Part 42: Mission #39: Ten Steps Behind...

Alisa had Panic Shot way back in the day. It's alright, as it confuses the enemy pilot, making him spend more AP on attacks and counterattacks, but it doesn't combo well, and, as a practical matter, I'm more interested in Battle Skills that elevate Alisa's damage from "craptacular" to "depressing."

Also, as far as the all-start wanzers go, I think my preliminary list, which of course could be altered by the last cycle of builds, would be:

Kazuki: Berzuki
Ryogo: GenericBuild
Alisa: Anything but Fire Support
Liu: Secret Agent (though I'm hopeful one of you will come up with a  rifle/beam wanzer  next time).
Miho: Girl in Blue
Pham: The Tank
Mystery Characters #1 and #2: Probably depends on what gets submitted next time.

And, no, there isn't a new grenade launcher.

Mission #39: Ten Steps Behind...

Lots of stuff to do today, but first, email!



Should she really be returning to the Philippines ever? I mean, she is the last surviving rebel leader. Even Castro was in effective exile for a while...and she's no Castro.

Anyway, there's some new stuff on the internet...



By winning Miss Teihoku, Alisa gets her own fan club page, which, at the very least, included pictures of her that make her look almost human. By the way, and I'm being totally serious, the caption for this photo goes on to say that she managed to miss her shot. Not a huge surprise at this point.



Meanwhile, the Luis Corp. website is open, and it reveals what I had long suspected: Pierre is a Welshman! We were fools to trust our lives to a man of such...extraction.



Also, you can use a program you find on the internet to decrypt photos. This is what happens when you use it on that photo of Miho dressed up as cartoon dog. I think the game might be trying to tell me something about Miho.



I prefer to think of her as counter-trustworthy.
: Maybe she was on Lukav's side from the beginning.
: Ryogo!
: Oh, sorry...
: I trust my sister. She must've had a good reason. She wouldn't go with Lukav...
: Even so, with the way things are going, Lukav will get MIDAS. We have to prevent that from happening.
: Yes. We have to stop Emir...
: But how? How do we find out where Lukav is?
: ...
: I know someone who's good at finding people.
: Rudolf? Why are you helping us?
: He probably wants our money.
: Kazuki, maybe you shouldn't trust him.
: You're the one who brought him over!
: I'm just being nice.
: You're the one who told us not to trust anyone.
: That's true. Well, it doesn't matter to me. You can look for him on your own.
: Um... I'd like you to help us.
: Alisa!?
: Kazuki, there's no way to find Lukav by ourselves. Please, Rudolf. Take us to your contact.
: You're the smart one of the bunch. What about the others?
That really says more about the party than about Alisa.
: ...Fine.
: Good. Follow me.



: You don't understand anything, Kazuki. We have to take a gift with us, if we're asking for a favor.
: Shut up and follow me. Is he in?
: In the back.



: What do you want? Nothing good ever happens when you're here.
: Hey, I'm your best friend.
: No, you aren't. Just tell me what you want.
: Fine. I want to know where Lukav is. Any information?
: ! Are you going to seek revenge for Chairman Jie?
: I don't care about any dead guy. Their friend was captured by him.
No one cares about Chairman Jie.
: Give it up. You won't find Lukav.
: You haven't even tried looking! I thought you were some hot shot spender.
: I'll pay. Please, anything.
Wait. Why does this come down to us? Shouldn't someone in the world care that Lukav intends to conquer humanity through the use of a super-weapon?
: It's not just the money. He hasn't left any trace. I can't find him. The only one who can track him is Moneymaker.
Moneymaker... Oh, how I have sympathy for the future Smasher Dynamo...
: I see...
: You're useless. What a waste of time.
: You're an expert at making people feel bad.
Also killing people...it's really the same principle, though.



: Song Guan Lei?
: Owner of an automobile repair shop in Buxi? Who is he?
: He's an FAI agent.
: FAI?
: Federal Agency of Intelligence. He's a spy for the USN.
: The USN is on Lukav's side. Maybe Guan Lei would know something. He won't talk very easily, though.
: Thank you so much!
: People who tried to pull out data on Lukav are missing. You should be careful.
: I knew I could count on you.
: What a lie. And don't come here for a while. You stink up the place with the smell of gunpowder.



Progress!



: Why is this place such a mess!?
: Someone was here before us.
: Hey! There's a man on the floor!
: Are you okay?
: ... The Imaginary Numbers...
: Lukav was here, wasn't he? Where is he?
: Lukav...US..N... fleet... Somebody stop... him...
: Hold on!
: Ran Fong...
: Help! Hold on...
: ...
: What's going on!?
: It's Lukav. He was here.
: But why kill Guan Lei!?
: To prevent us from knowing his whereabouts. He's good.
: Not really. We know that he's with the USN fleet.
: It doesn't matter. We can't take the whole USN fleet.
Kind of makes killing this dude pointless, then? Oh, well, we could still stop him before-



Nevermind. Looks like another heroic failure for Kazuki and company!

: You're back. What happened to the JDF scientists?
: She's taken care of. The rebels are invading Shanghai. My subordinates will take care of the problem.
Uh-oh. I don't suppose the rebels are willing to forgive us for killing most of their top leaders?
: All right. All that's left now is for Emma to build us another MIDAS.
: ...
: Everything will be back to square one. The USN must lead the world. The OCU and DHZ are no world leaders.
In fairness, any world where Australia is in charge isn't a world worth living in.
: You shouldn't be so overconfident.
: There is no other country that can confront the USN forces.



Yep, in most other games, your actions don't really have consequences. In this game, every action the party takes digs them a deeper grave.
: There's no answer! The enemy is now invading Nanjing!
: Send backup immediately! Damn the Hua Lian Rebels! Don't let them get anywhere beyond Nanjing!
: What's going on?
: Yeah, what happened?
: Rudolf, the rebels are moving to invade Shanghai. Not good.
: The chairman is dead. It's a prime chance for them.
: And another strange thing.
: What?
: Looks like the Imaginary Numbers are helping the rebels.
: Tianlei and Wuhan fell with the help of the Imaginary Numbers.
: So they've been with the rebels since they left Shanghai.
: The Imaginary Numbers!?
: They formed an alliance with the rebels?
: It doesn't look like they're working together.
: Yes. They're fighting separately.
: But I though Lukav left the DHZ for the USN! What do they want?
: Maybe there are things still left for them to do.
: What's left to do?
: Um, Lukav, kidnapped Emma for MIDAS information, right? But if there's another person who knows how to make it...
: I see. There's a risk of that other person making MIDAS first. There's no point in having Emma if that happens.
: Are they after Alisa?
: Yeah. The DHZ now has a scientist who knows how to make MIDAS. The enemy is trying to destroy her.
: Enough. We know you're smart.
: What do we do now, Rudolf?
: We're not fighting the Imaginary Numbers for free.
: Are you going to abandon the DHZ!?
So? What does Kazuki care? The DHZ was planning on betraying the party anyway, they just got countered-betrayed by Lukav before they got the chance to kill us.
: We're not a volunteer service. It's time to go. There's no money for us here.
: What about us?
: Let's go to Nanjing. We have to try and figure out where Lukav is!
We know where he is. The issue is that there's not much we can do about it.



Well, whatever, let's...what exactly do we intend to do, anyway?



That's a very large robot.



: They can't even clear this obstacle. The Hua Lian are useless. We will move on to Shanghai as planned.
: Jared, the target.
: They've come to be killed? Stupid. Destroy the target as planned.
Leave it to Kazuki to walk into a trap with no bait.



: What's going on!? Why are they fighting in the middle of the city !? They don't care if they sacrifice civilians!?
: Kazuki, over there!
: Imaginary Numbers!
: What now? They're coming this way!
: We can't fight here!
: Don't just stand there! Draw the enemy away!
Oh, good. Lan's back. I was just thinking to myself, "whatever happened to everybody's favorite war criminal?
: !? Lan? Is that you, Lan!?



: I'll evacuate the civilians. Don't let the enemy close in!
: All right, you heard her! Don't let 'em touch the civilians!



Kazuki, Ryogo, Miho and Pham get the call. Liu is still out on betrayal leave, and Alisa...fuck rifles, alright?



The stats of the big robot. It can fire a particle beam. Now, it hits hard, but it costs a ton of AP and can be blocked with a shield. Still, it's not exactly great news.



Other than that, it's a typical spread of Lenghe 1s and Shunwangs. Nothing too interesting.



Typically, using your melee wanzers against their melee wanzers is a sucker's bet. But, Pham isn't in range of any other enemies, and has HP to spare...



The AI will spend the first few turns trying to clear a path by attacking cars on the street. I guess it's supposed to represent them killing civilians, but, frankly, if the only result is making it easier for me to attack the Imaginary Numbers, then I suppose it's for the greater good.



Kazuki effectively finishes off one of the Lenghe 1s, but loses his shotgun arm in the process. That's quite bad. The Best Served Cold isn't too fragile, but it's not rugged enough to function as a melee wanzer, which is what it now is.



Let it be known that I did not start the practice of using beam weapons in battle, but, God help me, if wars are to be fought with particle cannons, then our squad must follow suit with whatever means we may find at our disposal. Therefore, I, under the authority granted to me as commander of this LP, do hereby declare that the Simon Phoenix Directive is now in effect. Further details will be given as necessary.



Oh, if Lan dies, you lose the mission. You don't have anyway of controlling her, and the best you'll be able to do is distract the enemy by using your wanzers as bait. Thanks, Lan, it's always a pleasure to see you.



Let Miho's continued success by a lesson to you all. Allowing a character to get good at a weapon, instead of swapping out their weapons every build cycle makes my life a lot easier.



As I said, the Best Served Cold isn't much of a melee wanzer.



I'll give this much to Front Mission 3's graphical engine. It does a good job with scale. Pham ain't a-feared o' none of them giant robots.



Ryogo is getting better at using the flamethrowers. If anyone cares, though, I'd rather have him use a machine gun.



That's the last of the Lenghe 1s, which makes me a lot happier. They're probably the most frightening grunt units in the game. They'll hit for over four hundred damage a hit, and have the move range to hit whichever of your units they please. Oh, and they have a ton of HP.



And Miho kills the giant robot. Still, it cost her most of her health. She gets destroyed the next turn by a Shunwang.



Okay, this part is a bit hard to explain, since I'm missing a few screenshots. So, here's the sequence of events. Kazuki gets into battle with a Shunwang, and loses his remaining arm. Ryogo then kills that Shunwang, clearing that entire side of the map. Miho then knocks a pilot out of a different wanzer. Pham then tries to crush that pilot like a bug, and misses, but, for whatever, reason, the pilot refuses to get back into his wanzer.



Meanwhile, Pham gets into a fight with Jared, who shows off his battle skill...and it's Hit or Miss...the worst battle skill in the game. Now, I threatened that I blow would blow up the house of anyone who even considered using that skill...



Because it's that bad. Hit or Miss, for those who don't remember, makes it so that you have a 50% chance of all your bursts hitting, and a 50% chance of them all missing. Since your burst weapon almost always has a hit rate of well above 50%, that's a shitty deal. Here, Pham walks away unscathed from a machine gun attack at point-blank range.



Pay attention to the bottom of the screenshot. As it was, Kazuki's Best Served Cold was practically destroyed, with neither of its weapons remaining. But, there was an abandoned Shunwang still in pretty good shape. What I did was pilot the Best Served Cold right next to the empty Shunwang, and then ejected Kazuki right into the vacant wanzer.



And then, on the next turn, Kazuki goes off the beat Jared. Now, granted, this is a bit risky, as if the Shunwang gets destroyed, I won't get to keep it after the battle...but it was too cool not to do.



The Tank sends Jared away.
: I'm pulling out.



Great. Time to take out the trash...



Let's chat for a moment about morale. Morale is kind of a nebulous concept in this game. Occasionally, very low morale will cause an enemy to move into the surrender? status without an attack. The more damaged the wanzer is, the more likely this is to happen. Otherwise, a very damaged wanzer may, after an attack, move into surrender? status. At this point, one more attack will cause the wanzer to surrender, if it survives. Now, if you leave a wanzer in the surrender? status alone, it will check its morale each turn. Most of the time, it will remain in surrender? status, but, in extreme circumstances, it may either surrender, or, conversely, rejoin the battle. In this case, this Lenghe had been in surrender? status most of the battle, but seeing Kazuki and Miho's wanzers get trashed inspired it to get back in the fight...except it has no weapons, meaning the only effect of its decision is denying me the chance of acquiring this wanzer after the battle. Nuts.



Agh. Pham gets MVP.



: How did you know we were here?
: I wanted to find you, so I listened to the Changli Army comm.
: You were looking for us?
: I didn't like the idea of not returning the favor I owe you. I've sacrificed many people to gain my revenge. That is why I've decided to make amends from here on. If I am with you, I may learn what it is to make amends.
Yeah, unless you learn how to raise the dead, I imagine that you'll still be first against the wall once the rebels take over the DHZ.
: So, you're joining us!?
: This may seem bothersome, but I would like to join your fight.
: It's no bother!
So, Alisa bitched out her sister for creating MIDAS, even though Emma never intended to use it as a weapon. But she's okay with Lan, who she personally saw help burn two village to the ground.
: Yeah. We can definitely use the help. We need you!
: Thank you.
: Well, let's not just stand out here. Let's get back to base!
: Yeah. We need to figure out where Lukav is headed.



And now you know the identity of Mystery Character #1...

Next Time: Inter-agency conflict! Another civil war breaks out! The decidedly abrupt introduction of Mystery Character #2!