Someone asked the following question in a Robotech discussion group I’m in:
With the Zentraedi and Robotech Masters destroyed and the Invid departed to parts unknown after the Third Robotech War, would Earth emerge as the new interplanetary power?
Ken Cheng
Here’s my take on it. I’m sure some purists will be screaming because I’m drawing from non-Robotech Macross sequels, but I don’t care. They need lives.
In our immediate neck of the woods, maybe. But the Masters made the Zentraedi as their police force for a reason. Unless they rendered every other culture in the area extinct (which neither the Sentinels nor the Macross sequels even remotely support) there are going to be others out there. In the Sentinels and Shadow Chronicles alone we have something like a half dozen other technologically advanced species capable of interstellar travel and warfare.
I never finished the Sentinels books, so do we know what happened to the Regent’s chunk of the Invid population? Unless the REF and Sentinels slaughtered the lot of them, there are going to be Invid running around. If we go with the same idea as the Unofficial Robotech Reference Guide, there are still Invid on Earth even after the Regis leaves. And the RPG introduced the idea of the Invid coming back a while later.
Then there are Zentraedi fleets that weren’t involved in the Zentraedi Holocaust or raid on the Robotech Factory. They used that as a plot point in at least two of the Macross sequels. And since the Earth forces in Robotech never fortified Earth like they did in Macross II or Macross Plus and the Regis’s departure took out a good chunk of the REF fleet, even a smallish Zentraedi fleet would be a serious problem after the TRW. Then you have the other remnants of the Masters’ empire. Who knows what’s left there.
Earth was also pretty much screwed after the first three Robotech Wars. The Zentraedi Holocaust did a pile of damage, followed by the Masters showing up and going berserk, and then the Invid showed up and started nuking cities from orbit. Plus the effects of the Invid occupation we see on screen. By the time the Regis leaves, Earth isn’t exactly a shining jewel of civilization and technology.
About all they have going for them is whatever part of what’s left of the REF fleet stays behind — which is probably the part that was physically incapable of running off to go fight the Haydonians. At the very least the REF fleet remnants will have plenty of skilled people on board and a pile of maintenance equipment that could be repurposed for manufacturing.
Rebuilding after the TRW and FRW is likely to involve beached REF ships forming the nuclei of cities that start out as combinations of military bases and refugee camps.
So Earth may end up being fairly powerful defensively at the end of the TRW thanks to the REF fleet remnants being there but there are still a bunch of potential threats out there.
Best case: some really talented diplomacy heads off a Fifth Robotech War (calling the Haydonians the Fourth since that’s what the Shadow Chronicles seemed to be setting up) before everyone else in our neck of the woods says “they’re weak! Get ’em!”
The single largest factor is Robotech’s handling of Protoculture. If the Regis took all of it with her when she left, Earth is even more screwed. Not sure I’m on board with that scenario, though, considering how easily it took root after the Macross wreckage was nuked at the end of the SRW. Somebody (Lang or Cabell are the obvious candidates, but we know the REF has plenty of other scientists) has to understand the connection between Protoculture and the Invid Flower of Life, how well it grows on Earth, and how to process it. Or at least enough to start experimenting.
In any case, if you’re into the gaming end there’s still plenty of fun to be had.