Captured!

[srwu_npc2]

[1 - talking to fellow prisoners]
A Zentraedi ship. Which one - who knows? This is the first time a human sees one from the inside! Although, in this case, this also means from the inside of a glass dome standing atop a table, which is where the giants put the several people they captured during the last battle. The inside of the ship is high-tech, with metal everywhere, and some slightly weird, rounded parts in some places, but overall, it doesn't look too alien - just like the Zentraedi don't look too alien themselves, though a few might have strange skin colors. Also, they're all men, for some reason. When the dome was moved through the ship, you might've noticed another thing too - some areas appear to be badly maintained. In fact, there's no visible maintenance crew around at any point, just soldiers.


Two of the giants are watching from afar, sometimes commenting in a weird language. They ignore any attempts to grab their attention, though, and there are ordinary soldiers around in case anyone starts to cause trouble. The guy with the metal dome on his head, who seems to be in command, is one you've seen before - when Kakizaki (and maybe other people too) started to cause trouble after getting brought in, he beat up his VF - without any power armor, just on foot! Needless to say, there's not much use out of that VF now. But no, this is not the same man who launched the ambush on Mars previously and damaged the Macross' sensors recently. That's someone else.

[2 - talking to the Zentraedi (single thread please)]
Soon after all the prisoners have awoken, they are taken to another room, and set in the middle of a large, empty table. The two Zentraedi from before are here, as well as another, bald and older-looking one, and three others who just watch, stay quiet and surely have no relevance whatsoever. And then, the giants start talking - and you can understand them!


"Lord Bodolza, those are the microns you asked for."


"The translation device seems to be working correctly!"


"Very good." He looks at the prisoners. "I am Bodolza, the supreme commander of the Bodolza Main Fleet. I would like to ask you some questions. When have your people made contact with the Supervision Army for the first time?"

[3 - the rescue]
Some time after the questioning from Bodolza*, one of the Zentraedi soldier approaches the glass dome where you're held. Only this one looks strange, with his collar put high up and his hat pulled down on his face. That's probably because it's not a Zentraedi at all, but a VF wearing the clothes of one of their soldiers! Amazingly, this disguise seems to fool the giants... Looking around to make sure nobody is watching, the VF quickly takes you out of the dome one by one and stuffs you into its pockets! If you're lucky, it's the breast pocket.
"Don't make any loud noises. I'm getting you out of here.", says its pilot. The voice is unfamiliar to most of you.

* - the second thread is not finished at the moment of writing this, but for the sake of pacing, you can post here already. You can also write and tag other posts with the presumption that you're back already - the imprisonment took only a few days.

Comments

[actuallyselfish]

"Yeah!" Dido jeers. "How can you guys call yourselves the ultimate warriors if you don't have fluffy talking cats?"

[herodrawing]

Is it... really a necessity?

[ships_full_of_missiles]

[Misa stares at Dido. Long, and hard.

She stares with the look of a woman who has just seen a college professor explain why the 4-day simultaneous nature of time across the cubic earth is hidden from us by the elites of the world. She stares with the look of a woman who as seen something so utterly, fundamentally wrong, it begins to approach anti-thought. She stares with the look of someone who has beheld the void, the chaotic nonexistence of logic.]

...Really?

[majestic_keiki]

...This is the important thing to think about when talking to alien giants?

[srwu_npc2]

Do you often argue with each other like this? One of you is an officer; are the rest of you soldiers under her command?

[actuallyselfish]

Under the weight of all the intense gazes, Dido suddenly, sheepishly realizes she shouldn't be messing with the militant alien giants that have them all trapped.

"Well..." She says, " I'm in the Macross's chain of command. But I'm technically a civilian? It's a little confusing..."

[srwu_npc2]

A civilian? I do not understand that word. What is it that a civilian does?

[herodrawing]

You don't know?!

Are all Zentradi soldiers?

[majestic_keiki]

Seems like they are...But that just means civilian jobs are organized that way. Somebody still needs to feed them.

[srwu_npc2]

Using people to make food is a strange thing to do. It's a job for automated stations.

[The Zentraedi leader presses a button, causing a screen to appear. On the screen, there is a recording of a planet - a planet that is suddenly attacked by a huge Zentraedi fleet, and turned into a blazing inferno! After a moment, it's completely destroyed...]

This is the power we possess. We can do the same to your world, and your ship.

[herodrawing]

Wait! Did you really... Why did you do that?! A whole planet destroyed like that!

[srwu_npc2]

This is a recording from the past. They were our enemies and had to be destroyed!

[actuallyselfish]

"Bastards...!" Dido mutters under her breath at the recording of destruction.

"Even if they were your enemies, why did they have to be destroyed? Haven't you saps heard of 'conquest' or 'occupation'?"

[ships_full_of_missiles]

[Misa holds her arm up for Dido to be quiet.]

...If you really think you can do such a thing to Earth...

Then just go ahead and try!

[srwu_npc2]

Do you think you can oppose us? I could crush you here and now!

[Bodolza reaches out and grabs Misa with his huge hand! No crushing occurs yet, but his grip is worryingly tight...]

You keep calling us giants! Why have you turned yourselves into micrones?

[ships_full_of_missiles]

Miclones?!

[srwu_npc2]

Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about! For what purpose have you shrank yourselves?

[herodrawing]

Ahh, put her down! This is our normal size, what are you talking about?!

[sang_av_helten]

Indeed! Theirs is the size normal for the humans! It is you who are too big!

we really need to settle on one spelling of this word

[srwu_npc2]

I do not understand. What would you gain from creating soldiers who are miclonized by default?

[kill_all_vagans]

Stop thinking we were made to be soldiers from the start!

[And out snaps Flit angrily. The image of a whole planet being destroyed like that...!]

And we're not created either! You can't just arbitrarily decide a child's going to be the size of a VF or Gundam when they're born!

[actuallyselfish]

"Oh for..." Dido mutters under her breath.

She raises her voice and tries to speak without sass.

"We are not a soldier species! The role of soldier is just one of many different jobs our kind undertakes!"

[srwu_npc2]

You say more things I do not understand. How can you have people who are not soldiers? What does it mean to be "born"?

[herodrawing]

You don't know even that?

Do Zentradi only know how to fight and kill?

[ben_dixon]

Being born is... being created by our female parent?