Part 15: Mission 5 - Mecha-World, Mecha-nism, Strange Beasts

I've come to realize that from here on out, missions are just gonna keep getting bigger and bigger.
In order to avoid making HUGE updates that can take a long while to read, whenever a mission exceeds a certain size, I'll cut it in half. So, here's the 1st part of Mission 5.


Mission 5 - Mecha-World, Mecha-nism, Strange Beasts




Sousuke and Kyouko saw the whole incident with Kaname and Penchinon from after and she’s very surprised the “old guy” summoned some robot to kill her.
Sousuke's seen pictures of these things in the briefing materials for his mission: the Zondar, whose appearances seem centered around Japan.
Mamoru knows what a Zondar is, and knows that Gai and the others are currently off at the Photon Power Lab.





Just then, the Federation’s Nerima Red Dragons squad shows up, with Akagi in command.
Despite Mamoru's (not radio-amplified) warning to stay away, the planes get too close to the Zondar and…







They quickly lose control of their mechs.
Akagi is furious that his squad, posted here to shore up things at G-Island City, can't do a damn thing, and orders everyone to pull out before things get any worse.
It’s too late, though: none of their controls are working anymore and ejecting is the only available option.


Their units, now fully possessed by the Zondar, head straight for the party before they can flee, but some unseen force stops their charge.





It's Mao and Kurz, who turn off their mech's ECS and disengages invisibility mode.



Kurz, who is glad to see that their "Angel" is safe.
He would have had to cry if even a single scratch marred her ivory skin.
Mao tells Sousuke to take Kaname and escape while she and Kurz counterattack, and Kurz really hopes that the M9's anti-Zondar measures work or this’ll be a really quick fight.



It would suck royally to have these mecha get taken over too, but Mao has faith in Tessa's handiwork.
She knows the real problem is that they can't stop the enemy boss, meaning they'll have to hold out until the GGG get back.






Luckily, one member of the GGG is already here, minding the farm: Volfogg, from GGG's intelligence branch.
He recognizes the two Mithril SRT members, meaning little need for introductions (Mao does state her callsign as Uruz 2 and Kurz’s Uruz 6).



Kaname is glad to see that the two Arm Slaves and the purple robot are on her side, but Sousuke is more interested in leading everyone to safety.
Mamoru realizes that he might be the true target, and after introducing himself to Sousuke, asks him to look after Hana-chan while he goes to do his duty.
Sousuke ponders a moment and then tells him to get going, realizing that this is no mere child, despite Kaname’s very vocal protest about letting the kid run off on his own.

This is no problem at all. Volfogg, Kurz and Mao (In M9 Gernsbacks) going up against some Zonder Crystallized M6’s and Birdmen. Let’s have a look at our folks first:



Mao is the Uruz team vice-captain and she’s quite balanced.
She has a buttload of skills which I’ll go over in her analysis. Most importantly right now: she has Command and both support skills. She’s an all-rounder, dodgy attacker – not the best but she’s quite competent.



Kurz is a sniper and it shows. His shooting skill is through the roof but it’s compensated with some piddly melee capacity.
He has Support Attack and Hit & Away (if you attack and you haven’t moved, you can do your move after). It’s good to keep him behind (or at least close) to Mao so he can benefit from the Aura.



Volfogg is our first of the GGG Brave Robots and he’s one of the best. He’s VERY dodgy (he is a ninja after all) with good skills on both melee and ranged.
All brave robots have the Hero Skill which adds a permanent bonus to your pilot’s evasion, accuracy, armor and crit rate (the effect increases with the skills level). Finally, Volfogg is a necessity when fighting enemies with powerful barriers in the early game but I’ll go over that later.


Now, let’s have a quick look at the enemies at hand:



The M6 Bushnells are cannon fodder, there only to stall the fight and give you morale. 4200 HP, 1000 armor, 95 mobility, 5 movement.
I guess they were supposed to make up for their low mobility with their S size but, since Size modifiers are broken, they’ll get demolished by anything that comes their way.
Only thing worth mentioning is that their strongest attack has a 2-7 range so they’ll hang back and snipe whenever possible.



Next, the Birdman. It’s pretty much identical to the one Youko was using (minus the “squad” attack) but with a crappier pilot. 3800 HP, 1000 armor, 110 mobility, 7 movement.
These things can be dodgy but their defenses are so weak that they might as well be wearing prayer beads and paper maché.
Use focus to get a hit in and that should be all that’s needed.



Finally, the only unit in the area that poses (slight) danger.: the EI-02 Zondar.
As you can see here, this guy’s bulky: 20500 HP, 250 EN, 1200 armor, 5 movement; also, his 2nd strongest attack has that annoying Movement-1 property (thankfully, he doesn’t use it often).

Also, look at this:



Like the Radam, the Zondar regens HP (30%) and EN(20%). However, they have another trick in the form of the Zondar Barrier. This barrier blocks out any attack that does less than 1000 damage – it’s not very annoying since most units can break that threshold but it can potentially block support attacks from weaker units.

With that out of the way, onwards!



We’ll open up by moving Volfogg right next to Mao to hit one of the M6’s (Mao will be able to Support him, too). Click the image below to see it.




No problem at all.



Next up, let’s have Mao move near Kurz so he can also Support her while she goes after another M6. Click the image below to see it.




RNG GODSSSS! Bah, at least the thing died.



Finally, Kurz weakens the other M6 before ending the turn.



Enemy Phase!



The weakened M6 guns straight for Volfogg but gets Countered and dies before doing anything.



*sigh*Like I said, they like to hang back and snipe.



Don’t disappoint me, Mao. Click the image below to see it.




That’s what I like to see.





Soon enough, Mao detects incoming units on the radar and the other GGG troops enter the area – Gai, the squad leader, thanks Volfogg for holding things at bay.
Gai and the Dragon Brothers ask the Mithril folks to leave the rest to them.



Melissa Mao favors Volfogg with her and Kurz Webber's real names, not just their callsigns, before they retreat.
Gai is surprised that Mithril’s Arm Slaves were here but Volfogg says they’ve been patrolling G-Island while camouflaged with their ECS.
They can look into that later, after they’ve dealt with the Zondar.




As the Dragon Brothers, Enryu and Hyoryu, get ready to perform their Symmetrical Docking, Gai yells out to the Zondar that they’ll now have to deal with the GGG Units.
Kyouko is surprised to see the Lion Robot once again and Sousuke lets Gaogaigar's name slip – he tries to justify it saying he read it on those military magazines.
Hana-chan keeps repeating to herself that she's not afraid, and Sousuke agrees: any warrior who can't suppress his fear is doomed to die.
Is that meant as encouragement, Kaname asks.



Affirmative.


Hell yes, Gaogaigar is awesome! Let me just finish this enemy phase so I can go over him, Hyoryu and Enryu quickly.



The RNG gods decide to screw me over again…



Once more…












Damn it.
I’m not about to tempt fate anymore, so Volfogg simply dodges the other attacking Birdman.




Player Phase!


Now, let’s go over our new arrivals:





Enryu (The Red Dragon) and Hyoryu (The Blue Dragon) are twins and, as such, are very similar to each other in most aspects.
They are good units (that will get much better as the game goes along) but they are not among the best GGG units.

Good HP and armor make up for their slight lack of evasion and they are decently strong (even more so when you abuse Simmetrical Docking to get an “extra move” per-turn).
Enryu has Support Attack and Hyoryu has Support Defend.


When they perform their Simmetrical Docking (read: Fusion Dance), they become Chouryujin:



He gets a boost to HP, armor, evasion and movement; his attacks get much more powerful.
Also the brothers pair their stats together meaning that the one with the highest value will be applied (I.e. Hyoryu had 160 Shooting when Enryu had 158: when combined, Chouryujin gets Hyoryu’s 160 Shooting).

You’re not here to see the brothers, though. Let’s over Mr. Badass himself: Gai Shishioh and his Gaogaigar!



The Gaogaigar is a beast. It’s easily the 2nd best Super Robot in the game and Gai is one of the better pilots, too.
It Is VERY bulky with 7000 HP, 1515 armor, 180 EN and 6 movement.
Pair that along with its Protect Shade barrier (which blocks out incoming damage if it's below 1400) and enemies will be hard pressed to take him down.

It also sports powerful physical attacks, taking advantage of Gai’s naturally high Melee stat.

Oh, don’t forget that all GGG units have that Hero skill giving them an even bigger boost to their units (Gai has Hero L2, even).


With all this in mind…LET’S BREAK STUFF!


Let’s open up with Enryu. Click the image below.




Good man/robot.



Now, Hyoryu. Click the image below.




Bah, I should’ve used Flash.



Gai, get in there and show them how it’s done! Click the image below.




Yeah!



Volfogg finishes off the one Hyoryu weakened.



Enemy Phase!



This punk keeps sniping at Volfogg when it’s a clear 0% chance to hit.



Woe is me; the EI-02 is coming after Gai. Let me show one of Gai’s most interesting features:







Yup. Gai is also dodgy when he needs to be.



Player Phase!



I don’t want that M6 taking potshots at me while I handle the Zondar, so I’m gonna have the brothers take him out.












That takes care of that.



Now, like I said before, all Zondar’s have a Zondar Barrier which can block out damage if it doesn’t pass a threshold.
This is why I say that Volfogg is a godsend in these early stages of the game where you don’t have many barrier-piercing attacks and have to rely on some less-than-powerful units and support attacks.
His Melting Siren attack can shut down any kind of barrier for one turn!




This will be a useful feature for a good bunch of the game.



Now, let’s send Gai in to soften him up some (I’ll use Invincible just to be safe).








Good, good. Mind you, the EI-02 tried to counter-attack but…



PUROTECTO SHAAAAAAAAADO!



Enemy Phase!



Hm, see there? He regeneraged quite a bit (6.150 HP to be precise).





Without Invincible, he can pierce the Protect Shade but we’re still good.


I showed off Volfogg’s Siren attack last turn but, truly, any of our guys in here should be capable of bypassing the barrier so I won’t use it again.


Instead, Volfogg is going in to show off his strongest attack. Click the image below.




Volfogg is not eco-friendly but his attack has the added effect of reducing the target’s Aim by 10%.

Next, let’s have Enryu smack the Zondar around some.





He dodges the counter, mind.

A good thing about Simmetrical Docking is that any of the Dragon Brothers can start it and, if you haven’t moved, the Docking doesn’t count as your move for the turn. So, like in this case, I can attack with one of the brothers and combine them into Chouryujin right after.



Before attacking with it, though, I’ll attack with Gai so he can be supported by the brothers.


HA!



Chouryujin can move in for the kill now. Click the image below.







The EI-02 Chobham Armor and a Cartridge, plus a Support Defense +1.



The Zondar isn't so easily defeated.
So long as its Core is intact, it can regenerate infinitely.
In this case, then, Gai will use Hell and Heaven to extract it! Click the image below. Don’t ask. Do it.




HELL, YEAH!





Mamoru gets called over and completes the Purification ritual.
The Zondar core joins with a person and infuses it with Zondar Metal, creating such monstrosities; with the core purified, the Metal is removed and the person is fine.



We’re not out of the woods, though, as a wave of explosions rips through the city!


That it for today, folks. Next update, we'll go through the 2nd half of the mission. See you all then!