Part 29: Mission 10 (Retreat Route) - At the Tip of the Muzzle
Alright, time to close off the Retreat Route. Still a tight race between our top aces, but it won’t really matter as I’ll be keeping the other path (better cash, drops, secrets, etc).
We’ll be having a water-centric mission next, so you’ll want to make sure as many of your guys as possible can be airborne or move properly on water:
Tetsuya/Jun
Ichitaka/Puria
Kouji/Boss
Combattler/Dick
Daiya/Yanma
Zechs/Noin
Ozma/Luca
Klan/Canaria
Voltes/Sayaka
I had Puria tag in with Ichitaka due to her allowing the partner to fly, and while I would’ve given Kouji the Crab Bunker for the underwater movement, I found that I’d rather have Daiya serve as my underwater hunter. The Gaiking moves farther, has better range, and hits harder overall than the Mazinger.
Alto and Michel are deploys as event units.
Let’s get going.
We open up with Luca managing to hook Ichitaka up with a call to JUDA, where he, Rachel and Maki have the same convo as before related to the GreAT Corporation and Grife’s cancelled research. Luca’s personally interested in why the professor cancelled the project if the supplied material wasn’t faulty – it’d be good knowledge, what with his work at L.A.I. Of course, our folks don’t know the answer.
Moreover, they also relay information about Yajima’s untimely death. Ichitaka would really like to speak with Kouichi about that, but we’re already gearing up for our offensive against the Vajra, so there’s no time. He’ll talk with him once he’s back at JUDA.
Once the call ends, Ichitaka tells of how Yajima helped him get over his depression after his parents died. Hearing that the guy’s dead doesn’t even feel real – they were together at school not too long ago. Inwardly, Luca wonders what he’d do if Nanase, Alto or Michel died… which is why he needs to do everything in his power to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Alto’s ran through some exams by the Quarter’s infirmary and Canaria expects him to be 100% in ten days – he didn’t get hurt much in the previous mission (and subsequent fight with Michel). Sheryl left in a hurry before he came over; maybe she didn’t want him to see her in that weakened state.
Canaria also figures Alto has some grievances to vent about Michel, though the guy figures this isn’t the place for it. Alice suggests he’ll feel better getting it all off his chest rather than bottling things up – it’s just the three of them in here and Canaria figures everyone’s entitled to grumble once in a while.
Alto sniffs that he’s not grumbling: he’s angry at Michel for being such a screw-up. The guy’s entire thing is hanging back and blasting stuff and he can’t even be relied on to pull that off?! If all he wants is to make some cash and flirt with women, the he oughta be elsewhere. Why the hell is someone like him working with the SMS?
Canaria says everyone has a reason to being here, and both she and Alice figure that it’s same with Alto; the girl heard how he volunteered to join the SMS, even. Inwardly, he ponders how he didn’t like being an actor, how he wanted to defend the Frontier and fly across the sky – but, still, he’s not here because he enjoys fighting or to escape from his family.
Klan, then, enters the room with Juzo and Ippei in tow, and they can see by his frown that he’s thinking about Michel. And how could he not, when the guy almost got him killed? That’s understandable, indeed, but Ippei asks him to first listen what Klan has to say.
Is she going to tell him about that, Canaria wonders, and Klan asks Alto if he cares for Michel. Does he hate his guts, want him to drop dead, Juzo also asks. Of course not, damn it. Then Klan wants him to listen up.
Michel lost his parents at an early age, so he was mostly raised by his older sister, Jessica – they were very close. Alto figures Klan would know, having been friends with the guy since they were kids. Indeed, and she remembers that Jessica was a great sniper… however, during one mission, she wound up shooting a friendly. Worst, he was her superior officer and lover.
Worse STILL, he’d broken up with her right before said incident, which raised a lot of questions with the army regarding intent. Jessica was court-martialed and, ultimately, killed herself. Ippei and Juzo only now found out that about this, too, though Ippei knew there was something.
So Michel took on her mantle as a sniper and Klan figures he’s still looking for the truth behind that friendly fire incident.
Later on, we’re just about ready to start our operation and Jeffrey’s giving us the rundown: our two objectives here are to destroy the Vajra flock and rescue Ranka. Alto will be leading the charge to bust inside the Knight Vajra the girl’s inside, Michel backing him up.
Durandal and Meer, by the Daiku Maryu, wish us the best of luck and to make sure we all make it through this alive. Kenichi’s sure that the two pilots will bring Ranka back, though Michel has a question for him: “if both Ranka and Earth hung in the balance, you’d pick Earth, wouldn’t you?”
Where’d that come from? Well, Michel’s heard that, in the past, when the Boazanians took his father hostage, he and the rest of the Voltes team were willing to let him die in order to protect Earth. Kenichi says they were backed against a wall there, which is why they had to make such a horrible choice.
“But you’ll have all of us right there with you. So you and Alto think only of saving Ranka, and let us handle everything else,” he says. “Right – because we’re a team… friends, even,” Megumi adds. Michel’s still looking a bit uneasy, though.
Ichitaka can see that he still hasn’t patched things up with Alto, and Alice confirms to Luca that the guy’s been told what happened. Ichitaka doesn’t know what’s up and Alice tells him to get Michel’s permission first. She won’t gossip about private matters! Well, he’s not about to pry but it’s tough to see the two guys like that.
Dick, however, thinks things are going to get very amusing. Daiya and Puria don’t appreciate that, especially considering how he attacked them way back when, but he says that’s not what he was getting at – he’s not getting a kick out of our issues. Regardless, Dick worrying won’t amount to anything.
Zechs asks if Ozma’s got no issue with this set-up and, indeed, he understands that having an unstable sniper and an attacker that doesn’t trust the guy watching his back wouldn’t really fly. That said, it seems to him that said attacker had a bit of a change of heart. Did Zechs not notice the glimmer in Alto’s eyes, Noin wonders.
Apparently not, and Zechs sees he isn’t leader material.
Somewhere hidden, G’s in a call with Mishima who’s not too happy that they’ve openly used a Dimension Eater – something L.A.I. was developing – on Earth’s surface and, if that wasn’t enough, in close proximity to one of the PLANTs bases. Still, the bugs’ network is now up and running, and surely Mishima understands the significance of that.
He does, though he wanted more time. Thanks to their shenanigans, Prof. Kentarou has started questioning if someone’s leaking their technology. G argues that they only had a limited window of opportunity when Ranka’s Fold Waves reached the necessary level and the boundaries could be brought down. Mind you, that whole battle wasn’t part of the plan.
Furthermore, G says they’ll soon begin preparations to bring the Galaxy over, so he won’t need to worry about anything when it happens. Isn’t it best to speed things along, presidential hopeful Leon Mishima?
Fine, Mishima says they’ll proceed to the next step of the plan as soon as Ranka’s back at the Frontier. They ARE interested in seeing to her safe return, right? Yes, though G’s group still isn’t sure how important the girl is – he figures they’ll confirm if she is or isn’t the “Little Queen” with this next battle.
Well, Mishima’s had his eye on her – the survivor – for some time, and would rather not waste the effort. They’ll try not to disappoint him.
As the call ends, G gets in touch with Brera, who says he’ll be arriving at the target area soon. Then he’s to carry out his initial mission accordingly. In the meantime, G’ll get ready to return to the Frontier.
Regardless of what happens, the plan should proceed apace.
Mission 10 (Retreat Route) – At the Tip of the Muzzle
And we’ve managed to catch up to the Vajra flock. Alto can still hear Ranka’s song, though it’s coming from behind this batch. In that case, Lulu orders everyone to thin out the Vajra numbers and clear a path ahead.
As Ozma tells everyone to watch not just our backs but that of our teammates, Alto gets a private call from Sheryl. She’s still a bit woozy, but has a request for him: “promise me that you won’t die, that you’ll come back safe.”
Alto promises, and to bring Ranka in tow as well. Forward!
Kill everything, don’t lose a ship, Alto or Michel. As I mentioned above, the main issue with this mission that that there’s a lot of water. Barring Kouji, most of our guys can fly just fine but the issue is that the Big Vajra groups have both one that’s flying and one that’s grounded. The grounded one will be underwater, meaning those’ll be so much harder to take out.
That’ll be Daiya and Yanma’s primary job this mission: going from one Big Vajra group to the next and hunting the underwater target. They can easily oneshot with their cheap attacks the things if they focus-fire.
Everyone goes forward.
Enemy Phase!
Ditto.
Player Phase!
As always, Ozma’ll be leading the charge with his command aura.
: Alto’ll be going in real soon, Ranka… Please be safe!--
: The Vajra show a lot of difference between one another… Is this how they each evolved or…?
We’ll deal with these soon.
The Big Vajras all moved on land but Daiya’ll already start going after his assigned targets.
: Even after all the times I’ve fought these things, I still can’t handle how freaky they look. The Demonic Beasts are way nicer!
Yup, he and Yanma can oneshot just fine and that’s what they’ll be doing.
But we can have our other folks help out with these right now. Zechs and Klan have also tagged a few Big Vajras.
: I need you to keep a close eye on those things, Alice. Can you do it?!
: Yes. My AI has been developing its combat functions nicely; I should have no problems overall!
Puria takes it.
Following up on Zechs and Noin.
: Ranka’s life’ll be in even more damage if we waste time. Let’s hurry through this, Kenichi!
: And since we got size on our side, we oughta go straight for the big guys!
: You got it! These Vajra’ll get an ample taste of the Voltes’ power!
Bam.
Next!
: I need to break through these Vajra first! Die!!
”If survival comes down to us or you, then I…!”
And that’s a double kill.
And Kouji’ll like need a bit of time to reach the front lines after this, so let’s have him help out now.
: Hah, Mimetic Beasts, Vajra, it’s always the same ol’ thing. Let’s wrap this up quick!
Just shy but Tetsuya takes it.
And one more.
: We’re not getting Ranka out of there if we don’t give this 100%, Hyouma.
: And she’s been inside that Vajra for too long already. We’re running against the clock here!
: Got it, got it. We’ll keep our future superstar safe from these evil crickets!
Again, fell just shy of a kill.
Enemy Phase!
Aaand I moved my ships a bit too close… thought my Supers being up front would’ve goaded the AI, but nope! Lulu gets some bad rolls, too, so no kills.
The second wave of Vajra is drawing in.
Player Phase!
She does get payback, though. Jeffrey takes a little one.
Get in there, Michel.
: …I’m a sniper. I’ll at least carry out my job to the letter…!
Ozma and Luca, Ichitaka and Puria, Klan and Kouji each take a kill from the weakened buggers.
Only reason I didn’t send Daiya to oneshot that submerged Vajra is because I don’t want him hogging the other nearby mooks.
Either way, Kenichi and Hyouma clear out the remains of the first wave and that triggers the plot.[/i]
Alto’s noticing that Michel still isn’t doing too hot, though the guy says he’s just trying not to get in the way. Alto doesn’t wanna fight again, does he? No time for that as Cathy pings another flock of Vajra entering the area.
It’s the main batch and our folks tag the Vajra where Ranka’s being held. It’s Alto’s turn to get in there and, as usual, Ozma threatens him with Hell should anything happen to Ranka. Not that he needed any incentive to see this through.
Out there, Ranka’s calling out for his help.
Like in mission two, we need to get Alto adjacent to the target Knight – wrecking it is also a game over.
So we take a few steps forward.
Enemy Phase!
Tetsuya and Jun get jumped by a Big Vajra, though we can afford enough EN to Thunder Break it to death.
: Hrk?!: (What’s going on…? Why am I hurting inside…?)
I’m sure it’s nothing. We keep weakening stuff and Ichitaka oneshots another little Vajra.
: Aargh! I-It hurts…!: (Why? Why do we fight…?)
Oh, no, you didn’t.
Boosh. And Lulu also takes a kill.
Player Phase!
As Daiya and Yanma go fishing, Kouji and Tetsuya pop a couple of the weak Vajras to get their Mazin Power running.
Let’s skip forward a bit here since we need to get through this wave before having the way clear to Ranka.
One thing to note…
The Knights have a MAPW!
But they chose their targets poorly. The things have a decent bunch of HP but fall quickly against concentrated fire – especially if you bust out combined attacks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtw8zx2cqsA
Like Daiya and Lulu’s!
I confess to be a bit disappointed at this one compared to Sanshiro’s masterful “pick up the damn ship and smash it against the enemy!”
One turn later, Alto moves in. Make sure to cast Focus just in case your guys are lagging behind.
: In position! Hold on, Ranka – I’m coming!
: No, you aren’t…!: What?!
: Where the hell did he come from…?! Michel, back me up! I can’t move in with this guy hounding me!: …
*Targeting… while Brera literally flies circles around Alto.*
: Kch… He’s too fast…!
: It’s the Unknown from the reports…! Its reactions are too good for the unit to be a drone, but the way it’s moving is…
: Impossible for any human to withstand. Regardless of training, those insane movements would quickly make anyone faint. It’s likely the pilot’s…: Are you gonna say he’s a cyborg or something?!: You’re gonna have a hard time trying to take him head-on, Alto!: I know that, Hyouma…!: You listening, Michel? I’ll lure him into your scope!: Don’t! It’s too risky!: Are you scared you’ll miss? “Always hits a bulls-eye”, isn’t that how it is with you? And I heard that was the case with your sister, too!: …?! : Did Klan--? Urgh, that huge gossip…!
: What?! Damn it, get off me!: Can’t believe you fell for it twice… but you’re not getting away this time!: Tch…!
: Alto!: Structural integrity of Alto’s unit down 50%!: Urk… This red Valkyrie, I swear…!: Shoot, Michel! Surpass your sister!
: Shoot…!: Shoot… Shoot, Michel! SHOOT!: … Hrm…!
: Wha—?!
: Alright, and now…!
: Rrgh… I won’t—*Beep!*
: You’re too damaged to continue with your mission. Retreat and make preparations for the next phase.: …Roger that…
: Just who’s that guy…? 
: Concentrate on the Vajra, guys. Carry on with your offensive!Rinse and repeat everything we’d been doing. Ignore Ranka’s Knight, have Daiya hunt whatever’s underwater and kill, kill, kill.
And one turn after Alto’s gone in…
: Where is she…? Why’s nothing ever simple…?!
: SHAAAAAAA!: Hrk! Screw these Vajra!*Machine gun fire! Boom!*
: !!*Dead.*
: How many of them are there…?! Ranka! RANKAA!!*Elsewhere…*
: Huh… I can see them all fighting…?quote:
*Machine gun fire! Boom!*
*Dead.*
: *Sniffles* No… This is so sad… Stop it… Please, stop this…
: We wish to convey…: Huh…?: To all of you…
: ?! This song… I understand… I’ll pour what I feel into my music… like I’ve always done…: Aimo, Aimo…♪: I hear music…! This way!*BOOM!*
: RANKA!: Alto?! Is that really you?!: Ranka…!
: SHAAAAA!: You goddamn monsters…! You locked her up in this weird bubble?!: STOP!!: Eat this!!*Bang!*
:!!: Ugh… aah…!
: Alto!: Is Ranka safe?!: She is, yeah! All thanks to you guys!: Brother… everyone…!
: Aalrighty, then! Now we can stop holding back and wreck the rest of the Vajra!: Yeah, let’s bring the whole curtain down on this group!
: Huh… What are they…? Captain, the Vajra seem to be confused for some reason. 
: Confused…?
: Captain!
: That’s just the opportunity we need. Troops, muster whatever strength you still have and destroy the whole flock!Go forward and kiiiiiiiiiiiill!
: A-Alto…: Keep quiet for a bit, Ranka! This’ll be over soon and then I’ll set you down, so hold on ‘til then!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boyFsO-JahU
And here’s Kouji and Tetsuya’s Double Burning Fire with the dynamic finish!
That’s all the Vajra gone and Ranka’s confirmed safe – a thorough success even from a humanitarian POV, Durandal says. Even Ozma lets out a few tears of joy as he thanks us all.
Seems to Hiyoshi that even the big bad man can get choked up a few times, though Kenichi points out that the kid’s eyes are looking a bit red to. N-No way – he’s a MAN, so he’ll hang tough! And if Ozma was a manly man, he’d do the same! Them’s fighting words and Ozma figures he now has free rein to go to town on the Voltes Team during training.
Alice herself notes that Alto and Michel seem to have sorted out their differences today, so we just took care of two birds with one stone. Klan agrees, very glad that things turned out as well as they did.
And, with that, Lulu calls everyone back to the ships. Alto finally gets to ease up after all the nonstop hardships and asks if Ranka was scared in there. The girl’s crying too badly to answer, though he says the battle’s over - everything’s fine now.
“No… you’re wrong…” she sobs inwardly. “I don’t… I don’t understand… Why…?”
Michel still doesn’t know what was going through his sister’s mind when she pulled the trigger back then, and Luca and Alto quickly catch up to him. Alto praises his shot and invites him to go elsewhere – staying in the hangar 24/7 won’t help anyone relax after a big mission.
This is actually the first time he openly calls the guy Michel instead of Mikhail, and Luca’s happy with their progress. Alto prods the kid to quit grinning and move or they’ll leave him behind.
Michel, meanwhile, ponders that while he doesn’t know what his sister was thinking, he might figure it out someday.
And, some time later, we have a surprise waiting at the Quarter’s briefing room: Brera! Ozma wants the guy to explain what’s going on, but he is sticking to what he’s already said: he’s Lt. Brera Stern of the Macross Galaxy’s Antares Squadron. He’ll be accompanying the Quarter for a bit, and that is all he’s at liberty to divulge.
We’re to take the pilot of that red Valkyrie aboard? Ichitaka doesn’t think so, but Jeffrey says his affiliation checks out and the powers that be deemed he wasn’t a threat. Yeah, right, and we’re supposed to just forgive and forget all the times he messed with Alto? Hyouma at least wants the guy to apologize for all that... but he just keeps quiet. Is he not at liberty to apologize, maybe?!
Alto moves in, wondering what all the yelling is about, and Hyouma grunts at Brera coming aboard the Quarter like he owns the place. Hearing his voice, Alto’s immediately knows him to be the pilot of the problem red Valkyrie.
Regardless, that’s the way it is. More importantly, Jeffrey says we now have to conduct a few simple exams throughout the entire team after our battle with the Vajra (same ones Alto previously complained about having to undergo nonstop while hunting the things in space). If the Quarter’s facilities are deemed not up to the task, we’ll have to do it at the Frontier.
Kouji now sees the issue with fighting the buggers, but Luca said it needs to be done as we always run the risk of picking up a hitherto unknown disease. Boss sighs that he should’ve thought to slap some anti-bacterial coating on the Borot, though that strikes Kouji as the least of his bot’s problems.
Tetsuya tells them to zip it and hustle over to Canaria’s infirmary.
And everyone seems to be doing A-OK, much to Kenichi’s relief as we can’t well get taken out by stuff like disease. Hyouma’s just about to call it a day when
Said exam is for the Mimetic Beasts’ Insania Virus, what with the Combattler team having been helping the Dannar Team for a while, and we get the same rundown as the other path regarding the Rabid Syndrome and whatnot.
Of note is that Durandal saw fit to accompany Franklin to the Quarter as he figured his knowledge as a geneticist would be useful in regards to said RNA Virus (he replaces Kiriko as the expert here, really). If anything, his demeanor shows Zechs that this is a serious matter.
At length, everyone is doing just fine, with practically no chance of triggering the Rabid Syndrome, and Noin relates the information about Goh’s much higher risks. We’ll get more details once we’re back at JUDA.
Seems to Ichitaka like stuff on the other side was just as bad as this one.
Now, the Quarter is just about to reach Japan and this’ll be where Durandal and Meer need to part ways – that said, they’ll give Sheryl and Ranka a lift to the Frontier. Jeffrey wishes them safe travels, but Durandal figures they’ll be fine: Japan has, as you might expect, a history of opposition against any and all nuclear strikes, so they’re very sympathetic to the PLANTs.
Plus, Durandal also has someone he’d wanted to meet so this seemed like a good opportunity to do just that.
Ichitaka’s disappointed that Sheryl and Ranka are leaving, but they can’t well hang around now that both the movie shoot and anti-war concert have been dealt with. At the very least Alice is happy to see that Sheryl’s looking much better.
Well, she couldn’t stay bedridden forever and while her original plan was to get back to work tomorrow, it seems the Frontier government has ordered her quarantined to take a few exams. Guess she’ll be bedridden for a bit more once she gets back there.
Ranka’s also received the same order, though Alto figures it stands to reason they’d want to run some thorough scans face her abduction by the Vajra. Ranka sighs and Luca tries consoling that, while it’ll be boring for a bit, she’ll be able to get back to her normal life without any worries if the tests show nothing.
Luca would know, even, as Kenichi points out he’s the experienced one here in terms of Vajra abduction (feels odd for Ranka to have him be her senpai in this matter). Whichever the case, Daiya wants Ranka and Sheryl to get plenty of rest to put on a live concert for the whole crew next time.
Sheryl ponders she’ll have to make that happen before the Frontier figures out how to get back to its original world, then. She’ll get us begging her not to leave (Ichitaka’s just about at that point already, mind, but he’s not telling)!
As for Brera, it seems the reason the guy came over was because the Frontier Government assigned him as a bodyguard to the singers, so he’ll be leaving with them. Hyouma still doesn’t trust the guy one bit and Sheryl admits that she doesn’t really know what’s up with him.
Oh, and before she leaves, Sheryl tells Alto to keep that earring safe – if he loses it, she’ll make him pay big time. Ranka’s quietly taken aback by this tidbit of information, though Alto says he’ll take good care of it. Only reason they could rescue Ranka was because of the thing!
Their shuttle’s just about ready to depart and a flustered Ranka rushes out to get her luggage in. It’s about Sheryl’s time to get going, too, as she figures she’s kind of overstayed her welcome, but Kouji’s looking forward to seeing her in the Frontier. Alto just asks her to take it easy up there – she’ll try.
When she goes, Ichitaka immediately realizes he forgot to get her autograph – so much for his chance at showing off to his schoolmates. While info on the Frontier’s still heavily regulated, Sheryl’ll likely be getting famous due to the movie. Only a matter of time before she’s THE singer on Earth as well.
Jun isn’t as certain as Ichitaka, however, as Ranka’s star seems to be on the rise due to the stuff that happened with that same movie, her kidnapping and subsequent rescue. Megumi presumes the press will be all over her and the girl’s office is apparently looking to market her as the “Superdimensional Cinderella”. All in all, it won’t be easy sailing for Sheryl.
Hell, and that’s saying nothing of Lacus, with her legions of fans, and Eida, who, despite losing some popularity due to recently cancelling a few shows, still has a lot of passionate fans of her own. There are plenty of rivals in the pop singer market. One way or another, Megumi at least hopes Sheryl’ll make a full recovery.
Durandal, Meer, Sheryl and Ranka have made it to Tokyo, though it’ll only be tomorrow that their shuttle’s leaving for the PLANTs. Thus, he’s seen fit to rent them all rooms at a first class hotel for the evening. Sheryl doesn’t mind, though Ranka’s a bit in awe at the fancy place.
In the meantime, Durandal needs to take off to make good on an arrangement – the girls can go and have dinner without waiting for him.
By the coast…
: (What a dreary landscape… Over a decade has passed, yet the scars of the Second Impact do not fully disappear…): (Actually, no… it would have been nigh impossible to even restore this once dead ocean without their… without the technology from the other world. It’s for that reason that we’re all alive.)
: You’ve arrived a bit sooner than expected, Chairman Durandal. : I’ve come alone. Consider it a gesture of good faith on my part. : Good. This way, please.