The Protoculture chamber Two years passed since The Rain of Death had washed all life from the face of the Earth. Around SDF-1's landing site a new city is formed - New Macross; throughout the world other dwellings increase their numbers. Nature is unstoppable, and first green plants begin growing in once radioactive wastelands. Yet the newborn Eden is not without its temptation... and its serpent. Thousands of Zentraedi warriors grow wary of dull and hard work. Brought up to fight and die, they see little sense in building houses and infrastructure; their own society was destroyed, and only a few, like Bron, Rico and Konda, managed to merge with the micronian one. To all the rest it is a pain, a shock, an everlasting desire to fulfill the Imperative of war. One by one, they wander away from micronian towns, searching for a goal, for someone to lead them into battle again. Buried under the ice and snow of Alaska, the 7th Mechanized division ships are stone cold from the outside and full of activity from the inside. Reports come that throughout the world, ten thousand Zentraedi have left the micronians. The news bring joy to Khyron, Azonia and Grel - there is hope once again. To his troops Khyron declares that he will make every micronized Zentraedi proud and tall, and that the day of battle is at hand. Rumors that the legendary commander puts together the Zentraedi army spread lightning-fast; soon more and more Zentraedi begin gathering around Khyron. The only thing missing is the Protoculture chamber - a device that will restore normal size to the micronized, and give Khyron a powerful army. Through his net of spies Grel organizes an attempt to capture the chamber by several Zentraedi who've been working close to the device. They had a chance to disable the guards and tried to escape on transport trucks. They failed to eliminate the communications center, and, though immensely happy with the feel of weapons in their hands again, those few Zentraedi were, unfortunately, no match for a squadron of Veritech fighters sent to retrieve the chamber. Frustrated, Azonia blames Grel for the failure of the operation; the XO tries to justify himself, Azonia angrily interrupts, Grel looses his temper and the two begin shouting at each other. The fierce argument is stopped by Khyron, who gives Azonia a good example of handling subordinates, frightens Grel, and sends the trembling XO to again try and get the chamber. Azonia asks the commander if he really thinks Grel will eventually succeed. Softened by her intimate approach, Khyronreveals to Azonia that he doesn't count on Grel and in total secrecy another strike is to be made, led by himself. Leaving the pleased Meltran in command of the base, Khyron assembles a squadron of Nosjaedul-Gers and in a short speech inspires the Zentraedi pilots for combat.

Power armors sweep through the sky and soon reach the unsuspecting town of New Detroit. Several destroids are quickly annihilated, though one Nosjaedul-Ger is shot down by flak fire, and Khyron begins roaming the town in search for the Protoculture chamber. Soon it is detected within the expocentre, and after a brief assault is once again in Zentraedi hands. The lightning operation, performed with surgical swiftness and precision, is an obvious success.

Near Khyron's command cruiser, long queues of Zentraedi awaiting macronization form; as his army grows larger and larger, Khyron celebrates victory in a micronian way - by drinking beverages with Azonia, who is fascinated by the commander's skill and courage. Two years in isolation with Khyron have dissipated Azonia's arrogant scorn; both feel something new growing inside them towards each other, and an open manifestation of feelings is bound to happen.

Broken Heart

Now, with a force sufficient enough at his disposal, Khyron plans a new offensive. The aim is of course SDF-1 - a way to escape this miserable planet and head off for the Robotech Masters' empire. Taking the battlefortress by direct assault is completely out of question - Khyron possesses no weapon capable of damaging it (yet), and soon comes up with a new strategy. Years of living on Earth taught him how much micronians value individual life; they'll do anything if threatened to kill someone particularly important to them... someone like Minmay, the famous girl singer.

The rebel Zentraedi manage to get hold of a micronian arsenal, provoking several veritech patrols; while the veritechs fight with automatic missile launchers, Khyron personally leads a small strike force of several battlepods to the concert hall in which most of New Detroit population gathered to admire Minmay's performance. The town is once again caught off guard; a feeble attempt to protect Minmay is swiftly dealt with, and soon both the girl and Lynn Kyle are put in a fork-cage within Zarcopolus, Khyron's new base of operations.

Once the hostages are secured, Khyron contacts the micronian command and announces his conditions - tommorow by 1200 hours the space fortress must be turned over to him, and then Minmay will be released. As for Kyle, he'll be set free once Khyron is given back his arsenal - the one veritechs captured after destroying remotely controlled missiles. Micronians are shocked by such sudden change of tactics - Zentraedi never took hostages before because they valued individual life so low. One bright micronian even shouts that Khyron has gone mad, on what the humourful commander remarks: "Ah, but there is method to my madness..."

Waiting, the Zentraedi play with their miniature prisoners. Khyron declares that the micronian mentality of valuing life so much makes him quite sick; however, soon enough he will prove the opposite...

All Zentraedi understand Minmay significance - her singing brought chaos first to Breetai's soldiers and then to the whole Dolza's armada. Khyron wants to test if even now she will produce the same effect on his troops, and asks her to perform. Minmay gladly demonstrates her power - as singing fills the air, Zentraedi gasp in sudden awe, their deepest thoughts coming alive in their souls, breaking the psychological barriers established by their society and culture. Not one can stay calm in the face of his feelings forming and powerfully manifesting themselves. In Khyron and Azonia their love is fully awake, shattering the remnants of hypocrisy and self-deceipt. Deeply shocked, Khyron is spellbound by the song; for a moment war appears a senseless waste of precious, loved lives, and he decides to set Minmay free as a first act of peace. . . but the moment ends. The spell is broken, Khyron and all other Zentraedi regain control of themselves. Secretly embarassed, the commander claims that he is immune to Minmay's witchcraft, provoking a burst of laughter from Azonia. This angers Khyron, and he looks for a pretext to avenge his emotional failure in front of the micronian love song. An opportunity occurs when Minmay calls him a "big overgrown clown"; sarcastically Khyron hints that it appears he's not the only one around subject to loosing his temper. He decides to teach the girl a lesson on good manners, but in the process looses control and would squeeze Minmay to death if not for Azonia's warning. After a few pokes, the poor singer regains consciousness; micronians are well-built little things. Flexible, too, as proven by Azonia after some experiments on little Kyle.

Night falls, and the time designated by Khyron is closer every second. Joyful Zentraedi celebrate their apparent victory in a simple yet effective manner - getting drunk. I just wonder where did they get those huge bottles of wine from? Grel and Khyron try to outdrink Azonia, but the girl is just too tough for them. Anyway, everyone is happy, eating and drinking, when Kyle decides to babble his usual propaganda crap. Still nobody would've payed any attention if the peace fighter didn't call the Zentraedi cowards - pretty stupid, I think, considering they weren't cowards and each was about 10 times bigger and badder than Kyle. His supper spoiled, Khyron desperatly breaks the wine bottle and gets ready to show the moronic micronian some pain. Azonia saves the day again, and by the time he approaches the cage Khyron is back into good mood. Since Kyle said that Zentraedi can't think about anything except their own bellies [jeez what a jerk!] Khyron decides to show what he's learned from the micronian culture about pleasure. Wine and Minmay's singing destroyed all his complexes; with boyish brutality he grabs Azonia and gives her a long powerful kiss. The girl is not ready for such direct actions, but soon she overcomes embarassment and begins taking pleasure... mmm... oh damn here comes Grel with bad news and spoils everything. Duh. Looks like some dumb soldiers are under attack by micronians. Khyron must have an incredible sense of duty and care towards his troops, cause he interrupts the pleasureful demonstration and immediately begins to organize a relief attempt. To make fighting micronians more fun, he invites Azonia to come along, but the poor girl has no battlepod. Khyron gives her the Glaug and mounts himself atop a captured Monster destroid, which he plans to control by giving it a good kick. However inside there sit three stupid micronized Zentraedi who are too drunk to remember the knock pattern, so they just slam the accelerator and bring the whole force into a micronian ambush.

Yup, it appears that the whole mess was staged by deceptive micronians. Khyron's troops are surrounded by Monster destroids and the slaughter begins. Despite being outgunned, the Zentraedi fight bravely; when veritechs begin attacking Khyron's command post on the Monster, the commander bare-handedly destroyes one veritech and damages two others. But soon luck turns away from him once again - protoculture shortage takes its toll as Zentraedi weapons run out of power. Azonia's Glaug is damaged; despite his "disregard for individual life" Khyron runs to save her, and then, seeing that there is no hope left for victory, orders a full retreat. When the battered Zentraedi reach their base, they find that the hostages have been resqued. A bad day, I guess...

Season's Greetings

The hostage plan has failed, and Khyron looks for new way to leave the micronian planet. His Queadol Magdomilla is severely damaged, and had permanently lost all heavy artillery with the bow section, so he looks for another crashed Zentraedi ship in better condition. Soon one such is found deep in the rainforest of South America, and it satisfied all Khyron's desires. The new ship appears to be a Rineunadou Lojmeuean reflex cannon platform, one of those which have layed waste upon Earth in the Rain of Death. Experienced through years of living and working among the micronians, Zentraedi manage to repair the monitor and many battle craft which were found inside it. Now all they need is a protoculture matrix to power the ship, and bye-bye Mother planet.

Through his network of spies Grel learns that a suitable fuel tank can be acquired somewhere in New Macross industrial sector warehouses (duh, did he really need spies to figure that out?) and Khyron prepares a complex operation.

Zentraedi forces assemble inside a cruiser wreck near New Macross coastline. From there one force - Khyron, Grel, several battlepods and troopers - approaches the coast under water and begins roaming the industrial sector, while Azonia and a group of Queadlunn-Raus, probably the remnants of the Quadrano squadron, stage an ambush to ward off any micronian reinforcements.

Grel's information proves to be not very accurate, and he leads his angered commander in circles around the supposed fuel tank location. Soon the Zentraedi are discovered, but their strange attack pattern puzzles the micronians, who make a guess that the aim of Khyron's operation is not SDF-1 or any other miliary target but rather the protoculture storages. Immediately veritech squadrons are dispatched to deal with the threat. Khyron did not anticipate such heavy resistance; however, he enjoys the fight and with pleasure single-handedly shoots down an incoming veritech.

A new group of micronian reinforcements approaches from seashore and falls into Azonia's ambush. The Meltran commander shows suprisingly skillful piloting, and in an amazing firefight Quadranos destroy several veritech fighters, but there are two aces on the micronian side, one of which, to Azonia's rage, is Miriya, her former comrade-in-arms. Most of the Meltrandi forces are destroyed, but Azonia leaves knowing her objective has been achieved - Khyron finally found the fuel tank and is now preparing to evacuate.

Inside the warehouse, Khyron shoulders the heavy tank and, strainfully, carries it out. Covered by other soldiers, he secures the tank in the Glaug manipulators and orders all forces to retreat. Zentraedi are surrounded, there seems no way out, when suddenly a great scout vessel lands in New Macross, wrecking several buildings. Khyron's troops slid through the hangar doors and the scout ship takes off. Veritechs attempt to pursue, but Khyron has one last surprise for them - a Christmas gift to the whole micronian city. When he gives the order, Zentraedi agents dressed as Santa Clauses all over New Macross activate remote detonators... As the preplanted mines explode, great firestorms sweep through the unsuspecting streets, demolishing buildings and killing hundreds of civilians. "May all your foolish holidays be as bright as this one...." wishes Khyron through loudspeakers. Veritechs are called off to help fight fires; the operation is a success and Khyron awards himself with a new nickname - The Destroyer. Quite justified, I think.