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

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

Our crew’s back together, plus the addition of the Minerva crew to go with Jack and Domyoji. Kenji’s getting dangerously close to Ichitaka, with Daiya at a distant third. The latter’s bigger mook magnetism, however, may help bridge the gap faster than expected, though.

The Destiny units all come with three updates, so they’re all set and ready to go. Stella’s Gaia Gundam was just sitting empty, so Athrun took it – better than keeping him in that dinky ZAKU Warrior.
Cash upgrades went into the Nagahamas and Aoi weapons, along with some extra survivability boosts of the Valkyries and Daiya.

On the Skill Parts’ front, Aoi took EN Save and Kenji took another level of Infight, reaching L3.

The EVAs are deploying as event units, so here’s how our new team’s going:

Jeeg/Kyo
Daiya/Yanma
Kouichi/Quatre
Ichitaka/Miu
Kouji/Yagyuu
Iczer-1/Iczer-4 (I just felt like I had to)
Ozma/Luca
Alto/Michel
Tetsuya/Canaria
Domyoji/Athrun (the Gaia’s a rather up-close attacker, and Athrun’s accelerate makes him a good-enough fit).
Shinn/Klan
Heine/Anna
Zechs/Noin
Rey/Luna
Voltes/Mira
Combattler/Deceive
Dancouga/Yamashita
Dick/Puria

EVAs auto-deploying can only mean one thing, so let’s get to it.

Time to catch up on what happened in the other routes. Of note:

• Our people ponder Kiriyama’s coup and how quiet the Katou Organization’s been since it failed, despite their worldwide message. Maybe they were hoping to use it as a starting point for something else? Who knows.
• The ZAFT folks also heard of Reiji’s betrayal, or, as Rey puts it, of how Reiji was a spy for the Katou Organization. Luna chides his lack of tact with Yamashita right there, but Rey says he was just stating facts – likely his willingness to help at Junius Seven was just an act as well. Heine steps in, asking him to stop and consider Yamashita’s feelings, though the boy knows he can’t brood over it forever. Rather, he’ll confront Reiji directly, and Kouji, Hyouma, Goh – everyone – will be there to give the guy a piece of our mind.
• Michel’s rather doubtful of us bringing in Jack aboard, and the guy isn’t about to ask him to understand. If he does anything odd, Michel is more than welcome to shoot him in the back. Iczer-1 can tell that he is not being deceitful with us.
• Our folks also ponder the discovery of the fact that the real Lacus is aboard the Archangel, not the one with Durandal. Rey shrugs at this, saying it’s only natural he’d get a double as Lacus being AWOL during such a time of crisis would only elevate the peoples’ anxiety. As of Dearka, he’s ran off back to the PLANTs (he’s not too good with farewells, so he just left) – at least what he told Shinn about Kira made quite an impact.

And, at the end, Alice runs in looking for Shinn: she’s just received confirmation that Stella’s condition has stabilized. While it’s still too early to outright heal the damage done by the Extended modifications, JUDA and the Dannar Base will keep at it, so she’s confident the girl’ll make a full recovery eventually.
Shinn’s equal amounts relieved and amazed that we could potentially even managed to cure an Extended. That’s some big-shot philanthropy right there, though Ichitaka says we just try our best to be CHAMPIONS OF JUSTICE. Mind you, he and Alice point out that he needn’t refer to use in the third person, as he’ll also be part of the crew now!
Shinn likes the sound of that: “Stella isn’t someone who should be fighting. I’ll go and do everything I can to make sure she can live as a normal girl when she wakes up.” That’s the spirit. And, one last thing, Alice turns to Ichitaka and says Maki was calling him. Seems their digging into GreAT has yielded some results.

Ichitaka’s rushed on over, Kouichi, Miu and Yamashita tagging along since they’re also curious about anything Maki and Rachel have found. So, is it good news or bad? Bad, Rachel shrugs, and Maki moves to explain.
JUDA’s intelligence department reported some mighty interesting information regarding GreAT the other day. See, the famous, huge multinational has a VERY centralized management, with only some ten-ish people running the whole show. Said people are a cabal of young, elite power players, and it’s all kept very hush-hush. In truth, a big chunk of the company employees don’t even know what they’re creating at any given point – they simply obey the commands given.
Yamashita thinks that sectionalism isn’t too uncommon in big companies like that, but what’s especially weird is that, by the time Kiriyama’s coup was over, GreAT’s CEO and the entire leadership simply vanished. JUDA tried to get in touch with their security department, but those guys also vanished. The only ones that remained were the rank-and-file workers and those guys were very much panicking.

Kouichi wonders if they were in with Kiriyama or the Katou Organization, though Maki can’t confirm that one way or another. It could simply be that they knew of the impeding coup and simply made a run for the hills?
All in all, though, this still isn’t anything conclusive on Grife’s kidnapping, and Maki does apologize (the investigation is still ongoing). Ichitaka’s satisfied with the knowledge that something’s up with the upper echelons of GreAT; they’ve just became the top suspects in all this. And while Ichitaka’s rather certain that Yuu knows something, he’ll stay his course and try to find Grife in his own way!

By the president’s office, Yui’s showing the rest of our team all that’s left of Ishigami: a characterized AI that functions solely as the GUI in JUDA’s control systems. As everyone, especially Nagisa, reel from this, Une reports that she’s officially appointing Misato as Reiji’s replacement as tactical command.
Misato thanks her for the confidence, and while she’ll admit that the crisis bearing down on Earth is unlike anything seen before and won’t be easily averted, she’s confident we can overcome it if we all take one another’s hands and stand together.

This talk turns Anna’s thoughts to Lou, and she wonders if she, Goh and the girl will ever be together again… but never mind that, the alarm rings! Yui relates an SOS from NERV: an unidentified object has emerged by the Odawara defensive line. Pattern is blue, meaning it’s an Angel, and they want LOTUS and the EVAs to intercept.
That’s the 6th Angel turning up, so Misato gives the order to deploy and head to Neo Tokyo 3.

: … ([Screams geometrically])

: All SDF Armas have been disintegrated!
: Target’s moving across Lake Ashi.
: This is bad… Misato, what are you doing…?

: We made it just in time by the looks of things. The #01’ll lead the charge against the Angel – are you good to go, Shinji?
: Yes.
: You’re up, then. EVA-01, launch!
: …! We’re a detecting a high energy reading within the target!
: What?!
: Is it—…!

: Get outta there!
: Wha—

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3JfRgklIWg0

: Shinji!
: Abort the attack! Recover the #01 immediately!
: We can’t! That blast melted the catapult – it’s not working!

: UWAAAAAAAH!!
: Stop! STOP! I want out! Get me out of here!!
: Forget the operation – focus only on rescuing the pilot! Force-eject the Plug!
: Belay that.
: Why?! Don’t you care that your son might die?!
: Take away the pilot and the EVA’s A.T. Field will disappear completely. You’d make a bad situation ten times worse.
: And if the Field disappears…
: The EVA-01 will be obliterated by the Angel’s beam the second that happens… and there’ll be no way to save the pilot…!
: But doesn’t pilot feel all damage the EVA takes himself?! He’s still gonna die if we don’t do anything…!
: There’s got to be something that’d work… Oh! What about our own barrier, Alice?!
: Impossible! The Angel’s beam is far too strong for the Rushbird to absorb!

: GAAAAAAH…!
: … We’ve no other choice. Emergency recovery! Ignite the blast bolts!
: Roger that…!

: They withdrew the #01 by caving in part of the Geofront’s ceiling?!
: A last-ditch effort, that’s for sure…
: …
: The target’s stopped its attack!
: … All troops, full retreat! We need to reassess our situation!

: … The same ceiling again… One way or another, I always end back here when I pilot the EVA…
: …
: Ayanami… You’ve been there all this time?
: I’m here to brief you on the timetable for Operation Yashima, set to be executed tomorrow at midnight. The pilots Ikari and Ayanami are to…

Fade out, fade in.

: … They’re telling me to pilot again?
: Yes.
: No, enough is enough… I never want to go through anything like that again…! I’m always so scared… it haunts me, but I still can never run from any of it…
: …
: I hate piloting the EVA… I only came here because I figured something might change, or that there might be something good in all this. I didn’t come here to suffer…
: Is that how you’ll live your life? Running away from anything that’s difficult or unpleasant?
: …
: I’ll pilot the #01. You can stay here and rest.
: Ayanami…!
: Goodbye.

She leaves.

: …
: I’m just not strong like everyone in LOTUS… Alive or not, I’m worthless. No one needs me… They don’t need me if I won’t pilot…

OK, here’s the rundown: the Angel is currently right above NERV HQ, drilling a hole into the Geofront. It’s looking to Tetsuya (Kouji) that it wants to attack HQ head-on. Now, from what we’ve seen of the previous battle, NERV has posited that the Angel spots and snipes down any enemy that enters within a certain radius.
And, Mira notes, long-range attacks still won’t fly too good as we’d still have to contend with its A.T. Field. Sounds like tough work for an MS, Athrun sighs, and Heine takes it to be more like impossible – even if our MSs broke through the barrier, they simply doesn’t have the firepower to beat the Angel.

Kouji wishes that Field worked like those barrier where you can shatter them like glass (The Angels do not use Photon Barriers, unfortunately) but Prof. Shiba stomps in and says nothing that does that can be called a barrier!
What’s he doing here? Kiriko also walks in, telling Anna that she and the other scientists were called by Misato to help with Operation Yashima. Goh wonders what it could be that’d require the help of this much brain power, so Misato continues.

In essence, since we can’t both pop the A.T. Field and destroy the Angel in the small opening that follows, we’ll have to do it all in one go by firing a ton of energy at it. Is that why these scientists at here? Indeed, Yotsuya and Sakon explain that we’ll be taking in all the labs’ special kinds of energies (Photon, Super Electromagnetic, Plasma, etc), plus ALL of Japan’s electricity, loading it onto a bigass, experimental, positron rifle and shoot the Angel.
According to the simulations Rachel and the others ran, that blast should have enough force to destroy the thing in a single go. But nothing’s ever simple, and Kiriko notes that the gun is incomplete – that is to say, we can’t have it auto-fire. The only way it’ll work is for the #01 to actively snipe the target down. Our job will be to keep the Angel distracted until the gun is ready to fire.

Ichitaka’s worried about it having to be the #01 – does that mean we’ll be forcing Shinji to do it? Tetsuya agrees that it’s complicated: Shinji’s spirit as a warrior took a heavy blow last battle. He’s not too sure if the kid’ll pilot again. Nagisa thinks he’s being too harsh: “Remember how abruptly he was forced to get in the EVA and start fighting. I mean, even I still get scared when I have to fight.”
The difference is, Tetsuya counters, that Nagisa has the RESOLVE to step into the battlefield. The will to do so, despite one’s fear, is what resolve is all about. Goh doesn’t like the idea of forcing Shinji, either, and wonders if we couldn’t have someone else take his place.
Nope, NERV’s MAGI computers ran the numbers and Shinji + EVA-01 was what gave us the best odds of success. Still, Misato is certain he’ll pilot once more.

Mission 17 – Entrusted Hope

It’s almost time for Operation Yashima to begin, the positron rifle already in position. Before we even get started, though, Shigeru pings a bevy of MSs entering the area; odd, since Misato warned all relevant organizations to stay away, but our scans quickly show that we’re dealing with Mimetic Beasts-jacked units.
While Tetsuya Kouji fumes at their penchant for showing up at the worst possible moment, Ritsuko finds it odd: this is the second time the Mimetic Beasts appeared in tandem with an Angel’s attack. What reason is there for this?
But she’ll have to ponder that later, as it’s almost go-time. Misato wants the beasties gone on the double, and both Kouichi and Ichitaka would love if we could beat the Angel while at it – would spare Shinji from the crazy Operation.

Misato speaks against it, telling them to just limit themselves to distracting the thing; push beyond that and all we’ll get is damage we could’ve avoided. Michel sees the admonition for us not to play with fire… though being told NOT to do something only makes Kenji wanna do it more.
Goh will be handling tactical command for a minute, though, as Misato has something she needs to do first. That would be picking up Shinji, he sees, and is fine with it – especially with the experience he has against Mimetic Beasts. While Misato takes off, Shinji’s watching from afar, deep in thought: “Why…? Battles are so horrible, painful… Why do they all fight so hard for others…?”

Ken, whose Insania Virus seems to have calmed down, is watching the battle with Lou. Is he going to keep fighting until all Mimetic Beasts are gone? Probably, he sighs, but Lou has a question: what will he do when that eventually happens? What’ll happen to him once his reason for fighting disappears? “When that happens… I’ll die,” Ken answers.
What he means is that when all this comes to an end, the man he is today will cease to exist. He doesn’t know what he’ll do afterwards – nor does he know any other way to live. “And Lou… If something happens to me before we fulfill our goal—” he starts, but Lou interrupts him.

He’s not going to die, so he shouldn’t even think of talking like that. Ken’s living his life the way he feels he should, and so is Lou. “Right or wrong makes no difference – I don’t regret for one second the choices I made.”
As Ken nods in agreement, Goh sends everyone forward – we need to buy time until Operation Yashima can begin.

Wreck everything, don’t lose a ship. Ramiel won’t ever move from its spot, though the Mimetic Beasts will happily converge to attack him – spread out to maximize your cash and morale gains.
Mind you, don’t have your two groups move TOO far away from the SE and SW corners of the map, because the game has a surprise waiting: on turn four, mooks will spawn in both those corners and you’ll likely need to down most of them in two turns under penalty of a Game Over.

I’d forgotten about this and the ensuing mad dash made me not have the necessary firepower to down Ramiel (which you should try for the extra money and a Break Morale Limit part). Way I see it… I’d consider maybe sending Daiya, the Zingers, Jeeg, Iczer-1, Ichitaka and/or Aoi to try and kill the thing, while the rest is ready to intercept the later arrivals.
If you can do it on turn three, all the better as you can have the Ramiel group join the interceptors.

Ramiel, the 6th Angel
Mech Features:
A.T. Field (Strong)
30% HP and EN Regen

As you might expect, Ramiel’s got a bajillion points in its Range stat, along with some huge… everything else. It’s as bulky as you’d expect from an Angel, but the flying crystal is also accurate as fuck and will likely get great numbers against pretty much all our guys.
Its Shinji-blasting Beam will put the hurt on anyone within 10 spaces of it, but it also has a MAPW version with a nice +30 accuracy modifier to blast a whole 5x5 area around it. Therein lies a bit of a problem with sending folks to kill the thing: it’s obviously gonna cutscene-regen once dead, so the attackers will all but certainly get blasted unless they’re one of the few units whose strongest weapons hit at range 6 or higher. Risky business, but your Supers should be fine – if they’ve Iron Wall, pop it.

All that said, we start spreading folks out. No one’s in range.

Enemy Phase!

And off it goes.

Never let Ramiel get a clean hit on you.

That’s three kills for Aoi, two for Hyouma. Annoyingly, the more distant Mimetic Beasts squads rush Ramiel – two die outright, the rest will follow VERY soon.

The enemy AI continues its quest to push Daiya into the Top Ace spot.

Three kills for him, one for Ichitaka.

Player Phase!

: The Blade Gainer!
: The lot of you should stand down and observe. I’ll dispatch this bunch…!
: Menage Zero… it’s because of you that Shizuru—!

: Stay out of his way…!
: Lou?!
: Lou, Shizuru’s in a coma because of him! How can you…?!
: … I’ll still fight at Ken’s side. That’s the path I chose…! Let’s go, Ken.

: Blade Gainer, Twin Drive…!
: Lou, why…?!
: Ignore them, Anna.
: Professor…?
: I understand how you two feel, but the priority right now is destroying the Mimetic Beasts.
: Hrm… Yes, ma’am…!

: Even the Menage Zero is out there… They don’t need me in the EVA…
: You’ve missed the rendezvous time by quite a lot, Shinji.
: …
: You made your own choice to stay, remember? Now you have a job to do, and you have to do it right.
: But I’m so scared of piloting again…
: You and the other staff have it so easy: all you do is bark orders from a safe distance. How unfair is that? None of you have to go through the horror I do…!
: … Walk with me for a bit.
: …?

: … Fifteen years ago, an enormous amount of lives were lost due to the Second Impact. If an Angel triggered a Third Impact today, it’d wipe out all humans down to the last.
: I’ve heard that story plenty of times already…
: If an Angel is allowed to make it all the way to the HQ’s level EEE, the whole place is set to automatically self-destruct.
: We’ll prevent the Third Impact from being triggered even if we must die to pull it off. That’s the kind of commitment everyone here has.
: And the same applies to Cmdr. Tamashiro, Prof. Yotsuya, Lady Une… they’re all willing to stake their lives for the sake of their mission.

: …?! Is that… an EVA…?!
: No. What you see is the original of all life in this world, as well as the key to its end: Lilith, the 2nd Angel.
: Lilith…?
: Yes, and it’s the trigger to the Third Impact. The EVA was made to fight in order to protect Lilith, and that is something only you can do.
: …
: We’ve entrusted mankind’s very future to you and the EVA…
: You ask for so much… Why me?
: There isn’t a clear-cut reason – it’s just the cards life dealt you. But I want you to understand that you’re not risking your life alone. We’re all in the same boat as you.
: You’re all…
: … Alright. I’ll try and pilot again.

Carrying on, let’s finally give the Gaia a chance to fight stuff for the first time since the start of the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlriJjsxt4g
This is its strongest weapon in MS mode, though it’s got stronger stuff transformed.

While Alto and Michel clear out a squad of Fat Boys, Heine takes one of the Taurus that lost its partner against Aoi.

Forward, Iczers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yduYuiA8Ps

Lulu claims a weakened mook, while Kenji leads the charge with his superior mobility.

Tetsuya’ll take the survivor.

Bam. Southern targets fall to Kouichi and Kouji, Ichitaka and Daiya join up north for a couple of easy kills too.

Can’t send our guys up willy-nilly, lest they get caught in Ramiel’s inevitable MAPW or in the Zamza-Zahs’. Rey and Dick wipe out the nearby Daggers, everyone else moving up slightly.

Enemy Phase!

So there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU60YyVv2h8
They hang by with just 500-ish HP, but all six will die when they try (and fail) to damage it on their move. Blah.

On the eastern wing, Jeffrey and Hyouma get blasted by the Zamza-Zahs but hit back with varying degrees of oomph. On the western wing, it’s up to Kenichi.

That’s a surprising amount of damage for some piddly beam guns, but our bot answers even harder. The second Zamza-Zah and Fat Boy gun for Ichitaka, with predictable results for bringing beam weapons against the Rushbird.

: Sure enough, these Mimetic Beasts are faster on their feet than the regular ones…!
: They may change their forms, but that will not keep me from ending their kind! Such is my lot in life!

Ken also gets sniped, but he still has boss stats.

Player Phase!

: Why do you pilot an EVA, Ayanami?
: … Because I’ve a bond.
: A bond…? With my father?
: With everyone.
: You’re so strong…
: Because I have nothing else.
: I don’t even have any bond, so you’re at least doing better than me.
: … But regardless, we’ll be going out there together… and could both end up dead.
: No, you won’t die.
: Huh…?
: I’ll keep you safe.
: … How do you figure I’m even worth being kept safe…?

: I’ll go and find a way through this for you. Then you won’t need to do any of this scary business. That OK with you, NERV?

: Hey, what’re you up to? Don’t just sit there in a corner – come hang out with us!

: They’re all very good people. I’m sure you’ll be fast friends with everyone.

: Y-You were so awesome back there.

Beep!

: A voice mail…?
: Hey, it’s Suzuhara. Ikari… actually, I’m gonna just call ya Shinji. We’re all countin’ on ya, Shinji!
: Um, it’s Kensuke Aida here. Good luck, Ikari… Touji and his baby sis are also rooting for you. We’ll see you around!
: …
: It’s time for us to go… Goodbye.
: Ayanami…

Back to work and this is now just cleanup: our folks will move up on each side and tear down whatever is still left.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp8zkEv5S9g
And here’s the Gaia’s strongest attack.

And when turn 4 rolls around…

: It’s time for the Operation to begin.

: Only the #00 deployed…
: Shinji…

: The EVA-01! Is Shinji manning it?
: …
: You alright, Shinji?
: If there’s something I can do… then I’ll try my very best to pull it off.
: Well said, Shinji. And don’t worry: you’ve got us covering your back, front, right and left!
: Shinji… If anything you’ve my gratitude for just being willing to pilot the EVA.
: Misato…
: Now, as we said in the briefing, the #01 will man the rifle while the #00 will run defense.
: Yes, ma’am…!
: … Initiate Operation Yashima! Prepare to fire the positron rifle!
: Initiate the countdown! All units stand clear of the firing range!
: Bring it home, Shinji!
: No issues up to the stage four connections.
: Final safety device, released!
: Cock the rifle!
: Auto-tracking target. Sight calibration complete. Positrons accelerating, will be at firing threshold in 0.2… 0.1….!
: Shift to stage five. Activate the final connections!
: Directing all energy into the ultra-high voltage discharge system! Positron acceleration is at max! Pulse is stable! Everything’s green!
: Aim it good, Shinji! Don’t rush it! We’re all here with you!
: Our victory…
: And all of Japan’s electricity are now in your hands!
: We’re counting on you, Shinji!
: (I don’t have anywhere as much resolve as Ayanami… I don’t even think I’m decent as a pilot for the EVA… I didn’t even know what was going on – I just got it to move…)
: (“Protect humanity”…? I can’t even wrap my head around something so major, so I don’t understand why I was chosen…)
: (… And, yet, everyone still has so much faith in someone like me… So I’ll give this another try… I want to live up to their trust…!)
: 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…
: FIRE!

: He-He missed…?!
: But the targeting was right on the money…!

: High energy reading coming from the target!
: Watch out!
: Shinji! Brace for impact!

: Shinji, are you OK?!
: Haah… haah…
: Status on the energy system?!
: Still active! It’s already reloading!
: And the rifle?
: Also operational and cooling down. We don’t know if it can manage another shot, though…
: Don’t worry about that – we’ll go for it anyway.
: Shinji, do you hear me? You have to get the #01 back to its perch right away!
: Haah… haah… kch…!
: Shinji?!
: He can’t handle it…?
: I’m relieving the #01’s pilot of his duty, effective immediately. The #00’s pilot will man the rifle.
: Ikari…!
: If he’s useless, then we’ve to cut him loose.
: You…! Do you not care anything about Shinji?!
: Please, sir! He could’ve ran from all this but he decided to pilot the EVA! He’s not giving up, so we should trust in him!

: Hrk… rrgh…
: Have faith in your son, in the #01’s pilot! I know he’ll see this through!

: …
: A-Again… just… one more…

: Ikari…
: … Fine, I’ll allow it. Do as you wish.
: Thank you very much!
: Shinji, let’s try this again. All the energy in Japan, our hopes, the future of mankind, and all life on Earth… everything is in your hands. You can do it!
: OK…!

: We’ve new Mimetic Beast signals entering the area! They’re MS-parasite types!
: Are they gunning for the wounded #01?!
: Hrm…!
: Leave them to us, Ikari. Everyone here saw the extent of your resolve, so we won’t let any of them get a single claw on you!
: A sniper’s gotta trust the attackers to keep the enemy off his back.
: Yeah! So you trust me— trust us, even!
: Guys…
: Troops, it’ll take another two minutes for the positron rifle to recharge! Keep the #01 safe from the Mimetic Beasts until then!

Mission Objective: Destroy all enemies, protect the EVA-01 for two turns.
Mission Failure: Any allied ship or the EVA-00 shot down, OR if any enemy attacks the EVA-01.

And here’s the problem: the new Mimetic Beasts are special in that they don’t have to follow the standard AI-guidelines of “attack whatever is close and has decent HP”. Rather, they’ll actively make a beeline for Shinji and you have, at best, by the second enemy turn before they reach him.
My original plan was to send a couple of folks to keep them busy while I downed Ramiel for the Skill Part, which promptly went south when I realized the AI didn’t play ball. As a result, I had to dump everything, bring our guys into the ships and RUSH them over because there are quite a bunch of them that you need to down in a turn and half (and they’ll prioritize moving over attacking).
I could have restarted the mission and kept the Quarter and Minerva in position to MAPW the crap out of them when they arrived, but I’d caught some demonic strain of the Spanish Flu at the time of the recording and couldn’t be arsed to do it.

Fast forward a turn of desperate scrambling and the Daiku Maryu pulls over with my western team in range to engage both flanks.

The Windams all either need to be downed by this turn or walled off because they WILL reach Shinji if they get a clear move on their second turn. As for the Daggers, it can go one of two ways: if the squad is within 7 squares of Shinji, you’ll need to kill both because even with the flying leader gone, the squaddie will be in range to artillery strike the kid; if it’s outside of that range, then just taking out the leader will ground the Dagger and it won’t be in range yet.
Keep that in mind when prioritizing which enemy to kill.

Forward!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICoN0KEKUzw
And here’s the DK for Iczer-4 Full Power. Slick!

: The target’s drill has reached ground zero! It’s right above HQ!
: Ready the second shot! Hurry!
: New firing solution has been entered! Any further adjustments and compensations will have to be done manually by the pilot!
: Detecting another high energy spike within the target!
: No! We’re not ready—!!

: !

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

: You did it!

The #00 powers down.

: Oh, no…! Rei…!
: Ayanami…!

Shinji gets off the #01 and after her.

: Hrrgh… Aya…nami…

: Ayanami! Are you alright…?!

: Urk…
: Oh, thank god… you’re alive…

: Don’t say… don’t say that you’ve nothing else…
: And don’t say goodbye when you’re leaving on a mission. It’s too sad… Gck… aah…
: Why are you crying?
: … I’m sorry. I don’t know what to do at a time like this.
: … Why don’t you try smiling?
: !
: …
: We’ve confirmation that Rei’s safe!
: Whew… That was a bit too much excitement even for my taste.
: Recover both the #01 and #00, and bring the pilots along too.
: Roger!

: As for the remaining Mimetic Beasts, all troops—

: They ran off…?!
: Say what? The things didn’t get all scared ‘cause of Shinji’s rifle, right?
: They fled right after the Angel was destroyed… Thoughts, Ritsuko?
: We know far too little for me to give you a conclusive answer. Still, it’s possible that the Mimetic Beasts saw the Angel as a threat on an instinctual level?
: …
: Our business here is done… Let’s leave!
: OK!
: Lou, wait!

: Lou…
: Why do you let nothing but that thirst for revenge lead you, Lou…?
: I was really worried we were screwed today, but we actually managed to pull it off.
: Hm. We all live to fight another day…
: All thanks to Shinji and Rei’s hard work.
: Every one of you did an amazing job today. Why don’t you return to base and get some rest?

Here are all the convos we missed due to the AI’s sass:

: Ichitaka, all we’re doing is trying to buy time!
: I know, I know! Now’s our turn to show how strong our barrier is! Come on, Rushbird!

–

: Don’t run from this, Shinji… If you do, you’ll be running and regretting for the rest of your life…!

–

: Hey, ya big marble! Come and get me!
: Hold on, Hyouma! You’re going a bit too crazy with this!
: Nah, he’s gotta make some noise or the thing ain’t caring! Let’s put all our chips on Hyouma and let him handle it!

–

: Watch it, Kenichi! You’re in the thing’s shooting range!
: I understand that, but the success of the operation hangs on the line! So I’m stepping forward, and I’m not letting a shred of fear hold me back!

–

: Look at this crazy crystal, camping out right in the middle of our turf! Well, you’re not welcome here – piss off!

–

: This thing is like a gun turret…!
: Then I oughta close the distance and draw its attention over to me!

–

: Will we kill you first, or will you make it to the Geofront first…?
: This battle’s gonna come down to the wire…!

–

: They just need a bit more time to get things set up for their Op!
: ‘Til then, you’re gonna find me and the Gaiking all up in your crystal grill!

–

: Will you be alright, Iczer-1?!
: Don’t worry, Nagisa. This Angel changes its shape as it attacks.
: I need only pay attention to its tells, and I’ll manage to react accordingly…!

–

: Blah… Playing bait’s so boring.
: Still, this is pretty exciting, don’t you think?
: Eeh… But, you know, the thing looks beatable, so no one would care if we gave it a shot, right?
: I like the way you think. Let’s step out into the spotlight and run wild on this pebble!

–

: Keep your distance from the Angel, Kouichi! You’re inside its firing range!
: Shinji went and took this thing’s blast on the chin! What kinda man would I be if I hanged from a safe distance and plinked away at it?! No, what I gotta do is to draw its attention away from them!

: I hope Ayanami’s doing alright…

: … Why don’t you try smiling?
: !
: …

: That was the first time I saw her smile…

Biff!

: Wha—
: Attaboy, Shinji!
: Ichitaka?!
: You slick sumbitch, you! That was damn good today!
: Absolutely. You stood your ground and pulled through – you’re the MVP today!
: N-not at all… I’m nothing compared to you guys…
: Chill, man. Getting a pat on the back every now and then never hurt anyone, right?
: Yup… You’ve really gotten strong, Shinji.
: No need for modesty, Ikari. Today’s victory was only possible because you mustered your courage, so stand proud.
: Um… Thank you… very much.
: You were also going to check up on Rei at the infirmary, right? Let’s get to it, then – the other MVP is waiting.
: OK…!

By the operation center, Ritsuko ponders if Shinji’s turned a new leaf today. Misato doesn’t think people change that quickly, BUT she does think today marks a major point in his life. Perhaps, perhaps.
Misato inwardly tells Shinji to keep up the good work, but is interrupted when a call from Gendou summons her to his office. Whatever could he want? Misato already has so much to worry about…

The techs have taken a look on the EVAs and they both, especially the #00, took significant damage. It’ll take a few days to get it all repaired. Misato apologizes, but Fuyutsuki tells her not to: they were the ones who gave her the green light for today’s operation. “You needn’t take responsibility for this, Colonel Katsuragi,” Gendou adds.
Colonel? Indeed, she’s been promoted. Misato’s a bit surprised, but Gendou’s already moved on: he’s heard that she apparently told the #01’s pilot about Lilith. Fuyutsuki says they’ll inform the LOTUS leadership themselves about both it and NERV HQ’s true purpose as its defender. As for the squad proper, Gendou’ll leave it to her to tell us, but asks that that knowledge is kept limited to our group.

As Misato sets off, Fuyutsuki wonders if this is really fine. Gendou is sure: “The distortion is having major effects. It wouldn’t be any exaggeration to say that things are already going off the rails.”
Still, they’ll carry on with the Schedule as is… even if they’ve no idea what’ll happen.

: I understand. That child has awakened, and we’ve entered the summation phase, hm? (Kaworu.)
: That’s correct. The Dead Sea Scrolls Apocrypha has been fulfilled up to the Book of Law. The time of the covenant is close at hand.
: (Is it…? I feel that things are a little bit off.)
: Still, it’s the Third again… You sure haven’t changed, huh…? Shinji Ikari…

[Mattman324]

The Angel’s beam is far too strong for the Rushbird to absorb!

Bullshit.

Killing Ramiel in a first run is actually really easy, as the thing is basically a pile of HP and not all that much else - its armor is surprisingly low. Ichitaka can tank any of its attacks with his barrier, instantly stopping them, so what you want to do is have him start slapping the thing with whoever his partner is (probably someone who can dodge well, though of course it falls to spirits just as easily) while most of your units take on the reinforcements. Most of the second spawn units aren’t that big of a deal outside of Ken, so on turn 4, have only a few people ready for it and have everyone else converge on the Angel. Breaking 4000 is NOT difficult in L, and Ramiel has no other major tricks.

You can actually kill it twice, and it gives you money and a different part both times. That’s… less feasible on a first run if you intend on killing everything else, but still theoretically possible if you place your units like a god.

And hey, this is the first series finale in L! Of course, it’s just the finale to Evangelion 1.0, so that’s not impressive given Evangelion 2.2 is still up, but eh.

Also woo Kaworu’s here being strange again. Too bad that was basically all he ever did until the mobages and Z3/V let him actually fucking do things… and even then, only Card Chronicle and Cross Omega have given him his actual goddamn Evangelion. It was in Rebuild 2 guys, if you’re going to use Rebuild give us that and Provisional Eva!

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

Welcome back, folks. I went back and redid the previous mission to pull off a kill on Ramiel before Shinji blasted it, so all’s well in the world now.
Ichitaka’s made it to 70 kills, becoming our first de facto Ace, while Kenji and Daiya continue to hang behind. The latter got 6 kills last mission, so if he keeps that pace, he’ll eventually overtake the competition.

As for upgrades, random pips went to many of our protags. More importantly, Kenji got that Break Morale Limit that Ramiel dropped since I like Jeeg. Shinji got Hit & Away and B-Save because both his Gatling Gun and Positron Rifle are ammo based.

Speaking off, all Jeeg units are auto-deploying, so we change a few things:
Shinji/Quatre
Daiya/Yanma
Kouichi/Rei
Ichtiaka/Mil
Kouji/Puria
Iczer-1
Ozma/Luca
Alto/Michel
Tetsuya/Canaria
Domyoji/Athrun
Shinn/Klan
Heine/Anna
Zechs/Noin
Rey/Luna
Voltes/Mira
Combattler/Deceive
Dancouga/Yamashita
Dick/Jack

Forward!

Ikima has finally returned from the Zone and he’s brought the original Jeeg’s head back with him! As he basks in Himika’s praise, Amaso sniffs that he could’ve brought the thing back AT LEAST a day sooner.
Ikima reminds him that time flows way slower inside the Zone than it does outside… and Amaso had actually forgotten about that. Mimashi smacks his forehead, but what’s important is that it’s here.
So, Himika begins her ritual to extract the other Bronze Bell from within.

Tsubaki suddenly wakes up in her bedroom: “A dream? It didn’t look like a normal one, though… That woman was trying to get something… What was that…?”

Emi and Nagisa have woken up uncharacteristically late today, Aoi telling them that even Shinji and Kouichi have already left for their morning training. Klan isn’t too surprised, what with all the data that needed processing after Operation Yashima – Sakon and Kosuke were helping Emi, but it was still a lot of work to do.
What about Nagisa? Was she also helping? No… she just stayed up late watching TV. Ichitaka prods her that Shizuru once warned that not getting enough sleep is bad for the skin, but Nagisa moans that it’s just as important to relax and have fun when outside of battle. Besides, it was just yesterday and they, as students, are entitled to take a day off once in a while!

That would be the case weren’t Ichitaka and co taking something of an extended leave with all that’s going on. Domyoji figures if anyone needs to take a break, it’s Shinji and Rei and Klan agrees: those two had a lot riding on their shoulders with Operation Yashima.
Indeed, not only does Tetsuya say Shinji performed admirably, everything would’ve ended in failure had Rei not been ready to shield him so selflessly. It takes someone with a heart of iron to be willing to do that for a comrade, that’s for sure – bonds so strong that they make one ready to sacrifice oneself.

Hell, Ichitaka remembers Shinji burning his hands in order to rescue Rei from the melted #00 – he oughta learn from the kid’s example – and Kurara approves of their youthful ardor. “Hey, Johnny, if Kurara and I were in danger, would you come to our rescue?” Aoi snickers. “I would, but I plead the fifth on any implications that might have regarding our ‘bonds’,” Johnny fires back.
That’s a boringly noncommittal answers in Aoi’s opinion, though Kenji concedes that he’d readily risk his life if Tsubaki was in danger. She’s not listening, though, staring out into the distance. When Kenji pokes her, she tells of the weird dream she’s had.

Cut to some time later, Tsubaki’s told Shiba about her dream and he doesn’t think it was just that – rather, it was a vision of the present. When he asks, she confirms that, indeed, the woman in her dream mentioned wanting to get this “Bronze Bell”. The Jama guys have been very vocal of how they’re after that thing, and Boss wants to know what it is.
Well, everyone’s here, so Kyo figures it’s a good time as any to explain what’s what. The Bronze Bell is something indispensable to us, a power source that channels an ancient energy and lies within Kenji’s Raikouba (his bike, which turns into Jeeg’s head).

Furthermore, the Bronze Bell’s energy is also the power that sealed Himika and her goons away in a previous battle. Come again? You see, the Jama Kingdom first tried to invade our world fifty years ago, which eventually culminated with the old UN forces leading an assault on the Jama Kingdom’s fortress in Aso.
During that battle, Hiroshi Shiba, the original Jeeg, used his own Bronze Bell to seal away Himika and the rest of the Jamas. But they managed to return, and now Himika seeks the Bronze Bell as a way to attain even greater power.
Last time it took a concentrated effort of worldwide military for us to prevail, and they’ll only get way stronger if Himika is successful. Not a good prospect.

Back to Himika, despite her efforts, she can’t draw out the Bronze Bell from the old Jeeg. She doesn’t understand why, but soon feels Tsubaki’s presence – observing her – and something clicks in her head.
They need that girl. She’s the key to extract the Bronze Bell! Amaso’s confused, but Ikima seems to understand as well, and has an idea.

Back to us! Micchi, judging from Tsubaki’s vision, wagers that Himika’s gotten her hands on Jeeg’s head – the original Jeeg’s head. Hiroshi Shiba is said head himself, and it is within him that the other Bronze Bell is located. Goh remembers hearing of what Hiroshi is, but Yanma doesn’t understand how Himika found it: he and Haccho remember heading that the old Jeeg vanished during the battle fifty years ago.
Shiba figures he was inside the Zone all this time, and, since Alto and co aren’t from here, Micchi’ll explain what that is: the entire region of Kyushu has been isolated behind a barrier since the battle with the Jama Kingdom fifty years ago. It was speculated that Hiroshi was sealed inside all this time after sealing Himika and co away.
What Kenji wants to know, though, is how they figure Tsubaki’s dream was real, and Micchi tells that the girl’s had this sort of power from the moment she was born: her power as Priestess of the Bronze Bells.

Tsubaki’s worried, asking about what that means, but Micchi tells her it’s nothing to be afraid of; rather, it could be her gateway to greater strength. Tsubaki doesn’t quite know what to make of this, but if it’s her mission, then she’s willing to fight with this power she has.
And she’ll get her chance, as the alarms start blaring: a large Jama Kingdom force is headed straight for Build Base! Rey smells a trap, with Shinn and Luca figuring they’re luring us in a bid to nab the other Bronze Bell we have.
Trap or not, Athrun says we can’t ignore that posse of enemies, and Misato agrees: LOTUS is to move out and protect Build Base.

Mission 18 – Hoping for Retrieval

The Jama folks just rolled on over and started blasting the Build Base. Ikima taunts Jeeg to come and face his death, and LOTUS readily obliges. As we deploy, Ozma and Kouji spot the three Dai Kaengus with the enemy leaders atop, showing that they’re getting serious.
While Ikima and Amaso proclaim that THIS TIME they’ll get our Bronze Bell, Misato sends everyone forward with an admonition to keep Kenji in one piece. Seems like he can’t go too crazy now, but just regular crazy’ll work fine for him.

Kill everything don’t lose any ship, Jeeg or the Big Shooter. A simple mission to relax after Operation Yashima, Ikima, Amaso and Mimashi are the only real threats here (especially since they can drain SP), but that doesn’t mean much considering the plot’ll kick in once one of them is dead. In hindsight, you could potentially kill all three of them with Canaria’s MAPW if you position her well.
All in all, you really need to try to lose anyone this mission: the enemies will be coming in waves, so you’ll have ample time to build morale and stomp over everything in your way.

With that said, let’s send everyone forward and rush through this.

: Hey, hey, the Bronze Bell’s waiting right here! You ain’t getting it, but you might as well come on over and save us all some time!

Kill three enemies:

: The way those enemies are moving… They really are focused on getting the second Bronze Bell, just as we thought.
: Then we just need to mount our formation around Kenji and there should be no surprises.
: Probably… but…
: Something wrong, Col. Katsuragi?
: … No, don’t worry about it. We should stick to the original plan.
: Alright. Relay that to all other ships!
: (My gut’s telling me that I’m overlooking something important, but…)

: We’ve the home field advantage today, Mido, Saotome. Let’s make this quick.
: Roger that!
: Been a long time since we were back here. Now we clean house!

: Tsubaki, our job is to support Kenji. Don’t overextend yourself, alright?
: O-OK!
: Forget about your powers as Priestess of the Bronze Bells for the time being. You’ll know everything soon enough.
: Kyo… You’re right. What I’ve to worry about right now is fighting!

: Boom! You jerks see how strong we are yet?!
: Hmhmhm… What of it?

: Yaah!
: Wh-What’s he doing?!

: He took the Big Shooter!
: Tsubaki! Kyo!
: The girl is ours! Her capture is far more important to Her Majesty than the other Bronze Bell!
: So they weren’t after our Bronze Bell at all…?!
: HEY! This is the first we’ve heard about that!
: Your plan was to claim all the glory for yourself, wasn’t it?!
: I needed you to attack Jeeg to create an opening for me to act. If you’ve any complaints, you’re free to vent them later. We’re retreating!
: Hrm…!

The three leaders head to the edge of the map.

: KENJII!!

: Stop! Give Tsubaki and Kyo back!

: It’s… that thing that showed up in Misaki!
: Baruba, the Animal God, wasn’t that its name?
: Outta my way, Baruba!
: Grrrr…! Grrowr!

: Hrk…! Quit bugging me! I gotta go save Tsubaki and Kyo!
: ROWR!
: It’s like Kyo told you before, Kenji. He won’t let you through unless you prove your strength.
: Guess so… Then all I have to do is kick his ass some!

: (Hold on, Tsubaki, Kyo. I’ll show this cat how strong I am, and then I’m off to save you two!)
: Grrrr!

: So this is that monster that cropped up while we were out in space, eh…?
: …
: You might not be an outright bad guy, but I’m not pulling my punches if you’ll be a problem!

: …
: I see… you’ve a mission as well. But I also cannot step aside.
: You can tell what its thinking, Iczer-1?
: Only somewhat… But, regardless, we must end this battle with haste!

Kenji attacking: “Get it in your thick skull that I’m way stronger than you!”

: Grrr…
: Kitty’s still a real tough cookie!
: Baruba, I gotta take you down and get a move on! I’m gonna keep Tsubaki safe, whatever it takes!
: Even if I’m hurt, or if I gotta die for it, I’LL KEEP HER SAFE!!

: … Grrr.
: He still wants to keep fighting even after a blow like that?!
: No, he doesn’t…!

: …
: Baruba, you…
: Looks like he figured out we’re not enemies.
: He acknowledged our power, then?
: Apparently so. I don’t feel any more hostility coming from him.
: You wanna come with us, then, Baruba?
: Rowr.

: All enemies confirmed destroyed!
: And there doesn’t seem to be any troops lying in ambush, Captain.
: Col. Katsuragi, we should return to Build Base and put together a plan to rescue the captives.
: You’re right…
: What, you’re telling me to sit on my ass? No way! Hold on, Tsubaki, Kyo! I’m coming after you right now!

: Wh— Kenji, wait!
: Oi, that dum-dum! He wants to go look for the Jama Kingdom by himself?!
: Lemme handle it! I’ll make him call this off!
: Hm, get to it. Bring him back even if you have to knock him out!
: Yes, sir!

And here are the convos we missed today:

: Too bad for you, Ikima, another loss is all you’re leaving with!
: That won’t happen! Today is the day we’ll claim the Bronze Bell!
: (Yes… Jeeg’s head is our target today. The Jeeg’s head, indeed…!)

–

: You’ve got some nerve attacking Build Base while we weren’t around!
: It’s all to claim your Bronze Bell, and I am not about to let this new opportunity elude me!

–

: This won’t end as it did before! I’ll now fulfill my mission and present the Bronze Bell to Her Majesty! She’s going to be so happy with me!
: Psh. With that look of yours I reckoned you’d be a pretty sharp guy, not someone who’d be chasing rainbows.
: Rainbows? Where?!
: Inside your crazy head, is where! You got a whole different thing coming if you think things are gonna be following your script!

–

: We’d be wrapping this up a whole lot quicker if we could tame him with some food…
: No way, this cat looks way too proud to fall for that.
: Besides, we’ve got no kibble around!
: …
: That’s enough playing around. This guy… He’s really not going to cut us any slack.

Some time later, Quatre tells we’ve yet to hear of Ichitaka, so Kenji’s location is still unknown. Dick ponders that Kenji might’ve gotten himself jumped, but Kouichi tells him to quit with that. It’s only making us worry.
Rey sees his point, though, as Kenji ran off towards the Jama Kingdom’s own sphere of influence, so there’s a decent chance things’ll go bad if he’s not brought back quick. Alto’s thinking he should’ve gone after him, but it’s then that Kouji runs in and tells everyone to turn on the TV.
Why? Durandal’s making a statement to the entire planet!

So he says: “Attention. I am Gilbert Durandal, Chairman of the PLANT High Council. I come to you today because I have something I want you all to know: the reason why the war will not cease…why we were ever at war to begin with.”
He asks everyone to watch a certain footage, which Anna immediately recognizes as the battle of Berlin: “This video depicts the events of a few days ago, where Alliance forces, led by their newest weapons, raided a city in western Central Eurasia. These weapons of mass-destruction attacked unprovoked, giving no chance for the populace to escape, resulting in the destruction of three cities and the deaths of civilians beyond counting.”

Talia inwardly wonders if Durandal took such roundabout ways to send them their orders in order to delay the Minerva’s departure and make sure events unfolded like that. No… that can’t be true!
Durandal carries on: “Why? Why did this happen? Why do they use weapons instead of words? ‘We will have no peace! We must fight!’ Who would say that first?”

By the Archangel, they’re also watching the speech: “I know that we, humans, could and must join together and rebuild our world as one abounding with kindness and light. However, some of us work against that dream – and they have been doing so since time immemorial!”
What is he getting at, Cagalli wonders, while Lacus watches in silence.

Back to us: “They are an amalgam of defense contractors, seeking to foster hostility, to plunge this world into conflict… They are called Logos, merchants of death, and are the nemeses of all of us who dream of peace!”
Rey ponders that Gil’s finally revealed the existence of Logos to the world.

Djibril is NOT happy that they’ve been outed, and Logos Guy asks how he’s going to fix this. It’s his responsibility that Durandal could pull this stunt. No, no, it’ll be fine and Djibril has just the card to play: he knows that Durandal’s been buddying up with people from another world, despite his speeches of wanting to help all of humanity. Surely Logos Guy is aware of that too.
So, what Djibril wants to do is expose that for the world to see, and the people will all turn against the Coordinators! “But there is yet another matter that I wish to convey to you,” Durandal continues his speech. What now? “The Macross Frontier, the migrant fleet which I’m certain you’ve all heard of… they are actually visitors from a different world. The Frontier Fleet arrived on this Earth seeking mutual support with all of us. But despite their friendly intentions, Logos sought to eradicate them all solely for their own benefit!”
Oooh, shit, Djibril can feel the entire world turning against THEM right as this goes down, and Durandal seals the deal: “I hereby swear an oath to fight and destroy Logos, enemies of our world!”
CURSE YOU, DURANDAAAAAL! :argh:

Cut to the Frontier, Mishima was a bit surprised by Durandal’s announcement, but figures a man like him has decent odds of emerging victorious. More importantly, though, a NUNS officer walks in and says Ranka has arrived. The girl’s a bit intimidated, but Mishima is honored to finally meet the famous Super Dimensional Cinderella.
Now, what does such an important member of their government want with her? Well, they’ve reviewed data on her kidnapping by the Vajra and their scientists have theorized that her song might just be our ultimate weapon against the Vajra.
Ranka’s very surprised, but while this matter is still under investigation, Mishima says the government is putting together a special project to verify things before long. They’d like her help with that. Ranka doesn’t know what she’d have to do, but that’s fine as Mishima’s found her something of specialist manager to help with that.

And it’s Grace. She’ll be taking over as Ranka’s manager starting today, though that raises the question from the girl: what about Elmo? He won’t fly, as this’ll require a coordinated effort with the government, so it’d be too complicated to bring in someone else. And Elmo himself consented to this when they explained what a major opportunity this was for Ranka. Really.
Well, but what about Sheryl? Isn’t Grace her manager? Sure, but she’ll be in the hospital for a bit longer – and even when she eventually gets out, Grace is more than capable of handling the two of them. She’s certain Sheryl is happy to pass the torch on to Ranka and have her bring joy to the Frontier’s people in her absence.
Alright, Ranka’s up for it, so Mishima’ll get to work and see that everything’s ready for her (including assigning a bodyguard).

: Damn, I can’t find any sign of them! Where’d they go?!

: Kenji, hold up!

Ichitaka moves closer.

: Ichitaka…! Wait, you’re not here to stop me, are ya?!
: Listen, even if you manage to run those guys down, you can’t take them all alone! Why don’t we all go back to Build Base for a sec and work something out together?!
: Besides, Baruba hasn’t recovered from the last battle either!
: No way, no how! I… I gotta save Tsubaki right the hell now!
: We all want to save her! And if you’re gonna be stubborn about this, I’m gonna have to make you come back to base…!
: Tch! I ain’t got time to go at it with you! Baruba!
: Grrowr!

Baruba charges after the Rushbird!

: Wah?!

: Kenji!

: Wh-What the?! But the radars clear…!

: … I guess that really is all you amount to.
: The Straybird?!
: Yuu, why are you—
: There’s nothing for us to talk about. And you haven’t the right to stop Jeeg, either. He’s forging on ahead, alone, just to achieve his own personal goal – like I am.
: Yuu, stealing the Rushbird is stage one of our plan. We cannot waste much time on this.
: Understood. We’ll set out in t minus 8, alright, Haruno?

: (He’s doing that again…! But how am I gonna catch up to him without Kouichi or anyone else around…?!)
: I won’t let you take another step. Rather, I won’t let you fight any more!

: Gwargh!!
: Ichitaka! Are you bleeding?!
: Do you see it now? This is all you amount to when you don’t have a swarm of allies to bail you out.
: You’re stuck in the present, blind to what you should be doing. You’re not fit to be with that squadron, much less capable of saving gramps.
: You shouldn’t throw your life away for nothing.
: What…?!
: This has gone on for too long, Ichitaka. You will be leaving the Rushbird here and now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn_6FIiC8CA
Haruno: “Do not fight back, Alice!”
Yuu: “We’ll be taking the Rushbird!”
Haruno: “None of your friends are here to help today. You’ve no chance of winning!”

: GAAAAAAH!!
: Hang in there, Ichitaka!
: … Has he given up?
: AL-3 Alice, there’s nothing you can do by yourself. Take Ichitaka and leave your unit.
: …Damn… Isn’t there anything… we can do…?
: We know everything about the Rushbird’s abilities. Whatever you may try to scrounge up, it won’t work.
: (The Rushbird’s abilities… That’s the Maser Eye, the energy emission device and the energy absorption device that generates the Laplace Wall… What can we do with just those…?)
: Hah, I guess reality ain’t like TV… No hero’s showing up to save us when we need one…
: (! “Hero”…? Actually, this is rather similar to that show Ichitaka and the Professor liked… Maybe if…!)

Beep, beep!

: (I knew it…! If I use both energy devices like this, then…!)

Tchunk!

: …

Beep, beep!

: Are you overheating again?! Stop! I dunno what you’re thinking, but we can’t turn this around!
: It is no problem at all…! Rather, it’s with you giving up so easily that I see plenty of problems!
: !
: Leave this to me. If my hypothesis is correct, then there’s a way to make it through this!
: Ichitaka, I’ll need you to move the unit exactly as I say. I’ll manage the flow of energy!
: Alright…! Just tell me what to do, Alice!

The Rushbird stands back up.

: They’re still at it? I’m surprised his spirit wasn’t crushed after that.
: They might be planning to use the Laplace Wall and Lightning Fist in tandem for a rushdown attack.
: No, wait. Are they…?!
: Hrrrm!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIMZohbrlW8
Alice: “Here we go, Ichitaka!”
Ichitaka: “Alright, everything’s in your hands!”
Ichitaka: “Th-That’s…?!”
Alice: “Deploying Laplace Wall. Initiating absorption of subspace energy efflux…!”
Alice: “Control established! Ichitaka, position the Rushbird’s arms like so…!”
Ichitaka: “OK. Like this?!”
Alice: “And now the dimensional energy will…!”
Yuu: “Kch…! I-It’s…?!”
Haruno: “How… How could Alice perform a procedure of this level…?!”

: Wh-What…?!
: It twisted time and space to draw out a direct flow of energy from subspace…?! That unit’s capable of something like that…?!
: It… worked…
: Alice, you…

: Damage has exceeded all acceptable parameters. Yuu, we cannot continue…
: … We’re retreating. We cannot afford to lose the Straybird.

: Alice, what was that just now…? And what happened to your hair…
: …
: … Alice? Something up?

Power down.

: …
: What’s wrong?! Hey, talk to me! ALICE!!

[Mattman324]

And so, Rushbird takes its first step towards being Bird Zeorymer SKL.

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

Back again, and Kenji’s previous event deployment really helped him close the gap with Ichitaka.

Few more HP, Armor, EN and Accuracy upgrades to our Supers like the Nagahamas, Daiya, Shinji, etc.
As for Skill Parts, Kenji gets Ignore Size Difference, Daiya starts building up on Infight and Iczer-1 takes Counter to take advantage of her massive Skill stat.

And the Jeeg units are all still event deployments, so our teams haven’t changed:
Shinji/Quatre
Daiya/Yanma
Kouichi/Rei
Ichtiaka/Mil
Kouji/Puria
Iczer-1
Ozma/Luca
Alto/Michel
Tetsuya/Canaria
Domyoji/Athrun
Shinn/Klan
Heine/Anna
Zechs/Noin
Rey/Luna
Voltes/Mira
Combattler/Deceive
Dancouga/Yamashita
Dick/Jack

Forward![/i]

We open up by Aso, with Kenji feeling Himika nearby. He and Baruba are still on the hunt.

At Build Base, Une is relating the far-reaching effects of Durandal’s speech. The people are, indeed, very cross with Logos for triggering this war and nations the world over are setting their forces to hunt them down. From reports Une’s receiving, members of Logos are being arrested as we speak and the organization is rapidly losing power.
The same can be said for the Earth Alliance which is crumbling – all nations that joined in, willingly or not, are leaving. That’s good news for us, Goh figures, but there’s still a problem in that we haven’t been able to find Djibril. And he still has Relena, who we’ll need to go rescue eventually. That said, Une wants us to focus on rescuing Kyo and Tsubaki right now.

Misato and Shiba both figure Himika took Tsubaki in order to use her powers as Priestess to extract the Bronze Bell from the old Jeeg’s head. Letting the Jama Kingdom gain access to that kind of power’ll have us facing a repeat of the battle fifty years ago, so Une wants it handled pronto.
As she ends the call, Zechs ponders that it’ll apparently be left to us to personally bury Lord Djibril.

By the infirmary, Ichitaka’s being told that we’ve no idea what happened with Alice. The staff simply doesn’t have enough data or time to figure it out, even with Kosuke and the others helping. Way Canaria sees it, we’re better off waiting until we’re back in JUDA to get Rachel and Maki in on this.
Alice has recovered from her crash, apologizing that she couldn’t come up with anything else back then. “No, I’m the one who’s sorry. You wouldn’t have needed to pull that crazy stunt if I’d been stronger,” Ichitaka immediately says.
As for why she overheated and blacked out, she just couldn’t handle the strain of both controlling the flow of energy and doing the math to create a localized dimensional distortion. But it was only thanks to Ichitaka and Grife that the idea ever came to her, so she thanks him for it.

From what Kosuke’s seen, what she did was set the Rushbird’s input-output devices to operate at a very specific balance. Since they work by interacting with energy in subspace, she was able to trigger a temporary breakdown of the dimensional boundary.
In essence, she explains, it was like uniting plus and minus, fire and ice. This show Grife used to watch saw a similar event happen, where opposing forces were used in conjunction to create a brand new phenomenon. So, she figured the Rushbird would be capable of doing something to that effect. The calculations to make it happen were too much, of course.
A call comes in right then, and it seems we’re all deploying. Alice tells Canaria that she’s good to go – no problems at all – and Ichitaka wants to make up for letting Kenji run off on his own. We WILL be bringing both Tsubaki and Kyo home safely!

Kouji and the others got a pin on Kenji and found him headed into Aso’s underground. That’s gotta be where we’ll find Himika along with our friends.
Shiba gives us the go-ahead to deploy, as we both need to rescue the captives and make sure Himika doesn’t get her hands on the Bronze Bell.

Mission 19 – Assault at Aso

: Jama jamal dara jamal dara, meki mekimi dara mekimi dara…! Before long, your powers will be at my disposal!
: Kch…!

: Found you, Himika!
: These rats dare enter my domain… Ikima!
: By your will!

: Outta my way! I ain’t playing around today!
: Your bravado won’t help, Steel Jeeg! Come and behold the might of the Jama Kingdom!
: Zip it! Give me Tsubaki and Kyo back!
: Kenji…!
: Tsubaki, you OK?! I’ll be there in a sec!
: Huh…? Kyo ain’t there?! What’d you do with him?!
: Who knows? But that’s hardly any concern for someone who’ll be a rotting carcass soon!
: You’re not getting rid of me just like that! Let’s do this, Baruba!
: Grrooowwr!

Don’t lose Kenji or it’s game over. Evasion decay means that even with his massive evasiveness, he WILL get destroyed if you let the enemy swarm him, so let’s not do that.
Just pull him back a few to draw the enemy in and get a few shots while at it.

Enemy Phase!

Oh, that was actually right at the edge of Ikima’s range… blah.[/i]

: Kyo, where are you?! KYO!
: Damn it, just hold on! I promise I’ll find you, and then all three of us’ll go home together!

That’s fine. As the Boya Kaengus start coming in, Kenji kills three.

Player Phase!

: Kenji, are you alright?!
: G-Guys!
: Hey, you got any idea how worried you had us?!
: I’m just glad we got here in time!
: Alright, then listen up. I still dunno where Kyo’s at, so let’s go and at least get Tsubaki to safety!
: …! Kyo’s…
: Got it. Then we’ll wreck these Haniwas real quick and look around for him!
: We’ll begin our rescue operation immediately! Good luck, troops!

Can’t lose the ships or Yagyuu either. This mission’s pretty much a repeat of the last one, only with more enemies to deal with. The amount of stuff means you’re recommended to watch your SP more than you usually do, so command auras are at a premium (remember that Jack and Yagyuu have it, too, so it’s not just Ozma and the ships).
The quantity of enemies also mean that you should keep a closer eye on any Super not packing a barrier or Iron Wall, as a mob of Haniwas can be rather dangerous if you head in too far. And, of course, you ought to be mindful of the Dai Kaengus draining your SP at point blank range.
Ikima’s closest, so you might as well get rid of him ASAP once your morale is going. After that, just spread out. And, FYI, try to move your crew up north as a group since folks lagging behind may be in a spot of trouble once Ikima is down.

With all that said, let’s fast forward since I play rather safely to conserve SP.

: Jeeg’s head is right around the corner. We do this right, and we might have a shot at it as well!

: What’s up? Use that barrier you had before, why don’t you! I feel like wrecking that thing!
: A very transparent taunt. Are you trying to distract me?
: Psh, he didn’t fall for it. Fine…
: But I gotta make up for the trouble I caused the others, so I’ll tangle with you some!

: You guys’ve been making a mess of things for decades now, and it’s time to pay the piper!
: If we leave folks like you around, that’ll only mean more families getting broken up!
: I’ll take that as a compliment. There is no greater joy to me than carrying out Her Majesty’s cause!

: The Giant of Flames, enemy of the Darius… I think you’ll be a bit of an amusing match.
: Sorry, gramps. I’m here to rescue my friends, so I’m wrapping this up lickety-split!

: We’ve been doing this for WAY too long, Ikima! Haniwas oughta stay where they belong: six feet under!
: I think not, Kouji Kabuto, for it is today, on this very land, where both Bronze Bells shall be ours!

: You only waste your time fighting us. We have the girl and the Bronze Bell squarely under our control. There will be no victory for you!
: And you think that’s gonna convince me to ditch my friends? I’m fighting to the bitter end, and will be leaving with both Kyo and Tsubaki safe!

: Curse you, humans! CURSE YOU ALL!!
: Defeat is the only way this is ending for you! Accept it!
: I refuse to sully Her Majesty’s sight with such disgrace! Uoooh!!

: Whaat?!
: That’s quite the tenacity he has.
: What, he put his ship back together with just “tenacity”?!
: DIIIEE, JEEEEEG!!

: Uurgh!
: All of Jeeg’s energy readings are dropping!
: Kenji, you OK?!
: BWAHAHAHA! Do you see it now, Jeeg! This is the power bestowed unto us by Her Majesty!
: Hrm! I ain’t losing this…! I… I’m gonna protect Tsubaki even if it takes my life!!
: GROOOWR!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06fnctLxJxI
Kenji: “Outta my way, Ikima! I’m gonna save Tsubaki!!”

: Is he down now?!
: How’dya like that, Ikima!
: I-Impossible…!
: Retreat at once, Ikima!
: Urk…! Please forgive me, Your Majesty!

: The enemy carrier has retreated!

: The barrier surrounding Tsubaki is disappearing!

Kenji runs towards Himika’s altar.

: And you’re next, Himika! We’re taking Tsubaki back with us!

: Hmhmhm… Surely you jest! My spell has already bound her!
: What?!
: And now, girl, I shall put your powers to great use!
: …!
: Tsubaki! Pull yourself together, Tsubaki!
: This time, Hiroshi Shiba’s Bronze Bell will be mine! Haaaah!

: Hey! The Bronze Bell’s!

: What happened?!
: …
: Look, there’s a man on the ground!
: Hiroshi Shiba?!
: AHAHA! At long last, it is mine! And, with it, the lot of you are as mere infants before me! Haaah!!

: Wh-What the?!
: What is it, Kenji?!
: I… I can’t move Jeeg!
: I shall rip out your own Bronze Bell as well, Steel Jeeg!
: We gotta do something or Kenji’ll be in big trouble! Cover him, folks!
: You shall not interfere…! Rise, soldiers of the Underworld!

Aay, Kenji got a swanky new move: Baruba Jeeg is VERY strong, beating out the Mach Drill by a huge 800 points. It’s costly at 50 EN and only usable at point blank, but it’ll tear through everything.
… Or he would, but Kenji’s immobilized, weakened, with a bunch of angry mooks right there. I hope you have some Supers available to draw their attention or you might be in trouble! Just keep on killing in the meantime.

: Jama jamal dara jamal dara, meki mekimi dara mekimi dara…!
: …

: Grraaaargh!
: Kenji!

: UWAAAAH!!

: Jeeg’s reverted back into the Raikouba?!
: Does that mean… she took his Bronze Bell?!

RUMBLE!

: What’s going on?!
: Hmhmhm…HAHAHAHAHA!

: What just happened?! I can’t move the Voltes!
: Come on, move, Linebarrel!
: The Daiku Maryu too…!
: Shizuka!
: The flame’s burning just fine, but our output’s stunted!
: What in blazes…! Is that the Bronze Bells at work?!
: Hmhmhm! AHAHAHA! And now I finally have both Bronze Bells!
: I’ve no longer any use for this girl! I’ll obliterate her, along with Hiroshi Shiba and the Jeeg brat! And humanity will soon follow! AHAHAHAHAHA!!
: Damn it…! Tsubaki! Open your eyes!
: …
: DIE!
: That’s enough!

: …?!
: It’s been a very long time, Himika!
: Kyo!
: You’re alright!
: Hmph… all makes sense now. You were leading them from the shadows, I see. However, your reappearance comes far too late!
: As I said before, that’s enough out of you!

: What?!
: Kyo’s turned into a giant?!
: Kyo… you’ve finally…
: I apologize for keeping you all in the dark. This is my real form.
: I am an alien, one that arrived on Earth during ancient times. My real name is Takeru…
: Whaat?! The hell’s going on?!
: There were other aliens who traveled to Earth besides the Darius…?!
: But, unfortunately, we’ve little time to speak. Kenji, now is the time for you and Tsubaki to take each other’s hands!
: Wait, hold up there! I’m not getting anything you’re saying!
: Tsubaki’s the priestess of Azabu’s Tamashiro Shrine, which has long safeguarded our bloodline. Of all the people in this world, she is the one true heiress to our will.
: While you are the one who’s inherited the power to safeguard that will itself… And when both your powers are combined, a miracle will occur!
: Slow down there! Are you—?!
: “What is the Bronze Bell”… The way will open once you all understand its real significance!
: Hmph! You waste your time! The Bronze Bells are both squarely in the palm of my hand!
: Kenji, let me handle this! Go and take Tsubaki! … Take care of them, my friends.

: That’s… Captain! Our controls have been restored!
: Because of Kyo’s powers…?!
: Yak Deculture…!
: This is all I can do for you. Come, Himika! Face me!
: You mean to challenge me? Fool! I shall summon the Langoon forth and reduce this planet to dust! This shall be your communal grave! Haaah!!

Rumble!

: What?!

Beep, beep!

: It’s… a dimensional distortion just popped up!
: And the cave is falling apart due to the tremor! We’re going to be buried alive at this rate!
: Damn you, Himika… You couldn’t immobilize us, so now you’ll just try to crush us all?!
: Ahahaha! See to it that they meet their end here, Amaso, Mimashi!

: Wait! Himika!!

: Kenji, get Tsubaki and Hiroshi aboard the Raikouba! I’m coming to pick you up!
: Alright!

: Build Angel here! All friendlies successfully recovered!
: OK, now we need to get out ASAP…
: Oh, no, you don’t!

: Crap, our way out!
: You won’t be getting away, humans!
: Himika’s ordered us to bury you all here!
: Hrm! Then our only option is to force our way through them! Hurry!
: A desperate escape from a collapsing cave… Now that’s exciting!
: We’re sending you the coordinates to our escape route, troops! You’ll have to escort our ships over there!

: Skull Leader to all units! We only need to have one of our motherships to escape and victory’ll be ours! Focus all your fire on clearing the road for them!
: We dunno when this place’ll come crashing down, so we better move quick!
: (Only reason I’m still alive is because of you, Kyo… Don’t die on me, man…!)

I really don’t know if there’s an actual time limit, but the game says there isn’t. So, while you COULD wrap this up by driving any ship to the escape point, there are also plenty of enemies around and they’d make for a hefty payout.
They’ll all blocking our way, too, so you might as well take them all out. It’ll be slow-ish, but worth it.

: We cannot let Kyo’s resolve go to waste! Lend me your strength, Nagisa!
: Y-You got it!

: Stay frosty, Mido, Saotome! Our mission’s to get Hiroshi and the rest to safety!
: Yes, ma’am! I’ll drop anything that gets too close!
: Hey, what’dya mean “And the rest”?! What am I, cargo?!
: She didn’t mean it like that, idiot, so shut your noise hole!
: Glad you’re at least doing okay… And we’ll make sure everyone gets out of here like that!

Even more Haniwas crop out the woodwork – a small courtesy, to make sure we’ve company once we’re all buried. Mimashi hopes that’ll keep us satisfied.
Not. Zechs tells us to ignore whatever enemies we can and make for the exit, lest we exhaust ourselves.

I was hoping this would be one of them “endless reinforcements” situations, but it actually isn’t. No more enemies will show up, so just kill these and carry on.

: Kyo, you better come back…! I don’t buy for one second that you’d leave us like that!

: Remember what Ozma said: if we can just have our flagships make it out, the rest’ll fall in place!
: Yup! So all we gotta do is wreck the enemy blockade!

: I’m not one to run away, but getting buried alive’d be game over for everyone!
: And Kyo also asked us to help Kenji and Tsubaki make it out safe!

: Quickly, Aoi. The Dancouga and its firepower should be more than capable of plowing through the enemy’s lines.
: Folks in my family always said: “he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day”.
: I don’t like it, but I guess we’ll stick to your family’s maxim just for today.

: If you’re hoping for an easy escape, think again. Face my full might and let the memory of it follow you to the grave!

: Rrrgh! Way the wind is blowing, I…!

: Heheheh… Dealing with the other humans will be so easy if we just kill you all right here.
: And, then, the world will be our oyster! DIIEE!!

: Geeeh! Why’d this have to happen?!

: Notify our troops that we’ve broken through the enemy lines. Tell them to either return to the ships or escape by themselves!

: Barely made it… Is everyone in one piece?
: They are. We’ve confirmed that all units made it out safely.
: And Kyo?
: We… cannot reach him.
: …
: Hm… ooh…
: Tsubaki! You alright?!
: I-I am, somehow…
: Really?! Aah, that’s so good to hear! Seriously!
: Thanks, Kenji. I kind of remember what happened… How you tried to save me…
: Don’t worry about any of that right now. Just get some rest.
: Okay…
: Let’s head back to Build Base for now. Better to be safe and have Tsubaki and Hiroshi get examined.

Beep!

: Are you all safe, my friends?
: Commander, we’ve news for you. The original Steel Jeeg, who’d been MIA for fifty years, is with us… We’ve rescued Hiroshi Shiba.
: …!

: …
: …
: You’re safe now. Your vision might be blurry at the moment, but don’t worry. You’ll be seeing just fine soon.
: You haven’t changed at all, huh, dad.
: Hey, now, it’s been fifty years. I’ve changed plenty.
: Did you? The way I see it… you’re the same as ever… You too, Micchi…
: …! Hiroshi, I…
: You look well.
: Hiroshi…
: I’m back, Micchi…
: I’ve waited for so long… to finally see you again…

: Kenji…
: Heh… shame on me, huh? I managed to leave you behind just fine, but couldn’t actually do jack by myself. I saved Tsubaki and that guy, Hiroshi, and that’s fine and all… but I needed Kyo to bail me out.
: Sorry, Ichitaka…. I don’t even know what to say about all that crap I gave you.
: Don’t worry about it. I was in way over my head thinking I could’ve dragged you back by myself.
: I kinda felt a bit worthless, too, after the whooping my bro gave me, so I know what you’re on about.
: Well, the Bronze Bell getting stolen was real lame too. There’s a whole lot of big stuff’s going down, and the Raikouba ain’t turning into Jeeg…!

Door opens.

: And it won’t turn, no matter how much you try.
: You…! You’re the old…
: Hiroshi Shiba. They’ve told me what happened during my fifty years of sleep… and about LOTUS, too.
: That’s great, but what did you mean with “it won’t turn”?! Why can’t I transform into Jeeg?!
: The Jeeg transformation is based around the Bronze Bell’s energy. It is the core, and without it, you’re going nowhere fast.
: Whaat?! Then I can never transform again?!
: Hm. And since Himika also stole my Bronze Bell, that applies to me too.
: Aw, man…! What the hell are we gonna do, then?! The Jama Kingdom alone are growing a whole lot stronger and we’ve got our hands tied ‘round our backs?!
: I didn’t know what to do back when I fought Himika either…
: You…
: “I’ve to beat her even if the price is my life…” All I remember from that battle was that that was fixated on my mind.
: So I’ll try and think of a way to carry on fighting. You, yourself, should do the same.
: Myself, huh…

So, later on, Shiba’s decided to call everyone around to explain what’s what with Kyo and Himika. Kenji has a bunch of questions, especially with the sudden reveal, and Micchi has another bomb to drop on him: the boy’s mom, Miya Kusanagi, was originally called Miyazu.
Yes, she was Kyo/Takeru’s sister, and an alien that’d arrived on Earth while humans had barely started to populate the planet – she and Kyo were responsible for first sealing away Himika and her peers, who would have brought ruin to Earth. After that, they both embarked on a deep sleep, until Shiba eventually uncovered them.
Tetsuya Kouji wonders if they went to sleep because they knew Himika and the others would eventually come back and wanted to settle things themselves. If that’s the case, Nagisa is blown away that they’d go to such lengths for a planet that wasn’t their own.

Shiba says it was due to a sense of responsibility, as it was their kind who gave life to Himika in the first place. Say what now? Iczer-1 explains: apparently, Kyo and Miyazu’s civilization at one point created them as warriors of destruction. They were sent to invade several other planets in the distant past.
Iczer-1 apologizes for keeping quiet about this, but Kyo only told her the truth as a safeguard in case he couldn’t tell us in person.

Whatever the case, Canaria sees the glaring similarity between the Himika’s group and the Zentradi, but, Luca notes, unlike the Protoculture, Kyo and Miyazu’s group apparently decided to keep their intervention with Earth’s own civilization to a bare minimum.
Shiba explains that they decided they couldn’t take over this beautiful world, instead choosing to live alongside the humans. Himika knew nothing but destruction, though, so she obviously wasn’t on board with that. They were left with no choice but to seal her away.
As for the Bronze Bells, one of which they’d entrusted to Hiroshi, Micchi says they are the control units for the spaceship Langoon that first brought Takeru, Miyazu and Himika here. Kenji remembers Himika mentioning that name, and the thing is very much a problem for us: so long as it exists, Himika and co. cannot die.

So, Ichitaka and Anna see, Himika stealing the Bronze Bells isn’t just a problem in that they can power themselves up: if they take control of the ship, they could turn themselves pretty much invincible.
Seems to Misato we need to find Kyo and go after Himika ASAP… which makes it very poor timing on Durandal’s part to call in with an emergency transmission right now. What could it be about, Talia wonders…

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

New route split today, so let’s get right to it. I’d suggest you keep the cash earned in the last mission to be spent after the split is underway. It’ll help you!

So, Durandal’s called over Build Base and quickly explains why: they’ve located where Djibril’s at. While taking him out won’t do anything to put an end to humanity’s history of war, it’ll certainly be a big step. The guy’s at Heaven’s Base, shacked up with several Logos members at Heaven’s Base.
Shinn recognizes the name of the now-defunct Earth Alliance’s HQ; the UN has sent the Blue Cosmos faction a call for the group’s dissolution, but rather than complying, they’ve holed up inside the place. Durandal would rather end this without hostilities, but that’s obviously not going to fly with these people – he expects fierce resistance.
And that, Misato presumes, means he wants us to help with that? Not exactly, as he’s aware of our situation and knows the entire world’ll be in grave danger if Himika’s ignored. Thus, he simply wants the Minerva to attack Heaven’s Base.

Considering that the ship never officially joined our ranks, Misato can’t well turn him down. Durandal’s sorry for imposing on us, but we don’t know when another opportunity like this’ll present itself if it is not seized upon.
… And the klaxons start blaring then and there. The Base’s operator just detected the Bronze Bells’ signal and it’s headed into space. He can’t confirm if it’s Himika, but it seems likely – the signal vanishes right when it reaches Earth’s orbit. Tetsuya figures she’s using some magic to hide herself.
What about Kyo? The operator’s tried calling him when the signal showed up, but so far nothing. Kenji’s worried something might’ve happened to him, but Daiya and Kouji remind that we’ve no time to stay down. Rather, we need to go after her right now!

So we call Lady Une and tell her what’s up. Considering we don’t have a full grasp of where Himika’s at, it’d be unwise to commit all our forces to this. On the flip side, considering it’s Djibril we’re talking about, it’s possible he’ll pull something the Minerva team won’t be able to manage by themselves.
Meaning this calls for us to split up: Misato and Talia will command the offensive against Heaven’s Base, while Jeffrey and Lulu will manage the Himika group. The Rushbird, as always, can go with both:

Help the Minerva Route:
Gundam Wing
SEED Destiny
Evangelion
Mazinkaiser OAV
Combattler
Dancouga
Godannar

Pursue Himika
Macross F
Gaiking
Voltes
Iczer-1
Linebarrel
Jeeg[/i]

Choose the Minerva and Misato argues that the bot is better suited to fight on land. Une confirms and wishes her good luck. Choose Himika, and she’ll figure it’s best to keep all friends together in the interest of calming their mood. A very motherly thought, and, with that, it’s all in Jeffrey and Lulu’s hands.
Whatever you choose, Misato tells everyone to split up accordingly; both will be major battles with the fate of the world on the line. As for Tsubaki, Canaria says she’s sleeping but will be back with us real soon. Shiba would prefer to not ship her out to battle again so soon, but this is probably destiny at work.

Now, Talia has been told to make a pit stop at JUDA as, Misato explains, Durandal said he wanted to rendezvous with the ship and hand them some supplies before the battle starts. Durandal wanting to meet up has Talia worry that he might’ve found out we faked the Archangel’s destruction.
When Rey asks why the frown, she tells him not to worry – she was just taken by surprised by how abrupt his descent to Earth was (Rey doesn’t buy it, but stays mum). Inwardly, Talia ponders that even if Durandal DID find out, the fact is he was opposed to the ship’s destruction all along… but that doesn’t excuse insubordination. What’ll happen now?

Ichitaka’s eager to catch Djibril and put an end to the war, but Athrun shoots him down: taking that guy out won’t mean peace instantly returns. Mira and Noin agree, adding that all we’d be doing would be bringing in the people FANNING the flames of war. It won’t be easy to snuff out those flames, even if we succeed in taking Logos out of the picture.
Plus, Aoi sighs, we might even have other Logos-like groups prowling about, looking to further push war. Johnny sees her point: taking out Logos won’t bring a definitive end to all war since it all comes down to humans’ combative nature.
BUT, doing this will still bring us closer to peace, Quatre and Hyouma think. Humans are rational creatures and, moreover, they’re capable of learning from their mistakes. Hell, if things like the Mimetic Beasts are capable of evolving, Juzo sees no reason why we couldn’t do it too. And above all, Alice figures if you’ve a goal in mind, doing something is always better than doing nothing.

Goh moves in, telling everyone to board the Minerva – we’ll be leaving for JUDA soon. “Yes, sir!” Ichitaka salutes. “… You know, I might’ve gotten used to taking orders from Misato, but nowhere as much as having you in charge, Goh.” The guy’s glad to hear that, but, of course, he’d sooner be out there leading us from the front lines.
Hyouma figures the Godannar misses him, too… and, on that subject, he turns to Alice and asks if there’s been any change with Shizuru. Still nothing, unfortunately – waiting for a miracle might be all we have left. On the flip side, Stella has been improving steadily with JUDA’s treatment.
But that’s a conversation for later, as Shinn walks over and says Shinji and Kouji’s crew are already getting ready to deploy. Goh gasps that this wasn’t the time for chit-chat, though Shinn reminds that the guy was the one who came here to call us over. Whoops.

Wishing good luck to Lulu, the Daiku Maryu and Macross Quarter fly off. The Minerva has to get going too. Forward!

Had you chosen the Himika route, Nagisa’s a bit nervous over setting out into space, and Iczer-1 has some advice: “Space is incredibly vast and full of mysteries… but it is also a terrifying place. We should all keep our wits about us, Nagisa.” When Ichitaka asks, Ozma says we’ve yet to get any new intel on Himika after the signal was lost – hopefully that’ll change once we’re up there.
But we’ll at least have Tsubaki around, and she apologizes for all the worry she caused us. Her head still hurts a bit, but she’s fine enough to fight as soon as we find Himika’s group. Hiroshi and Kenji tell her not to push herself too hard, though: with Kyo and the Jeegs gone, she doesn’t need to head out there with the Big Shooter by her lonesome.

In fact, Ozma makes it easier and orders her to get some rest. Moreover, Klan reminds her of what Kyo said before: it’s likely will soon need her powers as Priestess. And Kouichi figures not being able to fight isn’t reason to get bummed out: we’re going to space! That’s huge!
“We’re not asking you to be as simple as him, Tsubaki, but do keep your chin up some, yeah?” Yamashita asks. If anything, Tsubaki’s grateful for their concern.

Lam’s sad to be leaving Earth, but Bobby points out that we’re not exactly leaving the star system. No need to be that dramatic about things… but Mina harrumphs that he only says that because he’d gotten assignments that took him OUTSIDE the ship. The Bridge Bunnies have been stuck in the bridge since they got here!
No time for grumbling, though, as Jeffrey comes in and has them get ready for launch. Everything’s green and ready to go, so the Quarter sets sail.

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

Here we are at the Minerva path. Quatre has returned to the Top Aces list, but I’m surprised to see Zechs here.

Had nearly 300k after the last battle, so that went straight into boosting all our Supers with more of everything (they’ll need it for this next mission). Don’t forget to give the lesser-used squaddies some love if you’re going to field them.

Ignore the picture above because Rey and Luna are going to be deploying as event units along with Shinn – the game just doesn’t tell you, see. So, we’ll be going like this:
Shinji/Quatre
Athrun/Jun
Combattler/Rei
Ichitaka
Kouji/Mira
Tetsuya/Tetsuya (I had to)
Dancouga/Boss
Zechs/Noin
Heine/Anna

Wasn’t expecting much from this mission since Z1’s version of it was a cakewalk, but, oh, boy…

Off we go.

: Hm… hmm…?
: Stella! You’re awake!
: Th-This is…
: The hospital. You were very hurt, so we brought you here.
: Hurt…?
: You really don’t remember…? Sorry, Stella… You went through so many awful things…
: A-Aah… I was… No…! I don’t… I don’t want to die!
: You’re safe, Stella! There’s nothing here to hurt you! And you won’t die, because… because I’ll protect you!
: Protect… me…?
: Yeah, I promise! I won’t let anything scare you again! I swear I’ll protect you!
: You’ll protect… me… Shinn…
: You remembered me, Stella?!
: U-Urgh… my head hurts…
: S-Sorry! Don’t worry about any of that right now! You’re safe here, so just rest and get better…
: Will I… see you again…?
: Of course! I’ll come visit you later, absolutely!
: … Shinn…

By the mess hall, Shinn relates that Stella’s in the process of getting better – bit by bit. That’s a relief to Chizuru, who hopes she’ll be getting off JUDA’s hospital soon enough. From what the doctor’s told Shinn (that he could understand), her cardio-pulmonary function is dependent on a drug to work properly, but they think they’ll find a way around that before long. “Thank you all a ton - I mean it,” Shinn says. “You guys have done so much for us since the battle of Berlin.”
Speaking of Berlin, Jun wonders what the Archangel could be up to right now. Kosuke figures they might be immobile as, ruse or not, they took quite a bit of damage during Angel Down. That they’re safe is good enough, but Shinn hopes to see them later: he never even got the chance to thank(!) Kira for what he did.
Shinn’s conversion to Christianity aside, Rey comes in looking for him. No, it’s not time to set off just yet; rather, Durandal is set to arrive real soon, having apparently sped up his timetable to see him and Shinn.

Kurara’s rather jealous that they’ve a boss that’s so in touch with his subordinates (unlike Team D), and it all shows Kouji how serious Durandal is about this. It might be a bit excessive for someone in his station, but it tells that he wants to bring an end to this Logos business today.
Zechs can understand why: Logos has been tormenting the Colonies from the shadows since before OZ’s creation, so Durandal likely has a long list of grievances with them. Whatever the case, his arrival means we need to start getting ready for battle, so Tetsuya tells everyone to get their game faces on. Shinn’s already there, thinking about Stella: “I’ll give this everything I got, and create a world where people can live in peace…!”

Shift to Heaven’s Base, Djibril is fuming that Durandal has the BALLS to send a message demanding the base’s immediate surrender and the extradition of all Logos people. HAH! An Alliance officer asks what to do, since ZAFT has already surrounded the place. They’re waiting for a response, apparently.
What kind of idiotic question is that? Why in blazes would Djibril even think of talking to those people?! Have the troops attack and destroy ZAFT now, now, now! What, are they going to fight to the death, then?!
Yes! They must fight! FOR OUR PURE, BLUE WORLD!

: Hello there, Captain. I’m so sorry to impose on you so suddenly – and on the verge of battle, no less.
: It has been a long while since we met face-to-face, Chairman. But don’t you think it’s rather careless of you to come to Earth in person?
: Perhaps. But the truth is I have something I wanted to give Rey and Shinn myself.
: You have?
: Our latest models, the ZGMF-X42S Destiny and ZGMF-X666S Legend. These units could well be said to have been made especially for you two.
: For us…?!
: Both are state-of-the-art pieces of weaponry, each far and away superior to the standard Mobile Suits. But I am certain the two of you will be capable of making excellent use of them.
: Yes, sir. Thank you very much.
: …
: What is it, Athrun? Is something wrong?
: Chairman, isn’t the development of new models forbidden by the Junius Treaty?
: I am well aware that this goes against it, yes.
: Then why? What do you have in mind that you’d do that?
: Our current enemies extend beyond the Darius. There are foes, like Logos, that threaten the world as a whole and we will need to fight them.
: Our current situation shifts by the hour, so, if we’re to safeguard the lives of every human, I’m afraid this is not the moment to hesitate to act. All this is done in the name of those who desire peace.
: And, truth be told, I wanted a new unit made for you as well, but we hadn’t the funds to make it happen. I hope you’ll understand.
: Very well…
: Besides that, I’ d also like you two to take this. From this day onward, Shinn Asuka, Rey Za Burrel, you are members of FAITH.
: We’re… FAITH?!
: Wow! That’s amazing, you guys!
: So now the Minerva, alone, has five FAITH members aboard… That’s something, alright.
: Stand tall, Shinn, Rey… You defeated the Archangel and Kira Yamato, and deserve every praise.
: …
: What’s the matter, Shinn? Seeing you with that face saddens me too.
: B-But, it wasn’t just the two of us who…
: Of course, of course. But you should consider this appointment to also be due to your various achievements thus far.
: You’ve faced hardships far beyond the scope of your original mission, and I’m certain there will be more to come. I have high hopes for both of you.
: You honor us. And we swear we’ll answer your trust in kind…!

Door opens!

: Excuse me, Chairman, but we’ve an emergency!
: Did something happen?
: The Heaven’s Base forces launched a preemptive strike against our troops!
: What?!

Goh’s pissed with the Alliance – what the hell are they trying to pull with this attack?! They’re gonna PAY FOR THIS! We’re going to attack Heaven’s Base right this goddamn minute!
Anna understands that he’s mad, but maybe he should calm down a little? How could he be calm?! If they aren’t open to dialogue, then pulling our punches won’t get us anywhere! Ichitaka sees his point but… OUR ALLIES ARE DYING! WE CAN’T AND WON’T LET THEM RUN AMUCK ANYMORE!
So, Goh gets on the mic and yells to Talia that we need to launch now, screw the timetable. Ichitaka doesn’t understand why he suddenly started going ballistic like this…

Mission 20 (Minerva Route) – Descending Angels

: GWAAAAAARGH!!

: Hmhmhmm, did you seriously expect to conquer Heaven’s Base with a force like that?!

Alarm!

: ?! That Mobile Suit… it can’t be!
: …
: Heero… you’re here!
: I-It’s the Wing Zero…! What’s that Gundam doing here…?!
: Hrk…! Any enemy gets destroyed – it’s as simple as that! After him!
: Y-Yes, sir! Troops, engage and destroy the Wing Zero! Don’t let him near Heaven’s Base!
: (He got my info, it seems… but I still have my own mission to carry out. Sorry, but I can’t afford to hold back.)
: … Hand over Relena!

Kill everything, don’t lose Heero. Like with the previous mission, evasion decay will seriously bite him in the ass if you send him into the enemies, so just hang back and let them come to you.

Wing Gundam Zero (Heero Yui)
Pilot Skills:
Sword Cut
Shoot Down
Prevail L5
Attack Combo L1
Spirit Commands:
Focus
Alert
Strike
Fury/Direct Hit
Mech Features:
Sword
Gun
Zero System (Activates over 130 morale, grants +20 to evasion an accuracy, +10 to everything else)
Squad Bonus: Accuracy +5, A rank in Air

Heero’s a Gundam protagonist, so you know he’s good (though it is hardly Heero’s strongest outing). The Wing Zero hits hard, is dodgy/accurate and has great range, but its chugs quite a lot of EN. The lack of Hit & Away is less than ideal, mind, so save him one of those.
As a bonus, the Wing Zero also comes with a MAPW attack, but it has a rather awkward AoE – certainly not as easy to use as the regular spin-to-win MAPW he usually gets. All in all, Heero’s as reliable as ever (Midorikawa would likely burn Banpresto to the ground if he was ever bad), but he’s certainly not our best Real.

So, we pull him back a bit and wait.

Enemy Phase!

First wave of Windams and Daggers move in, though most stay put.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im7YIs1fb4c
Nothing else gets in range.

Player Phase!

Our people come in, Talia and Arthur very confused to see that the battle is still ongoing. How, when intel said all ZAFT troops had been destroyed? Then we catch sight of the Wing Zero and Zechs knows what’s up: Heero, as usual, decided to face the enemy by himself (rash as it might be) to save Relena.
Indeed, Ichitaka recognizes the Wing from the videos of the battle at Libra, but Luna is more focused on that “trying to take on Heaven’s Base by himself” bit. This goes way past being rash, and straight into madness!
“Meaning we’re all like peas in a pod here! I like this guy!” Hyouma proclaims. Quatre also quietly spots Trowa up ahead, still risking his life for his mission – we’ll need to deal with him appropriately.

Shinn’s shocked to also find the pilot of the Wing Zero fighting here, but Luna reminds him to keep moving. He’ll be a sitting duck if he stands still like that. Shinn nods and says he’s fine – more importantly, since she’s picked up the flying Impulse Gundam, she’ll need to keep an eye out for attacks from below as well.
Now, forward!

Don’t let Shinn and the Minerva get shot down either. Now, this game hasn’t really been a challenge thus far, but I definitely felt a spike in the difficulty curve here. For one, you’re missing about 40% of your team (including some of your strongest guys), there’s a decent amount of water in this stage and the AI is particularly fond of taking a dip, and, lastly, Djibril is sending out a cavalcade of bulky mooks with huge MAPW attacks.
All in all, it means things are going to be slow and actually a bit dangerous to your people. The difference in numbers makes it a lot easier for the AI to swarm and beat your guys either by evasion decay or by sheer attrition, so you’ll want to be careful as you advance.
Prioritize any MAPW unit that’s close by to get them off your hair, be very mindful of your SP and EN usage, and, again, advance slowly and steadily.
And, by the by, Dearka is actually available for deployment – I just didn’t notice it until it was too late. You can set him into a squad before launching your guys.

Destiny Gundam (Shinn Asuka)
Mech Features:
Sword
Gun
Anti-Beam Shield
VPS Armor
Double Image
Hyper Deuterion Engine – restore 25% of max EN every turn
Squad Bonus: Crit rate +10, mobility +5, A rank in Air

Legend Gundam (Rey Za Burrel)
Sword
Gun
Anti-Beam Shield
VPS Armor
Hyper Deuterion Engine
Squad Bonus: Armor +100, ranged weapons power +100, A rank in Space

And here we have two excellent additions to our team. Shinn’s Destiny is pretty much a direct upgrade to everything the Impulse had (especially since, in this game, the other packs were attacks), while Rey’s a straight-up ranged attacker.
The Destiny’s about one of the outright strongest Reals in the game (mostly Alto, if you don’t consider Iczer-1 solo as a Real), and the addition of Double Image makes an already pretty hard to kill pilot essentially invincible. It’s got good range, power and the EN Regen makes everything it has very spammable.

The Legend Gundam is an odd one. You could make a case for it being THE best mook sweeper in the game… provided you’re in space. You see, its DRAGOON weapons (regular and MAPW) can ONLY be used in that terrain, so it is a bit limited when you’re on land. You can get around that on ONE terrain by assigning him someone with a terrain rank-boosting Squad Bonus, but covering both land and air at the same time won’t fly, unfortunately.
Mind you, its second strongest weapon is only 200 points weaker than the DRAGOON (cheaper too), so you’re not losing much by way of attack power… but you only really use Rey in L to go crazy with his Zeorymer-esque MAPW and blast away dozens of mooks. The weapon is very expensive at 120 EN, but the EN regen and squaddies can mitigate that nicely.

First order of business is getting our folks to shore, meaning we’ve to cut through the first wave. Remember to save your SP, so hug Heine’s command aura and have Shinji/Ichitaka take point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2EF6L3vgCo
Oh, yes, the non-flying Daggers will likely all be underwater. Because fuck you.

Laplace Wall and A.T. Fields still roll all over Alliance mooks. Do be careful with the Zamza-Zahs as their claws WILL go right through them, though.

Ichitaka and Shinji have both taken a kill, so let’s see if Aoi can keep that up.

She can!
Kouji, Hyouma and Athrun each take a surviving squaddie, while the Tetsuyas finish Heine’s work.

Following up on Zechs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSyfghnsfik
And Heero cuts down the one Dagger that survived Rei.

Enemy Phase!

Hyouma, as always, is very attractive to the AI. He takes three kills, while Ichitaka takes two.

And this one decides to tangle with Aoi.

Better for her.

Player Phase!

Ichitaka pops a nice chain attack by our southern flank, cutting three mooks down to half HP.

Up top, while Kouji and Athrun each one shot a leader, Shinji takes aim at the latter’s leftovers.

Bam. Aoi and Talia clear up rest of the north flank’s first wave.

Shinn and Luna can clear up after Ichitaka.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUirO0HZreM
I really enjoy how K and L decided that, for Shinn’s Destiny Gundam cut-ins, they’d just make him ALL MAD, ALL THE TIME.
The Tetsuyas and Rey nab a couple of weakened Daggers nearby.

Enemy Phase!

Go away, Trowa!
The back row starts coming in, with the front Zamza-Zahs trading blows with Shinji and Shinn. In the meantime, whatever was still alive down south dies to Ichitaka and Hyouma – when the enemy’s down to fifteen squads, the plot kicks in.

It’s ANOTHER batch of Alliance Troops complete with something Shinn recognizes from Berlin: 5 Destroy Gundams, led by a crazy-as-hell Sting. If anything, he’s having the time of his life and calls out to everyone for a fight.
Trowa silently looks on at the fate of the Extended, those born to fight: made to lose their memories, addicted to drugs, and forced out into the battlefield without so much as time to be sad for the friends they’ve lost. “In a way, they are no different from how we used to be,” he sighs.

Misato warns those who haven’t fought them before of the superlative firepower the Destroys have, but Shinji sees a silver-lining: these are clearly the enemy’s ace in the hole, so if we can stand up to them, victory’ll be ours.
This whole battle comes down to this, so Goh tells everyone to SEND THOSE WHO SIDED WITH LOGOS STRAIGHT TO HELL! Talia slowly confirms, and Durandal, seeing Goh’s condition, has an idea of what’s going on and dreads the thought.

Shinn and Luna get pestered a bit, weakening three mooks, while Ichitaka and Shinji take, respectively, one and three Daggers/Windams that try to be clever.

Player Phase!

Maybe I’ve been spoiled by Seven Swells and Meioh’s, but the game really isn’t playing ball with MAPW setups for me.

At least that’s some damage on Trowa, plus a dead mook.

Couple kills for Heine and Anna here; up top, Kouji and Mira do the same.

Get rid of these things ASAP or they’ll all blast you.

: I’m sure the Chairman’s plan is to pave the way towards peace with this assault…
: So why am I so ill at ease? Am I the only one feeling that something’s off…?

Aoi finishes it off, and Ichitaka bags one himself below.

Setting an Iron Wall’d Hyouma and Rei over here to try and bait the enemies’ attention.
Back south, Tetsuya and Shinn hunt Daggers.

Enemy Phase!

This would probably be a bad time to mention that I forgot Trowa had a MAPW.

Most people here can take it, but not Jun/Boss.

While we slooooowly start chipping away at the incoming mob of Zamza-Zahs, Ichitaka does his job as a distraction perfectly – that’s four kills for him.

Not enough to save Jun from getting dropped, though. Oh, well. Athrun can handle himself.

I don’t understand why it didn’t go for Hyouma when he’s right there, but this Dagger’s choice wasn’t really any better.

Very dead.

Player Phase!

We’re now at the eye of the hurricane, and Trowa needs to go. We’ll converge on him and work our way out, prioritizing Sting and the Zamza-Zahs since they have the morale to MAPW us – the Destroys don’t (yet). When dealing with the latter, follow the same focus-fire strat as we did back in Berlin.
The Daggers and Windams themselves are either down to flying solo or weakened, but there’re still plenty of them. You should be careful when sending folks forward because they’ll be all too happy to converge on Talia if given the chance. Do note that Sting has Support Defend L3 and will happily cover Trowa if he’s nearby (like he is now), so plan on only your squaddie’s attack hitting him.

The strategy here isn’t really any different what we’ve been doing, so let me spare you the tedium and fast forward!

: Come, Gundam. I can’t allow anyone to know about me.
: Have it your way, “nameless soldier”…! I’ll face you with all I have!

: (There’s no point in prolonging this…)

Click!

: I’m detecting several issues across all systems, likely due to faulty maintenance. Unable to continue fighting… retreating.

: (That explosion was self-inflicted… Heh, ever the meticulous man.)

: This is your base and you’re still blasting the whole damn area?!
: Letting these guys go on would just give us Berlin 2, and I’m not taking it!

: So you had mass-produced these things and kept them tucked away, eh…? You probably shot first ‘cause you figured winning would be easy, but you thought wrong! We’re not getting dropped by these!

: Hrgh! GODDAMN IIIIT! I swear I’m killing all of you next time!

: Uurgh, that useless worm! Are we ready to leave yet?!
: Yes, sir! We’ve just finished our preparations!
: Good, because I cannot allow myself to be captured here! We’ll have to abandon Heaven’s Base!
: You’re wasting everyone’s time carrying on this fight – and I use the word loosely. Try as you might, your plans will fail!
: Hmph, say whatever you want, but you’ll be coming along with us, Vice-Foreign Minister Darlian!
: (Heero…)
: The enemy’s ranks are confused…? Did something happen?

Beep, beep!

: A coded message? “Djibril’s escaped with Relena… from ‘Nameless Clown’”
: Heero, this is…!
: Hm. Only the five of us know this transmission code. It has to be from Trowa.
: Then it’s clear what we should do. Go! We’ll handle this!
: Alright. Take care of it.

Heero starts flying out the area.

: The winged Gundam… Earth’s enemy… Die…!

: …!
: GET AWAY FROM HIM!!

We’ll see this attack properly in a sec.

: …
: Pilot of ZAFT…
: Get going! You’re also trying to save someone, right? Then you better make it happen!
: … Apologies, and thank you. I’ll go on ahead.

: Shinn…
: Alright, now the rest of us just gotta keep pushing through this!
: Right on!

: Round two with these things. I’d rather not pit power against power with ‘em, though…
: Don’t worry about it – I’ve got our generator 100% wrapped around my fingers. We can handle a head-on approach.
: If you say so, I’m game. We’ll take them as we always do – up close and personal!

:argh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaJxS8hEDFs
Behold Shinn’s MY FAMILY IS DEAAAAAAD attack!

: The EVA might just be able to hold against an attack like that…! And, in that case, what I can do is…!

: Radar is clear of enemy troops!
: Has Djibril been found yet?
: Our forces are searching the adjacent area, but his whereabouts – and that of Vice-Foreign Minister Darlian – are unknown.
: As for the Logos members left within the base, they are currently being arrested.
: So they snuck out the base right under our noses? I’ve to give them props for pulling that off.
: Not the time to be impressed, Kurara!
: So we’ve brought the base down, but this is all far from over…
: Still, now that we’ve arrested several of Logos’ leadership, their capacity to act as they have has been severely undercut. I’d say we’ve made some major progress today.
: But the fact remains that Djibril escaped. We must figure out where he’s scurried off to…
: Yes, you’re right…

Couple of convos we missed here:

: We’re finally taking the fight to Logos, and giving the world Gil dreams of a chance to be born…!
: And I’ll readily do anything within my power to make it so!

–

: Heheheh… A new model, eh? Here’s hoping you’ll be fun to kill!
: That unit… They did to all of you what they did to Stella?! Stop this! They’re messing with your memories to manipulate you!
: Cut with your bull, man! Who gives a damn about memories?!
: !!
: I only need one thing to win: the Destroy! You LOTUS might be strong, but it won’t save you!!
: How… How can you do this…? Logos…! You’re gonna pay!!

–

: I’m a proud ZAFT Red, too…! So I’ll stand and fight even against this awful MS!

–

: Alice, I’m taking in as much of their beam attacks as we can! Keep an eye on how much damage we’re getting, alright?
: Roger that! … Though I wish I could use that technique again today. I’d make fighting them at least a bit easier…
: Don’t even think about that! We can do just fine with our current bag of tricks!

–

: Life was busy enough being the Chairman’s messenger boy/bodyguard, and now I have to take part in sieges too….?
: Yeesh, I bet things would’ve been a whole lot simpler if I was still working with Yzak!

Cut to the Archangel, they’ve gotten word of the Alliance’s defeat and Djibril’s escape. Having lost Heaven’s Base, Lacus and Waltfeld see only one place for the guy to take shelter: Orb. From there, he’ll likely set out towards place – and they figure ZAFT is aware of this.
Miriallia sees that war is about to return to that country, and while Murrue wants to do something about it, the Archangel still needs some time to complete its repairs. Lacus seems to have an idea, though, and asks Kira to accompany her into space.
You see, she has some new strength to give him – though she understands how he’d be loath to take it. Kira, however, says it’s fine: “If it’s that strength that’d help me keep everyone safe, then I…”

While Ichitaka’s fuming over Djibril slipping through our fingers, Mira sighs at how disgraceful the guy’s showing himself to be for someone who’s been manipulating the world into war for all this time. Anna had hoped this would’ve put an end to the conflict, but it looks like we’ll have more to do still.
On the flip side, Hyouma’s impressed with how Shinn helped the Wing Zero’s pilot today. That was some real quick thinking, Sakuya nods. “That guy was fighting to save someone, just like I did,” Shinn mulls. “When I thought of that, I realized I wanted to help him… just like Kira Yamato helped me save Stella.”

Tetsuya Kouji laughs at how much Shinn’s changed over this – he was a whole lot more standoffish, difficult to approach, before. Way Quatre sees it, he wasn’t the only one to change for the better: every single one have been changing, bit by bit, as we’ve come to open up and understand one another.
Now if only mankind as a whole could change like this, Mira ponders…

Shinn’s taken the time to approach Zechs and asks if he’s fine with not going with the Wing Zero’s pilot when he had the chance. Why does Shinn think that? Well, Relena is his sister, no? And someone like Zechs obviously has some amount of freedom to act however he wants to.
“Relena has long since drifted out of my reach,” Zechs answers. “Right now, I’ve dedicated myself to simply putting out the fires of war.” Noin says the best we could do is leave Relena to Heero and focus on our own mission. Moreover, being able to act with freedom doesn’t mean doing whatever you feel like doing – that’d be quite the mistake, Noin figures.
“You’re FAITH now, so you’ve also been given a lot of freedom to exercise. But keep in mind: that status is to be used responsibly, lest imprudence make it backfire,” Zechs warns him, and Shinn understands what he’s getting at. He’ll try and be mindful of how he acts with his newly given leeway.
As for Relena, Zechs is of course worried about her. But he still trusts that Heero will rescue her.

Finally, Kiriko’s put in a call to the Minerva: she’d like Goh to come back to Dannar Base on the double. Goh protests that this is hardly the time for him to run back home, but Kiriko shushes him, saying that we’re racing against the clock here.
JUDA’s just sent over the report for his periodic exams and it’s not good: Goh’s Insania Virus infection has taken a turn for the worst. The results show that he could have a full-on Rabid Syndrome outbreak at any second!

[Mattman324]

So, Balba Jeeg wasn’t available until the second to last mission in K (or around there). K handled Jeeg’s plot fucking shittily - it did the first episode, the two combos were given in a Gaiking related event, there was a middle stage that was basically entirely made up involving the Jeeg characters, and then the finale.

Also I’m pretty sure Takeru was named after a Monster Of The Week from the original Jeeg, one who showed up and was recruitable in Alpha 2. This wouldn’t surprise me - a notable Gaiking episode got adapted into Alpha 2, and Gaiking LoDM came out after that, and it’s probably no shock that the the Devil Jaguar got modded into the Kill Jaguar. The timing of the Jeeg and Gaiking shows in the 2000s suggests they were trying to ride a wave of both nostalgia and capitalize on the Alpha series, though without actually being related to the old one (Jeeg is so AU it hurts despite seeming like a possible bad end sequel, Gaiking just occasionally nudges fans of the original and points out that this thing is pretty reminiscent of that thing from the show.)

Also, hoo boy the Minerva path. That entire path is a fucking pain in the ass, but the ending is the real topper. You’ll see about that later, though. YOU’LL SEE.

Wing Zero seems bad, but like most units in L, it’s designed as a pair unit. A lot of units in L get highly synergistic boosts, and while some of that is accidental (Boss Borot and Build Angel were not likely intended to be amazing partners to each other), it’s impossible not to see the synergy between Wing Zero and the Tallgeese. Plus, the basic Buster Rifle gives him an actual move that he can use at his good range without wasting shitloads of EN. Certianly this isn’t R, where Wing Zero was fucking bullshit ridiculous broken, but it’s not AP, where it was irredeemable shit that was impossible to make good. (And yes, Midorikawa didn’t burn Banpresto for how fucking terrible it was in AP. I’m as surprised as anyone else.)

Also, on the subject of partners: Evangelion 01 + Legend Gundam is a match made in heaven.

I really enjoy how K and L decided that, for Shinn’s Destiny Gundam cut-ins, they’d just make him ALL MAD, ALL THE TIME.

It could be worse. One of the many, many reasons K is derided, after all, is the fact that they use the OMINOUS VILLAIN MUSIC for the very ominous and horrible topic of… Shinn, Rey, and Luna talking to each other. GASP.

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

Welcome to the Pursue Himika route, where Daiya’s really breathing down Ichitaka’s neck. The kid got a massive kill streak going in the Minerva path, but I’ll very likely be keeping this one, so he’ll have a tough race ahead. Iczer-1’s closing in on them, too, but the AI is less keen on going after her.

All the money I had went to excellent use: Alto got a pip in weapons, our Supers got a few boosts here and there, and I upped Gaiking’s stats as high as they’ll currently go.
Unfortunately, much to my disappointment, L doesn’t subscribe to the more recent games’ philosophy of counting weapons and stat upgrades separately. If you want the boosted Squad Bonus, you need to upgrade EVERYTHING to 50%, weapons included.

Iczer-1 and the Macross folk are auto-deploying, so we adapt accordingly:
Jack/Yagyuu (he needs someone to boost his space rating, or he’ll be going nowhere fast)
Daiya/Yanma
Kouichi/Yamashita
Ichitaka/Miu
Dick/Puria
Domyoji/Klan
Voltes/Shizuna

We’ve a much bigger mission here than on the other path, so let’s get to it.

Sheryl is STILL at Island 1’s hospital, with no indication of being discharged. She’s been getting plenty of “get well soon” gifts, but no one’s actually come to see her. She was pretty happy to get that video message from Ranka, Alto and everyone else, though. Speaking of Ranka, she’s up on TV right now – her career’s really taken off recently.
As the girl thanks all the fans who’ve come to her concert, Sheryl spots someone behind her: Grace.

Cut to the Cthulhu Fortress, Big Gold’s spawn is already up and about. She’s called Neos Gold, and has summoned forth her Four Generals: Golem (blue hair), Insect (blue skin), Bigro (red skin) and Fiber.
Big Gold, mother dearest, has fallen asleep after giving birth to Neos Gold, and plenty of time has passed since. Yet, she has yet to awaken once more. Neos Gold doesn’t know what the reason is, but isn’t about to sit on her hands: the five of them have a mission to look for a new partner for Iczer-2, destroying Iczer-1 along the way if possible.
As luck would have it, Neos Gold already has an idea of where they’ll find such a partner and commands Fiber and Insect to go after.

Back to the Quarter, Kenji asks if we managed to figure out where Himika went, but Ozma says not yet. She’s very likely using some unknown tech to camouflage herself and her group, and Emi figures they’re headed to where that ship, Langoon, is tucked away. Kenji fumes that that doesn’t really help us chase after, as we don’t know where the thing is either.
Shizuna tells him to calm down, remembering that the JUDA folk had to do plenty of waiting around when they were trying to capture the Linebarrel. Maybe all we can do now is also sit around until the Langoon pops out of hiding.

But, Ichitaka argues, that may be counterproductive, as Himika has the Bronze Bells and the huge power they have – if we take too long, it may be too late to stop them. True, true, there’s that…
Kenji also remembers what Kyo said about his and Tsubaki’s combined powers bringing forth a miracle – that’s got to be a clue for a way to beat Himika. Whatever the case, the fact remains that leaving the Bronze Bells in the Jama Kingdom’s hands means Hiroshi and Kenji are grounded, so our first priority should be getting them back.

While Kenji wrings his fists at Himika, Jeffrey calls in and says the Quarter and Daiku Maryu are going to head towards the Frontier. What for?! They’re going to be picking up some Reactive Weapons to use in their battle against the Jama Kingdom.
Michel’s very surprised to hear that the President’s Office has given them the go-ahead so quickly, but it IS just a matter of granting permission. Mishima himself, face the current crisis, moved to get things rolling ASAP – Ozma smells fish with how helpful Mushroom Head’s being.

Whatever the case, we’ll also be getting some help from Prof. Kentarou to figure out where Himika’s at; while the Valkyries are getting equipped with their new weapons, the pilots will get some time off in shifts.
Kenji isn’t too keen on taking it easy right now, though he knows we don’t have anything better to do. Hiroshi points out that being well-rested is also part of being a pilot, and the kid knows, figuring he’ll just look at it like he’s resting the day before a Grand Prix.

Out in Island 1, Nagisa’s very surprised to see a replica Japanese city inside a spaceship, but, as Luca explains, they wanted to recreate the Earth landscapes they’d left behind. Speaking of, Kouichi wonders if the sight of his helped Emi remember anything about what kind of town she lived in, but, no, unfortunately.
Yamashita suggests he just leave it at that, as we didn’t come here in hopes to restore her memories in the first place. Regardless, Nagisa thanks Alto for accompanying them, and it was no problem – he had to come this way to get to the SMS HQ anyway. The company’s owner called him over, and this’ll actually be Alto’s first time seeing the guy.

Maybe he wants to give him a raise for all his hard work, Nagisa wonders. That’d be fine with Alto, though he doesn’t see why he’d need to specifically summon him for that. Either way, it’s starting to rain, so Luca points out a restaurant for the group to chill out at.
Kouichi’s blown away that the Island even has artificial rain, but Yamashita tells him to quit gawking and get moving. Conventional Japanese wisdom says idiots don’t catch colds, but it’s best not to tempt fate, so he drags Kouichi away.

And at the SMS building, Alto is brought before Richard Birler: Zentran, huge train-set owner and his boss.
Birler congratulates him on his recently promotion, but what he is really interested in talking about is this: does Alto have a dream?

Alto’s convo with the guy took quite a long time: apparently the Vajra produce this ore, Fold Quartz, and with it one could establish a comm network unbound by Fold faults. While it’s obviously true that the Vajra can traverse between parallel worlds, this still sounds like a very farfetched dream… but, whatever the case, Alto’ll just keep on fighting as he has.
Also, damn, this rain isn’t letting up – he should’ve paid more attention to the weather forecast. He has it better than Sheryl, though, who stumbles out into his alleyway. What’s she doing here?!

She slowly grunts at him not to get any ideas – she didn’t come here to see him – and Alto figures she skipped out the hospital before she was fully healed. He wants to bring her back, but Sheryl begs him not to: “Don’t take me to the hospital, or to the hotel… I can’t stand being locked up like that anymore…”
The girl’s passing out, so, in that case, there’s only one option left…

Sheryl wakes up in Alto’s room, and immediately freaks out at him. What did he do to her?! Stop yelling and calm down, already – does she have any idea the pain it was to bring her here after she fainted?! Oh, dear, is that what happened? And here was Alto, all worried…
Sheryl’s slightly surprised to hear that he was worried for her, but how could he not?! Looking at her, Alto notices something: the earring she’s got looks just like the ore Birler showed him earlier. Is it Fold Quartz too?
Before Sheryl can question what he’s staring at, the door slides open: “You know, we might have some time off, but that doesn’t mean you’re free to bring chicks over to your room,” Michel enters and has a laugh. Alto stammers a denial – a woman like her?!

Sheryl doesn’t appreciate it: “‘a woman like her’, what, exactly?!” See? This is exactly what Alto meant. The levity is cut short by the alarm blaring: Vajra have been spotted close to the Frontier, so Cathy tells everyone to scramble. So much for resting.
Oh, and by the way, we’ll be escorting Ranka out there – they’ll be briefed in a bit. What the hell? Apparently, says Cathy, the Frontier Government wants to use this as an opportunity to test using her song as a new weapon against the buggers.
Well, Alto and Michel need to get going, but the former begs Sheryl to stay in – if folks find out she’s here, it’ll be a huge mess. “… Fine. Get to it, then. You call yourself a professional, right?” Sheryl huffs, Alto sighing at her sass and suggesting she get some rest.
As they leave, however, Sheryl sneaks right after – she’s worried about Ranka.

Ranka’s already arrived at the Quarter’s hangar (she hopes Ai-kun’s doing okay), and Grace asks if she’s not too keen on using her childhood memento song as a weapon against the Vajra. No, she says it’s fine – this is important work, right? Then Grace should go and get things ready; she’s sure everything’ll work just fine.
As the woman takes off, Brera asks why Ranka’s ill at ease. She’s surprised by this, but Brera says it’s his job as her bodyguard to pay attention to how she’s feeling. Sure, but what she wants to know is how he could tell she was ill at ease.

“I can tell after all the times I’ve listened to you sing. Your song makes me feel the universe around me,” Brera explains. “Usually I’m ripping through it, but when you sing, I feel cradled in the currents of the galaxy… and… Sorry, I can’t quite put it into words”.
But Ranka appreciates his insight nonetheless, and is inspired to go for it – this is what she can do to help everyone.

As you might expect, Ozma is not happy with this. Where’d they come up with this insane idea that Ranka’s song’ll work on the Vajra?! Mishima says it’s just a theory, which is why they’re going to put it to the test. Besides, his sister has already agreed to it, so his fuming won’t change anything.
Ozma sees that the only reason Mishima rushed our request to equip Reactive Weapons was to use us as part of this experiment, but the guy says more and more Vajra have been coming to this world. We’d do well to see them as a real threat, as while their numbers were initially few enough that the NUNS and ZAFT could deal with, the frequency of their spawns has been increasing daily. We cannot remain passive anymore.
Wishing us good luck escorting Ranka, Mishima signs off. The idea of driving off the Vajra through song sounds pretty crazy to Hiyoshi, and while Michel’s aware that many of the brass fancy the “Minmay Attack” strategy, he has to wonder if it’ll actually fly with these opponents.

Against the old Zentran and the Protodeviln, sure, but Klan isn’t even certain we’re dealing with intelligent life-forms here. Iczer-1 asks if this strategy worked in their old world, and Michel says it was less “driving off” and more like using song to bridge the gap between enemies.
There are plenty of videos about those battles, Ozma says, though events have obviously been dramatized some to make them more appealing to the general public. Daiya likes the idea of reconciliation through song – maybe this is proof that all people can reach an understanding with one another.
As for the Vajra, Luca figures, as living creatures, it stands to reason that they have SOME way of communicating. And if this experiment succeeds, it’ll make our battle against them much easier, too, so it’s well worth the effort. We’ll see, as Lulu tells everyone to deploy – we’re about to reach the Vajra flock.

Mission 20 (Himika Route) – Contact With the Unknown

The Vajra are right up ahead and Jeffrey’s surprised they had a warp point around here. Cathy says he shouldn’t, as the Vajra’s Folds aren’t limited by Fold Faults and gravitational fields like ours are.
It’s likely these are calling their friends from the other universe by way of some hitherto unknown means. When Bobby asks, Cathy says she knows that thanks to the newest research report handed by the President’s Office.
Now, Iczer-1 insisted on deploying by herself, and explains to Nagisa that she’s got a bad feeling (Daiya tells her not to say that or she’ll jinx us). Regardless, Monica pings the same Fold signal we saw at Diokia, and a bunch of Vajra warp right in – just like Cathy said.

Seems to Jeffrey that the Frontier’s research is on to something, so maybe it actually will be worth our while to give this experiment a chance. Ranka’s aboard Canaria’s Koenig Monster, and she’ll try her best to fly as gently as possible.
When Ozma asks, Ranka confirms that she wants to do this. Brera’s deployed for this as well, still acting as Ranka’s bodyguard, and going by his usual Antares 1 callsign. First order of business is to close the distance with the Vajra flock – initiate “Ranka Attack”!

Destroy everything, don’t lose Alto, Canaria, Iczer-1 or any ship. This one’s so much easier than the other path, I don’t even know what to say. While we don’t have Jeeg, we make up by having Brera on our side (who’s actually really dang strong) and, better still, there’s this:

The Valkyries have all received their special packs back now that we’re in space! Ozma, who’s pro, has his Armored Pack while everyone else has Super Packs. That’s a small stat boost, but, more importantly, they’ve all gained access to their Reactive Munitions: two shots (3 with B-Save) and it’ll hurt anything it touches.
Considering all the Valkyries have them, that’s another reason why they’re such great squaddies even if you don’t wanna lead with anyone.

Everyone moves forward.

: … Truth be told, I didn’t wanna let you come here. But if this is what you want…
: Ranka… I’ll protect both you and your dreams!!

Ozma’s the only one that gets in range, mind.

Enemy Phase!

I’m not sure if Brera’ll auto-heal if he dies, but he is very willing to charge head-first into the enemy. On the flip side, he auto-casts Focus and Accelerate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-ehQnadDM8
Why does he get after-images, but not us?!
The Vajra don’t appreciate Brera getting in their face, though, and a bunch swarm him (no kills).

Ozma and Iczer-1 also get attacked, to no avail:

: If these creatures have something akin to intelligence, then…
: Iczer-1, focus! The Vajras are dead ahead!
: !! How could I let my mind wander while on the battlefield…! Here I go!

That’s one kill for her.

Player Phase!

: Who goes there?! Don’t you know it’s strictly forbidden to enter the bridge when it’s in Condition 1?
: …
: Sheryl Nome…! Why are you here?! And what is security doing?!
: I don’t recall giving you permission to come aboard, Ms. Sheryl. Care for an explanation?
: I heard about this secret test you’re doing – what it entails, and what you’re after.
: Are you going to blackmail us with that knowledge?
: No, I won’t. Please, Mr. Wilder, I need to see all this with my own two eyes.
: Your curiosity at work, is it?
: My pride, rather…!
: Hah… Get her a seat, people.
: Thank you.
: Time to begin, Ranka.
: Alright…!

: Aimo, Aimo…♪
: (Emotional index +4.33, Fold Wave level at 3.2. Very good…)

: The Vajras’ movement has grown irregular! They’ve stopped attacking…!
: …
: Yak Deculture…!
: It’s true…!
: They’re listening to her song…?
: Well, I’ll be damned…
: This is Antares 1, the test is a confirmed success. Proceeding to eliminate.
: A-All units, engage the Vajra!
: (Ranka, you’re…)

And there we have it. Ranka’s song has rendered the Vajra passive and they’ll simply move around, never attacking or counterattacking. Do note that moving Canaria in any way will end the effect, so let her sit still wherever she’s at.
Let’s spread out and clear the flock.

: Ranka…! I’ll destroy any and all Vajra that’ve come to this world…!
: That’s how we, humanity, will survive!

: (She’s managed to hinder the Vajra’s movement so much… Now if we can get the mass-production of the new warhead underway, then…!)

: Things are looking up already…! With this trick on our side, the NUNS and ZAFT alone could deal with the Vajras even if a whole bunch of them turn up!
: You’re awesome, Ranka!

: Her song really made them all docile… guess this is another one of those mysteries of space, huh?
: Either way, it shouldn’t take long to wrap up this battle now! Here I come, Vajra!

: Ranka Lee’s song… It’s even made me feel at peace.
: Maybe this is what our people felt when their hearts were taken with Lynn Minmay’s song during the First Space War…
: But we can’t just sit here and take in the tunes. Our job in all this is to exterminate any Vajra that came to this world!

: I can kinda understand how Ozma’s feeling… No big bro would like seeing his baby sister stepping out into a battle zone.
: Maybe it’s impossible to take out every single Vajra, but I’m still gonna at least try to end this fight quick-like!

: Don’t get tunnel vision with the enemy. Our main mission here is to defend Ranka.
: I’m keeping a close eye on everything. And you, Kenichi, don’t get so hung up on the Koenig that you let the Vajra run off!
: Yeah, I got it!

: The Cthulhu?! What are they doing here…!
: Hohohohoh… My name is Neos Gold, and I have been looking forward for the chance to do battle with you all.
: That evil presence… Are you Big Gold’s—?!
: Ah, Iczer-1, the beautiful warrior that repelled Iczer-2… Though I believe your face would look even more beautiful devoid of life.
: What is she, Iczer-1?!
: Big Gold’s spawn, I think… Meaning we must defeat her!
: We cannot interrupt the “Ranka Attack”. Troops, repel the Cthulhu on the double!
: Hohohohoh… You shouldn’t assume it’ll all be so simple…

Well, darn. The Cthulhu are still plenty far away, though, so we’ll keep focusing on the Vajra – once the buggers are gone, we’ll worry about the rest. Just pull whatever units are hanging back closer to keep them from getting mobbed (though you still cannot move Canaria).

: I’ve no idea what’s going on through your heads, but if you’re trying to have your way with our world, then I’m not cutting you any slack!

Kill enough of the Vajra, and…

: … I see. One of them is sapping the bugs’ fighting spirit.
: And, in that case…!

: Go, Dilos! Put a stop to these odd dimensional waves!

The Dilos charges after the Koenig Monster!

: Ranka?!
: Hrk…!

: A-Aah…!
: Are you alright, Ranka?

: That’s… Captain, the Vajra have turned hostile again!
: Hrm…!
: Damn, I knew it was too good to be true!
: (Her emotional index has… She needs more training, just as I thought.)

No more passive Vajra, but there shouldn’t be many of them left for that to be a big issue. Just remember the Knight-Class’ frontal MAPW and clear out the rest while the Cthulhu are still moving in. And, of course, you can move Canaria again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR8p47Dt9gg
And here’s Brera’s best attack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ft-Ze3U8rE
And here are our shiny new Reactive Munitions. Anyone Macross savvy can clarify if these are straight-up nukes or something different?

: There were more hanging around?!
: Just one, though. Let’s wrap this up and make it snappy!
: (The battle’s still going… I… I have to sing…)
: Aimo, Aimo…♪
: …

The Vajra blasts off towards her!

: Ranka…! I’ll get it!
: Move, Skull 4!

: Brera…!
: Brera, you…!
: I said it before: you don’t deserve her. I’ll keep Ranka safe…!
: Yo, what’s your problem?! Why’d you cut Alto off like that?!
: This really ain’t the time for a pissing match, ya know!
: …

So now we gotta go aaaall the way to the other side of the map. Considering a handful of our guys don’t have accelerate or are just too far, I’ve to load them onto our ships to cut travel time.

That’s not the case with Brera, whose auto-Accelerate allows him to immediately intercept the Cthulhu and start shaving off about 60-70% of their HP. So, you’ve about two turns before he starts killing stuff and, by three, he’ll likely have killed at least over half the Dilos due to their counterattacks.
Hurry on over, or there’ll go a bunch of your cash for this mission!

Thankfully, with his Valkyrie’s low HP, we just need to start bringing folks close enough and the AI’ll switch focus to us.
The Dilos are the same as ever and Neos Gold is hanging back (for now), so on the next turn, when the rest of our group arrives, they’ll fall in droves.

Neos Gold
Pilot Skills:
Ignore Size Difference
Commander L3
Prevail L3
Support Attack L2
Attack Combo L2

Neos Gold is exactly what you’d expect from an Iczer boss: she’s got a ton of stats where it matters and dodges like a motherfucker due to that S size. Her attacks’ accuracy modifiers ain’t all that, so she won’t get TOO big %s against you, but they sure pack a good punch and have very good range. That Command aura’ll give the Dilos quite the hefty bonus, so that’s another reason to kill them all sooner rather than later.
No MAPW attacks to worry about, thankfully, but do note that her strongest attack is also the one she can chain-attack with. Watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZcstaI37js
Rare footage of the Daiku Maryu with its head on since Daiya’s currently hitching a ride towards his newest stomping grounds!

Kill enough of the Dilos and eventually the plot will pick up again.

: I’ll concede that your strength exceeds my expectations, foolish Earthlings.
: I won’t allow you to leave here alive, Neos Gold!
: However, it is precisely because you struggled so that you will experience even greater pain.
: What…?
: Just about now, my Four Generals should be in pursuit of Iczer-2’s new partner, cutting a swathe of destruction as they do.

Beep, beep!

: Captain, we’ve an emergency transmission from Island 1! Mihoshi Academy is under attack by some unknown bugs!
: What?!
: And at this hour… Nanase and the others are there!

: A-Aah…!
: Please, give Kawai back!
: That’s just not going to work, I’m afraid. You, alone, are the person we’re here for, Nagisa Kasumi.
: Meaning everyone else are simply pawns for me to toy with until they’re broken… and I’ll very much enjoy slowly tearing them apart.
: If… If only Alto and the others were around, you…
: It’d make absolutely no difference. Whoever may be here, they’d all end the same way: food for by adorable bug servants.
: And, so, I believe this girl can go first. Why don’t I start with this pretty face of hers…? Hmhmhm, hahahahah!
: STOP! Stay away from her!

Nagisa’s struck by Insect’s bugs!

: Urk… let Kawai… go…
: You can’t fight those monsters, Nagisa! It’s impossible!
: Heh… Look at you, risking your life to save your dear friends.
: You’re a funny girl… And, you know what, I’ve changed my mind. I’ll make her scream a bit before handing her over to Lady Neos!
: !!
: (God, please… save her…!)

: Argh?!
: Hee, hee…
: Huh… Wh-Who are you…?

: Heey Yo! I’m Iczer-3!
: Iczer-3…? I heard of Iczer-1, but…
: Oh, you know my big sis? What about granny there with the bugs?
: “Granny”…? You dare address the mightiest of Lady Neos’ warriors so? I’ll make you rue your impudence.
: And if she’s Iczer-1’s sister, then we must kill her…!
: Ah! You two wanna play?!
: Indeed. You should be honored to get the chance to fight me!
: Let’s go, then, grannies!

*Bzzt! Swoosh! Whiplash! Beam!

: Wow… that girl’s unbelievable…
: (Iczer… What’s going on…? I feel like I know her… Actually, didn’t I see this in a dream…?)

*Bzzt! Swoosh! Whiplash! Beam!

: Ooh, you grannies are strong! I like it!
: … Buut, I think you’re a bit too weak to play with my big sis.
: What did you say?!
: Iczer… BOOOOMB!

Craaaaaaash!

: Woo-hoo! I win!
: She’s… too strong…!
: Inconceivable… How could such a tiny girl hurt my beautiful body…?
: Insect…! We must report this… to Lady Neos…
: Hm, we’ve no choice…!

Warp!

: Aaw, they ran! Jerks!
: Iczer-3… who are you?
: Ah, Nagisa! I’m your partner!
: My partner…?
: Yep, that’s what Sister Gray said. So, Nagisa, lemme borrow a bit of your strength, okay? We’ll give those guys a whooping together!

Warp!

: Hm… ooh… Nanase? What happened…?
: Nagisa… vanished…!

: Ah…! What is the meaning of this, Fiber, Insect?
: A-A thousand apologies… We were attacked by this girl. She called herself Iczer-3 and said she was Iczer-1’s sister…
: Our attacks had no effect on her…
: I accept your apology… but I also have no use for incompetent warriors.

: LADY NEOS!!
: GWAAAAARGH!!

: Did she just destroy her own allies?!
: What’s the situation at the Frontier Fleet?!

: If you mean that big ol’ space ship, it’s all good! Both the bugs and the grannies got kicked out!
: What’s going on…? I’m floating in space…?!
: H-Hey, isn’t that the Nyan-Nyan Nagisa?!
: What’s she doing there…?
: Iczer-1, is that girl the one you escaped the Cthulhu with?
: No, she’s not… who in the world…
: Good to meet you, sis! I’m here to help you just like Sister Gray told me to!
: “Gray”? Then, you’ve the Iczelio…
: Yup, and I can also pilot the Iczer Robo. Take a look, too, Nagisa! This is my friend!
: Iczer… Robo!
: She’s…?

: What happened, Iczer-1?
: The Iczer Robo was called elsewhere.

: What…? …Wait, this sensation… I know this…
: Here we go, Nagisa!
: …
: What are you doing, Lulu? We still have a battle to deal with.
: Ah— I-I’m sorry. I was just a bit taken aback…
: Your targets haven’t changed, troops! Destroy the Cthulhu while carrying on with the Ranka Attack experiment!

Iczer Robo (Iczer-3, Nagisa Kasumi)
Pilot Skills:
Sword Cut
Shoot Down
Prevail L4
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L1
Attack Combo L2
Spirit Commands – Iczer-3:
Daunt
Focus
Spirit
Spirit Commands – Nagisa:
Trust
Attune
Iron Wall
Bless
Squad Bonus: exp earned +10%, mobility +5

Iczer-1, bulky edition. Iczer-3 has SLIGHTLY worse stats than her sisters, but she does have them beat in defenses and her attacks have lower EN costs.
On the other hand, on offense, Iczer-3 is straight-up worse than 1: in both forms, her weapons are varying degrees of weaker (from just 100 points less on the melee and beam attacks, to a full 500 less between 3’s strongest and Iczer-1/Robo Full Power).

And that’s an issue because, as you saw, there’s only ONE Iczer Robo to go around – you need to choose who uses it at a given time. Mind, you could make the point that, since Iczer-1’s stronger by herself, 3 needs the Robo more.
And, in case you’re wondering, Nagisa Kasumi is an exact mirror image of Nagisa Kanou down to the spirit command list, so don’t let that stop you from choosing one or the other.

Now, we’ve only a handful of Dilos left alive, so we’ll make quick work of those and converge upon Neos Gold.

While that’s going on, Iczer-3 has a chance to pull a nice chain attack with her melee attack:

: Game on! Let’s see which is stronger: you or the Iczer Robo!
: Wh-What am I supposed to do here…? Gimme some sort of explanation, Iczer-3!
: Here goes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lim-xQnmrhU

Oh, and Neos Gold decided to start moving when she saw an opportunity of her own to chain attack.

: Damn that Big Gold! So she had another trick up her sleeve other than those monsters and giant robots?!
: My mother is all-powerful… she far exceeds your feeble imagination. And, of course, so do I!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KR6q_IpN7M

And now we go deal with her properly!

: You may be young, but you are also an Iczer… Fine, I’ll deal with you in person.
: You’ve got a lotta nerve sending people after Nagisa, Neos Gold!
: Haah… Haah… Iczer-3… wait up…! I’m feeling… kind of…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_byhzX-N6w

: You had your goons attack Mihoshi Academy while it was completely defenseless?! There’s sordid and then there’s that, Neos Gold!
: Hohohoho… I care not to comply with the standards of humans, foolish Earthling.
: Well, you better! Because the Voltes is going to pay back the horror you put our friends through twice over!

: D’you really want to kill us and Iczer-1 so bad that you’d pull crap like that?!
: Ohoho… No different from you and your unwillingness to coexist with the Vajra.
: …! Then that’s what we are in your eyes, huh…? Then, I’ll…!

: Neos Gold… You’re 100% evil, no question about it! And our justice’s gonna put you down!
: Your “justice”… I see. Then I believe I’ll kill you first.

: You Cthulhu are really running short on people by the looks of it.
: Your insolent tongue won’t be wagging for long. Observe how weak you truly are.

: Disappear, Neos Gold! And take your evil power with you!
: I’ll bring your head as a gift to my mother. Here is where you die, Iczer-1!

: Urgh…! Not bad, though this is hardly enough to best me.
: Her energy signal’s growing fainter! She’s going to…!
: Ooh, no! This spawn’s mom messed with my sis and her friends so much, so she’s going down right here, right now!
: Stop! Don’t rush—

Iczer-3 rushes Neos Gold down.

: Yaah!

“See how you like my Iczelio Bomber!”

“Urgh… I… can’t…”

“Take this!”

“Rrrgh! Curse you… Iczer-3!!”

: Jeez, she’s tough!

Power doooown.

: Eh?! Wh-What’s with the Iczer Robo?!
: Think it’s same thing that happened to our Nagisa?!
: If the partner’s unable to synchronize herself, the Iczer Robo grows weak…!
: Did something happen to her partner, then…?!
: …
: Nagisa?! What is it, Nagisa?! Talk to me, please!
: Fool… In your bid to claim victory, you’ve left yourself exposed.

: Huh?! Why’d the Iczer Robo leave?!
: I’ve taken the liberty of seizing the Iczelio, source of you Iczers’ power. Rest assured that I’ll put it to very good use…
: All that remains now is to capture Nagisa Kasumi…
: Not on my watch!
: Worry not, Iczer-3. I’ll also take the time to give you your just deserts.
: (But if I fight here, Nagisa’ll be in danger… What do I do…?!)
: Die!

: Watch out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejJD4fTDNrg

: You OK, Iczer-1?!
: Yes… as are the two of them… Urk…!
: Very impressive, Iczer-1… I now see why Iczer-2’s been wounded so by your hand.
: But, unfortunately, I, like you, no longer have any strength with which to fight. Much as I am loath to leave without Nagisa Kasumi, the Iczelio is a fine prize in itself. Once I’ve recovered my power, we shall meet again…!

: Stop… Neos Gold…

Faint.

: Oh, no! Someone bring Iczer-1 and Nagisa to the Macross!
: I’ll do it! I have to get them to that ship there, right?

That’s all the Vajra and Cthulhu taken care of, and Bobby’s very impressed with the amazing show Ranka put today. She was like the legendary Minmay herself, Mina thinks, but the singer’s too passé for Bobby. Basara’s a much better comparison… though he’s also old news in Lam’s eye.
Alto also praises her for the good work, but Ranka’s more worried about Nagisa and Iczer-1. We don’t know how they’re doing, but will check now; Ranka can’t come with, though, as she has exams to undergo…
Inwardly, though, she wonders to Alto and Ozma: “Is… Is this right?”

Couple of convos we missed today:

: (It’s true that, if this works, we’ll see a major dip in KIA cases. We’ll also have a way of regaining our footing and dealing with the Vajra… This is quite the conundrum for Ozma, hm?)

–

: Oh, different bugs! Nagisa, can I play with them for just a bit? I bet they’re strong!
: Th-Those are the Vajra, aren’t they?! No! Stay away from them!
: Naah, don’t worry about it! I’m pretty strong too, you know!

Iczer-3 hurries to the Quarter’s infirmary in search of Nagisa and Iczer-1, and Alice has to tell her to keep her voice down – Nagisa’s still very weak. She’s not at risk, Canaria points out, and will recover with some rest.
Miu points out that the same happened with Nagisa Kanou during her first battle, where she exhausted herself due to controlling the Iczer Robo. Iczer-1 starts getting off her gurney, and Iczer-3 immediately apologizes for putting her here.

Alice protests that she’s still hurt and shouldn’t move around, but Iczer-1 says, regardless, she’ll soon be unable to move. Before that, though, she has something to do and looks at the asleep Nagisa Kasumi.
Canaria tells who she is, and since this Nagisa from another world is Iczer-3’s partner, she has a favor to ask.

: You’re leaving, Iczer-1…?
: Yes. I must return to my ally’s side in order to heal my wounds.
: Nagisa… I’m entrusting your protection, as well as that of the other Nagisa, to Iczer-3.
: …
: Are we gonna see each other again?
: My battles will continue until Neos Gold… and Big Gold are destroyed, and Earth is saved. So I promise to you all that I’ll return.
: We’ll be looking forward to the day where we’ll fight side-by-side again, Iczer-1.
: As will I. Take care of them, Iczer-3. And, Nagisa… farewell for now.
: Bye, Iczer-1… and please come back to us.
: Absolutely…!

Warp!

: Iczer-3. I’m sure Iczer-1 and Canaria already said this to you, but…
: If you’re going to be fighting with us, then you’ll need to listen to what we say and not act as rashly as you did.
: I just screwed up when controlling the Iczer Robo, that’s it! I’ll do it right next time…!

Off she goes.

: Oof, she’s quite the handful. What do we do? Just give her free rein?
: Is she the kind of kid that’d listen to us, even?
: Nagisa Kasumi… we might just have to depend on her for this.

And BOTH Alto and Michel had to run a ton of laps around the hangar as punishment for bringing Sheryl over, and the latter is not happy that he wound up getting caught in that. Alto’s already apologized for it, damn it! Well, now that that’s done, Michel has to take off: this is their first time back in the Frontier in who knows how long, so he has a date!
As he leaves, Alto gets a call from Ranka: she wants to thank him for today, and apologizing for taking this long. She had to wait for Brera and the others to leave the room. Alto doesn’t blame her, since the guy has been assigned to her.
Either way, Ranka wants his opinion on the experiment. Well, everyone’s stoked over what happened, saying how this’ll make our fight with the Vajra way simpler, how it could be key to uncovering so much more, etc… And what does Alto, himself, think?

Well, wanting to expand and gain prosperity is a fundamental desire for any living beings, and when two groups have that same desire, that’s when conflict is born. This is what we have on our hands, and it seems survival comes down to either us or them… or maybe some other group, even.
Alto thinks we might be at a major crossroads here, and, in that case, he’s ready to do whatever’s necessary. Is it really okay, then? That’s what Alto thinks, at least, and that’s all the validation Ranka needs: if her song can help us even a little, then she’ll sing her heart out for Alto, his friends and Nagisa!
Speaking of, the doctors expect the girl to be awake tomorrow – he’ll let Ranka know if it happens, so he tells her to keep up the good work. With much gratitude, she hangs up, and while Alto’s glad that there wasn’t anything major wrong with Nagisa, he does have to wonder what might be up with Sheryl after they took her back to the hospital…

Cut to the President’s Office, Cathy’s investigation has born some fruit: she thinks Brera’s getting his orders from people connected to the Macross Galaxy, still believed to be in their original world, while the approval for today’s operation has Mishima’s fingerprints all over it. See, while Howard was very happy with the experiment’s results, he apparently wasn’t too keen on having it take place.
Ozma wonders if Cathy’s really fine with leading this investigation, what with her fiancée being involved, and she sighs that Mishima’s a very ambitious man. She used to think that was a good point of his… unlike someone else’s lack of ambition?
Cathy falls silent, so Ozma apologizes for crossing the line.

Speak of the devil, Luca’s been brought to Mishima’s office, and asks the man if both today’s experiment and the covert recovery of Fold Quartz from the Vajra corpses are being done in accordance to Birler’s wishes. What makes him think that? Well, the guy has an obvious reason to want the mineral: to create with it a network spanning even parallel worlds. A monopoly like that would essentially give the man dominion over the world.
Mishima praises the insight of L.A.I.’s heir, but he’s not quite right: Mishima’s no longer acting in accordance to Birler’s agenda. G, stepping out of the shadows, says they’re setting their sights way higher than Luca’s hypothesis.

But Mishima says they still need L.A.I. to continue its excellent work. They all want to get back to their original world, you see, meaning they need to stay alive until that can happen. Thus, he wants them to make good on the development of the new warhead.
That’s fine with Luca, but he does ask them to quite using their prototypes for unscheduled experiments. With that, he leaves, and G is very impressed with the kid. Well, he didn’t earn his position of technical advisor in L.A.I. by being charming – he’s a prodigy through and through.

But more important than him, Mishima wants to know how things’ll proceed with the Ranka Lee Experiment.
“Training requires both carrot and stick, you know,” G says… and takes away his disguise, revealing himself to be Grace! “So how about we give the ‘carrot’ some priority for now?” she says. Scary, scary woman.

Turns out Michel’s date was with Klan. Did she wait long? N-No, who would waste their time waiting for HIM? She’s clearly just got here! And, whoops, Alice is also around, apologizing for running late – not that Michel’ll complain, since he was late himself after running with Alto. “I thought this’d be my big chance and you brought someone else along…” Klan fumes silently.
Either way, Michel’s sorry for calling them over while they were off-duty, but he asks if they’ve found out anything about that mysterious medicine Sheryl was taking. Klan hasn’t anything yet, but she did call in a favor from a college friend to analyze it. Once the results are in, they’ll be sent over with an encryption only she can unlock.

Great, though Michel apologizes to her for all the work-talk during their first break in ages. Well, if that’s what he thinks, then maybe— “OK, now that that’s done, let’s go have some nice tea, Alice!,” Michel quips.
Whuh? B-But she’s an android, so drinking tea wouldn’t really do anything for her. Oh, don’t worry about that – the whole thing is about enjoying the ambiance, having fun and what not. As she drags her away, Klan’s disappointed in him: “You’re still running away, Michel…?”

: Hmhmhm… Thanks to the Cthulhu and those insects drawing the humans’ attention, I’ve managed to complete my preparations without any intrusions.
: Oh, Bronze Bells, reveal the path that leads to the Iwato.

: Oooh…?!
: Space-time is… splitting apart!
: The Iwato is appearing before us!
: Hmhmhm… HAHAHAHA! At long last! The time has come to bring our ancient desire to fruition!

[nekomajokko]

Anyone Macross savvy can clarify if these are straight-up nukes or something different?

originally they were going to be but the whole nuclear taboo thing, and “the good guys would never use nukes”. they’re an antimatter explosion that’s functionally the same

[Mattman324]

L, UX, and BX all ascribe to the “need everything boosted to get partner bonus upgrades” because they came well before the 50% “FUB” and in fact pioneered it. 50% upgrades is all you need in all three of those games though, it’s more than enough, so that’s fine. (Really, in any of the three, the only stat I’d consider boosting above 50% on a first run is EN, and that only to make things a little faster.)

Reaction Weaponry WAS nuclear in the past. It’s not anymore. See, during SDF, they realized that Japan still had a massive nuclear taboo, so they decided not to fully go that route, and it was never really explained - just that they were similar power and came from Overtechnology from the SDF. Eventually the name came to mean pair-annihilation weapons, which, as Kawamori noted, are much stronger than nuclear weapons but don’t yet exist in real life, and thus have no taboo. With that said, it is true that in older Macross stuff, it was nuclear - Macross Zero references that, the only “reaction weaponry” is outright stated to be nuclear, because Zero was a prequel.

Oh, shit, didn’t realize L actually made reference to Iczelion. Huh.

(Pretty sure you do eventually get two Iczer Robos to pass around between 1 and 3, though I can’t really remember.)

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

Back again in the WATER! Route, goddamn, look at that lead Ichitaka has. The Alliance mooks really liked going after him in the previous mission, and he liked just as much punching them into oblivion.

Upgrade tally: Shinji took a bunch if Gunfights, and random upgrades went to everyone. Special care was given to the Godannar units since they’re all deploying today. Jun also got a boost in HP and Armor in hopes of preventing another death.

Quick shuffle around, and this is how we’re going:
Shinji/Rey (their weapon spread and range is pretty dang similar and, better yet, Shinji gives him an A on land.)
Athrun/Luna
Combattler/Rei
Ichitaka
Kouji/Quatre
Tetsuya/Jun
Dancouga/Boss
Zechs/Noin
Shinn/Heine

Forward!

We open up at the Dannar Base, where Goh’s test results have just come in. Kiriko relates that his condition is extremely delicate, and if he triggers the Rabid Syndrome now, there’s a good chance he’ll never recover.
This is certainly not how Aoi expected things to turn out for him, but Misato tells her and Anna not to give up hope yet. The PLANTs and JUDA are making progress, so Chizuru is certain they’ll have a cure soon, and then Goh’ll be fine.

Shibakusa then walks in, saying he’s finished getting “that” ready to roll. As for why he’s here and not at JUDA, he explains to Kouji that he had to come over for a rather important job. Yotsuya helped him out with it, and they should be ready for a trial run.
So, they turn to Tetsuya Kouji and ask him to come with to the underground hangar – there’s a surprise waiting for him. As he and Shibakusa leave, Yotsuya tells Hyouma that they’ve put together something of a secret weapon. With Shizuru in a coma and Goh still out, they had to do SOMETHING to make up for our lost firepower.

At the hangar, Shinn pulls Rey over for some real talk: how much progress has the PLANTs actually made in finding a cure for Goh? Rey doesn’t know, but it’s not like we’ve any other options other than trusting in Durandal and the scientists. “And if a cure isn’t found… then I suppose it was just his destiny,” Rey sighs.
“Destiny…? I don’t really like the idea of something like that deciding how people live and die,” Shinn ponders, Rey staring in silence. At length, he tells Shinn that there’s only one thing they can do: fight for as long as their hearts are beating. Shinn agrees, more than ready to fight for the PLANTs and Earth: “even if it’s our destiny to be beaten, I’ll find a way to cut a path through it.”

Yo, what’s with all this depressing talk, Heine steps in. “You two think you’re gonna come down with something, too?” Rey slowly say no, so then they should lighten up some. There’re already too many dark clouds hanging over the Dannar Base.
… And just as Shinn agrees, the alarm starts blaring. Guess there’s just no lightening up around here. To the command room!

Konami reports bad news throughout the world: Mimetic Beasts are going berserk, and a huge posse of them is headed towards Japan… more specifically, here! Momoko puts it up on screen, and our folks see a SWARM of the things. But why are all of those converging here, Juzo asks.
Because we’ve killed tons of them all this time, so the answer is clear to Kiriko: they’ve tagged us as their greatest threat. They shouldn’t be smart enough to make that sort of correlation, Kagemaru objects, but a heightened instinct isn’t all that different from intellect. And in some cases, instincts are even superior to intellect. By the looks of it, they’ve looked over their kind’s past experiences and decided we’re the ones to beat.

Goh runs on over, having heard of the incoming mob of Mimetic Beasts. Him getting excited in any way is very ill advised, so Kagemaru orders him back to the infirmary right now. But if the Dannar Base gets wrecked they’ll lose everything!
Not on Anna’s watch, it won’t, and she’ll fight for the two of them! Yotsuya’s with her, saying Goh should be focusing on getting better – leave this battle to us. Then can they at least let him stay here until the team deploys?
Kiriko allows it, but he’ll have to get to the infirmary once the battle starts. As Goh thanks her, the radar pings the Mimetic Beast swarm. They’ll be breaking into our airspace soon, so Misato orders everyone out to intercept.

Mission 21 – The Dannar Base, Hanging By a Thread

: There are a ton of them… Even more than when that transmission was taken, I think…!
: It really does look like Mimetic Beasts from across the whole world are gathering here.
: An all-out assault by them, huh?
: Meaning we just need to win this one and that’ll be game over for the Mimetic Beasts! Psyche yourselves up, people!
: The Mimetic Beasts are likely planning to destroy both LOTUS and the Dannar Base! Do whatever it takes to keep all of them away!

: Aye, aye! Let’s go and make ‘em regret trying to pull this stunt! Come here, beasties!

Destroy everything without losing the Minerva or the Neo Okusaer, or letting any enemy enter the marked area. This one isn’t TOO hard, provided you follow a few guidelines:

• Stay, landed, within the Dannar Base terrain (the walkways count) as much as can be done because they provide excellent terrain bonuses, including HP and EN regen. The movements a bit impaired, but the boosts are tremendously helpful.
• Let the enemy come to you. They’ll move in waves, and you’re much better served dealing with them as such. The little mooks’ EN drain won’t hurt much if you’re regenning it.
• When you’re dealing with the bulkier groups, ALWAYS prioritize killing the flying Mimetic Beasts first. The water’ll slow the enemy considerably, but those fliers will readily blow way past your group – let enough of them airborne, and you’ll be in trouble. If possible,
• There’ll be more coming to the west, way across the water, so have at least one flying (preferably with Accel) unit ready to run over to slow down and thin their numbers. This is another reason why you don’t want to send your guys too far forward – you’ll want them to be ready to intercept those when they get close.

Because of the defensive strat, this mission will proceed a bit slowly. I don’t do anything different from what’s written above, so let’s fast forward a bit.

: I have to fight… for myself and for Goh! That’s my mission, both as a pilot and as a wife!

: It’s time…! We win this, we put a legit end to the battle with the Mimetic Beasts!

: Are the Mimetic Beasts more sluggish than usual…? I mean, that’s good for us, but what’s going on with them…?!

: We must be a pretty big deal if even Mimetic Beasts are singling us out…!
: Bring it on, then! Booking a private tango with us comes with a hefty price tag, ya know…!

: Even if humans managed to stop fighting each other, we’d never be able to throw away our weapons while the Mimetic Beasts are around…
: And this battle will be a major step towards changing that!

: We gotta work extra-hard to cover for Daiya and Kenichi taking off. Keep the generator running smooth, Johnny.
: Everything’s A-OK on my end. We’ll give even the biggest of them a run for their money in raw strength!
: Well, look at you being all reliable…! How about we get this mission started, then!

: Mimetic Beasts or not, if we cut the head of the snake, then the body will follow… We’re putting an end to this today!

: Our friends up in space are also fighting the Jama Kingdom right now…! So we all have to do everything we can!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_2r_e04pUQ
And here’s Rey’s second-best weapon, which actually gets a DK!

Kill enough things, and…

: I-It’s…! More Mimetic Beasts surfaced from the sea by Dannar base! They’re right by us!
: Hrm…! They approached from underwater while we were distracted by their first wave?! Ms. Katsuragi, we’ve an ambush! Have some troops divert to engage them ASAP!

: I’m detecting a powerful energy reading from that Mimetic Beast in front of the Base!
: Stop!

: Urgh…!

: MIRA!
: Damage report!
: The Neo Okusaer blocked the brunt of the attack, but it seems the medical block still took damage!
: The medical block?! What about Goh and Shizuru?!

: cough, cough…! What the hell was that blast…?!
: That’s…?! The Neo Okusaer?! Mira shielded the Base…?!
: Shizuru… Is Shizuru alright?!

Beep!

: Goh, are you there?!
: Yes, and I’m fine! But Shizuru’s life-support system was!
: What?!
: Shizuru! SHIZURU! Damn it, what do I do…?!

The Okusaer’s cockpit opens.

: Sh-Shizuru…?
: Mira…!

: …
: Mira…! Your body’s glowing…

: Shizuru… You can’t… die…

: What am I doing here? …Oh, right… I covered Anna and ate that attack…
: Goh, Mira… Thank you for the tears you shed for me…
: Shizuru…
: Mira…?
: You cannot die yet… Goh, Anna, myself… all of LOTUS is in need of your strength.
: My…
: This energy I was given – the energy of life… I now pass it on to you…!
: So, please… open your eyes again, Shizuru!
: Mira…!

: Hm…
: ?!
: Goh…
: Mira?! You…!

Back outside…

: The Mimetic Beast closing in on Dannar Base! Our defense system can’t stop it!

The Mimetic Beasts gets right next to the base.

: No, the Dannar Base’s—!

: Energy reading from the Mimetic Beast is spiking rapidly!
: Is it going to self-destruct?!
: All hands, take shelter!
: There’s no time!
: I-Is this the end?!

The Mimetic Beast takes 5k damage and is blasted far away.

: What?!
: It’s too soon to give up, Kiriko!
: Th-That voice…!
: There’s someone up on the roof!
: Stars for heaven, flowers for earth, love for humans… No person is capable of living by himself. That is what makes humans willing to fight for those they love, and why humans are more beautiful than any flower or any star! (Tatsuya)
: Th-That’s… It can’t be!
: Shizuru, Tetsuya! Rise now and crush the Mimetic Beasts!

: Sorry to keep you in suspense! The G-Zero Gunner finally makes its grand debut!
: And I’m just itching to go crazy and make up for all the time I spent asleep!
: Shizuru?!
: I-Is that really you, Shizuru?!
: Who do you think I am, huh? I’ve come back from the depths of hell to hunt and kill these monsters again!
: Shizuru… thank god, you’re alright…!
: You ready to rock, Shizuru? Let’s go and tear through whatever beasts are still standing!
: Aye, aye! Here we go, Tetsuya!

Any extra help is good on this mission, especially Tetsuya. The G-Zero Gunner is a direct upgrade to everything the regular G-Gunner had and, better yet, it works just fine in water!
Keep Tetsuya and Shizuru parked where they are, taking the terrain bonus, and snipe down whatever gets close.
The new group is made of jacked MSs (only two Zamza-Zah groups, thankfully, and they’re the last to get moving), and they’ll also make a beeline for the Dannar Base. Letting them come in close is dangerous since they’re flying and can move plenty, so this is when you should send one or two flying groups out there. I’ll be going with the Combattler and Rei since they both know Iron Wall, and Hyouma hits like a truck.

In the meantime, the southern group of Mimetic Beasts is dwindling, but their bigger forces are still back there. So, I’ll keep our more hard-hitting folks there to deal with them (don’t be afraid to bust out some Fighting Spirits) while already having our speedier troops retreat to where Shizuru and Tetsuya are standing.
By the time the western enemies get in range, the plan is for Hyouma to have oneshotted a bunch of guys in counterattacks and the southern group to be mostly cleared out. A nice wall of units along the western side of the Dannar Base should buy you an extra turn.
Finally, the Trojan Horse Mimetic Beast will always attack if there’s stuff in range, so ignore it until the end. The thing is always underwater, has 50k HP and regens, so you’ll want to focus fire.

: This here’s our ace in the hole! Come take a look at the G-Zero Gunner’s full power!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CplLM-guHkQ

: I’m trying my best not to be a negative Nancy today, Hyouma. So step on the gas and throw everything we got at ‘em!
: That’s the plan – we’re bringing our A-game right from the start! Gotta kick some ass for Goh too, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQr0g8n9eS4

: OK, let’s see if I can’t find someone to help me get back up to speed.
: I may have just gotten better, but underestimate me and you’ll be sorry!

: Bring in however big a swarm you want, “retreat” isn’t part of our dictionary today! We swear it by our name as LOTUS!

: We can end this without any more bloodshed if we just clear out the Mimetic Beasts right here. Whatever happens, we’re closing the book on them today…!
: That’s how we’ll make up for letting Djibril escape!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOdH1J1mATQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HejZwyJLvw
Here’s the Trojan Horse’s best attack. Look at that little guy!

: D-Did we do it…?
: All nearby Mimetic Beast signals are gone!
: Hell, yeah! That’ll learn ya!
: Looks like the battle’s over Well done, folks!
: It was an honor to see you fight, LOTUS. The rumors didn’t do justice to your strength!
: Prof. Aoi, is he…
: … Tatsuya Aoi.
: “Aoi”… You don’t mean…
: Yes. He’s my husband.
: H-He’s my dad?!
: Whaaaaaa?!

Tatsuya thanks Yotsuya for all the help he provided during his lengthy absence, but it was no bother. Working to help Earth is what he does. Kiriko formally introduces Tatsuya as the creator of the Dannar Base, and someone who also worked tirelessly to help LOTUS come to be.
He wanted to meet up with us sooner, but had been busily travelling around in search of ways to fight the Mimetic Beasts. He got here just as Shizuru was deploying, so he decided to take it upon himself to spruce up her comeback… though she told him she didn’t like making grand entrances. Maybe, but Tetsuya laughs she still had no problem with playing along.
Whatever the case, Alice and Ichitaka are so very glad that she’s recovered, but the question remains: how? Shizuru had told Goh that Mira gave her life anew, or at least that’s what she heard – she couldn’t see Mira when it all happened, but the voice was unmistakably hers.

Kiriko has an hypothesis that, in the five years Mira spent absorbed into a Mimetic Beast, she took in some sort of unique vital energy. Kosuke remembers that the Beasts survive by absorbing other people and feeding off their vital energy, so maybe what Mira developed the ability to do something similar? She likely used that ability to restore life to Shizuru, but it’s all conjecture until test results come in.
As for Mira herself, she’s alive but exhausted and is currently resting.

Kiriko has a question for Tatsuya, though: he’s been gone for so long, so what made him come back to the Dannar Base so suddenly? Was it because he heard of what was going on, Kurara wonders? Not quite, and Tatsuya has a video to show us. It’s a gigantic Mimetic Beast!
See, the beasts, having once faced extinction, had found a way to survive: the weak ones fuse together, sharing strength with one another. Throughout this process, one of them stood above the rest by absorbing more and more beasts, eventually growing to be the strongest of them all – the leader of their pack, the Super Mimetic Beast!
The thing seems to be done growing in hiding, however, and is currently headed straight for Japan, absorbing any other surviving Mimetic Beasts along the way. Looks like our battle with the things is still ongoing, and the big one we just beat was no more than an antenna for the leader’s signal – shows how strong that one must be.

Still, Rey sees a silver-lining in this: we’ve plenty of data on the Mimetic Beasts, so he doubts, even with all their evolution, they’ll bring anything to the table that we can’t manage. Plus, thinks Tetsuya, if all the Mimetic Beasts across the world are no fusing into a single being, then it’s also the perfect opportunity for us to truly eradicate them in one go.
Tatsuya agrees somewhat. While we can’t say FOR SURE that they’ll be gone forever, as there’s still plenty we don’t know about the Mimetic Beasts, destroying this leader’ll mean that it’d take years – decades, even – for humanity to be threatened by them again.

Sounds like a great deal to Juzo and Boss, who tells Kouji he better not chicken out on this one. Hell, no, he’s been through too many battles to flinch over something like this. Shinji’s ready too, though not as confident as the others. Still, he’s made a decision to keep fighting.
Aoi and Sakuya are also pumped to tangle with this big enemy, so Tatsuya tells everyone to get ready for the Super Mimetic Beast’s arrival – it’ll be here soon. As Misato orders all units serviced, Ichitaka’s a wee bit doubtful of whether he could win this when he couldn’t even beat Yuu… but, no, this is about “can or cannot”. We HAVE to win this one.

Anna and Tatsuya finally meet face-to-face. He’s been gone since she was a little girl, so none of this feels quite real yet for her. “Anna, I was never there to actually be a father to you. I’d like to beg your forgiveness for that,” Tatsuya says.
Anna isn’t mad, though, as she remembers hearing his voice before – a voice that was always so encouraging to her. Tatsuya’s also heard of Goh and can’t imagine how difficult it all must be for Anna. Not as difficult as what Goh’s going through, of course.
Regardless, he tells her to never lose faith in the man she’s chosen as her husband.

: Godannar… I really can never pilot you again…?
: Shizuru’s just come out of a coma, and even she’s out there fighting, while I…!

[Mattman324]

Just like to take a moment to chuckle at the fact that the G-Zero Gunner was a secret in Scramble Commander 2, Godannar’s first appearance.

Also: Rey had no DKs in K. He’s one of an extraordinarily small number of units that didn’t, even, there’s like five things and one of them is conspicuously Legend Gundam. That’s also why that DK is notably minimalistic.

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

We’re back at the Himika Route, and Ichitaka’s actually been overtaken! Daiya’s huge HP pool just draws in too many enemies and, slightly unlike the Rushbird, the Gaiking can oneshot Super Robot mooks with pretty much anything. Iczer-1 taking off has allowed Kenichi to take third place, though.

And I’ve fulfilled my vow! The Gaiking becomes our first unit to clear the 50% mark, gaining a boosted Squad Bonus: Armor +200, Crit +20. Pretty much everything he needs since Armor is the sole stat that boosts barrier damage mitigation, and more crit means more oneshots.
The Rushbird takes a boost in mobility and accuracy, also reaching 50% stats (not weapons). Elsewhere, Iczer-3 joins with 3 pips in everything, unlike Iczer-1’s four, so she EN, mobility and accuracy. Alto and Voltes take a few things here and there.

Yagyuu’s deploying as an event, making fielding Jack inadvisable. Overall, we’re still pretty much the same:
Ozma/Luca
Gaiking/Yanma
Kouichi/Yamashita
Ichitaka/Miu
Dick/Puria
Domyoji/Klan
Voltes/Canaria
Alto/Michel
Iczer-3/Deceive (not great, but it’ll do for now).

On we go!

: Kenji…
: You feeling better?
: I am, thanks. I’ve gotten more than enough rest. But, you know, while I was doing that, I had a lot to think about…
: …
: That was pretty cold of Kyo, huh? He decided to take all this onto his shoulders, and left us just like that. Seriously, talk about unfair…
: … You shouldn’t be acting tough like that, you know.
: …! I’m not acting tough…! Kch…! sniffles
: See, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. You don’t need drive yourself so hard.
: I’m here for you. Now and always.

Tweeep!

: Ah—!
: Wh-What is it?!
: I… I just felt the energy of the Bronze Bells!

What she felt was Himika using said Bronze Bells to take control of the enormous power that lay asleep within the Langoon. And with this power, nothing is beyond her grasp! Mwahaha!

Elsewhere, aboard a Cthulhu emigration ship, Iczer-1’s already recovering within Sister Gray’s pod. Just a bit of rest has already healed her considerably. Gray figures she must’ve been shocked with how suddenly her sister was sent over, though Iczer-1 doesn’t mind. Rather, it was only with Iczer-3’s timely arrival that Nagisa Kasumi’s priceless life was kept safe.
“In due time, you could rise to lead us, the Cthulhu people,” Gray notes. “I created that girl in hopes that she could take your place on the battlefield.” Indeed, Iczer-1 sees that 3 is very much like her and Iczer-2… “Rather, I saw that she hides even greater potential than us… but…”

Hm, Gray’ll concede that she is still very young, but it WAS her fate to eventually join the fight. Iczer-1’s concern is understandable, but she is certain that fighting alongside the people of Earth will be an invaluable learning experience to the girl.
“I’ll have to sleep for a small while, Iczer-3… Take care of LOTUS, and Nagisa, for me…” Iczer-1 ponders, as she continues to recover.

Speaking of, Ozma’s accosted the girl to ask: she does understand that it was her fault that Nagisa (Kasumi) was driven to that point of exhaustion, right? She does. Then, Ozma wants her to understand that when you’re fighting as a group, doing whatever you feel like only causes trouble to those at her flank. She needs to remember that, or they won’t allow her to deploy with us.
Iczer-3 apologizes and says she’ll be careful next time. She should since, as Yagyuu notes, our next battle will be with Himika herself; the Jama Kingdom’s leader is incredibly powerful, so, is the girl really ready for something like this?
“I am, I am! Besides, if you’re gonna be fighting someone THAT strong, then you have to let me come along too!” Iczer-3 proclaims loudly. Hmhmm, so she’s one of those people that love fighting, Dick ponders.

Not quite, Iczer-3 merely figures that if enemies that strong are left around, it’ll mean danger for Nagisa (Kanou). And since Iczer-1 left both girls and the rest of us in her care, that means she has to fight!
Ozma can see that her heart is set, and in the right place, so he gives her the go-ahead to launch with us when the time comes. “You’ll really let me, gramps?!” Iczer-3 gasps, immediately stunning the guy.
Mido suggest she address him as Lt. Ozma Lee, not gramps. And since he’s in shock right now, she’ll officially confirm the girl’s permission to deploy. W-Who’s shocked?! Ozma isn’t shocked! Pfft!

: This isn’t the Frontier… Is it Earth…?
: What… What am I doing here? Who are those two…?

: You are the only one in this world who can unite with the Iczer Robo! Do you not wish to defend your own planet?!
: Absolutely not!
: Then you leave me no choice. You will fight, even if I must force you to! Taaah!
: Huh?! Waaah!!
: Wh-What’s going on?!
: You’re inside the Iczer Robo. Synchronize yourself with me, Nagisa.
: Y-You can’t do this to me! Lemme go!

: What… was that dream?

Door opens!

: I see you’ve regained consciousness, Nagisa.
: Thank goodness…
: Ah…! You’re…!
: I’m Nagisa – Nagisa Kanou.
: I-I’m…
: Nagisa Kasumi, right? I saw you on that video letter you sent. Boy, was I surprised – so were Alto and Michel.
: I… I saw you in a dream just now…
: Huh…? Me…?
: Um, but why am I here…?
: You fainted inside that robot you were aboard. We had to bring you to the Macross Quarter to keep you safe from the enemy.
: Really…? So this is inside the Macross…?
: Do you not remember anything? Oh, and I’m AL-3 Alice. I’m something of a military physician.
: Hmm… I remember there being a mess at Mihoshi and… Hrm… Oww…
: Aah, never mind! Don’t force yourself to remember if it’s that painful!
: Maybe your strength hasn’t returned yet? You should keep getting plenty of rest, then. I’ll prescribe you some sedatives to help.
: Mind you, while this ship’s headed into a battlefield, it should actually be safer than at the Frontier. So relax.
: OK…Thank you…

Some time later…

: Nagisa woke up?!
: Hey, this is the infirmary! Quit yelling!
: That goes for you too, Lt.
: Hrm…
: She came to for a moment, yes, but she was much more exhausted than we expected, so we told her to sleep some more.
: “Plenty of rest”, that was mine and Canaria’s professional recommendation.
: Hm… First the Iczelio gets stolen, then I get Nagisa like this…
: …
: Nevertheless, the Iczer Robo won’t move with that Iczelio gone… Best to just let her take it slow and recover.
: Get well soon, Nagisa. ‘Til then, I promise I’ll keep you safe…!
: Will you really be alright by yourself, Iczer-3?
: I’ll be fine, Nagisa-1! You saw how strong I was, no? Iczelio or no, I can fight just fine!
: Hey, don’t talk like nothing can touch you! Iczer-1 never acted like that – not once!
: How’s she supposed to rest easy if you’re still going like that?!
: Ah—…
: Now you’re the one who’s yelling, Nagisa.
: O-Oh. Sorry…
: I’m not my big sis, so maybe I can’t protect you as well as she did…
: But I still have to do this, and I will!

*Iczer-3 runs off.

: Don’t you think you went at her too hard, Nagisa? The girl feels responsible for all this.
: …
: Actually, Lt. Ozma also gave her a talking-to. Said that Nagisa’s like this because of how she fought. And Iczer-3 promised to think things over and change how she behaves in battle.
: Ah?! I had no idea…! And I said those awful things to her…
: You’re the only one who can support her while Nagisa Kasumi’s hospitalized, Nagisa.
: Yes… I’ll go talk to her.

Alarm!

: What is it?!
: We’ve an emergency! All pilots are to assemble at the briefing room immediately!

So, Jeffrey has good news in that we’ve found Himika and co. Great! Where are they? Tsubaki already has an idea: the moon. Rosa’s surprised that she knows, but, yes, we picked up the Bronze Bells’ signal coming from the far side of the moon. Tsubaki says she’s been feeling a great power coming from there, something like the Bronze Bells but far stronger!
Kenichi figures she can sense them due to her being the Priestess of the bells, but that’s not what’s important right now. Shiba calls in and says that that power is what Himika is after. Ichitaka asks what it is, figuring it’ll be bad news if it’s even stronger than the Bronze Bells.
Indeed, it is: what Himika is after is the enormous power that rests within the Langoon, the Great Bronze Bell! See, the Himika and her peers draw their magical powers from the negative emotions of humans, and the Great Bronze Bell will amplify that power tenfold. Himika’s already very powerful on her own, so let her get a power boost and our chances of victory might as well be nil.

Kenji tells Luca to man up: “The hell do I care that they got bigass Bronze Bell?! I’ll just go and tear their whole show down myself!” And how will he fight when he can’t turn into Jeeg, Shiba asks. Well, Kenji says there’s only one way around that: we break inside the Langoon and get both his and Hiroshi’s bells back!
Hiyoshi likes that idea, as it’d not only weaken Himika’s powers, but also enable the Jeegs to fight again. But nothing’s ever simple, and Tsubaki feels that enormous power drawing closer to us!

Shiba confirms that she’s saying, pinging that powerful Bronze Bell signal we’re getting heading towards the Frontier Fleet. Monica hooks us up with a video feed of the Langoon, and it’s goddamn huge, but Kouichi likes that it’s coming this way. It’ll save us time!
That’s be great, but, as Yamashita points outs, we still have no idea how we’re actually going to beat Himika. Have Kenji and Tsubaki manage to think something up from Kyo’s previous words? “Absolutely nothing!”

Maybe our best shot is just to fire a bunch of Reactive Munitions at the ship from long range, Domyoji wonders. Whatever the case, Jeffrey knows we can’t let them close in on the Frontier or the PLANTs, so he orders everyone ready to deploy.
Kenji’ll be heading out in the Big Shooter, and Tsubaki insists on coming with as the heiress of that ancient power. Jeffrey’ll allow it, but asks them not to bite off more than they can chew. Kenji promises to be careful, having learned from Ichitaka and Iczer-3 what happens when you’re not.
Hiroshi’ll also be aboard the Big Shooter, handling the piloting until they reach the Langoon. “And you fight in whatever way you think is right, Kenji.” Sounds great; and with Shiba wishing us good luck, we set off.

Mission 21 (Himika Route) – Langoon’s Revival! Reclaim the Bronze Bells!

: Foolish humans… you’ve willingly come to greet your deaths?
: But there shall be none who’ll dare oppose me once they lay eyes upon my new power…! They, and their fleet, shall all be ashes!
: Are we all clear on the plan? Kenji, Tsubaki and Hiroshi will enter the Langoon and get the Bronze Bells back from them!

: And that’s where they’ll be breaking in from, yeah?
: Right. But, of course, the enemy isn’t going to make this easy, so everyone’ll be covering the Big Shooter ‘til it gets there!
: Yes, sir!
: Go for it and make it good, Kenji!
: I got your backs, too! I Not like I can just pooh-pooh someone else’s stolen power source!
: You finally have your hot date with Tsubaki, Kenji. Be nice with her, you hear!
: Heh… at least they’re lightening the tension some.
: Hmhm… Is everyone good to go?
: Hell, yeah! We’re gonna be winning this, even without the Jeegs! And I’ll keep you safe, Tsubaki, don’t worry about a thing!
: OK!
: Engage!

Get the Big Shooter into the marked spot without losing either ship or the Big Shooter. This is pretty much a retread of our battle in Aso, except Ikima, Amaso and Mimashi are deployed right from the start.
Our forces are more limited than before, but the strategy is still the same: build on morale on the front Boya Kaengus, watch out for the Dai Kaengus and their SP draining attack, and just go to town. Make good use of all the command auras you’ve available while jumping right into the fray, and look for opportunities to use Jeffrey and Canaria’s MAPWs since the enemy’s so numerous.
Killing everything will automatically bring the Big Shooter into position, but things’ll actually progress faster if you actively bring it in yourself.

Oh, and Hiroshi is a great pilot who can take very good care of himself, even if the Big Shooter remains rather weak.

Here we go!

: Hiroshi, the enemy’s dead ahead…!
: Relax, Tsubaki! I’ve no problems taking the line all the way to the finish!
: “Taking the line”… Are you a racer too?
: I’ll tell you about it later! Our priority now is breaking through their defenses!

: I didn’t expect there to be this many enemies… The Jama Kingdom is really laying out the red carpet for us, huh?
: Even just covering Kenji’s crew’s gonna be tough like this!
: Mido, Saotome, this is the decisive battle of the war with the Jama Kingdom!
: So focus and let’s jump into the fireworks one more time!
: Aye, aye!

: Open your eyes, and take a look…! Whatever you decide to throw at us, we’re still gonna find a way through this!

: You still fight even when there’s no chance of victory? You humans truly are fools!

–

: We’re gonna escort you guys all the way to the Langoon! And once you’re there, nab the Bronze Bells and get back to fighting ASAP!

: Ghosts and evil spirits all around… I’d really love if the Laplace Wall could also absorb occult stuff like this, I tell ya…!

While all that’s going down, know that the AI REALLY fancies Daiya’s boosted HP pool. He’s taking no damage, and oneshotting everything.
With that, Iczer-3 has some chances to show off her tricks:

: My sis must be so sad now… I gotta work hard!
: Wait a minute, Iczer-3! I’ve to apologize to you!
: Huh…?
: I’d no idea how you really felt, and I was so mean to you. I’m so sorry, Iczer-3…!
: No, the truth is I really did screw up. Still, I’m really happy that you forgive me, Nagisa-1!
: Now I just have to be patient and wait ‘til Nagisa’s back with us!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7omRPeruQwg
All in one video for your convenience.

: This is what Himika’s power is like now that it’s been boosted…?!
: We better hurry, Kenichi! The Big Shooter needs to make it, or there’ll be no recovering from this!
: Right! Our main job here is to clear out any enemies directly in their path!

: Hihihihahaa! I’ll be painting this sector red with the blood of all you humans!

: All your heads will roll today, and then I’ll present them all before Her Majesty!

: Bunch up as many mooks as you want, you’re still not stopping us!
: Everyone knows CHAMPIONS OF JUSTICE are at their strongest when facing adversity!

: Kenji, Tsubaki! You’ll have to go with the Raikouba from here!
: Alright!

: Hold on tight, Tsubaki! Ooooryaaaaa!

: Show your face, HIMIKAA!
: Kenji, I’m feeling a huge power nearby!
: …?!
: Hmhmhmhm…!
: Himika!

: You came here despite your defeat being all but certain? I’d call you foolish, but that would be an understatement! I’ve already laid claim to the tremendous power of the Great Bronze Bell with the two Bronze Bells!

: Behold! Your Bronze Bells have completed their task and are disappearing. Hahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHA!
: Oi, cut it with that stupid laugh!
: …Excuse me?!
: The odds were often against us before, and we still fought!
: Yeah, and we sure as hell ain’t losing now…! That’s why were right here, gunning for you!
: We will beat you, Himika! We have to!
: Neither of us are just gonna let you do your thing!
: The gall… Here is the very gateway to the underworld, and it already bows to my will. Do tell, what could you possibly accomplish?!

: Gwaargh!
: Kenji!
: You will die without ever knowing the true significance of the Bronze Bells!
: No… we’re not! You’re not beating us! We’ll kick your ass, and then Tsubaki and I’ll go back to Earth together!
: That’s right, we can’t lose to you! I’m sure our path’ll be clear so long as that wish is in our hearts!
: Nonsense! The only path you’ll trail is the one towards Hell!

: Rrrgh! We… We’re gonna protect Earth! NO WAY WE’RE DYING LIKE THIS!!
: You won’t… beat us…! The power to give form to emotions… That’s the power I inherited!

: Ggh! Wh-What?!

Heartbeat!

: …! The… The Bronze Bell’s back in the Raikouba! I can turn into Jeeg, then!
: We did it…!
: Impossible…! My accursed energy… This entire area is awash in hatred, resentment and negative emotions…How?!

Beep!

: Kenji, my Bronze Bell’s also back! Hurry back out!
: Damn you all to Hell! You won’t escape!
: Hahah, just try and catch us, ya witch! Come on, Tsubaki!
: OK!

Vrooom!

Back outside…

: Kenji and Tsubaki are safe, guys!
: And we got the Bronze Bells with us, ‘course!
: Whew… I was on pins and needles the whole time!
: Hehehe! Now it’s our turn to go to town!

: Multiple enemy reinforces have appeared!
: But I don’t feel Himika’s presence…
: We’ll worry about her later! First order of business is getting rid of her mooks!
: I’m going out there too! Open the hatch!
: Huuh?! But we’re in space!
: Hatch, open!

: CHAAANGE CYBOOOOOORG!

: Here I go!
: Y-You! Hiroshi Shiba!
: Yoooo, that’s sick!
: Micchi!
: “Micchi”…?
: Okay, Hiroshi!

: Grandma?!
: Baruba!
: Jeeg parts, set up! SHOOT!!

BUILD UP! BANBANBANBAN!

: Whaa?! He doesn’t even need a bike to do it?!
: You can still fly your Big Shooter, grandma?!

Micchi flies over to them.

: Sorry for the late arrival.
: Kenji, Tsubaki, are you two alright?!
: Kyo?! That’s my line! You’re OK?!
: Prof. Shiba and Baruba saved me. I can’t revert back to my Takeru form, but I’ll carry on fighting as Kyo Misumi!
: Kyo… thank goodness!
: Damn, you coulda at least have called us!
: Seems I had you all worried. I’m very sorry!

: We’re going too, Tsubaki!
: Okay!

: Woow! We got the old and new Jeegs together!
: Oooh, that’s so AWESOME!
: You guys’re finished now that I can transform again! Gimme a hand, Baruba!
: Grooowrr!

: The wind’s turned in our favor, captain!
: Yes, it has! Let’s rout the enemy troops and go after Himika within the Langoon!
: You’re getting far too excited for your own good!
: You might’ve reclaimed the Bronze Bells, but it’s already too late! Her Majesty is already headed there!
: Not that it’s any of your concern, since we’ll erase the lot of you from the face of the universe!
: You took the words out of my mouth! This is the end of the road for you, Jama Kingdom!

KIIIILL!

Jeeg
Pilot Skills:
Predict
Prevail L6
Spirit Commands:
Focus
Strike
Invincible
Squad Bonus: Accuracy +5, melee weapons’ power +100

Old Big Shooter (Miwa Tamashiro)
Pilot Skills:
Commander L1
Prevail L3
Support Attack L2
Support Defense L2
Attack Combo L1
Spirit Commands:
Focus
Accelerate
Alert
Squad Bonus: Experience earned +10%, EN+50

By himself, Hiroshi is Kenji, but better. All stats are higher and his weapons are stronger than the new Jeeg. On the flip side, he doesn’t have as much flexibility as Kenji: he lacks his Jeeg Bazooka for cheap and powerful long-range attacks, and even his rocket punch costs 10 EN. In other words, you need to be way more mindful of his EN supply than you are with Kenji (though his Mach Drills with Micchi is still ammo-based).
That said, Hiroshi is a tremendous big mook/boss killer, having both the Bronze Bell cheat code and, best of all, a combined attack with Kenji! It’s very expensive at 60 EN, but it’ll tear a huge chunk of health off anything it touches.

Micchi herself is a slightly worse Kyo, but she’s still good at what she does, which is stick with Hiroshi and refuel his EN tank. Like with the new Big Shooter, you’ll want to keep her as his sub for both the resupply and easier access to the combined attack.
Do note that the years have made Micchi inch away from the standard support-oriented spirit list, so all you’re getting from here is Hope (at 36). But we already have plenty of full support subpilots, so that’s not a big deal.

Now, where was I?

: Fifty… or even a hundred years may pass, but I’ll never stop hounding you! I’m ending this here and now, Jama Kingdom!

: Blast! I’m not dying yet!

: Is he going to gear up for a rematch…?
: I don’t think that’s what it was… Is he just gonna watch everything go down from the Langoon or something?

: I’ll give you ample proof that my teamwork with Hiroshi’s going strong even after all this time…!

: Curse you, humans! I’ve no choice… I must retreat to the Langoon!

: Dang, we let him escape…!
: But he ran off into the Langoon. We’ll be facing him again soon, I bet…!

: Hmph… There’ll be no victory for you while the Langoon remains under our grasp!

: What’s with that guy? Why’s he acting so smug when we got him running?
: Maybe they’ve something else up their sleeve.

: You were injured, weren’t you, Kyo? You can’t be pushing your body so hard right now! I’ll pilot for you!
: No, I could never rest while everyone else is fighting…!
: Don’t worry about my health, Tsubaki! Let’s just go at this like we always do!
: … Alright. But if it gets too difficult, I want you to tell me right away! I’m ready to take over whenever!

: Ya got any idea how worthless I felt having to watch my friends in trouble, and not being able to do anything about it? Well, I’m gonna take it all out on you guys now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfIYCVuJ0Zg
And here’s the rocking DK for Baruba Jeeg. Seriously, that looks like a Heavy Metal album cover.

Cha-ching!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UKzOqi3GXk
And here’s the crazy powerful combined attack between the Jeegs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjgJtIJhSqI
Oh, what the hey, have Hiroshi’s Jeeg Breaker too!
In both cases: “WHO’S NEXT?!”

: We’ve confirmed that all Haniwa Phantoms have been destroyed!
: Tell all troops that we’re moving into the Langoon before they’ve a chance to send more reinforcements! Any units that need to resupply are to return to the ships at once!
: Hell, yeah! I’m coming to give you what for, Himika!

Beep, beep!

: Wait! This is…!
: What’s wrong? Did something happen?!
: I’m pinging a gigantic Bronze Bell signal! It’s coming from the Langoon!
: What?!

: A-A shockwave…!
: Hey, what gives?! We’re in space!
: The energy flowing out the Bronze Bell is making space itself tremble, I think… This could be very bad.
: The hell?! Is something happening there, then?!
: It… it can’t be…!

RUUUUMBLE!

: Look at that huge bell…!
: I feel a chill down my spine… What’s going on?!
: That’s the Great Bronze Bell! I’m seeing it on my monitors too!
: The Great Bronze Bell…!
: Its energy readings are off every conceivable chart… Nothing we’ve seen even comes close!
: Psh, whatever! That don’t mean jack!
: Kenji…
: They can get any power they want, we’re still not losing this!
: Same goes for any other enemy we gotta fight, right, Jeff?
: Well said… we’ve got the Earth right at our backs. The PLANTs and the Frontier Fleet too!
: We’ve a ton of things we need to keep safe…!
: Tsubaki, Kenji… This will be our final battle with the Jama Kingdom. And you two are our trump cards. We’re counting on you!
: You got it! We’ll pry the path to our victory wide open!
: Hold on a lil’ bit more, Himika! We’ll be there real soon…!

[Mattman324]

I really do love Iczer 3’s animations. So energetic.

I do love this part of Kotetsushin Jeeg’s plot, and so it’s nice that this stage is so good at showing it off for the most part. Plus, we finally get the original Jeeg! Now, fun fact about that - in K, as I’ve brought up, Balba shows up for the first time near the ass end of the game. Thing is, Old Jeeg’s equivalent attack to that is the Panzeroid… and it starts with that. In the midgame. New Jeeg is thus horribly underpowered for most of the game, which isn’t helped by K’s particular blend of Dodge Decay being fucking awful and making purely dodge based units much worse. Jeeg’s still usable as a glass cannon who burns way too much fucking EN off a way too small base, but that’s basically it.

…on a happier note, the DKs for both Jeegs that have a background in space change by location. If you’re in atmosphere it’ll be the sky, if you’re in space, it’ll be that. A nice touch, really.

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

Welcome back to the Minerva route split, last time (and today, especially): pic related.

Ichitaka still has a massive lead, but we won’t be keeping this path, so it doesn’t matter.
Any cash earned last mission goes to upping our guys’ EN and weapons.

This was actually Take 2 of the mission, because I forgot to start recording while running through it the first time. Only noticed it like 1/3 of the way through it.
So, I had to redo it… only to forget to set up Tetsuya Kouji and Shizuru since they AREN’T event deployments. Only Shinji, Rei, Mira and Anna are. Again, I noticed it way into the mission and I was not about to redo it again. So, we’ll be going like this:

Rey/Quatre
Athrun/Luna
Shinn
Ichitaka
Kouji/Heine
Tetsuya/Jun
Dancouga/Boss
Zechs/Noin

Let’s get this done with.

We open up with Shibakusa having a heart-to-heart with the Dannar: “We’ve got a major showdown coming and you’ll be stuck here. I’m sure that’s the last thing you want, too. Shizuru said she’d be using the Core Gunner, and Goh can’t fight… but we at least made sure you’re in tip-top shape. That way you can help us out in future battles.”
Morimoto comes on over and says their work is finished, annoying Shibakusa. He told them to find shelter! Nanae and Touko didn’t like the sound of that either, as, one, running off would shame their mechanic spirit and, two, they can’t leave the elderly behind.
Shibakusa is NOT ELDERLY!

Shinobu’s also supposed to have evacuated, but he explains to an angry Hyouma that he can’t find Goh anywhere. Alice says he’s likely at the command room since the infirmary is currently unusable, and Shinobu hopes she’s right. As he leaves, Juzo chides Hyouma for snapping at the guy – the approaching battle has even him uncharacteristically on edge.
Ropett warns him to be careful, as mental stability will affect their ability to combine. Their bot falling apart in the middle of the final battle would only mean trouble for everyone else, Chizuru adds.

“Fine, fine, I get it! …Erm, but I guess that doesn’t sound too believable if I’m still yelling, huh…” Hyouma groans. Kouji adds another reason for him to calm down: we don’t want Hyouma to also trigger the Rabid Syndrome. Everyone’s working to keep each other calm when they get too incensed.
Mind, Alice says we’ve no confirmed infections on anyone outside of Goh, but that’s no reason to let our guard down. In essence, Tetsuya surmises, Hyouma doesn’t need to be all serene about it, but he’d do well not to get too agitated about things – just do it like Rei.

Speaking of, Misato has new orders for her: she’ll be playing defense again. Misato apologizes for always foisting that on her, but she couldn’t think of any strategy that didn’t rely on the A.T. Field, so it’ll have to be her. Shinji comes in right then, having heard that the #00 will be shielding the Minerva.
Misato confirms, adding that the #01’ll be attacking in tandem with our other units. She’s not happy with it, but Shinji’ll need to carry on fighting as he has. With that, it’s almost time for the mission to start, so they leave for the command room.

: As I previously said, the Super Mimetic Beast is currently headed towards the Dannar Base, absorbing the remaining beasts as it goes.
: Here’s a more recent image of it.

Beep.

: It’s grown even more gigantic in this short span of time… What a troublesome creature.
: My friends, this will likely be the last battle we’ll have with the Mimetic Beasts. Will it be us who’ll survive, or them?
: Your actions will determine the fate of mankind! I ask that you carve that thought into your hearts and give this mission your all!
: Aye, aye! We’ll be ending things with you today, Mimetic Beasts!
: We… We have to put an end to this battle as quickly as possible.
: Oho? I’d tagged you as a quiet sort, but you’re actually manlier than that. Got a bit of a fighter in you, eh?
: D-Don’t make cracks about me, please. All I’m thinking of is doing whatever I can, the best way I can…
: Hah… Now that you mention it, Shinji did grow into a real man over this.
: Not you too, Kouji.
: And, with that, you’re dismissed. Head to your respective units and prepare to deploy!
: Our long battle with the Mimetic Beasts will end today…
: Yes, it will. Wait for me, Goh – I’ll fight hard for you too.
: Please do. And, above all, come back safe…!
: Absolutely. I’d never die with you watching… I promise!

Mission 22 (Minerva Route) – Heart Break

: The enemy group has just broken past the Dannar Base’s last defensive line!
: We’re expecting the Super Mimetic Beast to have regenerative abilities beyond any other we faced. Don’t let your guard down for an instant!
: You got it. It can regen all day, we’re still gonna pound it into the dirt!
: Here it is: the climax of our battle with the beasties…!
: Let’s do this, everyone!

Mission Objective: Destroy the Super Mimetic Beast
Mission Failure: The Minerva, Goh Okusaer, Combattler, EVA-01 or 00 shot down.

Come one, come all, to the grand opening of the Mimetic Waterpark!
I wouldn’t classify this mission as being hard, but it is VERY annoying. There are a metric fuckton of enemies you’ll have to fight (more coming), plenty of Land Type and Type #13 beasts to slow you down with their large HP pools and, of course, water. Water, everywhere.
Do not send your guys out to meet the enemy. Just don’t. There’s no skill point rushing you and spreading out your troops is a recipe to either get bitten by evasion decay or lose EN to the smaller beasts. This is a mission where energy and SP conservation is the name of the game – coming into the end stretch on fumes will likely mean a hefty repair bill.

With all that in mind, I’ll say “screw you” to all that water and simply have my guys plant their feet on this plot of land. We’ll only leave here once it’s time to engage the Super Mimetic Beast, so the enemy’ll be forced to come in in waves and meet me on my terms.
Play very conservatively here, be patient, and you might have things done by turn 14-15. As always, prioritize the smaller beasts to stop them from draining your EN. Had I not forgotten to set the G-Zero Gunner here, I’d at least have a unit that could reliably hit underwater targets, but no…

Super Mimetic Beast
Pilot Skills:
Break Morale Limit
Commander L3
Prevail L6
Support Attack L2
Attack Combo L2
Mech Features:
10% HP Regen
30% EN Regen

Big huge enemy with a ton of HP and packs a mighty punch. It’s got a MAPW that hits anything in a 6x6 area around it, and that Command Aura is another big reason why you wanna let the enemies come to you. Also, its strongest attack is range 3-8, so it’ll absolutely be sniping at you on approach – docking everyone inside the Minerva’ll make things easier for you.
Now, you might be able to kill it in one round if everyone’s in position to use their best attacks, but it’ll be a tight squeeze. Best approach, I think, is to assume you won’t make it and do it in two turns.

First things first, though, we’ve a ton of enemies to deal with, so let’s get to it. Fast forward!

Enemy Phase!

The EVAs are your best friends this mission because anything outside the boss is very unlikely to pop the A.T. Field. Set them up front.

Most beasts are still on approach.

Player Phase!

Get the little guys!

The first wave of them gets killed by Rei, Anna and Aoi.

Enemy Phase!

Fat Boys still like to snipe.

Quatre’s got the range to counter, though. Two to him and Hyouma

Player Phase!

Shinn’s Arondite hits well enough underwater, mind, so you want him to get that morale quick.
That’s all the Fat Boys down.

Enemy Phase!

Crap, I got greedy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LvA6pAO0CY
Rey can take beams, though.

As the Land/Flying combo come in, our team brings down the fliers and focuses on the bulkier Land Types.

Barely enough, but we’re good. Once you kill enough…

Alarm!

: What is it?!
: Energy spike coming from the Super Mimetic Beast! It’s… A space-time shockwave!
: Hrm?! My meters are…!
: Something’s wrong with my controls…!

RUMBLE!

: All hands, brace for impact!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-qdagREH3Q

: What happened?! Move, G-Zero Gunner!
: The Plasma Drive’s level is…!
: Nothing is working – the nuclear fission engines are also faltering! Not even our super-electromagnetic energy can handle this…!
: No one can move…?!
: All deployed troops have been immobilized!
: What?!
: … The #00 can still move.
: Yes, it looks like only the EVAs haven’t been immobilized! How…?!
: My guess is the enemy did something to mess with our units’ drive systems.
: Then why haven’t the EVAs…?
: I get it… it’s because they aren’t actually robots, but man-made humanoids…!
: How’re we looking, Kosuke? Can the mechs bounce back from that?!
: Yes, but it’ll take them several minutes at worst. On the other hand, if we’re hit with another of those attacks before then…
: And it ain’t like the Mimetic Beasts are just gonna sit there. Things just went south in a big way…!
: Our EVAs are still moving, so we’ll try and draw their attention…!
: That’s crazy, Shinji! Even the EVAs and their barriers can’t take these many guys!
: Still, this is what we can do… what we have to do… We’re the only ones who can keep you all safe!
: Shinji…

Another reason you keep your guys back and bunched up is this: let them get immobilized in a bad spot and it’ll be all that much harder to keep them alive if they’re swarmed.
There isn’t anything we can do to speed things up, so we hold back and wait. Your guys can still attack, but most of them are stuck where they are. As before, try to keep Shinji and Rei up front to draw in the enemies.

Player Phase!

: Damn it, more of them! Are we still down, Kosuke?!
: Still nothing! We need more time!

A Type-13 Mimetic Beast rushes Rei down!

: !! Ayanami!

: …!
: Hrk! This time I’ll protect her…!

: UWAAH!
: Ikari!
: We gotta do something, or he’ll…!
: I’m still up…! We’re the only ones who can move! And I’m the only one who can protect both Ayanami and the Minerva… So that’s what I’ll do…!
: Well said, Shinji!

: Are you hurt, Shinji?
: Goh! Mira!
: Goh?!
: The Godannar and Neo Okusaer?! Who’re piloting them?!
: It’s me and Mira!
: You idiot! If you deploy now, you’ll—!
: I know, but I can’t just watch this and not do anything!
: The future of mankind’s on the line here, and Shinji has it right! I got to do whatever it is that I can do here!
: Heh, I figured he’d turn up eventually if I waited by the Godannar.
: Whatever the case, we’ve to keep our friends and the Dannar Base safe!

: Here we go, Shinji!
: Alright!

[i]Shinji, Rei and the Combattler aren’t essential anymore, but now you need to keep Goh safe (he can move just fine). Proceed as you have, and let the new wave of Mimetic Beasts come across the map.

And make sure you heal Shinji up.

That’s the first batch of enemies down.

Enemy Phase!

Cut a few down to size.

Player Phase!

: I have found you at last, the king of the Mimetic Beasts…
: Blade Gainer! And Lou! You here to start trouble with us again?!
: I haven’t the leeway to bother on you. In fact, surely you realize that we’re both living on borrowed time…
: …! You too…?
: I’ve only a few remnants of life remaining, but I’ll gladly burn them all away here if it lets me crush this beast!

Ken and Lou cast focus.

: Hmph… Have it your way. I guess we’ll see whether it’s our lives or his that run out first!
: Come on, Mimetic Beasts! None of us fear death, and now you’ll get an eyeful of the power that gives us!
: Goh, we’re detecting another energy spike within the Super Mimetic Beast! If it fires off that attack again, the Godannar’ll also be immobilized and then it’ll be all over!
: We estimate another three minutes before it fires! You’ll have to destroy it by then!
: Yes, ma’am!

Hahahahaha, no. You’re not on an actual timer, so ignore what the game says and hold your ground. Not like you actually could kill the Super Mimetic Beast with just Goh, Mira, the EVAs and Ken’s group (barring massive upgrades).

Oh, and keep this in mind:

Secret Alert!
Do not let either Ken or Lou to get shot down. If you had Goh or Anna destroy Lou in mission 10 (rescue route), you can skip this.

It’s not really difficult, actually, because both have boss HP still. Better still, many of the beasts up there will gang up on Ken, and he can easily carve them up (I suppose that’s bad if you’re keeping this route and want cash).
Just make sure you keep a few Trust casts at the ready, because the Super Beast WILL hurt them, and Lou’s tendency to support defend means she’ll take a lot of punishment.

Carrying on.

: Two minutes until the second space-time shockwave!
: We have to beat the Super Mimetic Beast quickly…!

Annoyingly, the beasts seem to prefer Rei to Shinji.

: None will stop me… I do this for Lou’s sake, as well as my own…!

–

: The king Mimetic Beast, the one that killed my dad…! I finally have you…!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nWcDW85xd0

: We’ve less than a minute until it fires another space-time shockwave! Hurry!
: Copy that! I’ll do whatever it takes!

Player Phase!

: Damn! Lou, we’re combining!
: Roger, Ken!

: Are you—?!
: Remember always, this heinous sight… These are the final moments of someone who’s lived for vengeance!

“My vengeance… ends here…”

*The Blade Gainer’s absorbed into the Super Mimetic Beast!

: No…! LOOOOUUU!
: The Super Mimetic Beast’s stopped attacking! It looks like the organ that generated that space-time shockwave’s been damaged!
: All of our units are recovering their controls as we speak!
: It’s great that we can move again, but…
: Lou is…!
: Raaaargh! LOU!! You… you monster! GAAAAAAAAH!!

: Goh!
: Compose yourself, Goh!
: DIIIIIEEEEE!!

: Insania ratio’s jumped past 170! He can’t…! Goh… he’s triggered the Rabid Syndrome!
: GRAAAAAARGH!!

The Godannar turns hostile!

: It… it’s happened…
: But… Goh! Please, calm down!
: Goh! Come on!
: UGAAAAAAAH!
: It ain’t working! He’s gone completely crazy!
: Anna, do you think you could get through to him?!
: If we were combined and I could talk to him face-to-face, I’m sure I could…!
: Still, combining with him like that is…
: Wait just a second, professor. We’re putting together a program that should let us override the Godannar’s controls!
: Right, we’ll give Anna the chance she needs!
: OK, then step one is to immobilize the Godannar. In the meantime, we’ll make the necessary changes to the combination routine.
: You all heard him! Cover the Goh Okusaer and immobilize the Godannar!
: GWAAAAAAARGH!
: Urk…! That’s the hero of the War of Giants, for you… His fighting spirit alone hits like a hammer!
: Hrm… And we’re supposed to stop him just by ourselves…?!
: The hell’re you cowering like that for?! Haaaaah! Come and fight me… GOOH!!
: Now it’s my time to help you, Goh. I’ll put a stop to you… but as your friend!
: I swear I’ll save you…! Wait just a bit, Goh!

Still going, our objective now is to reduce the Godannar below 5000 HP.
Goh, like Ken before him, has Prevail L9 now, so you absolutely don’t want to deal with him in the water. Pull back, let him cross the pond and then engage. Do note that he now has a 2-6 range attack, so you’ll need to give him a wider berth.

Fast forward a couple more turns, and Goh’s in position. The last beasts are tagging along, and will support defend him if given the chance – don’t.
With the way clear, we’re ready to go.

: Kch… uurk…
: I’ve learned so much from you and our friends…
: If I can pay you back just a bit, then I will…! I might be so afraid, but it doesn’t matter! I want to save you, Goh!

Shinji: “I’ll… stop the Godannar!”

: Watch our stance, Sakuya. Mess up and he’s going to send us flying…!
: I’m doing the best I can here…! No promises when we’re up against the Godannar jacked up on some Mimetic Beasts, though!
: Hrrgh… UWAAAAA!
: Incoming, Aoi!
: We gotta pin him down…! I wanna see my favorite Beauty and the Beast couple back together!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4YRSm5Stdc
Here’s the new attack, with the Mimetic Beasts Sakuya was talking about.
Aoi: “We’ve to take on the Godannar…”
Johnny: “That’s about as tough as this can get!”

: (Dying was never what truly scared Goh…)
: (No, it was losing his humanity and becoming an enemy of those who fight for our future… That’s what scared him above all…)
: (Then there’s only one thing I can do for him…)

Mira: “Goh, I…”

: Never thought we’d ever be scuffling like this… This is someone I never wanted to fight if I could’ve helped it.
: GRAAAAAARGH!
: Let’s do this, Goh! I’m stopping you with every drop of strength I got!

Kouji: “We’re never giving up on you, Goh!”

When Goh’s under 25k HP:

Beep, beep!

: That’s… We’re detecting new Mimetic Beasts signals!
: What, more are incoming?!

: That’s a Destroy! They hijacked even that thing?!
: Your main objective is still the same. Keep an eye on the new hostiles, but focus on immobilizing the Godannar!

: NGAAAAH!
: His presence is overwhelming… But we can’t fail here! We’ll stop him, just like we did with Kouichi!

Quatre: “I’ve to stop the Godannar, whatever it takes!”

: You can’t just up and die on us! Even I was looking forward to seeing your comeback!
: RAAAAAAAARGH!
: So I’m coming in to bail you out! I’ll put a stop to the Godannar!

Shinn: “The hero of the War of Giants… can we really stop him?”

: Goh… You’ve taught me so much about how to fight. And I’ll be saving with you all of that!
: Let’s do it, Ichitaka!

Ichitaka: “We might be up against the Godannar, but this is no time to be chicken!”

: Wasn’t a world free of the Mimetic Beasts your dream, Goh?! We’re so close to making that real!
: Oorgh…GAAAAAAH!
: Hang in there, Combattler! We can’t get broken down before the Dannar’s immobile!

Chizuru: “We’ve got to bring Anna’s feelings to him!”
Hyouma: “Yeah, here we go!”

: Goh Saruwatari… What’ll become of LOTUS if we lose even you?
: Guuooorgh…UWOOOOO!
: No, we just cannot let that happen! You’re the leader of our troops… and our comrade in arms!

Zechs: “What a crushing spirit… your reputation is well deserved, Godannar!”

: It’s not every day I get the chance to fight someone of your skill, Goh… !
: Hrrmm… AAAAAAH!!
: Hah… Even I, Tetsuya Tsurugi, am intimidated… You’re an amazing man, Goh Saruwatari…!

Tetsuya: “The Godannar… Never did I expect it to turn into such a terrifying enemy!”

: Goh, listen to me! Goh!
: UOOOOOOH!
: It’s really not going to work unless we combine…? You pigheaded moron!
: (I’ll be seeing you soon… Hold on, Goh…!)

Anna: “Hang in there, Goh! I’m going to save you, I promise!”

: K-K-Kch…

: He’s still going?!

Mira turns neutral!

: Mira?!
: I made a promise to him. That if he ever turned into our enemy… then I’d kill him…!
: Mira! Are you going to use that?!
: I won’t just let you have him, Anna! I’ll kill him, and then I’ll also die!
: STOOOOP!!

: Did she do it…?!
: No, the Godannar wasn’t destroyed!
: And now he can’t move at all…
: Huh…?!

Mira switches back.

: It was you who took him from me during my five years of sleep, Anna…
: So show me the bond you two share… so that I might give up… so that I might move on!
: … Okay! Take a look!
: We’re all done programming! The Godannar can Drive Change!
: I’m coming right now, Goh! Drive Change – GO!

: Godannar, Twin Drive!

: I’m here, Goh!
: Anna… Don’t… Don’t look… at me…
: There’s nothing to be afraid of… It’s only the two of us in here.
: Goh… I love you…!

: That’s!
: She really did it…!
: Goh…
: Thanks, Anna… If you’re here with me… then I can fight!!
: It is by gaining a human soul that the Steel Giant, that which is equal to God, becomes a true ENVOY OF JUSTICE!
: This is the marriage of God and soul! Forward, everyone! Now is the time to bring this battle to a close!

OH MY GOD, WE ARE ALMOST FINISHED!
Except that there are still a ton of MS beasts down south, but they’re on land and are very easily dispatched.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W5CWHG8Ob0
And here’s the video of Mira’s new attack, complete with the DK.

Fast forward another couple of turns for me to kill everything, get everyone aboard the Minerva and sail the over to Boss Island.
Now we can finally bring this drag of a mission to a close!

: This is it! We just need to take you out, and then no one’ll have to live in fear of the Mimetic Beasts…
: Step up, beasties! Today’s the last day of your lives!

–

: This one sure has power on a wholly different level from the Trojan Horse…
: Too bad for you, the Great Hero’s been an old hand at monster hunting for years now. Super Mimetic Beast or no, you’ll go down just the same!

: Can we actually beat this giant of a Mimetic Beast…?
: No, I can’t let it intimidate me… I made a decision to answer the Chairman’s resolve in kind. So, whatever enemy comes my way, I’ll fight!

: Think it’s really gonna be over this time?
: Judging by what Prof. Tatsuya said, I’m sure everything’ll be A-OK.
: And they can come back a many times as they want, we’ll just drive them out. Again and again, all in the name of peace… sounds good?
: What he said. But, with luck, we’ll also have some time to put our feet up…
: So come on! We’ll take on all comers until peace is back in this world!

: Do keep calm, Hyouma. Let yourself get too incensed and you’d be playing right into the Mimetic Beasts’ hand.
: Relax, Kosuke… I’m as cool as can be here…
: I’m Hyouma Aoi of LOTUS. We’re carrying the future of everyone on Earth on our backs, and I’m not screwing up right at the moment of truth!
: Hyouma…
: Today’s the day…! We’re putting an end to the battle with the Mimetic Beasts right now! Let’s do this, guys!

Once its HP is under 50%…

: We’ve done so much damage to it, and it hasn’t even flinched yet…!
: That’s why it’s the king. It’s way tougher than all of its mooks…!

: Look! The Celleblader came out the Super Mimetic Beast!
: Lou…! You’re alive?!
: And I can still fight as well, Goh! Ken… he showed me where the Super Mimetic Beast’s regeneration organ’s at! Over there!
: Meaning, if we can destroy that…!
: Then we’ve a good chance of yanking the carpet out from under ‘em!
: Good…! Just a bit more… and we can win this…!

: This is where my history with you beasts comes to a close…! I’ll bring an end to everything with this battle…!

: I don’t know how far I can go with this, but I made up my mind…! I’ve enough strength to protect others, and I will protect them…!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g65A0zUFxLA

: It could be said that the Mimetic Beasts wouldn’t have evolved this much if we hadn’t driven them into a corner…
: But, from the beasts’ POV, any powerless human is an easy mark. And, so, I cannot hesitate to turn my blade against them!

: OK, this is the real final showdown! And we’re here to bring peace to the spirits of all those you monsters hurt!

: I understand… you’re also just trying your hardest to survive. Still, we cannot just allow that. Because we know it’d only mean more sorrow spreading through the world!

: Goh! We’ll finish it off together!
: Yeah…!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOCj58SpbUQ

: The Super Mimetic Beast’s core is confirmed destroyed!
: Take THAT!

: Y-YEAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!
: The Mimetic Beasts… are finished!
: Rrgh…
: Goh… Goh?!
: I know well the pain of those left behind. I won’t die and do that to you…!
: Goh…!

And there we have it… Here are the convos we missed:

: (This thing is terrifying… Just looking at it has got me shivering.)
: (But even more than that is my desire to fight against it. I can’t deny that. Mira, if the worst comes to happen… do what you must.)
: … I am Goh Saruwatari, beast! And this’ll be our final battle!

–

: GRAAAAAARGH!
: This can’t be how it ends… the man I loved deserves better…!
: … I’ll make you a deal, Goh. Come back to us and I’ll treat you to some world-class wine and steak!

–

: This has been a long time coming… And you’ll get an ample taste of how powerful a woman can be after she’s been kept waiting all this time!

–

: Goh Saruwatari! If you’ve really turned into a bad guy, then it’s my job to take you down!
: Hrk… uuurgh…!
: But I know you’re a big hero, not an enemy! So I… WE will stop you!

–

: If the enemy’s strong, then you burn even stronger… That’s what being a man’s all about…!
: You look like the real deal, Super Mimetic Beast! Let’s do this and see who’ll be leaving here with the gold!

: Okay, Goh! Open wide!
: P-Please, Anna. I can eat just fine by myself…
: No, no, I wanna help you! Again, open wide! How does it taste?
: It’s rice porridge, it doesn’t taste good or bad…
: Oh, don’t be like that. You know how hard it was to make this?
: All it takes is Anna being around for your Badass Ace shtick to come crashing down, eh, Goh?
: Still, I’m so glad things ended fine for hm.
: Absolutely. Even with a successful vaccine being made, the fact that Goh managed to recover from that state tells of how amazing he is.
: Hell, yeah. Refusing to die until the very end is a must for heroes!
: “A must for heroes”, huh… Right, you’re all amazing.
: Hey, now, what’re you talking about there? You’re also one of the day’s heroes, Shinji.
: Yeah, you and Rei.
: O-Oh, no… We were just lucky that we were piloting the EVAs…
: We just did as we had to.
: Standing your ground, and doing as you have to; a simple thing in theory, but very hard to put into practice. What you did today is very much worthy of praise, Shinji.
: You were brave and you did real good, that’s what we think. Always knew you had it in ya, Shinji.
: …
: Nevertheless, we also owe some major thanks to the PLANTs scientists.
: Yeah, I still can’t believe how fast they managed to cook up a vaccine for the Insania Virus, especially with how no one knew that much about the thing until recently.
: Wasn’t just our folks that made it happen, you know. It was a joint effort between them, JUDA and the Dannar Base.
: Hm, developing a countermeasure for the Insania Virus was a worldwide matter. You don’t need to thank us specifically.
: But still, we both want to do it regardless!
: A-Alright…
: The people of the PLANTs, JUDA, at the Dannar Base…
: And all of our friends in LOTUS, who’ve always had our backs… You all deserve our deepest gratitude…

Misato’s talked to Lady Une and she’s left it up to her to decide what to do with Lou. So, does the girl seriously want to fight with us? She is: “Both Ken and I lost people we loved to the Mimetic Beasts, and that made us choose the path of battle. I don’t want there to be other people like me, so I want to fight for that.”
Goh walks in and likes what he hears: if she’s now fighting now for vengeance, but the for the sake of others, then it’s a good sign of how much she’s grown as a warrior. Both he and Anna aren’t going to stop her from doing this – rather, they’ll be together now not just as family, but as fellow teammates.
Lou is very thankful, and very apologetic for everything she did. But there’s someone else, and Kiriko asks if he shares in Lou’s new agenda.

It’s Ken, and having already forsaken his life once, he figures it’s his turn to support the girl’s wishes. The hostile codenamed Menage Zero died fighting the Super Mimetic Beast, Kiriko declares and suggests he carry on his new life as a warrior.
Misato seems satisfied and welcomes them both the crew – they’ll all be working together in the name of world peace!

You probably already guessed it, but you only get Ken if you did either of the secret steps in this stage or the previous split.

Speaking of, ending the battle with the Mimetic Beasts puts us one step closer towards that. There’s still much to be done, Misato knows, but it’s certainly a step forward. And now that Hyouma takes a look at the command room, he realizes: where’s Tatsuya? The guy isn’t around anywhere.
Kiriko says he left not too long ago, off to look into some other enemy factions prowling about the world. The guy keeps as busy as Lady Une herself, she sighs. Still, Anna’s sure she’ll see her father again once the world is truly at peace.

Now, Lulu’s just called over to report on the fight with the Jama Kingdom and is en route to JUDA to rendezvous with us. Kiriko thanks us again for all our hard work, but, of course, our battles are far from over. It’ll be a while to get there while there still are other groups threatening the world, but she wishes us to keep our chins up.
Tetsuya thanks her back for all the help she and her team’s provided, and Misato orders everyone back to JUDA – there’ll likely be much to discuss.

[Mattman324]

Why is it SRW always has these stupidly annoying water based stages whenever Getter Robo isn’t around to profit from them? That bugs the fuck out of me.

EDIT: Saw the post you made on SA about Jeeg in K, so let me explain the situation.

In K, Jeeg starts from its Episode 1/2 plot on Stage… 3, I think, mixed with a tiny bit of SEED Destiny stuff with Athrun being Alex Dino (he rides an Orb MS for that stage and then joins your extended do-nothing cast for like ten stages before getting to pilot again). Then Stage 4 has a bit of Jeeg enemies, as I recall, but it’s immediately lost as your cast gets flung to another universe, which starts four of the most assholish stages in SRW history. That’s the end of the Jeeg cast being notable until Stage 17, where you get the Mach Drill and Bazooka during a weird stage where Himika does something and then you fight some Jeeg enemies and then Hiroshi joins you. Notably, this gives you Double Spin Storm, but NOT the other combo, and you still have no Balba even though Hiroshi has the Panzeroid. You then have no Jeeg plot until Stage 33 or so, where Balba joins you (you never FOUGHT it) and you fight and kill Himika and get the final comboattack.

In L, you start on about Episode 6 on the plot. You skip getting the various Parts (Marine, Sky, and Earth) because K didn’t have them, and the events surrounding them aren’t there, and you also skip a weird dream sequence episode, but Balba shows up like he did in one of those episodes. Then you get the big battle underground where Kyou shows up as Takeru (didn’t even happen in K as far as I recall) and Balba joins you, and then you get the big space battle in multiple parts. This only gives you the latter half of the show, unlike K, but it DOES give you much more of the show in general.

…of course, all of Jeeg is restricted to the first half of L, like Godannar and Gaiking LoDM, but eh, I can understand them wanting to let the newer shows (and SEED Destiny, which was fucking horribly handled in K) have a chance. Probably also why Mazinkaiser, Combattler, and Voltes only are really background characters outside of a certain few events coming up. Though, in that case, I really wish Combattler had plot, since it’s been a long damn time since that happened (ALPHA 3! Same with Voltes, though that did have J). And I wish Voltes let you keep the Big Falcon as a battleship, since this is the first time it’s as much as a map sprite and not just a thing on the map.

[Brunom1]

Yeah, that sounds like awful pacing… I wish they at least made the other Jeeg parts attack-only, like the Gaiking forms and Impulse packs. But, then again, maybe they figured Jeeg already had enough tricks.

And, speaking of Mazinkaiser, Yumi STILL hasn’t fixed the thing. Someone needs to kick down the door on his space station to ask what’s the holdup.

[Brunom1]

Click to see the mission!

We’re back at the Himika route – the actually fun route – and Daiya’s sprint shows no sign of stopping. Ichitaka’s actually been caught up by Kenji now, likely due to the former’s attack power starting to lag behind the other protags.

Still, I help him and his buddy out. The Rushbird’s squad bonus is now Armor +200, HP+1500, A in Land, Movement +1; Linebarrel’s is melee weapons’ power +200, mobility +15.
Our Jeegs max out their EN, Alto, Iczer-3 and Kenichi take random stuff here and there.

As for our squads, every Jeeg unit is still auto-deploying, so we’re the same as before:
Ozma/Luca
Gaiking/Yanma
Kouichi/Yamashita
Ichitaka/Miu
Dick/Puria
Domyoji/Klan
Voltes/Canaria
Alto/Michel
Iczer-3/Deceive

Onward!

Evil is swerving all around our people, and Lulu feels it all gathering into the Great Bronze Bell. Iczer-3 feels it too – it’s just as bad as Neos Gold – and Kyo explains that the Jama Kingdom is crystallizing and converting hatred, resentment, and all kinds of negative emotions into power for them to use.
That’s some appropriately dark fuel they use there, Kenji sniffs, but Tsubaki is certain we can counter it by materializing our own wishes for peace and happiness. “You two managed to reclaim the Bronze Bells, so I’m sure you can seal away the Great Bronze Bell,” Hiroshi adds.

In the meantime, Daiya says we’ll stoke the flames in our hearts and help them out all the way; none of us will be broken by some negative emotions, says Alice! That goes double for Kouichi, who’s not willing to let hatred control him again.
Sounds great to Kenji – charge!

Mission 22 (Himika Route) – The Blade of the Soul, Piercing Through Evil

Himika’s rather amused that we’d dare face the might of the Great Bronze Bell – ample proof that we’re idiots to Amaso. Kenji and Ichitaka don’t care, of course: even if they got a power-up from the Bronze Bell, that still won’t make us give in! Things won’t be going their way while we’re around to fight!
Himika scoffs at our sass: we are nothing more than cosmic trash, and we know not our place! Indeed, having gained the power of the Great Bronze Bell, Amaso proclaims themselves to be invincible; Mimashi and Ikima are more than willing to get rid of us themselves, even if it costs them their lives, saving Himika the trouble of having to deal with us. CRY IN TERROR!
Jeffrey and Lulu ignore them, tagging the Great Bronze Bell as our primary target – that antique has to go. “Here we come, Himika! Your gang’s gonna be smoke by the time we’re done!” Kenji yells.

Kill everything, don’t lose any ship or Jeeg units.
Now this is far less of a hassle than the Godannar finale, in that what you see is what you get. There’s a big mob of Haniwas up ahead, with Himika’s three goons right in the middle. In other words, it’s the exact fight you had in the previous mission.
There’s more to it, of course, but this first part of our offensive has no surprises. Only thing I’d suggest is that, like on the other path, you try your best to conserve especially your SP – you’ve two ships and several units with command auras, so you should manage to only pop spirits for the bosses. Oh, and there are some bigger meteors around the area that’ll give +20% to evasion and defense, so keep an eye out for them.
The plot’ll kick in once all enemies are down, so let’s fast fooorwaaard!

And I don’t know if I never took this attack on someone vulnerable to debuffs, but it was only NOW that I realized it turns the range of all your attacks to shit. Might wanna prioritize these.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl8deEQgETQ
And here’s Classic Jeeg’s Mach Drills, complete with Micchi showing that she’s nowhere as hotblooded as Tsubaki when shooting parts.

: How could I let myself be defeated here…! Your Majesty, I leave everything in your hands!!

: That was Mimashi, right…? I probably wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t attacked Misaki back then…
: I guess that’s one thing I’m grateful to him…

: Gwargh! You kicked me?! Not even Her Majesty kicks me! YOUR MAJESTYYYYYY!!

: What a weirdo… but he was still pretty strong.

: Heheheh! HAHAHAHA! Sacrificing myself is nothing if it’ll benefit Her Majesty!
: I’ll be awaiting your arrival in the underworld, HUMAAAANSS!

: So loyal until the end… he sure was worthy of being one of her three generals.
: Well, he won’t be away from her long. Himika’ll be following real soon!

Once everything’s dead…

: Hmhmhm… AHAHAHAHA!
: The hell are ya laughing at, Himika?!
: I’m simply amused at how quickly Ikima and the others perished! Ahahahaha!
: And that’s funny to you?! They were your allies…!
: You’re telling me your kind really doesn’t know love, companionship or anything?!
: No matter, I’ll give you ample display of my might. Rise, evil spirits! I command you to gather and take up form before me!
: What’s she doing?! Something’s off – I can feel it!

BOOM!

: What was that?!
: That wasn’t just malice… those were ghosts!

: A mass of pure evil… is it pouring through from Hell itself…?!
: Anyone have a magic sword to cut these down? Because I think we’ll need one…!

BOOM!

: HAHAHAHA! Can you still prattle about love in a universe that produced so much enduring hatred? Hell is awash with these souls!
: Why don’t you take a closer look? You might even spot some familiar faces in there! Hahahahaha…!

: Uuuuuuuuuh!
: The hell?!
: I can feel it… hatred from all around the universe is massing inside him!
: So it’s an amalgamation of evil spirits…?
: Hahahaha! Every last one of you’ll die here!
: The Susano-o’s grows as it devours grieving, hateful spirits, and your planet is a treasure trove of those! Its strength shall be limitless!
: Uuuuuuuuh!
: That guy’s scary…!
: Seriously, even I’m getting chills down my spine…!
: Hrm…!
: Don’t let ‘em push you around, people!

: ! Kenji…!
: Even if we gotta tangle with all the evil and bad juju in the universe, so what?! We’ll fight back with enough positive vibes to kick its ass! That’s how we’ll keep Earth safe!
: … He’s right. We’ll be going nowhere fast by feeling blue.
: Muster your resolve once more, troops. We’ve an exorcism to see to!
: I said it once, and I’ll say it again: bring it! Your evil ain’t breaking my spirit!

Susano-o
Pilot Skills:
Break Morale Limit
Prevail L7
Support Attack L2
Attack Combo L2
Mech Features:
10% HP Regen
30% EN Regen

The Susano-o is the strongest enemy we’ve had to deal with by a mile: it’s got massive stats everywhere, good skills, armor, accuracy, 100k HP, power, etc, etc.
It’s also jampacked with stuff you need to be wary of: first and foremost, it, like the Super Mimetic Beast, has a MAPW that hits in a 6x6 area around it (thankfully it takes 130 morale, and it’s unlikely to get there); its weakest attack (3-8 range) drains SP and second strongest (2-6 range) decreases your attack power. So, attacking it at point blank is best if your guy can’t dodge.
The big Prevail, HP Regen and MAPW (with a +30 accuracy modifier) means you really wanna try to beat it in one round, and your guys are certainly capable of doing that – just make sure everyone’s in range to use their best tricks. Do that, make sure everyone’s protected, and you’ll be fine.

Also…

It’s invincible!

: Surely that’s not all you’re capable of! Your struggles won’t amount to anything if attacks like that are your best!
: Hate to say it, but that thing’s strong…!
: It’s pretty much a being of pure, inexhaustible energy, so conventional weapons won’t help…!
: … I’ll find us a way!
: Tsubaki?!
: Find us… What’re you up to?!
: It’s being fed energy from the Great Bronze Bell! If we can cut that stream, then…!

Tsubaki flies towards the Great Bronze Bell!

: Tsubaki, that’s crazy! What’re you doing, Kyo?!
: Don’t worry, Kenji… Whatever may happen, I’ll keep her safe.
: It might really be crazy… but it’s something only I can do!
: But!
: Kenji… I’ve already died once at Aso. My life span is also reaching its end – that’s why I entrusted the Bronze Bells to you and Hiroshi.
: …! Are you…?!
: Get ready, Himika! I’m going to tear your secret weapon, that lump of evil, to pieces!
: The audacity… There is nothing a child like you can do!
: Takeru may have eluded death before, but Hell now beckons the two of you!!

: Aa—
: N-No…
: Kyo… Tsubaki…
: You son of a bitch…! AAAAAAAAAAARGH!!

: Gwooooooh!
: Kenji, stop! Calm down!
: They’ll pay! THEY’RE ALL GONNA PAY!!

: Get away from it, Kenji!
: SHUT UUUP!!

: HAAHAHAHA! Ultimately, humans are nothing but fools! For all your proclamations about justice, you are quick to lose yourselves to anger and hatred!
: That’s bull! Being considerate to one another, doing what’s right – that’s what it means to be human!
: I’ll concede that your emotions are powerful, indeed. However, it is when those are transformed into hatred that their full power is manifested!

: GRAAAAAARGH!

: Kenji…!
: Do you understand now? Hatred is the mightiest force in the universe! Hahahahah!
: There’s no way hatred’s the strongest! Absolutely not! Humans are much better than that!
: Nonsense. It was precisely by the idiocy of humans that my warrior has taken form! Behold the depths of their sins, and know them to be true!
: Go, Jeeg! Consign your very being to boundless hatred and be reborn as a demon!
: GAAAAAWAAAAARGH!

: Kenji’s temperature, blood pressure and heartrate are increasing rapidly! He’s…!
: Don’t let anger lead you on, Kenji! Control yourself!
: UoooOOoOOOoOOOOO!

: Urgh…! Kenji…!
: Are you alright, Hiroshi?!
: Kenji, you gotta pull yourself together!
: He can barely remember his own name, I’d wager! Such is a human: no more than a dimwitted animal!
: Do you see it now? At your core, there is no difference between your kind and ours!
: What do we do…?! Only Kenji and Tsubaki could seal away the Great Bronze Bell…!
: If Kenji won’t stop, then there’s only one option left for us!
: We’ll have to… fight Jeeg!
: Huuh!?
: You’re telling us to beat him?!
: I can’t do it! That’s still Kenji!
: I want you to trust me here! If anything, we need to first pummel him into submission!

: UOOOOOOOH!
: Back when I’d hit rock bottom, everyone helped pull me back up!
: So now I’ll be there to help pull you off that vortex of hatred, Kenji!

: UoooOOoOOOoOOOOO!
: Kenji, please! Wake up!
: This is the worst possible moment for you to let those evil spirits get the better of you!
: Hahahah! You waste your breath! If you care for your friend so, why not put him out of his misery and end his life?
: We won’t play your games, Himika! We will bring Kenji back to normal…!
: Everyone attack! If we can immobilize him, then maybe…!
: Guess we can’t afford to hesitate…! All troops, move to engage Jeeg!

This route gets in on that action, too, though Kenji actually has way more HP than Goh – 8000 is a pretty big leeway, though, and his armor’s not that high. This is where you start spending that SP you’ve been hoarding, as Kenji’s got a lot of Prevail, hits hard and is quite dodgy if you’re not packing some spirits.
Don’t go too crazy, though, because we’ll still need a healthy amount of EN and SP for after he’s weakened!

: I know all about how humans hold both good and evil in their hearts!
: So show us that you can beat that hate into submission, Kenji! Don’t let your bad side take over for good!

: Even if we’ve to tangle with all the evil in the universe, we’ll fight back with our positive vibes and keep Earth safe! Those were your words, Kenji!
: So how can you just let yourself be consumed by those negative emotions?! I know you’re man enough to soldier through that! Get to it!
: Gwuurgh…!

: Curse you, Himika… She turned Kenji’s feelings against him…!
: But there’s still a little perv somewhere in there, so maybe we could work that angle? He might surprise us and get back to normal!
: I wouldn’t be completely against that if it looked like it’d actually work…

: Uooooh…! UUAAAAAAAA!
: We really gotta fight Jeeg… Holding back against him would only get us dead!
: I know, I know! We’ll have to fight seriously… but only so we can save him!

: UOOOOOOOH!!
: Damn, what kind of creepy flame is that?! It’s so different from ours and Proist’s… Is that also ‘cause of his hatred…?!

: What’re you doing, letting some evil spirits put a leash on you, Kenji?! I know you’re not a wimp like that!
: Ichitaka, we should just trust in Hiroshi for now! I know we’ll find a way around this if we do!
: Uurgh… Do I really have to fight him…?!

: UOOOOoooOOO!
: Don’t let those spirits control you, Kenji! You are still alive, and that life is your own!

–

: OOOOOOORGH!
: Kenji, I know how much you cared for Tsubaki and Kyo!
: But think of how sad they’d be to see those feelings turn you into Himika’s puppet!

: Grrgh…! Uoooooh…!

Kenji twitches about.

: How…?! He’s on his last legs, but he’s not stopping…!
: UOOOOOoooOoOOoooo!

: Kenji… Is there really no way to save you…?!
: Hmhm…HAHAHA! Oh, how do I enjoy the sight of you killing one another! Please, do finish him off!
: UGWAAAAAAAH!
: STOOOP!!
: …!

: I’m so sorry for worrying you guys!
: Tsubaki!
: Captain, we’ve visual on both the Big Shooter and Baruba!
: They’re alive…!
: Kenji, I’m here and I’m safe! Baruba saved us!
: Grrrrr!
: We’re all safe…! So go back to being the Kenji I know!
: Tsuba… ki…
: Wake up from your nightmare, Kenji!
: Please, come back! KENJIIII!!

: HAAAAAAAAAAAH!

: GWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!
: Kenji!
: Tsubaki… I heard your heart loud and clear! Same goes for all you guys’… Tsubaki relayed all your feelings to me!
: Hahah… He’s himself again.
: You’re gonna have to work hard to pay us back for that, Kenji.
: I’m really, really sorry! And I will repay ya – with interest, even!
: Are you good to go, Kenji?
: Yeah, absolutely!
: You’ll still continue with this exercise in futility?! Surely you’ve grasped the gulf between our powers!
: I didn’t, and I won’t! Let’s do this, Tsubaki!
: OK! Jeeg Parts – Shoot!
: Build UUUUUUP!!

: Steel! JEEEEEEEG!!
: Grooowr!

: Hahahaha! However many times you rise to oppose me, nothing will change! The negative emotions under my control will swallow you whole!

The Big Shooter moves into Kenji’s team.

: Kenji, I’ve to get there too! We’ll fight together!
: Alright! We’ll show them how strong our spirits are!

And now we’re in the home stretch: wait a turn to recover your moves and throw everything you’ve left at Susano-o to kill him in one round!

Before we cue the music, here’s his two best attacks:

: Anger, hatred, evil… You actually think some piece of crap made outta that can take us down?!
: Eat this, monster: the power of a positive middle-schooler!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNxQGwX7PEM

: If you’re taking strength from all hatred in the universe, then we’ll take ours from the trust we feel in each other!
: And the Voltes will not be beaten while those feelings hold steady!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGz2Uuw3Bvk

And now we go!

Stormbringer is 100% uncut hotblood and you should listen to it!

: You might have all the hatred in the universe inside you, but we’re not letting that break us!
: There isn’t anything we can’t wreck by bringing our hearts together!

: I feel them… Ikima, Mimashi and Amaso are inside this monster!
: We’re overflowing with power…! Power with which to fight in Her Majesty’s name!
: And with it, nothing can stop us! Even Jeeg’s just another worm!
: Hiroshi Shiba! This is where your life comes to an end!
: Hmph… I’ll admit that you’re persistent, if nothing else. Come on, then! I’ll send you to where you belong!

We’ll see the Jeeg Panzeroid later, when I can kill with it – I was too scared of its EN cost to use it on a mook!

: Gotta fight a vengeful ghost, huh? Well, the theater taught me exactly how to deal with these!
: Monsters in the wings - Your approach will end in tears - Just as fallen leaves - Crumble to motes of dust - So too will you disappear!

: Ichitaka, that monster’s what the Jama Kingdom used the Great Bronze Bell for! It’s pretty much the ace up their sleeve!
: Meaning, if we kick its ass, they’ll have zip left!

: I can’t let this blob of bad juju, or whatever it is, scare me…! My big sis left Earth and Nagisa-1 in my care!

: Himika… you’ve taken full control of the Great Bronze Bell’s power…?!
: But we know of a power that’s a lot greater than that!
: That’s right, Tsubaki! And that’s how we can stand up to this overwhelming evil without any hesitation!

–

: I’ve no idea how much hate you got inside, but it doesn’t matter ‘cause all of it’s about to go up in smoke!
: It’s useless! The malice within humans is endless… The more you struggle, the more negative emotions you’ll birth! You’d best accept this fact!
: Pfft, you ain’t scaring me with that! We got the Priestess of the Bronze Bells on our side! So your Ghost of Baddies Past here is about to get a one-stop ticket back to Hell!

: Oh, YEAH! We got ‘im! How’dya like them apples, Himika?!
: Hrrrmm! This isn’t over yet! IT IS NOT OVER!!
: What is she doing…?!
: Susano-o! Feast upon the malice that pervades this world! Take in all that evil will!

: GWOOOOOOOOOOH!
: What?!
: How the… Is that thing immortal?!
: The Susano-o is an embodiment of malice and hatred! So long as those exist within the hearts of men, it will endure!
: You might’ve gathered up all those emotions, but your plans’ll still fall through!
: Idiocy! Whatever ideas you lot might have, hatred shall always be the mightiest force of all!
: You’re wrong! It is our heart, the love we feel for one another, that’s made humans who they are! It’ll never be beaten by malice!
: And now you’ll see the power of that human heart! Let’s go, Kenji!
: Yeah!

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

: Th-That was!
: He looked like a proper God of Steel! The Steel God Jeeg!
: W-Wooooow…!
: How did you muster such power, brat…?!
: Because I’m not alone – I surrounded by people I love, and who love me! Let’s get in there, Tsubaki!
: Yeah!

: Good luck, Kenji, Tsubaki…

: Not once did I expect you to make it so far! But now my patience has run out! DIE!!

BOOM!

: Gaaah!
: Aaaah!

Beep!

: Kenji, do you hear me?! Pool yours and Tsubaki’s strength together again!
: Kyo? Okay…!

: Wh-What the…?! This sword just showed up outta thin air…!
: It is Sakahoko, the blade of the soul! Only an heir to a Bronze Bell may have it!
: “Blade of the soul”?!
: Kenji, Tsubaki! Let your heart unleash its power and seal away both Himika and the Great Bronze Bell!
: You wouldn’t dare! If you do so while inside the Great Bronze Bell, you shall be sealed away yourselves!
: Ahahaha! This is it, Himika! That’s game over for you!
: What…?!
: I ain’t got a problem with getting sealed away! What about you, Tsubaki?
: Same! I came here ready to carry out my duty!
: Your words ring hollow! Could you truly sacrifice yourselves so readily?!
: Hell, yeah, we can! Grab my hand, Tsubaki! We’ll show her what our hearts are all about!
: Okay! Let’s unleash Sakahoko’s power!

: Wh-Why…?! How can you give up on your own lives…?!
: Because there’re a whole lot more emotions in a human heart than just anger and hatred!
: There’s also so much kindness, friendship and love! Those are always there, even when they’ve no reason to be!
: Hrk…! It’s inconceivable that anger and hatred would be bested by such nonsense…!
: The hell do we care about what you think?! Time to end this, Tsubaki!
: … We’ll see each other again, right, Kenji?
: Yeah! Absolutely!
: Okay!
: Oh, lost soul! Sleep here forever!

: This cannot be happening! I cannot be defeated by something as feeble as the heart! GRWAAAAAAAAAARGH!!

Back outside…

: Kenji! Tsubaki!
: They…!
: Did they do it…?!

: The Great Bronze Bell’s signal has completely vanished! It’s been sealed away successfully!
: What about Kenji and Tsubaki?! I don’t see them on my sensors!
: There’s… no sign of them.
: No…! Kenji, Tsubaki, Kyo…!
: Are they… not coming back?

Bloop.

: What…?!
: We’ve a ping on radar! It’s the Raikouba!

: Kenji! Tsubaki! You’re safe!
: Yup! Made it by the skin of our teeth!
: Welcome back, all of you. And very well done!
: The threat of the Jama Kingdom is now finally over. Let’s head home – to Earth!
: Sure thing! But… you mind giving us a minute before that?
: A minute?
: I just wanna take a look at the stars with Tsubaki before we head back. That cool with you?
: Kenji…
: Go for it, I’ll tell the captains. This peaceful night sky is only here because you’ve made it real.

: We made this night sky real, huh…?
: Through our hearts and all that we feel for our friends… and one another…
: What say you? Wanna fly around a bit?
: Sure… and do you think we could take our time heading back…?
: … Yeah, that’d be just fine.

Vrooom!

[Mattman324]

: Anyone have a magic sword to cut these down? Because I think we’ll need one…!

First, Dancouga’s on the other route. Second, wrong Dancouga.

Someone in the thread asked about Jeeg, and incase you’re curious: Kotetsushin Jeeg is literally absolutely nothing like the original show. Much like how Gaiking LoDM is a totally different show that occasionally nods at the original, Kotetsushin Jeeg is the same way - I mean, jeez, Himika was the midboss of the original Jeeg. And Hiroshi was voiced by Amuro before he was Amuro.