Based upon the success of my overview of the Global Civil War and my continued effort to record historical events over the past 15 years, the Robotech Research Group has requested that I write a new series of books, each dedicated to the various wars that humans have fought in. The first in the series of books is appropriately dedicated to the First Robotech War, the war that ushered humans into an interstellar conflict and nearly destroyed it at the same time. It is hard not to portray the humans as the “good guys” in this war, but the actions of the humans in charge of the United Earth Government may seem to indicate otherwise.
The world governments had united and formed the United Earth Government and the United Earth Defense Force protected the world. This defense force consisted of regular forces from nearly all the countries in the world, but the true strength of the United Earth Defense Force was the Robotech Defense Force (RDF). The RDF was the only military organization on Earth that was allowed to use technologies gained from the “Visitor,” the ship that was rebuilt into the SDF-1 Macross. The RDF was armed with an army of new Destroids and VF-1 Valkyrie Veritech Fighters and it had a growing fleet of powerful space ships. The only exception to the rule that placed alien technology in the hands of the RDF was the Grand Cannon project, which was under the direct control of the United Earth Defense Force. By the middle of 2009, millions of people across the planet were dedicated to working together to protect the Earth from alien invaders.
At first there had been a violent movement, known as the Anti-Unification Movement, that opposed the United Earth Government and the United Earth Defense Force, but by the end of 2007, the movement was stopped and peace was restored over the Earth. On the surface, the United Earth Government was a success; once bitter enemies were working together for the common goal of defending the planet from alien invaders. Unfortunately, this was only the appearance on the surface. Seeing the power that was available, ambitious politicians in the United Earth Government, especially within the Senate, were attempting to build small empires by forming alliances with other senators and politicians. Senator Alfonso Napoleon Russo, along with Admiral Nicholas Hayes, Colonel T. R. Edwards, and others, formed the United Earth Defense Council in late 2006. The United Earth Defense Council had ultimate oversight over the United Earth Defense Force and was a significant political force within the United Earth Government.
Political maneuvering was becoming more and more prominent within the United Earth Government, as various senators and assembly representatives attempted to dictate issues to various nations using the excuse of ensuring the defense of the planet. It is widely believed that if the Zentraedi had not arrived the United Earth Defense Council would have attempted to seize control of the Earth to “protect” it alien invaders and from the unstable United Earth Government. The arrival of the Zentraedi far sooner then anticipated changed everyone’s plans.
For the ten years following the arrival of the “Visitor,” Humans knew they were not alone in the universe and many people believed that whatever was out there was certainly hostile and had very powerful weapons. To defend the Earth, the United Earth Defense Force constructed a small fleet of space carriers and space destroyers to be led by the reconstructed battle fortress. This fleet was seen as the first and best line of defense against the alien invaders, and the United Earth Government felt confident in their defenses.
Unfortunately, the people of Earth made a few critical errors in their judgment of the Zentraedi. First, due to the size of the Visitor in comparison to Human ocean ships, they incorrectly believed that the SDF-1 was a large battleship and flagship in a normal Zentraedi force, much like a carrier in a carrier group. They believed that the other ships in a Zentraedi force would be smaller and more specialized, such as scouts, escorts, and supply ships. From the Human’s point of reference, this made perfect sense, as the Visitor was over a kilometer long, had an extensive sensor suite, a powerful weapons complement, and could carry a large number of aircraft compared to ocean carrier used on Earth. Their second mistake was in believing that the ship would be large in comparison to the other Zentraedi ships. Later on, many people realized that the United Earth Defense Force should have realized that since the Zentraedi were eight times larger then a normal Human, that they could have built their ships on a similar scale of magnitude. Unknown to the Humans, not only was the Visitor a special prototype built by the Tirolian Mercantile Empire, where only thirteen were ever constructed, but that the ship was considered small by normal Zentraedi standards. As it turned out, normal Zentraedi ships were larger, less sophisticated, and much more crowded.
After the Macross, the name of Zor’s personal battle fortress, had been lost, the Zentraedi had been tasked with finding it. The Robotech Masters, the rulers of the Tirolian Mercantile Empire, had ordered Dolza, the Supreme Commander of the Zentraedi, to find the Macross at any cost and to take any action necessary to find and retrieve the ship. Knowing that the ship was important to the Robotech Masters, and possibly to his own plans to stage a coup, Dolza assigned one of his best commanders, Lord Breetai, to the mission. What the people of Earth would not learn until they traveled to Tirol in 2030, was that the Zentraedi and the Robotech Masters wanted the last supply of viable seeds for the Flower of Life, which was the only known source of Protoculture, the energy source that was at the heart of the Tirolian Mercantile Empire. The last supplies of fertile seeds in the universe were stored in the heart of the Macross, which crashed on Earth after Zor ordered it to leave the Tirolian Mercantile Empire shortly before his death.
The Zentraedi commander Breetai had began his search immediately following the ship’s disappearance in 1974, but it would not be until 2009 when he had finally tracked the ship down to the Earth, the third planet in the Sol Star System. Coincidentally, the Zentraedi battle force arrived in the Sol Star System on the same day as the Visitor, renamed the SDF-1 Macross Super Dimensional Fortress, was undergoing its launch ceremony.
Fearing that the Disciples of Zor, a group of rogue Zentraedi and Tirolians that had not been heard from since 1940 CE, may have set a trap, Breetai dispatched only a small number of ships from his fleet to investigate the planet. The resulting surprise attack from the Zentraedi, coupled with the shear size and number of their ships, overwhelmed the forces of RDF in space and rapidly approached the planet. As the Zentraedi approached, the computer system onboard the SDF-1 detected them and automatically activated the Heavy Particle Cannon, destroying the advance scouts and confirming that the ship was present on Earth. Breetai, and his advisor Exedore, quickly realized that the people of Earth knew nothing of space combat and had simply stumbled upon the battle fortress and had rebuilt it. Advancing the fleet to attack Earth, the Zentraedi began the invasion of Macross Island, where the SDF-1 was located.
Wanting to get to the other side of the Zentraedi fleet and rendezvous with the remains of the orbital fleet, the SDF-1, under the command of Captain Gloval, activated the untested Fold Drive. Unfortunately, the coordinates for the fold operation were improperly set and the ship appeared in orbit of Pluto, the ninth planet in the Sol System. To make matters worse, the fold operation had transported the civilian shelters on Macross Island, the super carrier Prometheus, the landing ship Daedalus, and the entire mass of Macross Island to Pluto as well. Knowing that the SDF-1 had left Earth and having no interest in the Earth itself, the Zentraedi left Earth orbit to chase the SDF-1.
The SDF-1 began its year long journey back to Earth under constant attacks from the Zentraedi. Facing a huge fleet of vessels, the crew of the SDF-1 believed they stood little chance, and the only thing that saved them was the fact that the Zentraedi had to capture the SDF-1, not destroy it. The Zentraedi were unused to these restrictions, especially since neither Dolza nor the Robotech Masters specified why they wanted the ship returned undamaged, only that it MUST happen. The Zentraedi suffered several defeats during the SDF-1’s journey back to Earth, such as in orbit of Saturn. Breetai was even called to in reinforcements from Dolza to set a trap on Mars. Dolza sent the Botoru Battalion, led by a ruthless and intelligent warrior named Kyron. Even though the trap on Mars failed, the Botoru Battalion renamed under the command of Breetai and Kyron, who was not used to losing, quickly developed an intense hatred for the Humans onboard the SDF-1.
On Earth, it quickly became apparent that the Zentraedi were much more powerful than the United Earth Defense Force or Defense Council ever believed they could have been. Fortunately, the Zentraedi stopped attacking when they did, because the council was on the verge of launching a nuclear attack that could have destroyed both a small portion of the Zentraedi forces and the SDF-1. Following the departure of the Zentraedi, the Grand Cannon project was accelerated, but nearly all resources were spent finishing the cannon in Alaska and some components were removed from other cannons to complete the Alaska cannon faster. To prevent widespread panic, the United Earth Government, under the recommendation of the United Earth Defense Council, released a statement saying that anti-unification terrorists had detonated a nuclear bomb on Macross Island, killing its inhabitants and destroying the ship. Although it was much harder to cover up the devastation to the rest of the orbital fleet, the United Earth Defense Council was able to by organizing false training programs, canceling shore leave for the now deceased personnel, and claiming several accidents had occurred in the orbital fleet. The United Earth Defense Council never believed that the SDF-1 and its crew would return, nor did they want to believe that the 70,000 civilians from Macross Island, which they claimed had been killed, would also return. The SDF-1 returned to Earth and landed in the Pacific Ocean in July of 2010, just over a year after the First Robotech War began.
The Defense Council’s solution to this problem was simple: throw the SDF-1 and the civilians off of the Earth, prevent them from communicating with civilians on Earth, and hopefully the Zentraedi would take what they wanted and leave the Sol System without destroying the Earth. After a series of interviews with the United Earth Defense Council, Captain Gloval realized that the SDF-1 would probably be ordered to leave the Earth without letting the 70,000 civilians leave. To force the United Earth Government to address the issue, the SDF-1 flew over land and began contacting individual members of the United Earth Government to request asylum for the Macross Island survivors. Few members of the United Earth Government wished to act against the wishes of the United Earth Defense Council, but the Canadian government defied the Defense Council’s wishes and agreed to grant asylum to the civilians. Unfortunately, on the way to the Canadian capital of Ottawa, the Zentraedi attacked the ship over the city of Toronto. The resulting destruction of the city at the hands of an unauthorized attack by Kyron and an overload of the SDF-1’s new omni-directional defense barrier forced the Canadian government to withdraw its offer of taking the 70,000 civilians. Captain Gloval agrees to the second order to leave the Earth and in December of 2010, the SDF-1 returned to orbit to protect the Earth from the Zentraedi forces.
For his inability to capture the SDF-1 quickly and allowing it to return to Earth, Breetai was relieved of his command and ordered to return to Dolza’s headquarters for an extensive debriefing. From there, Breetai and Dolza witnessed Azonia’s, Breetai’s replacement, repeated attempts to capture the ship, also resulting in failure. Finally, after six months at Dolza’s headquarters, Breetai was allowed to return to the Sol System and was given control of the Imperial Fleet to complete his mission. The Zentraedi Imperial Fleet consisted of over a million Zentraedi vessels, crewed by veteran warriors from the conflicts with the Disciples of Zor. With the Imperial Fleet at his disposal, Breetai began planning his final offensive against the SDF-1.
During this time, the RDF onboard the SDF-1, especially Captain Gloval and Commander Lisa Hayes, the executive officer of the SDF-1 and daughter of Admiral Nicholas Hayes, became convinced that a peace agreement could be reached with the Zentraedi. Unfortunately, the United Earth Defense Council believed that the Zentraedi were too violent and war-like to believe a peace agreement and would simply see it as a sign of weakness. Ironically, the members of the Defense Council would also view a peace proposal from the Zentraedi as a sign of weakness. Lisa Hayes personally traveled to Earth to convince her father, now the chairman of the United Earth Defense Council, that a peace proposal would work, but her father remained convinced that a show of force, such as the firing of the Grand Cannon, would allow the United Earth Government to bargain from a position of power.
It is obvious that given enough time, the Zentraedi would have captured the SDF-1 with the help of the Imperial Fleet, but a series of events were set into motion that would bring about the destruction of Tirolian Mercantile Empire and the rise of the Humans has the dominant power in this part of the Milky Way Galaxy. The first event was the return of the Zentraedi spies, Bron, Konda, and Rico, assigned to observe behavior onboard the SDF-1. The spies became enthralled by the cultures onboard the ship, and especially enthralled with the music of singer Lynn Minmei. Upon the return of the three spies, they began to spread the details of their time aboard the SDF-1 with their fellow warriors, telling stories of the culture and music they discovered there and especially on how not everyone aboard the ship has to fight in the war. This caused an increasing number of soldiers within the Imperial Fleet to have second thoughts on war and on culture and even caused hundreds of warriors to defect to the SDF-1. This is exactly what the Robotech Masters wanted to avoid following the defection of the Zentraedi to the Ci’Vonians, forming the Disciples of Zor, by issuing the decree that forbade the Zentraedi from investigating any different cultures.
The second event that changed the Zentraedi was the sudden marriage between the Human Max Sterling and the Zentraedi warrior Miriya Paarino. Miriya had initially infiltrated the ship in hopes of finding the ace fighter pilot that beat her in combat during a battle on Earth. Unfortunately, when she found him, she had experienced much of the culture on Earth and was overwhelmed by the feelings inside of her that had been locked away by emotional conditioning from the Robotech Masters. After only hours of formally meeting Max and determining that he was the ace pilot she was looking for, and minutes after attempting to kill him, she agreed to marry him. The marriage of the two showed that peace was possible, even though the United Earth Defense Council still refused to believe, and it was broadcast so the Zentraedi fleet could witness the ceremony. Realizing that the Humans were even affecting him, Breetai began to doubt the success of his mission.
Seeing the cultural contamination that was spreading through the Imperial Fleet, Azonia sent a detailed report back to Supreme Commander Dolza. When Azonia informed Breetai of the report, Breetai knew that Dolza would react by marshalling the Grand Fleet to destroy the contaminated Imperial Fleet. Seeing few other choices, Breetai formed a peace agreement with the SDF-1 and together they began to prepare for the arrival of Dolza. On Earth, even with a peace agreement between the Zentraedi and the SDF-1, the United Earth Defense Council was highly skeptical and still believed that they should fire the Grand Cannon at the Imperial Fleet. Seeing that she would be destroyed alongside Breetai, Azonia agreed to join forces with him in opposing the Grand Fleet, but Kyron had a different idea had attempted to leave the Sol System. Unfortunately for Kyron, his ship was almost completely out of energy and it defolded on the dark side of Earth’s moon, where he remained throughout the climatic battle.
To maintain his authority over the Zentraedi, Dolza realized that he had to deal with the situation in the Sol System quickly. Never before had the Zentraedi faced this kind of problem, even with the Disciples of Zor, they barely had over a hundred thousand ships, but Dolza was facing over a million ships with the most experienced crew available and under the command of one of his best commanders. The only strategy that Dolza believed would work was marshalling the Grand Fleet, which consisted of nearly every Zentraedi ship throughout the Tirolian Mercantile Empire, around 4.8 million ships. Dolza even marshaled the Grand Fleet without the permission or knowledge of the Robotech Masters.
With the Grand Fleet together, Dolza sent it and his personal headquarters to Earth for a final battle against the contaminated Imperial Fleet. Dolza’s first order after arriving in Earth orbit was ordering the planet decimated. Fortunately, while the Grand Fleet was quite able to completely destroy the surface of the planet, only a small fraction of the fleet could be used to bombard the planet, as the remaining ships were needed to ensure the Imperial Fleet did not try to attack while the bombardment was occurring. The resulting bombardment still destroyed 90% of the planet’s population, leaving only 700 million people alive and causing the destruction of nearly every large military installation, industrial center, and population center on the planet. Fortunately, while the headquarters of the United Earth Government was destroyed, the headquarters of the United Earth Defense Force and the United Earth Defense Council was not destroyed and neither was the Alaska Grand Cannon located within the headquarters complex.
After only a single blast from the Grand Cannon, hundreds of thousands of Zentraedi ships were annihilated, and while the headquarters complex was destroyed soon after, it provided the SDF-1 and the Imperial Fleet the time it needed to prepare for their own assault against the Grand Fleet. Using the power of Minmei’s singing against the unexposed Zentraedi, the RDF and Breetai were able to stun much of the Grand Fleet before they launched their first attack. Using Minmei to distract the Zentraedi of the Grand Fleet through much of the battle, the SDF-1 and the Imperial Fleet were to take the initiative and launched brutal attacks against the Grand Fleet, getting ever closer to their ultimate goal, Dolza’s headquarters. Using its special shield systems, the SDF-1 was able to breach the outer hull of Dolza’s headquarters through an emergency exit, and not the main entrance where Dolza had placed a Zentraedi Flagship in case anything tried to enter there. Once inside, the SDF-1 launched a huge volley of missiles equipped with reflex warheads. The target of those warheads was the reflex reactor at the heart of the headquarters and the resulting explosion destroyed not only the headquarters, but also most of the remaining ships in the Grand Fleet.
Hours later, the battle was over. The SDF-1 had been badly damaged in the battle and settled in a crater hole in what was once northern Montana. The Grand Fleet had been completed destroyed, but so was the Imperial Fleet. Only a few hundred Zentraedi ships remained operational at the end of the battle, with only an estimated 10 million Zentraedi alive out of the 7 billion alive prior to the battle. The wreckage from millions of Zentraedi ships settled in a ring of debris round the planet and many ships began to crash land on Earth. The near destruction of the Human and Zentraedi races would later be called the Zentraedi Holocaust.
Unfortunately, this is not the end of the First Robotech War, as one of the Zentraedi leaders that remained alive and free following the Zentraedi Holocaust was Kyron. With no commanders to answer to and with no power to leave, Kyron had landed his ship on Earth, in the northern tundra of what was once known as Canada, and began to gather Zentraedi warriors to his banner.
For around two years the reconstruction of Earth proceeded without many disturbances, but as time wore on, some of the remaining Zentraedi, who had, at first, embraced the cultures of Earth and had been micronized, wanted to return to their warrior traditions. The Zentraedi that had joined Human communities began to leave in small but growing numbers, and usually traveled to areas where hostile Zentraedi remained in power, such Siberia, the Amazon Rain Forest, the Congo Rain Forest, the jungles of South East Asia, and the northern tundra of Canada. Kyron welcomed the Zentraedi that had joined the Humans but had changed their minds with open arms. The Humans had taught those Zentraedi valuable skills, such as how to repair Zentraedi mecha and ships, a skill the Robotech Masters had never shared with the Zentraedi. Kyron believed that if he could leave the Earth and return to the Robotech Masters, then he, being one of the few high ranking Zentraedi warriors remaining, would be richly awarded and promoted to Supreme Commander of the Zentraedi.
Among the Humans the United World Government (UWG) was formed from the ashes of the United Earth Government, but a shift of power had occurred as a result of the Zentraedi Holocaust. The new powers on the planet, left nearly untouched by the Grand Fleet, were Australia and what would become known as the Scandinavia Quadrant. While North America was rapidly rebuilding, the people of China and India were rapidly expanding into neighboring areas to scour for food and livestock, and Africa began to descend in violence with the rise of several brutal warlords. The other growing power in the world was the Eastern Bloc of Soviet Independent States (EBSIS), which was the most powerful of the nations that refused to participate with the UWG. By the end of the first two years of reconstruction, much of the world became administered by the UWG, but the missteps during the first few months following the Zentraedi Holocaust, such as allowing warlords to rise to power in Africa and allowing the EBSIS to become a powerful and independent force, would continue to haunt the UWG for years to come.
The RDF was instrumental in rebuilding the Earth, from the new cities in North America and Japan, to ensuring that food was sent to Africa, China, India, and any other area that needed it. The RDF assumed the role of protector of the Earth in all military matters, but while it was subservient to the UWG’s politicians, it remained very independent following in the traditions of the RDF on the SDF-1 under the command of Captain Gloval. In September of 2013, the RDF and Breetai organize a joint operation that successfully captured a Robotech Factory Satellite and brings it back to Earth orbit. The Factory Satellite greatly boosts the RDF’s production capabilities and efforts begin immediately to refit the facility to bring it up to near full capacity.
Following the move of his forces from northern Canada to the Amazon Rain Forest, Kyron, now joined by Azonia, organized many raids against the Human communities in North and South America. His forces even hold Minmei hostage for a short while before the RDF rescues her. Using resources cannibalized from other Zentraedi ships and skills taught to the Zentraedi by the Humans, Kyron is able to make a single warship, a Rineunadou Lojmeuean Class Monitor, operational and he began plans for his final assault against the RDF. His plan was simple; Kyron planned to launch a full scale attack on the SDF-1 and New Macross City before leaving the planet to return to the Robotech Masters and the Tirolian Mercantile Empire. Kyron’s assault would partially succeed; New Macross City would be ruined and the SDF-1 and SDF-2, which was built and finished over the last several years, would be destroyed along with Kyron’s ship, killing both Kyron and Azonia. With the death of Kyron, many of his remaining forces in the Amazon Rain Forest disbanded into smaller and smaller groups. This ended the First Robotech War.
The First Robotech had a devastating effect not only on Earth, but on the entire Tirolian Mercantile Empire. It placed the Human species on a path that would bring them to Tirol and to the heart of the former Tirolian Mercantile Empire. It also completely destroyed the only defense that the Robotech Masters had against the forgotten Invid swarms. The Invid, long forced into hiding by the Tirolians and the Zentraedi, were now able to advance unchecked into the Tirolian Mercantile Empire. When the Robotech Masters abandoned the remains of their empire to travel to Earth, the Invid finished their invasion and eventually captured Tirol.
For the people of Earth, many heroes would emerge from the ruins of the First Robotech War, but two in particular would have a lasting effect on how Humans would exist in the galaxy. Rick Hunter would gain the rank of Admiral and be placed in charge of the Robotech Expeditionary Force, a military branch of the United World Government sent to Tirol to negotiate with the Robotech Masters, and Lisa Hayes would also gain the rank of Admiral and be placed in charge of the SDF-3 Pioneer Super Dimensional Fortress, which would lead the Pioneer Mission to Tirol. Future generations would look back upon the First Robotech War as the time when the Tirolian Mercantile Empire collapsed and the forces of Earth rose to prominence.