Sunrider Part #21 - Asaga's Big Day

Part 21: Asaga's Big Day

Does the honorable Veniczar S. Arcadius take Princess Asaga di Ryuvia as his lawfully wedded wife, to love unconditionally, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well in sorrow, to cherish and to hold for as long as he shall live?

Strange that in the … future??? … they’re still using the traditional Western marriage vows, but eh.

Yes.

And does Princess Asaga di Ryuvia solemnly pledge to take Veniczar S. Arcadius as her lawfully wedded husband, to love unconditionally, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well in sorrow, to cherish and to hold for as long as she shall live?

I ...

...

Ahem ...

...

We are afraid this charade is now over, your majesty. Your pathetic kingdom shall now be extinguished from the face of the galaxy.

What? We had a deal, Veniczar!

A deal made only of paper. Men! Seize our guests.

Silence, little princess. We hope your cooperation is forthcoming, for the life of your father depends on it.

Y-you ...

How fitting it is that our marriage hall is high above the skies of Ryuvia. From here, you will all witness the true power of PACT ... And the end of your pathetic kingdom. For ten thousand years, Ryuvia has ruled the galaxy. And now PACT shall earn its place in history as the power to finally extinguish Ryuvia's last flickering ember.

Empty words, Veniczar. I have ruled Ryuvia for all my life ... And I have long realized that all our traditions, all our rites, all our culture … They are but sad remnants of our former selves, meant to cloak us from the truth: Ryuvia is already dead. The infinite kingdom of all space and time is no longer. All that is left is embodied in this old, frail man. Go ahead. Shoot. You will only have killed a dying man whose time has long come. That ... Is all that you have accomplished today.

Hah. You speak too much. Farewell, my king.

*BANG*

Asaga ... I'm sorry. I thought … it was the only way. The Veniczar promised your safety if you would wed him ...

You didn't have to ...

Forgive me ... Asaga...

NO!!

Take her and prepare my shuttle to the Legion. We shall dissect Ryuvia until all its secrets are ours.

No! Let me go!! You'll pay for this, Arcadius!

Oh? We are Veniczar Arcadius! It is us who will rule the known cosmos. There is no force left in this galaxy to challenge us. Our power is infinite! With the key to the galaxy in our hand ... We shall … what!?

Warp successful! We've dropped out 100 meters from the wedding hall!

Begin operation! Launch our drones and take out the guard ships!

Aye, captain. I’m departing with the marines. You have the bridge, captain.

No. I'm coming with you.

Ava. I'm not letting you do this alone.

...

Argh. All right. Come this way.

Bah! Destroy those drones!

Fools! It is merely one ship! Blow it out of the sky!

Oh no, your highness! You're not going anywhere!

Eah! Lemme go ya fatty!

Disrespectful little whelp! I'll show you, you little-

Veniczar Porkchops! Let her go!

Y-you! I should have killed you when I had the chance!

Seize the princess! Don't let her-

Asaga, here! We're getting you out of here!

Sorry to bride snatch, but I think this marriage's been annulled!

Careful captain! Two, up in the rafters!

Thanks for the cover. Ava, I've got Asaga. Commence Stage Two.

Aye captain. Sola, proceed.

Understood.

*BANG*

Ava, confirm! Is the target down?

It was just a hologram. Arcadius was never even in the wedding hall.

Damn!

Stage 3! Return to the Sunrider!

Understood, captain. We're falling back.

C'mon Asaga, back into the escape pod! We're getting out of here!

The space around us just lit up like a Christmas tree with active targeting sensors! We've got 200 ships, closing in fast!

All ahead full! Launch all our ryders to screen the Sunrider as we make it to the moon! Here's the Black Jack, Asaga. We kept her warm for you.

Captain … You came for me. Even after...

Of course I did. You're a member of my crew. Now get out there.

...

Heh.

Good to have you back.

We will not be humiliated at our own wedding. Slaughter them all. But bring the princess to us alive. Death is too lenient of a sentence for the humiliation she has caused us today.

Yes, sir.

Her struggle is meaningless, for Ryuvia is already ours.

All hands, prepare for emergency maneuvers!

They’re attempting to lock tractor beams. We’ll have to destroy them before we can warp!

So we’ve got two new units on the field, one enemy and one friendly.

The PACT battleship is our primary objective, and for good reason. These things pack quite a punch, are heavily armored, have high enough flak to pretty much be impervious to missiles, and …

Can provide shield coverage to an entire fleet.

Making her debut is Sola’s ryder, the Seraphim.

The Seraphim does one thing, and one thing very well: it’s a sniper. That massive rifle hits with enough kinetic damage to one-shot ryders and smaller ships, even without popping the Awaken ability first, which uses up a full round of combat and drops her health while boosting damage and accuracy for the following three turns.

Highlights of the Battle of Ryuvia include:

- Creative uses of the Flak Off ability.

- Close calls with torpedoes.

- Taking down a ryder with melee …

- … only to leave the Phoenix exposed outside our shield and flak bubble. Sorry, Icari. When ryders are taken out they’re off the map for the rest of the battle. Later on we’ll get an ability to spend command points to put them back in space, but for now the Phoenix is done.

- God. Fucking. Damnit.

- With the two battleships (finally) destroyed, the objective becomes to get the Sunrider to the far side of the map. Reinforcements will continuously spawn every few rounds until you do.

- Creative use of the Bianca’s gravity generator.

- Unfortunately in a running battle like this the Seraphim is pretty much useless, so I make the choice to split my forces and leave Sola and Asaga behind to soak up aggro while the Sunrider makes a dash for safety under our support ryder’s shields.