Part 26: Episode XXV: Executing Orders

Episode XXV: Executing Orders


Music: Fortress of Lies (Vocal)



Then they were dead this whole time... The Council of Humanity needs time to formulate a plan. Until then, this information must be kept confidential. Speak of it to no one.
Of course.
Your next mission is to gather additional intel on the individual known as “Pascal.”
You mean that freaky machine we ran into?
This order comes directly from the Council. Knowledge of such unique individuals is essential for the success of future missions.
Understood.

Welcome back to space. It’s still desaturated up here. Our newest main mission objective is a recon job investigating further what Pascal’s deal is over in the Machine Village. Which boils down to... we just gotta go talk to Pascal and ask him some questions about recent events. And he’ll happily answer them to the best of his abilities because Pascal is a top boy. But there is no rush in doing that immediately. Pascal isn’t going anywhere. While we are back in the neighborhood, we can take the time to explore the Bunker a little bit. Dialogue for NPCs has changed since last time we were here. Most of it is irrelevant inane chatter and the occasional android flirting. But the Operators near the Commander have a few interesting things to say.



Every time we track him down, he manages to slip through our fingers. How does he keep doing that!?
......
Sorry, but the investigation into the humanoid machines is stalled; I don’t have any new information for you. The humanoid machines’ battle abilities appear to be growing. The troops we sent to investigate were completely wiped out. So don’t let your guard down! If you run into one out there, destroy it at once!



I’m guessing they have plenty of things to worry about. I shouldn’t run around spouting off such petty concerns. We also didn’t get instructions from headquarters about how to handle those humanoid machines. Maybe they’re just trusting us to deal with it? Or maybe... I mean, what if they’re just not interested in Earth anymore?



So YoRHa has at least been making an effort to deal with Adam and Eve beyond throwing 2B and 9S at the problem exclusively. And the Council of Humanity is throwing a kegger this weekend and has their work phones turned off. Looks like it’s up to us to do everything here... Especially, given the mess of emails we just received. Oh well. Let’s head out.



And now we have to go back to the city ruins.
......
Why don’t we rest a bit, 2B? It’s been a while.
I’ll rest if I feel like it.
Man, this job can be pretty rough sometimes, huh?
We don’t get to choose our assignments. And you should work on keeping your opinions in check. YoRHa aren’t allowed to be emotional, remember?
I think some of us are better at that than others... Speaking of emotion, those Adam and Eve units sure seemed less than logical.
I’m heading to the transporter.
Fiiine.



9S, c’mon man. 2B clearly just wants to put in her 9-5 killing machines and not get into it beyond that. Take a hint, my dude. Before you get a YoRHa HR Section-E complaint filed against you, kid. Before things can escalate, let’s go check our emails at the Access Point.



We actually received this email almost immediately upon approaching the City Ruins sinkhole. But aborting the investigation to go check our spam folder didn’t seem the most pressing of issues at the time. However, upon reading this 6O immediately contacts 2B over the radio and a new sidequest is initiated.



”YoRHa Betrayers” accepted.

Operator 6O to 2B. Be aware that the following transmission is classified Privilege Level 5. A group of YoRHa fighters deployed to the city ruins have deserted. We need you to take care of them immediately. But don’t get yourself hurt, all right? *disconnects*
YoRHa members deserting? And attacking the Resistance, no less...?
......
Proposal: Rogue YoRHa units should be captured and detained in order to keep collateral damage at a minimum.
Detained? Easy for you to say.

This will be our sidequest today. We’re going to go capture some AWOL YoRHa members. I’m sure it’ll be fine. But before we set out for that, we do have a couple more emails...



Jackass has a free fish meal for us. Maybe next time, Jackass. For science.



Pascal, that’s real friendly of you and all. We’ll definitely come check it out later. But... Pascal, buddy. How the hell did you get 2B’s email address...? Tch. I bet it’s just like “2B@yorha.net” or something extremely easy to find.



Anyway, that’s enough for the Bunker. Let’s head back down to the surface and get to business. 9S, get your own terminal. This one is occupied.


Music: Peaceful Sleep





As you can see on the mini-map, there are QUITE a few new quests available in the world following our scuffle with Adam and Eve. We’ll check them out another day. We did technically get YoRHa betrayers before any of these latecomers arrived. So we’re sticking with that.



In the meantime, I’m putting the Hammer Pod Program in the trash bin where it belong. I tried that thing after some people defended it. Naw. That Pod Program is trash the moment a lock-on breaks and you’re crazy people. This is not an invitation to argue this point. I don’t care and neither does anyone else!

Also, I dropped the Drop Up chips in favor of one that restores +1 HP constantly if 2B remains undamaged for more than 20 seconds. It’s pretty handy.



Instead, we’re going to swap that out with R020 Mirage and give that for a spin.


Music: Rays of Light (Quiet)



Mirage is a Pod Program quite similar to Dark Phantasm from the original NieR. In that it’s basically the same move, just with MUCH less range. Mostly because Dark Phantasm was broken as hell in the first title. The way Mirage works is holding the Pod Program button will cause a sphere to appear around 2B and slowly expand (going even further with a second Pod.) This indicates the range of Mirage’s AOE. Releasing the button results in...



All enemies within the attack’s radius getting the shit kicked out of them by phantom sword slashes for a sizable amount of damage. It’s a VERY good damage dealer as well as a decent emergency button to get breathing room in a pinch. Any machines not immediately destroyed by Mirage will usually be launched a considerable distance. I had Mirage equipped on one of my Pods throughout the majority of the game.



Back to the mission. The YoRHa Betrayers sidequest is a kind of fickle thing. Instead of just giving us an area to investigate and progress the quest, we’re given THREE areas to check out. One is not far from the Resistance Camp. The second is back where we initially touched down in the City Ruins with our flight units. The third area is over by the Factory Ruins. This is one is weird because the AWOL YoRHa soldiers can appear in any of the three locations. Or NONE of ‘em! Sometimes this quest just doesn’t feel like working properly. And I’m fairly certain it just straight up breaks for a while if we hit the next story beat.

Great place to start a series of sidequests, right!



The area just to the northwest of the camp sure has a different view these days. And just to the west of the camp is a new attraction...



That first Engels unit we trashed during that whole event has found a home near the broken overpass a bit to the west of the camp. There might be more to this instead of just being a new landmark... But not at the moment.





Instead, we’ll mount this destroyed Engels and climb to its peak to find...



...absolutely nothing. Welp, when I did this quest the first time they spawned here. My daughter had them pop up here too. But today? No dice... Oh well!





The second possible spawn point is back at the top of that ever popular office building ruins where we fought Engels earlier. Here we have a bit more luck!



They’re from YoRHa.
Alert: Targets are rogue units 22B and 64B, currently designated for detention.
Umm... Hey, is that—
They’ve come for us, idiot! Prepare to engage—and inform the captain!
Uhh... Got it!
You’re currently wanted by Command for desertion. Disengage and surrender immediately.
Shut your trap!


Music: Song of the Ancients ~ Atonement





We’re now taking on two YoRHa troopers. These two are exceptionally annoying to fight. They’re basically those resurrected android corpse allies if they were set to attack us. Androids don’t have any tells for their attacks and just kind of go at it without falter. As such, attacking up close is a risky proposition. Especially at our under-leveled point, they seldom flinch to our attacks and will happily chop through several sword slashes to the face undeterred.





On the other hand, it is very easy to stun these two with concentrated Pod fire. The trouble is they... didn’t bother mapping android models to 2B’s stun follow-up moves. So she’ll perform over the top punisher attacks while... the android target just continues fighting on the ground. They still take a chunk of damage. It just looks terrible. Not gonna lie. This is really glitchy, not particularly well put together quest mechanics wise.

Once one of the deserter androids are reduced to 66% health or below...



Understood.






And with that, the YoRHa deserters leap over the nearest building and the battle abruptly ends. Hey 2B, why can’t you leap six stories in a single bound? Is that something that unlocks at Level 16? No? Shucks...


Music: Rays of Light (Quiet)





Well, there’s only one area we haven’t inspected yet in this quest. Let’s head on over to the Factory Ruins and see if we can’t catch up with those runaway androids.

6O contacts 2B once more...



2B here.
The monitoring signal from the new access point has gone silent. I’m sending you the positional data. Please investigate the site as soon as possible.
Understood.



This initiates a very short quest back at the new access point in the hole where we left Jackass earlier. We’re just going to ignore that for now and continue onward.



This final hotspot in the YoRHa Betrayers quest takes us to beneath the broken bridge leading to the Factory Ruins. The rogue androids always flee and move to one of the other points afterwards. The first time I did this quest it was on top of Engels and it ended back on that building roof. Never had to go here at all.





Let’s do this thing! YoRHa Betrayers Round 2, coming in hot!


Music: Song of the Ancients ~ Atonement





This fight goes exactly the same as it did last time. It’s best to try to let 9S draw some aggro to separate the two androids. Indeed, this is one of the few points it might be a good idea to set 9S to aggressive, just so he’ll draw attention to himself and take a beating for a while as we handle one of the two alone. The androids have restored their health since the first brawl. But unlike the first go around...





...We can outright kill the two deserter androids this go around. I mean... technically, we did detain the AWOL androids. Nobody ever specified they needed to be detained while alive now did they. Mission accompl—



Alert: Target is former YoRHa captain 8B, currently wanted for desertion. Proposal: Disable and detain at once.
You... You did this!
Please! You have to stop fighting!
Shut up! You don’t know anything!
Nnngh...
Analysis: Unit 8B specializes in close-quarters combat. Proposal: Destroy enemy with long-range attacks.
...Destroy? What happened to detain?



Woo-boy... We are UNDER leveled for this battle. Any enemy in this game in excess of about six levels or more above 2B is going to take for-fucking-ever to down. One the bigger complaints I’d lodge against NieR: Automata is that it has absolutely no signal posting for the recommended level for some quests and it will gladly hand out ones WELL beyond our abilities at the moment.

Another thing games could learn from Best RPG from 2015-to Present, The Witcher 3.



8B is like her comrades, just a really aggressive AI android set to attack 2B and 9S. None of her moves have any telegraphs and she can switch between four different weapon types at will. Which means her range will vary wildly at the drop of a hat if she gets close.





As such, Pod Program laser and constant Gatling fire is kind of our only option (missiles are really worthless at this range against this aggressive of an enemy.) Also baiting out a Perfect Dodge and the Pod fire counter deals nice damage as well.



Even so, this battle took about six minutes all said and done. And didn’t help that this area seems to be really glitchy so 8B would disengage and briefly run off while the battle music cut in and out if we happened to dodge near the outskirts of the area. Regardless, eventually 8B is slain by our androids, resulting in...



We rob her corpse’s wallet of a decent chunk of change and a sizable amount of experience for the kill. But more pressingly...



We steal 8B’s spear. She won’t be needing it anymore. Being dead and all. Sadly, we cannot pilfer all four weapons off the corpse. It’s frowned upon in YoRHa regulations – thought to be ghoulish. Fine, whatever...



The Type-4O Lance is a pretty nice weapon. It may be one of the best spears in certain situations later in the game. At its first upgrade, the Type-4O increases the chance of stunning an enemy (allowing a special finishing move if 2B swoops in for a follow-up.) At max level, it gains Charge Up which will charge the spear with bonus electrical damage if it is not used for a time. Not bad! But let’s see what the story behind it is, eh...?


Sheesh. YoRHa Radio DJ is fast becoming the helicopter pilot of NieR: Automata in terms of life expectancy.



Mission complete.
We... killed them. Our fellow units.
......
Why the hell did they steal from the Resistance in the first place? You think Anemone might know something, 2B?
Let’s find out.



OK. We just mercilessly slew three of our former YoRHa comrades in combat. Let’s maybe go get a follow-up on what that was all about. If you’re wondering why they’re just 100% dead when 9S blew himself up early and just restored from an early point: All the YoRHa back-ups are stored on the Bunker. If you disconnect from the network and try to make a break for it, like 11B did in that one early sidequest, then there's nothing to initiate a back-up retrieval. Ditto if you’re on Command’s shit list for attempting to desert, like those three did. Whoops, no more back-up for you! We cut off your connection back at home and flushed the back-up data. Dead now means dead!

Anyway, back to Anemone...


Music: Peaceful Sleep (Vocal)



We need to check something with you, actually. Can you tell us about the YoRHa soldiers who were stealing your supplies?
This is the first I’ve heard of it.
Huh?
I mean, we keep our supplies in multiple locations, but so far as I know, nothing’s gone missing.
I see. Well, thanks.

The androids leave Anemone and walk out of earshot for a pow-wow...



......
*activates communicator* 9S to Command, come in.



It’s about the YoRHa soldiers who deserted.
Copy that, 9S. We’ve confirmed their status on this end.
No, but I mean... The Resistance says that none of their supplies are actually missing. So what’s going on here?
*briefly checks elsewhere* ...I lack access to the data concerning this mission.
Huh?
The order came from the Commander herself.
What? Operator, I don’t understand—
Be careful, 9S. I have no further information. *disconnects*
Huh? Operator? ...Operator!? The hell is that all about?
Let’s go.
But—
We’re here to fight. That’s all.



And that concludes the “YoRHa Betrayers” sidequest. Will we get any follow-up as to why the Commander gave us false information as a justification for basically doing a hit on our own members? Nope! Fuck you. Welcome to being a soldier! Carry on...






Video: Episode 25 Highlight Reel





YoRHa Operator Official Art – The leather wedgie helps them to type faster.