Part 18: Mission 9 - The Star of La Mu, Targeted
The Medius’ operator lady reports to Mitall that AI1's education is proceeding without a hitch, and will soon be ready to go to level 3. As for “those two”, she says both are getting progressively better at handling the Garmraid.
That being said, she figures there’s always a chance that Hugo could figure out “his” identity, Mitall will come under a lot of suspicion. He retorts that it matters not what Hugo thinks of him - he's got no choice but to obey if he wants to keep receiving his medicine.
“I’ve read the reports. That medicine he’s taking is quite hazardous, no?” the woman asks. “I’m well aware. Regardless, he can’t survive without it – that’s just how his body is,” Mitall says.
Mitall then asks her if she’d be fine if Aqua found out her true identity, to which she responds that she intends to keep it hidden a while longer. That being said, she’s well aware that emotional control is a major weakness of the girl, so this could be make for a good card to play at the appropriate time.
Mitall is amused by her treating everyone else as mere objects that can be useful or not. Then again, he’s not going to deny that he’s the same way.
When the woman asks, Mitall relates how the Tsentr Project is to be slightly behind schedule, but the frames for machines 8 and 9 are about finished. Everything else will depend on when he gets the material.
What about the Federal investigation regarding the Medius’ theft? Mitall has a contact in the Committee helping with that – it won’t be a problem.
Finally, the woman has a request: she figures the subjects available for AI1 to learn from are too limited due to their solo mission and wants to change that. What, does she figure the Nahel Argama, bearing the strongest fighting force of the Federation, isn’t good enough?
That’s not what she said but she still wants to maximize the number of sources AI1 can learn from. Fine, Mitall agrees to have the variants of units #1 and #2 readied for her to use – the army won’t notice that.
Furthermore, he’s taken the time to establish some contacts with the Giganos. If need be, he can have the Medius assigned to work with them to collect more varied data. And with that, the woman thanks him and bids farewell.
Location: Mutropolis
We find Johji Futagami, visiting the place – he’s a reporter and has some questions for Prof. Hibiki. For instance, is he familiar with the recently executed Operation Overlord? Hibiki says no but Johji isn’t buying it: the professor’s often helped TERRA study the MU, so he should have been informed of the operation, no?
Hibiki shrugs that he wouldn’t, since he’s a civilian collaborator, but Johji keeps pressing on. He’s read Hibiki’s work regarding Devil Empire’s Fossil Beasts and the Dolems, research that was obviously useful for TERRA’s endeavors, and yet the guys didn’t care to tell him anything? Now that’s just rude.
Hibiki doesn’t like being put on the spot and asks him to get to the point. Fair enough, Johji tells him of rumors he’s heard of a mysterious giant mech emerging from within Tokyo Jupiter during Operation Overlord – one that bears some similarities to Raideen. Hibiki says that Raideen hasn't sortied for several days and, when asks, adds there’s been nothing strange happening to it.
Johji doesn’t buy it, and Hibiki knows it, but he lets it slide. One last question, then: where is Hibiki’s wife, Reiko? The professor sighs that she died in the final battle against the Devil Empire. Johji apologizes for his disrespectful question but, inwardly, Hibiki wonders why this guy knows about her – despite his claims at being a simple reporter, there’s obviously more to him.
The alarm sounds right then and Higashiyama yells that some unknown objects are approaching Mutropolis. Is it “them”, Hibiki wonders, causing Johji’s ears to perk up. Does “them” mean the MU?
But, no, Higashiyama says it’s something different this time. Regardless, he’s already got in touch with the Federation and the Nahel Argama should arrive soon. Until they do, he’ll be sending Akira and Mari out to run defense.
The Star of La Mu, Targeted
: Just who are these guys…?!
: (Whose units are these…? At the very least I know they’re not Bähbem’s but…)
: Mari, reinforcements will be here soon! Just hold the line until then!: Aye, aye!
: We don’t know what the enemy’s after so be very careful!: OK! And where’s Akira?: He’ll be with you shortly!
: RAIDEEEEEEEN!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0QUzNW-ECg
: (Ah, enter the guardian deity of the Mu Empire…) : (But unlike the battle with the Devil Empire, the 5-A’s in the outside world now… I’m very eager to see what the Bähbem Foundation will do.): We’re closing Mutropolis’ shell! Good luck to you both, Mari, Akira!
: You got it!
: Here we go!Now this is a nice rest for all the crazy stuff in the last mission, huh? And we’ve got more Akira Kamiya, which is always nice!
Bluger (Mari Sakurano)
Pilot Skills:
- Tenacity – activates at 120 morale, casts Gain at the start of every turn
- Unyielding Spirit
- Support Defense L1
- Bless (35)
- Trust (25)
- Cheer (20)
- Focus (15)
- Repair Module
- Resupply Module
Pretty much a pure supporter and a good one at that. Knowing Bless, Cheer and Focus right off the bat is a very nice way to claim herself a spot in a team – just give her some SP Regen and she’ll be good to go. The Bluger is S sized and sports S ratings in Air and Space, meaning it’ll dodge pretty reliably (as usual, not TFO level) and her Tenacity skill means she’ll be easier than most to keep leveled up.
Raideen/God Bird (Akira Hibiki)
Pilot Skills:
- Telekinesis – restores 20% of max SP every turn(!)
- Sword Cut L1
- Shield Defense L2
- Support Attack L1
- Focus (15)
- Strike (20)
- Alert (10)
Oh, baby, I had completely forgotten about his Telekinesis skill. It plus his 88 SP means he’ll recover either 16 or 18 SP per turn (I don’t know if it rounds up or down) which already means he can have Focus going nonstop.
Normally that’d mean that the Raideen would have the defenses of a wet paper bag but this is MX – our units are ranked either “powerful as fuck” or “broken as fuck”… and the low tier ZZ units. Regardless, the Raideen has that sweet shield/barrier combo that RahXephon had, meaning it’s way tankier than normal and it’ll dodge a bit reliably with some upgrades.
Akira’s, of course, a great pilot at both melee and ranged attacks and the Raideen’s as strong as you’d expect a protagonist Super to be. Curiously, the God Bird doesn’t face the same issue as Duke’s Spazer – it’s strongest attack IS Raideen’s strongest, so you don’t lose out on power. The only flaw is that the bird has less range and is limited to EN attacks. It does have more movement, though.
No enemies are in range, so everyone moves forward.
Enemy Phase!
And they all close in as well.
Player Phase!
The Argama arrives right then and Akira’s quick to tell
As everyone deploys, Aqua is a bit startled by the enemies present – she figures she’s seen them before but can’t quite put her finger on it. To be specific, they only partially resemble whatever she remembers. Is she just imagining things?
Johji meanwhile is a bit surprised that the EVAs were assigned to our group. Quite the bold move from NERV’s folks – a ploy to draw attention away from themselves, maybe?
Mission Objective: Destroy all enemies
Mission Failure: The Nahel Argama, Raideen or God Gundam shot down.
at these buggers even getting close to downing any of those three units.
Let’s get to work with GOOOODO GOOOOGANNNNN.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-ErFQDTRhw
Insert Pacha image over here.
FYI, many Japanese pages I visited have the weapon’s name as Gogun/Go-gun – the idea is that it’s a play on bow gun. It comes from having the first bit replaced with Raideen’s usual God- prefix. So, it’s God + Bow Gun = Go-gun.
Hayato and Beecha keep the ball rolling, oneshotting their respective Tergums.
Until Iino disappoints me…
That’s fine. Shinji can take care of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoilUSRE8BY
FUNSAI! GYOKUSAI! DAIKASSAI!
… Oh, yeah, I never took a gander at the new kids.
EVA-01 (Shinji Ikari)
Pilot Skills:
- Sword Cut L1
- Support Attack L1
- Support Defense L1
- Assisted Attack L1
- Strike (15)
- Alert (10)
- Accelerate (5)
- A.T. Field
- Umbilical Cable
- Berserk – suffice to say that the mech gets cranky when it’s destroyed.
Shinji’s like Asuka, only not as good. You’re stuck with him as the protagonist, though, so we might as well make a capable fighter out of the kid. Luckily, the EVA is pretty good: strong, has good range and even kept the Positron Sniper Rifle to use as a MAPW. It’s as bulky as you’d expect… until something can pop his A.T. Field reliably, then it’ll turn flimsy. When dealing with bosses, have him always be protected by Alert or some Support Defense.
Standard SP Regen (to help him get more Strike casts, what with his crap accuracy) and Attacker are priorities as always. After that, you’ll probably want B-Save, Infight or even Prevail if you’d like to boost his survivability.
Oh, and fair warning, the EVAs are expensive as HELL to repair: 40k for the 01, 20k for the 00, 24k for the 02, so that’s another reason to keep a close eye on them.
Pilot Skills:
- Sword Cut L1
- Support Attack L1
- Support Defense L1
- Concentration – reduce the cost of spirit commands by 20%
- Alert (8)
- Focus (12)
- A.T. Field
- Umbilical Cable
For someone “born to pilot an EVA”, she’s not very good at it. Rei’s an overall worse pilot than Shinji and the EVA-00 ends up as the weakest of them all. Its saving grace, right now, is that it can use the Positron Sniper Rifle as both a regular and MAP weapon making it tied with the 01 for the heaviest hitter… but that will change and then it’ll fall behind.
Were this a game with squads, she’d be a good squaddie but over here? No.
Keep her slightly leveled up because plot might dictate her to deploy but, otherwise, I say it’s straight to the bench. Asuka and Shinji can more than easily fill the EVA quota in our team.
With that tangent done, Domon kills the last Tergum.
There isn’t time to rest after the enemies are dead, with Torres detecting several signals coming from underground. Soon, the the Death Army emerges.
Rain does not detect any heat signatures of the actual Devil Gundam and Domon is left wondering what the hell they could be here for. “Hahaha! It figures you wouldn’t get it, Japanese!” says a voice.
It’s Chibodee Crockett and the hulking Argo Gulskii, more members of the Shuffle Alliance. Kaine remembers the doppelgangers of Sai and George from before and Chibodee sees that trying that stunt again wouldn’t do them any good.
So, they won’t beat around the bush: “We are DG Cell clones of the Shuffle Alliance members. Same deal as Schwarz Bruder, the duplicate of your brother Kyoji.”
Unfortunately, a year ago, Domon destroyed any data that could be used to clone Schwarz and Master Asia (
) but it’s a simple matter to clone the currently-existing members of the Shuffle Aliance. Rain asks who’s behind this mess but, of course, they’re not telling.Furthermore, Chibodee says that, unlike an defective clone like Schwarz, they're perfect, unflinching soldiers – far better than the originals.
: Don’t make me laugh!
: !!: You may have mimicked their faces and strength… but you haven’t the crest or the soul of the Shuffle Alliance! That makes you no better than sock puppets! The likes of you could never surpass Chibodee and Argo!: Hah! But we’ve a power you haven’t – the DG Cells that tormented you and your brother!
: Kyoji… Schwarz… Master… the three of them and myself went through hell because of those, and I will not let you put anyone else through that!: Hahahaha! Good on you, good on you. But you oughta know, Japanese, that even greater pain than before is waiting for you all!
: !
: That’s right… a crisis that can’t even be compared to what happened a year ago…!
: …!: Shut your mouths! You disgrace the Shuffle name with every breath and I’m ending you myself!: Come on! GUNDAM FIGHT…!!: Easy there. We didn’t come all the way here to tangle with you.: Hm?! What are you after, then?!: That would be… the Star of La Mu.
: !
: Why would they want that…?!
: To get Mutron Energy under their control, maybe…?!
: (If that’s true, then the one behind this is… Oh, boy, this’ll be getting a whole lot more complicated…)
: What are you going to do with the Star of La Mu?!: You don’t need to know any of that.: All you have to do is hand over the Star, nice and quiet.: No way! I swore to my mother, when she died, that I’d use Mutron Energy for good!!: Then we’re just gonna have to take it from you!
And there we have it. Faux Argo and Chibodee aren’t really a problem – Domon could probably solo them both. One thing at a time, though.
This’ll be over quick.
Vega and Kaine take another Death Army, while Hugo harnesses his rage to oneshot a Death Birdy.
Enemy Phase!
Speaking of Vega, I did give her a flying bike.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_Sj8AiLZ1k
Being in the air doesn’t stop her from popping wheelies. Another zombie tries her and gets oneshotted by a missile crit.
Player Phase!
Shinji finishes what Vega started.
We haven’t seen any of Hayato’s moves yet, so let’s get this one out of the way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_gCIXb4gfM
Just enough.
Holy hell, that’s an absurd amount of damage from a piddly flying saucer. Also, I put an EWAC (Weak) on the TFO to give an added 15% accuracy/evasion bonus around it.
Forward!
Being plugged to the Argama means the EVAs don’t need to worry about abusing their A.T. Fields.
Light finishes the job.
After Kaine preps a bird, Tap moves over.
And there it goes.
Keep ‘em coming.
Good man.
The remaining mooks will kill themselves on us during their turn, so let’s get to work on the clones.
: You really are children to just come and try to face me… You don’t see the different between our powers, it seems.
: Zip it! I’d never lose to some counterfeit Argo Gulskii!!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS68R3-8LEQ
Hokuto’s using Iron Wall.
Again, I don’t care to have Decisive Battle as my standard BGM. So, I’m replacing it with that I used as Shinji’s custom BGM in Z3.
This instrumental, and many others, was made by Yukiuki in Nico, so you can head over there for some others.
: E-Even my A.T. Field might not last for long against someone as strong as him…!
: Ikari…!: What’s wrong, boy? If you’re not attacking, then I am!
: Hand over the Star of La Mu if you value your lives.: Not happening! I won’t let Mutron Energy end up as your toy!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryYK4irp55c
GOOOOODO ALPHAAAAAAAA! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAI!
: Who’s ordering you two around?!: If you want to know, ask me with your fists… Heheheh, that’s what you guys would say, no?: You worm…!
Argo just yells and blows up.
Oh, I suppose I could use Rei’s Positron Sniper Rifle to kill the last bird. Get this out of the way while I still have room for her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhHM-BW5owE
: The Shuffle Alliance are my heroes! You’ve got a lot of stones insulting them like that, bastard!: Hah, what a wide-eyed kid we got here! Well, you just won yourself a prize: a way stronger punch than my original could ever do!
: The Mutron Energy is not something you could use properly!
: And you think we care?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtIkIxfhJmE
: Who made you? Who’s behind all this?! Answer me!: I told you, didn’t I, Japanese? That’s none of your business!
Light needed a wee bit of exp to catch up. And I forgot to have Shinji attack Chibodee:
: …: What’s up, boy? You pissin’ yourself in that cockpit?
: What’re you doing, Shinji?! Don’t take a guy like him seriously for even a second and he’ll pick up a lot of steam! : You’re pretty feisty, eh, girl? Stay there for a sec… after I’ve finished this kid here, I’m coming after you!
”
Argo is worth a High-Spec Sight (accuracy +30). Chibodee is worth a Screw Module (equipped unit gets A rank in water).
And there go all enemies. Akira’s in one piece but can’t stop wondering why the Death Army wants the Star of La Mu.
Johji’s impressed with the Nahel Argama – we really are as strong as the rumor’s say. He decides to take off before his cover is blown.
“Is there some hope left inside Pandora’s Box, I wonder?”
Higashiyama thanks Bright for the assist but, of course, that’s not necessary. He does want to know more about that Star of La Mu, though. Hibiki explains the Star is a relic of the Mu Empir, and both the source of the Mutron super-energy and a device for unleashing it.
He tells Bright to think of it as the "soul" of Mutron Energy (which Vega thinks sounds much like some other object she knows of) but Misato wants to know in concrete terms what it can do. Hibiki says that while the entirety of Mutron Energy has yet to be explained, it caused Raideen to grow massive in the final battle against Barao of the Devil Empire, enabling it to be victorious. Ergo, Hibiki thinks it holds tremendous power.
This whole giant-ification reminds Misato of a “giant of light” that she saw at the South Pole way back when. As for why the Argo and Chibodee clones would be after it, Rain figures they want to use the Star to fuel the revival of the Devil Gundam – if it holds as much power as Hibiki said, it might be possible to use the Mutron Energy to supercharge the DG Cells.
And what if the Devil Gundam takes the Star of La Mu as a power source? It’d grow FAR more powerful than before. Vega asks where the thing currently is and Hibiki says sealed away somewhere by his late wife, who’d reawakened as Lemuria, princess of the Mu Empire.
Mind, he doesn’t know WHERE she sealed it – only that it’s not here. Vega seems bothered.
Ryouma and Akira are getting reacquainted, with him being thankful for our help. Par for the course, thinks Ryouma, seeing how they helped each other in their past battles.
Asuka steps over to meet with Raideen’s pilot and, also, introduces herself as the EVA-02’s owner. Akira’s a bit taken aback, seeing how she’s just a kid and, of course, Asuka doesn’t like that: “What’s that supposed to mean, huh? And you’re about my age, are you not?! Kids don’t get to treat others like kids, kid!” (Yes, Akira’s 15-years-old)
Shinji tries salvaging this first encounter but she just yells at him to shut it. Akira, meanwhile, laughs at this: “A cute face and a really sharp tongue. You’re pretty much another Mari.”
Now it’s Mari’s turn to get in his face and Asuka isn’t placated either – saying she’s cute doesn’t excuse anything else!
As Akira sighs, Shinji sees that they both have similar problems to deal with; he takes the time to properly introduce himself. Regardless, Akira IS pretty surprised to find that folks around his age are piloting the Evangelions.
That surprise doubles when Kouji tells him of the Dendoh’s grade schooler pilots – he and Mari are high schoolers, and Kouji quietly figures Aqua would get depressed again if she heard that.
Shinji asks Akira why he ended up fighting in Raideen, and after a pause Akira tells him that a year ago when the Devil Empire appeared he heard a voice calling him: "Awaken, hero - thy destined time is come."
After that, he started fighting the Devil Empire’s fossil beasts with the bot. “I was very unsure at first but… that was the fate I was given,” he says. Shinji seems bothered by this fate talk.
Regardless, Akira and Mari will be taking this opportunity to join our crew – Ryouma’s glad to have him aboard.
: So?
: There’s no corresponding data but the six-legged units we fought are definitely Earth-made. Problem is, figuring out the manufacturer from just the fragments we recovered is… yeah.: I see…
: Ms. Aqua, didn’t you say something about those machines reminding you of something? 
: Yeah. I’ve brought some data, just to make sure…*Beep.*
: What’s this?: The very first prototype developed by our project.: Is it a TE Absorber, then?: No, models #1 through #5, the Medius, weren’t equipped with a TE Engine.: Hmm… Yeah, I see it. The legs, for instance, of those units are similar to this Model #1’s.: But the Model #1’s long gone by now… And the fact so many of them showed up is just as weird.: The lone prototype’s been mass-produced, you think?: For what reason, then…?: (Was it Prof. Zapato… Rather, the Medius’ thieves who sent those things?)