Part 83: Mission #19, Dammed and Damned

Mission #19, Part 2: Dammed and Damned

Last Time: Emma was rather depressed about MIDAS, her invention, being used to incinerate a city...and then Alisa went missing, making Emma even more sad. This led to her confessing to Kazuki that Alisa is her sister, and that she intentionally sought Kazuki out to help her because of his link to Alisa, thus forcing Kazuki to become a fugitive. Kazuki took the news rather well, and then a call came from the bridge informing Emma that there was an update on the missing scientist situation.



: The bodies of the Japanese scientists were found in a suburb of Taipei.
: !
: Was Alisa among them!?
: No. Lukav and Alisa were not found.
: Looks like Lukav is the culprit. According to intelligence, Lukav may have been a spy for the DHZ.
You mean the same 'intelligence' that let Lukav escape with all of the MIDAS scientists?
: He was a double agent!?
: Quite possibly.
: I wonder why they would leave evidence like those bodies behind?
: He's trying to trap us. I don't know why, but I'm sure of it.
: We must capture Lukav in Taiwan, before he goes to DHZ mainland.
So, we know it's a trap, but are headed straight for it anyway? Outstanding.
: What do we do now?
: Take a look at this.



: Dropping was good, but now the DHZ Army is after us.
: I also need diversionary forces. First, drop in forces here, then take Shanxi. Then the forces at this point attack Taoyuan. During that, my forces enter Taipei from this point?
: Sounds good, but the Purple Haze is gone. We don't have enough troops.
: We'll be in charge of this mission. The DHZ may get their hands on MIDAS. This is a military matter.
: You're using airborne units?
: We'll use the ones stationed in Midway.
: It may start a war with the DHZ.
You know, at this point, after seeing all of the shenanigans our party gets into, I'm reasonably convinced that the only way to start a war in the Front Mission universe would be to blow up the capital of another country and then refuse to apologize for it.
: Even so, we can't let other countries have the information! You're under my command now.
Kind of a dumb question, I know, but exactly who's command were we under before?
: No way!
: Stop it, Kazuki.
: This is no child's play. You take my orders.
: Kazuki, the captain is right. We should focus on rescuing Alisa.
: All right...
: What do you want us to do, captain?
: I need you to fly to Taiwan. We're starting the mission right away. Get ready. You're under my command. Don't do anything stupid!
Kazuki can't promise that.

Well, before we go, according to the Equality of Party Members Act of 1998, I am required to solicit comments from all members of the party before embarking on a mission.
: Don't worry. Alisa is probably safe. We'll rescue her.
: I really liked everyone in Purple Haze. Now they're gone.
Even Gastor?
: Man, I should've asked for more money.
: I hear Lukav is quite an agent.
: I never thought Lukav would become our enemy.
I mean, he was always saying stuff like, "The norms must be culled." and "Soon a new race of human will complete the evolution of mankind, no matter the cost." But I never thought he'd act on it.



To Taiwan!



Let's commit an act of war!



Calmzuki, deploy!



Still not the most insane way of launching wanzers in the game.



And we're here.



: This dam leads to Taipei. Let's move before we're spotted.
: Wow, what a welcoming party.
: I don't think they're just going to let us through...
: Stop them before they call for help!
: If we destroy the dam, can we wash away the enemies!?
: It's possible although the enemies downstream will know we're here.
And, you know, it would also kill hundreds of civilians in a flood.



Emma, Dennis, Yun, and Jose, in his debut, are the starting four. There are two groups of enemies in this map. Two Yongsais and Laiying on top of the dam, and three Yognsais below. The bottom group will take a while to reach your lines, though.



Emma starts off the battle with a two missile combo.



And Jose tries to capitalize on Emma's barrage, but doesn't have the experience with machine guns necessary to do much good.



Yun, however, has not such problems.



But Jose proves more hapless than even I could have guessed, and gets force-ejected.



At least this give me a chance to adjust his Def-C, it had been sent on Anti-P, since we'd been dealing with a lot of machine gun enemies in the first part of the game, but now that we're in the DHZ, shotguns are the weapons of choice, meaning Anti-I is the way to go.



Dennis, apparently frustrated that he's no longer the most useless member of the team, promptly gets force-ejected.



Up on top, Yun has been trying to take out the enemies single-handedly. She only has the Laiying to go, but doesn't have much health left.



And Dennis almost gets killed outside of his wanzer. We're fast approaching the point in the game where getting knocked out of a wanzer during the player phase is a virtual death sentence.



Ugh. Oh, well, growing pains are unavoidable, I suppose.



And Yun manages to kill the last enemy on top of the dam, thus clearing half of the enemies basically by herself.



Jose, Goofus to Yun's Gallant, gets killed soon after. You know Jose, why don't you take some time, and ask yourself if being a wanzer pilot is really what you want to be doing.



Emma chops down a Yongsai with her axe. Excellent work. Still, the wanzer was designed by jng2058, so, as a matter of principle, I consider this a failure.



Yun caps her 4th wanzer of the mission...and there were only six wanzers to begin with.



And Dennis manages to actually make a rifle shot at the worst possible time, depriving me of an extra set of Yongsai parts, made more frustrating by the fact that Yongsai parts are actually good.



Good job. Yun wins MVP.



It's possible to blow up the dam, thus alerting the main body of the enemy to your presence, and it's also possible to screw things up so that the enemy can call into HQ. I'm far too awesome to let either of those calamities befall us, though.
: This is Bravo. Please respond!
: Is it the diversionary force?
: This is Cool Face, we hear you.
: We're fighting in Taoyuan! You've got your path to Taipei.
You know, there's not much point in having code names if you're just going to announce your position in plain language over the radio.
: Roger that, are you doing okay on your side?
: There are so many, it's a pain. We'll figure something out.
: Thanks. Good luck.
: Bravo out!
: Looks like they took the bait.
: What about the CHARLIE group headed for Shanxi?
: They're not responding. I'm a little worried.
: Let's move on while they're still after the bait.

Next Time: Into the Wild

Bonus Video

How to do this mission right...