Part 120: Mission #52: No, YOU Fester In Your Own Inabilities and Die in It!

Time for some good ol' fashioned exposition. Oh, and the next (and very, very final) wanzer build will be sometime next week.

Mission #52: No, YOU Fester In Your Own Inabilities and Die in It!



: It's been nothing but trouble since I've been with you guys. Kazuki, we'll hold them off here.
Do it without complaint or don't do it at all.
: Hurry up go save Alisa!
: Thanks!



Gah! I forgot how weird Alisa's face looks. Why are here eyes so far apart? That's some piss-poor genetic engineering.
: Alisa!
: Alisa!? You recognize me!?
: Emma! Run! You can't come here!
: That's enough.
Well, if it isn't Lukav, the Belarussian Blade himself...
: Lukav!
: Welcome back, Emir. How long has it been? 10 years?
: Bal... Let Alisa go!
: I'm hurt, Emir. I think of you and Alisa as my daughters.
: You only use people!
: I won't let you use Emma or Alisa again!
: I made them! Why do you care what I do with them?
: They're real human beings with consciences!
I mean, not enough conscience to stop them from building a super-weapon that could destroy mankind, but some sort of conscience nonetheless!
: That's right. Imaginary Numbers are my finest creation. Not defects like you.
: That's enough, Bal! !
: Calm down, Emir. You must be confused. Your "parents" tried to steal my finest achievement. That's why I had to kill them.
: I don't want to hear it! They didn't have anything with them! We ran away carrying nothing...



A return trip to flashback land.



Emma... Run!


But... daddy!


Just run, Emma, We'll be okay.


Mommy.


Run. Emma!

And the car explodes...



And the USN wanzer shows up to take Emma away to America, which is, somehow, probably only about the third-most villainous country in this game.



: No...
: Emma!? What's wrong?
: Emir, you're very perceptive. The most perceptive of all my Imaginary Numbers. Do you understand everything now, Emir?
: What's wrong, Emma? What did our parents take with them!?
Poor, dumb Alisa, proof that a genetically engineered brain can't make silk out of a sow's ear.
: !? Emma, explain everything to me!
: Me and Alisa.
: ?
: My mother and father stole Alisa and me from the laboratory!
: No!
: That's right. You and Alisa and Lukav. I made all of you.
: !? You're lying! We're real humans! Tell me that's not true, Emma!!
: ...
: Emir, you were saved by the USN. Did you think that was just by chance?
: The USN knew I was an Imaginary Number. They used me...
: Right. And you made MIDAS for them.
: ...
: What the...
: I lost MIDAS, but I can make it again with the two of you in my custody. You were destined to come back to me.
: Alisa and I are both Imaginary Numbers... We were being used like puppets...
: I can't believe this.
: Stop! Using Emma and Alisa like puppets...! You're a monster!!
: Shut up! You'll never get out of here alive. Lukav, finish them!
: !
: Kazuki, I can't let you have my sisters.
: Why, Lukav!? Bal's only using you, too!
: That's not true.
: What's not true!?
: I'm the one using him. A defect like you can never use me.
: What is this, Lukav!?
: Bal, you're only a defective human in the end. You've outlived your usefulness.
: Lukav, what's wrong? You're my finest creation! You're perfect! Why would you say such a thing!?
It's just like Tron: Legacy right down to the plot demanding I accept a vacant-eyed brunette as the future of mankind.
: Yes, I am perfect. I was born to rule this world.
: !
: Kazuki!
: No, what are you doing!?
: Emma! Alisa!



And Lukav gets a wanzer to bust in and help him kidnap Emma AND Alisa while Kazuki just kind of stands there.
: Lukav, you!
: I'll take custody of the two. Fester in your own inabilities and die in it, Kazuki. There is nothing else you can do.
Kazuki will get right on that once he unscrambles the meaning of your insult.
: Lukav, have you gone mad!? Liu, finish him. We must hurry after Lukav!
: Yes, sir!
: C'mon, pick up the pace, Kazuki!
: Tch! Master Bal, please escape!
: Stop them! I don't care if you destroy the embassy!
: What were you doing!?
: Sorry, Emma and Alisa were taken!
Making the past twenty mission kind of pointless in retrospect, but hey, at least we learned something.
: Get on the wanzer dude! We gettin' outta here!



And now we've got to fight our way out of the embassy. Fortunately, the only thing standing in our way are Shangdis and Wudes. Kazuki, Yun, Jose and Dennis get the call.



At least this game is fair in the sense that rifles are no more useful for your enemies than they are for your troops.



Meanwhile, the other wanzers start tearing down pieces of the embassy to get at us, which kind of of raise the question of how it is that we have room to fight in an embassy.



Dennis gets a kill...because the body was the only part with HP...and the enemy would have surrendered anyway...still, this is probably one of Dennis' finest moments.



Yun bags another rifle wanzer. For whatever reason, the game only uses rifles on wanzers with bad durability, which seems unnecessary as rifles are actually pretty light so they should, in theory at least, be able to be mounted on stronger wanzers.



Jose flips his machine gun in celebration of his battle skill. It's the only good moment he has this entire mission.



After a few of his real number friends get killed, Liu shows up in a Shangdi with a machine gun. Still, it's Liu, as you'll recall from the other branch, unless he's in an invincible wanzer with a beam rifle, he's toast.



Oh, and there are a few foot soldiers who, in deference to their origins as genetically engineered super-soldiers, are not killed, they are retired.



Since Dennis is this branch's equivalent of Liu, it's only fair that I let the two of them fight it out...



Dennis wins.



A glorious victory. Yun gets 1.02 MVPs.



Well, at least it wasn't a total bust...wait, they were on our side, weren't they? Damn it!
: We'd better get out of here soon.
: No! I'm going to get Emma and Alisa back!
: Do you understand? We're in danger. We must get away from Shanghai! We can save Emma later.
: But!
: Calm down! If Lukav wanted them dead, it would be over already. Don't worry, those two are still alive!
: ...Okay. Once we get Emma's wanzer, we'll go!
Damn straight you're going to go get it? Do you have any idea how long I had to grind to afford that fucking wanzer?

Next Time: Dead Men Tell Tales! Unnecessary Betrayals! Mines!