Part 16: Mission 5 - Mecha-World, Mecha-nism, Strange Beasts - Part 2

The explosions are all thanks to the mechabeasts of the international terrorist Dr. Hell.



Kaname's about had enough, but Ashura's just getting started.
He praises Gaogaigar's phenomenal attack, but presumes Gai is now too depleted to fend off Dr. Hell's little present.
Gai tells Ashura to shut saying, saying that they’ll never submit to his evil.
He quickly tells Mamoru to take the Zondar Metal victim and withdraw.



Ashura offers Gai this one chance to kneel at his feet, in return for which he promises a painless death, but Gai isn't about to do that.



Neither are Kouji or his friends, saying that none of them would kneel at Ashura’s stinking feet!







Gai’s worried about the state of Kouji’s mecha's, though.
Kouji offers his thanks but neither he, nor Tetsuya and the others can just sit by and watch things go on; Ashura is feeling confident that he can take on both Mazingers, seeing how he’s already destroyed the Getter but as long as Kouji is alive, they will never give up on their fight.
Gai agrees, saying that as long as there are people with such evil and hatred in their hearts, they will fight on until they’re destroyed!
Ashura has had enough of their lip and orders his Mechabeast squad to destroy them – Kouji, Boss and Sayaka are eager to fight, if only to get revenge for the Getter Team and invite Ashura to see the power of the Super Robot Army.


Now we get the classic-ish Mazinger team fighting alongside the awesome Fire Wars tune. There’s the slight problem of how they’re all damaged as Gai mentioned – they start this fight at 80% HP. Here’s a quick overview of the units we got:



Boss and his Boss Borot are…yeah. They are purely there for the comedy. Their stats are terrible, the mech is weak and unreliable (anything short of a weak punch has an increasingly hefty morale requirement AND his best attack kills him!).

If you use him, use him as a support since he has both Repair and Ressuply modules, Boss’s co-pilots have some useful spirits and, if he dies, it’s no problem since it’s a measly 10G to fix it.



Sayaka and her Aphrodite A are as pure of a support character/unit duo are you can get.

She can’t attack worth a damn but she has many very useful support spirits (most important of all, the Bless Spirit which doubles the money the target unit makes on its next attack) and a crapton of SP to make use of them.

She has a Repair module too but be careful getting her to the front lines because she can’t take a hit worth a damn.


Now on to the attackers and two of the grandads of mecha anime:





Kouji and Tetsuya are rather similar to Gai Sishioh. They’re melee focused but they exchange the evasiness for a HUGE amounts of defense – the Mazinger bots are some of the most defensive ones in the game and they don’t slack off when attacking either.

Both Kouji and Tetsuya have Attack-based Spirits and both know Iron Wall (This command reduces all incoming damage to ¼ for the entire turn). You can send them off into a pack of enemies and watch them tear them apart while taking piddly damage from them.


Now, here are the enemies we’re fighting:



Mechabeast Doublas M2 is the ranged attacker of the starter mechabeast models. It’s defenses are lower (1250) than the others and he has slightly less HP but still plenty (5800).

Their best attack is a Photom Beam with 2-5 range but weak power and accuracy.

These are the weakest type of mechabeasts but they can be an annoyance as they’ll be sniping out and not moving close whenever possible.



Mechabeast Garada K7 are slightly stronger, melee-based mooks. They have more HP (6000), defenses (1300) and are more dangerous. Their strongest attack is a 1-3 range, post-movement, attack where it slices with its horns (it’s got a +40% accuracy modifier, so watch it).

Most times, they’ll try to zerg and surround you to keep slashing but they are generally weak and aren’t a big threat.


Thanks to Mister Olympus for providing the proper name of the Mechabeasts.


Finally, the “boss” of the mission and the only unit that poses a threat: Ashura.


He has 30000 HP, 1400 armor and strong attacks. Nevertheless, he’s not a big problem since he IS an early game boss.
Take special note that all his 3 attacks have accuracy modifiers: The weakest has +40%, the second has +30% and the strongest has +20%. Don’t get too close without planning or he’ll tag you with something.

If you keep your distance and only come close when it’s time to swarm him with your guys, he’ll go down quickly (he does have Prevail L2 so he’ll get slightly stronger as you wear him down).


Now, let’s go back to the fight.
First things first, though. We don’t want to keep the ‘Zingers HP like this so let’s have both Boss and Sayaka step up close to repair them some:




There we go. Now, we’re gonna prove our manliness and sit tight to let the enemies divide themselves up going after the GGG team down south and the Mazinger team up north (we don’t want Ashura taking potshots at us while we clean up the mooks).



Enemy Phase!



As expected, they start spreading out to cover both teams and this guy didn’t get the memo to stay away from the goddamn Gaogaigar.



: No one can overcome my cyborg body and the G-Stone's courageous radiance!
: Behold the might of GaoGaiGar!












Nope.

Another one comes over at range which allows me to show off the Broken Magnum. Click the image below.




Not bad. Also…PUROTECTO SHAAAAAAAAAAAAADO!

…Sorry but Gaogaigar lines are so satisfying to yell out.



Player Phase!



Let’s start this turn with the GGG group. I’m gonna send Volfogg up to finish the K7 Mechabeast that Gai weakened.



Now, I’m moving Gai over to that building not only to get him into attacking range but to take advantage of the +10% Evasion/Accuracy bonus it provides.
I always love when Gai dodges stuff that he shouldn’t be able to dodge.



Chouryujin got a nice experience boost from the Zondar kill so I’ll only use him to soften up the last full-health mechabeast M2 down here.



Kouji has plenty of SP and there are four mechabeasts close by. Let’s use Iron Wall and get him close enough to counter everything and still be outside of the range of Ashura’s missiles.



We’ll start off with a Breast Fire (BREEEEAAAAASTO FIIIIIIIYAAAAAAAAA!) to this K7. Click the image below.



: Come on, Mechabeast! I'll fight you for Ryou, too!


That’s the power of Mazinger + Iron Wall.



I’ll let Tetsuya hang back for now and attack that M2 with his Thunder Break. Click the image below.



: You're in for trouble if you think I'm as green as Kabuto!
: If you come at me, you'd better be ready!


No problem.



Even less so because Boss heals him right after.



Ya know, that M2 is just sitting there and he can’t counter. Let’s have Sayaka weaken it with her missiles.










Yup, she shot those out of her mech’s…yeah. Either way, it’s free damage.



Enemy Phase!



You feel like trying again, eh? Poor sap.



And you, too.












Away with you, peasant.



The weakened K7 goes after Kouji wanting revenge. Click the image below to see it.




Denied.



Ashura starts getting pissed at our resistance.
Kouji tells him/her to give up, we’re not going to lose this battle – Ashura decides to call his bluff and summons his hidden backup of mechabeasts.





Boss’ cronies, Nuke and Mucha, start panicking over the amount of enemies.
Boss calls them both idiots, saying that, with the GGG units and Kouji here, they can still pull a victory but even Kouji is annoyed at Ashura’s persistence.
However, Gai tells them to worry not because they’re not in this fight alone.



Everyone gets deployed as close to land as possible, specially Duo and Quatre who can’t fly.




Right on cue the Valstork Family and friends arrive to lend a hand.
Volfogg also quickly identifies two Preventer Gundams and Gai is thankful for Taiga’s foresight in hiring them.
Kazuma is a bit cowed by all the hot blood on display ("humanity will not give into your evil!!!", “Our courage will lead the way to victory!”, etc ).
Duo introduces both Mazinger and GGG team to him and Mihiro asks if Kazuma is OK: he’s fine, just getting hot-blooded as well!



Kazuma feels a lot of admiration for these guys, unfaltering even against a large enemy, and his Tension has, once again, hit the “red zone”.
Bless tells him to be careful, though, as this is his first battle in gravity – Kazuma understands and promises to take care.
However, it's not all wine and roses.




Ashura, ready for such a reversal, grabs Sayaka's mech with his and yells/laughs at Kouji that, if he doesn’t want anything to happen to her, he better kill his allies.
Kouji is now torn on what to do, but Volfogg and Gai quickly devise a plan and tell Kouji to do what Ashura asks and fight the rest of your dudes for real.
Kazuma quickly protests over him turning on us like that and, though Kouji doesn’t like it at all, he’ll trust in his friends – as such, he’s gonna fight with everything he has!



Bless tells Kazuma to do the same, insisting that a chance to turn the tables will come.
D-Boy, done sulking per se, wishes he could somehow help here too, which makes Bernard think that, as they both focused on the Radam threat, they had completely ignored what was going on down here.
They had to place such a heavy burden on that Mazinger boy and now they can only trust things will turn out alright.



With this, the Maziner turns into an enemy unit and the Win Condition changes to shoot him down.

Since it’s still the enemy turn, the new mooks proceed to fan out once more.



This one starts by coming after Gai with his weakest attack…












How shameful.



Hm, this one is a smarter and guns straight for Noin. I’m not even gonna try to dodge since she’s underwater.



That M2 Chouryujin weakened before comes after him; he takes a decent hit but it’s fine.



Damn it, why did I deploy her? Noin’s attracting everything since her Taurus sucks so much!



I’ll just have Tetsuya defend because I don’t want him wasting EN with a Thunder Break now.



Gai gets one more on him and weakens it while dodging.



This one here figures Quatre will make an easy target.










Nope, he’s better than Noin so he has no problems dodging underwater.



Urgh…this will make things more annoying. Kouji coming into the water will make him more resistant to a lot of our attacks.

Nevertheless, let’s see how Quatre does.










Ok. That’s fine.



Player Phase!

First order of business is to get Kouji out of the water so we can do some decent damage.



Let’s move Quatre up top to finish off a weakened M2 and see if we can set up some bait for Kouji.








Nice! Quatre gets a level and learns Bless.



Now, let’s use Accelerate and Focus and send Noin FAR out of the water, so the mooks can stop hanging out there. She might as well weaken something for the GGG guys to kill.



Let’s also use Accelerate and Focus with Duo to get him out of the water and maybe set him up as a Mazinger bait, too. While he’s at it, he can kill the M2.










With the added bonus of getting a level, too.



Bless uses Invincible and Horis uses Accelerate. Time to get the Valstork closer to the front lines.



I might as well give Noal and Aki a kill since they’re there.








That’ll work.



Now, I’m gonna split the Dragon Brothers out and send Hyoryu up to attack the one that Noin weakened. With Enryu’s support, he takes the kill.



Boss’s lackey uses Trust to heal the damage the Zondar did to Gai.



Volfogg weakens the target a bit.





Gai takes it down, moving closer to the Mazinger and getting a level.



Back with the Dragon Brothers, I combined them back into Chouryujin using Enryu and I move it over to finish another of the Mechabeasts Gai weakened during their phase.



Kazuma (with Focus) flies by Ashura to weaken the M2 sitting there.










Very good.



Now, we still want Kouji to come out around Quatre’s position because that’s a whole lot closer to our GGG group. Let’s move Tetsuya and Boss to that spot, too.

With Quatre and Boss there, Kouji SHOULD come out of the water to go after them (The only attack that could reach them from that distance is his 2nd weakest, Rust Hurricane).



Enemy Phase!



This M2 doesn’t come out of the water but that’s expected.



Oh, hell no.












His rebuttal comes in the form of pain.



So far, so good. That underwater K7 comes out to take a swing at Duo.



Perfect. Kouji also comes out of the lake and goes for Tetsuya.
That Breast Fire may hurt a bit but let’s counter with Thunder Break.



: Heh. Tetsuya. I never thought we'd have to fight like this.
: Kabuto...
: Don't hold back, Tetsuya! I don't have that luxury!
: This is gonna be the first and last real Mazinger fight!














I believe that dodge to be a sign of peace of the RNG gods.



Player Phase!



Let’s move Bless closer to Ashura in preparation for our inevitable throwdown.

Those two leftover Mechabeasts are no threat, so I’m gonna focus on Kouji with whomever’s close.



Kazuma goes in first.

: Sorry! I know you came to help me.
: We're still going to. We'll save your girl, I promise.
: You're all right, buddy. What's your name?
: Kazuma Ardygun.
: I'm Kouji Kabuto! Hope to see you around!










It’ll take a while to blow through Kouji’s defenses but we’ll get there.



Volfogg is too far away to do anything so I’m having him kill off that weak K7.



Focus with Duo and let’s send him after Kouji.








Hm, I was hoping for a crit. Oh well.



Quatre’s turn.
That yellow health triggers Kouji’s Level 3 Prevail so things are gonna get slower now.



With Iron Wall on Tetsuya, I think it’d be best to not use Thunder Break again and instead use Breast Burn.
He’s running low on EN and I’d rather avoid having to ressuply him with Quatre and lose the morale. Click the image below to see it.




That works.



Boss heals him up for good measure.



Gai is too far away to go after Kouji, too. I tried to have him kill this Doublas but the water kept it alive.



So there!



Enemy Phase!



Kouji again goes after Tetsuya and I use a cheap Atomic Punch to counter.

Ashura is still sitting on his/hers ass even though we’ve destroyed all of his/hers troops.



Player Phase!



Let’s weaken Kouji a little bit more. Hopefully, that 30% hit chance won’t bite me in the ass.


OW.



Shihomi to the rescue with Trust.



With Kouji down to a sliver of HP, let’s give Tetsuya Gain.




And finish him off. Click the image below to see it.




Neither Gai nor Boss got a chance to attack Kouji but they do have lines against him:

-Gai Vs. Kouji-
: Kouji... hang in there. Baron Ashura has to slip sometime, and then we'll strike!
: I'm counting on you, Gai! Try to dodge my attack!
: (It's up to you, Volfogg... we need them if we want to turn this around...)

-Boss Vs. Kouji-
: Kabuto, I... I...
: Don't you cry on me now, Boss! We gotta save Sayaka!
: We'll fight until Ashura makes a mistake, and then we'll get 'em!



Kouji realizes that even the mighty Mazinger can't stand up to our guys' punishment.
Gai calls out to Ashura that the Mazinger is disabled and demands that he releases Sayaka…which Ashura, predictably, refuses to do.





In fact, he wants the last thing Kouji sees to be him killing Sayaka before killing him!





It is then that Volfogg gives the signal and Mao and Kurz show up with Ashura lined up in Kurz’s sights. Click the image below to see it.







Kurz scores a perfect sniper hit on the hinge of Ashura's cargo hatch, opening it and letting Mao dart in and rescue Sayaka.
Even Duo and Quatre are amazed at the Mithril agents' work, and an infuriated Ashura orders a retreat now that Mazinger is demolished.



But it's not quite demolished yet, and neither is Kouji, who vows to risk his life if need be to take Ashura down.
Kouji tells Mazinger that he's made it a demon by fighting his own side, and thanks it for all the battles it's fought by his side. He now asks it to lay down its life with him, since combat is now impossible, and thereby exact vengeance on Ashura.





As the Photon Power mounts, Kouji bids his farewells and Bless hastily orders a full retreat.
The Mazinger explodes right after.









Afterwards, Gai apologizes for not being of any more help.
Boss is heartbroken for not being able to prevent Kouji's death, but Tetsuya has no time for that.
When our guys returned to the battlefield, Mazinger’s corpse was nowhere to be found which means someone took it – and that someone is likely Dr. Hell.
No doubt this man, with the brain of a demon, has some nefarious purpose in mind, and you'll have to try to stop it without Kouji's help.



Tetsuya tells everyone to get back to repairing their mecha to prepare, while he heads back to the Photon Power Lab.
He notes that he won't be able to take Taiga's recommendation after all but Gai understands: what’s important now is for Tetsuya to focus on Dr. Hell.



Inside GGG’s Headquarters, Taiga regretfully hears the news of Mazinger and Kouji's loss from Freeman, who worries that the decreased warpower will impede their plans.
Taiga has some ideas about that, and tells them to leave the negotiations to him.



He's got a few favors to call in and Hyuuga Geki (Big guy with the glasses) knows those are favors that Hawkeye won't dare refuse.



Leo (Old scientist man with the big mustache and Gai’s father) tells Freeman that the item he designed looks like it's feasible, and Honda and Levin are already at work on it.
The grateful Freeman doubts that anything other than GGG's expertise with super-AIs could have pulled it off in any reasonable amount of time.
In any case, the time has come to go greet the new arrivals, including the representative from Mithril due any moment.



The time has come for the big plan to commence: Project W.
No more time for shedding of tears, when the future of the planet hangs in the balance.
Lady Une is worried about more than just that...if the girl Duo and Quatre were checking up on in the colonies is used for evil, the Earth will once again be plunged into chaos.



Aboard the Tuatha De Danaan, Tessa (That’s the white-haired girl) and Kalinin muse over the rough start Sousuke is off to.
Even Kalinin, who had hoped he'd gain some valuable experience, figures that this was beyond what he expected.
Sousuke, equipped to deal with everything including getting slapped by a civilian, also got to tangle with Zondar and Dr. Hell.



To Tessa's delight, he's still on the job though, and both agree it was a good idea to have Mao and Kurz on station in the area.
The one thing Kalinin isn't sure about is fulfilling GGG's request, but Tessa, a full colonel, says that things are evolving far faster than the folks back in the war room could have imagined.
Only by cooperating with the other organizations can Mithril hope to carry the day, and working with the GGG may well conclude the three soldiers' missions all the sooner.


And that will make Whispered candidates like Chidori Kaname all that much safer.
Only for as long as they're useful, unfortunately...Tessa can only hope that Taiga lives up to his reputation as she tries negotiating with him.



Mao notes in her log that the "Angel" has been sent home along with her pet, which set back the schedule an hour.
Sousuke then returns to base, to get grilled by the jealous Kurz about what it's like to guard the beautiful high school girl.
Too bad for Kurz there's no way he could hope to blend in as a Japanese high school student, and he grouses that there's only so much he can stand to hang out inside his invisible AS at a stretch.
He claims to be all stressed out from avoiding stepping on old guys or running into buildings, but Sousuke points out that it was their presence that saved everyone from the Zondar.



Indeed: this G-Island city is about to become the epicenter for ten kinds of death and mayhem before all is said and done.
Good thing Kalinin thought to give them a couple AS's, huh?
As for the Angel, Kaname, she's on the phone to her family in America (and not in the shower or undressing as Kurz hoped).
Of course they've tapped the phone, and Sousuke listens in as part of his mission.



What he learns is that Kaname surprisingly doesn't hate his guts - he's apparently become the "interesting kid" to her.
Mao smiles at this, and recommends that Sousuke concentrate on tending to his wounds.
At this rate, tomorrow's going to be another rough day.
Sousuke's actually looking forward to it, having found this a most worthwhile job after all.



Somewhere near Tokyo, Pasdar summons forth his Four Machine Kings:



Polonaise and Primada (That’s the woman general)



Pizza(Big-nosed general) and Penchinon.



Pasdar tells them of a meeting between those obstructing their plans, all under one roof in G-Island City.



Penchinon has a plan for dealing with that: Inubousaki, whose pent-up stress can surely destroy the GGG.
Pizza likes the plan, and says that he's got someone he wants to meet in person too.
Regardless, Pasdar tells them to hurry, since the Radam and Eviluders have already begun their invasion, they must finish their Zondar Metal Plant and Mechanize the planet at once.
He promises the weak-hearted ones of Earth that they will feel his power...