MACROSS 7
FIRE BOMBER
PROJECT M
Note: This explanation of Project M is by no means the ultimate canon explanation. If you have contradicting information, I'd be glad to correct this. This is just a try at explaining the rather muddled account of Project M that was given in Macross 7, for people who were as confused as I was to why Basara had the Fire Valkyrie and what Sound Force had to do with the military and Minmay. And no, this isn't Operation Meteor from Gundam Wing...sorry. XD
Thirty-five years ago, Lynn Minmay halted the war between humans and Zentradi with her songs. The resulting United Earth Forces realized the potential benefits of Lynn Minmay's technique for future combat with alien races and set aside a special team to study the possible uses of song/sound warfare. The project was code-named Project M.
Unfortunately, little progress was made in the years following the end of the Zentradi war, as the UN Spacy put most of its efforts into expanding its fleet and building the Megaroad and Macross vessels for deep space colonization. Though a special team of researchers was tasked with designing a custom Veritech Fighter incorporating some of the equipment needed to conduct sound warfare, the project was never followed up on. Some of the problems the Project faced was lack of any known alien enemies, lack of interest from members of the high-ranking military, and lack of belief from researchers and the military alike. Everyone acknowledged the power of Minmay's songs, but few believed that such a technique could be used again.
One of the few who still believed was Maximillian Jenius. The former pilot, who had since then moved up in the ranks of the UN Spacy, held firmly to his belief in the power of song. Part of this reason was because his wife, Milia Fallyna Jenius, had been one of the Zentradi affected deeply by Minmay. Max never stopped looking for someone who had Minmay's potential and desire to sing. For many years, this seemed unlikely.
Then a former ace pilot named Ray Lovelock reappeared. Ray had left the military after the accident with his friend Stephan, but he had known of Project M and approached the UN Spacy with a plan and a boy named Nekki Basara. Believing that Basara's voice had the potential of Minmay's, Ray asked the United Forces to implement Project M with Basara as the sound source. The UN Spacy was hesitant, but Max agreed to the plan, helping to supply Ray and Basara with the custom VF designed by the sound warfare team, the red VF-19 Fire Valkyrie. It was a test for Ray as well as Basara. If Basara could pilot the Valkyrie in combat while singing well, then Ray would be given the go-ahead to move to the next step in Project M.
For a few years afterward, Project M ground to a halt once more. Max was given command of the long-range immigration fleet Macross 7 and it looked like Basara would never be given a chance to test his skills in the Valkyrie. However, Ray and Basara decided at the last minute to board the Macross 7, securing living space in the not-so-legal add-on area of Akusho aboard City 7. In their run-down apartment complex, Ray and Basara waited for their chance.
After the first Varautan attacks and Basara's continued success with the Valkyrie in battle, Max decided to move ahead with Project M, telling Ray to form the four-member Sound Force. Sound Force's operations were in turn radioed back to the United Forces headquarters on Earth. It was not clear what the next step of Project M was supposed to be after the formation of one music unit, so the Macross 7 military decided to experiment with multiple music units. Without Max's full approval, Colonel Barton of the Macross 7 went ahead and formed a second music unit, the Jamming Birds.
It became clear that the success of Project M depended not on quantity, however, but on quality. None of the songs of the Jamming Birds had the effects that Minmay's or Basara's songs had on the enemy. In order for Project M to advance to its next stages, singers like Basara and Minmay would have to be found. And that, of course, was more easily said and done.
If the Protodeviln had not been defeated so soon, the next heroine of Project M might well have been Mylene Jenius, who through Sound Force training was gaining much of the power that Basara had in his singing. Perhaps, with the correct training and the correct mindset, other Lynn Minmays could emerge? Whatever the case, the outcome of Project M was very different from what its original designers had planned.
What does M stand for, anyway? Music? Macross? Megaroad? Minmay? We'll never know...