Chapter 59: Macross – City Construction
On the bridge, Captain Global spoke to Misa Hayase.
"Hayase, call in the work shuttles to haul that frozen aircraft carrier over here."
Hearing Captain Global's order, Misa Hayase asked in surprise,
"Captain, do you mean to use them to replace the positions of ARMD-1 and ARMD-2 and combine them with the ship?"
"Yes, that's right. The weapons on those carriers should still be usable as well."
"Will they really be able to connect smoothly to the Macross?"
"That depends on the efforts of the crew. Once the rescues at the remaining shelters are all complete, we'll begin docking operations."
Work shuttles and VF-1 Valkyrie fighters of the Macross continued to shuttle back and forth through the ruins of South Ataria Island.
Aside from the shelter where Monty Hill was, they rescued several other shelters as well.
In total, the Macross rescued more than fifty thousand civilians from South Ataria Island.
However, adding this number to the original crew aboard the Macross, the basic living facilities—which had originally been designed for a little over twenty thousand people—were already far beyond capacity, unable to meet everyone's needs.
Fortunately, the battleship had been designed for giants. Beyond the basic facilities for twenty thousand people, there was still an enormous amount of unused space.
After consultation between Captain Global and the mayor of South Ataria Island, they decided to build a large city for the refugees within the unused space of the Macross.
But due to manpower shortages, this city had to be built entirely by the fifty thousand rescued refugees themselves.
Luckily, most of these civilians from South Ataria Island had originally been brought there for Macross-related logistical construction needs.
Among them were many skilled builders, so constructing a city inside the Macross was not a difficult challenge, and the work quickly grew into a vigorous effort.
Some relatively intact buildings from South Ataria Island were even transported directly into the Macross with the help of engineering robots.
Thus, in barely over ten days, the refugees had already completed more than half of a "refugee camp" city of their own making.
The architectural style resembled that of South Ataria Island, and Nyan-Nyan Restaurant, owned by Lynn Minmay's uncle, was among the first batch of buildings to be completed.
This time, its scale was far larger than the original—after all, food is the foundation of life.
No matter what, humans still needed to eat, and during high-intensity labor, good food and drink became all the more essential.
And of course, he and Lynn Minmay needed a comfortable place, a home where they could sleep and rest with peace of mind.
So having Nyan-Nyan built in the first batch was not Monty Hill abusing his position—it was a necessity.
Meanwhile, the Macross's military repair crews were responsible for quickly converting the two aircraft carriers for space use and attaching them to the Macross.
In the end, the two carriers replaced ARMD-1 and ARMD-2, becoming the arms of the Macross in its humanoid form.
During this period, Monty Hill had also assimilated and taken control of most of the important officials aboard the Macross, and he himself successfully became a test pilot for the VF series Valkyries.
He copied Roy Focker's piloting experience, and with his own constant practice, his MS and MA piloting skills had reached C-rank.
He even gave himself a second lieutenant's commission. Of course, he could have gone higher, but leaving no suspicious gaps was more important.
After fighting the Zentraedi a few times, he could always arrange to be promoted again. With so few people left on Earth—and with the Unified Forces almost certainly wiped out—future promotions were his to decide anyway.
As for his test unit, it was the VF-1SS Valkyrie, naturally the customized variable fighter he had built himself.
Thanks to Nami's disguise work, no matter how thoroughly others inspected it, it looked like a standard VF. Unless they dismantled it by force, they wouldn't discover anything unusual.
At the same time, Monty Hill shared with the Macross research department the theories and concepts of beam weaponry from the Gundam world, taking credit as a "developer."
Thus, the weapons on his VF-1SS Valkyrie also slipped by under the radar. Since the Macross's technology wasn't mature enough, the weapons for the other Valkyries were instead redesigned into an integrated armament combining laser cannons with solid-ammunition Gatling guns.
Meanwhile, under Monty Hill's arrangements, Lynn Minmay became a rising star, serving both as a popular singer and as a captain in the military's cultural propaganda troupe.
He often arranged for her to perform in different departments aboard the Macross, boosting her fame.
At the same time, he planted subtle subconscious hints into the minds of the officials: once Minmay's singing subdued the Zentraedi and brought an end to the war, she should be promoted to lieutenant general.
With so many high-ranking officials backing her, even if Monty Hill later returned to this world after the story of the first Super Dimension Fortress had ended, he wouldn't need to worry about her well-being.
Unfortunately, the two of them had been far too busy during this period, leaving their relationship with no progress at all.
Minmay, like an ostrich, avoided speaking of what had happened in the shelter, treating Monty Hill more like an older brother.
Monty Hill didn't mind much—after all, mecha were a man's true romance. A machine that could transform, both fighter jet and robot—that was far more alluring.
Besides, with upcoming battles against the Zentraedi, most of his time was devoted to constant training in piloting skills.
Once he became skilled enough, perhaps he too could, like Maximilian Jenius, win over a Meltrandi woman.
Just like Max's wife, Milia Fallyna—Meltrandi women were all stunningly beautiful, in stark contrast to the grotesque male Zentraedi.
At least in all of Macross, Monty Hill had never seen an ugly Meltrandi woman.
The key was that Meltrandi women had slim waists, were pure-hearted, and easy to win over.
Of course, that only applied if you were strong enough—otherwise, their micronized selves would never agree.
After all, in terms of scale, a human man compared to them was like dust.
But if he could meet one like Klan Klang, then he'd hit the jackpot.
Her real body was a perfectly-proportioned mature beauty, yet once micronized she became a flat-chested loli—two-in-one, a three-year windfall, a deal worth dying for.
If he ever got the chance to enter the world of Macross 7, he'd definitely have to learn a few tricks from Basara. Who knew—he might even be able to win over an entire fleet of Meltrandi women with song.
And once he had the storage space, he could carry an entire fleet of Meltrandi female warriors with him.
Then, when someone challenged him to a one-on-one mecha duel, he could call out a squadron of gorgeous Meltrandi pilots to gang up on his opponent—just imagining it was breathtaking and stylish.
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