(This image above is a VF-31, the fighter Mathias flies, however, it is not an armored variant, but it gives a you a very good visual of what it looks like, so you can avoid confusion.)
Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!
Gotta question for ya: Are the chapters too long? Wattpad said my first chapter was 30 minutes long. Please say so by commenting/leaving a review! I love to hear feedback about how to make this more enjoyable for the reader!
...maybe they are a little bit long...
...anyway...
Wanna hear some fun facts?
1: The word "Aigaion" comes from the game "Ace Combat 6", and is a powerful carrier, armed to the teeth with cruise missiles and fighters. 2: Macross Garrison was actually supposed to be named Macross Atlas, but I decided against it to avoid confusion.
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Meanwhile, at the Castle of Lions (3rd Person perspective)
Pidge groaned as she opened her eyes to her dark, cluster filled room. She sat up from her bed, hearing a small creek below her. She gave out a large yawn while stretching her hands over her head. As she finished her yawn, she dropped both hands back down to her side and threw off the covers. She slowly got out of bed and made it towards her bathroom to shower, brush her teeth and get herself dressed. Today was just a normal day for her, provided that the Galra did not attack or do anything too rash, so she had nothing major planned for the day. Putting on her usual sweater, she walked out of the bathroom feeling refreshed and ready for the day. She had to navigate around her messy, yet organized bedroom, but she eventually made it out of her room. She opened the door and walked out into the hallway, the door closing behind her as she left. She scratched the back of her head, her autumn hair rustling simultaneously.
'What was on the agenda for today?' She thought to herself as she placed a hand on her chin after finishing scratching her head. She needed to still mess with a lot of tech in the lab. She also wanted to mess around with Green a little to boost her performance and maybe extend the duration of the cloaking systems. Her thoughts were interrupted when her stomach then started to growl like a lion. She laughed a little, guess the first thing she was going to do was get some food in her stomach before anything!
"I wonder if Hunk made anything special for..." now that she thought about it, what time was it? She didn't look at it when she left her room. Was it time for breakfast, lunch, or was she late for both of them? There was only one way to find out, she told herself as she made her way into the kitchen. She definitely smelled something good was being prepared, and it didn't smell like lunch. She walked into the kitchen, rubbing her eye, but almost bumping into the wall.
"Morning, Pidge!" A familiar voice rang in her ears. She looked to see Hunk was finishing something and cleaning himself up, "I made some breakfast over there if you would like some!" He gave her his signature genuine smile, which always seems to brighten her mood. He was such a sweet cinnamon roll at times.
"Alright, sounds good," She said softly as she grabbed a plate, and some of his breakfast he made. He made a sort of pancake like cuisine with alien ingredients. She had them before and they were really good. She grabbed a couple of the pancakes as well as some other miscellaneous things, then sat at the table. She wanted to get to work as soon as possible, so she scarfed down everything.
"No need to rush, Pidge!" Hunk gave a small, hefty laugh as he watched her devour the entire dish full of food. In a matter of minutes, there was nothing left but crumbs. He smiled and took the dish from the table, "looks like someone was starving."
Pidge laughed, "yeah, I guess I was. Alright, I'm going to the lab. Cya, Hunk!"
"Bye, Pidge!" Hunk waved as Pidge walked out of the kitchen and into the hallway. She felt more uplifted now that her stomach was filled and the mood she was in, she felt unstoppable. She made her way into her makeshift lab in the Green Lion hangar bay, where her lion sat.
Pidge placed a hand on the lion, "hey girl." She could hear her lion give her a small purr in response. She giggled, knowing that Green was watching over her made her smile and safe, then immediately got to work.
For 2 hours, she tinkered away at some newer pieces of technology and some upgrades for her lion. She seemed in the zone, getting so much work done on an upgrade to the cloaking system to extend it's usage. She took the device and was about to enter her lion when alarms started to blare around her, bringing her combat readiness on alert.
"Of all times..." she muttered angrily to herself as she ran back to her desk and dropped the device on the table. She began to sprint down the massive corridors, as Allura's voice came through the comms.
"Paladins! Come to the bridge, immediately!" Her voice seemed to be a little panicked, from Pidge's ears. She huffed, 'believe me, I'm going as fast as I can with these stubby little legs...' It wasn't a surprise that she was the last one to arrive on the bridge. Everyone was staring at the holographic projection of a star sector, a giant exclamation point marked in a specific area.
"What's going on?!" Pidge asked as he ran next to Shiro and Lance.
"We've intercepted a distress call coming in from the Xaluan Sector. It's faint and distorted, but it's still audible," Allura said, standing on her usual spot when a viewscreen came up. The image that came through was incredibly staticy and damaging. Whoever they were, they were damaged heavily by something, or someone... Pidge could definitely make out that there was someone in the pilot's seat, but just barely. It was impossible to make out anything besides that.
"-DAY -RSON CA- -N SPACY FOR- -MY FIGHTER IS STR- -IATE ASSISTANCE!! -PEAT! THIS IS- -F.N-12- -Y FRIENDLY FORCES IN-!" The voice was so heavily distorted and muffled, no one could really understand it. The message was on repeat, so Allura muted it while she faced the Paladins.
"How long has that signal been relaying?" Keith crossed his arms, his hair slightly ruffled from the movement.
"Based on how distorted it is, it looks like for about a few Varga, but nothing solid," Coran twirled his mustache, "it's also a signal that I do not recognize!"
"Allura, how far away is that signal?" Shiro asked, staring at the distress point on the holographic map.
"It's about 45 Dobashes in the castle, however your lions might make it in less than five," Allura replied.
Shiro faced the rest of the team, "Paladins, to your Lions! We need to rescue that ship before anything bad happens to it!" The 5 humans ran from the bridge and into their hangars after getting on their armor. Pidge still being the last one to make it to her lion, of course. She hopped into the lion and pushed a lever. The lion roared, both figuratively with energy and literally. The lion took off from the hangar and joined the other lions. The castle slowly shrunk in size until it disappeared behind them. The seriousness of the situation drowned out the brilliance of the nearby stars.
"Alright guys, stay sharp. We haven't gotten any information about the Galra movement in this area, but that doesn't mean they aren't here, so keep your eyes sharp," Shiro came through the comms.
Pidge pressed a button on the holographic control panel, "alien vessel, this is the Green Lion of Voltron, we're responding to your distress signal, acknowledge." An eerie static followed after her voice. She tried again, "alien vessel, this is Pidge, Paladin of the Green Lion, come in!" Still nothing... something was definitely wrong here.
Something started to appear in Lance's eyes, "I got eyes on something ahead of," then he saw three massive Galran cruisers, "oh no..." The Paladins arrive just in time to see a very small ship being towed into the hangar bay of a Galra battlecruiser, and the engines of that Galra cruiser humming to life. They slowly turned from their usual dark purple into a light pink.
"It's going to jump into hyperspace!" Pidge screamed.
"Paladins, take out those engines, don't let them escape!" Shiro commanded, a stern look appeared on his face. The lions moved to the engine of the battlecruiser and fired their lasers into the engine block of the ship. The engine exploded, leaving the ship unable to jump away.
"Yeah-ha!" Hunk cheered as the engines exploded. Fighters began to emerge from the hangars and attacked the lions, who immediately dodged the purple laser fire.
"Hunk, Pidge, Lance! Get into that ship and grab the ship and it's pilot! Keith, you and I will hold them off until they make it out! Shiro commanded, laying out a strategy, which everyone gave a "roger" or "gotcha". The Black and Red lions began to repel the enemy fighters while the Green, Blue and Yellow lions assaulted the hangar, tanking larger laser fire as their lion's landed inside. Galra foot soldiers began to pour out of doorways and fire upon the lions, but they had no effect on the lion's armor. 'When will these guys learn..?' Pidge thought to herself as she exited her lion through the top hatch on the head. She entered into a firefight between Galra and with Lance and Hunk, both of which took cover behind some cargo crates and returned fire. Pidge ran past them with her Bayard out.
"Pidge, wait!" Lance cried out, reaching his hand out as if that was going to do anything. A near miss retracted his hand back to his weapon as he returned fire. Pidge, using her size, sliced through Galran drone soldiers with ease, all of them underestimated the young Paladin. She was on fire, nothing stopped her as she beat a majority of the drones with ease. As the last drone fell, Pidge locked the doors to prevent reinforcements from entering, earning her a sigh of relief. She turned back to see Lance turn away from her and stared at the ship, but Hunk starry-eyed.
"Wow, Pidge, that was awesome!" Hunk cheered, his face blown away.
"Thanks. Now, let's see about this pilot," she walked up to Lance, who just stared at the ship. He just seemed to stare at it, his face looking blank, confused. She looked up at him, "uuh, Lance?" The explosions of the outside battle, though muffled, still erupted all around them.
"This fighter... it kinda looks like an older Earth designed fighter," Lance spoke out. That one statement hit the other two Paladins hard.
"What?!" Both Hunk and Pidge stared at Lance, then simultaneously glanced at the strange fighter. True to Lance's word, the more they looked at it, the more the two saw the resemblance of an early Earth fighter. It was black and had several dark blue stripes painted onto it. It was bulky, and definitely not anything they've seen before. Pidge assumed the giant plates on it was a bulky armor set for it. Then she saw four massive rockets on the fighter. Were they boosters? She also saw some thruster attached on the wings as well. She then looked back at the seemingly older rockets on top of the fighter. 'Maybe they were older designed boosters... or warheads..?'
Lance fires his thrusters to jump on top of the nose of the fighter. The cockpit was almost impossible to see through, but he still planted his face on the glass to look into it. Through the class he could make out the pilot, who was unconscious. They were wearing a helmet, making it impossible to see their face, but they weren't moving. He could barely see the pilot's chest rising and falling, they were alive, that's a good sign. He faced the other two Paladins, "the pilot's out cold, but they're alive."
"Lance, Hunk, Pidge? What's your status? We managed to clear out most of the fighters, but the carriers nearby have open fired on us. How's it looking in there?" Shiro's voice came through the comms.
"We found the fighter, the pilot is unconscious. Shiro, you're not going to believe this, but this fighter, we think it's an older Earth designed fighter!" Lance spoke, his shock appearing in his voice.
"What?!" Shiro and Keith unanimously said in shock.
"What do we do here?" Hunk asked, readying his Bayard when he heard a bang coming from the hangar bay door. The Galra were trying to breach in. The three Paladins rushed back into their lions, prepared to defend the area at all costs.
"Let's take this fighter back to the Castle and get the pilot into a healing pod," Shiro said as his lion entered the massive hangar. The Black Lion gently grabbed the fighter and towed it out of the hangar. The nearby carriers began to fire upon the Black Lion, but he successfully retreated out of the combat zone without taking any damage upon himself or the fighter. The other lions, with the exception of Keith, quickly launched from the hanger and followed suit.
"No sign of pursuit," Keith noted as it was evident they were not being followed. He looked back at the unusual Earth fighter that Shiro gently held in his lion's paws. It wasn't anything he's ever seen before. If it was of Earth design, it wasn't Garrison tech, not unless they changed their systems during their absences, but even then that was not plausible.
"Allura, prep a healing pod. We found the pilot, they are unconscious, but we don't know the extent of their physical or internal damages," Shiro ordered through the comms.
"Copy that, Shiro," Allura responded.
"Did you find anything interesting about that ship?" Coran butted in the conversation.
"We were nearly too late, the Galra almost got them," Hunk returned, which prompted Allura to give an 'I see' and Coran to give a sigh, "but there's more. They captured what we think is some sort of fighter from Earth!"
"From Earth, but that's impossible!" Allura seemed a little surprised, "how can a fighter from your world be all the way out here. From what you told me about your planet, space travel is very limited."
"I guess the only way we'll find out more about this fighter is when the pilot wakes up," Keith remarked. He was right. This pilot holds all the answers to their questions, it only comes down to how cooperable this pilot is. The Paladins soon returned to the Castle, where the Black Lion dropped the fighter in the flight pod hanger bay. The landing gears lowered for the fighter as it touched the ground, giving a slight bounce when the Lion placed it down. Allura was waiting in the room as they landed. She had never seen an Earth Fighter before, so she wanted to inspect it and it's design. A small part of her wish she hadn't, first noticing the 4 giant rockets on top of its heavily armored designs. It was rather old and inferior compared to Altean standards, but that was just her nitpicking it. The other Paladins landed while she was staring into the black and blue fighter. They ran up to the fighter, taking in the same feeling of this fighter was strange. Lance and Keith used their thruster packs while Pidge walked around the fighter, inspecting it thoroughly. Hunk and Shiro remained next to the Altean Princess.
"Pidge, anything you can tell me about this thing?" Shiro asked the small Paladin.
The short hair girl didn't look back, "I'm not sure, but one thing is for certain. This isn't from the Garrison. Not unless the tech was recently changed, but even then, it would be impossible to manufacture this, upgrade it and find it here," she looked at the thrusters, and noted how they were designed to split in two, but why? She also noticed there were some logos under the wings of fighter. It was a red circle with a white diamond-like object in the middle. Not a Garrison logo, that's for sure.
"Okay. Lance, Keith. How's the pilot?" Shiro turned his attention to the two finally getting the glass to open after they struggled to open the cockpit. Lance, a sweatdrop formed on his head, took off the helmet of the pilot. The pilot was human, and had very long yet deep blue hair, which made a ponytail at the end.
"Shiro, the pilot looks like a female and is unconscious. We should probably put her in a healing pod just to be sure she's okay," Keith called back as Lance picked the pilot up bridal style and floated down.
"Alright, let's go to the infirmary and get her in a healing pod," Shiro waved his hand as he took the pilot from Lance's hands, since Lance was having slight difficulty carrying the pilot and he was stronger then the Blue Paladin, and walked down the hallway, the others following suit. Halfway there, Pidge looked up to see Lance messing with his hair and smirking randomly to himself.
"What are you even doing..?" she asked, watching him straightening it out a strand.
He looked down at the small Paladin with a glare, "I'm just brushing up on my lady's charm. In case that pilot falls for me." He smirked as he could envision it in his mind.
The Green Paladin rolled her eyes and scoffed, "whatever, lover boy...". The team soon arrived in the infirmary, where Coran was standing behind a console, waiting for them
"You sure took your time arriving!" Coran twirled his mustache.
"Shush, now, can you scan her for any signs of injuries or infections?" Lance asked as Shiro placed the pilot into the pod, which sealed immediately once he exited. Coran tapped away at the console as he initiated multiple scans. There was a slight pause before the monitor flared up with information. Coran bent down slightly to fully read what the monitor said, while simultaneously squinting at it, before giving a "huh...", his face read that he found something very interesting.
"'Huh', what?" Hunk asked as he looked at the monitor, though he couldn't see what was on it.
"Well, for one thing... the pilot is a male, not a female," Coran stroked his mustache. There was a collective "WHAT...!?" from everyone but him.
Pidge suddenly smirked as she pointed at the Blue Paladin in a both accusing and joking manner, "HAH! Gay!"
Lance flushed red as he glared at the small Paladin, his voice rising in anger, "HEY! HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW?! THAT UNIFORM DECEIVED ME!!" There were some snickers coming from Hunk and even Keith, Allura looked unamused and Shiro looked annoyed.
Pidge's smile widened. "GAAAAYYYYY!!" She snarked, which caused Lance to fume with rage and anger.
"Enough," Shiro raised his voice to break apart the two before a fight occurred, "Coran, could you please continue?"
Coran nodded as he resumed speaking, "it looks like he appears to only have suffered some slight burns, bumps and bruises. He should be able to leave in 30 of your Earth minutes, but what puzzles me is about his blood, or rather, the genetic structure of it," he seemed fascinated.
"What about it?" Shiro raised an eyebrow. This broke both Lance from giving death glares and Pidge giving smug, evil glares, and face the mustached Altean.
"It would appear that half of his genetic structure is... different. It's the same as his human genes, but it's also... different? I can't explain it at all, and I've run the DNA from every other alien race we have recorded. None match any known blood we have encountered" Coran stroked his chin in confusion, clearly he was fascinated by this.
"Are you saying he's a human-alien hybrid?" Keith asked the Altean.
"It's possible that he is part of a race we have no known information of; that or this pod has a slight malfunction," Coran looked at the puzzled emo Paladin.
"Just another question to add to the growing list," Keith muttered, though it still carried to everyone's ears.
"We'll just have to wait until he awakens, then he will answer our questions," Allura said as she stared at the pilot.
~ fast forward ~
The Paladins waited for the timer to end as they stood nearby the pod. They were just chatting amongst themselves when they heard the familiar beep followed by a cold hiss from the pod. It was time for the QnA. The pilot fell from the pod, but Hunk managed to grab the cold, shivering pilot from crashing into the hard floor. The pilot let out a small moan, his eyelids started to flutter. He slowly steadied himself from Hunk's grip as he placed a hand on his head.
"What... what happened..?" He muttered, as he blinked a couple times as looked around the room, "where am I?" That's when he looked at the yellow shirt giant next to him. His eyes shrunk in fear, he yelped as he jumped back from surprise.
"Woah, woah! Easy! Sorry I scared you!" Hunk threw his hands up, trying to reassure the scared pilot.
He took a moment before darting his eyes around to everyone else around the room, "who are you?!" Before anyone had a chance to answer, he suddenly jumped to his feet. "My fighter! Where's my fighter?!" He tried to run out into a hallway, but suddenly hunched over with a hand on his head. He grunted as his face scrunched up from slight discomfort and pain.
"Hey! Easy, easy! You just got out of a healing pod," Hunk tried to stop him by placing his hands on the pilot's shoulders, but that wasn't stopping the pilot from trying to break free from Hunk's grasp.
"Could you tell us who you are, first?" Allura asked politely, in hopes of calming him down.
"I'll explain later, but first, tell me where my fighter is!" The pilot demanded, keeping a stern face.
Shiro took a deep breath and exhaled, then looked at the pilot, "we have it stored in the main flight pod hanger bay. Now, who are you?"
The pilot looked down, as if pondering his next move, then looked back up to Shiro, "could you please take me to my fighter, I'll be able to explain more with some equipment I have there." Shiro nodded and began to walk with the pilot to the hangar bay, the other following suit. As the group walked down the halls, the pilot looked around at the architecture of the ship, muttering something about the designs are 'not like the Macross'. When they entered the hangar bay, the pilot stared at his fighter.
"Man... she's been beaten up..." he said to himself, slightly shaking his head.
"Really, it looks fine to me," Lance butted in, staring intensely at the indeed fine fighter.
"A pilot's sense, I guess," he said as he made his way to the cockpit. He faced the group, "where'd you leave my helmet at?"
"It's still in the cockpit, we took it off to see if you had taken any head damage," Keith pointed to the cockpit.
"Oh, uh... thanks," he nervously nodded as a ladder extended down. He ascended it, and rummaged around the cockpit for something.
"If you're satisfied, we like to ask you some questions now," Shiro implied a little impatiently as the pilot jumped down to the ground with a datapad in his hand. A small thud was created when his feet slammed into the ground.
"Oh, of course!" the pilot gave an embarrassed smile and chuckle as he returned to the Paladins.
"To start us off, who are you?" Shiro asked the first question. The pilot suddenly stood at attention and gave a salute, for whom though, no one knew.
"I am 1st Lieutenant Mathias Hunter Anderson, but you can call me Matt, Hunter or Anderson if you want to. I am the Commander and ace pilot of the 37th Combat squadron, Aigaion Squad and a soldier of the U.N Spacy onboard the Macross Garrison," the pilot, or rather, Mathias stated, dropping his salute. Pidge flinched when he said his name, most noticeably when he said to call him Matt if need be.
The Paladins were confused by what he said. Lance, obviously, was the first to speak up, "the U.N Spacy? What is that, some sort sort of resistance group or something?"
The pilot looked a little confused, but also made note of Lance's attitude, "uh, no. It's the aviation agency that's under the U.N Government..." the pilot noticed he was getting blank stares, "y'know... the one from Earth..?"
Hunk jumped forward in excitement, "Earth? Did you say Earth?! Are you from Earth as well?!"
"Of Course! It's my home planet!" Mathias smirked as he placed a hand on his hip. His blue pony-tailed hair whipped onto his shoulder when he moved.
"Awesome!! So how is Earth? Is it still the same?! How's the food?!" Hunk asked rapid fire questions in excitement.
"Well, it's still the same, not much about it has changed, including the food," Mathias replied. The Paladins had relief washed over them, but was suddenly dried away when he continued, "let's see... the U.N Government is still continuing for peace throughout the galaxy, we still have lots of culture from alien races, and the hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of alien warships that watch over the Solar System. Why? Something on your mind?" Everyone's jaw dropped in pure disbelief, which Mathias seemed to take notice of. Something wasn't right here.
"Hold up, there are alien warships over Earth?" Keith narrowed his eyes at the commander. Everyone else began to grow increasingly concerned by what the pilot had just said to them.
"Of Course! After we captured the Factory Satellite, we produced a monopoly of ships for our armed forces in a matter of years! The numbers steadily grew over time and now the Earth is completely protected!" Mathias gave a soft smile as he spoke.
"A captured Factory Satellite?" Shiro asked. He doesn't recall any sort of satellite or fleet of alien ships surrounding the Earth. He placed a hand under his chin, 'nothing like what this person is saying is coinciding with what we know of Earth... '
The pilot noticed something was amiss when he saw Shiro's face, "yeah, the factory satellite captured in the early 2010's... that's... strange... I thought you would..?" He paused for a moment, looking down at the ground below them before looking back at the Paladins, "how about we change the subject, I can explain more later."
Shiro nodded in Agreement, and Pidge jumped in, "I've never seen a fighter like this before. Can you tell me a little more about this?"
"My fighter?" the lieutenant asked before looking back upon his plane, then back at the young Paladin, "what would you like to know?"
"What is it? It's clearly an Earth design, yet the complex features and the engineering of it are so mathematically different and intriguing," Pidge continued, seemingly eager to learn more about the unusually designed craft.
The pilot looked back on the fighter, smirking as he did so, "this is the VF-31A Kairos. It's the bleeding edge of fighter designs and technology, with multiple variants made for different scenarios and missions. It's one of the best fighters we have at our disposal. This one here is an armored variant. More powerful, much better armor and protection, and can pack a hell of a punch! You don't want to mess with this thing in combat, that's for sure!"
"What about those giant rockets on top? Are they boosters?" Allura pointed to the 4 giant rockets on top of the fighter.
"Giant rockets... boosters? Are you referring to the M.M.D Packs on the wings or-" he froze as what she pointed to, then looked up at the rockets mounted to the top of the craft, "oh... those..." he looked back at Allura, his face had dropped the smirk and held a serious expression, "those aren't ordinary rockets, they are one of the most dangerous weapons ever created in human history. Just one of these can destroy an enemy dreadnought in a matter of seconds. They are what we call, Reaction Weapons."
"Reaction Weapons? Why do you have those, then?" Shiro asked, he seemed more concerned and untrusting about the conversation at hand. Before Mathias had a chance to answer, an explosion rocked the ship. Mathias fell onto the floor, while the rest of the Paladins were barely able to keep stable from the shaking. Shiro looked around, "what was that?!"
Allura pulled up as holo-projection, and seven massive Galra cruisers appeared on the screen. Her eyes widened, "it's the Galra! They blindsided us while we were here!"
The pilot stared at the holo-screen for a moment, "wait... I remember seeing some of those ships when I was working on fixing the engines on my fighter, they came from hyperspace and when I tried to get away, I was struck by something and everything went black."
"Yeah, they tried to kidnap you, we saved you, and now they're here to attack us!" Hunk shouted.
"Paladins, to your Lions, quickly!" Shiro shouted before running out of the room, the other Paladins following suit.
Mathias sat there, thinking to himself for a moment, then looked up as Allura and Coran were about to leave the room. He outstretched his hand towards them, not moving, "wait!" The two Alteans stopped and looked at the pilot again, the ship shook again, but this time, not as powerful, "let me go out there and fight!"
"Don't be absurd, you just got out of a healing pod, not to mention-," Allura grunted when a third shock nearly knocked her over. Coran went back to running towards the bridge, leaving the Altean and the pilot alone in the hangar.
"I know, and I understand it may be hard to trust me at the moment, but I need to prove to you all that I do not mean harm, and that I have no ill will intentions to you all! Plus, I need to get some revenge after what the Galra tried to do to me!" Mathias slammed his fist into his hand, as if it was another point.
Allura thought about it for a moment, as another shockwave coursed through the ship, she looked up at the pilot, "alright, we'll open the hangar bay doors when we get to the bridge. Give me your datapad," Mathias rushed over to her and gave her the pad, she stared at it for a moment before giving it back, "on second thought... just turn your comms to our frequency," she paused a moment to pull out a small little holopad and handed it to the pilot. It was the comm frequency for the Paladins and the Castle. She suddenly turned around and ran down the halls.
"Roger," Mathias yelled as he took back the pad, as well as the small slip Allura gave him, and ran to his fighter. He smirked as he ran up to the ladder and climbed it. 'This battle was going to be interesting,' he thought to himself.
Theme: Fire Bomber: Holy Lonely Night begins (A/N: This is a fighting theme from Macross 7 made by the popular Japanese rock band: Fire Bomber)
As he jumped into the cockpit and closed the hatch, he grabbed his helmet on the dashboard and put it on his head. He pressed a button which caused the helmet to seemingly vanish, allowing his hair to be exposed while also keeping it on. A technique he learned about from the Windermereans. He turned to the comms unit and began messing with it. It took some time, but eventually he found the right frequency for the Paladins and Allura, who was directing them from what he assumed was the bridge. Simultaneously, the hangar bay doors began to open, as the engines in his fighter came to life once more. The doors were fully open and he readied himself for another battle. "Aigaion 1, launching!" He yelled as he pushed the throttle, causing the fighter to accelerate from the hangar. The landing wheels retracted as he looked back and caught a view of the ship he was on moments earlier. It literally looked like an alien castle, but there were several areas smoking ablaze, indicating they were damaged. As he left the perimeter, a hexagonal shield came around the castle, which was not something he's seen before.
"That's new..." Mathias muttered to himself. Turning his attention forward, he could see five mechanical lions duking it out with four of these 'Galran Ships', he noticed there were 3 destroyed already. So these guys five pilots were either good, or the Galra were pathetic. Maybe both...
Mathias watched as multiple fighters he has never seen before flew all around him, firing purple lasers at the lions and the castle. "I'm guessing those are not friendly as well", he grunted as he dodged a volley of laser fire. He looked to his left to see seven fighters chasing the Yellow Lion, and gave way to follow suit.
"Hunk, you got multiple on your tail!" the Blue Paladin spoke through the comms.
"I know, I can't shake them off!" The Yellow Paladin yelled as he tried to climb up to evade them, but that was useless. The fighters began to fire upon the lion, their rounds bouncing off with no effect. He looked over his shoulder to see one of the fighters targeting his lion's head.
"Oh no..." he muttered as he braced for impact. Just as the fighter was preparing to fire, a volley of small, blue bullets pierced through the fighter, as well as the other six behind him. They blew up instantly, leaving only Hunk and the Yellow Lion completely intact. He opened his eyes when nothing happened and watched as the VF-31 zoomed beside him, the blue haired pilot came up on the holo comms.
"You good, big guy?" Mathias asked as he flew past the mechanical Lion.
"Yeah, thanks!" He sighed with relief, giving a thumbs up. Mathias returned the gesture before the screen faded away. Hunk watched as the fighter zoomed away and engaged other fighters with bullets or missiles. Hunk watched how fast Mathias was at engaging and taking down enemies, as well as avoiding weapons fire, but he wasn't the only one.
"Is that Mathias?!" Lance asked, watching the young pilot effortlessly engage the enemy fighters with excellent piloting skills, dodging laser volleys and launching missiles that tore apart squadrons with ease.
"Yeah, and he's really good! He might be better than you, Lance," Pidge smirked under her helmet. She saw Lance's face fluster under his helmet in anger, which she had to resist the urge to laugh.
"Hey, I am an excellent pilot, thank you very much!" He shouted back in anger.
"Watch it, Mathias, You got eleven on your tail!" Shiro shouted to the pilot as eleven Galra fighters were approaching on his tail. They began to fire upon the VF-31, but he did a very aggressive maneuver, dodging the volley of lasers from behind him.
Mathias' face came through on the visual comms, "these guys aren't that good, but check this out!" Mathias began to pull up on the throttle, as his fighter began to climb, when all of a sudden, the thrusters on his fighter swung down from their original position. The thruster had formed legs, while the original shape of the plane's body remained. This caused the fighter to loop behind the Galra fighters, and ready to attack. Then, two arms appeared under the fighter, hands extended and two cannons unfolded on the wrists. The fighter had transformed into something different! Wasting no time, Mathias unleashed hell upon the fighters with the twin machine guns under the fighter's arms, destroying almost all of the fighters in one single attack. Only 1 managed to survive the initial onslaught, but the plane returned to its fighter mode and gave chase. The Paladins watched that unfold in awe.
"No way! Did his plane just transform!?" Lance shouted.
"That is so cool!" Hunk was jaw dropped.
"Now I get why he called it one of the best fighters!" Keith watched the dogfights unfold. Shiro watched the fighter continue its attacks, but his mind wandered again. 'No Earth fighter of today has been shown to do what Mathias' just did. Not to mention, no pilot has the capabilities like he has. Something is definitely not right here... where did he come from..?'
Pidge was starry-eyed. She had never seen something like this at all! 'That's why the legs were jointed like that!' She thought to herself as she watched him fight more. He was chasing more fighters, going to that strange form to engage them when a fighter began to attack from above. She watched as something on top of the fighter began to unfold. A cannon unfolded itself on top of the fighter as it charged up and fired a high powered laser, destroying the fighter in a brilliant ball of fire before it folded back into his fighter and his fighter returned to normal. Her mind began to race in excitement. A fighter being able to transform at command while still retaining the original shape and size. Relative compactness! Not to mention how it could pack and hold so much firepower in it, namely the giant cannon that unfolded on its back. She was imagining all the possible technologies that made everything work, but was rudely interrupted when a blast from a carrier knocked her and the Green Lion back. She screamed out as her Lion began to float in space. She groaned as she tried to get it to move again, but it wouldn't budge. She began to panic as roughly 25 fighters began to approach the helpless Lion.
"PIDGE!!" All the Paladins cried out and tried to rush over to their stranded teammate, when Mathias came through again, rushing his fighter forward before the other Paladins had a chance to act.
"I got this, just watch!" He shouted as his fighter transformed again to the second form, it's gun pods out. He moved the fighter in between the Green Lion and the approaching Galra Fighters. Pidge watched as Mathias stood in front of her Lion, only for it to transform again. This time, it turned into a robot, almost instantaneously. She could see the arms, back, legs, and back of the head, it's black and blue color-scheme filling most of her view. Her starry-eyes returned, even brighter this time, if that was possible. The Armor pads on its chest opened to reveal a bay full of missiles. Mathias saw a targeting hud come up, and an eye tracking targeting device activated. His eyes darted around at all the fighters coming in, missiles locked on. He pressed the missile release button on the controls. "EAT THIS!!" He screamed as a volley of missiles launched from the fighter and took towards the enemy fighters. They didn't have time to dodged as the volley of missiles struck the planes and exploded instantly, leaving only small pieces of debris. The robot changed back into a fighter and began to charge toward one of the cruisers. The other Lions regrouped around the now reactivating Green Lion.
Shiro watched as the fighter began to charge at one of the nearby battleships. As impressive in firepower and abilities he had, Shiro still feared for Mathias' safety. "Mathias! Fall back, you're getting too close!" Shiro tried to reign in the fighter, which was dodging laser fire from the battleships with ease.
"I'm going to show you why the U.N Spacy is not to be messed with!" Mathias screamed as he grew closer and closer to the ship's hull "FIRE!" He pressed the ignition button on the control stick, as a Reaction Missile suddenly came to life. It charged into the mid hull of the ship, while Mathias pulled back from the large purple ship. The Paladins, Allura, and Coran watched as the missile collided into the cruiser, only for a tick later to explode into a massive ball of destruction. The Galra Ship instantly snapped in two and began to explode. True to Mathias' words, one of those missiles caused hell upon that ship. The other Galran ships suddenly stopped firing, and the remaining fighters returned back to their hangars. The Galran ships immediately jumped into hyperspace, and the battle was over.
Theme ends...
The Fighter transformed into a robot again, and watched as the Galra fled. Mathias gave a small sigh, "That was a tough battle. Everyone alright?"
"Y-Yeah... BUT WHAT THE HELL WAS ALL THAT?!" Lance practically screamed out in pure disbelief.
"Language, Lance," Shiro muttered, but he did have a right to be in disbelief.
"How does your fighter transform like that into a robot?" Lance pointed into the screen.
Mathias gave a small, wholehearted chuckle, for a moment before calming down, "it's a long story, but the form is not called a robot. This mode is called Battroid mode, while this," he paused when the mecha transformed again so it's legs and arms were out, but the body was still that of the fighter, "...is called GERWALK mode."
"How does that even work!?!" Pidge was practically squealing, failing to contain her excitement.
Mathias was about to explain in short terms before his stomach growled audibly, which everyone else heard through the comms. He gave an embarrassed laugh as his face slightly flushed red, "I'll explain everything later, but can I please get something to eat? I'm... uh... kinda hungry."
"Alright, let's go eat!" Hunk led the charge back to the castle, with everyone else following suit, Mathias changing back his plane back to fighter mode before following.
"We have a lot to discuss..." Mathias said to himself as they all landed in the castle hangars.
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Allura watched from the bridge as the Lions and Mathias in his fighter returned to the castle. Her head was swiveling with questions, but more so concern. Coran could instantly see it plastered on her face.
"Princess, what's wrong?" Coran asked, concern in his voice.
She shook her head slightly, "it's just..." she paused for a moment, "just seeing that weapon in action. If we had not rescued Mathias when we did and the Galra had taken him. If they had found a way to manufacture those weapons..." she shuddered at the thought of what the Galra might have done with those weapons, not to mention the overall technology of Mathias' fighter.
Coran rested a hand on her shoulder, "you don't have to worry princess. We rescued him before that happened, and things are looking up." she looked at him with a soft smile, before they turned and faced the door to leave the bridge, "come on, princess, let's go to the kitchen, we have a lot to discuss."
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So... confession... I wanted this chapter to be a little shorter... but that never happened and it turned out longer than the first chapter, lol! 7200 words!
I hope you enjoyed the second chapter of Macross: Voltron! The next chapter should be shorter and less combatic
See you soon and be safe!