Rise and Fall of the Shooting Star

Chapter one

"When Worlds Collide"

"Fates a bitch... if there is such a thing as fate. All the calculations were correct, as I go over the mechanics in my head, I find no fault. Hell I even compensated for the the extra energy emitted by the reflex furnaces near meltdown....But as I stare into the void , with a battered B12 below me and a completely alien bogey floating ahead of me.... I cant help but ask........"

"what went wrong?"

"Lt, whatever you did it worked...reports are comming in from allover the ship...we have massive casualites. Nex...the captian..." Lancer chokes down the bile in his throat. "The captian is dead...and so is the rest of the bridge crew..."

Lancer Bernard, Lutanent and second in command of Delta squadron, is usually a happy go lucky kinda guy. As he would say, "he tries to enjoy life at all times",...he dosn't seem to be enjoying himself now. The usual smile on his quarter Zentradi face bleed into a scowel as he turns over the body of the man who caused all of this. The blood ,still fresh. The body ,still warm .His eyes wide open ,screaming. His mouth draws a dead smile ,laughing.

Lancer kneels down and grabs the corpse by the neck "Coward, bitch.....the bastard blew his own brains out..." A tear rolls down his frowned face " Damn it!"

His grip tightens as the flesh and bone in the corpse sprawles....and snaps.

Nex Banwell, Lutanent commander and leader of Delta squadron. When he's in the cockpit , he becomes intelligent, strong, calm, a leader. Outside, he goofs off , plays around and generly becomes ......a teenager. With the minute spance of time after Lancer's bad news, many adult ideas fill his allready troubled mind. Right now he'd rather revert into his goofy teenager self, but too many people counted on him.

Now is the time to act.

"Lancer, check the ships sensors, grid 673 by 72, twelve degrees off my nose."

Lance runs over to the sensors helm and activates the foward sensor array."What the hell?, Lt. unknown bogey, unknown shilloute, unknown fighter type....what the hell is that??"

Nex activates his communicator and sets it to a universal signal. He clears his throat and builds up his courage to face the unknown fighter infront of him."This is Lutanent commander Nex Banwell to unknown fighter. You are in violation of UN space , state your name and affilation."

.............

"Where......where am I?" Heero Yui pauses as he looks over to the scren in front of him,"Whats going on?" a faint red glow eminates from the foward consoul "A transmission?" He presses the radio button as the commanding voice barks over the speakers inside his cockpit. Still dazed from the stress of his eariler conflict, Heero ignores the order.

Suddenly as a shot in the head , Images fill his mind, hundreds then thousands! The battle with Libra replays over and over in his mind , his body relives the event as his muscles twist and bend, reflexing, reacting to the fight."ZERO!!! what are you trying to tell me!!!" Twisted and distorted images of the final act of desperiation over earth burn into Heero like a brand, searing his flesh as the pain shoots through him. He clenches his teeth and grinds them"Arrrg....Damn it Zero STOP!!!" Then with a final pause the entire cockpit glows red as a massive explosion envlops its pilot, the fire burns as the vaccume freeezes. Flesh turns to carbon as Heero lets out one final scream......and with that , its over.

"AHHHH!!!" Heero screams then stops to find himself intact "Zero are you trying to tell me that....im dead?" People and friends fill his mind now ,flashing in and out. They form a distorted painting, a colage of memories. Heeros muscles flex and tighten, his eyes dart from end to end. The hud flashes, Targeting sensors move across the screen, almost to fast to follow."Whats going on Zero! Stop this ZERO STOP IT NOW!!!" The targets settle as Heero pauses. He stares out to the view screen.....and what he saw.....scared him. Below him, staring him down , was Libra."God no ,Libra I didnt destroy it!" Flashes of the earths destruction fill his torn mind as the Zero system alerts him of his new goal. "Mission accepted."

..............

"I say agian to alien fighter..."Nex stops as his computer begins to track the alien craft "Shit, Lancer,Its headed towards you!!" Suddenly red lights and alarms blare inside the cockpot as an "ENEGRY SURGE" warning flashes on the hud. "Good crap!!that things forreal!!Lancer Raise Sheilds!!"

Lancer grabs the sheild command throttle and thrusts it foward with no result "No good, reactor reserve is gone were running on empt......"

Aflash of light and a massive explosion cascades off the left primary engine as the bandit circles around for the next attack.

"LANCER!!!!" Nex punches his throttle to the limit, his veritech bursts foward, screaming towards its attacker "Kemmer you sunovabitch!!" Nex squezzes the trigger as a volly of missles explode away, hunting down their target."COME GET SOME!!!"

Heero swings around, throttle at full. "Targeting their main weapon." The hud flashes, warning him of incomming missles."Is that all you got?" Heero decelerates and welcomes the attack "Bring... it...on."

"What the hell is he doing?" Nex pauses to watch his missles make contact with the bogey.

The Explosion is massive, every missle made contact. Nex relaxes as he stares into the fireball "Humm... too easy." He pushes his throttle foward and heads for the explosion.....then his fears came true "Holy crap its a variable fighter!" As the debries clears, the bird like fighter begins to change shape into an angel like being , in each hand are two massive beam cannons. Its wings flex as its eyes flare. Nex screams over the radio " I AM NOT IMPRESSED!" He twists the throttle and pulls it foward and with a flash the agile fighter transforms into an equally impressive manlike machine.

Heero stares out at the alien mobilesuit....and laughs."HA!HA! Is that all you got!" The images continue to flash in his mind, flashes of the battle over Libra, Hundreds of enemy mobile dolls circle around him "what!!" Heero begins to track the dolls surrounding him."I WILL NOT BE KILLED BY LIFELESS DOLLS!!!" The wingzero flexs and points its beam rifles to each side."I will NOT be killed..."He squeezes the triggers and fires"...by lifeless dolls."

The beams streak across the black void of space but hit nothing. Nex stares in awe "What in hell is it doing?" The wingzero continues its attack at nothing."Who does he think its fighting!" Wasting no oppertunity, Nex arms his second volley of missles and targets the bogey...then pauses..."Lets try somthing diffrient..." He bursts foward, headlong for the alien craft. "Lancer, Divert all the ships power to the macross cannon!!"

Lancer drops his jaw at the order given to him "What!!! we barely have enough reserve enegry to keep lifesupport, I allready lost artifical gravity!" He says as he sweeps the beads of sweat floating around his face. But without hesatation he reaches over to the powerflow controls and diverts the enegry then reaches into the captian and commanders jackets for the fireing codes.

Nex flies by the wingzero agian taunting it. "Dont Worry buddy i got a plan." Nex then diverts his words to the wingzero "Hey ASSHOLE, YEA YOU !" The Zero fires a malestrom of bullets but completely misses."HA! ALL THAT FANCY DESIGN AND THE MUTHAFUCKA STILL CANT HIT ME HAHAHA!!"

..................

Inside the Zero, The images of the dolls phase in and out of Heeros mind. He blinks his eyes and stares down at the targeting sphere in the center of his consoul. Nothing appeared on his sensors, no mobile dolls and no Libra. But as he looks up, he sees the flash of a mobile doll replaced by an unknown fighter screaming past him."What is going on?" he blinks"Whats wrong ZERO!" The hud flashes with enemy craft but the sensors,seperate from the zero system, show nothing. Then the memory of the destruction of Libra and the strange flash of light fills his mind. "Is the Zero system damaged?" This new found discovery takes a backseat as Heeros attention is grabbed by the massive alien starship below him, its bow sparks with ladent enegry "what??" Suddenly the zero is knocked around as an alien mobilesuit flies past him. The Zero system reactivates and targets the bogey"My...My enemy...?" The alien craft circles around and is suddenly replaced by the dark assasian..Epyon.

..................

" Lt ! He's movin!!" Lancer imputs a series of commands converting the collected reflex enegry directly into the main weapon."3'oclock .2 klicks and ganing!"

"Just get that macross cannon online Lancer and soon! I cant exactly kill him by calling him a raging bastard! and that his moms a slut!!!" As Nex continues his onslaught of taunts troubling thoughts fill his head as he thinks to himself "I just hope he's stupid enough to fall for this!" Nex's VF-19s transforms back into its agile fighter form and streaks towards the wingzero."Hey psycho you and I got somthing in common... were both hittin your sister!!!HAHAHA!!! come and catch me!!"

The VF-19 hurtles itself into action as the wingzero drops its beam rifles and reaches for its shoulder. A small cylinder emerges and ignites into a blade of blood red enegry. It glows bright agnist the darkness of space. The massive white wings extend from end to end as a faint glow eminates from them. Its eyes flash as its boosters burst, hurtling the wingzero towards its aggressor.

Nex stops and transforms into gerwalk and immeadly decelerates, the continues the change to soilder mode barely dodging the beamsabre attack. He aims his GU-15 gunpod and fires a burst of rounds. The wingzero returns the favor and fires off its shoulder guns. Nex blocks with his sheild, barely able to withstand the attack, he presses on.

"Lt, Macross cannon at 73 precent ! If you can hold it off for another minute or so..."Lancer screams over the comm.

"ONE MINUTE!!" as the zero makes contact with him, knocking him around in his cockpit"Ill be lucky if i survive the next ten seconds!" Nex throttles back as he grabs the wing zero's arm, then thrusts full foward hurtling the alien craft towards the B12. Heero easily regains control and resumes his attack.

"I Will Kill you Zechs!!" Heero bursts foward and tackles the VF-19, shattering its sheild. But Nex uses this oppertunity and shoves his gunpod into the chest of the wingzero.

"What the hell is wrong with you ya jackass!!" Nex unloads his clip into the zero's chest, flips over the damages suit and grapples its arms."Lancer STATUS!!"

" 93 precent! Just twenty more seconds!! Lancer stares down the status bar and screams at it "Goddamn it hurry the hell up!!!

Nex screams over the communicator to the wing zero "I dont know who the hell you are but you picked the wrong pilot to fuck with!!" The VF-19 presses its feet into the back of the zero and bursts its thrusters, tossing it towards the B12 "When you get to the void tell'em NEX SENT YA!! with that he launches the final volley of missles at the zero."LANCER FIRE!!!"

Lancer stands above the weapons helm and punches the fireing button

"ha! bitch."

The Battle 12's main cannon explodes as a massive beam of enegry surges towards the battered wingzero. Heero stares down the massive beam, his eyes wide open as a bright white light envlopes all around him. No words leave his mouth, only silence.

Nex stares down the surge of enegry at a safe distance as a massive explosion eminates from its center." Hoorah!! we got the bastard!" Nex sits back and relaxes as his veritech hovers in the night.

Lancer sits back in the captians chair and closes his eyes "That was too close."

As nex prepares to head back to the Battle12, he turns around to take one last look. the explosion begins to fade as the debris clears....Nex is in shock "No fuckin way." There floating within the rubble, the enemy mobilesuit unfolds its sheilding wings and stares Nex down...then suddenly its eyes fade out as it hovers motionless. "Holyshit how did it survive?!" Nex activates his comm "Nex Banwell to Battle 12 , prep the med lab and get the hanger crew ready for standby, Im bringing this thing and its pilot in."

Heero sits inside the Zero's cockpot totaly motionless. He is barely able to open his eyes as he looks at the foward screen. the word "MALFUNCTION" flashes brightly as Heero shuts his eyes... and passes out.

to be continued.