Part 166: Mission 45 (Patrol Route) - A Storm of Destruction Blows In - Part 1

Mission 45 (Patrol Route) - A Storm of Destruction Blows In





Lowe and Gai meet in a specified location, Lowe thanking Gai to take the risk of coming here alone – despite all that happened between them, he still needs some answers as to why Gai stole Prayer’s Neutron Jammer Canceller.
Before Gai starts answering, he tells Lowe that they both seem to have erred.





Too many people want to get their hands on the thing, and some of them have just arrived: the Martian Successors.
The captain says that it’s just as the Zaft informant told them: the unit that stole the Canceller is alone!
Lowe doesn’t understand why terrorist would be interested in it but it’s clear to Gai: they don’t want the energy crisis being solved as that’d be counterproductive to their plans.



The Successor captain claims it’s not so: they're just trying to fulfill their debt to George Glenn by aiding the Zaft.
Lowe says that the Captain would cringe if he heard this much nonsense being done in his name – the Successor captain gets startled for a second but Lowe knows that they’d never believe his words about George.
Regardless of motivations, the Earth is in bad enough shape without the Successors playing around and Lowe will not turn the other cheek to terrorists.





Gai doesn't care which side they're on - his mission from a certain man is to ensure that the Neutron Jammer Canceller isn't misused.






Gai requests Lowe’s assistance on this mission and he is only too happy to help out.
He doesn’t leave his friends hanging!



Now, this here is a complete joke made only slightly slow due to the fact that the successors may sometimes hang on with a wee bit of HP.














Like so.



The mooks’ accuracy isn’t very good but the Power Loader would still have a hard-ish time as they would’ve ganged up on it.














Which is why I made sure to bring the Flight Pack – both Astray’s mobility are high enough that they’ve no problems dodging without Focus.

Mind you, this will be just a huge clean-up while I spam both sword attacks; as such, let me just skip to the end.



Player Phase!



OK. We only have one left but why don’t we finish it off with a little something special? Astray Double Blade is only available if the Red Frame is either frameless or in Flight Pack.







The two of them make short work out of the Successor troops but Prayer and the others show up, having detected the battle.
Gai recognizes the kid as Malchio’s apprentice and mentions that the mission he got was received from the Priest himself; it seems that Malchio understood the potential risk of bringing the Canceller to Earth and wanted some insurance.
Gai explains that his mission is to destroy the gadget should it risk falling into the wrong hands; he doesn’t consider Prayer to be one of those people but he knew it’d only be a matter of time before those wrong people started acting and, as such, decided to steal the gadget to keep it safe until they were dealt with.
Lowe understands Gai’s concern but there’s really no reason for that – our team has already decided to protect Prayer and the Dreadnought, so there isn’t a risk.



Either way, it's the Neo-Wärter's job to beat down anyone who would use the Canceller for evil.
Gai supposes that it’s not like we aren’t already a major target since your team already has the Freedom and Justice; he supposed it couldn't hurt to let them have the Dreadnought, too.



Duo asks what the two other Mobile Suits have to do with the Dreadnought and Gai reveals that both units are already equipped with Neutron Jammer Cancellers of their own.
This at least explains to Lowe why Kira wouldn’t let anyone other than himself do maintenance on the Freedom; Gai (Shishioh) notices that the Kira was shouldering a much larger responsibility than we thought.
Either way, Gai asks Kazahana to transfer the key-codes to a container: in there, we’ll find the stolen parts of the Dreadnought (along with the Canceller); Prayer didn’t expect the Serpent’s Tail to have such a small child among their ranks and Kazahana gets annoyed, saying that Prayer is barely older than she is!





The argument is interrupted as George detects some uninvited guests: Zaft.
They are obviously here after both us and the container, so there’s no choice but to fight back.





“Doctor” Mikhail is surprised to run into the Junkmen in here but our people are more concerned with a new model of Zaft Gundam that’s been deployed: the Regenerate Gundam piloted by Ash Gray.
Mikhail reminds him to follow all of his orders but there’s no problem: the orders are to kill everyone, yes? He can follow that; Mikhail is now wishing he didn't have to depend on lunatics like this...
This new gundam seems to be quite the powerhouse and Duo can feel its pilot’s killer instinct from across the battlefield.
Lowe has the Re-Home retreat away from the front lines and to get working on open Gai’s container to fix the Dreadnought.



We’ll start off as usual.










Following that, everyone just moves forward towards the Zaft troops.



Enemy Phase!



Here they come.














Good man.
A GINN also attacks him but barely survives the counter.




Tetsuya gets some help from Kouji and pushes his attacker away.
All other Zaft troops (except Ash and Mikhail) move closer but don’t attack.



Player Phase!



Might as well give Trowa some love and help him catch up a bit.












I just remembered that I haven’t upgraded him much…hrm.





Kazuma chains four mooks, taking down the weakened GINN.



Kouji will start a chain from Hayato’s CGUE.












There we go.




Tetsuya follows up on Kazuma’s attack, taking down a GINN, weakened the CGUE and…missing the GuAIZ.



Keep those chain-attacks coming, Wufei.














Just one kill, with that CGUE.
Also, I just noticed that Wufei is STILL wearing Marimea’s uniform – he really likes that shorts-and-tie combo, huh?




Gai kills things, as always.



With Alert, Golion charges ahead to pull more chain-attacks.










In case you’re wondering, I’m trying to always make chains to nullify the Zaft Mook’s Support Defenses.




Duo nearly finishes the job but the CGUE hangs on – then, the RNG decides to screw him over with the GuAIZ getting a lucky hit.




Shihomi doesn’t get a critical hit, so that GINN doesn’t get blown away.



It’ll be good to get Mike a lil’ bit of morale, though.












Good, good; he also learns Hero L7 from a level up.





Heero finishes what Shihomi started, while Hayato is leading the charge against the remaining troops.



Lowe is back to his speedy self, so he pops over there and takes aim.












Boom.



Enemy Phase!



Look at this clever sumbitch…












That’ll learn yer.
Another CGUE goes for the Valstork but it wasn’t a kill, either.




Finally, the last CGUE guns for Golion but it’s under Shihomi’s protection.



Uh, oh. Here comes Ash.



: I can’t stand a man like you, who would use war to satisfy his own desires!
: My desires are all self-centered. And that’s better than that group who caused this war for their own agenda.
: Shut up, bastard! We won’t forgive either of you!















Ow.





As the battle progresses, Liam detects Canard approaching.
Lowe shouts at him that Kira STILL isn’t here but Canard says that today he’s come for our Neutron Jammer Canceller.





He wants it to make his Hyperion complete!
He quickly moves to attack the Re-Home and our people are very far away to intercept; however, Quatre sees the ship’s cargo bay opening.








It’s the Dreadnought, complete with his proper head, who comes out and fires back at Canard.
Lowe is a bit worried that Prayer is piloting in his condition but he, breathing heavily, insists that he’s fine – he wants to use the Dreadnought’s true power to help us.
Kazahana knows that they won’t convince Prayer to leave the battle, so she makes him promise to come back at the first real sign of danger; she says that he can count on his friends to help with his mission, so he needn’t feel like he must shoulder this burden alone.
Prayer thanks her and promises to do so.
While everyone tells Prayer to get close, so we can beat these folks back together, Canard sees this as another pilot that he must surpass in order to beat Kira.



Mikhail tries to capitalize on Ash’s attack.



: This operation is vital to secure Plant’s existence. Failure is not allowed…!
: The name of disease is Neutron Jammer Canceller…! I’ll extract it with my scalpel!













Thankfully, Hayato is now running a bit of Prevail and dodges.



Player Phase!





Now for a little SP investment: Kogane uses Rouse to give a 10 morale boost to both Shihomi and (more importantly) Mike.



This, in turn, allows Mike to break out the MAP Disc P!








Very nice.



Kouji gets his Mazin Power running because of it.




With that taken care of, Duo takes an assist from Hayato and cuts Mikhail nicely.



Mikhail is worth a Laminate Armor and a Multicombo +1.





Mikhail sees that this “operation” has proven more complicated than he expected and retreats before things get any worse.
Ash scoffs at the proud doctor's retreat, figuring he's better suited to saving lives than to taking them; he, on the other hand, was born to do this, always following his own heart and his heart tells him: KILL MORE! KILL FASTER!



Let’s have a quick look Ash and his Regenerate Gundam:



Ash is, bar none, the strongest Gundam opponent we’ve had so far – as always, he’s packing a zillion points in all stats, his Regenerate’s mobility is very high (140) and he has a big chunk of HP.
Mind you, he also has several tricks to use: he’s got Mirage Colloid, Phase Shift Armor, 10% HP regen (as expected) and is the first enemy equipped with a Neutron Jammer Canceller (giving him that EN Regen).
Like Gina, you’ll need to use Strike if you want to reliably hit him but, thankfully, his Armor is surprisingly low, so you can take him down quickly before he becomes a bigger pain-in-the-ass.



The Regenerate’s attacks have very high power for a boss and, more importantly, he comes with a 4000 power MAP attack which can really put the hurt if you’re not prepared for it.
He’s got no status effects but his weapons cover their ground really well – he’s got no blind-spots on his weapons but, on his turn, he’ll prioritize chain attacks.
Thankfully, like Gina, he can’t do those with his strongest attacks: Scylla and Lightcraft Propulsion (mind you, this attack bypasses barriers).


Ash has a pretty dangerous selection of skills, too:

• Sword Cut
  
• Shoot Down
  
• Hit & Away
  
• Coordinator
  
• Break Morale Limit
  
• Prevail L9
  
• Support Attack L4 (get rid of nearby mooks ASAP!)
  
• Multicombo L2

Conclusion: as with dangerous Coordinators, you’ll want to take him out in one turn to avoid him getting the added boost from that Prevail (which he’ll probably use to throw a MAP) – to make your life easier, put the Mobility -50% and Armor -30% debuffs.
His Lightcraft Propulsion is strong enough to pull good damage against Mazinkaiser and Gaofighgar, so make sure you keep people protected (unless you plan on using Ash’s damage to trip someone’s Prevail).
Do try to conserve some SP, as we still need to deal with Canard.

With that done, let’s get to work on him.



: You have the same smell as me… The smell of a human who can’t live without battle!
: Then, I’ll teach you about major difference between us…!
: Hmph…I don’t feel like listening to your stupid speech about good and evil.
: Ha…that’s not it. The biggest difference between us is that I’ll be the winner and you’ll be the loser!











: The people of Plant are just humans who make a living in Space…That’s what I thought until now.
: What about it? You’re thinking of lecturing me on some Spaceman’s creed?
: I’ve nothing to say to a monster like you!
: I’ll beat the importance of life into you! Even if you cry and apologize, I’ll never forgive you!









Ash starts laughing as the fight progresses, really enjoying himself.
This is the thrill that he was looking for, it’s the only reason why joined the Plant army in the first place.



Lowe doesn’t believe what he’s hearing but it’s true, Ash doesn’t care on bit about danger to Plant or whatever else – it’s all an excuse, his only objective is: killing as many people as he can.
Kouji and Tetusya get pissed at how casually Ash dismisses the sacrifices of all of his dead Zaft “companions”.
Lowe says that everyone he’s met, despite their side, always believed in something bigger than themselves; they may have fought and disagreed on stuff but none of them lived to kill like Ash!
He’s irredeemable and Lowe will put an end to his insanity; Ash tells him to go ahead and try as it’ll only make the fight more fun before he kills us all).


: GGG’s King of Braves! I bet you can't stand guys like me, right? Well, I can't stand you either!
: I’ll enjoy killing a bunch of goodie-goodies like you people!
: Is that all you wanted to say?! Then I will not hesitate you defeat you!
: This next attack will carry the anger of all the people that you’ve hurt!!
























Hm…Banpresto, doesn’t that constitute as a spoiler?

: I thought all of Zaft’s soldiers were risking their lives in battle for the sake of Plant…
: I never expected there to be evil guy like you!
: If you want to call me evil, call me evil! I’m honest about what I want!
: Then, I’ll do the same! I can’t stand you and I’ll kick your ass with all I’ve got!!









: I know that machine! It’s the one that was made to kill the earthlings!
: In the end, a machine is just a machine. A human decides how to use it.
: And, because you’re piloting it, your machine will only cause destruction…!













: You fat-ass! Think you can keep up with Regenerate’s power with that size?!
: Just because a machine is fast, doesn’t mean it vanishes! You won’t escape me, villain!













: These movements…hey you, you’re not a soldier?
: I’m a Junkman! What’s it to you?!
: A Junkman who fights! Seems you’re just like me!
: Shut up! I don’t get my jollies from hurting people and wrecking stuff like you do!
: A Junkman’s job is to fix things! I fight for the same reason!
















Now go be crazy elsewhere.



Ash is worth a Hybrid Armor and a Hit & Away.



Tetsuya also gets his Mazin Power going.

Prayer did have lines against Ash but he was too far away and busy with Canard:

: Come on, boy! Looks like killing you is also part of my mission!
: This man’s emanating maliciousness…! I cannot allow him to leave!!





He runs before you can finish him off, figuring they’ll blame him for this mission going south anyway.
Still, he can’t have his fun end yet and quickly leaves – Lowe won’t pursue, though, as he knows Prayer is still in danger.

This is good enough for today; come next update, we’ll deal with Canard and other possible things.

See you all then!