Now, before I begin I wanted to say a few things.

This marks a return to my roots. Robotech is something dear to me and a franchise I've spent a lot of time watching arguing and writing. that said, I am no fan of Shadow Chronicles, it is not bad, but it is neither good, it felt dry to me and rushed, not to mention that rewriting the last episode didn't struck well with me, but it is canon now for good or ill. But I will take a page out of macross... all we have seen, the series, movies, etc? they are dramatizations, things happened more or less like depicted, but the details are different.

So for instance, the Edwards incident was a full on civil war, and while Grant did capture the Icarus from Edwards, it wasn't after a one versus one combat, it was a fleet action, the climatic action of the REF Civil war.

Now, moving on, I've decided that basic robotechnology is independent of protoculture, the higher level stuff needs it, but a REFEX furnace is some sort of fusion reactor for this fic. and all the Early VFs, destroids and the like use some sort of micro fusion reactors. they are less performing than protoculture, far less performing, but it is the one explanation I can make use of.
Keep in mind that the RDF or the UEDF, if you prefer, had no knowledge of the matrix (or else they wouldn't have used the SDF-1 as a sacrificial lamb or would have moved it to say Alaska base) and there are so many stores of protoculture the SDF-1 would be carrying, if at all, and would make little sense to use them on VFs, Destroids, Fighters, tanks... or even capital ships. it is something you would hoard till you were in position to acquire more and use it only in the things that really, really need it, say a fold drive (I am no fan of the monopole ore and the good origin to the Zentraedi... they are meant to have been breed for war, damnit), for instance.
It is my theory, but I am willing to debate it.


Six months had passed since the disappearance of the SDF-3. But for Captain Vincent Grant it might as well have been a lifetime.

The situation was a grim; the Battle of Reflex Point and the following Haydonite betrayal had cost humanity dearly. The loss of the deep space factory, Liberty, and a large portion of the RDF fleet were grievous wounds.

But the worst thing was the loss of the protoculture matrix with the SDF-3. With the Regess having taken all the protoculture on Earth with her when the Invid the fuel state for the remains of the fleet was precarious to say the least.

Worse, there was the matter of the sealed orders from Reinhardt he really didn't want to think about.

First Fleet was to all intents and purposes gone with at the most five hulls left. Second Fleet, the most intact and homogeneous force, was spread all over the place trying to protect the local cluster. Lastly the small Third Fleet was guarding Tirol like a rabid dog. That last fleet was, ironically, the most numerous, but it was very much a paper tiger. Composed of older vessels, manned by Tirolians with no real experience of war, and, ironically, were protecting their only chance of recreating the matrix.

He was sure, given time, the team led by Rem and Cabel would succeed, they had done it once before after all. But that assumed the Haydonites gave them that time.

Speaking of the Haydonites, nobody had seen hide nor hair of them in the last six months. They were probably playing the waiting game, in Vince's opinion, after all it was only a matter of time till the protoculture supplies ran out making them easy prey for the cybernetic creatures.

Yes, there were crash research programs trying to downgrade protoculture to the base necessities, switching back to fusion, or looking for an alternative power source.

The former that was delaying the inevitable, not to mention that without protoculture there was no competing with the Haydonite's warforms, their drones, or their warships. Even with protoculture the matter was... up for debate.

And the latter... the later was wishful thinking at best. Protoculture had been, in many ways, like penicillin, a lucky find by a man smart to know what he was seeing.

It was a bad situation all around and getting worse by the day.

And here came in Grant's mission, to try and locate the missing battlefortress and its protoculture matrix. It showed how bad the warship situation was that the Ark Angel was the only ship tasked full time to the mission

"Captain" warrant officer Eliss Gautier spoke from the air control station "Viper Squadron has been recovered."

Malechor Five, another dead end.

Following a ship's trail through hyperspace wasn't impossible. The Zentraedi had done the same with the SDF-1 thirty years ago; but it was hardly an exact science and involved a lot of guess work. False positives were an annoying common occurrence. And with the SDF-3 the origin point of a black hole only made the problem worse as the hyperspace vector was even more scrambled than normal. So scrambled in fact that even the advanced Tirolian sensors were having difficulties tracking the battlefortress down.

On the flip side, they had been able to resupply with ease, the one perk of the criticality of the mission.

"Mister Nichols, are we ready to depart?"

"Uh... yeah, we are, whenever you give the order" his chief engineer replied, somewhat hesitatingly, probably biting down some colorful remark.

"Consider the order given." he said looking towards the holodisplay before him.

"Ah, good, ah, clock is set to T-30 seconds."

"All hands, All hands, ready for fold operations" stated the monotone voice of the ship's computer.

And the clock started to count down, once it reached zero, an iridescent bubble extended around the ship and in a flash of light they banished from normal space.

A hyperspace fold was quite an astounding method of achieving FTL, it warped space to diminish the distance between two points significantly, and then it translated the ship into hyperspace to traverse the rest. That was the norm for long distance folds. Short range ones could be handled as a normal fold, but for the long range ones that was the way to go. It was safe, it was a proven tech, with thousands of years of research and refinement and then everything went wrong.

Suddenly there was an impact and the distortion experienced by the fold changed and warped. The bridge was bathed by red lights and an alert klaxon started to sound.

"Status!" Barked Vincent Grant.

"Fold sphere has been compromised, we are reversing." replied Dr. Nichols, as he and his assistant, wrestled with their terminals. "Got an error cascade a mile long and getting bigger by the moment."

"Anything we can do?"

"I am trying to compensate, but I think I can... yes I can compensate somewhat, I am... fuck."

That rose a few eyebrows, to say the least, Nichols never cursed, but then there was no time for anything else.

And then as abruptly as it started, it ended. There was a flash a detonation and the bridge's viewports now showed normal space with a blue planet dominating in the foreground.

A very familiar looking blue planet

"What the..." Grant turned towards his chief engineer, "Louie where are we."

"I..."

"Sir, I am getting multiple pings, they seem like targeting sensors. Tracking them back to source..." started the sensor officer "Sir, targets acquired, Armor Analogue one though three and what the hell?" she continued, "Sir! IFF recognized, Armor 5, 7 and 11 and... the hell? Switching to diagnostic mode."

"Louie..." Grant asked.

Louie Nichols for his part turned towards his assistant, "Janice, is this, you are seeing..."

"Yes Doctor, you are right." the android replied.

"Captain, I think it is not a question of where but when"


*just in case, page break*

For Donald Hayes, this was a day of celebration. It was the launch day of the SDF-1, the dawning of a new era for mankind. The ship had become a symbol of how humanity could come together when in need, how they could turn from petty conflicts and unite for a higher purpose, and also because it was his daughter's first posting, he was a proud parent, after all.

Hell, he'd loved to be over at Macross Island, hot, tropical, Macross Island, instead of cold Alaska, seeing, with proud parent's eyes as his daughter's first assignment got underway. But, not for the first time, his duties came first.

It was a calm day, skeleton shifts over the stations, most of the crews off duty or at the commons watching the show, until all short range sensors went insane.

"Emergence wave detected, high orbit," the computer intoned.

"Target acquired over Italy in a geosync orbit" informed one of the many techs in the command center.

Donald looked down towards the tech's station looking at the data for the contact, it was big, bigger than the SDF-1.

"How is the launch status of the SDF-1?" he asked the same tech.

"Ninety minutes out, the soonest," was the quick reply.

Inwardly, Donald cursed. The planetary defense network was still in its infancy, the Grand Cannon network was incomplete, hell even the Alaskan Grand Cannon was slated to be operational in ten weeks and the rest... the rest weren't even worth thinking about, too incomplete to even serve as the neural defense centers they were designed to be.

There had simply been too many items in the agenda and only so many hands, they had to compromise somewhere. Now it was proving to have been less than wise.

Or maybe not, it was one ship, a ship that dwarfed the already large SDF-1, all right, but only one and, who knew? They might even come in peace. Or they came looking after the lost ship Earth had decided to salvage, that would be ...awkward to explain, but it would be doable and would beat the alternative.

"Have Malta Command relay the first contact package... let's hope we can avoid a war." and he meant it too.

Of course there was a silver lining, the SDF-1 was on the other side of the world, if worse came to worse, he could order Gloval to launch more or less undetected and move to engage before things deteriorated too badly.

After all it was only one ship.


*just in case, page break*

"Louie?" asked Grant, trying to stay on top of things.

"Seems like an RDF First contact package... actually looks like the one we sent the Zentraedi." and was completely ignored, he didn't add.

"I need a date, Louie." Grant stated with a sigh, he was starting to grasp the enormity of their situation. Armor platforms only had a limited shelf life, as it where and if...

"I am working on it, with the orbits of the planets and the general position of the local group we could..."

"We could check on the local datanets, sir." interrupted Laura Voight, the senior Comm officer.

Vincent thought about it for a second. Louie was an excellent officer, even though he tended to overthink things, like now.

"Sure Laura, do that,"

"Defold reactions detected! Far side of the moon, number... I am getting a few hundred." the sensor tech paused for a second, "Zentraedi IFF detected ah... Sir... I think it is the Adalas escort fleet."

The Adalas fleet had been Zor's close escorts up to his death and the disappearance of the battlefortress. It had also been completely destroyed, save for its flagship, during Operation Minmei.

"Sound the general quarters" Vincent Grant said automatically, while, with dawning horror, he realized he knew the date... it was impossible, but it was the only explanation: February 20th 2009. The day the First Robotech War began.

He turned towards Laura Voight's station, "Transmit a we come in peace message to the UEG and inform them we aren't associated with the other fleet. Now!" he barked

"Eliss, put our squadrons on alert five but do nothing else, Louie, bring the pinpoint barrier online, and the omni on standby. Hanse, passive sensors only."

"Sir, message away!" replied Lt. Voight, "awaiting reply."

"Captain," Louie said shakily, "aren't you going to warn them about the boobytrap?"

"And say what? That their flagship is trapped? ...damnit," he said punching the armrest, "one day sooner, or a few more hours..." he paused for a second trying desperately to find an answer, "but you are right, Louie, we need to try."

He turned again towards the comms officer, "Laura, we need to get a connection to... I think Alaska Command is our best bet," that was Donald Hayes posting, if he recalled correctly. He was, from what Admiral Hunter said, a level headed man and someone who had a certain vested interest in the wellbeing of the SDF-1 and its crew.

"Working on it, Sir." was the one answer he got.


*just in case, page break*

"Several hundred contacts have been detected on the far side of the moon, Sir"

Right, he had to jinx it. One contact they could take, even if it was in high orbit. Great Donald, he thought, now you really gone and done it.

"Look at the size of that emergence wave," said Adm. Robert Stradford, his second in command, in amazement.

"I saw that Robert, what do you think?" Donald Hayes said turning towards his friend,

"Six more months, a year maybe..." came the hesitant reply, "thought they might come in peace."

"Yes, I know." he tried to reassure his executive officer, "but that is for the politicians, for us..." he started.

"Sir, I am detecting two contacts separating from the alien ships past lunar orbit, assigning codename bravo and delta, they are in an apparent intercept course towards the Earth." interrupted the ensign at a nearby control station.

But before they could reply to them, the senior tech interrupted, "Sir, I am getting tight beam transmission from the ship in orbit... it is in our encryption." he finished in disbelief.

"Let me look at that." Donald Hayes said as he leaned over the console. This was... bad, the scenarios were all grim, but having their communication security compromised so fast?

Donald shared a glance with his XO and then faced towards the tech "Open comms. Let's hope they do come in peace."

The screen flashed and in it appeared a man, dark skinned and middle aged in a white uniform. Again Donald gave a glance towards Robert trying to puzzle at the situation. Sure, they had known the crew of the visitor had been humanoid, but human? That was... unexpected, to say the least.

And then the man spoke

"Admiral Hayes, my name is Captain Vincent Grant of the UES Ark Angel; we have no time. My ship suffered an accident in space fold and we seem to be... well... back in time."

Donald Hayes could only blink, that was preposterous, time travel? But he knew the cypher and he knew him, or knew of him, by name no less.

"That is a bold claim." Stated Adm. Stradford, his voice a bit shaken.

"It is, but what is more important is that we just detected the Zentraedi fleet that defolded on the far side of the moon, you need to warn the SDF-1, there is no time, sir, they must disable their main gun or else it will fire... it is a boobytrap left by the previous owner, sir."

"You are asking me to disable the main gun of my most powerful combatant, Captain Grant?" Donald seemed to recover the use of his throat, though his mouth seemed to be running on automatic, "On a day like this? What is next, going to ask me to stand down my forces?"

"I know how it sounds sir, but it will mean war otherwise."

Time seemed to slow down for Donald Hayes, it was an illusion, he knew, with his brain struggling to reach a solution, to decide if he believed the man on the screen or called him on his bluff. But it didn't take him long, that wasn't to say he believed the outlandish story of Captain Grant, not totally, not yet. It just meant it was impossible for him to ignore the possibility and he wasn't going to contemplate the alternative... they knew his posting, they knew him by name, they knew the cyphers and encryptions. No, it just wasn't possible.

"Ensign, open a channel to the SDF-1, warn them there might be a Trojan in their systems."

"You believe me, Admiral?" stated Captain Grant, a bit dubiously.

"I am not sure myself, Captain, but I..." he was getting convinced, it was either that or they were fully compromised and that was unthinkable. After all what would be the point of such a complete ruse?.

"Sir! Energy buildup detected in sector five, ah..." they turned towards the senior tech, dreading and knowing what would be the next words to be uttered, "SDF-1 is firing. Targets Bravo and Delta have gone silent."

Donald Hayes felt as if his blood had turned to ice, he glanced at the 'future' captain on the screen and then turned towards the senior tech.

"Get in touch with the SDF-1, request status." he sighed, fingering the missing pack of cigarettes he used to carry and then he turned towards Captain Grant "I suppose it is a moot point, but I believe you, Captain, anything else I should know?"

The man in the screen seemed to relax somewhat and paused for a second.

"Too many to mention, sir, but to begin with, perhaps you should warn the SDF-1 not to rely on the gravity drives for take off."

"Noted, anything else?" he said giving a meaningful glance to the nearby tech, who nodded in acknowledgment before turning back to his station.

"I... am not sure, it's been too long, but..." he seemed to pause, in deep thought, "I think, there are some things that we might be better off if they happen, but just in case, order the Daedalus and Prometheus to ready for dive ops."

"What?" that had been delightfully cryptic. How lovely, thought Hayes sarcastically.

"Sorry sir, I am trying to figure what is the best outcome for all of us."

That made Donald Hayes blink. He didn't know Grant and, still, wasn't quite convinced the man was speaking the truth, but if it was, it was the intelligence coup of the... well, ever. Preknowledge, for what long it lasted, and that was the issue, it wouldn't last long if there were too many deviations, but as long as it lasted...

"Admiral, a flotilla has split off the main enemy force, heading towards Earth." informed the senior tech.

"Send them the first contact package," Replied Hayes, frowning

"Sir?" came the obligatory question from the senior tech.

"It might be too late to avoid conflict, but not late enough for peace." he answered. It was a long shot, besides historians would likely pour over this day for years to come. They had to do things right, even if he felt were futile.

"Understood."

Donald Hayes Frowned, very futile, he thought before turning towards the comm screen, "Captain Grant, is there anything you can tell us about the enemy force?"

"I am forwarding you full data on the Zentraedi and their vessels," Captain Grant seemed to struggle with something, seemed like he wanted to continue but finally remained silent.

"I take it things aren't going to go our way," stated Donald Hayes with a grim smile on his face.

"I... Sir, the Zentraedi aren't foes you can take head on. They are literally breed for warfare and excel at it."

"So, you are saying we must surrender?" Hayes asked dangerously.

"No, sir, not at all, they can be beat, it is just that we lack the numbers to take them in direct combat."

"Good to know, I'd hate to send good men to their deaths otherwise." he stated, Grant, for his part, only nodded.

Admiral Hayes took a moment to study the sensor read out. There wasn't much he could do at this time, and even if they had the files from Ark Angel, well, they were out of time.

"Coulson, order second flotilla to intercept the enemy forces." said Admiral Hayes to the senior tech,

"Sir." Acknowledged Coulson from his station, "order sent."

"In the meantime, Captain Grant, I want you to stay put. Leave the bloody business to us. I'd recommend you reposition to a lower orbit, though."

Grant grimaced, but finally nodded. "Understood, sir." and cut the connection.


*just in case, page break*

"That's done," said Vince Grant to nobody in particular, "Now to face the music."

"I doubt there will be much music to face, Captain." cut in Dr. Nichols.

"Louie, sometimes I wonder whom of the two of you is the actual android." replied Grant.

"So, what now, Captain?" interrupted Janice Em.

'What now?' that was a mighty good question, Vince thought as he fidgeted in his seat, "Computer schedule a meeting, all senior officers, in briefing room A, ten minutes from now, and warn all attendees." He paused for a second, "Oh, and include Mrs. Bernard as well."

"Acknowledged," replied the monotone voice, "Meeting logged and all attendees have been warned."

He then turned to leave the bridge, "come on you two, we need to get going." he then turned to Commander Martinez, at the navigational station, "Brenda, you have the con."

"I have the con." Brenda replied crisply.

"You heard Hayes, take us to low orbit, and try to keep the Earth between us and the Zentradi. We don't want to call their attention, not yet."

"Understood, sir."


*just in case, page break*

It took, in reality, twenty minutes for all senior officers to reach the briefing room, the Ark Angel was a big ship and even its mass transit system you could only move so fast. The first one in the room had been the Bernards, but when your missus could teleport, being late wasn't in the cards.

Vince grant looked at his people, and sighed, this was not going to be easy.

"At 0800 hours, ship time, we executed a routine fold out of Malechor Five towards Epsilon Indi. Somewhere during the hyperspace transition we experienced a mishap. The bad news, people, is that we experienced a misfold, the good news is that our fold drive is only in lock-down, but should be recoverable, correct, doctor?" he said motioning towards Louie Nichols.

"Ah, yes, it should take us about sixty hours to recover it, assuming we have all the parts, perhaps a hundred if we need to machine them." replied Dr. Nichols, fidgeting.

"The better news? We are on Earth orbit, somehow and, finally, the weird news, today's date is February 20th, 2009 yes you heard correctly." he deadpanned.

That killed the mood in short order, there were a few people openly gaping. Only Ariel Bernard seemed to be oblivious to the importance of the date.

And then the questions begun. All at once

"Enough people!" barked Grant, "to answer your questions, yes Breetai has arrived, yes we are in contact with RDF Command, no, I don't know if we can go back yet, that is Dr Nichols field, and no, the SDF-1 hasn't folded yet. More to the point in this moment, the battle for L1 is happening." he paused for a moment. That had been an ugly defeat, and lots of space hands had died... will die, were dying? Tenses were tricky things, but even with the intelligence he had provided... no, there was no chance.

"Why aren't we helping the flotilla at L1?" questioned Marie Duvall, the destroid battalion CO.

"Two reasons, Alaska command asked us to sit this one out. We are more valuable to them alive and even if we did, how much could we add to the battle? Our Legioss teams? Yes, we could do a number on Breetai's forces, and might even get lucky enough and kill him and Exedore. Do. We. Want. That?"

That seemed to put things in perspective, most of them had grown up hearing of Exedore and Breetai and they were too important for the REF and the RDF, after their defection.

And changing things too much would render most of their knowledge moot. There was no guarantee that whomever replaced Breetai and Exedore could fill their shoes or be willing and open to the diplomatic path... or would link up forces once it became clear Dolza considered them contaminated by micronian culture.

Too many ifs, they needed a focus point... and that came naturally.

"We should be thinking how to avoid or to diminish the Rain of Death, that, ladies and gentlemen, that should be our number one goal."

"That is a tall order, skipper," admitted, Captain Bernard, the ship's CAG.

There was a round of acknowledgments, and inwardly Vince agreed, but there were over six billion lives at stake and a planet-wide industrial complex that needed preserving, provided the more analytical part of his mind.

An intact-ish Earth would change the face of the Robotech Wars for the better and trillions of lives were on the stake. The truth was that the Robotech Masters needed to be stopped, the Regent destroyed and the Regis? He glanced at Ariel... well, they might just be able to negotiate with her.

Of course, that was still decades away... and they had to live through the apocalyptic days of the First Robotech War.

"That it is, Scott, but what options do we have?"

"Skipper, we have a problem," the voice of the senior bridge officer, Brenda Nigosky, was quite clear though the intercom system.

"How bad?" Vince asked.

"Very, we are tracking a second force though the p-sensors, they seem to be on an intercept course towards our previous orbit."

"They must have detected the emergence wave," stated Dr. Nichols.

"Probably," Vince acknowledged, then turned towards the senior officers, "Dismissed, we will continue this one latter, you all better get back to your stations ASAP."