It Could Be A Long War/Fall of the Frontline Base

This episode was originally aired AFTER the original final episode, to cast it as a mission in which the Voltron force is following Throk and the survivors of the Drule military council as they plan a takeover of the new planet Drule.  In reality, this is the point at which they find their way to the homeworld.  I'll point out the wonky dialogue as we get to it, to be sure.

It Could be a Long War

Hawkins announces to the fleet that they are nearing a planet on which they're meeting the ex-Drule leaders.  Sparks puts the planet (the messy planetoid) on the main viewer.  The pretext is that they want to join the Galaxy Alliance.  Hawkins deploys the Voltron Force to examine the planet.  They form the subunits.

At the base, Borgam is plotting, scheming, and gloating.  This scheme is apparently Zeppo's scheme, and their job is to keep the Alliance busy while Zeppo and Throk conquer the planet.  He arrays his forces against the Alliance.

Jeff thinks back to the attack on Earth, and describes it in a very scary manner.  He thinks back to the destruction of the last Drule base, but describes it as the destruction of transport ships loaded with food.

A Drule fleet is moving in.  Jeff asks the commander for advice.  Hawkins urges them to investigate without provoking an attack.  They pass them by and fly over some amazing scenery.  Then Drule fighters attack them.  The teams fight back. 

Further out from the planetoid, a fleet of capital ships move toward the Alliance Fleet.

Newley orders his fleet to engage.  They move incredibly close to the Drule ships before opening fire, and they defeat them pretty handily this way.  The Drule captain totally isn't about to die in the last shot when . . .

. . .  We cut the Voltron force closing in on the frontline HQ.  Borgam orders AAA batteries to open fire on them.  They dodge the beam weapons, so Borgam orders missiles launched.  Newley's fleet is tearing the fleet to shreds, while the Explorer readies missiles.  Oh, wait, the captain is still alive, is ship is just on fire.  He orders a cease fire and they begin to retreat.  Hawkins suggests that Newley and his fleet hold position until they get a report from the Voltron Force.

The Voltron force, meanwhile is still dodging AAA fire.  Cliff comments on how weird the whole situation is. 

Borgam is sure Zeppo has destroyed all resistance on the new planet by now.  He orders all of his men to prepare to hold of the Alliance only as a diversionary tactic.  Yeah, it ain't gonna be like this in Dairugger.  Borgam orders the robeast prepared, and this is another pretty gnarly looking one. 

Newley tells Hawkins to prepare for another attack, while his fleet . . . goes somewhere else.  Newley starts the counter attack, and there are heavy losses on both sides.  Cue the pointless play-by-play dialogue.  OK, NOW I think the Drule captain bites it.

The Explorer joins the Voltron teams, and they begin strafing the HQ.  Borgam urges his troops to keep fighting as the Voltron force blues up more stuff.  The Explorer lends its firepower to the battle as well.  Jeff decides they need to get into the control room.  They encircle the mountain, and then the HQ is burning as Newley's fleet destroys the flagship--it actually rams Newley's ship, but his ship survives.  Then they pound the crap out of the base.  Then we get footage from another episode and Throk and Zeppo are getting ready to retake control from Hazar.  Blargh.

Borgam reports that they're losing to the Alliance--Throk says they've one, and Borgam can only go home once he's destroyed Voltron.  He takes an elevator down, and then there's some exlosions and tricky editing. 

The Voltron force lands and starts infiltrating another enemy base on foot.  Jeff and ginger take an air car, and Cliff saves them from snipers, then joins him.

Borgam and his XO run past the gnarley robeast, and Borgam orders the 'beast launched.

In the shambles of the control room, Cliff finds a chart of the new Drule homeworld, and Ginger saves them from another sneaky sniper.  Then the robeast launches.  Borgam is totally in the cockpit as he orders it to attack the Explorer.  Jeff is back in his ship, and they form Voltron.

Voltron punches out of the base and engages the robeast.  He grabs the robeast by its weapon arm with the raybeam whip, but the robeast cuts the whip with its sword.  It gets Voltron in a precarious position, only to be flipped and then disarmed with the spinning laser blades.  It still has its sword--at least until Voltron cuts the sword in half with the Blazing Sword and then destroys the robeast.

Near the ruins of the base, Jeff shows Hawkins for the plan of the attack on the new Drule planet.  Then we get a commercial for Voltron.  And they pledge to help the Drule people and when I first saw this, I got all excited that there was going to be more vehicle voltron, and then this was the last I saw of it.

Fall of the Front Line Base

The Alliance fleet is moving deep inside Galveston territory.  The Rugger Guard's radar operator detects an asteroid ahead.  Aki doesn't think it needs surveying, but Ise wonders if there's a base nearby.  He sends the Rugger Team out to look at it as a precaution.  They launch and form the Rugger subunits.

At the Galveston HQ, they detect the Alliance fleet and the Rugger mecha.  Raucher is shocked that they made it here so quickly.  Their power levels are low and the Battle Attacker is incomplete.  He sends Captain Seidel in charge of the fleet, and Garro is to support him.

They close in on the asteroid, and Aki reflects on how they don't know where the Glaveston homeworld is, and yet Galveston has already struck at Earth.  He also thinks back to the destruction of the first front-line base and the sacrifices that entailed, namely the death of Commander Date.  Hey--we didn't get a memorial to Colonel Carver in Voltron.

Then Walter sees the Galveston fleet.  Aki holds them back, and decides to go in under them and investigate the planet while Asimov deals with the fleet.  They close in on the asteroid, and avoid a meteor shower thanks to the local red dwarf.  A flight of Galveston fighters closes in, and Keats and Walter volunteer to take care of them while the Air Rugger continues its investigation. 

Seidel's fleet deploys to hold Asimov's ships back from the HQ.  Asimov orders his ships to close as much as they can before they return fire.  They take damage, but they succeed in breaking through the enemy forces.  Seidel is killed (I knew it!)

Patty tells Aki that there is a metallic reading up ahead, and then they reach teh Galveston HQ.  Raucher sees the enemy mecha approaching and orders the AAA batteries to fire--beams and missiles.  Aki evades them and decides they need a full recon of that base.  Asimov's fleet has broken through the enemy defensive line and has now turned on them.  Huh--Seidel is still alive--that must have been either Garro or a generic Galveston ship commander.  He orders his fleet to turn around. 

Ise tells Asimov to stop pursuing the fleet, and he complies.  Aki is still dodging.  Walter and Keats join him, and they decide to wait form Rugger Guard to act on the data Aki's collected--after Aki protests somewhat.  Raucher announces that a fleet from the homeworld is due in five hours.

Seidel has now regrouped his fleet and his planning to keep the Alliance fleet at bay until reinforcements survive.  Raucher calls to see how the hell soon the battle attacker will be complete (exact translation).  It will take two hours.

Asimov plans to use his fleet to draw the Galveston fleet away while Dairugger and the Rugger Guard attack the base directly.  There are heavy casualties on both sides.  Ships fall to the planetoid in flames.  Seidel urges his fleet to stand its ground and inflict losses as heavy as possible on the enemy.

The Rugger teams and guard take advantage of the diversionary tactic to launch a sneak attack from the blind spots of the AAA guns.  Raucher is getting desperate.  The Rugger Guard moves in and hits the base hard while the Ruggers concentrate fire on the control towers.  The Hq is in flames. 

Seidel, his bridge in flames, orders his helm to ram Asimov's flagship.  To his dismay (and flamey death) it's just a glancing blow.  With the fleet vanquished, Asimov moves in to support the attack on the base.  Raucher calls Supreme Commander Caponero, who tells him to just sacrifice himself.  The combined firepower of the fleet is too much for the base, and Raucher leaves the control tower just as it explodes.  Ise orders Aki to infiltrate the HQ and find anything they can on the Glaveston HQ.  The Rugger eams fight their way through defenses on foot, kicking some major ass. Aki and Patty get to a ground car, and are then joined by Walter as he kills two snipers.  They take off into the depths of the base.

Raucher is running to the battle attacker--I knew he pilots it--and his XO tries to stop him because it's not fully charge yet, but he shakes him up.

Walter finds a map to the Galveston homeworld, and Patty saves his butt.  Aki teases them both, then the ground quakes as the battle attacker launches.  As Raucher takes to the skies over the planetoid and engages the Rugger Guard, Aki rallies his team and they form Dairugger.  The battle attacker bombards the Rugger Guard, and Dairugger bursts out of the wreckage of the base to deal with it.  Oh, the battle attacker is trying to cut Dairugger with its sword and at the same time is baking him with the beam weapon.  This still doesn't work and Raucher is killed when Dairugger destroys the battle attacker.

The fleets hover outside the base, and Ise examines the map.  There are many more obstacles between them and the Galveston homeworld, but Aki, Walter and Keats pledge to see it through to the end.