Part 39: Mission 14 - Route Split

Ishigami’s called us because an SOS from ZAFT just came in. Video sent over shows a city in ruins and, according to ZAFT, it’s due to an Earth Alliance campaign at central Eurasia. Already there have been three cities destroyed, all of them having previously rejected the Alliance and sided with the PLANTs.
Seems pretty clear to Yamashita that they’re being made examples of, and Tetsuya Kouji sniffs at how those guys call the Coordinators monsters when they pull crap like this. Either way, Lady Une says we can’t let this continue unabated – we’re to stop the Alliance’s onslaught immediately, and if they don’t do so nicely, then we’re authorized to use force. Quatre’s ill at ease with that, but Une’s certain the general public will be on our side for this one.

But hold on a second, another emergency crops up – what did the Alliance do now? Actually, it’s not them: Yui’s getting info that the SDF Jinrai teams have staged an uprising! They’ve taken control of the Japanese Prime Minister’s residence and declared martial law.
Apparently, Eiji Kiriyama’s the mastermind behind it all; he’s just killed the former PM and declared himself the new leader of Japan. Seems like the guy and his company have just staged their personal coup, and Ishigami realizes all too late that this was his goal with the development and delivery of the Jinrai to the SDF.



A call comes in from Igarashi, warning that Kiriyama’s sending troops to attack JUDA HQ and destroy LOTUS. We need to get ready to defend ourselves now, as the SDF’s already poised to deploy! Shots start being fired in the background and Igarashi, seeing that he’s been found, needs to get going: “Go and take Japan back from Kiriyama’s clutches!”
All the comm goes down, Ichitaka fears that Igarashi turned deserter to bring us that warning; Ishigami knows the guy and his sense of justice, so he figures the intel is good too. With that in mind, Reiji tells Une that we’ll need to split our forces to deal with these issues in tandem.



Goh gives us the rundown: the Eurasian team will be working with the Mineva, so they’ll be sending the SMS Crew (includes Voltes, Hiyoshi sees), Combattler, Iczer-1, Team D, as well as the Dannar and Mazinger groups. It’ll fall on them to pull the brakes on the Alliance’s rampage.
Alto is a bit silent, and Luca wonders if he’s pondering the Alliance’s moves or, maybe, if he’s concerned there was something wrong with the video letter he sent back to Nanase and co. Neither, he’s just wondering why people have to go and defile the very land they live in.
Team D knows where he’s coming from, Sakuya noting that folks don’t seem to notice how blessed we are to have all this – rather, we take the air we breathe, the calm wind, all for granted. Sakuya became a homeless because he wanted to experience all that in the flesh.

As for the team that’ll defend JUDA, we’ll have their own folks, the Preventers, the EVAs, the Build Team and the Daiku Maryu. Zechs himself knows that nothing changes with a coup, and wonders why the same mistake is happening again.
Shinji spent some time living in Misaki, so he’ll have to work hard to keep JUDA and the town in one piece. As for Ichitaka, Reiji gets to choose:



Top option is to have him stop the Alliance’s onslaught, bottom is to help defend JUDA. As usual, we’ll be doing both paths, but here’s a clean list of the series:

Stop the Earth Alliance:
Macross F
Iczer-1
Mazinkaiser
Combattler
Voltes
Dancouga Nova
Godannar

Defend JUDA:
Linebarrels
Gundam W
Evangelion
Jeeg
Gaiking



Choose the Eurasia route and Ichitaka’s eager to meet up and get to work with the Minerva crew. Same goes for Luca, what with how suddenly we had to leave them after what happened in Diokia.
That decided, Tetsuya tells the team to board the Quarter and to prep themselves for battle.



Choose the JUDA route and Une figures it makes sense – it IS Ichitaka’s hometown; he’s grateful to come along too. Kouichi, meanwhile, is hyped to get going: whatever Kiriyama’s up to, it won’t fly with us on the job! That said, Miu warns him not to get complacent as the Jinrais are powerful units.
Kouichi confirms, giving her the same formal treatment he gave Yamashita, which she immediately tells him to stop. No honorifics, no formalities, no nothing – they’ve known each other for too long for him to be like that. Kouichi stutters a bit, but concedes. Emi jumps in, yelling that JUDA’s a stone’s throw away – he needs to get ready to deploy! Kouichi doesn’t know what the rush is, but is still dragged out.

Yamashita ignores them, finding it curious how Kiriyama managed to capture the PM’s residence so soon after announcing the Jinrai. How did he have so many troops ready to go? Indeed, Ishigami figures things went too smoothly for the guy, up to and including how the SDF adopted the Jinrai as their official unit and had it shipped to every one of its bases. It’s very likely some of the SDF brass is on his side.
Still, Misato wonders if it isn’t a bit too reckless to try and pull a coup in LOTUS’ own backyard; plus, Kyo notes, however strong the Jinrais may be, it’d stand to reason that he’d wait for us to be outside of Japan before pulling this. There must be a reason for why he did it right now.



Kenji himself isn’t too worried, figuring the Jinrais won’t amount to much with how hastily they were built; plus, Mido says, from what we saw in their specs and Kiriyama’s demo, the things are nothing we can’t handle.
Seems to Saotome that we’re being underestimated and she’s very eager to make them regret it. With that, Reiji tells the Japan team to get ready to deploy and we’ll move to intercept Kiriyama’s troops.
His silence at the end may or may not mean much.

And before we close things off, I’ve a question to ask of you, thread (secret spoilers ahead!): Stella or Michel? This vote will determine which secret I go for and, thus, which path I’ll keep here.

And, yes, I know there’s another secret I could dump to get both but I actually care about that one! Make sure to have your vote spoiler-tagged for the benefit of those who’re coming in blind.

This vote’ll remain open until Wednesday, I guess, but if the vote leans too heavily to one side I might just call it there.