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

[Brunom1]

[details=Click to see the mission!]

We’re back, and our top aces aren’t looking too different: Ichitaka’s got a small lead, though Kenji and Quatre and trailing right behind.

On the upgrades’ side of things, I’m still playing catch-up with the SMS crew. At the very least the main units now have a pip in their weapons.

For squads, all the Linebarrel mechs and the EVA-01 are event deployments, so we shift a couple thing around. Ichitaka and Quatre team up, while Tetsuya Kouji gets stuck with Jun (it seemed appropriate). Everything else is the same:
Jeeg/Kyo
Ichitaka/Quatre
Iczer-1/Puria
Kouji/Yagyuu
Tetsuya/Canaria
Ozma/Luca
Alto/Michel
Zechs/Noin
Daiya/Yanma
Shizuru/Anna
Dick/Klan
Combattler/Deceive
Voltes/Mira
Tetsuya Kouji/Jun

Off we go.

We open up in the Quarter, where Alice just checked Sheryl’s old room and found it so very dusty. Michel says they haven’t really had time to clean up since the girl left, but Alice isn’t having it: this must be cleaned!
The maid side of her AI’s flaring up, Quatre sees, and she wants to get started straight away. And, no, she needs no assistance! Well, alright, but Michel asks that she let us know if Sheryl forgot anything around here.
“OK! Now, let’s see… Disorderliness level, confirmed. Room, IDed… Engaging!” Alice proclaims and gets to work. Seems to Michel and Quatre that all the combat exposure is having an effect on her maid AI.

Later, by the dorms, Ichitaka’s running for his and Kouichi’s first return to school in a while. As the two rush out, Quatre will also be tagging along – not only did the paperwork for his “transfer” not get processed yet, Emi’ll also be attending the Misaki Middle School now. So, he’ll be following as her bodyguard.
It’ll be her first time going to school in this world, but Quatre’s certain she just needs to do as she did when getting together with LOTUS and she’ll get along with everyone quick. Shinji, however, won’t be coming with; he’s already moved to another school and, more importantly, he’ll be undergoing pilot training today. On that subject, Misato comes over to pick him up.

With him gone, Rachel confesses to be a bit worried about Shinji: while no one expects folks be 100% adapted to this from the get-go, something still seems off with him. Like he keeps this wall around himself.
Her train of thought’s interrupted when Alice arrives – she’s finished, and is so happy that she got to do some real cleaning after so long. That said, she DID find something in Sheryl’s room and is looking for Michel to hand it over. He’s likely at JUDA’s mall, Rachel figures, since he mentioned going shopping with the SMS crew.

And, indeed, they’ve just finished, though Ippei grumbles it would’ve been way faster if Megumi didn’t insist on browsing around some fancy stores. She was just looking, though, so shush: they still wrapped things up in time. And Klan suggests he accept the fact that some girls like window-shopping.
Michel has a laugh at Ippei getting schooled by her, though shifts his sights to Alto: what’s he doing on his phone? Just some pre-briefing stuff. Hmhmm… and here Michel was, so sure that he was trying to get in touch with Ranka.
Alto grunts that the girl’s too busy with her work to be easily reached on her cell. Why not send her an e-mail or something, then? Or would the content be too risqué? Something he wouldn’t want the army’s censors to see?

As Alto denies it loudly, Alice finally catches up to them. She has something she wants to give Michel (hint, hint). Klan’s mind immediately runs wild, and she demands an explanation – what exactly would he be “taking” of Alice’s?!
Calm down; it’s just about her cleaning the Quarter’s rooms. Klan breathes a sigh of relief, and hurries out along with Alto and the others. Now, Alice found something that she figured belongs to either Sheryl or Grace: a medicine capsule. Luca had told them that the girl was taking some meds, though the brand, “Witch Craft”, isn’t anything Michel’s seen at the Frontier.
From Alice’s professional opinion, the med looks rather strong to be commonplace stuff – maybe it’s a Macross Galaxy brand? Michel takes it and will see if he can’t run an analysis to see what it is. Alice appreciates it as, while it may be strange for an android to say this, she has a bad feeling about it.

: Stealth disengaged. We finally have a lead on them.
: Yeah…!
: The island ahead might be a vanguard base for the professor’s kidnappers. And even if it isn’t, we should find some sort of clue in there. Let’s get going.
: (I’d call it a win if we could at least figure our why they took gramps…)

: There’re plenty of them.
: And it makes no difference for the two of us.
: Right, no one can stand up to us and the Straybird… Engaging.

: We’ll deal with the remaining ones next.

Beep, beep!

: Hold on. I’m detecting something…

: … A new model?
: Still, nothing to make us falter.
: Hmhmm.
: Oh, now this is nice. The Imperial has just been completed and its debut battle is against him? Excellent.
: Take a look, Prof. Grife: you’ve front-row seats to the battle between your grandson and the unit your genius helped perfect.
: …
: Your Excellency, do you wish us to continue analyzing his brainwaves…?
: I believe we can skip that for today. This is such a special little show… we should let the Professor have the full experience, no?
: …
: We’ll start with the new one, then. Here we go.
: Roger…!

Yuu gets tossed waaaay back.

: Wh… What…?!
: It read us like an open book…?!
: Not just… That unit outguns us by a whole lot…!
: That’s harmonie préétablie at work. There was no other way for this to end.
: Can you hear me, little Yuu?
: …! You’re my grandfather’s kidnapper…?
: It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Please refer to me as “Mr. President”, if you would.
: Why did you take him…?
: I’m afraid that’s not for you to know. See, this bout just now proved that you two don’t amount to new “Potential”.
: Hmm… but if you still want answers, I more than welcome you to grow stronger and try again. Of course, do note that depending on your actions, you may as well consider the Professor’s life to be forfeit.
: Stop being cryptic and get to the point… What do you want…?!
: That’s all for you to think very hard and figure out.
: What will you do, then? Where, exactly, is the “Potential” that could save dear Prof. Grife, I wonder…?
: Urk…!

: Your Excellency, regarding the Imperial’s mass-production…
: We’ve run plenty of tests, and the results are quite excellent. I say you may go ahead with it. And now…

On the way to school, our folks run into a startled Risako – where have Kouichi and Ichitaka been? They haven’t come to school since Yajima’s funeral! Quatre tries getting her to calm down, but she was also worried about his absence. What happened? …And what about this girl that’s with them, the one who was shacked up with Kouichi?!
As Emi stutters a bit, and Risako lets out a deep sigh. The three of them vanish from school, and, when next she sees them, they’re bringing along Kouichi’s girl… she’s feeling SO left out, and now even Quatre’s taking part in it!
P-Please, she’s got it all wrong—

”Heey there, Risako! Lookin’ pretty cute today!” this guy yells and walks over… and, yo, this new girl’s pretty cute too. She a friend of hers? Risako stomps that she doesn’t know the girl and tells him to ask Kouichi.
And she runs off then and there. Oh, well! “Hey, there, miss! Mind telling me your name?” Emi Kizaki, and he is? “The guy with C- grades, A+ moves, and a master’s degree in love: Makoto Domyoji, at your service.”
Now, Kouichi hasn’t been around of late, but he was kicking all sorts of ass before, no? Domyoji’s heard how, from one day to the next, Kouichi got strong as all hell, and he couldn’t help but wonder: how strong exactly?

Crazy strong. Stronger than him? Damn straight – wanna see for himself? Absolutely. Kouichi asks Emi, Ichitaka and Quatre to hang back a bit (and not to help, in the latter’s case). Quatre’s not too keen on this, but it’ll be fine: Kouichi’ll just do enough to give this guy an idea of the extent of his strength.
Kouichi moves to punch him, and he’s pretty fast… NOT! Domyoji dodges, counters and knocks the kid to the ground. “It can’t be…! Kouichi’s a Factor…!” Emi gapes quietly, as Domyoji tells him to get back up – wasn’t he supposed to be strong?

As Kouichi tries and fails to connect a hit, Ichitaka turns to Quatre and asks what the hell. How’s he getting beat this badly? Well, Quatre’ll concede that Kouichi’s strength and speed are superhuman, but the way he attacks is…
Kouichi gets knocked on his ass again, and Ichitaka understands: Kouichi’s approach is all brute-force, and it’s blowing up in his face. Indeed, that makes him very easy to read, though Quatre’s still very impressed with the ease Domyoji manages to counter him.

Domyoji does concede that Kouichi’s pretty strong and quick, but he’s got no idea how to fight right. What a letdown. “In that case…” Kouichi grunts,” I’ll show you my real power! Come! LINEBARREL!”
Yes, he went there. The mech materializes right in the street, and Domyoji’s jaw hits the ground – he told him he was crazy strong! Someone who’s less-than impressed, however, is Emi: what is he thinking, calling the Linebarrel smack-dab in the middle of town?! Erm… he wasn’t really thinking there.
There’s one other thing, though:

: Yooo…! This is so awesome, Kouichi!
: Ah?
: This is that mech that’s been all over the news, right? The one who’s been protecting the whole world from terrorists…?
: And you’re the big-time hero piloting the thing? For real?!
: …
: I know that face – I’m right, right? Wow, I had you all wrong. I… no, wait, we are gonna be your support crew!
: “We”…? You don’t mean—
: Yeah, I do: me, Emi, you and the transfer student here – Quatre, right?
: (Me?!)
: (And me too…?!)
: Listen, I really wanna help. I consider it my responsibility as someone who knows what’s what now!
: Domyoji… You say that, but I get the feeling you actually want in just to have some fun.
: Not “some”! A whole LOT of fun!
: Hah… Alright, sounds good! You’re in, Domyoji!
: Nice! You can count on me, Kouichi!
: (Wh-What just happened?! They were at each other’s throats a second ago, and now they’re friends just like that?!)
: We’ll do whatever we can to help you out… We are the Hayase Corps!
: Well, hey, that actually sounds like fun! I’m in!
: And, of course, I’ll be the Corps’ glorious leader!
: Alright, then come along with me! P.E.’s up first, and we’re gonna tear it all up down there!
: Hell, yeah!
: Hold it right there, Kouichi!
: Huh?
: What about the Linebarrel? You’re the only one who can move it, and none of that explains what possessed you to call it here in the first place!
: O-Oh, I forgot about that…
: You… You’re positively despicable!

Cut to Kiriyama Heavy Industries, the boss himself is counting the enemy forces gunning for Earth – the Cthulhu, Darius, Jama Kingdom, Mimetic Beasts and the Katou Organization – and how humanity had to lay the duty of facing all those on LOTUS’ shoulders. He’d like to take this opportunity to thank our present representatives for our work.
But while he and his company do not doubt our capacity, it is simple fact that we cannot be everywhere at once – what would happen if the enemies attacked across the entire world? We couldn’t handle all that. And while the platoons of Armas that all nations deployed to face the Darius have been rather successful in their purpose, those are NOT strong enough to face the leaders of the Katou Organization or the Angels!
Ritsuko, also present, sniffs that he was the one who incited army to send Armas after the Angel, and wonders if it was to help him advocate the necessity of his prototype. Talk about shameless profiteering.

Regardless, even GREATER strength is necessary both to lift us from this dire situation and to protect the lives of the SDF soldiers on the field. It is with that ardent wish in his heart that he now unveils his new model – fruit of a wholly new design philosophy: the HFX-19 “Jinrai”!
Yamashita seems impressed, while Reiji watches in silence, and Kiriyama proclaims that he’s set up a mock battle with the current Arma models the SDF uses as a means to showcase their capacity. We’ll see just how HUGE the difference is between them.
And, indeed, the things tear the old Armas apart. Ishigami and Yotsuya see that Kiriyama’s boasts are well founded.

Meanwhile, back at JUDA, Shinji’s running the simulator and wants Misato to up the difficulty a bit. Well, aren’t we eager today? Not really: “But I think this is what Kouichi and Ichitaka would do,” he says. Fair enough, and Misato won’t say no, as the sooner they can get Shinji acclimatized to the EVA, the better.
As he goes on, Noin ponders the new kid: there are a lot of unknowns surrounding him. Tetsuya (Tsurugi) agrees, noting how he’s only been into combat once, and how, when he beat the Angel, he’d lost consciousness.
Misato adds that piloting an EVA involves an extremely particular process. With that, she’d like to ask that the two drill instructors wait a bit before taking Shinji under their wing. Noin is very fine with that, as she couldn’t come up with a training regimen for someone who’s yet to grasp the basics.

Inwardly, though, Misato’s ill at ease: the abruptness of how the Third Child was chosen, the Angel’s attack happening around the same time – almost as if in sync – and the order to transfer the #01 to LOTUS despite the fact that another Angel’ll come soon… So much feels out of place here.
While Shinji, in the sim, recites “Target in the center, pull the switch”, another thing Misato didn’t expect is that he came up to her and willingly said he would pilot the EVA. Let’s just hope things will continue to go as smoothly.

Our group’s just returned from class, and Kouichi’s getting accosted by Rachel. What kind of idiot is he to summon the Linebarrel just because he lost a fight?! And she was in the middle of servicing the thing, too! Kouichi apologizes, though Shizuna has revised her opinion on his stupidity – for the worse.
Quatre chalks it up to the kid not liking to lose, and while Goh says that’s a good thing, he still ought to use his head a bit more. Kouichi apologizes more. Goh’s one to talk, Anna quips, reminding how often he goes ballistic if he’s backed against a wall when fighting… granted, now he can’t fight AT ALL.

Foot in her mouth, Anna says she’s sorry and silently kicks herself for not thinking before saying stuff, especially when she knows how much Goh’s hurting. Worse, the guy’s also silently drawing the conclusion that Anna wants Goh, the pilot.
When Miu asks, Quatre explains that while Emi came back with us, Yui called her up to work on some combat data. Rachel very much likes Emi’s work: it’s fast and it’s reliable, so it helps the mechanics keep our units perfectly tuned.

The door then opens: “Excuse me, I’d like to speak with Kouichi Hayase of LOTUS,” says Hisataka Katou (!) himself. As everyone flips out over the enemy boss turning around, he also introduces his comrades Masaki Sugawara and Wufei Chang, which he figures will make for quite the emotional reunion for Quatre.
As the Wing boys glare at each other, Kouichi demands to know what their enemy is doing here. Can he imagine the reason why, Katou wonders. How the hell could he make sense of whatever’s going on in their heads?! Well, that’s not good at all, thinks Katou, as the power of imagination is at the root of life itself.

Imagination allows one to predict outcomes, to figure out what is or isn’t within your capacity, to plan for the future. “Those who lack that capacity are no different from livestock in a pen.” Kouichi and Ichitaka yell out a “what are you on about” in unison, and Katou tells them to imagine. Indeed, only with imagination will one be able to survive the coming era.
Quatre turns to Wufei and asks if he shares in this guy’s vision – is that why he joined his Organization? Wufei says his views are the same they’ve ever been… this is a struggle for JUSTICE, and, moreover, he has not capitulated to the Katou Organization. What does he mean by that, Goh interjects, as the boss himself named him a comrade.

“Hmph… I’ve nothing to say to a man who won’t fight,” Wufei sniffs, and Anna quickly gets in his face. Who the hell does he think Goh is?! Wufei tells her to shush, though, as this isn’t the time or place for her man to speak his mind. If she’s a pilot, she should understand what that place is.
Back to Kouichi, he still doesn’t know what Katou’s here for. Did he sneak in just to make this insane speech? “No, I’m here for the Linebarrel, he says levelly. “Time and again we’ve tried to capture the Linebarrel. However, in the meantime, you have been developing as a Factor capable of unleashing its abilities… Which is why, as a sign of respect, I have come here to meet with you in person.”

Katou signals Masaki to give him “that”, bringing out a suitcase. A bomb?! Katou tells Shizuna that it is nothing so boorish – just a simple gift. The case is filled with Castella cakes! Oh, but would Kouichi and the others worry about eating something presented by the enemy? That’s fine, he’s more than willing to take a bite of one – it’s pretty good!
Psh, like hell Kouichi’s scared of anything! He grabs one to eat… “Hrk! Aah, it’s spicy! Is… Is this curry flavored?!” Anna also takes a bite and, indeed, they’re all curry flavored. Not exactly what Kouichi imagined, is it? While its outward appearance is of sweet pastry, the contents aren’t limited to what we see.
The moment one forgets to imagine, the world grinds to a halt. Kouichi ought to be more observant, more inquisitive, and more contemplative. And Katou shall provide him with the information he needs: “imagine, with your very own brain, what the future will look like.”

What the hell is wrong with these guys? What are they after?! “To conquer the world,” Katou immediately answers. Now pay attention: all of the Machinas, Linebarrel included, in the hands of JUDA or the Katou Organization, as well as the tech used to restore this planet’s dead oceans following the Second Impact, are all byproducts of Over Technology that simply does not exist in this word.
So where did it all come from? From a world in a different time and dimension. Our two worlds lie adjacent to one another, amid a recurring cycle of death and rebirth, each holding a unique history and never meant to interact. It is what we perceive as dark matter, and Katou and his peers call it the “Highly Probable World”. The high what now? Ichitaka can’t even wrap his head around the name.
Regardless, the Machinas were sent here from that other world with the purpose of invading and, ultimately, subjugating it. As a matter of fact, the Katou Organization is meant to be the vanguard of that invading force – Katou himself having come to this world to lead the effort. That is to say, from our point of view, Katou is a visitor from a different dimension.

Kouichi turns to Izuna and Shizuna – did they know about all this? They all did, and were expecting Ishigami to tell him about it before long. Katou wants to make one thing clear, though: HE is the only member of the Organization that came from the Highly Probable World. All others are from this side, who simply share in his ideals.
Shizuna sniffs that he likely tricked them into tagging along, prompting Wufei to scoff at her “woman’s rationalization”. “What’chu say, fivehead?! You wanna say that to my face and see what happens?!”
CARRYING ON, Katou notes that with the might of his world, conquering this one would’ve been an absolute walk in the park… but there are a few special circumstances, certain steps that need to be taken. What does he mean? “If you want to know more, then I ask that you join the Katou Organization.”

Shizuna asks if the guy’s trying to scout them, but no – his organization only needs Kouichi and the Linebarrel. Before any answer can be given, Rachel has a question for him first: what is the Linebarrel? It is clearly different from the other Machinas, in its D-S.O.I.L., its performance, abilities – everything.
Of course it is: unlike the other Machinas, which are simply weapons of invasion, the Linebarrel was designed to be special from even the planning stage. Indeed, it was designed and constructed by a scientist known far and wide as a true genius: Amagatsu Kizaki.

Wait, “Kizaki”? Indeed, Emi, who came to this world with the Linebarrel, is his daughter. In other words, she’s also a denizen of the Highly Probable World. That info hits everyone hard, and Kouichi has to ask: is she with Katou and his goons?
No, quite the contrary: Amagatsu opposed them, and Emi took up his dying wish and came here. Katou does wonder if someone being from the other world is all it takes for us to question their bona fides. What do we think about the Frontier Fleet, then? Because they’re ALSO all from the same world as Katuo… isn’t that right, Luca?

Luca steps out of hiding, and asks Katou to clarify as he only got here halfway through the conversation. Hmm, Katou expected him and the Frontier’s brass to have already realized that they all share the same origin – was he wrong? Or maybe keeping the sorry state of their homeworld under wraps is how things work on the Fleet?
Luca tries playing it cool, asking if he needs to answer that, but Katou quickly sees that he doesn’t really know what’s up. So he’ll give him a snippet of information to munch on: his group started taking action after the Frontier Fleed had already left Earth. When Masaki pokes him, though, he figures that’s all he’ll say.
That’s good, because Kouichi’s already satisfied with the knowledge that Emi and the Frontier folks aren’t the enemy. Moreover, he would never join an invader from another world – he’ll destroy Katou and his Organization as a CHAMPION OF JUSTICE! Katou has a laugh at that: what exactly is justice to someone like Kouichi?

“Shut your mouth! You killed Yajima, so what makes you think you’ve the right to speak of justice?!” Kouichi snaps, and him using the “J” word annoys Wufei. “Are you implying that you have that right, then?”
One way or another, Katou says this is good enough for today – they will be seeing each other eventually, though. What, does he think he can just walk away from this? Absolutely.

Masaki gets on the phone and says that the commander is heading back. Right then, a ton of Armas emerge all around the place to cover the guy’s exit – when did all these manage to get here?! Wufei says our vigilance was shoddy (even we could pull a stunt like this), but what Shizuna doesn’t understand is why none of the alarms were set off. “Kouichi Hayase, if you wish to know the actual meaning of justice, then you’ll come to the Katou Organization,” Katou says and takes off.
As Kouichi fumes, Goh confesses that he never imagined the enemy boss would come to JUDA in person – seems to Rachel that the power of their imagination is a whole lot higher than ours, then.
Still, Luca says that the silver-lining is we managed to attain some critical information and wonders if the Frontier government might know stuff about the Katou Organization’s background that we don’t. More importantly, says Ichitaka, if folks managed to come to this world from the Highly Probable one, then it’s likely there’s a way for Luca and co. to find their way back.
That’s a matter for another time, mind, as Kouichi wants to chase after Katou right the hell now!

The group that went to Kiriyama have just returned, and imagine Yamashita’s shock when he saw Katou Armas leaving the area. Reiji asks what they were here for, Miu and Goh telling him how Katou himself came to try and recruit Kouichi (Reiji goes silent upon hearing that).
Regardless, Luca wants to report all we heard to Jeffrey, Lulu and Ishigami, and Ichitaka asks him to note the glaring security cock-up that happened here. We need to figure out how they managed to slip in without anyone noticing. Reiji says he’ll go over it later, but, right now, he wants everyone ready to deploy.
Why the rush? Noin ponders that there might’ve been more to this “visit” than what we saw, and, right on cue, Yui sounds the alarm: the Katou Organization is attacking an Alliance base at Vladivostok.

Ishigami notes that the troops that left here were headed that way too. While we don’t know what they’re after, it’s possible both groups will join up there, so we need to head on over as well.
Izuna raises the point that the Alliance is kind of hostile to us, but Ishigami counters with the fact that our mission is to defend peace throughout the entire world. So even if the Alliance is the one being attacked, we have to prioritize pushing the Katou Organization back. Fair enough.

And I think that’s quite enough for today. Oof!

The rest of the mission should be up in a couple of days.

See you then![/details]

[Mattman324]

So this whole “Linebarrel tech from another universe” shit? That’s all anime original. The manga was very, very different in this regard. I’m fine with that for L because it’s what allows the whole parallel world setup that they use for a few things - though seriously where the shit is Dual Parallel Trouble Adventures we should have had that over Rebuild of Evangelion - but in the anime… well, it’s pretty fucking stupid.

On the plus side, even the anime can’t fuck up Domyouji. Only slightly screw with him later on. Though with that said, next arc is… well, it’s going to be painful, I’ll be honest. It’s where the anime fully diverges from the manga, and god it hurts me inside to think about.

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

Mission 12 – After-School Visitor

: We ran slightly late. The operation’s already proceeding as planned, I see.
: This is where the first Sphere’ll be set, right?
: That’s right.
: Want me to take out the rest of the trash, then?
: … No, I’ll handle them.

: Hah, that’s the Glain-Neidr for you…
: I’ll begin setting the Sphere. Take care of LOTUS when they show up.
: Copy that… Come on over whenever you’d like, LOTUS…
: (Indeed, come, Quatre. If you say your struggle’ll save Earth, that is!)

: There they are! …Aah? Wait, it’s the Dancouga?
: No surprises there. We can leave that one to the R-Daigun.
: He’s right. We’ve no need to waste our resources dealing with it.
: Seems we weren’t quick enough – they’ve the whole area under control.
: And they brought a real big one along for the ride too.
: Is it a new type of Arma…?
: No time for questions now. Let’s try and wrap this up quick, before that pain-in-the-ass turns up!

Noooo, don’t do that! Send the Dancouga far, FAR away because you don’t wanna goad the Katou guys to attacking en masse – especially the new guys. The Dancouga can’t handle that kind of attention without Iron Wall, and, more importantly, you want them to hang back as much as can be.

So insert two turns of me moving far, far away : first turn, only a handful of Armas start moving in; second turn, the rest of the smaller Armas (but not the named guys).

Player Phase!

: It’s—!
: Yeah, there it is, alright – the R-Daigun!
: Everywhere we go, it’s there… These run-ins of ours are trying my patience.
: If you ask me, my patience wore out ages ago. So now we’re gonna wreck it along with the Katous, and get ourselves some answers!
: You talk a lot for someone who doesn’t understand the point of this battle…

: Ah… It disappeared!
: Damn it, where is it…?!
: I can’t get a bead on its location! It’s using some powerful jamming device!
: Sure this is alright, Masaki? We’re also running blind here.
: Yes, it’s fine. It’ll be over quickly.
: “Quickly”? Now that’s a shame… The Dancouga finally awoke to justice, and I was so looking forward to making it slooowly savor how powerless it actually is.

: !! Behind us?!

: Gaah!
: Urk! I’ll handle this!
: No, I’ll do it!
: Not the time for bickering, if you can’t tell!
: All of you, shut up!
: And how’re you also getting angry going to help, Aoi? Calm down!
: If being calm won battles, I would’ve become a frigging Zen master already! If we don’t do something, it’ll—!
: You’re already panicking over something like this? What a joke.
: …!

: AAAH!
: Victory is mine. And, with it, the Earth will be saved…

: We… We lost to the R-Daigun?
: That’s…
: Goddamn it!

: Oi, it didn’t even finish ‘em off!
: It won’t wield its blade against a foe which has lost the will to fight. The R-Daigun also trails the path of the samurai.
(That’s where you’re wrong. Were that the case, it wouldn’t explain why it held back against them all the times they fought).
: Well, the jamming’s gone. Get that Sphere set up already so we can go home, Masaki.
: I still need more time to finish things. Carry on guarding the area.
: And the Dancouga?
: I need only set the Sphere – if that succeeds, everything else is a nonissue. Deal with it as you would.
: “The Earth will be saved”…? How’s us losing going to save…?
: I can’t… Everything’s… foggy…….

: Are all friendly units already gone?!
: And we got all the bosses hanging around again…
: Shows how important this op must be to the Katou Organization.

Looks at the Dancouga.

: Is that the Dancouga?! It’s busted all over!
: This is LOTUS speaking. Come in, Team D.

…

: Megumi, check for signs of life!
: Already did, and they’re fine – just passed out, by the looks of it.
: Damn these Katous!
: You shouldn’t jump to conclusions, Ichitaka Nagumo. It wasn’t us who attacked the Dancouga.
: Huh?
: This transmission… There, it came from that Arma!

Looks at the Glain-Neidr

: A-Are you serious…? There’s an Arma that stupid huge?! It’s bigger than the Gaiking, for crying out loud!
: That’s no Arma… It’s a Machina, like ours!
: What about that other new guy? Same with him?
: The Talisman…! I heard the Katou Organization found and won over its Factor before JUDA could get to him!
: You make it sound so bad… I simply realized that true justice lies in the future Cmdr. Katou’s guiding us to.
: It’s truly regrettable that a man of your caliber wound up taking his side.
: You say that because you don’t know how many times I was betrayed by your vaunted justice. I don’t regret any of my choices.
: (I see… The reason for his distaste of justice and ideals is easy to grasp, once it is brought into the light.)
: It’s been a long time, Ishigami.
: Masaki…
: Eh? “Long time”?
: I’ve picked up the torch you left behind. Now I lead the 1st Unit.
: So you do… And since the Glain-Neidr’s out on the field, I presume Katou’s finally getting serious about things?
: I suppose so. Do you think yourself capable of stopping our plan?
: I don’t know what said plan is, but I’ll see that it goes nowhere with the full might of LOTUS.
: Then it’s time to put our cards on the table.
: Hey, prez… You wanna explain what that talk was about?
: Save the chit-chat for later and focus on the mission – we’ve no time to waste now.
: Captain, I’m detecting an anomaly coming from the giant Machina. It’s generating some sort of dimensional distortion!
: This may not give us anything, but try running an analysis! Lt. Angeloni’s report did say that their technology shouldn’t be too different from ours.

Boooweeeeep!

: … This is… Captain! It’ll only be a few minutes before space-time around that Machina is made permanently distorted!
: What?! How long exactly?!
: I can’t tell you for sure…!
: Meaning we need to take that guy out ASAP or something really bad’s gonna happen?
: And we don’t even know what the time to beat is? Well, isn’t that fun…!
: Troops, focus all your fire on the Glain-Neidr!
: Um… Shouldn’t I have deployed too?
: Sorry, Shinji, but I want to wait and see how things are looking for a bit.
: …Understood.
: (I knew it… Misato doesn’t trust me either, even after I showed her that I was willing.)
: Change of plans, then. Yamashita, you’ll provide covering fire with your artillery strikes and gather intel from the battlefield with your Reflector Cores. Hayase and I will lead the charge against the Glain-Neidr; Kujo, you watch my six.
: Yes, sir…!
: The remaining troops will engage the defenders and the Glain-Neidr when possible. We cannot afford to concern ourselves with the Dancouga, understood, Nagumo?
: Is that the only way right now…?!
: Forward, then! Open fire!

Mission Objective: Shoot down the Glain-Neidr
Mission Failure: Any battleship, Reiji, Yamashita, Miu shot down, or if the Dancouga Nova is EVER attacked.

So, yeah, ignore what Reiji said because you absolutely need to care about the Dancouga – if even a single enemy decides to take a shot at it, you lose. No, it makes no difference if you heal up the bot to full (I know from experience). One attack = game over.
You can’t afford to be careful here: rush, rush, rush all your guys as close to the enemies as possible to try and give them other stuff to target (they like going after Reiji since he has more HP). At the first turn, you’ll only have a few guys get in place, so you’re at the mercy of the AI playing ball and going after your guys. After that, everyone should be in place and all you need to do is form a nice wall to block the enemy’s advance.
And, if you’re curious, it makes no difference where Aoi was before the event: the R-Daigun’s attack will always knock her back to the same spot on the map.

The first two rounds are the worst because while the Katou bosses aren’t too beefy, they all have command auras – so you’ll be staring at some decent %s. Once they start going down, though, things become a lot simpler. Masaki won’t move from his spot until turn 8 hits (no, you don’t lose since the even’tll happen anyway), so you’ll have to make the trek across the entire map.

Now, a quick look at the new stuff the Katou Organization has brought to the table today:

Jack Smith
Pilot Skills:
Sword Cut
Predict
Commander L1
Prevail L4
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L2
Attack Combo L1

Salute this man, glorious Iczer-4!
Jack is exactly what he looks like: just some guy, on foot, with a katana. While his stats aren’t as massive as Iczer-2, he’s still quite the fearsome “pilot”… That said, his single attack right now isn’t too powerful. Worse, it’s range is 1-3, so he’s easily sniped.
Prevail L4 aside, he’s not too tough to bring down – just make sure you pack some hit % boosts, because that Predict + SS size combo (plus the likelihood he’ll be in someone else’s Command Aura) will make him rather difficult to hit otherwise.

Talisman (Soubi Nakajima)
Pilot Skills:
Factor
Commander L1
Prevail L3
Support Attack L1
Attack Combo L1

The first of the Katou Organization’s Factors we have to face, Soubi doesn’t bring much we haven’t faced yet. As a pilot, he’s about on par with his peers, but with a slight edge on defense.
The Talisman itself is a mix of ranged attacks and debuffs (mobility down), and is a bit bulkier than Sawatari and co., but still nothing we can’t handle. Just remember that he’ll regen some due to being a Factor.

Glain-Neidr (Masaki Sugawara)
Pilot Skills:
Factor
Commander L1
Prevail L3
Support Attack L1
Attack Combo L1
Mech Features:
Nullifies Beam Attacks

And now we have Masaki, piloting the mother of all RB-79 Balls. Masaki is, BY FAR, the bigger threat here as you might expect. His stats are a whole lot higher than all the other Katou midbosses, and the Glain-Neidr is tough (though not as much as Sachiel).
On the offense side of things, Masaki’s can either blast you with lasers or blast an entire area with lasers. Not very creative but the single target version will hurt if it connects, while the MAPW carries a +30 accuracy modifier and hits everything in a 5x5 area around the Glain-Neidr. Not fun.
Only a handful of your guys can outsnipe him, so you’ll likely need to take a few hits on approach – just make sure you don’t get in his MAPW range before you’re going for the kill, and make sure you don’t use Beam weapons.

Now, before we get going, keep the following in mind:

Secret Alert!
Do at least one of the following:

• Have Kouichi shoot down Soubi.
• Shoot down the Glain-Neidr within 7 turns.

Akurasu doesn’t mention the second option, but I checked two JP wikis and they both had that one noted, so I’m pointing it out. Granted, the first option is so much simpler and there’s absolutely no reason why you need to rush Masaki down, so I’ll be going with that one.

So, like I mentioned before, send everyone forward as far as they can go and right in the enemy’s face.

Miu finishes that one off.

And do keep in mind that, as ordered, Yamashita cannot be moved off that spot. He can still attack if stuff get in range, mind.

Enemy Phase!

The vanguard midbosses are moving in.

: I am Soubi Nakajima, captain of the Katou Organization’s 2nd Unit! I’ve no personal beef with you, just so we’re clear – this is all for the world that’s to come…!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPIONWogfPo
He and Miu drop another two mooks that attack, while Kouichi slaps another pair away.

Player Phase!

OK, so now we need to bash ourselves against the incoming tide and push it back – get rid of all the nearby mooks and get that wall of units set to prevent anyone from going after the Dancouga.

Oh, and here’s Shizuru and Anna’s combined attack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1yplbML66M
What, no DK? Guess it’s only for when Goh gets back in the thing.

Spreading out, Kouji and Alto’s groups claim the mooks Reiji and Kouichi previously weakened.

And the AI always likes to go for Ichitaka, so let’s bring him right up front.

Once you take out any of the named guys, get the Katou units under 11 or turn 8 rolls over…

: Hrm?! An ambush… They’re stealth?!

The four new Armas vanish.

: S-Stealth Armas? How the…!
: I see how it is… These appear to be the same types as the one who showed up by JUDA HQ.
: Meaning it won’t be easy to find them…!

: …!
: They’re so fast…!
: And they’re ignoring the Painkiller, going straight for the Vardant?!
: Destroy the enemy from the top-down, starting with the leading units… A textbook approach, but an effective one.
: RAAAARGH! Get away from Reiji!
: Y-Yamashita?!

Yamashita dashes towards the new enemies.

: Don’t leave your post, Yamashita!
: I… I should have noticed those units…! I was the one gathering intel – it’s my fault you’re in this situation…!
: Yamashita, hold on! That’s—
: GODDAMN IT!

: Uwaah!
: …You imbecile!

: R-Reiji…!
: Why did you not listen to my orders?
: B-But, Reiji, you…!
: …

: R-Rei… ji…?
: Now you’ll have to stay put. At least you can still serve as a turret.
: I-I…!

: …
: H-Hey, I know Machinas are tough and all, but isn’t it still dangerous to leave him immobile?!
: The mission remains the same.

: Shinji?!
: I should be able to keep him safe with the EVA’s A.T. Field… right, Misato?
: In theory, I guess that’s right, but…
: … Then I’m going in!

Shinji tags in with Yamashita, and the Stealth Armas blip back to Masaki’s side.

: (Wanting to wait and see backfired on me…)
: LtCol. Katsuragi?
: I’ll talk to him later. I guess I’ll see how he does, and then decide what do to.
: Understood.
: Shinji, I already mentioned this during practice, but the EVA has a very limited energy supply to operate with the Umbilical Cable unplugged.
: Remember that you can plug it back in if you’re next to any allied ship. And while you have several power supply buildings available when fighting in Neo Tokyo 3, you’ll have to make do without today.
: …
: (Is he listening?)
: Will Shinji and Yamashita be alright…?

And we can’t lose Shinji either. That’s fine since the A.T. Field’ll hold well enough, but that is not the case with the Hind-Kind! He’s at 10 HP and, if attacked, Shinji’ll only be able to support defend him if the mooks decide to focus fire - if not, he’s gone!
In other words, heal Yamashita to full and carry on. It’s not an auto-game over if he gets attacked, but he IS still at 10 HP.

Shinji can’t move, either, but he’s got a new weapon for extra range – we’ll see it in a bit.

And Yamashita takes the kill, despite his gimped morale.

Jeeg and Voltes each nab a kill, Gaiking moving to further close our wall.

Boosh!

And here we have it. Soubi’s the only unit who can attack the Dancouga and, as far as I can tell, the midboss AI won’t go after it if there’s anything nearby.

Next turn we’ll tear through them.

Enemy Phase!

And I may have overestimated the Valkyrie’s mobility… or underestimated the boost the Katous get from each other’s command auras.

Ow. At least they’ve Prevail…

For instance, Jack gets a 50% chance to hit against Iczer-1, which I don’t think I’ve seen happen before!

Catch-all convo first:

: LOTUS… Is a foe capable of satisfying me within your ranks…?

And for Iczer-1:

: I have heard that one of LOTUS’ collaborators came from space, and is a renowned swordswoman…
: I understand now… You’ve modified your whole body – that is how you’ve gained this strength.
: Indeed. And I now challenge you to see whose is superior…
: As you wish. To arms!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ0qQb47Yd8
And, by the by, if you wish to DISHONOR THE SAMURAI SPIRIT, you can still summon the Iczer Robo to this:

: It is truly a shame… I’d hoped to cross blades with a swordswoman like you in the flesh.
: Sure about this, Iczer-1? That guy’s looking like he really wants to fight you.
: Well, I suppose dueling with him wouldn’t be an issue if you’ll allow it.
: That man… He strikes me as someone who fights and lives solely by the sword.

I won’t be summoning it before Jack’s gone, though – that’d be absolutely disgraceful.

The other midbosses all lose a decent chunk of HP next. And the AI also follows the plan, Ichitaka and Quatre claiming 3 mooks.

Down south, Combattler and Shizuna are also big targets.

Two kills for them.

Player Phase!

And with a solid wall in place, most mooks wrecked or destroyed, all we have is spread and kill. Prioritizing a few midbosses will make things simpler as you deprive others from the command auras.
A decent bunch of our guys now know Luck, so you ought to prioritize them getting the midboss kills (unless someone really needs the exp). Quatre’s my only Bless cast still, and he’s saving it for Masaki.

Forward!

: Much is said about your skill with the blade. We duel!
: His physical ability is beyond superhuman… I accept. Come.

: Huh… No way! Is that a man?
: Is that all the power of your imagination amounts to? I’d expected you to be somewhat different since you’re part of LOTUS, but it seems I was mistaken. What a pity!

: Th-The hell? Am I going crazy, or is that a guy?!
: My strength far exceeds that of a Machina! Prepare to meet your end!
: Yo, are you serious? The Katou Organization has their own Iczer-1?!

: There’s nothing to be gained by staying here further… That said, I shall at least bring the blue Machina’s head back with me.

Jack rushes the Vardant down!

: He’s after Reiji?! Oh, no, you don’t!

: What…! He parried them?!
: Throwing daggers… A fine prize, these. I trust you’ll allow me to borrow them for a bit.
: …!! Kujo, pull back!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3WojUkXfW8

: That wound… So that’s why you’ve such extraordinary physical ability.
: …

: Your body itself is an Arma…
: Allow me to introduce myself properly: I am Jack Smith, captain of the Katou Organization’s 6th Unit… And you are?
: Reiji Moritsugu, Head of JUDA’s Special Forces and assigned to LOTUS.
: Reiji Moritsugu… I hope we’ll have a chance to duel again someday. Farewell!

: The guy might look like a regular person, but he sure as hell gave us a lot more trouble than one. Talk about a tough fight.
: You should try and fight a Zentradi with that attitude and see if it lasts, Alto.

Heey, Izuna learned Attune from that.

Dmitri can’t keep on going, and is forced to back off.
Daiya’s rather miffed that despite how important this whole thing seems to the Katous, we still have no idea what they’re actually trying to do. But Sakon tells him to chill, as it’s his and the other eggheads’ job to figure it out.

That’s too much punishment for Sawatari’s Arma to take – time to head back.
And he better stay gone, roars Kenji.

And that’s all Yulianne can enjoy for today, “unfortunately”.
If anything, Misato’s impressed with how skilled they are at making their escape – shows that they’re really pros.

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

Oh, and here’s Shinji’s better weapon right now: a big ‘ol gatling gun. It even gets a dynamic kill!

: The Vardant… this’ll be a tough enemy to fight. Still, I can’t just let you through here.
: That’s fine. I’ll just make you back off.

: Factor of the Painkiller… I need you to die for the world that’s to come.
: I’m also fighting for the world… and that’s why I won’t stop! Ever!
: Then, come! I’ll make you sing some beautiful tunes!

: Our main target’s that chubby Machina, meaning we ain’t got time for any others!
: But it’d be really dangerous to ignore the Talisman because of that!
: You’ve an idea of how dangerous I am, I see. Now let me give you some pain to match that!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGqek2Q4iOM
And here’s Soubi’s best attack.

: So now I’ve to fight the famous Linebarrel, huh? Your regenerative abilities seem pretty high… but I wonder how long that’ll last you.
: The Linebarrel isn’t your run-of-the-mill Machina, guy! You’re about to get an eyeful of the power of JUSTICE!
: Justice this, justice that… You know, you’re starting to turn my stomach!

Kouichi: “Why the hell are you helping out these creeps from another dimension?!”

: Ho-hum, I wanted to mess you guys up, and now I’m the one who got messed up…
: Oh, well. I guess I’ll just wait for my next shot with bated breath.

: Soubi Nakajima and his Talisman… We’ll be fighting him again, it seems.

: What is the Katou Organization up to, Wufei?! I don’t mean to deny your justice, but there’s absolutely no point to this battle!
: You’ll know if it really is pointless or not in due time. Now fight me!
: Wufei!
: That’s enough of your yammering, Quatre!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnFFBWavsDc
Quatre: “Wufei… I guess we need to fight after all.”
Wufei: “If you can’t grasp the point of the battle I wage, then your peace is bound to crumble to dust, Quatre!”

: LOTUS! The Spheres being set and Katou’s actions overall are essential to the world at large! I’ve looked into his eyes… and I am fully convinced of it!

: Huh? Wufei… What did you mean by that?
: “Spheres”… Maybe those are related to the dimensional distortion the Katou Organization’s causing?
: (I’m also convinced of something, Wufei. That you’re, once again, fighting for the sake of the world…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGMBcfEkNr8
By the by, while clearing out the Stealth S Armas, I took the time to show off ANOTHER Gaikign combined attack. This is the new one he got with Puria when she switched to the Superior Stinger!

After those guys are done, it takes a few more turns to get all the way across the map to reach Masaki.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6wJKnL6vUg
And while that’s happening, the guy decided to take a potshot at Kouji. Right after this, turn 8 rolls around:

: It’s…! Space-time is settling in its distorted state!

: Huh? What’s that black orb thing…?
: Damn, we were too late!
: Our mission is complete. All troops, withdraw.
: Belay that. I think you’re slightly confused, Masaki. The order now is: “Stay put and carry on fighting.”
: But Commander…
: We can’t leave the Dancouga at large. And with the R-Daigun gone, we must take it upon ourselves to dispose of it.
: But, of course, exercise a modicum of restraint. I’m in no way interested in losing any of my precious captains.
: … Copy that.
: Hm… He still wants to fight?
: Better for us, then. More of them we wreck now, the easier time we’ll have down the road!
: Troops, continue your offensive while still taking care to protect the Dancouga!

: Don’t get in our way, Reiji Moritsugu. That’d be what’s best for the world.
: … I cannot do that. Rather, I’m putting a stop to you!

: I’ll also do my part against you!
: Painkiller, a point-defense model of Machina… Your M.O. with it is inefficient.

: Hey, fatso! I’m coming to pull the plug on whatever the crap you’re doing to space-time!
: And if you don’t stop, there’ll be some awful images coming into your mind!
: Go right ahead – if you can, that is.

: I’ve no idea what you people are up to, but I’m putting a stop to that distortion!
: … The Linebarrel. Kouichi Hayase.
: (I though he was just an average boy… but the Commander assessed him as having “exceeded his imagination”. What convinced him of that?)

Masaki counterattacking: “That’s quite the inept Factor you chose, Linebarrel.”
Jerk! I just forgot that the big Executor blast still counts as a Beam attack!

Speaking of, Goh points out the Beam immunity – gotta use weapons that aren’t that. Moreover, he sees that the thing can attack over a wide area, so we can’t stay clustered up.

Game, I’m starting to think you don’t trust me. Kill!

: We lost more than our original estimates, but the objective was still met. Retreating.

: What’s the situation, Monica?
: No signs of any hostile. The battle’s over.
: So… Did we win?
: I wonder… They did manage to get that weird thing in place. You could well chalk this up as a loss.
: Still, we just need to trash the thing and it’ll be all good, no?
: I seriously doubt that. The Katou Organization wouldn’t have left it here if it could be so easily destroyed.
: Rachel, can you put together a research team to investigate this orb… the Sphere, I think the called it.
: Yep, they’re already headed your way!
: Then let’s take in the Dancouga and wrap this up fast. Hanging around an Earth Alliance base could come back to haunt us later.
: Woops, I don’t think sooo!

: Wha— They had another stealth Arma around?!
: How do you do, LOTUS? The name’s Riku Ousei, captain of the Katou Organization’s 8th Unit. I came here to test the power of your imagination.
: And seeing how confused you’re looking, I’m guessing none of you could imagine my plan.
: Riku Ousei, you said? What are you going to with the Dancouga?
: Imagine, why don’t you? Or maybe I’ll just tell you, since you’ll see it in a few seconds: the Dancouga is about to get sprayed all over the countryside by my Yaoyorozu’s Shinkahia orbs!
: And you think we’ll just let you do that?!
: Naoto!
: Aye, aye! Piercing Zolmanium Bullets, fire!

: Heheheheheheh…
: What the— It didn’t even scratch him!
: You guys really don’t have any imagination at all. The thing that exploded there was the Yaoyorozu’s special armor – I imagined you’d try something, so I came prepared.
: ‘Course, it won’t hold forever and then I’d be in trouble… So how about I go and pop the Dancouga in a real pretty explosion right now? Buh-byyyeeeee!

: Wuh?!
: It’s you whose imagination is lacking.
: Who said that?! Show yourself!

: You’re… The R-Daigun?! But why? Weren’t we on the same side?!
: Why don’t you go and imagine the why?

: Wh-Wuaaaaaaah!

: What just happened?!
: That red bot from before showed up and saved the Dancouga… At least that’s what it looked like.
: I don’t understand…
: Shinji, you guys OK over there?
: Y-Yes. We managed…
: …
: Yamashita, I’ll come speak with you later.
: Reiji, Yamashita’s… Wait, hold on! You’re injured! Was it when that guy, Jack, attacked…?
: It’s no problem – I was born without a sense of pain, you see. Small injuries won’t stop me from doing my work.
: We’re heading back to JUDA. Recover the Dancouga, Evangelion and Hind-Kind ASAP.

And here are the convos we didn’t get – Yamashita didn’t get a chance for any of his, since they only show up before the event:

: Hey, Horns, you’ve gone a bit on the straight and narrow, haven’t ya?
: Damn straight! I’m not the same man I was before!
: Heh, ain’t that something. Then get here and let’s see how much fun this new you’ll be!

–

: Linebarrel… I’d previously held back due to my orders, but no more!
: I’ve finally figured out how I really should be using my powers. No way in hell I’m getting dropped now! Bring it!

–

: Hey, there, Linebarrel boy… I’m here to play again.
: Sorry, but I’m in a hurry. This is gonna have to be the last time we fight!

–

: The way you fight bugs me like no one’s business, Vardant!
: … A calm and precise analysis of the situation is necessary to accomplish one’s mission. Becoming emotional is the way of failure.
: Drop the act, guy! I can tell you’re just like me!

–

: Reiji Moritsugu… Your swordsmanship is said to be the best in LOTUS. Show it to me!
: Fine. Let it carve into your mind, along with the horror you’ll feel!

–

: Oh, dear, Reiji… Are you going to fight me?
: … Of course I am. Come on!
: Do go easy on me, hunk…

–

: An artillery Machina… Meaning you can’t really do anything if I close the distance, right? What if I just don’t sit still, even?
: I can’t leave this spot…! Reiji told me not to!

–

: Whaa?! A man? But… my sensors are picking up an Arma…
: You cannot free your mind of bewilderment… Then die!

–

: Time passes, and your slow ass is always lumbering around. I’ll make this quick!
: Close-range battles might not be my thing, but I’m another proud member of our Special Forces! I’m winning this!

–

: Start shooting, boy. Do you think you can hit me?
: Getting a kick out of me, eh…? You better take me seriously, or you won’t live to regret it!

–

: The Machina with the Reflector Cores… I’ll be ending you, and stopping your data collection!
: Not happening! What you’ll be doing is getting a taste of the Hind’s full powe!

–

: Gather intel from the battlefield and provide artillery support… That’s the job Reiji personally assigned me, and I will see it done perfectly!

–

: You won’t be conquering any of the world while we’re still around!
: You’ve got poise, girl, I’ll give ya that. But you still ain’t messing with our Op!

–

: Imagine, oh, powerless one. Imagine your suffering and defeat at my hands!
: I won’t be beaten, and I won’t surrender! Here we go, Painkiller!

–

: Hmm… Reiji had someone cover him? Now that’s rare.
: Do you know him…?
: We’ve at least known each other for longer than you have, girl.

–

: Wh-What’s up with you fighting us on foot, pops? That’s some bad joke right there!
: Your confusion is understandable, but I will still spare you no quarter!

–

: That’s the captain of the 4th Unit, sis!
: I know, I know! Blast him with the Nerve Crack and we’ll sort ‘im out later!
: Your illusions ain’t gonna mean jack if the cords can’t touch me! Get over here!

–

: I can’t let them get any closer to the Glain-Neidr!
: Too bad for you, we’re real stubborn – you’re not stopping us!
: We’ll be bringing an end to your operation!

–

: And what could a non-combat Machina do to me? Could you at least make for a little bit of fun, I wonder?
: You’re really gonna be sorry ya underestimated us! Izuna, show granny a big, ol’ nightmare!
: Got it! Here goes!

At JUDA, just as Ishigami was calling the Dragon’s Hive to inquire about the red Dancouga, he received a message from Tanaka’s boss transferring the Dancouga Nova to LOTUS. Quite the surprise. Tanaka does apologize for the suddenness of it all, but the transfer should’ve occurred a long time ago – things took longer than expected because of the bosses, see.
Ishigami isn’t mad in the slightest, considering how often Team D already helped us on their own, but the timing of it all is at least curious. Tanaka can’t well answer that, what with him not being in on the take.
Either way, Ru (the shrink) will also be headed our way soon, and Tanaka needs to get going – he’s got another call. Ishigami did notice something odd in this conversation: Une said Tanaka answered to F.S…. but he just mentioned having “bosses”. Who’s the other one?

By the infirmary, it’s up to Alice to tend to the Dancouga folks, much to Aoi’s pain. Still, she’s got to get it all patched up quickly. At least the silver lining, thinks Kurara, is that no one got hurt too badly. Still, they made it through only by the skin or their teeth and it was a complete loss – Johnny and Sakuya aren’t happy.
Since this is a rare chance to speak to them outside of battle, Goh would like to ask why exactly they’re fighting in the first place – none of us know much about the Dancouga or its mission. Well, as luck would have it, Aoi says they don’t know either. They just get orders on what to do, and even their handler gets those from the top.
Then, Miu asks, they wouldn’t know why the Dancouga suddenly started going all champion of justice, instead of just prolonging conflict like before. Johnny says they wondered that shift themselves, but haven’t gotten any answers yet.

And speaking of sudden changes, Ishigami calls in to relay the news of their transfer to LOTUS. It happened out of the blue, sure, but Ishigami points out that he and Lady Une had been trying to make this happen for a while now.
Kurara sees no issue, considering they’d already been ordered to fight with us several times before, but Aoi’s still annoyed that the boss (as always) made this call without caring anything for what they want. They’ll just have to make do with that as part of their mission as CHAMPIONS OF JUSTICE, Ishigami shrugs.

Fine, Aoi’ll go along with it so long as stuff’s exciting! “Exciting”? Pretty much, yeah: all of Team D look back on the lives they lead before being scouted/kidnapped to be the Dancouga’s pilots and think this job is WAY more exciting than what they did. Well, they’re a lot more blasé about things than Alto expected.
Why does he think that? Kurara needs only take a look at the hot blooded Tetsuya (Tsurugi) and Hyouma glaring over to see why. They are kind of breaking the mold, huh? Well, Aoi’s “sorry” to have dashed their expectations and, on that matter, the loss to the R-Daigun isn’t hitting her particularly hard. They’re still annoyed, mind, but not broken over it.

Goh’s not feeling that “I WON’T LOSE NEXT TIME!” vibe coming from them, but Aoi assures him it’s not like that. Like she said, she’s excited for another round with the R-Daigun. Now, she turns to Alice and asks if they’re free to go.
Well, she’s patched them up enough, so it should be fine… In that case, Emi beckons them to come with – she’ll show them to their rooms. With them gone, Shizuru ponders their uninterested attitude. Kouji’s not about to complain about molds being broken, but it still a bit weird to him.

Reiji, meanwhile, is taking Yamashita to task, asking why he left his post. He was worried about Reiji, yes, but the guy himself doesn’t remember ever assigning him to support him – that was Miu’s job. Plus, it was his actions that led to Shinji violating his own orders to help him. Surely Yamashita can see that.
Speaking of Shinji, while Misato’ll say that he did a good job fighting today, she also can’t praise him much for it. Things turned out fine in the end, yes, but that doesn’t justify what he did – were that the case, Yamashita wouldn’t be in this situation either. Shinji’s looking rather sullen now, but Ichitaka tells him to keep his chin up – he did good. The boy’s determined to keep working at it, at least.
That’s all Reiji had to say (Yamashita’s really bummed out), but Kouichi isn’t letting it end like that: “What’s so bad about folks worrying for their friends”?! It hampers the execution of their mission, that’s what.

Kouichi isn’t taking that answer, but he’s interrupted when Tsubaki runs in. She tells him and Ichitaka to stop fawning over the Dancouga and come help her buy another batch of sushi for Ishigami… Oh, Reiji and Misato are here too? Yes, but they’ve already said what they needed, so Misato sends them off.
And, hey, Shinji considers himself a proper man, right? Then he should go and help Tsubaki carry the groceries as well. Alright, he’ll try, and, when asked by Ichitaka, Yamashita slowly says he’s good to help.

Mishima has just gotten back to Cathy regarding some stuff she asked him to look into. Both Brera and the Galaxy Fleet are tagged as confidential, and he didn’t have clearance to look into them – he’s “very sorry” he couldn’t be of help. And what about the info we discovered about the Katou Organization being the vanguard of an invasion from their own world?
Mishima professes to have been very surprised by the revelation that it is possible to make a controlled jump from one world to another. That’s given them a glimmer of hope and Prof. Kentarou’s looking into it.
But that’s not what Cathy was asking about, of course. What she wants to know is why there isn’t any information on the Frontier’s databases about Katou’s parent organization being from their Earth? Because it’s top secret, obviously – in truth, even Mishima isn’t fully aware of the situation.

What he does know for sure is that, at some point after the Frontier set sail, their Earth came under attack from an unknown force and the conflict drew to a stalemate. And what did he do when he found out about that? Well, the Frontier’s government obviously got in touch with the New United Nations Government, but the guys simply ordered them to keep going about their business – it would’ve been dangerous to stir things up further.
Only a very small number of people, including Pres. Howard, have been able to contact Earth after that, and even then they don’t get decent responses. Do note that, with contact with the Earth government effectively cut off, the approval of the use of Reactive Weapons was left at the discretion of the fleets’ highest authority.

Regardless, that’s all she wanted to ask Mishima about, and he has another appointment to take care of. “I apologize for how abrupt this was, Leon,” Cathy nods, but he just hopes that was enough to alleviate our concerns as we need to keep up our good work on the front lines.
With the call over, two things bother Cathy: one, he didn’t correct her for calling him by his first name while on official business (as he usually does), and, two, he was clearly lying to her face regarding Brera. Mishima’s not his normal self, clearly – he seems anxious, excited. And while Cathy doesn’t know what he’s hiding, she’ll do what she can to find out.

And Quatre’s just finished reporting on what Wufei’s up to. He doesn’t think he’s turned traitor, rather, he’s hoping the guy’s infiltrated Katou’s group like Trowa and the Alliance.
Une would like to believe that too, but we’ll just have to see. With that, she asks Ishigami to gather up everyone as she has something to tell us.

And so he does. What’s it all about? Well, Une has some bad news for us: it’s not circulating in the media just yet, but intel’s just came in that Relena’s been missing for a while. Last anyone heard of her, she was going to lodge a formal protest with the Alliance for their attempted nuclear strike on the PLANTs.
Does she have any suspects, Kyo asks, and Une says it’s very likely the Alliance is behind it, though they haven’t any solid leads to move on anyone yet. Still, Zechs already sees Djibril’s hand behind it all.
Next up, regarding the “Sphere” the Katou Organization set up in the previous battle, Sakon relates that the research team we sent over reported that the space inside the thing is wholly closed off to the outside – there’s no way to interact with it. And while Rachel mentions that they could confirm that there’s some object inside it, they don’t know what it is.

Sakon hypothesizes that that Sphere could be kind of like a Death Cross Point to the Katou Organization’s main force, something that’ll enable them all to come to this world? Well, Maki says these could be the “certain steps” that Katou mentioned – they set up a surveillance system to watch the thing around the clock, just to be safe.
Not knowing what’s up with that thing makes it twice as ominous to Ichitaka.

Only one last subject to touch on: Ishigami would like to explain his relation with the Katou Organization. Tetsuya himself wanted to inquire on that, and Kouji asks if what Masaki said about succeeding him as the captain of the 1st Unit was true. Ishigami knows that we’re likely asking ourselves if he used to be one of Katou’s men – would we like to know the truth?
Very much so, as Dick wants to clarify whether he’s a traitor to the Katou Organization or to us; and while Goh understands that secrets are par for the course at the top of big groups, this is something that needs to be clarified. Fair enough, so here’s the truth: Ishigami used to be one of the top officials of the Katou Organization, and all the Machinas JUDA currently has (barring the Linebarrel) were stolen by him when he left their fold.
Nagisa’s appalled that their boss turned out to be one of the bad guys, but Izuna asks her and a dumbstruck Kouichi to hold on. He’s not with them anymore, which is why he helped Lady Une with LOTUS and all, right?

Ishigami begs out forgiveness. He didn’t want to keep it a secret for so long, but this isn’t something easy for him to speak of – back then, he seriously believed that Katou would bring peace to the world. “Oh, how young and foolish I was!” Ishigami howls, and no one knows what to say to his over-the-top melodrama.
Still! Ishigami says that even if mistakes were made, anyone can take their remorse to heart and start over! Kouichi protests that he can’t handwave all that away just like that, and Shizuru agrees: he can’t just act so nonchalant when he could’ve come clean about it all this time.

Tetsuya (Tsurugi) isn’t also 100% convinced by Ishigami’s story, though he says we’re all free to gun him down if he ever turns traitor. There’s no need to be so distrustful! Lady Une says she can vouch for him… though she admits one could easily take her, a former OZ operative, of being in cahoots with him.
Daiya does raise the point that the Daiku Maryu’s Captain Garis used to work for the Darius Army; Iczer-1 herself is also a traitor to the Cthulhu people. And Johnny also figures we can’t give Ishigami too much crap for being nonchalant, since that’s pretty much how he always is.

Ishigami bawls that everyone’s so mean – hasn’t he been working so hard to help them all become good friends? All of his pranks were especially planned, out of LOVE, for that! “Hey, your parties are fine and all, but I’m gonna pass on the pranks!” Ichitaka objects.
Fine, no need to let this revelation change what’s been working just fine. Kenji at least is glad that folks eased up, as he couldn’t handle everyone being on edge… mind, Mido figures he could still stand to actually be a bit more serious about things. Blah, why do stuff always end up biting him in the ass? Maybe it wouldn’t be like that if he changed his ways, Tsubaki says.

Finally, Ritsuko calls in right then to let us know that they’ve finished repairing the EVA-00 – Ishigami likes, as it’ll make for another boost to our forces. Moreover, she tells Misato that Rei’s all healed up and ready to fight, so she’ll be coming over as well. That’s great news, especially considering how hurt the girl was last she saw her.
Ishigami’ll set up transport for Neo Tokyo 3 tomorrow to pick them up, some supplies and to finalize Shinji’s transfer to the new school. Misato thanks him, and is anxious to see Shinji make new friends there.

Cut to Shangri-La, Masaki’s congratulating everyone on the good work today successfully setting up the first Sphere. Sure, but Sawatari knows this means they’ll be working to get more of the things placed throughout the world. Yulianne asks if he can’t explain to them what the Spheres’ are being set up for, but Masaki just goes silent.
She and Wufei ask why the silent treatment. Is this above their paygrade, maybe? Sawatari himself is also curious as to what Masaki and Katou are up to. Furthermore, Dmitri and Soubi point out that all of them are here in this Organization because they’re endorsed Katou’s cause as their own; surely it’s not asking much that they also be in on the take, right?
Being somewhat mysterious about things is good as it leaves some room for their imagination to run wild, Yulianne concedes, but the incessant secrecy can lead to misjudgments like Riku’s. And as a result, they lost the Yaoyorozu.

Masaki assures them that Katou will explain everything when the time is right – he couldn’t take that away from the commander. Sawatari and Yulianne sniff at being given the run-around, so Masaki concedes to telling them something: the Spheres will set the future of this world in the proper path.
So be at ease and know that Katou’s ideals will not betray them!

: Soubi Nakajima… I see now the reason for your contempt towards justice…
: I also saw something today: you ranting about your own justice again.
: But the Commander is leading us to “true justice”, no? Will your personal justice take you down the same path as it, I wonder?
: I don’t know if it’ll be the same… but I am fighting in the name of true justice.
: Well, don’t worry – I won’t dismiss your dear justice. We’re comrades, after all.
: Hmph… Me, comrade of a man who’s forsaken the illusion he called justice? Don’t be ridiculous.
: Excuse me…?
: Does your brain still work? Then use it and ponder the essence of yours and Katou Hisataka’s justice…!

Wufei leaves.

: …

Cut to Katou’s office, he’s apologizing to Riku for not having imagined what he was going to do. Riku takes the blame upon himself for going against his orders and deploying without permission – all because he deigned to imagine what Katou himself wanted.
Katou says his imagination isn’t to blame, though Riku will have to work with a regular Arma for the time being. That’s fine, and the guy leaves to try and improve his imagination.

Katou gets called on the phone by, strangely enough, a woman named Vladimir. She called to explain the R-Daigun’s intervention – she didn’t want it to happen, but there was no other way.
See, while Vladimir would have liked to have finished the Dancouga off then and there, “he” wouldn’t have been too happy about it. Regardless, she says her plans are already 80% complete, so they’ll be laying low for a bit.
That’s fine, and Katou asks her to wish the pilot a good vacation. Vladimir doubts the girl will actually rest, what with how busy she is. True enough, Katou laughs.

Finally, at the Dragon’s Hive, Tanaka ponders how the Dancouga will be facing even harder battles now, but F.S. says they MUST grow stronger and stronger if they’re to prevail against “them”.
“If they do not ascend as high as they must,” F.S.’s hidden friend mulls, “it will mean the end for everything.”

[Mattman324]

This stage actually combines, like, three fights from the anime. One which was anime exclusive and took place in a series of cliffs near a Katou base, which provided a lot of interesting attack imagery (most of which got into L, including the Nerve Crack Fist being an attacking thing). One of which was the sphere battle, which was also anime exclusive though it replaced a few fights in the manga. And one in orbit with Yaoyorozu’s pilot, which condensed like three fights in the manga. I have no problem with L doing this.

However, this brings me to the horrid changes this stage is going to start revealing. To start with, Jack’s debut in the manga didn’t have him picking up one of Painkiller’s knives - he picked up AND SWUNG one of Vardant’s fucking swords to actually damage Vardant with, which is awesome and badass and was never in the anime and that is a crying shame. Soubi is literally 100% a different character and misses all the cool stuff from the manga, including the really important bits of his character that would go on to be important later in the story. His mech is pretty different too - that ranged attack is anime exclusive (also it’s Tail Of Kingdom IIRC). And Ishigami didn’t steal Vardant, Deceive, Painkiller, and Hind - Vardant was found by Reiji in an extremely important character moment which will be unused in the anime as a part of his shellacking, Painkiller of course didn’t enter the scene until much later, and Deceive got an origin story after the timeskip (and well after the anime finished airing) which turned out to be highly important overall to Shizuna and Izuna.

Also seriously fuck anime Ishigami, he’s an overdramatic asshole. If this scene had come up with manga Ishigami he would have dropped pretenses, gone absolutely serious, and explained absolutely everything they needed to know. He also wouldn’t have been a chronic prankster, but what can you do, Manga Ishigami is just the fucking best character (and to no one’s shock, he’s probably one of the best secrets in UX - up there with Lu Bu and Zwarth).

EDIT: Jack’s giant sword swinging in action. Notice that you don’t see the sword hit the enemy, because UX understands scaling (Jack, compared to basically everything except Lu Bu, Diaochan, and Heroman enemies, is small, and that sword is just normal sword size compared to most mechs. You shouldn’t be seeing a giant sword hit something.), and that there’s an enemy shown in the DK version that isn’t in the anime but is a bit spoilery for the manga.

[Brunom1]

[details=Click to see the mission!]

And we’re back, Ichitaka having secured a rather comfortable lead up top while Quatre and Kenji remain tied. I’ve yet to grown used to seeing Quatre’s face here.

On the money side of things, Daiya (weapons, HP, armor), the Nagahama duo and Dancouga took most of the rest (+1 to main stats).

Skill parts, Kenji’s still hogging Infights, while I remain uncertain if I want to save my Gunfights for when Heero and Kira EVENTUALLY join, or if I’ll keep handing those to Alto (who’s already at L3). Maybe I’ll give them to Shinji, since all but his knife and absolute strongest attack at ranged? Hmm…

Kouichi, Shinji and Ichitaka are deploying as event units, so we adjust accordingly:
Jeeg/Kyo
Reiji/Quatre
Dancouga/Miu
Iczer-1/Puria
Kouji/Yagyuu
Tetsuya/Canaria
Ozma/Luca
Alto/Michel
Zechs/Noin
Daiya/Yanma
Shizuru/Anna
Dick/Klan
Combattler/Deceive
Voltes/Mira
Tetsuya Kouji/Yamashita

Forward!

The mechanics are having breakfast and are hyped to get to work. They need to stay well fed too as, like Shizuka points out, the whole team’ll be in trouble if they’re starved and down for the count. Johnny himself is also sharing the meal and finds it quite good – he’d like to get the recipe for it.
And with Team D’s arrival, Shibakusa has a warning to the other mechanics: see, they’ll also be handling the Dancouga’s maintenance and the thing, like so many other mechs, has a bunch of black boxed bits. Meaning everyone’ll need to be extra-careful as they start tinkering with it.
Touko and the others are up for it, which is good as Kurara and the others can’t really tell them anything about the stuff. That’s fine to Shibakusa – it comes with the territory.

A girl walks into the dorm right then, though she’s not another of Daiya’s friends as Shizuka assumes. It’s Ru Riruri, of course, the Dragon’s Hive psychiatrist and she’s just been sent over to join the rest of Team D. Ruriruri? No, Ru Riruri!
Shibakusa scratches his head at another kid, but Ru says she’s 15 years and 3 months old, so she’s no kid! Regardless, she was planning on getting to work straight away and asks where the rest of LOTUS us. At school, Johnny points out, since so many of them ARE students.
A shame, since Ru had everything ready to start her work on Yamashita and Shinji especially – indeed, Shizuka agrees that everyone’s been somewhat concerned for those two. Well, best Ru can do is wait by her office.

Cut to Ishigami’s office, Emi’s just been informed that she’s being assigned to the Daiku Maryu as an operator. She’s rather surprised by this, but Reiji says she’s the only one who could take Yamashita’s place handing the flow of battlefield intel; mind you, Yamashita isn’t losing his job, but Reiji wants to take precautions in case we see a repeat of what happened last fight. Rachel’s sure Emi can handle it just fine, and the girl agrees.
While Kouichi ponders this shift, Goh apologizes for holding them both here – they’ll be rather late for class now. Still, Emi says this was important. Kouichi ask what she’d like to do, as they’ve already lost a chunk of today’s class, but Emi still wants to experience as much as this world’s school as she’s able to.

Kouichi’s still wrapping his head around the fact that she’s from a parallel dimension, but his mind’s brought back to reality when Emi insists that he won’t learn anything if he doesn’t go to school.
What’s she getting at by that? Well, Ishigami’s told her that boys, Kouichi included, lose touch with their humanity as they grow – so Kouichi needs to work hard to use his intellect and maintain his reasoning and self-control! Indeed, Ishigami nods that, at the kid’s age, he’s less of a human and more like a wild beast.
“Could you please stop teaching her nonsense, Mr. Ishigami? You’re confusing her,” Yui sighs, and, indeed, Emi doesn’t understand how she’s confused.

Over by the mess hall, Tetsuya’s busily lecturing on how to deal inscrutable foes. It’s advisable to make simple strikes, though that doesn’t mean doing so haphazardly – as our more melee-educated fighters know, it’s very important to manage your center of gravity.
Alto isn’t melee-educated, but he knows the importance of your center of gravity when dancing… and is very annoyed with himself that his mind always drifts towards that. Nagisa pokes him, asking what the connection between center of gravity and attacking is, but he tells her to ask Anna. The Goh Okusaer should handle more similarly to the Iczer Robo than his Valkyrie.
Well, she would’ve asked Anna but the girl is currently soundly asleep by her corner. Also tries shaking her awake, but all that gets is her wishing Goh a good day – seems like even asleep, she’s always thinking about her husband.

Michel and Tsubaki tell him to let Anna be, as she’ll likely be studying all this stuff during her regular training. Tetsuya himself sees no issue with letting her rest since she’s been training extra-hard every single day. Yeah, he could hear them whispering and is not happy! 20 laps for everyone – 5 for Naoto and Nagisa since they’re not military!
What, Kenji too?! But he didn’t do anything! There’s no “I” in team – in the battlefield, one person’s mistake can lead to all their deaths! Boss groans that Tetsuya’s spending too much time with Sakonji, but the man isn’t picky of who he learns training techniques from if they work.
Well, Daiya won’t complain and dashes out the door to do his laps. Naoto explains that he’s been training a lot, so he’s getting plenty strong – Tsubaki suggests they get to it as well, as the sooner the laps are done, the sooner they can rest.

Cut to Neo Tokyo 3’s middle school, Shinji’s not really enjoying it too much. Misato said he’d make new friends here, but all he got was a bit of chit-chat from random folks when they found out he was with LOTUS – they don’t really CARE about him as a person. Rei, now healed, isn’t speaking much either.
And, after this, Shinji’ll have the same routine as yesterday: train, get a little pat on the back… then he’ll likely have to fight, and be scared, again… But his grumbling is cut short when a boy, Kensuke, comes over and asks him to come with for a bit.

What’s going on? It’s Touji, who really, really wants to kick Shinji’s ass some. Kensuke explains that his sister got hurt during the Angel’s attack; and while Kensuke himself figures it wasn’t Shinji’s fault, Touji doesn’t really have anyone else to vent on, so…
“I… I didn’t even want to be piloting that thing,” Shinji grunts, “And I still did everything I could to protect this city…!” Touji doesn’t appreciate that and, yelling that Shinji didn’t protect jack, knocks him to the ground.

“… Why did I get beat up just because I piloted the EVA…? And aren’t there so many people who can fight even if I don’t do a good job…? Why do I even have to go through this…?”

And the Misaki Middle School kids have just made it back to JUDA. Kouichi groans that Domyoji’s been going crazy with that “Hayase Corps” thing, and approached him today looking to put some big event together. Ichitaka figures it’s all good and, from what he’s heard, he’s looking at doing a party with Risako and Furuya (who’ve also joined the Hayase Corps).
This party talk is sounding too much like Ishigami for Kouichi’s taste – hopefully Domyoji won’t ask to make a crapton of sushi. On the flip side, Miu comes in and she thinks all that sounds like fun. Yamashita’s also came back with her, and Ichitaka asks if he’ll be coming for today’s later training session? He thinks he and Alice have been getting pretty good!
Unfortunately, no, Yamashita passes on it – ask Miu to spar – and takes off then and there. He’s not as bummed out as he was yesterday, but Kouichi can see that he’s far from better. That’s no surprise to Ichitaka, of course, considering everything Reiji said.

Miu herself wonders if he’ll be alright, as she’s never seen him like this. Have they known each other for long? Yes, though they didn’t speak much back then: “I was with him at JUDA’s medical institution before we became Factors. It was only kind of recently that we actually started talking to each other.”
And what was she doing in a medical institution? She tells Kouichi that she was really hurt after an accident, and it was JUDA that treated and helped her recover to full. Her fighting with a Machina has been sort of how she’s repaying them for all that.
Emi presumes that Yamashita’s bound to have some story like that as well…

By the Dannar Base, Luna’s relating that a batch of MSs has gone haywire and it’s looking like the things got jacked by Mimetic Beasts! Sounds unbelievable, but Kiriko posits that they’ve evolved to develop this ability, just like that one before with jamming capabilities.
None of the Mimetic Beasts fought 5 years ago, in the War of Giants, had any skills like that, so the only explanation is that the survivors have been adapting themselves to better fight their natural enemy – humanity. The speed with which they’ve evolving is mindboggling to Yotsuya.
Regardless, Luna says that the batch of haywire MSs fled from an Earth Alliance base in North America and was headed towards Japan – we should be careful. Kiriko thanks her for the info, and will pass it on to JUDA. Here’s hoping the Mimetic Beasts are done evolving.

Kouichi finds Yamashita sitting by himself, and takes a seat nearby. Hey, why did he become a Factor? Well, that came out of nowhere. Still, Kouichi heard of how he was hospitalized at JUDA and stuff.
Yamashita confirms: “I was born with really crummy health… I went through a bunch of treatments, but, in the end, becoming a Factor was the only way I could survive.” So he’s also doing this to repay JUDA for helping him?
Somewhat, but there’s something else: “When I was undergoing treatment, one day I saw Reiji piloting… and that made me want to be like him,” Yamashita ponders. “I wanted to be strong enough to stand rock solid even with no one else around… to be strong like him…”
Still, he’s ever grateful to what Ishigami did to him – it’s the only reason why he gets to enjoy high school nowadays. Wait, HIGH school? Yeah, he’s a freshman. Th-Then, he’s one year older than Kouichi? He was sure the guy was at the very least the same… And he’s been acting all casual-like with him, dropping his honorifics and stuff. For shame!

Yamashita doesn’t mind that at all, of course, but Kouichi’s now reflexively appending honorifics; he tries making small talk, but his newfound formality doesn’t feel right to Yamashita. “Bah, everyone’s worrying too much about me just because I got a bit bummed out,” he grumbles. “Listen, I’m fine already, so you guys can chill. Alright?”
Well, Kouichi’s relieved to see him getting back to his usual self… which only makes the formality all the more irksome. What did Kouichi eat that made him such a mother hen?
“Oh, don’t say that. What kind of a man do you take me for?” Kouichi balks; “A stupid one, that’s what,” Yamashita fires back… “I’m just kidding. Thanks, Kouichi; I am feeling better now.”

Some time later, word’s gotten around that Yamashita’s doing better. Thank goodness, as it was really hard for Nagisa to watch a friend hurt like that – still, she thinks Reiji could stand to mull over how he gets his point across.
Either way, Ichitaka’s off to try and convince Yamashita to spar with him one more time. When Hyouma asks what’s gotten him so gung-ho, he says watching how hard Anna’s been working kind of lit a fire under him.
Kouji just hopes Anna won’t take things too far.

Speaking of, Anna and Shizuru are in the hangar… and it all sounds rather sexual (as you’d expected from Godannar; but I am nothing if not professional, damn it!).
Things are going a bit too fast for comfort for Anna. They’ve only just started, though; it’s a bit strange because it’s her first time – she’ll get used to it. It’s not that simple, though… Ah—
See that, Anna needs to pay attention. But it’s so sensitive… Don’t be scared now – time to take things up a notch! No, wait! She can’t handle this! CRAAAAAAAAAAASH

Yeah, it was the simulator and Anna’s just caused her Plasma Drive to explode. In real life, she’d be dead now, Noin says. Seems to Goh that she’ll need more time before she’s fully acclimatized to the Goh Okusaer’s Drive.
“It’s like trying to play the piano and cook at the same time,” Anna grumbles. If she can’t handle it, Noin figures they can always ask Mira to take her place. NO, she’ll do it! SHE’LL BE FINE! Shouldn’t she take a break, at least? No!

Shizuru objects that overextending won’t make her learn this any faster, but Anna says she’s doing so such thing. “This is all I have left… If I can’t do it, then I wouldn’t deserve to be here!” she proclaims.
Noin likes what she hears, and asks if Shizuru’s good to keep going. “Who do you think you’re talking to? I’ve been piloting since you were a child,” Shizuru boasts. Hah, apologies then – they’ll start over from the Level A program!

So off they go, and it’ll be a while: Anna’s movements lack control, and the only when the pilot’s flying well will the machine move well. Furthermore, she needs to keep her flow of energy under control. Goh watches on, quietly wishing Anna good luck and apologizing to Shizuru – this is all he can do while grounded, and he’s not happy.
But the alarm starts sounding, Yui informing that the Mimetic Beast-hijacked MSs have just been spotted on radar. Noin tells Goh to board the Daiku Maryu while everyone else gets ready to launch.
The fact that the things developed the capacity to hijack MSs bothers Shizuru, but Anna’s sure there’s no enemy we can’t beat if we work together!

Cut to NERV, Rei and the EVA-00 have officially been handed over to Misato’s care – the Daiku Maryu should be coming over soon, so they’ll leave when it gets here. While they wait, Ritsuko asks how Shinji’s doing. Misato tells her not to worry, as there are plenty of kids his age with LOTUS: she’d like to think that those fellow teenagers will manage to help him out.
And Shinji’s certainly not doing so hot after his run-in with Touji, back in the simulator and mumbling his “Target in the center, pull the switch” chant over and over. Getting beat by a classmate during his first day in the new school isn’t great, and Ritsuko wonders if the security team’s doing their job. Misato confirms they are, yes.
Mind, Shinji didn’t get hurt too badly, and she figures they shouldn’t intervene in his personal life if they can avoid it. The issue here is that the kid’s more problematic than she anticipated, and Ritsuko sees what she means: it could be than Shinji’s simply not suited towards making friends.

She compounds her point by pointing at the “Hedgehog’s Dilemma”: even if a hedgehog wants to snuggle with another for warmth, the closer they get, the more their thorns hurt one another. The same applies to humans in general, and Ritsuko ponders that Shinji may be unwittingly keeping others away in order to avoid that pain. Still, dealing with all that is part of growing up.
But this conversation will have to wait, as the alarm sounds: Maya reports an unknown being spotted, with a Blue Analysis Pattern. That means the next Angel has come, so Misato orders everyone ready to launch.
Rei quietly confirms, even she’s saying more than Shinji is. Misato says LOTUS’ll be here soon and asks him to lend a hand with protecting Neo Tokyo 3; the best answer she gets is an “…Understood.” Not looking good.

Mission 13 – A Reason to Fight

: (Why am I piloting this thing again? I’m even being hated because of it…)

: Intel sent by HQ tells that those MSs hijacked by the Mimetic Beasts are apparently also headed this way. All in all, we might have an ambush in our hands, so everyone make sure you don’t get tunnel vision with the Angel.
: Psh, talk about a heavy workout to have after lunch.
: Well, I figure you’ll be fine if you’re making jokes about it.
: Emi, this will be your first real engagement. How are you feeling?
: I’m fine, ma’am, and happy to be here.

Beep!

: The 5th Angel has entered the combat zone!

: Here it is…!
: And we don’t even know how useful the data from the previous Angel will be against this one. What an annoying enemy…
: Hey, Shinji. You’re gonna have to finish this one off too, so show us what you got!
: Target in the center, pull the switch… Target in the center, pull the switch… I’ll try my best.
: And here’s our first official fight as part of LOTUS. Get your head in gear, Aoi!
: All four of us also need to bring our A-game for this!
: Yeah, this isn’t your everyday enemy!
: Alright, I hear you! Now let’s go wild!

Take out the 5th Angel, don’t lose Shinji, Rei, Kouichi, Ichitaka OR any ship. Quite the list of guys to watch over, but they are all very survivable… provided you bring in your ships to bait Shamshel. If you don’t, he’ll likely tear Shinji a new one!
And, same deal with Sachiel, we can’t really take the thing out until we get a morale boost, so we’ll instead work towards the sure-to-arrive Mimetic Beasts – send everyone due west. It’s quite the long trek, so you’re advised to at least have your land-bound units hitch a ride aboard a ship.

Shamshel, the 5th Angel
Mech Features:
A.T. Field (Strong)
30% HP and EN Regen

Same deal as Sachiel, though it exchanges slightly less range for more everything else. Bait it to follow your group with the ships and, once your morale is good enough, swarm and destroy.

Evangelion Unit #00 (Rei Ayanami)
Pilot Skills:
Sync Rate
Shoot Down
Shield Defense
Guard
Support Defense L2
Attack Combo L1
Spirit Commands:
Focus
Iron Wall
Attune
Mech Features:
Gun
Repair Module
A.T. Field
Umbilical Cable
Squad Bonus: Armor +100, HP +500, Money Earned +10%, Land Terrain Rating = A

This might well be Rei’s best outing in SRW, and simply because the devs understood what players will have her be 99% of the time: a defensive support. She’s tough as no one’s business and makes an absolutely perfect partner for pretty much any Super.
Repair Module gives her a 10% regen to the squad, the armor and HP bonus further bolster her group (if the leader is focus-fired, she can support defend to all but certainly no-sell any attack that isn’t a boss’) and the cash bonus means you can use that extra bulkiness to send someone forward, tank-kill everything and rake in.
Her only weakness is that the #00 lacks in attack range (best is 1-3, with her rifle), but I’m still inclined to say that she’s the best defensive support in the game.

As everyone moves onward, I have Shinji and Rei unplug from the nearby building and switch to this power station over here.

Enemy Phase!

And Shamshel’s already taken the bait.

Here’s its only attack – it HURTS.

Player Phase!

From the cliff-face on the northern edge of the map…

: Woow! This is 100% awesome! It was so worth stepping out the shelter to come here!
: Look, there’re the Machinas and the Macross! And a bunch of other mechs I never even seen before! Aah, someone pinch me!
: Least you’re clear ‘bout what you like…
: Listen, we’ve no idea when there’d be another attack, so we couldn’t let this chance slip by!
: Psh, guess not… And the new guy’s piloting that purple thing with the horn?
: Yeah, that’s the Evangelion Unit #01!
: Then I reckon we’ll see if he’s actually busting his ass to protect this city.

: The Earth Alliance?! They must be here to help us!
: Easy there, Naoto. What’s the read on them, Shizuru?
: We’re detecting Mimetic Beasts… Looks like those are the jacked MSs.
: They got here pretty fast, didn’t they? I didn’t know Mimetic Beasts could be in a rush.
: Seeing how they can now hijack units, we should presume that they’ve developed other unknown skills. Exercise extreme caution, people!
: But remember that the priority target is still the Angel.
: OKAY! Let’s get to work!

Since Shinji and Rei are already there, they’ll be leading the charge.

By the by, none of these mooks will ever pop either of the EVAs Fields (when they manage to connect).
Kenji’s the only one who gets in attack range, and he finishes Shinji’s target.

Enemy Phase!

Rei’s a VERY tempting target for the enemy AI, which is annoying with her short range. She weakens a handful, but most mooks are too far away.

By the by, these mooks are called Fat Boys.
Hyouma and Shizuna take a kill.

Player Phase!

There are a handful of dangerous mooks here in the form of sniping Zamza-Zahs, but they’re far behind enemy lines. Considering how bulky they also are, making a beeline for them with low morale is risky.

So we’ll just grin and bear it.

Rei’s weakened mooks make for easy kills at least – our morale’ll rise pretty quickly.

Ozma, as always, is leading the charge, so Zechs hops into the command aura to follow up.

Following that, Alto and Iczer-1 each take a Windam.

Finish this one off, why don’t you.

: … Take a look, Anna. I’ll show that no matter how hard you try, you cannot surpass me as a pilot!

Bam.

Kenji, Rei and Shinji each pick and destroy a Taurus.

Enemy Phase!

Seems I brought Daiya a bit too forward, and the Zamzas didn’t like that – they all converge on him.

It leaves him hurting a bit, but nothing he can’t handle (he at least hits back twice as hard).

And the weakened mooks fall in droves: one for Quatre, Shizuna, Hyouma, and Noin. Shinji and Aoi, meanwhile, are cleaving through the MSs left and right (each takes three kills), as they can oneshot them even in regular hits.

Hey, thanks, Lulu still needs some levels.

We’ll just be one level short of her learning Bless by the time this mission ends.

Player Phase!

: Ah! That’s—!
: Yes, it is! The Straybird!
: Yuu! My bro!
: That’s the bot Ichitaka told us about?
: …

Ichitaka moves by the Straybird.

: Bro, did you find the… No, wait, that’ll have to wait – we’ve a bunch of enemies over there! Lend us a hand, alright?
: Haruno, I’m sure we can defeat the Angel and the Mimetic Beasts with your help—
: … Is this all the resolve you have?
: Huh?

Yuu: Haruno, are you ready?
Haruno: I am, Yuu. Let’s begin…
Yuu: See now how weak you are…!
Haruno: Shifting into the Imaginary Road.
Yuu: Here I come, Ichitaka…!
Haruno: So that really is all it amounts to with Alice’s support?
Ichitaka: Wha—
Alice: Haruno, what are you doing…?!

: Urk! B-Bro?!
: What the, a sibling rivalry now?
: Ichitaka… your fighting days are over.
: Wh-What are you doing, Yuu…?
: You two can’t make proper use of the Rushbird. You’re an amateur as a pilot… and Alice’s AI is nothing but lacking.
: Haruno, what do you mean?
: We’re telling you to surrender and hand over the Rushbird. Surely you can presume that much.
: We can’t do that, no way! I need the Rushbird!
: Then I guess we’re done talking.
: If you won’t accept our terms… then we’ll have to take it by force.
: Wh-What the hell are you thinking?! There’s an Angel right there! If you don’t know what that is, we can tell you!
: I told you: we’re done talking.
: … All units, the Straybird’s a threat to our current operation. You are to treat it as you would any other enemy – and that’s an order.
: I guess there’s no other way around it. Humanity’s hanging on the knife’s edge here, so anyone who gets in the way has gotta go.
: You… You’re telling me to attack?! Just give me one more chance to talk to him!
: They themselves have declared that they won’t parlay with us.
: Still, I know there’s something going on with him! You can’t tell me to just take him out!
: Nagumo, can you even afford to worry about others right now? The Straybird has got its sights fixated on you.
: If you’ve got time to mull over nonsense, then pull yourself together and focus on the task at hand!
: “Nonsense”?!
: And if you can’t do that… then leave. LOTUS has no place for those who can’t fight.
: R-Reiji…!
: Heey! You can’t talk to him like that!
: This is not the time, Hayase!
: Oh, no, I’m saying it! Ichitaka’s always took Yuu as a brother-figure and he’s worried about him!
: Are you really so thickheaded that you don’t get what it feels like to care and worry for your family?! That’s not something you can just tag as “nonsense”!
: …
: Kouichi…
: Or maybe someone like you can’t feel the pain of others too?!
: … Eliminating the Angel is our top priority. All troops are to form up around the #01.
: Heey! I was giving you crap, you know!
: Yes, I could see that.
: Psh… Fine, then I’ll handle this! Ichitaka, you absolutely can’t take out your brother… or, rather, that crazy Prof.’s grandkid!
: Huh?
: Just fight him and look for a way to wrap this up without dropping the guy! Let’s show him what our justice’s all about!
: Sorry… And thanks, Kouichi!
: But how will we go about this…? The Straybird’s performance is beyond my ability to process.
: Then we’ll think of something together!
: Yeah, didn’t the lesson go that melee hits are good when you’re fighting someone and don’t know what tricks he’s got?
: Pretty sure he was talking about enemies with barriers and special armor, numbskull!
: No… that’s not a bad idea actually. It’s a lot easier to kinda hold back a punch than a shot!
: Still, it’s gonna be real tough pinning that guy down while dealing with the Angel.
: That doesn’t sound like you, Mister. Those who don’t give up always win, right? You’re not going to be saving your dad from the Darius with that wimpy attitude.
: Dick… Yeah, you’re right. The second you give up, then it’s all over!
: Get to it, people! Don’t make the same mistake I did!
: ……
: But be very careful, everyone! The Straybird’s speed is extraordinary!
: Here I come, bro…!

So now we got two bosses to deal with, but I reckon this is enough for today.

Rest of the mission is nearly done, so keep an eye out for it tomorrow.

See you all then![/details]

[Brunom1]

[details=Click to see the mission!]
So now we need to reduce the Straybird under 30% - shooting it down is a game over. That’s not really a problem, since the bot has plenty of HP:

Straybird (Yuunagi Grife, HL-0 Haruno)
Pilot Skills:
Sword Cut
Shoot Down
THAT’S IT!

Well, what can I say? The Straybird is more offense-oriented than the Rushbird and is somewhat dodgy, though it has ABSOLUTELY no defenses worth mentioning. Its attacks are long range and will do more damage than anything we’ve fought thus far, mind, so come packing some sort of defensive spirit.
Yuu’s a pretty good pilot too, but his Skill list is so very gimped to (probably) showcase that he might not be as resolved to do this as he proclaims.

Regardless, he’s quite far away from our main group, so Ichitaka will be spamming Accel and leading him over. In the meantime, the mooks have already been cut to half and the other half will follow these two turns – the Zamza-Zahs are now top priority lest they MAPW us.

Fast forward!

: Goh left the Dannar in my care – I can’t sully its reputation!

–

: I need to work twice as hard now that Goh can’t fight!
: Time to show the results of my training with Shizuru and Noin!

Here’s the dynamic finish for Iczer Robo Full Power while we’re at it.

And, hey, did you know that the Quarter also has a DK for when they use the Macross Cannon Buster Cannon as a ship? I didn’t!

And now to deal with Yuu.

: Bro, work with us just a bit… is what I’d say, but I doubt you’d listen.
: …
: Yuu, Haruno, please! None of us want to fight you!
: If you don’t, then get off the Rushbird. It’s that simple.
: Sorry, Professor…! I’m gonna have to get a bit rough with your Straybird for a sec!

Haruno: “Get off the Rushbird, Ichitaka…!”
Yuu: “It belongs to me…!”
Shinji supporting: “I have to help Ichitaka…!”
Alice: “Straybird, in sight!”
Ichitaka: “We’re up against Yuu… he’s not just going to sit there and let us hit him!”
Yuu: “So this really is your best, Ichitaka…?!”

: Hey! You think just because you really want the Rushbird that right and wrong don’t matter anymore?!
: …
: Your silence speaks volumes, you know!
: No, I’m just not obligated to say anything. We’re going.
: Copy that. Engaging via Variation C of the Anti-Combattler V pattern.

: So that’s a speedy birdman bot? Gonna make for a good prelim to our rematch with the R-Daigun.
: That might be oversimplifying things, but I suppose more experience is never a bad thing.
: We can’t let others gather data on us beyond what’s necessary. Let’s end this ASAP, Yuu.
: Right.
: Well, it’s way easier to fight someone who’s apathetic than the opposite. Here we go, guys!

: We’re only after the Rushbird! If you don’t want to get hurt, keep away!
: We’ve no business with you.
: What, and I’m supposed to shut up and do as told? That attitude tells me you’re a real crummy big brother!

: Ichitaka always spoke a lot about you… But if you’ll be a problem, then I’m gonna have to beat you up! Don’t make me!
: LOTUS… Seems there’re more bleeding hearts in their group than I thought.

: Hah! The stronger the enemy, the more hyped I get to rumble with ‘em! Fly over here, birdie!
: He’s one of those who fights with his instincts?
: I confess that that’s the sole subject I can’t learn. Still, it could be worth our time to fight him.

: Hyouma, that unit has quite the superlative mobility! Keep your eyes peeled!
: Psh, you think I’m gonna get slapped around by some rando coming out of left field? Hell, no!
: We should try and get some live combat data from this one. It could be useful to us.
: Fine, but only so we can take the Rushbird.

: This guy… His moves are on par with Brera’s?!
: Meaning you just have to go at it the same way you did before. Don’t slip up now, princess.
: Who are you calling princess?! And I don’t need you reminding me to watch it!
: …Come!

: Why are you keeping quiet?! If you got stuff to say, then come out with it!
: If you don’t, you’ll wind up doing something you can’t go back on. And then you’ll regret it for the rest of your life…!
: Talking wouldn’t amount to anything.
: That’s a bunch of crap when you won’t even give it a try!

: … Please stay out of our way.
: It’s you who’s in the way… move!

: We really can’t manage them all at once…
: It’ll only get worse the longer this goes. We should try and end this in a single stroke.
: Understood.

: Output rising… and stable.

*Yuu moves faaaar away.

: What’s going on? Is he running?
: No, he’s not.
: I agree – the guy’s gearing up for an attack.
: Then, Alice, gimme an estimate!
: O-OK!
: Too late.

: Hrk! I couldn’t even react to that!
: You lack the support of a proper combat AI, meaning every single move you make is flawed. You two cannot win against us!
: While you’ve been going about your everyday lives, we’ve thought only of saving the Professor!

Faaaar away!

: Monica!
: Their unit has massive speed and maneuverability for a manned model!
: I knew it… Going easy on him is simply putting us in danger.
: Nagumo, you see how strong he is, right? Just let us take care of him as we should.
: Gch… Is there really nothing I can do…?!
: No, don’t throw in the towel yet!
: It’s fine, Kouichi… Taking a look at things, it’s clear that what Yuu said was right from the get-go.
: Oh, don’t give me that! What do you want to do right now, huh?! Are you really fine with just calling it quits like this?!
: Kouichi…
: We gotta prove to Reiji that our justice isn’t in the wrong, don’t we?!
: Y-Yeah, you’re right!
: That’s enough of your nonsense.

Agaaaaain!

: Urgh…! But I’m not gonna be able to do jack if I can’t keep up with that speed of his…! Any ideas, Alice?!
: If we can close the distance with him in the time it takes to charge his attack, then…
: That won’t work – he’ll just blast away to another spot!
: Let’s end this in the next run, Yuu. Is that fine?
: Do it. We’ll break his spirit with this strike.
: Understood – initiating charge.
: … Alice, is it possible to control the Rushbird’s barrier manually?
: Y-Yes, I can somewhat manipulate its energy absorption functionalities…
: Then the only way I see for your unit to attain greater speed than the Straybird would be propelled via a high-pressure energy blast. According to my calculations, the Linebarrel’s Executor would be best suited for this…
: Oh, I get it! If the barrier absorbs the thermal energy, leaving only the kinetic energy through, then…!
: Now that’s a wild and reckless plan… I like it.
: Nice one, Kosuke – that’s why you’re a legit genius! Let’s do it, Ichitaka!
: Yeah! Time for the gamble of a lifetime!
: …
: What’s up, Alice? I’m gonna need you to handle the barrier, while I concentrate on bashing him into the dirt!
: But if I make any mistake in how I control the barrier, we could both end up dead…
: If the barrier’s too strong, we won’t get any extra speed and we’ll be easy pickings for Yuu; if the barrier’s too weak, we’ll be on the receiving end of the Executor’s shot. Even a specialist would find this difficult – there is absolutely no way an amateur like me could do it…!
: STOP WHINING!
: !!
: It’s not about what you can, or can’t do! You just have to do it!
: Take me, for example! Controlling the Plasma Drive is like trying to play the piano and cook at the same time, but I’m doing it!
: (Control Parallelism… associating… Cooking… Maybe like this, I…)
: Understood. Many thanks, Anna. I… I’ll give it a go!
: (“Stop whining”… She also said that to me before…)
: Well, looks like everyone’s on the same page now. Let’s get to it, then!

: Kouichi, keep the Executor’s output steady at 97% and fire on my signal, please.
: Gaah, I got my own set of limitations to work with too? … Well, guess I better bring home the goods after acting all confident!
: Charge complete in T minus 8… 7…
: You two got this, Kouichi, Alice…
: (Not too strong or it’ll burn, not to weak or it’ll be undercooked…)
: … You’re done.
: Now, Kouichi!

: GOOOOO!!

: HERE IT COMES!!

Ichitaka’s blasted towards the Straybird!

Alice: “We’re closing in on the Straybird – fast!”
Ichitaka: “Thanks a bunch, Kouichi! This is the resolve we have, Yuu!!”

Alice: “I won’t be beaten either, Haruno!”

Ichitaka: “LIGHTNING FIST!”

Yuu: “What…?!”

: …!
: We did it, Alice! Didja see that, Kouichi?!
: Hell, yeah, I did!
: ……
: It seems we underestimated them somewhat. We must retreat and reorganize.
: Hrm…
: Hold on, bro! What… What happened to the Professor?! Do you know anything?!
: That’s none of your business…! Next time we meet, I will be leaving with the Rushbird…!

: Bro…
: Signal lost…
: Easy come, easy go, I suppose…
: We’ll need to discuss how we’ll deal with him in the future – we can’t afford to do whatever strikes our fancy every time.

I enjoy the fact that the bot’s barrier actually has plot significance and isn’t just a feature that’s there. On the flip side, Kosuke, wouldn’t it have been safer for everyone to have used, like, a Dankuuhou instead of the city-slicing beam sword? Or maybe had the Rushbird hitch a ride on the Great Booster?

Either way, we’ve another target to kill!

: This one’s kind of like a giant protist… And while it’s looking as tough as the last one, at least it’s better than the Vajra in that I can see its weak spot right there…!

: Don’t suppose there’s a magazine with info on the Angels, right, Johnny? Some “Men’s UMAs Monthly” or whatever?
: I’m not subscribed to it, unfortunately, but they haven’t run any articles on the Angels anyway.
: The hell, that’s an actual thing?!
: Whatever – this is still just another mission for us. And we’re going to tackle it like the pros that we are!

: Think you’re gonna weird me out with your freaky looks? Not happening!
: I’ve had crazy stuff like ghosts and reptiles come my way, and I never even got chills while beating them to kingdom come!

: Kosuke! Is this Angel’s A.T. Field as strong as the last one’s?
: Yes, it is. So when you go attack it, give it everything we’ve got!

: Dunno how proud you are of them super-sharp tentacles, but you’re gonna learn that chopping Jeeg up don’t mean squat!

: Target in the center… And then…
: That’s it, just like you practiced, alright?
: Yes…

: Haah, haah…
: What kind of technique is that…?
: I-Isn’t his fighting kind of all over the place? He was trained, right?
: You see a lot of recruits get like this. Normally, they wouldn’t be allowed to sortie, but…
: Eh? Why’s the new guy’s bot all lethargic?
: Uh, oh… Think it’s because of your punch?
: Z-Zip it, you!

: Daiya, it seems the Angel’s weapons are limited to his tentacles, but don’t let your guard down! We don’t know if it has other tricks up its sleeve!
: No idea what it might pull, huh? Heheh, now I’m even more excited for this!

: Is it down?!

: No, we haven’t stopped it yet!

Shamshel rushes forward.

: Shinji, watch out! Evade!
: Huh?!

: Gaaah!

The EVA-01 is knocked north of town.

: Shinji, are you alright?!
: The Umbilical Cable’s disconnected!
: The EVA’s switched to its internal power supply!
: How damaged is the #01?!
: Nothing major – it’s still functional!
: Hrrm…!

Shamshel goes after him again.

: Captain, he’s in big trouble!
: Ready the Piercing Zolmanium Bullets! Draw the Angel’s attention!
: Lulu, wait! There’re people right by the EVA-01…!
: Ah—Aaaaah…!
: Eeek…!
…!! It’s…!
: Shinji’s classmates?! What are they doing there?! They can’t engage with those two nearby!

Shamshel steps over.

: Gch!

Slash!

: Why aren’t they attacking…?! LOTUS is just sitting there!
: They can’t attack because we’re here…!
: The #01’ll be running out of energy soon!
: Shinji, bring those two into your cockpit! Pull back once they’re aboard and let Rei handle the Angel!
: ?!
: Do you two hear me?! Get in inside the EVA, quick!
: G-Get inside…?!
: Hurry, Touji!

In they go.

: Wh-What the?! The thing’s filled with water!
: Ooh, where’s my camera…?!
: Alright, they’re in. Pull back, Shinji! Rei… cover him as best you can.
: Yes, ma’am.
: Hey, new guy, didn’t you catch that?! She told you to run off!
: I can’t run… I can’t run… I can’t run…!
: Ah?

: Yow, he threw the Angel right off!
: The power an adrenaline rush at work, maybe?
: That’s enough, Shinji! Retreat via Extraction Route #34!
: (Fighting scares me… and piloting the EVA even got me hated by others – it’s awful.)
: (But… running now would be even worse. Everyone here has it just as bad; and that girl, Ayanami, might also end up getting hurt again.)
: (If I ran, no one in LOTUS would accept me. Dad wouldn’t either…So I—!)
: I can’t run…!

Shinji charges after Shamshel.

: Shinji, that was a direct order! Retreat! Shinji!
: The #01 only has a few seconds left of energy!
: Haaaaaaah!!

: The EVA-01’s powered down.
: We’ve confirmation that the target has been completely destroyed.
: Haah… haah… haah…
: (Ikari… Ya’ve been this scared all along? And ya kept on fighting…?)
: Attaboy, Shinji!
: Sniffles… aah…
: H-Hey… Shinji?
: LtCol. Katsuragi, recover the #01. The civilians need to be brought to safety, too.
: You’re right. Bring back the #01 immediately!

: We’ve all enemies confirmed destroyed. I think we can shift back to yellow alert.
: Yuu… Where did you run off to?
: Well, he sure wasn’t like you told us. Even if he didn’t want to work with us, I was real surprised when he started firing.
: First things first, we should leave the area and give room for the people to leave the shelters.
: We’ll guide both your ships into NERV’s docks. It might be a bit cramped in there, but we’ll be happy to have you.
: Roger that.
: Um… Is Shinji alright?
: Physically, he’s fine… Less so mentally, though…
: Speaking of, he was acting kinda weird today.
: Sorry about that. He’s just been through plenty.
: LtCol. Katsuragi, I’d like to request permission for several pilots to enter NERV HQ.
: Hmm, I didn’t run that by the Commander, so—
: Permission granted.
: (…! Commander…)
: You’ve my gratitude. I’ll contact your people once we’re in.
: Heh… So that’s how it is.
: Eh? What is?
: Hey, that works for us! We can go and check up on Shinji!
: (That’s exactly why Reiji got us permission…)
: (And it went right over the kids’ heads, huh?)

And, quickly now, here are the handful of convos we didn’t get:

: We’ve an Angel in our hands, so nothing but our strongest attacks will have any effect. Please be careful.
: You got it – we’ll throw everything we have at it!

–

: You guys wonder why the Angels are all coming to this fortress of a city…?
: Wonder later. We need to take it down before it does even more damage!

–

: I’ll pave the road for you, Shinji! Back me up, Emi!
: I’m not your private operator, so please don’t get any wrong ideas about this!
: … That said, I can appreciate the way you’re trying to encourage Shinji. Paving a whole road… It’s wonderful that you’d go so far for him.
: And you tell me not to get any wrong ideas… but I’ve no time to fire that back at her. In we go, Linebarrel!

–

: I reckon you thought you were gonna blindside us with these, but I’m actually an old hand at fighting MSs! And I’m ready to delivery your usual dose of death!

: Why did you ignore my orders up there?
: I’m sorry.
: Not to mention how incredibly dangerous it was to fight with your friends aboard the EVA!
: I understand.
: This better not happen again, understand?
: Yes.
: Are you even listening to me?
: I am – every word… But what does it matter? We’ve won. I’ll pilot when you tell me to, and that’s good enough, right?
: I don’t really have a choice, anyway. I have to pilot the EVA – that’s the only reason why dad called me here. So, yes, I’ll pilot. If that’s what everyone wants, then that’s fine with me.
: What about you? Is this what you want?
: I know I’m not cut out for this… and I’m sure the others do too. Still, Ayanami was hurt, and you and dad—
: Okay, stop! This doesn’t have anything to do with anyone else! Whether you want to carry on piloting the EVA or not is a choice for you, yourself, to make.
: If you don’t want to, then you can just leave. You’re free to go at this however you want, so do that.
: …

Misato leaves.

: (It’s my choice to make…? I…)

: Apologies, but this is as far as you may go.
: I see… Well, thank you for the help.
: Dang, I guess that’s it for us. We can’t look anywhere else.
: Where’s Shinji at, I wonder?

: That voice… was it Kouichi? (He’s farther down the hall.)

: Yamashita finally got off his funk, and now we got Shinji’s having his own problems…
: Why’d you need to bring that up again, huh? And, FYI, I just got a bit shaken up from what Reiji said.
: He’s got a sharp tongue, that’s for sure. Still, while he doesn’t come out and say it, don’t you think that he acts like that because he cares?
: It’s said that Noin is so hard on her trainees because she doesn’t want them to die. I’m sure it’s the same with him.
: Speaking of, what about Shinji’s dad? I dunno what to make of that guy and his blunt attitude.
: Must be the same case as the others, no? He wouldn’t have let us in here otherwise.
: Yeah, the guy’s gotta be all tough ‘cause he’s the boss, but he still can’t hide that he cares for his son.
: We don’t really know what’s going through his mind, but I’d like to think that too.
: Well, it only makes sense, right? Every dad cares for their kid.

: (My dad… cares for me…?)

: That said, I still don’t think Reiji needs to talk to folks like that.
: Um…
: Heey, Shinji! We were looking for you!
: You saved the day again. Guess we really do need you around to beat the Angels.
: But, I…my classmate’s sister hurt in that other battle. And it was because I piloted the EVA…
: You’re looking at this the wrong way, Shinji. It’s because you piloted the EVA, that she only got hurt.
: Yeah. If you hadn’t, everyone, including us, might’ve wound up dead.
: Remember what I told you before? That the whole world’ll give us crap if we fail, so it might feel that this work isn’t worth the hassle?
: We’re not asking you to gloss over past screw-ups – like Kouichi does, with that time he tore through a town – but at least don’t torture yourself over it.
: Seriously, he was downright mean that day, calling us all phonies and whatnot.
: Sh-Shush, you two…! I do regret all that, and I’m trying to make up for it, OK?!
: Still, in my opinion, it’s actually very good that you’re thinking of the people who got hurt and the things that got destroyed.
: You’re wrong… all this time I’ve just been scared of getting hurt while fighting…!
: Shinji…
: I don’t understand how you’re all willing to fight with someone like me…
: Because that doesn’t matter.
: …
: What do you want to do, Shinji?
: I… I…
: I want to stay with you…! I’ll pilot the EVA and make my dad…!
: Then that makes you part of our crew.
: Okay…!

By the command center, Fuyutsuki ponders Shinji acting beyond what was predicted (they seemingly expected that). Might it be due to “the variable”? Still, Gendou says all that did was accelerate the Schedule – next, they’ll push him to get a bit closer with Rei. The plan is still the same.
“These poor children, their fates lying predetermined face a hitherto unseen script,” Fuyutsuki sighs. “How cruel it all is.”

Maya reports to Misato that Shinji’s friends have been examined and are ready to be sent home. That said, before they left, they asked to speak with Shinji.
The kid’s surprised to hear that, and Daiya wonders what’s up. Didn’t one of those guys punch him a few hours ago? Well, we might as well go together – and if they try running their mouth again, Kouichi’s got a few choice words for them!

: Huh? Punch… you?
: Yeah, and don’tcha hold back or I ain’t gonna feel right.
: That’s just the kind of guy he is, you know. Consider it a favor to him.
: But…
: Go for it, I say – he literally asked for it. Or, if you don’t feel like it, I could do it for you.
: And who the hell are ya? I’m apologizing to Ikari here, so butt out!
: I think that’s for the best, Kouichi. Besides, you’re a Factor, remember?
: Hurry up and do it already!
: Hrm… Hah!

Punch!

: Oof…! Alright, now we’re even! Sorry I socked you there, Ikari.
: Guess we’ll see you around! Thanks again for saving us today!
: Hey, wait! At least tell me your names.
: Touji… Touji Suzuhara.
: And I’m Kensuke Aida. Pleased to meet you.
: Make sure you give us a holler next time you’re coming around!
: And good luck with that “Defender of Peace” job!

Off they go.

: All’s well that ends well, right, Shinji? That’s that problem taken care of.
: Yeah.
: (I wonder if I’ll ever be able to talk like that with dad…)

Back to the Quarter, Reiji says Ichitaka won’t be punished for his violation of orders today in deference to a request from Goh, though warns that he’ll get no more free passes. Moreover, Ozma warns that letting amateurs try crazy stunts is a recipe for disaster, so “if you wanna go beyond the impossible, then get yourself way stronger.” (Ozma’s VA is Kamina, FYI.)
While Ichitaka confirms, Nagisa asks if he has any idea why Yuu attacked us. He doesn’t, of course, still finding it all hard to believe. Still, what’s certain is that he wanted the Rushbird, though we don’t know what for.

Kosuke wonders if maybe it’d give him some clue towards finding Grife, but Ichitaka figures Maki and Rachel would’ve found it if it was there. It’s very likely to Alice that Yuu and Haruno know a lot more than we do, and Ichitaka sees that they’ll need to get some answers out of them the next time we meet.
Mind you, Ozma warns that not only will today’s trick not work again, they wouldn’t let him try again in the first place; in other words, Ichitaka need to beat him legit next time and that means training, training, training. Alice, of course, is ready to help with that. That’s good, and Noin wants to get going as soon as we’re back at JUDA.

Inwardly, though, Alice is a bit worried: “Haruno’s a full combat-specced AI, unlike me… It was pure luck that we managed to overwhelm the today. I’m nothing but a hindrance to us defeating the Straybird and getting them to talk… If Ichitaka’s to win this, I…”
Nagisa notices Alice staring out into nothing, and asks if there’s a problem. The girl’s reaction is as distraught as Anna, so Nagisa can see there’s something and is always willing to listen. And if it’s a subject she couldn’t wrap her head around, Nagisa suggests she go and talk with Ropett or Iczer-1 then.
Alice thanks her for the advice, and it was just her way of thanking her for the regular check-ups. Thanks to that, Nagisa realized she’d been putting a bit too much weight – looks like she’s gonna have to start going on a diet with Chizuru and some other girls…

Back at NERV, a nondescript time later, they’ve just finished readjusting the EVA-01 and Shinji’s free to go. As he does, though, he spots something in the distance: Gendou and Rei talking and, even stranger, the guy’s actually smiling. He never smiles for Shinji…

So the two EVAs have been successfully loaded onto the Daiku Maryu and the ship’s ready to leave. Yanma’s happy with this at it means we’ll be able to deal with the Angels wherever they might show up. More important to Boss and co is finding Rei, mind.
She’s elsewhere in the hangar, just getting acquainted with Megumi, and Dick is already trying his moves with the “cold-eyed beauty”. Does she like white lilies? They suit her to a T, symbolizing “purity” and “virtue”. All that earns him is a stare, so maybe she didn’t care for his pick.
Alto and Daiya suggest he stop, lest he fancy getting stuck in detention – maybe he and Michel getting a time-out would give our girls some tranquility. That’s a no-no, so Puria tells him to shush and apologizes to Rei on behalf of her crewmate.

Shinji does take a chance to ask what she was talking with Gendou before they came aboard the ship – they seemed to be pretty chipper. “He was just asking me to work hard carrying out my mission with LOTUS,” she says… which bums Shinji out, as Gendou didn’t speak with him at all.
Regardless, can he ask her one other thing? Doesn’t she get scared of piloting the EVA? He heard that she got injured pretty badly after some experiment, so he was wondering if she’s really fine. “I’m fine, yes,” she answers matter-of-factly.
But Shinji worries about the ever-present risk of his EVA going berserk again, of them dying at the hands of the Angels. “Aren’t you Cmdr. Ikari’s son?” Do you not have faith in his work?” Rei asks; “I try to have faith,” Shinji answers back, “But I’m not really sure on that yet.”
Why? Why not, with a father like that?

And that earns Shinji a slap before Rei walks out the room. Michel asks what the sound was – it echoed through the whole hangar – and Boss tells what happened. Now that’s odd, as Rei struck Michel as a very docile type when he was checking her out. Maybe she’s more tomboyish than we thought, Juzo wonders.
No, Iczer-1 was watching and explains that Shinji just said something that struck Rei as unforgivable. What, the thing about having faith in Gendou or not? Why did Rei get so angry about that, Miu wonders? Who knows, but, if you ask Daiya, a son not trusting his father is a very sad thing – that trust is supposed to be unwavering, come high or low.

On the flip side, Dick heard of how the kid was sent away and neglected by Gendou for many years now. And, when they finally meet up again, daddy-o doesn’t really seem to care that much? It’s not too unreasonable that there’d be trust issues here.
Sakuya’s also heard stories and they say Dick also didn’t get along with his father. Pretty well-informed for a rookie… though Dick immediately recognizes the Kamon surname and knows that they’re in the same boat. Sakuya makes do as a free-spirited homeless man, mind, and thinks this subject best left untouched.

Regardless, Dick didn’t mean to diss Daiya’s philosophy, but father and son can quickly drift further apart once separate. Kenichi disagrees: “However far away from each other they get, the bond between a father and son never breaks! I’m sure it’s the same for Shinji and his dad.”
That’s what Daiya’s talking about and is certain that Gendou believes in Shinji – they’ll work it out. This talk might sound good on paper, but Alto figures the reality is that the kid was pushed away by Gendou.

We’ve quite the heated debate in our hands, Shizuka sighs, and Shinji’s once again bummed out over being the cause of that. Shizuka tells him not to worry, as those guys could always use a chance to express their feelings and think about how things are with their fathers (good or not-so-good). That’s not a bad thing.
And with all this talk going, Ru finally steps onto the scene and requests to speak with Shinji – Shizuka assures him that the girl can manage whatever ails him. That’s right, she’s a professional at her job!

Elsewhere, Yuu and Haruno are reassessing their plans. First priority is to take the Rushbird, second is to give Ichitaka a taste of utter defeat.
In the meantime, Haruno will use the data accrued today to adjust their tactics. As for Yuu, he’s inwardly thinking only one thing: “The Rushbird is mine…!” [/details]

[Mattman324]

Formatting’s broken a few times on the first post for the Youtube links.

Do remember that while the Executor does make bridges its bitch (it’s not QUITE a city-buster… in the anime, at least. Though it isn’t in the manga either. Yet.), the Dankuuhou was introduced as literally taking out an entire army at once. And that army was fairly diffuse.

I like how they have a bunch of people with varying degrees of father issues talking (Shinji, Dick, Sakuya, the Go brothers). That sort of stuff is cool.

[Brunom1]

Fixed the links - thanks.

And I suppose the Executor shot wasn’t being fired at its full output, so fiiiine.

[Brunom1]

[details=Click to see the mission!]

Here we are again, and, surprise, Quatre’s been bumped off the top ace list by Iczer-1. Ichitaka still has a four kill lead, while she and Kenji are tied.

Cash money goes to upping Alto’s (he’ll likely see plenty of action) and Great Mazinger’s weapons, while Shinji and Daiya get a few boosts here and there (FYI: on barrier units, armor > HP as a pip on the former can be the difference between a block or not).

All of the Godannar folks are event units today, so we switch things up a bit:
Jeeg/Kyo
Reiji/Klan (not ideal but it’ll serve for now)
Dancouga/Rei
Iczer-1/Puria
Kouji/Yagyuu
Tetsuya/Canaria
Ozma/Luca
Alto/Michel
Zechs/Noin
Daiya/Yanma
Kouichi/Quatre (HP bonus means Kouichi regens more and the EN regen is always nice for him)
Shinji/Yamashita (their weapon spread is pretty similar, and the Squad Bonuses complement each other well, so they’ll fit together nicely)
Combattler/Shizuna
Voltes/Dick (better than wasting Klan’s +mobility on a super, and, hey, Double Image)
Ichitaka/Miu

Forward!

We open up at the Frontier, where Grace tells Sheryl that she couldn’t find much about the Galaxy: the main island was severely damaged when the Vajra attack and they had to perform and emergency Fold. Where they ended up at is anyone’s guess, though the question may be purely academic and, Sheryl sighs, we ARE in a different world.
Grace tells her not to look so glum, though, as she heard rumors that a way back may not be impossible. In that case Sheryl wants to leave the hospital right away and show everyone that she’s still going strong, but Grace vetoes that. She’s still running a fever and, as such, her whole agenda’s been cancelled until she’s made a full recovery.

Sheryl doesn’t like that, saying she can’t skip out on her work any more than she already has. “Are you scared, maybe? I suppose that’s understandable; Ranka’s been growing more popular by the day, plus, Lacus and Eida’s have quite the rock-solid fan-base,” Grace thinks.
Sheryl tries playing it cool, and Grace tells her not to worry: as soon as she’s better, she’ll have more gigs than she’ll know what to do with. Grace takes off, leaving an annoyed Sheryl behind. Why is she being hospitalized for so long? If I was only because of her fever, she’d already be home…

And Grace gets her evil face on to have a laugh: Sheryl, that is Faery 9, is already finished.

And Alice’s just approached the JUDA eggheads with a request: she wants her AI modified to a full-on combat configuration. Rachel is very much against the idea as doing so would require formatting her mind – her memories, everything she’s learned, would be gone. Still, Alice wants it done as she’s not confident she can properly assist Ichitaka in battle the way she is.
Maki understands where she’s coming from, but there’s a problem: making that switch now wouldn’t change her performance at all. See, throughout all her exposure to combat since this started, Alice’s current AI has already grown to the point where it’s actually better than the old combat AI that Grife had designed.

Alice didn’t expect to hear that, so Iczer-1 suggests that she have some faith in her own potential. Rachel agrees: she’s certain that Alice will be able to handle the Straybird when it shows up again. Furthermore, Iczer-1 reminds her, we’ll all be there to help so she shouldn’t see this as a fight she’ll need to face alone.
Indeed, Iczer-1 ponders that she also has her own rival to defeat – Iczer-2 is out there and we’ve no idea when she might strike again. And, for that matter, the Cthulhu have been strangely quiet since their last assault. What could Big Gold be planning?

Rest of our folks are at a park near JUDA, playing with some miniature practice bots (though Kouji’s having a hard time controlling is, crashing into Boss). Shinji’s not too sure about giving that a try, but Misato suggest he go for it. Everyone needs to have some fun, and Rei, of all people, taking part in the game. Why not follow her example?
Shinji’s a bit surprised, asking the girl if she knows how to control these things. Her answer is a short denial – she might still be angry over what he said about Gendou. Ru DID say he didn’t have anything to worry about, but yeah…
Shizuru sees that folks are starting to get the hang of the bots, but that’s no reason to relax – they can still get hurt if they mess around too much. And once everyone’s ready, we’ll be moving to a game of soccer WITH the practice bots! Kenji asks why, and she says it’ll both help them adapt more easily in case they need to switch units and, also, bolster teamwork.

Hyouma and Kosuke can see that training like this is how she managed to handle the Godannar as quickly as she did, but what Kenji wants to know is why she brought out this soccer thing. He’s only just now figured out how to get the bot moving right. Not so with Anna, though, who’s been working with these things since she started training and is an old hand at manning them!
But, wait, Hiyoshi objects, doesn’t that mean that any team with Anna’ll have a big advantage? Not quite, as Shizuru promises to enter the other team as a way to keep things balanced.

Noin looks on at how much Shizuru’s putting on her plate, Zechs figuring she’s doing this to offset her deficiencies with the Godannar, help Anna train, relax our crew and improve ourselves all in one stroke. What’s bugging Misato is how much JUDA’s rolling in cash to be able to afford all these training robots.
She’s actually a bit jealous – maybe they could send some of those big bucks to NERV? The budget they get from the Japanese government sure doesn’t cover all they need. Odd, as Zechs would expect the organization responsible for preventing the Third Impact to be rolling in it.

The Dannar and Build Bases don’t get a lot of kickbacks, either, but Misato still finds it strange how especially unfriendly the Japanese government is to NERV. Maybe it’s due to Gendou’s abrasive personality?
Noin isn’t too sure, inwardly thinking that there could be people who don’t want NERV growing too strong, and, thus, keep their cash flow limited. That’s not Logos, mind, as she’s heard those guys have cut all contact with NERV for some reason.
Misato was actually hoping to get some info out of this exchange, but quietly sees that no one’s talking. Or could it be that these old Preventer agents don’t know anything about SEELE?

Some time later, training’s all done. Even Alice rushed on over to take part in it, and she explains to Chizuru that she wanted to get any pilot training she can. Ichitaka worries that she’s overworking herself since she already has so much to do, but Alice explains that Ru’s arrival reduced some of her workload. So, she has some new free time and figured she’d spend it with us.
Well, if she’s not pushing herself too hard, then there’s nothing wrong with that – we were just taken aback with how suddenly she arrived. Either way, Shizuru asks how everyone felt handling different units – difficult? Very much so to Ichitaka, who’s glad he could at least make do with the Rushbird.
Indeed, Kosuke agrees that while this was mostly a game, it’s clear that there’s a big difference when you’re running a simulator and actually piloting something. Alto himself managed to get around once he got the hang of it – maybe the princess is a training bot savant, Michel quips.

That’ll be all for today, then, and Shizuru asks everyone to keep what we’ve learned in mind as there’ll be more come tomorrow. Boss strikes a pose, saying he’s already looking forward to it – he’s always willing to learn – and, judging by the Combattler folks’ agreement, most of today’s team will be present tomorrow. For today, however, Shizuru still has some addition training with Anna, so they both take off.

Everyone’s beat, with Chizuru and Tsubaki already making a beeline for the bath with the rest of the girls. Kenji and Boss immediately smell the OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME. What’re they grinning there for, Puria asks. Nothing, nothing! Certainly nothing naughty… oh, crap, Boss has a nosebleed.
Tetsuya can see their minds are going places, so he says the girls will have the private bath while Kenji and Boss stay at the public one. Mind you, Reiji’s already there so Tetsuya hopes they enjoy the scalding-hot water the guy goes for.
Kenji thought that was just a crazy rumor, but, nope, Kouichi took a dip once and it seriously felt like Hell. Perfect, says Tsubaki, as maybe the heat will help sterilize their dirty minds – Shizuna and the others will be relaxing plenty while they burn, though. Please waaaaaait!

Ranka’s songs can be heard playing throughout the dorms and Ichitaka sees that she’s really getting famous – lot of folks are talking about her at his school. Not just there, even, as Nagisa saw in the news that the whole world is coming down with Ranka Fever, even the Earth Alliance nations! Pretty impressive to Kouji that her music is crossing boundaries that words couldn’t.
Quatre warns against getting a prejudiced view of the Alliance nations, though, as while the military might be around Blue Cosmos’ tentacles, the civilians themselves are in no way as narrow-minded as them. Moreover, Kyo adds that there were plenty of countries that didn’t have a choice in whether they joined the Alliance or not (like Orb, for instance).
Hell, Miu figures the Alliance military could be talked to normally, but it’s the fear that fills their minds that takes away any room for dialogue. Sayaka would rather we drop this dark subject, and just be happy that Ranka’s music is finally getting around.

Luca himself is amazed at how fast she grew into a star, and Alto takes it to show that she’s the real deal – she wouldn’t have made it otherwise. Indeed, Johnny sees that she’s got it all going for her: she’s got real talent, the camera loves her and she has some major marketing force on her side.
As Aoi smirks at his businessman spirit still going strong, Johnny explains to Daiya that everything points to Ranka’s manager himself being someone who’s actually devoted to showing how great her music is to the world. Daiya remembers the old guy from before, and agrees that he had this spark in his eyes while he worked.

This talk reminds Kouji of how beautiful that island they filmed at was – he’d like to go back there once things calm down. Boss himself would like to see a sequel to that movie, still starring Ranka and with Sheryl making another theme for it… And, speaking of, what happened to Sheryl? Shizuna knows how big of a deal she is at the Frontier, so it’s very weird that she hasn’t done anything lately.
Ozma related that she was going to undergo some exams after returning to the Frontier, but she seemed well enough when she left us. Why hasn’t she been discharged yet? Maybe they’re just being cautious and having her take an extended rest, Nagisa wonders.
Yui calls in right then, for Alto, saying a video disk arrived for his group from Mishoshi Academy – it was sent by Nagisa (Kasumi) and Nanase.

So Alto plays the disk, Nagisa greeting him, asking if everyone’s doing fine, and immediately scaring our Nagisa with how much she looks like her. At least now she sees why Michel and the others were so confused when they first met her. Nanase chimes in, reporting how Ranka told them of how hard we’re working down on Earth and how it’s totally a flu that’s kept us from coming back (Luca gets all wistful at the sight of her).
Seems that Ranka cooked up a story to avoid outing Alto and co as mercs, and while the girls wanted to get in touch with us directly, civilians are currently forbidden from contacting Earth – thus, the video disk.

And, as a special guest for this, they’ve called in Ranka to leave a message as well! She’s doing fine herself, as is her work, though she’s a bit sad she can’t see Alto; after Nagisa reminds her, Ranka notes that she went to see Sheryl and the girl looked bored out of her skull. So, she’d like to ask Alto to record a video himself to help cheer her up.
Oh, and since we “know” some of those LOTUS guys and they’re friends with Sheryl, maybe he could ask them to join in on that? And that’s it for the call, Alto and the others saddened to hear that Sheryl’s still hospitalized. Megumi can see how she, a singer unable to sing, would be bummed out – she’s in the same situation as Goh, Tetsuya Kouji sees. Alto better get to it right away, he thinks.

And it’s time to check in with Djibril again, who proclaims himself to not be the kind of man that gets hung up on the past – doesn’t mean there isn’t a limit to his patience regarding Neo’s string of failures, though.
He understands that losses are inevitable in war as the enemy can grow desperate, and sometimes thinks go awry… but orders are only given out because their success is necessary, and they must be accomplished. Neo says he understands, in which case he better start producing some results – else Logos’ plans will start going south.

Now, regarding his next mission, they’ve just completed the construction of the Destroy Gundams, so they’ll be sending them his way. Had the Phantom Pain successfully taken out the Minerva back when they could, none of this would be necessary, but, fine, they’ll roll with it.
He’ll also be sending him the Gundam Heavy Arms – the pilot’s a loyal Blue Cosmos soldier – so Neo needs to get the western Eurasian front pacified NOW. He can do that, right? Inwardly, Neo ponders the two Destroys he’s getting; one will have to go to Sting, and the other will inevitably have go to Stella who an “agent” rescued at Diokia.
Oh, what an unpleasant job he has.

Cut to Kiriyama Heavy Industries, where the CEO’s conferring with a suspiciously Katou-like portrait. Jinrais have been deployed in bases throughout the country, so they’re ready to proceed to the next phase.
Indeed, all preparations are complete and they’re poised to take action at the appointed time – they’ll soon free this country all those incompetent politicians and bureaucrats! The speaker will be looking ward to it.

And, uh oh, Domyoji is here and Kiriyama tells him to make ready to deploy – he’ll be leading the Jinrai troops. Domyoji is very grateful, while Kiriyama is busy counting his chickens: “Soon I shall rise to be the leader of this nation. Hmhmhmhm…”

BASH!

: That’s it! Now put some “oomph” into it!
: Yes, ma’am!
: Hesitation makes you an easy read! Have faith in yourself and attack!
: Yes, ma’am!
: And keep an eye on how fast the Plasma Drive’s turning! You won’t be able to combine with how it is right now!
: I’m sorry, ma’am!
: If you’ve got time to apologize, then concentrate on your handling!
: Yes, ma’am!!
: Here we go! Drive Change, GO!
: Drive Cha— WAAAAH!!

BOOM!

: And the combination’s a failure… both units are trashed.
: I’m so sorry! I’ve been screwing this up so much…
: No, this one’s on me – I ran my mouth for too long. And I think this is enough for today. Good work.
: Thank you very much!

Anna takes off.

: …Whew, alright. I could also use a breather, I think…
: …
: Mira? What are you doing here?
: … Hard at work until late, huh?
: Anna’s the one who’s been working hard – I’m just lending her a hand.
: Hm…
: She’s really giving this all she’s got, likely hoping to bring some peace of mind to Goh with it.
: … I’ve been bringing dinner to Goh’s room these past days, but he won’t even say a word to me.
: Reminds me of how he was five years ago after he lost you… Actually, no, it’s not that bad right now.
: Huh…
: Back then, it was like life had lost all meaning to him. He’d wake up, eat, and go to bed… that was all he did every day. He was dead in almost every sense of the word.
: … He really loved you with all his heart.
: Goh…
: But, before anyone realized it, he met that darling girl and even got married… Her strength played a major role in helping him go back to who he was.
: … Five years that are a blank to me, but where so much happened to him.
: Mira…
: Did I lose him in those five years…?
: … You’ll be fine. I, on the other hand, didn’t even try fighting in the first place.
: Shizuru…
: Actually… I just didn’t have the courage to fight – the courage to speak what I felt out loud…
: And that’s why I’ve decided to help Anna become an even better pilot than me. Then I’ll be able to make peace with everything.
: That’s why you’re doing all this for her…?
: …Ah, never mind. Forget I said anything, alright? If Anna got wind of that, I’d lose all respect as her teacher.
: (I… I don’t think I could be like you, Shizuru…)

Alert!

: The alarms?!

Beep!

: We’ve an emergency! Mimetic Beasts have been sighted at the industrial complex by the Dannar Base! LOTUS is to deploy immediately! Repeat…
: Urgh, and here I was hoping to get a shower and some sleep…!
: Let’s get going, Shizuru!

Mission 14 – Nighttime Deathmatch

Misato is NOT happy with these things interrupting her beauty sleep (that’s gonna give her wrinkles!); Kenji himself is having a hard time moving with how much his burnt skin stings, but Kouji suggests he be glad that’s all he ended up getting. He oughta to check in with Alice once this is over.
Letting this industrial complex get trashed would have far reaching consequences, so Reiji commands us to deal with the Mimetic Beasts before that. Shizuru’s eager to wrap this up fast and Tetsuya Kouji’s got her back. Goh himself is cheering Anna on, and she’s ready to get to work.

Don’t lose the ships, Shizuru or Anna. This mission’s pretty simple, though the few water areas might some Mimetic Beasts a bit hardier (but that’s why we have Daiya and Kenji around).
I’ll be sending about 1/3 of my troops down SE to deal with the things, but the remaining will stay up here for what’s to come. In hindsight, this was my inner Skill Point voice telling me to rush, but I reckon the simpler (albeit slower) way would simply be to park my guys at the NE corner and let the mobs come to us.
Regardless, this still isn’t too dangerous (especially if your vanguard guys are immune the EN drain).

Player Phase!

Fast forward a full turn and our guys are here. I sent the Valkyries, Voltes, Combattler, Zechs and Iczer-1 over.

That’s one of her, Michel, Dick and Shizuna.

The plot’ll kick in when we get the mooks under 15.

Enemy Phase!

And Dick’s team takes a pummeling, though nothing TOO bad. On the flip side, they take 4 kills, while Hyouma and Zechs take another – that pushes us past the threshold.

Another batch of Mimetic Beasts pop out of the woodwork, much to Tetsuya and Mira’s annoyance. Ichitaka hopes that’s the last of them, but in comes new heat signals. More of them? No, it’s Ken and Lou (Anna isn’t happy that she’s still with him), and he immediately charges after a specific Mimetic Beasts.
The thing readily slaps him away, but Ken is undeterred: “This sensation… You may change your form, but I can tell who you are! I have long waited for this day!” Ken’s been searching for this particular Beast for a long time.

Shizuru’s just about to move after him when Kiriko phones in and tells us to keep away: we cannot risk stimulating his fighting instincts recklessly. Goh sees where this is going, and, indeed, the ferocity he’s displaying right now means he runs the risk of triggering the Rabid Syndrome. And if he loses control, there’ll be no stopping him.
Kurara and Aoi figure she means what happened with Moukaku, so Reiji tells everyone to focus solely on the Mimetic Beasts. We’re to minimize our attacks at the Menage Zero as much as we can.

Our objective now is to kill the Type 18 Mimetic Beast, and it’s not actually that more of a threat than the regular ones.

It only has 13.3k HP, and nothing to fall back on. That said, you’ll want to have plenty of morale to go around by the time you kill it.

The new Beasts are mostly moving in, while our southern detachment is hard at work: Ozma takes another kill.
Mind you, Lou and Ken won’t attack us either, so be careful they don’t steal your kills.

Player Phase!

Off go our sniper boys.

Yamashita doesn’t hit quite as hard, unfortunately.

Underwater mooks means Daiya gets to lead the charge, while Ichitaka and Aoi each take one of the flying Beasts by our ships.

Survivors are promptly hunted down, lest Ken take them.

Bam.

Oh, and down south, I’m having Combattler take the front with Iron Wall. His and Shizuna’s boosted HP will all but guarantee the AI comes running and their immunity to debuffs makes for prime tanking material.

While Alto and Ozma’s teams both take some weakened targets, Zechs follows up on the Voltes crew.

Alright.

Jeeg’s combined weapons work just fine against underwater targets, mind, so he can very easily oneshot these.

Oh, why not? Reiji and Kouichi’s teams are dodgy enough.

And that’s three kills for Jeffrey.

Enemy Phase!

And the AI sticks to the plan perfectly. The southern group SWARMS Hyouma, he and Shizuna raking in a total of 7 kills. Iczer-1 takes two, while Zechs takes in another one.

Oh, and this guy decides to go after Ozma just because.

That’s one for him and Luca. And, by the by, Daiya just took another 3 underwater mooks up top.

Ken’s plinking away at stuff.

Player Phase!

And that’s pretty much game for us. Only a handful of mooks are left, and they easily fall to Kouichi, Jeeg, Daiya and Aoi. Now we’ll wreck the Type 18 and get things moving.

Here comes the moneeeeeeeey!

: The new Mimetic Beast has started to regenerate!
: Psh, the thing’s as much of a pain as the rest of ‘em!
: Stay away from that one! It is mine! HAAAAH!

Ken moves after the Type 18.

: The only thing my blade cannot slice is myself! ROSAAAAAA!

: What the—! A robot came out of it?!
: That Beast had something like that inside of it…?!
: What is that bot…?
: It belonged to someone very dear to Ken.
: Someone dear to him?
: … And he’s been searching for it all this time?
: We meet again at last, Celleblader. How have I waited for this moment… If only I could see you again, Rosa…
: …
… Lou, do you think you can pilot it?
: Ah?
: We cannot well leave it here. Will you pilot it or not?
: … I will!

Lou moves over to the Celleblader.

: … Sorry, Diver, dad…

: This is the machine of Ken’s beloved… Here we go, Celleblader!
: Let us combine, Lou!
: Aye, aye! Celleblader, GO!!
: Blade Gainer – Twin Drive!!

: Th-They combined?!
: HAAAAH! DIIIIIEEEEEE!!

: Wow…
: That’s how strong he actually is…?!
: Haah… Haah… Rosa… I’ve finally, finally crushed it… Urk…grgh…GWAAAAAH!
: Ken?!
: ?! Something’s wrong with him!
: Is that… Did he trigger the Rabid Syndrome?!
: Oh, no! Anna, get away from there!
: GRAAAAAAAH!!

: Shizuru!
: A-An…na…
: Shizuru, is something wrong?!
: Her mental graphs are all dipping!
: Captain, recover the Dannar! I’m headed to the hangar!
: Daiku Maryu, full speed forward!

: Shizuru! Shizuru, you alright?!
: …
: She’s passed out… I’ll get her to the infirmary.
: Dr. Franklin… take care of her, please.
: I will. Leave it to me.
: Menage Zero… you’ll pay for this!

: We’re going, Dannar!
: Goh, you’re…!
: Goh, get back immediately! You cannot fight!
: No… I need to settle this with my own two hands!
: And what will you do if you also fall to the Rabid Syndrome?!
: I’ll take care of this before it comes to that!
: Anna, stop him! That’s an order!
: Please don’t, Anna! If you love me as my wife, then you won’t do that!
: Stop him! Now!
: Even if I tried to stop him, I doubt he’d listen! Best way out of this is to settle things quickly so he can get back!
: And we’re bring Lou along with us!
: Took the words out of my mouth.
: Mr. Moritsugu!
: … I haven’t the authority to stop him. If anything happens, I shall take full responsibility and handle it accordingly.
: Oof, now that’s cold.
: Alice, can I ask you to keep a close eye on Goh for any signs of the Insania Virus?
: Yes, sir!
: And Ms. Kizaki, I am counting on you to provide tactical insight to both minimize damage to the compound and the duration of this battle.
: Copy that.
: We’ll help you too!
: Hrm…!
: I suppose all we can do is pray that the virus doesn’t go active… Attack, all of you!
: I’m sorry, mom!
: We gotta make this the quickest showdown in history, then!
: And we’ll pay back what he did to Shizuru twice as hard!
: This all ends today!
: I… I’ll kill you all!!

Blade Gainer Twin Drive Mode (Ken, Lou Roux)
Pilot Skills:
Sword Cut
Break Morale Limit (気力限界突破 – morale limit increased to 170)
Predict
Prevail L9
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L1

Crazy-ass Ken is bulky as hell with that Prevail L9 and is, by a significant margin, the hardest-hitting enemy we’ve found. That being said, he’s not too dangerous because he still suffers from his original problem of very limited range: 1-3 is his best, and many of our guys can reach beyond that.
Do note that he’ll be very hard to dispose of if you let him take a dip in water, so draw him out if that’s the case.

Let’s get right into it.

Can’t believe it took me three whole games to get some Akira Kushida going here!

: Take a look, Goh! I’ll take this guy out, and bring both Lou and some peace to you!
: You, defeat me?! Don’t make me laugh! The likes of you are no match to the Blade Gainer!

: … I can’t be beaten. I cannot show myself defeated, not to Goh, not to her…!
: I see the doubt festering in your heart…. You’ll inflict not even a single wound on me in that state!
: I’ve no doubts about how I feel…!

: Bring it on, Menage Zero! I’m here to wreck heinous baddies like you!
: You amuse me… But I haven’t the time to play with you!

: How dare you hurt Shizuru so, Menage Zero! I’ll make you pay for that even if I have to succumb to the Rabid Syndrome!
: Your resolve also runs that deep, hm…? As you wish. I’ll face you in earnest out of respect for that!

Goh: “I’m taking Lou back, Blade Gainer!”

: No… I’m not done yet!
: Ken, that’s enough!
: Don’t talk back to me!
: !
: Please… Lou… Let me… fight to the end…
: Ken…
: UWOOOOOO!!

: GAAH!!
: Goh!

Anna moves after him.

: Stay away! I won’t let you hurt him!
: Anna, don’t! I… I couldn’t bear to lose you!
: Oh, Goh… what would you do without me? You would forget to change your socks, you’d be scarfing down sweets, waltzing around naked after taking a bath…
: You’d oversleep all the time if I wasn’t there to wake you up, too! You… You can’t do anything without me!
: Anna…
: Which is why I wouldn’t die like this. I still have so much to help you with throughout our lives! So, I… I’ll always be here with you!
: …
: (She’s the one Goh leans on today… If I hadn’t died five years ago, that might’ve been me…)
: Then… you’ll die together!
: Goh, let’s combine!
: Alright! Drive Change, GO!

: Dannar, ON!
: Revolver, OPEN!

: Godannar – Twin Drive!
: Yeah! They got their twin drive going!
: (I want nothing but for the one I love to be happy… Goh living a long life, finding someone new and being happy with her are all in line with that…)
: (So why… why does it hurt so much…?)
: We’ll put an end to this before the Plasma Drive reaches its limit!
: You got it!
: DEEYAAAAA!!
: HAAAAAAH!!

: They did it…!
: It’s like he never left the pilot seat…
: Guh…!
: Ken!
: Lou, I’m sorry…
: Don’t. I chose this…

: W-Wait! You’re not— Urk!
: Goh?!
: I-I’m fine. Don’t worry about it…!
: Are you sure, Saruwatari?
: Yeah, it’s nothing!
: You’re not pulling our leg, are you? You know what you’re not supposed to go too far here.
: I told you, I’m fine! Have some faith in me!
: Goh…
: Now let’s go…! I’ll take out every one of these monsters!
: Goh…

Done!

That’s all Mimetic Beasts confirmed destroyed, and Goh’s looking pretty tired. He’s sweating a lot, too. Alice isn’t detecting the Insania Virus coming active yet, but Goh isn’t 100% fine either. Kiriko calls Goh and Anna back to the Dannar Base to run some exams right away.
Anna apologizes to Reiji for having to take off like this, but he doesn’t mind – actually, he already expected this. Ichitaka hopes Goh’ll be fine, but at least Sayaka points out the silver lining that he didn’t trigger the Rabid Syndrome.
Indeed, Michel figures our main concern now should be Shizuru – he fears she had a concussion or something. Tetsuya Kouji is sure she’ll be up and about real soon, though.

At the Dannar Base, the exams have already come in: Goh’s body is showing signs of tremendous stress equivalent to the Rabid Syndrome. While his mental fortitude is holding for now, Kiriko knows there’s a limit to that. So what will happen to him? Well, he should stabilize if he gets plenty of rest, but if the Insania Virus flares up again, he’ll go full-on Rabid Syndrome and it’ll be impossible for him to recover.
All in all, Kiriko tells Anna that Goh can NOT pilot the ever Dannar again – it’s the only way to save his life. Kagemaru steps in, reporting that they’ve recovered the Cosmo Diver and that they could transfer it over to LOTUS for us to use. There’s the matter of who’d pilot it, and while Kiriko would normally choose Shizuru, she’s already manning the Dannar.

On cue, Franklin calls the Base with news: while Shizuru’s still alive, her situation is critical. Honestly, he doesn’t know if she can be saved and, even if that happens, she’s in a coma and her chances of coming out of it aren’t looking good.
The news hits Anna hard, knowing Shizuru’s in that state because she shielded her…

: …
: Shizuru… Why…!
: This has gotta be some sick joke…! You’re saying she might never open her eyes again?!
: Her internal wounds were far greater than the external ones. I’ve done all that I can, but…
: But… maybe you got your diagnosis wrong, right, Doc? Right?!
: She… She said she was going to continue our training tomorrow…
: You can’t go back on your word, Shizuru! Damn it, why’s any of this happening?!
: Damn it… that son of a bitch, Menage Zero…!
: (Shizuru… What will Anna do without you around…?)

Door opens.

: Shizuru!
: …
: This… This is my fault…! If I was better at controlling the Goh Okusaer, none of this would’ve happened… I… I… AAAAAAH!!
: Anna…
: Shizuru… Shizuru… I’m sorry…!

Door opens.

: Pull yourself together, Anna. This comes as a heavy blow to everyone, not just you.
: Professor, how’s Goh?
: …
: Don’t do this to us, Prof… Nothing happened to him too, right?!
: … He’s fine, somehow. But there’ll be no going back if he has another outbreak.
: What…? The Insania Virus has grown that strong?!
: It’s only his strong mind that’s kept him from breaking.
: It’s all because of me… I should have stopped him, or fought harder, or, or…!
: Anna… We all did everything we could out there.
: And while I know that won’t make you feel any better, beating ourselves over what happened won’t bring Shizuru back.
: Guys…

At the Daiku Maryu’s bridge, Goh’s back and apologizes for the worry him rushing out with the Dannar caused us. He’s being allowed to continue with us as part of our advisory team, but he’ll need to take it easy. Ichitaka’s relieved, as losing Goh would’ve hit him hard.
There are still no prospects on a cure of the Rabid Syndrome, Franklin and Rosa sigh, despite the fact that JUDA and all other major scientific institutes working to try and find something. It might be a while until any breakthroughs, unfortunately.
But another problem comes in right then: “Captain Lulu, we’ve an emergency transmission from JUDA!” Emi yells. The scene ends as Lulu takes the call.[/details]

[Brunom1]

[details=Click to see the mission!]

Ishigami’s called us because an SOS from ZAFT just came in. Video sent over shows a city in ruins and, according to ZAFT, it’s due to an Earth Alliance campaign at central Eurasia. Already there have been three cities destroyed, all of them having previously rejected the Alliance and sided with the PLANTs.
Seems pretty clear to Yamashita that they’re being made examples of, and Tetsuya Kouji sniffs at how those guys call the Coordinators monsters when they pull crap like this. Either way, Lady Une says we can’t let this continue unabated – we’re to stop the Alliance’s onslaught immediately, and if they don’t do so nicely, then we’re authorized to use force. Quatre’s ill at ease with that, but Une’s certain the general public will be on our side for this one.

But hold on a second, another emergency crops up – what did the Alliance do now? Actually, it’s not them: Yui’s getting info that the SDF Jinrai teams have staged an uprising! They’ve taken control of the Japanese Prime Minister’s residence and declared martial law.
Apparently, Eiji Kiriyama’s the mastermind behind it all; he’s just killed the former PM and declared himself the new leader of Japan. Seems like the guy and his company have just staged their personal coup, and Ishigami realizes all too late that this was his goal with the development and delivery of the Jinrai to the SDF.

A call comes in from Igarashi, warning that Kiriyama’s sending troops to attack JUDA HQ and destroy LOTUS. We need to get ready to defend ourselves now, as the SDF’s already poised to deploy! Shots start being fired in the background and Igarashi, seeing that he’s been found, needs to get going: “Go and take Japan back from Kiriyama’s clutches!”
All the comm goes down, Ichitaka fears that Igarashi turned deserter to bring us that warning; Ishigami knows the guy and his sense of justice, so he figures the intel is good too. With that in mind, Reiji tells Une that we’ll need to split our forces to deal with these issues in tandem.

Goh gives us the rundown: the Eurasian team will be working with the Mineva, so they’ll be sending the SMS Crew (includes Voltes, Hiyoshi sees), Combattler, Iczer-1, Team D, as well as the Dannar and Mazinger groups. It’ll fall on them to pull the brakes on the Alliance’s rampage.
Alto is a bit silent, and Luca wonders if he’s pondering the Alliance’s moves or, maybe, if he’s concerned there was something wrong with the video letter he sent back to Nanase and co. Neither, he’s just wondering why people have to go and defile the very land they live in.
Team D knows where he’s coming from, Sakuya noting that folks don’t seem to notice how blessed we are to have all this – rather, we take the air we breathe, the calm wind, all for granted. Sakuya became a homeless because he wanted to experience all that in the flesh.

As for the team that’ll defend JUDA, we’ll have their own folks, the Preventers, the EVAs, the Build Team and the Daiku Maryu. Zechs himself knows that nothing changes with a coup, and wonders why the same mistake is happening again.
Shinji spent some time living in Misaki, so he’ll have to work hard to keep JUDA and the town in one piece. As for Ichitaka, Reiji gets to choose:

Top option is to have him stop the Alliance’s onslaught, bottom is to help defend JUDA. As usual, we’ll be doing both paths, but here’s a clean list of the series:

Stop the Earth Alliance:
Macross F
Iczer-1
Mazinkaiser
Combattler
Voltes
Dancouga Nova
Godannar

Defend JUDA:
Linebarrels
Gundam W
Evangelion
Jeeg
Gaiking

Choose the Eurasia route and Ichitaka’s eager to meet up and get to work with the Minerva crew. Same goes for Luca, what with how suddenly we had to leave them after what happened in Diokia.
That decided, Tetsuya tells the team to board the Quarter and to prep themselves for battle.

Choose the JUDA route and Une figures it makes sense – it IS Ichitaka’s hometown; he’s grateful to come along too. Kouichi, meanwhile, is hyped to get going: whatever Kiriyama’s up to, it won’t fly with us on the job! That said, Miu warns him not to get complacent as the Jinrais are powerful units.
Kouichi confirms, giving her the same formal treatment he gave Yamashita, which she immediately tells him to stop. No honorifics, no formalities, no nothing – they’ve known each other for too long for him to be like that. Kouichi stutters a bit, but concedes. Emi jumps in, yelling that JUDA’s a stone’s throw away – he needs to get ready to deploy! Kouichi doesn’t know what the rush is, but is still dragged out.

Yamashita ignores them, finding it curious how Kiriyama managed to capture the PM’s residence so soon after announcing the Jinrai. How did he have so many troops ready to go? Indeed, Ishigami figures things went too smoothly for the guy, up to and including how the SDF adopted the Jinrai as their official unit and had it shipped to every one of its bases. It’s very likely some of the SDF brass is on his side.
Still, Misato wonders if it isn’t a bit too reckless to try and pull a coup in LOTUS’ own backyard; plus, Kyo notes, however strong the Jinrais may be, it’d stand to reason that he’d wait for us to be outside of Japan before pulling this. There must be a reason for why he did it right now.

Kenji himself isn’t too worried, figuring the Jinrais won’t amount to much with how hastily they were built; plus, Mido says, from what we saw in their specs and Kiriyama’s demo, the things are nothing we can’t handle.
Seems to Saotome that we’re being underestimated and she’s very eager to make them regret it. With that, Reiji tells the Japan team to get ready to deploy and we’ll move to intercept Kiriyama’s troops.
His silence at the end may or may not mean much.

And before we close things off, I’ve a question to ask of you, thread (secret spoilers ahead!): Stella or Michel? This vote will determine which secret I go for and, thus, which path I’ll keep here.

And, yes, I know there’s another secret I could dump to get both but I actually care about that one! Make sure to have your vote spoiler-tagged for the benefit of those who’re coming in blind.

This vote’ll remain open until Wednesday, I guess, but if the vote leans too heavily to one side I might just call it there.[/details]

[Mattman324]

I say Michael. Because of how secrets work in L, if you do that… Stella survives no matter what. Of the trinity of her, Michael, and Soubi, if you save the latter two, all three will survive. Otherwise, Michael will die. Which does lead to some neat stuff but you can show that off on NG+ or something.

Man, all these times SRW has had the main cast playing Soccer - and yes, “soccer”, that’s what Japan calls it so nyeh - you’d think they’d just get the professional robot soccer players in with their plot for once. But no, Neo treated that show like trash and no one else picks it up.

Also… be ready for the Linebarrel split. This is where the manga REALLY 100% diverges from the anime, and it’s unsurprisingly where the biggest bits of stupidity start shining through.

[Brunom1]

[details=Click to see the mission!]

Here we are at the Alliance Route, Kenji’s absence letting Hyouma take the spot of our 3rd top ace. Iczer-1’s far closer to Ichitaka, though.

Cash upgrades were given to Alto, Tetsuya and the Nagahama duo to boost their weapons overall.
As for Skill Parts, Kouji took Guard and Infight.

The Godannar officially has no one to pilot, and while we DO have the Cosmo Diver available, none of the other guys can actually be switched into it. Thus, we’re going like this:
Ichitaka/Anna
Voltes/Mira
Dancouga/Tetsuya Kouji
Iczer-1/Klan
Kouji/Jun
Tetsuya/Canaria
Combattler/Boss
Alto/Michel
Ozma/Luca

Initially thought to have Tetsuya Kouji go with Ichitaka, but only the Maser Eye’s an actual ranged attack.

Now, let’s see what we can do about those uppity Blue Cosmos.

Shinn’s just getting news that the Earth Alliance’s launched an attack at the Diokia base, destroying the place and other cities in west Eurasia. What about Stella? Is she safe?
We’ve no way of knowing, unfortunately, as it’s hard to get intel from Diokia with how chaotic things are right now. That’s not what Shinn wanted to hear.

And, as we knew, Stella was brought back to the Phantom Pain and Neo’s presenting her with her new mech. “You’ll need to fight again, or else some bad men will come and kill us,” Neo says and easily triggers the girl. “Kill us… Kill me? No… No, I don’t want to die!”
Then there’s only one thing to do: destroy all bad men. Stella mulls her orders and Neo tells her to get ready to sortie. As she goes, Neo notices that Trowa isn’t looking too happy with all this. “Her mental state is too unstable to pilot anything – much less a Destroy, and so soon after she’s made it back here,” he notes. “Though I understand that I, being the rookie, may be out of line saying that.”
Neo won’t chide him, though, as Trowa is still an ace and, as such, has a right to speak his mind… mind you, whether Neo will agree with him or not is a different matter. As Trowa glares, Neo turns to Sting and assigns him the other Destroy – he’s to watch her back just in case.

That’s fine with him, though he asks where she’s been all this time. Neo tells of her and the Gaia’s recover by the Minerva, and how they took her to the base at Diokia – they managed to take her back during the disturbance of the Alliance’s attack.
That’s a relief to Sting, who figures ZAFT would’ve used her as a guinea pig or something if she stayed there: “With Auel gone, I’m glad at least she made it back in one piece.” Off he goes with Trowa to prep for launch as well.
Neo, meanwhile, gets to do some soul searching: “Stella… Was bringing you back here really for the best?”

Back to the Quarter, our folks have analyzed the Alliance’s current vector and figured out where they’ll be attacking next: Berlin. A fuming Tetsuya Kouji sees that they’re not done tearing through the countryside – and that’s especially bad, adds Ichitaka, since there’re too many other threats for humans to waste time fighting one another.
Tetsuya agrees and that’s all for more reason why we need to put a speedy end to this war; as such, we’ll be linking up with the ZAFT forces and stopping the Alliance’s offensive.

Speaking of, Dearka’s just delivered Durandal’s orders to the Minerva: stop the Alliance’s attack at Berlin. And, yes, Dearka confirms that they’ve already petitioned LOTUS for help with this.
One thing that strikes Talia as odd, however, is why didn’t Durandal transmit these orders himself and, instead, used Dearka as a mailman? He doesn’t really know either, so Talia thanks and dismisses him.
Talia smells a bit of fish around all this, but that’ll have to wait until later – full speed ahead to Berlin!

Alarm!

: Yeesh… I just got here and I have to deploy already?
: Dearka, is that you?!
: Yo, Athrun. I heard you got dropped by some Unknown, but at least you’re looking alright. And the Freedom also got beat up pretty badly, right? What happened there?
: Kira’s group came to our rescue after we’d been cornered by Alliance and Orb troops. Cagalli was also with the Archangel. After that, some unknown mobile weapons showed up and went after her and Shinn…
: And you trashed the Savior protecting them, didn’t you? Psh, I see you and the Freedom guy still don’t know how to look before you leap.
: …?!
: But what’s important is that you’re alright. And, hey, is Heine around?
: Hm? Need something?
: The chairman’s sent you a new MS prototype. I got its manual here for you.
: You—…! Isn’t this the GOUF Ignited? I heard these just started being rolled out!
: Well, someone looks happy.
: Who wouldn’t be? This here’s no ZAKU, boy, no ZAKU! C’mon, we gotta get to the hangar!
: Alright, alright, I’m going.

Heine and Athrun leave.

: Um, Dearka… Do you know the Freedom’s pilot?
: Hmm, a little bit, yeah. Why, you got something on your mind?
: Can you tell me what kind of guy he is?
: I guess. His name’s Kira Yamato, and he’s an overall good guy, if a bit awkward… and kind of stupid.
: A good guy?
: You’d see it if you met him. He’s the sort that absolutely doesn’t enjoy fighting.
: Rather, he values human life above anything else… That’s the sort of guy he is.
: He values human life, hm…

At the Archangel…

: …
: What’re you doing here, Kira?
: Murrue…
: Are you alright? You look like you’ve got so much on your mind.
: I… I’m just trying to figure out how it all came to this. Things are happening out of our sight, and we’re chasing these shadows completely blind…
: Again and again we’ve fought an enemy we can’t identify, whose goals we don’t even know…
: Kira…
: What if what we’re doing is wrong? What if this is all nothing but nonsense?
: Trying to keep those that are dear to us safe is neither wrong nor nonsense. It never is, I say.
: Huh…?
: I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know everything that’s going on with the world… But since people we love call it their home, why not love this world as well? That’s what I think.
: Murrue…
: I’m sure that, someday, humanity will come together in peace.
: So don’t give up. We’ll just keep on doing whatever we can in this.
: Right!

Beep!

: Captain, Terminal just sent us an emergency transmission!
: What happened?!
: The Alliance army’s just reached Berlin! They’re opening fire on the entire city!
: What?! Can you get me a video feed?!
: Right away! Here it comes!

Beep!

: It’s…!
: Berlin… It’s ablaze!

Mission 15 (Alliance Route) – Our Path

: Really digging the new Destroys! We’ll have Berlin down to a smoldering crater in no time!
: How are you doing, Stella?
: I’m alright. I have to kill… kill all the bad men!

: It’s… the Archangel!
: A bit sooner than expected. Stay frosty, Stella – they’re pretty strong!
: That doesn’t matter. I’ll…!

: That’s quite the monster they have. Putting a stop to it by our lonesome won’t be easy.
: But we’ll have to manage! They can’t be allowed to take any more innocent lives!

: ?! The Minerva?!
: It’s the Archangel! What are they doing here?
: Voices cried out for help, and here they are. They’re living up to their fame as heroes, I suppose.
: And we cannot let them leave us in the dust. Deploy all troops!

: How’s the GOUF doing, Heine?
: Just swimmingly. Taking on those huge guys will still be a major headache, of course, but the bot’s fine…
: But we’ve no other choice. If we don’t, that’ll only mean more people suffering.
: Tsk, and now the Minerva’s here too… Still, we can’t back down today. Sting, Stella, Trowa, are you ready?!
: Always! We’ll go and throw in a few shots for Auel too!
: Captain, what do we do about the Archangel?
: I’ll try and get in touch with them in a bit. Just ignore them for the moment and carry out your mission.
: Roger that! We’ll start with that big guy up front!

Mission Objective: Bring Stella’s Destroy Gundam below 10% HP
Mission Failure: Any battleship, Shinn or Stella shot down

Our guys’ll be getting here soon, so don’t go too crazy. Just inch the Minerva crew forward to start weakening stuff – you can’t control the Archangel, but they’re not in any immediate danger.
Of note is that you should try and get Talia just in range to shoot at Stella at the start of the next turn.

And Heine’s got his slick GOUF Ignited to replace his old ZAKU. It’s pretty much a direct upgrade in everything and gives him flight, so it’ll work nicely.
On the flip side, Athrun is back in his crummy ZAKU!

With that, everyone moves onward and we wait.

Enemy Phase!

Of course. Now, make sure you DON’T counterhit Stella here; doing any damage triggers the plot, and you’ll have an easier time doing that on our turn.

All good.

The northern flanks starts heading after the Archangel team.

No need to worry about Cagalli or Waltfeld getting hit, FYI.
All of the Alliance mooks get their leader weakened.

Down south, the same happens but Luna and Rey do manage to bring one guy down.

Player Phase!

Let’s get this going.

: AAAH!!
: ?! That voice… Stella?!
: Who are you…?!
: Why… Why are you here?! You were supposed to be at getting help at Diokia’s hospital!
: I don’t want to do… I DON’T WANT TO DIE!!

: Stella! Damn it, why’re they doing this to her…?!

Shinn goes after Stella’s Destroy.

: ?! What’s he doing?!
: Stella! It’s me, Shinn!
: Get back, Shinn! You’re being targeted!
: Stella, don’t you recognize me?! I… I…!
: NOOOO!!

: Hrk! Can I make it?!

Kira: “Stop, ZAFT MS! That’s crazy!”

: WAAAAH!

: Stella?!
: Rrgh, Kira Yamato… What the hell do you think you’re doing!?

Shinn: “I promised Stella that I’d keep her safe!”

: Uurgh…!
: You don’t even got a clue about what’s going on! It’s… Stella’s inside that thing!
: Stop it, Shinn! The Freedom isn’t our enemy!
: Shut your mouth! He just tried to kill Stella!
: I can’t go down here – not now. If that’s the way you want it, then…!

Kira and Shinn fly to the northeast.

: All units, cover the Freedom!

So do Waltfeld, Murrue and Cagalli. The entire Archangel team turns neutral.

: ?! Captain Ramius…!

: Are they…?!
: The Freedom and Impulse are fighting each other…?!
: Cpt. Gladys, what’s going on here?!
: Both sides misunderstood what the other was doing. I’ll talk to the Archangel and explain everything once the battle’s over.
: But right now we need to focus on our mission: work together and push the enemy out of Berlin!
: Oh, brother… So now we need to get to work with the heroes of the Great War looking daggers at us?
: We’ve IDed the new ship: it’s the Macross Quarter!
: LOTUS? Those’re folk I’d rather not tangle with…
: There’s no reason for us to throw the first stone. Prioritize safeguarding Berlin!
: So you say, but what if they attack us?
: Then we’ll have no choice but to answer in kind…
: Copy that…
: The Archangel, the Minerva and now LOTUS… This battle’s getting worse by the minute…
: Psh, whatever! We’ve our Destroys, so everything’s still good! Follow me, rook!
: …

Trowa and Sting move way closer to our group.

: LOTUS, schmotus, whatever…! I’ll be blowing all of you to kingdom come!
: I… I’ll kill them all!
: Everyone listen to me! You can’t shoot down that big unit!
: Huh?! What’d you mean by that?!
: Please! It’s Stella… she’s in that thing!
: Is that someone you know?
: Troops, move to immobilize that large unit! Keep damage to the bare minimum and we’ll see if we can’t save the pilot’s life!
: We still owe the Minerva for helping us when Luca got captured, I guess.
: Then let’s get to it!

Ignore the Archangel and Freedom as, first, they’ll auto-cast Iron Wall and Focus, and, secondly, losing them’s a game over.
Now, we don’t want them jacking our money, so I’ll be sending some folks up top to clear out the mooks around there, while the rest will converge with the Minerva team and head for Stella.

Destroy Gundam (Sting Oakley/Stella Loussier)
Pilot Skills – Sting:
Extended L3 – Accuracy, evasion and crit % up.
Sword Cut
Shoot Down
Shield Defense
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L2
Attack Combo L1
Pilot Skills – Stella:
Extended L3
Sword Cut
Shoot Down
Shield Defense
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L2
Attack Combo L1

Both pilots bring pretty much the same to the table, though Sting’s a better pilot in pretty much all useful stats. Normally they wouldn’t be too hardy, but that goes out the window with the beefy Destroy Gundam.
The faux-Psyco comes with loooong range attacks and a wide MAPW all which pack a hefty punch – the Extended bonuses could give them better %s that you’d expect, but the Destroy’s weapons don’t have very good accuracy modifiers.
The Positron Reflector will nullify any damage below 2500, but that number isn’t really threatening when we’re hot off dealing with Angels – the lack of Prevail will hurt them plenty here, too.
All in all, just build morale, keep an eye on their MAPW and you’ll be fine. THAT SAID, do note that Stella has this:

Secret Alert!
You’ll want to have Shinn be the one to bring Stella under 10% HP.

First order of business, however, is thanking Trowa for rushing us down and promptly removing him from battle.

: (Ruining peace to bring peace about… It pains me to take part in this, even if it’s to close in on my target.)

There goes about half his HP.

And there’s the rest.

: I’ve taken too much damage… retreating.

On the Minerva side, Athrun and Rey’s team each take a couple of kills, with Heine moving in to finish this lone Windam.

Shinn’s still over by Kira, so we’ll need to wait a bit for him to move back into Stella’s range.

Enemy Phase!

Damn it, Sting.

: We’ve to do whatever’s within our power to at least mitigate the damage to Berlin! Don’t give them an inch!
: But, captain, that unit has firepower on par with a battleship! It’s too dangerous to take to the front!
: I’d like minimize attacks to the Minerva, too, of course; but we need to stand firm, dangerous though it might be!
: Look at that big ol’ ship, sitting right there… I’ll start with it, then!

Ow.

Up top, the enemies all take a look at Shinn and move in like a swarm. It should be noted that this game DOES have the “dodge decay” mechanic in place, so Shinn’s numbers quickly dip to the point where he barely survives the turn with 400 HP. Still, he got 3 kills out of that.
Down below, Luna takes a single kill but everything else survives.

Player Phase!

Couple of heals for Shinn and Talia, and we’re ready to move in.

That’s one for Tetsuya, Kouji and Kenichi.

Ichitaka’s coming in to harass the southern flank.

Carrying on with the clean-up.

Right on time. Back south, Iczer-1, Alto and Ozma take a kill each.

And that once large posse has now been reduced to two lone Daggers.

Make that one Dagger.

So now we simply wait a turn and set our sights on Stella and, then, Sting. I half expected one of them to MAPW us but, surprisingly, neither did.

: Our first concern here is stopping the Alliance’s offensive. We’ll keep Shinn’s wishes in mind, but we can’t afford to play it safe against this MS!
: Roger!

: Hyouma, the pilot seems to be under some sort of control!
: How can those Alliance bastards sink so low…?! We gotta save her, whatever it takes!

: You stupid doll!!
: Iczer-1, that girl’s in pain!
: I know, Nagisa. We’ll set her free from that which binds her!

: Slipping through an enemy volley’s exactly what I did with Luca and Ranka… Problem is, the person that needs rescuing is inside the cockpit this time!
: Stay away… STAY AWAY FROM ME!!

: You won’t kill me…! I don’t… I DON’T WANT TO DIE!!
: The enemy pilot’s extremely agitated! We need to do something, and soon, or she…!
: It all comes down that the mech of hers, and if we don’t trash it quick, Berlin’ll also be in big trouble! We’re bringing our A-game to this!

: So they rescued that girl, Stella, while attacking Diokia… or was the attack to rescue her in the first place?
: Whatever the case, she’s still a powerful Extended. I can’t let my guard down…!

–

: I need to draw her attention over as much as I can or Shinn will be in even more danger!
: That red one… it’s trying to kill me…!

: That’s the Dancouga… the evil robot that prolongs wars…!
: Looks like she’s been given out-of-date intel in order to stoke her fighting spirit.
: Wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened, but it still grinds my gears.
: Aoi, we’ve already tagged where the cockpit is. Now we just need…
: To fight and yank her outta there!

: Stella! It’s me, Shinn! You have to remember me, please!
: NO! I don’t want to die… I DON’T WANT TO DIE!!
: I can’t get through to her…! Then I have to use the Impulse and bring her out of there myself!

: Aah—… AAAAAH!!
: STELLA!!

Shinn moves towards her.

: Shinn, what are you doing?!
: I… I have to save her!
: Get back! That thing’s gonna explode and you’ll be caught in it!
: Stella, it’s dangerous in there! Come with me, quick!
: No… NOO!!

: Aargh…!
: Shinn!!
: The Impulse isn’t strong enough to match that thing…!
: I… I don’t want to die! Someone help me!!

: STELLAA!!
: …!

Kira and Shinn move after Stella!

: You! What’re you up to?!
: You’re trying to save that pilot, aren’t you?
: Kira…?!
: We aren’t fighting to take the lives of others. Rather, we are all just… fighting to protect those that are dear to us.
: …!

[quote]

: He’s the sort that absolutely doesn’t enjoy fighting.
: Rather, he values human life above anything else… That’s the sort of guy he is.
: He values human life, hm…[/quote]

: Kira Yamato… you’re…
: Now’s your chance! Hurry!
: Got it! Stella, come over here!

Both units pull away from the Destroy.

: Stella! Stay with me!
: Hm… ugh…
: Thank god… are you alright?!
: Shinn…?
: Stella…! You recognize me?! Yes, it’s Shinn Asuka!
: Yes… I do, Shinn…
: I… I wanted to see you again…
: Stella…!
: We’ll handle the rest, Shinn. Head into the Minerva with her!
: Alright, thanks!

: Whew, there we go… Least that’s one problem fixed.
: Yeah.
: But it’s still too soon to relax – we’ve the other enemies to deal with!
: Roger that!

And, in case you’re curious, no, saving Stella isn’t what that secret entails – she survives regardless in this game, because Kira and the others aren’t sanctimonious idiots this time. The secret is to eventually get her as an actual unit. If that changes things to you folks, feel free to edit your votes.
Next in line is Sting, and no one here cares enough to save that guy.

: Bring it on, Valkyrie! You won’t be bringing down my Destroy with your buzzing around!
: You got a big mouth, eh? Then you better not cry for mommy when you’re on the receiving end of an attack straight out of a snap-roll!

: Did you get all this power just to do crap like this?!
: Blah, blah, blah…! Weapons exist only to wreck stuff!
: Then I got a news flash for you…! That power is so you can protect what’s dear to you!

: You should’ve just kept fighting Mimetic Beasts, Combattler! Why the hell are you buddying up with those space monsters?!
: The Combattler’s a defender of peace, and we won’t just sit and watch as you run amuck!

Huh, I didn’t know they had these Zeong-like weapons.

: The Voltes is more than capable of tangling with this one! We’re not letting you go on with these atrocities!
: Let’s see you try, aliens!

: Urk! Damn it, I didn’t even get to do anything and I already gotta back off…?!

: This sensation… it’s…!
: It really is coming from the “white baldy”…! Feels like fate going out of its way to bind us together, but I think it’s about time to put a stop to that!

: Urk!
: If you still want to fight, then…!

: Hrm…! I can’t go on…!
: Huh? This presence… It can’t be!

Kira moves closer to Neo.

: What?!
: Open your cockpit! I’ll help you get out of there!
: You…!
: Hurry!

: A-Argh…
: I knew it… You’re…!

Kira moves back to the Archangel with Neo in his hands.

: What is it?! Did something happen?! (Murdoch)
: This man’s the pilot of that Windam – he needs to get to the infirmary!
: Huh?! W-Wait a minute…! Is he—!
: …
: We can’t be sure yet, but I think so, yes.
: Alright. Leave him to me, then.

: All enemies confirmed destroyed.
: Meyrin, open up a comm channel with the Archangel.

Beep, beep!

: Captain, the Minerva’s hailing us…
: Now is not the time for us to talk. Not yet, at least.
: Huh? But…
: Is it because of me?
: Hm. Granted, we’re not about to antagonize them either. But until we’ve clarified that matter, we can’t…
: I suppose so…
: Recall all troops. We’re leaving the area immediately!

: The Archangel’s withdrawn!
: ?! But why…?
: Oi, what’s their deal, giving us the silent treatment!
: Job done, they set out with nary a word… I guess that’s a pretty hero-y thing to do.
: Maybe, but they’re more like a guerilla group. We won’t be able to turn the other cheek forever, don’t you think?
: I’d be nice if we could bring them to our side, but I guess it’s too soon to tell either way…
: The Archangel, the heroes of Jachin Due…

And here are the convos we didn’t get today:

: I’m putting a stop to your rampage right the hell now, Alliance MS!
: I’d like to see you try! This Destroy’s awesome!

–

: What’s going on?! Neo! NEOO!
: Might have to get a bit rough here, but that guy from the Minerva’s counting on us! Just hurry up and get back to normal, damn it…!

–

: Hahah! The firepower on this thing’s just crazy! We got this whole city burning in the blink of an eye!
: The Alliance must be getting pretty antsy if they’re deploying weapons like this…!

–

: He’s coming for me…! I have to kill him…! I don’t want to die! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!
: This girl’s not herself, that’s for damn sure…! Then my only option is to stop her by force!

–

: That robot’s so powerful… Can we actually save the pilot inside it?
: … Still, I’m sure Shizuru would go for it! I need to work extra-hard for her, too!

–

: Have you all but lost your heart, your capacity to feel compassion or sorrow?!
: Yeah, I did! Any heart I had sunk deep into the ocean when Auel died!
: That’s not true! And I’ll make you remember the kindness you’ve thrown away!

–

: Now this one looks like a pretty exciting fight…! Not always we get to hunt game like this.
: Seriously, I’m even working up a sweat here.
: Let’s wrap this up quick and find a nice, cool room to chill out…!
: Not even you’ll be beating me, Dancouga!

–

: I’ve no time to waste on you! MOVE!
: He’s a very pure young man. Hopefully no one will try and take advantage of that…

–

: Why’d you make Stella pilot… She didn’t want to fight anyone! Don’t you see how scared she is?!
: That’s just what happens in war…! I, personally, didn’t want this to happen…!
: That’s bull, and it doesn’t justify any of this!

–

: You’ve been bugging us since Armory One, you combined prick!
: You were one of those guys, then?! If you hadn’t attacked back then, we wouldn’t have this war in our hands!

–

: A head-on assault with an MS like mine would be suicide… Then the only option left is…!
: Look at him, running all over the place… Gimme a sec and I’ll spray you all over this city!

–

: Weaker attacks won’t do anything against this MS…! Are we just gonna have to make it run out of energy?
: You up to something over there? Stopping to cook up a plan’s only making you an easy target!

–

: Seems some force keep bringing us and the ship together. But that ends today!
: All turrets, target the leading unit! Disrupting their chain of command should also impair the large MSs!

–

: That unit has the size and firepower of a Mimetic Beast…! But I still have faith in the Freedom’s own power!
: You really got in our way last time, Freedom! But not even you can stand up to this Destroy!

–

: I have to stop this MS… I can’t let them burn down our future!
: The Freedom… he’s a bad man…!

–

: Worst case, ignore the other enemy units and focus on the large MS! Give me all gun batteries set upon it!

–

: We don’t know how much our Laminated Armor’ll hold against that. Concentrate all firepower dead ahead and let’s end this before it drags on for too long!
: Yes, ma’am!

: This is what’s left of Berlin…?!
: It’s awful… How could they do something like this?
: How many people were killed because of their insane agenda…?!
: Is anyone alive out there?! Say something, please!
: Kch… What was the point of any of this?! What the hell did we come here for?!
: Tetsuya, Goh, can’t we just get out there and tear down the Alliance’s army?!
: I know how you feel… but that’s not possible.
: Why?!
: Because we’re not allowed to intervene in transnational conflicts.
: We’ve jurisdiction to stop indiscriminate attacks on civilians like today, but, as I’m sure you’re aware, cannot act beyond that.
: Plus, according to intel ZAFT sent us, it looks like even the Alliance army is being manipulated from the shadows by this organization called “Logos”.
: Logos? What’s that?
: Merchants of death, looking to fill their own pockets from war.
: “Merchants of death”…
: They’re even worse than terrorists. At least those guys are willing to dirty their own hands.
: So things’ll calm down if we take those guys out the picture?! Let’s get to it, then!
: Patience; Lady Une’s using all resources at her disposal to try and look into Logos. She’ll brief us on what to do after she’s uncovered enough.
: In the meantime, we’ll work with the Minerva’s crew and do whatever we can to help locals make it through this.
: Let’s get going, Ichitaka. Assisting this relief operation’s just as important as fighting.
: I know, I know…! But I’m just so pissed with the Alliance…!

: Hrm…hmm…!
: Stella! Stella!
: Her condition’s worse than I expected. Her blood pressure keeps on dropping…
: But you can save her, right?!
: To be frank, there’s too much we don’t know about the Extended. I don’t think she’ll last long if we keep her here…
: What can we do, then?!
: We’ll bring her to the Dannar Base and try to find a way to treat her. I can promise you that we’ll all try our best to save her life.
: The Dannar Base…
: Urk… Shinn…
: ?! Stella, you’re awake?!
: I’m sorry, Shinn… I…
: It’s fine, don’t worry… I promise I’ll keep you safe, Stella!
: Thank you… Shinn…

: Are we still unable to contact the Chairman?
: We are. I’ve been trying over and over, but so far nothing.
: Hmm… But he should have new orders for us…
: If that’s what you want, I got them written down right here.
: What…? You, again?
: I was told to pass them on to you after the Minerva got to Berlin.
: Why is the Chairman taking such a roundabout way to contact us? If he’d told us about Berlin via our satellite comms, we might have made it here in time.
: Well, this area is under the Alliance’s control. Maybe he was worried the call would be intercepted?
: From what I’ve heard, even the Macross Quarter’s external communications are being partially jammed.
: That may be it, yes…
: Anyway, what do our new orders say?
: ?! What…! “Operation Angel Down”?!
: Huh?! Does that mean…!
: Yes, it does… It’s an order to sink the Archangel![/details]

[Mattman324]

The Cosmo Diver situation really makes me sad. Spoiler alert - the only person in the game who can pilot it is Lou, and Lou may as well be locked to her default because it’s really important, but the Diver has amazing partner bonuses. Shizuru or Mira would LOVE that thing.

Also, congratulations Dearka, you just changed the ENTIRE COURSE OF THE COSMIC ERA. Finally you’re the main character they always wanted your MS to sell like.

[Brunom1]

[details=Click to see the mission!]

OK, back on the other side and Michel (mostly because people learned Stella survives regardless!) has won the vote, so we’ll be keeping this route. Still a tight race for the number one spot, but this mission’s flow will end up giving Ichitaka quite the boost. We’ll see how this chart’s faring afterwards…

Quick upgrades, the EVAs got a few boosts in HP and Armor, while Kouichi and Daiya got a new pip in weapons and some other stuff.

Aaand we have a ton of event units: all the JUDA Machinas, plus Ichitaka. As such, we rearrange a few things:
Kenji/Kyo
Daiya/Yanma
Quatre/Rei
Dick/Puria
Shinji/Yagyuu
Zechs/Noin

Puria’ll let Dick move around in the air without lowering his %s, while Shinji won’t be stuck with his dinky rifle against airborne enemies when his gatling gun runs empty.

Here we go.

We open up at the Dannar Base, and Reiji’s requesting that Lulu allow him and the folks whose units are already repaired to head over to JUDA. That’s fine, as the Daiku Maryu itself will be setting sail soon – they might as well move in first and start strengthening the place’s defenses.
It’s the Machinas and the Rushbird that are good to go, so they’ll be departing straight away. Cut to everything hopping in their cockpits and all those units are ready to move out; Kouichi does wonder if Emi isn’t a bit uncomfortable, squeezed in the cockpit. Wouldn’t she rather we called a car to pick her up or something?

She’s fine, insisting she come along for the ride – b-but it’s not because of him, mind. She’s just worried about the Linebarrel, what with her having piloted it originally, and, also, she can’t well trouble others to help her out. What, but troubling him’s A-OK?!
That’s enough chit-chat, though, as Reiji tells him to deploy.

And our group makes it over to JUDA; right in time, too, as Maki notes that they’d be pretty much defenseless if the enemy attacked. Shibakusa’s heard of what happened to Shizuru and is majorly bummed out at him outliving more and more younger folk, though Ichitaka tells him to keep his chin up. Shizuru’s not dead yet, and he’s sure she’ll pull through.
But we need to worry about our current problems – Morimoto and Touko know how strong the Jinrais are, so we’ll need to be careful out there. Kouichi laughs that they worry too much, as the Daiku Maryu’ll be here soon and then we’ll kick Kiriyama and his goons’ asses straight into jail.

First things first, Reiji ask Rachel to give one last check-up on the Machinas while he and the pilots head to the briefing room. The Dannar folks’ll handle the Rushbird, and Shibakusa warns the crew to not get sloppy just because some maintenance was done back at the Maryu. Starting off, they’ll backup and take some feedback from the data on the previous battle.

: Reiji’s taking a while to get here…
: He did say he had to report to the president, but…
: Alright, Yamashita, Ichitaka, let’s go and prod him to come over. It’ll be faster that way.
: What, me too? You need to learn some patience.
: You know what they say: make hay while the sun shines. Let’s just go now.

: Eiji Kiriyama… what a stunt he pulled. I never thought he would conspire with the SDF to pull a coup.
: …
: Nor did I ever expect those Jinrais so simply be tools with which to carry out his own agenda. Your friend is quite the ambitious man…
: …
: Couldn’t you tell him to ease up a little? You have been his friend since school, no?
: No… What I am is his ally.

• *

: Well, now… pointing a gun at someone’s very dangerous business…

Door opens!

: Reiji, come on! Kiriyama’s gonna get here if we—

Bang!

: !!
: …
: …
: Mr. Ishigami…? Hey… Are you trying to mess with us? You had him play hitman or something?
: Reiji… This is all fake, right…? It’s one of the president’s games or something, right? Isn’t it…?!
: You… You shot him…?
: …

• *

: !! Watch out!

Kouichi pushes Ichitaka away! Bang, bang!

: R-Reiji… are you serious?!
: What… What are you doing?! Weren’t you supposed to be the Head of our Special Forces?! Aren’t you one of the leaders of LOTUS?!
: Yes… and this is my final mission as both.
: You will fight me now, Hayase…!

Crash!

: The Vardant?!
: …! What… What the hell…!
: Reiji!!

Mission 15 (JUDA Route) – Traitorous Blue

: A-Aah…
: Get a hold of yourself, Yamashita!
: Ms. Ogawa, come here quick! The president’s in really bad shape!
: Why, Reiji… Why the hell did you shoot him?! Tell me!
: Oh, the Linebarrel’s actually moving…? That Machina is special, alright.
: What just happened?! Where’d the Linebarrel and Vardant get teleported to, Goro?!
: Their destination was… What…? They’re right in front of JUDA HQ!
: I can’t see what’s going on from here! Let’s hurry to the president’s office!
: Right!

They run on over.

: … What?! Mr. Ishigami!
: Ready the ICU right away! We’re level S and need emergency treatment – maximum priority!
: Whuh?! What happened, Yamashita?!
: …
: You’re not going to explain anything…? That is how you’ll answer us?! In that case… COME ON!!

: Why… Why are they fighting?!
: We have to stop them…!
: You can’t. Your Machina’s motor systems have all been suppressed.
: He’s right – the Machinas are inoperable! The D-S.O.I.L. System’s been infected with some kind of suppressor!
: Then why’s the Linebarrel up and about?!
: You’re asking me?! It’s infected by the same suppressor too, even!
: Alice, we gotta hurry to the hangar! The Machinas might be down, but the Rushbird oughta work just fine!
: Right!

Well, frig. Losing Kouichi’s a game over, of course, but neither he nor Reiji have the firepower to overwhelm the other’s regen.

Just to be safe for the time being, cast Invincible with Kouichi and stand by.

Enemy Phase!

Here he comes.

: You’ve always relied too much on the Linebarrel’s superior specs… That may work against random worms, but nowhere else.
: Shut your mouth! Take your lecture and shove it – I’m done listening to you!
: That’s fine, because I’m also done talking… Come.

Reiji attacking: “Ramble about ‘justice’ as much as you’d like, it’s nothing but hot air if you can’t make it real.”
Kouichi: “Fine, then! Here I come, Reiji!”
Reiji taking little damage: “You’re no better now than you were during our last fight, Hayase.”

Player Phase!

: To all LOTUS troops: lay down your weapons and surrender!
: Fighting back right now would be pointless – if you do as told, we guarantee your safety.
: Domyoji?!
: Mr. Moritsugu, I’ve come to take control of JUDA as per His Excellency’s orders. There’s no need for you, yourself, to fight – the Linebarrel’s alone and my Jinrai is more than capable of dealing with it.
: Alright. You handle him, then.
: No, it’s not just the Linebarrel!

: Hm, that was sooner than expected. And in that case…!

: Domyoji, you…!
: I can’t let you get in the way of things. My men will keep you busy.
: And you’ll be dealing with me now, Kouichi! Come and see how an actual pro fights!
: The “Hayase Corps”, my foot… You won’t be running your mouth for long, you lying son of a bitch!
: Bring it, Kouichi!
: Alice, has our SOS to the Daiku Maryu gone out yet?!
: It’s not working… They’re jamming our communications!
: (Guys, please, get here quick… I really don’t think the two of us will last long. I’ve got a major bone to pick with those two liars, but we’re just not gonna make it by ourselves…!)
: Everyone’s stabbing us in the back today…! You’ll both pay for this!

[The Jinrais aren’t that TOO big a threat compared to other stuff we found, but the enemy still outnumbers us 4:1. We better start thinning down that difference.

They’ve strong enough to pop 1.1k damage per hit on Ichitaka, and that’s not even accounting for Domyoji or Reiji. Be very ready to heal with Alice.
Kouichi deals with both.

Enemy Phase!

Reiji will absolutely NOT leave Kouichi to Domyoji, but he thankfully misses. The new guy moves in next.

: All you do is rely on your strength and speed. Didn’t I tell you that you’re not beating me like that?
: Shut UP! Why are you with the SDF?! Hell, why are you one of Kiriyama’s goons?!
: Told you that, too: I’m all about having fun! And that’s enough questions. Here I come, Kouichi!

He’s sturdy-ish, but no more than the other Linebarrel midbosses we’ve had.
Ichitaka, meanwhile, is still punching and weakening the Jinrais.

Player Phase!

Beep, beep!

: Are they here?!

: The Katou Organization?!
: Having some fun, are you, Reiji?
: Oi, what gives? What’re Horns and his bigass friend doing out there?
: The Daiku Maryu hasn’t made it over yet, though.
: Perfect. We’ll take care of everything before they even get here.
: Oh, must we? It’s not always I have a chance to take my time and give the folks at JUDA a taste of Hell.
: Hmph…
: Now’s time to get some payback for Vladivostok… and for my wrecked Yaoyorozu!
: …
: We’ve the five commanders, the Gundam… and several MP Armas!
: Are you kidding me… The Katou Organization’s working with them, too?!
: I don’t think you got time to gape, Kouichi. Question is what’re you gonna do against all these enemies.
: I’ll destroy each and every one of you, is what!!

Don’t rush the Katous because you will not survive. Stick with the nearby Jinrais – Ichitaka takes two, Kouichi takes one.

Enemy Phase!

Oh, brother…

: Your skill is as middling as ever. But there’s no reason for you to die here, so why not surrender?
: Not happening…! I’d never throw in the towel to the president’s shooter!
: I took up a duty when I got the Rushbird, and I’m not turning my back on that now!
: Have it your way, then… Come on.

Domyoji connects a decent hit on Kouichi, but it’s nothing he can’t regen.
The Katou mooks are moving in, but not are close enough.

Player Phase!

: Is everyone alright?!
: The Daiku Maryu!
: Hrm, they got here a bit faster than I imagined.
: But they’re only packing half their usual forces – it’s all good.
: The Katou Organization’s involved with the coup… I didn’t expect that.

Looks at Reiji and Kouichi.

: What’s going on there? Why are Kouichi and Reiji fighting each other?
: Can you explain what the situation is, Mr. Moritsugu?
: Screw his explanations! He’s a traitor! He shot Ishigami!
: What?!
: It’s true…! The Vardant’s… and enemy unit and we must look at it as such…!
: Daiku Maryu, do you copy?! Our Machinas are inoperable and Mr. Ishigami’s in critical condition!
: … Understood. Troops, engage and destroy the Jinrai platoons, the Katou Organization… and the Vardant!
: But Lulu!
: … Our mission is still the same. Drive back the enemy troops right away and protect JUDA.
: I guess there’s nothing we can do about it; this is reality and we have to make peace with it.
: Reiji… I can’t believe it…
: Save being upset for later; the prez is doing real bad right now, so let’s finish this quick!
: Come and face me, LOTUS.

OK, now we got some more breathing room. Losing Kouichi or the Daiku Maryu’s a game over, and the Katou crew will reach our frontline units before our main group, but they can manage themselves.
This fight’s pretty much the same as the brawl in Vladivostok, so deal with the Katou guys accordingly. Mind, you might be tempted to get Reiji out your hair right away, but I advise against it because:

Secret Alert!
Continuing the mission 12 secret, you’ll want to have Kouichi destroy Soubi again. This must be done BEFORE you take out the Vardant.

Oh, and Riku’s also in there but he’s in a completely baseline Stealth Arma, meaning he has the consistency of plywood and a bunch of our guys can oneshot him.

No need to keep Domyoji around, though.

: You, too, Domyoji?! What’re you doing?!
: Surrender already! I promise I won’t shoot if you do!
: Meaning you’re not going to stop, are you…?! Goddamn it!

And Kouichi takes him out with a quick slice, while everyone’s heading over.

: You live up to your fame, LOTUS…
: I’m going to keep everyone safe! That’s… that’s what my JUSTICE is about!
: (Heh, damn… Guess I didn’t actually need to hold back here.)
: This is Domyoji speaking. I’m detecting abnormalities on m Jinrai’s systems. I’m unable to carry on with the assault – retreating.

: The SDF’s commander has pulled back? But…
: Right… His force is too small for a proper attack on JUDA…
: If Eiji Kiriyama’s the kind of man Ritsuko takes him for, then we’d best assume there’s more to this.

Enemy Phase!

And here come the mooks. Ichitaka and Kouichi both take a kill, leaving a buuunch of Armas in the red.
Reiji absolutely LOVES to chain attack folks, mind, so he cuts them a bit. The Katou bosses are starting to move in.

Player Phase!

Now we get to work.

Daiya also moves over for a oneshot kill.

Kouichi capitalizes on the mooks’ poorly thought out offensive, scoring a triple kill. Ichitaka, Dick and Zechs follow on the other weakened guys.

Enemy Phase!

Clever girl…

: I’ve no sympathy for those who shoot their friends in the back, Mister Vardant.
: Oh, I’m sorry. That’s your thing, isn’t it?
: Quiet, you…! I’ve never shot to kill any of my friends – not once…!

From what I’ve read in the wikis, Dick once ended up shooting Puria in the back in order to beat an enemy… he thought she could’ve dodged it (she didn’t, and has been miffed with him since).

Whew.

I’ve set up an Iron Walled Ichitaka to run defense and he manages to tangle with both Jack and Yulianne for some nice damage.

And here’s Soubi.

: How about I give you a taste of pain? Maybe with that you’ll start to see how the world’s actually like!

Away with you.

Oh, that’s not a good choice for you.

: Today’s the last day of your sorry lives, LOTUS! Now try and imagine how your deaths are gonna play out!

Bam. After that, Daiya and Zechs take, respectively, four and one Armas.

Player Phase!

Only the midbosses remain now and our morale’s looking good, so we’ll take half of them this turn, the other half later. Remember that, if you’re doing the secret, you need to have Kouichi destroy Soubi before you drop Reiji!

Here we go!

: Now that I think about it, we’ve been doing this song and dance for a while, huh? But it’s time for you to exit stage left!
: I’m not the rookie I was anymore, and you evildoers aren’t running loose on my watch!

: Rrrgh, these pests are really starting to get on my nerves!

: Kouichi Hayase… How does it feel to watch as your dear justice falls to pieces?
: That’s where you’re wrong…! Our justice isn’t beat just yet!

: Urgh…! Talk about violent… You’ve washed your hands of “justice”, and now you’re a full-on force of destruction, huh?
: SHUT UP!!
: !
: I’ve wrecked this city once, but never again! I won’t go down that path even if I’m betrayed by an ally, or if my friends are shot!
: My justice isn’t so cheap that I’d my throw it away that easy!
: (Hmph… So that violent thug matured into a violent man?)
: … Alright, alright. I’ll back down nice and easy this time.
: But sooner or later I know you’ll understand how foolish your justice is… and how wonderful the true justice advocated by the commander is.

: Why is a guy like him always going on about justice? But that’s not how someone who’s on the side of justice should be like… Isn’t that right, Mr. Ishigami?
: Kouichi…

: I care not for this…
: Now that Reiji Moritsugu’s joined this side, I’ll have to reconsider what to do with myself…

: Oh, how I loved seeing Reiji on this side after so long…
: Let’s get to it, then, boys! Now’s my turn to play with you!

: And that’s that… Now maybe I should find a place to see how strong “he” is?

: I trust you won’t let something like this destroy you, LOTUS…! Show me what you’ve got!

: I bet no one imagines that inside this common Arma is a captain…
: And that neglect’s just the opening I need to destroy them!

: Kch… They’ve got me cornered… But I still have some work to do.
: Keep on fighting to your heart’s content, LOTUS. Heheheheh…

: That Arma could have fought some more…
: I presume the pilot was the captain of the 8th Unit that we met in Vladivostok…
: Then we should keep our wits about us.

: I’ve nothing more to say to you, Wufei.
: Good, Quatre. Then all that remains is for us to pit our strength against one another! Prove to me that you’ve enough power to save the Earth Sphere!

: Reiji Moritsugu’s also joined us… Can it be that he…?

: Reiji…! You were always so severe, but I always thought you were the one who cared the most for all of us!
: Too bad you didn’t think to remember what I taught you about pointless chit-chat, hm?
: … Fine. Then, I’ll bash you into the dirt with everything I’ve got – just like you taught me!

: The situation’s wholly against you, LOTUS! None of you will leave here in one piece!

: The Linebarrel’s Factor must be very distressed after Reiji Moritsugu’s betrayal… This is our chance to claim his Machina!
: Did you say “distressed”…? I’m 200% PISSED, is what I am!

: Hrm! How could I let this opportunity slip through my fingers…!

: It was you who let me go on ahead of the pack, Captain. The fault of much of this falls on your shoulders.
: …!
: Trusting your crew isn’t necessarily bad, but you don’t seem to have an eye for risk management.
: I won’t make any excuses for what I did… I’ll just defeat the enemy that’s in front of me!

: You’re far too kind to be an agent, Quatre. That’s a major weakness of yours.
: But kindness is what keeps sadness from spreading throughout the world! And I thought you knew that!

: You… You really betrayed us…?!
: What do you hope to get by turning to another for answers?
: If you’re really a traitor… then I have to fight you…!

: I know that look… It’s very much like Zechs’ when he decided to take everything upon himself…
: …
: This pressure… I guess I don’t have the leeway to mull over this…!

: Why the hell are you doing any of this, Reiji?! It doesn’t make sense!
: It’s not like you to fret so, Kusanagi. Didn’t I tell you before that sitting still in the battlefield is asking to be killed?
: Yeah, you did… then I’m done thinking about this! Imma be fighting you for real now!

: You won’t be beating the Vardant like that…!

: He’s still going…!
: Guess he didn’t earn that “immortal” nickname for nothing…!
: What’s the matter, Hayase? I can still fight, so why aren’t you attacking?
: Why… Why are you doing this?! Was everything we went through just a huge lie?!
: The president, Yamashita, Miu, Ichitaka, Shinji… everyone trusted you!
: I… So did I!!
: 17…
: What?!
: That’s the number of opportunities I’ve had since this battle started to deal a fatal blow to the Linebarrel.
: Wha—
: You truly haven’t changed at all since we last fought. Will you cry again once you’re beaten today, I wonder?
: SHUT UP! God, you’ve always been like this!
: You’ve never given a shred of trust to any person here – everyone’s trash in your eyes! Do you get a kick out of treating people like dirt?! Does that make you happy?!
: …
: Kouichi…
: You really are scum – you’re completely unfeeling to the pain of others!
: What about you, then? Can you feel this one kind of pain I, who cannot feel physical pain, could experience?
: But even if you do feel the pain of others, if you cannot save them from that anguish, then there is absolutely no point!
: REIJIIII!!
: Your game of make-believe ends here!

: Re…i…ji…!
: The Linebarrel’s stopped transmitting any and all signals! The Factor’s gone into cardiopulmonary arrest…
: The D-S.O.I.L. isn’t working, either! He’s… Kouichi’s dying!
: Kouichi!!

: …
: Kouichi! … Hrk!

: (… I remember… my father’s last words… The Linebarrel… I’m the only one who can…!)
: Emi…?
: I’m…!
: Where’re you going, Emi?!

Back outside…

: …
: Reiji! You… you killed…!!
: Daiya, wait! Look!
: …
: Emi?! It’s too dangerous there – run!
: … LINEBARREL!!

: The Linebarrel… it teleported?!

: You’re piloting it now, Emi Kizaki?
: The Linebarrel’s reactivated?!
: Stabilize fields! Activate counter-nanomachines!
: Engage real-time teleportation in response to target’s movements at intervals 6, 7, 2, 3, 5, 8!
: Th-That’s!

: W-What the?! The Linebarrel’s turning black!
: Oh, no… Has it gone berserk?!

: HAAAAAAH!!

: …!
: Huh? Is Kouichi safe?!
: No, it’s not him…
: It’s teleporting in real-time with the Factor aboard?! But that’s… impossible!
: But, then, that means Emi was also the Linebarrel’s Factor?!
: She can’t be! There’s only one chosen Factor per Machina at any given time, no?!
: Oi, what is going on?!
: Haah… haah… haah…
: …

Snag!

: Ookay, that’s all the fun I’m letting you have!
: He really was just hiding…!
: Hrk…! I’m stuck…!
: He’s…!
: Everyone knows to keep an ace up the sleeve ‘til the last second! You’re not cutting yourself loose of these reinforced wires so easily!
: Get to it, Reiji Moritsugu! I don’t like it, but I’ll let you finish off the Linebarrel!
: Fool…
: You… you’re just like how Kouichi used to be! You’re convinced that you’re better than others… and it’ll be that hubris that destroys you!

: Whaat?!

: I… It can’t… COMMANDER KATOOOUUU!

: Hrm…
: Haah… haah…
: There’s no reason to continue this, hm…?

: Reiji, wait!!
: … We’ve lost his signal. He’s gone.
: Haah… haah…haah…
: Emi… are you alright?
: Yes… I can keep fighting… please let me… At least to fill in for Kouichi…!
: Just make sure you don’t push things too far, Emi! The D-S.O.I.L.’s still very unstable!
: (Is she really another Factor of the Linebarrel…?)

Linebarrel Mode B (Emi Kizaki)
Pilot Skills:
Factor
Sword Cut
Prevail L2
Support Attack L1
Support Attack L2
Attack Combo L1
Spirit Commands:
Accelerate
Alert
Focus
Mech Features:
Sword
Override (オーバーライド) – 50% chance to dodge any attack, allows teleportation movement on the field

Emi’s a pretty good pilot overall, having stats pretty much around Kouichi’s level – her evasion is WAY higher, though. The Linebarrels Mode B loses the Executor shots meaning its range sucks, but, in exchange, lets Emi use the massively powerful Override attack and skill.
… But we don’t actually get to play around with it because I killed everything before downing Reiji. You’ve already seen its two bigger weapons, though, so I reckon it’s cool!

There’s actually MORE to this mission, but I think we’ve gone on long enough (I’ll save the missed convos for later). Second half’ll be up in two days, I think.

See you all then![/details]

[Mattman324]

Aaand here we go. This is when the Anime goes from “these changes are annoying overall” to “this is just outright pissing on the manga now”.

So, in the manga, literally like none of this happens. Or rather, some of it does happen, but much, MUCH later, or a bit earlier, or all over the place. Emi piloting Linebarrel and Override - er, sorry, despite it being explicitly named they call it MODE B in the anime - happened already. Reiji does betray them for Eiji, but he does so for about half a volume before coming back (In UX, you lose him midway through a stage and start the next one with him, it’s funny). Ishigami doesn’t die until much later That whole “the machina are disabled” never happened. Domyouji shows up in a Jinrai a bit later on the allies side and is never an enemy, because Domyouji being a villain - or, well, a “villain” - is fucking wrong. And Katou most certainly wasn’t working with Eiji, he was a third party for the very short amount of time he was a villain and later joins the good guys side after becoming repentant.

Also there was an amazing shot of Linebarrel who got cut in fucking half by Vardant. We don’t get that here. That bothers me. It also bothers me that we miss out on the Yurianne stuff - see, she was a spy inserted into Katou for Eiji, but then it turns out she was a spy inserted into Eiji’s industry… by Ishigami! So she was good all along, and ends up joining at that point, although she loses the Tsubaki-Hime (Which both SRWs ignored because it’s cool)

Hilariously, though, the game changes a few events to be more like the manga here. In the anime, Riku dies without being able to say a word in space in an event that doesn’t happen in this game for some reason. In the manga, he died the one time Emi used Linebarrel Override, yelling Katou’s name (although he didn’t die to Emi. Sawatari killed him for… a few reasons, but Katou basically washed his hands of the guy.)

On the subject of Dick - yeah, that happened. She was ABSOLUTELY PISSED about it, too. Later, it looks like he’s doing it to Daiya, but he noticed in time and did get out of the way. Dick has the problem that he tends to assume other people are as good of pilots as he is, and he’s really good as a pilot - that, plus his attitude, causes Problems in combat, especially when he actually needs to work together. It’s why the person he works best with is Daiya, because Daiya’s a savant and by the time they met he was not only a pretty damn good pilot, but also in a machine capable of keeping up with Kill Jaguar (which was not only the strongest non-Giant or Maryu thing in the show, but by a rather fair margin. It’s the only thing not one of those to damage Dvorak, for instance.)

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

: We’ve repelled the first wave…
: Haah… haah…

The Linebarrel goes back to normal.

: … Kch… Hrgh… huh? What’s going on…?
: …
: Emi…? Why is she…? Emi, you alright?
: …
: Emi… did she wear herself out to help me? Everything’s kind of a blur…
: Kouichi?! You’re not injured?!
: I’m well enough, but Emi’s…
: Hey, what happened? I vividly remember fighting Reiji and… Wait, where is he?!
: We’ll explain later. You need to get her to the Daiku Maryu right now!
: Y-Yeah, you’re right.

Kouichi does so.

: We’re ready to take her in.
: Help her out, alright, Franklin?
: I’ll do all I can. We’ll know more after I’ve looked into why she fainted in the first place…
: Naoto, bring the Daiku Maryu towards JUDA.
: Aye, aye, ma’am!

Whoops, the ship’s moved too far away from Rei and that automatically cuts the Umbilical Cable!

: Is everyone safe?
: …Reiji…
: We’re fine, but Mr. Ishigami’s…
: …
: Ms. Ogawa! How is he…?
: sniffles H-He… the president’s…
: …!
: Yo… You don’t mean—!
: … He’s gone…
: N-No…!
No way, this is just another of his jokes, right?! Give it a few minutes and he’ll run in with that huge grin on his face, won’t he?!
: Pops… that’s not true right…? If this is a joke, it’s your worst one yet… This isn’t funny at all…
: Boss… It was just yesterday that I saw you laughing about… How can you be gone just like that…? Kch… aaahh…
: Damn… it…! Reiji, you…!
: Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll have no time to grieve. The second wave’s incoming…!
: Let them come…! Bring in the Katous, the SDF, Kiriyama or whoever, I’ll destroy all of them!!

: You and your men didn’t even last until I got here? You disappoint me, Makoto Domyoji.
: Still, I suppose it was thanks to you that I’ve this prime opportunity for my grand entrance. I’ll have to thank you later.
: A transformable Machina…?
: Greetings, fellows of LOTUS. I believe this is the first time many of us are seeing one another, no? I am Eiji Kiriyama, leader of New Japan…
: And this bad boy here is my Machina… Pretender!
: Eiji Kiriyama… I’ve been hearing that name since the last Great War, though never actually met the man…
: Oh? Could that be…?
: …
: Ah, Milliardo Peacecraft. I thought your voice sounded familiar.
: You know, I was originally planning to make this huge announcement to the world, as you once did, but things took a slightly different turn.
: Why’re you doing this, Kiriyama…?!
: Now where are your manners? You’re talking to the leader of Japan, so would you mind addressing me as “Excellency”?
: Then, Your Excellency, could you tell us what your goal is?
: I knew you’d be mindful of social graces, Captain Lulu. My goal… is to free Japan from the incompetent worms that govern it, and make it a magnificent country.
: Under my rule, Japan will be transformed into a nation of JUSTICE!
: “Justice”?! What would a guy like you know about justice?!
: …Ms. Ogawa, gather all of JUDA and Shibakusa’s staff in the president’s office.
: Huh…?
: Quickly!
: O-OK!
: Captain Lulu, please have the Daiku Maryu make ready to receive her group.
: You’ve something on your mind, huh? Alright, the Daiku Maryu will hold position next to JUDA HQ.
: Looking at how confident Kiriyama is… it’s likely we’ll have a difficult decision to make.
: Come on, fellows of LOTUS… let’s have some fun!

I hope you didn’t spend ALL your SP with the first wave! Losing Kouichi or the Daiku Maryu’s a game over, and you need to destroy everything to continue.
The Daiku Maryu, as Lulu said, is stuck by JUDA HQ, which means Shinji and Rei’ll either need to hang somewhat close or risk running out of gas. The enemy outspeeds you and your units are likely to have already moved, so I suggest the former. If any EVA was unplugged during the cutscene, you’ll need to move them adjacent to the ship to plug it back in.

With all that in mind, Kouichi closes in a bit and Rei starts heading back – thankfully, Shinji did get his cable yanked off.

Enemy Phase!

We’ve a few Jinrais that manage to get in range.

That’s one for Shinji, Dick and Daiya.

Player Phase!

Pretender, a.k.a. Deceive IV (Eiji Kiriyama)
Pilot Skills:
Factor
Sword Cut
Prevail L3
Support Attack L2
Attack Combo L1

Kiriyama’s actually a dang good pilot (comes with the territory when you’re voiced by Sho Hayami, I suppose) – his stats are even slightly better than Masaki’s, meaning he’s VERY accurate. The Pretender itself is rather dodgy and offers decent range, though his best is only 1-3; mind you, his weak Missile Pods are carrying miniature wireless Nerve Crackers and will apply with Morale Down debuff!
Being evasion-focused, however, means the Pretender isn’t too bulky and will easily fall in a single round of concentrated fire – like I said, hopefully your guys still have enough SP for Focus or Strike.

We don’t need Kiriyama getting a chance to Support Attack any of these Jinrais while we’re moving in, so we start killing. Kenji and Zechs take on each, and Dick…

He and Puria down a pair.

Yanma, Shinji, Ichitaka, pop, pop, pop…

Enemy Phase!

Here he comes, getting an intimidating 94/50% spread against Zechs!

: Milliardo Peacecraft… I’m honored to finally meet you face-to-face.
: … Oh, right, you’re a nameless spy now, yes? I suppose eliminating you would be in national security’s best interest, as we’ve no idea when you might go rogue and try your hand at terrorism.
: Say whatever you’d like, I care not…! Your forces may have helped you take control of this country, but the people’s hearts and minds remain free. And you haven’t what it takes to rule over them!
: Well, you sure told me, prince. And you have what it takes, then?
: No, I’ve neither the desire nor the right to try… I am now Wind, the man who’ll strike you down!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptqQkgA5QCo
Ow.

Kenji, Shinji, Yagyuu and Daiya each nab easy kills against the rapidly dwindling Jinrais.

Player Phase!

And there go the last ones, courtesy of Rei and Dick. Now all that’s left is Kiriyama, so let’s jump right in.

: I’d never take a creep like you as leader of Japan!
: I’ll have you know that my approval rating is expected to be of 100%. I’m this nation’s chosen messiah!
: I’ve no idea where you’re running those polls, ‘cause there’re a bunch of people who think your government is crap sitting right here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtN2RIV2AoE
Damn, where are the Macross folk when I need them?!

: Your daddy’s a pretty secretive man, huh? I haven’t been able to find out much about the EVAs because of that.
: So this calls for an up-close and personal investigation about what your unit can do!
: I don’t know much about my dad either… but even I can tell how dangerous it’d be to leave power in the hands of someone like you…!

: Didn’t your parents teach you that it’s damn rude to come waltzing into other folks’ home like you own the place?!
: Oh, but JUDA is already mine. Not just JUDA, even…
: Your Jeeg and the Build Base are all within the jurisdiction of the Japanese government, meaning they belong to me!
: The Jeeg doesn’t belong to just one person – not even me! You got a terminal case of selfishness and an ass-kicking is just what the doctor ordered!

: First I’ll pummel you to a pulp, then the entire world’ll have to acknowledge me as their CHAMPION OF JUSTICE!
: You’re not snuffing out our flames just like that! I’m fighting for every single person on Earth, the PLANTs and the Darius World!
: Oh, I’ll eventually take all those people’s plight upon myself too. So, please, just relax and accept your defeat!

: I’ll show you the true power of justice, Kouichi! That is, the power of Eiji Kiriyama, leader of this nation of justice!
: Yeah, right! You don’t deserve to use the word “justice”!
: Are you giving me your “champion of justice” routine? Because you really shouldn’t. Reiji and I have been a duo of actual champions since you were but a baby, see.
: A crook like you isn’t anything of the sort, damn it! No way!

Kouichi: “I’ll stand against your justice with everything I’ve got!”

: Well, well, you’re pretty good, LOTUS. Your reputation as an unparalleled force is very deserved.
: That’s what you get! You shouldn’t have picked a fight with us to begin with!
: Yeah, we’re the best of the best!
: So just stop with this ‘cause it’s not going anywhere. Your coup’s DOA, even with the Katou Organization on your camp!
: My, look at how heroic you sound. But I’m afraid your opposition has run its course. Why don’t you shift your eyes over to your monitors?

Beep!

: …
: G-Grandma?!
: …
: And Prof. Yotsuya, of the Nanbara Connection!
: And it’s not just the Build Base and Nanbara Connection. NEX’s Japan office and Neo Tokyo 3 are also completely surrounded by my Jinrais.
: So I think it’d be in your best interest to surrender JUDA nice and easy. If you don’t… well, things might get a bit ugly and no one wants that.
: Of all the foul tactics… The past really does repeat itself. (It’s a good thing Une isn’t here or this might’ve been awkward…)
: And you went on and on about justice, huh… I knew it, there really isn’t anything just about you!
: Your sour grapes need work, Kouichi – I’ve heard way better in my life. But the question is what you will do now, my friends…

Beep, boop!

: The Dannar Base… is still safe…
: I’m sending some coordinates… there’s an opening in the Jinrais’ perimeter… Take care of yourself and the Corps, chief…
: Who was that…?
: XO, the coordinates just came in. And it really is looking like the Jinrais aren’t too numerous!
: Ms. Ogawa, bring everyone in the president’s office onto the Daiku Maryu. Much as I regret to say it, we’ve no choice but to back down.
: Hey, hold on! We’re gonna do as he says?!
: Kouichi… the moment we do anything hostile, Kiriyama’ll order his troops to attack. We absolutely can’t let it come to that.
: Urk… goddamn it…!
: I’m still waiting. Your silence is making me a bit antsy, you know.
: Wait! We’ll do as you say – all of JUDA’s facilities and the Machinas therein are yours.
: Oh…? Does that mean you surrender?
: We’ve surrendered our HQ… but you will allow LOTUS to withdraw. I repeat, LOTUS will be leaving here!
: Fine, fine, I’ll allow it. I’m nothing if not merciful and, plus, putting you down right now would make for a later headache… But there is a catch.
: What is it…?
: You’ll have to entertain me on your way out. Let’s see if you can slip through my Jinrai squadrons!

: He still had so many…?!
: Go on, LOTUS. Run along… if you can.
: And this might go without saying, but you better not fire back. I’m sure the great and powerful LOTUS can manage something like this, right?
: How vile can someone get…? Shame on you!
: Zechs, everyone’s aboard the Daiku Maryu!
: Good. Captain!
: Forward, full throttle! We’re leaving the battleground and heading towards the Dannar Base!

: We should manage to lose the Jinrai pursuers if we head that way.
: We’ve no choice but to take a chance with that… I don’t think that transmission we got was a lie…
: All troops, whatever happens, do not attack the enemy!
: The more defensive units will need to cover the others! Can we count on you for that, Kouichi?
: Yeah, the Linebarrel can shrug off some random shots just fine with its regen.
: Sorry to put you in that position. I know this is particularly difficult for you, but…
: It’s fine… I’ll get back at him later…!
: We’ll need to bait the intercepting Jinrais away from the Daiku Maryu’s path – nothing else will work. Be careful and let’s go…!
: Ahahahaha…! Dance, LOTUS! Dance for me!

Yeeaaah, now this is different. The Daiku Maryu has a long trek ahead of it and the Jinrais will be able to set upon it in at most two turns – if you haven’t used Rosa’s SP at all, you’ll have enough Accel casts to reach your destination in about five turns. That’s a long period of time where you’ll need to have your guys keep the enemy away.
So, how do we do it since we can’t even attack? You’ll need to make a literal wall around the Daiku Maryu to keep the enemies from getting too close, because the biggest threat here is not the Jinrais getting a few shots in – the ship can handle that – but the Daiku Maryu getting surrounded. If it gets surrounded, you’ve lost because there’ll be no way to draw the Jinrais out.

The ship’s high HP means the AI’ll always prioritize it if the range allows it, and you cannot outrun them with Accel, either, so never let your formation crumble.

Here’s how I did it throughout these five turns:

There are Jinrais to the north and east, so try your best to run the ship down the middle – the longer the more distant units have to move to get to you, the easier it’ll be to avoid getting surrounded.

Whatever units are still free after your battle with Kiriyama should be sent towards the enemies to goad whatever you can into attacking them.

Like so. The second turn is critical, as that’s where the enemy’ll likely be the closest to the Daiku Maryu. If you do it right, it all gets easier from here.

Your primary concerns in regards to positioning is to make sure that you NEVER have both the Daiku Maryu’s 12 and 3 o’clock squares blocked by the enemy because even if you can still move, that’ll slow you down considerably.
The AI isn’t clever enough to go around your wall of units – they only know how to go forward – so set things up in a way to cut off their direct access.

Next turn, things are much safer now. Your Supers will likely get more and more attention as the AI shifts priority away from the distancing ship. That’s good as the Jinrais simply lack the power to pop an A.T. Field, so have either Shinji or Rei hang slightly back to tank everything.

Fourth turn. Q.E.D.

Fifth turn – victory!

: Your way’s clear, Lulu!
: All units, return immediately! The Daiku Maryu’s leaving the area!

: Wait for us, Deceive… We’ll be back!

: Very well done, LOTUS. I had a lot of fun.
: And now, starting on this glorious day, this shall be my castle! AHAHAHAHAHA!

Here are the battle convos we didn’t get, especially with Emi since everything was gone:

: Hey, new guy. I’m just following His Excellency’s orders, alright? No hard feelings.
: (Domyoji… he was a SDF pilot…?!)
: (But I’m not feeling any malice coming from him… Is he…?)

–

: Looks like you’re in quite the pickle, Horns! I’ll make all that go away!
: That blue Arma again?! None of us would get dropped by a mook like you!

–

: JUDA’ll be ours by the end of the day, Linebarrel boy!
: Throw whatever you have at us, I’ll still turn every single one of you into scrap!

–

: ?! This Arma’s moves are different from the others!
: I’d taken this guy to be a complete idiot, but he’s actually getting better and better at fighting…
: We really need to kill this Factor and soon…!

–

: It’s the Gundam that’s always ranting about justice! But if you’re with the Katou Organization, then you don’t get to use the word!!
: Come, Kouichi Hayase… let’s see how far you’ve come!

–

: Domyoji… are you serious about this…?
: I’m always serious, girl. Let’s do this…!
: I see… Domyoji, you’re despicable…!

–

: Horns has turned black now?!
: I… I’ll protect Kouichi…!

–

: I never thought the Linebarrel had power like this hidden away… Is that why the commander’s so focused on it?

–

: Even the Tsubaki-hime’s speed can’t stand up to that real-time teleportation… I better think carefully of how I’ll deal with this one…!
: (I can’t overuse the teleport function… But I also need to keep Kouichi safe…!)

–

: Haah… haah… I… I’ve to manage the Linebarrel…
: You look like you’re in pain… Let’s supersize that and see how pretty your screams sound!

–

: A false awakening by the looks of it… then I have but to suppress it!
: Wufei Chang… what is it that you know…? Hrm… I can’t remember…!

We’re headed towards the Dannar Base and it doesn’t look like we’re being followed. Misato figures he’s enjoying his victory, cozily sitting in his new office – Ishigami’s office.

By the Dannar Base, Kiriko welcomes everyone and knows we must have much on our minds between Reiji’s betrayal (who’s clearly in cahoots with Kiriyama and, by proxy, the Katou Organization), Ishigami’s death and the loss of JUDA.
At the very least we should count our blessings in that this place is still safe, though Kagemaru doesn’t know why Jinrais weren’t dispatched over. Regardless, now’s the time to reorganize and consider what to do. External communication is being blocked, so we’ll need to deal with this ourselves.

Ichitaka’s reeling over Reiji’s betrayal, but Puria says wallowing in it won’t change what happened. Moreover, Dick says what we should be worried about is how we’ll fight the guy… and how much of our own intel he’d leaked to the Katou Organization.
Kouichi comes in, telling Ichitaka that Emi’s awake, and she told of how she piloted the Linebarrel while he was passed out. Kouichi doesn’t understand what’s going on, but it seems that she IS another Factor of the Linebarrel. Either way, he figures it’s very likely he would’ve died if she hadn’t done as she did.
And then some, Rachel says, as the only reason Kouichi managed to avoid death is because Emi energized the D-S.O.I.L. Without that, the regen wouldn’t have healed him fast enough to save his life. As for turning the Linebarrel black – called Mode B – it seems that feature is kind of locked to Emi.

Naoto hopes she’s OK, and we also have the NERV and Build Base folks to worry about. Tsubaki expects our leaders’ strategy meeting to be over soon, so they might have new info for us… but never mind that for now, our monitors just lit up by themselves!
And it’s Katou himself speaking, sending out a message to the entire world! “I am Hisataka Katou, the commander of the Katou Organization. I apologize for my rather sudden message, but I’d like to take this moment to officially proclaim our conquest of the entire world.”
Well, shit.

NERV’s also watching, and Makoto can’t believe the guy would try to pull that off with all mankind already has on its plate. Shigeru thinks he’s serious, though, as proven by the bevy of Jinrais keeping Neo Tokyo 3 under siege. NERV itself can’t really stop them as not only they haven’t the EVAs, they’re not really equipped to deal with blitz attacks by humans.
Maya fears they might end up having to fight their fellow men, but Gendou tells her not to panic. Everyone’s to hold at yellow alert, but it won’t be NERV who’ll shoot first. Shigeru seems ill at ease, but confirms.
Fuyutsuki, meanwhile, can see that it’s not SEELE behind this. “Hm. In which case, this coup… and Katou’s conquest of the world are bound to end in failure,” Gendou nods. Granted, whether or not that prediction comes true depends entirely on LOTUS.

Back to us, Katou carries on while Kouichi fumes:
“We are going to draw a clear line down this world: an impassable barrier, a new balance, separating good and evil, friend and foe, some and none, those with imagination and those without, those who will live and those who will die. To put it in simpler terms, this is the conquest of the world I spoke of just now.
The takeover of Japan was but the first step towards that. As of this very moment, Japan has ceased to exist as a sovereign nation, and has been born anew as the unsinkable vessel of the Katou Organization!

And cut to JUDA, for the rest of it: “If you wish to be among the survivors, then imagine. Imagine what the future might hold, and what you should all do…!” Kiriyama sighs at Katou hogging all the spotlight, while Reiji comes in to report that despite their and the Katou Organization’s joint analysis, they haven’t been able to make sense of the Linebarrel’s Mode B yet.
The other JUDA Machinas are still unusable with their Factors out there – if Kiriyama wants a quick solution, then Reiji says his best option would be to kill them and find new ones. No, that’d be FAR too boorish for him. What they’ll do is either use their technological prowess to circumvent this issue, OR get the current Factors to submit.

Still, Kiriyama’s is happy to just have the Machinas for himself – they look so cool even if they’re just standing there! But having taken JUDA, Japan and the Machinas isn’t the end as LOTUS and the folks up in space are still around.
First things first, Kiriyama has something else he wants to make his own: the Katou Organization itself. Reiji himself has to sigh at the guy’s boundless greed.

Over by Palace Djibril, the man has just seen Katou’s transmission and is rather surprised Logos Guy allowed him and Kiriyama to pull this stunt. Surely the Far East couldn’t afford that to happen.
Actually, Logos Guy isn’t worried about Kiriyama whatsoever and tells Djibril to carry on the extermination of the Coordinators as normal. What, are they going to do nothing about the Katou Organization? Djibril figures they can’t stay silent after such a major proclamation, but Logos guy says it’s nothing they need to crush personally. They’ll just be on the lookout for the right time and then take action.
“If the Schedule proceeds as expected, their ‘world conquest’ will mean absolutely nothing,” Logos Guy ponders inwardly. Well, alright, Djibril will do as he says – Berlin’s up next, and it’ll soon be a sea of flame.

Checking in at Shangri-la, the Katou folks are in pretty good mood. Sawatari’s checking his hair out in the mirror – it’s perfect – though Masaki takes it to be a waste of time. It’s not like he’ll look any different however much he stares in that mirror. Hey, Sawatari’s just enjoying the view, so shush!
Soubi seems moody, though, and Yulianne asks what’s up. If he’s sad about Riku, he really shouldn’t be – death is a regular occurrence in the battlefield, and the guy was aware of that. It’s not, though, and Soubi has a question for her: why did she join the Katou Organization?
An odd thing to ask at this point, but Yulianne says he ought to know the answer to that: it’s because she approved of Katou’s ideals. Of course, there are other things that piqued her interest, too.

And is it the same for Dmitri? The guy harrumphs that Soubi shouldn’t even need to ask, and wonders why he’s been acting a bit off since they returned. Sawatari figures that if he’s got time to worry about nonsense like that, then he oughta take a bit of incense for Riku’s grave. Katou himself, busy as he is with his proclamation and whatnot, took the time to go, so Sawatari and Dmitri don’t see any reason why Soubi can’t.
“You’re right… the commander really does care a lot for his subordinates, huh?” Soubi seems happy, but Wufei inwardly sees that he’s wavering. Regardless, Reiji should be heading this way soon, so Wufei’ll need to ascertain what he is truly after.
Jack is also quietly pondering the guy: “Reiji Moritsugu… he’s allied himself not just with the Kiriyama Heavy Industries, but also with our Organization?”

By Riku’s grave, Wufei’s reporting that Kouichi actually followed his commanders’ orders to retreat; that’s a shift in attitude, as the boy they’d been fighting with ‘til today would’ve likely snapped into a frenzy face what happened… he’s not a simple champion of justice anymore.
His power is still lacking, says Wufei, but Katou thinks that’ll sort itself out with time. After all, he’s not the heir of Ishigami’s will for nothing – the boy very much exceeded Katou’s imagination.

And, finally, back to the Dannar Base, the leaders have just gathered our folks. We’ve managed to get in touch with Sally, who tapped the Preventer’s network to get us some intel on what’s going on throughout Japan, and, in essence, every single region is under strict surveillance.
Sally relates that Kiriyama has a lot more Jinrais out in the field than she expected, so a frontal assault is out of the question lest the hostages pay for it. Are we screwed, then? Not quite. From what Sally’s found, it seems the Jinrais dispatched to hold those areas are all drones, meaning they’ll have plenty of weaknesses Maki and the others can exploit.

Indeed, Zechs remembers lessons everyone learned in the past war of the inherent vulnerabilities of machines. Now, it’ll take make some preparations, but Kiriko figures we’ll have everything ready to deactivate all the Jinrai drones by tomorrow morning.
Once that happens, we won’t have to worry about the hostages’ safety, and, Kouichi sees, will be free to take JUDA back! That’s the plan, so it’ll be tomorrow at 5am where we’ll execute Operation JUDA Reclamation!

[Mattman324]

Fortunately, I can say that this section of the game is not nearly as long as the anime version. See, in the anime, the section where Kiriyama had control over Japan took quite a few episodes before the first major shift happened (that being a few things, but most importantly and non-spoilery JUDA getting its Machina back). In L… well, they cut out almost all of that shit, because it is dumb and unimportant. They also cut out a filler episode which was a beach episode in which, amongst other things, Yamashita turns out to be a girl (he was a guy in the manga), and a literal giant squid comes around to do tentacle-y things to all the girls on the beach. And I’d say “goddamnit Japan not this shit”, but no, there’s absolutely nothing in the manga like that, not even in the silly joke chapters. They made that all up for the anime. And it is the most fucking dumb fanservice episode too, especially because there’s actual important plot bits that are supposed to be totally serious going on at various points that get interspersed with “LOOK AT THESE GIRLS WEARING BEACH OUTFITS! NOW THERE’S TENTACLE SOFTCORE!” Only good bit of that episode was Jack getting a chance to be a badass, but they ruin that too unfortunately with the dumbest plot point the anime ever did.

That said, something I said there should be brought up in depth. See, the anime’s greatest… well, one of its great failings is the fact that the pacing between scenes is absolutely fucking shit. And I’m not talking about things like how Shin Mazinger does one night over the course of like eight episodes and nothing else at nearly that slow pace, but instead how within episodes, you’ll have extremely jokey scenes that are meant to be taken for comedy (usually not that great comedy, too, unless it was directly manga stuff like parts of the Rachel episode) and then within a minute it’ll switch to something totally serious, and then within a few minutes of that starting it’s back to comedy. The manga switches between those things between chapters - usually there’s at least one jokey chapter before the end of the volume, barring ones that were absolutely super serious, but there’s always a divide between the two sections. In the anime there isn’t, and it can be really jarring. The beach episode and Reiji shooting Ishigami are the two biggest problem bits as I recall, but it’s all throughout.

(And that’s when the bad animation, the poor choreography, or certain specific choices that make no sense - like the ENTIRE FINAL FIGHT, but we’ll get there - don’t turn the thing’s mood on its head as well. There’s a particular scene I know this game replicates that I’m waiting for, because it’s a great comparison of how the manga and anime are twisted reflections of each other - the manga had a really important, emotional fight, which drastically affects certain characters from that point on, and the anime… not only completely changes the fight, making it much less impactful, but also changes a really well choreographed - if short - fight into something that looks like garbage, the sort that would make you laugh if it doesn’t make you cry instead.)

This section of the game is right in the nadir of the anime. There was a lot of really shitty stuff around this point, but the entire section where JUDA has no Machina outside of Linebarrel was the absolute worst section. It gets slightly better towards the end. A little. Outside of the absolute very end of the “last episode” (actually 24), the first half of the joke episode (25, taken directly from the manga), and the last half of the epilogue (26, notable for being an anime exclusive plot thing that’s actually really cool and I wouldn’t mind seeing it one day reused) it still never even reaches “good”.

[Brunom1]

Click to see mission!

Our current top aces, though this is merely academic since we won’t be keeping the path. On that note, let’s just jump straight into the squads.

Ichitaka
Voltes/Mira
Dancouga/Tetsuya Kouji
Anna/Klan
Kouji/Jun
Tetsuya/Canaria
Combattler/Boss
Alto/Michel
Ozma/Luca

Iczer-1’s deploying as an event unit, so Ichitaka’ll be flying solo today. Better him than any of the others.

On we go!

The Cthulhu have successfully made contact with the Jama Kingdom, Himika telling that she’ll easily let them keep Earth so long as she has the Bronze Bell. Indeed, hatred is the mightiest force in the universe – however strong their dreaded Iczer-1 and partner may be, they are nothing face the Jama Kingdom’s malice.
Sir Violet warns against underestimating them and ends the call, leaving Himika to ponder that the power she feels emanating from Big Gold is quite similar to their own. Seems to Mimashi that fate’s brought them together, and he asks if they’ll be allying with the Cthulhu.
Yes, because Himika sees this as a win-win: if they’re struck down, at least they’ll wear out Jeeg and his allies, and if they survive, the Jama can easily dispatch them. Brilliant! Now, Ikima’s expected to return soon, so they’ll let the Cthulhu do their thing until then.

Over by the Cthulhu Fortress, Iczer-2 has recovered from her last battle and is already raring to put an end to Iczer-1’s life.
Sir Violet tells her to get to it, as the future of their kind depends on it. Iczer-2 seems confident: “You may have found your partner, but she’s no more than an earthling girl… Just you wait, Iczer-1. You’re not long for this world!”

: The PLANTs ordered you to sink the Archangel?!
: They did, yes. And we’re about to set out after them.
: That’s ridiculous! Anyone can see that the Archangel isn’t an enemy!
: … It is not our place to decide who the enemies and allies are. I hope you’ll understand.
: … Then at least let us accompany you.
: Accompany us?
: I don’t think they’re enemies either. So at least give us a chance to talk to them before you attack!
: The Archangel intervened in several battles in order to bring the last Great War to an end. I’m sure we can find common ground if we manage to speak to one another!
: What you’re getting at is that you want to invite the Archangel to join LOTUS, then?
: Yes. If they joined us and clarified where they stand, then ZAFT would have no reason to order this attack.
: … Well, I suppose it’d be possible to avoid some unnecessary conflict if they can be persuaded.
: I’m glad you agree.
: Very well, you may accompany us. We’ll be starting our pursuit at once.

Call ends.

: What do you think?
: It’s clear that Cpt. Gladys doesn’t like this either. The Archangel’s given ZAFT no reason to see them as a threat thus far, so these orders are coming completely out of the blue.
: I agree. And if they came from the PLANTs’ themselves… does that mean it was Chairman Durandal who ordered it?
: But why are they doing that? It’s already bad enough that we’re wasting our time with the Alliance!
: Seriously. Humans really shouldn’t be fighting each other with the Jama Kingdom, the aliens and whatnot hanging around.
: To say nothing of how much of a boost it’d be for us if we managed to add the Archangel’s forces to our team.

Ping!

: …?! This presence is…!
: What, Iczer-1?
: It’s her… Iczer-2 is coming after us!
: Speak of the devil… That broad’s got the worst sense of timing in the world!

: Captain, why are we going to attack the Archangel?! These orders are insane!
: … They’re also from the Supreme Council. We have to comply.
: But why so suddenly? What’s the Chairman thinking?
: The Federation’s violence is pushing the radicals in the Supreme Council to become progressively louder. I’m sure the Chairman is trying to contain them, but there’s only so much he can do.
: But that doesn’t justify fighting the Archangel!
: Then who is it that you want to fight?
: …!
: We are soldiers and this is war – that’s the way things are. If you can’t make your peace with it… then you’ll die.
: We may not need to fight them depending on how LOTUS’ negotiations go… but, first, we’ve to at least catch up to the Archangel.
: And if LOTUS can’t convince them?
: Then… we’ll follow our orders.
: Captain…!
: (I have to fight the guy who helped me save Stella…? Can I actually do that…?)

Speaking of the Archangel, Neo’s still asleep. He’d woken up for a bit earlier and IDed himself as Neo Roanoke of the Earth Alliance, but his medical data is a complete match to their old crewmate Mu La Flaga. They guy was tagged KIA after his MS was destroyed while shielding the Archangel a Jachin Due, but it is what it is.
Neo wakes up and doesn’t appreciate them referring to him as lieutenant commander – he may be a POW, but that doesn’t give them the right to demote him like that. “Hm, why are you looking at me like that, beautiful? Love at first sight, maybe?” he says to Murrue, but corrects her when she addresses him as Mu. He’s Neo Roanoke.

Seems like he’s lost his memories, but that’ll have to wait as Waltfeld gets in touch. The Minerva and Macross Quarter are headed this way! They haven’t gotten in touch yet, but he has a bad feeling.
As Murrue rushes to the bridge, Kira wonders what the two ships are after.

Mission 16 (Alliance Route) – Intervention

: This is Murrue Ramius, captain of the Archangel, speaking. What is the meaning of all this, Cpt. Gladys?
: Cpt. Ramius, the Minerva has been ordered to bring down your vessel.
: What did you say?!
: Hold, Cpt. Ramius. I am Goh Saruwatari of LOTUS.
: The hero of the War of Giants… I’ve heard of you.
: We are here to parley, and to ask if your group would be willing to join LOTUS. If you cease to be a wild card, and make your affiliations clearly defined, then we could avoid many a pointless battles.
: I wouldn’t be so sure. I’ve the sinking feeling that your orders to shoot us down have more to do with killing two of our crew members.
: What do you mean? Which people are those?
: The first would be Kira Yamato, the “Super Coordinator”. The other…
: Would likely be me…
: Whuh?! Why is Ms. Lacus with them? I thought she was at the PLANTs!
: You mean the girl with Durandal? I’ve no idea who she is, but I can assure you that this one is the real Lacus Clyne.
: And you should know that, when we were at Orb, Coordinator assassins came after us… We have reason to suspect that someone, manipulating the PLANTs from the shadows, tried to kill Lacus.
: And that’s the reason for these sudden orders to destroy you, huh…?
: (But who from the PLANTs would want to kill… Chairman Durandal…? No, that can’t be!)
: Cpt. Gladys, I understand your position. As a soldier, you can’t go against the orders you’re given… but the current situation compels us to try our damnedest to stay alive.
: And, so, if you insist on doing this…

: Then we are ready to fight to the end…!
: …! Shift us to code red! Deploy all mobile squadrons!

: I really didn’t want to fight the Freedom… Isn’t there any way around this?!
: …

Kira blasts towards Shinn!

: What?!

Kira: “Unknown attackers?! Watch out!”

Kira: “Hrk…! Is the Impulse…?!”

: The Freedom… saved me?!

Alert!

: Captain, we’ve a group of unknown units inbound! They appeared out of nowhere!
: What?!

: It’s the Cthulhu! Why’d they have to turn up now?!
: Cpt. Ramius, Cpt. Gladys, those are the Cthulhu. They’re a group of aliens who’re targeting the Earth!
: I’ve seen reports on them. It seems our battle has been postponed for us.
: Troops, your targets are the Cthulhu forces! Open fire!
: That’s our cue to deploy, too! No need to hold anything back against those!

: It’s been too long, dear sister! But what say you we put a definitive end to this today?
: I will not, Iczer-2! I cannot afford to fall here!
: What do we do, Captain? Do we use this opening to run off?
: No, we’ll assist them – an alien invasion is not something we can turn the other cheek to. All units, move to intercept!

So, here’s Operation Angel Down… and our only issue is the Cthulhu. This mission is really more of a breather after the big Berlin battle (or mission 15 at JUDA route), and there are no tricks.
It’s just a bevy of Dilos Thetas and Iczer-2, and while she’s still massively strong, her range remains quite limited. Build up morale, come packing Strike for her and wrap it all up quick (do make sure the Archangel team doesn’t steal your cash, as they’re neutral).

I’m just going to speed through this because, honestly, it is a very simple fight – if you’ve gotten to this point in the game, you know exactly how to approach it. Losing Iczer-1, or any ships (Archangel Included), is a game over but you need to screw up massively for that to happen.
Kira himself will auto-cast focus, so he’s nigh unkillable, and I am all but certain he’ll regen to full if that happens.

: My wounds have healed in full… making this the final day of your life, Iczer-1!
: I have my allies standing here with me – I shall not be defeated!

Iczer-2: “I was created solely to kill you! No more, no less!”
Iczer-1: “Well, I guess you are not a worthy opponent…”

That’s a generic line for Iczer-1, so I completely skimmed over it, but I had to include it after the juxtaposition was pointed out to me!

: Ichitaka, I’m all ready to provide support! Just say the word!
: I-I’m getting by on my end, too! Bring it on, Iczer-1’s sis!
: Indeed, partnering people with one another is nothing but detrimental!

: She’s insanely fast…! Can I even keep up with her?!
: I’ve no time to waste with you. My one and only foe is my sister!
: But I’m still not letting you get away from me…! My foes are all those who spread the fires of war!

: Iczer-1’s little sister… she sure looks strong, alright!
: You’ve a knack for sizing up your opponents, Earthling. Then you should already know that you cannot best me.
: Maybe if I was alone, but I’ve got a ton of friends here with me! And we’ll come out on top against whatever steps up to the plate!

: Hmph. If you think victory is yours, think again. Come, Iczer- Σ!

: I’ve no bindings around my feet today, Iczer-1… I’ll destroy you with my own strength!
: Nagisa, we must summon the Iczer Robo as well!
: Right! Let’s go, Iczer-1!

: Iczer-2… I will be victorious!

: I’ve a message for your boss, Big Gold: she’ll never get her claws on Earth while we’re still around!
: How very brave you are… but you’d best save your bombast for after I’m defeated!

: You dare attack me…? Someone needs a lesson of where they stand.
: You might be Iczer-1’s sis and strong as all hell, but the Combattler’ll always be ready to stare you down if you gun for Earth!

: If your people want a new home, then go find another planet! Our world also sent colony fleets out into space, and we never tried destroying other civilizations!
: War always follows whenever different cultures meet one another… the strong survive, while the weak perish. Such is the quintessential law of the universe!
: That’s just a rationalization for your bull! So I’ll stand and fight for our lives!

: I’ll make you pay for all the pain you put Nagisa through!
: Friendship is simply the weak giving succor to one another… A worm like that will never defeat me!

: Luck was not with you when your partners were chosen, it seems. You hamper one another, and that is how you’ll leave this mortal coil.
: Ouch. Still, I guess it’s true that we lost to the R-Daigun because our teamwork wasn’t up to snuff…
: None of us wanted to be part of a quartet to begin with, really.
: But that’s not who we are anymore… we’ve started to learn what teamwork is about, bit by bit.
: Hmph… such things are pointless is battle. All one needs are puppets who’ll obey without question or hesitation!
: That’s how you see it, eh…? Then this calls for Team D to show you what it’s capable of!

: I only sense Iczer-2’s presence within the Iczer- Σ… she’s fighting us alone?
: My “partner” was dead-weight from the very beginning. And once you’re beaten, I’ll have proven the folly of relying on others!
: That’s not true! I’ve grown strong only because I have Iczer-1 with me! And we’ll protect humanity and Earth together!
: Come, Iczer-2! Behold our combined strength!

: How?! My combat abilities far surpass that of Iczer-1…!
: Is this her partner’s… Is this the power of that earthling girl?!
: Victory is ours, Iczer-2!
: Urk…!

: Iczer-2… If you say you are my sister, then it is my duty to stop you…!
: OUR duty, right? You shouldn’t try to tackle this all by yourself. After all, you chose me as your partner, right?
: Thank you, Nagisa…

: All the Cthulhu forces have been destroyed.
: Coming under attack by these invaders comes as quite the reality shock…
: And it proves beyond a shadow of doubt that this is absolutely not the time for the Naturals and Coordinators to be killing one another.
: …
: Which is precisely why we should band together. Can’t the Archangel crew consider joining LOTUS?
: We’re sorry, but could you give us some time?
: We still don’t know who is trying to kill Lacus, or how much power that person holds. We can’t go on fighting completely blind…
: Then it seems this negotiation has broken down. Captain, we should engage the Archangel as per our orders.
: Weren’t you listening, Rey?! They aren’t the PLANTs enemies!
: That’s not our call to make. We must obey the Supreme Council’s command.
: … Ready the Tannhäuser!
: Captain!
: Look! The Minerva’s readying its main gun!

: Captain, the Minerva has us in its sights!
: Cpt. Gladys, are you…?!
: FIRE!

The Archangel flies a bit farther away!

: The Minerva shot down the Archangel?!
: Why?! We all knew they weren’t enemies!
: No. The way Archangel was moving was…

And Kira could’ve attacked Iczer-2:

: Kch…! How can I shoot her…?!
: My appearance makes you falter, hm? You are a fool to step onto a battlefield with such meager resolve!
: My resolve is…!

Back at the Cthulhu’s base, Iczer-2 is back in her maintenance pod. Why is it that she can’t beat Iczer-1? She’ll concede that the Earthlings are powerful, but that doesn’t explain why she’s suffered defeat a second time.
“Where does the Iczer Robo draw its power from…? Can it be from that Earthling, Nagisa Kanou…? Nagisa… you’ll be mine. I can defeat Iczer-1 by herself at any given time, but the only way I’ll wipe the slate clean of this humiliation is…”

Elsewhere, Violet is begging Big Gold for forgiveness – she didn’t expect things to end as they did. They’re now out of monsters and it’ll be a while until Iczer-2’s repaired once again – she needs more time.
Big Gold seems to have run out of patience, however, and zaps Sir Violet, finally speaking up and telling she’s done enough.

As Violet’s life starts to fate, she returns to normal and remembers all she’d done: “This evil spirit crept into the corners of my heart and controlled me… Or… perhaps it was I who gave it sentience in the first place…? Forgive me, my fellow Cthulhu… it was never my wish for this to happen…”
Big Gold, now up and about, confesses to her “mother”, Sir Violet, that she does not understand these humans. The Iczer- Σ’s victory was supposed to have been a foregone conclusion, yet it was defeated.
“There are too many unknowns for me to head to Earth yet,” Big Gold ponders. “And if I cannot use Iczer-2, then I have but to use the stored energy to create a spawn of my own… Hmhmhmm…”

: The previous operation has left a bad taste in your mouth, hasn’t it?
: No. If it’s the Supreme Council’s will, then…
: The Council, indeed… there have always been parts of it that saw the Archangel as an enemy, but they’ve been unusually galvanized lately.
: Someone is prodding them on, but I haven’t been able to figure out who yet… until that question has been answered, we’ll all have to proceed with care.
: But you’re the Chairman. Not even you can stymie these people…?
: Yes, though figuring out how to deal with them is precisely my job. Can I ask you to, at least outwardly, abide the Council’s decisions?
: Yes, sir… I’ll do as you ask.
: (Is he telling the truth? He knew about Lacus, so why…?)
: And onto another matter, I would like the Minerva to accompany LOTUS for a while.
: Are you telling us to affiliate ourselves with them?
: No, you wouldn’t be officially joining – it’d be a temporary transfer in the interest of fighting the various groups that threaten mankind as a whole.
: I have already contacted them about this, and they’ve agreed to it. So, I’d like you to accompany the Macross Quarter towards Japan.
: Roger that, sir.

Call ends.

: Is this really for the best, Captain?
: …

At the Quarter, Ozma explains what happened with the Archangel: the ship merely feigned being shot down, and with Talia’s help even. See, the Minerva not only had their weapon set at a low output, but it also purposefully missed its mark. Quite the sleight of hand, but, hey, they’ve fulfilled their orders.
And Tetsuya figures Murrue realized what Talia was doing, as she join in on the charade by cutting the power of the Archangel’s engines to simulate it sinking. Hyouma’s a bit miffed that he got all worried for nothing, but Alice finds it all to have been a very educational experience. She didn’t know ploys like this were possible!
Hiyoshi comforts Hyouma that it’d be hard for anyone to notice the trick – you’d have to look VERY closely to see what was up. But, as Tetsuya points out, the question now remains whether Durandal will fall for it.

And that’s a no, as Rey realized what happened and told the guy that the Archangel is still around. Durandal thanks him for telling, but isn’t actually concerned. “I had accounted for the possibility that they’d get away,” he says.
Rey’s confused, but Durandal simply tells him to keep an ear to the ground and let him know if anything happens. As he confirms and ends the call, Durandal is deep in thought: “The Archangel will now have to lay low for a while… Hopefully this will be enough to fool their eyes as well.”

The Quarter’s folks have just heard that the Minerva’ll be tagging along, and it’s already been officially cleared with Lady Une. Michel is all up for it as it’s been so long since he’s seen Meyrin and the other Minerva girls – Luca suggests he not let Klan hear about that. H-Hey, now, what’s any of this got to do with her?!
Regardless, now that we’re finally heading back to Japan, Kenichi wonders how things are going there. Settling down, from what Jun’s heard, and it seems that communications are open again. Nagisa figures Ishigami’ll be waiting for them with a ton of sushi, and Ippei wouldn’t put it past him to throw a “welcome aboard” party for the Minerva.

Nagisa isn’t looking forward to it, and asks if Iczer-1 would be willing to scarf down her batch of sushi… though the android is silent. Was she hurt during the battle with Iczer-2? No, she just has a really bad feeling about something. Ichitaka hopes she’s not prophesizing that their bowls of sushi are going to be supersized or something.
Actually, no, Kosuke runs in yelling that they just managed to hear from the Daiku Maryu: Ishigami’s been killed by Reiji.

[Mattman324]

You know, it’s really worth asking if this is the best adaptation of SEED Destiny or not.

I mean, on one hand, your only comparisons are SC2 (which had a funny ending to SEED Destiny but was overall basically just the show), K (which was just the show and also fucking terrible), and Z, and the only competition of those is pretty much Z, so there’s wiggle room to ask the question… but on the other hand this is so far away from the show it’s hard to really compare. It basically wandered off to do its own thing.

That said, UX is by far the best post plot. Alex Dino being Quattro Bajeena even more than usual and making his most infamous speech, Shinn being the mentor to the Fafner kids and having literally every piece of shit he ever did thrown back at him, pioneering the Shinn/Luna combo… it was great stuff. Also the Mark Destiny, piloted by Tsubaki Minashiro, is the greatest of the Fafners.

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

Alright, time to close up the JUDA Route. Ichitaka’s still got a hefty lead, though Quatre is starting to fall behind (as he should, really).

We got a bunch of cash last mission, so Ichitaka, Daiya and Kenji each get a boost in weapons and assorted stats; Shinji and Lulu get a boost in HP, EN and whatnot.

Kouichi’s still deploying as an event unit, so only Ichitaka’s free again. No need to switch things up from what we previously went through:
Kenji/Kyo
Daiya/Yanma
Quatre/Rei
Dick/Puria
Shinji/Yagyuu
Zechs/Noin
Ichitaka

Off we go.

We open up at JUDA, with Kiriyama asking if Reiji managed to figure out what LOTUS is up to. Is he worried? Not very, more like wondering where we might’ve run off to when he controls pretty much all facilities that’d be of use to us in Japan.
Doesn’t look like we’ve left the country or fled to the PLANTs… or maybe we have a secret base somewhere? He knows we’ll try something eventually, and is looking to make quite the spectacle out of it.
Well, Reiji tells him that he HAS, indeed, got a bead on us. Apparently we’ve taken shelter in the Dannar Base, which is odd as it was supposed to have been taken over by Domyoji’s men. Guess they had some more deserters.

How hard it is to find good people, huh? Kiriyama does remember hearing very good things about NEX’s Kurata and Orb’s Soga and Amagi… Does he want them scouted? Kiriyama sees Reiji glaring and says he was just pulling his leg – he is all the help he needs.
And, regardless, even if LOTUS has the Dannar Base, it doesn’t change the fact that we’re at a major disadvantage.

(Those names were an Ultra Seven reference – all, including Kiriyama, were members of the Ultra Garrison.)

With that in mind, the next step of his plan is to use the media to win the masses. LOTUS is bound to try and stage a “rebellion” against his new government soon, so he’s requested/forced Isabelle Cronkite to come over and report it all when it goes down.

Back to us, Misato’s taken over strategic command now that Reiji’s gone; normally they’d have to clear this with Une, but we still can’t get in touch with the world outside, so we’ll have to make an exception. No one’s complaining, so we’ll move on to lay out the details of Operation JUDA Reclamation.
First, Maki and Rachel make note that this Op isn’t just about recovering a building. See, JUDA’s main computer houses a TON of sensitive intel and technological data, including on our whole group; mind you, the thing has some powerful safeguards that the two of them personally designed, so they won’t be tapping into it easily… but these aren’t your run-of-the-mill foes either, and we certainly don’t want folks like them tinkering with the Machinas.
All in all, we need to get JUDA back immediately lest Kiriyama’s group have a chance to mess around in there, which is why Misato and the others rushed to put this operation together. We’ll be moving to disable all of the Jinrai drones throughout Japan and rescue the hostages tomorrow at 5am.

So, what are we going to do, Shinji asks. What we do best: shoot the place up and draw the enemy’s attention. Considering Kiriyama’s towering hubris and “showmanship”, he’ll keep the hostages as a final play to use against us – until then, we should have free rein to fight at will.
So we’ll be a diversion, Kyo surmises, and Sally confirms. We want Kiriyama and his peers’ eyes fixated on Misaki while our techs get ready to hack and disable the Jinrai drones. In the meantime, Yui will sneak into JUDA with a group via a secret entrance.
Kouichi didn’t expect the place to have secret entrances, but Yamashita explains that Ishigami had it set up precisely for a situation like this. Yui and the others will move to regain control of the Machinas and JUDA’s systems – once that’s done, they’ll have access to the building’s defenses, with which they’ll use to deal with Kiriyama’s underlings.

Izuna raises the point that their Machinas should still be under the effects of Reiji’s suppressor, but Rachel’s already developed a counter for that: the Drexler Soil Activator, or D.S.A. for short! It’ll neutralize the suppressor’s effects and energize the Machina’s D-S.O.I.L. See, it is based on the Bristol Interpretation of space-time tunneling by way of an engineering application of a pseudo-Tyndall Effect via quantum criticality, and…
The what in the where now? Ichitaka and Kouichi didn’t get any of that, while Kenji’s already been knocked asleep. Rachel isn’t amused, but Kyo says the gist of it is that the D.S.A. will nullify the suppressor. Does Kenji get it now?! “Eh? Yawn… Well, whatever, we just gotta get in there and tear stuff up, yeah?”
Maybe it’s best we leave it at that for him, Daiya shrugs. MOVING ON, Rachel says that the Machinas should be able to make a mess of the enemy from inside out, so Yamashita, Shizuna, Izuna and “Miu-Miu” will also be going in with the infiltration team.

Now, Misato expects a not-insignificant number of Jinrais to have been deployed at JUDA, and it’s all but certain that Kiriyama will come out with his own Machina eventually. The diversionary team will have a difficult battle ahead, but Kouichi’s all for it: we pull this off and we’ll both rescue the hostages and give Kiriyama a whooping, which sounds great to him!
Shizuna huffs that talking’s easy, but Kouichi notes that he won’t be doing it all alone – he’ll have the whole crew there to help, so he has a good feel for it. Rather, he wants Shizuna and her crew to be careful in their infiltration. She harrumphs a confirmation, grumbling that here she was getting worried for him… and Izuna has to stifle a laugh at her beet red face.
Regardless, we all know what our job will be, so Misato dismisses everyone to rest until the mission. Daiya already hustles Puria and Naoto to catch some forty winks, and while Puria grunts at what a mother hen he is, she’s not against it.

: Tomorrow… or, rather, a few hours later today, we’ll be kicking off Operation JUDA Reclamation…
: They told us to get some sleep, but my eyes don’t wanna stay shut… What to do…?
: Kouichi…
: Oh, Emi… Can’t sleep either?
: I… I want to fight. I have to fight alongside you and the Linebarrel!
: Huh…?! Are you crying, Emi…?
: I still don’t remember anything… but I came into this world to keep it safe… I want it to be safe, but…
: Mr. Ishigami’s death… and everyone’s friends and families being kidnapped… Not only can I not protect a single thing, it was my coming here that set it all in motion…
: But if I can at least pilot with you and activate the Mode B, then I’ll do it…! I have to help the others in any way I can…!
: No way, it’s too dangerous! Remember how that went last time? Who knows what’d happen to you if you used it again!
: Besides, you already got stuff to do: infiltrate JUDA and get its systems out of Kiriyama’s hands! That’s a way to help the others, no?
: But what if things take a turn for the worse again? You’ll—!
: I’ll be alright… I won’t put you in a position where you have to burn yourself out like that again.
: Huh…?
: I’m gonna get a whole lot stronger – stronger than anyone else…! I’ll learn to handle the Linebarrel better than even you…! And then… I’ll keep you safe!

: Hm… I’ve been left behind.

: …
: So this is where you were, Yamashita… Alice and Misato are looking for you.
: Hahah… there they go again. I bet they’re worried I might be all kinds of depressed, huh?
: Well…
: Tell them to quit worrying… is what I’d say, but it wouldn’t feel right to ask that of you. Alright, let’s go after them.
: Are you really okay…? I mean, being betrayed by someone you trusted so much is…
: None of this makes sense to me… What was Reiji thinking? Why would he do something like that…? Is that really the world he wants? The only way I’ll have answers is to ask him directly, so that’s what I’ll do.
: Yamashita…

Mission 16 (JUDA Route) – Operation JUDA Reclamation

: And Hisataka was right on the money. They’re coming to retake the place in a hurry.
: Then we have but to nip their ambitions in the bud. This’ll be payback for Riku, too.
: Welcome home, LOTUS…!

: Eiji Kiriyama! We’re taking JUDA back here and now!
: There you are, LOTUS… Reiji said you’d try something like this. So how about I take the time to show you reactionary hounds on whose side true justice lies?
: Reiji, you stay out of this. I’ll personally lay them all six feet under with my Pretender – it’ll be prime time material right there.
: Yes, sir.
: And everything’s ready with the TV crew, yes? Now to wait for the perfect moment to make my grand entrance.
: The entire world will watch, live and uncut, as I mete out justice!
: (I can’t stand this man…)
: Everyone’s in position, Misato.
: And we’re all ready to go crazy around here!
: Time to repo our home from these creeps, people!
: Off we go, then! Begin Operation JUDA Reclamation!
: (Take care, Emi…)

By JUDA’s secret entrance…

: They’ve started… How are the locks, Prof. Sakon?
: Just a little bit longer. Emi, could you help parse these codes?
: Of course… The system is a bit old, but it’s pretty much identical to the one JUDA currently uses…

Blip.

: And… there. This should be good.
: Wow, you’re amazing, Emi.
: Not at all, Miu. You’re the one who’s always out there fighting with the Painkiller…
: Please, no need for modesty… Hm? That’s odd. The door should be unlocked, but it’s not opening…
: Lemme see… Ah, this bit here’s a bit rusty… Hup!

Break!

: Okey-dokey… Lead the way, Ms. Ogawa.
: Um… According to the map, it’s this way.
: Good thing we brought Shizuka along.
: Let’s get to work then! We need to get JUDA back in order hands before Kouichi’s group gets in any trouble!

This one’s a bit of a test of endurance as not only are you down a decent number of units, staring at a hefty group of midbosses, but Kiriyama also has a LOT of mooks to send your way and will, eventually, come over himself.
Losing either Kouichi and the Daiku Maryu’s a game over, but what can really give you a hard time here is managing your resources – especially your SP since you’ll need it to connect reliably against the boss man. Try to lead with the likes of Kenji, Kouichi and Shinji as they’re rather untouchable by mooks even without any casts, saving most of your SP for the bosses proper.

Make note of the structures and forests around for the terrain bonus, too.

Kenji takes it while everyone else moves forward.

Enemy Phase!

Kouichi’s in a forest, so he’ll have no issues against the Jinrai.

: (Our job’s just to buy time…! This Op will succeed, and then JUDA and Japan’ll be free! I’ll make it so!)
: (No way I could ever look Ishigami in the eye if I screwed this up!)

Alright.

Daiya and Yanma go to town, the enemies’ attacks hitting them with the consistency of spitballs. That’s six kills for them, Daiya getting further invincible with an extra level to his Flame.

Player Phase!

Kouichi taunts the Katous and Kiriyama over how wimpy they are – we’ll rout them real easy! When Yulianne asks, however, Kiriyama tells them to let the kid ramble on, as it’ll be him who’ll be laughing when this is over. Rather, our glibness will make our eventual defeat all the sweeter to him.
We’re already raising some good hell, so Misato tells us to keep at it. Lulu, however, is worried: assuming nothing went wrong, it shouldn’t take too long to get JUDA’s systems under our control with Sakon and Shizuka helping… so why is she so ill at ease?

She’s brought back to reality when Rosa pokes her – she understands that she’s worried for our people, but she must carry on commanding. She apologizes and refocuses herself, right in time for Dick to challenge the Katous to try their hand on him.
Sawatari doesn’t appreciate our sass, and vows to bestow us with terror beyond anything we could imagine.

: OK, if we go through here, we should come out right at the HQ’s underground…
: What door is this? An elevator?
: Don’t matter. We just gotta push this button, yeah?

Press. Blip!

: …
: M-Mr. Ishigami!
: By the time you see this, I’ll likely be dead.
: It’s a hologram…
: But don’t worry. Even now, I’ll continue to support you with every ounce of my strength.
: That said, just as a precaution, I must confirm that you truly are members of LOTUS.
: Confirm? How?
: Please stand before the microphone and state your name, height, weight…
: And your three sizes.
: Wh-What the…?!
: That’s some real private info he wants…
: I guess it’s to check our voice print?
: Bah… Fine, I guess we must. I am Yui Ogawa. I’m 1m 68cm tall, and I weight… whisper, whisper
: My three sizes are… whisper, whisper

BZZZZT!

: I’m sorry.
: Huh?!
: There is a significant discrepancy between stated and measured data. As such, you are deemed to be posing as Yui Ogawa!

Ka-chunk!

: WAAH!!
: A trapdoor?!
: YOU HUGE IDIOOOOoooooo…

Faaaalliiiiiiiiing.

: MS. OGAWA!!
: Ms. Ogawa… your sacrifice will not be in vain…
: Seems we won’t be making it to HQ that easily…
: I can’t believe he’d pull one of his jokes even as part of a security check… I mean, I actually can believe it, but…

Carrying on…

Two kills, and the last three Jinrais falling to Kouichi and Zech.

Shinji’s still leading the charge, and he learns both Accel and Support Attack L2 upon weakening a couple of Stealth Armas.

Enemy Phase!

Soubi was the only Katou midboss that comes in to attack from the get-go.

: Your people have been taken hostage, but you’ll carry on fighting…? Still, true justice knows no defeat…It’s pointless to oppose it…!

If your Linebarrels’ secret points are low, however, you get this:

: What a nice surprise, this. I didn’t think I’d get another chance to torture you so soon after the last… Oh, I’m just bursting with joy!

The midbosses can’t pop an A.T. Field without running Prevail first, though.

And again!

: Riku… Let the sight of the enemies I kill comfort you in the afterlife!

Try again.
After that it’s one kill for Lulu and Rei, four for Shinji.

Player Phase!

Kiriyama’s a bit surprised at how hard a fight they’re having his side not pulling any punches, but Reiji says he should be well aware of how strong LOTUS is. Well, whatever – the still have their trump card to play if things go south.
In the meantime, he tells Isabelle to get to “reporting”: “JUDA, once a den of evil and now under control by His Excellency Eiji Kiriyama, is currently under attack by villains seeking to claim it back…”

Daiya fumes at all that bullcrap, but Tsubaki can see that Isabelle’s hurting over having to do away with her journalistic integrity – she was supposed to report the truth, not this. That’s another person that needs our mission to succeed, Ichitaka figures, so we carry on.
Meanwhile, back in JUDA…

: By the time you see this, I’ll likely be dead.
: But don’t worry. Even now, I’ll continue to support you with every ounce of my strength.
: That’s the fifth time…
: The door read “Stage 5”, even… How many of these do you figure there are?
: Wouldn’t be as much of a pain in the ass if he didn’t say the same damn thing every time!
: I’m starting to feel kind of stupid for how sad I got over his death…
: Is this an actual security device…?
: Now I will confirm whether or not you are members of LOTUS.

Toot, toot!

: What is that…?!
: A synchro-game set up as an old-school party game by the looks of it… (Yes, this is THAT game Shinji and Asuka had to work with to sync-up. Someone call him and Rei over!)
: Now we begin the thrilling Stage 5!

Let’s get rid of Soubi while the other midbosses are hanging back.

Couple more hits and he’s down in the red.

While that’s going down, I kill a couple more mooks and that reduces their squad numbers under 10.

: Jinrais?!
: Hahaha…! All of Japan belongs to me now, remember? Struggle as you might, I’ve allies from across the nation answering my call.
: You bastard…!
: (… But things I still going according to our plan. I gotta keep calm…)
: We cannot pull back. Carry on the offensive!
: Is this the end?! The Katou Organization forces, which has pledged support to His Excellency’s political reform, are having difficulties facing LOTUS, those major cohorts of the former, incompetent government! Let us all pray for these brave souls…
: …Kch!
: Something the matter? Keep at it. You need to get the crowd hyped all the way ‘til the end…
: Weird… the infiltration team’s taking longer than expected.
: But our only choice now is to have faith in them.

: Congratulations, you’ve beaten Stage 5! You may proceed!
: Haah… haah…
: I couldn’t feel my legs for a second there…
: The president’s traps are very serious business, huh…
: … I don’t seem to have a lot of opportunities to be useful here.
: Don’t be so sure – we’ve no idea what kind of traps are waiting for us and time’s short. We gotta hurry up!

Secret Alert!
Have Kouichi destroy Soubi AGAIN.

Bam.

: Kouichi Hayase… Your feelings towards justice are very clear to me.
: Wh-Why’re you bringing that up now…?
: (Still, it is far too late for me to accept your justice… If I did, I…!)

: The Factor of that Machina… Soubi Nakajima, wasn’t it…? What’s up with him…?

And we’ve officially broken the enemies’ defenses; they just don’t know it yet. The enemy reinforcements will come in four waves whenever you reduce their numbers to nine, but they’re not really a threat. See, the new Jinrais aren’t actually squads but solo-flying units – that means any of our guys can easily oneshot them with our good morale.

Sawatari and Yulianne should start moving in by now, but Wufei actually takes a bit longer because he’s a jerk like that. They allowed us to build morale, though, so their 15k-ish HP pools won’t last long. Get rid of them quick – better yet if you pull it off before the Jinrais close the distance.
With all that said, let’s fast forward!

: Damn it all… I’ve retreat. Forgive me, Riku, I couldn’t avenge you…!

: What kind of cards are you hiding from us, I wonder…? Don’t disappoint me now, boys!

: Whatever mission Hisataka gives out, I’ll just trust in him and do my job! Here I come, LOTUS!

: We’ve received a message over the Preventers’ secret line. Everything’s in place to deactivate the Jinrai drones throughout the country.
: Now we just need to recover the Machinas and JUDA’s main systems, but…!
: Do you think something happened to the infiltration team…?!

Beep!

: You’ve no need to worry about any of that…!
: ?!

: By the time you see this, I’ll likely be dead.
: Mr. Ishigami… I wasn’t expecting you to actually have more than ten Stages set up…
: Now I will confirm whether or not you are members of LOTUS. Stage 12… let the battle begin!
: Battle…?

Door opens!

: Hippo?!
: A-A hippo monster?
: Psh, are ya kidding me? We gotta fight this stupid-looking thing? This’ll be easy as pie.
: … Ooh, no, on the contrary.
: Ah?
: Hippopotami are some of the more ferocious mammals on Earth. For instance, they are widely known to kill even crocodiles with their powerful bites.
: Whaa?!
: HIPPOOO!!
: W-We gotta get out of here!
: Hippopotami’s top speed can also reach upwards of 40 km/h. Running will do us no good.
: Your grim trivia is about the last thing we needed to hear right now…!
: … Hang back a minute, folks.
: Shizuka… Do you have something in mind?
: I’m just gonna give this bugger here a taste of how scary humans can be…!
: HIPPOOO!!
: TORYAAAAAA!!

Punch!

: Hipoooo…!

Faint.

: W-Wow… she knocked it out in just one punch…!
: Alright, next!
: Stage 12, clear! You may proceed!

: Hrm… what a crap mission this was. Bye, LOTUS.

: Hmph… Well, I guess this is about how I imagined things would turn out…

: If you cannot rise above a situation like this, then your dreams of saving mankind will be just that: dreams… Show me how strong you are!

: Our Jinrais and the Katou Organization are in an increasingly direr situation! Will His Excellency be capable of overcoming this crisis?!
: … Aren’t you deploying, Eiji?
: I guess I will. I’d rather not annoy the commander by letting this show run on for too long.
: Or would you be willing to help me break down the Katou Organization right tomorrow?
: Heh… That’d be taking things too fast, Eiji.
: It would, wouldn’t it? We need to get a solid foundation first. I’ll go get the Pretender ready to deploy – you handle the rest, Reiji.

Leaves.

: …
: Um… Are you…
: Carry on with your transmission. Whatever happens, don’t stop.

Leaves.

: He left… What is that guy up to…?
: So, Ishigami’s security system’s giving us a lot more trouble than expected…?
: Right. I was, much to my regret, separated from the group halfway through, but I’d wager he had even craftier traps in place…
: They must be incredibly ingenious if even you fell for them.
: (Ooh… how am I going to tell them that I got cut right at the start over trying to keep up with the Joneses? I can’t…)
: And what’s going on with Yamashita and the others?
: We don’t know that yet. Let’s just keep believing in them for now.

: By the time you see this, I’ll likely be dead.
: Stage 67… This is still going?
: We might’ve had a rough start, but things are picking up for us. We’re managing to clear these ones nice and easy.
: Now I will confirm whether or not you are members of LOTUS. Here is Stage 67!

*Lights on!

: It’s… karaoke?!
: You will need to score over 90 points to proceed, so give it your best shot. Duet performances are also OK. Oh, and the song catalogue and remotes are over there.
: Singing… Blah, this would’ve been easy as pie if we had Rosa around…
: Vice-Captain Rosa’s a good singer?
: I’ve only heard that the Captain’s told me, but apparently she’s a professional, even.
: Whining about should haves ain’t getting us anywhere! We’re outta time, so who’s singing?!
: I can sing… kind of…
: I’m afraid I’m also not very sure of myself in regards to that.
: … I’ll do it. My father taught me this ballad, and I’m pretty confident I can sing it well. Kouichi and the others are working so hard outside, so I also need to do the same…!
: (!! She’s doing it for Kouichi…)
: I-I’ll sing too!

: This outcome was to be expected. We’ll meet again, LOTUS.

Alright, we’ve all midbosses down, so I think this is a good point to stop. I’ll have the rest of the mission up in a day or two.

See you all then!