Part 132: Mission 38 (Orb Route) - His and Her Problems - Part 1

Mission 38 (Orb Route) - His and Her Problems





At Orb, Gai Daigouji and Ryouko notice that both Amalgam and Successor troops have deployed en masse – a prospect that worries Saburouta.
Kazuma wonders for what reason the Successors would kidnap both the Whispereds and A-Class Jumpers, but first we’ll have to deal with Gates.






He calmly tests his mic, to make sure we can hear and tells us not to mind him as he burns down Orb's cities for daring to proclaim themselves disconnected from the wars engulfing the globe.



Uzumi is watching the carnage with Relena at his side, asking her what his false government can do in the face of the forces encircling the neutral nation.




Cagalli for one isn't going to stand by and watch, not caring that the M1 Astray hasn't yet been battle-tested.
She insists that no one of the Asuha bloodline could stand by and watch their nation be burned; Uzumi wants Relena to bear witness to the results of power opposing power, to the struggle between Asuha and Sahaku.
Ruri meanwhile is counting on Akito and Sousuke to save Tessa and Kaname...


Secret Alert!
In case you didn’t get Cagalli’s kill count over 5 during mission 35, here’s your second chance to do so.
Of course, this only counts if you keep this route split (if you got the kills before, don’t worry about it).



While this is a combined force of Amalgam and Successor troops, the enemy AS are too fragile to be an issue.








Just plow through them and the focus on the batch of Sekishikis and Rokurens.



Considering the game gave enough room to deploy everyone, I might as well make Saburouta useful.



Gai can’t get close enough to kill it, so it falls on Ryouko.












Either way, Mao can only hit Yu-Lan so she gets a small attack in.



Yu-Fan is late to battle due to machine troubles.
Gates reminds them what their stupid Teacher told them about checking their machines BEFORE the battle starts.
He quickly corrects himself for badmouthing him in front of them, explaining that he's still in a bad mood after losing his Tekkaman; what he needs to do is make a girl or two scream to improve his mood!
Yu-Lan thinks to her absent sister that she hates this guy.



Yu-Lan's middling Shadow is still surprisingly bulky...



Up top, Duo will show the Nadesico folk how things should be done.














There wasn’t even need for Ryouko to have weakened it.



On the southern flank, Aki is leading the Tekkamen as she cuts a Shadow in half.



Allowing Yumi to pick an easy kill.














Like so.





Sommer and Blade tag-team a nearby Savage.



While Kazuma gets to work on the Shadow behind Yu-Lan.



Even with accelerate, Lowe can’t get close enough to swing his sword.
It’s no problem, though.














RED! FIIIIINGEEEEEEEEERRRRRRR!



Enemy Phase!



Yu-Lan tries to be clever and chain the entire Mithril squad but overlapping friendship bonuses and command auras cut her chances down to size.








Hey, it’s free damage.



Kazuma gets attacked twice and he easily takes them both down; this gives him level 45!



And at this level, Kazuma learns his final spirit command: Love (for 90 SP, user gains the effects of Accelerate, Strike, Alert, Valor, Spirit, Gain and Luck!)



Moving along, the remaining Amalgam mooks, a pack of Mistrals, are already getting bashed.



Of course, their range means we have to rely on our weaker attacks.












Bah.



Player Phase!





The first weakened Mistral is taken by Ryouko, which gives her a level and teaches her final spirit…Strike (quite the contrast with Kazuma, huh?).



Kazuma attacks Yu-Lan but I also set him at the front lines, if only to allow him to start countering the Successor troops.



Aki takes it upon himself to take away nearly all HP she had left.



After killing that Mistral, I set Kurz and Mao further up ahead.



Their proximity allows for Clouseau to move over and call for their new combination attack: Uruz Special!





Yu-Lan is worth a Large Magazine and an Prevail+1.





As that happens, she receives a signal from her sister, whom she was still in touch with; she announces that her mech is having mechanical troubles and leaves the battlefield.
Gates shakes his head at this, and wonders if he ought to sell those useless sisters off to someone instead.



As the battle rages outside, it becomes audible to Tessa and Kaname, who seem to be imprisoned with no guards immediately in sight.
Though in a bad situation, they want to believe it’ll all end well seeing how Neo-Wärter and Sousuke are coming to rescue them.



That changes when the Martian Successors arrive, prepared to take no guff from the girls and preparing to send both girls to "him" on the double.
Before Tessa is taken away, the girls ask each other whether they believe in Sousuke to save them.



Before Kaname is taken to join Tessa, the Amalgam man who kidnapped her apparently has something to say to her...



Sousuke and Genichirou have infiltrated the enemy base, and tell Akito to hurry ahead while they hold the bad guys off here.



Meanwhile Leonardo, the Amalgam man, is talking to Kaname but making little sense to her; he wonders their meeting here, wondering if it was fate that made this encounter happen in such a way.
He says that they are the same and, normally, he would rescue her from this situation but, sadly, it is not so – whether this encounter happened or not, her predicament would’ve remained the same.
Kaname tells him to stop his confusing speech and he tells her that overstating things with fallible words, as is her wont, is just as bad as what he's doing, though it makes her attractive too; Kaname suddenly realizes from the man's silver hair that this must be Tessa's brother, Leonardo Testarossa, also known as Mr. Silver.
The Successors tell him that his time is up, but Leonardo turns that phrase back on them.



Right then, Yu-Lan appears with guns blazing.
Her teacher has told her to erase Kaname, which Leonardo was expecting.



In fact, he left the Whispered alone precisely to lure her in, and he has Hokuten take her down.





After Hokuten is done, being the actual buyer, he prepares to drag Kaname off to help with his whole destruction and chaos thing.
Kaname tells him he didn't have to kill the girl, but he tells her that Yu-Lan's death was as nothing compared to the events to come; Kaname is appalled at Hokuten's disregard for human life but Leonardo is curious at why that is, considering her “boyfriend” is just the same.
She insists that Sousuke isn't in the same boat: he fought simply because it was his only choice since childhood but he always fought against the bad people and always tried his best to protect those who are innocent or important to him.
Unlike Leonardo and Hokuten, he does not take pleasure in murder – he’s a soldier, not a murderer.



Leonardo wonders if she really believes that, saying her perspective is biased from the love she feels towards Sousuke – however, she keeps denying that she loves or even likes him.
Leonardo makes to kiss her, saying that he's now fallen in love with her.





Sousuke arrives just in time for Hokuten and Leonardo to leave the building, fleeing via Boson Jump.
He only has time to scream to the girls and promise that he will rescue them, no matter what.
Sousuke then radios in and orders the Arbalest to be launched right quick, telling Harry to fuck the order prohibiting him from using it.







Ruri complies and, as Sousuke boards the Arbalest, tells Kaname to wait – he’ll come for her.
Kurz is glad to see the fire back in his eyes and Clouseau is tentatively impressed.





Lapis shows up with Akito's mech to aid in pursuit and Gates is quite eager to add his red into this fight with the Black and White units.



Yu-Fan also joins the battle, mentally telling her sister that she'll be following her shortly.
She's determined to take Sousuke out first though and he ready to destroy anyone that tries getting in his way.





Clouseau was right: this is a whole bunch of teen drama.
Either way, we get to work on the Successors, Duo and Vesna leading the way.



Might as well give Saburouta some screen-time (god knows, it just might be his last).










Meh.



Leave it to the actual good units to finish the job.



Sommer catches up to Vesna and further weakens her Sekishiki.



Which allows for the newly-arrived Sousuke to move in.








Mind you, despite his determination to rescue the girls, he STILL refuses to use the Lambda Driver.





Moving ahead, Blade and Yumi each pick a different Sekishiki.



Gai is only able to reach the healthier of them…he’s not gonna get the critical hit he needs, is he?








Of course not.



Enemy Phase!



Valguard, still a battleship, does wonders to draw attention to himself.










That’s some surprisingly high damage from the mook…gotta love the broken size modifiers.



Gai is attacked by a Rokuren but both attacks fail to connect.




Back at Valguard, things are still the same.



That smartass Rokuren tries to pull a chain-attack from out of countering range.



I’m glad that Sekishiki decided to stay put.










I’ll get right back to this.












Akito gets jumped by one of the mooks that Hokuten came out with.
This one is actually carrying some goodies and if Akito kills him, we don’t get anything.



Gates pulls a chain-attack of his own but only Valguard was hit.



There goes Akito.



Player Phase!




Quatre has been slowly making his way over and finally gets in range of something.
However, even with focus, he gets screwed by the RNG.



Next in line is Trowa. I parked him near Quatre for the friendship bonus and he has Iron Wall going.










Hm. That works somewhat.





At the main battle, Kurz and Mao attack different units – Mao’s target is already damaged and easily killed.



Moving right along, Blade’s three buddies didn’t care to move out of MAP range.










It kills both weakened Sekishiki and Rokuren, leaving the remaining one around half-dead.



Lowe is still doing his thing.



As for the Sekishiki that Kurz attacked, Kazuma splits off to quickly deal with him.
















Boom.



With a quick dosage of Spirit, Yumi is able to toss a Valored MAP at nearly all remaining units.
















She only takes one kill but I wanted to use this mostly to weaken everything else.



That one kill is enough to bump her and Hayato up a level (she learns Prevail L5).





This other Rokuren is also carrying goodies. Gai then relieves him of a Large Generator and Gunfight+1.





As for the other one, Sousuke is the only one close to enough to intercept.
He grabs a level, an Apogee Motor and Infight+1.



Reaching level 44 makes Sousuke the first person to learn the Spirit Command Soul.
This is, essentially, Valor on steroids: for 60 SP, it’ll boost your damage by x2.5.


Now, I think this is a good enough spot to end things. While we only have Gates and Yu-Fan to deal with, this mission is far from over.

Ever wonder how things are going in Paris? We might get an inkling come next update.

See you all then!