Yeah, I figured the Deceive would be picking up something since it doesn’t seem to have much going right now (same as Miu’s). And I did notice Boss’ morale down thing… but I forgot to mention it as I rushed to write this update. I’ll make a few edits.
What I did NOT know, however, is that the sub-unit didn’t need to worry about terrain ratings - I assumed L followed the same rules as the other squad games.
Nope. K’s Squad System was a giant mess, so I’ll not get into it, but there’s two main things you need to know about it to understand the modern squad system of L and the 3DS games - in K, it was more efficient to go without using any squads than actually using them, so solo units got hit hard with nerfs in L (and then buffed slightly in UX and BX to give battleships and force deploys a kick in the pants), and in K, the system worked where basically the second squad member was only there to provide the first one with Support on the map… so that’s why in L, UX, and BX, squads can’t use supports but solos can (that didn’t get changed), but it’s also why only the lead matters for movement.
Miu actually has two buffs coming - neither of them make Painkiller the unit it is in the manga, which is much cooler than the anime version. I’ll talk about the many, many changes Miu went through either when another Linebarrels character debuts who similarly got hit with a lot of issues, or when the first buff hits (probably the former as it happens first). Decieve has one, but it’s a big one, and it makes a whole load of units amazing.
But on that note, for secrets - L has three secrets semi-exclusive with each other, where you can only get two of them at a time. Do you intend on getting Michael and Soubi and having unplayable-but-still-very-alive Stella, thus saving everyone possible, or getting Stella and Soubi and letting Michael die to get the bonus kills Stella and Soubi get on run 1? Bonus kills are pretty unimportant but if Michael dies then you can move Klan into his VF, where she is arguably best, so it’s up for debate which is “better”.
Aye, I looked those up before starting and had decided on going for option #2 since I don’t care that much about Frontier stuff.
Obviously, you’ll want your dodgy reals to focus on mobility, accuracy and weapons (plus EN if they’re the chugging kind), whereas your Supers will want pretty much everything except mobility.
Jeeg is the odd one out, of course, as he might be a Super but he can’t take a hit too well. You’ll likely want to build him with Real priorities but do purchase a wee bit of HP and/or Armor in case Kenji gets a bad roll.
Ichitaka and Jeeg’s teams were pretty much a no-brainer as they complement each other so well. Yamashita’s range will help keep Boss out of trouble – pairing him with a melee-focused unit is best, but I wasn’t too sure it’d be safe until I can bolster his defenses a wee bit.
Finally, while I was tempted to have Yagyuu lead a group on her own, I felt that getting Kouji airborne and, more importantly, with an Accel cast was more important. Without, he takes forever to get in range of stuff. Thus, we’re left with Shizuna and Sayaka filling the last spot.
Off we go!
Now she is and Nagisa sighs at how distant she’s acting. Actually, Anna’s not looking too spritely, either – is she on a diet or something? No, she’s just depressed as it’s been a full two months since she ran away from home.
Nagisa’s surprised to hear that, though most Anna will give as justification is that there were “issues”. Did she fight with her parents? Not exactly, but Nagisa won’t press for answers. Still, where’s Anna living right now?
Only, no, Kiriko says that’s not exactly what happened. While Goh hasn’t managed to pilot since his defeat, Anna didn’t even notice his battered spirit. And seeing how even Tetsuya noticed it, Anna took it as a major failure of her as his wife; thus, she figured she hadn’t the right to stay with him anymore and took off. This was never about her falling out of love with him or anything.
Goh will be coming with as well, knowing he can’t well stay here by himself. He’s gotta be around to help Mira and, plus, he figures the best place to get back up to speed will be at the front lines.
No, he doesn’t mind risking Anna seeing him in this sorry state – only that she knows he’s still waiting for her. Inwardly, he wonders where she could be. The world around them is undergoing massive changes with each passing moment.
: …Hey, Nagisa.
: Hm?
: If… If you could get on a robot and fight, what would you do?
: Huh? Where’d that question come from?
: Do you think you’d want to fight and help protect others?
: Eeh, that’s only a question for wannabe pilots like you. Regular girls like me don’t really think about that.
: …
: Still… I think I’d pass on it. Battles are really scary business and might even get you killed.
: I see…
: (That’s likely what regular people would say, yeah. But I…)
: Are you Nagisa Kanou?
: I am… but who are you?
: My name is Cobalt and I’m here to take you hostage.
: H-Huh?! Who just comes out and says stuff like that? I’ll scream, I’m warning you!
: Be my guest, though it won’t help you…
Whoooooosh!
: Waaah!
: W-We’re falling!!
Crash!
: Urk! Oow…
: Where… where are we?
: It matters not. This isn’t a world the two of you could know of or understand.
: Y-You take us back! Get us back to our world!
: I will… after I’ve destroyed Iczer-1.
: What are you on about? Who’s Iczer-1?!
: Wait just a bit and you’ll see. Once she realizes your life is in danger, she’ll come running…!
: Hmhmhm… Show yourself, Iczer-1. If you don’t make haste, my flaming blade will sear your partner whole.
Fsssh!
: Aaah!
: Stop! What’re you gonna do to her?!
: Yes, cry and scream. Call out to Iczer-1 for help!
: Get away from Nagisa!
: And here you are. I’ve been expecting you.
: (I-It’s that blonde cosplayer I saw at the schoolyard… She’s Iczer-1?)
: Taking innocents hostage… is that how the Cthulhu do things now?!
: Silence, traitor! I’ll use whatever means I must to destroy you!
: If your wish is to fight me, then I agree to it. But, in exchange, let Nagisa and her friend go!
: You may take them, but only if you manage to best me! Taaah!
: Haah!
Swoosh! Slash! Blam!
: Wh-What are they…? I can’t even see what they’re doing!
: A-Anna, let’s get out of here… I… I’m scared!
: I know but where are we supposed to run to?
: Mommy, daddy… help me!
: I’ll help you in a moment, Nagisa! Haaaah!
Blast! Craaash!
: Uuoorgh! B-Blast you, Iczer-1 – how dare you wound me so…!
: Fine, I’ll end you with the Dilos Thetas!
Cobalt runs off.
: Nagisa, we must leave here as well! Hold onto me, you two!
: Huh?
Swoosh!
Mission 3 – The Woman Who Fights, The Woman Who Won’t Fight, The Woman Who Can’t Fight
: Those are…!
: Giant robots?!
: A-Aaah…!
: Not even you can prevail against this many Dilos Thetas! Your death is come, Iczer-1!
: Aaaah!
: You alright, Nagisa?!
: And so it comes to this… I’m summoning the Iczer Robo! We’ll fight together, Nagisa!
: F-fight?! No! Why do I have to fight these monsters?!
: Iczer Robo!!
: Th-That’s…!
: A robot?!
: It is my other half. Come, Nagisa!
: No!
: You are the only one in this world who can unite with the Iczer Robo! Do you not wish to defend your own planet?!
: Absolutely not!
: Then you leave me no choice. You will fight, even if I must force you to! Taaah!
Jump and grab!
: Huh?! Waaah!!
: I-It absorbed her!
: Wh-What’s going on?!
: You’re inside the Iczer Robo. Synchronize yourself with me, Nagisa.
: Y-You can’t do this to me! Lemme go!
: You, Nagisa’s friend… run as far away as you can. I must now face these!
: “Run”… what are you gonna do with Nagisa?!
: Help me, Anna!
: You’ve summoned the Iczer Robo, hm? But that will hardly shift the winds in your favor!
: …We’re going, Nagisa!
Take out everything, don’t lose Iczer-1. This isn’t too difficult but there are a lot of Dilos Thetas and the Iczer Robo isn’t the sturdiest or dodgiest bot around. Don’t go too far ahead, is what I’m saying and let the fight come to you.
Iczer-1 is a monster of a pilot – one of the absolute best in the game, as a matter of fact. All her stats have either the highest or second highest baseline across. Usually she’ll only get competition from Our Lord and Savior… and someone else (if you’ve watched Iczer, you know who).
The Iczer Robo’s already pretty good, though it’s missing many of its tricks now. It’s still pretty bulky and while Mobility is on the low-ish side, Iczer-1 is so good that she’ll make it dodge reliably enough. A high Prevail will further boost that, too, though she won’t be topping the damage charts against big cheaters like Kouji and Kenji.
Oh, and I would be remiss not to mention the following: apparently there’s a BIG bug related to the Iczer Robo in that if you get it killed, game over and restart from the intermission screen, Nagisa will DISAPPEAR as a subpilot. There’s only one point, in the latter half of the game, where you’ll recover her and if you lose her again past that, you’re screwed.
I haven’t seen it happen because, one, I’m too good to let her get killed (:smugdog:) and, two, I’m too proud to actually Continue on a game over’d mission. All in all, if you lose her and game over, just reload your save and try again fresh.
That being said, I just have her take a few steps forward and hold.
Enemy Phase!
: …?!
: Nagisa, what’s the matter? Synchronize with me, please! We won’t be able to bring out the true might of the Iczer Robo like this!
: Let me out! Lemme out of here!
: Ahahah! The Dilos Theta’s strength is on a wholly different level! You’re not match for us, Iczer-1!
: Nagisa…!
Here they come.
Do keep an eye against the Dilos as they’ve decent accuracy.
Most of them keep away for now, though.
Player Phase!
: Mimetic Beasts?! Why are they here?!
: Oh, Earthling monsters? How convenient.
: Gyaaaaaaaaah!
: Aaah!
: Urk!
: Nagisa!!
: Is this also your doing, Cobalt?!
: I’m sorry to disappoint you, but no, I have nothing to do with this. They do seem to be on our side, though.
: Hrm…!
: Please, stop! Put me down! Let me go!
: (My friend’s in danger… there are Mimetic Beasts all over… and I can’t do anything?!)
: (No… I can do something, but I ran from it. What am I doing?! I need to be out there, fighting those things!)
: Nagisa, hold on! I’ll get back to the Dannar Base and—
: Goh! He’s here…!
: And that’s… the Neo Okusaer? But who is… no, Mira?!
: Goh, are you sure you’re ready for this? The four of us could—
: I know. But if I don’t fight, Anna’ll never…!
: Yo, what’s going on here? The radars are completely blank… Think the Mimetic Beasts are behind this?
: I cannot determine the cause but I’m detecting some abnormal EM Waves throughout the area. Our sensors won’t work in this environment.
: Well, if the sensors aren’t flying, then we gotta go with good, ol’ eyesight. Mine’s 20/20!
: Watch where you’re walking, Hyouma. We don’t know if there are civs around here somewhere!
: I’m on it, Daisaku. I can manage that, no prob!
: And look over there, Hyouma! There are some different robots up there, not just the Mimetic Beasts!
: I’ve never seen anything like those before… and they’re not in our data banks, either.
Beep, beep!
: Hold up! We’re being hailed by that green robot!
: Do you hear me, Earthlings? Your planet has come under the attack of Big Gold! Those robots – the Dilos Thetas – are her minions!
: What, a new group of enemies?!
: You think those are the invaders from space that Dr. Nanbara warned us about?!
: Please, I request your assistance!
: We’re here to deal with those Mimetic Beast larvae anyway, so, yes, we might as well help you.
: You’ve my thanks!
: And your name is?
: Iczer-1!
: Pleased to meet you, Iczer-1! We’ll tackle this one together!
: Right!
: Heeeelp! Get me out of here! … They can’t hear me?!
: (Hrk… We’ve got new enemies cropping up and I still can’t fight properly…?!
Alright, now this is more manageable. Mind, losing either Goh or Mira will also be a gameover but they’re well equipped to take care of themselves:
Power! Armor! EN! Everything you could ever want!
Goh and his squad bonus make for a very fine unit, though he’s obviously not doing too hot right now. He’ll get better, though, and become a very reliable Super! His accuracy isn’t all that, though it’s nothing we can’t fix.
As for the Godannar, it’s clearly a punchy bot which comes with the usual issues of low range. Again, we can fix that – grab him a partner that knows Accel, too, while you’re at it.
Well, hey, I guess we’ve found his partner! Mira’s stats are pretty much like Goh’s, only slightly worse (except for Evasion). The Neo can handle itself well enough, though it lacks a bit of stopping power. That barrier makes it a prime defensive supporter, though, as 2300 damage on a Super isn’t too easy to do without a boss.
Oh, and as a fun note: 旦那/Danna® means, among other things, “husband”, while 奥さん/Okusan(saer) is “wife”. So, Anna just lost the wifebot to her husband’s ex… Actually, with that Neo there, wouldn’t it be the “New Wife”-bot? That probably bodes ill.
Both Shizuru and Tetsuya can work nicely as squaddies for ranged-oriented folks – especially Tetsuya, of course. Shizuru has a better range movement coverage as both her weakest and strongest weapons can be used after moving, while Tetsuya’s almost a pure sniper.
They’re decently strong, too, but will get left behind as the game progresses, of course.
Remember what I said about Voltes? Copy paste that and you’ve the Combattler. It’s good, it’s flexible with all its pilots, it’s hard to kill, hits nicely and will do even better later.
: With Anna gone, we all need to do our part supporting Goh…!
Of course, she could only use her weakest weapon… at least she dodges the counter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFP-8FbiEjE
“We’re going, Nagisa!”
“No! Do it yourself!”
Enemy Phase!
: I dunno what you guys are but you better get right off our planet!
: I really don’t think yelling at them is going to get you anywhere.
: Plus, we’ve to fight them under these unusual conditions. Do not let your guard down, Hyouma!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De6YUJGrNEs
That’s quite the elaborate attack for a standard crotch-missile.
: Noo! Why is this happening to me?!
: These are different from the Cthulhu’s monsters… However, I will not falter! I cannot!
At least her Prevail procs a bit and she dodges the next three attacks.
Player Phase!
: Those are…!
: Bam, enter the heroes! Y’all can relax now!
: Prof. Aoi already gave us the rundown: those blue bots are a new enemy and the green one’s on our side, right?
: And, also, that a blonde babe is piloting it! Whoohohohoo… time to put on a good show for her!
: Heey, Kouji, Boss! It’s been forever!
: Yo, Hyouma! We’re gonna be working on the same team again!
: While this is our first time meeting up with the Dannar Base people.
: Ichitaka, I’m not detecting any fluctuations in your heart rate whatsoever. Do you not feel any anxiety… or, rather, love for the Godannar or Combattler?
: No, no – the opposite! And I’m talking about anxiety, FYI!
: I mean, I am nervous but I also know that getting all tense would put our lives in danger, you know?
: Yes, life is meant to be valued. Treasure it and it’ll last… well, for your whole life, right?
: Hahah, thanks for that one. I’m a little less nervous now.
: The Earthlings have sent some extra help, I see.
: All the better for us.
: Right. Let’s go and wrap this up… hrrm…!
: Hey, Goh, take it easy there. We’ll take care of things.
: Sorry, folks…
: However many of you there are, this’ll all end the same. Behold the might of the Dilos Thetas!
Healing her up just in case.
While Goh takes out a weakened beastie, Mira and Shizuru work on its healthy partner.
: Neither Goh nor Mira are doing too well… Then the best I can do is down as many enemies as possible!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJd5hv7k4ro
CHOUDENJI!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlSIwplI7ok
YOYOS!
Chizuru: “A Mimetic Beast!”
Hyouma: “Nothing we can’t handle!”
Iczer-1, now packing Focus, picks something else to blast while the rest of us are closing the distance. At least thanks to their new tag partners, Kouji and Kenji have covered a LOT of ground in one move.
Enemy Phase!
Ickzer-1 and Hyouma (packing Iron Wall) tank pretty much whatever’s already on top of us, weakening them all in the process. The bad news is the Mimetic Beasts drink pretty much all of the Combattler’s EN, what with it dodging like a brick house.
Couple of Beasts do get clever with Kenji, though.
The thing barely hangs on, enough for Tsubaki to kill-steal.
Player Phase!
Now we go to town.
: Anna… I want to believe that, somewhere, you’re watching this… and that you’ll eventually come back to me!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zitc3aP7TC8
Husband punch!
Get rid of those Mimetic Beasts before they hit anyone else!
Ichitaka: “Don’t need to hold back against Mimetic Beasts!”
Alice: “Right! We should engage with all we have!”
Hyouma moves back a bit, but not before taking out another Dilos. Shooting enough enemies down triggers the plot.
: Hmph, so you Earthlings have a little fight in you. But you will not best me and my Dilos with that!
Cobalt charges towards the town center.
: Haaaaah!
: Damn, how is she so strong?!
: She… she’s destroying the entire town!
: Stop this, Cobalt!
Iczer-1 goes after.
: Silence, traitor!
Iczer-1 gets thrown right across town.
: Aah!
: This is bad! That robot’s power is several steps above hers!
: Nagisa, why won’t you synchronize with me?
: I told you again and again: I don’t want to fight!
: She’s destroying your hometown! Do you not care anything about that?!
: …
: It seems to me that your partner is no more than dead weight, Iczer-1!
Another blast, further knocking her back… right where Anna is!
: Waah!
: A-Aah…!
: A-Anna… you’re still there?! Run – it’s dangerous!
: I can’t, Nagisa. I have to fight… but, the Okusaer… the Okusaer is now…!
: What are you on about, Anna?! Get out of there NOW!
: Die!
: Aaaah!
: Anna! ANNAA!
: Nagisa, grant me strength – your strength…!
: Anna… get out… get out of there, please…
: Why won’t you fight, Nagisa? Why are you thinking of no one but yourself?!
: This is your town – your home – and you must defend it! You must defend your friend!
: U-Urgh…
: I… I have to defend… Anna…
: You… You’ll pay for this…! YOU’LL PAY!!
: I-It can’t be…! All this power… Is it fruit of their synchronization?!
: Are you now willing to fight, Nagisa? Thank you!
: No, I told you that I don’t want to! But Anna… Anna is…!
: Nagisa…I’m alright. All thanks to you.
: Anna…! Oh, thank god!
: Nagisa, your friend will likely be at risk again if we let this battle carry on…
: I know… Fine, I’ll help you!
: Many thanks, Nagisa. Let’s go, then!
And the Iczer Robo just got a stat boost from that for some extra HP, EN, etc. – good, because she’ll be dealing with Cobalt while we handle the rest.
Speaking of, Shizuru’s got enough morale for her best attack. Also, nearby, after Kouji and Kenji both turn a pair of Mimetic Beasts into mush, Tetsuya is just range to snipe another down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQzueYRYuMw
: Come one, come all! I’ll give you way more than you bargained for!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnk9QblTraY
”OKAAAAAY!”
By the by, Cobalt’s range isn’t too good.
: Iczer Robo or not, you will fall against the Dilos Theta! Prepare to meet your end, Iczer-1!
: You and your ilk won’t have their way, Cobalt! So long as life burns within my breast, I’ll fight on!
Another 5k damage.
Enemy Phase!
Hrm, I was actually expecting her to go after Iczer.
That’s a combo attack hitting both girls but, unfortunately, the Deceive has ridiculous amounts of HP. It does not care.
And, with that, we’re in the clear. The remaining mooks either die against our wall of beefy units or get weakened greatly – they’ll die next turn.
Following a quick jab from Yamashita, Cobalt’s done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH2Y3pgcaw0
Iczer-1: “Not even a Cthulhu warrior shall prevail if I’ve Nagisa’s help!”
And Iczer-1 takes a couple of levels, learning Attack Combo. Nice.
: I… I cannot fall… SEPIAA!!
: Haah… Haah…
: I’m sorry, Cobalt…
And here go the last Mimetic Beasts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N9f10xo3BI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DST8usleD2M
I was looking to have Kouji grab the kill but at least it showed me that Yagyuu’s Trinity Attack actually has a dynamic finish.
: Seems that’s all of the Mimetic Beasts and those unknown bots.
: Yes, but what, exactly, were those?
: She said there were minions of one “Big Gold”…
: We’ve got plenty of questions for that pilot, I’d say.
: Then we need to try and get her to come to either JUDA or Dannar Base.
: Hey, you… do you mind coming over to our base and giving some details about that Big Gold?
: Certainly. But, first, give me a moment to let my partner off the Iczer Robo.
Iczer-1 moves to a nearby street.
: Do you hear me, Nagisa…?
: Urk…guh…
: (She’s looking quite weak. Not surprising, after such a rough battle… I beg your forgiveness, Nagisa…)
: Gugyaaa!
: Damn it – there were others around?!
The Mimetic Beast starts charging after the Iczer Robo
: Watch out!
: Gwargh!
: Aah—! Goh!
: Goh!
Mira gets between him and the monster.
: You won’t hurt him!
: !!
: (I was the one supposed to be out there, protecting him! Even Nagisa’s fighting and I’m…!)
: Careful! That Mimetic Beast’s a lot bigger than the last ones!
Beep!
: Dannar Base here! Exercise extreme caution: it’s very likely that Mimetic Beast is the source of the EM interference!
: What?!
: Since when can those things do that?!
: They couldn’t, at least not thus far… I’d wager it’s evolved.
: And it sent the Godannar flying like it was nothing! This one’s gonna be real tough!
: Goh, let’s unite! Our only way of fighting this Beast is with the Twin Drive!
: What?!
: You can’t, Mira! You’re still undergoing tests and the chance of a successful union is zero with Goh in his current state!
: No… we’re going for it. We’ll take the monster out with a Heart Breaker!
: You really sure about this, Goh?!
: (No more waffling about. I can’t, if I’m going to protect this town and Mira… and if I’m going to be around to wait for Anna!)
: I’m a pilot, so I’ll fight until the very bitter end! Let’s go, Mira! Drive Change – go!
: Dannar… on! Revolver… OPEN! Godannar Twin Drive!
: Let’s take him out in one shot, Goh!
: Aye, aye!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifOM1fHnrBk
: Woooow… The Godannar’s 100% back…!
: That… That’s the Godannar’s actual power…?!
: (I… I’m just no match for her…! I…!)
: EM waves confirmed gone and all sensors are back online. Is everyone better?
: Yes, everything’s good. That Mimetic Beast really was the source, I guess.
: We’re good too; got no more Mimetic Beast pings on the radar, either. Now we’re done here.
: Alright, then let’s call in people to help the survivors. I trust you’re also OK, Iczer-1?
: I am, though my partner has lost consciousness. She’s been through a lot today…
Beep, boop!
: I couldn’t help but overhear that. If you don’t mind, JUDA is ready to help her recover.
: Mr. Ishigami!
: And, at that, could everyone also come over with them? We’re already coordinating with Lady Une and readying everything to accommodate you folks.
: Us, too?
: Of course – you’re all official LOTUS members now. And the JUDA Corporation building will be serving as your new base!
: Glad you’re so hyped, boss, but we got a sick girl here? How about sending a transport to pick her up quick-like?
: Easy, Shizuna. He’s acting like that only to try and get us relaxed.
: Oh, it brings tears to my eyes knowing my employees understand me so well.
: And, by the by, the transport’s already on the way. Why don’t you folks help the rescue teams until it gets there?
: OKAY!
: (Did you see me, Anna? If you did, then please come home soon! I… I’ll be waiting for you, Anna!)
Maybe Grife wanted her to be more human-like, Daisaku wonders. If that’s the case, then, Alice figures she’s a failure: “I can’t learn or adapt as easily as everyone else – it’s caused me no shortage of problems!”
Maybe not, as Daisaku figures that’s a pretty natural reaction she’s showing – that’s something! But, regardless, the reason she came here is that she wanted a copy of their physical data to start planning her healthcare plans for them. Ropett has it all handy for her to download.
Kosuke’s very surprised at the thought of mechanical life-forms existing, but Juzo has a better question: if Iczer-1 is fighting against them, what exactly is she? In truth, she’s a Cthulhu android. So, she’s one of them.
Ishigami isn’t bothered, though, remembering what she said about the Cthulhu, originally, being against violent action. Thus, it could be said that Iczer-1 rebelled in the name of upholding the peaceful ideals that Big Gold took away.
And the many recent disappearances? It’s the Cthulhu’s doing, as they turn people into their agents. She’d been trying to stymie the Cthulhu’s invasion but, unfortunately, this is all too much for her alone. Ishigami can see that, what with all the robots that showed up today. So, hey, why doesn’t she join LOTUS as well?
Kyo also offers to tell Iczer-1 what he knows of Earth, as the information will surely help her. “You’re trying to get a leg up on the competition, too?!” Kenji cries, only to be punched down by Saotome. Not everyone here’s a perv like him.
Still, Iczer-1 is happy with this group of companions and she wants Nagisa to meet them soon.
With the situation throughout the world getting progressively direr (bolstered by the appearance of the Cthulhu), NEX’s big ties to major military suppliers makes them a company Ishigami would very much like to get on our side.
Ichitaka can’t help but remember him and Kouichi fanboying over the Daiku Maryu and Gaiking when they first saw them in the news. Where could the guy be now? Hopefully safe, at least…
That said, Iczer-1’ll be unable to bring out the Robo’s full abilities – that’s only possible when she, Nagisa and the bot are synchronized. And even if she does wake up from her coma, Iczer-1 wonders if she’ll be willing to fight again. With all that in mind, Maki figures it’s best to just keep the thing sealed away for now.
“But don’t you worry! We’ll all be right here to pick up the slack real good!” Boss proclaims heroically and Iczer-1 is very grateful to him (“Whooheehee!”). With that, Shibakusa rounds up all the mechanics and tells them to put their game faces on – they’ve never worked on many of these mechs before, so there’ll be plenty of work.
Oops, no more time to sit around as Yamashita says Yagyuu will be handling Ichitaka’s training session today. He better not run late or Saotome’ll give him hell. As he takes off in a hurry, Alice is a bit pensive: “There shouldn’t be anything wrong with my systems… But maybe I’ll go and talk with Mr. Maki or Ms. Rachel when I’ve the time.”
The fun thing about Combattler is Big Blast seems to have picked up a whole bunch of ammo in this game, to make it comparable to Voltes Bazooka. Another robot (well technically two other robots but they’re basically the same thing) also got an ammo upgrade on a typically low ammo attack to match up with a compatriot, and it’s even more cathartic to longtime SRW fans.
That’s technically the Heart Breaker Full Throttle at the end of the mission. It’s basically the same move, so it’s easy to see why you wouldn’t notice… Heart Breaker fires one cylinder, Heart Breaker Full Throttle fires all of them. Full Throttle also does that “show the punch three times” thing, and a few other minor differences.
Godannar is a good way to illustrate a point about something L does, by the way. In essence, every series that carried over from K that wasn’t SEED Destiny now happens much later into the anime. With Jeeg, it starts from Episode… 6, I think, with Godannar it starts on the last episode of Season 1 and the first of Season 2, and with Gaiking… well, it’s a bit later. SEED is the exception because SEED Destiny in K actually started much later into the show itself.
Also, remember - squad leader barely matters in L/UX/BX! The Build Angels are a better leader for their squad than Mazinger. Mazinger Z has 6 Movement and a max P range of 3 in this game, while Build Angel also has 3 P range but it has 8 Movement. Flight also does not avail Mazinger in this game, all it does is make Mazinger better as a Supporter and that only matters for Defense for the most part. In fact, if it couldn’t fly, it’d be ever so slightly better - because then it’d have its leader flying it around while it gets terrain bonuses. What is relevant is that Build Angel gives it A Space, and it starts with B Space, and while L isn’t “if you have B in a terrain and are in that terrain you just die” like K does, it’s still a hindrance. (That’s why Build Angel is good with Borot - Borot NEEDS Flight because some of his attacks aren’t able to hit Air and it NEEDS Space because of its B rank. Also Build Angel has Repair so that’s a 10% health recovery at the start of every turn, while Borot has Resupply so that’s a 10% EN recovery, and the partners both like that.)
EDIT: Also was looking through the SA thread, and while it’s spoilers, Iczer 1/3 are NOT the reason for the whole alternate universe shit. Neither are Combattler/Voltes. No, it’s another series… it’s the linebarrels villains because in the anime they come from another universe and the secret spoiler is they basically took over earth on that world and the frontier crew were unaware of this. That said I like how alternate universe juxtaposition happens between the first half of the Nagahamas and the Iczer partners and stuff. It’s neat.
Ichitaka/Miu
Jeeg/Kyo
Kouji/Yagyuu
Yamashita/Tetsuya
Iczer-1/Shizuru
Goh/Mira
Combattler/Deceive
The Godannar can Twin Drive at 130 morale, so having Mira nearby’ll spare the hassle of having to get her adjacent to Goh. Moreover, her Accelerate will help him tremendously.
Yamashita’s our only range-focused unit, so Tetsuya’ll give him a boost. I paired the Combattler and Deceive together just to make them both hardier – I’ll likely break this duo later. Iczer-1 got stuck with Shizuru for lack of option; could’ve been Boss but I’m still queasy over the thought of sending him into the front lines.
Off we go!
By the Darius world, deep underground…
: I must say, I am impressed. (Her name’s Proist.)
: Not only did you manage to steal the Tenku Maryu and Daichi Maryu from me, you’ve also mastered the Raiking and Vulking. Impressive, indeed.
: But you still have NO CHANCE IN HELL against my Chou Maryu Dvorak!
: The Chou Maryu… that thing’s a monster! (Puria)
: No, it’s not! The Dvorak’s beautiful and it’s what’ll let me get payback on Garis and destroy all you surface worms!
: And while it’s still not 100%, it’s still more than good enough to burn trash like you to cinders! Have a taste of the Dvorak’s power! DEATH FIRE!
Peew, woop! Flash!
: I-It can’t be… a Death Cross Point?! (Rosa)
: What the hell… how can its flames trigger a Death Cross by themselves…?! (Sakon)
: Damn, that’s a real major card she kept on her sleeve. (Lee)
: AHAHAHAHA! And I won’t stop with you! I’ll turn my sights on the surface itself and kill everyone that lives here!
: Psh. Now that ain’t something I’m gonna let happen, Chou Maryu or not! (Daiya)
: Excuse me…?
: However big the enemy we face, if all our hearts are united, then we will find a way to win! (Lulu)
: Daiya Tsuwabuki, I am no longer Proist’s puppet. If it takes my life to defeat her, then so be it! (Norza)
: I’m also ready to fight by your side. I’ve a debt to repay to Lee Jian-xing! (Vestanu)
: Norza, Vestanu, you blasted traitors!
: But alright – I might as well get rid of you worthless worms here and now! Disappear along with the surfacers!
: If anyone’s disappearing around here, it’s you, Proist! Lee, Norza, we’re hitting her together!
: Aye, aye! Vulking, go!
: Raiking, forward!
: Gwaaargh!
: How do ya like that, Proist?!
: Hrm! It might be far from complete but I’m still surprised you could damage the Dvorak!
: And there’s more where that came from!
: Haaaaah!!
: What’s the matter, Proist? Your unit isn’t living up to its name.
Quick tangent: Tenku Maryu and Daichi Maryu would be, literally, Sky Dragon and Earth Dragon, while the Chou Maryu would be something akin to Grand Dragon.
: Don’t get so full of yourselves, maggots…! And, actually, I just had a wonderful little idea! A way to both split your forces and carry on my plan to slaughter the surfacers!
: Not happening ‘cause you’re going down right now!
: Think again, Gaiking!
Proist charges after Daiya and grabs him.
: What?! Lemme go, Proist!
: Heeheehee… Let’s cut you down to size first!
Brrrrt!
: Crap, Parts #1 and #2 were broken off!
: Daiya Tsuwabuki… Your forces will be nothing with you gone! And I’ll take my sweet time dealing with them!
: The hell are you up to?!
Proist jumps off, the Dvorak pulling the Gaiking away.
: You and the Dvorak’s parts are going on a trip to the surface, Gaiking!
: Uwaaaaah!!
: Damn it, Daiya got dragged into the Death Cross Point!
: DAIYAA!!
Puria flies into the portal.
: Puria?!
: Sis! (Yanma)
: Hahaha, it’s done! Daiya Tsuwabuki is off on the surface now!
: Proist…!
: But I didn’t just get rid of that pest with this. The Dvorak’s parts went up with the Gaiking…
: And those’ll regenerate and multiply, spawning Demonic and Iron Beasts to destroy the surface! Aahahahahaa!
: Urk… How could this happen…!
: My lady Proist, we’ve come to rescue you.
: Thank you, Nikita. Let us return to Arkholand for a moment and reorganize. With the Gaiking gone, the other are but minnows… there’s no rush to dispose of them.
: Yes, ma’am!
: Curse you, Proist…!
: Captain, we need to get in touch with the surface ASAP!
: Right. Mr. Sakon, if you could see to it.
: Aye, aye, I’ll go tell NEX about this.
: (Daiya, Puria… please be safe.)
Besides, it’s not like he cares much about seeing her naked. “Hrm… You could care A LITTLE, damn it,” she quietly fumes. Furthermore, Daiya ponders aloud that Puria’s looking to have about half of what Shizuka’s got… half of what?! “Y-You really shouldn’t waste your energy on nonsense,” Daiya stammers. “And what, exactly, is nonsense?!”
Now, now, he asks her to calm down as she oughta be hungry, right? She actually is, so they’ll split up and start looking for food: Daiya’ll poke around the waters while Puria checks the trees. Sounds good but, first things first, go and grab her clothes as they should be dry enough!
Daiya does find it odd that while they’re come back to the surface, it now feels like they’re in a wholly alien world after the time they spent on the Darius world. He can’t stop himself from worrying about the folks still down there.
The two of them need to find their way back and the irony isn’t lost on Daiya of a surfacer like him, standing on the surface, acting like the underground is his home.
Why’s he speaking like he’s seen that happen? Because he did, Kyo says, though he understands why Kenji wouldn’t be in on the take. There aren’t many examples of such encounters happening but the most famous one would be of the Daiku Maryu’s former captain.
See, he was a Darian man but he fell in love with an earthling woman and, together, they had a daughter – said daughter has followed in her father’s footsteps and now captains the Daiku Maryu herself.
Still, Goh is determined to soldier on and overcome this – he better, lest he come to regret when an actual powerful enemy shows up. Ichitaka understands and thanks him for the lesson. Alice’s also paying attention and she’s eager to help Ichitaka figure out the best way to use that feint in battle. Yamashita’s going down next time!
That’s good to hear, because Yamashita wants to get Ichitaka way stronger before Reiji actually comes around – the JUDA squad leader is a very strict man.
OK, that calls for an analysis and Rachel is ready to help with that (she promises a worried Ichitaka that she’s not looking to pry her open, like before). Running a few scans, she sees the problem: since Alice was never built with the needed thought patterns for combat, her neural network is overloading under the strain of assessing the new input.
Additional synapses are being built to compensate for the calculation lag, but as she tries to optimize for combat the process constantly clashes with the maid AI’s own development.
While Goh is no tech expert, he sees that perhaps the only option here is simply to wait until Alice’s AI has fully adapted itself to her new work circumstances. Rachel agrees: we’ll have to help her AI slowly develop around combat and get those thought patterns to take root. Kinda like weight-lifting.
Alice apologizes and says she’ll try not to think too much about combat, though Tsubaki also warns against her worrying too much about that.
Mission 4 – Enter the Giant of Flames
Back at the island, Puria’s trying to generate enough flame in her unit to get it airborne but it’s not happening. There’s no land in sight and with the amount she’s got, she couldn’t even fly a few dozen kilometers. Still, Daiya takes solace of the fact that the flames haven’t gone out.
That’s true and Puria remembers Daimon saying that the flame is like the machine’s own life and it never really runs out completely. What they need right now is some Hydrute to really stoke the flames. Indeed, Daiya figures they can keep trying this by themselves all they want, they’re not getting anywhere without a decent amount of Hydrute Flares.
And their situation is getting worse as the flame inside Gaiking starts flickering – a sign of incoming enemies. What are they going to do, when they can’t even get their units running properly?
They better think fast because the enemies are here: a bunch of Darius Army monsters. Daiya figures this is it and tells Puria to run off but, of course, she’s not even willing to entertain that idea. Daiya apologizes, saying it’s his fault she’s in a situation like this but Puria doesn’t mind – she was ready to die fighting the second the came aboard the Daiku Maryu.
As the monsters start blasting them, Daiya’s irked by something: the aura he’s sensing from them is just like the Chou Maryu’s. As the attacks start piling on, Puria decides to go for broke and gets her unit flying: she tells Daiya to go hide while she buys as much time as can be.
Her flame’s not doing too good, yes, but if he’s right and they’re near Japan, then some help should be on the way. She oughta be able to keep these things busy until they get here.
Daiya decides to trust her with this – she IS the Daiku Maryu’s top ace – but she better not die. That’s her line, of course.
There are plenty of enemies and losing Puria’s a game over, so keep your distance. You just need to make it to turn 3.
Standard support unit, only decently survivable with Puria’s Flame giving it that bonus. It won’t be hitting too hard but it could make for a decent squaddie with that Accel and squad bonus.
But I’ll play it safe and move her far away.
Enemy Phase!
Only three mooks move, the others standing by.
Repeat this for the next turn, so let’s skip ahead.
Player Phase!
: Huh?! What’s the Dancouga doing here?!
: Heh, what’s going on here? A buncha baddies ganging up on someone?
: The Darius have sent quite the feast over today – we’ve got both Demonic and Iron Beasts to pick from.
: So, how do you guys want your BBQ today? Medium rare or well done?
: Eeh, I’m gonna have to pass on undercooked Demon Beast, thanks.
Beep, beep!
: Come on, now, kids. Go and do your part as good ol’ champions of justice!
: Yeah, yeah… Psh, but I really don’t like having to work with NEX.
: How come, Sakuya? You’ve a problem with them?
: Even a homeless like me does, yeah.
Aoi moves over to Puria.
: Richie, wasn’t it? Back off and let Team D handle this one.
: I owe you one – didn’t expect the Dancouga to show up, that’s for damn sure.
: Just doing our job and all that. Don’t worry about it.
: Alright, I won’t then. But just lemme get one thing clear: the name’s Puria Richardson. Not “Richie”.
: Ah, my apologies, Miss Richardson.
: …Hm? Already? Roger that.
: Um, Team D? You’ve been cleared to use the Dankuuken.
: The “Dankuuken”? I’m guessing that’s a new secret weapons or something?
: I’m sending the data over to you right now. The weapon should be unlocked.
: This data’s for… an ultrasonic sword?
: And why, exactly, did you just come out and give us a new weapon? Orders from the top?
: Eeh, something like that, yes.
: Are you ever going to give us a straight answer?
: Sorry, I’m just the middleman here. And, in any case, it’s just for a little bit longer, alright? Now if you would…
: OK! Then…
: Let’s go wild!
: Aw, I wanted to say that…
Alright, we can get on the offensive now.
: Ain’t no other way around it after Daiya said that – I have to make it through this!
Eeh, only 1.2k…
Get busy, Aoi.
And he lives with 93, son of a bitch.
Enemy Phase!
Aoi gets mobbed, killing her old target and doing a number of the remaining two – they don’t do much against L’s beefy Dancouga.
The other Demonic and Iron Beasts are moving in now.
Player Phase!
: Backup! Now that’s just what we needed!
: Those are… ah, I get it! That LOTUS group Lulu talked about is finally open for business!
: Here come the legit Champions of Justice.
: And the bot we helped in Miura’s also here.
: Ooh, it’s the Dancouga! … Ergh, no, I gotta stop fanboying so much! Breathe…!
: Huh, he’s joined LOTUS too?
Ping!
: I’ve detected the Gaiking – it’s inside those woods.
: Yeah, that’s the Gaiking right there! And the enemies are all closing in on him!
: More like some of the Gaiking, what with us having to bring over his legs and arms ‘n’ all.
: OK, then the Dancouga’ll run interference while we get those parts over to him!
: Can you hear us, Daiya Tsuwabuki?
: Y-Yeah, I do!
: We’ve brought some spare parts for you, so hurry up and combine into the Gaiking!
: These arms and legs got a whole lotta flame in them! You’ll be all set to go crazy after you’ve combined!
: Alright! Send ‘em over, please!
: Gaiking, parts #1 and #2 – launch!
: Haaaaah! Take a look, Puria! My flame’s burning hot again!
: Yeah, now you can take the fight to them!
: Are you watching, pops? Seems the new parts are working just fine.
: Yeah, I’m monitoring them. ‘Course, I wouldn’t expect anything else from our work!
: Hm? But the color’s a bit different from usual.
: It looks kinda ugly, really…
: Oh, I learned about that the other day! Those parts have lost their Phase Shift effect because the battery’s running empty!
: Nah, much as I’m sorry to say, we couldn’t slap some Phase Shift Armor into the Gaiking.
: Meaning it’s just an aesthetics issue, right?
: Aesthetics, schmestetics! All that matters is if it does the job!
: Here goes! Hydro! BLAZER!!
: What?! It didn’t do jack!
: The hell? Then the faux-Zolmanium we made really can’t generate flame on the same level as the original?
: You alright, Daiya?
: Yeah, it’ll be fine! I’ll just cover the difference with some of my own inner flame!
: That said, this one feels a lot weaker than the Gaiking… so let’s call it the Kaikink.
: “Kaikink”? Well, I guess that name does sound like it’s missing something.
: Still, a lot of folks from the surface poured their hopes into these arms and legs and this flame! So I’m gonna be fighting as hard as I can with ‘em! Good to be working with all you guys!
: Well, we better bolt outta here before we start getting in the way. Take care out there folks – wrecked mechs can be fixed but there ain’t anything we can do for the dead!
: Heh, guess Shibakusa’s given us the go-ahead. Time to get to work, people!
Now we just need to keep Daiya and Aoi in one piece and that’s not difficult, provided you don’t rush them up front.
If you’re coming here from K, you’ll find that the Gaiking-series bots are actually usable in that they massively reduced the EN costs of its weapons. Range is pretty piss and it’s got looooow armor (550 less than the Dancouga!) since surface construction is so much crap but at least that’s somewhat made up by Daiya’s Flame.
Still, do stick with Daiya because he’ll eventually become a powerhouse (though he doesn’t cheat like Kouji and Kenji) – the kid’s a good pilot, just stuck in a subpar bot right now. The Kaikink does fly and has decent movement right out the box, though, so he doesn’t even NEED Accel like Kouji does.
Just a few steps forward, lest he get mobbed next turn.
: The people of the surface made these parts… and my flame’ll make ‘em burn strong enough to rival the Gaiking!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFqi7gYLwL4
I do like how the hand crumples up after the hit.
Iczer-1 doesn’t need a mech to kick ass.
: Rest easy, Nagisa… I’ll bring a swift end to any who try to invade Earth!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4Yv4vD1640
Bam!
Nothing else in range now, so everyone moves forward.
Enemy Phase!
The main wave of mooks is right upon us, though only Ichitaka gets attacked.
: How’s your temperature going, Alice? You’re not overworking yourself back there, right?
: I-I’m managing to rearrange my thoughts and processes based around parallels with chores! No problems… mostly!
: Our movement is a bit more sluggish now… but we should still be fine. Here we go!
He and Miu block pretty much all damage before laying the hurt.
Player Phase!
Iczer-1 also has a lightsaber, in case you still weren’t sure if she kicked enough ass by herself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofzfv8ykEEo
The Darius beasts are beefy but not enough.
Ichitaka finishes his target and learns Strike after the level up.
Little help from Yamashita and this one’s primed up for Aoi’s new trick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56gymG7_3Eo
: Wow, it’s so pretty… This is the Dankuuken?
: Why exactly is the Dancouga so strong? What for…?
: Oho, so it had a big, bad sword tucked away, eh? You’re pretty good, Dancouga.
: Yup; that was a nice swing.
: Ahahah… Guess it was, for a first timer, huh?
: Hey, I love a pat on the back as much as the next guy…
: But how about we save that glee for when we get back to base?
And, for that matter, we’ll take the weakened Galgoras and use it to show off Jeeg Breaker’s cool dynamic finish:
: So this is the Darius Army, eh? Yow, they’re huuuge… Still, they’re gonna need more than size to take me out! How about a demonstration?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G48I8WKtbMc
“WHO’S UP NEXT?!”
Still a bunch to go, so Kouji and Yagyuu focus-fire this here Galgoras.
: I’ve never fought these things before… Still, you’re gonna find that I didn’t spend all that time handling Mechabeasts for nothing!
Good, good.
Hyouma’ll take this one, in hopes it’ll kamikaze against someone good.
: Hey, Darius! If you think your beasts are gonna drop Mr. Hyouma Aoi, wrecker of Mecha and Mimetic Beasts, then I’ve got an upcoming news flash for you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAZ0gspBzfw
And here’s the Deceive’s signature move. Now, if one would just explain to me how you make an AI hallucinate…
Enemy Phase!
I set Aoi with Iron Wall way up ahead and the enemies are very willing to play ball. One thing I noticed is that she’s quite parry-happy this mission (only two out of like 8 attacks have connected).
Attacking Ichitaka isn’t a much better idea.
Gone.
Nearby, Hyouma takes three kills from weakened enemies (and weakens another 4). Juzo learns Mercy.
Player Phase!
And now this is just a matter of cleaning stuff up. The three farthest monsters have somewhat midboss-y stats but they’re certainly not enough to give our folks pause – focus-fire will take them out easy.
Here’s the summary:
: Demonic Beasts, Iron Beasts – they’ll all end the same when facing the Godannar’s raw power!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoK6qUksS5A
: Shouldn’t be too long before Reiji comes back, so I better bring home the goods!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqKR7zaBGXc
Its best attack doesn’t even have a dynamic finish! Come on, the surface could do better than this!
Oh, and this Domega had the bad luck of being chosen as test dummy for Hyouma’s strongest weapon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgR2-5_SgM4
Classic.
Turns out Breast Fire doesn’t have a DK, either. That’s the last one, though!
And the radar’s clear, so Tanaka quickly asks the Dancouga to come home. Resident psychiatrist, Ru Riruri, is on hand to remind them that today’s counseling day so she’ll be waiting them all by her office.
Aoi sighs that they’re always forced to dance to Tanaka and co.’s tune and Kurara’s frustrated that they’ve yet to get any answers for their questions. Why were they chosen to pilot the Dancouga and why are they always fighting for the weaker side? Wondering here’ll only be a waste of time, though, so off they go.
Nearby, a mysterious unit is measuring the Dancouga’s strength. Something seems to bother the pilot. The unit vanishes, no one even noticing its presence, and Ichitaka figures the Dancouga must be real busy to always be leaving in a hurry like that. Yamashita says we’ll be plenty busy ourselves soon and Ichitaka’s ready to handle the rhythm in order to find the professor.
Goh asks Puria and Daiya to join us back at JUDA and Yamashita confirms that, indeed, they’ve been reassigned to LOTUS. Not too long ago, we’ve been told by NEX that Cpt. Lulu had given it her official sanction. If they heard from the Daiku Maryu, that means everyone in the underground is safe and that’s a weight off Daiya’s shoulders. It’ll be a bit before they can come up here themselves, mind.
But, regardless, Kenji wants to head back ASAP as he’s hungry as no one’s business. Daiya’s also willing to eat just about anything we’ve to offer, as he and Puria haven’t had a good meal since getting sent up here.
Good news, then: Ishigami will treat us to a bunch of his homemade sushi and that’s perfect to Daiya, having grown in a fishing village and all. Ishigami’ll have a banquet ready for his arrival.
As Daiya jumps for joy, Izuna and Shizuna flinch at the upcoming pile of the president’s sushi foisted upon us. Yui does point out that there’s someone here waiting to see Daiya, mind.
Naoto starts getting all choked up and Puria is quick to tell him to cut that crap out: “You just waltz in here like you own the place, yack our ears off and, to wrap things up, start crying up a storm? Come on, now – where’d they dig up this kid?”
Daiya calms her down and apologizes to Naoto for his partner’s sharp tongue. Who is this? Puria. And she’s a girl? Can’t he tell just by looking at her?! Alright, let’s ease up a bit. As for the kid, he’s Naoto Hayami, a classmate of Daiya.
Speaking of missing people, Alice’s just heard info that Kouichi has apparently come back to school! And how is he? Well… he’s a lot different, to say the least – violent. “A symptom of calcium deficiency?” she wonders. Then again, she’s combed through the data of the other Factors and none of them have displayed such symptoms.
Yamashita seems to have an idea of what’s actually going on…
Anything worse shows up, we’ll walk on over and give ‘em what for, Hyouma adds! Ishigami likes it and believes nothing could possibly give us pause with everyone working together. With that in mind, it’s sushi time!
Daiya doesn’t need to be told twice and Ishigami likes the gusto with which he eats – as children should be. Everyone else care to partake? “Yeaah, boy! I’m so hungry, I can’t even think straight,” Kenji cries out and starts stuffing himself.
On the flip side, Izuna and Miu aren’t fans of Ishigami’s sushi and, to make things worse, he’s made a LOT to account for everyone. Do they all need to eat? Maybe not as Daiya and Kenji are ALREADY demanding more. Shizuna hopes this won’t push Ishigami into making even more of the stuff…
Elsewhere…
: Hrm…? Where am I?
: Hands, legs, torso… all bound. Silver lining is they at least didn’t gag me…
Beep!
: Ah, I see you’ve awakened, Professor Grife.
: And you are? The boss of those fellows who kidnapped me, I’d wager?
: Now that would be telling, wouldn’t it? Maybe I am their boss, maybe I’m not…
: Why don’t you stop beating around the bush, you weasel?
: “Weasel”? I got that quite often, back in the day – about ten years ago, I think…
: … Oh, but now is hardly the time for a trip down memory lane. Apologies if this is rather abrupt, but I’ve a small request to make of you, Professor…
: What…?
Iczer 1 has 4 upgrades in everything for the exact same reason Vardent will soon have 4 upgrades in everything. She won’t be with you for good. There’s a section of the game with no access to Iczer 1, and when she comes back, 4 bars is the norm. That said, unlike Vardent, her stint of being not on your team is laughably minor, so…
Don’t worry about frontlining Boss. Because his HP is so low, and enemies only aim for the highest HP in range, people obsessively fail to target him. And despite Borot not looking like all that much, I’ve found it can usually take at least one hit with fairly minimal upgrading.
Decieve’s Nerve Crack actually works better against non-human opponents, because the Nerve Crack is designed to steal control of AI piloted robots. That it hits humans is because Armas and Machinas link to their pilot’s nervous system, so he gets an in.
Kaikink’s name is pretty silly. The joke isn’t one that translates so well though - G is a stronger version of K in their linguistics, so by calling it Kaikink he’s basically saying it’s a shitty Gaiking.
Yeah, the Kaikink thing really is something you either get or you don’t - I couldn’t think of a snazzier way to bring it over.
And I suppose, if the AI’s hardwired that way, I might stick him with the Combattler for now. I do like how much HP the Deceive has, though… I’ll think about it.
Oh yeah, and Gaiking is the third of the three “start later in their plot” shows. Except where Godannar starts at the start of S2, and Jeeg starts at the halfway point, Gaiking LoDM plot in this game literally starts on Episode 32… OUT OF 39. Yeesh!
But to be fair, without K’s randomly jerking the cast all across a bunch of worlds, there is absolutely no way to make Gaiking LoDM work without either doing all the plot in one go (from personal attempts at plotting this, handling it with any degree of kindness for the show takes way too long for that to be viable) or starting from that point. So whatever. It also allowed for the Kaikink, which was not in K, because K handled everything in the 30s in that show in like two stages. (To be fair, once L does go back to Darius, it also handles a lot of stuff in two stages… but that’s something like five episodes of plot. Very different.)
I put Daiya and Boss together since they don’t have TOO much HP to get focus-fired over Hyouma and Goh, and Boss’ squad bonus and EN Regen will make a good fit. Despite my original thought, Iczer-1’s hand-beam attack isn’t melee like Ichitaka, so she wouldn’t benefit too much from Boss’ bonus…
Now for the mission.
Of course, Rachel is so very interested on Grife’s research, so it’s hardly an issue to her. Alice in particular wants them to speak with her as soon as they’ve more insight into the painting’s data – she might be able to use those combat AI plans to boost her usefulness to the team if they can find a way to integrate them.
If that’s what she’d like, Maki promises to let her know, but our attention is diverted to Izuna walking in: Yamashita is calling Ichitaka. It’s time for his usual drills and Alice says her temperature is good enough that she can take part in it some – no problems at all!
Ishigami isn’t too surprised that suddenly getting a whole lot of power got him all too overexcited. At the very least Quatre reports that we should be thankful there hasn’t been a need for him to summon the Linebarrel again. As for Dr. Kizaki’s daughter, Quatre reports that she’s been staying at Kouichi’s place and Ishigami’ll be picking her up soon – he promised to, you see.
Meanwhile, Quatre will continue with his work. As he signs off, Yui asks if it’s really alright for them to let Kouichi run loose. Indeed, Ishigami wants to wait for a bit longer: “let’s see what kind of changes he and the Linebarrel’ll bring to this world.”
Cut to five minutes later and, on the dot, Kouichi’s back. How the hell? He must’ve had already bought the thing! Well, why doesn’t he take a bite and see? Indeed, it’s still warm. Damn, Kouichi’s a kickass gofer!
“Aw, ya know. I just had to put a little bit of ‘oomph’ into it and… wait a minute, why am I playing gofer?! The hell’s wrong with me, using my brand new superpowers for crap like this?!” Kouichi’s other shoe drops.
Furuya doesn’t like his attitude – Kouichi’s thinking he’s hot stuff just because he’s gotten a bit faster eh? Not just: “I’ve gotten my hands on some superpowers just to punish pieces of crap like you!”
Speaking of being left out, Kouichi wonders what happened with Ichitaka. Yajima says he’s been gone since the day Kouichi went all CHAMPION. Didn’t he notice the absence of a classmate until now?
Kouichi sniffs that it ain’t his job to keep track of who is or isn’t around – he’s way too important for that, see. Risako doesn’t like his big head but Kouichi isn’t listening, running off to see his shows.
Risako wants to come with and Yajima follows, Quatre tailing behind.
As these things tend to go, Risako gets the wrong idea: they’re living together? In that case, when Kouichi said he was “reborn”, was he talking about…?! Her dread only grows tenfold when Emi says “mother” asked her to buy some stuff for the house.
“OK, OK, take a deep breath, Risako. Maybe she’s Kouichi’s relative or something…” Risako thinks to herself. She’s about to ask what Emi’s relationship with Kouichi is when an explosion erupts nearby.
Quatre rushes over, telling everyone to bail: the Katou Organization’s back. How does he know who those guys are? He says he’ll explain it all later but it’s too dangerous to stay here – he grabs Kouichi and his friends to get as far away as can be.
Inwardly, Quatre notes that LOTUS has been called and should be coming. He needs to keep an eye on Kouichi now.
Mission 5 – Red Impact, Blue Terror
: Come out, come out, wherever you are, Linebarrel!
: …
: You seem displeased, Wufei. You do remember that the Linebarrel’s Factor, Kouichi Hayase, is in this town, right?
: And I’ll carry out my mission accordingly, so spare me the reminder.
: So long as we’re clear on that. We’ll lay siege to this down and force him and the Linebarrel to show themselves.
: No way in hell a “champion of justice” like him would hide out while his hometown’s burned to the ground, see!
: Kouichi Hayase… Now is the time for you to prove how truthful your ramblings about “justice” are.
Beep!
: Mind you, there is a second prey you’re luring today.
: Another? Which one is that?
: The Dancouga.
: So that the Earth may be saved…
: Hm…? Commander, who are those people?
: They’re not affiliated with us but our goals are the same. Once the Dancouga’s shown up, they’ll handle the rest.
: Our goals are “the same”?
: Hah… though I don’t think they agonize over their choices as much as you do.
: Psh, more surprise guests? That’s the sorta thing you tell me about before we set out, Hisataka.
: I apologize for that but, please, worry only about securing the Linebarrel.
: Fine, fine. I guess it ain’t a problem if I still get to tangle with Horns!
: …
: What is it, Wufei? Do you find fault with our methods of bringing him out in the open?
: Way I see it, there ain’t no problem with killing some idiots who can’t even imagine ways to survive!
: Besides, even if they did survive, they’d just find even worse stuff waiting for ‘em up ahead. Them dying here is kinda a blessing, really.
: Wufei, do you remember the talk we had when we first met?
: Stop talking. Keep going and I might decide I should just kill you.
: I care not about what your organization’s goals are. I simply imagined your actions were necessary to the world – that’s it.
: Cmdr., give the order to carry on the offensive, please.
: I guess we must, Masaki. Another volley, my friends.
: Bah, I really wish you’d let us cut loose some more. OK – light ‘em up!
: Aaah!
: Over here, Risako! Hurry!
: That’s… Wufei?!
: (I didn’t think he’d come back to Misaki again. We haven’t heard from him since he infiltrated the Katou Organization… Could he have…?)
: (No, he’s attacking but is trying not to hurt the civilians. He’s carrying on fighting in his own way…)
: Kouichi, don’t just stand there! I know you like robots but it’s too dangerous to stay here! We need to run right now!
: Kouichi, are you…!
: (…! He’s going to summon the Linebarrel?!)
: …Emi.
: I’m here.
: My town’s under attack. What kind of Champion of Justice would I be if I didn’t do something about it?
: I know. But if you fight like you did before, you’ll only cause more damage.
: Yeah, I hear ya!
: …Then place your hand on my chest.
: O-OK…
: W-Whoa, Kouichi! We’ve got a little emergency here – this is not the time for that!
: Risako, we need to get outta here right now!
: Wait! No, lemme go! Kouichi!!
: Come, Linebarrel!
: I can handle this on my own. Find someplace safe to hide, alright, Emi?
: OK…!
: There you are, Horns!
: You will not humiliate us a second time.
: You’ve got some nerve to run a train on my town like that! I’m gonna end you guys in the name of JUSTICE!!
: Your strength is nowhere mature enough to be called “justice”! What you wield is an illusion, no different from random violence!
Alarm!
: Hrm? What is it?!
: Captain! We’ve numerous heat sources moving in on us!
: Tch, those LOTUS guys decided to crash our party!
: Still, it was only a matter of time before this happened. Ignoring them would just mean a future headache.
: Hey, Linebarrel! Do you hear us?
: We’re on the same side! Why don’t you join LOTUS and we’ll fight for justice together?
: No way – I’m the only one who’s Just around here! You’re all evil and I’m taking you down!
: I’m… evil?
: Yo, what’s your problem, calling us evil?! So, what, you don’t want or need any friends to back you up?
: Shut your trap! You even got that weird-looking Gaiking to try and trick me! But I’m not stupid enough for that to fly, ya phonies!
: Where do you get off, guy?!
: This ain’t working – he’s not even listening.
: Kouichi, we’re not phonies! Just talk to me for a bit!
: Ah, the fake Ichitaka. You must be running outta ideas if you’re going with that trick again!
: Damn it, just listen for one minute!
: I’m guessing the only way we’re bringing that idiot in is with brute force.
: Hm. This calls for some bitter medicine!
: Hold on, now. Kouichi’s just a bit too hyped up with his newfound strength.
: I think he’ll be more willing to listen if we get rid of the Katou units and give him a second to calm down. So your orders are to avoid attacking the Linebarrel as much as can be.
: The president’s right. All things said, he honestly just wants to protect the weak.
: Eh? Who’re you?
: Ah, that’s Quatre – a Preventer agent keeping tabs on Kouichi, meaning he’s also part of LOTUS.
: My name’s Quatre Raberba Winner – pleased to meet you all. Apologies for the belated introduction but I’ve been undercover all this time.
: Yeah, yeah, pleased to meet’cha and all, but are ya 100% sure we can trust that boy, Kouichi?
: I—
: Got something on the radar! This signal is… the Dancouga!
: The Dancouga! And I’m guessing you’re also not going to accept my justice. Well, I did warn you before… I’ll be playing for keeps today!
: Hey, LOTUS. We’ll be helping you folks out.
: We’ve been seeing each other a lot, huh? And we never even went out of our way to buddy up with anyone.
: But, whatever. Good to be working with y’all… huh?
: The hell?! Where’d that come from?!
: No data on that mech – affiliation unknown!
: But it kind of looks like the Dancouga…
: What’re we dealing with here, Tanaka?!
: Hmm… That’s not any model I’ve seen before…
: And these readings show it’s got the same generator as the Dancouga? How is that possible…?
: Are you serious, Seimi?!
: Hey, what gives?! Why’d it start attacking us?!
: Hmph…
: A red Dancouga… Guess that’s another enemy for us!
: Not just the Katou Organization but this thing too, huh?
: Ishigami, those guys helped us before, so I wanna—
: Help them back today, right? Then we’re on the same page. Off you go, ladies and gentlemen.
: Sorry to drag you folks in this. And good to be working with you!
: Then we’ve our orders, people: assist the Dancouga and destroy all the Katou units but don’t attack the Linebarrel!
: Roger that, Goh!
: Okey-dokey! Here’s hoping we’ll be getting back to JUDA with that thing in tow!
Destroy everything without losing the Dancouga Nova. I’m guessing Kouichi’ll just heal up if you go for him, so I won’t.
First order of business is getting some morale on the Katou guys before turning our sights on the midbosses.
One thing to note about ??? is that she’s got a nasty Range Down debuff on her Absolute Hurricane attack. That’s range 2-6 and, if it’ll halve anyone’s own range if it connects – seeing how most of our guys can’t hit too far away, that’ll leave you with a bunch of point-blank and 1-2 attacks, so be careful.
That Stealth can catch you by surprise but she’s not too dodgy. Do try to evade her attacks whenever possible.
Everyone’s moving on ahead, our land-bound units hopping across the bridge. The Dancouga’s just in enough range to attack a few things.
And that’s an easy kill. Packing Alert, Aoi manages to dodge the survivor’s counter.
Enemy Phase!
Now this is interesting: ??? will auto-cast Mercy every turn. She won’t kill anyone but, of course, being left at near-death when near a bunch of hostiles = a dead unit. Watch it.
And, of course, she’ll always prioritize the Dancouga.
: Who goes there? You a Dancouga copycat or something?
: …
: Don’t suppose you could at least tell us who you’re working for, eh?
: …
: Talk’s not getting us anywhere, I think. Then if it’s a fight you’ll want, it’s a fight you’ll get!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fGaA5i38f0
???: “None of you understand the point of this battle!”
And she stopped the Dancouga’s counter by draining pretty much all its range… Worst, I might’ve overestimated the bot’s hardiness. Aoi ends the turn with little over 1500 HP but scores another 2 kills!
Only other battle was the lone Arma that tried to take on Iczer-1 – he barely lived.
Oh, and Kouichi’s making a beeline towards us.
Player Phase!
At least Boss can heal Aoi up to full.
Let’s start clearing stuff up.
Easy.
Daiya, Jeeg and Ichitaka pick off weakened targets one by one.
Oh, and I forgot to show off Goh and Mira’s combined attack last mission, so let’s rectify that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtxTf0jYWxY
Shippuu! Souren— wait, wrong blue bot.
Following that, Aoi oneshots this guy.
Enemy Phase!
??? guns for the Dancouga again but Boss and his debuff immunity are playing defense. As Aoi shaves off some 5k HP off our mystery guest, Dmitri tries sniping at Ichitaka.
Too bad for him, we’re much better at it. Plus, Miu’s barrier pretty much makes the Rushbird invincible.
This tag-team also downs two Armas that figured they could test the veracity of that statement.
The AI’s set on keeping Hyouma at the top, two Armas kamikazeing against him and giving a level in Prevail.
You’re funny.
You’re lucky she can’t hit too good at range but that’s still 70%.
Mind you, the next one who tries isn’t as lucky.
The hell are you up to, boy?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb-1qKwmIFM
Kouichi: “You Gaiking knockoff!”
Taking damage: “That’s nothing! I’m gonna regen that in just a sec!”
Enemy Phase!
Let’s get this thing off our hair.
: You’re looking like a legit speedster, but I now got a way to deal with that!
: Come on, my beautiful boobies! I’ll grab you real good!
: …?!
: Just what’re you after? You better not expect me to go easy if you’re helping the Katou Organization!
: …
: Giving me the silent treatment, eh? Or maybe you’re just a mute. Either way, doesn’t look like you’re backing off, so you better put up your dukes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-tedeYJrJE
Here’s ???’s strongest weapon. Observe as the game goes from 0 to OBARI AS FUCK in the span of a frame.
Bring the red Dancouga below 50% and the pilot is seemingly satisfied with this – a bit more time is needed, apparently.
She runs off way too fast for us to follow and Kouji figures the pilot was just checking us out today. Ishigami’s quietly pondering this unknown Dancouga and figures he’ll need to question Tanaka about it later.
Katou’s a bit miffed at how easily the red Dancouga backed down but figures it’s not his place to say anything.
Aoi, Ichitaka, Yamashita, Iczer-1, Shizuru and Goh each nab kills from the weakened mooks. They’re dropping like flies!
And I remembered I hadn’t shown off Hyouma’s Twin Lancer!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeAR8_Kit5c
Enemy Phase!
What’s your beef with him, Dmitri?!
Uh, oh. I didn’t mention it before but Sawatari is quite the accurate guy.
He got 24% against Iczer-1 and that was enough for the RNG. Still, she’s still got half her HP left and he got hurt plenty from the counterattack.
Also, Iczer-1 kills a mook.
Which is bad news for Kouichi, gunning straight for Kouji. He and Yagyuu make the kid regret it.
Player Phase!
Away with you.
And boom. Kenji gets a boost to Prevail.
Dmitri can’t handle being the focus of all this firepower and has to evac.
]Extra hit from Iczer-1 to tenderize and Sawatari’s out.
No cool kicks since Sawatari has plot armor.
He’s pissed that he needs to run off.
]Wufei’ll have to wait a turn, so, meanwhile, we’ll see the dynamic finisher of Shizuna’s creepy hand thingamabob.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcUd1YXaHkM
The last mook goes down by Kouji’s hand, mind.
Enemy Phase!
Here he comes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QICdfDL7Bs4
That’s a violation of Super Robot etiquette, you sumbitch!
Player Phase!
You’re gonna get it now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mesp0MFhicI
I don’t quite see the “shot” bit, but alright. Also, Goh and Mira get a Prevail level.
Wufei knows that his current methods won’t amount to anything, however much time he wastes on it. Still…
: The Katou Organization’s dealt with, Kouichi Hayase! Let’s talk a sec!
: Yes, please come with us to JUDA!
: Our group needs yours and the Linebarrel’s strength!
: You just don’t quit, do ya? I told you: everyone but me is evil! So I’ll be wrecking the Katou Organization and you too!
: And just how do you figure you’re a “CHAMPION OF JUSTICE” with that kinda attitude, stupid?!
: Don’t! Call! Me! Stupid! You couldn’t even get the paintjob right, you phony, so shut up!
: Uurgh, you huge dumbass!
: Kouichi…
: Mr. Ishigami, we can’t even get a word in with this guy!
: Well, shoot… guess my prediction was way off base. Then we’ve no other choice, ladies and gentlemen: disable the Linebarrel and bring it in.
: Heh, I figured it’d come down to this. A punch is the best way to get a point across!
: I…I have to attack Kouichi?
: It’s the only way. Please understand.
: But…!
: (Ichitaka…)
: Judging by the data we’ve gathered, the Linebarrel’s regenerative abilities are a lot better than the other JUDA Machinas. Its output’s seemingly dropped since the start of the battle, but you should still be very careful!
: What about us? Wasn’t our original mission to keep the thing safe?
: It was but… there’s been a change in your orders just now. You’re clear to engage.
: Uh-huh… then it’s alright to let LOTUS take the Linebarrel?
: Eeh, we’ll make that call when we get there…
: I guess that’s for the best. It’d be very ungrateful of us to start firing on LOTUS after they helped us.
: I agree. Besides, this mission’s turning out kind of exciting.
: Alright, let’s get to it, then!
: Are you not capable of telling what’s right from what’s wrong?!
: I’m justice incarnate! Anyone who won’t accept that is EVIL!!
: You’re wrong. Humans hold both justice and evil within their hearts - that’s what makes them whole. And what you’re doing is coming from nothing but the evil part of your heart!
Iczer-1: “That’s enough out of you! Stop now!”
: You ready, Izuna? Go and give this big dumdum a real scary nightmare! Once he’s out, we’ll drag ‘im off the Linebarrel!
: Ready whenever, Shizuna. I’ll harden my soul if that’s what it’ll take to secure the Machina!
Izuna: “Please stop fighting this instant, Kouichi!”
: Why would the Linebarrel ever choose a stupid guy like him as its Factor…?
: Who’s stupid?! I’m a Champion of Justice!
: That’s not a title you can give yourself! The fact you don’t get that fact is why I say you’re stupid!
Yamashita: “I’m not about to get beat by an amateur Factor!”
: Go back to how you used to be, Kouichi! We’re friends, aren’t we?!
: Quiet! You’re impersonating Ichitaka and I’m done listening! Get away from me!
–
: Please, Kouichi, let’s talk! We shouldn’t be fighting each other!
: Piss off! If you don’t wanna fight, then don’t! I’m the Champion of Justice and I fly solo!
: I see… then you leave me no choice! This might get a bit rough but I’ll be bringing you in!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz2C_d9H7Cc
Miu: “Stop! The way you’re fighting, you’ll destroy everything around you!”
Kouichi: “You’re also here to jack my Linebarrel, I know you are!”
Ichitaka: “Kouichi, what the hell are you doing?!”
: Ganging up on me, eh… Too bad for you, justice doesn’t die!!
: This isn’t good, sis!
: Damn it, regenning like that’s cheating!
: Come on and try your luck again, evil bots!
: What are we supposed to do now…?
Beep!
: …You’re going too easy on him.
: Aah?! That voice is—!
: Reiji!
: The hesitation in your attacks is as clear as day.
: But the Linebarrel’s pilot is Ichitaka’s friend and…
: That doesn’t matter. Right now the Linebarrel’s no different from a terrorist wreaking havoc through town… Meaning you show no mercy!
: Wh-What are you—
: If you can’t bring yourself to fight, then just sit there.
Reiji moves after Kouichi.
: Did have your fun, Factor of the Linebarrel?
: Whaat?!
: Because your game of make-believe ends here. I’ll be bringing the Linebarrel to JUDA!
: B-Bite me! Who’re you?!
: Reiji Moritsugu, Head of JUDA’s Special Forces.
: That guy’s who Yamashita was talking about…?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnQtJG3m1OE
: Gwaargh! Damn it!
: You should realize the difference between us now. Surrender the Linebarrel.
: This power’s mine! I’m not letting anyone take it! Never!
: (He’s already recovering the damage received. He’s better than I thought…)
: I… I am a CHAMPION OF JUSTICE! And I’ll never be beaten!
: …
Slash, slash, slash, slash!
: H-Hey, don’t you guys think that’s a bit too much?
: Yeah… he’s not even trying to hold back.
: The Linebarrel might be able to regenerate from that, but the Factor won’t last for long…
: That guy… he’s like a demon…
: Stop! STOP! He’s gonna die!
: Y-Yajima?!
: This isn’t Kouichi’s fault! It was just an accident that got him to find that thing!
: Shut up! You… what the hell do you know about me?
: !!
: You don’t understand how I felt, being so weak and useless…! Have you any idea how miserable I was, having to watch as someone else protected the girl I liked? Hell, how I, myself, needed to be protected by that person even?! Do you have any idea what that’s like?!
: Then… Then, this is because of me…?
: But, now, I’ve been reborn! I’m strong now! I’m a Champion of Justice! Why are you all against me?!
: Why won’t you accept me?! I’m the one who’ll protect this town!
: I’m the strongest one here! Say it! SAY IT! Haaaaaah!!
: I’m strong! I’M THE STRONGEST!
: …You still want to fight? In that case…!
Target!
: Stop!!
Power dooooown.
: The Linebarrel’s turned off? Why…?!
: Please, stop, Kouichi!
: E-Emi…?
: …
: Why did you stop me?! I was just about to win!
: Kouichi, is flaunting your power all you want to do? Didn’t you say we were going to defend—
: Shut up…!
: Huh…?
: You shut your mouth! Just sit there and let me protect you, damn it!
: Kouichi…!
: Ah…!
: You’re… despicable!
: Looks like he can’t get the Linebarrel to move by himself.
: Kch…
: That’s the end of that, Kouichi! Ain’t no reason for you not to throw in the towel, nice and easy!
: Fine. You just want the robot, right? Then take it! I don’t care anymore!
: Yeesh, he’s still giving us attitude?!
: Well, I’m gone!
Off he goes.*
: Urk, he ran!
: His speed is surely on par with the other Factors…
: Kouichi…
: Hrm, this would’ve been so much simpler if he didn’t run… I was about to ask him to join the team.
: What, that huge dumdum? No, thanks! Look at what he did to the town with that tantrum!
: Hm. His isn’t the best personality, that’s for sure.
: Mr. Ishigami, I’ll go after him.
: Hold on a sec – I’ve another job for you first. Dr. Kizaki’s daughter is around here, right?
: Yes, she’s with me, actually.
: Then bring her over to JUDA, please. She’s quite the VIP, you see.
: That’s no problem but… couldn’t it wait until I found Kouichi?
: Oh, you don’t need to worry about him. I’m sure he’ll be coming to school tomorrow like nothing ever happened.
: How do you figure…?
: Because I’d wager that’s one of the places he feels more at ease after getting his new powers.
: If you say so…
: Well, that ended in a hurry.
: Easy come, easy go, right? And more important than that…
: Yeah, the red Dancouga. Tanaka was acting like he didn’t know anything about it but…
: But today we’re going to make him spill the beans.
: Right. I, for one, am sick of being kept in the dark.
: See you guys around, LOTUS. I had fun today!
: Oh! There goes the Dancouga…
: Didn’t you say you wanted to shake their hands, Ichitaka?
: Kouichi… you…
: Ichitaka…
: Hey, hey, can you go and bring the Linebarrel over, like, lickety-split? I’m just bursting with anticipation!
: Well, you heard the lady. Transport it here ASAP, alright?
: Roger that. Back to base, troops.
: (Whew, Reiji’s finally back… that’s a load off my shoulders. And, damn, that attack he did there was so strong. He really is amazing…)
Seeing how ??? runs off at half HP, I couldn’t get all convos with her:
: I’ve absolutely no data on this one. Exercise caution, Hyouma!
: And it’s quite the speedy fella, too! We’ll be in hot water if we don’t watch it!
: Yeah, I’m on it!
: Who are you? Why are you after the Dancouga?!
: …
: If you’re not talking, then I’ll deal with you as I would the Katou units!
–
: Please, stop! Our team’s fighting in Earth’s defense!
: Hah… So am I.
: Fine, then. If you won’t back down, then I’ll stand my ground!
Hyouma figures the Combattler team has got that covered, what with them needing to sync-up their brain waves to combine. Unfortunately, no, Reiji says cooperating to work the same bot and coordinating with different units are two wholly different things – failure to realize that will get them an early grave.
Juzo doesn’t appreciate his attitude but Kyo suggests he let it go. Reiji orders everyone to gather here at 0800 but before he wraps this up, he calls Ichitaka. You see, he’s read his records as well and is concerned about the kid’s lack of experience.
Now, if that ends up getting Ichitaka killed, that’s his problem, but Reiji’s got consider that it might hamper the team’s actions. So, he’ll be especially tough on his training (Ichitaka stutters a confirmation).
Kyo understands what he means: we are a rather unique team, in that while many of us are seasoned fighters, quite a few are still civilians. Maybe what Reiji is trying to do is get us in a more military fighting shape? Yamashita nods, saying Reiji is always thinking what’s best for us – oh, how he admires him.
“So, Yamashita says ‘far from perfect performance’ are words of praise… I’ll need to revise some of my data,” Alice ponders but Ichitaka says that’s just the guy’s own unique case. Mind you, Yamashita says it wasn’t that bit that got him oh-so-happy but the part where Reiji acknowledged his growth as a Factor.
Miu explains that Yamashita’s always worked so hard to make Reiji happy and Ishigami swears that while he has a very sharp tongue, he is quite kind. And Alice figures she’s also slated for his especially tough training as he was also looking at her when he said it. Ichitaka remembers that we still can’t let Alice push herself too hard, lest she overload again, so it’ll fall on him to pick up the slack.
“Now there’s an idea! And it’ll let me spend some quality time with Iczer-1, too… Whoohohohoo,” Boss grins. Iczer-1 isn’t listening, pondering the burden she spotted behind Reiji’s eyes. Boss also notices her beautiful, albeit distant gaze… ooh, he’s getting dizzy!
Iczer-1 ponders what burden Reiji could be carrying – but an incomplete being like her could never make sense of it. If only she were human… “Yo, are those distant eyes looking this way? Ooh, did she finally fall for my handsome charms?!” Boss dreams. “She hasn’t – chill,” Kouji shoots him down.
Moreover, Dr. Kizaki went through a lot of trouble to get her over her and he swears to her that JUDA will make good use of the Linebarrel. But what about Kouichi? Ishigami’s sure Quatre’ll manage to convince him to join us. Indeed, Quatre’s sure he can be reasoned with.
Mind, Ishigami wants Quatre to continue to vet the kid – if he ever deems him to be unfit for the job, then JUDA’ll have to find a new Factor. Emi’s worried, as assigning a new Factor means the current one will die: there’s always only one Factor per Machina.
Ishigami would rather that not happen, of course – Kouichi just needs to realize the essence behind the strength he got. And despite the stuff he did, Quatre doesn’t think he deserves to die. He’ll get him on board.
So pretty much one of the few things the Linebarrels anime DID do right was that imagery of Reiji with the crescent moon behind him, which is striking, works well given Vardent’s symbol, and looks cool as fuck. And wasn’t in the manga, surprisingly.
It then proceeds to show it’s the anime by fucking up Reiji in general, and his relationship with Yamashita, but we’ll get to both of those later when it’s pertinent. For now he’s fine.
Also as an aside this Linebarrels plot was like four episodes of the anime and like five chapters of the manga (one volume). This opening “Kouichi is a giant fucking idiot” arc stretches so goddamn long in L, I swear…
To be fair, this is only the 2nd Linebarrels-focused mission, so the count isn’t higher than the anime yet.
I reckon they’re running things as fast as they can, what with there being a lot of other series that have stuff to do.
They do sort of go through it as fast as possible, but it’s going to take a few more stages before Kouichi joins. Putting it into numbers, he joins on Stage 9, having been against you since Stage 1. In UX, in comparison, which uses the manga, he first shows up on 6, is mostly an ally on it and 7 (though he does go nuts for the same reason he will soon in this game and you have to fight him), and joins on 8.
Forward!
As for Megumi and Ippei, Kenichi says they went with Michel and co over to the Frontier’s Shibuya (a replica of the actual place). Seems like Ranka’s doing some marketing gig there, so they decided to cheer her on. Ozma hadn’t heard about that, and is even less amused when he Alto apparently knew and told everyone BUT him. Since when is he Ranka’s confidant?!
Sakonji had thought the guy was shirking his training recently and both he and Ozma figures this calls for some HARSHER routines for the guy. Cathy sighs at what an overbearing brother Ozma is.
Furthermore, Mishima posits, this world has yet to contact alien races, so things are likely going through same “culture shock” motions their world did when the Zentradi first showed up. Tensions are high.
Regardless, it’ll be another week until Earth’s government reconvenes, so they’ve given us free pass to continue fighting the Vajra as a measure of self-defense UNTIL THEN. Does that mean that this week is as long as they’re willing to tolerate our presence?
Mishima thinks so, figuring the government decided putting us on a hard time limit to leave would be preferable to outright hostile action. Regardless, the message seems clear: don’t overstay your welcome.
Seems to Howard that this Earth’s government is as rotten as the other side’s and Mishima suggests we leave ASAP, before the more extreme folks decide to tag the fleet as an invading force and take action.
Nanase and Nagisa are relieved, having been worried that the two of them were soldiers or something, like the Voltes Team. While Megumi apologizes for keeping that a secret, Nagisa knows there are rules; mind, everyone was blown away when they found out their schoolmates were the Voltes’ pilots.
Indeed, Luna knows how strict the army can be: don’t do this, don’t talk of that OR ELSE. Sounds like scary business and Nanase wonders if the NUNS is like that. Probably, but enough about that talk: what about the fan-club?
Regardless, before they can head over and start cheering Ranka on, Alto comes over and suggests we don’t. No, he won’t tell who his secret call was with and shoos Michel away. As for Ranka, he says that while she’s working out in the street, that’s still her stage and she’s giving it her all – walking up there’d just wreck her focus. Besides, Alto figures her having to work hard to get to the top will make for a valuable learning experience, so we ought to just watch her from here.
Nanase’s happy to see him putting so much thought into Ranka’s situation but Alto stammers that he’s just speaking common sense. His denial comes in that loud Nakamura voice, so Ranka somewhat hears it. Everyone bolts before they’re spotted, Ranka figuring it was just her imagination. Back to work!
But, honestly, Alto figures she ought to do what her manager says: whether it’s handing out CDs or via word-of-mouth, if her song’s good, then it’ll get around. He’s sure it’s only a matter of time until the effort she’s doing is rewarded some.
Ranka thanks him for the encouragement, but it’s already getting a bit late and she’ll have another gig tomorrow. Time to call it a night and, as she signs off, Alto wishes her good luck.
Oh, and by the by, they’ll be filming some of the movie at Alto’s school and he’s been assigned as her errand-boy while that’s going down. Why?! “Interest” for taking this long to return the earring she borrowed him. “Whaat?! I’ll give it back, then! I’ll give it back right the hell now, damn it!”
Too late for that, but, hey, she’ll allow him to hang onto the thing as compensation. Alto’s very mad at being blindsided with this but agrees to it THIS TIME. She better not pull this “interest” stuff again because he never agreed to it!
Well, Sheryl likes how upstanding he is and Alto says that’s only because he’s not about to dump a memento of her mother into the trash – were it anything else, he would’ve. Sounds great and Sheryl will eagerly be awaiting his arrival at the set.
Yes, though not as much as before. Still, it seems clear to Tsubaki that she’s having a hard time with Reiji’s strict training regimen. Much as her neural network’s working to rearrange itself to combat, she just lags too badly to execute the required actions properly. Still, it’s needed to speed up the development of the combat side of her AI.
Either way, since Tsubaki’s here, does she know where Kyo’s at? He hasn’t been looking out of sorts lately and hasn’t even gotten checked-up. It might just be a cold but Tsubaki says she’ll keep an eye out for him.
Kenji runs in right then, having been looking for Kyo and surprised to see him alone with Iczer-1 here. What’s he up two, huh? Only gathering intel on stuff going on in space. Well, aren’t we diligent. Regardless, Kenji says Alice wants him to come and get himself checked-up.
The message given, Kenji promptly sets off to go and grab something to eat. Iczer-1 is impressed at how energetic he is and, indeed, Kyo says that’s one of the better things about the kid.
As Talia confirms, Durandal does apologize to Cagalli for getting her involved in yet another mess but he needn’t do so: “this is a serious matter for all of us and if there’s anything I can do to help, I will,” she says. Durandal appreciates the offer but says there isn’t a need for her to get involved right now – he’ll let her know if it comes to that, though.
Athrun, however, speaks up and asks if he couldn’t let him borrow an MS for this. Talia doesn’t think that’s going to fly, what with him being a civilian now, and Shinn readily agrees: who the hell does this guy think he is? Assistant or no, how would anyone lend an MS to a guy that addresses the leader of another nation like it ain’t no thing?!
Athrun understands he’s out of line but says he can’t well sit and watch as this happens.
Talia’s still concerned since Athrun’s not really of ZAFT anymore but any extra unit could help with the Meteor Breakers. Combat isn’t expected to happen, either, and if the Darius or Mimetic Beasts are behind this, their status as UN members allows them to cooperate.
Plus, the Frontier’s already agreed to help with this, so having one Earth “civilian” tag along to help won’t ruffle any feathers. Fair enough, so, despite Shinn’s groaning, off they go.
But that’s a talk for later, as Lady Une gets in touch and passes on info on Junius’ Seven incoming drop onto Earth. She’s gotten in touch with the SDF to provide us a shuttle, so LOTUS needs to get up there and help destroy the thing immediately.
As Ishigami orders Yui to call everyone in, Une relates that ZAFT is already trying to deal with the derelict colony, so our job will be to help them make it happen. Failure is not an option as, worst case scenario, it could mean the extinction of mankind!
[b]Mission 6 – The Day the Sky Fell[/b]
: Yow, taking a closer look, this thing’s biiiig. (Dearka)
: Of course it is – our people live in these. (Yzak)
: Sure, but what I meant was that the bigwigs sure gave us one hell of a job, breaking it all down. We’re supposed to handle the whole thing ourselves?
: No, it appears the Minerva’s headed our way.
: The Minerva? That ship’s kind of light on crew size, I heard. (Heine)
: However, only our two groups can respond in time. This isn’t one of those “elite few must prevail against impossible odds” cases.
: In that case, maybe you could relax some? We know you’re older and responsible and all that, but come on. If you don’t, maybe I’ll start calling you “Captain Yzak, sir”.
: Urgh, fine. This better, Heine?
: Much. That’s the ticket, Yzak.
Beep, beep!
: Got a heat signal incoming – the Minerva’s here.
: This is the Minerva speaking, we’re here to assist in the destruction of Junius Seven.
: This is Yzak Joule, captain of the Joule Squad. We appreciate the help!
: Yzak…
: You. Weren’t you off at Orb?
: Stuff happened and I came aboard along with Orb’s Rep. But, regardless, we need to hurry with the operation right now!
: I know that!
: Yo, I don’t get a “hey, how you doing” too?
: Sorry, Dearka. At least I see you both haven’t changed much.
: Right back at you.
: So this is Junius Seven, the abandoned agricultural colony…
: From what I’ve gathered, it’s something of a memorial of a tragedy from the old Great War.
: But we still need to break it down…!
: That there’s the famous Macross, right, Yzak? Is it alright for them to be here for this?
: Could I ask you for some explanation on this matter, Cpt. Gladys?
: I can tell you myself.
: And you are?
: Jeffrey Wilder, captain of the Macross Quarter. And if you want to know what’s on our mind, first, we couldn’t stay passive as your homeworld stood on the brink of death; secondly, the Minerva’s helped us several times and we couldn’t live with ourselves if we didn’t answer in kind.
: …Very well – I appreciate your assistance. Now, let me explain how the operation will proceed.
: I’m relaying you the coordinates where our engineers installed the Meteor Breakers. We’ll have to make the final calibrations ourselves, so everyone split up and head to each specified area.
: Then the Minerva will stand by and prepare for anything going wrong.
: Well, if we just need to make some calibrations then this’ll be over easy.
: Watch your ass, still, Alto. There are plenty of debris floating around – you don’t wanna end up dead from one of those.
: Yes, sir!
: (Here’s hoping it’ll be easy, else what am I still borrowing this “good luck charm” for?)
Of course it’ll be easy, we just need to get any units into the marked areas. And we got some new friends – and regular fixtures/often pains-in-the-ass in my LPs:
Three squaddies! Their units aren’t the greatest but they’re certainly capable of taking care of themselves. Yzak’s the in-your-face type and the best pilot of the three, Dearka’s range-specced and Heine’s the all-around guy.
Yzak aside, this is the first time since the W LP that Dearka’s an actually active unit and not a background character due to his VA’s issues with SEED. Not having to fork over a metric crapton of cash to get T.M. Revolution on board means it’s time for Heine to follow in Miguel’s footsteps and be a legit playable character!
We don’t need to wait until we’re 60% through the game for Athrun to remember he has SEED! Huzzah!
Athrun’s more or less tied with Yzak in stats (they go back and forth) but that obviously goes out the window over 130 morale. He’ll make do with that ZAKU but, of course, he needs better if he’s really going to go to town.
Even if you don’t wanna field him, that squad bonus’ll make for a good fit with pretty much anyone.
With our homework done, everyone that can pop Accelerate does and we move forward – you’ll really want to hoof it.
The next player turn…
And we’ve got trouble: several heat signals show up on the radar, a bevy of GINNs, GuAIZ and Taurus showing up. They’re not carrying any IFF and Meyrin detects no other ZAFT ships around, indicating that they might’ve been inside Junius Seven. Were they the ones who got the colony moving, then?
“Stop this! Who the hell are you?!” Yzak yells, dropping his level headed act, and the enemy leader, Sato, simply yells that he won’t allow us to destroy Junius Seven. His group opens fire then and there and Heine spots them making a beeline to the Meteor Breakers.
We won’t be able to carry out the operation without those, so Yzak puts in a call to Talia and Jeffrey: we need to protect the Meteor Breakers, whatever it takes.
Mission objective: Defeat all enemies and secure the Meteor Breakers
Mission failure: Any allied ship, Athrun or Shinn shot down, 3 Meteor Breakers destroyed, any unit holding a Meteor Breaker shot down.
In hindsight, I should’ve plopped the Macross team inside the Quarter to have them get more distance. Regardless, the enemy will be moving in immediately and your biggest concern is the back row of Meteor Breakers – you’ll want to have them capped by Turn 3 or there’s a decent chance the enemies will start wrecking them (the AI won’t prioritize them but you might get an unlucky move).
All that said, this mission isn’t too hard provided you were already moving in. The mooks we’re facing aren’t TOO accurate or bulky – Sato’s the only real threat but not a big one. One thing to keep in mind, though:
Secret Alert!
Make sure you capture ALL six Meteor Breakers.
This isn’t really difficult, provided you were already moving in and make liberal use of Accelerate. Do note that, once a unit is atop a Breaker, it won’t be able to move for the rest of the mission and, if it dies, that Breaker is gone as well – so choose people who can handle themselves.
We’ll send Ozma right in the fray to draw the enemy’s attention.
With Alto’s help, it’s an easy kill.
Michel and Luca hop atop the nearby Meteor Breaker, weakening this pair of Tauruses in the process.
: Skull Leader to all troops! Defend those Breakers with your lives!
: How many more do we need…?!
Fight a Taurus and Yzak and Dearka see that they’re making moves no human could ever do. Heine figures they’re running the Mobile Doll System, a creation of Blue Cosmos during the previous war.
Arthur remembers that the system was supposed to have been disposed of after the Junius Treaty but Heine figures busting out Mobile Dolls isn’t much of a surprise coming from a group willing to do something like this.
So, Kenichi summarizes, we’re dealing with drones? Yep, and a whole lot more flexible than Dearka’s CO, he says. Luca sees a parallel with their Ghosts, meaning their movements should follow similar patterns.
These are looking like old models and they’re not doing too well against us; that said, Luca warns that might change as they start learning about how we fight. We should get rid of them quick before it gets to that point.
Rey doubts puppets could give us pause and Yzak agrees: we can’t flinch over these things because our mission hasn’t changed at all.
Kenichi and Klan both pick a weakened target and take it out, the Super headed to the NE Breaker.
Down south, Yzak sets ahead to spread that command aura.
: I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let you drop Junius Seven on Earth! That’s our mother planet too!
–
: When it rains, it pours, huh…!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNFdbh275dM
Damn it, Dearka, that was 85%!
Fine. As Athrun plants himself atop the southernmost Breaker, Rey does a chain-attack to both finish the survivor and weaken his squaddie.
: Alright, that’s good! Keep securing those Meteor Breakers!
: Roger!
Heine’s also got a command aura, so he sets ahead.
: You’re up, ZAKU Phantom. Show us all how different you are from GINNs and GuAIZs!
Not a kill but whatever – Shinn takes it.
Enemy Phase!
The Quarter’s high HP makes it catnip to the AI and Jeffrey tanks Sato and three others like it’s nothing.
Ah, a cheap kill for Kenichi.
That’s one for him, one for Shinn down south.
Player Phase!
LOTUS arrives on the scene and Ichitaka’s rather worried if we’re actually capable of breaking up this hunk of stone. No way around it, thinks Juzo, as the thing dropping on Earth would really mess the place up. Hyouma and Daiya look on ahead, confused as to why ZAFT units are fighting each other.
Une’s commanding the operation from the shuttle that got us over and Reiji posits the actual ZAFT guys are battling terrorists. He suggests we get in touch with the Minerva to get things sorted out quickly and Une’s already on it.
She and Talia seemingly know each other and the captain is grateful for our support. Lady Une does apologize for the UN’s tardy response, but it’s not like ZAFT wasn’t also blindsided by this – as shown by their lack of options, outside of dispatching these units over.
Now, Talia gives us a quick rundown on the terrorists, which she figures are Coordinator Extremists, judging by their units, trying to destroy the Meteor Breakers and Une passes it all along to Reiji.
We need to wreck these guys and keep those Meteor Breakers safe. Off we go.
Letting Ichitaka get downed is also a game over but that’s not too likely, what with his bulkiness. Before we carry on, we never quite looked at our new team leader:
Vardant (Reiji Moritsugu)
Pilot Skills:
Factor (ファクター)
Sword Cut
Shoot Down
Shield Defense
Counter
Predict
Commander L1
Prevail L3
Support Attack L1
Attack Combo L2
Spirit Commands:
Focus
Sense
Mercy
Squad Bonus: crit ratio +10, 15% chance to dodge attacks.
Reiji, as you might expect, is pretty good: one of those typical A- units, who can take lead if you so desire, but won’t be among your top bots. The Vardant’s dodgy, somewhat resilient and with some decent firepower, though it is severely lacking in range (1-3 is the best it has) since it’s all about swords, swords, swords.
Reiji’s skills and squad bonus gives him some nice dodginess for survivability and that’s not even going into the Factor skill – something I completely glossed over when dealing with the previous JUDA Factors.
See, all Machina pilots have a unique D-S.O.I.L. stat under their morale and it relates to the Factor skill: the higher the number, the more the Machina will auto-heal. The regen % is calculated via the formula “(D-S.O.I.L./2)-20”, meaning that, at 76, Reiji’ll recover 18% HP per turn. The D-S.O.I.L. caps at 140, where the Machina’ll be regenning 50%.
Finally, the D-S.O.I.L’s value at the start of a mission is calculated via the formula “pilot’s base value + (level/10)”; hit or down an enemy, it goes up by 1, miss is a -1, getting hit is +2 and dodging does nothing.
Here are the base values for our Factors:
Miu and Izuna = 60
Yamashita = 65
Reiji = 75
Now math time is done, I’ll be parking Kenji over here – he’ll still be able to attack plenty with his Jeeg Bazooka.]
: We’ve confirmation that the required amount of Meteor Breakers has been secured!
: Then we should be in the clear… though it’s still too early to party!
: We don’t know what might be waiting down the road, so try to secure as many of the remaining Breakers as can be!
We’ll do that in a bit – Reiji has stuff to kill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn2I1sW34Cc
Alright.
Heine takes the N Breaker, while Kenichi covers the very last one (with Iron Wall, just to be safe).
: All of the Meteor Breakers are under our control!
: Excellent job, troops. Now clear out the remaining hostiles!
Following a barrage from Michel and Luca, Jeffrey casts Strike and takes aim.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmppSqXZt2M
So, this ship not only has a barrier, it has a legit shield!
Satou’s group is getting chopped up by ZAFT, so we’ll clear the more distant guys.
Thanks, Boss… Ichitaka takes it, while Iczer-1 goes for Reiji’s survivor.
Hyouma’ll use his magnetic personality to run interference on the northern terrorists.
Meanwhile…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM4iA5pvZos
: We’ll put an end to your insane plan even if it takes our lives to do it!
: You’re all whelps who’ve forgotten their pride as Coordinators and I won’t suffer you interfering with our cause!
Of course…
Enemy Phase!
Sato’s further damaged by Jeffrey (who also takes two nearby GINNs); up top, Heine’s holding the line.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_x9n8HC7XQ
Heine: “Urk! Orange DOES stick out like a sore thumb in a battlefield, I guess…!”
Hyouma trades blows with a bunch of stuff: two kills for him, one for Shizuna.
Player Phase!
: Mimetic Beasts?!
: It’s those giant monsters from when we faced Cobalt!
: Are you serious?! There are Mimetic Beasts in space too?!
: Hm, they nested inside Cosmo Base not too long ago. Likely snuck aboard a shuttle carrying foodstuffs or something and multiplied.
: These things are really nasty – like a bunch of cockroaches from hell!
: Only these roaches are drawn over by the scent of blood…!
: ZAFT is sending us data on the Mimetic Beasts. Our weapons should be effective against them, so we’re to approach as we would a Vajra.
: Tsk… it’s just one thing after the other…!
: And we already had our hands full as it was. Damn, this is getting out of hand fast.
: Arthur, we need to cover our allies. Bring us into firing position – we’ll unravel the enemy’s formation with the Tannhäuser!
The Minerva moves ahead.
: Firing position, all clear! Tannhäuser engaged, targeting the dead center of the Mimetic Beast swarm!
Alarm!
: Captain, we’ve Mimetic Beasts moving towards the Minerva – fast!
: !!
: Urk!
: What’s going on? Why did they all start gunning for us?!
: Your energy! They’re being drawn to the energy spike from your cannon!
: The monsters are hungry…!
: Evasive maneuvers, Arthur!
: I can’t! Our energy output’s dropping after that last attack!
: Damn it, they’re going to sink the Minerva!
Beep!
: Party’s over, Mimetic Beasts!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmz4XfuFKOw
“You won’t be running amuck with me around, Mimetic Beasts!”
: Th-That attack was…!
: The Great Mazinger! Tetsuya!
: Jun’s here, too!
: And we’ve come to back you up, Kabuto!
: That’s the Great Mazinger…!
: I’d heard the stories but, dang, this guy packs a wallop!
: Nice – another awesome member for the team!
: Come and try your luck, Mimetic Beasts! Junius Seven won’t fall – not under the watch of the Great Hero, Great Mazinger!
: Thanks for your help, too! Now let’s push forward and wrap this up!
Tetsuya’s Kouji 2.0, with the Great Mazinger being a whole lot better than the regular Mazinger Z (especially in range). Better yet, the two of them have their traditional Double Burning Fire combined attack which packs a mighty punch with Mazin Power on its side.
Jun’s also better than Sayaka in pretty much every way except her spirit list: Sayaka’s 100% support-oriented, while Jun mixes a bit of offense with that. All in all, it depends on what you’re after but the Venus A is still a bit on the frail side (at least Jun learns Iron Wall at 24).
But we’ll have Tetsuya and Talia pull back to draw the Mimetic Beasts closer to our main group. While that’s going on, we’ll wrap up the extremists.
: Chairman Zala was brought down because his was the wrong path – why do you not see that? What we need now is—
: I refuse to accept your pious hope as the right path!
Sato: “If you’re with ZAFT, then you should understand our ideals!”
: We’ve got the Darius, Mimetic Beasts and a bunch of other insane guys walking around!
: I know everyone has a point to make but what the hell would dropping this thing on Earth accomplish?!
: But it must be done for the restless souls that lie within! Our defeated, tormented countrymen cannot and will not grieve in silence any longer!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bVYrmCnnUU
Here’s the Impulse’s strongest weapon.
: Damn these whelps…!
: You’re from the PLANTs, aren’t you? Why… Why are you trying to do something like this?!
: How can you forget the grief of all the lives lost by the atrocity committed here? How can you embrace this world of lies and laugh alongside those who pulled the trigger?!
: ZAFT has been led astray by the Peacecraft girl and the followers of the coward Clyne!
: …
: The only right path for us Coordinators is the one shown us by Patrick Zala! Why do you not see that?!
: Wha—
: Quinze… Dekim… Our fellow revolutionaries may have been defeated, but our ideals will still BURN the Naturals!!
: They want to kill all Naturals…?!
: The hell are you on about, guy? What Quinze and Dekim wanted was—
: Easy, Dearka. Just let him rant.
: The fall of Junius Seven can no longer be stopped! You’ll watch as the Natural’s answer for their karma! I, too, will be watching… GWAAAAAARGH!!
: This… this is what my father’s words brought about…
Athrun also had words for Sato, of course, but I discovered only too late that I people were stuck atop the Meteor Breakers once they stepped in:
: Stop this! What Patrick Zala wanted, the world he wanted was—
: And what the hell would you know about Patrick Zala?!
: I… I…!
LOTUS starts inching eastern, Ichitaka, Yamashita, Kouji and Daiya all but eradicating the western front.
And there it goes.
Boom.
Couple of kills to Luna and Heine gets Kouji and Athrun over 130 morale.
The team’s waifu needs to get to the top!
Yzak and Klan’s team wrecks another team, one GINN goes to Luca…
And this one’s just in range for Kenichi to use his strongest move!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhr1bz5C0yg
Kenichi learns Prevail L4 from that.
Enemy Phase!
And there go all but one of the extremist groups, destroying themselves against our superior firepower. The Mimetic Beasts are still far.
Player Phase!
The Gundam thieves enter the area, transmitting the big battle over to their commander, Neo. He sees more than just ZAFT fighting up ahead – problematic, considering Earth’ll be as good as dead if Junius Seven isn’t destroyed in a hurry.
Sting’s a bit miffed that they’d run into the Minerva again so soon after evading all their pursuers and, worse, that they’d find some Mimetic Beasts as a bonus. Stella doesn’t like the things, that’s for sure.
Neo ponders all this mess happening and wonders if it’s the whim of a particularly capricious God. Regardless, he wants the kids to continue observing from afar and to record as much as they can – they’re not allowed to engage.
Sting confirms and calls Stella and Auel to retreat to a safer distance. “Boooriiiing,” Auel sighs.
Bye!
Everyone else gets in position to intercept the beasties.
Enemy Phase!
And Goh’s their first pick – appropriate.
Goh: “Sorry, Mira!”
Mira: “Oh, Goh… that attack was very avoidable!”
AAAAAAAAAAAAA
When did the Mimetic Beasts evolve to have Windanium bodies?!
Get to it, Tetsuya…
: I’ll admit that you’ve got guts to not run from me. And now the Great Mazinger will give you your prize!
–
: We will save Earth from this mess!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97uN3gOQUOk
That’s fine.
Player Phase!
This mission’s gone on for long enough but we’re in the home stretch. The Mimetic Beasts are too few in numbers and we’ve too many resources left for them to wear us down, so now we rain concentrated death on each of them.
About 80% of them die in this first round, the rest following in the next turn. Here’s the summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68wFF6Wb27Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmjr3T6t9E0
Oh, and here’s the very snazzy dynamic finish of Reiji’s strongest attack. I wager that blonde Reiji that showed up is important… or is it just the standard “my evil, so-very-destructive split personality: Darkheart” that comes pre-loaded into all characters that look like Reiji?
And we’re done!
: No enemies left on radar!
: How’re the Meteor Breakers?!
: We’ve enough up and ready to go. Now we just need to set them up to activate at the right time.
: Hurry! Drag your ass and we won’t break the colony in time!
: Troops, get to work!
: Yes, sir!
KABOOOM!
: Alright!
: Great! We did it!
: Hell, yeah! Earth’s safe!
: No, it’s not!
: What?!
: The debris is still too big! We needed to break it down a lot more to offset how close it got!
: Then Earth’s still going to be destroyed?!
: Junius Seven’s on a downward angle and picking up speed! It’ll enter the atmosphere soon!
: Time’s running out! All we can do now is to tear it apart with the Combattler’s weapons!
: That’s right! Stand strong ‘til the very last second!
: Let’s do this, Mazinger Z!
: The debris’ not past the threshold yet, so keep going! You too, Ichitaka!
: Yeah!
: I suppose we’ve no other options… LOTUS will move to destroy Junius Seven directly!
: We just gotta go for broke now!
: Phrasing, ya dumdum! We want it to go broke!
: We should try and do whatever we can to salvage this, Cpt. Gladys.
: I agree, Cpt. Wilder. Arthur, ready the Tannhäuser!
: Lam, stand by!
: Roger. Macross Cannon – energy charge!
: It’ll be getting in the atmosphere soon! We gotta make it!
Charging power!
: Blow it straight to hell! Macross Cannon – fire!!
: Breast Fire!!
: Thunder Break!
: Super Electromagnetic SPIIIN!!
: Voltes Bazooka!
: Heart! BREAKEEER!!
: Spin STOOOOOORM!
: Tear it down! Come on!!
Craaaaaaash! Beep, beep!
: Time’s up. All troops, pull back.
: Junius Seven’s entering the atmosphere!
: Hold on – the thing’s still too big!
: Pull back immediately. That’s an order.
: Hrm, fine.
: Damn it, is this all we can do…?!
: All units have pulled back from Junius Sev—… Huh?!
: What is it?
: Ichitaka’s still down there!
: What?!
: What the hell are you doing, Ichitaka?! Get outta there right now!
: I saw some MSs left in there – they’re the Minerva’s, I think! Doesn’t look like they can make it out!
: There’s a bit of time left, so I wanna help anyone I still can!
: “A bit”… the debris’ crossing the threshold right now!
: …
At the Girty Lue’s bridge…
: OK, this should be enough footage. Not that we could have kept on monitoring for much longer, of course.
Static.
: Damn, this is real. What’s gonna happen to us and Earth now?
: Is… Is everyone going to die?
: Hey, Neo… ZAFT was trying to break Junius Seven, weren’t they? Shouldn’t we have helped them?
: …
In short: Yes, that blonde in Vardent’s attacks is important. Unfortunately spoiling it requires plot spoilers for later Linebarrels and I totally forget when the anime gets into it so I’ll just go over it when the arc starts in the manga, which is probably also when I’ll have an extended rant about the way the anime went totally fucking dumb because it’s about when this game goes dumb.
I suggest getting Iczer 1 and Vardant to 50% upgrades in the next five or six stages though. 50% is a magical moment, when you get upgrades to your squad bonus, and every unit you want to field in the endgame needs to be at that point - you’ll have more than enough money to do it, don’t worry. Iczer 1 and Vardent are both amazing and should be on your endgame team.
EDIT: And in reply to your thing on the forum where you noted that Neo really should have helped, let me just say that the reason he didn’t had nothing to do with Neo himself and was entirely because L reuses all of its SEED assets from K (with the exception of a few minor additions to units - Legend was one of the few units in K to not have a DK and it has one here, for instance) and him helping would require them to sprite the Druggie units aside from Gaia.
She tells Meyrin to inform LOTUS of what they’ll be doing, dejected that she won’t be able to bid the SMS crew a proper farewell. Talia also wants Cagalli to leave the ship but she refuses to stay passive while the Minerva’s crew are about to risk their lives to save Earth. Besides, Athrun’s still out there.
With that decided, Arthur gets on the PA to tell the rest of the crew what’s what – they’ll be moving to break Junius Seven ‘til the very last second.
: Urgh, what the hell… I could swear I saw the MSs a second ago…
Beep, beep.
: Oh…! Ichitaka, I’m picking up some faint signals on the radar… I’m pretty sure it’s the Minerva’s Impulse and ZAKU!
: Nice one, Alice. We’re gonna get in there and help with whatever we can!
Beep, beep.
: Stand down, Nagumo. I think that’s enough insubordination for a day.
: R-Reiji…!
: Half of LOTUS’ll be accompanying the Minerva’s descent, trying to destroy the debris as much as possible.
: Your mission, however, is to head over to the Space Station and guard the area. Your unit should still be capable of escaping Junius Seven, so hurry.
: But Reiji, there’re still some other MSs—
: I’m aware, but those two are equipped to handle the atmospheric reentry. You don’t have to worry about them.
: (What do I do…? Those units looked pretty beat up but…)
Rescue the MSs:
Linebarrels
Iczer-1
Jeeg
Godannar
Leave the area:
Mazinkaiser
Combattler V
Gaiking
Macross Frontier
If you choose to stay…
: …Sorry, Reiji, but I wanna help the Minerva’s folks. I could be reading this wrong but I think they might not manage the reentry the way they’re looking.
: And what kind of champion of justice keeps his distance when people might die?
: You seem pretty resolved for this.
: I dunno about resolve… I just don’t wanna regret it later.
: Very well, then your mission is to make it alive to the Minerva. But you better not leave any of those units behind after that bombast.
Bzzt.
: Thanks, Reiji…!
: Their signal’s grown fainter – we must hurry!
: Alright!
: Urk… Just a bit more…!
: What the hell are you doing? They sent the order to retreat and I’m sure you received it!
: I know. You go on ahead – I’ll head back as soon as I get this Meteor Breaker online!
: The thing’s still not working…?
: Yeah, but if I turn it on manually, it might start on time.
: But it’ll be you who’ll be out of time if you go for that. You really sure about this?
: Even the Minerva’s main gun might not be enough to destroy it for good, so if I can increase our odds even a bit…
: Fine, then I’ll help. Let’s wrap this up quick and head back.
: Hm, right.
: Tannhäuser – FIRE!
: SPIN STOOORM!
: GOO!
: Macross Cannon blast, incoming!
: I hope Ichitaka’s safe…
: He went to rescue the Impulse and the ZAKU.
: What?!
: Then he’ll also be boarding the Minerva?
: Yes, I told him to come this way after the two MSs are safely out. I know it’s a rather sudden request, but I hope it’ll be no issue.
: But we’ll be entering Phase 2 soon! Is he really going to make it here in time?!
: And if we’re in Phase 2, he’ll likely burn to a crisp, won’t he?!
: …
: We’ll continue to work on destroying the debris. Any objections, Mr. Moritsugu?
: None. There’s little time left but we’ll carry on to the bitter end.
: Damn it, Ichitaka, hurry up and get outta there…!
: (What are you doing, Shinn…?!)
Boooom!
: There, it’s on!
: No time to pat yourself on the pack! The thing’s running, so let’s get out!
: My main thrusters are gone. I couldn’t leave even if I tried.
: Now you tell me…? Why the hell is someone like you with Orb…?!
Machine gun fire!
: Urgh!
: More enemies?!
: My daughter died here! The world won’t change unless the colony falls and burns it!
: Not on my watch!!
Lightning Fist!
: Gwaaargh!!
Boom!
: It wasn’t easy but we’ve finally found them…! You guys alright?!
: Thanks to your assist, yeah. Now who’re you and what’re you going here?
: Ichitaka Nagumo, from LOTUS. I figured there were some MSs who didn’t bail out in time, so I came to help!
: I see… but don’t bother. You and Shinn get back to the ship – I’ll stay here for the atmospheric reentry.
: Patrick Zala – my father – caused all this tragedy… this is how I’ll repay those who suffered.
: The hell are you on about?! I’m not just leaving you behind!
: How do you figure dying’s the right call here?! Try to dress it up as much as you like, you’d just be running away from your problems with that – pure and simple!
: The ZAKU’s made to withstand an atmospheric reentry. I’m not about to die like that.
: Bull! Didn’t you just say your main thrusters were gone?! And then you got shot! Even if you made it through reentry, you’d crash straight into the ocean!
: …
: The descent sequence should be reaching Phase 2 soon and we really don’t have time for you to have this crisis!
: Come on! If we hit the gas on both our units, we oughta make it to the Minerva in time!
Beep, boop.
: …Sadly, no – we’re out of time. They’ve entered Phase 2.
: Then we can’t make it to the ship?!
: Hm… we’re left to our own devices now. Shinn, use that mech there to shield yourself – do it right and you’ll both make it out alive.
: But what about you?!
: He’s right! This won’t mean anything if we all don’t make it back! Alice, can you think of anything to help all mechs?!
Beep, beep, beep.
: Analyzing… I’ve got it! The analysis’ results say that if we engage the Laplace Wall and extend it, we should be capable of forming a field to neutralize the thermal energy!
: Meaning we can save everyone with that?
: I don’t think there’ll be any problems with friction, yes. With the three units enveloped by the field, we should be able to make landfall with relative safety.
: You don’t “think”, huh… Well, it’s the best we’ve got now…!
: … Sorry. You’re only in this mess because of my selfishness.
: Don’t try taking the easy way out again and I’ll give you this one as a freebie.
: And I came here pretty much on my own, so I can’t really give you crap for this.
: Thanks, you two. I appreciate it…
: Athrun…
: Heh, but I don’t think we can afford to keep with this melodrama. Get ready for reentry, men.
: R-Roger that. Angle adjusted, heat dispersion system all green. Autopilot system, on. Switching ECS to neutral.
: Reversing energy flow, extending Laplace Wall…!
: Get behind the Rushbird, guys!
: (We’re making it back – all three of us… That’s a promise!)
Kouji’s pissed, figuring things could’ve ended better if he had the Kaiser available but Tetsuya tells him to stop. We couldn’t stop this even with all our forces combined, so he alone wouldn’t have changed the outcome. Still, that doesn’t help this feeling of worthlessness that Kouji’s got.
Daiya tells him not to beat himself over it – we did everything we could. Now, adds Sayaka, we can only pray. Lady Une calls us right then, saying she’s brought her shuttle into one of ZAFT’s ships. She’s heading towards the PLANTs and will be helping us from there as LOTUS’ representative.
Meanwhile, we’re to set up shop at Yumi’s Space Station to resupply. Once that’s done, she’d like us to carry out patrols throughout the sector. Off we go.
When Bobby asks, she says she’s just worried about the political scene at the Frontier. Well, Bobby’s very interested in gossiping – especially considering Mishima is her fiancée. Not really his type, though, as he’s not into the mysterious, smug guys. Mushroom-head ought to be more open and friendly.
Regardless, Cathy’s dad trusts Mishima but she figures it’s best to be safe than sorry – just a small investigation to make sure.
Yagyuu can handle herself well enough to fly solo and the upcoming enemies aren’t that hardy.
Off we go.
Alarm!
: Hrk, did I take too much damage? I can’t move either of my feet!
: This isn’t good… I can’t even see where they went after that shockwave. And I don’t think I can make it to the ship with just my directional thrusters…
Beep!
: Athrun!
: Shinn?!
: Hang in there – we’re coming to get you!
: Don’t! Not even the Impulse’s thrusters are strong enough to handle two mechs entering the atmosphere together!
: Why do you always gotta be like that, huh?!
: What do you want me to say, then?
: “Get me outta here, dammit!” – or something like that!
: Hah… You’d really rather I said that?
: It was just an example, alright?
Zooom!
: Sorry I’m late! My subpilot came down with a bit of a fever…!
: I’m… sorry… I’m not quite… used to this…
: Don’t worry – just get some rest. I’ll handle everything.
: The three of us’re back together, so now you better quit grumbling, Athrun.
: I’m managing to keep the field stable enough. Everything’s good here, so let’s go!
As the two of them leave for a bit, Goh ponders the son of Patrick Zala, the previous PLANT chairman who sought to destroy all of the Naturals with GENESIS (a colony-sized gamma ray). Kyo remembers the terrorists yelling how the guy was in the right and, indeed, Athrun being the son of said man would make it likely for others to tag him as an enemy now.
Cagalli will not stand for it – she saw how hard Athrun fought to stop this from happening and is willing to testify to sort this mess out. Shinn sighs at the Athha’s stupidity but Rey is quick to shush him. He sighs that he wanted to avoid our groups interacting with one another anymore than necessary but that’s obviously not flying now.
Indeed, Goh sighs that the status quo between the Earth and the Colonies might still be the same as it was after the incident three years ago. What incident? When some Colony-aligned Gundams destroyed a shuttle with the leader of UN’s pacifist faction aboard. With him gone, the UN was unable to stop the rise to power of the militaristic Earth Alliance.
While today the event is known to have been a tragic accident, back then it was taken as a declaration of war from the Colonies. The conflict was set fully in motion with the Bloody Valentine Incident – the nuclear attack on Junius Seven. That’s war, sighs Shizuru, with progressively worse events happening as both sides lose their sanity.
Shinn for one isn’t about to let that hell break loose again and Rey says Durandal is dealing with the UN precisely to avoid it coming to that. Ichitaka, for one, knows Cagalli saw what we did and figures she’ll help set things right.
Shinn sniffs at him putting any stock on an Athha – poor Ichitaka – and stomps away. And without even a word of thanks! Rey asks Ichitaka to forgive him as there’re some special circumstances at work here; you see, Shinn lost his parents and sister when the Earth Alliance attacked Orb in the previous war. That’s why he has such a problem with the Athhas.
The other Logos guy’ll leave him to handle that but there’s still the matter of the Katou Organization, Kiriyama Heavy Industries and NERV. The Logos member on the phone has already called dibs on the Far East business; Djibril argues that they should leverage this opportunity to get rid of any opposition, especially since their work’ll soon be over.
And, truth be told, he thinks the Katou Organization should’ve been destroyed, like, yesterday but the Logos guy isn’t budging: he said he’ll take care of the Far East business and trusts Djibril knows what that means.
At length Djibril agrees, proclaiming he never once thought to oppose him. With that, they both leave to enjoy some upcoming fireworks.
“It is with tremendous sorrow that the PLANTs hear of this unprecedented event – I, myself, am left speechless face the disaster that struck the world over. I understand that you may feel these wounds to cut too deep, and the sorrow to be unending, but I beseech you, our friends from Earth: pull through and overcome this dreadful day. We, as always, stand ready to help in any way the unimaginable distress you face,” he says.
The hell? He didn’t even explain what happened up there or all the work we did! Kenji isn’t happy but Goh figures this was hardly the time to announce any of that.
Comms are still down, so we couldn’t get in touch with JUDA; from what Arthur’s heard, our heading towards Japan was Reiji’s call. Rey wonders if the Minerva can afford a detour like that but, apparently, this was Talia’s decision as well as Cagalli’s request.
Either way, that’s all for the briefing so Arthur suggests we enjoy our break to its fullest.
Yuna knows but asks her if she could stand before the countless people who lost their homes, their loved ones, and tell them: “we know you’ve suffered much but we should still remain friends with the PLANTs”? Cagalli has no answer to that.
It won’t be long before word gets out that Coordinators were behind the colony drop. When it happens, Orb will need to decide which path it wishes to tread. Cagalli should think carefully on that.
By the coast of Onogoro Island…
: (Dad, mom, Mayu… I’ve come home.)
: Tweet, tweet!
: … (Kira)
: Hm…? That’s… it’s a memorial for the dead?
: By the looks of it, yeah. I don’t really know for sure, though…
: It’s my first time actually coming here, really…
: Are you a local?
: No… but I did lose many dear friends in that war.
: …
: The flowers are finally blooming…but they’ll wither away in the spray of the breaking waves…
: …Guess that means there’s no fooling them.
: Hm?
: No matter how beautiful the flowers bloom, people would just wipe them out again…
: Are you…?
: Sorry… for saying weird stuff like that.
: No, it’s not weird. People really should stop repeating the same mistakes – they should strive to create a world where these flowers could bloom forever.
: Yeah.
: … Well, I have to get going. Sorry if I bothered you.
: (What sad eyes he’s got… his heart must also have some deep scars…)
Is that intel trustworthy? Well, things are a bit too crazy for Talia to be 100% sure of who’s actually trustworthy but she thinks it is. With that in mind, despite our lack of orders, she commands the Minerva t set sail immediately.
Reiji wants everyone to get ready for a very likely battle but Talia is loath to have a neutral force like LOTUS get involved in this conflict. So she wants us to make ready to leave the ship if things go south.
Mission 7 (Rescue Route) – Chaotic World
The Minerva’s just about to leave Orb’s soil when Meyrin detects heat signals up ahead – Earth Alliance MSs, waiting for us smack-dab in the middle of Orb’s coastal waters. Worse, a bevy of Orb troops immediately flank us. Yuna tells the soldiers to relax and just do exactly as instructed.
The guys ain’t looking too happy but Yuna says that’s a ZAFT ship – an enemy of pretty much any Earth nation. Seems to Talia that Orb’s decided to make a small offering out of us and commands the ship’s MSs to get ready for combat. As for LOTUS, she wants us to get ready to launch and leave.
Talia tries getting in touch with the Alliance troops, saying the UN’s personal squadron is aboard and requesting that hostilities wait until we’ve left the ship… Or not – the Minerva gets blasted straight away.
Talking’s obviously not getting us anywhere, so Talia orders Shinn, Luna and Rey deployed. Shinn, of course, is pretty mad with what he’s seeing: “Is this how Orb does things now?! You let so many of us die in the last war just to uphold your ideals and now you’re going to throw those very ideals into the trash?!”
Trowa, with the Alliance, spots ZAFT’s prototype up ahead and figures this’ll make for a good opportunity to see what the new Mobile Armor’s capable of. Moreover, he needs to score some points with the army in order to close in on his target.
Luna recognizes Trowa’s unit as a Gundam and wonders what it’s doing with the Alliance. The thing’s loaded with a ton of guns and Rey knows it won’t be easy for them alone to break through the enemy line. Talia apologizes but we’ll have to make do with just these few troops.
Destroy everything, don’t lose the Mineva or Impulse. This one’s on the easier side because the Alliance is very much willing to hang back and let the Orb soldiers get wrecked by us first, so focus on the nearby troops.
As things pick up and the pincer attack breaks, start heading south and try to bunch your guys under command auras. Trowa and the new MA – the Zamza-Zah –are the bigger threats and, FYI, they’ve MAPW attacks so don’t keep your units bunched up. If anything, they’re not too accurate.
At the very least the standard Orb M1 Astrays and Murasames are kinda crappy.
: The hell is Orb thinking, siding with the Earth Alliance?!
: Can the Athhas not take care of anything?!
Shinn: ”You’ll get no mercy from me if you’re at the Alliance’s camp!”
Just keep your guys inside Talia’s command aura.
: They already had this many troops lying in wait… does this mean Orb intentionally leaked that intel?
: What’s wrong with you?! Are you really accusing us of being buddies with those terrorists?!
: Actually, they’re didn’t even give us time to get a word in edgewise…!
Rey falls just short of a kill but Luna brings it home.
Finally, Talia’ll finish what Shinn started.
: Our path of retreat is cut off, so we’ll need to break through their lines and then escape!
Bam.
Enemy Phase!
And, of course, Talia and her high HP make for a very tempting target: she gets jumped by a ton of things, scoring there kills and weakening many others. Luna manages to bag a kill, too.
Player Phase!
The ZAFT forces are getting overwhelmed and Kenji wants to get out there to help. Again, Talia says she won’t bring us into this battle but Kenji doesn’t want to sit on his hands when the other side started this. Plus, the Minerva crew tried their hardest to save Earth and Ichitaka really doesn’t care for how these guys attacked without even giving them a chance to explain what happened.
Shizuna is also plenty pissed with Orb for pulling this stunt – she’s very much as outraged as Shinn – and while Izuna doesn’t want to think that Cagalli went back on her word, Orb’s actions are certainly a departure from the norm.
Iczer-1 has an idea what happened: “I can feel Cagalli’s sorrow… I think things moved past the point where she could contain them by herself.” Goh is more pragmatic, saying there’ll be no one to stop this insane war if we all get dropped here.
If everyone’s on the same page, then Reiji already knows what to do and makes a loud announcement through all channels: “The Minerva’s crew is deemed by us to be material witnesses to the recent terrorist attack. And, as such, we’ll now take it upon ourselves to deploy and keep them safe!”
It’s a bit of a stretch but it’ll work; and with that, the ship’s officially under LOTUS’ protection. Reiji does ask that we try to minimize hostilities as much as can be (to make it easier to justify this) – the priority is escaping the area.
With that in mind, as our guys deploy (to Shinn’s slight surprise), Talia points out the escape route. Ichitaka’s ready to clear out anyone who tries getting in the way – if that don’t sound too good, they better run off!
Now that’s much better. You should know that Ichitaka and his Laplace Wall are the Gundam mooks’ worst nightmare because so many of their weapons are energy-based, so you oughta let him lead the charge.
Reiji too, with his command aura.
Easy money.
Yagyuu and Iczer-1’s team stay up top to help clear the Orb guys – their MSs are very easily twoshoted by everyone.
Kenji nabs an easy kill and Goh moves for the survivor.
Meanwhile, Talia hangs up here to oneshot mooks.
She learns Trust and Support Defense L2 while at it.
Shinn and Rey are on clean-up duty for everything the Minerva weakened previous turn.
Enemy Phase!
And here they come.
Ichitaka: “This isn’t gonna fly… That guy’s way faster than us!”
Alice: “Fight on, Ichitaka! Make up for that difference with your spirit!”
She’s learning how to Super Robot, indeed. 
And, by the by, this was the most recurring battle scene in the entire mission: the AI was fixated on Ichitaka, kept on attacking (recharging the Rushbird’s EN) and he’d either oneshot on the counter or leave the mook so weak that Miu would finish it off.
Just on this first turn Ichitaka scored 4 kills and Miu got 2, boosting her Prevail and Support Defense.
Up top, the Orb troops are dropping like flies. Shinn got one, Talia got two, can Luna get one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hlueK8Tp88
Aaay!
Player Phase!
Alright, last couple of Murasames.
Last one falls to Rey.
With Ichitaka having cut the enemy’s vanguard down to size, we now go to town.
Shizuru gets it. Following that: two to Reiji/Shizuna, two to Goh/Mira, one to Yamashita/Tetsuya…
Only reason I’m holding back a bit is to draw in Trowa.
: How can you go and call a nuclear strike just like that…?! Do you want a war this badly?!
Ichitaka keeps ahead, though, to torment the second wave of Daggers and Windams.
Here goes the last one of the first wave.
Yup.
Enemy Phase!
Here comes Trowa!
: (Things have gotten really hectic with the Alliance as well. Still, the least I can do is try and check what ZAFT’s new battleship can do.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5Ez0fP_tNg
Ichitaka: “Set our thrusters and left hand output to 80% and 70%, respectively!”
Alice: “U-Understood… more or less!”
The Heavyarms is meant to be tanky but it’s still an MS. Also, Ichitaka nabs another 2 kills.
Player Phase!
Let’s get rid of Trowa now before he MAPWs us.
: The pilot of this unit is Trowa Barton. Then you’re a Preven—
: You’ve the wrong man. I’m not Trowa.
: Why’s a Gundam with the Earth Alliance?! You’re supposed to be a symbol of colonial freedom, so shouldn’t you be on the PLANTs’ side?!
: Sorry but I’m just a nameless soldier who got picked up by the Alliance. As for the Gundam, I found it.
And done.
Oh, cool.
Trowa now sees why “that man” is wary of us; he figures he needs to hurry or “she” might be in danger.
He leaves and Talia stops Shinn before he can run down the Gundam – we can’t pursue right now. Shinn doesn’t understand why Orb and the Gundam sided with the Alliance.
I know Reiji said to prioritize escaping, but screw it – let’s just spread out and clean house as there are only a handful of mooks left. Like Trowa, let the Zamza-Zah come to you and swarm it.
Here’s the rundown:
: The Minerva’ll be a sitting duck if we let this monster get its claws on it! I can’t let it through – no matter what!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbx7KbwNyUQ
: Nagisa… I’ll stand and fight, in the defense of both your home, Japan, and of this planet!
: Good or bad, I always get even, ya hear?! So grit your teeth ‘cause it’s payback time!
: This battle’s the Zamza-Zah’s showcase! I can’t let things get any worse!
The Zamza-Zah charges after Shinn!
: Urk! What the—?!
: That’s an anti-Darius unit, huh? So what! We’ll see how this overhyped MS handles the Zamza-Zah!
: Claws, deployed! Your weak frame’ll be scrap metal by the time I’m done!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a13RNmX9jxg
: GAAAAH!!
: Aw, crap, he got him good!
: Shinn!
: I’m… I’m not…!!
: Haaaaaaah!!
Shinn: “I’m not dying like this!!”
: Wh-What?! Gwaaaaaargh!!
: Shinn, are you alright?!
: Yeah, don’t worry about me. Keep opening a path to the Minerva!
And so we did, Ichitaka nabbing another couple of kills. Here are the convos we missed against the Zamza-Zah:
: Just gonna keep this thing at bay and the Minerva’ll have a way easier time making a run for it! Pinning tactics, Alice!
: Right, let’s go and grapple it into submission! Our strength should be plenty to match it!
–
: This unit’s dependency on its defensive gear is as clear as day. And pilots of this caliber cannot stand up to my Vardant!
–
: I might not be able to take this thing on with raw power but I can with mobility!
The ship reaches the evac point, so Talia recalls everyone and orders full speed ahead.
Talia understands her situation and is nonetheless grateful for her help. And while Une can’t help us overtly right now, they need only ask if they need anything. Well, at the moment, Talia would only like Une to send her regards to the SMS folks if she stops by the Frontier Fleet – she didn’t like how abruptly she left them with all that went down.
Lady Une’ll handle it and, with that, signs off. Reiji thanks Talia for the help she’s given us – short-lived as this might’ve been – and she’ll only asks us to stand firm in our defense of world peace. An odd thing to ask when war’s breaking out, yes, but still.
: Sucks that you need to take off – we barely just met.
: Yeah… I would’ve liked to talk with Athrun again, too.
: And what’re you going to do once you’re back in Japan?
: We’ll just keep an eye out, hoping our glaring’ll stop folks from trying to take advantage of this mess.
: And I do got a bunch of personal stuff to take care of, like helping Alice with her adjustments or getting in touch with a missing friend of mine.
: Well, there’s a lot riding on LOTUS’ shoulders, so you keep up the good work, Ichitaka.
: I-I will. Thanks.
: Yo, Ichitaka, why’re you getting all red for?
: W-What’dya mean “why”?! Wouldn’t you get a bit bashful if a girl like Lunamaria cheered you on some?!
: Psh, a legit cool guy will never, ever, lose his poker face.
: Really, now? Show me how it’s done, then, sensei!
: “Sensei”? … Well, whatever works. Now let’s see…
: I’m counting on you, Yamashita.
: …
: Well, dang. He didn’t even flinch.
: Hrm, that’s kinda annoying, actually! What about you, Shinn? Feel anything?
: How should I know?!
: Heh, you see what I meant now?
: Wow, you really weren’t kidding…
: Yamashita, we’re getting ready to leave. I need your help with a few things.
: Y-Yes, sir! Gladly!
: Look at that huge smile…
: Didn’t think he had it in him, getting all giddy like that…
: Ichitaka! Yamashita’s displaying symptoms of—
: Don’t say it… though I can’t really say you’re wrong on this one.
The situation’s currently calm since things ended with no harm done but the people are understandably angry. Still, considering what LOTUS did today, will the PLANTs agree to support them? Durandal is more than willing to make it happen, but, first, they must restore order in the homeland – if not, they’re risking other incidents like Junius Seven.
The PLANTs need to rise above the present hardships and, with that in mind, Durandal’s cooked a little something up.
: We’ve reached Lacus Clyne’s home. Remember: the orders are to eliminate her, no matter the cost! Open fire!
: Their on-foot crew didn’t fly, so now they’re attacking with mobile weapons…? The underground bunker can’t take this for long.
: They’re coming after me, I think…
: But why now? (Chandra)
: It’s not that strange, when you consider all the terrorist groups the world over. (Newman)
: Word around the grapevine is that those terrorists are laying low for now, though…! (Miriallia)
: … I might not have a choice…
: These are the seeds of peace. You will not burn them away.
: It’s… a Gundam?!
: Stealth disengaged. Shifting to combat mode.
The distinctively not-Mobile Suit unit blasts away.
: Locked on target.
: We’ve found one at last…!
: Damn, we’ve interceptors! Shift to plan B!
The MSs start closing in on the orphanage but the Gundam stops them.
: Zero predicted you’d do that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ3Bf6fRynY
Heero: “I won’t turn the other cheek to those who’d deny peace.”
Mook: “Wh-What’s the Wing Zero doing here?! Gwaaaaaargh!”
Heero: “Mission Accomplished…”
: Rrgh, fire! Fire! Destroy them all!
: Aah!
: Lacus!
The Straybird intercepts the other group.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuupjwkN0xc
Yuu: “That unit is working with ZAFT…?!”
Haruno: “We can make sense of this later, Yuu.”
: Your party’s come to an end.
: Data collection complete… and, unfortunately, the enemy’s looking like a drone. Should I move to at least recover the wreck after it is downed?
: That’s your call. First order of business is dealing with the other MSs.
: Do you copy, Gundam pilot? We are not your enemy. Repeat, we are not your enemy.
: Understood – neither am I.
: Grr… Bring out the backup troops!
: They’re going all-out… this might take a while.
: The future won’t turn out as you expect.
: What?
: That’s…!
: Th-The Freedom?!
: …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7qdwvKKTnE
“I’ll fight with the Freedom again… to protect Lacus and our peace!”
All enemies get blasted and sink into the ocean.
: Damn it…! Just as we’d finally found a clue—!
: No, he missed any and all vital parts. If that was actually intentional, then it was nothing short of amazing.
: This is the future he chose, hm?
: This battle’s over. Please surrender.
: We… we can’t carry on… But we won’t lose what’s left of our honor!
Everything blows up – the different unit included.
: They self-destructed?!
: Urk… why?
: …
Beep.
: This is…! Relena’s…?
: Is something wrong? Um… Heero Yui, wasn’t it?
: Kira Yamato… You’ve someone you want to rescue, don’t you? Then do it. I won’t stand in the way of you living true to your heart.
: He’s gone…
: Wow, who would’ve expected the Wing Zero to come around here…?
: And you, pilot of the black unit. Do you hear us?
: Our thanks for saving us. If you’re willing to tell what you’re after, we could help you in return.
: There was an unknown unit in that MS group – we were chasing after it.
: Yuu, there might still be something we can use. Let’s go and pick up the wreckage.
The Straybird dives where the unknown bot blew up.
: I don’t suppose you know anything about that mech?
: Sorry, but we’d never seen anything like it before today
: I don’t think it’s a ZAFT model, though… Some secret force, maybe?
: I don’t know. But whoever they are, they’re very good at covering their tracks.
: What will you be doing now, then?
: I also have someone I want to rescue. So I’ll just be following my own path.
The Straybird pops its camo and vanishes.
: Sorry, Murrue… I need to get going as well. Cagalli’s waiting for me.
: Kira?!
Kira’s business is over by the wedding, which is already underway. And, by the by, Cagalli’s tears are of happiness. Of course, of course. But the whole ceremony goes to hell when the Freedom flies over and quickly nabs Cagalli.
The panicking Yuna demands the thing shot down and his wife rescued, but the troops can’t well start blasting lest they hit the girl. Kira brings Cagalli into the cockpit (nice dress!) and, despite her protests, tells her to hang on.
They fly out into the ocean and dock inside the surfacing Archangel. Kira suggests Murrue that we book it – we’ll need some time to figure out what’s distorting this world. That was quite the crazy stunt he pulled there but Kira couldn’t just sit back and let Cagalli cry.
But she’s a head of state – do they not see the problem with them kidnapping her? Still, Cagalli’ll have to save this talk for after their escape. Off goes the Archangel.
Is she siding with the PLANTs? Because that’d be a bad idea. Djibril tells her to look at the current state of the world and, furthermore, the PLANTs broke the Junius Treaty first when they developed unsanctioned anti-Darius weapons. Or did she think he wouldn’t notice that?
Moreover, it was thanks to LOTUS’ intervention that the Minerva managed to evade capture. Way Djibril sees it, not only does Une not have a right to bitch at him about that, she should be the one facing an inquiry and being held accountable.
If the bill passes without any issue, Une will not only let the attack on LOTUS slide as an unfortunate accident due to the comm interference, she’ll also deem the failed nuclear strike as the reckless actions of the on-site commander, based solely on unconfirmed intel.
“I sincerely hope you’ll strive to make wise, pondered decisions regarding not only this matter but also any future endeavors. And, with that, I believe our business is done. Good day,” Lady Une signs off (likely dropping a mic over by her office).
Djibril, almost certainly making this face, growls at the phone but quickly recomposes himself. Once the old men have been forced off stage, and both the offworlders and monsters are dealt with, he’ll put her in her place.
Bit of a fun note about this stage.
It’s where this picture came from, many years ago.
Ichitaka raises the point that while the Mechabeasts are gone, we’re now under siege by the Darius and Cthulhu and whatnot, but Tetsuya reminds him that people NEEDED to band together in order to survive as the war had just ended and everywhere was in shambles. Not anymore, and so folks are raring for another go. Is there no way to stop war from breaking out, then?!
Jun believes that Durandal would try for as long as he can to settle things via dialogue and Daiya also believes folks like Cagalli and Relena, down on Earth, will help maintain peace. But, Alice wonders, what will LOTUS do if war does actually happen? Same we’ve been doing thus far, says Tetsuya: we’ll fight and protect the Earth Sphere from any threat. Hmm…
Consider: who would be capable of opposing them once the PLANTs are gone? The common folk always loved having a nice, tranquil, controlled spot to settle down – all this time they’ve been working so hard building towns, utensils and rules to try and make it so. And now Logos has the major opportunity to “reorganize” the crap out society, paving the way for a new, marvelous world order!
Fine, fine, Logos Guy will have a fleet sent from the moon ASAP but he wants the announcement made sooner.
Would that kind of argument placate the enraged masses, though? Relena thinks she could convince them, yes, and even Djibril admits that someone with her charisma could pull it off… which makes what he’s about to show her kind of awkward.
Show’s about to begin, so why doesn’t she grab a seat and watch this live transmission of the PLANTs-bound fleet with him? “We’ll be seeing some beautiful fireworks shortly. Why not relax and enjoy the spectacle?”
Mission 7 (Retreat Route) – The Wind Blowing Through the Proud Fang
Our folks (including the Quarter) arrive in the fleet’s path, and Lady Une reports that while she’s been ordering them to stand down, there’s no response. Yzak, Heine and Dearka took a ride on the Quarter and Durandal wants them to handle this as peacefully as can be; of course, Yzak knows, that depends entirely on the Alliance being willing to pull back without a fuss.
Mishima relates some Alliance troops closing in on the Frontier but the NUNS is on standby to engage if necessary – the SMS should focus solely on the PLANTs’ defense. Seems like the fleet’s also on their blacklist. That said, Mishima notes that this is solely a self-defense affair and we’re to limit our attacks on the enemy. He doesn’t want to further stoke the flames of war, and neither does the president.
Ozma confirms, mad that we got dragged into this right as we were still refueling from our previous patrol. Klan didn’t expect to be fighting humans like this but Kenichi sees clearly who’s in the wrong here. And here they come!
The officer in charge wastes no time giving the order to attack, and a bevy of missiles are launched from his vessels – missiles Yzak quickly tags as nuclear warheads. Are these people insane? Puria calls foul, remembering that the use of nuclear weapons against fellow humans was banned by the Junius Treaty.
Indeed, Une confirms it’s a clear violation which is why we can’t let it pass; she gives us the order to attack and destroy the missiles, but to not engage any of the other units. Even if they attack us?! Ours is a neutral organization and, as such, we’ve no legal ground to fight the Alliance beyond neutralizing their treaty-violating salvo. Une knows it’s an unreasonable demand but asks that we obey.
Tetsuya suggest Ichitaka retreat if he’s not feeling confident, as we won’t have leeway to worry about rookies on this one. He’s not, of course: “I wouldn’t have any right to be here if I didn’t do something – anything.” Hyouma likes it but he’s gotta remember to come back alive as well!
Dearka, meanwhile, is pleasantly surprised that LOTUS is also joining the SMS in helping the PLANTs, but Yzak isn’t one to complain with all these incoming missiles. Heine, however, is keeping an eye out to see which of these two groups could potentially be the actual threat to the PLANTs.
Michel reminds Princess Alto not to go too crazy with these touchy enemies but he ain’t listening – rather, he’ll bag more than him! Kosuke marks the line behind us as the limit: any missiles get through and their explosions will hit the PLANTs even if they’re brought down. We can’t let a single one by and Ichitaka asks Alice to keep an eye on both the enemy and the missiles’ position. She promises to give this her absolute best.
Mission Objective: Shoot down all nuclear missiles
Mission Failure: Any allied unit destroyed, any Alliance unit attacked or any missile reaches the marked line.
This mission’s a bit of an odd one but it can be pretty easy if you approach it the right way. Our sole priority is the missiles and they’ll be making a beeline for their target - there’s plenty of debris in the way to slow down a few of them but they are still quite numerous and we haven’t all that many troops.
What do we do, then? First off, you’ll want to set everyone by the Quarter inside the ship and have them catch a lift over the frontlines. Second, and here’s the more important part: the missiles can actually attack. And it works exactly as you expect, with them exploding by someone. This’ll wreck the missile (even if it misses), so if you can’t outright kill one, set someone to trigger the attack and force the thing to blow up.
Three things to worry about: they’ll only do it at point-blank, it has 9999 attack power and +99 in accuracy modifiers, so it’ll HURT and be very accurate. Whoever’s going for an explosion, make sure they’re protected (Iron Wall works decently, provided you don’t overdo it).
The missile AI will never target anyone unless that unit is at the edge of its movement range and, really, it’s safer that way. Have the Quarter team deal with the missiles dead ahead while the forward troops split up to take the east and western wings of the salvo.
…And, really, that’s it. The Alliance guys will eventually start attacking but you can only dodge/defend against them. Spread out, be make liberal use of your spirit commands, don’t underestimate the missiles’ movement range and don’t be afraid to have someone eat a nuke on the chin.
With that in mind, let’s simply handle this in a big montage:
: Ready to go, Michel? Now I know you can’t see me from there, but do try not to cry.
: Zip it, Klan! That was ages ago!
: Hah, now you look ready to fight. Take care out there, Michel.
: …! Bah, I never learn.
: This is Rabbit-1, missile in sight! Engaging!
: That one there’s that “Voltes V” bot, yeah? We can’t let them show us up!
: Hell, yeah! That’s the way!
: Oh, Hyouma… and you shouldn’t be enabling him, Juzo.
: It’s not too bad. Bit of competition is just what a guy like Hyouma needs to bring out his best.
: How can you go and try nuking people like it’s nothing? Are you people even human?!
: We’re never gonna beat the Darius and the Mimetic Beasts if we don’t manage to get together!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GdGlpowLaQ
That’s a big explosion!
: Damn it, the last thing I wanted was to get dragged into other people’s fights…!
: That’s war – it drags everyone into it, whether they like it or not. Should you have joined the SMS if you don’t even know that?
: I do know!
: Good, then. Let’s go and wrap this up quick!
: You’re really trying to cause another tragedy like that?! Is that seriously what you want?!
: I’m taking all these nukes down – they won’t even scratch the PLANTs paintjob on my watch!
: Even in a parallel world, humans are still turning on each other…
: Well, you know what they say: “when in Rome, do as Romans.” No way around this.
: Maybe we should ask the Combattler V’s pilots about how things work in this world after this is over?
: Those guys got a nice look to them. My gut says we could be fast friends.
: We’ve fought a bunch of guys so far but having to do it while holding back this much is a first. Still, we gotta go for it!
: Of all the stupid…! Even if your nukes did hit the PLANTs, all you’d get is everyone stuck in another war!
: You wanna kill these people just ‘cause you don’t like them? What are you, six? Grow the hell up!
: I’m also part of the SMS… Whatever mission I’m given, I’ll see it through!
With all his missiles gone, the officer in charge gets pissed and retreats. Daiya starts cheering, though Canaria finds that this was TOO easy. Think they got something else in store? Who knows. Alice had a bit of a hard time keeping track and prioritizing all those targets but she’s bound to feel worn out until her AI’s done growing. Kouji suggests she rest for the day.
Ozma calls everyone back, not wanting to raise any more eyebrows with our presence here, but should we head back to the Space Station or join Lady Une at the PLANTs? Wait, never mind that, Luca’s detecting something else!
A bunch of nukes spawn way behind us and without any warning – the Alliance apparently had some outfitted with Mirage Colloid stealth and they were moving by inertia to avoid detection! The things blow past us and there’s no way we can reach and stop them all in time.
Are we about to have another Blood Valentine, Yzak dreads? Alto and Michel are about to step on the gas when a voice says they needn’t worry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxmZD51zhJw
Aay, it’s Zechs Marquise and Lucrezia Noin and they wreck the bunch with three seconds to spare, even. Ichitaka’s blown away by the MS’s speed and the ZAFT folk recognize the Tallgeese, personal machine of the Lightning Count (been a long time since anyone called him that).
They’re ex-Preventers and returned from Mars after they realized that things were getting out of control on Earth. And, bonus, this meant Zechs could postpone his chess game with Noin for a bit… only, no, she actually remembers exactly how the board looked when they stopped. But they can start over from scratch if he prefers. “Fine, Noin… I concede that my defeat was glaringly obvious. Now can you please let this go?” Zechs groans.
Ichitaka’s very impressed with the two, having this otherworldly aura around them. Une is very glad to have them back and reassigns Zechs his usual Preventer Wind codename; he and Noin are also readily available to join LOTUS and help in their fight for peace.
Mishima gets in touch once again and praises Jeffrey on his victory. As for the Frontier, the Alliance has backed out and the government has decided how they’ll react to this. They’ve just finished talking with Une and Durandal (pending a lengthier chat with Une), having chosen to maintain the Frontier’s cooperation with the PLANTs.
Ozma asks if this means they’ll have a war on their hands but, again, Mishima says this is solely in the interest of self-defense – they don’t want any war. Ozma quietly sniffs that what they’re doing is leeching off the PLANTs, but whatever. What are we to do next, then? Mishima says the Frontier Fleet is moving deeper into PLANTs’ airspace, so he asks Jeffrey to rendezvous with them there.
Cathy wonders if it’s wise to move the fleet without trying to talk things out with Earth, but Mishima reminds her that obeying the local government’s order to stand by only got them shot. They won’t sit quietly and be targeted, and that’s not even mentioning the fact that there was only seven hours and two minutes left on the deadline they gave the fleet (and please don’t call him Leon when they’re working). Fine…
Une tells LOTUS to stick with the Quarter and head towards the Frontier – she’ll be doing the same, shortly. Kouji asks if it’s really OK for us to board the Macross and while Une’ll withhold details for now, she says it’ll be more convenient that way.
As everyone starts coming aboard, Cathy’s a bit bothered with how events are developing. This doesn’t sound like her father’s doing – rather, it all reeks of Mishima’s shady deals. Heine and the others will be returning to the PLANTs, grateful for Jeffrey and LOTUS’ help today; as they leave, Heine ponders that we might warrant a bit of attention.
Relena tells him to ramble on, as she’ll be bringing this to the UN’s attention and it won’t be long before his evil is exposed for all to see. Djibril throws a hissy fit of how this bint will NOT stop his plans and calls in an Alliance soldier to take her away. He’ll use any and all means to exterminate the Coordinators.
He has Relena locked in a guest room but orders the soldiers to treat her well – she’s got a lot of clout on the UN and could be useful against potential obstacles. If she gets uppity, just give her a sedative or something.
Indeed, Daisaku remembers how much of a worrywart Hyouma can be for the team – that’s doubly true when Chizuru’s involved, Juzo adds. As Hyouma flushes, Puria quips that you know folks are good friends when they’re ribbing each other like that.
The Daiku Maryu crew is also like that, though Dick had made things a bit more strained for a while; he’s not so much of a prick after hanging out with Daiya, though. Ichitaka knows what she’s getting at: when you talk with Daiya, it’s like your heart’s awash with purity. “Yo! What am I, detergent?”
Lady Une finally walks in and her talks with the Frontier have just properly finished: the fleet’s agreed to ask for our help as a way to safeguard their own political position. That is to say, LOTUS is being put forth as the ones responsible for running surveillance on the Frontier Fleet. If they do anything untoward, it’ll be our mission to shut it down. Finally, considering the SMS’s involvement in recent events, they’re also being reassigned to working with us (though it might be temporary).
Wait, isn’t that pretty much treating the Frontier Fleet like criminals and we’re the jailers? Yes, but that was the compromise that the UN could reach with Howard and Mishima. Zechs suggest Daiya look at it the other way around: by having us keep tabs on the fleet, they’ll be safe from more hostile people.
As Ranka apologizes, Chizuru hears Nagisa’s name and gets a strange déjà vu. Hey, does Alice remember the face of that comatose girl at JUDA? Don’t these two kinda look really alike? “Hmm, now that you mention it, they certainly do… Then again, it’s said that every person has at least two others throughout the word that share his or her face, so I see no problems at all with that!” she says. But having the same name? Is that just a freak coincidence?
Either way, Ichitaka tells a curious Nagisa that we’re LOTUS, not ZAFT, and (as luck would have it!) Michel and Luca say they got stuck playing tour guides again.
Can I just say, again, that I really love how L used the multiverse thing to juxtapose the two Nagahamas in this game and the two Iczer partners? That’s not quite all they did with it, but it’s really well done, the sort of thing you’d hope to see out of AUs that SRW sadly doesn’t do as much of as it should (though I like how V got into discussions on how there were two different UC Gundam timelines and the incompatibilities and compatibilities between them, and a few of the things the Z series did too were neat… really the only game that totally misuses it is OE I guess, and that mainly because fucking OE.)
Also that Zechs joins first of the Wing guys. Though L in general is pretty cool about Wing - you’ll be getting another pilot pretty soon, though if you’ve been following the plot you should be aware of this, and then some of the later things you get are cool (no Treize or Mercurius/Vayate or whatever, but it is just EW so their hands are somewhat tied… they still do more with it than most games do.)
Also RIP Yzak and Dearka’s mechs, you’ll be missed. What will not be missed are Yzak and Dearka, who will be around later. And will bring along some REALLY COOL SHIT with them.
