It is March of 2033. Jonathan Wolff's Orpheus Flight, a mixed team of VF-1 Veritechs and Alpha Fighters piloted by the few men Wolff knows he can trust implicitly, arrive at the burning oil fields of old Texas. Parkes, a former forager, asks how long the others think the oil fires will keep going. Gavin Murdock, formerly of the Stone Men, figures about forty or fifty years. Terry Weston, an ex-TASC pilot and former drifter, points out that the burning fields are providing the Invid with plenty of cover, but Murdock tells him the cover works both ways--the Invid won't expect them to come in from this direction. Wolff says to cut the radio chatter so as not to draw attention to themselves. However, he thinks about it and figures that's exactly what he did back at Vahalla ...

Speaking of which, back at Vahalla, Major Carpenter has something to show Bekka Cade--a message from Wolff. "This is a heckuva wake-up call, I know" Wolff says on the recording, "but I think this is the best way to handle things. I've decided I can't ignore Gary Hauser's theory about where the Invid are holding Catherine and Johnny. I've put together a team to attempt a rescue. By the time you see this, we'll be on our way. Murdock, Hauser, Parkes, and Weston are going with me. I told traffic control that we were a scouting mission for the attack on Reflex Point. If you're smart, you won't contradict the story. Believe it or not, Carpenter, I am sorry. Catherine, Johhny and I will probably never be a family again, eve if I can find them ... but I owe them this much." He says he'll try to rejoin the main force to attack Reflex Point as soon as he can, but if they don't return, well, they'll know what happened. Bekka is outraged at his arrogance.

On the outskirts of Dallas, Hauser is amazed by the energy being given off by the Invid domes among the ruins of the city. As the Veritechs approach the target zone, Wolff suggests that if they come in low and fast they might surprise their foes. However, they are soon met by a squad of Invid Troopers. Parkes and Wolff nail a couple of them, but Weston is hit from behind. Realizing he's in bad shape, he decides to ditch his Alpha at one of the domes. The plane touches the ground and skids along on its tailfins before exploding at the Invid's doorstep. Horrified, Murdock takes his VF-1 down to try and rescue Weston, but as he switches to Battloid he finds himself face to face with an Invid Enforcer.

Meanwhile, the fleet from Moon Base ALuCE II descends to Earth as a convoy and is forced to confront the Invid in space. Mecha from Vahalla arrive at Reflex Point ahead of them and launch their attack. Bekka and Carpenter, flying over Reflex Point in a recon VF-1, recieve a request for backup from the attacking Hovertank and Valkyrie squads below. Bekka recieves word from Captain Nobutu that the moon fleet will arrive in four minutes. However, the forces from Vahalla might not last that long.

Back in Texas, Murdock quickly dispatches the Enforcer, surprisingly with minimal effort. Once-enslaved humans begin swarming out of one of the Invid domes, and Wolff takes this as a sign that he's done the right thing. Murdock and Hauser are ordered to get the humans to safety while Wolff blasts his way into the central Invid dome and destroys its power core. As it crumbles in upon itself, the survivors of Orpheus Flight worry for him, but his Alpha soon emerges and Parkes notes his satisfaction with their performance today. "Norvell thought I was crazy for agreeing to help you, but we did good today, Colonel," he radios to Wolff. "We saved a lotta lives!"

Back above Reflex Point, Bekka loses contact with Nobutu. Half of the fleet from the moon has been wiped out, and Nova Satori informs Carpenter that she's ordering her GMP forces to withdraw. Carpenter points out that they had an agreement. "I didn't agree to let my people be slaughtered," she retorts. "The Invid had us outnumbered from the beginning. Your so-called reinforcements from the moon don't have any real combat experience. We lost hundreds of soldiers today and we didn't make a dent in that blasted hive. We never had a chance against the Invid and your precious Colonel Wolff knew it. Otherwise, he'd be here! You've got to order a retreat now, while there's still people left to save." Against all those facts, Carpenter finds himself defeated and orders a retreat.

While Wolff's day has ended in victory, he is told by one of the freed slaves that his wife and son were transferred to another hive two or three days ago. The rumor was that they were sent to Reflex Point. "Oh, god ..." Wolff says to the news, "oh, god ... I'm sorry, Carpenter."

Three days pass. In Vahalla, an angry and betrayed Carpenter tells Wolff that he, Bekka, and the survivors from ALuCE II are pulling out and starting their own unit. He accuses Wolff of putting himself ahead of the mission. "Mission?" Wolff asks. "What mission? Letting the Invid use you for target practice?" "That's not the point," Carpenter counters, "and you know it. The point is, you betrayed our trust. My trust." Wolff tries to get Carpenter to accept that he's not the same guy he was on Tirol, and he's certainly not the guy the UEG and REF built up with those old propaganda films. "I'm old, I'm tired, and I let my family down when they really needed me." He tells Carpenter there will be no winners or losers in the war with the Invid, only survivors, and if he can't accept that, he should probably go. Carpenter says he'll be out in seventy-two hours.

Elsewhere, Louie Nichols finds that Wolff is currently unavailable. "Tell him it's a matter of life and death!" he urges the operator, but he's already been cut off. "Aaaah, skip it. Typical military mindset. He drags me halfway around the world to upgrade his communications system, and then he doesn't communicate. Well, I've got the message on tape he'll hear it soon enough." The message is that the Mars Division of the REF fleet is en route to Earth. The Robotech Expeditionary Force is coming home to fight the Invid ...

ARTWORK

This is a rather excellently rendered issue, with only a few minor exceptions, which I'll get into in a bit. Right now, though, I want to point out that Eldred's Alphas and Valkyries look phenominal, though the Battloid action was a bit lighter than I'd have liked--dogfighting can work in comics, but it's much harder to convey than the sight of big robots squaring off. Of course, I shouldn't make any complaints because of that one great full-page piece where Murdock gets an eyeful of his first Invid Enforcer. That's just an excellent piece, and if I had a chance to leap upon it and acquire it, I'd certainly shell out the cash.

(I should say now that it is a minor point of contention whether or not the Invid Regis had developed Enforcers before she arrived on Earth. The TV series leans towards her not having Enforcers, since presumably we are watching her develop her forces there; however, other sources--including the Sentinels comics and the RPG, and maybe the novels--say that the Enforcers were only in the Regis's arsenal, but did exist prior to the New Generation episodes.)

(I should also point out that Murdock's VF-1 seems to have the body markings of a VF-1D, but the Macross: Do You Remember Love? motion picture's redesigned VF-1A head. Didn't get a good enough look at the cockpit, but I doubt it has the -1D's two-person cockpit.)

Anyway, the biggest problem with the artwork in this issue is that with their flight helmets on, the only way to tell the crew of Orpheus Flight apart is by their facial hair, which is why for the longest while I thought Wolff was talking to Weston when they were discussing the oil fires. Then I realized that Wolff has a full-fledged moustache, while Murdock just has an unshaven look about him. Then there's Gary Hauser with his very Napoleon Russo-style moustache, just the two little dabs on each side of his upper lip; Parkes with his chin stubble; and finally Terry Weston, who is completely clean shaven and has big sunglasses on to boot. And of course, he's the guy who dies; luckily, the dialogue makes it rather clear from then on out who's talking.

I'm also not crazy about the sparse and sometimes sketchy look of much of the minor general fighting--the stuff used to indicate and explain that there was fighting going on involving people who aren't major characters. Included in this art is a shot which clearly indicates that Eldred can't draw VF-1J heads (which I recall Return to Macross confirming, if I'm not mistakened) and points out his mistaken belief that the exhaust vents on the VF-1 rotate back when it raises its leg--there is a joint there, but when the VF-1 raises its leg (about as far as 90 degrees with the body), a different joint just below the exhaust vents is used. This is made most clear on Yamato's 1/60 scale Valkyrie toys, which original mechanical designer Shoji Kawamori had a slight hand in, and which also included the leg joint that Eldred uses; most other Valkyrie toys--including those manufactured by Takatoku, Bandai, and Toynami--leave this joint unposeable due to the method they use for keeping the legs (which transform in a most unelegant way, I might add) attached to the body of the fighter. Anyway, this is just a minor bit of artistic minutiae--one which is often shot down by non-transforming figures of the Valkyrie, and one which is hard to explain in pure text--but I thought I'd mention it for completeness's sake.

To sum up, this is one of Eldred and Perry's better efforts, and there are a few token mecha appearances I'm quite happy with--watching VF-1's, Hovertanks, and Alphas all getting in on the melee against the Invid is always fun. Eldred's Invid could use a little work here, but given their odd bulbous nature, especially compared to the hard-lined Earth mecha, I can understand any problems he has with their portrayal. And Eldred's character work is excellent as usual for this era; my only bone to pick is with his rendition of Carpenter, who looks both a little too young and doesn't have a pinched enough face when compared to his animation counterpart. Naturally, since he's merely a one-episode bit player in the animation (like Wolff, only more important at the time but less of a larger-than-life figure--much like he is here), I can understand Eldred's inability to hit the character design right on the head, but since his portrayal in Invid War seems to have stuck as something of the standard for all his later appearances prior to Academy Comics' Star Runners: Carpenter's Journey one-shot, I think it's worth complaining about.