Genesis

With the power of flight in a way that did indeed make the Mockingbird seem primitive, and metalshod fists capable of punching their way through a small mountain.

Rick drew a deep breath, dizzy with the feeling.

'That's it!' Roy encouraged. 'See how easy it is?'

'Wow, you learn fast, don't you?' said a voice from street level over the battloid's external pickups.

Rick looked down at Minmei and Jason. He automatically guided the Robotech machine so that it leaned down toward the girl. 'Thanks.'

A voice from the distance-Minmei's Aunt Lena-called, 'Minmei! Jason! Come on!'

Minmei waved up at Rick. 'See you later! We're being evacuated!' She trotted off with Jason in tow, long, slim legs moving with unconscious grace.

Off the shore of Macross Island the breakers came in, crashed, and sent up high fountains of foam, and the waters pulled back to regroup yet again for their eternal assault on the beach.

But the next breaker brought a different kind of assault.

Zentraedi Battlepods launched straight up out of the water on their thrusters: scout versions, officer versions, and the standard models configured to carry a variety of heavy weapons and equipment.

Their biped design, the legs articulated backward, resembled that of an ostrich. They landed on the shore and began advancing in long leaps like monstrous kangaroos, sensors swinging for information, weapons ready for the kill. They arranged themselves in skirmish formation and covered miles in seconds.

Soon they loomed across a ridgeline, looking down on Macross City.

At Breetai's command post, the report was patched through. 'The recon and Battlepods have landed, Commander. We're ready to attack.'

Exedore's protruding, pinpoint-pupiled eyes swung to regard his lord. Breetai leaned to a communications pickup.

'Attention all gunnery crews! Prepare to give covering fire to the recon assault group.'

The command 'Ready All Guns' and subsidiary orders rang through the armada. The long muzzles were run out and ranged in. In their sights was Macross City.

'We better get moving, Rick,' Roy told his friend. 'We still have a war to fight.'

'I'm still pretty unsure of myself with all these robot controls! I'm not ready for combat.'

'Not robot; Robotech!' Roy corrected automatically. 'Look, pull the control marked G, and we'll switch to Guardian configuration.'

Rick complied, muttering, 'What the heck is a Guardian? Here goes!'

As the Veritech shifted and mechamorphosed, converting to a bird of prey/war machine, Roy explained. 'The Guardian controls operate almost exactly like those of the fighter plane. You can fly it without any problems.'

'I've heard that before,' Rick reminded him.

On a hill overlooking the city, the crowds waited to be admitted to the underground shelter system. Because of the dangerous nature of research and experimentation going on in the city and the fact that Macross would be a primary military target for any aggressor, the shelters had always had a high priority in the island's construction projects.

Minmei and her relatives were waiting fretfully with the thousands upon thousands of others. The emergency personnel were working as fast as they could, but moving the huge population underground was time- consuming at best.

The job facing the civil defense crews was overwhelming, and to top it off, many people had stopped in the foothills to try to find friends or relatives before moving below.

But that wasn't what made Minmei halt in midstep.

'My diary!' She had been keeping it since she was old enough to hold a pen, xeroreducing her writing so that each page held weeks of entries in a single, thick little volume. In it were all her thoughts, ideas, memories, stories, the lyrics for her songs, her poetry and secret longings, and the most important letter she'd ever received in her life-Minmei's diary was her life.

'I have to go back for it!'

'Don't be foolish, child!' Lena cried. 'There is no going back.' Jason watched wide-eyed; he was too young to have known Minmei before she'd come to live on Macross Island, but he already adored her.

Minmei ducked away from her aunt's restraining hands and avoided Uncle Max's effort to stop her. Older people just didn't understand!

'It won't take me a minute to get it, don't worry!' Then Minmei was off, gamine legs flying.

'Come back!' Aunt Lena moved to follow, but two CD workers, too late to restrain Minmei, blocked her way. Uncle Max and Jason and the others stood watching as Minmei's fleet figure disappeared down into the city. Over all loomed the fallen SDF-1, blocking the sun.

Breetai studied the fire-mission computer models. He gave a grudging nod of satisfaction.

'All guns standing by for bombardment, Commander Breetai,' a tech reported.

'Good. Level everything in the path of the assault forces but be careful not to damage that battle fortress. I want to take it intact!' Once the Battlepods had established a beachhead, his plan could be implemented, and Zor's masterpiece would belong to the Zentraedi.

Then let the Robotech Masters beware! Breetai thought.

Lead elements of the armada opened fire; those farther back in the dense cloud of warships couldn't fire without the risk of hitting another Zentraedi vessel.

A torrent of alien bolts rained down like a hellish spring storm, in a kill-zone that encircled the dimensional fortress. Buildings seemed to melt like candles in a blast furnace, riddled by thousands of narrow, high-intensity beams, collapsing in clouds of plaster and concrete dust.

Death was everywhere among the CD teams, emergency personnel, antilooting squads, and others who'd bravely remained behind. Dying screams and the shrieks of the wounded rose on the bolt-splashed heat waves. Zentraedi Battlepods watched it all impassively from their vantage point: wingless, headless armored ostriches bristling with sensors and heavy weapons. The shelters and the masses waiting to enter them were noted, but those were of no importance; Breetai was only interested in the SDF-1.

'They're invading the city!' Rick yelled from his Guardian's cockpit. It was only by accident, he realized, that he'd crash-landed outside the kill-zone.

'Yeah; it looks like it was evacuated just in time,' Roy said, surveying the blasted landscape from his higher vantage point in the Battloid.

He also had updates on the refugee situation and the various assembly points. 'If you're worried about your girlfriend, we could go check on her.'

Roy shifted to Guardian mode and showed Rick how it was done; the two Guardians skimmed away like jet-powered skaters, foot thrusters riding them on a blasting carpet mere inches off the ground, safe from most of the enemy fire.

'Do we have a fix on where that bombardment is coming from?' Gloval snapped.

'A fleet of spaceships, numbers uncertain but very, very high. In lunar orbit,' Vanessa told him promptly.

Gloval rubbed his jaw. 'Beyond the range of our missiles.'

Lisa looked up from her monitors. 'Captain, an alien assault force is approaching from the east, range eight miles.'

It was her job and her prerogative, so she added, 'We need air support, sir.'

Gloval gave a quick nod that shook his cap a little. 'Call for it.'