fanfic_name = Viva Love
chapter = Chapter 2
author = Knights Templar
dedicate = dwparsnip, and Cicero Phelps
Rating = AP15
Type = Alternative Universe
fanfic = A/N: As promised, I am back again to present to you more for your reading pleasure.
P.S. Be nice, and leave a review
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The combined Robotech and Zentraedi forces screamed for the fight, knowing that it would be a tough one.
Rick throttled forward, watching as streams of fire arced back and forth between the two opposing sides now, and he couldn’t help but feel that this chaos mirrored his inner chaotic feeling.
‘Damn it,’ thought Rick, ‘this isn’t the time or the place to be confused!’
He banked left and lined up an enemy and fired a stream of rounds into the Zentraedi and watched as it went up in sphere of superheated death.
But Rick knew, as all veterans of space combat, that is was bad to stay still and follow a kill for too long. The Zentraedi were notorious about being sneaky and had ample ability to sneak up on even the best pilots.
Rick concentrated harder, his mind working furiously, not on the fight, but how he felt about Lisa, their most recent kiss, and his emotions for Minmei. He dared not close his eyes to blink, or to clear his head, that was a way to die.
He could feel the anger welling up inside of him, and he knew that it was the most dangerous thing to do, allow your anger to control you, to guide, especially in a fight. But he couldn’t contain himself.
He was mad!
He wasn’t mad at Lisa, but he was mad at himself for being so confused. For not being able to figure himself out and know what he wanted.
He fired off a rack of missiles and watched as they streaked to their target, destroying another pod.
Rick fired again, and again, his anger getting more intense and whiter hot with every kill, but also deepening his confusion with every kill.
As he bore down on a damaged Battlepod, and loosed missiles, he heard the call to clear the area and get safe distance away from the target area, Breetai was about to fire the main cannon.
Rick sped off and watched as the few remaining Zentraedi capital ships tried to splinter away, but failed as they were engulfed in the clear wave of death.
Rick smiled with grim satisfaction, but still no less confused.
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Breetai viewed the scene with a satisfied look on his face.
The destruction wrought by his forces was complete and total. There was but on problem. The remaining Zentraedi rebels had holed themselves up in the Satellite Factory, and were refusing to come out.
As Breetai had learned from Exedore, there was only really one way in and one way out. The main hanger bay.
As he surveyed the individuals in front of him, he tried to think of what needed to be done to wrench the Zentraedi out of the Factory.
“Lord Breetai, we need to call reinforcements.” Rick said.
Breetai looked at Rick for moment and reflected the ferocity he had displayed in the last battle and wondered if it was not some residual effect from the kiss.
He briefly considered having all his men kiss Captain Hayes before battle. He dismissed it as something that only really worked for Micronians.
“I have already called for reinforcements, but I fear that they will not arrive in time to make a difference. As you all know, Reno will have his forces destroy everything in the Satellite Factory before he allows any of use to possess it.”
They all looked to one another and then back at Breetai.
Lisa asked the obvious question, “What do we do then?”
Breetai looked at her and smiled. He liked Lisa, she was a wonderful officer, and would be an asset on any Zentraedi ship.
“I was thinking a…what’s the word that you micronians use?” Breetai looked to Exedore with a look that seemed to implore him to help him.
“A commando raid,” Exedore said without moving, or elaboration any further.
“Ah yes, that’s it, thank you Exedore,” Breetai said as Exedore nodded.
“A commando raid, someone goes in behind, while we distract them with an attack on the main hanger bay.”
Breetai surveyed the looks and decided that since no one had voice any dissent to the idea that it would be a good one.
“Well, who would lead the attacking team?” Max asked.
Breetai swung his head to where Max and Miriya were sitting and looked at her.
“Why, Miriya of course, she’s been on the Satellite Factory before,” Breetai said, “and she would be the best suited if you accompanied her too Commander Sterling.”
Max raised an eyebrow, taking in the idea. He was initially opposed to them going in together, not for him, or her, but for Dana. Even thought neither of them had been beaten in a fight since he beat her, it was still dangerous.
But Max knew his warrior wife would hear nothing of it, and he smiled at himself, in spite of himself, and knew that they were as good as going.
Breetai knew that Miriya and Max would be good to go for the mission, he looked to Captain Hunter.
“Captain Hunter, I would like it if you would lead the diversionary attack on the main hanger bay, to allow Commanders Sterling’s to get into position and secure all vital areas,” asked Breetai.
Rick nodded his affirmative.
Breetai nodded his head and pulled up plans for the Satellite Factory.
“Now, this is the best place to breach,” started Breetai.
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Rick and the combined RDF and Zentraedi forces sat and waited for the appropriate signal to start the attack on the Satellite Factory.
It had been a long briefing and there had been little time after that to have to oneself, or help relieve oneself of their utter confusion. But Rick had felt that his confusion had lessened a little as he had eventually dazed out of the briefing and began to sort out his confusing emotion.
It had taken a swift kick from Lisa to his shin for him to realize that Breetai was telling him that it all hinged on timing and as soon as a series of explosion were set off, they were to attack.
It seemed though, at the time anyway, that his confusion lessened when he was around Lisa and that her presence seemed to cut through the fog in his head. He liked that he was happy around her, or happier at any rate.
But something kept him from being totally comfortable with her all the time, it was this nagging thought in the back of his head, and he couldn’t get it to stop. Minmei.
It seemed like she was impeding his happiness as opposed to helping it. But he couldn’t seem to convince himself that she was nothing, or at the least, unattainable. All she cared about was she, and that made Rick mad, who served others.
He closed his eyes, and just reflected on his long, long day, and could only imagine what it would be like to be with someone, back on Earth, basking in the sun and being happy. Feeling the warmth of the sunlight on his face, the pleasant touch of the grass and the gentle flow of the wind through the tree, it would be nice.
Rick’s eyes opened as he played the image out in his head, and was shocked to find that Lisa, not Minmei was the person that he saw with him there, laughing and teasing him with her sweet smile and stunning emerald green eyes.
Rick smiled at the thought and stored away the idea for something that he would have to do with Lisa when they got back.
‘If I get back,’ Rick’s mind said.
He rolled his eyes at himself, making a dismissive gesture to himself in the cockpit of his Veritech in the reaches of space, waiting for an attack. It must look ridiculous to anyone watching.
The idea of someone watching Rick talk to himself and argue with himself made him smile, “I must look like a complete screw loose,” Rick said to himself.
“Only to those who don’t know you Rick,” Lisa said, jumping into the conversation.
Rick smiled and looked at the monitor in his Veritech and saw Lisa’s face there. Had see been watching him the whole time? Or listening to him?
‘Thank goodness she isn’t a mind reader like Max,’ Rick thought to himself.
“Well, glad to see that I can get some company out here,” Rick said to Lisa, who smiled at his arrogant smile.
“I mean, if the great Lisa Hayes is taking time out of her busy schedule to talk to me, I must be awesome, or something like it.” Rick said, again flashing a smile.
Lisa laughed out loud at him, in spite of the tense situation. She laughed and realized that just talking to Rick made her happy, and that she wished they would talk more, and spend more time together, off duty anyway. She smiled celestially, and she saw as Rick picked up on the smile.
Rick, for his part, noticed her smile and could only try to imagine what was going through her head. He found himself being drawn rather quickly to some very naughty and very situation inappropriate thoughts. He suddenly noticed that there was a sudden shift in the amount of blood, and where it was being shifted.
‘Oh shit!’ Rick thought to himself and began to think of the most disgusting thing he could. Fortunately for him, it was about this time that a dozen explosions rocked the Satellite Factory and broke the long silence of space.
Rick looked at Lisa and gave her a dashing smile and wink, “See you on the other side cutie,” and with that Rick ended the feed and propelled himself into the fight.
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Max and Miriya entered the breach and landed in one of the many corridors inside the Satellite Factory.
Max looked to Miriya’s Battloid and nodded the metal shod head and Miriya started off down one of the corridors. Max followed closely, watching their rear so that no one would get the drop on them from behind.
They stopped and peeked around a corner only to be greeted with laser blasts from armored Zentraedi. They flattened back against the wall and Miriya leaned out and fired down the corridor and caused the Zentraedi to duck down and Max scampered across the open corridor to the other side.
The Zentraedi moved into the corridor opening, hoping to draw the Veritechs into hand to hand combat, but they charged the position and fell to the withering fire that sprayed at them from both sides of the corridor opening.
They moved into the corridor, careful to not step on the bodies that had blood pooling around them. It was something that Max was unaccustomed to seeing; he was used to explosions and vaporization, not broken bodies and gore.
They crept slowly, and as quietly as a Battloid would allow, they turned the corner and ran into a startled Zentraedi. His shocked expression didn’t last long as Miriya hit him with the butt of her gun pod and sent him sprawling, unconscious against the wall.
Max sighed and wondered how much of this it was going to take; he heard the explosion emanating from what he assumed was the main hanger bay, and the main Zentraedi defense zone.
Max looked up and almost ran straight into Miriya, she had stopped and was surveying the area.
The room was amazingly large, like all things on Zentraedi scale, and there were a huge number of odd machines around, doing things, operating even during the thick of the fighting. All Max could do was staring up and around, the room was so large that it was dark before he could even see the ceiling.
“Maximillian, we are where we need to be. Let’s check to make sure there is no one else around.”
Max nodded and they began to search the vast room that they had wandered into.
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Rick flew in and released a score of missiles at the Zentraedi hunkered down in the main hanger bay and hoped that eventually they would be able to penetrate the defenses that had to this point held them out of the Satellite Factory.
Several attacks had been beaten back and now the situation was getting desperate as they were losing more and more pilots to the determined defenses that the Zentraedi had erected.
Rick watched as another Zentraedi attack met with disaster as they were all obliterated. Rick grimaced, this was not going there way and what made matter worse was that Miriya and Max were inside and they couldn’t get to them, and if this fight went on too much longer at this rate, there wouldn’t be a Max and Miriya any longer.
Rick looked around at the reforming RDF and Zentraedi forces and knew that with the dwindling numbers, they couldn’t afford to attack the same way anymore. He got an idea.
“Lisa!” Rick said as he opened a connection to Breetai’s ship.
Lisa was surprised to hear Rick say her name so desperately and full of need, albeit, for a different reason she like it anyway.
“What is it Rick,” Lisa asked him, knowing that the situation was getting desperate and grim with each passing minute.
“Breetai needs to fire with some of his forward cannons into the main hanger bay, we can’t get through there defenses and we need to hurry so Max and Miriya aren’t overwhelmed.”
Lisa looked at Breetai and he nodded his head and issued the orders.
“You got it Rick,” Lisa told him and she silently prayed that he would be ok after all this.
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Max and Miriya had finished scouting out the large room, whatever it may have been, and were now waiting, facing the only was in or out, and waiting for what they knew would be a Zentraedi attack.
As they stood expectantly, there was a huge shockwave throughout the Satellite Factory that shook the very ground they stood on and caused them fall to the ground. Max checked his controls and saw that everything was ok with him and looked to Miriya and saw that she too was ok.
“What was that Maximillian,” Miriya asked.
Max didn’t know, and he knew that Miriya hadn’t asked because she thought he knew, but it was because they were concerned. Concerned that they may be trapped in here, with no was out, and a failing attack on the main hanger bay.
Another shockwave swept through, and this time the two of them managed to keep their feet and eyes on the entrance. They knew it was coming now, the RDF and Zentraedi combined forces had finally managed to breach the main defense line, and now the renegade Zentraedi would come to destroy the vital equipment, or just all of it.
They heard heavy and fast footfalls, but the help their fire until they were sure it was a Zentraedi. As he appeared in the doorway, they let loose and sent him sprawling back. He hit the ground with a sick, wet thud.
They knew it was only going to get worse as they soon heard the sound of metal shod feet clomping their way. It was now that Max and Miriya decided to not wait until they saw who they were firing at and started to fire down into the darkened corridor and could hear the rounds and explosion as a result of their metal fire.
As soon as they stopped firing, the room got quiet and the entire area was filled with a sickening quiet, the proverbial calm before the storm. Max was a little worried, outnumbered and outgunned, it made him think of Custer and his Last Stand.
He smiled ruefully to himself; this wouldn’t be their end, only meant that things would now be a little more interesting and that it would give Miriya and him a chance to have some time to them.
But the calm was shattered suddenly and violently as an explosion right outside the doorway cause Max and Miriya to return their attention to the issue at hand, namely their survival.
They both fired furiously at the enemy starting to fill the doorway and saw as many of them fell and many more took their place. They soon started to fire back, wildly at first, but with more accuracy as the smoke began to clear and they could see their targets.
Max and Miriya both switched to Guardian Mode and began to move around so that they would make harder targets and could utilize their light missiles.
‘Shit,’ Max swore to himself, ‘this is going to be a tough one.’
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Rick and the remaining Zentraedi and RDF forces entered what was left of the main hanger bay, and began to sift though the carnage and make their way for the innards of the Satellite Factory. They had t home in on Max and Miriya’s signal so that they could find them and link up and start to root out the remaining Zentraedi.
He directed the remaining forces to split up and one group move one way and his team the other.
As they started to move out, they encountered stiff resistance, and soon, the march forward had been slowed to a mere crawl.
Rick was getting frustrated and knew that they were racing the clock, and that time was of the essence. They pushed forward, but each forward movement cost them someone, and they were running out of someone’s.
Rick felt something snap, he configured from Battloid to Guardian and pushed with all his might on the throttle and felt himself shoot into this seat as he propelled forward at an incredible rate.
He swooped by the Zentraedi and turned quickly, loosing missiles and firing at anything and everything, killing all those in his way. It had been a stupid move, but almost everything to this point had been stupid, and now they were taking casualties as a result of their inability to move forward.
Rick liked Breetai, but he hadn’t liked this idea so much, he didn’t say anything because he didn’t have any better ideas.
Rick moved forward dispatching all those that dared face him in his state of pure blood-lust. No one was spared, and Rick dealt with all those accordingly, giving them what they wanted: a glorious Zentraedi death.
The number of Zentraedi that came after the infiltrating forces slowed, and soon it got to the point where there was no more actually coming for them. It made Rick nervous to know that they were now running roughshod around the Satellite Factory. It made him worry about a trap of some sorts.
Rick looked down and the signal from Max and Miriya was getting stronger and they were getting closer. They rounded a corner and saw clear signs of a pitched fight, scorch marks, shattered door frames and wall, and most off all, the bodies.
If Rick had been surprised by that, he was even more surprised to see the form of two sitting Battloid’s waiting for them. When they looked up and saw that it was RDF Veritechs, one of them stood and Rick could immediately see it was Max.
“What took you so long Boss?” Max asked with as nonchalant as if he had been waiting for the bus.
Rick sighed, rolled his eyes, and thought about punching Max.
“Sorry, we had a little problem at the door,” Rick told him.
Max gave a laugh and told Rick it was good to see that the Cavalry had finally arrived.
Miriya piped up on the Comm. and threw a question to Max, “But Maximillian, there was no door here when they got here. Nor are these micronians on horses like I thought micronian cavalry was.”
Max gave a groan and put his hand to his head, and Rick got a good laugh at Max and Miriya’s expense.
“Ah, the novelties of teaching someone everything about a culture,” Rick muttered as he looked around the room.
Something caught Rick’s eye and he gave it a closer look and tried to remember what he was looking at.
It hit him after a second, “Ah shit,” said Rick, “that doesn’t look good.”
Everyone turned and looked up to see that something important had been hit and was giving off sparks. It was the Processing Core for the Satellite Factory.
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Lisa took in all the photos of the Processing Core and handed them off the Exedore and several other experts in the field of Protoculture technology. None of them were on the level that Dr. Lang was, but they would have to do until he actually arrived to get a good look at things.
The battle hadn’t been over ten minutes before reports began to stream out about the damage that had been wrought inside the factory and how it had turned into a killing ground. Several very important components of the Satellite Factory had been damaged, mainly it’s Fold Engines, though thankfully, the damage to those had been limited, and seemed very repairable.
But this put a terrible hitch in the plan of having the Satellite Factory fold back to Earth with them. Not to mention the fact that they had to clear about bodies, make general repairs and eventually get Exedore and Lang to survey the damage done to the Processing Core.
Through all of this, Lisa had been thinking of Rick, not too uncommon an occurrence all on its own, but more or less it had to do with what she had been thinking about Rick and the context of those thoughts.
Lisa never really thought that she had a chance to compete with Miss Macross, that she was even on the same level with that airhead, but it had occurred to Lisa, not too long ago, that she didn’t need to be on the same level with her.
‘I’m already above her anyway, just for the sheer fact that I have an IQ above ten,’ thought Lisa.
Thankfully, the search of the Satellite Factory had been taken over by Zentraedi, seeing as how it was all written in Zentraedi Glyph’s and no human could discern what it meant. She was glad for that because now that meant that Zentraedi would take over the operation for now and the RDF personal could go get some sleep or Lisa at least needed sleep.
The only thing left to do now was make sure that all the remaining Veritech pilots got back safely and that the all of them were accounted for, dead or alive. Sadly there had been numerous casualties, more so then had been anticipated for.
‘Thirty-four pilots lost,’ thought Lisa, ‘we haven’t lost that many pilots in one fight since the fight with Dolza.’
She walked slowly, and aimlessly, lost in her thoughts about Rick and the fight and lots of other things that were seemingly out of her control. All she could do was control her life, and those around her that mattered to her.
She eventually, whether consciously, or unconsciously, she found her way to the makeshift hanger bay for the RDF and she stopped.
‘Why is it,’ Lisa thought, ‘I am always going to him? Why won’t he ever come to me?’
Her question had an easy answer as Rick snuck up behind her and grabbed her hand, and pulled her close to him.
She hit his body with a surprised look on her face and a slight oomph, and felt his arms close around her.
She looked up at him with wide eyed shock and saw him smile; he pulled her close and kissed her on the lips with passion and tenderness. They broke the kiss and Rick smiled at Lisa and gave her a thumb up.
“Hey, one good kiss deserves another,” Rick said answering her question that was written all over her face.
Now Rick was confused again, and he thought he felt a headache coming on, he had been confused and mad all day and he was getting damn tired of it. He didn’t know what had possessed him to kiss her, it had been a spur of the moment type of thing, not that it wasn’t nice, just that he didn’t know what this meant for Lisa and him, and he and Minmei, though more and more of him felt that she was rapidly falling out of the picture.
Lisa looked at Rick with a shocked look still settled onto her face. Why had he done that? Or better yet, why did she care? Isn’t this what she wanted?
‘Not if he is only substituting you for Minmei,’ her mind screamed. But something else in her subconscious told her that Rick had never been disingenuous with her, and that she shouldn’t expect him to start now.
As concerned as Lisa was about Rick’s gesture, Rick was not wrestling with what he should do about Lisa. The scene in his head played out like the ones you see on a cartoon where one side sits on one shoulder, and the other sits on the other shoulder.
‘You care about her, take a chance damn it,’ said one side of his mind.
The other screamed back with equal ferocity, ‘No, no don’t go and make it any harder for you to get Minmei, you already have to pry her away from that loser cousin of hers, and still juggle a possible military career and social life.’
Rick struggled internally with himself and didn’t know what to do, but in the end, after only a few seconds of smiling at Lisa and fighting inside himself, he decided to go Ball to the Wall, and make something with Lisa if there is anything to make with her.
Rick moved closer to her and they started walking down the corridors to their respective quarters, talking as they went.
Rick telling her about the hellacious fighting inside the Factory and the incredible difficulties getting into the Factory through the enemy defenses, all the while worrying about getting Max and Miriya out.
Lisa for her part told Rick about the number of pilots they lost, and the extensive damage reports that were filtering into Breetai’s command ship detailing the damage to the Satellite Factory.
All the while they were walking, Rick was trying desperately to think of anyway to get Lisa to spend more time with him so he could talk to her more, about anything but work, or Minmei he added, don’t talk about her.
He couldn’t even count the number of times he had run to Lisa to talk about Minmei, and Lisa, to her never ending credit, had listened to all his issues and complaints. Sometimes he wondered if he should nominate Lisa for Sainthood.
Rick laughed.
Lisa looked at Rick with a puzzled expression, “And what is so funny Rick?”
Rick looked at her and could see that she was confused, ‘Oh lord, I hope she isn’t as confused as I was, well, still am,’ his mind said.
“Nothing,” said Rick, debating on whether to tell her or not and decided that since he was already going balls to the wall, why not this too.
“I was just thinking about nominating you for Sainthood, you know, because you have a never ending well of patience for an idiot like me.”
Lisa looked at him with some shock and some surprise.
“Why do you say that Rick?” Lisa asked.
“Well, I’d always go to you with my issues about Minmei and everything else like that, and to your credit, you always listened. I don’t know why you listened, I guess it is because you really do care, but I appreciate it anyway.” Rick had no idea where all of this was coming from, but it made no difference. It was how he felt and he needed to say it.
They had stopped walking and were now looking at each other, they were in front of Rick’s quarters and Rick was tempted to ask her if she would join him.
“Well, mister, someone has to care about you, or else you might hurt yourself,” Lisa said in a mocking motherly tone.
Rick laughed and decided, ‘What the hell, ask her in.’
“Hey Lisa, would you like to join me for…whatever I have in my quarters,” Rick asked her, unsure of what he actually had in his refrigerator.
Lisa smiled and looked at him, “You’d only be so lucky if I said yes.”
She made him sweat it out for a minute, and she could see that he was getting a crestfallen look about him.
‘Make him want you Lisa,’ was something that Claudia had told once, and she was determined to make him work for it.
Rick was confused…again. This was becoming a trend today and he was beginning to want nothing more then to go to sleep and stop being confused. He had thought for sure that Lisa would say yes, but apparently he had been wrong.
‘Oh well, maybe another time,’ Rick told himself.
Lisa could see a change in his demeanor and decided now was the time to say yes, “Oh Rick, you baby, of course I will join you for whatever you may have in your quarters, I just hope it isn’t mold.”
They laughed and Lisa and Rick both walked into his quarters, talking happily about everything but work, and Minmei.
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A/N: I know there was an ungodly amount of action in this chapter, and this one is my longest yet in terms of pages actually typed. But I ground it out and made it as good as I could for you so that you could enjoy more of this. But yeah, I made Rick a little more forward with Lisa, but was he ever dishonest with her? No, just confused, which I hope I made abundantly clear. No worries angst lovers, there will be some of that, but only as much as I can tolerate.
At any rate, I hope you enjoyed and I’ll step down from my soapbox now and just ask you nicely to please, please, please, please review. Any review is a good one, even if it is just constructive criticism.
State = Continuará/To Be Continue
feedback = Sí/Yes
email = SanFrancisco49er2003ATYahoo.com