As far as Rion was concerned, the VF-0 Phoenix might have been state-of-the-art 52 years ago, but to him it was slow and flew like a boat. Still it was all he had at the moment so he wouldn't complain... too much.
He was just about to pick up the last crate of supplies that Aisha had sent him to pick up. It was slow, boring work. He could fly to the site quick enough in fighter mode but in order to get the crates back he had to fly in the slightly less aerodynamic GERWALK mode. Still, he was on the last container and then Aisha had said they would go to the nearby town of Daoren and get him a Hunter License, which he apparently needed.
Just as he transformed the Valkyrie, his alarms blared. His radar screen showed that he had two VF-1 Valkyries flying towards him.
"Aisha, I have two contacts inbound, broadcasting unknown IFFs."
"Be on guard Rion. They're likely some of the bandits that stole this stuff in the first place."
"Well then, I'll have to greet them properly," Rion grinned.
The two Valkyries, which looked fairly shabby and beat up, unlike Rion's practically spotless Phoenix, hovered to a stop in front and above Rion in GERWALK, while Rion stood in front of the crate in battroid mode.
"Oy, what the hell're you doing here? You another of those Hunter Guild slags stealin' our stuff?!" demanded one of the bandits.
"Uh, he's not Hunter Guild, Jake. He reads as SMS," returned his more nervous sounding partner.
"Same difference! Now Mr. SMS, are you gonna hand over our stuff, or do we have to blow you outta the sky?!"
"Sure," Rion retorted, still grinning, "come and get it."
The fools actually believed him and began descending, which was when Rion fired off four of his anti-air missiles. The missiles, not actually locked on, streaked up into the sky. An expensive gambit, but it paid off as the bandits immediately panicked and split off. Still grinning, Rion lined up his Phoenix's GPU-9 35mm gunpod on one of the bandits and opened fire. The poor VF-1 was shredded and crashed to the ground in flames. Rion quickly turned to line up on his second target but found that that one was fleeing on afterburners.
"SMS scum! Ganeth will hear about this!!" the bandit yelled and then cut off communications.
"Ganeth? Who's Ganeth?" asked Rion.
"Ganeth? Don't worry about him. He's just an idiot," responded Aisha, her image on his monitor taut and frowning.
"Is he like the local leader of the bandits or something?" pressed Rion as his Phoenix lifted the final crate.
"Something like that, yes. Now bring the last crate back and we can take it over to the Hunter Guild and get you your license."
---
After Rion had landed back aboard the Gefion, and Gerrol was busy inspecting every angle of the fighter and... cooing to it... Rion was about to head up to the bridge when he met Aisha coming into the hangar.
"Welcome back Rion! I see you didn't have any trouble."
"Not much. The VF-0 isn't too bad but it's a lot slower than what I'm used to. But now that that's all done with, is there something space-worthy that I can use to get back to Sepheela?" Rion began to grow uneasy as Aisha smiled nervously at him.
"Well, about that. You see Rion, you've arrived on Ouroboros at a very interesting time. This planet, as you might have noticed, is very unusual. Take the moons for example. Moons as close to Ouroboros as the ones we have should be causing all sorts of havoc... but they don't. And I'm sure you've noticed our floating islands."
"Yeah, kinda hard to miss," replied Rion neutrally, wondering where Aisha was going with this.
"Well it's all part of the strange phenomenon that make this planet unique and every so often, those strange Fold disturbances coalesce and form what we call the Ouroboros Aura... which completely cuts us off from the rest of the galaxy. In other words, you're totally stuck here!" she said the last part as a kind of cheer, trying to soften the blow. There was a pause. It wasn't a long pause, about one second and then Rion blurted out, "What?!"
"Yup, it's true. Though I guess we're not completely cut off, but it takes something the size and power of a Macross-type ship to get through the aura surrounding the planet. And that's definitely NOT the Gefion."
"So how long will I be stuck here then?" asked Rion, a little bit of hysteria creeping into his voice.
"Who knows?" said Aisha, shrugging, "The Ouroboros Aura can some last from a few weeks up to a year."
"A year!" cried Rion.
"Don't worry, there's plenty of work here to keep you busy," said Aisha, making a calming gesture with her hands, "I can transfer you into SMS Ouroboros officially and then once we get the license from Leilong, you'll be good to go."
"Doesn't sound like I have much of a choice. Alright, well let's get this license thing taken care of."
"Great! I'll put my pilot suit on and we'll head over to Daoren!" said Aisha enthusiastically and ran off towards the pilot's ready room and lockers.
"You can fly too?" Rion called after her.
"Of course! I'm not just the pretty face behind the desk!"
---
Rion was further impressed when they were on the Gefion's launch ramps, ready to take off.
"That's... a VF-19 Excalibur!" he exclaimed.
Aisha was indeed piloting the famous mass-production model of the YF-19 variable fighter prototype that had been involved in the Sharon Apple incident.
"Yup. If your VF-0D is Gerrol's baby, then this one's mine. Well, one of them," replied Aisha.
"One of them? What do you mean?" asked Rion.
"Uh-uh," said Aisha, waggling a finger at him, "that would be telling. Now, are you ready to go check out the islands?"
"Ready!"
---
The flight to Daoren was uneventful thankfully and it gave Rion a chance to take in the sights of the Yulia Islands. Apparently they had been named after one of the very first colonists when they had arrived here about 20 years ago. They not only had the natural beauty of a tropical island chain but many of them were floated gently in the sky. Combined with the moons, which hung low and large in the sky and it was breathtaking landscape.
As they approached Daoren, Rion was initially somewhat confused. Aisha has said there was a town here but all Rion could see was a sort of hangar complex. There wasn't even a proper runway, so they had to land in GERWALK mode. Aisha explained that it was because all the towns and cities on Ouroboros were built underground, mostly to preserve the planet's incredible natural beauty.
After a short trip down an elevator, and a walk through a bustling shopping district, they arrived at an office that had a stylized logo mounted above it proudly proclaiming HUNTER GUILD. Entering through the sliding door, they found a suite of offices but no one in sight.
"There has to be someone that can help us..." began Aisha but then a door opened in the back and a slender, violet-haired woman stepped through. Rion recognized her as the woman that Aisha was talking to earlier but now that he got a good look at her, he imagined that she might be even younger than Aisha and himself.
"Hello there! Ah, Aisha! It's rare for you to come in person," she said. She had a pronounced accent that Rion couldn't place.
"Leilong! What are you doing out of the guild headquarters in Britai City?" asked Aisha, clearly surprised.
"Oh, just checking up on things out here after that bandit raid."
"I see. Well in that case, getting a Hunter License should be easy!"
"A license? But you already have one?"
"It's not for me, it's for him," Aisha replied, pointing towards Rion.
"I'm Lt. Rion Sakaki of SMS, pleased to meet you as well," replied Rion.
"I see! Let me introduce myself," she said, bowing formally to Rion, "I am Mei Leilong, master of the Hunter's Guild based out of Britai City, capital of Ouroboros, at your service."
"Now about the license," began Leilong as she sat down at the front desk and began typing at a keyboard, which activated a holographic screen, "Since you're already acquainted with SMS and Aisha, it should be fairly simple for you to pass the examination."
"Exam?" asked Rion.
"It's a test that we give to prospective members, nothing too hard, just eliminating obstacles and collecting items, that sort of thing."
"Obstacles?"
"Other members of the Hunter Guild in their Valkyries who will try to stop you from getting to the collection point. Ah, be aware that we will be using live ammunition in this test."
"If that's the case, I wouldn't call it a test, it's basically a real mission, right?"
"More or less. The other Hunters won't be trying to really shoot you down but the possibility of severe damage to you machine, injury or death is there. We do it this way to weed out the farmboys and wannabe weekend warriors. Most of them suddenly find out they're not so brave when faced with possible injury or death. Of course, you'll also be accompanied by a licensed Hunter for the test. If you want, I could provide you with one of my team as your partner?"
"I'LL be going with him," said Aisha, a little stiffly.
"All right then, I'll text you the coordinates," said Leilong, waving them out of the office cheerfully.
---
Aisha and Rion re-boarded their Valkyries and launched off towards the cave that Leilong had designated for the test. Rion had expected the entrance to the cave to look the part but instead Aisha and he landed their Valkyries in battroid mode in front of a strange pillar-like stone with glowing rune-like symbols.
"What is this thing?" asked Rion.
"We call it a Fold Stone. They're ancient artifacts left behind by the Protoculture. If you touch that with either your own hand or your battroid, you'll be teleported to another location nearby," explained Aisha.
"Wow! That's pretty incredible; I've never heard of things like this being found on any other planet."
"We're pretty sure they're unique to Ouroboros because of all the fold phenomenon we have here. Well, are you ready to get started?"
Rion paused for a moment. He couldn't say that he felt all that great about getting shot at for a test but since he needed this license and didn't want to be stuck on Ouroboros just helping Aisha maintain Valkyries, he sucked in a breath and said, "Yeah, I'm ready."
He still wished he were flying something other than an VF-0 though.
---
Rion quickly found out that there was one caveat to the test that Aisha and Leilong failed to mention until the test started inside Mimir Cave; the "enemy" Valks could shoot at him and Aisha but they couldn't shoot back, they just had to get a solid lock to count as a "kill." it was kind of nerve-wracking, since Rion was still getting used to the movements of the Phoenix but they managed to run the gauntlet and get to the target container without any significant damage. Once that was done, they flew back to Daoren and reported in to Leilong.
"Congratulations and welcome to the Hunter Guild!" she said, "I'll be looking forward to working with you, Rion-chan."
There was another one of those pauses.
"Rion-chan? I... when did I become Rion-chan? Anyway, that reminds me of a question I wanted to ask earlier. Considering that Aisha is in charge of the Ouroboros SMS branch and you're in charge of the Hunter Guild, are a lot of organizations on this planet run by young people?"
"Funny you should ask that," said Aisha, grinning wickedly, "Despite what Leilong looks like, she's actually far older than just about everyone on the planet. Isn't that right o-ba-sa-n?"
Leilong looked like Aisha had just punched her in the gut.
"Wha-? You... how dare you..." she spluttered. Her expression hardened and she glared back at Aisha, who was giggling silently.
"Rion-chan, I hope you do well on your jobs. You'll need the money so Aisha-chan can finally fix all those old wrecks on the Gefion."
That snapped Aisha out of her giggling and she looked at Leilong in outrage.
"Wrecks?! Those aren't wrecks, they're just... not finished yet! I can't believe you'd question the Beautiful Genius of SMS!"
"Beautiful Genius?" shot back Leilong, "What kind of Beautiful Genius has a ship full of Valkyries that can't fly?"
"Rion, pay no attention to Leilong, her age has caused her to go senile," Aisha ground out.
"Um, I'm just going to go check on the Valkyries..." said Rion, feeling the tension in the air thickening by the second.
"Oh ho ho ho, insults eh? Two can play at that game Aisha!"
"Ha ha! Bring it on, Leilong!"
"Yeah... I'm just gonna go check on those planes," murmured Rion as he hastily made his getaway.