Part 163: Mission 44 (Patrol Route) - Child of Fate - Part 1

Mission 44 (Patrol Route) - Child of Fate





Lowe takes the unusual step of dragging out his giant-sized power loader, on the theory that the Feds might take pause at the sight of his 150m Gerbera Straight.
Horis figures this accords with the Trailer maxim that "Bluffs are an ideal death-weapon for not wasting Energy."
Kazuma wonders if they should combine into Valguard, then, but Shihomi vetoes it with another maxim: "Bluffs are a death-weapon, and overusing such weapons is fatal".
Either way, the enemy quickly arrives.

If they haven’t stopped at the sight of Shin Getter, Mazinkaiser and Gaofighgar, I don’t think trying to appeal to their sense of survival will work…





Our people are puzzled to see a squad comprised entirely of older mecha, no Daggers, except for a "Gundam".
Kurogane is surprised a group with such old units would call our “bluff” like this, as we’ve already shown to be able to beat even newer units; They’re curious about the new Gundam, though, whom they’ve never seen before – Duo hasn’t seen it either but its design indicates that it’s not Colony, OZ or Zaft-made.



Zechs identifies our group and the Gundam’s pilot, Canard Pars, confirms that his feeling of who we were was right; with that, he orders us to send out Kira the Coordinator.
Kazuma asks if he’s a friend of Kira’s, Mihiro saying that she doesn’t think such a mean-looking guy would be friends with him; Canard doesn’t answer that and simply adds a threat that, if we don’t do as he says, our lives are forfeit.
When Lowe asks, Canard refuses to say why he wants to see Kira, so our people in turn refuse to tell him Kira's whereabouts.





Canard is, however, observant enough to realize that some of our people are off on other business, which probably means that Kira’s with them.
Lowe confirms that he’s not here and asks Canard to let us go.
Canard won’t do that, though; he figures he’ll take us down right now and this will serve as his declaration of war towards Kira Yamato.



Fuuryu asks why he has such hate for Kira and Canard say’s that he does this because of his reason for living.
Our people have little choice but self-defense (avoiding the cockpits, of course), and Lowe is looking forward to grabbing Canard and figuring out what he's really up to.



As people said, Canard’s troops are all made of old-school enemies; you can probably guess that this is a warm-up but we’ll get there when we get there.








For the time being, we’ll do our best to raise morale.



Gai draws first blood quite easily.



Chouryujin moves beside him and guns for another Stern Kugel.












Ooh, almost.



Gekiryujin takes it down.



And the dragon brothers learn Bravery!



Duo slices a Serpent for a good chunk of its HP.



And Heero can take it down.








These Vulcans aren’t just for show.




Shihomi moves ahead a bit and blasts another Serpent.



This one will go to Tetsuya.












Unlike Kouji and Gai, who have boosts due to their Top Ace status, Tetsuya needs a little help getting Mazin Power running.



Golion guns for the Serpent but falls juuust a bit short of oneshotting it.



Hayato has better things to do: namely, wrecking the Sol Tekkamen.










He’ll deal with them easily.



Volfogg joins the GGG group and leaves the last Stern Kugel hanging by a thread.



As for Lowe, he’ll take Golion’s Serpent.














Smash!



Kazuma doesn’t have much else to do, so he slaps a Tekkamen a bit.



Also, ReHome heals the damage taken by Valstork.



Enemy Phase!



Our target for now will be this Ortigia carrier instead of Canard, so let’s weaken him a wee bit.










It can do decent damage but it’s nothing to be worried about.



Canard is slightly impressed and figures this could be fun, making Kouji call him out for spouting such stereotypical bad guy lines.
Ryouma says he’s targeting one of our friends, which makes him our enemy but he demans he explain why he’s doing that.





Canard says he has his reasons and spilling our blood is merely a part of his plan – also, he had a pincer-attack set up while we were distracted by him.
The new reinforcements seem to be aiming straight at the ReHome, trying to take out our unguarded battleship – the ship isn’t made to sustain this much continuous fire and Liam says they’ll be in big trouble soon.






That is, until we get an extra help from Prayer: he launches the Dreadnought, with an old Zaft head attached to replace his stolen one.
Boss and Co. figure he took it from some of the junk’d GuAIZ parts the Junk Guild took when salvaging his ship – it makes sense for Boss, as they’re all Zaft Mobile Suits, so they SHOULD be compatible (Mihiro doesn’t think it works like that but…).



Lowe tries to get Prayer to stand down but the kid says that he not only has to protect the mech, he feels an obligation to help out, since we got into this fight on his behalf.
Our people won’t look a gift-horse in the mouth and simply ask him to stay close – we won’t break our promise to keep him safe; Prayer now sees why Malchio spoke so highly of our group and figures that we might be trustworthy enough to learn about the Dreadnought's secret.



Hurray, new units! We’ll use Prayer in a jiffy but, for now, it’s still the enemy’s turn.










Blah.




A Birdman and a Stern Kugel gun for the Valstork, who gets protected by ReHome and kills them with a counterattack.



Let’s see how Kouji’s luck is holding.














Very nicely, indeed.




Both Sol Tekkamen ignore Getter and go for the damaged Golion – he takes some decent hits but kills one of them back.



No way to avoid this, so let’s have Golion cut Canard’s attack power.
















Ah, yes. Canard also has something of a barrier.



That chain-attack bumped Kouji up to 130 morale, though!



Player Phase!



Golion heals the damage with some Guts from Seidou.

Now, let’s take a quick look at Canard and his Hyperion Gundam:



Canard has a crapton of stats all over the place, with a focus on his Shooting and HUGE Evasion – further boosted by his Coordinator Skill.
Hyperion has a decent bunch of mobility, armor and HP, alongside the Armor Lumiere barrier which will outright cancel any attack that doesn’t break 2000 damage.
The Hyperion also has Shoot Down and Sword Cut, which Canard can activate oftenly with his large Skill stat.



For his weapons, the Hyperion is well covered in pretty much all types of range with a good amount of power, too.
Keep in mind that the numbers above have been cut in half due to Golion, so he has two attacks with 4000-ish power – thankfully, his best attacks can’t chain people, so he’ll likely prioritize his weaker attacks during his turn.



Finally, Canard is loaded with all kinds of powerful skills:

• Sword Cut
  
• Shoot Down
  
• Shield Block
  
• Counter
  
• Coordinator
  
• Break Morale Limit
  
• Prevail L9
  
• Support Attack L2
  
• Multicombo L2

Conclusion: like many Coordinator enemies, Canard will grow stronger as the battle goes along – which means you should prioritize taking him down ASAP when necessary.
When you do need to attack him, make sure to either bring Volfogg to break that barrier or use Barrier-piercing attacks, because that Armor Lumiere paired with Prevail L9 has a big chance of blocking support-attacks or unvalored attacks.



We’ll kill the Ortigia only after we’ve gotten the cash from Canard’s ambush but we can still weaken it some.












This generic captain doesn’t have any skills worth worrying about.



Kazuma takes down the last Birdman.



Gai’s Demolition Co. starts moving east, with Mike singing along the way.




Duo and Hayato stick around the Ortigia, weakening it down a bit more.



By the by: Prayer’s Dreadnought takes upgrades from the Red Frame. Thank you, Lowe!










Sadly, the mobile suit is unfinished and offers little more than a common GuAIZ.



Either way, Hayato’s own attack leaves the Ortigia barely alive.



Enemy Phase!



Here comes the pain: two Birdmen decide to go after Gaofighgar.












Boom.




Following that, the last Birdman and a Stern Kugel go for Tetsuya.
The Stern Kugel had the hit % on his side and dodged the counter.



Couple of Stern Kugels also go after ReHome.














While the Linear Cannon is a stronger weapon, I thought the Junk Toss and Mass Driver attacks added more personality to the ship.



Tetsuya also attracts the attention of the Serpents.












That was an 81% chance to hit!
At least the second Serpent got hit…




Oi…it’s a weird day when Hayato dodges and Prayer takes it on the chin.
At least it’ll get his Prevail L6 running.



Player Phase!



Alright, enough messing around.










A Serpent and two Sol Tekkamen get killed and everything else is in the red.




Tetsuya once again gets screwed by the RNG Gods but he has Chouryujin’s support to take the kill.



Gekiryujin also needs some morale.















This last kill also bumps Tetsuya up to 130 morale.





Chouryujin takes another kill while Volfogg greatly weakens the last Serpent.



Rock the shit out of that Stern Kugel, Mike!










Fuck, yeah.





While that goes on, Lowe and Golion keep cleaning the beat-up mooks.



Alright, that’s nearly all of the Fed troops (just one Sol Tekkaman left but he ain’t worth anything); I’ll take this chance to have Prayer show off his strongest attack, Pristis Beam Reamer, against the Ortigia.



Mind you, I plan on killing both Canard and the ship with a MAP, off-screen and with a lot of save scumming, so let’s rewind and see a proper battle against emo-boy there.



By the by, as I said before, it’s good to open this battle with a Melting Siren + Wanrei combo to both disable his Armor Lumiere and debuff Canard’s mobility.









: What a pathetic mobile suit! Don’t think you can win against my Hyperion with that thing!
: Urk…If that equipment isn’t here, I cannot use Dreadnought’s true power…!













: This man is surrounded with…hatred?
: That’s right! I hate everything…!
: Kira Yamato, the world…and my own existence!!
: I do not care about what you want. However, you ARE my enemy…!











: I don’t know what’s your relation with Kira but he’s not the kind of guy that deserves to be hated like this!
: I don’t care what kind of person he is! It’s his existence that I hate!
: Shut up! All you're doing is making me more unwilling to let you meet with Kira!























: I’m the one who saved that guy’s life! I won’t let you do whatever you want with it!
: You did that? Then you have my thanks.
: What?!
: I’m the one who will defeat him! I’d be very annoyed if he died meaninglessly before I could get to him!















Lowe taunts Canard, asking how does he like them apples; Canard is slightly impressed, but not worried, and is willing to keep going.
That is, until he gets an early recall order – he has a new mission.





Before he goes, Lowe asks what’s his problem with Kira.
All Canard will say is that it has to do with how Kira was born; whatever he means by that, his hatred of Kira is as clear as an open book to Heero.
Kazuma and others wonder what’s so special about Kira’s birth to make him a target like that. (our Moon folks haven’t been to Mendel yet, so…)






Aria, who was watching our fight and observing Canard, is also interested in Kira's birth.
Like in the other path, she is VERY happy to see Mihiro and her sisters again and very eager to destroy Kazuma at the cellular level; our people figure she knows something about Kira’s birth and how it connects to Canard and, indeed, she’s been tasked with recording data on the subject.
However, she's plenty happy to take out "stupid Kazuma" before doing that, and there's no real choice but to start blasting (also, Kazuma has had enough of her calling him idiot).




Ah, well. We’ve taken her easily on the other path but this time she’s accompanied by several Database units, including those Reuses.
As always, Gai is our MVP with his Protect Wall.



Enemy Phase!



Kazuma gets attacked by a couple of Opuses.














This one hangs on but the second gets hit with a critical and dies in one go.




Golion also gets attacked twice and while the first one took a hit, the second lowered his Accuracy and evaded.



Bad move, motherfucker.










Gai gets attacked twice, either blocks or dodges and kills both Opuses with extreme prejudice.



This last kill gets the Zero System going.

Mind you, Aria isn’t moving.



Player Phase!




Quickly now, Gekiryujin chains both Golion and Kazuma’s Opus for a double kill.



This gives the brothers another level and Hero L7.

: Hm…heads up, people! We got some unknown units approaching!
: Huh?! More enemies?!



: That’s…
: The Gold Frame! But its shape has been changed again!
: They have M1s with them so that means they’re from Orb?!
: (You’ve come, Rondo Gina Sahaku…!)
: …I came to subjugate Asuha’s daughter but it doesn’t seem like she’s here.
: But that’s just fine. Your existence would eventually become a hindrance as well.
: Another person that’s looking for someone else and decides to attack us anyway?!
: Seems everyone’s taking it out on us today…!
: Quit complaining! Just think of it like another ambush!
: Socius, just the two of you should be enough to stop them.
: I’ve put an end to the restraint that prevented you from killing Naturals.
: Understood, Lord Gina.
: We were adjusted to serve the Naturals…
: Therefore, we could not escape our mental restraints in the past.
: Guys, be careful…! This guy likes to attack for no good reason!
: Hmph…People like you, who cannot comprehend grand designs…
: …All of your lives exist only to be sacrificed for the few that are worthy.
: What?!
: Rondo Gina…those are your ideals…?!
: It is the privilege of the common folk to give their possessions, their honor, and their freedom to the ruler of the world!
: After all, it is only natural that sacrifices be made for the creation of a new world!
: And that is why I won’t allow it!


Normally, the game would play Last Impression but we all know that Wufei is not who anyone would be happy to see here!



: Wufei!
: Wufei Chang…You and Heero Yui left my side and now you point your swords at me...?!
: Uzumi Nara Asuha sacrificed people for his ideals…
: And you would take the lives and freedom of the people for yours…!
: Neither of you had the justice I was looking for!
: Even now, you’re hesitant!
: Didn’t you and the Peacecraft girl once admit that it takes power to rule the world?!
: It may not be a mistake to use power to overcome troubled times…
: However, you’re forgetting the way the world works.
: What?!
: Do you really think a single man can change the world?!
: That only happens with the efforts of every living person in the world!
: What can possibly be done if you ignore all those people?!
: Your ideas are wrong, peasant. Of course, I did not expect a mere Junkman to understand!
: However, Lowe Guele has his freedom. Unlike you, he’s not bound by some pointless ambition.
: (That Mobile Suit is…!)
: A lowly mercenary and a Junkman are criticizing my opinion?!
: Enough of this nonsense! The power of my perfected Amatsu will eliminate all of you!!
: We’ve been waiting, Wufei.
: Heero…neither the world nor its people are as weak as I thought. That woman taught me that…
: So, I’ll protect the world for each human who continues to fight…!
: You’ve come a long way, Wufei.
: I’m no longer lost! Rondo Gina Sahaku! I won’t hand the world over to you!


Now, the real meat of this mission begins.
Still, I think I’m spreading my troops around well enough – GGG and Kazuma will lead the charge against Aria and everyone else will deal with Gina’s more numerous troops.

We’ll get things done, next update.

See you all then!