Robot 101 is essential curriculum - Let's Play Super Robot Wars L

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

Back at the Minerva, Meyrin reports Junius Seven picking up speed. Talia’s orders are to call the Mobile Suits back – the ship’ll head into the atmosphere after the falling colony to try and blast it with the Tannhäuser.
Arthur’s a bit queasy with that plan and while Talia isn’t sure how well this’ll work, she’s still going for it: “Simply watching it fall, knowing that I might’ve been able to do something, would leave a terrible aftertaste in my mouth.”

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.

Out in space, Yzak’s crew has received the info on the Minerva’s plan. Heine approves of their selfless persistence and wishes they could lend a hand.
We’ve all done everything we could, though, so now we just pray for their success, Dearka thinks.

The Quarter has also been briefed and Jeffrey’s impressed – we should also help with that.
What does he have in mind? Well, we’re still in good range to fire the Macross Cannon. There’s no time to charge it fully but it’s better than nothing. Sounds good to Bobby, eager to give Junius Seven a spanking.

Back to space, Reiji’s requesting Lady Une to allow LOTUS to follow the Minerva and head with them into the atmosphere – we might, at least, be able to minimize damage from the colony drop that way.
That’s fine with her, though she’s also worried that the terrorists might try something else if left unchecked. We can’t send all our troops back to the surface and Reiji, having already thought of that, will only be bringing the JUDA, Build, Dannar Teams and Iczer-1 with him. Everyone else will stay up here.
Une chuckles at his foresight and asks him to send her regards to the Minerva crew.

Quick message to Talia and she thanks Reiji for the assist, asking Meyrin to bring in the LOTUS units before their descent.
Long-range comms will be disabled once Phase 2 starts, so we need to hurry.

: 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…)

And here’s our first route split of the game. Top option is to stay and rescue the Mobile Suits, while the bottom is to do as told and leave the area.
We’ll be doing both paths, as usual, but here’s how the series are split:

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!)

If Ichitaka complies with the orders to pull back, Reiji tells him to have faith in the two pilots: one’s a veteran from the war two years ago and the other is FAR more skilled than Ichitaka.
They better leave before the Rushbird gets too close to Earth and Reiji promises that his group’ll destroy Junius Seven.

Far away, Hyouma spots Ichitaka’s arrival and the kid’s quick to apologize for running off by himself. As for Junius Seven, it’s looking like the Quarter is about to shoot it again – after that, it’ll all be up to the Minerva and our other crew.
Ichitaka sees that the Macross guys aren’t the evil enemies that Blue Cosmos’ propaganda had been saying. Still, Kosuke notes that their technology IS incredibly advanced and even if some people see that as a threat, he’s just amazed. Tetsuya says something can be deemed a threat only after means and motive are brought together – on the other hand, some people looking to fan those flames are showing up here and there.
The Quarter blasts Junius Seven and, indeed, it broke the thing apart… but that only means we’ve avoided the worst-case scenario. Kosuke still expects the fragments to deal enormous damage throughout the surface.

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.

Finally, Une calls up the Quarter and thanks them for the help today – it was only with their help that Earth avoided its complete destruction. Jeffrey gives her the old “just doing our job” and recalls the Skull and Voltes Teams for them to head back to the Frontier.
Cathy’s deep in thought, however, pondering how the SMS were the only ones the president’s office bothered dispatching for this mess. However much the NUNS forces are needed to safeguard the fleet, it is very strange that none were sent to help. And that’s especially true since she’d expect an ambitious man like Mishima to jump at the chance to show their military’s strength to everyone else.

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.

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

Here we are with the Minerva team. With a handful of our Supers up top, Iczer-1 and Goh are now tied as our top ace, with Reiji one kill beneath them.

I spend some of our cash giving Ichitaka some boosts in everything, plus a bit of HP to Shizuru and Tetsuya Kouji.

Our losses shuffled our teams around some. Here’s how we’re going:
Ichitaka/Miu
Jeeg/Kyo
Yagyuu
Yamashita/Tetsuya
Iczer-1/Shizuru
Goh/Mira
Reiji/Shizuna

Yagyuu can handle herself well enough to fly solo and the upcoming enemies aren’t that hardy.
Off we go.

The Minerva’s just entered the atmosphere and reached flight altitude, Meyrin unable to give Talia a read from the sensors – the falling debris’ generating too much interference.
Regardless, she asks them to run laser and heat sensors to try and find Shinn, Athrun and the LOTUS unit. Only thing we can do now is hope that they’re managing to descend safely.

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!

Back to the Minerva, Meyrin pings them nearby – everyone’s still safe.
Talia tells Arthur to direct them with their signal lamp. We need to get them onto the Minerva lest they crash into the ocean.

And we make it, thankfully. Athrun’s in one piece, much to Cagalli’s relief – was she worried? “Worried, who? Not at… well, maybe a little… OK, a lot! What the hell were you thinking, taking an MS out there just like that, you huge idiot?!” Well, he’s very apologetic at least, as is Shinn for worrying Luna and Rey. Things got a bit dicey out there but the Impulse helped him make it through.
Just the Impulse, Rey pokes him? No, the LOTUS unit also helped a bunch. Speaking of, Ichitaka is off in a sectioned part of the hangar – even if the Minerva’s slated to work with the UN, the situation isn’t exactly one where he could walk freely around the ship. Hell, Lunamaria also points out that if the PLANTs are deemed enemies of Earth, they might end up having to fight us.
Shinn knows what she’s getting at: it was Coordinator hands behind the Junius Seven drop. The PLANTs were finally starting to be accepted by the rest of the world but that’s likely to mess things up a lot.

The rest of LOTUS soon meets up with Ichitaka and Yamashita was very worried – and appalled that he went against an order from Reiji. Not like he could’ve just turned the other cheek there but, more importantly, he wants to know if there isn’t anyone around here who could take a look at Alice. She pretty much crashed under the previous strain.
Athrun’s nearby and is rather surprised to find out that she’s an android. He thanks Ichitaka for the assist out there and thinks he might be able to help Alice out a bit – he may not look the part but he’s rather tech-savvy.

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.

Following a quick introduction, he explains that what Shinn wanted to say is that while this might’ve been a terrorist act, the culprits were still Coordinators. Rey can already imagine what the ex-Earth Alliance folks may be bellowing about the PLANTs now. Thus, this isn’t merely Athrun’s problem.
Shizuru and Yagyuu understand, knowing that they’ll use this to try and remove the PLANTs from the UN and/or push the more hotheaded people, of which there are plenty, on a quest for payback. Worst comes to worst, Izuna fears another war might break out – despite the fact that humanity already has enough problems to deal with without us turning on each other.
Cagalli is sure that if she just explains everything, the people will understand what happened – she, Orb’s Representative, saw it all with her own eyes. It will NOT trigger another war. “You actually think the world’ll shift over just your idealistic bunk?!” Shinn yells and Cagalli counters right away: “Better than trying to shift it without any ideals whatsoever!”

Thankfully, Alice walks in right then and apologizes for the worry she caused. She’s 100% back now – no problems at all! Thank goodness Athrun was around, as her thought processes were on the verge of shorting out for good. It was no trouble, of course, especially considering he owed them. Besides, he only helped cool her off and reboot her systems.
He soon notices Shinn and Cagalli glaring at each other, though Shinn won’t say what’s what; all he does is grunt that Athrun could do way better than being bodyguard to someone like her. Right then, Meyrin calls Cagalli over to the bridge as Talia wishes to speak with her. She sets off, but not before asking Athrun to come see her later.
Miu rather saddened that things are going south as she figured the Naturals and Coordinators had chosen to coexist. Unfortunately, says Yagyuu, there are also people who don’t wish for that to happen – probably a truckload of those on the Naturals’ side, too.

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.

Still, Kenji remembers that both sides lost their kill-crazy leaders and, thanks to Relena, managed to settle their differences. What changed? Athrun says that the PLANTs’ entry into the new UN was mostly due to, one, the people being sick of war after witnessing the showdown at Libra and, two, the appearance of the Mechabeasts – new enemies to fight.
Nations across the world were broken in more ways than one after the conflict and no one could stand by themselves. That was then, though, and Tetsuya Kouji says, after the two years of military buildup, there are plenty of folks who wanna settle the score for good.

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.

A bit later, down by sea level, Meyrin STILL can’t get in touch with anyone, not even Orb or JUDA – Junius Seven’s debris have raised too thick a dust cloud. Nothing we can do about that but, if we can get close enough to Orb, Cagalli figures we’ll have other ways of getting in touch with them.
Sounds good to Talia and she orders the Minerva to set out towards Orb as soon as they’ve finished their checks. Cagalli apologizes for having to take a lift from us but Talia knows how important she is to her country – she’d best return ASAP. Reiji sees no issues with that, especially considering we need to take stock of our situation before deciding what to do.
If anything, Cagalli promises to make sure both the Minerva and LOTUS are well accommodated as a way of repaying our efforts in Earth’s defense.

By Djibril’s office, he’s on the phone with another Logos member and relaying some very interesting footage sent by the Phantom Pain (Neo and co.): what really happened with the fall on Junius Seven. More than enough to set the world in motion.
Djibril certainly didn’t expect such a card to land right in his lap but he’s more than willing to play it. No one who sees this footage will remain merciful and their indignation will forge an unbreakable bond between the people and Logos. “This time, we will slaughter them down to the very last – for our pure, blue world,” Djibril proclaims.

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.

Cut to Orb, Yuna Seiran’s being informed that the ship with Cagalli’ll be arriving soon. The brand new ZAFT model, yes? Quite the troubling ride she decided to return with. Still, they can’t well give the cold shoulder to the vessel that escorted their head of estate… for now.
For now? Oh, here she comes, so off goes the soldier to ready her reception.

At the Minerva’s briefing room, Isabelle is relaying news of the damage caused by Junius Seven (Tsubaki’s rather impressed with the hardworking reporter). Several cities across the globe were hit with fragments of the colony and the damage has been catastrophic – the entire planet is in a state of chaos, Izuna sees.
Still, Rey says that it could’ve been a whole lot worse if Junius Seven fell without us breaking it down soon. Right then, Isabelle reports breaking news: Durandal has released a press statement.

“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.

Arthur runs in and reports that we’ve been given permission to land in Orb – LOTUS included. Kenji is especially happy since he’s hungry as no one’s business. What is Orb’s traditional dish, even? Tsubaki has no idea, but, whatever it is, Kenji’ll be all over it.
He runs off – Tsubaki going with to make sure he doesn’t do anything crazy – and don’t even listen when Arthur protests that he’s got more stuff to tell. Kyo’ll relay it to them later, but the gist is that we won’t be staying in Orb for long: just enough to repair the Minerva and LOTUS’ units. Afterwards, it’s straight to Japan.

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.

Cut to Orb’s governmental palace, Cagalli’s getting some distressing news: the other nations of Earth have decided to form a new alliance without the PLANTs. Right now. When huge chunks of the world are in dire need of an organized relief effort.
Yuna says now is precisely the time for that, as the new treaty includes a clause for everyone to help with that. Indeed, this is all being done in the interest of efficiency – to unite all of Earth’s nations in the interest of rebuilding the damage caused. Why exclude the PLANTs, then, especially since Cagalli saw them help break down Junius Seven.

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…)

Back at Cagalli’s, she wants Athrun to head back to the PLANTs. She couldn’t persuade the other chiefs – they haven’t a whole lot of goodwill even for the Minerva. Orb is on the verge of forsaking its founding ideals and, if that happens, she wants at least him to be out there, fighting to protect the Earth Sphere.
In truth, Athrun had already given this idea some thought. He wants to meet with Durandal and see if he can do SOMETHING to help the world in any way. If things are allowed to continue unabated, humanity’ll lose sight of everything it’s done these past years.
Cagalli apologizes for putting him in this situation and Athrun’ll be leaving soon, having already done the paperwork to be replaced. Mind, there are still plenty of loose ends – some which he wants to tie up, some he doesn’t – but he needs to get going. Cagalli will only tell him to be careful and stay in touch, while Athrun wishes her to stay strong down here.

Cut to the Minerva’s briefing room, some time later, the talk on everyone’s mouths is the news of the Earth Alliance being reformed. One thing Saotome finds odd about all this is that movie showing that Coordinators were behind Junius Seven’s drop – where the hell did it come from?
Mira doesn’t know either, considering the only people who even knew about the terrorists doing their thing were us and the few ZAFT folk involved in the operation. Think there’s a traitor who leaked the intel? Who knows, but the fact is the video had a tremendous effect – Durandal’s attempted cover-up has backfired massively and the people are very angry.
Already the Alliance is proclaiming the event to be an act of war from the PLANTs and Ichitaka wonders if the UN can’t step in to calm things down. Nope, since the UN’s power players are precisely the nations that joined the Earth Alliance – they don’t care about the parliament’s approval or not. And with the public opinion being the way it is… yeah.

Things are interrupted when the alarm starts blaring, Meyrin declaring yellow alert. Talia gets on the mic and says intel just came in that the newly reformed Earth Alliance has decided to execute a nuclear strike against the PLANTs!
Goh’s appalled at how sudden it is and Reiji agrees – this is moving too fast. Most likely these people were only waiting for an opportunity to start a war again (Shinn isn’t happy). Meyrin then reports an encoded message from a “tiger” and Talia takes it. The PLANTs are already mobilizing and, by the look of things, Orb will soon do the same.

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.

By the Orb Army’s HQ, Yuna’s getting reports of the Minerva’s departure. He was expecting it and figures a speedy ship like that won’t take long to reach the designated area.
The officer reports that they’ve already gotten in touch with a certain group and preparations are finished. Good, Yuna’s eager to see how this’ll play out.

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.

Luna wants to know what happened to Shinn that he’d pull ace-level moves like that; even Kenji’s impressed, having thought he was really screwed when the enemy grabbed him. In truth, Shinn doesn’t really understand what happened there. One second he was desperately trying to find a way to survive that and, then, his mind suddenly cleared up.
Did he just flip out completely and connect with a desperate hit, Luna and Shizuna wonder. Shinn doesn’t think so but, regardless, Rey was very impressed with what he did today. Yamashita hopes this’ll dissuade the Alliance from coming after us and Ichitaka wonders what we’ll be doing now. Despite this victory, we still have plenty of problems all around.
Reiji figures the reason we were STILL unable to get in touch with JUDA was due to the Alliance’s warmongers jamming our calls. That said, he has an idea to turn this in our favor.

That’d be via Lady Une, who asks that we send all comm records available. In the meantime, she’s arranged for a carrier to come and give us a ride back to JUDA. Talia’s also gotten word that the other half of LOTUS helped stop the Alliance’s nuclear strike against the PLANTs. Was it really alright for us to do that?
Une tells her not to worry as the use of nuclear weapons was a clear violation of the Junius Treaty – we were well within our rights to intervene. That’s a relief to hear. Mind, while Une will be doing her best to assist the Minerva, she doubts she’ll be able to actually hold back the Earth Alliance.

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.

Cut to Aprillius One, the PLANTs capital colony, Durandal is on the phone with someone and working to set up a formal meeting. But calls will have to wait, as he’s got a visitor: the recently arrived Athrun.
He apologizes for taking the chairman’s time and Durandal wonders what he’d like to talk about. Junius Seven? The war? Both or, better put, about the Earth Sphere as a whole. A nondescript time later, Durandal understands how Athrun feels but the fact remains that the PLANTs were on the receiving end of a nuclear strike.

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.

He flips a switch and shows a video of “Lacus Clyne”, proclaiming her sorrow over the Junius Seven drop and the Earth Alliance’s attack. She shares in the people’s shock and indignation over, once again, being the target of nuclear weapons but she begs them to control their flaring spirits. If they lose control to their hatred, they’ll only beckon a new war.
Athrun’s gobsmacked but Durandal’s having this message transmitted across the colonies in the interest of calming the people’s anger. Of course, he figures Athrun, of all people, can see what’s up. Indeed, this isn’t Lacus. Durandal confesses to be a bit embarrassed over doing this but he needed the major strength of Lacus’ presence – just as he needs Athrun’s strength.

Back at Onogoro Island, Kira’s just returned to his home. He reports to Murrue that things are very busy throughout Orb now that they’ve officially joined up with the Earth Alliance. He didn’t expect this to come from the Junius Seven drop.
Waltfeld (with the scar) sees the world entering a state of flux and figures they made the right call to reassemble the Archangel crew.

Kira’s surprised to hear that but Lacus, the real one, says the whole crew was irked by the current state of things. Worse, Murrue says they’ve just received a letter from the Cagalli: she’s getting married.
Waltfeld doesn’t think something like this’ll do anything to appease the worrying populace but Lacus isn’t so sure. Cagalli’s marrying Yuna and the people will likely rally behind this union.
But that’ll have to wait, as the alarms go off – they’ve got some visitors, it seems.

In the waters near Orb, Haruno’s keeping the Straybird camouflaged while she and Yuu ponder their investigation in Orb. They couldn’t find anything significant, so where should they go next?
Yuu isn’t sure yet and, as the alarm sounds, Haruno pings several heat sources ahead.

: 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.

Over by Casa de Djibril, Lady Une’s just called and does take the time to thank him for speaking with her. It’s their first time chatting, even. But, regardless, what does the head of the UN’s own intelligence agency want with him? She’ll get straight to the point: what does Djibril have to say regarding not only the Alliance’s attack on LOTUS but, also, the attempted nuclear strike against the PLANTs – a clear violation of the Junius Treaty?
Djibril has “no idea” what she’s talking about, and begs she not take such an inimical stance towards Blue Cosmos that it extends beyond the confines of the parliament. Une sniffs that she’s well aware of how far Djibril’s influence reaches and figures he’s also aware that the Preventers are VERY good at their intelligence-gathering job.

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.

Sadly for him, no, that won’t be happening. LOTUS was acting well within our authority to protect the Minerva as key witnesses towards the Junius Seven drop. They what now? Maybe Djibril didn’t get the memo due to the MYSTERIOUS jamming that’s been going on but we have all that on record. Should she fax him a copy, maybe?
The Minerva’s crew has agreed to testify before the UN parliament… but, obviously, that’s depending on everyone, Blue Cosmos included, actually wanting to figure out the whole truth about the Junius Seven incident.
Djibril fumes, dropping his pretense of cordiality: “you’ll rue the day you turned against us.” Pipe down, lipstick boy, the lady’s talking. There’s a bill currently making rounds in the parliament to tolerate the Frontier Fleet’s presence – under surveillance, of course (ours, as we’ll see in the other path).

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.

Back at Aprillius, Durandal presents Athrun with a FAITH badge. It wouldn’t do to have him operate within the regular chain of command, right? With this, he’ll have the authority to act solely by his own beliefs.
Durandal takes him to be the kind of man who’ll stand by his convictions and fight when needed. Athrun hopes to be like that and Durandal is sure he can. Athrun’s to make use of the power he’s been given whenever he deems it proper – not in the name of ZAFT or the PLANTs, but of a peaceful world for everyone.
Durandal knows that sounds very grandiloquent but Athrun’s willing to take him on the offer. Now, he’ll first be rendezvousing with the Minerva as he has high hopes for both him and the ship. He thinks it might come to play a similar role to the Archangel’s in the previous war, and Athrun’s to give them a hand with that.

Meer thinks Athrun looks good in ZAFT’s traditional red coat and he, himself, is hoping she’ll do a fine job as Lacus’ replacement.
With that, Athrun boards his new Savior Gundam and flies off.

[Mattman324]

Bit of a fun note about this stage.

It’s where this picture came from, many years ago.

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

And now we’re at the route where Ichitaka decided to be good little soldier instead of a big goddamn hero. I won’t be keeping this path, but here are the top aces nonetheless. I’m actually surprised to see Ichitaka on the 3rd spot there.

With our numbers significantly reduced, our squads have to change quite a bit.
Tetsuya/Jun
Ichitaka
Kouji/Sayaka
Combattler/Puria
Daiya/Boss
Try to spread your Accels around as much as can be – it’ll help in the upcoming mission.

We open up at Djibril’s place, with him having his talk with Logos Guy about the footage sent by Neo’s crew and their future plans.

Cut to Yumi’s Space Station, with our crew having just returned from patrolling the sector: no signs of any trouble, terrorists or Mimetic Beasts-wise. Yumi hasn’t been able to get in touch with the surface and presumes the fall of Junius Seven, with all its dust and debris, has been disrupting comms. Hopefully our other half is doing fine down there.
Hyouma doubts Goh, Kenji and the others would have any trouble but Ichitaka’s especially worried about the Impulse and the ZAKU he couldn’t help, and the possibility of how badly the surface got damaged (his concern is, especially, for his hometown). Yumi’ll continue trying to establish communications and, if successful, he’ll let us know – until then, we’re to continue our patrols.
Tetsuya’s rather silent and while he admits to also be concerned about the surface, he’s also worried about what the UN might do. Kosuke understands: this is the sort of thing that could spark another war. He exposits the incident with the Colony Gundams destroying the shuttle with the leader of the UN’s pacifist faction and triggering a war between Earth and the colonies, how the emergence of the Mechabeasts helped unite mankind, etc.

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…

Speaking of, Djibril is VERY eager to start shooting right the hell now but Logos Guy tells him to be patient: the PLANTs are being cooperative, working with various peoples, and there are also some nations frowning at the idea of this new alliance. Furthermore, there’s still the matter with the Frontier Fleet which the UN still hasn’t decided on.
Djibril sees no issue with saving those vagrants for later, wanting to focus on destroying the PLANTs right now, now, now. And if Logos Guy is worried about fallback, Djibril says a modicum of threat will get everyone to fall in line – he just figured they’d both want to get to get a head-start on things.

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.

Some time later, the announcement is the revival of the Earth Alliance – courtesy of the footage, now circulating the globe, pinning the blame on the Junius Seven drop on the Coordinators. It didn’t take long for the former Alliance nations to band back together after that, under the argument that the drop was an act of war against Earth and that the PLANTs obviously need a boot up their asses.
Boss sees that Tetsuya’s fears have been realized and Chizuru wonders if the UN’s going to remain silent face all this. Indeed, they can’t stop it as the Alliance’s members are many of the more influential nations.
Lady Une puts in a call right then, and while she admits somewhat underestimating Blue Cosmos, she didn’t call here to talk about that. Did something happen? Yup: she’s just gotten intel that an Alliance fleet has set sail towards the PLANTs. Thus, Une orders LOTUS to depart and stop them immediately.

Ichitaka’s pissed at this development: starting a war now, with Junius Seven having dropped not too long ago, is moving way too damn fast. Seems to Sayaka that those guys were already poised to attack and only needed an excuse to pull the trigger.
If they were that eager to fight, Puria figures they could’ve spared more help in the battle with the Darius. Regardless, there’s no time to waste fuming – we need to get out there.

Djibril’s place again, and he’s welcoming Vice-Foreign Minister Relena Darlian who’s decided to make a rather sudden visit. What does she need? Well, she’s here to lodge a formal protest against the rebuilding of the Earth Alliance. Oh, and why would she come to him for that?
Relena would very much rather he drop the pretense – Djibril doesn’t expect her to buy that he, head of Blue Cosmos, has nothing to do with this, does he? Djibril laughs that she gives him too much credit and says the Earth Alliance coming back is merely fruit of the righteous indignation felt by so many countries.
Even if, for argument’s sake, that’s true, someone of Djibril’s influence should’ve been able to stop this from happening. A war now would be the absolute stupidest thing to do. Relena IS aware that it was the Coordinators who fired first, no? Nonsense: that was the act of terrorists, not of the PLANTs’ government.

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.

Cut to Djibril’s place, Relena’s having a laugh: “Well, I certainly did enjoy that little show. Though I wager that wasn’t the ending you expected, no?” As Djibril fumes, she reminds him that nuclear strikes on humans is strictly forbidden – did he forget all the lives lost at the battle of Jachin Due?
He didn’t, which is precisely why he wanted to NUKE MORE! Erasing the Coordinators from the face of the universe is the only way to appease the spirits of all those dead Naturals! Relena asks him to refrain from implying that he’s personifying the will of the dead – those nukes were draped in nothing but his hatred. Pfft, as if a teenager like her could grasp the grief he feels.

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.

Back at the Quarter, Zechs has been briefed on the events at Earth and sees that things are worse than he imagined – a bunch of enemies started acting up in his six months of absence. When Ichitaka asks, Tetsuya figures the kid saw the broadcast of the showdown at Libra, those two Gundams fighting each other – Zechs was the Epyon pilot, attempting to destroy Earth. Bwuh?!
And his dishonored name and the unofficial way he’s joining us notwithstanding, he is looking forward to helping our cause. Same goes for Noin, and she hopes we’re willing to accept them. Daiya isn’t really in on the take but the Daiku Maryu welcomed Nouza and Vestanu – former Darius officers – so he’s got no problem with them. Zechs and Noin don’t look like bad people.
Well, if Daiya’s that certain then Ichitaka figures it’ll be fine (though this is, to say the least, awkward).

Some time later, Une’s meeting with the Frontier leaders is sure taking a long time. Sayaka figures that’s to be expected, as the wrong decision here could have dire consequences; still, Kouji wants to stop wasting our time doing nothing and figure out what’s going on at Earth. Seems like communications with the surface have been restored, so Hyouma would very much like some news.
He does notice that Kosuke’s gone and Puria says he left not too long ago. Turns out Ichitaka asked the wiz-kid and Luca to take a look at Alice, who was overheating again. Seems to Hyouma that the girl really isn’t fit for combat and today’s op was especially taxing on her systems. Hyouma warns Ichitaka to be careful as robots with several pilots like the Combattler suffer big time if even one of them is out of sorts.

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?”

As Ichitaka apologizes, Alice runs back in all fixed up and ready to go – no problems at all, thanks to Kosuke and Luca. Her symptoms weren’t serious, so it was just a matter of cooling her down and rebooting. That said, Luca is very impressed with the tech used in Alice as it easily rivals the best L.A.I. has to offer – that is to say, it’s several steps above what this world normally has.
Kosuke and Luca have really hit it off thanks to their scientific minds and love of robotics – as a matter of fact, Luca says Hiyoshi is kind of a gearhead as well. Seems like the similarities between the V teams extends beyond their bots, so he wants to introduce them. The Voltes had also caught Ichitaka’s eye since the Junius Seven battle and wonders where the pilots are – out patrolling with Alto’s group, it seems. No rest for the wicked.

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.

Indeed, it was that point that Une used to leverage the agreement into being: only we, owners of the more advanced fighters in the world, could stand up to the Alliance and more. Of course, we’ll be respecting the Frontier’s autonomy and the fleet’s expected to settle down near the PLANTs.
With that, the PLANTs will endorse the Frontier’s claim that they’ve no intention of invading Earth, and, in exchange, the fleet will help them exercise their right to self-defense against any untoward attacks by the Alliance.
Lady Une figures this will help calm down the UN’s upper brass, antsy over the Frontier simply floating aimlessly close to Earth, but Tetsuya doubts the Alliance will let that happen. True, Une expects there to be yelling but she knows who’s in charge and how to get them to play ball.

Our folks are getting a tour of Mihoshi Academy and Hyouma’s surprised that it’s not all that different from our world; Ranka walks over and asks if we’re new visitors to the Frontier. Didn’t she tell Alto she’d be taking the day off? Yeah, well, turns out her gig got cancelled at the last second…
Nagisa (Kasumi) grunts that that was so unfair – she was supposed to be getting interviewed for this magazine and they just called it off this morning. Still, Nanase and Luca tell her not to let it bring her down and Alto agrees: keep singing and she’ll get more chances. Ranka smiles and agrees, annoying Nagisa that she’s the only one here outraged.

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.

But Sheryl walks on over, wondering what’s going on with this little gathering. As Luca and Nagisa flip out at her presence, our people take her to be someone famous in the Macross world – and she’s a beauty, too, thinks Kouji. A model? Sheryl figures they’re not from around, judging by their reaction, and points out she’s a singer – the Galactic Fairy, Sheryl Nome!
Sounds a bit too grandiose for Kouji but Michel says she’s famous on a galactic scale, so the title’s justified. Sounds impressive, then! Speaking of fame, Sheryl turns to Ranka and asks how things are going with her career. It’s been a slow process, that’s all she’ll say… she’s got a SMALL agency and gigs have been sporadic, to put it nicely.
Well, Sheryl has her own radio show and figures she could easily get her set up for an appearance but Nanase loudly speaks against the idea. Ranka will make it without riding on Sheryl’s coattails! Ranka’s meeker about it and while she’s grateful for the offer, she wants to find fame by her own efforts. Sheryl didn’t expect that answer but approves of her confidence – keep at it.

With that done, however, Nagisa has a question: why is Sheryl at their school? She herself remembers the girl from their run-in at Griffith Park (much to her surprise – Sheryl appreciates her fans) and says she’s looking to take some pictures here for a promotional video.
First order of business is scouting the area for the best spots and she conscripts Alto to show her around. Why him?! Well, he did steal this fair maiden’s most precious possession… Alto begs her to drop the innuendo before people get the wrong idea and, fuming, does as she says.
Nanase and Luca have no idea what’s going on between those two, though what annoys Nagisa is that he’s MONOPOLIZING Sheryl. The gall! Maybe Ranka should be worried, Michel wonders? N-No, of course not – it’s not like that. Regardless, we should head inside because it’s likely going to be a pandemonium in there.

And then some as, later, there’s a big hubbub going on throughout school – everyone’s running around in a frenzy. Ichitaka catches sight of Kouji and, when asked, he says Sheryl’s running/blasting around school in an EX-Gear. Why? Boss says her underwear made a run for it and she’s chasing after.
… What made a run for it? “Her underwear! Her panties!” Boss yells, making Sayaka tell him to shush and stop embarrassing her. Whatever’s going on with her underwear, Kenichi knows an EX-Gear, with all its propulsion, is very dangerous if the wearer can’t control it.

Michel, desperately chasing after, begs Sheryl to stop but she’s not about to let the thing who stole her panties run off. In her zeal to catch the critter, she flies straight off the roof!
Jump cut to a few moments later, Kenichi and the others arrive and Michel says they just missed the show. As for Sheryl, he points out in the distance where Alto’s flying with her in his arms again (Boss is jealous). See, while her jumping off the roof would’ve been fine with that EX-Gear, she actually forgot to lock the suit in place – the thing slipped right off and Sheryl only didn’t end up a smear on the floor because Alto flew over and caught her at the last second.
Of course, that doesn’t matter one bit to Luca, who’s grieving his wrecked Samson EX-Gear.

”You raise all that hell over a piece of clothing… come on, now…” Alto sighs but, of course, Sheryl’s underwear isn’t just a “piece of clothing”. And she’d be wearing it, had the thing not made off with it (she, Ranka and Nanase had an incident with a bunch of eggs and needed a shower).
Alto doesn’t care for all her yelling (he’s one to talk) and is about to set her down when Sheryl stops him. Maybe they could fly for just a bit more?

Back at the rooftop, Ranka’s a bit miffed – for how long as they going to stay up there?

Sheryl still remembersthe first time they flew like this and that’s great, but has she had her fun? Can Alto drop her now? Nope, she wants to keep going. In that case she can go and fly herself – Alto’s bringing her down.

Cut to Onogoro island where we get a repeat of last mission: Kira and Lacus’ place get trashed by ZAFT assassins, Yuu and Heero save the day and the Archangel sets sail after saving Cagalli from marrying a ponce.

Following that, Une gets in touch with Djibril and out-politics him: Blue Cosmos better help the Frontier bill get passed nice and easy.

Back to the Quarter, Heine is presenting himself as a FAITH member, recently arrived from the PLANTs: following Durandal’s request, he’s decided to come and work with us. A request, not an order? Indeed, Heine didn’t need to help LOTUS if he didn’t feel like it.
See, while the PLANTs can’t overtly sign up with LOTUS right now, Heine and his FAITH status have permission to act of his own volition. Ozma’s rather surprised the PLANTs have a squadron with such independence but, indeed, that’s how FAITH works – you may fight for what you personally deem to be right.
Well, if he personally wants to join LOTUS, Une won’t stop him – everyone here has joined in the sole interest of safeguarding Earth.

At Griffith Park, Ranka’s pondering how well Alto gets along with Sheryl and tries sorting out her own feelings about the matter… when that weird critter from before shimmies up to her.
It looks like a baby… something, though nothing Ranka’s ever seen before. Did he get lost? Seems like they’re both alone here and the thing’s pretty cute, so Ranka decides to adopt it. She’ll call it Ai-kun.

[Mattman324]

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.

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

Aaaand, Ichitaka’s really climbed up the kill ladder with his massacre of the Earth Alliance mooks in the past mission. Only one kill separates our top aces from each other.

Random HP, armor and EN upgrade went around but Jeeg and, especially, Goh got some extra firepower for something I’ll want to do this mission.

And the Vardant and Hind-Kind are event units today, so Tetsuya and Shizuna had to join in together. Not ideal but it’s only for this mission, so we’ll be fine.
Ichitaka/Miu
Jeeg/Kyo
Yagyuu
Tetsuya/Shizuna
Iczer-1/Shizuru
Goh/Mira

Off we go.[/i]

We open at JUDA, Ishigami welcoming our team back. Reiji apologizes for moving the squad without clearing it with him first but, with the jammed comms, Ishigami doesn’t fault his decision. When Goh asks, Ishigami passes intel of our other half protecting the PLANTs from the Alliance’s nukes and being set to watch over the Frontier.
The Quarter’s been assigned to our team and, with that, it’ll be up to us to handle it if the Frontier Fleet does anything off. In exchange, while they remain cooperative, the Alliance will be unable to do anything against them without clearing it with us first.
Seems to Kyo that the Frontier got a better deal than we did out of this, but it beats leaving the Blue Cosmos free to tag them as enemies of Earth. On a different subject, Ishigami looked over a certain report Kyo submitted, and if it turns out to be correct, it’ll be nothing short of extraordinary. Kyo fears it’s not an impossible assumption, taking a look at the offworlders and the Katou Organization, so this certainly warrants further investigation.

What are they on about? Ishigami only says that things might be bigger than he expected. Still, it might not have anything to do with us, so he asks Reiji and Goh to pay him no mind. Goh won’t press the subject, but does raise the point that many of the organizations working with LOTUS joined presuming there’d be no secrets between us. If Ishigami knows something about the Katou Organization, Goh figures he should tell us.
Ishigami apologizes but figures it best not to say anything at the moment – Goh should understand, having previously kept the fact that he’d been fighting side-by-side with his ex from Anna. Fine. Regardless, Ishigami’ll tell us when the time is right and asks only that we carry out defending Earth from external threats while the rest of our crew remains in space.
Goh confirms, ready to take on any of the Mimetic Beasts, Katou, Darius and Jama foes – inwardly, he hopes Anna is watching over him.

Over by the mess hall, Ichitaka feels good to be back home. Mind, he’s checked with Rachel and Maki and there still hasn’t been any new clues regarding Grife. Shizuru sighs that it’s tough when your only option is to wait stuff out but it wasn’t all bad news: seems like Alice’s AI is showing some good growth over this time.
The door opens right then, Emi coming in with a batch of tea for everyone. Yamashita does wonder why she’s doing that, and she figured she ought to help with something since she can’t actually fight like we can.
Still, that’s some awfully green tea she’s serving – especially considering it’s supposed to be BLACK tea. Tsubaki takes a whiff and asks: “is this dried seaweed?” It is, much to Emi’s surprise, as she was sure she used the right stuff.

She apologizes profusely and moves to fix it, though Miu offers to do it herself – and teach her how to make tea in the process! As the two leave, Mira sighs that while she heard the girl had some partial amnesia, she’s shocked she can’t tell dried seaweed from tea leaves.
Ishigami hasn’t really told us much about her story and Alice didn’t even have time to compile her physical data – she’s been too focused on her subpilot duties. It’s still frustratingly tough for her to balance out both jobs at the same time but Shizuru tells her to keep at it. Indeed, Alice promises to stay the course!
“Hey, Shizuru, I don’t get any of that pep talk?” Tetsuya asks. “Nope”. Aaww…

By JUDA’s infirmary…

: How are you feeling, Nagisa?
: … Why are you here? You’re the last person I wanted to see.
: Nagisa…
: And stop calling me that, like you’re my friend! It’s your fault I went through that hell!
: I apologize for forcing you aboard the Iczer Robo… But you’re my partner and, as such, I need you to fight.
: Get out! Now! I don’t wanna hear any more of your crap!

Nagisa throws a glass at her.

: Nagisa, calm down. You just woke up, so don’t stress yourself out.
: Ms. Ogawa… Where are my mom and dad…?
: Still missing, I’m afraid…
: But why?! I thought that region went pretty much untouched by the Junius Seven drop!
: JUDA’s using all of its resources to find them, so please be a bit more patient.
: (Nagisa… when Cobalt attacked, your parents were already… but telling her the truth now, when her body and soul are so wounded, would be too much.)
: …And whose fault is it for putting me in this mess?
: …
: Didn’t I tell you get out?! What’re you still doing here?!
: Let’s go, Iczer-1. We should let her rest…
: Hm… Nagisa, I pray we’ll be able to fight together again soon.

They leave.

: …
: (Why… Why did you pick me? No… I don’t want to fight – I can’t.)

Cut to Misaki Middle School, Isabelle’s latest bit of news is of the Armas once again running amuck at the town of Misaki in Miura. It’s still unknown who were piloting the units or how large the extent of the damage is. Kouichi grumbles at them covering up the Katou Organization’s attack as Armas running amuck.
Quatre walks on over and sees that he’s watching the news, noticing that that “white Arma with the horns” isn’t even shown on the tape. Kouchi yells that the Linebarrel ISN’T AN ARMA, but soon slumps back in his chair: “The Linebarrel… my… (No. I don’t want or need that thing…)
Risako and Yajima inch over, the girl asking if Kouichi knows one Sheryl Nome – he doesn’t, and doesn’t care either. Well, she’ll tell him anyway: it’s this big-time singer from the new “Frontier Colony”. From what Risako’s heard she’s really pretty, but she can’t find any pictures or videos of her.

Kouichi calls FAKE NEWS and tells Risako that that’s not a colony, but a fleet of giant migrant ships built by the PLANTs. She should know better than to believe that. Still, Risako doesn’t appreciate his know-it-all attitude. Quatre, inwardly, sees that the rumor mill’s already running wild – seems like they couldn’t keep the information under control.
Either way, rumor has it that Sheryl’s songs are pretty good, but Risako hasn’t managed to hear anything – the only available sources are some leaks. She figured Kouichi might’ve heard about those and they haven’t spoken much recently, so… He once again sighs that he doesn’t care.
But a new problem arises, with Furuya stomping into the room and demanding Kouichi step outside. Sounds good to him – a good way to alleviate his bad mood – and a distraught Risako and Yajima run after. Quatre follows to keep watch, despite wanting to do more.

But it doesn’t take long for Kouichi to tear through Furuya’s mob – what happened to all his huffing and puffing? But Kouichi’s got a lesson to teach him and kicks the guy’s ass a bunch. With a battered Furuya begging forgiveness, the kid’s glad to see he now understands how strong he is (Linebarrel or not, he’s still THE STRONGEST!).
But he stops when Yajima and Risako tell him to, knowing he’d only be bullying the weak – Furuya’s favorite pastime – were he to continue. Oh, and he better not catch him messing with Shinji again OR ELSE. Furuya promises not to… only to raise the point that Shinji actually got transferred elsewhere.
Kouichi doesn’t remember hearing anything about that, which annoys Risako, as Shinji came to talk to him about it the day before he left, but seems he was just ignored. B-But Kouichi’s been busy being a Champion of Justice and all that.

Furuya silently fumes over his attitude, figuring he’ll need to ask one Domyoji for help; Kouichi then tells him to run off and not try this again. As Furuya and his mooks go, Risako is worried about Kouichi: he’s been acting like a thug lately and she’s heard tell of him picking fights with other students. He harrumphs and tells her to leave him alone before setting out.
Risako is confused but is sure that SOMETHING must’ve happened to make him change like that – and she figures Yajima knows something. “Can you wait until tomorrow? I’ll go talk with Kouichi and, then, I’ll tell you everything,” he says.
She agrees to it and promises to bring lunch for three tomorrow – hopefully they can all eat together as they used to. Quatre’s watching from afar, hoping nothing’ll come of whatever Yajima’s planning, but…

And he’s reported it all to Ishigami, who’s rather bothered by news that Kouichi’s taken to picking fights with regular folks as a way to showcase his strength. Seems like losing the Linebarrel pushed him over the edge. Ishigami asks Quatre to keep watching, figuring they’ll need to take action if Kouichi goes on acting like this.
One other thing: did Quatre hear of anything strange happening in Misaki yesterday? Not really, but Reiji says they’ve detected a Machina over there yesterday – several times, even, but the signal quickly disappeared, so they couldn’t get a bead on it. Like a ninja or ghost, Ishigami quips.
Well, anything happens, Quatre’s got his Sandrock ready to go. Wasn’t the thing supposed to be sealed away? Sure but Wufei and Trowa DID unseal theirs, so Quatre figured he couldn’t keep his stashed.

As he signs off, Ishigami ponders Kouichi. Reiji isn’t surprised at what they’re hearing, though: “He’s still just a middle-schooler, without a single clue of how he should use his strength… I know very well how that’s like.” Still, Ishigami doesn’t want to do anything yet – he believes the kid’s got the goods.
We’ll see about that later, as Yui reports the Machina signal reemerging within Misaki… and it vanishes just as suddenly. Are their sensors on the fritz? Rachel said everything’s fine, though. Ishigami, inwardly, seems to have an idea, though: “A disappearing Machina… One that got picked up after I left?”

Mission 8 (Rescue Route) – The Price of Justice

: What’d you call me here for?
: … Are you really gonna keep with that shtick?
: What?
: Kouichi, please… go back to how you used to be.
: Aah?
: Risako… she’s really worried. Said you’re not the Kouichi she knew, that you changed so fast… And I’m on the same page as her.
: So that’s what you’re up to…
: Huh…?
: The little baby you’ve been taking care of since forever got strong and you don’t really like that, do ya?
: So talking really ain’t getting me anywhere… I figured as much. Then let’s settle this, Kouichi.
: Settle what?
: Didn’t say before that you didn’t need my help anymore?
: Yeah. I’m way stronger than you now.
: Then prove it – prove you don’t need me anymore.
: You wanna go? For real? You better cut it out, ‘cause you’re not winning this.
: … Bring it, Kouichi!

: Urgh!
: So? You run your mouth like that and this is all you got?! You think because I lost the Linebarrel that you can take me?

: Aargh…
: You’re wasting your time. You’re gonna lose.

: !
: Then… put your money… where your mouth is…
: You still not throwing the towel…? Fine. Then I’m gonna have to bash you into the dirt ‘til you realize that I’m in a whole different league!

: Gworgh…! What’s wrong…? I’m still… up…!
: You…!

: (What… What’s going on…? Didn’t I want to beat him?)

: (Didn’t I wanna be like him?!)

: (Then why… why do I feel awful with every punch I land on him …?)

: Uuurgh…
: S-Stop this already! Can’t you see that this is impossible for you?!
: I… I took care of you… just ‘cause I wanted to catch Risako’s eye…
: !!
: But I… never realized how that was making you feel… I’m… a selfish lowlife… And that’s why she never really looked at me that way…
: Y-Yajima… Why are you telling me that…? I-I’ve always thought of you as—
: A Champion of Justice… huh?
: Y-Yeah…
: Well, relax, Kouichi… I’m just a brat… a common brat.
: Yajima…
: Sorry, Kouichi…
: No, I’m sorry… I never considered how you—

: Waaah!

: Capture the Linebarrel… Eliminate the Factor…
: Wh-Why…?! The Linebarrel isn’t here anymore!
: Hrk… Kou…Ichi… You alright…?
: Yajima…!

: (That steel beam… It ran him through…!)
: Urk…!
: Y-Yo, Yajima, stop pulling my leg! Hang in there!
: Hrrgh…
: Damn it, what the hell should I do?!
: Kouichi… What matters… isn’t what you should do…
: Huh…
: But what you… want to do… You’re finally strong… so use that… for good…
: Eliminate the Factor…
: Run… Kou…ichi…!
: Huh?!

: Yajima… You…?!
: No biggie… Same ol’… song and dance…right?

: YAJIMAAAAAAA!!
: Failed to eliminate the Factor… Failed to eliminate…!
: You can’t say you’re sorry after all this time… Don’t give me that now…! You…!
: AAAAAAAAH!!

: Line…barrell…!
: Yajima… You said that what matters is what I want to do, right? Then, I…I…
: I wanna kill that son of a bitch!
: Capture the Linebarrel! Eliminate the Factor!
: You…! Raaaaaargh!!

: I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you if it’s the last thing I do!
: Is that… the Linebarrel?! And a Machina… is it—?! (By the other city block.)

Beep, beep!

: Quatre, the Linebarrel’s back at Misaki!
: I know! It’s right next to me, fighting some unknown Machina!
: And the Linebarrel warped even without any input from Emi…!
: Does that mean it’s fully accepted that guy as its Factor?!
: Whatever the case, I’ll try and hold down the Linebarrel and that Machina with the Sandrock!
: Please do. Reiji and the others’ll be there soon!
: Copy that!
: I look away for just a second and this happens… damn it. Let’s go, Sandrock!

Quatre rushes over and grabs the Linebarrel.

: Kouichi, stop! You’re going to level the whole city – all that’ll come from this is more sorrow!
: OUT OF MY WAY! He… He killed Yajima!!
: Yajima?! No…!
: Yajima… he protected me from the attack and…! Damn it all! LEMME GO!

: Argh!
: You killed him! DIE!!

: Don’t let anger and hatred guide your hand…! I have to do something or he’ll go down the same path I did!

: We’ll lend you a hand with that, Mr. Gundam.
: You’re with the Dragon’s Hive, aren’t you?
: Oh, you folks know about us? Impressive, Preventers.
: No time to give them props, Kurara! We need to do something about the Linebarrel!
: Goddamn, it’s like this kid can’t go a day without going ballistic across town. Then—

: The red Dancouga!
: What, again?!
: Let’s try this a bit more seriously today…

: Hrk…! This is so not the time for this!
: Seriously, this mission just went from bad to worse…!
: Screw it, then! Go even badder and take ‘em all on!
: Good answer, Sakuya. Now we run wild and keep going ‘til we drop…!
: At this rate, the town’ll…!

We need to bring down the Stray Machina without losing Aoi or Quatre; that said, you’ll want to focus on downing the R-Daigun before that, as it carries a nice E-Save part. It’ll run below 14k HP, so this’ll call for a wee bit more strategy – first off, just hold the line until LOTUS gets here.
Feel free to tangle with the Daigun to start lowering her HP some, but ignore Kouichi or the Machina.

Gundam Sandrock Custom (Quatre Raberba Winner)
Pilot Skills:
Sword Cut
Shoot Down
Shield Defense
Guard
Support Defense L2
Attack Combo L1
Spirit Commands:
Scan
Focus
Mech Features:
Sword
Gun
Shield
Resupply Module
Anti-Beam Coating Mantle
Squad Bonus: HP+500, land terrain rating: A, debuff immunity

Our first EW Gundam makes for a pretty nice squaddie, and he’s made of sturdier stuff than usual. The squad bonus plus resupply module’ll help him fit in with many Supers, and there’s also the fact that he’ll eventually learn Bless.
And, if anything, he works well on water, so keep that in mind for whenever it’s needed.

Now let’s just move Quatre and Aoi due north – don’t waste time going after anyone this turn.

Enemy Phase!

The R-Daigun’s out of range, but the Stray Machina guns right for Kouichi.

: You killed Yajima! And now I’ll make you pay – by killing you with my own two hands!
: Capture the Linebarrel… Eliminate the Factor…

They both regen a lot per turn, so this’ll go pretty much nowhere.

Player Phase!

: Everyone!
: They got around pretty fast alright. Still, just a bit longer and…
: Quatre, are you hurt?
: I’m fine; and more important than me is Kouichi. We need to stop him – fast!
: What happened?!
: Apparently his friend… Yajima Hideaki shielded him from that Machina’s attack and died.
: !!
: Oh, no…!
: And Kouichi’s lost control because of that…!
: Kujo, Nagumo, this is a battlefield. There’s no room for needless sentimentality.
: “Needless”—?! Our friend just died, Reiji!
: I know, but he’s got a point – we can’t afford to be sad now. Look ahead. Spending time grieving’ll mean even more battle damage throughout town.
: …!
: Don’t let your emotions get the better of you; focus instead of ending this battle. Troops, coordinate with the Dancouga and the Gundam and immobilize the Linebarrel!
: You got it! There’re only a couple of guys to fight, so let’s go and wrap this up quick!

Beep, beep!

: Hold on, Kenji! These signals are—
: The Katou Organization!

: We’ll be bringing you in today, Linebarrel.
: Quatre… I figured it was only a matter of time before we ran into each other.
: Wufei…! I’ve some questions for you to answer!
: What do we do, boss? Leave the Gundam to forehead there?
: And do we try bringing in the Linebarrel or the stray? (Yulianne)
: The Linebarrel always takes priority – keep that in mind.
: Yeesh, these Katou guys just don’t quit with trying to snag the thing!
: Let them come ‘cause this’ll always end the same: them running for the hills!
: This’ll only get worse if we let the Katou units engage the Linebarrel and set Kouichi off further – keep them away!
: Roger!

Can’t lose Reiji and Yamashita either. Now that we have our group and some morale fodder, we’ll want to get either Goh or Jeeg hyped enough to use their strongest weapon, to be supported by Ichitaka. Popping Fighting Spirit with that combo SHOULD be enough damage to wreck the R-Daigun around 14k HP.

We’re not in range, though, so everyone heads onward.

Enemy Phase!

Here she comes, but Mira’s covering Aoi.

???, taking little damage: “Do you think you can defend the Earth with that? From them?!”
On the flip side, she can’t even pop Mira’s barrier.

Here it goes again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu5UvBqpx88

: Those moves… It’s like he’s a completely different person from when we fought before.
: Has he awakened as a Factor…?

About half the Katou Armas are moving in.

Player Phase!

As Reiji moves in, Goh starts building morale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NxlAYWBm_k
Only now did I remember to get the Neo-Okusaer’s melee attack on camera!
And that survivor easily falls to Kenji.

One for Iczer-1, the other for Ichitaka.

Moving Quatre close enough to bring in Wufei.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLGzjMcMMLg
Also, damn, I dunno if they gave him more “oomph” or if those Armas are just so fragile.

Enemy Phase!

Perfect, except for him running underwater…

: Are you really fine with the war you’re waging, Wufei?!
: Silence! I’m trailing this path because I believe in it! And in the name of true justice, I’ll endure any and all pain!
: If that’s all you’ll say, then so be it! Come and fight me, Wufei!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_km_0vtSQuI
Wufei: “This is the path I chose, Quatre!”
Quatre: “I’ll also fight my own battles, Wufei!”

Aoi shaves off another 5.5k off the Daigun, with Goh taking a kill, Ichitaka and Miu taking…4. I was even holding him back, but Miu herself got very crit-happy!

Dmitri’s moving in now, but had nothing in range.

Player Phase!

Kenji took the first enemy of this pair, Goh has the other.

Ah, you’ll work.

That’s both down. Shizuna and Tetsuya nabbing the adjacent target.

Reiji’s got this nice combo opportunity here.

No kills but it leaves everyone very close.

Pop, pop, pop, they all fall to Ichitaka, Aoi, Yamashita and Quatre.

Enemy Phase!

While Wufei’s trading blows with Quatre, Yulianne finally comes over and target’s Goh.

: Pleased to meet you folks. My name’s Yulianne Faithful, Captain of the Katou Organization’s 7th Unit.
: And I’ll be making sure none of you bug us ever again!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngpEmsGNXUo
Sawatari and Dmitri make the objectively better choice of attacking Yamashita… though he was protected by Ichitaka and his barrier.

Player Phase!

The R-Daigun’s pretty much ready to be killed, though our units aren’t in position. While that’s going on, we’ll get rid of the other Katou midbosses.

Boosh.

Dmitri sniffs at yet another failure, but warns that they haven’t given up on the Linebarrel yet.
As he runs off, Shizuna groans that she wanted to finish the guy off. Granted, Izuna didn’t expect a captain to die easily.

Sawatariiiii.

Out you go again.

Sawatari isn’t happy at his streak of failures – Masaki’s gonna have such a laugh at him. Then, at least, he’ll…
Goh sniffs that the guy always knows when it’s time to quit – a tough foe to get rid of, and Mira figures we’ll likely be facing him many times.

Some softening up from Goh and Ichitaka brings Wufei into the red.

Done.

Seems like Wufei’s orders deem the Linebarrel going berserk as an acceptable outcome. Still, he’ll need to keep on fighting – for what’s to come.
As he leaves, Quatre doesn’t understand why he always sets himself to trail such painful paths.

Enemy Phase!

Aaah…

Good thing I didn’t do much damage to her. The couple of remaining mooks fall to Aoi.

Player Phase!

Alright, pop Strike (to bypass the Daigun’s Stealth) and Fighting Spirit and off we go.

Perfect.

The R-Daigun gets a call from someone who says this is good enough for today – time to head back. As she goes, Kurara groans over it slipping through our fingers again.
When they asked before, Tanaka swore that he had no idea what the thing was and while Aoi doesn’t know for sure whether he’s being legit or not, silver lining is that’s one less enemy for us. Now carry on with their mission.

With that done, now it’s just a matter of handling the remaining enemies. We’ll start with Yulianne and go for the Stray Machina:

Tsubaki learns Attune from this, too!

Yulianne knows that it’d be dangerous to carry on with this and moves to take off. Plus, she can’t well give us her undivided attention now. We’ll play again some other time.
Kenji has no idea where she’s running off to and Kyo ponders if securing the Linebarrel isn’t the Katou Organization’s goal here.

: Capture the Linebarrel… Eliminate the Factor…
: If only I’d spotted this Machina before…!

Tetsuya gets a boost to Support Defense, while Shizuna takes more Prevail.

: Alright, the thing’s immobile!
: STOP! HE’S MIIINE!!
: Yamashita!
: Got it!

Yamashita: “The hell is this Machina’s Factor thinking?!”

: Done and dusted!
: !!
: …What did you do? That guy killed Yajima…! I wanted to at least, at least get revenge for him… and now YOU TOOK THAT AWAY FROM ME!!
: You’re gonna pay for that…! You’re just as bad as that killer and I’ll destroy every single one of you…!!

: W-What power is this? It’s overwhelming!
: The earth… the very air is shaking!
: He’s fully awakened as a Factor…!
: Haaaaaah!
: This reaction… the Vardant’s afraid?
: The Hind’s also acting weird!
: What’s going on…?!
: HAAAAAAAAH!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI8eoVHqC-o

Everyone’s HP gets cut in half!

: A beam weapon?!
: He had something like that under his sleeve…?!
: Always gotta have at least one secret weapon, huh…!
: That’s the Executor…!
: Executor, as in one who doles out the death penalty?
: Get real! No one here’s gonna take any death penalty!
: Emi, can’t you use your power to stop the Linebarrel like you did before?
: My voice isn’t reaching it… I keep trying, but it’s being drowned out…!
: The system’s isolated itself and is out of control. My guess is the Linebarrel can’t process all the raging emotions inside Kouichi Hayase.
: I feel the rage and violence corrupting the budding justice within him. If he’s not stopped, he’ll be dominated and consumed by this false justice…
: Damn it all! And if he fires that weapon again, the whole town’ll go up in smoke!
: But this is mine and Kouichi’s home! Our friends live here too…!
: And he’s going to destroy it himself…?! We can’t let that happen!
: (I can’t let him make the same mistake I did under the Zero System’s grip! That sort of tragedy mustn’t happen again!)
: The Executor’ll need some time to charge the energy for another shot! If you can stop the Linebarrel in that window…
: Copy that. We’ll immobilize the Linebarrel before it can use its weapon again!

Now you just need to bring the Linebarrel below 10%. He’s no different from our previous encounters, really.
Oddly enough it doesn’t SEEM like wrecking it is a game over, but I wasn’t about to try.

Sakuya: “Did you quit being a Champion of Justice, guy?”; Aoi: “Don’t even try. You’re not being heard.”

#1 Alice: “The Linebarrel’s moving like a rabid beast!”; Ichitaka: “Hrm… can I actually stop him now…?”
#2 Ichitaka: “Kouichi… did you forget all about me in your anger…?”; Alice: “I sense an overwhelming impetus coming from him…!”
#3 Ichitaka: “Yajima’s death wasn’t his fault! No way!”
#4 Alice: “What do we do, Ichitaka?!”; Ichitaka: “I dunno… First off we gotta get the Linebarrel to stop moving…!”
#5 Ichitaka: “I’m just as shocked over what happened to Yajima, but if you keep with this…!”

: Why the hell are you hounding me?! I… I just wanted to get revenge for Yajima!
: Yajima… I’m… so sorry! YAJIMAAAAAA!

: He’s going to fire the Executor again!
: No, he won’t!

Quatre goes and grapples the Linebarrel again!

: Beat it! Get it inside your skull that you can’t stop me!

: Lord Quatre!
: We’ll assist you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-x-0klHbKA
Quatre: Kouichi, don’t let anger and hatred control you!
Quatre: Here we go, Sandrock! We’re putting a stop to the Linebarrel!

: Now, Yamashita! Throw him at the town outskirts!
: Y-yes, sir!

Yamashita moves by the Linebarrel.

: Go, Hind! Bullet Arm!

: You’re mine!

: Yajima… I… I wanted to be like you…

Power dooooown.

: Is it over?!
: Yeah – the Linebarrel’s stopped.
: Then let’s recover and get it back to JUDA.
: What about Kouichi? Is he alright?
: Don’t worry. I think he just passed out.
: We’ll bring him in as well, of course. He can’t be left at large now that he’s awakened as a Factor.
: The town took some damage but at least we avoided the worst.

Sirens!

: Still, we’re gonna have a lot of folks coming over in a bit.
: Then we should hurry. Goh, help me get the unknown Machina sorted out.
: I’ll be right over.

: Sorry, but I’m afraid you can’t have your cake and eat it too.
: This was our Machina to start with, so we’ll be taking it.

The Katous run to where the Stray Machina was destroyed.

: Heey, they made off with the thing!
: Were the Katou soldiers just waiting for a chance to steal it?!
: Do we go after them?!
: No, just head back to base. Chasing those guys after all the damage you took would be suicide.
: And the mechanics agree. That wouldn’t be good to either you or your units.
: Hurry home, people! I want to get those repairs started as soon as can be!
: Please do, Rachel. This was a way tougher than what we usually get…
: And that boy, Kouichi! Once he’s back up, Imma whoop his ass ‘til he mellows out some!
: Sis, he just saw his friend get killed…
: And him wanting payback makes it A-OK to bulldoze the whole dang place?!
: Sis…
: … Well, we should get going too.
: Thanks for the help, pilots of the Dancouga. It was only with your help that we could recover the Linebarrel.
: No need. We didn’t really help that much courtesy of that mysterious red bot.
: You don’t know what it is?
: Not really, nope. Do you?
: The Preventers have an ongoing investigation, but, unfortunately, no…
: I’ll have them get in touch with you if we find anything.
: Thanks, Quatre…. Oh, and you, the Rushbird pilot.
: Y-Yeah?
: I’m glad we managed to save Kouichi here.
: …
: Bye, LOTUS. See you guys around!

: But maybe if I was stronger, we could’ve wrapped this up without the town taking any damage…
: I’m sure Yuu would’ve handled things way better…

Had we attacked Kouichi before he hulked out, we could’ve gotten a couple of convos:

: Kouichi, stop! You’re gonna hurt the people of this town too!
: SHUT UP!! OUTTA MY WAY!!
: Damn it, why can’t I ever get through to him?!

–

: Hey! Stop and calm the hell down, you!
: I’m getting payback for Yajima! RAAAAAARGH!!
: So before you wouldn’t listen right, today you can’t hear right? Whatever the case, the fact that we always come to blows with you is REALLY starting to wear thin!

Back at Shangri-La, Masaki mulls over their failure to capture the Linebarrel – but at least they manage to recover the missing Apparition. Katou isn’t bothered, satisfied that they were capable of bringing out some of Kouichi’s power.
That wasn’t his or the Linebarrel’s full might, though – more like the very first cry of a newborn. This mewling child has finally stood up with his own feet and Katou can’t wait to see how he’ll grow.
Masaki, meanwhile, has some combat data to analyze.

Cut to Dragon’s Hive, Tanaka is very insistent that he’s got no idea what the red bot is. Serious, for how long is he gonna give them the run around? Kurara isn’t having it, though: she draws her gun and suggests he start talking if he values his life.
Fine, fine! He’ll talk, though the best he’s got is speculation – nothing 100% certain, which is why he figured he shouldn’t tell. Still, Johnny figures there’s gotta be SOMETHING that he knows for sure and, indeed, he can tell them that the thing’s called R-Daigun! That’s some info he got from the top.
And? And that’s it. Sakuya’s quickly losing his patience as Tanaka’s not the one out there risking his life; and while Johnny, the former salaryman, understands how being the middle man’s like, this is getting out of hand. Tanaka sees that but he can’t answer what he doesn’t know.

They’re interrupted when an angry Seimi walks in, demanding to know what kinda battle they got into that got her Dancouga so beaten up. Furthermore, today’s counseling day and Ru’s been waiting forever for Team D to turn up.
Aoi lets Tanaka off the hook for today but the team tells him to get in touch with his boss and make it crystal clear that they want answers and soon (not that they’re expecting good ones, mind).
Inwardly, his status as middleman notwithstanding, Tanaka does want to know what his organization’s working towards. Maybe he should try and poke around a bit?

: Yo, what’re you doing, Kouichi?
: Yajima?! You’re alive…!
: What’s with that look? There something on my face?
: You’re alive… thank god, Yajima…!
: Hurry up now. Keep sitting there and I’m gonna leave you behind!
: Ah, hold on, Yajima!
: Kouichi…
: Wait! Don’t leave me here, Yajima!
: …
: YAJIMA!!

But that was just a dream, as Kouichi wakes up at JUDA’s infirmary. Yui’s there with him and she tells that he’s been asleep for two days. She was starting to get worried, with how long he was taking.
Kouichi thinks for a bit and remembers fighting with the Linebarrel… and Yajima. Where is he?! Kouichi jumps out the bed… but how about we pipe down and put some clothes on first? Woops.

A bit later, Yui’s showing him around the JUDA HQ building – the world’s premier medical equipment corporation! She properly introduces herself as the president’s secretary, but Kouichi sniffs that he doesn’t really care for who she is: “Ooh, the dossier was right. You DO have a pretty big mouth… if nothing else,” Yui quips.
As Kouichi begs her to forget whatever she saw while he was naked in that infirmary, Yui leads him up to Ishigami’s office.

And Ishigami’s very welcoming, introducing himself and calling Kouichi over to share in some sushi he made. A bit of time later, Ishigaimi’s said his piece and invites Kouichi to join LOTUS.
When the kid asks, Quatre enters and gives him the rundown of our work for the UN’s intelligence department. Wait, what’s he even doing here?! Quatre apologizes for never telling him but, yeah, he’s an infiltrated agent tasked with keeping an eye on him.
Ishigami proclaims that we need Kouichi’s abilities as a Factor and Quatre asks if he’s willing to fight for world peace. He could atone for his wrongdoings by being a legit Champion of Justice.

By the hangar, Reiji’s passing the news that Kouichi’s awakened. Ichitaka wants to go and see him now but, of course, that’ll have to wait until his meeting with Ishigami’s over. And, yes, the guy’s planning on inviting him into LOTUS.
Yamashita and Shizuna are VERY much against letting someone who went as crazy as he did with that Machina join, and both Goh and Tetsuya concede that he’s a very difficult sort. Our previous fights with him, his unwillingness to even listen, made that very clear.
Ichitaka asks them to forgive him: “I’ve known Kouichi since forever and he’s not really a bad guy. He just got too excited when he FINALLY managed to fulfill his dream of being a Champion of Justice…”

Rachel’ll concede that people who awaken as Factors have been known to be over-defensive but you can’t really handwave all he did with that excuse. And while Goh understands that Ichitaka wants to help his friend, he can’t in good consciousness say that he’s suited to pilot.
Yamashita very much agrees with that assessment, but, as Reiji says, this call belongs solely to Lady Une, not us.

Back to Ishigami, he’s explaining that JUDA’s history as makers of medical gear is simply a front – their actual job is to coordinate with the UN and deal with any force that threatens the world. Kouichi obviously knows of the Katou Organization after their many attacks, and Ishigami shows him a picture of their commander: Hisataka Katou
In other words, that guy’s the one to blame for the attack that killed Yajima. Mind, he’s not the only enemy to fight as there are also the Mimetic Beasts, Jama Kingdom, Cthulhu, Darius Army and more. Which is why, Quatre concludes, we need Kouichi and the Linebarrel’s strength and he hopes he’ll accept.

Ishigami will understand if he needs a bit of time to process it all – this IS a bit heavier than anything a regular student might face normally – but he says there’s nothing to be scared of. Kouichi doesn’t appreciate his condescension and says he’s not scared.
Whether he is or not, Ishigami says he’s got plenty of comrades here – not just him and Yui, but Quatre and everyone else he’d fight alongside with. With that, he beckons the kid to follow.

Over by Djibril’s place, he and Logos Guy have heard what happened with the Linebarrel… and his take on it is that the thing could be really useful in SLAUGHTERING COORDINATORS! If the intel’s right, that lone Machina can level an entire city!
Indeed, Logos Guy now sees why Lady Une, JUDA and the Katou Organization were so keen on getting their hands on the thing. What will Djibril do about it, then? Nothing right now, but seeing how LOTUS captured the thing, it won’t be long before they can use legal, very democratic, means to make the Linebarrel theirs.
Djibril will handle that, while Logos Guy is gearing up to attack a place called Diokia real soon – look forward to it.

: Come in, come in. Allow me to introduce you to the people of LOTUS – they’ll be your comrades-in-arms!
: …
: It’s that guy… you’ve got some stones showing your face ‘round here…!
: Kouichi!
: Ichitaka? What’re you doing here…?
: What, did you forget all the times I called you when we were fighting?
: I… I was sure you were a doppelganger, like in Kivaider and stuff. There’s always a doppelganger.
: A doppel—… Well, I guess I see where you’re coming from.
: Really? You do?
: Mr. Ishigami, this really isn’t gonna work. Our teamworks gonna go right out the window with this idiot around!
: Now, now, don’t be like that, Yamashita.
: He’s right. Teamwork is something one builds over time.
: Oh, and I’m Miu Kujo – the Painkiller’s pilot. It’s good to meet you, Kouichi.
: Y-Yeah, likewise.
: Hayase, if you’re joining us then there’s something I want to tell you: you rely far too much on the Linebarrel abilities when fighting. You won’t go far with that.
: And, just as I told Nagumo before, you’ll only be a hindrance to others if you don’t train yourself up to a bare minimum standard.
: Then that means we’re gonna have to train together, eh, Kouichi?
: Hey, hold on there! I never said I agreed to fighting with you guys!
: Kouichi…!
: … Just take me home. If I’m going to be “a hindrance” then I’m useless to you, right?!
: Hmm… Well, I’d at least like you to think this through. I’ll be eagerly awaiting your positive answer.
: Don’t hold your breath…!

He leaves.

: Kouichi…
: So much for the negotiations…
: Not surprising. It was a lot for him to digest. Mr. Ishigami, maybe you should give him time to put his thoughts in order and then try again?
: That’s what I’m thinking, yes… Too bad. I was hoping he’d come aboard right away.
: Still, you didn’t expect him to even lend his ear in the first place, did you?
: I suppose not. Then let’s give him some time. If he still doesn’t change his mind, then…

: The hell? My uniform, my cell, they’re all brand new… Is this their idea of buttering up the new guy? Damn it, that guy oughta go and jump off a cliff!
: Kouichi…
: Ah… Emi.
: … Do you have even the tiniest grasp of what you’ve done?
: …?!
: You gained the Linebarrel’s power and what did you do? You thought of no one but yourself; you used that power only to satisfy your worthless, insignificant pride and arrogance…
: You went on and on about how you were a “champion of justice”, but you couldn’t even protect anything. Rather, you only made things worse for all around you. What you did wasn’t even like a child playing make-believe – it was worse than that!
: Wh… What?!
: You may have the abilities of a Factor, but you are absolutely not worthy of the Linebarrel. Your friend’s death… that was your fault!
: !!
: You’re despicable!

Elsewhere, F.S. is talking to someone. The guy’s seen today’s bout and found the awakening of the Linebarrel’s Factor to be quite interesting. Could it also be representative of the potential of humans? It’s still very much unripe, but F.S. is certain there’s huge potential hidden there. And he’s not the only one, he believes.
Indeed, the more strength they have to mount their resistance, the better; F.S. figures that’s precisely why the guy had the R-Daigun made in secrecy. It wasn’t just that mind, as the guy figures the R-Daigun’s actions will beget evolution. That’s what he learned from observing life’s history.
Was the bot the last surprise he had tucked away? F.S. won’t like his answer to that question – time is short, after all. In that case, F.S. figures he’ll go and make some preparations of his own in the interest of helping his precious friends.

Back at the Cthulhu Fortress, Sepia tells Sir Violet that she’s bid her farewells to Cobalt. Violet understands the grief she feels over losing her beloved but Sepia’s a fully-fledged warrior and cannot remain that way forever.
Indeed, she’ll take over Cobalt’s mantle and will strike down Iczer-1 as the commander of the Iczer-Σ. The sorrow and anger she feels must now be turned against the traitor and Sepia stands ready. She’ll personally destroy Iczer-1 and lay Cobalt’s soul to rest.
Good, as Big Gold’s already started working, so Sepia’s partner should be given life before long.

Sir Violet takes her to a room with what Sepia knows to be a Growth Capsule. Within is her partner, Iczer-2, who bids her good day. She’s another android like Iczer-1 and is looking forward to being good friends with Sepia.
Sir Violet can see that Sepia’s rather surprised, but tells her when Iczer-2 and Iczer-Σ are awakened and fully active, not even Iczer-1 will stand a chance. And Sepia is ready to fight alongside Iczer-2, promising Cobalt that she will get revenge for her.

[Mattman324]

Surprisingly, the Apparition fight is one of the few things the anime did well, and I fucking love the computer voice they gave Apparition - although the choice the anime made in giving it a machinegun was odd. And both the anime and manga set up something really important about it right here, but you’ll figure that out later in Linebarrel, where it goes over how Machina get Factors. (The anime never talks about why it being non-piloted here is important by the way, and also makes the later plot much stupider, but eh.)

The manga also made for some awesome reaction images.

…but anyway. More Linebarrel stuff next time on this route, including IIRC Domyouji’s first onscreen appearance, and given Domyouji is a consistently amazing character I’m fine with that. (Even the anime only slightly fucked him up!)

OH YEAH, ALSO.

: Kouichi… What matters… isn’t what you should do…
: Huh…
: But what you… want to do… You’re finally strong… so use that… for good…

This. Pay close attention to this.

EDIT 2: Oh, and since Wufei’s back, let me again point out that him hanging out with JUSTICE villains is thematically appropriate and he literally fits like a glove. Also spoilers and shit so I won’t say more than that.

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

And here we are, with another close race for our top ace. As with the other path, only a single kill separates each of our guys, though Ichitaka didn’t get to go on a rampage on this side.

Now that the SMS has officially joined LOTUS, we need to build some new teams. Daiya’s deploying as an event unit, so here’s how we’re going:
Tetsuya/Jun
Ichitaka/Sayaka (don’t really like this but it beats him flying solo)
Kouji/Boss
Combattler/Puria
Alto/Michel
Zechs/Noin
Voltes/Canaria
Heine/Klan
Ozma/Luca

Forward!

Back in Arkholand, in the Darius World, Higant relays intel that the Gate of Zela has opened. The gate is part of a system that travels across the universe in search of a habitable world – it opening indicates that one has been found. Too little, too late, thinks Proist, as her perfect plan, Operation FD, is getting set up right now.
Telmina (green hair), steps in to say that Proist’s father, the king, is calling. He’s not about to back off her plan because the gate opened, is he?

Over by the King Darius XVII’s room, Doctor Two is, indeed, reporting the gate’s opening. He says it’s not too late to restart the Ark Project, too – they mustn’t waste their ancestors’ hard work in setting up the gate in preparation of the Darius World’s eventual destruction.
As Proist comes in, Darius celebrates that they can now save their people without her having to carry this campaign. Proist really wants to go with Operation FD, though – it’ll create a most magnificent world. And now he wants to prioritize the Ark Project, something that’s been shelved for the past 2000 years? Yes, because, time passed notwithstanding, the gate DID open: they just need to build the arks and that’s it!

As Proist pouts, Nikita and Telmina run in with a report that the Daiku Maryu has been found. She tells them to go after, but not to take things too far. As Banishum confirms, she hopes a show of her prowess will convince her father to sanction Operation FD.

By the Daiku Maryu, Yanma and Haccho are wondering how Daiya and Puria are doing up top. At least they got confirmation that they’ve safely joined LOTUS and are fighting with them. Big man Buby sighs that the whole Daiku Maryu crew wants to go help but the situation down here is still rather complex – they need to do something about Proist first, Lulu thinks.
Problem is, even if they do launch an attack on Arkholand, it’ll be a very tough battle without the Gaiking around. Goes to show how mighty Daiya is – unfortunately so, Norza grunts. Perhaps their only option now is just to harass the Darius until he’s back. Of course, considering all the issues going up top, recalling them isn’t the best idea: even if they beat the Darius, it wouldn’t mean much if the surface got trashed.
Lulu wonders what her father would do right now…

Changed his name from Nouza to Norza since only now I was pointed at the cardinal direction thing going on with the Darius bosses: Norza/North, Vestanu/West, Proist/East (Ist), Sathpage/South.
Oh, and if you think this is grasping at straws: Higant/Higashi (東 - East), Telmina/Minami (南 - South), Nikita/Kita (北 - North), Banishum/Nishi (西 - West). Yup, it’s bullcrap.

But is interrupted by a call from Kain, who reports to Norza that some Iron Beasts are headed this way… or not – they’ve vanished! He pings a Zelgaia up ahead and it appears the Iron Beasts were destroyed by it?
Why in blazes a battleship of the Darius would open fire on their mooks, though? Moreover, said ship is now opening a transmission to us!

Turns out Garis – former captain of the Daiku Maryu and Lulu’s dad – is at the Zelgaia’s helm and he’s pleased to see everyone doing well. But chit-chat will have to wait, as he warns that the Darius have sniffed out our location. Best to get out of here quick.
As for what he’s doing in that ship, he tells Lulu that he couldn’t simply stay bedridden; so, he’s travelling the land while getting back on his feet, organizing a resistance against the Darius Empire. Sounds to Vestanu that we might just be able to assault the capital with this resistance on our side.
Upon reflection, however, Lulu tells Garis that the Daiku Maryu’ll be heading topside. Norza doesn’t like it one bit, but she thinks it’d still be too risky to mount that attack without Daiya – what if the Dvorak shows up again?

Dick asks what they’ll be doing, then, as fighting the same war of attrition won’t help make any headway. Well, it’s not looking like Proist’s able to put her plan into action right now, luckily, so Lulu wants the Tenku and Daichi Maryu to coordinate with the local guerrilla and help defectors and innocent Darius citizens get to safety.
The Daiku Maryu will, in the meantime, try and see if we can’t help solve the surface’s problems a bit sooner than they would’ve been otherwise. And when the time comes for them to assault the capital, they’ll return with not only the Gaiking but all of LOTUS.
Sounds good to Garis, who’s proud of how much Lulu’s grown, though she asks him to save the praise for when it’s all over.

With that, she asks Shizuka and Sakon to ready the Zeus Missile to open their passageway to the surface – already done, as Sakon saw this coming. Norza and Vestanu won’t question Lulu’s judgement (what with all the times she gave them hell).
And, thinks Lee, if things down here go south, we can always come back in a hurry. The alarms sound once more, Rosa pinging a new batch of Iron and Demonic Beasts headed this way. Norza, Lee and Vestanu set out to keep the things at bay with Garis – they’ll hold the fort here, but Lulu oughta come back with Daiya as soon as can be.

And cut straight to space, with Yumi getting in touch to relay that the folks at the Minerva – including the ZAFT mechs Ichitaka was worried about – are safe and sound. Still, Yumi knows the situation for us will only be getting worse, so he tells Tetsuya to be careful; he says the same to the professor.
Getting some news from the surface is a major relief to our team and things only ended that way thanks to all the help we got from the Quarter and crew – Hyouma’s very grateful, though Michel says they only did what was right. Of course, Heine says he needn’t be so humble either.
Daiya agrees, committing the old faux pas of dropping the honorifics (as pointed out by Boss, of all people), but Heine doesn’t really care to stand on formalities. Either way we want to address him is fine. Kouji likes it and greets Heine like any regular buddy.

Klan comes in, interrupting the mirth, and tells that the SMS has received a new mission – their first as part of LOTUS. She doesn’t know what it’s about, but she’s heard tell that it’s about some anti-war movie? Hyouma and Ippei DID see on the news that there’s this co-production going on with Earth and the Frontier – Sheryl’s doing the theme song and Eida Rossa’s the star.
Seems like it’ll be about two different cultures encountering each other amidst nature, with a strong message about love and peace, etc. And since the Frontier-dwelling folk don’t know who Eida is, Sayaka explains that she’s a world-class singer back on Earth (though not famous throughout space, like Sheryl). Kinda like the PLANTs’ Lacus.

Regardless, Bobby comes in with a press release transcript from Ishigami – seems like this thing was his idea (much to Puria’s surprise). Daiya sees his point, though: if the movie’s a hit and drums up the anti-war sentiment with the people, it might force the Earth Alliance to cease hostilities with the PLANTs.
Just like the same Alliance stopped two years ago? Puria seriously doubts that. Still, Hyouma figures it’s better than doing nothing, as there are a lot of people who lost friends and family with the Junius Seven drop. Doesn’t hurt to try calming them down. Plus, the Frontier’s government has also been vocal in their desire for peace.

Michel does wonder what we’ll be doing with this movie, though, and Ozma enters to answer that: we’ll be assisting with the combat scenes and, also, guarding the singers on site. Furthermore, the movie’ll be shot at Earth, so everyone’s to get ready for the Quarter’s departure. Daiya’s happy to be heading back.
We’ll need to tell Alto as well, and both Michel and Kenichi know this descent to Earth will mean much to him: it’ll be his chance to actually fly in a proper sky (though not that of his own world). Michel wasn’t in much of a hurry but now is kinda interested in giving the news just to see the Princess get all giddy.

Cut to Vector Productions, Elmo runs in with big news for Ranka: she’s going to be in a movie! And it’s a big production, being shot at Earth and everything! Deculture!

The rookies of the team are busy getting drilled by Sakonji, with Zechs assisting. As the session finally ends and they’re dismissed, Ichitaka groans that this was just as bad as Reiji’s regimen. Tough luck for him, as Sakonji smelled his amateurism the second he got aboard the Quarter.
Still, Ichitaka won’t complain as he wants to go and grow stronger and stronger, and stand tall when he finds Grife. As Alto ponders the kid’s reason for fighting, Alice runs in: it’s Alto’s turn to get a check-up. Alto bellyaches that he thought joining LOTUS would’ve gotten him free of the nonstop exams, and Ichitaka wonders if there’s anything wrong with him.
Not really, but the Frontier ran tests on everyone whenever they fought the Vajra – sometimes they got quarantined for a week. Well, Alice is just compiling data on everyone for eventual diagnostics, so it won’t take long.

But before that, Michel and Juzo run in and they’ve news for Alto, figuring he’d want to know ASAP. Ichitaka doesn’t like the grin on Michel’s face and hopes it’s not something bad. Absolutely not, and, in fact, he figures the kid’ll like it as well.
Fast forward a bit and he’s told them everything. Alto already knew about the movie, but Michel tells him to get hyped some: he’s going to see the actual sky! Alto doesn’t see it as that big of a deal since he’ll fly just the same, though Ichitaka thinks he could stand not to be a party pooper.
Michel knows what’s up, though: Alto IS happy, he’s just trying his best to be chill. As the guy seethes, Alice compares her readings with recorded data and confirms a bulls-eye – didn’t even need to actually examine him to see that!

Alto then gets a call from Ranka and steps out for a bit to speak with her: of course, she’s here with big news of her appearance in Sheryl and Eida’s movie. Seems like the director heard her single and really liked it. Nice!
The issue is that Ranka has absolutely no experience as an actress and is worrying so much if she can pull it off. “Yeah, I guess it’s not possible,” Alto shrugs. “You really are a huge meanie, Alto! Would it kill you to lie juuust a bit and say, like, ‘you can totally do it!’?!”
“If you think, you shall not bloom. Don’t think, and you shall,” he says. What he means is that if she tries tackling this with her head, her acting won’t appear real. What she needs to do is stop thinking and simply immerse herself in the role – become one with it. Ranka’s blown away by his acting insight, but, that aside, isn’t she just an extra? True…

Either way, Alto mentions that the SMS will be helping with the shoot, meaning they might see each other on set. That’s assuming Ozma’ll give them some free time, of course. Should she ask him to do so? Please don’t, as Alto dreads the thought of what he’d do if he found out they’d been having these calls.
Well, Ranka’s got to go now but she’ll be looking forward to seeing him on Earth. As she goes, Alto grunts over having to quote his dad to cheer the girl.

Another call soon follow – from Sheryl (Alto’s seeing a pattern). If she’s going to fling another “request” his way, he’s NOT DOING IT. Well, isn’t that a nice way to open a call – and she even had some good news to tell him. Is it about her making a song for that movie? He knows and doesn’t really care.
No, it’s not that. Sheryl knows that he longs to fly freely across a real, open sky, so…

Some time later, the Quarter’s just reached their designated parking spot and Jeffrey reiterates the mission across the PA – we gotta make a good impression here on Earth. Bobby’s taking off to the set, as he got the job of handling Ranka’s makeup. This is her movie debut, after all, so he wants her looking her best!
Now, while Jeffrey doesn’t expect anything to go down, he does tell Monica to keep an eye on their surroundings – he’ll be in his room, on standby. Lam and Mina are a bit miffed that, during their first trip to Earth, they’re getting stuck on the bridge – they’re a bit jealous of Bobby now.
Same goes for Zechs and Noin, though he knows some of them had to remain ready to deploy at the drop of a hat.

Over by the set, Luca’s so very moved by the sight of legit earth and water, with the Voltes team seeing that this world’s Earth isn’t any different from theirs – sea smells the same, sky is blue, etc. It’s still not where they were born and raised, though, so Hiyoshi’s feels the moment to be a bit bittersweet.
Ichitaka and Kouji wonder if Lady Une and Ishigami set the SMS up for this job precisely to let them get a taste of this side’s Earth – it’s possible. It’s only a shame that Cathy couldn’t get off the ship with us, but she apparently had urgent stuff to handle. And on the subject of people nowhere in sight, Daiya asks where Alto went. From what Michel heard, the Princess had a special assignment – guarding the Queen.

That’d be Sheryl, of course, and she really likes the breeze – she’s feeling so inspired by it. Grace’s also liking the ambiance and is glad she came along; she deserves it, of course, as she arrange this gig. Grace has a laugh, as it’s not like Sheryl to flatter her so.
Alto isn’t feeling as peppy, though, telling them to hurry the hell up to the set – Sheryl’s luggage isn’t getting any lighter, you know! They’ll go soon, so shush.
Ranka spots them and runs over, Sheryl glad to see she’s climbing up the stairway towards stardom. And regardless of the role she’s got, Sheryl wants her to show a presence befitting the lead – Ranka promises to do her best. Alto’s standing nearby and the best he gives Ranka when pressed by Sheryl is a “Hey…”.
But never mind that, what Ranka wants to know is why he’s hanging out with Sheryl first thing after getting here… He’s not “hanging out” – he was assigned as her bodyguard.

But Sheryl’s gotta get going, as Grace reminds her there’s a lot of work to be done. Alto needs to follow – and bring that parasol. As he begrudgingly does so, he wishes Ranka good luck. She silently harrumphs that Alto’s being used less like a bodyguard and more like a servant.
Regardless, Elmo runs over but, no, it’s not yet her time to get on set. Actually, it seems like, between Eida’s agency wanting to make some modifications to the script and the director having a fit and stomping away, she’ll have to wait ‘til the afternoon. Why not take the time to go sightseeing a bit and, while she’s off, Elmo’ll try to see if he can’t score her a bigger part… though she quietly doubts it’ll be anything with more than a few seconds of screentime.

Mission 8 (Retreat Route) – The Legend of Daiku Maryu

: So many trees around here got flattened… I guess it’s because of that Junius Seven Drop that Alto spoke of…
: What a horrible thing, war… So many beautiful places, so many precious lives, gone just like that…

: Aimo, Aimo…

Deeper inland…

: Hm? This song… it’s beautiful. It’s like my soul’s awash with warmth… Where’s it coming from?
: …

RUUUUUMBLE!

: Aah?!
: The ground’s shaking?!
: Hrm!

: WAAAAAAAAH!!
: Th-The Daiku Maryu!
: The battleship you said was in another world?!
: Whoa, the thing looks like a dinosaur!

: The Darius Army! And they’re after the Daiku Maryu…!
: …! Where’s Ranka?! Did you see her anywhere, Ichitaka?!
: She said she was going sightseeing and went right that way…!
: The workers are already being evacuated, so we need to get going!
: Hold on, Ranka’s—!
: Calm down and think, you idiot! You’re not gonna accomplish anything running around on foot!
: If you wanna help her, they deploy with your Valkyrie – but we’ve no time to sit here and argue with you! Come on, Luca!
: Yes, sir!
: Damn it! Darius or whoever they are, I’m not letting them hurt her!
: Urk… How didn’t we lose them with that?! All hands, battle stations!
: Incoming!

: Aaaah! Alto! Brother!

Flop!

: (…! She passed out?!)

The guy jumps towards her.

: (There…)

Away!

: Aah!

Bash!

: Urgh!
: Are you alright, Rongo?!
: Y-Yeah, I’m good!
: (Crap… That got me right in the ribs…)
: A-Adjust our positioning and ready our counterattack!

: This is Jeffrey Wilder, captain of the Macross Quarter. We’re here to assist you, Daiku Maryu!
: All units, engage and destroy the Darius troops. Daiya, head for the Daiku Maryu!
: You got it!
: Is that… LOTUS?
: Do you think that strangely-colored Gaiking is…?

: Lulu, it’s me! I’ve got your back!
: Daiya! It really is you!
: Yeah! Send the Gaiking parts over!
: Roger that! Gaiking, Parts #1 and #2! Go!

: GAIKIIIIIIING!!

: Here we go… Now this is a flame! C’mon, Gaiking! First order of business is paying these guys back for the damage they did to the Daiku Maryu!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGpIemDL3bQ

: There it is…! The Gaiking’s back!
: So that’s how it’s really like…!

: Daiya, Puria!
: You didn’t forget about us, I hope!
: We’ll all fight with you!
: Yanma, Haccho, Buby!
: Did you enjoy your little vacation topside, Mister?
: Dick! Damn good to fight at your side again!
: Heh…
: We can’t let Daiya leave us all in the dust! Forward!
: Troops, open fire!
: Roger!

You know, there’s something about Ranka’s emotional moment being no-sold by a suddenly materializing dinosaur-ship with Aimo getting overridden by GAI GAI GAI DAIKU MARYU GAIKING that really tickles my funny bone.
Either way, this is just a simple mission with no gimmicks to introduce us to the rest of the Gaiking team. Let the enemies come to us and take them out one at a time.
Now that Daiya’s got his main bot back, he’s pretty much our strongest unit around, and his friends also bring much to the table:

Daiku Maryu (Lulu Arges, Rosa Bernikov)
Pilot Skills:
Flame L2
Commander L1
Prevail L3
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L1
Spirit Commands – Lulu:
Scan
Strike
Cheer
Spirit Commands – Rosa:
Invincible
Accelerate
Squad Bonus: Crit rate +10, armor +100

The Daiku Maryu’s a REALLY good ship. First off, it’s bulky as hell and even has a 10% chance to trigger double image with Illusion Protect (when over 130 morale). Secondly, it can transform to make for a very fine attacker: in regular mode, it gets less weapons but moves farther; in Volution Protect mode, it coils up to get stronger weapons (a combined attack with Daiya!) but less movement.
It’s got decent-ish ranged attacks but, really, it’s very much meant to be up close and personal. Of note is that, if you don’t deploy Daiya or get him into a ship, the Daiku Maryu will get its head back (which is the Gaiking’s chest) and gains extra weapons.
Use it!

Crab Bunker (Yanma, Haccho, Buby)
Pilot Skills:
Flame L1
Prevail L1
Support Defense L1
Spirit Commands – Yanma:
Focus
Strike
Spirit Commands – Haccho:
Scan
Accelerate
Spirit Commands – Buby:
Invincible
Trust
Squad Bonus: HP +1000, Water rating = A, 1000 Barrier, debuff immunity

Kill Jaguar (Dick Alcain)
Pilot Skills:
Flame L2
Counter
Prevail L1
Support Attack L1
Spirit Commands:
Lucky
Sense
Fury/Direct Hit
Squad Bonus: Crit rate +10, money earned +10%, Earth rating = A, 15% chance to auto-evade attacks

Now these are nice. The Crab Bunker’s a great squaddie for pretty much any Super, but it’s especially good for Daiya as it gives so much good stuff for him and an A rating in water (and it has a Repair Module); three whole spirit commands in a single unit is also a great deal.
The Kill Jaguar could work as both a squaddie or it could even lead if you like it enough. Dick’s lack of Focus isn’t great but that 15% Double Image bonus will help – and he’s naturally dodgy. Range is also decent, though, since his best weapon is pre-movement, you’ll likely want to set him with a sniper.

And, of course, both these units also have combined attacks with Daiya, so this is a good moment for a quick tangent into Red and White Combined Attacks. L (and possibly K – I didn’t play it) have two types of combos between units: red combos (like Daiya+Daiku Maryu, Jeeg+Big Shooter) require only that the two units be within 5 squares of each other, while white combos follow the standard rule of requiring them be adjacent.
Yanma and Dick’s (Puria’s too) attacks are white combos, which is another reason why the Crab Bunker’s a good fit for Daiya.

And since we couldn’t do it last mission:

Talgeese III (Zechs Marquise)
Pilot Skills:
Sword Cut
Shoot Down
Shield Defense
Hit & Away
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L1
Attack Combo
Spirit Commands:
Focus
Accelerate
Fury/Direct Hit
Squad Bonus: Mobility +5, Space rating = A

Taurus (Lucrezia Noin)
Pilot Skills:
Shoot Down
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L1
Spirit Commands:
Focus
Trust
Squad Bonus: Exp earned +10%, crit rate +10, accuracy +5, EN +50

Zechs and Noin are exactly as you’d expect: a very good, though not top tier, midrange attacker and an okay-ish support unit, respectively. Noin, as usual, is held back by just how middling the Taurus is as a unit (keep it transformed, or else), but Zechs clearly got some love in this game.
He’s, of course, a very good pilot and the Tallgeese got a boost from W, becoming an even more reliable unit – his squad bonus is kinda “eh” but he’s got some nice close and long-range offense, so you can absolutely field him. If anything, the Taurus hands out some nice bonuses.

With that done, the whole team moves forward but the Daiku Maryu crew is standing by to draw in the enemies.

Enemy Phase!

In they come, nothing in range.

Player Phase!

These Protex Iron Beasts are by far the more annoying enemy here simply because they’re underwater. The Daiku Maryu works fine on any terrain, at least.

: Lucky; we already managed to find Daiya. Now we coordinate with the Gaiking and get on the offensive!
: Take us in, Rongo!
: A-Aye, aye!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBOIxjRqlew
Granted, that was the weakest weapon…

Next up!

: We’re back together with Daiya and Puria!
: So we can’t screw up now!
: Time to bring out our A-game!

The Crab Bunker isn’t the best attacker on its own, but alright.

Rest of our team is still moving in, so let’s wait one more round.

Enemy Phase!

The enemy will, of course, prioritize Daiya as they move in.

: Yeah, there really is no comparison to the Gaiking’s power and weapons!
: My flame’s also burning way stronger!

There goes about 60% of this Bitra’s HP. Between Daiya and Lulu, many of the enemy’s first wave gets chopped in half.

The last enemy gets too close and will pay for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MlOXhmDh4k
Not bad at all.

Player Phase!

Now, I wanna get Puria’s morale up for reasons.

: Hey, we’re shooting an anti-war flick over here, not a monster one!

We’ll get there.

Get to work, Dick.

: Surface or not, I fight the same. Take a look, Mister… I’ll show you just how much stronger I got!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vj0dP7FAj0
”Bad luck!”

I’ll have Ozma lead the offensive with his superlative command aura. The Valkyries are terrible against underwater mooks, though, so they won’t do much against the Protexes.

Best to leave that to Yanma.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sEOgE3Egxg
Good man.
Tetsuya and Klan move on ahead as well, each claiming a kill from Daiya’s weakened targets.

Now take a look at Zechs’ new Heat Rod and remember how it was in W.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLoUgFpHCDs
Nice.

By the by, Daiya still has one regular weapon that can hit underwater in the form of his own (Dino)Saur Geyser.

Bam.

Enemy Phase!

And the enemies play ball, attacking my frontline guys.

: Damn it, where’d Ranka go…?! Where are you?!
: Alto, the enemy’s dead ahead! Pay attention!
: I know, I know, but…!

But Michel’s hit here is juuust weak enough for the Galgoras to survive.

On the other hand, Kenichi scores two kills while Ozma and Luca weaken a whole lotta stuff.

Player Phase!

Lulu gets healed up a bit and is ready to bring out her big guns.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DITTodZj54k
I actually underestimated her power here. Should’ve had her go after the Protex!

Regardless, it goes down with some work from Dick and Yanma.

This really isn’t Ichitaka’s kind of mission, though, as the Rushbird doesn’t work too well on water.

But it can still hit decently. Kenichi and Canaria wrap it up.

It was only now that I realized that I really should’ve focused on deal with the Protexes first, before killing their leaders and sending them underwater.

Either way, Klan and Heine take this one. Luca and Ozma finish off a pair they weakened before.

Enemy Phase!

One counterkill for Jeffrey and Lulu, two for Ozma and Luca, two for Tetsuya. And did you know that we actually have 4 (!) shots of the Great Booster in L?!

Player Phase!

And now it’s just clean-up, so here’s the rundown:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KM1Rr7jrCw
4 shots!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofVXtu_oEms
Do keep in mind that the combined attacks have rather hefty EN costs (though not as hefty as they were in K).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HwG7oAVU7Q
Oh, and this is interesting: this is actually the only mission in the game where you can use this Double Despair Sight! Also, goddamn, is that strong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmj2aRwXUM0
Of course, these attacks WOULD be taxing on your EN supply when you use your finishing move as a feint, Daiya!
But we’re still all done.

Rosa confirms all enemies dead and Lulu thanks Daiya and LOTUS for the assist; the kid only cares that she’s doing fine. As for the movie set, while there are a few wounded, Ranka turned up safe and Sheryl’s also fine. That’s a load off Alto’s back.
Still, Ozma fears that this mess’ll put an end of the shooting… only, no, Jeffrey just got a message that they’re keeping with it: “And as a matter of fact, some are even wondering if it wouldn’t be possible to use shots of today’s battle as combat scenes for the movie.” Ozma’ll never understand these cinephiles, though Cathy suggests he not say anything as he’s got his own share of obsessions.

Regardless, Jeffrey calls everyone back to the ship and to carry on our assignment – and he presumes the Daiku Maryu traveled topside to join with LOTUS? Lulu confirms, so he asks them to come with and they’ll get resupplied as well.
Daiya and Puria do ask for permission to head over to the Daiku Maryu first – Daiya needs to return the ship’s head and, of course, wants to see his friends again. Plus, Puria has a bunch of stuff to report. Ozma allows it, but tells them to return ASAP.

And Daiya’s so very happy to see Lulu again. He tells of how LOTUS helped him and Puria get by; Yanma and co have been so very lonely without their “sis” around, though she tells them quit crying. When Daiya asks, Rosa explains that Lee, Norza and others stayed in the Darius World to help the guerilla fight Proist.
All thanks to Garis gathering all the like-minded folk they met into a single group. Learning the good ol’ Cap is doing fine is a big relief to Daiya, and he’s not all that surprised that the guy went and made a comeback as a big time guerilla leader. That sounds like him.
But, Puria wonders, what IS the Daiku Maryu doing at the surface – did they come pick them up? Somewhat, though Lulu also wants to recruit LOTUS’ help for their battle. Not immediately, mind, as go-time will depend on how things progress with the preparations for the assault on the Darius royal capital. Plus, there’s still getting the civs to safe places.

Shizuka does relate that the Darius Army activities started slowing down some, though we don’t know why. We can’t really afford guesswork now, but Rosa still has faith the folks below will handle things nicely in our absence. Looks like Daiya better work just as hard up here!
And on that subject, Sakon has some stuff that’ll help Puria in her battles: a power-up for her Stinger! He’ll give her the manual to read after it’s done. Shizuka says the new unit’ll be dubbed Superior Stinger and will be available to use right on her next deployment. Nice.

Cut back to the set, Elmo’s just dropped a request for Alto: please take part in the movie and, of course, in a female role! Seems like folks could potentially up Ranka’s screentime, but ONLY if Alto agrees to this. Alto says he quit acting a long time ago (especially as women).
Is he wimping out, quips Michel. Hell, no! Why not do it for Ranka, then? Michel figures he’ll have an easier time if he does, in more ways than one. Alto tells him to piss off – this ain’t none of his business.

Elsewhere, the mysterious guy that rescued Ranka – Brera – is getting nagged at by G as his orders clearly stated that he needed to keep a low profile. Brera argues that the girl had passed out, but G isn’t satisfied.
He reminds him that half of LOTUS is spread across the island and they’re here to investigate how advanced our forces truly are. Brera DOES want to get his memories back, no? Then he better do as told. He grunts a confirmation, so G moves on to the next subject: how are things at Diokia? They’re currently undergoing preparations to get everything in place – the larva’s inert at the moment. G tells him to keep a close watch.
Then, they’ll just need Q1 to emit the required level of Fold Waves…

Back to Alto, Sheryl was actually expecting him to take the acting offer as a way to get out of his bodyguard duties, but he turned it down. Kind of a shame, really, because she WAS looking forward to seeing Alto’s legendary performance as a woman.
But never mind that, can she make good on that promise to give him some free time to fly around? Well, he flew not too long ago, so Sheryl considers that promise 100% kept. But that was during combat! How the hell does she figure he had time to enjoy flying with all that going down?!

Just a joke – chill. And, well, Sheryl just got another gig besides this movie, so she’ll let him fly around that venue. Alto, without any recourse, decides to come clean as to why he needs some slack right now: while he refused to play a female part, he DID accept to be the MC’s stunt double for when he flies a Valkyrie. Sheryl knew he was holding out on her – he’s not aloof enough to NOT help Ranka.
As Alto harrumphs, Ichitaka runs over to let him know that Ranka woke up. Sheryl gives him the green light as, apparently, the girl was calling his name in her sleep.

After a stern warning from Canaria to keep his voice down, Alto gets to see Ranka. She’s very bothered by the fact that she’s forced a stranger to come and rescue her – she’ll likely make a mess of the production as well. Alto is sure that’s not the case, and says he’ll also be taking part in the shooting (as a stunt double, but hey). He’s not doing anything until it’s go-time, so if she has any acting-related doubts, he’s here to answer.
And maybe she’ll need that, as Elmo runs in screaming that he’s got “super delicious planetary golden special big news”: the director not only wants her Aimo song to be the main theme, but he also wants her to be the female lead!

Seems like Eida got hurt during the previous battle and needed to step down. Canaria raises the very good point that Ranka’s an amateur as an actress – they’re gonna pick her for the role just like that? Indeed, the director heard her singing by the sea and was so moved that he’s adamant that it HAS to be her.
Of course, being the female lead means there’s this big kiss scene she’ll have to do – can she handle it as her first step towards stardom? She’ll have to kiss the MC? No… his stunt double. As Alto and Ranka add two plus two, things quickly get awkward.

Well, isn’t that something? Is Alto regretting playing stuntman now? Seems like Ranka hasn’t made up her mind yet, but Alto’s willing to go for it. After all he’s done scenes like that plenty of times before – it’s not that big of a deal. Actually, he silently remembers that he’s ALWAYS been the woman in those scenes, but tells himself that he can do it.
Sheryl agrees that it’s just a kiss, though what Alto is really worried about is Ozma. His attention is brought back when Sheryl leans over and kisses him herself. Nearby, Ranka is fretting over her inexperience as an actress and everything, having to do a scene like that… just in time to take a look out in the distance to spot Alto and Sheryl. Whoops.
He’s a bit stunned, and Sheryl has a big laugh at him getting all flustered when he was just saying it was “no big deal”. As she runs off (angry Alto in pursuit), Ranka’s still trying to make sense of how she feels. One thing’s for certain, though: she’s not about to concede defeat.

Some time later, the shoot went flawlessly and Jeffrey just got a message from the production thanking the SMS for the fine work. Thankfully, there were no other problems after the Darius Army attacked. The Daiku Maryu crew also lent a hand with things, Lulu saying Dr. Franklin was happy to help with the costumes and whatnot – his sewing skills have many uses, Alice sees.
Daiya also had fun and Sayaka expects there to be a private screening for the film crew before release, though Heine sees in Ozma’s seething visage that he’s not keen on that kiss between his sister and his subordinate. Regardless, Une got in touch and said that since things ended sooner than anticipated, we can have a whole day off.

Everyone’s hyped, especially Ichitaka, and Tetsuya tells him to enjoy this: starting tomorrow, Noin’ll be helping with the training regimen. The kid’s not worried after being on the receiving end of Sakonji, Reiji and Tetsuya’s drills – he’s not about to get worried over ONE new instructor.
Zechs somberly says Ichitaka doesn’t yet grasp how Noin’s like and the kid starts getting worried, saying that he heard stories that she was just an ordinary instructor. She figures those stories started with her old flunkies and suggests he not get his hopes up – rather, he’d best prepare for the worst. Uh, oh.

Back to the island Hiyoshi and Daiya are swimming all over, impressing Megumi and Daijiro that the Gaiking pilot is actually keeping up with the kid. He really is a man of the sea. Boss and co. don’t care, enjoying the beach episode by ogling the Quarter’s bridge bunnies – they can’t decide which looks the best.
Sayaka stomps over to yell at them to stop staring and Boss is so disappointed that she’s in her everyday clothes. What gives?! Well, she, Kouji, Tetsuya and Jun and the Combattler team are actually going to tour the island – they rented some bikes, too, to enjoy the sea breeze.
As they run off, Kouji only asks Boss to make sure he doesn’t get sunburned watching the girls all day… But why didn’t they invite him to come with? Rude! Boss hustles Nuke and Mucha to follow.

Nearby, Michel’s relaxation is interrupted by Grace approaching. Oh, my, isn’t she a beauty to rival even Sheryl – she’s too good to be just a manager. Grace laughs at his flattering, though he swears he’s being 100% truthful.
After he introduces himself, however, Grace immediately recognizes his name – and not in a good way. She offers her sympathies over what happened to his sister and that immediately sets a dark cloud over his head. But Grace came here looking for Sheryl and it falls on Luca to step in while Michel’s sullen – she might be at the Daiku Maryu?
Grace’s worried as she should’ve come back long ago. Is she supposed to be working now? No, it’s just that Sheryl’s not been doing too great lately, so she’s got some medicine to take. Sounds important, so Luca and the others offer to help look. Michel isn’t listening, though, thinking about his sister.

And now we jump straight from Greece to around Iraq and Iran, where we find the Minerva. Seems like they’ve been busy since their escape from Orb and Durandal’s very satisfied with their work – indeed, he was right to also give Talia FAITH status, though she credits their victories to Shinn and Athrun (who’s already been with them for a few days, it seems).
Durandal likes hearing that and asks if there’s anything to report. There is, actually. Athrun’s been clearly bothered by Orb’s entry in the Earth Alliance and Cagalli’s kidnapping by the Archangel, though Durandal isn’t surprised. Still, he saw the guy’s resolve and is willing to trust him.

There’s also something about Shinn, though Rey requests that he be the one to tell. Seems that, before the previous battle, Shinn came into contact with some girl – Rey thinks he cares for her. Well, Shinn IS young, so Durandal asks if he’s fallen for her.
The problem with that, says Rey, is that there’s a good chance the girl’s an Extended from the Earth Alliance. Oh. Still, this doesn’t mean Shinn was aware of that when he met her, so Durandal wants to simply wait and see how things go. Talia agrees.
In the meantime, Durandal wants the Minerva to keep heading for Diokia – it’ll do them good to have some fun once in a while. Fun? Indeed, they’ll be having an event with Sheryl over there, in the interest of showing the peoples of Earth the PLANTs’ wish for peace.

[Mattman324]

Of course, these attacks WOULD be taxing on your EN supply when you use your finishing move as a feint, Daiya!

It’s a bit hard to see, but that’s not a feint. Kill Jaguar actually eats the Shinryu Hydro Blazer to fuel the Death Fire.

Daiya bullshit you didn’t know there was an active guerilla force in Darius, you fought with them multiple times. Remember? Saved one of them from that giant trap that was a block of living land like multiple kilometers in circumference? First used the Serpent Buster Cannon protecting them? Those guys?

Also I love how Boss, despite his many perversions, basically instantly stops when he hears Kouji is renting bikes. Guy’s a bro.

[Brunom1]

Sorry, that was a poorly worded phrase on my part - what it meant was more like an UNITED guerilla, instead of all those smaller groups. I’ve fixed it.

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

Ooh, now look at this sumbitch. We have a threeway tie for our top aces, but Goh manages to beat out Ichitaka and Quatre due to having a higher level (I’ve no idea what’d be the tiebreaker if they were all 16).

Spent some cash upping the Rushbird, Godannar and Jeeg’s EN supplies along with assorted stats for the non-Vardant Machinas. The Sandrock’s come in pre-upgraded to two bars, so no worries there

Mind, I’ve started feeding Infights to Kenji as Ichitaka already has a handful. Still deciding whether I’ll want to give him, Goh or Daiya that EN-Save we got… Anyone who’s beat this all the way care to opine? I’m thinking Daiya’ll be the bigger EN hog, but I’m not 100% sure…

Oh, and everyone’s deploying as event units today, so wave goodbye to your arranged squads!

Off we go.

Our mechanics are still working on getting all our units repaired after yesterday’s battle. The Machinas’ D-S.O.I.L.s are working but it’ll be a while before they’re all 100% – at the moment, only the Linebarrel and Deceive are in fighting condition. Mind, the non-Machina units are far from being at their best, Shibakusa notes, and can’t really be sent out in this state.
Even Jeeg’ll have a bad time staying together with so many of his spare parts wrecked. Nanae and Morimoto say this was bound to happen as there’s only so much repairs can accomplish when considering all the especially tough missions we had recently – to say nothing of that big Executor blast we took.
Shibakusa and Kyo see no choice but to request leave to take the Jeeg and Dannar teams back to their respective bases to get patched up, and Maki can’t well disagree. He’ll run it by Ishigami.

Cut to some time later and Shibakusa’s telling everyone what’s what; Goh didn’t think their units were in THAT bad a shape, but damage has been building up out of sight consistently. Kyo even fears that if Jeeg doesn’t get some fresh parts ASAP and keeps fighting, he’ll simply fall apart in battle.
Tsubaki can already imagine Dr. Shiba looking at their data and yelling that Kenji’s crazy way of fighting is to blame. What, him? Yes, him – he switches and tosses parts around with such abandon that they can’t keep all the spares in working condition! Shizuna’s with Tsubaki on this, and figures Kenji oughta start using his noggin more when fighting. “Oi, I know, I know! You can quit with the Stereo Nagging already!”
Still, Tetsuya (Kouji) is worried about both these teams leaving for a bit – won’t it leave LOTUS understaffed? It will, but Yamashita doesn’t see another way as we’ll be far safer getting all our mechs fixed up in one go. Alice fears that the teams might get picked off by themselves, but Yamashta says this is still better than risk units breaking down midbattle.

Shizuru approves of his foresight and he chalks it all up to paying a lot of attention to everything Reiji says. Indeed, Alice is rather impressed with the speed with which humans learn – exemplary of the potential that lies within everyone. She’s determined not to fall behind and to keep adapting her AI to her new dual role. Shizuna herself very much likes her dedication and wishes “the dumdum” could learn a bit from Alice herself.
That done, Goh and the others will be taking off and wish us luck while takin care of the place. No worries, says Shizuna – the Deceive’ll be ready to give any goon that shows up a run for their money.

As for the Rushbird, Maki says it’s not as worn out as the other units – possibly because it hasn’t been active for as long as everyone else. Quatre’s Sandrock is still good to go, too, as the Magnac Corps had brought plenty of spare parts along. And, of course Iczer-1 has no problem fighting by herself.
Seems like we got a decent bunch of units, but Izuna still hopes nothing bad happens while the others are away. Mind, Shibakusa says it won’t be long as the Dannar Base crew will be pulling out all the stops to get maintenance done quickly. As for the Build Base crew, they’re only going over to get the spare parts so they’ll return soon.
That’s a relief to Ichitaka and, with that, the teams leave. While normally Ichitaka would be using this time to train, today isn’t really normal – he and Alice are leaving JUDA HQ for a bit. Emi asks to come with, at least to stay outside while it’s all happening.
Ichitaka says she’s more than welcome – he’s sure Yajima would appreciate it too.

Cut to the Cthulhu Fortress, Sepia reports that Iczer-Σ is ready to deploy whenever – Iczer-2’s up and about as well. Then it’s time to make their desire to destroy Iczer-1 a reality and Sir Violet commands them to fight to their hearts’ content.
Still, she does remind them that their enemies on Earth are more than just Iczer-1; Sepia’s aware, having also tagged us as one of the causes behind Cobalt’s defeat. Their primary target remains Iczer-1, but Violet warns them not to get tunnel vision and make bad calls.
Sepia confirms, but still promises to destroy both the traitor and our folks as well. Sir Violet is looking forward to it, so off goes Sepia. “I’ll defeat Iczer-1 – my sister…!” Iczer-2 proclaims.

By the Jama Kingdom, Himika’s noticed Jeeg and friends splitting up and easily figures they’re headed home to lick their wounds. Amaso and Mimashi know that to mean that Jeeg’s off to get new parts at Build Base, making this a perfect opportunity to attack the place and steal the Bronze Bell.
Himika has a better idea, though: they can use this opportunity to destroy JUDA, our HQ, in one fell strike! Once the place is ashes, it’ll be so much easier to take the Bronze Bell. Mimashi and Amaso both start begging Himika for command of the operation since Ikima has yet to return from his search for Hiroshi Shiba’s own Bronze Bell.

The two minions can’t come to an agreement, so Mimashi inches over and whispers at Amaso to listen up: with Ikima gone, it’ll just be him and Himika all alone. Will Amaso let this chance slip through his fingers? Fine, he “magnanimously” agrees to stay and protect the queen.
Himika allows it and will grant Mimashi some Haniwa Phantoms – this is a rare opportunity they have, so he better destroy all the humans.

En route to the funeral, Emi asks Ichitaka what kind of person Yajima was: “he was a really righteous guy… the kind everyone could count on and looked up to. I remember how hard he worked to get strong in order to protect Kouichi… Risako always looked so happy with that.
He explains that those three had been friends since they were kids – before he even met them – so whatever he’s feeling probably pales in comparison to what Kouichi’s going through. That explains to Alice why he was so enraged after Yajima’s death.
They’ve arrived, so Yui lets them off to say their farewells.

: …Damn, you dumbass. How could you go and die like this, Yajima…?!
: …
: Yajima… Yajima…

Door opens.

: Y-Yajima…
: Kouichi! Thank god you’re safe! Yajima said he was going to speak with you and this happened…
: I was so worried you might’ve died too!
: Risako…
: Come on, Kouichi. Don’t stay way back there…
: Yajima… That Machina… it was here because I became a Factor… I’m so, so sorry…
: Kouichi…

: Did you say your goodbyes?
: Yeah. Though it was a closed casket since they couldn’t find a body…
: … All of this is my fault. Yajima’s dead because I misused my power… Even his body got…
: If I hadn’t been so angry, if I hadn’t fought like that, he…!
: Kouichi…
: …
: H-Hey, where’re you going?!
: Anywhere…

He leaves.

: Kouichi, wait! Ms. Ogawa, I’ll go and talk to him; Alice, help me keep track of him!
: OK!
: I’ll come with you… I’m the one who pushed him to this point.

Off they go.

: Kouichi Hayase… I hope you’ll manage to pull through this…

: (Yeah, I… I could never be a Champion of Justice. I was just wasting my time fighting those guys, huh…)

Bump!

: Oow! Watch where you’re going!
: Sorry! I wasn’t paying attention…
: Hmm. Well, since you apologized, I might forgive you… Just kidding! Hahahah…hahah…
: …Hm.
: Something wrong? You’re not hurt, are you?
: N-No, I’m fine. I just got a lot on my mind…
: Well, listen, my name’s Nagisa Kanou. You look like a student from around here, right? Can I ask your help with something?
: Eeh, I guess… Doubt I could help, though.
: Hey, now… I might not look like it, but I’m a sophomore in high school, alright? Maybe you could be a bit nicer?
: S-Sorry, I thought you were another middle-schooler… What do you need?
: It’s my first time in this town, see. I’m trying to find my way home but I just don’t know where anything is! Ooh, my mom and dad must be so worried…!

Time passes.

: Isn’t that just awful? Who comes up to a person and tells them to fight?
: But I did do it… I fought and saved Anna – she’s my friend, by the way.
: Wow.
: Still, I’m done with all that awful business; I even ended up in a hospital after the last time. When she tried asking me to do it again, I turned her down then and there.
: But she wouldn’t take no for an answer. She kept going “fight, fight, fight”, so I decided to just make a run for it.
: Isn’t that a huge waste, though?! If you’re able to save others, why not do so?!
: No way – I’m just a regular girl. My fighting the other day was just an accident or whatever.
: But… what if you could’ve saved a friend and didn’t? Him getting hurt would be on you, and I’m sure you’d regret it…
: What a weird thing to say. Are you really alright? You can talk to me if there’s anything, you know.
: Ah… no, thanks. I don’t deserve any of that…
: Hmm, you really are a weird kid.
: Ah! And you’ll never believe where they were keeping me! Listen to this: it was at that company—
: There you are, Nagisa. Oh, and Kouichi too.
: Quatre? You tailing me again?!
: Huh? Who’s the cute foreigner?

People walk over.

: Haah, haah… Finally caught up with you…! Damn it, Kouichi… you got really fast…
: Quatre… and Nagisa?! What’re you doing here?
: Whoa, it really is her! When’d she slip out her room?!
: What’re you all doing here…? You gonna ask me to fight again?
: Huh? Why are you…?
: I told you, I’m not doing it! I’m done pretending to be a Champion of Justice!
: Is that really how you feel, Kouichi?
: It is… It’s my fault the town go so messed up and Yajima died.
: After Emi talked to me… I realized that I don’t have what it takes to use that power…!
: (He… he’s like me… They’re pushing him to fight…)
: …
: It’s true that we can’t say you were using your powers the right way…
: Yeah, which is why I’m not getting back in the Linebarrel…
: But you still saw that what you did was wrong. That’s very important.
: Huh?
: A few years ago, I was grief-stricken over losing my father and that pushed me to make a terrible mistake, to pilot a certain MS… So I know exactly what you’re going through.
: Quatre…
: Then that’s all the more reason why you should understand, no? We’ve no right to handle any power!
: But you’re wrong, Kouichi. I have to keep on fighting because that’s the only way I can atone for what I did. And that’s why I don’t want to see you run away from this – you should now be able to use your power for what’s right.
: B-But, I…
: (He couldn’t protect his friend… that’s why he said what he did…)
: (… No, I can’t let this get to me. I said I wouldn’t fight, and I won’t. I’m just a regular girl… Besides, I need to get home – my mom and dad are worried!)

Beep, beep!

: This is Quatre.
: We’ve an emergency; Cthulhu invaders and Haniwa Phantoms are moving in on Misaki.
: Oh, for the love—… Of course they actually would attack while our guys are away…!
: You’re in danger there. Meet up with Ms. Ogawa and return to JUDA ASAP – you’re to deploy immediately when you arrive, so prepare for it.
: Yes, sir!
: Is Kouichi there with you?
: Lemme save you the trouble: no, I’m not fighting.
: Kouichi!
: …
: Well, I guess that’s that. But the priority now is for you to get out of there and find someplace safe. As for the rest, please hurry on over!
: And Nagisa Kanou’s there as well, right? I know you might think this is a trick, but it’s dangerous there – would you come back to JUDA with them?
: Is there going to be another battle? What’s gonna happen to this town?!
: We really should hurry or we’ll all be in big trouble. Here, I’ll bring you to our car.
: Hup!
: Whawhawhaaa?! What’re you doing?! Put me doooown!

Alice runs off with Nagisa.

: Kouichi, please. Come fight with us – we need your power!
: Consider it a request from me, too. Quatre and Ichitaka are the only ones who can fight right now.
: Sorry, Emi. I need more time to think… I can’t make another mistake.
: Before he died, Yajima’s last words were that… what matters is just what I want to do.
: Kouichi…
: Guys, the car’s coming. Over here!
: Kouichi, I get what’s on your mind, but at least come hunker down at JUDA! We’ll throw a few punches for you while out there!
: O-OK…

Mission 9 (Rescue Route) – A Will to Fight

: Iczer-1 and her partner are around here… Open fire, Dilos Thetas! Destroy them all!

: Hmhmhm… hahahah! Luck is on our side, it seems! Her Majesty spoke of these people, though I didn’t expect to see them attacking here.
: Who goes there?
: I am Mimashi of the Jama Kingdom and I have come to crush the humans’ headquarters. I presume you’re also after the same… We should fight together.
: Hmph… nonsense. My only goal here is to eradicate Iczer-1! If you do anything to oppose that…
: Understood; I won’t. And, in return, I tell you not to interfere when our nemesis shows his face!

: Hold it right there! That’s enough outta both of you!
: There you are, Iczer-1…
: Iczer-1, if the Cthulhu are back in action, then…
: I presume they have appointed a new commander to replace the late Cobalt.
: But won’t it be too difficult for you to fight them without the Iczer Robo?
: But I must still do so – for both Nagisa and her planet.
: Them bots got a whole lot more size than you, though, so if things go south, you better back off real quick.
: Thank you for your concern, Shizuna.

Beep, boop.

: Everyone read me? We’ll have the other Machinas repaired soon, so hold on for a bit!
: And the Dannar and Build teams have also reported that their repairs are done. They’re headed this way as quickly as they can!
: This one’s looking like it’ll be a long fight, Alice, so take care not to overheat yourself!
: My AI has been developing its combat functions nicely; I should have no problems overall!
: We’ll be deploying soon, so keep your heads on a swivel, troops.
: You listening, Kouichi? Just sit right there with your thumb up your ass and watch us work real smooth-like! Better that than having you crazy ‘zerker tagging with us!
: …
: Bah, you’re a real letdown, Kouichi. Guess we’re gonna have to run the “Champs of Justice” business ourselves. Off we go!

Alert!

: Hold on, sis! Something’s coming!
: This signal… it’s just like Iczer-1’s?

This BGM isn’t in the game, but screw it. It’s too good to be left out!

: You’re…
: A good day to you. I’m Iczer-2, your little sister…
: Iczer-2… my sister?!
: Right. I am the daughter of Big Gold, so I’m your sister.
: Big Gold…? That can’t be!
: I have been created to end you… no more, no less.

: She’s fast…!
: Very impressive, dear sister. You’re quite good…
: How’s she so fast?! I barely even saw her move!
: I’ll handle her. The rest of you please go for the Dilos and the Haniwas!
: Okey-dokey! Let’s get to it, folks!

Losing anyone’s a game over, so exercise a wee bit of caution. You’ll likely want the Rushbird to trail around Iczer-1 just to act as a safety net against Iczer-2, and do note the abundance of forests around. Setting your units there (ground level, not flying) will be an easy +15% bonus to their evasion and defenses.

Iczer-2
Pilot Skills:
Sword Cut
Shoot Down
Ignore Size Difference
Predict
Prevail L5
Support Attack L1
Attack Combo L1

Remember when I said there were only a handful of folks who could match or beat Iczer-1 in raw stats? Iczer-2’s your main worry among those as she surpasses 1 is pretty much everything that matters except Skill. Her skills are also, as you can see, quite good.
That’s somewhat balanced by the fact that, like Iczer-1, she hasn’t got much in range – only her Iczer Beam reaches beyond point-blank and it’s only 1-3 – so approach from a distance (packing Strike) and you’ll be relatively safe.
If you have to move in point-blank, though, absolutely pop a defensive spirit because her strongest attack will HURT.

So our units move north a bit to both draw in Iczer-2 and find cover in a nearby forest.

Enemy Phase!

And, good for me, Iczer-2 could only reach Ichitaka for her BEAM attack.

: The Rushbird’s all about being sturdy. Only way you’re getting to JUDA is over our wrecks and that ain’t happening!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGgoal5nIG8
Ichitaka: “Your eyes can keep up with her, right, Alice?!”
Alice: “Don’t ask the impossible of me, if you would!”

I’m actually surprised that hit as it was a 50%.
The other mooks are moving in but nothing else is in range.

Player Phase!

We’ll keep Iczer-1 right next to 2, safe next to Ichitaka. By the by, with Focus and inside the forest, 2 still has a 20% chance to hit her.

: Come, Iczer-1!
: (Iczer-2… my sister. Her offensive capacity is even greater than mine…?!)

Iczer-1: “If you’re also an Iczer, then you must realize who you truly should be fighting!”
Iczer-2 taking damage: “Let’s enjoy this bout for all it’s worth, my sister!”
Counterattacking: “It’s my turn next, dear sister!”

These Boya Kaengus are still so weak.

We’ll want to give Quatre some levels here to learn Bless ASAP.

: I’ve had my share of fighting in losing battles, but this is one we can’t afford to lose! Go, Sandrock!

It was only now that I realized Quatre’s Shotels don’t have the best ratings against aerial targets. Frail or not, these mooks won’t be oneshot by the Cross Smasher.

I’d rather the mooks attack our stronger folks, so I’ll keep the Deceive back.

: You good to go, Izuna? We’re only dealing with bots today, so don’t worry about holding anything back. Can’t screw things up with that dumdum watching!
: Understood, sis. No one’s getting through here!

There we go.

Enemy Phase!

As Ichitaka nabs two kills from the Boya Kaengus, the Dilos are getting closer.

: I’ll simply have to make do with my own strength until Nagisa comes around …!

We’re good on that front, though.

Player Phase!

: I believe it’s time we finished this, sister…
: !!
: Haah!

Iczer-1’s thrown waaay back!

: AAH!
: What’s the matter, Iczer-1? Surely that’s not all you’ve got.
: Urk…
: Get up! I can’t stand weaklings… if you don’t get up, then you’ll die!
: Hrrm… I-I’m not finished…!
: Better, dear sister… Now you’re worth killing. Sepia!
: Yes!
: Call forth the remaining Dilos Thetas and command them after Iczer-1.
: Right. Come, Dilos!

: Gaaah!
: Hmhmhmhm…
: Damn it, she’s in a lotta trouble! We gotta help, Izuna!
: Aye, aye, sis!

The Dilos gets blasted away and the Deceive moves in after Iczer-1.

: Are you OK, Iczer-1?!
: Shizuna, Izuna…
: I see you’re well-liked, dear sister. However, blindsiding us won’t help you for long.
: Go, Dilos! Bring down that worthless Machina!

: Waaah!
: Aaah!
: Izuna! Shizuna!
: I’ll help them!
: Oh, no, you will not!

: Rrgh…!
: Aahahahaha! We are not the only ones you’ve to worry about!
: Now just sit back and watch as your companions suffer.
: Damn it, isn’t there anything we can do?!
: We’re too badly outnumbered. If we had at least one more unit…!

: Take a look at the transmission, Kouichi. They’re all going to die if this doesn’t change. Our Machinas aren’t ready yet – only your Linebarrel is.
: Is… Is that a threat?
: Don’t be silly. This is… a sincere plea for your help.
: !!

Beep!

: Back off, Mr. Ishigami! We don’t need that guy’s help!
: We can handle this, sir! Don’t force his hand, please!
: Alice, watch the Laplace Wall. I’m gonna try making a break for it again!
: Roger that!

Boom!

: Urgh! Damn it, I can’t!
: Are you OK, Ichitaka?!
: Th-They’re…
: Kouichi…
: Hrm…! I… I know that whatever I feel’s likely just a sorry excuse for righteousness… And I know that I don’t have what it takes to be a Champion of Justice…
: But… but how could I just walk away from this? If I don’t do something, they…!
: Then… become a Champion of Justice.
: Huh…?
: Do it right this time. And be a real Champion of Justice.
: …I will!

He runs off.

: There he goes. It’s just you now, Nagisa.
: Huh?
: I’m sure that, on some level, you’ve already realized… both the strength that hid inside you, and that your parents—
: No, NO! I don’t! My mom and dad are alive, and I’m going to just go back to my normal life!
: If that’s the choice you make once you’ve accepted the truth, then I won’t stop you.
: Whether you believe anything or don’t is entirely up to you. So I’ll just tell you a bit of reality as it is.
: I don’t wanna hear anything… Help me, Iczer-1…!
: I’m afraid both your parents are already dead. The Cthulhu killed them when they attacked your town, before you even boarded the Iczer Robo.
: That’s… That’s a lie! Daddy, mommy…!
: You’ve heard news of all those missing people these past months, didn’t you? That was the Cthulhu’s doing. They infect humans and use them to attack others.
: Once infected, the hosts cannot go back to being humans, so Iczer-1 could only kill and eliminate the corpses. That’s the truth behind those incidents… and it was through those people that the Cthulhu found you back then.
: …!!
: So they set about to infect both your parents and your friends in order to kill you…
: Iczer-1 noticed what was happening, so she hunted down those humanoid Cthulhus. She saved your life.
: She… She never said anything about that…
: Because she knew what a heavy blow it would’ve been to you. She told me she would explain it all once your physical and mental injuries had fully healed… even if that made you hate her.
: Iczer-1…
: She’s now fighting with all she has to avenge your parents… she needs your strength, but refused to make a fuss.
: I think she’s just waiting… waiting for you to fight of your own free will.
: I’ve to get revenge for my mom and dad… No. I just have to help her…!

Off she goes.

: Nagisa…
: Everyone holds both justice and evil in their hearts. I’d rather not shove childish notions of justice in people’s faces, but I’m glad she turned out to have the heart of a Champion.

: Ahahahah…! Is something the matter? Surely you two can do something, no?
: Ugh… uurk…
: Hrrgh…
: Kch…
: And we won’t even need to use the Iczer-Σ… How disappointing.
: Sepia, how about you go and finish them off?
: Right!

: That’s enough outta you!
: I’m here too!
: Huh? You’re…!
: …Nagisa…?
: K-Kouichi…
: I… told you we… don’t need your help. What’re you here for?!
: I don’t really know why…
: Hm?
: I dunno if I’ve what it takes to fight, or if I can make good use of this power, or what’s waiting for me down this road… But, right now, I just want to help you guys. Of that, I’m 100% sure!
: And I… I was wrong about you, Iczer-1. I thought you were a monster who’d come to drag me into some fight and ruin my life… but that wasn’t true.
: What do you say, Shizuna, Izuna? What’d ya want me to do?
: Urgh… Please… whoop their asses…
: And come help us…! Lend us all a hand, Kouichi!
: You got it! Now you just let me handle this!
: I wanna help Iczer-1 too! I… I just need more power to do it! A lot more!
: Come! Linebarrel!!

: Please… Iczer Robo!

Both bots charge after the Dilos mob!

And pull Iczer-1 and the Deceive closer to JUDA.

: Ah—!
: Oho…
: You’re not killing my friends!
: Haah… haah…
: Hmph. So that’s how it’ll be, huh? Your partner’s beckoning you, Iczer-1.
: Na-Nagisa… You summoned the Iczer Robo by yourself…?
: Iczer-1… I’m ready to fight…!
: Truly, Nagisa?
: Yes; I want to help you. I couldn’t live with myself if I just watched you all get killed.
: Why don’t you unite with the Iczer Robo, dear sister? That’ll also give me a far more enjoyable battle…
: …
: Nagisa, I’m coming!

: Very good… Sepia, the time has come to fulfill the promise we made. I’m summoning the Iczer-Σ!
: Understood!

: That’s…!
: They still had another trick up their sleeve?!
: I’m detecting the same energy readings as the Iczer Robo. But the output… theirs is even higher!
: Ahahah… Do you see this, Iczer-1? It is my other half: the Iczer-Σ!
: Iczer-Σ…!
: We’re going, Sepia. Your power should far exceed that of the Earthling girl… In other words, their Iczer Robo is of no consequence!
: Right, Iczer-2. I’ve long waited for this and now I will destroy the Iczer Robo and avenge Cobalt!
: Iczer-Σ… Can I best it with how battered I already am…?
: No… Nagisa’s here fighting with me, along with my friends of Earth. I’ve nothing to fear from anyone!
: … I won’t run anymore. Kouichi also chose to stand and fight… and if I’ve the power to do the same, then I’ll use it to defend Earth with all of you!
: Ichitaka, Quatre, sorry for the headache I gave you guys.
: I should apologize as well for trying to press you into joining our battles…
: Forget about it… And Shizuna, Izuna, I’m gonna pay ‘em back twice what they put you two through!
: Kouichi… I’m counting on ya.
: Oh, enough with all that mirth! Come forth, soldiers of the Underworld and Haniwa Phantoms!

: You think you’re gonna scare us with that?! Come on, Kouichi – this is where we turn this whole thing around!
: Yeah!

Whew, now that was a lot of stuff going down. Nagisa’s finally joined us for good, which means Iczer-1 now unlocks her ability to summon/desummon the Iczer Robo over 130 morale (not in this mission – she’s stuck on the Robo).

Now for the actual new addition to the team:

Linebarrel (Kouichi Hayase)
Pilot Skills:
Factor
Sword Cut
Guard
Prevail L2
Support Attack L1
Attack Combo L1
Spirit Commands:
Invincible
Strike
Squad Bonus: Melee weapons’ damage +100, mobility +5

Kouichi, as you’d expect from the protagonist, is pretty good all around his stats. All that exposure to Super Robot shows gave him a case of Gekiganger syndrome in that his spirit commands aren’t really tailored for dodginess but he’ll make do (a barrier’ll be a nice safety net). That said, with a D-S.O.I.L. base level of 95, Kouichi’ll regen more than any other Machina pilot (nearly 28% and that’s before the D-S.O.I.L starts rising).
And as everyone’s been telling us throughout these missions, the Linebarrel’s really, really good. It’s got a crapton of power, good accuracy, defenses, mobility and even range now that the Executor was unlocked.
The plot says you WILL have to field him and, really, there is no objective reason not to.

Oh, and just like the Iczer Robo covers Iczer-1’s lack of range, the same happens for Iczer-2. She’s rather bulky with that Prevail L5, too, so keep that in mind. Like before, don’t attack her at point-blank unless you really have to, and, in that case, pack some defenses.

Let’s put the kid to work.

: You’ve got a lot of nerve to torment my friends like that… and you’re gonna get it all back with interest!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf4kJWnmv2I
When did Ishigami slip him that suit…?

Quatre and Ichitaka tag team a Dilos into the ground.

Ichitaka himself weakens this one, setting it up for Iczer-1.

: My sincerest thanks for your resolve, Nagisa. Please entrust your strength to me!
: OK!

Boosh. Shizuna, meanwhile, slaps a Boya Kaengu some.

Enemy Phase!

Of course.

: Sepia, now is the time to bring peace to Cobalt’s soul!
: Right, Iczer-2. We will destroy the Iczer Robo!
: Synchronize yourself with me, Nagisa. Do that and the Iczer Robo’ll know no defeat!
: Got it, Iczer-1! I’ll do whatever I can!

Iczer-2 attacking: “This place will be your grave, Iczer-1!”
Iczer-1 attacking: “Indeed, battle is inevitable when dealing with her…!”

After that, the closer Boya Kaengus start attacking/dying to people: two to Iczer-1…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqlOYZ8LXpQ
And one to Quatre, which allows us to see the dynamic finish of this.

On the other side, the Dilos are mobbing our Machinas.

No kills but Shizuna and Kouichi do a lot of damage to them.

Player Phase!

Our guys FINALLY arrive, including the folks from the other bases. As Kenji proclaims the certainty of our victory with their arrival, Goh’s raring to give the baddies a taste of the fully-repaired Godannar (courtesy of Shibakusa). Time to clean house.

Losing Kenji or Iczer-1’s a game over, so keep an eye on them (especially Iczer-1, what with that bug).

Off we go, with Kenji, Shizuru and Miu each taking a weakened Dilos. Reiji jumps right into the fray to spread his command aura, taking a Boya Kaengu.

Get to it, Yagyuu.

Just short of a kill but that’s fine – Kenji and Kyo take both.

Pop a kill for Shizuna, Iczer-1 wrecks a Haniwa with an assist from Ichitaka and Quatre gets this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvdaHc-gptA
Here’s the DK for his Heat Shotels as well.

Cha-ching! Here we go… but he doesn’t have enough SP to use it!

And you’ve got the idea, so let’s save some time. Long story short: the Boya Kaengus made the mistake of attacking stuff and got promptly wrecked by pretty much everyone, the Dilos were already on their last legs and all died to counterhits.

Player Phase!

By the time Mimashi got here, only a handful of his troops are still standing. Let’s get him off our hair before dealing with them.

: You came all the way from Kyushu just to get your ass beat by me? Oh, you shouldn’t have!
: It is you who came here only to meet your end! I’ll be taking your Bronze Bell as an offering to Her Majesty!
: Well, we can’t have both of those flying, so you’re gonna have to run back to mommy with a whole buncha nothing!

Hits from Ichitaka and Iczer-1 bring him down to size.

And considering I can’t have Quatre use Bless, I’ll just cut my losses and have Tetsuya kill him with Luck cast.

: Curse you all… How am I to face Her Majesty with just another failure?!
: Hah, that’s what you get. Now grit your teeth ‘cause we’re about to rain a lotta pain on top of ya!
: Hrrrgh… retreat!

: Alright, that’s the fatass taken care of, so let’s go and wrap this all up!
: Hold on! There’s… something else?

: Enemy reinforcements?!
: What, they sent a tiger Haniwa now?
: They can send whatever, it won’t change jack! If it’s a baddy, it’s going down!
: Is that… Baruba? Stop – he’s not an enemy!
: Are you sure about that, Kyo?
: I am. But if there’s no one controlling it, then…
: Ah?
: Grrroowrr!

Kenji: “Whoa! Just like that?!”

: What the hell! The thing just attacked me, ya moron!
: Easy, Kenji. He’s just testing your strength.
(Does Kyo know that tiger? He’s so familiar with it…)
: What, so the thing wants to know where folks stand in the food chain? Sound good – I’m gonna have to teach him who’s king ‘round here!
: As for everyone else, do your best to avoid engaging him!
: Copy that, but if it looks like Kenji’s life is in danger, then I’ll defer to my own judgment. Is that fine?
: Yes, thank you.
: You heard him, troops. Do not engage.
: Aye, aye!

You don’t actually NEED to deal with Baruba using only Kenji, but we’ll get there in a sec. Iczer-2 had already lost a handful of HP from Iczer-1, so adding in Reiji, Goh and Yagyuu gets her right in the red. We don’t have enough attacks to kill this round, though.

Enemy Phase!

As Iczer-2 gets no-sold by Ichitaka blocking her attack on Iczer Robo, Reiji shoots down a weakened Haniwa. Last Boya Kaengu goes to Jeeg, while Quatre shivs the other two Haniwas.

Player Phase!

And out you go.

Iczer-1: “I don’t want to hurt a sister of mine!”

: Your defeat is sealed, Iczer-2! Prepare yourself!
: You underestimate the Iczer-Σ if you think you’ll best us so easily!

: Their power’s unbelievable…!
: They still got that much juice left?!
: Your end comes, Iczer Robo!

: AAAH!
: Hahah… How’s that, Iczer Robo? You cannot best the Iczer-Σ even with the help of all these worthless Earthling weapons!
: Urk…
: Yours won’t be a pleasant death. Sepia, go and sate your hatred!
: Look on, Cobalt. Victory will be ours!

: …I won’t be beaten by you. I can’t!
: Nagisa…
: You killed my mom and my dad… I will NOT let myself lose to you monsters!!

: (What… what is all this strength…?)
: Hmph, you waste of oxygen… Now we end this!
: Stand firm, Sepia – concentrate!
: Roger, Iczer-2!
: We’re going, Nagisa!
: OK! I’ll keep you safe, Iczer-1!
: Haaah!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoCdcr_q-L0
Iczer-2: “Die alongside you partner, dear sister!”
Sepia: “You killed Cobalt, and now I’ll kill you in turn!”
Iczer-2: “Not even ashes will remain! Disappear!”
Iczer-1: “Nagisa’s granted me her strength…! I will not fall to this!”
Nagisa: “I can’t lose… I don’t want to lose!”
Iczer-1: “Nagisa!”
Iczer-1: “Iczer Robo…!”
Nagisa: “Lend us all of your power!”

: Sepia!
: Cobalt… forgive me…! Hrk…!

: Tch! I have to stand down…!

: Iczer-Σ… Truly a foe to be respected.
: Hm…
: That was the Iczer Robo’s true power…?
: It heard Nagisa’s heartfelt wish to help and fight with Iczer-1 and answered in kind.

While we wait for Baruba to close in a wee bit more, we clean up the remaining Haniwas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZxEbfAw7t4
And here’s the DK for Kouichi’s hanzo steels. Looks pretty slick.

Fast forward a bit and Baruba’s right upon us. And if you ignore Kyo’s warning and try to attack with anyone besides Kenji:

: Grrrrr…

Casts Iron Wall, Focus and Vigor!

: I think we made it mad…
: No, on the contrary. It’s just answering our tactics in kind.
: To test the strength of every one of us?
: …

Him casting Iron Wall could be a problem but Baruba only has 8.8k HP, so you can still blow past all that with your available troops.

The plot kicks in under 30%, though, and you’ll want to take him out all the way for a B-Save part, mind.

: Grrrr…
: Whoa… This thing’s looking like it wants to chow Jeeg whole…!
: Heh, now things’re getting interesting! If you wanna wrestle, I’m game!

: Grrr…
: Yow, he just took all that on the chin and didn’t even care.
: Groowr!

Baruba charges after Kenji!

: Whoa!
: Grrrooowr!
: This crazy cat…!
: Fight him hand-to-hand, Kenji! Show him how strong you are!
: Yeah, fine! C’mere, kitty! Dynamite Kiiiick!!

: Grrr…
: O-Oi… he’s looking like he’s just toying with me…!
: Grroowwr!

: He took off?!
: And, damn, is he fast. One second and, poof, gone.
: The hell’s up with that thing…!

: Is that everything? Anything else waiting to jump out the woodwork?
: Radar and sensors are all looking clear, so I think we’re good.
: Yeesh… For a second there, I thought that would’ve been it for us.
: Thank you so much for your help, Kouichi!
: A-Aw, stop. You’re embarrassing me now…
: You’ve my deepest gratitude as well, Nagisa…
: No, I should be the one thanking you, Iczer-1.
: What about you, Alice? How’s the head?
: I’d detected several spikes in temperature during the operation, but no problems overall!
: Glad we managed to get here on time. We were already en route to JUDA when news of the enemy attack came in – I was on pins and needles the whole way.
: Hell, I was even expecting to find the Dancouga around here when we came in…
: Maybe it needed extensive repairs just like our units did?
: Or maybe they’re off on some other mission – we didn’t see them show up during the Junius Seven drop, remember?
: I guess even Champions of Justice aren’t omnipotent. Too bad.
: A very fine job today, ladies and gentlemen. Why don’t you return to JUDA and we’ll give our new members a proper “welcome aboard” party?
: Kouichi I understand, but aren’t you jumping the gun with Nagisa, Mr. Ishigami?
: No, it’s fine. I’ve already made up my mind to fight with Iczer-1.
: Ah, Nagisa…
: Hey, Kouichi, I dunno how friendly you two are, but how about taking it down a peg?
: Whuh…?! What’re you suggesting with that, huh?! Didn’t I just bail you two out, even?!
: And, FYI, we literally ran into each other on the street – you’re reading way too much into it…
: What exactly happened, Nagisa?
: Um… I just had a talk with him about stuff, you know?
: Oh! And, Kouichi, keep all that embarrassing stuff between us, okay? Can you do that for me? It’ll be our dirty little secret!
: … Hm?
: W-Why’d you have to say it like that?! And why’re you glaring at me, Miu?!
: Kouichi… I can’t believe you…
: N-Now hold on, Emi! This is a huge misunderstanding!
: Hahahah!
: (At last I see you laugh, Nagisa… Come what may, I promise to defend both your smile and your planet.)
: (Even if you are my sister Iczer-2, I will not falter.)

Ishigami makes good on his promise for a party and with copious amounts of his traditional sushi, too. Quatre hoped he’d have chosen to switch things up, but nope – he’d already had to eat the stuff yesterday, too, while Ishigami was welcoming Kouichi to JUDA, and has yet to recover.
Still, Nagisa was blown away by the tremendous amount the guy brought in and Yamashita explains that Ishigami’s got this habit of making sushi for ANYTHING even remotely worth celebrating. As she flinches over the thought of having to eat so much of the stuff, even Goh admits he couldn’t handle it either.
And that’s not even mentioning all the calories that kind of food has – Nagisa’s already worried at all the kilos she’d take in with the president serving this daily. Goh’s a bit surprised she cares about that sort of stuff, but of course she does. Is something wrong with that? No, Goh just throws his hands up in the air and leaves the subject be: “I just can’t wrap my head around the minds of teenage girls.”

Shizuru pokes him that that’s not really an “age” issue – maybe he ought to try and understand how women feel? As Goh harrumphs, Tetsuya says that that’s why his wife took off. N-No, that’s neither here nor there.
Nagisa didn’t expect the Godannar’s pilot to be a married man and wonders who could be the wife… but, since she left, that’s obviously a touchy subject that she feels is best not pried into. Iczer-1’s looking from afar and is so very relieved to see her partner getting along with everyone. Alice quickly brings her off her reverie to also partake in some sushi. Alright…

Kouichi himself is being welcomed aboard by Tsubaki, who introduces herself and tells him to ask if there’s anything he doesn’t know. They’ll all be working as a team and fighting for Earth as a whole!
The other shoe still hasn’t dropped on the fact that he really is fighting for Earth now, instead of a nondescript ideal of justice. Same for Nagisa – she knows she has much to do but it all feels so surreal. Still, Goh says that, as they fight, they’ll come to understand why they were given this strength and, in the meantime, they ought to just set their own goals and work towards them.
Kouichi’s so very touched to get advice from a big-time hero like Goh, but the guy tells him not to worry – he’s just a pilot like any other. As for Izuna, he takes the time to thank Kouichi in person for his help and even bows his head, making him all bashful.

Shizuna yells out that Izuna doesn’t need to thank him that much – Reiji and Nagisa could’ve just as easily saved them even if the kid didn’t step up to the plate. Only reason Kouichi got to do it is because he beat the others to the punch. He just got lucky, see!
Still, Izuna says it doesn’t change the fact that he DID help them out and didn’t she herself ask him to? Th-That was just a ruse to throw off the enemies! Who in their right mind would come to this dumdum for help?!
Izuna sighs that she’s being unreasonable and that really ticks her off. He’s done it now and Shizuna’s gonna give him what-for! Kouichi gets in-between them and says that, one, she shouldn’t be hitting him, siblings or not, and, two, a pretty girl like Shizuna should stop channeling that hot-headed boy inside her head and try letting her other side through.

He compounds his point by clipping her hair a wee bit up with his tie clip – nothing wrong with a teenage girl styling her hair every once in a while, right? Shizuna’s stunned for all of five seconds before yelling at him to piss right off. And, FYI, fixing her hair doesn’t change jack – he’s still a huge dumdum!
As she stomps off, Izuna following, Shizuru and Mira see that despite the kid’s admiration for Goh, he’s got a more deft touch with girls than the guy does. There’s some good potential there. Kouichi eagerly asks if they mean he could grow up to be like Goh and they confirm – though he might not want to do so on a few subjects. That goes way over the kid’s head.

And now that things have calmed down, Kenji and Tsubai want Kyo to explain what he knows about that tiger thing. Well, to start, Baruba is an Animal God – an extremely ancient man-made creature.
Kenji’s blown away by all the info he’s got but Kyo simply says he’s simply spent more time studying than others. But, regardless, the big question: is the beastie an enemy or a friendly? That all depends on whether we can actually control it or not. Sounds like a pain in the ass to Kenji but he’ll be ready to tangle with it one way or another.
The door opens up then, Emi coming in and calling Kouichi over to the infirmary – it’s standard practice for all Factors to undergo and medical check after each battle to make sure they’re all in good health. He can’t well say no, so off they go.

: Um… Kouichi?
: Wh-what?
: I… I’m sorry for what I said yesterday.
: Ah? What’d you mean?
: That it was your fault that your friend died…
: O-Oh, right… But, really, I should actually be thanking you for that.
: Huh?
: It was only because you said what you said that I realized how wrong what I did was. That’s what helped me really think of how a Factor should be and turn my life around.
: I wonder if Yajima would forgive me now…
: Kouichi…
: I see now how arrogant I was, tagging myself as “justice incarnate”… Talk about ridiculous, huh?
: So, starting today, I’ll be fighting and thinking about what justice really means.
: (He really is growing… bit by bit…)
: Then I also have to try my hardest…!
: Ah?
: O-Oh, never mind me – I’m just thinking out loud. Come on; you need to get yourself checked out and ready for the next battle.
: Y-Yeah, alright. Thanks for showing me around.
: Come to think of it, you’ve also been through a lot, yeah? Don’t forget to take care of yourself too. You’re looking a bit pale, I think.
: Ah… J-Just worry about your own business, thank you very much! You despicable little man!

Cut to the Cthulhu Fortress, Big Gold isn’t happy over Sepia’s death; Sir Violet begs her forgiveness and orders Iczer-2 to explain herself. Theoretically, the Iczer-Σ, with her and Sepia, should’ve been wholly superior to the Iczer Robo… but the thing went and somehow displayed far more strength than expected.
Iczer-2 also ponders that maybe’s Sepia’s unstable mind could’ve had a negative effect on the bot’s performance – she’ll try and draw out the full might of the Iczer-Σ by herself and, if successful, Iczer-1 and the girl are as good as dead.
With that, Violet dismisses Iczer-2 and orders her to heal her wounds in preparation for her next deployment. As she goes, Iczer-2 silently promises Iczer-1 to make her pay for this humiliation.
Big Gold then turns back to Sir Violet and raises the subject of the Jama Kingdom – she wants them contacted.

Back at Shangri-La, Masaki reports Kouichi’s entry into LOTUS. That’s gonna make it harder for them to capture the Linebarrel. Crazy-looking fat guy Riku grumbles that Katou should’ve let him handle things from the get-go instead of folks like Sawatari or that rookie.
Katou says it’s precisely because he puts so much stock in Riku’s strength that he’s assigning him a different job – after all, he should know that capturing that Machina isn’t their SOLE objective. Riku ought to use his imagination to figure that out.
The more average-looking guy, Soubi, seems to get it and has a fun thought: LOTUS as a whole fights with so much faith in their ideals and in their righteousness. And as we’re made to fight on and on and on to the point of exhaustion, they’ll show us the powerlessness of justice and drive us into despair. That is what their mission is.

Riku sniffs and asks if Soubi’s implying his imagination’s lacking; no, he’s just suggesting he use it to also think up some fun stuff. Regardless, Katou’ll let both Riku and Soubi have their shot soon enough and Masaki sees no issues with that.
Riku’s all giddy, eager to display the power of his imagination to Kouichi; whereas Soubi wants to make him realize how, ultimately, justice and ideals are all illusions. Wufei’s looking on with a (deeper than usual) scowl: “This man… why does he loathe justice and ideals this much?”

[Mattman324]

Definitely give the E Save to Daiya, he’s one of the more EN needy people in the game. The E Save targets are him and Aoi first, then Kouichi (HE NEEDS IT BY THE ENDGAME), then Go, the Mazins, Jeegs, and Vs, and after that give it to whoever.

I love how the Executor shot in L is this big, massive thing… when the anime at one point properly noted (as in the manga) that doing that was a massive waste of power for the Executor.

Fun facts time! Balba as its own unit actually wasn’t in K. Like, straight up wasn’t. He showed up totally randomly out of the blue as a fucking attack for Jeeg on like the second to last stage (Ignoring that a certain other unit got the equivalent of that attack when you get it around the midpoint… K’s balancing is straight up fucked, yo.) without any buildup. In L, they actually DO have him show up ahead of time, because L gives a shit about Jeeg’s plot and K did not.

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

Back again and things are still tied up. The enemies seem to like going after Ozma just as much as the Voltes and Combattler.

The Daiku Maryu crew comes preupgraded at 2 bars, so I spend some of the cash mainly to get Daiya up to speed, along with some buffs to Voltes.

As for squads, I just made a few changes to accommodate the new folks:
Tetsuya/Jun
Ichitaka/Dick
Kouji/Boss
Combattler/Puria
Daiya/Yanma
Zechs/Noin
Voltes/Canaria
Heine/Klan
Ozma/Luca

Alto and Michel are going out as event units.
Let’s get to it.

: Hah, you’re not going anywhere today!
: You guys’ve been raining on our parade ever since we got back to Earth, but that’s coming to an end!
: Take care of them, Sting, Auel, Stella. And remember that we can’t afford any more failures.
: OK… I’ll do my best.
: Our path’s completely cut off!
: We’ve 4 MSs available, including Athrun’s… we can’t win against them all.
: What do we do, then, captain?
: We’ll disperse them with the Tannhäuser – that’s the only way we’re breaking through their lines.
: Copy that! Tannhäuser, standby!

Wiiiiirrrrr!

: We need to bring down the Minerva this time – any more failures and it’ll only worsen Orb’s standing with the Alliance. There’ll be no more chances if we don’t turn this around here and now!
: The ship’s defenses are thinner towards their portside, so engage them from there!

Orb’s Murasames blast forward.

: Oh…? I suppose we might as well go and back them up with that, then. Auel, Sting, you and your two squads harass the Minerva from starboard; Stella, you take portside!
: Aye, aye, Neo!

Off they go.

: We’re being outflanked!
: Captain, the ship has no room to even alter its course!
: Urk, they’re too numerous for us to manage!
: Shinn, the two of us’ll open up a path for them. Rey, Luna, cover us!
: Y-Yes, sir!

: Beam blasts?!
: Huh? Where’d those come from?!

: That’s… the Freedom! Kira?!
: …
: What happened?! Status report! Now!
: Yes, sir! Several presumed warning shots rained throughout the battlefield… Then, right after, the Freedom and…
: Wait, what did you just say?!
: This is Cagalli Yula Athha, Representative of the United Emirates of Orb! All Orb troops are to cease hostilities and retreat immediately!
: C-Cagalli?!
: For real?!
: Exigent circumstances demanded that I, the daughter of Uzumi Nara Athha, depart my homeland, but that changes not the fact that I still am Orb’s Representative!
: And I command you with the full authority of that title! This battle does not align with our nation’s principles, so any and all troops are to cease fire and retreat!
: Urgh…!
: Cagalli…
: (The Archangel, the Freedom and Orb’s princess. I don’t know if she’s really who she claims to be, but I wonder what he’ll do…)
: U-Um… that’s, err…
: (Not looking good there… but even I didn’t see this coming. I’ve to do something to turn this around or we’ll be done.)
: Do you not hear me, soldiers of Orb? Do you not understand what I’m saying?!
: The Archangel… they’re helping us?

Beep, beep!

: Captain, we’ve unknown bogeys coming in fast – many of them!

: Those units…! Everyone watch out!
: Even more uninvited guests…! All troops, change of plans! We’ll make a temporary retreat and reorganize!
: Don’t need to, Neo! Those things aren’t moving anywhere on the same level as a Mobile Doll – we can handle them!
: Yeah, them Valkyries we saw in space flew way better.

The kids move in.

: Stop, you two! That’s a feint!

Two of the unknowns blast forward!

: What?!
: Sting, Auel, watch out!

: GAAAH!!
: AAAAH!!

: AUEL!!
: … Sting, retreat! Do it or you’ll end just like him!
: They got Auel…?! What about Stella?! She alright?!
: No signs of an explosion, but she’s not responding! We’ll just have to believe in her now!
: Damn it all…!

: Yuna Seiran, what are you doing?! Recall your troops or they’ll die for nothing!
: A-Ah… Retreat! Retreat!

: Wh-What the hell are those…?!
: Do you know anything, Kira?!
: Not much… All I’m sure of is that they’re up to something and that’s sending our world down the wrong path.
: What…?
: And I…!

Kira: “I won’t ignore those who’d twist our world…!”

: …
: That’s the Freedom…! What kind of person’s piloting it…?
: Regardless, we’ve at least managed to avoid the worst case scenario. What happens next depends on the Archangel, though.
: To the ZAFT battleship Minerva: we don’t wish to fight you. My weapons are down and I’m headed your way.

Cagalli (in her Strike Rouge) moves up to the ZAFT group.

: As Orb’s Representative, I’d like to beg your forgiveness for our unannounced volley and the confusion we brought to your battlefield.
: Psh, still got that silver tongue at the ready, huh? And weren’t you supposed to be kidna—

Beep, beep!

: C-Captain, another hostile’s just popped on radar!
: !!

: Huh? That’s not an MS or an Arma…!
: Based on the readings I’m getting, I think it’s with those unknown units.
: Now this is a nice surprise to find during our tests. Everyone who’d displayed “potential” during the Great War, all together in one place.
: How is the prototype doing? Can it manage some combat?
: Currently operating at 80% capacity. The question is whether the throughput can keep up with them…
: Well… I’m a bit queasy over having it face the Freedom, but just avoid doing that and it’ll be fine. In terms of “potential”, hmm… Have it focus fire on the ZAFT unit and the Strike, I guess.

The unit blasts forward.

: That thing’s fast!
: Rey, Lunamaria, the Unknown’s headed for the Impulse! Support Shinn!
: R-Roger!

Moves right past Kira, towards them.

: …! It’s gonna get both Shinn and Rep. Athha like that!
: …

Takes aim!

: I’m not going down here! I…I made a promise to Stella that I’d see her again!

: Aaah, magnificent! Behold, “potential”! But, unfortunately, those actions had already been inputted. Engage!
: What?! I can’t shake him!
: That unit’s movements… Athrun!
: I know! I’ll cover Cagalli!

: Urgh…?!

: Athrun!

: Hrm…! ZAFT pilot, are you OK?!
: The Freedom… Why did you…? W-Wait, forget me – that guy’s more important! He shot down Athrun!

: Raaaaaargh!!

: Oh, very nice! His handling changed from how it was a few moments ago! That’s certainly the “potential” that’d pave the way to the future!
: Excellency, we’re past the thresholds. Neither the AI nor the unit can withstand much more.
: Just when things were starting to pick up… I suppose about now is when I should go and ask Prof. Grife for his help.

: Cagalli, we’re exposed here. Bring Kira back and we’ll leave these waters right away.
: Good luck on your voyage, Cpt. Gladys.
: Huh…?

: No signs of hostiles in the surrounding areas, captain!
: Have Rey recover Athrun while the Impulse searches for the downed Gaia. We’ll leave here as soon as that’s done.

Over by the Minerva’s sick bay, Shinn’s explaining to Talia how the Gaia’s pilot is the girl he met elsewhere. He doesn’t know much about her, but could see from the get-go how much she’d suffered because of war.
Still, as the Gaia’s pilot, she’s an Extended of the Federation: even cursory scans showed various issues with her body. Despite all that, Shinn made a promise back then: “that I’d keep her safe”. Arthur gets in touch to relate that we’re drawing very close to Diokia and Talia tells him to handle our approach.
Once we reach port, the girl’ll have to be taken off the Minerva – one, they can’t keep her aboard as a captive indefinitely, and, two, the ship isn’t equipped to care for someone like her. On that note, Stella wakes up and is rather confused. Shinn, however, is very relieved: “You’re alright, Stella! Don’t worry – I’m right here! You remember me, right? Shinn?”

Maybe not, as the girl flips out: “I don’t… I don’t know you! Neo! NEOOO!!”
Talia explains to him that, according to intel received, the Extended are biological CPUs raised by Blue Cosmos – thus, it’s very likely she’s been on the receiving end of various mental adjustments, including to her memories. She can’t remember him.
This is precisely what she was talking about and says that, when Stella disembarks at Diokia, they’ll try and find a way to help her. Shinn slowly confirms.

Back to the Quarter, Lady Une’s briefing us on Operation Carnival: we’ll be headed towards Diokia, where we’ll take part in the PLANTs show for peace. In summary, we’ll be joining the PLANTs to appeal against hostilities between humans. It also helps that the Daiku Maryu’s quite well-liked by the general public, so our voice should carry far.
But what, exactly, are we supposed to do in this “carnival”? Maybe bike stunts, Hyouma ponders? Chizuru not too sure about this as she doesn’t really know any tricks to entertain folks. Thankfully, it won’t be that sort of stuff: we’ll be making a show with our own bots. Ichitaka didn’t expect that, but Kouji says it wouldn’t be unheard of as Japan even has the regular aerial acrobatics and mock battles by the SDF.
Mind, while Diokia is currently occupied by ZAFT, this event will not involve the military in the slightest as a way to not antagonize the Earth Alliance. With orders for us to get ready to depart soon, Une cuts off.

Heine’s a bit at loss for words over LOTUS’ recent activities: first a movie shoot and, now, we’ll take part in a carnival? He doesn’t think less of us because of it, of course, but this isn’t exactly what he expected we’d be using our cutting-edge ships and units for.
Daiya is all for the idea of putting up a show for the entire world and he figures our folks’ll like it too. Alice agrees: our mission is to put a smile on everyone’s faces. It’s with that mindset that we fight? Heine doesn’t quite know what to think…

Well, Sheryl figures she’s keeping her end of the bargain as Alto’ll have his chance to fly around for fun. Yes, it’ll be part of a show and kind of a mission but Alto’s given up trying to complain. More importantly, why does he have to work with her again? Does he have a problem with that? Plenty! For one, Alto doesn’t like having to carry her up the stage with his Valkyrie!
Still, Grace said it’d maximize the impact of her entrance, so they’re going with it. So Sheryl hops inside the Valkyrie’s cockpit – no, she doesn’t ask for permission – and finds it actually more spacious than she expected. Before Alto has a chance to yell, she spots her earring hanging within. W-Well, isn’t the thing supposed to be a good luck charm? He figured he needed to strap it somewhere.

Sheryl says no, though: he needs to carry it on his person the whole time or it won’t work. Her objection’s interrupted when a hacking cough starts – she says she just got a bit choked up and it’ll pass.
It’s then that Luca comes in, looking for Michel – they can’t find him. Alto figures the womanizer’s out trying to score with some of LOTUS’ women, but Luca doesn’t seem so certain. Klan’s also around and seems to have an idea.

Cut to Diokia, Lacus Meer’s already here and ready to sing so that everyone may enjoy a life of peace. Athrun’s looking on, somberly seeing how hard she’s working to help stoke the anti-war sentiment, though Luna’s a bit dejected with him. She’d hoped he’d be happy to see his “ex-fiancée” after all this time and had half a mind to ask her to cheer him up.
Athrun asks if she thinks he’s depressed that the Saviour’s wrecked – while he isn’t HAPPY with it, he’s not going to agonize over it. Indeed, Athrun figures he did what he had to do as Orb losing Cagalli would only make things worse over there. Luna tells him not to speak like that, as it strikes her as very reckless – problem is, Athrun says, an inept man like him can’t speak or fight in any other way.

And speaking of reckless, how’s Shinn doing? Athrun figures he must be going through a tough bit with seeing Cagalli again and what happened with Stella, but Luna says he’s got Rey there with him. She figures she shouldn’t intrude.
The convo’s interrupted when Meyrin comes with some big news: Durandal’s coming here! Athrun inwardly thinks that this is too sudden to be related to the Saviour’s destruction – he must have something to do planetside.

And Talia very much didn’t expect him to turn up, though this wouldn’t be the first time he surprised her. Durandal first salutes Rey, who’s so very happy when “Gil” praises his good work. As for Athrun, he’s heard of the difficulties he’s faced after making it back to the Minerva; he’s also been briefed of what happened in the previous battle, including that mysterious organization that seems hostile to the Alliance, Orb and PLANTs.
Athrun does apologize for failing to live up to Durandal’s expectations – even losing the brand new prototype – but the guy’s just happy everyone’s in one piece. Moreover, he thinks Athrun did the right thing. Finally, Durandal’s also heard much of the very nervous Shinn and Lunamaria and invites the crew to come have a meal with him.

Amidst the food, Durandal’s rather interested in Shinn’s opinion that this war’s to blame on some selfish groups like the Blue Cosmos – he won’t say it with absolute certainty, but he thinks their presence makes it impossible to NOT have conflict.
Durandal concedes his point that there are people around who’re simply unwilling to tolerate the existence of certain things – but what if he told him that there are folks, behind the scenes, manipulating and profiting off this conflict? Without war, there’s no need for weapons and, thus, there’d be no profits. Thus, in the eyes of those people, wouldn’t it be in their best interest to have war?
Indeed, throughout our history, there have been those who’ve cried for bloody murder, for intolerance, for vengeance, who see war as merely another industry, and who’ve moved to expand it accordingly. All for their personal gain.

They’re called Logos and Durandal is sure that their hand is behind this conflict – they’re the Blue Cosmos parent organization – and while they remain in power, war will continue between the Earth and PLANTs. Durandal has long sought to do something about them, but it is certainly no easy task. He knows that even Lady Une, a former OZ operative, has been having difficulties as she tries moving against them at the UN.

Athrun asks Durandal what he thinks of the Archangel’s activities, but he turns the question back at us. He’d especially like to hear Athrun’s own opinion, seeing how he fought alongside that ship in the last war.
Well… Athrun doesn’t think they’re enemies – hell, Kira even saved Shinn in that battle. The problem is that things have been happening at such a breakneck pace that they haven’t had a chance to stop and talk to each other about what’s going on.

Durandal understands and, if anything, is more concerned about those mysterious enemies that started showing up around the Earth Sphere. If the Archangel’s pursuing those, that’s good, but there are still plenty of things that we can’t really decide one way or another without talking to them. This subject doesn’t pertain only to Athrun, so Durandal would like to ask that, if we manage to get in touch with the Archangel, that we let him know.
That being said, he invited them here because he wanted to speak with us. Luna’s still a bit nervous but she has something she’d like to ask. Durandal’s more than willing to answer, but begs that she relax – the night’s still young, after all.

By Diokia’s storage area, the mooks have just found a rather big piece of cargo that wasn’t in their registries. A soldier reports hearing that it’s equipment for the upcoming show – apparently Sheryl’s crew’ll come pick it up later and wanted to store it here ‘til the evening.
The officer in charge sees no problems with it, but is a bit miffed that they decided to spring this in the eleventh hour. Still, they’ll have to put up with it.
As they leave, Brera confirms to G that everything’s in place and ready to go. The larva’s also in position within the expected area of effect. With that, G asks him to come back and is very much looking forward to Operation Carnival – what an amusing coincidence that our op had the same name as their plan.

Sheryl’s already arrived and is being shown around the stage – she didn’t expect something so grand for a so-called “carnival” but it goes to show how big Lacus is in this world. Maybe less so recently, though, as Sheryl heard that the public interest for this has been a bit akin to expectations.
She’s still coughing, but chalks it up to a bit of weariness over the recent workload… and she gets halfway through giving some instructions before fainting right then and there! Grace scrambles to her rescue, but, inwardly, her reaction’s a bit different: “Everything’s going according to plan”.

And, over by the Quarter, Elmo rushes in calling for Ranka: Sheryl’s fallen ill and Grace’s called, asking for Ranka to replace her.
The girl’s a bit taken aback by the idea, wondering if she could handle something as big as that. But she remembers what Alto said before and quickly jettisons those doubts out her head – she’s going for it!

Talia and Jeffrey are seeing each other for the first time since Junius Seven – the whims of fate are surprising, indeed, for them to be here at the same time – and she’s also honored to speak with the captain of the Daiku Maryu.
They heard Durandal wanted to talk with them and, Talia thinks, he’s backstage right now.

Indeed, he’s just finished talking with Meer, who promises to sing her heart out as Lacus’ stand-in. As he wishes good luck and takes off, Meer’s still impressed with beloved Lacus is by everyone, and while she’s a bit embarrassed to be impersonating her, her desire to lift up everyone’s spirits is very real. So she’ll try her best to, like Lacus, touch the people’s hearts with her song and bring a speedy end to all this violence.
Bobby and Ranka come in right then to get some quick makeup done, and the girl’s blown away to see “Lacus”. She’ll be singing soon, too, so Meer gives her the room while she goes and prepares.
Bobby could hear the nervousness in her voice, and Ranka figures even big stars like Lacus can get a bit antsy face a big stage like this. He’s not so sure about that…

Cut to the infirmary, Alto’s grumbling at Sheryl not taking care of her own health – how unprofessional – and she can’t well disagree. She does apologize for pulling the plug on his air show with this but Alto tells her just to rest. They’re expecting some ruffled feathers, but Ranka’ll cover for her.
Grace explains that she’s agreed to represent the Frontier in her stead, so Sheryl tells Alto to get out there and cheer for her. This is Ranka’s debut show!

Back to the dressing area, Alto’s doing just that – he’ll be watching among the crowd. He tells that Sheryl isn’t doing too good, but she still took the time to insist he be here for her.
And Ranka’s very grateful: “it’s only thanks to you that I decided to step onto that stage. And I’ll sing with all my heart – I want this huge crowd to listen to my song!” That’s the way and Alto tells her to leave it all out there.
As the call ends, it’s almost go-time. She hasn’t had time to rehearse, but Bobby knows she’ll knock it out of the park. The big stage awaits.

Out there, the Voltes, Combattler and Gaiking teams are running the show with their yoyos, spinning tops and rolling dinosaur ships. The crowd seems to be really digging it, and Ichitaka’s a bit sullen that he didn’t have any cool tricks to show with the Rushbird.
Zechs tells him not to sweat it as he’s not alone on that subject – only those guys had experience with this sort of stuff. Ichitaka wishes he and Kouichi could be up there on stage, making people happy as a team.
Zechs and Noin have heard of Kouichi and that he recently got picked up by JUDA (after an “accident”). The prospect of seeing his buddy again’s lifted Ichitaka’s spirit in a hurry, though Noin tells him to relax and enjoy the present. Seems like it’ll be Ranka and Lacus’ turn up stage next.

Luca brings the ZAFT crew over and Shinn quickly recognizes Ichitaka as the guy who tried to help him and Athrun at Junius Seven. Mind, his greeting comes with that traditional Shinn-esque attitude, which earns him some scolding from Luna – he might be worried about Stella but that’s no reason to be disrespectful. He says he’s not being disrespectful… it’s the whole “respectfulness” thing that doesn’t click with him.
Either way, after a quick introduction, Shinn explains that Yamashita and Goh told him of what Ichitaka wanted to do back then, and they figured they’d meet him in person once Luca said he was around. The two of them would also like to thank LOTUS for the assist at Junius Seven, but Ichitaka figures they’d be better off thanking Zechs or Noin – he’s too shy to handle that.
Regardless, Shinn’s thankful that Ichitaka and LOTUS cared to help them. Ichitaka gets all flustered, and Luca suggests they all watch the show together. It’s starting, so they better cheer Ranka good!

Meer gets on stage, greeting all the peace-loving people gathered here (Athrun’s still a bit sour with her impersonating Lacus). Following some words of thanks to LOTUS for the show, she gets ready to sing… and the alarms go off! The base is under attack – right now, yes!
Zechs scrambles everyone back to the ships, Shinn and co. also moving to deploy.

Mission 9 (Retreat Route) – Operation Carnival

Surprise, it’s the Alliance. They got wind of Durandal being here and are moving in for the kill – anything tries leaving the base, it gets shot. Orb troops are also around, very dejected, Yuna telling them not to worry about stuff like “collateral damage”. Getting rid of Durandal’s their one-stop ticked to world peace!
Trowa is still with them, pondering how it’s Logos controlling the Alliance from the shadows. These roots dig deeper than he expected, but it is not his mission to expose them.

Our folks deploy and Talia says Durandal’s getting everyone in the base into the shelters – we’ll need to hold the line until that’s finished and stop any Alliance soldier from getting too close. As Jeffrey tags the area, Alto sees that Ranka’s still around the stage. “Get to the shelter already… Hurry!” he thinks.
As Heine sees that the Minerva’s running short on troops and ponders how much they’ll be able to help here, Ichitaka notices that Michel isn’t around. Alice says he wasn’t feeling too good, so he’s being kept in reserve. Guess it’ll be up to us to handle this.

Kill everything without losing any ship, Alto or letting an enemy into the Diokia Base. Not too difficult provided you know what’s coming: you’ll want to send a handful of units down center, angling a bit to the left, while your more hardhitting folks head towards the Alliance.
Orb’s Murasames are a priority as they can fly and move quickly, meaning it won’t take long for them to close that distance. Their AI seems to prioritize moving, too. Form a solid wall and work your way out, focus-firing on the more distant Zamza-Zahs and Gells-Ghes due to their barriers (note that the former still have a MAPW, as does Trowa).

So everyone just goes forward.

Enemy Phase!

Same for the Murasames, Windams and Daggers.

Player Phase!

: No pushing! Please line up one-by-one! Everything’s all right!
: Shelters #4 and #5 are already full?! Then there’s only one left for all these people…!
: Prioritize the civilians’ safety! Use any available facilities, even those for officials and VIPs!
: M-Ms. Lacus wouldn’t take shelter at a time like this… What should I do, then…?
: Wh-What’s going on, Lacus?!
: Ranka! Didn’t you hear evacuation alarm?!
: I did, but how could I just leave everyone behind?!

: Aaah!
: Don’t panic! LOTUS will keep this area safe, so please remain calm!
: (This isn’t good… At this rate we’ll have a frenzy on our hands…!)
: I… What I can do is…
: … I’ll sing to them!
: Huh…
: I know there’s so much you can do, but I’m just a singer myself. And even if I’m a newbie, I’ll be professional about it! All that I can do… is sing to try and calm them down!
: (If Alto’s out there fighting, then I’ll fight too…!)
: Hold me to the edge of the galaxy!

: Hrm? Who’s singing…?!
: Suimen ga yuragu…♪
: This voice… Ranka?!
: Ranka, you…

: What? The attacks ceased…?
: (All those panicking people… they’re just listening to her now…)
: What’s going on?! Why do I hear music?!
: Heh…

Tweeep.

: (That’s… space-time is trembling?)

: A Vajra?!
: Y-Yes, sir! We’re pinging an uncommon De-Fold signal!
: It’s…!
: (Magnificent… The boundaries between parallel worlds are nigh-meaningless to the Vajra…)
: (The plan was just for Q1’s voice to stimulate the larva, but this is far better than what we expected.)

Bing!

: Do I secure the girl?
: (There’s been no change to the plan: securing Ranka Lee is a secondary priority. Disregard this command in case the primary objective can’t be carried out.)
: But she’s—
: (We’ve only seen one emerge thus far, so she’s no more than the subject of a hypothesis. She is not a priority. That’ll be all.)
: Copy that.

Bloop.

: (Still, that girl… If Q1’s voice can, in fact, make space-time tremble and influence the Vajra…)
: Damn those bugs… we thought we’d taken out all the one who followed us into this world, but I guess there some left?
: Skull Leader to all units: save the questions for later! We’re lucky it’s only one of them… so take out that Vajra right the hell now!

Well, we’ve got Ranka singing over the entire battleground now. Sadly, J-pop is not J-rock and, as such, we get no morale boost. Oh, well.
After Tetsuya and Jun cut these Murasames down to size, Rey and Luna move in.

: Gil’s in there, leading the civilians… I’ll protect this base with my life!

: If what the Chairman said is true and this war was caused by those Logos guys… then they’ll find that no one here’s gonna keep on dancing to their tunes!

There they go.

We can’t reach the Vajra just yet, but we can handle this wing of attackers.
Noin missed her target, mind…

But that’s fine. Ozma takes the leader, spreading the command aura, and Shinn moves in for the other kill.

: Both Stella and the Chairman are at Diokia! I’m not letting you do anything with the place!

There it goes.

This group here falls to Heine/Klan and Voltes/Canaria.

Enemy Phase!

The Alliance’s NE wing is starting to draw dangerously close, but they also choose to attack Lulu. She deprives the leaders of 3 groups of most of their HP.

Couple decide it’s a good idea to attack Hyouma.

It’s not. The Dagger gets oneshotted, the Windam barely hangs on.

Trowa and the beefier are mooks are moving in, but are out of range (same for the lone Vajra).

Player Phase!

Grace watches as the resonance is on the verge of reaching its apex and orders the “Dimension Eater” to be detonated. Meanwhile Brera’s to escape and await orders. With things going so incredibly well, all that remains is to tear down the fabric of space-time and let the larva’s cry echo throughout their world (that is, the Macross’) and to its brethren.
With the Fold Waves as a beacon, the Vajra will be led to this world en masse, and she takes even a link with the Queen to be possible. Within Diokia, Durandal confirms all civilians evacuated and is about to call Ranka and Lacus to come with when the Dimension Eater goes off in a purple explosion.
Our people have no idea what just happened, but Luca pings a small Fold rift being opened by the city’s storage area. And it is quickly followed by a bunch of other Fold signals emerging nearby – Monica tags them as being the same as the Fold made by that lone Vajra.

A bunch of the buggers warp in, including a few Knights, and Hyouma isn’t amused by enemies capable of turning up in the blink of an eye. Things just went south in a big way, Dick sees, and even more so when a Vajra flies into Diokia.
It makes a beeline for Ranka and takes her back to one of the Knights, which quickly leaves the area.

Alto’s on the verge charging head-first towards the things (ignoring Ozma’s warnings) when Brera shows up and blocks him: “You don’t deserve her,” he says and flies off. Alto recognizes his Valkyrie as the one from when the Vajra captured Luca and blasts away in pursuit to try and get Ranka back.
Ozma isn’t happy with anything that just happened, but also remembers Brera’s ship from Alto’s previous report. Lulu wants to have the Daiku Maryu follow but Michel finally gets in touch and says he’ll do it – the red Valkyrie’s pretty good and, plus, he was kept in reserve for emergencies like this, right?
Lulu allows it, so off goes Michel. Juzo can easily tell that something’s off with the guy, but Ippei says we can only count on him – meanwhile, what we can do is end this battle in a hurry. That means keeping Diokia safe while also wrecking the new Vajra.
Jeffrey, meanwhile, tells Monica to try running a trace on the escaped Knight Vajra and to make sure we don’t lose Alto or Michel’s signals.

Well, so much for Ranka’s debut. But, hey, at least she’s not being hunted down by a robo ninja in this game.
Priority is still the Alliance mooks as a bunch of them can reach the finish line by their next move.

: Did they chase the Minerva all the way here or are they after the Chairman…? But whichever one it is, we’ll defend this base to the death!

Bam.

One for Rey, one for Lulu.

Her Flame gets stronger after that!

The Windam leading this team was summarily shot down by Heine. Its squaddie immediately follows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPyw8n7e93I
By the by, a carryover from K is that pretty much everything but a couple of Daiya’s attacks have a dynamic kill. Someone at Banpresto really liked Gaiking LOD (as they should).

Kills for Tetsuya and Jun, Boss and Hyouma.

No more nearby threats to Diokia.

Ichitaka and Zechs’ll handle the last pair of Murasames, while Ozma (just in case) takes the lone Vajra that started all this.

: Alto… I swear to all that’s holy, if anything happens to Ranka…!

: These are two numerous to be stragglers from the flock that attacked the Galaxy…
: And that red unit… it looked like YF-27, so I should probably get in touch with company headquarters again.

Alright.

Enemy Phase!

Shinn and Lulu get harassed by the Zamza-Zahs, hitting back with varying degrees of pain. One gets too close to Kenichi and Canaria, though, and is gunned down.

Excellent.

On the other side, Zechs and Ichitaka are holding the line just fine against the little Vajra.

Player Phase!

Following a big hit from Lulu, Heine moves in.

Luna and Rey handle the Gells.

Right on time.

And Trowa’s deciding to be a dick, Support Defending mooks that I could easily kill. Time to get rid of him.

Let’s see how you like this!

And he’s very dead. I’ll make a video of this when I use it against something that won’t cheat me out of a DK…!

He figures he’s fought enough that no one’ll suspect him. The issue now is finding where Relena’s at.

By the Vajra, Ichitaka and Jeffrey each take a kill – the latter gets Invincible.

Next.

Ozma and Luca nab a nearby pair too.

And now this is pretty much clean up. The Alliance mooks are too far away to stand a chance at making touchdown and the Vajra are too frail to withstand my everything.

Cliffs notes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmCmtXi9xAA
“Anyone who doesn’t wanna die has one second to get out my sight!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld9cxRV4OUQ
Everything the Gaiking does is so satisfying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfw23yE-ibk
Zechs’ strongest weapon here, since I could.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x01OAMYzKw
Also since I could: FAAAAAACE OPEN!

And that’s the end of that!

As for Alto, Monica pings him bogged down by the red Valkyrie and unable to pursue the Vajra.

Brera flies around, Alto TRYING to keep up.

: Pull yourself together, Alto! You’re not flying like you usually do!

: Hmph, child’s play.
: Damn it, Ranka’s gonna get away!
: “Ranka this, Ranka that”… is it just about her? May I remind you that our mission was to protect a base filled with people! Have all these battles been just a secondary concern to you?!
: Screw you, Michel! It’s never been anything of the sort!
: Hmhmhm… Too slow.

: Urk!
: Keep him still, Alto! I can’t get a bead on him…!
: Shut up! I know!

: !!
: That’s it! Keep him right there and I’ll end it!
: Stand down! If I can catch him, then I can do this myself!
: Hah, just let me handle it. Be it with women or bullets, I always hit a bulls-eye.

Rifle charging!

: (Sis… I…)

: …?!
: My right engine?! Michel! The hell are you doing shooting me?!
: All that talk and you screw it up?! Or was that on purpose?!
: Hrk… Of course it wasn’t!
: …

Brera gets his Valkyrie up straight and blasts away.

: Damn it, Ranka! RANKAA!!
: …

Things aren’t doing too good now. The Quarter and Daiku Maryu are trying to figure out where the Vajra flew off to before going after, and Durandal offers to personally accompany us and help since he feels somewhat responsible for what happened.
Jeffrey tells him not to as it was only thanks to his efforts that the civs were mostly unharmed, but he still says we’d have had a much simpler time dealing with the Vajra if the Alliance hadn’t turned up around here. Plus, it was he who invited the Frontier guests over in the first place.

Speaking of, Sheryl runs in in a panic, having just heard what happened to Ranka. She slowly grunts at Jeffrey that she’s fine enough, and rather angry at Alto for letting the girl get kidnapped under his nose. He should be coming in soon, so she tumbles off to the hangar.
Still, Durandal says he and Lacus are as worried as Sheryl and hopes that Jeffrey’ll allow them to help. Furthermore, he’d also like to speak with Heine a bit.

Ichitaka and Alice confirm that both Alto and Michel are doing fine – Hiyoshi was more than a bit worried at how he’d cope if those two ended up dead. Still, Tetsuya reports that they lost those Vajra due to the red Valkyrie.
So much for Alto’s unauthorized rescue mission, Puria sighs… but Daiya figures we’ll manage to get Ranka back as our ships are already tracking the buggers down. Granted, Ozma is beside himself with worry in the meantime.

A bit later, Michel and Alto have returned and the former isn’t doing too good. Klan tells him to keep his chin up as it’s only a matter of time before we figure out where Ranka’s at. It’s not the Ranka business that’s gotten him down, though, but that friendly fire incident – Klan only needed to take a look at the hole in Alto’s VF-25 to have an idea of what happened.
Speaking of Alto, Luca’s trying and failing to keep him from immediately getting in Michel’s face: “What the hell was with that shot?! Are you trying to get me killed?!” Michel says nothing, and Alto doesn’t appreciate the silent treatment – say something, damn it!
Luca tries arguing that it’s only human to make miss a shot or two but Alto’s not one bit interested in losing his life over one; besides, the guy doesn’t “miss”! Didn’t Michel always go on and on about how he got his “sniper sense” from his sister? Or, maybe, screwing up’s the only thing that’s in his blood?!

Michel snaps at that and straight up punches Alto. It falls on Ichitaka, Hyouma and Daisaku to break it off, but Alto isn’t having it: “Lemme go! If he’d just kept his head together, Ranka wouldn’t…!”
Things stop when Ozma runs in and punches both men – what the hell is fighting one another going to achieve? Tetsuya joins in, asking if Alto thinks he’s the only one here who wants to save Ranka. Did he ever stop to think of how hard Ozma’s struggling to keep his personal feelings in check, not just today but also during the movie shoot battle?

Sheryl stumbles in right then and she seems to be taking a turn for the worse. Still, she tells Alto that he needs to save Ranka before crumbling to the ground. Alice yells that she shouldn’t be walking around in her condition; and despite what she might say, Alice’s sensors pick up several problems with her: excessively low temperature, fatigue and more.
She calls up Canaria, who says they’ve got plenty of room to take Sheryl in, so Alice lifts the indignant singer up and carries her away. Michel’s taking off as well, telling Ozma that he’s going to do some training and make sure he doesn’t screw up again. That’s fine, but Ozma wants him to take a few people with.
Heine’s looking on, sighing that he won’t be leaving the Quarter on a lighter atmosphere. Wait, what? See, Durandal’s requested that he transfer over to the Minerva to supplement its dwindling forces – they’ve no flight lead now that Athrun’s lost his Savior. Still, he very much enjoyed working with us, short-lived as that might’ve been.

Kouji tells him not to get so bummed out – it ain’t like him – and figures, when things with the Alliance settle down, the PLANTs will likely join up with LOTUS. Heine confirms that Durandal said the same, but whether or not he himself’ll get back with us is a different story. He’d very much prefer to be dealing with the Jama Kingdom and Cthulhu and whatnot, mind, and Daiya figures we’ll see each other again as it comes to that.
Well, Heine would’ve liked to give everyone a proper farewell, but this doesn’t quite look like the best time for that. He merely asks them pass a message to Alto: “don’t let love blind you to your duty.”

By the Quarter’s firing range, Michel’s missing a whole lot; Ippei sees that he’s not himself and asks what happened. Well, how familiar is Ippei with his personal history? Not much – no one would even gossip much about him. Klan sees where this is going and asks if it’s about Jessica.
Michel says absolutely not – he’s just been going to bed by himself lately and that’s made him all lonely and whatnot. Maybe Klan would care to come on over tonight and remedy that? No one buys his story and Ippei asks how that Jessica fits in Michel’s past. Ippei can’t even look at him right now – he’s looking even worse than after that time they fought.
Still, Michel asks them to quit meddling in his business, as they’re not helping him calm down. Juzo argues that we can’t just ignore him, either, but Klan takes a more pragmatic approach of calling him and idiot and punching him. Even micronized, her fists still hurt plenty…

Some time later, back at the hangar, Alto’s staring at Sheryl’s earring – it’s already been a while since he “borrowed” it. His train of thought’s interrupted when Ranka’s Aimo starts playing through the thing!

Cut to the bridge, he’s just told them about it; Alto’s sure he heard Ranka’s voice and it wasn’t just his mind playing tricks. Her song was seemingly coming from a specific direction and Luca’s pinged faint Fold Waves being emitted that way. Do you think that’s…?
A call comes in from Japan’s SDF right then: it’s our friend Igarashi and he reports that one of their patrols just found the beasties we were looking for. It’s a flock of Vajra about west-southwest of the Okinotori Islands and their numbers, varieties and signals correspond to those that emerged at Diokia.
Seems like we have our target, so Jeffrey commands the Quarter and Daiku Maryu to go after.

[Mattman324]

Ah, I fucking love how the Chaos, the Abyss, and the Saviour get blasted right before their combat debut in this game, when K very conspicuously lacked sprites and animations for those units. It really makes you wonder…

The fun thing about Flame is that it’s literally just Brave as that was in the Alphas and W (and maybe BX? I dunno.). The only difference is that only Daiya hits level 9 - well, Daiya and Proist, but she doesn’t count.

Every time I watch Hydro Blazer’s Dynamic Kill, I remind myself that both K and L give you Shinryu Hydro Blazer well after you get the thing, but it’s on his moveset from day one as a DK and on his moveset before that move in both games from the Death Fire combo.

EDIT: Chaos, not Forbidden. Wrong set of three evil Gundams.

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

Here we are, closing off the Rescue Route. Quatre had a bit of a sprint in the last mission, securing himself as our top ace. Ichitaka and Kenji are now tied for the second and third place.

Kouichi, as you might guess, will be a very recurring event deployment, so I gave him an extra pip on everything – you might as well boost everything since, one, he’s not the best at dodging despite the Linebarrel’s size and, two, there’s always that 50% boost to squad bonuses.
Remaining cash goes into giving Goh, Ichita and Jeeg some boosts here and there.

Putting out squads back together after they got all messed up last time, we’re going with:
Jeeg/Kyo
Ichitaka/Miu
Reiji/Quatre
Iczer-1/Yagyuu
Yamashita/Shizuna
Shizuru/Tetsuya

Goh, Mira and Kouichi are deploying as events.

: … Are you there, weasel?
: You called, Prof. Grife? Have you decided to cooperate?
: Hmph, I simply felt like calling, though I’m surprised you answered so quickly. Guess you don’t have much to do with your life.
: Not at all. I actually keep quite the busy schedule.
: So you say, but not busy enough that you can’t stay planted in front of a monitor apparently. Maybe I ought to call you up at random and mess with your sleeping hours?
: I hope you won’t, as I’d prefer to keep the unpleasantries to a bare minimum. Mind, I might start considering it if you continue being so unreasonable.
: What’ll it be, then? Drugs? Hypnosis? Or just plain old torture? Do your worst! I’ll kick the bucket before you even get started!
: Please, you need not worry. I’d never do anything taxing on your body.
: Why don’t you take a quick nap, Professor? And do look forward to when you wake up.
: What are you up to, weasel?!
: Could I ask you to stop calling me that? You don’t know my name or even seen my face.
: Next time you call me… could you please go with “Mr. President”?
: Wh…at…? Hrk… my head’s going…!

Thud.

: Excellency, the brain wave scanner is ready.
: Very good. You may start right away.

Back at JUDA, Maki and Rachel have called Ichitaka over as they’ve found some info that’s seemingly related to sponsoring Grife received in his research. It’s not much, but it’s a first step! Now, does he remember those nixed upgrade plans for Alice that they found while analyzing his painting? They found a commonality among all those plans.
See, the nixed plans would’ve all used materials created by a single enterprise: GreAT Corporation. And they mean ALL the materials, down to the tiniest bits. Ichitaka’s heard of that company: “Providers of your every need, from groceries to toilets!” Rachel isn’t sure about that slogan, but they ARE known worldwide as a very prolific company. Still, Maki says that where GreAT truly struck gold and grew into a huge multinational was as a manufacturer of mechanical parts.
As it turns out, they apparently supplied the professor with everything he needed for absolutely free – and he needed a lot of stuff. GreAT even gave him items they don’t usually manufacture, so it’s pretty clear there was something going on between Grife and that company.

But Maki and Rachel couldn’t find what reason there was to cause the professor to call off the whole thing as suddenly as he did. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the quality of the materials, though.
Still, if we can figure out what Grife was researching, we might figure out why he was kidnapped and by whom. Rachel’ll have JUDA’s intelligence department look into GreAT and even poke around other companies that might’ve done some industrial espionage into the guys.
Ichitaka’s very thankful, but Maki tells him to save it until they’ve finished their work. In the meantime, Kouichi’s waiting for him.

Outside JUDA, everyone’s already waiting for Ichitaka and Kouichi. Yamashita suggest them watch it as, were this a mission briefing, Reiji would’ve been piiiissed. Kouichi promises to treat him to some curry bread by way of apology, and Ichitaka says it was his fault. Regardless, Ishigami tells them to let it go and beckons Miu to speak.
She officially welcomes Kouichi and Nagisa to LOTUS’ living quarters, and Nagisa’s rather surprised at how fancy the place looks for housing some pilots. The LOTUS folks have it good, she sees!
And there’s even a big fluffy dog around the place, which Nagisa is so enamored with. Looks a bit too old to be a watchdog, though…

Actually, it’s the dorm manager’s pet but we’re free to think of it as one of the team’s mascot. Wait, dorm? Wasn’t it supposed to be some living quarters for the pilots? Yamashita explains that, originally, this was JUDA’s company dorms, but they figured it’d make a good place for the LOTUS folk.
Goh says the mechanics also live here, though they’re back at the Dannar Base at the moment. In other words, these dorms house everyone working with LOTUS. Does that mean Emi’s here, too, Kouichi wonders. She on his mind? N-no, not really.

Either way, Ishigami hands over the card keys to their rooms and Nagisa and Iczer-1 take off to take a look. Ichitaka offers to show Kouichi around as the building’s rather unique shape makes it a bit difficult to get around.
Ishigami stops shot a bit upon hearing they’ll be going together. There a problem? No, he’s just worried about potential injuries. Huh?

: Alright, over here’s my room so yours should be just around the corner.
: Thanks much, Ichitaka.
: There’re a bunch of devices around the rooms, but it all comes with a manual, so you oughta be able to figure it out. Anything you don’t get, just call and I’ll come over.
: Hey, I’ll be alright – I’m not a baby.
: Yo, Ichitaka! You said you bought this new manga, right? Can I borrow it some?
: Oh, Kenji. Sure thing, just gimme a sec to get it.

Couple minutes ahead…

: Let’s see, 203… 203…
: Ah, here we go!

Cha-chunk!

: OK! From this day onward, this shall be my cas…tle…?
: !!
: Waaaaaaaaa?!
: (Why… Why’s Emi in my room… naked?!)
: What is it, Kouichi?!
: Something happen?!
: Y-You…
: Gch?! Emi?!
: Hu-Huuge…!
: You’re all despicable!!

Slap! Slap! Punch!

So, Kouichi’s back at the infirmary while Ichitaka and Kenji got off with some slight bruising. Nagisa’s not amused, as she thought the Cthulhu had attacked again. Rachel shakes her head at them, but Ichitaka insists he’s just an innocent victim here. Is he? She’s inclined to think otherwise, looking at Kenji: “I’m hurting a bit, but it’s fair price for the great view. Heeheehee…”
Maybe Tsubaki should give him some more serious bruises, then? N-No, he was just kidding! Just kidding! Ishigami is so very apologetic to Emi, saying he “made a mistake” when handing out the card keys. Uh-huh, and what was he telling Ichitaka about being worried about potential bruises? Did he give the wrong keys on purpose?! Perish the thought! He’s the president of JUDA Corporation and would never do such a thing!
Yui tell Emi and the others not to worry as she’ll extract the truth from Ishigami. He yells that it’s all one huge misunderstanding – look into his eyes! – but Yui says she’ll hear his excuses at the office. Now march!

Yamashita sighs at the crazy CEO they have and at least Shizuru sees that Ichitaka and the others fell in the guy’s trap. It’s actually somewhat impressive, as the guy arranged it so Kouichi’s arrival in the room coincided perfectly with when Emi ended her bath.
Shizuna wouldn’t put it past Ishigami to have abused his security access to gather intel and set up this “surprise”. Wait, does that mean he could have risqué footage of everyone?! Thankfully, no, as Rachel explains to the panicking Ichitaka and Kenji that there are no hidden cameras around – he likely figured out Emi’s bath time from the water and electrical data.
“Psh, lame. And I was just thinking of asking the guy for a quick peek,” Kenji sighs. Tsubaki and Emi aren’t amused. Despicable, indeed.

By the Dannar Base, Shibakusa and the other mechanics have finished getting the Goh Okusaer all set up and Kiriko apologizes for calling them all the way back here. No problem, as just servicing one unit was pretty easy – much more so than the work they had to do on all our units. The actual problematic part comes now, though, and Momoko knows: the Goh Okusaer is a lot harder to control than the Neo, which is why they’d stashed the thing away.
Konami says she’s got it the other way around, as the Neo Okusaer was made BECAUSE the Goh Okusaer put such a heavy strain on the pilot. And who’ll pilot it? They’re considering Shizuru and Shibakusa figures she could handle it. Kagemaru asks if Kiriko would be fine with that, as he knows she was considering her daughter for it. Still, he won’t press her on that subject.
Kiriko takes Anna to be a pretty good candidate – even taking away her parental bias – but she’s still gone and Kiriko doesn’t know if she’ll return. Best not to put all their eggs on that basket, so Shibakusa will get the bot ready for Shizuru to use and will have it shipped to JUDA.

But there’s a new problem as an emergency call comes in: it’s Shukuyu, who reports that they’ve spotted the Menage Zero. It managed to shake them off and is headed straight our way! How the hell did that happen? Momoko gets some footage and they spot Lou’s Cosmo Diver.
The girl was supposed to be on our side, but she started blasting Shukuyu’s group and that’s how the Menage Zero got by. Lou’s been missing for two months already, having gone off in pursuit of the Menage Zero – Kiriko’s happy she’s safe but working together with the enemy isn’t the best.
Regardless, the Zero tends to show up wherever Mimetic Beasts do which means there’s a pretty good chance our area’ll be attacked by the things. We better watch it, thinks Shukuyu. Kiriko thanks her for the update and asks how her partner’s doing – he wasn’t hurt by the Menage Zero, was he?

No, Moukaku is still combined with her. He’s fine… and, then, he isn’t, promptly going crazy as all get out, demanding to know WHERE IS THE MENAGE ZEROOOOOO!
As the feed gets cut, Kiriko seems to have an idea of what happened. Knight and Ellis Valentine, as well as the Dancouga, should be around Dino Base, so Kiriko asks Kagemaru to get in touch ask for their help over there. The Dragon’s Hive guys owe us one. But what happens next…?

Back in town, things haven’t been a whole lot better for Anna: she’s been kicked out of ANOTHER apartment and just lost her job. Whatever will she do? Pinpin’s still around, but she hasn’t anything more for him to eat. This calls for a new job, fast.
Last one was at a restaurant that actually paid pretty nice, though she ended up punching the manager after he yelled that she needed to shorten her skirt about 10cm. Pinpin meows and she agrees that she wasn’t in the wrong there. Still, life sure is tough out there for a regular girl and she’s starting to regret running away from home… but there’s no place for her in the Dannar Base anymore.
And, to make things worse, she hasn’t seen Nagisa since that robot attack. She hopes she’s alright… An Eida add playing nearby, announcing a Christmas tour, reminds her of seeing one of these when she was last with Nagisa. She could go for an idol lifestyle right about now, as it’d mean she could stop looking for part-time jobs…

A voice suddenly asks her to wait a moment – is she actually getting scouted?! Her name’s Anna Aoi, she’s 17 years old, and her specialty is cooking sukiyaki! Actually, no, it’s Goh’s little brother Suzaku Kururugi Shinobu… and what was that about sukiyaki? N-nothing at all, pay her no mind, bye!
She doesn’t go far before Shinobu stops her from running. Anna yells that she’s not going back to Dannar Base, but Shinobu actually says that’s totally fine. He’s watched her work so hard, for so long, by herself, and he’s reached a point where he can’t just watch it all in silence anymore.
He’s on the verge of asking her to come with him when a bunch of explosions rain on his parade. What’s going on? Mimetic Beasts, and they’re coming for them!

Mission 10 (Rescue Route) – Engage, Godannar

: Anna, we need to run! It’s too dangerous here!
: Hold on! That’s…!

: Goh…!
: Anna, hurry! This way!
: …
: There you are, Mimetic Beasts! Sorry, but we’ll be keeping this town safe from you!
: Goh, there’s a good chance the Menage Zero’ll also turn up. If he does, don’t rush him by yourself, please.
: I know, but the Cosmo Diver… Lou’s also with him. If he shows his face, I’ll want to settle that score here and now.
: (His defeat to the Menage Zero left deep wounds in his spirit… They should be healed, but…)
: Nagisa, please keep on standby until I summon the Iczer Robo (130 morale).
: OK, you got it.
: Kouichi, weren’t you hospitalized after Emi’s punch?
: “Hospitalized”, he says… Heh, don’t worry about me. I’m pretty hardy, you know.
: All Factors carry D-S.O.I.L nanomachines inside their bodies, and those heal any wounds pretty much instantly. So depending on our D-S.O.I.L.’s activity rate, we’re almost unkillable.
: Aah, I see how it is – you guys are pretty much all supermen and superwomen, then.
: Our enemies are dead ahead. Cut the chatter.
: Alright, time for a good ol’ fashioned Mimetic Beast extermination. Let’s jump right in there!

Beep, beep!

: Wait a sec there! Some new heat signals incoming!
: … Here he comes.
: …

: That’s it, alright… the Menage Zero!
: And the Cosmo Diver!
: Lou…?! She was with the Menage Zero these past two months?!
: Don’t let them close in on you, Lou! (Ken)
: Roger!
: Here I come, Mimetic Beasts! Haah!

: You’re not the one!
: Menage Zero…!
: Away. We’ve already had our duel, and you’ve been found wanting.
: What?!
: So stay there and do not interfere with my battle!
: I can’t do that. Rather, I’ll take down those Mimetic Beasts, you, and get Lou back!
: If you won’t heed my warning, then I’ll give you no quarter!
: !!
: Goh, wait! I’ll go in first!

: Aargh!
: Don’t, Mira!
: As you wish. I’ll start with you, then!

Ken steps towards Mira.

: Mira, get back!

The Godannar powers down.

: Goh!!
: Can you move?
: Y-Yes, I’m fine… my unit’s falling apart, though…!
: Pull back to base. You can’t fight after that!
: But…
: Hurry! Do you want me to lose my nerve again?!
: …!
: Don’t push your luck, Mira – pull back. We’ll take care of Goh.
: Alright… stay alive, everyone.

: The Okusaer…!
: Come on, Anna! Let’s get out of here!
: No, I have to go…
: Go where?!
: Ah…
: (That’s right… Where would I go? There’s nowhere I belong… I still act like I’m a pilot, but I’m the one who ran off like that… and I’ve know that for a long time.)
: (Yet… What’s this I’m feeling?)
: Anna, you don’t have to force yourself to fight! Being a pilot’s not who you are!
: Just forget my brother and we’ll go live in peace!
: …You’re wrong. I want to pilot a robot…
: Huh?
: I’ve just remembered something… Ever since I was a kid, before I even met Goh…I’ve always dreamed of being a pilot…!
: Anna…
: (I’ve been lying to myself all this time… I’d been projecting my insecurities as a pilot onto Goh and twisting my own dreams…)
: (I’m not as good a pilot as the others, so I blamed everything on Goh’s past and ran away… I didn’t lose where I belonged – rather, I’d turned my back on my dream!)
: … Shinobu!
: Yeah?!
: Take me back to the Dannar Base! I’m no running anymore. I’ll fight!
: Are you sure about this, Anna?
: Absolutely. If I ran away now, I’d regret it the rest of my life!
: … Alright. Come on, Anna. I’ve left my bike not far from here!
: OK!
: How’re you holding up in there, Goh?!
: I’m fine, but the Dannar’s drive systems are out. I’m running some makeshift repairs, so you folks’ll have to handle this by yourselves for a bit! Sorry!
: (I need to hurry… I’ve a responsibility to get to Lou and scold her for what she’s done!)
: Troops, cover the Godannar and destroy the Mimetic Beasts and the Menage Zero. Feel free to disregard the Cosmo Diver.
: We gotta fight the guy that beat the Godannar to a pulp before…?
: Kouichi, your heart-rate’s rising. Are you afraid?
: N-No way! I was just thinking that this is the perfect guy to take down on my debut!
: Hah, I reckon you’re doing OK if you’re running your mouth like that. Watch our backs and we’ll watch yours, rookie.
: If you choose to retreat without any issues, I’ll allow it… Oppose me, however, and you’ll find only death!

Destroy everything while protecting Goh and Kouichi – the former’s your biggest risk as you can’t even cast spirit commands with him. Ken’ll ignore him while there are Mimetic Beasts to kill, but the beasties themselves won’t; so either jump in there and keep them away, or keep a group like Ichitaka/Miu near him as a safety net.
You’ll eventually have to deal with Ken and he’ll retreat under 8k HP. As Reiji said, you COULD totally ignore Lou, but, of course, there’s a catch – suffice to say you’ll want to leave Ken and Lou for last. For now, don’t kill her and don’t bring him below that HP threshold.

Blade Gainer (Ken)
Pilot Skills:
Sword Cut
Predict
Prevail L4
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L1

Cosmo Diver (Lou Roux)
Pilot Skills:
Prevail L2
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L2

Ken’s pretty good, in that he’s about tied with Goh on most stats (he’s got a bit more on some, less on others) and the Blade Gainer’s both beefy and hits decently hard. Not as hard as Iczer-2, but still. His main issue is the same as Goh’s though: very short range. The best he’s got is 1-3 and we have a lot of folks who can beat that.
Prevail and Predict means he’s rather accurate, but he’s not all that dangerous. If you wanna take him out, though, you’ll have to go with the standard practice of having someone bust Fighting Spirit with a support from Ichitaka or whoever.
As for Lou, she’s not all that great. Better range than Ken but way less stats, power and resilience.

But, as I said, we’ll be ignoring them for now and moving everyone towards the Mimetic Beasts.

Enemy Phase!

In come the little guys.

HEY!

: Please stay out of our way! I don’t want to fight you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oExYoNGu1w
Youcameaftermegoddamnit.
Still, there’s no problem with us taking potshots at her – it’s only Ken that runs off after a point. Speaking of, he runs over to Lou’s side.

Player Phase!

: Eh? Did Mira comeback?
: Look again, Kenji. It’s similar to the Neo Okusaer, but that’s a different unit!
: Is that… the Goh Okusaer?! Mira, why’re you piloting that thing?!
: It’s not Mira in here!
: A-Anna?!
: I’m back, Goh! And I’m here to help!
: Absolutely not! Get off this battlefield!
: I’m so sorry, Goh… I know—
: No, you don’t! Do you have any idea the trouble you’ve put everyone through running off for over two months?! How many people were endangered?!
: I’m really sorry! I just—
: No, what you did was inexcusable! You’ve no right to pilot that robot!
: You don’t think I know that?! That’s why I didn’t come back all this time!
: Hey, hey, hey, hey! We appreciate any extra help, but can anyone explain what’s going on?! Just who’re you?!
: We’re talking, if you can’t tell! And who are you? What’s your deal with Goh?
: Keeping it short, the girl piloting the Goh Okusaer’s Anna Saruwatari… Goh’s wife.
: Whaat?! But she looks not that much older than us!
: Wait up, did you say Anna…? Anna Aoi?!
: Nagisa?! So you were alright… thank goodness.
: I am, yes, but never mind me! How’re you a pilot and married?! Was that why you said all that weird stuff back then?
: Um… I might’ve kept a few secrets. Sorry!
: We don’t have a lot of time to catch up now, but I’ll fight these with you!
: Stop right there! I haven’t okayed your reinstatement!
: Uurgh! You’re so pigheaded!
: While you’re very irresponsible!

Beep!

: That’s enough bickering, you two. This is hardly the time for that, don’t you think?
: Professor! Why’s she in the Goh Okusaer?!
: Because I felt it was necessary. Besides, weren’t you waiting for her to come back?
: That doesn’t mean I want her reinstated as a pilot!
: The Dannar Base is part of LOTUS, so you don’t get a say in this matter.
: And what you should be focusing on right now is on finishing your repairs!
: … Roger that!
: I also have plenty to say to you, Anna. Normally, like Goh said, you wouldn’t be allowed in that cockpit.
: … I know.
: Then you’d best pull your weight and then some if you want to redeem yourself!
: Yes, ma’am!
: And, Anna, that mech was set up for Shizuru to use, so it might not be the best fit for you. I reckon the seat, in particular, will be too wide, but just bear with it for now!
: Shiba!
: No worries. I can fight just fine with it!
: And keep the Plasma Drive at level 6 or lower – any more than that and you won’t be able to control it!
: Roger!
: The rest is up to you, folks!
: Copy that. All troops, engage and destroy the Mimetic Beasts and Menage Zero!

Goh Okusaer (Anna Saruwatari)
Pilot Skills:
Prevail L3
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L2
Spirit Commands:
Alert
Iron Wall
Strike
Mech Features:
Angel Wall
Squad Bonus: Mobility +5, money earned+10%

At least Anna gets the claim the “Goh Wifebot” to show Mira what’s what. The bot itself is, as you might expect, the Neo Okusaer but better.
Anna and Mira themselves are pretty similar, with slight variations in stats. Anna’s clearly built as the more defensive pilot with that Iron Wall, while Mira’s more offense-oriented with her Accel and whatnot.
The loss of Accel isn’t too good for Goh, but we’ll have to make do – if anything, the Goh Okusaer’s squad bonus will get movement+1/+2 at 50/100% upgrades, so you can compensate for it some. Extra money’s always nice, too, especially with how the AI’s drawn to big HP pools.

Also, take note of this:

Secret Alert!
You’ll want to take Lou down with either Anna or Goh (when he’s back). Remember, she’ll run off when Ken does, so handle her first.

So let’s get to work. Kenji follows up Reiji’s initial attack.

There goes the leader.

Yagyuu can’t quite finish the leader off, so Yamashita takes it.

Enemy Phase!

Here they come.

Four groups get weakened. Kenji takes a kill and, of course, Ichitaka’s ever the mook magnet: he takes two kills (because I held back) and weakens many more.

Ken also draws in a lot of attention.

: You’re in my way! Move!

All three groups of Type 13 Mimetic Beasts run in and Lou readily support defends him twice. Make sure you take that into account as you hit back on her attacks.

Player Phase!

Goh’s finished his repairs and is back in action. Kagemaru wants him to combine with the Goh Okusaer right away but Kiriko says it’s too soon: she wants to see if the girl can actually handle the unit.
Furthermore, Goh outright refuses to combine with Anna. Kouichi looks on at how angry the guy’s gotten since his wife came back. Will he be alright?

Moving along, with stuff softened up, we can go to town. Goh takes one, Anna guns for another.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le9_vzqsuvs
Her barrier holds even better than Mira’s with her stats. Yamashita and Shizuna claim this group’s survivor.

And we need to clear the area around Ken and Lou, lest the things do too much damage for comfort.

: I’ve really been reborn this time!

Kouichi can shrug off damage just fine, but these beasties draining his EN’ll make for an annoyance if it piles on.
Jeeg, Ichitaka and Shizuru get rid of the last mooks by that area.

Iczer-1 and Yagyuu are holding the line down here. One kill for the former.

Enemy Phase!

Here come the big ones.

He takes two of the little guys when they attack.
Cut back to Ichitaka, the enemy mob is still failing to do any lasting damage – one for him, one for Miu.

Player Phase!

Lou’s already around 30% HP, so let’s deal with her quickly.

: Get off the Cosmo Diver, Lou! There’s absolutely no reason for you to be fighting!
: You have a family, Anna, so I don’ expect you to understand how I feel…!
: And don’t you have a family too? What about me and Goh?!
: … No, I don’t! Leave me alone!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf6lRdJpEOU

: Why are you with the Menage Zero, Lou?! Come back to the Dannar Base!
: You never taught me anything – rather, you always treated me like a kid! I won’t go back to living with people like that!
: Quit being so selfish, Lou! You are a kid and that means listening to the grown-ups!

: Lou! Get off the Cosmo Diver and lets all just go back to the Dannar Base!
: No, I won’t…! I won’t go back until I’ve avenged my dad…!
: Lou!
: Can you move, Lou? Pull back.
: OK!

: LOU! Damn it, why aren’t you listening to us?!

With that done, we’ll simply spend the turn clearing out the remaining Beasts (focus fire the bigger ones) and move to take Ken out.

Fast forward!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HzdVxtLU1c
Iczer-1 herself gained a new strongest attack now that Nagisa’s with her!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUJbfygFjsI
And here’s the ACTUAL full power Executor blast plus DK – I’m sure the city’ll be fine.

Ken had actually taken quite a beating over the fight (he did try attacking my guys once or twice), so he’s rather close to his threshold by the time I get to work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_8Co4iGjK8
Listen, it’s written the way it’s written. Best I could find was a JP forum suggesting it’s like Strike+Slash.

I actually needed to spend one more turn trying to get him into a better position. Goh can’t pull the necessary numbers without combining and Kenji’s doing pretty well, so I decided to give this kill for Kouichi.

Ichitaka: “Lemme handle this, Kouichi!”

And we get a Predict skill part and some nice cash for our troubles.

Kouichi also learns Assail (突撃 – can use pre-movement attacks after moving) and Prevail L3.

: Hmph. I won’t fall to… urk!
: (Wh-What… my body’s… Is this…?!)
: (No… I cannot die yet, not before I’ve carried out my mission. I…!)

: And that’s a wrap. The Menage Zero ran off but the town didn’t take a whole lot of damage, so I reckon that’s a pretty good way to end things.
: Hold on now. Remember last time, when there was one Mimetic Beast hiding around?
: Hm. It’s too soon to let our guard down.

Beep, beep!

: I knew! Got one on radar – it’s…

: Right under the Godannar!
: Gaaaaaaaaaaaah!
: What?!
: Watch out, Goh!

: Thanks, Kouichi. I owe you one!
: Sorry, Goh, I didn’t get there fast enough…!
: …
: You’ll need to use the Twin Drive to take that one out, Goh, Anna. Combine!
: But Professor…
: Sorry, Mr. Moritsugu, but can you just play along?
: …As you wish.
: Troops, support the Godannar’s combination! Once it’s complete, immediately engage and destroy the Mimetic Beast!
: Roger that! Come on, Goh!
: No! I won’t combine with someone as irresponsible as you!
: You’re still stuck on that, you blockhead?! Weren’t you so very willing to combine with Mira?!
: Don’t bring her into this! I can count on her, unlike you!
: Aargh, that’s IT! It was because of that attitude of yours that things went south for us!
: What?! So it’s my fault now?!
: Oi… There they go again…
: Who has a lovers’ spat while a whole battle’s going on…?
: I hate how rude you are! And I hate your chin! Why’s it so big for no damn reason?!
: And I can’t stand how bratty you are! Or how self-centered you are! Or how long your baths take!
: Oh, speaking of baths, I hate how you like to just get out and waltz around the house naked!
: While I can’t stand how preachy you are! You’re a senior in high school, for crying out loud!
: I hate, hate how you only change your socks after a few days!
: It annoys me to no end that you’ve so much more money saved up than me!
: And it REALLY grinds my gears just how nice you are to all women you meet!
: Um… I don’t think we should be listening in on this…
: But we should still watch them. Do you not feel it, Nagisa? The beautiful emotions irradiating from them…?
: Huh…?
: And could you not start eating dinner before I even sit at the table?!
: Well, I don’t care what you think!
: Right back at you!
: Oof… they just keep going and going.
: I don’t give a damn about whatever you say, because I already knew you inside out!
: … Alright! Let’s combine, Anna!
: OK, Goh!

Both bots pull back.

: Huuh?! What just happened? Weren’t you fighting?!
: Drive change, GO!
: Drive change, GO!

: AAAH!
: Crap, the Plasma Drive’s gone over level 6!

: WAAAAH!
: She really can’t control it?
: (Goh, Anna… Prove to us all the strength of the ties that bind you!)
: Get in there, Goh! Show how a big-time hero does things!
: B-But the chances of a successful combination like that are…
: Um… It’s 50%!

: No, it’s not! It’s 200% with the two of us!
: (I-I won’t let this beat me… I’ll master the Goh Okusaer… and surpass her! I… I wanna outshine Mira!)

: Keep at it, Anna! I swear I can handle whatever you dish out! If you’ve got the spirit of a pilot, then fly with all your heart!

: Goh!
: Anna!

: Dannar… ON!
: Revolveeeer… OPEN!

: Godannar! TWIN DRIVE!!
: …Hah…
: They pulled it off!
: Daaamn, their power’s just filling this whole area!
: Must be nice…
: I feel it now… I’m back!
: We’ll take him out with a single punch, Anna!
: Aye, aye!
: HAAAAAH!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMxJTPHh87w

: We did it, Anna! … Hey, Anna?!
: Passed out, huh…?
: Do I zap her?
: No, just let her rest. I’ll keep watch ‘til she comes to.
: … Welcome back, Anna. This is where you belong.
: (Welcome back, Anna… But now your real fight begins…)
: Any Mimetic Beast signals, Yamashita?
: All clear. I think we’re good.
: Good, ‘cause I’m hungry as hell after that. Let’s get back to JUDA.
: We should, yeah. And I guess we’ll have more sushi waiting now that Goh’s wife came back.
: Hahah… Guess I’ll have to wait ‘til later to have Anna’s homemade cooking again. All the better for her to rest, I guess.
: Hold on please.
: What is it, Professor?
: I’ve something important to speak of. Mr. Moritsugu, can you all stop by the Dannar Base?
: Bad news, I presume?
: It’s about some information that just came in. I don’t meant to rain on your parade, but this needs to be spoken of.
: Understood. We’ll head to the Dannar Base right away.

Had we attacked Ken with Goh, they had this convo:

: I’ll be beating you this time, Menage Zero!
: Fool. Fight as many times as you’d like, it won’t change the outcome. You cannot defeat me!
: I’m not the same man I was when I lost back then! Come on!

Anna wakes up at the Dannar Base infirmary and is welcomed by a very relieved Nagisa. Iczer-1 greets her as well and, when she asks, Kouichi explains where they are. Anna, realizing she fainted, wonders if that might’ve angered Goh. Speaking of, Nagisa’s still annoyed that she didn’t say anything about being married and wants to Anna to come clean now that stuff’s calmed down.
Anna, apologizing again, says she WANTED to tell her but also wanted to avoid the fuss that’d obviously come if her schoolmates found out about her marriage and being a pilot. Nagisa figures having an argument that the entire town can hear would make for an even bigger fuss, but hey. Anna asks that she forget that.
Hearing that the big hero from the War of Giants walks around home naked and doesn’t change his socks kind of crushed Kouichi’s idealized CHAMPION OF JUSTICE image, though. “Oh, no, Goh isn’t anywhere near that kind of perfect superman,” Anna laughs. “He can’t do anything without me.” Well, Goh DID say that he was just a pilot before.

Kouichi introduces himself properly to her and apologizes for stealing her spotlight, saving Goh from what surprise attack. On the contrary, Anna thanks him a lot for doing so and Nagisa has a laugh at the flustered kid. Still, Iczer-1 inwardly notes that he’s acting like a fine Champion of Justice now – he’s long-time wish has been granted.
Shinobu runs in, glad to see Anna’s OK. He takes a look around and notices that Goh isn’t here. Just what is he doing? His wife just came back. Iczer-1 explains that he’s been called to the command room by Kiriko.

So, what she wanted to speak to us about relates to Max and Moukaku – Ichitaka and Miu recognize those names as other heroes of the War of Giants. Max, in particular, was presumed KIA in said conflict five years ago, but was recently-ish found in a near-death state INSIDE a Mimetic Beast and brought back to life.
As it turns out, Mira explains, she went through the same thing and had been absorbed into a Mimetic Beast five years ago. That’s the first Ichitaka’s ever heard of that, though Kyo figures making an announcement of these miraculous returns would’ve raised all sorts of inopportune questions. Not to mention that Mira had lost her memories until not too long ago and, even now, her body’s still in bad shape.
In Max’s case, however, as soon as he came back to life, he stole the Core Gunner and went to kidnap Mira (though she doesn’t remember much of the event). And the guy was acting crazy when it all went down, and while Goh figures the guy resented him some, the man he saw then was completely out of control.

Why would he resent Goh, Kenji wonders? Because Max was in love with Mira since forever, but, five years ago, she got together with Goh. Yet he failed to protect her during the war, and Max never forgave him for it.
In the end, Shizuru says they captured Max, his body displaying myriad abnormalities, and tried to figure out what had happened. Kiriko has some bad news, though: both Max and Moukaku have just died. The latter having shown the same physical abnormalities and loss of mental control as Max – it’s pretty clear that their death was caused by the worsening of whatever condition they had.

Mind you, Kagemaru remembers that Shadow, an operative of Silicon Base, also displayed the same symptoms but barely managed to survive. Yet another heroine of the War of Giants, Yamashita sees.
Kenji was thinking that that disease affected those who’d been absorbed by Mimetic Beasts, like Max, but Moukaku and Shadow hadn’t been, right? Indeed, Kiriko will explain and turns on a video: it depicts the so called “Insania Virus”, a RNA virus that infects humans and the Mimetic Beasts are its vectors. Mira’s getting worried.

Next video is of Max, taken just moments before his death. When Shizuna asks, Kiriko confirms it: he got like this because of the Insania Virus. The disease itself is called Rabid Syndrome and it is caused by the thing. Good news is that the Insania Virus is innocuous to nearly everyone, except in some specific cases.
Reiji knows what’s coming: she wants to tell us about said specific cases. Namely, the Virus becomes active when the carrier displays unusually powerful fighting instincts – thus, the Rabid Syndrome occurs. From what they’ve seen, the odds of an infected person are extremely high especially amongst male pilots. Women CAN display the Syndrome but it is very rare – Shadow was a special case in that she took male hormones.
Seems to Yagyuu that the Insania Virus is a biological time bomb the Mimetic Beasts developed to kill their natural predators. And here comes the kicker: as Kiriko said, the virus is transmitted via the beasts and, as such, anyone who’s fought the things could potentially be infected… and we’ve fought them plenty.

Yamashita freaks out: does that mean we could all be infected?! Indeed. Alice protests that she’s regularly checked everyone’s health and no one was displaying any symptoms, but Kiriko explains that the virus hides amid the host’s neurons. Plus, cases of it going active are exceedingly rare, so common exams won’t pick it up.
Meaning Kiriko wants everyone in LOTUS to undergo specific tests to check who’s infected and the chance of the Insania Virus going active. We can’t risk losing anyone else to the thing. Miu’s really scared now, but Kagemaru tells that even if we’re infected, we shouldn’t be at a big risk of it going active. For real? He wouldn’t lie about something this serious – now go get tested.

A nondescript time later, the results are in: while there are some of us who are already infected, we, indeed, aren’t at a risk of it activating… except for Goh. He’s actually very likely to trigger the Rabid Syndrome. See, Goh pilots the same kind of robot as the two people who’ve fallen to the disease and, worse, he’s by far the person who’s come into contact with the most Mimetic Beasts.
Thus, Kiriko has no choice: “Goh, you are to step down as the Godannar’s pilot. That’s a direct order.” Goh flips out, but Kagemaru reminds him of what happened to Max – if he keeps fighting, that’s how he’ll end up as. Are they ordering him to retire as a pilot?! More like they want him to take a vacation – a potentially long one – until we’ve figured out a treatment for the thing.
Goh still isn’t happy, so Reiji has some intel to relay to him: it seems that when Moukaku lost control, he went and started attacking his own allies. Unable to contain him, the Dragliner and Dancouga had to kill him. In other words, Moukaku died at the hands of his own friends.

Kiriko confirms that there was no other way, and Kagemaru raises the point: were Goh to go on a rampage with the Godannar, who would be forced to stop him? Goh easily sees his point. That doesn’t mean he’ll have to part was with LOTUS, mind, as Kiriko has reassigned him as a pilot instructor and tactical advisor for the team. Still important duties, only not in the battlefield.
As for the Godannar, Kiriko’s having Shizuru take over as its pilot – it wouldn’t do to leave the mech stored away. This may only be temporary, but until we’ve a better idea of how to treat Goh, we’ll have to treat this as a proper reassignment.
Shizuru’ll now have to undergo training to learn how to combine with the Okusaers and she promises to work hard such as to not hamper the team. With that done, Kiriko apologizes to Reiji for demanding we come over and relays her regards to Ishigami.
As we leave, Kiriko is worried about the LOTUS folks that stayed in space – specially the Combattler guys. She asks Momoka and Konami to get in touch with any and all countries – including the PLANTs – and help them set up their Insania Virus tests.

Kouichi’s very bummed out over what happened to Goh, and while Yamashita understands how he feels, staying like that won’t help anyone. Still, he can’t stand the sight of the guy getting hung out to dry as if he were some rookie like him. Isn’t there anything we can do?
Izuna says Goh’s been working by himself, wholly focused on his new jobs, so he doesn’t think anyone could get to him, really. The guy’s likely doing that to drown out the bad, and it’s hard for Ichitaka to see him like that.
That’s worsened, even, by the fact that he and Anna had finally managed to reconcile. We now need to be there for him and Tsubaki and Miu tell everyone not to look so down, lest Goh feel responsible for it.

All he has left at the moment is his work, so maybe we can lift his spirits some by working hard to improve ourselves with him. Yamashita makes special note for Kouichi not to screw things up on pilot training and disappoint Goh!
Well, he and Ichitaka figures a tag team of Reiji and Goh training them oughta make for some damn good progress on us – we’ll have both skill and strength covered. We’ll have to strive to keep that positive attitude until a cure’s found, Miu says, and Shizuna is certain it won’t take long for that with JUDA on the case.

Anna’s off in the pilot sim and the seat’s just perfect for her, compared to what the Goh Okusaer had. Well, Shibakusa says she’s still young – give a few years and she might get a butt to rival Shizuru’s. Just give him a holler if the seat starts getting too tight!
Touko and Nanae yank at his ears for talking like that to a married woman, but he swears that he didn’t mean anything like that – kids these days read too much into things. Nagisa shows up as Anna starts training (having some difficulty).

She’s working pretty hard and all signs point at Mira being the cause. From what Nagisa’s heard, the amnesiac Mira’s mind had regressed to an infant-like state and Anna took care of her during that time; she didn’t stop even after finding out that she was Goh’s ex, even.
Problem is, when Mira made a full recover during Anna’s absence, she became her rival in both work and love. The two women don’t seem ready to have an honest talk with one another, and Goh isn’t exactly in a condition to arrange that sort of thing.

Now we’re left with one woman who came back from the dead to find out he ex married someone else, and the other woman who’s developed a complex over the previous one. Complicated stuff.
Speaking off, Anna’s getting trounced by the sim. Shibakusa says he understands that she’s working hard to make up for us losing Goh, but she’s not beating an S-Rank simulation – especially considering how hard it is to handle the Goh Okusaer.

Anna’s not having it, though, saying she’ll only hold us back if she can’t deal with this – she’s got to recover from her absence and get used to her bot in preparation to combine with Shizuru. Again!
Shibakusa sighs and does as told, Touko and Nanae worried over how hard she’s pushing herself. “I’ve never seen Goh look so sad before… I wanna be able to help him. I wanna support him! And, for that, have to get a lot stronger!” she thinks to herself. “Goh… I’ll work hard, and I’ll fight enough for both of us!”

[Mattman324]

Oh Godannar, you silly, silly thing. Fire Soul Break is one of the coolest finishers out there though so I can accept you.

What I can’t accept is the Linebarrels anime bungling things up once more. The other thread brought up part of the issue with the “Kouichi walks in on Emi” scene, but that’s actually missing another facet of the greater scope. See, Ishigami SENT HIM TO DO THAT. In the manga, this ends up providing a lot of character development, and was all according to Ishigami’s plan, because in the manga Ishigami is basically Gendo Ikari stuffed in a blender with Evil Fanfiction Dumbledore and a whole bunch of Actually Being A Good Guy And Doing Good Things after having been given a basically nigh-omnipotent computer to predict the future with that desperately wants to save the world and personally became the devil to do so - JUDA, in the manga, is named after it, and it named itself that after Judas, The Traitor. And in the anime he’s a fucking idiot and spends most of his onscreen time doing really stupid shit that is actively detrimental to saving fucking anyone.

(Also what the anime calls D. Soil was never named in the manga, it was just called nanomachines. Though… honestly that doesn’t bug me so much. It’s still the same shit, they just bothered giving it a name, no problems there.)

I am sad about Mokaku dying like he did in the show though. I’m actually fairly certain he survived K, and considering K has absolutely abysmal rates of “people who don’t join you surviving” that’s amazing. That said, he and all the other foreign teams never join you despite apparently fighting alongside you in some battles (but offscreen), and unlike Z3 they didn’t even bother giving a rational reason as to why the fuck they don’t. I’m also sad about how L handles the mech Lou is piloting right now, but honestly that’s a much more minor issue (and one that existed in K, it just didn’t matter in K) so we’ll get to that when we hit the late 10s and early 20s.

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

Alright, time to close off the Retreat Route. Still a tight race between our top aces, but it won’t really matter as I’ll be keeping the other path (better cash, drops, secrets, etc).

We’ll be having a water-centric mission next, so you’ll want to make sure as many of your guys as possible can be airborne or move properly on water:
Tetsuya/Jun
Ichitaka/Puria
Kouji/Boss
Combattler/Dick
Daiya/Yanma
Zechs/Noin
Ozma/Luca
Klan/Canaria
Voltes/Sayaka

I had Puria tag in with Ichitaka due to her allowing the partner to fly, and while I would’ve given Kouji the Crab Bunker for the underwater movement, I found that I’d rather have Daiya serve as my underwater hunter. The Gaiking moves farther, has better range, and hits harder overall than the Mazinger.
Alto and Michel are deploys as event units.

Let’s get going.

We open up with Luca managing to hook Ichitaka up with a call to JUDA, where he, Rachel and Maki have the same convo as before related to the GreAT Corporation and Grife’s cancelled research. Luca’s personally interested in why the professor cancelled the project if the supplied material wasn’t faulty – it’d be good knowledge, what with his work at L.A.I. Of course, our folks don’t know the answer.
Moreover, they also relay information about Yajima’s untimely death. Ichitaka would really like to speak with Kouichi about that, but we’re already gearing up for our offensive against the Vajra, so there’s no time. He’ll talk with him once he’s back at JUDA.
Once the call ends, Ichitaka tells of how Yajima helped him get over his depression after his parents died. Hearing that the guy’s dead doesn’t even feel real – they were together at school not too long ago. Inwardly, Luca wonders what he’d do if Nanase, Alto or Michel died… which is why he needs to do everything in his power to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Alto’s ran through some exams by the Quarter’s infirmary and Canaria expects him to be 100% in ten days – he didn’t get hurt much in the previous mission (and subsequent fight with Michel). Sheryl left in a hurry before he came over; maybe she didn’t want him to see her in that weakened state.
Canaria also figures Alto has some grievances to vent about Michel, though the guy figures this isn’t the place for it. Alice suggests he’ll feel better getting it all off his chest rather than bottling things up – it’s just the three of them in here and Canaria figures everyone’s entitled to grumble once in a while.
Alto sniffs that he’s not grumbling: he’s angry at Michel for being such a screw-up. The guy’s entire thing is hanging back and blasting stuff and he can’t even be relied on to pull that off?! If all he wants is to make some cash and flirt with women, the he oughta be elsewhere. Why the hell is someone like him working with the SMS?

Canaria says everyone has a reason to being here, and both she and Alice figure that it’s same with Alto; the girl heard how he volunteered to join the SMS, even. Inwardly, he ponders how he didn’t like being an actor, how he wanted to defend the Frontier and fly across the sky – but, still, he’s not here because he enjoys fighting or to escape from his family.
Klan, then, enters the room with Juzo and Ippei in tow, and they can see by his frown that he’s thinking about Michel. And how could he not, when the guy almost got him killed? That’s understandable, indeed, but Ippei asks him to first listen what Klan has to say.
Is she going to tell him about that, Canaria wonders, and Klan asks Alto if he cares for Michel. Does he hate his guts, want him to drop dead, Juzo also asks. Of course not, damn it. Then Klan wants him to listen up.

Michel lost his parents at an early age, so he was mostly raised by his older sister, Jessica – they were very close. Alto figures Klan would know, having been friends with the guy since they were kids. Indeed, and she remembers that Jessica was a great sniper… however, during one mission, she wound up shooting a friendly. Worst, he was her superior officer and lover.
Worse STILL, he’d broken up with her right before said incident, which raised a lot of questions with the army regarding intent. Jessica was court-martialed and, ultimately, killed herself. Ippei and Juzo only now found out that about this, too, though Ippei knew there was something.
So Michel took on her mantle as a sniper and Klan figures he’s still looking for the truth behind that friendly fire incident.

Later on, we’re just about ready to start our operation and Jeffrey’s giving us the rundown: our two objectives here are to destroy the Vajra flock and rescue Ranka. Alto will be leading the charge to bust inside the Knight Vajra the girl’s inside, Michel backing him up.
Durandal and Meer, by the Daiku Maryu, wish us the best of luck and to make sure we all make it through this alive. Kenichi’s sure that the two pilots will bring Ranka back, though Michel has a question for him: “if both Ranka and Earth hung in the balance, you’d pick Earth, wouldn’t you?”
Where’d that come from? Well, Michel’s heard that, in the past, when the Boazanians took his father hostage, he and the rest of the Voltes team were willing to let him die in order to protect Earth. Kenichi says they were backed against a wall there, which is why they had to make such a horrible choice.
“But you’ll have all of us right there with you. So you and Alto think only of saving Ranka, and let us handle everything else,” he says. “Right – because we’re a team… friends, even,” Megumi adds. Michel’s still looking a bit uneasy, though.

Ichitaka can see that he still hasn’t patched things up with Alto, and Alice confirms to Luca that the guy’s been told what happened. Ichitaka doesn’t know what’s up and Alice tells him to get Michel’s permission first. She won’t gossip about private matters! Well, he’s not about to pry but it’s tough to see the two guys like that.
Dick, however, thinks things are going to get very amusing. Daiya and Puria don’t appreciate that, especially considering how he attacked them way back when, but he says that’s not what he was getting at – he’s not getting a kick out of our issues. Regardless, Dick worrying won’t amount to anything.

Zechs asks if Ozma’s got no issue with this set-up and, indeed, he understands that having an unstable sniper and an attacker that doesn’t trust the guy watching his back wouldn’t really fly. That said, it seems to him that said attacker had a bit of a change of heart. Did Zechs not notice the glimmer in Alto’s eyes, Noin wonders.
Apparently not, and Zechs sees he isn’t leader material.

Somewhere hidden, G’s in a call with Mishima who’s not too happy that they’ve openly used a Dimension Eater – something L.A.I. was developing – on Earth’s surface and, if that wasn’t enough, in close proximity to one of the PLANTs bases. Still, the bugs’ network is now up and running, and surely Mishima understands the significance of that.
He does, though he wanted more time. Thanks to their shenanigans, Prof. Kentarou has started questioning if someone’s leaking their technology. G argues that they only had a limited window of opportunity when Ranka’s Fold Waves reached the necessary level and the boundaries could be brought down. Mind you, that whole battle wasn’t part of the plan.
Furthermore, G says they’ll soon begin preparations to bring the Galaxy over, so he won’t need to worry about anything when it happens. Isn’t it best to speed things along, presidential hopeful Leon Mishima?

Fine, Mishima says they’ll proceed to the next step of the plan as soon as Ranka’s back at the Frontier. They ARE interested in seeing to her safe return, right? Yes, though G’s group still isn’t sure how important the girl is – he figures they’ll confirm if she is or isn’t the “Little Queen” with this next battle.
Well, Mishima’s had his eye on her – the survivor – for some time, and would rather not waste the effort. They’ll try not to disappoint him.

As the call ends, G gets in touch with Brera, who says he’ll be arriving at the target area soon. Then he’s to carry out his initial mission accordingly. In the meantime, G’ll get ready to return to the Frontier.
Regardless of what happens, the plan should proceed apace.

Mission 10 (Retreat Route) – At the Tip of the Muzzle

And we’ve managed to catch up to the Vajra flock. Alto can still hear Ranka’s song, though it’s coming from behind this batch. In that case, Lulu orders everyone to thin out the Vajra numbers and clear a path ahead.
As Ozma tells everyone to watch not just our backs but that of our teammates, Alto gets a private call from Sheryl. She’s still a bit woozy, but has a request for him: “promise me that you won’t die, that you’ll come back safe.”
Alto promises, and to bring Ranka in tow as well. Forward!

Kill everything, don’t lose a ship, Alto or Michel. As I mentioned above, the main issue with this mission that that there’s a lot of water. Barring Kouji, most of our guys can fly just fine but the issue is that the Big Vajra groups have both one that’s flying and one that’s grounded. The grounded one will be underwater, meaning those’ll be so much harder to take out.
That’ll be Daiya and Yanma’s primary job this mission: going from one Big Vajra group to the next and hunting the underwater target. They can easily oneshot with their cheap attacks the things if they focus-fire.

Everyone goes forward.

Enemy Phase!

Ditto.

Player Phase!

As always, Ozma’ll be leading the charge with his command aura.

: Alto’ll be going in real soon, Ranka… Please be safe!

–

: The Vajra show a lot of difference between one another… Is this how they each evolved or…?

We’ll deal with these soon.

The Big Vajras all moved on land but Daiya’ll already start going after his assigned targets.

: Even after all the times I’ve fought these things, I still can’t handle how freaky they look. The Demonic Beasts are way nicer!

Yup, he and Yanma can oneshot just fine and that’s what they’ll be doing.

But we can have our other folks help out with these right now. Zechs and Klan have also tagged a few Big Vajras.

: I need you to keep a close eye on those things, Alice. Can you do it?!
: Yes. My AI has been developing its combat functions nicely; I should have no problems overall!

Puria takes it.

Following up on Zechs and Noin.

: Ranka’s life’ll be in even more damage if we waste time. Let’s hurry through this, Kenichi!
: And since we got size on our side, we oughta go straight for the big guys!
: You got it! These Vajra’ll get an ample taste of the Voltes’ power!

Bam.

Next!

: I need to break through these Vajra first! Die!!

”If survival comes down to us or you, then I…!”
And that’s a double kill.

And Kouji’ll like need a bit of time to reach the front lines after this, so let’s have him help out now.

: Hah, Mimetic Beasts, Vajra, it’s always the same ol’ thing. Let’s wrap this up quick!

Just shy but Tetsuya takes it.

And one more.

: We’re not getting Ranka out of there if we don’t give this 100%, Hyouma.
: And she’s been inside that Vajra for too long already. We’re running against the clock here!
: Got it, got it. We’ll keep our future superstar safe from these evil crickets!

Again, fell just shy of a kill.

Enemy Phase!

Aaand I moved my ships a bit too close… thought my Supers being up front would’ve goaded the AI, but nope! Lulu gets some bad rolls, too, so no kills.
The second wave of Vajra is drawing in.

Player Phase!

She does get payback, though. Jeffrey takes a little one.

Get in there, Michel.

: …I’m a sniper. I’ll at least carry out my job to the letter…!

Ozma and Luca, Ichitaka and Puria, Klan and Kouji each take a kill from the weakened buggers.

Only reason I didn’t send Daiya to oneshot that submerged Vajra is because I don’t want him hogging the other nearby mooks.
Either way, Kenichi and Hyouma clear out the remains of the first wave and that triggers the plot.

Alto’s noticing that Michel still isn’t doing too hot, though the guy says he’s just trying not to get in the way. Alto doesn’t wanna fight again, does he? No time for that as Cathy pings another flock of Vajra entering the area.
It’s the main batch and our folks tag the Vajra where Ranka’s being held. It’s Alto’s turn to get in there and, as usual, Ozma threatens him with Hell should anything happen to Ranka. Not that he needed any incentive to see this through.
Out there, Ranka’s calling out for his help.

Like in mission two, we need to get Alto adjacent to the target Knight – wrecking it is also a game over.

So we take a few steps forward.

Enemy Phase!

Tetsuya and Jun get jumped by a Big Vajra, though we can afford enough EN to Thunder Break it to death.

: Hrk?!
: (What’s going on…? Why am I hurting inside…?)

I’m sure it’s nothing. We keep weakening stuff and Ichitaka oneshots another little Vajra.

: Aargh! I-It hurts…!
: (Why? Why do we fight…?)

Oh, no, you didn’t.

Boosh. And Lulu also takes a kill.

Player Phase!

As Daiya and Yanma go fishing, Kouji and Tetsuya pop a couple of the weak Vajras to get their Mazin Power running.

Let’s skip forward a bit here since we need to get through this wave before having the way clear to Ranka.
One thing to note…

The Knights have a MAPW!

But they chose their targets poorly. The things have a decent bunch of HP but fall quickly against concentrated fire – especially if you bust out combined attacks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtw8zx2cqsA
Like Daiya and Lulu’s!
I confess to be a bit disappointed at this one compared to Sanshiro’s masterful “pick up the damn ship and smash it against the enemy!”

One turn later, Alto moves in. Make sure to cast Focus just in case your guys are lagging behind.

: In position! Hold on, Ranka – I’m coming!

: No, you aren’t…!
: What?!

: Where the hell did he come from…?! Michel, back me up! I can’t move in with this guy hounding me!
: …

Targeting… while Brera literally flies circles around Alto.

: Kch… He’s too fast…!
: It’s the Unknown from the reports…! Its reactions are too good for the unit to be a drone, but the way it’s moving is…
: Impossible for any human to withstand. Regardless of training, those insane movements would quickly make anyone faint. It’s likely the pilot’s…
: Are you gonna say he’s a cyborg or something?!
: You’re gonna have a hard time trying to take him head-on, Alto!
: I know that, Hyouma…!
: You listening, Michel? I’ll lure him into your scope!
: Don’t! It’s too risky!
: Are you scared you’ll miss? “Always hits a bulls-eye”, isn’t that how it is with you? And I heard that was the case with your sister, too!
: …?!
: Did Klan–? Urgh, that huge gossip…!

: What?! Damn it, get off me!
: Can’t believe you fell for it twice… but you’re not getting away this time!
: Tch…!

: Alto!
: Structural integrity of Alto’s unit down 50%!
: Urk… This red Valkyrie, I swear…!
: Shoot, Michel! Surpass your sister!
: Shoot…!
: Shoot… Shoot, Michel! SHOOT!
: … Hrm…!

: Wha—?!

: Alright, and now…!

: Rrgh… I won’t—

Beep!

: You’re too damaged to continue with your mission. Retreat and make preparations for the next phase.
: …Roger that…

: Just who’s that guy…?
: Concentrate on the Vajra, guys. Carry on with your offensive!

Rinse and repeat everything we’d been doing. Ignore Ranka’s Knight, have Daiya hunt whatever’s underwater and kill, kill, kill.

And one turn after Alto’s gone in…

: Where is she…? Why’s nothing ever simple…?!
: SHAAAAAAA!
: Hrk! Screw these Vajra!

Machine gun fire! Boom!

: !!

Dead.

: How many of them are there…?! Ranka! RANKAA!!

Elsewhere…

: Huh… I can see them all fighting…?

[quote]: Hrk! Screw these Vajra!

Machine gun fire! Boom!

: !!

Dead.[/quote]

: Sniffles No… This is so sad… Stop it… Please, stop this…
: We wish to convey…
: Huh…?
: To all of you…

: ?! This song… I understand… I’ll pour what I feel into my music… like I’ve always done…
: Aimo, Aimo…♪

: I hear music…! This way!

BOOM!

: RANKA!
: Alto?! Is that really you?!
: Ranka…!
: SHAAAAA!
: You goddamn monsters…! You locked her up in this weird bubble?!
: STOP!!
: Eat this!!

Bang!

:!!
: Ugh… aah…!

: Alto!
: Is Ranka safe?!
: She is, yeah! All thanks to you guys!
: Brother… everyone…!
: Aalrighty, then! Now we can stop holding back and wreck the rest of the Vajra!
: Yeah, let’s bring the whole curtain down on this group!
: Huh… What are they…? Captain, the Vajra seem to be confused for some reason.
: Confused…?
: Captain!
: That’s just the opportunity we need. Troops, muster whatever strength you still have and destroy the whole flock!

Go forward and kiiiiiiiiiiiill! :black101:

: A-Alto…
: Keep quiet for a bit, Ranka! This’ll be over soon and then I’ll set you down, so hold on ‘til then!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boyFsO-JahU
And here’s Kouji and Tetsuya’s Double Burning Fire with the dynamic finish!

That’s all the Vajra gone and Ranka’s confirmed safe – a thorough success even from a humanitarian POV, Durandal says. Even Ozma lets out a few tears of joy as he thanks us all.
Seems to Hiyoshi that even the big bad man can get choked up a few times, though Kenichi points out that the kid’s eyes are looking a bit red to. N-No way – he’s a MAN, so he’ll hang tough! And if Ozma was a manly man, he’d do the same! Them’s fighting words and Ozma figures he now has free rein to go to town on the Voltes Team during training.
Alice herself notes that Alto and Michel seem to have sorted out their differences today, so we just took care of two birds with one stone. Klan agrees, very glad that things turned out as well as they did.

And, with that, Lulu calls everyone back to the ships. Alto finally gets to ease up after all the nonstop hardships and asks if Ranka was scared in there. The girl’s crying too badly to answer, though he says the battle’s over - everything’s fine now.
“No… you’re wrong…” she sobs inwardly. “I don’t… I don’t understand… Why…?”

Michel still doesn’t know what was going through his sister’s mind when she pulled the trigger back then, and Luca and Alto quickly catch up to him. Alto praises his shot and invites him to go elsewhere – staying in the hangar 24/7 won’t help anyone relax after a big mission.
This is actually the first time he openly calls the guy Michel instead of Mikhail, and Luca’s happy with their progress. Alto prods the kid to quit grinning and move or they’ll leave him behind.
Michel, meanwhile, ponders that while he doesn’t know what his sister was thinking, he might figure it out someday.

And, some time later, we have a surprise waiting at the Quarter’s briefing room: Brera! Ozma wants the guy to explain what’s going on, but he is sticking to what he’s already said: he’s Lt. Brera Stern of the Macross Galaxy’s Antares Squadron. He’ll be accompanying the Quarter for a bit, and that is all he’s at liberty to divulge.
We’re to take the pilot of that red Valkyrie aboard? Ichitaka doesn’t think so, but Jeffrey says his affiliation checks out and the powers that be deemed he wasn’t a threat. Yeah, right, and we’re supposed to just forgive and forget all the times he messed with Alto? Hyouma at least wants the guy to apologize for all that… but he just keeps quiet. Is he not at liberty to apologize, maybe?!
Alto moves in, wondering what all the yelling is about, and Hyouma grunts at Brera coming aboard the Quarter like he owns the place. Hearing his voice, Alto’s immediately knows him to be the pilot of the problem red Valkyrie.

Regardless, that’s the way it is. More importantly, Jeffrey says we now have to conduct a few simple exams throughout the entire team after our battle with the Vajra (same ones Alto previously complained about having to undergo nonstop while hunting the things in space). If the Quarter’s facilities are deemed not up to the task, we’ll have to do it at the Frontier.
Kouji now sees the issue with fighting the buggers, but Luca said it needs to be done as we always run the risk of picking up a hitherto unknown disease. Boss sighs that he should’ve thought to slap some anti-bacterial coating on the Borot, though that strikes Kouji as the least of his bot’s problems.
Tetsuya tells them to zip it and hustle over to Canaria’s infirmary.

And everyone seems to be doing A-OK, much to Kenichi’s relief as we can’t well get taken out by stuff like disease. Hyouma’s just about to call it a day when Franken, Daiya calls him Franklin, the Daiku Maryu’s doctor, says he wants the Battle Team to take a different exam as well.
Said exam is for the Mimetic Beasts’ Insania Virus, what with the Combattler team having been helping the Dannar Team for a while, and we get the same rundown as the other path regarding the Rabid Syndrome and whatnot.
Of note is that Durandal saw fit to accompany Franklin to the Quarter as he figured his knowledge as a geneticist would be useful in regards to said RNA Virus (he replaces Kiriko as the expert here, really). If anything, his demeanor shows Zechs that this is a serious matter.

At length, everyone is doing just fine, with practically no chance of triggering the Rabid Syndrome, and Noin relates the information about Goh’s much higher risks. We’ll get more details once we’re back at JUDA.
Seems to Ichitaka like stuff on the other side was just as bad as this one.

Now, the Quarter is just about to reach Japan and this’ll be where Durandal and Meer need to part ways – that said, they’ll give Sheryl and Ranka a lift to the Frontier. Jeffrey wishes them safe travels, but Durandal figures they’ll be fine: Japan has, as you might expect, a history of opposition against any and all nuclear strikes, so they’re very sympathetic to the PLANTs.
Plus, Durandal also has someone he’d wanted to meet so this seemed like a good opportunity to do just that.

Ichitaka’s disappointed that Sheryl and Ranka are leaving, but they can’t well hang around now that both the movie shoot and anti-war concert have been dealt with. At the very least Alice is happy to see that Sheryl’s looking much better.
Well, she couldn’t stay bedridden forever and while her original plan was to get back to work tomorrow, it seems the Frontier government has ordered her quarantined to take a few exams. Guess she’ll be bedridden for a bit more once she gets back there.
Ranka’s also received the same order, though Alto figures it stands to reason they’d want to run some thorough scans face her abduction by the Vajra. Ranka sighs and Luca tries consoling that, while it’ll be boring for a bit, she’ll be able to get back to her normal life without any worries if the tests show nothing.

Luca would know, even, as Kenichi points out he’s the experienced one here in terms of Vajra abduction (feels odd for Ranka to have him be her senpai in this matter). Whichever the case, Daiya wants Ranka and Sheryl to get plenty of rest to put on a live concert for the whole crew next time.
Sheryl ponders she’ll have to make that happen before the Frontier figures out how to get back to its original world, then. She’ll get us begging her not to leave (Ichitaka’s just about at that point already, mind, but he’s not telling)!

As for Brera, it seems the reason the guy came over was because the Frontier Government assigned him as a bodyguard to the singers, so he’ll be leaving with them. Hyouma still doesn’t trust the guy one bit and Sheryl admits that she doesn’t really know what’s up with him.
Oh, and before she leaves, Sheryl tells Alto to keep that earring safe – if he loses it, she’ll make him pay big time. Ranka’s quietly taken aback by this tidbit of information, though Alto says he’ll take good care of it. Only reason they could rescue Ranka was because of the thing!
Their shuttle’s just about ready to depart and a flustered Ranka rushes out to get her luggage in. It’s about Sheryl’s time to get going, too, as she figures she’s kind of overstayed her welcome, but Kouji’s looking forward to seeing her in the Frontier. Alto just asks her to take it easy up there – she’ll try.

When she goes, Ichitaka immediately realizes he forgot to get her autograph – so much for his chance at showing off to his schoolmates. While info on the Frontier’s still heavily regulated, Sheryl’ll likely be getting famous due to the movie. Only a matter of time before she’s THE singer on Earth as well.
Jun isn’t as certain as Ichitaka, however, as Ranka’s star seems to be on the rise due to the stuff that happened with that same movie, her kidnapping and subsequent rescue. Megumi presumes the press will be all over her and the girl’s office is apparently looking to market her as the “Superdimensional Cinderella”. All in all, it won’t be easy sailing for Sheryl.
Hell, and that’s saying nothing of Lacus, with her legions of fans, and Eida, who, despite losing some popularity due to recently cancelling a few shows, still has a lot of passionate fans of her own. There are plenty of rivals in the pop singer market. One way or another, Megumi at least hopes Sheryl’ll make a full recovery.

Durandal, Meer, Sheryl and Ranka have made it to Tokyo, though it’ll only be tomorrow that their shuttle’s leaving for the PLANTs. Thus, he’s seen fit to rent them all rooms at a first class hotel for the evening. Sheryl doesn’t mind, though Ranka’s a bit in awe at the fancy place.
In the meantime, Durandal needs to take off to make good on an arrangement – the girls can go and have dinner without waiting for him.

By the coast…

: (What a dreary landscape… Over a decade has passed, yet the scars of the Second Impact do not fully disappear…)
: (Actually, no… it would have been nigh impossible to even restore this once dead ocean without their… without the technology from the other world. It’s for that reason that we’re all alive.)
: You’ve arrived a bit sooner than expected, Chairman Durandal.
: I’ve come alone. Consider it a gesture of good faith on my part.
: Good. This way, please.

[Mattman324]

While Sanshiro’s combo was pretty amazing, I have to give credit where it’s due, since I haven’t hit the point in the original where that combo happened so I don’t know what the context was - the scene in Gaiking LoDM was amazing. The Daiku Maryu crew spent the entire day at an abandoned amusement park that happened to be somewhere in Darius because ?, Rosa (the glasses girl who’s the DM’s subpilot/vice captain) spent the entire time taking notes on the loops of the roller coasters and those giant “put everyone at the edge of a giant circle and spin really fast in the air” things, and then they used that data to turn the Volution Mode - previously designed as pure defensive - into a giant, whirling, energy coated death wheel (see also the @2 Gaiking/DM combo).

And then that got tested because Vestaanu, one of the enemy generals, decided to ram the fucking thing. And then Rosa named the fucking thing “Spinning Coaster Attack” on the spot, and Daiya went “FUCK MAN GOTTA GET ME SOME OF THAT SHIT” and used the Zector Hook to hammer throw a mook into the battleship while naming his version “Big Wheel Coaster Swing”. It was pretty fucking amazing, as things in LoDM were wont to be.

(As an aside, for the real fun combos, do the Superior Stinger/Daiku Maryu ones. Those are just fucking silly.)

And hey, look at that, we’re done with this route split finally! Now everyone’s together, and we can take the focus away from Macross, SEED Destiny, and Linebarrel for… a little bit. Unfortunately I think Iczer also gets the short stick here (L kind of gives that to the Iczers in general unfortunately). On the plus side, next stage is a new series introduction… albeit one that was handled a little poorly, as I think its sort of filler altogether and would have preferred a different series, but oh well.

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

And we are back, having finally joined our two big halves into one overwhelming force of destruction (except those ZAFT nerds, but whatever). Since I kept the Rescue Route, we have a very tight race for first place: Ichitaka’s magnetism kept him just one kill ahead of Kenji and (I’ll never get used to this) Quatre, who are tied.

All of my money went straight to upgrading the Frontier folks (who came in empty – only Alto got a pip in weapons). Meanwhile, Daiya got his promised EN save, while Alto chugged three of the Gunfights I’ve been saving since he’s our first major range-oriented protag.
Kouichi, meanwhile, took one of my Predicts to, majorly, boost his Accuracy (though dodging a bit more reliably is always nice).

And coming back from a route split begets the age-old tradition of rebuilding a big chunk of your squads. At the very least it doesn’t take nearly as long as it did in Z1 or the Alphas:
Jeeg/Kyo
Ichitaka/Miu
Reiji/Quatre
Iczer-1/Puria
Kouji/Yagyuu
Tetsuya/Canaria
Ozma/Luca
Alto/Michel
Zechs/Noin
Daiya/Yanma
Shizuru/Anna
Dick/Klan
Combattler/Deceive
Voltes/Mira
Yamashita/Tetsuya Kouji

I can’t believe it actually took me this wrong to realize what a waste it was to leave Canaria hanging out with Klan – she’s a perfect fit for Tetsuya. Then again, I WAS just setting whatever in anticipation to having to redraw stuff when we got back together.
Kouji still needs flight, so it’d be either Puria or Yagyuu and the former’s mobility bonus would’ve kinda been wasted on him. If the stars align, we’ll see the Mazinger pop a Double Image!
And I figured, since we have plenty of room, that Dick and Klan can work well enough to hold a squad of their own.

On we go.

The Quarter and Daiku Maryu have just arrived at JUDA, Ishigami bidding them a warm welcome. Jeffrey had already heard plenty about the man and even Garis mentioned the prez to be a very capable man.
They do him much honor, though there’s a lot of intel to be exchanged regarding the status quo abroad. Cathy warns that we need to decide what to do carefully, lest it turn the entire world against us; Jeffrey also agrees, remembering that the SMS was placed in LOTUS as a way to minimize the UN’s distrust towards the Frontier. If we make the wrong move, it’ll only mean trouble for the fleet (and the PLANTs, even).
Ishigami concurs, though he is appalled that people would fight one another with all that’s going on. People are so very shortsighted. But, regardless, Yui has just established a line to the ships’ databases, so they’ll start their meeting.

And, as usual, we get to hear about whatever happened in the path we didn’t take. Considering we saw it all, I’ll skip most of it but I can point out particularly amusing bits. Mind, at the end of it all, Emi comes in after Daiya – Naoto is here looking for him. Expected, considering Daiya didn’t have time to talk to him before rushing to space.

• Noin’s already gotten assigned as another instructor to our rookies, and Ichitaka’s very taken with the beautiful soldier. Though he quickly stops himself, remembering the hell a beauty like Yagyuu puts him through in training – Noin might work him just as hard if he gets too uppity!

• Michel’s still calling Alto “princess” and the guy’s still very much triggered by it. Getting over the friendly fire incident didn’t immediately make them best friends, you see. Michel, meanwhile, is a lot more interested in Shizuna – that’s a cute hairpin she’s got. He’s “feeling a bit woozy” after the sight of her, so maybe she could lend him a shoulder ‘til the infirmary? Yeah, right – that ain’t happening. And it’s not a hairpin, but this stupid necktie Kouichi gave her… is he her boyfriend? NO! Shizuna stomps off, and Michel figures his teasing went too far.

• While Daiya’s talking about the situation in the Darius World, Kenji saunters over and wants to see Lulu. Still meeting with Ishigami, which is a major bummer and he’d been looking forward to seeing the beautiful captain. Daiya doesn’t know what Kenji has in mind, but explains that the girl’s about his age. Well, crap – nobody corrected him, so he’d always assumed she was a real bombshell with a fine bod. Daiya suggests he check with Shizuka for that “fine bod” business.

Daiya quickly apologizes to his friend, who came over to JUDA right after some NEX folks said he’d returned. Still, he wants to hear all about Daiya’s trip to space. Well, getting to see their blue world from up there was something else, that’s for sure.
And since he’s here, Daiya figures Naoto could also tag along while he gives everyone a tour of the Daiku Maryu. He doesn’t see any harm in it, so the kid’s very up for it.

Ichitaka and Kouichi are blown away that they get to be in THE Daiku Maryu – high five! Becoming CHAMPIONS OF JUSTICE was the best thing ever. As Shizuna sighs at the two fanboys, Daiya tells them to keep some of that enthusiasm for the rest of the tour since this is just the hangar! There’s still the kitchen, the bridge, Sakon and Lulu’s rooms and more.
Dick suggests we skip Sakon’s place as, science-obsessed as he is, the guy can’t be bothered with anything else. The room’s a dump, really, and Daiya figures Sakon could potentially starve himself to death if the rest of the crew didn’t keep an eye on him.
Nagisa dashes in right then, running uncharacteristically late after waiting to see if Iczer-1 and Anna would tag along (they couldn’t). Michel immediately does a double take at the sight of her – Nagisa? Alto figures he’s trying out one of his playboy routines on a LOTUS girl: “Seriously, what would the Nyan-Nyan waitress be doing… looks at Nagisa… here?”

Daijiro couldn’t tell them apart, that’s for sure, and the girl’s getting a bit uneasy over the people staring at her. Michel apologizes and asks if she could tell them her name - she does, though immediately warns him not to get any funny ideas. She’s not giving him her phone number!
Still, it’s clear that Nagisa Kanou isn’t the Nagisa Kasumi they know – not that Kenichi expected otherwise – but, even so, they look tremendously alike. “It doesn’t seem like we’re dealing with a ‘Highly Probable Being’,” Emi ponders to herself.

Still, everyone’s here now, so Daiya calls them to keep going… or, he would, if Shizuka didn’t walk up to ask him to help carrying some Zolmanium.
But he’s gotta show the others around! If he’s got that much free time on his hands, then it’s all the more reason why he should help with this. Rosa offers to take over the tour while he gets to work – she offers a quick apology to us, but says things are rather hectic with the resupply operations going on.

Elsewhere, Naoto’s managed to get himself lost aboard the ship. He soon runs into Yanma’s crew, who tag him as the kid Daiya always spoke so much about. And if he needs a guide, they’ll do it! Naoto doesn’t get a chance to say anything.
Cut to a bit later, Yanma explains that they’re always at Puria’s beck and call, what with her being the “older sister” around here, and they’ve always wanted a new baby brother of their own. So, Haccho commands, Naoto is to address them all as “bro”! Whuh? Ayup, starting right this instant, Naoto is now part of their trio! … But how can it be a trio if there’d be four of them? What, that’s not right? What should they call it, then? Buby has no idea.

Hey, they’ve been walking around for a while now and Daiya’s group is still nowhere in sight. Which is why they are GUIDING him, Haccho protests. Before Naoto grows a hernia, Sakon walks over and says Rosa was looking for the kid over thattaway.
The kid thanks him and tells his bros that they’ll have to conclude their own tour another time – he runs off. Buby’s surprised he really called them his “bros”. He’s a good kid, Sakon assesses, which is why the three men should do their best not to mess with him much.

And Naoto can’t find his way, reaching a dead end. He does hear some voices nearby, though, so maybe they can help. And he finds Alice having a talk with Rongo – seems like something’s wrong with him, and she’s rather appalled Franklin didn’t notice it.
Rongo says the guy isn’t at fault, since the Daiku Maryu doesn’t give everyone check-ups every day; to say nothing of the fact that he deliberately avoided going to the doc. Still, his injury is quite grave (back when the ship first came to this world)…
But Rongo says he’s the ONLY one who can turn the Daiku Maryu’s rudder. If he’s bedridden, the ship’ll be grounded and he presumes Alice, a subpilot, knows where he’s coming from. She does, but being in charge of the team’s health care makes looking the other way quite difficult for her.
Naoto walks in right then, and Rongo immediately pulls him closer and asks him not to tell anyone what he heard. Consider this a promise between men, as Rongo can’t stop right now.

And now we jump straight to Neo Tokyo 3, where the PA’s declaring a state of emergency – all phone lines are down. Seems to Shinji that this meeting isn’t happening, wondering what his dad could be thinking by calling him over this suddenly.
He turns around, thinking he’d seen a girl nearby – there’s no one. Never mind that, though, as the entire area starts shaking. An earthquake?!

: Don’t let the Angel take another step! Stop it, whatever it takes!
: Yes, sir! Engaging!

: We’ve a confirmed hit!
: …
: No, we don’t! It didn’t do anything!

Pweeeoop!

Sachiel keeps moving eastward.

: WAAAH!!

: Sorry I’m late! Get in the car! (Misato)
: Huh?!
: Hurry!

Misato starts driving away.

: Keep firing! We can’t let him through!

: …
: Why the hell is nothing working?! The Armas’ weapons can’t do anything against that thing?!

: D-Damn you… my men…! You’re not getting away with this! I, Igarashi Shinobu, will end you if it’s the last thing I do…!

Beep, beep!

: That’s enough, Igarashi. Pull back immediately – we’re deploying an N² mine.
: What?! But then the town’ll—
: The civilians have already evacuated due to the state of emergency. Your group is all that remains.
: C-Copy that!

: An N² mine?! They’re using something like that?!
: The SDF is desperate, trying to save face. You need to evac that area right now! (Makoto)
: Understood. Hold on, Shinji!

: What’s it look like, Igarashi? How’s the Angel?
: It took that N² mine right on the chin. No way it—
: …
: What the… hell?!
: What’s going on, Igarashi?!
: …Target remains. We’ve some damage confirmed, but it’s only a matter of time ‘till it recovers…!
: I-It can’t be…!

By NERV HQ…

: Urgh, our ace in the hole was… Damn that monstrosity!
: Not wholly unexpected for a conventional piece of weaponry. Still, a N² mine only barely managed to immobilize the 4th Angel… Its regenerative abilities are enormous. (Fuyutsuki)
: They are self-sufficient, near-perfect life forms. It shouldn’t come as a surprise. (Gendou)
: The ones who consumed the Fruit of Life…
: Hm. And they’d destroy us, the ones who consumed the Fruit of Knowledge.
: This is hardly the moment for the SDF to be butting heads with us. It’s a disaster out there.
: …
: Commander, we’ve an urgent message from the government!
: What do they want?
: They’ve transferred control of this operation to Gendou Ikari, commander of NERV!
: Whaat?!
: …

: NERV?
: Right. We’ve a private paramilitary organization operating under the UN’s supervision.
: And my dad works here, right?
: Hmhmm. Do you know what he does?
: All I heard was that it’s something important – something that keeps mankind safe.
: (“Keeps mankind safe”… So dad is kind of like Kouichi, when he protected me? …No, I doubt it…)
: Are we going to see him?
: We are, yes. I’m taking you to NERV HQ, our hidden base.

: Well, this operation is now in your hands. Show me what you can do.
: Roger that.
: None of our weapons did any lasting damage against the target, Ikari. Do you seriously think you stand a better chance of winning?
: Winning this is precisely what NERV is for.
: Hmph…
: … Fuyutsuki, take care of things here.
: A family reunion, three years later?
: Hm…

Ishigami’s a bit worried if mankind can beat an enemy that shrugged off an N² mine, but Lady Une says we MUST beat it or it’ll be the end of everything: “And I’d wager it was for that reason why our predecessors actively studied the parallel world’s tech,” she adds.
Victory or bust is the name of the game, and with command of the operation transferred to NERV, Une wants us to move to help ASAP.

Back at NERV, Shinji figures his dad will want him to do something – he wouldn’t have sent that letter if there wasn’t anything. Misato sees that the boy’s got some issues with his father, same as her, really. As the elevator door opens, an annoyed Ritsuko Akagi is waiting: they’re twelve minutes late and time’s running short.
As Misato apologizes, Ritsuko introduces herself to Shinji as the head of Project E’s first science division, and beckons them both to follow.

: There’s something I want to show you, Shinji.

: A-Ah!
: Our “Ultimate All-Purpose Humanoid Decisive Weapon”… The Evangelion Unit #01, an artificial human created by man.
: It is the humanity’s ultimate weapon.
: Is my dad also involved with this?
: I am.
: !!
: It’s been a while.
: Dad…
: Hm… Deploy it.
: “Deploy”? But the #00 is still on lockdown… Wait, you’re not talking about the #01, are you?
: We’re out of options. And Shinji?
: Yes?
: You’ll be piloting it.
: Huh…?
: …
: Dad… why did you call me here?
: That should be obvious.
: You’re telling me to use this to fight that thing I saw?
: I am.
: No, I’m not doing it! Why do you even care after all this time? I thought you didn’t want anything to do with me!
: I called you precisely because now you’re needed.
: And why do you need me?
: Because no one else can do this.
: … I can’t do it either. How do you expect me to pilot something I’ve never seen or heard of before?!
: We’ll tell you how.
: But… No, no way! I’m not a pilot – I can’t do this!
: You need to get aboard right now. If you won’t pilot… then leave!

BOOM!

: It’s found us.
: Shinji, we’re out of time.
: Get in…!
: No… I know I came all the way here… But I just can’t do any of this!
: And why did you come here, Shinji? You can’t run away now - not from your father… and, most of all, not from yourself.
: I know that! But you’re asking the impossible!
: …Fuyutsuki, call Rei.
: Can we use her for this?
: She’s not dead yet.
: … Very well.

Call ends.

: Rei…

Beep!

: Yes?
: We can’t go with the spare. You’ll be deploying once more.
: Yes, sir…

Beep.

: Switch the #01’s core unit with the L-00 type and reboot it!
: Roger that. Cancelling current operation; preparing to reboot. (Maya)
: (I knew it… No one actually needs me…)

Door opens.

: Hrgh…! Haah, haah…
: (Huh, someone’s hurt? A girl? Why is she…)

BOOM… and Rei drops to the ground.

: Aargh!
: Are you alright?!
: Haah… urgh…
: (She’s bleeding…! Are… are they actually having her pilot that thing… because I won’t?!)
: (I… I can’t run away. I can’t run away. I can’t run away. I can’t run away…!)
: Okay, fine! I’ll do it! I’ll pilot!

: Flooding Entry Plug. Establishing second contact, linking interface… No abnormalities in the A10 neural connection. Charging LCL – everything is nominal.
: Fixate all thought configurations around Japanese. Primary contact is also nominal.
: Opening communications channel. Checklist: all clear up to #1405. Synaptic synchronization rate: 41.3%.
: Without even a plug suit? Very impressive.
: All harmonics are looking nominal. No abnormalities.
: Then we are ready!
: Prepare to launch!!

Mission 11 – Prelude to Battle

I normally don’t care all that much for this BGM, but this arrangement is pretty decent!

: … Do we proceed, commander?
: Of course. There’ll be no future for any of us if the Angel isn’t destroyed.
: Are you sure about this, Ikari?
: Hm…
: Everything ready, Shinji?
: Yes!
: Final safety device, release! Evangelion #01, lift off!

: Shinji, try and focus on walking for the moment.
: (Walk…)

The #01 takes a step forward.

: (Walk…!)

Again… and Sachiel moves straight for him!

: The Angel’s closing in on the #01!
: Aah—!

: Uwaaaah!!
: Calm down, Shinji!
: How are the EVA’s defense systems?
: Unresponsive!
: The Field isn’t deploying!
: It’s not working?!
: Shinji!

Beep!

: We’ve various signals on high speed approach to the battle zone!

: That’s… LOTUS!
: What now, Ikari?
: Let them do as they want… We’ve to verify the distortion.
: Is it true, Reiji? Is Shinji really piloting that Evangelion thing?!
: It hasn’t been confirmed yet, but it is very likely.

Beep!

: That’s… We’re being hailed by NERV!
: Put them through!
: This is Misato Katsuragi of NERV’s operational division speaking. Please respond, LOTUS.
: Captain Lulu of the Daiku Maryu. We’ve already been briefed on the situation: how superficial attacks won’t hurt the Angel, how it can regenerate itself… and how it must be defeated, lest it trigger the Third Impact and destroy all of mankind.
: (Ishigami’s told them, I see…)
: That’s correct. We’ve deployed our Evangelion #01 to fight, but it’s the pilot’s first battle, so he’s having difficulties. So I propose that we all engage the target in tandem - please assist us, LOTUS!
: Our mission is to maintain peace in the Earth Sphere, so I see no reason to refuse.
: Alright, then we’re good! Shinji, we’ve some friendlies here to back you up! Work with them and destroy the Angel!
: Doesn’t that mean that I don’t need to fight anymore, then…?
: No, an Angel can only be beaten by an EVA. It won’t go down otherwise.
: You chose to do this, no? Then keep with it ‘til the end.
: …Alright…
: (He’s always looking to others for direction… I guess that’s fruit of the environment he was left in.)
: That enormous monster is called an Angel, yes? The mere sight of it tells how strange a being it is.
: All Angels have a powerful barrier called A.T. Field, so we can’t let this battle drag on or it’ll wear us down. Engage it with caution!
: Pshaw! If we’re dealing with a barrier, that calls for my Mach Drills! I’ll handle the timing, Kyo, Tsubaki!
: Hold on… This isn’t the same as the Dai Kaengu from before. Be very careful, Kenji.
: (I can feel something close to a magical barrier, but the fundament behind it is clearly different… What is that A.T. Field…?)
: Sorry, Naoto, we had to drag you along into this.
: Don’t worry about it. This is a big deal for humanity, right? Makes sense you had to scramble in a hurry.
: Shinji, I’m coming to bail you out! That’s how I’ll atone for the mess I did!
: I’ve got your back, Kouichi!
: Keep an eye on the Plasma Drive level, Anna. I know having to match each other’s pace isn’t easy, but we’ll have to make do.
: Aye, aye! I’ll work twice as hard to cover for Goh!
: …
: (I… I have to do this. I can’t… run away…!)

Destroy everything, don’t lose a ship, Shinji or Kouichi; not too difficult, though Sachiel’s a pretty tough costumer. Don’t try to engage him right now as your guys haven’t the morale for it – instead, send everyone northward. Shinji, meanwhile, should just hold the line and defend.

Evangelion Unit #01 (Shinji Ikari)
Pilot Skills:
Sync Rate – increases accuracy, evasion and A.T. Field strength the higher it gets.
Sword Cut
Shoot Down
Prevail L2
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L2
Attack Combo L1
Spirit Commands:
Alert
Strike
Mech Features:
Sword
Gun
A.T. Field – blocks all damage under 3000, increased by sync rate
Umbilical Cable – If connected to a ship or a special type of building, recovers all EN at the start of a turn, but can only move up to 10 squares away from where it’s connected. If unconnected, the unit will lose 1/3 of its total EN per turn, with it being treated as shot down if EN reaches 0.
Berserk
Squad Bonus: Mobility +5, Accuracy +5, Land terrain rating = A

The EVA-01’s pretty dang good, as you might expect. Not so much right now, but it’ll get there as the game goes on. The Umbilical Cable might seem limiting, but it’s still a full EN recharge, we’ve pretty bulky ships around and 10 squares is plenty of distance; the A.T. Field itself always makes the EVA a nightmare for mooks, though you can only reach its traditional 4000 damage block if your sync rate is over 96% (baseline is 3000 at 50%, 3100 at 51-55%, increasing by 100 every extra 5%).
Do note, however, that all weapons used by an EVA or Angels will outright bypass A.T. Fields, so don’t rely on it when facing the guys. Finally, while this isn’t important now, remember that the EVA-01 has a B rank in space, so you’ll absolutely want to pair him up with someone that fixes that.
As for that Berserk skill… suffice to say that you really don’t want the EVA-01 getting shot down.

Small tangent: the Sync Rate itself works kind of like the Factor skill, in that it starts at a set value on deployment and changes as the battle goes on. The deployment value’s calculated by the formula % = pilot baseline + (lvl/10). Shinji’s baseline is 50.
You get +1% for every shot that hits an enemy or every attack you dodge/block with A.T. Field, +2% for shooting an enemy down, -1% for taking damage and -2% for missing.
Finally, the Sync Rate’s effect on your accuracy and evasion works on the formula % = (sync rate – 20)/4. That is to say, if your rate dips under 20%, your numbers will actually go down, so watch it.

Sachiel, the Fourth Angel
”Mech” Features:
A.T. Field (Strong) – blocks any damage below 4000
30% HP and EN regen

No surprises, really; just a hard-hitting, big blob of HP with a barrier that all but requires your folks to have decent morale to pop it. Its range goes up to 1-6, so you’ll want to keep your distance a bit to draw it over to you.
Shinji absolutely can’t take this thing on by himself, and with it being capable of bypassing his A.T. Field, you’ll want to keep a very close eye on him. At the very least Sachiel follows the standard AI guidelines and will focus on the beefiest unit nearby, so Shinji’ll stop being a priority once we get close.

So let’s poke the bear a bit while the rest of our crew moves upwards.

: Take a look, Shinji! I’m a real CHAMPION OF JUSTICE now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD3FzBDzxAY

: No damage! Something like a physical wall blocked the attack!
: Anything we can do, Kyo?!
: I believe the barrier has a fixed limit to what it can block. If we can generate a greater force than that, we should be able to pierce it.
: The EVA’s also capable of neutralizing the A.T. Field too.
: Misato!
: Shush, the situation’s too bad for you to rant about keeping secrets. That might be important, sure, but letting the Third Impact happen would be a lot worse.
: Psyche yourselves up, people! Break through the Angel’s barrier and drop him straight into the afterlife!
: You got it, Goh!

Enemy Phase!

Lot of damage on a defending ship, but it beats the thing tearing Shinji a new one.

Player Phase!

: AHA! I’ve found you, Jeeg!
: The Jama Kingdom! You starting up trouble outside of Kyushu again…?!
: You may have beaten Ikima and Mimashi, but your fun ends here! Now that I, Amaso, have taken to the field, you…
: Err… What in blazes are you fighting?
: An Angel, and we’re real busy with it, so we ain’t got time to play with you!
: Silence! Her Majesty would be livid if I returned empty-handed!
: (Especially since I went out without her permission…)
: Urgh, if you care that much, then get over here! I’ll make this quick!

And here’s our delivery of morale! Now we just ignore Sachiel, clear things out, and then converge back on it.

Even with little upgrades, the Valkyries are still VERY hard to hit – especially inside Ozma’s command aura.

Daiya and Kenichi take these. Hyouma and Shizuna wrap up the nearby Ozma’s targets.

Right nearby, after Reiji starts it off, Iczer-1’s team takes a pair.

The annoying thing is that the Boya Kaengus have juuust enough HP to avoid being oneshotted by our weaker attacks.
Kenji and Kouichi take these.

Enemy Phase!

You cheeky sumbitch – she was almost outside your range!

While Hyouma and Shizuna each take, respectively, two and one kills, Reiji gets harassed by Amaso and random goons.

At least the one goes down. Nearby, Kouichi takes a Boya Kaengu, while Tetsuya and Canaria tear up two whole squads.

Player Phase!

Alright, she’s outside of Sachiel’s range. Remind me prioritize giving Lulu some levels because she’s a great supporter – come level 24, she’ll learn Bless and that’ll be REALLY nice (I’m not using Sayaka, so only Quatre has it right now).

Dead.

You’d think Shizuru being the main pilot would result in the Godannar get locked out some of its attacks, but you’d be wrong. The thing still has all of its attacks!

: Our overall force can’t be dragged down because of me… I’ve to do this right, not just for myself, but for Goh! I’m the official pilot right now!

And it still hurts a lot.

The Boya Kaengus are thinning out, so Ozma and co lead the offensive against the Haniwas next. They all go down in two decent hits, so it doesn’t take long at all to clear this out – only watch out for Sachiel’s big hits and Amaso’s Dai Kaengu sapping away your SP.
With that in mind, let’s speed things up a little.

: Jeez! You brought out a ton of Haniwa Phantoms with you, huh?
: Victory will be mine, whatever the cost! And then I’ll be richly rewarded!
: The hell do I care about your reward? We’re not going down for bunk like that!

If you wanna have Shinji go long, you’re gonna have to unplug the EVA. Just make sure you’ve a ship nearby to plug him back in before the third turn (move him adjacent to it, and select the Connect command).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwvOc3Y2a9U

With pretty much everything dead, we move our sights to Amaso.

: Their leader must be very confident in himself to stand at the brow of his own warship…!
: That might be a trick. Keep an eye out, Kenichi!

: Curses, this isn’t good… Then I’ll at least use all this chaos to sink the Daiku Maryu! Go, Boya Kaengus!

: Captain, the Jama Kingdom’s engaging us at close range!
: No, it’s a kamikaze attack! Evade and counterattack, Rongo!
: U-Ur…gh…!

: AAH!!
: What happened, Rongo?! You evaded far too slowly!
: Hmm, it’s sturdier than I expected. But what if we went straight for your damaged bits now?!

: The Daiku Maryu’s at risk! Airborne teams engage and destroy the enemy attack pods!
: While our bigger units focus on immobilizing the Angel!
: Daiku Maryu, full speed retreat!
: A-Aye, aye…
: Rongo…?

Door opens.

: Rongo! … Listen, he’s hurt too badly to do this!
: What?!
: Rongo’s…?!
: B-Boy…!
: Was it after our arrival at the surface…? Let me see it!

: It’s pretty bad…!

: Destroy Platoon, cover the Daiku Maryu!

: WAAHAHAHA! Nice try, but you missed one!
: The Boya Kaengu’s Suicide Run! Now that story sounds like a blast!

The mook starts moving in.

: LULU!
: …Urk!

: The rudder… it moved! I could move it…!
: Naoto… you…
: Rongo…
: Boy… When you’ve got your hands around that rudder, you’re the Daiku Maryu itself! Take this… And get your Flame burning red hot!
: O-Okay!
: Rongo, are you alright?!
: Yeah… I’m hanging by. It’s not me flying the Daiku Maryu around, though – that’s that Naoto kid!
: Naoto?! You can’t! This is too dangerous for you!
: Sorry, but I’ve already made up my mind. I broke my promise to Rongo, so this is the least I can do…!

: Troops, support the Daiku Maryu and eradicate the remaining enemy!
: (That boy’s about my age and even he’s trying so hard… I… I have to do something…!)

: Jeeg! Today is the day I’ll destroy you and take your Bronze Bell!
: Goddamn, shut up! If I got a coin every time you guys said that, I’d be a millionaire by now!

–

: The Big Shooter! Jeeg’s power’ll be cut in half if you’re gone!
: But you won’t have your way that easy. I’ll be keeping both the Earth and the Bronze Bell from your clutches!

: Listen here, you! If we don’t take out that Angel, all of Earth’ll go down the drain, so quit bugging us!
: Will that mean the annihilation of humans? Then I do not care! Even if you survive through this, we’d simply kill you all!

–

: You ready, girls? Let’s get in there and turn his guts into Swiss cheese!
: Yeah!
: Roger that, Captain!
: Bring in as many of you mosquitos as you’d like, you’re not grounding me! GWAHAHAHA!

: I got a big score to settle over what your buddy did at Misaki. You’re not him, but I’m not picky – come get your due!
: I like your guts, kid. And I’ll like it even more after I’ve squished it to mush!

: How’s your analysis going, Alice?
: This is the same model of ship we fought before, with some minimal discrepancies.
: I see no problems at all with us engaging via the same tactics!
: You think I’m the same as those two? Well, don’t! You’re about to get an eyeful of just how glorious I am!

: This guy, I swear… He couldn’t have picked a worse time to start this!
: I must destroy Jeeg this time or Her Majesty’s going to be so angry with me!
: Oof, poor guy… Guess it’s not easy being a mid-level worker even in good ol’ Evil Corp!
: Hrrrrm! I haven’t sunk so low that I need to be pitied by the enemy!

: Bring us straight to starboard! If the rudder starts pushing, you push it right back the opposite way!
: A-Aye, aye!
: We are in your hands, Naoto!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqSBU9GsJ78
Considering what I said about having to get Lulu up some levels, I’ll be having her take Amaso out. Might as well show off hers and Puria’s combined attack while at it!

Aaay, a bigger command aura! Rosa also learns Spirit.

Other folks did have lines for Amaso, mind:

: I’ve never seen you before. Let’s have a little game, you and me!
: Shinji, you don’t need to fight anything but the Angels.
: I know, but I can’t just ignore them either…!

–

: Too bad, guy – I’m an old hand at getting in ships’ faces. You’re going down!
: Gaah, blast this noisy fly…! I’m going to stomp you into paste!

: Mimashi told me about you! Said you were as weak as you’re tiny!
: But not anymore… So long as I’ve Nagisa by my side, I will not be beaten!

Amaso’s pretty mad at himself for this screw-up, though not as much as Himika. Deploying with a bunch of Boya Kaengus and Haniwas without her say-so is a major offense. Himika orders him to return NOW – he’s to be punished with extreme prejudice.
Amaso stammers for a bit, before complying; inwardly, though, he hopes he can get her to kick him some. Regardless, that’s him off our hair.

: I-Incredible… They pierced the A.T. Field!
: Shows that it wasn’t luck that’s helped them defend Earth all this time…
: …

Iczer-1 solo:

: It’ll be very difficult to defeat this one without the Iczer Robo… Nagisa, prepare to deploy.
: Got it. Be careful out there, Iczer-1!

Iczer Robo:

: This planet is home to so much life, and I will not see it destroyed! Even if it costs me my life, we will prevail!
: Let’s go, Iczer-1! I’m sure we can beat that thing together!

: This isn’t like the Vajra, but… is it another living weapon?

: Take this guy out, or the world ends… I’ve no idea what’s going on, but I’m not gonna let this freak run amuck!

: So what you got a barrier! That thing’s gonna be cracked open like a walnut when I’m done!

: My guess is that red ball’s its weak spot. And while I dunno if we can pop its barrier, we’ve got nothing to lose taking a swing there!
: I feel the same! Let’s go and make this Decisive Battle a brief one!

Ichitaka: “Time to give Shinji a hand with his mission!”

: First I get it to start walking…! Then… attack…!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQxEbdPRckM

: Ken!
: I know. We’ll pour our energy all in one spot and tear down its barrier!

: Hyouma, I can’t even begin to analyze this one!
: Tch, so this is an Angel…? I think we’re strong enough to take him, but it’s still gonna be a tough cookie…!

: This monster’s got a totally different aura to it than the Demonic and Iron Beasts… What… What am I feeling…?
: … No, I can’t let it get to me! My flame’s telling me to take it out right now!

: S-Say what?! It’s regenning everything!
: We really need to destroy the core or the Angel’ll just keep going…!
: Shinji, target the core. You are the only one who can both neutralize the A.T. Field and attack at the same time.
: But that’s…! You’re asking me to do what everyone in LOTUS couldn’t…?!
: Hold your horses! I’ll handle this!
: This stupid kid…
: There he goes again…
: Shinji, that’s you in there, right?
: Huh… Kouichi?! What’re you doing here?!
: Eeh… a bunch of stuff happened, you know. But that’s not important. Listen, when you were getting transferred, I totally ignored you, right? Do you think you could forgive me for that?
: Ah…
: I’ll go and find a way through this for you. Then you won’t need to do any of this scary business. That OK with you, NERV?
: B-But that’s—
: No… I’ll do it…
: Shinji, you…
: I am scared… and I don’t really understand what’s going on. But my dad… he said that…!
: YAAAAH!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOOnVpmheWY
They made it a special animation!

: Shinji!!
: Life support has gone critical!
: Report!
: The sync graph has reversed, pulse is flowing backwards!
: Cut the connection!
: We can’t! It’s rejecting our signal!
: What about Shinji?!
: No response on the monitors – status unknown!
: The #01’s gone silent! (Shigeru)
: Misato?!
: It’s over… Abort the mission! Prioritize the pilot’s safety! Force-eject the Entry Plug!
: Also not working! Nothing’s responding to our commands!
: What did you say?!

: UWOOOOOOO!!
: He’s alright?!
: The EVA’s reactivating… but that should be impossible!
: Oh, no…
: It’s gone berserk…?!
: UWOOOOOOO!!
: … Victory is ours.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVuysznzwF0

: Angel… confirmed destroyed…
: Wh-What the hell… He just wrecked the thing…!
: The way it’s moving… it’s like a wild animal…
: (Evangelion… Seems it still holds plenty of secrets.)
: The EVA-01 has ceased all activity!
: Recover it and rescue the pilot immediately!

: Radar and sensors are clear. That’s the end of that.
: Angels, huh… We got briefed so fast, I’ve about a truckload of stuff I don’t get about those.
: Not just them. The sudden transformation that Evangelion went through… an actual Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
: We’ve plenty of questions that need answering now, that’s for sure.

Beep!

: Then how about we go and get you some answers for those?
: Do we head towards NERV, then?
: You don’t mind, do you, commander?
: … It’s fine. LtCol. Katsuragi, I leave this matter in your hands.
: Yes, sir.
: You know they’ll be less than happy if you bring them into the Geofront, Ikari.
: No matter. They’ll have no cause for complaints if there aren’t any major deviations from the script.

: I don’t know this ceiling… Where am I? When did I get on this bed…?

Door opens!

: Oh, you’re up!
: Huh…
: Whew, that God… For a sec there I thought we had another one go in a coma.
: K-Kouichi… Ichitaka… What are you two doing here?
: “What”, he asks… Didn’t we fight together not too long ago? Or did you forget?
: Ah… you’re right… I was piloting the EVA.
: Fate is a very strange thing, indeed. I sure didn’t expect that two of your friends were with LOTUS.
: I was just as surprised when I found out about it all.
: And… there was that Angel…! What happened to it?
: Um, you kicked its ass? What, you don’t remember that too?
: I don’t, no… I passed out before I even knew what was going on…
: (Passed out? It couldn’t have been some system controlling the pilot, right…?)
: Well, if you can’t remember, that’s probably for the best. Having memories of the time you went crazy is the sort of stuff that haunts you forever – trust me.
: We’re still investigating why the EVA acted on its own after you lost consciousness. That being said, before it all went down, you were fighting very well for someone with no prior experience.
: …
: Hm? What’s up?
: … I remember something. When the Angel attacked me, I thought I’d died… I don’t want to go through anything like that again.
: Shinji…
: (Of course he’s scared… we got him aboard the EVA and straight into live combat without really explaining the situation… But we’ll still need him to fight what’s to come…)
: Think you can stand up, Shinji?
: Huh? Y-Yeah…
: Then come with me and your friends for a bit, please.

The SEELE fellas aren’t really differentiated from each other here, so I can’t tell you who is speaking…

: The 4th Angel attacked and was eliminated, the Third Child has been acquired and the EVA-01 was rolled out… LOTUS’ activities and their influence over the Third aside, things are mostly proceeding according to plan.
: Though the tremendous cost of repairing the #01 was beyond our expectations.
: A rather small concern when faced with the suspended Unit #00.
: Slight imperfections are acceptable if it’ll be ready to engage the 5th Angel when it emerges.
: You needn’t worry. Now that the #01 has been assigned to active duty, the #02 and its assigned pilot are undergoing tests in Germany.
: Make sure that the construction of the #03 and the others also proceed as planned.
: It is your mission to see that NERV and the EVAs are put to proper use. We hope you will not disappoint.
: Indeed. Eliminating the Angels is but a single part of our covenant with Lilith.
: The Human Instrumentality Project… Our ultimate goal is to see it brought to fruition.
: Understood. May everything proceed in accordance to SEELE’s script…

: “Mostly according to plan”, indeed.
: The general outline is still the same, but there is a 13th variable not depicted in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
: So a deft touch is required. What do you have in mind?
: I’ll be assigning the EVA-01 to LOTUS. I find it unlikely that their actions will align with SEELE’s will in any way.
: More so than the Alliance or the old OZ, certainly. But what about the schedule?
: It does not matter. The script may have been devised from the information sent to us, but it is being distorted. If we cannot confirm the reason why, then…

: What do you think? It’s a pretty nice view, no?
: It is.
: That’s our town, Neo Tokyo 3. And you kept it safe.
: I… kept it safe…?
: You did, Shinji. This beautiful landscape is only here because you fought for it.
: But even if I wasn’t around, LOTUS was still here, no? I’m sure you would’ve figured out a way to win eventually…
: Still, it is what it is. Your memories might still be a bit fuzzy, but it was you who beat the Angel.
: And you bailed me out there, too. If you hadn’t stopped me, I reckon I would’ve had a real bad time.
: So thanks, Shinji.
: Huh…?
: Please, Shinji. Help us and keep this town safe… keep the entire world safe, even. The EVA needs you.

Back to Gendou’s office, Fuyutsuki’s explained to Lady Une that while the Evangelions were said to have been made to fight the Darius, they were actually to fight the Angels all along. The Darius appearance, around the time of the Second Impact, made for a good excuse for all the cash being moved around.
Une wonders if this was actual reason why the old UN supported the development of the Dancouga and the mass-fielding of Armas, but Fuyutsuki figures at least that Igor Concern – or, better put, F.S. himself – doesn’t share this objective. As proof, Gendou points out that the Dancouga was nowhere to be seen in the battle with the Angel.

But we don’t have the full picture of all that’s going on, mind. With the Katou Organization having already been active by the time the Second Impact hit, the reconstruction that followed it resulted in technology from “the other side” spreading across the entire world.
As a result, we saw the development of various new weapons: far more durable and powerful MSs, the Dancouga and its mission to prolong conflicts, etc. All of that’s very much in accordance to Logos’ desires, Gendou says, but there are likely other forces at work behind all that – forces we haven’t been able to ID.

Une’s a bit surprised that the guy knows about Logos, but lets it be and asks them to explain what the Angels are. Furthermore, why are they assigning the EVA-01 to LOTUS? Gendou says that the Angels need to be defeated or there’ll be no future for anyone – it’s all there in the report he gave her.
As for her second question, the eradication of the Angels is NERV’s mission and they’ve all seen that LOTUS is capable of standing up to the things. Assigning it to work with us simply seemed like the best way to increase their odds of success.

”But don’t you think the suspended EVA-00 alone won’t be enough to defend NERV HQ?” Une asks. Gendou stops short for a split second – is she aware of Dogma and its secret? She knows only a few things, after an independent investigation of the Preventers.
Then she should understand that there’s more to this than what she sees, and Gendou says he’s only doing what he deems best face it all. He sees no problems with sending out the #01, and, plus, he’ll also be assigning the #00 to us after it’s reactivated.
Of course, Une’s a bit iffy with taking the bot after it went ballistic. She wants to make sure that the #01 can be worked with, and Ritsuko’s on hand to help with that. While the events of the last battle are still under investigation by NERV, she explains that there’s always a non-zero risk of the Evangelion running berserk due to its inherent characteristics.

But if it puts such a heavy burden on the pilot that he can snap and lose control, couldn’t they have made the EVA a drone mech like a Mobile Doll, Lady Une wonders. Unfortunately, Gendou explains, someone needs to be aboard for the EVA to generate its A.T. Field, which is in itself necessary to neutralize the Angels’ and allow engagements up close.
Ritsuko also adds that since we don’t know what kind of abilities any Angel might hold, the A.T. Field is the bare minimum defense the EVA has against them. Une sees that it all comes down to NERV’s mission to defeat the Angels. Fine, she accepts the EVA-01 and Gendou’s son into the team.
As the call ends, Fuyutsuki’s amazed by the Preventers’ intel-gathering capabilities. Or maybe there’s a mole in NERV? Still, Gendou knows she’s not an enemy, so it matters not what she does. Plus, he already imagines it’s “him” who’s feeding her intel.

Aaay, welcome to the job, Shinji and Misato (Ishigami’s got poppers, even)! Kouichi’s so very happy to have his buddy back, Shinji explaining to Shizuna how they went to the same school.
Of course, Naoto’s also being celebrated today as the 48th crewmember of the Daiku Maryu – he’ll be taking over as the ship’s pilot until Rongo’s back to full. The kid’s stammering a whole lot, annoying Puria. Say it like a man! HE’LL BE WORKING AS THE DAIKU MARYU’S HELMSMAN! GOOD TO BE HERE! Better. Daiya’s a bit sad his friend ended up getting dragged into this, but is also glad to have him on board.
Ozma’s watching on as we add more kids to the team, and Zechs suggests that he could always train them to alleviate his concerns. Ozma’s figures it wouldn’t do for a newcomer like him to try and drill the others, but Alice says he needn’t worry about standing on ceremony with this group.

Case in point, Misato’s happily introducing “her baby” to everyone. Shinji’s still a bit shy, but Kouji tells him to come on over – Quatre figures we’ll all be great friends. Naoto himself is already a fan, amazed at how much ass Shinji kicked in the last fight – Shinji’s his role model now (that alone gets a smile out the kid).
Shizuru herself likes the new additions – Shinji and Naoto are so cute, it’d make anyone want to protect them. Did she give up on the older men of the team, Shizuka quips? The age gap might be a problem, mind. No, she didn’t mean it like that.
Regardless, Shizuka didn’t come here to have a laugh; she just wanted to check up on Shizuru, what with her having to learn how to work the Godannar, training Anna and whatnot. What, who does she think she’s talking to? This is nothing to Shizuru!

Now, with how big LOTUS has been getting, Ishigami thought there’d be a lot of people around who wouldn’t know each other. So, he had an idea for something of an icebreaker: we’ll have a biiig welcome party, and, as a little game, everyone’ll showcase their secret talents!
The whole event’s tonight, with Yui helping set it all up. Alice doesn’t quite know how to make sense of the weird turn things took, and Ichitaka wonders if he could go with some card or magic tricks…

Turns out JUDA’s got a whole shopping center within the building as a way to allow company employees to find whatever they might need without having to go all the way into town, Miu and Yamashita explain. And Ichitaka sees that they’ve got stores of pretty much everything, from regular groceries to luxury items.
That makes this the perfect place for folks to find stuff with which to showcase their skills:

• Rachel’s looking for some makeup and silver shoes;

• Juzo wonders if he and Michel should buy some BB guns to show off, but that idea’s a no-go. Something they showcase every day wouldn’t be a SECRET talent, right?

• ”Hey, Alto,” Puria pokes him, “don’t ya think this Miniskirt Cop costume would look real good on ya?” NO WAY IN HELL! He’s not wearing that!

• So, Shizuna needs a spangled suit, a bowtie and a paper fan… Is she gearing up for a Manzai show, Naoto asks? Gaah, how’d he know?! Boss says it’s not that hard to guess with what she’s buying. “Rrrgh, crap! Now I’m gonna have to think of something else! Come on, Izuna!” she stomps off, but Izuna has a question: isn’t their Manzai routine pretty much the only thing they have to show?

• Megumi’s found a few shurikens to use, so now she just needs something to throw them at. Yagyuu herself has her lightning-fast iai strike, but what can she cut? Maybe a carpet?

• Kouichi thinks everyone’s taking this WAY too seriously, but Yamashita and Rachel say no! How’s he going to make it out there with that wishy-washy attitude?! W-Well, what’s Yamashita doing, then? That’s classified info, though he already has everything he needs. Kouichi might have a way out, though, as Emi approaches: could he help with her presentation?

: Okay, let’s kick off our welcome party for the newcomers to our LOTUS family! And I’d like to begin with a toast to everyone’s health and LOTUS success… Cheers!
: Cheers!
: Chug, chug, chug… Haaaah! Whoo! Now this is living!
: M-Misato…
: Now how about we start with our talent show?
: Guess I’ll go first, then! I can recite all the stations in the Tokaido railway by heart! Tokyo, Shinbashi, Shinagawa, Kawasaki…
: All the stations prior to the Second Impact…? It takes quite the expert to pick that.
: We’re up next! Let’s rock!
: OK! Hello, there! I’m Izuna!
: And I’m Shizuna! We’re twins, but we don’t really go outta our way to look so much alike, see…
: Still, every day someone comes over asking “Are you the boy? Is Izuna the girl?”
: Yep, yep.
: I guess it’s ‘cause I’m loudmouthed, always frowning and walking all awkward-like… No wonder folks think I’m a guy…
: Yep, yep.
: You’re not supposed to agree with me, stupid! Flying Drop Kiiiick!

*Bash!

: Ooow…!
: Daaaah! Jumping! Piledriver!

Craaash!

: Gaack!
: Wh-What are they doing…?
: I think they decided to mix up Manzai with wrestling for something of a comedy brawl?
: Well, it’s something only someone with a Factor’s healing abilities could do…
: Carrying on, we’ve Rachel Calvin versus Kosuke Kita! The genius girl versus the brilliant boy!
: I’m winning this one, Kosuke!
: I say the same!
: We’ll be asking questions from the grad school world championship quizzes of the past ten years. First question: who is known for the discovery of superc—
: Heike Kamerlingh Onnes!
: Correct! Second question: what diagram plots the absolute magnitude of sta—
: The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram!
: Correct!
: Not bad, Kosuke.
: You, too. But this competition’s just getting started!
: They’re not even listening to the whole question before answering…
: I’ve the sinking feeling they’ve memorized all questions ever given in those tests.
: What the Christ…
: Let’s keep going with sweet Emi Kizaki’s magic show! And assisting her will be our very promising rookie, Kouichi Hayase!

: Good luck, Emi, Kouichi!
: Yup, leave it to me!
: Good evening, everyone! For my trick today, I’ll be sawing Kouichi in half!

: Ooh, the old sawed body trick…? Impressive!
: When did she get her hands on a prop that big…?
: No! As you can see, I am not using any props at all!

: W-Wait a sec, Emi! Aren’t you really gonna cut me in half if you go with that?!
: Don’t worry. I saw this show on TV and, much to my surprise, the severed body was as good as new when they put the box back together.
: N-No, that was a trick! Emi, stop!
: Dang, Kouichi’s really selling it!
: I’m not acting! SOMEONE HELP MEEEEEE!!

Some time later…

: How’re things, Shinji? You settling in with the whole LOTUS ambiance?
: I am, yes. Everyone’s looking like they’re enjoying themselves, too…
: Though I was a bit surprised that you guys have parties like this.
: You thought we were messing with you?
: … Kind of…
: Listen, our work here doesn’t really allow for any screw-ups. We’re expected to succeed, and if we don’t, the whole world’ll give us crap for it…
: Most folks would probably say this isn’t worth the hassle. But, still, no one else could pull it off – only we can.
: … I’m quoting Mr. Ishigami here, but I think it shows what we are, and why breaks like this are needed.
: Here you are, Shinji. Having fun?
: Ah— I am.
: Hmm, yes, you’re sounding a lot more relaxed. Come on, then! Let’s go party, party, paaartyyy!
: Guess you gotta, Shinji. I’ll see you around.
: (Misato… and LOTUS… They’re actually good people…)
: (Ok, maybe I went a bit too crazy there… Still, a big party like this is totally where people’d get like that. Y’know, being transparent and all.)

Off they go.

: Now that I think about it… I don’t see Reiji anywhere. Where is he?
: What’s up, Yamashita?
: Wah! … Oh, it’s you, Alto. Don’t sneak up on people like that. (Alto and Reiji have the same VA)
: I wasn’t sneaking – you weren’t paying attention. If it was Reiji—
: Do you need something, Yamashita?
: Ah, Reiji! Where have you been? We got this whole party going on, and you ditch us like that?
: We’ve just received a message from Kiriyama Heavy Industries - an invitation for the unraveling of their newest prototype.
: Kiriyama…? It’s a new Arma, then?
: … I think so. The CEO, Eiji Kiriyama, was very vocal of how it’d “change the course of history”.
: Aah?
: I should go and report this to Mr. Ishigami. Try not to take things too far tonight.
: Y-Yes, sir!
: (… If Eiji’s on the move, then…)

[Mattman324]

And the paywall’s up on SA, so…

While Godannar does have all of its attacks, they’re also all on markdown. There’s a decided drop in power while Shizuru’s the main pilot, so watch out for that (though not enough to make it a bad unit.)

Custom death animations are not entirely rare in this game, and 01’s is only somewhat special by that metric. It would pave the way to UX’s fifty billion of those, though.

Oh, and I almost forgot - the part in the Linebarrel anime where they SAWED KOUICHI IN HALF. For fucking comedy, right?! Because that’s goddamn funny, right? And before you ask, yes, he actually got fucking ripped in half by a chainsaw (fortunately offscreen, but it very much happened) and the show treated it like it was humorous.

(EDIT: The show also had Shizuru literally break his dick at one point, IIRC when they first met. Physical slapstick has its place, but there’s a whole load of violence out of nowhere in the anime, and it’s all aimed at one character at that. And it’s clearly causing them pain. The anime in general has issues with its tone, not helped by having humorous jokey chapters within seconds of serious non-joke chapters that were originally kept seperate, but that is another of the reasons why.)