Second Chances

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters that I am about to mangle around for my own amusement, sadly all Robotech characters remain the property of Harmony Gold, I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.

Author Note: Events of this chapter begin a few minutes after the end of the previous chapter.

Chapter Twenty-One

United Earth Defence Council Shipyard

L5 Lagranian Point

She is a thing of beauty, Admiral Christopher Chase thought as he stood on one of the many observation decks of the shipyard station gazing upon a zero-gee construction dock in which a new warship was taking form. Construction on the new vessel had started a week ago and the now well experienced shipyard workers, and their literal army of construction drones and other robotic aids, had already got the keel and main corners of the space frame together. As he gazed upon the embryonic ship, he thought about everything he had been told about the new design that the Robotech Research Group had come up with following the battle with the forces of the alien giants.

The new cruiser, already designated as the Defiance-class, had been designed according to lessons learned during that battle which had revealed just how deeply flawed all their previous assumptions about the nature of space combat had been. They had, somewhat naively, assumed that space combat would be just like what wet navy combat had evolved into in the latter half of the twentieth century and into this current century i.e. that it would be heavily carrier focused with fighter and other parasite craft – like the Ghost drone – being the deciding factor in any engagements with capital ships only acting as motherships for the fighters and missile platforms to provide long range fire support.

Unfortunately, that thinking had been fatally flawed.

Indeed, the battle had shown just how completely wrong they'd been. It had revealed that while they had been right about fighters playing a major role in combat what they hadn't realized was that space battles were as much between the capital ships as between the fighters. Thus, they had not at all been prepared for the massive batteries of anti-ship beam cannons carried by the alien warships. The missiles and fighters had not been a surprise – they were what interceptor missiles and defensive fire fields (which to this day he believed had been created by someone who'd watched a little too much of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica though he couldn't deny it was quite an effective defence measure against alien fighters and alien missiles) were for after all – but both the sheer number and devastating power of the alien particle beams had been.

Thousands of spacers had paid the price for that flaw in their thinking, not to mention the millions more who had died or been made homeless by the Pacific Rim mega-tsunami disaster set off by the disappearance of Macross Island and the ensuing massive volcanic blast set off when the ocean flooded into the exposed magma chamber beneath the island causing a geological cataclysm not seen since the original Krakatoa blew itself out of existence in the great eruption of 1883. Something that would not have happened if they had not been so wrong in their assumptions.

The Defiance was the first design to come out of the drafting offices to fit the needed change in their fleet doctrine. In design she closely resembled the Armour-class cruiser that she would be replacing though that was purely at a distance for if you looked closer the design was considerably different as not only was the ship two hundred meters longer but the catamaran-shaped main hull was more bulky and merged with a new aft-section that would house both the ion fusion engines and an additional reflex furnace to hopefully deal with the power generation issue that plagued both the Armour and Oberth-class ships. The real differences though were in the robotech alloy armour that would cover the hull and the greatly enlarged and improved weapons array that included two new model heavy coil guns capable of flinging three hundred kilogram projectiles at a significant faction of light speed every half a second. With a variety of different projectiles to fire from simple tungsten slugs to armour-piercing nuclear bombs the theory was that they would be devastating against the alien ships.

Though it would be another six months before she was ready for her space trials let alone ready to face the aliens in combat. Thankfully said aliens seemed to be content to leave them alone for the moment in fact much of their fleet seemed to have withdrawn from their solar system leaving only twenty-four ships behind near Mars. Ships that just seemed to sit there and do absolutely nothing beyond maintain a continuous CAP around themselves and keep their bows – and likely their primary sensor arrays – focused on Earth and the immediate space around it.

Christopher understood the reduced size of fleet had some of the more hawkish politicians, and indeed some of the more aggressive military officers, arguing that they should consider attacking and destroying them. The fact that the alien ships still had them massively outgunned in every area and thus would have no trouble sending the rest of the UN Space Navy down in flames never seeming to occur to them. So far the moderates, including himself and Admiral Hayes, had been able to resist the pressure being put on them by that particular faction but with each day that passed the calls to attack the aliens for what they had done to them grew louder and louder. The media certainly were not helping in that regard either, constantly reminding the world – as if they needed it – of the millions of innocent deaths the last alien assault had caused.

If only those hawkish idiots would stop and think for a moment, he thought, they would realize that we're not ready to take on the aliens again yet. It's not that we don't want to hit them back for what they caused but we're just not ready to face them again and won't be for years. If we struck against them now, then we would not survive their counterattack as next time they could simply decide to glass Earth. Of course, trying to convince those factions of the United Earth Government calling for an offensive, and the public increasingly being whipped up into a frenzy by the media's beating the war drums, of that fact was kind of difficult. He was only glad he wasn't involved in dealing with that aspect, that was Donald's job, his concern was entirely for the fleet.

Abruptly alarms ran through the space station.

"What!" he breathed looking up in shock before the PA came to life.

"Battle stations! Battle stations! Hyperspace fold forming in sector three, alien ship inbound. Admiral Chase to central control. Repeat. Battle stations! Battle stations! Hyperspace fold forming in sector three, alien ship inbound. Admiral Chase to central control."

Of all the times for the aliens to decide to pay us a visit, Christopher thought as he turned and hurried off the observation deck.

It took him only a few minutes to reach the stations central control room.

"Status report," he ordered as he walked up to the end of the command platform and gazed down at all the stations in the control rooms work pit, which were now a beehive of activity as station personnel prepared to do anything and everything they could to defend the station from an alien attack. Though if he were honest with himself Christopher knew that there was truly little that they could do given how much more powerful than them the aliens were, not to mention the fact that the shipyards defences were limited and still in the process of being upgraded now that the last vestiges of the old treaties forbidding the presence of weapons in Earth orbit had been swept away.

"Admiral all battle stations report manned and ready," one of the staff reported, the young woman's professionalism only just hiding an undercurrent of very real, and understandable, fear. "Ebony squadron reports ready to launch."

"Launch them. How many alien ships are there?"

"Sir we're picking up one ship only," the lieutenant in charge of the sensor section reported, "the ship is much smaller than any of the other alien ships we've seen, just two hundred and fifty meters long, and is of a completely different configuration. Its weapons systems do not appear to be powered and we've seen no sign of any fighter launches."

"Strange," Christopher mused a moment before one of the other console operators emitted a yelp of surprise. "What is it?"

"Admiral we're picking up a UEDF IFF signal from the unknown ship," the officer in question reported, voice ringing with shock and disbelief, "they're identifying themselves as the UES Artemis."

"What!" Christopher breathed in shock a moment before the communications consoles gave a chirp.

"Admiral we're being hailed by the… ugh Artemis."

Well this should be interesting, Christopher thought. "Put it through and bring in Admiral Hayes from Alaska Base," he ordered.

"Aye sir."

For a few moments nothing more happened, beyond the communications officers establishing secure communications with both the Artemis and Alaska Base and connecting all three locations together. Finally, one of the big screens that dominated the control room changed from the production status information it normally displayed into a split-screen image. One of the two men on the screen was Admiral Hayes, back dropped by the main situation room of Alaska Base which would have gone on full alert the moment the incoming space fold was detected, the other was a man neither admiral had thought they would ever see alive again.

"Captain Ramirez," he said in surprise beyond shocked to see the former captain of the submersible landing ship Daedalus on the screen and apparently in command of a new interstellar ship. Which begs the question where he got it from, he thought.

"Admiral Chase, Admiral Hayes it's good to see you again," Anton Ramirez replied before a slight smirk appeared on his Hispanic features. "Sorry if we startled you."

"You did at that captain," Admiral Hayes answered with a frown. "Which also begs the questions where have you been and where did you get that ship? Not to mention why the SDF-1 hasn't returned with you since you obviously have a working fold drive."

"Those are all good questions sir and the answers to some of them are somewhat complicated. I have a full information packet and report from Captain Gloval onboard some of it is for your eyes only, Admiral Hayes," Ramirez replied. "But I can say now that we built this ship, I can't say where, there's too much risk of the Zentraedi intercepting and decrypting this signal."

"The who?" Christopher asked as he'd never heard the term Zentraedi before and a glance at Admiral Hayes said that the name was a mystery to him as well.

"The alien giants sir. We came across information that indicates that their species is called the Zentraedi, we also found out that they're not our true enemy. They are merely battle slaves to our true enemy, a group who refer to themselves as the Robotech Masters. The Zentraedi are also the reason that the SDF-1 couldn't come back with us, they would be on top of us in minutes to take something that's aboard her back to the Masters if she showed up here and they wouldn't care who they killed in the process since the concepts of collateral damage and civilians are utterly alien to them."

"I see that is… worrying," Christopher replied once again showing that the British penchant for understatement was running as strong as ever.

On one side of the split-screen Admiral Hayes gave a grim smile and shook his head and from long experience with him he would be well aware that he was thinking that it wasn't just worrying that the Zentraedi had no concepts of collateral damage or care for civilian lives, it was bloody terrifying. It made the alien giants even more of a threat, as if they weren't terrifying enough. Then there was the bombshell that they weren't the true enemy – that they were merely battle slaves, tools of destruction being wielded by some other, likely far more advanced and powerful civilization – that they were facing.

"Very well then prepare to dock your ship with the moon base captain," Hayes said at last. "Then take an express shuttle flight to the surface."

"Sir that won't be necessary the Artemis is equipped to land on a planetary surface," Ramirez replied prompting the two admirals to exchange surprised looks. While they looked at being able to build and land interstellar ships on the surface – it would make things a lot easier logistically – they hadn't been able to develop a means of making it work properly. Thus, why all their home-built ships were built in orbit at this shipyard.

"I see very well proceed to land here at Alaska Base," Hayes said at last as he shook off his surprise. "Are any special requirements needed for landing?"

"No sure just clear the largest area you can for us," Ramirez told him. "We can handle the rest."

"We'll be ready for you," Hayes answered a moment before alarms once again went off in the shipyard control centre and indeed on the bridge of the Artemis. "What is it?"

"Sensors are picking up a Zentraedi vessel unfolding nearby," Ramirez reported, "they must be coming to investigate us as they would easily have detected our defold signature. Sirs we can chase them away or destroy them, what do you wish us to do?"

"We cannot endanger the shipyard drive them away if you can," Hayes ordered, "but destroy them if necessary. Once they're gone proceed to a landing."

"Aye sir," Ramirez acknowledged before closing the communications link from his end making his image vanish leaving only Hayes on the screen.

"Admiral Chase make sure all your sensors and recorders are pointed at the Artemis," Hayes ordered, "I want to be able to show as complete a record of this clash as possible to the defence council in our next meeting."

"Understood I'll contact you with the results as soon as the battle is over. Do you want me to instruct Ebony Squadron to join the battle in support? Just in case the Zentraedi deploy some of their fighters?"

Hayes considered that for a few moments. Ebony was one of the very few operational Valkyrie squadrons they currently had available, they had more building but it would be at least a month before the next squadron was ready for deployment, using them against the Zentraedi in support of the Artemis would be a considerable risk. On the other hand, they needed the Artemis and whatever information she had for them from Captain Gloval on both the Zentraedi and these Robotech Masters. Thus, sending them to support the frigate against the enemy would be a good idea.

"Send them."

Bridge

UES Artemis

That Same Time

Sitting in the command chair Captain Anton Ramirez hid his nerves behind an iron self-control as he watched the screens floating in the air waiting for the incoming Zentraedi warship to emerge from hyperspace. The sensors were detecting increased graviton particle emissions along with alpha and delta wave phase shifts in the normal-hyperspace boundary seventy thousand kilometres off their starboard side. The fold sphere containing the Zentraedi vessel was now only seconds from emerging into normal space.

"Sir we're picking a squadron of Valkyrie's moving towards us from the direction of the moon. They're identifying themselves as Ebony Squadron and state their orders are to support us in battle with the incoming Zentraedi vessel," Ensign Bellwether reported from communications.

"Acknowledge that ensign. Tactical stand by to open fire on the Zentraedi vessel as soon as it completes the defold procedure."

"Aye sir," both Ensign Bellwether and Lieutenant Anderson reported from their respective stations.

Ramirez turned his attention back to the holographic screens just as a brilliant flash of light filled the bridge viewports as the fold sphere containing the alien warship exploded back into normal space. Appearing first as a small ball of incandescent light no bigger than a tennis ball before, in the span of time it took the human heart to beat once, expanding into a sphere a kilometre in diameter inside of which a shape formed insubstantial at first but rapidly solidifying until – with a gyroscopic ripple of Cherenkov radiation – the fold sphere evaporated leaving its contents folding free.

In this case a Zentraedi Tou Redir-class frigate.

"Sir gunnery control reports that they have a target lock on the Zentraedi vessel," Anderson reported, "weapons are hot."

"Then by all means… fire."

On the outer hull of the Artemis three of the frigates eight dual particle cannon turrets had aligned upon the Zentraedi vessel. A vessel which, registering that it was being targeted, immediately began charging its own weapons the crew eager to give the micronians who'd been giving them so many headaches a thorough thrashing. Turrets aligned on the Artemis and began to crackle with energy.

However, they would never get the chance to fire.

The muzzles of the Artemis's turrets glowed a moment before six beams of pale green light shot out towards the Zentraedi. Having been built at one of the factory stations that Zor had been quietly building for himself and his followers to use the particle cannons fitted to the Artemis were a new design and represented the very pinnacle of Tirolian particle weapons technology. The effect on the targeted Zentraedi vessel was devastating.

Travelling at near light speed the beams didn't even need a second to cross the seventy thousand klicks separating the two warships. They sliced into the Zentraedi ship bow on, cutting straight through its armour like it didn't even exist as they tore deep into the vessel stopping just short of the reflex furnace cluster in the vessels heart. By pure chance, the beams sliced right through the primary power lines to the frigates arming forward particle turrets. The effect was almost like someone had triggered a lightning storm inside the ship as massive arcs and sheets of pure electricity tore through the forward compartments of the frigate incinerating crew members and superheating the atmosphere to the point of ignition.

As the first salvo ever fired in anger by the Artemis disappeared the Zentraedi vessel lurched back like a boxer who'd just taken a right hook to the chin. Debris and burning gas – shot through with crackling arcs of lightning – shot out of the massive breach ripped in the forward hull. The frigates engines died as it staggered in space and began to start to tumble as the force of the venting acted like a crude thruster.

Then the veritech's blew in.

Each of the sixteen Valkyrie's fired a full salvo of Stiletto missiles at the starting to tumble vessel. The smart seeker warheads of the missiles guiding them right into, then through, the burning holes in the Tou Redir's bow. The missiles passing through dozens of compromised bulkheads before slamming into the remaining intact bulkheads around the reflex furnaces and detonating tearing both the bulkheads and the reflex furnaces just behind them apart in a hurricane of heat and concussive force. The result was predictable as the frigate broke apart along the seams before erupting into a titanic fireball which quickly cooled and dissipated leaving nothing behind but a cloud of cooling plasma and irradiated dust.

Bridge

UES Artemis

"Target destroyed sir."

"So, I see lieutenant," Captain Ramirez replied. Despite all the simulations he'd seen back on the factory station nothing had quite prepared him for just how incredibly powerful the particle cannons fitted to the Artemis were. Firing neutrons instead of protons or ions – as Zentraedi and indeed most Tirolian weapons did – the damage they could do in a single salvo was beyond devastating and he didn't doubt that the Zentraedi wouldn't have survived a second strike from them. As it was, they'd half gutted the vessel and left its internal bulkheads so weakened that the Stilettos launched by the veritech's had had absolutely no trouble inflicting the final mortal blow to the enemy frigate.

"Any reaction from the Zentraedi ships near Mars," he asked after a moment.

"Negative sir the Zentraedi fleet appears to be holding station. It's almost like they don't care that we just destroyed their reconnaissance unit."

"They probably don't. The information on the Zentraedi that we found on the station indicates that they're a race of clones, their own lives probably don't matter that much at all to them. Lieutenant Hawk have you finished calculating an entry vector into Earth's atmosphere?"

"Yes, sir I have. Alaska Base has also authorized our landing there."

"Very well proceed with first orbital than atmospheric entry."

"Aye sir."

Zentraedi Cruiser

Mars Orbit

That Same Time

Commander Delitz frowned as he observed the long-range sensor telemetry of the brief, uncomfortably so, battle near the orbit of the micronian homeworld. He had been surprised ten minutes ago when their long range scans had detected a space fold forming near the micronian planet, the first they'd seen anywhere near it certainly there had been no fold activity near the planet since micronians had insanely folded Zor's battlefortress inside the gravity well of their planet. Initially he had believed that the incoming fold could have been said battlefortress doubling back on them – that was after all a common evasive manoeuvre used by practically every fold capable species in the galaxy – after leading Breetai on a merry chase through who knew how many star systems.

A quick analysis of the incoming fold signature had done in that hope however, the signature had been far, far too small and its phase displacement profile all wrong to be the battlefortress. Still he had obeyed protocol and dispatched a single reconnaissance team to investigate the anomaly. The ship that had appeared had definitely been micronian, it was far too small to be crewed by anything other than micronians, though the configuration had been unfamiliar as it didn't look anything like the blocky, primitive vessels that they'd encountered from the micronians in this system before now.

And now it appeared that the newcomers were both powerful and hostile to the Zentraedi. Why else would they immediately fire upon and destroy his reconnaissance team if they weren't allies of the micronians here. Strangers who are obviously powerful and allied with the micronians. Well this rear-guard duty could be about to get a bit more interesting, he thought.

"Orders commander," his advisor asked from behind him. Delitz knew what his advisor was expecting, that he order the remaining ships of his force to fold in and destroy the insolent micronian vessel – powerful as it clearly was it certainly wouldn't be able to take on twenty-plus Zentraedi vessels at once and survive – for its action. However, he had no intention of doing that, he had underestimated the micronians once already since they'd come into this system, and gotten burnt for doing so losing two of his squadrons ships and having his flagship disabled for several hours, he wasn't about to make that mistake again.

"We're staying here," he said at last. "We don't know enough about who the micronians new ally is to risk engaging them again at this time."

"I agree commander, we should attempt to gather more information on these newcomers and the capabilities of their ship before we engage them again. We should however inform Commander Breetai of this development."

"Agreed. See to it will you Drack?"

"Of course, commander."

Alaska Base

A Short Time Later

Admiral Hayes stood calmly outside the main entrance to the surface part of the base watching the sky waiting for the Artemis to make her appearance. The battle in orbit, if it could be called that as the Zentraedi warship hadn't had a chance to even fire a shot before it was blown to dust, had revealed just how powerful the Artemis seemed to be. The ease with which her strange green beams, which according to the orbital shipyards sensors had been neutron based, had cut through the warships dense armour – armour that had previously withstood all but their strongest weapons – had been astonishing.

It made him wonder just what else the little frigate was capable of as it was obvious that only three of her eight quite sizeable turrets had fired upon the Zentraedi. The other five had remained in what was probably their normal positions, the frigates missile tubes had also remained closed. He couldn't help but think back to the conversation that they'd briefly had with Ramirez after his ship defolded near the shipyard and the revelation that they had built the ship at wherever the SDF-1 had ended up when she'd folded out and dragged Macross Island into hyperspace with her. What are the chances that they would defold near an abandoned alien shipyard or other such facility, he thought, I would think zero! So, something else must be going on here, hopefully the information packet that Gloval's sent back with Ramirez will have some answers for me and the rest of the Council.

A shadow moving across the sun, making him suddenly really notice the cool wind blowing across the base, brought him out of his thoughts. He looked up to see the sleek, arrowhead shape of the Artemis approaching, the frigate suddenly looking huge and somewhat menacing as she descended towards the base. In space it was easy to forget that by the standards of Earth based ships a two hundred and fifty-meter-long, hundred- and five-meter ship was big, very big. Now it was obvious just how big Artemis was as she drew ever closer to her assigned landing position.

He watched calmly as the frigate came to a halt about two hundred feet above the base. All around him other Alaska Base personnel were turning up and gazing up at the massive seeming spacecraft in awe as she just hung their seemingly effortlessly suspended in the air by what were obviously powerful antigravity generators. A powerful whirring sound filled the air and as he watched several hatches on the frigate's underside opened in away like the doors on the wells of aircraft landing gear. Seconds later with the sound of powerful hydraulics a landing structs emerged from the open wells and with a series of clicks – that sounded like distant cracks of thunder – they locked into place.

Then the frigate began descending again and as she drew closer to the ground Donald could feel the very air vibrating from the sheer power of the antigravity generators. Then the frigate disappeared from his view, disappearing behind the cover of the largest of the bases surface aircraft hangars. A few seconds later he was sure he could feel a slight shiver in the ground as the vessel completed its landing. The vibration in the air stopped presumably because the frigates antigravity drive was now powering down. Well now all I need to do is wait, he thought.

He didn't have to wait long as within about fifteen minutes Captain Ramirez appeared escorted by a pair of marines from the base's security detachment. Donald moved out to greet them, in moments they were face to face. Captain Ramirez immediately straightening to attention and offering a salute.

"Admiral Hayes Captain Ramirez reporting sir."

"Welcome back to Earth Captain Ramirez," Donald replied returning the salute. "Stand easy. The council is gathering as we speak and should be ready to hear your report within the hour. Until then I believe you have something for me?"

"Yes, sir I do," Ramirez replied before taking a small box from his pocket and offering it to the admiral. Donald took it from him and briefly looked inside to see a biometrically encoded USB drive, which no doubt contained Gloval's personal report to him. "Captain Gloval's personal report to you is on that drive sir."

"I see thank you. Now if you'll please follow me, I will escort you to the waiting area."

"Thank you, sir please lead on."

Donald nodded and lead the way inside to a meeting with the rest of the United Earth Defence Council. A meeting that both men hoped would change the world, and their current low simmering conflict with the Zentraedi, for the better.

Authors Note: Well another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all liked it and a glimpse into some more of the technology that the RDF now has access to thanks to them stumbling across one of Zor's factory stations. I know not a huge amount happened in this chapter, but it is an important filler and scene setter for events planned later in the story. Hopefully, the next update will not take too long to do, though of course I cannot promise anything as you all know what my muse can be like. Until next time everyone stay safe.