Part 29: Mission 17 (Chongqing Route) - Gilgilgan, the Terrifying Space Monster
We open back in the Skull Moon Base, and King Vega isn't pleased with Gandal over how the plans to take over the Earth are entirely behind schedule. Gandal apologizes profusely, arguing that dealing with the Grendizer has been difficult and, to make thing worse, there’s the Gulfer showing up…
The King doesn’t want excuses: there’s little time remaining for them. Radiation from the Vegatron ore is wrecking the empire’s homeworld faster than anticipated. Thus, Gandal must wrap up the situation here and conquer Earth ASAP.
King Vega tells Gandal that he'll send him a Gilgilgan, and orders him to use it to wipe out everyone standing in his way; he signs off, awaiting his positive report.
Balendos figures the situation is drastic, indeed, if the King’s sending that thing over. He’s heard stories of the Gilgilgan: a space monster captured in the past, feared from planet to planet. It’s strength is said to match even that of something called “Ragou”, which the Gulfer themselves captured.
Regardless, this is a direct order from King Vega so they MUST succeed. Bracky begs to be given command of this operation, confirming (with a stutter) that he can handle the Gilgilgan. He wants to make up for his past screw-ups and Gandal allows it.
And we’re changing our route to Chongqing. We’ve just received intel that the Giganos are on the move in northern China; Douglas figures the battle at Sai’s temple drew their attention.
So, in the interest of avoiding them, we’ll be taking the Yangtze River route.
A wee bit later, back at the bridge, Megumi reports an urgent call coming in right then, from the Federation’s Hangzhou base: the Vegans are attacking around Shanghai!
Have they decided to postpone their offensive in the well-equipped Japan… or are they attempting to draw us out, Haruka wonders? Daisuke figures it’s the latter as, judging from their past actions, the Vegans’ first objective is to crush antagonistic elements like ourselves.
Megumi relates how an unknown, enormous creature is taking part in the attack and wrecking the Feds. It’s not a saucerbeast, so Daisuke wonders if it’s another demonic beast like the Grangen – not something regular mooks can handle, that’s for sure.
Daisuke requests Bright that we head over there but Douglas reminds that his crew’s top priority is getting the Dragonars delivered – they can afford to waste time. Daisuke doesn’t like his idea that this is a waste of time but Douglas argues that we’re not the only squadron taking part in this conflict. If everyone decides to start acting not for their assigned mission but on their whims, the entire course of the war could go astray.
Daisuke threatens to go alone with his team if need be, and after a moment Bright orders our whole force to battle stations.
In Shanghai, the defense forces are already gone, so Bracky urges the Gilgilganto wreck the place and devour its metal. As it does, a mook reports units on high speed approach: two units.
Bracky figures it’s the Grendizer and Mazinger and is glad to see that they’ve accept his “invitation”. Actually, no, it’s another two units.
Tetsuya and Jun! Bracky’s shocked to see the Great Mazinger as Balendos said it was in the robot museum. Tetsuya figured leaving it there would only risk others trying to steal it again, so he decided it was better to grab it and get back into action.
Bracky wrings his hands, saying Tetsuya coming here will only mean his death – a threat Tetsuya throws right back at him. Jun argues that their mission here is to simply buy time for the Federation troops to evac the area. Tetsuya, however, refuses to flee in any way. If they don’t destroy the Vegan troops now, it’ll mean more damage to the town.
This isn’t what Bracky expected but the Great Mazinger’s Super Alloy Nu-Z and photon energy will make for some fine food for the Gilgilgan. They back away to let the monster get to it, though Tetsuya tells Jun that the priority is destroying the thing first.
Great Mazinger (Tetsuya Tsurugi)
Pilot Skills:
- Prevail L4
- Sword Cut L2
- Support Attack L1
- Counter L3
- Strike (15)
- Iron Wall (30)
- Gain (20)
- Invincible (10)
Take everything I said about Kouji and apply here, only with a boost in ranged offense and a slight decrease in defense. The Great Mazinger’s also a very strong, hardy Super and it has so many combined attacks. Unless you’re set on benching all the Toei bots, there’s no reason not to field him.
Venus A (Jun Honoo)
Pilot Skills:
- Prevail L3
- Support Attack L1
- Support Defense L1
- Cheer (25)
- Trust (15)
- Strike (20)
- Iron Wall (25)
Maria, tank spec. Jun’s the hardier of the support girl archetypes and has pretty much the best offensive stats of the bunch. Still doesn’t make her good, as the Venus A sucks, but there you have it.
Let’s get to it.
: Damned lizard! You’ll help me get warmed up!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-weCwGyw3g
And this is our first instance of an actual Poison debuff! At the start of every turn, it’ll chip away 10% of the unit’s max HP.
Not too big but it lasts a couple of turns.
Off goes Jun to finish the job.
: This is the space monster Prof. Saotome spoke of…?!
The monster falls limp on the ground and Tetsuya sighs that it didn’t even serve as practice to get him back in the game. Is it really finished? Yup, it’s not moving and all that.
The Nahel Argama shows up and Kouji’s very glad to see Tetsuya up and about. His wounds are fine, too. When Kouji asks, he tells of the Vegans and their monster – despite its grandiose name, it was easy as hell. Tetsuya figures he ought to bring its carcass back for studies but Ryouma interrupts: the Gilgilgan is still alive!
Too late, the thing snags the Great Mazinger and, from our readings, it seems to be absorbing its energy. Quickly, it transforms and, watching this, Duke now realizes what they’re dealing with.
He tells Bright that it’s dangerous to stay here and asks him to signal the retreat – the Gilgilgan is a space monster that grows by consuming metal and energy. If we don’t approach this the right way, we’ll just make it stronger; thus, we have to retreat and rethink our strategy.
Bright accepts his argument, ordering the recovery of the Great Mazinger too.
Later, Misato reports to Daisuke that the creature is still in Shanghai. As he said, it’s devouring buildings and taking in electricity from the power lines. Akira asks, so Daisuke explains that, while this is his first time seeing the thing, he’d heard stories about in back in Planet Fleed.
Apparently it’s a bioweapon created by an ancient civilization, though details are slim. Regardless, it’s responsible for destroying several worlds. As a weapon, Haruka figures it’s possible someone is controlling it but, more importantly, Kaine wants to know what’ll happen if it keeps growing as it has.
It’ll just keep on evolving, continuing to devour as much metal and energy as it can. The Devil Gundam parallel is obvious to the G Gundam folk, though Allenby raises the silver lining it that doesn’t seem capable of producing Death Army-esque units. Doesn’t mean we can ignore it though.
Asuka asks Misato for a plan and she figures the only option available here is the old rubber balloon strat: fill it up with a ton of energy in a short period of time and get it to pop. To wit, that means everyone focus fire it down as, luckily, we’re loaded with units that use tons of energy in battle.
“What, isn’t that what we always do anyway?” Asuka throws her hands in the air. Should be easy, then, Benkei figures. Not quite, Misato warns and Kouji explains: if we don’t do this right, the Gilgilgan will process the energy of our attacks and power up a whole lot. Aqua’s analyzed the time it took for that to happen in the last battle and our window is about a minute. So, we need to take the thing out completely in that time (which is STILL what we always do).
So, we’ll need to get our attacks lined up perfectly and ready to go at the right moment; this means someone will need to bait the Gilgilgan into position. Tetsuya offers to do it as he has a score to settle with the monster.
: … I’m against it. I don’t want you taking part in this battle.
: What…?
: Ryou…! 
: Care to tell me why?: I will, absolutely. This mess here is all because of your hubris.: Hmph… Those are big words for someone who came in only after it was all over.: Still, if you’d actually cared to make sure the Gilgilgan was dead, none of this wouldn’t be happening.: Excuse me…?: Your showboating has worried me for a while now. It’s what led to you being injured in the final battle against the Mynenaes, too… (If you want to see how Tetsuya can get before he gets his head on straight, check the Alpha Gaiden LP)
: H-Hey, now! Enough of that, Ryou!
: He’s right. This isn’t the time for you to be bickering.: …!: Tetsuya… I will not fight with you unless you change your ways.: That’s how it is, huh? Fine, I get it.*Tetsuya leaves*
As Jun runs off after him, Misato sighs that she had a feeling someone would take Tetsuya to task. Daisuke complains that Ryouma went overboard but the guy leaves as well, saying he’s to see to the Getter’s maintenance.
Tap wonders if we should do something but Asuka tells him to leave them be. Kaine doesn’t want to but, then, could he convince Ryouma or Tetsuya? Kouji says that’s not necessary – nor is our concern. We’ll see, soon enough. Hmm…
Misato decides to return to the matter at hand. For the Gilgilgan’s bait, Light and the D-3 have analyzed the data we’ve been receiving and figured out the monster’s favorite “food”: plain iron. So, we’ll use a bunch of the stuff to lure it.
Ayato figures the RahXephon can play that role, carrying the iron… but, then, all that metal would keep both his hands occupied and leave him defenseless. Thus, Misato and Haruka figured the best way was to use a machine MADE of iron as bait.
But do we even have one of those? As Ayato points out, all our bots are made of special metals: Gundarium, Super Alloy Z and whatnot.
Actually, Haruka says we do have ONE. It soon dawns of Hayato and Sayaka what she’s getting at.
The Boss Borot, of course! Ayato’s baffled that the thing’s made out of regular old iron and Boss takes umbrage at his seeming disrespect. “No, I’m honestly impressed… The Borot’s quite something,” Ayato says. “A-ah, well… You’re damn right it is,” Boss huffs back.
But, yes, Misato wants Boss to play bait for the Gilgilgan and Daisuke is quick to argue that it’s too dangerous to send the Borot in alone. Still, Misato says she didn’t choose it simply because it’s made of iron: the Borot has also got good horse power, flexible movements and it’s quite easy to eject from. All this makes it the best choice for the role.
Hell, the thing’s even got a built-in toilet, Sayaka adds… though that’s not really relevant now.
: So, Boss, will you do it?
: We need your help to save Shanghai, Boss. 
: Yes, I also want to see the greatness of the Borot.
: Ooh…
: We know you can do this, Boss.
: Please, Boss. Everything is in your hands.: Y-You got it! Leave it to me!
: Are you serious, Boss?!
: Think before you agree to stuff! You can’t let yourself get carried away like that!
: Hey, you two listen here! This is IT! Everyone’s counting on us, so what kind of men would we be if we backed down?!
: Um… But I’m kind of having a bad feeling about this.
: Me too…
: C-Come on! You’re gonna make me lose my nerve!
: Nah, it’s all good. If things look bad, just bail out.
: Yeah and, when you do, go and feed the monster the Borot’s arm cylinder things.
: Who knows, it might give the thing a stomachache. : Y-You… This is your problem, too, ya know!
: Well, I guess I’ll go and brief Cpt. Bright on the operation. 
Mission 17 (Chongqing Route) – Gilgilgan, the Terrifying Space Monster
Boss deploys with a whole lot of bombast, spanking his ass at the Gilgilgan and waving it over. It quickly works as planned and the monster starts chasing them.
Mucha and Nuke are freaking out but Boss keeps calling the thing to come eat all this tasty iron. Misato calls in and tells him to bring the Gilgilgan to a nearby iron mill, where she expects it to stop and start snacking.
Bright looks on with unease as Misato asks Boss to try and look as appetizing as possible for the Gilgilgan.
Mission Objective: Bring the Gilgilgan to the target area
Mission Failure: Either Boss Borot or Gilgilgan destroyed
Keep Boss protected even if you’ve upgraded him some, just to be safe. The Gilgilgan will always follow, so just move Boss over and beyond the target area and pull it inside.
Off he goes.
Enemy Phase!
And here it comes.
: B-Boss! He’s coming to attack us!: Now is finally our time to shine! I’m at least gonna give him a good wallop!
Or, you would, were the thing not out of range.
Fast forward a couple of turns, as Boss outruns the Gilgilgan and it steps right into the target area.
That’s Boss’ part done, which means it’s go-time for everyone else.
As Kouji praises Boss for the good work (piece of cake!), Misato reminds everyone that the second we do even a little bit of damage to the monster, we’ll have sixty seconds to bring it down.
Which means, don’t hit it until we’re 100% ready.
Player Phase!
As Misato said, we can’t attack the thing willy-nilly. So, insert another two turns of me getting everyone close enough to gang up on it.
The good thing is that the Gilgilgan’s AI will still prioritize low HP units, so parking the TFO in its general area will make it the lone target of its attention.
Let’s get to it.
It doesn’t have Prevail or any relevant skills, so those 26k HP vanish real quick.
Megumi reports that the monster’s stopped moving and Misato orders everyone to finish it off quick. Problem is, Torres pings the Vegan army coming over right then. Hayato figures they came running once they saw their beastie get trounced but Ryouma tells everyone to ignore them and wreck the Gilgilgan lest we see a repeat of the last battle.
Bracky, meanwhile, is desperate to recover the thing – it’s King Vega’s after all. Jigura sniffs at Bracky’s usual incompetence and tells him to keep his priorities straight. If they can destroy our group here, the King won’t mind the loss of the Gilgilgan.
Granted, the thing isn’t doing too hot right now but Jigura has an easy fix: feed it Bracky’s Mother Burn and not only kickstart its recovery but also give it a power boost.
Bracky is a bit doubtful but Jigura doesn’t care. If he doesn’t believe, then he can do whatever he wants… and come back to base with another defeat.
Bracky sees he has no other option, so he goes with it and rams the Mother Burn into the Gilgilgan. In his escape pod, he tells Jigura to handle the rest and bolts. He will, though Jigura knows that Bracky is the one who’ll be held responsible for whatever happens here.
Benkei doesn’t know what just happened but Hayato sees it: they just gave the creature all the energy stored in that big UFO. Too late for us to do anything about it and it once again transforms.
Things just went from bad to worse and it’s now even bigger than before which, Haruka deduces, means we’ll need to feed it even more energy to get our plan to work now. Ryouma fears that everything we did was for naught now…
: It’s way too soon for you to be giving up!
: !
: The Great’s repairs are all done, so I’m here to join in on the lizard’s extermination.
: … Tetsuya, what I said before—: We’ll talk later. The priority now is to beat the Gilgilgan… together.
: Tetsuya…!
: What? They made up already?
: That’s why I said we didn’t need to worry.: Our strategy against the monster’s still the same, everyone! Once you’ve dealt even a bit of damage, take it out within sixty seconds!: Roger that! Let’s do this, Ryou!: Right!I’ve a sneaking suspicion that Tetsuya pulling his head out of his ass in record time here is a jab at how long that took to happen in Alpha Gaiden. Hmm…
And here’s the big, bad Gilgilgan. It’s bulkier, stronger and actually has some pretty decent accuracy. Still, without Prevail, it’ll go down easy.
Just make sure you Reals are protected.
That said, I’ll have my folks build morale on the Vegans just to speed up the process. Whoever hasn’t yet moved steps north.
Enemy Phase!
The enemy really doesn’t like Sai.
He can handle that attention, though. Two Minifoos are wrecked and he could’ve gotten more, had I not spared them.
All other Saucerbeasts close in, though Jigura tries (and fails) to snipe at Light.
Player Phase!
Now we get with the killing.
Two easy targets for Shinji.
The Jinjin Saucerbeasts have support defense, so double attacks are your friends.
Tap learns Faith/Friendship from his level.
Next!
That’s very dead.
With Akira’s help, Kouji wrecks another Jinjin and learns both Iron Wall and Support Attack L2.
The Gubigubis are still the bulkiest, what with their shields.
Just means they die slightly less fast.
Sai and Ryouma wreck the last Jinjin and Hayato learns Focus.
Light, Argo and Hikaru take another Gubigubi. Gaia Crusher, obviously, isn’t too good against aerial targets.
Now we just wait another turn.
Enemy Phase!
Said Gubigubi actually got a very lucky hit in on Light, making him the lowest HP guy around and drawing the attention of Jigura and Gilgilgan. He’s inside Hikaru’s EWAC, though, so there’s no risk there.
Player Phase!
: Here I come, space monster! I’ll make you regret ever setting foot on Earth!
: We have to do this…! Shanghai’ll be destroyed if we don’t!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-b4CMXvPQU
So, we’re seventeen missions into the game and I’ve still yet to see ANY enemy pop our EVAs fields. No, I didn’t even upgrade them past a single bar.
: Quick, everyone! We have to beat him this minute!
: Whatever we’re up against, I know we can win if we bring all our power together!
: Here goes…! We gotta have faith in ourselves and take this thing out!
: You blasted space monster! Even if this is your perfect form, you won’t have your way with Earth as long as my comrades and I are around!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTDKHWFWFwI
I actually had to go out of my way to get its strongest attack on tape. The thing only gains morale when it’s hit, so it WOULD have died before it reached 110 morale had I not used piddly weapons.
: Oi… This thing isn’t gonna go all Mecha next, right…?
: Stop thinking nonsense and start shooting, Kaine!
: Your rampage started with my screw up… : And I’m going to fix that right now!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q6fXx7k_4g
And here’s the first of the Toei bots’ combined attacks.
And that takes care of that – the thing’s completely destroyed and with nary a second to spare. As Misato praises everyone, now it’s only a matter of taking out the remaining enemies.
Done. Only Jigura remains.
: So you’re the Great Mazinger I’ve heard so much about!: And I heard of you, Vegans! How dare you try to use the Great for evil!: You’re about to get a very up-close look at mine and the Great’s actual power!: Good to hear! I came to this planet precisely to beat men like you!: While I returned to the battlefield to crush worms like you!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpEjWzjaiM4
: I will claim your head today, Duke Fleed!: Even if I’m defeated, other warriors will keep on fighting to protect Earth’s peace! That said, I’d never actually be beaten by you demons!
More Prevail for Duke.
Jigura doesn’t really mind this defeat too much as it’ll be Bracky who’ll pay for it.
All enemies are dead, so Bright calls everyone back aboard.
Notable goodies are a Space Alloy Gren (HP +2000, Armor +250) and an Apogee Motor (+1 movement, +5 mobility).
Ryouma apologizes for what he said but Tetsuya doesn’t mind, knowing he meant well. Ryouma still figures he overstepped his bounds but Tetsuya admits that he was too conceited – he’s not fighting this by himself.
In this, Tetsuya remembered a lesson he learned from him and Kouji during the battle with the Mycenae: peace is something that can only be earned with the joint efforts of many. He and Jun will be officially joining the Nahel Argama team today, so he looks forward to working with Ryouma and co. The feeling is mutual.
Kouji looks from afar, glad to see that things ended just as he figured they would. Daisuke and Maria are rather surprised and she wonders if he’s precognitive as well. Nah, he just knows Tetsuya and Ryouma well and has faith that, in the end, they’ll always join forces to beat a common enemy.
Maria confesses that she’s a bit jealous of all this male camaraderie – that’s the essence of Kouji and Tetsuya’s unbeatable Mazinger tag team. And any such friend of Kouji is a friend in Daisuke’s eyes.
Kouji figures that’s perfect as the three of them can be a team to rival the Getter Team, then!
: We’re finally headed for Chongqing. And, then, it’ll be the end of our mission.: I, for one, am looking forward to retiring from the military and enjoying that pension. It’s gonna be good.
: …
: What’s up, Kaine? Something bugging you?
: N-No…! It’s nothing…: Well, I’ll be saying goodbye to Maggie soon, so I reckon I’ll give her one good polish for the road.: Hm, you’re right. Circumstances might’ve forced us to start flying them but those girls have been with us through everything… They’re our dear mechs.: Yeah... So let’s go and leave them sparkling ‘til it’s time to hand them over.