Part 84: Mission 35 - The Eternal Soldier - Part 1
Here we are again, and Daiya has closed that gap ever-so-slightly – he’s now 11 kills behind Ichitaka. Time is running short for our boy!
Iczer-1 was welcomed back into our fold by being upgraded to 50% (Accuracy +15, EN +100, Movement +1); the Great Mazinger was also pushed up there (Armor +200, Accuracy +15), with the rest of the cash going into the Nagahamas. They’ll likely be next.
As you might expect, the Iczers, Dancouga and R-Daigun are deploying as events. We also have 18 slots to play with, so we adjust accordingly:
Kouichi/Quatre
Daiya/Hilde
Alto/Michel
Lee/Norza
Kenji/Kyo
Jeeg/Micchi
Shinji/Rey
Kouji/Sawatari
Tetsuya/Canaria
Kira/Athrun
Asuka/Atross
Goh/Yanma
Reiji/Anna
Ichitaka/Miu
Ozma/Luca
Voltes/Combattler
Yuu/Heero
Shinn/Yulianne
Off we go to tackle two finales, and also find the best money-making spot in the game.
Mission 35 – The Eternal Soldier
: Captain, we’ve arrived at the open area.
: It’s enormous…
: Something’s not right with this fortress! We should’ve already made it all the way through the whole dang thing looking at how far we’ve travelled to get here!
: It appears the interior of the fortress is far wider than what its outer shell suggested.
: We’ve pinging dimensional anomalies. Most likely they’re employing subspace technology as a way to expand the inner area. *Tweep!*
: That voice…! It’s her!
: Really, Nagisa?!
: Help me, Iczer-1…!
: I heard her too, Nagisa…!*Alarm!*
: We’ve energy readings dead ahead!
: Deploy all units! Everyone stay on your toes!
: Let’s see what surprises await us…
: I’m impressed that you’ve made it all the way here, LOTUS.: Iczer-1… Hand Nagisa back to us!: My dear sister, I’m bursting with joy that I could see you again… As for Nagisa…
: …: Aah, Nagisa…! Thank goodness you’re safe…!
: They didn’t do anything to you, right?!: Hold on, I’ll be with you in a moment, Nagisa!*Iczer-1 flies towards her.*
: …
*BEAM!*
: Hrk! Na-Nagisa… why…?
: …: Oh, where are my manners? My sister, allow me to introduce you to Nagisa Kanou… my partner. Ahahahahaha!
: Huh…?! What the hell?!
: Damn those Cthulhu… They’ve got her under mind control!: It can’t be…! I heard… The voice I heard was hers, I’m sure…!: What do you think, Iczer-1? You’d have no qualms with losing your life at her hands, right? End her, Nagisa!: …*Tweep!*
: (I’m sorry, Iczer-1…! I… I can’t stop myself…!): (Please… please, attack! Kill me!): Nagisa…?!
: Those are... tears?!
: Nagisa’s hurting!: …: Iczer-1’s in danger! Cover her!
: Cover her, how…? She’s being attacked by…!
: She’s just a regular girl…!: (Hurry! If you don’t, I’m really going to kill you…): Iczer-2, do you not hear Nagisa’s voice?!: What…?: Even if you dominate her, her heart cannot and will not be bound. And, as such, you can never make her your partner.: …: … Fine. Then let us both forget about partners… One last duel, just you and me. : Nagisa, stand back.: …
: Of course, I cannot have LOTUS intruding upon my long-awaited duel with you… Still, I can provide them with ample entertainment with which to keep busy. Come forth!
: Mimetic Beasts?!
: What’re they doing here…?!: A few of their cells stuck to Cobalt’s Dilos Theta, and we saw fit to cultivate these. You’d best destroy them all or these monsters will soon start to multiply, no? Ahahaha…!: I’ll deal with Iczer-2, my friends. Dispatch the Mimetic Beasts – quickly!: Hmph… You are hardly a worthy match without Nagisa’s help, my sister!: My power does not come from Nagisa alone! And if you cannot grasp that, then…!*Iczer-1 and 2 fly farther away.*
: Nagisa’s still her hostage, though, so we can’t try anything risky. All troops, do NOT engage Iczer-2!: We believe in you, Iczer-1…! We know you can win this and get Nagisa back!
Mission Objective: Shoot down Iczer-2
Mission Failure: Any allied ship, Iczer-1, Dancouga Nova or R-Daigun destroyed. Any unit other than Iczer-1 attacks Iczer-2.
And you thought we’d seen the last of the Mimetic Beasts. Thankfully, they’re unchanged from our old brawls, so your main concern should be dealing with the small ones to stop them from draining your EN. Curiously, the Regulus Alphas you’ll be fighting in this mission are all of the lesser variety – none have 50k HP, like in the last mission – so they’ll die quickly when focus fired (especially if you tag them with Yulianne).
Regardless, the order of the day here is resource management as you’ll want to conserve your resources in preparation for Moon Wakamoto and BIIiiig Gold.
Slowly build up morale on the mooks before you and start inching your way a wee bit past the center of the room – towards Iczer-2, but not close enough that stray MAPWs will hit Iczer-2, mind! That’s the money spot right there.
Might as well get this started.
: Put down your blade, Iczer-2! There’ll be no victory for you against me! : Hmph… Are you so worried about Nagisa that you’re spouting nonsense?: It’s unbecoming of a warrior to proclaim such things in the midst of battle, you know!: …: The universe is in a constant vortex of combat. And it is only the victorious that stand as its rulers! : How can a warrior like you not understand that?: However, the only battle that should be fought is one to keep said conflict from spreading throughout the universe! : That is precisely what Iczer-3’s fighting for – as a representative of a new era.: Don’t make me laugh! You’re a failure as a warrior and defeat at my hands is the end you deserve!: Let us answer once and for all who is the mightiest, Iczer-1!: Iczer-2…!
Well… crap. Even at 50% HP upgrades, Iczer-1 is still very much frail if the enemy can get through her evasiveness. Granted, that was a 25% chance to hit, so the RNG obviously didn’t cooperate.
: Urgh…: Indeed, you are a failure as a warrior. Especially when compared to me…: Stand up, Iczer-1!
: We all know you’re a way stronger girl than that!
*Casts Strike, Iron Wall and Valor!*
: …: …!! Iczer-1… Is that Nagisa’s power…?!: It’s not… And I’ve told you already: my power does not come from Nagisa alone.: That’s impossible! You cannot be generating this much power without being synchronized…!: And it is because you cannot understand this, Iczer-2… that your odds of victory are nil!So, yeah, despite what the mission failure screen might say, Iczer-1 straight-up CANNOT be killed (at least not by Iczer-2 – I dunno if her getting dropped by a mook is a game over). With that in mind, even if you haven’t upgraded Iczer-1 to 50%, her casting Strike and Valor every time she dies means that, eventually, Iczer-2 will go down, so there’s no pressure there.
We’ll just carry on with the mooks while she handles this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE4BIhPN-YQ
And here’s Athrun’s surfboard attack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnIuILIKI-Y
Finally, Kira’s strongest non-combined attack.
And that’s all enemies dow—
: Reinforcements.
: This is the Cthulhu HQ, so it’s to be expected that they’d have a near limitless supply of forces.
: But we only need to find and defeat Big Gold and Moon WILL to win this…!: Something that matter, my sister? If you let this battle drag on, your friends will, sooner or later, get exhausted.: … Then let’s settle this, Iczer-2.Nah, not quite. This, right here, is where you make money: unlike other missions, this one really does have a limitless supply of mooks and nearly all of them can be oneshotted with a single Valored MAPW (make sure Iczer-2’s out of the AoE!). If you weaken the bulkier guys before blasting them all, depending on what you can squeeze into the attack range, you’re looking at upwards of 110-130k a pop with Bless cast.
If you REALLY want to abuse this, you can farm until your MAPers and Bless casters run out of SP (and Hope casts), have someone attack Iczer-2 to trigger a game over and do it all over again to rake in big bucks. I’m not doing it, but you can if you’d like to max your favorite guys.
So, excuse me for a bit while I go all Scrooge McDuck on this. One.
Two!
Three!
Four!
Here comes the moneeeeey!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vXjIGpGHhc
Oh, and I finally remembered to get the last of Atross’ attacks on camera.
And done.
: Rrgh…!: There’s no point in continuing this battle any longer, Iczer-2. This… is the power of the bonds between us – that which is born from our thoughts to one another.: Hah… in the end, I could not prevail against Nagisa… and I could not prevail against this “power” the humans possess either. Still… I’ll at least prevail against you, sister!: …: I was… I was given life solely for that! I am Iczer-2, she who was created to kill Iczer-1!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS_0mdKraBQ
Iczer-2: “My sister… I…!”
Iczer-1: “Iczer-2… you are…” > “It’s time we brought this to an end...!”
: …: What are you doing…? Kill me… Mother won’t show herself if you do not…: I’ve no desire to take my younger sister’s life… As for Big Gold, I will hunt and destroy her regardless of my sparing you.: …: …: … You may have Nagisa… : Ah…! Iczer-1…! Iczer-1!!: Nagisa…! Oh, Nagisa…!: My sister… I wish I had a partner like Nagisa…
: There she goes…
: I feel kind of bad for her now…
: Don’t… she fought with all of her might and was ultimately defeated. I don’t think she has any regrets over this.
: Iczer-2… where will you go now…?
: Nagisa, are you injured?: No, I’m fine. And, more importantly, I’m ready to fight too. Big Gold’s closing in!: I understand. Iczer… Robo!
: Huh? You brought another Iczer Robo with you, sis?!: Yes. Gray saw fit to prepare a new one for me and Nagisa to use.
: And, with this, our rescue operation’s a success… all that remains now…: Is Big Gold and Moon WILL…: Let’s continue deeper into the fortress. All units, maintain high alert status!: You don’t need to search for us.
: …!
: Very well done, Iczer-1.
: You as well, organics. : Big Gold…!
: Moon WILL’s also decided to show his face, huh…!*Looks at Moon WILL.*
: And there’s the Original Dancouga that WILL told us about.: To think it’d be this mighty… This is Nagisa’s power at work…? Or, rather, the power of humans?: Though I’m now aware of Nagisa’s heritage, this ability to draw power from emotions… it is a mystery I could not quantify. You, however, seem to have made sense of it, Iczer-1. : Organic life… when presented with the slightest opening, it emerges, begins to reproduce and multiply…: And, ultimately, it vies for what the other has, and kills one another… It is the only way beings like you know to survive. Pitiful creatures…: How can these lumps of water and protein, who cannot even control themselves, come to wield such power? : It is wholly incomprehensible! But this is the horrible truth…: Are you done monologuing? Because all you’re doing is meddling in our lives! Inorganic life or whatever you are, we sure as hell aren’t gonna sit here and let you kill us on your stupid whims!: “Meddling? “Whims”? Perhaps, from your limited point of view, that might be a fair assessment. : HOOoowever! It is fact that you organics, SOooner or LAAaater, will bring war to the galaxy! : It has happened in this universe! And in the PREEeevious universe! Always! AALWAAYS!! AD INFINITUUUuummm!!!: And I’ll purge all of humanity, these deeply flawed creatures, before it has a chance to grow and affect the entire GAAaalaxyyyy!
: I’ll admit that you could even point to our world for a ton of examples. We’ve had both wars with foreign civilizations and between ourselves…
: You’re right that competition and disputes are bound to appear whenever there are two groups living in the same place. That said…
: We’re all fighting to try and make real a world where that is not the case!: Hah, fools… do you honestly think all organics share your ideals…?!: Then we’ll just fight…and survive!: Iczer-1… we are each a facet of the universe… each a half of Sir Violet’s spirit…: If it was her malice that gave me, a machine, flesh, it was her kindness that gave you, an android, a heart. : Only one of us can be said to truly represent her essence, and the time has come to see which!: Big Gold… I’ll destroy you!
Big Gold
Pilot Skills:
Ignore Size Difference
Break Morale Limit
Commander L4
Prevail L9
Support Attack L3
Attack Combo L3
Mech Features:
10% HP Regen
30% EN Regen
If Neos Gold was rather simple, Big Gold can be much of a threat. For one, she is VERY dodgy (pairing an SS size with S ranks in relevant terrains and a ton of mobility), so if your guys haven’t enough SP to outright cast Strike, you’ll be looking at not-so-great numbers. When she starts running Prevail, you might as well be ready to save scum. Her stats, as Iczer characters are wont to have, are huge, so she’s also enormously accurate (Confuse!).
Despite her Prevail L9, though, she hasn’t much by way of defenses (plus, Yulianne still works) – if you can connect reliably, you’ll be fine. On the flip side, whoever goes to engage her should absolutely come packing defenses because Big Gold can hit like a TRUCK, especially once her Prevail gets going. If you wanna mitigate that some, have Daiya (or Lee, if you haven’t combined yet) tag her with an Attack Down debuff.
Finally, something to be mindful of is that she has a MAPW that’ll blast everything in in a 3x9 (the width turns to 5 from the middle to the penultimate row) line with some very good accuracy. Thankfully, it takes 130 morale to use it so, unless you’ve a ton of mooks left behind from the start of the mission, she won’t have enough to blast you on approach. If she does, be ready with Daunt/Exhaust casts.
As I said, come packing Strike, Valor and some measure of defenses, and she’ll go down quickly. Don’t, and you’ll be having a hard time.
So now fast forward a couple of turns of getting all my units up top and in position, dangling my ships in Big Gold’s range to make sure she’d take shots at them.
Mind you, on the 2nd enemy turn after the bosses arrive…
: I live.: What the… Neos Gold?!
: But we beat her before we came in…: Hmhmhm… while creating her as a proper spawn isn’t as simple, I can easily bring forth Neos Gold as a terminal unit of mine. : I won’t allow you to sow any more seeds of evil across the universe!: Stay strong, Iczer-1! I’m here for you!: This is where we need to whether the storm! We’ve the targets cornered, troops!: Yes, ma’am!Yes, you have four Neos Golds as an extra bonus and they’re exact copies of the original. You COULD kill them as well for some extra cash but, frankly, I think that’d mostly drain you of the SP you’d need to kill the main bosses and the payout wouldn’t be worth it.
Let’s carry on and take the boss lady herself!
: I never got this sensation of pure evil from non-Flame stuff before… She feels so much like Proist’s…!: You’re implying my flesh is similar to you people’s Flame? An intriguing assessment, that.: And, in that case, I’m gonna have to show you how the power of Gaiking’s Flame matches yours and then some!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmP-KC5hk18
Here’s her best and only non-MAPW attack.
: Big Gold…! This is it for you!: Wrathful warrior of Earth… were you to fully embrace your hatred, even greater power could be yours. What a waste.: You can’t let hatred lead you in battle! I learned that throughout all this, and it’s why I’ll put you down!
: A machine with a soul… can I actually win against something like that…?: No, I have to…! I have to win…!: Ignorance is a dreadful thing. Many things can serve as vessels for souls… humans aren’t unique in that regard. 
: I appreciate you telling us that you’re evil incarnate. Now I can smash you to bits without a gram of regret!: Have it your way. Good and evil… yin and yang… This confrontation was always inevitable…!
: Iczer-1’s told us a lot about you, but I didn’t think you’d actually be another blob of pure malice…!: Come and try your vaunted “power of the heart” on me. I find it rather curious.
: A warrior that claims to be an agent of justice? Very well. Try and make me feel the justice you preach.: All this time, Nagisa was scared. But she still hung in there and kept on fighting. : So what I want to do now… is just to help her out, even if just a bit! 
: Ichitaka, all systems are green! We’re good to go!: Foolish child… however diligent you may be at your work, it is your fate to be thrown away, just as I was.: Don’t even start with that! Alice’s like family! We’d never dump her!: Ichitaka…!: Come on, Alice! Let’s go and kick her butt – together! 
: A machine crowned with the title of God… show me the extent of its powers.
: Gramps said that the Kaiser could surpass even God, destroy even the Devil…!: And this, right here, is the time to destroy a legit devil! 
: How much suffering has your hatred brought to the Cthulhu people?!: It wasn’t my hatred alone the cause of this. The malice within Sir Violet’s heart also played a major role.: Maybe… but none of this would’ve happened without you!
: You, of all people, should realize the duality that exists within every being…: Plus and minus, yin and yang, light and dark… Yeah, I can see your point.: But all those are still just parts of who I am! Whatever I might hold inside, I can always choose what goes! And that’s what I’ll do right now!
: “Love”… how much power does it grant humans? In what way is it different from the power granted by hatred? Let us find out.: I don’t need to “find out” anything! Love is the mightiest weapon of all, and I say that with no doubt!
: Sir Violet was a very dutiful leader who always wished for peace…: And even she could not prevent her heart from being eroded by malice. You, too, cannot escape from that.
: I guess that’s true – it’s just how humans are. Still, we all have friends that’ll support us along the way! So long as they’re here, our hearts will endure!
In case you didn’t believe me when I said she hits like a truck. If you’ll remember, my Voltes is pretty dang upgraded!
: She might look like a little kid but it feels like I’m staring down a giant …!: My body is malice made flesh… I’d wager what you’re feeling is horror towards the evil you face. 
: Big Gold… If you really are pure evil, then I won’t hesitate to kill you…!: Indeed, my body was born off the malice in Sir Violet’s heart.: In other words, while people like her – people with malice within – exist, beings like me will always emerge.: And we’ll also deal with them if they do. That said, my actual goal is to help build a world where nothing like you can ever be born. 
: Iczer-3, we have to help Nagisa too!: Yup! We’ll watch my sis’ back all the way!: Iczer-3, that sorry excuse for a warrior… You’ve successfully synchronized with Nagisa Kasumi as well? Indeed, the Nagisas’ bloodline is force to be reckoned with.
: Sis, Iczer-3… I swear to you I won’t go down! I’ll win even against Big Gold herself!: The warrior Neos created… Show me how much your power will avail you. 
: Dancouga… that which was created to carry the seeds of all life on Earth into space when the end came for that planet…: Were a unit capable of autonomous actions like you to drift in space long enough, you’d likely follow in my footsteps…
: Sorry, but you won’t have a chance to find out. : Because we passed on using the Dancouga to run off with our tails between our legs! The option we took was to stay and fight for our lives!
: Iczer-1… not once did I expect you to have this much power.: Indeed, our greatest mistake was not finding and eliminating your partner before you awakened.: Nagisa… we’re going. Now we avenge your parents!
: Right… we will win this, Iczer-1…!
Iczer-1: “Nagisa!”
Nagisa: “Big Gold! We’ll destroy you and bring all this to a close!”
: It is useless… My body is malice incarnate. It’s beyond you to eradicate me.: … I understand. And if we cannot do that… then we have but to seal you away.
: Seal her away…?: But we used Sakahoko getting rid of Himika! How’re we gonna do that?!: As Big Gold herself said, mine and her soul are two halves of the same thing…: So it should be possible to seal Big Gold’s malice within me…: Hold on, Iczer-1! What’ll happen to you if you do that?!: Don’t worry, Nagisa. That which was once brought apart will be made whole again… that’s all this will be.
: … You better make it back to us, alright? You can’t just leave your partner behind. : Of course. I will return…*Iczer-1 gets out the Iczer Robo*
: We’re going, Nagisa…! Synchronize yourself with me…!: Okay. Take everything I have! So, please, Iczer-1…: … Win. Please win…!: Absolutely…! I promise!
: And so you come… Die, Iczer-1!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6G9ppPJ-9o
“Big Gold… I now draw upon Nagisa’s power and seal your evil away!”
“To battle! Synchro!”
“Behold the strength of the bond between Nagisa and I!”
“And with this… you’re through!”
: Th-That’s…?! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!
: …: Sis…?: … Victory is ours, Iczer-3. Big Gold is now a part of me.: Then…!: Hm. Thanks to you, I now have a human heart as well… a heart that holds both good and evil, just like yours… : I’ve fulfilled my promise, Nagisa.: Yes, you did…! I love you, Iczer-1!: Both good and evil, huh…? Then being a perfect Champion of Justice really is just a crazy dream, I guess…: But striving to be a Champion of Justice is never without merit. You simply cannot allow the darkness within to prevail, Kouichi.: If you can acknowledge your deficiencies and not allow those to push you into despair, then it is not impossible for you to become a Champion of Justice. : That’s right… everyone is weak – that is to say, they are human. 
: That is why we can never give up hope, why we must never stop striving onwards. : WROOOoonnng!: !!: THAT IS WHYYyyy we, the WILLs, must eradicate the lot of YOOoouuu! You, feeble creatures who yield to their own weakness! You, the ROOoot of conflict!: Shut your trap…!: WHAAaaat…?: I said shut your trap! I don’t give a damn how OH-SO-AMAZING you are, or for how long a hunk of tech like you has been watching creatures like us…: If you can’t listen to a single boy’s worries for even a second, then you’re a crap observer and a busted machine!
: Charge forward, Team D! You and LOTUS!: Let’s go wild!And I reckon this is good for today. The rest of this mission should go up on the weekend.
Oh, and if you decided to ignore the warnings and actually have someone attack Iczer-2:
: Tch, you blasted humans… you’ll intrude upon our duel…?!After your attack…
: So you’ll resort to such dishonorable tricks, my sister…?: No, Iczer-2! That’s—!: Nagisa’s power is truly impressive... but alas. LOTUS, sister, I’ll rain the greatest of sorrows unto you for this. : Nagisa, end your life.: …*Beam!*
: Th-That’s… a lie, right…?: N-No…: Nagisa… NAGISAAAAAA!!So don’t do it!