Tokyo - The Masters' Final Gambit

During the last days of the Second Robotech War, the Robotech Masters launched attacks across the globe. Many of these were aimed at population centres, and were aimed at pinning Southern Cross forces in place and stopping them from intervening in the assault on Monument City and final drive to SX Point 83. Most of the attacks were focused in targets across North America for that reason, with cities including Denver, Portland and Mexico City all coming under attack.

However, they were not the only targets by any means. Other cities across the world were also targeted, including Mexico City, Brasilia, Rome and Seville. However, by far the biggest assault outside the forces attacking Monument City was the one directed at Neo-Tokyo. While this might seem like an odd choice given the city's location relative to the main objective, there was a reason it bore the brunt of such a heavy offensive.

Neo-Tokyo was the site of the Robotech Research Centre, which in turn included the SDF-1's computer core. While the core had been studied for decades, researchers had so far only decided fragments of the knowledge stored within. And while in turn that had been a massive boon for Earth's technological progress, there were still secrets contained within the core. After all, the ship had been the personal vessel of Zor, the creator of Protoculture, the foundation of the Masters' entire society. If his secrets were to be hidden anywhere, they would be there.

The Robotech Masters sought to retrieve it as a way to recover Zor's lost knowledge and ensure the future of their Empire. This was as much a contingency against their being unable to recover the Protoculture Matrix as anything else. With the Matrix, they could repower their fleet, but if they could recover Zor's secrets (those that he had hidden for himself) then they would be able to build new Matrixes, eliminating their dependence on the one source. Having either would be a massive victory for them, but having both would make them all-powerful.

In order to ensure their success, they dispatched what assets they could spare for the assault. It was lead by a trio of Heavy Cruisers, all of which were still near fully operational, and served to punch through the air and space defences around the city. They were accompanied by a fleet of Assault Dropships which aided in clearing away the Southern Cross' aircraft before unloading their Bioroid forces. Finally, a single heavy transport followed them, loaded to the gills with a mixture of Bioroid Terminators, ship security forces and even drugged-up civilians pressed into combat.

The assault focused on the Neo-Tokyo harbour, which was used as a beachhead for the actual attack. Once the cruisers and dropships had established air superiority, the ground forces spread out across the city and engaged in acts of near random carnage, simply attacking everything they came across. While some targets, such as the capitol and the ministry of defence, were given priority, others were chosen simply as a way to draw out the defending forces and keep them occupied. Unlike the Monument City attack, the heavy cruisers did not use their weapons to bombard the surface; weather this was a tactical decision, unwillingness to risk damaging the computer core or simply because they were too low on Protoculture to do such is unknown.

While the Southern Cross forces on the ground fought bravely, they were also divided and forced to deal with multiple attacks at once, leaving them on the back foot. Not only were they trying to defeat the invaders, but they were also trying to protect civilians that had been caught in the crossfire and often had been deliberately targeted by the invaders. Several *Binary* and *Pulsar* class ships attempted to break the blockade (Including UES *Monosa* and UES *Telson*), only to be either disabled or destroyed in the attempt.

With the Southern Cross filly committed to the city's defence, the Masters launched a force to secure their actual objective. Made up of an elite team of Bioroid Terminators, the group were able to slip past the defenders and infiltrate the Geo Grid below the city. From their, they aimed to make their way to the Robotech Research centre and secure the core. To the Masters, this was the only force that mattered; everything else from their civilians to their warships were expendable.

While much of what happened next remains classified (and indeed many of the records have been lost), some details are known. The regional GMP commander became aware of the infiltration, but realised that there were no forces that she could redirect to deal with the situation. Instead, she hastily threw together a special commando force made up of members of several different ASC units who could be spared from the front lines. After a hasty briefing, they moved out to head off the assaulting force.

Due to the damage to the surface and a sky full of invaders, the team had to pick their way across the battlefield, skirting their way around the major conflicts before entering the Geo-Grid. From there, they effectively needed to infiltrate the facility which the Masters forces had already compromised. Fortunately, they were able to reach the core ahead of the infiltrators, and deal with them before they were able to reach their objective. But this was not the end of the conflict by any means.

Realising that the Masters may have other teams en-route, the GMP officer in charge took the decision to destroy the computer core rather than risk it being captured again. While this would represent a massive loss of knowledge, it also was deemed to be a better outcome than the alternative, especially with reports that there were more Terminators loose in the facility. The team proceeded through use of demolition charges to physically destroy the computer, before escaping from the research centre.

On the surface, the Tirolian forces continued their assault, either unaware of what had happened or simply unwilling to retreat now that they had nothing left to live for. However, the combination of Protoculture depletion and attrition eventually took its toll on the force, while the Southern Cross were able to bring in reinforcements from Vladivostok and other nearby bases. All three Heavy Cruisers were destroyed, with their wreckage only adding to the destruction of the surface city. The heavy transport was also crippled on the ground, having made no effort to escape (or having been unable to due to power depletion). While it took some time, the city was eventually cleared of Bioroid forces; while most of them were destroyed, some unconfirmed sources claim that a number escaped into the mountains or across the sea into the Asian mainland.

The Masters' final gambit had failed, and only served to ensure that nobody would know Zor's secrets. While the surface of Neo-Tokyo had been devastated, the Geo Grid had remained largely intact, leading to much of the population permanently migrating underground. The destruction of the ASC forces in the city, as well as the effective loss of the Robotech Research centre severely weakened the UEG's control over the Far East Sector, while also effectively leaving the way open for the Shimada Yakuza to take control of the city.