During the Earth year 1999, an event happened that was recorded by two 
intelligent species.  Both had future plans for Earth, but their plans were 
derailed when the impact happened and the Global Civil War broke out.  They were 
the Vorlons and the Shadows.

 	A trio of Vorlons watched something that only they could see.

 	"The circle has bent to the breaking point.  If something isn't done, it 
will break," Kosh said.

 	Ulkesh replied, "The Orieni renegade faction shall replace those who are 
necessary.  Look, the circle has made that Orieni renegade leader Valen's 
reincarnation in order to protect itself."

 	"The loss of the humans have changed our plans, but the circle still goes 
on," the third Vorlon stated.

 	Kosh nodded. "The Orieni will need to build large battle-stations and one 
of them will be sent back to serve as a base during the last war. Order will win 
out over chaos."

 	Elsewhere in the galaxy, spider like ships had gathered near a planet.  A 
pair of Shadow elders looked over the data they had received from their probes 
near Earth.

 	"Unfortunate, but humans were weak and would not survive the next war," 
one Shadow said. "That asteroid impact started up a war that will wipe out all 
of humanity."

 	"True.  That was survival of the fittest at its best.  The pair of ships 
we planted on the satellite of the third planet and on the fourth planet will be 
left for one of the other races to find.  Maybe the Centauri will makes use of 
them in fighting the Orieni."

 	Both races withdrew their probes form the Sol System and concentrated on 
the Orieni/Centauri war that would last over a decade.  What neither the Shadows 
nor the Vorlons knew that the asteroid that hit Earth was in fact a spaceship 
from the Greater Magellenic Cloud that the humans would at first call the A.S.S. 
One (Alien Star Ship One). The war on Earth died down when the threat of alien 
invasion started becoming more and more a prevalent thought and the alien ship 
was rebuilt and gained a new name and title: the SDF-1 Macross.  The SDF-1 was 
pursued by beings called the Zentran and Meltran.  The war that followed would 
have shaken any of the races nearby; if they had seen it and was called the 
Great Space War by the Earth body known as UN Spacy.  After the Rain of Fire by 
Gorg Bodloza's fleet, UN Space captured a Factory Satellite and built a new SDF 
called the Megaroad and was preparing to build two more called Frontier and 
Freedom.  The year is 2012 and one month after the SDF-2 Megaroad had launched 
to explore the Greater Magellenic Cloud.

 	A young officer approached the main headquarters of UN Spacy with a 
grimace on his face.   He had just came back from a mission that had escalated a 
bit and was probably going to reamed over how it went down.  

 	He entered the office and saluted.  "Admiral Gloval?  Commander David Gina 
of the Destroid Squad Black Panther reporting as ordered."

 	Admiral Gloval tapped at a PADD and shook his head.  "Commander Gina, I 
have read your mission report and have some questions."

 	"Yes, sir."

 	"When you were pursuing the Zentran terrorist group into an active 
Destroyer, why did you not call for back-up?"

 	"The Zentran had set up a scrambler system and our Destroids did not have 
the power to punch through the field."

 	"Fair enough.  Why did you order your squad to board a ship that was 
taking off and about to execute a space fold to who knows where?"

 	"Our duty, sir.  I wanted to go to where those renegades were hiding and 
remove their ability to make raids.  According to my intelligence report, there 
was a staging area that could have brought another dozen ships down our head."

 	"You intellegence report?  You mean that Meltran that you seduced?"  
Gloval asked with a bit of amusement.

 	"Not quite, sir.  She and I were seeing each other before we became aware 
of this group.  She volunteered to act as our spy among the renegades," 
Commander Gina replied.

 	"All right.  When you arrived at the renegades' base, you proceeded to 
destroy all their ships without any concern for your ability to come back."

 	"No, sir.  The Zentran and Meltran still do not know how to build ships.  
We damaged the ships in such a way that putting together the pieces would make 
one full ship capable of returning.  Our plans changed when we found the other 
three ships in a canyon."  

 	"These other three ships?  What did they look like?" Gloval asked.

 	"Two of them looked similar to the SDF-1 before it was rebuilt.  The other 
was a purple ship that looked similar to a Scout Cruiser.  However the insides 
of it were scaled to humans and not Zentran/Meltran.  I ordered the one skeleton 
we found sitting on a dias to be left alone.  The other skeletons were to be 
stored elsewhere for later use, since we do need genetic material for cloning.  
We jury-rigged the three ships together and used parts from the Zentran renegade 
ships to finish modifications.  My own Destroid was cannibalized for parts to 
add more computer memory to the ship and pinpoint where we left those ruined 
ships and the leftover parts from the canyon ships."

 	"Anything else to add?"  Gloval asked.

 	"Dernia-625 underwent microcloning, so we could get married," David 
replied.  "As to the renegades, they are dead."

 	"Right.  Now, this mess of ship parts you flew back is being a real 
headache.  We could separate the ship back into its component parts."

 	"Which is what I was expecting," David said.

 	"Quite.  But, it would take too much time and resources to do that.  The 
rough merging you did is being smoothed out by our engineers and the hull is 
being redone slightly and repainted.  There is more, so you want to hear it?"  
Gloval said.

 	"We have not only used Earth tech such as on the space platforms, we have 
also used tech we have found underneath the Sphinx.  The Frontier and Freedom 
are being bumped back a number.  This ship that you brought back is getting the 
SDF-3 label, although it does not look like the Macross or the Megaroad."

 	"Tech under the Sphinx?  Um...?"

 	"There was a chamber underneath the Sphinx that had a computer system with 
really old files on it.  One of the files shows a group of aliens telling humans 
were advancing to fast and that we had to be put in our proper place otherwise 
we'd threaten the circle of order that they represented.  Our ancestors did what 
they could to preserve as much as they could, but not much was left.  They were 
a renegade branch of Protoculture that came to Earth to live in peace and 
prepare for the arrival of Protoculture or their enemies."

 	"I wonder what we would have been like if we had been left alone," David 
muttered."

 	"Probably a lot more advanced and with a lot less bloodshed," Gloval said, 
as he lit his pipe.  "Now on to the other reason you are here.  Your entire 
squad is being disbanded."

 	David Gina felt his stomach drop to his feet, but did not say anything.

 	"You and they are being reassigned to the SDF-3.  Most of your squad will 
be part of the engineering group of the SDF-3. That brings us to you and your 
wife.  Your wife will be helping some of the people that will be assigned to 
live in the ship as an intermediary.  I might not have liked the idea of a city 
inside a ship, but it proved to be a great morale booster," Gloval said.

 	Admiral Gloval picked up a small box and stepped around his desk and 
removed the Commander pins on Gina's shoulder.  He then opened the box and 
smiled.

 	"Well Captain Gina, your ship is the SDF-3 and you'll be investigating 
some nearby star systems," Gloval said.

 	David Gina's hands shook, as he took the box.  "Not that I'm complaining, 
but why me?  There are others who are in line in front of me."

 	"They are scared the SDF-3.  The Macross was a mish-mash of two separate 
technologies and was temperamental.  The SDF-3 is a mish-mash of five and your 
group flew the ship back here.  Now onto the skeleton on the dias.  We were able 
to clone her and memories and skills from the SDF-3 were downloaded into her.  
Apparently she is from one of the other fleets that had overseers called Marduk 
and was an Emulator or singer. We've given her the name Ishtar and she'll be 
part of the SDF-3's crew complement.  As to the other skeletons, they were also 
Marduk, but we cloned them away from the SDF-3.  You will also have some Marduk 
clones on your ship."

 	David Gina coughed.  "About the only thing you could do to surprise me now 
is cloning Roy Focker, Hikaru Ichijo, and Max Jennius and assign them Valkyries 
on board my craft."

 	"And we have.  The ones assigned to the SDF-3 are called Roy Fokker, Rick 
Hunter, and Max Sterling."

 	"I bet that went over real well," David muttered.

 	"The Rain of Fire almost wiped humanity out.  This is one of the things we 
have to do in order to ensure survival," Gloval said softly.

=======================================================================

 	What appeared to be a blue haired teenage girl wearing a black poncho was 
walking between a man and woman both who had flaxen hair and were about two 
meters tall.

 	"So, Ishtar," David Gina said.  "I hope you don't mind being considered a 
mascot of the Black Panthers."

 	The blue haired girl shook her head.

 	"David, I thought the Panthers were disbanded," Dernia replied.

 	"They are.  They are now the command staff of the SDF-3 Xanadu," David 
replied.

 	"They kept the name that you gave it?" Dernia asked, surprised.

 	David gave a snort.  "I named it after that musical, but apparently the 
name Xanadu is also associated with an old poem.  With the poem and the musical, 
Xanadu is more than a fitting name for an SDF class ship"

 	"Um? What poem is that?"  Ishtar quietly asked.

 	"Paradise Lost," David replied.

 	Ishtar looked confused and was about to say something when a UN Spacy 
Major turned a corner and glared hatefully at Captain Gina.

 	David gave a sloppy salute and wiggled his fingers at the Major, while 
smiling.

 	"Major Millard Lothair?  I guess congratulations are in order on achieving 
your current rank," David said.

 	"I see that you and your band of lunatics have landed on your feet once 
again.  Sooner or later, you will run out of luck," Lothair hissed.

 	David gave a theatrical bow and stated.  "Didn't you know?  The universe 
smiles on idiots, fools, and lunatics.  By the way, thanks for assigning us the 
detail of dealing with that renegade group of Zentran.  I wouldn't be in charge 
of the SDF-3 if it wasn't for how that mission turned out."

 	Lothair growled and brushed past the two women with hate in his eyes.  
Pointing at Lothiar with his thumb, David straightened back up.

 	"Nice guy.  I think he still blames the Black Panthers for what happened 
to him and his troops during the Global Civil War," Gina commented.

 	"What happened and why would he blame you for it?" Ishtar asked.

 	David shrugged and started walking forward with the two women quickly 
catching up to him.

 	"We were on opposite sides of the war.  He was a General back then, before 
he got busted down to I think either Master Sergeant or Non-commissioned officer 
due to some incidents that wiped out everyone under his command, but left him 
alive.  I wasn't and I'm still not clear on how ranks work other than higher 
pay.  Back then, we were just a bunch of new recruits whose camp got attacked 
during basic training and got stranded behind enemy lines," David said.  "The 
only reason he is still alive, is because he was removed from command and going 
through drug therapy for being addicted to hallucinogens."

 	"That doesn't explain why he blames you for it," Ishtar softly stated.

 	"He believes the Black Panthers initiated incidents that caused him to 
look like a laughing stock, such as his troops capturing a warehouse full of 
mannequins or ordering his troops to seize all the public toilets in a city.  He 
also points the blame at us for having him confined to drug rehabilitation for 
the rest of the Global Civil War."

 	"Did you?" Dernia asked with a smile.

 	"As there is no solid proof, I don't have to admit anything," David said 
with a grin.  "Ever since UN Spacy formed, he has been doing his best to have 
the Black Panthers assigned the most dangerous missions.  Despite what I told 
Lothair, it is our willingness to learn and think outside the box that has kept 
us alive."

 	Dernia frowned.  "You are so serious and somewhat scared when you deal 
with Gloval."

 	"I respect Gloval.  He had a hard enough time with what happened to 
Macross City without having to deal with our shenanigans," David replied.  
"Well, enough of this.  Let's get to our ship.  Ishtar, I'll introduce you to 
the other members of the Black Panthers after we launch."

 	A bit later, the red painted SDF-3 Xanadu launched from a UN Spacy ground 
based shipyard.  Like the SDF-2 Megaroad, the Xanadu's launch was accompanied by 
ships dropping showers of light motes down towards it and fireworks going off.  
UN Spacy even managed to scrounge up a copy of the song by the same name and 
played it, as the ship headed for the stars.