Part 101: Episode XCVIII: Rapid Reentry

Episode XCVIII: Rapid Reentry



......
How do I tell 2B?

Err... 9S, I don’t think that was meant to be a secret you start gabbing with at the water cooler with your co-workers or posting on the YoRHa IRC channel. That seemed like information the Commander barely trusted giving you to mull over and blabbing it to your friends seems like a good way for her to order you be shoved you out an airlock. Loose lips sink ships, 9S. Bes—



Wait, there’s colors allowed in space? Or at least, only the color red. Is that good...? Red usually doesn’t mean a good thing. Also there’s alarms sounding and that is often accompanied by less than stellar news... But what do I know of color coordination of the extremely distant future? I’m part of an extinct race. Clearly my knowledge was lacking.



All YoRHa members are to report to combat stations immediately. Repeat. Emergency Protocol, code F2. All YoRHa members are to report to combat stations immediately.
Combat stations? I’d better get a move on.



Alert: Mission orders received. Rendezvous and support unit 2B near the Resistance camp.
Any details?
Large numbers of machine lifeforms are rampaging through the city ruins.
What? How? They’re supposed to be weakened...
Cause unknown. Goliath-class enemies also confirmed. Immediate action advised.



Nameless YoRHa members are busy running around in a panic as the alert siren continues. We’re not downloading to a body back on Earth. 9S is going upstairs to grab himself yet another multi-billion G flight unit to trash.



Contact from Command. Alert status raised to Level 4. Repeat. Alert status raised to Level 4. All units currently on standby must be put into a launchable state as soon as possible.





9S’s Flight Unit is already prepped and ready to launch. Just a matter of climbing in and blasting off the Bunker. At least if the damn platform was clear... Hey, hologram ghost girl, could you clear out of the way? We’ve kinda got an emergency going on here! Scram!



......



...Wait, what?



Alert: All communication are currently being jammed.
We’d better hurry...


Music: Grandma (Destruction - Vocal)



So a couple things here: yes, 9S is on the wrong side of the planet. He was in a space station. It’s not like it was locked in geosynchronous orbit over Japan since... the planet doesn’t spin anymore, that’d be real difficult. If you rotate a globe up the Y-axis in the direction he’s heading, after he passes the top of the planet, he’s heading straight towards Japan where the game clearly takes place despite the series never wanting to actually commit to outright saying so.



Secondly: yeah they totally fucked up having a sun reflection on this side of the planet since it’s supposed to be eternally darkness in this hemisphere. Let’s just call it artist license to have a cool sequence of zooming down to earth on a flight unit.







An entirely unremarkable shmup section awaits as we enter the atmosphere. It’s just a handful of the usual small flyer enemies that 9S immediately dispatches. Fun fact: This is actually one of the last shmup sections in the game. I guess they realized everyone was kind of sick of them following the Grün rematch because this mini-game gets put in time out for a good long time in Route C.





As soon as we break cloud cover, 9S has already made it back to the outskirts of the City Ruins and immediately comes face-to-face with a Goliath Flyer.





Bitch, please. We ain’t got time for your barely qualifying as a mid-boss nonsense. 2B is in trouble. Outta the way! Pod 153 doesn’t even have time to properly announce the Goliath-Flyer’s presence before it’s already been annihilated.



2B’s black box signal detected nearby. She is likely engaged in combat.



Welp! Only one thing to do in this situation! Aim right for the hostile at full speed, bail out at the last second and hope for the best.





Yep. 9S’s flight unit wasn’t damaged or anything. It was working perfectly fine. This was literally his Plan A after roughly 2.8 seconds of knowing 2B’s location and hearing she was engaged with an enemy.

Music: ENDS



In Route C, the game becomes a courtroom drama in which 9S is court martialed for repeated reckless destruction of YoRHa military property. It’s an open and shut case as footage of this boneheaded ass display is just looped on repeat over the Command Room Jumbo Tron. The remainder of the game plays out in Robo Prison. It gets weird.



You okay!?
Good thing I... landed that direct... hit...
Was your flight unit damaged on the way here? Damn... We could have used its support.
Umm... yeah... Yep. Took some fire on the descent... Darn machines—
Nobody stops the kill train! Nobody stops the kill train! NOBODY STOPS!
Uh-oh...







This all plays out exactly the same. All remaining machines in the area converge on the Eve and the wreckage of Boku-Shi to form Knack the angry trash ball.




Music: Dependent Weakling (Instrumental)







This fight also goes identical to Route A’s version of events. 9S’s hacking is useless here since the garbage ball is extremely resistant to any attempts and the amount of damage dealt isn’t worth it at all versus concentrated Pod fire and poking it with sticks.

Music: ENDS





Things move right along to the next phase of the trash snake. I’d ask what the hell happened to Eve considering he was riding on the first debris ball mid-boss. Then I remembered the guy can literally teleport at will and I suppose that’s a stupid question to wonder why he’d vanished.


Music: The Sound of the End (Vocal)



What do we do? There’s too many!
Are any other YoRHa units coming for backup?
The entire Bunker was on alert. But I think machines everywhere are going berserk right now, so...
So that’s a no...
...I mean, you’ve at least got me!
<sigh> Yeah... Story of my career.

Pascal phones up as soon as we head in the direction of the trash snake.



2B, can you hear me?
It’s uhh... it’s 9S, actually.
<leans forward> Oh yes, I’m sorry. I see that now. Forgive me, all of you androids look the same at a glance...
......
Our village is under—AAAAAHHH! <crackle and disconnect>
Pascal! Come in, Pascal!
Shit...



There’s still a ton of rampaging machines between us and the side entrance to Pascal’s Village. It’s best to keep our distance since all of them just start emitting an electrical AOE attack if the androids approach remotely close to them.



As before, a bunch of rowdy lads are trying to start shit with the Machine Village and are too dumb to just climb over a few things of twisted metal or just walk around the cliff edge to circumvent it. As 9S and 2B go to work on the hostiles, Pascal phones up again.



What did you androids DO?! I’m getting reports of rampaging machines... eating androids? I didn’t even know the newer generation of machines had mouths.
...Wait, what?!
Yeah... it was this whole thing back at the camp... I’ll fill you in later...
We’ve sealed off the entrance to the village and are trying to hold them off. If you all could handle the ones near the City Ruins, you’d be doing me a real favor.



Already on it.
Mhm.
You androids are always so reliable for that one particular thing...
What’s that supposed to mean?
Another attack wave! Apologies, I have to go. <disconnects>
......







Once the machines pounding on the Machine Village gates are sorted out, the trash snake erupts to the ground for a repeat of this awful battle. Again, 9S’s hacking is worthless. Doubly so here since the core just shrugs off hacking damage and the rest of the snake is just a machine corpse meat shield for the core.



Actually, refight was way more difficult for me than the first go around because some random idiot moose decided it wanted to wander into the battlefield to see what all the fuss was about and 9S’s lock-on capabilities insisted that the moose was a greater threat than the chaotic whirlwind of anger and rusted metal skittering about the sky. I mean, it’s not wrong. But still. Annoying.





Eventually, 9S is able to shatter the core of Knack 2 and put an end to the trash monster threats. Pascal phones up one final time to thank us for our efforts.



What happened here?
The machines on the network are, to borrow an apt ancient human phrase, SUPER pissed. The unit presiding over them may have gone mad. I couldn’t tell you as to why.
It’s Eve. It’s got to be.
I may have disemboweled his brother.
<rub area between eyes> ...That would likely do it.
If we destroy this presiding unit, will it stop the rest?
Most likely, yes... Though, I ask you do not hold me to that one...
Pod, I need you to locate Eve’s current position.
Location has been detected and placed on map.
We’ll gank that guy too.
You just worry about keeping the village safe, okay?
Do be careful!


Music: The Sound of the End (Quiet)



Back we go, way down in the hole...



Mi hermano... Hermano...
What is this?
Fratello... Aniki... Frère... Bruder...
He’s spamming every channel like this. My HUD is getting filled up with these pop-ups. I think all of these transmissions are making the machines go haywire. We need to go kill that guy. This sucks.
Agreed.



<screams>
Now what?

Music: ENDS



There’s no last minute changes here. The final boss of Route B is still gonna be Eve. We find him chilling out in the middle of the City Ruins crater just as we previously did...





I learned about this thing called “nihilism” when reading about something called a Japanese Role Playing Game. There’s some good ideas there. I know you two feel the same way.





Nope...
Not really.
Oh... Is that right? The other neat part about this nihilism thing is what you think is meaningless too... As far as I’m concerned, my brother... was everything...



And now... EVERYTHING MUST DIE! WELCOME TO DIE!



Tune in next time for the final battle of NieR: Automata’s Route B as the rematch against Schwarz Bruder commences.






Video: Episode 98 Highlight Reel (You should at least watch the beginning of this.)





2B Early Concept Art – Learning that Akihiko Yoshida, the character designer for the original Final Fantasy Tactics featuring bubble butt Ramza Beoulve and Vagrant Story featuring assless chaps sporting Ashley Riot, designed 2B suddenly makes her design make a lot more sense. Dude just loves shapely butts.