Fanfic Name / Nombre del Fanfic: Choices and Aces

Chapter / Capitulo: Chapter Two

Author / Autor: Anonymoose_Au

Rating / Clasificacion: AP15 (For Teenagers = Para Adolescentes)

Romance

Action / Accion

Alternate Universe / Universo Alterno

Fanfic: “People always talk about wanting to meet their equal…let’s just hope they specify that it’s not at the wrong end of a fight.” Anonymous quote during The Global Civil War 
 
It came out of nowhere and Roy was almost taken out. 
 
But by some miracle he dodged the rain of plasma fire and looked up to see one of the suits coming right from his twelve. 
 
“So, you want a piece of me?” Roy asked, throwing Skull One's engines into full power and rocketing up towards the enemy. “Let’s just see if you can take it.” 
 
The battle suit though was not confused by his tactics like every other opponent he’d ever had. Rather than falter at the fact that Roy was coming right up at him, he continued the dive. 
 
It was tough dodging the blasts, but Roy managed to get a fix on the bogey and fired two of his missiles at close range. 
 
He could barely believe his eyes as the battle suit…somehow…some way flipped and twisted and then set off a volley of his own. 
 
There were definitely more missiles in its salvo, but they were less maneuverable. Looping, Roy sped down towards the ocean performing moves that confused and caused many of the missiles to hit each other. The ones that remained shot into the ocean as Roy pulled up sharply back towards the battle suit that was still coming at him. 
 
“This guy doesn’t give up,” Roy muttered, and realized that he and the enemy where moving further away from the main fight, but there was no time to worry about his men. The battle suit was all ready coming for another pass and it was a lot faster than the veritech was. 
 
*** 
 
Miriya had not expected this…Khyron had claimed the pilot was an ace, but that was only to him and Miriya knew that her skills were far superior. But this micronian…with the white skull blazing from the black tail fins of his mecha had avoided all of her assaults. This had never happened to her before! 
 
Now, though she had him, he was trying to escape, but she would overtake him, she would smite him- 
 
Suddenly without warning the mecha changed, transformed, its jets swung down like legs and suddenly the micronian was flying backwards, beneath her and the next thing she knew she was been fired upon. 
 
“Ugh!” Miriya stopped and turned so sharply she was thrown forward in her seat and almost collided with the face plate. 
 
“You devil,” she grated as she faced him and brought her plasma cannons to bear on him. 
 
But he was gone once again, streaking up into the sky, his mecha back to its fighter state. 
 
“I will not be surprised again,” Miriya hissed to herself as she chased after him. The micronians mecha had three modes; so far she had seen two and she knew what the third one was…It would not save him. 
 
They flew high, through the clouds to the upper reaches of the micronians planet’s atmosphere and smiling again Miriya got a lock on the micronian…another salvo of missiles would finish him, he couldn’t be so lucky twice… 
 
***  
 
“Lisa, what’s happening? Why aren’t we getting reports?” Gloval asked, standing up. 
 
“The fighting’s very heavy, sir,” Lisa replied as he came up behind her, “I don’t think they can afford to report in.” 
 
“What about Fokker?” Gloval was concerned, if Roy could be relied upon for anything, it was reporting the situation, but he had not been heard from in more than five minutes. 
 
“He seems to be engaged with a particularly difficult battle suit,” Lisa told him. 
 
“This is odd…” Gloval murmured moving past Lisa to look out across the sea; some distance away he could see the explosion from the battle. “Every time the aliens have come into contact with us they have come for the ship that is what they’re here for after all. But these ones…they have made no move towards us whatsoever.” Gloval wished he had his pipe on hand, but he had long since given up on taking it to the Bridge since Sammy was guaranteed to stop him if he tried to light up. 
 
“Perhaps it’s a trick?” Lisa suggested. 
 
“I’m not picking up any other activity,” Vanessa called, “the enemy fleet is still holding orbit.” 
 
“This is Max Sterling,” a voice suddenly crackled through the speakers. “We’re having a hard time with these guys; it looks like they’re just here to fight with us.” 
 
“Lieutenant Sterling, we copy,” Lisa responded quickly, “have you taken heavy causalities?” Gloval saw her sneak a look at Claudia, who was been unusually silent. 
 
“Not too bad, Commander Fokker seems to be taking on their leader…he’s a good one, ad with the rest of them swarming over us we can’t assist.” 
 
“Roger,” Lisa replied, then looked up. “Is there any way we can assist, sir?” 
 
“Not from this distance…” Gloval shook his head. “It would be too risky…we could send out more squadrons, but…” 
 
He didn’t finish, but the meaning was clear, they could not afford to risk a larger part of their force, even if it was the Skull Squadron that was in danger. 
 
*** 
 
Rick had opened the gift box Roy had brought and had been delighted by what was inside. 
 
It was Roy’s prize collection of model WWI fighter planes, particular the Fokker designs. 
 
Roy and Rick both had the same favourite, a model Fokker D3, the plane that Roy had flown the first time he had been in Pop Hunter’s Flying Circus. Even though Rick had only been about four years old at the time he could still remember sitting beside his father in the announcers tower watching with amazement as his big brother flew aerobatics that were almost unimaginable. From that moment Rick had vowed that he would be just like Roy when he grew up, or at least he’d try to. 
 
Now, holding the fuselage of the model between his thumb and forefinger, Rick flew it around imagining that he was back at the Circus, instead of in this hospital fighting a war. 
 
'How’d I even end up here?' He asked himself, not for the first time. 
 
He was suddenly startled by a knock on the door and turning, he almost dropped the plane in surprise. 
 
Minmei was standing there. 
 
“Hi, Rick,” she smiled. 
 
“Minmei! You…how did you know?”  
 
“Commander Fokker told me,” Minmei said, coming over to stand by the bed. “I had to come see you, I’m so glad you’re OK.” 
 
Rick’s heart was almost bursting with joy; he had given up on the idea of Minmei coming by. 'Thank you, Big Brother.' 
 
“Yeah, just a bruised ego,” he replied, putting the plane on the bedside table, next to the opened gift box. 
 
“Oh, Rick,” Minmei sat down in the chair beside the bed, “you’re still a hero.” 
 
“Well, thanks…” Rick felt himself blushing, then cleared his throat. “So…uh…you’re making a movie, I hear.” 
 
“Yes, it’s so exhausting, Rick!” Minmei shook her head. “It’s lots of fun sometimes, but other times…I’m just saying the same lines again and again. And we work for almost ten hours a day!” 
 
Rick could have said that for fighter pilots working ten hours a day would be a blessing, but decided not to. 
 
“When’s it coming out?” He asked instead. “I want a front row seat.” 
 
Minmei giggled. “You’re so sweet, and don’t worry, of course you will be, I’ll make sure of it! But I’m not too sure when the movie comes out, it’s been put together very quickly, but there’s no set date yet.” 
 
“Well, I’ll be waiting,” Rick promised. 
 
Minmei smiled at him, but then her mouth opened wide in a yawn, she covered her mouth. “Oh, sorry, I’ve been working so hard…” 
 
“Hey, it’s fine,” Rick assured her, watching as she blinked her eyes tiredly. “You know, you can take a nap if you want, I’ve been lying in this bed way too long anyway, so…” He shifted over and swung his legs over the side. 
 
“Really, Rick? Well…maybe for just a minute…” Minmei didn’t even bother to get up from the chair, instead she just leaned over the bed and within seconds was fast asleep and it didn’t look like she’d be waking any time soon. 
 
“Oh well,” Rick murmured to himself. “She’s beautiful when she’s sleeping.” 
 
*** 
 
Roy was sweating; it had been a long time since he’d had such a hard fight. This pilot was incredible, nothing seemed to stop him. 
 
And now the battle suit set off another volley of those missiles and Roy wondered if he was going to live through this. With maximum thrust he did a hard-over and the veritech almost screamed with the G-forces. 
 
“How about we see how you like it,” Roy narrowed his eyes, flying evasive maneuvers the missiles on his tail managing to end up behind the battle suit with the missiles on his heels. 
 
Switching to Guardian mode Roy flipped upside down and rocketed away leaving the missiles to go for their new target, the very mecha that had fired them. 
 
Roy was sure that any other pilot would have tuned out at that moment, but not this one, with a series of moves that almost defied the laws of nature the battle suit twisted around plasma cannons blazing to take out its own salvo. 
 
“Well, I guess I should thank him for that,” Roy grunted, trying to bring the fight back to where the rest of his men were. Fighting one on one with this guy was becoming impossible…he was gonna need back up. 
 
*** 
 
Miriya had bit her lip so hard that it was bleeding and she was almost trembling with rage and…something else. 
 
She couldn’t believe the micronian’s audacity, to try and take her out with her own ammunition! And to think he had almost succeeded! And now… 
 
“Trying to get back to your squadron? I have you running scared, do I?” She cried, with rather less confidence than normal. For a brief moment she thought of calling her squadron to bear on this ace, he could not fight them all. 
 
But no! She would beat him herself as she had beaten ever enemy she’d ever encountered. She was out of missiles, but her plasma cannons could do the job just as well. 
 
She streaked after him coming up from his six and turning to loose a volley upon him. 
 
But he once again went into that second mode, changing direction instantly and dodging the fire. The gun pod now in the hands in the mecha, aimed at her and blazing away. 
 
The shots hit home…the right leg of her mecha sheered off, disappearing down into the depths of the ocean below. 
 
“NO!” Miriya screamed, it would not happen like this! She fired and got her own back, her shots took off the arm of the micronian’s mecha, the arm that held the gun pod. 
 
“It will end; you were a fine opponent, micronian!” She hollered, a smile curving her lips again. 
 
*** 
 
The alarms were ringing in Roy’s ears, his gauges telling him that he was running low on ammo…what ammo he had left anyway. The Skull One’s four lasers would only last for another minute or so…but he still had two missiles left. 
 
'Time to make these suckers count,' Roy thought, because if he didn’t it looked like what he had always feared most would happen…'I love you, Claudia.' 
 
It was one last desperate salvo; the two had been ducking and weaving around each other, trying to get the upper hand… 
 
The missiles flew across the sky heading straight for the battle suit, heading for the face plate…. 
 
“Come on,” Roy egged them on, “come on.” 
 
But the battle suit, now moving slower, its aerodynamics affected by the loss of a leg, still moved fast enough to evade the missiles, shooting them from the sky. 
 
And now, it was up to his lasers, and he was out of range…and once he was in range, the battle suit would be able to fire just as well at him. 
 
*** 
 
The micronian was brave that much was obvious; she had not expected him to be keeping missiles in reserve, but now this time… 
 
She aimed and pressed the trigger… 
 
There was nothing, but an empty sounding click. 
 
Furiously, Miriya pressed faster, but it was clear…her plasma cannons were depleted… 
 
Her eyes widened and for the first time she felt…fear, horrible fear. She was trapped… 
 
Miriya Parina, Ace of the Zentraedi Fleet, Leader of the peerless Quadronos had been defeated. 
 
*** 
 
'Mexican standoff,' was all Roy could think, he was still in Guardian mode and his opponent hovered only a few hundred feet away, its arms and plasma cannons pointed, but nothing was happening. 
 
In firing his missiles, Roy had depleted the time left on his lasers, they were both out of ammunition, Roy guessed. And now what? 
 
A kamikaze? Or perhaps the rest of the alien’s squadron would come and finish him off. 
 
'So this is how it ends….' 
 
*** 
 
The rest of Miriya’s Quadronos and the Vermillion and Skull Squadrons still fought their battle. 
 
Max was in the zone he was always in during combat. He had converted into Battloid mode and was blasting away at the battle suits even as they did all they could to avoid him. 
 
He took care of one that was coming up on Ben’s tail and looked about for Commander Fokker, who had disappeared from sight along with one of the battle suits, one that contained an ace alien pilot at least that’s what Max gathered from the few seconds he had seen it in action. 
 
Max had found himself the defacto leader of the squad, Captain Kramer had gone down in a blaze and ditched. He wasn’t used to it and hoped he hadn’t made any poor decisions. 
 
“Hey, Max, thanks,” Ben told him over the tac-net, his face appearing on the screen in the corner of Max’s control panel. “What the Hell are these guys doin’? They’re not attacking the SDF-1 or nothin’.” 
 
“Tell me about it,” Max darted out of the range of a missile salvo. “If you ask me it looks like it was some sort of raid so their leader could take out Commander Fokker for some reason.” 
 
“Pft, good luck,” Ben muttered, “the Commander will kick his ass easily.” 
 
Max wasn’t so sure about that, from the flashes of light he had seen from where Fokker and the alien had been fighting he didn’t think it would be a cake walk… in fact he couldn’t even say if Fokker would return. 
 
*** 
 
Miriya didn’t know how long she had hovered there, facing the micronian. 
 
The only way to defeat him, she knew, was to sacrifice her own life…or call for back up from her squadron. 
 
And her pride would not let her do the latter. 
 
Her hand hovered over the controls, for a spilt second she was prepared to do it…it would be her end but she would not have the dishonour of been defeated. 
 
But her resolve wavered, and she pressed a button on her communication console instead. “All units, retreat, repeat, all units…” her voice caught for a moment. “Retreat.” 
 
And with one last look at the mecha of the micronian who had shamed her, she darted into the sky as fast as her damaged mecha could take her. 
 
*** 
 
“Captain! The alien battle suits are retreating!” Vanessa cried over her shoulder. 
 
Claudia normally would have felt relief at this point, but Roy had not communicated from the bridge in thirty minutes, thirty long minutes and her heart pounded now with fear. 
 
“Skull Leader,” Lisa voice suddenly called, “Skull Leader do you copy, over?” 
 
And then… 
 
“This is Skull Leader reporting,” Roy’s voice sounded tense, almost shaky. “The enemy is retreating…” 
 
“Roger that, all veritechs can now return to Prometheus.” 
 
“Aye, aye.” 
 
Claudia’s shoulders slumped, the tension draining from her, although she still worried, Roy was never so quiet after a mission…she prayed that he was all right. 
 
*** 
 
As Roy returned Skull One into its bay and the technicians came over, Roy pushed open the canopy. 
 
“’Fraid I busted this bird up a bit,” he told them. “Lost an arm and the gun pod.” 
 
One of the techs looked surprised; the other cracked a small smile. “Well, it happens to all of us, Commander.” 
 
Normally Roy probably would have had a snappy comeback, but he was too shaken by the events of the battle too. 
 
Climbing out of Skull One he was relieved to be on solid ground again and was quickly intercepted by Ben and Max. 
 
“Good to see you guys got through it OK.” He greeted them. 
 
“Nothing to worry about,” Ben boasted, “those guys didn’t know what hit them.” 
 
“Yeah,” muttered Roy. 
 
“Did you get their leader, Commander?” 
 
Roy shook his head. 
 
“No way! How’d you let ‘im get away?” Ben demanded. 
 
“Uh, Ben,” Max said quietly. 
 
Roy barely heard Ben, he was still distracted by the battle, he had always had his fears of combat flying, but at the same time they had never really been realised… No opponent he had come up against had really tested his limits, there had been some close calls…but today he had looked death in the face. 
 
“It was odd sortie wasn’t it?” Max was saying, “like you said, Ben, it was pretty strange how they only fought with us instead of going for the SDF-1 like they always do. Do you think it’s a new tactic, Commander?” 
 
Roy could only shrug. He couldn’t think of any reason for a sortie like that except to fulfill that alien pilot’s ego. 
 
'What a thing to do,' Roy thought, shaking his head. 'Those aliens are damn crazy.' 
 
*** 
 
Back on her ship, Miriya climbed from her damaged mecha with shaking legs. 
 
She felt sick as she looked up at her Quaedluun-Rau, which had served her so well in countless battles that had never been damaged with any more than a few burns. Now…now it was irreparable. She, Miriya Parina would have to beg for a new mecha, like some sort of… 
 
She spoke to none of her squadron as she ran from the launch bay. 
 
In her quarters she raised a trembling hand to her face…it was wet, but not with sweat…something seemed to be coming from her eyes…she did not know what… 
 
But she didn’t care…something was beginning to replace her fear…rage, a white burning hot hatred at the micronian who had refused to die before her as the countless others she’d faced. 
 
“He will pay for this!” Miriya suddenly swung her fist and hit the door in front of her. “I will hunt him down! I will defeat him with my own hands and he will beg for mercy before I am done. So, I vow!” 
 
*** 
 
Rick had ended up falling asleep himself and was started awake, by a loud grating voice. 
 
“There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you! We have a movie to shoot don’t you know? You might be the star, but I’m the director, capish?” 
 
Blinking Rick turned to the door to see a man storming across the room, for some reason he wore sunglasses inside. 
 
Minmei was blinking too, slowing rising. “What?” 
 
“Come on,” the man took hold of her arm, “let’s get going.” 
 
“Hey!” Rick found his voice. “What are you doing? Who are you?” 
 
The man looked up at him. “What’s it to you?” 
 
“You can’t just come in here and boss Minmei around like this, that’s what it is to me.” 
 
“I’m Vance Hasslewood, director of Minmei’s movie…and we’re running seriously behind schedule right now.” The man snarled, tugging on Minmei’s arm. 
 
“Well, good for you,” Rick snapped, “can’t you see she’s exhausted? If you don’t let go of her, I’ll make you.” 
 
Hasslewood paled visibly, but then Minmei spoke. 
 
“No, no, it’s all right, Rick, I did promise that I’d only be an hour...”She pulled her arm from Hasslewood’s grasp. “I’m coming,” she went over and gave Rick a quick hug. “You get well soon now, I’ll be seeing you.” 
 
But as Minmei left, Hasslewood trailing behind her, Rick wondered when that would be.

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