Part 75: Mission 30 (Earth Route) - Transcendent Evolution
Back at the Earth route, no need to check the Top Aces since we’ve decided to keep Michel alive. Not a whole lot of money from the last mission, but I did use it all giving our secondary units a boost in HP, Armor, and whatnot, to keep them from being too flimsy.
The Dancouga’s still an event unit, so we’re pretty much the same as before:
Ichitaka/Miu
Domyoji/Jack
Daiya/Deceive
Norza/Lee
Dick/Puria
Goh/Anna
Ken/Lou
Tetsuya/Yanma
Shinji/Yajima
Kouji/Rei
Asuka/Boss
Yamashita/Shizuru
Kouichi/Mira
At Shangri-La, Vladimir’s bidding Katou farewell. She does appreciate his help, as it allowed the Dancouga to awaken – now she and her fellows can carry on with their own plan. Katou is very understanding, knowing that it’s all necessary to stand up to a certain group. As the call ends, he tells her to give his regards to “him”, and Vladimir hopes his plan’ll also proceed smoothly.
Vladimir (and, likely, the R-Daigun) blast away, and Katou tells Reiji that neither of the ladies had any reason to share in their battles anymore. Regardless, Katou knows time is running short, so they ought to also start advancing with their own project.
Cut to the Cthulhu Fortress, Iczer-2 is up and about. And despite having just returned to active duty, she’s already given Iczer-3 a major beating on the other path. 2 was stopped just short of killing the girl, but knows she can end someone as weak as her at any time – with or without control over Nagisa’s powers.
Neos Gold is very impressed with her mother’s warrior, and asks if Iczer-2 wouldn’t be willing to take on another assignment…
Meanwhile, our people have just arrived at the Dragon’s Hive – hidden on an island only a scant few people in LOTUS and the UN were even aware existed, Lulu adds. O-G’s still around, and extends a warm welcome to Ru. Seimi trails right behind, and it’s been ages since she and Team D saw each other face-to-face.
Her figure has Domyoji blown away, and Kouichi can’t well argue with the guy’s assessment – he even feels his heart beating faster! Goh knows what that’s like, right? D-Don’t bring him into this, as he’s already trying hard enough to keep his gaze under control. Anna doesn’t appreciate it, and while Goh stammers that his eyes moved on impulse, Emi is still very disappointed with everyone. They’re all despicable!
Seimi has a giggle at our lively posse, but figures we’re to thank for the Dancouga displaying that kind of power in the last battle. And Sakuya’ll admit it, saying it was our advice that allowed them to push the bot into the mode. The Dancouga also deserves its share of praise, of course.
It’s pretty clear to Seimi that the team has changed a lot over this period of time – like so many have already noted, Johnny sees. But it’s true, as she remembers they kept this sort of wall around their hearts, and never really let their spirit run free. Now they’re just beaming with energy, and she’s so impressed with them.
Before she can give Aoi one of her painful hugs, Tanaka comes in and beckons everyone.
He leads us to the command center, and while Misato wants to know why we were called here, Tanaka explains that while he has the title of Commander, he’s not actually the one running the whole show. Meaning it’s that F.S. guy, Tetsuya asks? Indeed, and we’ll hear it all from him.
F.S. – Fog Sweeper – steps in and Aoi immediately demands him come clean about what the Dancouga’s about. That’s fine, though F.S. notes that we apparently have an unexpected visitor. It’s Isabelle Cronkite, who’s very surprised at how easily she managed to break into the base.
F.S. explains that he disabled security, figuring that she’s also earned the right to hear everything – out of respect for her fearless zeal in uncovering and reporting the truth about the Dancouga.
Why now? Because, says the suddenly appearing Vladimir, now the Dancouga and the R-Daigun have gained the strength needed for us to emerge victorious. Tanaka introduces her as the commander of the R-Daigun team, but the bot’s pilot is yet to arrive. She’s stayed at their home base to check on the Daigun’s repairs, but will be coming over as soon as can be.
So, how about those answers? And Kurara would like an explanation on what Vladimir just said about the Dancouga and R-Daigun, too. Very well, F.S. will talk: first off, the Dancouga was built with the singular purpose of safeguarding all life on this planet. With that in mind, the bot needed to collect and study combat data from various sources in order to grow.
And that is why, Johnny surmises, he had them take part in all these battles, R-Daigun included? Indeed, so that it could evolve to even greater heights… and also to gather vital data from humans and all myriad lifeforms across the world. As for why the bot’s been prolonging conflict since before the War of Giants, F.S. says it was done in accordance to his investors’ orders, as a way to keep them none the wiser.
What Daiya wants to know is why the Dancouga would be collecting that vital data, and F.S. says it was all to defend the life for this world against two things: the Angels, and WILL. What’s a WILL?
And WILL materializes to explain about that: he is, as F.S. puts it, an inorganic life form and ONE of many WILLs out there. He and his peers have stood as the observers of all organic life before this universe even came to be, and as WILL observed humanity’s emergence and growth throughout the ages, he felt the boundless potential within us.
However, another of his kind was on the moon – the aptly named Moon WILL – deemed that there was no place in the universe for our kind (a process that has been done to many other civilizations before). In other words, the guy wants to wipe out humanity.
“And that is precisely why we cannot allow you to fight Moon WILL,” F.S. adds. What? WILL explains to Aoi that Moon WILL has control of the so-called Original Dancouga. They based the Nova on it, and its power is beyond compare to anything we’ve faced before. It is a machine made solely for combat, while our Dancouga is, first and foremost, a means to make sure the vital data of this world survives.
That is the reason why they also had it fight and learn from collected combat data throughout all these years: to help it develop the strength needed to protect the seeds of all life, human included, that lie in its data banks. Misato sees that the thing is like Noah’s Ark, built in the eventuality Earth was destroyed.
Seems to Isabelle that she was right to doubt that the Dancouga would be this world’s savior. If anything, F.S. wants us to understand that they can’t send us into a battle that they know we’ll lose.
Asuka and Shinji don’t like this one bit: they’ve fought all those Angels to keep humanity safe, and now F.S. wants them to just give up and wait for our world to be destroyed? “What have we all fought for all this time, then?!” Shinji asks. And Aoi follows up: “You won’t even give us a chance to try and fight for our lives…?! We’ve already fought to get to this point, and we’re already set to keep going all the way!”
What do we care about this Moon WILL guy? Sakuya says we’ll just kick his ass one way or another! And while Goh isn’t outright rejecting their plan, we have been, and still are, fighting to protect the lives of all those living in THIS world.
We keep on going, struggling as hard as we can for as long as we have a shot of winning. “But how can this end with anything but you getting beaten, when you won’t even try to do anything?” Ichitaka argues.
F.S. understands how we feel, but the enemy’s power is far more than what we can currently oppose. Aoi still isn’t convinced, but the alarm signals a newer problem on the horizon: we have enemies headed this way. The SDF has reported them as Cthulhu forces, and tried to intercept them with the Fuji #2… which promptly got trashed as well.
Seems we’ll have to decide what to do about Moon WILL after these guys are dealt with. And as everyone runs off to deploy, F.S. ponders: “They now know the truth, and still they are determined to face Moon WILL…”
It proves to WILL how tough our people are, and he figures F.S. expected us to react like that. Still, that changes not the fact that we stand no chance against this enemy… right now, at least.
Mission 30 (Earth Route) – Transcendent Evolution
: Hmph, is that all…?
: And there you are… LOTUS.
: It’s… the Iczer-Σ!
: Gah, meaning that scary broad’s back in action?!: I am, but, unfortunately, you lot will have to be permanently out of commission. That way my sister will come and fight me in earnest!
: Keep your heads on a swivel, everyone! The Iczer-Σ’s looking to be even stronger than before!
: Yes, ma’am! We’ll kick them out in a hurry!
Again with the Cthulhu, and the same tactics still apply. Iczer-2’s as dangerous as always, but we’ve fought her enough that we can handle that, despite the stat boost. Better still, a whole bunch of our guys now know Valor, so her HP pool won’t last at all.
Just don’t lose a ship or the Dancouga, which isn’t likely anyway.
Nothing happens on the first turn as we all start closing in. When turn two rolls around…
*Beep, beep!*
: We’ve got an enemy force approaching our airspace! This signal… : It’s the Pretender…?!
: Kiriyama… but I’m sure I—!
: He survived…?!
: Well, how do you do, LOTUS… and Kouichi Hayase! It’s been ages!: You really humiliated me back then, but, today, my justice… jus…tice… j u s t i c e…
: The hell…? What’s wrong with him?: What… What am I feeling…?: Oh, yeess… Today, I’ll make the whole world…
: Acknowledge mine and Reiji’s justice…!: His… His D-S.O.I.L. rate has broken past 300%?! That’s impossible...! : You and your false justice… will all vanish…!: (He is only after LOTUS, it seems. I might as well make use of this.): I am righteous – just …! Me, and only me…! This world needs no one else’s justice…!
Pretender, a.k.a. Deceive IV (Eiji Kiriyama)
Pilot Skills:
Machina-Human L7 – you have no idea how much restraint it took not to call this Humachina, Manchina or something silly like that. But I DID say I’d stick to established terms…
Sword Cut
Break Morale Limit
Prevail L8
Support Attack L3
Attack Combo L3
Oh, Kiriyama… someone in the anime team really didn’t like you, I guess. Still, the guy was dangerous before and he’s even worse now.
First and foremost, the Machina-Human skill not only give a passive HP regen (20% at L7), it also provides a free boost to his accuracy, evasion and crit rates (+15% at L7). This guy was dodgy and accurate before, so you can guess how his numbers’ll look now.
The Pretender also got significant stat and power boosts across the board – Kiriyama’s huge Prevail and Break Morale Limit will only further bolster its effectiveness. So my advice to you is to not give him the chance to pull anything: save a couple of Valors, lure him in and BLAST him off your hair before he can do some real damage.
And be mindful that he still has his Nerve Cracker missiles and his new strongest attack will apply armor down.
He and his MP Jinrais will take a couple of turns to get here, so in the meantime we’ll build up morale while clearing the Dilos.
Once you wreck about 70%-ish of the Dilos…
: You appear to be struggling, warrior of the Cthulhu.: You’re that Moon WILL with whom Neos allied herself, hm?: That’s RIIIiiiiight! And I shall AAASSIIiist you! In order to eradicate these OORGANICSSsss!: What…?: We’re detecting a powerful energy reaction from the Moon! It’s headed this way…!: What did you say…?!
: It’s those things we saw at Neo Tokyo 3…!
: We’ve run out of time. They are Moon WILL’s vanguard.
: Hmph... So, as it turns out, the vaunted enemy is one we’ve bested in the past.: No, that’s not the case! These readings I’m getting… these are on a wholly different league from the ones that appeared in Neo Tokyo 3!: Whatever, we’ll trash the all the same! If we don’t, Earth… all our friends will…!*Aoi charges after the lead Regulus.*
*And she gets blasted back.*
: UWAAH!!
: Aoi!: Oho… not bad at all. Let us see the extent of your servants’ prowess, then.
: Kch…
: Absolute Hurricane…!
: That attack was…!
: You’re not destroying the Dancouga!
: The R-Daigun! It helped us?: I am here to also fulfill my duty as the R-Daigun’s pilot…!
: Eida…!
: Wha… Wait, huh?! The R-Daigun’s pilot is…!: Sorry, autographs will have to wait until later…! Now we take the fight to the Cthulhu and Moon WILL’s troops!: Y-Yeah!: Yesterday’s enemy is today’s friend, huh? Let’s get to it, then, Eida…!: Aye, aye!
Can’t lose Eida either, but the R-Daigun is just as solid as the Dancouga itself.
R-Daigun (Eida Rossa)
Pilot Skills:
Sword Cut
Counter
Prevail L5
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L1
Attack Combo L1
Spirit Commands:
Assail
Sense
Accelerate
Lucky
Squad Bonus: Mobility +5, EN +50, A rating in Air
Eida’s a pretty good pilot with the perfect spirit list for what she’s meant to do. The R-Daigun hits hard, the ability to fly is as useful as ever (especially paired with Accelerate), and, of course, a few other things… but that’s for later.
Carrying on!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrpBKdztMyg
And now we can finally see the DK of her attack. Like Kiriyama’s posse, the Regulus are a bit distant, so we’ll keep on bashing the Cthulhu.
She wasn’t coming, so I came to her. Maybe I should’ve held off since I think she adds a couple extra lines to following scenes…
: Come… Let us see how much your strength has grown during my slumber…!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_h1vPOqy08
Hey, here’s that one attack I could never get her to use before!
And, boom!
: Hrm… So I will truly struggle to crush them so long as I’m lacking a partner? Nagisa… you will be mine, this I swear!
: Damn it, she got away!
: However, I sensed that she wasn’t facing us with her all. Rather, it felt like she was using this bout simply as a warm-up. : She faced us as a warm-up? Does that mean Iczer-1 is the only one she is truly after?Kiriyama and the Regulus should reach you at the same time, which can make things a bit harry. All things considered, you should focus on the former group, while setting someone beefy up (Daiya) as a distraction of the latter. You’ll see why in a bit.
: These guys really are tough as nails…! We gotta get rid of that Moon WILL before more of these start turning up!
First and foremost, they all got a major HP boost. You’ll want to focus-fire them even more than before.
Clever girl… At least I’ll get to show off his strongest move.
: Anyone who stands against me’ll crumble to dust! The enemies of justice will be eliminated with extreme prejudice!: Righteousness is with me! I AM JUSTICE GIVEN FLESH!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3Gx36Ebaz4
Couple more hits from Tetsuya, Daiya and Shinji, and he’s ready.
: We’ve gathered enough data. Retreat, Kiriyama…: No, not yet! JUSTICE will not flee when faced with evil…!: Retreat. That’s an order.: …!: Or…der… Roger… retreating…
: Eiji Kiriyama… What the hell happened to him…?Now clip the rest of the Jinrais, as you don’t need them converging on someone and boosting evasion decay for the Regulus.
Now, let’s start wrecking the Regulus…
: What?! They regenerated…?!
: And it wasn’t just the one we defeated…! All of them recovered at the same time!
: Psh, and they think that will be enough to beat us?: You listening, Moon WILL?! You’re not breaking us with that!: Forward, everyone!Strap in, folks, we’re in for the long haul. As before, go after ONE at a time – doesn’t matter which.
: You can send whatever weapons you want, Moon WILL, we’re not bailing on this fight!: And we’ll be showing up on your doorstep real soon, just you wait!
: …
: Something about their faces is really pissing me off...!
: Yeah, it’s like they’re laughing at us.: But they won’t be for long! Get a load of this, Moon WILL!: They’ve got that Original Dancouga stashed away in their evil lair…!: So we can’t let these random mooks give us a hard time!
: Do you think we need to beat them all at the same time…?: Or maybe only one’s actually real, and we gotta trash that guy?
: No, from the readings we’re getting, they’re not sharing any energy with each other. All of them are real, individual units. : Damn it, then we’re just gonna have to keep going ‘til we can’t no more!
: We can’t run away…! If we did, that’d really be the end for everything!
: How about we toss that family maxim by the wayside for today and just get right in these things’ faces? I really don’t care to show them my back…!
: Now we know who the enemy we gotta take down really is…!: Come what may, however strong they might be, we’ll keep Earth safe from Moon WILL! That’s all that matters!: Kurara, Sakuya, Johnny! I’m taking us in!
: Aah, ENOUGH already! No one asked for an encore!
: Emi, have you found any clues that’d let us beat these robots?: I’m sorry, but…: …: Fine, bring it…! We’ll wreck them again and again and again until they can’t regen anymore!
: …
: Are we going, F.S….?: Yes… I’m willing to take a chance on all the potential humans have…
: Just because you’ve been observing Earth since forever doesn’t give you the right to just call for humanity’s destruction!: No one has that right!
: All this time, I’ve waited… waited for the day I’d fight against Moon WILL, side-by-side with the awakened Dancouga!
: What does this Moon WILL take humanity for…? How can he deem that there’s no place for humans in the universe?!: I guess I can kinda see what set him off… I mean, Earth’s got a bunch of folks like Logos prowling about.: Ichitaka…!: STILL, that doesn’t mean he gets to come out and say “everyone dies”! I’m not taking it!: Come on, Alice! First we’ll get rid of these guys, and then it’s straight off to rain on that guy’s parade!
FIVE! TIMES!
: …
: And they keep on trucking…!: How are we supposed to win this, Misato…? At this rate, we…!: Quit your whining, Stupid Shinji! You wanna go back to being just Daddy’s Boy?!: But things are looking bad! Seriously bad!
: Is this the power Moon WILL has...?!: What do we do, Misato…?: We might not have a choice but to sound a temporary retreat…: Hey, hold the phone! We can’t just run off and leave them free to go!: Yeah… If we ran, there’d be no one to stop them!: Kouji, Daiya…: …: Right… There’s got to be something for us to try! We’re not losing this… we can’t!: Indeed, Aoi… Failure is not an option!: F.S….?!: Rise and stand tall, Dancouga and R-Daigun…!*RUUUUMBLE!*
: Hrm?! What vibrations are these…?: It’s… coming from the Dragon’s Hive…?!
: This is the true shape of our base, the Dragon’s Hive.: The base itself as one huge battleship…!
: Keep at it all the way, guys! We know you can win this!
: Team D, and LOTUS! Surely this isn’t all your strength amounts to!: You…!
: Show me, heroes of the Dancouga… Show me that you can truly be this world’s saviors…!: Saviors of the world, eh… Sounds like a good deal!: From regular salaryman to savior… That’s quite the leap, but I don’t mind it.: We can’t let these monsters steal away everyone’s future!: Come on, Aoi. The Dancouga… rather, we still have plenty of energy to fight with!: Right on. Let this Moon WILL, and whoever else feels like it, step right up! We’re never letting ourselves be beaten…!
: The Dancouga and R-Daigun are glowing…?!: It’s like my whole body’s on fire… Pretty intense, but pretty nice too…!: The time has come… Now is when the Dancouga shall truly awaken!: Transcendence Mode, activate!
: Wha…?! These letters are…!: You will evolve… beyond men, beasts… beyond the gods themselves, to reach your ultimate form!: Roar, Aoi! Call out its name! Keyword: M-A-X-G-O-D! Dancouga Max God!: Let’s go wild!: Keyword: M-A-X-G-O-D!
: Dancouga! Max God!
: That’s… the ultimate form of the Dancouga…!: D-Dude, that’s siiick…! The Dancouga and the R-Daigun combined…!: And with all this power in our hands… Come on, guys!: Aye, aye! Grit your teeth, silverware!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1oY-IKLdm8
: !!*Explosions on all surviving Regulus!*
: The enemy’s unknown regeneration has stopped! It looks like backlash from the major damage they took caused it to malfunction!: We did it…!: Hell, yeah, Dancouga!: We’ve got this now! One last push, people! Let’s run these mooks into the dirt! 
Dancouga Max God
50% Squad Bonus: Crit rate +20, Armor +150, Mobility +15, Movement +1
Take the Dancouga, make it better in every conceivable way, and you get this. The original bot’s firepower was starting to lag behind a bit, so now it makes up for it by being one of the strongest (non-cheating) bots in the game. You say Dancougas are often glass cannons? Not in L – this bot was hard to kill before, now it is nigh impossible.
And it can do pretty much anything, even dodge reliably thanks to the S ranks it has on earth and space. EN cost is a bit hefty, of course, but that’s what EN-Save is for. If we’ve the deployment slots to spare, it could be worthwhile to set, say, Anna and Eida as their separate teams, so that we can have Goh and Aoi keep a resupplying squaddie even after combining.
Whatever the case, the Max God is pretty good.
And now! We! KIIIIIIILL!
And done.
: Our energy stores are unbelievable…! So this is the Dancouga Max God…!: Who’d have thought the bot had a secret like this tucked away…!: We can absolutely push back Moon WILL’s vanguard with this…!: They’ve already lost – they just don’t know it yet.: We just have to show it to them, then! They’ll get a taste of the full power of a warrior that’s transcended men, beasts and the gods themselves!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i7tGlfLE34
: It’s over…: Yes… We’ve beaten Moon WILL’s forces…!: Yes, we did… It’s a total win for us!: That said, to think our two units could actually combine with one another…: You didn’t know, Eida?
: They’ve grown so much in such a short period of time… astounding. : I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t just as surprised… Still, this is the strength humans possess.: And that is precisely why I rejected the eradication of mankind. The boundless diversity of your kind, the overwhelming might of your individuals… all of which has the potential to push you to newer, greater heights…: They’ve done very well today… We might have a chance now.: We might, yes… These people could possibly prevail…
Back to Shangri-La, apparently Masaki didn’t clear things with Katou before deploying Kiriyama – it was all to gather data on their opponents, see.
Masaki figures the boss understands that that’s a necessity in their bid to carry out their objective. He slowly concurs, but still seems ill at ease.
Outside, Soubi can hear the talk at the bridge and Yulianne tells what happened. Sawatari’s surprised to hear that, as Kiriyama sure as hell wasn’t in any condition to be doing anything yet.
Not the first time Masaki’s gone against Katou’s orders, either, as was shown during his previous offensive when installing the Sphere. Soubi thinks it might be good to keep a close eye on the guy.
Wufei’s listening in quietly, but inwardly he thinks: “Will you make it in time, LOTUS…”
Seimi was very much impressed with the Dancouga folks drawing out strength from one another – that’s the mark of a good team. And while it still sounds a bit weird to Aoi, she appreciates the praise regardless. Isabelle herself is now a firm believer in the Dancouga as a savior of mankind, and Sakuya swears we’ll make good on it.
Indeed, Aoi declares to F.S. that they’ll be taking the fight to Moon WILL and any other enemy that shows up – no matter how strong. He won’t try to stop them anymore, entrusting the future of Earth to us… and, furthermore, the Dragon’s Hive is officially travel alongside LOTUS (Only the ship isn’t an actual unit, but hey). Should the need arise, F.S. and WILL will help in any way they can.
In any case, Lulu is very much impressed with the strength of the new Dancouga, but Daiya says power isn’t all it’s got. Just the sight of the bot’s pilots fighting got his flame burning hotter – same for Kouichi! “Combining with your Rival Bot is just a beautiful, beautiful, turn of events!”
Speaking of unforeseen turn of events, Shizuru’s still shocked to find out who was piloting the R-Daigun. It really is worldwide idol Eida Rossa, the one who’s been hounding the Dancouga all this time to get them to awaken. As it turns out, the reason she had to back down on that movie deal way back when was due to her getting a mission.
As for why the R-Daigun spent all that time missing, it was due to the Dancouga joining LOTUS. F.S. and the others saw the remarkable growth the bot and the team were doing with us, so there wasn’t as much need for them to fight the Daigun. Though, as Vladimir puts it, WILL had it happen again as a way to trigger the Dancouga’s awakening.
But whatever the reasons, Eida is still very sorry for everything she did to them… but Aoi says it’s all water under the bridge. As she mentioned before, yesterday’s enemy is today’s friend, and not only were they actually on the same team all along, Eida also seems to be close with Johnny. That makes things easy for her.
Eida’s really grateful, and with that done, there’s a very important matter left unattended: autographs! Kouichi wants one, and Anna’ll take two (one for Nagisa Kanou, once she’s back), as does Ichitaka – she’ll show it to everyone at school once he goes back! Hey, Kouichi asked first!
Asuka groans at the idiot fanboys, but Yamashita figures that attitude’s a good feature of them. His attention’s diverted by an incoming mail, though… it’s from Reiji.