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The Robotech Masters have made a fifteen year journey to the planet Earth, using up much of their precious protoculture matrix to allow their robotech devices, as well as their clone workers, to function properly.
The Second Robotech War explodes, bringing together several couples. Dana Sterling befriends Zor, a cloned Bioroid Pilot originated from the cells of the inventor of Robotechnology. Bowie Grant, a distant relative of Claudia Grant (one of the original Robotech Defenders) falls in love with Musika, one of the last generation of true Robotech Masters.
There is an urgency which motivates the Robotech Masters. An Invid sensor nebula has been found scouting the fourth quadrant in the vicinity of earth. If the Invid discovers the location of the protoculture matrix, they will travel countless lightyears to receive their life's sustenance. As long as the Robotech Masters can beat the Invid to the supply of protoculture before it has a chance to mutate into the Invid Flower of Life, the balance of the Universe will be preserved. If they cannot recover the protoculture or if it is discovered in a mutated condition, their only alternative is total destruction of the protoculture matrix and the destruction of the host planet itself -- even at the cost of their own lifes.
This write-up appears on the divider page that starts off the Robotech Masters section of the Robotech Style Guide. Not a letter has been changed from the original text.
"The army has taken on the sub-title of 'Southern Cross' to indicate the roots of Robotechnology which provides them with the technology to make the weapon systems operate."
There are a few interesting points to make about this single statement:
1) This is completely at odds with the depiction of the Army of the Southern Cross in the novels by Jack McKinney. With McKinney's rampagingly xenophobic version of Supreme Commander Anatole Westphal Leonard in charge (and as its founder, no less), the Southern Cross would never have named itself after the distant star system that is the original home of the science of Robotechnology. Case in point, there is a scene in one of the later "Lost Generation" novels (I think it was #19, The Zentraedi Rebellion) where Leonard suggests to fellow anti-RDF radical Dr. Lazlo Zand that he begin research on creating Southern Cross-only weaponry forged from an Earthborn science so he could dispose of their Protoculture-based arsenal due to its alien nature.
That said, other works of an earlier vintage ("The Zentraedi Rebellion" was published in '94), including the early RPG books (1986) and the SENTINELS video (also 1986), follow the Style Guide's lead. For instance, in the first book of the ROBOTECH RPG, author Kevin Siembieda writes, "The Army of the Southern Cross is so named, due to the fact that Fantoma, the home planet of the Robotech Masters, is located in the constellation known as 'The Southern Cross'." (98) (For the record, the home planet of the Robotech Masters is Tirol, also spelled "Tyrol" in several sources, not Fantoma; this is corrected in later ROBOTECH RPG books.) It is also mentioned by the narrator in the SENTINELS video that the events on Tirol take place in the "star system of the Southern Cross", which at least implies a connection between Tirol's home star system and the name of Earth's primary defense force during the Second Robotech War.
2) This statement also establishes that as far back as the second generation all Robotech weaponry is powered by Protoculture. It is not explicitly stated that Robotech weaponry is powered by Protoculture in the TV series until The New Generation, when our heroes' weaponry needs to be refueled with Protoculture cannisters nearly every episode. Indeed, I recall some source (which one, I don't recall at this moment) at one point stating that some mecha of this era are not powered by Protoculture due to a shortage of the substance, which would make sense, but flies in the face of many of the concepts of what Protoculture actually does.
"Dana Sterling is a central figure in the development of the new society."
This is misleading statement. As the Masters arc opens, Dana Sterling is a recent graduate of the Robotech Academy, a teenage girl who somehow recieves command of a gang of misfit military pilots. That's not what I would call a "central figure in the development" of ANY society, half-breed heritage be damned.
"Bowie Grant, a distant relative of Claudia Grant ..."
If the Style Guide makes Bowie a DISTANT relative of Claudia, I must wonder how Robotech Art 1 got away with claiming he was her brother. (SENTINELS later established that he was her nephew.)
"If they cannot recover the protoculture or it is discovered or if it is discovered in mutated condition, their only alternative is total destruction of the protoculture matrix and the destruction of the host planet itself -- even at the cost of their own lifes."
This line seems inconsistent with the events of the final episode of the Masters arc, episode 60, "Catastrophe". Despite the mutation of the Flowers of Life (which, in fact, the Masters had been worrying about in every episode until then, which IS consistent with this statement), the Masters still seemed intent on capturing the contents of the Protoculture Factory. In fact, though they had every indication that the Flowers had mutated, the Masters seemed intent on preventing Zor Prime from destroying the site of the SDF-1.
Furthermore, not once during the course of the twenty-four episodes of the Robotech Masters arc did the Masters themselves seem intent on doing ANYTHING to the detriment of their OWN lives. They did, however, not seem to care what happened to the lives of their people, who they seemed to consider expendible as the Masters episodes drew to a close.