Part 14: Mission 6 - The Day the Sky Fell - Part 1
It’s a tight race for the nº spot, as Goh and Iczer-1 close in on Hyouma. We’ll see if he’ll manage to increase that lead.
Reiji, like Iczer-1, comes preupgraded to 40%, meaning he’ll be pretty damaging right out the box. Random HP and EN upgrades were given to the Supers who didn’t get anything previously, with some extra firepower to Goh.
Ichitaka’s going out as an event unit this time around, so our newly-arrived squad leader took his place. Here’s how we’re going:
Reiji/Miu
Jeeg/Kyo
Kouji/Yagyuu
Yamashita/Tetsuya
Iczer-1/Shizuru
Goh/Mira
Combattler/Deceive
Daiya/Boss
Forward!
Let’s check back with our friends at the Quarter, the Vajra having finally given them a bit of a breather. Kenichi figures it’s due to only a handful of the buggers warping over to this world along with us but Bobby warns against lowering our guard: if we run into one, we’d best assume there are a bunch more nearby.
Cathy relates that the Frontier’s still studying what the Vajra are, their way of life, etc, so she figures it’s a bit too soon to speculate on that. She can’t say Bobby’s WRONG in his assertion but there’re still plenty of unknowns here. If anything, Ozma’s proud to see her engage in debate with the crew – it shows that she’s fitting well with them.
As for Megumi and Ippei, Kenichi says they went with Michel and co over to the Frontier’s Shibuya (a replica of the actual place). Seems like Ranka’s doing some marketing gig there, so they decided to cheer her on. Ozma hadn’t heard about that, and is even less amused when he Alto apparently knew and told everyone BUT him. Since when is he Ranka’s confidant?!
Sakonji had thought the guy was shirking his training recently and both he and Ozma figures this calls for some HARSHER routines for the guy. Cathy sighs at what an overbearing brother Ozma is.
Cut to Howard’s office, the Earth’s government has given the Frontier a simple answer: stand by and wait until they decide what to do. Howard isn’t happy with that, what with their refusal to even receive an ambassador from the fleet. Worst, their permission for us to stay here only seems to be until the ships’ repairs are finished.
Mishima has heard from Durandal that there’s a major political faction in this world that advocates the elimination of any “impure” Earthlings. The government’s difficulty is reaching a solution for us is likely a result of that faction impeding things. So, said faction isn’t willing to welcome the Frontier with all the Zolans, Zentradi and the few Boazanians living here?
Actually, says Mishima, the guys are treating pretty much EVERYONE in the Frontier as aliens – non-humans. The same treatment given to Durandal’s people, the genetically engineered Coordinators; in that faction’s views, a human that undergoes genetic manipulation is a human no more.
Furthermore, Mishima posits, this world has yet to contact alien races, so things are likely going through same “culture shock” motions their world did when the Zentradi first showed up. Tensions are high.
Regardless, it’ll be another week until Earth’s government reconvenes, so they’ve given us free pass to continue fighting the Vajra as a measure of self-defense UNTIL THEN. Does that mean that this week is as long as they’re willing to tolerate our presence?
Mishima thinks so, figuring the government decided putting us on a hard time limit to leave would be preferable to outright hostile action. Regardless, the message seems clear: don’t overstay your welcome.
Seems to Howard that this Earth’s government is as rotten as the other side’s and Mishima suggests we leave ASAP, before the more extreme folks decide to tag the fleet as an invading force and take action.
At Mishima’s office, he’s gotten in touch with “G”, who’s sending over data they compiled on a certain problematic Valkyrie and the Vajra.
Mishima’s surprised G would transmit data over a vid-com – is it a sign that he needs to hurry? Not at all, as G says they’ve got a firm understanding on how to hide their signals from the Frontier. Impressive, and what should Mishima do? Relay the data to a certain man.
Mishima takes a look at what he’s got and, indeed, it looks very interesting; he does wonder if it’ll prod the man into acting, though. G is sure he will – that is, if the guy’s like him.
Touring Shibuya, Meyrin’s surprised to hear that Luca and co have a singer as a classmate – the one they saw at the Zentradi mall, even. Even Shinn hasn’t forgotten the green-haired girl, which kinda surprises Ippei as he figured the kid would’ve thought it all boring. He’s entitled to like normal stuff, thank you very much.
In that case, Nanase asks why doesn’t he join the Official Ranka Lee Fan-club? FYI, Nanase’s the president with Michel and co being numbers 2 through 4. Luna calls the #5 position but, unfortunately, that spot’s already filled by Nagisa (Kasumi). Meyrin greets her heartily, the two girls apparently having turned friends while eating at Nyan-Nyan – ZAFT has been helping protect the Frontier, so the Minerva crew have stopped by the restaurant here and now.
And Nanase’s rather curious as to how “ordinary schoolboys” like Michel and Luca seem to be acquainted with those guys. As Luca stammers, it’s up to Michel to come up with an excuse: since his is a military family and Luca’s in with L.A.I., they’ve been selected by the government to play host to the Minerva crew. Good save.
Nanase and Nagisa are relieved, having been worried that the two of them were soldiers or something, like the Voltes Team. While Megumi apologizes for keeping that a secret, Nagisa knows there are rules; mind, everyone was blown away when they found out their schoolmates were the Voltes’ pilots.
Indeed, Luna knows how strict the army can be: don’t do this, don’t talk of that OR ELSE. Sounds like scary business and Nanase wonders if the NUNS is like that. Probably, but enough about that talk: what about the fan-club?
As it turns out, Luna’ll be stuck as #13 – while she was talking with the others, Shinn, the Voltes Team and Meyrin went and signed up. Why didn’t Shinn sign her up, then?! He’s always been so insensitive, even back at the academy! Sorry…
But where is Alto? Nagisa figured he’d be here to cheer Ranka. He was but Luca says he went into an alleyway to answer a phone call. Now why would he do that? Michel figures it’s a secret girlfriend, though Ippei tells him to get his mind out of the gutter.
Regardless, they should get going or they won’t find a good spot – Alto’ll meet up as soon as his call’s over.
… And our folks are a bit confused once they reach the area. Where is the gig? Where’s the adoring crowd? There’s just someone in a cartoon costume up ahead… oh, it’s Ranka, desperately trying to get people to take her debut single.
Her handing out CDs to random passersby is a bit weaker than what Meyrin had in mind and, worse, it doesn’t look like Ranka’s getting a lot of bites. Nagisa’s a bit confused as to why she’s even handing out physical CDs when she could’ve just as easily distributed her music digitally but Luna figures even in a civilization travelling across the galaxy, nothing beats a hands-on approach in show biz.
Meyrin does wonder if Lacus had to do this sort of thing when she was starting out but Shinn doubts it. She’s the daughter of Siegel Clyne, so the guy’s connections probably made her trip to the top a lot easier – blame destiny for her luck on the draw. That said, Shinn DOES think she’s very talented... her recent works notwithstanding. He’s been a fan of her ever since his days at Orb.
Regardless, before they can head over and start cheering Ranka on, Alto comes over and suggests we don’t. No, he won’t tell who his secret call was with and shoos Michel away. As for Ranka, he says that while she’s working out in the street, that’s still her stage and she’s giving it her all – walking up there’d just wreck her focus. Besides, Alto figures her having to work hard to get to the top will make for a valuable learning experience, so we ought to just watch her from here.
Nanase’s happy to see him putting so much thought into Ranka’s situation but Alto stammers that he’s just speaking common sense. His denial comes in that loud Nakamura voice, so Ranka somewhat hears it. Everyone bolts before they’re spotted, Ranka figuring it was just her imagination. Back to work!
Later on, back at Alto’s room, Ranka’s relating her busy day – she’s really tired after all that standing around. She knows handing out CDs is a bit old-fashioned and, truth be told, Elmo DID try to set up a promotional webpage for her; oddly enough, the thing kept getting hacked, so the only option was to do it all by hand. Hmhmm.
Still, Elmo also said that word-of-mouth is a very powerful thing in the singing business, so her having to interact directly with the folk isn’t particularly bad. Hmhmm. Is he listening? Nope. MEANIE!
But, honestly, Alto figures she ought to do what her manager says: whether it’s handing out CDs or via word-of-mouth, if her song’s good, then it’ll get around. He’s sure it’s only a matter of time until the effort she’s doing is rewarded some.
Ranka thanks him for the encouragement, but it’s already getting a bit late and she’ll have another gig tomorrow. Time to call it a night and, as she signs off, Alto wishes her good luck.
A new call comes in as soon as that one ends, though: Sheryl, who’s not too happy at Alto for making her wait so long before taking her call. Turns out she was his mystery caller from before and she’s been busily trying to figure out a theme for a movie she wants to make. Her current idea is that it’ll be an emotionally-charged “documentary”, where she’s an aspiring pilot seeking to protect the Macross Galaxy.
“You, a pilot? That’s not a documentary, that’s a comedy,” Alto chuckles quietly but quickly changes the subject when Sheryl frowns. Why is she even doing something like this? Well, she doesn’t want the people, ever so fickle, to forget about the Galaxy – an allegory for their own universe.
Alto sees her point, as there are plenty of folks struggling to deal with our new reality. It’s Sheryl’s job to give those people hope and, if anything, she’d like to at least cheer them up some. As for the movie’s slogan, she’s thinking “The Galactic Fairy takes up arms for her homeland” – how does that sound? Lame. Quiet, you.
Oh, and by the by, they’ll be filming some of the movie at Alto’s school and he’s been assigned as her errand-boy while that’s going down. Why?! “Interest” for taking this long to return the earring she borrowed him. “Whaat?! I’ll give it back, then! I’ll give it back right the hell now, damn it!”
Too late for that, but, hey, she’ll allow him to hang onto the thing as compensation. Alto’s very mad at being blindsided with this but agrees to it THIS TIME. She better not pull this “interest” stuff again because he never agreed to it!
Well, Sheryl likes how upstanding he is and Alto says that’s only because he’s not about to dump a memento of her mother into the trash – were it anything else, he would’ve. Sounds great and Sheryl will eagerly be awaiting his arrival at the set.
At JUDA, Alice is giving people checkups and Tetsuya’s looking A-OK – his body’s healthy and his immune system is working fine. Now if only he be more serious about work, we’d be seeing great results. Tetsuya likes that she thinks he can be such a hero (he’s voiced by Hiyama) and, leaving, figures he’ll try getting Shizuru to psych him up for training.
As Alice calls in the next patient, Tsubaki runs in. Didn’t she just get herself checked? Yes, but she’s not worried about her health – rather, it’s about Alice. Oh, no, did she leave the simulator’s seat scalding again?
Yes, though not as much as before. Still, it seems clear to Tsubaki that she’s having a hard time with Reiji’s strict training regimen. Much as her neural network’s working to rearrange itself to combat, she just lags too badly to execute the required actions properly. Still, it’s needed to speed up the development of the combat side of her AI.
Either way, since Tsubaki’s here, does she know where Kyo’s at? He hasn’t been looking out of sorts lately and hasn’t even gotten checked-up. It might just be a cold but Tsubaki says she’ll keep an eye out for him.
Kyo’s actually by the pool area, asking Iczer-1 if she’s any information on some “ancient ship”. She doesn’t, unfortunately – and the same goes for the mysterious fleet that showed up by the PLANTs. Well, it’s not a whole lot to go on but at least Kyo got a modicum of info on the state of things from her (which he’ll relay to Prof. Shiba and Ishigami).
He thanks her for it, especially considering he was supposed to be telling HER about Earth. Iczer-1 doesn’t mind, of course, hoping to be even a bit useful by herself until Nagisa’s woken up.
Kenji runs in right then, having been looking for Kyo and surprised to see him alone with Iczer-1 here. What’s he up two, huh? Only gathering intel on stuff going on in space. Well, aren’t we diligent. Regardless, Kenji says Alice wants him to come and get himself checked-up.
The message given, Kenji promptly sets off to go and grab something to eat. Iczer-1 is impressed at how energetic he is and, indeed, Kyo says that’s one of the better things about the kid.
Cut back to the Minerva, they’re getting an emergency call from the PLANTs’ Supreme Council: the colony of Junius Seven is on the move and headed towards Earth! But the thing was expected to stay in a stable orbit for over a hundred years... yet, Durandal calls in and says it’s really happening.
How the hell did this happen? Durandal says they’re investigating, theorizing that a meteorite crash or whatever set it in motion, but, whatever the reason, we need to get going right now. The thing’s expected to hit Earth soon, and Durandal figures he needn’t tell a worried Cagalli the damage something of that size would cause.
Shinn isn’t happy to get a massive undertaking like this so soon after they returned from the Frontier, but something must be done. It’ll be impossible to change its trajectory, so Rey says our only option will be to break the thing apart before it crashes. Durandal confirms and says he’s sent a team carrying Meteor Breakers towards the colony – our team must depart immediately and rendezvous with them.
As Talia confirms, Durandal does apologize to Cagalli for getting her involved in yet another mess but he needn’t do so: “this is a serious matter for all of us and if there’s anything I can do to help, I will,” she says. Durandal appreciates the offer but says there isn’t a need for her to get involved right now – he’ll let her know if it comes to that, though.
Athrun, however, speaks up and asks if he couldn’t let him borrow an MS for this. Talia doesn’t think that’s going to fly, what with him being a civilian now, and Shinn readily agrees: who the hell does this guy think he is? Assistant or no, how would anyone lend an MS to a guy that addresses the leader of another nation like it ain’t no thing?!
Athrun understands he’s out of line but says he can’t well sit and watch as this happens.
Durandal turns to Cagalli and requests that Athrun loose the disguise in order to appease Shinn’s concerns. She’s a bit uneasy of doing that but he’s willing to do it, knowing he can’t expect the crew to trust him while so many questions surround him. With that, he takes off his shades and properly identifies himself as Athrun Zala – son of former-Chairman Patrick Zala.
Shinn and Arthur are blown away, though Luna already had an idea. Indeed, Talia says a handful of folks on the ship had apparently realized who he was. Shinn wants to know is why ZAFT’s old ace is with Orb but Rey tells him to drop it. With that cleared, Durandal allows him to take an MS out.
Talia’s still concerned since Athrun’s not really of ZAFT anymore but any extra unit could help with the Meteor Breakers. Combat isn’t expected to happen, either, and if the Darius or Mimetic Beasts are behind this, their status as UN members allows them to cooperate.
Plus, the Frontier’s already agreed to help with this, so having one Earth “civilian” tag along to help won’t ruffle any feathers. Fair enough, so, despite Shinn’s groaning, off they go.
At Ishigami’s office, Reiji’s quite satisfied with the progress our team is making at training – everyone’s results are improving… except for one. He means Ichitaka and, to be honest, the Rushbird is showing itself to be just as problematic. There are just too many unknowns regarding the unit for Reiji to think we should be fielding it.
Ishigami figures fielding it is precisely the way to get some answers and is counting on Reiji to make it work. Fine but, then, could they change the pilots? Alice is hampering the bot’s performance and he doesn’t quite like the idea of waiting until her AI’s sorted itself out to handle it.
Ishigami vetoes that idea as well, saying the report sent to Reiji mentioned how she’s registered as the Rushbird’s starter key. Or is Reiji figuring she’s a liability because she’s a robot? Because that’d be a no-no and, besides, Ishigami doesn’t like the thought of plucking flowers off the battlefield. Fine…
But that’s a talk for later, as Lady Une gets in touch and passes on info on Junius’ Seven incoming drop onto Earth. She’s gotten in touch with the SDF to provide us a shuttle, so LOTUS needs to get up there and help destroy the thing immediately.
As Ishigami orders Yui to call everyone in, Une relates that ZAFT is already trying to deal with the derelict colony, so our job will be to help them make it happen. Failure is not an option as, worst case scenario, it could mean the extinction of mankind!
Mission 6 – The Day the Sky Fell
: Yow, taking a closer look, this thing’s biiiig. (Dearka)
: Of course it is – our people live in these. (Yzak): Sure, but what I meant was that the bigwigs sure gave us one hell of a job, breaking it all down. We’re supposed to handle the whole thing ourselves?: No, it appears the Minerva’s headed our way.
: The Minerva? That ship’s kind of light on crew size, I heard. (Heine): However, only our two groups can respond in time. This isn’t one of those “elite few must prevail against impossible odds” cases.: In that case, maybe you could relax some? We know you’re older and responsible and all that, but come on. If you don’t, maybe I’ll start calling you “Captain Yzak, sir”.: Urgh, fine. This better, Heine?: Much. That’s the ticket, Yzak. *Beep, beep!*
: Got a heat signal incoming – the Minerva’s here.
: This is the Minerva speaking, we’re here to assist in the destruction of Junius Seven.: This is Yzak Joule, captain of the Joule Squad. We appreciate the help!
: Yzak…: You. Weren’t you off at Orb?: Stuff happened and I came aboard along with Orb’s Rep. But, regardless, we need to hurry with the operation right now!: I know that!: Yo, I don’t get a “hey, how you doing” too?: Sorry, Dearka. At least I see you both haven’t changed much.: Right back at you.
: So this is Junius Seven, the abandoned agricultural colony…
: From what I’ve gathered, it’s something of a memorial of a tragedy from the old Great War.
: But we still need to break it down…!: That there’s the famous Macross, right, Yzak? Is it alright for them to be here for this?: Could I ask you for some explanation on this matter, Cpt. Gladys?
: I can tell you myself.: And you are? : Jeffrey Wilder, captain of the Macross Quarter. And if you want to know what’s on our mind, first, we couldn’t stay passive as your homeworld stood on the brink of death; secondly, the Minerva’s helped us several times and we couldn’t live with ourselves if we didn’t answer in kind.: …Very well – I appreciate your assistance. Now, let me explain how the operation will proceed.
: I’m relaying you the coordinates where our engineers installed the Meteor Breakers. We’ll have to make the final calibrations ourselves, so everyone split up and head to each specified area.: Then the Minerva will stand by and prepare for anything going wrong.
: Well, if we just need to make some calibrations then this’ll be over easy.: Watch your ass, still, Alto. There are plenty of debris floating around – you don’t wanna end up dead from one of those.: Yes, sir!: (Here’s hoping it’ll be easy, else what am I still borrowing this “good luck charm” for?)Of course it’ll be easy, we just need to get any units into the marked areas. And we got some new friends – and regular fixtures/often pains-in-the-ass in my LPs:
Slash ZAKU Phantom (Yzak Joule)
Pilot Skills:
Sword Cut
Shoot Down
Shield Defense
Counter
Commander L1
Prevail L3
Support Attack L1
Attack Combo L1
Spirit Commands:
Focus
Invincible
Fighting Spirit
Squad Bonus: Melee weapons’ power +100, armor +100, crit ratio +10
Gunner ZAKU Warrior (Dearka Elsman)
Pilot Skills:
Sword Cut
Shoot Down
Shield Defense
Hit & Away
Support Defense L1
Attack Combo L1
Spirit Commands:
Focus
Snipe
Squad Bonus: Ranged weapons’ power +100, accuracy +5
Blaze ZAKU Phantom (Heine Westenfluss)
Pilot Skills:
Sword Cut
Shoot Down
Shield Defense
Commander L1
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L1
Attack Combo L1
Spirit Commands:
Focus
Alert
Squad Bonus: Mobility and accuracy +5
Three squaddies! Their units aren’t the greatest but they’re certainly capable of taking care of themselves. Yzak’s the in-your-face type and the best pilot of the three, Dearka’s range-specced and Heine’s the all-around guy.
Yzak aside, this is the first time since the W LP that Dearka’s an actually active unit and not a background character due to his VA’s issues with SEED. Not having to fork over a metric crapton of cash to get T.M. Revolution on board means it’s time for Heine to follow in Miguel’s footsteps and be a legit playable character!
Blaze ZAKU Warrior (Athrun Zala)
Pilot Skills:
SEED – activates at 130 morale, granting Accuracy and Evasion +20% and final attack damage +10%.
Sword Cut
Shoot Down
Shield Defense
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L1
Attack Combo L1
Spirit Commands:
Sense
Focus
Accelerate
Squad Bonus: crit ratio +10, melee weapons’ power +10, exp +10%.
We don’t need to wait until we’re 60% through the game for Athrun to remember he has SEED! Huzzah!
Athrun’s more or less tied with Yzak in stats (they go back and forth) but that obviously goes out the window over 130 morale. He’ll make do with that ZAKU but, of course, he needs better if he’s really going to go to town.
Even if you don’t wanna field him, that squad bonus’ll make for a good fit with pretty much anyone.
With our homework done, everyone that can pop Accelerate does and we move forward – you’ll really want to hoof it.
The next player turn…
And we’ve got trouble: several heat signals show up on the radar, a bevy of GINNs, GuAIZ and Taurus showing up. They’re not carrying any IFF and Meyrin detects no other ZAFT ships around, indicating that they might’ve been inside Junius Seven. Were they the ones who got the colony moving, then?
“Stop this! Who the hell are you?!” Yzak yells, dropping his level headed act, and the enemy leader, Sato, simply yells that he won’t allow us to destroy Junius Seven. His group opens fire then and there and Heine spots them making a beeline to the Meteor Breakers.
We won’t be able to carry out the operation without those, so Yzak puts in a call to Talia and Jeffrey: we need to protect the Meteor Breakers, whatever it takes.
Mission objective: Defeat all enemies and secure the Meteor Breakers
Mission failure: Any allied ship, Athrun or Shinn shot down, 3 Meteor Breakers destroyed, any unit holding a Meteor Breaker shot down.
In hindsight, I should’ve plopped the Macross team inside the Quarter to have them get more distance. Regardless, the enemy will be moving in immediately and your biggest concern is the back row of Meteor Breakers – you’ll want to have them capped by Turn 3 or there’s a decent chance the enemies will start wrecking them (the AI won’t prioritize them but you might get an unlucky move).
All that said, this mission isn’t too hard provided you were already moving in. The mooks we’re facing aren’t TOO accurate or bulky – Sato’s the only real threat but not a big one. One thing to keep in mind, though:
Secret Alert! Make sure you capture ALL six Meteor Breakers.
This isn’t really difficult, provided you were already moving in and make liberal use of Accelerate. Do note that, once a unit is atop a Breaker, it won’t be able to move for the rest of the mission and, if it dies, that Breaker is gone as well – so choose people who can handle themselves.
We’ll send Ozma right in the fray to draw the enemy’s attention.
With Alto’s help, it’s an easy kill.
Michel and Luca hop atop the nearby Meteor Breaker, weakening this pair of Tauruses in the process.
: Skull Leader to all troops! Defend those Breakers with your lives!: How many more do we need…?!
Fight a Taurus and Yzak and Dearka see that they’re making moves no human could ever do. Heine figures they’re running the Mobile Doll System, a creation of Blue Cosmos during the previous war.
Arthur remembers that the system was supposed to have been disposed of after the Junius Treaty but Heine figures busting out Mobile Dolls isn’t much of a surprise coming from a group willing to do something like this.
So, Kenichi summarizes, we’re dealing with drones? Yep, and a whole lot more flexible than Dearka’s CO, he says. Luca sees a parallel with their Ghosts, meaning their movements should follow similar patterns.
These are looking like old models and they’re not doing too well against us; that said, Luca warns that might change as they start learning about how we fight. We should get rid of them quick before it gets to that point.
Rey doubts puppets could give us pause and Yzak agrees: we can’t flinch over these things because our mission hasn’t changed at all.
Kenichi and Klan both pick a weakened target and take it out, the Super headed to the NE Breaker.
Down south, Yzak sets ahead to spread that command aura.
: I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let you drop Junius Seven on Earth! That’s our mother planet too!--
: When it rains, it pours, huh…! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNFdbh275dM
Damn it, Dearka, that was 85%!
Fine. As Athrun plants himself atop the southernmost Breaker, Rey does a chain-attack to both finish the survivor and weaken his squaddie.
: Alright, that’s good! Keep securing those Meteor Breakers!: Roger!
Heine’s also got a command aura, so he sets ahead.
: You’re up, ZAKU Phantom. Show us all how different you are from GINNs and GuAIZs!
Not a kill but whatever – Shinn takes it.
Enemy Phase!
The Quarter’s high HP makes it catnip to the AI and Jeffrey tanks Sato and three others like it’s nothing.
Ah, a cheap kill for Kenichi.
That’s one for him, one for Shinn down south.
Player Phase!
LOTUS arrives on the scene and Ichitaka’s rather worried if we’re actually capable of breaking up this hunk of stone. No way around it, thinks Juzo, as the thing dropping on Earth would really mess the place up. Hyouma and Daiya look on ahead, confused as to why ZAFT units are fighting each other.
Une’s commanding the operation from the shuttle that got us over and Reiji posits the actual ZAFT guys are battling terrorists. He suggests we get in touch with the Minerva to get things sorted out quickly and Une’s already on it.
She and Talia seemingly know each other and the captain is grateful for our support. Lady Une does apologize for the UN’s tardy response, but it’s not like ZAFT wasn’t also blindsided by this – as shown by their lack of options, outside of dispatching these units over.
Now, Talia gives us a quick rundown on the terrorists, which she figures are Coordinator Extremists, judging by their units, trying to destroy the Meteor Breakers and Une passes it all along to Reiji.
We need to wreck these guys and keep those Meteor Breakers safe. Off we go.
Letting Ichitaka get downed is also a game over but that’s not too likely, what with his bulkiness. Before we carry on, we never quite looked at our new team leader:
Vardant (Reiji Moritsugu)
Pilot Skills:
Factor (ファクター)
Sword Cut
Shoot Down
Shield Defense
Counter
Predict
Commander L1
Prevail L3
Support Attack L1
Attack Combo L2
Spirit Commands:
Focus
Sense
Mercy
Squad Bonus: crit ratio +10, 15% chance to dodge attacks.
Reiji, as you might expect, is pretty good: one of those typical A- units, who can take lead if you so desire, but won’t be among your top bots. The Vardant’s dodgy, somewhat resilient and with some decent firepower, though it is severely lacking in range (1-3 is the best it has) since it’s all about swords, swords, swords.
Reiji’s skills and squad bonus gives him some nice dodginess for survivability and that’s not even going into the Factor skill – something I completely glossed over when dealing with the previous JUDA Factors.
See, all Machina pilots have a unique D-S.O.I.L. stat under their morale and it relates to the Factor skill: the higher the number, the more the Machina will auto-heal. The regen % is calculated via the formula “(D-S.O.I.L./2)-20”, meaning that, at 76, Reiji’ll recover 18% HP per turn. The D-S.O.I.L. caps at 140, where the Machina’ll be regenning 50%.
Finally, the D-S.O.I.L’s value at the start of a mission is calculated via the formula “pilot’s base value + (level/10)”; hit or down an enemy, it goes up by 1, miss is a -1, getting hit is +2 and dodging does nothing.
Here are the base values for our Factors:
Miu and Izuna = 60
Yamashita = 65
Reiji = 75
Now math time is done, I’ll be parking Kenji over here – he’ll still be able to attack plenty with his Jeeg Bazooka.
: We’ve confirmation that the required amount of Meteor Breakers has been secured!: Then we should be in the clear… though it’s still too early to party!: We don’t know what might be waiting down the road, so try to secure as many of the remaining Breakers as can be!
We’ll do that in a bit – Reiji has stuff to kill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn2I1sW34Cc
Alright.
Heine takes the N Breaker, while Kenichi covers the very last one (with Iron Wall, just to be safe).
: All of the Meteor Breakers are under our control!: Excellent job, troops. Now clear out the remaining hostiles!