Part 122: Mission 35 - The Wind That Blows in the Desert Sands - Part 1

Of the three units we have, Sandrock is the only one thats upgraded.
As such, well stay put to avoid getting swarmed (for the time being, its game over if any unit is shot down).

Enemy Phase!

All units, except Zaied and his Shadow squad, move closer.

Player Phase!

Now, lets get to work.




Hm. Slightly less damage than expected but this is actually good.


With such low HP, Cagalli can nab the kill.
That brings her total up to 2. Why should you care?


Cagalli will only be with us during this one stage. During that time, her kill count needs get to 5 or higher(therell be a route split soon-ish and, depending on the route chosen, therell be another chance to get kills with her).

Enemy Phase!


Couple of Savages attack Quatre and get nearly killed.

Following that, a Birdman guns for Cagalli.



Sadly, the Skygrasper is kinda lacking in stopping power.


One more time!




I half expected the damage to suck (it WAS her weakest weapon) but for her to get hit with 12%?


Quatre gets attacked a couple more times from Taurus. Still no one-shot kills.

Player Phase!

Seina quickly realizes that the leader in the red mech is quite skilled - more so than any normal desert mercs should be.
Sousuke recognizes the fighting style of Zaied, who supposedly perished in battle long ago.



Still, they won't have to fight them alone, thanks to the arrival of the rest of our people.

The Uruz Squads Commander Gail McAllen (Uruz 1) orders Sousuke to escort the Angel aboard the ships.
Zaied recognizes both the Mithril squad and Neo Warter as targets and starts to sic his troops at us.


Before our guys move, lets have Seina carefully damage this Taurus.




Thus, allowing Cagalli to nab all three mooks with a chain-attack! Secret get!

It also yields a level, teaching her Support Request L2 and Multicombo L3.

Time to really get this party going.





Good way to begin.


Volfogg moves by Gai, also pulling a crit-kill.

Lowe, however, makes use of his Accelerate to get just close enough to chain-attack three Serpents.





Gotta whittle them down before people come over.


Kazuma moves to intercept the southern mooks along the way, his attack stops just short of killing the Taurus.


Damn it, I really need to stop trying to use Vulcans.
The rest of the group moves closer but no one else is in attacking range.

Enemy Phase!

All of Lowes Serpents go after Duo and miss horribly.

Zaieds Shadows have the comparatively worse idea of attacking Lowe at point-blank range.




Sadly, theyre bulky enough that even a crit will not kill them.
This happens twice.


Down below, Quatre is getting harassed by several Mistrals.

While this Savage wants to help boost Gais kill count.




Thank you.

Zaied takes a few shots at Lowe but its no problem (for now).

Player Phase!



Sousuke soon deploys and joins his team; Zaid recognizes it as a mysterious man says that its his honey, Kashim.
The man tells Zaied that he hopes he isn't planning to somehow let Sousuke off the hook out of some kind of nostalgia; Zaied says he values his life far too much for that after seeing so many die dogs' deaths for the sake of their emotions.


Zaied lures Sousuke out for some 1:1 combat.
Kurz tells him to go kick his ass and McAllen will also leave things to him but makes sure to tell him to be careful the enemy could have a trick up his sleeve.
As Sousuke approaches, the mystery man asks Zaied what's it's like to kill his old friend, though Zaied says theres nothing to say this is just another mission.
The man isnt satisfied with that answer, though


He therefore sends out two Behemoths to liven things up!
Saburouta and Yumi never saw that unit before and, when Harry tells them that its an AS, they cant even believe theres one that huge as big as a Death Black Beastmen of the Galra, Gai Daigouji figures.
Furthermore, Ruri warns them that their real danger comes not from their size but from that Lambda Driver thats loaded into them; Reneé realizes that the scariest thing about all this is that there's an organization that could mass produce and figure out how to pilot such a monstrosity.
Just the sight of it brings back some evil memory to Seina.
Kurz and Mao tell Sousuke to hurry up with the enemy Commander as well need his help to take these things out but Zaied isnt planning on being defeated.




Hrm, what a pain in the ass. Well deal with the Behemoths soon but, for now, lets keep cleaning house.

Next, Sommer will continue Lowes work on the Serpents.






I was hoping for a critical hit but


Well get rid of the Shadows and then finish those Serpents.

Might as well show off McAllen though his Gernsback is quite basic.





Still, it gets the job done.


Kurz moves right next to them, after sniping a Serpent down.



I try to have Aki finish off both Serpents but one manages to hang on.

Yumi will handle the last Shadow.





Boom.


Volfogg takes it upon himself to destroy the last serpent. Finally.


Youd think mass produced Behemoths would be less bulky but you would be WRONG (at least they dont have cutscene power ).

Despite it being a duel, Sousuke is gonna get his ass handed to him without some intervention (specially once Zaieds Prevail kicks in).
Accel, Assail and Strike on the Valstork and were good to lend a hand.





Not bad at all.

The game thinks so too, as it bumps the Valstork crew up a level (teaching Support Defend L3 to Shihomi).

Time for Sousuke to join in.














Hm, thats not bad (its not great either ).
The real issue, though, is that Sousuke deployed way too late to get enough morale to power his Lambda Driver.

Better send Vesna over there to lend a hand.

As for the Behemoths, were throwing everything at them (making sure to save SP, of course).





Thankfully, they dont have Prevail which makes things simpler.




Following up, Duo and Lowe pull some double Gundam action but its nowhere near dead (and everyone else was too far away to attack).

Enemy Phase!

Cagalli is working on clearing out the Mistrals.




Two of them were weakened and pulled a suicide run against her.


The third one, however, had a full tank and managed to scrape by.

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum both go after Duo. Thats just fine.






The result is the same.

Zaied and Sousuke are still at it.











Slowly but surely.

Player Phase!


Cagalli moves up, clearing the Mistral group in the process.


With Zaieds Prevail running, his numbers get a bit dangerous but Vesna pulls some Pro maneuvering and makes it work.

Hrm, is his HP low enough? Ill just toss an assist from Trowa and it may be good!



Yeah, it may work if we get a crit-



Reload powers, GO!



Ive had enough of your shenanigans, Zaied.



Sousuke and Trowa THEN manage to finish the job.
Mind you, see how Zaied survived Sousuke with fucking 10 HP? Thank god Trowa managed to hit.

Zaied is worth a level, a Cartridge, a Dustproof Module and a Gunfight +1.

Thanks for activating Lambda Driver NOW, Sousuke!


As Zaied lies defeated, he at least praises Sousuke for becoming such a fine soldier.
Sousuke tries to have him eject but it's no use Zaieds thrown everything he had in this battle and isnt able to escape.
As his Shadow explodes, Sousuke can only cry in anguish.


Which, in turn, is lovely music to Gaurons ears. Surprisingly to our people, he survived his defeat during the plane hijacking and Renée recognizes him as an international A-class terrorist .
Gauron hopes Sousuke enjoyed the show he set up for their meeting, gloating over all the strings he pulled to make Sousuke kill the unexpectedly-alive old friend.


Sousuke is obviously not amused but Gauron challenges him to keep his Lambda Driver going in his perturbed state.
He cant and, while the Driver fails to run, Sousuke vows to kill his ass with or without the system.
That works for Gauron, whos already enjoying this.


Gauron meets his challenge by activating his Asshole mode auto-casting Focus and Zeal.


Before keep working on the Behemoths, itll make things simpler if we take one shot at Gauron doesnt matter that its a miss.





































































Uuuuurgh Ill need to have a sit down before I face Gauron again. Hes an even bigger tool than before and can set up some nasty chain-attacks with his Auto-Focus (needless to say, someone needs to get rid of Valor ASAP).
Well deal with his mess soon and, hopefully, Ill get to keep most of my sanity (I COULD kill him in one turn but then Id be missing out on the Radam experience and cash Lance has no goodies to drop).
See you all then!