Macross 30: From A Galaxy Far, Far Away

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

MACROSS 30
FROM A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY

Author’s Note

I’m relatively new to Macross. I first saw the original series, Superdimension Fortress Macross, around this time in 2011. Despite that short amount of time, I’ve grown to love this franchise as much as, if not more, than Gundam. In fact, these days I fanboy about Macross as much as I did when I first saw Gundam Wing.

As for this fic, it’s of course inspired by the newly released PS3 game, Macross 30: The Song That Connects The Galaxy. Originally I was going to write something of a novelization of the game… even though it hadn’t been released yet. But then inspiration struck, or rather I should say an idea I had had ever since I first saw Macross struck. See one of the reasons I was first attracted to the show was the starfighter aspect. I’ve always been a fan of starfighters and the second I laid eyes on the VF-1 Valkyrie, I knew it was the X-Wing of Macross. The thought then followed, what would happen in a dogfight between the X-Wing and the VF-1?

By the time I got to writing this, the arrival of the actual Macross 30 was nigh and I realized that this would be the better story to work on. After I’ve actually played through the game, then I can write about it. For now, let’s indulge in a little fantasy and see what happens when one of the most famous sci-fi franchises in America meets one of the most famous from Japan. LET’S FIRE!!!

Dramatis Personae

SMS Ouroboros

Captain Aisha Blanchette (human female from Ouroboros)
Lt. Leon Sakaki (human male from Sepheela)
Mina Forte (human [?] female from Ouroboros[?])
Major Roy Focker, Skull One (human male from Earth)
Lt. Hikaru Ichijo, Skull Leader (human male from Earth)
Commander Misa Hayase (human female from Earth)
Lynn Minmay (human female from Earth)
Hibiki Kanzaki, Rookie One (human male from Earth)
Lt. Sylvie Gena, Faerie One (human female from Earth)
Ishtar (Marduk female from ??)
Lt. Isamu Dyson, Eagle One (human male from Eden)
Myung Fang Lone (human female from Eden)
Cmmd. Max Jenius, Blue One (human male from Earth)
Capt. Milia Fallyna Jenius, Red One (zentradi female/meltrandi)
Lt. Gamlin Kizaki, Diamond One (human male from ??)
Ens. Shin Kudo, Skull Five (human male from Earth)
Sara Nome (human female from Earth)
Mao Nome (human female from Earth)
Tom Kazansky (zolan male from Zola)

SMS Frontier

Cmmd. Jeffery Wilder (human male from Macross Frontier)
Major Ozma Lee, SMS Skull Leader (human male from Macross Frontier)
Capt. Klan Klan, Pixie One (zentradi female/meltrandi from Macross Frontier)
Ens. Mikhail Blanc, SMS Skull Two (human male from Macross Frontier)
Ens. Luca Angelloni, SMS Skull Three (human male from Macross Frontier)
Ens. Alto Saotome, SMS Skull Four (human male from Macross Frontier)
Sheryl Nome, the Galactic Fairy (human female from Macross Galaxy)
Ranka Lee, the Superdimensional Cinderella (human female from Gallia 4)
Lt. Nene Rora, Pixie Two (zentradi female/meltrandi from Macross Frontier)

Sound Force

Basara Nekki (human male from Earth)
Mylene Flare Jenius (human/zentradi from Macross 7)


The Rebel Alliance/New Republic

Cmd. Luke Skywalker, Rogue Leader (human male from Tatooine)
Princess Leia Organa (human female from Alderaan)
General Han Solo (human male from Corellia)
Chewbacca (wookie male from Kashyyyk)
See-Threepio (masculine droid)
R2-D2, astromech droid
Cmd. Wedge Antilles, Rogue One (human male from Corellia)
Cpt. Tycho Celchu, Rogue Two (human male from Alderaan)
Lt. Wes Janson, Rogue Eight (human male from Tanaab)
Lt. Derek “Hobbie” Klivian, Rogue Seven (human male from Ralltiir)
Lt. Corran Horn, Rogue Nine (human male from Corellia)
Lt. Gavin Darklighter, Rogue Five (human male from Tatooine)
Lt. Ooryl Qyrgg, Rogue Ten (gand male from Gand)
Lt. Asyr Sei’lar, Rogue Six (bothan female from Bothuwai)
Inyri Forge, Rogue Three (human female from Kessel)

N.U.N.S. HAVAMAL Taskforce

Ushio Todo (human male from ??)
Lt. Rod Baltomar, Knight One (human male from Sepheela[?])
Ganeth Modor (zentradi male from Ouroboros)
Cpt. D.D. Ivanov, Schwalbe One (human male from Earth)
Lt. Nora Polyansky, Schwalbe Two (human female from Earth)
Sharon Apple (female AI from Eden)
Col. Grace O’Connor (human female cyborg from Macross Galaxy)
Major Brera Sterne, Antares One (human male cyborg from Gallia 4)
Guld Goa Bowman, Omega One (human/zentradi from Eden)
Lord Feff (marduk male)

Galactic Empire Forces

Admiral Kostick (human male from Coruscant)
Markus Raethe (human male from Coruscant)
Col. Gren Gallen (human male from Sernpidal)
Cpt. Anya Kade (human female from Churba)
Lt. Sade Dathran (human male from Sluis Van)

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

Mission 1
Interlopers

The morning quiet over the islands of Ouroboros, both those floating in the ocean and those floating in the sky, was shattered by the roar of thermonuclear turbines, as a quartet of Valkyrie fighters roared across the sky.
“This is a feeling I never get tired of!” thought the pilot of the lead Valkyrie, Leon Sakaki. Technically the machine he was piloting was an YF-25 Prophecy, prototype of the VF-25 Messiah, every variable fighter was referred to with the nickname as a way of honoring the original VF-1 Valkyrie. Behind him, flying in the diamond formation was Ensign Shin Kudo in his VF-0A Phoenix to his left, his friend Mina Forte in a light blue VF-11C Thunderbolt to his right and bringing up the rear was Hibiki Kanzaki in his VC-079 Civilian Valkyrie.
Leon wasn’t sure what Hibiki was doing tagging along. The guy had an itchy camera finger and was constantly following just about everyone else and frankly it was a bit annoying.
“This is the biggest story I’ve ever covered! I gotta get a record of this or nobody’ll ever believe it!” he’d say. Leon supposed it was a bit understandable, if the stories were true and Hibiki and his friends Sylvie and Ishtar came from some kind of alternate timeline.
At least Hibiki hadn’t brought the dour Dennis Lone with him. Leon wasn’t sure he could handle Dennis this early in the morning. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he opened up a channel to the other pilots.
“OK Mina, you ready for this?”
“I think so,” she replied, only a trace of hesitancy in her voice. When Leon and Aisha Blanchette, the director of Ouroboros’ branch of SMS, had found Mina in some of the many ruins that dot the surface of the planet, she’d quickly shown an amazing ability to grasp complex concepts. Valkyrie piloting for instance. Today was just supposed to be a simple training run to help improve Mina’s skills with the venerable VF-11.
“OK, but this course is going to be kind of tricky. Remember to shift between the three modes or you’ll get points taken off.”
“I know that Leon! Relax, this will be fun!”
Leon grinned.
“All the same, Shin is going to go first, give you a bit of benchmark to shoot for.”
“But Shin’s a properly trained pilot! He’ll outscore me for sure,” said Mina.
“And with talk like that, you definitely won’t,” replied Shin with a grin as he threw his Valkyrie into a banking dive and shot between a pair of rocky spires.
The “course” they were following wasn’t real per se, but programmed into the computers of their planes and was displayed on the holographic canopy HUDs. The other three pilots pulled up rolled so they could get a good view (and good shots for Hibiki) of Shin weaving his way through the spires, arches and tunnels of the large island they were flying over. The Ensign deftly navigated the course, shifting from Fighter mode to GERWALK to Battroid with the skill of an experienced hand. Truth be told, Shin was still a relatively novice pilot and there were certainly more skilled and experienced pilots onboard the Macross Quarter, but he was giving it his all in flying this course. He dived over a small butte then shifted into GERWALK to bounce himself over an outcropping and then shifted into fighter mode and shot through a stone arch to complete the course with a loud whoop of excitement.
Leon looked down at his main display. One minute, forty-one seconds. Definitely a good time for this complicated course, but he bet he could do at least five seconds better. Of course that would have to wait until Mina had her turn.
“Alright Mina, your turn. Good luck!”
“Watch the curvy tunnel, it’s tricky to get through, even in GERWALK,” added Shin.
“You’ll do great Mina!” added Hibiki.
“Thanks for everyone! I’ll do my best!” she said, smiling widely. Shin then banked her Thunderbolt down, preparing to fly between the rocky spires as Shin had done, when Hibiki’s voice cut across the comm.
“Hey, were we expecting anyone else to be out here today?”
Leon and Shin quickly scanned their radar displays. Sure enough, there were a dozen contacts headed straight for them, labeled unknown on the display. Leon cursed under his breath. As like as not it was a squadron of bandits out to see what they could scavenge or steal. Bandits had been an almost constant thorn in Leon’s and SMS’s side ever since he’d got to the planet; was it just too much to ask for one day without tangling with them?
But as the contacts drew closer to their position, Leon was able to magnify their image on his main display and what he saw frankly baffled him.
What the yak are those things?
The approaching unknowns had spherical cockpits, or at least Leon thought they were cockpits, with octagonal viewports and stubby pylons extending out from the sides, supporting two vertical…wings? Leon wasn’t sure what to make of them; they didn’t look aerodynamic in the slightest and Leon had to wonder how they even stayed up in the air.
“I think they may be trying to contact us, I’m reading a transmission coming from those unknowns,” said Shin, “It’s on an unusual frequency. Just give me a sec here…” A moment passed and then a harsh, grating voice crackled over Leon’s headphones.
“In the name of the Empire, identify yourselves!”
“Empire?” thought Leon, “Who are these guys?”
“Uh, guys, what should we do?” asked Hibiki nervously.
“We should probably respond, no reason to not appear friendly, at least for now,” offered Shin.
“OK then,” said Leon, adjusting his radio, “This is 2nd Lieutenant Leon Sakaki of Strategic Military Services, Ouroboros branch. Who am I talking to?” he asked, trying to sound as polite as possible.
“Strategic Military Services? I take it that’s not the name of this planet’s military?” the voice barked back.
“Uh, no, that’d be NUNS. Er, New UN Spacy,” replied Leon.
“You will take us to this ‘New UN Spacy’ immediately,” snapped the voice, “Failure to comply will result in severe repercussions.”
“Cheery fellow isn’t he?” snarked Shin.
“I suppose we’d better do what they say,” said Hibiki, “I don’t like the look of them.”
The strange craft were closer to where they were flying now and Leon could hear a strange moaning sound, possibly the ship’s engines? Hibiki was right, something about this situation was definitely off. Unfortunately, in all the confusion, they had forgotten about Mina.
Just as the strange ball-shaped craft were passing low over the island, Mina dived over the butte that Shin had flown over, down into the cleft, shifted into GERWALK and then bounced back up to fly through the arch. Only she had just come out of a tunnel and had been concentrating so hard on flying the course the she didn’t realize that the unknowns were almost on top of her. She came shooting up out of the cleft like a GERWALK rocket and almost saw the formation too late. She cried out in alarm and juked to the side but still clipped one of the unknowns’ hexagonal wings. The response was almost instantaneous. A quartet of the flying balls broke out of the formation and opened fire on Mina, green energy bolts flashing from the underside of the pod cockpits. Mina shrieked in alarm but was still able to shift into Battroid and duck through the enemy fire, pirouetting in mid-air and opening fire with her 30mm gunpod and Mauler laser cannon. The gunpod and laser beam cut through the first of the four unknowns and turned into a rapidly expanding fireball, causing the other three to break off. But now the other eight were orienting on Mina.
Leon and Shin wasted no time. They shifted into GERWALK, locked onto the nearest enemy and opened fire with their missiles. Even though this had been a training run, the chance of running into bandits was high enough that all Valkyries always launched with at least some out board missiles and Leon was now particularly glad this had been the case. The missile storm took out four of the unknowns, but the rest were able to dodge. Mina shifted back into fighter mode, locked on to an enemy that was trying to loop away and fired a trio of missiles after it. The strange craft managed to dodge the first two but then the third slammed into its large wing, blowing chunks off and crumpling it. The fighter lost altitude and exploded against one of the spires.
The remaining fighters decided that discretion was the better part of valor and peeled away. Shin was just about to lock onto the remainder when Leon stopped him.
“Let them go, this has already gone bad enough.”
“I’m so sorry Leon, Shin! I was trying so hard to fly the course that I didn’t notice them until it was too late!”
“It’s alright Mina, it was an accident, although I’m not sure they’ll see it that way…” said Leon.
“Don’t worry,” broke in Hibiki, “I got it all on tape, so we’ve got some evidence.”
“Then we should get back to the Macross Quarter as soon as possible,” said Shin.
“No argument there. Let’s go!” said Shin, banking the YF-25 Prophecy around on a course back to the mothership. As Mina, Shin and Hibiki formed up with him, Leon couldn’t shake the feeling that something big was about to happen.

[Vent Noir]

I like this so far, looking forward to reading more.