fanfic_name = Far Away

chapter = Chapter 1

author = Knights Templar

dedicate = Everyone who helps me and gives me inspiration.

Rating = AP

Type = Adventure

fanfic = Robotech: Far Away

A/N: Well, I must say that I am kind of disappointed that I wrote myself into a corner with What If, but I am not going to do the same in this story. This story starts right before the Force of Arms and the stand before Earth. Now instead of fighting, Gloval heeds the advice of Breetai and leaves the system. I hope that this story is enjoyed as much as the other was, if not enjoyed more so.

Chapter One: Running Away?

Rick wore a very unhappy look as he peered out at the planet Earth and watched as the planet moved slowly on its axis. As he continued to watch the planet that was home to billions and all those on the SDF-1 he felt a lump forming in his stomach as he realized what the SDF-1 was really doing.

“We’re running away god damn it, like a bunch of god damned cowards,” Rick muttered to no one as he stood with a disgusted look now. So much blood had been spilled to get the SDF-1 to this point and they had for so long fought the Zentraedi under the impression that the fleet that Breetai possessed was the only large force the RDF would have to deal with.

“How wrong can the brass be?” He muttered. Rick was not happy with the decision that Captain Gloval had rendered after consulting Breetai, Lisa and Exedore. As a matter of fact, Rick was downright furious with the idea of running away. He told himself that he had not fought all this way, seen so many die, and so many almost die like his surrogate brother, Roy Fokker.

Rick turned and clenched his eyes closed tightly. He was in a really bad position, which might have something to do with the anger that he felt at the moment. So many things had happened over the past few days. He had met with Lisa when she told him of the decision that had been voted on by Brass. Rick exploded.

He wasn’t proud at the fact that he had yelled at Lisa and felt even worse that he had insulted her so horribly. Rick put his face in his hands and rubbed his face, and ran his fingers through his hair. Lisa had ignored him ever since and he knew he had fucked up. It was just another normal run for Rick, what some called SNAFU.

As Rick stood watching the planet that they would be leaving soon he realized that getting angry and yelling at Lisa had been wrong of him and that there was probably some truth to her telling him that he wasn’t meant to be a soldier and that he should leave with the others that were being allowed to stay on Earth, even though it’s almost certain destruction was imminent.

Someone laid a hand on Rick shoulder and Rick, in no mood to be messed with by anyone whirled around quickly and saw Max standing there with his boyish face and blue tinted hair. Rick smiled grateful that it was someone he could talk to and actually have act serious.

“Hey boss, what’s the matter?” Max asked Rick with a mild grin on his face. Max always had a penchant for knowing when something was wrong with someone and he was not wrong again, and come to think of it, Rick had never seen Max do anything or get anything wrong.

‘Mr. Infallible,’ Rick thought sourly. Max always had things go the way he wanted and women had been no different as Max had hooked the only female in the entire SDF-1 that had no idea what sex was and he got to exploit that. This made Rick smile as a few women came to his mind.

“What makes you think anything is wrong?” Rick said turning looking back at the Earth. He saw Max walk up to his side and look at the Earth too and he too seemed to be momentarily awed and quieted by the beauty of the planet they were about to abandon. Rick heard Max give a sigh and turn to him, leaning on the rail.

“Well, it has to be three things: Your most recent blazing row with Lisa, the fact we are abandoning Earth after coming so far,” Rick gave a snort at this, “or it could be that Minmei is with Kyle even more now. Or could it be a combination of all three of these possibilities.”

For a moment Rick hated Max and his uncanny and god-like ability to guess his life out perfectly. Rick gave a shrug and decided to not fight inevitability and just tell him like it was. He turned and looked at his wing mate, ace pilot and quite possibly, best friend he had besides Roy.

“Well Max, you seemed to nail everything on the head as always,” Rick said with a heavy sigh and closed his eyes for a moment as if in deep thought. In Rick’s brain a war of thoughts and possibilities played themselves out. Rick was a mess mentally, emotionally, and physically. He had so many feelings but he could not sort them out in any way, shape or form.

“Max, I have a big damn problem and I have no way of figuring it out,” Rick told Max suddenly. Max looked at his friend and nodded and suggested they sit down and get some coffee and talk it over between them. Rick obliged and they walked over to the coffee shop and sat down.

“So Rick,” Max asked sipping the coffee, “what seems to be the problem?” Max sat down his coffee and fixed Rick with the most intent look Rick had ever seen and it seemed that all Rick had to do was think about what was wrong and Max would be able to figure it out.

“You have feelings for Lisa, don’t you?” Max asked triumphantly. He leaned back as Rick didn’t even try to stammer any type of response. Max had yet again used his god like powers to figure out what was wrong before Rick had even had to say anything.

Rick looked at him and nodded his head, “Yeah, well that’s just the problem; I really don’t know what to make of them. They are strong, but I still care for Minmei, but she is never around. So I really don’t know who I would ever try to have true feeling for.” Rick looked down and tried to think it through. But he wouldn’t get to say anything further, as a blinding light poured through the window that announced Breetai had returned with the Satellite Factory.

They wasted no time in jumping up and running to the window and watching as the ships that returned also ferried down the Factory to take on civilians and supplies from a city that had not been named. Rick and Max were awe struck by the sheer size of the Factory and they looked at each other and Rick managed to mutter something to the effect, “It can hold millions of people,” and Max just nodded in agreement.

Max turned suddenly and looked at Rick and grabbed him and shook him violently. Rick looked at him surprised that Max was shaking and managed to break loose from his hold and grabbed Max’s shoulders and looked at him, “What?!” was all Rick said.

“Go!” Max said and Rick looked at him puzzled. He took his hands off Max’s shoulders as Max looked at him and sighed again wondering how Rick had managed to make it to Flight Leader, or how he had managed to survive being so dense.

“Go see Lisa and apologize now damn it!” Max said again this time not giving Rick a chance to talk. Max continued to push his friend till Rick was at the tunnel leading to the quarters and walking down them towards Lisa’s quarters. Max shook his head and wondered when those two would finally realize how they felt about each other.

******

Lisa was mulling about in her quarters when she heard a knock and went to the door to see who it was. She opened the door a little and was surprised to see Rick standing there. She tried to close the door but Rick edged his foot into the doorway and managed to get into her quarters.

“Leave Rick, now!” Lisa said indignantly pointing towards her door with a very angry and very intense look. Rick looked at her and found himself admiring her beauty, even when she was mad her brilliant green eyes seemed to lure him in. Rick took a step towards her and her heart skipped a beat.

“Rick, I am telling you to leave now!” Lisa said very loudly. Rick stopped in front of her and Lisa lowered her hand and started at him with as much hate as she could force onto her face, but it never seemed to be enough.

“Lisa, look, I came here to ask you to forgive me for being a complete asshole,” Rick said looking at her face seemed to soften a bit at his remark. She sat down and looked at Rick with a weary face and an even more tired body. She was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to sleep.

Rick sat down opposite to her. Lisa looked at him and wondered why he had come to apologize; he had never done something like this before. Lisa didn’t care, she was happy that Rick and she were actually on speaking terms again.

Rick looked at her and moved over and sat down next to her, “So Lisa, it must have been pretty bad for everyone to want to beat it out of here and leave Earth,” his voice took on an edge of sarcasm he hadn’t intended to be there and Lisa turned and stared at him with a deadly look.

“Lieutenant Hunter, if you came her to mock my decision then you can leave anytime, because I will not stand for it,” Lisa said simply and she turned from him. Rick reeled back, he hadn’t intended to sound so contriving and mean, but it had come out that way and Rick felt bad now.

“Lisa, you know I didn’t mean it, I was being serious, what is the outlook for Earth?” Rick said this time with a serious, yet sincere tone that made Lisa turn hi way. She looked at him and her eyes began to tear up and she started to turn when she felt strong arms envelope her and Rick pulled her close to him.

“Lisa, its ok, listen to me, I know what you’re feeling. T had to have been very hard to make a decision like that after coming all this way only to be told that there is no chance of holding and winning and that to survive as a race, we must run.” Lisa looked at him.

“Rick, you have no idea what I am feeling, don’t try to pretend to, that’s not fair to me. You have no idea what it was like in there, Roy of course wanted to stay and fight, Gloval wouldn’t decide and Maistroff and Caruthers both decided that we would have to leave and I had to agree. Rick you have to understand that there is no way to stand and fight, even if Breetai did stand and help us; it’s still five-to-one.”

Rick held her tighter and realized that she was human, that behind her façade, she was a real human and had feelings and cared about others. Rick mentally berated himself for making her deal with so much since he had arrived and vowed that he would be kind and treat her with the respect that she deserved.

Lisa turned to him and gave Rick a very pitiful look, “Rick please don’t hate me, I was thinking about all those aboard the SDF-1 and about all the rest of galaxy. Because if Dolza ever got his hands on the SDF-1 then the whole galaxy, universe even, would be at his control and we couldn’t let that happen.”

It took a moment, but Rick realized she was talking about the SDF-1 and the decision to leave. Rick looked at her and framed her face with his hands and leaned forward and kissed her, tenderly at first and realized what he was doing and quickly pulled away, blushing furiously.

Lisa felt like she had been lifted out of the SDF-1 and taken far away in those few seconds and was left with a feeling and wanting more. But she too soon realized the strangeness of what had just happened and looked at him and he smiled, seemingly over his embarrassment.

Rick arched an eyebrow, “You wouldn’t happen to have anything to eat here would you?” Lisa rolled her eyes and gave a laugh. She got up and Rick grabbed her hand and pulled her back to the couch, “No let me, you may be surprised to find out I can cook,” he said and Lisa gave a laugh.

Rick gave her a hurt look and Lisa got up and walked past him, “It’s not that I don’t believe you, it’s just that you never seemed like the cooking type of person to me is all.” Rick gave a chuckle and started to look around for the food that he was going to cook.

******

Captain Gloval watched as the Satellite Factory was brought down through the atmosphere and taken towards a city that he had picked. It was a free city that had nationalities from all over the world collected there. It had been one of the few good things that had happened as a byproduct of the Global Civil War.

Gloval hoped that this was enough, the factory was big and after being captured, it had to be refitted by Human engineers who had been working for days and days, hour after hour, most with no sleep to get the factory ready for transport. They had it a mere twenty percent ready and they were preparing to take on millions and millions of people.

The only good thing Gloval could find in this big mess was that he had allocated, stolen, begged, and borrowed enough supplies to feed all these people long enough to find a new place to live, and hopefully another people they could share a common home with. ‘A lot of could-be’s’ Gloval thought.

As the ships descended onto The City, Gloval thought about Breetai and how he would stay and fight for Earth, something he felt that the SDF-1 should be doing. But he has been swayed by the horrible doomsday scenario of the SDF-1 were ever captured. ‘Earth wouldn’t be the only planet to be annihilated, many more would suffer the same fate,’ and so at the expense of his race, he would leave with the SDF-1 to a place far away, never to see Earth again.

******

It had been a scant two days since the Satellite Factory had been brought to Earth and it was already being prepared to take off with the SDF-1 and it’s flotilla of Zentraedi ships under the command of Exedore. Gloval looked at the Factory being towed up by the Zentraedi ships and took one last longing look at the beautiful planet that had been their home for so long.

He turned and looked at Breetai on the view screen and felt a pang of sadness for this man that had become so close to him. Gloval would always remember him, and for what he was about to do for humanity at the expense of his life and all those under his command.

“May you go where Dolza cannot follow and crush all who cross your path,” Breetai said, looking at Gloval with his good eye. Gloval nodded, he understood the implications of what was happening.

“Breetai,” Gloval began, “you will never understand how grateful all of us are t you, and what you’re doing to help us survive. I know it isn’t much, but I want to thank you for doing all you can, and giving all you have.” Breetai knew what he meant; he (Breetai) was going to give his life.

“No, Captain Gloval, I want to thank you for showing us that there is more to life then war, and that we can be something more then ruthless killers and conquerors.” Gloval looked at him and felt tears rising. Not so much because of Breetai, but because of all those who were going to die, all those he wasn’t able to save.

Breetai looked when an aide came up to him and whispered something he turned to Gloval, “Captain, you must go now, Dolza approaches and if you’re to get away, you must leave now. Now go, and make sure you destroy any who follow or cross you.” Breetai saluted once more before the screen went blank. In the distance Gloval could see the battle start.

Gloval turned and looked at his crew, “Prepare Fold Engines, attach to Satellite Factory, we can’t forget these people here now,” Gloval said. It was crucial that they and all Zentraedi ships going to protect Gloval, the SDF-1 and the Factory be touching the Factory when the SDF-1 folded so that they too would be taken.

Gloval looked out once more and could see thousands of explosions, he said a silent prayer and turned back to his job, “Prepare the fold in…3…2…now!” The Fold engines engaged and the fold procedure started, but something was wrong.

Gloval got on the radio and called up the Fold room and the noise he heard when it was answered scared him, “Sir, this is the fold room, we are having some problems but the fold procedure should work.” Explosions could be heard all around in the room, something had set off electronics and other possible explosive items.

“I want you out of there now!” Gloval bellowed, but before he could get a response, there was a blood curdling scream on the other end and the radio went silent. Gloval raised up and looked at the women on the Bridge and they all had the same shocked look, the fold procedure continued, and they were taken to a place far away, somewhere they had not planned to do.

A/N: I hope you enjoy this. Please review…please it lets me know people are reading it.

State = Continuará/To Be Continue

feedback = Sí/Yes