Part 157: Mission 44 (Moon Route) - Returning to the Day By Day - Part 1
Mission 44 (Moon Route) - Returning to the Day By Day
By Nergal’s HQ, we have a couple of “mysterious people” being taken by surprise as the Successors appear, readying for battle.
The President guesses that they were on high alert due to the Whispered presence and Neo-Wärter’s arrival has made them organize a preemptive strike; the woman is worried because "that" is here too, but the president is sure that "they" will clean up the mess.
A third person quickly congratulates the president, as it seems his insight quickly came true.
That would be our people’s arrival and Gates, leading the enemy, is eager to end our little “detective game”.
He’s happy to see some action, though, complaining about how tedious this “after-service” to the Successors has been – if anything, he owes us for the trouble we caused him before!
Mao asks about Sousuke but all Kurz knows if that he left, on his own, some time ago to do something (Muu wonders if he’s looking for Santa Claus); either way, Noal figures the odds are good that we can find out where the Whispered are if we can beat these guys.
Everyone, including D-Boy, knows that this would not mean the end to the fight with the Successors, though.
Coming fresh off a battle with the Radam, Galra and Database, you realize how little health this Amalgam mooks have.
Mind you, there are Successor Rokurens, two Behemoths and two bosses (eventually). Most mooks will die easily but you’ll need to gang up on those Behemoths to conserve SP.
Kira is the only other unit that can get in attack range, so he takes a chunk off a Shadow.
Enemy Phase!
Oh, bad choice.
Very nice.
A Savage and the weakened Mistral also go for Blade: they are wrecked.
While that happens, Pegas learns Renew!
Kira also gets attacked by a Savage and Mistral – the latter hangs on with fucking 38 HP.
Speaking of Kira, his Shadow decided to go for Valstork.
HA, HA!
Next, it’s the Nadesico’s turn to draw a pair of attackers.
She gets a Savage (that gets killed in one shot) and a Shadow that hangs on at 30% HP.
Moving along, it’s Kazuma’s turn to get picked on.
Fucking Mistrals…
Mind you, another Savage gets killed in one shot after this.
As the battle rages, Sousuke shows up, VERY depressed.
He can only whimper about how Kaname is dead, in answer to Kurz’s question as to why he’s so down.
Vesna doesn’t understand why they would kill a Whispered after going through the trouble of kidnapping both but that seems beside the point; Muu realizes that Sousuke doesn't isn’t in any shape to fight and recommends we get him onto a ship.
Clouseau, however, tells our people to leave him on the field - time to see how much of a man he really is.
That will be easier said than done, as Milly detects a new unit approaching fast: Yu-Fan, on a Lambda Driver-empowered mech, determined to kill him. Sousuke doesn’t even try dodge – Dead realizes that his fighting spirit is destroyed.
Gates sees this new AS going after Arbalest but that’s OK: it’ll just add to the exciting chaos of the battle!
He orders his troops to attack both Neo-Wärter and Yu-Fan, as he readies his Popcorn and Cola to enjoy the show; meanwhile, Sousuke is asking for what reason he’s piloting the Arbalest now…
Two nearby Amalgam units try to hit Yu-Fan but miss and eat a stronger counter-attack.
Yu-Fan, of course, goes straight after Sousuke but, thankfully, she’s not as accurate as Gauron or Gates (she doesn’t have plot powers on her Lambda Driver).
: THIS is Sousuke Sagara, the teacher’s old enemy…?
: …: His soul is already dead…? Then, I’ll kill his body!
Eh…I expected this result.
Player Phase!
Keeping the pace, Mao and Kurz each pick a target and take them down.
Next, it’s Muu’s turn to play clean-up.
Easy enough.
I could ignore these Behemoth’s but I’d rather take some extra cash.
As Clouseau starts working on one, Kira takes down the last Shadow.
Which activates Blade’s Blasterization.
Most of our folk are by the west Behemoth, though, so we’ll deal with that one first (while moving forward, towards the Successors).
It won’t take THAT long to get rid of 42k HP (would be faster if we had our Supers but…).
Ryouko and Orgun keep the damage flowing.
Dearka is too far away to attack that Behemoth, so he goes for the other.
Sure, we’ll kill ’em with bug bites.
Our Tekkamen Troupe is working quite well.
Aki can catch up to the others later; right now, she’s needed for a combination attack.
Much better.
Yumi and Valguard take away another big chunk of health.
Go kill that thing, Blade!
Fucking Lambda Barrier…
Fine, have it this way!
Boom.
Sousuke moves towards our group in order to draw Yu-Fan closer.
While that happens, he calls Youko to deal a bit of extra damage to the other Behemoth.
Enemy Phase!
I got worried that the RNG would screw me over here but, thankfully, Cagalli dodged.
With most Amalgam troops dead, the Successors take to the field.
Bulky enough to survive but only barely.
A couple other Sekishikis also attack Valguard: one hangs on but the other gets hit by a critical hit and is downed.
Couple more mooks go for Kira and he, as expected, leaves them at around 30% health.
This one Sekishiki gets clever and goes for Ryouko…whom I did not think needed Focus.
Turns out that she did need it…
Couple other mooks go for Cagalli but, at that range, all she can do is damage them slightly.
Huh…turns out there was one Shadow left – not anymore!
Eventually, Akito emerges from Nergal HQ.
Gai Daigouji is glad to see his buddy but Ryouko wonders what he was doing there in the first place.
Inside HQ, the woman is giving Akito a piece of her mind – he was supposed to let Neo-Wärter deal with the situation and stay inside!
He ignores her, however, and calls Sousuke.
He only points out to a section of the city and asks Sousuke to look there.
Over there, we see a Hokuten Cronie angry after Kaname (!) used Sousuke’s exploding earring to create an opening to escape!
Sadly, she couldn’t outrun the soldiers and, now, they've got her cornered; she says she's not scared, though - she can't let herself be killed here, or she'll never be able to face her gentle, stupid man.
The Successor says it’s fine, as she’ll be able to see him on her way to hell – Kaname stands her ground, yelling that she won’t lose to him.
A timely gunshot gives Kaname a chance to flee, a Christmas present from a mysterious benefactor.
Sousuke is quite confused as Kaname gets closer, yelling at him to come over so they can rescue Tessa.
Problem is that Yu-Fan is right there and blocks Sousuke as he tries to reach her.
Kaname tells him to hurry over as she still wants to know what he wanted to say aboard the Danaan.
Before he can do so, however, the Hokuten Cronie catches up to her.
The soldier is about to kill Kaname when Tessa agrees to help the Successors on Mars; she understands it’s a risky course of action but she wants to do whatever possible to make sure Kaname stays alive – plus, she has faith that Neo-Wärter will rescue them in due time.
: Chidori! Captain!: Where are you going?! I’m your opponent!!*Yu-fan intercepts Sousuke*
: Sousuke! I’ll be waiting for you, so you better make sure to come help us!: If you don’t, the school faculty is going to flunk us both!: Flunk?!
: Sagara! I believe in you!: But, I…
: Sousuke…confront your weaknesses and get stronger. : My weaknesses…?
: He’s right! Do you think you’re a king or something?!
: You’re clumsy, stupid and your head’s got more than a few screws loose!
: You’re the most troublesome pain-in-the-neck I’ve ever met!: Heh… Hahahaha…: Did you hear, Gauron…? I am weak.: Uh, oh…did we flick his “crazy switch” on…?!: However, I will fight...even if I’m hurt or confused, I’ll protect what’s important to me!
: His soul is ablaze…!: There ya go, Sousuke! That’s your sweet spot, so keep it there!
: Sagara! Do it!!: Al! Lambda Driver!
: Roger.
: Sousuke…you’ll fight? : There’s no problem. I have a mission to do.: Heh…: The Lambda Driver has been activated.: Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t…what a haphazard piece of equipment.: I think so as well. : It seems like you’re better at making jokes than I am.: Affirmative.: And wry comments, too…: Let’s go, Al. We’ll take them all out!: Roger. 
Only a couple more mooks left to move: one suicides against Yu-Fan and Akito kills the remaining one.
I think this is good enough for today. Come next update, we’ll wrap things up with the Full Metal Panic 2nd Raid finale.
See you all then!