Part 33: Deja Vu

Welcome back. Last time on Exit Fate, we found the Holy Grail. Oh, and I guess we did some other stuff too. As far as actual plot-related stuff goes, we went to Highland to form an alliance with Rock, as well as put together a plan to distract Matrech so that we can attack Mayfall. Keyser came up with a rather convoluted way of doing this: he wants Rock to leak two conflicting messages to Matrech, with the intent of making them believe that Highland is virtually undefended and enticing them to attack. Meanwhile, our plan is to take over Mayfall while Matrech is busy trying to conquer a much better-defended Highland than they expected. To get things started, we're going to head back to Elysium to set everything up with Leonius. So let's get to it.



Music: Mission - Xenogears, "Leftovers from the Dreams of the Strong"



These ideas of yours keep getting stranger and stranger, Keyser.
What? Are you doubting me, Gunwood?
If anything, it's safe. If Zelmony attacks Highland, the plan will work. If they don't, we won't attack either and we'll have lost nothing because of it. I see no reason not to try it.
All right, if Keyser and Bast are in agreement, who am I to go against them? We should set this scheme into motion as fast as possible. It will take some time even if we start right away.



Do you have a problem with it, then?
No... I just... Never mind. When should I take my troops out of Blackwater?
At the same time we pretend to be abandoning the district. Your troops will go back to Harlinton and stay there until you're needed in Highland.
All of you should get to work preparing for the upcoming battle. Once the messages are sent out, there's no turning back.
All right. Everyone come back here when you're ready.
I'll return to Highland. Send someone to Bergstadt when you want to set the plan in motion.



Right then, we're pretty much ready to go, but before we get things started, there's a little bit of army setup to do.



Specifically, Jovian has added a new unit to our ranks, and we need to fill it up.




Jovian is going to have a lot of defenses against long range units. We give him Petra (30 men, +1/+1, Scatter), Mai (30 men, +0/+0, Forcefield), and Nikolai (30 men, +0/+1). We also turn him into an infantry, which makes him about as much of a powerhouse as Daniel.





After that, it's time to get this show on the road.

Fade to black...

Music: Reflection - Chrono Trigger, "At the Bottom of the Night"




Yeah... I'm about to leave for Blackwater. We probably won't see each other for a week.
But we'll meet again in Mayfall City, right?
Oh, I know that, but...
Something's bothering you... Do you think we won't make it?
Of course I don't! I have complete faith in Keyser's strategy.



I heard what you promised to Highland. I want you to know that I'm completely behind you, but how are you going to make it reality?
That's something to worry about when this war is finally over. I have every intention of keeping my promises. I know I can't make it happen with a wave of my hand, but I'll fight to the end to fulfill them.
But if it turns out you can't, you'll lose their trust. Worse, it might even spark new fighting.



I'm not as rash as people think I am. I've always been fully aware of the results my actions could have. But I've witnessed certain things... things I couldn't foresee, things I can't explain.



Yeah. Sometimes I wonder how I managed to make it to this place. I don't fully understand it myself. I'd like to think it was my persistence and a healthy dose of luck.
But why you of all people? This isn't the first time strange things have happened around you... It's bothering me, because I can't tell what will happen next month, next week... even tomorrow.
I don't think there's anything we can do about it. We just have to keep doing what we think is right. That's all we can do.




Fade to black...

Music: Mission - Xenogears, "Leftovers from the Dreams of the Strong"




All ships have arrived. It was quite a task to gather enough of them here to make our story seem plausible. I hope we haven't made a mistake by putting most of our fleet out of action. Oh well... I don't dare question General Keyser's plans. Ah, I'm sorry. What about the messages? Did everything go as planned?
I can't tell for sure if both of them reached Zelmony, but we've done our job. We'll just have to hope for the best.
I see, I see... I suppose we'll find out soon enough.
That's right.



Indeed... but I've heard that the first time, you leaked our plans to the State Army. I certainly hope you won't betray us a second time.
Haha, betray you? You got us all wrong, General. So what if we leaked out the plans? All we agreed on was that we'd synchronize our attacks, and that's what we did. We both gained from it, didn't we? You were trying to use us, so it's only fair we used you as well.
Well, perhaps, but...
It's different this time, though...



You mean Colonel Vinyard? Did you really only agree to our plan because of him?
I don't know how to explain it. I'm a down-to-earth man, but there's something about him, like he's different from the rest of us. You don't feel the same way about him?
I'm... not sure what to think of it. It's certainly exceptional, no doubt. I wonder what it really is... that makes him so special.
We'll just have to do our best for him.




Elsewhere...




But that means they intentionally spread word about reinforcements from Kirgard to fool us?
That has to be it. They must've been afraid we'd find out that Highland is weakly defended now. It was a trick to scare us. But Captain... do you really intend to attack Highland?



Can we really trust this information, though? If it's somehow wrong, we'll--
Highland is essential to us! We can't win a long-term war against Kirgard if we don't have access to Highland's industry! You know that! You think we have the luxury to wait for a better opportunity? We must fight back now!
The captain's right! We can't win if we just sit back and wait! We have to act on this information before they discover that it leaked out!
I agree. This is a perfect time to get revenge on those damn Highland rebels. If we succeed it'll be a boost to our men's morale too.




Elsewhere...



Bah, even Governor Miller decided it'd be safer to stay in Matrech. What were they thinking? Who knows what could happen...



Music: Fuse - Xenogears, "Fuse"



What!? What are you saying!? Those colossal morons! They've been tricked! I knew it was too dangerous to send away the Matrech Guard! Unique opportunity, my ass! They've signed this country's death warrant!
What should we do, sir? We won't stand a chance against them without support from the Matrech Guard!
Are you telling me to surrender, then? Never!



Fade to black...

Music: War Battle - Final Fantasy IX, "Consecutive Battles"




I have the vague sensation that this has happened before...



Stand your ground! We're not giving up so easily!



This battle is rather annoying.



As you probably saw in the intro to this battle, our army is divided into two fronts. Fortunately the Mayfall Army will handily split themselves up so that each half of our army has a reasonable fight on their hands, but it's still a pain to have to deal with.




I'm not sure what determines who ends up where, but in the south we have Daniel, Bast, Outsider, Griever and Shiro, while in the north, Keyser, Ljusalf and Jovian are going to have their hands full.



Merrick is the enemy commander this time around, and he's a pain in the ass. I'm not sure why he has Forester since scouts aren't slowed down by forests, but since he's virtually guaranteed to land the first strike due to his long range, his Berserker skill is going to make his attacks rather nasty by boosting his Atk to 7. What's worse, we can't gang up on him with sorcery units since the ones we have are split. We're going to have to take a lot of hits from him before we can bring him down.




Anyway, there's not much to do on turn 1 but to advance. The southern front moves straight for Mayfall, while the northern front is going to play things more defensively and hang out in the forest to their south. Ljusalf has Forester, so none of our units there will have trouble with the terrain.




Merrick splits up his forces and sends them out to meet us, except for his personal unit, which stays put, and a scout who decides that he just wants to hang out by the river. Okay then?




We have a lot more leeway on turn 2 than it appears. See, it might look like a lot of units on the southern front are threatening our formation, but...



... it turns out that this cavalry here has boxed himself in behind that forest and won't be doing much of anything this turn. We can hang back without having to worry about the enemy cavalry attacking us.




Especially since Outsider makes a crippling shot on the cavalry that actually is threatening us.



Everyone else forms up behind him. It's a little weird to have Outsider out front, but the only enemy that can attack him is the weakened cavalry, so he should be fine.



On the northern front, Keyser positions himself to bait the cavalry towards him, but Jovian and Ljusalf hang back.





Merrick opens his turn by taking the bait with his northern cavalry. I couldn't get a shot without the sudden view change, but as you can see Keyser has dished out a lot more damage than he took.



That's the only attack Merrick makes this turn, though. He decides to advance his personal unit to the southern front, but not much else happens.



Before turn 3 starts, the view suddenly shifts to the forest where my northern units are hanging out.





Whoa, what? Uhh, hey Bast, did you set up surprise reinforcements again without telling me? I'm not going to complain about 1100 free men, but you're on the southern front, so who the hell is leading these guys?




Okay, I don't even know who you are. But hey, free allies! Nashal will always pop up before turn 3--there's no need to do anything special in order to make her appear.





And for once I can just be happy about free allies without having to worry about babysitting their asses, because SCF has finally decided to throw us a bone--Nashal and her Goji Reinforcement unit are allied units, but they don't count towards our efficiency rating in this battle. So they're free to do whatever the hell they want. They're not amazing statwise, but 700 men is pretty great on any unit, and the boost in power is pretty much exactly what my northern front needed.




Now then, I believe we had a bit of a situation on our hands in the south. The first order of business is to slam the sorcery unit there, since we don't want it taking potshots at us while we're taking care of the other units. Outsider reduces it to irrelevance.




Shiro follows up with an attack on one of the enemy infantry. As in our last war battle, my objective here is to cripple as many units as I can early--I'm not too worried about actual kills right now since we can just clean up later.




Daniel takes out the weakened cavalry...




... and Griever rushes in to cripple the one behind it. Bast stays put.




On the northern front, Ljusalf finishes off the cavalry we baited over last turn.



Keyser and Jovian stay where they are to end the turn. They can't reach the enemies, but Nashal and her ally can next turn, so there's not much point in having them run out.





On the enemy turn, Merrick makes screenshotting a pain in the ass by constantly switching back and forth between his northern and southern units. His first attack is with the weakened infantry in the south, which moves forward behind Daniel's commander banner to make an ineffectual strike on Shiro.




Next up, his scout takes a shot at Griever.




The sorcery unit in the north decides to go after Nashal's ally. Again, sorry for the sudden view change, but it's jumping back and forth without my control. You can still see the results of the attack at least.




Meanwhile, in the south, the enemy continues to make ineffectual attacks on Shiro, this time with the weakened sorcery unit.




Merrick changes that and brings a world of hurt to Griever. Miraculously, she manages to survive with only herself left in her unit.





Nashal opens up turn 4 by annihilating the northern sorcery unit.




Her ally follows up with an attack that can only end poorly for her next turn (and which causes another sudden view change as the cursor auto-focuses on Daniel), but you know what? I don't have to worry about retard allies anymore! Go forth!



Now then, our first move in the south is pretty obvious. Griever gets the fuck out of the way. Sure, her entire unit is dead, but she's still alive, and that means no hit to our efficiency rating. She's not pulling any heroics this time around.




Daniel rushes forward to make a crippling strike to the enemy scout which doesn't cause any damage to him in return, thanks to Regenerate.




Bast follows up by taking out that pesky infantry in our midst.




Shiro also kills the sorcery unit hiding behind Daniel's banner...




... and Outsider kills the weakened scout. Unfortunately, this leaves Merrick and the infantry at full strength to do whatever they want next turn.



Meanwhile, my northern units struggle to keep up with Nashal and her ally. They're faster than all my units are, and they don't have any concept of this thing we call "defense," so they're going to be doing most of the work up here.





Merrick opens his turn by crippling Nashal's ally with one of his infantry.



His southern infantry goes after Bast, and this time the view changes so quickly that I can't get a shot of the result. Bast is reduced to 380 men, and the enemy is reduced to 225.




Merrick's scout finishes the job up north. And I don't care.



And in what continues to be a good day for my efficiency rating, Merrick goes after Bast and misses.





Nashal opens turn 5 by going after the enemy scout, of all people. It ends well for her, at least.




On the southern side, Daniel takes out the enemy infantry.




Then it's finally time to start going after Merrick. Shiro is the only one who can attack him without getting hit in return, so he takes the first shot.




Bast remembers that there's a cavalry next to him and destroys it, leaving Merrick all alone on the southern front.




In the north, Jovian finally joins the fray and cripples one of the enemy infantry.





And Ljusalf and Keyser team up to kill the other one. The northern front is pretty much secure at this point.




So that just leaves Merrick, and Outsider's the only one in the south who hasn't moved yet. I decide to have him move in and attack, since if I leave Merrick with 678 men he's going to end up killing someone on his turn. Outsider takes a big hit in return, but if I'm lucky I shouldn't lose anyone.




The northern enemies try their hardest to be relevant, but don't get anywhere.




Merrick decides to go after Bast. Which is fine by me, since if he had attacked Outsider he likely would have killed him.





The battle is basically over at this point. Nashal helps out by killing one of the northern enemies...




... and Keyser finishes things off.




Shiro takes another potshot at Merrick.



And Daniel sets up in front of him while everyone else retreats.





In desperation, Merrick attacks Shiro.







Shiro counters and Daniel and Outsider follow up, but Merrick manages to cling to life.




I don't think I really need to explain what happens after that.



Music: War Battle Won - Suikoden V, "Cry Victory!"





Awwwww yeah bitches.

For our first A-rank in some time, we land ourselves a Cure spell, the next tier of healing magic. At 45 MP (54 for non-light characters) and healing about 300-450 HP, it's pretty much perfectly timed, since Mend is starting to show its age. The B-rank reward for this battle is a Blue Cape, an accessory that grants +8 SKL. The C-rank reward is a plain ol' Frost Shard.



Afterwards, we're given the chance to go into the menu and change our party if we need to. Everything's fine, so we continue on.

Music: Fuse - Xenogears, "Fuse"



Are they hiding inside just like Keyser was?
Let's find out.




Music: Commandos - Chrono Cross, "Dragon Knight"




That's right, traitorface! We are proud Zelmony commandos!
... Zelmony commandos? What, did you switch sides?





Oh Trevor

He's serious.
You, sir, represent everything that is wrong with the world today. Prepare to die!
...

BOSS FIGHT: Trevor & Sick

(no music change; Commandos continues playing)



It's time to break in our new party.




Mayfall isn't the only thing that feels familiar in this update. Just like last time, Sick karate-chops our front row for a bit of damage...



... and Trevor charges something up.







But that's where the similarities end, because then I kick the shit out of Sick so hard that he dies before he gets a second turn.




Trevor puts up slightly more of a fight, dealing major damage with Black Sword.





I say "fuck it" and just go all out on him. If he's anything like Sick, he'll be dead before he can execute another charge and Black Sword.



But it turns out that I've made a miscalculation, as Trevor is now able to use his old standby, Dark Slash, without having to charge first. This takes Daniel out...



... but it also has the side effect of pissing off half the party.



He doesn't last much longer after that.

Music: Boss Battle Won - Chrono Cross, "Victory (A Cry In Summer)"



Yeah, that's right. You give me less experience than regular battles now.

Music: None



It's shameful, but we're not done for yet! We can still show them our greatest skill!
They still have more?



The art of escaping, of course!
Oh, yeah. See you!




Let's move on quickly. We have to find Colonel Merrick as fast as we can.



Music: Kirgard - Suikoden V, "Harbor Town by the Lighthouse"




Merrick walks in, but a bunch of soldiers suddenly dash in front of him.

We'll protect you, Colonel!
No! Get out of my way! The battle's over. Throwing your lives away won't change a thing.





But... I want to know one thing. Major Gunwood, you're a legend to all of us. Why did you leave us? I just don't understand.
Just look at what you're defending. Do you call this a country? It's more like a dying creature fighting for its last few breaths.
But we can't just let anyone walk over us! We have to defend our homes!



A century ago, the Zelmony Kingdom fell apart for the same reasons. Then Ryan came along and built this nation on its ruins. But Ryan's old now, and he can't keep the country together anymore. There's corruption everywhere, from Highland to the Matrech courts. It's time to sweep everything clean again. Don't be a stubborn kid, we've got enough of those in this world already. If you really want to do something for your country, then help us fix it.
I don't get it at all. Maybe I'm just a simple soldier. But Major... I trust you. If even you believe in this Elysium army, then it must be the right way to go.








Merrick's pretty decent. He's got okay STR and a long-range weapon, making him a passable mid-row or back-row fighter, but none of his other stats are particularly standout. His real use is that he provides a service at Elysium Castle, but we don't have time to show it this update, so we'll check it out next time around.





Merrick's got a thing for whips, which explains his relation with Mandala, I guess.




Fade to black...



We've received word from General Leonius that everything went smoothly on the Highland side too. The Matrech Guard retreated soon after they encountered the fourth legion. They must've realized at that point they were tricked.
It was already too late by then to save Mayfall. We've achieved a splendid victory.
You've all done excellent work. We were in a tight position after the ambush at Gaia's Heart, but we fought back and gained the upper hand. Now the final battle is in sight. The next battle will likely seal the fate of the State Union and end this war once and for all.





Thank you for the support. I am Colonel Vinyard, commander of the Elysium Army. What do I owe your help to?



Gojistan?
It's a country far to the north-east of Kirgard, beyond the ocean. But we've never had much contact with it. What are the khan's reasons for supporting us now?
And more importantly, why did you specifically come to see me, and not the royal army itself?



Until recently, we were ready to support the State Union of Zelmony, but the balance has shifted now. The only constant factor is you.
Are you trying to profit from joining the winning side?
I will be frank with you. We are not a powerful country like Kirgard, and we are surrounded by hostile nations. We need allies. That's why we would like to reinforce the ties between our countries, to improve the security of our own country as well.
I see... So you're hoping that in exchange for your help, we will support Gojistan in the future?
We are hoping that being on good terms with a powerful nation like yours will deter others from declaring war on us.









Nashal is... pretty similar to Merrick, actually. She's got higher DEX and SKL, but lower STR and SPD. Her main problem is that she's not really meant for the middle or back row, but at the same time, her PDF is pathetic, so you don't really want to put her in the front row, either. She doesn't really fit anywhere.





Nashal attacks with a claw weapon. From her appearance you'd expect her to fit into the "weak but agile" warrior archetype, but she's actually rather slow, as you can see from all the people in the turn order getting two turns ahead of her. I'm not really a fan.




Any excuse, huh?
Haha, might be a good chance to bring the whole Mayfall army over to our side. Bring it on! I could use a drink after all of this!





Music: Sadness 2 - Suikoden V, "Despair and Hope"




He's so close, but at the same time, he feels so far away.
The colonel? What do you mean?
I was one of the first people to follow the colonel, but... we're not a small team anymore. We're a real army. Everything changed so fast. I wanted to protect him. It was all so unfair what happened, I just wanted to do something for him. But now we're not alone anymore. There's thousands of people around him and he's back with all his old friends. He's always busy talking to generals and other important people.




That's not true! He needs all of us! We're all part of the Elysium Army, aren't we?
It's just that... when I see him over there, surrounded by other people, I wish I could be there with him. I'm just not on the same level as he is.





Next time: Every soldier matters.