Southern Cross Who's Who - Indira "Tank Girl" Watanabe

Background

Shiro Watanabe is a scientist working for the Robotech Research Center in Tokyo. He has been there since the beginnings of Robotechnology working on a series of highly classified projects. On one of these projects he fell in love with and married a fellow scientist, Jaya Chandra, The couple eventually had two children, twin girls named Indira and Sumita. The girls were barely a year old when the Zentraedi planetary assault nearly wiped out all life on Earth. Luckily for the Watanabes the Robotech Research Center was one of the most heavily fortified places on the planet and the family survived.

The girls were raised in the safety and security of the Robotech Research Facility during the Reconstruction and as children of a prominent scientist they received some of the best education. Though physically almost indistinguishable from one another, the twins' personalities differed a fair amount. While Sumita was scholarly and sociable, Indira preferred physical activity and was more aggressive than her sister. Still the two excelled in school, due partly to the fact that Sumita would pose as Indira for academic exams and Indira would pose as Sumita for the more physical tests.

Thanks to their exceptional grades and family connections the girls had their choice of careers and much to their parents' shock they chose to sign on with the Army of the Southern Cross. To the girls there had been no choice at all, they wanted the best shot to get away from Tokyo and see the world and the Southern Cross was the key. Between Sumita's technical skills and Indira's physical ones the girls were able to manipulate the entrance exams to ensure they would be assigned to the elite Alpha Tactical Armored Corps, something that would ensure they would have to leave Japan for in order to receive their training.

The gambit paid off and the girls were sent to the Robotech Academy in Monument City in North America. The old tactic of posing as each other for certain exams continued to pay off and the girls excelled in their studies. Both girls made friends, though Sumita had an easier time of it. Indira's closest friend at the academy was a T.A.S.C. recruit named Carter Reid. Indira remains in contact with Carter, who is currently stationed at the United Earth Defense Force base in Mexico City.

After graduating the academy the girls were faced with the likelihood that their parents would pull some strings and get them assigned back to Tokyo, maybe even back to the Research Center. Hoping for one last adventure the girls and a fellow ATAC Academy graduate named Troy Christopher went AWOL, sneaking aboard a flight to the island city of Shanghalla in Indochina Quadrant. Their exciting visit to the dangerous pirate city soon became a nightmare when the trio inadvertently got mixed up with the activities of an organization run by a powerful criminal overlord named Jacob Damballah. The timely intervention of the UEDF special operations Griffin Squad, which was investigating the criminals, saved the girls from an unpleasant fate but their classmate Troy was killed in the gun battle that ensued.

Upon their return the Southern Cross the girls were subjected to disciplinary action and for the first time in their lives they were split up. Sumita was assigned to Scandinavia Quadrant while Indira was sent back to Japan, where she was assigned to the 474th Armored Squadron operating out of UEDF Tokyo Base.

Call Sign: When Indira joined the 474th she was the only female member of the hovertank squadron, which led to the rest of the team referring to her as the Tank Girl.

Recent History

The 474th received their first clue that there was something more insidious than a terrorist attack when an anonymous message mysteriously appeared on the computer screen in Indira's hovertank. The source of the message was never identified, but it was enough to put the 474th on the trail of a conspiracy. Unfortunately the conspirators noticed the squadron's efforts and arranged for them to be sent on a suicide mission in Indochina. Almost the entire squadron was wiped out and only Indira and a few others survived, thanks to the intervention of another hovertank squadron, the 21st ATAC.

Indira and the other 474th survivors were transferred to Australia and became members of the 21st. They soon found themselves embroiled in World War IV and Indira saw action across southeast Asia and the South Pacific, and eventually Africa. As time went on Indira grew more and more frustrated with what she perceived as her lack of combat effectiveness, a perception brought on mainly because she was constantly comparing herself to fellow tanker Punchout who was a true mecha ace. Things changed in the final battles of the war when she saw how effective Tactical Corps Lieutenant Tracy Myers was in combat while outside of a mecha. Tracy took Indira under her wing and began training her in infantry-scale heavy weapons and anti-mecha combat. Indira also received a gift from Brains, a rail gun of his own design that could be used both in-mecha and out (with a gyro-stabilizer mount).

In the 21st Indira also found a kindred spirit in fellow mech jockey Shark. Like Indira he enjoyed extreme sports and he also possessed a reckless nature not unlike her own. The two would frequently engage in friendly competitions, but the real magic happened when they started teaming in combat as both were more than ready to go along with the other on any insane maneuver, regardless of the possible consequences. On the ever-increasing occasions the pair would find themselves in the stockade, just the two of them or often with other members of the 21st, they would engage in mixed martial arts fights with each other just to alleviate the boredom. The frequent camaraderie led to an initial physical attraction that by part-way through the Second Robotech War had become a romantic relationship.

Indira was one of the members of the 21st to survive the final battle with the Robotech Masters, as was her lover Shark. Unfortunately Tracy did not survive but Indira has dedicated herself to becoming the kind of soldier Tracy was to honor her mentor's memory. Along with the rest of the 21st Indira made it safely to New Zealand where she and the others helped stabilize the local government and solidify the nation's defenses for the post-war world.

The 21st ATAC has since left New Zealand to accompany the submersible mecha carrier SLV Ulysses on a mission to discover the fate of the remaining Southern Cross and UEG bases and cities in the aftermath of the war with the Robotech Masters. On the first stop of the mission, Japan, Indira was overjoyed to learn that her parents had survived the final Robotech Masters assault on the Robotech Research Center. Sadly a later stop in Scandinavia failed to bring any word on the fate of her twin sister Sumita, who was last seen on board one of the space vessels sent to participate in the second (and final) offensive against the Robotech Masters fleet.

United Earth Forces Service Record

Assignment History

Honors and Awards

Mission/Conflict Summary

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