Part 41: Chapter 41 (Battle) - An Endless Slog With An Anticlimactic Conclusion

Update 41 (Battle) - An Endless Slog With An Anticlimactic Conclusion



Back at it. We've got Kindle on the back foot now, and we just need a couple more properties to pull off the win. The unfortunate thing is that Kindle has most of the properties we want, so we'll need to take the fight to her forces if we want to win.



And her forces are mostly gathered at this fucking chokepoint. This infantry shoots Fleur, who's protecting Rin right now. He doesn't do much damage.



For some reason, this piperunner is obsessed with shooting Ingo for minimal damage.



There's not much else that Kindle can do though, so it's our turn again. The bomber train is about to begin, baby!



And the capturing train, lest we forget. Rin's partway through getting this property!



Selena's caught up now, so once Rin has captured this city, she can escape.



In the meantime, we move Fleur out of the way and put Dimitri/Diana in the way instead. They can actually, like, fire back at the stuff shooting them, so they're generally better.



We have more properties! Alfonse has got another one. Carter's down south, but once he catches up, the two of them will be moving into Kindle's territory to nab a few more.



But first, we have one more property down here to get. Carter, you're up.



And now Lucy needs to start opening up this seam so we can conveniently get our bombers up to Kindle's area. If we break seams strategically enough, we can reach the top of the map in like two days.



Fuck it, another bomber! It's Zlata!

"Hey, Lucy!" Zlata says, beaming. "Ready to break some heads?!"

"Oh, totally, Zlata! We're not going to let Kindle get any more properties!"

"Hey," Dimitri says over the transceiver. "Just look after yourself, alright, Zlata?"

"Took the words out of my mouth." Ingo replies on his transceiver. "Do your best up there, but take care!"

"Ingo, how many times? I'm gonna be fine!" Lucy replies.

"Definitely! Lucy and I will have each others' backs!"



Now let's see what Kindle is going to do about these bombers. The smart play would be deploying a ton of missiles.



Or "a single anti-air", that works too.

Hint: it does not work.



So, let's keep surging ahead. There's really nothing Kindle can do about any of this now.



Carter makes progress on the property down here.



And Rin completes her capture!



Selena finally slots herself into the chokepoint beside Rose.

"Well, if it isn't Rose Kuroda, manning a tank about sixteen times her size." Selena says, giving a soft smile. "It's good to see you looking well."

"You too, Selena... I heard about what happened." Rose says. "Selena... we will win. I swear it to you. And when we do, we'll save her."

"Thank you, Rose. That... means a lot." Selena replies, her voice thick with emotion.

"In the meantime, however, I'd be honoured if you'd hold this chokepoint with me." Rose adds. "I'm going to embarrass Kindle, and step one of that plan is preventing her forces from encroaching onto our territory for as long as possible."

"They won't break us, that's for certain." Selena says fiercely.



With his capturing done, Alfonse gets back into Michael. We'll need to get him safely into Kindle's area, and APCs are, as always, a great way to do that.



We can't do squat until we've got the bombers up here though, so here we go! Zlata smashes the next seam...



Which opens the way for Lucy to move in. Nearly there already! We can open up these seams next time and begin murdering everything that looks at us funny.



You might call murdering everything unreasonable. I call it victory.



The piperunner tires of firing on Ingo and decides to target... a different artillery? This time, it's Inessa who takes basically no damage.



The anti-air makes the worst mistake of its short life, meanwhile, by parking on a road.



See, the thing about anti-airs is that they only counter bombers if THEY initiate first or have defensive terrain...



But as we'll see when Zlata breaks this seam, that's, uh, not the case.



Bomber counter? Pfft. Should've found some defensive terrain, fucker!

The carnage begins.

And you know, two bombers is great, but you know what's better?



THREE BOMBERS!

I couldn't let Peregrine miss out on the fun, right?

"Hey, if it ain't the fuckin' Queen of the Skies!" Peregrine says as she flies out of the airport. "Mind if you let a third person come help you wreck shit?"

"Wreck as much as you like, Peregrine!" Zlata says. "Think you can get here before we finish all the foes off?"

"You'd better save some for me, Zlata!"



I don't think there's much they can do, but I may as well move them out of the way of the combat units - Rin hops into Fleur and they flee the chokepoint. Their job is done now.



The bomber girls move in. I also move Cassandra up - Kindle's got a LOT of infantry just sort of hanging around up there, so having something that shreds them might be quite useful.



Fuel's running a little tight with Inessa and Cassandra though. Thank goodness I have like three APCs on this map.



Speaking of APCs, Ludmilla can head up next turn, now that Carter's done down here. We need all our infantry due north to help capture stuff!

Wait, we actually don't, do we? We only need one more property to win, and Alfonse can cover that since he's already up there.

I already said, my dude, I don't intend to defeat Kindle. I intend to humiliate her.

Oh god, you're gonna style on her, aren't you?



Welp, the little lady has spoken. All infantry, due north!



For some reason, Kindle just throws a ton of infantry at my bombers, instead of, you know, the two anti-airs she has in that crowd of units.

She did build some missiles too, I guess, but eh.



Ultimately, it will be pointless and not move. So let's get on with all that murdering, shall we? We've got to open a wide enough hole that we can safely get the APCs in here.



Peregrine catches up, whilst Michael refuels Lucy and Zlata - fuel is a bomber's biggest weakness, and I don't want to have to be worrying about that later in the battle.



So we're just going to get started with this infestation of infantries. This is one of the worst cases of an infestation I've seen in my whole career.



The other thing I want to do is open up this seam too. That should mean I won't have to funnel my forces quite as much, if there's two entry points.



I move the girls in, meanwhile - I make sure to stick Cassandra next to Michael so she can steal his fuel supplies and be ready to annihilate any infantry I happen to point her at.

Unless they're on defensive terrain, but that would be massively unsporting of them.



"We gotta catch up!" Carter says as he hops into Ludmilla's APC. Ludmilla nods.

"Yeah, Rose's orders, I heard 'em. Come on, let's get moving."



Fleur and Rin are catching up, too! Admittedly they're low on fuel as well, but it should be fine.



Let's see what useless bullshit Kindle plans to do today.



Sounds about right, yeah.



Well, several of her units moved around and blocked off my bombers from moving, which was very fucking annoying. It then got even more annoying because she's only gone and spawned an anti-air that I CAN'T GET AT because of these units.

Fuck.



OK, we're gonna need some big-brained play to get out of this mess. First thing first, Lucy blasts the infantry to her left.



This wasn't terribly big-brained, but still, Peregrine mostly-murders this infantry.



Me and Rose decide to spook Kindle by putting an infantry on the HQ. Tragically Alfonse probably isn't going to be able to pull off the HQ capture, since all these infantries will immediately mob him, but it's a hell of a power play.

"Hey, Zlata, can you get at that anti-air before it strikes?" Lucy asks fearfully.

Zlata winces. "I can't! There's too many soldiers around, I'm pinned down!"

"Prepare to move." says a serious woman's voice over the transceiver.

"Wait, move where? There's no way through..." Zlata begins, but then she spots a unit driving up to the enemy forces.



"I'm opening up a path for you! You must act now!" Cassandra, the Morningstar, yells as she races into the thick of the enemy forces and opens fire. Her anti-air is untouchable, slamming through foe after foe, and creating a path for Zlata to reach the anti-air. The moment the way is open, Zlata flies off.

"Thank you, Cassandra! I won't waste this opportunity!"



So, it's on defensive terrain, but we can still hurt it enough to the point that it won't totally cripple or outright murder our bombers, and that's the important thing. Big-brained play!



I also move Inessa onto the base near here, so she can refuel, but also so that she can fire on anything that Kindle spawns from this base.

And now we can end turn and-

Wait. Kindle has her CO Power. That's not allowed.



Sasha doesn't have her CO Power, but hey, when has that ever stopped me? All we need to do is fire on this infantry with Ingo...



Let Selena fire on this infantry...



Murderfuck this guy with Rose...



And boom, enough damage for our CO Power!



Get absolutely outplayed, Kindle.



With a sweet 40k sitting in our bank, and little else that we need to spend it on, we totally wipe out Kindle's CO Meter. I'm pretty sure that would have wiped it out if it had been nearly full. This CO Power is busted.



Welp, I'm sure Kindle had lots of plans this turn, like using her CO Power and attacking some stuff, but she was denied again.



As predicted, the infantry go totally feral and decide to hit Alfonse's face.



Kindle did have a medium tank hiding at the back of her units, which moves into the empty space and fires on Rose. She's fine, though. Slight defence boost from a CO Power is kinda convenient, honestly.



Plus, it's in Ingo's range, so...

In the meantime, the anti-air fires on Zlata, and- how is it on 5HP?

Oh, fuck, it was on a base! It healed up, I didn't calculate for that-

"Zlata, watch out!"

Dimitri and Diana grip the transceiver in their shared tank. Dimitri yells "ZLata?"

"Zlata, hang in there!" Cassandra says, as she and the other bombers watch the anti-air fire off shots that rip through her bomber.



"Hang in there..?" Zlata says, smiling. "C-can do!"

"Oh, thank god." Dimitri breathes.

"That's the th-thing about being a mechanic!" Zlata replies. "I made some modifications to my bomber so it could stand up to anti-air fire!"

"Thank goodness. For a moment, I thought I'd..." Cassandra murmurs, but she shakes her head.



That was way too fucking close. Anyway, another infantry pokes at one of my APCs.

There was no luck there. I knew she would survive.

And you couldn't have told ME that?!

I did, but you stopped listening after I said the word 'bomber', as you often do.

Sorry, what did you say? I heard the word 'bomber' and was daydreaming about having twelve of them in one map.



And again! These infantries fucking hate APCs, apparently.



This piperunner's gone back to firing on Ingo and doing no damage. Does it... think it's contributing?



Right, there's an anti-air that needs to die, first order of business.



Actually, first order of business is clearing out these bases and then putting my units on them so that Kindle stops deploying annoying shit.

To that end, Inessa fires on this tank.



Cassandra can clear out this infantry no problem, and allow Carter/Ludmilla to get into the upper area and block some stuff off.



Or she can leave them on 1 FUCKING HP and make me waste another turn murdering them next time. God damn it, Cassandra.



Zlata gets the fuck out of here in the meantime, and instead, she's replaced with Lucy, who can easily stomp this anti-air.

"THAT'S for hurting my friends!" Lucy shouts, raining bombs down from above. "I won't allow it to happen any more! I won't!"



Peregrine can finish off the tank, too. The base is open!



Seeing as he's not got much else to do, Alfonse hops back into Michael and nabs the base. No more deploying anti-airs for you!

...Unless you do it with the other base. I'll deal with that in a sec.



I put Ludmilla and Fleur next to each other so they can refuel one another on the next turn. And that's our turn done!

Can you see my enormous mistake?



It'll be obvious in a second.



Wait, did Rose forget to fire on that medium tank with Ingo?! She couldn't have...

The medium tank is going to attack... blast.

Wait, is Rose in danger?!

I mean, theoretically, Rose is never in danger, but...



"Ahahahah... did you enjoy that? Almost killing me?" says a little voice from the medium tank. "Do you think you spotted a weakness? That I made a mistake? Utter ignorance."

Selena and the other soldiers at the chokepoint watch in silent surprise as Rose's medium tank continues standing firm against the enemy assault.

"Do you think you can beat me, Kindle? Whilst we are here playing games with our tanks, I have already defeated you in an area of the battlefield you've not been concentrating on. You can only see the battlefield as a little game to play with your little toys. I see the whole battlefield - every turn, every action, every possibility, and from those, I find a winning strategy. There is nothing you can do to me that I have not accounted for." Rose says fiercely, her eyes blazing with an oft-hidden passion. "I was once called the Desolate Flower... for I felt that I was desolate, lonely, in my new role as an ACO, away from my friends in Orange Star. But I have old and new friends, and plenty of allies, who have helped me grow, and feel less alone. I think it is time for a new name - no longer will I be desolate, but I shall make my foes experience that misery instead! I am Rose Kuroda, the Flower of Desolation!"



Holy shit, Rose.

Anyway, uh, this infantry continues harassing my APCs, because apparently Kindle's mission is no longer "win" but "be as much of a nuisance as possible".



Speaking of nuisance, she finally gets her CO Power. I bet Rose accounted for this, too.



Annoying, despite planes gaining no defensive benefits from terrain, they still count as being on the city for Kindle's CO Power, so they'll still take the 3 damage.



So Peregrine takes 3 damage, leaving Lucy as the only undamaged bomber.



Right, I'm sick of this horseshit. Let's end it soon.



And she's deployed another god damn anti-air. Urgh.

Right, biggest threats first. Let's start on this tank with Ingo.



Selena can come in and finish it off.



So, Rose isn't really in any shape to continue tanking this whole bunch of nonsense, so we'll move Dave in now. He and Selena should be fine - we only need to buy a couple more turns to win.



And just to keep Dave's HP topped off, we join him with Dimitri/Diana!

"Jeez, this tank's gettin' cramped..." Dave mutters, and Dimitri nods.

"Yeah, but we've just gotta hold off a little longer." he replies.

"We can do it, gentlemen. Dimitri's Mercenaries and the 11th Division... what can beat that?" Diana replies, giving a determined smile.



We can finish off this APC-attacking guy with Inessa in the meantime. God, he was irritating.



As the only one on full HP, Lucy's gotta take the hit and initiate on this anti-air. If we can get it out of the way and block off the base this turn, we've basically won.



Together, she and Peregrine have just enough firepower to take it out!

"Nice flying, Perry!"

"Took a few tips from you, Luce! More risks, more rewards!" Peregrine replies.

"Well, just take care! I don't want to see you downed!" Lucy says.



Cassandra can cover up the base and fire on this infantry in one fell swoop, so that's nice. The fewer infantries we have hanging around, the happier I'll be.



So, we do a little rearranging and get Carter on the base so he can start capturing it.



Kindle can do nothing about this.



Correct. Well, there is an artillery nearby, but it's not in Carter's range, so... we win, basically.



But as Rose said, we don't just want to win, we want to style on this bitch, so let's see if we can't get a few more infantry in place to capture stuff, just for the hell of it.



Our bombers form a nice wall, allowing Michael to get dropped off on another property.



And Carter begins capturing the base.



Kindle's last useless turn is...



Wait, code red, Kindle did something! I mean, OK, it's just an artillery firing on Inessa, but still, more resistance than I expected.



Right, last couple of things to do...



That was for firing on Inessa, you prick.



We start capturing the other base...



...and another property. Wholly unnecessary, but man, we could have beaten Kindle so hard if we'd wanted to.



So let's end it here.



IT TOOK TWENTY-ONE DAYS

Looks like your precious piperunners fell flat! Now surrender...or run scared!

Hmph. I could have routed her, but I would rather have the swift victory over the absolute victory.

Aha ha ha...ahem. Such a ridiculous invention... This is all Lash's fault!

What.

Huh?

My original idea was much better. It would have been a truly grand weapon! But then that girl took it on all by herself and...well...you see the results!

Oh my fuck, she's one of THESE people.

No wonder we lost!

You've got to be kidding me!

Spoken like a true seer, Kindle! Everything is the fault of Lash... You are blameless in all things!

Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful!

You know, I like these guys.

You do?!

Yeah. They're showing Rachel just how lucky she is to have me, and how much worse I could be.

Aha ha ha... Aren't I though? Yes, Lash's fault. Never trust a child with a lady's job... What a useless weapon...

Gahahah! I think we were right to trust a child with this job, huh, Rose?

Thank you, Grimm. It was...quite satisfying to beat Kindle.

This lady's psycho...

Aha ha ha! Shut it, lowlife! I don't need such a weak weapon. Keep it or destroy it or...whatever you like.

I think we'll keep it and then probably never deploy it, if any of the previous weapons we've acquired are anything to go by.

I care not. Aha ha ha ha!

Heh heh heh... Until we meet again!

Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!

Grrr! Those three stooges really tick me off!

It seems that the Black Hole COs aren't as united as we thought. Blaming each other... Squabbling... I'm so glad we're not like that.

Yeah, man, imagine squabbling all the time.

I MEANT the COs! The ACOs are a totally different matter!

You really can't keep your mouth shut, can you, my dude?

It is a blessing and a curse. Mostly a curse. I just like talking. Anyway, Rachel, I don't think we're getting on that badly, compared to them. Right?

I...suppose not. When the chips are down, you're...a good ACO. They're much more divided than we are.

Good. I hope they bust a cap in each other! Now we have to find those blueprints.

Colin?

Y-yes, Sis! Coming... Yes, I have the blueprint right here... Holld on, where is it... Um...

Why do we keep entrusting these things to Colin?

Found it! Here it is! The blueprint!

Good.

Hey, sweet. Now we can totally bust out our own piperunners.

I don't think getting piperunners was worth having to partake in this tedious battle.

You said it, kid.

It's such a large-scale weapon... How can we best take advantage of it?

A wise lesson for us all! We must never underestimate the science of Black Hole!

You got that right! Those fellas just keep crankin' out the weird weapons.

Hey, Neotanks were very cool. The one good thing to come out of Black Hole.

We're in good shape now! All units, move out! We'll unleash this new weapon the next time we face Black Hole!

What's the chance that the next map isn't going to give us a good opportunity to use piperunners?

80% and climbing, I'd say.

And you two - my dude, Rose.

Mm?

I... I just wanted to say that one of the reasons we're in good shape is because of you two. So, thanks.

Of course, Commander Rachel. I shall cleave a path through our foes; there is no stopping us.

...Thanks, Rachel. Means a lot.

Just don't backtalk me as much, alright?!

No promises!



And a victory for us! Not an S-rank, but honestly, I don't give a fuck, the map is done.

We have unlocked the ability to deploy piperunners!

Piperunners are unmanned



Jake promotes despite doing nothing in that battle! Well done, Jake.



Do you talk about like, anything else, Jake? Ever?



Well, no matter, let's see what the next map's got in store for us. It better not be any fucking pipes, piperunners, spirals or gardens.

Or Kindle.



If we make it across this sea, we should arrive at Red Rock Desert. There's a good chance we'll find the enemy HQ there. However, to get there, we'll have to topple a floating fortress.

Wait, floating in the sky or floating on the sea?

Yes.

A fortress? That's like a heavily armoured building, right? Are we up to the task?

Colin, you shouldn't doubt our abilities. You should know by now that Rachel and my dude always have a plan.

Hell yeah.

That's right--I do. Actually, it's still classified, but... my dude's going to blab about it anyway...

Exactly, you may as well tell them.

We're scheduled to introduce new units to our arsenal.

New units? What kind of new units?

Let's just say that conceptually, they absolutely fucking rock.

Are they tanks? If my dude was involved, they must be. They're tanks, right?

You're killing me, kid. What're we supposed to do with tanks at sea?

Oh. Dude...yeah.

Unfortunately I was not involved, Rachel organised most of it. Otherwise they would have been tanks. Amphibious tanks. Oh shit, that's a great idea, I'm gonna write that down...

No it isn't and shut up. There are actually two new units. The first is a carrier, a naval unit capable of transporting air units, and the other is an invisible air unit called a stealth fighter.

Goodness me... I wonder what Perry would make of such a weapon?

Invisible?

Yeah, so it uses some fancy technology-

My dude!! The details are still classified.

Oh. Right. Whoops.

I'll fill you in when we arrive. Let's move out!

So, let's go to the map!



May our joys be as great as its depths and our lives as tasty as its residents.

You, um... speak wisely. I think.

Beats me. I have no idea what he's talking about. I don't think lives can be tasty.

So, Rachel, my dude, where's our fresh new gear?

Just wait.



As I mentioned, it can secure, refuel and relaunch air units. Now, about the unit inside the carrier's hangar...

MOTHER. FUCKING. PLANES.

That didn't explain anything. They're...

Rachel! Enemy forces are headed this way!

Well, we don't have much of a choice. Let's meet 'em head on! I'll continue my explanation as we go.

Tutorialising under pressure? Man, you and Nell are SO alike.

Um, thanks? OK, we've got two fronts to manage. I'm bringing one up on the top screen now. That's the secondary front up there--the main front is on the lower screen.

I think our best bet is a divide and conquer approach.

We better split up and tackle each front individually. Remember how we fought the flying fortress? We're going to use those same tactics again.

Oh, god, you mean the most stressful battle of my career? God damn it.

My dude! It'll be OK. I'm here.

Exactly! I know you weren't here, Rose, but I'm sure you get the gist. We'll send air units from the main front to the second front and make that thing crash and burn!

Oh, here we go again...



So, we have a fun new map to check out! We have quite a number of air and sea units, which is always a nice change of pace. Heck, Selena might get to be a submarine for once. It is supposed to be her main proficiency, after all.



Black bombs and bombers up above, and battleships below... taking out these two fortresses isn't going to be easy. I really hope I get control of the upper battlefield for this one again, because I cannot emotionally handle having to risk my planes' lives again.



Down here, we've got a little more land, as well as some trapped carriers with our new stealth planes in. I wanna know what they do! I wanna see them!



And here's the ones that Rachel found. Now how the hell do we free them quickly and easily..?

Well, I guess we'll figure that out next time. Please vote for which COs you want to see handle this map, and I'll be back next time with bote-relating funsies! Hopefully.

***

Update 42 (Intermission) - The Lovestruck