First Robotech War

In the fictional world of Robotech, the First Robotech War (February 2009-April 2011) was a conflict between the earth-based Robotech Defense Force and the alien Zentraedi. It is known as Space War I in The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, the series which was adapted into the first saga of Robotech. Though it ended with the Earth Forces victorious, that victory was won at a terrible cost, with much of the Earth's surface and population devastated.

Roots
The First Robotech War's roots were laid in 1999 when an alien spaceship crash landed on the fictional Macross Island in the South Pacific, causing a ceasefire in a global war. Given teeth by the secret discovery of giant alien people, the United Earth Government acted quickly to unify the warring factions and rebuild the spacecraft. The rebuilt ship was given the designation SDF-1. Unknown to mankind at the time, the Zentraedi have been searching for the ship.

Macross Saga Timeline
1999 July
 * A large alien spacecraft bursts through hyperspace and enters Earth's atmosphere, crashing on Macross Island in the South Pacific.
 * The nations of the world, who are engaged in a global war at the time, call a cease-fire to assess the alien threat.

1999 August
 * Official investigation of the derelict alien spacecraft begins. The crash site on Macross Island is designated a UN sphere of jurisdiction.
 * The global war officially ends, though the terms are not satisfactory to all parties.

1999 September
 * According to the first top secret report of the study of the alien spacecraft, it is discovered that the ship is military in nature, and its crew are on average, six times the size of human beings, with exceptional individuals exceeding fifty feet in height.
 * Terrified by the all too real prospect of invasion from deep space, a campaign is initiated to unite the Earth under one unified government.

2000 January
 * Development of weapons systems for use in combat against the giant alien threat begins.

2000 June
 * The construction of the Super Dimension Fortress-1 (SDF-1) is formally announced to the world, though the true nature of its underlying alien technology is kept "top secret".
 * Framing plan for a united Earth government is officially proclaimed.

2001 July
 * Construction of the first permanent base on Mars, named "Sara", begins.
 * Civilians begin to emigrate to Macross Island, to work on the SDF-1 project.

2001 September
 * "Project Excalibur", the first attempt at developing a Robotechnology-based weapons system is begun. Designed for ground combat, this project eventually leads to the development of the Destroid mecha.

2002 February
 * "Project Valkyrie", a proposal for the development of a variable configuration, all-purpose Robotech combat system is introduced.

2002 May
 * Construction of the first Earth Defense Command Center begins in secret in a remote area of Alaska.

2003 April
 * Construction of ARMD ("Armor") series of space carriers begins in low Earth orbit.

2005 January
 * United Nations of Earth government is officially established.

2006 March
 * Intensive flight tests of the VF-X-1 are conducted by ace test pilot Lieutenant Fokker.

2006 June
 * The MBR-04 Destroid Tomahawk, the first successful combat-ready mecha resulting from "Project Excalibur", enters service.
 * Variants of the basic chassis of this Destroid are also developed, resulting in the Destroids "Defender" and "Phalanx".

2007 March
 * Mass production of the Veritech VF-1 series begins.

2009 January
 * VF-1 series begins operational deployment.
 * Usage is limited to fighter-mode configuration only in order to maintain absolute secrecy surrounding the true mission capabilities of the Veritech.

2009 February
 * Official launch ceremonies celebrating the maiden voyage of the SDF-1 begin on Macross Island.
 * A Zentraedi fleet, led by Commander Breetai, arrives near lunar orbit.
 * The main guns of the SDF-1 automatically fire and destroy two approaching Zentraedi scout ships.
 * A malfunction of the ship's fold system results in a hyperspace jump, taking the SDF-1 and Macross Island to the orbit of the planet Pluto instead of its intended target near the moon. Malfunction also results in the complete disappearance of the fold system.
 * First Robotech War begins.

2009 March
 * Recovery of civilians from the safety of the Macross Island shelters is successfully completed. Supplies and resources, along with much of Macross City, are also transferred inside the SDF-1.
 * The Prometheus and Daedalus are attached to the SDF-1 as mecha carriers and begin to conduct flight operations.
 * Reconstruction of Macross City inside the SDF-1 commences.
 * The main guns of the SDF-1 are found to be useless after the power conduits between the generators and guns were lost when the fold drive vanished.
 * A modular transformation of the ship is initiated, allowing for the SDF-1 to fire its main guns, resulting in the destruction of an attacking Zentraedi force.

2009 May
 * The SDF-1 engages a Zentraedi force in the Battle of Saturn's Rings.
 * The "Pinpoint Barrier System" and the "Daedalus Attack" are employed for the first time.

2009 October
 * While attempting to collect supplies from the abandoned Mars Base Sara, the SDF-1 is rendered immobile by a Zentraedi gravity mine trap. Khyron's forces launch a vicious attack, but the SDF-1 is able to escape when the reflex furnaces of the base are detonated, destroying the gravity mines.

2009 December
 * Lynn Minmei is crowned "Miss Macross".
 * On a routine patrol, 3rd Lieutenant Rick Hunter takes a prototype Armored Veritech into combat and destroys a small Zentraedi Cyclops reconnaissance scout ship which was monitoring the Miss Macross Pageant broadcast.
 * Despite the loss of the intercepted transmissions, the Zentraedi scouts report their findings back to their commander, Breetai.

2010 January
 * While the SDF-1 hides in the asteroid belt, a Zentraedi ship under command of Khyron fires on the SDF-1's command tower, destroying its long range radar.

2010 February
 * SDF-1 Operations Officer, Lieutenant Commander Lisa Hayes and the Vermillion Group (Flight Leader - 2nd Lieutenant Rick Hunter and Corporals Max Sterling and Ben Dixon) are captured by the Zentraedi while on a reconnaissance mission.
 * The human prisoners are taken back to the headquarters of the Zentraedi Main Fleet, where they are interrogated by Dolza, the Supreme Commander of all the Zentraedi.
 * During their captivity, the human prisoners manage to escape. Following his failure to recapture the fugitive humans, Breetai is relieved of his command, and his replacement, Commander Azonia, is put in charge of recapturing the SDF-1.
 * Upon her arrival in the solar system, Azonia leads an attack on the SDF-1 as a decoy while sending her top ace pilot Miriya Parino to insert micronized Zentraedi spies into the SDF-1 undetected.
 * The escaped prisoners manage to pilot a stolen Zentraedi battlepod into space when the SDF-1 comes under attack. They are soon rescued by Commander Fokker and the Skull Squadron.

2010 March
 * The SDF-1 punches through the Zentraedi blockade and returns to Earth, landing in the Pacific Ocean.
 * Captain Gloval and Lieutenant Commander Hayes fly to the Earth Defense Command Center in Alaska, and petition to have their civilian passengers to be allowed off the ship. The request is flatly rejected.
 * Against Commander Azonia's orders, Khyron launches unauthorized attack on the SDF-1, which is successfully repelled using the Daedalus Attack.
 * During the battle, 2nd Lieutenant Rick Hunter is injured by inadvertent friendly fire.

2010 April
 * Zentraedi ace pilot, Miriya Parino, launches her first direct attack on the SDF-1. She meets defeat at the hands of Veritech ace pilot, 3rd Lieutenant Max Sterling, but escapes, vowing revenge.
 * Commander Fokker, leader of the Veritech fighter squadrons aboard the SDF-1, dies as a result of wounds sustained in battle.

2010 May
 * Rick Hunter is promoted to 1st Lieutenant and returns to duty as pilot of Fokker's veritech fighter and the new Leader of Skull Squadron.
 * Desperate to force the united Earth government to allow him to resettle the civilians aboard the SDF-1, Captain Gloval begins low flights over North American cities, while broadcasting his demands over uncoded frequencies.
 * The city of Toronto, in the Ontario Quadrant, agrees to receive the citizens of Macross City.
 * During an attack by Zentraedi warships on the SDF-1, the ship's omni-directional barrier defense system overloads, causing complete destruction within a twenty-five mile radius.


 * Permission to resettle the refugees is immediately withdrawn by Ontario Quadrant.

2010 June
 * Commander Breetai arrives back at Earth to recapture the SDF-1 with command of the one million warships of the Imperial Class fleet.
 * Commander Azonia is relieved of her command.
 * Zentraedi spies return to Breetai's fleet. Human culture soon begins to contaminate the Zentraedi.
 * The SDF-1 leaves Earth's atmosphere under orders to sortie away from the planet.

2011 January
 * "Small White Dragon", the first movie produced in space, premieres on board the SDF-1.
 * The Grand Cannon is completed at the Alaska Base Earth Defense Command Center.

2011 February
 * Determining the micronian humans to be a significant threat, Zentraedi Supreme Commander Dolza begins to formulate a multi-stage plan to deal with and eventually destroy the micronians.

2011 March
 * The Zentraedi launch a major assault against the SDF-1, taking advantage of the Daedalus attack to infiltrate the ship. Macross City is badly damaged in the fighting.
 * During the battle, numerous Zentraedi soldiers, enamored by the culture of the micronian humans, take this opportunity to defect to the SDF-1.
 * Upon examination of the Zentraedi defectors, it is found that they are genetically indistinguishable from humans.
 * Captain Gloval and his staff, armed with this new evidence, attempt to convince Earth's leaders to pursue negotiations with the Zentraedi.

2011 April
 * In an attempt to exact revenge for being humiliated in battle, Zentraedi ace Miriya Parino attempts to murder her rival, human ace pilot Max Sterling. Miriya's quest for vengeance awakens emotions deep inside her that exist within all Zentraedi. These emotions lead her to fall in love with Max and their historic wedding is broadcast to the citizens aboard the SDF-1 and to the nearby Zentraedi fleet.
 * Alerted to the wedding, and to the recent defections of the Zentraedi to the SDF-1, Dolza orders his fleet commanders to assemble in order to deal with the "micronian threat" once and for all. Breetai is immediately ordered to destroy the SDF-1. However, due to their exposure to human culture, many Zentraedi refuse to fight. Faced with the threat of mutiny, Breetai orders a withdrawal and unilateral cease-fire. Soon after, Breetai sends Exedore, the Zentraedi Minister of Affairs, as an emissary to the SDF-1 to conduct negotiations.
 * Despite Breetai's attempts to pursue negotiations, Dolza has mobilized the Main Fleet in order to destroy Earth and its human population, before they further contaminate the Zentraedi. Faced with their own destruction, Breetai and Azonia decide to join forces with the humans aboard the SDF-1. Concerned with saving his own life, Khyron refuses to join the fight against Dolza and the Zentraedi Main Fleet.
 * Dolza and the Main Fleet of over four million Zentraedi warships arrive in Earth orbit. Simultaneously, the fleet begins their devastating attack resulting in the devastation of 95% of the planet's surface.
 * Despite heavy damage, the Grand Cannon manages to fire, the resulting directed energy blast results in the destruction of a significant portion of the Main Zentraedi Fleet, clearing a path for the SDF-1 and its allies to launch their counterattack against Dolza. Using the Omni-Directional Barrier, along with the singing of Lynn Minmei to disrupt Zentraedi communications, the SDF-1 succeeds in destroying Dolza's flagship along with most of the enemy Zentraedi fleet. The victorious SDF-1 returns to Earth, marking the end of the First Robotech War.

2012 January
 * The United Earth government is reestablished.
 * Reconstruction efforts formally begin, including the forced assimilation of the remaining Zentraedi population.

2012 October
 * Dana Sterling, the first child of a human and Zentraedi pairing, is born to Max and Miriya Sterling.

2013 March


 * Rioting by Zentraedi the world over begins. Patrols begin for the sake of maintaining law and order.
 * Admiral Henry Gloval, now Supreme Commander of all Earth Forces, orders the forced relocation of the Zentraedi to where they can be monitored more closely.

2013 May
 * The Robotech Masters conclude that Dolza's Zentraedi fleet has been lost and prepare to depart for Earth to try to retrieve the protoculture factory for themselves.
 * Further genetic studies by human scientists support the hypothesis of a common origin between humans and the Zentraedi
 * Zentraedi Lord Khyron, hiding out in his wrecked vessel in the Arctic, becomes aware of Zentraedi dissatisfaction, and sets about to gather all refugee Zentraedi willing to fight.

2013 June
 * A combined Earth-Zentraedi force succeeds in capturing an immense Robotech Factory and transports the facility back to Earth.

2013 July
 * Rebel Zentraedi forces, led by Lord Khyron, capture a protoculture sizing chamber and begin macronization of Zentraedi disillusioned with life on Earth. Khyron's ranks swell and armed resistance by the Zentraedi breaks out all over the world.

2013 December
 * In a daring attack on New Macross City, Khyron's forces capture a protoculture storage matrix and escape to their base in South America.

2014 January
 * Battle of New Macross City - Zentraedi rebel Lord Khyron is killed in a suicide attack, successfully destroying both the SDF-1 and newly completed SDF-2.

The War
The war began on the day of the scheduled launch of the SDF-1 in February 2009 (during the early summer in the Southern Hemisphere location of Macross Island) when a large Zentraedi armada led by Commander Breetai arrived in the solar system seeking the ship. Upon detection, the SDF-1 began an automatic firing sequence that the crew could not stop that destroyed two Zentradi scout ships. Unfortunately, the attack accomplished little beyond that except to confirm the ship's location on the planet, and the Zentradi began an assault in order to recover the battlefortress. An attempted follow up strike by two ARMD class carriers of the Orbital Fleet failed miserably against an enemy that was superior both in forces and in experience in space combat.

Amidst an urban battle between the Robotech Defense Forces and the Zentradi in the streets of Macross City, The SDF-1 attempted to lift off. However, that proved perilously frustrating considering the first attempt found the ship's largely untested anti-gravity generators suddenly breaking free and causing the ship to plummet to the launch area with some damage. The second attempt with the ship's conventional chemical drives was successful and the ship ascended. To attempt to outflank the enemy, the SDF-1's commander, Captain Henry J. Gloval ordered a space fold maneuver. However, as the fold system was never used before and the crew's training was entirely theoretical, they were not aware of how to use it inside a planet's gravity field, let alone at their relatively low altitude above Macross Island. The result was a botched jump that caught Macross Island, along with the fortress, and overshot the intended destination of the dark side of the moon. The SDF-1 materialized near the planet Pluto's orbit instead, joined by Macross Island and various naval vessels. After attaching the capital ships caught in the fold jump, Daedalus and Prometheus, to the SDF-1, rebuilding Macross City inside the fortress and relocating the city's 70,000 inhabitants onboard, the ship began the long voyage to Earth.

During the ship's one year journey the Zentradi attacked constantly, damaging the ship and depleting both its defensive forces and civilian population. For the Zentradi's part, the enemy was a maddeningly unpredictable foe; the initial engagement had them seemingly able to accurately fire the ship's reflex cannons to simultaneously destroy two ships as a first strike, but their follow up attack suggested that they had no idea how to competently wage war in space. However, the Terrans suddenly surprised them by pulling off a supposedly impossible extreme low-altitude space fold jump with the SDF-1 to outmaneuver them. Given that their orders were to capture the ship intact at all costs, that kind of opposition proved most frustrating.

Two battles took place during the long trip to Earth, that are worth notice: the battle of Saturn´s Rings, during which the SDF-1 counterattacked the Zentradi completely destroying an enemy strike force, and the Battle of Mars Base Sara, where the SDF-1 evaded a Zentradi trap led by Khyron the Backstabber (commander of a Zentradi reinforcement fleet requested by Breetai) during an attempt to resupply at the abandoned Martian outpost. As the crew had to self-destruct the base to free the SDF-1 to escape, the Zentradi concluded that threatening Earth for the surrender of the ship would be a futile act against a foe seemingly ready to sacrifice their territory and holdings to keep it. For his failure to capture the fortress, Commander Breetai was relieved and replaced by the female Commander Azonia. She was no more successful in capturing the ship and in fact had to spend more of her efforts reining in Khyron who became increasingly obsessed with destroying the Micronian ship regardless of his orders.

Eventually the SDF-1 returned to Earth and Captain Gloval requested the United Earth Government to disembark the surviving 56,000 civilians from onboard the fortress. The government and the military, led by Admiral Hayes (father of the SDF-1's executive officer Lisa Hayes), refused the request, since they had declared that Macross Island and Macross City were destroyed in an attack by guerrillas after the departure of the SDF-1 to cover-up the war against the aliens. Furthermore, they refused to accept the reports of the overwhelming numerical superiority of the aliens and rationalized the eyewitness accounts as enemy deceptions to demoralize them. They even planned to cow the enemy with a decisive blow from their massive great cannon (later named Grand Cannon) which they were convinced was of greater firepower than what the Zentradi possessed, despite knowledgeable warnings that was most definitely not the case. Captain Gloval defied the orders and began a series of low-altitude flights over populated areas to discredit the official story and force the government to accept the civilians. When a battle with the Zentradi caused the destruction of a city in the Ontario Quadrant, a previous offer by the Ontario government to grant asylum to the civilians was withdrawn, and the United Earth Government banished the SDF-1 from Earth.

In the meantime, the Zentradi began to be affected by Earth's culture, an irresistible force for a race bred solely for war. This contamination caused mass dissent amongst the Zentradi ranks, which proved to be SDF-1's salvation in its darkest hours of the war. The first such occurrence happened when Breetai(reinstated after Azonia's own failure to succeed and in command of the elite Zentradi Imperial fleet of over one million warships) and Exedore developed a plan to lure the SDF-1 into using the Daedalus Maneuver on a decoy Zentradi ship. Once the bow of the Daedalus opened inside the Zentradi ship, an ambush party led by Khyron attacked and destroyed the Destroids before they could open fire. The ambush party then entered the SDF-1 through the Daedelaus and wreaked havok throughout Macross City.

While the ship's forces desperately fought to stop the attack, the cultural contamination came into play. As the ambush party was proceeding, Khyron overheard conversation by his troops about finding "Minmei", the Micronian singer that secretly captivated many in the fleet. When the commander asked what they were referring to, the answer revealed the contamination. At this, Khyron went berserk and began to attack and chase his own troops throughout the ship's city area. This activity threw Breetai's boarding operation into total chaos, which allowed the Micronians to drive out the invaders, but Macross City suffered massive damage as a result of the attack. However, there was some consolation that the ship's structure and defences were left intact. Furthermore, the ship's crew found a small number of micronized Zentradi who were defecting to them and they supplied invaluable insight about the enemy such as the startling fact that the genetic structure of both species was virtually identical.

The second occurrence of cultural contamination was when the Zentradi's top pilot, Miriya Parino, who had insisted on infiltrating the ship with a secret agenda to kill her Micronian counterpart, Maximillian Sterling, had instead fallen into love with him and agreed to marry him immediately. Captain Gloval agreed to this and organized a grand wedding ceremony not only to further influence the enemy certain to be observing this, but also to rally his crew and passengers to strive for a peaceful settlement of the war. However, the reports of cultural contamination of the Imperial Fleet prompted Zentradi Supreme Commander Dolza to cut his losses and risk the wrath of the Robotech Masters by ordering an all out attack on the SDF-1 to destroy it with all hands.

However, that same contamination saved the ship when Myria insisted on joining her husband into battle and convinced him to strike a special target on the battlepods that left it crippled, but otherwise intact with its life support system functional. Commander Rick Hunter realized what his wingman was doing and joined in this merciful gesture along with many of his comrades as a means to face certain defeat with an honorable attempt to encourage peace. This proved more valuable than they realized as many Zentradi, already growing attached to micronian culture, saw this activity as the last straw and began to mutiny throughout the fleet. Horrified at the unthinkable insubordination and social breakdown that contact with the Micronians was causing, Commander Breetai called off the attack in defiance of Dolza's orders and sought a truce with the SDF-1.

When Breetai's approached the SDF-1, there was some initial mistrust severe enough to have the Micronian's newly repaired main gun on a hair trigger. Again, Khyron nearly ruined the incident by launching an unauthorized attack on the ship that almost provoked the Micronians to fire. Only when Breetai had the fighter group destroyed were they convinced that the peace offering was serious. As Exedore parlayed with the SDF-1 crew, Dolza assembled the Grand Fleet to eradicate Humanity and the corrupted Zentradi. When Exedore was informed of this development, he immediately advised the Micronian ship to flee the solar system, which the loyal humans rejected out of hand. As Gloval's ship and the dissident Zentradi led by Breetai and Azonia prepared for battle, Khyron fled against the seemingly impossible odds. Almost five million Zentradi warships folded to Earth in response to Dolza's orders.

The main Fleet began a massive planetary bombardment of Earth, eradicating almost every large population center and devastating most of the planetary surface. (The area devastated was "95% of the Earth's surface" according to the series narrator. The supreme commander of the planet's forces later said there were "70,000 survivors of the Zentradi holocaust.") The Earth forces counterattacked with the massive Grand Cannon superweapon, obliterating many Zentradi ships. Following this attack, the SDF-1 and the allied Zentradi Imperial Fleet launched an attack of their own, using the music of Lynn Minmei to confuse the forces of the Grand Fleet, then blasted their way into Dolza's massive flagship. Dolza and his fleet were utterly destroyed. This signaled the end of the First Robotech War.

The Aftermath
The SDF-1 landed on Earth, and New Macross City was founded around the battered ship. For the next two years humans and Zentraedi worked together to rebuild the planet. The Robotech Defense Force, led now by Admiral Gloval, established itself as the planet's primary military force, leading the recovery efforts. Breetai took command of the remaining Zentraedi forces, now loyal to Earth. Unfortunately, a significant portion of the Zentraedi could not overcome their lifetime's conditioning as warriors and grew dissatisfied with civilian life while lusting for war. They indulged this longing by causing a series of violent incidents that would be called the Malcontent Uprisings. Commanders Khyron and Azonia were particularly active by leading a rebel Zentraedi movement against the RDF, staging several terrorist attacks including the theft of a resizing chamber in New Detroit and a protoculture power source in New Macross City. Eventually, Khyron and Azonia repaired a downed Zentraedi warship and used it on 1 January 2014 to ram and destroy the SDF-1 and the newly-built SDF-2, killing Admiral Gloval and forcing the evacuation of New Macross City. The now leaderless rebel Zentraedi continued to harass throughout the rest of the 2010s, but since they had no means of producing new war materials beyond what they could salvage, their defeat was simply a matter of time.

The most notable effect on the Earth in the aftermath of the First Robotech War was the devastation of its surface and the decimation of its population. The population of the Earth was driven from six billion in 2009 to the edge of extinction in the immediate aftermath of the Zentraedi orbital bombardment in 2011. Fortunately, SDF-1 survived and landed with its population of Macross City inside, with the support of Breetai's fleet, providing the basis of a fully equipped technological civilization to restore order to the planet. The end of the First Robotech War led to the first and by far the longest period of peace of the Robotech Wars era, lasting almost 18 years from Dolza's defeat in 2011 to the invasion of the Robotech Masters in 2029.

Not all of the aftereffects of the war were bad, however. The sudden introduction of starships, protoculture and super-advanced Robotechnology to Earth led to a renaissance of sorts, as humanity strove to build a space fleet to take the war to the alien enemy. In addition, it was found that the planet's ecosystem was recovering faster and with more vigor than the scientific community anticipated. Unfortunately, the determination that the next phase of the war would be fought away from the Earth left the home planet vulnerable when the Robotech Masters appeared in 2030 and began the Second Robotech War (2029-30). The devastation of the Army of the Southern Cross led to the Earth's fall to the Invid in 2031, and the planet would remain occupied through three disastrous liberation attempts until the REF forced the Invid to retreat in the Third Robotech War (2031-44).