Advance Wars 2 Part #38 - Interview 19 - “The Desolate Flower” (Or, “Bro Copters To The Max”)

Part 38: Interview 19 - “The Desolate Flower” (Or, “Bro Copters To The Max”)

Interview 19 - “The Desolate Flower” (Or, “Bro Copters To The Max”)

Welcome back, Commander my dude. Are you ready to begin the Yellow Comet portion of this retelling?

Sounds peachy. Hit me with it, Ruin. ...Ru? Can I call you Ru?

Absolutely not.

BH Soldier: They’re en route to our factory even as we speak, sir!

So quickly? Excellent… Heh heh. Our plans are moving right on schedule, eh? Even so, what a beautiful sea. Gazing upon it fills me with an overwhelming desire to see it all…

Ah, the ocean is truly wonderful.

…destroyed!

I don’t think Adder agrees with you.

BH Soldier: We’re under attack! It’s Yellow Comet!

So much for “me time” and tender thoughts… Send out the order for reinforcements! Prepare for battle!

Even if we move in numbers, we’re sure to take heavy casualties.

Hmmm… I think I’ll take a crack at it.

Sensei?

Just sit back and watch. We’ll see if my air units can’t do some good.

Oh, he’s an air specialist? Wonder what differentiates him from Eagle. Maybe he’s like, a defensive air CO-

Don’t get your hopes up.

Even us old folks like to help out now and again.

Well, this should be interesting.

I, uh-

OH GOD FOG OF WARRRRR.

Sorry. Forgot to mention... Yellow Comet had quite a few of these.

SIGH.

...Did you just say the word 'sigh'?

Have they run out of beds in Yellow Comet’s infirmaries?

So you’re the Black Hole, eh? What do you want here?

“The Black Hole”. Pfft.

I have no reason to tell you, old man. In time, the entire world will kneel at our feet. Any who dare stand in our way will be ground beneath our heels.

I enjoy that every other Black Hole CO is rather - how do I say - unprofessional… and then there’s Adder, who is constantly waxing lyrical about the suffering of others.

He’s certainly very devoted to Sturm’s ideology.

Oh, can’t have that, now can we? I don’t like war—it’s tiring. But someone’s got to stop you. Let me tell you a little secret.

Ooh, I like little secrets.

Did you know that when you join two damaged units together, and their combined HP is over 10, the surplus gets converted into funds?

Well, Commander?

Hey, I did actually know that! I discovered it during the final battle with Sturm.

What are you babbling about? Do you think some loose change is going to sway the course of battle?

As much as he’s being rather aggressive… spoilers, joining units does not heavily feature in the upcoming battle.

Heh heh heh… Or are you just worried about your pension?

If you don’t grasp what I’m telling you, boy, then you’ve got no hope of defeating me. He who laughs last laughs best. So long.

You’re quite the orator. Still, you’re a bit long in the tooth to challenge me. Since you’re so tired, I’ll make this quick and finish you in 10 days!

Here are the deployments and new units for today. There's quite a few, since we're in a new location.

TODAY’S DEPLOYMENTS
Lysander, Infantry
Talora, Infantry
Issam, Infantry
Kyril, Infantry (Reinforcement)
Andromeda, Infantry (Reinforcement)
Khepri, Infantry (Reinforcement)
Dymek, Infantry (Reinforcement)
Vanessa, Recon
Aymil, Transport Copter
Iago, Transport Copter
Peregrine, Battle Copter
Minerva, Battle Copter
Sofia, Bomber

LYSANDER
Age: 24
Personality: Seedy but silver-tongued.
Proficiencies: Infantry, Mech, Transport Copter

TALORA
Age: 36
Personality: Motherly, warm-hearted veteran.
Proficiencies: Artillery, Missiles, Infantry

ISSAM
Age: 25
Personality: Smartly-dressed and suave.
Proficiencies: Lander, Infantry, Mech

KYRIL
Age: 22
Personality: Kanbei's forgotten nephew.
Proficiencies: Anti-Air, Tank, Medium Tank

ANDROMEDA
Age: 21
Personality: Strange, almost otherworldly.
Proficiencies: Tank, Battle Copter, Anti-Air

KHEPRI
Age: 29
Personality: Overconfident, energised soldier.
Proficiencies: Fighter, Cruiser, Anti-Air

DYMEK
Age: 22
Personality: Rowdy and uncooperative.
Proficiencies: Mech, Artillery, Rockets

VANESSA
Age: 19
Personality: Sonja's mortal nemesis.
Proficiencies: Infantry, Recon, Anti-Air

AYMIL
Age: 26
Personality: Always on time.
Proficiencies: APC, Lander, Transport Copter

IAGO
Age: 32
Personality: Unfriendly and distant.
Proficiencies: Recon, Mech, Transport Copter

PEREGRINE
Age: 18
Personality: Aerial thrill seeker.
Proficiencies: Bomber, Fighter, Battle Copter

MINERVA
Age: 24
Personality: Devoted to Kanbei.
Proficiencies: Infantry, Battle Copter, Transport Copter

SOFIA
Age: 47
Personality: Repentant and sorrowful.
Proficiencies: Tank, Bomber, Missiles

That's quite a few, whew. But...

"Hey, Kyril!" says Dymek, waving his hand to the soldier waiting at the HQ, ready to move out. "Long time no see, feels like forever since we graduated military academy."

"No kidding, Dymek. Pleasure to see you." Kyril replies, giving his old friend a wide grin. "Are you ready to move out?"

"Sure thing, boss. You're the ACO for this mission, I take it?"

"Me?" Kyril replies. Several of the other soldiers around turn to him, and he shrugs. "Sorry, no. From what I was told, our ACO is a high-ranking official. People call them the Desolate Flower."

"That's quite a name. So where is this flower, anyway?" Peregrine asks. "I'm itching to get out there and start flying!"

"Sensei's waiting for them, apparently." Dymek says, shrugging, but as the soldiers mill around for a few minutes longer, there's a rumbling of a door to their right, and they turn to see a young girl, barely eleven years of age, yet wearing the uniform of an ACO. Her hair is long and blonde, and her coat is long and flowing, marked with a Yellow Comet insignia on one of the shoulders. She marches up to the soldiers and salutes.

"...Are you the Desolate Flower?" asks Vanessa.

"My name is Rose Kuroda, Assistant CO of Yellow Comet. You will answer to me."

Dymek laughs. "OK, joking time is over. You gotta be kidding me."

"I'm not." Rose replies, fixing him with a harsh stare. "I will be taking command with Sensei in this battle, as well as taking to the field with you. I hope we are all able to work together."

There's a moment of silence, but Kyril steps forward and salutes. The other soldiers follow suit, following Kyril's example.

"Sir, yes, sir!"

Rose smiles. "Excellent. Let's move out."

TODAY’S DEPLOYMENTS
Rose, Battle Copter

ROSE
Age: 11
Personality: Hyper-competent military strategist.
Proficiencies: Medium Tank, Battle Copter, Neotank

THERE SHE IS, BEST GIRL!

Your fondness for your troops is rather heartwarming. Yes, Rose is back. Now then, let us get on with the map. We've dallied long enough.

As you spotted, it's Fog of War, which makes things difficult. The first thing one needs is money, however, so Sensei deploys Lysander and Talora.

Let me guess - ominous movements in the fog?

Naturally. Adder could have any number of soldiers slowly advancing.

That airport is particularly troublesome. If I were Sensei, I'd be going for that as soon as possible.

Indeed, letting the enemy get hold of an airport so close to the Yellow Comet HQ would not be good. Still, Lysander and Talora have no way over there just yet, so instead they're headed east.

Good job, infantry.

Now this is a unit capable of capturing the airport - Issam will be taking a ride with Aymil to nab it before Adder's forces can.

I'm just concerned about what kinds of forces Adder has up his sleeve. Speaking of, you never showed me Sensei's CO information.

Ah, forgive me - here. I'll leave the CO Power for now, though... you'll see it later.

Huh. Copter/infantry specialist? That's interesting. Defensive planes would have been cooler though.

True, I suppose. Anyway, Lysander and Talora have done their first job. There's more for them to do, though.

And Issam's going for a ride.

Aymil drops him off here. He's still in range to capture the airport next turn, but with this formation, any enemies that come out of the fog won't be able to damage Issam, only Aymil.

Damn. Sensei's good, I have to admit. I had my doubts, but...

Vanessa has been deployed. She'll be reconnoitring the area to the west. You see where there's that thin line of land connecting Adder's northern area to Sensei's southern area?

Oh, yeah. Adder's forces might pull a pincer movement off whilst Sensei's distracted with the airport up there. He needs to cover all bases.

Quite. Thankfully, he is aware of this.

Thanks, Vanessa. Hopefully she doesn't find anything too dangerous. A tank or something could destroy her quite easily.

Meanwhile, Issam makes a start on the airport.

Iago is deployed, and Aymil returns to the HQ. He and Iago will be taking the other infantry to new areas.

All the other notable properties are either super far away or across the ocean, so makes sense.

Issam's got balls of steel, though. The fog's very close, and anything could be hiding up there. I hope he's alright.

We shall see.

See, something's coming.

How on earth can you tell?

The UI appears on the opposite side of the units you're moving. So if Adder's UI is on the left, he's moving units on the right.

My dude. Fourth wall. How many times.

Sorry, sorry. You can't take chances in Fog of War.

Vanessa still hasn't found any sneaky soldiers yet, thankfully. Meanwhile, Lysander and Talora prepare to fly.

Iago takes Talora over to the left, whilst Aymil carries Lysander over the ocean.

Many more buildings to capture. Sensei's really hungry for cash, apparently.

Issam successfully captures the airport. Such a central airport will undoubtedly be a deciding factor in the victor of this battle.

Now to deploy a million bro copters! Or... _{how many were there in today's deployments?} three. Three bro copters.

Copter support will be vital for this battle. Especially since they can ignore the ocean.

Yeah, fuck the ocean. What's it ever done for us?

During Adder's turn, Vanessa spots something. A tank appears, and an infantry walks across to sit in the space in front of it.

See, the tank is worrying, but a recon can handle an infantry easily, and there's not enough room to manoeuvre with a one-tile-wide gap like that.

It is rather fortuitous, isn't it?

Vanessa makes a surprising discovery.

Oh, wow, they had a whole conga line of dudes sneaking down. Thank goodness Sensei predicted such a move.

"Vanessa, you're only a recon. Do not engage - retreat." Rose orders. Vanessa shakes her head.

"I'm not just any soldier!" she says. "I'll take them all on. I will prove myself victorious!"

"Oh, brother... she always gets like this when people underestimate her." Peregrine sighs.

Lysander and Talora continue capturing, meanwhile. Sensei has a rather demanding budget in this map, as you will see soon.

Is that Rose?

Correct.

Rose's copter unit takes to the field, and she wheels around to scan the battlefield. Despite the entire place being coated in fog, she begins muttering calculations and strategies, before radioing Sensei.

"Yes, I think we should... mmhm. Yes, I agree... do you think we can afford it in time? ...OK. It's a bold strategy, but I've seen less sensible plans work out fine, so I say let's go for it. ...Yes, yes, I understand. It'll be taken care of."

Well, Fog of War maps always start slowly, but the fun's about to begin.

Wait, did nothing happen?

Adder's forces take quite a while to reach Sensei's units. Plus, the infantry on the left apparently doesn't want to try tangling with Vanessa.

With Lysander and Talora capturing a few more buildings, the stage is almost set for the assault on Adder. There's just a few more units Sensei needs.

"Well, if you're not going to come to me, I suppose I'll have to come to you!" Vanessa says. "I am a tactical genius, and I will prove it!"

And, befitting her tactical acumen, she takes no counter damage. Vanessa is rather talented, it must be said.

Ah, and Rose will be murderfucking our friend the tank.

Uh, sure. Rose homicide-fornicates the tank, whilst Issam finishes capturing the base next to the airport. That area will be a useful linchpin for attacking Adder.

OK, where the hell are Adder's forces? He must have some somewhere.

He does take quite a while to get going on this map. A far cry from his appearance during his fight with Grit.

With his work done, Issam hops back into Aymil to make his escape.

And do you remember when I said funds were tight?

Oh, fuck, wow. I see what you mean now.

"Alright, Sofia. You'll be carrying the battle from hereon. I'll deploy some backup for you."

"Thank you, Rose." murmurs Sofia.

Lysander does a double-take. "Sofia..?"

"What, you know her?" asks Iago.

"Nah." he replies. "At least, I don't think so..."

Meanwhile, Rose finishes the tank off in style.

"First blood. Fitting for an ACO of my talent." Rose replies. "Soldiers, continue pushing forward. We'll have Adder on the ropes soon enough."

"Man, I am never gonna get used to taking orders from a child." Issam says.

And Vanessa finishes the infantry off. Huh. Looks like everyone did underestimate her.

She killed a single infantry unit. And it took her two days.

...True...

Talora gets back into Iago with the property captured; she's bound for northward territory, now.

The transport copters move up, though their vision range isn't large enough to be of any use. Still, next turn, Sensei will have the full might of a bomber to play around with.

god i wish that were me

...You're grinning. Was that some kind of internet reference?

You wouldn't get it.

........Was that a reference as well?

Anyway. Vanessa continues thinning the local Black Hole infantry population.

It's an important job.

Rose will be helping.

Now, you might recall that Rose and Sensei were discussing a risky plan.

Yeah?

The bomber was the first part. But prime intel from Sonja has revealed that Adder has an anti-air somewhere around, which would be problematic.

So they went for a risky play...

No fucking way.

"Target marked!" Aymil says, spotting the anti-air unit just ahead of him, on the ground, cannons aimed squarely at his transport copter.

"Excellent." Rose replies. "Sofia, move in and eradicate it."

Oh my god, that was such a bold plan. Sensei and Rose are playing as if the fog isn't even there! I couldn't even imagine using the 'trap' function as a legitimate strat.

Are you, as they say, fangirling?

I'm just saying - these two are the best damn CO/ACO combination since, like, me and Nell. God damn.

"Heeeeeeeeeeell yeah!" roars Peregrine as her battle copter practically launches itself out of the airport at mach speed. "Point me in a direction and let my copter crew take care of everything in our way!"

"Sorry about her." sighs Vanessa into the transceiver. "She's an old friend and loves flying fast vehicles. She always gets like this when flying, I'm afraid..."

Man, not even the artillery is a threat, since most of Sensei's army is currently airborne.

Correct. And now that we've located Adder's forces, we can watch them capture property.

Oh thank god.

Peregrine immediately beelines the anti-air and destroys it almost effortlessly.

And once more, Sofia targets a nearby ground unit, and despite the immense damage... she doesn't quite get the kill.

Come on, Sofia. Up your game.

On the left side, meanwhile, there's more pest control going on.

Rose is making steady progress, though. The HQ is just north of here, right?

Quite. Adder's forces are slowly finding themselves boxed in.

Mostly for adding insult to injury, Sensei deploys another battle copter - Minerva.

The enemy infantry is closing in on the airport, though, so Talora will be taking care of that. And as you can see, Sensei's infantry pack quite a punch.

Goddamn. Talora is not fucking around today.

Aymil and Iago, however, are carrying the other infantry towards Adder's HQ. One of them should be able to capture it, once all threats have been removed.

He has three bases near his HQ - there could be quite a few threats around.

Oh, and now they're gonna get extra movement. Yeesh.

But nothing happened. Adder's units weren't very interested in actually attacking, it seems.

I don't know if Sensei is just super-competent or something, but Adder seems really off his game on this map. He's barely attacked Yellow Comet's forces.

Who can say what was going through his mind at the time?

"Fuck the ocean", probably.

Minerva goes for the infantry right next to the airport. They need taking out before they try and capture any of Sensei's properties.

And Talora finishes the other infantry. Well done, ladies.

Here, Rose attacks the enemy infantry despite Vanessa being in range.

I would too. That base might have something Not Good on it.

You're quite right. This mech would have ruined Vanessa's day.

More like he would have ruined her face. Mechs hurt, man.

Aw, the artillery tried to flee, but ended up in the waiting wings of Peregrine. Poor fucker.

Meanwhile, Iago and Aymil advance. Iago parks on one of the bases, preventing Adder from using it. Still, that mech could be troublesome.

But this is why bombers were invented. Crush him, Sofia!

Sofia's vision also reveals a tank on the HQ. Another excellent reason for Vanessa not to rush ahead too quickly.

Yeah, it'd be an issue for her, but copters can deal with tanks quite easily.

Indeed. Now all Sensei needs to do is close out the fight without making any errors.

Oh, you were right, the mech did make trouble for Iago. But not very much since he's on half HP.

For some baffling reason, the enemy tank decided to move towards Sofia and stop directly in her range. No idea what would possess him to do something like that.

Black Hole is weird sometimes.

Talora bullies this last infantry. She's better suited to it, since Peregrine and Minerva would rather head north to help out Rose.

Who, speaking of, reveals a fun surprise.

"I accounted for this." Rose says through the transceiver. "Don't worry; he is not a threat."

And Sofia does what she does best - bombs shit.

Peregrine just happens to be in range to finish it off, too. Minerva will be catching up for this turn.

Iago carefully manoeuvres to the other side of the enemy mech, to get in range to drop Lysander off. Aymil will be covering the base.

Oh, rockets. Man, Adder really should've brought some missiles if he wanted to be a credible threat on this map.

He did seem a little underprepared. One anti-air was never going to take out all of these forces.

The mech plinks away at Iago a bit more.

Oh god, he's spawning more mechs. There's tons of the things.

Thankfully, copters make very short work of them.

Alright, Sensei. We're almost done here. Finish 'em off!

Sofia destroys this irritating mech, providing enough space for Iago to drop Lysander off.

He's safely inside the rockets' range, so he can capture the HQ next turn without any worry. All the Yellow Comet forces need to do now is make sure he's safe.

Peregrine...

And Rose begin the proceedings.

Pfft. Talora has nothing better to do, huh?

Indeed, she's just capturing some more property.

Anyway, Minerva goes for the last mech.

And then Vanessa's just going wild on this infantry. She must hate infantry units.

As you can see, though, the map is virtually done. All we need now is to actually capture the HQ.

Oh wow, the mechs joined up on the base. So nothing is coming out of that base this turn. That's pretty useful.

It wasn't Adder's brightest idea, was it?

Nearly there. First, Vanessa finishes off the infantry, and then the air squad do the same with the mechs.

Except Vanessa didn't manage to fully defeat the infantry...

...So Rose takes care of it.

Rose is the absolute best.

Sofia goes for the rockets, and surprisingly, actually one-shots them.

Nice. That's pretty much everything, then.

Indeed. Lysander makes a start on the enemy HQ. And Talora is also capturing something, mostly for fun.

Wait, I thought you said Sensei used his CO Power on this map?

I'm getting to that. Adder builds a singular mech - it will not help him.

Especially not when bombers are involved. Man, Sofia really ate this map for breakfast.

Indeed, and Talora will finish off the last few bits of this map.

As I said, he used his CO Power. But, uh, the map was already won. I believe the youngsters would say it was done "for the meme"?

Wait, how old are you?

I turned thirty a few months ago.

Huh. You look great for your age. So, what's Sensei's CO Power all about, anywa-

...Did he just spawn a whole bunch of 9HP infantry?!

With his Super CO Power, they become mechs.

This is the absolute stupidest CO Power I've ever seen and I love it. So, uh, who are all these people?

Kyril, Andromeda, Khepri and Dymek.

Joining... ah, that's why Sensei was talking about getting funds back when you join units...

"...Morrow." Andromeda says and Kyril walks up to her. He tilts his head in confusion.

"Sorry?"

"Good morrow." murmurs Andromeda. "I am... Andromeda..."

"...Pleased to meet you. I think." Kyril replies, advancing cautiously.

OK, now we're done. Lysander completes the capturing.

Who… Who are you?

Sensei! You did it! You are victorious!

Hm? I am? Oh, that’s nice.

This dude is stone cold. Not even paying attention to a Fog of War map.

Wait! Now I remember… It was in the reports… This country once boasted a CO who was said to be unbeatable…

…I’m familiar with those same reports. This is… him?

A man whom everyone feared… Impossible… It couldn’t be!

It seems Adder has finally realised just who he picked a fight with.

Who, me?

Uh… Today was… unlucky. A bad day.

A bad 14-or-so days, actually, Adder.

We’ll meet again, old… This is not finished!

Seemed to have pulled through in one piece. Sonja? Are you all right?

Sensei? You were unbeatable? Everyone…feared you?

He certainly seems impressive. I’d like to try my skills against him someday.

Who, me? Oh, that’s so long ago, I’d almost forgotten. There might have been a rumor of that nature at some point, but… Come now, there are battles yet to be fought. Let’s go.

An unbeatable CO…

Considering how Sturm feels about you, and considering that he didn’t even invade until he was 100% sure you weren’t present… my dude, I dare say you’re carrying on Sensei’s legacy.

Yes… Yes sir!

You think so? I’ve certainly grown as a tactician, but… unbeatable? I don’t know.