Second Robotech War
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In the fictional world of Robotech, the Second Robotech War (2029-2030) was a conflict between the earth-based Army of the Southern Cross and the alien Robotech Masters. The Second Robotech War ended in a Pyrrhic victory for the Army of the Southern Cross, weakening the Earth's defense forces to such a point that they were unable to present more than a token resistance to the Invid when they invaded in 2031.
Roots
For a full discussion of the preceding First Robotech War, see the associated article. The Second Robotech War traces its roots to the end of that conflict; specifically to the defeat of Supreme General Dolza's Grand Fleet. When Dolza was defeated, the Robotech Masters were already en route to Earth to meet the victorious Zentraedi and recover the missing battlefortress; their mission immediately changed from pacification to conquest. The Robotech Masters' Bioroids were considerably more advanced than the Earth's VF-1 Valkyrie Veritech fighters of the earlier conflict, and they expected swift victory (assuming that Terrestrial technology was as static as their own).
The War
The Second Robotech War began in early April of 2029, shortly after the graduation of the first full class of officers from the new Southern Cross Army Academy. The old Academy had been part of the Space Station Equality complex, and since the Station had been space folded to meet the REF in 2028 as part of an expanding search for the Robotech Masters, a new academy had just been completed in the global capital of Monument City.
The Robotech Masters' assault defeated most of the Orbital Fleet's Tristar-class cruisers and Banshee class destroyers. Most of the war took place on Earth and in Earth's atmosphere, with the bulk of Earth's military efforts coming from the Tactical Armored Space Corps and the Alpha Tactical Armored Corps. Supporting units which saw action were the Tactical Air Force, Mountain Division, Global Military Police, Civil Defense Corps and Civil Defense Flying Corps, but TASC and ATAC did the majority of the fighting. In the war's most important battles, the 21st TASC (led by Leiutenant Marie Crystal) and the 15th ATAC (led by Leiutenant Dana Sterling) acquitted themselves quite amazingly, inflicting much of the Terran forces' damage upon the Robotech Masters fleet (including one of the five motherships shot down by the 15th).
The war's end came in June, 2030 when the flagship of the Robotech Masters' fleet, along with the Prime Triumvirate, was self-destructed above the ruins of the SDF-1, breaching the ship's hull and letting loose the protoculture seeds inside which would eventually call the Invid to Earth.
The Aftermath
Since the Earth was already badly devastated from the previous Robotech War and its aftereffects, the attacks of the Robotech Masters on the surface were minor by comparison. Far worse, though, was its fragmentation of global government. The near-destruction of Monument City emboldened phalangist movements like the Eastern Bloc Soviet Independent States and weakened the global response to the Invid invasion a year after the war's end.