The devastation caused during the Zentraedi Holocaust that destroyed 95% of the population of Earth cannot be ignored, but at least the survivors were able to claim victory over the Zentraedi and were able to rebuild. It would not be for nearly two decades after the end of the First Robotech War that the Earth would be seriously threatened again, but the aftermath of the Second Robotech War set the stage for an invasion that would cause devastation on a scale not seen since the Zentraedi Holocaust. During one of the final battles of the Second Robotech War, the Robotech Masters' flagship exploded directly over the resting spot of the SDF-1, which caused the fertile seeds and spores of the Flower of Life to spread across a wide area of the planet. Expanding aggressively, the plant quickly spread to the four corners of the world.
In an unfortunate turn of events, the Invid Sensor Nebula, a strange piece of technology that allowed the Invid to search large sections of the galaxy for Protoculture and the Flower of Life, picked up the spreading presence on Earth and alerted its controller, the Invid Regis. A huge Invid military force was organized with the single-minded mission of reclaiming the Flower of Life and taking control of whatever planet it was on; the seeds of the Third Robotech War were sown.
The Third Robotech War is an important chapter in Human history. It begins with a small effort to fortify the Earth against a possible Invid threat continues to a full scale invasion of the Earth by the Invid and ends with the devastating Battle of Reflex Point. The Third Robotech War shows the valiant struggle of small bands of resistance fighters and the horrible planning and bad assumptions of the REF stationed on Tirol. The end of the Third Robotech War is also considered the end of the first era of Human expansion into space and will also be the final volume in my (Colonel Richard Lorne) series of historical books that describe the period of Human history stretching from the beginning of the Third World War in 1996 to the end of the Third Robotech War in 2043.
With the sudden onset of the Sentinels' War and aware of the deteriorating situation on Earth, the REF Council ordered Space Station Liberty, with all of its forces, to fold to Tirol. Having finally repaired its damaged and only partially operational communications system, Space Station Liberty received the order from the REF Council and folded to Tirol in late 2032. With the resources of the factory satellite, the REF was able to begin construction of new ships to form the Mercury Defense Group, which was responsible for the defense of the Valivarre star system, provide new ships to the Sentinels, and to organize a defense fleet to send to Earth. Wanting to provide some measure of defense for Earth following the collapse of the United World Government, the Plenipotentiary Council ordered the REF to organize the Venus Defense Group. The fleet was to organize the defense of the Earth by protecting the star system and working with the local governments, particularly the EBSIS, to organize the defense of the planet's surface. The person selected to lead the Venus Defense Group was the charismatic Colonel Wolff, a decorated war hero from the Malcontent Uprisings and the first years of the Sentinels' War and who would have been promoted to Brigadier General by the REF Council had he not refused.
The Venus Defense Group was sent to Earth in two waves. The first wave, led personally by Colonel Wolff, arrived in the Sol System in mid-2033, several months after the final collapse of the RDF and the Armies of the Southern Cross. Not willing to allow the current political situation to stop him, Colonel Wolff made arrangements with many independent nations, including the EBSIS and the Merchant Republic in South America, to establish a series of bases on Earth and throughout the Sol System. To this end, the colonel built small bases and supply depots at strategic locations across the planet and the solar system. Moon Base Copernicus was even built over the ruins of Moon Base Luna to serve as the headquarters of the REF's forces outside of Earth. To help protect the Sol system from being accidentally detected by the Invid, all FTL communications to and from the star system were stopped and Tirol stopped receiving reports from Colonel Wolff several days after the second wave of the Venus Defense Group arrived on Earth.
The second wave of ships arrived in January 2034 to establish the REF's headquarters on Earth at "Point K," a previously chosen site in South America. Unfortunately, within weeks of starting construction of Point K, Colonel Wolff had a major disagreement with the colonel chosen by the REF Council to command Point K. Unable or unwilling to resolve the dispute, Colonel Wolff left Point K with a large number of troops to establish Soldier Town several hundred kilometers away from Point K. While he was nominally in charge of the Venus Defense Group, Colonel Wolff took less and less interest in coordinating the efforts of the troops not located in Soldier Town. Without coordination from Colonel Wolff, many of the REF's resources began to scatter, with groups turning inward on their own projects and not concerning themselves with the projects of others. The space forces continued to fortify their positions in the solar system, while many soldiers in North America were organized under Captain John Carpenter and the remnants of the Southern Cross's Global Military Police.
In all of the REF Council's carefully laid plans, it was assumed that if the Invid ever located the Earth and decided to attack, and this was most defiantly not a certainty, the invasion force would resemble the forces that had attacked the Sentinels' home worlds and Tirol. What the REF Council had never anticipated was that the Regis and her entire half of the military, completely undamaged by the ongoing Sentinels' War, would attack the Earth in a single, overwhelming invasion. On June 5, 2034, the Invid arrived on Earth. The first targets of the Invid were densely populated areas and large, easily identifiable military installations. The EBSIS, the most powerful force on Earth in 2034, fought valiantly against the alien invasion, but they were quickly overwhelmed and by the end of the first month of the invasion, the EBSIS ceased to exist as a nation.
After only two months, the Invid had subjugated huge parts of the Earth and had destroyed the pitifully small space fleet the REF had hoped would defend the planet from attack. Escaping detection, Moon Base Copernicus followed the tactics of Jupiter Base Io during the Second Robotech War and stopped all communications with the REF forces on Earth in hopes of preventing the Invid from discovering the location of the Earth-bound troops and of the moon base itself. Point K and Soldier Town also survived the Invid's initial attack and paved the way in supplying local civilians with military equipment and rudimentary training to create a string of resistance groups across the planet. By the end of 2034, the Invid Regis believed she had complete control over the entire planet and the solar system. She began construction of a massive hive complex in North America to house her headquarters and a large portion of her forces.
During much of 2035, 2036, and 2037 the REF, with the volunteers from the former RDF and Armies of the Southern Cross, lost battle after battle against the Invid. Across the planet, from Europe to Asia to North America, Humans fought against the Invid; former EBSIS soldiers formed the core of the resistance groups in both Europe and Asia, but the REF had most of their strength in North and South America. Unfortunately, there was nothing that the Humans could do against the overwhelming strength of the Invid. Captain John Carpenter led most of his forces in a full scale assault on the Invid's nearly complete headquarters in North America, but his forces were slaughtered and Carpenter and his remaining troops were forced to retreat in disarray.
To complete their invasion of the Earth, the Invid spent most of 2038 and 2039 placing their mobile hive ships in strategic locations across the planet and building or capturing bases in other locations on the planet. In addition to military bases, the Invid established a vast network of Protoculture Farms to harvest the Flowers of Life that covered the planet. The Invid also built relationships with many Human communities under their control. Many of these communities posed no threat to the Invid and were mostly ignored, but were watched closely for any use of Protoculture. Other communities willingly joined the Invid in exchange for power over their neighbors and a semblance of a normal life; some communities even established traps to lure resistance fighters before they were turned over to the Invid. Several communities, kingdoms, and republics, especially in the Americas, where the Flower of Life was more prevalent, even controlled all local Protoculture cultivation, with the Invid only arriving at designated times to collect the manufactured Protoculture. Many of these communities were branded as collaborators by the resistance fighters and most were avoided, a situation that appealed to these communities as well. The Invid continued to control the Earth without incident until 2041 when the first major fleet of REF ships returned to Earth.
Deeply engrossed in the Sentinels' War, the Plenipotentiary Council and the REF Council quickly forgot about the Earth, but as the years went by, some members, particularly Dr. Lang, became concerned that the Earth had failed to send any word to Tirol to report on the situation on Earth. Unfortunately, the REF Civil War erupted and it was not until 2041 that the newly reformed REF Council would turn its attention back to Earth. Admiral Rick Hunter, back in control of the REF Council, became convinced that there were serious problems on Earth, including the possibility that the Venus Defense Group had been overwhelmed by an Invid occupation force. To ascertain the status of the Venus Defense Group and to liberate the Earth if needed, the REF Council organized the Mars Attack Group. The fleet, consisting of over twenty ships and thousands of soldiers, was deemed large enough to deal with any Invid threat on Earth and was launched in the middle of 2041, but it would not reach the Earth until December of that year.
When the Mars Attack Group arrived, the REF boldly approached the Earth looking for signs of the Invid. At first they were surprised by the lack of any Invid ships in orbit of the planet and the absence of the REF fleet that supposed to be protecting the Earth, but that surprise quickly turned to horror when the sheer number of Invid troops became apparent to the commanders of the Mars Attack Group. Still feeling confident and unwilling to withdraw and admit defeat, the REF fleet made their final approach of Earth with the intention of rendezvousing with the soldiers at Point K before they attacked the Invid's completed headquarters, codenamed Reflex Point. An old military saying claims that few plans survive contact with the enemy, and the plans of the Mars Attack Group were no different. Within minutes of reaching an orbit around the Earth, the fleet was attacked by a massive force of Invid launched from the planet. Quickly overwhelming their defenses, the Invid began inflicting heavy losses on the fleet before the commanders issued a distress call to any and all REF forces to assist them. Foolishly believing they could change the result of the battle, many resistance groups associated with the REF attacked local Invid targets and Point K revealed its presence to the Invid in hopes of allowing some of the fleet to survive and retreat. The only result of the distress call was exposing many resistance groups to the Invid, which quickly crushed them, and revealing the location of Point K. Horrified by the slaughter of their comrades, the REF in Moon Base Copernicus nevertheless remained out of the conflict in order to prevent the Invid from determining their location. Soldier Town also remained out of the conflict under the direct order of Colonel Wolff, even though many of his soldiers wanted to join the fight.
Within an hour of arriving in Earth orbit, the battle was over and the Mars Attack Group was destroyed. No ships survived the encounter and the few soldiers that remained alive were scattered across the planet. Many soldiers continued to South America in hopes of reaching Point K, while others attacked Reflex Point in a vain attempt at revenge, but most were picked off by the Invid as they entered the planet's atmosphere. One pilot, Lieutenant Commander Scott Bernard, whose career was distinguished but not spectacular, would unknowingly catch the eye of the Invid Regis and would play a small, but pivotal role in the resistance movement of Earth.
No one knows what originally attracted the Invid Regis to Lieutenant Commander Scott Bernard and his resistance group of civilians and ex-military soldiers, but there is little doubt that his group received special attention. There were many resistance groups across the planet and some that caused as much or more damage as Lieutenant Bernard's group, but none of them received the same sort of attention. Originally landing in South America, Lieutenant Bernard joined forces with a former military officer from the Venus Defense Group named Lieutenant Lancer Belmont. Lancer traveled through the Americas under the alias of Yellow Dancer, a popular singer, but he had been trapped in South America when the Invid established a series of military bases in Central America that blocked off the overland route between the two continents. Lieutenant Bernard also teamed up with several other civilians and another former military soldier named Jim Austin, affectionately known as Lunk.
Lieutenant Bernard's band eventually stumbled upon Soldier Town and temporarily joined Colonel Wolff's soldiers. To the experienced military eyes of Lieutenant Bernard, Lancer, and Lunk, the soldiers in Soldier Town seemed too relaxed and almost unaware that outside of their town the Invid were slowly crushing the Human race. Soon the group realized that the colonel had sold out to the Invid. In exchange for leading soldiers to their deaths every once in a while, the Invid promised not to attack Soldier Town as long as it did not actively engage the Invid. Prior to the band's departure from Soldier Town, Colonel Wolff was killed during an attempt to extract Lieutenant Bernard from the area surrounding the Invid hive where Colonel Wolff had sent many of his own soldiers to their deaths. With Colonel Wolff no longer protecting Soldier Town, the Invid attacked with all of their strength, swooping in to destroy the town and everything in it. Unaware of what had occurred in Soldier Town, Lieutenant Bernard continued his journey towards Point K and Reflex Point.
The first major contribution of Lieutenant Bernard's to the war against the Invid was an accident, although a beneficial one. The lieutenant had stumbled upon the Invid's first Genesis Pit on Earth and directly through his actions and the actions of his team the pit was destroyed, costing the Invid a huge amount of research and resources. It is believed that this is the point where Lieutenant Bernard's group came to the attention of the Invid Regis, but why she chose to follow and study his group and not destroy it is unknown. With the destruction of the Genesis Pit, the Invid Regis was forced to move several plans ahead of schedule, one plan was the creation of a new Invid race that appeared completely human and the other plan was the total and complete destruction of Point K.
Following the destruction of the Genesis Pit, Lieutenant Bernard's band reached Point K only days after the Invid's attack. Amid the wreckage and ruin of the base and surrounding towns that had been the home of thousands of REF soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians, the band discovered a naked woman with no memory of her past. Believing that she was suffering from extreme trauma, the woman, named Marlene by Lieutenant Bernard, was brought into the group and traveled with them, but what no one knew was that Marlene, called Ariel by the Invid, was actually an Invid agent created by the Invid Regis to spy on the Humans. Unfortunately, during Ariel / Marlene's insertion into the ruins of Point K, she was damaged and lost not only her programmed Human memories, but also her real memories as an Invid agent.
Continuing to travel towards his only remaining objective, Reflex Point, Lieutenant Bernard continued to both avoid the Invid and launch daring assaults against them. One of their mountain fortresses blocking passage between the Americas was destroyed by his group, as well several other Invid facilities with the help of temporary allies, each time getting closer and closer to Reflex Point. During this time, the Invid Regis had waited impatiently for the first report from Ariel, but she has not stopped her evolutionary experiments and had transformed several of her best soldiers into Human-like Invid troops to act as the commanders of her military. Her first two commanders, a male named Corg and a female named Sera, became increasingly unstable as they attempted to deal with their Human emotions. Corg became obsessed with the superiority of the Invid race and each defeat made him angrier, more enraged, and vicious, while Sera became more confused and indecisive, as her feelings for the Humans, particularly Lancer Belmont, and her loyalty to the Invid Regis began to conflict with each other.
Corg and Sera, appointed as the Regis's deputies, began to argue with each other about the policies of the Invid race. In the ruins of the rebuilt New York City, an area that had been designated as an Invid experiment in Human behavior, Corg accused Sera of weakness and hesitation for not fulfilling her orders to destroy the Humans once the experiment was completed. Sera countered that the experiment had not ended because there were still more things to learn from the Humans. While Sera had been given authority in New York City, Corg left the hive with a large force of Invid troops against her orders and began to destroy the Human population. Fortunately for the population of New York City, Lieutenant Bernard and his group had arrived several days earlier and were able to destroy the hive located in the city. While Sera and Corg easily escaped the destruction, most of the Invid soldiers did not and Corg was forced to call off his assault on the city. During the attack, Sera was finally able to locate Ariel / Marlene and confront her. Sera was surprised to learn that Ariel / Marlene has forgotten everything, but Ariel / Marlene was more surprised to learn that she was an Invid agent and refused to accept it, she also refused to mention the encounter with Sera to her friends. Lieutenant Bernard's group left the wreckage of New York City soon afterwards in hopes of reaching Reflex Point with only a few more days of travel.
With the destruction of the Mars Attack Group, the REF Council finally began to realize the extent of the Invid presence on Earth. The REF Council formed two final attack groups, the Jupiter Attack Group and the Saturn Attack Group, to finally liberate the Earth. The two groups were equipped with new equipment, new tactics, and a new goal. Instead of blindly attacking the Invid, Jupiter Attack Group would arrive in the solar system to both probe the Invid's defenses and establish an infrastructure in the solar system that would support the Saturn Attack Group once it arrived. Jupiter Attack Group was many times the size of the Mars Attack Group, but Saturn Attack Group would consist of nearly the entire REF fleet and the SDF-3 itself; the remaining ships would stay near Tirol as part of the Mercury Defense Group.
The Jupiter Attack Group arrived in the Sol System in mid-2043 and established contact with many military outposts in the system, including Jupiter Base Io and Moon Base Copernicus. A large portion of fleet was organized for an assault mission to "probe" the Invid's defenses, but the end result amounted to a badly planned attack near Reflex Point, the most heavily protected part of the planet. Within a few short hours of entering the Earth's atmosphere, the fleet was destroyed, but a large number of soldiers were able to land and engage the Invid from the ground. While the ground units were destroyed as well, the Invid had suffered heavy casualties in their reaction forces, especially in their ability to quickly and easily detect ships approaching the Earth from space. Lieutenant Bernard's group made contact with some survivors of the Jupiter Attack Group and were informed of the pending arrival of the Saturn Attack Group. The three military members of the group, Scott Bernard, Lancer Belmont, and Lunk, joined forces with the REF soldiers in order to participate in the coming conflict.
Throughout the month of July 2043, the various elements of the Saturn Attack Group arrived in the solar system. By using the shadow devices to hide the Protoculture energy signatures, the REF was able to land tens of thousands of soldiers across the planet, with the heaviest concentration around Reflex Point. By the end of July, everything was in place for the final battle against the Invid, but when the final wave of ships arrived, the SDF-3 and REF Council was missing. The ship departed with the final wave of ships from Tirol, but it did not materialize in the Sol System, although the powerful Neutron-S missiles and every other ship had made the journey without any problems. Assuming command of the fleet, Admiral Reinhardt ordered the attack to go forward without the SDF-3 or Admiral Rick Hunter.
On July 29, 2043, just over nine years after the Invid Invasion, the Battle of Reflex Point began. The initial campaign consisted of a simultaneous ground-air assault with precise orbital bombardment from the REF fleet in orbit of the Earth. While the main focus of the attack was Reflex Point, the REF also attacked as many Invid strongholds as possible. With the aid of the shadow devices, the REF was able to move a large portion of their fleet within striking distance before the Invid ever knew they were there. The shadow devices also continued to be effective well into the fight because they severely distorted all Invid sensors. The Invid fought back with their typical ferocity and very quickly, the Saturn Attack Group was forced to throw in all of their reserves.
The ground and air forces, including Lieutenant Bernard, Lancer Belmont, Lunk, attacked Reflex Point directly, but they met with heavy resistance early on and their advance was slowed. The civilians that had been a part of Lieutenant Bernard's resistance group also joined the fighting, against the orders of the REF and the wishes of Lieutenant Bernard, but they felt that they had not traveled for two years to not take part in the final battle against the Invid.
Finally accepting her Invid heritage after an encounter with the Invid at the site of the final battle between the Jupiter Attack Group's assault force and the Invid, Ariel / Marlene returned to Reflex Point to confront the Invid Regis. With the support and help of Sera, Ariel / Marlene gained access to the central chamber where the Regis was located. Ariel / Marlene also safely guided Lieutenant Bernard and the members of his resistance group to the central chamber so that they could participate in her confrontation with the Regis. While the participants of that encounter have been very vague about what really occurred, it is known that Ariel / Marlene and Sera tried to convince the Invid Regis that she was doing to the Humans was no different then what the Robotech Masters had done to the Invid race centuries earlier: taking away their home world. Corg, returning to the central chamber after detecting the presence of the Humans, refused to accept that Humans were anything more then a cancerous growth on the planet and he left the chamber to continue the battle against the REF. Lieutenant Bernard also left to confront Corg in a duel that resulted in Corg's death, but many other REF soldiers were killed before Lieutenant Bernard was able to end Corg's life. The Invid Regis was left to ponder the words of Ariel / Marlene and Sera.
As the Invid knew very little about tactics, they continued to throw all of their troops into the battle, wave after wave. This was a double edged sword, on one hand the Invid lost huge numbers of troops and were quickly running out of available mecha, but on the other hand, the most recent wave of attacks looked very similar to the first wave of attacks, so the REF never had any idea how close they were to defeating the Invid. Admiral Reinhardt became so desperate to defeat the Invid, he ordered the Neutron-S missiles activated and launched towards the Earth. The Neutron-S missiles, originally built by the Kaberrans and hidden for centuries, were designed for planetary destruction. The small number of missiles brought with the REF fleet would be sufficient to entirely destroy the surface of the Earth, killing both the Invid menace and innocent Humans.
Near the end of the Battle of Reflex Point, the Invid Regis made the decision to leave the Earth. Whether her decision was based on the arguments of Ariel / Marlene and Sera or from the fact that her forces might have lost the battle against the REF, no one knows, but the results were the same. Combining their forces, Sera and Lieutenant Bernard' group were able to delay the REF infiltration units long enough to allow the Regis to launch her fleet of mobile hive ships. In the huge release of energy from the launching ships, a huge portion of the surviving REF fleet was destroyed, but the Neutron-S missiles were also destroyed, sparing the Earth from certain destruction. When the Invid left, they not only took all of their troops located on the planet, they also took a huge supply of Protoculture and fertile seeds from the Flower of Life. The departure of the Invid from the Sol System signaled the end of the Third Robotech War, but the cost to the REF and the people of Earth was unbelievable: over 75% of the REF fleet was destroyed by the departing Invid fleet.
Many hoped that the departure of the Invid at the end of the Battle of Reflex Point signaled an end to the Invid threat, many hoped that a new era of peace and prosperity would begin. To that end, the REF sent large cargo ships to Earth to bring colonists from Earth to Tirol and to several other worlds already colonized during the early colony missions of the 2010's and to begin the reconstruction of the shattered world. Things began looking up for the people of Earth and Lieutenant Bernard's resistance group split and went their separate ways, but the peace came to a sudden and crashing halt. Six months after the Battle of Reflex Point, in early 2044, the Invid returned and conquered the Earth once again. The second invasion was smaller then the first, with fewer ships and less overall destruction, there Invid had simply returned one day and reopened their Protoculture farms and processing plants.
It quickly became apparent that the Invid did not want to live in isolation forever and wanted to continue to use the Earth as a giant Protoculture farm, but the REF was too weak to do anything about the Invid presence. The rejuvenated colonization operations had been rapid and had moved millions of Humans to other worlds, but it would take years before those colonies could contribute to a war to reclaim the Earth. For the moment there was nothing that the Humans could do to stop or even hurt the Invid. On Earth, the resistance fighters, including members of Lieutenant Bernard's original band, took up their arms once again to battle their old adversary.
The Third Robotech War is viewed by many as the end of an era for Humans. The end of the war brought about true Human colonies within the territory of the old Tirolian Mercantile Empire, it brought about the weakening, but not defeat, of the Invid Regis, and it saw the strengthening of the alliance between the Humans, the Tirolians, and the Sentinels. One of the most important advances coming from this war was the true understanding of the workings of Protoculture. No longer were the Humans, the Tirolians, and the Sentinels reliant upon old Protoculture reactors, they could now build new reactors using the Flowers of Life as Zor had always envisioned and feared in the hands of the Robotech Masters.
The Third Robotech War did not end on a positive note, for while the Earth was freed from the Invid for a short time, the Invid returned and recaptured the planet, but the story of Human history is not finished yet. The end of this book marks the end of my (Colonel Richard Lorne) involvement with the histories of the Human race and its relations with the Milky Way Galaxy. Another will have to take the reigns of history and tell the untold stories; the stories of how we returned to reclaim our world, the stories of advances and advancement, and the stories of bravery and betrayal. The Third Robotech War may be over, but the Invid are still a threat and they must be dealt with.