Second Chances 2.0
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universe that I am about to mangle around for my own demented author amusement – sadly all Robotech characters and concepts remain the property of Harmony Gold – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.
Authors Notes: This is sort of reboot of my long running story Second Chances which began nearly a decade ago when I wasn't as familiar with robotech as I am now. I made the decision to reboot the story after rereading the original and wincing a fair few times as the more I read it the more disjointed some parts of the story felt to me and the characters felt completely off from how I would portray them now. So after thinking about it for a while I decided why not try again and here we are.
As with the original version this story starts off during the events of Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles. Now without further ado let's get this show on the road so to speak.
Prologue
Bridge
SDF-3 Pioneer
Sitting in his commander's chair Admiral Richard "Rick" Hunter battled distinctly mixed feelings as on the holographic screens floating in their projector fields the UES Icarus disappeared into a space fold with the powerless, lifeless hulk of the Deukalion attached to her belly. On one had he was relieved that Vince had prioritised his duty over his personal feelings and not aborted his planned space fold after the alien vessel the Icarus had been engaged with had collided with the SDF-3. Not only had the force of the collision actually caused some additional damage to the hull but the close-range detonation of whatever the alien ships power source had been – it obviously wasn't protoculture as the blast had not been energetic enough for a reflex furnace-based explosion – had knocked the already crippled battlefortress out of the radius of the other REF warships fold sphere. With the Icarus gone the fleet liberating – or attempting to anyway – Earth from the Invid hoard that had occupied their homeworld for nearly twenty years would get the warning about the neutron-s missiles and his amended orders that they were not to – under any circumstances – be fired at Earth even if it meant the planet remained in the hands of the Invid. He would not be responsible for their long suffering homeworld's utter destruction, especially as the black hole created by the weapon wouldn't just destroy Earth but eventually the entire system.
On the other hand there as another part of him – a selfish part – that was wishing that Vince had stayed and tried again to rescue them. As it was Vince was doing his duty – as much as Rick knew it would pain his old friend, who had been almost as close to him as Roy had been before his death during the First Robotech War, to leave him behind knowing he was probably leaving him and everyone else on the SDF-3 to die – just as he would have done had their positions been reversed as it was imperative that the warning of the true power of the neutron-s missiles be known less they cause a catastrophe. If we get out of this I'm so going to have words with Ambassador Veidt about those missiles, he thought thinking about the Haydonite representative to the Sentinels and find out why the hell he didn't tell us that those missiles can create black holes. Though if they didn't tell us about that then what else haven't the Haydonites told us about the Shadow technology they've given us, or helped us develop, to fight the Invid? Is all of it flawed in some way?
He had to admit that he was beginning to have serious doubts about the true intentions of the Haydonites. While it was true that the Haydonites had been nothing but helpful since they'd first encountered them – if a little mysterious as in some ways they were the most alien of all the Sentinel races – this fiasco with the neutron-s missiles had planted a seed of doubt in his mind. Or maybe it was nurturing a thought that had always been lurking in the darkest depths of his mind, a thought that the helpful cybernetic creatures might have ulterior motives. Was the helpfulness just a mask for something far more sinister? Did the Haydonites really have the best interests of the Terran race in mind or were they simply using them to eliminate their old Invid foes for them?
A familiar hand touching his shoulder brought him out of his thoughts and he looked over to see his wife former admiral turned ambassador to the Sentinels Lisa Hunter nee Hayes standing next to him. "What is it Rick," Lisa asked her husband softly having seen the look on his face, a look that screamed that Rick was thinking about something. Not only that but whatever it was he was thinking about it had him seriously disturbed, at least to anyone who knew him well enough to see through the disciplined, confident façade of Admiral Hunter – something that aside from her only two other people in the form of Max Sterling and Lynn Minmei could really do.
"Just a thought," Rick admitted knowing better than to try hiding anything from Lisa. In the nearly forty years that he'd known her first as his superior officer and then as his fiancée and finally his wife he'd never been able to successfully keep anything from her so he wasn't about to try now. "The Haydonites didn't tell us that the neutron-s warheads will create black holes when detonated. If Doctor Lang and Janice hadn't noticed that the math wasn't quite adding up then we would never have done this field test and found out. If they didn't tell us about that then what else haven't they told us? Is there similar hidden flaws in all the technology they've given us, or like the synchro cannons, helped us develop over the last few years?"
Lisa frowned worriedly. "That's a nasty thought," she mused aloud though she could well see where Rick was coming from and truth be told now that she thought about it, it made an uncomfortable amount of sense. "But what would the Haydonites gain by lying to us? We are supposed to be allies."
"Are we," wondered Rick aloud, "or are the Haydonites simply using us. After all with the Regent dead and his forces defeated the Regis and the other Invid on Earth are the last of their kind. Maybe the Haydonites are using us to eliminate them for them after all Ambassador Veidt indicated his kind have suffered heavily at the hands of the Invid in the past."
Lisa's frown deepened as Rick was making a considerable amount of sense. If she was honest then she would have to say that the Haydonite willingness to be so helpful with regards to battling the Invid had troubled her somewhat as well. She started to open her mouth to speak again. But before any sound could emerge there came a deep rumbling boom, as if a million base drums were being struck at once, filled the air and the deck shuddered as though the whole ship had suddenly become gripped by an earthquake. Caught by surprise Lisa stumbled in the sudden loss of gravitational stability, only quickly grabbing the edge of Rick's command chair preventing her from tumbling to the deck as alert klaxons began wailing with an urgent clamour.
"Report," Rick ordered as gravitational stability returned though the command was largely unnecessary; after so many years of war they all knew depressingly well the sound and feel of weapons fire striking the side of the ship.
"Admiral we're under attack," Lieutenant Ashley Price reported grimly from tactical. "I show nothing on my scopes but visual scan has picked up two alien vessels on approach bearing two, two, seven mark one, nine, three inclination point six five degrees. Cruiser weight, the configuration matches the alien vessel that fired upon the Icarus."
So they return, Rick thought even as it occurred to him that the ships, whoever they belonged to though his instincts were telling him that the ships were Haydonite. If they truly didn't have humanities best interests at heart then they certainly wouldn't have wanted them to leave this system alive, not with what they knew about the neutron-s missiles. It would also explain why that first ship had opened fire upon the Icarus in the first place.
He pushed aside those thoughts for now, right now they had to somehow defend themselves. "What's the status of our weapons systems?" he asked.
"Primary and secondary weapons arrays are still offline, sir. Our defensive lasers are back online but the hostiles are outside of their engagement range."
"The defensive lasers wouldn't be effective against their armour anyway," Rick replied knowing from experience that the SDF-3's defensive pulsed laser arrays – designed as they were to knock down hostile fighters, battle mecha and powered projectiles – weren't powerful enough to quickly burn through the armour of a capital ship or at least they couldn't do it quickly enough to make a difference. "Can we raise a defence barrier?"
"Defence barrier systems are still in-operative sir," Price reported grimly a moment before her console came alive with warnings. "Alien ships are locking onto us… they're firing. Impact in ten seconds."
Knowing that there was only one thing he could do Rick pressed the intercom control on his commander's console. "All personnel brace for impact," he said his voice being instantly carried to every section across everyone of the seventeen hundred- and twenty-one-meter long battlefortresses decks. Even as it did so he reached out and took Lisa's hand in his own, the two of them sharing a last long glance…
…a moment before another thunderous boom rang through the hull and the ship shook fiercely under enemy fire.
With searing force the salvo of bright red charged particle beams from the two unknown cruisers – vessels that under normal conditions wouldn't have dared to challenge the SDF-3 as doing so would have only led to their deaths beneath her mighty guns – slammed into the thick armoured hull of the crippled battlefortress. Instantly their was a brilliant flash as the beams broke apart, most of their energy being instantly refracted straight back out into space in a rainbow blaze of particle diffusion. The remaining energy spreading out across molecule thin layers of the hull the charge dispersing without inflicting any apparent damage beyond shaking the vessel fiercely.
The beams however were merely the carrier for the main destroyer as carried within them was a secondary energy charge, a charge made of extremely exotic particles that existed in a temporary phased state. A state which allowed them to pass right through dense layers of nanolaminated robotech armour that stopped their carriers assault with effortless ease. Once inside the hull the exotic particles entered the power system and surged towards the reflex furnaces deep within the mighty warships heart.
Detecting the anomaly automatic systems immediately tried to shut down and reroute power around the affected conduits, but it was pointless as the systems could only react as fast as the electrons flowing through their circuits. In nanoseconds the charge reached the massive protoculture-fuelled furnaces and began interacting with the shadow dimensional shift field protecting the reactors from detection by Invid protoculture sensors. Disruptive energy waves rippled into the core disrupting the delicate balance of forces within both the primary and secondary reaction chambers that kept the power output constant and the furnaces stable.
Alarms screamed in the ships engineering spaces as power levels in both the primary and secondary reaction chambers suddenly shot up into and then beyond the danger zone. Fuel valves slammed closed cutting off the supply of protoculture to the reaction chambers while additional magnetic channels opened preparing to carry out an emergency vent to space of the volatile contents. It was too little too late for even as emergency dump conduits opened the containment shells of the furnaces melted and suddenly exotic energy burst outwards in a catastrophic explosion incinerating horrified engineering personnel before they had a chance to react.
Not that there would have been anywhere to flee to.
The shockwave of the blast tore through the entire length of the battlefortress smashing bulkheads as though they were made of brittle glass and not super-strong metal alloys. Ripping decks and compartments apart and turning them into hypervelocity shrapnel that spread further destruction and chaos throughout the vessel. Stored fuel and munitions for destroids, veritechs and the ships own missile stores cooked off as there normally well armoured, well protected magazines were ripped apart and annihilated. The force of their explosions merging with the spreading eruption from the ruptured reflex furnaces.
Deprived of key supporting structures the hull of the battlefortress began collapsing in upon itself, before meeting the explosion coming the other way and being instantly blown into infinity as in a titanic blast of energy and plasma fire the SDF-3 – and with her the last protoculture matrix left in the entirety of the known universe – was annihilated.
Her killers observed the SDF-3's destruction with a cold, mechanical detachment. There was no thought or emotion for the hundred and ten thousand sentient beings they had just massacred, only a calm notification that the new weapons worked with the shadow field as designed. Sensor beams reached out from the two warships searching for any sign of escape pods or anything that could have told anyone what had happened here such as the ships data recorder. There was nothing as all that remained of the once powerful battlefortress, the great flagship of the United Earth Expeditionary Forces, was a cloud of plasma and dust a cloud that was already being drawn to oblivion in the black hole.
Satisfied the two Haydonite warships turned and cruised out of the influence of the singularity. Moving with an ease that to anyone who saw them would have seemed impossible in such an environment though the gravity well was no hinderance to them as they had long ago learned how to conquer such things. Once clear of the gravity well both cruisers executed a space fold heading back to their staging area with the good news that the protoculture matrix was no more and that they were clear to proceed with the cleansing. The SDF-3 and her crew were no more and soon the rest of the protoculture addicts would join her in oblivion.
Somewhere Outside Space/Time
Rick Hunter opened his eyes with a gasp, to find himself lying on some kind of hard surface. Slowly he sat up to see nothing around him but an endless white expanse, an expanse that seemed to have no up, no down or indeed any direction at all it just was. Awkwardly he climbed to his feet and looked around a frown of confusion on his face wondering where the hell he was. The last thing he remembered was being on the bridge of the SDF-3 as they came under attack. He remembered being hurled away from Lisa and to the floor as emergency klaxons screamed desperately a moment before everything turned into fire and pain… then everything went dark.
Suddenly he realised what had happened. "I'm dead aren't I," he said his voice echoing oddly in the void around him.
"I'm afraid so," an achingly familiar voice said from behind him, a voice that he hadn't heard in a very long time. Whirling around he found himself face to face with a tall blond-haired man in a style of RDF flight suit that hadn't been used for nearly thirty years. A blond who was agonisingly familiar.
"Roy?"
"Hey little brother," Roy Fokker said with a half forgotten somewhat cheeky grin before walking up and pulling him into a hug. Rick didn't resist instead he buried his head in Roy's shoulder and let himself be held.
"God Roy I've missed you," Rick said softly though he was proud that his voice didn't shake, didn't show any sign of the emotions welling up inside him. After a few moments he pulled back and gazed at his adoptive older brother, realizing with a small jolt that over the passage of time he had forgotten some of the subtler details of Roy's appearance. Such as the slight scar on his chin from an accident that had happened when he was nine and playing in the fields of the now long since destroyed Hunter Ranch. Another thing he had forgotten was the laughter lines around his eyes.
"I've missed you to little brother," Roy replied smiling at the middle-aged, professional and competent man his brother in everything but blood had become. Rick looked so handsome in that REF admiral's uniform, with the stars of a full fleet admiral on his rank bars to boot. He had always known that Rick would go far in the military if he survived.
"So what now is this heaven," Rick asked bringing him, somewhat reluctantly around to the reason they were in this place. "And is Lisa here?"
"Yes she's here but no you can't see her. As someone else is talking to her," Roy answered with a sigh of resignation at having to get down to business. "And no this isn't heaven it's more of a halfway house so to speak, a domain between the mortal world and heavenly planes beyond. As for why you're here well I've been asked to offer you a choice."
"A choice?"
"Yeah you see the manner of your death was a foreshadowing of the death of not just everyone else in the RDF but the entire human race," Roy explained. "And it won't stop there everyone who's ever used protoculture as an energy source will suffer the same fate. The Tirolians, the Invid and even people who have only had slight experiences with it, the Haydonites will destroy them all. While they will suffer setbacks and defeats there crusade can now not be stopped, not now that the protoculture matrix is no more."
As he listened to Roy speaking Rick couldn't help but feel sick. Over the course of the Robotech Wars he had seen some truly horrible things alongside many wonders. But this… what Roy was talking about was genocide on a galactic scale. He had feared, with the revelation of the true devastating power of the neutron-s missiles, that the Haydonites were up to no good but this? It was worse than anything he could have ever dreamed in his worst nightmares.
"But why?" he asked after a couple of moments. The words sounded almost hollow in his ears but there had to be a reason why the Haydonites would want to destroy anyone who had ever used or even touched protoculture. Did the scars of their past experiences with the Invid run so deep that the mere thought of protoculture continuing to exist was an anathema to them.
"Because the artificial intelligence that controls Haydon Five and which created the Haydonites to be its eyes and arms, the Haydonites refer to it as the Awareness, regards protoculture as a threat."
"Why?"
"Do you know where protoculture comes from little brother?" Roy asked rather than directly answer the question.
"Of course. It's produced from a number of different oils found in the pollen, spores and seed pods of the Invid Flower of Life. During the refining process different grades of protoculture, with very different but all highly useful properties are produced. But why would that be a threat to the Awareness?"
"It's protoculture's power generation capabilities that mark it as a threat to the Haydonites," Roy explained, "you see Rick the Flowers of Life are a truly unique plant, in all of the universe there is nothing else quite like it making it one of the universes few true wonders.
"What makes it so unique, and a threat to the Awareness and its plans, is its unique nature. You see Rick it traps minute amounts of vacuum energy in its cellular structure. Don't ask how it does that I haven't the foggiest idea. When Zor created the first protoculture matrix, what he did was develop a means by which that stored energy could be extracted, amplified and stored. The refining process also created by-products from all the energy involved and all the exotic particles and radiations which creates the various grades and types of protoculture you know."
"Well I knew about the vacuum energy," Rick admitted knowing that Emil, along with the likes of Exedore and with the assistance of Cabell and Rem, had been studying the protoculture matrix for decades learning how it worked in the hope that he might one day be able to duplicate it. "But why does protoculture – specifically green protoculture – being a source of vacuum energy make it a threat to the Haydonites?"
"The Haydonites do have their own method of extracting vacuum energy," Roy explained, "though it is not as efficient as what protoculture can be if the technology to manufacture it is advanced to its ultimate progression. The protoculture matrix as it was, impressive an achievement as it was, barely scratches the surface of protoculture's true power. Power that even the Invid have only just begun to get glimpses of. This is not a threat that the Awareness can tolerate, not given what that AI's long term plans are."
"You've mentioned that a few times now. What's that machine planning?"
"What else but the conquest and enslavement of the entire galaxy and indeed as much of the universe as its minions can get there grubby mechanical hands on. You see Rick the Awareness has long since moved beyond the boundaries of the programming placed upon it when Haydon created it a few millennia ago. It now see's organic lifeforms as flawed, inferior beings who must either serve it or be exterminated."
"If the Awareness, and by extension the Haydonites, see organic life as inferior then why ally with us against the Invid?" Rick asked.
"You already know the answer to that one little brother," Roy replied wryly. "Or you have begun to suspect it at least, the Haydonites were never truly interested in an alliance. They were merely using you to eliminate their enemies for them, specifically the Invid who have clashed with the Haydonites – or the Children of Shadow as they call them – on more than one occasion in the past. They were hoping you would use the neutron-s missiles they allowed that bastard T.R. Edwards and his Grey Squadron to acquire and which you inherited after you pounded him and his followers into the floor to eliminate Invid and Terran alike. Something that has not happened as the Regis recognised the missiles for what they were and destroyed them as she left Earth with her people."
Rick blinked. "So Earth is free now?" he asked needing conformation that after all this time, after all Earth had suffered, all they had fought for her to regain, there homeworld was free again.
"Yes but it will not stay that way for long as even as we speak the Haydonites are moving against humanity as while they hoped you would be destroyed with the Invid the Awareness always has a back-up plan. All the technology the Haydonites provided to the expeditionary forces has – as you suspected – a fatal flaw that the Haydonites will use against humanity. As we speak a fleet of Haydonite warships is engaging the remains of the expeditionary force at Space Station Liberty. Observe."
Roy made a hand gesture and suddenly the place around them changed and they were standing in open space. Off to one side was the imposing shape of Space Station Liberty with a mixed formation of Garfish and Ikazuchi-class warships arrayed in defensive formation facing a fleet of vaguely cylindrical red and grey vessels – that Rick immediately recognised as the same type of ships that had attacked and ultimately killed him and everyone on the SDF-3 – which was approaching in a clear attack formation. As they watched the defenders – which from their markings belonged to the Third Fleet – opened fire with a massed barrage of charged particle beams and cobalt missiles. It was a barrage that would have ripped even a fully shielded Tirolian Seron Thoun-class battlecruiser apart in seconds.
The Haydonite ships barely noticed. Most of the barrage went wide, the defending warships clearly being unable to achieve a solid weapons lock on the attacking vessels, though a few shots hit. Where they did faintly shimmering silver-white fields of energy glowed softly, dissipating or absorbing the powerful robotech weapons fire with ease. Rick immediately recognised them as defensive barrier shields, similar to those the Robotech Masters had used but obviously considerably more advanced. The Haydonites continued to close, ignoring the barrage as if it was of no real consequence, before finally returning fire unleashing the same kind of energy beams they had fired at the SDF-3.
The effect was just as devastating as the beams slammed into multiple ships. Immediately the ships seemed to shudder and an ominous glow came from their engineering areas, seconds before every single impacted ship erupted into a titanic fireball. The first return salvo from the Haydonites claiming almost all the first line of ships. The response from the commander of the Third Fleet – Admiral Christina Norton – was immediate as several of the Garfish changed form – revealing themselves to be the new Lionfish variant – allowing their synchro cannons to come to the fore. Immediately silver-white bubbles of energy began to form as they prepared to fire…
…only for the Haydonites to reveal another of their fiendish traps. A brilliant wave scarlet energy shot forth from their larger ships and washed over the defending ships. The response was immediate and devastating as suddenly the growing bubbles of elementary subatomic particles gathering in the projector/firing matrices of the synchro cannons began to pulse and glow ominously. With a jolt of horror Rick recognised a runaway reaction building up and that somehow the ships weren't able to either fire or cancel the firing sequence. He was proven right a second later as every ship with an arming synchro cannon suddenly erupted into titanic fireballs sending burning debris flying in all directions.
"Turn it off," Rick said balling his fists and looking down, horrified and helpless. He knew many of the people commanding those ships, hell he'd appointed a lot of them himself, to see them dying being effortlessly torn apart by their erstwhile allies was just too much. Space vanished and he was suddenly in the white void again before feeling Roy's hand touch his shoulder. "Is that really happening Roy," he asked softly his voice choked with barely restrained emotion.
"I'm afraid so little brother," Roy replied his heart aching as he could see how much it was paining Rick to see that slaughter. "If it is any consolation the Haydonite fleet attacking Liberty will not ultimately win the battle. Vince will blow up all the neutron-s missiles still stored there, ironically wiping out this first Haydonite fleet as they won't be able to fold out in time to escape."
Rick snorted. "That sounds like something he'd do," he said knowing that Vince had developed something of a reputation for such unorthodox tactics in the years since he'd moved from engineering to command. "But it's not going to be enough is it. Victory would by pointless as without the protoculture matrix there will be no way to refuel the fleets long term. We'd be sitting ducks."
"Unfortunately yes. And it is worse than you know, the Regis when she left Earth she took all the refined protoculture on the planet with her. Even if the fleet conserved as much as possible they would run out within a year… at which point Earth, Odessa and all the other worlds the expeditionary force settled will die. Followed soon by every world in Tirolian space and any others who refused to surrender."
"No. No there has to be away to stop this," Rick said, "you wouldn't be showing me this if there wasn't a way to stop this genocide."
"Your right I wouldn't be," Roy admitted, "there is one way that the Haydonites might be stopped but it will not be easy and it has its own pitfalls to negotiate if you choose to pursue it."
"Whatever it is I have to try," Rick answered determined. "What do I have to do?"
Roy sighed. "I've been given permission by the big boss upstairs to send you back in time," he explained seriously, "right back to the beginning of the Robotech Wars so you have a chance but only a chance to change the outcome you just saw. You, your memories and knowledge as they are now would be integrated into your past self. You would essentially wake up inside your younger self in the past just before your arrival on Macross Island. When I cannot be exactly certain it could be a few hours or a few days, time travel is not exactly the easiest thing to do even with divine permission."
"Why so far back?" Rick asked.
"It's the best opportunity you'll get. If they agree then others will also come back with you and like you wake up in the past," Roy answered. "If you decide to do this Rick there is only one piece of advise that I can really give you?"
"Oh?"
"Be careful what you change and when you change it. The results might not turn out the way you expect them to."
"I understand. I'll do it. I'll go back and prevent this future from happening."
"This is a great responsibility, one that will make your previous command at its worst look like a walk in the park. Are you sure you want to do this?"
"From what you've said big brother this is the only way to stop the plans of the Awareness and prevent our species from being exterminated. I have worked and fought too hard and for too long to ensure a future for our people to step aside now and allow them to be wiped out by a artificial intelligence that from everything you've told me has gone completely rampant."
"Alright if you're sure."
"I am sure Roy."
"Very well," Roy said with a proud smile on his face before he again waved his hand. Only this time instead of changing the whole region around them the gesture made a section of the air glow and ripple before a glowing white-blue vortex burst into existence. "Step into the portal it will transport you into the past. Oh and Rick?"
"Yes?"
"Try not to give the younger me too many heart attacks this time around alright?" Despite the seriousness of the discussion they'd been having – or perhaps because of it – the simple request rich with all the longsuffering stress of an older sibling made Rick laugh.
"No promises big brother, no promises I have to keep you on your toes after all. Younger brother's prerogative."
Roy laughed back. "Go on get out of here," he said pointing at the portal "Oh and good luck."
"Thanks," Rick replied. I think I'm going to need it he thought before squaring his shoulders and walking resolutely into the portal which immediately snapped closed behind him leaving Roy standing alone in the white void.
But only for a few moments as Roy felt a familiar pair of arms come around him and a head come to rest on his shoulder. "Did she agree," he asked.
"When I showed her what was happening you bet she did," Claudia Grant said from where she was resting her head on his shoulder. "And I can see Rick agreed as well."
"You can bet he did," Roy replied them smiled. "I'm so proud of him Claudia."
"I know and so you should be just like I am so proud of Vince," Claudia answered pulling back and turning him around to face her. "Now come on flyboy I believe you owe me dinner."
"Yes let's get out of here," Roy replied before pulling Claudia into an embrace before the two lovers turned angels faded out returning to their place in the heavens confident that whatever happened next, however the timeline changed it would be better than the one that currently existed.
It had to be.
Authors Note: Well here's the new version of the prologue done. Not that many changes here though what ones I have made I hope make the whole thing flow better and makes the characters a bit more true to themselves. I have also removed the whole fixed point in time thing that I had in the original version as it was causing me far too many headaches. The next chapter is going to be a completely new chapter, mostly dealing with the various time travellers waking up in the past. I am also changing the identities of some of them as some were being underutilized as I struggled to use them properly. Hopefully the new version of chapter one will not take too long to do though I cannot guarantee it especially as I will be continuing to focus a great deal of my currently quite limited writing time on my other Robotech fics not to mention I have a new chapter of A Legacy of Chaos also in the early stage. Until next time.