"Songbird", The Freeman Chronicles Book One side story

Songbird
A tale of the "Robotech: The Freeman Chronicles" Universe
By: Stan Bundy

Author's note: This story is an outgrowth of, ironically, of my second Robotech RPG campaign, though set in the universe of my first. Four characters, descended from characters in the "Freeman Chronicles", had a fold accident that dumped them (and their fold-capable Legios) into an alternate Robotech universe in the year 2014. There, they used their historical knowledge to change some events, leading to the formation of Nazgul Squadron in late 2015. Nazgul was made up of a bunch of misfits of one type or another that much more redeeming qualities besides just their piloting skill, but how they were chosen for the squadron was a mystery to the pilots (and their players), as they didn't know who their benefactors were. On finally discovering the forces behind the creation of their squadron (one of their own, Quiet Avenger, was one of the four dimension-jumpers), they were told some, but not all, of the motivations for the formation of the squadron. Other things, such as the events of this story, were not revealed until later, when they became important.

Of the eight Nazgul native to the dimension, three had been infamous in their "FC" incarnations for their skill, daring, and well-meaning insubordination. None of them lived past 2020, which the NPCs had thought was a shame. Four others had their careers cut short by scandals, but had similar potential. The last (Nazgul’s XO) was one of the most tragic figures of the Malcontent Wars. Their strategy worked for the most part (only two died in the wars), but the tragic story of the Freeman universe's Tinya Marinoni and Daniel McCloud begged to be written. Finally, I gave into my muse and let the story flow.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Generals order their soldiers to kill
And to fight for a cause they've long-ago forgotten..."
- Simon & Garfunkel, counter-melody of the song
"Scarborough Fair-Canticle"

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


July 2016:

Tinya Marinoni was on guard duty of sorts. Her Glaug-based Stinger was sitting multiple canopies of camouflage netting, waiting to burst out of the deep jungle to challenge any mecha or aircraft that came within range to detect the Scavengers' central base, 30 kilometers away. The chance of actual combat was really very slight; the encampment's radar was a civilian civil defense model from the human's last pre-Zentraedi war, and was therefore unlikely to draw attention, and all of the local Malcontent groups knew better than to antagonize their armorer. This overconfidence might have been the reason why, instead of patiently waiting in the cockpit, Tinya was in the shade underneath the mecha, singing along to the practice tapes she'd made with her old band.

It was halfway through the second session tape when THAT song came up; the one that brought back all the painful memories of the previous year. In more ways than one, part of her had died in Brasilia, and the never-finished duet with her clone-sister Kayra opened up the floodgates of tearful memories.

+++++++++

2015:

Only four clones of the Marinoni series survived the apocalyptic battle over Earth in 2011. The oldest was Nyra, who had command of her own ship in that battle. When she had been forced to land in the Middle East, she led her troops northward, where they joined one of the human groups rebuilding the planet. She quickly became a major power in the NeoSoviet's military, and was not above taking the field in her personal suit of power armor, despite her being a colonel.

The other three had came to Earth aboard Azonia's ship. Lyssa was a hardened veteran of the Invid wars, the last direct clone of Nyra made before Nyra got her own command. As such, she had little to do with the two sisters she had supplied cells for. Tinya was the older of the two remaining, having been released from stasis in time to take part as a ship's gunner in the battle against the Main Fleet. Kayra, however, had never known Zentraedi military life, having been put into stasis after cloning. She slept through the battle, and was awakened only as part of the abandonment of the ship. Tinya and Kayra had entered Micronian society together, and they had embraced it fully, not having years of living the Zentraedi way pulling against them.

Eventually, their beauty and singing voices attracted representatives of the music to them. No doubt, they were taken advantage of by those men, but the attention they received led to their contracts being bought out by someone more reputable - a research group working for the RDF. The RDF was looking for Zentraedi musicians to use in future situations requiring "The Minmei Effect," and the sisters were ideal for the role. Tinya's personal style was reminiscent of such female rockers as Pat Benetar and Sheena Easton, while Kayra was working with Minmei's voice coach, and was on the verge of becoming a pop idol herself.

They quickly blossomed into the performers that the RDF had hoped for; but trouble was brewing. A year after the destruction of the SDF-1, Tinya was awakened by a pounding on the door of her Brasilia apartment. She opened the door to find her former commander, Seloy, on the doorstep with a baby.

+++++++++++

"Seloy! What-"

"Let me in - please." Seloy looked back over her shoulder, afraid that she had been followed.

"Okay." Tinya stepped back from the door, and Seloy entered with the baby. "Where have you been for the last two years? I haven't seen you since Micronian orientation. Is the baby yours?"

Seloy flinched at the rapid-fire questions. "I'll tell you everything, provided you don't reveal any of it to anyone, especially Miriya. I don't know yet whether I can trust her with this."

"I won't; I promise."

"After orientation, I met a human male. At first, I thought he cared for me; I was wrong. What he wanted me for was his sexual fantasies, perverted even by human standards, and also to satisfy his desire for an heir. Evidently, most human women won't have a thing to do with him."

"Why do you think you won't be able to trust Miriya with this?"

"Because the man is very powerful; 'evil incarnate', I heard someone call him. I doubt even Miriya can protect me."

"But, who could be that powerful?"

"Governor Leonard."

"That bigot? How-"

"I know, it sounds impossible. But then, who would believe me if I came forward with what happened? Besides, I overheard him talking last night. He has arranged for Hirano to be registered as the offspring of a human woman he knows, who disappeared while I was pregnant. He intends to claim that she was pregnant when she disappeared, and that I was one of the kidnappers."

"How could he get away with that? You could tell your side-"

"Not if I was killed in the "rescue", along with the other woman. They might test to see if Leonard was the father, but they'd never check for the maternity of the child."

"And he'd be rid of you and that other woman; probably someone who used to work for him that crossed him somehow. Seloy, my house is yours. If there is anything else I can do for you..."

"Just keep my secret. He is likely to have agents everywhere, but it is unlikely he'd look here for me. After all, you're part of a big RDF project, and I would hardly try to hide is such a visible place, would I?" Seloy smiled for the first time since she had arrived.

++++++++++++++

The next month was hectic, as it was filled not only with rehearsals for Kayra's debut (for whom Tinya was singing backup), but also the touchy process of finding someone to fabricate a new identity for Seloy. Everything seemed to lead up to the event that would change Tinya's life forever.

At the release party for Kayra's album, Tinya met a handsome Brasilia Defense Force cadet named Daniel McCloud, a recent immigrant from the Northlands. She fell in love with him at first sight, and it was quickly apparent that those feelings were mutual. They left the party together, and continued to see each other afterward. In fact, only two weeks after the party, he gave her an engagement ring. They made plans to be married in three months, after his graduation.

++++++++++++++

Tinya snapped out of her reverie just long enough to pull the chain around her neck out from under her blouse. She still wore the ring on the chain; an old earth custom she had heard about in her music career. Her eyes began to water as she began remembering all that she had lost...

++++++++++++++

They had been engaged for two months when something incredible happened; on going to the local doctor for an illness, she discovered the illness was actually morning sickness. She was pregnant with Daniel's child. But, before she could tell him of the news, he made a revelation that shook here so bad that she was unable to tell him.

"Tinya, I've been keeping something from you, and your friends. What you want to tell me must be important, but you've got to hear me first."

"What is it?" Tinya asked, expecting bad news, but not something as horrible as she was to hear.

"I didn't just 'move' here from the U.S.; I did so because my godfather offered me admission to the academy if I came down here and did him a favor."

"Godfather? A favor?"

"Tinya, I swear I didn't know about the connection between you and Seloy when we met. If I had, I don't know what might have happened."

"What are you talking about? What has Seloy got to do with this..." Tinya suddenly realized that Seloy had always used her alias around Daniel, or anyone else, for that matter. How could he know her real name? No, it couldn't be...

"Anatole Leonard is my godfather. Now, I don't know what to do. Do I stay here with you, and lie to him, or betray everything I care about, and do my duty? Either way, I lose." Daniel fell to his knees.

"What is a 'godfather'?"

"When a child is young, the parents pick friends to be the godparents of the child, to step in as replacement parents if something ever happens to them. My parents were members of the Faithful, in Macross City, and they chose Leonard to be my godfather, to replace the one who died in the wars. When they died four years ago, he helped me get on with my life, by making sure I was well-cared for, despite the fact I was not the bigot he turned out to be. He's done so much for me that it hurts not to help him."

"Please; don't do it."

"I can't say what I will or won't do. It's so bad that I can't even think straight."

"Isn't your last break before graduation coming up?" He nodded, and she continued. "Then go away for a while; make up your mind far away from here; from all of us. Maybe there's a way out of this you haven't seen yet. I know you; you wouldn't betray us. You just got to convince yourself that."

"I'll try. I can't promise anything, but I'll try."

That was the last time she ever saw him.

+++++++++++

She didn't tell Seloy of the previous night's events, as to not worry her. As it was, Seloy was much more concerned with the food shortage protest march, and the fact that she was finally going to tell Miriya about Hirano. Tinya hoped that Seloy doing so would make solving Daniel's problem much easier, as he wouldn't have to make the choice between her and Leonard.

The rendezvous with Miriya went well, but as it was ending, all hell broke loose. The civil defense Destroids opened fire on the crowd, not with crowd control ammunition, but with anti-mecha weaponry. The crowd panicked, and they were separated from Miriya in the rush. She though they were going to reach safety, being only a few meters from an open door, when a searing pain tore through her body. Mercifully, she blacked out less than a second after being hit.

++++++++++++

She came to in a shack in Brasilia's shanty town, recovering from surgery done in one of the illegal "doc shops" that catered to people who could not risk taking their injuries to legitimate hospitals. Seloy was waiting at her side for her wake up.

"What... happened to me?" Tinya asked feebly, sensing the fact that she was heavily drugged.

"Don't try to move," Seloy responded. "You were hit by a round from an Excaliber's machine gun. It's a miracle you survived."

Tinya reached down to the area on her left abdomen, where she still felt a throbbing pain despite the drugs. "The baby-"

"You were lucky; you only lost a kidney and part of an intestine. However, the stress from the injury was too much for the baby. I'm sorry."

Tinya let out a scream of anguish so horrible that it caused a heart patient in the next shack over to go into cardiac arrest, then she fell unconscious once again.

++++++++++++

Within a month, Tinya had recovered physically, but it would take longer for her to recover emotionally. She accompanied Seloy into the jungle to find a way to strike back at Leonard's thugs. Eventually, they found a group to join; the Scavengers. Seloy worked her way into the group's leadership, then challenged the leader for control of the tribe. Victorious, Seloy changed the focus of the entire war by starting the program to create arms for all the tribes, not just her own. That was nine months ago.

+++++++++++++

Suddenly, Tinya was startled from her singing and remembering by the defense alarms of her mecha going off all at once. She turned, and realized that it was only her relief showing up for the next shift. Tinya scrambled to put on her radio headset.

"Tinya, what have you been doing?"

"I've been... distracted, Jana."

"The commander's been trying to recall you for the last two hours! She's probably 'pissed off' by now." Jana's use of the Micronian phrase to describe Seloy's state of mind only heightened Tinya's apprehension over the summons. Whatever Seloy wanted, it probably wasn't good news she had to share.

"Then, I'd better get going." Tinya scrambled up the rope ladder into her mecha, and began start-up for the flight back into camp.

++++++++++++++

Tinya entered Seloy’s office, to find her studying maps of some sort of military compound.

"You wanted to see me, Seloy?"

"Tinya, you've heard the rumors about Camp Alpha, have you not?"

"Yes, but that's in the Northlands; way out of our range. And, even if we did try to liberate the camp, the attempt would cause retaliation against all Zentraedi, especially those still in human society."

"Such as your sister?" Seloy was no fool.

"Among others, yes."

"I've been keeping something from you, Tinya; I was afraid it would upset you. It's about Kayra."

"What happened to her?"

"In the wake of the massacre, the song program was canceled, and your sister 'blacklisted'; I think that's the Micronian term. She wasn't allowed to perform music professionally anymore. Miriya took advantage of this situation, and recruited her for the RDF."

"Then I may have to face her in battle."

"No..." Seloy paused. "You won't. The worst is yet to come. In May, her unit was sent on a classified mission in space. Our agents on the Factory Satellite reported that there was an unexplained fold reaction at the last reported location of her unit. They have since been declared 'Missing, presumed dead'."

"A fold?"

"The agents believe that the unit was supposed to be salvaging a wrecked ship from the lunar surface, to bring it back to the Satellite as raw materials for the SDF-3. Either by accident or sabotage, the ship was lost."

"How long have you known?"

"Confirmed, since yesterday. The initial report did not indicate who was involved in the operation, only that two Zentraedi were in it. Also, I've discovered that Lyssa's remains were misidentified in Brasilia as being yours. You've lost two sisters, not just one."

"That leaves only myself and Nyra in our sisterhood, now. It's too bad she fights on the side of the NeoSoviets. If only we could get her to bring her battalion over to us."

"And if Haydonites had wings, they wouldn't need their rugs. Nyra's caught up in her own little power trip. Her human rank is higher than mine had been as a Quadrono. But, back to the matter at hand."

"Which is?"

"Recently, Kayra's manager, unaware of her death in space, contacted our old landlord. He wants Kayra to do a concert at Camp Alpha, ostensibly for the guards, but more likely to flaunt her as a 'tame' Zentraedi."

"So?"

"If you pretended to be her, we could get some real information on the camp, and possibly pass it on to the RDF Zentraedi in order to let them know what the humans really think of them."

"But, I don't know her music-"

"Don't worry; you'll have a month to prepare, as long as you don't get caught impersonating your sister by the RDF. Rehearsals and music selection have already been scheduled for this Friday. Can you do it?"

"If I must."

++++++++++++

September 7, 2016

Keeping up the pretense of being Kayra had been even harder than Tinya thought it would be, and she had been the pessimistic one. First, the music selection had seemingly taken forever. It had been a minefield of avoiding the sickly-sweet things Kayra would have favored, yet picking songs that were on the allowed play list. Second, she kept making little mistakes that she thought for sure wouldn't go unnoticed by Kayra's band, and she kept expecting her cover to be blown at any moment. Yet, if any of them had figured it out, they hadn't let on. In fact, several of the band members appeared to be pro-Zentraedi in outlook, and no one objected when she suggested the unauthorized substitution she planned for the end of the concert. In fact, she was scared that things were going TOO well as the night of the concert arrived.

++++++++++++

The views she got of Camp Alpha as she arrived went far to confirm the rumors heard on the outside about the camp. Despite the original plan being for full-sized Zentraedi, none could be seen. She managed to snap a couple of pictures of the camp with the camera built into her purse, as the helicopter landed.

The reception she received was fairly cold, and she was sure it was because of her race. In fact, her & Seloy's suspicions about the real reason for the concert were blatantly affirmed by the speaker setup - lots of them, oriented toward the interior of the camp, not toward the audience outside. "Kayra" was to be an example of a "tame" Zentraedi, one fully assimilated into human society. However, the song substitution she had planned would blow that to pieces - provided she didn't get caught in the act of performing it.

"The concert proceeded on schedule right up to the end, where the song switch was made. The human crowd was expecting an Enya cover, which is what they got. But, instead of "Caribbean Blue", a much more emotionally intense song was sung.

+++++++++++++

"My life goes on in an endless song
above Earth's lamentations.
I hear the real, though far off hymn
that hails a new creation.

Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear its music ringing.
It sounds an echo in my soul;
How can I keep from singing?

While though the tempest loudly roars,
I hear the truth it liveth.
And though the darkness 'round me close,
songs in the night it giveth.

No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that rock I'm clinging.
Since love is lord of heaven and earth,
How can I keep from singing?”

As she moved out of the second verse, she scanned the audience and the guards, to see if they had noticed the deception. With relief, she noted no change at all. As the bridge to the third and final verse closed, she was filled with a strength she never knew she had. She resumed singing, not in English but in Zentraedi, except for the title line, which of course had no Zentraedi equivalent for its last word.

" and hear their death knell ringing
When friends rejoice both far and near
How can I keep from singing?

In prison cell or dungeon vile
our thoughts to you are winging
When friends by shame are undefiled
How can I keep from singing?>"

And, during the end fade of the song, she whispered an additional line of Zentraedi into the microphone -

"You are not forgotten."

+++++++++++++++

It was long after she was gone that her song switch was discovered, and by that time she had disappeared back into the Brazilian jungle, leaving the band members with the tongue-in-cheek alibi "We were told the switch was official." Of course, they had all figured out who Tinya really was in the first week of working with her, but her cause and her plan were both blatantly obvious and too tempting to pass up. Likewise, the photos she took showed up in a blank manila envelope that mysteriously appeared on Max Sterling's desk on the 10th. The photos led to Max & Miriya's full investigation of the camp, which, when combined with the attack on the camp by the Steel Wind Malcontents, led to its closing and the prosecution of its commandant.

Of course, one thing that troubled the Sterlings about the whole affair, and the UEG quietly covered up, was the fact that the star of the concert/covert op that blew the lid off the scandal was not only RDF, but missing and presumed dead 4 MONTHS before the concert. When the promoter who had arranged the concert found out that he had hired a "dead" singer, he hung himself in his cell.

On a cool, spring October night in the Andes foothills, Tinya burst out both laughing and crying while reading copies of both the public and secret reports of the camp's downfall, the latter provided by their spies in the RDF. She stared up into the night sky, wondering where her sister had ended up; in her heart, she knew that Kayra was still alive, somewhere. She spoke to the stars, wishing that somehow the words would reach her wayward sister.

"Kay, you gave the greatest concert of your life, and you weren't even around to see it. Come home; I miss you."

=============================================================================

Epilogue:

In December 2016, Kayra Marinoni Freeman returned from her star-lost mission, to find out she had supposedly been involved with the exposure of Camp Alpha. Due to the Ultra-Top-Secret nature of Kayra's return, Seloy's agents gathered little information on her, so Seloy never told Tinya of her sister's return (in fact, she didn't believe it herself). Another factor was that these unconfirmable rumors also indicated that Kayra had given birth soon after returning, and Seloy was afraid of the effect this news might have on Tinya.

In 2018, due to the intervention of that very same child, the sundering of the Scavengers occurred. Due to the horrific vision of the future that she had imparted to Seloy, Seloy took those of her group who were willing to forsake the war with humanity to the sanctuary provided for them, to prepare for the arrival of the Invid 15 years later. Tinya was left in charge of those who stayed behind, her desire for revenge of the injustices she and others had suffered at the hands of the Southern Cross outweighing all else. Perhaps, if she had known that the warning about the future had come from her own niece, she might have followed Seloy instead. But Seloy chose not to tell her.

While the project that the Scavengers had been working on was abandoned (a robotic insect that injected a virulent disease into all persons without Protoculture traces in their bloodstream), the Scavengers were still the primary target of the Southern Cross, as Leonard looked vainly for his son. The attack on the Scavenger headquarters was led by Captain Daniel McCloud, who had never gotten over Tinya's "death", and had chosen to go into combat mecha instead of the intelligence post Leonard had wanted for him.

Tinya and Daniel met in combat, completely unaware of the identity of their opponent. The fighting was evenly matched, until a chance shot by McCloud ripped the canopy of Tinya's Stinger off. The secondary damage from this hit critically injured Tinya, and her wounds were compounded by the fact that she was thrown from the cockpit. Fatally wounded, she tried to crawl away from the battlefield. To his horror, Daniel recognized her, and leapt from his mecha and ran to her, taking some fragmentation hits in addition to the internal injuries he had suffered in the fight with her. He carried her back to his hovertank's cockpit, where she died in his arms, his name the last word from her lips.

The battle had almost been as hard on him as it had been to her, and he had several life-threatening injuries that needed immediate attention. But, rather than fall back for treatment, he stayed on the battlefield, cradling his lost love's body in his arms. As a result, he soon joined her in death, mostly from internal bleeding from damage that she inflicted. It was the RDF, which took part only in the mop-up of the battle, that discovered the bodies. Ironically, it was Miriya Sterling & Kayra Freeman who identified the bodies. On top of this, the cockpit and sensor data recorders of the hovertank preserved for eternity the last moments of the star-crossed lovers.

A savage legal battle soon followed over the disposition of the remains. Miriya and Kayra wanted to inter them together, while Leonard wanted to separate them even in death. The resulting case made public the extent of the relationship, such as the ring, and the testimony from the "doctor" that had saved Tinya's life in 2015, about her pregnancy, and such public opinion swayed against Leonard, who lost the case, and could not appeal, as public opinion was too much against him. Tinya and Daniel's story was "adopted" by several anti-war and racial harmony groups as justification for their goals, putting more pressure on Leonard. A popular folk ballad also emerged, based on the tragedy; a ballad with a very pointed anti-Southern Cross bias.

The two lovers were interred together on 14 February, 2019, at Brasilia Base. Their grave marker was a marble sculpture, based on a photo taken of the couple by Kayra, a week before the Brasilia massacre, at the height of their love. Along the base of the monument were inscribed the names of all the RDF and Southern Cross casualties of the Malcontent wars, along with the names of all the Zentraedi known to have been killed in acts of racism, including all those who had died in the massacre and at Camp Alpha. Conspicuously absent was Seloy's name.

When the REF left Earth, Leonard wasted no time with his SC and UEG allies in cracking down on the protest groups, labeling them as subversives and alien sympathizers, and banned the ballad. However, both the movement and the ballad survived, mostly underground. One of the greatest ironies was that the duo most known for flagrantly violating the ban by performing the song publicly were Bowie Grant and Noel Freeman, who were under the foster care of SC Chief of Staff Rolf Emerson, in addition to Noel being the niece of Tinya (though this wasn't common knowledge as late as the return of the REF).

Neither the Masters nor the Invid were kind to Brasilia Base, and what little survived the former was destroyed by the latter - with the exception of the monument, which had survived because of Leonard's vain attempt to have it forgotten. He had ordered the base commanders to let the jungle reclaim the burial site, and as a result, it was the only part of the base (other than two outlying runways that passed by it) to survive.

When Kayra returned to the site in 2036, she had the monument restored, and a permanent stage assembled adjacent to it. That year, the stage became the home of the yearly Remembrance Festival, dedicated to the memory of those who lost their lives in the many conflicts of the previous 30 years, and held the week of the anniversary of Daniel & Tinya's deaths. Inscribed on the stage are words taken from Tinya's last performance, written in English and Tiresian -

"When friends rejoice both far and near
How can I keep from singing?"

=======================================================================
Finis
=======================================================================

Author’s Endnote:

In a way, this was one of the hardest stories for me to write, as I prefer happy endings, or at least cliffhangers that can be resolved somewhat happily. On the other hand, it came to me quickly, smoothly, and kept nagging me in my mind until I DID finally write it down, then type it in. Hopefully, when I get the short stories done that Link the two universes together, I can start telling the story of the Daniel and Tinya who were saved from the brink, in my second campaign. Until then, I close the book on their lives.... Stan

This is really good, very emotional but still really good I certainly enjoyed it
looks like we have another talented author in our midst!