Mission Log 052 - Rising Sun
The first stop on the Ulysses travels is Japan, where they find a hellish landscape. Tokyo is completely devastated, a crater is all that remains of the city and nearby Tokyo Base. In the distance, Mount Fuji has erupted and is feeding a massive ash cloud that covers the region, sparking violent lightning storms. The hulk of a Robotech Masters mothership sits semi-submerged in Tokyo Bay and standing tall amongst all the wreckage is the central tower of the Robotech Research Facility, protected by a jury-rigged barrier system.
The 21st drives off an enemy force made up of surviving Bioroids that have joined up with renegade Zentraedi that defected from a secret Soviet unit. They are able to make contact with the UEF survivors holed up in the Research Facility, including Indira's parents (who were computer scientists working there). Missing from the Facility, however, are chief scientist Dr. Lazlo Zand and the war criminal Dr. Erlich (who had been drafted to help decipher the biotechnology of the Robotech Masters).
Scout missions soon reveal that while aboveground Osaka is destroyed the underground bunkers and tunnels are intact and a sizable civilian populace remains alive. The underground has come under the control of the criminal Yakuza, who were the only group remaining in the city with the organization to keep order. With no means to evacuate civilians, the Ulysses strikes a deal with the Yakuza to allow many of the survivors from Tokyo who had taken shelter in the Research Facility to relocate to Osaka. In exchange the Ulysses provides weapons and ammunition to the Yakuza to help them protect the city. Meanwhile, most of the UEF personnel choose to remain in the safety of the Research Facility until a means to evacuate them safely can be found.
After Indira has had a chance to bid farewell to her parents, the Ulysses sets off on the next dangerous leg of its journey.
Mission Log 053 - Ice War
The quickest route to the Atlantic for the Ulysses is under the Arctic ice pack. Unfortunately, the entrance to the Arctic Ocean is via the Bering Strait, a narrow, shallow route that risks exposing the presence of the Ulysses to the EBSIS. Captain Raymond takes the chance and makes the run through the Bering Strait, diving deep as soon as the vessel has made it through to throw off any potential pursuers.
Arriving in the North Atlantic after a several week journey under the Arctic, the Ulysses comes across a Soviet naval assault on surviving United Earth Forces based in Iceland. With their hovertanks having been converted for underwater use, the 21st are able to sneak up on the Soviet naval task and deal a stinging blow. Once the 21st has crippled several of the ships, the Ulysses moves in to sink the remaining Soviet ships. The grateful Southern Cross forces in Iceland are able to fill the travelers in on the situation in Scandinavia. The region was apparently the site of heavy combat and most of the Southern Cross forces were destroyed before the final defeat of the Robotech Masters. Scandinavia Quadrant has since fallen into chaos and EBSIS ground forces are rumored to be planning a full invasion. Surviving pockets of Southern Cross forces have apparently gathered in Stockholm to make a final stand.
Dodging Soviet naval vessels, the Ulysses is able to get close enough to the coast to send in the 21st. The tankers' mission is to get to Stockholm and make contact with the Southern Cross forces there. Soviet ground forces have not made it far enough south to be a threat so the 21st are able to reach Stockholm, where they find surviving senior military and civilian leaders, including Cultural Minister James Woolard, now technically Prime Minister since he is the only surviving member of the UEG cabinet. Stockholm itself is under martial law, controlled by the surviving Southern Cross military force, including the 398th ATAC hovertank squadron under Lt. West. The 21st also meets GMP Maj. Heather Danestrup, the sole surviving member of Phoenix Squad, a sibling special missions group to the 21st's late allies, Gryphon Squad.
As with Tokyo, the Ulysses does not have the capability to evacuate Stockholm, all they can do is provide intelligence and some material support to help fortify the city in the hopes that a viable world government will emerge soon. Major Danestrup, however, proposes a special mission for the 21st that may help give the survivors an edge against the EBSIS assault that is sure to start come summer.
Mission Log 054 - Uprising
GMP Major Danestrup introduces the 21st to a recent visitor to Stockholm, an old acquaintance of the squadron's: former EBSIS mecha commander Major Mikhail Krueger. Most of the group are shocked to see the Major, as Punchout and Brains are the only surviving members of the 21st who were aware that Krueger's death in Africa at the end of the NWO conflict was faked. Krueger reveals that after his escape from Africa he made his way back to Germany, where he re-established ties with some of the dissident groups he had associated with as a young man, before being recruited by the Red Army. Since then he has helped the German anti-EBSIS underground movement build up strength. After intelligence channels passed word of the presence of the 21st ATAC in the region (news traveled fast after the Iceland battle), Krueger risked the crossing into Scandinavia to make contact.
Krueger has made the risky crossing into Scandinavia to make a mutually beneficial proposal. He knew that the 21st would be able to verify his identity and lend some weight to his request. Krueger has come to ask for weapons and training resources for the German underground, stating that the Germans plan an open uprising against the EBSIS. For the surviving Southern Cross forces in Scandinavia, a full-scale German rebellion against the Soviets would draw away a significant number of EBSIS forces, enough that it would delay the imminent Soviet invasion of Scandinavia and buy the UEG forces time to shore up defenses or, at worst, time to evacuate. The commanders in Stockholm agree and the Ulysses offers the use of a transport sub to smuggle the weapons and Krueger back to German territory. The 21st volunteer to go along as the advisors who will help train the insurgents to use the advanced weaponry.
Once in Germany, Krueger and the 21st join up with the resistance. Amongst the rebels the 21st think they see another familiar face, but an impossible one, as one young woman bears a striking resemblance to their dead teammate Copycat. The woman, Anna Marie Tessier, is revealed to be the younger sister of their friend, whose real name it turns out was Marie Helene Tessier (and not Cassandra Cormier). Anna explains that after the Zentraedi assault of 2011, the family was among the refugees stranded in the UEG controlled sections of Copenhagen. One day a mob came after the family, accusing their father of stealing food. The family was forced to flee across the border into EBSIS territory. Conditions there were not much better and when she was a teenager, Marie Helene snuck back across into UEG territory, hoping to somehow find a way to bring the her sister and parent across as well some day. She adopted the false name of Cassandra Cormier so no one would connect her with the family of "thieves" who had been driven out so many years ago. Anna is sad to learn of her sister's death, but is pleased to know she died in the company of people who cared for her. A few years after her sister left, Anna joined the German underground to help drive out the hated Soviets and has been a member of the insurgency ever since.
The training and equipping of the underground goes well, but after several days Krueger asks the 21st for more personal help. It turns out that the cybernetics that Dr. Erlich had installed in him were starting to malfunction. No one amongst the German underground has the technical expertise to help, but Krueger is hoping the 21st does. Brains agrees to help, but knows he will need to perform some diagnostics and for that he needs some special equipment. The 21st and Krueger, accompanied by Anna, sneak into the main hospital in New Berlin where Brains is able to use the imaging systems to get a good scan of the cybernetics. During the return trip the group encounters an EBSIS patrol, but are able to fight them off and escape back to the underground. With the data from the image scan, Brains is able to repair Krueger's cybernetics. As a return favor, Brains asks Krueger to use what contacts he still has in the EBSIS military to find out what happened to Brains' family, who have been trapped in Soviet territory for years.
With the training done, the 21st prepares to leave. Anna asks if she and her parents can travel back to Scandinavia with them, fulfilling Copycat's dream. The 21st agree and the Tessier family is smuggled across in the transport sub along with the 21st. While her parents stay in Stockholm, Anna signs aboard the Ulysses and starts training as a Southern Cross soldier - the newest member of the Blackjacks.
Mission Log 055 - Out of Africa
The next port of call for the Ulysses is Africa. Initial intelligence reveals that the Islamic Republic has been expanding and has already seized the former UEG city of Niamey and the independent city of Freetown. Lagos, O.L.'s hometown, has declared itself an independent Barony and apparently has the military might to back up that claim. The 21st are sent in covertly to gain more information.
After concealing their transportation several kilometers outside of the city, the 21st makes their way into Lagos amongst the stream of refugee traffic. Once in the city, O.L. makes contact with his parents. They are able to fill in some of the details on what has happened. Driven from Niamey and Freetown, ex-Southern Cross forces and former rebels have joined together under the old People's Liberation Army of Africa banner and seized control. O.L.'s parents are doing all right - his father pays kickbacks to the right people to keep his construction company in business and to provide protection.
Spying on a military parade, the 21st learns that the former senior Southern Cross officer for Northern Africa - a General Reilly - is now the head of the People's Army, backing up the "President for Life". Not only has the General gone rogue, he has brought many of his troops, and several mecha as well. Among the prized possessions of the People's Army are a set of ten VHT-1 Veritech Hovertanks. The 21st decide that this is not acceptable and decide to steal the tanks and bring them back to the Ulysses. In order to pull off the theft, the 21st teams up with O.L.'s old car theft gang. With the assistance of the gang, the group are able to sneak into the army base where the mecha are stored and steal them away. Before the People's Army can catch them, the tanks have been spirited away to the Ulysses - a major blow to the People's Army and a major gain for the Ulysses.
After the theft, the 21st depart Lagos, leaving O.L. just enough time to bid farewell to his family and friends. The Ulysses travels briefly down the western coast of Africa, far enough to learn that Zimbabwe has become a major power and that the Southern Cross base at Fort Hope has been abandoned. The ship does manage to evacuate a group of Jungle Squad troops and their mecha that had been hiding in the jungle before departing Africa for a trans-Atlantic journey. Unknown to the 21st, however, the hovertanks they stole were set up as bait by Soviet Intelligence. Inside each tank is a carefully concealed transmitter that will let the EBSIS home in on the normally untrackable Ulysses - and the EBSIS intelligence officer in charge of the operation is O.L.'s former friend turned Soviet agent Wendy 'Red' Curtis.
Mission Log 056 - Edge of the World
A two week underwater journey brings the Ulysses to the southern tip of the Argentine Quadrant. They find that Southern Cross Base Santa Cruz is still intact and has become a haven for surviving Southern Cross troops. The base has effectively declared itself independent and the soldiers have appointed themselves as the protectors of the surviving civilian population in the region. These so-called Santa Cruz Defenders inform the 21st that the EBSIS has taken control of much of the center of South America, including the northern half of Argentine Quadrant, once solidly under UEG control. Exhausted and depleted by the Second Robotech War, the area's surviving Southern Cross soldiers were no match for the EBSIS and most either fled into the Amazon jungle or escaped south to Santa Cruz Base.
Even though the Defenders have declared themselves independent, the Ulysses still offers some assistance, providing supplies. The 21st also helps fend off a Soviet bombing raid, something of a regular occurrence as the EBSIS tries to scare the base into giving up control of the area.
After departing the area, the Ulysses comes under attack by a Soviet naval force (not realizing the Soviets can track their location). With their underwater-capable hovertanks the 21st is able to hold off the attackers long enough for the Ulysses to reach the continental shelf and dive deep beyond the reach of the Soviet attackers.
Mission Log 057 - South of the Border
To reduce the risk of encountering more Soviet naval patrols, the Ulysses sticks to deep waters as it makes its way north to the Gulf Coast of South America. The 21st goes ashore to search for survivors from any of the major Southern Cross bases in Venezuela Quadrant. The search brings the 21st to a small village where the troops are welcomed. While all appears well at first, the truth comes out when the village leaders try to poison several members of the Blackjacks. It turns out the villagers blame the UEG and Southern Cross for the devastation and have been trapping and murdering any surviving Southern Cross soldiers they come across. Despite the wishes of some members of the squadron, the 21st decide to leave the village be rather than try to extract some kind of justice or vengeance.
Further inland, the 21st are found by a Southern Cross mecha squadron. The squadron is from Orinoco Base, which survived the final days of the Masters war and has become a rallying point for the surviving UEG forces in the region. The 21st is welcomed, along with the news of other parts of the world they bring. The leaders of Orinoco Base are also able to pass on their own intelligence regarding the region. As the 21st had already learned, EBSIS forces from the Merchant Republic control much of the center of the continent. There are occasional rumors that Brasilia Base has survived and that the troops there are waging a guerrilla war against Soviet forces in the Amazon jungle, but no one has been able to confirm it. The New Incan Empire continues to control the west coast of South America, and has begun attempts to expand its territory north towards Cali and other Columbian territory. Central America has apparently collapsed into utter chaos, and the region around the Panama Canal has become a war zone as Soviet-allied forces, criminal gangs and surviving UEG troops all vie for control.
The 21st's stay at the base goes well until one evening during celebrations a slightly inebriated Punchout lets slip that his lover back in New Zealand is an alien. Accusations of collaboration and treason are soon hurled and tensions threaten to erupt into violence. In the end it is the unusual grouping of Indira, Brains and Shark that manage to defuse the situation until Bullseye and the base officers arrive to restore discipline. Tensions remain however and the 21st soon takes their leave of the base.
Mission Log 058 - Loup Garoux
With intelligence indicating that Central America would be too dangerous to risk a stopover, the Ulysses decides to make the final push to North America. The plan is to move into the Saint Lawrence River as far as the ship can go before sending the 21st overland to discover the fate of Monument City. An aerial recon is sent first, but contact is lost after only a short time.
After disembarking near the ruins of Quebec City, the 21st takes a northerly route to avoid the worst of the wastelands, even though it takes them close to Free Quebec territory. In a thickly wooded area, the squadron comes across a solitary cabin inhabited by a strange backwoodsman named Sam Drapeau. The grizzly outdoorsman is kindly enough and offers some food, along with a warning for the 21st to beware the "Loup Garoux" (werewolf), a creature that supposedly prowls the area. Drapeau does give them some clues about the fate of the lost recon patrol, though, as he mentions hearing an explosion around the same time the Ulysses lost contact with the aircraft. The 21st decide to head in that direction in the hopes of learning the fate of the patrol.
On the way to the site of the explosion, the 21st are found by a mecha patrol from the Quebec Army. The Quebecers claim the territory as their own, but quick diplomacy avoids a confrontation. Soon the 21st and the Quebec squad find themselves under attack by a rogue Zentraedi operating in the wilderness. No sooner are the Zentraedi defeated then the groups come under fire from an EBSIS mecha squadron who have appeared seemingly from nowhere. Shark and Ortega's tanks are destroyed, as are a pair of the VHT-1s from Africa (costing the lives of the Ulysses crew members who were piloting them). The EBSIS mecha are driven off and they retreat to the north. With their mecha damaged and wounded to care for the 21st is unable to pursue. Examining the wreckage of the destroyed tanks, Brains finally discovers the hidden EBSIS transmitters and a warning is sent to the Ulysses to check the remaining VHT-1s.
The Quebec forces help the 21st perform emergency repairs on the remaining hovertanks, and a helicopter from the Ulysses arrives to bring the wounded (including Shark and Ortega) back to the sub. The following day the remaining members of the 21st set out again. As they reach the outskirts of Monument City, they can see the devastation, and soon find themselves surrounded by Southern Cross forces. Tensions are high at the start, but the 21st soon have their identities confirmed by an unlikely ally - GMP Lieutenant Nova Satori.
Mission Log 059 - Wolfe in the Fold
In the wake of destruction at the close of the Second Robotech War, the outskirts of what was once Monument City have become a refugee camp for survivors. The few remaining Southern Cross soldiers are barely managing to maintain order amongst the surviving populace and desertions are common. No flag officers survived the destruction of Southern Cross Headquarters during the final battle of the war, and the 21st learn that the surviving senior officers have left for Denver, the nearest intact city where the government is still in control, in the hopes of re-establishing a coherent military command structure.
The ranking officers left in the refugee camp are pleased with the arrival of the 21st. They tell the squadron that they need help with a group of rogue mecha pilots - the 15th ATAC under Lt. Dana Sterling. The officers claim that the 15th are holed up in the mountains nearby and are harboring enemy combatants. Lt. Sterling and her squad refuse to obey orders to hand over the aliens and to return to the makeshift base at Monument City with their mecha. The officers want to raid the 15th's camp site and take the aliens by force, and also want to reclaim the 15th's hovertanks. Until the 21st arrived, however, they did not have the mecha or firepower to take on a squad of seasoned mecha veterans like the 15th. After consulting the Ulysses, Bullseye tentatively agrees, but later he and the others get a clearer picture of the situation when Nova Satori explains that the enemy combatants are in reality Tirolian civilian refugees the 15th rescued from the Robotech Masters, who had been preparing to put them to death. Given their own similar actions, the 21st must decide their next course of action.
Under pressure from the local officers, Bullseye agrees to take the 21st in to deal with the 15th, but emphasizes that they should go in first, and that the other mecha and troops should hang back until the hovertankers can assess the situation and give Lt. Sterling a chance to come peacefully. The officers agree and the 21st heads off, with a group of power armor and mecha troops under the command of Tactical Corps Lieutenant Isaacs. At the mountain pass where the 15th have set up a defensive wall, the 21st approaches to make contact. Punchout is selected to do the talking and makes it clear that the 21st sympathizes with Lt. Sterling's situation. Observing from nearby, Lt. Isaacs becomes suspicious and eventually realizes that the 21st will not be willing to attack the 15th. Isaacs goes to give the order to attack, but is stopped when his battloid abruptly shuts down - the result of earlier sabotage by Brains. Taking advantage of the distraction, the 21st makes a run for the defensive wall and joins the 15th in their encampment. At first the 15th are suspicious, but Punchout soon explains that they also had taken in Tirolian refugees after the war and agree with the 15th's decision to not turn them over to revenge-hungry Southern Cross survivors. Outside the wall, an angry Lt. Isaacs prepares to launch a full-scale attack, regardless of potential consequences. The attack is preempted, however, by the arrival of a group of aerospace transports - dropships from an REF relief fleet commanded by the legendary Col. Jonathan Wolfe!
Mission Log 060 - Point K
Col. Wolfe lands outside of the ruins of Monument City and requests briefings from officers on the situation. Wolfe had expected to be assisting in fighting off the Robotech Masters - instead he finds a world in chaos with no sign of the United Earth Government or the Army of the Southern Cross. Included among the officers briefing Wolfe are Lt. von Varenburg and Lt. Sterling. Protests from other Southern Cross officers about the harboring of aliens are dismissed, with Col. Wolfe explaining that the Robotech Masters' homeworld in currently occupied by the REF and that the Tirolians are technically allies. In fact, Col. Wolfe explains that it will be possible to relocate all surviving Tirolian refugees on Earth back to Tirol. When Bullseye explains about the recent global recon of the Ulysses, Wolfe contacts the craft to gain the worldwide intelligence he needs. Wolfe is most alarmed by the presence of a strange alien plant that has appeared across the globe in the aftermath of the Second Robotech War, a plant he identifies as the Flower of Life.
Wolfe contacts the REF back on Tirol to appraise them of the situation on Earth. REF commander, General T.R. Edwards, instructs Wolfe to take command of surviving United Earth Forces based on the argument that with all flag officers dead or missing, General Edwards himself is ranking officer, which thanks to Supreme Commander Leonard having made the military leadership position also a cabinet position also makes Edwards the de facto United Earth Government leader as well. With the presence of the Flower of Life indicating an invasion by the alien Invid in the near future, Wolfe is ordered to prepare the surviving Earth forces to defend the planet once more. To help bring soldiers in line, Edwards authorizes Wolfe to offer any surviving United Earth Defense soldier a deal that if they agree to sign on with the REF, their immediate family will be evacuated to an off-world colony before the Invid arrive. Though not all of them have family anymore, the 21st decides to join up with Wolfe as a group.
As part of the realignment of forces, the 21st gains three new members - Charles Caplan-Somerset, Gabriel McManus and Karen Davison. The three are hovertank pilots, surviving members of the 403rd Home Guard squadron from Monument City. Due to their recent globe-trotting adventures, the members of the 21st also find themselves assisting Col. Wolfe in communicating the enrollment offer to other surviving Southern Cross groups across the globe. The intelligence from the Ulysses' journey also helps Wolfe settle on a viable staging area where he can assemble and organize the defense of the planet against the Invid. As he goes through the list of possible locations, the primary ones are immediately dismissed - locations like the Alpha site (Monument City), Beta site (Oslo) and Gamma site (Tokyo). Finally a location in the Amazon jungle is chosen - the Kappa site - and work begins to establish a base of operations at Point "K". While this is going on, several other members of the 21st have been working alongside the members of the 15th ATAC. Because of the family connections of Lt. Sterling and Pvt. Bowie Grant, the 15th is being evacuated off-planet along with the Tirolian refugees, Brains is making a point of passing on a lot of his technical discoveries to the 15th's resident engineer, Cpl. Louis Nichols, so that the information will not be lost.
With the shift of the Blackjacks to the Robotech Expeditionary Force military structure comes several changes in rank - with Bullseye being made a full Lieutenant in the REF Marines and the rest of the squad members receiving promotions as well. As Wolfe works to unite the scattered surviving soldiers, the 21st find themselves back on the Ulysses as it makes its way back to Oceanus Base, completing the world tour begun months earlier.