Robotech - Southern Cross - Timeline

January

February

March

April

January

Mid-January, 2031

A Bioroid squadron containing a new model of mecha ambushes the 21st ATAC. Diamondback is killed by one of the new Bioroid models.
Analysis of the ambush reveals that the Bioroid that killed Diamondback is being piloted by Lt. Myers, revealing to the 21st what the high command already knew but concealed from the troops: that captured soldiers are being converted into enemy pilots and sent back out against their former comrades.

February

Mid-February, 2031

Corp. von Varenburg comes up with a plan to capture Tracy. He uses his connections to go over the base commanders head and gets approval from Chief of Staff Emerson to go ahead with the mission, and gets a promotion to Sergeant courtesy of General Emerson as well.
The mission to capture Tracy succeeds and she is brought back to Dundee Base where authorities hope to deprogram her, or at least get useful intelligence on the enemy.
Tank Girl and Shark start a romantic relationship.

March

March 10, 2031

A Robotech Masters cruiser destroys the town of Gibson. Despite orders not to attack the 21st engages the cruiser and with help from the Angels fighter squadron manage to down the vessel.

Late March, 2029

Southern Cross space forces launch a major offensive against the Robotech Mastes fleet but the attack is a dismal failure, partially due to an intelligence leak at Monument City.
Tracy has been stripped of the Robotech Masters programming but is suffering memory problems. The GMP decide to assign her back to the 21st in the hope that familiar settings and faces may jog her memory.
The 21st discovers the ruins of Bungle Wally's bunker and salvage some of his notes.
Captain Mace offers a plea bargain to General Banks and is restored to active duty with the 21st, but has been busted down to the rank of Private.

April

Late April, 2031

A second attack wave is launched to relieve the previous assault wave. The 21st provides security on the ground for the ships taking off from Queensland Base. This wave is ambushed and must be rescued by the remains of the first. Both waves are able to safely retreat to the Moon.
Planning begins for a second space offensive. Tired of being contradicted by some of his advisors, Supreme Commander Leonard ensures that all the senior officers assigned to the new offensive are officers who have disagreed with his recent orders and policies. The most notable of these is General Rolf Emerson, who is put in charge of the second offensive.

May

May 15, 2031	The 21st ATAC are attacked by a squadron of the new Bioroid Invid Fighers. Bullseye is injured and Reaper is killed in the battle.
Late May, 2031	The GMP begins massive security screening of all personnel in an effort to find any intelligence leaks. The GMP investigation uncovers indiscretions on the part of several members of the 21st. General Banks confronts the whole squadron with the accusations and gleefully suspends them from active duty and confines them all to quarters.
May 30, 2031	General Emerson uses a warp blast maneuver to destroy a group of smaller Masters space vessels and Bioroids while his ship and its escort head for the Moon.

June

June 3, 2031	Snoop escapes the GMP and flees the base after setting fire to his quarters to cover his tracks. The rest of the 21st are thrown in the stockade as a result.
June 5, 2031	The first attack of the second offensive begins. It is a last ditch effort by the Earth forces and involves every available space vessel in the fleet.
June 10, 2031	The 21st are released from the stockade to participate in the final assault. Mace is restored to Captain and put back in command of the squadron.
June 12, 2031	Supreme Commander Leonard orders the full and final assault. Before it begins the Robotech Masters order an ultimatum, ordering the planet to be evacuated in 48 hours or they will annihilate the populace. When the Southern Cross offensive starts the Masters assume the ultimatum has been ignored and begin an orbital bombardment of the planet. The 21st is dispatched to Queensland Base to join the final space offensive. Before the can reach the base the Wolfe Creek mothership lifts off an proceeds to destroy Dundee Base before heading towards Queensland, pausing only to launch a massive Bioroid attack on Darwin. Captain Mace aborts the team's mission and radios a warning to Queensland about the approaching mothership before ordering the 21st to Darwin to help defend the city. The 21st joins with Civil Defense forces in an effort to defend Darwin against the Bioroid assault. Thumper is killed in the battle and Shark's hovertank is destroyed. Cavalier attempts to desert during the battle but is stopped by Gryphon Squad. Gryphon C.O. Major Mitchel executes Cavalier for treason and Shark is given the dead lieutenant's hovertank to replace his destroyed one.
June 13, 2031	Supreme Commander Leonard orders all remaining forces to regroup at major centers. Gryphon Squad and the 21st ATAC join together for a suicidal mission to destroy the Wolfe Creek mothership, which has already destroyed Queensland and will soon attack Alice Springs and Perth. The teams sneak aboard the mothership in a captured corvette landing craft and proceed to make their way towards the center of the enormous vessel. They are discovered and casualties are high, including all of Gryphon Squad and several members of the 21st. As the squadron retreats the Captain, Tracy and Prom Queen are cut off from the escape route. They elect to stay behind and use Gryphon Squad's contingency plan, a rigged nuclear warhead, to destroy the mothership. The remaining members of the Blackjacks escape the doomed ship just in time.
June 14, 2031	The final battle between Earth and the Robotech Masters begins. One half of the Masters fleet engages Earth forces in orbit while the remainder attack Earth. Monument City is one of the first to be destroyed, killing Commander Leonard and the rest of the high command that were at Southern Cross headquarters. The fleets annihilate each other while the lead Robotech Masters mothership is destroyed over the site of the SDF-1 ruins. The surviving members of the 21st ATAC; Lost Boy, Bullseye, Punchout, Shark, Tank Girl, Ortega, Brains and O.L.; find themselves stranded in the middle of the Australian Outback with limited supplies and no idea on how much else has survived the final battle. The 21st A.T.A.C. survivors find a group of Tirolian refugees, civilians from the destroyed mothership who survived the Robotech Masters' attempt at destroying them. The 21st cannot leave the refugees to die, they were not the real enemy, and decide to bring the Tirolians along with them.
June 15, 2031	The 21st A.T.A.C. encounter a nomadic Aborigine tribe who take them to their camp at the sacred Uluru site (Ayers Rock).
June 16, 2031	The 21st A.T.A.C. find the ruins of Alice Springs.
Late June, 2031	The 21st A.T.A.C. and their Tirolian companions travel to the southern shore of Australia where they are able to get a derelict navy ship seaworthy enough to attempt to cross to New Zealand.

July

July 3, 2031	Pirates from Tasmania attack the navy vessel being used by the 21st but are fought off.
Early July, 2031	The 21st's boat encounters a fierce storm in the Southern Ocean but make it through and arrive within site of New Zealand. Intercepted radio transmissions indicate at least some of the central government has survived intact.
July 10-11, 2031	The ship makes landfall on the coast of New Zealand and the 21st and their refugees make it to Punchout's home town where they find shelter on his family's farm and Punchout is reunited with his parents and sisters.
Mid-July, 2031	The 21st makes contact with the surviving military and government in Christchurch. They do not inform the authorities of the Tirolian refugess still at the farm out of fear that the aliens may come under attack by those seeking reprisal for the war.
Late July, 2031	With help from Brains and O.L. a electronic signal monitoring station is made operational again. While unable to send transmissions, it does intercept signals indicating that there are Southern Cross survivors at Moon Base ALuCE-1.

August

August, 2031

The government in New Zealand begins picking up faint radio transmissions being broadcast from the EBSIS that say that the Robotech Masters were defeated but that the Southern Cross has also fallen. Authorities are unsure of the accuracy of these reports and suspect they may be Soviet propoganda aimed at Southern Cross remnants.
The military remnants in New Zealand re-organize and begin fortifying the island against possible attack.

September

September, 2031

The 21st A.T.A.C. begins to settle into there new home in New Zealand. They work closely with the military there to shore up the nation's defenses.
Brains develops a means to send a signal to the Moon by sending a powerful transmitter into the upper atmosphere on a high-altitude balloon. New Zealand is able to inform ALuCE-1 of their situation and the Moon Base indicates they have not any other Southern Cross broadcasts from Earth since the final battle with the Robotech Masters.

October

October, 2031

Efforts continue to fortify New Zealand against any possible attack, which at the moment are assumed would come from the EBSIS.
Efforts to contact any other surviving Southern Cross forces continue to fail. Atmospheric analysis seems to indicate that the massive space battle in orbit at the end of the war has caused widespread ionization of the atmosphere which is preventing any long-range communication from working. Scientists on New Zealand fear it could be many more months before the interference clears enough to re-establish any kind of radio communcation outside the immediate area around the country.

November

Early to
Mid-November, 2031

A fishing vessel from Norfolk Island, north of New Zealand, makes contact with a New Zealand patrol boat and informs them that bodies of refugees have been washing up on the islands shore. Authorities from New Zealand travel to the island and determine the refugees had been shot before being dumped into the sea and that they had been dead less than a month.
One of the bodies that washes up includes a note containing a final message written by the dead man. It tells of a group of pirates that offer transport to safety to refugees, but who just take the money and travel out to sea a ways before murdering the refugees and dumping the bodies.
Forces from New Zealand, including the 21st A.T.A.C. re-establish the old air base on Norfolk island, extending the New Zealand defense network. They begin air patrols looking for the pirates that have been murdering the refugees.

Late November, 2031

Tank Girl and Shark spot the pirate vessel while on air patrol but are shot down and captured. They are rescued thanks to surprise help from the Daedalus class Ulysses, which had also been searching for the pirates. The rest of the 21st A.T.A.C. arrive in time to help take out the rest of the pirates and capture their vessel, which will now become part of New Zealand's growing naval force.

December

Early December, 2031	The Ulysses informs the New Zealand government that deep sea base Oceanus is still operational.
Mid December, 2031	The 21st A.T.A.C. travels to Oceanus on the Ulysses. Work begins on laying an undersea communications line from Oceanus to New Zealand.
December 25, 2031	The 21st A.T.A.C. enjoy Christmas at the Richards family farm in New Zealand. Punchout and the Tirolian muse Celesta admit their mutual feelings for each other.

2031