Dana Sterling - Second Robotech War

Second Robotech War

It is during the second Robotech Saga that Dana, now an adult with blonde hair (which she wears in a globe-shape with a black hairpin on the left side) becomes the main character and the catalyst for much of the action that takes place in the Second Robotech War. In 2029, just before the arrival of the Robotech Masters in Earth orbit, Dana, now 17 years old, graduates from the United Earth Forces Military academy along with childhood friend Bowie Grant and is placed with the 15th tactical armored squadron of the Army of the Southern Cross, an elite military unit within the United Earth Forces (UEF).

Initially, Dana and Bowie are under the command of Sean Phillips. However, after Sean is demoted for flirting with an admiral's daughter, Dana is promoted to Second Lieutenant and takes command of the 15th. Among those under Dana's command, in addition to Bowie, are Louie Nichols and Angelo Dante. Nichols proves himself as expert with tech gadgets and computers. Dante views Dana as an overconfident teenager and Dana must repeatedly prove to him that she is a competent leader. Dana also struggles to prove that her promotion was not given to her simply because her parents are war heroes. In addition, the fact that Dana is half-Zentraedi is not held in high regard by many humans who still harbor grudges due to the Zentraedi holocaust that decimated the planet 18 years ago. Dana clashes with Marie Crystal, a squadron leader within the Tactical Armored Space Corps and Nova Satori, an officer in the military police.

Gregarious and outgoing, Dana proves to be a brilliant tactical leader during the Second Robotech War against the Robotech Masters but she is troubled, because she is half alien, over the fact that the enemy she is killing could be her own relatives (even though it is soon established that the forces of the Masters are not Zentraedi). Because of this, she has several clashes with supreme commander Anatole Leonard over his bigoted treatment of captured bioroid pilots. Leonard seems to tolerate her because of her relationship to Chief of Staff Rolf Emerson. Dana repeatedly demonstrates her skill as a pilot and leader throughout the Second Robotech War and never turns down an opportunity to prove herself and she eventually earns the respect of her squad as well as Nova and Marie. When Bowie is captured by the Masters, Dana leads her squad in an unauthorized mission to rescue him. The mission proves successful and although Dana fears she will be thrown in the prison, she is instead praised by her superiors who marvel at the fact that she was able to rescue Bowie with such a small force against the Masters' superior technology and numbers. In only a short time, Dana, in recognition of her military prowess, is promoted to First Lieutenant. As the war rages on and the Southern Cross and UEF take greater and greater casualties, Dana continues to lead her squadron into battle with incredible skill, even as the situation grows more and more dire.

Dana would lead the 15th squadron on several dangerous missions, including an attack against and infiltration of the Masters' mothership. During the mission, two of Dana's subordinates, Simon and Jordan, are killed in the line of duty. Dana also faces a challenge after Bowie falls in love with Musica, a clone who shares his love of music. Dana and Bowie smuggle her out of the mothership and back to earth but her presence soon becomes known to the authorities. Dana then tries to protect them both from Nova Satori, who wants both of them arrested. Dana always presents a positive outlook, even in the worst of times, to help rally those under her command.

Dana is attracted to Zor Prime (a captured Bioroid pilot and a clone of Zor, the Tirolian who discovered Protoculture) who was attached to the 15th squadron and helped him regain his memory. Zor Prime, although initially withdrawn, slowly regains his memory and grows closer to Dana. At one point, Dana asks Zor out on a date, although their potential romance is hampered by Zor's unfamiliarity with human culture and the ongoing battle against the Masters. Eventually, Zor and Dana launch a plan to infiltrate the Masters's mothership and kill the Command Triumvirate. Zor becomes obsessed with revenge against the Masters for their abuse of protoculture.

During the final battle with the Robotech Masters, Dana accidentally touches the terminals of a protoculture chamber and the surge awakens racial memories inside her. Through a waking dream, she meets a young girl, the younger sister she had yet to meet but had been born in deep space during the SDF-3's mission. (This sister was named Aurora in the decanonized Jack McKinney novels. Maia Sterling appears to replace Aurora in the retconned timeline and is a major character in the movie Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles). During the vision, Dana briefly sees her parents for the first time in seven years. Dana begs for them not to leave her again, but she is pulled back to reality, and the war that is still ongoing.

After killing the last member of the Masters' Command Triumvirate, Zor kisses Dana (for the first time) before pushing her into an escape pod and jettisoning her back to Earth. Zor then sacrifices himself by piloting the Masters' command ship in a suicide run to destroy the Earth mounds where the ruins of the SDF-1's protoculture matrix were located as they had mutated and began to attract the Invid Sensor Nebula. Unfortunately, the explosion he creates only spread the spores throughout the planet causing Earth to become a fertile greenhouse for the Invid flower of life. Dana, and the survivors of the 15th Squadron, can only watch helplessly as the spores are spread by the wind across the planet. The arrival of the Invid was a certainty now and their chances of winning were non-existent as the United Earth Forces and the Robotech Masters had exhausted themselves.