Now this was one hell of an episode.
The episode starts out exactly where episode 12 ended, with Alto’s VF going down in the middle of the Galia 4 jungle, and both him and Ranka discovering the remains of what appears to be the SDF-1 Macross. Both of them are trapped in the jungle for the time being, as something is jamming the systems of Alto’s VF, so they try to make the best of their situation. However, Ranka goes missing, and Alto heads off to the Macross where he believes she might have been taken. All this while, Brera in his VF-27 is keeping a close watch on them.
Alto soon discovers that the Macross is in fact the SDF-04 Global, which was the flagship of the 117th Research Fleet, the same one Ranka was a part off before it was destroyed by the Vajra. He also surmises that the jamming effect is coming from the Global. Alto heads in, while Brera descends into the depths of the planet, where Ranka is being held captive by what appears to be some sort of Vajra queen. Meanwhile, Alto explores the innards of the Global, and discovers that the crew had been experimenting on Vajra. He also discovers a family photo featuring a young Ranka. The Vajra queen continues to lay countless eggs until Brera appears and attacks the queen, fending off multiple lesser Vajra in the process. Alto descends into the queens chamber and tries to save Ranka, but is cut off by a green barrier, which surrounds Ranka. Brera manages to succesifly harm the queen, however, the pain felt by the queen is also somehow felt by Ranka. Alto and Brera are forced out of the queens chamber, and Alto heads for his VF. The Global begins to glow, and starts to lift off into the air. Alto’s manages to get his VF working again, and heads for the Global, which then breaks apart, revealing a massive Vajra mothership. Various other Vajra cruisers also rise up from beneath the surface, forming a massive fleet. All of a sudden, Brera attacks Alto. They both engage eachother in the air, but eventually, Brera holds alto at gunpoint, and prepares to fire his gunpods energy blast right at Alto’s VF. However, he is saved at the last minute by Mikhail and Sheryl. Meanwhile, nearby the UN military base, Grace uncovers a massive device of sorts, and activates it, revealing in the process that she is the same as Brera; a cyborg of sorts. The device activates, and forms a massive fold bubble, which spreads out across the planet, destroying everything in its path. Alto, Mikhail and Sheryl speed away from the planet, and the Vajra fleet begins to fold away. Mikhail and Sheryl fly towards the fold openings of the Vajra fleet to get away from the planet, while Alto continues to try and outfly the massive fold blast that has now abosrbed a good chunk of the planet.
So yeah…wow. This was one intense episode. So it turns out that the Macross wasn’t actually the SDF-1, but another ship of the same make; the SDF-04 Global, which of course is named after the SDF-1’s infamous captain. It is interesting to learn that other ships identical to the SDF-1 were made, because prior to this episode, this was not known. There was an SDF-2 originally planned during Space War 1, which was actually much larger than the SDF-1, but the design was later remade into the Megaroad class of colony ships. And being that it the Global is numered 4th, it is highly likely that there are other SDF ships out there in active service.
This episode also confirms that Brera is Ranka’s brother, as he is shown with her in the flashbacks of her as a little girl with her parents. This episode also continues to show that Ranka and the Vajra are connected. Actually, to be more specific, Ranka and the Vajra Queen are connected. When Brera shot the queens blue crystal, Ranka felt the same pain the queen did. Perhaps she was part of the Vajra experiments conducted onboard the Global?
This episode also brings up more questions about the Vajra. Just what exactly are they? While they have the markings of the Protoculture, the fact that there were experiments on them aboard the Global could mean that they were created by the 117th Research Fleet. We’ll have to wait and see.
Of course, this episode also confirms that Grace defenitly has her own goals, but it still needs to be learned as to why she detonated the LAI Dimension Eater. Perhaps it was to erase all evidence of what happened to the 117th? And I wonder if she is truly dead, or if she was simply aborbed into the anomoly. It could also be that the Grace on Gallia was simply one of her remotely controlled bodies.
Also, it seems the cockpit of the VF-27 has a holographic lay-over of sorts which makes the cockpit seem featureless, thus allowing for a full view of the surroundings. We can see this when Mikhail blasts Brera’s gunpod. There is a split second where the lay-over goes down and we see a standard cockpit and Brera in a traditional pilot suit. Very nifty stuff.
Aigons' Domain Ver.2.0 