Author's Note: This is my first attempt at writing fan fiction of any kind. This story is a retelling of Ichijou Hikaru and Hayase Misa's exploration of Earth and the ancient Protoculture island in Macross: DYRL. I would appreciate any and all feedback. Thank you and I hope you enjoy.

With a dull, resonant click and a faint hiss, the canopy of Ichijou Hikaru's VF-1A opened, sending a wave of scorched sea air into his lungs. With a deft motion of his hand, he quickly unstrapped himself and stood up in the cockpit, arms crossed in disgust. He turned his head ever so slightly to catch a glimpse of his passenger and commanding officer, the very unfeminine Captain Hayase Misa, who was seated behind him. A shock of his unruly espresso hair partially obscured the view.

Hikaru was practically trembling with anger. What sort of woman assumes control of a man's Valkyrie and attempts to pilot it when he will not? No woman he cared to know. He admitted to himself that it was only an unarmed training plane, not his own Skull-11, but it was the principle of the matter! Misa had invoked duty, beseeching him to explore the nearby ocean in hopes of learning where they had crash-landed and if there were any enemies or other lifeforms present on the charred planet. It's always duty with her, he thought to himself. That's why she's old and alone. While only three years separated his twenty-two from her twenty-five, to Hikaru, it may as well have been thirty.

He saw her yanking at her seat harness rather unceremoniously from the corner of his eyes. It's not that she doesn't look like a woman, he thought bitterly. She does, and that makes it worse. If he didn't know her, he might have thought she was handsome. Misa was blessed with delicate features, intense jade eyes, and a willowy figure nicely showcased by her grey UN Spacy flight suit. She was also the most decisive, domineering, and unflinching woman he had ever met - the polar opposite of the charming, effervescent, mesmerizing Lynn Minmay, with whom he had shared three unforgettable days in the belly of the SDF-01.

After a brief struggle and some mumbled curses, Misa too was free. Helmet off, she stayed seated, and leaned out over the side of the cockpit, arms resting on the plane's battered exterior. It was better when we didn't know where we were, she thought, shaking her head to herself. And that was just minutes ago! After her feeble attempt to make the garish orange training plane fly, Hikaru had taken the controls back and stabilized the aircraft, but not before she had dragged the left wing along the singed soil below. Before he could curse at her brash stupidity, her audible gasp had made Hikaru go silent.

It was worse than they could have imagined. Hell, they had discovered, was real. An empty alien planet would have at least held clues and perhaps some supplies or ammunition. Instead, they stared at half of the still-smoking hull of the Prometheus - the Pacific Navy's largest, most heavily armed aircraft carrier. This is Earth, Misa's mind screamed! Our Earth! She had recalled the months since the Zentradi had annihilated the planet and all its peoples, and still a faint cloud of smoke trailed out of the anemic wreckage. The other half had simply been vaporized -– not even a ruined shell evidenced its existence.

Still seated in the cockpit and staring into the distance, Misa recalled that her first reaction had been rage. Her fists had flown into the back of Hikaru's seat in front of her. He had turned and looked at her with wide, fearful eyes, and she stared at the two blue orbs with their giant onyx pupils, but her intense gaze went right through him. Without a word, Hikaru had flown the craft back to the rocky shore where they had crashed, its pockmarked surface covered in crags where white sand should have been. Once they had landed and stopped, he had popped the cockpit. And here they were, still inside, silent as the dead planet beneath them.

For the moment, Hikaru's mind did not dwell on the Earth's ruin - it was so permanent. Instead, he found himself thinking of Minmay and her dour cousin Lynn Kaifun, who were lost from the SDF-01 – they were still prisoners of the Zentradi, who had folded away as Hikaru and Misa were pulled back into space. After escaping his own brief captivity on that ship, and living the horror of watching his sempai die in a dogged gunfight, he could only wonder what the race of giants would do with Minmay and Kaifun next – make them kiss while they grimaced in disgust? Make her sing while they screamed in agony at the foreign sound? Crush them when she cried, as she always did when she was scared?

Misa let out a long, deep sigh that brought Hikaru out of his waking nightmare. He was almost grateful for the interruption. "Well, let's make camp tonight and we'll scout the earth for survivors tomorrow," she said flatly. Her tone of voice, while placid, made it clear to Hikaru that it was not a request, but a command. He had seen a brief moment of Misa's rage, and marveled at how quickly she had swallowed her feelings and resumed her role as a steely, focused Captain. The consummate professional, he thought to himself. He wasn't sure if he resented or admired that quality in her – a bit of both, in truth.

With a brusque jump, Hikaru landed on the rocks below, leaving Misa in the cockpit. As she debated whether to jump, as he had, or try to climb out the side, she saw him return with a thin, collapsible ladder. She stood up, turned around, and made her way down warily, with neither grace nor clumsiness. He watched detachedly as she walked to the shattered shoreline with a hand over her brow, shielding her eyes from a sky of unending haze. Dull grey waves washed in and out, as languid and lifeless as the landscape itself.

Swiftly, Hikaru was up the ladder, in the cockpit, closing the canopy, and stowing the ladder before Misa could even notice. She was sitting with her knees up under her crossed arms at the water's edge, foamy sea lapping at her boots. Hikaru thought it strange of her to give an order and then sit down so blithely, but he decided not to disturb the fleeting peace. Instead, he inspected the Valkyrie's various storage holds for survival supplies. In a few moments, a tent was erected, fuel and food tins amassed, bedding retrieved, and the plane powered down to conserve energy for the next day's search for humanity. A low rumble escaped from the clouds above, which had grown a little darker as he had readied the campsite.

As the sky opened, and angry, warm drops of rain began to fall, Hikaru found a rock to perch upon. He stared past Misa's back, their two sets of eyes focused on the unending, colorless horizon. As the shower intensified, he waited for her to say something, or make her way into the tent, or both. Her quiet stillness was unusual. She always has something to say, he thought to himself, scowling faintly. And it's usually an order or an insult. In a moment of weakness, Hikaru wished it was Roy, or Claudia, or even one of the bridge bunnies that he was marooned with. But he had a macabre realization. At least with Misa, we'll survive this – she's entirely too stubborn to die here. He gulped nervously.

Silently, Misa rose, the calves and ankles of her flight suit wet and sandy. She pushed past the tent's opening flap, leaving Hikaru alone with the sea and silence.