"The Invid Invasion"
The saga continues approximately 1 year after the Second Robotech War. A
group of reinforcements from the SDF-3 is sent to invade an
Invid-dominated Earth. Hopes are high, the new Robotech soldiers
are freshly trained, with new weapons and a will to win back
their planet. Their efforts meet with limited success, and their
strike is utterly defeated leaving only a few scattered remnants.
One of these remnants is a lone soldier named Scott Bernard, a
man who is out for revenge against the Invid. Armed with only a
reconfigurable motorcycle, a holographic recording of his dead
fiance, and a salvager he meets along the way, he begins his
battle to destroy the Invid.
"The Lost City"
Scott and his new partner Rand travel to an island city,
entering despite several warnings from the cities ex-inhabitants.
They meet a young girl named Annie who leads them to a
neighboring island to look for other soldiers. Meanwhile, Scott
and Rand's contact within the city conspires with the Invid to
provide their capture.
The battle is hard, and it looks as though Scott, Rand, and
Annie are done for. From out of nowhere a single cyclone rider
appears and helps them fight off the Invid Shock Troopers. The
cyclone rider disappears as quickly as she came, and Scott and
Rand discover that the people of this "Lost City"
conspire with the Invid in return for peace. Scott and Rand leave
disgusted, and Annie joins the battle.
"Lonely Soldier Boy"
Scott, Rand, and Annie happen upon a frontier town, run-down
by the constant wars and apathy. A famous singer is performing at
a local club, and the group walks in on a rather heated criticism
of her performance. The local riff-raff are restless, and have
chosen the famous Yellow Dancer to torment. A woman, a customer
of the club, intervenes in the dispute, causing the wrath of the
thugs to fall upon her. She is able to handle herself, and more
importantly, her attackers. Scott notices it was the cyclone
rider who saved their lives in the previous episode.
The thugs, dealing with their defeat by Scott, Rand, Annie,
Yellow Dancer, and Rook the cyclone rider decide to kidnap a
local man. His friend, though he has a sordid past with the
military, decides to join forces with Scott's group to rescue his
friend. The rescue operation is noticed by the Invid, and Scott
realises that this deserter, named Lunk, has a lot to offer his
makeshift team, most notably a well-armed and maintained Alpha
fighter. Lunk decides to join Scott's group, as does Rook and
Yellow Dancer, who reveals that she is actually a he named
Lancer: a disguise meant to shroud his attacks on the Invid.
"Survival"
The team is learning to live and fight together. Some people
rub others the wrong way, especially Rook and Rand. While getting
supplies, Scott, Rook, Annie, Rand, and Lunk are ambushed by
Invid. Scott realises that he needs the Alpha fighter to battle
this squad, but is afraid to indicate their campsite by making a
straight line to the fighter. Lancer patiently waits by the
fighter while the rest of the group fight the Invid.
Rand reveals both his survival skill in the episode, along
with his excellent reasoning. He catches fish and helps the group
to deal with the horrors of the wild, namely leeches. He also
discovers that the Invid can sense the use of active protoculture
(the fuel that runs their machines). This enables the team to
elude the Invid by using only the minimum amount of protoculture.
Scott finally reaches the fighter and destroys the Invid patrol
that has been tailing them.
"Curtain Call"
Scott's group of makeshift freedom fighters stages a raid on
an Invid protoculture store to replenish their own supplies. This
human-run Invid reserve is drawn off-guard by a huge concert by
the famous Yellow Dancer. Scott, Rook, and Rand infiltrate the
storage complex armed with rope and an ancient map of the
buildings and secret passages.
No plan is ever perfect, and Scott, Rook, and Rand find
themselves locked in a sealed room, filling slowly with water.
Eventually, they get out, but Yellow Dancer has postponed the end
of her concert too long, causing the city guard to get nervous.
When the robbery is discovered, the Invid arrive. But with a
replenished supply of protoculture, Scott's group scores an easy
victory.
"Hard Times"
Rook withdraws from the group more and more, until she finally
leaves during the night. Rand follows to see what she is up to.
Scott knows that they left, but decides to let them go.
Rand follows Rook to a cavern that surrounds a city. Rook is
at home, through a series of flashbacks and conversations, Rook
remembers why she left and the people that made her leave. Her
days in a street gang haunt her, and she confronts the members of
a rival gang who beat her severely. This episode is filled with
excellent character development for Rook, and some depth is added
to Rand's character at the same time.
Scott decides to look for Rook and Rand, and ends up tangling
with the Invid. Once again, Rook saves Scott from certain doom,
and puts her abusers to shame at the same time. Rand helps Rook
to see her mother one last time, and they are on their way, Rook
makes a vow to herself to stay with the group of freedom
fighters, who have become her family.
"Paper Hero"
Scott's group of fighters continues on their journey to find
the Invid headquarters, making a stop in a small town at Lunk's
urging. Lunk made a promise to a friend he had in the military,
who died in an Invid attack. His promise was to deliver a book to
his friend's father who lives in this town. The group gets behind
Lunk's effort and his happy to spend a little time in a small
town.
Unfortunately, the townspeople don't feel the same way. The
group begins to notice that the townspeople are giving them the
runaround. Eventually, after some of the group gets kidnapped,
Lunk forces an explanation out of the mayor. It turns out that
the father of Lunk's friend tried to keep the townspeople out of
the war with the Invid. He wanted them to leave the fighting to
the soldiers. The townspeople wouldn't stand for the
interference. In the end, they killed the peacemaker.
Lunk is disappointed, and ends the episode in a melancholy
mood. He decides to keep the book to remember some of the things
that the father of his friend stood for.
"Eulogy"
The group comes to a settlement of soldiers led by the
legendary Colonel Jonathan Wolfe. It is not a military outpost,
but rather a safe place where they come and relax. Apparently,
the Invid leave the city alone due to the number of soldiers
encamped there. In Scott's dealings with the Invid, he had seen
no such fear. He doubts the party mentality of the town. But
Scott agrees to go along on one of Jonathan Wolfe's missions and
is ambushed.
Rand and Rook confront Wolfe, and Wolfe agrees to take them to
look for Scott. Coincidentally, they are ambushed again but Rook
finds Scott and they fight their way out. At some point, Rand
gets separated from the other two, and witnesses a meeting
between Wolfe and an Invid. The Invid gives Wolfe a pack of
protoculture. Rand makes the connection in his head: Wolfe trades
soldier and weaponry to the Invid in exchange for peace and
protoculture. Rand confronts Wolfe, but Wolfe is veteran and
easily overcomes Rand.
When Wolfe sees that Scott is alive, he has a change of heart.
Scott reminds Wolfe of his youth, and he commandeer's Scott's
Alpha fighter and fights off the Invid attack. Wolfe, however, is
wounded by the last Invid and dies in Scott's arms. Wolfe
realises that he was wrong, that turning against his own people.
This is a sobering experience for Scott and the others, but they
press on toward Reflex Point, the Invid headquarters.
"The Genesis Pit"
While scouting out a new campsite, Scott, Rand, and Annie fall
into one of the Invid leader's "Genesis Pits" where she
is doing strange experiments. Dinosaurs, monsters, Invid, and
possession are all part of the evolutionary experiments conducted
by the Invid leader, or Regis.
Rand figures that the Regis is trying to figure out what the
dominant species on Earth is and how she can exploit it. Scott
and Rand find out, through the Regis' possession of Annie, that
the Regis plans to exterminate the humans in favour of the
Invid's ultimate life form.
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"Enter Marlene"
The rag-tag group of freedom fighters arrive at the fallback
point of Admiral Hunter's invasion force. Unfortunately, the
Invid had arrived earlier and the invasion force was only a
scattered bunch of garbage. Scott is shocked and begins to lose
hope.
While on a scouting mission, Rook and Rand find a naked woman
who appears to be a battle survivor. In actuality, she is an
agent of the Invid Regis, engineered to spy on the freedom
fighters. Rook and Rand take her back to their camp.
Lancer and Lunk find several new fighters to add to their
arsenal, and get to try them out against an Invid patrol. Scott
realises that others are relying on him and enters into battle,
destroying the Invid patrol.
"The Secret Route"
A mountain range lies between Scott's group and Reflex Point,
a mountain range with an Invid base right in the middle of it.
The group finds that there is a "secret route" through
the mountains, but the map that indicates it costs quite a bit of
money. Scott's group reluctantly looks for ways to make money.
Lancer has a brush with his past, and we find out why he
dresses up like a woman. His lost love is the fiance or the
seller of the map, and she tells Lancer that the maps are fakes.
There is more human betrayal in this episode, along with some
brushes with death. In the end, Lancer's lost love stays with her
fiance, and Lancer and the rest of the group trudge on to Reflex
Point.
"The Fortress"
After receiving a real map of the mountains, the rebels find
that the only way through the range is through the Invid. Scott
devises a strategy to attack the base, with some very useful help
from Rand.
Rand and Annie sneak into the base, and attempt to knock out
their protoculture detector. Scott orders everyone out of the
base while he single- handedly destroys the base and the Invid
troopers.
"Sandstorm"
While camping inside a cave during a sandstorm, the group
begins to bicker. Rand ends up being the object of everybody's
anger because he gives water to Marlene that no one knew he had.
Rand takes the criticism poorly and braves the sandstorm to find
more water.
Unfortunately, the sandstorm blinds Rand and he falls into a
sand pit that contains spores from the Flower of Life. Rand has a
hallucinatory dream, induced by the spores. He gains insight into
the Invid's plans of the domination of the universe. Marlene is
Rand's guide through his hallucinatory adventure, but Rand
doesn't make the connection between the Invid and Marlene.
"Annie's Wedding"
The journey to Reflex Point takes Scott's group through a
jungle farm holding the Flower of Life. This jungle is inhabited
by a primitive tribe of people who worship the gods of the river,
and believe that the rebel group has angered the river god.
Meanwhile, the Regis creates a new type of Invid mecha meant
to provide heavy resistance to the Earth people. She begins to
deploy the prototypes in an effort to attack the freedom
fighters.
The rebel band helps the river tribe defeat an Invid patrol,
and then slip under a huge Invid hive in rafts. This saves
immeasurably on protoculture and keeps the Invid from detecting
their protoculture use. However, the freedom fighters are in low
spirits after leaving Annie behind to marry a tribal prince.
"Separate Ways"
In a devastated city, Scott's group is driven into the subway
by the Regis' new mecha. What's more, they are sealed inside a
small section of subway by the Regis' constant effort at their
destruction. The Regis is not sure that the freedom fighters are
dead, so she orders her Shock Troopers to dig through the rubble.
Tensions run high with the buried alive, what with the recent
loss of Annie. Lunk snaps and starts fights with both Rand and
Scott. Lunk's blow-up causes several people to think, especially
Rook and Rand. They decide to leave the group together, in hopes
to find more people and possibly provide a little rest and
relaxation for the group. However, deep down they both know that
when they leave they are never coming back.
Eventually, Rand engineers a nifty little escape, and the
group escapes their would-be tomb. To their surprise, Annie is
waiting for them near the other vehicles. The group is happy, but
Rand and Rook still decide to leave. Lunk, Lancer, Marlene, and
Annie decide to stay with Scott and keep fighting the Invid. At
the last moment, Rook and Rand turn back and rejoin the group.
The ordeal meant to split apart the group ended up unifying it,
and Reflex Point is not far away.
"Metamorphosis"
The group of freedom fighters are at the northern tip of what
was once called "South America." They devise a plan to
cross the body of water between the two continents, using old
gasoline driven ships that they found mothballed in a local
shipyard. The rebels busy themselves with their preparation for
the crossing.
The Regis is also busy. She has finally found the perfect life
form to dominate the Earth: the human being. She immediately
creates a human prince and princess of the Invid named Corg and
Sera, respectively. The Regis sends her children to combat the
rebels that have corrupted her secret agent, Ariel (Marlene).
However, Sera has similar problems to the lost secret agent.
Human emotions are her downfall, and cause her to hesitate when
it comes to destroying Lancer. The beginnings of love occur
between Sera and Lancer. Eventually, the rebels' cunning and
courage fight off the Invid and they make it to the northern
continent.
"The Midnight Sun"
After crossing the Gulf of Mexico, the freedom fighters find
themselves in a snowy mountain range. Thinking that they have
eluded the Invid for the time being, Scott's group is in high
spirits, joking and eating on of their few decent meals. They do
not realise yet that Marlene is an Invid, and that the Regis is
using her to track the rebels.
Unfortunately for the group, Sera also finds herself and her
shock troopers in the mountain range, stalking the rebels. She is
desperate to make up for her hesitation earlier, but finds that
she cannot hurt the rebel known as "Lancer." She orders
her troops to attack the group, and orients herself on the leader
of the group.
The sudden attack splits up the group, separating them from
their mecha. Their only hope is to utilise their snowy
surroundings against the Invid. Sera confronts Marlene for the
first time, and the Regis telepathically tries to bring her child
back to the hive. However, she is unsuccessful, and Sera is
surprised by the appearance of the other freedom fighters.
Scott's group moves on, Marlene trying to forget the strange
experience, and Lancer quite a bit suspicious of "this woman
we call 'Marlene.'"
"Ghost Town"
>>From the mountains to the desert. A few small towns
are eking out a meager existence in the shadow of a huge Invid
protoculture farm. Scott and the other rebels, still on their
journey to Reflex Point, must find a way around or through the
protoculture farm.
Unfortunately, some members of the group have other things to
deal with as well. Scott and Rand are captured by a local police
force, and a local thief force steals their cyclones. Lancer and
Marlene are taken in by some equipment wholesalers who just
happen to be comrades of the thieves who stole Scott and Rand's
cyclones.
It turns out that these thieves are ex-soldiers, who fought
with Admiral Rick Hunter in an earlier Robotech war. They quit
the service, they had seen too much war. By the time Scott finds
the thieves, Lancer has heard their story and forgiven them for
their cowardice. Scott does not forgive them so easily, they earn
his respect only when they show up in a battle against the Invid,
when they sacrifice their lives to destroy the Invid. It is a
haunting episode, filled with duty, love, remorse, and
forgiveness.
"Frostbite"
Out of the desert, and back into the mountains. The cold has
dowsed the spirits of the freedom fighters, just as the constant
fighting has. Luckily, while passing through a high mountain
pass, Rand finds a huge city buried under an ice canopy.
The city provides both an escape from the cold and an escape
for the war with the Invid. The group splits up and enjoys the
lost city, which they discover was called Denver. Scott and
Marlene find that they have a great attraction between them and
Rand and Rook find that whatever is between them is something
bordering on hate. Annie is in heaven, she finds a new dress and
a whole stockpile of peppermint candy. Lunk and Lancer discuss
the current trend in Invid mecha, how they keep getting better
and better.
The escape from the war is not as complete as the group
expected. Corg, the Invid prince, is hot on their trail. With a
few of the advanced Shock Troopers, Corg attacks the rebels
unaware. Only by bringing the city's icy shell down can Scott's
group stop the attack. As the group leaves the crumbling city,
Lunk sets off a tremendous explosion, destroying the city, and
hopefully the Invid inside.
"Birthday Blues"
The rebels are forced to sneak around a deserted town while
Annie mourns her destroyed birthday plans. Corg is near, and is
easily tricked into retreat by a gadget of Lancer's.
Scott and the others use the break in the Invid threat to
throw a birthday party for Annie. Annie gets everything she ever
wanted: a cake, a big jar of peppermints, a new dress, a
fireworks and airplane show, and most of all, she has a family.
And although she would never admit it, that is exactly
what she wanted.
This celebration is hardly just a gift for Annie. It was also
a welcome bonding opportunity for the group.
"Hired Gun"
The gang is close to Reflex Point, but they have to deal with
a local problem first. A seeming madman is killing all of the
soldiers in the sector, and Scott's group vows to end this
madman's killing spree. However, after Rook and Rand have a run
in with a mysterious man named Dusty Aires, they begin to doubt
the legend of the random killer.
As always, wherever there is a buildup of military might, the
Invid are their. The posse assembled to bring down Dusty Aires
brings also the wrath of the Invid, and Scott's group see the
awesome power of the Invid, and how lucky they are to have gotten
so far.
Conversation with Dusty Aires provides insight into his
psychosis, and also insight into the limits of human friendship.
The group presses on. They can feel how close they are to Reflex
Point.
"The Big Apple"
Scott's rebel group is only a day or two away from Reflex
Point, but they are badly in need of protoculture. They stop off
in the remnants of New York City, which was amazingly spared from
the Zentraedi holocaust. Posing as homeless people, Rand, Lancer,
and Annie find the local Invid protoculture storage. The group
decides to steal some protoculture. Unfortunately, Annie drops
some protoculture canisters, alerting the Invid to their
presence. They are only saved by a would-be actor, who convinces
the Invid that a stray can was the cause of the commotion
Meanwhile, under pressure from the Regis, Corg decides to
destroy all of the inhabitants of New York City. Sera tries to
stop him, but decides to use the situation as a chance to speak
with Marlene. Again Marlene refuses to acknowledge that she is an
Invid.
Scott, Lunk, and Rook are the only ones close enough to mecha
to fight Corg and his troops. Amazingly, the small group of three
fighters stage a successful counterattack against the local Invid
hive, and drive off the Invid temporarily.
"Reflex Point"
As the title says, the freedom finally reaches Reflex Point,
ready for their assault. However, they are a little late for the
assault. An advance force from Admiral Hunter had attacked
earlier, and by the time Scott's group arrived, they had already
been defeated. The ground around Reflex Point is littered with
destroyed Invid and human mecha. At first, there are no
survivors.
Suddenly, a single cyclone rider appears, carrying a camera
where her gun should be. She is Sue Graham, assigned to document
the battles with the Invid. Scott's group is horrified to find
out that she filmed her comrades' destruction without lifting a
finger to help them.
Eventually, she seems to come around, and proposes a plan to
fight the Invid. Scott realises that her plan to destroy the
Invid is actually just a plan to get some great camera footage of
more human mecha being destroyed. The freedom fighters surprise
her, and come out of the battle as victors. During the battle,
Graham is mortally wounded. She dies after realising her
mistakes.
Sue Graham is not the only casualty. During the battle,
Marlene receives a cut on her arm. Where red blood should be
flowing, only green blood appears. At that moment, standing next
to an Invid commander bleeding green blood, Marlene and the rest
of the group realises her true identity. Marlene runs off crying,
and the others stand and watch, wondering if they will ever see
her again.
"Dark Finale"
The battle for the Earth begins. Ground troops from the newly
arrived Robotech Expeditionary Force have linked up with Scott's
band of freedom fighters. Lunk has been reinstated in military.
All is ready for the attack.
A lot happens during this episode. During the fight, Rand
professes his love for Rook, which she returns. Lancer's Alpha is
hit by an Invid energy bolt, and is saved from destruction by
Sera. The rebels are led to the Regis by Marlene, and the Regis
explains her plans.
The episode ends, and the SDF-3 and Admiral Hunter still
hasn't arrived. Scott vows to destroy Corg, and the others are
left inside Reflex Point with the Regis.
"Symphony of Light"
The final episode of Robotech picks up where the last left
off. Scott is fighting Corg, and is shot down. Meanwhile, Rook
and Rand climb in their Alpha's, and decide to help Scott out.
Lunk and Annie vacate the battle scene, Lunk is a ground fighter,
and the ground attack is over.
The Regis decides to leave the Earth, and take her children
with her. Lancer agrees to help Sera fight off the attacks until
the Regis can leave. Scott finds his Beta fighter, and destroys
Corg.
The Regis leaves in a ball of fire, destroying the remaining
human forces left in orbit. Lancer stages a concert, in which he
reveals his true identity. Sera was left behind, and she is at
the concert to cheer Lancer on. Rook and Rand leave to start
their lives together. Lunk, Annie, and Marlene drive off to start
a farm. Scott flies back into space to search for the
still-absent Admiral Hunter.
