The name for a mysterious extraterrestrial life-form that attacked the Macross Frontier Fleet in March of 2059. The New United Nations Government became aware of the Vajra 19 years prior to 2059 (circa 2040) but kept the fact of their existence a secret. Eleven years prior to 2059 (circa 2048) the Vajra attacked the 117th Research Fleet, an event that caused the deaths of nearly 1,000 people.
The Vajra are bio-mechanical in nature and the large red Vajra units possess many advanced capabilities such as nearly impervious energy converting armor, the ability to space fold and a powerful anti-ship beam weapon. Individual Vajra operate with very little brain matter and as a species the Vajra seem to operate via a collective consciousness. The Vajra have no language and communicate with each other through fold space, utilizing fold quartz inside the V-Type micro-organisms in their blood. This communication method also keeps the Vajra in constant contact and allows them to adapt quickly in combat situations, even allowing them to evolve improved defenses as more Vajra are born and/or undergo metamorphosis. The Vajra are directed via the Queen and her subordinate Queens which often control fleets of Vajra, Vajra carriers and a Vajra mothership (such as the hive found on Gallia 4). The Vajra mate by transmitting a song called Aimo when they encounter Vajra from other galaxies.
The Vajra as a race have appeared in 7 different forms during the events of the Vajra War. The Vajra have appeared as Larvae, Flyers, Walker, Small-Size, Large-Size, Semi-Queen and Queen. While some forms of Vajra eventually grow into others (such as Larvae into Flyers) it is unknown whether or not all Vajra Larvae have the potential to grow into Large Vajra (Red) or Queens.
The Protoculture knew of the Vajra and feared, adored and deified their power to the extent of imitating the Vajra by inventing space fold drives, super dimension weaponry and even modeling some mechanical constructs after the form of the Vajra Queen . The Vajra lack the ability to communicate with other intelligent organisms directly and have attempted to solve this problem by infecting other organisms with the V-Type Virus. Unfortunately, the V-Type infection is fatal to most organisms if it reaches the brain, but one such attempt succeeded when Ranka Lee was infected by the V-Type virus in utero, allowing Ranka to communicate with the Vajra via singing while the V-Type virus remained harmlessly localized in her abdomen.