Jack McKinney RoboTech 01 Genesis

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and slowly began to tilt the other way. Volunteer helpers and onlookers let
out a wide assortment of exclamations and yowls and scurried for safety; the
drivers leapt from the cabs of their trucks and hotfooted it.
Minmei and Jason hugged each other and shouted, "Oh, no!" at the same
instant.
Rick grabbed for the controls desperately. At the very least, he had to
try to keep this insane metal berserker from doing more damage to the
restaurant.
The Battloid lurched, trying to find its balance. Rick tried his best
but couldn't seem to do anything right. Again, it was as if the machine was
waiting for him to do something more than merely manipulate controls.
The Battloid took a lurching step, and its legs became entangled in the
cables; it twirled clumsily and fell backward toward the opposite side of the
street, its back crashing against an empty building that had taken heavy
damage from the enemy barrage.
It sank down, crunching the building, until it came to rest with its
backside halfway to the street, heels dug into the pavement. When Rick was
sure the machine was stable for the time being. He wiped his brow again. "Oh,
why me? How come these things don't happen to other people?"
The triumphant Veritech squadron flew in tight formation, making its way
back to the Prometheus and the dimensional fortress.
Roy was in the lead spot, of course. "This is Skull Leader, Veritech
squadron, to SDF-1. Am returning to base. We have met the enemy and pretty
much cleaned their clocks. They've withdrawn from Earth's atmosphere."
Lisa's face was on the display screen. "Commendable work, Commander
Fokker, I'll-"
She was abruptly moved out of the way by Claudia, who said "Let me talk
to him! Roy, how many of them did you shoot down?"
"Only ten this time," he said nonchalantly. But the dogfight would be a
legend by that night, the hardest rat-racing he'd ever seen. Every millisecond
was going to be analyzed and refought a hundred times among the flying
officers.
"You're slipping, Roy," Claudia told him, but her tone wasn't critical
at all.
"Well, don't worry, Claudia; I'll make it up." Something tells me I'm
going to get plenty of opportunities! "Do you have any word on the VT
one-zero-two?"
Lisa crowded back onto the screen. "That section-eight case! He landed
in Macross City in a Battloid, and he's doing more damage than the invaders."
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Roy laughed. "Thanks, Lisa."
"Who is he? He's not registered as a fighter pilot."
"Don't worry; I know him."
"Well, he sure needs help." Lisa scowled.
"I'd better go check on him." Roy switched to the tic net. "This is
Skull Leader to group. You guys head on back to Prometheus. I've got some
business to take care of in town. Captain Kramer, you take 'em home."
"Will do, boss."
Roy peeled off from the formation and, increasing his wings' sweep for
higher speed, plummeted for Macross City. "I should've known better than to
leave him alone," he muttered.
Even in a city that had known a peppering of energy bolts and alien
rockets, it wasn't too hard to spot the mess made by an out-of-control
Battloid. "Aha! That you, Rick, old son?"
The war machine was resting against a building. "Hi, Roy! It's me!"
"Had a busy day down there, huh?"
Rick sighed. "You might say that, Big Brother."
People in the streets spotted the approaching aircraft. The skull
insignia was well known; but things had a way of being unexpectedly dangerous
today, and nobody was up for taking any more chances.
Everybody sprinted for cover again. Roy switched his ship to Guardian
mode for the descent-the mechanoid/eagle configuration that allowed more
control in the tight quarters of a city street. It settled in on the bright
blue flare of its foot thrusters, chain-gun cradled in its right arm.
In another moment Roy's ship had mechamorphosed to Battloid. Its
shoulder structure gave it a look of immense brute power, like a football
player. Rick felt like rubbing his eyes. "I must be dreaming this; I don't
believe it!"
Jason, crouched with Minmei behind a fallen cornice, yelped, "That
airplane became a robot too!"
"Amazing!" Minmei murmured. It was all so strange and almost magical-it
made her wonder what the young pilot's name was.
"A few small repairs and you can take that Battloid back into action,"
Roy said blithely.
"What're you talking about?" Rick yelled over the net. "I don't even
know what this thing is, and if you think I'm qualified to operate it, just
take a good look around the neighborhood!"
But he watched his screen in utter fascination as Roy's war machine
shifted its weapon from its right arm, drew out a long, thick band as sturdy
as a heavy-cargo sling, and settled the weapon over its left shoulder, all as
casually as an infantryman going to sling-arms.
Rick gaped. No control system in the world could do that. Maybe a
battery of computers, if the sequence was worked out precisely in advance. But
what Roy had done had more of an on-the-spot look to it.
It brought to mind what Roy had told Rick about the Robotech flight
helmet-the thinking cap: "You don't just pilot a Robotech ship; you live it."
"If you can fly a jet, you can operate a Battloid," Roy began. "I'll
tell you what to do. Gross movements are initiated by manuals-the legs are
guided by your foot pedals, for instance."
"Which foot pedals, Roy? I've got about fifty controls in here!"
"Fifty-seven, if you want to get technical. But that's not the important
part. Just button up and listen; I'll explain while I'm making repairs."
The skull-insignia Battloid extruded metal tentacles, tool-servos,
waldos, and a host of other advanced repair apparatus. In moments the one
Robotech war machine was repairing the other. Welding sparks jumped, and
damaged components were replaced.
"The secret's that helmet," Roy said. "You generate general movements or
sequences with your controls, but the Robotechnology takes its real guidance
straight from your thoughts. You've got to think your ship through the things
you want it to do."
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Rick couldn't help being skeptical in spite of everything he'd seen.
"Now you're gonna tell me these junk heaps are alive?"
"Close enough for me," Roy said noncommittally, "although you're going
to have to make up your own mind about that. We still don't understand the
power source-the same power source that runs SDF-1 but we know that, somehow,
it's not just a-a blind physical process. It's involved with life forces
somehow; with awareness-with mind, if I'm not getting too fancy for you." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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