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The Sentinels is an alliance formed by several races whose homeworlds were taken over by the Invid, swearing to pool their resources and abilities to destroy the Invid threat. They gained an edge when the humans and Zentraedi led by Rick and Lisa Hunter joined them. Most of the aliens here are allied with the Sentinel cause, which is now to better relations among races!

Rubicon

Seven-part mini-series (cut short) / June 1998 - August 1998 / Story by Alan Nepomuceno

THE LOWDOWN

A year has passed since the Battle of Reflex Point, and the SDF-3 was found months ago. His self-imposed mission complete, Scott Bernard brings a small group of his former allies back to his old stomping grounds on the moon Tirol, former homeworld of the Robotech Masters. Their vacation just so happens to coincide with the appearance of a new threat, a bizarre white light that goes "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" that's been taking out recon squadrons with startling regularity. The culpret seems to be the Invid, but the question is ... how?

BACKGROUND INFO

As noted in the section of this website devoted to Robotech II: The Sentinels, this was Antarctic Press's half-assed attempt to quiet the fans demanding the conclusion of Jason and John Waltrip's adaptation of the Sentinels animation and novels. Indeed, as this series shares its name with the final Sentinels novel by Jack McKinney, most figured it would be a quick and dirty adaptation of the series' conclusion; however, what it ended up being was both a taste of things to come and what is largely considered to be the worst Robotech story ever made.

This series takes place one year after the end of the Robotech TV series and explicitly says that the date is November of 2046, which is contrary to every Robotech licensed work produced up to that point (June '98). This peeved a fair number of vocal fans, especially when a reference to a ship which ONLY exists in the on-line Robotech Research Guide (RRG)'s timeline appeared, making the source of the writer's Robotech historical data crystal clear. The RRG has long been one of the few organized advocates for what is known as the Late Return Theory--the idea that it took the Robotech Expeditionary Force a decade to launch Mars Division into action against the Invid forces on Earth. Most pre-Robotech.com licensed works place the mobilization of Mars Division only a few years after the Invid conquest of Earth (according to this very website's timeline, it only took about a year). However, Robotech.com favors the Late Return Theory over the earlier view (often referred to as the Early Return Theory), which is what I meant when I said this was a taste of things to come--I'm about 90% positive that all future licensed works will jive perfectly with Robotech.com's RRG-influenced timeline, and thus will fit in with this series' interpretation of Robotech history.

That said, it's unfortunate that the harbringer of What Will Be had to be a poorly computer-toned mess, riddled with problems that start with the appropriation of the name of a Sentinels novel that it has nothing to do with, and worse, the appropriation of the Sentinels name when it's apparent that the writer knows very little about the Sentinels storyline. The artist apparently knew even less; a character I assume was intended to be the Garudan Learna ends up appearing as a human being, and the "flashback" montages utilize both Macross-era character design and what appear to be bad, vague reinterpretations of Sentinels characters. Considering the way that certain Robotech terms are thrown around willy-nilly--Tiresia, for some reason, has been renamed "Monument City"; and the Praxians seem to be a club that anyone can join now, since Nova Satori claims to belong to their number; and for some reason, a band of long-haired guys with headbands (not to be confused with Lancer or new lead character J.C.) are trying to steal T.R. Edwards' cowl in one of the only Sentinels-related plots in the entire book--the whole affair seems like someone's rambling fanfic given official licensor approval. (Hell, I've read fanfics that leave this series in the dust!)

But enough of my babbling; read on and observe the horror for yourself.

RUBICON

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