through. The doors on their upper and lower hulls yawned open, and red and purple invid mecha blasted into the blackness on blue points of light, streaming globes of plasma and lethal frisbees of energy towards the fighters.
"All ships, fire!" called Irry, letting rip with her long-range missiles. Others followed suit, the missiles corkscrewing into the blackness on white trails. "Break and engage!" she followed up, and hauled her fighter into an effortless wingover, diving in pursuit of a shock-trooper as it attempted to sneak through the formation. Gabe blasted in hot pursuit, as Invid mecha barrelled through the formation and attempted to dodge-and-dive for the ships behind them, while their capital ships closed distance.

She didn't take a moments delay in getting to her own Phoenix fighter after getting the confirmation to sortie from Gabriel. Not evening waiting for the ladder to descend from the cockpit, Rita only vaulted incredible agility into the open cockpit and after making a perfect landing, she fastened herself in as she closed the canopy with her free hand. Starting the thrusters, she was quickly directed to an open catapult right after a Sentinel fighter had taken off. The shoe attached to the gear and Rita excitedly let her fingers dance on the throttle as the barrier came up behind the craft. Noting the objectives and parameters in her head as the crewman listed them. After finishing, her own leader spoke. "Affirmative, CIC. Received and understood. Break. Ahlstrom, Suzuki - form up on me. We're joining the Sentinels lead on this op, the objective is to intercept the battle-crabs before they reach home-plate, and draw them off so they can bring the big guns into play. Over".

Rita sighed, but the irregular sound of it showed her innervation. "Ah, shame. Was a lot more fun when I didn't have furballs to babysit. Even worse when they start ordering us around. Whatever. I'll follow your orders, leader, but don't expect me to call you sir." She ended the phrase with a chuckle to show that she wasn't serious and awaited the light to hit the throttle. When said light came on, she punched the lever forward, causing it to make a rather loud thump when it hit the end of its track. The catapult engaged and the plane rocket forward. Once it had let go of the gear, she pulled up and joined Gabriel's formation. In her head, she complimented herself on the take-off. Catapult take-offs were relatively simple, but there was always a possibility of failure in any activity, even one as trivial as this and thus she decided that she deserved a compliment, if only from herself. They eventually reached the correct position, headed straight towards the enemy vessels. Her cockpit systems began beeping to indicate a lock on the large targets with the long-range missiles and she awaited the order to fire with a bored expression. Flicking the cover to the missile button up and down, Rita tapped her foot on the floor of the cockpit. A bit of chatter indicated the allied ships would be firing and Rita watched the fireworks erupt from the Macross and the Sentinel, with a select few making their mark on the Invid ships. Adjusting herself in the seat, she prepared to fire the missile, leaving the door open and she got into a position that was better for dogfighting. The Invid mecha came towards them out of the ships' bays and Rita could already sense that now would be the time to fire.

Finally, the order came. "All ships, fire!" Before the first word had ended, Rita had already fired her long range missiles and was following a mecha that was particularly fast and would most likely evade the missiles. Pulling dangerously close to a Sentinel fighter, she chased the enemy. Rita opened fire with her thirty-five millimeter on the mecha's tail, destroying it in moments, however the celebration of the the victory would be short lived. Watching her mirror, she saw a mecha chasing her. A lock warning was heard, causing her rapidly beating heart to jump somewhat. Evaluating her options, Rita decided that a most tactical and good-looking option would be best. Smiling, she let the enemy get close. The warning suddenly turned to a high pitch as the mecha fired a homing projectile. Within the moment's time she had to invade, Rita finalized her next move.

Her fingers danced on the levers, causing her Phoenix to change from fighter to GERWALK mode to battroid mode in nary a second. Using the thrusters on the feet of the now humanoid shaped machine, she made a cartwheel-esque movement to her right, evading the mecha and its missile. Mid cartwheel, she fired the machine gun on the mecha target, ripping apart the crimson colored hull and destroying it. Finishing her evasion, she used her back thruster to gain forward momentum and turned back into fighter mode after verifying the absence of close enemies. Pulling around to search for more enemies, she spoke in a terrifyingly amused tone. "That's two in the bag. You better be counting these, control." She made a malicious expression at the screen on the dashboard before returning to the fight.

As the formation of fighters broke up into individual dances, Tash found herself on a head-on course with one of the approaching invid mechas. She fired a burst from her gun pod and broke off, not willing to play a game of chicken with the alien insect. She never knew if she hit him, because another crossed her field o view, spitting fire at an Alpha-beta pair. Tash banked after the new target, chewing at his tail with a sustained burst of fire.

The bandit came apart and spun off into oblivion, and the Tirolian banked away too. Never flying straight, never staying to watch, always assuming someone was gunning for your tail – that was how you survived a dogfight.

In a moment’s calm,s he spotted one of the two human fighters flying with her group making a kill – and seemingly not noticing the bandit closing in behind her. Tash swore and started to shift her plane into battroid mode – she’d never get her nose around to save the human otherwise.

Her efforts weren’t needed, however. She watched as the human made an almost-perfect battroid evasion, destroying the bandit in the process. She raised her eyebrows, impressed, before the human’s voice came over the squadron channels. Her English wasn’t perfect, but she understood smug when she heard it.

The human’s trying to show us up, huh? She thought, frowning, as she shifted back into fighter mode and took off again, angling in on a loose pack of Invid shocktroopers that were trying to brute-force their way through to the capital ships.

“Wex to squadron. Bandits on my one. Engaging, someone cover me.” She said over the radio, voice terse. Regardless of whether someone actually followed her in, she lanced down at the enemy fighters, raking the formation with cannonfire.

Having survived another launch from the catapults, Mino fell into formation with Irry, following her orders. The long-range missiles only composed half of his capacity—he had made sure never to leave without proper, short range, dogfight missiles. He broke into a short, downward spiral as a number of Invid barreled past and demonstrated marksmanship even shoddier than his own. Mino glanced in the mirrors he had set up in his canopy and throttled forward to engage. He had just managed his first kill when a voice came over the radio.

“Wex to squadron. Bandits on my one. Engaging, someone cover me.” Mino looked over and found Tash in the distance, angling, ‘down,’ into a pack of shock troopers to his right.

“Copy, Wex, make way for missiles.” He brought the nose of his craft around as she made her strike and began the lock sequence. Once Tash broke far enough away from the Invid to give Mino a clear shot, he began to cycle through the targets he had lined up, gifting each with a pair of missiles before they could scatter too far. He nudged his Alpha into loose roll so that he could check his underside and rear as he awaited the results of his attack. Glad I didn’t waste all the fireworks on that first wave, he thought as the missiles hit home. One of the shock troopers began to pull away, before it collided with the debris of its fallen allies whom had been launched by the blasts. “That got ‘em, where to next?” Mino asked as he rocketed into a supporting position near Tash.

It wasn't long until Rolland followed through with his comrades to his Alpha fighter, climbing in after receiving his helmet from a crew member. The Vulfen pulled the helmet on and looked over his controls, his heart racing and his body shaking a bit. When the spike of fear had hit him his training kept him in check, the pilot doing his checks before following procedures to be deployed into the fight.

The fighter mode was something for the young pilot, it's light capabilities being covered by it's speed. He managed to keep everything in mind from the brief messages to the flashing notifications as he weaved around the projectiles to his squad, having a dance with death itself until he reached the squad,, chuckling under his breath before speaking into the comms. "Well now we have fight, yes?" He listened to his squad mate's chatter and switched his attention to Tash and Mino, blasting his way towards their location.

"Holkom to squadron coming in on six. Standing by." If english wasnt his specialty it sure showed, at least he had a decent knowledge of military dialogue and commands. For the momentthe Vulfen observed that Tash was in the spotlight which made him smile to himself due to a sense of sentinel pride.

Mike launched his share of the initial barrage, watching the smoke trails cross the distance until they created a wave of explosions. With the last long range missile out, mike jettisoned the three empty missile pods and switched the first of four short-range pods active.

All right, who’s first? he thought as he scanned the horizon for his first target, he didn’t wait long. A trooper zipped through the smoke and made a rush for the ship, along with numerous others.

“Nawlin, breaking off to intercept” he called as he flared brakes and rolled left, putting him in a position to flank, and possibly tail the insect. Coaxing the heavy fighter into position mike began to fire his beam cannons, the ribbon like rays flaring around the insect as it dodged and wove on its mad dash to the carrier.
“Come on cockroach! Fly into the damn light!” he growled angrily. He was rewarded with a beeping tone from his headset, and with a smile he selected 2 short range missiles, and struggled to lock the target, waiting for the solid tone. A moment later the wondrous sound teased his ears, launching the missiles he continued harassing the trooper, giving it no rest as the trails raced towards the insectile beast. Finally one of the beams hit, lancing through its left shoulder and robbing it of some speed, the missiles running it down and shredding it into a momentary star.

“Nawlin, one do- " mike said as his hud flashed red and a whine pieced the cockpit. Dumping flares, he set the engines into full reverse shifting to battleoid , fighting the sudden G-load as the VF veered up and back.

“Wex to squadron. Bandits on my one. Engaging, someone cover me.”

Mike brought the betas arm to bear and fired at the assault scout currently attempting to do him in.
“No dice tash, I’ve got my own infestation to deal with, I’ll be there when I can.” Mike hurriedly replied, frustrated at the fact he was caught off guard. Spiraling and darting in a mad concerto, the beta and the assault scout dueled for supremacy, the slower beta keeping the scout at bay with a steady stream of fire.

Tash's fire had sliced through one of the troopers, evidently hitting something vital when it violently exploded. The sentinel didn't pull up, flashing right through the enemy pack and our the other side. The Invid formation wavered, some making to break off their approach, some turning to chase after the offending Gamma, leaving them all in poor position to avoid Mino's barrage. Tash's sensors lit up as the bandits blew apart.

"Nice work, Mino." She said, smirking in satisfaction behind her visor as she and the Selachi fell into formation. Her frown returned at Mike's message, however, and she craned her head around to see him dancing with the assault scout. "Need a hand, Mike? Lure him our way, we'll squash him for you."

Minder said "Need a hand, Mike? Lure him our way, we'll squash him for you."

mike glowered and was about to reply with a snappy retort before he composed himself, personal pride and refuseing help would land him in an early grave. backhanding the scout mike planted his feet into its chest and shifted to fightermode, full throttle back to wex, and mino. attempting to keep his wounded pride from his voice he opened the viewscreen to tasha's fighter.

"much appreciated, the damn bugger keeps zipping around to fast to hit, i'll owe you one" he said, dumping more flares as the warning tone cut over the COM. as the com cut off mike rolled left as another tone started, swirling randomly as he approched his allies, if only it wasnt a scout, i can handle the slower ones he thought before once again shifting to battleroid, full reverse.

Irry twisted and turned in the middle of the melee, shifting between modes with blurring ease and precision as the situation dictated. One moment her arrowhead-shaped Alpha would be a fighter, the next it was a muscular battloid, hosing down Scouts or Troopers from close range with it's cannon, the next a Guardian, braking and twisting on the spot.
With a moment's pause for breath, she saw the humans tangling with the Invid. The pair she'd met in the hangar bay were more than holding their own, but she expected no less. The one in the colourful fighter was especially flashy, but her style had results, so she couldn't argue with that. Besides, it was hard not to look flashy in a variable fighter.

"much appreciated, the damn bugger keeps zipping around to fast to hit, i'll owe you one"

"Bring them this way, team - we'll round up and form a wedge through, split the pack and form a defensive line toward the ships, over".
She boosted in the direction of the others, and was gratified to see the male human's fighter closing on her flank. As they reached the others, the pair shifted over to battloid mode with the typical swift movements of Variable fighters. An Enforcer was leading a wedge of it's own through the melee, sneaking under and through the chaos, and making right for the deck of the Sentinel, a flock of Armoured Shock Troopers following.
"Commander Jacquo, Commander Strucker - those Invid are making for the deck, intercept them!" Lisa's voice was urgent, and the Sentinel and human alike grimaced as the Invid slid past and dived for the ships deck on plumes of blue fire. Around them, scouts were criss-crossing and diving toward the deck, pursued by fighters or hosed by defence turrets and Destroids.
Gabe toggled his comm switches and spoke to the unit. "We've got leakers, heading for the deck. They're tough ones, and they look pretty skilled too. We better-"
"Less chat, more action!" snapped Irry, in her unfamiliar accent, blasting the Alpha for the Sentinels' deck. "Move in, and engage at your own discretion!"

Svenja sped for the deck of the ship, coming in behind a pair of Invid troopers that were lagging behind the main group. As she closed the distance, he opened up with a hail of cannon fire, slicing across the path of the bandits. They broke their formation to evade, rolling and somersaulting away from Svenja's variable fighter. She chose to purse the one to her left, turning her craft in its direction. The bandit was zig-zagging in every direction, desperately aiming to throw Svenja off his tail, but she wouldn't be shaken so easily. Years of experience fighting the U.N. had sharpened her abilities to a fine edge. It'd take more effort to lose her.

The Invid made a sharp left, using its boosters to flip 180 degrees and get an angle on Svenja's fighter. As the bolts flared from its gun, she pitched up, her nose dodging the fire. A split second later, her craft switched to Gerwalk mode, passing the Invid over its left shoulder. With a flick of the wrist and some muscle memory, Svenja jolted her reticule to bear on the bandit, and left fly a storm of lead into the craft. She was rewarded with a flash of light, and looked to see the Invid machine lifelessly drifting away.

"Scratch one," she declared, and switched back to fighter mode to engage the rest of the intruders.