Part 59: Mission #56: The Audacity of Hoshun

A note on the progress of this LP: Well, gang, we're only a few updates away from the beginning of this branch, meaning I'm only...seventy missions away from finishing the LP, more if I do the alternate missions, most of which I intend to show off.

Also, jng2058 has been repeatedly pushing that this branch we've been playing isn't the 'proper' path. He's probably right, in the sense that the plot of the other branch, on the whole, is a bit more cohesive in terms of plotting a characters, but it's not that much better.

Now, as much fun as my throwaway basketball references are, I have the feeling that if I did that tonight, it would not go well for anyone, so I'm going to knock out this update a bit earlier so that the commentary doesn't consist solely of me discussing how much I hate the city of Miami, the citizenry of Miami, the players on the Miami Heat, and the concept of 'Heat' itself.

Mission 56: The Audacity of Hoshun

But first, email time is here again!


By the way, it's never quite made clear why the DHZ is being blamed for the invasion. Certainly, both the OCU and Japan know it's not really the DHZ, and neither, likely, does the USN. I think it's more the fact that, after the DHZ got involved in the invasion of the Philippines, they became a good scapegoat, and no one really wants to go public with the fact that transhuman supermen are in the midst of a plot to conquer the earth.


Rudolf deserved a better send-off I think.
: Kazuki, I got mail from Rudolf. He's leaving Japan.
: He's not gonna help us?
: They make their living fighting wars.
: ...(Why did he write me?)


Huh. I guess the OCU didn't know that the DHZ invasion was a fake...which is kind of amazing, seeing as they have an intelligence agent on the scene. I guess Mayer is the sort of intelligence agent who, instead of providing intelligence, just kind of sits around and says mildly irritating things. I'm guessing her reports are just doodles of hearts...and probably signed "The Future Mrs. Hei Fang Liu."
: I guess it's none of my business...
: Huh? Did you say something?
: Oh.. Nothing, Kazuki.



Back to the surface..



: We're separating this block. Please evacuate to the next block! Repeat, this block is being separated. Please evacuate.
And some bullets start flying from the distance...
: What!? Protect the civilians!
: Oh, a Real Number? Such futility... You're just a useless has-been.
: An Imaginary Number...
: It doesn't matter what you do. It's already too late. Stop resisting and give up.
: Shut up! You never know unless you try!
Kazuki, you just aren't cut out to give snappy one-liners.



: I'll not have you interfere with Sir Lukav any longer. All units, begin your attack. Leave nothing standing.
: Imaginary Numbers are just puppets with no will of their own. I'll destroy each and every one of you right here! Right now!
: Wait, Liu! Avoid unnecessary combat. Place the civilian's safety first!
: ...You seem to always make things harder for me.



Kazuki trots out the Berzuki Final, Alisa has the Thor Shot, Liu is in the White Devil Zeta, and Lan has the Thrudgelmir 2, let's see how easy this game can be when I don't have one hand tied behind my back. Technically, you have to protect this that truck in the midst of your wanzers, but it will drive off by the end of a few turns, so don't worry too much about it, as long as you don't turtle up at the beginning, the enemy will target you instead.



Jared has a new ride, it's not particularly scary, especially since my wanzers are a bit tougher than usual.



Now that's some damage.



That's right, when I'm in charge of wanzer construction, even Alisa is capable doing serious damage.



Liu shows off his new fist. The issue with the beam rifle is that it costs so much AP, you can't really move and shoot, and, even standing still, you don't regenerate enough AP to use it every single turn, a cheap melee weapon allows Liu to be on the offensive.



You see, Mehuyael, Aim-Arm wasn't the answer...



RoF III is where it's at...



After thirty missions, Berzuki is once more free to bring fear upon this land.



All will feel my wrath!



If Melee III ever triggers, it will do over a 1000 damage in a single blow, and it can combo. The White Devil Zeta is more powerful, but the Berzuki Final is still a fucking beast.



Like Lukav's wanzer from a couple of missions ago, once you get into close combat range, Jared is toast...unless he manages to force-eject one of your pilots by random chance...



And then kills him. Damn it. By this point in the game, getting ejected out of a wanzer is a death sentence if it happens in your phase.



Liu breaks another enemy. Next branch, I'm probably not going to let someone use all of the Hoshun parts on one wanzer.



Victory pose!



Lan has a solid mission as well, it doesn't look to good next to Liu's death machine.



There will be no extended boss battle.



The Hoshun makes things a bit too easy, but I just can't quit using it.
: Forgive me. I've failed my mission. It is up to you now.
: All right.




Not great. In my defense, Kazuki got killed halfway through the mission, and Lan later got force-ejected as well, though she survived. No MVP because they're all my wanzers anyway.



: All surviving civilians have escaped.
: We beat the Imaginary Numbers. Now we need to separate the block.
: Is the control room nearby?
: It's on the outskirts of town.
: We should hurry before something else happens.
: Yeah, let's hurry!
I still don't know how breaking the city into parts is really going to help, seeing as Lukav is already in the block with MIDAS, but sure, 'something else' is always just around the corner.

Next Time: Smasher Dynamo meets his deadliest foe: Cyclone Piston!