In the four years that have passed since my last book, I have had a difficult time in writing a detailed overview of the Second Robotech War. Apparently, the political divides that came about because of this war and their repercussions still continue to this day. Some people believe that Supreme Commander Anatole Leonard was a great patriot and leader, while others believe that Anatole Leonard was a racist and ultimately was the reason why the United World Government collapsed following the end of the Second Robotech War. Personally, I believe that neither view is entirely accurate, Anatole Leonard was a complex individual with incredible patriotism and incredible ambitions. His presence in world politics defined the 2020's on Earth and the story of the Second Robotech War is as much about the Supreme Commander as it is about the Robotech Masters and an already famous half-Zentraedi woman named Dana Sterling.
Dana Sterling, the first half-Human, half-Zentraedi child and daughter of Max and Miriya Sterling, rose to prominence during the Second Robotech War as the leader of the 15th Squadron of the 15th Alpha Tactical Armored Corps (ATAC). During her time as leader of her VHT-2 Hover Tank company, 1st Lieutenant Dana Sterling and her squadron was directly responsible for the destruction of two of the Robotech Masters' Mother Ships and successfully infiltrated the Mother Ships a total of three times. Unfortunately, she was branded a traitor just before the end of the war and abandoned the Earth shortly after the collapse of the United World Government. Not once did Dana Sterling question her own actions and in the end, she may have been instrumental in the defeat of the Robotech Masters.
It will be up to future generations to ultimately decide how Anatole Leonard and Dana Sterling are to be remembered. As for my book, I will attempt to provide an overview of the war and how it affected the course of Human civilization.
Anatole Leonard became a rising star following the Zentraedi Holocaust. Prior to the disaster that destroyed 90% of all Human life on the planet, Leonard was a mid-level bureaucrat within the United Earth Government and his future did not seem destined for anything beyond rising to a high-level bureaucrat, but the Zentraedi Holocaust changed all that. Having survived the initial bombardment, Leonard became involved in the reconstruction plans for the Earth and was eventually assigned to the South America Quadrant to oversee the reconstruction efforts there. While in South America, Leonard traveled across the entire continent, and met many local leaders, which became future political allies. By 2013, Anatole Leonard had secured enough support to become appointed the governor of Federale, one of the largest and most important cities on the continent.
During the first two years of being governor, Anatole Leonard discovered that there were restrictions on his efforts to produce a peaceful city. The United World Government allowed the RDF to control nearly all military matters, but the RDF refused to act as governor wanted it to, particularly in the area of policing and controlling the local Zentraedi population. Convinced that all Zentraedi were planning a rebelling against the United World Government, the governor organized his own personal military force, composed of mercenaries, volunteers, and sympathetic RDF units. In July 2015, a large riot broke out in the Zentraedi district of Federale and Anatole Leonard ordered his troops to enter the district and stop it. The resulting massacre resulted in hundreds of dead Zentraedi civilians, almost all of which were unarmed.
The scandal that resulted when the cover-up of the massacre failed, forced Anatole Leonard to resign as governor of Federale, but did not cause any damage to his political career. Leonard had made himself many friends within the United World Government, especially after what they considered to be his bold actions against the Zentraedi threat. The leaders of the United World Government approved a proposal to give Anatole Leonard a modest amount of money to establish a formal military force that could operate independently of the RDF. The Army of the Southern Cross formally came into existence on October 10, 2015 and Anatole Leonard gave himself the rank and position of Field Marshal and head of the Army of the Southern Cross.
From the very beginning, people within the RDF could see how the Southern Cross was planning to operate. Recruited mainly from mercenaries and local militaries in South America, the Army of the Southern Cross had a severe dislike of the Zentraedi and established a prison camp known as Camp Alpha just outside of Monument City. Camp Alpha was supposed to house rouge Zentraedi from North America, but it quickly became overcrowded with innocent Zentraedi and many of them were forced to undergo a micronization process in unsafe equipment. The scientists attached to the Southern Cross built the machine without the assistance of the Robotech Research Group, the experts on Robotechnology and Zentraedi. A total of 32 prisoners forced to undergo the process died before the RDF forced the camp to close.
Throughout the second half of the 2010's, the Army of the Southern Cross continued to grow, both militarily and politically. It established military bases in all the continents and responded to the riots in Cavern City during the height of the Malcontent Uprisings. While his military might was growing, Field Marshall Leonard continued to increase his political support by making an alliance with the powerful Senator Moran and the influential General T.R. Edwards from the Robotech Expeditionary Force (REF).
By 2021, Anatole Leonard's dreams began coming true. The RDF lost all of its space and naval forces and most of its army and air force to the restructured and renamed Armies of the Southern Cross. While the REF and the Pioneer Mission got the lion share of the space forces, the captured Robotech Factory Satellite would be remaining in the under the control of the Armies of the Southern Cross, allowing Field Marshall Leonard to build a powerful space force. With the departure of the Pioneer Mission in 2022, the Armies of the Southern Cross took over the job of defending the Earth and the rest of the solar system from enemy attack.
With the assistance of Senator Moran, Anatole Leonard was able to marginalize the influence of the United World Government on the Armies of the Southern Cross. Throughout the world, many UWG officials were replaced by military officers and between 2022 and 2025, Anatole Leonard was able to stage a bloodless coup as he seized the reins of power on Earth. Completely the final phase in his rise to power, Anatole Leonard abandoned the rank of Field Marshal and adopted the title of Supreme Commander. Ironically, the late leader of the Zentraedi, Dolza, also used the rank of Supreme Commander to show his authority over the Zentraedi. Unfortunately, this era saw the rights of the Zentraedi set back to unprecedented levels. The most loyal and involved Zentraedi had left with the Pioneer Mission leaving only the remaining rouge Zentraedi and those that wanted no part of the Human's military forces. Even during the height of the Second Robotech War, the Armies of the Southern Cross did not approach and ignored all help from the Zentraedi remaining on Earth.
During Anatole Leonard's rise to power in the early 2020's, many officers within the RDF saw the way the world was changing and believed that the Armies of the Southern Cross was the only way to protect the planet. A large number of these officers transferred from the remaining RDF forces to the Southern Cross. Among them, was a skilled officer named Rolf Emerson, who would eventually be promoted to the rank of General and given the position of Chief of Staff of the Armies of the Southern Cross, directly under Supreme Commander Anatole Leonard.
All sections of the Armies of the Southern Cross grew during the 2020's, from increased civil defense units to a new space fleet to refitted outposts throughout the solar system. In many places on the planet, reconstruction took a backseat to building an effective military force that was even stronger then ever before. Supreme Commander Leonard and his allies in the United World Government believed that the REF would resist the changes that had occurred on Earth since their departure and were prepared to use military action against the REF Council, should it actually resist. One area that Anatole Leonard and his allies ignored were the seven colonies founded from 2015 to 2021, they were too far away and too weak to be important. Although communications were kept open through Space Station Liberty, supply ships stopped traveling to the colonies and military ships stopped patrolling those regions as pirate activity had virtually stopped.
Even the independent countries on Earth refused to challenge the power of the Armies of the Southern Cross. With the newly independent Merchant Republic in South America, the fear was felt even more acute, as a huge military force was located in the old Zentraedi Control Zone, just outside the border of the republic. Even the EBSIS, often considered the second greatest adversary during the 2010's after the rouge Zentraedi, became reluctant to offend or provoke the Armies of the Southern Cross. They stopped their continued expansion and even allowed some territory to rejoin the United World Government, although nothing of any importance. The EBSIS found itself torn in two different directions. On one hand it wanted to remain militarily competitive against the United World Government, but it had only a small and relatively primitive industrial base and did not even possess a space force. To make matters even worse, the Zentraedi forces in Siberia continued to prove a dangerous threat to the EBSIS and it they were a constant drain on resources throughout the 2020's and even into the Second Robotech War.
Supreme Commander Anatole Leonard's quiet coup and the inability of the independent countries on the Earth to challenge the Armies of the Southern Cross ensured that the Earth would remain firmly under the control of the Armies of the Southern Cross. During the second half of the 2020's, little occurred on the planet to change the situation, the only concern was the lack of any communication from the Pioneer Mission. As the years went by, a growing number of people within the Armies of the Southern Cross and the United World Government believed that the Robotech Masters might have overpowered the Pioneer Mission and were preparing an invasion of Earth, fortunately or unfortunately, these people were only half right.
Following Dr. Lang's departure from Earth with the Pioneer Mission, Dr. Lazlo Zand, who took control of the Robotech Research Group (RRG) on Earth, made radical changes in the group's organization. Conscious of the political realities of Earth following the departure of the REF, Dr. Zand appointed a former associate of Supreme Commander Anatole Leonard from South America to head the newly finished Robotech Research Center on the island of Japan in the Far East Sector. Bernard Andrews was not chosen for his intelligence or his skill in running a facility the size of the research center. Instead he was hired not only for his political connections to Anatole Leonard, but also for his business connections around the world, which Dr. Zand believed would be beneficial to the RRG.
The Robotech Research Center was involved in nearly all of the RRG's many research project, but the main project that interested Dr. Zand was deciphering the final mystery from the SDF-1: the alien artificial intelligence named Eve. Eve was originally discovered and named by Dr. Lang during the initial surveys of the SDF-1 after it crashed, but even after years of study, Eve was never fully understood. While Dr. Lang had secretly made a duplicate of Eve years before he left with the Pioneer Mission, the original version of Eve remained on Earth so the RRG could continue to study it in hopes of duplicating its amazing design. At the time of the incident all attempts to duplicate, not simply copy, the intelligence had failed, and Bernard Andrews less then stellar leadership of the research center did not improve matters.
When a forward scouting element of the Robotech Masters' fleet, consisting of only a single Tirolian destroyer, arrived in the Sol System in September 2027, it began a careful examination of the star system, keeping track of fleet movements, base locations, and the relative strength of the defenders of Earth. The ship's mission was to do a preliminary examination of the star system and then leave before it was detected. The ship would then rendezvous with the Masters' fleet when share all of the information it had gathered on the Sol System. After only a few weeks, the ship had located the buried SDF-1 and its cargo of dormant seeds of the Flower of Life, but the scientists onboard the ship also detected signs that the ship's computer was intact, although moved to a different part of the planet. Determined to capture the computer and bring it to the Robotech Masters, the scientists devised a plan to first infiltrate the Robotech Research Center and then take Eve. Unfortunately for the Tirolians, even before the first phase of their infiltration was complete Bernard Andrews was alerted to their presence and was on the verge of alerting the authorities about the unauthorized intrusion. For some unknown reason, instead of contacting the authorities, Andrews contacted the intruders and struck some kind of bargain with them. It is believed that the Tirolians agreed to allows Andrews to rule a large section of the planet after the Masters conquered the planet. Of course the Tirolian scientists had no authority to promise any such thing and the Masters were not even interested in conquering the planet anyway, but Andrews did not know this. Within hours of reaching an agreement with the Tirolians, Andrews completed concealed their intrusion in the center and began using his underworld business contacts to recruit a number of mercenaries to launch a raid against the research center to steal Eve and then destroy the center to conceal Andrews's involvement.
Andrews's plan was to recruit some mercenaries to break into the research center, using information and codes that he would provide them, and steal Eve's central processing and data modules and deliver the equipment to a third part. Andrews would then arrange for the Tirolians to pick up the modules from the third party and Andrews would then get his rewards. Unfortunately, the plan failed nearly from the beginning. The head of the Eve project, Dr. Mark Landry, was at the research center when the robbery occurred and he was able to completely isolate the modules that the mercenaries were to steal. Without access to the modules, the mercenaries were forced to abandon the assault, but were cut off by military reinforcements called by Dr. Landry. The captured mercenaries quickly revealed who had paid them for the mission and who had given them the information they used to bypass all of the center's security measures. Backtracking the money and examining the codes the mercenaries used quickly pointed back to Bernard Andrews, who had taken a vacation to Africa to provide an alibi in case it was needed.
Apprehended in Africa and returned to the Far East Sector, Andrews used his connections in the United World Government to get released from prison, and he went into hiding shortly thereafter. Without access to his personal fortune, he turned to underworld leaders to acquire the money he needed to payoff his government and business connections to orchestrate small disasters throughout the Far East Sector in order to distract the government and military from looking for him. By December 2027, the situation had deteriorated enough that the military leader in the Far Easy Sector declared a state of martial law and ordered her soldiers to search for Andrews. When the soldiers finally tracked Andrews down, he was being protected by a gang leader and in the ensuing firefight Bernard Andrews was killed.
While Bernard Andrews was a fugitive, Dr. Mark Landry was appointed as the head of the Robotech Research Center and was given access to Andrews's personal files. By the time Andrews was killed in the gun battle, the encryption protecting the files was broken and Dr. Landry discovered that Andrews had been working with "pirates in a space ship in orbit." Probably for security reasons, Andrews never recorded that the ship in orbit was alien in origin or belonged to the Robotech Masters. A small fleet of ships was assembled by the Armies of the Southern Cross to capture the ship, but the Tirolian ship immediately engaged the Human fleet, damaging many ships before it was eventually destroyed, taking all evidence with it. Following the destruction of the "pirate" ship, the entire incident was quickly and quietly buried by a deeply embarrassed United World Government. The only record of the incident was kept by the governor of the Far East Sector and would eventually by recovered from the ruins of the Far East Sector following the end of the Third Robotech War.
January 2029 marks the second invasion of the solar system by aliens. Nearly two decades after the Zentraedi first arrived in orbit of Earth, the Robotech Masters had arrived to finish what the Zentraedi could not. A reconnaissance mission, consisting of a single Mother Ship and a small fleet of other ships arrived to ensure that Earth was the planet where the Zentraedi Grand Fleet was destroyed. The Robotech Masters' reconnaissance fleet began its survey of the solar system by attacking Space Station Liberty, located in the asteroid belt. Realizing that the station would be critical to their plans of rebuilding their shattered empire, the reconnaissance fleet did not destroy the station, only crippling it before moving on. Along the way to Earth, the reconnaissance fleet also passed over Mars and destroyed Mars Base Langdon and the small space fleet located there. Fearing it could be destroyed as well, Jupiter Base Io, the only other outpost in the solar outside not on the moon, attempted to hide itself by cutting off communications with Earth. Whether the reconnaissance fleet had ever detected the outpost or not is unknown, only that it was never attacked during the Second Robotech War. By February, the reconnaissance fleet was near the Earth and had launched a raid on Moon Base Luna to gather information on the Humans and on Earth. Satisfied that this was the planet where the SDF-1 Macross was located, the reconnaissance fleet withdrew away from the Earth to await the arrival of the rest of the fleet.
With communication cut off to Space Station Liberty, Mars Base Langdon, Jupiter Base Io, and a sudden attack on Moon Base Luna, the Armies of the Southern Cross knew they were facing a powerful enemy, but they had no idea who they were. Foolishly, the main space fleets of the Tactical Space Corps were not even in orbit of the planet and were sitting in their docks on Earth. Nearly all of the ships would remain there until Supreme Commander Leonard organized a series of offensives in the second half of the war. However, a small detachment was sent into space to begin an investigation of the Moon Base Luna attack. During the investigation, the Global Military Police (GMP) were able to determine that the attackers were from the Tirolian Mercantile Empire because a description of the distinctive Bioroids had been entered into the information database compiled by the RDF from information taken from the surviving Zentraedi after the First Robotech War. In preparations for more attacks, the Southern Cross placed many of the reserve forces on high alert and abandoned the science outpost Moon Base Aluce-1 and transferred the personnel to either the military outpost Moon Base Luna or back to Earth. The Tactical Space Corps even sent a fleet to Mars, the asteroid belt to Jupiter, but the bulk of the fleet still remaining on Earth for no apparent reason. The fleets sent to investigate the other outposts were all forced to return by the reconnaissance fleet and it was assumed that they had all been either heavily damaged or destroyed by the aliens.
The rest of the Robotech Masters' fleet, heavily cannibalized in the final months of interstellar travel, arrived near the Earth in June 2029. The fleet, nearly drained of its Protoculture reserves during the final Fold Drive operation, had even been forced to abandon several of its most powerful ships, including a Macross Class Battle Fortress and a few Mother Ships. With only a small amount of power remaining, the Robotech Masters knew they had to acquire the Protoculture reserves from the SDF-1 Macross or they would never be able to rebuild their empire. Although the Tirolian Mercantile Empire had collapsed behind them and they considered themselves impoverished, the Robotech Masters still led a powerful fleet and remained as arrogant as ever: not once did they attempt to communicate with the people of Earth before they launched the first military operation of the Second Robotech War.
The first phase of the Robotech Masters' attack plan involved the destruction of the satellites in orbit of Earth and the jamming of communications across the entire planet. Unfortunately for the Robotech Masters, the Armies of the Southern Cross had never relied on their satellites very heavily. The Southern Cross realized that even a small space fleet that penetrated their defenses could severely disrupt any satellite system, so a huge investment had been made in line communication to link their forces together. The civilian sector was no so fortunate, and most civilian communications, from cell phones to television, were frequently blocked by the Robotech Masters. Another problem for the Robotech Masters was that they were unable to establish how effective their disruption was on Earth and a large number of ships were dedicated to this tactic long after it was rendered ineffective. Even if the Robotech Masters were forced to withdraw their ships for any reason, which occurred frequently, they would attempt to either launch an offensive to reposition the ships or sneak their ships back into position to block the communications that they thought were critical to the defense of the Armies of the Southern Cross.
To begin their military operations, the Robotech Masters sent one of their Mother Ships and several of their other ships into Earth orbit, while holding back most of their fleet. The fleet launched several simultaneous military strikes across the planet, including one against the Quebec Sector. The purpose of these strikes was to both probe the defenses of the Earth and to acquire more knowledge of the location of the SDF-1. These were the first real battles between the Armies of the Southern Cross and the Robotech Masters and they went very badly for the Southern Cross. In the Quebec Sector, their forces were easily overwhelmed and outmaneuvered by the powerful and mobile Bioroids and only with the help of the Alpha Tactical Armored Corps (ATAC), spearheaded by the 15th ATAC, were the Bioroids forced to retreat. Leading one of the 15th ATAC's tank companies was 2nd Lieutenant Dana Sterling, the daughter of Max and Miriya Sterling and recent graduate of the Southern Cross Officers Academy.
For her successful leadership of her tank company, the 15th Squadron of the 15th ATAC, Dana Sterling was promoted to 1st lieutenant and placed in permanent command of her company. She replaced 1st lieutenant Sean Phillips, who had been demoted to the rank of private first class after being convicted of sexually harassing a general's daughter. Only a few days later, Dana's 15th was also responsible for saving Fokker Air Base from another military raid, although she had to abandon her original mission, which was to defend a section of Monument City, located nearby. While some wanted to court martial Dana Sterling, her superiors within the 15th ATAC and Chief of Staff General Rolf Emerson decided to give her a commendation for her actions.
With two successes under her belt, Dana volunteered herself and several of her soldiers on a dangerous space mission. The mission was to reestablish contact with Space Station Liberty, if it had not already been destroyed by the Robotech Masters. The mission was led by Lieutenant Marie Crystal from the 7th Tactical Armored Corps' Black Lions Squadron, but began badly when one of the two shuttles launched suffered from a technical failure and exploded. The mission was again put in serious peril when the Robotech Masters attacked the remaining shuttle, but Dana Sterling and Maries Crystal were able to fight off of the Bioroids and communication was once again established with Space Station Liberty, although only temporarily. Dana received a third commendation for her role in the successful mission. After Space Station Liberty reestablished contact with Earth, however sporadic, the factory satellite rebuilt its FTL communication array and sent out a distress signal to the REF fleets with the Pioneer Mission. Unfortunately, the station was too badly damaged to know whether its signal was received properly.
After several more raids, the Robotech Masters learned of the location of the SDF-1's remains and after an initial investigation, they discovered that the ship's Protoculture reserves had not been removed by the Humans, which greatly surprised the Robotech Masters. The tons of fertile seeds for the Flower of Life remained in the ship's reactors undisturbed. The Robotech Masters' were thrilled that they were so close to getting what they wanted; with the fertile seeds, the Robotech Masters could begin rebuilding their empire, using the Robotech Factory Satellite as their main production facility. Unfortunately, Dana Sterling had stumbled upon the Bioroids and attacked them with her tank company in an effort to rescue one of her captured soldiers. With reinforcements, the Armies of Southern Cross were able to force the Bioroids to retreat before they could extract any of the fertile seeds. The Robotech Masters, aboard the only Mother Ship in orbit of the Earth, ordered their ship to move to low Earth orbit near the location of the SDF-1's ruins in preparation of a major military offensive.
With the discovery that the Robotech Masters could land troops without the Southern Cross knowing, Supreme Commander Anatole Leonard ordered a full scale assault on the Mother Ship in low Earth orbit, spearheaded by fighters from the Tactical Air Corps, over the objections of General Emerson. General Emerson believed that a diplomatic solution could be reached if the motives of the Robotech Masters could be discovered and he continued to voice his position to Leonard and to the United World Government, but the Supreme Command would not be dissuaded. The attack, launched in the early part of November 2029, failed miserably. It was not until members of the 15th ATAC were able to decipher strange energy readings from the Mother Ship later that month was a plan devised to destroy the ship. To launch the attack, Lieutenant Sterling's 15th Squadron was inserted onto the top of the huge Mother Ship where they could exploit a vulnerable spot in the ship's reactor. The tank company was successful in their attack, but a miscalculation prevented the ship from being destroyed, instead the ship was crippled and it fell to the ground just outside of Monument City.
Wanting to exploit their advantage, the Tactical Air Corps attacked the ship again, but the ship's formidable defenses continued to work and the fighters were forced to retreat. A serious ground offensive was organized, but it too was repulsed by the ship's defenses. For their part, the Robotech Masters were horrified by the current predicament and dedicated all of their resources to repairing their ship and preventing the Humans from severely damaging their ship. The Robotech Masters launched only a few military operations while stranded on the ground, mainly to collect Humans for further studying. Also during this time, the 15th Squadron was inserted into the Mother Ship to conduct a dangerous reconnaissance mission and they became the first Humans to come in close contact with the Tirolians and the civilization that the Robotech Masters had created within the Mother Ships. During the 15th's escape from the Mother Ship, they even managed to capture a Bioriod pilot, although he was fatally injured. When the 15th Squadron was debriefed, their stories of the civilization within the Mother Ship were told to the Southern Cross scientists, who immediately rejected it. The scientists were so convinced that the Bioroid pilots and all of the Tirolians on the ships were organic androids, they tired to convince General Emerson that the soldiers of the 15th Squadron had become mentally unstable and should be committed to a mental institution. The general refused to listen to the scientists and gave all of the surviving members of the 15th Squadron commendations.
As was typical for the Southern Cross scientists, they made no effort to contact or work with the Robotech Research Group, headquartered in the rebuilt Far East Sector. Even the deceased Bioroid pilot was destroyed as soon as the scientists were finished examining it, preventing any other group from examining him. General Emerson was furious at the actions of the Southern Cross scientists, but they had Supreme Commander Leonard's protection, so there was nothing that General Emerson could do.
By December 2029, the Robotech Masters ordered another portion of their fleet, including several more Mother Ships to approach Earth. One of these ships entered the Earth's atmosphere and docked with the damaged Mother Ship to bring it back into orbit. Unable to even defeat one of the ships, the Armies of the Southern Cross were powerless to stop the two ships from escaping, but that did not prevent them from launching a pointless battle against the Mother Ships. Prior to their rescue, the Robotech Masters had ordered all of the other Mother Ships to modify their reactors to remove the vulnerability that had crippled their flagship.
During the rendezvous operation, the Armies of the Southern Cross witnessed one of the Bioroids being fired upon by the rescued Mother Ship. Several days later, the Bioroid pilot was recovered and taken under the custody of the Global Military Police. To prevent the pilot's destruction, General Emerson kept the existence of the captured and healthy pilot a secret from Supreme Commander Leonard and much of the his own staff for several weeks. The pilot was examined by the Robotech Research Group's Monument City branch and determined to be a normal Human being. The Human, who called himself Zor, the same name as the creator of Protoculture, remembered nothing of his past except that he had been a soldier and he had fought in a terrible battle. The doctors believed that Zor must have been a soldier in one of the independent militaries and had been captured and brainwashed by the Robotech Masters. When his memories were stimulated after he encountered Dana Sterling, Zor was trained by the Alpha Tactical Armored Corps and assigned to Dana's 15th Squadron. Although Dana was thrilled to have the attractive and intense Zor in her squadron, many of the other soldiers were suspicious and several even hated the former Bioroid pilot because he was responsible for killing several of their colleagues. Unknown to the Armies of the Southern Cross, Zor, known as Zor Prime to the Robotech Masters, was the last surviving clone of the original scientist that had originally discovered Protoculture.
With the Robotech Masters' fleet in close proximity to Earth, even if they were no longer in low Earth orbit, the number of military incursions across the planet rose dramatically during the months following the rescue of the downed Mother Ship. These incursions were small in scope, but heavily damaging to the Armies of the Southern Cross, even Moon Base Luna was destroyed during a particularly large offensive, although the abandoned Moon Base Aluce-1 was undamaged. Without clear directions or orders, the Tactical Space Corps continued to keep most of their fleet on Earth and only mounted small scale attacks against solitary Tirolian ships.
This all changed in March 2030 with the arrival of the Hannibal, a Tokugawa cruiser from the Pioneer Mission. Launching an attack against the Mother Ships soon after it defolded in orbit of Earth, the Hannibal was destroyed, but not before it rammed one of the Mother Ships, causing it to explode. The rescued crew of the Hannibal brought news that the Pioneer Mission had still not discovered the location of Tirol and that the Hannibal had only returned after communications with Space Station Liberty had been suddenly disrupted during the Robotech Masters' initial reconnaissance force arrived in early 2029 and not from any distress call. Unfortunately, Captain John Carpenter, the captain of the Hannibal since it was launched in 2015, told Supreme Commander Leonard that he should not expect any more reinforcements from the Pioneer Mission. With his hopes for a returning REF ruined, Supreme Commander Leonard ordered the Tactical Space Corps to develop plans to bring the battle to the enemy fleet; no longer would the Robotech Masters have free rein over the space around Earth, they would have to fight for it.
In April 2030, the first major space offensive was lunched by the Tactical Space Corps against the Robotech Masters' fleet. As had occurred throughout the war, the attack failed to cause significant damage, but did force the Tirolian fleet to withdraw most of forces away from Earth orbit. After the battle, the Southern Cross fleet withdrew to Moon Base Aluce-1 to recuperate. A relief mission, called Air Cavalry 1, was launched to aid the Southern Cross fleet, but it was attacked by the Robotech Masters and had to be rescued by the fleet it was supposed to help. With the rekindling of the war, General Emerson once again approached Supreme Commander Leonard and the United World Government advocating diplomacy with the Robotech Masters. Once again, Emerson was ignored, but this time, Anatole Leonard had devised a way to silence General Emerson: the general was to personally command the second space offensive. General Emerson was not the only political adversary of Supreme Commander Leonard assigned to the second offensive either, many of Emerson's loyal aides and supporters also found that they were being sent into space along with him. Reluctantly, the general went along with the plan because he felt that, as a soldier, it was not his place to make policy.
As part of the second offensive, the 15th Squadron was tasked with infiltrating one of the Mother Ships to sabotage the ship from within. It was believed that Zor would remember some details of the ships once he was inside one, giving the 15th Squadron an additional advantage. Unfortunately, what neither Zor nor the Armies of the Southern Cross realized was that the Robotech Masters had placed a surveillance device in Zor's brain, allowing them to see and hear everything he experienced. The Robotech Masters had time to prepare their forces for the second offensive, but even their defenses were unable to stop General Emerson's ship from physically striking their flagship, tearing a huge gash in the Mother Ship's hull, which the 15th Squadron used to enter the ship. The second offensive fleet was forced to withdraw soon after having suffered heavy damage.
Inside of the Mother Ship, the 15th Squadron was separated and the Robotech Masters' reasserted their control over Zor, forcing him to betray the rest of his squadron. The 15th Squadron eventually escaped captivity with the assistance of a Tirolian clone named Musica and together with the rescued Zor, the squadron overloaded the ship's reactor core. Shortly after the 15th Squadron left the Mother Ship, but before it exploded, the Robotech Masters evacuated as many of their soldiers and clones from the doomed Mother Ship and transferred them to the other Mother Ships. Rescued during another attack by the second offensive, the 15th Squadron was returned to Earth. Traveling secretly with the tank company was the clone Musica. Dana Sterling was unwilling to turn Musica over to the GMP and lied about her identity upon their return to Earth.
As if by a miracle, a small fleet of ships from the Pioneer Mission returned to Earth just in time to join the third offensive against the Robotech Masters' fleet. The REF ships reported that the leaders of the REF had received the distress call sent by Space Station Liberty earlier in the war and they had returned to offer their assistance and to help rebuild the damaged factory satellite. With the REF ships, the Tactical Space Corps was able to continuously attack the Robotech Masters' fleet, draining their supplies of Protoculture and Bioroid pilots. Sensing that their capabilities were being drained, the Robotech Masters prepared themselves for a final, full scale attack on the Earth and the Armies of the Southern Cross. No longer satisfied with capturing the SDF-1's Protoculture reactor, the Robotech Masters wanted to punish the Human militaries that had impeded their efforts to rebuild the Tirolian Mercantile Empire. As the Robotech Masters were preparing for their final offensive, Supreme Commander Leonard was ordering the Armies of the Southern Cross to prepare for their own offensive. Using the remaining space ships that had spent the war on Earth, the Tactical Space Corps nearly doubled in size and all military units across the planet were placed on high alert.
In July 2030, only eighteen months after the Robotech Masters' reconnaissance fleet arrived in the solar system, the Armies of the Southern Cross and the Robotech Masters launched their final offensives against each other. On Earth, the highly decorated 15th Squadron was not assigned to the Southern Cross offensive; instead, it was assigned to track down Private First Class Bowie Grant and the Tirolian clone Musica. Bowie Grant had first met Musica during the 15th Squadron's first infiltration of the Robotech Masters' flagship and he had fled the 15th Squadron's headquarters after the GMP discovered her presence. When the 15th Squadron eventually caught up with Private Grant at the ruins of the SDF-1, they decided not to turn him and Musica over to the GMP, in response, the entire 15th Squadron was branded as traitors by the GMP.
Elsewhere on Earth and in space, the Armies of the Southern Cross and the Robotech Masters were engaged in long, protracted battle. Even the EBSIS was forced to fight alongside the Armies of the Southern Cross or be overrun by the Robotech Masters' military forces. Both sides suffered horrible casualties and early in the space battle, General Emerson's ship, the Tristar, was destroyed, but General Emerson and several others were captured and brought before the Robotech Masters. The Robotech Masters even authorized the use of reflex warheads and destroyed a large number of the rebuilt cities on the planet, including Monument City. Supreme Commander Anatole Leonard and Senator Moran were both killed in the fiery explosion that consumed Monument City.
Using their special device in Zor's brain, the Robotech Masters were able to locate their clone and contact him. The Robotech Masters offered to trade General Emerson and the other prisoners in exchange for Zor and Musica, who was critical in maintaining the morale of the Tirolian clone population. Zor and Musica agreed and together with the 15th Squadron, they boarded a transport ship that took them up to the Robotech Masters' new flagship. Unfortunately, the Robotech Masters had set up a trap and General Emerson and most of the prisoners were killed in the crossfire.
With the Mother Ship nearly abandoned, the 15th Squadron was able to escape the trap and instigate a riot among the Tirolian clone population against the Robotech Masters. The Tirolian clones were evacuated from the ship by the 15th Squadron and only Zor and Lieutenant Sterling remained onboard to challenge the Robotech Masters. Confronting the Robotech Masters in their command chamber, Zor killed all three and took control of the Mother Ship. After forcing Dana Sterling into an escape pod, Zor exploded the Mother Ship directly over the ruins of the SDF-1 in hopes that he would destroy the remaining fertile seeds of the Flower of Life. Zor believed that by destroying the fertile seeds, he could atone for the original discovery of Protoculture. Unfortunately, Zor had miscalculated the destructive ability of the ship and the seeds were not destroyed. Even worse, the seeds and their airborne equivalents, the spores, were launched into the Earth's atmosphere, where they spread over the entire planet.
With the deaths of the Robotech Masters, the remaining Tirolian forces were thrown into total confusion. The Armies of the Southern Cross pushed their advantage and overwhelmed most of the Tirolian fleet. Enemy ships began falling out of the sky and crashing onto the planet, much as the Zentraedi did during the First Robotech War. Eventually, the final remnants of the Tirolian fleet were defeated in battle, but the cost was enormous. No longer a huge military force, the Armies of the Southern Cross were suddenly leaderless and without much of the strength or political support that it had relied on for most of its existence.
With the destruction of the last of the Tirolian fleet in August 2030, the Armies of the Southern Cross found themselves in a strange position. Their leader, Supreme Commander Anatole Leonard, had been killed and their main command center, Monument City, has been destroyed. Unsure of how to proceed, the Armies became more and more fractured and focused on regional issues. In space, contact was reestablished with Jupiter Base Io and large efforts were made to ensure that the fleet and its remaining outposts, Moon Base Aluce-1 and Jupiter Base Io, were as self-sufficient as possible. Space Station Liberty sent a message to the REF that the Robotech Masters had been defeated, but the station was incapable of receiving any transmissions on its FTL communications array. Within the United World Government, the politicians were scrambling and increasingly desperate. For much of the past decade, Supreme Commander Leonard and Senator Moran controlled the UWG, and most of the senators were powerless to do anything about it, now they suddenly had all the power, but the infrastructure of the world was nearly destroyed.
For the rest of 2030 and much of 2031, the United World Government became increasingly chaotic and disorganized. At first, very little changed, but as time progressed, needed shipments of food and supplies were not produced, not paid for, and not sent to their destinations. The United World Government lost the faith of the people and the EBSIS and the other independent countries took advantage of the situation by expanding their borders and their influence. Coming to the same decision as the RDF did following the First Robotech War, the Armies of the Southern Cross refused to join any side in the conflict between the UWG and the independent countries.
The neutrality of the Southern Cross was the final nail in the United World Government's coffin: the government had no money, no support, and suddenly no military. The last official session of the United World Government senate was on September 20, 2031. What followed the end of the UWG was the total collapse of order in North America, Europe, Australia, and the other areas that had been directly controlled by the government. Some areas, such as Africa, Asia, and South America, were quickly conquered by the EBSIS or other independent countries, but North America was being ripped apart by anarchy and the EBSIS only established a mild presence in the area, mostly along the west coast of the continent.
Disgusted by the collapse of the United World Government and the actions of the Armies of the Southern Cross, Dana Sterling, the remains of her 15th Squadron, and a group of loyal soldiers and Tirolian civilian clones commandeered a number of fold capable vessels from the orbiting space fleet and left the Sol star system. Dana's goal was to hook up with the Pioneer Mission and convince the REF to return to Earth and help reestablish order on the planet. Little did Dana Sterling realize that her journey would take years and once she finally located Tirol, virtually retracing the slow path of the Pioneer Mission, she would enter the REF Civil War, which was locked in a bitter stalemate that she would break. With the departure of Dana Sterling and the defections that were sweeping through the Armies of the Southern Cross and the tiny group of RDF that had survived the war, both organizes ceased to exist by the end of the 2032, the same year that the EBSIS took control of the Scandinavia Sector, the former capital of the United World Government.
Two groups, the Armies of the Southern Cross and the Tirolian fleet, led by arrogant leaders, Supreme Commander Anatole Leonard and the Robotech Masters, respectively, would launch a devastating and totally unnecessary war against each other. This war would lead to not only the collapse of the United World Government, but the arrival of the Invid on Earth.
As the seeds and spores of the Flower of Life spread across Earth, the Protoculture energy signals were detected by the powerful Invid Sensor Nebula that the Invid Regis had activated. The Regis had been searching for the Robotech Masters, but what she had found was even better, she had located the Flower of Life, the plant that the Robotech Masters had taken from the Invid race. The Regis abandoned her husband and his war against the Sentinels to travel to the insignificant planet where the Flower of Life was growing. She took her entire half of the Invid race and descended upon the planet like a firestorm.
The actions of Anatole Leonard may have helped start the war, but the actions of Dana Sterling could be considered to be the key to wining the war. While the trained and dedicated soldiers of the Armies of the Southern Cross should not be discounted, 1st Lieutenant Dana Sterling, leading her 15th Squadron and Zor Prime, was responsible for destroying two Mother Ships, infiltrating Mother Ships three times, and causing the deaths of the Robotech Masters. These actions alone should brand her as a hero of the war, but her betrayal at the end of the war and her abandonment of Earth continue to cast a shadow over her with the people of Earth.