taalismn wrote:...pain...can’t breath.....cold...dark.....no, warm....light?.....air.....still pain....hurts to breath....
“....uuuuhhhhh....”
“doctor! she’s coming to!”
“-uman enough to respond to the new treatments, but I still can’t make sense of these other genetic mar-”
....voices? Unfamiliar voices? Why would they be here? It was just her, her sister...and the...and...
“Get Recovery One prepped and move all this over there, soon as she’s stable! Tell Colonel Kolchek he might just have his live interview after all!”
Oh, here...the mission, remember the mission. The -message-.
“You’re very fortunate, young lady! Your ship crashed right outside the Syrtis Mars Colony! They had a rescue team on your position in minutes! A hundred miles to any side of us and by the time they’d have gotten to you, you’d have been too gone to revive! As it was, we almost lost you! Thankfully, this colony has an excellent trauma center and we’ve benefitted from experience with decompression, hypoxia, and other deep space injuries.”
She blinked as she sucked at the welcome flow of warm air fed to her through the air mask she was wearing. The older female sitting next to her bed was radiating enthusiasm and relief, but also a certain cautiousness. Understandable, if your first contact with alien life resulted in your planet being bombed. But she didn’t remember anything about a colony on this system’s fourth planet....had the natives proven unexpectedly resilient enough to drive their enemies back enough to hold on to offworld colonies? Or was this a last secret refuge, prepared in secret?
Her head still hurt, her body still ached. She was confused, and she stil had something to do...
“You’re not Zentraedi, are you?”
“....Zentraedi? What’s that?”
“You know, the aliens who attacked you? The ones that damaged your ship?”
“Is that what you call the Gamilons?”
“Gamilons? Never heard of them. Is that what your people call the Zentraedi? Big giant people as tall as buildings going around in giant green warships?”
“...no...” Gamilons weren’t particularly tall and while their ships were sometimes green, it wasn’t a consistent thing.
“Well, SOMEBODY attacked you on the other side of your trip! Because when you Folded out in Mars’ upper atmosphere, you flip-flopped into the atmosphere like a buckshot bird!”
“Fold?”
“You know, your faster than light drive?”
“It’s called a wave motion drive.”
“Hmmm...probably another case of people calling things differently. I’m sure our tech people will figure it all out.”
All this was quite confusing and tiring. She had to focus on why she was here.”I’m here to deliver a message. I had a data crystal-”
“Oh, that! We retrieved that and Military Intelligence has already begun reading it. I haven’t got all the details because I’m just Security Grade Ceta, but there’s folks who are going to be glad you woke up, because some of the material on that crystal is just plain confusing, ah, Miss-”
“Princess Astra, of Iscandar.”
“Doctor Cassandra Frazier, United Earth Defense Forces, Syrtis Colony. Glad to meet you.”
Ten years later....
“Micronian fleet approaching, milords!”
“Raise the barriers and target their main units for offensive fire as soon as they come within range.”
“Tirolian Mothership coming over the planetary horizon.”
”Status of the main gun?”
“Charged and ready to fire, sir!”
“Very good. Clear the aperature, gunner, and await my signal to fire.”
In the bow of the Improved Bloc II TriStar, armored plates slide aside, revealing a dark co-axial weapon barrel. Deep inside the bowels of the ship, and aboard two other ships similar to it in the fleet formation, tachyons begin a convoluted dance, building pressure...
Yes...this could be a case of :
a) Canon Iscandar...in another universe, with Princess Astra’s courier ship skipping into another (the Robotech) universe. In which case, the Wave Motion Engine-equipped SDF sent to Iscandar isn’t going to find anything there. Canon SBY Earth is, without the message and the WME schematics, hosed.
b) Canon Iscandar, same as above, only Princess Astra’s ship was somehow duplicated in the misFold, or hit a wormhole with similar effect. Canon Astra manages to get to Earth, dies, but Space Battlship Yamato rises!
c) Canon Iscandar, only the universe jump can be duplicated in reverse. Canon SBY crew very confused and startled to find an SDF and small escort fleet claiming to be from Earth arriving at Iscandar at the same time as they. Cue major canon-collapse.
d) NonCanon Iscandar(very unlikely)---Got their facts about Earth confused. The Gamilons in this case are being squeezed out by the Tirolians and the Zentraedi, with only sneaky tactics like space minefields and SMITE units keeping them from being wiped out completely. With the collapse of the Tirolian Empire due to Protoculture depletion, the Gamilons are now surging back to take advantage of the power vacuum, along with other canon SBY enemies like the Bolides and Cometine Empire fighting over the scraps, and making the Robotech Wars a LOT more aggravating(the wars against the Invid Regent, for instance, taking on a three-way nature as advance elements of the Gamilons, Bolides, and Cometines showing up).
And to head off the inevitable question; Canon SBY Earth is more advanced courtesy of being argiably more advanced along their timeline(and remember, they were able to build entire underground cities while being bombed, whereas even with peace, Canon R-Earth only got one geofront-based Grand Cannon operation in ten years). Pre-Yamato, SBY Earth might have held the lead in space weapons and technology with a slight edge. However, pre-Rain of Death R-Earth quickly catches up due to the big infusion of Tirolian technology and the acquisition of Robotech Factory Satellites. IQ-9/Analyzer not withstanding, R-Earth seems to have the lead in robotics, is about neck and neck in fighter technology, and definitely has better ground military forces, armed with power armor and superior weapons. Fleet-wise, the prevalence of wave motion cannons in SBY’s EDF makes up for the lower throw-weight and poor siting of weapons per individual units,versus the generally higher number of mecha deployed from UEDF/UEEF units. And no Robotech vessel has anywhere near the character/plot shielding of the Yamato. In any engagement involving the SBY Yamato, unless opposing UEDF/UEEF forces have the element of surprise, or Kodai really @@@@s up, the Yamato will pull a hattrick and survive.
Nicely done! And ya, short of an SDF class vessel, or maybe one of the cruisers for the New Generation, the Yamato could take on almost anything in its weight class or heavier and win.