Trama

Flush with their ship's new capabilities, Captain Gloval decides to take the offensive.

Several months have passed since the modular transformation that Captain Gloval ordered to repulse a Zentraedi attack destroyed much of Macross City. The damage has been repaired and life has returned to normal. Rick Hunter has joined the military, undergoing the rigorous ground and combat flying training required to become a fighter pilot.

On Rick's first leave, he and Minmei are shopping, with him carrying a large paper bag with their purchases in it, when Minmei sees a lingerie shop and decides to go in. At first, Rick is reluctant to go, but Minmei finally convinces him to follow her.

As Minmei takes a couple dresses into the fitting room, the store clerk chuckles, startling Rick enough to make him drop some of the bag's contents. As he bends down to pick them up, Lisa, Vanessa, Kim, and Sammie enter, wearing civilian clothes. When Rick gets up, however, he sees the women looking at lingerie and quickly turns away in embarrassment. This causes him to drop even more items from the bag, and he is forced to get back down to pick them up. The women decide to leave, and as Rick continues to pick up the dropped items, Minmei comes out wearing one of the dresses. She asks Rick what he thinks. He says, somewhat sheepishly, that it's a nice dress.

Meanwhile, on the engineering deck of the SDF-1, Chief Engineer Lang shows Captain Gloval an electrical reaction that he believes showed up when the space fold system vanished. He adds that it may be possible to use the reaction to produce a protective barrier. Gloval tells Lang to work on it.

On Breetai's ship, Exedore is puzzled as to why the SDF-1 had to change its structure to be able to fire its main gun. As Breetai and Exedore view the footage of the ship approaching Saturn, Exedore says he thinks the ship will try to hide behind it or use the rings to escape detection. Breetai decides to follow the ship.

On the base, Roy congratulates Rick on becoming a fighter pilot, saying he gets his own room, but it doesn't mean he can fool around. He then calls them both to attention as they meet Lisa, Vanessa, Sammie, and Kim, the women still in civilian clothes. Roy salutes them, and Rick reacts in surprise to seeing Lisa, since he had seen her in the store in the same outfit. The other women recognize him and start to giggle.

Lisa asks Roy if this is the pilot he was raving about. Roy has Rick introduce himself. Lisa muses over Rick's name, saying it sounds familiar to her. Suddenly she remembers, as he was the loudmouthed civilian pilot who called her an old sourpuss. Roy suggests to Rick that he watch his mouth from now on. Lisa adds that she hopes Rick takes Roy's advice for his sake, then needles Rick about it not looking too good for him to be hanging around in lingerie shops. The other women pass by without saying anything except for Sammie, who calls him a lecher.

On the bridge, the ship prepares to enter the rings of Saturn. Gloval plans a strategy for a blitzkrieg - an intense military campaign to achieve a quick victory - for when they exit the rings. Rick attends a mass briefing where he learns about the plan. The officer conducting the briefing tells the soldiers that if there's anyone they want to see, to do it that night.

That night, Rick meets Minmei in the park. He tells her they're shipping him out the next day. Minmei is happy for him, but becomes concerned at his subdued response, asking if anything is wrong. Rick says nothing much, but doesn't elaborate. Minmei shows off her dress, and Rick says it's nice. She retorts that the dress is the one they chose together. He says she really does look beautiful in it, and suggests they get their picture taken. Rick calls over a robot camera, which snaps their picture. Minmei says she has to run home, but wishes Rick luck on his mission and she'll see him when he gets back. After Minmei leaves, Rick says to himself that he might not even be back.

Meanwhile, Lang tells Gloval that they found a way to move the barrier system, but they can't cover the entire fortress at any one time. The best they've been able to do is what Lang calls a pin-point barrier system - photon barriers can be moved to deflect any incoming lasers, with the barriers moved by universal gyros controlled from the bridge.

In the barracks, Roy knocks on Rick's door, figuring he'd be awake. Roy tells Rick, who is lying in his bed awake, to try to get some sleep, as he has to be up early the next morning. Roy leaves, saying to himself that he feels sorry for Rick, knowing that the first combat duty is always the worst. Rick spends most of the night tossing and turning.

The next day, as the squadron assembles, Roy meets Rick in the hallway, asking him if he slept okay. Rick says sort of, and Roy says he understands, as he was in the same kind of shape for his first action. He tells Rick that losing a night's sleep won't kill him.

The fighters take off. Rick's voice cracks at first when he reports he's ready for takeoff, but he composes himself and repeats the transmission. As Rick follows the other planes, he wonders why they're flying so dangerously. When he tries to follow their maneuvers, however, Lisa berates him on the radio, saying that not only will that kind of flying give him away to the aliens, but he's the only one flying dangerously. Embarrassed, Rick acknowledges the correction.

Roy advises the fighters that they'll be entering the Shadow Zone, where they won't have visual cues. He tells the pilots to keep one eye on the ice and the other on their gauges. When Rick enters, he maneuvers carefully so as to avoid the ice, but Lisa needles him on his speed dropping off. Rick mutters something about being the one lucky enough to be razzed by a know-it-all in a control room, which Claudia and Lisa overhear on the bridge.

As the SDF-1 enters the rings, Gloval tells the crew to be ready to fire the main gun as soon as they exit. Meanwhile, Breetai orders Captain Zeril to capture the ship with as little damage as possible. The aliens open fire, and some of the shots fly by close to Rick's plane while he's still in the Shadow Zone. Shortly afterward, the fighters exit and engage the aliens.

Exedore tells Breetai that attacking with such a small force is completely illogical. Breetai decides to unleash the other Zentraedi vessels to show them what they're up against. Meanwhile, the SDF-1 emerges from the rings and Gloval gives the order to fire the main gun. The gun doesn't fire, however, and Lang reports that the pin-point barrier system is interfering with the operation of the main gun.

As the enemy missiles approach, three controllers stand by to run the pinpoint barrier system. They use trackball-like controls to direct the barriers over the ship, preventing most of the missiles from hitting. Lisa reports that all of the fighter squadrons except for the Skull Squadron have taken on heavy casualties.

With the battle appearing to turn in the aliens' favor, Lisa comes up with an idea to concentrate the pin-point barrier energy and direct it to the front of the Daedalus. Gloval approves the move, and Lisa tells Kim and Sammie to direct the energy to the front of the Daedalus. She also has Claudia direct the fortress into a frontal attack on the enemy ship.

A nearby explosion causes Rick to lose control of his plane. He changes it to battloid mode to keep from crashing and lands on the alien ship. While continuing to fight the alien forces, Rick falls down into what appears to be a landing bay. As he tries to find an exit, he runs into a Zentraedi soldier. Rick levels his gun at the terrified soldier, but can't bring himself to fire.

Meanwhile, the SDF-1 uses the Daedalus to penetrate deep into Zeril's ship. The resulting barrage from its weapons destroys the ship from inside, with Rick escaping just before it explodes. The SDF-1 bridge crew congratulates Lisa on her successful plan.

The narrator concludes the episode by describing the events after the battle: the Skull Squadron is decorated for their actions, but Rick can't erase the memory of the Zentraedi soldier, as he couldn't fire on another living being. He mentions this to Roy. Roy says he felt the same way as a new recruit, but not to worry, as experience would erase all doubts. Rick realizes he is changing, as he had little problems firing on the pods during combat, but he is now the first human to have been inside a Zentraedi battleship and escaped to tell the tale.