Pre-flight warmup

Dirk unconsciously gulped when he remembered they would fly with Macross 10 squadrons today.

"At ease," General Maddox said sternly.

Everyone's left foot slid outwards while their hands clasped behind their backs, and all attention turned towards General Maddox.

"Good morning, pilots! Today we will be flying with your brethren from Macross 10. I hope none of you disappoint the fleet, as you will be the first to represent all of us. Although most of our forces now use autonomous drones, we can all agree that would be boring as hell to watch."

General Maddox reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a generic remote control. He handed it to the officer on duty, then said, "Here is a preview of what we'll be giving to the top contributors. I leave them to you, Colonel."

General Maddox stepped down from the podium and sat in a chair near the back of the hangar.

A toned Zentradi woman stepped up to the podium and firmly spoke to the pilots, "I am Colonel Ida Freeman. I will supervise your exercises now that we're starting to receive more attention from the U.N.S."

Dirk remembered this woman was a feared flight instructor due to her excessive physical fitness training a few years ago. She received a promotion after showing excellent strategic analysis during mock battles. While that seemed like a stretch to him for a reason for promotion, it also reminded Dirk that a time of peace isn't so bad.

Colonel Ida continued, "Both sides will still be using the old VF-171 Nightmares, but we managed to get the materials to assemble two squadrons of these."

Dirk recalled the VF-171 that was assigned to him fondly. The VF-171 shared the same overall look as traditional earth fighters while in fighter mode. The extended canopy offered a better view than previous generation fighters. However, it was still a mass-production model, and Dirk and the other pilots yearned for higher-performance models or variants. He was glad he could fit a Basara Nekki bobblehead on the console.

Colonel Ida let her words trail off as she pressed the remote's button.

The nearest hangar opened up, and a white variable fighter was taxied out for all to see.

Every pilot became excited upon seeing a fresh VF-25 Messiah roll up. They had training in the aging VF-171, and after hearing about the incidents across the galaxy, they wanted some of the newer military hardware.

Dirk momentarily forgot about his VF-171 after seeing the VF-25 rollout. He considered the VF-25 a huge upgrade to the smaller VF-171. Improved weaponry, maneuverability, and energy-converting armor in all modes would make any pilot prefer the VF-25 over the VF-171.

"I'm sure you're all familiar with this beauty. We've managed to secure enough for three squadrons worth. The three best-performing squadrons will get reassigned to them. Today each squad will get a chance to do dogfight exercises with another squad from Macross 10. Beams only, fight to target lock, last squad standing wins."

The pilots started fidgeting, each anxious to show off their skills.

"Captain Louis Maddox, your squadron will fly first, after that..."

Colonel Ida listed off the remaining seven squadrons with Dirk's squad flying sixth out of the eight squadrons today.

"That is all, Captain Maddox, prepare to sortie, the rest of you, fall out!" Colonel Ida barked.

The pilots mingled amongst themselves before the exercises began. Louis and Dirk exchanged a brief handshake.

"First again, you've worked hard, maybe too hard," Dirk said jokingly.

Louis grinned and countered by saying, "Hah! I have to or else I'll lose to the geniuses!"

"If only we had some," Dirk quietly said while glancing at Helena.

Helena rolled her eyes and said, "It takes a genius of patience to put up with your impulsiveness!"

"I don't know what you're talking about. We were just having a little bit of fun. Nobody was hurt... I think."

Helena started to get angry again, remembering when Dirk and Elise broke the formation to race each other. The resulting sonic booms at low altitude near City 8 destroyed a few windows, but nobody was hurt unless you count emotional damage. She looked Dirk square in the eyes, grabbed his collar, then said threateningly, "I want to be at the top of the squadron ranks. I want to fly in that VF-25. Lastly, I want you to help me with that! Stop wasting your talent and just be serious about this, I'd give you anything you want if you help me this time!"

Dirk wanted to turn to Louis for support, but he had already disappeared. He panicked slightly and said the first thing that came to mind when Helena said she would do anything.

"Oh, so you'd go on a date with me?"

Helena's face turned a barely noticeable shade of pink then she took a step closer to get in a position to flip Dirk while saying, "You still can't be serious!"

Dirk felt Helena's hip bump against his in preparation to flip him on his back, and he blurted out hastily, "I'm sorry! I will put more effort into this than ever!"

The other pilots were watching them. Some thought it was a fight, and others thought it was a lover's quarrel.

Helena imagined herself hip-tossing Dirk a few times and was able to relax. She took a step back from Dirk and said, "We'll see. I plan to go career military. I can't do anything else."

"You need to find what excites you! As everyone here knows, music excites me! Did you see the Night Ravens' concert last night?"

Overhearing Dirk mention the Night Ravens, some pilots started to nod and probably reminisce about last night's concert.

"Of course, and I know what excites me!"

Helena felt something silly come over her and sang the last few lines from The Night Ravens' latest hit, "Burn, burn, burning for you!" and then pointed at the YF-25.

Seeing Helena out of character made everyone that witnessed it cheer.

Helena turned a bright shade of red, unsure of what came over her to suddenly do that.

Dirk cheered the loudest and shouted, "Yeah! That's the power of song!"

Before Dirk could say anything else, a siren buzzed throughout the hangar, signaling that the variable fighters would be moved to the ground level for take-off.

The pilots watched while 24 VF-171 Nightmares rolled out of their bays to the staging area.

Dirk, Helena, and Alek walked over to their area together.

Helena pulled Dirk and Alek closer and said, "Since we're going sixth, pay attention to the groups ahead of us so we can try to figure out what they learned. We're all from the New U.N.S. so maybe we were taught the same maneuvers, but let's find out."

Dirk and Alek nodded, trotted over to their fighters, then started strapping in.

After a short pre-flight comms check, 24 VF-171 Nightmares flew towards a deserted island surrounded by a nearly endless ocean with a dozen camera drones behind them.

__________

Meanwhile, the Macross 10 pilots from the Macross 10 defense fleet received a similar briefing.

Rayelle stood proudly in front of her squadron as the Captain. Behind her stood her squadmates, Adam and Marty.

In front of her stood General Adra Jeanne.

General Adra Jeanne was a little smaller than Rayelle, but her presence made her feel larger than she was. Her black hair had streaks of gray running through it, but her gaze was as piercing as a hawk as she addressed the young pilots. What Rayelle liked most about her was that she was pretty lax about protocol as long as it didn't affect performance.

"I want you to embarrass them. I want to convince those politicians at N.U.N.S. that we should be sent more VF-25s... even better, I want them to send us the ones they were originally planning to send to Macross 8 first, then send us more!"

The Macross 10 pilots erupted into cheers of enthusiasm.

"She's evil. I like it," Rayelle whispered to herself.

General Adra waited for a moment for the cheers to stop, then said, "For this dogfight exercise, go in your squadron order. As far as I'm concerned, you are all elites, and I will give you all VF-25s if I can. Until then, the top three squadrons will get them. Good hunting!"

General Adra turned to step away but stopped herself and said, "Oh, last place squad will be scrubbing every inch of this hunger until we can eat off the ground."

General Adra waved again, then walked off towards the back of the hangar towards the command center.

"Adam, Marty, we're moving up and getting those VF-25s," Rayelle said with determination.

"We're on the same page then," Adam said confidently.

"Yes," Marty said in agreement.

Rayelle turned to look at Marty. He is her band's drummer, and she trusted him completely, but she wished he would speak more. Marty wasn't as big as Adam, but he was still in good athletic shape.

Rayelle felt confident having her bandmates also be her squadmates.

Rayelle, Marty, and Adam trotted toward their fighters as the siren screamed to warn them of the fighters moving in the hangar.

Rayelle hopped into her VF-171 Nightmare and began pre-flight checks. She had painted her VF-171 jet black with red accents to match her band's image.

"We're going to do it. We're going to be the number one band and the number one squad," Rayelle said with conviction towards the Sheryl Nome bobblehead doll.

"How?" Rayelle said to the bobblehead as if it responded to her. She then flicked the head of the doll and cheerfully said, "Cause I'm Rayelle Venusia!"