Southern Cross

by Jack McKinney

  "Yes, ma'am!"

  "Consequently, you will pass on the order to scramble immediately.

  Tell 'em to stow the yocks and grab their socks, Sergeant."

  The Bioroids' activities at the mounds had come to a standstill as the Robotech Masters weighed the problems posed by the wraiths.

  Progress was hampered, too, because the red Bioroid was not on the scene. He had taken the prisoner into the forward command ship to examine the Human and see what could be learned. That had proved to be vexingly little; the creature was unconscious, and its thought patterns so unevolved that normal methods of interrogation didn't work.

  Bowie slowly came back to life as he felt himself being jarred and shaken. He was still in the metallic grip of the Bioroid leader, being borne along a passageway to the sound of the massive metallic footsteps. Two blues walked behind. The place was stupendous, built to Bioroid scale.

  All three mecha appeared red in the passageway's lighting. Bowie glanced around in punchy amazement; the place looked as organic as it did technological, some advanced mixture of the two. One area seemed to be

  composed of asymmetric spiderwebbing thicker than the thickest hawsers; the curved passageway ceiling had a vascular look, as though it were fed by blood vessels. Tremendous polished blue convexities in the wall might be darkened viewscreens or immense gemstones-Bowie couldn't even guess.

  He strained at the grip, but it did no good. "C'mon, ya big ape! Lemme go! Yer crushin' me!"

  The trio of Bioroids stopped before a triangular door even taller than themselves. The three door segments were joined along jagged seams, like a triskelion. As the door slid open, so did the red's broad chest and helm, exposing the glowing ball-turret and the pilot who sat there calmly, legs drawn up, looking remote and at peace.

  Bowie snarled, shaking his fists. "Oh, so ya worked up the guts to show yourself, huh? Well, what happens now, Prince Charming? Afraid to let me go because you'd be gambling with your teeth?"

  The red Bioroid pilot studied him as if he were something in a lab smear. Bowie fumed, "What's the matter, pretty boy? Can't you talk?"

  The enemy spoke again in that eerie mental language. Prisoner, you display much bravado. But like all primitives, you've yet to learn the value of silence.

  And the red pilot gave Bowie a quick lesson, tossing him into the compartment that had just opened up. The Bioroid had leaned down some way, so that Bowie wasn't maimed or killed. The fall stunned him, though, knocking the wind from him.

  Door and Bioroid were already resealing by the time the captive got a little breath back. "That's right! You better hide in that tin can, you stinking coward!"

  And then the door was shut. Bowie collapsed back on the deck, hissing with the pain he hadn't let his captors see. "Just you wait, pally!"

  After a while he hauled himself to his feet. The compartment he was in was as big as his whole barracks complex back at the base; surely there must be some way out.

  But a hurried search yielded little. The place was evidently a storeroom,

  but the crates and boxes bigger than houses were impervious to his efforts to open them. He could find no escape route, not even a Bowie-size mouse hole. The enemy had neglected to take his lockback survival knife from him, but there wasn't much it could do against the armored bulkhead all around him.

  Then he gave more thought to the light far overhead. It was a triangular, grilled affair, and the light source seemed to be high above the mesh. It put him in mind of conduits and crawlspaces. In another moment he was shinnying up the side of a crate, ignoring the pain of his wounds and injuries.

  It took him nearly twenty minutes of scrambling, leaping, and balance-walking among the containers and pipes and structural members, and he had to double back twice to try new approaches, but at last he came up under the mesh. He hoped against hope that he wouldn't hear the rumble of the ship's engines for just awhile longer-that he could get out before the invaders got whatever they had come for and departed Earth.

  He hesitated, the knife in his hand. But then he went ahead, to prize up the mesh and try his best to break free. As far as he knew, he was the only one left alive to sound the alarm to all Earth that the invasion had come. Then, too, there was Dana to avenge.

  The instant the knifepoint dug into the seam of the mesh where it rested against its housing, there was an intense flash of light. Bowie didn't even have time to scream; the knife flew from his hand and he dropped.

  "Sir, the sun's almost up out there and a recon drone got a look at the enemy position from high altitude," Rochelle reported. "They're just beginning to excavate at the site of the old SDF-1, but we have no idea as yet what they're after or why."

  Emerson stretched, yawned, and rubbed his eyes. "We can't delay any longer. Whatever they're doing, we've got to see that they don't accomplish it. They started these hostilities; now it's our turn at bat. All right, you know what I want you to do. Proceed."

  Rochelle, Green, Tessel, and one or two others snapped to attention. "Yes, sir!" Then they hurried off to begin implementing the op plan Emerson had approved during the hours of consultations and meetings.

  Emerson was left alone to muse. The only thing in that old wreck is useless, rotting Robotechnology. Well, one person's junk is another's Protoculture, I suppose.

  Something about that stirred a half-developed thought in the back of his brain. There would be an avalanche of operational decisions and problems coming down on him very soon; that was a hard and fast rule with any operation. But he shunted them aside for the moment, and punched up access to the UEG archives.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Dear Mom and Pop,

  Things are still real quiet here, and my outfit is real rear echelon, so we're far away from the fighting, so I wish you two would stop worrying.

  We've got a new commanding officer who's a woman, but she seems to be improving.

  I know there's a lot of talk about the fighting right now, but don't sweat it; it's no big thing, and it'll be over soon, and then maybe I can get a furlough and come home for a while.

  Say hi to everybody. I hope Pop's feeling better. The fruitcake was great.

  Love, Your son,

  Angelo Dante

  Just about all the other Southern Cross units in and around Monument City had been mobilized during the night, and needed only the word to move out. The word was given.

  This time, it had been decided, the TASC Veritechs, Tactical Air Force, and other flying units would stay out of it, at least for the time being. It had become obvious in the battle at Fokker Base that ground units like the ATACs were more effective against Bioroids in a surfaceaction situation.

  Armored men and women, galvanized by the PA announcements, sprinted to their Hovertanks, troop carriers, and other vehicles. The elite MP shock troops in their powered armor suits, nonreconfigurable mecha as big as Battloids but lacking their Robotech firepower and adaptability, came marching out of their parking bays. Everywhere, the military was in motion, knowing that the enemy was now entrenched on Earth.

  The Southern Cross began its deployment to draw a ring of Robotech steel around Sector Sixteen. But there were already Human defenders on

  the scene.

  Dana peered out from under the canopy of branches that camouflaged her Hovertank. The 15th was spread through a little woodlet at the base of a rise some distance from the SDF-1s final resting place.

  She again wondered about the wisdom of riding in high-gloss armor in a high-gloss mecha; certainly, the polished surfaces reflected energy shots and offered protection in that way, but as every cadet learned through backbreaking work under the watchful eyes of exacting instructors, it made them awfully hard to hide.

  Now, though, she was concentrating on two blue Bioroids who were standing sentry duty on the top of the rise. One thing about the Masters' fighting mecha: they didn't seem to give a damn about concealment.

  And they didn't seem to think anybody else did, either; the blues held thei
r hand weapons and searched the sky, giving only cursory attention to the ground. Dana figured that meant that battle to them was simply straightforward charge and countercharge, in spite of the crude infantry tactics they had appeared to use in the airfield battle.

  The ATACs could get only a partial glimpse of what was going on at the excavation sight. It looked as if the labor mecha had been making test bores, and were now preparing to go at it full-choke. Dana hoped that would provide a little diversion, and cover the noise of the 15th's approach.

  She counted eight blue Bioroids, spread fairly thin, guarding the part of the perimeter she planned to hit. Dana knew that a Bioroid had a lot more firepower than an ATAC, and more maneuverability if it got to its Hovercraft, but she was counting on surprise and accurate first-round fire for quick kills and a temporary advantage.

  Her plan was less than subtle: a few members of the unit would make a dismounted scout and if possible get Bowie out without betraying their presence to the invaders. If that was unworkable, Dana and the 15th would burst through the perimeter, shooting up the place and inflicting all the damage they could, exploiting the edge that surprise would give them to

  fight their way to the forward command ship. Then the others would fight diversionary or holding actions as needed while she, Angelo, Sean, and Louie went after Bowie.

  She had to admit that it wasn't the sort of thing Rommel or Robert E. Lee might have come up with, but Sean was more or less content with it. She thought Patton might have approved.

  Angelo sat cracking his knuckles inside their iron gauntlets. "When d'we attack, my proud beauty?" he said softly into his helmet mike.

  Like the rest, Sean sat with faceplate open so that he could breathe fresh air as long as possible, gazing up at the Bioroids through his camouflage screen. He was chewing on a piece of wild mint. "Undaunted, we advanced, to serve the principles of freedom!" he quoted in his most dramatic stage whisper. Then he spat out the mint and closed his faceplate, figuring it was just about showtime.

  "'Forward through shot and shell, we went into the mouth of Hell,'" Louie added resignedly, lowering his visor, too. It fastened and sealed, and his armor was airtight. "'And pers'nally, I felt unwell, but no one there could smell, or tell'"

  "Awright, secure that chatter!" Dana snapped in a harsh whisper. "What d'you think is happening here, an armored assault or a Shakespeare festival?"

  Angelo was about to seal up, too. "Y'know, I've got one question: what d'we do if those 'roids spot us?"

  "Pray you can shoot faster and straighter than they can." Dana sealed her helmet. "Let's move out, skirmishing order-"

  "Watch it, Lieutenant! Up there!" Louie yelled, but Dana had seen the blue he spotted, centered the enemy in her gunsight reticle, and fired even before Louie had finished. Even though she fired with the less-powerful nose cannon of the Hovertank mode, she shot straight and first; the blast shook the Bioroid like a toy soldier, knocking it down for keeps.

  Dana was already hovering her mecha on its foot thrusters, turning it end for end and going to Gladiator mode, as she called, "Thanks, Louie! I

  owe you one!"

  Her seat had come around so that she was facing the enemy once again, but now the long barrel of the Gladiator's main battery poked in the direction of the invaders' perimeter. The 15th knew enough about the Bioroids' silent communications by now to be sure others were on the way. "Okay, let's go!" she called.

  She launched herself into the air in Gladiator mode; the rest of the 15th followed, most in Hovertank, some mechamorphosing to Gladiator in midair. Two more blues showed up to take up firing stances; Dana nailed one while she was still in the air, and Angelo got the other.

  "You go look for Bowie," Angelo called. "We'll keep the bluebirds of happiness busy."

  "Check." She was preparing to hop again just when another pair of blues bounded into view. Dana and Angelo leapt their Gladiators away in different directions, avoiding their first salvo. Dana blew one away while Angelo maneuvered the Trojan Horse around toward the other's rear flank, traversing his barrel with the speed Robotech controls allowed. The alien mecha sought to spin and take out the Gladiator behind it, but Angelo was ready, and cut it in half with one shot. Then Dana leapt Valkyrie again, to join him.

  "You okay?" It had been a close one, like some oldtime gunfight. "Yeah," Angelo said lightly.

  "We've got to get in closer!"

  Hovertanks and Gladiators advanced in twenty- fifty- seventy-yard leaps now, not wanting to hurl themselves too high and so present a better target. More blues appeared to set up defensive positions; the mecha hammered and belched flame at one another. Concussions shook the ground.

  "Units three, four, and five, cover the lieutenant's advance!" Angelo ordered. The ATACs went through a long-practiced advance pattern.

  There was a sudden cry over the net. A blue had peppered Louie's area with raking fire, and there were smoking hotspots on the armor of the

  cockpit-turret of his tank, Livewire. Louie was screaming, arms thrown outward. Then he collapsed.

  "Louie, what's wrong? You hit?" Angelo shouted over the net. The blue appeared to be surveying its handiwork, rising a bit to look down on the silent Gladiator. "Answer me, Louie!"

  Louie, still unmoving, said, "Nah, I'm okay." As the blue rose up from cover a little, Louie straightened suddenly and jumped Livewire back, aiming the main battery as he did, greasing the enemy neatly.

  "But that clown didn't know it!" Louie finished proudly. "No more stunts!" Angelo barked. "Just do what I tell you!"

  More Bioroids had come up to reinforce the first, taking heavy losses because the ATACs had had time to reach secure cover from which they could fire. Things were settling into a vicious, close-range firefight.

  "Move in now, Lieutenant," Angelo said, "but you'd better hurry."

  In another part of the alien work area, back in Hovertank mode, Valkyrie wended closer to the giant ship's hull using all available cover. Her visor up, Dana studied the enemy ship. It wasn't a patch on the mother ships, but was still as big as the biggest Human battlecruiser. She tried to shake off the fascination of it, tried to fight off the fear that somehow her Zentraedi blood made her more vulnerable to these new enemies.

  Then she nearly yelled aloud. It's him!

  It came partly as shock, partly as something she had expected, and, deep down, even looked forward to-for reasons she couldn't analyze-to see the red Bioroid poised on an open deck high above. The Bioroid was open, and its tall, slim, deep-chested pilot waited in that characteristic pose of his, one foot on the open Robotech breastplate, his eyes closed as if he were listening intently.

  She found herself short of breath, and gave out a low moan. Mmmm...

  His eyes opened and his head came around until he was looking straight down at her. She heard that silent, internal voice of his again, Hmmm...

  A fundamental recognition-something on profound levels to which she had little waking access-passed between Dana and the red Bioroid pilot. This time he shielded some of his thought from her: This one is no ordinary primitive! She is Of the Protoculture! She has had open access to it; she has the power it gives!

  He watched her, unblinking, and made a sign of acknowledgment, a fey salute, hand going to brow, then cutting away. She heard the quavery mental voice in her head. Know then, Primitive, that I am Zor Prime, Warlord of the Robotech Masters!

  Dana stared at him for a moment, then lowered her visor again. She sat looking up at him, and he stood gazing down. Neither moved.

  Without warning a shot came from one side, a stray heavy-cannon blast from a Bioroid Hovercraft. It broke the spell; Dana maneuvered quickly, to make sure she wasn't in anyone's line of fire. When she glanced up again, the red Bioroid was diving down like a pouncing tiger, its hand weapon held out before it.

  "Try again sometime!" Dana was already springing aside, going to Gladiator mode, sending up a hail of fire. The red flipped in midair, landed nearby, and fired back. The two mec
ha catapulted here and there, firing and jockeying for position.

  The foe got three shots into the Gladiator's side in a line, but Dana had a target of her own. She missed taking the red's right arm off, but once again got the broader target, the big discus-shaped hand weapon, knocking it away through the air.

  Let's see how you do without your big metal yo-yo!

  But the alien recovered like a demon, throwing a punch, rocking the Gladiator back on its thrusters and suspension.

  The red behemoth was about to throw itself on the Gladiator, when Dana pulled a move she had been saving for a special, desperate moment-this moment. Her Gladiator leapt high, to come down on the red's shoulders and head with all its weight, a staggering blow that sent the crimson mecha spinning and crashing onto its back.

  Dana landed well, traversed her main battery, and fired, but the red was up, vaulting high once more, with astounding speed and agility. It landed close, launching a bombshell punch near her turret, sending the Gladiator to its knees.

  The alien's metal fingers sank into the Gladiator's armor as the red lifted the Gladiator in an awesome show of strength, about to tear it to pieces. Dana had no angle with the main battery, but peppered away at the lustrous visor with her rapid-fire, quad-barreled secondaries as a distraction.

  She wasn't dismayed at the turn of events though; this invader still had a lot to learn about the ATACs.

  Now I've gotcha! She set the Gladiators thick, immensely powerful legs against the other mecha's torso, pushing off and firing thrusters at the same time. She launched herself free, nearly toppling the red again. "I'm tired of fooling around with you!" She summoned up her mecha's Battloid form.

  Her landing sent shudders through the Earth she had come to defend. "Okay, Big Red! Time to settle this!"

  The red was eager; it came through the air with a tackle so fast and strong that Dana couldn't counter it. She was flipped over backward, crashing against the side of the alien ship.