Front Mission 3 Part #86 - Mission #22: Stoolie's Delight

Part 86: Mission #22: Stoolie's Delight

As for the Squidbillies debate, I always assumed the creators of the show had some sort of hideous blackmail material on the network head.

Mission #22: Stoolie's Delight

We finally made it to Taipei.

: We're supposed to meet at a bar just ahead.

: Is Lukav still here?

: I don't know. He knows we're following him. He can't make a move too easily.
Seeing as he's, nominally at least, an agent of the DHZ, who owns this island, I can't imagine it's that hard for him.

: Let's hurry on ahead.

I still think the other branch, where Kazuki keeps referring to the ambassador as a 'stoolie' is the funniest moment in the game.

: It's that man in the brown suit.

: You know who profits during a time of war? It's the weapon makers. That's why those corporations experience growth even after the war. Wanzer makers earn the most profit these days. The people who profit during a war stay rich after the war.
Zzzzzzz....you done? Good.

: You must know about the recent murder of Japanese scientists. They say anti-OCU rebels did it, but I hear it was really the military. Do you think that's true? It's a dangerous world out there. You guys be careful, too.
Yeah, that must've been a weird news story. "Tonight at 9, a certain country's scientists' corpses now litter the streets of our capital, but we won't tell you which won until after Action Weather with Nimbus Pete!

: There's been a heavy military presence in the city lately. They're all gonna go kill people. Hee hee. Everyone's gonna die in a war. How many did you kill today?
I don't know, today? No more than a couple of dozen, I'd guess.
{The party approaches a Man in Brown Suit.}

: Ambassador Clay?

: Who are you?
Clay was in the other branch, where he was secretly working for the DHZ, right up until the USN caught on and burned down his house...while he and his family were still inside. We're working for the USN now, so I guess we ought to fill our gas cans and buy some accelerator.

: Dennis. An FAI agent.

: I see. Let's get to a safe place. Then we'll talk.

: Sure.

: Follow me.

: What a dump! Isn't there a shower?

: Shut up.

: What's Lukav doing?

: He's hiding out at the Huanguang wanzer factory. He'll probably join he Changli Army and go to mainland DHZ.

: Why doesn't he go straight to the DHZ?
Well, looks like we're going to spend the next third of the game dicking around in China again, aren't we?

: There are armed guerillas in Taiwan and the DHZ. He'd want to avoid their attack.

: And the enemy forces?

: Not much. The Changli Army hasn't joined him.

: Should we attack now?

: We should wait until night fall. It's far from the city. They're less likely to see us moving at night.

: All right. We'll keep an eye on him.

: Thank you, ambassador.

: Well, let's be ready by tonight.

: I don't care how good Lukav is. I'll save Alisa!

: What? You scared? Don't worry, it's only Lukav!

: I know you want to attack now. You must calm down, or he'll get you.

: Lukav is dangerous. Even with my skills, I can't get any data on Lukav.

: It's because you're a hack!! Get it?

: Not funny!
Word.

Lukav... We must get him before the Changli Army joins him.
Okay, time to get new wanzers, and let's see if anything's happening at the bar...

: I want all those military people to leave. My granddaughter lives in the Philippines. I heard they blew up the entire city of Batangas. Leave, if you don't want us to wind up the same.

: ...

: Many innocent people died in that explosion. Now, leave!
Nah, we'll be fine, we're on the supply side of destruction.

: The ambassador said he hasn't moved.

: I contacted headquarters. They'll provide us with backup.

: Wow, this is gonna be easy!

: Don't be too optimistic. We're talking about Lukav, after all.

: It'll be fine! He's just another guy.

: I hope you're right.

: I know you're worried, but it's almost nightfall.

: Are you ready, Kazuki?

: Yeah. We can leave right away.

: Okay, then. Let's go!

: Yes... A little too quiet.
Oh, Emma, I know you can do better than that.

: You're being paranoid. Lukav is probably fast asleep by now.
Man, Lukav doesn't sleep, he just goes into reverie for eight hours.

Light and alarms. That's probably not a great sign for a covert mission.

: What's going on? What's the meaning of this!? Where is the Changli Army!?

: I think our ambassador is rather unreliable...
I'll grant the Emma branch this, except for Lukav's betrayal, the party is never really blindsided when someone turns against them. I mean, it's not as though the party really trusted Clay so much as had no real choice but to ask him for help.

: You think!? We're going to have to get through here.

New Wanzers! Kazuki is in the Chicago, and, given the parts Psion chose for it, it is basically the Cubs made manifest in wanzer form. You can try and talk yourself into it being decent, but it's still going to suck. Ryogo is in the Burstzerker, which is marred by equipping a shotgun instead of a shield or a second machine gun. Dennis has the 2Late2GoBack which has two rifles and breaks my heart every time I see it on the setup screen. Finally, Emma has the Science Babe which is the best out of the four, but was designed by jng2059.

Tanks. Not a real threat, not particularly exciting to fight, but, here we are.

Dennis unlocks Double Shot I almost immediately. Of course, in my mind, that just doubles the chances he has to miss rifle shots.

Still, I guess credit where credit is due.

And Ryogo disposes the other tank in a somewhat more efficient manner.

Anyway, the enemies in this map choose to hold their ground for some reason. That means you'll end up fighting them in the three waves. The first wave is the two tanks we just disposed of. The second is another tank, and Yongsai and a couple of snipers on foot, and the third wave is another Yongsai and Laiying. If they all came at me at once, it might be a challenge, but they don't.

Another hapless Chinese tank gets blown up. Oh well, they'll always have Tienanmen Square.

Kazuki begins his epic battle with this sniper that will take him the rest of the battle. There are a couple of other snipers, but the party bulldozes them pretty quickly. For whatever reason, though, Kazuki just has can't quite kill this one guy.