Well if you haven’t guessed it already, this episode takes place on Mars.
The narrator comes on and tells us that the Zentraedi has sent a recon ship to Mars so that they can then stage an ambush since it’s pretty obvious that the SDF-1 is going to try and land at a deserted outpost called Base Sara. So wow, many months must have passed by because clearly they’ve passed Jupiter and the asteroid belt.
In Breetai’s flagship Exedore is explaining to him why the outpost is destroyed and he goes on to say that it seems that they killed each other there and the people who survived didn’t last long. Breetai then informs him that he’s ordered the 7th Mechanized Division of the Botoru Battalion to assemble there at once. But Exedore objects to this big time because their leader Khyron is a maniac who will kill his own men in order to win a battle. He goes on to say that they call him The Backstabber. Breetai seems to like this for some reason, but that’s when all these collision alarms go off. All of a sudden this even stranger looking ship comes out of a fold and scrapes against Breetai’s massive flagship. Right away Exedore is beyond pissed and says that Khyron is completely with out discipline. To make his argument he comes on screen and his dumbass 2nd in command Grel says, “Ha just as I thought, we crashed into four ships total, you thought it would be three at the most. I win the bet.” Khyron instantly get’s super pissed and yells at him saying, “Be quiet you fool our conversation is being broadcast.” That’s when Breetai can’t take anymore and tells him that if he keeps pulling this shit that he’ll take away his command. Then he gives him his orders that he is to land on Mars and that he wants the SDF-1 trapped with gravity mines and to capture it intact.
All of a sudden we switch to Vanessa telling Captain Gloval that she has enemy ships coming up on her radar. This being Robotech we get another big battle with Veritech’s and Battlepods getting into this massive dog fight in space. Rick see’s a couple of Veritech’s get blown away near him and he thinks to himself, “I can be next!” Just as the fight is getting thick the Zentraedi all of a sudden break their attack and retreat.
On board the Prometheus Rick tells Roy that the daily battles are tiring him out. Roy suggests that he go into the city and have himself a good time. As he’s walking along in Macross city Vanessa comes on the PA and tells the people that they were attacked by a 120 enemy pods but that their air wings were able to drive them off with light casualties. The people murmur in approval but Rick makes a shocked face and he knows that they’re being lied to now. Just then Minmei says hi to Rick and she actually notices that he seems upset. Rick tells her that they hardly hit half of the pods and they had way heavier casualties than the enemy. But she’s so damn annoying. All cheerfully and giggling, she just blows him off and says that it won’t help anyone by staying depressed about it. She doesn’t seem to realize what kind of situation they’re really in.
In the bridge Kim is telling Gloval that they seem to be getting a message from Sara Base. Lisa for some reason sounds like she’s full of hope that their might be some survivors there. Why? We’ll find out soon and it’s sick! Anyways, Gloval orders them to change course to Mars because he wants to land the ship to do some repairs and get resupplied if possible.
We cut to Lisa and she’s having a flash back thinking about her fiance named Carl Rieber. Carl’s talking about Mars and the fact that he’ll be shipping off there the following week. But here’s the fucked up part. Lisa looks like she’s about 12 and Carl around either 19 or 20. Carl complains about all the fighting that’s going on because the Global Civil War was raging at the time. Right then and there Lisa decides to enlist when she’s older so that she can go up to Mars to be with him. Carl tells her to keep it a secret from her father. Not because he’s an Admiral in the armed forces, but because he would cut off Carl’s balls and send his ass to jail for having an inappropriate relationship with his very young daughter. He tells her good bye and stupid Lisa says, “And remember I love you!” Back on the bridge Lisa is near tears while looking at Mars.
Gloval orders a recon unit to make a fly by of the base, but they don’t detect anything on the surface. Turns out that Khyron and his forces are hiding in a canyon with all their power sources turned off. Slowly the SDF-1 lands nearby the base. But Khyron’s 3rd in command Geraro tells him that they didn’t land where the gravity mines are at, but Khyron tells him not to worry about it because he knows that eventually they’ll move in closer. We see a bunch of Destroids coming out of one of the carriers to secure a supply route while the Veritech’s give them fighter cover over head. Anyone who’s seen this show before knows how completely useless the Destroids are.
Now that the convoy is fully supplied Gloval orders the SDF-1 to move closer to the base and now they’re pretty much screwed here because they’ve now fallen into the trap. On the bridge Lisa asks Captain Gloval for permission to go down to Base Sara to check the source of the signals. She practically begs him to go down because she’s so desperate to meet her pedo lover again. Inside his Battaloid Rick asks Roy if he can get a day off next week. That’s when Roy tells him that the whole squadron has asked for the same day off too. Apparently Minmei is having a birthday party and she invited practically the entire air wing to it. So Rick right now must not be feeling pretty special. She probably even invited Otto the garbage man to attend because she’s so starved for attention.
Lisa has finally made it inside the base and right away sees that the computer is turned on all by itself, but can’t figure out how it’s on since there’s no one around. Back at the canyon Khyron is getting impatient and is asking Geraro if the gravity mines are set yet, but he tells him that they’re only at 70%. All of a sudden this voice comes in and he tells Khyron that he can’t wait anymore and he’s going to attack now. We then see a Battlepod taking off, that’s when Khyron tracks it in his Officers Pod and shoots his ass down, not killing him, but seriously damaging his pod. He goes on to say, “Listen to me you empty headed idiot. Don’t you ever disobey an order of mine again. Or I shall kill you next time. You understand” Yup, they don’t call him the backstabber for nothing.
Right away the radar in the SDF-1 detected an explosion and Gloval sends a Cat’s Eye recon plane to head on over there. The recon report comes in and they can all clearly see all the Battlepod’s waiting in the canyon. Gloval orders a recall and they sound a red alert. They SDF-1 then tries to take off, but they’re not going anywhere because the gravity mines have a hold of them now. They detect that a power source underground is keeping them from escaping.
Geraro tells Khyron that the mines are now at maximum effect and Khyron gleefully orders his forces to attack. We see that there are thousands of Battlepod’s appearing on the horizon and it appears that the SDF-1 and it’s crew are so fucked. It turns out that the device that is keeping them down is about three miles underground. Once again we get a big huge battle with Destroids, Battlepods and Veritech’s being destroyed. Khyron mad with battle lust laughs and says, “They fell for it, now kill them!”
Jesus, right out of the gate three squadron’s have already been wiped out but Gloval tells the bridge crew to calm their asses down and that he has a plan. Apparently the base has a Reflex furnace in it. If Lisa can get to it and blow it up, they may have a chance to escape. Lisa get’s the order and she goes off to do it. Gloval not helping matters puts all the pressure on her by reminding her of the 70,000 people who are on board the ship.
She finally finds the control room and puts everything into overdrive to blow the base up. Right away Gloval orders a recall of all their forces to get back on board the battle fortress. In her helmet’s comm’s Claudia is telling Lisa to get her ass back on board. Just as Lisa is running to escape, the corridor seals itself off. As she turns around to look for another way out, she spots Carl’s room. It simply says Rieber on the door. She walks in and starts crying saying, “Oh darling, I’ve finally made it.”
It seems like Lisa has decided to just stay behind to die because she’s not answering Claudia anymore. Back to the battle Roy orders Rick to go and pick up Lisa. We then see Rick coming into his own and killing a bunch of Zentraedi with ease. Roy points out that he’s gotten a lot better. It’s funny how he spots Lisa just sitting there like an idiot through the window of Carl’s room. He tells her to stand back because he’s going to punch through the window using the Guardian’s fist. Lisa get’s all pissed off and she tells him that she’s not leaving the room. When she see’s that he’s not listening she tries to make it an order. But Rick replies with, “I have no idea what’s happening but my life is at stake now too, so come on!” After she tells him no again, Rick literally man handles her and says, “No way, you have to come.”
Rick blasts off with Lisa yelling, “Rieber!!” All of a sudden we see the base beginning to explode until the whole thing goes up. Battlepod after Battlepod are being destroyed by the explosion and debris it’s causing. Through what looks like a tornado on Mars, the SDF-1 painfully, slowly takes off from the surface. Shit, if Carl wasn’t dead before he sure is now. In Mar’s orbit Lisa is still in the fist of the Guardian and is crying over the fact that she couldn’t die like an idiot in Carl’s room.
Back on the surface Khyron opens the hatch to his now destroyed Officers Pod and starts to punch the shit out of the control panel yelling, “I HATE TO LOSE A FIGHT!!” But then laughs cause he’s totally insane and says, “But we’ll meet one another again and next time I’ll win.” On board the Prometheus’s flight deck Rick is standing there gawking at Lisa and now feels torn because he finds himself being attracted to her. But at the same time he still wants to call Minmei his girlfriend. Even though she completely made it clear that she friend zoned him and their relationship is going nowhere.
Again, this was another good episode. For some reason I’ve always remembered since a kid that they fought on Mars, but I had completely forgotten about the creepy relationship that Lisa had with Carl.
Firsts: Khyron, Grel and Geraro are introduced.
Robotech Death Count: I would say maybe 100 Veritech and Destroid pilots got killed while the Zentraedi once again had their casualties in the 1000’s.
Robotech Reviewed 