Part 28: Mission 9 (Retreat Route) - Operation Carnival - Part 2

Well, so much for Ranka’s debut. But, hey, at least she’s not being hunted down by a robo ninja in this game.
Priority is still the Alliance mooks as a bunch of them can reach the finish line by their next move.



: Did they chase the Minerva all the way here or are they after the Chairman…? But whichever one it is, we’ll defend this base to the death!






Bam.



One for Rey, one for Lulu.



Her Flame gets stronger after that!



The Windam leading this team was summarily shot down by Heine. Its squaddie immediately follows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPyw8n7e93I
By the by, a carryover from K is that pretty much everything but a couple of Daiya’s attacks have a dynamic kill. Someone at Banpresto really liked Gaiking LOD (as they should).



Kills for Tetsuya and Jun, Boss and Hyouma.



No more nearby threats to Diokia.



Ichitaka and Zechs’ll handle the last pair of Murasames, while Ozma (just in case) takes the lone Vajra that started all this.



: Alto… I swear to all that’s holy, if anything happens to Ranka…!

: These are two numerous to be stragglers from the flock that attacked the Galaxy…
: And that red unit… it looked like YF-27, so I should probably get in touch with company headquarters again.












Alright.



Enemy Phase!



Shinn and Lulu get harassed by the Zamza-Zahs, hitting back with varying degrees of pain. One gets too close to Kenichi and Canaria, though, and is gunned down.



Excellent.



On the other side, Zechs and Ichitaka are holding the line just fine against the little Vajra.



Player Phase!



Following a big hit from Lulu, Heine moves in.






Luna and Rey handle the Gells.



Right on time.



And Trowa’s deciding to be a dick, Support Defending mooks that I could easily kill. Time to get rid of him.



Let’s see how you like this!








And he’s very dead. I’ll make a video of this when I use it against something that won’t cheat me out of a DK…!


He figures he’s fought enough that no one’ll suspect him. The issue now is finding where Relena’s at.



By the Vajra, Ichitaka and Jeffrey each take a kill – the latter gets Invincible.



Next.












Ozma and Luca nab a nearby pair too.

And now this is pretty much clean up. The Alliance mooks are too far away to stand a chance at making touchdown and the Vajra are too frail to withstand my everything.

Cliffs notes!























https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmCmtXi9xAA
“Anyone who doesn’t wanna die has one second to get out my sight!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld9cxRV4OUQ
Everything the Gaiking does is so satisfying.









https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfw23yE-ibk
Zechs’ strongest weapon here, since I could.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x01OAMYzKw
Also since I could: FAAAAAACE OPEN!

And that’s the end of that!



As for Alto, Monica pings him bogged down by the red Valkyrie and unable to pursue the Vajra.



*Brera flies around, Alto TRYING to keep up.*

: Pull yourself together, Alto! You’re not flying like you usually do!



: Hmph, child’s play.
: Damn it, Ranka’s gonna get away!
: “Ranka this, Ranka that”… is it just about her? May I remind you that our mission was to protect a base filled with people! Have all these battles been just a secondary concern to you?!
: Screw you, Michel! It’s never been anything of the sort!
: Hmhmhm… Too slow.



: Urk!
: Keep him still, Alto! I can’t get a bead on him…!
: Shut up! I know!



: !!
: That’s it! Keep him right there and I’ll end it!
: Stand down! If I can catch him, then I can do this myself!
: Hah, just let me handle it. Be it with women or bullets, I always hit a bulls-eye.

*Rifle charging!*

: (Sis… I…)





: …?!
: My right engine?! Michel! The hell are you doing shooting me?!
: All that talk and you screw it up?! Or was that on purpose?!
: Hrk… Of course it wasn't!
: …

*Brera gets his Valkyrie up straight and blasts away.*



: Damn it, Ranka! RANKAA!!
: …



Things aren’t doing too good now. The Quarter and Daiku Maryu are trying to figure out where the Vajra flew off to before going after, and Durandal offers to personally accompany us and help since he feels somewhat responsible for what happened.
Jeffrey tells him not to as it was only thanks to his efforts that the civs were mostly unharmed, but he still says we’d have had a much simpler time dealing with the Vajra if the Alliance hadn’t turned up around here. Plus, it was he who invited the Frontier guests over in the first place.

Speaking of, Sheryl runs in in a panic, having just heard what happened to Ranka. She slowly grunts at Jeffrey that she’s fine enough, and rather angry at Alto for letting the girl get kidnapped under his nose. He should be coming in soon, so she tumbles off to the hangar.
Still, Durandal says he and Lacus are as worried as Sheryl and hopes that Jeffrey'll allow them to help. Furthermore, he’d also like to speak with Heine a bit.



Ichitaka and Alice confirm that both Alto and Michel are doing fine – Hiyoshi was more than a bit worried at how he’d cope if those two ended up dead. Still, Tetsuya reports that they lost those Vajra due to the red Valkyrie.
So much for Alto’s unauthorized rescue mission, Puria sighs… but Daiya figures we’ll manage to get Ranka back as our ships are already tracking the buggers down. Granted, Ozma is beside himself with worry in the meantime.



A bit later, Michel and Alto have returned and the former isn’t doing too good. Klan tells him to keep his chin up as it’s only a matter of time before we figure out where Ranka’s at. It’s not the Ranka business that’s gotten him down, though, but that friendly fire incident – Klan only needed to take a look at the hole in Alto’s VF-25 to have an idea of what happened.
Speaking of Alto, Luca’s trying and failing to keep him from immediately getting in Michel’s face: “What the hell was with that shot?! Are you trying to get me killed?!” Michel says nothing, and Alto doesn’t appreciate the silent treatment – say something, damn it!
Luca tries arguing that it’s only human to make miss a shot or two but Alto’s not one bit interested in losing his life over one; besides, the guy doesn’t “miss”! Didn’t Michel always go on and on about how he got his “sniper sense” from his sister? Or, maybe, screwing up’s the only thing that’s in his blood?!

Michel snaps at that and straight up punches Alto. It falls on Ichitaka, Hyouma and Daisaku to break it off, but Alto isn’t having it: “Lemme go! If he’d just kept his head together, Ranka wouldn’t…!”
Things stop when Ozma runs in and punches both men – what the hell is fighting one another going to achieve? Tetsuya joins in, asking if Alto thinks he’s the only one here who wants to save Ranka. Did he ever stop to think of how hard Ozma’s struggling to keep his personal feelings in check, not just today but also during the movie shoot battle?



Sheryl stumbles in right then and she seems to be taking a turn for the worse. Still, she tells Alto that he needs to save Ranka before crumbling to the ground. Alice yells that she shouldn’t be walking around in her condition; and despite what she might say, Alice’s sensors pick up several problems with her: excessively low temperature, fatigue and more.
She calls up Canaria, who says they’ve got plenty of room to take Sheryl in, so Alice lifts the indignant singer up and carries her away. Michel’s taking off as well, telling Ozma that he’s going to do some training and make sure he doesn’t screw up again. That’s fine, but Ozma wants him to take a few people with.
Heine’s looking on, sighing that he won’t be leaving the Quarter on a lighter atmosphere. Wait, what? See, Durandal’s requested that he transfer over to the Minerva to supplement its dwindling forces – they’ve no flight lead now that Athrun’s lost his Savior. Still, he very much enjoyed working with us, short-lived as that might’ve been.

Kouji tells him not to get so bummed out – it ain’t like him – and figures, when things with the Alliance settle down, the PLANTs will likely join up with LOTUS. Heine confirms that Durandal said the same, but whether or not he himself’ll get back with us is a different story. He’d very much prefer to be dealing with the Jama Kingdom and Cthulhu and whatnot, mind, and Daiya figures we’ll see each other again as it comes to that.
Well, Heine would’ve liked to give everyone a proper farewell, but this doesn’t quite look like the best time for that. He merely asks them pass a message to Alto: “don’t let love blind you to your duty.”



By the Quarter’s firing range, Michel’s missing a whole lot; Ippei sees that he’s not himself and asks what happened. Well, how familiar is Ippei with his personal history? Not much – no one would even gossip much about him. Klan sees where this is going and asks if it’s about Jessica.
Michel says absolutely not – he’s just been going to bed by himself lately and that’s made him all lonely and whatnot. Maybe Klan would care to come on over tonight and remedy that? No one buys his story and Ippei asks how that Jessica fits in Michel’s past. Ippei can’t even look at him right now – he’s looking even worse than after that time they fought.
Still, Michel asks them to quit meddling in his business, as they’re not helping him calm down. Juzo argues that we can’t just ignore him, either, but Klan takes a more pragmatic approach of calling him and idiot and punching him. Even micronized, her fists still hurt plenty…



Some time later, back at the hangar, Alto’s staring at Sheryl’s earring – it’s already been a while since he “borrowed” it. His train of thought’s interrupted when Ranka’s Aimo starts playing through the thing!



Cut to the bridge, he’s just told them about it; Alto’s sure he heard Ranka’s voice and it wasn’t just his mind playing tricks. Her song was seemingly coming from a specific direction and Luca’s pinged faint Fold Waves being emitted that way. Do you think that’s…?
A call comes in from Japan’s SDF right then: it’s our friend Igarashi and he reports that one of their patrols just found the beasties we were looking for. It’s a flock of Vajra about west-southwest of the Okinotori Islands and their numbers, varieties and signals correspond to those that emerged at Diokia.
Seems like we have our target, so Jeffrey commands the Quarter and Daiku Maryu to go after.