Macross—Something to Remember Me
A Macross One shot
By SithKnight-Galen
SK-G: I would like to thank RDFan for the spark of this from her fan-fiction story: "For You". By reading this, and from encouragement by my sweet Ama-chan (to whom this story is dedicated to), I decided to come out of my shell to relate another tale of the Macross Universe. Please keep in mind that I am taking some liberties with the actual scene from the episode "Re-Construction Blues".
Sk-G II: For the fans of "Pyrrhic WarDance" and "Strange Bedfellows", new chapters fro both are actually forthcoming in the next few weeks. Sorry, but an extended and extremely active tour of duty put a few of my extra-cirricular activies and hobbies on hold for a bit.
A/N: Standard disclaimers apply here as they do with ALL of my labors of love, aka fan based fiction for the masses, so if you wish to sue, you win the same thing that the Galactic Imperial Army got trying to stop the Rebellion led by Han Solo on the Moon of Endor. Besides, if I owned any part to the Macross/Robotech franchise, beleive me, there would already be a Robotechnology Research Group developing me some sweet star-spanning, galactic exploration gear….and a hot plate.
Now, with much ado, on with the story. ;-)
Commander Rick Hunter popped the Canopy to the VF-1S fondly known as "Skull One" and wearily removed his "thinking cap." Handing it to the waiting crew chief and flashing him a thumbs-up, Rick's mind was close to a thousand miles away as he once again tried to forget about the responsibilites of his job that awaited him everytime that he stepped foot out of his plane. True, he loved flying more than almost anything else in the world, and he had grown into the responsibility of being one of the most respected and capable officers and fighting ace still alive in the Robotech Defense Force, but that didn't mean that he enjoyed all of the drawbacks that came with it.
'Oh man, I am so beat. Why do I keep getting this twelve hour red-eye patrols anyways? Who exactly did I tick off to keep getting this. Well, at least I get the next three days off, as long as the Zentraedi don't pull any more stunts like New Detroit. Hmm, New Detroit, I wonder if I can find out when Minmei is supposed to come play in New Macross again. It has been awhile since I saw her,' Rick mused thoughtfully as he began to walk away from his veritech.
Rick was still more than a little infatuated with the teen idol singer, but time, distance, and duty had all combined to temper him just a little bit. He thought a bit about this as he continued to walk to the Flight Officer's lounge, wanting to get out of the wind-induced chill from the early evening that was just settling in. He was so intent on what he was going to have to type up in his after-action report that he didn't even notice the other part to his tempering of his Lynn Minmei crush approaching him until she was all but right on top of him. Rick looked up and blinked as he realized that Captain Lisa Hayes was waiting for him to approach, her hands behind her back and she almost seemed to be leaning against the hanger wall. The determination in her expression immediately set him on edge, and already tired nerves quickly came onto alert status.
'Okay, what did I do to upset her now? And here I thought that the storm on the horizon was bad enough,' Rick thought somewhat sourly as he tried to go over anything in recent history that might have upset the emerald eyed first officer.
While he could not think of anything immediately, he braced himself anyways. Being one of the two participants of their frequent and sometimes rather…heated…dis-agreements, often over the TAC-Net, he was intimately aware that he could come under fire for almost anything at almost anytime, and usually, while his pride refused to allow him to admit except to himself on occasion, he knew that it was his actions and words that would more often than not be the root cause of their spats. For once he decided to do the smart thing and wait to see exactly what she had to say before he put hid foot in his mouth once again.
"So how was your patrol?" Lisa asked in a silent, almost nonchalant kind of way.
Rick almost felt her comment was a jab especially after their spat about him wandering off to see Minmei in Granite City when that situation blew up with his patrol in New Portland. She knew how things went, but he felt he might as well humour her.
"Things were hairy for a bit, but we were able to take care of the insurgents The mop-up lasted longer than I would have liked, though."
He felt Lisa's gaze on him for a moment as he continued to look at the graying skies, his concentration seemingly elsewhere as she said her next comment.
"About that, I know I may have come off a bit harsh about protocol, but I do worry about you and the other pilots, Rick. And while I know that it is none of my business, I know where you were yesterday. I heard HER concert from Granite City on the radio."
The last comment made Rick snap his attention back to Lisa as she made that comment. If he didn't know better, it almost sounded like she was somehow hurt that he had gone to try and see Minmei. However, before he could ask his tempestuous friend what had gotten her upset about him going to see the woman of his dreams, or so he thought, she went and surprised him again by moving directly in his path and then stopping. Lisa then pulled out something from behind her back and slipped it into Rick's had.
"That is just something to remember me by," she stated with a bit of wry cheer in her voice as Rick looked down with a bit of confused bemusement at the plain envelope now in his palm.
Walking away as he looked up, Lisa then stated in her matter-of-fact business tone, "Admiral Gloval wants to see you right away." Before he could ask anything else, Lisa looked back over her shoulder for a brief moment as a somewhat sad smile crossed her face, and then she bolted away down the tarmac.
His face pensive about their latest exchange and why on earth would Admiral Gloval be wanting to see him now, he looked down at the envelope in his hand, and then opened it up to be even more surprised by what was inside.
'She is definitely beautiful, that is for sure, but why did she give these to me? Was t for good luck or something…or am I missing something? Perhaps I should ask her sometime. Well, I guess I had better put these in my scrapbook until I can talk with her…although the one of her with her kitten would be kind of cute in my cockpit….although…I am pretty sure I would never hear the end of it if the guys saw it.'
Smiling wistfully as he re-sealed the envelope and protectively tucked them into the chest pocket of his flight suit, he then left to see the Admiral, vowing to ask his enigmatic friend about the photos when he got the chance.