[BOOK 1] Macross: Voltron || Super Dimensional Voltron Force

Chapter 14: Sacrifice

"The present comes to past," quote from Brera Sterne, Macross Frontier

Take a step back... watch the events unfold.

VERY HARSH LANGUAGE AND BLOOD/GORE WARNING AHEAD!

Hours earlier...

SIMULATION FAILED. ENDING PROGRAM

Those words shot themselves forward on everyone's helmets.

"UGHH!! What the hell did we do wrong?!" Lance shouted, his temper rising in his voice.

"You all failed to keep your sides checked and were exposed to the Galran attacks. All except Keith, Pidge and Mathias," Krolia explained, shaking her head slightly, "Keith, watch out for the ice geysers next time. Pidge, you were so close to finishing off the cruiser at the end, but you hesitated when you fired on the starboard side." Pidge gave a reluctant hum as Krolia continued, "Mathias, you paid too much attention to the fighters and not on the cruiser. If it weren't for your pinpoint barriers, you would've been dead sooner."

"With all due respect, I'm not in top shape like I was a year ago," Matthias rolled his wrist, a small pop echoed throughout his cockpit. He groaned slightly as relief flooded his veins.

"Indeed, you've lost a lot of fighting potential with the damages to your fighter, not to mention ammo and missiles, but the Galra won't hesitate, neither should you," Krolia replied.

"Roger..." Mathias slightly nodded in agreement. It's been nearly a year in space without the Castle of Lions, nearly a year on their return journey to home. Everyday, Krolia has been training the Paladins and himself to keep them on their toes. Mathias didn't mind it a lot, he was used to this kind of stuff in the Spacy and Chaos. Usually, we woke up earlier than the rest of the Paladins and was ready for the exercises when the others weren't. It was the time after that that usually was the worst. Sitting around waiting for something to happen when there is nothing. A lot of times, the Paladins would just talk amongst themselves, occasionally do other things, like maintenance or something. Every once and a while per day, they would stop to allow Mathias to come aboard the Green Lion with Pidge and Shiro. Usually, this would allow better flight, as the Green Lion could carry the fighter and thus, allowing the group to travel moderately faster than previously. Kosmo would often teleport around and bring in food that was cooked up by Hunk, though Kosmo oftentimes had trouble with trying to enter Mathias' fighter. Mathias, feeling bad that the cosmic wolf has to endure the pain of sitting in a tightly confined space, moved the back seat as much as possible to allow the wolf some room, but even then, it's not much. Everytime Kosmo appears and whines from its position, he feels ever more sorry for the poor wolf.

The team was approaching a system with several planets and a star, one that greatly resembles Earth's Solar System. They had discussed it amongst themselves to land on it and allow everyone to get some fresh air.

"Pidge, how many planets are there in the system?" Shiro asked.

Pidge did some calculation on her console, "7, two of which are able to support our life! If we want to rest, we should totally check it out!"

"Alright gang! Let's touch down on the nearest planet and-" Keith was interrupted by a signal coming from one of the two planets Pidge had described.

"I'm picking up a signal! It's coming from one of the planets that I mentioned," she stopped to play the message, the message was audio only, but from the way it came through, it was urgent.

"MAYDAY! GALRAN FORCES ARE INVADING! REQUESTING-!" The line suddenly went down.

"Alright! Everyone, get ready to touch down on that planet!" Keith ordered.