Part 167: Mission 45 (Patrol Route) - A Storm of Destruction Blows In - Part 2
Most of our troops have to spend a turn moving closer but Prayer can take a shot at Canard.
: Hand over that machine quietly and I’ll spare your life.
: There are people waiting for this Dreadnought’s power…!: I can’t hand it over to someone who would use that device for his personal gain!: In that case, I’ll drag you out of that cockpit!: Dreadnought! Give me courage!!
Prayer has no trouble keeping up with Canard.
Enemy Phase!
They trade blows again, with Prayer still having the advantage.
This gives him a level up, teaching Prevail L7.
Player Phase!
Heero is close enough to take a potshot at Canard.
Good man.
Gai Murakumo and Lowe head up to help their buddy.
: First is Kira and now this greedy guy is after a Neutron Jammer Canceller?!: Everything I get is incomplete…so, I’ll make it complete by my own strength!
: This man…he’s a Coordinator? And, on top of that, he’s strong…!: His power…is it on par with what I heard people say about Kira Yamato?!: (It looks like…in a way, we are the same...)
Time for Prayer to wrap things up.
Attaboy.
Canard is worth a Lifter Module and a Counter.
The kill also gets the Zero System running.
Canard is not ready to accept his defeat, saying that he and the Hyperion can still fight.
Prayer tries to make him leave, saying that he does not wish to fight any more.
Canard takes this chance to grab the Dreadnought and tries to flee.
Kisato has George set the Re-Home to pursue them but Liam detects incoming Eurasian troops.
Among them is the Hyperion #2 with its pilot Balsam Arlend, the "Ace of Artemis".
Duo has never heard of him and Akane wonders if it’s something like Muu’s “Hawk of Endymion”.
Either way, Canard drags Prayer off, ordering Balsam to deal with our guys.
Lowe tries to go after but Balsam proclaims that he’ll need to go through THE ACE OF ARTEMIS first; Heero notices right away that Balsam seems all too relaxed for the battlefield.
You see, Balsam is completely undefeated after countless simulations using the Hyperion #2 - he's quite confident in his “mad skillz” and is trying to show everyone (especiall Canard) what he can do in a real fight!
I believe the proper words here are “bitch” and “please”, because Balsam is a pathetic excuse for a miniboss.
Take a look:
His stats are good-ish but the Hyperion #2 is worse than Canard’s in all aspects; it’s got less in all stats, less attacks and they are also weaker.
Mind you, Balsam is a Natural, and that would be damning enough when compared to Canard, but he also has no significant Pilot Skills whatsoever:
- Sword Cut
- Shoot down
- Support Attack L3
- Multicombo L2
At this point in the game, if you’re a miniboss without Prevail, you might as well be an elite mook – this guy will go down after a slight sneeze from our Super Robots.
We’ll have most of our troops hang back and let them come to us – while that happens, Zechs can snipe away.
Ah, so close.
Enemy Phase!
A handful of them get in attacking range but it shoul-
Gai, why did you disappoint me?!
Kouji doesn’t put up with that shit and deals some hefty missile damage against a couple of Stern Kugels.
A couple of Serpents gun for Golion but Kazuma has Kogane’s back.
This first Serpent hangs on but Zechs’ gets totaled.
Speaking of, the last Serpent guns for him.
Balsam pulls a pitiful chain-attack that manages to miss TETSUYA; that would’ve been pretty bad but he at least managed to dodge Golion’s counter.
Player Phase!
Bringing Delphiniums to the fight? Come on...
All three of them, plus a Birdman, get destroyed by Heero’s MAP.
Elijah quickly finishes Golion’s Serpent.
While Quatre starts picks a Stern Kugel apart.
Boom.
Volfogg also gets some attention.
Sadly, these Sol Tekkamen took care to stay spread out so Gaofighgar can’t chain them into a bloody mess.
Still, it’s fine.
Duo quickly takes another and now there’s only one of these things left.
Let’s make sure to wrap things up this turn: Ryouma casts Zeal and moves to chain both remaining Birdmen.
That’s how it’s done.
Trowa fails to get a critical hit, so Gai Murakumo has to clean his mess.
Zechs finally gets around to killing the last Serpent.
And, to finish it, Lowe will handle the final Tekkamen.
Now, let me drive my point home on how pathetic Balsam is as a miniboss.
: I’m so tired of simulated battles. : I'm gonna show that smug Canard what I can do in a real fight! 
Losing nearly 25% of your HP in one unvalored attack from Mike isn’t exactly going to send shivers down Neo-Wärter’s spine.
With that in mind, how much damage will this do to him?
Yeah.
Balsam is worth a High-Performance Radar and a Prevail +1.
He quickly notices how Real battle are much less appealing and hastily retreats.
We detect signs that the Dreadnought is locked in a fight with, as Lowe puts it, “Kira’s Stalker”, and our crew rushes to the rescue.
Elsewhere...
: RAAAAAAAAAARGH!: Go, Pristis! Destroy those black flames!!
: Urk! That’s…!: The DRAGOON System…it uses quantum communication. It’s the Dreadnought’s special…ability…: Tch…that machine…!: There’s no point in continuing…this battle…So, please…surrender…: Surrender…?! You’re telling me to surrender?! There’s no way I’d surrender to you!: If you won’t surrender…I’ll be forced to continue attacking…: Damn it…am I going to die in a place like this…?! Killed by a Junkman…?!: Kira Yamato…to surpass the successful Super Coordinator…: Is it just an arrogant dream…?: You’re…: I’m not done…!: I’m not dead yet! As long as I’m alive, I haven’t lost!
Before the fight resumes, the Ortegia shows up and Garcia tells him to return to ship – they’ve located Kira!
Canard assures the Dreadnought's pilot that he'll defeat him soon enough, as another step of his plan to become the strongest.
Prayer passes out, but not before telling our people to hurry and save our friends.
Following this, the scene shifts to the other path and things follow the same as before: we recover Flay, Lacus gets kidnapped by Hokuten and Canard pummels Kira.
With that in mind, let’s advance to the reunion; mind you, most of what I skipped was information pertaining to the past couple missions (i.e. Prayer and the Dreadnought, Canard as a failed Super Coordinator, etc), so there won’t be a whole lot now.
As our people recount the tail of the Moon Route, Prayer has decided not to return to Earth yet.
He’s realized that bringing the Neutron Jammer Canceller there, while things are still so chaotic, would only fuel the destruction – as such, he’s decided that he wants to help us put an end to the evil distorting the world.
After that is done, he’ll deliver the Neutron Jammer Canceller to Malchio to help with the recovery of the world.
Kazuma asks Athrun if it’s true that there were Neutron Jammer Cancellers inside both the Freedom and Justice and he confirms it.
Cagalli asks why he kept his a secret and Athrun explains that, despite their position in the war, he and Kira are still Coordinators, and they've still got plenty of friends back at Plant.
Neither of them can permit the misuse of the system and the threat of nukes to overshadow Plant, and Wufei figures that they didn’t fully trust Neo-Wärter which is why they didn’t divulge the info.
Athrun begrudgingly admits it but now that he has learned the depths of his father's madness – a war to bring about the full extermination of the Naturals - he's prepared to entrust, not the Federation, but Neo-Wärter with the info in the hopes that we can use it to stop what Patrick has planned.
Lowe asks Gai Murakumo what he’ll be doing, now that he’s decided to give us the mission of protecting all Neutron Jammer Cancellers and Gai figures he’ll be tagging along with Neo-Wärter.
Kazuma is in disbelief but Gai says he has another mission to complete and he figures sticking with us is his better shot at it; it’s related to the information he had Luchinni dig up and, inwardly, Gai thinks that he now knows that the target is aboard the Dominion.
Gai is sending Elijah and Kazahana back to the ship but Kazuma protests, asking if he’s just going to go back and not be honest about what he wants; he says they’re both friends, so he’d like him to come with us.
He figures, since Elijah and the others showed him some merc tactics, it’d only be appropriate for him to show him some of his own tricks now; Elijah figures working with Neo-Wärter sounds good to him and agrees to join with Gai.
Kazahana also wants to stay and figures it'd be best to just bring Reed and Loretta over as well; Gai agrees, seeing how it’s her decision to make in this case.
x100Nothing new after this: Professor brings info that Creuset’s “key to victory” was data on the Canceller, Flay apologizes to Kira, our people set out to Orbit Base in preparation for our expected Successor attack on January 1st and Yamasaki uses Lacus’ song to sync-up the hot-blooded Successor mooks to the Boson Jump Unit.
By the by, I will be keeping this path as it gave nearly 80000 more cash than the other path.
Only one more route split left but that’s a bit off; better yet, though, we’re slowly approaching my favorite mission in the game…soon.
See you all then!