Hundreds of ships gather around the Moon and Mars, from the large Ikazuchi cruisers to the small Horizont shuttles. These ships belong to the Robotech Expeditionary Force (REF) their current objective to reclaim Earth from the Invid who had invaded and taken over Earth years ago from the United Earth Defense Forces.
Waiting impatiently aboard one of the many Horizont class landing shuttles along the fleet Private Marko Fuhrmann finishes prepping his Cyclone for the assault, just as the final fleet wide transmission comes over the communication systems, "All ships prepare for final approach to Earth and may we all drink together on the ground. Good Luck," the transmission cuts off and the pilot of the transport switches to the ship intercom instructing everyone to secure themselves immediately.
The sight of the Invid Fleet appears in their veiwport, thousands upon thousands of their Mecha begin launching from their clam shaped carrier vessels. Long distance fire from the heavy cannons of the REF heavy ships peppers the Invid forces for a whole minute before the Invid Mecha were upon them. Destruction rains upon each force bringing naught but death.
Their transport shakes violently as it enters the fray, shouts fill the bridge as their fleet fights their way through the heavy enemy blockade. The large Ikazuchi class cruiser escorting their group of dropships is quickly explodes under heavy enemy fire from a large group of Invid Mecha, taking several smaller ships around it with it. "Sir, we just lost our main escort!" shouts the head communications officer, as shock waves rattle the transport from the destroyed ship.
"Dammit!" replies the pilot and commander of the ship, as he pulls the ship around, "I see a path, everyone HANG ON!" he yells and throws the the engines to full thrust rocketing towards and through the enemy blockade. Once through the blockade the pilot/commander questions a comms officer, "How many have made it through?"
There was a silence through out the bridge as the sensor officer took a look at his readings, "Three ships made it through: two Horizonts including ourselves, and one Garfish Class troop carrier has managed to make it past the blockade. The rest of the fle-" the sensors officer makes a choked sound before continuing on with a pained tone, "...has already experienced 50% casualties and is being pushed back from orbit."
The pilot turns back to his controls and keeps the ship on course for his landing zone, only for explosions to rock the ship, "Sir, several Invid Mecha have begun to attack from the ground and the Garfish is now gone!"
"Shit, launch the defense fighter NOW!" came the command from the pilot/commander as he sees the same thing.
"Escort One and Two in the green, launching now," replies the secondary comms officer, before double checking the sensors insuring a clean detach from the larger drop ship, "Escort One has launched!" called the same officer a few terse moments later.
The fighter that just detached from the Horizont then separates into two individual planes and begin doing their best to defend the falling troop carrier. Flying. Dodging. Weaving. Killing. The Alpha and Beta fighters dance in the atmosphere like the birds of prey that they are. But, the Invid are too numerous and are soon explode in the sky.
"Our escorts are gon-!" , the co-pilot yells just as a large explosion rocks the shuttle cutting him off and smoke fills the bridge, "we just lost the number two engine, we are losing altitude and speed fast!"
The main pilot and commander curses, "Cut power to remaining engines and prepare to transfer all power to landing thrusters, we're going to dive to the planet, at one thousand meters we'll give a final burst from the engines to level out and land as best we can from there."
Switches are soon flipped by the co-pilot and the pilot points the nose towards the surface of earth as the other crewmembers started to hang on and the shuttle once again begins to pick up speed. Soon they where ignored by the Invid as a dead craft, and the shuttle plumets to the earth unmolested.
"Five thousand meters," calls out the co-pilot keeping a keen eye on his displays. Meanwhile the head sensors officer retreats to the cyclone riders in the main shuttle section and ensures they are fully secured in their crash webbing, before returning back to the bridge.
"Four thousand meters," the co-pilot called out just as the sensor officer strapped back in, hands flew across consoles when they see the large continent of Australia appeared outside the veiwport of the shuttle.
"Three thousand meters," the pilots were straining with the controls heavily now trying to keep from losing complete control of the craft, "prepare to ignite thrusters and engines!"
"Two thousand meters," the others on the bridge begin assisting the pilots by controlling secondary systems, freeing the pilots to concentrate on the task at hand.
"One thousand meters, NOW!" hands slam onto buttons and switches. Several thrusters roar to life with low growls evening the shuttle out, the remaining engines roars to life with their own angry growl as the Pilot switches it to full reverse speed to counter-act the inertia they have worked up plumiting to the ground.
The bunkers, one carrying a large supply of reserve protoculture cells for the ground forces, and the other Forty-Seven cyclone riders detach and careen into the desert floor creating two large impact craters. Five seconds pass like an eternity as the Horizont crashes nose first into a sand dune then everything goes black.
Marko's first thoughts before he even reopens his eyes is the pain he was in, everything ached from his head to his little toe. Even turning his head about sends fire through his muscles, "Aaagh, that hurts like hell," he says as he forces himself out of his restraints only to drop to his knees on the deck flooring from the pain. Looking up his eyes rove the wreckage around him, pieces of cyclone are everywhere along with a couple members of his squad, checking to see if anyone near him is alive he soon discovers they're dead. Then he moves on to what is left of the cockpit, large pieces of shrapnel littered the bodies of the pilots, it looked like they most likely died on impact.
A sound soon catches his attention, sounding something like a cat coughing up a fur ball, he turns to find the unconscious head communication officer Lieutenant Anette Davision. Marko began to examine her for injuries, her right arm was covered in blood flowing from a spot just above her elbow where a piece of shrapnel was lodged. Marko quicly locates one of several first-aid kits and goes to work patching up the Lieutenant. Once he finishes he continues his search for search for survivors in whats left of the ship.
Silva's eyes flutter open, she attempts to move all parts of her body testing for damage. she realizes nothing hurts horribly and thanks the stars that it so. She begins moving large pieces of metal that had fallen from the superstructure of the ship off her body, only to find Marko running over to her, "Corporal, you alright?"
"Ya...Now help me out of this harness," a moment later she was out and helping go from person to person checking to see if anyone else was alive. Fifteen minutes, Silva and Marko had located three other survivors, all of which are not suffering from any serious wounds. By this time the sun had begun to set, they set up a camp out side of the ship using emergency supplies and surrounding the camp with the five cyclones they salvaged from the ship wreck. They also make sure to instill a watch for the night switching off every four hours.
The night passes uneventfully each of the suvivors rise from their slumber, except Marko who was already up being the last person on watch. He watches the females, Silva and Anette, come out of their makeshift tent. He then watches the other males survivors, Edward, John and Micheal, each one of them going about the camp preparing to leave.
Silva approaches Marko and hands him some rations, "The Lieutenants want to head out in ten minutes, they want to see if there are any survivors in the bunkers."
Marko nods taking the rations and eats, before joining the others breaking down camp. Twenty minutes later they are ready to move out, getting on to the cyclones Edward and Anette sharing one since they are one cyclone short of each person having their own. The cyclones make a soft whine as they start up and soon the small group is speeding across the Outback towards the approximate location of the bunks are.
They ride through out the day stopping only when they absolutely have to, doing this they make remarkable time and arrive at the site of a bunker as the sun sets. They once again arrange their cyclones in a circle and set up camp. Once this has been accomplished they head into a bunker, the smell is the first thing to meet them an ungodly stench of burnt flesh and rubber. They begin their search of survivors, and meticulously examining the damage. Several hours pass before they come to the conclusion that everyone that did not die on impact died when one of the cyclones munitions store exploded.
Not knowing how long they have before being discovered by the Invid the group destroys the bunker.