The "what happens if you get shot down?" question is why I really, really like the EXGear, even though the VF-25 is meh. Retrofit one of the more interesting designs with the attachment points instead of an E-seat and sticks, and you're just golden. They also make for a great training tool without giving your FNGs a full-size mecha's mass and thrust to break things with, and should be able to run simulations as well as operating in exoskeleton mode. Being a control interface is their primary design purpose, so any trade offs (like armor coverage as an exoskeleton vs. mass and flexibility) are made in its favor. It's entirely the wrong era to have anything like that, though, unfortunately, though Kawamori-sensei's concept sketches do show a heavier personal armor (about MADOX-1 size) that also had a flight mode and Macross The Ride introduced the Quaedluun Alma, with a pair of folding wings and a more streamlined missile backpack location, so it's not totally out of the question with an early butterfly. A literal butterfly flap that rolls the ship in the opposite direction during the crash so the one Alma aboard doesn't get tossed out a hull breach and burned up in the atmosphere could even do it...
If your protag is planet-bound during that time, my own preference would be for an SV-51 (or if not the spaceworthy upgrade, SV-52) as an Ontario Free Zone pilot or refugee from same after Bursting Point, but of course I have no idea what story you actually want to tell. (It's not as if the UNEG would share their hot new fighter with the holdouts who refuse to sign on, after all.)
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
If your protag is planet-bound during that time, my own preference would be for an SV-51 (or if not the spaceworthy upgrade, SV-52) as an Ontario Free Zone pilot or refugee from same after Bursting Point, but of course I have no idea what story you actually want to tell. (It's not as if the UNEG would share their hot new fighter with the holdouts who refuse to sign on, after all.)
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows