Miriyax

Miriyax

 is a Het ship between Miriya Parina, a female Zentraedi (gigantic humanoid alien) and Max Sterling, a human man in the Robotech series.

Canon
Max & Miriya's story begins in the midst of the first Robotech war between the human race and a race of gigantic, humanoid warrior aliens known as the Zentraedi. Khyron, an overzealous Zentraedi officer taunted Miriya Parina, the Zentraedi's greatest fighter ace, with claims that the humans had an ace of their own whom she would not be able to defeat.

Miriya was eager to encounter this ace, simply for the pride of defeating such a worthy opponent. She led a squadron of fighters in an attack run on the SDF-1, the gigantic spaceship/battle fortress which served as humanity's primary weapon against the Zentraedi armada, hoping to draw out the human ace. A squadron of varitech fighter jets was launched from the SDF-1 to repel Miriya's squadron.

It is most likely that the pilot Khyron had been referring to was actually Rick Hunter, but by a twist of fate, Rick was confined to a hospital bed at the time of Miriya's attack, as he had been injured during a previous mission. Consequently, when Rick's immediate subordinate, Max Sterling began to dominate the battle, Miriya concluded that he must be the ace Khyron spoke of. She began to tail him relentlessly, but was unable to deal a killing blow, to her ever-increasing frustration. The fight between the 2 pilots was epic and eventually careened right in to the interior of the SDF-1 itself. Here, Max gained the upper hand and was able to drive Miriya back out of the ship at which point she retreated to her mothership.

While Max was somewhat disappointed at the less-then-decisive victory over his skilled opponent, Miriya was livid at having suffered the first defeat in her illustrious career.

Determined to restore her honor, Miriya approached her superior officer, Azonia, and requested to be sent over to the SDF-1 as a spy. Though, privately her true agenda was to seek out the pilot who had bested her on the battle station and kill him. The Zentraedi had the technology to shrink themselves down to human size and had in fact already used it to shrink 3 of their own and smuggle them on to the SDF-1 as spies. Azonia was surprised by Miriya's request and was reluctant to waste such a talented pilot on a spying mission, but she realized that Miriya was for some reasoned determined to get on to the SDF-1 and so she agreed.

Miriya spent several weeks, perhaps even months exploring the strange human culture aboard the SDF-1. While the wonders of human society intrigued her, as they had done for many other Zentraedi who encountered them, Miriya was unique in her ability to maintain focus upon her own personal mission throughout her time aboard the SDF-1. She discovered at least 1 potential candidate whom she suspected of being her target, but being a meticulous assassin, she was not prepared to blow her cover, nor attempt a kill until she was absolutely certain she had identified the pilot who had bested her in the air. Ironically, during her search, she passed by Max several times without realizing who he was. Max, on the other hand constantly noticed Miriya due to her extraordinary beauty, though he likewise had no idea she was the Zentraedi ace he had previously battled.

The close encounters came to a head when Miriya stumbled upon a video game arcade, mistakenly believing the games to be battle simulators for training soldiers. Eager to learn from this window into her enemy's tactics, Miriya began playing the games an proved to be incredibly talented at them. Max, a regular patron of the arcade, noticed Miriya playing one of the jet fighter games and saw it as an opportunity to make a move on her. He challenged her to a game and Miriya accepted. Miriya quickly recognized Max's dogfighting style and realized she had finally found her target. Though initially pleased at this stroke of luck, she was soon outraged once more when Max defeated her in 2 consecutive rounds of the video game. She attempted to storm out of the arcade, but Max grabbed her hand and would not let her go until she agreed to go on a date with him.

Later that night, Max went to the park where he had arranged to meet Miriya. Initially fearing that Miriya was going to be a no-show, he was shocked when Miriya jumped out from behind a bush and threw a knife at him. Max successfully dodged and the knife lodged in a nearby tree. Undeterred, Miriya produced a second knife she was carrying and attempted to stab Max. As they struggled, Miriya revealed her true identity as a micronized Zentraedi, and the pilot whom he had previously battled in the air. She also revealed that she had specifically come aboard the SDF-1 to kill him and restore her honor. Max was able to resist her attacks long enough to retrieve her first knife from the tree. Now with a knife of his own, Max dueled with Miriya and disarmed her.

After suffering her third consecutive defeat as Max's hands, Miriya was crippled with shame and fell to her knees in tears. She begged Max to end her life, but Max was shocked by the request and insisted that he could never kill someone so beautiful as her. Miriya was, in turn, shocked by this response. Max lifted her to her feet and they kissed. For Miriya, this was most definitely a new and extraordinary experience, as mingling of the sexes and romance were unknown concepts to the Zentraedi.

Despite Miriya's attempt to kill Max only moments beforehand, the pair felt an immediate and intense connection and Max proposed marriage to Miriya on the spot. Though she did not know what this human word, "marriage", meant Miriya was swayed by Max's description of it and agreed.

The first person to learn about the engagement was Rick, Max's commanding officer and closest friend. Rick was shocked to hear that Max had proposed to the girl so impulsively and appalled when Max subsequently revealed that she was a Zentraedi (with whom the humans were still at war). However, when Max actually introduced Miriya to Rick, Rick was himself captivated by her beauty and soon agreed to support the marriage however he could.

By this point the war with the Zentraedi had become significantly more complex. Hundreds of the Zentraedi had been exposed to human culture and become enamored with it. Dozens had micronized themselves and fled to the SDF-1 where they presented themselves openly to the human military and requested asylum from their own warlike culture. Many of the humans took this as a sign that peace with the aliens could be achieved, but most in high command believed that the war could only be ended by inflicting devastating casualties upon the Zentraedi.

Miriya & Max's wedding proved to be a pivotal moment in steering the course of the war towards a peaceful solution. Being the first marriage between a human and an alien, the event was widely televised and the broadcast was intercepted by the Zentraedi commanders. At the wedding, Captain Glovall, commander of the SDF-1 offered a toast in which he suggested that Miriya and Max ought to serve as proof that humans and the Zentraedi could coexist, and made an impassioned declaration that humanity ought to strive for peace with the enemy rather then prolonging their costly war.

As it turned out, the war would not last much longer. For it's brief remainder, Miriya served alongside her beloved Max in her own varitech fighter and, like her husband, soon proved to be one of the squadron's greatest assets.

By the time of the wedding, the command structure in the small division of Zentraedi battle cruisers stationed near Earth had completely broken down. Too many of their soldiers wanted peace with the humans and the commanders soon realized that this was now their only option as they no longer had the obedience of their own men. The decision was ultimately forced when the remainder of the Zentraedi armada traveled to Earth's solar system. The Zentraedi forces already present in Earth orbit realized they would all be destroyed by their ruler, Dolza, as their refusal to attack the humans meant they had been "contaminated" by human culture. They had no choice but to ally with the humans in order to survive.

In the end, the humans and their Zentraedi allies won a pyrrhic victory against the hostile Zentraedi, effectively ending the war. Max and Miriya both survived the war unscathed, as did their commander and close friend, Rick Hunter.

After the war, Max and Miriya remained pilots in the human varitech air force. They had a daughter whom they named Dana.

Trivia

 * When Miriya & Max meet face to face for the first time over a videogame, the colors of their fighters in the game foreshadow the colors of the real-life jet fighters they will pilot when they become each other's wingmates.