Disclaimer: I do not own Robotech; wish I did, but I don't. Harmony Gold does.

Prologue

Cpl. David Hammond yawned as he leaned against the counter in the staff break room. The only sounds in the room were the din of fluorescent lights and coffee being brewed. Glancing to his right he sighed as the last ounces of fresh brewed coffee dripped through the filter. Pushing himself off of the counter he rubbed his eyes before grabbing his mug and filling it. After placing the glass pot back he turned away from the counter in time to see his CO enter the break room. Stifling another yawn he gave Lt. Dawson a nod, slightly raising his mug in greeting to the young officer before exiting the break room.

Back in the signal processing control room he allowed his eyes to adjust to the low light. Glancing around he observed a handful of analysts at their stations; some lazily typing away in front of their terminals, others with hands pressed to headphones. Glancing up he allowed himself a moment to stare at Fantoma looming large through the permaglass ceiling, surrounded by a sea of stars in the night sky. Even now, nearly six months into his deployment, the sight was still impressive. At least I've got one hell of a view, he told himself.

Finally back at his station David placed his mug of coffee on the desk before dropping himself into the ergonomic chair. Picking up his mug again he took a drink, grimacing at the taste as he cursed under his breath. "Go figure, we get stationed on the other side of the galaxy and the coffee's still shit," a familiar voice came from his left. Swiveling his chair he took another sip of coffee as he grinned at the analyst stationed next to him.

"Pretty sure this isn't coffee man," he snorted. "More like mud than coffee."

"So Tirolian mud tastes just like shit," Steve retorted as David was taking another sip from his mug, nearly causing him to spit out his coffee. Shaking his head he flipped Steve off before swiveling his chair back to the right to face his terminal.

Logging in he stared at the queue of reports awaiting his inspection. Scanning the list for anything that would break up the monotony of standard noise flooding the comm net, he finally settled on one that had been picked up by the long range sensors. The display immediately updated with a plethora of information. Grabbing and placing the nearby headphones over his ears he clicked the play button. His eyes immediately narrowed as the recording began. As the sample continued to play he studied the waveform of the strange signal in front of him. He then fired up a comparison tool, allowing the servers to go to work analyzing and comparing the sample against others in the archive. Closing the sample he returned to the queue.

Several uneventful hours later and nearing the end of his shift David was in the process of closing out his station when a notification popped up at the bottom right of the display, informing him that a job he had scheduled was now complete. Of course it waits till I'm done with my shift, he told himself. Sighing he clicked on the notification, allowing the results of the analysis to be displayed. His eyebrows rose as he read and re-read the information on screen. Leaning back in his chair he wondered aloud, "The hell do you mean 'no known correlation'?" He looked over at Steve, also now in the process of closing out his shift.

"Steve, come take a look at this," he called over to the analyst.

Steve wheeled his chair over to David's station. "What?" Steve asked, obviously anxious to be done with his shift.

"Check this out," David told him, handing Steve an extra pair of headphones which his colleague reluctantly accepted before placing them over his ears. David slipped his own noise cancelling headphones on as he initiated playback of the mysterious signal. Steve raised an eyebrow in confusion before leaning back in his chair with his head cocked to the side.

As the recording finished playing both analysts slipped their headphones off. Steve rubbed his chin as he stared at the signal waveform on the display in front of them. "That's weird man, never heard anything like it. What's the comp say?" Instead of replying David pointed to the analysis report on the right side of the display. Steve's eyes narrowed as he read the report. "Huh?"

"I know right? I think the tools messed up," David responded, scratching the back of his neck as both analysts searched for answers on the display in front of them.

"Where the hell did the array pick this thing up?" Steve finally asked.

David suddenly realized he hadn't actually checked yet. He clicked through the initial report, accessing the section that provided the origination data of the signal. Both analysts looked from the screen to each other and back at the screen. "Dave, get the LT."

The loud ringing of a phone roused Lisa from her slumber. She groaned and rolled onto her side to stare at the clock on the nightstand; it read 0210. She felt her husband stir next to her, cursing at whoever was calling in the middle of the night. Reaching for the phone he barked into the receiver, "Admiral Hunter." She couldn't quite make out what the caller was saying and was left with only her husband's annoyed voice to fill the silence in the bedroom.

"Right...ok, when? Got it," he finished the conversation, attempting to place the receiver back on the cradle but failing. He cursed under his breath, finally managing to properly seat the phone before swinging his legs off the side of the bed and stretching. Lisa rolled onto her left side to face him as he stood up.

"What was that about?" she asked, not at all happy to have been awoken in the middle of the night.

"Emergency Council meeting, evidently our presence has been requested," he mumbled through the shirt being pulled over his head.