In the fictional world of Robotech, the Robotech Wars are a series of devastating wars that take place in the first half of the 21st century. They begin in 2009 with the first battle between the SDF-1 and Zentraedi and continue in 2044 after the Invid retreat from Earth and the subsequent battle against the Haydonites.
Contents |
Robotech is far from the only fictional series to deal with warfare. Its scope, however, is rare with regards to its depth, particularly as relates to genuine military matters. The Robotech Wars span more than three decades, divided into periods of anticipation, confrontation, and reconstruction, and each war pits humanity against a different alien opponent race with its own motivations, behaviors, and tactics. Because of the attention paid to development of both sides in the conflicts, it is both possible and worthwhile to consider the wars as if they were military historical cases and use them to gain insights into human behavior under times of stress and crisis. Each war offers its own lessons.
The authoritative source for Robotech canonical is the series' official Web site (Robotech.com) maintained by Harmony Gold. The canonical vision of Robotech includes the three sections of the original series, the feature film Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles (2006), and the Robotech: Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles comics that were released to provide a sanctioned backstory to the 2006 film. Other materials either never were accepted as canon (e.g. the novels by Jack McKinney and the Palladium Books role-playing games) or have been decanonized (including the Robotech II: The Sentinels footage released a single-issue compilation and most of the comics relating to the series).
For purposes of military and cultural analysis, it is beneficial to remain true to canonical sources whenever possible. However, there are certain aspects of the Robotech storyline that are either undefined or too weakly defined in the canon to allow for much introspection. In these cases, it is valuable to bring in supporting information from non-canonical sources to provide greater depth. The analyses of the Robotech Wars depends in part on non-canonical references.
| First Robotech War | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Robotech Wars | |||||||
|
|||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| The Robotech Defense Force, initially under the United Earth Government | The Zentraedi | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Henry J. Gloval, later assisted by Commander Breetai | Initially Breetai, succeeded by Commander Azonia; Commander-in-Chief Dolza; Khyron | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| SDF-1, Orbital Fleet consisting of several human-technology ships, and Earth-based mecha; later, added the Zentraedi Imperial-Class Fleet (one million) | Varied by always numbering many thousands; 4.8 million warships for the largest battle | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 95% of Earth's surface and nearly the entire human race[1] | By the concluding battle in 2014, virtually the entire Zentraedi race, with less than 100,000 surviving anywhere in the galaxy out of an inital numbering into the hundreds of billions or more[2] | ||||||
The fictional First Robotech War (2009-14) is a major conflict in the Robotech science fiction universe, pitting transformable fighters and other human forces against the vast armada of an alien race called the Zentraedi. The events of the First Robotech War introduce humanity to the energy source called protoculture and set the stage for the two later conflicts.
In 1999, a massive alien spaceship crashes on the (fictional) island of Macross in the South Pacific. The arrival of the ship, interrupts a Global Civil War, particularly because although the ship is heavily damaged and its crew has been killed, it is evidently a warship. The threat of invasion from the stars leads to a ceasefire and the creation of a United Earth Government (UEG), which undertakes a project to restore the battle fortress.[3]
Systems and information found onboard the ship reveals that it is based on "Robotechnology," whose functions and peculiar power source lends itself to precision use of machinery.[4] The humans do not understand this power source but are able to adapt it to their use, the actual power being drawn from the ship.[5] They also come to appreciate that the ship has a system for "space folding," a form of faster-than-light travel.[6] The rebuilt ship is therefore named Super Dimensional Fortress One, or the SDF-1 for short.[7]
During this time, humanity also constructs a number of other ships and defensive systems derived in part from what it learns about the SDF-1. These military forces are organized under the banner of the Robotech Defense Force (RDF) and have capabilities far beyond what was possible just a decade earlier. The battle fortress itself, however, remains far beyond their comprehension.[8]
In February 1999, on the same day that the SDF-1 is about to sent off on its maiden voyage under a cloud of media fanfare, space-based sensor arrays detect magnetic waves similar to those observed the day that the battle fortress crashed on Earth. Shortly thereafter, several human vessels encounter a force of unfamiliar alien ships. A brief engagement leaves one Earth ship destroyed and the other badly damaged.[9] As the aliens approach Earth, the SDF-1 spontaneously reconfigures itself and fires a massive blast of its main gun into space, striking two alien ships and destroying them.[10] This "booby trap" proves more affirmation for the aliens than deterrent, and they press on.[11] Celebrations are canceled as alerts sound, and human-built Veritech fighters are scrambled to meet an invading force of alien fighters as they enter the atmosphere.
The battle sweeps up civilian amateur pilot Rick Hunter, who finds himself piloting a Veritech after being left in it by his military-officer friend. Though shot down, Hunter's participation in the battle proves significant, as it reveals both that that the Veritechs can reconfigure to several different forms (including a massive human-like battloid) and that the aliens are themselves giants, most standing fifty feet or more in height. These discoveries are revealed as the SDF-1's first attempt at takeoff (ordered by the UEG) fails, but eventually the SDF-1 does blast off to rendezvous with the RDF fleet in orbit.[12] Hunter is brought along by his friend, who also brings a young girl named Lynn-Minmei whom Hunter saved from the aliens.
The rendezvous proves unproductive as the aliens rapidly destroy the human ships as they close ranks around the SDF-1.[13] Captain Henry J. Gloval is surprised to find that the SDF-1 itself has taken no damage, as the aliens appear to be intentionally avoiding any hits on the battle fortress. Nonetheless, he realizes that the orbital position of the ship leaves it vulnerable. He orders a space fold intended to reposition the SDF-1 behind the moon, taking the ship away from Earth.
Earth encounters no further hostility from the aliens after the SDF-1 leaves. Instead, the aliens move to pursue the SDF-1, which has not appeared behind the moon but instead near the orbit of the distant planet Pluto.[14] Macross Island has been brought along as well, and because the population was almost entirely in sealed shelters to protect them from the aliens, many survive for transfer into the holds of the SDF-1. The fold system does not complete the trip, vanishing and leaving behind remnants of strange energy.
The SDF-1 is nearly a mile long, and there proves to be ample space for the intrepid civilians to rebuild a semblance of Macross City inside. Subsequent requirements that the SDF-1 be reconfigured again to restore the functionality of the main gun (interrupted by the loss of the fold system) cause damage to the rebuilt pseudo-city, but they press on; Macross will be rebuilt many times before the war is over. Rick Hunter joins the RDF and becomes a Veritech pilot, participating in his first battle during a counterattack mounted in the rings of Saturn and distinguishing himself during a trap set by the aliens near Sara Base on the planet Mars, where the SDF-1 stops to take on new supplies.[15] In the course of that battle, he saves the life of the SDF-1's first officer, Commander Lisa Hayes.
After leaving Mars, the SDF-1 finds itself for the first time under direct attack by the aliens, taking serious damage to its sensor and radar systems after a blast tears through the ship. A follow-up transmission demands that the humans surrender and reveals the name of the aliens: the Zentraedi. Hayes is sent on recon duty with Hunter and his newly assigned subordinates to protect her. The humans are subsequently captured by the Zentraedi and taken by Fleet Commander Breetai and his aide Exedore to meet their Commander-in-Chief, Dolza. There, they discover that the Zentraedi have a fleet that numbers into the millions of ships, yet have no male-female interaction and are visibly disturbed by a stage-managed kiss between Hunter and Hayes.[16] They also learn that the Zentraedi are searching for "protoculture," which they do not understand but are certain that the humans do.
Escaping from the Zentraedi, Hunter and his companions return to the SDF-1. The ship subsequently breaks through the Zentraedi armada (whose commanders remains unwilling to destroy the ship) and splashes down in the Pacific Ocean. The homecoming proves frustrating, however, when the UEG will neither allow the civilians to disembark (because it has already issued cover-up statements claiming that Macross Island was destroyed by anti-unification rebels rather than aliens) nor accept that the Zentraedi forces are as numerous as Hayes witnessed them to be.
Gloval undertakes a series of low-altitude flights over the Earth in an attempt to win approval to disembark the Macross civilians. A momentary breakthrough deal with the Ontario government raises spirits that are subsequently shattered when an attack by renegade Zentraedi commander Khyron causes an overload that destroys the city. The SDF-1 is subsequently banished from Earth and returns to space with the Macross civilian population still aboard.
The militaristic Zentraedi culture begins to fray when spies reduced to human size and sent to study those that the Zentraedi call "micronians" return to the fleet with stories of male-female pairings, repair of damaged systems (something that the aliens cannot do), and especially the singing of Lynn-Minmei, who has become a pop star following humanity's first shipboard talent show. Ace pilot Miriya Parina also becomes micronized in attempt to locate and kill a human pilot who dealt her first and only defeat, but when she does find Hunter's subordinate Max Sterling, she ends up marrying him instead.
An attempted attack on the SDF-1 led by Khyron is followed by massive defections of Zentraedi who have micronized themselves in order to join human society. Breetai comes to appreciate that the situation is precarious and despite having at his command nearly one million ships calls for a truce between the Zentraedi and the RDF, which leads to several revelations: the Zentraedi are the galactic military of an empire founded and led by the Robotech Masters, protoculture is the energy-source essence Robotechnology, and they were sent to recover the battle fortress because it contains the last source of new protoculture in the galaxy. The humans know nothing of this and assume that the protoculture factory (or "matrix") was lost when the fold system vanished.[17]
Meanwhile, Breetai's subordinate and rival Commander Azonia reports back to Dolza on the desertions. She does not anticipate his response: that the micronians represent a threat to the Zentraedi and must be utterly destroyed, an undertaking for which he orders the assembly of the Main Fleet.
Hayes returns to Earth to attempt to persuade the UEG to accept a general peace. The UEG does not believe her regarding the strength of the aliens and instead unveils the Grand Cannon, a massive weapon built into the surface of the Earth that uses its gravity field to power a high-energy reaction. Earth's leaders are still posturing when the Main Fleet de-folds near the moon, encompassing more than 4,800,000,000 ships. Their sudden realization that everything they had denied is true comes too late as Dolza orders a bombardment that washes across some 95% of the planet's surface, boiling oceans and erasing cities along with billions of lives.[18] A single response shot by the Grand Cannon does destroy a significant number of Zentraedi ships, but it is the only shot Earth manages in the war.[19]
Breetai's fleet, including Azonia but not the handful of ships loyal to Khyron, joins the SDF-1 in making a surprise counterattack on the Main Fleet, correctly realizing that their own lives will be the next lost to Dolza's attempt at purifying the Zentraedi warrior culture of micronian contagion. The Main Fleet has never encountered human culture, and the broadcasting of Lynn-Minmei's "We Will Win" over all channels distracts and confuses the loyalist Zentraedi as the attack gets underway. The SDF-1 proves singularly capable of breaching the armor and defenses of Dolza's fortress, and the final volleys of the battle see the destruction of the entire Main Fleet, though few of the rebel Zentraedi survive the encounter. Hunter rescues Hayes from Alaska Base shortly before the Grand Cannon overloads.
The SDF-1 lands on the war-torn surface of Earth and sets about locating pockets of survivors, using its technology base and the still-present Macross civilian population to start the slow rebuilding. New Macross City is built in the shadow of the battle fortress. In late 2012, Breetai leads an attack on the automated Robotech Factory, capturing it for the RDF and destroying the last signficiant non-allied Zentraedi fleet in the process. Despite damage that renders the Factory unable to produce mecha and ships as was intended, it still provides a signficiant basing area for space operations. The humans and their Zentraedi allies agree that the Robotech Masters are likely to continue their efforts to recover the SDF-1 and make plans to construct a new fortress (the SDF-2) with the goal of traveling to the Masters' Robotech Empire and making preemptive peace.
Zentraedi programming for war, however, proves difficult to overcome (in part because, as the allies discover, the Zentraedi were literally created by the Robotech Masters, explicitly to serve as their soldiers). By early 2013, there are instances of violence by Zentraedi who are not so much rebellious as they are bored. Racism towards micronized Zentraedi by resentful humans exacerbates the problem, and these tensions are exploited by Khyron, who survived the destruction of the Main Fleet and has been biding his time alongside disenchanted Azonia. They find weapons and mecha in the wreckage of thousands of Zentraedi warships littering the planet's surface and easy targets among a human population that is itself divided by questions of autonomy, values, and the military-civilian relationship under the de facto benevolent dictatorship of now-Admiral Gloval. The first significant threat is met by an RDF response that overruns Khyron's base in the icy north, but the Zentraedi rebels shift their staging to the Amazon, where the quickly regrown rain forest conceals their activities. Recruits flock to Khyron once he succeeds in recovering from human control a sizing chamber that can return those previously micronized to giant stature.
Khyron's warship remains physically intact, and his plan is to leave Earth and rejoin the Robotech Masters, but he is hampered by a power plant exhausted of protoculture.[20] On Christmas Day 2013, he launches a massive attack on New Macross City aimed at stealing an energy supply from RDF control. The attack is expected and permitted, as Admiral Gloval and the allied Zentraedi all see Khyron's departure as beneficial; that he sets off a series of explosives throughout the city as a "present" is not foreseen.[21] But the true shock comes a few days later: his cruiser repowered, Khyron opts not to immediately leave but rather to attack New Macross City, devastating it and destroying the just-completed SDF-2 with a volley from the ship's cannons. His ambitions are interrupted as the SDF-1 turns out not to be quite the hulk it appears, returning fire with a shot from its own main gun that cripples the cruiser and sets it on a course to collide with the battle fortress.
Khyron and Azonia die along with all of the SDF-1 crew except for Hayes when the wreckage of their ship strikes and crushes the SDF-1.
The scope of devastation wrought by the final battle is catastrophic given the previous carnage unleashed by Dolza just a few years earlier. The SDF-1 is gone along with its intended replacement. Radioactive contamination prompts the bulldozing and burial of the ruins of New Macross City beneath a trio of earthern mounds.[22] Loose reconstitution of authority comes under Hayes and Hunter, each promoted to Admiral, but the planned voyage to the Robotech Masters' homeworld requires a new ship, and the plans to construct what will be the SDF-3 Pioneer from the still-intact flagship of Zentraedi Commander Breetai prove all-consuming.[23] Civilians reconstitute the United Earth Government in nearby Monument City, gaining RDF support by promising to remove the burdens of administering the planet; in fact, the RDF has unwittingly subordinated itself to politics.[24]
For a time, the RDF remains the principle force maintaining order, particularly as conflict continues in South America between humans and surviving Zentraedi rebels. But racism mounts and frustration grows, and all along RDF attention and resources are redirected to the organization of the nascent Robotech Expeditionary Force (REF). Perceived lack of interest by the RDF in Earthbound affairs gives an opening to former-governor Anatole Leonard to form his own rival force, the Army of the Southern Cross (ASC). Vehemently pro-human, ASC forces gain public favor by dealing ruthlessly with Zentraedi uprisings. The completion and departure of the SDF-3 in 2022 only accelerates Leonard's rise, as most RDF soldiers join the Expeditionary Force; the Southern Cross is even sufficiently influential as to gain its own representatives, subordinating Hayes and Hunter to the oversight of a council.[25]
The resulting society, ostensibly democratic but under effective military rule, takes on a feudal character that will both streamline and challenge human reactions to the arrival of the Masters in 2029.[26]
| Second Robotech War | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Robotech Wars | |||||||
|
|||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| The Army of the Southern Cross (ASC) | The Robotech Masters | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Supreme Commander Anatole Leonard | The Robotech Masters' triumvirate | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Hundreds of capital ships and thousands of mecha; tens or hundreds of thousands of troops | Six motherships,[27] and several hundred smaller vessels, as well as thousands of bioroid mecha | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Extensive, including Monument City, the United Earth Government, most production and staging facilities, the majority of the fleet, and significant numbers of mecha and troops | Near-total; all motherships and ancillary capital ships, most mecha, nearly all civilian population | ||||||
The fictional Second Robotech War (2029-30) is a major conflict in the Robotech science fiction universe, pitting the transformable fighters and hovertanks of the human forces against the bioroids and assault carriers of the Robotech Masters. Its scope is considerably reduced from that of both the preceding conflict and its successor, with humanity having already split is resources to embark on a voyage to the stars and the Masters having nearly exhausted their supplies of energy with their trek across the galaxy.
By 2029, the SDF-3 Pioneer has departed the Earth, taking with it virtually all of the remaining micronized Zentraedi, and the Robotech Defense Force (RDF) is a memory.[28] The United Earth Government (UEG) provides civilian oversight of human affairs, but real power lies in the hands of the Army of the Southern Cross (ASC), and from the military command headquarters in Monument City, Supreme Commander Anatole Leonard is the effective ruler of the planet.[29]
Humanity is unaware of the approaching Robotech Masters, having just sent the SDF-3 on a mission to Tirol precisely to establish contact with them.[30] In fact, the Masters set out on their own voyage to Earth fifteen years earlier, completing a long voyage at near-light speed because their supplies of protoculture were by then already too diminished to enable an instantaneous space fold.[31]
The Masters arrive in the vicinity of Earth on the same day that the United Earth Forces Military Academy graduates its first class.[32] Dana Sterling is among the graduates and is assigned to the 15th Alpha Tactical Armored Corps (ATAC), one of the Southern Cross' hovertank units; she soon replaces newly demoted Sean Phillips as its commander.
After obscuring their arrival with a surgical strike on Moon Base Luna, the Masters initially ignore other human settlements and military forces but are confronted by ASC defenses. Subsequent engagements demonstrate that the Masters' ships and mecha far outclass those of the Southern Cross.[33] The Masters' forces concentrate their activities near the site of the old SDF-1, which has been buried along with the ruuins of the SDF-2 and Khyron's cruiser under one of three giant mounds encompassing what was once New Macross City, with the lavendar-haired pilot of a red bioroid heading the efforts.
The excavation is foiled, but the Masters strike back hard, prompting Commander Leonard to order an equally severe reprisal that ends in disaster.[34] A more nuanced assault succeeds in bringing down the flagship, allowing for the first glimpses inside Robotech society. Before long, however, the fallen ship is rescued by another of the fleet.[35] The surprise arrival of a messenger ship from the Pioneer Mission prompts a brief space battle that goes no better than the earlier atmospheric assault, and the commander of that vessel informs Commander Leonard and Chief of Staff Rolf Emerson that no further assistance will be coming from the SDF-3.[36]
The red bioroid pilot is "captured" by the Southern Cross and found to be named "Zor." [37]
As the GMP tries to pry information out of Zor, Commander Leonard moves to the offensive, ordering a massive spaceborne assault augmented by newly designed mecha. Meanwhile, the 15th ATAC discovers strange flowers within the ruins of the SDF-1, accompanied by Zor, who has been released to them to help military efforts at debriefing him.
Zor is an unwitting spy, and reveals to the Masters information regarding a relief force sent to aid the remnants of the earlier assault fleet. But Earth remains on the offensive, fortifying a new moon base (ALUCE) and upgrading its hovertanks for space combat. The Masters reveal new mecha of their own and inflict serious losses on the human forces, but some of the 15th are again able to infiltrate the flagship. In the confusion that follows, they end up bringing with them a girl one of the troopers met on the earlier recon mission. Zor realizes that he is being controlled by the Masters as his memories begin to resurface, and he goes on to destroy the mothership.
Returning to Earth, the survivors of the 15th ATAC hide the green-haired girl Musica from the GMP but are betrayed by Zor, who uses the opportunity to follow them back to the site of the SDF-1. The flowers have grown and are now giving off spores; these, it turns out, are Invid Flowers of Life, mutated from the remains of the protoculture matrix. An ominous nebula creeps towards Earth, and the Masters immediately recognize it as a sensor employed by their ancient enemies, the Invid. They become increasingly desperate and bring their power to bear against the Southern Cross forces in space, crushing the fleet when Commander Leonard hesitates to commit reinforcements. They also lash out at several civilian population centers and broadcast to the humans a demand that they leave Earth.
Zor negotiates a "prisoner exchange" in which he promises to return Musica as a means to get the 15th onto the Masters' new flagship. In the fighting that follows, General Emerson is killed, but the 15th escapes into the ship. The Masters commit everything to a final attempt at retrieving the protoculture matrix; much of their fleet is destroyed in orbit while the remainder attacks Monument City. The flagship alone descends to the ruins of the SDF-1.
Their goal within reach, the Masters are confronted by Zor, who has now recovered the genetic memories of his cell structure to the point that he virtually is his progenetor. His fury at the Masters for their "misuse" of protoculture is insurmountable, and each is killed in turn. The 15th ATAC escapes the ship with a few hundred Robotech civilians while Zor sends Dana home in an escape capsule, reactivates the red bioroid mecha, and takes aim at the engine core.
"This shall be my final gesture, my own sacrifice in response to the destruction my creation has caused throughout the galaxy. There is no other way. The destruction of this ship over the site of the battle fortress is the only guarantee that the protoculture will be obliterated, before it brings the Invid." --Zor Prime, Catastrophe
Zor's destruction of the last mothership ends the Second Robotech War, taking with it virtually all of what had once been his civilization. However, it does not destroy the Flowers.[38] Instead, their spores are scattered across the face of the planet, taking root where they fall.
The human "victory" is Pyrrhic, finding virtually all of Earth's industrial capacity destroyed along with the bulk of its capital ships, mecha, and staging facilities. Population centers are in ruins, and Commander Leonard is dead along with his general staff. The last vestiges of the United Earth Government are ineffective, and the once-powerful Global Military Police are no longer in a position to maintain effective order on a global scale.[39]
These costs are nothing compared to what has befallen the society of the Robotech Masters: not only are the Masters themselves are dead along with the other ruling triumvirates, but most of the civilians who accompanied them were killed in the destruction of the motherships. As few as several hundred Tiroleans have survived from the Masters' fleet, yet these are comparatively a significant number of all Tiroleans left alive anywhere.[40]
Yet it is the humans who bear the greater burden. As Dana Sterling is aware and will soon tell the semblance of command authority still in place, the saturation of Earth with the Flower of Life guarantees an eventual invasion by the Invid.[41] The greatly weakened society of Earth will be hard-pressed to muster an effective deterrent.
| Third Robotech War | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Robotech Wars | |||||||
|
|||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Robotech Expeditionary Force; Earth-based resistance cells | Invid | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| General Gunther Reinhardt (given authority by Admiral Rick Hunter) | The Invid Regess | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| At least hundreds of REF ships and thousands of mecha, plus surviving resistance groups. | The Regess' faction of the Invid, encompassing at least half of the entire Invid race that had warred with the Zentraedi; numbers would be at least in the billions.[42] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Significant as a percentage; many thousands | Unknown; presumably tens of millions | ||||||
The fictional Third Robotech War (2031–44) is a major conflict in the Robotech science fiction universe, pitting the transformable fighters and motorcycles of the human forces against the hivelike mecha of the alien Invid. Unlike its predecessors, which encompass Earth-based human forces attempting to fend off invading aliens, the Third Robotech War comprises a series of attempted invasions by human forces seeking to liberate Earth from aliens who have already conquered it.
The original Robotech Television series (1986) ended with the conclusion of the Third Robotech War depicted primarily from the standpoint of ground forces. Twenty years later, the release of Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles (2006) retold the story of the same battle from a space perspective, setting the stage for a new follow-on plotline that was revealed in the second half of the film.[43]
The final battles of the Second Robotech War left Earth's military with greatly diminished resources and lacking in leadership. Even before the arrival of the Robotech Masters, the industrial capabilities of Earth had not recovered to anything approximating their twentieth-century height, and by the time that the Masters' flagship was destroyed over the ruins of the SDF-1, what had been built was again in ruins.[44] The survivors of the last offensive therefore are hard-pressed even in physical terms to mobilize an effective defense against the looming threat of an Invid invasion, and politics further undermine the preparations.[45]
The Invid, meanwhile, have every advantage: made aware of the enormous release of protoculture and the blossoming of the Flowers of Life by their sensor nebula, they are also of singular purpose under the hivelike control of the Regess and had been ascendant for centuries versus the declining empire of the Robotech Masters.[46]
Earth knows that the Invid will come, but when they do arrive, it is with neither fanfare nor any of the delays that hampered previous efforts by the Zentraedi or their creators. The Invid want the planet because the Flowers of Life grow there, have neither regard for nor fear of the humans, and are so numerous and focused and they complete their conquest in a matter of minutes. Attempts to counterattack yield only swift obliteration.[47]
Having taken Earth, the Invid have no other designs. They ignore Space Station Liberty as well as Moon Base ALUCE, even though the former is a communications link to the Robotech Expeditionary Force (REF) and the latter continues to serve as a staging area for Southern Cross troops.[48]
The next decades sees considerable conflict, first by spaceborne elements of the Southern Cross attempting major assaults in concern with surviving ground forces and then organized attacks by human resistance cells. An REF advance force also arrives and attempts its own assault.[49] Each successive battle sees human resistance both further diminished and subjected to greater search-and-destroy efforts by the Invid, who appear to have insight into the concentrations and movements of any signficant military or rebel presence.[50]
By 2041, the Invid have constructed a central hive ("Reflex Point") on the site of what was once the SDF-1 and set about the harvesting of Flowers of Life for their consumption. Earth is in effect a giant plantation, but human civilization does still exist both amidst the ruins of cities and in smaller towns and villages; some of these are collaborator towns, while others are simply left to their own devices by the unconcerned Invid. Areas where the flower does not grow are particularly disinteresting to the Invid, and these fall under the control of violent gangs whose antics are equally disinteresting so long as they do not interrupt the harvests.[51]
In 2042, the Mars Division arrives from hyperspace to conduct the first major offensive against the Invid in years. It is a disastrous defeat: the Expeditionary Force troops are vastly outnumbered and also hampered by design flaws that make the atmosphere as much an enemy as the Invid.[52] One of the few survivors is Commander Scott Bernard of the 21st Combat Squadron, and upon reaching Earth, he works to pull together a new resistance cell made up of foragers, former soldiers, and willing tag-alongs.[53][54]
Scott's team makes considerable progress (and is the focus of the New Generation episodes). Much larger forces, however, attract proportionally greater attention from the Invid, and significant REF basing efforts and vanguard missions are destroyed in 2043 and again in 2044.[55] Along the way, Scott's team learns that the Invid can actually detect and home in on protoculture, and that this is how they have been so effective at tracking and destroying soldiers and resistance cells whose weapons and mecha are powered by the alien energy source.[56] The rebels also encounters a humanform Invid they name Marlene who joins them, and another named Sera who finds herself conflicted by the prospect of killing the first human she encounters.
By 2044, Expeditionary Force soldiers and mecha have mobilized to launch an all-out offensive against both Reflex Point and the broader Invid presence. Thousands of ground troops begin the attack as hundreds of warships and squadrons of Veritech fighters equipped with "shadow" devices move in to confront the Invid in space.[57] This force is led by the newly completed SDF-4 Izumo, which serves as General Gunther Reinhardt's flagship in the absence of the SDF-3 and Admiral Rick Hunter (who does not arrive; his absence is a plot point in the Shadow Chronicles storyline).
The firepower of the REF is astonishing, but it is clear that there are at least millions and probably billions of Invid mecha present on Earth to challenge the Expeditionary Force.[58] Early success gives way to a realization that the REF may in fact be ground down to nothing in just a few hours, taking with it the final hope of humanity.[59] While a debate rages between the Regess and the humans of Scott Bernard's resistance cell (who have ended up inside Reflex Point and encounter the Invid Queen face-to-face), General Reinhardt gives a reluctant order to launch Neutron-S missiles that will obliterate the planet, saying that anything is preferable to the domination of the Invid.[60]
The Regess, having initiated her quest for the Flowers of Life precisely to break the cycle of death and destruction that was unleashed by the Robotech Masters so many centuries ago, is dismayed:
"...Whether one side or the other emerges victorious is of little meaning. Such hatred can only breed more hatred. My child, this conflict will rage from generation to generation...The humans have been influenced too strongly by the shadow of the Robotech Masters, and are intent only on the destruction of their entire race. This shall not be!" --The Invid Regess in Episode 85, Symphony of Light
The Invid, their hives, and all of their mecha melt into a massive funnel of energy, departing the Earth as a phoenix of light and ending the Third Robotech War. Their departure disintegrates the inbound doomsday weapons.
Symphony of Light ends very shortly after the Invid departure (with a concert held on Earth), but in 2006, the release of theShadow Chronicles added new insight into the aftermath of the Invid departure. Specifically, viewers of the series frequently wondered whether the same energy wave that disintegrated the Neutron-S missiles also destroyed what was left of the Expeditionary Force. It did not: the ships and mecha that had not been destroyed by the time of the Regess summoning her children to depart are left untouched.
Nonetheless, the Battle of Reflex Point is almost as much a Pyrrhic victory as the final battle of the Second Robotech War. It is clear that at least half of the REF fleet has been destroyed, reasonably representing losses numbering into the tens or hundreds of thousands of people. Many remaining ships are damaged and withdraw to Space Station Liberty for repairs, whiel General Reinhardt briefs the surviving officers that protoculture supplies may be so low as to last for only a single year. Considering that there is zero effective government on the entire planet Earth, the prospect of limited operations towards restoration is a grim one indeed.
Yet worse lies ahead. The SDF-3 Pioneer, intended to join the final assault, is damaged and adrift after test-firing a Neutron-S missile whose detonation created a micro black hole. The Haydonites, apparent allies who helped the REF develop their doomsday missiles as well as the powerful synchro-cannons that proved so effective against the Invid, now move in to attack the weakened Expeditionary Force, destroying an estimated 89% of those ships under repair at Space Station Liberty (which must under any count encompass at least half again of those who survivived the Battle of Reflex Point). Quick action defeats this first strike, but a Fourth Robotech War looms ominously.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||