Part 9: Mission 3 – Mission Order: “Shoot Down the Nadesico”!

Mission 3 – Mission Order: “Shoot Down the Nadesico”!





The Federation forces are quite formidable, including a mobile armor fitted with Gunbarrels.
That the Federation sent in its aces is proof that they've fully recognized the Nadesico's value.
Fukube notes drily that letting the Nadesico escape here would be a serious loss of face, which seems rather unfair to Minato.
Yurika has Megumi (Meg, as she calls her) inform the Federation that the Nadesico has no intention to fight, and tell them to clear the way for her Departure.



Muu, among the Federation troops, asks what to do now, and his commander says a demonstration of the respect due the military is in order to these insolent workers.
Inwardly, Muu had rather thought it was the military's job to protect civilians, but he’s in no position to argue.
Megumi informs that they’re ignoring their pleas and are setting up for an attack but Yurika orders the ship to not slow down.



She orders the Aestis sent out to clear the path.





Uribatake explains that the Aestis have been outfitted with 0G Frames for space combat.
Like the other Frames, they'll lose power if they stray too far from the Nadesico's gravity beam.
Akito can only sulk at the situation, saying that tangling with the Federation wasn't part of the cook job description.
Regardless, he can’t stop – he must get to Mars no matter how dangerous it gets.



The Federation commander tells his troops to sink the Nadesico if it keeps resisting, eager to settle things before the troops from the Far East base arrive.


Alright, we have the Nadesico, Gai and Akito’s Aestivalises going up against 14 faceless mooks and Muu La Flaga.
Only 4 units are coming back alive from this encounter. Can you guess who?

These are the units we have on our side:



The Nadesico is quite a bulky airship even though it’s been HEAVILY nerfed since Super Robot Wars J (to put an example on this: in J, you have Yurika and all her operators with spirit commands. In W, you only have Yurika and Ruri).
Nevertheless, it’s a good ship and an absolute necessity if you’re using nearly any Aestivalis.





Akito and Gai’s Aestis are pretty much identical to each other and they are both competent pilots. The unit isn’t the best but its good enough.

Do note, and this is important, that all Nadesico units have a Distortion Field ability. The field is a barrier that will negate incoming damage if it's below a threshold (Under 1500 for Beam weapons, 2500 for Gravity weapons, 1000 for all others) at the cost of 10 EN per use (provided the incoming attack doesn’t have a barrier-piercing effect).


Finally, Gai and Akito’s Aestis consume half their total energy every time you end a round (that is, your turn + the enemy turn = 1 round).
You get around it by doing what Uribatake told you and keeping them inside the Nadesico’s Gravity Beam range. Shown here:


See those yellow squares? That’s the Beam’s range. Every Aestivalis inside that range at the start of the Player Phase will have its energy refilled to the max.
This means you can’t keep the Nadesico in the back but, as I said, this is one of the bulkier ships in the game.

Now, these mooks are using the same units as the space pirates in mission 1 (aside from Mu and the 2 Officers – they are each using a “Mobius (Zero)” with Gunbarrels).
Let’s take a look at the new toy they have:


These things are a bit more dangerous. With 125 mobility, they are the dodgiest units in the field but they have piss poor defenses and HP so if you can get a hit in, you’ll be fine.
Problem is, getting close to them leaves you open. Their gunbarrels have a 3-8 range meaning they can and WILL snipe at you as you’re trying to get close.

Let’s advance safely to avoid that. Take a look here:


See where the cursor is at? That diagonal line that runs across the two Mobius mooks spearheading their formation marks the limit of the gunbarrel’s range. As long as we don’t cross that, we don’t have to worry about them (elite mooks oftenly stay back for a while and only come over once you start clearing the rank and file).



With that in mind, let’s move the Nadesico forward first. Over there should be enough to let all Aestis attack the mooks while staying in the Gravity Beam’s range.

Before anything, I’m gonna use Gai’s Invincible for safe measure.
I’ll let Gai deal with the bottom group and Akito can handle the upper one. The middle ones will probably spread evenly across them.


Akito will go in first and I don’t like those odds very much but let’s see how this goes. Click the Image below to see it.

: I will reach Mars. I will fight to get there!




Hm. I was hoping for a kill but at least he didn’t get hit.

Now, let’s see if Gai can do that extra bit of damage to oneshot them. Click the image below to see it.



: Oh, yeah! It's the debut of the Space Ganger! Feel its righteous fury!!



Nope…but at least he dodged the missiles as well.

Nothing else we can do.


Enemy Phase!


All mooks start moving up close to swarm us. The regular Mobiuses are all in range, so they stay there and fire missiles at us.



Unfortunately, we don’t have an attack that can hit from that distance, so we can only dodge.
Also, I had completely forgotten that Akito had Sword Cut.



Maybe Yurika can finish this guy off. 76% isn’t a bad hit rate. Click the Image below to see it.



: Aim towards the enemy forwards! Shoot them when they get into range!
: Those are pretty vague orders. Are we going to be all right?
: No need to worry. The Nadesico is the pride of Nergal Heavy Industries.
: And the crew may be somewhat... strange... but they're all experts.


There we go.



One goes after Gai, who has no problem dodging.


Repeat this over and over. End result is a lot of misses for the ones that went after the Aestis and both the Mobiuses that got weakened in our turn were killed when they went after Yurika.



Player Phase!



Ruri detects a transport coming into the battlefield.
Yurika starts pouting, expecting enemy reinforcements but Prospector eases hear concerns saying it’s on our side and it’s got some additional pilots on board.




Those would be Subaru Ryouko;


Amano Hikaru and...



Maki Izumi, the latter being an expert in dreadful jokes.
They were sent by Nergal to lend us a hand and keep the ship safe.



Gai plans to show these girls what he's made of.
The girls claim they are more than capable of fighting too and intend to show it.
Prospector acknowledges their prowess but won't make any guarantees about their personalities...

The three girls work as a team and it shows. Ryouko is the leader and packs a command aura.
The need to keep them close together is further increased by the fact that they have 2 Combination Attacks (indicated in their attack list with the “+” sign). Their stats are just like the other Aestis:








Time for me to go out on a tangent again and talk about Combination Attacks.
These attacks, like the name says, have two or more units act together to attack the same target at once.
Combination attacks are powerful, pierce barriers (like the distortion field) and have specific requirements for you to use them:

• All units that will do the combination attack need to have the morale necessary to use it. In the girl’s case, the weakest combination attack requires 110 morale and the strongest, 120.
  
  
• To use the combination attack, the units that will take part need to be adjacent to each other. Either side-by-side or diagonally works but they need to be close.

Mind you, certain restrictions apply: when a combination attack is used, the EN cost will be taken from everyone that takes part in it and, to use it, range rules need to be obeyed by the person that will be initiating it.

That being said, each person that participates in the combination attack can start it which means, in the girls case, we can use this attack 3 times in one turn as long as there are enemies in range, we have enough juice and we don’t break formation.
With all this in mind, we’re gonna be moving the girls together over to the Nadesico (remember, they’re Aestis so they need that Gravity Beam).

One small issue, though. Some of more observant people may have noticed that there are debris on this map.
They aren’t there simply for aesthetics! Different kinds of terrain offer different terrain bonus. These debris offer a boost of 20% to the evasion/accuracy to the pilot of an unit sitting on them (which is what this Mobius is doing here):



Better play this on the safe side because it’s likely our girls are gonna be drawing the attention of a few of these mooks. I cast Focus with all three of them and attack the Mobius with Hikaru:



: Let's get 'em, girls! Formation Balsam!
: Yes, ma'am! We didn't get to introduce ourselves, so let's make a good first impression!
: Enemy sighted... citation needed... hee hee...






Hmm, I find it interesting that the girls don’t do a punch at the end of their knife attack. I guess you need some GEKI-GAN SOUL to pull it off!


Ryouko goes after that…thing, sitting right next to the Mobius. Click the image below to see how it goes.





Ryouko does use a kick at the end of her knife-work, though.



The Nadesico restores 30% of its EN at the start of the player phase as long as we’re in space.
So, let’s use her Gravity Blaster to soften up one of the mooks. Click the image below to see it





Or we can kill it outright. That works, too.

Let’s take Akito out of the safe zone (with focus, of course) and have him kill one with his closer-range attack. Click the image to see it




Good man.



Gai quickly pokes a Delphinium to death with his trusty Gekigan Sword.



Enemy Phase!



As expected, some of them go after the girls. Thankfully, with focus, they’ve no chance of hitting them.




Whew…the RNG gods aren’t being vindictive today.


Right after, another one goes after the Nadesico. It ends as before:


Yurika and Ruri also get a level out of it.

Mooks take turns attacking Gai and Akito out of their attack range, missing every time.



This one, however, isn’t out of range. He’s about to get a Geki-gan Flare as a prize for his poor choice. Click the image below to see how it plays out.





It begins…15% chance and he still hits. THE RNG GODS ARE ANGRY!



The Gunbarrel’d Mobius also go after the girls but their aim means jack when they’re evading and with focus.


Mu also decides to be a dick and close in on Akito, once more tagging him with a 16% accuracy hit…I forgot to take a picture but after that turn, this was the end result:



The RNG gods are punishing me for my lack of respect and it doesn’t help that none of these guys can heal in any way (I don’t want to get Akito into the ship, either).



Player Phase!



One thing at a time. First off, I’ll take a few more mooks out while moving the girls closer by the ship.


Or not…



Ruri detects Federation reinforcements incoming.



Urgh…



Akito wonders why the hell they won't just let you go in peace and Ryouko tells this newcomer to act like a man and fight back
Akito tells her he IS a man - a man with feelings and with a name: Akito Tenkawa!



Izumi tells him to save the introductions for later, assuming there is a later (surprising HIkaru that she has activated her “serious-mode”), but is interrupted by a high-energy object streaking into the area.
Yurika has the Aestis dodge and has the Nadesico crank up its Distortion Field.







It seems the Jovian Lizards are on the scene, and the Federation troops just had a large portion of their troops blasted by their surprise attack.
Things don’t slow down as Ruri detects yet another ship entering the area.





It’s the Valstork with Bless musing that we seem to run into one problem after another.
Horis also sighs at our bad luck, first running into the Radam and then into the Jovian Lizards.
Kazuma wants to charge in and repel the Jovians but Bless seems hesitant – Kazuma wonders if he’s actually entertaining the idea of letting the Jovians do our dirty work.
Bless’ silence seemingly speaks volumes to the kid.



Not only does he want to save whoever the Jovians are attacking, he doesn't want to earn his keep like a thief at a fire.
Mihiro agrees with him and, in fact, so does Bless, and he orders everyone to take down the Jovians.



Prospector has heard of the Valstork Family, and is counting on the "spaceman" concept of helping fellows in need to carry the day.
Vessels helping each other in times of need is a code as old as the sea, a line cool enough that, to Hikaru, it ought to come from some piratical dude with a scar and an eyepatch.





The Federation troops, not really spacemen worth the name, flee the Jovian Lizard wrath, leaving your people to fight in peace.



All enemies are concentrated on the Northeast corner of the map, so we’re deploying all our guys as close as possible



D-Boy is somehow fired up at the long-forgotten sound of the word "spaceman", and plans to repay the Valstork for keeping him fed all this time.


Ok, the Jovian Lizards make for some of the more annoying enemies in the game.
Not because they are strong but the big enemies all have long range attacks with which to snipe you from out of your attack range and they really prefer to let you walk over to them.

Also, to add insult to injury, nearly all of them have distortion fields of their own.


These little guys, Battas, don’t.
As such, they aren’t a big threat with only 3000 HP, 900 armor and 85 mobility.



Now these Katonbos are a slightly different game. 10k HP, 1200 armor (that’s the same as the Nadesico) and they have the Distortion field to cut our damage in half.
Not nice and they also come with a 2-7 range beam attack as a welcoming “fuck you” while you try to get up close.
Still, there are only 3 of them so they won’t be a whole lot of trouble.

First things first: Akito is still hurting, so let’s have Shihomi help him with that with a quick Trust.


Much better.


Rushing these guys is probably not the best idea since we still need to gather our forces in one group (rushing will also open us up to be sniped).



I’ll just bring everyone up close to Izumi and hold my ground for now.



Enemy Phase!



Battas in the mirror are closer than they appear, huh?
20% isn’t a threat but the RNG gods seem to be out to get me during this mission.
I’ll let Hikaru hang by with a support defense just in case. See that blue “G” arrow there? That shows you that someone can do it.



And it was the right call! The Distortion field completely negated the damage because it was under 1000.
Kazuma finishes the bugger off and both him and Mihiro get a level.


Mihiro also learns Strike.



16%...no way the RNG gods will screw me over again, right? Click the image below to see it unfold.




HA!




It seems only a few of the Jovians decided to take my bait. The 3 Purple Ships and 6 Cyber-Buggers are hanging back, sending out squads of 3 on the right and left flanks to weaken us.
They can’t weaken what they can’t hit, though.



Player Phase!


Now that everyone’s closer and the Aestis are all refueled, I can start my push forward.

…I still don’t want Gai leading the charge, though. I’ll send him around with a few others to cut through the side.


GEKI-GAN FLARE, TIME! Click the image below to see it.




Hell, yeah.


Kazuma is moved in to chop one of the couple to our side and he does so with extra gusto.



Duo takes the last one and our flank is free of threats.



Our group moves forward again, ready to clear out the opposition in the next round (the units at the front of the formation have Focus on, just in case).



Enemy Phase!



Oddly enough, the Batta farthest away decides to go after Kazuma instead of some of the easier targets (maybe it’s because he doesn’t have focus?). Click the image below to see how he does.







The other ones realize that the Aestis are better targets. Still, they chose Izumi and her Morale is high enough for me to show off her Distortion Attack. Click the image below.





It’s good but it’s no GEKI-GAN! FLAAAAAAAAAAAAARE!

For the sake of a secret I’ll be working on in a bit, I’ll just dodge and let the other 4 Battas live.
It’ll make things simpler.



The Katonbos don’t take kindly to our slacking off and move in.
Since they have so much HP, there’s no problem in attacking them but…


That little damage from a Plasma Execution. See what I meant about them being annoying?

The one in the middle decides to shoot Kazuma as well and gets punished in the same fashion. The last one came up closer but didn’t attack.



Player Phase!




Things get interrupted when a Mobius enters the Area.
Ryouko figures it’s a Feddie that wants to attack but, since he’s alone, she moves to shoot him down quickly.



However, It’s Muu La Flaga saying he’s not here to fight us but rather to help.
Ryouko finds the whole act suspicious but Muu explains this apparent change of heart by saying that it'd be far too uncool for soldiers to run while civilians stay and fight.
All he asks is that you not shoot him in the back once the fighting is done.



Akito figures him for a good man but Muu says that he's merely a soldier, doing what's right.
He expects to catch hell for disobeying orders, but doubts it'll mean his life...

Secret Alert!
If you want a secret later on in the game, you’ll want to feed Mu 10 kills on his first appearances.
You’ll have this mission and a later mission to do so, which is no problem.
It’s good to leave weak mooks around for him to Harvest; 5 kills this mission should make things easy for us. Mind you, this secret isn’t super important but I’ll get it anyway.

Let’s focus our attention on the big ships since we’re leaving the mooks for Mu. I’ll try to weaken the one closest to his Mobius, too, so he can get at least 5 kills by the end of this mission.






Gai, Blade and Riouko take the middle one.






Akito, Hikaru and Izumi weaken the top-left one.





Kazuma and Duo work on the right-most one. Duo gets a level up, mind.



I move Mu in to take on Kazuma’s ship (the only one in his attack range) but, with that Fi’ldhe's not able to kill it.



Enemy Phase!

The battas go after the Aestis and miss. The Katonbos go for the Nadesico and deal some decent damage that will be healed on the next turn.



Player Phase!



There we go, the Blue Earth repairs it some.



Now, let’s have Mu take out one of the ships with his Gunbarrels. Click the image below to see it.





Now, there’re still two more ships. The weaker one will go to Mu but I wanted to leave that other one alive specially to show off this:


That’s Gai and Akito’s combination attack: DOUBLE GEKI-GAN FLARE!
Let’s use Gain on Akito to boost his experience and watch the fireworks, WITH the appropriate soundtrack. Click the Image below. Do it now.





Why doesn’t this have a dynamic finish, I’ll never know…

I’m gonna skip ahead the next few turns because it’ll just be me killing an enemy with Mu and ending the turn over and over.



Three turns later, we’re down to the last mook and I find myself corrected. I said that I would never use the Gundam’s or Valhawk’s Vulcans but, as it turns out, those were the only attacks with which I could weaken these buggers instead of outright killing them. Go figure.

Mu now has 6 kills with this one, making it pretty certain that we’ll get that secret.



All the Jovian Lizards are blown away, and our people quickly find it strange that they’re not sending another massive swarm as usual
Aki notes that these must have been acting on their own, since there are no Tulips nearby.



Yurika thanks Muu for his assistance but he says it’s not necessary and warns her that although his Third Fleet has withdrawn, the Far East forces are still in hot pursuit and will be here any moment.
He takes off, leaving Kazuma musing about how the Federation army has its bad-asses after all.
Bless points that there’s still one problem to deal with: our current mission.



Duo and Quatre will leave that decision up to Bless, who announces to the Nadesico that they're about to blow it away.
Kazuma doesn't want any unnecessary loss of life, and asks the thunderstruck Nadesico crew to abandon ship.



Akito says that they can't do that: they still have to reach Mars.
Kazuma may have a contract, but Akito and the others have their reasons too!
Ryouko is pleased to hear that Akito's got some balls after all.



While the discussion continues, the Far East fleet shows up.





Among them is Yurika's acquaintance Aoi Jun, who Hikaru figures, from his eagerness to talk to Yurika, is an an acquaintance of hers.
Minato sort-of confirms it but says he’s more of a pining suitor for Yurika's love.



Jun tells Yurika that her father's worried about her and pleads with her to come back, while the military will still look lightly on her disobedience.
She tells Jun that she can't leave the Nadesico's command, which is where she belongs.



And not because of her heritage or her father's position: she's in the one place she can be herself.
Jun mutters that she must really love him (Akito) more than him after all, making Hikaru get all excited about this love triangle.
Jun swiftly blames Akito for bringing Yurika down this path!



Kazuma for one yells that he’s had enough of the drama and closes in on the Nadesico, once more asking everyone to get off so he can destroy the ship and complete his contract.





Jun rushes over and obstructs Kazuma's shot.
He will not allow harm to befall Yurika and vows to defend her even if it means his own death – he keeps blocking Kazuma’s aim with his own unit.
Noal shakes his head, saying that the Valstork group seems to have become the villains; Akito and Gai prepare to rush to the rescue.



Bless hastily orders Kazuma to shoot where Mihiro indicates, promising that no one will die.



Prospector urgently tells Yurika to fill everyone in on a certain something, and as she opens a channel to all the Aestivalis pilots.




Kazuma says "screw it" and fires at the indicated point.
Click the image below to see it.







He strikes at the precise point and there is a bright flash...





...and the Nadesico is "confirmed" sunk, along with Jun by both Shihomi and the Feds.



The Feds figure their mission is done, and withdraw.
Bless praises his son for a job well done, though Kazuma is ready to explode, having believed his father's words that no one would die.
Bless tells him not to fret, however, and Mihiro tells him to look over there.






The Nadesico suddenly reappears, with all the Aestis safely aboard.
It seems Yurika's message reached them just in time and she thanks everyone for their help.



All this time, the mission from Freeman was actually to help make the Nadesico SEEM to have been shot down, in order to call off the Federation dogs.
Apparently all this was explained at the briefing Kazuma was late to, and everyone considered it’d be better to just keep him in the dark - his bad acting could’ve easily tipped the Feds off.



Everyone is having a laugh at how well theater bit went...except for Kazuma, who is damn angry that they hit the truth from him.
Horis tries to calm him with the notion that this successful assignment means they’ve reduced the risk of bankruptcy – if only a little.
Regardless, Shihomi thinks Kazuma deserves a bit of praise for making such good use of the flash-bang munition they prepared, even if he didn’t know about it – Kazuma says that praising him will do nothing and he demands to know why Bless let this happen.
D-Boy assures Kazuma that his father did it for his own good but that doesn’t seem to make Kazuma any happier.
Noal and Aki notice that D-Boy is smiling – the first time this has happened ever since they met.



The two captains then get on the horn and make introductions, exchanging hearty "Victory" signs in the process.
Bless explains to Kazuma that the most important part of communication is matching your companion's stride!



It's a good thing Bless's plan worked, since the Nadesico crew was about ready to counterattack.
This revelation leaves the Valstork folks guessing how much Yurika knew, and whether her casual ways are a ruse behind which a genius lies.
In any case, the Nadesico will head to Mars... after Prospector has a word with Bless.
Bless seems genuinely scared of Prospector, and gets deadly serious when addressing him.



With good reason too, since it seems Prospector is in the mood to charge 50k gold for repairs to the Nadesico for damages suffered when that flare Kazuma fired hit a bit too close to home.
Bless admits the error, but tries to weasel out by noting that his people also shelped fight off the Jovian Lizards.
Of course, that would be the "priceless" helping of one spaceman by another, no?
Horis quickly starts whispering Bless, begging him to do something but he has no idea how to stop Prospector’s famous business acumen.



Out of "gratitude", Prospector lowers the price to 30k, the exact amount of the contract Bless is under and, despite Kazuma’s vocal protests, Bless agrees to have the Outer Space Development Company transfer the funds directly to Nergal.
Prospector is glad to be able to head to Mars without any loose ends, and assures Bless that he'll have Nergal send its next high priority job his way.



A badly shaken Bless orders Carret and Shihomi to toss salt at the monitor to ward off the evil aura – immediately!
Kazuma grumbles that all that effort turned out to be just community service but Noal says that it was his fault for shooting the Nadesico in that spot.
Kazuma rightly points out that this is really his father's fault for telling him where to shoot.



Bless vows to compensate for this by extracting some hefty premium from Freeman, and orders a course to Earth to deal directly with the Outer Space Development Company HQ.
Noal thinks he’ll be sorry, as their chief is an even greater businessman than Prospector.



Aboard the Nadesico, Jun is whining about how joining the military didn't result in him becoming an ally of Justice.
Soldiers simply conduct warfare, and what he had wanted to become is someone who protects Yurika.
Akito says that he might just become an ally of Justice yet, and that there might also be room for him near Yurika.



After all, he's already aboard the Nadesico, so there's no real turning back.
Izumi recommends Jun try to find his own way of living, just as Yurika has.
Gai advises him not to stand out too much, since it's a law of nature (i.e. of anime) that any time a sub-character becomes prominent, they get killed in the next episode.
Hikaru also adds that talking about his lover back home, or what he's going to do after the war, or whatnot is RIGHT OUT.



Akito seems genuinely like he's just trying to help cheer Jun up, but Hikaru points out that the conditions are now ripe for one heck of a love triangle.
Yurika then bursts in, wanting to spend time with Akito, who in turn wanted to spend time with Gai catching up on Geki Ganger.



Yurika then gets the bright idea of ordering the whole crew to watch...
Ruri can only call everyone “idiots” after this…



Elsewhere, a certain businessman is being pressed for not complying with a Federation dispatch.
Whoever it is says that Nergal was simply acting in its own interests.
The Federation representative asks if it’s in Nergal's interests to turn the entire military-industrial alliance against it.
The speaker doesn't care if that's how it sounds, and observes drily that he never liked that alliance much anyway.



He tells the other speaker to get the Barton Conglomerate and the Crimson Group together and entertain the brass, though the other speaker warns against getting carried away with all the Martian technology Nergal's obtained.



The Nergal speaker promises to sell that tech to the Federation army... at severely jacked-up prices.
After all, the other speaker hasn't got every last military man under his thumb yet, right?
Before the other man can get any more infuriated, the Nergal speaker cuts the conversation short as the other vows revenge against him (cutting him off before we can hear a full name).



Anyway, the Nadesico has become the proverbial die that is cast, underway thanks to Freeman's plans.