The issue begins with Kanoc Felna, who was in the garden with his grandson Rojigo, who were watering and planting several plants, while Kanoc explained to his grandson some things about his mother Erma, including that she was awful for the gardening stuff, but on the other hand she was an excellent mother to Rojigo. Without both of them noticing it, Eda, Kanoc's wife and Erma's mother, was secretly watching them from behind a wall. Kanoc explained to Rojigo the origin of his name, which comes from Eda's father and Erma's maternal grandfather.
In private, Eda decided to talk to the Net, seeking an answer as to why her husband was acting in a more normal and articulate manner than usual, but the computer cannot give her an appropriate answer, apart from a vague comment that Rojigo's presence might be causing a therapeutic effect in Kanoc. Obviously enough, the answer is not amusing for Eda, since now that Kanoc was acting in a more normal way and the only answer Eda was receiving was an evasive one. The Net answers her that the mind is a territory that even an omnipotent AI like it cannot even understand, and the only thing that both Eda and the Net can do is keep studying Kanoc to know how he evolves. After that, Eda decided to talk to her daughter Erma via video phone. Once on the phone Eda told her daughter how her father was acting normally next to her son Rojigo, and curiously at that moment Kanoc decides to go for a walk with the kitten boy with him, something that worries his wife, but Kanoc tells her that he felt fine now.
Once offline, Erma began to think that her father was acting in a more normal way than he had ever done for years, so she deduced if Rojigo's latent Talent powers would have anything to do with this. Now the only thing she can do is wait how long that improvement will last and if that recovery doesn't go away once Rojigo is no longer with his grandfather. Immediately afterwards, Erma spoke to the Net asking for its opinion about her father and his subsequent recovery, to which the computer responded that it is a very interesting case, since the relationship between a Talent like Rojigo and someone with psychosis is something that is not exactly rare in itself, but due to the limited number of cases, the Net cannot give her a satisfactory answer. The Net reminds Erma that they are not omnipotent nor do they know everything, not to mention that certain aspects of the Talent phenomenon are considered classified information even for Erma (although the computer does not mention whether it refers to internal information from the EDF or used by the Net itself) and further recommends that she should not discuss the issue with anyone at all, and the computer finish the discussion reminding Erma that she has an appointment with her superior officer, Commander Chhptht. Once on her way, she thought on all the events that had happened regarding her family and the fact that the net doesn't want to give her more information on the subject.
Once with the commander, she asked him if there was anything new, to which he replied that there was nothing to report, apart from the enemy fleet of seven ships that were still far away from Annahport and the headquarters had said nothing about it. Erma wondered if in reality the enemy fleet is only there to show its power, but not to take any offensive action so that in that way there would be some kind of diplomatic reaction without negative consequences for both sides, to which Chhptht doubts that it is something like that, because the ILR would not have taken the trouble to travel from too far away just to provoke them without reason. On the other hand, Erma decides not to say any more, but she added that after what happened in Derzon years ago, she can expect anything from ILR.
Taking this as a consideration, Erma believes that it would be better to be prepared for them in case the ILR decided to attack in earnest, to which their commander comments that all the necessary material is ready, but without official approval, it is not possible to do anything else, although it would not be bad to do a readiness exercise, just in case. Erma also realized that her squadron is quite deficient in improvisation and she requested permission for a remedial course for her squadron, which she received without any problems.
Meanwhile, we see Kanoc and his grandson Rojigo wandering through the streets of Annahport, as he introduced the boy to his friends and acquaintances. At that time, Kanoc bumped into his son Tasak on the street, who had just returned to town and he had the opportunity to meet his nephew Rojigo. Tasak explained that he wanted to be in town to see the rest of his family now that they were all there, but his father warned him that he already knew what happened with Joseph about Tavas, and considering his career choice and his relationship with him, it would not have been a very good idea for Tasak to show up with his family, although he could go to see his mother. Kanoc didn't want to see Tasak either, since his own son was obsessed with joining antagonistic forces that he disagreed with and Kanoc was not going to give anyone, much less his own son, any preference on the subject, causing Tasak to leave the place with a sad face when he saw his own father and even his family reject him.
Despite all this, Tasak showed up at his parents' house and greeted his mother Eda, and the young Feline explained why he was in Annahport, also adding up he will be there in the old local Home Guard for a while. He also asked about how things were going in the family, which his mother told him about what Kanoc said when they were both on the street. Tasak also told his mother how surprised he was to see his father in better shape than before, but he also told her that his father no longer wanted to see him. With respect to Kanoc, he was at that time with his older sister Chunti and the other members of the government of the planet, which Tasak cannot help but criticize it sharply how the EDF was eliminating various layers of internal bureaucracy between civil and military authorities, since the government was trimming out its internal administration. On the other hand, Eda replies to her son that the government doesn't see things the same way as he does, since the EDF seems willing to have more control over the planet by trying to curtail some civil liberties in Dornthant. Obviously, Tasak can't believe this, considering that the ILR was practically in everyone's noses, something that Eda replies that what they want to make clear to the EDF in a private meeting is the EDF should know its place at the heart of the matter.
Once in private in his room, Tasak decides to speak with his superior, Tavas Ikalik, about what he talked about with his family and how they, at least his father, did not agree that he was related to him. Tasak also told Tavas about the EDF's plans to limit civil liberties and how the Dornthant government was making a big scandal about it. Tavas, for his part, replied to Tasak that he would take care of the whole thing once the situation settled down.
And with respect to Tavas, in the following scene we see him in a meeting with several members of the Dornthant government in a special session regarding ILR spaceships that were on the periphery of the solar system. Seeing that the ships refused to communicate with them, they could only deduce they had hostile intentions. In spite of this, both Tavas and several members of the government seemed more concerned about trying to prevent panic from spreading among the planet's population than preventing an enemy attack, because at least they considered that the ILR would not be stupid enough to attack them, bearing in mind that they had the means to defend themselves against any attack. To avoid this, Tavas suggested talking about it as little as possible with the local media to avoid unnecessary speculation, something that some members of the government seemed to agree with. Once everything done, they wouldn't have to give so many explanations once the situation was under control and they would be forced to either tell the truth of what happened, with the risk that the enemy would know of his plans, or keep it all secret, giving the impression that both Tavas and his followers had intentions of taking control of the government and suspending local laws. Several members of the government had doubts about this, due to the unconstitutionality of Tavas' proposal, but he reminded them that the EDF, under ConFed's charter laws, had the discretion to intervene in internal affairs of its member planets in regional defense matters, at least to justify a possible intervention in the local media for censorship reasons. In addition to this, Tavas assured members of the government that while the EDF would have control over the military affairs of the planet and the solar system, the civilian government would maintain its sovereignty in local affairs.
Leaving aside what is happening in Dornthant, we see Frieda Rangoon with her roommate, Ilnya Ludadpik, whom she invites to a party to meet other boys, but Ilnya refused because she was busy with other things. Frieda realizes that Ilnya was watching a digital photograph on her Data Pad, where another girl appeared and she asks if that girl was her cousin or close relative. Illnya, very casually and without embarrassment, admits that girl in her Data Pad was her lover, with whom she frequented when they were both at the academy, making it more than clear that she was a lesbian. Obviously, such a response is quite surprising to Frieda, given that the concept of homosexuality was relatively new to her and to many characters in-universe. Strangely enough, Illnya also comments that she had already broken up with that girl, and mentions that her romantic interests could be directed towards other people, looking closely at Frieda at that moment, something that normally cheerful Canine girl began to feel quite uncomfortable. Frieda, seeing that her partner seemed to be interested in her, suddenly began to babble, while some aspects of her personality began to flourish, such as the fact that she had never had sex with anyone, not to mention, among other things, that she innocently recommended that Ilnya should seek a mate with someone from the crew, even though that person was of another species.
On another new scenario, we now see Dea-Htuhok Kho chatting with Kamara Hitzok, the wife of Colonel Onni Hitzok. Both women talked about Onni, especially about some aspects of his past and childhood. Kamara was very surprised to see how Dea was accepting the fact that she was going to share with both of them, something that Dea didn't worry her at all, since she was already prepared for it. Apart from that, Dea she was getting the best part of the relationship between them, since she could take care of the children that Kamara could have with Onni, while both women keep the same man for both. And speaking of Onni, he appeared on stage before both women and they both decide to invite Onni to dinner and dance somewhere, to his surprise.
The following scene now takes place in the ILR fleet that was in the vicinity of Dornthant, where we see Ipcha Tankannahai repairing some pipes from the Gaewahn, the ship where he was in service. Tankannhai realized that the ship only had the basics regarding monitoring and maintenance systems and decided to talk to Captain Barlahan, who was otherwise busy, dealing with another ship, the Gwanni, who was deploying many ACVs towards Dornthant. Tankannhai had realized that the EDF had done nothing to counter them, which Barlahan deduced that they probably thought they were underestimating their fleet, believing it was just a meaningless provocation. Thanks to that, the attack could be carried out without any setbacks. On the other hand, Barlahan deduced that his ship would be the first collateral victim of any EDF counterattack, and in that regard, Tankannahai needed to speak with him, telling him that the ship had only the basic systems and that he was concerned that damage control systems could function in due course.
Barlahan, with certain sarcasm, thanked him for his concern for the ship, but at the same time and in a few words he explained to him the true mission of his ship: That of attracting the enemy fire towards them, in such a way that the defenses of the EDF would be centered on them, which implied that he and the entire crew of the ship would sacrifice themselves so that the rest of the ILR fleet could attack Dornthant.
And with respect to that planet, several members of the EDF Home Guard realized that the ILR fleet had deployed several ACVs, and one of them ordered the launching of their own drones to strike back at them. But before they could do anything about it, Tavas appeared on the spot through a video message, ordering the soldiers not to attempt to attack or return the attack on ILR's ACVs until they do something really serious, and that included sending warnings to them as well.
Obviously, the Net could not stand idly by and decided to warn Erma, who was in another city of Dornthant at the time. She, obviously horrified by the situation, orders the Net to launch ACVs to counterattack, but permission was denied to her. In a desperate attempt to do something about it, Erma used an emergency command, but the Net replied that she does not have the authority to neutralize the refusal to counter-attack, and even using her authority as a military representative of Dornthant's governing council does not help her at all, as the net refused to recognize that authority. In a very, very last resort, Erma orders the Net to exert his own override, so she could get the control over the drones. Luckily for her, the Net obeyed that last command and it managed to deploy the ACVs, but it was too late to stop them all. Erma cursed the Net seeing that it couldn't do more to avoid a catastrophe, but at least she could prevent the entire planet from being wiped out in one shot, so she ordered to organize any way to mitigate the potential damage the planet would suffer, as well as any way to return the attack. At that time, the planet was being attacked with the new experimental weapon that the ILR was developing, called "Hassakenal", a planet-busting cluster weapon.
Meanwhile, Tavas Ikalik and his followers were stationed in another city analyzing the current situation, while the ILR Hassakenal was being shot at Dornthant without anyone doing anything to stop it. To make matters worse, Tavas was responsible for having given the order to remain inactive so that ILR would be the first to attack and thus justify any belligerent action the EDF might take against them. Obviously the rest of the followers had warned him that there would be millions of deaths in the main cities of the planet, something that Tavas ignored, claiming that their deaths would not go unpunished anyway. To Tavas's misfortune, several ACVs, which had been deployed on Erma's orders, had set out to intercept the ILR ones, and although they could not destroy all or prevent some of the projectiles from impacting the planet, they could at least prevent them from wiping out Dornthant. Tavas, who was furious to see that his plans were coming out of his control, gave the order to find out who was responsible for launching those ACVs in orbit.
And as for the Hassakennal, the weapon's first projectiles impacted the surface of the planet, destroying large portions of land. Fortunately, those shells impacted Dornthant's uninhabited areas, and at that moment, some pilots in the area reported the event, warning the civilian traffic of what was happening.
The last page of the issue ends with a scene where we see Rojigo playing in the garden, while his grandfather Kanoc quickly calls him, seeing the castastrophe approaching his home, and in a desperate attempt to save him he takes him in his arms, but before both of them could reach their home...
BOOM.
- The End of the World as We Know It: Basically, this issue and the next one are basically this, and Erma's Dornthant is in the receiving end of it.
- I Have No Son!: Kanoc decided to disown Tasak for joining Tavas' side, to the extent of warning him that he would not be welcome in the family anymore, other than his mother.
- Knight of Cerebus: For all practical effects, both the ILR and Tavas Ikalik are this for Erma, as they single-handed screwed both her and her family's lives in unexpected ways.
- Macross Missile Massacre: The ILR deploys the Hassakennal against Dornthant in a attempt to provoke the EDF into fighting them into a full-fledged war, overlapping with Orbital Bombardment as well.
- Mind Rape: A positive example, as it's heavily implied Rojigo unconsciously used his latent Talent powers he inherited from his mother Erma for healing Kanoc's mind.
- Poly Amory: Kamara, Onni's wife, doesn't mind at all to share her husband with Dea, as polygamy is allowed in the Albedo universe.
- Suicide Mission: It turns out that Barlahan's ship was designed for the sole purpose of being a one-way trip, as it became clear that the ship's mission was to serve as a bait to distract the EDF, while the rest of the Lepine fleet was about to fire the Hassakennal.
- Wham Episode: Basically, the biggest and the most important Wham Episode of all the story of the comic, as this is a two-episode finale, not only for the whole Dornthant sub-arc, but also for the First Arc as a whole.
