June 2008... "I know I've met most of you personally since you've begun to arrive on Macross Island," Roy said from front of the room, "but let me say again, welcome to the RDF gentlemen and lady. Over the next two weeks we will have a lot of classroom time while you learn the new systems and controls of the VF-1 Valkyrie. I will try to break that up with actual views of the aircraft. During this time you will also all be issued your new helmets. If you brought your old helmets with you, they are memorabilia now. Each day after class, one of you will report to the medical science team so that your new helmets may be calibrated. "Lieutenant Saotome," Roy addressed Ranma. "Ladies first. You're to report after class today. It seems the medical staff had caught wind of your exceptional bodily control and your status as a high level martial artist. They can't wait to see how that will affect your neural link capability." "Aye aye, Sir," Ranma responded. The rest of the 8 hour class was fairly dry, but Roy managed to keep it from inducing somnolence by virtue of his anecdotes and the novelty of the subject matter. Ranma, for her part, was torn by her up coming trip to the medical science department. She didn't relish being a lab rat, but at the same time, she was also eager to see how her abilities would affect this new control system. (oO\O/Oo) "CDR Fokker," Roy announced as he picked up the phone. "Calm down, Doctor Lang and tell me what the problem is in English...I need to get down there right away? Why?...Lieutenant Saotome? Is she alright?...Oh, I see...So what's so incredible that I have to see for myself?...Better than me, you say?...Alright I'm on my way." Roy jumped up and headed over to the Medical labs. He had never seen Dr. Lang quite so excited, but it figured that Ranma would be at the root of it. The girl definitely had a knack for causing a stir. Five minutes later he walked into Lang's office where the scientist was avidly pouring over graphs displayed on his computer screen. "Okay, I'm here," Roy said. "Now what's so amazing?" "One moment, Commander," Lang pulled up another chart which displayed a jagged line a little above half way through the range with an aggregate displayed at the bottom reading 64 percent. "These are the results of your last Neural Link calibration. Remember when we started the program that the best you could achieve was about 45 percent. Over the years it's become easier for you to form a link with the control systems, but you have leveled out recently. You shouldn't expect to achieve much more than a 70 percent link. We all thought that might be the ceiling since you have responded better than anyone else we've processed so far...until today." Lang pulled up another chart with a jagged line running near the top of the range. The number at the bottom read a staggering 94 percent. "These are Lieutenant Saotome's calibration results," Dr. Lang explained excitedly. "On her first try, she has reached near total link with the systems. In fact, for all intents and purposes a 6 percent gap is meaningless. She will be able to do things with mecha that that would seem impossible. The mecha would act as an extension of her own body. The fact is; we are going to have to modify the software to install feedback limits just for her. If her Veritech were to get shot up with that degree of link, it would easily kill her." "How is that possible, Doc?" Roy asked in amazement. "I'm not sure, but I have a theory," Lang explained. "Mind you, we can't prove it because we currently have no way to measure it. Are you familiar with the concept of 'ki', Commander?" "Asians believe it's some sort of life force that every living being has, right?" Roy replied. "Correct," Lang said. "It's no secret that every living being is surrounded by an energy field. Tesla had experimented with this but it was first officially discovered by a Russian medical tech named Kirlian. He was the first to photograph what is now known as the Kirlian aura, the energy field that surrounds a living thing and what I believe to be the 'ki' energy that the Asians speak of. Now for people like you or me, this energy is only visible when viewed with Kirlian photography, but it is said that ancient martial arts masters who have studied techniques for ki manipulation for decades are able to produce a visible aura of their ki. I never believed that until today." "Why until today?" Roy asked. "Because Lieutenant Saotome showed me what she calls her 'battle aura'," Lang said smugly. "She produced a pale blue aura that extended several inches away from her body. She said she learned to do it from an old master she trained with while on a ten year martial arts training journey. She said it's really nothing more than a light show meant to intimidate an enemy by displaying your power level. She went on to say the real use of her ki was to augment her strength and speed and accelerate her healing. She channels her ki into her muscles or into a wounded part of her body to produce the effects. She also says that she can channel her ki into a weapon to both strengthen it and give her better control over it. We believe that's how she is achieving this level of link with the neural interface." "Then why can't everyone do it?" Roy asked. "Years of training," Lang replied. "Lieutenant Saotome explained that ki is like a muscle, the more you use it, the more there is to use and the more you are able to use. We tested her and I personally saw her lift 400 kilos from the floor to above her head with very little strain. She ran 20 miles on a treadmill in an hour without appearing fatigued. She performed what she called a speed kata for us that we couldn't follow with our naked eyes. We had to slow the video down to see what she had actually done." "That's inhuman," Roy said, astounded. Had it been anyone but Lang telling him this he would have called them a liar to their face. "Apparently not," Lang replied. "She says it can be trained. I asked if that was so then why weren't there more of these super powered martial artists around. While she told me there were more than you might think, it was true they are small in number because few would people would voluntarily go through the insane and often deadly training methods needed to achieve levels like hers. She said fewer still would be willing to use those training methods to train someone. When I asked why she trained with such methods, she explained it was her misfortune to have a father that was obsessed with the art and the more insane and dangerous the training method was, the more likely he was to use it on her." "I see," Roy said. "So what does this mean?" "It means that you have a very special pilot on your hands, Commander," Lang grinned. "One that will likely eclipse you in skill and ability and one that appears ideally suited to this new technology. And as a bonus, she says she can teach others meditation techniques that might improve their ability to use the neural link." "And you think I should allow this," Roy stated. "Yes," Lang said. "It won't hurt and it will be interesting to see the results. Lieutenant Saotome did caution that some people wouldn't have the mental discipline to use the techniques and for those that did, it could take years for them to approach her current level. I think it would be well worth the effort even if only a handful of pilots managed to benefit from it." "Okay, I'll talk to Lieutenant Saotome and, if she's willing, I'll set something up in the training schedule," Roy nodded. (oO\O/Oo) A couple of days later a new item was introduced into the training plan. Now, every morning after breakfast, the class would meet in the dojo room of the gym and Ranma would teach meditation and focusing techniques to the pilots. As predicted some pilots responded better than others. Lang was able to draw a direct correlation between the more mentally disciplined pilots that were achieving some degree of success with Ranma's techniques and their level of bond with the neural link. These pilots would achieve an initial calibration percentage in the 40 to 50 percent range while the ones that were unable to grasp what Ranma was teaching fell somewhat below that. The class was taking one of its hourly breaks from the classroom sessions one day when two of the pilots were talking about the techniques. "I think it's a big waste of time," LT Chuck Brown was saying to his classmate. He was one of the ones that wasn't responding to the training. Whether that was lack of interest or lack of ability wasn't known since LT Brown frequently fell asleep during the meditation sessions. "I dunno," LT Clark Jones said uncertainly. "The brass seems to think it's a good idea." LT Jones hadn't been making much headway with the techniques, but he was slowly improving. He hadn't been to the calibration yet. "I say it's all a bunch of mystical mumbo jumbo," Brown sneered. Ranma who had overheard them, felt compelled to put her two yen in. "You really should make an effort with this," Ranma said. "I mean, you have to attend anyway and it might make you a better pilot." "I don't need some little girl to tell me how to be a combat pilot, Miss Lieutenant, Junior Grade," Brown said arrogantly. Ranma's head jerked back as if slapped. "What would you know about combat flying anyway? Probably only ever dropped a couple of bombs on undefended targets in mop up operations." Ranma clenched her fists and was quickly considering how much trouble she would get in for breaking this jerk's face. Probably not a whole lot, she decided, since he only out ranked her by a grade and she was provoked. She was just about to tear him a new one when the other pilot spoke up. "Shut up, you idiot!" Jones snapped. "If you took your eyes off her breasts long enough you would see the ribbons on her chest. You don't get two Distinguished Flying Crosses and a Navy Cross for bombing undefended targets. Besides, I heard about her from my buddy that flew with her as her wingman. She saved his ass. "He took some ground fire while on a CAS mission and had to punch out when his plane failed while outbound from the target area. She stayed in the area, forcing the enemy ground forces in route to capture him to retreat by strafing them with the last of her 20mm ammo then went against two Hinds UNARMED. She managed to crash one and distracted the other until the extraction team got there to pull Eddie out. "He said she's a shit-hot pilot with stones the size of a battleship, even if she is female," Jones said with amusement. "So she has some CAS experience, big deal," Brown dismissed. "Flying head to head against other pilots is where the real challenge is." "How many months of combat have you seen?" Jones smirked. "I've had a total of thirty-six months of deployment over the last five years," Brown replied. "And how many air-to-air kills have you gotten and in how many engagements," Jones inquired, still smirking. "I have four kills in four engagements," Brown said proudly. "Lieutenant Saotome?" Jones prompted. "I have a total of sixteen months of deployment over the last sixteen months and I have six air-to-air kills over four engagements. Two of those were Su-27's in one engagement. I got one Mig 29 while fighting our way into a target area and the other three were attack helos harassing our ground troops." "I dunno, Chuck," Jones chuckled. "It sounds to me like she's pretty much got the credentials to tell you a thing or two about flying combat." Brown glared at Ranma as she stood there smirking while smugly examining her nails. Inside, Brown was impressed with Ranma's accomplishments in her relatively short time in the UNEDF, but his pride would never let him admit that and he continued to think her techniques were a waste of time, which is probably why his calibration score was one of the lowest in the class at a paltry 28 percent. While anything over 20 percent was enough to pilot a Veritech, until he improved the link, Brown would be a clumsy if adequate battloid pilot. (oO\O/Oo) As Veritech training progressed, so too did Lieutenant Brown's resentment of Ranma when she consistently out scored him on the class material and out performed him in the simulators. It didn't help that she had begun to jump his shit when she caught him sleeping in her training sessions. The man's animosity was encouraged when he found a couple of cohorts in the class that had begun to resent her due to Roy's perceived favoritism. Not that they said anything with in earshot of anyone else in the class. Several of them either had first hand knowledge of her heroism or had heard about her exploits from others that had. She was well respected by most of her classmates. By now, all the neural link calibrations had been done and everyone knew about Ranma's incredible calibration score. They recognized the respect Roy paid her for what it was, regard for someone he deeply respected and was grooming for command. What her detractors didn't realize was that Roy was pushing Ranma harder than anyone else in the class. Ranma, being very driven herself, either didn't notice, or welcomed the challenge. She always stepped up and delivered, no matter what Roy threw at her. That's not to say that she didn't make her share of blunders. They were usually small ones and make little difference to the outcome of whatever trial Roy was putting her through, but Roy never failed to call her on them ruthlessly, much to the amusement of her anti-fan club. Most of the time, Roy chastised her for taking too many risks. This was frustrating for Ranma because her keen tactical mind simply didn't function like most others did, therefore, she couldn't grasp the threshold of when to play things safe and disengage and when to stay and fight. She could clearly see victory in her grasp long after others thought it was a lost cause. Not that it was due to any sort of prideful self delusion, it was simply that she could see and plan several moves in advance what needed to happen for her to come out on top. Unfortunately, she was many times crippled by her wingman. Her abilities to hold a high-g maneuver indefinitely, without blacking out, far outstripped any of her fellow pilots. Saddled with the need to protect her wingman, she often found her path to victory vanishing before her eyes. This was a hard lesson for her and one that she hadn't really had to deal with much before when flying F/A 18's. The structural limits of the airframe kept her close to the limits of her fellow pilots. With the Valkyries, though, the airframe could stand stresses far in excess of what was aerodynamically possible to apply in flight. Consequently, she was now having to learn when to break off an engagement that she could win for the sake of her squadron mates. It was a tough pill for her to swallow, but one Roy was determined to force down her throat. For her part, as much as Ranma wanted to let the others break from the engagement and leave her to finish things up, she still recognized the importance of being a team player. So she strove to find a medium between her abilities, victory, and the abilities of her fellows. She often missed the mark but, eventually, she improved. (oO\O/Oo) August 2008... It was the last couple of weeks of class and everyone had been thoroughly checked out on operating the Valkyrie. Roy had begun organizing the class for transition to its roll as an operational squadron when he announced he had a surprise for everyone. He led them all out to the flight line. When they arrived they saw 16 shiny new VF-1's. One was an S model, Roy pointed out. That would be his bird and it was designated Skull One. There were also three J models which would be given to the flight leaders. The remaining 12 were A models which would comprise the bulk of Skull Squadron. Skull One and the J models were painted white with black and yellow livery with black tails displaying a skull and crossbones prominently. The A models were all painted a light brown with black and yellow accents and a black skull and crossbones on brown tails. Roy had them form up and stood in front of them. "Based on your performance in the class, sims, and actual flying, I've made the assignments for Skull Squadron," he announced. "I'll start with the flight leaders. When you hear your name step forward and stand on the yellow line. I will, of course, be the flight leader for Alpha Flight. Lieutenant Commander Kramer, you get Bravo Flight. Lieutenant Jones, you will be leading Charlie Flight. Lieutenant Saotome, Delta Flight is yours." Some grumbling was heard as Ranma took her position on the yellow line. "Brown, you have a problem with my choices?" "With all due respect, Sir, several of us have higher rank and more flight hours than Lieutenant Saotome," Brown said, practically spitting Ranma's rank. "Yeah, and?" Roy asked. "Well, one of us should get the flight leader position," Brown said, making an effort to keep the anger out of his voice. "Perhaps you missed the part where I said my assignments were based on performance, Lieutenant," Roy said. "That would put you in the bottom third of the class. The only reason Lieutenant Saotome isn't my 2IC is because she doesn't have the rank or experience to warrant it. As for her ability, she has that in spades. I suggest you adjust your attitude, Mister Brown. Don't think I'm unaware of your trash talking behind Lieutenant Saotome's back. That Navy Cross she earned commands our respect for her and her abilities and you will give her the respect she is due. Am I making myself clear, Mister Brown?" Roy gave the man a glare that would have peeled paint at fifty paces. "Yes, SIR!" Brown said crisply, gulping. Roy held the glare for a few minutes longer then moved on. Brown and the other Ranma detractors where broken up between Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie Flights. Brown being in Alpha where Roy could keep an eye on him. For Ranma's flight, Roy selected the three pilots with the most endurance to g-loading so as to limit her as little as possible. Her three flight mates were Lieutenant JG Sven "Thor" Christensen, Lieutenant JG Kyo "Yoyo" Morita and Ensign Ross "Gravy" Davies. (oO\O/Oo) Now was when the real training began. Skull began to train as a combat unit. All the pilots where experienced to some degree with combat flying, so a majority of the training was ground based in battloid mode. To do this, they would go up against Marine Destroid units on one of the uninhabited islands that dotted the South Pacific. The island was large and wooded with structures from a previous venture that had been based there. It was now designated a bombing range and the perfect place to train in the classified Veritech guardian and battloid modes. Skull had all been briefed on Destroid unit tactics as a basis for what they would be using. However, while similar in some aspects, Veritechs were not Destriods so they were not only there to train but to develop new tactics that used the Veritech's multiple configurations and maneuverability to their advantage. Ammo would be paint shells and once on the island, Skull would be prohibited from using fighter mode. Roy had planned the training operation with competition between his flights in mind. The 'objective' was a hill in the approximate center of the island. Each flight would start from a different side and fight their way to the objective. Each approach was planned to provide a different terrain challenge. One approach would be heavily wooded, another would be through a small village of industrial structures and bombed out buildings, a third would be across open rocky ground, while the fourth would be through a marsh. The Marine Destriods were to try to prevent Skull from reaching the top of the hill. Their strength was unknown but 'intel' said that Skull would be at a two to one disadvantage. How these numbers were deployed was unknown although the Marines were aware of the routes of ingress. A mecha would be considered "killed" after receiving at least two hits to the upper body or one hit to the legs. Delta Flight drew the wooded approach for the first day. After that the Flights would rotate the approaches clockwise the following day. Ranma sat at their starting point examining her map. They had been given an hour before they were to begin the exercise and she and her team we dismounted and having a little planning session. "What are you thinking, DL," Christensen asked in his Norwegian accent. "I'm thinking I don't like this," Ranma replied. "Look here. See this ridge line that cuts across our mission area? There's only going to be a limited number of places we can go by that. Here would be the obvious place." Ranma pointed to a narrow gap where the ridge dipped down making a natural pathway. "You can bet the Marines are going to have that one covered nine ways to Sunday. We can likely jump the ridge in guardian mode here, here, or here, but we'll make a lot of noise doing it. Our speed won't do us much good in this terrain either so I would expect that even if we did make it around the forces they are going to have covering the gap, they will probably have reserve units pulled back that will move to intercept us once they know where we are. That would leave their ambushing forces time to move to take us from the flank." "So what are we going to do?" Davies asked. "We're going to be sneaky and deceitful and then take a gamble," Ranma grinned. "Do tell," Morita grinned. "Okay, we are going to head to this western most crossing point here," Ranma pointed to one that was farthest from the gap. We'll jump the ridge here, high and noisy-like, making sure we have their attention. Then we'll slip back over to this side. Their reserve unit will move to engage us. I'm gambling that the unit covering the gap will either pull back to guard the approach to the hill, or move to engage our flank. While they are doing that, we'll parallel the ridge and go straight through the gap traveling at best speed and angling east. Hopefully by the time they realized they've been duped, we'll be too far ahead of them for them to catch us." "Brilliant," Christensen said high-fiveing Morita. "Yeah, well, don't go celebrating yet," Ranma cautioned. "If I'm wrong and they don't fall for it, leaving the pass, we will get ripped to shreds. They'll have the high ground and most likely be firing from cover. We won't be able to use guardian mode with all these trees and that's going to limit our mobility advantage." Two and a half hours later Delta Flight passed through the gap and met no resistance. The three men were exultant, but Ranma remained apprehensive. They still had several kilometers to go and things could get ugly. As they approached the hill, their mission area would get smaller and the likelihood of them being spotted would increase. "Alright, Delta, calm down and keep you eyes open," Ranma ordered. "We're not there yet." "We're home free, DL, what could go wrong?" Gravy asked over the comm. Ranma wanted to bang her head on the instrument panel. "Gravy, never EVER say something like that," Ranma commanded. "Cause, guaranteed, you'll find out what can go wrong." Sure enough, they had gotten within a kilometer of the hill when Thor spoke up. "Contact!" the Norwegian announced. "Three o'clock and closing fast. Estimate one minute until we start taking fire." "Aright, gentlemen, you just found out what happens when you ask what could go wrong," Ranma said. "Move out, best speed. The time for stealth is over. We need to get in between them and the hill before we are engaged. Stay together though." Delta flight had just managed to get in front of the Destroid forces when paint rounds began to spatter the trees around them. Ranma spun her battloid and began to return fire. "Okay, people, listen up," she said over the comm. "Gravy and I are going to provide suppressing fire. Thor, you and Yoyo move toward the hill about fifty meters then you will provide suppressing fire as Gravy and I move up. We'll repeat the process until we break the tree line, then if we are still under fire we'll increase the jumps to 100 meters. Got it?" Thor and Gravy gave "Roger"s, but Yoyo had a question. "Ma'am, why don't we just make a break for it," he asked. "We're almost there and once we reach the tree line they can't catch us." "We're too close to the hill for me to give them a shot at my back, Yoyo," Ranma answered. "We've all gotten this far and we'll all reach the hill 'alive'. The best way to do that is to provide cover fire for each other while we move." "Roger, Ma'am," Yoyo said. They had just broke the tree line when Roy's voice came over the command channel. "Skull Alpha Lead to Delta Lead, Status, Dragon Lady?" he asked. "We're a little busy, Cowboy," Ranma answered as she laid down a burst of fire and prepared to move up. "We're about three hundred meters from the hill with two companies of Marines breathing down our necks. Looks like we'll be the first to reach the hill." "Heh, dream on Dragon Lady," Roy said. "My ETA is less than two minutes to the top of the hill and we're well in front of the resistance." "It'll be close then, Cowboy," Ranma fired back. Switching to Delta's channel, "Okay people, the race is on. Alpha is less the two minutes from the hill. If we want to win this, we have to hurry up every time we get the chance. Two hundred meter jumps and go to guardian mode now that we have some open ground." A minute and a half later, Alpha Lead stepped over the line a heartbeat ahead of Delta Lead. However, the remaining Alpha member was lagging behind while the rest of Delta stepped across right behind Ranma. "Delta Flight in has the hill," Ranma chirped as her last mecha stepped across. Ten seconds later, the last Alpha mecha entered the mission complete area. "Alpha Lead was here first," Roy said. "So how we gonna call it, Cowboy?" Ranma asked. "You may have been the first on the hill, but my entire flight completed the mission objective before yours did." "Your whole flight made it, huh?" Roy asked, even though they were standing right in front of each other. "Yup," Ranma confirmed, looking at her people. Each of them had one hit on their torso, but the Marines never managed a second hit on any of them. "Who'd you lose?" "We lost Doodoo and Spinner," Roy answered. "Doodoo managed to lose it while evading and buried the nose of his guardian past the cockpit in the mud before receiving a new paint job before he could extract himself. Spinner got caught when they concentrated fire on him." Ranma laughed at the thought of Lieutenant Brown with the nose of his Veritech buried in the mud. "Poor Doodoo," Ranma snickered. The rest of her flight chuckled. "Well, since you managed to bring your whole flight through, I'm going to concede the victory to you, Dragon Lady," Roy laughed. "Good work." "Thanks, Cowboy," Ranma said as Delta Flight cheered. "What about Bravo and Charlie?" "Bravo got pasted," Roy said. "The entire flight. Charlie is still alive, but lost a mecha. The street fighting really bogged them down. They should be here in about a half an hour." (oO\O/Oo) The rest of the exercises worked out about the same. Thanks to Roy's experience and Ranma's brilliant tactical mind, Alpha and Delta always made it to the hill ahead of the others. Ranma flight never suffered more than one loss while Roy's flight never made it through unscathed. In fact, Chuck "Doodoo" Brown never survived at all. If one didn't know any better one would have thought the Marines had singled him out to take out at all costs. Why else would they be willing to accept losses just to "kill" him? Why else would they ignore the rest of Alpha flight until they took Doodoo down? It must have been imagination. After all, it's not as if the Marines had a reason to single the hapless pilot out. It wasn't as if the Marines were part of the Dragon Lady fan club, right? It wasn't as if they could have known about Doodoo's attitude toward the Dragon lady, right? It wasn't as if Roy was smiling every time poor Doodoo got a new paint job, was he? Nah, it was just a coincidence...right? By the time each flight had gone through each approach twice, Alpha and Delta had four victories each. Delta had received fewer losses but had a lower "kill" tally. It was decided that Alpha would have the bragging rights because the gap between Alpha's and Delta's "kill" tally was far larger than the gap between their loss tally. (oO\O/Oo) Dictionary of Acronyms and other Jargon (As requested by Lerris) 2IC--Second In Command AMRAAM--Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missile APU--Auxiliary Power Unit ATC--Air Traffic Control AWACS--Airborne Warning And Control System BDU--Battle Dress Uniform (fatigues) BOQ--Bachelor Officer's Quarters CAG--Commander, Air Group CAP--Combat Air Patrol CAS--Close Air Support CBU--Cluster Bomb Unit CO--Commanding Officer ETA--Estimated Time of Arrival GBU--Guided Bomb Unit HARM--High speed Anti-Radiation Missile JSDF-- Japanese Self Defense Force LAV--Light Armored Vehicle SAM--Surface to Air Missile SDF--Super Dimensional Fortress UNEDF--United Nations of Earth Defense Force UNEDC--Untied Nations of Earth Defense Command RDF--Robotech Defense Force XO--Executive Officer (second in command) Angels in reference to altitude is a navy thing, and is a way of saying flight level, which basically means adding three zeros on the number for the altitude reference. (JRA) Port--left Starboard--right
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