AN: Hello all, and welcome to my fanfiction! So yes, this is the first fanfiction idea I've had that I could be driven to put down into writing in years. As you can tell from the words above, this is an Ace Combat and Voltron: Legendary Defender crossover, with the human portion of the Space Fam being from Ace Combat's native world of Strangereal, specifically in roughly the same time period as the (simulated) events of Ace Combat 3
disclaimer: is that all?
AN: No, I hope you all enjoy reading this story. Take it away, Disclaimer.
disclaimer: Good enough. Ace Combat is property of Project Aces and Bandai Namco Entertainment, Inc; Voltron: Legendary Defender is property of DreamWorks Animation, WEP, and Studio Mir. The author owns none of these companies.
Kerberos, 2nd Moon of 134340 Pluto
June 22, 2040
09:00 UCT
All right, Belka, judging by our calculations you should be just about in the gravity well of Kerberos, so you may begin your descent at your leisure, Shiro.
The short, arrowhead-shaped Belka had been in orbit around Pluto's fourth-discovered and second-largest moon for the better part of fifteen minutes, its nuclear lightbulb engine sitting at idle, its pilot and passengers feeling a strange mix of boredom and unspeakable excitement. Mars is one thing. Pluto? Pluto is entirely different. On Mars you can see Earth, and on Earth you can see Mars, both with the naked eye. It took 7 million years of evolution and a 61-centimeter telescope to even find Pluto.
Understood, Basset Control. I'm putting the lander down.
The lander was an interesting vehicle in that it didn't feature a space buggy, it was the space buggy - it would fly down, land on a sufficiently smooth part of the Kerberian surface, then pop out its wheels to lift itself off the ground. Then, when they needed to return home, it'd extend the stabilizers into the ground, fire up the engines, and fly back up to the Belka, leaving its rolling chassis behind. A similar design had been used on the Moon and Mars - the Kerberan lander was just smaller and lighter.
"Showtime, Shiro. You ready for this?"
Samuel Holt, a Belkan scientist, was the 'commanding officer' (so to speak) of the mission. The lead scientist, at least. Also the oldest. Shiro was the pilot and other scientist, and Matthew Holt was the engineer and other scientist. They were here on Kerberos for three reasons:
Firstly, it was great bragging rights for UPEO's Galaxy Garrison which planned and financed the mission, Neucom which designed the lander, and Gründer Industries which designed and built the shuttle and the rocket.
Secondly, it would allow them to take ice and soil samples of Kerberos, which a recent flyby had revealed the existence of life-building hydrocarbons. The search for life on Mars had so far turned up fruitless, but if life could be found here (and next year on Europa) it would say a lot about the universe.
Thirdly, a selfie on Kerberos would probably cause Instagram's global servers to all burst into flames at once, and that was always good for recruitment and raking in that sweet, sweet donation money.
"I was born ready, Sam."
The older man smiled at the younger Seianese man in the pilot seat. Now that was a pilot's mindset, not the doubting Donna persona that Shiro had taken upon himself for the past few days as they began to approach Pluto's miniscule gravity well.
"All right... There's the landing point, take us in."
The landing site for this the first manned mission to Kerberos's surface was at the narrow end of an arrowhead-shaped plain. Well, a plain with numerous hills, rises, and other words for 'car-sized chunks of ice rising out of the otherwise level surface'.
The lander Endeavor detached from the orbiter with a hefty clunk and gently fell down to the surface, steered and slowed in its descent by chemical rockets. At just over fifty miles per hour and a thousand feet above the surface, the wheel covers retracted and the 'landing gear' folded out - wheels of spun aluminum-titanium alloy glistened darkly in the weak sunlight of the outer Solar System. It hit the ground at a little over fifteen miles per hour, bouncing once and drifting to a sideways stop.
A bit rattled but otherwise unhurt, the brave UPEO Space Corps crew sallied forth in their trusty craft.
"I'm sure glad the ice held up after that. Maybe next time we should increase the suspension travel…"
"We'd have to make the whole ship bigger, Sam. The ice is fine. C'mon, let's get those samples."
A few minutes of driving revealed the perfect place for some good, clean science: A clearing free of outcroppings a few times wider than the Endeavor. Matt parked the lander and secured the parking clamps (you know, just in case a cold, dead moon were to have any seismic activity) while Shiro and Sam got out the drill. Even on an icy moon with a measly percentage of Earth's gravity, drills were heavy.
At the very least, the drill was a lot easier to set up and use than it was to get out. It folded out like a tripod, and operation was almost fully operated - just plug in the depth needed and it'll core the ice for you. Not five minutes later, the drill had extracted a glass-smooth cylinder of ice, colored a bluish-white by the gases and impurities within.
The container opened at the top, one wall flopping out at an angle to ease extraction of the core. Matt did the honors, and narrowly avoided dropping it. He silently cursed the lack of grip on the gloves the mission was provided. Or maybe the cylinder was just that smooth.
"Easy, son, that ice is delicate."
Just to be on the safe side, Matt turned the cylinder over in his hands. No cracks, no chips, no splinters. All was well, and the mission was going perfectly.
They were soon to change their minds, however. Being captured by a giant purple alien spaceship tends to do that.
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Commander Iverson stared dumbstruck at the enormous ship on the screen before him. Behind him was pandemonium, but it could have been worse. The feed could have been live. Instead, the Kerberos mission was being edited so the communications to Kerberos would better match up with those coming from the distant moon, which enabled them to cut out things like giant alien ships.
His lack of composure lasted but a second, and with a roar he silenced the command center.
"Two things. Firstly - not one word of this leaves this room without my permission. I don't care if you have to shoot yourself in the head to keep from leaking this, it does not leave this room. Captain Takashi Shirogane, Dr. Samuel Holt, and Lieutenant Matthew Holt died due to pilot error when Shiro overcompensated to avoid flying into the path of a previously undiscovered ice geyser. That is all. There are no aliens, and they sure as fuck didn't abduct our crew."
"Second. Get me ISAF Strategic Command. Tell them to accelerate work on Stonehenge immediately. If they ask why, tell them I will inform them when we figure out exactly what we can and cannot risk getting leaked without causing a worldwide panic."
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"Commander Karreck."
"Yes, Lord Zarkon?"
"Maintain standard patrol routes for the sector. When the opportunity arises, send a ship to investigate the X-9-Y system in greater detail."
"I'll send a battleship, sir."
"See that you do."
AN: Prologue is short because prologues are meant to be short, and I couldn't think of a good way to segue this into the 'One Year Later' scene to follow without resorting to a chapter break, and I didn't want to completely ape the prologue scene of s1e1 - this scene is pretty much identical for this AU anyway. Even with railguns and lasers, there's not much Ace Combat's Earth can do that Voltron: Legendary Defender's Earth can't at the edges of the Solar System - and I'm honestly guessing at the capabilities of Earth here when it comes to what the Ace Combat Earth's space technology will be like by the 2040s. The next (or should I say first?) chapter will feature much more obvious differentiation from canon.
Also I've intentionally left the current condition of Stonehenge vague, this way I can edit the prologue and first few chapters or so depending on the events of the upcoming Ace Combat 7.
Also also: Seian is a nation designed by myself and a friend on another site for a series of Ace Combat roleplays, largely based off Japan and China, and located to the northeast of Leasath. I will primarily be using that map, which can be found on a link in my profile page.
