Part 133: Mission 38 (Orb Route) - His and Her Problems - Part 2
Alright, let’s get this done quick-like. I don’t know if we can take Gates down this turn but we can certainly get Yu-Fan.
That’s good enough, I say.
I try to have Sousuke deal with her but…
: That AS…it’s the one that was targeting me in the previous fight…
: Sousuke Sagara…I’ll kill you…! This is for my teacher!
It doesn’t work very well.
A Double Voltekka will make short work of that last bit of HP.
Boom.
Yu-Fan is worth a level, a Megabooster and a BP+1.
: This is it…*Yu-Fan starts to move away.*
: HEEEY, Yu-Fan! Where do you think you’re going?!: I won’t return to the organization anymore…
: Goddamn! Everyone’s just doing whatever the hell they want! : AAAAAAAAARGH! THIS MAKES ME SO MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!
Enemy Phase!
Gates tries a chain attack but only picks protected people.
: Now, then! DEFENSE! DEFENSE!
: …: The pitcher is nervous! Hey, heeeey! : …: Game over…wait, not yet! NOT YET, NOT YET!: Disappear…: What the hell?! You're such a party pooper!
As for Akito, he swings over and does a decent bit of damage.
Player Phase!
I really miss Volfogg. Also, I expected more from you Saburouta (I even had cast Analyze to reduce Gates’ evasion!).
Time to break out the big, barrier-piercing guns.
Getting better.
I just spent all of Gai’s remaining SP on a batch of Strike, Valor and Invincible.
He pulls some nice damage coupled with an assist from Aki.
I’ll leave the kill for Aki, as I’m trying to get both her and Pegas II to learn their last spirit commands.
You go, girl!
Gates is worth a couple of levels, a Hyper Sensor and a Max SP+5.
Sadly, no new spirit commands are learned.
Considering his self-imposed nerf, I didn’t get around to having Sousuke attack Gates.
Their conversation is very short, though:
: We meet again, Arbalest! Let’s have a little fun today!: Shut up. I don’t have time to deal with you. 
Right as he gets smacked around, a bunch of the Mechabeasts appear – including a couple new models that we didn’t see even at Dr. Hell’s fortress.
: C-captain! There’s an incoming message from Paris that’s being transmitted to the entire world!
: Hear me, foolish humans!: I am the Great General of Darkness! The surface is now under my domain as the general of the Mycenae Empire!! 
: Mycenae Empire…?!
: They’re a new threat…?!: We have already captured your leaders who were at the UN conference…: And Mazinkaiser, your last hope, is finished!
: What?!
: It’s true – he’s transmitting an image of Mazinkaiser lying on the ground!: As a display of our power, I’ve sent my 7 Generals and our army of Battle Beasts across the world! : Tremble before our strength, humans! There is only one way for you all to survive!: Hand over all 4 remaining Q-Parts to us!: We can’t! We don’t know what’ll happen when the other Q-Parts are together!: You have 24 hours! Until then, you’ll taste the power of my Mycenae Empire! *The Mycenae troops start attacking.*
: Th-they’re attacking!: Right when the transmission ended, Battle Beasts in various placed started to attack!: FANTASTIC! WONDERFUL! BEAUTIFUL! Let the party begin!: With this, the entire world will go crazy! Our age is finally here!!
: You won’t escape…!
: Stop, Sagara! Right now, our squad must protect Orb from the Mycenae before anything else!
: You monsters! I won’t let you do as you please with Orb! : Damn it! Gai, Kouji and the others were in Paris – how did this all happen?!Now, the Mycenae troops bring a new kind of mook with both Battle Beasts:
First off is Dante but there’s not much to talk about. Aside from having two decently powerful attacks and a level in both Support Skills, he doesn’t come with a whole lot of tricks.
Treat him as a generic elite mook, really (a far cry from the annoyance he could be in Alpha Gaiden).
Such is not the case with the MUCH more dangerous Psychoveia who is loaded to the brim with horrible status inflicting weapons.
He’s got three attacks, the first two are post-movement but with small-ish range (1-4 and 1-3) and his strongest is a pre-movement 3-8 range attack; respectively, their effects are Reduce Weapon Power by 50%, reduce Movement by 50% and, the worst of all, reduce Morale by 10 and drains 30 SP.
Fortunately, the unit is rather inaccurate and has weak defenses but take special care when sending slow units near it – keep in mind that he also has a level in both Support Skills and the +30% Accuracy bonus when support attacking can compensate for his weakness.
No time to waste, so we use boost Valguard with Iron Wall, Accelerate and Assail, and send him on intercept course.
: So, Dr. Hell was using the remains of an ancient civilization to make his mechabeasts...: Looks like these Mycenae folks were the civilization.
: Can we even win, brother…?!: Don’t worry, Mihiro! If these guys really came from the underground, I’m just gonna knock them all the way back down! 
Gotta kill that sumbitch quickly.
Yumi also gets sent down there in case I need to work a MAP.
: I’m not scared…I’m not afraid of stuff like this! I won't lose to any evil robot monster!
Those Draco Omega Mechabeasts have long since stopped being an issue.
Of the Gundam Wing folk, Duo is the only one that can move closer – just in range to kill Yumi’s target.
: Tch…if they’re blitzing every major city in the world, their army must be huge. 
: Still, even against a large army, it’ll be over if we sever its head.
: Their commander is in Paris…! We have to wrap this up quickly and head there to help Gai and the others!
Aye, we’ll clear this up soon.
Sommer is the last available attacker.
Enemy Phase!
Five mechabeasts decide to attack Valguard. He shrugs off all damage, while heavily wounding three and killing two with lucky critical hits.
Dante, however, decides to go for Blade.
: Their power far exceeds that of the mechabeasts! I’ll fight them with speed, then! 
That works for me!
Ah…on that last mechabeast, I forgot to turn off Yumi’s support defend. Whoops!
Still, the thing died on the counter-attack, so there’s no problem.
Player Phase!
Hey, remember that Cagalli is still here? In her painfully SLOW M1 Astray?
: Orb is our country and we’ll protect it with our own hands!
: As expected from the daughter of the Lion of Orb! 
: Do it, Ms. Cagalli! 
: We’ll follow your lead!: Alright, let’s go! I’ll show you how Cagalli Yula Asuha fights!
There, now she got some screen time. I would’ve used her earlier if not for the fact that the M1 has a very low movement and attack range – meaning that we killed everything while she was slogging to keep up with the main group.
The Nadesico is lagging a bit behind on levels. Dante should fix that up.
Well, I guess I didn’t need to use Valor.
A valored Double Voltekka is more than enough to take down a Draco.
Thus giving Vesna a level, Prevail L5 and her final spirit command: Attune.
Only one Draco left and Lowe will deal with him.
: I’ve been fighting monsters like the Radam and Eviluders for a while but these guys are on a whole new level!
Last but not least, the Psychoveia is taken by Duo.
Sadly, Sousuke was too far away due to the events to manage to attack something:
: They’re tough…! Their destructive power far surpasses that of a mechabeast!
Harry confirms that all Mycenae monsters are destroyed but both Amalgam and Successor groups have long since left our radar coverage.
Ruri says that there's no further point in lingering here, adding that although we weren't able to save the girls, a ray of hope has been reborn.
Akito isn’t feeling particularly jolly about this Pyhrric victory and only stays behind when called out by Ruri and Kazuma.
Even though he did stay, he seems hesitant to talk; eventually, though, he tells us that the Successors hope to use the Whispereds' knowledge to unlock the secrets of the Mars Ruins, and when they do, Kusakabe will launch all-out war using the full power of Boson Jumps.
This will be a sort of mass-scale terrorism that will plunge Earth into chaos, and before that happens, Akito has something he wants to hand to Ruri: i's his prized ramen recipe, and as she almost never does, Ruri yells out in anguish that she can't accept such a thing from him.
Our people urge him that he'll need the recipe when he gets Yurika back and starts his own restaurant, but he tells Ruri that the Akito she knew is dead.
He says he at least wants her to have some proof that he once existed, though she protests bitterly that he's just trying to sound cool.
He tells her she's wrong, and for the first time he regains his gentle tone.
Explaining that during all the experiments on him they messed with his head, he takes off his visor, revealing veins of glowing energy pulsing through his skin.
He tells Ruri that his senses, in particular his sense of taste, are ruined, and adds that he now glows whenever he experiences strong emotion - just like some stupid cartoon character.
Replacing his visor, he says that he'll never be able to make ramen for her again but Sousuke still has time to recover what he's lost, and Akito tells him it's too early to despair, as he himself has.
To add to the confusion, Harry has received a message addressed for Sousuke.
It reads: "To my beloved Sergeant Sagara. The lives of your commander and girlfriend are safe for now as 'they' must treat the Whispered delicately, after all.
Let us have a challenge to see whether 'they' can control them before you can rescue them.
I await your valor in battle.
Mr. Silver."
Sousuke has no idea who this could be, but says that our people aren't yet out of options.
He then tells his new commanding officer that he's prepared to be punished for breaking the prohibition against AS use.
Seeming satisfied with this, Clouseau tells him that he's going to undergo training from dusk to dawn; the plan is to correct all Sousuke's internal flaws before worrying about perfecting using the Lambda Driver.
As the old saying goes, "a living pup is better than a dying lion".
He orders Sousuke to get back to the ship and service his mech as our people hurry off to Paris to help with this new Mycenae menace.
As Sousuke hurries off, Mao recalls that McAllen loved that particular proverb.
Clouseau muses that Sousuke reminds him of himself when he was young, always focused inward and trying to mold himself into other people's expectations, even though by turning outward he could easily shove those expectations aside.
It's up to him whether he emerges victorious, or ends up a whipped dog on the face of your adversaries, who have built their self-deception into a hatred of the whole world, ever so gradually.
It's this slow, sure pace of deepening enmity that makes them so frightening.
He asks Mao to keep the fact that Clouseau and McAllen used to fight together from Sousuke, lest he pull his punches.
Seina goes to pay a visit to the Sahaku mansion, where she finds Wufei and Heero.
She tells them that she's more or less here to see the world from the same vantage point as Relena; Heero holds his peace, but Wufei allows her to join them.
She does point out to him that before the war between Sahaku and Asuha is decided, the world might be ended by the Mycenae.
Elsewhere, Azrael, the leader of Blue Cosmos, demands to know why Mr. Silver sold the two Whispered to the Martian Successors, those "space monsters".
Leonardo reminds the Chairman that he's not running a charity: if there's a high-paying buyer, he'll gladly pay the seller.
Azrael openly doubts this, suspecting Leonardo of acting out of his own twisted ideas; Leonardo denies this and points to his on-time delivery of Azrael's new weapon as proof.
Just provide a little anti-matter, and both the Mycenae and everyone in Paris will be toast.
Azrael sniffs that he'll let it slide, and vows not to repeat the mistake of keeping Leonardo too close to him in the future.
That's fine with Leonardo, who doesn't want to lose a valuable revenue stream; he adds that he's looking forward to the Neo-Wärter fighting on mankind's behalf.
The Valstork and Nadesico have arrived at the Bay of Biscay, having taken out four of the Mycenae's seven generals to do it.
Ruri is confident that Kouji and the others in Paris can hold the line until you can rejoin them.
We’ll get to that soon enough but let’s not spoil the happenings of the Paris route any more.
Next update, we’ll see how things got so crazy there and, finally, have SRW W’s take on the Mazinkaiser OVA Finale.
See you all then!