CHASING THE MECHANICAL FRONTIER
THE ROBOTECH HERETIC
by Khyron_Prime...21 August 2004
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Before going any further, I would like to stress that the design of this story is not of satire--it is to be taken 100% seriously, and though I realise that some may believe the contents to be heresy against Robotech...well, consider the title.
In the year 2766, the face of Robotech sciences was changed forever, but it wasn't due to scientific genius, or Tirolian creation, but rather, Robotech's very definition and history came into question with a discovery. For a thousand years, Robotechnology had been the development of the Tirolians--the only technology that could possibky be the most advanced in the universe...Who would have thought that a stray band of Interplanetary Alliance voyagers would change it all?
Having begun peaceful works in the sector of the Free Zentraedi Republic, the Interplanetary Alliance was able to begin further exploration in the cosmos. They soon discovered Sequin, a planet full of lush forests and exotic wildlife, and the excitement that ensued ensured that Alliance exploration would not be ignored in this new frontier. Flair, Cassant, and Remo-2 were all shown to the people, fueling scientific interest in colonisation of the area with their humanoid-friendly enviornments.
But with the Spaceflare Disaster on 2767 (in which a scientific station was obliterated due to a power reactor's overload), the projects outside of the FZR were called to an emergency halt as the Interplanetary Alliance investigated the area and hoped to explain the deaths of 271 members to the public. As the explosion was so massive, and with remenants of their protoculture energy generators scattered in all areas, the search for information was nearly impossible, with no pieces, bodies, or mecha left that could tell the tale.
What the IA research crews could not have possibly discovered was that a landing craft had been launched from Spaceflare's bays just prior to the explosion, and that it had ridden the resulting shockwaves on a coure that sent them into a crash-landing with an as-yet undiscovered planet.
By their recollections upon their return, the three would-be explorers, Drs. Hak Fleurneuse, James Sanders, and Hiri Wotok, found a planet that was beyond any previous findings: A planet that not only housed a race of intelligent, science-practicing lifeforms, but one that was completely devoid of organic material--a world that had buildings, ground, and even people that were totally mechanical.
Sanders recalled in his study, A New People of Protoculture, that the first thing that he mentioned to his partners was that they may have landed on the planet of Haydon IV. However, a closer inspection of the technological styles by Dr. Wotok led to her dismissal of the idea, and that this planet was certainly not of the Local Group.
It was soon after that the three scientists discovered life on the planet in the form of the battloid-like beings called "Transformers." In a frightening recount, Fleurneuse told students at Tirol's Imperial University about how his first steps into the nearby city resulted in the loss of his left legs under the force of one of the giant mechanical beings. However the incident, his screams alerted the Transformer to their presence, and he was taken (along with his colleagues) to a building that appeared to serve as a type of city hall, and where he was designed a mechanical leg that utilised his own bloodflow.
The relatively small humanoids were well-outmatched by their thirty-metre giant hosts, but found themselves amongst a race filled with democratic and scientific endeavours. Their meeting with Autobot leader, Optimus Prime, has since become the speak of legend, with his welcoming voice--and apparent familiarity with human life--putting the Interplanetary Alliance visitors at ease. What ensued was a gracious tour of this planet named Cybertron, and the rebuilding of their ship by the local engineers.
As is well known, Dr. Sanders seemed to develop a bond with Optimus Prime from the beginning, in his position as spokesman for the group. The exchanges between the men, according to Sanders, were "enlightening, exciting, but always very scary." The inquiries, however, have sounded to be one-sided at times, with Sanders' comparisons of these Transformers to IA Variable Geometry Mechanics, the knowledge of Haydon IV, and the peaceful enviornment populated by powerful machines always being of interest to his curiosity.
Thus, when the time came for the Alliance scientists to depart Cybertron, Dr. Sanders found himself too enthralled with this new setting to leave. As a result, Drs. Wotok and Fleurneuse returned to IA airspace with news of this newly-discovered planet, and that one of their own scientists had established studies there. In the time that followed, Sanders began communications with Alliance forces, relaying his findings and studies of these "Robots In Disguise" to them on a regular basis. However, what came with every one of these messages was the threat that, if any IA vessels approached Cybertron, they would be destroyed by the local military--a threat that, only after Sanders' death, would be revealed to be without merit.
During his stay on Cybertron, Dr. Sanders began a series of comparitive studies that no other human had ever done. His knowledge of protoculture was tested as the variable-shaped Transformers revealed their power-source, an element known as Energon. Quite literally, Sanders took to holding a cannister of protoculture in one hand and a cube of Energon in the other, comparing the properties of the two. Unfortunately, although the data he relayed to IA scientists hinted at a relation between the two elements, his final reports are locked in Cybertron computers with a passcode that only Optimus Prime was ever told. Aside from this, Sanders' studies of human relations with war machines and human-like minds AS war machines earned him the Haydon Light award for mechanical sociology in 2771, and his detailed skematics of the Autobot "Ratchet" gave him the title of 2775's Interplanetary Alliance Revolutionary In Science, a title which he would earn eight times in his lifetime.
Despite Sanders' apparent repoire with the mechanical people of Cybertron, the people there have since declined the presence of Interplanetary Alliance forces of any kind. 2809 saw the first permissal of an IA Ambassador to Cybertron, which paved the way for the Local Group's first sight of the Transformer life in 2810, when Hot Rod came to New Praxis for a meeting of the Interplanetary Alliance High Council. The information provided was revolutionary to the entire Local Group: The long history of the Cybertronian peoples, their interests in science, and their apparent propensity for war that halted no arguements of the natural design of warfare. Ambassador Hot Rod also once returned to the Free Zentraedi Republic, where the histories of Zentraedi and Transformer were juxtaposed and compared. The resulting understanding of life developed as a tool for battle became a hot topic in sociological circles, and both races seemed to walk away with a better understanding of themselves, as Hot Rod and FZR leader Breemus shook hands on the steps of Culture Hall.
The information gathered from the Transformers is of much debate, as scientists dispute their relations with protoculture, prior exposure to humanity, and apparent mechanical development that, in all essences, mirrors the use of Earth's variable weapons. From his throne in Cybertron City, Optimus Prime is always welcoming of communications, but has explained that the majority of the people on his planet do not wish to face the possibilities of changing their society which has developed for millions of years. In the end, Interplanetary Alliance scientists are left to ponder their discoveries, and have enjoyed the technical information occasionally sent from Cybertron, using it to develop new sensors and mechanics for future use in their expeditions.
AUTHOR'S FOLLOWING NOTES: Following writing this, I found the story's design as an informative essay to only show part of what could be a very interesting affair, for you see, we can only imagine what uproar that Dr. Sanders' findings may have caused in the Robotech-using world of the Interplanetary Alliance. Certainly, both due to the content of this piece and as a direct reference to Sanders himself, the title "The Robotech Heretic" certainly holds true. So true, in fact, that the original title for this story, "Mechanical Frontier," was replaced with its current title due to the power of Sanders' discoveries in the scope of Robotech sciences.
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