Macross Frontier continuation fic

Bridging the gap between Ideas and C&C.

Post individual scenes that need doctoring, outlines, or other detail work that isn't quite ready for the C&C thread.

Macross Frontier continuation fic

Postby juandelacruz » Tue Oct 14, 2008 8:21 am

Well, I thought I'd throw this out here first for feedback before continuing. It's sort of my comeback fic to get me back into the groove of writing again.

There's no title yet, but the gist of it is that a year has passed since the end of the series and all seems well, almost too well, on the Vajra's home planet. However, Alto took too long in pulling the trigger, allowing Grace to upload her consciousness into the fold network of the Vajra. She possesses an unwitting victim and works to streghten and refine her control over Vajra, launching random scattered attacks by possessed Vajra to confuse her enemies, and forcing Sheryl and Ranka to rush all over the galaxy to free the rampaging Vajra from control. The government, meanwhile, scrambles to find others able to communicate with Vajra and help the two galactic idols, while tracking down Grace to destroy her once and for all, if she could be destroyed at all.

Anyway, here are the first two scenes in the first chapter.

-

"I'm home!" Saotome Alto called out tiredly as he opened the door to the three-story apartment he was now living in. He slipped off his shoes and placed them to one corner of the foyer. It was already past six in the evening, and the streetlights outside were starting to come on, casting their artificial fluorescent light on the street.

Alto turned from the doorway at the approaching sound of flapping wings. "Hello, Ai-kun." He greeted the hovering second stage pet Vajra larvae. The larvae made an inquisitive noise. "Sorry, Ai-kun, I'm too tired to play with you today." He reached out and petted the animal. "Maybe, tomorrow, okay?"

Ai-kun made a pleased noised and obediently followed Alto into the house, crawling on his insect-like legs. It wouldn't be long before the adolescent Vajra would molt again and become too large to enter the house anymore.

"Welcome back, Alto." Commander Ozma Lee greeted as he peered into the hallway from the living room. "Where's Brera?"

Alto waved off the question. "Off doing what he usually does when he doesn't have anything else to do."

"Shadowing Ranka again?"

Alto rolled his eyes as answer.

"That boy needs a hobby, or better yet, a girlfriend."

Alto wholeheartedly grunted in agreement.

The older man noted the haggard look of his protégé. "Rough day at school, huh?"

Sighing deeply, Alto fought the urge to exercise his inalienable right as a soldier: grumble at his commanding officer. He settled for a grimace. "Never thought being captain of the aeronautics club would be this much of a hassle. Makes me wonder how Michel made it look so easy." He walked past Ozma into the living room in time to see Commander Catherine Glass Lee come in from the kitchen.

"Ah! Welcome back, Alto!" Ozma Lee's wife of several months greeted, wiping her hands on a hand towel. Alto raised his right hand in return. "Dinner should be ready in another 15 minutes." The woman announced to the two men. Having survived her bout with morning sickness, Cathy had insisted on resuming kitchen duty to spare her kitchen and husband's hands further damage. Ozma and kitchens simply didn't mix well together.

"Thanks, Cathy." Ozma replied while Alto simply nodded. Ozma eyed the younger man with amusement as Alto tiredly flopped down on a couch. He smirked. "Makes you glad the two have guest appearances tonight, right?"

Alto snorted. He was adjusting well enough living with other people for the past several months after living alone for a few years. "I still wonder why I ever agreed with this living arrangement in the first place. I must have been out of my mind."

That was a lie, of course. He knew exactly why he agreed. He had a promise to keep to Sheryl, and when Sheryl demanded, albeit cleverly disguising the demand as a polite request adorned with fake tears and guilt trips, that she and Alto continue living together on the Vajra's home planet over her manager's misgivings, he had resignedly surrendered to the inevitable. The complications in his life increased geometrically when Ranka learned of the living arrangement, and not willing to give her rival any advantage, insisted that she live with Alto as well, using her puppy-eyes look to devastating effect. It was times like that that he wished Ranka didn't emulate Sheryl so much, especially the stubbornness. "I am such a wimp." He muttered under his breath.

Ozma guffawed loudly while slapping his right knee, much to Alto's annoyance. "You shouldn't complain. All the guys in SMS would give anything to be in your place."

Alto snorted again. "If they only knew..." He trailed off, thinking of all the times the paparazzi from all over the galaxy ambushed him, not to mention the grief his envious male classmates gave him everyday at school. Idiots! Still, it wasn't as bad as it could have been, thanks to the girls' mutual manager. Elmo had arranged for the three teenagers to live with the newly married Ozma and Cathy, each with their own room, to minimize the potential fallout from their living together.

Ozma turned sympathetic. He had seen how much the younger man was hassled simply by being linked to the Galactic Faerie and the Galactic Cinderella, the two hottest idols in the Milky Way. Considering all things, Alto had held up well under the circumstances, not having killed anyone yet, as Ozma was sure he would already have done at that point if he was in Alto's shoes. He went to the kitchen and returned with two cold beers in can. He offered one to Alto, the teenager already having turned legal a few months back. "Here, have some beer. It'll make you feel better."

Accepting one, Alto sat up straight. "Thanks, Commander."

The two sat quietly sipping at their beers with Ai-kun contentedly playing with one of his toys at their feet, before Alto spoke, breaking the silence. "Commander?"

Ozma looked up from inspecting Ai-kun. "Hm?"

"Can I ask you a personal question?"

Ozma regarded his companion evenly before nodding. "As long as you don't expect an answer."

Alto nodded, accepting the condition. "How did you know that the Commander was it? I mean..." Alto trailed off, not sure how to put his question into words.

"How did I know that Cathy was the woman for me?"

"Yeah, something like that."

A distant look came over the eyes of Ozma. He scratched at his ever present five o'clock shadow. "Can't really say how." He finally answered. "Only that you'll know."

Alto frowned when Ozma didn't elaborate. "That's not much help." He complained.

Ozma shrugged. "Never said it would be." He let the silence reign for a moment. "At this point, I should say you'd better pick Ranka like a good older brother should, and that I'd make you wish you were never born if you ever make Ranka cry, but knowing you, that would only make you more sympathetic towards Sheryl. You're like them like that, stubborn as a mule," Alto smiled crookedly at that, not sure whether to take it as a compliment, "so I'm going to make it easier and safer for myself by not saying anything, and simply enjoy myself watching you agonize over the decision." Ozma smiled at the younger man. "On that, I don't envy you one bit."

Alto gave the older man a half-lidded look, but eventually sighed. He didn't really expect anything, but thought he didn't have anything to lose either by asking. The duo settled into their own thoughts until Cathy came out of the kitchen to announce that dinner was ready.

-

In an isolated medical research facility on an uninhabited moon of the fifth planet of a class K star in the Carina arm of the Milky Way, a harried young medical researcher plugged herself into the local computer network to download some of the data she needed to make her report on her new findings in her quarters. Her last colleague had left almost an hour earlier, and aside from some security personnel, she was the last person in the facility.

Downloading data into her neural implants was a routine she had done countless times without incident, and personally speaking, she didn't know how she would ever cope with her workload without the implants as she had so rudely discovered several months before when the Earth government had prohibited their use for a few weeks, the reasons for which were never fully explained to her satisfaction.

With practiced ease, the young woman mentally logged herself into the network, quickly locating the files she needed and queuing them for transfer. She noted with a grimace the estimated time to complete the download, and with nothing else better to do in the sterile laboratory that doubled as their offices, started playing the latest music videos of Sheryl and Ranka, as well as searching the galactic network for the latest juicy gossip on the two idols. Unconsciously, her right foot and left hand began to tap in rhythm with the music, and soon her eyes closed as she lost herself in the music.

A knock on the door to her laboratory interrupted her enjoyment of the songs.

"Dr. Akagi?" A guard making his rounds asked as he poked his head through the doorway. "Sorry to interrupt, doc, but how long will you be staying?" He asked once the scientist had focused her attention on him.

Dr. Akagi glanced at the timer in her virtual screen. "I'll be out of your hair in seven more minutes if nothing goes wrong, Roger." She answered with a smile.

"Oh, okay, doc. Just holler if you need anything, even if it's just coffee." Roger offered with his best smile. Geek or not, the young scientist was a gorgeous specimen of human femininity with her long silky golden blond hair that went to the small of her back, deep lavender eyes framed in a heart-shaped faced, and slim, statuesque figure with legs that seemed to go on forever.

The female scientist's smile widened in appreciation. "That's sweet of you, Roger. Thanks!" She fluttered her long eyelashes for added effect, and was rewarded with a blush that would be more at home on an elementary schoolboy.

"No problem, Dr. Akagi." Roger tipped his hat. "Well, I guess I'll see you later, Dr. Akagi." He closed the door and started whistling as he continued on his rounds, feeling pretty good with himself.

The blond scientist shook her head while still smiling. The younger guard was simply too adorable in his crush on her, and she couldn't help flirting with him just a little. She suddenly clutched at her head in agony as a torrent of information overwhelmed her neural implants. She tried to scream, but found her whole body locked in complete paralysis. Her eyes widened in fear as a new entity began to form in her mind's eye.

No, this is impossible! She thought, realizing what was happening.

Hardly. The new entity replied as it began to solidify with tendrils of dark shadow growing to wrap around Dr. Akagi's consciousness. The entity smiled malevolently as it watched the horrified expression on its victim's face as inky darkness slowly engulfed the young scientist.
juandelacruz
Senshi Candidate
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