fanfic_name = What If

chapter = Chapter II

Rating = AP15

Type = Adventure

fanfic = What If

I don't own Robotech...pouts I wish I did. Harmony Gold does...

Admiral Hayes shifted in his seat, it wasn't that the seats where uncomfortable, it's just that he was very nervous. This strange man that hadn't so much as given him a name had come out of the wood work and delivered right into Hayes lap the much needed hope of humanity.

Under normal circumstances Hayes would have had man other council members with him, but today he was going it alone, no one else was to know about this and Hayes intended to keep it that way. He knew that if the council found out what he had gotten his hands on they would try and take away his hope and chance to save his daughter.

No matter how hard Hayes tried his thoughts kept going back to his daughter and that fact tat the council had all but sentenced her to death. That was on of the main driving reasons for Hayes to keep the Protoculture Matrix and Fabricator, the remains of them anyway, a secret from the council. He was bitter and mad.

But another thing sparked Hayes interest in what this man had told him, there seemed to be, theoretically anyway, to shield cities from the heaviest of bombardments. This notion intrigued Hayes and the very thought of being able to set up dozens and dozens of these all over the planet made the idea of getting the Matrix that much more electrifying.

He could do so much to protect the people he had sworn to protect and serve, and it was his duty to make sure that he did all that was in his power to defend the people of Earth.

Hayes had seen a lot of action in the Global Civil War, and he had seen a lot of innocents die needlessly for a war that in the end, achieved noting but the near extinction of mankind. But "the Visitor" had saved mankind from killing itself, but brought along a whole host of new and inherently more dangerous problems.

How was the Human race supposed to effectively fight a race of fifty foot warrior? That was the question posed following the exploration of the then "Visitor". It was at that point in time that the friendship that he had shared for so long with Captain Henry Gloval seemed to fall apart.

Gloval on one hand was advocating the use of the newly named, SDF-1, as an offensive weapon and advocated the construction of more ships to help protect the Earth. Hayes on the other hand had another idea, he wanted to go full out in the construction of the Grand Cannon. An it had taken Hayes up till then to realize that he was wrong and a Maginot Mentality of sitting back and waiting was not going to work.

Hayes began to think back to the "good ole days," when he and Gloval had served side by side. An the more Hayes thought about the friendship that he had had with Gloval the more he realized that he needed this mans help, and the help of all the RDF personal on the SDF-1, and especially the services of Dr. Emil Lang.

But how Hayes thought, how to bring back the SDF-1 without having the rest of the council looking stupid and having them lose face. He couldn't just have the SDf-1 come back and say, "oh it looks like it wasn't destroyed after all." Anyone with a brain would realize that they where being fed bullshit flat out.

Hayes soon realized that the council be damned, he needed the SDF-1 and he needed the know how and the experience that the service men and crews brought to the table. 'Why should I care about the public image of the council,' Hayes thought to himself, 'we are just going to have to let the people of Earth know that we are at war with an alien race that has millions of ships and has the ability to blow our planet to atoms.' Hayes laughed at the panic that would for sure follow the announcement of that in the news.

There would be rebellions and uprisings all over the planet, but what Hayes really needed was to meet up with this man and figure out what they where going to do. Then it his Hayes suddenly. 'Where am I going to set up these Protoculture shields?' He asked himself, and Hayes knew he would need a place with a good industrial base and plenty of willing volunteers to join the ranks that he knew would open up.

Hayes knew it then and there, the North Western Quadrant would be a good Base of Operations (BoS). There where plenty of willing volunteers in the countries of Canada and the United States and maybe Hayes thought he could get some of the Protoculture Shields to the European States. But he knew he would have to defend the heavily populated areas, there was no chance in hell he could save everyone.

Just as Hayes was getting into a deep thought process, a voice cut through his deep stupor, "Admiral Hayes sir, we will be landing at Macross Island shortly." Hayes looked up at the young women and gave her a faint smile, just enough to let her know that he heard her and understood, and she in return have him a very big and pretty smile.

Admiral Hayes then moved over to a window and looked out at the vas expanses that was the Pacific Ocean, and saw a small little island, the very same island that had started all this mess, Macross, and just then something caught his eye, something magnificent; The Protoculture Matrix that the universe seemed to be coveting after.

Rick sat in his VT thinking about tomorrow night, and his date with Lisa. He began to wonder why she would have wanted to ask him out, he had thought that she was a all business and no nonsense kind of person. But then again, Minmei was so far away from him with her career that it didn't matter anymore.

A lot had happened since they had shared the experience of being prisoners and he got a curious feeling in his gut, an airy sensitive feeling that he hadn't gotten before. He didn't know what the feeling meant and it scared him. Was he falling for his commanding officer? 'No,' Rick's mind screamed, 'I can't fall for her, I care for Minmei!' Yet no matter how much he told himself that he could shake the feeling.

Rick had never really loved anyone nor had he ever thought that he would love someone. But something about Lisa, fighting and argument aside, put him at ease when he was around her. Minmei was great, but she was too young to have experienced any of the problems that Lisa had faced, especially losing someone that she had loved.

Rick had never personally lost someone that he had loved, other than family. But as Rick got deeper and deeper in thought the sudden warning alarms from the VT's on board threat radar gave a loud whirring noise. The sudden loud noise bringing Rick back to the real world and he realized that he had a flight of Battlepods' coming towards him and his patrol.

"Max, Ben, we have incoming hostiles; you guys ready?" Max and Ben gave an affirmative and they began to engage the Pods with the full fury of the human spirit. Rick chanced a look to his three o'clock and saw Max fighting off at least half a dozen Pods in Guardian Mode juking and dodging and jockeying for the position that would get him the kill.

Rick himself pulled the B lever an thought the VT through the necessary changes to change into the fifty foot tall robot that could go toe-to-toe with the Zentraedi Pods. As the VT changed Rick visualized that change in his mind and hit the foot thrusters and found a bogey and started to spray the target with bullets and the Pod's armor began to flake away and exploded in a fiery ball of death and energy.

'Another kill for me,' Rick thought and another target of opportunity presented itself and Rick let loose a flock of missiles and the Pod exploded under the barrage of missiles. But for every kill the patrol of three VT's made another two came on to take their place.

'What the hell is going on?' Rick thought 'this doesn't seem like a Zentraedi patrol that they often ran into it but a full scale attack...' Ricks mind suddenly registered and realized that they had been caught up in the first wave of a large attack by the Zentraedi.

"SDF-1, this is Lieutenant Hunter there is a large scale attack heading your way, I repeat a large scale attack..." But that was all Rick got off before the Zentraedi jammed his communications and was cut off.

Lisa was mortified, Rick was cut off and fighting a desperate holding action to allow the SDF-1 to scramble it's fighters. "Commander Hayes, can you confirm that the enemy was heading this way?" Gloval asked voice calm.

Lisa was suddenly filled with a deep rage, 'Does Gloval really think that Rick would lie to get more people out there and risk others lives for him? He's a better person than that!' But Lisa knew it was wrong of her to be angry because Gloval had more lives then just the three pilots out on patrol he has over sixty thousand inhabitants to be concerned for.

"Captain, it is a positive on the enemy heading. They where on a direct course for the SDF-1." That was all Gloval needed and he gave the order for Claudia to scramble the fighters and put the ship on red alert.

"It seems that break that we had been graced with is now over." Gloval head drooped a little and his chin rested on his, "May god go with these young men and women, they are the best thing we have."

As the words sunk in Roy Fokker, came up on Claudia's monitor, "Hey Commander Grant, what's going on?" Claudia looked up at the monitor, "Well Captain Fokker, the Vermillion Patrol has been cut off and is now fighting at Lagrange 31. An Roy hurry, Rick's out there, I don't know what Lisa would do if she lost her date for tomorrow."

Lisa colored furiously and gave her friend a deathly look and Claudia laughed at her. "It's all good baby, you know I'm just messing with you." This still didn't help Lisa but she knew she had more important things to worry about then being embarrassed by her friend.

Roy got the sensation that he always got before he went into combat, the feeling of apprehension, but there was a new feeling this time. The fear of Rick being killed out there holding his position against dozens of BP's (Battle Pods) gave him a sense of urgency. But there was no speeding up the take off process and the cat crews worked efficiently and diligently in launching the VT's in a rapid manner.

Roy got the thumbs up from the crew chief and hit the throttle and felt himself be pushed against his seat. The VT propelled itself forward with the help of the catapult the threw him forward into the quiet battlefield of space.

As Roy's senses returned back to normal after the intense stress of take off he say that Skull was forming and heading in the direction of the fire fight between the Zentraedi and Vermillion Patrol. The sense of urgency only intensified as Roy took the point of the squadron and hit his afterburners in an attempt to get to Rick faster. An Roy wasn't the only was hoping and praying that help would arrive in time, Lisa was too.

Lisa stood on the bridge and watched as Skull and other RDF squadrons fly out to stop the Zentraedi, and if possible save Vermillion Patrol. The mission was more important than anything she told herself, and the mission was to protect the SDF-1 at all costs. 'At all costs,' she said to herself, that meant that if Rick were killed that it wouldn't mean anything to anyone except her.

Lisa lowered her head in surprise at how much she cared about this man, she hadn't felt this was for any man except...Karl. Karl was the only other man she had ever felt this way about before. An here she was standing on the bridge of the SDF-1 thinking about how she felt for Rick Hunter, the loud mouth pilot.

Roy Fokker kept pouring on the speed as they drew nearer and nearer to the death dance that was unfolding in front of them. The three Veritech of the Vermillion Patrol where holding their own surprising even Roy, 'Atta boy Ricky, give those aliens hell.'

A red-trimmed Veritech in guardian mode turned and loosed a flock of missiles at a team of BP's heading for it's position and commenced to pour hollow point rounds into the surrounding space finishing off an survivors that may have survived the missile assault.

Rick hit the foot thrusters forcing his VT into a upward ascent with a BP in front of his as he poured rounds into the hapless BP. The numbers where just now getting to the members of the Vermillion patrol and even the invincible Max was starting to take hits and his VT started to lag. But Max ever the scrapper flamed to BP's with a graceful move that even brought awe to the Zentraedi.

But they weren't going to last much long, Ben was already smoking out and Rick was running low on ammunition. But the Zentraedi where dead set on killing the three pilots, and they didn't seem to care if the kill ratio was 2 to 1 or 20 to 1. But all that could be said for the pilots now was they where really racking up the kills.

Rick pulled the B lever and thought his way through to Battloid mode and he figured he stand the best chance of taking more Zentraedi with his this was rather than in Guardian, his missile supply exhausted with that last barrage that stopped the Zentraedi cold.

As Rick turned his Battloid to deal with a group of half a dozen BP's he realized that they weren't going to make it out of this and that they were going to die. An as Rick sat in his VT about to face death he suddenly understood his feeling, 'Now of all the damn times to come to terms with oneself,' Rick thought depressed, 'I do love Lisa, I don't know since when, but I do, I just do.'

Rick returned to the harsh reality of death and mayhem surrounding him and felt a sudden anger swelling in him, 'These damn Zentraedi bastards are about to kill me, now of all times when I have finally figured out how I feel about Lisa, jesus talk about timing.' Well if Rick was going to die, 'I'll go down in a flash and take as many of them as I can,' an Rick unleashed a hellacious barrage of lead that destroyed two BP's in the first instant and damaged two more, but not even that was enough to slow down the BP's and they continued to come; and Rick continued to spray them with lead almost as if telling them I am ready for death, come and get me if you dare.

Two more BP's went up in a flash of brilliant light but that still left two more coming right for Rick, and as fate would have it his gatling cannon had just ran out of ammunition. 'Fuck,' Rick thought, 'time to take this shit hand to hand,' and Rick hit his thrusters and headed straight for the two BP's and swung his gatling cannon like a baseball bat and connect with one of the BP's and sent it sprawling, but the second BP's dodged the blow and had his sight set in Rick.

Rick knew he was screwed once the BP had dodged his ferocious cut and Rick was already resigning himself to death, 'Lisa,' Rick thought, 'I'm sorry it had to end this way!' Just as Rick closed his eyes and waited for the quick death that he was sure awaited him a concussion from a close-by blast shook Rick looked up and saw the BP go up in a spherical ball of flame that as soon as it blossomed was gone.

Vermillion One shifted slightly and saw Skull Squadron and Pearl Squadron coming to the rescue of the beleaguered fighters of the Vermillion Patrol. The battle that followed was short but intense. The remaining BP's taken totally by surprise where no match for the Human Fighters that came sweeping down into them.

But Rick and his team didn't participate, they where limping home. Max had taken a few hits and was moving slower than normal, and Ben was flaming. Rick wasn't much better than Ben, his own VT had received more than a few hits and his ammo was completely exhausted. As Rick gazed at the techno-knight floating in space and was never so happy to see the decks of the twin carriers. That wasn't the only thing he was happy to see, Lisa had appeared on Rick's comm. system.

"Well, Lieutenant Hunter, it's good to see you made it out alive. I was-," Lisa's voice faltered, "I was worried that you weren't going to come back," she confessed to him. Rick was shocked thought he showed no outward appearance of it, "Thank you Lisa, I was afraid I wasn't going to get to see you again."

Lisa was flabbergasted, she looked up and saw that the immediate bridge crew was looking at her, and she started to blush furiously. Capt. Gloval stood up and looked at Lisa, "Well Commander Hayes, isn't your shift up?" Lisa looked at him about to protest but Gloval had that look that said 'don't argue, go!'

Lisa didn't need any further encouragement as she left the bridge she could hear a cheer come from where the bridge crew was at. Lisa thought not there blushed furiously again.

Rick pulled his battered VT in for a landing on the Prometheus. As he taxied in and the canopy rose he could hear his crew chief give out a moan, "Aw, Lieutenant, what did you do to my baby? She's been all hurt." The Chief scowled at Rick but then broke into a smile, "No worries Lieutenant, I'll have her back into tip top shape before the next attack."

Rick wasn't really paying attention to him anymore an the Chief just shrugged his shoulders at Rick's inattention. What did have Rick's attention was a lowly figure at the end of the hanger an as he squinted it looked vaguely like...Lisa! Rick hopped the rest of the distance to the ground and took off at a run towards Lisa.

He scooped her up in his arms and hugged her with all his passion. "Lisa, it's so good to see you, I thought I'd never see you again," Rick whispered to her. Lisa pulled back slightly and looked at him with her emerald green eyes, and for a moment Rick saw all of Lisa's hurt and anguish, but he also saw love and compassion.

Without even thinking Rick pulled Lisa in and kissed her, right there in the hanger not caring what anyone else thought. Lisa was caught completely off guard but didn't let that stop her and opened her mouth to him and Rick and Lisa stood there making out like highschoolers in the hanger, with all the other pilots cheering him on, but to Rick and Lisa they might as well had been as far away as Pluto because right now they had each other.

A/N: Yes another chapter down, I hope you enjoy this one. I have been trying to put more thought into my chapters and I hope that this reflects my extra thinking. I tried to add more detail to the battle scenes, an I know some of this may be a bit far fetched, but I like the way it's going. So anyway enjoy and remember to R&R.

- Hide quoted text -

State = Continuará/To Be Continue

feedback = Sí/Yes